So we're here today on this Palm Sunday. We look
forward to God's Word and we want to take time
and study and look at the life of Christ during
this upcoming week. The Lord willing will see
you on Good Friday. Let us now ask the Lord to
bless the preaching of His Word. Almighty God,
our Heavenly Father who has ordained all things
in heaven and earth for your holy purpose. We
give thanks to you for your son Jesus whom it
pleased you that he should die for our sin that
we would be reconciled to you and have peace.
For you have demonstrated your mercies and faithfulness
at all times and in all places. Bless us now
as we give ourselves to the study of your word
and so make the words of my mouth and the meditations
of all our hearts. pleasing in your sight through
Jesus Christ our Lord the nearest kinsman redeemer
amen here we are once again reading rereading
and contemplating God's word from the gospel
so for Matthew 21 beginning at verse 1 now when
they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethpage
at the Mount of Olives Then Jesus sent two disciples,
saying to them, Go into the village opposite
of you, and immediately you will find a donkey
-tie and a colt with her. Loose them, and bring
them to me. And if anyone says anything to you,
you shall say, The Lord has need of them, and
immediately he will send them. All this was done
that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken
by the prophets, saying, Tell the daughter in
Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you. lowly
and sitting on a donkey, a colt, a foal of a
donkey. So the disciples went and did as Jesus
commanded them, and they brought the donkey and
the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set
him on them. And a very great multitude spread
their clothes on the road, and others cut down
branches from the trees and spread them on the
road. Then the multitudes who went before those
who followed cried out, saying, Hosanna to the
son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. When
he had come to Jerusalem, all the city was moved,
saying, Who is this? So the multitude said, This
is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.
These are the words of Almighty God. Receive
them from your hearts. Now there are three things
that I would like you to meditate and think upon.
And remember as we go through this passage. First
of all, Jesus comes to provide peace. Jesus comes
to provide peace. Second, God's mercy endures
forever. God's mercy endures forever. And finally,
and probably most importantly, Jesus is faithful.
even unto death. Jesus is faithful even unto
death. Children, look up here. Pay attention
to me for just a moment. Now this is going to
apply to everybody, but I want your attention.
What is your favorite story? I would guess that
that would depend on your age, right? Children
demonstrate early in their lives the very habits
that we all form. If we took a poll among the
households here, I would wager that those with
small children, I can say with strong confidence
that their parents not only know their children's
favorite stories, but they have read it numerous
times just this last week. This is true even
for us. You know, some of those stories, parents,
you can recite what? Word for word. Even as adults,
we have an appreciation for great stories. How
many times have you reread the great books? I
myself, I'm a fan of Narnia. Many of you know
this. By the time I was about 28 years old, I
had read the Chronicles of Narnia about 14 times.
And I cannot even imagine at this point what
that number must look like. I love those stories.
Great stories. need repetition. All of the Bible
is worth rereading continuously. However, if
we're honest, certain passages appeal to us more
than others. Right? When you get into the book
of Numbers, and there's all those lists of what
all the tribes gave, or all those genealogies
that you see throughout the scriptures, you're
kind of like, I don't know about that. or even
some of the unfamiliar books. You're not sure
what's going on in those stories. But other stories
like Ehud, right? Boys, I bet you know that story,
right? The judge Ehud who came with the story
and he stabbed that wicked fat king. You know
what happened next, don't you? You also think
about stories like Sampson and David and Goliath.
And those stories are repeated over and over
and over again. For the church, the very people
of God, the life of Christ is worth repeating
every single year. Hence we use this lectionary.
And why? From Advent to Pentecost, I preach the
gospel. I want us to repeat the life of Christ.
Now the life of Jesus especially, the last week
of his life, is full of the crucial and the great
story. And we should repeat it again and again.
I know what I'm about to preach today. You've
heard about Palm Sunday your whole life if you've
gone to church. You walked on Palms. You waved
them around. Maybe you took some home at one
point or another. But as we hear these stories
that we're so familiar with, let us rejoice in
the drama of God's love, His faithfulness. His
pain, suffering, death, joy, peace, and promise
of faithfulness. Remember what He said at the
end of Matthew? Lo, I am with you always, even
to the end of the age. That is the end of the
eschaton. That is the end of all time. Jesus
promises to be with His people, to help them
complete the mission He has given to them, to
the very end. of all time. As you know, Jesus
has set His face towards Jerusalem. His disciples,
of course, had warned Jesus of the last time
He was in Jerusalem, that the rulers and priests
had attempted to stone Him. They've attempted
to arrest Him. And as Jesus, as we learned last
week, came just under two miles away from Jerusalem
to Bethany to resurrect Lazarus, His disciples
again warned him to stay away. The high priests
and the religious leaders are conspiring to kill
Jesus, and as we learned last week, Lazarus as
well. They will enlist the political leaders
later in the week and they will, in league together,
kill Jesus. But on this day, found in our text,
we find that these false priests and religious
leaders are not leading, but as we so often see,
they are standing on the sidelines. They are
seen in the Gospels as bystanders to what Jesus
is doing. And they're always walking around in
fear of the multitudes. They're saying, what
do the masses think? They're holding up their
fingers. What do the crowds think? I'm very worried
about that. It's always on their minds so that
they can maintain their power, their influence,
and yes, certainly their sinful lifestyle. They
rarely present formal or legal resistance to
Jesus. They're primarily reactionaries in public
and vicious plotters in secret. These men These
plotters, these men conspiring against Jesus,
they are gathered in Jerusalem and are on the
hill of the Lord. That's Mount Zion. It's where
the temple is. And Psalm 24 provides us the question,
who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? And
really that capitalized Lord, that's Yahweh.
That's the covenant name of God. Who can ascend
to the hill of the covenant God? or who may stand
in his holy place? And the scripture answers
this question. He who has clean hands and a pure
heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
nor sworn deceitfully. Those who have ascended
the Yahweh's hill, as Jesus has often pointed
out, do not have clean hands or pure heart. And
yes, they have lifted their souls to idols. And
yes, they have sworn deceitfully. Their hands
may be ceremonially clean, but they conspire
to control the world by trying to engineer outcomes
by their idols of money and power. Their hearts
are not pure, but are filled as Jesus says, In
Matthew 23, woe to you scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs
which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but
inside are full of dead man's bones and all uncleanliness.
As Christians, we must guard our hearts and our
motives in an attempt not to control outcomes
of circumstances by money, power or influence.
Jesus, He prepares to enter to the city of Jerusalem
on this Passover feast week. He comes as the
answer to the question, who may ascend to the
hill of Yahweh? Answering once again the question
in Psalm 24. Who is the King of Glory? The Lord
of Hosts. For He is the King of Glory. Selah.
Every time you see that word, selah, it's like
a rest. It's a peace. It's a part to say, OK,
pause. Meditate on that. I know you should meditate
on it all. Can you see that? Rest in what God
is saying. Jesus sends His disciples to go and
fetch a donkey and to fold. And Jesus tells the
disciples to respond to anyone who asks. Why
they are taking the donkey, they are simply to
say the Lord has needed them. God's prophesied
plan is being fulfilled from Zechariah 9. And
it is being fulfilled and being intentionally
done by Jesus. Jesus has been intentional his
whole ministry. He's been intentional. Healing
people and the things that he said and things
he's done and he is intentionally the Bible says
that his Like it like a flint. He made his hard
head his head hard and he turned his face to
Jerusalem And he is on his way Zachariah 9 we
read it earlier rejoice greatly old daughter
of Ziah Shout Oh daughter of Jerusalem Behold
your King is coming to you He is just and having
salvation. Loving and riding on a donkey. A colt,
the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot
from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem. This
is real important. God tells the Israelites,
when you have a king, the things he should multiply
are horses, gold, and women. And what they should
do is write out the law. copy their own law,
again and again. What this is saying here is,
don't trust in the horse. Don't trust in the
mighty armies. No, he's coming on a colt, a donkey.
The battle bow shall be cut off, Zechariah goes
on to say, he shall speak peace to the nations.
His dominion shall be from sea to sea and from
the river. to the ends of the earth. That's a
quote from Psalm 72. We sang that today. Jesus
comes as the King of Peace. He is the King of
Peace. Donkeys were ridden by kings who came
to grant merciful peace to the cities and land
that belonged to them. The whole of creation
has always been Jesus. It's always been His.
having come to defeat Satan and deliver the poor,
the humble, and the helpless. He ascends to the
hill of the Lord as King whose dominion is from
sea to sea. The prophet Zechariah here in this
description is quoting Psalm 72 verse 8 which
declares Christ's dominion over all the nations
and people from sea to sea. And in Psalm 78 we
see a description. that from the river to the
ends of the earth. It's the picture of the river
of life proceeding from the throne and the temple
to the ends of the earth. Think about all of
creation and all of history here. In the beginning,
there was a garden, the place where we met God.
And a river flowed out to the four corners of
the earth. Then in Exodus, with the tabernacle,
we have this picture, God's throne room. There's
different segments of the room out to the yard
where there was a basin of water. And then we
see in First Kings that picture magnified in
the great glories of Solomon's Temple. And that
water, that basin of water, it's now the Bronze
Sea. It's like 5 ,000 gallons of water. You see
this river's getting bigger. It's covering more.
and proceeding from that were smaller basins
of water all the way to the doors of the temple.
And then of course we see in Ezekiel, that same
image, where Ezekiel's seeing the temple. He
measures it out. And by the way, if you notice
this east thing, you've got a garden and you've
got a tabernacle, right? Then you have this great
temple of Solomon. And then you have this vision
of what God is doing in Ezekiel. And that river
flows, and we know that story, right? It starts,
the water gets up to his ankles, then it's up
to his knees, and then it's up to his head. Then
it's so big and broad, he cannot cross it. The
prophet can't cross it. And that water, that
river of life that is flowing from God is flowing
to the whole world, bringing life, giving life
where there is death. And yes, even in Revelation,
we see the very same description. description
of what God is doing with His Church, fulfilled
in the Church, flowing out to the conversion
of the nations in the power of the Spirit by
the atoning work of Jesus Christ. In all of this,
Jesus brings peace by obedience. Philippians
chapter 2 tells us that Jesus being found in
the appearance of a man, he humbled himself and
became obedient to the point of death, even the
death of the cross. Jesus knows the outcome of
this week, and yet he obeys his father, that
his father may be glorified and praise God Almighty,
that we might be delivered from sin and death.
Jesus is set upon a donkey by the disciples and
he rides into Jerusalem Passing the temple in
the crowd. It's Passover week and the scriptures
tells that there's a multitude of God -fearers
in Jews and they're from all over They are from
all over the Empire As we talked about before
during these feast weeks over a hundred thousand
people in this city and These multitudes who
went before Jesus the ones that were ahead of
him and those who followed cried out saying Hosanna
to the son of David blessed is he who comes in
the name of the Lord Hosanna and the highest
All those ahead and all those behind were crying
out from Psalm 118 Hosanna to the son of David
blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord
Hosanna and the highest Now Psalm 118 begins
with this. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He
is good, for His mercy endures forever. And in
Psalm 118 we see that refrain, for His mercy
endures forever five times. And we see it building
up. There's a progression of this eternal mercy.
It starts in the form of Israel, the people of
God. His mercy endures forever. And then Aaron
and the priests and his mercy endures forever.
And then it says all those who fear God, the
God -fearers, those are the Gentile believers.
His mercy endures forever. The multitudes were
in Jerusalem to remember and commemorate God's
deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, the land
of slavery and death. These believers remembered.
The faithfulness of God in times past in order
to look to the future salvation and deliverance
The greek word we see translated translated to
hear as hosanna Is from the hebrew roots save
now we pray Dearly beloved. I want you to hear
this right save now we pray Hear hear what it
says in verse 24 of psalm 118 this is the day
that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be
glad in it. Everybody knows that phrase if you've
been in church. Here now, verse 25. Save now,
I pray. O Lord, O Lord, I pray, send prosperity.
Again, this Lord is the covenant God's name.
So we can read it this way. Save now. Pray, O
Yahweh. O Yahweh, I pray, send. Prosperity. What
is this prosperity? The mercy of God to deliver
us from sin and death. Again, Psalm 118, the
voice of rejoicing and salvation. It is in the
tense of the righteous. The right hand of the
Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord
is exalted. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.
I shall not die. but live and declare the works
of the Lord. Jesus as described in Hebrew 1 is
the brightness of God's glory and the express
image of His person and upholding all things
by the word of His power when He had by Himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of
majesty on high. Jesus' works of mercy provided
for us on the cross are forever. As the crowd
shouts Hosanna, they are calling on Yahweh God
to deliver them, to save them now, we pray. Saints
of God, our God saves. He's been about the salvation
of His people from the fall of Adam. God's mercy
endures forever. He is faithful. Jesus came to
bring us peace, to reconcile us to God, the Father.
And we know our sins are so great. Psalm 130
tells us, if you, Lord, should mark iniquities,
what are iniquities? It's perversity, depravity,
and guilt of sin. If you, Lord, should mark iniquities,
oh Lord, who could stand? but there is forgiveness
with you that you may be feared. I wait for the
Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I do hope."
When we see that Jesus had come into Jerusalem,
all the city was moved saying, who is this? It's
like an echo of Psalm 24. Who is this? So the
multitude said, This is Jesus, the prophet from
Nazareth of Galilee. Jesus knows where this week
is heading. His unlawful arrests, beatings, sufferings,
and death, all for the glory of the Father, for
the salvation for us. Jesus willingly and obediently
was faithful to God. And as you know, the story
doesn't end there. This week, as you read and
reread the story of Jesus, our deliverer, let
us cry. Hosanna. Blessed is Jesus who comes in
the name of the Lord. He is the faithful, eternally
merciful, the Prince of Peace. God save us now,
we pray. for the sake of Jesus. Rosanna from
the highest. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we
know that we are undone before you, that if you
counted our sins against us, none of us could
stand before you. We declare, save us now, we
pray, because of the work of your Son, Jesus.
May our hearts be filled with gratitude, thanksgiving,
fear, and awe. as we read, study, and meditate
on the peace we have with you in Christ Jesus.
For your mercies endure forever. We ask this
now for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord who
reigns with you in the Holy Spirit forever and
ever. Amen.