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I
caught a bus on the way to uni...
turn...
turn...
turn...
Then the bus driver stopped, turned to the passengers and asks "does anybody know where
we're supposed to be going?"
Sometimes life can get a bit like that.
You sort of go through doing all the little bits and pieces, work Monday to Friday, mow Saturday, family Sunday, holiday
in October...
turn, turn, turn...
and every now and then you're asking yourself "does anybody know I'm supposed to be going?"
We're a week out from Easter, and over the Easter season we're looking at how Jesus does
everything according to God's plan.
And today, in particular, we look at Jesus predicted.
And what I reckon we'll see as we look at the predictions of Jesus and how they end
up is that God has a very good idea of where you're supposed to be going.
So we'll look at a couple of predictions, and their payoff.
A king on a donkey, peace on a donkey, and Jesus on a donkey.
Now this prediction's early on in the Bible, and it's a prediction to God's people long
ago about where things were going.
This one's delivered to the wandering people of Israel.
Meandering through the farmlands, eeking out an existence for them and their families,
but they were always hoping for something more.
And God gives them a prediction.
Look out for the words about kingship.
Here's what was promised, Gen. 49:10-11:
"10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
until it comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.
11 He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch..."
See what's going on there, at the end of all the twists and turns for the nation of Israel
was a coming king, a coming ruler.
Carrying the royal sceptre and riding a donkey.
It's a big promise, because a decent king in those days certainly could guarantee a
safe and certain existence.
But it's just a prediction, just a promise, it's not as though God's actually stepping
in and doing something right then.
And that's what you want sometimes isn't, not a promise, but God to step in and do something
right there and then.
Have you ever had those moments where you don't want to know the meaning of life, you
just want God to give you some money to fix the car.
Or you want him to make someone better again.
You need some sense he's running the show and that he knows where it's all going.
But it doesn't always come like that.
So what's God doing?
Well, I reckon prediction number two starts heading us in that direction, because it's
not only the promise of a king on a donkey that God's been saying, but peace on a donkey.
Promises of peace come a lot don't they?
Every beauty pageant, the beautiful contestants are interviewed for
their intellectual fire-power, "What is important to you?"
and, inevitably, comes the answer, "World peace."
Then you roll your eyes right...
please, don't promise peace you have no hope of delivering.
Actually, one of the leaders of the United Nations was asked once why they weren't bringing
in world peace, and he said "the UN doesn't exist to lead humanity into heaven but it
exists to stop mankind descending into hell."
Peace is hard to come by;
we've never seen it yet.
But in prediction number two, there's a promise of world peace arriving on a donkey.
And the first people who got this promise had never seen it either.
Which is why it's described so carefully by God to his people.
There's still the king on the donkey, but now the tanks and guns and bombs are being
put away.
And now, peace is not spoken by a bikini clad woman in an entertainment centre, but proclaimed
across the world.
Look at what God says in prediction number two, Zec 9:9-10: "See, your King comes to
you, righteous and having salvation, gentle, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal
of a donkey. 10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations.
His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth."
Here's what God's saying about where it's all going, he's sending a ruler on a donkey
to bring in a peace that can't be overthrown.
See, every time people turned to God in the Old Testament, every time they looked to him
for direction he was giving the same answer - look out for the bloke on the donkey, he's
going to bring you peace like no one and nothing else ever could.
A peace that will mean all their enemies on every border would put down the arrows.
A peace that is going to go to every nation, a peace that is going to me and to you.
A peace that means we will put down our weapons.
Not only guns and knives and fists, but sharp words and back stabbing tongues.
A peace that that unites families and makes Easter gathering less taxing.
A peace that has God speak to your heart 'I know where we're going.'
It is a bold prediction isn't it?
A king on a donkey, bringing peace.
Which takes us to our final stop this morning, Jesus on a donkey.
It's holiday time in John's gospel, they're a week out from the great national public
holiday long weekend of Passover.
It's been happening for years.
The shops are stacked with Passover merchandise: special bread, plastic cups that say "God
fills my cup."
The poorer people just had to gather palm fronds, it was a thing they did building little
huts that was meant to remind them of something.
Truth is, like us, probably lots of them had forgotten the significance of what was supposed
to be happening in that week.
Their original Easter had become such a tradition filled holiday that many people had forgotten
where all the original predictions were going.
That first Easter weekend wasn't meant to be the time religious people stamped their
authority on the world.
It wasn't meant to be the time when the jewish institution was replace with the Christian
one, nor lamb and flat bread replaced with hot cross buns and chocolates.
And for just a few, they saw what was happening.
Those two predictions, and countless others, were about to have a name put to them.
All those words and promises from God were about to get flesh and bones, as those with
a desperate longing to know where God was taking things had their eyes open as someone
arrived on a donkey.
In John 12 there were two things they knew would come on a donkey...
firstly they knew it was God's king from v12: "12 The next day the great crowd that had
come for the Feast 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!""
And they knew God's king meant an end to enemies and war and fear with v14: "14 Jesus found
a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written, 15 "Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion;
see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt.""
There it is, the fulfilment of the predictions.
The king of God, bringing peace, riding in on a donkey.
Underwhelming isn't it?
I mean really, I'm a Christian and I think that's underwhelming.
How on earth is that actually going to bring peace?
I thought maybe we could copy some of this scene here this morning with palm fronds and
people greeting you on the way in.
but it seems so unsatisfying and unsual.
How on earth is that actually going to help me in my life know what God's doing and where
I'm going???
You'd prefer a bit of oomph wouldn't you?
Jesus coming in in President Obama's Cadillac...
But he doesn't.
I'm all with the disciples when in v16 we find out they didn't understand what was going
on.
In only a week they would though.
By the time Easter came they would understand just what God meant by a king who brings peace.
Because Jesus comes as the fulfilment of all those predictions and the centre of God's
plan to do something far more significant than anyone who saw him on that donkey might
comprehend.
They wanted him to restore their national pride, and make safe places for their families
and their churches.
They wanted him to make it legal to keep having their religious holidays and their religious
freedoms.
They wanted him to make them prosperous and powerful.
But Jesus comes to end darkness and death.
He comes to end everything that ruins peace.
All those words we let loose.
Those emails we shouldn't send.
Those power plays we shouldn't have done.
Our hearts that wander always to darkness.
And so in just one week from the donkey, on Good Friday he dies on a cross as all the
forces of darkness and sin crush him and the power of every one of our moments of sin is rendered dead.
And on Easter Sunday he rises from the grave showing that death can be defeated and there
is hope of lasting peace and life in a new age for all who turn and trust in the peace
giving king.
It's only after Easter the disciples realise what was going on in v16: Only after Jesus
was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him Where are
things supposed to be going?
To a life of peace under God's king Jesus Christ.
You know, in daily life, this can seem just a long way off and unfulfilling.
Because you want, I would suggest, simpler things: steady income, nice family, healthy
kids.
You want those right?
It's not bad to want that!
In fact, in God's final new age, when Jesus returns there'll be all that and more.
But God's intention has always been for something far grander.
From the very beginning to this very day he has wanted to gather a people who enjoy the
peace of his king.
And the predictions of Jesus show us that God has always been running things according
to plan.
In the midst of your days you may not feel like there's any kind of plan being kept to.
You might feel like there's one turn after another after another after another and you
want to apply the brakes and say "does anybody know where this is going?
" As we head towards Easter, I want to assure you of this, God does know where it's going,
he's always had the same plan, and he wants you to be part of it: join his plan for an
enduring and all encompassing peace under his King Jesus Christ.