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Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to God. Sprosnikum.

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Sprosnikum. Over a thousand years ago, over 2

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,000 years ago, more than 2 ,500 years ago, the

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prophet Zechariah lived. And the following words

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are written in the book of Zechariah in chapter

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9, verse 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.

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Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Lo, your

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king comes to you. Triumphant and victorious

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is he. Humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt,

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the foal of an ass. And if you look up above,

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on the left side, on the south side of the church,

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you'll see this great icon painted there of that.

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that happened in history. Zechariah, for him,

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that event in history was far off in the future.

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For us, it is back a ways in the past, but it

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happened just as prophesied. It happened, and

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we see it depicted there for us, and we celebrate

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it today, and we hold these palms. because of

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the occurrence of that event, which was prophesied,

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that would happen in the earthly ministry of

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our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And

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so, for us, in our perspective, it happened in

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the past. And today, we celebrate this joyous

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event, and we are told to rejoice. Zechariah

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says to rejoice. And today's epistle reading

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says, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say

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rejoice. And why are we to rejoice on this special

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Sunday of Palm Sunday? We rejoice because the

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Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Redeemer

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of humanity, has arrived and entered into Jerusalem.

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Jesus has fulfilled the words written centuries

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ago. before. Jesus is making his triumphal entry.

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He is publicly demonstrating that he is the King

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of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Messiah.

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So a great multitude took branches of palm trees

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and went out to meet him and cried out, Hosanna!

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Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord,

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the King of Israel. And so today we too hold

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these palms and we rejoice for our Lord and God

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and Savior Jesus Christ, the Messiah, rode triumphantly

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into Jerusalem. But this triumphant entry into

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Jerusalem was not what the masses of that day

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expected. The crowds expected something different.

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the Messiah, the Christ, to return to conquer,

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to conquer the Romans, to come in power at that

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time in history. They did not understand that

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Jesus had come to Jerusalem to die upon the cross,

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to conquer death, to conquer sin, that he had

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come to die and on the third day be resurrected.

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They thought they knew God's plan. They thought

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they understood God's timing. But scripture tells

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us that no one knows the day or the hour when

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Christ will return in power. Yet people still

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claim they know. When I was a Protestant Christian

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decades ago now, a book came out. It was called

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88 Reasons. why Christ will return in 1988. I

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bought it. I read it. I was convinced by this

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author that certain Old Testament prophecies

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and New Testament writings all pointed to Christ's

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return in glory in the year 1988. And so I looked

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for it, and obviously it did not occur. But I

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learned a lesson from that book, that God does

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not want us to know the day or the hour. And

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if he did, he would have told us clearly. It

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would have been written in the scriptures somewhere

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in the prophecies or perhaps in the New Testament.

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He would have revealed it to us. And I was so

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busy. that year, trying to figure it out. I wasted

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time that I should have spent on my own spiritual

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growth, on getting myself ready for Christ's

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return. And what a blessing it is for us that

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God has given us more time, time to repent, time

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to be baptized and chrismated, time to be sanctified,

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time to prepare. for his second and glorious

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coming still ahead of us. Saint Nectarios Cephalus

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says these words, It is necessary for our spirit

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to follow the Spirit of the Lord, and for our

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will to seek the will of the Lord. And in so

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doing, we become his true followers, and we walk

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unhindered, along the way of freedom, which is

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also the way of salvation. So let us use this

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time that God has given us to seek God's will

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for our lives, to better prepare ourselves for

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that great day in the second and glorious coming.

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And this day, let us rejoice in celebrating his

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triumphant... entrance into Jerusalem, where

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he rode humbly into Jerusalem. Hosanna! Blessed

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is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the

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King of Israel. Glory to Jesus Christ.