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The Road To Easter | Week 1 | Full Service · Rewind

Rock Point Church

72 min

Pastor Hunter Jones · Mar 23, 2026 · 3 min read · 72 min listen

The big idea

Quoting the message: Jesus may not be the king we want, but He's the king we need, end quote..

In this message

The big idea
Point 1 of 3Jesus is a king who brings victory through humility
Point 2 of 3Jesus is the king who brings joy through sorrow

Point 3 of 3Jesus is the king who brings salvation through sacrifice
Take it into your week
Transcript

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Scripture in this message

Matthew 21
Matthew 21:1
Psalm 118
Psalm 23
Psalm 23:4
Romans 12

Rewind AI drafted the Big Idea and some point headings shown here from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Pastor Hunter Jones · Mar 23, 2026 · 72 min watch · 2 min read

The Road To Easter | Week 1 | Full Service

In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

Matthew 21
Matthew 21:1
Psalm 118
Psalm 23
Psalm 23:4
Romans 12

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Quoting the message: Jesus may not be the king we want, but He's the king we need, end quote..

Jesus enters Jerusalem offering peace and salvation, not the conquest and comfort people expected of their Messiah. When He doesn't meet our expectations, we're tempted to throw Him away — but the King who brings victory through humility, joy through sorrow, and salvation through sacrifice is exactly the King we actually need.

Key points

1
1Jesus is a king who brings victory through humility
Pastor Hunter contrasts a king riding a war horse (power, conquest) with Jesus riding an unbroken donkey's colt (peace, humility), noting that Pontius Pilate was likely making a rival procession into the city at the same time on a war horse. He illustrates the trap of fighting for power with a childhood Monopoly story with his sister and the escalating 'crazy cycle' in marriages and friend groups, arguing that humility, not winning, brings real victory.
2
2Jesus is the king who brings joy through sorrow
The crowd waved palm branches expecting Jesus to change their circumstances, but Jesus knew joy only comes on the other side of the cross. Pastor Hunter tells the story of a coworker's buffalo tattoo — buffalo run through a storm to reach the sun rather than fleeing it like cows — and points to Psalm 23's 'through the valley' language to show that Jesus leads us through pain toward healing rather than around it.
3
3Jesus is the king who brings salvation through sacrifice
The crowd cried 'Hosanna,' meaning 'save us now,' wanting salvation through strength, but Jesus offers salvation through sacrifice as the true Passover Lamb. Pastor Hunter walks through the Exodus Passover lamb requirement (perfect, unblemished, sacrificed, blood on the doorpost) and shows Jesus fulfilling that picture, contrasting earning God's love through works with living from a love already given.

he was not the help I wanted, but he ended up being the exact help I needed

It is so easy for us in our lives to put expectations on who Jesus should be

A story from life

Pastor Hunter shares about closing on a new house and recounts repeated encounters with a neighbor named Kevin who organized the communal dumpster, leading to an unexpected act of kindness

Application

Jesus may not be the king we want, but He's the king we need — so the question is where we need to come back to that King.

Bring humility into a strained relationship
Whether it's with God, a spouse, or a friend, stop trying to win and instead humble yourself — ask for help, admit fault, or love unconditionally even when hurt.
Stop numbing the pain and walk through it
Instead of avoiding conviction or hurt with distractions, deal with it with Jesus; consider Christ-centered counseling or Rock Point's Monday night Care and Recovery Night.
Sacrifice your Easter Sunday plans
If Rock Point is home for you, move your own attendance to a Friday or Saturday service so newcomers can have room on Easter Sunday, and sign up to serve — parking, greeting, kids — so others can meet Jesus.
Say yes to Jesus as Lord and Savior
If it's your first time, pray the prayer of surrender given, then go to the prayer room and tell someone about it before the day ends.
Invite someone to Easter at Rock Point
Follow through on a personal invite this week, not just a social media post, the way Pastor Hunter texted an old friend himself.

Take it into your week

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“we're gonna be kicking off a series looking at Matthew chapter 21, the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem”
From the transcript
“Matthew 21, verse one. As Jesus and the disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the town of Bethphage on the Mount Of Olives”
From the transcript
“the people all around him were shouting, praise God. It's this word from Psalm 118. They're saying, Hosanna”
From the transcript
“Even the most famous Psalm, most of us have heard it, most of us know it, Psalm 23. It starts with, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, I have all I need”
From the transcript
“In verse four it says, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me”
From the transcript
“Romans chapter 12, it says, If you're a Christian, offer your life as a living sacrifice, pleasing to God”
From the transcript
“it's taken the words right out of Matthew chapter 21, what these people are proclaiming, Hosanna. And what we're going to proclaim is praise God, Hosanna to the king that Jesus really is”

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Sign in to track your progress through this devotional.

Day 1

There is something quietly stunning about the way Jesus entered Jerusalem. The crowd was ready for a general — someone who would ride in with force, drive out the Romans, and restore Israel's national glory. What they got was a king on a borrowed donkey, moving through the noise at a pace that left no room for military theater. Pastor Hunter pointed out that the crowd's expectations were not wicked so much as they were self-constructed. They had built a version of Jesus that fit what they needed Him to be, and when the real Jesus showed up, the gap between their expectation and reality would eventually cost Him a crown of thorns. It is worth sitting with that honestly. Most of us have done some version of the same thing. We come to Jesus carrying a mental picture of what He should do — fix the relationship, turn the situation around, vindicate us in front of the people who doubted us. None of those desires are necessarily wrong. But when we hand Jesus a script, we stop following Him and start directing Him. The crowd on Palm Sunday teaches us that a Jesus we invented cannot save us. Only the real one can. And the real one, Pastor Hunter reminded us, is better than anything we would have thought to ask for — even if His path looks nothing like what we imagined.

For reflection

Where in your life have you been following a version of Jesus shaped more by your own hopes than by who He has actually shown Himself to be?

Pray

Pray for honesty about the expectations you have placed on Jesus, and for openness to who He truly is.

Day 2

Pastor Hunter made a point that is easy to rush past: Jesus chose the donkey on purpose. Matthew quotes Zechariah's prophecy — 'your King comes to you, humble, riding on a donkey' — and Jesus fulfills it deliberately. He could have arrived any other way. He didn't. Humility was not an accident of circumstance; it was the strategy of the King. That reframes something important about how Jesus invites us to live. We tend to think of humility as the thing you fall back on when power fails — the consolation prize for people who couldn't win the normal way. But Jesus shows us humility as the actual path to lasting victory. He did not ride a war horse into Jerusalem because He was not interested in the kind of winning a war horse represents. He was after something deeper, something the crowd could not see yet. Pastor Hunter applied this to our relationships — the ones where we have been trying to gain ground through pressure, argument, or sheer force of will. The challenge is not to give up or become a pushover. It is to ask honestly whether the approach you have been using looks more like a war horse or a donkey. Real influence, the kind that actually changes things, tends to come through the patient, humble path — the one Jesus modeled at a walking pace through the gates of Jerusalem.

For reflection

Is there a relationship in your life right now where you have been pushing for control rather than choosing humility? What might the 'donkey path' look like there?

Pray

Pray for the courage to choose humility in a specific relationship where winning has felt more important than serving.

Day 3

The crowd shouting 'Hosanna' was quoting Psalm 118 — a psalm of rescue and royal welcome. 'Hosanna' literally means 'save us now,' and the people meant it. They were not being dramatic; they were desperate. Generations of occupation, longing, and unanswered prayers had built up behind that word. When Jesus rode in, it all poured out. What is easy to miss is that the psalm they were quoting was always pointing to a rescue that would cost the rescuer everything. Psalm 118 does not describe a painless coronation. It describes a cornerstone that builders rejected, a deliverance that came through the house of the Lord, a day the Lord made that His people would choose to rejoice in — not because the circumstances were easy, but because the salvation was real. The crowd wanted the rescue without the cross. They wanted the 'save us now' without the 'it will cost Me everything.' But Psalm 118 was always holding both together. Pastor Hunter's point lands here: when we hold only the triumphant half of the story, we set ourselves up to be the ones shouting 'Crucify Him' by Friday. Sitting with the whole psalm is an act of honesty — acknowledging that the salvation Jesus brings is deeper and more costly than we first imagined, and more real because of it.

For reflection

When you cry out to God for rescue, what kind of rescue are you picturing? How does Psalm 118 expand or challenge that picture?

Pray

Pray for the faith to trust God's rescue even when it does not look the way you expected or arrive on your timeline.

Day 4

One of the most honest things Pastor Hunter said in this sermon is that Jesus does not route us around the valley — He walks us through it. That distinction matters enormously when you are in the middle of something hard. The assumption we often carry is that a good God would simply remove the pain. When He does not, we wonder if He is paying attention, if He cares, or if the whole thing is working at all. But Psalm 23 never promises to skip the valley. It promises a Shepherd who is present in it — 'You are with me,' the psalmist says, not 'You lifted me out before it got bad.' The rod and the staff are not tools for carrying you over the difficult terrain. They are tools a shepherd uses while walking right alongside the sheep on the ground. Pastor Hunter connected this to a very practical challenge: stop numbing the pain. Stop going around it. The avoidance strategies that seem like relief — busyness, distraction, anything that keeps you from sitting with what is actually hurting — tend to extend the valley rather than shorten it. Running through it with Jesus, staying present with Him in the hard place, is the path to the joy that comes on the other side. That is not a tidy promise. It is a hard and true one.

For reflection

What pain or difficulty have you been trying to go around rather than through? What would it look like to bring Jesus into that place honestly?

Pray

Pray for the willingness to stop avoiding what is hard, and for a real sense of Jesus' presence in the middle of it.

Day 5

The shout of the crowd in Matthew 21 — 'Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' — is a declaration that would have carried enormous weight in the ears of any Jewish listener. Son of David. That was not just a term of endearment. It was a title loaded with centuries of messianic expectation, a claim that this person carries David's royal lineage and God's promised redemption. The crowd was saying something true. They just did not yet understand the full weight of what they were saying. Pastor Hunter's observation cuts to the heart of how quickly genuine worship can curdle when our expectations go unmet. By Friday, many of those same voices would be calling for His crucifixion — not because Jesus had failed, but because He had refused to be what they wanted. The tragedy is that they were worshiping Him with their mouths while holding a counterfeit version of Him in their hearts. That is a question worth bringing to your own worship. When you come to church, open your Bible, or pray, who is it you are actually coming to? The real Jesus — humble, sacrificial, leading through the valley — or a version you have assembled from your own hopes? Honest worship begins with letting that question land.

For reflection

How does the gap between the crowd's worship and their Friday response challenge the way you approach your own relationship with Jesus?

Pray

Pray for worship that is honest — rooted in who Jesus actually is rather than in what you are hoping He will do for you.

Day 6

Pastor Hunter brought this verse in at the end of the sermon as the response Jesus is asking for. Not a transaction. Not a performance. A living sacrifice — your actual life, laid down. The language is deliberately sacrificial, connecting the offering of yourself to the same imagery of the Passover Lamb that Jesus fulfilled when He entered Jerusalem and walked toward the cross. The phrase 'living sacrifice' holds a tension worth sitting with. A sacrifice, by definition, does not take itself back. But a living one — a person, not an animal — has the daily option to climb back off the altar. That is why Paul calls it an act of 'true and proper worship' (ESV). It is not a one-time transaction. It is a posture you return to, again and again, in the ordinary moments of a day. What makes this possible is the 'therefore' that opens the verse — because of what God has done, because of the mercies He has shown, because of the sacrifice Jesus already made, you can offer yourself back without fear. You are not trying to earn God's love through performance. You are responding to love that has already been given fully and freely. Pastor Hunter's challenge is straightforward: receive that salvation first, then live from it — with your time, your relationships, and the ordinary details of your life.

For reflection

What would it look like, in a practical and specific way, to offer one area of your life as a living sacrifice this week?

Pray

Pray for the grace to stop performing for God's approval and instead to receive what Jesus has already given — then offer yourself back out of gratitude.

Day 7

Coming back to the whole scene at the end of the week looks different than it did on day one. The same road, the same crowd, the same borrowed donkey — but now you have spent time with the humility Jesus modeled, the valley He walks you through, the sacrifice He made, and the invitation to offer your life back to Him. The passage holds all of it. Pastor Hunter's central question is still the right one to close with: Where is Jesus asking you to sacrifice? That question has no generic answer. It lands differently for every person — in a marriage, a budget, a habit, an ambition, a grudge you have been holding, an identity you have been protecting. The King who rode into Jerusalem on a donkey is not asking for the dramatic gesture. He is asking for the honest one. This week's invitation is simply to keep following the real Jesus — not the one who exists to fix your circumstances or validate your comfort, but the One who wins through humility, leads through sorrow into joy, and saves through sacrifice rather than strength. That King is worth following all the way through whatever comes next. If you are still figuring out what that means for you, the best next step is a conversation — with someone at Rock Point who can walk with you from here.

For reflection

Looking back over this week, where has your picture of Jesus grown more honest — and where is He still asking you to let go of an expectation you have been holding?

Pray

Pray for the courage to follow the real Jesus into whatever He is asking of you next — and for the humility to keep asking that question week after week.

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

This message centers on a question worth sitting with together: what kind of king were the crowds expecting on Palm Sunday — and what kind of king did Jesus turn out to be?

Discussion questions

1
In Matthew 21, the crowds welcome Jesus with 'Hosanna' and palm branches, then just days later call for His crucifixion. What do you think shifted so quickly — what might the crowds have been expecting that Jesus didn't deliver?
2
Pastor Hunter pointed out that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey rather than a war horse. What does that choice communicate about the kind of king Jesus understood Himself to be?
3
Pastor Hunter described a 'counterfeit Jesus' — a version of Jesus shaped around our own expectations, whether that's fixing circumstances, defeating enemies, or confirming our comfort. How do people tend to construct that kind of Jesus, and what does it cost them when He doesn't act the way they imagined?
4
Psalm 23:4 says the shepherd leads us *through* the valley — not around it. Pastor Hunter connected this to Jesus not routing us around pain but walking us through it toward healing and joy. What does it look like, practically, for a community of people to walk *through* hard things together rather than avoiding them?
5
Pastor Hunter described Jesus entering Jerusalem as the perfect Passover Lamb — coming to win through sacrifice rather than strength. How does that reframe what it means to follow a king like this, compared to the kind of leader the crowds were hoping for?
6
Romans 12:1 calls us to offer our lives as living sacrifices in response to what Jesus has done. Pastor Hunter ended with the question: where is Jesus asking you to sacrifice? Take a moment this week, just between you and God, to sit with that question — and if it feels right, share with the group what it stirred up for you.

Pray together

Gratitude for the King Jesus actually is — humble, present in our pain, and saving us through His sacrifice rather than our striving

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Go deeper

Continue the series

The Road To Easter

Week 1 · 2 messages

Where these passages are preached

Matthew 21 Psalm 118 Psalm 23 Romans 12

Explore related topics

Humility and Sacrifice Living From God's Love Misplaced Expectations Palm Sunday Who Jesus Really Is

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