ALL HAIL THE PASSOVER KING: Palm Sunday 2013
John 12:12-16
[Just a reminder that
this is not a transcript of the Sunday Sermon, but rather an expansion of the
outline I prepared to preach from. For
the audio of the message as it was preached you are invited to go to the church
website at www.boothbaybaptist.com
and click on the “sermons” link and then select the desired message. Since I
try to get this online Monday morning, please forgive any grammatical and
spelling errors!]
Introduction:
I read this week a reference to something written by the famous theologian Charles Schultz, o.k., it was a Peanuts
comic strip… Lucy and Linus were looking at a rain storm through a window and
Lucy asks: “What if it keeps raining until it floods the whole world?” Linus replied “God promised Noah that would
never happen again.” Lucy sighs, “You’ve
taken a great load off of my mind.”
Linus gets the last word: “Sound theology has a way of doing that.” We teach and preach the Bible in this church,
since God’s Word is the source of sound theology. We’ve been studying the Gospel of John for a
long time. John wants us to know Jesus.
To glory in His deity and worship Him. To marvel at His love demonstrated in
the Cross and to love Him in return. To submit to His Lordship and to obey
Him. In the Bible we see hundreds of
prophecies that were made about the Messiah fulfilled explicitly in the life,
ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus.
God had a plan, that plan was revealed, in part, in advance, in these Old
Testament texts, yet most people simply did not get it. Palm Sunday leads us
into the last week of Jesus’ life before the Cross. The story unfolds exactly as God had planned
it—confirming Jesus’ identity, inviting us to consider how we should respond to
Him.
Context: As always, it is important that we pay
attention to the context of this episode in the unfolding story of Jesus as it
is presented in the Fourth Gospel. After
the raising of Lazarus in John 11, the Jewish leadership conspires to put Jesus
to death. Unwittingly, the High Priest even prophecies the substitutionary
death of Jesus (11:49-51). Chapter
twelve begins with a reminder that Passover was only days away. Since the first chapter the reader of the
Gospel has had to struggle with the idea that Jesus is both Messiah (1:41) and
a “the Lamb of God” (1:29,36). How could
this be? What did the approach of Passover
portend? The anointing of Jesus “for his
burial” (12:1-8) and the plot to also kill
Lazarus (12:9-11) sound an ominous note as the story unfolds. The contrast with what is about to unfold is
an example of Johannine irony. The
crowds, even the disciples, did not understand the full meaning of what was
happening, what it really would involve for Jesus to fulfill His role as the
“King of the Jews” (see 12:16). As we consider this we’ll see…
The Big
Idea: Palm Sunday
teaches us some sound theology: It invites us to worship the Passover King, the
Lamb upon the throne, and calls us to love Him and obey Him.
I. Jesus is the King, even though
the crowd didn’t really understand! (12:12-13). As John tells us the story of Jesus, there is
a lot of irony in how it unfolds. The Jews were expecting a Messiah, a King, a
Son of David who would restore the kingdom to Israel. They had somehow lost sight of the truth that
the coming King was also to be the Suffering Servant. The title “King” doesn’t show up a lot in
John’s Gospel, until chapters 18, 19 with Jesus’ trial and crucifixion. But
there are some clues that John gives his reader early on:
The first time Jesus is called “King” in this Gospel
occurs in the first Chapter, the confession of Nathaniel: John 1:49 49
Nathanael answered and said to Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You
are the King of Israel!" Before this confession however, the reader
has heard John the Baptist, twice, calling Jesus God’s Lamb: John 1:29 "Behold!
The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!; John 1:36 36
And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God!"
We read that and take it for granted, we’ve heard the phrases and this language
applied to Jesus in church. But imagine
the disciples when they first heard
it, imagine John’s readers when they first read this Gospel: for a Jew in the 1st
century, “Lamb” whatever else it might mean, implies sacrifice. Lamb, and King?
Sovereign and Sacrifice?
The second time in John’s Gospel that the word “King”
appears, is in Chapter 6, and comes in response to Jesus miraculously feeding
the 5,000 with 5 small loaves of bread and a couple of fish. John 6:14-15 “Then
those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, "This is
truly the Prophet who is to come into the world." 15 Therefore when Jesus perceived
that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He
departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.” In response to this
miraculous provision, they wanted to make him king by force. Jesus knew their
thoughts, what they intended to do, and went away. It wasn’t time for the king
to be revealed. John has reminded the
reader of the Gospel, just a few verses earlier: John 6:4 Now the
Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.” After hearing John the Baptist
call Jesus the lamb, the reader of the Gospel has a clue as to what is coming –
the disciples still don’t understand. He is the King – but also the lamb.
The third use of “king” in John’s Gospel comes that first
Palm Sunday, the triumphal entry. The crowd quotes from Ps 118:25-26 “Save
now (hosanna), I pray, O LORD; O LORD, I pray, send now prosperity. 26 Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the LORD! We have blessed you from the house of the LORD.” Notice that
they add something to the text: John 12:13 “…took branches of palm trees and
went out to meet Him, and cried out: "Hosanna! 'Blessed is He who comes in
the name of the LORD!' The King of Israel!" What
they said was correct, and this time Jesus allows it, even though there is
little doubt the crowd was still clueless as to what was about to happen. The reader of the Gospel, however, has just
been reminded:
1. Passover was coming in just a few days;
the Lamb would soon be sacrificed (12:1).
2. Mary had just anointed Jesus, and he
said it was “for his burial” (12:2-8).
3. The chief priests were plotting to kill
Lazarus, because his being raised from the dead was irrefutable proof that
Jesus was from God, and they wouldn’t hear it (12:9-11). Their minds were made
up, they would not consider the evidence that Jesus was the messiah (see
Peter’s word in Acts 2:22).
Part of the irony here is
that the crowd, in quoting from Psalm 118 had forgotten part of the context: Ps 118:22 22
The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.”
That rejection would reach its climax in just a few days when the leaders
insist: “We have no king but Caesar!” They
were looking for a king like the nations around them. Jesus is King, much more so than any merely
human king. He is the Lord of all
creation, our creator and redeemer. A merely
human king can demand our obedience, but not our heart. Jesus is the Shepherd King who would lay down
His life for his sheep. God showed us
his live ,in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Palm Sunday invites us to worship the Passover King, the Lamb upon
the throne, and calls us to love Him and obey Him.
II. He is
the King, and He came in fulfillment of the Scriptures (12:14-15). John takes
us from the shouts of the crowd, which were ironically true, even though they
didn’t understand correctly who Jesus was, to the actions of Jesus, taken in deliberate
fulfillment of Scripture:
Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey,
sat on it; as it is written: 15
"Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, Sitting on a
donkey's colt."
The main point is that God had a plan, and every action
of Jesus was taken in submission to and in fulfillment of the Father’s will.
The cross was not a failure, it was not an accident, it was not plan B. Peter said on Pentecost that Jesus was
delivered up by the predetermined purpose and foreknowledge of God. That speaks
to God’s love to us. That is sound
theology.
It also speaks to the reliability
of His Word. The Scripture, made centuries before was fulfilled precisely: He
is the King. NB. John leaves out a word from Zechariah’s prophecy: “Lowly” or
“humble”. John was emphasizing his
power, control, sovereignty, glory.
***Palm Sunday
invites us to worship the Passover King, the Lamb upon the throne, and calls us
to love Him and obey Him.
III. He is
the King, the Passover King, both Sovereign and Sacrifice (12:16). John steps back
for a moment and explains from his position years later what he and the other
dsicples were thinking at this point in the story: “His
disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was
glorified, then they remembered that these things...”
The disciples didn’t
understand at first what all of this meant.
Even though he had repeatedly, explicitly told them about the necessity
of his death and resurrection, they couldn’t grasp it.
“…when Jesus was glorified
then they remembered…” In John, its
especially on the cross that Jesus is glorified (see John 3:14,15). The cross was his lifting up, his exaltation,
his glorification, because it proved who he was, fulfilling the Scriptures, and
it accomplished what he came to do, giving his life for our sins.
Notice in our context, John 12:25-28 "He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this
world will keep it to life eternal. 26
"If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant
will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him. 27 "Now My soul has become
troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour '? But for this
purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name…"
In John 18:36-37 Jesus
answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this
world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to
the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm." 37 Therefore Pilate said to Him,
"So You are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I
am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the
world, to testify to the truth.” You see, He is the King, the Passover King.
That is truth. That is sound theology, and it demands a response from us.
What is God saying to me in this
passage? Palm Sunday
invites us to worship the Passover King, the Lamb upon the throne, and calls us
to love Him and obey Him. What the crowds said on Palm
Sunday was true, but they didn’t grasp the full implications. Jesus was not a
victim. He was in control. And as Sovereign, he fulfilled the Scriptures, and came
to give his life as a ransom for many. In Rev 1:5 He is “…the ruler over the kings of the earth… [He] who loved us and washed us
from our sins in His own blood…” In chapter three John sees in his vision He
appears “…in the middle of the throne as a lamb that had been slain…” The
Passover King, exalted, on the throne of heaven, worthy to open the scroll and
loosen its seals. Worthy is the Lamb
that was slain. The One who was, who is,
and who is to come.
What would
he have me to do in response to these truths? What
difference does this doctrine make in my life?
Our response can only be to stand in awe of he matchless grace of God,
to love the one who so loved us. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. The Passover
King, who gave his life, so that we could have life. Praise him for his
indescribable gift. All hail King Jesus!
All hail Emmanuel! And if we believe in who He is, we must also
recognize His authority. Later in this Gospel He will tell his disciples: “As the Father sent me, so send I you…”
At the outset of His ministry He warned them, “If anyone would be my disciple,
he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me…” My life is not all about me. He chose you on
purpose, for a purpose. To be His witnesses. To love your neighbor so much,
that it becomes your life mission to show them Jesus, to point them to the
truth. Will you love the King? Will you
obey Him? AMEN.
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