John, pt. 73 | John 12:12-19

If you will, at this time, take your copy of the Scriptures and turn with me to the Gospel of John, chapter 12. The Gospel of John, chapter 12, we will consider verses 12 through 19. The Gospel of John, chapter 12, verses 12 through 19, and this is our 73rd, am I saying that right?

73rd? 70-something? We'll get through it. Message in this glorious Gospel. Let me pray. Glorious God in heaven, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,. Lord, we do ask at this moment, Lord, as your word is open, God, that you will speak.

Lord, that you will use this word to conform us to the image of your Son. Lord, we ask that for those who are unable to be here today, that they are in some place being able to feast upon your word and still being able to be grown in this holiness.

Lord, bless your word, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. All right, so let's begin with the text, John, chapter 12, beginning in verse 12, we'll read a verse 19. The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. And Jesus found a young donkey and said on it, just as it is written, fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt.

His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. The crowd that had been with him, when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to bear witness.

The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, you see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him. My theme for this Lord's Day is the King who came to die.

The King who came to die. And this is my proposition. This is what I aim to prove to you today. Jesus was not who they were expecting. They were expecting something different from the Messiah. Jesus was not who they were expecting.

Imagine if you will, or put yourself in their place, you have been brought up to understand that when the Messiah comes, he would overthrow those that were against the physical descendants of Abraham.

They knew the prophecies, but they unknowingly did not understand the prophecies. They didn't understand that within a prophecy, there could be two parts to that one prophecy. One part dealing with the first coming, while the other part dealing with the second coming.

And that's how most Christians understand some of these prophecies today. But I would argue that some of these prophecies that people are expecting to happen in the second coming, actually did happen and is happening spiritually.

Now, can you imagine their confusion? They were expecting a King to come that would overthrow Rome. They were not expecting the coming Messiah to overthrow them. Can you imagine their confusion? In our outline, we're going to see three ways in which the King came that they were not expecting.

Point number one, he came to save his people. Point number two, he came to fulfill prophecies. You might be thinking, well, that one sounds weird, and we'll get to that. I get that, I know that. Point number three, he did not come to save the nation.

Point number one, he came to save his people. Point number two, he came to fulfill prophecies. And point number three, he did not come to save the nation. And as we transition, understanding these prophecies is still one of the biggest challenges that we face today in the Christian faith.

Different denominations and different foundations of hermeneutics keeps the church collectively separated. First Baptist, Second Baptist, Reformed Baptist, Presbyterian, PCA, Methodist, Assemblies of God, we've got all these different denominations, these different ways of interpreting things, and especially concerning prophecy.

This is like one of the big things that keeps us separated. Collectively, we are separated in one way or the other. However, some of these groups that name the name of Christ, by their view, their view of this prophecy is so hyper in their understanding that it removes them from being a part of the church universal.

So church Catholic, so when you hear the word Catholic, don't think Roman Catholic, right? This is not what it means. It means the universal church. All those who are universally a part of the body of Christ, whether that be Baptist, Presbyterian, so on and so forth, there's some views of prophecy that keeps people from being a part of that universal faith.

One group we'll mention, and we've mentioned before, and I think it's worthy of mentioning, is full preterism. Full preterism is a system that teaches that the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD fulfilled all eschatological end-time events.

That would include the resurrection of the dead, that which we was talking about that Lazarus' resurrection points to, it's already happened to them. Like they believe it's already taken place. That also includes the second coming of Jesus Christ and the final judgment that will happen on the last day.

They think that all these things happened in 70 AD.

It's all fulfilled.

And so they are not a part of the Christian faith. Classical dispensationalism, on the other hand, sees as a system that puts most of these prophecies as fulfilled. I mean, excuse me, classical dispensationalism, on the other hand, is a system that puts fulfilled prophecies, things that have been fulfilled, in our future.

So they deny the fulfillment of prophecies, like the kingship of Jesus Christ. They think that when Jesus returns, then he'll be crowned king for a thousand years. Like, where do you get this from? This confusion separates us.

Now, a lot of these people who I would say that are dispensationalism, unlike the full preterists, we don't kick them all out. But there is some, right? You have like the mid-acts dispensationalists, right?

That everything written, everything that Jesus, Peter, and James says, is not for us, the church, the Gentiles. We only listen to Paul, and Paul at Acts chapter 15. Anything Paul said before that, we don't listen to.

And they deny that we don't even need baptism. Like, they deny so much. So we would say that these guys are not a part of the universal faith. Studying prophecies and end times events can be a tricky thing.

And most Bible students go too far one way or the other. And that's what we see clearly in the New Testament.

They got it wrong.

They had one view of Jesus by going through their Old Testament, seeing what the Messiah was going to do. And when they didn't plan out the way that they saw things, they denied the Messiah and crucified the Lord.

So point number one, the first way in which the King came that they were not expecting, He came to save His people. Read with me verses 12 and 13. 12, the next day. So what is that talking about? So the day before this, Mary, right?

Jesus is hanging out at Simon the Leopard's house. He's reclining at the table with Simon and Lazarus. The other Jewish folk hear that He's there. They're traveling to see Him as well as Lazarus. Mary anoints Him with oil.

Martha serves them, right? The next day, the large crowd that came to the feast. So what feast is this? It's talking about the one that's coming up, which is Passover. Heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

They heard that He was coming to the feast. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, crying out, Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Notice this, even the king of Israel.

So, I mean, at this moment, they already had a king, Herod, King Herod, right? It kind of reminded me when I heard this, how, you know, in one sense in the Old Testament, the first king that Israel had was Saul.

Saul was the appointed king, but you also had David who was anointed by Samuel, was the anointed king. And so you kind of had these two king divisions taking place at that time as well. And here we have Jesus who is the king, the king of kings, He's arrived, He's being recognized in one way or the other, and yet they still have an appointed king, but He is not the Lord's anointed Messiah, the Holy One of Israel.

Hosanna here is a Hebrew word, which means, it can either mean three things, three ways of looking at it. It can mean, oh, save, or save, please, or save us. So when you hear the word Hosanna, it can mean, oh, save, save, please, or save us.

It is another way of being propitious, right? It's another way of saying, give to us a chance for success. However, while they are singing this song, this is a song of Hallel. So the song of Hallel is taken from Psalm 113, all the way to Psalm 118.

And so it was a song that they, 113 to 118, it's one song, and it's called the Hallel. This Hallel was sung by the temple choir at major Jewish festivals. They are at the Passover, the Feast of Passover, they're gathering together, they hear that Jesus is coming.

They're acknowledging Him as King, right? They're acknowledging Him as the one sent from the Lord. They begin to sing the song of Hallel. And I'm gonna read this portion that it's quoting from Psalm 118.

Psalm 118, verses 25 and 26. Verse 25, save us. What's that word? Hosanna, Hosanna, we pray. Oh Lord, Yahweh, oh Lord, we pray. Give us success. Give us success. Give us war. Let us win the battle. Oh, save us, save us.

Hosanna, we pray, oh Lord, oh Lord, we pray. Give us success. Bless as He who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. They're at the temple, He's coming. They're singing this Hallel.

They're recognizing who He is. Right then, at that moment, as they're singing the Hallel, they wanted Jesus to bring them salvation from the hand of Rome. Not salvation meaning when I pass away, I go to be with God in heaven.

They're seeing the hand, the tyranny that's upon them. They're enslaved, they've been captured. They want success. They want to be free from the hand of their captives. Remember, at that time, Rome had taken over the known world.

They, the Jews, were under the heavy hand of the Roman Empire. They wanted Jesus to be a Judah Maccabee figure and come in and to rescue them by overthrowing Rome. War, give us success. Hosanna, save us.

Give us success in the hands of our enemies. Be this ruler king like David and go in and destroy those who have enslaved us. That's what they're asking for. They're not asking for salvation the way that you and I understand salvation.

Earlier, when I was speaking about prophecies, I spoke about how the Jews conflated the first coming with the second coming. And then I also spoke about how I see that a lot of it could be literal and spiritual.

Again, however, they, like I would say, the dispensationalist of our time, were taken the prophecies too wouldn'tly, meaning they took them too literal. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter nine. Isaiah chapter nine.

Isaiah chapter nine, look at verse six and seven. Verse six, for to us, a child is born, to us, a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Verse seven, of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness, from this time forward and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord, speaking of Yahweh, of hosts will do this.

What we just read in those two verses, some have already happened, literally. And others are happening spiritually. And we'll have a great fulfillment when the Lord returns. They began at his first coming, right, when grace appeared, and they will continue to be fulfilled until the second coming of Christ.

Again, some very literal and some very spiritual, right? It talks about the virgin, it says a son will be, excuse me, for to us, a child will be born, a son will be given. Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, right?

The creator of all things entered into creation. The infinite became finite. The promised Messiah became flesh. That literally took place. He was crowned king and sat on the throne of David at his resurrection.

The increase of his government, peace, and kingdom spreads day by day by the preaching of the gospel. In Daniel chapter two, when it lays out the kingdoms of this world, it mentions a rock that was cut out by no human hand, right?

And that rock comes down from heaven and it crashes on the kingdoms of this world and those kingdoms are destroyed. And that rock, which is Christ, which is his kingdom that we cannot in one sense touch, grows, the Bible says in Daniel, it grows and it covers the whole earth.

That mountain that grows, that kingdom, is individual Christians who come to Christ all over the world. Whether you're in China, whether you're in Africa, whether you're in America, whatever continent you find yourself a part of, when you become a Christian, you are a piece of dust added to the mountain that's going to cover the whole earth.

Is that literal? Like, are we literal dust? In one way, yeah, right. Adam was created from the dust of the earth. Are we added to a mountain or, you know, as we preach the gospel, can we like stop to a mountain?

No, no, but it's true. It doesn't have to be a literal form of it to make it true. They, and listen, by that message, the preaching of the gospel, people will either receive justice or receive righteousness.

Through the preaching of the cross to those who are perishing, it's foolishness. And when they die, they will receive justice. But to those of us who are being saved, that message is the power of God.

And right then, at that moment, when we receive that message, when the Holy Spirit applies that message to us, we receive righteousness. They, speaking of the Jews here in our text, we're looking for a salvation from the Roman Empire while Jesus came to save his sheep.

Salvation with God in his presence, not salvation from Rome, not salvation from America. In Christ, with God. Now concerning the people of Israel, Jesus tells us who he came for. Matthew 15, verse 24, it says this, he, speaking of Jesus, answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

So not all ethnic Israel, not all ethnic Jews, not all the physical descendants of Abraham, but some, those who were his sheep, the spiritual Israel, which includes both the Jew and Gentile. Although we're not dealing with the Gentile at the moment, we're looking at the Jews here who wanted freedom, they wanted salvation from Rome.

And what Jesus came to do was not to rescue them from the empire, it was to rescue them from the wrath of God because of their disobedience. I tell my kids this all the time, I say something like, you know, when you're hungry, I feed you.

I don't know if my neighbor's kids are hungry, so I don't go over there and feed them. Like if I knew they were hungry and we had something to give them, I would go over there and make sure that they ate, right?

But my children, I make sure that they eat one way or the other, right? I also don't punish my neighbor's kids when they do wrong. They're not my kids. Like it's not my job to make sure that they're provided for, but if I knew that they needed something, I would provide for them in that way.

But if I knew that they needed a spanking or some kind of a discipline, I wouldn't go over there and take my belt off and handle their kid, right? But I will mine. They're my kids, right? And so because they're mine and they're disobedient, I need to take care of this disobedience that's taking place.

God's people whom he came to save have the wrath of God against them, and Jesus came to save them from the wrath of God because of their disobedience. He did not come to save those who were not his from their disobedience.

He came to save those who were his. They were thinking that their enemy was Rome, but no, no, no. Their enemy was God because of their sins. In Romans 5, verse one is clear that the only way to have peace with God is to be justified, made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ.

And my dear friends, these Jews have lost sight of the purpose concerning the Messiah. And sometimes I believe that the church have lost sight of the purpose concerning the Messiah. Point number two, the second way in which the King came, that they were not expecting, he came to fulfill prophecies.

Turn back with me to our text. We're gonna read verse 13 again. We'll read verses 13 through 17, but let's just begin reading verses 13 through 15. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.

And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. By singing the song of the Hillel, they are recognizing Jesus as the Messiah.

Right here, he who came from the Lord, that's what it says, right? It says, blessed is he who comes from the Lord. This is recognizing him as the one who comes from the Lord, that is the Messiah, even the King of Israel.

All right, so they recognize that he is the Messiah and they recognize he is the King, and he is. When a nation such as Israel or any nation would recognize a king, the first thing they would do is anoint him with oil.

My dear friends, Jesus was anointed with oil in this chapter in preparation of his burial.

Amen.

Verse three, therefore Mary took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed his feet, and the other gospels would say that it was his whole body. The feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair and the whole house was filled with smoke, and the other gospels would say that this was to prepare him for his burial.

This was preparation. The anointing, when you recognize someone as a king, the oil was in preparation of him being a king, him becoming the king. In this text, it's preparations for his burial. Again, my second point might sound confusing because these Jews were expecting the Messiah to fulfill prophecies.

But the reason why I said it the way that I did, he came to fulfill prophecies and they were not expecting it, it's because Jesus didn't fulfill them the way that they thought he would. They were thinking literal, they were thinking wooden, while God had something else in mind.

And then when I was coming through this, I asked myself, okay, well let's follow this line of thought. What was that sign over the head of Jesus on that cross? As he was being crucified, they nailed a sign over his head.

Like, what did that say? You turn to John chapter 19, verse 18 and 19 gives us that answer. Well, 18 for context, but 19 gives us that answer. So what did the sign over the head of Jesus say? Look at verse 18.

There they crucified him, speaking of Jesus, and with him two others, one on either side and Jesus between them. Pilate, who was the Roman governor there, also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross.

It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Then I asked myself, well, what does his resurrection mean? And we see that in Acts chapter two. Acts chapter two, beginning in verse 29. Acts chapter two.

We'll read from 29 through 35. Peter's speaking. He's speaking to a crowd who is at that feast, who had just screamed, crucify him. And he is speaking to those that were there, that was witnessing, they were there, they were saying, Hosanna, save us.

Crucify him. This is the group that he's speaking to. He says, brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day, being therefore a prophet.

So was David a prophet? This tells us he was. Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God has sworn with an oath that he would set one of his descendants on the throne, this is speaking of the Davidic covenant, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ.

So how does someone get seated on the throne of David? He says it's the resurrection of Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus, God raised up and of it, we are witnesses.

Being therefore exalted, this is the language of a king, exalted, king, at the right hand of God, having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing right here, verses 34 and 35.

For David did not ascend into the heavens. He's saying that this could not be speaking about David. But he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord. So this is Yahweh saying to Yahweh, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet, speaking about the resurrection.

Jesus was anointed as king, being crucified, he is recognized as king, and by his resurrection from the grave, he is crowned king and placed on the throne of David. They were thinking that he was going to come, not only overthrow Rome, but overthrow Herod and sit on the throne of David.

They were thinking literally. They were not thinking spiritually. It's the problem with our dispensational friends today. They said, this hasn't happened yet. The Bible says different. And to this, I say, look at Jesus fulfilling prophecies under their nose.

Right underneath their nose,.

He is fulfilling what was written about him. But they didn't recognize it because they were looking at everything too literally. The nose of those who always interpret woodenly. Concerning this young donkey, the other gospels give us a fuller picture of it.

It tells us that Jesus tells his disciples to go and get a young donkey and bring it to him, and they lay their coats on it for him. And this is actually a prophecy that's being fulfilled, that's spoken of in Zachariah chapter nine.

Zachariah chapter nine, we see this in verse nine. Zachariah chapter nine, verse nine says this. Rejoice greatly, O daughters of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughters of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you.

Righteous and having salvation is he. Humbled and mounted on a donkey, on a colt. So the child of a donkey, of a full-grown donkey. The fool of a beast of burden. Now some people, when you get into covenant theology, they'll say that the donkey here is old covenant and the young donkey is new covenant.

I'll spare you of all that. If you wanna talk about it later, we'll go through it. I'll spare you of that in this discussion for today. Right here, he is fulfilling prophecy. Jesus is fulfilling prophecy by coming in humble, riding on a donkey.

They were expecting a king coming in, riding on a stallion with a sword, ready to take Rome out of its position. That verse right there that we just read, Zachariah chapter nine, verse nine, should tell you that they were looking for the Messiah to bring salvation.

They were saying, Hosanna, save us, rescue us, deliver us from those who have come against us. And he does, just not the way they were expecting. That rock that's cut out by no human hand that comes down to strike those kingdoms, it strikes the kingdoms on the feet that's attached to the legs of iron, which represents Rome.

Jesus Christ came in the time of Rome. And if you know history, Rome eventually fell, but it fell because of what Christ has done, who's conquering the nations. Look at verse 16. Verse 16 tells us how intelligent his disciples were at this time.

His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. So glorified here equals resurrection, resurrection.

Turn with me to Luke's gospel, the last chapter. So Luke chapter 24, and I want you to keep your hand. So as you open it, do like I'm doing. I got one hand in Luke. I'm holding the pages to verse 16 of where we are in John chapter 12.

So Luke chapter 24, this is what's called the road to Emmaus. Jesus has resurrected. He has been glorified. He didn't, at first, he didn't appear to his disciples in a way that they would recognize them.

He walks with them, he chats with them, but then he reveals to them who he is. And verses 44 and 45 are mind blowing, especially concerning what we're looking at here today. Verse 44 says this, then he said to them, so this is Jesus who was speaking to some of his disciples.

These are my words that I have spoken while I was still with you. Right here, listen. That everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Jesus came to fulfill prophecy, right?

Verse 45, then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. Go back to verse 16 of chapter 12. His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remember these things that had been written about him and had been done to him.

When did they remember it? On the road to Emmaus, when he opened their mind to the scriptures. It's beautiful the way all this interconnects. It's all connected. Look at verse 17. The crowd that had been with him, right?

So this is the crowd that saw him raise Lazarus from the dead and probably some of those who heard that he was hanging out with Lazarus at Simon the leopard's house. That had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, what'd they do?

Continued to bear witness. Question is, how did they continue to bear witness? One of the other accounts, the gospel of Matthew informs us something that they were saying. So Matthew chapter 21, Matthew chapter 21.

I wanna read verses 10 and 11 for you. Matthew chapter 21. Again, this is the same story that we're in today, the triumphant entrance. This gospel just goes a little further and explains to us what they said.

I mean, if you read verse nine, it talks about the crowds that they're following him, they're saying Hosanna, so on and so forth. And in verse 10, it says, and when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up saying, who is this?

And the crowds said, this is the people that were following him that saw him raise Lazarus, that were coming to him as he was reclined at table. They said, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.

Remember, these people, they were expecting a prophet. Moses promised them that a prophet was coming. He told them that a prophet is coming like me from among you. When he comes, you listen to him, you follow him.

When he comes, you follow him. They were expecting a prophet. When John the Baptist was doing his ministry in the wilderness, they asked him, are you the prophet? Speaking of the prophet spoken of by Moses.

And we've seen this as we've been going through chapter by chapter, verse by verse, this prophet always comes up. But not only that, they point out that he's from Nazareth in Galilee, which is in Judea, son of David.

The prophet who was to come that would be like Moses would be a son of David. Jacob speaking to Judah says, the scepter shall not depart from Judah. Meaning this coming prophet, this son of David would be the king.

Are you getting any of this?

Are you picking up what's being dropped here? Point number three, the third way in which the king was coming that they were not expecting. He did not come to save the nation. Read with me verses 18 and 19.

Four, excuse me, yep, 18. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, you see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.

So what sign are they talking about? It's the raising of Lazarus from the dead. This had the whole community up in war. Jesus had by this time raised two other people from the dead. It could have been more, right?

He could have raised 20 people from the dead, but the scriptures revealed to us three people in total. The daughter of, I always get this name wrong, Jarel and the son of the widow of Nain and Lazarus.

So those were the three people that were raised from the dead. Now, the other two had died and was raised the same day. So what makes the resurrection of Lazarus different? What makes the resurrection of Lazarus cause the leaders to plot the death of Jesus over the other two people who died and was raised?

I'm gonna give you two reasons. I kind of hinted on the one already. Reason number one, unlike the previous two, Lazarus was dead for four days, four days. There was this mystical belief at that time that whenever you died, your spirit would hover over the body waiting to return.

And it could return in three days which you can't really find that anywhere. It's just like Jewish mysticism. However, four days dead, right? He stanketh, he's decomposing. Like he's dead, like he's dead dead, right?

He is dead, there's no denying it. And in the other accounts where someone said, oh, that was just sleeping. Like that was just blowing off the miracle. Oh, that person might not have really been dead.

They were just sleeping. Now this, you can't say that Lazarus was just sleeping. Lazarus stanketh, he was dead. Reason number two is that Jesus's earthly ministry was finished. He had lived the life that we could not live.

Now it's time for him to take upon himself the punishment that we deserve. But even more important than that, you're saying, well, what can be more important than that? It was time for him to be crowned king.

He was anointed as king. It's time for him to be crowned king. He's recognized as king on that cross. They put the sign over his head. His coronation is at his resurrection. When the scriptures tells us that that's when he sits on the throne of David.

Literally?

No, at the right hand of the father in heaven. That's where the true throne of David is. In our text, the crowd had confused the purpose of the coming of Christ. They believe he was coming to save them from the Roman empire, when in reality, he did not come to save the nation from the Roman empire.

He came to save his own sheep from the wrath of God. He came to live the life that they could not live. They've broken God's law, they deserve his wrath. He came to live the life that they could not live.

I said this in Sunday school, and I mentioned it a while back, a few weeks ago. I mentioned that Jesus did not come to keep the law to earn righteousness for himself. He is righteousness.

He is righteous.

And this morning I was speaking about how when that law was being written, that the finger of God was the one writing it, that was Christ. Jesus wrote that law.

That's his law.

He enters into time to keep that law, not for himself, but for his people in his active obedience. And in his passive obedience, he receives that wrath of God that they deserve, you deserve, I deserve, we all collectively deserve this wrath, even now.

That wrath that we deserve, Jesus took for us on that cross. They were thinking physical salvation from Rome, but what Christ accomplished was spiritual salvation in him, in Christ. The Jewish people were thinking past, excuse me, the Jewish people were not thinking past their physical existence.

And I would say, again, that falls on us. Sadly, even some of us who are here today, but definitely in church, Catholic, right, the universal church, there's some of us who are not thinking past our physical existence.

We think that when we die, that this is the best thing we got going. Our hope is in Christ. This is not it. My dear friends, if this is it, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die, right? How many married couples in here today got into it with their significant other this week, right?

Oh, am I the only one, right? Right, there's friction, right? If mine and her hope was in one another in our marriage,.

It would have ended.

Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. Our hope in our marriage, our hope in our raising kids, our hope in here today is that we are in Christ and when we die, this, what we see in spiritual will be literal.

It will be a reality. It will be something tangible. They were not thinking past their physical existence. All they were thinking about is we are enslaved by Rome.

We need success.

We need God to grant to us success. And my dear friends, our success is not weapons of war, but it is the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's how mine and my wife's marriage stays together even though she's wrong most of the time.

And she would say the same for me, right?

That's the glue.

That's the glue that holds me together. Not necessarily just me and my wife together,.

But me together.

I truly believe that the Jews of that day when they were saying, Hosanna, oh, save, save, please save us. They wanted to be set free from Rome. Is that the song of our day, right? Our world is going to shambles, right?

We're looking to God saying, save us from this political system that is overcoming our government. Save us, give us success.

Are we thinking too literal?

And I hope not because I'm one of those. I'm one of those who are saying, Hosanna, save us from our political government who is bringing tyranny against us, who is trying to persecute the church, shut the doors.

I'm one of those screaming, Hosanna. Am I thinking too much in my flesh? But I believe that I am. However, I don't believe the religious leaders were looking for that kind of salvation or any salvation.

I believe they were fine with where they were. And I believe that's what's wrong with our leaders. I believe the reason why our leaders right now in our government are not screaming, Hosanna, since they're just fine where they are.

They find comfort in their slave master, whether it be another country or however big your tinfoil hat is, right? But on that day when Jesus was crucified, they screamed out, we have no king but Caesar.

The government, the leaders, the religious leaders who knew the Bible forward and backwards, they screamed out, we have no king but Caesar. The people wanted relief from Rome, but the leaders did not.