Announcing the King

Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Mark 11:1-11

From the earliest days of the Kingdom of God, the people of God have loudly announced the arrival of their King.

In the early spring of the year 33 AD, Jesus of Nazareth was called by the two sisters Mary and Martha to come quickly to their home at Bethany, a town about 5 miles from Jerusalem. Jesus was, at that time, across the Jordan at the place where John had baptized, and there was a considerable walk ahead of Him. The reasons Mary and Martha called Him was because their brother, a man who was a good friend and probably relative of Jesus, had become ill, and was very seriously sick. Jesus waited. In fact, when Jesus and the disciples finally left for Bethany, Lazarus had already died and Jesus knew it. But Jesus knew this family well, so He walked to Bethany, which was only a couple miles from Jerusalem. Thomas commented upon the close proximity of Bethany to Jerusalem, where a group of Jews had tried to kill Jesus because He had claimed to be God just a few months earlier – “We might as well die with Him”, and they walked to Bethany.

You’ve heard the story. When they arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had already died and had been placed in a tomb with a stone guarding the entrance. First older sister Martha berats Jesus for not being there: “If only you’d been here, he would still be alive” and then Mary, the younger sister who may have had a crush on Jesus comes out of the house, falls at His feet, and says, “If only you’d been here, he would still be alive”. But Jesus says there can be a Resurrection and asks the women if they believe in this, which they say they do.

Jesus walks to the tomb and is overcome with emotion. He wept. He then cries out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth” and the man comes out of the tomb alive. Many people see this miracle, and Jesus has his disciples go with him away for a week or so to a town named Ephraim, a few miles northeast of Jerusalem in the wild country.

On Saturday evening, there is a banquet held at Mary and Martha and Lazarus’ house for Jesus and his disciples. Many people come out from Jerusalem to see Jesus. It is at this point that Mary takes some valuable perfume and pours it on Jesus, anointing Him. Judas gets angry, telling them that the perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor, but John says that Judas actually preferred money in the money box, for he was a thief.

Sunday morning, the disciples and the entire entourage walks to Jerusalem and crests the Mount of Olives, called that because of the olive trees that grew there in that day – and many of them are still there today. Olive trees live a very long time. As they come down the hill, they can see into the city and the people in the city can see them coming down the hill, shouting and making noise. It was loud, “the Son of David” they shout, “Hosanna” they yell, which means “Save us now!” and everyone knows that this is a very important person coming down the hill. Just to make sure everyone understands, Jesus rides on the colt of a donkey, which was predicted in Zechariah 9:9 – “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”

And so the procession came into the city, with people shouting and singing and waving clothes and palms and throwing their cloaks on the ground in front of Jesus and the donkey. The smell of dust and sweat and animals in the air combined with the smell of food being cooked by the street vendors, it was a loud, joyful occasion, with dozens of people telling other people about the King that had come to them. Of course not everybody was happy – some of the Temple priests were worried that the Romans would get nervous, so they asked Jesus to quiet down His followers. “If they were quiet, the very rocks and stones would start to sing” was His reply. And so Jerusalem welcomed her King into town. He walked around, looked at a few things, and then, because it was late, went outside the town and found a place to spend the night.

And then some other things happened, And for a period of about 7 weeks, few people told others about this new King. For seven weeks, the public spectacle was gone. For seven weeks, things were fairly quiet. Not completely silent, but things were very quiet as Jesus talked with one group of people, then another group in debate in the Temple. And then even more things happened that would have a lasting impact upon the world.

And seven weeks from that day, the disciples were in a room in Jerusalem. Some other things had happened with Jesus. Just a few things. Who are we kidding? A lot had happened, but the disciples were in an upper room in a house in Jerusalem. They had been there several times over the last seven weeks.

After entering the city, Jesus had taught at the Temple for 2 or 3 days, defeating people in debate, upsetting powerful men and delighting average people. Later that week, Jesus and His disciples met in an upper room in one of the homes, the same upper room to which they had returned seven weeks later. That first night in that upper room, they shared a traditional Passover meal, but Jesus changed everything about it and said that the bread was His body, that the third traditional cup of wine from the meal, often called the Cup of Redemption was His blood, to be poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. It was all very confusing, and the disciples began to wonder what He meant by all this.

And then, after the meal, they had walked to a Garden and there, just as Adam had been ordered out of the Garden of Eden by God after being led into sin by the serpent, Jesus, betrayed by Judas, was taken out of the Garden by armed men, agents of the Temple of God. Jesus spent the night going from one place to another, was beaten, and finally tried and convicted of the crime of claiming to be God. Jesus was placed upon a cross and crucified that Friday, and died that afternoon. In accordance with Jewish Law, His body was taken down and placed in a Tomb, just as Lazarus’ had been, and the Tomb sealed with a 2000 pound boulder dropped in a trench in front of the Tomb. A guard was placed and everyone went home. This Friday evening at 7 pm, we will go through the details of Holy Week, and in particular, the events of that Thursday evening and Friday.

Before the end of the weekend on that particular Sunday, six weeks before the big meeting in the upper room, the disciples were back in the upper room a second time when the women came running to tell the disciples that Jesus was alive. The disciples scattered – some ran into Jesus on the road, Peter and John saw his burial clothes empty, the Tomb empty – and they all came back that evening to that same upper room to talk about what they had seen, when He appeared to them, walked around, ate some fish, and talked with them. But the disciple Thomas was not there, and Thomas was skeptical. Jesus came back to meet them in the upper room a week later, and this time Thomas saw Him and believed. Over the next few weeks, Jesus appeared a total of at least eleven times to the disciples, including once when at least 500 people were present, and then He went back to Heaven. That was just a few days before the disciples met once more at the upper room, seven weeks after the triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

And that morning in the upper room, seven weeks later, the Holy Spirit came upon the 120 or so disciples who were gathered there, and the wind howled and tongues of fire were on their heads and they could suddenly speak in many different languages, praising God to each other and anyone who would listen.

Peter explained it to everyone, becoming the first apostle, proclaiming to everyone that Jesus was indeed the Messiah and the Son of David and the rightful Lord of the earth, sitting at the right hand of God, and over three thousand people joined the church that day and were baptized.

And ever since that day, the average follower of Jesus has been telling other people about what Jesus did. The average follower of Jesus has spread the Good News of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection to over a billion people – that’s a thousand times a thousand times a thousand. People just like you and me. Most became disciples, then they became apostles. During the great Methodist Revivals of the 1700’s and 1800’s, men and women told the Good News to their neighbors and people became Christians. In 1860, there were more Methodists in America than Catholics, more Methodists than all the Baptists combined, more Methodists than all the other churches combined.

And then, about a hundred years ago in America, in the United Methodist Church… we stopped.

Somewhere in the middle of the last century, we began to believe that the only people who spread the Gospel are special people like Billy Graham, professional evangelists who speak to large numbers of people at once. We began to believe that our pastors were the only people qualified to talk to people about God’s love. We began to believe that spreading the Good News was as tricky a job as being a neurosurgeon, an astronaut, a rocket scientist.

We forgot that spreading the Gospel was what Christians do. We forgot that it was a mark of truly understanding the goodness of God. We forgot that all students of Jesus are to become apostles one day.

Instead, we learned to keep quiet, to sit on our pews and come back every Sunday and to appreciate good music and good preaching. After all, we paid the pastor to tell people about Jesus, didn’t we? And we invited people to church, but after a while people stopped coming to church and that was probably because people had changed for the worse, and there wasn’t anything we could do about it.

But, you know, we were the ones that changed. We were the ones that stopped shouting at the top of our lungs: “Hosanna to the Son of David!” We were the ones that had decided that “you never talk to people about two things: politics and religion”.

Instead, we began inviting people to church.

I’ve looked throughout the New Testament and there is no place in that collection of books where it tells people to invite other people to church. No place – no where.

Instead, though, there is this very important passage at the very end of the Gospel of Matthew: 16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

- And I’ll pause at that point and ask you “Do you believe that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus?”

If you answered, “Yes”, then the following command of Jesus is for you: Jesus continues:

19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

If you believe that “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus”, then this command applies to you. You and I are to go and make disciples of all nations – literally all groups of people - those people are to be baptized, and they are to be taught to obey everything Jesus has commanded. They are to be led to become Christians by you, by me, by the person sitting beside you, by your children, by you personally.

I’ve delivered this message. Some of you are doing this – others aren’t. Some of you are trying your best to understand what Jesus commanded by coming to Sunday school, to midweek studies, by intense study – others hope to get it all understood here during the main service on Sunday mornings. Some recognize that this is a simple but important task. Others see it as a very difficult task. Let me see if I can simplify things for you.

Each of Jesus’ followers only followed Him in person for three years or less. Paul, the greatest, most fruitful of all, only saw Him in person a couple of times in visions. For three years those men were known as disciples – students. After three years and the Resurrection, those men became known as apostles – those who proclaim.

And those key men were generally not heavily educated – some of the most effective were professional fishermen. So this can’t be too complicated.

Perhaps you thought there were only 12 apostles – let me point you in your NIV Bible to this passage in Romans 16:7, written by Paul:

7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.

You will notice that Junia is a woman’s name. And we will remember the women who went to the Tomb and were told to spread the word. You know, it isn’t difficult to become an apostle – a person who proclaims the Good News about the King to other people. I’m going to go down a checklist with you. If you don’t like being called an apostle, that’s ok. You can call yourself a “Great Commission Christian” if that makes you feel better. Here’s the checklist. There are seven key things.

First of all, we’re not talking about speaking in front of large groups of people. We’re talking about one-on-one conversation. I’ve looked around in here before the service begins, and we have some great experts at one-on-one conversation, and almost everybody here is pretty good at it.

Second, an apostle needs to realize that Jesus Christ was God Himself walking upon the earth as Jesus. Do you understand that? I did a sermon on that about a month ago and you can find it online if you missed it or want to read it again.

Third, apostles should understand that Jesus died to pay the penalty for everything we’ve ever done wrong in our lives, those sins that keep us away from God. Got it? That was last week’s sermon – and it is online too.

Fourth, He came back alive so we would know He was telling the truth when He said He was God, and to show that we can all live eternally, as He promised. God endorsed Jesus through the Resurrection. Still with me?

Fifth, the key to becoming a follower of Jesus is three parts: to recognize that this is all true, to ask God to forgive your sins, and then to get baptized. Are we there?

Sixth, It really helps if you can tell a story about what God has done in your life. Most of you have those stories – practice telling them to your family and friends.

Finally, seventh, as an apostle you need to be able to explain “the Joy that is in you” Well, that’s simple, isn’t it? You’re happy because no matter what – God loves you – and you’ll live forever!

Now there are a few things people should see when they look at you. There are certain personal characteristics that will make you an effective apostle. It really helps your credibility if you are a happy person who has no obvious, glaring sins and lives a holy life, and so we work to remove the sins from our lives. It is also important that an apostle has an attractive personality – you do nice things for people, speak kindly, pray for people, and listen to the Holy Spirit speaking to you. A lot of our classes are to help you learn these things and help you become more confidant in speaking to others.

So, you see, I expect that you can speak to someone this week about Christ.

Let this be the year that you decide it is time to step into your role as a Great Commission Christian and become an apostle. Last year, I challenged you to try to bring one person to an understanding of who Jesus Christ is over the course of a year. Some of you took up that challenge and we’ve seen the effects. Even where no one came to Christ directly because of you, we have seen you grow in your understanding of Christ and in your ability to follow Him. This year, I once again challenge you – are you willing to lead one person this year to the eternal saving grace of Jesus Christ?

Join the millions through the ages that have announced: “The Son of David is here. Make way for the rightful King. Hosanna in the Highest!”

Or perhaps, you’ll sit down with a friend, a family member, or a neighbor and say, “Friend, do you understand what Easter is all about? Do you believe in everything that happened that week?” and then you’ll have one of the most important conversations of your friend’s life. Perhaps at the end of that conversation, they’ll say, “Yes, I would like to give my heart to Jesus”.

Hosanna!