SERMON OUTLINE

The Coming of the King of Peace   John 12.9-19

 Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it.             John 12.14                            

Introduction

The Gospel of John is different than the Synoptic (Matthew, Mark, Luke) Gospels. John chooses events to show Who Jesus is and Why Jesus came. John 20.31

Large Crowds, Plans to Kill Jesus and Lazarus

-Large crowds for the Passover feast visit Lazarus and Jesus. Plans to kill Lazarus and Jesus. John 11.45-57; 12.9-11

-Roman military on alert for riots and revolts.

Jesus Enters Jerusalem

-Palm branches. Used in the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23.40) Used to celebrate victory over oppressors during the time of the Maccabees and on coins. Became of symbol of national freedom.

-Shouting. Hosanna means “Give Salvation now”. Acclaimed as Messiah and King. Psalm 118.25-26

Jesus Finds a Donkey

-Finds and rides a donkey as he is traveling to Jerusalem with the crowds saluting Him as Messiah and King.

-Coming in peace and not for revolt or political reasons.

-Coming to reconcile man to God through the cross.

 Conclusion

-Jesus has come to save us from sin not from our poor choices and circumstances.

-The mission of Jesus will be completed when He comes on a white war horse to establish His physical kingdom on earth. Hebrews 10.28; 2 Thessalonians 1.6-10

SERMON NOTES

The Coming of the King of Peace   John 12.9-19     [keep Bibles open]

-One does not have to read the four Gospels very long to realize that John’s Gospel is much different than the other three Gospels. Here are some of the differences. While Matthew, Mark and Luke focus on the human aspects of the life of Jesus, John focuses on the divine aspects of His life. The Synoptic Gospels (Mt, Mk, Lk) focus on the public preaching and teaching of the Lord while John’s focus is mostly on His teaching to the disciples. The first three Gospels focus on the Galilean ministry of Jesus while John is focused on the ministry of Jesus in Judea.

-One of the major differences between Matthew, Mark and Luke, and John is that the first three Gospels focus on the outer facts and circumstances of the Lord’s life, while John chooses particular events in the life of Jesus in order to reveal to his readers Who Jesus is and Why Jesus came. John tells us that this is his purpose for writing in 20.31, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” Barclay writes that in the Gospel of John, “every action that Jesus did was, therefore, not only an act in time, but a window which allows us to see into reality”.

-As we study John’s description of the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem on the Sunday before His crucifixion, I hope you will notice with me how John not only tells us the facts, but through the facts gives us a window that allows us to see Who Jesus is and Why Jesus came.

–Verse 9 tells us that a large crowd of Jews was in Jerusalem at that time to celebrate the Passover feast. This crowd was made up of those who already lived in Jerusalem and the many hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who came to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. Not only was the population of Jerusalem greatly increased for the Passover feast but so was Roman military presence. The Roman army was on high alert, on the lookout for riots and revolutionary acts by Jewish nationalists. So the atmosphere during this Passion week was both festive and politically charged with large crowds moving about the city.

-Large crowds came to Bethany, which was less than 2 miles from Jerusalem. They came for two reasons, they wanted to see Lazarus whom Jesus had raised from the dead, and they wanted to see Jesus the one who had raised Lazarus from the dead.

–Verses 10 and 11, tell us that the Chief Priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well as Jesus because many of the Jews were going over to Jesus to put their faith in Him.

-We are told in the previous chapter about the plot to kill Jesus and I want to read that to you as part of our study this morning. [John 11.45-57 Read]

-The raising of Lazarus from the dead was causing many to put their faith in Jesus and this deeply upset the Chief Priests and the Pharisees. What the Chief Priests and Pharisees were worried about was their political future and their control over the religious system. (v48). Jesus was a threat to both of these. If the people followed Jesus He would lead them in a revolt against Rome and this would cause the Romans to come and destroy the nation and take away their Temple worship and their political power over the people. This could not be allowed to happen. The solution proposed was to kill Jesus. (v49-50)

-Notice what John writes in verses 51-53. Unknowingly the High Priest prophesied that one man, Jesus, should die for the whole nation of Israel and not only for the whole nation of Israel but to save the whole world. So they plotted to take the life of Jesus and also the life of Lazarus. From this time Jesus no longer appeared in public until the appearance that we are now reading about in John 12 in Bethany and His entrance into Jerusalem.

-On the next day, Jesus left Bethany and started His journey towards Jerusalem and the great crowd heard about it. They took palm branches and went out to meet Him. Palms are very accessible in Israel and it would have been easy to cut down Palm branches in order to salute Jesus. Note that John is the only Gospel writer who specifically mentions Palm branches. Matthew and Mark say branches and Luke does not mention branches at all.

-There is nothing in the OT that required the use of Palm branches at Passover but Palm branches and other kinds of branches were commanded to be used to rejoice before the Lord at the Feast of Tabernacles. “On the first day you are to take choice fruit from the trees, and palm fronds, leafy branches and poplars, and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.” (Leviticus 23.40) So the precedent for the use of Palm branches to rejoice before God was set in the OT at the Feast of Tabernacles.

-Over two hundred years before the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, the Jewish people where under the rule of Syria. When Antiochus Epiphanes came to power in 175 BC, he began a reign of terror on the Jews. Jerusalem was plundered, its wall was torn down and the people subject to monstrous cruelties. Thousands were massacred and women and children were sold into slavery. The Temple sacrifice was abolished, the furniture from the Holy of Holies was taken away, and the Jewish religion banned. Circumcision was prohibited on pain of death. A foreign governor was appointed, a false High Priest was installed, and paganism was imposed on the people. All copies of the Law were burned and the owners executed. In 168 BC Antiochus Epiphanes had a pig offered on the altar of the Temple and then he had a statue of Jupiter erected on the altar. That was all the Jewish people could take.

-A man named Judas Maccabeus (which means hammer) along with his father and brothers began a revolt against the Syrians. Three years later Judas captured Jerusalem and refurnished and rededicated the Temple to God. The victory parade was celebrated with the waving of Palm branches.

-The conflict between Syria and the Maccabees continued and in 140 BC Syria was forced out of Jerusalem and once again the victory parade included the waving of Palm branches.

–Coins minted during these times by the Jews had Palm branches on them.

-Eventually Jewish freedom came to an end when they were defeated by Rome.

-The well known history of the Maccabees gives us a glimpse into what the High Priests and Pharisees feared in the popular rise of Jesus. It also makes it clear that the waving of Palm branches had become to the Jews not only a means of rejoicing before God but a nationalistic symbol of liberty and victory over a repressive government. At the time of Jesus that repressive government was Rome.

-Along with the waving of Palm branches the great crowd was shouting. They were shouting Hosanna which literally means “Give Salvation Now!” or “Save us”. They also shouted, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” These two statements are from Psalm 118 verses 25 and 26. This Psalm was sung regularly every year during the Feasts of Israel and was well known to all Jewish people. This Psalm looked forward to the coming Messiah.

-Finally the people were shouting, “Blessed is the King of Israel!” King of Israel was a popular designation for the expected Messiah. The people were saluting Jesus as their Messiah, the King of Israel, and the One who was coming to save them from Rome.

-We need to remember that the Messiah that the Jews expected at the time was a powerful military leader who, like David, would become King and would reestablish the throne of David, the splendor of the kingdom of Israel, and the dominion of Israel over all the nations of the earth. Jesus was the man who could do that for them! Jesus had miraculous power and the popularity of the people. The time had come for the Messiah to set up the kingdom of God as God had promised. The king was coming to take His throne in Jerusalem and the people were saluting His arrival.

-I hope you are beginning to get a sense of what was happening as Jesus entered Jerusalem.

-At this point in the narrative John introduces a young donkey into the story. This is a very important incident, especially in the reality that John wants to teach us through the facts he is writing. If you read Matthew, Mark and Luke you will find that Jesus arranges for a donkey before He begins His journey into Jerusalem and the people are waving their Palm branches and shouting as Jesus rides the donkey into Jerusalem. But John reverses that order. John has Jesus walking toward Jerusalem and the people shouting and waving Palm branches and while this is going on Jesus finds a young donkey and sits on it and continues on toward Jerusalem. John gives us none of the details of how this donkey was found or at what point in the journey Jesus begins to ride the donkey. John only gives us the fact that Jesus found a donkey on His way to Jerusalem. The reason is because John wants to use this incident to teach us Who Jesus is and Why Jesus came.

-Jesus knew what the people had in mind as they waved their Palm branches and shouted “Hosanna, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, Blessed is the King of Israel”. They saw Jesus as the Messiah. They saw Jesus as their military savior. They saw Jesus as their future King. Jesus wanted to correct this misunderstanding and give them a different message and He did that by finding and sitting on a donkey as He continued into Jerusalem.

-In John 6 we read about what happened after Jesus fed five thousand people with five barley loaves and two small fish. John tells us that the people intended to make Jesus king by force. At that time Jesus withdrew from them and did not allow them to make Him king. Here we have the same thing happening again only in this case Jesus cannot withdraw, for God’s purpose must be fulfilled in Jerusalem. What Jesus did was to find a donkey and get on it as He rode into Jerusalem. (John 6.14-15)

-John tells us in verse 15 that Jesus finding a donkey and riding it into Jerusalem fulfilled an OT prophecy found in Zechariah 9.9. Then John tells us in verse 16 that he and the other disciples did not understand at the time what Jesus was doing, and did not understand it until after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. John is here writing his Gospel with that understanding. That is why John has Jesus find a young donkey and sit on it in response to the waving of Palm branches and the nationalistic shouts of deliverance and kingship expected from Jesus. John wants to teach those who are reading his Gospel that Jesus did not come to establish a political kingdom but a spiritual kingdom. John wants to teach those who are reading his Gospel that Jesus did not come to save Israel from Rome but to save all people from sin. By finding a donkey and riding it into Jerusalem, Jesus did not just outwardly fulfill an OT prophecy, but was showing the people that His purpose for coming was not political but to fulfill the promise of God to deliver His people from their sin through the establishment of a New Covenant.

-A king who was coming to make war would not ride a donkey into town but a war horse. By riding into Jerusalem on a donkey Jesus clearly stated that He had no military intentions and was not about to start a revolt. Jesus came to Jerusalem in peace and His intention was to bring reconciliation between man and God by giving Himself as a sacrifice to God for the sin of the people. Because Jesus conquered sin by His death and resurrection anyone who believes can have peace with God.

-One of the lessons we can learn from this story is that the Jesus does not come into our lives to sort out our finances, to fix our broken marriage, to get us a better job, to help us have a better life, to make us healthy, or to change our circumstances and make us happy. Jesus does not come to establish our kingdom and to satisfy our desires for a better life according to our own design. Jesus has not come to fulfill our purposes. Jesus comes into our life to forgive our sin and to reconcile us to God, so that we will be holy people with a desire to serve and glorify God. God sent His Son into this world to be a sacrifice for sin so that we could be in right relationship to God, not to clear the path for our success.

-John at times writes with startling irony and verse 19 is one of those places. The Pharisees realize that up to this point their attempts to denounce and defame Jesus have not worked and that the whole world was going after Jesus. Their plans to protect their political and religious position were not working. They needed to escalate their attempt to keep Jesus quiet and they did that by deciding to kill Jesus and Lazarus. It will be their attempt to silence Jesus that will lead to the fulfillment of God’s salvation being offered to the whole world through Jesus Christ. Their attempt to kill Jesus will bring about their final defeat and condemnation. The irony is brilliant.

-Jesus came and died on a cross as a sacrifice for the sin of the world. He was raised from the dead on the third day and ascended to heaven forty days later. At the present time Jesus is interceding for the Church at the right hand of God the Father. But the mission of Jesus is not yet complete. We are told in the Bible that a day is coming when Jesus will ride out from heaven, not on a young donkey, but on a white war horse to judge the nations with justice. Then Jesus will bring true and final peace to the world and will establish His kingdom on earth. Those who have understood His first coming into Jerusalem on a donkey will rejoice at His second coming on a war horse. Those who have not responded to God’s Grace in Jesus Christ at His first coming for the forgiveness of sin will be filled with blasphemy and curses at His second coming. The book of Hebrews says it this way, “Jesus will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.” (Hebrews 10.28)

-The letter to the Thessalonian believers says, “God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with His powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power on the day He comes to be glorified in His holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed.” (2 Thessalonians 1.6-10)

-That time is coming soon. Are you ready for the return of Christ as Lord and King? You still have time to repent and to ask God to forgive your sins, but don’t put that decision off. Jesus came to seek and to save what was lost to sin. He will return to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him, and to judge those who do not obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ.