Please turn your Bibles to John chapter 12. John chapter 12. We will be reading verses 12 through 19. Hear now the word of the Lord. John 12, 12 through 19. On the next day, the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet him, and began to shout, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it, as it is written, fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt. These things his disciples did not understand at the first. But when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of him and that they had done these things to him. So the people who were with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to testify about him. For this reason also the people went and met him because they heard that he had performed this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, you see that you are not doing any good. Look, the world has gone after him. Let us pray to the Lord and ask that he would bless the preaching of his word. Heavenly Father, we do pray, Lord God, that you would bless the preaching of your word this morning, that you would bless your people, that as we hear your word, Lord, that we would receive it by faith. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Before my family and I moved to Texas last year, my wife and I flew out here to look for housing. Everyone had told us to rent for some time and then look into buying a house. But we were so tired of moving, we had moved so many times in the past few years, so when we came, we spent most of the time looking for a house to purchase. The day before we had to go back to California, we found the house. It was the one. We had seen some nice houses, houses that we would have been happy to live in, but this one was the one. Providentially, the house had just been placed on the market and it was within our price range, so we made an offer and left to California, hopeful that God was going to provide this home. I was so excited about the house that unknowingly I began to place an expectation on God. He was going to get us this house, or I had a false expectation of God that he was gonna get us this house. So when we found out a few days later that the owner had accepted another offer and we were not going to get the house, I was disappointed. But the Lord has always comforted me and reminded me that He has always taken care of me and my family. He has always provided for the things that we need. And isn't this the case that we sometimes expect things of God, and then we are disappointed when we don't get it? We think that God owes us certain things for some reason, and again, we don't get it, so we are disappointed. But it's also the case that often whatever we do get, whatever God does provide for us, is not nearly as good as what we thought we wanted. God always goes above and beyond. But nevertheless, the point is we have sometimes false expectations of God, what He's supposed to do. And this is what we see here this morning in our text. So John not only continues this transition from Jesus' public ministry to his suffering, but he does so with the theme of Jesus as beginning his rule as king as he rides triumphantly into Jerusalem. We see the crowd receive Jesus and express their adoration of him, but for the wrong reasons. The entry into Jerusalem is a triumphal entry, but not in the way that the people expected, not in the way that most of us would expect of an earthly king. But knowing what was about to take place and the great victory Jesus, the king, was about to procure, this entrance was indeed a triumphal entrance. And so because Jesus is the triumphant King who triumphs, not through military conquest, but through spiritual conquest by His death, we can trust in Him. And so as we look at our text, we will be looking then at this king coming into Jerusalem and the false expectations that people had of him and what Jesus' true identity of king meant. So as we look and consider our text, we will consider it under three major points. First, God's promise of a king. God's promise of a king. Second, the people's false expectations of the king. And then thirdly, Jesus' true identity as the king. So let us look at our first point, God's promise of a king. So this is the day after the anointing at Bethany. It is what we would call today Palm Sunday. Remember that the anointing, the anointing that was the day before was said to be for his burial. It pointed, foreshadowed his death. But here we see Jesus entering into Jerusalem as king. This makes sense when we consider that the anointing was also a marker that set Jesus apart as king. This is why the previous narrative is important to the transition from Jesus' public ministry to his more private ministry with his twelve disciples and his suffering. When the people heard that Jesus was coming, They took branches from palm trees and went out to meet him. They went to see him because of the sign that he had performed of raising Lazarus from the dead. This is what John tells us in verse 18. There was a large crowd and this crowd was not the regular large size crowd. It was an even larger crowd due to the Passover. According to Josephus, a first century Jewish historian, during one particular Passover, there was somewhere around 2,700,000 people in attendance. So from a large number of people such as this, many had heard about Jesus and how he had raised Lazarus from the dead. And so when they heard that he was coming, they went out to meet him. And as Jesus enters, the people were shouting, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. And this was not a one-time shout. The picture being described here is that they were joyfully, enthusiastically, and persistently continually shouting this saying as Jesus was entering into Jerusalem. Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. It was a constant repeating phrase that they were saying, that they were shouting. And we are told that Jesus then enters into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. And John mentions that Jesus had done this as it was written. Well, written where? Written in the Holy Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament. He says that this happened just as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion. Behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. Now, it is important to remember that everything about Jesus, His birth, His ministry, His entrance here into Jerusalem, and even His betrayal and His death, His burial, His resurrection, are not just things that happened by chance. God is in His eternal purpose, had decreed and foreordained these things to take place. And even Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem in this very way, was foretold hundreds of years ago because it had been planned by God in eternity. None of the events here, or any event in history for that matter, are by chance. God has ordained all things. And none of the events here or that will come to pass shortly afterwards were accidental. They did not catch God by surprise. So this quote that John quotes that he attributes to Jesus as a fulfillment is found in Zechariah chapter nine. It was written some 500 plus years before this event took place. And in Zechariah nine, Zechariah is describing the Lord God of Israel fighting for her and destroying her enemies. And in verse nine of that chapter, we find the verse that John quotes of Jesus. It says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. This was a messianic prophecy of the Davidic king who would come to Israel as her humble, lowly king riding on a donkey. And there are a few things to take note of concerning this text. First, the context is one of the king coming, who is just, and with him he brings salvation. The context then is of deliverance, Yahweh, his deliverance of his people, his salvation from their enemies. Without Him fighting for them, without Him destroying her enemies, there is no peace. This was one of the promises of God to His people, that when they turned to Him, He would deliver them from their enemies, so that there would be no more war, no more fighting, that there would be peace. And so the king is depicted here as humble, riding on a donkey and bringing that peace. And the second thing to take note of is the donkey and its significance. In scripture and to the crowd that was welcoming Jesus, the donkey symbolized humility and peace. This was in contrast to the war horse that is depicted in Zechariah 9.10, just one verse later. Donkeys were animals that were ridden in pursuit of peace. And so the king coming on a donkey then was symbolic of the king coming to bring peace to his people. And this was Israel's hope that one day this king would come and bring with him salvation and peace. The problem is they had a different notion of what peace and salvation was. Jesus, by coming into Jerusalem riding a donkey, is proclaiming Himself to be this King, the true King, the Davidic King that had been prophesied not only by Zechariah, but by many other prophets in the Old Testament. He is embracing His office as the King of Israel. Jesus had done this to fulfill Scripture. And we see this more clearly explained in the triumphal entry accounts found in the other Gospels, in Matthew and Mark and Luke. As they are approaching Jerusalem, we are told in those other Gospels, and we're at Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sends two of his disciples to a nearby village to get this donkey and bring it to him so that he might ride it as he entered into Jerusalem and thus fulfill Zechariah's prophecy. Jesus understood what scripture prophesied, and he understood who he was. He was the rightful king of Israel. So this was no accident or coincidence, but according to God's plan, which he had foretold years before through the prophet Zechariah. It is God's plan, and God was now, after so many years, bringing it about. Jesus was fulfilling Scripture. And thus, again, this incident, just the way it came about, Him riding on the donkey into Jerusalem, this was prophesied and was done according to how the Scriptures had prophesied. Now this may seem easy enough to understand and comprehend as the crowds saw Jesus come on a donkey. They had seen or heard about the many great signs that he had done. They knew he had great power, and if he had raised Lazarus from the dead, he was surely a mighty and powerful king. But even though they did understand that Jesus was the fulfillment of the promised King, especially as He is depicted in Zechariah, they did not fully understand what kind of peace and victory He had come to bring. They had a false conception of the King and what He would do. And this brings us to our second point, the people's false expectations of the King. So the crowd again understood to some degree what they saw. They understood that he was the king of Israel, but they did not fully understand the true significance of who he was as a king and what he would do as a king. And so they expected a king who would bring a great political victory. The false conception was not so much with Jesus being the fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecy, who would come to deliver his people from oppression, it was how he would deliver and from what kind of oppression he came to deliver from. This is what they misunderstood, which led to their false conception of the king. In verse 13, John tells us that the people took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, and they shouted, Now the word Hosanna is a word that means, I beseech you, save, or save, I pray. It is a petition to God to save. The words that are being shouted are from Psalm 118, verse 26. Psalm 118 is part of the Hallel, psalms that are sung during festive occasions and especially during the Passover. Psalm 118 is about what or who? The coming king. And thus it is a royal processional psalm. Not only is it a psalm about the king, but one of deliverance and of thanksgiving. So not only is Jesus fulfilling prophecy by coming into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, but even the words that the people are saying are prophetical about this king who would come and deliver his people. And John provides us with some detail that the other Gospels don't. John says that they took palm trees or branches from palm trees. Again, this is a detail that only John provides. The other Gospels, Matthew and Mark, simply say leafy branches and or branches from trees. Now, why is this significant? The palm trees were a symbol of rejoicing and triumph. The waving of palm trees was the manifestation of the joy of victory. This victory is in reference to the victory of battle. and the joy and celebration that follows. It is the victory of a king who conquers his enemies and delivers his people. In the Old Testament, God commanded the palm trees to be used in the Feast of Tabernacles. They were to take them and rejoice before the Lord God for seven days. But later, palm trees became associated with the Feast of Dedication. The Feast of Dedication was not a feast that was instituted in the Old Testament. Instead, it came out of the intertestamental period during the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire, which ruled over Israel at the time. If you recall, Antiochus Epiphanes, the great emperor of the Seleucid Empire, had outlawed many Jewish religious practices. He had ordered that Zeus be worshipped in the temple. But in 167 BC, he sacrificed a pig on the altar in the temple to Zeus. This was the ultimate profaning of the temple. And this resulted in a revolt led by Jewish freedom fighters, led by Judas Maccabeus. When Jerusalem was recaptured by the freedom fighters, the temple was rededicated to God in 164 BC. And palm trees were a prominent feature at the rededication of the temple. And palm trees then were also used to celebrate victories. And another victory that was celebrated was the victory of Simon Maccabeus who led a revolt against the Syrians in 141 BC. So by the time of Jesus, palm trees are now a nationalistic symbol. They are a symbol of victory, of the Jews of Israel defeating its oppressors. So all of this is in the air as Jesus enters into Jerusalem. And many years after Jesus, in the Jewish wars against Rome in AD 66-70, coins were minted by the Jewish insurrectionists that contained palms on the coins. A symbol, again, of fighting their oppressors. And so, in John 12, the people are not just waving palm trees just because it's the only thing they have available. This is a symbolic act. They are seeing Jesus as this great political leader who's going to deliver them from the oppression of Rome. He's going to start a war against Rome. And the waving of the palm trees is symbolizing that nationalistic zeal and desire to overthrow Rome. And so to the eyes of Rome, this would have been a seditious act. By using the palm trees, they are not just accepting Jesus as their king, they are welcoming a political warrior king. He is another Judas Maccabeus. Though Judas was never a king, but they expected another political leader just like him. And to some degree, we cannot fault them too much for believing this. Because the disciples themselves didn't fully understand. John says in verse 16 that it was only after Jesus was glorified that they remembered that these things were written of Him and that they had done these things to Him. But part of the confusion was that in Scripture we have prophecies of the Messiah who comes and suffers, who is lowly and humble and brings peace to the nations. Other prophecies are like those found in Isaiah and Jeremiah and other places which speak of a warrior king who comes to make war and destroy the enemies of God's people. Listen to Isaiah 11. Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. With righteousness he will judge the poor and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth. And he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about his loins, and faithfulness the belt about his waist. Later, in Isaiah 59, He is described as putting on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle. According to their deeds, so He will repay wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies. A Redeemer will come to Zion and to those who turn from transgression, and Jacob declares the Lord. Jeremiah 23, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch. And he will reign as king, and act wisely, and do justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name, or his name by which he will be called, the Lord, our righteousness. This is the king that they were expecting. This is the king that they hoped for, and this is the king they thought they had in Jesus. Now, we know that this is the king we have in Jesus, but not at this moment. Not in this moment in redemptive history. Jesus Christ did not come to fulfill these prophecies yet. But this is who they were looking for. They were not looking for one who would forgive their sins, but one who would destroy their armies, or their enemies, I should say, I'm sorry, their enemies. They expected a political figure like King David, who had defeated the Philistines, and the Moabites, and the Arameans, and others. They expected a judge like Samson, who delivered the people from the hand of the Philistines. They expected a Joshua, a great and mighty warrior who defeated the Canaanites and Jericho, and the Amalekites and Amorites. They expected a great and mighty warrior. And if Jesus had the great power to raise people from the dead, imagine what he could do to the Romans and all the other nations. So they misunderstood who the king was and what he would do. To them, he was a nationalistic hero, a warrior king like David. They thought he would deliver them from physical oppression. Therefore, they praised him with wrong motives because of their misunderstanding of Jesus as king. And tragically, many people still do this to this day. You see, these people, because of the oppression of Rome, because of their current circumstances, were hoping for someone to deliver them from these trials, these physical trials, which are hard to endure. And today, because of the moral decay in our society, oftentimes people put their full and complete trust in political figures. Now, can God use political figures to bless His church, to bless a nation? Of course He can, and we should pray for that. But our hope should always first and foremost be in the God of heaven, the God who has ordained all things, who is sovereign over all things. and whoever he decides to install as king in a land as president, God is working out his plan, and he will be with his people to the end of the age. But even within Christian circles, people can do this, look to political figures, but also even follow Jesus for the wrong reasons. Maybe they are like the people that have been following Him up to this point, who want to benefit somehow externally. They want riches, or healings, or healing within their families. Maybe there's trouble in the marriage with children, and they seek Jesus because they just want relief from these troubles, not recognizing that what they truly need is salvation, is forgiveness of sins. That is what they truly need. But the prophecy in Zechariah and the ones in Isaiah and Jeremiah do speak of a conquering and victorious king. Again, so why did the people then misunderstand? If he was not a political warrior king, then how could he bring true victory and peace? And this brings us to our third and final point, the king's coming rightly understood, or Jesus' true identity as king. Jesus' true identity as king. As Jesus enters Jerusalem, one thing we need to see is that Jesus is not rejecting their praises as king. He is not denying that he is king. Jesus is not rejecting what they are doing. In fact, in Luke's account of the triumphal entry, some of the Pharisees in the crowd, after hearing the people shout, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, they ask Jesus to rebuke his disciples. But Jesus says, I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out. So Jesus is embracing this reception of Him as the King of Israel because He is the King of Israel. He is the true King of Israel. This was a fulfillment of prophecy. It was good and right for the crowds to do this. But what he laments, what troubles him, what is wrong about the crowds and what they are doing, was not what they were doing, but why they were doing it. As was mentioned, Jesus was the political warrior who would overthrow the Roman Empire and establish, once again, the kingdom of Israel in its fullest glory. They saw him as a political figure, not as a spiritual savior. This is no different than with the signs that Jesus performed. In fact, this reception was connected to His signs, the raising of Lazarus. The crowds would follow Jesus and believe in Him, follow Him only because of the earthly and temporal benefit that they could get from Him, not because He was the one who would forgive their sins and restore their relationship with God. They did not seek him for the food which endures to eternal life. Instead, they sought him for the food that perishes. These people, in all their joy and enthusiasm, only received Jesus because of the earthly and temporal benefits they think they are going to receive. They wanted peace, but they did not know the things which make for peace. And that is what they had completely missed. Yes, they understood Jesus to be King, who comes victoriously to fight the nations and deliver His people, but they did not know or understand how that comes about. Before this glorious event of the Warrior King, who comes to destroy the nations of the earth, something else had to happen. The great victory that must first be won will be in the form of a tragedy. For the great Davidic king, who now enters into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, being praised and received with great rejoicing and jubilee, will be delivered over to be executed. And the real tragedy is that this will happen by the very same people that we see here receiving him with joy. Not many days from this event, the king of Israel, will be getting crowned, though not by a crown made of gold, but a crown made of thorns. Not many days from this event, the King of Israel will be fastened to his throne, but again, not one of gold, but one of wood. Many of those who now say, Hosanna, save, I pray, save us, will be saying, if you are the King of the Jews, save yourself, as he hangs on the cross. The same people who said, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel will say, crucify him. Those who received him as the king of Israel will mock him as he hangs on the cross under the inscription, Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews. But as was mentioned last week, this is how our king conquers. And this is how he fulfills this prophecy and his true identity as king. The king is a humble shepherd king. The prophecy in Isaiah is picturing a humble and lonely shepherd king. And it is first through the incarnation that God, the true shepherd of Israel, humbles himself and comes to his people lowly and riding on a donkey. But his humility is seen most clearly and powerfully when, as Paul says in Philippians, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself. by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. You see, on the one hand, Jesus didn't come to bring peace between us and the wicked nations. We were citizens of those wicked nations, all of us. We were born in those wicked nations and were part of them. We were citizens of the kingdom of darkness, a kingdom that was at war with God. We were God's enemies. Had Christ come to destroy God's enemies, all of us would have been destroyed. Because of our sin and the sin of Adam, we were God's true enemies. Jesus, as our King, first went to the cross to deal with that which makes us enemies of God. He went to the cross to deal with our sin, so that our sin could be paid for by His death. And it is by His work on the cross for us that we are now justified, we are made right before God, and we are now His children and citizens of the kingdom of God. Paul says, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the peace that Jesus now brings. We are no longer at war with God if we believe in Him, if we trust in Him. Peace has been made. We have been reconciled to God because of what Christ has done, because of the victory that He has won on the cross. This is the peace that Christ now offers. and having humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death of a cross, and bringing everlasting salvation, Paul continues and says, for this reason also God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. So He came as King first to win the greatest victory over sin, over death, over Satan's works. And then afterwards He was exalted at the right hand of the Father. And one day He will come with glory to judge the wicked, the living and the dead. This is how these two prophecies are reconciled. That He first came as a humble King to deal with our sin, to bring peace between us and God, and then He will come to judge the wicked nations and to give rest to those that are afflicted, to His people. This time that we see here was not the time for this political victory. That is still coming to the air later. It is held off. Right now, what Jesus does is he offers peace to those that will believe in him. And so as we conclude, the question is, which king are you following? Are you following Jesus only for what He can do for you externally or physically? Is this the King that you are serving? Because if it is, then you are still His enemy. You have not understood who He truly is. But on the other hand, if you are following Christ because of what He can do, what He has done for you internally, spiritually, And then rejoice because this great and humble King who has won this great victory will come again for you. And this is the hope that we have. So trust in the Lord Jesus. And for those who have not trusted, just remember that you are still His enemy. If you have not believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter how good you may think you are, none of our works are ever good enough to merit salvation. Because all of our goods are always mixed with sin, with some kind of motive, a false motive, or evil motive. So our works will not do on Judgment Day. We need to trust in Him so that we may have peace with God, so that we may know this King. And when He comes again to destroy the wicked, He will not come for us to destroy us, but He will come to gather us into His kingdom. So this is the king. The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was triumphal indeed. For our king would soon accomplish a great victory through his death. He defeated Satan and his works, sin and death. And it is this victory that we are all a part of through faith in him. And because we have this victory, we can be assured that we will share in the fullness of that salvation and victory at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Revelation 7, we are given a glimpse of the joy of the victory that our King has accomplished. And with this verse, we will close. It's Revelation chapter 7, verses 9 through 12. After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, and all tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands. And they cry out with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. And they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.