What Was it Like to be With Jesus

Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem invites every believer to imagine what it would have been like to leave everything and follow a traveling rabbi for three years. Christ chose regular, plain old people, showed them signs and wonders, welcomed the people everybody else avoided, and led them toward the city where everything had to go down. The disciples carried big expectations into Jerusalem, even though Jesus had plainly said that the Son of Man would be killed and rise again.

Zechariah’s prophecy explains why Jesus came riding on a colt instead of a white stallion. The King came righteous and victorious, yet lowly, bringing peace rather than beginning the kind of revolution the crowds expected. The palm branches, cloaks, and shouts of “Hosanna” named Jesus as David’s Messiah, but the excitement was built largely on people seeing what they wanted to see. Jesus wept over Jerusalem because the city did not recognize the time of God’s coming, and its refusal would bring terrible judgment.

The fig tree becomes an acted-out parable of Israel’s fruitlessness. Jesus did not curse a tree because of a bad morning; the tree pointed toward a temple and a people full of leaves but lacking the fruit God desired. The temple courts had become a profitable marketplace, even though God had called His house “a house of prayer for all nations.” Jesus overturned the tables because people were being cheated and because the very place meant for worship and access to God had been consumed by business.

The withered fig tree then turns the disciples toward faith. Jesus’ words about moving a mountain do not promise that God must grant every request exactly as desired. God can do the impossible, but faith holds confidence in God’s power while submitting to God’s sovereign will: “Not what I will, but what you will be done.”

Jesus also joins prayer to forgiveness. A hard heart toward another person hinders communion with God, because those who have received mercy cannot cling to unforgiveness. Communion therefore becomes more than a routine: Christ’s broken body and poured-out blood call believers to receive forgiveness, make things right, bear fruit, and come before God with honest hearts.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. The King came lowly and peaceful. Jesus did not arrive in Jerusalem looking like the kind of king people expected. The donkey revealed a Messiah whose victory would come through humility, obedience, and sacrifice rather than force. Human expectations can celebrate Jesus loudly while still missing the kind of King He truly is. [33:28]
• 2. Leaves without fruit invite judgment. The fig tree looked alive from a distance, but it offered nothing when Jesus came looking for fruit. The temple carried all the religious activity, sacrifice, and commerce, yet it had stopped serving God’s purpose as a house of prayer for all nations. A church or believer can look busy and still fail to give God what He desires. [43:39]
• 3. God’s house must serve worship. The temple courts had become a place where people made profit while worship was pushed aside. Jesus’ anger was not random; it rose from His love for His Father’s house and His concern for people being used and excluded. Worship cannot be treated as a side issue when God has made access to Him the central thing. [47:52]
• 4. Faith trusts power and submits desires. Jesus can move mountains, and nothing is impossible for God when it serves His will. Faith is not forcing God’s hand through enough confidence or demanding a particular outcome. Faith rests in God’s goodness while praying with the heart of Christ: “Not what I will, but what you will be done.” [54:48]
• 5. Forgiveness clears the way for prayer. Jesus ties prayer directly to forgiveness because bitterness cannot be held tightly while asking God for mercy. Forgiveness does not deny betrayal, pain, or offense, but it refuses to let those wounds harden the heart against God and others. Communion calls believers to take seriously the relationships that need confession, reconciliation, or the costly offering of forgiveness.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [24:03] - Imagine Walking With Jesus
• [29:12] - Jesus Calls Ordinary People
• [31:28] - The Triumphal Entry Begins
• [32:49] - Why Jesus Rode a Donkey
• [35:24] - Hosanna and the Coming King
• [40:31] - Jesus Weeps Over Jerusalem
• [43:16] - The Fig Tree’s Warning
• [44:55] - Jesus Cleanses the Temple
• [49:36] - Faith That Moves Mountains
• [55:26] - Prayer, Forgiveness, and Communion

Bible Reading

Mark 11:1-11
Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’” And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
[31:35] [32:21] [35:24]

Zechariah 9:9-10
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. 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.
[33:28]

Mark 11:15-17
And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”
[44:55] [47:52]

Mark 11:20-25
As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
[49:13] [49:36] [55:45]

Luke 19:41-44
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
[40:31] [41:05]

Observation questions

1. What details in Mark 11 show that the crowd understood Jesus to be connected with David’s promised kingdom, even though He entered on a colt? [35:24]
2. According to Zechariah 9:9-10, what kind of King is coming, and what does He bring to the nations?
3. What does Jesus find happening in the temple courts, and what does He say God’s house was meant to be? [44:55]
4. What happens to the fig tree, and what three subjects does Jesus immediately address with His disciples afterward? [49:36]

Interpretation questions

1. Jesus rode into Jerusalem as the promised King, but He came lowly and speaking peace rather than beginning a revolt. Why might that have been difficult for the crowds and disciples to understand? [38:59]
2. Jesus wept over a city that was celebrating His arrival. What does this reveal about the difference between welcoming Jesus for what people want and truly recognizing Him for who He is? [41:45]
3. The fig tree had leaves but no fruit, and the temple had religious activity but was no longer serving as a house of prayer for all nations. What kinds of “leaves” can make a church or believer appear spiritually healthy while fruit is missing? [44:28]
4. Jesus connects faith-filled prayer with forgiveness. Why might holding onto an offense make it hard for a person to come openly before God in prayer? [55:45]

Application questions

1. Jesus may not always meet the expectations people bring to Him. Where might you be tempted to want Jesus to fix a situation according to your plan rather than trust Him as the humble and peaceful King? [42:17]
2. The crowd shouted “Hosanna,” meaning “save us,” but many wanted salvation on their own terms. When you ask God to save, help, or change something, what outcome are you most attached to?
3. The fig tree looked full from a distance but had no fruit when Jesus came near. What evidence of spiritual fruit—love, obedience, prayer, generosity, service, repentance, or sharing Christ—can be seen in your life right now? Where do you sense a need for growth? [57:27]
4. God’s house is meant to be a house of prayer for all nations. What distractions, habits, or priorities can make worship feel secondary in your own life? What would help make prayer and worship more central this week? [47:52]
5. Faith trusts that God can do the impossible while also praying, “Not what I will, but what you will be done.” Is there a specific prayer or burden where you need both greater confidence in God’s power and deeper surrender to His will? [55:04]
6. Is there someone whose offense, betrayal, disappointment, or hurt you are still carrying? What would it look like to begin releasing that person to God, even if reconciliation takes time or requires wise boundaries? [59:11]
7. Communion reminds believers that Christ gave His body and poured out His blood for forgiveness. Is there a confession, apology, difficult conversation, or act of forgiveness that would help you come before God with a more honest and open heart? [59:28]