Palm Sunday
Notes
Transcript
Good morning. How is everyone doing today? Awesome! Let’s pray together.
Father, I thank You for being such a good good Father. I thank You that you are a steady rock in our uncertain lives. When there seems to be so much uncertainty about our future in this life, You give us so many things that we can be certain about. It is because You are never changing that we can trust Your Word. It is because You are so powerful that we can trust Your ability to do the things that You’ve said that You will do. It is because You are so wise that we can trust that no one can frustrate Your plans. It is because You are so good, and that You are love, that we can trust that everything You do will be out of Your great love for us. Father we don’t deserve that much love from You, but we are thankful for Your love. Father, because You are so good to us, we desire to be good to You. Father, it’s because we experience Your love for us, that we grow in our love for You. Father, hold us close during these turbulent times so that we can remain steady in Your arms. Even if the world is tossed like a wave around us, we will be able to stand on solid ground with You, and will not be panicked or scared, but we will have peace and confidence that we know our future and we know who holds it. Father we ask you to help us during this hour to understand, remember, and apply Your word to our lives and to our very souls. We love You Father, and we thank You for Your love for us. In Your Son Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
Today is Palm Sunday, and next Sunday is Easter. I hate that we won’t be meeting together this Easter, but I hope that you will all come back again and worship with us online next Sunday. We have been working through a series about the kingdom of God, but the CCP virus has thrown us way off schedule so we’re going to shift things around a bit. Palm Sunday focuses on Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey as King, leading up to his crucifixion as king, and Easter focuses on His resurrection. So we are going to skip way ahead in our Kingdom of God series and focus on how Palm Sunday and Easter fit into the kingdom of God storyline and then after that, we will go back to the Old Testament and pick up where we left off.
So if you’re wondering what is Palm Sunday, you are probably in good company. The palm in Palm Sunday is not the palm of your hand. It is not a meet and greet Sunday where everyone goes around shaking everyone else’s hand that Sunday. The palm refers to palm fronds from a palm tree. But it also is not a vacation Sunday where everyone goes to Florida or a tropical location to have church that week. Although, I’m not totally against that idea, if someone want’s to plan that trip, I’ll be ready to go as soon as all of these social distancing restrictions are removed and life get’s back to normal. And I’m sure I’m not the only one. But back to Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday refers to the Palm branches that the people in Jerusalem used to usher Jesus into the city the week before he was crucified and rose from the dead. John’s Gospel, which is about 2,000 years old now tells us that they used palm branches. And so in remembrance of this last week of Jesus’ life, leading up to the celebration of Easter Sunday, people have been celebrating Palm Sunday with palm branches, for centuries for sure, probably for millennia, I really don’t know how long it has been a yearly tradition, but the event goes all the way back to the gospels themselves. Let’s look at John’s account:
12 The next day, when the large crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 they took palm branches and went out to meet him. They kept shouting: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord—the King of Israel!” 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written: 15 Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion. Look, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.
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So you see as Jesus was coming into the city, a large crowd gathered together and welcomed him in as you would a king. Many of them were spreading their clothes out on the road for the donkey to walk on and they were also taking palm branches and laying them down on the road. Not only were they treating him as a king, they were shouting that he was the promised king as well.
Let’s step back for a second talk about why they were doing this. Like I said at the beginning of this sermon, I’ve skipped the majority of the Old Testament in the Kingdom of God series that we are doing because Easter is here and I can’t skip Easter, but we will come back to the rest of the Old Testament storyline that helps us see why so many people were treating him like a king, but let me try and sum it up really quickly. So God made a promise to the nation of Israel that He would send them a king, called the Messiah, that would establish an everlasting kingdom, that would never be oppressed by any other kingdom again and all the peoples on earth would submit to them, and there would be peace, and prosperity, and joy forever, and the king that God would establish will reign over that kingdom forever. It would completely change the entire earth so much that even the animals would not harm each other, children will be able to put their hands in vipers’ dens and not be harmed, and the lion will eat grass like the ox, and in essence everything will be perfect and like it was when God first placed Adam and Eve in the garden. And God promised that this king would come from the line of David, and so for hundreds of years, the people of Israel longed for and eagerly looked forward to the day when God would send the Messiah. So when we jump back to the days of Jesus, all of the people are oppressed at that time by Rome. The Romans gave a great deal of liberty to Israel as a nation, but they still had to pay taxes to Rome, and the Roman soldiers and governors still had ultimate authority and presence in Israel. So then Jesus comes along and starts performing the greatest miracles that had ever been performed on earth, with complete authority over evil spirits, where all he had to do was tell them to leave and they ran in fear, and he even had authority over nature itself when he calmed the waves and sea and the storm, and multiplied bread and fish out of thin air. And everywhere he went, he healing people of sicknesses, giving sight to blind people, casting out demons, he always preached about the kingdom of God. So the people were all looking forward to the coming king and the coming kingdom that he would rule, and here comes the greatest prophet to ever live, who was a son of David, meaning a descendant of David, doing all of these miracles and what he preaching on everywhere he goes and talks to all of these people. That’s right. The kingdom of God. So after three years of traveling around and doing all of these things and preaching about the coming kingdom, he comes into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. And the people come out to meet him and to proclaim him as the promised coming king, as the messiah. Now do you remember what the people were shouting? let’s look at what Mark’s gospel says:
9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted: Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!
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Mark said the people were shouting that Blessed was Jesus who was coming in the name of the Lord, and blessed was the coming kingdom of David. They were treating Jesus as a king and they were celebrating that the kingdom of God was finally arriving. You might say, Mark didn’t say that the people said Jesus was the king, it just says blessed is “he” who comes in the name of the lord, and blessed is the kingdom, that doesn’t mean they though Jesus was the king, maybe they just thought he was the prophet and that he would anoint someone else as the king. And I would say, that’s a very good point, but they were laying their clothes on the road in front of him and we also have other gospels to compare notes with. So now let’s look at Luke’s account. Luke said in Luke 19:38 that the people were shouting
38 Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven!
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So the people were actually shouting that Jesus was the king. John’s gospel that we read earlier even goes another step further. Let’s look at what he said the people were shouting in John 12:13
13 they took palm branches and went out to meet him. They kept shouting: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord—the King of Israel!”
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So the people were all excited that Jesus was the promised king, the son of David, the Messiah that was going to usher in the kingdom of God that was going to overthrow Rome and conquer the whole earth and establish peace throughout the world, and they were ready to get the show on the road. But Jesus had other plans. Now He would fulfil all of those promises, but not the way the people were expecting him to, and not on the timeline that they were expecting either. But all of this attention of large crowds of people treating Jesus as a king and proclaiming him to be the king of Israel was making the religious leaders in Jerusalem very very nervous, and for good reason. You see Israel only had one king according to Rome, and that was Caesar. And anyone who claimed to be a king without his approval was guilty of treason, and large crowds who massed together to establish their own king was guilty of treason and rebellion, and Rome had a very effective way of squashing rebellions. Caesar would send his Roman army, as many as he needed, and they would burn the entire city to the ground, they would destroy everyone and everything in it and declare it off limits to be rebuilt, and if anyone tried to come in and rebuild there they would suffer the same fate. This large crowd of people in Jerusalem, laying their clothes down on the road and laying palm branches down on the road, shouting Blessed is the King of Israel, and Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David, without a doubt qualified for treason and rebellion. This was plenty enough to grab the attention of the Roman authorities and the Jewish religious leaders wanted to stop it as quickly as they could and separate themselves from having any part of it. They did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and even if some of them did, which most didn’t, they had more fear of Rome and losing their positions than they had faith in God that He would in fact establish the kingdom he promised to establish through his promised Messiah.
So what did the religious authorities do? The did exactly what God needed them to do. They decided to kill Jesus and since they couldn’t get Rome to execute him for blasphemy, they accused him of claiming to be a king. Now let’s look at John’s gospel together. We are picking up after Judas has betrayed Jesus to the Jewish religious authorities and they interrogated him and accused him of blasphemy and now they are asking the Roman governor to crucify Jesus. John 18:28-19:16
28 Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They did not enter the headquarters themselves; otherwise they would be defiled and unable to eat the Passover. 29 So Pilate came out to them and said, “What charge do you bring against this man?” 30 They answered him, “If this man weren’t a criminal, we wouldn’t have handed him over to you.” 31 Pilate told them, “You take him and judge him according to your law.” “It’s not legal for us to put anyone to death,” the Jews declared. 32 They said this so that Jesus’s words might be fulfilled indicating what kind of death he was going to die. 33 Then Pilate went back into the headquarters, summoned Jesus, and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Are you asking this on your own, or have others told you about me?” 35 “I’m not a Jew, am I?” Pilate replied. “Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?” 36 “My kingdom is not of this world,” said Jesus. “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” 37 “You are a king then?” Pilate asked. “You say that I’m a king,” Jesus replied. “I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 38 “What is truth?” said Pilate. After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, “I find no grounds for charging him. 39 You have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at the Passover. So, do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” 40 They shouted back, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a revolutionary. 1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers also twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and clothed him in a purple robe. 3 And they kept coming up to him and saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and were slapping his face. 4 Pilate went outside again and said to them, “Look, I’m bringing him out to you to let you know I find no grounds for charging him.” 5 Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” 6 When the chief priests and the temple servants saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” Pilate responded, “Take him and crucify him yourselves, since I find no grounds for charging him.” 7 “We have a law,” the Jews replied to him, “and according to that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.” 8 When Pilate heard this statement, he was more afraid than ever. 9 He went back into the headquarters and asked Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus did not give him an answer. 10 So Pilate said to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you know that I have the authority to release you and the authority to crucify you?” 11 “You would have no authority over me at all,” Jesus answered him, “if it hadn’t been given you from above. This is why the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.” 12 From that moment Pilate kept trying to release him. But the Jews shouted, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Anyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar!” 13 When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside. He sat down on the judge’s seat in a place called the Stone Pavement (but in Aramaic, Gabbatha). 14 It was the preparation day for the Passover, and it was about noon. Then he told the Jews, “Here is your king!” 15 They shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Should I crucify your king?” “We have no king but Caesar!” the chief priests answered. 16 Then he handed him over to be crucified. Then they took Jesus away.
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You see, Jesus was the promised king. Jesus was the son of David who would establish a kingdom that he would rule forever. But it wasn’t going to happen the way that everyone expected it to. You see there are two realms. There is the physical realm that we are all very familiar with, the one we live in and can observe and see and touch, and then there is the spiritual realm that is just as real but one that we can’t see. God, sees them both, one is not more real than the other. And God’s kingdom exists, in both realms, in the spiritual and in the physical. God has established his kingdom in the spiritual realm and it operates the way it is supposed to operate. God and the holy angels and those who have died before us who placed their faith in the God of the Bible, live in a place that we call heaven. Heaven is a real place with real people who live in a real city. That city is described to us in Revelation, it has gates and streets and buildings, and God is in the center of it sitting on His throne with Jesus at His right side. It is a humongous city. Let me say that again. It is a HUMONGOUS city. Let’s look at how big it is, for just a second. Revelation 21:15-17 says this:
15 The one who spoke with me had a golden measuring rod to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. 16 The city is laid out in a square; its length and width are the same. He measured the city with the rod at 12,000 stadia. Its length, width, and height are equal. 17 Then he measured its wall, 144 cubits according to human measurement, which the angel used.
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Now he said the cities length, width, and height are all equal, at 12,000 stadia each. And you are probably just like me, you say well it sounds big, but how big is 12,000 stadia. The Christian Standard Bible study notes, which by the way, is the study bible that I personally recommend, says that 12,000 stadia is equal to... Are you ready for this? 1,400 miles! So imagine a heavenly golden city, a real city where God is in the center, a city built by God Himself, where Jesus and God and angels and people are. Do you remember what Jesus said in John chapter 14? He said this:
2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you. 3 If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also.
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So in this massive city built by God Jesus is preparing a place to live for each and every member of the kingdom of God, in a city that is 1,400 miles wide, 1,400 miles long, and 1,400 miles high. A city made of gold and jasper and all kinds of beautiful stones and metals and materials. The walls are 144 cubits thick, which means they are over 200 feet thick. And that is where all of those who have given their lives in surrender to God are living with Him now, and where we will go and join them when we die if He doesn’t come back first, and then when Jesus does come back and puts and end to this world as we know it, and puts and end to all sin, the Scripture says that the holy city, Jerusalem, will come down out of heaven from God and will be placed on the new earth in Revelation 21:10. That is a big kingdom, and that is the kingdom that Jesus is the king of right now, and it’s the kingdom that he was the king of 2,000 years ago when he was being mocked and beat and crucified for you and me, so that we could become members of that kingdom and so that we could join Him in that kingdom one day. When he was on the cross, do you remember what one of the criminals being crucified beside him said? Luke 23:42
42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
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and what did Jesus say back to him?
43 And he said to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
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Paradise. That is how Jesus described His kingdom. The one with a beautiful city that He built that’s 1,400 miles long, and 1,400 miles wide, and 1,400 miles tall with a 200 foot thick wall with all kinds of places to live and gates made of pearls, and his throne in the middle with a river flowing from it, Rev. 22.1-5
1 Then he showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the city’s main street. The tree of life was on each side of the river, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations, 3 and there will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 Night will be no more; people will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will give them light, and they will reign forever and ever.
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But you see we couldn’t be a member of that kingdom, we would never be able to step foot in that kingdom, if Jesus wasn’t crucified in our place. If Jesus didn’t die on the cross for our sins, we would still be guilty with no hope of being forgiven, and no hope of ever being allowed into that kingdom of Paradise. But God’s love for us is so great that He chose to go to the cross for us. He chose to die in our place so that we could be forgiven of our sins, if we would only turn from our sin and believe in Him to save us. God’s desire, has always been, and will always be, for us to live with Him, in His kingdom, without pain or suffering or violence or sickness or death, forever and ever, in paradise. His desire is to adopt us as His children and for Him to be our perfect loving Father forever. His desire is for us to be a family together forever. But He won’t force us, He won’t force our love, We have to choose to love Him, just like we choose to love our spouses, or just like we choose to love our children and our parents. God created love. He created family. He won’t force you to love Him, but He wants you to love Him more than anything else. It is your choice to make. Will you choose to turn from sinning against Him and will you choose to love Him and follow Him for the rest of your life? Will you choose to submit to Him as your king and submit yourself to Him as members of His kingdom. Do you want to be a member of the kingdom of God for all of eternity? Please don’t reject His offer of eternal life. Please be reconciled to God. Today is the day of salvation. Jesus is a king worth giving your life for and worth giving your life to. Jesus is a king worth serving. Jesus is a king worth worshiping.
Are you ready to enter His kingdom? If so, I want you to make that decision right now. I want you to call on the Lord to save you from your sins and to forgive you and to adopt you as His child. And I want you to let me know that you made that decision. if you are not on our livestream website, I want you to go to live.yatesvillebaptist.com and I want you to click on the request prayer button and I want you to include your name and email address and a short message that says that you have decided to follow Christ and where you’re from so that I can reach out to you to follow up with you. God has given us a mission to do while we are here on this earth. He has called you to give your entire life to Him and follow Him, not just make a one time decision and then go back to life as usual. I want to help you know exactly what God has called you to do, and how to do it. I want to get you plugged into a church where you can grow as a disciple of Jesus and make more disciples of Jesus. God has a huge kingdom that He has built and He wants to fill it up with every person that He has placed on this earth, but He lets us choose, and He wants us to share that message of hope with the world. Someone shared that message with me a long time ago, and I am saved today because of it. I am sharing that message with you now, and it is up to you to share it with others so that more and more and more people can enter God’s kingdom forever. Let’s pray together.
Father, You are such an amazing God. Your love for us is so great that you, the king of the universe, who created each and everyone one of us and gave us breath and life and existence, You left Your throne in heaven and came to earth as a man and lived a perfect life and died in our place and took our punishment that we deserved upon Yourself so that we could be forgiven, and so that we could then become your children forever. You are the perfect Father, and You deserve all of our praise, and love, and talent, and energy, and all that we are. We can praise you for the rest of eternity and we would not scratch the surface of the praise that You deserve. We don’t understand why You love us so much, but we are grateful that You do. We pour out our hearts in love for You Father. Father, I know that it is your desire that no one should perish but that all should repent of their sin and submit themselves to You as their king, and so Father, if there is anyone who is listening to this message of Your good news and want to reconcile themselves to You, I pray for them right now that they would have the courage to make that decision. I pray that they will decide today to turn from sinning against You and that they would ask you to forgive them of their sins, and that they would be brave enough to tell others that even though they will submit themselves to their governing authorities on this earth, they have a greater King now and that they know that they have a place in a kingdom to go home to when they leave this earth that Jesus Himself has prepared for them and will come and take them to one day. A kingdom and a King that is worth more than all the wealth and security and provisions that this world could offer. A King that is worth their entire lives that they will serve until the day they die and for all of eternity after that. Father, I pray that you will give them everything they need to weather the storms of this life, as I know you have promised to do for each and every one of Your children. We love You, Father, and we could never ever ever thank You enough for Your love for us. In Jesus’ holy and precious and eternal name we pray, Amen.
I’m so glad you were able to worship with us today, wherever you are and I look forward to worshipping again with you next week on Easter. I love you, and God bless.