(2024 Holy Week artwork by CBC student Shelbi Whitfield)

John 12:12–19

¹² The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. ¹³ So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” ¹⁴ And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, ¹⁵ “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” ¹⁶ His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. ¹⁷ The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. ¹⁸ The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. ¹⁹ So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”

Palm Sunday is that beautiful and electric day when Jesus enters Jerusalem. It is known as “the triumphal entry” and it sets in motion the events of Holy Week, culminating ultimately in the crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

I have preached many Palm Sunday sermons and you have heard many Palm Sunday sermons. The verses will sound very familiar to many of you.

¹² The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. ¹³ So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” ¹⁴ And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, ¹⁵ “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

If you grew up in church, this scene will, I hope, bring to mind familiar and powerful images. The King has entered the city and the King will now do His great work…though that work will be a work that nobody ever could have imagined. He will not ascend to a throne in Jerusalem. He will rather be raised on a cross. So this entry into Jerusalem is triumphal, yes, but not in the way the world thinks of triumph.

Again, I have preached this many times and you have heard this many times, with good reason! We dare not miss the crucial events of Palm Sunday.

Yet, John’s account offers us something interesting. John allows us to hear what the Pharisees think of Palm Sunday, what they were saying among themselves about Jesus entering Jerusalem to great acclaim. We find this in verse 19:

¹⁹ So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”

Now, there is something delicious about this! We are allowed to see the handwringing complaints and irritation of the Pharisees at the way Jesus is received, at Jesus’ popularity, at Jesus’ reception into Jerusalem. Their two statements to one another bear two parts:

• Futility: “You see that you are gaining nothing.”
• Exasperation: “Look, the world has gone after him.”

What are we to make of this? Specifically, what are we to make of the Pharisees’ assertion that “the world has gone after” Jesus?

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Matthew 26

³⁶ Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” ³⁷ And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. ³⁸ Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” ³⁹ And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” ⁴⁰ And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? ⁴¹ Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” ⁴² Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” ⁴³ And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. ⁴⁴ So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. ⁴⁵ Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. ⁴⁶ Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira has interestingly written of the “heroism” of Jesus.

The most perfect example [Jesus] gave of His own heroism was, in my view, the Agony in the Garden, which Nietzsche despised. Nietzsche said that Our Lord Jesus Christ had not shown himself to be a real man in this instance. Further, with His doctrine of forgiveness and His goodness, He showed He was just a soft sweet being. This statement is blasphemous, and had Nietzsche been ordered to carry the Cross, he would have handed it over 200 times. He would have abandoned that Cross, apostatized, done a hundred other things, but he would not have had the courage to carry the Cross.[1]

How fascinating!

Who is right?

Is Oliveira correct that in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus is shown to be a hero?

Is Nietzsche correct that in the Garden of Gethsemane shows Himself to not be a real man, to be “just a soft sweet being”?

I stand strongly with Oliveira’s assessment, though the “heroism” that Christ showed in the Garden comes in unexpected ways. A lot is revealed in the Garden Gethsemane. Let us consider the full implications of what happened there!

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Philippians 2:5–11

⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ^`7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Harold O.J. Brown tells the following story:

In 1873, when the sport of mountain climbing was still in its infancy, an enterprising young Englishwoman climbed most of the way to the summit of Europe’s highest mountain, Mont Blanc, to the place known as Les Grands Mulets. Her guide urged her to go on, as it seemed to him that she could easily attain the summit and incidentally become the first woman to do so. She demurred, stating that she had already accomplished what she intended, and that to go on would be nothing but vanity. That woman was Frances Ridley Havergal (b. 1836), one of the most gifted hymn writers in the English language.[1]

How fascinating. How unusual! A woman who did not have to attain the highest point, who did not covet ascendency, who did not have to hoard the heights. How unlike the overall bent and direction of our own culture!

It does not surprise me that Francis Ridley Havergal was such a great hymn writer. She clearly knew much of Jesus. For Jesus did not have to hoard the highest point, did not have to have constant ascent. In fact, Paul tells us in this most amazing passage, that Christ Jesus, above whom there is no other name, was willing to come down, down, down, to reach us in our despondency, to reach us in the deepest valley.

Our salvation depends upon Christ’s refusal to stay in constant ascendency, in Christ’s descent, in Christ’s willingness to come down to us where we are, to reach us in our lowliness.

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³⁰ And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. ³¹ Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ ³² But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” ³³ Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” ³⁴ Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” ³⁵ Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.

Ryan Holiday is an interesting person. He is a young man who considers himself a Stoic. Stoicism is the ancient philosophical belief in and pursuit of four great virtues: wisdom, courage, temperance or moderation, and justice. Holiday writes very interesting books, one of which is Ego is the Enemy. In it, he writes:

“Whom the gods wish to destroy,” Cyril Connolly famously said, “they first call promising.” Twenty-five hundred years before that, the elegiac poet Theognis wrote to his friend, “The first thing, Kurnos, which gods bestow on one they would annihilate, is pride.” Yet we pick up this mantle on purpose!

Pride blunts the very instrument we need to own in order to succeed: our mind. Our ability to learn, to adapt, to be flexible, to build relationships, all of this is dulled by pride.[1]

There is wisdom here. To a certain extent, what Holiday has written here and quoted here helps us understand a bit about Simon Peter. Peter, of course, would deny Jesus three times before the cock crowed. But I believe that our text gives us some insights into the mindset and attitudes that went before Peter’s calamitous fall (and eventual, thank God, restoration!).

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¹ So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, ² complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. ³ Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. ⁴ Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Gerhard Frost wrote:

“The reason mountain climbers

are tied together

is to keep the sane ones from going home.”

I don’t know who said it,

or when, or where,

but I’ve chuckled over it,

thought about it, and quoted it, too.

With a mountain of mercy behind me

and a mountain of mission ahead,

I need you, my sister, my brother,

I need to be tied to you,

and you need me, too.

We need each other…

to keep from bolting,

fleeing in panic, and returning

to the “sanity” of unbelief…[1]

I think that is very well said. “I need to be tied to you, and you need me, too.” It is a deeply Christian sentiment, and one of the great Christian expressions of it is found in the first four verses of Philippians 2. In verses 2 and 3 and 4, Paul will show what this unity looks like. In verse 1 he prefaces his depiction of and call for Christian unity in the church with a series of seemingly conditional statements.

¹ So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,

Again, this sounds conditional.

• if there is any encouragement in Christ,
• if there is any comfort from love,
• if there is any participation in the Spirit,
• if there is any affection and sympathy…

But the “if” here does not actually point to a possible reality but rather to an actual reality. Fred Craddock writes that Greek has a

way of saying “if” which stated the case exactly. For example, “If I am your friend (and I am).” This latter type of conditional clause was used to lay a foundation for a request, a command, an instruction. Such is the case in 2:1: “…if there is any encouragement in Christ” (and there is). One could just as well begin the four clauses in 2:1 with “since there is.”[2]

So let us read verse 1 like this:

• since there is encouragement in Christ,
• since there is comfort from love,
• since there is participation in the Spirit,
• since there is affection and sympathy…

Since these things are true, the church can be what it is designed to be. The church can be the kind of community that it is entitled to be and the church can be characterized by those qualities that God intends and desires. By what should the church be characterized?

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Philippians 1:27–30

²⁷ Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, ²⁸ and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. ²⁹ For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, ³⁰ engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

Philipp Jakob Spener was an interesting man.

He was a 17^th-century Lutheran believer who became disenchanted with what he saw as the coldness and empty formality of the Lutheran church. In response to this, Spener called for a rebirth of experiential Christianity, that is, a Christianity in which believers had an actual experience of conversion and grace that gave way to lives of true holiness. Spener sought to create a collegia pietatis (pious assembly) within the church: small groups of intensely-committed Christians who would seek actually to live out the Christian faith. The Wikipedia article on Spener offers a nice summary.

Spener wanted to strengthen and renew the church through the development of more knowledgeable and devoted members. In his Pia Desideria, he gave six proposals of how to enact this reform: (1) to more thoroughly acquaint believers with Scripture by means of private readings and study groups in addition to preaching; (2) to increase the involvement of laity in all functions of the church; (3) to emphasize that believers put into practice their faith and knowledge of God; (4) to approach religious discussions with humility and love, avoiding controversy whenever possible; (5) to ensure that pastors are both well-educated and pious; and (6) to focus preaching on developing faith in ordinary believers.[1]

Now, for some people, “pietism,” the name usually associated with Spener’s movement, is a bad word. It has, for some, connotations of a highly-individualistic, inward-experience-focused brand of legalistic Christianity. Some also point out that Spener’s proposals attempt to create a church within the church, a group of actual Christians among otherwise nominal Christians.

I think, personally, that some of this is unfair to Spener and some of it might have a point. We also need to distinguish at certain points between what Spener was trying to do and what actually happened with some attempts to implement his ideas.

This much seems to be true: Spener appears to have been operating out of an actual, sincere sense of frustration that the churches he knew were not producing disciples. Furthermore, Spener seems to have understood clearly that the church is called to be a called-out and holy people. So whatever faults he might have had, I do not think Spener’s overall project of wanting to see the church renewed was a bad one. In fact, I think his overall desire was one with which the apostle Paul would likely have been sympathetic. After all, in Philippians 1:27–30, Paul appears to be calling the church to greater devotion, to unity, to Christlikeness, and to holiness in their lives. Let us see how Paul does this.

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Philippians 1:19–26

¹⁹ for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, ²⁰ as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. ²¹ For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ²² If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. ²³ I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. ²⁴ But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. ²⁵ Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, ²⁶ so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.

Max Anders tells the story of a man who was walking along a beach and found a magical lamp. He rubbed the lamp and a genie came out. The genie told the man that he would grant him one wish for having set him free from the lamp. The man thought about it and then said that he wished he could have a copy of the stock page of a local newspaper dated one year from that day. So—poof!—the genie disappeared and the stock page of a local newspaper appeared in the man’s hands.

As the man sat on the beach reading the stock page and making investment plans, the top of the page bent over and he saw, on the other side, the obituary page from one year in the future. At the top was a name that caught his attention: it was his own.[1]

The two realities that are inescapable to our existence are (a) life and (b) death. The question is this: How should we conceive of these two realities? Life is inescapable to those who possess it and death is as well. These realities can overwhelm you if you do not think of them rightly.

N.D. Wilson writes:

With an average life expectancy of 78.2 years in the US (subtracting eight hours a day for sleep), I have around 250,000 conscious hours remaining to me in which I could be smiling or scowling, rejoicing in my life, in this race, in this story, or moaning and complaining about my troubles. I can be giving my fingers, my back, my mind, my words, my breaths, to my wife and my children and my neighbors, or I can grasp after the vapor and the vanity for myself, dragging my feet, afraid to die and therefore afraid to live. And, like Adam, I will still die in the end.[2]

That is an interesting way to look at it, and a helpful way. Paul, writing from prison, considered his life and his death and he too came to terms with it. In fact, he makes one of the all-time great statements about life death. He is hopeful, as he writes to the Christians of Philippi, yet he does not know if he is going to live or die. He writes:

¹⁹ for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, ²⁰ as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.

So there is a note of uncertainty as to what exactly is going to happen to his body. Yet, he is optimistic either way. Whether Paul lives or dies, he is going to experience great good. And it is in this context that he writes his great sentence about life and death.

²¹ For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 

Paul is defining the twin realities of life and death as a win-win situation! Whether the Christian lives or die, it is gain! How is this so?

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Philippians 1:12–18

¹² I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, ¹³ so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. ¹⁴ And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. ¹⁵ Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. ¹⁶ The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. ¹⁷ The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. ¹⁸ What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

A lot of inmates in prison have accomplished a lot of very impressive things over the years. Take, for instance, William Addis.

William Addis was an Englishman born somewhere around London in 1734. In 1770, Addis was imprisoned for causing a riot. While he was in prison, he washed his teeth with a rag, some soot, and some salt. This was the standard method throughout Europe and had been so for centuries. He watched a man using a broom to sweep the floor and decided that there could be a better way of cleaning teeth.

Addis saved a small animal bone from one of the meals that he was given. Then, he drilled small holes into one end of the bone. He obtained some pig bristles from his guards, tied them into little tufts, and stuck them through the holes with some glue. This was the original toothbrush invented in Europe.[1]

Or how about Jesse Hawley, a flour merchant from New York?

Eventually, in 1807, Hawley’s difficulties in securing reasonably priced transportation drove him in 1806 to debtors’ prison for twenty months. While in prison, writing under the name “Hercules”, he published fourteen essays on the idea of the canal from the Hudson River to Lake Erie; they appeared in the Genesee Messenger.

Considering his modest education and lack of formal training as an engineer or surveyor, Hawley’s writing was remarkable; he pulled together a wealth of information necessary to the project, provided detailed analysis of the problems to be solved, and wrote with great eloquence and foresight on the importance the canal would have to the state and to the nation. Though they were deemed the ravings of a madman by some, Hawley’s essays were proven to be immensely influential on the development of the canal.[2]

Or consider Robert Franklin Stroud, “The Bird Man of Alcatraz.” A dangerous man and a murderer, Stroud nonetheless made an amazing contribution to science and medical knowledge while in prison. His Wikipedia article states:

In 1920, while in solitary confinement at the federal penitentiary of Leavenworth, Stroud discovered a nest with three injured sparrows in the prison yard. He cared for them and within a few years had acquired a collection of about 300 canaries. He began extensive research into birds after being granted equipment by a prison-reforming warden. Stroud wrote Diseases of Canaries, which was smuggled out of Leavenworth and published in 1933, as well as a later edition (1943). He made important contributions to avian pathology, most notably a cure for the hemorrhagic septicemia family of diseases, gaining much respect and some level of sympathy among ornithologists and farmers.[3]

Amazing! How about one more example. A first-century Jew is thrown into prison because he will not stop preaching about Jesus. He is so passionate about Jesus that his presence and his preaching and the riots they sometimes cause are seen as positively dangerous by some of the authorities. While in prison, this first-century Jew wrote some letters that were so powerful they are still studied by groups of people all around the world who find in his letters the very words of God to mankind. That Jewish prisoner was named Paul and one of those letters was called “Philippians.” Paul’s imprisonment was not incidental to the writing of Philippians or to his life. In fact, it was quite important, and in verses 12 through 18 of this most remarkable letter, Paul talks about the role that his imprisonment played.

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Philippians 1:1–11

¹ Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: ² Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ³ I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, ⁴ always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, ⁵ because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. ⁶ And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. ⁷ It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. ⁸ For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. ⁹ And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, ¹⁰ so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, ¹¹ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Imagine that you gather for church on a Sunday morning. It is the year 60 AD. You live in the city of Philippi “in the northeast section of the Roman province of Macedonia…about eight hundred miles from Rome and approximately ten miles from the seaport of Neapolis…”[1] You are happy to gather again with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

There has been whispering all morning, rumors of something exciting that might happen at church. As you gather with the church and sit on the floor, you feel a kind of electricity in the air! Something is going to happen today!

The pastor stands up and looks around. Then he smiles and says, “Brothers and sisters…we have a special guest this morning. I think you may know him…” Suddenly the room is galvanized! Some people stand up and look about. And sure enough, out of the shadows, there steps a man. You know him! Epaphroditus! Immediately there is a joyous commotion. Exclamations of happiness, tears, hugs and kisses! The room moves toward Epaphroditus, a beloved member of the church who had been sent many moons before to take a love offering to the Apostle Paul in prison. You and the rest of the church have been worried about Epaphroditus. You had heard rumor that he was sick. Some thought Epaphroditus was dead! But here he stands, back…thinner, but alive!

Finally, order is restored. Tears are wiped from cheeks and the church sits and watches Epaphroditus. He speaks, his voice broken with emotion: “It is so good to be home. I have missed you all so much. Yes, the rumors are true: I was sick…very sick. But, friends, I was cared for by our brother Paul and our brother Timothy and, as you can see, I am very much alive!” Murmurs of amazement ripple through the crowd. “And brothers and sisters…[and here Epaphroditus pauses for dramatic effect, then grins widely]…I have come back with a letter from Paul.”

Suddenly, more tears of joy flow in the room! Epaphroditus holds the letter up and clears his throat. He is going to read it to the church! A letter from Paul! And the Philippians are going to get to listen in…and so are we!

The book of Philippians. More accurately, the letter to the Philippians.

In this letter, Paul is going to tell a first-century church in a city called Philippi that he loves them, that Jesus loves them, that he is proud of them, and that they can press on to becoming more and more like Jesus.

What is more, the letter to the Philippians is overflowing with joy! “Paul is filled with joy,” writes Frank Thielman, “and expects the Philippians to be joyful also (1:4, 18, 25; 2:2, 17–18, 28–29; 3:1; 4:1, 4, 10).”[2]

One important detail is the fact that Paul wrote this letter to the Christians of Philippi from prison. This is one of the “prison epistles” of Paul. And this makes Paul’s joy at the Philippian church that much more powerful. From his prison cell, Paul looked with love toward the believers in Philippi.

This is a letter of hope. This is a letter of joy. This is a letter of love. And it is an honor to read it with you today.

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Among the many brilliant things that Charles Spurgeon said, the following deserves special attention:

It is the whole business of the whole church to preach the whole gospel to the whole world.

And I have a simple question about this statement: Do you believe that to be true? Do you believe that it is the whole business of the whole church to preach the whole gospel to the whole world?

At our church, we have used the language of “the reaching of the nations,” but Spurgeon’s sentiment is what we mean by that: It is the whole business of the whole church to preach the whole gospel to the whole world. 

I believe Spurgeon’s statement is true. And I believe a lot hinges on whether or not we all think it is true. And I would like for us to all walk out of here believing it is true and living out of the truth of it.

Why is it the whole business of the whole church to preach the whole gospel to the whole world?

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