What King Would Come Like This? The Surprising Advent of Jesus

0:00 John chapter 12, verses 12 to 19. Hear the word of the Lord. The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion. Behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt.

0:52 His disciples did not understand these things at first. But when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness.

1:16 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, you see that we are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him. this morning is doubly special it's special because it's advent i love advent as a church we love advent and it's doubly special because we have these 15 baptisms i have never in my life as far as I know, witnessed 15 baptisms at once. There was 14, I believe, in March of 2019. But so far as we know, this is the most baptisms we've done at City's Church and the most I can remember in my life.

2:11 And I'm thrilled about what we get to see this morning. In these baptisms, what we will get to see is born-again people with a credible profession of faith giving public witness in these waters to the realness of Jesus.

2:39 That he died, that he rose. baptism bears witness make sure that you see the witness hear the witness this morning and that's the connection to john 12 look back at verses 17 and 18 the crowd that had been with him when he called lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness the reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. So there's two crowds here in verses 17 and 18. Big crowd, small crowd. The small crowd saw Jesus raise Lazarus, as we saw a few weeks ago from John chapter 11. And there's this bigger crowd that's gathered in Jerusalem. And they hear Jesus is coming into town and they go out to meet him. They're excited to see him.

3:35 They go out to meet him, big crowd. And the reason there's the big crowd going to meet him is they heard the witness. The small crowd bore witness and magnified the word, amplified the word, and more came. This is how witness works. You see something, you experience something, you then say it to others who haven't yet seen and experienced it. And what happened, that experience gets amplified, magnified. Now it's a bigger crowd. Baptism bears witness like that. So we're going to see here this morning. Those who step into the water and go under and come up, and Jonathan's going to make sure they come up. they bear witness to the realness of Jesus they say by doing this they say he came he died he rose he opened my eyes he has won my trust he has changed me and is and has given me faith and he continues to change me.

4:46 They're bearing witness in the drama of baptism. And so we get to hear with our eyes their witness. And we get to see the gospel of Jesus' death, his resurrection, dramatized. And as we do so, we either remember what's already true of us and get to enjoy it again. or we hear an invitation. He'll do the same thing for you. He offers you the same forgiveness. You can hear that as you see these baptisms this morning. So it's special to have 15 baptisms and it's special to have Advent. And John 12 is kind of a surprising Advent text. You know what the word Advent means? We got any Latin students here who know the word Adventist, the Latin word Adventist?

5:47 Loads of Latin people in here. Adventist means arrival or coming. That's what we celebrate in Advent, Jesus coming. And John 12 is a coming text. It's the word that unites the passage. Verse 12, the large crowd heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. Verse 13, quoting Psalm 118, Behold, he who comes, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Verse 15, quoting Zechariah 9, Behold, your king is coming.

6:23 That's what Jesus does here in John 12. He comes. He's coming into Jerusalem. It's an advent into Jerusalem. So let's take our cues this morning from his coming. We're going to focus on those three mentions of coming. And each one of them represents a daring move that Jesus makes in this triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Number one, he comes in dignity.

6:54 He comes in dignity. Verse 12 was the first mention of his coming. The next day, this is after the anointing at Bethany that Jonathan preached on last weekend. It's the next day. It's a Sunday. So we call this Palm Sunday. The large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming. There's the coming to Jerusalem. Now the question is, well, how's he coming? What's he going to do to come?

7:23 On foot, chariot. verse 14 gives us the daring move Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it It makes it so memorable. Don't miss that Jesus makes the arrangement here. He found a donkey, sat on it. The other three Gospels make it even more clear how Jesus takes the initiative. He arranges for this. Nobody tricked him into it. Nobody forced his hand. Out of his own initiative, Jesus says, he sees the situation. he says get me a donkey that's how I'm coming into Jerusalem now this is very strange for 21st century people is there anybody in the room who owns a donkey I thought we might have one.

8:30 Nobody. All right. So we hear about a donkey, and we think, well, that's silly. We make fun of donkeys. What a worthless animal. Which is not at all what a donkey is in an age before automobiles. Or if we had farmers here who had a donkey, they could tell you it's not a worthless animal. They're valuable. it's not a silly thing to ride a donkey actually an exalted thing it's a privilege to ride a donkey this is a daring move if Jesus wants to come into Jerusalem all lowly he just uses his two feet this is a risky daring move get me a donkey I will ride in with dignity in the old testament we find out about the dignity of the donkey the great genesis 49 prophecy about judah includes the mention of a donkey's cult as a symbol of the abundance and the lavish blessing that will come on judah that will be the kingly line and in the book of judges we find out that rich men, dignified men, ride on donkeys.

9:50 And they may give their sons cities and donkeys. And King David had a mule on which he rode, exalted, in dignity. And when he sends his son Solomon to be inaugurated as king, he sends him on the king's mule.

10:11 The donkey's for exaltation. It's for dignity. So first, the donkey means dignity, which leads then to number two, he comes as royalty. He's lifted up on the donkey, and his coming as royalty is heard in the praises of the people. He praises him as Messiah, the long-awaited king, verse 13. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. at one level here the crowd's right about this he is messiah he is the true king of israel but at another level they don't get it yet they think he's just king of Israel and king of just Israel.

11:19 And he's far, far more than that. He's got to shatter these expectations. He's got to redirect them. He is a vastly different and vastly greater king than they expect. What about these palm branches? what's the meaning of the palm branches well almost two centuries before jesus there is a jewish revolt against the greek overlords and at that time the palm branch becomes a symbol of jewish resistance you see it's a political and nationalist symbol for the Jewish people against the Greeks at the time. And now they take them up and paired with the crowd saying, even the king of Israel is clear.

12:19 There are political, national expectations here and hopes that are being symbolized by these palm branches as Jesus comes into town. Very natural expectations that require no new birth. and no Holy Spirit to desire these things. So the crowd's right that he's Messiah, but he is a vastly different Messiah than they know, and what he's going to do in Jerusalem is not at all what they're expecting. He is far bigger than their very little political and earthly. and worldly aspirations for him. an amazing thing about this is they reach for psalm 118 to give him this phrase that he comes into the city and right under their noses in psalm 118 is an answer to what he's doing they're quoting from psalm 118 verses 25 and 26 hosanna which means save us and had has become this acclamation of praise, praising him.

13:39 We pray, O Lord, save us. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. That's verses 25 and 26, Psalm 118. Right in front of that, immediately before, those verses in Psalm 118 are verses 22 to 24, which say, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing. and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day, the unexpected, surprising day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. So even as they reach for Psalm 118, they miss the rejected stone. It's going to be a cornerstone. And even the disciples don't get it. That's verse 16. His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, That is, when he's raised from the dead.

14:35 Then they remembered these things had been written about him and had been done to him. All right, so what's the these things? And the these things are from verse 15, which leads us to the Zechariah 9 prophecy. And that's where we're going to finish. You can go to Zechariah if you want to. You can find it. You can find it. It's the second to last book of the Old Testament. We'll finish out in Zechariah chapter 9. this is a in one sense tough in another sense just enigmatic it's a mysterious chapter there are several different things it could refer to poetry in and of itself is kind of hard to pin down sometimes and that's a beautiful thing that's why we use poetry and Zechariah 9 is hard it may refer to several different things it may refer to Alexander the Great coming to Jerusalem and not destroying Jerusalem like he destroyed Tyre, which is a city up the coast, a little bit north.

15:52 It may refer to other expectations. There's difficulties in Zechariah 9. But Jesus makes clear he's using it. Whether it refers only to him or to something else that he then echoes, he's using it. He's making his point on the donkey. All right, so we've seen that he comes in dignity. We've seen that he comes as royalty. And then finally here, he comes in humility.

16:22 That's what Jesus is reaching for in part in Zechariah 9. Now we get the rest of the story with this donkey. The donkey is dignifying. It is an exalted position to ride a donkey. And Jesus chooses it. And in choosing it, he means to refine the expectations that the people in Jerusalem and that we have as he comes into the city. Let me make this clear about his refinements. It's so important. when jesus reaches for the donkey and zechariah 9 and refines the crowd's expectations this is not a letdown this is an upgrade.

17:17 It's not like, oh, you're expecting this great political leader. Sorry. God has another plan for Messiah. It's smaller. I hope you can take it. No. The political aspirations, the natural expectations, the worldly power, that's so small. This is so much bigger. He's refracting our gaze up, not down, when he comes on the Zechariah 9 donkey.

17:54 This is not a letdown. This is so much more. Unless you're unbelieving. If you don't have faith, saving faith, yes, it's a letdown. I just wanted to be saved from the Romans. but it's not a letdown to those with faith. Verse 15, fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. So let me close with this question. how does Zechariah 9 upgrade their hopes and our hopes? What's the upgrade like? What is it?

18:45 I got more notes. If you want to go deeper on this, we'll put it on the website. I'm going to capture it briefly here as we close and move to these baptisms. But how does Zechariah 9 upgrade our hopes? First, verse 10, he comes to offer peace.

19:10 They expect a war horse against the Romans. The donkey means he comes in peace. Dignity and peace. Verse 10, I will cut off the war horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations. So they expect war. He comes for now in peace. And he will come again on a war horse. Revelation chapter 19, verses 11 to 12. But in his first coming, in this first advent, he comes on a cult of a donkey offering amnesty. Second, verse 9, he comes to accomplish that peace. He's not just the mouthpiece of it. He's the one who achieves it.

20:00 Verse 9, behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation as he, humble and mounted on a donkey. now there's two pairs there you got the righteous and having salvation and the humble and mounted you can hear the exaltation there mounted on a donkey i only got time for the second for our purposes the second one makes the key contribution to what we need to know about Zechariah 9. The word here for humble, I describe it in English as a passive term. A more literal translation would be humbled and mounted on a donkey. So humbled and exalted. So humble is not saying what the donkey is. The donkey is exalting.

20:54 What comes before the donkey is humbled. or the way Zechariah is translated elsewhere in the SV with the same word is afflicted. That would be a good literal translation. Here he comes, afflicted and exalted on a donkey. That's the Jesus who comes in to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Afflicted. which is a faint echo of the affliction of Isaiah 53. This has been said before. It's been forecast before, before Zechariah. Next, verse 11. He comes then, what is this affliction? He comes to shed his own blood, which is here in Zechariah 9, verse 11. Because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

21:54 Not free from Rome. Not free from Greeks merely. Free from Hades. Free from hell. This is far bigger. And so Jesus at the Last Supper will say, this is the blood of the covenant. This is my blood of the covenant, which is shed for you. finally verse 13 he comes to gather all nations we already saw in verse 10 that he shall speak peace to all nations and then this is so amazing verse 13 mentions greece i will stir up your sons o zion against your sons o greece Let's do this. that's the power that Zechariah 500 years before Jesus is anticipating by now that power's passed in the first century Rome has the power and yet it's amazing thing this is the next place where John is going to go we'll see this next week that brings us back to John 12 19 to finish the Pharisees said to one another, you see that you are gaining nothing.

23:17 Look, the world has gone after him. The world has gone after him. That's an exaggeration, right? I mean, at this point, we just got Jesus on a donkey, come into one city and a large crowd of Jews praising him, saying, Hosanna. why are the Pharisees so worried? Why over speak? Worried people over speak, of course. And John, the gospel of John, he loves the irony. And we love the irony too. Yes, they exaggerate. The whole world hasn't gone after him yet, but it will. And the very next thing that happens in the gospel of John is some Greeks. Of all places, some Greeks come.

24:16 So Jesus comes to gather all nations, even Romans, even Greeks. And that's where John goes in the next verse. In choosing the donkey, Jesus finds the perfect way to say, I am the long expected king, but I am not the king you expect. You hope for an earthly king to liberate you from an oppressive government but Jesus says, yes, I am the king but I come not to conjure war against a power so small as Rome but to make peace with God Almighty and save my people from their sins forever. So we come to these waters and we get to experience, watch in faith, the dramatization of being rescued from our sins. This is a one-time experience of grace for those in the waters.

25:23 And this is an ongoing, repeated experience of grace for us who watch on in faith. so we don't twiddle our thumbs and watch the clock at a baptism we get to hear preaching in the baptism each baptism continues to proclaim continues to bear witness to us of either what Jesus has done for you or what he will do for you if you'll come to him in faith like those before us here this morning. Let's pray.

25:58 So Father in heaven, thank you for sending your son. Thank you that he is far more than we expect. We are such half-hearted creatures fooling about with such short-sighted and short-lived hopes. We are so far too easily pleased.

26:25 And yet in Jesus, you gave us so much more than we could ask for or imagine. You gave us eternal forgiveness of our sins and reconciliation with you and the joy for which we're made. So would we enjoy that again as we see it in the waters of baptism? and if any here come this morning wrestling in unbelief would you give the gift of faith would they trust in Jesus just like these 15 who bear witness before us this morning