What Are You Looking For?
March 16, 2008 Morning Service
Immanuel Baptist Church, Wagoner, OK
Rick Boyne
Message Point: Jesus came to reconcile us to God.
Focus Passage: John 12:9-15
Supplemental Passage: Psalms 118:25-26. "LORD, save us! LORD, please grant us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you."
Introduction:
I. The people expected a political savior
a. The area is Palestine, and Palestine during the time of Jesus was a pressure cooker. Herod the Great was the King of Judea and he served as a puppet for Caesar Augustus because all of Israel was under the dominion of the Roman Empire. From 700 years before Christ, Israel had been split up – part of the country being conquered by Assyria, then the rest being conquered by Babylon then the last prophet spoke 400 years before Christ.
b. 170 years Before Christ. Antiochus Epiphanes – Greek King who had attacked and destroyed Jerusalem, put many of its inhabitants to death most cruelly. He had soldiers enter the Jewish Temple and slaughter a pig (which was considered "unclean" by the Jews) on the Altar of the Lord. They set the pig ablaze and then took the meat and tried to make some Jewish men eat it. The men refused and he cut their tongues out, scalped them, cut off their hands and feet, and burnt them on the Altar of the Lord. After this, the Jews began the war of independence under their Maccabean leaders, defeating the armies that Antiochus sent against them. When, under the might of the Maccabees, Jerusalem was freed from the pollutions of Antiochus Epiphanes , the people entered in with palms branches and psalms of praise. The Jewish accounts are in the Books of the Maccabees, and the successful revolt is commemorated by the holiday of Hanukkah.
II. Jesus came a spiritual savior
a. Vs. 14 : He sat on a donkey. If He were coming as a political king, He would have sat on a horse.
b. People were looking for a messiah – searching for a savior – and they expected Jesus to come in to Jerusalem and clean house – they thought they had the solution - He had fed the people – he had healed the sick – he had raised the dead.
III. What kind of savior are you looking for?
a. One to heal? One to provide? One to stop wars? One to make us happy? One to end poverty & hunger? One to end stress? One to end fear? One to end homelessness? One to be a cure-all?
Invitation:
