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Teaching podcast from the Eagle Community Church of Christ in Mont Belvieu, TX.
Hey everyone. Welcome back to the Eagle Community Church of Christ Podcast. My name is John Gunter. This week we are talking about Palm Sunday. This is a week late.
John:We didn't get it uploaded from our church computer. Sorry about that. But we're talking about Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem where people line the streets and throw palm branches down, hence Palm Sunday. But Jesus' ministry had a lot of ups and downs like this. It's really a roller coaster ride.
John:And so I asked the question in the sermon, why do we expect something different? I hope this is helpful for you. And again, we'd love to see you anytime you can at our church. Have a great week.
John:Jesus is resurrected. So at this point in Jesus' ministry, most everything is done. There have been ups and downs. There have been good times and bad times, there have been people healed of diseases. The deaf have been able to hear, the blind are able to see, even dead people have been brought back from death to life.
John:And just as anyone else in ministry, or just trying to live life in the light of Christ, we experience things in similar ways. Some days seem to go very well, and some days seem to drone on for weeks, not going very well. We begin this morning with a reading from John 12, verses 1 through 11. 6 days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here, a dinner was given in Jesus' honor.
John:Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. I have to think that this was in Jesus' honor, because he has shown the power to raise Lazarus. You may have thought raising Lazarus, Lazarus coming forth from the tomb, was the end, But it seems as though Lazarus kind of went on a Heian back tour, not an arrows tour. Dead, alive, alive again. But Lazarus is still with Jesus.
John:And as good as this is, can you think about it if Lazarus was your family member? Or maybe even you? You think about, Yeah, I would love this. I'm able to speak into this. Can you imagine how many questions Lazarus got?
John:What was it like? Did you know you were dead? Were you just asleep? Did you see the light? I said in class this morning, did you was St.
John:Peter there? Well, he's still alive. No, he wasn't there. All the questions that they would have, and you would think this would be a good thing, but notice as the story goes along, what it said. It says, Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard and expensive perfume.
John:She poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair, And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray Him, objected. Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages. Man, isn't that one of those holy arguments that we have?
John:We could have used that for good. And John, writing after all these events happened, said, he did not say this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. That's why he was worried about the money. So that as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. That's why he cared about the poor in this moment.
John:Leave her alone, Jesus replied. It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have Me. Meanwhile, a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him, but also to see the rock star back from the dead, Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to honor Lazarus, right?
John:We are glad you are back. It is your birthday. Welcome back. No. They made plans to kill Lazarus, for on the account of him, many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in Him.
John:That even in Jesus' ministry, such can is anything more powerful than bringing someone back from the dead. The thing we all fear, we don't want to talk about, I asked you 1 week if you had done wills and a surprising number of you had done wills, and thank you for doing that. That's good for your families. But we don't even like to talk about death. Lazarus was brought back from the dead, and though this was a fantastic thing, Jesus still faces this kind of persecution.
John:That not everyone is here to believe in Jesus, but many are there to try and kill Lazarus so that more people won't go over to Jesus' side. It's a grasping of power, so to speak. But I don't want to believe in Jesus because that means that I lose my power. And I have to think, though you may not be in this circumstance, how many times are we in a spot where it requires us to give up our power to follow Jesus? That we have to let go of the proverbial steering wheel to follow Christ, and we can't do it.
John:But even for a minute, if I I believe and I maybe even say that I'm going to allow Jesus to lead me in my life, I'd really like to navigate and tell him which way to go. Jesus, take the wheel not that wheel, Jesus. Turn this way. That's what was happening here. There was nothing here.
John:I mean, they have the proof. This man has been brought back from the dead to life. There's all the proof you need of the power that Jesus has, and their only concern is that more people are going over and believing in him. So, instead of believing in Jesus, we'd like to get it in our minds where it is now okay to kill a man. So far from the way we should be living.
John:And I would say that many times we find ourselves in similar positions, that we make things okay in our minds, so that we can keep living the life we want to live, instead of going over and giving ourselves to Him. And in that, we are in control. It says, The next day the great crowd that had come from the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches, Palm Sunday, you got it now, right? They took palm branches and went out to meet him shouting, 'Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
John:Blessed is the King of Israel. Do you see how Jesus' ministry up, down, up, down? One minute, we're gonna kill him. The next minute, Jesus is riding into Jerusalem being proclaimed as Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord.
John:Jesus probably walked around with whiplash, don't you think? 1 minute, they love me, 1 minute, they hate me. Man, if that's not life and ministry, I don't know what to tell you. Blessed is the king of Israel. Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it as it is written, do not be afraid, daughter Zion, which is another way to say Jerusalem.
John:See, your king is coming seated on a donkey's colt. At first, his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified, did they realize that these things had to be had been written about him and that these things had been done to him? John saying, yeah, we we were clueless. We didn't know, but John gets to write after the fact, kinda like we're reading after the fact.
John:Now we understand. And, okay, these things had to happen for Jesus. It had been written about him. It says, now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. The people that were there at Lazarus' tomb, they didn't seem to go home.
John:Let's keep this party going. Can you imagine? I would imagine most of us in here, probably all of us, have lost someone that we love. Right? Can you imagine if Jesus raised that person from the dead, your life would be different, wouldn't it?
John:If Jesus was walking down Eagle Drive today, and He raised one of my beloved people back to life, I don't think I would leave his side, would you? There would probably be some selfish reasons, Hey, could you raise someone else? Can't you imagine the questions that he had? Well, if you raised him, could you raise But these people believed because they saw, they saw exactly what had happened, and they knew it was the truth, and it says, they continued to spread the word. Nothing could stop them.
John:We walk around a lot of times scared to death about sharing our lives or sharing the gospel or even sharing what God has done for us. Someone who saw this said, I don't care who knows. It's interesting to me that we are never scared to share our sports opinions, or maybe even our political stances. But you start talking about sharing the gospel and we clam up. And I think all we have to do is to to live a life that shows that God has done something for us.
John:That we live a life showing people that what I have done, that I have given my life to God, to Christ, that means something, and I am chavest, and that's all the example you need. Because how many of you came from a life that you don't want to go back to because you know you weren't following God? Yeah? And now you stand in a spot closer to God and you are different. How many of you, if you went back and talked to your high school buddies, would you have some explaining to do?
John:You don't have to raise your hand. Elbow somebody if you need to, though. But, yeah, we we are changed because we have given our lives to Jesus, and that's all the explaining, all the explanation you need. Because I have seen what God has done for me, I will continue to spread the word, and that's what they saw. Jesus has done something great, and we will follow him and spread his word.
John:Says, many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. I get I would guarantee you, how many times do you think Jesus has got to ask, Would you raise my so and so to? Yeah. I can only imagine. Well, if you did that, maybe even skeptical people, right?
John:Well, I wasn't there, I didn't make it, I was almost to Lazarus' place when you did that. Could you do that again? Right? But he said that many went out to meet him that had seen this. So the Pharisees said to one another, see, this is getting us nowhere.
John:Look how the whole world has gone after him. Isn't that interesting? Do you hear the loss of power in that? There's nothing about, hey, this guy is teaching some really good things. He's teaching some things, I need to get my life right.
John:Their only concern is, this is getting us nowhere, because Lazarus is still alive, and he still has the walking, living, breathing proof with him, and look, the whole world has gone after him. Meaning, I'm only concerned about me and the power I think I wield over people. That's a problem. It says in verse 37, even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in Him. I know skeptical people think, you know, if God would only do this, And I've heard atheists say, you know, if God would only do this at this place in this exact time, then I would believe.
John:I would point right back to scripture right here and say no, you would not. Because if you do not want to believe in Him, you will not believe in Him. If you desire to follow Jesus, you will follow Jesus. But if I choose to be skeptical all my life, I will not follow Him because I wasn't there. Well, even the people that were, even the people that saw all the signs, all of these things, they still would not believe in Him.
John:It says, this was to fulfill the word of Isaiah, the prophet, Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For this reason, they could not believe because, as Isaiah says elsewhere, He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts, nor turn, and I would heal them. Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about Him. Yet at the same time many, even among the leaders, believed in Him. Many even among the leaders believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees, these other leaders, because of the Pharisees, they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue.
John:There's always a reason why you can't do something, isn't there? There's a reason right now why I can't follow Jesus more closely. I just can't do it, I'm just not strong enough. I'm around too many people who know too many secrets, or I'm around too many people who don't follow Jesus, that it would be impossible for me to follow Jesus. And what we see here is that people had a fear even of the religious elite, that they might get thrown out of their own synagogues just because they followed Jesus.
John:So, as you sit here this morning, what are the implications for you to follow Christ? Would anything change if you walked out of here today saying, I'm gonna more closely follow Jesus than I have in the past? Would anything change for you? Because often, I think it's the boogeyman we create in our mind, that's out there ready to get us. It's this invisible thing that I'm just afraid of, the reasons I want to hold on to this, where it comes back to exactly the thing that the religious leaders feared, loss of control in my own life.
John:The loss of control when following Jesus only leads us to freedom. It leads us to freedom, understanding that he has done everything for us, and all we have to do is trust in Him, live lives hidden in Him. So why is it so difficult? Why is it that throughout our churches less and less people decide to be baptized, decide to follow Him, decide to correct those things that they have been convicted by the Holy Spirit in their lives and just decide, you know what, I'll just pretend that's okay in my mind instead of fixing it. Why is that?
John:I believe part of it is we have become so independent. We have become people that are just so in love with the control we feel we have over our lives, which is just a mirage, isn't it? You've all lived it. All it takes is that next sickness, illness, death to realize, oh yeah, I didn't have the control I thought. But I thought I had control over all this stuff, and now I couldn't prevent that.
John:I couldn't stop it. I don't know what my life is going to be like now. It kind of throws you into a sort of chaos. But again, if you give your life to Christ, I'm allowing myself to be free from all the burdens, from all the control I think I need to have, and to give my life over to him. And that is a special thing.
John:How many of you remember the day you were baptized? Do you remember that? What did it feel like? Somebody tell me. What did it feel like?
John:Quiet? Peace? Anybody else? Were you baptized and you came out of there just feeling fear the whole time? No.
John:I felt like everything was right in the world. It was right in the world, because I was right with Him. And we come here week after week, and we plead, and we ask, and we read, and we say, Are you right with Jesus? And maybe you are, I hope you are. But how many of us walk out of here and nothing's changed?
John:I didn't want to change. I'm not convinced I needed to change, because I've decided to keep both hands firmly grasped from the steering wheel of my life instead of giving it over to him. That's what I'm gonna ask you this morning. Life is not perfect. Ministry is not perfect.
John:All you have to do is keep reading about the ministry of Jesus. The ups and the downs, the roller coaster ride of one moment, he's the greatest thing ever, and the next thing, we need to kill him, or kill the guy he brought back. Well, that didn't work out. Well, let's let's crucify him. That's ministry.
John:Why would we think that we should have it even better than him? Why do we think that? But life is life, and the ups and the downs come. The question is, are you gonna be right with God throughout? Good, bad, times of laughter, times of sorrow.
John:That's the question. That's the freedom. You have the freedom to answer that today. And so as Jesus moves towards the cross, moving towards a place in his ministry, where he gives his his life for you and for me, are you gonna give your life for him? Jordan's got an invitation song picked out this morning.
John:We're gonna ask you if you're not right with Christ, you're not right with god, would you come this morning as we stand this morning?