Today's scripture reading can be found in John 12, verses 12 through 19. I'll ask you to turn there and then stand for the reading of God's word. This is God's holy, inspired, and inerrant word kept for you, people of God. The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. And Jesus found a donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. The crowds that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done the sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, you see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the whole world has gone after him. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever. Please be seated. The church marks Jesus' entry into Jerusalem riding upon a donkey as the start of Holy Week or Passion Week. It is Palm Sunday, as Jesus enters the holy city for his final week of earthly ministry. Nearly, or actually a bit more than a hundred years ago, a German scholar wrote this about the gospels, which is particularly relevant to John's gospel, when he said, the gospels are passion narratives with long introductions. passion narratives with long introductions. And that is certainly the case with John's gospel. It's not to say that the introduction was not important, vitally important. We learn many things about Jesus. We see the signs that he performed, the places that he went, the things that he taught, unique to John's gospel. We would be impoverished without the introduction. It takes John 10 and a half chapters to span that 33 and a half years of Jesus' ministry. Now we come to Holy Week, and it takes John eight chapters for one week. and then two for the resurrection of Jesus. So practically half of his gospel focuses upon this last week of Jesus and his resurrection after his death. Clearly an important week. For the Jews, they were not celebrating this, of course, they were celebrating Passover. And Passover week was a significant festival for Israel. It is one of the annual feasts that the children of Israel were required to attend, and so during this time, Jerusalem would swell with worshipers. We already heard back in chapter 11 that worshipers had come from distant places to purify themselves in order that they could be ready to take the Passover meal, and we're told that those worshipers that are there in Jerusalem were met by more. They continued to come from places both far and wide to celebrate this feast. Josephus says, writing about 30 years later from this event, and this is probably an inflated number, but he said that during Passover, Jerusalem could swell to over 2 million people in this little city. It was a time of celebration, it was a time of remembrance, of course, and it was a time that made the Romans nervous. Because as you will remember, Israel is celebrating that time when the Lord went to Egypt, delivered them out from under slavery to their Egyptian masters with a powerful arm, performing miracle after miracle, devastating the Gentiles and liberating his people. And so this is on the minds of God's people as they come to celebrate Passover. It had to be, that virtually everyone had the same thoughts in this regard. When will God visit his people again? When will he raise up the Messiah to come and deliver us out from under the Gentiles once more, the Romans who have subjugated us and forced us to submit to the will of Caesar? When will God deliver his people again? So you have this celebratory mood, you have this wonder, and then you have the political worry of the Romans all bound up in one city for one week. And this is the place to which Jesus goes. And John is telling us in no uncertain terms what Jesus' coming means for Israel. And as we will say, even for the world, it means that he is king. That is John's point. Jesus is king. And we see that in three ways. In his royal greeting, in the meaning of that arrival, and in the expanse or spread of his rule. Jesus is king. We see that by the greeting of the king, the meaning of his coming, and the spread of his rule. Look how he's greeted in verse 12. The next day, the crowds, the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. Jesus is here approaching Jerusalem. The enthusiasm from the Galileans who are coming with him is growing. And then you have those who have already been out to Bethany, who saw the resurrection of Lazarus, who went back into Jerusalem. to stir the crowd some more and to increase the expectations of the people, and they in Jerusalem are coming out and meeting Jesus. So you have these two crowds of worshipers singing and rejoicing and coming out, and Jesus is the focal center. And John tells us two things about their coming out. One, what they took, and second, what they said. What did they take with them? Well, he says in verse 13, they took branches of palm trees. Now, why would they do that? And why palm trees in particular? I mean, he could have said they just cut down branches from trees and brought them out, but he says, no, these were palm branches. And again, I would say to you that this is the sign, this is an indication of an eyewitness. This is an eyewitness's touch. If someone was writing about Jesus hundreds of years later, trying to fill in the gaps for our winner of history, for our own way of crafting the winner taking all, would they know hundreds of years later and away from the promised land as the Jews were expelled from the land, would they know how important palm branches were to Israel? In fact, they were. We've talked about the Jewish revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes IV during the time between the Old and the New Testament. We talked about how Israel had to deal with that Greek influence, how they would put altars around Jerusalem and slaughter pigs on them. and how the Maccabean revolt led to the cleansing of the temple, which then became another feast, the Feast of Dedication. We were already there just a few chapters ago. But listen as I read from 1 Maccabees 13. about the return of Simon Maccabeus as he comes back to Jerusalem after the victory of pushing the Gentiles out of Jerusalem. This is what he was met by. On the 23rd day of the second month in 175th year, The Jews entered it with praise and palm branches, and with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments, and with hymns and songs, because a great enemy had been crushed and removed from Israel. Simon decreed that every year they should celebrate this day with rejoicing." There's another place in the Maccabees where the temple is cleansed and people have palm branches in hand. Here, the leader of the army comes back to Jerusalem, back after the defeat of the enemies, and he is met by people waving palm branches and singing and holding them up in the air. And for Israel, then the palm branch was a sign of Israel's victory, of God's victory on behalf of his people. We have found coins dating from about the mid 60s in this present time, AD 60 to 65, somewhere around there. Coins have been found with the inscription for the redemption of Zion with images of palm trees inscribed on them. Palm tree leaves were national symbols, maybe something like the United States has its flag, Israel had its palm branch. But it's more than just what they bring, a sign of expected victory, of crushing the enemies, it's also what they say. They are singing a royal welcome. They went out to meet him, crying out, Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Even the king of Israel. They're not just saying these things, they are singing these things. And the crowd is singing from the Psalms. Psalm 118, verse 25. It was one of the Psalms of ascent that the pilgrims every year would sing as they went up to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast. They would sing Psalm 118.25, but here it is different. They're singing the psalm about Jesus. The word Hosanna means, please save now. The next stanza in Psalm 118 is, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. So on Palm Sunday, at the start of Passion Week, the Jews come out praising the one whom they believed had finally come to rescue them, to save them. This Jesus who raised Lazarus from the dead is going to raise Israel out from under the Roman grip of oppression. And it's very interesting that they would choose this verse of all verses from Psalm 118 to greet Jesus because this is exactly what Jesus has been saying all along. John 5 verse 43, he said, I have come in my father's name and you do not receive me. John 6, verse 38, I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And you know what happens later in that chapter, the bread of life is turned away and the people depart from him. They do not receive him. Back in chapter 7, verse 28, Jesus had said at the Feast of Booths, you know me and you know where I come from. but I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, but him you do not know. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." Have they finally understood Jesus and where he has come from and what he is going to do, what his plan is going to be? Well, they understand partly who he is, but they do not understand what he comes to do. it appears their royal welcome has now indicated something about the crowd's position on Jesus. Though the Pharisees and the chief priests want him dead, they have refused to receive him, they are quite willing to see him as the Messiah. And in fact, you notice at the end of verse 13, they add to their song from Psalm 118, something that is actually not in the Psalm, even the King of Israel, And so by adding King of Israel, they have correctly identified Jesus as the Christ. You can imagine the enthusiasm on this Passover week comes one whom they are saying, here he is. At last, Psalm 118 has come true. Here is the blessed one who comes from God in the name of God. He is the Messiah who is going to save us. But of course the question is, how is He going to save us? By doing what we want or by doing what God wants? Neither they nor the disciples could have possibly understood that the way of salvation was a different path than so many conquering warriors before Jesus. He was not riding into Jerusalem to destroy the Romans, to push out the Gentiles. He has come for a different task. Keep your place in John and turn to Psalm 118 for just a moment. Psalm 118, tells us what it is that this conquering Son of David, this Messiah, has come to do. As we said, verses 25 and 26, those are the words of the crowd. Save us, we pray, O Lord. O Lord, we pray, give us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. But little did they know that the way of salvation comes through humiliation. Cast your eye on verse 22. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. So here are these builders coming out to Jesus. or they are the ones who are staying behind the walls of Jerusalem, plotting his death. The stone does not fit the building project. So they reject it, but that's God's plan all along. He is going to build his kingdom in just this way. In God's program, Acceptance with the Lord comes through rejection of Jesus. They were right to call him blessed, yet he goes on to the cross to be cursed. They were correct when they called Him the King of the Jews, and in not many days to come, He will wear the crown of thorns. They were right in hailing Him, David's son, the King of Israel. Little would they know that their King would be enthroned with a sign over the cross, over Jesus' head, written with the inscription, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Save us, we pray, O Lord. How does that take place? Not by the defeat of the Romans, but by the defeat of death after Jesus has been rejected. Back to John's gospel. They tried this once before. Back in chapter six, remember when Jesus fed their empty stomachs, filled their stomachs with bread and fish, they said, this is the king. Let's enthrone him. And Jesus backs off. He will not allow them to make him king as they have conceived of it. But now that has changed. Not this time. The deliverer has finally come and he is not just a king. He is the king. They hailed him king by their words and actions and by his actions, he draws the minds of careful readers and of his disciples later back to the meaning of what he is about to do. What is the meaning of this arrival on a donkey? Let's look at it. Verse 14. Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. John is here bringing out the meaning of Christ's entry into Jerusalem. And he says, if you want to know what it was that Jesus was up to, you have to know what the prophet Zechariah had said some 500 years before. And John is saying, we did not get that. Remember, they did understand one thing about Jesus as they were leaving Galilee. Mark tells us that on three occasions, Jesus said to them, this is why we're going to Jerusalem, I'm gonna die. And then later he would add to that, I am going to be handed over and crucified, but I will be raised from the dead on the third day. They know that. And they know that the crowd wants Jesus as king. So it's a bit of a confusion. How is Jesus going to die? And yet he is being hailed as king. What are we to make of this? And they did not understand until after the resurrection of Jesus and the giving of the Holy Spirit. And it was then that they understood he's coming to Jerusalem as the king to lay down his life for his servants. John is saying, take a look for yourself. The full quotation takes us back to Zechariah 9, verse 9. Both Psalm 118 and Zechariah 9 fill in the details of Christ's arrival. They tell us what this king is going to do. Psalm 18 says he will be rejected. What does Zechariah tell us about this king? Once more, we need to go to the Old Testament. So turn back to Zechariah. It's just a couple of books before the New Testament. Zechariah chapter nine, verse nine. And there the prophet speaks these words. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Now, contrast that arrival of Jesus with the arrival of so many other kings. How did they come? They would come, not on a donkey, they'd come on a war horse. They would come with chariots. They would come with their armies. Oh, and what army is Jesus coming with? A few fishermen and a tax collector. The kings of this world are proud in their position. How does God's King, Israel's Messiah, how does he come? He comes humble. The kings of this world were not righteous. Even David, the greatest king of Israel, could perform unrighteous acts like adultery and murder. But this king comes to Jerusalem saying by his approach, something in my hand I bring. He comes in perfect righteousness, the righteousness God requires, and having salvation. Israel was saved time and again from their enemies through leaders, through kings, but there was always the threat to return. There was always an enemy that wanted to conquer them. There was always turmoil and tears. No king could deliver Israel from their greatest enemy, from the greatest threat, death itself brought on by sin and God's curse. No king could save his people from this enemy. but Jesus can. He had raised Lazarus from the dead and now he enters Jerusalem to defeat death forever. And friends, you need to know this because this is part of the duty of the church, not only to preach Christ from all of scripture, but also to help us in our own Bible readings. So here is a tip for interpreting the Bible. When a New Testament author sends you back to the Old Testament, Very rarely, I would say, is it to just look at one single verse. Usually when you are sent back, you are to think about the place in which that verse is found. Remember, they don't have chapters and verses written on the scrolls. Go see that verse. But inciting a place from the Old Testament, they're saying, go back to that section and look. And this is what you find. This is the meaning. This is certainly the case with Jesus. What does this righteous, humble, saving King come to do? Look at verse 10 of Zechariah 9. It goes on. This is what he comes into the holy city to do. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem and the battle bow shall be cut off. and he shall speak peace to the nations. His rule shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit." You see, that is what the disciples did not understand. They did not connect it to Zechariah and the purpose for the king's coming and neither did the crowds. They did not understand that Jesus signaled what he was about to do by finding a donkey and then riding into Jerusalem upon it. He was accepting the work of the high king of heaven that his father had placed upon him to do. And what work has he come to do? It is the work of Notice what he does, he cuts off the chariot and the war horse and the battle bow. If you are a nation that no longer needs these things, what does that mean? It means that you are at peace. And so those images are the very things that he says to the nations that follow. What he does for Israel, he speaks over the nations of the world, peace. From the river to the ends of the earth shall his rule be. He speaks peace to the nation. So let's pause and make an application here. If peace is the purpose of Christ's coming, if it means that much to the God of peace and the spirit of peace, shouldn't it matter to the church? isn't one of the evidences of the Spirit's work among us that we will be a people of peace. This, of course, does not mean that we can be at peace with the world, the flesh, the devil, or sin. But it does mean that there is a problem if God's people are not at peace with one another, because this is what Jesus has come to make, peace not only between human beings and God, but peace within the family of God, peace between people who belong to Jesus. When Jesus came to make peace between his people and God, he also said something about such people. He said, blessed are the peacemakers. Why? Or how? Or what would that mean? Well, it would mean by bringing Christ's peace to every situation. What has Christ done? What does the Prince of Peace say? Let's do that. It means that if Jesus can reconcile a hostile people to the Lord, can we not settle those differences in a way that honors this one who gave his life for this very thing? And Jesus said, those who do such things are called blessed because they are the peacemakers who are sons of God. So let's be clear that this is just not a neat little, oh yeah, Jesus came to bring peace between us and God. He came to bring peace as a lasting imprint, like on the coin, so it should be on us, people seeking the peace and the good of others, as Jesus did. How does Jesus make peace? It's there in verse 11. It's costly, isn't it? Through the blood of the covenant. Jesus comes as king, he will purchase a salvation that is deeper than people could have thought. It will expand well beyond Roman captivity to the captivity of the will. And it is wider, it goes beyond the borders of Jerusalem to envelop the nations. The blood of Jesus sets the prisoners free and brings peace to the nations. And you notice what he says, John is saying that when Jesus takes on the mantle of Zechariah's approaching King, riding on the donkey, it is not just for Israel's salvation, it is for the salvation of the world. It is for the nations, for those who are in the waterless pit. You know what that means, don't you? Slavery. It means worse than slavery. It means that you are a criminal. You're in the depths of the dungeon. This is what Joseph says after his brothers pull him out of the pit and later on Potiphar puts him in the pit. Joseph says, I've done nothing to deserve to be here. Well, we have done plenty to deserve to be in the waterless pit, in the dungeon, and yet Jesus comes to liberate. What great news. He will speak peace to them. Israel thought he was coming to speak war to their enemies. And John is saying, no, actually what he was doing is coming to be the Prince of Peace to the nations. So we need to go back to John then and conclude if this is what he was doing. Jesus has been hailed the king. This is the reason for his approach. He rides in to secure salvation and peace. And John in his own way says what Zechariah was saying 500 years before about the extent of Jesus' kingdom. What is the extent of his rule? Verse 17. One of the delightful ironies in John's gospel, the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard that he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, you see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him. Now friends, how does the fame of Jesus and his works that he is doing, how does that spread? The crowd, it's through people. The people who were there who saw him raise Lazarus from the dead are bearing witness. It's not accidental that John would use those words, those descriptors for what they were doing. Remember, John the Baptist bore witness. He told others about Jesus. The Samaritan woman bore witness. She told her town about Jesus. And now here are these who have come to comfort Mary and Martha, who see Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead, and they begin to bear witness. They are telling others about Jesus. And I should say, isn't that our calling? To bear witness? To tell others about Jesus? I absolutely love what the Pharisees say to one another. They said more than they knew. The world has gone after him. Isn't that what Zechariah promised? He shall speak peace to the nations. His rule shall be from sea to sea. How will the people of this world go after Jesus? Through the witness of the church. And it's not surprising that Jesus would say, yes, people are trapped in a deep, dark pit that, humanly speaking, no one can get to. They are spiritually gone. They are dead. They are buried in the pit. But Jesus promises, as my church goes forth with the message of salvation, the cross, the atonement for sin, the resurrection for our justification, the right standing before God, as we go forward in Christ's name, Jesus promises the gates of hell will not be able to withstand the onslaught. He will rescue his people. Today is the day of salvation. So church, as you take the message of Jesus Christ to people, you take the message of victory. Regardless of whether or not they reject it, as they rejected Jesus long ago, you have a message of victory. Jesus succeeds in purchasing every one of God's people. Jesus succeeds in conquering death. And Jesus will return to deal with what is left of his enemies. And it is very interesting, as the Bible talks about Christ coming to earth a second time, It will not be lowly and humble on a donkey." John said, Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. The one sitting on it is called faithful and true. And in righteousness, he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire and on his head are many diadems. And he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood. And the name by which he is called is the word of God, Revelation 19. What does Jesus' salvation achieve for those who put their faith in Him? For those who go out praising Him and declaring Him King. For those who wave the palm branches in the air of their hearts with faith. Let me give you finally, and with this we'll close, three images, three pictures of what this salvation achieves for you. The first is 1 Kings 6.29. It was Solomon who was appointed to build the temple and God's house would have certain pieces of art. In 1 Kings 6.29, it says that all around the walls of the house, he carved engraved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers in the inner and outer rooms. The temple contains engravings of palm trees, a sign of God's victory, a symbol of the king enthroned in Israel's midst, a sign of peace for God's people as the priests would enter the temple every day to trim the lights, to remove the bread, and so forth. They would be reminded by these symbols. But these symbols said something else. In Psalm 92, they say this, verses 12 and 13, the righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord. They flourish in the courts of our God. like a palm tree planted in the house of the Lord, like the temple of God. With the carvings of the palm trees, both inside and out, it is a reminder heaven will be filled. The palm tree is also a symbol of God's people being planted in his heavenly dwelling to be there forever. The righteous flourishing like the palm tree, planted in the house of the Lord. That is the destiny to which all believers go. And there is one other text, one other symbol. Turn to Revelation 7, and with this, we are finished. Revelation 7, verse 9, John shows us the picture of heaven that awaits us as we walk by faith. Revelation 7, verse 9, after this I looked, And behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. Those palm branches are also a symbol of the victory of God through the praise of his people. And so, Francis, we worship on earth. We are doing this that they are enjoying in heaven. We are, so to speak, raising our voices as they are raising those symbolic palm trees up in the air, looking to Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, who sheds his blood of the covenant so that we might be planted in God's house. pray. Father, we thank you for the detailed tapestry of your plan that is pronounced on every page of Scripture. that your plan is not one like ours that is subject to change, that it never fails to achieve each and every part's detail will be perfectly carried out. And so it is with this that we have confidence that because Jesus has entered his eternal rest, we also will join him. the mediator of the covenant, the king of Israel, the Lord and giver of life. We thank you for him. And it's in his name. We call upon you now to help us worship you not only here, but this week in all that we do. May people see that our palm branches are in the air, not for any political party or any work that might be done on Earth in the name of humanity, but that we raise our voices and the palm branches of our lives in honor of King Jesus. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen.