Like shake yourself or whatever this is making you sleepy.
All right, welcome. It's so good to see you today.
Thanks for coming out on this very cold morning.
And again, if you're new to North Life, I'll be in the lobby
after service. Would love to meet you and hear
some of your story and answer any questions you might have
about North Life. And also, my e-mail is really
easy if you ever need to reach me.
If you're new to the church or you've been here for a while, if
there's some prayer requests or something, my e-mail is
kurt@nlifechurch.org. So CURT at nlifechurch.org,
super easy to reach me. All right, if you're watching
online today, we're super thrilled that you are here with
us, whether it's live at 11 O3 on Sunday morning or sometime in
the days or weeks to come. And we want to invite you to
come be with us live in worship at 115 E Main St. so right in
the historic old downtown part of Gaylord.
I would love to see you sometime soon, so consider yourself
invited. All right, if you have your
Bibles, please take and turn to John chapter 12.
If you're new to the Bible, John is about like 8090% towards the
back of your Bible in the New Testament after Matthew, Mark,
and Luke and before the book of Acts.
So John chapter 12, and know that there are notes on the back
tables there that you could grab it.
Make use of those, whether as I'm teaching or maybe you want
to grab them on your way out and use them as a devotional tool
and the week to come. And then also there are palms.
So please take one home with you today, especially after the
message, and hopefully it will help you remember what we're
talking about this morning. OK, so if you have your Bibles,
John chapter 12 and we're going to start in verse 12.
And of course, today is Palm Sunday.
So Christians all over the planet are celebrating the
triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem some 2000 years ago,
OK. And so we are also celebrating
it today. And so this is the apostle John,
a disciple of Jesus, and he writes in chapter 12, verse 12
the next day. This is after he had been with
Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, and there was a plot
to try to kill Lazarus between the Pharisees, not only Jesus,
but they thought about trying to kill Lazarus also because the
the miracle of him being resurrected, right?
And so the Pharisees don't like that Jesus is gaining favor with
his followers. And so they have this plot.
So the next day after that, the large crowd that had come to the
feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.
And 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.
And Jesus found a young donkey, and I'll tell you more of that
story. And he sat on it just as it is
written. Fear not, daughter of Zion,
behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt.
This morning. I want to talk to you about the
Passover and palms and I want to talk to you about the past and
present future of each. So I want to connect some dots
today and let you know what there will be like at the end,
Especially there's there's an idea about palms and worship and
we'll get to that at the end. But this morning, so the past,
the present future of Passover's and palms, let me pray for us.
Heavenly Father, we've come today to connect with you, to
have Kona NIA, to have fellowship with you and to
fellowship with each other. And we've sung our songs of
worship to you and we believe that you've heard our songs.
We've lifted up prayers to you even just being together in in
fellowship. The Konenia of it is honoring to
you. And now we open our hearts and
our minds to your truth and to your word.
We thank you for Scripture and the way that you reveal yourself
there. And so today that on this Palm
Sunday, especially Jesus, as we look to your triumphal entry,
grow us in our understanding and then ready us even the more to
be ready for worship on Friday night, Good Friday, and then
readiest to come to celebrate your resurrection next Sunday
morning. We pray this in Jesus name and
everyone loudly together said Amen and Amen.
All right, so this is John's account of that Palm Sunday,
when Jesus enters into the city of Jerusalem.
And it is a feast, It is a Passover feast.
So this is a holiday that the Jews would celebrate once a
year, and they're commemorating what had happened in Exodus.
OK, And we'll get around to that story.
So what's curious about Palm Sunday is that it's such a big
event in the life of Jesus that that each of the gospel writers,
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, all speak of it.
And that's not true of every event in the life of Jesus.
There were some events that were only maybe mentioned in one or
two of the Gospels, but in this occasion, all four of the
writers mention it at length. And so this morning what I'm
going to do is I'm going to look at each one's account of this
Palm Sunday and see how they're different and see how they
complement each other and hopefully walk away with an
understanding of how it's meaningful to us today.
The celebration that Jesus experienced when he came into
Jerusalem. Now, I was in Jerusalem 15 years
ago and I can remember just being where, you know, you can
still go to at least close to where the gate would have been
that that Jesus enters into the city.
And, and what's curious is that as it's on the same day,
probably as Jesus is coming in one of the gates, the eastern
gate, then the western gate, it would have been such that Pilot
also would have been having a parade of sorts.
But we think that the parade that Jesus is experiencing was
more people there. And they were again crying out,
Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
So I want to break down what is happening this event.
What are they saying? What does it mean?
How does Jesus receive it? How does Jesus respond to the
worship? And then again, the future, what
are going to be the future of palms in our lives when it comes
to worshipping Jesus? OK, so I'll get back to John's
account, but first let's go to Mark's account.
So Mark, we believe this is actually the story as Peter
would have given it. So we think Mark wrote down the
story as Peter would have told him.
OK, so this is Peter's viewpoint.
Now, remember, by Friday night, Peter is going to deny knowing
Jesus. Jesus is going to be arrested.
And when he is, he's betrayed by Judas.
He's arrested. And there are three occasions
where people say to Peter, weren't you one of the followers
of Jesus? And the last is a little girl, a
young woman. And Peter curses and betrays and
says that he doesn't even know who Jesus is.
OK, so this is Peter's viewpoint of Jesus going in to Jerusalem
on that Sunday morning. And so it marked 11 chap verses
one through 11. So Mark writes, Now when they
drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethpage and Bethany at the
Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to
them, Go into the village in front of you and immediately as
you enter, you will find a colt, Tide, on which no one has ever
sat. Untie it and bring it.
Now watch this. Jesus is going to ride this colt
that has never been ridden, which means it's never been
broken, right? So he, this is somewhat of a
miracle that he's riding this, this donkey.
And I've, I can, again, having been to Jerusalem, I can
envision where the Mount of Olives is and across there's a
big valley there and there's a highway that runs through it.
And so I can envision what it would have been like for Jesus
to have come from the Mount of Olives to gone into the valley
and up the hill to Jerusalem, OK?
And he would have been doing this his entire life.
OK. You remember that Jesus had gone
to celebrate the Passover feast when he was 12 with his parents,
Mary and Joseph. And remember, they lost him.
They left him there. And they got about halfway home
and realized, oh, wow, Jesus isn't with us.
And when he gets back, when they go back to the city of
Jerusalem, they find him in the temple having conversations and
leaving the religious leaders in awe of his insights regarding
scripture and other things. So, so Jesus, his entire life
would have been making that journey across from the Mount of
Olives into the valley and up into the city of Jerusalem.
But this time it's different because the expectation is high.
They know he's coming. He's performed these miracles
with Lazarus and the feeding of the 5000 and the healing of the
blind men, just so many miracles.
And so Jesus had grown greatly in favor and notoriety.
And here it comes into the city during the Passover feast.
OK. And he says you'll go find this
cult. And what's interesting is that
he just says, just go take it when you you're going to
immediately see this cult. And when you do, just go take
it. So in verse 33, it says, if
anyone says to you, why are you doing this?
Why are you taking? Why are you stealing my cold?
Say the Lord has need of it and we'll send it back here
immediately. And they went away and found a
colt tied at the door outside in the street.
And they untied it. And some of those standing there
said to them, what are you doing?
What are you doing on tying the colt?
And they said, the Lord needs it.
And the person who had the colt, he, he did that.
He just let it take it, right. So how are you when someone
says, Oh yeah, the Lord has need of this, the idea that that, you
know, really it's kind of against our theology to say that
God needs anything. God is he's totally sufficient.
But in this occasion, Jesus expresses, hey, I have this
need, the Lord, I have this need.
And this person who has the cult allows it.
And when they do, it's important because he's fulfilling A
prophecy that we'll get to. So verse 6.
And they told them what Jesus had said, that he had need of
it, and they let them go. And they brought the cult to
Jesus, and they threw their cloaks on it and he sat on it.
This is like them treating him like a king.
When they take their coats and they put it on the donkey, then
it is again nodding to the fact that he is kingly.
And then he spread their cloaks on the road again.
It's something that you would do for royalty, something for
kings. Another spread leafy branches,
in other words, the palm branches that they had cut from
the fields and verse 9 and those who went before and those who
followed were shouting Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord bless. Blessed is the coming Kingdom of
our Father David. Hosanna in the highest.
Now hosanna is a Hebrew word and it literally means save us now,
save us now. And it was taken from the
Psalms. OK, so they're quoting when
they're saying Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes in the name of
the Lord. Well, they're quoting Psalm 118,
verses 24 through 26. For the psalmist writes, this is
the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in
it. Save us, we pray.
That's where Hosanna would have been.
Save us now we pray, O Lord, O Lord, we pray, give us success.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
We bless you from the House of the Lord.
The the Jews had been anticipating their Messiah,
their deliverer coming. Moses was a type of deliverer.
David. They're looking to the lineage
of David. David had been their deliverer
also. And now they're looking for the
Messiah to come. They've been expecting about it.
OK, so but in their mind, when they're saying save us now, they
were really Speaking of a political type of salvation.
We say it now, we say Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord. But we're thinking about all the
eternal salvation that we receive in Jesus through the
cross and the burial and the resurrection.
But in their minds, when they were singing Hosanna, it had
become a political, like a war cry.
And those of you who might have grown up Catholic, or if you
have a Catholic tradition, if you'll notice there are more
books of the Bible in the Catholic Bible, OK.
And one of those is the books of Maccabees, OK?
So interesting enough, around 150 years before Jesus, it was
walking on the earth. There was a rebellion that was
led by these Maccabee brothers. And when they came into the
city, the Jews also historically, Josephus tells us
this historically, they also would have quoted the same
scripture. And they were able to rebel
against the Syrians and the Greeks.
Remember, Alexander the Great would have been around that era,
right? So they lead, the Jews lead a
rebellion. And the Greeks had actually
conquered Jerusalem and they'd actually set up a statue of Zeus
in the temple to justify the Jews.
The Romans were more politically savvy.
They weren't as they didn't come and conquer places and offend as
bad as the Greeks did. So this is a this is a war cry.
Yes, in the original Psalm, it's looking for the Messiah to be
the one that is blessed in the name of the Lord.
But they had taken that term and they turned it into a political
war cry that they've used before.
And they're missing Jesus's intent to bring eternal
salvation through the cross, through his sacrifice that he
will make. So their their understanding is
limited, but Jesus, it's interesting how he responds to
them. Does he, does he criticize them?
No, he receives their worship even in the midst of their
limited and kind of poor understanding of what Hosanna
meant, right. And that's the heart of God.
Maybe when you were a new Christian, brand new in the
Lord, maybe there were some things that you believed about
God that weren't completely accurate.
Maybe your view of God was skewed.
How does God delete us? Well, you'll see how he responds
to the city of Jerusalem and their limited understanding of
that passage. Hosanna save us now.
They missed it. They thought it was a political
war cry and Jesus had more meaning for it now.
So it wasn't the first time that they had used this terminology
before. Now Jesus, his timing because of
prophecies, His timing was that this is the year that he's going
to Passover. He's gone every year, but this
is the year that now he knows his destiny and it is to be
crucified. It is to offer himself up.
So let's go back to John's account.
So in John chapter 6 where we started, let's see how John
paints the picture of that Sunday and when they had eaten
their fill. Oh no, I'm sorry.
Oh, I'm going to take you here to another time.
They wanted to make Jesus King. OK, so this is when early on
when he's feeding the 5000, they are going to try to force him
into being king like there. Watch how it happens verse 12.
And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples,
gather up the leftover fragments, the broken pieces,
that nothing may be lost. So they gathered them up and
filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left
by those who had eaten. And when the people saw the sign
that he had done, they said, This is indeed the prophet who
is to come into the world. Perceiving that they were about
to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew
again to the mountain by himself.
Maybe you missed that part of the story when you think about
the feeding of the 5000, that they early on in his ministry
wanted to force him into that kingly place.
But Jesus, again, he was kind of flying under the radar.
He had miracles to perform, He had teachings to give, and it
was destined that this is the year, this is the exact moment
that He is to be crucified. And so he was kind of like
keeping a low profile when they were trying to force Him to be
that king. And the type of king they were
wanting was the type of king that would have defeated the
Romans, kicked them out and set up again, like a Davidic type of
government. The they wanted that type of
king. But that wasn't Jesus's intent.
OK, So, so on that occasion he defies and doesn't welcome,
they're forcing him to be a king.
Now, when Jesus is in Jerusalem. But we think over 2 million
others would have converged on the city to celebrate the
Passover. Well, what are they celebrating?
What event are they celebrating? Well, this is the Passover feast
that had started in Egypt. Remember the story that Moses
was born in Farrell's court, and he grows up until he's 40 years
old, and then he murders a Egyptian soldier, if you will,
or at least a taskmaster over slaves.
So the Jews had become slaves in Egypt when Joseph had become the
governor some hundreds of years earlier.
So Joseph becomes the governor. Remember Joseph, he had the coat
of many colours sold in the slavery by his brothers and
eventually Joseph's brothers. They come during a famine and
they come with their father Jacob, and they they get stuck
in Egypt and the Egyptians make them slaves for hundreds of
years. So Moses said growing up in the
Pharaoh's court that 40 he murdered, killed a slave
taskmaster and he goes and hides in the desert for 40 more years.
So now he's 80 years old. And that's when God comes to him
in a burning Bush. God speaks to him.
And what does God tell him? God says, I want you to go tell
the Pharaoh to let my people go. Right.
Remember the song Pharaoh, Pharaoh.
Oh, let my people go. Right, right.
So there it is. So that's, that's the, that's
the historical background. So here it is.
So Moses, now he goes to the Pharaoh and he says, God says,
let my people go. And he does some miraculous
things. And Pharaoh says no.
And so there are 10 plagues. And each time the Pharaoh says
that he's going to let the Jewish slaves go, but he changes
his mind over and over again. And finally his heart is
hardened. The Pharaoh's heart is hardened
against the instructions that Moses, their deliverer, is
giving. And so finally, because of the
hardness of his heart, the measures become even more
extreme. And eventually now the 10th
plague is going to be a death Angel.
The Angel of death is going to crossover Egypt.
And when it does, the first born in every home like human being
and the first born of the layer livestock was going to be
killed. And this is because again,
Pharaoh's heart had been heartened and he, he would not
release the slaves as God had told him to do.
Now, this is the, this is the Passover, right?
So the death Angel is going to Passover.
So watch what happens. This is Exodus 12, the original
count of this. OK.
And for 1400 years. So if the time for Moses to
Jesus is around 1400 years. So for 1400 years, almost all
the time they've been celebrating the Passover feast,
remembering God's faithfulness and delivering them from slavery
from the Egyptians. So watch your verse 3.
This is God speaking to them. Tell all the congregation of
Israel that on the 10th day of this month, every man shall take
a lamb according to their father's house, a lamb for a
household. And if the household is too
small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take
according to the number of persons, according to what each
can eat. You shall make your count for
the lamb. And of course, Jesus is now the
Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
That's how he's introduced by John the Baptist.
He is the Lamb of God and Revelation, You'll see it also.
He's referred to this over and over and over again.
Jesus is the sacrificial lamb that was given for us.
And this Lamb that is going to defend them from the Angel of
death is a picture, a type of Jesus who is to come.
Now verse 5, Your lamb shall be without blemish.
This again is nodding at Jesus, a male, a year old.
You may take it from the sheep up or from the goats, and you
shall keep it until the 14th day of this month, when the whole
assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at
twilight. Then they shall take some of the
blood and put it on the doorposts, the two doorposts at
the lentil of the house, and which they eat it, they shall
eat the flesh that that night roasted on the fire with
unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
They shall eat it. Now watch, would we still do
unleavened bread to the state, don't we, when we receive
communion, right? So on this occasion, the even
the bread, all of this stuff is pointing towards Jesus.
So Jesus is going to be the spotless lamb who's without
blemish. And he's going to be offered up
for us 1400 years after this. But for those 1400 years, they
celebrated and had this feast, had this, this eating of the
lamb, OK. And so the night that the death
Angel comes through Egypt, sadly again, even the first born of
the Pharaoh dies. And those who do not have the
blood on the doorpost, again they're visited by the Angel of
death. And so this is now a picture of
the blood of Christ that has been poured out for us.
And because of the blood of Christ, when we apply it to the
doorposts of our lives, then we are delivered.
And this is one of the in the mighty name of Jesus.
When we sing that song, right, there's a line in that says I
draw a permanent battle. Let's say a the enemy has the
near my family and the doorpost. There's a line, there's
somewhere about the doorpost. OK, So that's again a
remembering of OK, that's right. In the Old Testament, they would
put the blood over the doorpost. And this is what they're doing
the week that Jesus goes in to the city of Jerusalem, OK?
He's there to celebrate the Passover again, 1400 years, and
he'd been doing it every year of his life.
But this is the occasion where he has his triumphal entry into
the city and he's being celebrated, right?
So I just wanted to connect that for you.
So that's what they're celebrating.
Then. Jesus now is coming to fulfill
all of these prophecies. He's coming to fulfill the
imagery that had been presented in the Old Testament that was
pointing at him. OK, now let's go to Matthew's
account. So Matthew is the tax collector
who becomes a disciple follower of Jesus and this is his
explanation of the triumphal entry on that Palm Sunday verse
one and chapter 21. Now when they drew near to
Jerusalem and came to Bethpage to the Mount of Olives.
Again the Mount of Olives is across the valley from
Jerusalem. Then Jesus sent 2 disciples
saying to them going to the village in front of you, and
immediately you will find a donkey, tide and a colt with
her. Untie them and bring them to me.
If anyone says anything to you, you shall say the Lord needs
them and he will send them at once.
This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet saying
say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to
you humble and mounted on a donkey on a colt, the foal of a
beast of burden. Now in this occasion, Matthew is
giving explanation to what they were saying and he it's he's
mentioning that this is a prophet, a prophecy about Jesus
from Zechariah Chapter 9 verse 9, Zechariah writing about Jesus
who was to come this prophesying about him.
He said rejoice greatly. O daughter of Zion, shout aloud,
O daughter of Jerusalem, behold, your king is coming to you
righteous and having salvation. Is he humble and mounted on a
donkey on a cold, the foal of a donkey.
This is hundreds of years before Jesus has his triumphal entry on
that Palm Sunday. It had been prophesied.
And so Jesus is fulfilling this prophecy and the disciples and
those who were following him understood this, that the
Messiah had been prophesied about.
Now scholars think that Jesus fulfilled over 300, maybe as
many as 450 prophecies from the Old Testament.
And all of those prophecies give me even more credence and
credibility to Jesus being the Messiah.
The example here again, him riding the donkey, why he's
fulfilling this prophecy, the fulfillment of this prophecy,
even the more gives you and I reason to believe He is the Lord
and He is the Messiah. He was building the faith as He
was fulfilling these prophecies. So Matthew continues and in
verse 6 it says the disciples went and did as Jesus had
directed them. They brought the donkey in the
cold and put on them their cloaks and he sat on them.
Now when Jesus is when they put the cloaks on the, the donkey,
this is a sign that he is royal, that he is king like, and
they're doing it to honor him as he comes into the city, right.
So you've seen the pictures probably in a children's Bible
or the like, where Jesus is on the donkey and the coats have
been draped over the, the donkey.
But not only are they putting coats on the donkey, they're
also putting coats on the floor on the ground.
Verse 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and
others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the
road. Again, this is the palms.
And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were
shouting Hosanna to the Son of David.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna. Again Matthew citing that they
are quoting the Psalm. And when he entered Jerusalem,
the whole city was stirred up, saying, Who is this?
And the crowd said, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of
Galilee. OK, so that's Matthew's story.
Now let's go back to where we started with John's account, and
let's see the things that he's going to point out.
Verse 12 of chapter 12 again. And the next day, the large
crowd that had come to the feast, the Passover feast, heard
that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.
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. And Jesus found a young donkey,
and he sat on it, just as it is written.
Fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey's colt. Again, mentioning this passage
from Zechariah. Now what?
One of the things that John points out that is different
than the other accounts is that John is going to point out that
after Jesus enters the city, he has a response to the
celebration, to his triumphal entry.
And John's the one who mentions it.
And what does Jesus do? He weeps over the city of
Jerusalem. And why does he weep?
Because he knows their future. He knows what's going to happen.
They're lost and they're in the moment.
They're hyped up, blessed to see who comes in the name of the
Lord Hosanna. But he knows within days they
will betray him. They'll turn on the same ones
that were singing Hosanna on that Sunday.
By Friday would be saying, crucify him, right?
They turned on him. Why?
Because he didn't. He didn't respond the way that
they wanted. He, he wasn't the Messiah that
they were looking or hoping for. Now Jesus knows what's going to
happen. And he also knows that then in
8070, the Romans are going to come in and they're going to
conquer Jerusalem. They're going to destroy it.
And to this day you can go see the ruins that would have been
from that occasion. The Jews had rebelled enough
times for finding the Romans were like, we're just going to
end you. So they go in and again, they
just totally destroyed the city of Jerusalem.
OK, Now Jesus knows that's coming.
So because of that he weeps and how wonderful to know that the
God we serve, the Lord that we follow, he is one who has an
emotion like this where he weeps.
So Luke 19, I'm sorry Luke tells this account.
I'm sorry, I was saying, John Luke tells this account.
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it,
saying, would that you, even you had known on this day the things
that make for peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes.
For the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a
barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on
every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your
children within you. And they will not leave one
stone upon another in you, meaning the city of Jerusalem,
because you did not know the time of your visitation.
So Jesus saying you don't, they're going to lose sight of
who he is. And because of that, there is
going to become, there's destruction to come.
Now on this occasion when Luke, when Luke is saying that Jesus
wept, there's he's using a word that's different than the
occasion where Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus.
Remember in that account, Jesus's friends Mary and Martha
and Lazarus, Lazarus has been dead and in the in the tomb for
a couple of days by the time that Jesus makes the journey
there. And Jesus resurrects him, right?
And on that occasion, Jesus sees how sad Mary and Martha are.
And in their sadness, Jesus weeps with them.
And you can read that in John 11.
It says John 1134. And he said, where have you laid
him? Meaning Lazarus?
And he's speaking to one of the sisters.
And they said to him, Lord, come and see in verse 35, Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, see how he loved him.
And it's true he loved Lazarus. But in that occasion he's
weeping because of the he sees the sadness and the sisters.
Now on that occasion, it's the word is, is Dacrio.
It's a it's a Greek word for the way that John explains the way
Jesus is crying that time with Lazarus.
It's kind of like a quiet cry. But when Jesus goes into the
city on that Palm Sunday, his triumphal entry, when he cries
that time, it's a, it's a reward.
I can't quite say, but it's KLAIO, it's a Greek word.
And that this type of crying, this is like uncertain affinity
to sob, to wail out loud. So Jesus knowing that
destruction is coming, he knows they're going to miss his truth.
And so because of this, he weeps out loud, He sobs in sorrow over
what is to come because of their lack of obedience and because of
their hardened hearts. OK, so that's just some dots to
connect there. So Jesus weeps and I think that
this day, just knowing that, I still think that Jesus looks at
the plight of the world and it wouldn't surprise me if he still
weeps. When you see wars and rumors of
wars and the type of evil things that men and women do to each
other, I think Jesus sees that and I think he still weeps.
And knowing that he's like that, I think it's important in our
relationship and the way that we respond and interact with Jesus.
Now, I want to tie this up by showing you what is the future
Now, what is the future of palms?
You know, I encourage you again today, take a palm home, take a
couple, some of you like to braid them.
And just throughout the week, just remember, OK, what happened
this morning, OK, on this Palm Sunday, that Jesus made his
triumphal entry. Now watch this though, and this
is so profoundly wonderful to me, is that we will in the
future worship Jesus again with palms.
We'll do it in heaven. And John, when he's writing
Revelation, remember, John is the youngest of the disciples.
He writes his Gospel of John, but also he writes Revelation,
we believe. And he was exiled there, like in
prison on the Isle of Patmos. And while he's there, he has a
vision, OK? And his vision becomes the Book
of Revelation. It's all this heavenly imagery.
And so watch what John says will happen with palms in the future.
Now watch the verse 9 after this.
I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could
number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and
languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.
And they were clothed in white robes, with palm branches in
their hands and crying out with a loud voice.
Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the
Lamb in heaven. What this vision that John has
seen, this is all the followers of Jesus that have been redeemed
by his sacrifice, because he is the Lamb of God who takes away
the sins of the world. On this occasion, we will again
bring him honor and glory and we'll wave the palm branches
again declaring who He is. And this excites me to think,
OK, it's going to happen again in the future.
But this time around where the the triumphal entry, they had
limited understanding of what Jesus, what his mission was.
They had limited understanding. But on this occasion now we'll
have full understanding of how much Jesus did for us and we
will declare him again as the Lamb of God.
And we'll do it with palms now. And John says in this occasion,
it's all tribes and all peoples. So the poems remind us of what
Jesus did, and they remind us of the worship that is to come in
heaven where we will spend eternity with him.
Now, let me just tie this up and put a bow on of the sorts.
You know, Palm Sunday is an important part of getting ready
for Easter because understanding this week, knowing what happens
in the life of Jesus. So this is Sunday by, you know,
the next Sunday he will be resurrected.
Friday he'll be put in the tomb. He'll be on Thursday night,
he'll be arrested and he'll have communion for the first time
with his disciples. And so all that is happening,
it's he teaches. There's still many chapters left
in John after this is John 11. So if this is the triumphal
entry, then you have many more chapters to come after that
explaining that last week of the life of Jesus before he is
resurrected. OK, so getting you ready as a
church, getting our church family ready to gather on Friday
night starts today. Mindful of this is the way Jesus
enters the city. They celebrate him, Hosanna, but
they're going to turn on him. They're going to cry out, give
us Barabbas. The same voices again, the cry,
Hosanna cry, give us Barabbas crucify him.
So this week what I would encourage you to do is be
mindful of what's happening in the life of Jesus that week that
he is in Jerusalem after his triumphal entry.
And then I must say that Good Friday is really one of my most
favorite services every year. If you've never been to one of
our Good Friday services, I really encourage you to come and
come with your family, come with your kids.
It's designed as a time to be with your kids and families.
And that's important to know because years ago I worked at a
church and a friend who was on staff at this was planning a
Good Friday service and he was going to show clips from the
passion of the Christ, which is a tremendous movie.
But I don't want a child seeing clips of that, right?
It's to to just not ready for them to see.
So it's kid friendly service. And we will have Taylor will
have some things for the kids to, to color and other things if
they get distracted. But here's what I've learned is
that I didn't grow up in a tradition where we went to Good
Friday services. In fact, I worked in the church,
my first church job at leading worship.
I was 19. I was a youth director and
worship leader. We never had Good Friday
services. We knew how to celebrate.
We thought really well on Sunday mornings.
We would do the celebration big on Sunday mornings.
But it wasn't until I was 31 years old.
So I worked at 3 churches and finally went to work at a church
called Willow Creek in the Chicago area as a worship
leader. And that was the first time that
I did a Good Friday service and I was astounded at how much more
meaningful Sunday was after visiting the Cross in a
reflective way on Friday. OK, so all those years I was
missing out. I didn't know the celebration on
Sunday morning is more profoundly wonderful when you
have gone to the Cross on Friday evening.
So I encourage you to come out to that and I encourage you as
you don't know what to expect in that service.
It will be reflective. It'll be quiet.
We'll read a lot of scripture together and we'll have
communion together, and then we'll leave in silence.
So every year when we have these services, I'll say, OK, but you
know, please don't speak in Word until you leave the door.
So people get to sit and kind of just stay in that place as long
as they want. And sometimes people will pray
at length and they'll just sit in reflection of the sacrifice
that Jesus made for us. OK, now that makes Sunday
morning better because when you come on Sunday morning, it's not
reflective. We're going to celebrate.
We're going to raise the we're doing a song this year and it
has, there's a lyric and it raised the roof off of this
house, you know, so that's the goal.
We're going to celebrate in a great way.
But I'm telling you, the celebrations were meaningful
when Friday we've reflected together.
OK, so if you never come, I really want to encourage you to
come. So now when we connect these
dots between Palm Sunday, the triumphal entry, the week that
Jesus is going to have teaching, he goes in and he remember he
throws the money changers out of the of the temple area.
They were fleecing people, selling lambs, but doing it in a
way where was crooked and corrupt.
So, Gee, all this stuff is going to happen this week.
And then Friday is his crucifixion, and we will visit
that together as a church on Friday.
So I would encourage you to take a poem with you on your way home
and give them to your kids. Be mindful again as we approach
Easter. I think today's message
hopefully is going to build up to the message of the
resurrection next Sunday morning.
All right, let me pray for us. God, we thank you for this day
that you've made. And Jesus, we do call out to you
as our deliverer, our Savior. We say Hosanna, blessed as he
who comes in the name of the Lord.
We believe that you are king, and we cry out to you the same,
but with different understanding, increased
understanding of what they were expecting and looking for from
you. So we don't see you as a
political leader, just a war leader.
Instead, we look to you as our deliverer.
Spiritually, You have eternally delivered us into salvation
because of what you're going to do this week.
So as a church family, God, I pray that you would ready us for
a really meaningful time on Friday night when we visit the
cross and then on Sunday when we come next week to shout and give
glory to you for conquering death, hell in the grave.
We pray that it will be honoring to you and we pray that you'll
that you'll appeal to people to come, maybe who are have not
been to our church before or maybe some who've not been in
church for a long time. And we pray that the way that we
celebrate you and the way we reflect on the cross on Friday
will lead more and more people to coming back to faith in you
or renew faith in you for the first time.
We pray this in Jesus name and everyone said Amen.
Now before we go, I do want to just take a moment and offer to
you a moment to receive Jesus as your Savior.
If you never have. There's a family I was just
talking to before service and she said that her and her
husband 41 years ago on Palm Sunday made their decision to
become a Christian, which is really cool and memorable,
right? So this would be a great Sunday
to say yes to Jesus. So what does it take to become a
Christian? The Bible says if you believe in
your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, then
you shall be saved. Hazel and Jamie, you guys want
to we want to sit down for just a little bit longer.
There you go. Good job guys.
Thank you. So if you if you believe in your
heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, then
you shall be saved. And what when you're saying
Jesus says Lord, now you're surrendering your life to him.
And we believe that when we surrender our lives to Jesus and
he comes and dwells in us, the Holy Spirit, then we believe
that we receive eternal life. Now we'll have it after we die,
but we get purpose and meaning and relationship with God now
and we call it Zoe life. OK, so you can receive that now
and Palm Sunny would be a great day to do it.
So then we encourage you to tell somebody that you made the
decision to become a Christian. And then we encourage you to be
baptized, OK? And we do baptisms here a couple
times a year. And in this September, we'll do
them in the lake and Dixon Lake. We'll do some before then.
So when you're baptized, that's you putting on display others
for others to see of what has happened in you.
You've been cleansed by the blood of Christ and you've been
resurrected in him. And baptism represents that.
So I'm going to pray. And if you want to make that
decision that I encourage you to echo the prayer that I'm praying
and then let somebody know that you made this decision to follow
Christ. Let me pray and you can echo,
you can say, Heavenly Father, I come to you in Jesus name and I
want to surrender my life to you Jesus.
Come and be the Lord of my life. Forgive me of my sin.
I turn away from my sinful ways and I say grow me in your ways
as I repent and turn towards you.
So Jesus come and reign and rule in my heart.
I do declare that you are my deliverer, my Savior, and I
receive you as Lord and I pray that you'll help me to grow in
your ways. Teach me your ways as I chase
after you. And thank you for eternal life
that I'm receiving starting now. Thank you for it.
And Jesus name and everyone together said, Amen.
All right, let's stand together. Before you go, I want to send
you out with a blessing. So if you'll prepare your heart
to receive this blessing, don't forget to grab a poem on your
way out and also grab notes. All right?
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you, and may he make
his face to shine upon you. And may the joy of the Lord,
that is unspeakable and full of glory, may it abound to you.
And may the peace of God that passes all understanding, may it
surprise you in the midst of all of the challenges that life
brings. And then may the mercies of the
Lord, in other words, the forgiveness of God, that's new
every morning. May it be especially new to you
now and your mornings to come. And now, may the Lord Jesus
Christ guard your heart and your mind, your salt and your light.
Go now and be salt and light under the world.
You are blessed. We'll see you again soon.