The Unexpected Jesus

Jonathan Vaughan

Palm Sunday • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

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Christ's entrance into Jerusalem was mistakingly full of joy.

Notes

Transcript

Introduction

Let me paint the picture of what is going on in our text today. About 1500 years prior to our text today Pharoah held captive the people of Israel. God sent Moses to warn him to “Let his people go” many of you know that Pharoah did not let go easily. The LORD had to send plagues of locust, a bloody Nile, a multitude of frogs, and Pharoah was unfazed. God then in all of his sovereignty knew what would get to Pharoah and allow for his people to be let go.

In Exodus chapter 12 God instructed Moses and Aaron to have the Israelites to, as a household, slaughter one animal, a male either sheep or goat, take the blood and smeer it on the doorpost of their home.

The final plague that God would issue to Pharoah and the Egyptian nation would be the death of the first born son. Whichever household had slaughtered the lamb and marked their house with its blood would be spared. This would be known as the passover.

Pharoah of course allows God’s people to be free and the LORD instructs them in 12:14 to celebrate this day as the day of Passover.

1500 years later in Jerusalem there were over 2 million people gathering to celebrate Passover. Which is where we begin today. Jesus and his disciples entering Jerusalem to celebrate God sparing their first born child.

We’ll see the triumph entry that Jesus has into the city but you and I and most importantly Jesus know that Jesus would exit in a much greater fashion.

I want you and I to read today’s text with a new set of eyes. Not that the meaning of this text has changed over the years but that you and I can gleen something we may have not seen before.

As we look at the text we will see that the people that exalted Jesus upon his entrance into Israel completely missed who he was because they had already made up their mind about who he is and when he ended up being something totally different they killed him.

Matthew 21:1-11

The Son is sovereign

When we read about Jesus’s entrance into Jerusalem I want us to take note of three things about Jesus that the crowd then did not. I want us to learn about Jesus in this story and in this moment. Is it good for us to know the story? Absolutely but it is better for us to know the teaching and to walk away with something that will benefit our walk with Christ.

The first thing we can learn from this story is that Jesus, the son of God is sovereign. Many would shake their heads in agreement with this but when we think about it and ask ourselves do we actually agree with this statement is there evidence in our lives.

Just think about how the statement “sovereign son” is counterintuitive. When we think of son’s we think, not sovereign. Not in charge. Not knowing best. In need of correction and repentance. Yet when we see Jesus in this story we see that he is completely and wholly sovereign.

Look at the first three verses 21:1-3 Jesus gives the disciples specific instructions and they obey because they are coming to realize his sovereignty. This would have been a strange request from Jesus, one he hadn’t asked of them before, but do they stall and ask “why?” No. Because they recognize his sovereignty

Let’s examine verse 3. A: Jesus knows exactly how the scene will play out. Jesus is sovereign. We cannot ignore the way Jesus reveals his sovereignty in this verse, he prepares the heart of the owner of the animals to hand them over. He says, when there is objection, you tell them “The Lord needs them and he will send them at once.”

Jesus is making his identity known. We’ll see throughout the rest of Holy Week Jesus does the same, in the Temple with Authority, when he describes his judgement power, and when he leaves the religious leaders in a tangle of their own theology.

Jesus is revealing his identity and begins with his sovereignty.

So for you and I, Jesus has made his identity known, now do we accept it?

I was in a conversation this week and the topic of free will and God’s sovereignty was brought up. I explained that I remembered a time a few years ago when I had to “wrestle” with how sovereign did I think God was. I said explained that I had to come to terms with the fact that God was sovereign over all. Nothing happened outside of his design. He had control over all.

Colossians 1:16-17 God is creator and ruler over all.

The gentleman I was speaking with said, “I see God’s sovereignty as a light switch not a spectrum. You either believe he is sovereign or you don’t” Let me ask you today church, do you believe God is sovereign and before you begin to amen or nod your head in agreement let me ask you, does your life reveal your amen and head nod.

Do you believe that God is in control of your circumstances right now? Do your prayers reveal that you believe God is sovereign over all and you live in submission to his will?

Your submission to Jesus’s sovereignty will change the way you pray and worry.

The sovereignty of Jesus not only impacts the way that you pray and worry but also how you grow.

Are you relying on Jesus to help you grow in your faith? Philippians 1:6 Jesus is who completes the good work in us. Are you submitting to God’s sovereignty right now in your own walk with him?

Are you living a life of “Jesus, I cannot do this. I am not a perfect follower. I need to rely on your word and your spirit.” Are you relying on the spirit to convict you of sin? “Spirit show me sin in my life that I am unaware of.”

When we submit to the sovereignty of Jesus it will change your sanctification.

Are you submitting to Jesus’s sovereignty in who you believe you are? That you see God, as the creator, that he sent Jesus to come down and die in your place, to free you from your eternal punishment, and there is nothing you did to make him desire to do so?

That is a humbling statement is it not? Jesus came to your rescue and there was nothing you did to deserve or earn it.

So many times we want ownership of things and reason being we want to boast. Look at Ephesians 2:(, Jesus saves us and nothing we do does so that we can’t boast!

When we submit to the sovereignty of Jesus it will change our pride.

Submitting to the sovereignty of Jesus does not change his sovereignty it changes our lives.

The Savior is Humble

This leads right in to the next part of this passage. Jesus, the savior of these people enters the town of Jerusalem the most humble way. This should be no surprise to us seeing how he entered the world, completely humble.

Read v. 5 with me. How did Jesus enter? “Gently on a donkey and a colt” This is the prophecy of Zechariah once again pointing to Jesus’s sovereignty. Zechariah in chapter 9, exclaims that this redeemer is going to be righteous and victorious. But yet comes in riding a donkey. At the time would have been done by a ruler that brought recconciliation during times of peace not by a solider ready to over throw the government.

And that is just what Jesus has come to do. Restore the people of Israel, to restore you and I not by overthrowing the government and correcting rule but rather by overthrowing sin and correcting our hearts.

And he did so in a humble manner. Once again this is completely counter cultural. If I were a savior of people I would want to come in on making a statement. Everyone see me, come to me, I am going to save you. I have to get as many people to notice me as possible, not Jesus. He enters Jerusalem in a humble fashion.

What can we take from this? I believe it is obvious, we should be humble people. Humility is not thinking less of your self but having an accurate view of yourself and thinking of yourself less.

We live in a time today where I believe it is terrible difficult to be humble and have self confidence. In our world today everyone can be heard, wants to be heard and desires fame. Yet we are in a mental health crisis because the striving for fame leads to a depressing state when it is not achieved and precived to be achived by many. You may be saying “We agree but none of us in here are striving for fame” But I would argue you do. Social media feeds your pride. How did we get to a place where joy no longer comes from life’s joyous moments but rather from documenting, showing others, and basing our joy on how they will respond?

Maybe for you today social media is not a place you exist and pride creeps up in other ways. Maybe you have been using your Christianity in a prideful manner instead of humility.

Wouldn’t it have been easy and some would argue more effective for Jesus to come in with a megaphone “You have all gotten this wrong! You are sinners! Turn or burn! Just watch what I am about to do” but what did he do, how did he enter? Humbly.

If we were to go out today and poll our non believing neighbors and give them 10 attributes of the Church. Told them to circle the top 3. Humility being an option, would the vast majority select humility as a top 3 way to describe the church? If Jesus entered the world, enter Jerusalem, exited the world, came back to life, in a humble manner, shouldn’t you and I believe that the church should exude humility. I am afraid to often, our salvation becomes a source of our pride rather than a reminder that we are sinners in desperate need of a rescuer. That we come to Christ in humility and walk with him in an even greater humble fashion.

How do you need to humbled today. Maybe for you it is examining your life compared to God’s word. Maybe for you today it is to begin a prayer life. To commit time in your daily schedule to prayer. Maybe for you you need to serve Christ in some fashion, you haven’t serve him in years and maybe even ever. I don’t just mean here at Cudd I mean his kingdom. You humble yourself and go talk make friends with the couple that lives beside you. You humble yourself and take that coworker that you disagree politically to lunch to hear their heart and what their life is like.

Jesus came to save us in a humble way shouldn’t we then pursue a life of humility .

The Sacrifice is Eternal

The final way we see Jesus enter is triumphantly but I believe it is for all of the wrong reasons. The people who were welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem had heard about their Messiah all over their lives. Rumors were spreading about Jesus, especially after the resurrection of Lazarus. The people believe here comes our king, here comes our rescuer, he comes the one who will save us, literally the term Hosanna was a plea to save.

These people believe that Jesus was going to save them Jesus was going to be a better David and save their nation. They recognized him as the son of David but failed to see him as the sacrificial son of Abraham. They got Jesus wrong. They wanted external temporary saving and Jesus came to offer internal and everlasting salvation.

Isaiah 9:6–7 ESV

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Christ was coming to restore the brokenness between creation and the creator not to take on the problems within one government.

You see the people in Jerusalem, the Jews who had been awaiting their savior expected something different than what Jesus came to provide. He came to provide everlasting life. They wanted temporary satisfaction.

Let me ask you today. Are you looking to Jesus for temporary satisfaction? What do I mean by that?

Christian Smith Soul Searching Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

Matt Chandler Explicit Gospel

Smith’s definition

1.A God exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.

2.God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.

3.The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.

4.God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.

5.Good people go to heaven when they die.

I am afraid church that most of us have adopted this incorrect theology and it is why the reason “deconstruction” has suddenly appeared in our culture. People say “I can feel good in other ways. This faith is shallow.”

What we have done when we accept this theology is exactly what the Jews in Jerusalem did on Palm Sunday. They celebrated is entry because the believed Jesus to be something that he was not. Their mistake ended in death and I am afraid that ours can do the same.

But there is hope. There is a better theology. There is a real rescuer and his name is Jesus! The Jesus. The one who said come follow me. Who said I am the way the truth and the life.

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