Death and Denial

Bottomline: Jesus was denied so we could be accepted. He died so we could live.

Intro- Being accepted by Aslan

John 12:12–19 NIV

The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the king of Israel!” Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him. Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”

Hosanna means praise and save....it means the lord saves…save us, we pray...

Jesus is celebrated as King just days before death.

We use the same mouth to yell hosanna as we also yell crucify Him!

James 3:9–12 NIV

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

We have all experienced Denial or Rejection....

is the account of arrest, trial, and Crucifixion of Jesus

John 18:4–6 NIV

Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?” “Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “I am he,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.

The parallel of and 3… the fall according to NT Wright

John for Everyone, Part 2: Chapters 11–21 The Arrest of Jesus (John 18:1–14)

Jesus doesn’t hide. He has no reason to. The father has given him a cup to drink, and he’s going to drink it. The agony in the garden, so movingly pictured in Matthew, Mark and especially Luke, is missing from John. John has shown us already how, three times over, Jesus’ heart has been deeply troubled (11:33; 12:27; 13:21). The moment has now passed. He is ready. The new Adam steps forward to meet the old; the Word who was and is God comes to greet ‘the world’; the light of the world stands before those who, in their darkness, have come with torches and lanterns. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness is not going to extinguish it.

John for Everyone, Part 2: Chapters 11–21 The Arrest of Jesus (John 18:1–14)

The scene becomes still more extraordinary as it progresses. Jesus takes the initiative and asks them who they are looking for. They tell him. His answer is simple and shocking: ‘I AM’. In the setting, of course, this means, ‘I’m the one’, or, ‘That’s me’. But for John, with the God-and-Adam confrontation in the background, and all the ‘I AM’ sayings throughout his book in the foreground, there is no doubt what he wants us to hear.

This is the simple, clear and world-changing statement: the vulnerable man standing before you in the garden, glimpsed in the flickering torchlight, is the one who from all eternity was equal with the father. He is the I AM, the bread of life, the light of the world, the resurrection and the life, the way, the truth and the life. Something of this is the only reasonable explanation why, in this version, the arresting party stumble backwards and fall to the ground.

His rejection lead to our redemption.

Psalm 118:22 NIV

The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;

Jesus was denied so we could be accepted. He died so we could live.

John 3:16–17 NIV

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

1 Peter 1:18–21 NIV

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.