Untitled Sermon (20)

Jesus in Jerusalem

Let’s build on the momentum of last week.

Imagine that you’ve been following this man around for the better part of 3 years.

We’ve all had a celebrity or an event that starts in the back of your consciousness through conversations you overhear, to the point where what they are doing can’t be ignored, whether you like what they are up to or not.

It’s like that with Jesus.

He has sort of collected people on and off over the last 3 years.

Some started following him way back when he turned water into wine.

Some after witnessing his baptism.

Some after his sermon on the mount.

Some after he fed them loaves of bread and fish miraculously multiplied.

Jesus has this posse that follows him around, his apostles, and a group of very commited close friends, people like Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

But even wider is this demographic of people thousands strong that are increasingly captivated with the “x factor” of Jesus.

They’re not exactly sure who he is,

but he’s different than any prophet they’ve ever heard of.

He speaks with authority like he is God,

and he acts with power.

And now, he just rose a guy from the dead who had been in the tomb for 4 days.

I think you could describe the feeling around Jesus as electric.

What’s he gonna do next?

When I was in high school we had this phrase we would say when we were daring each other to do something intense.

“Dude, do a back flip off this bench.”

“You’d be king”

“Ride this long board down this mountain, you’d be king”

Jump over that bonfire, “you’d be king.”

Imagine if you rose someone from the dead, “You’d be king.”

And the fact that Jesus is now going to enter into Jerusalem is confirming that,

Jerusalem is the most religious and royal location.

I used to read this story and wonder, man, how did everyone know to start the parade?

It feels like it just… happens.

The historical background for this is that this is what kings would do after accomplishing a triumph.

And he did do just that.

He just rose someone from the dead.

Imagine how this makes the crowds feel.

The thing that the Jewish people wanted the most was autonomy from Rome.

If someone can make dead people alive, then they can be the powerful leader to overthrow Rome.

They have no idea that the triumph of raising Lazarus from the dead was just the foretaste that Jesus is going to accomplish 5 and 7 days later.

The Jews saw Rome as their greatest problem.

Jesus saw sin as their greatest problem.

Jesus has been conducting his ministry outside Jerusalem.

He’s told people to be quiet about who he is.

He hasn’t been acting like a ruling king.

But this,

this is something a king would do.

The interesting thing, is his disciples don’t quite get it.

John says they didn’t see how it was a fulfilment of prophecy.

But the pharisees know it.

Luke 19:39–40 LEB

39 And some of the Pharisees from the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” 40 And he answered and said, “I tell you that if these keep silent, the stones will cry out!”

When a king had accomplished a triumph, he would go back to the home city, and

Parade

Acclamations

Entry into the Temple as the climax of this parade.

Matthew 21:12–17 LEB

12 And Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all those who were selling and buying in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those who were selling doves. 13 And he said to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a cave of robbers!” 14 And the blind and the lame came up to him in the temple courts and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children shouting in the temple courts and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant. 16 And they said to him, “Do you hear what these children are saying?” So Jesus said to them, “Yes, have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of children and nursing babies you have prepared for yourself praise’?” 17 And leaving them, he went outside of the city to Bethany and spent the night there.

THE PEOPLE WEREN’T PREPARED FOR HIM TO DIE.

Bethany.

Who was in Bethany?

Mary was.

John 12:1–8 HCSB

1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was, the one Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for Him there; Martha was serving them, and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. 3 Then Mary took a pound of fragrant oil—pure and expensive nard—anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped His feet with her hair. So the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. 4 Then one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot (who was about to betray Him), said, 5 “Why wasn’t this fragrant oil sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?” 6 He didn’t say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief. He was in charge of the money-bag and would steal part of what was put in it. 7 Jesus answered, “Leave her alone; she has kept it for the day of My burial. 8 For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.”

Pours out a year’s wages on Jesus feet.

25k

Walking with Jesus means dying with him.

Are we prepared to follow Jesus to a place of dying?

Jerusalem: Rebuke, Cleansing, turning away.

Bethany: Preparation for Jesus death.

The celebration Jesus received on Palm Sunday is the celebration that he should have recieved one week later, when he strode out of a tomb.

Mary seems to understand this before anyone else.

What’s so different about Mary?

Why was she not caught up in the frenzy of people confused about Jesus?

She was listening.

She wasn’t trying to fit Jesus into her box of what she wanted the Messiah to look like?

She was listening when he said:

John 10:14–15 HCSB

14 “I am the good shepherd. I know My own sheep, and they know Me, 15 as the Father knows Me, and I know the Father. I lay down My life for the sheep.

Everytime Jesus said something that made people walk away from him, like when he said

John 6:53 HCSB

53 So Jesus said to them, “I assure you: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life in yourselves.

Or when he stood up and announced that he was the water of life and the temple.

All along the way, as people argued with Jesus, or attacked him, or smiled and pretended to know what he was talking about,

Mary was there in the background,

listening.

Jesus sheep hear his voice.

She was listening when he said this:

Matthew 16:21–24 HCSB

21 From then on Jesus began to point out to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day. 22 Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, “Oh no, Lord! This will never happen to You!” 23 But He turned and told Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns, but man’s.” 24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.

“If you can’t handle me at my crown of thorns then you don’t get me at my triumphal entry.”

Mary seemed to understand this even before Jesus died.

Mary wasn’t surprised that Jesus was going to die.

Jesus told them he was going to.

She listened.

Mary didn’t run and hide when Jesus was on the cross.

She was at the foot of the cross.

And the result of all this is that Mary was one of the first to receive news of Jesus resurrection.

It was because she was listening that she learned to trust.

It was because she learned to trust that she was ready to suffer with Jesus.

It was because she was ready to suffer with Jesus that she poured out her most prized possession at his feet.

“Christianity is not the removal of suffering, but the addition of grace to endure suffering triumphantly.” - Thomas Watson

For us, TRIUMPHAL EXIT - TOMB

So this week,

Before Jesus triumphal exit,

what do you need to pour out at his feet?