What Sort of King are You Looking for?
John 12:12-19
Primary Truth Taught- Jesus enters Jerusalem as God’s ordained King, not to free His people from Roman tyranny but to free them from their sins.
The Jew’s worst nightmare is unfolding right before their eyes. The people whom they had enslaved by their man-made traditions and unruly law keeping we transferring their allegiance from the works-based religion of Judaism to a grace-based salvation found in Jesus Christ.
Throughout John’s Gospel there are phrases such as “many believed” or so and so believed. Their belief came about as Jesus taught, preached, and did miracles to support His claims.
To this point, the pinnacle of all His miracles was the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Now it is this miracle that there could be no legitimate denial. Lazarus was dead four days. He was beginning to decompose. Everyone who cared to know, knew it. The sisters were mourning their loss. Many of the Jews had come out to comfort the two sisters at their loss. There was no trickery on Jesus’ part nor had there ever been…He didn’t roll the stone away but had others do it. He didn’t unwrap Lazarus to let him go but also had others do it. In the previous text we witness the banquet feast thrown in honor of Jesus and guess who was sitting right beside of Jesus eating and celebrating? None other than Lazarus, himself…he’d never been better.
This miracle was so massive in scope and so undeniable that the Jewish leaders could not do anything except try to silence the crowd’s amazement by seeking to kill both Jesus and Lazarus.
Throughout the Gospels there is also another phrase…My time has not yet come. Jesus used this to explain why He sought to escape certain situations and not tell everyone all there was to tell. But now His time has come.
Notice with me in this passage today that Jesus is no longer waiting because His time is not yet but is fully embracing His Messiahship realizing that what He is about to do will cost Him His life.
This is Jesus’ grand entry into Jerusalem. He does so in such a way as to announce to the world that King Jesus has entered His holy city.
What sort of Savior are you looking for? Many think Jesus was sent to make our lives better, marriages better, or whatever. The reality is that He came to die for our sin. He came not as a military commander but a humble, obedient Lamb of God. This passage reminds us of the benefits Christ bestows on His people.
John 12:12–19 (ESV)
12 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 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!” 14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion;
behold, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
16 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. 17 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. 18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”
1. Jesus is Coming into Jerusalem! (12:12-13)
12 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 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!”
We must get a picture here of what is going on. The ancient historian Josephus who wrote in the first century, basically the same time Jesus was on earth, recorded that one census taken at Passover tells us that 2,700,000 worshippers come to Jerusalem at Passover. That puts the number around 270,000 lambs being slaughtered (1 for every 10 worshippers). Those are some figures for us to consider the massive crowd that gathered in Jerusalem during Passover.
The other thing to consider is the fact that there was one current event on the lips of these worshippers…Did you know that Jesus raised a man named Lazarus from the dead? Yeah, I heard that, I even heard he had been dead for four days. Could He be the Messiah?
This was the stir among those who came to Jerusalem. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration because at the close of this portion of Scripture we read that the world has gone after Him. Then in the following portion we have Greeks asking about Jesus.
The tradition, of course, is to celebrate the Sunday before Easter as Palm Sunday. This is due to the palm branches laid out before Jesus as He rode into Jerusalem. Here’s where we get the contrast between what Jesus has in mind and what the people have in mind. It is true that they were chanting… Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!
With that they were right. Jesus is Israel’s King. He is the rightful successor to the Davidic Throne. He is the Messiah. He does come in the name of Yahweh. Crying out Hosanna (save us now)…But, there is a problem.
The problem is found in their meaning of Hosanna and their meaning of the Palm Branches.
For the Jews in the First Century, Palm Branches were symbolic of national Israel. 150 years before Jesus when the Maccabean Wars took place and the Syrians were drove out of Jerusalem the returning army led by Simon Maccabaeus were celebrated by waving Palm Branches as they entered into the city. From that time on, Palm Branches were symbolic of National Israel and her victory over her enemies.
So, why were the people waving Palm Branches for Jesus? They had further hopes. They had plans for Jesus, that He would remove Rome from Jerusalem in the same way the Maccabean victory removed Syria. They were standing behind Jesus as a Conquering Messiah, One who would restore Davidic prosperity and remove the Romans who were currently in charge.
So, the problem lies in what sort of Messiah King the people were looking for. This would play out later when after the people saw that King Jesus was not a Conquering warrior King but a Messiah who would, as it were, conquer the sin of His people rather than their enemies, they would turn against Jesus and cry out for His crucifixion. Jesus was not the King they wanted.
Whether we recognize the original meaning of the Palm Branches or not they were not, at least in their original intent, a good thing. They showed that the people didn’t desire a Savior from sin but a Savior from Rome.
Their cries originate from Psalm 118, which is one of the Psalms often sung during Passover. Save us, save us, now. Too often, however, the saving us has been sung in hopes that God would save Israel from an enemy.
Psalm 118:25–26 (ESV)
25 Save us, we pray, O Lord!
O Lord, we pray, give us success!
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
We bless you from the house of the Lord.
2. God’s King is Coming into Jerusalem! (12:14-16)
14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion;
behold, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
16 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.
Let’s look to see what sort of King Jesus really is…
Our Lord could have been any sort of Ruler King God wanted. He could have been One who could over throw Rome or anyone else, however, there was a much greater enemy who needed defeated. Sin in God’s people is often and rightly viewed as an enemy. Jesus came to slay sin and death that was His mission that was the will of the Father. Here is Jesus’ mission…
1 John 3:8 (ESV)
8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
The passage before us today tells us that the disciples didn’t connect the dots until after Jesus had died on the cross and was raised again. Probably they didn’t connect the dots until Jesus later explained it to them. Our writer, the Apostle John, was one who didn’t get it as it was taking place, only later would he and the rest understand.
We’re a lot like that aren’t we? We don’t get things usually the first time and then maybe later we catch on.
Here’s what they didn’t get but would later realize…
Zechariah 9:9 (ESV)
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Zechariah foretold of a time when the King of God would enter Jerusalem. This King would be identified by riding in on a donkey.
The symbolism is also important here. When God’s King rides in on a donkey He is showing that while deserving to ride in on the white war horse like in Revelation Jesus rather in humility rides in on a colt.
Sin could not be dealt with by overpowering it but rather dying in obedience to the Father to pay the sin debt we owed.
3. God’s King Can Raise the Dead! (12:17-19)
17 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. 18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”
The news that this Jesus was the very One who raised Lazarus from the dead. This news literally went ahead of Jesus. This is why most of Jerusalem came out to see Jesus as He entered the Holy City. They were interested in getting a glimpse of the One who could do miracles and raise the dead.
John tells us that everyone came to see Jesus because He did the miracle, which he reminds us, is a sign.
The first point we should make is that we can see the superficial nature of the crowd’s faith. They believed simply in order to hopefully see another miracle or align themselves with the One who might rescue them from Roman tyranny.
We’ve seen this before.
John 2:23–25 (ESV)
23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
John 6:2 (ESV)
2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.
John 6:14–15 (ESV)
14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
The crowd follows because Jesus healed the sick, multiplied the loaves and the fishes, but when things didn’t go their way, they left as quickly as they arrived.
The crowd here, as with any crowd, was seeking a good show. They were thrill seekers who wanted to see something out of the ordinary.
We know this because in just a few short days, when Jesus proves to not be the King they had in mind, they turn on Him and cry out Crucify Him! They went from singing the praises Hosanna to the King of Israel to Crucify Him!
The crowd was not made up of true followers or true disciples. The reason we know that is because they left Him…
John 8:31–32 (ESV)
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
This is important for us to wrestle with here for a moment…When Jesus entered into Jerusalem, thousands upon thousands sang His praises. For that moment it seemed everyone would follow Jesus.
It’s a lot like when someone begins to come to church and makes a profession of faith. For that moment they look like the real thing. Then, something happens, either Jesus or Christianity just isn’t giving them what they’d hoped. Perhaps they thought their life would immediately get better. Much like those in Jerusalem who thought Jesus was going to make their lives better. They turned away and many people today turn away. Those in churches today who turn away prove they were never true followers just like those in Jerusalem who turned away.
2 John 9 (ESV)
9 Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.
Hebrews 3:14 (ESV)
14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
1 John 2:19 (ESV)
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
Matthew 24:12–13 (ESV)
12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
The Pharisees, at this point, are panicking. They wonder where everyone has gone as they look around the Temple. Their frustration is seen in our final verse for today…
19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”
Literally you are doing no good in putting an end to this excitement over Jesus. This will cause them to take drastic measures. They know the only way to silence the hysteria and put an end to His popularity is to put an end to Jesus.
Sometimes God uses the lost to utter prophecy. Here is a case when the enemies of God would speak words that would later come to pass. As they looked at the massive crowd singing the praises of Jesus, they made the statement that the whole world is following after Jesus.
Zechariah 9:9–10 (ESV)
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall speak peace to the nations;
his rule shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
Just as surely as King Jesus rode into Jerusalem that day on a colt He is coming again. The next time the King comes He will not be on a donkey but on a war horse of pure white. He comes to make war and defeat all God’s enemies and set up His eternal kingdom.
Revelation 19:11–16 (ESV)
11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. 14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Declaration of Grace
In the mercy and grace of Almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for His sake God forgives us all our sins. To those who believe in Jesus Christ He gives the power to become the children of God and gives to them the Holy Spirit. May the Lord, who has begun this good work in us, bring it to completion in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
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