Kaleidoscope of Faith

If God’s people would take your
Bibles. I had somebody ask me this week
if I had prepared a special Mother’s Day message. I have. It’s in
John’s gospel. John chapter 12. They obviously
didn’t know me. And Even as I came to this passage,
I could hear, I could hear the echoes. If there ever was a passage
to kind of just breeze through as a transitional passage, verses
12 through 19 might be that passage. But I have prepared a special
Mother’s Day passage for all the saints from this great section
of scripture, John chapter 12, verses 12 through 19. And in
order to set the context, I want to go back to chapter 11, verse
55, where, by way of reminder, we are, even though we’re only
at the end of chapter 11, advancing into chapter 12, we are at the
triumphal entry. Do you understand where this
is? There’s only 21 chapters in John,
which means that About the halfway mark, we have concluded Christ’s
earthly ministry, and now we are just one week away. There’s
more than 10 chapters devoted in John’s gospel just to this
final week. What an amazing gospel this is.
Very different from the synoptic gospels, which seem to do just
the opposite. They lay out this lengthy portion
of ministry and then wrap up with a passion week very, very
quickly, very briefly. Well, we want to do things the
way John has laid them out for us. And in chapter 11, verse
55, John is making a transition into this amazing week, which
we call, well, we refer to it in many
different terms, but it’s the passion week. It is, it is the,
The close of Christ’s ministry. Verse 55. Now the Passover of
the Jews was near and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country
before the Passover to purify themselves. So they were seeking
for Jesus and were saying to one another as they stood in
the temple, what do you think? That he will not come to the
feast at all? Now the chief priests and the
Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was,
he was to report it so that they might seize him. Jesus, therefore,
six days before the Passover came to Bethany where Lazarus
was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they made him a
supper there and Martha was serving. But Lazarus was one of those
reclining at the table with him. Mary then took a pound of very
costly perfume, a pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus
and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the
fragrance of the perfume, but Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples,
who was intending to betray him, said, why was this perfume not
sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor people? Now, he said
this not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he
was a thief. And as he had the money box, he used to pilfer
what was put into it. Therefore, Jesus said, let her
alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For
you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have
me. The large crowd of the Jews then
learned that he was there and they came not for Jesus’ sake
only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom he raised from
the dead. But the chief priests planned
to put Lazarus to death also, because on account of him, many
of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus. On the
next day, the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they
heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches
of the palm trees and went out to meet him. and began to shout,
Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. Jesus, finding a donkey,
sat on it as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion. Behold,
your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt. These things
his disciples did not understand at first, but when he was glorified,
then they remembered these things were written of him, and that
they had done these things to him. So the people who were with
him, when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from
the dead, continued to testify about him. For this reason also,
the people went and met him, because they heard that he had
performed this sign. So the Pharisees said to one
another, You see that you are not doing any good. Look, the
world has gone after him. It’s an amazing scene, the triumphal
entry. John paints the bleakest, most
brief, almost colorless picture of the triumphal entry. We’ll
see that in a moment. It follows on the heels, not
only of the healing of Lazarus, but this amazing dinner almost
out of gratitude, out of worship, certainly out of friendship that
we considered several weeks ago. We referred to it as family devotion
where each family member really exercised their own giftedness
in worshiping Christ each in a different way. Martha in her
serving, Lazarus in his communion with Christ, Mary in her unprecedented
act of worship, breaking this very expensive perfume, lavishing
Christ with it, wiping the remainder with her hair. Well, that enters
into a really popular response. If you look back at verses 10
and 11, the chief priest had a response, but so did the people.
And the chief priest response is largely predicated upon the
people’s response. Many of the Jews were going away
and believing in him, and that got the Jewish authorities’ attention. And that leads into this amazing
section in verses 12 through 19. There are many times where
I’ve come to passages of scripture, and at the beginning of the week,
I wondered, what am I gonna do with this? And they always turn
out to be among the richest passages of scripture that I ever have
the privilege of studying. not the least of which is this
passage in front of us. I would refer to it as a kaleidoscope
of faith. When I was a little kid, they
had those things. It was like a spyglass, right?
A long tube, like a telescope. And you would look into it and
it had a knob at the end that you would just simply turn and
there were little crystals inside. And as you looked up at the light,
you, you would see the shapes take place and change. I don’t
know who did the counting. They say that there is an infinite
number of shapes, but I’ll take their word for it. But this kaleidoscope
is constantly changing. And I think that’s what you have
here. If you could look at the landscape of Christianity, or
if you will, the landscape of faith, there are a myriad of
different measures of faith, a myriad of different images,
if you will, of faith. And in this little passage, we
have a number of them. I figured what better way to
examine our own level of faith than by examining our faith in
light of real examples, real people, examples of faith of
these real people in their own interaction with the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. The first, the first image that
we see in this kaleidoscope of faith is this excitement of the
crowd. And I know that by reading the
passage, especially if we read it in just a cursory fashion,
the tendency is to think that any excitement is a good thing.
that after all, at the end of the day, they were excited, they
were enthusiastic, they were passionate about the coming of
Christ. But if you know anything about
this story, their excitement is going to be very short-lived,
isn’t it? Their excitement fades within six days. And in six days,
Christ will be crucified. The crowds will dwindle. The
excitement will fade very quickly. The excitement of the crowd here
is a picture of a crowd caught up in what I would call a fleeting
enthusiasm. It’s enthusiasm, and we’ll see
it in very dramatic imagery. But it’s fleeting. It won’t last.
Look at verse 12. On the next day, the very day
after this very warm reception that he had with his dear friends,
Mary and Martha and Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead,
what a celebration it must have been there in Bethany. And on
the very next day, this large crowd begins already to prepare
for him. Some of the translations read
a great multitude, a whole lot of people. And if you think of
it, this is Passover. And the Passover drew in some
of the largest crowds of the year. Because of the time of
year, it was easy, relatively easy to travel, and many came
for the Passover, great numbers of people from across the land,
and they came to Jerusalem for this celebration. Well, when
they get there, in preparation for the Passover, they just happen
to hear of this incident. of this individual raising Lazarus
from the dead. On the next day, this large crowd
who had come to the feast when they heard that Jesus was coming
to Jerusalem. This large crowd, this Passover
multitude, hears of Christ preparing to come into Jerusalem. and they
go pouring out of the Eastern Gate that Sunday morning, which
to the Jews, as you know, was their Monday morning to us. This is Palm Sunday. This is
now just one week prior to what we refer to now as Easter, Resurrection
Sunday. In one week’s time, they will
put Christ to death, He will be buried, and He will be raised. this crowd that had gathered
in Jerusalem, probably many of whom had come down from Galilee,
who had seen much of Christ’s ministry, seen the feeding of
the 5,000, heard of Christ walking on the water, had heard many
such miracles, and yet Jesus would eschew every attempt for
them to make Him a king. even forcibly make him a king. Jesus wouldn’t play their game.
Jesus wouldn’t allow himself to be set up as a king. And so on this particular occasion,
all of a sudden Jesus seems receptive to the idea he is going to come
into Jerusalem. There’s going to be great pomp.
There’s going to be a great train of people preceding Christ and
following Him. Perhaps He was finally accepting
this role of Messiah. And because of that, the enthusiasm
was all the more stirred. He’s finally going to do what
they wanted Him to do all along, which was to take up this earthly
role as King. Luke records a very general eruption
of emotion. Listen to what Luke says. Luke
19.37, if you want to jot it down. As soon as he was approaching
near the descent of the Mount of Olives, and here is a valley
that could be seen by those that were in Jerusalem itself at the
temple, they could see Christ and his train of people coming.
As soon as he was approaching, The whole crowd of the disciples
began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the
miracles they had seen. This was their hero and he was
granted a hero’s reception. Now the whole crowd here points
in some sense to the apex where crowds had grown together, where
one crowd had added to another and another. Many groups had
blended into one and were not told how the crowd in Jerusalem
learned of his arrival, were only told that they heard. Maybe some of his own followers
leaked the information, we don’t know. But we shouldn’t be surprised
that Jesus himself not only allowed this information to trickle out,
But he wanted the information to trickle out. This is his moment. This is the reason that Jesus
Christ came. Jesus isn’t afraid of a triumphal
entry. Jesus isn’t afraid to stand up
and to be seen by others in his role as Savior. So the pure and simple statement
of Luke’s gospel that the crowd literally erupted because of
all that they had seen, very simple statement in Luke’s account,
but Matthew’s account, much more complete, much fuller. If you would turn to Matthew’s
gospel, we’ll be back and forth in Matthew’s gospel, chapter
21, We’ll be back and forth here
for a few minutes, so keep your finger, a bulletin, a piece of
paper there. Now what John simply alludes
to here is that they took branches from the tree and went out to
meet him. It doesn’t say what they did
with the branches, but Luke, rather Matthew, gives us a much
more complete rendition with much more detail than any of
the other Gospels do, look at verse 8. Most of the crowd spread
their coats on the road. This was an act of homage to
Christ. This was an act of worship. This
was an act of humble welcoming like they would a conquering
king or their own king having come back from a great victory.
Most of the crowd spread their coats on the road. Others were
cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road.
It was an act of honor as if to say the dirt should not touch
our sovereign’s feet. The dirt should not, that he’s
far too great to be walking on the same path that we trod. It
would be akin to our day and age rolling out the red carpet,
palms were an emblem. They were a symbol of victory.
And here the image at least is of the triumph of Christ, although
many people don’t even know what the victory is yet. The palm
tree was seen as one of the the treasures really of the Mideast
always green. They were those that had just
a remarkable longevity. They had these deep roots that
could tap into almost any moisture and perpetually produce these
beautiful shade frond leaves that were just always constantly
green and constantly regenerating. Psalm 92, the righteous man will
flourish like the palm tree. He will grow like a cedar in
Lebanon. And so it became this image of
spiritual vigor and strength. Leviticus tells us that using
these palm fronds as kind of a victory celebration was something
that God himself had prescribed. Leviticus 23, on the first day
you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees,
palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook,
and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.
And so they would take these palms and wave them in kind of
an adulation of God himself. Well, here in John chapter 12,
the symbolism is exactly the same. Here’s this great crowd
taking these palm branches and waving them in homage to Christ,
laying them down in the road before him to tread on. It was
a sign of great triumph. It was a sign of great rejoicing.
One Puritan said it this way, described this scene, palm branches
were carried by processions, attending kings, victorious generals
on public occasions. Others did what the rest did. Some in the crowd on this occasion
believed that Jesus was the Messiah. Others were simply following
suit, going along with the crowd, going along with the emotion
of the day. And that’s why I suggested to
you that this enthusiasm is fleeting. It’s there, it’s palpable, it’s
real, but it’s fleeting. The multitude had this vague
idea that Christ was somebody special, somebody remarkable,
maybe a prophet, maybe somebody, maybe he even is the Messiah
as we would like him to be. Look at verse 9, the crowds going
ahead of him and those who followed and so Jesus is in the midst
of this throng We’re shouting Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna
is a name that is very infrequently used in scripture recorded here
in the triumphal entry. It essentially is an imperative
form of a verb which means to save, save us, or please save
us now, save us we pray, would be a capable translation of that
word there. It’s a request, an appeal, a
prayer if you would, to God by the worshiper who is absolutely
convinced that the time is now. Deliverance is at hand. And so
the appeal is straightforward. Save us, we pray. Now, it’s not like the entire
multitude knows the situation and is literally crying out based
on the literal meaning of that word. They were probably echoing
what many were saying and some had no idea what it meant at
all. They weren’t crying out for salvation
in the sense that you and I would understand it. They weren’t crying
out in repentance for their sin, in an appeal for forgiveness
from God, in an application of Christ to their sinfulness. In fact, we do this all the time.
When we say, God bless you. Most of us don’t pause to think,
especially if we’ve just sneezed. We don’t pause to think. What
is the etymology of that word? Where did that come from? Let’s
study this back through history and figure out exactly what that
means when somebody says, God bless you. Here’s essentially
the backdrop is this. May God bless you and drive away
the demon that caused you to sneeze. We don’t think in those
terms. And they didn’t think of those
terms when they said, Hosanna, Lord, save us, save us, we pray. The statements are taken from
Psalm 118. We’re gonna jump around a little
bit, and I told you to keep a finger in Matthew. Turn, if you would,
to Psalm 118, though. These statements were taken from
Psalm 118, largely. Psalm 118 is an interesting psalm. It’s one of the psalms most frequently
quoted in the New Testament. And it is considered to be a
strong messianic psalm, as I’ll point out here in a moment. The portion that I want you to
look at first is in verses 25 and 26. O Lord, do save, we beseech
you. O Lord, we beseech you, do send
prosperity. Blessed is the one who comes
in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you from the
house of the Lord. And so there is this kind of
allusion, at least, to Psalm 118 in that passage. And I told
you that this is an important psalm. And for them to be quoting
from it says that they should have known that this was a very
important scene, that these are not just words that you mutter
without intention. Look just earlier on in verses
22 and 23. You’ll see just how important
this psalm was to the believing Jew. The stone which the builders
rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord’s
doing. It is marvelous in our eyes.
Now, you know this. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all quote
this in the same context as pointing to none other than the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was the cornerstone. He was
the stumbling block that those who could not see, could not
understand, and it’s literally proving itself true in this passage. They couldn’t see it. They couldn’t
understand who Christ was. The same passage is quoted in
Acts 4.11, 1 Peter 2.7. Acts 4.11, he is the stone which
was rejected by you, the builders, which became the chief corner
stone. 1 Peter 2.7, this precious value
is for those who believe, but for those who disbelieve, the
stone which the builders rejected, this became the very corner.
Well, what that points to, is that what literally is taking
place there in the midst of this great enthusiasm, chanting verses
that they should have known had a profound significance. As they quoted from Psalm 118,
they should have known that those verses all pointed to the Messiah
himself. And that if they were going to
say those things, They better ought mean it. The psalm was sung on many important
occasions by the Jews, the founding of the temple, the dedication
of the temple, the return from exile. It was sung on a variety
of occasions, but it was always held to be messianic. And so
you have here in Psalm 118 clearly pointing to one who was coming
in the name of the Lord who is the Messiah himself. So what
did the multitudes mean by the cry? What did the multitudes
mean when they sang it or called it out? They’re pointing, they’re
alluding to the Messiah, but it’s a Messiah figure according
to their own design. They want an earthly king. They
want somebody who’s going to take up their cause with the
Romans. They want somebody who’s going to liberate them from earthly
oppression. not a savior from sin. And so this faith, this glimpse
of faith in the first twist of the knob on the kaleidoscope
points to an excitement, an excitement that really is fleeting. It’s
fleeting enthusiasm. Lots of faith. Lots of times
faith is excitable, isn’t it? We see a lot of people that oftentimes
are stirred and quite emotional over their alleged faith. But
it’s not grounded in truth. It’s not grounded in reality.
It isn’t grounded in repentance. It isn’t grounded really in faith
in Christ. A lot of times we see that it’s
faith in faith. It’s, it’s just the excitement
of being part of something. As one friend said at one time,
all heat, no light. They’re enthusiastic. You can’t
argue that they’re enthusiastic, but they’re not grounded. There’s
no staying power. We see it in the parable of the
soils, don’t we? We’re the, One of the seeds fell
and it sprouted up quickly, right? It looked just like all the other
plants. It looked just like a seedling
that that seed should have produced. It grew up quickly. It was vigorous
initially, but it had no staying power. And in that particular
context, you had people that caught wind of Christ, caught
wind of this Messiah figure, heard that he had raised somebody
from the dead, and they’re all in a dither, ready to emote,
and be enthusiastic, and to wave branches, and to fall all over
themselves for five days. Let me examine your own faith.
Let me ask you to examine your own faith. Is it grounded? Is it enthusiastic to the point
of being flippant, careless? Or is that that true abiding
faith that drills down to the very depths of God’s word and
grounds itself in none other than Christ himself? Is that
your faith? If not, there is another. There
is another, as we twist the dial of the kaleidoscope, not only
the excitement of the crowd, but what I would call the muddling
of the disciples. Muddling. Look at verse 14. Here are the disciples themselves,
and I take this to mean the 12, those closest to Christ, including,
by John’s own humble admission, himself. This is John telling
us, man, we were dull. We were so thick. We were dull
to the clear fulfillment of prophecy in a very important moment. Look at verse 14. Jesus, finding
a donkey, sat on it as it is written, fear not, daughter of
Zion, for behold, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s
colt. John’s treatment of that is likewise
very slim. And I do want to augment. There
are times where we’re comfortable just staying in John’s gospel,
but I think it’s important that you see how he found this donkey,
how he came to have this donkey. This was an amazing image that
Jesus Christ fully involved his disciples in the process of securing
and they were just going through the motions and missed the image
completely. Turn if you would back to Matthew’s
gospel chapter 21. Now a whole lot of ink is spilled
in commentaries of whether Jesus set up the donkey rental in advance,
right? that certainly he must have sent
word ahead of time, by the way, we’re going to be coming through
town next Sunday and I’m going to need some transportation and
could you provide. There isn’t anything that says
that. I take it to mean that this whole thing was supernatural.
Pure and simple, it was a miracle. The way the whole thing works
out Just as so many other elements of Christ’s ministry were, Jesus
Christ knows exactly where this donkey is, exactly what city,
exactly what house, and he tells them. I don’t think there was
a call ahead of time. I don’t think he had to call,
you know, probably would have been Judas, right? The keeper
of the money. Judas, I want you to call ahead.
We’re gonna need a donkey next Sunday. Silly. Look at verse one of chapter
21. When they had approached Jerusalem,
they came to Bethpage at the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent
two disciples saying to them, go into the village opposite
you and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and
a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to
me. Jesus knew exactly where the
donkeys were. He knew exactly He knew that
it wasn’t in a pen, right? They were tied up. They weren’t
in a corral. He knew that there was a colt,
a young donkey never having been ridden, which is going to be
absolutely crucial to the narrative. Untie it and bring it here. Now
you talk about some loyal disciples. Steal a donkey. Okay. Because that’s essentially what
it seems like Jesus is asking. I want you to go in. I don’t
want you to talk to anybody. Untie it. If anyone happens to
talk to you, tell them the Lord needs it. Now, to me, that’s
part of the miracle of this whole story. You see, they hadn’t invented
guns yet, right? But these homeowners probably
had sticks, right? And you see somebody untying
your donkeys and walking down the road with them, you’re going
to come running out of your house to secure your donkey, right? Verse 3, if anyone says anything
to you, you shall say, the Lord has need of them. That’s part
of the miracle of this. Oh, the Lord, why didn’t you
say so? And immediately he will send
them. I’m not suggesting that you go try this, but maybe And I say maybe because there’s
nothing that proves anything else. Perhaps Jesus knew these
people. Perhaps they knew him. Perhaps
they were his disciples. Perhaps they knew ahead of time
that Jesus was going to be borrowing the donkey. We don’t know. But
in an equally likely scenario, There were these hard-working,
God-fearing people who likewise sense the excitement of the city.
They look out, see their donkey being untied, go out to inquire,
and are told that the Lord has need of the donkey. So these
disciples in making requests were probably very gracious in
how they went about it, right? pointing out that the Lord, it
was the Lord that sent us, the Lord Jesus himself has need of
this donkey. And I’d like to think that most
of us would respond in the same way. You know, if I came to you
next Tuesday and I said, the Lord has need of your car, it would be slow. You would have
to process it, but you would say, okay, the Lord has need
of my car. Look at verses 6 and 7, the disciples
went and did just as Jesus had instructed them. They brought
back the donkey and the colt. This is really where John picks
it up. Jesus now has transport. John’s gospel just says, finding
a young donkey. And he sat on it. The other gospels,
if you would, back to John chapter 9, or John chapter 12 rather,
The disciples literally cover the beast with their own garments
so Jesus can sit on the younger of the two animals. And both of these gospels point to
Zachariah’s prophecy. Neither one of them do it in
full. And so I don’t want to put a
panic in the pews. But this mere reference of this
important passage would have been enough for the serious minded
Jew. When John records, fear not daughter
of Zion, behold your king is coming seated on a donkey’s colt,
a faithful Jew would have known the fullness of that prophecy.
For us, we need some help. The faithful Jew would have known
instantly what was being referenced there, and why, and so for us,
we need to turn to Zechariah’s prophecy. I don’t want you to
panic, this is easy. If you’re in Matthew’s gospel,
where did I leave you? Go back to Matthew’s gospel and
then go left into the Old Testament, two books. You come first to
Malachi and then to Zechariah to chapter nine. because it’s
important that we see the whole verse here. What John does in quoting, and
I think he probably literally just alluded to this passage,
he just gives a couple of lines that ultimately point us back.
It would be like me saying, for God so loved the world, right? And you could fill in the blank.
You know the rest of that. You’re already saying it in your
mind’s eye, right? There is therefore now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ. Your mind naturally begins to
fill in, and the same with a Jew. And so when a Jew hears this,
this is all that John records, fear not, daughter of Zion, behold,
your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt, the faithful
Jew, knew the fullness of that passage. Look at verse 9. It
isn’t just fear not, rejoice greatly. O daughter of Zion,
Jerusalem itself, shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold,
your king is coming to you. He is just and endowed with salvation,
humble and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a
donkey. They knew that the Messiah was
going to come, and this was going to be a profound sign of the
Messiah Himself. That when He came, He would be
seated on a donkey, and not just any donkey, but a baby donkey. A colt. When it says, Rejoice, O daughter
of Zion, Zion points not only to Jerusalem, it points to the
inhabitants. It points to Israel. It points
to Jerusalem and all of its inhabitants. And the whole point of this prophecy
when it was first delivered was to bring comfort to the Jewish
people. They had just come back from
captivity. They were laid low. They had
nothing. Their country had been decimated,
their homes. And now they have to come and
to rebuild. Zechariah comes on the scene
with this prophecy, at a point, mind you, when there were no
kings, and he speaks of a king. He speaks of a king, a ruler
who’s going to come. They had had many bad rulers. Israel never had a single good
ruler. Judah had good ones and bad ones,
but at the time, there is no king. They have no king. And yet, Zechariah comes on the
scene and prophesies this image, not only of a king, but a king
coming as the Messiah, seated on a donkey. Now you think, boy,
if I was going to write this deal, I’d pick a steed, you know,
big, tall, I mean, muscular white horse, and I’d have Jesus come
galloping into town, right? That’s what we want to see. That’s
what the Jews wanted to see. This crowd had to be absolutely
dumbstruck when Jesus comes kind of sauntering in, seated on the
back of this shuffling little donkey. Donkey’s history wasn’t completely
ignoble, Abraham rode a donkey. Abraham
rose early, Genesis 22, three in the morning, saddled his donkey,
took two of his young men. Donkeys are replete throughout
the Old Testament, useful creatures. Still, there was this element
of humility riding in on a lowly donkey, especially a colt, a
baby donkey. What Jesus wanted to point out
is that his kingdom was a different kind. Now I want you to imagine
Here’s the Roman garrison, they know the tumult, they know the
crowd, they know the excitement in the town. They didn’t like
excitement. May I remind you? They didn’t
like a whole lot of hubbub. And especially when somebody
says, oh, here comes the next king, right? The Jews always
made the Romans nervous whenever they started talking like that. And so the Romans are on watch.
Right? And you can just picture this
sentry standing on his post, looking out and seeing, oh, okay. Here comes their king, riding
in on a donkey. Jesus Christ was a humble suffering
servant. Jesus Christ was the Prince of
Peace. Jesus Christ knew exactly what he was going to do. and
he was exactly fulfilling the prophecy that Zachariah had laid
out. It’s interesting that later,
in later years, this whole image became a point of mockery by
the Romans. Some early Christian artwork
depicted this scene of Christ riding in on a donkey, and those
who hated Christ ultimately referred to them as donkey worshipers.
Well, that all fits well, doesn’t it? Christ, humble, seated on
the back of a tiny little donkey. The entire word of the cross
was foolishness, says Paul. Jesus knew what he was doing.
The same one, born of a virgin, born to an impoverished couple,
in a stable, with a ragtag band of followers, horrible death,
on an inglorious cross, a donkey? What could be more fitting? But I want to show you the recollection
of the disciples. If anybody should have known
this image, if they really believed that Jesus was who he said he
was, if they really believed that Jesus Christ was the Messiah
fulfilling prophecy, They should have captured this image. They
should have captured the image. Oh yes, a donkey, of course.
Even a baby donkey. Yes, by all means, you are indeed
the Christ, the Messiah. It shouldn’t have been lost on
them, but it was. Look at verse 16 of John, John 12, 16. These things his disciples did
not understand at the first. This is John’s own admission.
We missed it. We totally overlooked it. But
when Jesus was glorified, when they received the Holy Spirit,
then they remembered that these things were written of him. Can
you imagine that moment? The 11 now disciples sitting
together, reminiscing, and suddenly realizing, we saw the fulfillment
of Holy Scripture. We lived it. We did this. We went and got the donkey. That
was you and me. What a humble confession by John,
the apostle himself. They just didn’t pick him. pick
up on this great fulfillment of prophecy. And you know what? In this kaleidoscope of faith,
that should be humbling to you and I. We don’t know as much as we ought
to know, do we? What we do know, we too easily
forget. What we do know, we don’t always
apply. What we see, we don’t always
really fully take in. We don’t remember as we ought.
We’re not faithful to begin with, in delving into the scriptures
and then what we do see, we overlook, misunderstand, squander. We can look at the disciples
and thumb our noses and say, how could you have missed this
image? But how much do we miss? How
much do we neglect every day by a failure to delve into the
scriptures and dig into them? We need to be ready to study.
We need to be ready to read and listen and remind and grow. If you turn the knob, there’s
another image. There’s a third image of faith in this kaleidoscope,
not only the excitement of the crowd and the muddling of the
disciples, but the testimony of the witnesses. This one is
so simple. I can’t pass it by, but it’s so
simple. It lies right there. So the people
who were with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised
him from the dead continued to testify about him. How long would
it take you to quit telling that story? By the way, I was there
that day when Jesus came into town and Lazarus had died. He’d been dead for four days
and so he wanted to know where he was buried. So Mary took him
and a whole bunch of us went up there with him and Martha
came too and we were standing there and Jesus said, Lazarus
come forth, and he did. How long would it take you to
quit telling that story? These people couldn’t. They had seen this amazing thing,
and they were moved simply to tell others, these are just faithful
people. They know they’re not troublemakers. They’re not doing
this just to stir up the crowd, although what they do innocently
is stirring the pot. Same thing will be true of us
if we’re faithful. There’s going to come a time
when we’re told, admonished, warned, threatened, do not talk
about Christ anymore. And some will obey. How long would it take you to
stop telling that story? Let me ask a different question.
How long is it taking you to stop telling the story that you
have? I want you to think it through.
Here’s this large multitude, curious to see Jesus, and all
they hear about from the people that were nearby was this amazing
story. It’s no different than the woman
at the well. The woman at the well, she didn’t have a whole
lot of gospel training, right? One quick encounter with Christ
at the well, she immediately went into town and told him what
he had said. He told me all the things that
I’ve ever done. And thereby converted an entire town. What about John 9, the man born
blind? Guy didn’t have a whole lot of evangelism training. One
thing I know, that where I was blind, now I see. How long would it take you to
quit telling the story of Lazarus raised from the dead? How long
is it taking you to quit telling the story of Christ raising you
from the dead? We need to tell. And it is simple. It doesn’t
take a whole lot of training. Here’s what I know. This is who
I met. My sins were forgiven. I’ve been
justified by faith. There isn’t any amount of work
that I can do to ever get me into heaven. It’s by faith alone
in Christ alone. It’s that simple, people. And yet we want to look at these
people. and we want to put them on some kind of a pedestal because
they continue to proclaim this story. Well, we haven’t seen
a story like that, pastor. Oh yeah? You’ve seen a better
story. You’ve seen countless scores
of people raised from spiritual death, people that have now lived
completely different lifestyles because of their meeting with
Christ. There’s a fourth image in this kaleidoscope as we close.
Not only the excitement of this crowd caught up in this fleeting
enthusiasm, the muddling of the disciples, dull to the clear
fulfillment of prophecy, the testimony of these witnesses,
innocent, innocently rather, stirring the pot. But the fourth
is the frustration of the Pharisees, hopelessly losing their grip
of control. And make no mistake, this too
is a picture of faith. It’s part of the kaleidoscope,
even if the picture is a utter lack of faith. These Pharisees were beside themselves. We’re not doing any good. We
have been completely unable to stop this man from what he’s
doing. And look at their hyperbole here.
The whole world has gone after him. We’re losing our control
here, gentlemen. Theirs was a complete lack of
faith. And that’s what’s left. That’s
what’s left at the end of the day if we don’t exercise the
faith given to us. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians
regarding the devil himself. He said, then that lawless one
will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of
his mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming.
That one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan with
all power and signs and false wonders and with all the deception
of wickedness for those who perish because they did not receive
the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason, God will send
upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what
is false. in order that they may all be
judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. There’s an old saying, if God’s
word does not quicken, if God’s word doesn’t stir you to faith
in Christ, if God’s word does not quicken, it must deaden. And you have that image right
here. The fourth picture of the kaleidoscope is a dead faith. There is no faith any longer
to exercise. There is nothing left but hatred
for Christ. And that will be seen in its
fullness. Examine your faith before the
Lord, would you? Our merciful God, we humble ourselves
in thought of this great kaleidoscope of faith. No two of us are in
exactly the same place. No two of us have had the same
conversion. No two of us have seen the same
thing. We all stand before you individually
as we express our faith. Sometimes we have been caught
up in the excitement of the crowds. Sometimes we have been quite
forgetful of the things that we’ve learned and neglectful
of the things to learn more. Lord. Keep us, we pray. From an utter loss of faith by
not applying by not pressing on in the faith by not looking
to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. Lord. Till you return, we do pray that
you would open our mouths, help us to proclaim. Not only the
resurrection of Lazarus, but the resurrection of ourselves
from spiritual death and all who know Christ grant us the
grace to tell, grant us the grace to proclaim. It’s in Jesus Christ’s
precious name that we pray. Amen.