Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] This morning we are wrapping up our series called All In.
[00:00:05] And it is Baptism Sunday, and we're going to get to celebrate with those who have made or making this public declaration here later this morning. And I can't think of a better morning than Palm Sunday. You know, Palm Sunday is the beginning of what is known as Holy Week, is this week that we move towards Easter. And so my hope this morning is that we would just journey a little bit of that road together. So if you have a Bible, would you turn with me to Matthew's account in Matthew 21, Matthew 21? This is Jesus entering into Jerusalem.
[00:00:41] Verse 6 says this. We'll pick it up in verse 6, chapter 21, verse 6. The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the coal and placed their cloaks on them for. For Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
[00:01:02] The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shout, hosanna to the Son of Dan. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest heaven.
[00:01:11] When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, who is this?
[00:01:18] And the crowds answered, this is Jesus the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.
[00:01:24] Now, see, I grew up hearing this passage a lot.
[00:01:28] And I even made those green construction paper palm trees down in Sunday school, like some of you in this room. And I'm sorry I couldn't make enough for all of us that would not.
[00:01:37] The base camp would not be happy with me on that one. But maybe they are doing that down there this morning.
[00:01:42] But when I entered this text, as I was entering into another Holy Week, another chance to walk towards Easter, to see what God has done for each one of us in this room, what's offered to you and I, forgiveness of our sins, something stuck out different, and it was Jesus entrance into the city of Jerusalem, where he would eventually be arrested, beaten, torn apart, and eventually outside those city walls, crucified unjustly.
[00:02:12] And what stuck out to me this week was what was Jesus doing?
[00:02:16] Why this procession? Why this murmur in this city? Right? Was this a special moment or this seems. Not by accident. It almost seems theatrical at points. And what I wanted, I realized is this is not random. This was Jesus making a very clear statement.
[00:02:33] So maybe this passage is familiar for you, but I want to unpack it a little bit. So in this city of Jerusalem, and I.
[00:02:40] I can't fit Jerusalem in that circle. So we're just Going to say J. Is that okay? Okay. So this is Jerusalem.
[00:02:45] That's all I got for drawing. Okay. Not artistic, but we know this is actually happening during the festival of Passover.
[00:02:53] And so Passover was a festival where the other Jews would come into Jerusalem and they would celebrate Jesus or, excuse me, God's salvation or their helping them be rescued from Egypt. So they would come back and it's believed that hundreds of thousands people would come and spend time together in Jerusalem.
[00:03:17] And you can imagine as you're reflecting on what God had done for you and being rescued and the God who rescues. And yet they're right under Roman oppression at this moment.
[00:03:27] And you could imagine the tension in the city.
[00:03:30] It's already cramped, it's hard to find room. And yet you're reminded that, man, we were free, but we're not free right now. And so it'd be very common for revolts or even little uprisings to happen.
[00:03:44] And if you are the oppressing government of Rome, that's not good for you, is it? That's not good for a business. So what they would do, they would kind of get ahead of this a little bit. And so from the west side of the city, they would actually make a big parade. They make a big entrance of power.
[00:04:03] They would come with all the pomp and circumstance of Rome that you can imagine. Horses and chariots and armor and trumpets and all that. And then they would take their kind of puppet leader, this guy named by Pontius Pilate, you might know about him, and they would kind of parade him on horseback, and he would be like this little puppet king. And they'd say. And there would be all this magnet, majesty toward. He would come through the western gate with all the glory of Rome. And just in case anybody had an idea, they would say, hey, Rome's really in control.
[00:04:38] But yet it was not uncommon for people to shout and holler to Rome, saying, you are God or to save us or you are our king. There was cheering happening on the west side of the city.
[00:04:50] You know, I've not spent much time in Rome. I can't really have a ton of context to that. But what I can say, I did spend. I did used to live in the uk, and so I know a little bit about a royal family. And if you come to my house, this coffee mug is on my wall.
[00:05:08] It's like my favorite coffee mug. And it always catches people off guard. They're like, is that a Queen Elizabeth cup you're drinking out? I'm like, yeah, it's great.
[00:05:17] My Middle son also thinks that's my mom, which I don't know how my mom totally feels about, you know, she's like, well, at least I'm a queen, you know.
[00:05:26] He's like, why is Mimi on a cup, Daddy? I'm like, oh, well.
[00:05:30] But I got that as, like, just a little memento of my time in England when I used to live there. But I remember, you know, every so often, you know, there'd be some ceremony or something would get, you know, opened, and, you know, we would hear, the royal family is coming, you know, and so, as the Brits would say, there was queues or lines, you know, and, you know, they put all these barricades. And then this thing would come and like a Dutch or duchess or something would come and, you know, shake hands and wave, and people would get so excited, you know, I remember that and be like, do you know them? They're like, no, they're just our family. I'm like, okay, great. They're the rural family. And so this is not to throw shade at the royal family by any means or nor am I endorsing that necessarily. It's just more of I got to experience it as an outsider and be like, I saw the fervor, the excitement that someone was coming to their town, and it generally was a motorcade and it just drove through. And they're like, that was it.
[00:06:21] That was it. Wasn't that amazing? I'm like, kinda, I don't know, you know, but I got a cup to celebrate it, you know, but they were reminding. It's a reminder, just even a visual reminder there is a ruling family, you know, and that's what Rome is trying to do. They're trying to make it really clear, hey, we're in control here.
[00:06:38] And people are throwing themselves at that and say, rome, save me, Rome. Bring me control, bring me comfort. Even though I don't like this maybe oppressive nature that it is. But I want. I want comfort, I want security. And yet this is exactly the environment that Jesus walks into. Because ironically, at the same time, on the eastern side, Jesus is walking in and not on horses that we see this bone a donkey.
[00:07:03] Humility, lowering himself.
[00:07:07] He's gentle.
[00:07:09] He's riding a lowly creature and passing the very space where he is later going to be arrested, where he's going to be taken into custody.
[00:07:19] And all the while, he is fulfilling prophecy along the way of this foretold king. That's why people are like, what is going on? There's two processions happening at the same Time. And what are the crowds shouting? They're shouting this word, hosanna.
[00:07:36] Hosanna. Do you know what hosanna means?
[00:07:40] Save us.
[00:07:41] Hosanna means save us. So there is literally people, as they see this guy coming in on a donkey, they're going, save us.
[00:07:48] Save us.
[00:07:50] Save us, God. Are you the one that's going to get rid of these rulers? Are you the one that's going to free us?
[00:07:56] I don't know about you, and maybe you didn't think you were shouting hosanna this morning, but that's not just something that the crowds in Israel said. I think it's something that all of us feel in our hearts.
[00:08:07] Every single one of us in this room. Deep down, we know something isn't right.
[00:08:12] We look around the world. We see family brokenness. We see chronic pain and illness. We see addictions in all its forms. We see fear for safety. We see wars and rumors of wars. We see unjust suffering in our hearts. There's something inside of us.
[00:08:29] The most devouted believer in this room are those who are seeking some kind of refuge this morning. We say, this is not how it's supposed to be.
[00:08:38] But it's not just something external. It's also something we feel internal, isn't it? In our hearts, in our minds. And the battle of anxiety and guilt and shame that riddles lots of us in this room. And we realize that.
[00:08:55] Whether we realize or not, I believe every single person, we are crying out, hosanna.
[00:09:00] Someone save me. Someone save us from this condition that we're in. But here's the problem. We don't just shout hosanna. We start attaching it to things, don't we?
[00:09:09] We start saying, well, if I just had control, then I'd feel safe.
[00:09:15] Or, man, if I just got the. If people just approved of me, and in whatever form I come or whatever I decide, then I would be saved. Or if I could just achieve enough, if I could just achieve enough, then I would truly feel safe. Or I feel saved. Or if this relationship that I'm trying to make work, but it's not really working out, but if it just works out, then.
[00:09:36] Then I'd be okay.
[00:09:38] See, a lot of times we attach our hosanna, our cry for help, to some external or internal circumstance that's happening. We're saying, if that were all be well, then I'd be saved. That's what I really want.
[00:09:51] Friends, we are all shouting hosanna at something.
[00:09:56] I was reminded of that this week, watching a basketball game, and there's this guy. His name's Kevin Durant. He's a famous basketball player. You don't have to really care about him. That's okay. This is not like a endorsement on Kevin Durant, but you may know about this. He passed Michael Jordan in scoring this week.
[00:10:14] So he's now top, you know, top five player of scoring. And so there's all these interviews about what's it like to pass someone like Michael Jordan. Like, tell me about that. And I heard this quote, and it just, like, fascinated me. And he said this. He says, this is what I center my life around.
[00:10:29] I've accepted that I'll never be able to fill that space up.
[00:10:33] I just want to stay around as long as I can.
[00:10:39] Isn't that so honest?
[00:10:41] At least he's being honest about it, right? He's going, man. And because he's kind of at the end of his career, and he's trying to hold out a little bit longer, and he's like, well, if I could just maybe, maybe if I could get to number one scoring, then I'll feel fulfilled. But I know this is kind of as good as it gets. So I'm just gonna keep pursuing this path as long as it goes, but knowing that once I retire, like, what's next?
[00:11:03] And friends, I don't know if you knew that this morning, but you could be searching for something this morning, and you might actually get it.
[00:11:10] But does it really save you?
[00:11:14] See, first century Jews, NBA superstars, and you and I, we all share that in common, don't we? You didn't think you shared much in common with Kevin Durant, a 611 basketball player.
[00:11:25] But if we give ourselves the wrong things, they do not free us. They will actually enslave us.
[00:11:30] They do not have the power to save us. And yet we are shouting hosanna to them. And you know what? We will chase them. And I'm guilty of this, too. We will chase them until we collapse or will numb out in the process.
[00:11:42] What's the point?
[00:11:43] And. And I know this. I'm. I'm super guilty of this myself. I. I've shouted hosanna to lots of things.
[00:11:50] And as I was preparing this week for this sermon, I was kind of saying, God, what have I done? You know, where. Where have I shouted things? And I feel like God kind of brought back this memory as I was trying to trace that back, what that looked like. And it's funny, I forgot about this. But I remember as a kid, I got.
[00:12:07] I did fairly good at school, and at one point, they Were going to test me for, like, a gifted program, which some of you are. Like, that blows you away right there.
[00:12:17] But I got tested. I remember being tested. They're like, he might be gifted or whatever. And so I took this test, this IQ test, and, friends, here's the point of this. I could take you right now to Tuscarora Elementary School in Martinsburg, West Virginia, and I could walk you down the hall to this little closet, and I can almost see, like, the yellow light bulb hanging from there, and, like, you know, doing these IQ tests. And I don't remember anything about that, but I remember the teacher who instructed, and he said, logan, you did really, really well. And I wanted it. Like, I wanted that title or something. You know, I want to be like, I'm gifted. I'm. I'm special. I'm set apart. You know, that's what I wanted. And I remember this teacher, you know, just being like, logan, you did really good, but you're not gifted. You know, I'm sorry. You're not. You didn't. You didn't make that threshold.
[00:13:04] And you're like, no surprise, no shocker.
[00:13:07] But something happened there.
[00:13:10] Like, something happened in that little tiny closet testing room where, like, that crushed me, because I wanted that title. And it. I didn't get it.
[00:13:21] And I remember, guys, a lie took root in me in that room where I said, I'm not good enough, but I'm gonna prove to you I'm good enough.
[00:13:29] And I have chased achievement and accolade and pull yourself by your bootstraps, and I'm going to say, I'm going to prove you wrong.
[00:13:39] I'm going to tell you that I am enough, that you made a mistake. And that lie has shaped me, unfortunately, it's made me seek approval and to be seen as good enough. And that was something I have shouted hosanna at time and time again. And it started in that little closet at Tuscarora Elementary School.
[00:13:57] And maybe for you, it's something different, but we all have something.
[00:14:01] Who or what are you shouting at this morning?
[00:14:05] But here's the good news of Palm Sunday.
[00:14:08] Jesus didn't come so that we would keep shouting Hosanna to all the wrong things. See, he came to be the king that we actually need. Luke's gospel tells us that Jesus, he turned his gaze towards Jerusalem, and it says that he was fixed as flint towards it, right? There was nothing that could take him off of that. And he knew what he was walking into, folks. He knew that he was moving towards the cross. To eventual death on that cross, but to resurrection.
[00:14:36] And he knew that the crowds that were shouting hosanna to him on the beginning of the week, by the end of it would be saying, crucify him. Crucify him. Why? Because he didn't give them what they wanted.
[00:14:46] They wanted him just to come and overthrow Rome. And that was an external circumstance that was. Yes, it was hard, and there was hardships in that. But Jesus came not to fix surface level problems, but to fix the deep root that lies in every single one of us in this room that can hear me online of sin, of brokenness, of separation from God. He did not come to remove Rome or to appease the crowd's pressures. He came to defeat sin, Satan, and death, to bring us home to God, to bring us back into a loving family with our Heavenly Father. I love how Acts 4 says this. It says, salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.
[00:15:31] Jesus did not come to be useful to your life, friends.
[00:15:36] That's the whole point of this series about being all in. He did not come to be an additive to our life. He came to be your life.
[00:15:44] Make no doubts about that. That's what Jesus wants. He coming as he wants additives, everything. He wants all of us.
[00:15:50] He doesn't want our affections to be torn between lesser things.
[00:15:55] We don't want to be shouting hosanna to lesser things.
[00:15:59] So this morning, as we wrap up our time together, I want us to ask this question just another way and to look at another way.
[00:16:09] What are you shouting hosanna to?
[00:16:15] And here's the thing. I think it gets twisted in this series. You know, I think a lot of people are like, well, am I all in? Am I in for Jesus? And what does that mean? Did I say a prayer one time? Do I need to get baptized? You know, whatever that is. And we wrestle with that. But here I just believe in my heart of hearts there is this lie that we think that we mature out of being needy for God.
[00:16:35] And we say, oh, yeah, I used to shout at other things, but I don't shout at. I am definitely team Jesus.
[00:16:40] But I want us to honestly look at our lives this morning and say, what am I shouting hosanna to?
[00:16:45] Am I shouting to my career or to my kids or to perfect circumstances or perfect internal peace to save me?
[00:16:54] Because I think that we're guilty of that.
[00:16:58] And there's a temptation there that we can just slide back into of what I really need is just for all these things to go away and just add juice on top of. So here's what I want to do. I want to spend a few moments uncovering this, because I think maybe just for this morning, maybe even for the first time, you're realizing there's someone in this room going, you know what? I've been shouting hosanna to something, and it isn't saving me, and it's actually destroying me and others in the process.
[00:17:23] So what I want you to do is, if that is you, I want you to respond not to religion or to emotion, but to Jesus.
[00:17:31] Would you close your eyes and bow your heads with me for a moment?
[00:17:40] Maybe just take a deep breath for a moment.
[00:17:45] I want to ask that question then one more time.
[00:17:47] Who or what am I shouting hosanna to?
[00:17:55] What I pray is right now that God is starting to bring something to your mind, starting to bring something to your heart that he would bring something to mind.
[00:18:06] A face.
[00:18:08] Maybe another one of those Tuscarora elementary moments for you.
[00:18:15] Maybe you're just becoming aware. This is what I've been shouting to security.
[00:18:20] Fame, accolade, importance.
[00:18:28] Maybe in your heart right now, just begin to speak to him.
[00:18:34] Just begin to say, just speak to God like he's a friend. It says he is closer than a brother. Would you say, God, I have been shouting at this, and it doesn't deserve that. I'm sorry.
[00:18:46] It's not just disrespectful to you, God, but it's actually hurt me in the process, and it's hurt others around me. So, Lord, I'm sorry for that.
[00:18:55] Would you forgive me?
[00:18:57] I want to receive your grace. I want to receive your mercy. I want to receive your love. This morning, Maybe after you've done that, you would just say, lord, I want to trust you and follow you with the rest of my life.
[00:19:17] Would I get to experience who you are in a new and fresh way this morning?
[00:19:24] Come and be the king of my life.
[00:19:27] Come be the true hosanna, the one who saves us.
[00:19:35] Amen.
