WEBVTT 00:00:00.180 --> 00:00:06.459 Good morning again. If you don't know me, my name is Eric. I'm one of the guys on staff here at 00:00:06.459 --> 00:00:12.060 Watermark Church, and it's great to be with you today and to get to share God's Word with you 00:00:12.060 --> 00:00:17.300 today. As I just mentioned, we've been going through this series looking at who is Jesus, 00:00:17.500 --> 00:00:22.980 who is this King. And throughout the series, one of the themes that's been coming up again and again 00:00:22.980 --> 00:00:32.560 is that Jesus is a glorious King, but that he shows his glory in unexpected ways, often in ways 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:39.560 involving sacrifice and humility. And today, we're going to look at another story that sort of shows 00:00:39.560 --> 00:00:47.060 these similar things about Jesus. It shows his glory in humility. But before we do that, we're going to 00:00:47.060 --> 00:00:54.040 take a step back and look at who Jesus is in himself before we look at how he interacts with 00:00:54.040 --> 00:00:59.460 the crowds. And what we're going to see is that Jesus is the King who has authority, but who acts 00:00:59.460 --> 00:01:05.359 humbly for us so we don't need to fear. So we have the King with authority, the King who acts humbly, 00:01:05.400 --> 00:01:11.700 and the King who casts out fear. And before we jump in, let's just pray quickly together. Father, we thank 00:01:11.700 --> 00:01:18.159 you for your word. We thank you for speaking to us. We thank you for just the amazingness of who you are 00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:23.920 and who Jesus is. We pray that as we look at your word today, that you would show us yourself, that you 00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:30.560 would give us a deeper love for you. And in Jesus' name, amen. So like I said, we've been looking through 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:35.920 these stories of Jesus the past several weeks. We've been seeing again and again how he acts in humility. 00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:42.719 And I think if we constantly focus on the way that Jesus acts in humility, it can sort of become easy 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:47.859 to take that for granted. Of course, Jesus acts in humility. He always acts in humility. You know, 00:01:48.060 --> 00:01:54.219 why would we expect anything else of him? But when we take a step back and we look at the bigger picture 00:01:54.219 --> 00:02:02.640 of who Jesus is and how the Bible shows him to us, we see a very different picture than what we may 00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:10.740 expect from what we've heard the past several weeks. We see this big picture of Jesus. And before we 00:02:10.740 --> 00:02:17.900 start looking at his humility today, I want to take a step back and just show us a little glimpse of his 00:02:17.900 --> 00:02:22.319 greatness so that when we look at his humility, we have some context to put that into. You with me? 00:02:23.259 --> 00:02:28.879 Cool. So when we start out, the first thing that maybe we need to know about Jesus is that he has 00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:35.780 existed forever. Like not just since the beginning of time, but since before there was a thing called time, 00:02:36.060 --> 00:02:41.699 Jesus has existed. John chapter 1 tells us in the beginning, Jesus was there. And in the beginning, 00:02:42.079 --> 00:02:49.019 Jesus was God. The Bible tells us that Jesus has existed as part of the Trinity with the Father and the 00:02:49.019 --> 00:02:55.979 Holy Spirit, one God, three persons, for eternity, forever. There was never a time or a time before time 00:02:55.979 --> 00:03:07.839 when he did not exist. And one day, God decided to create everything that exists. And John chapter 1 tells us 00:03:07.839 --> 00:03:18.679 that Jesus created everything that exists. If you can think of it, it exists. And if you can think of it and it 00:03:18.680 --> 00:03:30.379 exists, Jesus created it. Everything. Little, small, subatomic particles, the Milky Way galaxy, everything was created by 00:03:30.379 --> 00:03:36.460 Jesus. And not only was it created by him, but Colossians tells us it was created for him. It exists at this 00:03:36.460 --> 00:03:44.280 moment and has existed throughout history for his sake. And as if that wasn't big enough, do you know how he 00:03:44.280 --> 00:03:52.520 created it? By speaking. It's not like it was this big, arduous task that he had to go through. It was a 00:03:52.520 --> 00:03:59.599 simple act of speaking. And he has such immense power and authority in his voice that he was able to speak 00:03:59.599 --> 00:04:08.979 everything into being and bring life into existence through speaking. So, so far we have, Jesus is God, 00:04:08.979 --> 00:04:17.620 has existed forever, made everything by his voice, and it exists for him. So already we have, if your 00:04:17.620 --> 00:04:24.980 only picture of Jesus is poor Jewish carpenter, homeless teacher, we have a picture of Jesus that 00:04:24.980 --> 00:04:32.039 needs to be shattered. He's so much bigger than that. But it doesn't end there. In Colossians chapter 1 00:04:32.039 --> 00:04:37.639 verse 17, it tells us that he holds everything together by the word of his power. That means 00:04:37.639 --> 00:04:44.339 the reason that the universe continues to exist moment to moment is that Jesus continues to 00:04:44.339 --> 00:04:48.379 sustain it. The reason your chair is holding you right now and doesn't collapse and drop you to the 00:04:48.379 --> 00:04:54.819 floor is that Jesus keeps your chair together. The reason your body is able to eat and breathe and 00:04:54.819 --> 00:05:01.779 process food is because Jesus keeps it working in proper order. The reason the earth is just the right 00:05:01.779 --> 00:05:07.459 distance from the sun that we don't freeze or burn up and that we don't get sucked into the sun by its 00:05:07.459 --> 00:05:13.299 gravitational pull or hurl out into space because we're too far away is because Jesus, at every 00:05:13.299 --> 00:05:19.399 single moment of history, has kept it in exactly the right place by speaking. 00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:28.539 Do you realize, and I know I'm speaking to myself when I say this, do you realize how much of a 00:05:28.539 --> 00:05:32.319 difference it would make in our lives if we really believed that Jesus was this big on a day-to-day basis? 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:37.939 Like if we're at work today this week and stuff is just going terribly wrong and everything is falling 00:05:37.939 --> 00:05:45.459 apart, if we truly believed that we have a God who controls every atom of the universe at every 00:05:45.459 --> 00:05:53.240 moment, how much peace would that give us? I know I need to remind myself of that a ton because it would 00:05:53.240 --> 00:06:00.199 make a huge difference in my life if I was able to believe that and live like that on a day-to-day basis. 00:06:00.199 --> 00:06:09.219 And having this type of power is just part of what it means for him to be God. There's a pastor 00:06:09.219 --> 00:06:14.819 from the 1900s called A.W. Tozer and he has this great quote. He said, 00:06:14.899 --> 00:06:21.519 were God lacking one infinitesimal modicum of power, that lack would end his reign and undo his kingdom. 00:06:21.860 --> 00:06:28.079 That one stray atom of power would belong to someone else and God would be a limited ruler and hence not 00:06:28.079 --> 00:06:36.740 sovereign. Every single atom in the universe is under the control of Jesus at every single instant 00:06:36.740 --> 00:06:41.680 throughout all of history. That's his power. He is huge. 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:55.100 But what else is he like? Well, John 1 tells us that in him is light. But this light is beyond our 00:06:55.100 --> 00:07:01.100 capacity to comprehend. Okay? And here's what I mean. In Exodus chapter 33, Moses is having a 00:07:01.100 --> 00:07:07.980 conversation with God. And Moses is like, hey God, show me your glory. Show me who you are in his 00:07:07.980 --> 00:07:14.060 fullness. And God says, no Moses, I won't do that because man cannot see me and live. 00:07:15.340 --> 00:07:21.300 There's a level of brightness there that we have no category for. Right? We can think of bright 00:07:21.300 --> 00:07:25.640 things. We think of light bulbs. We can think of really bright things like the sun or a laser that 00:07:25.640 --> 00:07:32.700 if you stare at it, you go blind. But the Bible says Jesus is so bright and powerful that a glimpse 00:07:32.699 --> 00:07:43.740 of him and we're done. We cease to exist. We don't have categories for this in our thinking. He's huge. 00:07:44.920 --> 00:07:50.480 And again, if we really believed that he was this powerful, how much of a difference would that make 00:07:50.480 --> 00:07:59.339 in our day-to-day lives? And I know even explaining it, I feel like I can't even do it justice to how big 00:07:59.339 --> 00:08:07.819 he is. And the crazy thing is, despite being so big and so powerful, he wants to know us. 00:08:09.039 --> 00:08:11.620 Weak, powerless creatures that we are. 00:08:15.259 --> 00:08:21.419 Let's look at one more thing. In the Old Testament, God sent a lot of prophets to his people, telling 00:08:21.419 --> 00:08:27.979 them about a rescuer who is going to come and rescue them from all of their troubles. He said things like, 00:08:27.980 --> 00:08:33.800 behold, the Lord will come in fire. His chariots like the whirlwind to render his anger and fury and 00:08:33.800 --> 00:08:40.940 his rebuke with flames of fire. These are pictures of strong, bourseful judgment, overthrowing kingdoms 00:08:40.940 --> 00:08:50.180 that are pointing towards Jesus. Or in the book of Daniel, it says, behold, with the clouds of heaven, 00:08:50.179 --> 00:08:59.379 the clouds of heaven, sorry, not you, the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man, and to him 00:08:59.379 --> 00:09:05.839 was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. 00:09:06.319 --> 00:09:12.120 His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not 00:09:12.120 --> 00:09:18.519 be destroyed. It says he is going to reign and he is going to reign forever. Try something with me. 00:09:18.519 --> 00:09:21.779 Close your eyes. Think of forever. 00:09:26.299 --> 00:09:32.939 Now as we think of forever, our way of thinking forever has to do with our concept of time. We can 00:09:32.939 --> 00:09:38.759 only think of it in terms of like hours or days or years or millennia, and there comes a point where 00:09:38.759 --> 00:09:45.439 we run out of numbers to express how far into the future we can go. If you're still going, you can open 00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:52.360 your eyes now. But there comes a point where the number is so big, we don't even know the name of 00:09:52.360 --> 00:09:57.780 a number that big, and we're still within a finite amount of time, right? And it says he's going to 00:09:57.780 --> 00:10:03.580 reign forever. We run out of numbers. Just trying to wrap our minds around this, if you're anything 00:10:03.580 --> 00:10:09.200 like me, it gives me a headache if I keep going for too long. Just trying to think of how long forever 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:16.379 is. And that's the point. He's so big that trying to wrap our minds around a tiny part of what it 00:10:16.379 --> 00:10:25.900 means to be him gives us a headache because he is so much bigger than us. And so as we come today 00:10:25.900 --> 00:10:32.960 and we look at Jesus, the king on a donkey, this is incredibly important for us to understand because 00:10:32.960 --> 00:10:40.879 this is who Jesus is. These images of his power and his glory, they haven't been thrown out the window 00:10:40.879 --> 00:10:48.200 because, oh, we got this poor carpenter and homeless teacher. No, these are who he is in his being and in 00:10:48.200 --> 00:10:56.379 his essence. They're core fundamental truths about his reality. And their reality is, again, if we get 00:10:56.379 --> 00:11:02.519 these into our heads, they're going to reshape the way that we live. And what makes his humility so 00:11:02.519 --> 00:11:08.919 amazing is that because of how great he is, we owe him complete and total allegiance every moment of 00:11:08.919 --> 00:11:16.580 every day. And we live our lives as rebels against him. And instead of coming down to us in judgment and 00:11:16.580 --> 00:11:26.440 crushing us like we deserve, he comes to us in humility. He comes to us as a rescuer. 00:11:29.960 --> 00:11:38.360 And so as we start to look at today's passage, I want us to keep this in mind, who Jesus is in himself 00:11:38.360 --> 00:11:46.420 so we can catch more of the weight of what it means for him to come to us on a donkey. And again, 00:11:46.419 --> 00:11:50.879 the stuff that I've just explained barely scratches the surface of how great he is. 00:11:52.159 --> 00:11:58.599 But hopefully it gives us a little more context as we look into John chapter 12 and we start to see 00:11:58.599 --> 00:12:04.319 not only the king who has authority, but the king who acts humbly. So as we come to John chapter 12, 00:12:05.139 --> 00:12:11.779 it's time for the Passover in Jerusalem. The Passover was a very, very important time of year in Israel. 00:12:11.860 --> 00:12:16.399 It was a time where they would celebrate God rescuing them from slavery in Egypt. And it was 00:12:16.399 --> 00:12:23.019 the time when everyone from throughout Israel would come to Jerusalem. It was crowded. It was packed. 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:30.860 And the people are there and they're excited because Jesus has just done a great miracle. 00:12:31.819 --> 00:12:34.340 Jesus has just raised a man from the dead. 00:12:34.340 --> 00:12:40.920 Again, just to give us some context, we've just had the Olympics, right? You go to the Olympics, 00:12:41.280 --> 00:12:45.759 you compete in the Olympics, you win a gold medal, you go back to your country, people celebrate you. 00:12:46.360 --> 00:12:50.180 And why do they celebrate you? Because you did something lots of other people can do, 00:12:50.440 --> 00:12:56.340 a little bit better than everyone else can do it. And for doing that, they will throw you parades 00:12:56.340 --> 00:13:00.040 and put you on TV shows and it's wonderful and everyone wants to celebrate you. 00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:06.740 Jesus just raised someone from the dead. He didn't take something everyone else can do and do it a 00:13:06.740 --> 00:13:12.360 little bit better. He smashed the categories of what it means to be human and what is possible for a 00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:18.840 human to accomplish. The people are coming to him out in the streets to celebrate. 00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:25.740 They don't even know what because they can't wrap their heads around how amazing it is that someone 00:13:25.740 --> 00:13:33.139 could raise a person from the dead. And as they come out to the streets, remember these prophecies 00:13:33.139 --> 00:13:39.240 from the Old Testament about the rescuer who's going to come, they knew these, they had them memorized. 00:13:40.500 --> 00:13:47.080 And they had a deep, deep longing for these prophecies to be fulfilled because they saw themselves not 00:13:47.080 --> 00:13:51.520 just as the people who were the great, great, great, whatever grandkids of the people those 00:13:51.520 --> 00:13:57.980 promises were made to. But they saw themselves as part of this story. They read these promises and 00:13:57.980 --> 00:14:05.100 they heard God speaking directly to them. And they had been living under Roman rule for the past hundred 00:14:05.100 --> 00:14:12.740 years and they were ready for someone to come and set them free. And as they're waiting expectantly, 00:14:12.740 --> 00:14:18.180 they hear about a man who's just shattered all their perceptions of what it means to be human. 00:14:18.360 --> 00:14:26.139 And they think maybe, maybe this is the guy. Maybe this is the moment that God's going to choose 00:14:26.139 --> 00:14:34.279 to rescue us and set us free and overthrow our greatest enemy, Rome. So they run to the streets to 00:14:34.279 --> 00:14:40.960 welcome him with palm branches. Palm branches were a nationalistic symbol in Israel in that day. 00:14:40.960 --> 00:14:47.420 This, this was basically an act of treason. It would be like taking a French flag in the middle of 00:14:47.420 --> 00:14:54.879 occupied France in World War II and waving it around in opposition to the Nazis. If you're doing this 00:14:54.879 --> 00:15:01.220 and they find out, it could cost you your life. This is a huge act. They're calling for him to do 00:15:01.220 --> 00:15:09.000 something amazing. They line the streets and they shout out, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:17.519 the Lord, even the King of Israel. Now this is from Psalm 118. Hosanna! It's a prayer that means God save us. 00:15:17.860 --> 00:15:23.240 And this, this Psalm was one that the Israelites would recite every year at the end of Passover as a 00:15:23.240 --> 00:15:28.559 prayer that God, just as you rescued our fathers from Egypt, rescue us again today. 00:15:28.559 --> 00:15:35.799 They're lining the streets. They're ready to make Jesus their king. Again, acts of treason. 00:15:36.579 --> 00:15:42.559 They're ready for war. And if you're in the middle of this crowd, what are you expecting at this moment? 00:15:43.899 --> 00:15:52.619 You're expecting Braveheart. You're expecting this great, larger-than-life political figure to march into the city 00:15:52.620 --> 00:15:57.600 as the fulfillment of the hopes and dreams that his people have had for hundreds of years. 00:15:57.779 --> 00:16:02.320 He's going to raise up an army. He's going to lead them into battle. He may be victorious. He may die. 00:16:03.159 --> 00:16:07.980 If he's victorious, they'll make him the king. If he dies, his willingness to sacrifice for his people 00:16:07.980 --> 00:16:13.279 is going to raise up even greater armies that are going to continue to fight until the battle is won 00:16:13.279 --> 00:16:18.960 and his people are set free. And everyone on the streets is waiting for this moment to happen, 00:16:18.960 --> 00:16:22.419 for him to turn to them and say, go grab your sword. It's time to fight. 00:16:22.620 --> 00:16:28.279 Literally, if he had turned to them and said, go grab your swords. It's time to fight. Remember, 00:16:28.379 --> 00:16:34.500 the entire nation of Israel is gathered in Jerusalem at this moment. He would have had an army of tens of 00:16:34.500 --> 00:16:41.100 thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people at his back by nightfall. This is a super charged, 00:16:42.100 --> 00:16:48.000 tense environment. Everyone is waiting for a fight to break out and they are pumped. 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:50.259 They're ready to go. 00:16:53.159 --> 00:16:59.899 And the next verse shows us that what we would expect and what they expected is not at all 00:16:59.899 --> 00:17:08.779 what Jesus has planned. That he refuses to be put into their box and conform to human expectation. 00:17:08.779 --> 00:17:12.899 See, how does he respond to all this praise and attention? 00:17:14.279 --> 00:17:18.660 Does he walk up and be like, finally, you guys figured it out. Come on, come join me. 00:17:19.299 --> 00:17:27.079 No. Does he find a nice shining suit of armor and ride in on a large, powerful stallion so that 00:17:27.079 --> 00:17:34.779 everyone can see his power and greatness? No. He rides in on a donkey. And not just any donkey, 00:17:34.779 --> 00:17:43.759 a young donkey. In our culture, we may miss this, but this is a huge, huge political statement by him. 00:17:43.819 --> 00:17:48.579 If you look this up in the commentaries, the commentators will tell you donkeys throughout 00:17:48.579 --> 00:17:53.460 Israel's history in the Old Testament were the animal of choice to ride if you are someone who is 00:17:53.460 --> 00:18:01.539 seeking peace. So we have Jesus riding into this supercharged environment where everyone's saying, 00:18:01.539 --> 00:18:09.299 we're ready to fight. Let's go. And he says, let's, let's seek peace. 00:18:10.779 --> 00:18:17.460 Which is shocking, right? He, he gives up the chance to be catapulted into this place of honor 00:18:17.460 --> 00:18:23.980 for the sake of pursuing peace. And, and if you're really skeptical and cynical, you might look at this 00:18:23.980 --> 00:18:27.940 and be like, yeah, well, he knew how powerful Rome was. He knew that if he raised up a rebellion, 00:18:27.940 --> 00:18:33.080 he would just get crushed and die really shameful, horrible death. So he was just protecting himself. 00:18:34.880 --> 00:18:41.759 But if you've read the story, you know, Jesus does this because he knows that he's on the path to the 00:18:41.759 --> 00:18:48.860 cross. Jesus doesn't do this to avoid the consequences for himself. Jesus does this despite the consequences 00:18:48.860 --> 00:18:56.640 for himself. He passes up the opportunity to be thrown into the kingdom, to be thrown into the position 00:18:56.640 --> 00:19:04.240 of King so that he can come and sacrifice himself for them and for us. Because the fight that he had 00:19:04.240 --> 00:19:09.680 to fight is one that the crowds couldn't join him in. In fact, it's one where they would turn on him and 00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:18.100 reject him within the week. And he was willing to endure that for their sake, for your sake, and for my 00:19:18.100 --> 00:19:26.360 sake. And for the people watching, this had to be super confusing, super perplexing, right? How could the 00:19:26.359 --> 00:19:32.639 man who does such wonderful things and powerful things not be the one coming to save us? 00:19:34.339 --> 00:19:40.379 And what they didn't recognize is that he is the one coming to save, but that the way that he saves 00:19:40.379 --> 00:19:47.379 can't be determined by their demands. They're confused because they want to honor him and make him king, 00:19:47.559 --> 00:19:54.359 but they're only willing to do it on their terms, and he refuses to follow their terms. And how often do we 00:19:54.359 --> 00:20:00.799 you do that? We say, you know, Jesus, you're my savior, and here's what that means for you to be my 00:20:00.799 --> 00:20:06.000 savior. You have to do this and this and this and this for me. And when he doesn't do just that, 00:20:06.699 --> 00:20:14.179 we respond with confusion, maybe some anger towards him. But just like with them, he refuses to be put 00:20:14.179 --> 00:20:19.539 into our box. He is the glorious king who upholds the universe, who every moment of every day keeps 00:20:19.539 --> 00:20:26.460 everything functioning together by speaking. We expect him to just submit to our plans? 00:20:28.460 --> 00:20:34.019 Seems a little ridiculous when we look at it that way. And this is why it's so important for us to 00:20:34.019 --> 00:20:40.480 continually see Jesus as the great glorious king that he is. Because until we see that, we're going 00:20:40.480 --> 00:20:46.200 to try to fit him into our boxes. We're going to try and make him fit into our expectations for him, 00:20:46.200 --> 00:20:53.940 rather than submitting to his plan, which is so much greater. So Jesus is the king who has authority. 00:20:54.100 --> 00:21:00.319 He's the king who acts humbly. But what does that mean for us? It means that he is the king who casts 00:21:00.319 --> 00:21:07.500 out fear. You know, something we see throughout the stories of Jesus in the Bible is that he has this 00:21:07.500 --> 00:21:14.940 knowledge about things in the future that everyone else lacks, especially when it comes to why he is here 00:21:14.940 --> 00:21:19.539 on earth. If you look at the stories, he tells his disciples again and again and again, I'm going 00:21:19.539 --> 00:21:24.600 to die, but don't worry, because three days later I'm going to rise again. I'm going to die, but don't 00:21:24.600 --> 00:21:29.180 worry, because three days later I'm going to rise again. I'm going to die, but don't worry, because 00:21:29.180 --> 00:21:34.500 three days later I'm going to rise again. And then he dies, and do they sit back and be like, ah, don't 00:21:34.500 --> 00:21:40.580 worry about it, he'll be back in three days. No, they freak out, right? They think the world is over. 00:21:40.579 --> 00:21:48.639 They run away, they go back to fishing. Nobody gets what he's doing except for him. Everyone is 00:21:48.639 --> 00:21:54.259 so convinced that they have Jesus figured out that when he says something that's outside their 00:21:54.259 --> 00:22:00.259 expectations for him, they don't even know what to do with that, because it doesn't fit into their 00:22:00.259 --> 00:22:09.319 box of what he should be. So when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on this donkey, John tells us in verse 16, 00:22:09.319 --> 00:22:14.799 the disciples didn't even understand these things. Like, we had no idea what was going on here. Only 00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:20.480 Jesus knows what's going on, and it's only when they are able to see the story looking back that 00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:27.659 they're able to see why he did this. But as John looks back, and he sees what Jesus did, and he 00:22:27.659 --> 00:22:34.240 understands why he did it, he gives us context for interpreting what Jesus did, and it's right here 00:22:34.240 --> 00:22:41.400 in verse 15, where he says, fear not, daughter of Zion. Behold, your king is coming, sitting on a 00:22:41.400 --> 00:22:48.720 donkey's colt. Now this is a quote from Zechariah chapter 9, verse 9, but interestingly, it's not an 00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:54.279 exact quote. You can see the comparison up here. Zechariah 9, 9, the original says, rejoice greatly, 00:22:54.400 --> 00:22:59.180 O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you, 00:22:59.180 --> 00:23:04.680 righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 00:23:05.200 --> 00:23:09.019 Now if you're paying attention, you'll notice that he's done two significant things here. 00:23:09.539 --> 00:23:15.920 One, he changed the start of the verse, and two, he left out a huge chunk of the middle of the verse. 00:23:17.160 --> 00:23:23.440 Now with the middle of the verse that he left out, not actually a huge deal. See, quoting the Old 00:23:23.440 --> 00:23:27.320 Testament in their day is a little bit different than quoting in our day. In our day, we leave something 00:23:27.319 --> 00:23:32.439 out because we don't want to include that in what we're saying. In their day, the people would have 00:23:32.439 --> 00:23:37.720 known the Old Testament. They would have read what John said, and it's sort of like a hyperlink, 00:23:38.019 --> 00:23:43.879 a word or phrase that unlocks a world of meaning for them. So when they see what John wrote, they fill 00:23:43.879 --> 00:23:48.720 in the blanks. Oh, this means he's righteous. He's bringing salvation. He's humble. This is great. 00:23:49.500 --> 00:23:55.819 So leaving out the middle of the verse isn't a big deal, but what is significant is that he changes 00:23:55.819 --> 00:24:03.460 the start of the verse. Notice it says, rejoice greatly, but then he says, fear not. And that's 00:24:03.460 --> 00:24:11.319 super significant for us because John is interpreting to us what Jesus' action means for us. He's saying, 00:24:11.879 --> 00:24:17.779 not only is Jesus coming in on a donkey a reason to rejoice, not only does it mean that he's righteous, 00:24:18.179 --> 00:24:23.700 bringing salvation, and humble, but it means because he's doing all these things, we have no more need 00:24:23.700 --> 00:24:32.960 to fear. Now, how does that connect? Why does Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey mean that we don't 00:24:32.960 --> 00:24:41.600 need to be afraid today? Well, let's start by looking at why we fear. The reality is it's probably a lot of 00:24:41.600 --> 00:24:46.340 the same reasons that the people in this story feared. I mean, yes, they were oppressed by a foreign 00:24:46.339 --> 00:24:52.980 ruler, but what did that do? It meant that they felt hopeless. It meant that they felt powerless. 00:24:54.259 --> 00:25:04.159 They probably felt inferior, like they didn't quite measure up. And I think those are the same things 00:25:04.159 --> 00:25:08.779 that we have going on in our lives and our world today. We're worried about things and afraid of 00:25:08.779 --> 00:25:15.079 things like, what if things don't get better in the future? What if I never accomplish anything 00:25:15.079 --> 00:25:23.619 significant with my life? What if my parents never applaud me? What if I never find a spouse? 00:25:25.339 --> 00:25:33.599 We feel hopeless, feel powerless. We feel inferior. We feel like we don't measure up. 00:25:35.019 --> 00:25:40.859 And the Israelites in this story, they had a solution to all of these feelings. Their solution was 00:25:40.859 --> 00:25:45.119 place all of us. We feel like we're going to be able to do that. We're going to be able to do that. 00:25:45.119 --> 00:25:48.959 If we can get our country back, then we can make sure everything is right in the world. 00:25:49.759 --> 00:25:54.099 We can make sure that we've done something significant in our lives. We can have an identity 00:25:54.099 --> 00:26:02.019 to be proud of. We can have hope for the future. If only we can get Israel back. That's why they try to 00:26:02.019 --> 00:26:07.439 make Jesus the king. Because if he's the king and they can get their country back, then they can be free. 00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:14.960 And Jesus riding on a donkey is his way of telling them, you're coming to me in the wrong way because 00:26:14.960 --> 00:26:22.680 you want me to be the wrong kind of savior for you. And guys, we do the same thing. We don't try and 00:26:22.680 --> 00:26:29.299 start revolutions, hopefully. But what do we do? We say, I'm going to do everything I can to make sure 00:26:29.299 --> 00:26:33.980 that my future is secure and that all the boxes are in order so that everything's going to be okay in 00:26:33.980 --> 00:26:37.480 the future. And then I'm going to pray and ask Jesus to just sort of help me with my plans. 00:26:37.940 --> 00:26:45.079 Make sure that everything goes exactly as I hope that it will. And just as Jesus was saying to them, 00:26:46.519 --> 00:26:51.480 you're looking to me to be the wrong kind of savior. He says the same thing to us. 00:26:52.640 --> 00:26:59.220 He refuses to fit inside the small box that we try to put him in, which is fantastic news for us. 00:26:59.220 --> 00:27:07.279 Why is that fantastic news for us? Because our response and the response of the people in this 00:27:07.279 --> 00:27:13.539 story places our hope in places that can never fulfill the deepest longing of our hearts and give 00:27:13.539 --> 00:27:20.940 us the true freedom we desire. See, what Jesus is saying by riding on a donkey is, look, you get rid of 00:27:20.940 --> 00:27:28.019 Rome. That's great. You please your parents. That's great. You find a spouse. You do something 00:27:28.019 --> 00:27:35.720 significant with your life. That's great. But you can do all these things and still not have the peace 00:27:35.720 --> 00:27:41.059 and freedom that you desire because you can do all these things and still be separated from God. 00:27:42.839 --> 00:27:52.960 But if you have a proper relationship with God and you understand how great and glorious and powerful 00:27:52.960 --> 00:28:00.600 he is, it doesn't matter what your circumstances in life are, you can have hope. You can have peace. 00:28:00.819 --> 00:28:05.380 You can know that you are loved. You can know that you are accepted. The deepest longing and desires of 00:28:05.380 --> 00:28:13.579 your heart can be fulfilled and you can be truly free. That relationship with God is the one thing 00:28:13.579 --> 00:28:21.720 that we need more than anything else. And how can he make this claim? Because he is God. The God with all 00:28:21.720 --> 00:28:30.079 authority. One of the biggest reasons we struggle with fear is because our lives are so consumed with 00:28:30.079 --> 00:28:36.480 the present. We can't like get ourselves to think past today. Some of us maybe even like 10 seconds from 00:28:36.480 --> 00:28:45.460 now. We're so consumed with the present. And Jesus is saying that we need a bigger perspective. 00:28:45.460 --> 00:28:52.819 Think about it. If it's true that Jesus is the king of heaven and earth who made everything and 00:28:52.819 --> 00:29:00.360 sustains everything, every moment of every day, and it's true that this king of the universe died 00:29:00.360 --> 00:29:07.440 to set us free from our sin, our fear, and death, and that he rose in victory over the grave, and that he 00:29:07.440 --> 00:29:12.940 promises to raise us with him and to set all things right, what valid cause can we ever have for fear? 00:29:12.940 --> 00:29:19.700 Literally, if all those things are true, the only thing we ever need to fear is not knowing him. 00:29:21.180 --> 00:29:24.960 And great news, the Bible tells us how we can know him. 00:29:28.120 --> 00:29:35.660 Jesus, by coming humbly on a donkey, he shows us that actually all these things are true of him, 00:29:36.340 --> 00:29:41.759 that he is the king of the universe, that he did come to sacrifice himself for us. And he shows us this 00:29:41.759 --> 00:29:47.140 because rather than raise up an army, he goes into Jerusalem where he's betrayed by one of his 00:29:47.140 --> 00:29:53.319 closest friends. Rather than taking the royal robes and the crown that the crowd is so ready to give 00:29:53.319 --> 00:30:00.539 him, he gets clothed in mocking robes and a crown of thorns. His victory doesn't come through a great 00:30:00.539 --> 00:30:07.140 show of strength, but by being hung up on a cross like a common criminal. And in that moment, 00:30:07.140 --> 00:30:15.000 he pays the price for all your sin and my sin and all of our rebellion against him, setting us free 00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:20.740 from our sin, from death, and from any reason for fear that we could ever have. 00:30:23.540 --> 00:30:28.600 Because of the king on the donkey, you and I are able to follow this command to fear not. 00:30:28.599 --> 00:30:36.319 Because of the king on the donkey coming to rescue us, the ruler of the heavens who humbled himself 00:30:36.319 --> 00:30:38.439 to come down. 00:30:41.399 --> 00:30:45.619 It means that this week, when the market's in turmoil from a trade war, 00:30:46.119 --> 00:30:49.959 and you're going frantic, wondering what's going to happen to all your investments, 00:30:49.960 --> 00:30:58.940 fear not. Jesus is the king who has all authority, even over the markets, and he's with you. 00:31:00.620 --> 00:31:06.140 It means this week, when your kids come home from school with a note from the teacher about their bad 00:31:06.140 --> 00:31:14.380 behavior, fear not. Jesus is the king who humbly bore all your shame and all your guilt to set you free. 00:31:15.700 --> 00:31:19.539 It means this week, when you're in class, and your teacher drops an extra assignment on you, 00:31:19.539 --> 00:31:23.279 and you're like, oh no, how am I ever going to get all this done in time? 00:31:24.940 --> 00:31:26.299 Fear not. 00:31:27.759 --> 00:31:31.139 Because Jesus is the king who casts out fear. 00:31:32.720 --> 00:31:35.980 Jesus, the ruler of the universe, 00:31:36.680 --> 00:31:37.819 the king on the donkey, 00:31:38.379 --> 00:31:41.359 is able to cast out our fear, 00:31:41.420 --> 00:31:44.799 because he's also the king of glory who reigns in the heavens, 00:31:44.799 --> 00:31:49.680 and the humble king who set himself on the path to the cross for our rescue. 00:31:50.419 --> 00:31:50.859 Let's pray. 00:31:52.519 --> 00:31:55.480 Jesus, we are so in awe of who you are. 00:31:56.519 --> 00:31:57.980 We're amazed by your greatness. 00:31:58.159 --> 00:32:00.279 We're amazed by the fact that you have 00:32:00.279 --> 00:32:02.139 such power that we can't 00:32:02.139 --> 00:32:03.899 begin to comprehend it, 00:32:03.900 --> 00:32:07.160 and yet that despite your great power, 00:32:07.280 --> 00:32:09.800 you would choose to come to us in humility. 00:32:10.900 --> 00:32:14.660 That you would come to us not to destroy us and judge us, 00:32:14.700 --> 00:32:17.060 but that you would come to us as a rescuer to save us. 00:32:18.440 --> 00:32:20.300 And that you would save us in such a way 00:32:20.300 --> 00:32:22.500 that it's not just a future salvation, 00:32:22.680 --> 00:32:23.720 but it's one for today 00:32:23.720 --> 00:32:26.019 that can set us free from the fear 00:32:26.019 --> 00:32:27.460 that we so easily fall into 00:32:27.460 --> 00:32:29.300 again and again and again. 00:32:29.299 --> 00:32:33.139 God, I pray that as we go throughout this week, 00:32:33.240 --> 00:32:35.200 we would realize the truth 00:32:35.200 --> 00:32:37.519 that you are the king of the universe, 00:32:38.460 --> 00:32:39.659 that you're also the God 00:32:39.659 --> 00:32:41.159 who humbly came to us 00:32:41.159 --> 00:32:43.099 to rescue us and set us free, 00:32:43.220 --> 00:32:44.279 and that we would be empowered 00:32:44.279 --> 00:32:45.940 to live without fear, 00:32:46.700 --> 00:32:47.419 to live for you. 00:32:48.259 --> 00:32:50.019 In Jesus' name, amen.