Please turn your Bibles over to John chapter 12. I'll be reading John chapter 12 and as Elder Joe has read verses 12 and down, I'm going to be reading verses 1 through 11 as we talk about just the beginning portion of this Passion Week. And we're going to look at both Saturday night leading up to Jesus' entry into Jerusalem.

So I'll be reading a section verses 1 through 11, John chapter 12. And it says this, "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 of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, 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 and not for Jesus' sake only but that they might also see Lazarus whom he raised from the dead.

But the chief priest planned to put Lazarus to death also because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus." Let's take a moment to pray. Our God we want to thank you for your truth and word and particularly God we pray that our hearts will be filled with true gratefulness and appreciation for Christ who he is, his work and I ask God that from an overflow of our heart being filled with the knowledge of Christ, Lord we would render to you our attention, our worship, our lives.

We thank you in Christ's name, amen. So as we take a look at some of these events that take place, we do this each year. Take a look at the story, we read the passages. In many ways this season is a good memorial time of everything that's happened. And one of the things that we want to make sure we do is not just say, "Okay, it's Easter, I get it, Jesus passed and was resurrected, I know the story." But continue to discover by asking what really happened, how did it go down and the altogether important question, why, right?

Why? Because that question oftentimes gets us to have a glimpse of both the heart of Christ and also the heart of the people involved and that's incredibly important for us. Right now I just read that section about Mary. You know there's Mary, Martha and Lazarus and they're familiar characters in the Bible, right?

But here Mary expresses in quite profound fashion her love for the Savior and we want to ask those questions. What really happened, how did it go down and also why? And that proves to be an incredible inspiration and a conviction for us. Because especially in times of remembering Christ, we don't want to just simply remember history.

We want to make sure that we are appreciating Christ, okay? So as we take a look at the example that we just read, I want to highlight just a couple aspects of how Mary expressed her love for the Savior. The first, there is just an incredible amount of boldness, you know?

The way that Mary came into the scene at this, there is just this boldness in something that's surprising, something that's not, you know, just not expected. I mean think about the fact that she came into the dining like everybody was reclining and having the meal and clearly it wasn't just Jesus.

It was Lazarus was there, the disciples were there, they're seeing it, Judas is seeing it, you know? So just imagine that. And I mean for some, especially let's say for the ladies, right? If let's say you were looking for somebody, I'm just going to use Elder Joe as an example, right?

You're looking for him because you want to talk to him about joining praise or you just want to express to him like, "You do a great job, you know? The worship team as a whole does an awesome job. I want to thank you, you know?" So you're looking through the church, you get to an office room, you open it up and there's like 15 guys in there, you know?

How do you feel? Like just think about how you would feel. Immediately you feel like, "Oh, sorry." And then like quietly close the door. I remember even one time there was just like three or four of us having a small group. One of the sisters left their purse in the room, they opened the door and they're like, and even without saying a word, they just like slowly closed the door, you know?

Because whenever that many people like look at you, you're just automatically very what, self-conscious? You're timid, you're like, "Oh shoot, I bothered something," right? I mean, how many of you ladies would sit there and be like, "No, Joe, I need to tell you. Actually, I'm going to let my hair down and I need to speak to you now," you know?

This is what I mean when I say this is unusually bold, you know? She takes the scene and what's more, she makes a big scene by taking something precious and pouring it on the feet of Jesus. She makes a big scene by letting down her hair and wiping his feet.

This is an incredible bold show of her affection for the Savior, right? And this really does just ask a question to us, you know? In terms of our expressions of love and our care for Christ, our sense of that like, "Christ, I love you." Truthfully speaking, there are times when seasons go by and we don't say those words to our Savior, right?

Because it almost feels just like if someone, like I don't know, a girlfriend forced you, like, "Tell me you love me." It's like, "I don't want to say it in public, man," you know? I don't know what it is, but we're almost fearful of saying those words to our own Savior.

But here we have an example of Mary being very public and bold with her affection for Christ. What's more, I want to focus in on the perfume, okay? And it's just one facet of the story, but the story itself focuses on it by talking about how, verse 3, it was a pound, very costly, pure, nard, and later Judas appears like, "That perfume is 300 denarii," you know?

There's already in the text an attention given to the perfume, okay? Now as we think about this story, she takes this, it says here a pound of it, you know? In other translations, it'll say a liter, like so. Essentially, as I was looking at the commentaries, they're trying to gauge what the term was but just imagine like a bottle of your 20-ounce Gatorade, mostly full, not all the way, but mostly full, right?

So you just get a visual picture. And to think about this, she comes over and with oils and stuff, typically you just need like a dot, right? I remember back when I was in high school, I wore a lot of cologne, just confessing my sins, okay? And you just wear cologne to impress people, you know?

So I remember back then, I don't know what people wear now, so I don't know, okay? But back then, if you just wanted to be cool around your buddies, then you wore Hugo Boss because it's very manly smelling cologne. But then if you wanted to impress the ladies, then you wear that, what is it?

Aqua Digio, you know? Do you guys know? Okay. Anyway, so you wear the nice stuff, the one that smells all attractive and stuff, right? Now what I'm getting at is you wear that stuff, again, it's just really fragrant. Now when my buddies and I, I remember like just one spray of a bottle goes a long way, doesn't it?

It's like, "Shh," and then you're done. Oh, there's another one, Cool Water, you guys? No, okay. So anyway, you wear that stuff, one spray is enough, but then there are those guys who are like, "Shh, shh, shh," and then everyone's like, "Oh, dude, you're trying way too hard, man," you know?

It's like, "Too much, two, three sprays and you're overdoing it." Well, the reason why I bring this up is because she takes an entire bottle of pure concentrated fragrance and pours it on his feet and it says in the passage, the smell just fills the whole room. Wow, this is unusual.

This is unusual. But what I want to highlight about that is that perfume then, it's just this jar, jar of this perfume and it kind of goes on to say that she takes this whole thing and pours it out and then when Judas sees that, he gets all like upheaved about it and says, "What are you doing?" You know?

And then he talks about the cost. See for Mary, she took this thing that cost an incredible amount of money. The passage itself describes how this potentially has cost about 300 denarii and then it even like gives a commentary saying this is about a year's wage of an average worker.

What's really interesting, the commentators say, I mean like average worker, so what is that? Is that like engineer salary or is that like, you know, collegiate salary? I don't know, which is really... What is that, you know? Well, the commentators say that when you talk about denarii, you're talking about like that silver coin, a pay of a soldier, right?

So a Roman soldier who would work the entire year would save about this much then. So you're thinking in our day, kind of relative corollary cost, $30,000 to $40,000 on one jar. And even today, cologne is incredibly expensive. Like a five ounce little bottle that you spray costs like what, $50, $60, right?

Likewise, this perfume was incredibly expensive. As a matter of fact, most people say, I mean, it sounds to me like maybe that family, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, they were pretty well off. But even then, this is excessive. So most commentators say this is probably like an heirloom, something that's been passed down from their family, something that was kind of hold as a precious like a collection for their family.

Maybe they had a family out far who knew them. Maybe they knew somebody who were in higher ups and they gave it as a gift and they held it as a treasure. Because this wasn't something just readily available. This was imported. They say that this, you know, they don't know exactly what plant it came from, but they have records of this pure narn, you know?

And I'll just say it was gnarly, right? Anyway, this pure narn that was imported. Okay, I know. Sorry. This was imported. They say from the mountains of northern India, you know? So it was rare. It was costly. And why then does she do it? Judas is all upset because he's thinking like, you just wiped it all off.

If you're going to clean, just clean with water and sell it, you know? Why then? Because the heart affection of Mary is showing. She's expressing externally through action. It's not voiced, but externally through action. Jesus, you are worth it in my eyes. Every drop of this precious perfume, you are worthy.

Right? You're of that kind of value to me. You're that kind of treasure to me. Where this treasure that other people are looking at, I could literally pour because you're that valuable to me. And in stark contrast, right? The passage contrasts Judas to just show the value of Christ and the worthy of Christ as it shows Judas reveal his perspective on the Lord Savior.

When he starts asking like, "Why? Why wasn't this sold and given to the poor?" And Luke knows. Luke's saying like, you know, and John knows, and everybody knows. He didn't say this because he really cared for the poor. He was always a selfish man looking for an opportunity. He was an opportunist.

But even then, when he says things like, "Why didn't we do something else?" What that tells me is generally speaking, he does not see Christ as valuable as other worthy causes. Right? In his mind, there are other worthy causes that supersede this act that Mary is doing. And you know, there are lots of people even this day, whether it's social justice, whether it's whatever different ambitions and desires that they have, they're good.

They are worthy causes. But in light of this, there is this teaching. If we do not understand the value of Christ, if we do not understand the value and treasure of the person of Christ, then we don't understand worship. If we don't understand worship, then we don't have a good scale of value system of anything else and therefore we don't understand Christianity.

We need to understand the value of our Savior. And when Judas is sitting here saying, "Why didn't we go and do this? Why didn't we go and do that?" Judas reveals his sinful perspective. That in stark contrast, Judas never saw Jesus worthy. And we know that in a few days, Judas will betray Christ.

And do you remember for how many pieces of silver Judas betrayed the Lord? Thirty. And what that speaks is volume. Here Mary just poured out 300 denarii, it's pretty much equivalent. 300 denarii, 300 silver coins essentially, pouring it out on Jesus' feet. And Judas is sitting there saying, "Man, Jesus is even worth 10% of that." That's the way that Judas' heart is thinking.

And so here we have this moment for us then, a moment of conviction as we see the heart of Mary being poured out on the Savior and her expression of love. Do you currently have a hard time mustering up that kind of affection for Savior? You know, I talked about how we're in a season where it's like a memorial, you know?

And so that would be a lot like an anniversary for a wedding. But what good would it be for a husband to put together like an album, put together like a little history and like, "Look, we, you know, 10 years ago we met and then we had this and we had that and we had the history and then said, 'Okay, I'm done.'" What good would it be just to go and review all the details if in the anniversary He wasn't appreciating, expressing, and saying, and rededicating, recommitting, and showing, "This is how much I love you.

And as years go by, as I learn more, as I think and reflect and I have these years with you, I love you all the more." So I ask you, in terms of the affection in your heart, you know, in terms of the expressiveness of love even, where are you now?

Because in this season is when we need to sit down and ask ourselves these kind of questions. And then it is our ambition, it is the goal of every sermon, but especially in this time, to ask how can we make sure that we bear in our mind, our heart, the presence of Christ and we show Him how much we appreciate Him?

How can we make sure that we don't forget? How shall we make sure that we especially move, are moved in our hearts with the deep sense of gratitude, "Lord, we're so thankful for who you are and what you've done." And that's the aim and goal. So in order to do that, what I hope to do is by covering that entry of Christ into Jerusalem, I want to highlight for you now several aspects, three aspects of Christ's glory, of Christ's glory in this scene.

The first I want to say to you is this, every single thing leading up to Christ's entrance is Jerusalem. Every single thing that happens at Jerusalem, every single thing post His sacrifice, everything is under the glorious sovereignty of Christ. And I want to show you this, okay? When you look at even the time of Jesus in that, you know, the dinner with the family and dinner with Lazarus, right?

What's happening is Jesus is just making His trek and His path to Jerusalem and it's just a dinner. And then surprising to everybody else, Mary comes in and does this expressive show of her love. Now here's an interesting statement that Jesus says. When Jesus rebukes Judas and says, "You leave her alone," right?

What else does He say? Well, if you take a look, He says, "Leave her alone that she may keep it for the day of my burial." Burial, right? Now if you think about that carefully, on one sense, you might be like, "Wow, Jesus is super witty, you know? She did this crazy thing.

Judas was all like upheaved about it. And so He says, "Oh, you know, this is in preparation." But I actually think, "Wow, even in this, the anointing of Christ through the love of this lady, Jesus is preparing. Jesus is preparing for His own path to His own burial, right?" I mean, if you think about it, just even the way that Mary is doing everything, it is really the abnormal.

And my case to you is going to be even the preparation leading up to this point is all in the sovereignty of Christ, the glorious sovereign hand of Christ. There's a passage in Luke chapter 18, verse 31 through 33. Please turn with me there. We're going to, because of the parallel Gospels and stuff, we're going to look at different passages.

Well, here in Luke chapter 18, verse 31 through 33, Jesus is teaching the disciples, okay, and preparing them. But this is what He says. "And taking the twelve, He said to them, 'See, we're going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.'" And then He says, "For He will be delivered over the Gentiles, He will be mocked, He will be shamefully treated and spit upon, and after flogging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day, He will rise." I mean, to the detail of what the Gentiles are going to do, how He's going to be treated, He knows what's coming, and my case to you is going to be, He is absolutely sovereign in all of that.

And as a matter of fact, even in the preparation to get there, He's completely sovereign. And that's why, even long before, when does He start preparing to go to Jerusalem? In Luke chapter 9, verse 51, He says, "And when the day drew near for Him to be taken up," in some of your passages it'll say, "the ascension," "He set His face to go to Jerusalem." Wow.

And what I'm saying is, especially in this Passion Week, what's something glorious about our Lord Jesus Christ is that, even though there is an angry mom, even though even in the story read, the Pharisees are mad, even though the Pharisees are scheming to kill not only Jesus, but the evidence of Jesus' power, which is Lazarus, the man, you know, made alive again.

Even though all that's going on, Jesus is absolutely sovereign. I want you to think about this. Let's take a look at Luke chapter 19, okay? Reading a parallel passage of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. And I want you to kind of pay careful attention to the sovereignty of Christ in all the preparation and in the details of this week.

I'm going to start reading from verse 28, okay? 28 through 40. And this is what the Scriptures has to say. "After He had said these things, He was going on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When He approached Bethage and Bethany near the mount that is called Olivet, He sent two of the disciples, saying, 'Go into the village ahead of you.

There, as you enter, you will find a colt tied on, which no one yet has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' You shall say, 'The Lord has need of it.' So those who were sent went away and found it just as He had told them.

As they were untying the colt, its owner said to them, 'Why are you untying the colt?' They said, 'The Lord has need of it.' They brought it to Jesus, and they threw their coats on the colt and put Jesus on it. As He was going, they were spreading their coats on the road.

As soon as He was approaching near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, shouting, 'Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!' Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, 'Teacher, rebuke your disciples!' But Jesus answered, 'I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out.'" Okay, I want to highlight for you something interesting here.

I'm highlighting the idea that Jesus is sovereign. Focus on the donkeys. Okay, the donkeys. I mean, I think to me, in my mind, this is a hilarious thing. I mean, everything again from the bottle to even the donkeys is under the sovereign hand, the glorious sovereign hand of Christ.

Why do I say that? Because Jesus tells them ahead of time, the two disciples, I'm presuming that maybe Luke is one of them because the Gospel of John doesn't have this, but Luke does. Luke says, "Jesus told us exactly what the owner would say." Jesus told us what we're to say and then we would get the donkeys.

And I just want you to think about this hilarious moment in Scripture with me, okay? There's two guys, they're sitting there like, "Oh man, we gotta go get some donkeys." You do it. I don't want to be the guy who looks like he's going to steal a donkey, you know what I mean?

I mean, essentially, because that's what they're doing, they're going to go over, they're going to untie this donkey and pull it over and then some guy is going to be like, "Hey, you, what are you doing?" Right? But instead, the owner is like, "Why are you untying my donkey?" And I could just imagine the two guys sitting there like, "Um," and then they're like, "Why are you untying it?" And they're like, "Oh shoot, he just said what Jesus said he would say." And then one of them goes, "The Lord needs it." Right?

Like, "We're just going to try this. The Lord needs it." And then they're like, "Go on your way." I'm like, "What in the world?" You go try it. Jump in someone's car. "The Lord needs this." You know? It's never going to work. It's never going to work. Coming down even to the very animal.

Please turn in your Bibles to Zechariah chapter 9 verse 9. Jesus fulfills sovereignly, prophecy down to the very detail of even the animal that is going to carry him. In Zechariah chapter 9 verse 9, this is what the passage says. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. 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 fowl of a donkey. Wow. That's so crazy. I mean, before this passage, I've never been so amazed by a donkey before. I just want to show you how amazing this is.

It's so specific to the Scriptures that it says right here in Zechariah 9 verse 9, the second part of it, notice how it says, "He comes with salvation, humble, mounted on a donkey," and then he says, "Even on a colt, a fowl of a donkey." So here's an interesting thing.

If you study the passage and you compare the different parallels, some passages will say he brought a donkey and he rode on a donkey. But Luke is more specific because I think he was involved. It says that he brought a colt. I had to Google what is a colt because I have no idea what a colt is.

Do you guys know? A colt is a baby. A colt, you can say a colt is a baby horse, a baby donkey. And so that's why Jesus says there hasn't been anyone who's even ridden this one yet, which means he was young. And what's interesting is because the baby colt will only follow the mother, they've actually brought both and Jesus had the option of riding the mother donkey, which is bigger, or the baby donkey, fulfilling prophecy to the very last detail, he rode the colt.

Pretty amazing stuff. And I think about that and I say, "My goodness, the glory of Christ in fulfilling all of these details, fulfilling every single prophecy." And truthfully speaking, if you were to just research the various things, everything from the words that people say, the words "Hosanna," everything from the words that people say, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord," everything in terms of what the people do, how he responds, it's all prophesied.

This as you know is one of the most prophesied, incredible moments of all history. And what I'm saying is there is glory in our Savior, Jesus Christ, because he is absolutely sovereign in it. But what's amazing about all that is the second part, his glory is expounded because not only is he so powerful and sovereign, he comes in so ridiculously humble, so humble.

And the obvious is there, he comes in riding in, everyone's like, "This is the Messiah, victory, we're going to have our revolution." And then he's coming in on this little donkey, like slow going, you know. That's humble. But I want to show you a different kind of humility, a kind of humility that's willing to bear the ignorance of the masses.

What do I mean by that? The people are singing, "Hosanna, Hosanna." There is a prophecy in Psalm 118, verse 25 to 26 that says, "Save us, we pray, O Lord. O Lord, we pray, give us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord." That prophecy, people recite every year, actually multiple times a year, different festivals and feasts of the Jewish culture.

And they recite this Psalm from Psalm 113 to 118, anticipating the Messiah. They're singing it. They're praising. It's so loud. Everybody's singing it. You know, like for me, there was a time when, you know, you watch basketball games on TV. There's an amazing shot and everybody goes wild, like, "Whoa!" You know, you at your house might go wild, "Whoa!" You know, with your buddies.

But it's different when you're actually there at a game. Like I got a chance to go to a Laker game before, and I remember the feeling of having 25,000 people scream at one time. But remember at this time, there are not just hundreds of thousands of people. There are literally millions.

There are commentators who kind of differ on like how many people. There are people who like literally looked into record books. Well, interestingly enough, they had record books of how many sacrifices are given at the Passover by the priests. And so you can kind of tell how many families reside in Jerusalem as a demographic, meaning outside of Passover, how many people reside in Jerusalem.

The fact was that in Jerusalem, there was close to 200,000 people. During Passover, where people take pilgrimage, you have literally millions of people coming, maybe a million, okay? I just want you to think about the craziest football stadium, the craziest basketball event, the craziest anything you've ever experienced, where a mass of people were screaming something in one unison.

It's powerful. It's really powerful. I'm going to try something with you guys, just for the sake of effect. Okay, not with the mic, but we're going to just say on the count of three, one, two, three, "Hosanna!" Really loud, okay? On the count of one, two, three. Don't prank me, all right?

Don't leave me hanging. Don't leave me hanging. On the count of three, let's just yell, "Hosanna!" Okay? One, two, three. "Hosanna!" That's pretty loud, right? In here is at max 300 people. When you are at stadiums at max, you're at 30. At football stadiums, 50, 60. We're talking about a million people.

We can't fathom that, right? This is crazy. But the thing about it is, the reason why I say this highlights the glory of Christ is because the night before, he was preparing for his triumphant entry. The night before, he was preparing and anointed for his glorious entrance into Jerusalem.

A Saturday night, he was getting prepared for his burial. Everybody else, the masses and ignorance is singing, "Yes! Now it's time for resurgence of the Jewish people, overthrow of the Roman government. We're going to have our revolution. That guy's going to lead us." He said, "The thing about it is, they praised him and said, 'You are a savior.' Correct.

They praised him and said, 'You are a king.' Correct. 'You're the Messiah.' Correct. But then they got palm branches and said, 'We're going to make you king to overthrow the government now.'" Wrong. What's really interesting, I believe, I could be wrong here, but I think the palm trees were the mistake.

Everything else is right. There's no prophecy of palm trees. There's no prophecy of him becoming this kind of king here and there because what the Scripture tells us is that first he's going to come to suffer and then he's going to come to reign. But my point is there's a glory in Jesus Christ because nobody understands him.

Not only do the masses not understand him, even his own disciples don't understand him. The people who are closest to him don't understand him. And he is now walking this path alone, in a sense, surrounded by a million people who don't get him. Have you ever felt alone, surrounded by a lot of people because people don't understand you?

Have you felt what it feels like when people misinterpret what you say? They misjudge you, consider things that maybe alter your motives to you. It's humbling for you to sit there and still walk the path, maintain your composure. If I, because I'm prideful, was there, I would rebuke not the people, but everybody.

I would just rebuke everybody. You have no idea what you're saying. This past Friday I was teaching the collegians and as I was just thinking about what Christ did and especially in this season, there are certain things that Jesus said and I said, in this time, in this season, Jesus said some of the most truest statements ever.

Truest statements ever. When he said, "Father, forgive them because they have no idea what they do." These people have no idea what they're asking for, no idea who they're looking at, and Jesus only wishes they would know. And there's a great amount of humility for him to be able to bear underneath that kind of scenario, to still walk that path.

But walk with me a little bit down some other passages because I want to highlight, you know, I want to highlight another aspect of Jesus' glory as we, you know, follow this trail of what's happened during this week. Here's an interesting idea and I'm just going to carry it along from the idea that the people don't understand what he's really doing but Jesus is still set.

Jesus is still determined. Jesus is so focused. Scriptures would say that he set his face like flint and he was just going, right? Well, what's really interesting is what people did not understand was again, everybody expected him to come mighty. Everybody expected him and they wanted to wave those palm branches.

And I made the case that Jesus is humble because they were mistaken to wave those branches at that time. Well, we asked the question, did ever Scriptures talk about palm branches, that he would come in this, you know, kingship and stuff? Yes, but where? If you actually turn your Bibles over to Revelation chapter 7, verses 9 through 12, here's where palm branches appear, okay?

Revelation chapter 7, verses 9 through 12, this is where palm branches appear. And I think you guys already understand where I'm going with this. For we know in hindsight and we know because Scripture has told us that there is going to be a time when Jesus is going to come and he's going to be such a righteous king, such a powerful king.

And this is what it says, "After this I looked," starting from verse 9, "After this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number even greater than that was in Jerusalem. From every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb.' And all the angels were standing around the throne, around the elders and the four living creatures and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God saying, 'Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever.

Amen.'" Now if you would turn to chapter 19 of Revelations, starting from verse 1, okay? So flip over a couple pages, go to chapter 19 of Revelations starting from verse 1. It says, "After this I heard what seemed to be a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven crying out, 'Hallelujah!

Salvation and glory and power belong to our God for His judgments are true and just.'" So same theme, same motif of Jesus Christ coming in and everybody singing, hosts of everyone singing to the Lord. And then draw your eyes down to verse 11. So Revelations chapter 19 verse 11.

"Then I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse. The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True and in righteousness. He judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire and on his head are many diadems and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.

He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood and the name by which he is called is the Word of God. And the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron and he will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords." So I'm making a long thought here which is first, Jesus is misunderstood and that shows his humility because he's still able to walk the path. But as we see, there is an incredible misunderstanding but yet he's so determined to do this even though he could have come with the way they expected.

And my point is going to be we see the glory then of Christ, not simply in his sovereignty, not simply in his humility but in his mercy. In his mercy. How is that so? How does this describe mercy? Because if he came the way they expected, everybody would die.

That's the truth. If he came the way they wanted, everybody will be accursed, everybody will be judged because if he arrived the way they anticipated, he would have to come with judgment and wrath. He would have to come in glory and sinners cannot stand in that kind of glory.

The glory that we experience on his entrance into Jerusalem is the glory of his humility and mercy. Is the glory of him coming determined not to come as the lion but the lamb. That is mercy and mercy and mercy upon the people, everybody there and that's why he's expressing his heart to them, "I'm having mercy on you as I enter in on a cult." And I always wondered, what does Jesus look like?

I wish I was there to see him because everyone's just dancing and they have their palm branches and they're crying out but I wondered what Jesus looked like because he could see through the heart of man. He knew what they're selfishly thinking. He knew the other category of people who were still kind of like, "I don't know about this Jesus." He knew the other people who were like, "I don't know what's going on but I'm just following." He knew what was going on in the hearts of people.

But what's more, he knew that what he was accomplishing. They still had no idea. Well, thankfully for us, the scriptures tell us. If you turn in your Bibles back to Luke chapter 19 verse 41, Luke chapter 19 verse 41, it says in this passage, okay, that after his entry towards Jerusalem and after the greatest human reception into Jerusalem ever, it says in verse 41, "When he approached Jerusalem, he saw the city and he wept over it saying, 'Only if you had known in this day even you the things which make for peace.

But now they have been hidden from your eyes for the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you and surround you and hem you on every side and they will level you to the ground and your children within you and they will not leave you, leave in you one stone upon another because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.'" So we wonder, what was on the face of Christ as he was entering into Jerusalem while everybody was singing and everybody was in the hoopla, there were tears.

The sovereign Savior who is preparing everything, who is so powerful, he's orchestrating all of history, he's in tears. The humble Savior who is walking in, even though everybody is shouting all this kind of stuff and he still has people who are antagonistic to him, he's in tears. And to me this is such a rebuke as he sees the sin of a nation who is so wrought in their self-righteousness, in their, yes, proper doctrines, but they're still wrought in their sinful, depraved self-righteousness of Judaism.

So close, yes, so far. And although he knows these people are going to be the very ones to cry out for his crucifixion and then to bury him and reject him, yet he cries over them. I'm going to tell you honestly, you know, there are times when I'm all arrogant and I think I'm like the most patient guy ever, but I'm not because I have sinful thoughts go through my head.

People's sin are exposed to me and I'm like, "Dang, what's wrong with you?" People's sin are exposed to me and I'm like, "How did you allow yourself to get there?" People's sin are exposed to me and I think, "I just need to fix you. You just need to do what I say.

Why don't you just do what I say?" But that's so unlike our Savior, isn't it? Sees the sins of the entire nation gathered together in one city and he just weeps. There are a lot of times Jesus weeps, but his mercy overflows as his soul is turned and he weeps over them and he says, "Only if you knew who is visiting you.

Only if you knew how you could have true peace." Wow! This is the glory of our Savior. Not just in crazy like strength and power like, "Rawr, you're all dead." But this crazy power combined with mercy and humility. It's so beautiful and it's so unlike us. And so again, although the many people don't understand and they might be thinking, "Jesus, bring your kingdom." And maybe his 12 disciples, you know, they were the ones who were like, "Bring down your kingdom on Jerusalem and let's reign.

I'll reign with you." And Jesus is constantly teaching them, "You don't understand. I have to do this first. Otherwise you're dead." Which brings me to a challenge. I bring it back to this is a time where we're supposed to examine our hearts and ask, "Do we really desire Jesus?" And let me exhort us, let's not be like the multitude who had ulterior desires for the Savior.

Remember in 1 Peter, if you guys are in our study, I've been teaching that Jesus is the chief cornerstone. He is the cornerstone, the central piece of redemptive history. He's the cornerstone of our church and he's the cornerstone of your lives. But then the passage in 1 Peter said, "He is a precious, precious possession for those who believe.

But those of you who don't, he becomes the what? Stumbling block." That is the case with every single person who's in the masses saying, "Oh, Jesus, come and do this for us." Once they realize that Jesus is not going to do that, they say, "Get out of the way.

You're in my way to get what I want." If we have ulterior desires, if ulterior motives and passions in our lives that are desiring the things of the world, not only is Jesus going to be irrelevant to you, he is going to get in your way. And your only option will be to try to eliminate him from your life.

He's going to become your great stumbling block. Let's make sure that we don't fall into the same sin as the masses. But secondly, secondly, let's not make the same error of both the masses and the disciples, a gross error of presumption. And I'm going to put it this way.

If you're having a hard time after, you know, trying to remember that Christ, the sovereign which you humble to himself, after remembering that Christ is merciful to us, so dedicatedly most merciful to us, but you're still saying like, "I can't muster up that kind of affection, you know. I'm having a hard time really being thankful." Can I tell you this?

It could be perhaps because your mirror is dirty. What do I mean by that? That your mirror is dirty. You're not looking at yourself the right way. A gross presumption in every single individual at that time is they did not understand when they say, "Bring your kingdom, bring your authority," they presumed, "Of course, I'm in your kingdom." What they should have presumed is like, "Wait, hold on.

I still have sin. I'm still unworthy of you. You're too holy to come here. We're just going to die." "Depart from me," is what they should have said if they really saw themselves. Going back to the example of Mary, did you notice that she did not anoint the head of Jesus?

That's what's customary. When you anoint somebody, you anoint somebody on the head. Yes, you don't pour Gatorade on them. You anoint them on the head with a little bit of oil to consecrate, to bless, and all that kind of stuff. But Jesus, when he was sitting there, Mary came and she only poured that on his feet.

Then she untied her hair and started to wipe and clean his feet. What does that have to say? She's expressing to him, "Lord Jesus, you are of infinite value to me. I love you, but I'm not worthy of you. I can barely come to serve you." Just like John the Baptist said, "I can't even touch your shoelace." That's the right way of seeing yourself.

For see, when Mary sees, "I need you. You are so vital to me. Then you're going to make a scene. Then you're going to bust through the door. Then I'm going to disturb you because I need you, because I am a sinner in need of you." Remember Jesus was saying, "There are those individuals who are just going to knock, and then there are those individuals who are going to knock persistently.

Are you sleeping? I need your help right now." Who is he going to answer? Blessed are those who recognize they're bankrupt, they're meek, and they realize they absolutely need the grace of God. Remember it was Jesus who was teaching us who is truly thankful, who overflows with gratitude, those who've been forgiven much.

That has to be a perspective you see of yourself. If you can't muster up affection for Christ, it could be because of a number of things, other desires, but it could be because we don't see ourselves appropriately. The challenge for us today is as we think about Jesus' entry, remember this glory of a sovereign Savior dedicating to be merciful to those who don't deserve it.

We want to make sure that our hearts are overflowing with gratitude, remembering, "Lord, thank you that that's the way you came and not how I see it in Revelations." Let's pray.