We come today to the triumphal entry of Christ again here We are in the Christmas season and we're beginning the Passion Week And I think it nothing could be more appropriate than that Mark 11 verses 1 through 11 If you'll stand in honor of God's Word as I read Mark 11 beginning verse 1 now when they drew near to Jerusalem to Bethphage and to Bethany at the Mount of Olives Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them I Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, why are you doing this, say, the Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately. And they went away and found a colt tied at the door outside in the street, and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, what are you doing untying the colt? And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it and he sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David. Hosanna in the highest. And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went to Bethany with the twelve. Father, I just pray that you would, in spite of the messenger, deliver your message to the hearts of your people today. In Christ's name, amen. You can be seated. So we do come today to an interesting passage at Christmastime. We come to the beginning of the first moment of what we call the Passion Week. This is the beginning of the end. It is Sunday, and by Friday, Jesus Christ will be hanging on the cross. The die has indeed been cast. There is no looking back now. There's great emphasis on this one period, week of time in the Gospel of Mark. Because consider this, 37% of the book is given to just this one week. So we've been covering the sort of three and a half year ministry of Jesus, and we've done that in chapters 1 through 10, and now chapters 11 through 16, all the rest of it is the Passion Week. But after all, that is why Jesus came, as I mentioned during communion. He was born to die. The emphasis in the Gospel of Mark is on the cross. The emphasis for every single Christian should be on the cross. The emphasis of this church should always be the cross. You see, Jesus did indeed come and live the perfect life, and he's an excellent example for all of us in how we should live our lives. I love You know, the old, that's fine, the old braces, what would Jesus do? That's a good thing to consider, because we're to follow in his steps, literally, we're to trace his steps, 1 Peter 2. But Jesus didn't primarily come as a good teacher, as a good example of how to live a good, successful life. That's not really the main reason he came. He came as a substitute for our sins. Really, what would Jesus do is a good question. A better question? That's a good question. A better question is, what did Jesus do? He died for us so that our sins could be forgiven and we could have eternal life. So when you look at your Christmas tree this year, I hope that you remember the word Christmas tree. I hope that you focus on the word tree because Jesus hung on one. Let it remind you of the cross. It would be appropriate. That is why he came. And so we come today to the Triumphal Entry. This is Palm Sunday. It is recorded in all four of the Gospels. This Triumphal Entry story is recorded in all four of the Gospels, where Jesus rides in on the back of a borrowed, unbroken donkey's colt. This is the start of the craziest week in human history. Jesus will clear out the temple. The Olivet Discourse takes place. He goes to the upper room, institutes communion, actually, during that week, what we just celebrated today. He's betrayed by Judas in this week. He is put up to an unfair trial. He will be brutally murdered, and then he will rise from the dead. You might ask, well, what makes this triumphal entry? You might even call it a tragic entry, really, because he was dead by the end of the week. What makes this so important that all four gospel writers include it? I think there's three things that make it so important, then we'll look at our passage. Number one, this was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Turn to Zechariah, it's just right in the, it's not very far, just make a little left-hand turn in your Bible, right at the end of the Old Testament, Zechariah chapter nine, verse nine, written 500 years prior to Christ's entering Jerusalem on the back of that colt. Zechariah 9, verse 9 says this, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, here it is, behold, your king is coming to you. Righteous, he's the ideal king, he's a sinless king. Having salvation, he'll be the deliverer. Is he, and listen to this, humble, remember that word humble, that's gonna be important today. Humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. And so 500 years previous, it says the King, the Messiah, the one who's going to come who's righteous and who will save is going to come in on the back of an unbroken cult. And so when Jesus enters into Jerusalem, it would be a reminder that this is the day. In fact, if you read Daniel chapter 9 and study that, you know, this was the particular day that the Messiah was to enter. And how does he enter? Exactly how scripture says he would enter. So it fulfills prophecy. The second reason, Jesus, this is so important, the triumphal entry and what Jesus is doing here today in this passage, is it's an intentional provocation. So it does fulfill prophecy. It's also an intentional provocation. You say, what do you mean by that? He is purposely, intentionally trying to tick off the religious leaders of the day so they will hang him on a cross by the end of the week. He actually does it on purpose. Jesus is making this happen. He's not a victim of circumstance. It's not as if somehow like, hey, how did this all happen? No, it's intentional. You might remember previously, just in our earlier studies of the Gospel of Mark, that originally, when Jesus is doing miracles, he draws these huge crowds. Remember, he has to get on a boat and they push him off to the shore just so he doesn't get kind of mauled by the crowds so he can teach them? But then later, as we keep walking with Jesus and we get into this last year, you see him start to hide. He's trying to find places where nobody will recognize him and know him. He does a miracle. He says, hey, don't tell anybody. In fact, let's look at that. Just turn it back to Mark chapter seven. Probably one of my favorite characters in the gospel of Mark, the Syrophoenician woman. Mark 7, verse 24, Jesus has gone up out of Galilee up into Tyre and Sidon, which is modern day Lebanon. You might remember the story. And it says this in verse 24, and from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon, and he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. You see that? He's trying to just get time with his disciples. Listen, he already has such opposition from Jewish leaders, they want to destroy him, they're looking for an opportunity to kill him. And it's not time to go to the cross yet, so he's doing these things secretly. In fact, just look down a little bit further, the deaf man in verse 36 of chapter seven, after he had healed the deaf man, restored his hearing, verse 36 says, and Jesus charged them to tell no one, but the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. I love that. It almost would appear that it's almost like reverse psychology. Like, okay, Grace Chapel, don't tell anybody about Jesus this Christmas, okay? You know what I mean? They're like, no. The more they said not to, the more they would just do it. I think really this isn't reverse psychology, I think this is really Jesus just trying to sort of shrink the crowd so they don't sort of rush him to the cross. Or some of them, it says in John, they wanted to make him king. His destination is Jerusalem. But I think what is going on here is these people have been so touched by Jesus, they can't help but talk to people about him. Honestly, my theory on evangelism has always been this. You just remind people how good they have it in Christ and they won't be able to not tell other people the good news. In fact, I see that this week I've been invited, I got invited to be a part of the Christmas tree lighting for the city of Lancaster, which is actually Tuesday at around 4, 430 if you want to come. It's right over there by City Hall on the boulevard or whatever. And here's the only instruction I have. Would you please come, I guess there's gonna be, you know, they're gonna do their dignitary thing, and then my little slot on the, I got a little list of what, my job is, this is all it says, Chris Johnson, Pastor Chris Johnson, Grace Chapel, will explain the true meaning of Christmas. All right, I'll be willing to come and do that. You know, you're killing me. Heck, I'll do that for free this time, you know what I mean, yeah, of course. I'm gonna go talk about Jesus, amen? Right, that's what, is it, is it the true meaning of Christmas? It is. He is. Might never get invited back, but they seem to keep inviting me back, so we'll just see how it goes. the more zealously they proclaimed it. He could not stop these people. And then look at chapter eight, verse 23. Remember the blind man, verse 23? This is the weirdest healing in all of the gospels. And he took this blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. And when he had spit on his eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked him, do you see anything? Remember this whole transaction? So bizarre, like spit on his eyes. There's a sermon on that. I explained all that deal, right? I mean, don't try it. Somebody comes, yeah, you know, I have a sore throat. Hey, let me, you know, don't be spitting on each other in church. But if you do, at least get the hand sanitizer out after. But you look at this deal, and you just go, what's going on here? Why is this partial healing, the spitting, verse 24? And he looked up and said, I see men, but they look like trees walking. Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes, and he opened his eyes. His sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. And he sent him to his home saying, do not even enter the village. Like, I know what you're going to do. You're going to go tell everybody that you got your sight back. This is not... Listen, I've offered myself to this nation Israel as their Messiah. They have already refused me and rejected me. I'm happy to heal you. I want to touch your life because you're a person that I want to touch. But the presentation's over by this time. He's... The die is cast. He's headed to the cross. there's no turning back. So he's not trying to win any more of the crowd. So he's been rejected and now he gives three crucifixion predictions. We'll see it back if you look back at Mark chapter 10 verse 33. He said this, see we are going to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles and they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him and after three days he will rise. Jesus already knows. He knows what's happening. When I was a kid, my mom, I know I've told you recently that I don't really like roller coasters very much. Remember I was telling you about the Tower of Terror down at Disneyland, how much I hated that, and the embarrassing pictures that would come back of me, like, crawled up like a baby, and little kids. First of all, I just want to thank you for being such a gracious congregation, because since I shared that story in church, I've gotten so many text messages like, oh, here's a picture of my kids. Look it, they're smiling, and they're three. You know, I'm like, oh, thanks so much. I appreciate your understanding of my fear of roller coasters, but I get it from my mom. And see, my mom, we were kids. Sometimes she'd take us over here to Magic Mountain. We were just kids. We'd go over here to Magic Mountain. And they had that log jammer ride, where it's just one. You just go click, click, click, click, click, click, up the hill, right? And then all of a sudden, it's like, whew, down in the water, and everybody gets wet. Well, one time, I remember this vividly, there's a guy, I don't know if you guys ever went to Magic Mountain back in the day, but there's a guy always sitting on the seat. There's an employee right at the top. I don't know if they're just making sure nobody's climbing out, jumping over, whatever. There's this guy sitting up there at the top, and he'd always be three feet from you. And just before he'd go over, he's just sitting there not doing anything. Sounds like a wonderful job. And he's just sitting there, and my mom, no kidding you, makes eye contact with the guy, and she wasn't kidding. And she looks at him and she just says, is there any possible way I can get off of this ride right now? And the guy looks back and he just goes, nope. If you want to know where Jesus is at in his ministry, you know where he's at? He's up at the top. He's climbed, he's climbed, he's climbed. He was born to a virgin. He lived a perfect life for decades. He went out into the wilderness. He was baptized by John the Baptist. He was tempted by the devil. He was proven by his deeds and by his works to be the son of God. He presented himself to the nation, fulfilled 330 specific prophecies about the Messiah, and that nation rejected him. And now the only thing left is the cross. And the only difference is, unlike my mom, Jesus didn't look at somebody and say, is there any way I can get off this ride? He knew what he was doing. He initiated the activities of that week with a triumphal entry. And he was purposely provoking those people so that they would murder him. They had said it in their hearts. He was making himself more than available to them. The third reason why the triumphal entry, third purpose of it is for the humble presentation of Christ. He comes on a colt. Some people say, well, that's how Solomon entered, right? So maybe that's just the way they would understand a king. But if you think back to Zechariah 9, verse 9, it was really to demonstrate his humility. He didn't come on a war horse. He came on a colt because he was coming in humility, offering himself as the Savior to the world. Remember, just recently, Mark chapter 10, verse 45, we just were here, says this, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. That was his mission, it was his name, Jesus, Yahweh is salvation, Emmanuel, God with us, he came to die. Let's look at our passage for a few moments. First of all, we're gonna see the preparation. The preparation, so Jesus prepares this moment. Look at verse one, it says, now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany. Bethphage was only about a mile sort of southeast of Jerusalem. Bethany is just over the Mount of Olives. That's the home of Martha and Mary and Lazarus. Jesus had brought Lazarus back from the dead there. And so if you want to think of how it's laid out, the Mount of Olives would be sort of to the east. And these are all relatively small things in terms of how we might think of mountains. It's not really a mountain. It's more like a big hill. And in the middle is called the Qadron Valley. And then as you come up on the Qadron Valley, you'll go up where it's called the Temple Mount. And so if you can picture kind of two hills and a little valley in between, Jesus was able to walk it, right? He went up from the upper room over to the Mount of Olives on the night that he was betrayed and eventually crucified. And so he would make his way there. So you can walk it. But he would, in fact, if you look, it's beautiful. When you come over on the top of the Mount of Olives, you can just see the Temple Mount, which right now sits, sadly, the dome of the rock. If you want to think, that's where the temple sat. You can just see all of Jerusalem just in front of you, it's fantastic. So Martha, Mary, Lazarus, they live at Bethany, just a couple of miles over that hill. So he's come up through Jericho, he's made that long hike up a hill to Jericho, and he's coming over, kind of over the top of the Mount of Olives and down into the Gadron Valley and then back up over. That's the road Jesus goes down as he comes on the triumphal entry. Verse two, he gives his disciples instructions, and he said to them, go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, why are you doing this? Say, the Lord has need of it. That's an interesting thing to say, isn't it? Somebody comes, wants your car. What are you doing? Stealing my car. The Lord needs it. Okay, take it. And we will send it back here immediately. And they went away and found a colt tied on the door outside of the street, and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, what are you doing? Untying the colt. And they said to them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. We see that Jesus has set all of this up. There's a lot of debate about whether or not this is all prearranged, that Jesus, you know, sort of, I don't know, called ahead, if you will, and had friends in this next town on the other side, and set it up, because they had this baby colt, and they said, okay, here's gonna be the code word when they come, they're gonna say the Lord needs it, then you're gonna know they're my disciples, and give it to them, and then they'll bring it back, and other people say, no, this is supernatural, it's an expression of his omniscience. Either way, however you wanna see it, maybe it's a combination of both, however you wanna look at that, Don't miss the reality of its intentionality. Either way, he's setting it all up. Either he's using his divine attributes to do that, or he's using his, you know, sort of networking skills to do that. Whatever. Jesus was not reluctant to enter that town that he knew he'd be killed in within a week. There's a new little puppy at our house. There's a puppy at our house. I know some of you are thinking, why do you do this to yourself? Well, in this case, it's actually just my oldest daughter who got this puppy. And actually, it's interesting, because she's getting married, which we're super excited about, this young man. But she's getting married. And so this puppy is only with us temporarily until she gets married in January, which You know, people have been asking me, is it hard to give your daughter away? Of course it's hard to give your daughter away. Are you going to cry? Duh. But I will say this puppy, the presence of the puppy at our house until she is married, is making it a little easier to give my daughter away because the dog goes with her. It's lessening the, you know, like, yeah, this is probably good. It's definitely God's will. No, the puppy's so cute, but the funny thing happened with the puppy this week. My wife comes up behind me and she wants to set this little, the most, it's the cutest little thing ever. Except for when it goes to the bathroom on my carpet. So this puppy, and my wife's coming up from behind, my family's all on this side, she's gonna set the puppy on my head. And as the puppy's approaching, the puppy leans down and licks my bald spot. Which my wife and I have never ever officially established is real. I know you're like, what? Yeah, like she doesn't tease me about it. She's like, oh no, you got lots of hair. I'm like, yeah, I got lots of hair. I have a bald spot. So the puppy just right there, I felt it. And my wife goes, oh wow, the puppy just licked your... I finished the sentence for her. I said, bald spot? She goes, I don't know what came over me. It was just like a spontaneous thing. I don't, I don't know what, I don't, I don't even, I don't know what just happened. She literally said that. I've got witnesses. That isn't what happened with Jesus. It's not. It's not like, I don't know what happened. Next thing I knew, I was coming in on a colt. Then I remember, hey, yeah, that happened in Zechariah chapter 9, verse 9. And all these people are saying, Hosanna. And they're like, God save. And I don't know. And next thing I know, I was on a cross. That is not what happened. All of this is methodically planned out. All of it's intentional. He's going to go to die. Look at verse three, I love verse three. Jesus, you may look at this and think, is Jesus telling him to steal a cult? I mean, is he telling them to just take what doesn't belong to them? I don't think so at all. Notice what does Jesus tell them to do when you go tell him, say, the Lord has need of it. I love that, I love that. Okay, this isn't commandeering. Commandeering, what is commandeering? Commandeering is when the police officer comes, for example, and if they need your car. I actually saw this happen literally in Lancaster, over on Avenue J. Years ago now, I was sitting at the light, and this guy comes running. Remember that was the courthouse over there on J? This guy comes running just right down the street. He's just running, you know, across like, oh, the guy's getting his exercise. Until I saw two sheriff's deputies running behind him, chasing him out of the courthouse. Well, apparently he was a criminal that had escaped from his hearing or whatever. They didn't put him in handcuffs, so he went flying out of the courtroom. And they're chasing him out. And just then, as they're chasing him across J, I'm headed east, and the car that's headed west, the policeman just goes up. He's racing, running, running, running. And he just gets real smart. He just knocks on the guy's window at the stoplight. Get out of your car. It's my car now. Just takes off this guy's car. The guy's just standing there after, because the policeman goes like... That's awkward. I was like, hey, need a ride? Sure, psych, you know, whatever. No, get your own ride. No, I didn't say that. So he just commandeers the car. That's not what's happening here. This is so important right now. God never steals or takes anything from anybody because everything belongs to him. The cult is the Lord's, and that's why if the Lord says, I need it, guess who gets to use it? The Lord does. It's kind of like if you loan your car out, and then you need it back, and you call and say, hey, I need my car back. And they say, I'll get it back to you in the next few weeks. No, I need it back today. No, I'll let you know when I decide. No, no, no. That's my car. In fact, I actually had a car stolen. I had a car stolen. I stole it back. I remember, it was stolen years ago now from my driveway, and I'm over there on 25th Street West on J8, and I'm pulling out of the parking lot at Desert Christian High School where I was the principal, and my car drove by me. It had been gone for a couple weeks. I'm like, that's my car. It's got my bumpers. At first I was in shock, but then I was like, no. the justice part of me kicked in I will get my car back and I started to chase my car I was is the way and they pulled into a car wash I thought that's kind of them to feel so attached to my car that they get it washed I mean that's just a they're not ever planning on giving that back And so finally, I chase them around 20th West. They were over there at K and 20th West. The whole time, they don't know I'm chasing them. And I finally corner them in that grocery store parking lot. Like, I cut them off. They can't go back. They can't go forward. I was using someone else's car to do it, which probably wasn't so kind. But anyhow, and I hop out of the car. I remember this. And the person in the driver's seat, I go, get out of my car. I mean, the adrenaline's pumping, right? And listen, if this 150-pound monster shows up to you, you're going to get in the car. So I walk up to him, I literally go, get out of my car! And they go, this is your car? I go, it's stolen. They go, we didn't know this was stolen. And I look at it, it's all hot-wired, the wires. I mean, they had to literally, to start it, they had to wire it up. And it was funny, because I actually said to them, you better just run, because I'm calling the police next, and we're going to come after you. So go ahead and get going. I honestly just wanted to get him. I didn't want to fight. So I was getting him away from the car. And the police came. And probably 15 minutes later, I'm still there with my car. And they go, hey, we got him. Can you come identify him? Sure. They hop in the back. So I hop in the back of the police car, open the door, get in the back. And just then, one of my students at the high school goes walking by. And she makes eye contact with me. And she was the school's public address announcer, if you know what I'm saying by that. And we make eye contact, and I go, my first reaction is to hop out, because we hadn't been moving yet. So I go to open the door, and it turns out those handles, they don't work in the back seat. Some of you guys know that. But anyhow, I was like, hey! So I go to get out. I go to the policeman. I go, I have to get out of this car right now. They go, OK, what's up? I go, see that girl right there? She's one of my students, and we made eye contact. Oh, yeah, you better get out. So I get out, and I go, I go, I go, I go, I go. Hey, hey, I won't say your name. I just want you to know, no handcuffs, no handcuffs. Somebody stole my car. I am so glad you said something. I thought you were under arrest. Like, yeah, that's what I thought. I would have no reputation by the end. This isn't, listen, this isn't a case where God is taking anything from anyone because God can never take anything from anyone because nothing belongs to us. It all belongs to him. Let me just prove this to you for a second. Psalm 50, turn there, Psalm 50. I just want to show you two quick verses. Psalm 50 verse 10. You should remember these words. Every time you guys, you see how reluctant I am to ever make an appeal for offering. You just don't see me doing that. Pretty much we do every time what we just did. Give as God leads you to. Because I don't want to ever put God in a situation where actually it would look like he needs something from me or from you. We need him, he doesn't need us. Verse 10, for every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle of a thousand hills, I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. Look at verse 12, if I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. So the amazing thing isn't that we put anything in the offering plate, the amazing thing is that God never puts anything in our account at all. It's all his, all of it, and when he needs it, what do we do? We give it. It's His. I want to draw your attention then quickly to turn back to Mark chapter 10. First I said the preparation, it's all intentional. The pomp, verses 8 and 10. In other words, where Jesus actually enters of chapter 11, I'm sorry, verses 8 and 10. And many spread their cloaks on the road and others spread leafy branches. John 12 says they put their palm branches, thus Palm Sunday. that they had cut on the fields, and those who went before him and followed him were shouting, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, quoting from Psalm 118, verses 25 and 26. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David, Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna, they're shouting this word, Hosanna. Hosanna is sort of like the word hallelujah, and it's a compound word in Hebrew, which means hallel or praise, Yahweh, hallelujah. This is a little bit different. It is a compound word, hosanna, but it's actually not necessarily a term of praise. It became that, but it actually is a plea. It's not a praise, it's a plea. Hosanna, if you put the two words together, it just simply means deliver now, or I beg you, deliver. So deliver, I beg you. If you want to think of hosanna, save us. I actually would encourage you to include it as a part of your Christian vocabulary. Hallelujah is a good word. Praise God. There's also times in your life, and you know this is true, where you just feel like you're at your end, and you're desperate, and the word that you should cry out in that moment is, Hosanna. Save me, God. Deliver me from this mess that maybe even I've created. I believe that should be the heart of the first prayer of a sinner. to a savior, save me, I beg you, deliver me. The problem is, is what they're praying for is deliverance from Rome and not deliverance from their sin. And so the same crowd will be yelling by the end of the week, crucify him. Remember the children, when Jesus clears out the temple, which will happen the next day. In our study, in fact, on Monday, when he cleared out the temple, the children say, Hosanna. And the spiritual leaders are offended by that. In fact, the Pharisees in Luke chapter 19 are upset when they hear the crowd saying, Hosanna. And they try to say, rebuke him, teacher. Don't let them say, Hosanna, to you. Because that's a messianic term. That's what they'll say to the Messiah. And Jesus says, if they didn't say it, the rocks would say it. What Jesus is saying is, your hearts are harder than stone. You see what I mean? But when I said that this would provoke Hostility? The word Hosanna would provoke that, it did. The sad part for the Jewish leaders, John 12 says, is they were miffed by all of this, this crowd chanting Hosanna, because they were trying to kill him quietly because of his popularity, and they're like, this isn't working out too good. And in Mark chapter 14, one and two, it tells us they wanted to be sly, stealthy, and they failed. The last point I have for you today is the pathetic worship. Look at verse 11. This seems like an anticlimactic close to our message until you understand the context. And he entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, so he's surveying everything as it was already late, he went to Bethany with the 12. So he goes back. He's camping out. He's staying the night at Martha and Mary's house. He heads back out the next morning. What does he even come back in and do? We're going to get to it soon. Clear out the temple. What happened here? You read that and you think, okay, so Jesus looked at the temple, he wrote in, it's at night, he looks at the temple and he goes to bed, like, okay, tomorrow. No, so much more to all of us than that. We know that. This is the Passion Week. Jesus is intentional in everything he's doing. What he does is he surveys and he sees, is there right worship of God happening in this temple, this place on earth that God is supposed to be worshipped? And what does he find? No. And I believe that this sets the stage for Jesus clearing out the temple the next day. Conclusion. I just have three sentences that I wrote. These are my conclusions as I reflected on the passage. Number one, Jesus's initiative in setting into motion his own brutal death demonstrates his sincere love. Number two, I am a pathetic sinner whose only hope is Hosanna. Lord save, I beg you. And number three, Jesus surveys his church, seeking those who are worshiping him in spirit and truth. And I end with a question, what will he find here? Let me pray. Father, thank you for your word, for this day of celebration of you through communion, singing with the men, singing with the congregation. Father, we cry to you, Hosanna. Deliver us, save us, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.