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Message Summary
As Clarity prepares for Easter, Pastor Phillip Santillan begins a five-week journey from Jesus’ triumphal entry to the cross, which he calls God’s greatest display of love: God allowing his one and only Son to die an atoning death for our sins so that we could be reconciled to God and share in his kingdom by giving our allegiance to Jesus as king. He invites anyone wrestling with faith to discover what turned the first disciples, including Peter, who had once denied following Jesus, into people willing to die for him.
Scholars call Luke 19:28–38 one of Scripture’s clearest statements that Jesus is king. To explain why that matters, Phil goes back to the beginning, when God walked with humanity, before sin broke that unity as people sought autonomy and believed God did not have their best interests at heart. God began his story of redemption through Abraham’s family, who failed again and again while God kept his promise of a snake-crushing Messiah King. Luke deliberately echoes Zechariah, who foretold a righteous, victorious king coming humbly on a young donkey.
Phil wonders whether, for many church people, Jesus is king only when they sing about him. Having been part of many kinds of churches and pastored in Florida, California and the Midwest, he has seen many American Christians pair their faith with the idols of nationalism, a mix he calls repulsive, and he sees it, along with deconstruction and the isolation of COVID, behind a great resignation from the church. Yet he asks what it would look like to rediscover life under Jesus’ rule, with our deepest allegiance given to a kingdom not of this earth.
Luke paints that picture through the disciples, who carry out Jesus’ royal instructions exactly as given. Asked why they are untying the young donkey, they answer, “The Lord needs it.” They might have been tempted to add their own spin, perhaps a white horse for the conquering king they hoped for, but their allegiance kept them faithful. When Jesus is king, Phil says, we change our allegiance from the things of this world to the God who made the world, which is what repentance means. He asks whether someone watching our decisions, time, resources and relationships would sense that we serve King Jesus.
He closes with an old-school three-point message on showing allegiance to Jesus as king. First, obey his commands, starting with what God has already made clear, since love for God means keeping them (1 John 5). Second, love God’s people. Jesus said our love for one another shows the world we are his disciples (John 13:35), and 1 John 3:14 says whoever does not love remains in death; love for Christ shows up in love for his church. Third, give him our attention. The disciples followed Jesus and spread their clothes on the road. Citing a talk by Louis Giglio about living in an economy of attention, Phil says God invites us to give him ours. Jesus is King of kings, and he wants to be king of our lives.