Amazing Jesus | April 2
Amazing Jesus: Jesus Shows Up
Mark 11
Palm Sunday: April 2nd 2023
What lays at the heart of “no shows”?
Lack of conviction. Why do I need to show up?
Feelings of Inadequacy/Insecurity. What difference does it make if I do show up?
Distractions/Competing interests. What will I have to give up to show up?
What lies at the heart of people who show up?
A calling that fuels their conviction. I have to show up, that’s who I am called to be.
A faith in God’s strength that supersedes personal weaknesses. God will use me when I show up.
A commitment to that calling that takes precedence over other opportunities. I want what God wants.
Jesus Shows Up!
Mark 11:1-11 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’” 4 They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5 some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6 They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7 When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” 10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
Luke 19:39-40 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” 40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
Nothing is over until God says it is over and when He says it’s over, it’s over.
The Jewish people were ready for their Jewish Kingdom back.
They were tired of being ruled by a group of people who didn’t share their historic/ethnic roots.
They were tired of being ruled by a group of people who dismissed, disregarded and even held a level of disdain for their religious values.
They were tired of being ruled by a group of people who rejected their God.
Jesus’ entrance was met with…
Misunderstanding. We want you the way we want you.
Rejection. We don’t want to be ruled by you, we want self-rule.
Indifference. We don’t care about you, you don’t fit into the mix of our life.
Jesus’ reaction to misunderstanding, rejection and indifference?
Jesus showed up anyway.
How was Jesus able to overcome those barriers?
1. His identity and purpose were fixed by God, not people.
Isaiah 53 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. 4 Surely, he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. (JESUS SHOWED UP) 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. 11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
How was Jesus able to overcome those barriers?
1. His identity and purpose were fixed by God, not people.
2. His faith was fixed in His Father’s power & plan, not His human weaknesses.
Luke 1:31-33 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
How was Jesus able to overcome those barriers?
1. His identity and purpose were fixed by God, not people.
2. His faith was fixed in His Father’s power & plan, not His human weaknesses.
3. He fixed His eyes on the prize, not the path.
Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us (the writer is urging us to SHOW UP because Jesus SHOWED UP!), 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
How are we to receive Jesus?
As someone who loves you enough to push through your own misunderstandings, misgivings and indifference.
The misunderstanding Satan wants you to have about Jesus is that He will make your life easy.
The misgiving that Satan wants you to have about Jesus is that He sits in judgment of people.
John 3:16-19 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
Jesus does not condemn people in darkness. Jesus comes to people in darkness. People who choose to remain in the darkness condemn themselves.
The indifference Satan wants to sell you is that Jesus He doesn’t matter today.
Luke 19:41-43 records… 41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.
2 Corinthians 5:14-21 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Where do you need Jesus to show up?
Where is Jesus leading you to show up?