Great Expectations

Life is full of expectations.  I’ve said this before.  Life is full of things we put our hopes in – thing we expect will work out for our good.  Many of you have invested in mutual funds, retirement accounts, and the stock market because you’ve expected outcomes that will keep you financially secure.  Many of you go regularly to the gym, because you expect working out will keep you healthy as you age.  Many of you voted in this past election, because you expected outcomes that will make life better for you. Those are just a few expectations that are common to most of us.  But I have a question for us today: What kind of expectations are you placing on Jesus?  What are you hoping that Jesus will do for you?

Are you hoping Jesus will make your life easier?  Are you’re expecting Jesus to heal our land and turn the tide of moral decay? Perhaps you’re expecting Jesus to heal someone dear to you or rescue a wayward child?  Often your prayer life can reveal your expectations of Jesus:  Are you asking Jesus to work in your life? Are you asking Jesus to give you peace? Are you asking Jesus to take away your anger or fill you with love? Are you asking Jesus to change your life and make you more like Him?  What kind of expectations are you placing on Jesus?

The reason I’m asking you this today, is that throughout history, people have placed all kinds of expectations on Jesus.  Many have been good expectations, but others have had misplaced expectations.  And today as we return to the gospel of John, we’ve come to the place in Jesus’ story where the people’s expectations and Jesus’ expectations collide. They don’t jive!  So, if you brought your Bible with you today,       I want to encourage you to find John 12:12-19, where we’re going to see how Jesus begins to correct our understanding of who He is and what we are to expect of Him.

To get us started, we need to begin with what was going on with all the people who had come to welcome Jesus to Jerusalem.  We begin with their…

• Great Expectations The next day the great crowd that had come for the festivalheard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.  They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!” John 12:12-13

Here’s the scene:  Crowds of people had been coming up to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Passover.  According to Jewish historian Josephus, each year there could be as many as 2.5 million pilgrims making their way to Jerusalem for this feast. And many of them had come from the region of Galilee where they had heard Jesus   teachings and witnessed His miracles the past few years.  So as Jesus made his way up to Jerusalem, the number of people traveling along the way, as well as the number of

coming out of the city was significant. There may have been tens of thousands lining the way and casting palms at the feet of Jesus. The crowd was immense. The only thing I can compare it too was when we lived in Tacoma and Seattle won the Super Bowl. Tens of thousands of people lined the streets to celebrate our championship.  And here now, were tens of thousands of Jews celebrating who they believed was their champion, their hero… the promised Messiah.

And they shouted “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Fueled by the fervor of Jesus’ most recent miracle, raising Lazarus from the grave, they believed Jesus was their long-awaited Messiah.  So, they were literally shouting out to Jesus over and over again, “Hosanna,” which means “Give salvation now!”  To this they added the phrase: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” a phrase universally understood as a reference to the Messiah. Words that came from Psalm 118 and were sung year after year as they made their way to the Passover Feast.  But now their words had an object.  Their conquering King had come. So, in the enthusiasm of the moment they began to proclaim, “Blessed is the king of Israel!”

This was heady stuff.  Everyone was caught up in the moment.  Every Jew who’d ever suffered and prayed, waited and longed for their Messiah were now swept up in the excitement of Jesus coming into Jerusalem.

But here’s the thing…  As enthusiastic as this great crowd was – as full of praise for Jesus each one expressed, not one of them understood what Jesus had come to do. Sure, they had one thing right.  They believed Jesus was their Messiah.  But their image of the Messiah was a worldly image, a political image.  They were praising Jesus for what they hoped he would do FOR THEM:  DELIVER THEM from Roman Rule.  They believed Jesus had come at this time to rally the Jews and gather them at his side to overthrow the tyranny of Rome. And soon thereafter, He would restore the fortunes of Israel. This was the great expectation of the Jews. They believed Jesus would soon make their lives better.

But here now is where their expectations and Jesus’ expectations collide.  Because Jesus did not come to Jerusalem to overthrow Rome, but to overthrow the hold of sin and death on man.  Here now, we see Jesus coming to fulfill…

• God’s Expectations: Then Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: “Fear not, daughter ofZion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” John 12:14-15

As Jesus comes near Jerusalem, he sends two of his disciples ahead of him to find a colt that no one has ever ridden and asks them to bring it to him. He then mounts the donkey as he makes his way into the city.  The image is clear to those who know the prophecy written by Zechariah that reads: See, your king comes to you,righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. Zechariah 9:9-10

This prophecy says a lot about the kind of King who as coming. He will be different from the average political ruler. The choice of the donkey reveals this King will achieve his victory through humility.  The salvation He secures will come through meekness.  He doesn’t come to destroy nations but to proclaim peace to the nations. The crowd missed this image of Jesus that day, but we must not.  Jesus is no Warrior King who brings a revolution of force, but a Humble King who brings a revolution of peace.

This was God’s expectation for the Messiah. God’s plan has always been for all the nations, not just Israel, to bow in worship of Him.  In Genesis 12:3, God promised Abraham that “all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Isaiah wrote to prepare God’s people for the coming of this king and calls him “a light to the nations” (42:6) Now, with the arrival this King, God’s salvation will reach to ends of the earth. That’s God’s expectation for Jesus as the Messiah.

And we must not miss this about Jesus’ coming. He did come to save us, but not from the political powers of the day. He came to save us from our sin and to usher in a new kingdom, a kingdom where He is our loving and merciful King!

And yet not one person understood this about Jesus on that day.  Not one person got this about Jesus. Not even his closest followers. They all missed the significance of His arrival as King. How do I know this? By their reactions to Jesus on that day.  Look now at verses 16-19 where we now see that there were…

Three Reactions to Jesus’ triumphal entry:

Ignorance    John tells us that 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. John 12:16

Imagine that? Jesus’ disciples had been with him for three and a half years.  They had heard the authority of His teaching. They had witnessed the power of his miracles.  They were there when he turned water to wine.  When He healed the Royal Official’s Son with a word.  They saw his compassion when He healed the man who’d been lame for 38 years. They carried the 12 baskets of leftovers after Jesus fed the five thousand. They saw Jesus walking in the middle of the sea and enter their boat in the middle of the night.  They were there when Jesus healed the man who’d been born blind and saw Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead.  They heard Jesus claim to be equal with the Father and to be the bread of life come down from heaven. They saw him love the outcast, forgive the adulteress and confound the religious. And yet, at this moment they were just as ignorant of Jesus the Messiah as was this crowd.  For they too were hoping for a political Messiah.  They too were caught up in the hope of a conquering Messiah who would make their lives better. And yet, they did not understand that He did come to deliver us: but not from political oppression.  No, Jesus came to deliver us from sin and shame, from guilt and judgment- not to give us a better life – but to give us a whole new life: A life of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

But it would not be until after Jesus suffered and died, was buried and resurrected… only when Jesus was glorified would Jesus as the King of Peace make sense to them.  Like the rest, they had no idea of the new life of peace that Jesus would bring.

Now, if that was true of them who walked with Jesus, if they were ignorant of what He came to give us – how much more do we need to understand who Jesus is and why He has come.  That’s why we must continually preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The gospel is called “good news” for a reason. For people today are still ignorant of the true nature of Jesus.  Yes, he is a great teacher.  Yes, he did miraculous works.  Yes, he was kind and compassionate.  But until people hear of the good news that this King humbled himself, and gave himself as a sin offering, and died on that cruel cross the death we deserved, was buried for three days in a tomb, then rose victorious over sin and death… not until a person hears what Jesus did for them, can they be forgiven and experience peace with God. Not until they comprehend what Jesus has done for them will they grasp who Jesus truly is.  For Jesus is the Savior King, who died to Save You to bring you to God.   And the moment He rose from the grave His revolution of peace began.  And now because Jesus lives anyone who believes in Him can be saved. That’s the good news…  But on that day, even His disciples didn’t understand. Nor did the enthusiastic crowds…

In fact, that’s the second reaction recorded here… 2) Enthusiasm 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.  The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. John 12:17-18   What we see here is why the crowd believed Jesus was their deliverer. They believed if Jesus could raise a man from the dead then nothing could stop him. So, they hitched their hopes to this miracle-worker, and spread the Word of how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. And word of this miracle-worker spread like wildfire, so that it wasn’t just the crowd coming into Jerusalem who were excited. Now, all Jerusalem wanted to see this miracle worker.  And all Jerusalem were asking the same question: Could this be the Messiah?

What I love about this reaction, is that these people who were so excited about Jesus, couldn’t stop telling others about him.  They continued to bear witness about Jesus to anyone who would listen.  And even though they only believed in Him as a political revolutionary, and were short-sighted about why He had come – they couldn’t contain themselves.  They kept bearing witness about Jesus.  Isn’t that great?  What a great example for us.  We know that Jesus is the Messiah.  We believe He has saved us from sin and death.  We know He has set us free!  Why then, are we not more like these ones who couldn’t contain themselves?  Why are we not more excited about bearing witness about Jesus?

When I asked myself that, I had to do some soul searching.  And I came up with a couple of reasons.  First, it could be that we may have forgotten what it’s like to be lost.  We’ve forgotten, that apart from God’s mercy, we would have to live every day with the guilt and shame of our sin.  We’ve forgotten, that apart from Jesus’ death for us, we would never know the love of God.  We’d live alienated from life with him.  We’d have no hope, no peace, no relationship with God.

Second, we may have forgotten what it’s like for others who have not met Jesus.  They don’t know the love of God.  They don’t get to rest in His grace. They have no way to escape their guilt and shame other than to medicate it.  They need to hear the good news.  They need to hear that’s there’s a way to be free of their guilt – to be free of their fear. They need to hear that that there’s real hope, real life, real joy found in Jesus.  That’s why I’m asking God to renew my burden for people far from God.

Third, it could be that we maybe just getting by on scraps from the table of grace.  We have a God of abundant grace who wants us to be filled with the power of His Spirit, so much so, that we can’t keep silent, but we will be the witnesses of Jesus, just like He said we would be. Oh, that God would pour out His Spirit afresh and awaken us and fill us anew with the power of the Holy Spirit that He’s already put in us. You see, that’s where this word enthusiasm has its root. The etymology of enthuse is “in Theos” God put us His Spirit in us when we believed. Why?  So, He can live in us and through us!  Oh, might He reawaken His life in us, so we can’t help but speak of Christ! That’s the kind of enthusiasm that sparks a movement like we see here.

That’s the second reaction, now the third:  3) Dismay  So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.” John 12:19  You could almost see the Pharisees looking out at these crowds from some dark tower of the temple grounds.  Their eyes are furrowed.  Their faces pale. Their internal temperatures rising. They’re bewildered by what they see. Everything they’ve tried has failed. And it alarms them that all their people are falling for Jesus. And they’re saying to themselves, “We are the righteous ones. We’re the ones close to God.  We know this man has deceived the people.  We know He’s a heretic and demon possessed.  We know he’s not the Messiah, but nothing we’ve done is working!” “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”

And yet their words are full of irony. Even with the whole world shouting, “Hosanna” “Save us now” they had no idea that what they just said, was God’s expectation in sending Jesus.  God’s desire is that the whole world would follow Jesus.  That’s the mission. Jesus has come to save the world. As He himself said, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” John 3:17  And what’s even more ironic, is that now God will use the dismay of these men to play a part to helping Jesus save the world.  For in their dismay, they will  continue to conspire against Jesus, arrest him, falsely accuse him, and then condemn Him to die on the cross. And by His death, Jesus will make a way to save the world.  Funny how God works.

You see, when Jesus entered Jerusalem that day, everyone may have had different expectations of Jesus. Obviously, there were thousands who hoped He would overthrow the powers of Rome and restore the fortunes of Israel.  And of course, we see that the disciples hoped the same thing and had no idea that Jesus would come to save them by dying on the cross. And then there were the religious leaders had lost all hope concerning Jesus.  But as we now know, they all had misplaced expectations of Jesus.  For it was God’s expectations that would prevail.  For when Jesus entered Jerusalem, He entered as the King of Peace who would lay down His life to bring peace to the nations, and peace to us, through His blood shed on the cross.

So, I have one question for you today:  Have you received the King of Peace?  He came to save you and give you peace with God. If you haven’t, then maybe that’s the expectation you need to place on Jesus today: that you ask Him what those crowds shouted on that day: “Hosanna” Save me now.  And if that’s your expectation of Jesus, He’s ready to save you now.  All you have to do is welcome Him into your life by faith.  Let’s pray.