Behold Your King

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Ascension Presbyterian Church - Longwood, Florida Rev. Christopher Brenyo "Behold Your King" John 12:12-19 March 24th, 2024

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Please turn in your Bibles to the gospel according to John in chapter 12
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John chapter 12, this is God's holy and Infallible word then six days before the
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Passover Jesus came to Bethany Where Lazarus who had been dead whom he had raised from the dead
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There they made him a supper and Martha served But Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with him then
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Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair and The house was filled with the fragrance of the oil
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But one of his disciples Judas Iscariot Simon's son who would betray him said
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Why was this fragrant oil not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?
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This he said not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief and had the money box
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And he used to take what was put in it But Jesus said let her alone she has kept this for the day of my burial
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For the poor you have with you always but me you do not have always
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Now a great many of the Jews knew that he was there and they came Not for Jesus sake only but that they might also see
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Lazarus Whom he had raised from the dead But the chief priest plotted to put
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Lazarus to death also because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him and cried out
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Hosanna Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord the
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King of Israel Then Jesus when he had found a young donkey sat on it as it is written
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Fear not daughter of Zion behold your king is coming sitting on a donkey's colt
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His disciples did I understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified
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Then they remember that these things were written about him And that they had done these things to him
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Therefore the people who were with him when he called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead bore witness
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For this reason the people also met him because they heard that he had done this sign
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The Pharisees therefore said among themselves you see that you are accomplishing nothing
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Look the world has gone after him. Please pray with me now
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Lord, we thank you for your word and we thank you for This wonderful narrative.
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We thank you for the triumphal entry We thank you for The last week of your earthly ministry
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Oh Lord Jesus Prepare our hearts now we pray that we would behold you our
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King and this would cause us to rejoice We ask all this in Jesus name
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Amen Please be seated What kind of King is?
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Jesus now we have to Get into the mindset of the first century we have to Think about it in terms of the revelation that is before us.
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We know the end of the story We've we've sung resurrection hymns today on Palm Sunday We know how this is going so requires a bit of mental discipline on our part to go back and to Enter into the narrative and this beautiful redemption story about Christ What kind of King is
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Jesus what kind of King were they expecting Well, lest we forget this
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King looks like a peasant he's followed by peasants and instead of brandishing swords his followers wave palm fronds instead of a procession of Chariots and warhorses and trumpeters and soldiers and pop and circumstance
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He comes lowly and riding on an adolescent donkey a borrowed donkey it's interesting that He's also going to be given a borrowed tomb
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The Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head the closest place would be
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Bethany and in the house of Mary and Martha and Lazarus What kind of King is
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Jesus? What was the expectancy of the messianic reign of Christ by the
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Jewish people Why do they stand in the streets shouting Hosanna?
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Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord the King of Israel. What Were they looking for?
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I have a few points of outline for you to consider I'm not going to systematically go through them But if you need to take notes
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The first is I want us to consider the last week of Jesus's ministry as a concept before the cross the last week of Jesus's ministry second
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I want us to consider the arrival of the King the arrival of the
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King and third the kingly mission the kingly mission the last week of Jesus's ministry
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The New Testament has 89 chapters in The Gospel of John about half of the chapters are devoted to the last week of Jesus's life 39 of the 89 chapters in the
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Old Testament are given to the last weeks of Jesus's life it is a
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Significant prominent thing and a lot of the prophecies that happen about Jesus.
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What is quoted? Zechariah Psalm 118 these all are accomplished and fulfilled in this last week of Jesus's life
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For your family. I think it would be wise for you to take
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John And continue where I leave off and this week ponder the Gospel of John until you get to the resurrection and then read
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After the resurrection the things that happen then that would be a great way for you to prepare your hearts for Resurrection Sunday All of it happens in a short time frame a
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Three -year public ministry a very significant and powerful last week the wheels of redemption have been moving slowly up until the incarnation of Christ And even in his life he's had to restrain
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Put off the the hour of his revelation because he knows when it becomes crystal clear who he is
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He has to go to the cross. He has work to accomplish. So all of this is being executed flawlessly on a providential time scale the last week of Jesus's life and ministry is the most significant week
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That could ever be the crowds in Jerusalem are gathering for Passover I'd like you to turn to Mark chapter 11 another account of this.
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This is the only other reference I'm going to have you turn to I Want to give a little bit of insight into the providential character of this
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Event because it is more fully Revealed in Mark's account and also in some of the others in Matthew and Luke, but we're gonna look just at Mark Jesus is going to willingly lay his life down on the cross
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It's not Happenstance that the Sanhedrin is going to try him and he's gonna be handed over to Pontius Pilate These things have been ordained and our
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Lord is walking in them in his faithfulness to to fulfill this
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Responsibility of saving his people as their King Jesus and his disciples if you read the chronology of all the
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Gospels have come from Jericho and They now find themselves two to three miles outside of Jerusalem Look at chapter 11 of Mark verse 1 now when they drew near Jerusalem to Bethpage and Bethany At the
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Mount of Olives He sent two of his disciples
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Now I want you to catch The the omniscience of Jesus is bleeding through We know that he's been the man
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Christ Jesus, but lest we forget he is God in the flesh. He's the incarnate one
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Some have speculated and theorized that he made this arrangement Beforehand but the owners of the donkey don't seem to have foreknowledge
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Listen to what it says He sends two of his disciples and he said to them go into the village opposite you
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And as soon as you have entered into it, you will find a colt tide on Which no one has sat another account in the
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Gospels have a an adult donkey and a Juvenile colt
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Jesus is gonna ride on the colt No one has sat on this colt full of a donkey
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It's consecrated and set apart for this kingly service
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And as you know and maybe you've heard and maybe remember from Zechariah last year when we were going through it the donkey is actually a
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Kingly mount as well When we think of a king we think of a warring king on a mighty steed and we think of that kind of imagery
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But but there's other imagery in Scripture is very soundly and very strongly tells us that the donkey is a suitable mount for a king
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Disciples we have to go to Jerusalem. I have to keep the feast and what we have to Reimagine and capture again for ourselves is
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The incredible redemptive drama that is before our eyes Jesus is going to observe the
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Passover as A faithful Jewish man and he's going to be the final
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Passover all in this week In the accounting of time, it's interesting
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I did some research again about this the the Galileans viewed the day starting at 6 a .m
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In the morning and going until 6 a .m The next day and the Judeans typically 6 p .m
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In the evening to the 6 p .m And the next day and how all of these things could be reconciled that he and his disciples the priesthood would would slaughter this week two hundred and thirty five thousand lambs most likely and And Jesus himself would partake of The Jewish Passover and he would be
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Christ our Passover Sacrifice for us if anyone says to you, why are you doing this say the
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Lord has need of it and immediately He will send it here
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So they went their way and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street and they loosed it
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But some of those who stood there said to them. What are you doing loosing the colt? Seems like a reasonable question.
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Why are you taking our colt from us? one
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Author I read said it would be very unusual for the animals and the livestock to be on the street
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That even this is providentially ordered there would be in the back of the house You wouldn't see the animals out on the streets like this so the owners
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Hear it's for the master. They hear it's for the Lord. So they do as he
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Commanded they let him go and they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it and he sat on it
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And many spread their clothes on the road and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road and those who went before and those who followed cried out saying
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Hosanna Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
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Lord blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest
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Let's go back to our text after the feeding of the 5 ,000 and I believe there's another occasion or two where it's alluded to particularly after the feeding of the 5 ,000 the
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Galileans wanted to make Jesus their king this guy Can feed us he can take care of us.
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Surely. This is the anointed one. This is the Messiah if he can do these things and now
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Because contextually we have the miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus all of the the wonder about Jesus the fervor about the possibilities the hopefulness the expectancy of the
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Messiah now reaches its fever pitch because this one is Raising people up from the dead but Jesus It's not the kind of king that they're looking for And this should give us some pause
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Because we may have designs about the kind of King we want Jesus to be or a kind of Savior and our
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Expectations may not be met But let me say it very clearly
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The Jesus who is is greater than our expectations
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We May want with them if we're embedded in this story. We may want Jewish nationalism.
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We may want to throw the Romans out but this Jesus this
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Savior this King is greater than the expectation of Israel and in fact
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He comes to go to a cross not to kick out the Romans, but to save them
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It's amazing irony and twists and turns in this story
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Look again at verse 12 of chapter 12 of John The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast
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When they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him and cried out
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Hosanna that means Oh save Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
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Lord the King of Israel. It seems so Orthodox But they shoot their expectations too low they want a national ruler they want to return to a
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Davidic kingship and he inaugurates the heavenly kingship he inaugurates the
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Eternal kingship, it's so much greater and so much bigger than they could have imagined in the salvation that you and I enjoy the forgiveness of sins the they being conveyed into the kingdom of light the
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Inheritance that awaits us to be made a kingdom of priests to be princes in this kingdom
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It's so much greater than our imagination The disciples have really no clue at just how grand it is and this is very powerful to me
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We're gonna learn more about that in just a minute Jesus quotes
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Psalm 118 in the first part and then Zechariah 9 in the second and It should be noted.
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Take a look again at our liturgy. We're going to do this in a few minutes I want you to find
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Sanctus and the Sanctus is the
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Hymn of victory and in the
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Sanctus we have a compilation of Isaiah 6 and Psalm 118 in Zechariah 9 we have
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The collision of the transcendence of God and the eminence of God Holy holy holy and I want you to think about Jesus in relation to this
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Jesus is thrice holy in the presence of Isaiah, but Jesus is come in flesh
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He's the transcendent one, but he's also the eminent one.
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He's the one who's very near The angels sing praises to his name the
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Seraphim cover their face in their eyes and put their feet under the cover and they praise him and they shout all these holy holy holy things transcendence eminence nearness
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Jesus comes in the flesh. He looks like a peasant
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Probably smelled like one He's followed by a group of peasants.
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It's not very impressive But Oh Sunday coming It's gonna be impressive then
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How about the ascension the reigning and ruling Christ on the throne? Oh, it's gonna be impressive then but now it's humble
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It's meek It's lowly back to our text
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They don't even know what they're saying What they're saying is true, but they don't even have a sense of it.
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I wonder how often that's true for us We go through the liturgy. We say it but we don't have any sense of the weightiness of it
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The king of Israel is the king of glory The one who comes in the name of the
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Lord is the Lord himself It's amazing The prophets
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I mean they scratch it they touch it Abraham sees it afar off But but now exploding on the redemptive scene is the
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Lord Jesus Christ fulfilling all of this in Jesus verse 14
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When he had found Young donkey sat on it as it is written
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Fear not Oh daughter of Zion Behold your king is coming
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Sitting on a donkey's cult cult Do you remember back in Zechariah last year when?
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The people were longing for a day of a restored priesthood a restored temple restored Jerusalem Hundreds of years before Christ, but now the moment has come the wheels of redemption roll slowly
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But now they're they're going almost at light speed it's happening so fast and so quick and it's so sudden but it becomes completely
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Almost dismissed because the expectations of the people are not met It's true for us
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We know that Christ reigns on his throne and we look around us and we say why is there more not more progress?
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Why is there not more of the kingdom being known and so we may even in a fleeting way grumble in our hearts
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Oh Lord, when are you going to do this? It seems that that God's perspective the
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Savior's perspective is is different than ours Jesus fulfills the prophecy of Zechariah 9 the hopeful expectancy of Psalm 118 and as a side note, you may remember this is the conclusion of the
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Halal Psalms This would be sung at the end of Passover and I find that to be the irony to be unbelievable here
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They're praying and singing for a victory that would come in the Messiah and here it is on the streets
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They're singing it There's they're singing Psalm 118 the the psalm of victory the hymn of victory
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The king of Israel is coming They don't quite
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See it Look at verse 16.
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It says
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His disciples did not understand these things at first This is all happening.
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I Think there's there's some great confidence given to the disciples who those two disciples who showed up To pick up the donkey that had to be impressive to them
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How did he we haven't been here he doesn't know these people how is there a donkey a
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Colt the full of a dog. How is it ready for our Lord? How does he know that they're going to give it to us?
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the singing the the Hosanna the shouts the the waving of the branches the laying of the cloaks and the branches on the ground
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All of these things that are happening it it seems so spectacular but watch how fall how it falls flat
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It's very important that we see that it falls flat They don't understand it.
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It drifts and almost comes out of their memory because what's going to happen this week
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But they remembered when he was glorified They remembered that these things were written about him
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Psalm 118 Zechariah 9 They Remembered that the people they were eyewitnesses to what the people had done that they had done these things
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To him In verse 17, we learn why the crowd is stirred up and it's a very good narrative in John from John 11
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The people it says in verse 17 who are with him when he called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead
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For witness much like Mark's description this morning of our testimony or our witness the people said
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We saw Lazarus. We were there when he died. We saw Jesus arrive on the scene four days later
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We saw rotting Lazarus walk up out of the tomb at the word of Jesus Crowd is it's dynamite on fire in the crowds
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Surely, this is the Messiah It says for this reason people also met him
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Because they heard that he had done this sign Now I want to turn back to Mark again in chapter 11 as you know
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Eyewitness testimony is very important in Scripture But the best eyewitness testimony
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Doesn't perfectly matched at one another So after the hoopla the buzz in the streets
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Everybody's showing up hundreds of thousands of people showing up in a city that holds 60 ,000 people normally
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Families are it's a great family reunion. There is a spirit of feasting and joy and celebration and And maybe they think
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Jesus is gonna stand on some podium and say let's draw our swords now Let's go kick the
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Romans out But they're standing they're watching what's he going to do look at verse 11 of chapter 11 and Mark and Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple
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So when he had looked around at all things as the hour was already late He went out to Bethany with the twelve this is
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Anticlimactic he doesn't even cleanse the temple on Sunday.
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He does it on Monday He doesn't even turn over the money changers tables on Sunday the triumphal entry that their street screaming his name.
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They're shouting Hosanna to him And it falls flat Because They were looking for a different Jesus They wanted a different King and we have to be careful sometimes for us.
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We too want a different King Than Jesus we want a different Savior and Jesus doesn't even stay in Jerusalem He goes back nightly,
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I guess until Wednesday or Thursday when He gets into trouble with the
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Sanhedrin so this last week of Jesus life he Returns to the company of Lazarus and Mary and Martha and his disciples
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But think about the victory that is about to be won the King Righteously in the ancient world in the
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Near East he would go out as we learned recently with the psalm We're singing that that David should have gone out to war
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But This king is going to go and fight the war in the battle alone he and the stead of his people is going to go on the kingly mission to the cross and There he's gonna wage the good warfare and he is going to crush the serpents head he's going to set free the captives who are in bondage and He's gonna transform we're gonna learn next
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Sunday our physical bodies are going to be resurrected because we have a likeness in a share in his resurrection the
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Expectation of the king falls way short it falls flat But then in the triumph of the cross and the resurrection he exceeds all the expectations
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There's a great lesson there for us The power of Jesus may seem to be falling flat, but he's going to exceed all of our expectations contextually
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Jesus doesn't meet the expectations of the crowds and we know that there's at least a mixture of people who would end up asking for the release of Barabbas Some of these people are gonna say crucify him.
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It's kind of a startling change, isn't it? Well Could this be that the test of the prophets?
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Could this be the Savior of Israel? He'll gets there in the triumphal entry. This seems to be prophesied.
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He gets there and Nothing happens Maybe he's another charlatan false prophet crucify him
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All of this ordered and organized Pre -planned Ordained by the
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Christ and by his father and the Holy Spirit to to bring salvation to pass
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Gonna point out one thing that I should have done a little bit earlier before we close
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Once you look over at chapter 11 of John another one of the providential mysteries of this that's so It's counterintuitive
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It doesn't go according to expectation begin reading in verse 45 of chapter 11 of John The many of the
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Jews who had come to Mary and had seen the things Jesus did believed in him
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But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things that Jesus did now
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The hubris and the lack of humility and teachability and the chief priests and the
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Pharisees is really shocking Why are they not thinking this could be the
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Messiah Oh the hardness of our hearts and sin Verse 47 the chief priests and the
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Pharisees gathered a council and said what shall we do? for this man works many signs
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If we let him alone like this Everyone will believe in him and listen and the
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Romans will come and take away both our place and nation They were the ones who would say we have no
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God but Caesar What a flip from what the Apostles and the disciples will have to say
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Christ is Lord What a change the Pharisees say we have our power.
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We have our place in our status We have to submit to Caesar If everyone believes him, maybe there will be a revolt and we'll lose our standing in Society It continues one of them
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Caiaphas They're two chief priests and they're related
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I think there could be father and nephew or father and son Annas and Caiaphas father -in -law
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The little family that runs the priestly business in Jerusalem This one is profiting from the corruption of the priestly system
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This one is one who's profiting from the money changing This one has his hand in the till for buying the acceptable 235 ,000 lambs that will be sacrificed
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But he says this against all expectations He's the high priest that year
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Annas and Caiaphas in this season rotated that role He says this you know nothing at all
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Nor do you consider that it is expedient for us That one man should die for the people and not that the whole nation should perish
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No truer words have been spoken It is more than expedient than one should die for all but with the cruel irony that the thing that is it's unexpected is this one is going to die for all of his people, but most the whole nation will perish and their unbelief the story the layers the prophecies all of these intersections these these ironies the
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Complexity of it all all being unmasked and all being unfurled now in front of us in the last week
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Of Jesus's life well
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There's one thing I have to say at the end of our little section, and then we'll go to a quick application. We'll close here
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The Pharisees therefore said among themselves Talking about trying to put down this movement of Jesus, and how can we suppress it?
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You see that you are accomplishing nothing look
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The world has gone after him The zeal the fervor for Jesus wanes and in fact at the crucifixion
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His own disciples begin to be filled with doubt they to scatter
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But isn't it true for us now that the whole world has gone after him The prophesying of the
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Pharisees is astounding here You can't thwart this it is expedient that one should die and isn't it true the ends of the earth
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Have gone after him What kind of King is
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Jesus? He's He's better than any kind of King we could imagine.
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He's the king of kings The Lord of Lords Brethren Behold your king
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Meek and lowly but inaugurating and everlasting kingdom
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Making you his people and everlasting Dwelling place in abode of God in the spirit.
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Oh, what a kingly work. He is doing Right in our in our pages of Scripture this last week
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Amen Couple words of application. I feel very strongly that we need to hear
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That Jesus is better than our imagination Whatever our conceptions of Christ, they're
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Orthodox. They're biblically rooted We need to exalt him higher
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He has to have a greater preeminence among us He must have the first place in all things secondly you and I need to kiss the
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Sun The people loved him when he was feeding them and John chapter 6.
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They loved the prospect. They loved him when he was considered to be the one who would throw out the
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Roman rule, but Did they love him for who he is
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Today brethren, we need to give him the worship and the adoration the praise That he deserves
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We need to be instructed your expectations of the
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Savior might be far too low and Fall short of the reality of what he's doing
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Brethren, we think about the future the the wheels of redemption sure turn slow
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Until they don't and things start happening the meek and lowly one now
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Basks in glory The concealment of that glory is no longer when he comes again
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He will be coming on a war steed And he will vanquish all of his enemies
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Brethren let us behold The king please pray with me now. Oh lord.
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We thank you that You are The king that we need and it's better than our imagination
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Oh Lord, we We do not aim high enough in our descriptors of your kingship.
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Yours is an everlasting kingship and it stretches beyond the the boundary lines of Canaan and it it
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Covers the globe and yay. It touches every inch of every universe that you created.
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Oh Lord Help us to behold your excellency Help us to see that you are the king of kings
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That you are the creator who comes to rescue and redeem that which was broken and lost
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You've come to reverse the curse You've come to conquer
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Satan's sin and death and Oh Lord help us to rejoice in these things