Who Is Jesus and Is That Enough?

And this is where it gets hard for us because I don't know, but I like to win. If someone wrongs me, I want justice. If someone hurts my family members, I want revenge. And yet, to follow in king Jesus' footsteps, it means I forgive. It means I let go of the things that are holding me captive. It means I recognize my own sin and brokenness. And, at Jesus is where I see forgiveness and redemption and grace in life because we don't win by the world's rules, we win by Jesus' rules and Jesus has already been victorious. Spoiler alert. That's next Sunday's message. [00:41:07] (42 seconds)  #ForgiveNotRevenge

Save us from those we don't like. Save us from those who aren't like us. Save us from those who don't look like us and think like us and believe like us. Just Jesus, get rid of all those people we don't like. When really, the reality is they were singing Hosanna. What they should have been saying is, save me from myself. Save me from my sin. Save me from my brokenness. Save me from my rebellion. Jesus, save us, rescue us, restore us back to you because we are the ones that broke this and and if they would have understood it completely, they would have understood the Romans and them alike all needed a savior. [00:33:00] (34 seconds)  #SaveMeFromMyself

And, here we are two thousand years later. And, we had palm leaves and we waved them for fun and we threw them in the aisle as a representation of what they were doing back then. But, we are entering this same holy week to remember, to reflect and revere Jesus for who he is and what he's done. And Holy Week starts on Palm Sunday with the question, is Jesus your king? Would you wave palm leaves and sing Hosanna and lay them down as a way to worship and honor king Jesus? Or do you fall into the same trap the religious leaders fell into back then? [00:39:19] (41 seconds)  #IsJesusYourKing

And, maybe you're sitting here or watching online right now and you're thinking, God, I feel like I'm just defeated. That I'm broken. That I can't figure you out, I can't figure my life out. I'm still struggling with these broken things in my life. I feel like I had no direction, no purpose, or whatever it may be. Let Palm Sunday remind you that Jesus is victorious already. And that victory is enough for you. These palm leaves signify his victory in our lives and victory over death. And, we go into Holy Week now worshiping and celebrating the victory of King Jesus. We get the advantage because we know the full story. [00:43:06] (41 seconds)  #VictoryIsEnough

They wanted to defeat their enemies. They wanted to kill their enemies. They wanted to be the ones in charge. And, Jesus wept for them because they missed the point. They missed what this whole kingdom of God is about and even saying the things they valued were going to be destroyed. They didn't understand it. But, what Jesus is getting at is in seventy AD, a few decades after Jesus' death and resurrection, the Jewish way of life was destroyed forever. [00:37:30] (26 seconds)  #TheyMissedThePoint

And so, knew they were missing the point. And, that wasn't gonna bring them peace. That Jesus and God's kingdom is what brings us peace and they missed it because it wasn't enough for them. Over the course of the next five days, Jesus would show the people what really matters. What really matters is trusting him as king and following him into God's kingdom. And, when he preached that over and over, it was an attack on the Jewish religious leaders' power. And, they hated that. And, that's what prompted them to make this happen that he would be crucified. [00:38:38] (36 seconds)  #KingdomBringsPeace

So, Palm Sunday is here. He's riding on a donkey and people are praising his name. Religious leaders giving him junk. He's like, whatever. Get away from me. And, he looks at Jerusalem and just cries. Cries. Because he knew the Jews, they were hoping and longing for this earthly kingdom, full of status and power so they could put their power over top of their enemies. All centered on the temple and their way of living and they wanted to win based off the world's rules. [00:36:57] (32 seconds)  #JesusWept

And what they're doing, this practice that they're doing is the right thing to do. In fact, throughout the Jewish history and other cultures' history, this is what they would do when a victorious person would come back from battle. A king would come back from battle. They would do this to king David when he'd come back from his battles. They would greet them with this same type of praise. Hosanna, you've saved us. You've protected us from our enemies. Let us lay down our cloaks. Let's lay down our palm branches. [00:31:33] (27 seconds)  #PalmBranchesOfVictory