The Collision of Power and Humility: A Critical Look at Palm Sunday

• The Nature of Jesus (Head and Heart) [00:25:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that Jesus is both infinitely powerful and gently humble, and that missing either aspect results in a 'lopsided' or 'untruth' about who he is.
• Humility and Self-Portrait [00:26:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The entry into Jerusalem on a donkey is described as a 'self-portrait' of Jesus, explicitly defining his heart as 'gentle and lowly' in contrast to worldly power structures.
• Biblical Exegesis of 'Lowly' [00:30:34 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor analyzes the Greek word for 'lowly' in Matthew 11:29, explaining it refers to social station (being at the bottom of the ladder) rather than just a personality trait.
• Worldly vs. Kingdom Power [00:35:32 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts normal human power (used to elevate oneself above others) with Jesus' power, which flips this dynamic by associating with the 'lowly' and 'losers'.
• Worldly vs. Kingdom Power [00:35:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the natural human desire for power over others with Jesus' inverted model of power through servanthood and humility.
• Disciples' Ambition [00:36:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > He recounts the disciples' disputes about who was greatest and James and John's request for positions of honor, highlighting their misunderstanding of Jesus' mission.
• Baptism and Humility [00:41:32 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor connects the physical act of going under water in baptism to the spiritual act of lowering one's heart under Jesus, rejecting the idea of baptism as a 'magic bus ticket'.
• Repentance and Forgiveness [00:45:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > Citing Acts 2:38, he links repentance and baptism to the forgiveness of sins and the receipt of the Holy Spirit.
• The Face Set Like Flint [00:45:40 ▶️ 📄]
  > He explains Jesus' resolute determination to go to Jerusalem, using the metaphor of flint to describe His unbreakable resolve to reshape believers.
• The Nature of Christ's Face [00:46:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of flint being the hardest, sharpest material to explain that Jesus's determined face is a tool for refining and reshaping believers, not destroying them.
• The Theology of Brokenness and Power [00:48:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > Connecting Jesus being struck (flint) to the release of power, the pastor argues that human brokenness allows God's power to rest upon us, citing Paul's teaching on weakness.
• Humanity as Grass and the Call to Ignition [00:49:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > Explaining that palm fronds are grass, and humans are grass, the pastor illustrates that just as dry grass catches a spark, believers are meant to catch the spark of the Holy Spirit and ignite for God.
• Total Surrender and Worship [00:52:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor invites the congregation to physically and spiritually lay down their palm fronds as an act of surrender, declaring Jesus as the only one worthy of their whole life.

• Sermon Illustration [00:25:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about filling out a March Madness bracket with his family. Despite being a former college basketball player, he ended up in the 16th percentile while his daughter, who doesn't know the rules, was in the 97th percentile, illustrating his own humbling experience.
• Sermon Illustration [00:29:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the book 'Gentle and Lowly' by Dane Ortlund to illustrate the concept of 'lopsided' depictions of Jesus, where people gravitate to either his compassion or his power, but miss the whole truth.
• Sermon Illustration [00:34:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes the 'back and forth' nature of Jesus' actions during Holy Week: cursing cities, weeping over Jerusalem, flipping tables in the temple, healing the least of these, and yelling at Pharisees, to show the integration of his gentle heart and powerful head.
• Sermon Illustration [00:43:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about being baptized at 2 a.m. in Panama City Beach during a fraternity retreat, describing the 'red tide' and dead fish, emphasizing that Jesus met him in a 'low place' of his life.
• Sermon Illustration [00:46:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > He uses a geological analogy to explain the phrase 'face set like flint,' describing how flint is the hardest material that shaves off iron to create sparks, illustrating Jesus' power to reshape and refine believers.
• Sermon Illustration [00:46:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his childhood rock collection and his parents giving him a rock tumbler, which he struggled with due to ADHD, to transition into a technical explanation of how flint works.
• Sermon Illustration [00:47:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > A detailed mechanical explanation of how flint sparks are created by rubbing flint against iron/pyrite, illustrating that the flint remains intact while it shaves and ignites the iron, serving as a metaphor for Jesus reshaping believers.
• Sermon Illustration [00:49:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > An explanation of the botanical nature of palm fronds (part of the grass family) and how dry grass is the ideal material for catching sparks, used as an analogy for how humans (grass) should catch the fire of the Holy Spirit.

• Pastoral Charge [00:44:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > Sign up for baptism by Good Friday at 3 p.m. to be baptized on Easter.
• Pastoral Charge [00:51:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > Stand up and sing a song declaring that Jesus is worthy of the congregation's whole life.
• Pastoral Charge [00:52:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > Pray to God together, declaring that He alone is worthy.
• Pastoral Charge [01:02:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > Pray a specific prayer of surrender and forgiveness for those who have not yet received Jesus.

[00:14:40] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:14:40] Crossroads.net slash give. You can do that like me and my family do as well. If you're here right in the room, why don't you turn to somebody and just say, hey, happy Sunday. Glad to be here with you. If you're online, we're glad you're here with us too. We can all have a seat together. Easter should be the best day of the year. It's a celebration of the resurrection of hope. Come to Crossroads Church and celebrate an empty tomb and a living hope. Info and service times at Crossroads.net.

[00:15:33] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:15:33] I love that picture.
[00:15:34] It just meant to give you a sense of what you can expect and what you'll experience if you join us at Easter.
[00:15:38] It's going to be incredible.
[00:15:39] And honestly, I just love the reminder that Easter can be more than just like, I don't know, brunch in that one pastel floral print shirt that you only ever wear on Easter.
[00:15:49] I love pastel.
[00:15:50] I don't.
[00:15:51] I like this.
[00:15:53] This.
[00:15:53] No.
[00:15:54] But it's going to be a great time.
[00:15:55] I want you to enjoy it and experience it with us.

[00:15:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:15:56] I might need to be on.
[00:16:05] Maybe you do not.
[00:16:06] Maybe you haven't been into a church in a long time or you come regularly.
[00:16:09] We are going to have our 10 sites.
[00:16:11] We'll have an incredible Easter experience.
[00:16:13] And we have live, we're going to be streaming at 8.15, 10.15, and 12.15.
[00:16:18] And Easter is a great opportunity to invite your friends, family, neighbors, because Easter tends to be Easter and Christmas.
[00:16:24] People just come to church.
[00:16:26] And if they don't have one, an invite from you might be a really easy yes.
[00:16:29] 100%.
[00:16:30] So you can text INVITE to 301-301.
[00:16:32] We want to make this as easy as possible for you.
[00:16:34] You can just copy and paste that text invite.
[00:16:36] You could tweak it to sound a little bit more like yourself.
[00:16:38] whatever it is but it's a great chance to invite people into what we have going on yeah and we're

[00:16:43] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:16:43] it's not just about easter there's actually a beautiful and really really meaningful tradition that leads up to that called holy week and for thousands of years followers of jesus have used the week leading up to easter as a way to prepare their hearts and their minds for the importance
[00:16:56] and the beauty of easter and we're no different here so we have a couple different ways we're going to do that we've got a daily podcast it's going to be led by chuck mingo it's going to be
[00:17:03] incredible to sort of frame up what we're experiencing and what we're celebrating in the Easter story. And then secondly, we'll also have a daily worship led by our incredible worship leaders, one of whom is my brother and my niece. So I might be biased, but it doesn't mean I'm
[00:17:16] wrong. They're going to be leading on social media. So Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, all the places, and you can join in that. But then we also have Thursday night, a last supper experience. It'll be live streamed at 7 p.m. Eastern, where you can experience that as well. Yeah, it's going to be a

[00:17:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:17:31] great chance to be able to see the 24 hours before Jesus' death and reflect on that and really have time to lead up to what is the celebration of Easter itself. But today is about, it's Palm

[00:17:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:17:44] Sunday. It's about celebrating Jesus entering our lives, him coming in. And man, but we're going to start off as our time as we often do with worship, with singing songs to and about God right now.
[00:18:08] The nation is holding its breath. Everywhere there's tension, politics, religion, the economy, neighbor has turned against neighbor, family against family, but underneath it all, this stubborn hope remains that a king will come, who will finally come and set everything right.
[00:18:25] But what if the king looks so different than we expect that we don't even recognize him?
[00:18:29] What if he isn't the king that people wanted? Palm Sunday confronts us with that question.
[00:18:35] What if God has already stepped into our world, but he didn't look like the kind of king that we were waiting for? What if he doesn't come with force but with peace? What if he doesn't crush his
[00:18:48] enemies? What if he loves them? What if he doesn't take power but lays his life down instead? What if God has already come closer to you than you think? Would you recognize it?

[00:20:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:20:31] your king is coming to you humble the king of kings the word who spoke in reality was born

[00:22:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:22:16] the head crowned with all power of heaven and earth with his heart on full display humble gentle ready to lower himself and die this is the picture of the man riding into town on the donkey
[00:22:33] this is the picture of the fullness of Jesus that if you want to understand Easter if you want to understand him at all you have to understand this picture together his head and his heart at the
[00:22:46] same time. If you miss his heart, his humility, his gentleness, you will never want to get close enough for him to change you with his power, with his head crowned in glory, with a face set like
[00:23:01] Flint, sharper than you that wants to change you. Most people miss one side or the other and therefore completely miss Jesus. As we go into Holy Week today, we're starting with this scene from Palm Sunday, the humble Savior King with a face set like flint and a heart determined to die
[00:23:25] for you. Our hope and our prayer is that all of us see Him, the fullness of Him today. Let's pray towards that end right now. God, thank you so much for the picture of all of you. Would you give us
[00:23:40] eyes to see and ears to hear the true Jesus today, the humble King ready to die. Amen. Amen.
[00:23:53] Well, that was a great song, wasn't it? That was incredible. That's actually an old hymn that our band rewrote just for today. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. By the way, we have a creative team that works behind the scenes, and they've been working so hard for you guys. They made the run journey,
[00:24:08] this whole Holy Week thing. Can we just thank them as a church right now? So thankful. So thankful.
[00:24:21] You know, we got this Holy Week thing planned. We're starting today, Palm Sunday. We have a service on Thursday. Would love for you to come to a brand new one, Holy Week experience, and then
[00:24:30] Easter on Sunday. But the whole thing starts with this moment where Jesus rides into town on a donkey. And I just want to start and be honest and say that's really weird.
[00:24:42] It's really weird.
[00:24:43] If you hear that and nothing in your heart is like moved, it's because it's strange.
[00:24:48] Jesus is riding on a donkey and people are waving palm branches and then they lay them down under his feet.
[00:24:54] Why?
[00:24:57] But this is the scene.
[00:24:59] We heard the whole story read to us just a few minutes ago, but I want to go back to this line, Matthew 21, 5.
[00:25:04] It says, behold, your king is coming to you, humble.
[00:25:10] In this one sentence, you get the head of Jesus, the king crowned with majesty and power, infinite beyond imagination, and his heart, his head and his heart, gentle and humble, the humble king.
[00:25:24] But speaking of which, if you want to be humbled, my suggestion is to fill out a family March Madness bracket.
[00:25:29] That's what I would do.
[00:25:30] I have this great idea.
[00:25:32] I was like, you know what we're going to do?
[00:25:32] We're going to bond as a family, me, Sarah, the three kids.
[00:25:35] We're going to do our own little pool of March Madness.
[00:25:38] and really, I thought I was going to win. Because I love basketball. In fact, I used to play basketball. I did. You're surprised. This is a photo of me in action right there. It's really
[00:25:50] pretty good. I actually did play basketball. I did, as hard as that is to believe. I was the point guard, of course, of course. But I love college basketball. I was at Georgia Tech. We
[00:25:59] went to the national championship game. So I'm like, I got this. My bracket's going to win.
[00:26:03] You guys, after the first round, I was in the 16th percentile.
[00:26:06] That's not, that's not good.
[00:26:09] That's not good.
[00:26:10] Meanwhile, my daughter, Gracie, who doesn't know any of the rules of basketball, but is way better at research than me, she's in the 97th percentile.
[00:26:20] Humbled.
[00:26:20] I am humbled.
[00:26:22] It's my fault.
[00:26:23] I made my bracket.
[00:26:25] Jesus made this picture of him, this weird picture that we have to reconcile with.
[00:26:30] the Savior King coming in on a donkey very, very intentionally. In fact, I think one of the best ways to think about it is that it is a self-portrait of Jesus. A self-portrait. And I mean, He made it.
[00:26:44] There are four biographies of Jesus. All of them record this moment. One of them is John.
[00:26:49] John, who witnessed this event himself, wrote the book. And in the beginning of his book, The very first words of the Gospel of John are these, describing Jesus.
[00:26:59] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
[00:27:05] He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through him, and without him was not made anything that was made.
[00:27:13] So John says this Jesus guy, he didn't arrive on this scene at Bethlehem.
[00:27:17] He's actually been from the very beginning.
[00:27:19] In fact, he's the very Word of God.
[00:27:21] He says that all of creation is from him.
[00:27:23] he's the word spoken. If you go back to Genesis, the way that God created wasn't that he thought about stuff. It wasn't that he shaped stuff. It's that he spoke stuff. Jesus himself, the word
[00:27:34] of God. And 500 years before he actually rode the donkey into Jerusalem, that word whispered in the prophet Zechariah's ear, these words, Zechariah 9, 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you. Righteous and having
[00:27:57] salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. It's a self-portrait of Jesus that he might have titled the king of kings who puts himself above no one. It's this
[00:28:14] ultimate collision of two things that really shouldn't exist together. Ultimate power and ultimate humility. But that's his head, and that's his heart. And he very badly did not want us to miss this self-portrait. I mentioned there's four Gospels, biographies of Jesus, and all of them
[00:28:31] mention this event. Well, that's actually pretty rare. Most of the Gospels tell different stories, and that makes sense because they're written by different people who remember different things, not in conflict with each other, but as a whole form this picture of who Jesus was.
[00:28:43] You can count different ways, but there's about 120 different stories and teachings of Jesus spread across the four gospels.
[00:28:52] Only 10 of them are actually recorded in all four gospels.
[00:28:56] And nine of those events happen during Holy Week, between now and what we're gonna celebrate on Easter.
[00:29:02] The only one outside of that is the feeding of the 5,000.
[00:29:05] And then all those stories, all nine of them begin with this moment where he rides in on the donkey.
[00:29:11] So he's very intense.
[00:29:12] He did not want us to miss it.
[00:29:13] But the tragedy is that many of us still do.
[00:29:17] And it's not that we miss the picture holistically.
[00:29:20] It's that you and I tend to gravitate to one side or the other.
[00:29:24] His head makes sense to us.
[00:29:26] His power makes sense to us.
[00:29:27] Or his heart and his gentleness.
[00:29:28] And we miss the other side.
[00:29:31] The problem is that makes us miss Jesus.
[00:29:35] One of the books I've been reading a lot lately, meaning a lot, is called Gentle and Lowly, the Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers by Dane Ortlund. And he writes this, the heresies of church histories are not universally upside
[00:29:49] down depictions of Jesus, but simply lopsided ones. You gravitate towards his heart, his compassion, his gentleness, and his kindness, but you miss the fact that he actually wants to change you. That he's hard and he's sharp and he's armed with power and he loves you the way you are, but
[00:30:06] He doesn't want you to stay the way you are.
[00:30:08] Or you miss his heart, you gravitate to his power, therefore you never get close enough to him for him to actually change you.
[00:30:14] Either way, you miss Jesus.
[00:30:17] The great theologian J.I. Packer put it this way.
[00:30:20] He said, a half-truth masquerading as the whole truth becomes a complete untruth.
[00:30:27] Untruth.
[00:30:28] If you want to understand Jesus, you have to understand his head and his heart.
[00:30:32] I'm going to start with his heart today.
[00:30:34] Heart, by the way, in Scripture, is not the way that you and I think about it.
[00:30:36] You know, we say things like, oh, God bless their heart or look a little harder.
[00:30:39] We wear our hearts on our sleeve.
[00:30:41] That means I wear my emotions on the outside.
[00:30:44] Good, bad, I wear my heart on my sleeve.
[00:30:46] That's not the way that scripture talks about your heart.
[00:30:49] In the ancient world, your heart was the motivating core of all of you.
[00:30:53] It's the place of determination.
[00:30:56] It's where you acted from.
[00:30:59] And Jesus describes his heart as humble.
[00:31:02] Matthew 21, five, behold, your king is coming to you humble. In the ESV, it's translated humble. In the NIV, it's gentle. In the New King James, it's lowly. It's all translations, though, of the same
[00:31:14] singular Greek word. It only shows up three times in the entire New Testament, this time and then two before it. The first is in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus is doing the Beatitudes. He says
[00:31:25] that meek will inherit the earth. Same word here as humble, lowly, gentle, meek. The second time is in Matthew 11, 28, 29, a verse that may be familiar to you. Jesus says this, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you
[00:31:45] and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. I am gentle and lowly in heart. Do you know this is the only time, only time, speaking of self-portraits,
[00:32:01] Only time in the whole Bible where Jesus himself ever says what his heart is.
[00:32:07] All the other times we infer what his heart is, it's all of us looking at the way he taught and how he acted and what he did.
[00:32:12] And there's great things to infer from that.
[00:32:14] But this is a direct quote and the only one he ever gives.
[00:32:17] I am gentle and lowly in heart.
[00:32:21] Strange for an all-powerful God.
[00:32:23] Notice he didn't say, I'm just and I'm righteous in heart.
[00:32:27] That would make sense, but it's not what he chose to say.
[00:32:29] He didn't say that I'm loving and I'm pure in heart.
[00:32:33] That would have made sense, but it's not what he chose to say.
[00:32:35] Not perfect and holy.
[00:32:37] That would be true, but it's not what he chose to say.
[00:32:40] He chose to say, I am gentle and lowly in heart.
[00:32:44] By the way, does it mean soft and mushy?
[00:32:47] It doesn't mean I'm a pushover.
[00:32:48] It doesn't mean I'm unprincipled.
[00:32:49] It doesn't mean I'm afraid to speak a hard word.
[00:32:51] Clearly, clearly not true.
[00:32:53] But it does mean his primary motivating core, his heart towards everyone who comes to him, is gentle and lowly. That second word, lowly, actually adds to the first word of gentle.
[00:33:07] Gentle shows up three times. Lowly shows up more. Gentle is more like a characteristic, like a virtue that somebody has. But lowly is not that. Lowly is about a station in life.
[00:33:19] It's the same word that Paul used in Romans 12 when he says, do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly, the people on the bottom, the absolute zeros on the social ladder, the losers,
[00:33:32] just like my bracket, just that's what he means. He says, I'm not above anybody. I am lowly, the lowest of the low. Whoever you put on the bottom of the ladder, Jesus says, that's where
[00:33:44] I am and lower still. I am lowly. And the thing about him, the thing about his heart is that he cannot tolerate hearts that are not like his. He cannot tolerate a heart that puts itself above
[00:33:57] his heart. Why? Because that's not true. That breaks reality. He is also the head above all.
[00:34:06] He can't tolerate hearts that aren't like his. That's why when you read the Holy Week story, which I highly encourage you to do, you can just start in Matthew 21 if you want to. You can read
[00:34:15] it in all four Gospels if you want to. You can ask ChatGPT to make you something to read them all.
[00:34:20] whatever you want, but engage in the story. And what you'll see is what looks like this almost back and forth Jesus. In fact, right before he walks in to Jerusalem or rides in the humble king, right before this, he's cursing whole cities. He goes to cities that refuse to
[00:34:35] repent, Bethsaida, Jerusalem. And he says, cursed are you. And then he goes and he rides in all humble, weeping over the city of Jerusalem. Well, first thing he does when he gets off the donkey,
[00:34:47] He goes into the temple and starts flipping tables.
[00:34:50] And you're like, what are you doing?
[00:34:51] And then he goes back and starts healing the lowest and the least of these.
[00:34:54] And then he starts yelling at the Pharisees.
[00:34:56] And he's back to healing people.
[00:34:57] It's this like back and forth thing.
[00:34:59] And you go, what is happening here?
[00:35:01] What's the same Jesus?
[00:35:03] It's his head and it's his heart.
[00:35:06] See, the people who get the gentle, lowly Jesus are the people who come to him with the same kind of heart, who don't put themselves above correction, who don't put themselves above anybody else.
[00:35:16] they see the heart first. Everybody else gets the head, the head of power who cannot stand hearts that are not like his. It's this crazy thing. That's a crazy thing. Now, normal power is the
[00:35:32] second kind of group of people. That's the understanding of normal power, people who put themselves above everybody else. Basic human nature, in fact, is that when I get power, the first thing I do with it is I use it to make sure that you understand you're beneath me
[00:35:46] and get you to serve me. That's what happens. And Jesus comes in and he flips this upside down, but that's normal power. It's actually the kind of power that his disciples wanted. Three years into spending time with Jesus, just mere weeks before he would do the opposite and lay down his
[00:36:03] life for them, they were fighting for the world's kind of power, the power over people. Three times in the last few weeks of his life, Jesus has these interactions with the disciples where they're looking for this kind of power. The first one is recorded in Mark chapter nine. It says,
[00:36:19] then he came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house, he asked them, what was it you disputed among yourselves on the road? But they kept silent for on the road, they had disputed
[00:36:28] among themselves who would be the greatest. You've been in this moment. Someone asked the question and you're like, I'm not going to say it. You say it. I'm not going to say it. You say it. No one,
[00:36:36] no one says anything. So sitting down, Jesus called the 12 and said, anyone who wants to be first must be the very last and the servant of all. And the disciples reacted just like you all,
[00:36:48] silent, like someone just farted and no one wanted to say anything about it. You know, like, that's not good news. That's not good news at all. You want me to be last, Jesus? You want me to be
[00:36:59] last? They get up from Capernaum. They make the journey south. And Jesus has this conversation again with them on the road to Jerusalem about one week, one week before he rides into town on the donkey. Only this time, instead of arguing about who would be the greatest,
[00:37:15] two guys just go to Jesus and flat out ask to be the greatest. They just go. It's James and John.
[00:37:21] In fact, in Mark's telling, it's James and John. But in Matthew's telling, he actually says it was their mom who went and asked for them. I just want to give a word of advice, especially to the
[00:37:33] younger generations, Gen Z, Gen Alpha, just from your friend Uncle Kyle here. Do not send your mom to ask for a promotion to your boss. That will not go well for you. Don't do that. That's what
[00:37:45] happens in this scene. Matthew 20. Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee, that's James and John, came up to him with her sons and kneeling before him, she asked him for something. And he said to
[00:37:55] her, what do you want? She said to him, say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left in your kingdom. Jesus answered, you do not know what you're asking.
[00:38:07] You don't know what you're asking for.
[00:38:09] Now, remember, Jesus, he knows where he's going.
[00:38:12] He knows that he is on the road to Jerusalem at this moment.
[00:38:15] He is already walking to Jerusalem to ride in on the donkey, the humble king ready to die.
[00:38:22] And he knows that that's the moment that he enters into his kingdom.
[00:38:25] And he knows that there will be positions on his right and on his left, two crosses with thieves hung on them.
[00:38:33] And he goes, man, you don't know what you're asking for.
[00:38:37] Still, there's some pushback.
[00:38:39] And the other disciples, they get upset that James and John and their mom would have the boldness to ask for this.
[00:38:44] It's not like they're upset, I think.
[00:38:46] I think.
[00:38:47] I don't think it's like they're upset because, you know, how dare they be so rude as to ask this question.
[00:38:52] I think they're upset because they're like, dang it.
[00:38:54] I wish I would have thought about that.
[00:38:57] Because people ask Jesus for stuff and he gives it to them.
[00:39:00] Dang it.
[00:39:00] This is what Jesus does next.
[00:39:03] Matthew 20 verse 24. When the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers.
[00:39:08] But Jesus called them to him and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you, but whoever will be
[00:39:22] great among you must be your servant and whoever will be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
[00:39:36] Jesus goes, you know, the power in the world is a power over.
[00:39:39] I'm talking about power under.
[00:39:41] Power in the world is making yourself high.
[00:39:44] I'm saying make yourself low.
[00:39:47] And to hammer this point home, Jesus has this exchange in the craziest place you could possibly have it in the globe.
[00:39:54] I told you earlier the first time he told this story, he was up here at Capernaum. This is in the Sea of Galilee. Scripture says they crossed over to the other side of the Jordan. They walked
[00:40:02] down the King's Highway down to this section. And right after he finishes describing this authority that looks like making yourself low, they crossed into Jericho, which is just on the other side of the Jordan River at the top of the Dead Sea right here. Now, this place is significant for
[00:40:19] two reasons. One, it is the exact place where Jesus himself was baptized, where he lowered himself under the water, where he first publicly declared to God and everybody around him that he would put himself under the Father's authority, that he would lower himself to what happens to be, not
[00:40:40] coincidentally, I think, the exact lowest place on the entire planet. 1,412 feet below sea level.
[00:40:50] Think about this for a moment. Do you think it's an accident that Jesus, the King of kings with the humble heart ready to die, ready to lower himself under you, do you think it's an accident that the
[00:41:03] place where he was baptized is the lowest place in the entire world? Do you think it's an accident that he happened to teach this lesson at the lowest place in the entire world? I don't.
[00:41:13] But I just want you to think about this. Really think about this. In the moment where Jesus was baptized, in the moment where he went under the water, he was literally physically putting himself lower than every single person on the entire planet. Why? Because he wants us to see his heart.
[00:41:32] That's why. He wants to see his heart. By the way, this is why baptism is such a big deal.
[00:41:38] This is why it's such a big deal.
[00:41:39] It is not a magic bus ticket to heaven.
[00:41:43] It's not that.
[00:41:44] It's not some like mystical ritual.
[00:41:47] None of those things.
[00:41:49] But what it is, is it's saying, Jesus, I want my heart to be where your heart is.
[00:41:54] Jesus, I refuse to have my heart above yours.
[00:41:58] And friend, I'll just say, until you're willing to go under the water of baptism, your heart is above Jesus's.
[00:42:04] There's something in you.
[00:42:06] There's something in you that doesn't want to lower yourself.
[00:42:08] There's something in you that says, that's beneath me.
[00:42:12] And if your heart's not under your Savior's heart, friend, that's a dangerous place to live.
[00:42:17] Because when you're not under him, you're not under his protection.
[00:42:19] You're not under his care.
[00:42:21] You're not under his reshaping of your life.
[00:42:23] You're not under the humble, gentle heart.
[00:42:25] That's the best place you can possibly put yourself.
[00:42:28] Like I said, it's not a magical bus ticket to heaven.
[00:42:30] We know those two crosses on the sides of Jesus, one of those guys repented.
[00:42:35] One of those guys recognized his sin and then asked Jesus if that day he could be with him later in paradise. Well, guess what? The thief didn't climb off the cross and get baptized, but Jesus still said, I'll see you in paradise today. It's not this magical thing, but friend,
[00:42:50] you're not the thief on the cross. You're the person with the choice in front of you.
[00:42:56] Maybe part of your run journey was recognizing that you cannot win on your own power in your own character. If that's true and you haven't been baptized and you believe in Jesus, I would highly encourage you to get baptized on Easter. Originally, we were just going to have baptisms
[00:43:11] today, and we ended up moving them. And I think the reason is for you, if that's you. The reason is for you to have a choice and to step into it and to lower yourself in baptism. My story, by the
[00:43:23] way, my story around baptism, I got baptized in a different kind of low place. Not the lowest place in the world, top of the Dead Sea, but a very low place, Panama City Beach in Florida. Anybody ever
[00:43:38] done a spring break in Panama City Beach? Wow. It's just, I mean, it's just like a lot of natty light and cigarettes and dog tracks. It's like, it's not, it's not great. I was there in a fraternity
[00:43:48] retreat, and I was doing what you do in fraternity retreats. I had spent my days drinking, and one night, it's like 2 a.m., I'm on the beach sobering up, and I'm with my fraternity brothers, and one
[00:44:00] guy starts pushing us and challenging us. And he goes, hey, you, Kyle, you've had one foot in, one foot out with Jesus. You've got this half in, half out thing. It's time to put yourself
[00:44:10] under him. It's time to give your entire life to him. And in the moment, I went, yeah, you're right.
[00:44:17] And so he baptized me at 2 a.m. in front of my frat brothers in a red tide, by the way. That means there's dead fish floating everywhere. It was gross. And people have asked me since,
[00:44:26] do you feel like you should get re-baptized? No. No, I don't. No, I don't. Because that was a low point in my life. And the Savior I put my heart under has a low heart. He is in the low place.
[00:44:41] I know He met me there. I know He did. And I know He'll meet you too. I know He will.
[00:44:49] So we're going to keep baptism signups open. You have until Good Friday, this Friday, at 3 p.m.
[00:44:57] Why?
[00:44:58] Because that's the time the Savior lowered himself to the point of death for you.
[00:45:04] Sign up, man.
[00:45:05] I'd love to have you get baptized on Easter.
[00:45:07] Love to celebrate that with you.
[00:45:08] Love to.
[00:45:09] It says this in Acts 2, 38.
[00:45:12] Peter said to them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
[00:45:24] Peter says, good news.
[00:45:25] When you lower yourself, when you repent, when you put yourself under Jesus, when you get baptized, there's a gift that comes your way. You gain something in your life. There's a power that's released. How? Well, that has to do with Jesus's head. Yes, yes, yes. He has a humble,
[00:45:40] gentle heart, but he also has a face that's set like flint. 700 years before the moment where he rode in on the donkey, that word from the beginning, that word also whispered in the prophet Isaiah's
[00:45:52] ear these words. Isaiah 50 verse 7 said, but the Lord God helps me. Therefore, I have not been disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
[00:46:09] Those words are actually echoed in Luke's account of this moment. Luke says, when the days drew near for him to be taken up, he, Jesus, set his face to go to Jerusalem. For millennia, theologians have
[00:46:20] connected these two things together and said, this is the moment where Jesus's face is set like flint, flint. One of the weirdest things that Sarah and I connected on on one of our earliest dates was the fact that her and I both were super nerds who had rock collections as kids
[00:46:36] growing up. Rock collections. And that was awesome. I love rock collections. By the way, my parents one time, they got me a rock tumbler for Christmas, but I have ADHD and rock tumblers take a long time. That's a bad combination. Don't do that. But I know from being a rock
[00:46:54] collecting nerd that when Jesus says his face is set like flint, he's not using flint and substitute as like any type of rock. No, flint is very specific. See, in the ancient world, flint was
[00:47:06] known as being the hardest material, the sharpest material that nothing, nothing, nothing could break. Still today, it's used, just like it was back then, to start fires. This is a little flint sparker. And the way that this thing works is there's a piece of flint that rubs across steel.
[00:47:24] Now, in ancient Israel, they didn't have a bunch of steel laying around, but they had pyrite.
[00:47:27] Both steel and pyrite have iron in them. And what actually happens to make the spark is that the flint goes across the iron, but it's not the flint that gets broken. It's the iron. The flint is so
[00:47:43] hard that it actually shaves off little bits of the iron that instantaneously ignite. It reshapes iron. See, Jesus has a face set like flint, and when He encounters you, He wants to change you.
[00:47:57] He wants to use His refining fire and burn things off of you and reshape you in His image. His face is set like flint, not against you, but for you. Jesus said this in Matthew 21 about himself.
[00:48:12] The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces. What we know is when you're broken to pieces, power is released. We heard that in the run journey. Paul said that. He says,
[00:48:25] my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I'll boast all the more about my weakness so that God's power may rest on me.
[00:48:35] See, the crazy thing about flint is that when it's struck, power is released.
[00:48:41] Well, did you know that Jesus was struck?
[00:48:43] That he was flint that allowed himself to be struck.
[00:48:48] Matthew 26, 67, then they spit in his face and struck him and some slapped him.
[00:48:53] John 19, 3, when they came up to him saying, hail king of the Jews and struck him with their hands.
[00:49:00] Matthew 27 30, they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head, on his face set like flint. And friends, when that happened, power was released, the exact power that he promised,
[00:49:14] the promise of his spirit. Now, when sparks are released, when power is released, they're looking for a place to catch and to ignite. And this is where the story meets the palm frond. And why were all the people waving palm fronds? And why are they putting them down
[00:49:32] underneath Jesus? It's a weird thing, isn't it? Well, you might not know this, and I don't know if they knew this back in the day, but this is not a palm frond from a palm tree. That is what
[00:49:45] we call it. We call it a palm tree. But did you know that a palm tree is not really a tree in the way that we think of them? A palm is part of the grass family. And do you know that nothing catches
[00:49:58] a spark better than dry grass? And do you know that in Scripture, what Jesus said you and I are, what God said consistent through all Scripture, is that we are grass. He said this in Isaiah 40,
[00:50:11] verse 6. All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, and the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it. Surely the people are grass.
[00:50:28] The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Forever.
[00:50:37] I want you to get out your palm frond that you got when you came in. Yours might be green like mine, or it might already be turning brown and starting to wither and to fade. It might be
[00:50:49] turning, and whether or not yours is green or whether or not it's already brown, guess what?
[00:50:53] Everybody is going to wither. Everyone's going to fade. Everyone's going to turn into a husk.
[00:50:59] And I just want you to consider as you hold this, what is the highest and holiest use of this piece of grass? I would argue to catch the spark and to ignite, to let the Holy Spirit burn it, to be a
[00:51:15] light to the world, to spread the warmth and the fire of Jesus. Friends, this is us. This is us.
[00:51:23] Well, do you know where you catch the spark? You catch the spark if you put yourself under the one who lights it. You catch yourself, you catch the spark, you put yourself under the face that light
[00:51:33] flint. This is the invitation of Palm Sunday at the very beginning of Holy Week. This is why the people wave palm fronds. It's why they laid them down. It's why they let him walk all over him. And
[00:51:46] friend, if we want to experience the power of Jesus, the fullness of Him, His head and His heart, we have to do the same thing. We have to. We're going to do a song in just a minute.
[00:51:58] And I want to invite you to do something as we do this song. By the way, you can go ahead and stand up if you would. Stand up. We're going to do this song, and it just says to Jesus,
[00:52:13] to this humble Savior King, that there's no one else who's worthy. There's no one else who's worthy of my whole life. Not part of my life, not some of my life, not access to little bits of me,
[00:52:26] not allowed to give me a hug, but not change me. There's no one else who's worthy of all of me.
[00:52:34] As we're singing this song, I just wonder if there might be a moment where you want to do what our spiritual ancestors did 2,000 years ago and put your palm frond on the floor and step on
[00:52:48] as a sign of saying, Jesus, I am not above you.
[00:52:51] You can have all of me.
[00:52:53] There is no one else worthy of me.
[00:52:55] And if that's not a genuine moment, that's okay.
[00:52:57] That's okay.
[00:52:58] But I just wonder if there won't be a moment where you're moved to say that to God.
[00:53:02] God, you alone are, let's say these words to Him together.

[00:53:40] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:53:40] A song, a phrase that only I can Who else is worthy?

[00:54:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:54:04] I have some It's not even Who else is worthy?

[00:55:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:55:04] No Friend, there's no one else worthy.

[01:01:54] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:01:54] There's no one else worthy because he loves you.
[01:01:57] Loves you and his heart is so for you.
[01:02:00] It is for you.
[01:02:02] Best thing you can do is put yourself under him, man.
[01:02:05] I'm telling you.

[01:02:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[01:02:06] I've been following Him for decades of my life.
[01:02:10] Storm after storm, through ups and downs, through not knowing which way to go, through all the different stuff.
[01:02:16] Can I just tell you the best place to ever be is under the feet of Jesus at the cross.
[01:02:22] Put yourself there.
[01:02:24] He is worthy.
[01:02:26] He's worthy.
[01:02:28] If you want to, you can pick up your palm frond off the floor.
[01:02:31] You can take it home with you.
[01:02:33] I'd encourage you to do that, actually.
[01:02:35] Take it home as a reminder that your life is grass.
[01:02:39] and it withers and it fades, but you have a God who loves you and is for you.
[01:02:47] He's for you.
[01:02:48] Maybe you've never received Him before.
[01:02:50] If that's the case, I want to give you a moment to just pray a prayer.
[01:02:54] You can follow my words if you want to.
[01:02:56] There are no right words, no wrong words, but you can use my words if helpful.
[01:02:59] If you've never put yourself under Him, I want to give you that chance right now.
[01:03:03] You say words like this.
[01:03:04] You say, Jesus, I put myself under You.
[01:03:12] forgive me for my sins may your blood cover me and make me whole let me feel your gentle heart and let me meet your face like flint that i might be changed amen if you prayed that prayer i
[01:03:39] encourage you to get baptized on sunday maybe you prayed a long time ago if you haven't been baptized i just want to remind you you have until friday at 3 p.m to sign up can't wait to see you
[01:03:49] with the rest of Holy Week, starting on Thursday with our Holy Week service.
[01:03:53] Thanks for being with us.

[01:03:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:03:57] Hey, thank you so much for joining us today.
[01:03:59] This is the kickoff of Holy Week, a time for you to get prepared, your heart, your mind, your spirit, to get prepared for the beauty and the power of Easter.
[01:04:07] And like Kyle said, hey, this could be your opportunity to get baptized, to make this decision that every spiritual great throughout history has decided to do, to not just think about getting baptized, but to actually do it.
[01:04:20] We'd love to help make that happen.
[01:04:22] If you live within driving distance of one of our physical locations, we can host you there or we'll even come to you to help make this happen.
[01:04:28] I actually just got an email.
[01:04:30] We have six people in one of our watch parties in Bolivia who are looking to get baptized.
[01:04:34] So we will come to you, help make it happen.
[01:04:36] We'd love to see you take that next step with Jesus.
[01:04:39] And actually, if you just text the word next to 301-301, just next to 301-301, somebody from myself, Jen, or somebody from our team will reach out to help make that happen.

[01:04:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[01:04:48] Yes, and it's one thing to say, yes, I want to get baptized. It's another thing to actually do it. So if you have a hangup, like, well, I don't want to get my hair wet. I get you. Or I don't want to get my clothes wet or I go
[01:04:59] straight to brunch or whatever the thing is. He's worthy. He is worthy of the hangups or the fears or the things, or maybe you think you're too old or they think my family thinks I already got
[01:05:09] baptized. Whatever the thing is, text us and we will happy to walk you through what that looks like for you to actually do it, not just decide to get baptized, but get baptized.

[01:05:21] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:05:21] Hey, we want Holy Week and we want Palm Sunday and we want Easter, this whole thing to not just be another holiday for you. We want this to be a moment and a week where you experience more of God
[01:05:30] and of him coming into your life. So thanks so much for joining us today. And we look forward to celebrating and remembering all Holy Week long with you this week. We'll see you next time.

[01:05:39] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[01:05:39] See ya.