John 12:12-19
This morning’s text deals with what we often call the “Triumphant” entry. It was primarily “triumphant” because of the people’s response, though, not because Christ entered the city in a triumphant fashion. Instead, Jesus came into the city in a humble and symbolic gesture of peace. Christ comes as the “King of Peace” in fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9. –
“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!
Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and having salvation,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Even the disciples did not understand this until much later, John tells us in our text.
In Roman times, it was traditional for diplomats to arrive on donkeys, symbolic that they had come to enter into peaceful negotiations. A conqueror would arrive on a white charger and parade through the city in demonstration of his military success.
Christ came to offer peace. The people responded with Palm branches, which were used as a symbol of victory and triumph. Palm branches were also given to the winner of a athletic contests in Roman times.
In the other gospels, the Pharisees demand that Jesus tell his follower to be quiet. Jesus’ response is that if they were silent then the rocks would cry out. To me, this indicates that Jesus did not object to this joy and excitement, which he genuinely deserved, More importantly, I think it indicates that the inanimate rocks had about as much spiritual perception as most of the people that were in the crowd. (We’ll talk about emotional worship in a few minutes, for now, let’s try and stick with the idea of Christ coming to offer peace.)
Do you remember when Christ was born and the angel appeared to the shepherds? What did the multitude of the heavenly host declare? “Glory to God in the Highest! Peace on Earth towards men.” Christ came to end the war between God and man. He came to resolve the conflict that man’s sin has brought between heaven and earth. His final march into Jerusalem, towards the cross, was God’s final effort to bring peace between Himself and sinful man.
Everyone wants to talk about God’s love and God’s goodness. The AA people look to God as a benevolent higher power. God is often portrayed like Santa Claus, a kindly old gentleman with a twinkle in his eye. In the Jim Carey film “Bruce Almighty,” a film with a redeeming message in the midst of its sacrireligious humor, Morgan Freeman as God responds to Bruce’s scorn and lost faith with that same twinkle in his eye, a wry grin, and a sense of humor.
But what about the righteous holy God who is annoyed, perplexed, and discomforted by man’s sin? What about the God of wrath described in Romans 1:18-20:
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”
What? You mean to say that the twinkle-eyed God is really fed up with man’s sin? Oh, we know he was annoyed with Nineveh because he sent Jonah to prophesy that the offensive stink of their sin had reached the nostrils of a holy God and he was ready to take out the garbage.
Paul writes to the Ephesians (chapter 2) about their circumstances before coming to salvation. Not only were they dead in sin, driven by sinful desires, but he describes them as being objects of God’s wrath.
Ephesians 2:1-3
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.”
THE GREAT SIN GAP between man and God is so large it can only be bridged by the Atoning Work of Christ on the cross. Those outside of Christ are in trouble. The flood of God’s anger grows day by day.
Jonathan Edwards, in his great sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” described the mounting anger of God towards sinful man like this: “The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose.”
While this sounds awful in a day and age when we want to understand God as some sort of benevolent grandfather type-- Edwards is simply echoing the Biblical warnings. His words are somewhat reminiscent of those offered in the apostle Peters letter of warning.
II Peter 3:3-13:
“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
God’s judgment is only held back by his desire for peace. God’s wrath is only held in check by his patience.
Those outside of Christ are certainly in trouble. However, those in Christ have already found the peace that he has offered. Paul writes in Romans 5 that we have been justified by faith in Christ and therefore we are able to experience peace with God.
Christ came to give us peace. I can only hope and pray you have already found that peace.
Now I come to the second area we need to deal with from our text today. An obvious question arises dealing with how these people could shout “Hosanna!” on the day of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, but less than a week later could shout “Crucify Him!”
The problem, as I see it, is a lack of true worship. There were two groups of people involved in the shouting that day. A minority of them were truly worshipping while the others were involved in an emotionally uplifting experience that really did nothing to add to the quality of their lives or improve their spiritual walk.
Emotional vs. Spiritual Worship
1) Emotional Worship is Characterized by being driven by feelings.
A lot of folks attend church and judge how church was by how they felt. God has given us feelings. Feelings, however, are not to be used to base decisions on because they are not trustworthy.
Some people “feel like” cleaning their house. Some people never feel like cleaning. Should the decision be based on how we feel?
I recently played an election game. I assumed the Kennedy campaign and my opponent had the Nixon campaign. At the end of the game, we figured up the score. I had managed to collect all of the electoral votes for the Midwest and South, while my opponent had the major eastern states. A bystander was looking at how the votes were divided up made the statement, “I feel like Alfonzo should have won the game.” Alfonzo responded jokingly that we should use that particular criteria for resolving every game.
Can you imagine using this criteria in life?
“I feel like I have money in the bank so I write a check.”
“I feel like mowing the lawn, fixing the car, etc.”
“Uh, boss.. I’m not coming to work today because I don’t feel like it.”
Get the hint? We don’t measure our life by our feelings. God has given them to us, but he expects us to govern them.
I have to emphasize here that I am not saying we are suppose to set aside our feelings when it comes to worship. I find in the Scriptures times when people approached God is sorrow and in joy. I find weeping and joy to be part of worship. I am not advocating that we become spiritual a spiritual Mr. Spock and respond to everything emotional as “highly illogical, Captain.”
2) True Worship is characterized by a recognition of God’s Holiness and our own sinful nature.
Example: Isaiah 6 and Isaiah’s experience in the temple
Isaiah recognized that he (and the people) had been bad-mouthing God for taken the life of King Uzziah. When he came into God’s presence, he recognized his sinful attitude.
True worship brings us to a confrontation with a holy God and that should often bring a true awareness of personal shortcomings.
3) True worship prepares us to demonstrate repentance and good works.
A good example is the tax collector Zaccheus, who might have been a thief and might not have been. His encounter with Jesus moved him to good works and a readiness to demonstrate repentance by offering to pay back four times anything he had stolen.
It isn’t how you feel that is the measure of true worship—it is whether or not your life changes at all.
4) TRUE WORSHIP leaves us with a true desire to share.
After the shepherds saw the newborn Christ they went about telling others. On the day of Pentecost, Peter was motivated to share. In the crowd on the day of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem- the people who had seen Lazarus raised from the dead has a desire to testify about that event..
True worship should leave us with a desire to share.
