The Tree Of Life

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. So today, being Palm Sunday, it marks the week, the beginning of the most momentous week I think in all of human history. You might go like, huh? Give it to me right now, okay? I'll get there and why I think that's the case. And this is the week where he enters into Jerusalem through the praise of the crowd, but then by Friday, he's already rejected by them and they cry out crucify. He dies and then resurrection. God takes our no, our rejection of Jesus Christ, and flips it around and he says yes to us. Isn't that amazing? So today we're going to finish our series called Echoes of Eden, and I think it's an apt time to do that. You might go like, how does Palm Sunday fit in with Eden, with the Garden of Eden that we've been talking about, how Genesis is hyperlinked all the way through the scriptures. Now when I was a child, I always thought the stories in Sunday school about resurrection and about, or excuse me, about Eden and creation, it was more or less just the diving board. Do you know what, some sermons are like this too, by the way. You take a scripture and you just jump off of it and go wherever you want to go. Doesn't have to be related to it at all. And I think sometimes those Sunday school lessons felt like, okay, God created the world, and then we focus on all the wrong stuff, sort of. And what I mean by that is, when did it happen, how did it happen, instead of focusing on really why did it happen, and what direction does God want creation to go. That's what this series is more about. How the pattern in Eden, what God set up and created there, how the creation is going to come to an exaltation and to a fulfillment. How the beginning and the end are connected, and everything in between in your lives. So today we're going to finish this by looking at how Jesus enters into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. And here we see an echo of Eden, how God wants to come and inhabit and be with his creation. We're going to be reading from the Gospel of John. And you can follow along in the sermon notes by using this QR code here. And you'll find both the scripture lessons and the quotes that I might have as well in this sermon. So here we go. John chapter 12, interesting, right? John's Gospel has 21 chapters. And at chapter 12, we're already at Palm Sunday. Does that tell you something about the importance of this week? Because the rest of the Gospel of John is basically about one week plus a few days after in resurrection appearances. So a couple weeks of Jesus' life, and half of the Gospel is focused on that. Not much of a biography, if you would call for 30-some years of life, right? All you're focusing is on these couple weeks. But here we go. John chapter 12. It's a long section, and I'll explain why. This is the only time, so a little biblical trivia, just to throw it out. So we call it Palm Sunday because of John's Gospel. Because the other Gospels don't use the term palms for what they threw into the roads, okay? Only here. So here we are. John chapter 12, verse 12 through 33. The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion. Behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. 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. 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. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done the sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him. Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew, and Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus, and Jesus answered them, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. If it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven, I have glorified it, and I will glorify...