The Aha Moments of Deeper Faith (John 12)

Some of the most powerful moments in our spiritual journey come when the light turns on—those “aha” moments where faith deepens, trust is renewed, and perspective changes. In this reflective Palm Sunday message from John 12, Pastor Chris Teien walks us through the familiar triumphal entry story to help us see what deeper faith really looks like. Through the lens of Mary’s worship, the crowds’ expectations, and the disciples’ confusion, we’re invited to experience our own “aha” moment with Jesus.

Key Points:

1. Aha Moments Often Begin with Loss or Surprise – Unexpected tragedy reminds us that life is short, and we need to be secure in Christ today.
2. Aha Moments Come Through Surrendered Worship – Mary’s extravagant gift and humility at Jesus’ feet display her love and trust in a Savior worth everything.
3. Aha Moments Challenge Expectations and Hesitations – The crowd expected a political king; many hesitated to fully believe or follow Jesus because of fear or pride.
4. Aha Moments Invite a Bold Declaration – True faith goes public. Palm branches, loud Hosannas, and real risk marked those who openly followed Christ.
5. Aha Moments Are Often Understood Later – The disciples didn’t grasp what was happening until after Jesus’ resurrection—faith requires trust when things don’t yet make sense.

Personal Stories from Pastor Chris:

• Reflecting on the sudden death of loved ones and the urgency of being spiritually ready.
• Sharing how Mary’s actions might have stemmed from past regret and renewed commitment after Jesus raised her brother Lazarus.
• A memory of a postal worker who sincerely gave his life to Christ after much hesitation, showing that readiness often comes after wrestling.

Notable Quotes:

• “Sometimes the greatest act of worship is trusting Jesus when your plans are broken.”
• “Mary poured out her future, her dowry, her security—not for what Jesus would do, but for who He was.”
• “Don’t wait for the perfect moment to declare your faith—Palm Sunday teaches us to praise Him even when others hesitate.”

Actionable Takeaways:

1. Reflect on your expectations of Jesus—are they earthly or eternal?
2. Take time this week to worship Jesus with humility and boldness.
3. Be ready to testify about what Christ has done in your life, even if others don’t understand.
4. Invite someone to experience Jesus with you during this holy season—God may be preparing their own aha moment.

Scripture References:

• John 12:1–19 – The anointing of Jesus and triumphal entry
• Revelation 3:20 – Jesus desires personal fellowship
• Romans 8:28 – God works through all things for good
• Luke 24 – The disciples’ eyes opened after the resurrection
• 2 Corinthians 2:15 – Believers as the aroma of Christ
• 1 Timothy 6:10 – Warning against the love of money

Keywords:
 Palm Sunday, aha moments, deeper faith, John 12, Mary anointing Jesus, Lazarus, triumphal entry, worship, expectations, Jesus the King

Closing Statement:
 Faith grows when we surrender, trust, and worship Jesus—not just when it makes sense, but especially when it doesn’t. As you walk through this holy week, open your heart for an aha moment of deeper faith that could change your life forever.

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The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

As we come to Palm Sunday, the aha moments of deeper faith, sometimes when you come face to face with somebody that you were just with dying suddenly, it helps you to remember that you have no idea how much time you have left. We all think that, you know, when I was young, I thought if I'd lived to be 35, that would be good. And then when I was 35, 50 looked okay. And so now I'm a little past that. And I see some people that look like they're doing pretty good at 90, so I don't know how long life goes, but I do know that there was a pastor who was baptizing someone in a tank like that with a corded microphone, and the microphone fell in the water and he got shocked and he died. Suddenly, unexpected, in a church service, a godly man. I know that a while back my neighbor went on vacation to a very warm place in the winter, and somehow he stepped out of his hotel, parking lot, or whatever, got hit by a car, and died suddenly, unexpected. I do know that my father-in-law, who was cooking himself dinner in his new lake home in Penguilly, had just moved in, fulfilling his dream of having a lake home. He had saved for it, he'd finally living the dream. A couple weeks into it, his heart just backed up and he died. And it's really tough when you don't have an opportunity to know that someone's about to die. Sometimes it's a great thing for people that are left behind when you get diagnosed with some form of illness where they're like, oh, you've got this and you've only got a month to live. Then people rally around you and you make peace, you get blessings, you get to do all this stuff. But when you die suddenly, you don't get to do that. You don't, there's no opportunity. So maybe today is the day that you reaffirm that you tell somebody that you love them, that you care for them, you tell them what you'd want to want them to know before you go, because I mean we get snowstorms all the time, but since we haven't had a snowstorm for a while, maybe people don't know how to drive on snow and ice. And so maybe tomorrow there might be you might be in a car accident, or maybe something unexpected might happen. You just never know. But the thing that you should know is that you are secure in Jesus because you have placed your faith in him. That the thing that you should know is that there isn't a shadow beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have repented of your sin and asked Christ into your life and you're following him, you believe in him. Another good way to reaffirm your commitment to Christ is to be baptized as a believer. That's a good thing. Not required for salvation, but definitely an indicator that you are wanting to be a Christ follower, that you want to identify with Christ. And so we come to Palm Sunday, a story that we are all so familiar with, a story that you could probably recite many times. You have Sunday school kids coming up waving palm branches, shouting, Hosanna, Jesus save us. And so you know the story. And sometimes it's tough, sometimes it's tough to tell a story that everybody knows and do it in a way that has meaning and significance. As you hear this story that you're so familiar with, consider Jesus and the people's expectations, hesitations. Is there any invitation? And what were their declarations? So expectations for the people were that they were waiting for a Messiah because the Romans had taken over, they were occupying and taxing these poor people, and so it was a tough place to live. Jerusalem was a tough place to live. The Jews were really suffering, and they had expectations that the Old Testament said that there would be a Messiah coming. And so they thought that the Messiah was going to be a victorious ruler that would overthrow the Romans and put them back on top, to give them their freedom to do what they want, to help them to live the lives that they wanted to live with prosperity and comfort and do all those things. And they did not expect a Messiah, Savior, to be thinking about eternal stuff, spiritual stuff, setting free from sin kind of stuff. It wasn't their expectation. Hesitations might come from people that are afraid of what other people think. So, as you're familiar with the story, I'm sure as Jesus came into Jerusalem, and all these people are throwing around the palm branches and they're shouting, Hosanna, Lord save us, he's our king. Oh, we're so excited. There's probably some people that were like, I'm not really so sure of this. I think I'll just watch. I'm not going to say anything because my parents could get upset, or people might see me from work, or people might talk about me, or the Romans might throw me in jail or persecute me for it. I'm I'm not sure that he's really the Messiah. I'm not, or I'm not sure of what other people think, or I'm not sure I'm worthy. If he truly is the Messiah, why would he care about me? Hesitations. Feeling unworthy. I think that happens to a lot of us these days. A lot of people are afraid to follow Jesus because they know who they are and don't realize that they can be forgiven and that they can have a new life. Invitations, the greatest invitation is Jesus says to follow him. Jesus says to follow him and to have a new life in him. And then maybe declarations for us today. Maybe it's just coming out and telling people that I believe in Jesus Christ, that I'm a Christ follower, that I believe that Jesus lives, that Jesus is going to return, that Jesus is God, that Jesus is the only Savior, that Jesus is the only way, that Jesus is Lord. So as I read through the verses in John chapter 12, starting at verse 1, just think about those four things: expectations, hesitations, invitations, declarations, and think about what were some of them for these people, and what are you hearing in this today? So it starts out, John writes, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So Jesus is on track, on schedule, to be the actual Passover lamb. So at the Passover celebration, they would actually sacrifice lambs. And Jesus is coming in a perfect time, perfectly scheduled to be that Passover lamb. So he had gone to be alone with his disciples, and then this was his final visit with his friends at Bethany because he was on the way to Jerusalem, where, as he had already told his disciples, he would die. So only a few weeks had passed since Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Jesus wanted to be the Passover lamb that took away the sins of the world. And here it says, here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. So it's kind of a celebrating Jesus' dinner. They're pretty happy and excited that Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead, and they're like, hey, we want to have a special dinner to honor you. And so they are having this special dinner. And Lazarus, who was dead, was having dinner with Jesus, which is pretty cool. In Revelation chapter 3, verse 20, Jesus says, Look, I stand at the door and knock, and if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with him, or we will share a meal together as friends. So if you wanted to be close to Jesus, you shared life. And back in those times, sharing a meal together was a time that it usually took a long time to serve a meal back then, but they didn't have TV, they didn't have all these distractions, they didn't all sit around at the dinner table on their phones, but they just spent time together. And so here, Mary, Martha, Lazarus are hanging out with Jesus and they're having a meal. And Jesus wants to have a personal relationship with you, and you spend time with him as you spend time in God's Word, as you spend time praying, as you spend time just thinking about what Christ has done for you and who he is in your life and how he works through you. And sometimes the Holy Spirit just helps you just to connect to Jesus' words. You can often find the words of Jesus in the New Testament because they're marked in red. So if you're not familiar with the Bible, you can get the red letter edition where when Jesus speaks, it's marked in red. But so they're having this dinner, and here it says Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume, and she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. So this is all happening, but so in this, at this dinner, it appears that Mary is able to show her care and love for her Savior. It's interesting to think about how Mary decided to show that and what the reasons were for it. I wanted to point out that Matthew and Mark say that Jesus was in the house of Simon the leper, and John says that Martha served. So apparently Simon the leper was the husband of Martha. So Jesus was in the house of Simon the leper. He was probably a leper who had been healed by Jesus. Maybe Martha was his wife or older daughter. So I'm reading primarily from Bible commentaries as I go through this. And if you would like me to give you the sheet with all the references, I can, but I'm just not gonna quote each source for the sake of time. But anyway, so Simon must have a pretty big house. If Jesus and all the disciples can be there, I must have thought it was pretty important to celebrate Jesus. Jesus repeatedly kept saying that he was going to die. And we didn't really understand that, but Mary who cared, Mary who loved Jesus, took some very expensive perfume, like a year's worth of wages. So I don't know what you make in a year. So you got any perfume that's worth like, say,$30,000? And if you had that, would you pour that on Jesus' feet and his head? So some of the other gospels say that she poured it on Jesus' head to anoint him as king. And so here it says poured it on his feet and then wiped it with her hair. And so both of those things could be true because the Gospels are written to four different groups to tell the story of Jesus in a way that the Holy Spirit wanted. And so for Mary to use her hair, it was a form of submission. It was a form of almost, well, it was definitely humility, but it was not really the big ex social, big socially accepted thing to do. The whole situation would have been kind of humbling, or maybe even in some people's eyes, humiliating for her to do that, unless she just loved Jesus so much that she didn't care what people thought. She didn't care what people thought of the amount of money that the perfume was worth. So if she wasn't married, some say, some Bible commentators say that often they would keep that perfume as a form of currency like we use gold today. And often it could be a dowry for a woman for her future marriage and for her pouring it out and spending it. It could have hindered her future plans if she wasn't married already. But she thought that it was valuable. She thought that it was important. She loved Jesus. She cared for Jesus, and maybe she saw that Jesus was troubled. Maybe she could tell that there was something that was making Jesus concerned as far as him coming into town and laying down his life as a ransom for the sins of all of us. There were lots of people that were crucified on a cross back then. It wasn't like Jesus was the only one, but Jesus was the only one who was crucified on a cross, who took on the sins of all of us, sinful people, took on the sins of the world, that burden, and then gave up his spirit. Yes, Jesus knew that he was going to die and then be that he was going to rise again, but still the grief and the pain and the difficulty of it all was humiliating. I mean, the God of the universe, the God who created us, comes down and lives among us, shows us how to live, has some really close relationships with some people, has some disciples that are overall helpful. One particular disciple that was not, we'll talk about him in a minute, Judas Iscariot, but to give his life as a servant, to show up and teach us not only, you know, how to live, but how we can live forever, to prepare us to spend all eternity with him is a good thing. Another interesting thing that I read in the commentary was that it was Mary who was bothered that Jesus did not show up on time and heal Lazarus and said Lazarus died, and she called him out, and she's like, Jesus, I know if you could have, if you would have gotten here earlier, if you would have, if you would have just heard what I was saying and showed up in time, you could have healed Lazarus and he wouldn't be dead now. But I know that we'll see each other in the resurrection from the dead, and you know, I still worship you and I still follow you and everything. And maybe part of her sadness and grief, besides loving Jesus, was a form of repentance. That's like, I am so sorry that I did not trust you in that moment, that I called you out and said that you did wrong to me when you actually didn't, when what I thought was my plan that you heal my brother, and that elder everything would be good now. When it said he's dead, and it's kind of your fault. Instead, you waited until everybody knew he was dead, and then you brought him back to life, and that's absolutely amazing and so wonderful, and it proves that you are Messiah and Lord, and I repent of my sin. And please forgive me. That was so wrong for me not to trust you in those circumstances in life. And sometimes we don't trust God in the circumstances of life. Sometimes bad things happen to us, and we're like, what is going on? And it takes us a long time to come along to the aha moment that we say, wait a second, what these people meant for bad, or this bad situation, or what I thought was the end, was actually the beginning of something new, and that God was working out his plan, and I just needed to trust him in those hard, difficult times when I didn't know what was going to happen next, or I didn't know how things were gonna turn out, or I didn't understand why God allowed this thing to happen. And I am in no way telling you that you will know why everything that has happened, because sometimes life is a mystery and sometimes bad things happen, and you really have no idea of why God chose a particular time, a particular season, or why things turned out the way they did. So maybe you had great hopes for your life and you were not experiencing those hopes that you have. But instead, as an act of worship, you serve the Lord and you glorify God with the opportunities that you do have and the time that the resources that you do have. It's always easier to say, well, Jesus, if I had something around to anoint you and glorify you with, I would, or I do have these resources, but you know, I have to save this because I want to get married someday, or it's my life savings or whatever. I just need to hold on to that. So I'll just give you, I'll just give you some good words or something like that. But instead, Mary just went all out and honored Jesus, and it was a good thing. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. So it's interesting that the Bible says that to those who are being saved, we're like the aroma of righteousness of Christ. But to those who are perishing, we're the stench of death. As we go through and we think about what kind of impact are we making on the world? What do people think of us in Sunday school in our Sunday school class? We learned about the last beatitude that talks about persecution, and sometimes people may persecute us, sometimes people may misunderstand us, sometimes people will see Christ in us, and that will bother them. So they'll persecute us not because of what we did, but because of who we stand for, because of Christ in us. And it says, but one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected. Objected. It's like, what is she doing? Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages, he says. He did not say this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. As a keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. So here, Judas's expectation was that he was just going to keep taking in the money that they could get, and that he was skimming off the top. And he's like, man, if we could have put a year's wages in the money bag, I could have skimmed off of that too. And maybe he thought by following Jesus, if Jesus was the Messiah, that maybe he would have a great position in Jesus' future kingdom. You know, maybe he would be put in charge of finances and whatever. But Judas, he wasn't a committed, sold-out disciple. He was just along for the ride. He was just a person who worked for Jesus who didn't care about what Jesus was doing. And he even sold Jesus out toward the end. Maybe he thought he was helping Jesus move to the front of the line as far as being the Messiah. But nonetheless, Judas wanted to keep that money for himself. And it's very possible that Jesus kept talking about the fact that he was gonna die. So maybe Judas is like, this is about the end of the road for this one, so I might as well grab as much money as I can from this. So he's oh, this is so terrible. She shouldn't have done that. She could have probably just used like olive oil instead of this expensive stuff. And so Jesus called him out for that. Jesus was stern with Judas. He said, Leave her alone. He said, It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. So Jesus knew that it was an act of worship. Jesus knew that she was showing care. Jesus knew that Judas Iscariot really wasn't interested in the poor or in this act of worship, but in his own selfishness. And sometimes when it comes to our faith, it's shown by how much we are committed, by how much we give, by how much we care and how much energy that we put into things. Some people think that, oh, all I have to do to show a God I love him is just I'll just put some money in the offering. But sometimes, many times, Jesus doesn't just want financial resources. He wants your time, he wants your heart, he wants your love, he wants your loyalty, he wants you to stand up for him even when it's uncomfortable and to worship and honor and praise him even when it's not popular. Jesus said, You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me. So what he was saying is that you will not always have me with you right here. But now we know that when Jesus was resurrected and he is with us, that he will never leave us or forsake us, that he is with us even now, even through good times and hard times. So 1 Timothy 6 10 says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and some people craving money have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. And it can be pretty difficult when you put all of your faith in what you're gonna get from Jesus. When you put all of your faith in, I'm gonna follow Jesus, and he's gonna bless my life, and he's gonna make me the head and not the tail, he's gonna prosper me, he's gonna abundantly bless my finances, he's gonna give me divine health, and he can do all those things, but there's no guarantee that he will. And if he doesn't, will you still worship and serve him? If he doesn't and you go through a life with some type of difficulty, will you still worship and care for him? So this verse isn't saying that we shouldn't care for the poor. This verse isn't saying that we shouldn't do things to help the poor have resources as we know of them. But sometimes what happens to the church is they get so focused on their ministries that they spend so much time serving Jesus they don't spend time, any time with Jesus. Sometimes missions trips will turn into all of these services and outreaches and Children's ministry and painting and building renovation and everything that nobody spends time with Jesus, and people come back from a missions trip exhausted, but not spiritually uplifted, not fulfilled, growing closer to Christ, and there needs to be a balance there. There needs to be a balance there where you spend time with the Lord first, and then out of your worship time, then you are motivated and empowered and ready to serve. And maybe that's what you need to do in your own life. Maybe you need to spend time with God first, and then tell him that you're available, that you want to serve him today, that you're ready to interrupt your schedule, that you're ready to follow Jesus' agenda today, even though you have a lot of things to do, and then see what he does with that. To spend time in God's word, to pray for some people that you know that need him, to look for opportunities, and then go about your day and see what the Lord does. See who the Spirit, Holy Spirit brings across your path, see who you might have opportunities to share Christ with. And maybe you share Christ knowing that you might be the last person to talk to this person about Jesus before they die. You might be the last person, most likely not, but possibly the last person to proclaim Christ. So as you start to share, and that they continue to listen and they keep continuing to ask questions, just keep running with it and see where it leads. See where it leads, and then try to keep that door open and stuff. But by no means try to get them to say, you know, oh, let me tell you, you're a sinner in need of salvation, and if you say this prayer, then you'll be safe. So just say this prayer. I think leading people in the sinner's prayer, I think that's a good idea. But to just get them to say the prayer isn't the objective, to get them to want to say the prayer, to get them to want to give their life to Jesus and to turn from sin and to follow him, that is a great thing. And I literally told someone though he worked at the post office in Duluth, but I literally kept telling this guy as I was trying to lead him to Christ. I'm like, are you sure? Are you sure that you're ready that you believe in Jesus? That you are you sure that you're ready to turn from sin and follow him? And he said yes, like three times before I helped lead him in a prayer to come to Christ. And it was pretty cool. A few weeks later I got a note from his wife that says, Thank you so much. My husband is in Jesus. I am the happiest woman, happiest wife ever. And pretty cool that God can do that. But nonetheless, people will follow Jesus for what they get. Meanwhile, a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So they were excited to see this thing. They wanted to see what does a resurrected man look like? Is he different? Does he have a resurrected body? What does this guy look like? And then if Jesus could do that, just think of what he could do for us as the Messiah. Isn't this the guy who was able to feed thousands with just a few loaves and fish? Isn't he the one that like healed these people and did all these things? And in Jesus' earlier ministry, he'd like healed people, you'd be like, Shh, don't tell anybody, okay? I just healed you, but don't, let's just keep that a secret from right for right now. And now Jesus is shifting everything to, okay, now everybody needs to know. Now it's time. And one reason for that is because he didn't want to be persecuted and killed before the time. And sometimes if you tell what you're up to, it's like impossible to keep a secret. So kind of like if you're planning a surprise birthday party and you tell your little kid, and then they tell everybody, and it's no longer a surprise. So, anyway, large crowds of Jesus. Large crowds of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came not only because of him. Anytime there's something spectacular happening, large crowds will show up. That doesn't mean that large crowds are committed to Jesus. That doesn't mean that they're committed to following his way. They just want to see what's going on, kind of like a circus, maybe. Oh, let's go see this, because we're in town for the Passover. So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well. For on account of him, many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him. So now Jesus could be accused of like breaking the Pharisees' regulations and laws and stuff, but Lazarus didn't do anything wrong except being brought back from the dead. But because everybody saw Lazarus as an example of Jesus' great work, and everybody was trying to find out about Lazarus and hear the story and what was it like to be dead for a few days? And how did it, what did it feel like when Jesus called you back to life? And everybody wants to hear from Lazarus, and so the chief priests are like, this is Jesus and Lazarus. They're working together to deceive the people. We need to kill both of them, was their plan. And this is the next day, the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. So this could have been a really large crowd. You could be talking about millions of people gathering for the Passover as they were coming from around the world to celebrate this time. Let's see here. Josephus, the notable Jewish historian of that day, estimated that over two million people were involved in the great Passover feast. It is known that 256,500 lambs were slain at one Passover, and that each lamb represented at least ten worshippers. This, of course, puts the number of people at well over two million. Teeming thousands from all over the world were flooding into the city to observe the Passover feast, the time of religious celebration. So these people were gathering together and they took palm branches and they went out to meet him, shouting, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the king of Israel. And again, Hosanna means saved now, or save, we pray. And so they were crying out, and they were with palm branches, they were a symbol of victory and triumph. They were waved triumphantly as a conqueror rode victoriously through the city streets. They hoped that Jesus was going to set them free. And Jesus came as on a young, Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written, Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion, see your king is coming seated on a cult. A cult, and I think that's a quote from Zechariah. But so if you were a king showing up in the city to bring war, you would be on a warrior's horse, on a stallion. You'd show up in like in a tank or something like that. And if you were coming to bring peace, the kings, the rulers, they would bring a cult, something that wasn't formidable. Nowadays they show up in Cadillacs, but peaceful. And Jesus was coming to bring peace, which was probably a surprise. At first, his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him. And so Jesus isn't doing what the disciples thought that he should be doing. They were still looking for a Messiah that was going to take over. Jesus had taught them over and over again, but their minds were blinded. They wouldn't understand until after Jesus had died and been resurrected of these things that were going on. And so in John 2, verse 22, it says, After Jesus was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the scriptures and what Jesus had said. So the disciples didn't understand. And also in Luke 9.45, the disciples did not understand the statement. It was concealed from them so that they could not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it. So in Luke 9.43 it says, Ah, ah gripped the people as they saw this majestic display of God's power. And while everyone was marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, Listen to me and remember what I say. The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of enemies. But they didn't know what he meant. They didn't understand the statement. It was concealed so that they could not grasp it. Yes. And Jesus said to them in Luke 24 to the guys on the road to Emmaus, Jesus said to them, You foolish people, you find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the scriptures. Wasn't it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all of these things before entering his glory? Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all scriptures the things concerning himself. So these are the two guys on the road to Emmaus when Jesus showed up and they didn't know it was really Jesus, and they're talking about, didn't you hear about Jesus? And then Jesus sets them straight, and then they have an aha moment afterwards that, whoa, that was Jesus. And now the crowd, John 12, back to this. Now the crowd that was, let me just say something about this for a second. Sometimes in our lives, as we hunger and thirst for righteousness, as we seek to follow after the Lord, as we spend time in Scripture, as we spend time praying through things, sometimes we have aha moments where we get this understanding. And it's like, okay, I didn't get that, but now I do. I didn't understand what this passage meant, but now I think I do. I didn't understand how to apply this to my life, but now I think I do. I don't understand why I went through this season, this difficulty, this hard time, and aha, now I think I do. I see what how Romans 8.28, how God could use this for good, because I love him and I'm called according to his purpose. We don't always get those, but sometimes we have those aha moments. And so sometimes for these people, for these people, they weren't sure. Jesus kind of veiled what was going on until after he was resurrected. For us, we have the Holy Spirit who helps us to understand Scripture. So before you open up God's word and you look into it, you need to pray. Lord Jesus, I come to you right now and confess any known sin you have. And I just pray that the Holy Spirit would open up your word and help me to understand it and apply it to my life today. I want to hear from you. I want to obey you and serve you in Jesus' name, and then start reading your Bible and see how that works for you. So John 12, 17. Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. Lazarus' life was a living testimony to what Jesus had done. And many people wanted to hear the message. Maybe they weren't ready to accept the message, maybe they weren't committed at the time, but they were open to hearing. It was a time in their life where they were open to connecting with Jesus. And people go through different stages in life. Sometimes when there's a sudden death in the family, when someone loses a job and they have to relocate, or just there's different stages in life where people are more open to hearing about Jesus, and you just be ready to share. Be ready to know that people may be interested. People might be interested and come up. They'll want to come out and meet Jesus, and maybe they'll meet Jesus through you. And the Pharisees said to one another, see, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him. Which is actually a testimony of Jesus' effectiveness at the time that everybody at the time was turning to Jesus. Now we know as we come on Friday to the Good Friday service when Jesus is crucified on the cross that many of these people that are shouting Hosanna might be the same people, not all of them, but the same people that shall crucify him because they didn't get what they wanted in the way that they wanted it. But the Pharisees were so upset that Jesus was ruining everything. They had in their mind the way that the Messiah was supposed to come and the things that the Messiah was supposed to do, and they didn't think that their well Jesus, the way he was doing it, wasn't the way it was supposed to be done, and therefore he needed to be gone. If you could write yourself into the script, what would that look like? Where would you be? Would you be doing everything you could to push your way through the crowd of millions of people? Try to get a glimpse of Jesus, to try to hear his voice, to try to see what he had, to try to see if there was something there for you. Is he is could you put your trust in him? Is he the Messiah that you need to follow? Is he God's solution to the problems in your life? Or would you sit back and just wait and see if something else happens? Or would you just listen to stories and go, like maybe, but never engage in Jesus? If you could write yourself into the script, if you were having dinner, if Jesus was having dinner at your house, would you just pour out your best and give him everything that you had as a form of worship, as a form to show him your love and to trust him in that? Then maybe as you leave here today, as you're driving home in the car or thinking about it, maybe this week, what are some of the aha moments that you've had that have helped you grow in deeper faith and love for our Savior and in greater commitment to follow Jesus? Sometimes it's a really good thing. Let me just pray. Lord Jesus, I thank you so much for your word. Some of us are so familiar with your word, it's hard to hear something new. But I pray you'd help us to like invest ourselves into the story and try to figure out where we would be in it and where we should be in it, and then how you are at work in our lives and that you would like open our minds and our hearts and help us to see the things that we've gone through to make us the people that we are and how you can use that for your glory. Maybe you've put us in this place where we live, in this region at this time in our lives to do something significant for your glory and help us to see what that is. Give us an aha moment through the power of your spirit in Jesus' name. All right, let's show this video.

SPEAKER_00 35:56

On the road to the cross. On the road to the cross, the crowds laid down their coats and palm branches in the streets to honor their king. On the road to the cross, Jesus wept for the city he came to stay in, for many of them would not receive him. On the road to the cross, the disciples were given a new and final command to love each other just as Jesus had loved them. On the road to the cross. Jesus became like a serpent, and one took those who were later to pray, to die, and to be on the road to the cross.