The Reason To Cheer

The reason to Cheer

John 12:12-19

Introduction

We will look for the next two weeks at the earthly life of Jesus.

We will take a break from our series and will finish that up after Easter.

This time period of Jesus spans over 30 years from His miraculous birth to His horrifying death, to His supernatural resurrection.

For us as believers, this is the life-blood of our faith.

If you take any part of this out, the plan of salvation would not have been accomplished and our faith would be hopeless and without merit.

Christmas and Easter are the beginning and the conclusion of the accomplished plan of God to redeem mankind.

You cannot separate the two. You cannot believe one and not the other.

The gospel is the good news of God. It is the birth, life, death, resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny are not a part of the plan of God.

The Bible lays out the plan of God to bring a redeemer for mankind.

We see that the fallen sin nature of man is addressed in the saving power of Jesus Christ.

We read what will happen to Jesus and we read what Jesus will accomplish.

The victory will be talked about next week as we look at Easter. The celebration of the resurrection- “it is finished”

As Jesus is winding down his earthly ministry, we see the plan of God as it unfolds.

We see a number of people who walked with Jesus but never knew Him.

We see people with sin in their hearts, used as tools to complete the task of Jesus even though they thought they were stopping the plan of God.

We see people one day cheering and a few days later letting a convicted killer go free and yelling crucify Jesus.

Luke 19 tells of Jesus going into Jerusalem and His weeping over the city. The reason He is weeping? Because He came to the Jews in the person of Jesus Christ the messiah, and they did not recognize Him.

Why was Jesus weeping? The same reason that He is weeping today.

They did not understand who He was.

They did not see or want to see what He was accomplishing.

They did not see how much they needed Jesus.

Their hearts were hard, and Jesus was looking at their hearts.

John 12:12-19 text

It is John’s account of the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem for what we call the passion week or Palm Sunday.

In that crowd that day was many different people. They looked like each other, but there were many different attitudes, beliefs, traditions, problems, and many different motives for them being there that day.

The majority of the crowd was there for the celebration of the Passover. The Jewish Passover was a celebration of the death angel passing over their house because of the blood of the lamb, and God leading them out of bondage.

Josephus the church historian estimated the crowd there to be over 2 million people.

Many different people from different areas converging on the streets of Jerusalem for the Passover.

I picture that to look like New York’s New Years Eve at Times Square.

Maybe even like Marty Gras because I am sure some took advantage of people that needed to buy sacrifices and needed a place to stay.

You see in verse 12 that the crowd that came for the Passover heard that Jesus was coming and they took Palm branches and went out shouting “Hosanna; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; blessed is the king of Israel.”

Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey in the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.

Now, like I said, there were many different people in that crowd that day.

One group was the Roman Soldiers.

They were there to make sure that the crowd did not get out of hand, keep control for Jewish Passover.

Jesus rides in on a donkey, to the great army of Rome that had to be a joke.

They were warned not to let it get out of hand, heard Jesus would be there and He shows up on a donkey. That had to be amusing to them.

I bet there were some Jesus jokes being said.

I can picture then and I have seen now people making fun of Jesus.

People making a joke of His authority.

People making a mockery of Him.

Laughing at people who worship and serve God.

Another in the crowd were the Pharisees. They did battle with Jesus.

He called them “vipers” he looked them in the eyes and called them two-faced because they took advantage of God’s people for personal gain.

They heaped law after law on them and instead of Jesus lifting the load of the law, they put more on the people.