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(upbeat music) - Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions. We're in day three of
our look through John chapter 12 verses 12 to 19 today. As we jump into these
verses, we are beginning our look at the final week of Jesus' life.

So let me just briefly walk you through what happens in this final week of
Jesus' life, Sunday to Sunday. On Sunday, we're going to look at this today, there
is the triumphal entry. There is the healing in the temple.

On Monday, there is the cleansing of the temple. On Tuesday of this final week,
there's some Greeks that want to see Jesus. There's a teaching with the people,
the confrontation with the Pharisees at the temple.

There's a teaching about the second coming on the Mount of Olives. A lot of
teaching on that Tuesday. On Wednesday, well, it's sort of a silent day.

We don't know all that happened on Wednesday of that final week. I'm sure Jesus
was preparing his heart for what would happen the next several days, few days.
And then on Thursday, you have the Passover meal and the Lord's Supper.

On Thursday, Jesus is arrested in the evening at the nighttime. And then Friday,
beginning early in the morning, Jesus' trials and then leading to Jesus'
crucifixion and Jesus' burial. Good Friday.

And then Saturday, Jesus' body is in the tomb. And then Sunday is the
resurrection. That's what we're going to walk through together in this last half of
the book of John.

As we've seen, John is focusing in and in and in on this moment in Jesus' life.
In fact, even as we walk through the last part of Jesus' life, he's going to focus
more on the last part of this week than the early part of this week. From the
early part of the last week of Jesus' life, John focuses on two events.

He focuses on the triumphal entry and on the request of the Greeks to meet with
Jesus. The next few days, we're going to walk together through these events. And as
we do that, we're going to learn from Jesus.

Even as he's facing death, he is teaching us about real life. He teaches us
about real life and what happens in what's come to be called the triumphal
entry. Listen to what happened in verses 12 to 19.

The next day, the great crowd that had come for the feast heard that Jesus was
on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him,
shouting, "Hosanna! "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

"Blessed is the King of Israel. " Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it. As
it is written, "Do not be afraid, oh daughter of Zion.

"See, your King is coming seated on a donkey's colt. " At first, his disciples
did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize
that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things
to him.

Now, the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised
him from the dead continued to spread the word. Many people, because they'd
heard, they'd given this miraculous sign, went out to meet him. And so the
Pharisees said to one another, see, this is getting us nowhere.

Now, look, the whole world has gone after him. I want you to notice as we walk
back through those verses, notice the crowd, notice the disciples, notice the
leaders, notice Jesus. First, notice the crowd.

And they're at the same place they were yesterday when we were looking at the
crowd. They were after the moment of excitement. Here they are with palm
branches and waving them and shouting, "Hosanna!

" and "Blessed is the King! " The scene shifts here from the quiet dinner at
Bethany that began the chapter to this noisy public parade in Jerusalem. This is
the only public demonstration, by the way, that Jesus participated in that
honored him.

And we're going to see at the end of this look today the way that he
participated in inviting something to happen in our lives. This was the public
demonstration that really forced the hand of the Jewish leaders. Remember, they
were terrified that the Romans would come in and because people were following,
Jesus would say, "Well, you've got some other leader than Caesar, you're
obviously having public riots of some kind, so we're going to shut down you as
leaders and we're going to come in and we're going to be under control.

" And here's this crowd shouting out, "Hosanna! " which means save us now. It
was a quotation from Psalm 18.

It was part of the first memory work that every Jewish boy had to do. It was an
integral part of the celebration of the Passover. It was sung at the Feast of
Tabernacles, a familiar phrase.

It was a Psalm that was sung to conquerors and they're welcoming Jesus as a
conqueror. They want him to be king. They want him to overwhelm and overcome the
Romans so that these oppressors are away from them.

What they wanted was for Jesus to make their lives easier. They were looking for
someone to make their lives easier and Jesus disappointed them. He didn't do
what they expected.

Now, he made their lives incredibly better in that he offered them eternal life,
but he didn't instantly make their lives easier. They learned a lot about life
from Jesus in these verses. The way he responded to the crowd, the way he
responded to the disciples.

Remember, we just read the disciples, they didn't understand what was happening.
The crowd was looking for someone to make their lives easier. The disciples,
they were looking for someone to follow and they didn't always understand what
to do.

This verse says, "At first, they didn't understand. " Just remember, part of
following is learning to follow. I don't know if you know this, the word
disciple literally means learner.

It means I'm learning from Jesus Christ. Well, if I'm still learning from him,
that means there's still some things I don't understand. I've gotta learn it
from him.

You see, disciples, if you want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, a learner, a
follower of Jesus Christ, remember this, disciples are confident of Jesus' love,
but they're sometimes confused about life because we miss the obvious. This
should have been an obvious, obvious prophecy that was fulfilled by Jesus. He's
riding in on a cult, like it said in the Bible, but they didn't understand it.

You see, for a disciple, the words, "I don't understand," and then later, "Oh,
now I understand," those are the words of a follower of Jesus. If you keep
following him, you will understand more and more. The leaders, leaders in this
crowd are still saying they're getting nowhere.

Their strategy to stop people from believing in Jesus, it is not working,
obviously. Here's the whole crowd worshiping Jesus. The crowd was looking for
someone to make their lives easier.

The disciples were looking for someone to follow. These leaders, they're looking
for someone to blame. Things are not working out as they want it to, and they
want to blame someone.

That is the worst kind of leadership. And then, in the midst of all of these
competing voices, all of these differing opinions of Jesus, in the midst of it,
you have Jesus, humbly riding a donkey. He is the figure, right in the middle of
all of this, that brings the light of clarity and truth.

Riding a donkey, a horse was for war, a donkey was ridden for peace. You see,
Jesus is the King of Kings, and he is the Prince of Peace. The people's ambition
that day was that Jesus would ride in Jerusalem on a horse, triumphantly, and
oust the Roman Empire.

But God's will, God's will was that he would ride in on a donkey, obediently.
Obedient to God's prophecy in Zechariah 9. 9, that's repeated here, obedient
towards the cross.

This is an incredible moment in the crowd that day, when Jesus rides in on this
donkey. But it can also be an incredible moment in my life, in your life, when
Jesus is seen riding in on this donkey. You see, Jesus on a donkey invites the
crowd to take an honest look at their selfish excitement.

Jesus riding in on a donkey invites the disciples to take an honest look at
their confusion, and eventually clears up some confusion. Jesus on a donkey
invites the leaders to take an honest look at their blame. Jesus riding in on a
donkey invites you, invites me to take an honest look at ourselves.

You see, Jesus has an amazing way of putting things in perspective. In the midst
of the confused, the competing, the jealous, the excited crowd, Jesus rides in
on a donkey. And as we take some time to pray today, I want to invite you, in a
spirit of prayer, to think of your own life, to think of a situation that has
you bothered, that has you excited, that has you angry, that has you confused.

Think of your own life in terms of what happened in this day, in this moment.
And this may seem strange at first, but in a spirit of prayer, as you picture
that which has you bothered, or angry, or excited, or confused, also picture
Jesus Christ riding in on a donkey, humbly, obediently, steadily doing the will
of God. Picture Jesus Christ bringing a new perspective into your life, the
perspective of peace, the perspective of God's will, the perspective of the
cross, the perspective of His love for you.

You see, there are times in my life, there are times in your life when we need
to picture Jesus right there and know that He understands, and that He has a
plan, even when I don't understand. And when Jesus rode into the crowd that day
on a donkey, He was showing them that He knew, He understood what He was about.
Let Him show you today that He knows and He understands what He is about, and
that He knows and He understands what His plan is about in your life.

And just say, Father, those places where I'm bothered bring me peace. Where I'm
angry, give me comfort. Where I'm excited, give me the perspective of following
You.

Where I'm confused, give me the heart to know that I will learn from You. I give
it to You, Jesus, because I know I can trust in You. In Your name, I trust You.

Amen.