THE KING HAS COME | Pastor Jay Rice | I Love to Tell the Story

The morning opens with playful banter and announcements that frame Palm Sunday as both celebration and service: a Family Fun Day and a hunger walk designed to raise funds for the Atlantic Community Food Bank and the church’s local food pantry. Practical details underscore a ministry rhythm that procures thousands of pounds of food at minimal cost, mobilizes volunteers, and seeks to feed 250 families through small donations. After a brief prayer that positions the coming week as the apex of human history, the narrative turns to Palm Sunday’s original electricity — the crowd’s expectation after four hundred years of waiting.

The account examines how waiting breeds human attempts to force God’s promise into being. Four distinct philosophies arise in the people’s impatience: strict religious observance (Pharisees), influence and wealth (Sadducees), violent overthrow (Zealots), and retreat from culture (Essenes). Each philosophy offers a strategy for bringing the promised kingdom, yet each forms a box that misunderstands God’s way. The birth and teaching of the Messiah undermine those boxes: a king born in a manger, who preaches mercy, meekness, and radical generosity, and who rides into Jerusalem on a donkey as a sign of peace rather than power.

The Palm Sunday scene in Luke dramatizes public praise, elite rebuke, and prophetic disruption. The Messiah’s teachings invert the expected moral economy — calling for secret righteousness, turning the other cheek, and being salt and light rather than withdrawing into purity. Where human systems demand control through law, money, force, or isolation, the Messiah offers a kingdom defined by humility, service, and costly love. The crucifixion crowns that reversal: even while executioners enact judgment, the Messiah prays, “Father, forgive them,” revealing forgiveness as the heart of redemption.

The gathering culminates in an invitation to communion and personal reflection: to let long-held expectations be upended, to abandon emulations of religious or political power, and to receive mercy that seeks and restores. Attendees receive space to confess, to intercede for others, and to open their lives to the disruptive grace that reshaped first-century Jerusalem and continues to reframe human hopes today.

---

Key Takeaways

• 1. Longing turns into expectant worship Waiting sharpens longing and focuses hope into public praise when the promised one appears. Expectation does not simply pass time; it reshapes attention, heightens sensitivity to God’s movement, and turns private desire into communal worship. Long seasons of waiting cultivate a hunger that only a decisive arrival can satisfy. [07:31]
• 2. Religiosity, wealth, power, withdrawal fail Human strategies often fracture into four predictable responses: moral performance, influence through wealth, brute force, and cultural retreat. Each response promises agency but ultimately misreads divine timing and purpose, producing bondage rather than blessing. Recognizing these patterns frees honest repentance and reorients action toward kingdom practices. [13:43]
• 3. Messiah’s arrival shatters human expectations The true king arrives in humility and peace, subverting every blueprint for success that human systems favor. Teachings on meekness, secret righteousness, and sacrificial love reverse customary calculations about honor and power. Embracing that reversal opens a path to a countercultural life that preserves and heals. [20:24]
• 4. Forgiveness reaches even executioners The cross reveals forgiveness as inclusive, costly, and transformative: mercy extends even to those who enact violence. That radical pardon reframes justice and invites the guilty into restoration rather than mere condemnation. Receiving that forgiveness dislodges entrenched shame and enables a new moral imagination. [34:40]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [00:58] - Opening Banter
• [01:51] - Family Fun Day & Hunger Walk
• [02:36] - Support for Atlantic Food Bank
• [04:51] - Prayer Before the Word
• [06:51] - Palm Sunday: The Electric Expectation
• [07:31] - Four Hundred Years of Waiting
• [13:43] - Four Competing Philosophies
• [20:24] - Messiah Upends Every Box
• [27:11] - Palm Sunday in Luke 19
• [34:40] - Forgiveness from the Cross
• [36:26] - Communion Invitation & Response
• [38:13] - Closing Prayer

Based on the sermon summary and transcript provided, here is a Bible study discussion guide.

Bible Reading
Luke 19:28-40 (ESV)
When he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’” So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

Luke 23:34 (ESV)
And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Observation questions

1. In the Luke 19 passage, what are the different reactions to Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem from the crowd and from the Pharisees?
2. What specific prophecy from the Old Testament is Jesus fulfilling by riding in on a donkey, and what does that symbolize? [29:48]
3. According to the sermon, what were the four main philosophies or groups (Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, Essenes) that developed during Israel's waiting period, and what was each group's proposed solution for ushering in God's kingdom? [13:43]
4. From the cross, what does Jesus ask of the Father regarding the people who are executing him?

Interpretation questions

1. Why do you think the religious leaders were so threatened by a king who arrived in peace and humility instead of on a war horse with an army?
2. The four human strategies for forcing God's promise (religious performance, wealth/influence, power, withdrawal) all promise control but ultimately lead to bondage. Why do these strategies remain so appealing to us, even today? [17:53]
3. How does Jesus’ plea for forgiveness from the cross completely redefine our understanding of justice, power, and redemption?
4. The sermon states that Jesus' entire life—from his birth in a manger to his teachings on meekness—shattered human expectations. What does this reveal about the fundamental nature of God's kingdom versus the kingdoms of this world? [20:24]

Application questions

1. Which of the four human strategies (striving for religious perfection, relying on wealth/influence, seeking power, or withdrawing from culture) do you find yourself most tempted to use to solve problems or earn God's favor? What does leaning on that strategy look like in your daily life? [18:13]
2. Jesus’ arrival upended every expectation. What is one long-held assumption or "box" you have put God in that might need to be shattered by the real Jesus? [31:39]
3. The forgiveness offered from the cross extends even to those who actively opposed him. Is there someone in your life—perhaps someone who has wronged you or holds very different views—whom you need to see through the lens of "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"?
4. The kingdom of God is defined by humility, service, and costly love, not power, force, or isolation. What is one practical way you can embrace this "countercultural" value in your home, workplace, or community this week? [23:27]
5. The sermon ended with an invitation to confess, "Father, forgive me; I didn't know what I was doing." What area of your life, whether a past action or a current mindset, might you need to bring before God with that same prayer? [36:52]