Luke chapter 19, verse 28. A special thanks to
Ms. Angela and Mr. Ernest for these beautiful
flowers that we have in here and out front. Palms.
Well, I'm sorry. Thanks for the correction. Thank
you for the palms. It is, of course, Palm Sunday.
You may not have known that. You may not even
know what Palm Sunday is, but that's okay. We're
going to talk a little bit about that today.
I'm getting close to Easter. It's a time that
we just set aside just to praise the Lord, just
to remember that we have hope, that we have a
reason to rejoice today, that Jesus Christ came,
that he was crucified, that he was buried, and
most importantly, he was resurrected. And so
because of that, our sins are forgiven, and we
have a reason to have some hope today. So praise
the Lord for that, and that's what we come and
celebrate every week, but we certainly want to
be reminded of that. around the time of Easter.
Luke chapter 19, verse 28, Jesus had been ministering
for probably a little over three years. He spent
time with his earthly ministry traveling from
place to place. He had been healing people and
he had been teaching people. He had been trying
to point people to really what God desired the
people to do. What God really wanted was people's
hearts to be right. It wasn't about outward actions.
It wasn't about going through motions. Jesus
really taught what really matters is what's in
your heart. It doesn't matter what goes on on
the outside if it's not coming from a good place,
if your motives are bad. And Jesus had received
a lot of folks that had welcomed him in and were
grateful to see him, but there were always folks
that really were. coming against Jesus, that
weren't so happy to see him, that doubted him,
that were his opposition, that were trying to
stop what he was trying to do. And this was a
constant struggle throughout Jesus' ministry.
And throughout his ministry, Jesus had kind of
avoided, you know, these situations where they
were trying to corner him and they were already
trying to kill him. I mean, they wanted to get
rid of him from the get -go, really. And Jesus
had always kind of made his way out of these
situations. Jesus had told people that he had
healed or done great things for. You know, keep
it quiet. Jesus wasn't trying to draw attention
to himself. He was trying to complete his mission.
But there came a point where Jesus was going
to have to do what had to be done. And Jesus'
mission was not just to come and to heal people
and to share with them the good news and to point
them to the Father and to let them know that
he was the way. to everlasting life, but for
that mission to be complete, Jesus was going
to have to give his life on a cross. And so during
the last week of Jesus' life, Jesus made his
way into Jerusalem for the final time. He made
his way into Jerusalem to fulfill what was prophesied
about him, to do what God the Father had called
him to do, and that was to give his life as a
ransom for you and I. For all who have sinned.
And so the time had come, and that's what we
see in this passage today, is that Jesus is coming
into Jerusalem for this final week of his life.
Luke chapter 19, verse 28. Excuse me, verse 29.
Luke chapter 19, verse 29. As he approached Bethphage
and Bethany at the place called the Mount of
Olives, He sent two of the disciples and said,
Go into the village ahead of you. As you enter
it, you will find a young donkey tied there,
on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring
it here. If anyone asks you, Why are you untying
it? Say this, The Lord needs it. So those who
were sent left and found it just as he had told
them. As they were untying the young donkey,
Its owner said to them, Why are you untying the
donkey? The Lord needs it, they said. Then they
brought it to Jesus. And after throwing their
robes on the donkey, they helped Jesus get on
it. As he was going along, they were spreading
their robes on the road. Now he came near the
path down the Mount of Olives, and the whole
crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully.
with a loud voice for all the miracles they had
seen. The king who comes in the name of the Lord
is the blessed one. Peace in heaven and glory
in the highest heaven. Some of the Pharisees
from the crowd told him, Teacher, rebuke your
disciples. He answered, I tell you, if they were
to keep silent, the stones would cry out. Let
us pray. God, we come to you, we thank you for
these good words. We thank you for Jesus, for
coming, for coming into town that day, dear Lord.
We thank you for what Jesus was going to do in
the coming days. I pray, dear Lord, that as we
look at this passage, that we see the humility
of Jesus, dear Lord. That we see the response
of the crowds. That we would check our response
today, dear Lord. As we hear this same good news.
that happened all these years ago, as we hear
about Jesus today, God, will we be those who
rejoice at his coming, or will we be those who
reject him? God, I pray that you would just let
your Holy Spirit be among us today, free us of
distractions and worries, all the things of the
world that may be competing for our attention.
I pray that in these few moments you meet us
where we are, dear Lord. that your Holy Spirit
would be among us, and that everything that is
said and done would be for the glory of Jesus
Christ. And I ask these things in Jesus' name.
Amen. On July the 23rd, 2009, in a little neighborhood
in New Jersey, it was a rainy day, and a homeowner
in a neighborhood had called the police. They
called the police because there was a kind of
disheveled looking man wearing a pair of black
sweatpants and two raincoats, kind of wandering
around the neighborhood and had wandered into
their yard. And so they called the police and
they said, hey, look, there's this eccentric
old man and he looks kind of shady and he's in
our neighborhood. Could you send somebody out?
And so they did. They sent an officer out. And
the officer arrived, and sure enough, the man
was still there. And he asked the guy his name,
of course. The guy's name was Robert. His friends
called him Bob, but his name was Robert. And
the police officer was questioning him, and he
proceeded to tell the police officer that he
was on tour with Willie Nelson locally. He was
on tour. And, of course, the officer knew better
than that. This old homeless guy was not. on
tour with Willie Nelson. But the officer nonetheless
humored the guy and said, well, I'll give you
an opportunity. The guy said, I don't have my
ID, but if you'll go back with me to my hotel,
I'll get my ID for you. And so the officer took
the guy back to his hotel, and he pulled out
his driver's license, and sure enough, he was
Robert Allen Zimmerman. Now, you probably don't
know Robert Allen Zimmerman, but you probably
do know Bob Dylan, and that's who it was. This
officer was getting ready to arrest Bob Dylan,
and he, in fact, was on tour with Willie Nelson.
And this disheveled old man was simply walking
around before they got ready to perform that
night. And here was a legend, a legend. Most
everybody has probably heard of Bob Dylan. You
may have even heard a song of his that you didn't
know it was him. Or perhaps if you saw him on
the street, perhaps you wouldn't recognize him
either. But Bob Dylan was a legend. But because
of his appearance, because of what he looked
like, he had been written off as a lunatic. And
that's kind of similar to what happened with
Jesus. And Jesus had accomplished many things.
Man, you look at what Bob Dylan has accomplished.
He's got all kind of medals. He's won the Pulitzer
Prize. He's a ten -time Grammy winner. He had
all these accomplishments that were well known,
but not to the people who saw him that day. The
people who saw him that day didn't see a rock
star with all these accomplishments. Had they
been in a stadium and he had been introduced
and called to the stage, here's Bob Dylan, they
would have cheered. They would have rejoiced.
But seeing him on the street in sweatpants with
two raincoats on, they wrote him off. This is
a crazy dude. And so it was with Jesus. Jesus
had accomplished many great things. Jesus had
healed people. Jesus had healed the sick. He
had raised the dead. He had caused the blind
to see. He had caused the lame to walk. He had
caused the deaf to hear. And Jesus' name had
spread. And some of them wrote Jesus off as a
lunatic. They said, this dude is crazy. What
they were looking for, in a sense, was a rock
star. There were a lot of people who were looking
for the Messiah because what we call the Old
Testament was full of prophecies of this Messiah
who was going to come. And the Messiah that was
going to come... He was going to be a pretty
big deal because he was going to free people.
He was going to deliver people. He was finally
going to bring victory for God, for God's people.
And God's people in their mind had a certain
way that they thought that that was going to
look. I mean, they knew what kings looked like.
Kings were pretty spectacular folks. I mean,
they had palaces and they sat on thrones. They
wore the finest of clothes. They had servants.
They would speak and things would happen and
they would rule with an iron fist and they would
let their authority be made known to all that
I am the king and what I do, what I say, you
do. And they had this expectation, I believe,
of this type of king, that the Messiah would
come, he'd be ushered in, that his kingdom would
look... like other worldly kingdoms that kings
had and that he would begin to rule with an iron
fist. But when Jesus came onto the scene, he
did not really look like all the other kings.
There's one thing that is key about when Jesus
came and how Jesus served and how Jesus left
this world. And the key that we see throughout
the life of Jesus is humility. Jesus did not
come as a proud king, as a showy king. Jesus
came with all authority in the world, but he
didn't lord it over people. Jesus didn't say,
I am the son of God, bow before me. He could
have said that, and rightfully so. He is the
son of God, and one day we shall all bow before
him. Jesus didn't come with that type of heart.
He came with a humble heart. He even told his
disciples, he said, look, the rulers that you
see in this world, that's how they use their
power. They lord it over people. But Jesus told
his disciples, he said, it must not be that way
among you. He said, you must be a servant of
all. Now that's good for us to think about. We
probably don't want to have that type of heart.
In some ways, have a proud heart. We want to
be the one that's barking out the orders. We
want to be the one that's in the place of honor.
I think our human tendency is we kind of like
those things. We like feeling like we have the
power and we like feeling like we have the authority
and we like feeling like we're somebody. But
Jesus warns and the scripture warns, hey, you
got to be careful not to fall into that trap.
Jesus not only came and told us, What to do?
Jesus showed us what to do. For three plus years,
Jesus came in humility. He was born, born with
the cattle. He was born and laid in a manger.
There wasn't any fanfare. There weren't royal
trumpets blasting in the streets. He wasn't laid
in a golden crib. He laid a little hay wrapped
in swaddling clothes. From the get -go, Jesus
came in humility. Jesus' concern was not about
drawing attention to himself. Jesus' main goal
and desire from beginning to end was doing the
will of his Father. That's what Jesus wanted
to do. Father, I want to do your will. I want
to serve you, God. I want to serve these people.
I want to help these people. I want to show them
the truth, God. I want to lead them on the way.
I want to make a way for them. God, they cannot
do this on their own. They cannot be forgiven
of their sins on their own. And so Jesus humbly
came to this old nasty world that's full of all
the junk that you and I go through, and Jesus
said, I'm going to come, and I'm going to make
a path that they can follow me. It takes a lot
of humility. So Jesus was unlike all the other
leaders of his day. The other religious leaders,
it was a lot of them we see in Scripture, and
they just, their heart wasn't right, and Jesus
called them out on that. And Jesus came with
a whole different heart. He came with a heart
of humility, and people recognize that. Now,
I think we would all agree that we probably aren't
drawn as much to leadership. That rules with
an iron fist. We probably aren't drawn as much
to someone who has the authority that always
says, I am the one in charge. You do what I say.
I'm the leader here. Well, that's not very appealing.
When Jesus came onto the scene, he didn't have
that heart at all. Jesus just loved people. People
that other religious leaders didn't love. Jesus
would hang out with kind of the rough folks,
the tax collectors and the sinners. And he was
even called out for it. Like, why are you doing
this? Why are you associating with these lower
people? Because that's who Jesus came to save.
He said, look, I came to save the sick. It's
the sick that need a doctor. The well don't need
a doctor. There were plenty of religious people
that thought they were well, that thought they
were holier than thou. And there wasn't a whole
lot of hope for them if they continued to have
that heart. But Jesus said, I'm here to have
compassion on those of you who are struggling,
those of you who are sick, those of you who know
your sin. Jesus wasn't okay with their sin. He
told the woman caught in adultery that was brought
before him. Man, they were ready to stone her.
They were ready. And Jesus so cleverly said,
okay, that's fine. You want to stone her? Well,
whoever's never sinned before, you go ahead and
start the stoning. You throw the first one. And
the scripture says that nobody threw a stone
and all of her accusers were gone. And Jesus
said to her, does anybody condemn you? She said,
no, there was nobody there. And Jesus says, neither
do I. Perhaps we are not so unlike that woman.
Maybe our sin is not adultery. Maybe it is. But
whatever our sin is, when we read the scripture,
we are brought before Jesus with our sin before
us. And we feel the condemnation and the guilt
of that. And maybe those around us make us feel
that even more. But as we sit at the feet of
Jesus, If we would come and seek him and look
up to him and acknowledge our sinfulness and
ask for forgiveness, Jesus would say to you,
neither do I condemn you either. And he told
her afterwards, go and sin no more. And so Jesus'
humility was evident in the way that he treated
people, the way that he interacted. He's willing
to associate with anybody. Sadly, the most religious
people, a lot of them, Didn't want anything to
do with him. He would have associated with them
just the same. Anybody who would come to seek
and to try to learn and to be healed, those with
faith and those with the desire, Jesus was willing
to explain to them. Even the disciples, they
didn't understand a lot of stuff Jesus said.
They were so clueless. And they'd say, you've
got to explain that to us. And he would. They
were slow, and he was so patient with them, as
he is with us. And we see in this story that
we read today the humility of Jesus once again.
Now, he didn't come into town with this big,
beautiful horse that he was riding on. He didn't
come being toted into town on a gold chair with
people toting him in for all to see. He didn't
come with horns blowing. He didn't come wearing
a fancy robe. He didn't come with anything. That
probably would have been associated with a king
coming into town. Instead, he came to town on
a donkey. That's a pretty lowly animal. Even
the fact that he came on a donkey showed his
humility. A beast of burden. Not a war horse.
Not fancy. Not extravagant. But Jesus continued
coming into town at the conclusion of his mission.
In the same way that he had started his mission.
In humility. Now there were certainly plenty
of people who recognized who Jesus was. We see
it in the passage we looked at today. That Jesus
had told his disciples, go find this donkey.
If they ask you what's going on, tell them the
Lord needs it. It all worked out the way Jesus
said. It was prophesied that the Messiah, the
Savior would come riding on a donkey. And sure
enough, Jesus was fulfilling. that Old Testament
passage. And as Jesus began to make his way down
the road on the donkey, the crowds that were
rejoicing in him began to humble themselves before
him. They began to take their robes and their
coats and whatever they were wearing, they began
to take it off and they began to place it on
the ground so that the king of kings would at
least have a... a path to walk on that wasn't
bare ground. He was at least worthy of something.
And they would take those palm branches and they
would place them on the ground. And in a sense,
they were rolling out the red carpet for him
as best that they could. And people were praising
and they were rejoicing. This is the one. This
is the Messiah. This is the King. Hosanna. You
see that in some of the gospel accounts. Hosanna
in the highest. That is a praise to the Lord.
That's acknowledging that Jesus is the Savior.
Save us, Lord. We praise you. Son of David, they
said. Acknowledging that, hey, we've read the
Old Testament Scriptures. And we know that the
Messiah was to be a descendant of David. And
we recognize, Jesus, that you are the Son of
David. We recognize, Jesus, that you are the
Messiah. And the people rejoice. And they humbled
himself before Jesus that day. There were some
who recognized who he was. They weren't sidetracked.
There were a lot of people who were looking for
the wrong kind of Jesus. They were looking for
that big, fancy, earthly -looking king. And when
all they saw was this humble, Crazy old man.
They wrote him off. They said, I don't know who
this guy is. But perhaps they should have paid
a little more attention to what he was doing
and to what he was saying. Some in the crowd,
they rejoiced. They said, this guy, this is the
one. But as we see at the end of the passage,
There were some that said, what's going on with
these people? These people are, this is crazy.
These people need to shut up. And Jesus says,
hey, look, even if everybody was to keep quiet,
even the stones would cry out. There were some
in the crowd that day that humbled themselves
before Jesus. They laid their robes on the ground
and they laid their palm branches on the ground
and they rejoiced. But there were others that
day who rejected him. They had seen him just
as everybody else had. No doubt they had heard
the stories. At least some of them, they had
to have. You don't see a guy walking around raising
people from the dead. Word like that kind of
spreads pretty quick. And they had heard of him.
But they chose to reject him. Because it wasn't
the Jesus they were looking for. I don't know
what kind of Jesus you're looking for today.
Some people, I think, are looking for a Jesus
that's just going to be more like a genie in
the lamp. He just grants our wishes and makes
all of our problems disappear at once and gives
us everything that we ever want. But Jesus has
given us everything that we ever need. I don't
know what kind of Jesus you're looking for. I
can only tell you about the Jesus of the Bible.
He is a Jesus who loves you. He is a Jesus who
gave his life for you. He is a Jesus that did
not come and rule with an iron fist. He was a
Jesus that even though all authority had been
given to him, he did not use it for himself,
but instead he gave his life for you and I. Jesus
was a faithful servant. He was a humble servant.
He was full of love and full of grace and full
of compassion. I don't know what kind of Jesus
you're looking for, but I can tell you that's
the Jesus that you need. For that is the Jesus
who has compassion on you today, who wants to
forgive your sins today, who wants to give you
grace today. Who wants to give you peace today.
Who wants to give you hope today. And no, I can't
guarantee you that the Lord's going to make all
of your problems go away. Perhaps He will. Sometimes
He very much answers our prayers. But other times
we still have to go through the struggles of
life. But I can promise you this. Even if all
of your problems don't go away, the Lord will
give you the strength to get through them. And
a peace that you cannot imagine. And a joy that
you cannot imagine when you know that your sins
are forgiven. And that comes from a humble Savior
that we have in Jesus Christ. He has humbly come
to serve us and has done so by giving His life
on the cross. Will you humble yourself before
Him today? We don't have to lay our robes and
our palm branches down today. But perhaps there
are acts of service in our life that we can humble
ourselves and serve Him in some way. That we
just humble our heart before Him and praise Him.
That we humble our heart before Him and acknowledge
our sins and ask Him to forgive us. That we humble
ourselves and say, Lord, here am I. Send me.
I want to serve as You have served, dear Lord.
As You have given me an example. May I serve
others in that way. May you give me a heart of
love and grace and compassion. That I live a
life that is not about me, but about serving
God the Father. And that's exactly what Jesus
did. Jesus rode into town all those years ago.
Some rejoice, others rejected. What about you
this morning? Will you rejoice in the Messiah
or will you reject him? The choice is yours.
Let's pray. God, we come to you this morning.
We thank you for your good words. I thank you
for each one that's here today, dear Lord. I
pray that if we have heard the gospel of Jesus
Christ and heard that he has come, dear Lord,
that we would be those who humble ourselves before
you today. I pray that there are some that don't
know Jesus. They would repent and seek him today.
I pray that those who do know Him would rejoice
in Him. That those who don't would come to know
Him and rejoice in Him, dear Lord. Help us not
to be those who walk away here today rejecting
Him. What a foolish decision that would be. Help
us to be those who have humility and who walk
in it. And I ask these things in Jesus' name.