016 - Donkeys and Deity

When you pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?

Is there something here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink.

Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages. Welcome to More Than Ink. Hey, we've just survived a national election. It has been one crazy season with people saying one thing and doing another.

Absolutely crazy. Truth and untruth and accusations. But you know what? I'm glad that we have a real king instead. I'm glad we have a king who claimed that he was sovereign, who came in on a donkey to prove it today on More Than Ink. Hi, good morning.

Welcome to More Than Ink. We're sitting here at our dining room table on this beautiful fall morning. I'm Dorothy. And I'm Jim, and we're glad you've joined us again. We are exploring our way through the Gospel of John, and we've been having a great time, just a wonderful time. And today we get to a big juncture in the entire narrative that John gives to us. And if you remember last time we were together, we looked at the remarkable story of the raising of Lazarus, just remarkable story of that, how that caused such a hue and cry about who Jesus was.

And Jesus says, through this I'm glorifying who God is. And then when we start today into chapter 12, we're actually back in the living room of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. At the beginning of the chapter, yeah. At the beginning of the chapter. We're back in their house there in Bethany, and it's just about six days before the Passover. Mary does a wonderful thing at the beginning of this chapter. We're not going to read it, but we trust you've read that already, where she goes to Jesus' feet and anoints his feet with this wonderful perfume and then wipes it off with her hair.

It's really cool. And then Judas gets a little miffed that the money wasn't donated. It's almost an entire year's labor for a laborer.

It was really costly. And go read it yourself. That's in those first 10 or so verses of John 12. And then right after that, John includes for us in the narrative that at that point, the Jews decided it was time to kill Lazarus. Because people were also interested in him. We find out just a little while into the chapter that people had gathered to come just to get a good look at Lazarus because they could hardly believe that this is the guy who had been rotting in the tomb. Exactly. So word has gone out through the entire area, and now Passover has happened.

It's pretty sensational. People are coming into town, and it's a really big deal. Passover hadn't happened yet.

Not yet. They were gathering in anticipation of it. But they're gathering. We're six days before, but in coming they're saying, you know what? We might see Jesus when we're there, and we might see Lazarus.

So that was what was going on when we started into this. But we're going to start today in verse 12, and we're going to talk about the fact that Jesus did, he fulfilled some prophecy that was spoken five and a half centuries before in a way in such an unmistakable way that he makes a claim to the kingship of Israel. So you want to start reading for us in verse 12?

Okay, in verse 12. Now the next day, this is the day after that anointing by Mary. The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, so they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. Okay, let's stop there, because they're singing Psalm 118, which is one of the psalms of ascent, and it's one of the songs that they would customarily sing at Passover as they're going up to Jerusalem.

So this is kind of like, you know, we have Christmas carols that we sing every year, and they start kind of ringing in your head at the right time of year. But here they are hearing that Jesus has done all these amazing things and he's coming up to the feast, and they're singing this song that they were going to be singing anyway, and suddenly the peg drops in the hole. Oh, this is the king of Israel, and here he comes. Right. So verse 14. And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it's written, Fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. I don't know that we want to spend a lot of time talking about that today.

You can dig into that on your own. That is a quote from Zechariah. Zechariah 9, specifically. His disciple.

Oh, go ahead. And just to say too, that was written five and a half centuries before Jesus. And the context of it is the people returning to Israel from captivity, and God himself saying, I desire to live in your midst. And so this is what's going to happen. And we're going to come in a particular way. That's right.

So this is unmistakable. And by the way, I might mention before you push on, this whole triumphal entry story, there are parallel passages in the other gospels. It's like one of the, it's a great study tip as we're talking about how to study.

I mean, you'll find this in Matthew 21 and in Mark 11 and in Luke 19. So, you know, as we're looking at this, go back and see what they say as well, because they fill in different details. There's lots of interesting details. And the contrast of those is great. So that's a great study technique. Look for the parallel passages.

And this one is easy to find. It's in all four gospels. So let's move on and see what happens. So they're all just coming into Jerusalem, coming into the city in this big parade in verse 16. His disciples didn't understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. So, you know, they're just in the moment. They're just celebrating, hey, look at, you know, we've seen Jesus do all this amazing stuff.

And here we come into the city. Verse 17, the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. So these are the people that lived right there. Bethany was only a couple miles away. They were probably the mourners at Lazarus' death.

Okay. So this is the reason why the crowd went out to meet him was that they heard that he'd done this sign. So they had been telling people about what he had just done not very long before. So the Pharisees said to one another, you see, you're gaining nothing.

Look, the whole world has gone after him. They are really still pretty disturbed by what Jesus is doing. And, you know, that's sort of the end of the whole triumphal entry story. It's much longer than the other gospels. But make no mistake that when Jesus deliberately decided to come in riding on this donkey's colt, he was making not only an unmistakable claim to being the Messiah King of Israel, unmistakable claim, but also a very visual claim. So people could actually look out from the city, from the temple courtyards, look across the Kidron Valley over to the Mount of Olives where Jesus is coming down on this colt and they could see.

They didn't even have to hear him. They could see he was making the proclamation. And this is a very deliberate act on Jesus' part, knowing that the time had come. And so he rides in this parade of people deliberately on a donkey's colt, which is a humble servant's place, not a conqueror. Not a subtle message about his kingship.

He is being in their face. And in fact, it's kind of fun if you read the other gospels. At one point the Pharisees tell Jesus to kind of quiet his disciples because they're sort of going over the top, Jesus.

Are they going over the top? And Jesus says, well, look, if I shut them down, then the stones themselves will cry out. So this has just got to happen today.

This will happen today. So read those other gospels. It's really fascinating. But after this spectacle of coming into town, and there are a lot of people in town from all over, the Jewish, Jews that lived everywhere, including some Greeks. Well, because this is one of the three holidays that Jewish men, especially, were required to go to Jerusalem if at all they could. So there were thousands and thousands of people in Jerusalem at the Passover.

Yeah, everyone's there. So some Greek guys come to him and figure this is our big chance. So let me read what happens in verse 20. So among those who went up to worship at the feast, Passover, were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, sir, we wish to see Jesus.

It's like coming into town saying, since we're here, can we see Jesus? So Philip went and told Andrew. Andrew and Philip went and they told Jesus. And Jesus answered them. Now, this is interesting.

We're going to read what he answers. But they didn't ask anything yet. They just wanted to see Jesus. And this is what Jesus says in response to that request. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Hold on to that glory thing. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. So whoever loves his life loses it. Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. And if anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where I am, there will my servant be also.

If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. So in the response to the Greeks wanting to talk to Jesus, Jesus really unloads a big piece of theology here. I mean, what do you see in this?

There's just tons of stuff here. Oh my gosh. Well, he says now, and this is the very hour that the Son of Man is to be glorified. And remember before Jesus said, it's not my hour? Right. But he says, now this is the hour.

But now it is. Now is the time. So this is the point he's been waiting for. Now is the time, he says, the Son of Man is going to be glorified. Remember we said last week, glory, to be glorified is to be recognized for who you really are. And make it known.

And make it known to shine that out. And then he immediately begins to talk about dying. Dying? A grain of wheat falling into the earth and dying. And if it dies, it bears much fruit. Dying?

Why? When these Gentiles, these Greeks come from far away and say, you know, this guy is clearly being proclaimed as the King of Jews, the Messiah. We want to see him too. Isn't this the beginning of a big kingdom? You know, the Old Testament had said, Messiah is coming. He's coming through the Jews and from the Jews, but not just for the Jews. He's coming for everyone. And these Greeks believed that.

They said, we want to see him too. Yeah, because remember at the end of the last chapter, Jesus says, this is not for this nation only, but also to gather into one, the children of God who are scattered abroad. Right.

So we're talking to Gentiles as well. Right. Yeah.

So now he gets, you know, I might mention as well, he always uses illustrations. People understand and they know about taking a seed, which you could eat. Right. Or you could plant. Right.

But if you plant it and you let it die in the dirt, then you'll get much more in return. And so he's using an illustration they all get and they understand this. And that's why with that understanding in verse 25, he says, so in a way, you know, whoever loves his life loses it. You got to lose. You have to die. And who hates his life in this world will keep it eternal.

I might just point out really quickly. It's another, that's kind of an intermediate to advanced study technique about doing word studies. But in that line in verse 25, the word life is used three times and it's a different word in the Greek. The first two, you know, who loves his life loses it.

And the second one about hates his life in this world. That word really means the invisible part of what makes your body work. Many times it's translated soul.

It's kind of the inner workings of who you are as a physical human being, but you can't see it. But then when he gets to this eternal life, that word is a completely different word, which really means big and vibrant life. So remember when Jesus was the good shepherd brings us life, that's it right there.

So he's really talking. In fact, the first word comes from the word to breathe. So in a sense, he's saying whoever loves his breath loses it.

Oh, see, and whoever hates his breath in this world will keep it for eternal big living. So again, he's drawing the distinction between the temporal life here and now in this body and the eternal life, which is an entirely different realm. Two different things. So he's not talking about trading one thing for another thing in 25. I mean the same thing.

He's talking about swapping something that's temporary for something that's gigantic. That is the actual essential core element of life itself. Right.

And that's the swap. Life in reality. Life in reality.

I mean real life. Yeah. So you wouldn't, in fact, if you have a daughter named Zoe. Oh, that's what I was just going to ask you.

Is that Zoe? Okay. But it's big life. So that's the Greek word that talks about this fundamental principle of life. So that's what's fun about doing some word studies.

Or, you know, you can get Vines Expository Dictionary. They'll tell you that as well. So there's really, he's talking about swapping something that's temporal. It's the invisible you for now that animates your body now.

But you know what? If you swap that out, if you're willing to let that go in the temporary, what comes to you is big time life in the permanent. That's what he's saying. Eternal. Eternal life.

Above and beyond this life. Exactly. And then he says a very ominous thing. If you're my servant, then you have to follow me there. And if you're listening closely, you know that the seed has to die. So that's kind of giving up the here and now temporary breath. It's like someone says, are you living or are you just breathing? You know, there's a distinction he's making. If you want real life, abundant life, then you're going to have to follow me.

You're going to have to let your holding on this life die. Okay. And there was this huge expectation that he was going to be proclaimed king. Right. The political system was going to change. Boy, is this timely.

No kidding. The political system was going to change when Jesus came into Jerusalem this time. That's what people were expecting. He says it's not about that at all. This is about life and death. So he resets their expectation when we get into verse 27 about what's really going to happen now. We're not going in and starting a kingdom where something much different is happening.

You're going to read that? Oh yes. Now is my soul troubled.

Listen to the emotion here. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. So here's Jesus praying in the hearing of these people for God to be recognized in reality and what is going to unfold.

Let people know who you are from what's going to happen. Right. And he has in mind his death, the cross. Then a voice came from heaven. This is verse 28.

I have glorified it and I will glorify it again. The crowd that stood there and heard it said it had thundered. And others said an angel had spoken to him. And Jesus answered, this voice has come for your sake, not mine.

So that's interesting because everybody in the crowd recognized something had happened. They heard something, they felt something, but not everybody heard the meaning of what the Father had said. But Jesus says, God's not talking to me.

He's talking to you. I have glorified it. In other words, I've sent my son. My glory has walked among you in the flesh and I will glorify it again still in a bigger, more amazing way. Yeah.

Yeah. We are really going to unfold the nature of who God is, see what's going to happen next in the narrative. So verse 31, now's the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I'm lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.

Does that lifted up ring any bells? Oh, it's the cross. John says, he says this in verse 33, he said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. So the crowd answered him, we've heard from the law that the Christ must remain forever. So how can you say that the son of man must be lifted up? See, they all understand he's talking about dying, right?

So they said, well, how can he supposed to last forever? He's going to take the throne of David and it's going to be eternal kingdom. Well, and by the way, you know, before we pass too far past it, that lifted up thing, Jesus, if you've been taking notes, you're probably rifling through your notes and saying, where did I hear this before in John? You know, well, John eight, you heard it. And with Nicodemus and John three, you heard it.

Just like the bronze serpent was lifted on the pole. And so here it's going to happen. It's going to happen within the next few days. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Keep going from there. So Jesus said in verse 35, the light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in darkness doesn't know where he's going. While you have the light, believe in the light that you may become sons of light. Right now, why this detour into the light thing? That's amazing.

Yeah. But you know what I always tell people, you've got to go back to your experience camping. If you want to understand how they think about light, because when you go camping, you know, you know, you get up in the middle of the night chapter of the bathroom. Do you, do you leave your tent and go across the campground to the potty without a flashlight? No, because what do you do?

You'll stub your toe on everything that's in the forest. So without light, you're ignorant about the way things really are. And that's light and darkness for them. So Jesus is saying, look, while you've got the light, you can understand how things really are.

Okay. And remember that this is happening in direct response to the Gentiles coming and asking to see him. And Isaiah nine had said, talking about the Gentiles, the people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. That's Isaiah nine, two. So Jesus again is saying, Hey, the Gentiles are even coming to seek me. They are recognizing that there's light here.

You Jews walk while you have the light. Yeah. Yeah.

So leave while I'm here speaking to you. That's right. Who you know, they're asking who is the son of man, right? They asked who the son of man. He says, look, you've got the light right now.

So why is that? In fact, he's not evading the question because he'll actually answer the question straight up at the end of this chapter. And he's also addressed it. Oh, Hey, look in my notes. If you go back in your John notes, you'll see it back in, it was in, in John 11. It was back in John nine is back in John eight in John three. And at the very outset of the book, John says in him was life.

That's the Zola life. He's in him was life. And the life was the light of man. So if you're aiming at real life and you want to know how, you know, how, what's the big picture that you can see in the light, go to Jesus. He's that light to tell you. So Jesus is trying to say right here, you know, if you want to know who the son of man is, uh, listen and while you've got light, watch while you've got light.

I'm that light. So keep noting. And one of the things we see happening in this chapter is how different groups of people were responding to Jesus, right?

Right. We've seen there were crowds of people, uh, claiming him. Uh, we're going to see in a minute, there were people who were believing in secret. There were those who were there just to see the next sensational thing. There were foreigners coming saying, we got to see what's happening here.

And so the question is interesting. Everyone had an opinion about who Jesus was, right? It wasn't a non issue, right? Just like we can have famous.

We just came to pass the last election. Everyone has an opinion, right? And when it came to Jesus at this Passover, everyone had an opinion, right? So who do the people say Jesus is, how do people respond to Jesus? So, you know, the question you might be working on in yourself as you're reading through this chapter is who do I say Jesus is? How do I respond?

Which one of these groups do I identify with? Am I just a looky loo? Am I just looking for the next sensational thing? Do I really believe? And as you've been witness to the glory of God that is making known his character, you know, and his love for us and what he'll do on our behalf, is that convincing you that this God is someone who's worth pursuing? Because that's what Jesus is trying to communicate through all these things.

Here's this God who loves you and in a second we'll see who's willing to die on your behalf and who weeps with you in tragedy. Right. So we see that in the Gospel now in chapter 12, John cites for us a whole bunch of references from Isaiah. We're not going to spend a lot of time with those.

You can track those down yourself. But what's interesting to me is down in verse 41, he says, now Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. Nevertheless, many of the authorities believed in him but for fear of the Pharisees they didn't confess it.

So this is the second group of people who weren't publicly proclaiming him but were believing in secret because they were afraid of the social pressure of being put out of the synagogue. And verse 43, for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. They loved the recognition they were getting from the religious establishment and from the world more than they loved the king whom God himself had sent. Even though they had all the evidence they needed. That's what John is saying right here.

They had all the evidence they needed. They believed in him but they could not admit it publicly. And this is the whole reason that John wrote the Gospel so that people would believe. He says in John 20, 31, these things have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing you may have life in his name. So as this chapter comes to an end, we need to read these last few verses from 44 to 45.

Each one of these statements is just astonishing in itself but taken together the weight of them is tremendous. Do you believe? Yeah and John closes out the public visibility of Jesus with these words before he goes up to the upper room in the next chapter. So 44, Jesus cried out and said, whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me and whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I don't judge him for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge and the word that I've spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority but the father who sent me has himself given me a commandment what to say and what to speak and I know that his commandment is eternal life.

What I say therefore I say as the father has told me. Oh my gosh. Wow. So let me just restate these. He just said belief in Jesus equals belief in God.

Yeah. If you've seen Jesus you've seen God. He says I'm coming as light don't stay in the dark. I came to save not to judge. My word is what will judge you. What I have said is what will judge you at the last day. He says my words are God's words and my words are eternal life. That's a pretty tight identity with the father.

Oh my gosh. Yeah. If you only have these five or six verses.

He's not holding back at all here. No and the question is who do you say this man is. Right. Is he God in the flesh as John has told us from the beginning of the gospel. Right and you know he says at the very end he says you know this is his commandment is eternal life. In a sense it's like he's saying you know the father told me to come here as the son and my commandment the commandment to me is eternal life.

Bring him life and that's the point of the entire thing. And you don't get it any other way than through the death and resurrection of the only one God sent. Exactly and this light of the world.

This light is illuminating for us. It's enlightening us to what God's plan for us is in this one because if you want life he's the light of men. He's the one that will show you the way and explain to you what God has in store for you and Jesus is central to God's purpose to bring life and to bring it abundantly through this great shepherd. And at this point there's a turning point in John's gospel where chapter 13 we are suddenly in the upper room. The last one third of this book all pertained to that last night leading into the cross and then going through the resurrection. Yeah and it's a very special very intimate time with Jesus and his followers and we're going to get to that. We're going to take a small departure away from that as we continue our weekly broadcasts.

We're coming up to thanksgiving so we're going to talk about thanksgiving a little bit for the next couple weeks. But read ahead in like John 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. It's a whole one piece. They all happen in this room very very intimate and you see a picture you see a side of Jesus that John alone tells us about and it's just it's touching it's intimate it's just it's amazing. And he says some things to the 12 and to the other people who were probably also there.

There were also probably some women and a handful of others. But he says some things to them that kind of add one more layer of depth to the things he's been saying all along. Yeah and they're astonishing many of them.

I mean well they're all. Well we'll get there we'll get there. We'll get there. But what we want to leave you with at this time is is this question who do you say Jesus is? This is what John's been working on. That's what John's been working on.

Yep yep. And has he glorified himself to such a degree that you understand the nature of God in a different and more and more meaningful way than you ever have before even through the very simple actions of healing a blind man and raising a dead man. What do you understand about who God is? Are you seeing the glory of God and recognizing his essential nature who he really is as revealed in Jesus. Yeah and it's these events as I read them as an early believer that just made me fall in love with Jesus.

And especially what comes up in the next couple chapters. Well listen next time we're going to talk a little bit about Thanksgiving. And Thanksgiving is an easy topic but it's a hard topic when you talk about how can I be thankful when the circumstances are not what I agree with. How am I thankful in hard times? Can you be thankful for the recent election if you actually lost? Well and 2020 right?

2020 is going to be the butt of the jokes for the next generation. How can we be thankful? So is it possible to be thankful? Not just well you ought to be thankful and we shrug our shoulders and say I don't know how but you actually can genuinely be thankful in the midst of horrible circumstances. So how are you thankful in tough times?

That's what we're going to look at next time. So think through that and if you want read ahead in John but that's what we're going to look at next time as we take a breather from John. So thanks for joining us today. We're thankful for you.

We're thankful for you too and we're thankful for God's word. We'll see you next week on More Than Ink. More Than Ink is a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City and is solely responsible for its content. To contact us with your questions or comments just go to our website morethanink.org. Where are we going with that? More Than Ink is a production of Brigham City and is solely responsible for its content.