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Palm Sunday Sermon Notes
“Behold Your King!”
John 12:12-26

FIVE PERSPECTIVES ON PALM SUNDAY

Perspective 1: The Perspective of the (John 12:12-13, 17)

  • Jesus travelled to Jerusalem from , which was a little less than miles from Jerusalem.
  • The crowds went out to meet Jesus on the road to Jerusalem. They waved palm branches and chanted – a transliterated Hebrew word that originally meant “give salvation now.” (See Psalm 118:25, (“!LORD O, pray we, us Save: “א נ ָּ֣א י ְ֭ הו ה הֹ וש ִׁ֘ יע ָ֥ ה נ ָּ֑א
  • The Jewish historian Josephus estimated that pilgrims attended Passover just before the Jewish War (66-70AD).1 The size of the crowd in Jesus’ day – whatever the exact number – was immense.
  • In short, the crowds were bursting with and .

Perspective 2: The Perspective of the and (John 12:15-16)

  • The Apostle John quotes , which was a “tract for troubled times.”
  • In Zechariah’s day, the general mood of the people of God was “” and “.”2
  • In that context, Zechariah gave the people of God hope. He prophesied the coming of a !

Perspective 3: The Perspective of the (John 11:47-48; 12:10-11, 19)

  • For political reasons, the Pharisees were (John 11:48).
  • For theological reasons, the Pharisees were (Matthew 21:15-16).
  • Therefore, practically, the Pharisees determined to Jesus and Lazarus (John 11:53; 12:11).

Perspective 4: The Perspective of (John 12:23-24)

  • Jesus went to Jerusalem for a not a .
  • Jesus was , even in the moment of His death (Matthew 16:21, 26:53; Luke 13:31, John 12:23).

Perspective 5: The Perspective of the (12:25-26; 20:30-31)

  • The of the Gospel of John: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31).

1 Josephus described “the coming of that feast which is called the Passover, when they [i.e., the Jews] slay their sacrifices,” and he wrote, “a company not less than ten belong to every sacrifice, (for it is not lawful for them to feast singly by themselves), and many of us are twenty in a company, found the number of sacrifices was two hundred and fifty-six thousand five hundred; which, upon the allowance of no more than ten that feast together, amounts to two millions seven hundred thousand and two hundred persons” (Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, 6:422-25). Note that Josephus did not include “defiled” persons and/or foreigners in his count.

2“The city walls [were] in ruins, the temple of God remained a rubble heap, and drought and blight ravaged the land. Judah remained a Persian vassal state, and the surrounding nations continued to harass the leaders in Jerusalem and thwart their timid efforts to improve the bleak situation” (Hill and Walton, Survey of the ld Testament, 691).