You've Probably Not Heard This About Jesus

Now when they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and immediately he will send them."

All this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet, saying, "Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey."

So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set him on them. And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. So the multitudes who went before, and those who followed cried out, saying, "Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest."

And when he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, "Who is this?" So the multitude said, "This is Jesus the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee." Matthew 21:1-11.

We've seen the signs and wonders. We've heard the good, good news. Salvation comes to us. The king is on the move. We've seen a savior coming. Prepare the way for him. We lift our hands in praise over and over again. Here comes our king. Here comes our hope. We sing. He is our life, our salvation. Sing, "Hosanna." You are the one we waited for. The Father sent his Son. You turn the dark to light. Jesus has come. Here comes our king. Here comes our hope. He is our light. Our salvation. Here is our salvation. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna. Hosanna. Blessed is he. Come in the name of the Lord. Hosanna. Hosanna. Blessed is he. The name of the Lord. Hosanna. Hosanna. Up. I will come in the name of the Lord. Oh, hosanna. Here on our own we sing hosanna. He is our light, our salvation. Sing our king. Here comes our hope. We sing our hope, our salvation. Blessed be in the name of the Lord. Hosanna. Blessed be in the name of the Lord. Hosanna. The name of the Lord. The name of the Lord.

And some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples." But then he answered and said to them, "I tell you, if you keep silent, the rocks will immediately cry out." Luke 19:39 and 40.

Who else rocks cry out to worship whose glory taught the stars to shine? Perhaps Creation longs to have the words to sing. But this joy is mine. With a thousand hallelujah, we alone deserve the glory, the honor, and the praise. Lord Jesus, this song is forever yours. A thousand hallelujah and a thousand more. Time for our redemption. Resurrection means the rise. There is time enough to sing of all you've done. But I have eternity with a thousand hallelujah. We magnify your name. You alone deserve the glory, the honor, and the praise. Oh Jesus, this song is forever yours. A thousand hallelujah to a thousand more. To the Lord, the Lamb, to the King of Heaven. Praise, for he rose. He reigns. We will sing forever. Are you the King of Heaven now? Forever with a thousand hallelujah. We magnify your name. You alone deserve the glory, the honor, and the praise. Oh Jesus, forever. In hallelujah. Heat. Heat. N. Forever with a thousand hallelujah. We magnify your name. You alone deserve the glory, the honor, and the praise. Lord Jesus, this song is forever yours. Hallelujah to a thousand more. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. God is Lord and he has given us light. Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. For you are my God and I will praise you. For you are my God and I will exalt you. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Psalms 118:26-29.

There's a God who is real on his throne. He's alive and he fights for his own. We are his. He is our Jehovah God. There's a heritage chosen above. Our inheritance dwelt among us. The one who was and is and is to come. Awesome is the Lord. Ruler over earth and sky. Sing a song as loud as he is worthy. Sing again when you are done. Endless praise to the holy one. Sing a song as loud as he is worthy. Time and water he turned into wine. He raised the dead with grace. When he died on the cross for our sins and the grave, rose again. Heaven with a shout of praise. Jesus on his holy throne forever. Father in the Lord Most High. You are the holy one, worthy. Clap your hands. Lift your voice. Raise a shout. Sing for joy. Jesus Christ crucified for us. Every tribe, every tongue, testify at the top of your lungs. By his blood, we will overcome. Clap your hands, lift your voice, raise a shout, sing for joy. Jesus Christ who sent for us. Every tribe, every tongue, testify at the top of your lungs. By his blood, he will overcome. Awesome is the Lord most high. Ruler of earth and sky. Sing a song as loud as he is worthy. Sing again and praise the holy one. Heat. Heat. In the dark world. Amen.

Can we give these kids a hand? How awesome is it that they led us in praise this morning? Thank you guys. You did an awesome job. Church, can we sing this part again? The kids just led us in it, but I think we need to sing it. Sing praise to the Lord, to the Lamb, to the King of Heaven. Praise, for he rose. Now he reigns. We will sing forever praise. To the Lord, to the Lamb, to the King of Heaven. Praise, for he rose. We will sing forever. With a thousand hallelujah, we magnify your name. You alone deserve the glory, the honor, and the praise. Lord Jesus, this song is forever yours. A thousand hallelujah. Down in praise. We praise you, Jesus. You're worthy of praise. Praise to the Lord, to the Lamb, to the King of Heaven. For he rose. Now he reigns. We will sing forever. With a thousand hallelujah. We magnify you. Glorious. This song is forever. A thousand hallelujah. A thousand. Hallelujah. Jesus, we praise you. We bless your name in this place. And all God's people said, "Amen."

All right, church. Why don't you greet someone? Meet someone you haven't met yet. Commit to praying for them this week. Then have a look at the screens for our announcements.

Hey there, church. Welcome to Palm Sunday. Wasn't that time of worship amazing? Palm Sunday worship is one of my favorite times of worship, as we get to come to the feet of Jesus, laying down our palm branches and our ribbons, and we get to be ushered into the kingdom of the Lord through the voices of children. Praise God. Now, continuing our worship, there are three ways you can give. You can give online at calvarycc.org. You can text in to give, or you can drop off your offerings in the back of the sanctuary in our agape boxes. Now, stay tuned for some more announcements.

Men, losing a spouse can cause you to lose your foundation. With the added responsibilities, it can cause you to lose connection and fellowship with others. The Widowers Road Ministry will meet the third Friday of each month from 6:30 to 8:30 here at the church. You'll begin to restore hope and healing through God's word and connection with others. Just scan the QR code or go to the church website to register. We'll see you on April 17th.

Hey church, we're kicking off our spring semester for the seasonal choir and orchestra, leading up to our patriotic concert this summer. If you enjoy choral music or like to sing, we'd love for you to come be a part of the seasonal choir. Rehearsals are weekly on Monday evenings, starting on April 6th. If you play an orchestral instrument, we'd love for you to consider being a part of the seasonal orchestra. Rehearsals are about once a month on Sunday afternoons. You can sign up for either of these ministries on the church website. God bless.

This isn't just another conference. It's a line in the sand. The Giant Slayer Conference is bringing bold truth into a culture that's drowning in confusion. Right now, more than ever, we must confront false doctrine and sharpen our discernment in the middle of today's culture wars. Hear from Frank Turk, Jack Hibbs, Chloe Cole, Bill Federer, Lindsey Snyder, and more. Voices who refuse to stay silent. This is going to challenge you and help you understand and live out your faith. This is where conviction is sharpened and truth is declared. Tickets are on sale now at definingtruth.org. See the whole lineup, check out all the details, and bring someone. You don't want to miss this.

Be sure to join us this Friday for our Good Friday family services. We'll have two services, one at 4 and the other at 6:00 p.m. We'll see you then. And lastly, mark your calendars. Invite your friends, families, and neighbors. And join us April 5th for Resurrection Sunday. We're going to have four services. Our first service, 5:30 a.m. family service, because of the school construction, will be taking place inside the sanctuary. All three other services will be taking place at normal time with children's ministry. We can't wait to see you then.

Now, grab your Bibles and prepare your hearts to hear from the Lord today.

Hey, good morning, everybody. How are you? Good morning. So you guys, it is going to be kind of, uh, strange, right, to have our first sunrise service ever in our existence as a church, uh, being indoors. So it'd be nice if we could cut a hole in the wall over here and watch the sun come up at least, but because of the construction, it's going to be a great time. The point is to come on out at 5:30, uh, because Jesus is risen from the dead, folks. And, um, nobody else gets to proclaim that but the followers of Christ, as it's revealed in the word of God. So, Father, we come before you today. What a day this is, Lord. Palm Sunday. We praise you. We thank you. We rejoice in the fact that we are opening up the Bible today and we are not only looking at history, but the prophetic word of God for us. We look back toward it, but your prophetic word looked ahead to it. And so, Lord, I pray that today, in light of this entire week's celebration of the accuracy of the Bible, the promises of God, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who by his merit, we have access to eternal life. If we come to understand that by no works of the flesh and by no religious affiliation do we gain access into heaven. It truly comes down to that saying, "It's not what you know, it's who you know."

Lord, today may you make sure that in our lives, if we have accepted you, may we rejoice. For those who are going to accept you, Lord, may it be authentic. And for, and frankly, for those who reject you, for this was a day 2,000 years ago of many rejecting you. If those today reject you, may they know who they are rejecting. But by the end of the day, Lord, may nobody in the hearing of this message be ignorant about the facts. And I thank you, Father. We thank you, Father, that our faith is founded upon fact. And we pray this in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, "Amen."

Amen to that. Listen, exciting week. And it's going to be themed out this way the entire week of our, uh, Passion, uh, celebrations. And it is this: Your Only Hope. Your Only Hope. And, uh, sometimes that sounds like, uh, oh no, is that it? That's, we've come down to that. No, listen. Jesus Christ has always been your only hope. But for some people, it may be the fact that they've heard or come to understand it and understand him more clearly than ever before. And if that happens to you today, I pray that you'd make a decision to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. But, uh, today would be, and right now would be a good time for me to say that starting today, this Palm Sunday goes all the way through this week called Passion Week, to Resurrection Sunday, that we're all very careful not to view these things in a common way. Meaning, for us who are believers, yeah. Yeah. It's another Palm Sunday. Watch out for that because these are the events, friends. Listen, I don't mean to be rude by by no stretch. I'm going to be accurate. What we have in our hands as the Bible. And for those of us as believers, what we know from the word of God and from history, nobody else gets to enjoy but those who believe. Can I hear an amen on that?

For those who believe in what? Well, I just believe. No, no, no, no. Your belief is to be founded upon fact, which brings you to faith. Our faith is not a blind faith. It is a factual faith. Jesus Christ, as we'll learn this week, is not only risen from the dead, but this week, starting today, Palm Sunday, was a remarkable announcement. And we're going to be hearing things about that today. And we'll read the scriptures together here in a moment. But 1,994 years ago today, Christ presented himself to the nation of Israel as Messiah. And again, as I said, we'll talk more about that in detail. Uh, the fact remains though that he presented himself to Israel as the nation goes. The key today is that you, as an individual, will you allow Jesus Christ to present himself to you? It's vitally important. Just setting the stage for this particular time in history and this week that we look at in history. In Mark chapter 10:32, out of the New Living Translation, it's just, I'm using, I don't normally use it, but it makes it very, very simple. Mark 10:32. This is by way of introduction to our series, "Your Only Hope." It says, "They were now on the way up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. The disciples were filled with awe." That's our first emotion. "And the people following behind were overwhelmed with fear." That's the second emotion. "Taking the 12 disciples aside, Jesus once more began to describe everything that was about to happen to him. And he said in verse 33, 'Listen,' he said, 'we're going up to Jerusalem where the Son of Man, speaking of himself, will be betrayed.'" I'm going to submit to you, that's another emotion because Jesus, he knows what's coming. "To the chief priests and to the teachers of religious law, they will sentence him to die and hand him over to the Romans. They will mock him." That's an emotion. "They'll spit on him, flog him with a whip, and kill him. But after three days, he will rise again." Jesus is announcing this. Yeah, you can clap. He's announcing this in advance on the way up. And you say, "Well, Jack, how do you know?" Because the authors of the scriptures wrote this down in advance. God gave this to them. It was written down in scripture. The Bible announces, and you'll hear it many times today, that Jesus Christ, according to the prophetic scriptures, was en route to be our only hope. That the cross was no accident. That this week in history, as we'll study it today, and then I don't know, maybe, uh, tomorrow I maybe I'll go online and cover the events of what happened on Monday, and then maybe I should do that on Tuesday to walk you through the week, right? Maybe we'll do that on Facebook Live or something, uh, to to walk you through the week because this week in history, folks, listen up, doubters, because we're going to be speaking to you as well, atheists too, not going to leave you out, believers, most of us, I, uh, maybe some searching, all of this week in history. There's going to be more prophetic scriptures fulfilled in this week in history, uh, that will blow your mind. In fact, it's not going to be repeated until the second coming of Christ. Did you know that? Wow. Amazing. So, "Your Only Hope" is not a declaration of, of, oh no, we've come to the end, but it's a fact. In all of life, Jesus Christ is your only hope. And I'm not talking about some sort of once-a-year association. I'm talking about a living, breathing relationship with him. And so the scene is powerful, church. It's a, it's a, an a time that is greatly, uh, infused with noise, with excitement. Jerusalem now has swollen. Historians tell us, Josephus tells us that 1,994 years ago today, Jerusalem now is swollen to two and a half million people who have made the pilgrimage there. They're dwelling in beautiful makeshift tents. Families are together. They have made their pilgrimage from North Africa, from areas of what we know as, uh, Europe today and Asia, and they've all come to celebrate because it's Passover week. But this is unlike any other. And yet it was recorded in the Bible. With that, I'm going to ask all of you to stand as we read the scriptures together. Luke chapter 19. I will begin reading in verse 29. And if you'll pick it up in verse 30. We are stepping back in time, and yet it has so much to do with our today and our eternity. Verse 29: "And it came to pass, when he, that's Jesus, drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the mountain called Olivet, that he sent two of his disciples to the village opposite you, where as you enter, you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here."

"And if anyone asks you, 'Why are you loosing it?' Thus you shall say to them, 'Because the Lord has need of it.'"

So those who were sent went their way and found it just as he had said to them. But as they were loosing, verse 33, as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, "Why are you loosing the colt?"

And they said, "The Lord has need of him." Then verse 35 says, "Then they brought him to Jesus and they threw their clothes, outer coverings, on the colt, that's the little donkey, and they set Jesus on him."

And as he went, many spread their clothes on the road. Then as he was now, listen carefully, drawing near to the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice, praising God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen,

"Saying, 'Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven.'"

Verse 39: "And some of the Pharisees, some I stress that, some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd, 'Teacher, rebuke your disciples.'"

But he answered and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out."

Now, as they drew near, he saw the city, that's Jerusalem, and he wept over it,

"Saying, 'If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace, but now they are hidden from your house. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you, and close you in on every side,

and level you and your children within you to the ground. And they will not leave in you one stone upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation.'"

Did you hear that, everybody? Because you did not know. The word in Greek is, you didn't recognize the day of your visitation. And then he went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it,

"Saying to them, 'It is written, my house is a house of prayer,

but you have made it into a den of thieves.'"

And he was teaching daily in the temple, that's all this week that's ahead of us. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, these are all the spiritual national leaders of Israel sought to destroy him,

and were unable to do anything. For all the people were very attentive to hear.

And all God's people said, "Amen."

You may be seated. Dramatic, dynamic, no doubt about it, an incredible time. As we see in scripture today, there's a chronological order to all of this that helps us very, very much understand, uh, the whole vicinity of what's been going on. Many of you might find it quite surprising that when you maybe think about Jesus, you almost automatically think about Jerusalem. But, um, I want you to think this way instead. Think accurately. Uh, Jesus being, uh, a Jew, being a male, he lived in Galilee. That's about 88 miles north of Jerusalem. It's country. It's where you would probably live, unless you love big cities. If you love the big city vibe, you would live in Jerusalem. Jesus lived in the country. And, uh, there were three feasts of the year required for a male, a Jewish male, to come to Jerusalem. And the Bible tells us that Jesus, of course, would always go to Jerusalem for those feasts, for those gatherings. Uh, but what might surprise many of you is the fact that Jesus often avoided Jerusalem. He didn't often go there, and for good reason. But he found the countryside more open to gathering disciples and teaching the word of God. And he let that word be committed to the disciples to go spread that word all around the land of Israel and Samaria and Judea, and ultimately to the ends of the earth. But the scene is this one. Jesus Christ is on the back of a little donkey on this Palm Sunday. And it's a beautiful scene because why a little donkey? Well, first of all, notice you read a moment ago that the Bible says there was a little donkey upon which no one has ever sat and it was with its mother, which means it's not only a little donkey, but it's not weaned yet from its mother. In other words, listen, I don't know anything about donkeys except my first name is Jack. That's about as close as it gets. I've never been on one. I don't plan on being on one, but, um, but that said, I've been told and I've read that you can't separate a little donkey from its mom. And if you try to sit on it, good luck, because you're, you're going to get kicked off. And then, uh, after you get kicked off of that little donkey, the mom donkey will probably come over and give you another kick just to make sure. It's a big deal. So, what's going on here? Is Jesus Christ sitting on the back of a baby donkey and there's no natural disruption to the scene? The, the, the donkey and the donkey's mom is in full agreement. Nature is in agreement. Why? Because its creator is sitting on the back of this little donkey.

In fact, I submit to you today that nature seems to be in somewhat of agreement with the creation of God. Now, we live in a fallen world. There's earthquakes and volcanoes and floods and all that kind of stuff. I get that. But listen, it's mankind that's the problem. And especially mankind when he's supercharged with religion. He becomes a problem because religion will always exalt the human side of it and somehow communicate that, uh, I've arrived. Look at my robes. I've arrived. Look at my status. Look at my degrees that are displayed on my arm or on my the hem of my robe. You need to listen to me because I am a religious leader. And that was one of the dynamics that Jesus was up against. But the people, but the people, the Bible tells us over and over again that common people loved to come to listen to Jesus. Are you a common person? I'm a common person. And then the Bible says sinners love to come and hear him. Are you a sinner? I'm a sinner. Now the Bible says that publicans and sinners came. And some people have wondered why, why does, why one political party, publican? It's not, it's not Republican and sinners. It's Republicans, Democrats, independents, all sinners.

We all need him. And in Matthew chapter 24, here's the setting. This is the, uh, the dynamic of the week. Matthew chapter 24, the Bible tells us in verse one, "Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple." And his disciples came to show him the buildings of the temple because they were spectacular. And Jesus said to them, "Do you not see all these things? Assuredly I say to you, not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down." You got to, none of us understand what this means fully. You're talk, Jesus is talking to his Jewish disciples, and the very existence of God is wrapped up in that temple that is there in Jerusalem. And Jesus is saying, "That's all coming apart." What church do you attend normally? Or maybe it's this church. Imagine if for a moment I were to say to you, "All of this is going to get blown up. It's all going to fall apart. The earth is going to shake and it's going to swallow up all this concrete." If you think that's the end of worship, you got another thing coming, friends.

Because God is not bound by any structure or any building, and Jesus is announcing, "Oh, guess what? You guys have associated the existence of your relationship with God to this building." I'm telling you, not one stone will be left upon another. It's all coming down.

Why? Because there was going to be, and there was, one greater than the temple speaking to them. And so he says, "Not, not one stone shall be, uh, together, but shall be thrown down." Verse three: "Now as he sat on the Mount of Olives, Olivet, the disciples came to him privately saying," and they asked him three questions. "Tell us, when will these things be? Number two, what will be the sign of your coming?" That is the second coming that is yet future. And the third thing is, "And the end of the age, or the end of the world." And Jesus said to them, this is key. The first thing out of his mouth regarding that three-part question is, "Take heed. No one deceives you."

And I want to lay this out to you today, and I want you to think about it all week regarding Jesus Christ. Beware, watch out that nobody deceives you. If I didn't know the Bible, I would have gotten deceived yesterday at Albertson's supermarket because National Geographic has their publication this month about who the real Jesus is. That kind of insulted my intelligence because it, it implies that I have not picked up the Bible to read it. You think I need to read National Geographic to find out who Jesus is?

My goodness, if that's the case, we're all in trouble. I mean, let's just end the service now and go to the beach. Thank God. The Bible not only reveals who Jesus is, but the Bible tells us from the very beginning, Old and New Testament, that it's all about him. The Bible says regarding Christ, "Behold, in the volume of the book, it is written of me." Remarkable. And so, that's why he's your only hope. And that's going to be a question I'm going to be asking you and a statement I'm going to be making in this, in this message today by by note-taking. Church. By the way, did you guys see the QR code? Those of you who are new, you may not know this, but if you scan that QR code, you'll get all the notes that I have. And, uh, you'll see how horrible I am at sticking to my notes because you'll get all my notes and it will go right onto your device. And it's, it's kind of fun because you can make it your own Bible study. You can study it for yourself. And one of the things that you'll see there is the, um, Harmony of the Gospels. It's called the Harmony of the Gospels regarding Palm Sunday. And I say this just for authenticity's sake. Matthew chapter 21:1-17. Matthew covers this from his eyes. Matthew. And then Mark's gospel, Mark 11:1-11. Mark sees it and records it through his eyes. And then Dr. Luke, medical doctor, the gospel of Luke, Luke from chapter n, uh, chapter 19:29 onward, he records it. And that's the chapter or the book I've selected for today. And then of course, John 12:12-19. John records it from his eyes. Why is this important? I don't want to get too much into this except that the Bible says that, uh, before two or three witnesses, the truth shall be established. Which, by the way, if you're an attorney, uh, or maybe you're a judge, or maybe you're involved in law, did you know that our jurisprudence of the United States of America is founded upon the biblical requirement of you not being able to be convicted without multiple witnesses? Did you know our founding fathers got that from the scriptures? And God brings it on the stage and says, "Here are, watch this. Here are three eyewitnesses that are going to record the events of other eyewitnesses." And I've added a fourth, John's gospel. And it's a beautiful thing to look at because we love, for example, quadraphonic sound. Remember those days? Some of us are old enough. They made stereos for our cars and we went out and bought them because they were quadraphonic. Well, God does it in what is known as the harmony of the gospels. Various eyewitnesses from various angles reporting to various people groups the things that they saw. Eyewitness accounts matter. And by the way, I'm going to have you look at it this way. These eyewitness accounts, number one, we'll look at it in a moment. And that is what I'm calling the religious atheist. We're going to see the view of the religious atheist. Maybe that's you today. You, you, you claim to be an atheist, but you're very religious about your atheism. Oh, you'll defend it. You'll argue for it. And you'll read everything about it and you'll tell other people about it. About what? About nothing. Because you're an atheist. You're inviting us to believe in nothing. Anybody can do that. I would submit to you today. Atheism is lazy.

By the way, I've also learned this over my 68 years. People who are atheists can afford to be an atheist until life punches them in the face and then they start reconsidering their atheism. So, I'm not impressed by any atheists. Just know this, that when life deals a blow against you, be looking for God. And the next thing that we're going to see today in our study is the fact that there's the honest doubter. There's the honest doubter. Maybe we would call the honest doubter, somebody who's an agnostic. Now, I deliberately avoided the word agnostic because do you know what the word agnostic means? I don't think you like it. If you're an agnostic, do yourself a favor. Never call yourself an agnostic again. The word agnostic comes from the word in Greek, a, uh, agnostic, not to know. Means to actually have access to knowledge and refuse to know it. It's where we get the word ignoramus. Comes from the word agnostic. Isn't that wild? So don't use that word about yourself any longer. We'll also see today that there's those that are open-minded. I'm open. I'm open to think about it and I'm open to talk about it. That's great. And then I hope I cover most of us in this room today, and that is, uh, the confident follower. We have become confident in who we're following. We know why we follow Jesus. We know what he did for us at the cross. We don't follow feelings. This is not an emotion for us. And we're not members of some organization or some church. We have become convinced, and that's why we follow Christ. And then I'm going to end today with those that might be willingly curious. Willingly curious to the point that, uh, they're willing to move forward in thinking, but with some caution. So, number one, let's dive into this. Your only hope is my argument, and it's this: Your only hope, you who are religious atheists, is to consider the facts of this day that we look at in history. The Bible tells us in Matthew 21:14, "Then the blind and the lame came to Jesus in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he, that's Jesus, did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, 'Hosanna.'" That word means save now. Save us. Save now to the Son of David. Wow. Son of David. That's the title of the Messiah. If you're Jewish today, you know what that means. This is reserved for Israel's Messiah alone. "Hosanna to the Son of David." Notice this. They were indignant and said to him, "Jesus, do you hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes." Wouldn't you love to have seen that happen? I think Jesus would have said, "Yep. Do you hear what these kids are saying? They're attributing you to being the Son of David, the Savior of the world." Yep. Oh, I would have loved to have seen that. "Have you never read?" Jesus said, "Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, you, that is God, have perfected praise." That's in the Old Testament. Listen up, my friend. If you are an atheist, but you are very honestly religious, because everyone has a religion, just know this right now. Take a look at the facts. Jesus Christ, when he was challenged, said, "You don't have to listen to me. Go look at the Old Testament and see what it says about me. Judge me." Jesus is saying, "Go and find out what's wrong with what is happening and go back 1,994 years ago and find out what's wrong. If your atheism is true, then you can prove that Jesus is false. Go ahead, knock yourself out. We encourage you to do that. Just know this. You'll be in a long line of people who gloriously wind up becoming disappointed in the end to find out that Jesus is none other than who he said he was.

That he's the Lord. He's the Christ. He's the Savior. He's the Son of David. He's the resurrected King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That Jesus Christ invites you, the atheist, to come and bring your very myopic little belief system in an accident of things, explaining your existence to God, broadening your mind beyond what you can ever imagine to where he says to you, "I am your creator. You're not an accident. Nothing in your life is an accident. I am the one who rules heaven and earth, and I'm working in your life. And all the time you thought that I was not real, all the time you've been fighting me, and I'm revealing myself to you. And God is announcing to you even today. Look at the facts. Israel was to know the arrival of their Messiah on a very particular day. Previous years, I've gone through the mathematics of it all. I'm not going to do it today. Uh, it's in great detail. By the way, I kind of did it a few weeks ago in one of our studies, uh, regarding Matthew or, uh, Daniel chapter 9, uh, down to the day. Jesus held them accountable to know this day in history. They were supposed to wake up that morning and say, 'Man, let's get going.' You got up today, didn't you?

Some of you don't go here. You came here because your grandkids were singing in the choir, and you came here, and I know, I know it took a lot for you to get here. But I, I'm a grandparent too. It doesn't matter if this morning would have been held on the moon. You'd, you would have made it because your grandkids are involved. I get it. And you knew the date that you'd be coming here on this date today. Well, guess what? Israel knew the day that the Messiah was to come on Palm Sunday. Did you know that? The day. And Jesus held them accountable to know. Many did. Most didn't. They refused. The Bible tells us in Luke 19:39, we read it a moment ago, and I stressed it, and I'll stress it again. "And some," you ought to circle the word "some." "And some of the Pharisees," these are the religious leaders, I'll explain more of this in a second, "called to him from the crowd and they tell him, 'Teacher,' that's the word teacher, 'rebuke your disciples.'" What is the? Look, I, I don't want to be mean about it, but this is what, can I say this? Will you forgive me in advance if your little ears are hearing this? Because we're not allowed to say this around our grandkids, but, uh, this is for educational purposes. Rabbi, tell your disciples to shut up.

That's what they were saying. Think of the insanity of this. Think of this form of religious atheism. Rabbi means teacher of the word of God. Did they believe it or are they lying? I think they're lying. They don't believe it. Rabbi, tell your disciples, those who follow you, to zip it, to shut their mouths. Tell them to stop it. That's what religious atheism is like. These were the national leaders, folks. Try to understand it this way. In fact, the best way we can in our world today, ironically enough, is the nation of Iran right now. There is a government in Iran, but over the government of Iran is a religious hierarchy. Are you with me? The Ayatollas, the leadership, the clerics, and the clerics, the handful of the clerics tell the government leaders what to do. And if you don't do what they tell you to do, you get your head cut off. And then they turn around and they tell the military what to do. In very similar fashion, when we talk about Israel and the Jews and the Pharisees and the scribes, we're talking about a handful of religious leaders who were teaching and educating the people. They led the country even though they were occupied by Rome. And it was a handful of religious leaders that dictated what the people heard and what they had access to. And so when Jesus presents himself as king, king of what? King of Israel, king of the Jews, but the leadership rejected him. Are you hearing me, everybody? This is important. Not all the Jews rejected Jesus. And it even says here, "some of the Pharisees." It means not all of them. Some of them believed, some of them did not believe, but they were all religious. Isn't that interesting? You may be very religious today, and be completely lost. What a tragedy that would be. I would encourage you to look at the facts. And the Bible tells us here a moment ago that all the children were rejoicing over the fact of Jesus being not only the Son of David, but of the great miracles that he had performed. Many miracles throughout his entire ministry career. Jesus was raising the dead. How awesome is that to know somebody who raises the dead? Have you ever known somebody who's got some sort of position? Like you have a friend that's like a manager of a Chick-fil-A. Now listen, that is awesome because you know, you think you can help us out a little bit, you know, whatever it might be. Can you imagine having a friend who raises people from the dead?

Hey, I don't, I don't know what your schedule's like today. I know you're pretty busy, but my, uh, my friend just died. Can you, can you swing by? You know, I say it in our modern day vernacular, but that's what Martha and Mary did regarding Lazarus, their brother. Jesus, um, your really good friend died. Our brother, he's dead. Can you, can you come and help? Jesus ruined every funeral. Jesus showed up. He ruined it. He raised the dead. And then those that had leprosy, which is amazing. Did you know you're never healed of leprosy? The Bible says you've got to be cleansed of leprosy. By the way, you're never healed of sin either. You've got to be cleansed of sin. That's right. Remarkable, right? What about those that are blind? Hey, listen. Let me tell you this. Those that are blind, I cannot relate to. And I thank God that I have my eyesight. But when the Bible says that he healed those who couldn't speak, that, that's now, that's where I come in because I used to stutter so bad in my, into my adult life, and he healed me in an instant of time. So listen, when, when that stuff, when you talk, when you talk about that, I can talk about that. You say, "Pastor, you talk so much." You listen, you got to understand, man, my tongue didn't get healed until I think I was 23 years old. And I didn't talk. In fact, I had schools, principles, teachers would always send me, uh, to the some class because they thought there was something wrong with my brain because I would never talk. But every time I would talk back in those days, you got to make fun of people. It was like a rule. You have to make fun of people that have oddities. And I had a teacher. I'll never forget her. Miss Fron. Miss Fron. I can see her to this moment. I just hope she's not watching right now. I hope I stuttered so bad that she thought it'd be great that she would have me stand on top of my desk and read to the class.

Oh yeah, it was incredible. There were no attorneys in those days when dinosaurs ruled the earth. But bullying was rampant, and I just stuttered terribly. But Jesus loosed my tongue, and I've never stopped talking since, and I feel sorry for all of you. But I'm catching up. I got 23 years to catch up on. But he healed. And what do you think about that in your religious atheism? Have you ever thought for a moment that Jesus could actually be who he said he was? How would you know? Because the Bible tells us this is how you're going to recognize the Messiah. Isaiah chapter 35, written 743 years before Jesus was born. "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing." Wow. That's what Jesus did. He said, "I don't believe that." Why don't you go back and study world history and find out what happened during the life of Jesus and read the eyewitness accounts? Because listen, the scribes and Pharisees wanted to kill him because he was the Messiah. How did they know? Because Jesus not only said to people, "Your sins are forgiven you." Look, let's be honest. Anybody could say that. I could tell you right now, "Your sins are forgiven you." How do you prove that? You can't prove it. I could say to you right now, "Your sins are forgiven you," and you might go, "Oh, wow. That's amazing. That guy's sins are forgiven." Jesus said, "Anybody can say that, but to make sure you know that the Son of Man has power to forgive sins on earth, I say to the blind, 'Open your eyes.'" You see the connection? You can talk about it all you want, but this same God that offers salvation backs it up by his miraculous powers. And somebody might say today, "Well, if I'm a religious atheist, I want God to do a miracle and then I'll believe." No, you won't. The Bible says you won't. Believing is seeing. It's, you've got that all reversed. Seeing is not believing. Believing is when you begin to see with your eyes wide open. Many people want to criticize following Jesus. But listen, we never get upset about that. Think about that. If you came and attacked us for our faith, we're not going to behead you. We can take it. You want to know why? We don't have to defend our God. He's very able to defend himself. Uh, he doesn't need my help. Look, if you have a God that needs your help, you got to get a new God. He's well able. But we can take the persecution. We can take the mock and the ridicule because quite frankly, we love you and you know not what you do. I'm asking you to think about this.

The second thing is this: Your only hope, you, the honest doubter, is what you do with what you know. What do you know? Maybe it's a little bit. You're a doubter. That's okay. Listen up, everybody. Every one of us doubts. Doubt is a weird thing. When we think of the word doubt, we think that we've somehow lost our faith when we're doubting. That's not true. Did you know that you have to have faith to be? Are you listening?

You have to have faith to be a doubter. I'm going to let that sit for a moment. This is kind of early, right? Let the coffee kick in. You cannot be a doubter unless you first have faith. Doubting is very different than atheism. You can go to LAX today and get on a big Boeing 747 or an Airbus 380. That plane that you're sitting in has traveled hundreds of millions of miles. You never had any

Doubts about that plane before. And now because you're sitting in it, you're starting to wonder, are we going to get killed? Are we going to make it? Is this thing going to go off the end of the runway and make and take off or is it going to go right into the Pacific Ocean? Why do you have your doubts? Because you know that plane can fly. But will it fly for you? Doubters.

Every single one of us battle doubts from time to time based upon the dynamics of which we're going through. Are you listening to me? Some of you are struggling with doubt. And yes, it's true. You need to read more of the Bible. The Bible washes away doubts. But listen, with all the Bible you could ever have in your life, some of the greatest saints of God, of all of God's working in the hearts of man, they had times of doubt. John the Baptist had a great time of doubt. Are you the one or do we look for another one? Think about that.

Are you a doubter today? I want you to be encouraged. Take what little faith that you have and build upon these truths of this entire week and know this that Christ came into this world to die for sinners on the cross. The Bible says and that on the third day he would be resurrected from the dead. Here's the beautiful part about that. You weren't there. You You didn't make it happen. You didn't align the stars or the cards to pull that off. I'm glad I wasn't there. I'm 2,000 years removed from it. But for all of these millennia, Christ has been transforming lives.

And when I have my doubts, it's this way. Lord, am I loving you like I should? Even when I'm praying for the sick, I don't understand why. Sometimes people are miraculously healed in the moment. Sometimes they're healed that week. Sometimes they're healed over the course of time. Sometimes they're never healed at all. Sometimes they're totally healed by death. Think about that. Pastor, pray for me. I'm sick. They said I could die. Do you believe in Jesus? That's my first question. Do you trust Christ? Yes, with all my heart. Well, just know we're going to pray for you to get healed, but you could catch a cold next month. That's fine. That comes with the territory. But it if it's possible that the perfect will of God be lived out in your life, what if it's what if it's God's perfect plan that you not be physically healed, but he holds you heals you totally by taking you to heaven.

Now, the Christian is supposed to say something like this. Yes. Well, Lee, he Lee just said it. Yes. But then the doubt comes in. And the doubt is this. I I wanted to see more of my grandkids. I wanted to see more of my children. Right? We real we're humans. We love life. This is not a death cult. We want to live. That's beautiful. He put that in us. But notice the truth is yes, let's go be with Jesus to be absent from the body to is to be present with the Lord. And yet at the exact same time, he's put the love of life within us. And we want to proverb in that uh proverbial scene be uh the the grandma and the grandpa and the rocking chair as you watch your uh generations play in front of you. That God loves that. Do you understand everybody? But you and I live in a fallen world. This all this stuff is falling apart. It's all going to burn up someday. The Bible says people want to live forever. Eat this, drink this, do the other. You know what? I'm I'm gonna I don't know what this guy You know that doctor I'm not gonna say his name because he'll sue me. You know the doctor that now I'm convinced I can't listen to him anymore. Every time you go to watch something his his he pops up and says do you think that tomatoes are good for you? Think again. So then honey Lisa no more tomatoes. And then I'm going to and then then he pops up again. Do you think bananas help you? You better think again. Have you heard this guy? Do you know who I'm talking about? This guy. You know what he's saying? This is what he's saying. God didn't know what he was doing when he made all this stuff. And I found out, you found out the only way that you're going to live forever is if you buy all of his stuff, and you'll go broke, mortgage your home to pay for the whole thing. But you'll live forever homeless. and and he'll live forever rich. But just know this, you can't eat anything but my pills. Wow. Really? Who wants to live forever here? Look around. You want to be here for long? Look around. I want to go today.

Think about it. This world's crazy. But listen, if you don't know the Lord Jesus, you're saying, "No, no, no. You want to live forever? Just know this. You can live forever without having to live here." Amen. There's a big plus. Can you imagine? Just like you fall asleep at night and you wake up in the morning, time's passed. You don't even aware of it. You just know it's a new day. Imagine you close your eyes in this world and you open your eyes up in the next and you're with the Lord Jesus Christ because you've trusted him, because you believe in him, because of all that he's done for you. You can doubt. Just listen. Get your doubts answered. Mom and dad, your kids are doubting. That's normal. By the way, I want to talk to the dads real quick. It's not in my notes. Must be inspiration from God. Dads, you need to lead your family, especially your kids in the things of God. You know, your kids are going to come up and say, "Dad, what about this? What about that? What about the other thing? How if Jesus is God, then when he died on the cross, how come the world didn't fly apart?" That's a good question coming from a teenager. You better know the answer to that because listen, dads are supposed to be the leaders of the home. And give them the answer. You should know the answer. Give your kids the answer. Take away their doubts with answers and answers from the word of God. It'd be a beautiful thing. Now, if there's no dad in the house, and we know that 50% of America's homes have no dad, well, then mom, you step up. God will bless you greatly. But to the honest doubter, go with what you know. Start there. Might be a little bit, but take it.

In John 12, verse 16, the Bible says his disciples, Jesus's disciples did not understand. That's another term for doubt. They didn't get it. We don't understand these things at first. But when Jesus was glorified, that is resurrected, then they remembered that these things were written about him and that they had done these things to him. Notice folks, he was or they were doubting. They did not understand. But when Jesus Christ rose again from the dead, then they began to look at the scriptures differently because everything became more clear. Folks, listen. Everybody, every religious founder of all time, their bones, their dust, their box, their crate, their container, their whatever still remains except one. There is only one. We were supposed to be in Israel last week and I was supposed to take 500 of you and and have you go to the garden tomb and and have you get in line and stand there for an hour. Well, everybody takes their picture of a open hole of nothing. You you fly 15 hours. You go up to Jerusalem. You go run to the garden tomb. You stick your head inside. You look around and you say, "Why? What's it? There's nothing here." That's right. Hallelujah. He's gone. He's resurrected. He's Can you imagine if you went to Red Square today in Moscow and Lenon, you know, he's in tomb there, by the way. I've seen him many times. I've been there. He looks fantastic. He really does look great. But since 1992, I think the last time I saw him was like the 20th time in 2016 or 2006, I don't remember. It doesn't matter because why doesn't it matter? Because he never moved. He's like this. But you look like you could talk to him. It's like, hey, you look great. You ought to get up. The guy's dead. The guy's dead. They've got him imbalmed. He's His body's there. Oh, but he's long gone. He's long gone. There's a world on the other side of this flesh and bone that you and I have.

Now, listen, I hesitate to give you this quote because it took me honestly I pondered this quote for o probably an hour of just absolutely overwhelming statement. But you gotta, and I'm sure I'm gonna fumble the ball right here at the end zone, but this is a true statement. Are you ready for this? This is a this is a quote from um from Herbert Locker. And I want I want you to see this. All during his earthly life, I love that because Jesus had an eternal life before he came to this earthly life. Jesus avoided publicity and this and the spectacular. Now suddenly he appears in Jerusalem on one of the most conspicious occasions and in the most spectacular manner. Josephus tells us in his historical writings this guy is a a Jew who was hired by the Roman Empire to basically record history for the Romans but also spy on Israel. Josephus says there must have been over a hund,000 people on the slopes of Mount Olivet with palm branches shouting hosana and Jesus allowed it. For those of you who do not know Jesus when he did his miracles he would always tell people now don't tell anybody I just did this. And then they tried to make him king and he said, "No, it's not my time." On Palm Sunday, 1,994 years ago today, Jesus not only did not stop them, he cooperated. Why did he do that? Because of the exact prophecies that made that day possible. Zechariah chapter 9, it might be the best verse, most important verse of this entire day that you hear. Zechariah chapter 9, uh, beginning at the latter end of verse 8, ancient prophecy, Jesus is hundreds of years away from being born in the flesh. For now I have seen with my eyes. Rejoice greatly, oh daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king, Messiah, anointed one, is coming to you. He is just and having salvation, lowly, humble, riding on a donkey. And if that was enough, that was enough. But it goes deeper. A cult the full of a donkey. Wow. That causes doubt to evaporate. That causes atheism to go out the window. This ancient prophecy was fulfilled on this day in history. And what do you have to say to to that? Amen. You should say, "I believe." You should say, "On the facts, I believe, remarkable."

Psalm 118, the great messianic psalm. I wish I tried to I I mean, I read the whole psalm and I was going to have you all read it. Then I realized we don't have the time. Let that be your homework today. Can you read Psalm 118? It's not long. It's just too long for this morning. I don't have the time. Can you read it as a family before you go to bed tonight? This is a psalm that if you're Jewish, if you're Jewish and if you're watching right now, if you're here right now and you're Jewish, you you're saying, "I I know this psalm. This is the psalm of ascent. This is the psalm that has been sang for thousands of years as you go up to Jerusalem. It's about the Messiah. Every Jew knows this. Hosanna." That's what saved now means. Hosanna. Save now. I pray, oh Lord. By the way, let me change the words, but actually let me change them into uh accuracy because this is English. Bible's not in English. Hosana, I pray, oh Yave. Yahweh, Yahovah. Oh Y, I pray send now prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the name of Yave. Amen. We have blessed you from the house of Yahweh, Yave, Yahosua, salvation. That's his name. This is this is Listen, this is the psalm, one of many that announces the name of the God of the Bible. Friends, please know that The God of the Jews, the God of the Christians, we know his name. Yah, which by the way in the Greek is Jesus. Same meaning, remarkable. By the way, I want to give you that meaning just so you can write it down. You take a picture or whatever you want to do with this. It's pretty awesome. It means this a personal and proper name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The name of the God who is salvation. Salvation is his name and his provision. You can't separate salvation away from his name. We'll see this more clearly here in a moment. But think about this. Go with what you know. What do you know? You don't have to be a theologian to know God personally. Know him. Kind of remembering back the Christmas scene in Matthew chapter 2 verses 1 and two. Are you guys awake still? You okay? I'm I'm ahead of schedule so you guys need to be Don't get tired on me now. Matthew chapter 2. We all know this at Christmas time. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold wise men from the east came to Jerusalem. Watch verse two. Watch verse two. Saying so these are wise guys. These are wise men. These are these are very highly specially trained magi. These guys are these guys are no joke. saying, "Where is he who has been born what? King of the Jews, for we have seen his star in the east, and we have come to worship him." Listen to this. I have I got to tell you, I'm embarrassed. I never thought about this before. I've always known since I became a believer that Jesus was born king of the Jews. I always known about the three wise men in my nativity scene who came to worship the newborn king. But do you know what what's remarkable is that Jesus was born a king. What's your point? My point is Jesus was born a king because he was a king before he was born. There are no earthly kings who have ever been born. You say, "Wait a minute. What about the king? What about the king of England?" He was not born a king. He was born a prince. Jesus was never born a prince. Jesus was born a king because he's always been king. And listen, as king, he was born. The magi had it right. I thought you would be really impressed with that. I thought that was profound. That was a ooh ah moment right there.

Third thing is this is that your only hope you the open-minded is what makes sense. I'm going to ask you to challenge in your mind what makes sense because I'm going to ask you lovingly sarcastically this way. What was the message? It's known as the gospel. What was the message of Jesus Christ anyway? What are we doing here? Come on. What makes sense? Let's be honest in your life. Think now quickly in your life. What's important to you? I mean, strip away the veneer. Strip away this the veneer. The stuff that really doesn't matter. You know, the stuff we focus on that doesn't matter. Take all that away. What's really important to you? love, faithfulness, relationship, forgiveness, conscience cleared, things you cannot buy, and then you open up your Bible and you read that the Bible, the Gospels have the answer to all of these things that I just said and more that you cannot buy. So let me ask you this. If the message of Jesus Christ is the gospel, the evangel which means good news, what is it? Think for a moment. Just think. Jesus Christ, the word of God, the Bible is the only book and he's the only one that answers the actual real things that you really care about. And living in America and especially Southern California, this is the hardest. This is a herculean lift for me because you and I live in a culture that is highly pampered. Our our weather, look, let's be honest, things are expensive. Look, you see the price of gasoline because of the war. Let's be honest. You you did exactly what I did yesterday. I pulled up to the Shell station and I looked at the price of gas and I knew it was from hell because Oh, no. I can prove it. I can prove it because the price of gas over here at Shell was 666 a gallon. You said, "Jack, you went to some other gas station, right? You didn't put like the devil juice in your car, did you?" Yes, I did. Yes, I did. But I looked at that and that thing's that thing's pumping away. And here's here here was my thought. I I I got places to go. That's exactly what you were thinking. I can't believe the price of this gas. Load me up. Do you want to know why the poor of us the poor of us here? The poor What am I trying to say? The poorest of us live in Southern California. this message. If we take this message right now to Kenya or Sudan or Iran and tell them the good news of the gospel, they'll devour it. When you're facing death, the price of gas doesn't matter. It's the price that was paid by the blood of the lamb to take away our sins. That's what matters. One we can pay, one we can never pay. That makes sense to me. Did Jesus succeed or fail? If he promised us all these blessings, did he succeed or did he fail? He succeeded. Depends on what makes sense to you. If you think if you think redemption is owning a Ferrari, you're going to be disappointed in about a month. Especially if I pull up in my old pickup truck and run right into it. Maybe God will send me to run right into your idol. I can see that happening in my mind. And I have to fight that picture right now.

Mark 11:es 9 and 10 says, "Then those who went before and those who followed cried out saying, hosana, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, and blessed is the kingdom of the father, our father David that comes in the name of the Lord. Hosana in the highest." I'm gonna ask the guys if they'll put up the scene. Well, you do have the scene, but can you take the words away? Is that possible on there? Okay, great. Look at this. Okay. So, this is the mountain of all. So, we're we're stand the the the picture is where the the buses drop everybody off. Okay. So, you see the Palm Sunday path, the roadway. When Jesus is going down this roadway toward the temple, that valley, that canyon you see right there, that's the Kidedron Valley. Uh you see the gate, the the golden gate or the eastern gate, uh where those two little paths are leading up to. Uh when Jesus comes back in the second coming over here from this from my right to uh to my left, Jesus's foot will touch the Mount of Olives, which is like right here. Okay. The Bible says his foot's going to touch the Mount of Olives and he's going to blow through that gate. That gate is going to burst open and he's going to establish his throne there on Mount Zion. A lot of people today talking about Zion. Uh they just need to be careful because you're looking at it. Uh God is really big about Zion because he said his son is going to be enthroned in Zion. Uh wow. So the more you hear about Zion in the news, the more you should be thinking this. Jesus is coming soon. Wow. Really? My news is talking about Zion. My Bible has talked about Zion for thousands and thousands of years. But wow, imagine that. Incredible. But the crowd knew enough. Many of them were shouting hosana. Many of them will turn their back on Jesus later this week. Not all of them. Some of the Pharisees fought against Jesus. Not all of them. You know, we kind of have a hint of one of them by the name of Nick. Nicodemus. He was one of them. I believe he became a believer. He's at the cross with Joseph of Arythea.

Number four, church is this real quickly. Number four to the convinced follower is to rejoice in his promises. Rejoice in his promises. The fact that John 12:1 17 starts out by saying this. Therefore, the people who were with him, Jesus, when he called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead, bore witness. Christians, listen, we've been convinced Jesus raises the dead. Bore witness. For this reason, the people also met him because they heard that he had done this sign. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, "You see that you are accomplishing nothing." They're speaking to themselves, "You, you're not doing anything." thing and the other guy pointed to the other guy, you're not doing much either. They're all in each other's throat because the whole region is starting to believe in Jesus and the Pharisees are losing control of their religious game. You see that you're accomplishing nothing. Look, the world is going after him. Ain't that awesome? Or the world has gone after him. What a great statement that is. Beautiful. be convinced. Know what the Bible says and then test it against what is logical, what is reasonable. It's remarkable. You'll see the fantastic works of God. And then number five, because time well, no, I I'm not going to do number five without first giving you these three passages. You guys ready? Can you hang in for a minute, you guys? It's Acts chapter 4. We'll just blow through this. Listen up, everybody. Acts 4:8. Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them, "Rulers of the people, religious leaders, the leadership of the people and elders, the government of Israel, if we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you've crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man stands here before you whole. This is the stone which the builders which were rejected by the builders which has become the chief cornerstone stone. Nor is there salvation in in any other for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Next verse, Philippians 2:10-11. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, those in heaven and those of earth and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Man, this is like a next verse. It's like a crescendo coming. Romans 10:9. That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes into righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made into salvation. For the scripture says, Old Testament. Whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. Absolutely awesome. Absolutely awesome.

And here's number five. You can stand. You standing will make me shorten the ending. Fifth and final argument. Your only hope are for you who are willingly cautious to make your decision. It's okay to be cautious to follow Jesus. It's a big deal. I don't know why God is doing this to me lately, but I'm loving it. And that is there are some people in my life that I've been witnessing to. They've been analyzing the truth. They got all kinds of questions. I love that. And they've really been struggling with the gospel. Really struggling. And I'm very grateful for that. And then systematically they've been making decisions. Yes. But it's it's the yes that has come over weeks and months of struggling with the gospel. I like that. because it tells me it's not an emotional decision. They became willing, cautious. I think it's good to be cautious in this day and age. There's a lot of weirdos out there in the name of religion. I want to leave this with you. This shocked me to this week when I read this. This shocked me. It's a quote by Martin Luther. I'm going to ask the guys to put it up on the screen. This is the reformer Martin Luther. Somebody once asked me, "How come you left out his last name?" I said, "I didn't leave out his last name. What are you talking about?" They said, "It's Martin Luther King. Don't you know that?" I said, "Don't you know who Martin Luther King was named after?" This guy, the original Martin Luther. Wait, that's not the quote. It's on page nine. I believe it's it says here I believe in the words of the great reformer Martin Luther are true when he said look at this look at this no one feared death more than Jesus Christ I want that to settle in said well are you kidding me that can't be true no one feared death more than Jesus Christ that can't be true because my Jesus he saves me but he's he and he came to heaven I mean he came from heaven to earth and I can relate to him but Don't Don't do that. Don't say that. That scares me. It shouldn't scare you, friends. It shouldn't scare you because the Bible tells us, watch this. You and I were born into this world. We were conceived in sin. Did you know that? You and I, we were conceived fallen. And we have lived fallen. That's why we're liars. That's why we steal cookies. That's why we li That's That's why we tell our mom we didn't do it. That's why we blame it on the dog or our sister. We're sinners. And then you hear the gospel and and you give your life to Christ and God begins this beautiful act of redemption upon your life in an instance in an instant of time. And all the life lived forward, God is sanctifying his word in your life. Watch this. No one feared death more than Jesus Christ. How can that statement be possibly true? Because Jesus came from heaven. He's the eternal God, the son. He is perfect and he's going to put on at Christmas time a human body. He's going to live the ministry life that's recorded in the Bible. And then for you and for me, he is going to experience at the cross later this week eternal separation from his father. He had never known that before. And he was God. and he knew what was coming. You and I fear death in a way. Those of us who are Christians, we're not as fearful of death as we used to be. But our fear of death is, is it going to be painful? I hate needles. But remember, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Now, if you're if you're not a Christian, you're saying, "Death scares me to scares me to death." Uh, it should. Listen, Jesus took away from those who believe the power of sin and death. But none of us know exactly what it's like to cross over, to go through that door. Jesus did before he died. But here's what's different. You, the believer, will never experience separation from God. Jesus did. Shabbaki, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me. Friend, please now say yes to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. So that you will never experience separation from God because Jesus paid that price for your sin and mine. And his fellowship was broken with the father when the Bible says God the Father laid on him the iniquity of us all. When Jesus paid the price on the cross, and we'll hear about it on Good Friday, and paid all that debt of your life and mine, on the third day, he rose again in victory. Because he was perfect, death could not hold him. And all God's people said, "Amen." God bless you. Oh, praise to the Lord, to the lamb, to the king of heaven. For he rose, now he reigns. We will sing forever to the Lord. To the to the king of heaven for he rose. Now give it we will sing forever with a thousand hallelujah. We magnify your name. You alone deserve the glory, the honor and the praise. Lord Jesus, this song is forever. A thousand hallelujah, a thousand more. Amen. God bless you guys. If you need prayer, come on up front. Our prayer team will be up here for you. We'll see you on Wednesday for our special Passion Wednesday service. Heat. Heat.