Hoshianna

Turn in your Bibles to John chapter 12. John chapter 12 will be beginning at verse 12 and read through verse 36.

Blessed is the king of Israel.

Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it. As it is written, Do not be afraid, O daughter of Zion. See, your king is coming seated on a donkey's colt.

At first, his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him.

Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. Many people, because they had heard that he had given this miraculous sign, went out to meet him.

So the Pharisees said to one another, See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him. Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the feast.

They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. Sir, they said, we would like to see Jesus. Philip went to tell Andrew, and Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.

And Jesus replied, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth. Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.

But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. Now that my heart is troubled, and what shall I say?

Father, save me from this hour? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven.

I have glorified it and will glorify it again. The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered. Others said an angel had spoken to him.

Jesus said, This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world. Now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.

He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. The crowd spoke up, We have heard from the law that the Christ will remain forever, so how can you say the Son of Man must be lifted up?

Who is the Son of Man? Then Jesus told them, You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light before darkness overtakes you.

The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.

When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them. Please keep your Bibles open there to the Gospel of John in chapter 12.

I trust by God's grace today we will see Jesus. I enjoy a good rollercoaster ride.

I haven't been on one in a long time, but I remember being thrilled by the dizzying heights and the precipitous drops down into the depths and back to the heights again.

And the thrill that comes with such a ride. And the week before us in the church calendar is such a week. It's like a rollercoaster.

From great height to tragic depth and back to the heights again. And it's not just that way in the church calendar, it was that way in the life of our Savior Jesus around whom we build that church calendar.

And so, today we see Jesus triumphant, entering into Jerusalem on what we know now as Palm Sunday. And one week from today, we'll be triumphantly recording the glorious resurrection of that same Jesus from the dead.

But in between, we'll mark the darkest day in the history of the world. A day that, strangely enough, we call Good Friday. But this morning, we want to start out the rollercoaster ride on a high.

And we'll tell the story, see its significance, and see what our response ought to be to our triumphant, ruling, reigning King Jesus. And so, come with me to think about this story of Jesus coming into Jerusalem and view it from the vantage point of a pilgrim who had traveled to Jerusalem to spend the week there for the Passover feast, for the festival.

It was a week-long Passover. Three times a year, the Jews journeyed to Jerusalem. And Passover week was one of those times. And you have come from the north of the country. You've come from a town in Galilee.

You've come down to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover feast and festival for the week. And on your pilgrimage there, as you traveled from the north in Galilee to Jerusalem and came up the mountain to Jerusalem, what you would do would be to sing the Psalms of Ascent.

As you traveled, you'd sing Psalms 120-134. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From whence cometh my help? My help cometh from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

And you would know those psalms as well as we know today. Hymns like Amazing Grace and Great is Thy Faithfulness. You wouldn't need a hymn book. You wouldn't need a song sheet. You'd be singing them from the heart, from memory, as you went up to Jerusalem, praising God, excited about the week that lay before you, the Passover week, where you remembered God passing over His people, not judging those who had the blood on the doorpost of their houses.

That's what you're anticipating as you travel to Jerusalem. But now you've arrived there. And on the first day of the festival, you've gone up to the temple. At least you're near the temple.

Because the crowds that came into Jerusalem during this week were massive. A Jewish historian, in the years following the time of Christ on the earth, recorded between two and three million people coming to Jerusalem for the Passover week.

So you're not actually in the temple. You wouldn't fit. There's too many people. You're somewhere outside in the vicinity of the temple. And now, during the days of this Passover week, you sing a different set of psalms.

You sing the Hallel psalms, the Praise psalms. Psalms 113-118. And Hallel, you hear Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. The Hallel psalms.

Praise God for who He is. And what He has done. And you know these psalms like the back of your hand as well. You could sing them in your sleep. You know them so well.

And you would be singing, perhaps even that first morning, that Sunday morning, the first day of the festival, from Psalm 118, O Lord, save us. O Lord, grant us success.

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you. Part of the worship that you would offer during that Passover week. And the first part of that in Hebrew, O Lord, save us, is Ana Yahweh, except you wouldn't have said Yahweh because they didn't say the name of the Lord, so you would have said Adonai, another word for Lord.

You would say Ana, Adonai, Hoshianah. Hoshianah. Do you hear it? In Greek, it's Hosanna. You would have been singing that at the temple during that week.

And as you're near the temple, a buzz begins to spread through the crowd. That huge crowd. And the crowd is buzzing because outside the city, there's another crowd coming towards the city. You're in a crowd inside the city.

Pilgrims and residents of Jerusalem who are gathered for the Passover feast. But outside the city, another crowd is coming towards the city. And a buzz begins to go through your crowd that's already there.

That someone is coming. That something's happening. There's a commotion. And so you begin to follow the crowd that's inside the city to go outside the city to see the crowd that's coming in. There's two crowds. One inside the city and one outside and they're converging.

You say, I didn't see all of this in John 12. We're compiling all of the Gospel records here and putting them all into one. And so you've got the crowd outside coming out to meet the crowd inside.

And as you go, you begin to get word who it is that's creating the stir. It's the man named Jesus. And people are saying that he's the one who raised Lazarus from the dead.

And you, being from Galilee up in the north, begin to put two and two together. This is the one that you've heard about. You even saw him one day when he was in your town teaching. This is the one that you've heard has healed the sick and made the lame to walk and the blind to see and the deaf to hear.

And yes, even raised the dead. And you know someone that claims to have been healed by him. He is the one who's preached repentance and faith because the kingdom of God is at hand.

And you begin to think about that kingdom talk and wonder what that all means. And while the commotion now, you follow the crowd to see what it's all about.

And now you can't tell the difference between the crowd that's coming into the city and your crowd that's gone out of the city. The two crowds are one. No, you're still a distance from the center of attraction. And as you come down the hill that Jerusalem is built on, you see off in the distance a man and it looks as though he's seated on a donkey.

And you begin to hear the people shouting, Hoshiana. The very words that you had just been singing up near the temple. Save now. Hosanna.

But the cry, Lord, Yahweh, Adonai, save now, that should be directed to God alone who you are worshiping at the temple is being directed at a man.

It's being directed at this man on a donkey. Is that right? Should they be saying, save us, Lord, to a man?

What could that mean? Besides that, the people, it looks like as you look down the hill are apparently laying their clothes on the road for the donkey to walk on as he rides in to Jerusalem.

And you know enough of your Old Testament to know that that had only been done for royalty. For a king. King Jehu. In 2 Kings 9. But they're also cutting fronds from palm trees that grow around Jerusalem and they're waving them and they're laying them in the road.

And then you start to think. There's three times when we take pilgrimage to Jerusalem each year. And sometimes you get the regulations for those three different feasts and festivals confused in your mind.

There's the feast of Passover. That's why you're there now. And then there's the feast of booths or tabernacles. And then there's the feast of weeks or the first fruits. And sometimes there's all of these regulations you get them confused and you know that there's palm branches involved in one of them.

You're pretty sure that it's the feast of booths. The feast of tabernacles. Not Passover. And sure enough, it is the feast of booths. Leviticus 23 verse 40. On the first day you're to take choice fruits from the trees and palm fronds.

Leafy branches and poplars and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. So that's the wrong feast for this to be taking place. But then you remember that palm branches have another meaning.

They've taken on significance in celebrating victory and triumph. They would be waved before victorious rulers returning to their city after a great victory. They were waved before kings who had enjoyed triumph.

And so, you begin to get caught up in the moment. Maybe this man is the king that we've been waiting for. And you grab a palm branch. And you begin waving. And you begin shouting, Hosanna! Save now!

Hosanna! As you crowd in around this man riding on a donkey. But still, there's something that's not complete about the picture.

And then it clicks. He's riding on a donkey. He's riding on a donkey. Another prophecy. Zechariah 9.

In verse 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! And you think, that's us. We're the daughters of Zion. We're the children of God. The people of Israel.

The Jews. That's us. And we're going out. Rejoice, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! See your king comes to you. righteous and having salvation.

And that's what you're shouting. Save. Your king comes to you righteous and having salvation. Gentle and riding on a donkey. On a colt. The foal of a donkey.

Could this be the one? Has the king that we're waiting for come? Has the Messiah come? Will this one finally deliver us from the rule of the Romans? And restore Israel to a rightful place in the world.

Other things happened that day. We've read some of his teaching when he came into Jerusalem. But you have plenty to digest. And as you go back to where you're staying for the week, if you're a child, you turn to your parents and you have a Deuteronomy 6 moment.

You say, what's this all about? And you as the parent, perhaps then take the moment to explain to your children, beginning in the Old Testament, right up until now, what you understood to be happening that day.

So let's do that. Let's talk about the significance of those events. That Palm Sunday, that remarkable occurrence of a man riding in, but not just any man, the king, Jesus, coming into Jerusalem.

And let's not just consider it now from the perspective of that pilgrim, that Jew who was in Jerusalem. Let's view it from our vantage point. We have a better perspective now. We have greater light.

We've got the full revelation of the New Testament with which to view it. A better viewpoint. And so let's consider that today. Even our presence, the fact that we're gathered here today, is a sign that indeed, the man who rode into Jerusalem that day was the Lord, mighty to save.

They were crying out, save now to the right person. Even if they didn't fully understand what they were doing, or what they were saying. Not even the disciples understood until after Jesus had been glorified about what they were doing that day.

So several points of significance that we see from this. The first is, perhaps the most obvious, is Jesus is the King. Many people on that day were likely thinking that He would be a great political leader to deliver them from the oppression of the Roman Empire.

From Roman rule. And to restore the nation of Israel as a people, as a country, as a nation. But Jesus came and inaugurated a spiritual kingdom.

Not a political one. He had done much teaching on the Kingdom of Heaven. And many that day misunderstood Jesus' teaching and they misunderstood really the whole Old Testament. It wasn't to be the descendants of Abraham by flesh.

Not the physical daughters of Jerusalem. But the spiritual ones. Those who had the faith of Abraham. The citizens of a heavenly kingdom that Christ would come and rule over.

He would establish a spiritual kingdom. And so, even we today, there may not be a physical Jew in our midst.

Perhaps there is. Most of us are not. But if you're a follower of Christ today, you can say you're a daughter of Zion. You're a member of the Kingdom of God. You're one of His children.

One of His people. Because the kingdom Jesus came to establish was much bigger than any one nation. That man riding in on the donkey is our King. Not coming to deliver from Roman rule, but to deliver spiritual Israel from the dominion and power of sin and Satan.

We read about what Jesus said afterwards about driving out the prince of this world. It was a triumphant entry. Not as many thought that day, triumphing over Rome, but triumphing over sin.

The power of the evil one. And so, Jesus, the Savior, the King, enters Jerusalem, knowingly headed for the cross, where He will deliver the decisive, not the final blow, but the decisive blow to the head of the serpent, to Satan.

It's truly a triumphal entry and the cries of Hosanna, Hoshea, save now, are directed at the right person, directed at the only King, the only one who could truly grant salvation.

And that cry for salvation, Hosanna is the same root Hebrew word that Jesus' names come from. It's Yeshua, Savior. So they're saying, Savior, Jesus, save us.

And they're saying it to the right one. His triumph will extend beyond the cross, though He conquers death in the grave. Come back next week for the rest of the rollercoaster ride as we think about the triumph of Jesus over the grave.

And John, writing this, looking back after Jesus had been raised from the dead, now understands. Blessed is the King of Israel, the one who comes riding on a donkey.

Not a political king, but a great spiritual king. And so we see Jesus establishing His kingship and His first coming there, but don't think that it's just a thing of the past that you can disregard.

Yeah, He came as King, but that doesn't affect me anymore. That's not where I live. I'm not a daughter of Zion. I'm not even a Jew. That was for the past.

It was for them. That's not the case. You can't disregard this kingship, this kingdom. Right now, Jesus sits at the right hand of God, ruling over all things. Ephesians 1.22, God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church.

Right now, Jesus is King. Right now, you're either following Jesus as King, bowing before Him, worshiping Him, obeying Him, or you're rejecting Him. There are no two ways about it.

There's only two ways about it. There's no middle road. He's King right now, and He will be forever. His kingdom extends into the future. He will come again, and there will be no rebels left in that day.

All in rebellion against Him will be cast into utter darkness, into punishment. Philippians 2 says, Therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

One day, His kingship will extend forever, and one day, every knee, every knee in this room. I'll just read that generically. Every knee will bow. I know that one day. One day, your knee will bow before the King.

And one day, your tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father. You can do that now while the doors are still open, while there is still time to get the oil from your lamp.

As we read, the parable of the virgins, there's still time to be ready now, but there will come a day when the door is closed and those virgins that didn't have any oil, they will pound at the door and say, let us in, and on that day, it will be too late.

But your knee will bow that day to the King. And you will confess that He is Lord even as He consigns you to eternal punishment. Jesus is the King.

He received the praises of the crowd that day, affirming that He was indeed the one who would occupy the throne of David forever. He was that eternal King. But Jesus is also the fulfillment of prophecy.

As He rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, He's making a self-conscious claim to be the promised King, to be fulfilling what had been foretold through Zechariah. Zechariah 9, verses 9 and 10, Rejoice greatly.

Part of it is quoted here in John 12. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, daughter of Jerusalem. See your King comes to you. He says, and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war horses from Jerusalem and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.

Jesus knew exactly what He was doing. And so He made it a point to send His disciples to find a donkey on which no one had ever rode and to bring it to Him. That He might ride in as the conquering King.

He accepted those praises because He was worthy of them. He was who they said He was though they didn't fully understand. He was the promised one. He knew it and He wants us to know it as well.

Now He rode in receiving their praises but He didn't stir up that national fervor. that desire to have a political King. He could have come in on a war horse and He could have really got the crowd into a frenzy.

But He comes in on a donkey. On a peaceful beast of burden. Not on a war horse. Because the prophecy in Zechariah as we just read went on to speak of a peaceful King who will bring the end of war.

Not one who would come to wage war against Rome. These people were looking for the wrong King. He's a gentle King who will bring peace to the nations and reign over all the earth. And how blessed we are that that's the case.

I know that there's still war in the world. One day peace will come when Jesus comes again and brings the Kingdom in its fullness. Such a strange thing this Kingdom. Jesus started it at His first coming and we enjoy some of the benefits now but He'll bring it in His fullness at His second coming.

And we won't enjoy the full benefits until then. We won't enjoy that perfect peace among all nations until Jesus comes again. But He has come so that peace might be had for anyone from any nation with God.

He's made peace to flow to the ends of the earth. To make men right with God through His own work at the cross. Now we tend to be like the Jews.

We tend to get really worked up about our earthly kingdom. Our country. And how we don't have peace and how things are not the way that we would like them to be.

We love our kingdom. We love our country and rightly so. And we love it when things go well and when someone messes with our earthly kingdom we get quite upset.

But let's not make the mistake that many in Israel made. Jesus didn't come to be king of Israel. He didn't come to be king of the United States of America. He came to be king of the kingdom of God which transcends nations.

He came to be king over all. And when all is not well in our earthly kingdom which we love we need not fear. We need not worry. We need not fret if we are part of His heavenly kingdom.

A far greater kingdom. That's the king that He came to be. To rule over God's people. To bring them peace with God. So Jesus is king.

He is the fulfillment of prophecy. But something else we see here is that He is Savior and King. There is no possible way when you read of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem to separate those two things.

to separate Jesus as Savior on the one hand and Jesus as King on the other. It's the Savior who triumphs at the cross delivering us from our guilt and from the power of sin and Satan.

They're crying out that day save to the King. The King is the Savior. He's one and the same and you can no more divide your response to Him trusting His Savior but not His Lord than you can divide Jesus Himself and separate those two things.

He's one and the same and our response to Him must be one. You can't have Him save you from your sin but then live the way that you want. The two go together.

But notice also that Jesus goes voluntarily to the cross. He does so on His own terms. Jesus lays down His life. No one takes it from Him. There have been many times in His ministry when He had required of people that they tell no one who He was or what He had done for them.

After Jesus fed the 5,000 they wanted to make Him King. To come by force but the time hadn't come. It wasn't on Jesus' terms. It wouldn't have been Him laying down His life and so He didn't allow it.

John 6.15 Jesus knowing that they intended to come and make Him King by force withdrew again to a mountain by Himself. And if they had done that they had come to make Him King by force.

There would have been a similar scene to the one that we read of here in John 12. But it wouldn't have been the right time. It wouldn't have been the week of Passover. All of those Jews wouldn't have been gathered in the city from all the surrounding areas to see the spectacle.

To see Jesus coming as King and then to see Him crucified. To see Him risen. If He had been made King on the people's timetable it would have been the wrong time. And it wouldn't have been Him laying down His life.

It would have been someone taking it from Him. And so Jesus goes voluntarily to the cross we see here. And so after entering the city we read this morning of how He spoke of His coming death that He would be lifted up and would draw all men to Himself.

And the people don't like that do they? No! You're going to be our King! Our King can't die! Our King's supposed to live forever! But Jesus is a different kind of King.

One who must die if He would save His people from their sins. And neither has the time yet come for Jesus to come back and bring the Kingdom in its fullness.

I'm talking about now, today. Obviously the time hasn't come because He hasn't come yet. Maybe you're ready. Maybe you think Jesus should come today.

And if you could you would follow those people like the ones after the feeding of the 5,000 and you would go up into heaven and get Jesus by force and bring Him down and say it's time Lord it's time to bring your Kingdom.

But you know what? He hasn't come yet, has He? It's not time yet. And so we must be patient. We must wait His time doing things as God sees fit and not as we see fit.

and so instead of trying to make Jesus come back before the time, instead of being impatient, let's wait patiently.

Let's be thankful for the time that we have. It's more time for the Kingdom of God to expand. More time for more sinners to be brought into that Kingdom. For us to reach out and grab this one.

Maybe another one today. Maybe if Jesus had come back yesterday, someone here today wouldn't have been saved. But here's another opportunity for the Kingdom to grow, to expand. We can wait patiently and live as subjects of the Kingdom of God and bring Him honor and glory in a way that we won't be able to once we're in glory.

We'll be able to do it perfectly in glory, but not before the eyes of a watching world like we're able to do now. Letting our good works shine so that they may see, or letting our light shine so that they may see our good works and glorify our Father who's in heaven.

We can only do that for so long. So let's take the time that we've got while we're waiting for Jesus to come back and use it for good and use it for His glory. Yes, let's pray for His coming.

Come Lord Jesus. I don't want you to think this morning that I don't want Jesus to come back because I do. I can't wait until He comes back. I'm excited about it, but let's be patient until He does.

In Revelation 22 we've got come Lord Jesus, but in James 5-7 so let's be patient. Let's await His time. I'm glad that Jesus came on His own terms, that there was this huge crowd in Jerusalem to see Him come as King, to see Him crucified as Savior, to see Him risen as Lord over all.

I'm glad He didn't quiet the crowds on that first day of the Passover feast. I'm glad He's the King who saves. And I'm glad that He's coming again. to complete His glorious kingdom.

The question is, will we be ready for that day when He does come? So, what should be our response that we might be ready for that day?

You know, we've seen something of the events of that day, something of their significance. How can we respond? What's your reaction to Jesus as King?

Well, let's think about the reactions of the people that were there and see if we fit into any of those categories. There was the crowd. And they had a good response in many ways.

They worshipped. They praised. They treated Jesus like the royalty that He is. The problem with their response is that for many it was done in ignorance and they were celebrating the wrong kind of king and some of them were just excited about the miraculous signs.

A problem that we see throughout Jesus' ministry. They came back after He fed the 5,000 because they wanted more food. They wanted to see signs and miracles. And John 2, now while He was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, same week of the year, just a year or two earlier, He was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast.

Many people saw the miraculous signs He was doing and believed in His name. You think, well, let's do it right now, Jesus. There's many people believing in Your name. But Jesus would not entrust Himself to them, for He knew all men.

He knew that they were fickle. He knew that their faith was short-lived. And so after the feeding of the 5,000, the subsequent teaching of Jesus that we have recorded in John 6, we find in John 6, in verse 66, from this time, many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.

The crowd responded many times to Jesus with excitement, but then they would turn away. And what do we have here in John 12? We didn't read this verse, but look at verse 37.

Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in Him. He's come into Jerusalem riding on a donkey.

The King has come, and yet there are still many who don't believe. And so a few days later, this fickle crowd would likely, some of the same ones who were in the crowd shouting, Hoshia now, save us, save now, would be in the crowd that was stirred up by the Pharisees to cry out, crucify Him.

Their supposed great King, who was to deliver them from Roman rule, was now in the custody of the Romans. And so if you can't deliver us from the Romans, Jesus, then you should endure the most cruel form of punishment and execution that the Romans have invented.

Crucify Him. Be done with Him if He's not going to deliver us in the way that we thought. And so the crowd, a fickle one, they turn their backs on their King and reject Him.

And now I want to just wonder with you for a moment. Were there some that were in the crowd that cried out, save us, Hosanna?

Who were in the crowd that cried out, crucify Him? Who were in the crowd on the day of Pentecost when Peter preached and he preached about how you put Him to death, the hands of wicked men, with some in all three of those crowds, some who were among the 3,000 on the day of Pentecost, that then cried out, what was their cry on that day?

What must we do to be saved? Jesus says, repent and be baptized, or Peter says, repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. One of the reasons I want Jesus to come back is I want to find out if there's any of those people in heaven that were in all three.

You want to talk about a roller coaster. Excited. The first day of the Passover feast. The King is here. Save us, King. And then a few days later, He's not the King we thought He was.

Crucify Him. And then not many days later, we crucified the King. What must we do to be saved? And to repent and to believe and to be baptized.

I want to meet somebody like that. One day in glory. glory. That's the response of the crowd. Then there's the disciples. And they didn't understand what they were doing.

They were probably waving palm branches and they put their garments down on the donkey and on the road for it to walk on. But John tells us that only after Jesus was glorified did they realize these things had been written about Him.

This prophecy about Zechariah 9, that didn't click with them when Jesus was riding in on the donkey. It came later. And that they had done these things to Him. They had proclaimed Him as He.

They didn't see it. They participated and they were better than the rest of the crowd. They didn't shout crucify Him but they did abandon their Lord on the day He needed them most. They were fickle too but they see the light after the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

That ride into Jerusalem really was triumphant. He conquered sin and death and He really is our King. our Savior. And so what a blessed perspective to have for us that we can see these things and look back and see them so much more clearly than even His disciples did when they were happening.

It would have been amazing to be a part of that day. To be there and to see it firsthand. And sometimes we wonder what would have been like to walk on the earth with Jesus.

And that would be remarkable I think. But our viewpoint really is better. We have more light, more revelation and understand these things more clearly. And so God has put us where He wants us.

He had the people He wanted there that day. He's got us here today. And so let's be thankful for the perspective that He's given us on these things. There's one other response here. And that was the Pharisees.

And they were of course perturbed that their nemesis was getting all of this attention. Even children were praising it. And so something had to be done.

They're getting nowhere. See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after Him. And so their response while derogatory is really ironic.

You see what they said? See, look how the whole world has gone after Him. They were exaggerating. Everybody and their brothers following Jesus. Nobody's listening to us anymore.

But their words carry greater significance to that. Significance they didn't see. The whole world has gone after Him. And this is the same John that wrote, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, whosoever, whosoever, not just Jews, but people from any nation, people from Bremen, Indiana, and South Bend, and Warsaw, and Plymouth, and Argus, and wherever else you live, I'm sorry, Michigan City, and all over northern Indiana, whosoever should believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Yeah, the whole world has gone out after Jesus and that's a good thing. They've come to faith in our great Savior. The Pharisees in their anger got it right.

We're in that world, it's us, and we're blessed because of it. So what will your response be? You see these responses of the people that were there that day? There can be no neutrality.

You either reject Jesus as King or you bow before Him, so which is it for you? I assure you this morning that the kingship of Christ is a very real thing. It is not some fairy tale, it is not some story, some legend, it is truth.

And right now Jesus is reigning, and He will come back. And so, what do you do with Jesus the King? Perhaps you're living for a different master today, but there will come a day when you can ignore Him no longer.

We talked about Philippians 2, your knee will bow, your tongue will confess one day. Will you not rather come to Him now instead of waiting until it's too late?

Jesus is King. He's the ruler. He's got the power to save and the power to judge, the power to deliver and the power to punish. And to rebel against one who has this great power is foolishness.

it's not as though you're just rebelling against somebody that has no ability to enforce what they say. He sits on the throne of the world. He has every power. He has everything at His disposal.

And to reject Him is the greatest foolishness, the most dangerous course that you can make. And so now, while the doors of the kingdom are still open, will you come to Him and cry out, Hoshina, save now.

Lord, deliver me. I want to be one of your subjects, part of your kingdom. If you made that cry to the Savior King who sits in heaven at the right hand of God. I fear that many that cried out, crucify Him that day didn't ever come to repentance and faith.

And every day that you don't cry out, Hosanna, Hoshina, save now, you're essentially saying, crucify Him. I don't want you to be my king, I would rather that you be dead, Jesus.

There's not a middle ground here. May God open your eyes and have mercy on you. And you know, if you cry out, Hoshina, if you cry out, save now, you know what?

He will. He's not going to send you away. He's not going to say that He's too busy. He's got too many other subjects that He's got to look after.

And one more would be too much. He doesn't have time for you right now. He stands with arms outstretched. He wants you to come. He says, come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

So cry out to him. He will receive you. He will deliver you from your sin. Jesus, we see him here in his triumph today. You can enjoy that triumph. You can conquer sin and death.

You can be done with it and have it no more. What a life you live now. You think there's pleasure and there's a moment of pleasure in your sin that you pursue. But be honest with yourself for a moment.

You're miserable, I think. I know that ultimately you're miserable and ultimately you will be miserable. If you continue in your sin, there's no lasting pleasure. There's no lasting satisfaction.

There's nothing. You're living for the wrong kingdom. You're serving the wrong king and that kingdom is going to lose. Jesus wins in the end.

He's the king overall and the kingdom that you're living for isn't going to make it. So come to the real king today. Say, save me and he will.

I think perhaps too many of us are like Pharisees. We're the religious people of our day and so in love with ourselves, our form of religion that we deny its power and the king.

Let us not be so caught up in our goodness and our good works and how we're better than everybody else that we forget we're totally dependent on the king. That without him we have nothing.

And that we're to be sold out and following him with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength. And so if you claim to be a follower of Christ today, are you living for his kingdom? Are you trusting him as king?

Are you obeying his word and heeding his commands? Are you viewing every trial and difficulty that comes into your life from his kingly perspective or from your limited earthly one?

You know, sometimes we praise him and we pray for deliverance. We say, Hosanna, when our trials come. And that's the right response. They come and we say, Lord, this comes from your hands.

Save me even now. Give me grace to endure this trial, this difficulty. Or, we can let our fickle hearts get the best of us. You know, we talk about the disciples and how they changed in the crowds and they're for Jesus one moment and against them the next moment.

But sometimes aren't we not really much better? We come on Sunday and we say, Hosanna, Hoshanna, save now, Lord, help us. And we're with God's people.

We're caught up in that crowd of the daughters of Zion and when everybody else is praising God together, it's easy to get caught up in that and to praise God. Even we've got trials going on, but today, the Lord say we're with God's people and we're excited and we praise God, Hosanna.

And we're looking to Him and we trust Him and we can't believe that that crowd could make a shift like they do from the first day of Passover Sunday to Friday. But our shift comes a whole lot quicker than theirs.

It comes on Monday. And we're not surrounded by the people of God anymore. And there's not a daughter of Zion next to us at work that's praising the Lord. There's a child of the kingdom of this world and He's cursing the name of Christ.

And then this trial that you were able to forget about some on Sunday is looming even larger. And we begin to forget the Hosanna. And we begin to say, Lord, I don't do this.

Lord, I know you're the king, but I think maybe you're not getting this quite right. And we would never say it, but it's crucify Him. We're saying, you're not delivering me the way I want.

It's like they were saying, you're not delivering us from Roman rule the way we wanted. And that's a problem for us.

And we turn on a dime just as quickly as the crowd did, or even quicker. And so may God guard us and keep us from such a response. May we be faithful to Him.

It's easy to follow the crowd, but let us pursue godliness. Let us pursue following our king, being faithful subjects, and also promoting His kingdom on the earth.

We should wish with our whole heart that the kingdom of Christ should flourish and prosper, and not only so but that we should demonstrate this by our prayers.

How can you tell you're truly living for the kingdom of God? It'll show. It'll show in the way that you live for the kingdom. If you want others to be a part of that, you're excited about that kingdom, you're glad to tell other people about it, you know that you're part of the best kingdom on earth, and that God is a great king, and you want other people to know that.

And so you're going to tell them that he's a great king, they come and follow Christ, and they're going to look at your life, and they're going to know that there's something different about you, and that you're living for something other than this world.

They're going to see it. That's how you know you're living for the kingdom. Other people will see it in you. It'll show in your prayer life the things that you pray for. Do you just pray for you and your little needs?

You should pray for those things, but do you pray for bigger things? The extension of that kingdom of God all around the world. One day, then, we will worship him as we ought.

Our response will be not to worship one day and to struggle with worship and following our king the next, but one day we're worshiping as we ought, even with palm branches. Palm branches and all.

You know what the scene in heaven is in Revelation 7? After this, I looked and there was before me a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people and language, not just from Israel, and not just from the United States, but people from everywhere gathered around the throne in that day.

And standing before the throne and in front of the lamb, and you know who sits on the throne? The king. And so there's the lamb in heaven and that crowd from every tribe and tongue and people and language, they're wearing white robes and they're holding palm branches in their hand because he is the victorious king.

And they cry out in a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. Those are praises that are given to a king, to Jesus, the lamb, the savior.

One day, every day will be Palm Sunday. Every day will delight in Jesus as king and will do it perfectly without change and will do it eternally in the presence of that king.

And all of our effort, all of our good works won't get us there. We could lay our garments down all we want for Jesus to walk on, but it will never compare to him laying down his life for us, giving us the garments of his righteousness so that we can enjoy that eternity with him.

We're helpless and hopeless without our king. And so, praise God for the king and let us be faithful subjects. a lot will happen between Sunday, the first day of the feast, and the following Sunday.

And so, let me encourage you to come back on Friday night. We're going to have a good Friday service. And we're going to sing that, or see that amazing love that we sang about earlier. You'll come on Friday and you'll see that we go from the heights down into the depths.

It's the low point. something unspeakably bad happens on that Friday, but you'll see that it's unspeakably good for the followers of the king. We really can call it Good Friday.

And then come back and worship with us on Sunday as we delight in Jesus conquering over death and the grave. Until then, and as long as we live on the earth, let's remember the triumph of Christ and gladly follow him wherever he may lead us.

Hoshiana, Hosanna, save now. Let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you for Jesus, our King.

Make us faithful subjects that love to worship, that delight to sing his praise. And we pray that you would draw some into that kingdom for the first time. Show yourself faithful even as you have promised to do.

Extend your kingdom even today, we pray. Thank you for our Savior, King, and we come to you through his merits and in his name. Amen. may may may We'll turn with me to hymn 173.