Beacon Sunday Service: March 24th 2024

To be able to come together and to just worship corporately with everyone today. Let's just take a quick moment to greet one another in the Lord. Grace and peace to you. Grace is the free gift of God and peace the result of that. So may we greet one another in that manner.

And as you uh make your way to your seats, if you can just direct your attention to the screen here, uh, it is Palm Sunday, uh the day that our Lord and King and Savior Jesus Christ entered into Jerusalem, and so uh may we just watch this short clip here, Hosanna and if we as we meet today for this Palm Sunday, uh we celebrate uh our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, uh our King Jesus coming into Jerusalem.

Uh they expected an earthly king, uh, but really he is uh our spiritual king, the one that reigns over all things, uh not just in Jerusalem or in some empire, but really uh over all of our lives. He is king over all of our lives. So um let's uh look at Matthew twenty-one, verse nine. Uh it says this, and there's a response in Hebrews for everyone here. It says, Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. And together, therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe. Amen. Can we do that this morning, church?

Let's bless his great name.

We turn to you.

In your presence, all our fears are washed away, washed away, whose you are the God who saves us, worthy of all our praises, come have your way among us. We welcome you here, Lord Jesus, you sound sound of hearts rein to you. We turn to you, yes, we do in your kingdom, in your kingdom, broken lives are made new.

You make us new when we see you when we see you, we find strength to face the day in your presence, all our fears are washed away, are washed away, Hosea, you are the God who saves us, worthy of all our praises, come at your way among us, we welcome you here, Lord Jesus Rosanna, Hosea, you are the God who saves us, worthy of all our praises, come at your way among us.

Amen.

King from heaven upon the cross of this love reached for me, a love sets me free, your sacrifice has saved my soul today, I'm reminded of your grace, all ways living now to sing your praise, your praise you, Jesus. I praise you, I live my hands and race you, I will embrace you, save your and keep my king.

Could not earn I could not earn this love. Such undeserved love. Jesus, I know you are the way the price, you paid the price for me. Your blood was shed for me, and in your mercy took my place.

All ways living now to sing your praise, your praise you, Jesus. I praise you. I live my hands and praise you. I will embrace you, my savior and I kissing praise you, praise you, Jesus. I praise you, I live my hands and see Embrace you. I will embrace you, my Savior and my key, my key.

See what our voices praise you, praise you, Jesus. I praise you, I lift my hands and see Embrace you, I will embrace you, my savior, and I keep my king. This morning we will confess our faith using the using a catechism for Christian growth. In this question and answer, we'll confess how Jesus is the perfect King. And here's the question. How is Jesus the perfect king? And together, he rules over all creation and accomplishes perfect plans, guiding and protecting the redeemed.

Without him, we would be helpless and left to follow our shifting passions.

He came to us a man very nature, God's foreign iniquities as you hung upon my cross, but God exalted you to the highest place. He to you the right to bear the name above all names I have the name of Jesus, and every tongue confess that you are when you come in glory for the world to see we will see to the king in all splendor and to the king of Kings Lord Jesus our God.

Rival thrones will fall for the Lord of all hail supreme authority in the true and living God Jesus. We will buy as every tongue confesses you as Lord Yes, and when you come in glory for the world to see We will see the king all his splendor and to the King of Kings Lord Jesus God hail to the King Hail to the King Splendor and King of Kings Lord Jesus God more time, hail to the King Hail to the King His splendor and hail to the King of Kings, Lord Jesus.

Good morning, happy Palm Sunday to everybody. Today's confession of sin is a reminder that we are sheep that can be led astray. And the only one that brings us back is our shepherd, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So together, let us say, Good Shepherd. We have strayed from you like lost sheep. We have followed our own devices and sinful desires. We are lost and helpless without your calling, leading, protecting and loving us. Please have mercy and lead us back to the sheephold. It's in you alone that we find abundant life and green pastures in your atoning blood, cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In Jesus' name, Amen. Let us now have oh, please be seated. Let us now take in the personal time of confession to our Lord.

Here's your assurance of pardon. Jesus is our good shepherd, for he laid down his life for the sheep.

By his sacrificial death, he has gathered you in as one of his sheep. Amen. A couple prayer requests today. First one being, um, as we shared last week, uh, this is the week um where we uh our upcoming is going to be Good Friday and and Easter Sunday, and we really want to take this opportunity as a church to welcome those who do not go to church, who do not believe uh in the gospel, uh and we wanted to have an opportunity for them to come and hear. And so if there was somebody on your heart, a family on your heart, a group of people on your heart that you wanted to share uh and invite, um, let's pray for them right now. Um pray for them for their salvation that they might know the Lord, but also that they would accept an invitation from you personally to come and join us next Sunday.

Um, and also pray for the boldness in your heart that you have enough conviction that the Lord has blessed you, that you want to be a good disciple of the nation of the Lord and welcome them so that you would take that step and just say the words to invite them to come. So let's pray.

The second prayer request is for the people of Russia. Even though they're an opposing nation of our of us here, you know, 140 people lost their lives due to a terrorist attack. And it's a shame that the image of God, people made in his creation, died senselessly. We should pray for them. We should pray for their salvation. We should pray that God still reigns in that country and that the people there will be comforted even in mourning. And that Jesus' word would reach them and give them comfort. So let's pray.

We pray, Father, that in this evil, in this darkness, that your light would shine. Lord, we know that even in death there is mourning. And even though there's tragedy, Lord, there is goodness. Lord, we ask, Father, for blessing upon the people of Russia who've lost their lives and their families who are mourning over them. We pray for their friends and family who are affected. We just pray that in your will, in your plans, Father, that good things will come, that your nation will rise, and that you will be demonstrating your power and your glory would be demonstrated even in tragedy. We pray that you bless even in our homestead here in our communities and the people that we know, family friends, people that we've wanted to talk to, that we would able be able to take the step and be bold and share and invite them over to our church for next Sunday for our Easter service, that we would be able to just plant a seed and let our intention be known that we want them to come and we want them to hear the gospel message.

So we pray, Father, for those for their salvation that who do not know God. But we also pray, Father, for ourselves, Lord, that we would have an urgency, a desire to just invite and share even in this step that we would be bold and that we would just take all opportunities that are open to us, Lord, to and to welcome people here to the beacon. We pray, Father, for today that you will be glorified. You are truly all glory in the highest, Lord. And we we we want to worship you with our whole hearts today. In Jesus' name, we pray, amen. Children, you're dismissed. Please follow uh teacher Tiffany out. As the children are being dismissed, we're gonna go over a few announcements. This Friday is good Friday service.

Uh annually, uh, we meet on the Friday before Easter, Sunday. So, no different here, except uh that we're gonna actually have more intentional time to make sure that all the families are able to join us. Uh so we're gonna have dinner at 6 p.m. provided by the church. Please bring uh your kids if you have them, your wives, uh husbands, so that no one stays home, that we're all coming together. We're gonna break bread together, and then at seven o'clock, we're gonna have a service. Um, hopefully within a uh manageable time to get your kids home uh in time for bed. So please come and join us uh after service. I'm gonna take a head count to see who can who will be joining us here and uh so that we can order the right amount of food.

Uh as we just prayed, next Sunday is Easter Sunday, March 31st. Uh, so we encourage you to bring a friend to have someone that you wanted to share, um, wanted to invite to our church for a really long time. Please take this step this week uh to invite them. Just say the words. Don't worry about how you're gonna feel or whatever. Just just say the words, just trust in the Lord and invite them to come. Um, and then following after that, as an opportunity to have fellowship and outreach, uh, we're gonna have lunch provided by the church as well. So after service, we're gonna have uh lunch here together as well. Um, as you can see, today is gonna be a communion Sunday. We will not be having communion next Sunday, but we will be having communion on Good Friday.

So for those of you online who were not able to join us today for communion, please know that you can come on Friday and have communion with us then. Our offering options are Zell, Venmo, Cash and Czech. Uh, if you're visiting, please do not feel obligated to give. But if you're a member, we ask that the uh that you give as the Lord has blessed you in your life. Pastor Madison to just get a chance to share the word with you. Uh, when it comes to Friday night, um many of you don't have uh kids, but some of you do. Um I'll be gearing some uh one of the lessons really towards the the kids' understanding of the gospel so that they understand why Christ died, and it was for them and for you to grasp it as well, so that um we'll be talking about the the the ABCs of of salvation, so that you can kind of just make it simple for kids and simple for you and simple for you to pass on uh to somebody else as well uh when it comes to that.

Today we want to uh uh move away from the book of James only because uh this is Palm Sunday. It's the Sunday that Jesus wrote into Jerusalem uh on a donkey. And they they started shouting out Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And what's interesting, yeah, I don't have it to put on the screen here for you today, uh, but the word hosanna is actually the Greek word, and it's just we transliterate it from Greek to English, and that simply means whatever the Greek letter was, we drop the same down into English. And so you do know some Greek. Hosanna. It's Greek, and it's our English word that means that God saves. So I want to talk about your perspective of Jesus, though, because people have different perspectives.

In our society, we we know how to give uh grand entries, you know, uh grand entrance to people. Um let me uh have you look at this one. Uh just in the last week or so, and Abraham, there's some sound on here when I play it. Just in the last week or so, uh we we have in our country the State of the Union address. And so here's what it's like for the grand entry into Congress. Sergeant at arms as now about to make that announcement. So let's go live now to the table.

And now President Biden has entered the chamber and is making what can be an extended. So you get the idea. I mean, we know how how to make big entries, you know. You know, and here are uh all the congressmen, uh all the senators, all the cabinet, all the supreme Court uh justices, everybody's there. And the one guy, I wonder how many times he practices, you know, uh going in there, because he needs to be loud enough so that everybody in the chamber can hear, ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States, and then they start applauding, and then he takes a long time greeting everybody, giving kisses. It's a it's a grand entry. We understand that today, but that's what it was like when Jesus had this grand entry in, or how about this?

This was a a grand entry. Uh, this is Kate Middleton. You uh perhaps if you've heard the news this past week that she has cancer, and so you know, but this was uh in 2011, just 13 years ago, when she was getting ready to walk down the aisle for the grand entry, right? And just so you guys especially know, uh, when it comes to a wedding, there's uh one person that's important, and it's not the groom. And so who comes down the aisle when everybody stands? That's the bride. And you know, this is this is this grand entry. So what I want you to begin to think about now is what's your perspective on Jesus? Because when Jesus came in for this grand entry, there were people that had different perspectives on him.

You know, if I were to say this, um, if we don't talk uh much about politics and where when we talk about the word of God, but let me say it this way. If you were a Democrat, and somebody else was a Republican, your perspective would be different when it comes to abortion, your perspective would be different when it comes to the national debt. Do you understand? Whatever your relationship is to that political party will change your perspective on how things get done. The same goes when it comes to Jesus when it comes to your perspective on him. Think of it this way. Look at the look at the uh drawing on the screen. Let me ask you this. Are there four cubes on the screen or three cubes on the screen?

Count them. One, two, three, four. Okay? Or is it this way? One, two, three. Which is it? And oh yeah, it's it's depending on which end you're focusing on, makes you uh decide whether there are three or four there. Or how about this? If you were looking at a fishbowl, you know, somebody might say, oh, that's a beautiful thing to have in a family room. You know, just uh something for you know to have in your house. But if you were this little guy, if you were this little guy, what would your perspective be? What would you be thinking? You know, if you were like me, I'd be thinking, I'm wondering if I can get my hand in that bowl. I wonder if I can catch that little fish. Or let me give you one other perspective before we talk about your perspective on Jesus.

If you were this, what would your perspective be? Oh, dinner, you know, because whatever you are, or your perspective on things changes the way you look at it. How about this one? One last one. What's a different perspective? Look at every one of those birds there. Now look at the screen, and what do you see right there? Just one of them is looking the other direction. And it's kind of of what we have in our world. The world's looking broad as the way that leads to destruction, and many there be that go that there at. So the rest of the world is looking this way, and we keep looking at what? The cross. We keep looking at Christ and the cross and what he's done. And the rest of the world says, oh no, it's it's different because they have a different perspective.

So this is what it looked like, or I shouldn't say that. This is an artist's rendition of what it kind of looked like when Jesus came into Jerusalem. But let me give you a different perspective for a moment. Okay. When Jesus came into Jerusalem, it was on that Sunday. Saturday was their Sabbath, so they didn't do anything. He's riding into Jerusalem on that Sunday. And you know what happens? The Passover is always in relationship to the moon. And so he came into Jerusalem on that Sunday. But listen to me. Several other several others besides people came into Jerusalem that Sunday. You know what else came into Jerusalem?

We almost ignore it. We almost forget about it. They're getting ready to celebrate Passover. Do you remember how many people were involved in eating one lamb? They always sacrificed the lamb on the Passover. And you remember there were ten people in the household. If you didn't have ten people, you invited somebody else in so that you could always, you know, eat all, eat that, and finish that off. They were getting ready. This happened when they were leaving Egypt. And for the first time, they killed a lamb and they put the blood on the door posts. So when the death angel came through the land of Egypt to kill the firstborn of anybody that didn't have blood on the doorpost. And when the death angel saw the blood of the lamb, it would pass over that house.

And that's how the name Passover came to be. Now, that was continuing on, year after year after year after year, they would celebrate the Passover to remember that God protected them and set them free out of Egypt. Now it's getting ready to be the Passover. When Jesus rides into Jerusalem, you know what he rode in with? Josephus, who is a Jewish historian, tells us that when they calculated how many lambs had to be sacrificed for the Passover, that there were, listen to this, there were two hundred and fifty thousand sheep. 250,000 lambs passing through Jerusalem because everybody would come back to celebrate the Passover. And so now you've got 250,000 lambs coming in because they're going to take those lambs, and for three days they're going to have them in their house.

They're going to be right there in your house.

I was preaching in Kenya. And I was preaching in a pastor's conference. And so there are hundreds of pastors there and their families and everybody. And all week long, you know what they had in the field? The calf that was going to be sacrificed at the end of the week for all the pastors and everybody. But all week long, the little kids and the pastors, hey, they're there. Because it's on the field. I mean, it's not like America. Here are the cows, and here's the right next to the uh church. So they would play with the lambs for three days. And then they would sacrifice the lamb. So when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of these sheep were passing through with him.

So that nobody would miss. Listen to me. I hope you don't miss this. Because when John pointed to Jesus, what did he say? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So when he went riding in with all the lambs, for the first time, they're really saying the Lamb of God who is going to take away the sin of the world. And all that week, three days later, they were going to sacrifice all those lambs. Can you imagine how much blood there was when you sacrificed 250,000 sheep? That's a lot of blood. And it's running down through the valley area there, the Kidron Valley. And Jesus is going to shed his blood on the cross. And he's coming into Jerusalem. And let me give you this. Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19, John 12, all four of those gospel passages give the story of him riding in to the city of Jerusalem.

But all four of them look at him differently. Let me let me slide it this way and say, Matthew sees Jesus as king. And so what does it do? In the beginning, he goes right back and gives the genealogies of Jesus and traces his kingship, how he has a right to be king of the Jews. Mark, on the other hand, when he, his shorter gospel talks about Jesus, everything is about Jesus being a servant. The Son of Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, to serve. He who would be chiefest among you must be servants, the servant. And so, Matthew, hey, he's king of the Jews. Mark, oh, he's the servant of servants. When you get to Luke, Luke was a physician. So he's one that really talks about Jesus and his birth as a child and how he is a man.

That's why Luke 19, 10 says, for the Son of Man. Not the Son of God there, the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. He wants people to understand Jesus became a man. He wasn't a sinner, but he was a man. And he knew what it was like to suffer and to bleed and to die because he was a man. And he died for us. Oh, but John. The first three Gospels are often called the synoptic gospels. You know why they're called the synoptic gospels? Because they have many of the same stories that happened in the life of Christ. And so optic, you know what it means to be optic? Optic means to be able to see. And synoptic, a synthesis of that, sees it as one. And so the synoptic gospels, all three of them.

Let me hold my fingers up like this. All three of those gospels see Jesus like this. Do you understand what I'm saying? They see him as one. The same stories. John, on the other hand, says, wait a minute. He's writing a little bit later, and he says, I want to really tell you some about some things. In the beginning was the word. And the word was with God, and the word was God. And the word became flesh and dwell among us. And so John sees Jesus as God. Do you see that? I'm giving you four perspectives there. One sees him, hey, let's talk about his kingship. He is of the lineage of David. Only he's going to be king of kings and Lord of lords, and of his kingdom, they'll shall never be an end.

So let me then say this. The triumphal entry. That's what they that's what we call it when Jesus rode into Jerusalem. This triumphal entry, and everybody singing and shouting and praising God, and all the sheep are passing through, all the lambs are passing through there. Man, this is just unbelievable. You got thousands of people, people that came to Jerusalem just to celebrate this Passover and all these animals and Jesus. The triumphal entry reveals what people thought about Jesus.

If you could have four different, sometimes groups, and sometimes one person, but if if one was looking at it from this way and one was looking at it from this way, and one was looking at it from this way, I want you to look at Jesus from four perspectives. Okay? Let me give them to you. The crowd of Jews, what was their perspective on Jesus? Secondly, the chief priests and Pharisees as a group. Okay? Thirdly, the disciples. What was their perspective? And lastly, I want you to see the real perspective, and who would give us the real perspective about Jesus? The Lord. What does he say about himself? And how does he stand? So let's talk about the crowd of Jews. How did they look at Jesus? Oh, he was this miracle maker.

You know, so they were gonna, they were gonna follow him all right, but because why? Because he's gonna do miracles. Let me take you to this. Now I've made it small enough, so hopefully. This is John 12, verses 9 through 27. And as a as again, as you pick apart scripture, what you begin to do is just read it and read it and read it until you say, okay, what's standing out here? Look at what starts to stand out. Okay? I'm highlighting it there for you. You have the large crowd of Jews, you have the chief priests, uh, and let me take it down to the Pharisees here, and then you have the disciples, and then you have Jesus. And what I want you to be able to do is just is look at this. He's writing in, and what's the large group of Jews?

What's their perspective on Jesus? We said their perspective, they saw him as the miracle maker. He would do it, he could make it happen, and they wanted him to stay around because he can do miracles. Let me just take you to John 12. Then a large crowd of Jews learned he was there. They came not only because of Jesus. Now let me let me highlight that.

But he wasn't the only reason they came. They came not only because of Jesus. Let me put this on the screen. Jesus was only one of the attractions to them. He wasn't the main attraction, he was just one of the attractions. So who was the who was one of the other attractions? Look at the screen. They came not only because of Jesus, but to see Lazarus, the one he had raised from the dead. So what were why were they coming? Because of this unbelievable miracle. He was raised from the dead in John chapter 11. He'd been dead for four days. They said, Oh, by this time he stinketh. He stinks, you know. You know? But Jesus raised him from the dead. And people were, wow, this is unbelievable. And now they're when Lazarus is there and Jesus is there, everybody wants to show up.

Why? Because of the miracles. Not because of Jesus. They wanted to see somebody raised from the dead. Or let me take you back to John 6. After this, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee, or Tiberius. That was another name for it. That's why sometimes, look at me for a second. Sometimes you have difficulty in reading passages of scripture because they use different names for the same place. You have the Sea of Galilee. You have Tiberius.

I even said it this way. Remember when we talked about when in our country we launch space shuttles up? Is it Cape Canaveral or is it Cape Kennedy that we launch it from? Because, yes, that's we've had these two different names, and so after a while it gets confusing. But here's what he says in John 6. After this, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee, or Tiberius. A huge crowd was following Jesus. Why? What's the text say? Because they what? Saw the signs that he was performing by healing the sick. Do you get that? They're not following him because they want to follow him. As a matter of fact, in John 6, they want to take and make him king. Because he fed, he could feed thousands of people, give them food.

They, oh wow, this guy, free food, thousands of people. He's going to raise the dead. They're going to follow him because that's their perspective on him. So when I come to the triumphal entry, you've got four groups there, four individuals. One I want to give is the crowd. And they saw Jesus, they came because he's a miracle maker. Let's really do this. There was another group that was there, the chief priests and the Pharisees. And how did they see Jesus? Not as the miracle maker, but as what? As what? The troublemaker. They're wanting to get rid of him. Which is exactly why when he went to the cross, it was going to happen. Because he had planned it from eternity. And these people were going to be against him.

And they saw him as a troublemaker. How do they see him as a troublemaker? Let me go back to John 8. In John 8, you have the woman caught in the very act of adultery. Starts in actually chapter 7, that last verse of chapter 7, and goes all the way through chapter 8, verse 11. And look at the screen. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in the center. Teacher, they said to him, This woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. And the law, Moses commanded us. So what's their focus? Hey, the law says this, the law says this. And Moses commanded, so now they're going to try to put Jesus on the spot. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.

But the thing that amazes me is that they're going to stone the woman. But they never talk anything about the guy.

But at this point, they're just trying to throw out, well, let's get, you know, let's just get this. The law says the stone, such a woman. So what do you say? And they ask this to do what? To trap him. Because they're seeing him as a troublemaker, not as somebody that you're not keeping the law. The law says this. What do you say? And do you recall what Jesus said? It goes on. They asked us to trap him in order that they might have evidence to accuse him. Jesus stooped down and started writing on the ground with his finger. When they persisted in questioning him, he stood up and said to them, the one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her. And who threw the first stone?

Nobody. Because they all are sinners. You can never get to heaven unless you understand you're a sinner. And that you don't deserve heaven. And that Christ died for your sin and was buried and rose again. And where you say, Lord, I'm going to accept what you've done for me. I want you to come into my life. But what your what's your perspective on Jesus? This is John chapter 8. John chapter 9, the very next chapter, he says, this.

Neither this man or his parents sinned, Jesus answered. By the way, he wasn't saying that they had never sinned. But he was answering their question. Is he blind because of his death, his parents' sin, or because they had sinned? It says, he's not blind because of that. Look at what he says. Verse 3. Neither this man or his parents sinned, Jesus answered, this came about so that God's work might be displayed in him. That's why he permitted it, so that he could give him sight and have God's glory revealed. Look at what the text goes on. I'll jump down to verse 11. He answered the man, they're now asking the mind man who can now see. How did this happen? How did you get the sight? He said, the man called Jesus, made mud, spread it on my eyes, and told me, Go to Siloam and wash.

So I went and washed and received my sight. That was verse 11. Now verse 14. The day that Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes was what? A Sabbath day. And they couldn't do anything on the Sabbath. But Jesus did something on the Sabbath. So let's see.

Oh, he's going soft on sin. No, he wasn't soft on sin. He was great on forgiveness. He was great on grace. When we don't deserve to get to heaven, he said, look, I'm going to give it to you anyway. If you're if you're willing to accept that you're a sinner and that I died for you, you don't have to earn it. It's a gift. The gift of God is what? Eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So they're saying, what's their perspective? God, he's a troublemaker. Going back to chapter 12 of John, verses 10 and 11, it says this. Therefore the chief priests decided to kill Lazarus. Remember, they went to see Lazarus because he'd just been risen, brought back to life from the dead. Therefore, the chief priest decided to kill Lazarus also, because he was the reason many of the Jews were deserting them and believing in Jesus.

That's why they thought Jesus is a troublemaker. They're leaving us and Moses and the law and the Sabbath. And they're going over to this guy that says he'll forgive sin. Jesus is writing in, you've got all these people. Look at verse 19 of chapter 12. Then the Pharisees said to one another, you see. You've accomplished nothing. Look! The world has gone after him. And now he's riding into Jerusalem. And everybody's throwing palm branches down and shouting what? Hosanna. Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. That's a quote from the Psalms. Psalm 118 through 123 are called the Hylial Psalms. Let me spell that for you.

H A L L E L. Hil Psalms. Look at me for a second. Hyliel is where we get. I just spelled it for you. H-A-L-L-E-L. It's the first part of our word. Hallu. And you know what's interesting? Is Yah is a part of God's name. Yahweh. And so it's hallelujah. Yah. We're going to praise God. And so now he's saying, hey, everybody's gone after him. They're shouting, hallelujah. They're shouting, Hosannah. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Look. The triumphal entry can reveal their perspectives. What perspective? What was the first group? This large group of Jewish people.

What was their perspective? Oh, he's the miracle worker. Let's go to him because he can feed us, he can give us whatever we need. If I'm blind, he can give me sight. If I have leprosy, he can heal me. Man, why not do that? But that's not why you come to Jesus. You don't come to Jesus for his healing. You don't come to Jesus for what he'll do for you. You come to Jesus because he loves you and he's willing to die for you. What he did for you, he died for you. Second group, chief priests and the Pharisees. By the way, can I have you think about the Pharisees for a moment? Our Congress has a senate and a house. Got that? And those two bodies, the Senate and the House of Representatives, makes up what we call Congress.

You have the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And they make up what is known as the Sanhedrin. The whole Sanhedrin is made up of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Do you know what the main difference between the Pharisees and the Sadducees are? The Pharisees believed in the resurrection. And the Sadducees didn't. Now I'm going to, I'll give you a dad joke. Okay. The Pharisees believed in the resurrection, and the Sadducees didn't. That's why they were sad, you see. Because they had no hope of the future. Okay. So now they're going at Jesus and saying he's a troublemaker. But how about the disciples?

They saw him as, oh, this freedom maker. Man, he's gonna do. What is he gonna do for us? They're leading up to John chapter 12, where Jesus is riding into the city. But in John chapter 8, what did we discover? The woman caught in the very act of adultery. But there's a very, very famous verse in John chapter 8 that we often kind of overlook. You've heard it, but you're not, oh, you haven't tied it with John chapter 8.

John chapter 8, verse 32, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you what? Free. You heard that verse before? You know the truth, the truth shall set you free. And so what did the disciples begin to think? Wow. What was going on in Jerusalem and in the Jewish country of Israel? What was going on at that time? Were they free? Or were they under some other country's rule? They were under Roman rule. Remember? And so Herod and Pilate, they're under Rome. And what did the disciples think about Jesus? He's gonna set them what? Free. We're not gonna be under that bondage anymore. We're not gonna have to pay taxes to Rome.

We're gonna be set free. Jesus is saying, no, no, that's not, that's not why I came. Not to set you free that way. Let me even take you back here to John chapter 12, verses 12 and 13. The next day, when the large crowd had come to the festival and heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took palm branches and went out to meet him. They kept shouting, Hosanna, he who comes in the name of the Lord is the blessed one. Oh, they took the palm branches. They went out to meet him. And what did they want to do to meet him? They wanted to cry out, he's the what of Israel. He's the king of Israel. And if he, if Israel has a king, will they be under the authority of Rome? They thought, man, and what is what did the disciples say to Jesus?

Hey, look, when you come into your kingdom, can I, can we sit on this side and this side? And who's going to be the treasurer? Judas. Judas was the treasurer. And they thought, man, we're going to get these positions because you're going to come into your kingdom. You're the king of the Jews, and you're going to set us free. Wow, this is terrific. The verses go on, verse 14. Jesus found a donkey, a young donkey, and sat on it just as it is written, fear no more, daughter Zion. Look. And what's the quote say from the Old Testament? This is from the Old Testament. Daughter of Zion, look, your what? Your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. You know, it's kind of funny. There used to be a guy, um, Ray Steadman, used to be the pastor of Palo Alto Bible Church.

He's with the Lord today, but he grew up in Montana. And he graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary, and God used him in a wonderful way. Uh, and he and Chuck Swindow were good friends, and he'd write books and really just preach the word. One time he's talking about this, and he says, you know, I don't know if you understand. Your king coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. He said, I tried to ride one of those one time. And he was a big guy. And you know something? A cult has never been ridden on. And when he got on that colt, he wasn't on it very long. You know why? Because that cult said, You're not, I'm not carrying you, and just bucked him right off. When Jesus came, he was the Prince of Peace.

Normally, when a king came, he came on a horse and victorious. He just won the military. But when he came in on a donkey, it was in peace. And not be flamboyant. But he's coming as the king. And what did the disciples think? Oh man, he's gonna set us free. We're gonna now we're gonna have a great time. He goes on in verse 16. His disciples, oh, wait a minute. What did they think? He's coming as what? King? He's gonna, they're gonna know the truth, and the truth is gonna set them what? Free. But his disciples, look at the screen. His disciples did not understand these things at first. What's gonna happen? He's gonna have to die. He's wait a minute. If he's king, what why is he on a donkey?

What's what's going on? Their perspective was confusion. It says this, however, when Jesus was glorified, do you know what it means to be glorified? Because now you have this heavenly body. See, you're justified, that saves you. You're sanctified, that has you living like Christ. When you're glorified, that takes place in heaven for us. Where we no longer have an earthly body, we have this glorious body. We're gonna be like him, we're gonna see him like he is. However, when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered these things had been written about him, and that they had done these things to him. Let me give you a picture of this family. This family is uh from the church that I pastored 34 years.

Um last Sunday. Well, let me just say uh Ben and Paula are right up here. Okay, they're in last Sunday. They have two, they have two children. Ben is with his daughter in the center picture here, and with his son in the right side picture. This is when he retired from the fire department. His station, he was the head guy at the station, right down here near Children's Hospital. So it was a really busy station and everything. And this was his last day with his wife and his daughter. His son couldn't be there. Last Sunday, uh I had had a chance to uh be with one of our families here, and I went to lunch, and then after lunch, I said, I I need to I need to get going by two o'clock because we were gonna go back to their house, and some of our people were gonna gather there for a hymn sing in uh Lancaster, California.

And we're gonna do that because Paula was dying. They didn't know their well, she had she had uh dementia, Alzheimer's, couldn't remember things, and your body gets so it doesn't remember how to function. But what's interesting is what she could remember our hymns. So there were some of us that were gonna gather at their house. By the time word got out, there were almost 75 of us that were gonna be at their house to sing hymns at three o'clock in the afternoon. She had such a difficult morning last Sunday morning that they thought she was gonna go to be with the Lord. So they, by the time I got back up in the Lancaster area, they had told everybody, don't come. She's really struggling, and they think she'll pass away that afternoon.

Her son came down from Idaho, her daughter came from Texas to see her for the last time. She passed away yesterday morning. And just in her early 60s. What's interesting? And their names I'll put it on the screen here. They're the Kuzichev family. His dad was a pastor at one of the Baptist churches, the Russian Baptist Church down in this area. And they they love the Lord. But you know what happened? Back in 2015, they were up in the Alaska area with eight or ten of their family members. And on one morning, they were going to fly in a pontoon boat over to another island.

And then spend the day there and then come back in one of the barges with eight or ten of their family people of them. They got busy, got behind schedule, and missed the plane. By the time they all got ready, they got on a second plane to go over to the island.

And then they came back on the barge. And the captain that was running the barge said, it's going to be a little while longer today, because on the way home, on the way back, we need to stop. There's been an emergency broadcast where there's some difficulty. A plane has gone down. And when they got over there, the plane had gone down that they were supposed to be on the first thing in the morning. And everybody was killed. And all of a sudden they're going, wow. I guess in the future, when I don't understand why I'm late or why things are going the way they are.

But I I don't need to understand. I need to trust.

But look at the perspective. What do you have? You have the crowd of Jews. Ah, he was the miracle maker. So let's go see this miracle maker. Oh, how about the chief priest? Oh, he's the troublemaker. Let's get rid of him. Oh, the disciples come along, and oh, he's a freedom maker. Oh man, he's gonna be king of kings, and wow, we're gonna have a great time. And Jesus comes along, the Lord himself, and he said, Look, I'm gonna be the way maker for you. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by what? Me, is what Jesus said. I'm the way. I'm gonna make the way for you. And so let me just take you to the text. Now some Greeks were among those who went up to worship at the festival.

By the way, I didn't highlight this when I highlighted that. Remember that little bitty verse, all the verses? The Greeks were listed in there. I didn't highlight them at the time. I wanted you to see four perspectives at first. Okay. There were some Greeks there. Some Greeks were among those who went up to worship at the festival. So they came to Philip, who was from Beth Seda in Galilee, and requested of him, sir. We want to see Jesus. What did the other people want to see? Miracles. They want to see Lazarus. What did the Greeks want to see? Jesus. It used to be, and I and I I'll just step back here behind this pulpit. It used to be that many pastors would have this verse right here on the pulpit.

Sir, we would see Jesus. What do people want to see? Jesus. Let's keep pointing him back to Jesus. And so they knew, hey, we want to see Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew, and then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus, hey, there's some people that want to see you here.

What's Jesus' perspective on why he's riding into Jerusalem?

All the way through John, it says, Oh, now is not the time. Now's not the time. His time had not yet come. His time had yet not yet come, so don't go. But now is the time.

Verse 24, I assure you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces a large crop. The one who loves his life will lose it. The one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. Where I am, there my servant also will be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. Now my soul is troubled. Who's speaking there?

Now my soul is troubled. What should I say? Father, save me from this hour. But that is why I came. So that I could die. So that your sins could be forgiven. Let me ask you this.

People saw him from different perspectives. The question I have for you is, do you see Jesus as your Savior? Or is he just a miracle maker that you're going to use? He wants to be your savior. But in order for that to happen, you have to be willing to admit that you're a sinner. And that you're going under. And you need a Savior.

And let's just pray in closing today. As the music plays softly in the background, I want to ask you.

Is Jesus your Savior? Is He your Messiah?

Who paid the price for your sin? We acknowledged him that we responded. So what we've just heard just respond to that. Jesus is sin who knew no sin that we might become his righteousness.

Blessed redeem you well.

Broken and poured out all for love. The whole earth trample veil was told.

Blessed Man you whee for sin the ransom from heaven Jesus Messiah Lord of all single our hope all our hope is in you all our hope is in you all the glory to you God of the word Jesus Messiah name above all name blessed be Demer Rescue for sin the ransom from heaven Jesus Messiah Lord of all C Jesus Messiah Jesus Messiah name above all name blessed be Demer the rescue for sin the ransom from heaven Jesus Messiah Lord of all you may be seated we decided to have communion today because sometimes when you have visitors on Easter Sunday they don't know the Lord and we didn't want to put them in a position where they might be partaking of the Lord's supper and not know the Lord can I just remind you that it was on the night that Jesus was betrayed just ridden into Jerusalem three days later they're ready to betray him ready to say Hosanna shouting crucify him why do we partake in this we partake in this because he's commanded us to listen look at me just for a second Jesus gave us this because we're so prone to forget I can even forget somebody somebody's name or I forget oh somebody says to me what did you have to eat last Sunday I don't know I know I ate I just you know I I don't remember day after day what I eat so Jesus gave us one thing that would keep going back so we don't forget and keeps reminding us.

Taking this does not get you to heaven. It reminds you what he did that does get us to heaven if we trust him. That his body and his blood was given for us. This is communion. It's what we have as believers in common. The Lord Jesus and what he did for us. He said, You can do it as often as you do it in remembrance of me. But he said, let a man let a person examine their own hearts. And then let him eat the bread and drink the cup. I'm going to ask you just to bow right now and examine your hearts before God. You've already done the confessional today. But just examine your hearts before God right now.

Just between you and the Lord.

This bread and this juice. And that it would point us back to you so that we never forget that heaven is ours, not because of what we've done, but but because of what you've done. Bless it in Christ's name. Amen.

We're asking that you then hold the cup and the bread, and we'll participate together. We invite you to come.

Eat of it. God's word says in the same way, he took the cup and he blessed it. And he said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. And then he invited all his disciples to drink of it. Drink of it. Heavenly Father, oh, we would praise you for giving us salvation.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you shed your blood. You gave your body as the Lamb of God who could take the sin of the world away. So, Father, we pray that you'd now take us from here to proclaim your name and your fame throughout our land this week. May we, as we are a part, live for you. And as we gather back on Friday night to remember what you have done for us, that we would glorify you as a church body. For we pray these things in the name of God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Amen. Have a great week in the Lord. Friday night again, we'll be here for dinner starting at 6. You get here when you can and the service.

If everybody's here in early by 645, we may even start a little bit earlier so that your children aren't out as late. I will have the gospel presentation for children. So that we're gonna, I want to gear it so that the littlest, maybe not the littlest, because we we have a penny is probably the littlest, you know, but the youngest that has comprehension, they could understand the gospel uh this Friday night and share communion with us. Have a good week in the Lord. God bless.