Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements:

If you brought any candy for the outreach on Wednesday, please leave it on the table in the foyer

All those putting out eggs for the age group they are overseeing, please be at the church at 5PM

All other volunteers be at the church on Wednesday by 5:30PM

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Please keep our outreach in prayer for Wednesday

Before sermon/after worship: show Bait of Satan video and talk about Bible study starting on Wednesday April 20th from 6:30PM-7:30PM downstairs.

Charity will be ministering to the kids during that time.

Introduction:

I want us to imagine this morning we are in Jerusalem getting ready to celebrate Passover with the millions of other Jews who made the trip to do the same.

We are doing what any other Jew would be doing: finding a place to stay, picking out the perfect lamb and getting the appropriate items for the Passover meal.

Then from the western side of the city, a procession is taking place.

You can tell by the faint beating of the drums which are getting louder as the procession is getting closer.

This isn’t a surprise though.

This happens every year.

It’s the governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, leading a procession of Roman cavalry and centurions into the city of Jerusalem (“The Last Week” by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, pg. 1) just as Roman historians have recorded it.

If you can get a glimpse, you can actually see them coming.

Pontius Pilate leads Roman soldiers on horseback and on foot.

Each soldier is clad in leather armor polished to a high gloss.

On each centurion’s head, hammered helmets gleamed in the bright sunlight.

At their sides, sheathed in their scabbards, were swords crafted from the hardest steel; and, in their hands, each centurion carried a spear; or if he was an archer, a bow with a sling of arrows across his back.

Drummers beat out the cadence of march for this was no ordinary entry into Jerusalem.

Pilate, as governor of the region which included not only Judea, but Samaria, and Idumea, knew it was standard practice for the Roman governor of a foreign territory to be in its capital for religious celebrations.

It was the beginning of Passover, a strange Jewish festival that the Romans allowed.

However, the Romans must have been aware that this festival celebrated the liberation of the Jews from another empire, the empire of Egypt.

So, Pilate had to be in Jerusalem.

Since the Romans had occupied this land by defeating the Jews and deposing their king about 80 years before, uprisings were always in the air.

The last major uprising, long before Pilate’s time, had been after the death of Herod the Great in 4 BC.

What was the uprising?

The uprising started in Sepphoris, about 5 miles from Jesus’ boyhood home of Nazareth.

Before it was over the city of Sepphoris, the capital of Galilee, and the town of Emmaus had been destroyed by the Roman army.

After putting down the rebellion there, the Romans marched on Jerusalem.

After pacifying the city, they crucified over 2,000 Jews who were accused of being part of the rebellion.

The Romans had made their intolerance for rebellion well-known.

And so on this occasion, Pilate had traveled with a contingent of Rome’s finest from his preferred headquarters in Caesarea-by-the-Sea, to the stuffy, crowded, provincial capital of the Jews, Jerusalem.

The Temple would be the center of Passover activity.

Antonia’s Fortress, the Roman garrison built adjacent to the Temple compound, would serve as a good vantage point from which to keep an eye on the Jews.

Pilate’s entry into Jerusalem was meant to send a message to the Jews, and to those who might be plotting against the empire of Rome.

The spectacle was meant to remind the Jews of what had happened the last time of a wide-scale uprising.

And, it was meant to intimidate the citizens of Jerusalem themselves, who might think twice about joining such a rebellion if it was slated to fail.

So, in other words, Pilate’s procession was to be a show of military might and strength.

He rode on a white horse which was what a military leader or conquering king would ride to show power and might and also keeping peace by using that same power and might.

You could say Pilate rode in symbolically to say that he was there to keep the peace during this Jewish religious festival.

Transition: This leads us to our first kind of king this morning.

I. Pilate/Rome as king

A. This is why there were some Jews (mainly tax collectors and such; remember Matthew and Zachaeus?) who served Rome/Caesar/the governor in order to benefit the best they could.

They were protected by Rome.

Rome took care of their needs and more.

And they didn’t care how they got what they got and who they hurt and if they were not accepted by their people.

B. There are those of us today who do the same.

Okay, we don’t have an emperor, but we live in a world that can offer to provide us with what we need and more.

C. Jobs, money, cars, expensive toys, relationships, drugs, alcohol, etc.

If we aren’t careful, we can easily allow one or more of these things to become king in our life.

It takes the priority above everything and everyone else.

It doesn’t matter how many relationships are destroyed, bridges burned, as long as you get what this world is offering you.

D. Yes, the world does a great job at being flashy and looking better than what it really is, just like Pilate and his soldiers.

But just like Pilate and his soldiers, the things this world is trying to sell you will be no more.

It’s only a temporary fix.

E. Are you more about the things of this world than anything else?

Transition: On the same day Pilate‘s procession enters Jerusalem, there is another procession that takes place.

Let’s take a look at our passage for today as it talks about this other procession.

II.

Jesus as Prophet King

A. If Pilate’s procession was meant as a show of military might and strength, Jesus’ procession was meant to show the opposite.

B. Both Matthew and Mark record Jesus’s own words, as he instructs his disciples to go in to the city and find a donkey tied up.

They are to ask the owner if they may use the donkey, and they are to say that “the Lord needs them.”

Then, Jesus quotes from Zechariah 9:9

But, there is more to this passage than just a description of Jesus’ means of transportation for that day.

The prophet Zechariah is speaking to the nation.

In Zechariah 9, the prophet reassures the people that God has not forgotten them: (Zech 9:8-10)

In other words, Jesus’ quote from the prophet Zechariah reminded those who heard him of the entire passage.

The message they heard was, “God will deliver the nation from the oppressor”—in this case, Rome!

The king they seek will come to them humbly, not on a steed of war (like Pilate), but on a slow-moving donkey, the symbol of a king who comes in peace, according to Zechariah.

The two processions could not be more different in the messages they convey.

-Pilate, leading Roman centurions, asserts the power and might of the empire of Rome which crushes all who oppose it.

-Jesus, riding on a young donkey, embodies the peace and tranquility that God brings to His people.

But there was still a problem…

C. The disciples‘ mentality of who Jesus was was not correct.

D. They had the mentality, as others, that Jesus was the Messiah that was going to wipe everything out, free them from their oppressor (Rome) and they would live happily ever after.

The disciples didn’t know what Jesus was actually doing

ii.

Peter had this in mind when he drew his sword in the garden

iii.

The disciples on the road to Emmaus thought of Jesus only as a prophet but hoped He would have been more.

iv.

The crowds recognized Him as prophet

E. There are those who come to Jesus expecting to be free from trials and difficulties.

They expect a healthy bank account, huge house, new cars, perfect health, etc.

They don’t quite understand who Jesus is so they go by what others have said or what they know (cf the crowds).

F. When this doesn’t happen, they feel like the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

They were hoping God would instantly take care of all their problems and trouble and they are sadly disappointed because it doesn’t happen as they expect it to.

This causes many to walk away from God just as fast as they came to Him.

G. Just like the disciples and people in Jerusalem praising God at Jesus’ procession, coming to Jesus as a great powerful prophet king will do you no good.

If you come to Jesus because of what you can get from Him, then you have totally missed the point.

Having faith in Jesus to get you things is the wrong motive.

H.

This is what another source accurately describes the mentality of the crowd during this event:

Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem may or may not have been planned to occur on the same day as Pilate’s procession through the western gate of the city.

Whether it was planned or not, the two processions provided a contrast that was unmistakable.

For, you see, Pilate served the Son of God, too.