The Hope of the Coming King

Outline

3 reasons to rejoice in Jesus our Savior

I. Jesus Fulfills the Promised Davidic King

A. The crowds declared it

John 12:12-13 - On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.”

Psalm 118:22 - The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief corner stone.

B. Riding on the colt represents it

John 12:14-15 - Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”

Zechariah 9:9 - Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Genesis 49:11 - He ties his foal to the vine, and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine; He washes his garments in wine, and his robes in the blood of grapes.

II. Jesus Proved He Was the True Messiah

A. By showing power over death – Lazarus (John 11)

B. By His anointing from Mary (John 12:1-8)

John 12:7-8 - Therefore Jesus said, “Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial. For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.”

III. Jesus Knew His Purpose Even When Others Did Not

A. The disciples did not

John 12:16 - 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 to Him.

B. The pharisees did not

John 12:19 - So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him.”

Luke 19:39-40 - Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!”

John 11:53 - So from that day on they planned together to kill Him.

C. The crowds did not

John 12:18 - For this reason also the people went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign.

Have you ever considered the power of a crowd of people who are all focused on one singular thing. I want you to consider with me the power of Chicago Cub’s fans in 2016 as the Chicago Cubs were celebrating their World Series victory.

• The Noise of the Crowd (Cubs Game)

• The Growing size of the Crowd (Cubs Parade)

This year we have been studying together our Hope for Everyday Life. This has led us through a study of the book of 1 Peter. So far in that study we have been learning how the hope of the Gospel allows us to endure suffering in a way that is counterculture. It has taught us to look to be a blessing even during suffering.

Today, we are taking a pause from that study to turn our attention to the passages surrounding the events we know as Palm Sunday.

Please take your Bibles and turn with me to John 12. That is page 82 of the back section of the Bible located under the chair in front of you.

Today we will be looking at… The Hope of the Coming King.

I want to read through the passage and take a few pauses as we read to explain a bit of what we see here initially. Then we will unpack the truths contained in this passage.

• As we read, I ask you to consider the three different perspectives that are taking place in this passage.

• The disciples who have been closely following Jesus and watching and observing His ministry.

• They knew He was a great teacher

• They had observed He was able to perform great miracles

• They had seen Him demonstrate power over death.

• Most of them had believed that He was as He claimed to be, The Son of God.

• However, they were still confused on how it could be true and how it would play out.

• They were amazed by the things that Jesus had done by performing miracles

• They were confused by the things Jesus had taught them.

• They were convinced of His incredible power after watching Him raise Lazarus from the dead.

• They were not able to understand that His claims to be the Messiah was about rescuing them from the bondage of sin and not the bondage of Rome

• They were hopeful that they might have freedom

• They hated Jesus’ teachings because it went against the very religious systems they clung to closely.

• They assumed his miracles were the result of power that had been given to Him by Satan.

• They viewed Him as a blasphemer for claiming to be God

• They saw Him as enemy number 1 and longed to destroy Him.

Follow along as I read:

¹² On the next day

• We will unpack this more later in the passage, but to give you a brief recap of what has just happened historically these events had just occurred in the few days leading up to this day.

• Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead

• Jesus had eaten dinner with the disciples, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

• At this dinner Mary took a very expensive perfume and anointed Jesus’ feet.

• Judas was critical of this decision.

• The chief priests were not happy at the crowd and continued to plot how they could kill not just Jesus, but also Lazarus.

• They made a plan to wait until after the Passover celebration was done and to capture Jesus and then execute Him.

the large crowd who had come to the feast,

• This large crowd was gathered to celebrate the Passover.

• There was crowd that was already in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover and the crowd who had been at the dinner the night before following Jesus as He traveled into Jerusalem.

• How many people would this have been?

• Well over a million people.

• Josephus the historian had claimed that just a few years later there would have been around 2.7 million Jews gathered in Jerusalem for the Passover.

• That is not counting those who were not Jews.

• So, we are talking about a massive group of people.

when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, ¹³ took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him,

• The crowd is now excited to see Jesus and they begin to think, we need something to wave right now to show how excited we are.

• So, there were many Date Palm Trees in that area, so they ran to the trees and began cutting off branches to be able to wave them for Jesus.

and began to shout, “Hosanna!

• Hosanna literally means, Help us, I pray!

• So in their beginning of their chant they are expressing their desire for Jesus to rescue them!

• They are crying out and begging Him to rescue them.

• They also are crying out…

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord,

• They were shouting their hopes that Jesus was now revealing Himself as the Messiah they were hoping for.

• The conqueror.

• The freedom bringer

• Look at the next phrase…

even the King of Israel.”

¹⁴ Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, ¹⁵ “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”

• This was to fulfill the prophecy as given in Zechariah 9:9 (which is why the text is capitalized in your Bible!)

• More on that in a bit.

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 to Him.

• Remember, I said at this point the disciples were confused.

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 and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign.

• The news of what Jesus had done in raising Lazarus was growing and the crowds were growing larger,

• and more convinced of unexplainable power of Jesus.

• The crowds were beginning to truly believe that He was the Messiah.

¹⁹ So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him.”

• Basically, the Pharisees are shaking their heads because Jesus has gone viral.

• Everyone is being amazed by Him.

• And they realize at this point their efforts have been futile.

As we take our time together today to unpack this passage and the context surrounding this passage, I hope to lead you to 3 Reasons to Rejoice in Jesus Our Savior.

I. Jesus fulfills the Promised Davidic King

• To really understand this point we need to have pretty good understanding of the Old Testament.

• As you begin to unpack the Old Testament you begin to see some of the things that are being revealed in this particular passage.

• We see the proof that this is exactly how God ordained it to be.

• We see that Jesus is indeed the rightful King.

• This plays out both by His Heavenly Deity

• And by His earthly lineage.

• One of the most compelling arguments to the inspiration of the Bible is the way that prophecy comes true.

• For instance did you know that there over 300 prophecies referring to the coming Messiah.

• Let’s say we isolated just 8 of these prophecies then we tried to estimate the probability of these coming true.

• According to a mathematician named Peter W. Stoner that would translate to a mathematical 1 in 10¹⁷

• Of if we wrote this out it would be (1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000)

• That would be equivalent to covering the state of Texas (Kari please insert a picture of the state of Texas) and then covering the state with a layer of silver dollars 2 feet deep and sending a blindfolded man to find the 1 marked coin on the first try.

• Let me remind you that is only for 8 of the prophecies about Christ to come true.

• What an awesome God we serve.

• o “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy....” (Isaiah 35:5–6)

• o Remember I mentioned that just before this Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead.

• o Literally this prophesy was coming true right in front of their eyes.

• o Their eyes were opened.

• o Their ears were hearing the excellencies of Jesus

• o They we running after the Messiah

• o Because God had revealed the power of Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God.

The Crowds Declared it

¹² On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, ¹³ took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.”

Here in verse 13 we have quote that comes directly from Psalm 118.

• This particular Psalm is one of the Psalms that would have been sung any way by the crowd as they were traveling to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover.

• But hidden in this same Psalm that is quoted here in this passage we have another incredibly powerful prediction about Jesus.

• I hope that this causes you again to pause and rejoice in the incredible plans of God.

• Sometimes in our critique of those who were shouting Hosanna, we are quick to mock the fickle nature of the crowd.

• I want to help you consider a different way to think about the crowd.

• Remember we talked about the crowd having been drawn in from all over to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of the Passover.

• Over 1 million visitors.

• You may have remember I mentioned that the Pharisees that were watching Jesus eating dinner with Lazarus, Mary, and Martha had decided to wait until after the Feast of the Passover was finished to arrest and convince the crowd to act against Jesus.

• It is very likely that the crowd that was chanting Hosanna is a very different crowd from the group that was chanting Crucify Him!

• He also demonstrates who He is when He enters Jerusalem, because …

Riding on the Colt Represents it

“Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”” (John 12:14–15)

• This again is a fulfillment of prophecy that comes from the Old Testament.

• o “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zech. 9:9)

• And as if the Zechariah passage is not convincing enough we can go all the way back to Genesis to see hints of this same promise.

• o ““He ties his foal to the vine, And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine; He washes his garments in wine, And his robes in the blood of grapes.” (Genesis 49:11)

• Those who were paying attention to the Old Testament would have noticed Jesus as King because Jesus was riding in on a colt. They would have recognized that prophesy as going all the way to the promises given during their captivity in Egypt.

We rejoice that Jesus is King because He fulfills the Promised Davidic King,

But now the second reason we have to rejoice is that …

II. Jesus Proved He was the True Messiah

What is the difference between Jesus being the Davidic King and being the Messiah?

• Messiah has the concept of being a Savior

• So we are now turning our attention to the fact that Jesus is our true Savior.

Throughout the book of Isaiah the prophet is talking about more than just a coming King, it is talking about a Messiah that is coming to save His people.

• You and I like to think of people as the next Savior.

• Your sports team struggles so you find a new coach or a new player that you hope will save your team.

• Your nation struggles so we flock to a new politician in an effort to save our nation.

• Your family struggles so you turn to something new to try to save your family.

• Some of us turn to ourself to try to be our own rescuer

• Boy does that end up bad.

• Or for the wrong kind of rescuing

• Or for the wrong kind of freedom

Jesus, however had come to show that He was the true Messiah, and it is revealed in the context surrounding this passage in 2 for specific ways.

By Showing Power over Death—Lazarus (John 11)

Do you remember this story? You are welcome to look back at John 11 as I pull out some of the highlights for our time here.

• Jesus had a friendship with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

• The sisters sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was sick and not doing too well.

• Jesus simply replied, But when Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” (4)

• After hearing Lazarus was sick, Jesus stayed 2 days longer in the place where He was even though He claimed to love Lazarus in verse 5.

• Jesus is traveling back to Judea and he explains to the disciples that Lazarus is dead in verse 14.

• Jesus then expounds on the fact that He is glad for their sake that Lazarus was dead so that they will eventually believe (15)

• I imagine the disciples thinking – not sure what He is talking about, but let’s see what happens.

• 20 Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary stayed at the house.

• 21 Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.

• 22 “Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”

• Expound a bit more

• § “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,” (John 11:25)

• I AM THE MESSIAH

• Why did He so obviously make the claim to be the Messiah before doing what only God could do in raising Lazarus?

• § ““I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.”” (John 11:42)

• “By raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus demonstrated publicly that He had power over death, as He had previously asserted. This is a messianic, indeed, a diving, characteristic and prerogative. The proof He furnished by raising Lazarus was so strong and irrefutable that any rational argument is now rendered superfluous. The Pharisees proceed in their irrational plat to have Jesus killed.” – Andreas J. Kostenberger

• Since He was sent by God, He demonstrated that He was the Messiah.

• Since He was the Messiah He had come to save His people from their sin.

We also Jesus is the true Messiah at the dinner He attends right after this at the beginning of chapter 12.

• The evidence of His Messiahship is found …

By His Anointing from Mary (John 12:1-8)

As Jesus and the disciples are eating dinner as the guests of Mary, Martha and Lazarus we are told an incredibly important story in our understanding of how God is working at all times to fulfill His plan.

• Mary brings an expensive jar of perfume and begins to anoint Jesus’s feet.

• We know that anointing is an act that many times indicated the start of something important or set apart someone for an important task.

• Kings were anointed when they were selected to be the leader (still happens today)

• Prophets were anointed to indicate they were set apart to God’s service

• It is obvious that the disciples do not fully understand because look at Judas, at this point playing the role of being overly pious, says,

• John 12:5“Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?”

• 6 Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it.

• o “Therefore Jesus said, “Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial. “For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.”” (John 12:7–8)

• This just happened in the raising of Lazarus.

• This same revealing of God’s master plan was even taking place in the bitter schemes to kill Jesus by the Chief Priests.

• Now the same revealing is happening by the anointing with oil by Mary.

• “There are two parallels involving Lazarus and his family: the raising of Lazarus – in which he was entirely passive – anticipates Jesus’ resurrection; and Mary’s anointing – with Mary taking the initiative – prefigures the ultimate expression of Jesus’ love, which is found at the foot washing only in an emblematic sense and finds its ultimate expression in Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross.” - Andreas J. Kostenberger

The third reason to rejoice that Jesus is our Savior is that …

III. Jesus knew his purpose even when others did not.

Add content here.

The disciples did not

“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 to Him.” (John 12:16)

Thicken this up.

The Pharisees did not

“So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him.”” (John 12:19)

“Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!”” (Luke 19:39–40)

“So from that day on they planned together to kill Him.” (John 11:53)

Content still needed.

The Crowds did not

“For this reason also the people went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign.” (John 12:18)

Provide application and conclusion!