Palm Sunday celebrates Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem and marks the start of holy week, the final days of His ministry.

What Do Jesus- Followers Believe about POPULARITY and Why?

What Do Jesus- Followers Believe about and Why? INTRODUCTION 1. By Jesus-Follower we are referring to those who are committed to Jesus & His Word. 2. You are encouraged to bring a friend who is still on the way to faith.

What Do Jesus- Followers Believe about and Why? INTRODUCTION 3. Special invitation cards are available; opportunities to ask questions and discuss issues after the service...

11 THE WORLD 1 9 DEATH BELIEF JESUS What Do Jesus- Our sermon notes as Followers topics is Believe on the about Church and website! Why? REALITY GOD THE DEVIL/ANGELS TRUTH THE SUPERNATURAL 12 GOLF! 7 2 8 well as a schedule of Crossroads Fellowship TOPICS 10 5 3 4 EVIL JOY 6 NATURE TRAGEDY FORGIVENESS LOVE

What Do Jesus- Followers Believe about POPULARITY and Why? Preliminary Considerations: 1. Popularity means being well thoughtof, having a good reputation, others speaking kindly of you, well-liked, people want to be around you, etc.

What Do Jesus- Followers Believe about POPULARITY and Why? Preliminary Considerations: 2. But what about being a friend of GOD? How important is it to put Him first in our relationships, to value His opinion of us more than any other s?

What Do Jesus- Followers Believe about POPULARITY and Why? Preliminary Considerations: "In this life you sometimes have to choose between pleasing God and pleasing man. In the long run it's better to please God -- He's more apt to remember." (Harry Kemelman)

What Do Jesus- Followers Believe about POPULARITY and Why? Preliminary Considerations: 3. What is a biblical perspective on popularity? What makes one popular with people? One university even has a course entitled...

About this course: The level of popularity you experienced in childhood and adolescence is still affecting you today in ways that you may not even realize. Learn about how psychologists study popularity and how these same concepts can be used in adulthood to be more successful at work, become better parents, and have a happier life. I have some painful memories...

What Do Jesus- Followers Believe about POPULARITY and Why? Preliminary Considerations: 3. What is a biblical perspective on popularity? What makes one popular with people?

What Do Jesus- Followers Believe about POPULARITY and Why? The Bible on Popularity 24 A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. (Prov. 18:24 KJV)

What Do Jesus- Followers Believe about POPULARITY and Why? The Bible on Popularity You adulterous people, don t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. (James 4:4)

What Do Jesus- Followers Believe about POPULARITY and Why? The Bible on Popularity... many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved human praise more than praise from God. (John 12)

What Do Jesus- Followers Believe about POPULARITY and Why? The Bible on Popularity 11 The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. (Ex. 33) We are as intimate with God as we choose to be! (Cynthia Heald)

What Do Jesus- Followers Believe about POPULARITY and Why? The Bible on Popularity Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe. (Prov. 29:25)

What Do Jesus- Followers Believe about POPULARITY and Why? The Bible on Popularity Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets. (Lk. 6:26)

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don t accept His claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg or else he would be the Devil of Hell.

You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon or you can fall at His feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. (C.S. Lewis)

What Do Jesus- Followers Believe about POPULARITY and Why? The Bible on Popularity Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets. (Lk. 6:26)

What Do Jesus- Followers Believe about POPULARITY and Why? The Triumphal Entry (Mt. 21; Mk. 11; Lk. 19; Jn. 12) This is the height of Jesus popularity. But what do we learn from this first event in the last week of Jesus life?

12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel! 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: 15 Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey s colt.

16 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. 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. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him! (John 12)

Why Is Jesus POPULAR? I. Because He Is Receiving the Praise of the People! (vv. 12-13) 12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel! The palm branches symbolize...

Why Is Jesus POPULAR? II. Because He Is Fulfilling Scripture! (vv. 14-16) 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: 15 Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey s colt. 16 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. John says Jesus is fulfilling Zechariah 9:9 s prophecy...

Why Is Jesus POPULAR? II. Because He Is Fulfilling Scripture! (vv. 14-16) 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: 15 Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! on a donkey s colt. 16 At first Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! his disciples did not understand See, your king comes to you, all this. Only after Jesus was righteous and victorious, glorified did they realize that lowly and riding on a donkey, these things had been written on a colt, the foal of a donkey. about him and that these things had been done to him. John says Jesus is fulfilling Zechariah 9:9 s prophecy...

Why Is Jesus POPULAR? II. Because He Is Fulfilling Scripture! (vv. 14-16) 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: 15 Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey s colt. 16 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. Jesus has supernaturally arranged for the donkey to be available!

Why Is Jesus POPULAR? II. Because He Is Fulfilling Scripture! (vv. 14-16) 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: 15 Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey s colt. 16 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.... you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away. (Mt. 21)

Why Is Jesus POPULAR? II. Because He Is Fulfilling Scripture! (vv. 14-16) 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: 15 Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey s colt. But He is really fulfilling Isaiah 53... Jesus was not a victim of events, but actively Himself began the process of giving His life for sinners.

Why Is Jesus POPULAR? II. Because He Is Fulfilling Scripture! (vv. 14-16) 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: 15 Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey s colt. 16 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. He enters on a donkey, a beast of burden! Not a stallion, a symbol of military victory!

Why Is Jesus POPULAR? II. Because He Is Fulfilling Scripture! (vv. 14-16) 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: 15 Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey s colt. 16 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. The disciples don t realize these things until Jesus is glorified!

Why Is Jesus POPULAR? III. Because He Has Done Miracles! (vv. 17-18) 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. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. But miracles don t guarantee faith!

Some Christians long for a world well-stocked with miracles and spectacular signs of God s presence. I hear wistful sermons on the parting of the Red Sea and the ten plagues and the daily manna in the wilderness, as if the speakers yearn for God to unleash his power like that today. But the follow-the-dots journey of the Israelites should give us pause. Would a burst of miracles nourish faith? Not the kind of faith God seems interested in, evidently. The Israelites give ample proof that signs may only addict us to signs, not to God. (Philip Yancey, Disappointment with God, p. 48)

Why Is Jesus POPULAR? IV. Because He Is Challenging the Establishment! (v. 19) 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him! But worldly popularity is fleeting. Soon this same group will be shouting, CRUCIFY HIM! CRUCIFY HIM!

What Do Jesus- Followers Believe about POPULARITY and Why? Several Conclusions: 1. Popularity involves being a friend of sinners, but not a friend of the world. 2. Popularity can cause us to value man s opinion above God s! Or to fear man more than we fear the Lord.

What Do Jesus- Followers Believe about POPULARITY and Why? Several Conclusions: 3. God wants to have a relationship, a friendship, with each of us. 4. Popularity does not equal truth. 5. The praise of people can be quite fickle, fleeting, superficial.

What Do Jesus- Followers Believe about POPULARITY and Why? Several Conclusions: 6. Jesus did not live for the praise of men but to honor His Father in all things. 7. Jesus very popularity was one step leading to His sacrifice on the cross.