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So, it's Palm Sunday. Would you stand with us and we're gonna sing Hosannas, alright? Hosannas to the king of king, kings, and Bob, if you join me up here. Amen. Welcome.
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We will glorify the king of kings. Hymn number three zero one. If you have your hymnal, hymn number three zero one. Watch out for the key change. Amen.
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Amen. I've got a couple of announcements. If y'all would, y'all take a seat and I've got a couple and I forgot a couple this morning. So, I'm gonna try to add those in. So, first of all, Awana because kids matter to God and I'm gonna get the Kessler's are here visiting this morning.
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I didn't see you in the first service. Would you stand up and say howdy? So, these are our local area missionaries and local area is a region that's unbelievable to me. How far does it reach? Yeah.
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Exactly. So, they're in charge of Awana for 200,000 square miles but kids matter to God. They they are our local missionaries that support this organization and we love y'all and appreciate it and you're prayed for. Every Wednesday morning, all the time and we love you and this morning in the in the first service, he came up after and said, scripture is so powerful. I thought, that's what you, why you do what you do?
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Because it's getting it in the kids' heads and into their hearts. Monday nights at First B happens on Monday nights at First B. Meal music and a message and tomorrow night will be no different. We're doing a meal first music and the music will be centered around Easter because we're building up the Passion Week, the Holy Week before Easter. Carl is gonna divert from a study of Nehemiah and go into a study of the last week of Jesus' earthly pre cross ministry in the music and in the message and just kinda let it sit for a while.
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So, this is Monday night, tomorrow night, 6PM and we'll have communion together. You're invited even if you don't normally come to Monday nights. I think you might enjoy this one. So, connect hour happens between services. If you wanna show up a little bit early, there will be coffee and donuts in this morning, sausage, biscuits, and a few other things down the hall.
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You're welcome to kinda connect. This Maundy, Maundy, Thursday in the fellowship hall will be showing a screening of the passion of the Christ and that is a heavy movie. If you haven't seen it or if you've just seen it the one time, it maybe more more violent than you remember. So, that's just a a word of warning but on Maundy Thursday in the fellowship hall at 06:00, Passion of the Christ. We are after spring break starting a family fun night on Friday nights.
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It's an eight week deal, April 15 through May 27. That starts after spring break starting at 05:30. It's fun for kids and for adults. So, it'll be adults meeting upstairs, kids meeting downstairs for a lot of that time and we'll tell you more about that the closer we get. That's after spring break.
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And before I forget, next week, we are having a pancake breakfast. It'll start at 08:00 before the first service at nine and then it'll start again at 10:00 before this service at eleven. So, you know, sourdough pancakes, bacon sausage, and all of that sort of stuff and Dave Kaufman is heading that up again this year. Is there anything else I forgot? One more thing.
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Next week, resurrection Sunday, we will have our normal services at nine and eleven here emphasizing the resurrection but after that, the Good Samaritan Mission uses our sanctuary here and continues resurrection Sunday at 02:00, right? They're going have testimonies from folks at the mission and Chuck has got a word and there'll be some singing there too, right? Yep. Alright. So, 02:00, Easter.
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Good Samaritan right here and I think that's it. Now, it's time. If y'all would get up, shake hands with one another, greet each other with high fives, hugs, handshakes, holy kisses if you're willing. Amen. Let it ring.
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That's good. Selah. Wonderful words of life. Hymn number four zero six. This is the the best place where I like to be.
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Amen. Amen. Y'all can have a seat and I'll pray. God, thank you for this season, this season of renewal, transformation resurrection that we're looking forward to but God, I thank you for your blessings that you've given us. I thank you that you lord, you're just amazing.
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I thank you that you care for us, that you take the time with us. Lord, give us that desire to spend that time with you. I ask also lord that you take these offerings that we give now. These tithes and offerings that you would bless them to your kingdom's advance that more people would hear those wonderful words of life. That we would expose this whole world, every tribe, tongue, and nation to you.
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In Jesus name, lord, we ask that you would bless and multiply this acknowledgement and offering to do your kingdom's work. Amen. It is warm in here this morning. We have been studying in Romans for quite some time now. We've been in Romans and for the past month or so, we've been in some pretty deep mud.
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I've been talking about that each week. Going through the first chapter and then hitting the second chapter and he's just saying that no one is righteous basically. We'll get to that again in chapter three. No one's righteous. No, not one.
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It doesn't matter. If you're a Gentile flavored Christian or a Jewish flavored Christian, does not matter if you've been churched your whole life or if you just met Jesus recently. He's saying, there's no difference. None of us deserves it. It's gotta be grace.
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He's working towards that and we have gotten up to Romans two twenty five and last week, when I got to this place, we stopped at 24. The next little portion we'll do this morning but we're gonna take a Palm Sunday excursus, a detour through the gospels, okay? And we're gonna go to the mainly the gospel of John. I'll mention Luke but at this Palm Sunday references in all four of the gospels and there's a a lot to be said there. I wanna do a linkage with scripture where we go to what immediately preceded it so that hopefully we can make that connection.
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So, the first part of the sermon today, I'm gonna do background and then the second part of the sermon is gonna be a whole lot of scripture. Listen fast because there's a lot here, okay? So, starting in Romans. We are in Romans. This is written from Corinth by the apostle Paul to the church at Rome.
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He'd never been there. He's going on and he says, for indeed circumcision is a value if you practice the law but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision, uncircumcision. Now, I will say this too, that when we started in Galatians, circumcision is mentioned over and over and over in Galatians. So, we started and we just go plotting through scripture as it gets to us, as we get to it and I had a guy who went home. His wife told me this, who went home.
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She had to work that Sunday and she said, what was the sermon about? He said, I don't know but he mentioned circumcision about 50 times. This little passage right here is kinda like that. So, if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision and he who is physically uncircumcised if he keeps the law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the law and circumcision or a transgressor of the law for he is not a Jew that is someone that's devoted to God, his chosen people. He is not a Jew who is one outwardly nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew, one, surrendered to God, one of God's chosen people.
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He's a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that which is of the heart by the spirit and not by the letter and his praise is not from men but from God. Now, the prophets mention this spirit and the letter quite a bit and they talk about circumcised hearts but at this time, what's the big deal in the Bible? First century, especially New Testament. Why is circumcision so important? Why does it come up so often in Galatians and in Romans especially?
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Well, first of all, primarily, it has to do with Jewish identity. The Jews of the first century, second temple Judaism, were calling back to that covenant that God had made with Abraham. In fact, in Romans four, Paul is gonna use that argument about Abraham having believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. We'll see that in Romans four. We're not there yet but given as a sign of the covenant that God made with Abraham.
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Circumcision was. So, it has to do with Jewish identity and they put a lot of stock in that. It's also a tangible sign of obedience. Now, with Judaism of this time, Sabbath observance was absolutely necessary. It's a big deal.
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Dietary guidelines, keeping kosher, we call it today. Big deal. Social justice that all of the prophets had called for, especially the minor prophets were calling out for social justice. Tikun Olam and moral purity that was outlined in the Torah. Not to mention temple worship.
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Temple worship was where God dwelt. The holy of holies, that's where God was and so temple worship was really important as a sign of Jewish identity. The temple is really important. Circumcision was incredibly important and they made it in this time even more important probably than it had been in the Old Testament. Some of y'all recognize this guy.
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Most of you do if you watch the news. You you recognize him. Charles Krauthammer is a Jewish man. He is a conservative columnist for the Washington Post. His column is picked up on Fridays in the Nag, the news and guide here.
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And so he usually writes from a conservative point of view. You see him on Fox News probably. His article from not this week, but last week on the eleventh, was the holocaust and Jewish identity. The only reason I mentioned this is because this is not political at all. He that's the whole article right there if you can read that.
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He he talked about how Bernie Sanders was asked in asking by a reporter if he was trying to keep his Jewish identity a secret or keep it under wraps and the answer that Sanders gave surprised Krauthammer and Krauthammer is is a Jewish man too and so he was expecting that certainly he'll mention one of these first two things here either Jewish practice like identify with the cultural teachings, the cultural Jewish culture that was transmitted by teaching and scholarship. It's embedded in their life through religious practice. So, that's the practice of Judaism. If they're orthodox, that's probably what they would have gone through but Bernie Sanders didn't say that and he said, or if they're reformed Jewish or liberal Jewish, they probably would go with is a reparation of the world. It's seeing Judaism as an expression of prophetic ideal of social justice.
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Love thy neighbor, clothe the naked, walk with God, beat swords into plowshares, peace knicks. That's what he says that that would have been the second thing that he would have thought that he would say but what Sanders actually said was when he was asked about being Jewish, he said, no, I'm proud of my Jewish heritage And then he immediately turned to the Holocaust, which was surprising for Krauthammer to hear. When Sanders was asked about it, he he was sure he'd say something about social justice because, I mean, that's what his campaign's running on. Right? The Holocaust is what he mentioned.
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What a strange reply, yet it doesn't seem strange to us because it's increasingly common in America for Jews to find their identity in World War two, in the Holocaust, in the mistreatment of Jews. So, I was thinking about this identity question and the book of Romans was written by the apostle Paul in the winter of fifty six or fifty seven AD. 5657. We know that pretty pretty well know exactly when it happened. He was written from Corinth.
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We're sure of that. It was written to the church at Rome. I've mentioned all this to those of you who have been here before. It's a mixed Jewish Christian group and Gentile Christian group but the Jewish Christian group is finding their identity still in their Judaism and finding their identity in things like circumcision or Torah or the religious practices, feasts, dietary rules, and that sort of thing. The Gentile or we could say pagan group is finding their identity where?
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Maybe in their roots but mainly in Jesus and so Paul is getting to something's a little deeper than where they come from. It's what they're coming into. In 8049, emperor Claudius expels the Jewish Christian leaders from Rome and in 8054, when he's out of office, they filter back in and when they filter back in there in a Gentile majority church. So, Paul is writing roughly twenty six, twenty seven years after the crucifixion and when he by this point, the movement that started out as what people thought was a Jewish sect had become a lot larger than that and it was upsetting things for a lot of people. That's why they kicked those Jewish Christian leaders out and it has grown now into the Gentiles because Christ says, I'm gonna build my church.
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I'm gonna do it and Christ was doing that. Christian identity is to be found in Christ. Amen. Paul argues that. Therefore, now, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
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Fifth chapter, eighth chapter, in Christ is very very important. So, Romans has a great deal to do with finding one's identity in Christ. Does not matter where you came from, where you are now, and who you put your faith and your trust in. So, here's where we detour away from that little section on Romans. I just wanted you to know that it is about your identity, where you place your trust, where you place your faith.
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So, the historical background. This slide is gonna contain spoilers for those of you who don't know what happened next week, okay? Let's back up about and it should be twenty six or twenty seven years. My math is pretty rough there. Twenty six, twenty seven years, not thirty six or thirty seven.
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That gets us into the four gospels. All four of them mention the story of Palm Sunday. Actually, it was a Monday but who cares, right? We we celebrated on Sunday, the Lord's day. We'll be in Roman Judea now instead of in Rome where Paul was writing Romans two or Corinth where he's writing it from.
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We're gonna be in Roman Judea. Now, Judea, we've heard mention a lot of time, land of the Jews but you see Roman Judea, that's the classification politically because it was under Rome and will be in the last week of Jesus' pre cross ministry. So, this is in the last say ten days leading up to the crucifixion. The historical background for the time I wanna go over as far as the political works, the economic setting, the cultural setting, and the religious setting. Primarily of the Jews.
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It has not the Christian movement at this point is Christ and his disciples. It is not grown beyond that. It's not grown beyond into the Gentile world a whole lot. Although there were some examples. The political setting, the Roman government practice, what we would call syncretism or multiculturalism, accepting that all religious beliefs, philosophical teachings, and even governmental ideologies can be held together, even should be held together under the Roman system.
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Religious freedom, political freedom, and freedom of thought for the individual were touted, touted. But the government didn't did enforce its control in local matters to maintain the peace and the peace wasn't enforced peace, alright? So, that's the politics. Judea was a client kingdom of Rome and they had a client king. Herod, the great, was kind of a puppet, quite honestly.
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He was raised as a Jew. He knew Claudius personally. He knew all of these Roman guys. He was educated in Rome but he was technically a Jew but he was complicit with the Roman government. Lot of people would have thought of him as a traitor.
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They were a client kingdom of Rome and he was their puppet king. He did have power. Don't get me wrong but he had it under the Roman system. So, the Jews held much distrust and often hatred for the Roman Empire and if you see anything in here that looks like today and you can replace Jew with Christian and you can replace Roman with American. Do that, okay?
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Because some of this stuff is gonna look really really familiar. Many Christians hold much distress and often hatred for the government, okay? They were somewhat unwilling subjects feeling like somebody else had taken over rule over them. Jewish resentment of the foreign Roman government was very apparent. I started to use Texas in this.
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Texas feels like there's a foreign government in charge right here. It's very apparent. You ever been to Texas? The Jews understood the world to be divided into two types of people. How do Christians typically divide the world?
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They're saved and unsaved. Christians and non Christians, the Jews saw it as Jewish and Gentile, anybody who was not Jewish. The Jews worked hard to disassociate themselves from the Gentiles and they did not cotton to being ruled by Gentiles or anyone complicit with the Gentiles. So, the people by and large didn't really like Herod, the Jewish people. They recognized that yay supposed to be our Jewish king but come on.
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Jewish people had a measure of freedom in both their governing system and in maintaining their own traditions yet the Roman government required that everything be ultimately subject to Roman authority. Rex, Lex, Lex, Rex. The law is king where the law stayed over church is the way they would have put things. The Jews believed in a theocracy where God should be the one in charge and the religious leaders should be in charge under him. So, there was some friction there but they did have a measure of freedom.
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Remember, the Sanhedrin is their governing body, met at the synagogue, and it was their so here it is. It says that. For example, Jewish citizens were under the authority of the Jewish court system to handle things the way that they felt like they ought to be handled in in Judaism. Yet, all the rulings for the death penalty were sent to the Roman government. Most of us know that knowing the Easter story.
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The Jewish religious and governing system were one at the time. It was not a separation of church and state as far as Jews went. The system was divided between two parties, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Now, we read them. We might read them together and just think, oh, yeah, they're all the same.
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Nope, they're not. The Pharisees were the people's party, the majority of the people went with the Pharisees who taught that the law and the traditions of Israel's patriarchs and they were strictly conforming to the Jewish law and actually, Pharisees who were teachers, rabbinical Pharisees were almost, they were kinda rock stars to the people. People really looked up to them and they were not complicit with the Roman government. They were trying to hold to our ideals as a people. The Sadducees were typically wealthy leaders who had rejected many of their Jewish traditions in favor of politics and religious cooperation with the Roman government.
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They were kind of pragmatist and it benefited them. Are you with me? Do you do you understand where I'm headed with this? So, the Pharisees of the people's party typically seen as right wingers. The sadducees are typically wealthy and typically seeing as left wingers.
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The Pharisees believed in a literal interpretation of scripture including resurrection, heaven, and a spiritual realm. They really believed it and the sadducees did not. Do you remember in Acts where Paul is accosted by a mob and they are going to tear him limb from limb and he knows that what he can do to get out of this situation is say something about the resurrection because he knows the two parties that are grabbing and beating on him don't agree on this subject and it's really easy to throw a political grenade out there and get people arguing about something other than you and you get to get away. So, that's what Paul did because he knew this. He knew these two groups.
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Do you see any similarities at all? There are two groups. They're ideologically opposed to one another. It's really easy to get a fight started. Yeah.
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There are a lot of things. If there's a shoe that fits in this, put it on and wear it, okay? So, the economic setting, the client king Herod, the great, had employed a lot of laborers by commission commission in many public works. You might have heard of the Herodian Palace or you might have known that the temple sometimes is referred to as Herod's Temple because he did extensive renovations to the temple and the Temple Mount. He made it much bigger than it was and much more visually aesthetically pleasing.
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He actually heard the great since he's not so Jewish, put a golden eagle into the temple, above the door of the temple and that graven image was absolutely anathema to the Jews and so he was not well liked. He also talked after he did that, he talked Caligula out of putting Caligula statue in the temple, okay? But Temple Mount, Jerusalem, palaces, ports, fortresses, stadiums, he had lots of public works that were being built. Kinda like the New Deal in The US. The CCCs or the WPA works project administration or the Citizens Conservation Corps that did so much work here and around my hometown.
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It was a public works type stuff. So, Herod was not generally well liked but people did have jobs. His son, Herod, Antipas, carried on in his footsteps, building large scale public works. This is including Sephora. Sephora is a town four miles from Nazareth.
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Most likely where Jesus and Joseph would have worked together as carpenters was Sephora. Most historians believe Mary was a young teenage girl from Sephora during a time when the government was building this place up, making a big deal. Kinda like the county seat where Jesus is from and there was a huge palace that was built at Tiberias. So, this is a coin that was from Herod Antipas' time. He had these things minted even though he's supposed to be Jewish.
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No graven images for Jews, right? You know why the money changers in the temple, the money changers in the temple was because Jews were not supposed to have money. They were not supposed to well use use money that was minted with images. So, they were traded in on like temple bucks basically. This is a core, the coin of Herod Antipas, a graven image created right there.
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There was a very, very large disparity between rich and poor. If you see anything that looks like today, it's just happenstance. The upper class was made up of temple priest and priestly aristocracy, mostly government officials, upper class, including the sadducees. Middle class was comprised of traders, merchants, artisans, stone cutters, masons, sculptors, and craftsmen, which is what Jesus and Joseph were. Right?
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Middle class guys, hardworking Americans. I mean, hardworking sorry. The Pharisees, sages, scribes, and teachers were also usually a part of that middle class and the Pharisees usually had another job other than just Pharisee. It was not just political. They usually had another job.
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Lower class was made up of laborers. That's weight weaver, stone carriers, people who are not as skilled as the others and slaves who were taken into slavery because of debt or the unemployable lepers, blind, insane, crippled, that sort of thing. Jews were also required to give sacrifices to the temple. I know this is death by PowerPoint people. I understand that.
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We're gonna get to something in just a minute where it's gonna be scripture. If you wanna close your eyes and not let these things bother you, I just don't wanna forget anything. Jews were also required to give sacrifices to the temple. Sometimes in the form of money but usually purchasing sacrificial animals right there to give and offer to the priest and allow the priest actually made money off of that too. Traveling teachers made their living by traveling from town to town accepting gifts from those who came to hear them.
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So, that's the way the rabbis would make their living and that's the way that Jesus made his living after he started ministry. In fact, it says that someone who was of Herod's household, Susanna, and some of the ladies who are of Herod's household were the ones that supported Jesus' ministry. During the first century, the temple courtyards had become a marketplace, the Agora, and local merchants would sell sacrificial animals at a premium price in order to turn a profit from tourist. If there's anything that sounds like Jackson, it just happens to us or to religious seekers that would come to the temple. So, that's the economic background.
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The cultural setting is like this, population. Most of the people would identify as Jewish in the villages but in the cities, it was more diverse and that's the way it is now. If you ask most people in The US, in the little towns, if you ask them what they are, most people are gonna say Christian and probably that's true. Most of them are Christians. In the towns though, you get a greater diversity of religious background, far greater ethnic diversity too.
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The language of the time, the common language in the Roman Empire was Greek all the way across. It was transitioning toward Latin. Later, it would be Latin which is a bad copy of Greek. Sorry. It was common for Jews to speak Hebrew or Aramaic or Latin Jesus spoke Aramaic.
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So, Jesus had an accent, kind of a funny accent. In Greek, maybe even in Hebrew. He was a minority. The hub of the village was a marketplace and shops and for the Jewish village, the synagogue was central meeting place, okay? The seat of local Jewish government like our town hall.
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The religious setting, the Jewish people very, very, very strongly and strictly believed in one God, monotheist, all the way down the line, no doubt about it and in contrast, everybody else around them believed in many gods, polytheists, and the Roman government was heavily leaning towards. Although you could have your religious freedom, they were heavily leaning towards the Roman gods and the emperor worship. Jewish tradition was centered on Sabbath day which started Friday at sundown, went to Saturday at sundown. It started with a prayer, the lighting of the candles by the wife of the household followed by a joyful Friday supper. This is the Passover.
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Was in the Sabbath tradition. It was like that. Sabbath was considered to be a day of rest and worship where everything that one did was to honor God. And in the religious setting at this time, have you heard everything I've said so far? The Jews feel like they were oppressed.
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Governmentally, economically, they felt like if you were going to make it in this world, you had to be complicit with the Roman government and they were not willing to do that. They were looking for a Messiah, an anointed one, a savior who would according to their understanding, bring them spiritual renewal. Praise God. Yahweh, praise him for sending us that Messiah. They're strict monotheist.
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They certainly didn't think that there was going to go come part of the godhead. They were thinking that it would be a military conqueror much like David. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine? Go out and fight him by himself and win. Little boy.
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They were looking for someone who would come like that and bring them political freedom from the centuries of foreign oppression and currently from the Roman Empire. Roman, Judea, they didn't like that. Major religious holiday by far. No doubt about it was Passover. Celebrated late March, early April usually, fourteenth in Nissan.
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Celebrating the deliverance of the Jewish people from their slavery in Egypt. So, that's even that Passover is about coming out of oppression. During the Passover, most, if not, many, if not, most would travel to Jerusalem in order to celebrate in the holy city. Are you with me so far? You got all the setting, the background, you see what makes this place, Jerusalem, thirty AD, a tender box.
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That brings us to the week then before the Passover. And Jesus is with his disciples. Alright. The date line Roman Judea, late March, early April, thirty AD and I know some of you are thinking 33, that's fine. I don't care.
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One arm wrestle over it. Most people agree, thirty AD, the way we count things now, it's thirty AD, okay? So, John eleven one through 46 gives the immediate background of the story and I'm gonna read this and I'm gonna read it straight through. Scripture is very very powerful and the linkages between this and what we're gonna read which is only a few verses. To me made a huge difference the first time that I put this together.
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The immediate background is they're headed from where they are in Galilee. They're headed. All the peoples are headed towards Jerusalem and here we go. Now, certain man was sick. Lazarus of Bethany.
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Bethany is right there or right there, okay? Bethany is east of. This is the temple. This is Jerusalem and so it is directly east of the temple. That's one mile.
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So, it's about two miles from the temple, Bethany and this is where Lazarus and Martha and Mary live. Two miles from ground zero. Where the Super Bowl is being held every year. Where people are making their pilgrimages every year, twice a year, but this is the biggest of the year. Now, certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Marion, her sister Martha.
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It was a Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother Lazarus was sick. So, the sisters, Mary and Martha, sent word to him saying, lord, behold, he whom you love is sick but when Jesus heard this, he said, this sickness is not to end in death, not to end in death, but for the glory of God so that the son of God may be glorified by it. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister, Mary, and Lazarus. So, when he heard that he was sick, what do you think he would do? If he heard that he was sick, what would he do?
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What do I do? When I hear somebody sick and in the hospital, I get up and go visit him in the hospital. I didn't have the same kind of power Jesus had but I still go immediately, usually. So, when he heard that he was sick, he stayed there for two days longer in the place where he was. Still at some length away from Bethany, still had a couple of days to walk there.
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He stayed two days longer and then after this, he said to the disciples and actually, right there where that asterisk is, anytime you see an asterisk in this, it's John using the historical present and trying to keep you into the story. He says, then after this, he says to him, let's go to Judea again. The disciples say to him, Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you and you're going back there again? Jesus answered, are they not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day and he doesn't stumble because he sees the light of this world But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not of not in him.
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This he said, and after that, he says to some of them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go or I am going so that I may awaken him out of sleep. And the disciple said to him, Lord, if he's fallen asleep, he'll recover. Sleep's good for you. Now, Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he was speaking of literal sleep. So Jesus then said to them plainly, I love it when he does this to the disciples.
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They bumped their head on something and he says, no, let me tell you plainly. Lazarus is dead. That's what I mean. Lazarus is dead. You got it?
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And I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there so that you may believe but now, let us go to him and therefore, Thomas, who's called Didamus or the twin, actually, we call him doubting Thomas. But listen to what doubting Thomas says to his fellow disciples. Let's go with him so that we we may also die with him. He was ready to go. He's probably been a smart aleck too but he was going with him anyway.
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So, when Jesus came, he found that he had already been in the tomb four days. Now, Bethany was near Jerusalem. By the way, the Jews considered three days, the limit, okay? If someone swooned, they weren't going to swoon longer than three days. You can go ahead and bury him, right?
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He's dead. He's been in the tomb now four days. Now, Bethany was near Jerusalem about two miles off and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother and Martha, therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him but Mary stayed at the house. Mary's emotional. Y'all remember that?
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She's at Jesus's feet pouring out the ointment. She's at Jesus's feet listening to his command and Martha's all business. Martha hears Jesus is coming. She goes out to meet him. Mary stayed at the house and Martha then said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
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Where did she put her faith? Did she trust Jesus? She did. She trust him. She had seen him do miracles before.
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She knew that he had the power to heal and she knew that if he had been there, he would have healed Lazarus. She had faith in him. Lord, if you've been here, my brother would not have died and even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. She believed him still. Even though it was looking pretty bad.
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Lazarus been dead four days. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again And Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. What political party was Martha? She was of the Pharisee party. She's a people, people.
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She's middle class. She believed in the literal interpretation of scripture. She believed that there was a resurrection, that there was a spiritual reality, and she knew that he would rise again in the resurrection. She was confident in that. And Jesus said to her, I am.
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I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even if he dies and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? It's a direct question. Do you believe this?
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What's your decision? What do you believe about Jesus? Where do you put your faith? Where do you put your trust? Jesus directly asked, do you believe this?
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And she said to him or she says to him, yes, lord. I believe that you're the Christ, the son of God, even he who comes into the world. When she had said this, she went away and called Mary, her sister, saying secretly, the teacher is here and he's calling for you and when she heard it, she gets up quickly and she was coming to him. Now, Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still in the place where Martha met him. Then, the Jews who were with her in the house and consoling her when they saw Mary got up quickly and went out.
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They followed her supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was and she saw him, she fell at his feet. Again, she's at his feet and say unto him, lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. She felt the same way Martha did. She put her faith and her trust in Christ.
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If you had been here, my brother would not have died and when Jesus, therefore, saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled. Cast your cares upon the Lord because he cares for you. He deeply was moved. And he said, where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see.
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And Jesus wept. So the Jews were saying, see how he loved him. But some of them said, could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind man and kept this man also from dying? You see that these are the innocent bystanders around, and they see the compassion that Jesus has for these sisters, and they are starting to wonder whether he could have done something. Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind have kept this man also from dying.
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These are questioning seekers. Wait a second. That thing keeps jumping. So, Jesus, again, being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now, it was a cave and a stone was lying against it and Jesus says to them, remove the stone.
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Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to him, lord, by this time time, there will be a stench for he has been dead four days. This is a new American standard. The King James actually says, he stinketh. He stinketh. Lord, by this time, there will be a stench for he's been dead four days and Jesus said to her, did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?
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So, they removed the stone, then Jesus raised his eyes and said, father, I thank you that you have heard me. 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. What is it about? It's about resurrection.
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It's about life. I'm the way, the truth, the life. I'm the resurrection, and the life. So that they may believe that you sent me When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice. Lazarus, come forth.
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And the man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings in his face, was wrapped around with a cloth. And Jesus says to them, unbind him and let him go. Therefore, many of the Jews who had come to Mary, now, these were not necessarily believers in Jesus. They just know Mary and Martha, right? Many of the Jews, that's the way they describe, came to Mary and saw what he had done and they believed in him.
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Now, as Christians, we'd say, they went from say, unsaved to saved. They went from non Christians to Christians right there because they believed in him and I believe they did but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done. Now, Jesus had just proved the Pharisees political point. There is such a thing as a resurrection, right? That's what he had just done.
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He had made unequivocal proof that the sadducees were dead wrong. So, some of them, it doesn't say they believed in him but they did see what happened. So, they went to the Pharisees and told them the things what Jesus had done. Now, it looks like what the Pharisees should have done and said, yes. Alright.
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Finally, we've got the upper hand on these sadducees and some of them probably did. But listen to this and this is sad. Therefore, the chief priest, those were sadducees appointed, put in place by the Roman government, complicit with Romans. The chief priest and the Pharisees, woah, divergent political views. Get together, convene the council, and they were saying, what are we doing?
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For this man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, all men will come to believe in him and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation and that's what they were concerned with. They were concerned with losing political power. It's against what they said that they believed. They were concerned with losing political power and so, the Romans are gonna come and take away both our place and our nation but one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, you know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people and that the whole nation not perish.
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Now, he did not say this on his own initiative but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, for those chosen of God. And not for the nation only but in order that he might also gather together into one people, the children of God who are scattered abroad so that from that day on, they plan together. Sadducees and Pharisees getting together and what their plan was was to kill him. Therefore, Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews because he was a wanted man at that point, right? But went away from there to the country near the wilderness into a city called Ephraim and he there he stayed with the disciples.
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Now, the Passover, the Jews was near and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before Passover to purify themselves. So, they were seeking for Jesus and were saying to one another as they stood in the temple, what do you think? That he will not even come to the feast at all? Now, the chief priest and the Pharisees, Sadducees, Pharisees, working together, had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he was to report it so that they might seize him. This is a tender box.
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One mile is that distance. So, less than two miles, about two miles. Bethany to the temple. The Mount Of Olives is what is in between these two and all the folks coming from up here in Galilee over here would walk down instead of walking through Samaria to get to Jerusalem. They'd walk all the way over here on the other side of the Jordan River or on along the side of the Jordan River, the West bank of the Jordan River.
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They would come down and then they'd come up from Jericho. Coming up from Jericho is like coming from Jackson up to Teton Pass. It's 3,500 feet vertical. They would get up to Bethany, and then the Mount Of Olives is kinda dramatically named. The Mount Of Olives is only about 260 something feet high.
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But going from Bethany over the Mount Of Olives into the temple is the way that most of the Jews would have been walking. This is Jesus in a painting by Enrique Simonette, Spanish 1892. He wept over her. Luke's gospel in chapter 19 says, that as Jesus was approaching, going over the Mount Of Olives, he looked down on Jerusalem and he wanted that they would accept him and he knew that they wouldn't and he wept. So, Jesus wept for Lazarus and he wept for Jerusalem.
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Gustave Dure did this print of Jesus and his entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Now, that's the Mount Of Olives. Like I said, two sixty two feet rising above the Temple Mount which was about the highest place in Jerusalem. This is what it looked like in July 2009. In Georgia, we call that a mountain.
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Y'all wouldn't even call it a butte here but Olive Butte doesn't have the same effect as Mount Of Olives. So, Jesus would give his Olivet discourse up here on the Mount Of Olives. The Garden Of Gethsemane is down here near the bottom and that's where he would pray that famous priestly prayer in John 17. The Mount Of Olives figured very highly into this week. Now, here we go to the normal typical Palm Sunday material text.
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We've heard all of Lazarus being raised from the dead. That's what this is about. They can stand some guy up in Nazareth or maybe Capernaum healing a few people here and there but he's at the big show now. He's in right outside Jerusalem and he has the audacity to heal a man. No, raise a man from the dead.
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He has the power to give the dead life. Amen. And he does it within two miles of the temple. Now, Jesus has said over and over and over and over and over throughout the gospels, he said, my time has not yet come. My time has not yet come.
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Mary, when she anoints his feet, he said, she knows my time is coming. My hours here. This is it. On the next day, the large crowd who had come to the feast. So, they're all there for Passover, right?
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When they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet him. Now, why palm trees? Why palm branches? Well, for one thing, that's what they had, right? But palm branches were symbolic in the ancient Near East of victory for one thing but everybody counted them as victory.
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Israel though had them as a national symbol. It was a symbol of Jewish nationality or Jewish identity. Tandem out to temple worship, moral purity, social justice, even circumcision. Palm branches were this outward sign that our king has come. The coin of Herod Antipas I showed you earlier has a palm branch on the back of it.
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He was tapping into Jewish nationalism even though he was minting coins and shouldn't have been. Palm branches. It would be like our flag or most nation's flag is a is a hot point. So, they're waving palm branches, putting them down in front of him, putting their cloaks in front of him according to the other gospels and they begin shouting, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. That must Herod Antipas is technically the king of Israel, right?
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But no, they're recognizing this and saying, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. Now, Hosanna is from Hebrew. There it is in Psalm one eighteen twenty five. Here it is in Greek, Psalm one eighteen twenty five and it means that is save now. Oh Lord, I beseech you, Psalm one eighteen twenty five says, oh Lord, I beseech you, Hosanna.
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Save us now. We are oppressed. We're politically, economically, culturally, and religiously oppressed by everybody around us. Save us now. Oh Lord, I beseech you, send prosperity now.
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That's what they're calling out when he's coming in and they saw in him the possibility that this could be the guy that turns it all around for us. Send prosperity now. Save us now. The rest of the story, Jesus finding a young donkey, sat on it as it is written, fear not, daughter of Zion, Israel. Behold, your king is coming and he's seated on a donkey's colt.
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That's a prophecy from Zechariah. These things his disciples did not understand at the first but when Jesus was glorified and then they remembered that these things were written of him and that they had done these things to him. So, the people who are with him, when he called Lazarus out of the tomb, You see the linkage there? These are folks who had already seen him raise a man from the dead knowing he's got the power of life and death in his hand. These people who were with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and they raised him and raised him from the dead continued to testify about him.
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You couldn't shut those people up. For this reason, also, the people went and met him because they heard that he had performed this miracle, this sign, raising Lazarus. So, the Pharisees said to one another, you see that you're not doing any good. Look, the whole world is going out after him. What should they have been saying?
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Hosanna. Save us now. Calling out for that spiritual renewal. Calling out for the king. Now, what was Jesus doing when he's entering this triumphal entry?
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What was he doing? He was listening. He was saving them. Everything had to happen just as it was including riding on the donkey. He comes in and what Carl's going to talk about is that whole week leading up to the cross.
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He was answering, Hosanna, save us now. Now, fast forward. Our setting. Nineteen hundred and eighty six years later. 2016, the place is The USA instead of Rome or Corinth or Roman Judea.
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Palm branches are replaced with old glory. We're in an election season right now. My goodness. It's twenty four seven all the time. So all you hear, news, news, news, news, news, And there are plenty of people promising big things.
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Now Jesus had not said anything. Did you notice that? He he hadn't said anything. But people were lifting him up and touting him. Our political setting is this.
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American government practices syncretism, accepting that all religious beliefs, philosophical teachings, and even governmental ideologies, no matter what your party is, can be held together under the American system. Religious freedom, political freedom, and freedom thought for the individual are touted, but dot dot dot. I won't go through all of this but if you consider our political setting right now and our economic setting right now and our cultural setting right now and our religious setting and you're calling on anything other than king Jesus to save you now, you're going to be sorely disappointed. Our identity as Christians need to be found, needs to be found in Christ. Hosanna, save us.
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Now, and he will and he does. He did what he did on the cross in the death, the burial, the resurrection, his session. He's done everything that he's needed to be able to save you now and if you call out on to him, unto him, Hosanna, lord, save us now. Save me now. He will.
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That's what he says he will do. Amen. Now, you got a song. I know you got a song. If you'll just wait right there, I don't know if y'all know this song.
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It might just be me singing up here. Would you stand with me? And we're gonna sing a kid's song. If you know what Kessler's, join in strong, okay? Clap your hands all you people shouting to God with the voice of triumph Clap your hands all ye people shout unto God with a voice of praise.
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Hosanna, Hosanna, shout unto God with a voice of triumph. Praise him, praise him, shout unto God with a voice of praise. Did y'all know that song? None of you did. Oh, just me and Pat Boone are the only ones that know that song.
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Okay. Well, good. You caught on. It's a it is a song of triumph. Now, the people by the end of the week had figured out that he wasn't going to save them the way they thought and they were yelling crucify him.
1:00:04
Don't do that. Don't give up on God. Amen. I've got one more slide and it's a benediction. If you can get me there, Renzy.
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That's what we're going to sing. Here it is. This is a forecast of what is to be, okay? From Revelation seven nine. Same guy who wrote John, wrote Revelation, and this is future, not past.
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After all of this, I saw a vast crowd, too great to count from every nation and tribe, and people, and language, standing in front of the throne and before the lamb, they were clothed in white robes and they held palm branches in their hands and they were shouting with a great roar. Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the lamb. Amen and amen. Amen. That's it.
1:00:53
Amen. That's it. How about another course? Shall I? No, I'm just kidding.
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Y'all go ahead.
