Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Good morning, everybody.
[00:00:05] It's really great to be with you here this morning. As if you don't know me. My name's Graham, and Sunday is a great day, isn't it, to be looking for Jesus and pointing to Jesus. There's a great chorus we used to sing many, many years ago. It said, spirit of God, show me Jesus. Reveal. Remove the darkness and let truth shine through. Spirit of God, show me Jesus. Reveal the fullness of his love for me. Lawson spoke last week about the spirit and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Scripture and spirit together. Reveal Jesus. And so let's look for Jesus this morning. And he's not hard. It's not like, where's wally? Where he's really hard to find.
[00:00:45] He's right here in the pages of scripture. So let's have a look at Matthew, chapter 21, verses one to eleven. And when we get. Just as a warning, when we get to verse nine, the words are going to come up on the screen as well. And rather than me trying to impersonate a crowd, I'd like you to join in as well, if you feel comfortable to do that. Just read the words that come up on the screen. And they're in the Niv translation in the Bible. Nice and loudly as well, if you can. So we sound like a multitude.
[00:01:16] As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me.
[00:01:33] If anyone says anything to you, tell them that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.
[00:01:40] This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet. Say to the daughter of Zion, see, your king comes to you gentle and riding on a donkey on a cult, the foal of a donkey. The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road. While others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed. Here we go. Shouted, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. I reckon that was probably louder than it was in Jerusalem.
[00:02:28] When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, who is this? The crowds answered, this is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.
[00:02:41] I want us this morning just to look at a question, a simple question, if you don't remember anything else, I say is, who do you follow? Who do you follow? Is the question I want us to ponder this morning. And we're going to do it in three stages. We're going to put ourselves, imagine ourselves into this scene a little bit, ask ourselves some questions around that. Then we're going to think about what does jesus do in this story? And then we're going to think about what does the crowd do? What do the people do? And so my prayer is for each one of us that we search for Jesus, that we find him. Whatever our relationship with Jesus is this morning, whether we've known him for years or whether he's a question in our mind, that this morning we take another, further step on in our journey with Jesus. So let's put ourselves in the scene for a moment. Let's ask ourselves three questions. First of all, what time is it? What time is it? Well, verse one here tells us it's Passover time. And if you don't know the biblical story very well, the Passover is and was a massive festival for the jewish people. They remembered the time when God rescued them from slavery in Egypt, brought them out through the Red Sea and into the wilderness. Through the wilderness and into the promised land. It was an amazing time. And God said to them every year, I want you to remember Passover time. I want you to remember the time I passed over Egypt and killed the firstborn of the Egyptians. But you were saved. It was a deliverance time. Tom Wright calls it freedom time. And for Jesus today, it's not just freedom time, it's kingdom time. Can we get excited about that this morning? It's not just freedom time, it's kingdom time. And as a start of Passover week, as start of Easter week of Holy Week, we have that opportunity once again to remember the passion of Jesus and say, thank you, Jesus. It's kingdom time. So it's kingdom time. Who are we now? I didn't know this, but some historians, relatively quickly after this event, did some maths and they worked out that there were 2.5 million people in Jerusalem for Passover. 2.5 million people. So who is this people? They're 2.5 million people. I reckon that's more people than go to Glastonbury. I reckon it's more people than go to big church down. 2.5 million people coming to end Jerusalem at this time. John's gospel tells us that some of them would have followed Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem because they'd just watched him raise Lazarus from the dead. So that would be quite exciting, wouldn't it? Let's follow this guy. He's just raised somebody from the dead. So they would be coming to Jerusalem and there would be people in Jerusalem coming out to meet Jesus. So there's a bit of a maelstrom going on. And I love this question in verse ten, when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and said, who is this? Who is this? Wouldn't it be fantastic in this holy week, if the people of Newton Abbot, the people of Chudley, the people of Bubby Tracy, wherever we are based, see the events of Holy Week, they see the Palm Sunday processions, they see the miracles that Jesus are doing in our lives, and they say, who is this that our communities are stirred? The NLT translation says was in uproar. Wouldn't it be great if there was uproar in our communities because of who Jesus is and what he's doing? So it's freedom time, it's kingdom time, and we're part of this crowd. And finally, where are we? Where are we? Now, I'm not a historian and I'm not a geographer, so I have to keep this really simple for myself. So forgive me if this seems oversimplistic, but I like to think of Jerusalem, come to think of Jerusalem as a bit like a bowl. And you've got the west side and you've got the east side and you've got a valley. So you've got a ridge over here, you've got a ridge over here and then you've got a valley. Although if you've got the next slide, we'll help possibly. There we go. And on the west side you had what was called Herod's palace. It was called the upper city. And this is where, obviously, Herod the great lived. It was very rich, it was very powerful, it was the seat of military power, a political power. It was the place that had running water. If you aspired to be anybody at all, you would try and live as close to Herod's palace as you possibly could on the other side of the valley. On the other ridge, you had the temple. The temple was kind of like the must see destination, tourist destination at the time, Herod had spent a huge amount of money building the temple up and making it into a spectacular place. People wanted to go, not just for pilgrimage, not just for Passover. They wanted to go and see the temple. I don't know what a modern equivalent would be. What would be a modern equivalent something you have to go and see.
[00:07:26] Anyway, whatever it is, that's it. That is that place.
[00:07:30] So it would be the sign of religious authority, religious power. There would be a lot of wealth there and they would be running water there. So you've got military, political power on the one ridge, you've got religious power on the other side. And then down in the valley, you've got the lower city. And the lower city is where the vast majority of people lived. And they were the poor, they were the dispossessed, they were the disenfranchised, the disappointed, the disillusioned, the despairing. They were the people who would look up at Herod's palace and think, that represents oppression.
[00:08:03] They would be the people who look up the temple at the time and say, their rituals exclude me, I can't go there. I'm stuck down here in the valley. And so the vast majority of these 2.5 million people would have been around there. And where does Jesus choose to arrive? Does he go to the palace?
[00:08:25] No, you can answer, it's okay. Does he go to the palace? Does he go straight to the temple? No, he doesn't. He comes to the people. And so this morning, we welcome king Jesus in the midst of our valleys. We welcome him in the midst of. If we're disillusioned, disempowered, disenfranchised, if we feel like we're not heard or seen, that testimony from was it know, God sees all of those people as well as the rich and powerful. So we are in that place on Palm Sunday.
[00:09:00] Okay, so far so good. Excellent. So what does jesus do? Let's have a look at what Jesus does now. This is fantastic. Jesus comes and he announces a challenge and a choice. He brings a challenge and he brings a choice. He's announcing himself as king. I don't know if you knew this, but what he was doing would have made sense to the people in the Old Testament times, people familiar with the Old Testament story, because what was happening was that not only were they remembering when God had brought them out of Egypt and out of slavery, they were remembering promises that God had made. Because I don't know about you, but I stuff it up from time to time. Does anyone else get things wrong from time to time? Just a few, yeah. Okay. About 50% of us are honest.
[00:09:53] We stuff it up from time, we get things wrong. And the Egyptians would, the Israelites would do this thing. They'd say, oh, God, thank you for rescuing us. We promise to follow you forever and ever and ever. And we won't do anything wrong ever again. We love you. And then they'd go and do something wrong, and God would have to rescue them again. And then they'd say, thank you, God, we love you so much. We won't do anything wrong ever again. And then they'd do something wrong. It was this continual cycle of getting it wrong. And God says, one day I'm going to send somebody who's going to put everything right. I'm going to send somebody who will never do anything wrong and who's going to heal your diseases, who's going to save you from all your oppressions and all your problems. He's going to save you ultimately for how things should be. And everyone goes, hooray. Hooray. And then nothing happened. For 400 years after the prophecies stopped, nothing happened. So people were getting a bit frustrated, thinking, where is this rescuer? Where is this savior? Where is this king who's going to come and rescue us? And here comes Jesus on Palm Sunday. And they see this and they remember and they say, that's the guy.
[00:10:56] That's the guy. This is Freedom Day. This is kingdom Day. This is the one who's going to come and rescue us.
[00:11:03] Jesus is pointing himself as king.
[00:11:08] But the problem is for some of us, too, is that he's not the kind of king that everyone was hoping for, because what they were hoping was that someone would come. And if you remember the slide with the valley, that he would come. He'd go straight to Herod's palace and sort them out, sort the Romans out, get rid of them, give power back to the people down below. And Jesus wasn't that kind of king. And if you're wondering this morning, who is Jesus? If you've not encountered Jesus before and you're thinking about who is Jesus, I have to tell you, he's not, first and foremost, someone who comes to overthrow the military power of Rome. First and foremost, Jesus comes to overthrow the spiritual powers that stop us and the world from being what God designed it to be. So if this morning you're feeling that you're not flourishing, you're not in the place where God would want you to be, that's because there are powers and there are authorities that are trying to stop you from being that. And we all experience that. There's no one in this room who doesn't experience that. And Jesus comes to address and overthrow those spiritual powers. Colossians two, verse ten. He says he is the head over every power and authority. Do you agree with that? This morning. He is the head over every power and authority. Jesus is the head over every power that tells you you're not lovable. Jesus is the head over every power that tells you that you're not lovable or valuable or enough. He is ahead over every power that tempts you to turn away from the way that he wants you to live and try and live in your own way. He is stronger than that power. He is more powerful even than the power of death. As we will celebrate next week, Jesus reversed death, and one day death will cease to exist altogether.
[00:12:59] And how do we know that Jesus was coming in this way? Well, first of all, he chose a donkey. He chose a donkey to come. An ass was considered to be a beast of peace in those days. It was used by some of the judges in the Old Testament, whereas a horse was a sign of war. In those verses that we see in verse five, where Matthew quotes from Zechariah, chapter nine, a prophecy about the coming of the king. In addition to those verses, the verses continue into verse ten. It says, I will take away the war chariots from Ephraim and the war horses from Jerusalem.
[00:13:33] The military powers would come on war horses.
[00:13:37] Jesus comes on a donkey.
[00:13:39] And Nick Page, the christian historian, makes a really interesting point here. He talks about how as Jesus was entering in Jerusalem, in this valley, there would have been another procession at the same time, because Jerusalem, with 2.5 million people in Jerusalem, you would want to up the security a bit, wouldn't you? If you were organizing that event, you would want a bit of security. And Jerusalem wasn't a particularly military city, and so they would bring in extra forces, extra power, extra military soldiers and so on. And they would come from the coast, along the top by Herod's palace. That's where they would arrive. Pontius Pilate would have been at their head, and they would have been on their horses, with their armor, with their shields, with their spears, whatever they had, it would have been a very powerful military procession. And so that's going on at the top. Jesus is coming in at the bottom.
[00:14:34] Question, who do you follow?
[00:14:38] Who do you follow?
[00:14:40] That's what Jesus is doing in a very prophetic, in a very visual act. He's saying, who are you going to follow? Following is a key thing. And when I'm reading the Bible, one of the things I like to do personally is have a number of tools that I use in my head. And one of them is this question, am I being given a choice?
[00:14:58] Is this passage or story giving me a choice? Let me give you a couple of examples from scripture. These ones here in deuteronomy, chapter 30, verse 19, Moses, having led the people almost to the promised land, says this to them. Surrounded by different cultures and different gods and different practices, he says this to them this day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life so that you and your children may live.
[00:15:31] I think that's a call going out to some people this morning. Choose life. Choose to follow the commands and the blessings of God. Joshua 24. Joshua is the guy who takes over from Moses and takes the people into the promised land. And he faces similar problems with surrounded by different gods and different cultures. And he says to the people, choose today whom you will serve. As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord. That's a great message for parents and people in families today. As for my family, there's nothing. It's so wonderful to see families worshipping together.
[00:16:07] And then in one kings 18, verse 21, the story of Elijah, how long, he says to these people who are faced with prophets, with the God and Bal, how long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal is God, follow him.
[00:16:28] So in scripture, who you're going to follow, who are you going to chase after? Whose procession are you going to join? Is a really key question, and it's one that each one of us needs to address and answer for ourselves. For me, I decided to follow Jesus 30 something years ago.
[00:16:44] It was a very strange story. And I grew up in a christian family. I went to a church. I'm very blessed to have had that in my life. But as Phil sometimes says, it was probably still my parents faith. It wasn't my faith. When I went to university, and I went to university, I went to a small college, and there was only one person who could take over the Christian Union in the second year, and that was me. So I said, okay, I'll do that. And I went to a briefing kind of conference for all the other reps.
[00:17:13] And I was looking at all these other people thinking, gosh, they've got a personal relationship with Jesus. There's something different about them to me. And I couldn't quite work out what it was, so I went home. I went back to the flat, the room that I shared with my housemate, who we hardly ever saw each other. We live completely different social lives, but we actually managed an hour's conversation. I came in, he said, so what have you been doing? I said, oh, I've just been on this conference. I'm going to be helping run the Christian Union. And we had this conversation about Jesus and who he was and what Christianity was and so on. He was not a Christian.
[00:17:48] And so I kept trying to persuade him and tell him all these things, and he wasn't budging. He wasn't having any of it. And in the end, I remember, I don't remember the exact words I said, but it was something along these lines. I said, look, I know that Jesus Christ loves me. God loves me. I know I mess it up, but I know that Jesus came. He died on the cross. He forgave my sins. He rose from the dead. He's gone back to heaven. He's with the Father. He's praying for me. I'm secured. I'm forgiven. I've got eternal life. That's what it's all about.
[00:18:16] And do you know what?
[00:18:18] He didn't become a Christian. He didn't, but I did.
[00:18:23] And it's from that moment that I remember thinking, that's what I believe. That's what I believe. That was the moment I chose to follow Jesus.
[00:18:32] Are you okay? You're still okay? Can I do one more point? Is that all right? One more point and then we'll pray. Sorry. One and a half more points.
[00:18:42] One and a half more points. Because sometimes we chase after different processions, don't we? We go after different things. Some of us will. Some people will process after money and the next pay rise. Some will be power and status and the next promotion for others, it will be relationships and the next significant other. Now, those things aren't wrong in themselves. There are plenty of christians who are wealthy or powerful or influential and have good relationships and so on. That's fine. But it's, if you seek to find the meaning, fulfillment and salvation of your life through those things, that's not the right procession to be going. The only way is through Jesus. He is the only one who will bring ultimate meaning, purpose and fulfillment to our lives.
[00:19:25] So how do the people respond? Let's have a look at that as we come down to land. First of all, in verses two to seven, there's sacrifice from the people.
[00:19:36] You've noticed there that some of Jesus's friends give up a donkey. They give up their donkey. It's not some spiritual, it's not a supernatural event that the disciples are walking through Jerusalem and suddenly find a donkey and say, oh, let's have that one. It's been arranged by Jesus, probably with this key that says, the Lord has need of this. The Lord needs it. And these friends were willing to give what Jesus wanted. I wonder for some of us this morning, is Jesus asking us that same question?
[00:20:07] The Lord needs this and inviting us not to hold on too tightly to some of the things that we own or possess.
[00:20:15] Is Jesus asking us to relinquish things? Might be our money, it might be our time, it may be our home, it may be all sorts of things. Doesn't mean we're getting rid of it. It just means we're saying, Jesus, if you have need of it, it's yours.
[00:20:30] Secondly, they reflect on scripture. Matthew brings out these verses from Zechariah. Zechariah nine we looked at earlier, and verses 20, verses nine that we read together come from psalm 118. And that's one of the psalms that the jewish boys particularly would have learned off by heart at school. So if you think of a nursery rhyme that you know really, really well, that you could just say just like that, that's how well they would know this psalm. So it would have come straight off their tongues as they saw Jesus coming by. Isn't it great? Wouldn't it be great if we knew scripture that well, that we can just burst into praise using the words of scripture? It's such a good thing to be able to do.
[00:21:13] Do we know the promises of scripture? Do we know the narrative of scripture? Rather than just individual verses or chapters or books? Do we know the whole story of scripture, which is one of the most exciting, is the most exciting story in the history of the world, the history of God coming to his people and rescuing them. Do we know that story?
[00:21:37] Acclamation and praise. Matt, thank you so much, the band, for leading us and those who lead us week by week, because that really helps us to acclaim and to praise and to worship Jesus here. They spread cloaks on the ground like they did in two kings in front of King Yehu J, who. And they did in front of Judas Maccabees as well. They used their memorized scripture to praise God, the verse eleven. They use his name. Now, admittedly, they call him a prophet they didn't fully understand. We have the benefit of hindsight, don't we? We know who Jesus is. We've had much more revealed to us than they did. So we can use other names. And if you're really low, if you're really stuck, if you're really not sure how to praise and acclaim Jesus, just run through some of the words and some of the names of Jesus. Jesus, you are the way, you are the truth, you are the life, you are the good shepherd, you are the vine, you are the light in the darkness, and so on.
[00:22:40] And then finally surrender.
[00:22:44] Surrender. In verse nine, Hosanna means save us.
[00:22:48] And one of the greatest gift, the greatest gift that Jesus gives us is salvation. We recognize our need for him. We recognize we can't do things on our own. We recognize that we've turned away from the life that God had for us. We recognize that we're not as fulfilled as God would have us be. We say, I'm sorry that I've gone my own way. I thank you, Jesus, that you died on the cross. I'm going to turn around, I'm going to follow, and I'm going to go in a completely different direction. That's what we do when we cry out Hosanna. We put our trust and our faith in Jesus.
[00:23:21] Now, we talked earlier about football teams. If you asked me which team I followed, if you really, really pressed me, I would say West Ham.
[00:23:32] Oh, thank you for the recording. There was an outburst of praise from one person.
[00:23:43] Usually I get more laughter than that.
[00:23:46] But the thing is, when I say I follow them, what I mean is, at a push, if you give me a newspaper page or a website, I will look at the first. They'll be the team that I look for. Their result first. That's about it. I don't know any of their players. Sorry.
[00:24:04] I don't know where they play. I don't know the name of their manager. I couldn't be able to tell you where they are in the league. So my following of West Ham is very token.
[00:24:15] Very token. Hardly. Hardly able to call myself a follower. And in this crowd of 2.5 million people, there would have been people for whom Jesus would have just walked by and they'd have gone.
[00:24:29] And many people do that today.
[00:24:32] There would be other people who would have said, hosanna to the king of kings. Hosanna. Praise him. Followed him down to the road of cross. To the cross, and said, no, thank you.
[00:24:42] There would have been people who would have cried, Hosanna. Hosanna. Hosanna. And then they would have said, crucify him.
[00:24:49] But there would be others who will have followed him to the cross. They would have suffered with him at the cross. They would have gone through the cross, they would have seen him resurrected, they would have experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and they would have taken his message to the world.
[00:25:04] Which one are we going to be? Which one are we going to be. Who are you going to follow? John? Mark Comer has written a new book called practicing the way. Now, I have to confess I haven't read it yet. It's on my top, top list for books to read. And so what I've got is something from Christianity magazine. I don't know if you're able to find that slide. And the review in Christianity magazine said this, that following Jesus is simple.
[00:25:34] You be with Jesus, you become like Jesus and you do the things that Jesus did. That's how you follow Jesus, be with Jesus, become like Jesus and do the things that Jesus did. And he highlights nine practices that Jesus did. And I'm just going to put them up and as we finish, I'm just going to ask a few questions, have a look at that list there. I'm going to pray in a moment that the Holy Spirit will come and show us, first of all, who we're following. Just remind us of who we were following and give us an opportunity to make a response before God on that one. But then I'm going to just let that list there and ask the Holy Spirit to maybe if you're willing to do this, to highlight one of those to you.
[00:26:24] Now don't get me wrong here. What I'm not saying is, please, I don't think the spirit wants this this morning is don't look at that list and go, oh, fasting. I'm rubbish at fasting. So I'm going to fast for 37 days and that will help me become more like Jesus. Don't look at the one that you think you're worst at.
[00:26:44] Look at the one that fills you with most joy. Look at the one that makes you think, I really want to get into that this week. I love scripture. I love reading the Bible. So I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit to give me more opportunity to read the Bible this week to be with Jesus, to become like Jesus and do what Jesus did or maybe generosity. I love being generous to people. I love just giving things away. Lord, help me this week to be even more generous than I would be normally. Does that make sense? Is that okay? So don't beat yourself over the head and say, oh, gosh, I'm rubbish at nine, eight of those. If that's the case, pray for the one that you're great at and say, Lord Jesus, I want to follow you this week as we go out of Palm Sunday. I want to follow you and I want to be with you. I want to become like you and I want to do the things that you do. Should we pray together? I invite you to close your eyes just as we pray together.
[00:27:39] And then Matt will come and lead us as we exalt Jesus, as we have that opportunity as we go into the next week to make sure we go out with the praise of Jesus on our lips and in our hearts. So, Holy Spirit, will you come now to your precious, precious children gathered here today?
[00:27:59] We know that you love us.
[00:28:01] We know that you want good things for us. And we know that you want to make us new.
[00:28:07] You want to make us complete. You want to remake us in your image and free us from all the things that get in the way and stop us from reflecting that image. So, first of all, spirit, I just ask that question this morning to anyone here who maybe is just pondering that question. Who is Jesus? Maybe they're thinking about going to an alpha course.
[00:28:30] Maybe they haven't thought about Jesus for a long time. I don't know you all. I don't know your stories and your journeys. But, Father, if there's anyone here who's asking themselves that question, maybe they came this morning and said, I'm feeling a bit directionless.
[00:28:46] Jesus, if you're real, show yourself to me today.
[00:28:51] Know this. Jesus is real. Jesus loves you. Jesus died for you.
[00:28:57] Jesus rose again for you.
[00:28:59] And he's just longing to welcome you into the family.
[00:29:05] Maybe, spirit, we just reflect on that question. Who are we following? Whose procession are we lined up behind?
[00:29:13] And have we sometimes allowed ourselves to wander off into a different procession? Sometimes, Jesus, help us align ourselves with you, make sure we're following you.
[00:29:27] Have we allowed ourselves to seek fulfillment, purpose, meaning, or salvation in anything or anyone else?
[00:29:35] Spirit, you are so gentle and you are so kind, but you want to realign us and bring us back and recognize you as the head. You are the head over every power and authority. And we speak against any power and any authority and any lie that tells us that we are not worthy of your love.
[00:29:58] We break that lie in Jesus name, and we lift up your name higher.
[00:30:07] We speak truth.
[00:30:11] And finally, spirit, I ask that you would come. And for each one of us that's willing, each one of us who hears that, opportunities to respond to you as the crowd did to acclaim you, to surrender to you, to sacrifice to you, to read scripture and to learn scripture and to know the Bible story.
[00:30:33] But, spirit, would you come this morning and just show us one way, one practice that we can? Maybe we already do it. We probably do. But just upgrade it this week by your spirit. If we read the Bible upgrade our enjoyment of reading the Bible. If we are generous, help us be even more generous to those around us than those in need. If we love praying, give us the opportunity in a heart to pray for something new or with more fervor and more dedication.
[00:31:07] If we love telling people about Jesus, bring people into our path who want to know about Jesus.
[00:31:14] Spirit of God, thank you so much for your word to us. Settle what you've communicated in our hearts now. And I'll just close with that chorus again, asking, lord, if I've said anything unhelpful this morning, just remove it out of the way and allow one or two points just to settle in people's hearts now.
[00:31:37] Spirit of God, show us Jesus.
[00:31:42] Remove any darkness.
[00:31:46] Let your truth shine through.
[00:31:50] Spirit of God, show us Jesus.
[00:31:56] Reveal the fullness of his love for me.
[00:32:01] Amen.
