Fear Not, Daughter Of Zion; Behold, Your King Is Coming

So this morning is Palm Sunday. It commemorates our Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, into the holy city of the Jews. And this morning's sermon is going to be focused on our Lord Jesus' kingship. As we study this text, I hope to show you that while we live in this world and Jesus is Lord over all creation today, his kingdom is nevertheless a spiritual kingdom. And it is that kingdom the spiritual kingdom that he ushered in during his incarnation through his death and his resurrection and his ascension back to heaven. My hope is that God will help us to properly understand his kingdom and how we ought to live in this world when it feels often as though we have a foot in each kingdom, because we do. And what I hope is that it will wet our appetites and help us to desire a time when our feet are no longer spread, but we are at our home, at rest with our Lord Jesus. Would you please stand now?

as we read the word of the Lord from John chapter 12, verses 12 to 16. It says, On the next day, the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet him and began to shout, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it. As it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion. Behold, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt. These things his disciples did not understand at first. But when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of him and that they had done these things to him. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. What would the environmentalists have thought at the tearing off of the branches? To praise God. All of his creation is made to praise him. It was created for that purpose. Those trees were grown to have their limbs.

taken off at that moment to usher Jesus into Jerusalem. And so Jesus is coming into the city, and he's coming in, as Eric mentioned earlier, he's coming in as a king, a king of peace, not of war on a donkey. He's being welcomed into his home. It's as though a king were riding in after a battle or a war, and he's coming to make peace. Jerusalem was the holy city of the Jews. And it was the place where the promised Messiah was to return to liberate his people, to set them free. This is what the Old Testament points to and signifies and says, there's a one coming who's going to set you free. It presumes that you're in bondage. It presumes you're in slavery, that freedom is necessary. And that's what this Messiah, this Christ, has come to do. And so as Jesus entered into Jerusalem, those who were with him wouldn't have been wrong, where they would have been wrong, but it would have been understandable, their error, that they believed that Jesus was coming to establish his kingdom and that that meant he was coming to expel the Romans, that his entry into the city, never mind that he was riding on a donkey and what that signifies, was actually a political or a military change that was going to take place. Jerusalem at that time was an occupied city because Israel was an occupied nation. They were ruled by the Romans, the godless, wicked Romans.

There were many who were frustrated and upset at the occupation. There were many who wanted to be free, though it's worth noting that the Pharisees were not among those who wanted to be set free from the Romans. They liked the status quo. They may have paid lip service to wanting to be set free from Roman occupation and rule, but it was them who ruled together with the Romans and who were given their power and their influence. And so they understood Jesus' life and his ministry, him coming into the earth, him preaching, him teaching, him calling people to believe in the Son of God and to follow him. They understood him to be upsetting the political constellation of power that existed, that had them at the top. This is one of the main reasons they were frustrated with him, was they were taking away, he was taking away their authority and their place and their position. He was a threat to them. And so they sought to kill him.

This misunderstanding of what Jesus came to accomplish in establishing his kingdom was true even of his closest followers. You remember the time in Peter when they came to arrest him at Gethsemane. Did what? Pulled out his sword and lopped off the ear of Malchus, the high priest's servant. Everyone thought that Jesus was coming to right the wrongs that they thought needed righting. And that was primarily that the Romans would be expelled and that they would receive again their... their nation state, and they would be free of pagan and unbelieving rulers. Now, here's a difficulty that we all live in, and we've been talking about this a bit as we've worked our way through Deuteronomy, and it shows up here again. We live in two places or in two separate realities as Christians. One is that we live as men and women, as human beings, in God's creation in this world. We're a part of it. We're supposed to be a part of it. We're supposed to interact with it. We're supposed to bless it. We're supposed to grow it. We're supposed to cultivate it. These are things that God has called us to do. And yet we're supposed to do all of those things not as residents of this place, but as strangers and aliens, sojourners. We're supposed to do all of this work realizing that this place isn't actually our home and that our heart's desire

And our final destination is not going to be here, but with God in heaven, in his kingdom for all eternity. And so we live, as I said earlier, with a foot in each kingdom, trying to figure out how to negotiate the tension. Some people will just pull both feet over into the earthly kingdom and say, we're just going to live like this is all there is. Let's eat and drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. There is no spiritual concern. There is no other world or other kingdom to worry about. On the other hand, others will pull both of their feet over into the spiritual kingdom as though they don't live in this world and withdraw from society. Even as they live among it, they don't see that they have any obligation or any responsibility to participate in and to cultivate and to bless their neighbor. Both of those are failures.

We live, so long as we're in this world, until our Lord returns or we pass away, we live in this tension of having dual citizenship, if you will, or citizenship in one but residence in another. So it causes a lot of conflicts. And that's the conflict that they're not understanding how to negotiate in this process. They understand that as Jesus is coming into Jerusalem, he's coming in to establish a worldly or an earthly kingdom. That's why they thought he was come to put out the Romans. No one understood. They didn't know what they were saying when they shouted out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. What is their point of reference for a king in Israel? Who is the best king of Israel? David. And was David a spiritual king? What did he rule over? The nation of Israel. Did his kingdom have physical boundaries? Did he fight physical enemies? And this is their point of reference.

And so you understand that Jesus was coming. They're going, finally, the thing that David was pointing towards has arrived. We have a king coming who's going to get rid of our enemies and give us back our land. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. So they're all following along and they're praising God. But in their hearts, whether they're confused or not, their understanding is he's coming to reestablish our land. And our way of life. And to expel our oppressors. And that, as we will come to see, was a misunderstanding. That's actually not what Jesus was coming to do. And it's indeed not what he did. His kingdom was not going to be of this world. Now you remember when Jesus later on, after he's been arrested, he's standing before Pilate. And we have a record in John 18 of this interaction.

between Jesus and Pilate. And Pilate puts the question to him, are you the king of the Jews? Just let me ask you flat out with no ambiguity. Are you what they say you are, what you're accused of? And I want you to listen to this interaction and particularly how Jesus answers that question. This is John 18, verses 33 to 37. It says, therefore Pilate entered again into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered. Are you saying this on your own initiative or did others tell you about me? Pilate answered, I'm not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered you to me. What have you done? Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm.

Therefore Pilate said to him, so you are a king. Jesus answered, you say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born and for this I have come into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. So what does this passage, this interaction between Jesus and Pilate teach us about his kingdom? Well, first it teaches us that Jesus is in fact a king and that it's right for us to understand that he is a king. That he was a king then. And he is a king now. What else does it teach us? That his kingdom is not of this world. And did you hear what he said would have been the proof for his kingdom being of this world? If my kingdom was of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I wouldn't be handed over to the Jews. And so he's providing context and explanation to why Peter was wrong when he drew his sword.

Why it was sin for Peter to draw his sword and to strike out at the Jews in that way. Even Peter misunderstood what Jesus had come to do. And so Jesus both says, I am a king. But in effect, he says to Pilate, you don't have to worry. I'm not here to dethrone you. If I were, we would have a different circumstance right now. You remember what he said to Simon Peter. He's like, do I need you to do this? Can I not call down legions from heaven of angels to come down and just wipe these guys out if I want? This is a hard pill to swallow. This is sort of like medicine that we don't like. It doesn't taste good. Because when something's not going the way we want or the way that we presume it should go, isn't our natural response to fight to get what we want and to think that it's appropriate for us to fight for the things that we want or need?

How else will we get them? And we need them. Can't live without them. But Jesus, both by his actions, restoring and healing the ear of the high priest's servant, and by rebuking Simon for his actions, and by testifying before Pilate. He's sewn on with an iron thread the reality that his kingdom is not of this world and that the things that we are to prioritize and the things that we are to seek after and hunger and thirst for don't have to do with this world. And I know that some of you, that's frustrating for me to say too because this world is all the only point of reference that any of us have in terms of physical, tangible, experiential reality. It's all we know. We've been told of another kingdom.

But we're always confusing and conflating Jesus' purposes and his means and his ends in this regard. His kingdom is not of this world. And his servants are forbidden and kept from fighting to establish a kingdom for him on this world. Now, I know you want me to make a caveat and say, well, but there's this, but what about the church? And what about this? And what about that? And we'll come to some of that stuff toward the end of the sermon. But I just want to know, does the word of God, as we've just seen it, pin your shoulders to the ground? Or are you like, no, that's not really what it means. If you're fighting against the things that God has said here, it's not me you're fighting against. I'm the one talking, but I'm only saying what God said. There's this real problem that we have and this tension that we live in of how to conduct ourselves in a world that's not our home. Another way of saying it is, it's very difficult to be a Christian before we're an American. We understand that kings

Their job is to grant, for a good king anyhow, is to grant freedom and peace to their subjects. And I don't mean to say that Jesus didn't come to grant freedom or peace to his subjects. What I mean to say is that the peace and the freedom that he grants to us, we don't care much about or think much about or prioritize very much. When Jesus was testified about at the beginning of his life, he was said to lead. lead free a host of captives. That he came to set the prisoners free. And there's two ways to understand that. One is to understand that in a physical sense. He's going to free me from all of the constraints and the troubles and the hardships and the burdens that I suffer in this world. But I mean to tell you that if he does those things, and I mean if he does those things, because he doesn't always do those things, it's secondary. It's a distant second to the freedom that he did come to give you.

The problem is we just take that freedom for granted, the freedom from sin and from the tyranny and the oppression of Satan. We just assume that's just where we think because we're so accustomed to it that it's actually freedom, that we are free. But our sins and the wrath that they deserve is not freedom. You're not free when Satan is ruler of your life. You're in the worst bondage. And one of the reasons it's the worst bondage is that you don't realize it's bondage. The Israelites, when they were in Egypt, so long as they were there and there were whips and the suffering and the bondage was experienced by them, they said, this is no good. And they cried out to the Lord. But as soon as they got free of it, that was freedom. Wandering in the wilderness, wondering about food and water, That wasn't freedom. Freedom was meat in the pots of our oppressor's land. And this is often how we live. And it's not a commendation of us that we live this way. And so we as Christians have to fight back and beat back this lie, these corruptions, and say that actually Jesus came not to set us free from our sorrows and our oppressors in this world primarily, but to set us free from the tyranny and the bondage of Satan.

and the power that our sins have over us. That's what Jesus came to save us from. That kingdom that he came to establish was a kingdom where there would be no more bondage, no more slavery, no more sin, no more death. But because we haven't experienced it, because we can't see it, because we're so familiar with how we live and what we have, it's not as beautiful or as attractive to us as it ought to be. And so when Paul says in Philippians, you know, I don't know what to desire. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. But as for me, I don't know which to choose. We're like, seriously, Paul? You don't know which one's better? I know what I like. I know it's familiar and comfortable to me. But what he's saying there and what he's doing there is exhorting us and encouraging us and laying before our eyes something to be spiritually appraised, something that we ought to desire, even though we don't have any experience with it.

And so it's been an error and a misunderstanding of the people of God from before Jesus' time, during his time, and even down to today that we misunderstand his kingdom and its purposes and its nature. We think that if Jesus is king, we have this list of what him being a king means. It's like, what are you supposed to do if you're the king in the first hundred days of office? And all of them are tangible, practical things. And we judge. Our kings, by those standards, if he's a good king, he'll get a lot done. If he's not a good king, if he's an impotent king, he won't be able to. Because kings ought to just be able to stand up straight and speak out of their mouth and just have it fixed. That's what being a good king is, after all. That's what being a good husband is, isn't it? You husbands, you just stand up and you say, here's how it's going to be in my house, and it's all better now.

All the wife and the children are all like, oh, we understand just exactly what our king wants from us, our Lord. We'll just step to and do it. There won't be any resistance in our hearts. There won't be any resistance in our actions. He always tells us to do the right things. He always does the best for us. And it turns out that that always happens to be what we wanted him to do for us. Anyhow, that's how your house works, isn't it? It's how my house works. Or not. We all kind of laugh because we're like, if only. And I say, why do we presume that that's the way leadership is defined and how it functions? The reason is because we can't understand Jesus being Lord over creation and yet allowing there to be the sort of unrest or wickedness or rebellion. We just don't understand it. It doesn't make any sense to us. We think good kings just put down the oppressors and get rid of them right now. And so we...

We operate in our workplaces like this. My boss should just do this. Every one of us knows how to do our boss's job better than he does. All of you wives think you know how to do your husband's job better if I were the leader. And all of you kids think your parents are idiots for the ways that they discipline you and the way that they restrain you. They don't understand. They're ruining my life. They're spoiling my fun. They're making me uncool. And I could do it better. And so our hearts cry. is that if Jesus is king over all of creation, then we ought to be free as we define it. We ought to have liberty as we desire it. As Americans, we like to talk about our constitution, about the benefits of capitalism. And listen here, I'm not here to tell you that any of these things in and of themselves are bad or are wrong. They're blessings that have come to us from the hand of God, but they are not the evidences of his kingdom being established.

You getting wealthy is not actually the point of Jesus saving you from your sins. He doesn't care if you have money. I should say that differently. He didn't come to make you rich in this world. He came to save you from your sins. And so before we talk about how we should conduct ourselves and what our priorities should be in this earthly kingdom, we ought to do business first with his spiritual kingdom. We ought to care and prioritize first that our sins be conquered and dealt with by him and not take that for granted. The problem is many of us do take these things for granted, like entitled children who presume that the most difficult work to be done is simply a given and that it wasn't costly to the one who had to do it. Because after all, we deserve it. And so Jesus is a king, the king, and he is ruler over all creation right now.

As I speak, and yet he did not come to establish an earthly kingdom. It wasn't his purpose in entering into Jerusalem. It wasn't to expel the Romans. It wasn't to give his people their land and their government back. In fact, if you think about the future of Jerusalem, it wasn't too many years after this that what was prophesied in that passage Eric read during our scripture lesson from Luke came to pass. What happens to this holy city, this high place, and this glorious temple? Not one stone was left sitting on top of another. Now, if your hope was an earthly kingdom and your hope was an establishment of a Christian nation, it's a miserable failure. Jesus didn't, it didn't work, Lord. The bad guys won. They tore it all down. They cast us out and they killed us. And so this is the difficult thing to understand. It's what's often misunderstood. If Jesus reigns, Why does he allow such wickedness to prevail? And this question applies equally to society as well as to the church. Why does he allow corruption to fester and to grow? If he were a real king, I wouldn't say that out loud because that's arrogant and blasphemous. We do think it though. What tends to happen when the Lord delays? Think about...

Saul and Samuel. Remember they were going to battle, and Samuel said, go up to, I think it was Gilgal, and he says, wait there for me for seven days, and Daniel will correct me later if it's not Gilgal. He always tells me when I get my stories, details mixed up. Sometimes Daniel doubt us too. And it's Daniel's. It's the Daniel's. Anyway, Samuel the priest tells Saul, go on up and wait seven days, and then I'm going to come and we're going to offer sacrifices, and then we're going to go to war. And Samuel's late. And coming. So what's Saul do? He says, we've got to offer these sacrifices. We've got to do something. We're going to lose the battle. All the people are deserting. They're fearful. They're scared. I have to do something. And so he does. He offers sacrifices. And even as he's offering the sacrifices, here comes Samuel. Saul, what are you doing? Well, the people were scared and there was all of this stuff. And so we had to do this. And you were late. What was I to do? There's a simple answer to that question. He was to wait. He was to wait.

But he didn't wait. And why didn't he wait? It's not a trick question. It's because he was scared. He got scared. And that is what happens when the Lord delays. Or when he doesn't do what we think he ought to do, or he doesn't do, you know, in the time frame that we would like or think it has to be done in, when he delays, fear is our response. Maybe he isn't powerful enough to do it. Maybe he doesn't care enough. Maybe we aren't doing enough. Maybe we should take up arms and try to co-opt the civil authorities so that we can usher in the kingdom as it should be. And we do all of this because it's on a bad trajectory. But the thing we never recognize and are not willing to admit is that what's motivating us are impure motives and primarily our fear. When was the last time you told somebody, you men told somebody that you did something sinful because you were scared?

I mean, seriously, I'm just scared. It's just wise. It's just the prudent thing to do. Who else was going to do it? We don't admit our fears. But when we don't admit our fears, we're acting a lot like Saul did before Samuel. He blamed the fear on, well, it was these guys who were scared. Well, they were scared because you were scared. We make excuses. So the first thing we have to do is recognize our fear and own it. Now, in case you think that fear is not actually what motivates these sorts of things, look back to our text. What prophecy is spoken concerning Jesus coming in on a donkey? The first thing that's said is, fear not. Fear not, daughter of Zion. Behold, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt. Why do they need to be told to fear not? Because they're scared.

And fear leads us to do all kinds of foolish and sinful and corrupting things. We're not supposed to fear as God's children, as the daughter of Zion in this passage, because our king is coming. And so the first business, order of business for us with regard to these kingdoms and how to live between them is to recognize that it causes fear in us. When the things that we have to do and the world we have to live among causes us to fear. If you doubt it, I'll just ask you this. You who have kids or you have grandkids, are you excited for the world that they're going to grow up in? Or are you scared about the world that they're going to grow up in? I'm so excited for them to live in 21st century America and make it to the year 2100. I'm sure it's going to be better than it is now. I don't know that any of us really feel that way. It's a fearful thought. It's a fearful thought.

So will we admit it's a fearful thought? And that our parenting and our organization of our lives generally is predicated on that fear. Will we admit it? I don't want to tell you. It's too, it's kind of pathetic. But I'm not just talking about you. I'm talking about me. I have fears about this kind of stuff. I wonder what will happen to my kids. I know enough to know that The things that are difficult for me or that will be difficult for me in my lifetime will be easier and lower grade than the stuff that my kids and my grandkids will face. I'm convinced of that much. It's a fearful thing to me. The freedoms that I've enjoyed and known my whole life, the relative prosperity and peace that we take for granted, it's not guaranteed to our kids. And you're not wrong to recognize that the trajectory of our society is not toward the better.

All I'm asking you though is, will you then admit your fear as a motivation for your life? And then will you do business with this passage where we're told to fear not? Another way of asking it is, what is the greatest danger that your children and your grandchildren will face? Is it actually Rome or is it their own sins? Now, we all say, we know it's their own sins, but do they know that we think that? Or have we convinced them that actually our greatest fear is that they might have to suffer or that they might be poor or that they might be imprisoned or they might lose their jobs? We talked about Peter earlier when he cut off Malchus's ear. I want to circle back to it and ask you, why did he do that? I'd submit to you that he did it because he was scared. What do you mean? He was powerful and strong and mighty and courageous. And I would just say, well, let's just, let's just.

Press play and run the story forward just a little bit and we'll stop. What did he do after Jesus healed Malchus? He ran away. Why do people run away? Because they're so full of courage? I don't run away from battle because I'm so full of courage. Now he followed Jesus at a distance and he was warming himself by the fire later that night after they'd arrested Jesus and he was coming. He was questioned. Weren't you with him? No. And again, weren't you with him? No. A third time, slave girl, little girl. Aren't you one of them? Weren't you running around with him? No, with curses. Why did he lie? Why did he lie? I mean, there's no tricks in this. Why did he lie? He was scared. He was scared. Why did he go weep bitterly? Because he realized that what Jesus had told him just a few hours before, that he would deny the Lord three times before the rooster crowed, before the cock crowed, that he had just done it.

He realized how much of a coward he was. But not long before Jesus was arrested, what was Peter saying? I'll go with you even to death. Didn't really do it, did he? Fear is a powerful thing. And it's a lot more present in our lives than we care to admit or acknowledge on a day-to-day basis. Those sins that Peter committed were motivated by his fear. What was he afraid of? It's not a trick question, but think about it. What was he afraid of? He was afraid of having happen to him what happens to Jesus. That's it. That's it. He's like, they're coming to kill him. I don't want them to kill me too. That's fear. Do you fear? What are you afraid of? What has your fear led you to compromise on and to prioritize? These are questions that are helpful for us to be thinking about and answering.

I believe that American Christians have been giving themselves a fear for quite a long time now. Nobody talks about it. Nobody sees it. We don't recognize it in ourselves or in other people. We would look at Simon and say he was a courageous man. And I don't mean to say that there was nothing good about Simon or that Simon didn't do wonderful and great things for the Lord because he did. But we also have to understand he's just a man like you and me who was fearful, who doubted and sank in the water, right? Jumped out of the boat, walked on the water, started to doubt, fear, sink. I will go to death with you. Drew out his sword and then fled. Who denied Jesus and then who preached the sermon at Pentecost. I'd commend Peter to you. Fears and all. The thing is, when we get scared, we don't talk about what we're scared of. We just come up with a plan for how to avert our fear, how to keep the thing we're afraid of from happening. And we assuage our fears with, well, I have a good plan. I have a good plan.

Whether it works or not, we'll just find something new to be scared about. That's the thing about fear. There's not just one thing you're afraid of, and then when you solve that one thing, everything's great now. Because sin doesn't work like that, and fear is sin. When you're afraid of something and then it doesn't come to pass, you go, oh, oh, well, I'm glad I avoided that, but now I'm afraid of this other thing. How much sleep do we lose over it? How far away do we wander? from Jesus Christ because of our fears. I'll give to you as an example, the parachurch, which I would say is in its dotage and it's past its heyday. But the parachurch ministry model and idea was very popular a while, you know, a couple decades ago. It was a really big deal. You'd go off to college and they were there and they were ministering to all these students and all these kids and they were preaching the gospel to them and bringing them up in,

into the kingdom. Now, was there some good work that was done? I'm not here to, listen, almost all of our lives, unless God has said it, it's not black or white. There's often a lot of gray and a lot of shades of gray. So I'm going to talk about the parachurch. It's not for me to say that there's never been any good or anything done by it. But I mean to say as a movement, they saw a problem in the church. It was a scary thing to them. They were afraid of the consequences. And so they said, we're going to solve the problem. We're going to go and we're going to get young people and we're going to minister to them and we're going to teach them the word of God and we're going to do all these things. They made a plan to deal with the problem that they saw to assuage their fears. Was there good ministry done? Sure, there was some good ministry done. Was there harm done? Yeah, I think so. I think there are a lot of people who never found their way into a church, into the body of Christ, which is what the church is, not the parachurch. They never found their way into the body of Christ and into fellowship with him.

through the local church because they were drawn away from it. There was a fear. There was a plan. And there was a lot of bad fruit, and it didn't last. I feel very similarly about Christians' interest in politics these days. We're scared. I think American Christians are scared of losing their way of life, of losing their wealth, of losing their comforts, of losing their freedoms. And they've attributed all of those things to... the laws that govern our nation. And that's not where they come from. That's ultimately not where they come from. We're afraid of what our kids will have to deal with, or what our grandchildren will have to deal with, what kind of sufferings they'll face in this society. The problem with a lot of Christians' involvement in politics these days is that they've given up on the church in the same way that the parachurch did.

They've given up on it. They want to see change and it's not coming quick enough or in the way that they think. So they go, what we're going to do is we're going to take action. We're going to get down in the trenches and get the work done. So can we both be happy that Roe was overturned and realize that hearts weren't changed as a result of it? And that the desire for abortion is still as alive and well today as it was before that? We can be thankful for them doing their job and we can even desire that they would have done more than that. But what's needed...

is repentance and a return to the Lord Jesus Christ to where we don't desire to kill our own kids in one way or the other. That's what's needed. And so I think we should be thankful for Roe being overturned as an example. And yet I think we should be redoubling our efforts toward seeing the hearts and minds and lives of our friends and neighbors and ourselves being changed by the gospel. Otherwise, We've brought a squirt gun to a gunfight. The government's not going to be able to protect your way of life. They're not going to be able to because they don't have the tools to address the hearts of men. They have the sword to discipline the offenses, but they don't have the gospel to address the real problems. Abortion's not a political problem. It's not a political problem. It's a moral problem.

Do lawmakers have a role in interacting with it? Sure, yes. I'm not here to say they don't. Again, I'm glad they overturned Roe. But they can't address the moral rot in our society. And if you want to be afraid about your kids, that's what's going to cause them problems. It's not going to be their employer or DEI or being woke, primarily. It's going to be the people who are out to get them because they're rebels against God. And that's who you have to prepare your kids to stand. against and love with the gospel and suffer because of it. That's what it means to be a member of the kingdom that Jesus established here. One of the things that was important to the planting, integral to the planting of this church 15 years ago, as you guys surprised me by commemorating, I've been the senior pastor for 10 years. Where'd you get the picture? Someone had it? Okay. Facebook. That's where life is, right? One of the things that,

was integral to the planting and the growth, I believe, of this church was preaching the whole counsel of God, addressing the issues where Christians were being attacked and led astray at in society. We didn't have a big plan for like, well, this is how you plant and grow a church and these are the theological positions that we have to take that are popular and this is the type of worship that we have to have that's popular and this is the type of attire and music and all that. That wasn't ever a consideration. Our whole plan was go and preach the full counsel of God and care for people's souls and teach them to love Jesus Christ and make them disciples at the points where they're struggling and you'll have a church. And so you who are here, that's been our aim. I'm not saying we've done it perfectly. But that's been what we've striven for. Because we've believed that the change that needs to be wrought in our society

is going to have to come from individual people and individual families getting on board with Jesus Christ and his commands. And so that's what we've sought to do. And the reason we've sought to do that is because we believe that that's actually what will be best for our society. We'd like to see our society turn around. We'd like to see God be merciful to us, to restore to our nation the years that the locusts have eaten. We'd like to see our kids not have to go to prison or suffer for their faith. Actually, The difference is we believe that that is actually accomplished through the preaching and proclamation of the gospel and the making of disciples, not the passing of laws. And that the passing of laws actually is downstream of making disciples. And so to the extent that we want godly laws and we want righteousness promoted, we realize that the first thing that has to be done is you all have to be disciples of Jesus Christ and have to be equipped and expected to speak for Jesus Christ in your life.

How in the world can you expect a politician to do something you yourself are not willing or haven't done? That's hypocrisy. So, the people at Jesus' time as he came into this city were seeking an establishment of an earthly kingdom through political means. You have to guard against that today. They were given to fear and so are we. And so our place then is to fight against those fears. Does that mean that Christians should have nothing to do with politics? Did I ever say that? I didn't say that, did I? Have I said that voting is all that we should do? Have I said we shouldn't care? I haven't said any of that, have I? But you might be forgiven for thinking that's what I actually mean. But that's a very rigid and wooden interpretation of the things I'm saying. Living as a Christian in this world, living in the tension between being here on earth and being a citizen of the kingdom of heaven is...

A tense place to live. And there's a lot of fearfulness that comes along with it. One of the last things I want to tell you is that when Jesus came in, this passage tells us these things, these passages, these Old Testament promises that they're exclaiming, they didn't understand them. Isn't that what the passage says? These things his disciples did not understand at first. But when Jesus was glorified, And remember, what happened when he was, what does it mean when he was glorified? When he was raised from the dead and when he ascended to his father. So time passes. There's this valley of death and burial and fear and then resurrection and then a short time with him and then ascension. After all of that had taken place, then they remembered that these things were written about him. Then they had a context and an understanding for what they were doing at this point.

I would simply ask you, what king comes and establishes his kingdom and then leaves his realm? It's an absent father, right? You make kids and then leave? We'd understand that to be a bad father, right? So why then do we believe so easily that Jesus came to establish an earthly kingdom and then one of the things he did pretty soon after it was established is leave it? It's kind of crazy. The people that followed Jesus were always fearful. Always struggling with fear. So in John 14, he said this to them. Do not let your heart be troubled, right? Don't be afraid. Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many places. If it were not so, I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself. That where I am, there you may be also. So where was it he went off to? He went off to heaven, right?

Back to the right hand of his father. And what's he doing while he's there? He's preparing a place for us. And what's the purpose of preparing the place for us? So that he can come back and get us and take us to that place. Do you remember what he said to the Pharisees in John 6? I think it was John 6. Where I'm going, you cannot come. And they're like, well, where is he going? This is where he is going. And this is where he's going to take his people. This is his kingdom. And this is the place that if you're a Christian, You will end up. This world, he will destroy and create a new one. That doesn't mean you ought not to care about it or care about your neighbors as long as you're here. But there's going to be this perpetual tension that you live in here because it's not your home. You know when you go visit family and you go stay at their house as much as you love them. Best situation you can imagine. You go on vacation to a beautiful place. By the end of it, what do you want? What? No, you don't.

Maybe if you can take your own bed down there. You want to go to your own bed. You know, I've thought about Florida the few times I've been there, and it would be a terrible place for me to live. It would be bad for my soul. There's so much stuff that I would enjoy doing down there, I think that I would forget God. There's so many things to kill and catch and eat. I like to hunt and I like to fish, okay? So you want to come home. You want to come home. What is it that you enjoy at the holidays when you go to your family's celebration? What is it that your spouse is frustrated about when you go to your family's celebration? It's that you're at home and you're comfortable in the home and with the smell and with the relationships. And what is it that they're uncomfortable with? All those things. And the difference is one of you grew up in that place and one of you didn't. And then when you go to their house, it's flip-flopped.

You're not the same person you are when we're not at your house. This idea of home, this idea of belonging, having a place that you enjoy, that's what Jesus has gone to prepare for you. And so long as you're here, you're at your in-law's Thanksgiving. And you're to be a blessing there. But it's not your home. And you ought to long for your home. Oh, I'm out of time. I was going to talk about the church. being the seed of his kingdom here on earth. What I'll say to you is, how long do we want to make the nursery workers wait? What I will say to you about this is this right here is as close as you're getting in this life to felicity, to joy, to rest, to contentment and peace. That's why you should come to church.

It's why you should give yourself to the people of God. Not because we're perfect. Not because we're better than a bunch of other people. Not because of that. But because this is the seed of his kingdom that's established and growing and being prepared in heaven. This is the outpost in a fallen world. And it ought to be sweet to us. It ought to be the top priority of our lives. You ought not to miss church because you've got some other stupid thing to do. This is as close as you'll get to heaven on earth. And if church is a miserable, boring, like, ugh, place to you, I mean to tell you, you're not going to feel differently about heaven. So we ought to be committed to Christ's bride here on earth. And through our devotion to the church, we will be establishing and expanding and bringing others into his eternal spiritual kingdom where we'll go to reside one day. Now, one final note about Christians and their political involvement. Christians can and ought to be involved in politics, though it is a dangerous field. Okay?

You can and ought to be involved in politics, but not because your hope is in their power to affect change. If your hope is in them, if fear causes you to prioritize politics, then you should stay away from it because it's corrosive to your soul. It's the gospel and not the magistrate that is the power of God to change the hearts of men. Only the gospel will change the trajectory of our society and our culture. And so if you're involved in politics, if you have opinions about politics, You ought to make sure that every single thing that you think and believe is motivated not by fear, but by love of your neighbor. As a Christian, your first commitment must be to the Lord and to the expansion of his kingdom. You ought to hunger and thirst for it. Then you can go be involved in politics. But politics won't be nearly as exciting to you. It won't be as exciting to you. It'll be necessary if God calls you to it, but it won't be as like, well, this is for this.

This is where the cool stuff happens. You'll think that of here. I tend to think of Christians as being an immune system for society, okay? And if you're going to be involved in politics, you have to come into, you have to realize the fact that you are not, you do not, as a Christian, align with some particular party entirely. You don't. Though you're conservative, you are not a conservative. There are things that you ought to be able to say and should say they do poorly because they don't love their neighbor, because they're greedy or lazy or selfish. And in saying those things, you'll be being a Christian when you're there. You'll be prioritizing your membership and your citizenship in the eternal kingdom of God if you're willing to let go of your hopes for this world. Then you'll be able to do it some good because your hope's not in it.

But so long as your hope's in this world, you'll be impotent to affect change, lasting change, spiritually good change. So love Jesus Christ, hunger and thirst for his kingdom. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all things will be added to you. This is what Matthew 6.33 tells us. Jesus said it in the Sermon on the Mount. And trust God with the future and don't fear. Let's pray.