Behold Your King (John 12:12-19)

Introduction

I don’t know what the typical tradition is concerning what has historically been called Holy Week here, but when I realized that this Lord’s Day is the Lord’s Day prior to Resurrection Sunday, I thought it could be wise for us to take a look at a text that is typically used during the Sunday before Resurrection Sunday to start orienting towards reflecting on the crucifixion and the resurrection.

I will say, that the text is familiar, but let me encourage you to not allow your familiarity with the text to cause preconceived notions to overshadow what the text says.

With that said, if you have your Bible, please turn it to John 12:12-19.

While you’re turning there, I’ll give a little bit of background to situate us in the context.

At this point in the Gospel according to John, Jesus is heading into His last week prior to His death, burial, and resurrection; and He’s heading into Jerusalem for a specific purpose. So, if you’re thinking about the details of Jesus’ earthly ministry, this is towards the end of His ministry, He raised Lazarus from the dead, He was anointed by Mary foreshadowing His impending death. And in the midst of all this, there is a continuously developing conflict with the Jewish leadership against Jesus—as they seek to capture and kill Him.

And a large part of this continuously developing conflict is really just because the Jewish leadership wanted to retain their power and authority—in fact, just before our text for this morning, in vv. 9-11, we read that a large crowd of Jews had come to see Jesus and Lazarus, but “the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus.” Or, in other words, the Jewish leadership was willing to murder to prevent people from following Jesus rather than them.

That’s really what introduces us to the triumphal entry in the Gospel according to John. We’re not really given all the details that the Synoptics Gospels mention about the Triumphal Entry; and yet, what we are given is sufficient for us to draw some significant conclusions.

Let’s read the text together:

John 12:12–19 NASB 2020

12 On the next day, when the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 they took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, indeed, the King of Israel!” 14 Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: 15 “do not Fear, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” 16 These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things for Him. 17 So the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify about Him. 18 For this reason also the people went to meet Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are not accomplishing anything; look, the world has gone after Him!”

As we study this passage together, we’re going to break it into three parts: (1) Jesus’ Entry (12-13), (2) The Fulfillment of Prophecy (14-16), and (3) The Response (17-19). The idea being that we see Jesus’ Triumphal Entry with fresh eyes and because we’re looking at this with fresh eyes, we can see the irony of the people celebrating the arrival of a king that they don’t actually want, the fulfillment of prophecy, and the response of multiple people groups who witnessed the events.

Our goal then is to reconsider how we ourselves view Jesus, who is our King—the one who fulfills prophecies and deserves our praise and worship. It’s essentially to be sure that the idea of Jesus that we have in our mind is that of the King who willingly gives Himself for His people and for us to respond to that idea of Jesus in a way that glorifies Him—on His terms and not on our own.

Prayer for Illumination

Jesus’ Entry (12-13)

Purpose of Jesus’ Visit to Jerusalem (12) — our text starts by showing us the setting for the event taking place in the text. We see three key details: (1) it occurs the next day, (2) the feast is the draw into the city, and (3) Jesus wasn’t in the city yet—he’s coming into the city. Let’s think through those ideas:

v. 12 says that the event in question occurred the next day and that it involved a crowd of people.

That’s referring back to the prior event in Bethany—when Mary anoints Jesus with Nard and Jesus makes clear that what had happened with the anointing was done in preparation for His death.

It’s also referring to how when the crowd had heard that Jesus was there, they went to go find Him—not just because of Him, but because they wanted to see the resurrected Lazarus.

All of which we mentioned briefly in the introduction.

Really, by mentioning the timing, John’s really showing us how quickly things are moving during what becomes known as Jesus’ last week during His earthly ministry.

By mentioning the large crowd, it shows us that the crowd that had initially gathered at Lazarus’ is still following Jesus.

Of course, knowing that there is a feast and that’s why these people were thronging towards Jerusalem, is vital.

Partly just because it does explain why there are so many people headed into Jerusalem—they aren’t just headed there for no reason, there is a particular reason

But also because the feast itself sets the symbolic stage for what is about to happen in Jesus’ life—we know from John 11:55 that everyone was headed to Jersualem specifically for the Passover.

The Passover, which originates in Exodus 12 in which the Jewish people were told to sacrifice a spotless lamb, to spread its blood over their doorposts, and to eat their meal prepared to leave Egypt as quickly as possible.

The Passover, which involved a lamb that foreshadowed what was to come.

The large crowd was headed into the city for the purposes of celebrating the Passover and while heading into the city, they respond to see Jesus.

The Crowd’s Initial Response to Jesus (13) — the crowd takes branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, indeed, the King of Israel!’” Of course, there’s a significant idea here concerning Jesus’ Kingship, which we can discuss at length, but I’d like for us to do that a little bit later in the sermon. For now, just consider some of the details of what’s being done and what’s being shouted.

The crowd is doing this of their own volition—Jesus didn’t necessarily tell them to do these things

Now, we know from Luke 19—one of the parallel passages to this event, that when the Jewish leadership called on Jesus to stop the shouting, Jesus states that if the people stopped praising Him, the stones themselves would praise Him instead.

But everything that the people are saying and doing, however, is of their own accord—they’re intentionally doing and saying things that show us that they considered Jesus to be a King of sorts.

And so, we read about the palm branches and the shouting.

The branches add to this concept of a triumphal entry—the Synoptic Gospels also add that crowd was spreading their cloaks in front of Jesus—all of which add to this concept of Jesus being welcomed into Jerusalem as a King. We know this because we see the same idea during Jehu’s coronation in 2 Kings 9:13 “13 Then they hurried, and each man took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and blew the trumpet, saying, “Jehu is king!””

Of course, the words shouted add to our understanding—Hosanna is an interjection transliterated from Hebrew, it means “save us, now!”

And the phrase, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord,” is a quote from Ps 118, which was known to be Messianic. In fact, if you look at Ps 118, you notice that it starts by praising God for His mercy and goodness; and it ends by reflecting on a stone, which was rejected becoming the cornerstone—that this came about by the Lord; and just prior to what’s quoted in John, we read, Psalm 118:25–26 “25 Please, O Lord, do save us; Please, O Lord, do send prosperity! 26 Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord; We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.”

The crowd in Jerusalem shouts, “save us,” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” the who was rejected, but is the chief cornerstone; indeed the one who is the King of Israel.

Transition: Now with that said, it’s important to note that the people celebrating the arrival of their king really didn’t understand what was going on—we know this, because even Jesus’ disciples didn’t really know what was going on. Really, it’s not hard for us to consider that their understanding of the King was based primarily on Jewish ideas about the Messiah rather than what Jesus was there to do during His time on earth—we’ll come back to that a little later in the sermon.

The people see Him as a king and then our text continues in vv. 14-16. Take a look at those verses with me.

The Fulfillment of Prophecy (14-16)

John 12:14–16 NASB 2020

14 Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: 15 “do not Fear, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” 16 These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things for Him.

The Donkey (14-15) — we see this statement about a young donkey, John doesn’t really give us a ton of details about the donkey itself.

From Luke, we get a little more in terms of detail.

Luke adds that this was an unridden or unbroken donkey, that the disciples were sent by Jesus to get this donkey from its owners—if someone says something to them about taking the donkey, the should just say that the Lord has need of it; and when the donkey was brought to Jesus, they took their coats, placed them on the donkey, and then set Jesus on top of it.

We don’t really have any other details from any of the Gospels about this donkey—though some commentators speculate as to why the owners of this donkey settle for the statement that the Lord has need of it (though, it’s primarily speculation).

John does point out something significant about the donkey; or really, about the one who rides the donkey in v. 15, “As it is written: ‘Do not fear, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.’”

This quote comes from Zechariah and it concerns of prophecy made 400-450 years before this moment in John. Zechariah 9 talks about God’s judgment on certain nations before telling God’s people to rejoice! To Shout in triumph! Why? Because “your king is coming to you; [and] He is righteous and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey.” And your king will speak peace to the nations.

Note two details:

John specifically mentions that this was previously written—that’s intentional because it reminds us that what occurs with the donkey was intended, it wasn’t an accident and it wasn’t meaningless—it was done because it fulfilled a prophecy given by a prophet of the Lord.

In addition, note that what was quoted from Zechariah speaks of the king, in humility, bringing salvation and speaking peace, which makes sense as riding a donkey as a king typically didn’t happen and it does counter what the people were expecting, but we’ll get back to that a little later.

The crowd is shouting and praising Jesus, Jesus is coming into Jerusalem in a way that fulfills prophecy, but it’s clear, that the people still aren’t quite comprehending things—how do we know? From v. 16.

v. 16 shows us a Lack of Understanding even among the disciples, “These things His disciples did not understand.”

I think it’s actually rather striking how little and how few people understood what was happening during Jesus’ life—in fact, we’re regularly told throughout the Gospels that people just didn’t get it.

Consider some instances with me:

The people in His hometown rejected Him because they just thought of Jesus as the carpenter’s son (Matt 13:54-58; Mark 6:1-6)

When Jesus predicts His death, Peter in Matt 16:21-23 argues with Jesus—to the extent that Jesus says “get behind me, Satan” and Jesus accuses Peter of essentially thinking merely like a human.

John the Baptist, while in prison in Matt 11:2-3 questions whether Jesus is indeed Messiah or if they should look for someone else.

John states that the things that occured on what we call Palm Sunday during the Triumphal Entry were not understood by the disciples let alone everyone else—if the disciples, who were with Jesus for quite a bit of time over the previous three years of life missed these details while they occurred, it’s abundantly clear that others would’ve missed the details as well.

John says that the disciples didn’t understand it, but after Jesus was glorified, “then they remembered that these things were written of Him” and not only that, but they realized that in God’s providence, “they had done these things for Him” in such a way that fulfilled OT prophecy and they didn’t even realize it.

Of course, it doesn’t help that the average Jewish person during the first century had ideas about Messiah that were primarily rooted in extra-biblical, intertestimental writings rather than biblical data. Consider with me what the average Jewish person learned about the Messiah based on intertestimental writings—note, these aren’t biblical sources, but they were books that the Jewish people read during the first century and it influenced how they thought about Messiah. In the 400 years between Malachi and the Gospels, the Jewish people developed ideas about the Messiah including:

The belief that there could potentially be two Messiahs—one who was priestly and another who royal (a belief amongst the Essenes)

The belief that the Messiah would be a human leader like David, who would rule morally and militaristically over the people. (Psalms of Solomon)

The belief that the Messiah would be a man who would destroy a multi-headed eagle, which the people during that time period understood to be Rome. (4 Ezra)

Of course, there were other beliefs concerning prosperity brought by the Messiah (2 Baruch), a realization that this Messiah could be a heavenly, pre-existent judge called the Son of Man (1 Enoch)

But you can clearly see how what they thought of the Messiah was a mix of some truths and a lot of false ideas rooted not in Scripture, but their own traditions and stories.

The average Jewish person in first century Israel grew up believing that the Messiah would be someone (probably a man, but maybe something more than just man) who would take charge, take control of Israel, militaristically take Israel away from Rome and would establish Israel as its own rightful kingdom again.

They had an idea of a Messiah who would come in riding a war horse, ready for battle, but the incarnation—Jesus’ first coming wasn’t for the purpose of establishing a Kingdom in the same sense that they thought He was going to establish a Kingdom.

Instead, the objective of Jesus’ incarnation during the first century was to do precisely what Zechariah had prophesied: Zechariah 9:9–10 “9 Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is righteous and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 And I will eliminate the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; And the bow of war will be eliminated. And He will speak peace to the nations; And His dominion will be from sea to sea, And from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth.”

The objective during the first century wasn’t to wage war, but to bring salvation and to speak peace—and that concept of bringing salvation and to speak peace is amplified by choice of animal ridden by Jesus—Jesus chose an animal of burden, an animal ridden during peace to ride into Jerusalem. Jesus didn’t ride into Jerusalem on a war horse.

Of course, the idea of the Messiah riding a war horse isn’t completely without warrant—consider Jesus’ return as expressed to us in Revelation. Revelation 19:11–16 “11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many crowns; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written: “KING OF KINGS, AND Lord OF Lords.”” But that’s a discussion for a different day.

Transition: We see Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, we see the people shouting, calling for salvation, and celebrating the coming king, but the implication from v. 16 is that while they were shouting the right things and they were doing the right things, the majority of them—including the disciples, probably didn’t actually understand what their King really was doing.

Regardless, the last three verses give us a few other responses to Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem, which are important for us to consider—let’s look at the last few verses:

The Response (17-19)

John 12:17–19 NASB 2020

17 So the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify about Him. 18 For this reason also the people went to meet Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are not accomplishing anything; look, the world has gone after Him!”

We have this crowd shouting, laying palms and coats, and celebrating the king. We also have some People who Witnessed Lazarus’ Resurrection Testifying in 17-18.

It’s hard to tell from the text itself whether this is the same group of people that are shouting, laying palms and coats or if this is a smaller group that’s separate from the larger group.

It could be that the group that witnessed Lazarus’ resurrection followed Jesus and the disciples into Jerusalem and were part of the crowd who was shouting, laying palms and coats—or maybe not. Again, it’s hard to tell.

What we do know for sure, though, is that this group of people, who had witnessed Lazarus’ resurrection were so profoundly influenced by the the sign that they had seen that they were testifying about Jesus to anyone and everyone.

So much so, that v. 18 tells that that additional people were going to meet Him “because they heard that He had performed this sign.”

Don’t mistake this as them believing in Jesus or necessarily understanding Jesus as the Messiah—remember, that there were several instances throughout the Gospels in which people were attracted to the signs that Jesus performed—not because they believed, but because of the sign itself.

I think that’s why John mentions that they were flocking to meet Him primarily “because they heard that He had performed this sign.”

Regardless, despite the fact that it seems as if the majority of people here aren’t quite understanding what Jesus is doing and who He is, there is at least enough going on throughout the area beyond the typical excitement of the Passover celebration that:

Jesus is surrounded by people wanting to meet Him

People are going throughout the area talking about Him and Lazarus

And there’s at least enough about Jesus floating around that the Pharisees are continuing to act in their antagonistic unbelief

We see this in v. 19, The Pharisees Continue to Reject Jesus.

And note again, that I’m saying that they’re continuing in their rejection of Jesus—we see it throughout Jesus’ life that the Pharisees rejected Him almost from the onset of His ministry:

We see the Pharisees accuse Jesus of breaking the Sabbath while healing people on multiple occasions

Jesus heals on the Sabbath; the Pharisees respond with anger and begin plotting to destroy Him. (Matthew 12:9–14; Mark 3:1–6; Luke 6:6–11)

His Sabbath healings lead to persecution, accusations of lawbreaking, and growing opposition. (John 5:8–18; 9:13–16)

We see the Pharisees challenge Jesus over Jesus’ willingness to interact with tax collectors and sinners.

Pharisees see Him eating with sinners; Jesus declares His mission to call sinners to repentance. (Matthew 9:10–13; Mark 2:15–17; Luke 5:29–32)

They reject Him as a true prophet and grumble because He welcomes and associates with sinners. (Luke 7:36–39; 15:1–2)

We see the Pharisees accuse Jesus of healing people utilizing the power of Beelzebul (Matt 12:22-24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:14-15)

We see the Pharisees accuse Jesus of blasphemy when Jesus claims that a person’s sins have been forgiven. (Matthew 9:1–3; Mark 2:5–7; Luke 5:20–21)

What we see in John 12, is really a culmination of these instances, but in an understated way—”the Pharisees said to one another, ‘You see that you are not accomplishing anything; look, the world has gone after Him!’.”

If all we had about their rejection of Jesus was the sentence in v. 19, we might think that they’re just exasperated, but remember all that has led up to this point.

By this point, Jesus has been accused multiple times, openly challenged, rejected, and disdained.

In addition, Jewish leaders tried to stone Him when He openly claimed to be divine. (John 8:58-59; 10:30-33)

We’ve been told of plots to capture Him and to kill Him. (Mark 3:6; Luke 19:47; and all throughout John)

Now, It might be a bit difficult to understand why the Pharisees were so utterly opposed to Jesus, but think of it in terms of power dynamics.

In this point in history, Israel wasn’t an autonomous nation.

During the intertestimental period, about 63 years before Jesus’ birth, Pompey the Great of Rome conquered Jerusalem.

Herod the Great was installed as a king by Rome, but it was really more so the concept that as long as Herod could keep Israel calm, keep taxes coming into Rome, then Rome would be satisfied.

During Jesus’ life, Judea became an official Roman province, but the structure for governing was that the Romans allowed the people of the regions that they conquered to rule themselves—as long as they keep their people calm and keep the taxes flowing into Rome.

The Sanhedrin helped to make this work in Israel and thus, when the people of Israel start rallying around Jesus as the Messiah—even with their mistaken ideas about Jesus, the Jewish leadership start to get concerned.

The Jewish people were rallying around Jesus in such a way that the Jewish leadership were concerned that Rome was going to step in—we see this explicitly stated in John 11:48 “48 If we let [Jesus] go on like this, all the people will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take over both our place [the temple and Jerusalem] and our nation.””

Transition: So, we see Jesus coming into Jerusalem in such a way that it is abundantly clear that He’s the King prophesied about throughout the OT, the one who brings salvation and speaks peace; except, the Jewish people have a preconceived notion of Messiah that’s different than Jesus and the people around Him—even though they’re shouting Hosanna, laying palms, and testifying about Jesus, don’t actually understand what’s about to happen.

And, in the meantime, the Jewish leaders are plotting in such a way that God, in His providence, will sacrifice His Passover Lamb, but the Jewish leaders are doing it for nefarious and political reasons built on their desire to retain power rather than worship God.

Of course, the Triumphal Entry stands primarily to show us fulfilled prophecy for us to see Jesus as the King who speaks peace and brings salvation to His people, but I think it stands as a fairly strong warning to us—to consider our understanding of who Jesus is, to be sure that our understanding of Jesus is aligned with Scripture and then to allow that understanding of Jesus to compel us to praise and worship Jesus as He has revealed Himself to us.

Let’s consider those ideas as we talk about application in our last few minutes:

Application

Let’s start by understanding first and foremost that often when people say that they’re Christians, we don’t necessarily know for sure what they believe.

What I mean by this is rather simple—the term Christian is rather loaded and it’s often utilized in such a way that people from various perspectives, worldviews, and even belief systems all claim to be Christian.

Thus, multiple groups that we would consider false—all still claim to be Christian even as they deny core doctrines like the Trinity.

Just using the term itself doesn’t actually tell us much about what someone believes.

Likewise, we often integrate ideas that while they might not be anti-biblical import extrabiblical ideas into our understanding of Christianity—in this case, into our understanding of who Jesus is. This is why, you get varying views of who Jesus is:

For instance, some believe very strongly in what we might call a social justice Jesus—where because of a strong view of Jesus being a certain way (i.e., hyper fixation on social concerns), following Jesus necessitates us being hyper-fixated on social justice-related issues as well.

Or, some believe so strongly that Jesus is only loving; and thus, there’s a skewed understanding of who Jesus is—it results in a Jesus who doesn’t judge sin because He’s so loving (which eventually leads to universalism—Jesus will save everyone because He’s so loving, even if they don’t actually believe).

On the flip-side, some believe so strongly in a Jesus that’s vengeful that they lose sight of the Jesus who is loving.

Often, in our own Christian lives—depending on what’s going on in our lives, we sometimes view Jesus in different ways.

For example, if we’re dealing with particularly difficult aspects of life, we might lose sight of the truth that Jesus still loves us.

If we’re dealing with particularly good aspects of life, we might lose sight of the truth that Jesus still yearns for our worship—i.e., life might be so good because of the blessings that Jesus has given us that we might forget about the part of Jesus that desires His people’s worship.

And the reality is that some might have grown up or been in a religious setting that had faulty ideas about who Jesus is.

And so, it’s important for us to consider Jesus as He has revealed Himself to us and for us to consider what we think about Jesus and align it to what He has revealed to us.

Jesus is our King and He has revealed Himself to us as the King of kings and Lord of Lords who during His earthly life, was born of a virgin, in a humble state—lived that perfect, sinless, life, was killed, buried, and resurrected to bring salvation to His people.

Jesus, our King has also revealed Himself to us as the preincarnate one—the one who was before all things with and as the Ancient of Days—the one who existed before time began and will exist way beyond the end of time as we know it. The one revealed to us as the Creator who sustains all things for His own glory.

Jesus, the King who will return with eyes of flame on a war horse—in His own time and in His own way. The one who will consummate His already established but not yet fully realized Kingdom.

Jesus is all of this and time precludes us from discussing more about Him and who He is, but He is the King who brought salvation and spoke peace; He is the King who has always been and always will be. He is the King who reigns and will fully establish and reveal His Kingdom.

Friends, understand that Jesus, our King is far greater, far stronger, far better than we could even comprehend.

And yet, we’re tasked with knowing Him; and growing in our knowledge of Him.

Not only that, we’re really tasked with responding to who Jesus is with Genuine Praise and Worship

Voddie Baucham once made the statement that the American church claims to love a God that they barely know

The reality is that that accusation can be levied not only at the American church, but also at the group of people that we met in John 12—they cheerfully welcome a king that they didn’t really know anticipating that He would do something that He wasn’t intending to do.

Which is worth us really considering.

We’ve already discussed how many people have faulty ideas of who Jesus is and because of their faulty ideas of Jesus, they’re really worshiping and following an idea of Jesus that isn’t represented in Scripture.

The first part of our application was to reorient the way that we understood who Jesus is so that we would actually know Him as He has revealed Himself to us.

The second part of our application is that our reorientation of our understanding concerning Him really ought to compel us to worship and praise Him. Consider again how He has revealed Himself to us:

Jesus, our King, who is Lord of Lords and King of Kings—who was born of a virgin, lived perfectly and sinlessly before offering Himself up to be our sacrificial atonement.

Jesus, our King who is the preincarnate one—who has existed, currently exists, and will always exist unchangeably. The one who is the Creator who sustains all things for HIs own glory.

Jesus, our King who brought salvation and spoke peace; the one who reigns and will fully establish and reveal His Kingdom.

These truths of who Jesus compels us to respond—it isn’t enough to just know these facts about Jesus. And the proper response to hearing, to knowing these truths is really thought of genuine worship and praise.

It’s us prostrating ourselves in adoration and love.

It’s us lifting up our voices and singing praises in and to His name.

It’s us offering ourselves up as living sacrifices unto the Lord.

It’s us obeying as we seek to follow Him

Anything short of us worshiping the Lord with all of our being isn’t giving our King everything that is owed to Him.

Church, Jesus is the King who brought us salvation and spoke peace to us.

Behold your King.

Pastoral Prayer