MK040 Sermons
Palm Sunday (Audio)
one of the individuals who has been a mentor from afar for me, someone that I've listened to and read their books and heard them speak many, many times, individual from the Chicago land area by the name of Bill Heibels. He's the lead pastor at Willow Creek Community Church and he also started the Willow Creek Association which trains thousands of business and church leaders. Every single year we've been to conferences and heard him speak on a number of times. A few years ago, I was invited to a lunch meeting over in Lancaster with a group of pastors and had an opportunity to meet him. And so I was very excited about this opportunity, someone who I had learned many, many things from. And as I sat and listened to him speak, he talked about the value of leadership, something he always focuses on. And he also talked passionately about the role of the local church being the hope of this world is what God can do through the local church. And then afterwards we had a chance to meet him. And so I was thrilled to be able to meet him. As I went up, made my way up to meet him, I went to shake his hand, I realized he's the same size, he's the same high as I am. I was a little surprised by that. And for some reason, in my mind, I had visioned him to be a little bit bigger, a little bit taller than I was. And that was the image that I had in my mind of this individual. A few years back, a few years ago, about three years ago, my son and I had a chance to go down to Shady Maple. And we had a chance to hear Joe Gibbs speak, former head coach of the Washington Redskins, as they won a couple of Super Bowls. And now Joe Gibbs Racing, you know, as they won several championships and just very, very successful. Very challenging motivational speaker. And he brought some individuals who played football with him. And I had a chance to shake the hand of one of the defensive linemen that played with him when he was in DC. And this guy was about this big and about this wide. His hands were like four times the size of my hand. Much, much, much bigger than I envisioned this individual to be. And so I had in my mind kind of created this image of what these individuals would be like, but my experience did not match up to the perceptions that I had in my mind. And maybe you've had that experience when you met someone that you've known from afar, whether it was, you know, an athlete, an artist, or someone that was bigger than life to you. And you met them and you realized they were not what you envisioned them to be. Well, this morning, we're gonna look at the final experience in the life of Jesus before the Holy Week begins. As we look at this experience, I think what you're gonna do is you might see a different glimpse of Jesus this morning. A glimpse that a lot of people were trying to make some sense out of it. They weren't quite sure what was going on with this individual that they heard about called Jesus. And if you haven't been to church in a while, maybe you're kind of coming back to God, coming back to church and checking things out, I hope it will give you a realistic sense of who Jesus is. And if you've been walking with Jesus, I hope it will challenge you again to say, what does it look like to follow Him? Inside of your programs is an insert. I wanna invite you to take this out. It's green. Everybody just take that out for a moment. I wanna reference that. As you heard Angie say, this week is the beginning of Holy Week. It's the week in which we remember the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus and all the events that led up to that experience taking place. And this is a calendar of the things that possibly could have taken place on each of these days along with some passages of scripture for you to read along with them. And I invite you to take this with you this week. If you receive our weekly email newsletter, it's gonna get emailed out to you tomorrow morning so you can have it on your phone. And I'd encourage you this week to pull this out. And sometime on Monday, read through the things that happen on Monday. Find some of those passages of scripture and read through them. And then sometime during the day, pause and think about what was the experience like for Jesus to have gone through this and do the same thing each day of the week. And it's our prayer that God will use this to provide you a way to connect with Him and a way to maybe have some renewed clarity and reminders about what those events were like leading up to the final days of his life here on the earth. If you have a Bible, if you would turn to Matthew chapter 21, it's where we're gonna be this morning. Matthew chapter 21, you can connect on your wireless device to our network as well. If you don't have a Bible, our guys have some, they'll pass them out. Love to encourage you to grab one and follow along. It's page 801 on the Bibles that they're passing out. And if you don't have a Bible of your own, we encourage you to take one and mark this in some way and then review this during the week. Matthew chapter 21 is where we're gonna be this morning. And Matthew devotes the last eight chapters of his writings of the account of Jesus to this final week. The last eight chapters of this final week. And he's approaching the city of Jerusalem from the town of Jericho as it indicates at the end of chapter 21. And Jericho is about a six to eight hour hike from Jericho to Jerusalem. And you're going up an elevation about 3,500 feet. So it's certainly, it's about 15 miles. And what Jesus was doing is he was traveling, as we saw last week, he was traveling to the city of Jerusalem for the festival called Passover. That's what moded, that's was his reason for coming into the city. Something every Jew did every year as much as it was possible for them to do. And so he's on his way from Jericho to Jerusalem. He stops at Bethany, which is outside the city, about two miles, and he stayed there overnight, Saturday evening. That was likely when Mary anoint washed anointed Jesus's feet. Symbolically picturing what was going to happen to his body in just one week, where his body would be anointed with perfumes for burial. And so as Jesus is making his way up there, he stops at the top of the Mount of Olives. And it's a panoramic view of Jerusalem across the Kidron Valley. And so he's standing up there viewing this. And Luke's gospel tells us that when he stood up on that pinnacle and he looked out over the city, I think we have a picture of what that might look like. He just wept for the city because he wept for what he knew was about to happen. And he talked about a hen gathering their chicks and just saw the heart of Jesus as he looked across at the city of Jerusalem. And so as he's walking across the ridge that he's on, the Garden of a Good Society is down at the bottom of the Mount of Olives and he's making his way there. He stops at a little town called Bethpage. And at Bethpage in chapter 21, verse one, it says, "They approached Jerusalem and came to Bethpage on Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you. And I want you to find a donkey tied there with her cult by her. Untie them, bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them and he will send them back right away." So the disciples were given some instructions by Jesus. And I was thinking about the disciples. I realized that the disciples were often given instructions by Jesus. One time Jesus said, "Go find some food." And then after he multiplied that food and fed the 5,000, he said, "Now go collect all the baskets of leftover food." He was told by one of his disciples, Peter, to get out of the boat and to walk on the water. And Peter had to decide if he was going to do that. He was told by another follower of his Lazarus to rise up out of his tomb, come forth. And he was raised from the dead. And so going to get a donkey seemed like, probably seemed like child's play to the disciples in that day. But as Matthew records this for us in verse four, he adds this prophecy from the book of Zachariah. He says, "Say to the daughter Zion, see your king comes to you gentle and riding on a donkey and on a cult, the full of the donkey." This is a prophecy that likely most of the Jews knew. Because most of the Jews knew that they were expecting a Messiah, that they were expecting him to come. And then when he would come, how would they know this was the Messiah? Well, there was prophecy that said he would be doing this and he would do this and he would do this and he would do this and Jesus had done all of those things. And now there's a prophecy that says he would come riding in on a donkey and on a cult, the full of a donkey. And so most Jews knew that this would happen. You say, "Why did it say bring the mother and the unbroken cult?" Well, from what I understand, the mother calms down an unbroken cult. And someone informed me after the service who works with horses that you can't ride for the first time an unbroken cult without it throwing you off. But somehow this is exactly what happened. And so as they came here up to this point in time, whenever Jesus had performed a miracle or something significant and he told his disciples, he told the people that he did this to, don't say anything. Over and over again, when you read in the gospels, Jesus would heal someone and they would be miraculously healed and they would be so excited. They wanted to and you go, "No, no, don't tell anybody." Then he'd come across someone who has demon possessed and he would cast the demons out of this individual, as he cast the demons out of this individual, they would want to go and he's like, "No, no, don't go and tell anybody." That's kind of like when you tell your kids a secret, unfortunately they tell somebody, you know, tell them don't say it and they absolutely will go and tell someone. And so did they go and tell it? Yes, because word spread everywhere that they had heard about Jesus. As a matter of fact, his raising Lazarus from the dead just before he came into the city, stirred up the city that the religious leaders were trying to figure out, what are we gonna do to quell this uprising that was taking place? You see, the Jews were hoping, as we talked about last week, they were hoping for a liberator. They were hoping for a deliver, someone like Moses that would free them from the hands of Rome. But I think for them, when they were picturing someone freeing them from the hands of the Rome, I'm not sure in all of their minds, they thought of someone just riding in on a little donkey. I kind of wonder if they envisioned him riding in, like Aragon, riding in Return of the Kings, you know, a warrior coming in to conquer and to free the people. That's maybe what I would have pictured him coming in as, but that's not how Jesus came in as. Their king came on an unbroken cult of a donkey. So what did the disciples do? Well in verse six, it says they went and did exactly what Jesus instructed them. And then as these, you read these next few verses, it's like it unfolds like this movie scene because they bring this donkey in, and as they bring this donkey and they lay their cloaks on top of both of these animals, and Jesus gets on the animal, and as he gets on the animal, more and more people are starting to gather around, and they're starting to lay their cloaks in front of them. And as they're laying their cloaks in front of them, people start to break off some branches, some palm branches, which was very symbolic in that city because just recently in the Jewish history, palms were laid when the city of Jerusalem was recovered after it had been captured just a few years after Temple had been desiccated and overrun. It was so symbolic that all their coins had a palm leaf on it. So it's very symbolic of a return, of a celebration. And it was a scene that had occurred in Israel's history as well. Back in 1 Kings, chapter one, when David wanted to turn over, knew it was time to turn over the kingdom to his son Solomon. Listen to what he said. David said, 1 Kings 133, He said, "Take your Lord's servants with you "and have Solomon, my son, mount my mule "and take him down to Gihon." There of Zaidok the priests and Nathan the prophet, anoint him, King of Israel, blow the trumpet, shout, "Long live King Solomon." Then you go up, then you are to go with him, and he's to come and sit on my throne and reign in my place. So they did exactly what he told him to do. And Zaidok the priest took the horn of oil from the sacred tent and anointed Solomon. They sounded the trumpet and all the people shouted, "Long live King Solomon." And all the people went up after him playing pipes and rejoicing greatly so that the ground shook with the sound. So this is something that they knew about, something that they had heard about in their history. This had happened before. And so now it was happening again. And so as the people, all of this scene is unfolding, the people start shouting, "What? "What do they start shouting?" Anybody know? What do they start shouting? It's the next verse in the text. Hosanna, right? Hosanna, Hosanna. And he goes on, they go on to say, "Blessed is he who comes "in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest." Everyone shouting, everyone singing, everyone's there. You can't miss what is taking place. Couple years ago, the Coca-Cola High School football team was not expected to do very well. I think they had projected them to finish at 500, like five and five, but the team exceeded expectations. I think they only had one loss throughout the entire season. Went to the playoffs, won three straight playoff games in the district playoffs and went to the district championships. And my son was a sophomore, kind of able to play on the team that year. I was hoping to get a little bit of playing time. And it was a Friday after Thanksgiving, so school was not in session. So none of the other students were there. But somehow word leaked out to the community and the parents that they were gonna be there to cheer on the team as they were leaving. And I remember that event. I was like, "Who told us where did we get that?" But somehow we heard about it. And as we drove into the parking lot that day, the parking lot was packed. And there were fans and there were parents everywhere. I don't know if the athletes knew that this was happening, but not only were there students and players everywhere, but they must have contacted every one of the fire departments in the Coca-Cola School District. And I think every fire engine from the whole school district was there in this parking lot. And so I can remember very clearly, when they came out just to roar the crowd as these guys are coming out. They're tough guys, they're not showing any emotion. But they had to feel overwhelmingly proud of that moment. And then as if that wasn't enough, the fire engines led them out of town. And I think those guys, I don't know if it's a button or what they have that they hold their finger on, but they just put their button on that horn and that siren. And somebody was driving and somebody was holding the button down. And like 15 or 20 of them, I don't know how many, down four street out from the high school, leading the team out behind them. It was so loud. If you didn't know what something was going on, you would know that, if you didn't know what was going on, you would have to come to the realization something was going on. Because everybody in Denver knew what was happening. What was happening? And I think it was a little bit like that in the city of Jerusalem. Everybody knew something was happening. They didn't all quite know. I think the disciples figured it out. This might have been one guy's thoughts about that experience. (soft piano music) Okay, let me get this out of the way. I didn't steal that donkey, okay? I borrowed it. And it wasn't even my idea. Jesus told me to take it, to borrow it, right? Okay, this is how it happened. Earlier today, there was a large group of us. We were traveling from Bethany to Jerusalem. We stopped just outside the city. And Jesus looked at two of us, and he said there was an unwritten donkey just inside the village and asked us to go get it. He said, if anybody asks us about it, we could just look at him and say, the Lord needs it and he'll send it back. So the two of us beat it into town. And the whole time, we were like, what is Jesus gonna do with the donkey, right? But by this point, we realized, you don't second. Technical difficulties, let's try again. (soft piano music) We were traveling from Bethany to Jerusalem. We stopped just outside the city. And Jesus looked at two of us and he said, there was an unwritten donkey just inside the village and asked us to go get it. He said, if anybody asks us about it, we could just look at him and say, the Lord needs it and he'll send it back. So the two of us beat it into town. And the whole time, we were like, what is Jesus gonna do with the donkey, right? By this point, we realized, you don't second guess Jesus, right? He hadn't told us why and we didn't ask. We just got him a donkey. And when we got back, that's what had happened. Some people put their coats on the donkey and Jesus got on the donkey. And he got on the donkey. I don't know, it's like everyone started shouting and dancing and singing. And some people were throwing their coats in front of the donkey. There was some of us that grabbed some palm branches and we started waving them in the air. And that's when it clicked. Jesus had finally arrived. And I know that sounds weird. No, it's like this. In the past, we would get excited because Jesus would do something. I mean, a miracle or there would be some parable or something he said, we'd get excited about it. And Jesus would always be like, Shh, come on guys, no, no, no, no, no. Just be quiet, you know. And then we'd come up with some idea. Hey, let's do this or let's do that. And Jesus would be like, no, guys, not now, not now. But today, today was now. Today, he finally let us shout and sing and dance and treat him like the Messiah that we'd all been waiting for. He finally showed up. Ah, I don't know. I don't know what tomorrow holds. It feels like it's something big, but who knows, you know, but it doesn't matter what happens. Because Jesus showed up. And there, there's nothing better than when Jesus shows up. When he entered the city, the whole city was stirred and asked, who is this? The crowd's answered. This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. They had heard him raise the raised Lazarus from the dead. They had heard about people being fed, individuals being healed. And whether they were thrill seekers, devoted followers, people who were bored, true supporters of Jesus or individuals that just needed something to do that day. Everybody was there wondering who is this Jesus. And he rides in as this triumphant King, but on a donkey, on a donkey. He had elements of being like a king because there was massive crowds and everybody was cheering and everybody was yelling, "Hosanna, Hosanna." But instead of a stallion, he rode in on a donkey. And instead of his arrival in the city moving to the center of the temple and standing on the steps of the temple and proclaiming his kingdom to all of the people, "What does he go on and do?" He goes into the temple and he flips over the tables of the money changers so that the poor and the blind and the lame can come in and then he walks away. Just before he came in the city as disciples were arguing with him in Matthew chapter 20 about who was gonna be the greatest in the kingdom. And Jesus said, "No, no, no, it's not what you think, "but the greatest is the one who's a servant." He said, "I came not to serve, not to be served, "but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many." You know, as you think about Jesus' arrival, it sounds a little bit like a coronation, the welcoming of a hero, the crowning of a victor, a first century ticker tape parade, if you will. The reality is that it was far from that because the religious leaders who were deeply committed to the point of trying to kill Jesus, of somehow squelching what they thought was some form of an uprising. You see, the Jewish leaders knew that if you troubled the Romans, the Romans showed up with swords drawn and people were gonna die. That's how the Romans put down an uprising. And they were committed to do whatever it would take to calm this uprising because they didn't wanna lose their temple, they didn't wanna lose their position of power and authority, they didn't wanna lose their homeland. And so all the people that day were shouting, what were the people shouting that day? What was the one word? What was the one word? A little louder, what was the one word? Hosanna, that's what they were all saying. Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna. You know what that word, Hosanna means? It means save me, save me. What did they wanna be saved from? I think some of them wanted to be saved from the Romans. I think some of them wanted to be saved from legalistic religious leaders. Some of them probably wanted to be saved from the crippling disease that they had experienced. Some wanted to be to save from a demon of their past that was tormenting their soul. Some of them wanted to be saved from an unreasonable spouse. Some of them wanted to be saved from parents who just didn't understand. And maybe all of them wanted to be saved from circumstances of life that are just not fair and they can't control any longer. And so if you were in the crowd that day, what would you be asking Jesus to save you from? What would you be asking him to save you from? What would you be asking him to save you from? I'm not sure that many people were there to truly worship Jesus. Say why do you say that, John? Because in just a few days, their words went from save me to crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. They all had an agenda for Jesus. I think they all wanted something from Jesus, but I'm not sure they were willing to follow Jesus. The problem is Jesus doesn't come just to rescue you and save you from your problems and make your life easier. Jesus came to offer you life, life at its fullest, life at its best, abundant life, and life forever within you. But he invites you to do that by turning over the controls of your life to him. And in doing so, you will discover that he is not who you thought he was. Because what Jesus says is, I didn't come to be king of this community or to be king of this nation. I came to be king of your heart. And so if he's going to be king of your heart, that means you're going to have to turn over authority and power from something that's in charge of your life right now. So if Jesus is in charge of your life, what goes in this blank? What isn't? What isn't? What does he replace? What does he replace? If Jesus is in charge of your life, then your ego is not in charge. If Jesus is in charge of your life, then your comfort is not in charge. If Jesus is in charge of your life, then your significance is not in charge. If Jesus is in charge of your life, then your self-control is not in charge. If Jesus is in charge of your life, then you no longer beg, bleed, pray, manipulate to get him to do what you want him to do anymore. And so as we celebrate, Jesus is king. The question for you to ask yourself today is have I allowed him to be king of my entire life? Jesus says these words in Matthew 10, 39. He said, whoever finds their life will lose it and whoever loses their life from my sequels, find it. In John 12, 24, he says, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and it dies, it remains only a single seed, but if it dies, it produces many seeds. And then in Matthew 16, 24, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself and take of his cross and follow me. So the question for you, as you think about Jesus' arrival in the city, what are you asking him to save you from? And what do you need to turn over and let him be the king of in your life? In just a few moments, we're gonna celebrate communion. And communion is when we remember the death of Jesus Christ, his death on the cross for my sins, for your sins, for all of our sins. I don't wanna ask you to just take a moment or maybe just close your eyes and just sit there and think about your life this past week. Think about ways that you sinned against others, words that you said that you can't take back. (inhales deeply) Sexual thoughts that you let sit there that you should have moved on from. Jealousy that you sat and considered. Anger that boiled. Selfish actions. Prideful thoughts. When we come to this table, we come to this table remembering that Jesus died for all of our sins. All of my sins. All of your sins. All of them. (inhales deeply) And as I sit with my own sinfulness, knowing what I want from Jesus, sometimes find myself wondering how is it that he could just love me in spite of me. To prepare our hearts to take communion this morning, I wanna invite you to listen to this song and my prayer is that the words from this song will prepare your heart for what God has for you. (instrumental music) ♪ I am guilty ♪ ♪ A shamed of what I've done ♪ ♪ What I've become these hands are done ♪ ♪ Me ♪ ♪ I dare not lift them up to the holy one ♪ ♪ You plead my cause ♪ ♪ You ride my run ♪ ♪ You break my chains ♪ ♪ You overcome ♪ ♪ You gave your life ♪ ♪ To give me mine ♪ ♪ You say that I am free ♪ ♪ How can it be ♪ ♪ How can it be ♪ ♪ I've been hiding ♪ ♪ Afraid I'll let you down ♪ ♪ Inside I doubt that you still love me ♪ ♪ But in your eyes there's only grace now ♪ ♪ Now ♪ ♪ You break my heart ♪ ♪ You light my love ♪ ♪ You break my chain ♪ ♪ You woe again ♪ ♪ You gave your life ♪ ♪ You give me mine ♪ ♪ Do you say that I am free ♪ ♪ How can it be ♪ ♪ How can it be ♪ ♪ So I call you, can't make me new ♪ ♪ From this test I will rise with you ♪ ♪ All the great things you know for me, yeah ♪ ♪ How can it be ♪ ♪ How can it be ♪ ♪ You break my heart ♪ ♪ You write my roles ♪ ♪ You break my chains ♪ ♪ You overcome ♪ ♪ You gave your life ♪ ♪ You give me mine ♪ ♪ You gave it I am free ♪ ♪ You feed my core ♪ ♪ You write my word ♪ ♪ You break my chains ♪ ♪ You overcome ♪ ♪ You gave your life ♪ ♪ Do you give me mine ♪ ♪ Do you say that I am free ♪ ♪ How can it be ♪ ♪ How can it be ♪ (dramatic music) [Music]