Jesus is Here

Summary

The sermon on Palm Sunday explores the biblical narrative of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, highlighting the symbolic significance of the donkey and the crowds' joyful response. It delves into Jesus' understanding of his mission, the burdens he carries, and the invitation to cast away worldly worries. The sermon emphasizes the importance of faith and redemption, drawing parallels between Jesus' journey and our own struggles. Key characters like Caiaphas and Pilate are introduced to provide context, while the resurrection of Lazarus is referenced to illustrate themes of hope and renewal. Through this exploration, the sermon encourages believers to trust in Jesus' presence and guidance, finding strength and purpose in his love.

Transcript

Today, as we have talked about and saw as Palm Sunday, Palm Sunday is the celebration of Jesus entering into the city of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is the center of the Jewish world.

And this is known as the city of God, and Jesus enters into that city.

We're going to read through the scripture as to how people respond to him.

Matthew chapter 21, beginning in verse one.

Here is how the story goes.

As they approached Jerusalem.

and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives.

Jesus sent 2 disciples saying to them, go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there with her colt by her.

Untie them and bring them to me.

If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet.

Say to daughter Zion, see, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a cult, the foal of a donkey.

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them.

They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them 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 out on the road.

The crowds went ahead of him, and those that followed shouted, Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest heaven.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, who is this?

The crowds answered, this is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth in Galilee.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna, is the proclamation from the people as Jesus enters into Jerusalem.

This is a foreign scene to most of us because we do not live in the ancient world.

But in the ancient world, there would be a lot of pomp and circumstance surrounding dignified people as they entered into the city.

Crowds would gather.

People would line the streets if it was a special person, like a king or a general or something like that.

People would shout out Hosanna would shout out praises to them.

They would lay their cloaks on the ground.

They would celebrate these people entering.

And this is the type of greeting that Jesus receives as he enters into Jerusalem.

As the scriptures tell us, the city was stirred. There was a pulse running through the current of the day that ignited peoples curiosities as to who this was that was coming in, and what was unique and special about him.

And they welcomed him as a king.

Quite a scene that we enter into today.

But since we have read this story before, many of us have.

Since we've heard this story told before.

We have the benefit of knowing where this story is going.

Jesus was being honored and celebrated as a king, but simultaneously within him, he was carrying the burden that he is entering into the city of Jerusalem for the final time, entering the city of Jerusalem, walking quite literally to his.

death.

He attempted to share this several times with his disciples, his friends, his followers.

They had a hard time understanding exactly what it was that Jesus was trying to tell them because they could not see, what was going to happen as well as he could.

But he is literally walking toward his death, while simultaneously being celebrated by the onlookers as king.

For many of us.

Life can be or currently is very heavy.

We go through our lives through the things that we have to do, whether it be school or work, or spending our time and retirement, but we go through the things that are on our list of to-do's for the day, and we carry with us the situations and circumstances that are going on in our lives as we. go.

We wake up in the morning and get the kids ready or we get ourselves ready.

We pack the lunches.

We do all of the things before we leave the house, like, feed the pets, unless you're my children, and they argue for 10 minutes about who is going to feed the pets, until I finally step in and feed the pets when it could have been done nine minutes ago.

But that's another story.

When we go, and we get into our cars, and we drive to our places of work, and we drop the kids off, or we drive to the things that we're going to do, and we find ourselves moving through all of these things, for many of us, we try to put on a smile.

We try to ignore the things that are heavy or that are weighing us down so that we can have some sort of focus and attention on the day that is around us.

But oftentimes what is going on inside of us is that these circumstances and experiences are weighing us down and filling us with anxiety.

But the good news for us today is that Jesus knows exactly this.

Jesus entered Jerusalem where people are shouting, proclaiming that he is king, yet he knows that in a few short days, he is going to be sentenced to death, and hang on a cross.

And he is carrying that burden with him.

Jesus knows this experience.

Jesus also knows us.

He knows what we are carrying with us, regardless of what our exterior is presenting.

Jesus knows the burdens that we carry. And Jesus is with us all.

Jesus is with you.

In fact, Jesus invites us to identify these burdens within us.

and to cast them upon him, that we can take our burdens, and we can put them on to him, and he will hold them and hold us, and in return, give us a burden that is, and a yoke that is easy.

Now, that does not mean that you will no longer have anxiety.

That does not mean that you will not feel the weight of the world on your shoulders.

It does mean, however, that Jesus is with you, and as long as Jesus is with you, you know that we can carry on that we can endure.

And so as we have been journeying with Jesus through his life primarily through the gospel of John, there are 4 biographies of Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

We've been primarily in John over the past several weeks.

And we've journeyed with him as he's interacted with several people.

Nicodemus was the 1st one we looked at.

The Samaritan woman, the man who doesn't have a name, but we know as the person who was born blind.

And last week, we looked at the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead and his sisters, Martha and Mary.

Last week, we also read the story of the prophet Ezekiel, having a vision of a valley of dry and dead bones.

I said this last week, but I'll say it again. I always think about Lion King.

If you've seen the movie, The Elephant Graveyard.

It is just a barren place of bones and death, a place that you do not wants to go.

He is standing over this valley, and the thought that captures his attention that comes to his mind is, can these dry bones live?

And then fast forward to the story of Lazarus.

He is dead in the grave for 4 days.

Jesus proclaims to his sister, Martha, Lazarus will rise again, and she says, I know that he will in the last days.

And Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life.

Do you believe this, Martha?

Do you believe this?

Can these dry bones live?

Do you believe this?

And we ended with the question last week of what is challenging your beliefs?

What is it that is challenging your beliefs?

Today, we're asking a new set of questions.

We're asking, where is Caiaphas?

And then where is Pilate, which Will gets to? Now, perhaps you're confused of who this Caiaphas character is and why should we care where he is?

Or maybe you're a child of the 90s? And the 1st thing that popped in your mind was the where in the world is Carmen San Diego theme song?

But we're gonna, we'll journey through this together by asking who these people are.

So Caiaphas, was the chief priest in the year of Jesus' death?

Now that probably doesn't mean much to us.

But Caiaphas had a lot of power and authority in his circle.

It is believed that he was actually appointed as chief priest by the Roman government.

So that tells you a lot.

He was appointed as chief priest by the Roman government for one main purpose, to preside over the Jewish people and to keep them in line, to keep them in the Roman way.

So they let him have the power and authority in his little sphere.

But in return, he was charged with keeping the Jewish rebellion under wraps.

And so we read about him in John chapter 11, following Lazarus being raised from the dead.

And we're going to read how this goes.

Oh, by the way, some of these images up here.

I got really excited about this week.

This one is, I believe, Jesus enters into somewhere in France. And I love this because it's a kind of my modern day example, ish.

not as modern as today, but following Jesus.

But it's an example of him entering into society throughout the generation.

So some of these images, you'll see, if you're wondering where that is or what it is, that is what is going on there.

Okay, so Caiaphas, John chapter 11, here is what happens, following the resurrection from the dead of Lazarus.

The Jewish folks, the Jewish religious leaders are wondering, what's going to happen if this news of Jesus keeps spreading?

And it says this in verse 48.

If we let Jesus go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both, whose temple?

Our temple and whose nation, our nation.

Now, that is a fabulous thing to admit, because the temple does not belong to them.

Right?

The nation, the people of God do not belong to them, they belong to God, but yet they are claiming them as their own.

And so we continue.

Then one of them, named, Caius, who was the priest that year, spoke up and said, you know nothing at all.

You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish. He did not say this on his own, but as the high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation.

And not only for the nation, but also for the scattered children of God to bring them together and to make them one.

So from that day on, they plotted to take Jesus' life.

Where is Caiaphas now?

Pilate, was the other one?

We were questioning his whereabouts.

Where is Pilate now?

Who is Pilate?

Pilate was the Roman governor?

In the ancient Roman world, there were appointed governors who would preside over areas of the Roman Empire.

As we know, the saying goes, the sun never sets on the Roman Empire.

It's the largest empire at the time, and these governors had territories in which they pretty much had full and complete authority and power given to them by the emperor himself.

And their role was to keep the way of Rome alive and well in their jurisdiction.

They were to do whatever it is that they had to do to advance the way of Rome and to keep at bay any sort of threat.

And if you can know this, if you know the story of Rome and the way that it spread around the world, and all of the Roman Empire, there are all of these indigenous groups of people who had their own beliefs, their own ways, their ways of operating in the world. And Rome just sort of took them over.

They didn't give them an option.

They just sort of empirically took them over.

And so a lot of times what would happen is that the Rome would grant the people the ability to keep most of their traditions as long as they didn't threaten the overall way of Rome.

And so the governor's responsibility was, in part, to manage all of these different groups of people.

And so Pilate is the one who Caiaphas sends Jesus to, after his arrest, knowing that Pilate has the ability to sentence Jesus to death.

And in John 19, we read about a part of this interaction that Jesus has with Pilate.

So this is coming on a little later in the story, but it says that Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept on shouting.

If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar, anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.

When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge's seat at a place known as the stone pavement.

It was the preparation, the day of preparation of the Passover.

It was about noon.

Here is your king, Pilate said to the Jews.

But they shouted, Take him away, take him away, crucify him.

Shall I crucify your king, Pilate asked. We have no king, but Caesar, the chief priest answered.

Now I want to pause there.

This is asking you to go way back.

several weeks ago.

We read the story of 1st Samuel chapter 8.

1st Samuel chapter 8, the prophet Samuel is approached by the leaders of the Jewish nation who look around at all of the other nations around them, and they say to the prophet, we are done with God being our king, we want kings like all the other nations.

And the prophet Samuel is issued by God, a warning to them that if they choose this, God will give it to them.

God will let them have their king, but they need to know that the king is going to take their sons and put them in his military and fight his causes and do his battles, that all of their resources and things that belong to them are going to actually belong to the king, and that he is going to rule in his interest, not their interest, and he is going to do whatever he wants to do, with whomever he wants to do it, however he wants to do it.

And yet, the Israelites, say this is what we want, and God gives them a king.

But always and forever, from the very beginning, the king of the people of God is God.

And so for these religious leaders, to pledge their allegiance to a king that is not God shows you how far down the rabbit trail of manipulation that they have gone.

I want to pause for just a moment and say this.

There is a lot of information bombarding us on a daily moment by moment basis.

Some of it good, some of it not so good, but a lot of information pulling us in a lot of different directions. One thing that I will say unequivocally about the kingdom of God is that in the kingdom of God, there is no such thing as manipulation.

The kingdom of God does not have to hide the truth.

The kingdom of God, does not have to make up fake news.

The kingdom of God does not have to accuse of fake news.

The kingdom of God has no manipulation.

And we need to understand that, because a lot of times, people will try to manipulate us, with waving the banner of the kingdom of God, and it does not belong, no matter what it offers in return, and how it offers it.

Okay, so back to Pilot.

So they say, we have no king, but Caesar.

The chief priest answered, finally, Pilate handed him over to be crucified.

So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.

Caiaphas and Pilot, had a lot of power.

They had a lot of authority.

Caihas had the ability to turn a nation against Jesus.

Pilate had the ability to sentence Jesus to death, which is a lot of power and a lot of authority.

Pilate in the trial of Jesus is interrogating him, and he stops and he asks Jesus, who are you?

Don't you know that I have the power of death? And listen to Jesus' response in John 1911?

He says, you would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.

You would have no power over me.

Now, there's a bit of a juxtaposition here.

Because at Pilate's word, Jesus will be sentenced to death, but what Jesus knows, and what he is inviting us to see is that while there is a certain amount of power in the world, the ultimate power and authority lies in the kingdom of heaven, in the kingdom of God, all authority is given.

In the kingdom of brokenness, a lot of damage can be done.

But as we talked about last week, in the kingdom of God, it is never over.

There is no such thing as finished because when the stone is rolled across the tomb, and it seems like everything is done and life is over.

Resurrection is what follows death in the kingdom of heaven.

So as we journey through our lives and we feel the weight of life weighing us down.

We do not have to despair like those without hope because it is never over in the kingdom of heaven.

And so we ask again, where is Caiaphas now?

Where is Pilate now?

Well, they were given authority.

And as this story goes, many times over on repeat, what they did with that authority was to try to serve themselves.

They tried to build their own kingdom. They ignored what was right and what was good at what they wanted and what they could get.

Where are they now?

Well, they are dead and gone.

Their kingdoms are long forgotten.

Whatever power and authority has been transferred to the next biggest and baddest, and they are nothing but names in history.

But when you contrast that with where is Jesus now, we know that Jesus is alive and well.

We know that whatever authority was exercised over him had no ability to keep him down, it was not over for Jesus, he is alive and well, he is alive, and you, he is alive, in me, the kingdom of heaven is alive in you.

Jesus said the Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.

He has given it to you.

So where is Jesus now?

He is alive and well?

in us and in this world as his kingdom come?

Roman 8, verse 10 and 11 says this.

If Christ is in you.

That even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of the spirit who lives in you. Jesus is here, Jesus is with you.

I know today, that there are many of us who are carrying around the experiences and circumstances in our lives that are weighing us down.

And what I want to say to us is what the call of the followers of Jesus has always been to remember, is that Jesus is with you.

And there are those who will try to minimize it and say, you know, that if you cast your cares on Jesus, everything bad will go, and only good will come.

And that is manipulation that isn't true.

But what is true is that Jesus is with you in the best days and in the worst, in the darkest hour and in the hour where there is the most light.

Jesus is with you, and as Jesus is with you, his spirit fills you and enables you to move through life. And to find hope even when it only feels like there is despair.

And so for us today, as we celebrate Jesus' entry into Jerusalem as king, may you and I find him to be king in our lives, and allow him to search our hearts that any amount of brokenness within us would be identified and would be replaced by the goodness of his kingdom, that any

yearning within us or seeking within us to build our own little kingdom with whatever authority and influence and power we have, that we would reject those notions and find ourselves firmly planted in the kingdom of heaven because Jesus is here.

Amen.

Would you pray with me?

God, we gather together today, and we do so as individual people who live individual lives, who have individual circumstances going on.

Some of them known, some of them unknown, by our friends. But Lord, we recognize today that you are calling each of us collectively, as the whole, to follow you in your ways.

Not once we get everything straightened out or all together, but in this moment right here and right now.

And so I pray by your spirit that you would capture our hearts and our attention, that you would lead us through our lives and buy our prayers that your kingdom would come.

We ask these things today, Jesus, in your name and for your sake.