Looking at the People | Palm Sunday Message with Jonathan Laurie

Hey, everybody. Greg Laurie here. You're listening to The Greg Laurie Podcast. And my objective is to deliver, hopefully, compelling practical insights in faith, culture, and current events from a biblical perspective. To find out more about our ministry, just go to our website, harvest.org. So thanks for joining me for this podcast.

Chapter 12. If you would like to turn in your Bibles, your iPads, or on your computers, whatever you're watching on, you can turn there if you would like so that we can follow along. I titled this message that because living in Southern California, one thing that we see a lot of is people. We see a lot of people here. You know how crowded it is. Those of you who live here and those of you who have visited to Southern California, you've heard about the traffic. You've had to sit in it. You've probably had to fly into LAX. I'm sorry. Okay. I'm sorry. It's not my favorite airport.

That's for sure. There's people on the freeways. There's people on the beaches. There's people in lines at the grocery store, everywhere, at the church, at the gym, everywhere you go, there are people. And actually, if you want to get away from people, you have to be totally intentional about it, don't you? If you're in Southern California and you want to get away from where the people are, like you have to drive to some remote place. You have to be very intentional about getting away from people. It's practically impossible.

Like I said, everywhere you turn, there are people. Now, back during the days of lockdown, April of last year, my wife and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary. That's right, 10 years. It was pretty cool.

We're actually celebrating 11 years this coming April 24th. But when we were unable to do anything during lockdown, we decided that, hey, we're going to go down to the beach and we're going to ride our bikes down there. Now, this is when the state parks were completely closed.

You couldn't have any of that public access. And so we parked over in a nearby neighborhood and we rode our bikes for two miles to get to the beach. It's actually not that far.

It sounded farther when I was thinking about it in the moment. But we rode our bikes two miles on the sand, in the beach, and it was pretty cool. As we were down on the beach, there was nobody around. And the further we went up the beach, the further away you got from that one access point that you could go through, and it was empty.

I've never seen in all my years of going to this particular spot, no people on the beach. It was pretty cool. And so we got up to our spot. We finally found a spot that seemed nice and we posted up. We had our umbrella and our, you know, kind of our picnic stuff.

And it was a great time. And we're sitting there and I was just like, I'm pulling out my phone. I'm like, look at this, 360 degrees.

There's nobody around. This is awesome. And as we were sitting there about 15 minutes later, I kid you not, we see a person walking up the beach and we can see him way down the beach, you know, because there's nobody around so we can spot him out. We see this person walking up the beach. I'm like, oh, look, there's a person.

Wow, that's crazy. And they're getting closer and then they're getting closer. And then I kid you not, the entire beach miles in either direction. There's nobody around. This person decides to post up their stuff 50 feet away from us right there. It was like, really, guy? You couldn't have found somewhere else to go?

Hey, first world problems, right? It was just so funny, though, that this person decided to go right next to us. No matter what you do, you can't get away from people. They're everywhere. They're always around. And so here in Southern California, one thing that you learn to do, because there are so many people, is people watch, right?

Come on. You know you like to people watch, too. You like to sit there. Maybe you've got a specific spot that you like to go to, to really look at all the different people that come through. Maybe for you, it's your local Walmart or your local movie theater or your local mall. For us here in Southern California, it's probably our local theme park. It's this place called Disneyland.

You've probably never heard of it. But all joking aside, at Disneyland, you see people from every walk of life. That place is crazy. You see all kinds of people, all different ages and everything. Parents with little children, small children coming to Disneyland for the first time. You see teenagers that are there. You see middle-aged people with no kids. And then you see elderly people, no grandchildren in sight.

Just, hey, living the dream, right? It's amazing. And as I prepared for this study this weekend, looking at John chapter 12, looking at Jesus' triumphal entry that he had when he came into Jerusalem, I couldn't help but just notice all the different characters that were shown in this story. All the different characters and all the different reactions that they had as well. I did a little bit of people watching in John chapter 12, if you will. You've got Mary and Martha. You've got Judas. You've got the chief priest. You've got the massive crowd.

It is an eclectic group to say the least. And so if you're a visitor today and you're maybe new to church and you're not really familiar, like what the heck is Palm Sunday? What is that all about? It's where you guys like celebrate palm trees or something? Well, we've got a giant beautiful palm tree on the back screen there. But no, the reason we call it Palm Sunday is because this weekend, Sunday, March 28th, we call it Palm Sunday. And it comes every single year. It is exactly one week before Easter Sunday, which we also call Resurrection Sunday.

Palm Sunday is called that because five days before Jesus was crucified, he entered Jerusalem. And he was given for the first time the welcome he finally deserved, a true hero's welcome. It would have been a sight to see.

It was an amazing thing. Jesus finally heralded for who he was. People finally recognized, at least so we thought, that Jesus, hey, he's the king. He's the guy.

He's the person we've been waiting for. And as Jesus rode into Jerusalem, they ran out of them. They cut down palm fronds from the trees that were local there, the date palms.

They're still there to this day, some of them. And they cut down the palm fronds and they threw them at Jesus' feet. They took off their cloaks and their robes and threw them at Jesus' feet. And they all shouted in unison, Hosanna, the son of David, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And it was an amazing sight.

It was beautiful. They were celebrating Jesus for who he was. He finally got the recognition, the notoriety that he so deserved. Now, to the Romans, they would have seen this and recognized, oh, wow, this is somebody really important because in Roman culture, when a conquering general, military general, was coming back from a victorious battle, he would be given a very similar hero's welcome.

It would have been a little bit more grand and probably a little bit more official, but he would have ridden in on the back of a donkey and given that same kind of hero's welcome. Now, on the Jewish people, the religious leaders, the meaning was not lost on them either. They saw Jesus riding in and Jesus was being called the son of David, which in Scripture is symbolic of the fact that Jesus was the Messiah, the prophesied one, the one they had been waiting for all this time was now here. And so as Christians, as Christians, 2000 years later, we look back at Palm Sunday kind of as a bittersweet day, to be honest. It's bittersweet. It's sweet because, well, like I said, Jesus came and when he rode in for the first time, he was given that welcome he deserved. He was given the love and the praise that was due to him and to his name. But it was also bitter.

It's bitter because we know how the story ends. Just five days later on Friday, a man named Pontius Pilate, who was the governor of Judea, stood before a crowd with Jesus at his side. And he asked them, what do you want me to do with Jesus, who is called the Christ, whom you call the King of the Jews? And they answered Pilate with the same fervor, the same passion and the same conviction that they welcomed him in with. And they said to Pilate, let him be crucified, let him be crucified, crucify him, crucify him. And the Roman soldiers, they would take Jesus and they shouted at him, hail the King of the Jews, as they beat him with their fists. Only five days later, only five days later, you know, there's never been anybody on the face of the earth who has garnered this much division. This, he just continues to evoke such extreme responses and continues to evoke extreme responses over 2,000 years later from people as Jesus Christ does.

It's amazing. You look at the two people, the two different groups of people that are in the Bible, and we see them reflected today. You see people that love Jesus and then you see other groups that hate Jesus. You see devotion from one group and rejection from another. You see worship from one group and blasphemy from another, faith and unbelief. And so why is that? Why is Jesus so polarizing?

Why is he so divisive, if you will? Even in 2021, with all of our tolerance, all of our sympathy, it is largely an ABC culture that we live in. ABC, anything but Christ. And so what we are going to see probably won't surprise us too much. As we look at all of the different characters and all their different perspectives and their responses to Jesus won't surprise us a whole lot. But I will say this, more than ever, we need to be vigilant against cultures and I should say against Satan's influence on the church and its desire to make Jesus into their own image, to make Jesus into a powerless savior.

I've titled this message, Looking at the People. And again, we're going to be reading through together John chapter 12 verses 1 to 15. Let's read together, starting in verse 1. Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. And so they gave a dinner there and Martha served and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at the table. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from 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 own disciples, he who was about to betray him, said, Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor? Now he said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what is ever put into it. And so Jesus said to him, he rebuked him. He said, Leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.

For the poor you have always with you, but you do not always have me. And when the large crowd, verse nine, of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came not only on account of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. And so the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. And so they went out and they took branches of palm trees and they met him where he was at, crying out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel.

And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. Let's pray together. Lord, as we just read this passage of scripture, welcoming you, Jesus, for the king that you truly deserve to be recognized as. Lord, we want to see ourselves in this story and figure out who we are and who we can better understand ourselves to be and correct our recognition of who you are. And help us, Lord, to just see you for the savior that you really are, not making you into our own image, not making you into something that you were never going to be. So help us, Lord. Speak to us through this time of Bible study. We pray in Jesus name. We ask it. Amen.

Amen. And so here we have the story of the triumphal entry, an amazing, amazing image that we see. You've got all kinds of people there, people going crazy. Some historians believe that at the time of the Passover, which is when Jesus was coming in, the weeks leading into it, pilgrims from all over the ancient world would travel to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover of the Jews. Of course, remembering when God brought the Jewish people out of Egypt, out of, I should say, Egyptian captivity and into the promised land.

They remember that and celebrate that at the Passover. And so you had tons of people. Again, those historians, they believe that there could have been up to a million people in this small little ancient city of Jerusalem.

It would have been packed to the gills. It was crazy. And so right away, we see some interesting characters in the story. And every character has a different response to Jesus.

Some good, some bad. And I want to reveal to you what I believe caused that divide between these groups of people, between true worship and affection and murderous hate towards Jesus and really everything in between. You see, just a short time prior before Jesus' triumphal entry, as He came in through the gate in Jerusalem and He was given that hero's welcome, He had just performed His magnum opus, if you will. His pièce de résistance, His most powerful and breathtaking and bold miracle He had performed to date that got people talking like nothing before. Jesus raised a man from the dead. He raised a man from the dead. His name was Lazarus. And this guy, he wasn't like a little bit dead. Like he wasn't like on his deathbed and about to die and Jesus healed him. No, he was really dead. Like he was in a tomb for four days dead. His sisters, when Jesus showed up, they begged Jesus, please do not roll the stone back because He's going to smell.

That's literally what they said. Don't roll it back. His body will smell. The process of decomposition had begun to take place. Rigimortis had certainly gone through his body and he was beginning to deteriorate. They begged him to not roll the stone back. Well, that didn't stop Jesus. He commanded that the stone be rolled away and the local crowd from Bethany gathered around to see what was going to happen and they stood witness. The stone was rolled away and Jesus, He calls out to Lazarus in the tomb and He says, Lazarus, come forth.

And like something from a stinking movie, Lazarus comes hopping out of the tomb with his whole body wrapped in linen strips for burial like a mummy. It says his hands were bound and his feet and face were wrapped tightly. OK, so I'm thinking his feet are wrapped together, right?

What do you do when your feet are wrapped together? You come hopping out, man. He's hopping out. He's got his hands bound. He's all tied up.

It is a crazy sight. This dude was as dead as you could possibly be. And Jesus just rose him again from the dead. Now, this all took place only two miles outside of Jerusalem, only two miles outside of Jerusalem.

So you can be sure that word got out all over the area about what Jesus had done. And so what do we see in this chapter? Well, we see Jesus and his disciples six days before the Passover celebration began, arriving back in Bethany, the hometown of Lazarus, where he had just raised him from the dead. And we see his sisters, Mary and Martha. But the other gospel fills in a detail that John's gospel does not, that gospel being Matthew. He tells us that as they came into Bethany, which was, yes, the hometown of Lazarus and Mary and Martha.

But Matthew fills in this detail. They came into the house of a man named Simon the leper. Simon the leper.

And so right away, I'm intrigued. Who's this guy, Simon the leper? And so would you look with me for just a moment at our first group of people? Point number one, first group we're going to be looking at is the dead man and the leper, the dead man and the leper.

We find them in John chapter 12 and Matthew 21 verse six. Now, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that this dude, Simon the leper, used to be a leper, right? He wasn't currently a leper because in ancient culture, lepers were ostracized. They were kicked out of society. They were not allowed to be with the rest of the people. They had to live in leper colonies. It was a very sad fate for these people who contracted this incurable disease.

And so we can easily assume that this man, Simon, had been healed by Jesus of his leprosy and they were in his home. In those days, leprosy, it was a death sentence. It was a death sentence. It was an incurable disease that, as if it weren't devastating enough that you were going to die, it forced you to live out the rest of your life in exile. You would have to live outside from your family, away from your friends, away from your home, away from your comforts in life. No matter your status level or your success, you would have to live outside of all of those things, like being in quarantine for the rest of your life.

That would be terrible. And so we see Lazarus, a dude who had just been raised from the dead, reclining at the table with Jesus in verse two, it tells us, and also with Simon the leper there as well. Now that's a party. You've got a dude who used to be dead and you've got a dude that literally had leprosy and incurable disease, both hanging out with Jesus. That sounds like a good time right there.

That's wild. They're hanging out with Jesus. They're talking, they're eating food together, they're reclining, which means that they're friends with each other and that they're enjoying each other's company.

This would have been the main meal of the day and it would have been prolonged for a good length of time, hours reclining and eating and kind of like an eight-course meal type of deal, just snacking and eating and dipping together and they would have enjoyed each other's company very much. But really, as I look at that, it's just a perfect picture of a physical and a spiritual healing. You see, both physical death and leprosy are pictures, spiritual pictures of sin. James 1-15 tells us that the desire when it gives birth to sin and sin when it fully is grown brings forth death. Death is a picture of what sin ultimately leads us to. Not just physical death, we can thank Adam and Eve for that, but it also brings forth spiritual death. Sin brings forth spiritual death, separation from God. And just like physical death cuts you off from the living, so does spiritual death through sin cut you off from spiritual living. It severs connection with God. And if in God's presence there's fullness of joy, Psalm 16-11 tells us, then logically in God's absence, there is complete absence of joy and what is that? That is hell. That is what sin brings you to.

Sin brings you to hell, the opposite of joy. And then leprosy. Leprosy is also a picture of sin because leprosy is an inward disease with outward symptoms. You saw it on the outside through sores and other symptoms, but the cause of it was something much deeper.

Many times leprosy would go undetected for periods of time and only after the disease began to show itself externally was it able to be addressed and hopefully taken care of and the process would be slowed down at best. Isn't that exactly how sin works? Isn't that exactly how sin works inside of us? Sin is also an inward disease that shows outward symptoms.

Jesus said in Matthew 15-19, From out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. Sin starts off undetectable. Secret sin, right? Almost completely undetectable, like leprosy. You've got some secret sin that only you know about.

Nobody is aware of it. And then what happens? It begins to reveal itself. It begins to grow. It gets bigger and reveals itself for the disease that it is and it begins to fester.

And what does it do? It destroys your life and ultimately it brings spiritual death. A person with leprosy was also unable to cure themselves. They're unable to cure themselves. There's no remedy or exercise program or diet.

There's no topical ointments they could apply to help treat or even cure the disease. And just like that, we also are unable to cure or treat ourselves of sin. There's no program or regimen you can follow, nothing that can free you from your sin. But lastly, both sin and leprosy are no match for the healing touch of Jesus Christ. You come to Jesus with your sin. You come to Jesus with your spiritual leprosy and He can make you clean.

Only He can forgive your sin. And so you've got both Simon and Lazarus, the dead man and the leper. They're hanging out with Jesus.

Why? Because their lives had been changed. They had been supernaturally healed from their sin, from their leprosy.

And you know what? God also healed them. Jesus healed them from their sin.

Listen, we have had leprosy of the heart. We have had spiritual death and because of Jesus, He can come in and change our lives and forgive us for what we've done and restore us and give us that brand new baby skin and give us new hearts and a new nature and a new life. Hey, if He's done that for you, give some praise in the comments section right now. If you're on YouTube or whatever chat room you're on, harvest.org, throw some love in that chat room and say, Hey, Jesus changed me. He healed me. Especially if you're a younger person, we'd love to hear from you. Tell us right now that Jesus changed your life.

We'd love to hear from you. Amazing. The second group of people I want to look at is number two, the second group, Mary and Martha. And we find them in verses two and three. I love this section because Mary and Martha, what are they doing? They are being true to character.

They're being true to character. Martha serving and Mary hanging out with Jesus. Now we read in Luke's gospel at a different time, Jesus and the disciples again stopped at the home of Mary and Martha for a nice meal. Martha was in the kitchen with the pots and pans cooking things up, oil splattering everywhere. She's, you know, she's a mess. She's on the fritz, just trying to get everything under control. I mean, what would you do if you had Jesus and 12 disciples show up?

13 people out of nowhere with no preparation show up. Hey, Mary, what's cooking? Martha, what's going on?

What do you got? What do you got on the stove there? Well, I had some food for, you know, my sister and I.

But OK, we can accommodate you, Lord. And so we find in this other story, Martha in the kitchen and Mary hanging out at Jesus' feet. And Martha's just going crazy trying to get all the stuff, trying to prepare this meal, trying to get everything done.

And it was hard. And so what does Martha do? She comes storming out of that kitchen and she goes and she admonishes her sister, Mary, and says, you're supposed to be helping me in the kitchen. Lord, tell her she needs to be in there with me. And Jesus says, Martha, you're so anxious about everything. You're worried about all this stuff.

Don't worry about it. Mary's chosen the better thing. She is sitting and hearing from me. And so this time we see Martha again, showing love now to Jesus and affection and appreciation in an even more special way.

Why? Because Jesus just raised her brother from the dead. She's in the kitchen now, but she's no longer grumbling. She's no longer frustrated that her sister Mary is not assisting her because what's Mary doing? Again, she's sitting at the feet of Jesus and we'll hear about her in just a second.

But this time around, Martha doesn't complain about Mary's absence from the kitchen because Martha is no longer just doing a job or a chore. She's worshiping Jesus through her service. She's worshiping Jesus through her service. Remember, Jesus just raised her brother, her beloved brother Lazarus, who had been dead for four days in a tomb, dead, decomposing.

Jesus just raised him back to life. And she is so thankful for that. So all she is doing is just like, hey, I'm cooking this meal. I don't care who's around. I'm doing this for Jesus. I'm doing this job for Jesus. And hey, listen, we can have that same mindset too.

We can have that same mindset. We can worship God in any situation, in any chore, any task, that cleaning up after your family, that cooking dinner for your family, that doing office work and staying late, having to get the job done, the preparing of a meal, it can become a joyous act of worship. God, you've done so much for me. Jesus, you've done so much for me. You love me so much. I want to show love to my family.

I want to do something special for them. I'm doing this because you show me love, Jesus, and you can do that as an extension to them. And so next, we see Mary. We see Mary in the same place as last time, hanging around Jesus, soaking up everything that he is saying, listening to his words, hanging on every word that he says.

But this time, we see Mary doing something a little bit more than just listening. She comes and she brings in a 12-ounce alabaster flask filled with something called spikenard, a very costly perfume. Now, 12 ounces, I have this jar right here. It's a mason jar. It's not alabaster.

This is 12 ounces. This holds a lot of liquid, especially if it's really strong-smelling perfume. I don't know about you, but I'm like, really nose-sensitive. So if I walk through a department store, like, I hold my breath when I walk through those perfume counters.

I get such bad headaches from smells and all kinds of stuff. And so I can just imagine this being filled with 12 ounces of pure, potent, strong-smelling perfume being broken over the head of Jesus. And that is exactly what Mary does. She goes and she breaks that alabaster flask and she pours it over the head of Jesus. I'm sure it smelled beautiful. And the whole house, it says, was filled with the aroma, this very rare and expensive perfume that Judas actually goes and tells us what the cost was. He says this is worth about 300 denarii, which would be today the equivalent of about maybe $30,000.

A lot of money, a ton, a ton of money. And so he says, or rather, Mary takes that perfume, pours it over Jesus' head, breaks that nice bottle, and pours it on Jesus' head and his body. And then she takes her hair and she soaks it up off the floor, the remaining liquid. She wipes it all over Jesus' feet.

She wipes it all over his feet. What a beautiful picture, something that Jesus commended her for and he surely appreciated. He was on his way to die in Jerusalem. He knew it.

He knew exactly what was coming. And he shared all the time with the disciples, but everybody seemed to kind of miss it. Well, I think that Mary didn't miss it. She knew exactly what was going on, that he was going to be crucified. And so Jesus says in verse 7, she did this in preparation for my burial. And so I'm sure that when the disciples looked back on this moment after Jesus was crucified and rose again from the dead, they look back and they see what Mary did and they're probably kicking themselves for not doing something similar.

Why didn't I do that? Why didn't I do something blessed for Jesus? Why didn't I show some amazing demonstration of love like Mary and Martha did? And so you've got the girls, Mary and Martha, they're serving, they're showing Jesus love. You've got Lazarus and Simon the leper hanging out with Jesus, being resurrected men, healed men, hanging out, spending time with Jesus, a very appropriate thing.

And then the third group of people that I want to look at with you together right now is this. Number three, the traitor, the killers, and the undecided. The traitor, the killers, and the undecided. And we find them in verses four to seven, nine, and 10. Let's look first at the traitor, Judas. This is the first time that Judas has words recorded in scripture, in John's gospel. It says that as soon as Mary broke that flask, Judas' ears started tingling.

That sounded expensive. Did somebody just break something expensive? Excuse me, what are you doing with that? And he scolds Mary. He scolds Mary for her act of sacrifice, trying to appear as some kind of philanthropist saying he cared about poor people and concerned with the least of these. He tries to say, oh, we could have used that money for them. We could have done something wonderful with it, but it is such a waste. But I love John's sarcastic response.

It's amazing. John says in verse six, he didn't say this because he cared two cents about the poor, but because he was a thief. He was in charge of the common funds and he would steal money for himself. Okay, thank you for that insight, John.

Good to know. And so immediately, though, Jesus rebukes Judas. He jumps to her defense. You leave her alone, Jesus says.

She did this in preparation for my burial. Hey, you'll always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me with you. And so in this moment, Judas had a choice to make. He could either go and fall at the feet of Jesus and repentance for his incorrect perspective and his hardened heart, or he could further harden his heart and surrender to Satan's influence and betray Jesus. It was at this very moment. It was at this very moment that Judas fully decided to betray Jesus.

That's right. He saw that valuable item and he wanted it for himself. He was jealous.

He was angry. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? That money could have been used to buy us all robes. We could have all bought homes with that money.

Are you kidding me? I've wasted three years of my life following Jesus around, camping out in the wilderness, walking all over the face of the earth. I wanted something to show for that. You know, Judas, he probably thought that Jesus was going to become the king of Israel. And he was probably hoping that he'd be some kind of ruler or some kind of crazy thing. He had visions of grandeur, kingdoms, royalty, wealth. That's why Judas was in it.

We know for sure now. And so he got jealous. He got mad. And so he goes and he makes a deal with the religious leaders to go and betray Jesus. But that wasn't Jesus' mission. Jesus' mission wasn't to be a political deliverer. Jesus' mission wasn't to come and free his people from Roman occupation. No, Jesus came for a much greater reason. He came because he was a spiritual deliverer, coming to free his people from their sins. We read this all the way back in Matthew, chapter 121.

The angel appeared to Joseph and he said, she will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. That's why Jesus came, to save his people from their sins. Thank you, Lord.

I'm thankful. That is why you came. And then the next group of people that we read about are the killers, the killers. That's the religious leaders. All the way back going into John, chapter two, we read about Jesus and the religious leaders' first encounter together. And all the way back then, they're testing Jesus, challenging his authority, telling them to provide them with some kind of sign that he is who he said he is.

And with each and every encounter that they had with Jesus, they became more angry, more furious, more outraged. And finally, they decided they're gonna kill him. That's it, we're done. We're not gonna be able to trap this guy anymore. We can't outwit him. We're just gonna have him killed. We're gonna kill him.

Why? Because they also believe that the Messiah, the prophesied one, the Christ, who is talked about in scripture would be a political military conqueror. They believe that the Messiah would come and liberate them from the Roman occupation and restore Jerusalem to the world power that she deserved to be. Nuh-uh, that's not why Jesus came, guys.

That is not why he came. All the things they did to be righteous and holy was just an act. Jesus said to them in Matthew 23, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.

Harsh, direct, that word just means actor. You're pretending that you are something that you are not. So he says, you are like whitewashed tombs, which appear outwardly beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones and uncleanness. And so you also outwardly appear to be righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Hey, if I was a Pharisee, I'd be ticked off too.

I'd be pretty mad. But see, they wanted Jesus to fit their mold. They wanted Jesus to fit their mold. They wanted to write on his coattails just like Judas did. They had been making themselves out to be something that they were not. And they wanted Jesus to be their ticket to wealth, to riches, to success, to notoriety.

And what's so funny is that Judas actually would have made a great Pharisee, right? They're practically the same people with the same aspirations. They're hypocrites, they're actors. They care nothing about actual spiritual things. They just want status.

They want notoriety and recognition. And then in verse 11, verse 11, it tells us that they wanted to kill Lazarus. They wanted to kill Lazarus. Poor Lazarus, the dude already died once.

I mean, come on, what more do they want from him? But why did they want to kill Lazarus? Well, it tells us, verse 11, it says that it was because of Lazarus, many of the people had deserted the religious leaders' teachings and believed in Jesus. I love that. I love that because of Lazarus, people were believing and giving Jesus a chance. That's what a good testimony will do, guys. Hey, I once was dead, now I'm alive. I once was this way, but now I'm this way.

I once lived in darkness, but now I live in light. Hey, if God did it for me, He can do it for you too. That's a good testimony because Lazarus was living a resurrected life and a resurrected body. It attracted people to Jesus, and that is what our testimony, our lives can do to those around us.

And then lastly, let's look at the undecided. The undecided, this would be the large crowd that was following Jesus. We read about them in verse nine. When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of Him, but also to see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. Now remember, Bethany was just two miles away from Jerusalem. Everybody would have caught wind that Lazarus was raised from the dead. They all would have heard about it. Word would have spread like a wildfire. Again, remember, all of the people that came in for the Passover celebration, up to a million people, in addition to the city's already large population, it would have been packed. And so word would have spread like crazy about this guy, Lazarus, who was dead over in Bethany, just like one town over a couple miles away. He was raised again from the dead.

This is wild. Word would have spread like crazy. And so this group, they heard about what had happened. They wanted to see Lazarus. Now they weren't openly hostile to Jesus like Judas was and like the religious leaders were, but they also weren't committed like Mary and Martha and Simon and Lazarus were. This group of people, they were thrill seekers. They were thrill seekers following the coolest trend, the latest spectacle, only interested in Jesus because of his miracle working abilities. And so fast forward to verse 37 in John 12 and we read about this same group of people. It says, though Jesus had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him. The thing they were coming for, oh, I'll believe if we see a sign. There's a dude that's dead and he came back to life. Wow, that's amazing.

Let's go check that out. They still didn't believe, even though Jesus did all those signs, they did not believe. You see, it's not until you see your brokenness. It's not until you see yourself for who you really are, your sin for what it is, until you really begin to see Jesus for who he is. It's not until you realize that you could say your boat is sinking that you realize you need to call the Coast Guard. You need to call somebody for help.

It's not until you feel that lump or you feel that sharp pain in your brain that you realize you need a doctor. That whole second half of John chapter 12, it actually shares the conversation that Jesus had with that huge crowd that ushered Jesus in to Jerusalem. The crowd that welcomed him with the palm fronds and throwing their cloaks down, they're so excited. He goes into a conversation with them and basically he tells them exactly who he is in vague terms, tells them who he is, what he came to do, what is going to happen. And as a result, because of Jesus' own words, many of them turned from Jesus that day and they became that same hostile crowd that would call for his crucifixion just five days later.

Isn't that crazy? Jesus' own words turned them away. And so looking at the people, looking at the people, we see all these characters, all their different responses to Jesus. Who are you in this story?

Who are you in this story? Are you Lazarus and Simon, raised to life spiritually, healed from your sin, resurrected men, resurrected women living a resurrected life? Are you like Mary and Martha, lovingly and affectionately worshiping Jesus for all that he has done for you? He exceeded your wildest expectations and delivered all that he said he would do? Are you like Judas and the religious leaders and the hostile crowd, angry and hardened that Jesus isn't who you made him out to be, who you wanted him to be? In 1972, my dad was a brand new Christian.

He was 19 years old. And one of the ways that he got involved at his local church was he was a cartoonist and he loved to draw. And so he wrote this tract out and he drew it out kind of on the process of a person's salvation.

And he actually titled it, looking at the people. Here it is on the screen. We'll throw some images up there for you. And so you see about halfway through this tract, the dialogue happening. You see the two characters, guy and a girl sitting down. They look like hippies.

This was in 1972 after all. And they're sitting down. It looks like they're using some illicit drugs there. And he says this, I've got to find some peace someplace. Just can't seem to get out. Take some dope. Live nice. Make love. Is this what life's all about? And then he goes on, is this what life is all about? Something's missing. I've got to shout. Why is this world going so wrong?

Is it God or to myself the blame belongs? I see many people as plastic as can be, the same thoughts inside their heads. How can we be free? And then you got that next picture with the picture of their hands in shackles. They're in prison to sin. They're in prison. They're unable to break free on their own. How can we be free? They're all thinking. Then it goes on.

Church is just for old folks. I've got to do my thing. I'll make God my puppet, my song He'll sing.

And then he goes on, but wait, I've said something wrong. The picture I've been painting doesn't belong. I've been making God in my own way.

Seems like everyone's been doing that these days. Have I been the potter making God the clay, forming Him to myself each and every day? Well, I look at the picture, Lord, I painted of Thee, but as I look closer, it looks more like me.

Wow, how telling is that? That is exactly what we are seeing right here in this story. We are seeing the different people looking at Jesus and trying to make Him into somebody He was never going to be. He was never supposed to be that.

He was never supposed to be a political deliverer. He was never supposed to be these things that Judas and the religious leaders and the people wanted Him to be. No, Jesus came to free His people from their sins. Remember, we read that in Matthew chapter one, the angel heralds it.

He tells us why He came, to free His people from their sins. Hey, it's not until you see your brokenness and your sin until you can really see your need for a Savior. You can see Jesus for who He really is. And so in closing today, maybe you are finally are like that large crowd, the undecided crowd, the crowd that was following Jesus.

Not all of those people harden their heart toward Jesus, but maybe you're like that undecided person that's in the story. You've heard of Jesus. You know, He's done some amazing things.

You know, He's done some amazing stuff for people. You've heard crazy testimonies, but you still have some investigating to do. You're just not quite sure. Hey, that's okay. Asking questions is okay. It's okay to even be skeptical. Even one of Jesus' own followers, Thomas, we call him doubting Thomas, right? I don't think he was a doubter. I just think he was skeptical.

I think he was maybe a little cynical, honestly. He didn't believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. And Thomas actually said, hey, if I put my hand in his side, then I'll believe, right? I'll put my hand in the side of his wound, in the side of his ribs.

That's when I'll believe. Well, one day Jesus appeared and Thomas was there. And Jesus walks over. He says, hey, Thomas, stick your finger right here, buddy.

What do you think? And Thomas responded very appropriately when he was confronted with evidence. He said, my Lord and my God.

My God, listen, if you're looking for proof, you need to look no further than the person standing before you right now. I can't tell you how far I was from God just a few years ago. I was raised in the church, kind of an understatement. My dad's Pastor Greg Laurie, big deal, right? I was raised in the church.

And you know what? I always believed in Jesus, but around 16 years old, I decided I was gonna run from God. I was gonna turn from him and I was gonna go into pretty much everything the world had to offer. And what happened, I found everything the world had to offer. And what did it offer me?

Emptiness, depression, guilt, shame, loneliness. I found this world to be lacking. And I found myself in a downward spiral, unable to break free from it. And I was about 22 years old.

I had a conversation with my older brother where we were driving home from church one day and he actually asked me, he said, Jonathan, what's it gonna take for you to put your faith in Christ? And again, I was pretty miserable. I was trying to get free from this at this point. At this point, I was actually in pursuit of God, but I couldn't get there. My addictions and my habits and my friend group that was around me was all holding me back. It was so hard to break free. But his question that he asked me, he said, what's it gonna take for you to give your life to Christ? And I don't remember what my answer was, but I know that it stuck in my mind because I couldn't stop thinking about it.

What's it gonna take to give your life to Christ? Well, one day I was at work and I heard the tragic news that my older brother Christopher, when he was on his way to church where he worked at the time, was killed in a car accident. And all I could think about was my brother, the person that I was honest with, was now gone from this world.

And I was heartbroken and I was devastated. And in that moment, I decided I was going to turn from those things and I was really going to ask God to invade my life. And I took some practical steps to get right with him and also to be free from those addictions.

And I'll tell you today, that was 2008 and here we are almost 13 years later to the day. And I can tell you, God has freed me from those things. He has made me a new creation. He has given me a beautiful family and a wife and a ministry and a love for God's word.

I'm happier than I've ever been. He's done more for me than I could ever imagine. And it's not because, oh, he's made me so rich and give me all the things and a beautiful wife and family and this and this. No, listen, God freed me from my sin. That's the greatest thing that he did.

Everything else, it's just gravy. It's just blessings on top of blessings at this point. Listen, God can do the same thing for you. He can free you from your sin.

He can forgive you for the things that you've done. All you have to do is turn to him and recognize him as the savior that he came to be. He didn't come to just add a little spring in your step and get you that front row parking spot at the mall when you pull up and make your life a little bit easier. No, Jesus came to make you alive again. You're dead in your sin right now, cut off from God. He came to restore you back to life, just like you did with Lazarus. Lazarus, come forth, is what Jesus said.

He's saying to you, friend, come home, come to me, come give me your burdens, come give me your guilt and your shame. I will take it from you and I will give you rest. Jesus can do that for you today. He's offering it to you right now.

Would you like to put your faith in him? It's very simple. All you have to do is call upon his name, ask him to come into your life, believe in your heart and turn from your sin and you'll be saved. It's very simple. It's very simple and he can do it for you, just like he's done it for me.

Hey, if he can do it for me, he can do it for you. And so if you'd like to put your faith in Christ right now, I'd like to lead you in a prayer. I'd like to lead you in a prayer.

It's really simple. You just pray this prayer in your heart, pray it out loud. Maybe you're in your car, maybe you're in your front room, maybe you're sitting next to your family right now and something I've said has spoken to you. Friend, that's not me, that's the Holy Spirit speaking to you. And so listen, if you'd like to put your faith in Christ today, pray this prayer after me.

Pray this now. Dear God, I know I'm a sinner, but I know Jesus is the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. And so I turn from my sin now and I turn to Jesus from this moment forward. Thank you, God, for loving me and for forgiving me. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen.