Good morning friends. Welcome on this beautiful Palm Sunday Day. If you’re visiting, my name’s Alex, one of the pastors here. Great to have you here today. You’re joining us on a week where we just finished a series on the book of Revelation. And so now I’m gonna invite you to stand with me and if you have a text to open it to Revelation chapter 19, verse 11.

Then I saw Heaven opened and there was a white horse. Its Rider is called Faithful and True, and he judges and makes war with justice. His eyes were like a fiery flame and many crowns were on his head. He had a name written that no one knows accept himself. He wore a robe dripped in blood, and his name is called The Word.

Of God, the armies that were in heaven followed him on white horses wearing pure white linen. A sharp sword came from his mouth so that he might strike the nations with it. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will trample the wine press of the fierce anger of God the Almighty. And he has a name written on his robe and on his thigh, king of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Jesus. As we are open the scriptures today, as we look at a couple of different verses, passages intention with each other as we try to learn who you are. In more depth knowing that we will never come to the end of who you are. Help us to take what we need to take to leave. What is just the fluff?

God may the meditations of my heart, the words of my mouth be pleasing to you. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Feel free to take a seat. Couple of goals for this morning. We’re gonna hold a couple of passages intention together, the one we just read and the Palm Sunday passages that you just heard read beautifully by some of our kids in the kids’ ministry.

What I hope that you take from this at the end is I hope that what you hear. And it may take us a while to get there. We will help you build a framework for what it is to follow in the way of Jesus in each and every moment of your life. I’d love you to walk away with a couple of things that will help you say, when there’s a decision to be made, this is how I hope to make it.

Perhaps some of you have enjoyed as I have enjoyed Robert Frost’s famous poem. Many of you all know it, many of you will have used it to perhaps help you make a decision at some point. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and, sorry, I could not travel both and be one traveler long. I stood and looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth, then took the other just as fair and having perhaps the better clean because it was grassy and wanted wear, though it for that passing there had warned them really about the scene.

And both that morning equally lay in leaves, no stepper, trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day. Yet knowing how way leads onto way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I should be telling this with a sigh somewhere, ages and ages. Hence, two roads diverged in a wooden eye. I took the one less traveled by.

And that has made all the difference. It’s a beautiful poem on the surface. It invites us into what it is to be presented by a need to make a decision in life. But the story has a story behind it, just kinda lying there. Frost wroted for a friend. Who never seemed to be able to come to a decision who got stuck in a place of inde decisiveness, and simply couldn’t take a course of action.

While the poem seems to be inviting, the poem seems to be the joy, perhaps, of a morning walk, it’s actually a poem making a pointed comment about not being able to make a decision and not having a framework to be able to make one with. Perhaps when we hear the current narrative, the cultural moment, and how it might inspire us to make decisions pre, perhaps we hear something like this, we will just go with your heart.

I. Listen, listen to what your heart says that phrase seems to have a history all the way back to Shakespeare, to Hamlet. Polonia says to his son, ed is to thine own self be true. There’s may be a history there that’s led to statements like this. Actually found this saying this sign in a church bookshop, which seemed an odd place for it to be.

Believe in yourself. I don’t know if that’s the church’s message. I don’t think it’s our message, but and maybe the highlighted words there be you some, somewhere. There’s this idea of yes, follow your heart. Yes, be yourself, but that can lead to some slightly dangerous places. I’ve told you before about the adventures that we have with our 2-year-old who is the youngest of our four kids.

Definitely the hardest work, I think of our four kids and he has developed a crush. I’m one of the neighborhood girls. He’s two she’s 10. She’s. Friends with my sister and and just the other day out of a strange kind of like series of events, we found him outside of their front door yelling at the top of his voice.

Angie. Angie, I need Angie. He was, if you’ve seen streetcar name, desire, it was like this weird twist of Stella, like just very odd. Following your heart can lead you apparently when you’re two in your diaper and nothing else across the side of the road. Yelling for the neighborhood gum. My wife wanted me to tell you that she was awake during the weekend when it happened,

although she was actually back when that happened. So e equally culpable, I think. Here’s the struggle with that. When we think about we can’t follow our heart, it leaves maybe this question that floats, if not our hearts. What? What are we following? I. And I think this Palm Sunday story as we get to it, as we get behind the tensions between the two passages we read, actually gives us this fascinating framework for what it is to find direction in the midst of some complicated situations.

The Revelation 19 text threw in. ’cause it’s just a fascinating juxtaposition of the two in the revelation story. It’s like this conclusion where Jesus rides in on a white horse. The rider is called faithful and true. If you’ve seen cowboy movies where the cowboy on the white horse rides in at the last minute, if you’ve seen the Lord of the Rings, Gandalf, the white rider coming down from the hills at dawn on the fifth day or whatever it is, they all have a background.

And it’s this moment right here. They’re not new ideas. This is where it comes from the idea that somewhere something will intervene in history and change the course of events with justice. He judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire and on his head on many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows, but he himself, he’s dressed in a robe, dipped in blood and his name is the word.

Of God in Revelation, Jesus returns as the king on a white horse. Rides in on as the king on a white horse. As we move on to verses 11 and 12, we read, I saw Heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse who’s, oh, sorry, that repeated. The armies of heaven were following him. Riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.

Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. He will rule them with that. I, in scepter, he treads the wine press of the fury, of the wrath of God Almighty on his robe, but on his thigh, he has his name written, king of Kings and Lord of Lords. On one hand, it’s like a scene of war, but actually look at what’s happening under the surface and what do we actually see?

It’s not a war. Jesus rides in a robe covered in blood before he meets an enemy. Before he meets opposition, he comes in riding robes that are covered in his own blood. He sacrifice and he doesn’t carry a weapon in literal terms. He carries a name, his own name. The conclusion of Revelation is this moment where Jesus kingship is based on just his name, his right to rule.

His ownership of this world as creator and as Redeemer, and he sacrifice his gift for us. This is how it concludes. Now, if you were to put this in front of a Greek audience, they’d see really quickly what looks like. This moment in Greek plays of the, this time the Day of Ex Mackinac, it’s this moment in a Greek tragedy where they needed to find a conclusion of the story.

And so what would happen during the play is there’d be a crane hidden behind the stage. And in the moment where the crisis reached its greatest point, they would lower in a figure, perhaps one of their pantheon of gods, perhaps just some kind of character that can bring the story to a conclusion. On the surface, that’s what this looks like, but it is not that be because in those moments a character with ultimate power moves in at the last minute to save the day, to create an easy end to the story.

But in this story. It’s a character who’s already entered into it, who has actually been the author of the story and in this beautiful moment steps down into this world to live this life who shares that life with his people and then comes back into it ultimately as this victorious king, this victorious ruler.

This is the revelation story. It’s wildly different. From the image that we’re working through on Palm Sunday, on the surface, there’s a few details that are the same. There’s Jesus, there’s an animal that he’s riding a upon, but the image that we’re given again, is just different, wildly different.

So let’s throw a moment, turn to this Palm Sunday one where we’re gonna spend most of our time. This is Matthew’s version. We just heard Luke’s version from the kids. If you’re following along, Matthew 21, verse one to three. As they approached Jerusalem and came to Beth Page on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey there with her cult by her.

A writer doesn’t tell us whether Jesus has had a previous arrangement with the owner of this donkey in his cult, but the fact that the author chooses to mention it suggests that this is some kind of like supernatural provision that we’re talking about here. Untie them, that donkey in the cult and bring them to me.

If anyone says anything to you, say. That the Lord needs them and he will send them right away. This is at least if not planned between Jesus and the owner of the donkey and the coal is planned in eternity past as this moment where Jesus will enter the city of Jerusalem. This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet, say to daughter Zion.

See your king comes to you gentle and riding on a donkey, on a cult, the fall of a donkey. Now, in a few moments, we’ll look at what Zechariah actually said, and as you’ll see, it’s just a little bit different. But for a moment, let’s take that just at face value. His disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them.

They brought back the donkey and the cult and placed their cloaks on them. For Jesus to sit on a very large crowd, spread their cloaks on the road while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. As Jesus comes across from the go, the mound of olives, the other side of a shore valley that leads to Jerusalem, a crowd comes with him.

The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed, shouted, Hosanna. To the son of David. David was a king in Israel’s history around a thousand years before this time. And they associate Jesus coming with the new rule of the house of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

They accept Jesus as one who is coming based on God’s call on his. God’s anointing of him. Hosanna in the highest heaven. This is just trying to look at this from a first century point of view when Jesus entered Jerusalem. The whole city was stirred. This is a throwback to the first part of Matthew when he’s born as a child.

It says that the whole city was stirred, the whole city was uncomfortable, and again, now we see this for the second time in Matthew’s narrative and asked, who is this? The crowds answered. This is Jesus the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. There’s a few background details that kind of make this event even richer when we read it’s just a beautiful moment where Jesus enters into the city.

But a couple of details that, that maybe help, this all takes place the week before Passover. So in amongst this kind of timeframe, the city of Jerusalem. As it was, is changing. According to some authors of the time, may maybe 200,000 people live in Jerusalem during the first century. The, there’s some estimates that say it was lower but during the festivals, the three big festivals of the year, that crowd would swell from about 200,000 to potentially about 2 million people.

People coming in from all sorts of places to celebrate the festival in Jerusalem. In Acts chapter two, after all of this story, after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, when the church begins, we read this verse. Now they’re staying in Jerusalem. God fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.

Same story, same like moment in their history. Right now, this crowd is swelling, so when it says there was a huge crowd following Jesus, this just gives you some perspective of how big those numbers could be. One of the things that would happen during that time when the crowd would swell is the sense of national pride would swell with it.

Imagine for a moment, a big cultural event in our own time period, like perhaps the 200 years celebration of the. The Nation of America. There’s maybe this swelling of national pride that comes with it, and that’s some of what you would see in this time as well. There’s this moment in this city where the excitement is heightened.

There’s a longing for. Freedom from the people that have governed over them for so long. The Romans have persecuted them down, trodden them, and now there’s this moment where the crowds are gathered and there’s just some inbuilt sense of this isn’t right, is it? We should be a free people, free to worship God.

Josephus, the historian from just after this period said on these festival occasion, it was on these festival occasions that sedition is most apt to break out. There’s this moment in time where it feels like something could and perhaps should happen. So as Jesus rides in, imagine this crowd with him and then perhaps ask in the midst of that, what is Jesus purpose?

What is he coming to do? There’s passages there that would suggest Jesus rides in as a king, he rides in to take rulership of the city. There’s moments throughout the history of the world, all sorts of different countries where something as startling as that has happened. I used to spend a lot of time in Haiti, and this is a guy called Faustine, an American who was asked to go and govern a part of Haiti, the island of.

Aviv and when he got there, he was told by some of his superiors, be careful. These people do not like the fact that we’re here. We’re having to collect taxes and so you will not be welcomed in. And was startled to find that he was welcomed in and instantly made King of Aviv. It just so happened that they’d had a king called Faustine the first, some 200 years before, and when he turned up and said, my name’s Faine, they had a prophecy that said that Faustine would come back.

And so they just took this white American guy in the 1920s and said, congratulations, king of this part of Haiti. Now, he didn’t go that well and he left sometime later. But it just gives you this window into how human expectations are around something changing. In our experience of this world, I is, that’s what happening there.

Tom writes, says this, within his own time and culture, Jesus riding on a donkey over the Mount of Olives, across the kidron and up to the temple Mount, spoke more powerfully than words could have done of a royal claim. There’s this moment where there’s an expectation that maybe this king, this kingdom of Israel can live again.

We can overthrow this powerful nation that is controlling us, seeking to destroy us, but then there’s other elements of the story that suggests something else might be in play. Does Jesus write in as a king or Jesus write? Does Jesus write in as a Passover lamb? It’s the time of year as we just said that all of Jerusalem would celebrate this moment of Passover.

This remembrance of what happened during the Exodus nearly 1500 years ago, that God freed them from slavery and they celebrated the moment of being freed from the possibility of death with this sacrifice of a lamb. And there’s much of this story that speaks to that too. Interestingly, when Zechariah, the passage we just saw a reference to when he spoke, he said this, rejoice greatly door to Zion.

Shout door to Jerusalem. See your king comes to you. To you, righteous and victorious, lowly, and riding on a donkey, on a cult, the fall of a donkey. And yet Matthew chose to cut out the righteous and victorious part. It doesn’t seem like he wants to emphasize Jesus victory over a human power. At least he wants to emphasize his loneliness, his humility.

In Exodus chapter 12, verse one to two, we read these words, the Lord said to Moses, in Aaron in Egypt, this is the month. This month is to be for you. The first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the 10th day of this month, the month was Gordon Nisan. On the 10th day of this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household, and then in verse six, take care of them.

Until the 14th day of the month when the Passover was celebrated, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight, then they had to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. We’re in this season of Passover that is talked about in Exodus chapter 12, and Jesus rides into Jerusalem.

And guess what? Day? 10th Ofan And the day that all of Israel selected a Passover lamb to sacrifice on Passover. Jesus rides into Jerusalem as a humble king and a donkey. Is he a king? Or does he come as a Passover lamb? Think about this period of history. Think about what we’re reading. What do you think the expectations and hopes of the different groups involved are?

What are the hopes of Jesus’ disciples? We already know some of them have ambitions of ruling alongside Jesus as an earthly king, or at least their mothers do. One of the mothers of one of the disciples came and said, please, in your kingdom can my two sons sit on your left and your right. We as people in the 21st century tend to think that means in some eternal heavenly rule, but no, to them it was simply when Jesus has a real kingdom on this earth.

When he overthrows the Romans, can they be kinda coru us with him? Can they sit in those places of authority? Certainly for some of the disciples, the expectation was this is the moment, right? We have a king. We’ll soon have a kingdom. This is an imminent victory. What are the fears and expectations, hopes of some of the religious rulers of the day who actually have it fairly good living under?

Roman rule. What do they want to see happen? There’s all sorts of people, all sorts of groups, all sorts of expectations in play here. Jesus’ decision in this moment represents a divergence. Let me explain that geographically for just a moment. As Jesus walks into Jerusalem, as he crosses the valley and comes up towards the city.

There’s this moment where he has a choice. There’s a road that leads left and it heads into the temple, and he gets to ride in through that door and he’ll become the Passover lamb. The story will follow the version that we have in scripture. Jesus. Jesus goes into the temple and he drives out the traders, and he teaches and there’s this moment where he’s forced the religious leaders are forced into this decision moment of what do we do about Jesus?

There’s another option. Instead of turning left, he can keep going. And he can head to the fortress, Antonio, the place where during festivals, the Roman garrisons were held where Pilate would stay for his own safety. In the year of Jesus birth, probably about four bc a Jewish leader had tried to overthrow Roman just this way.

He’d taken this fortress and he’d overthrown the Roman Garrison in charge. And the only way the Romans had survived during that time was to burn and down the walls of the fortress. There’s this moment where with this popular crowd swell with these potentially hundreds, if not thousands, if not tens of thousands of people cheering his name, where Jesus can just continue up the road and he can overthrow the Romans and there can be a nation of Israel again in this time where he can become an earthly king, where he can create a kingdom.

That no doubt would be good, better than anything that was there but not the thing. That we end up with this church of people redeemed by God of a, of saved, not just for a moment in time, but an eternity. Now, imagine yourself as a disciple of Jesus in this first century period, as the road comes up to the decision moment to the left or straight on to the movement towards becoming a Passover lamb and all that means for them and the persecution that they’ll come to experience.

Or this journey upwards to rulership, to, to certain victory, to a kingdom. In your time, what are you hoping for? What do you want? What sounds easier? What sounds better? If you’re like me, there’s a huge part of you that says. Just keep going. Just keep going. Jesus. We do all the things we’ve dreamed about as a nation for years.

We become a good nation under God. We create something in this world that has meaning and value. And imagine how your heart feels when you see Jesus not continue straight up to the fortress, but he heads left into the temple. There’s maybe a death of your dreams. There’s something happening that you can’t quite.

Fathom. The common term for a divergence is a fork in the road. And that’s exactly what this is. It’s a decision point. It’s a moment where it’s left or right and Jesus goes left when Jesus rides into Jerusalem. Eventually it ends in kingship. We read that in the Revelation story.

There’s this moment where he rides in his king of kings and Lord of Lords, but that moment. That goes through Calvary, as we just heard about it goes through torture and death, and ultimately to resurrection. When we make choices in life, ISI would suggest that a lot of the time when we talk about a phrase like follow your heart, we make it out of what feels like it might have the best outcome for me, what perhaps feels easiest, all of those sorts of different decisions.

And yet throughout history there have been people that have made decisions, not out of what feels easiest or best for me personally. But what do I feel like God is leading me to do in this particular moment? When we live like that, I would suggest on some small level we copy the way Jesus decided where his journey led him.

In moments like this decision that’s very clear in Jesus’ life that he has a choice. There’s the moment in the garden where he asks to be freed from the burden that has been placed upon him. There’s moments it seems, where he simply says, do you not think I could ask for 10,000 angels and my father wouldn’t free me from this responsibility?

Jesus enters into a choice I would suggest so often in life. He invites. Us to do the same as well. One of my favorite stories in history is is about this guy will told Piki he, he was a soldier in the Polish Army during World War ii. As far as we know in history, he’s the only person to volunteer to go to Auschwitz.

To the prison camp. There were rumors of what was happening in some of the prison camps. This idea that the German nation, as it was, had created death camps, but no one was. Sure. And so when the Nazis came into Poland, taking people off to these encampments, he volunteered to go. Could have easily hidden, could have escaped it, but he felt called by God specifically, to go and find out what was happening, to report back and to encourage those that found themselves in this situation.

This is a man who was presented with a fork in the road, one that would’ve been an easy yes for me, if I’m honest, and for most of us, and chose the opposite. When people wrote about him after his life, one man said this. When God made humans, he had wilt hold piki in mind. There was something about his character that resembles what we maybe should be and hope to be, but there’s maybe a story closer to this story that’s just as use useful.

Think for a moment about Matthew’s story, the author of this gospel. He has a story where Jesus has presented him with a choice. In Matthew chapter nine, we read this as Jesus went on. From there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. Follow me. He told him and Matthew got up and followed him as a tax collector.

In the first century, Matthew occupied a, an interesting position. He was probably very wealthy. But he also was probably despised by every group around him, certainly despised by the Jewish people because they saw him as a betray, as a traitor, probably despised by the Romans, who also saw him as someone of weak character who had betrayed his own people, maybe valued by them, but certainly not highly thought of.

Matthew gets up and follows Jesus and after following him, Jesus makes this statement. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners and here bring this?

Jesus said, it’s not the healthy the need doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. F for I have not come to call the righteous but sinners. Matthew heard Jesus call, inviting him to follow, and he spent the rest of his life inviting other people to do the same.

The fork in the road for Matthew is not an easy decision. If he continues on the path he’s on, he stays wealthy. Sure, not liked by many people, but there’s a life of ease and wealth ahead of him following Jesus brings him a life that’s sure, as we look at it now, richer, but certainly one with a definite cost to it.

When we make decisions, when we’re presented with a fork in the road, if we can’t simply follow our heart. How do we make sure that our decisions are in line with where God is calling us individually to go? We’re not will told Licke faced with one of the greatest evils this earth has ever faced. We’re not Matthew experiencing Jesus personally.

We’re everyday people living in the 21st century, longing to follow Jesus, but unsure not having him right in front of us of where to go. What do we do? When I was first journeying into becoming a pastor, came across a list of things that kinda helped you on that journey. There were 10 of them. Can’t remember the first nine.

I’m sure they were really good, but one of them stuck with me. It was number 10, and it simply said this, follow Jesus on the journey he has for you. Invite other people along. It sounds very much like something Matthew could have embraced, and yet still doesn’t give me a framework on how I make every decision other than this longing simply Jesus, that I want to walk in your way.

So here’s just a few things that have helped me as a decision making format over the years. I wanted to share them with you. The first one is simple. It’s, and every decision choose. To pray now. Now that sounds like to some of you like that’s so redundant. I’m like of course I pray about it.

And yet it’s quite surprising when you look at the statistics a across Christian communities as to how many people would say actually, don’t ask God for wisdom as to what I should do when you need to make a decision, when you’re faced in a fork with a fork in the road, pray, simply ask God, what is mine to do?

Next. This is just a really easy, simple prayer that I put in there for you to maybe copy to make your own. Lord, I humbly ask for your wisdom as I make this decision. Help me to see things from your perspective. Choose the path that brings your will into my life and the lives of others. If nothing else, it has this moment of beginning to help you ask, Jesus, what?

What would you do here and now? A second one may seem close to it on the surface, but it’s a little different. And it’s seek not just prayer and not just asking God what you should do but the seeking that involves reading the scriptures that involves asking wise people around you. For me, one of the greatest encouragement in try trying to make a hard decision of leaving a community that we loved was to begin to ask people.

Around me. What did they think about this new opportunity? I remember this moment of taking a job description into the person I reported to, still one of the best leaders I’ve ever worked with. Someone who had a hundred percent, like she was involved in wanting me to stay where I was. And I put this job description on her desk and said, I’m thinking about this.

And she walked into my office about 10 minutes later. And she said, Alex, it’s perfect. It’s perfect. You should go to have someone in your life who’s actively asking for you, God, what is your will for this person? Not just can I keep them where they are? Like finding people like that in your life. If you don’t know someone, ask someone.

Find someone who’s interested in mentoring. People there are actually in this church, just a lot of them ju just a lot. Third no, actually that it’s not gonna be easy. That you can take the right fork in the road, and that doesn’t guarantee ease. God’s will is not always easy. That job that I took, that was perfect.

It actually led to the two most difficult years of our lives since we’ve been married. Change is loss. Loss is usually grief. But when we ended up there, we learned something. Those two years in New York led us here. Truly, one of the joys in my life, pastoring this community know that you can make the right choice.

And the answer to whether it was the right thing is not, did life become easier? Did I become rich or did I become better known? Any of those things, actually it’s not that simple. Far more complex. And finally this is the last one. And I thought about obey here, but I picked trust ’cause I think it implies obey trust at some point, if we don’t want to end up where the poem starts, at some point, we actually have to take a step and trust that the God of the universe is so good.

This is something I’m, I think, I believe I’m gonna share it with you, not having figured it out completely. This is my suspicion about God’s goodness is that sometimes we can step in the wrong direction and His grace is so good. The wrong decision ends up being right now. I can’t explain that to you, but I can show it to you in some practical ways.

We can make the wrong decision about. Finances, we can wildly cheat on our taxes and then we can end up in jail and somehow God can use prison as an avenue to a great life. Now, I say that at tax season and I just know some of you guys, okay? So just if that’s where you’re going, may not be the right step, but God may bring it to the right place.

God has this beautiful way of navigating us through winding paths to where he wants us to be. So ultimately trust that you’re following a shepherd that is good, that cares for you deeply, that is for you, that is with you on the journey, Jesus, in this journey of life, as we see direction after direction, fork after fork in the road.

We want wisdom as to where to go, but ultimately what I think we need to know is that you are with us when the journey seems to take a hard direction. My honest feeling is I would rather be on that road with you than any other road that I can imagine without you. Ultimately, I believe for my friends, wherever they are on their journey, that your goodness will bring them home so long as they stay surrendered to you.

Jesus, when it’s a hard choice, when everything inside our hearts tells us to take the easy route, and yet something about your word to us says, this is the way walking. Help us to choose the Jesus Way. Help us to do the thing that you modeled for us. Amen.