Palm Sunday
Mark • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
There are 2 types of people in the world
Those who believe Michael Jordan is the greatest of all time
And those who are sick people
The argument is Jordan verses Lebron
One great challenge to Lebron is his unmatched declaration that he is the Greatest of All Time
Jordan has class and has said it is not his place to say…
Lebron has made the claim that he is King
It is offputting and paints the conversation in a small box…either I am or I am not…there is no middle ground that I am simply one of
Palm sunday may seem like a fun cultural holiday occassion
In reality it is the greatest claim by Jesus that He is King of Kings…theres no middle ground
This is the debate he is bringing to the known world
EIther I am King of Kings or I am nothing
Like ESPN this sets off the great war among the debators
Crown Him or Kill Him…there is no simply liking Him
And it is the launch of the most world changing week the world will ever know
We are going to look at 4 things this morning
No Turning Back
Christ In Control
The Gentle King
The Promise of the Palms
No Turning Back
No Turning Back
They came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus (the son of Timaeus), a blind beggar, was sitting by the road. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many warned him to keep quiet, but he was crying out all the more, “Have mercy on me, Son of David!”
Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”
So they called the blind man and said to him, “Have courage! Get up; he’s calling for you.” He threw off his coat, jumped up, and came to Jesus.
Then Jesus answered him, “What do you want me to do for you?”
“Rabboni,” the blind man said to him, “I want to see.”
Jesus said to him, “Go, your faith has saved you.” Immediately he could see and began to follow Jesus on the road.
There is a classic way to challenge someone to a duel
You walk up slap with a white glove and call them a coward
Beyond unacceptable behavior today but it used to be how you threw down the gauntlett
Why does Mark have this as the lead in to the most important week in human history?
Because in this exchange is Jesus finally throwing down the gauntlet of all gauntlets
Jesus has warned time and time again those he interacts with not to tell anyone
The time hadn’t come yet for His mission to be known
The Jewish world was waiting on the hope of the old testament
The promise was God would come finally Himself crush the invaders and occupying world powers, restore His peoples land, bless them so much the nations would flock to them to know this God
Any guess at the name God would have when he fullfilled that promise?
Son of David
Capital S Son of David
What Mark is doing is showing it was in this moment Jesus stopped the secrecry and declared He was the One
His actions claim a unique status and authority for Jesus
This blind man is the only one who truly sees
He has heard all Jesus has done
He is local since Mark knows His family
Which means He is Jewish
He has heard all the promises of the Old Testament and sees the real Jesus as the Promised Son of David
Jesus doesn’t say whoa slugger hold up thats not me…he behaves as a man properly identified
This sets the scene for the palm branches
High drama, gauntlet thrown down
There is no turning back now
Here is the authority the bible gives to the coming Son of David
It is the claim Jesus has the Legal authority over all creation, the end time kingdom to make all things new begins in Him, that before Creation Jesus was, He is not here to cast out the Romans because He is after the world for all time and all people because His kingdom outlasts them all
You may have lied on your resume before but you never put down that description of skills
The context of the Palm branches is scandal and the final gauntlet thrown down to the jewish rulers and Rome
Crown me or kill me …its game time
Imagine the disciples.
they have seen this man do what only God could do and they believe they get to be the lucky guys the warrior king has chosen to throw out the invaders and make Israel Great Again....
The stage is set and He is about to annouce the cosmic rule of the Kingdom He brings
And He has been in control of it all since before time began
Christ in Control
Christ in Control
When they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and told them, “Go into the village ahead of you. As soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here right away.’ ”
So they went and found a colt outside in the street, tied by a door. They untied it, and some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” They answered them just as Jesus had said; so they let them go.
A.W. Tozer said “What was God doing before he made a thing? Before in the beginning God created His mind was stiiring with affections for you and how all things would work together for your saving and His glory”
Jesus was right on time
The Roman empire has unified the entire known world
Roads that still exist that stretch to England, one common language, peace and protected road ways, it was the perfect time for the Kingdom come Christ is declaring is now here to explode
It was a bonfire ready for the spark
from the Cosmos to the city of this epic drama he is in control
He created the donkey he would ride
And growing in palestine was the very tree he created where he would hang....to save me and you
Even locally He was in complete control
Think back to what has happened in Bethany…it is the home town of Mary Martha and Lazarus
He has been there before and raised His friend from the dead
If there was ever a town where somone would want to do a favor for Jesus it was BethanyThese 2 towns knew this Jesus
That town was all in on Jesus
He has called the crowd…he has got the donkey
He is in control of the timing of the launch
He is in complete control of the war that is about to ensue
You have to picture this
Christ has called the kids from the other side of the tracks outside the country club to form the procession of the king to throw down the gauntlet
No one can stop it
Sovereign over all of human history and soverign over every small moment like a donkey tied to a door....
Sovereign to be let no one change His mission
Not a warrior we want to destroy Rome, or fix my problems, or give us good advice on how to live our best life now
But warrior we need
A king unlike any other
The Gentle King
The Gentle King
They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and he sat on it. Many people spread their clothes on the road, and others spread leafy branches cut from the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted:
Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes
in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the coming kingdom
of our father David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!
If you have been around Church a while or had a family drag you to church easter and christmas you propably have heard this Palm sunday thing before
I have always pictured that a crowd loved all the miracles so they wanted a Jesus parade
Like the scene when the mariachi band comes out at the mexican restaurant on your birthday because your wife just couldn’t resist letting you live through your worst nightmare?
Jesus was minding his business and they come with the best they could find and Jesus is all “Gee shucks guys I really shouldn’t ok ok I’ll ride the donkey”
Thats not what happened at all
This was His plan we just saw and it announces the King he Is and why He came and it is fullfilling a specific promise of the King who would come from the Old Tesatament in Zechariah 9:9
Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout in triumph, Daughter Jerusalem!
Look, your King is coming to you;
he is righteous and victorious,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
The king of Kings is coming and is here and how will he come
Don’t miss the character of the King
He has come to the human heart. the human pain, the human mistakes, the imprisonment to a world that isnt how its supposed to be not told you you are a failure
But road in as a conquering King in ultimate gentleness
He has come to bind what has held us captive and set us free by taking our place in the chains
That is why he is on a donkey not secretariat or seabiscuit
Who rides a donkey?
Juan Valdez has a donkey
Not the king of kings
He comes as the servant king and suffering servant promised
Jesus Christ came not to be served but to die, to give his life.
That sets him apart from the founder of every other major religion. Their purpose was to live and be an example; Jesus’s purpose was to die and be a sacrifice
You may say, If God is really a loving God, why doesn’t he just forgive everybody?
Why did Jesus have to go through suffering into death? Why did he have to be a ransom?
Here’s the beginning of an answer: Jesus didn’t have to die despite God’s love; he had to die because of God’s love. And it had to be this way because all life-changing love is substitutionary sacrifice.
Think about it. Tim Keller says
If you love a person whose life is all put together and has no major needs, it costs you nothing. It’s delightful. There are probably four or five people like that where you live. You ought to find them and become their friend. But if you ever try to love somebody who has needs, someone who is in trouble or who is persecuted or emotionally wounded, it’s going to cost you. You can’t love them without taking a hit yourself. A transfer of some kind is required, so that somehow their troubles, their problems, transfer to you.
There are a lot of wounded people out there. Everyone is struggling with something, fighting some heavy battle of the heart
They are emotionally sinking, they’re hurting, and they desperately need to be loved.
And when they are with you, you want to look at your watch and make a graceful exit, because listening to them with all their problems can be grueling. The only way they’re going to start filling up emotionally is if somebody loves them, and the only way to love them is to let yourself be emotionally drained.
The suffering servant is the King?
I want savior Jesus but Lord Jesus of everything ?
He came for my heart not simply to make my life better and let me be left alone to do what I want
He is King …not a presidential candidate…which means theres no ammending the constitution…crown him or commit treason...
That is what sin is ....every human problem has at its core our treason against the King
This challenges every mind heart and culture the world has ever or will ever know
The disciples don’t get it
To them PR team for campaign Jesus needs fired
To the crowd their military conquerer expectations are thrown off when they realize He came for something more than to defeat Rome and Make Israel Great Again
What do you think your biggest enemy is today?
What is it you think that if i could just keep X from my door I will know peace and flourishing in a world that isnt how its supposed to be?
The King is the great surgeon that gentley peels back the onion and says you’re greatest enemy is deeper than you think, stronger than you can conquer, your ways have left you broken to kill it, and i have come to not be the make a wish Jesus but the King you don’t even know you need to kill the dragon and get you home
You want cancer gone and I have come to kill the very birthplace of it to make all things new…His life was the taste ....his rising says one day soon everything sad will come untrue
His announcement was Crown me or Kill me and he does it in gentle love…but as the warrior of the cosmos
This is the Gospel
We are saved through weakness not strength
It is the Jesus paradigm
Ever seen a war movie?
What general rides onto the beaches of normandy on a beach cruiser ringing his little handle bar bell?
That man is dead
To Ride a donkey into cosmic warfare meant he knew he was there to get slaughtered
What does that ride on a donkey have to do with us 2000 years later?
Because this is the way to the deepest longings of our hearts
Psalm 23 says though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil
Here is the upside down kingdom no one saw coming
It is only a shadow for us because it was real for Him
We stand on the sidewalk and see the shadow of the semi pass by because He stepped out in front of it
What will only be shadow for us was real for him
This is the Christian Message we Call the Gospel
Sin is servants putting themselves in the place of the king
Salvation is the King putting himself in the place of a servant
And when you do it promises more than you could imagine
The Promise in the Palms
The Promise in the Palms
They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and he sat on it. Many people spread their clothes on the road, and others spread leafy branches cut from the fields.
There is another incredible prophecy about the King of Kings coming on a donkey
The scepter will not depart from Judah
or the staff from between his feet
until he whose right it is comes
and the obedience of the peoples belongs to him.
He ties his donkey to a vine,
and the colt of his donkey to the choice vine.
He washes his clothes in wine
and his robes in the blood of grapes.
The gentle King is declaring I am the one who alone has the right to the throne
He has tied his colt to make all things new
Thank God he didn’t shrink away from the slaughter he knew would come
Heres the hope of His taking his rightful place
Look at the last of Genesis 49
He washes His clothes in wine and His robes in the blood of grapes
Wine was the symbol of joy
The promise here is that in His Kingdom, tasted in this life and fullfilled when he comes again joy will be so abundant we will be saturated in it
There will be no more regret, sadness, funerals, mistakes, unmet longings of the heart
Because he took the slaughtered place we deserve because we try to take the throne, one day we will know happiness to the point we are saturated in it
Because he threw down the gauntlet and took the throne
What is all of this Hosanna and Kingdom stuff mean for us
The crowd the gentle King has called has a specific refrain?
Why the palms and kids crying hosanna in the street ?
The kingdom of god is the story of reality.
The story we are in.
The story that answers the deepest questions of the human heart. Why are we here. How can things be naked right. What’s wrong with me and the world. How can i be saved. What Hope is there for the world. Why can’t i stop messing up.
The cry is hosanna rightly orients our deepest longings to the king of the kingdom.
It was written by David Himself to the rightful owner of the throne....Psalm 118:25-26
Lord, save us!
Lord, please grant us success!
He who comes in the name
of the Lord is blessed.
From the house of the Lord we bless you.
The hebrew for Lord save us is Hosanna
Save us oh god who alone is king and ruler
The king who alone can bring the kingdom where our clothes are soaked in happiness
He knows your pain, He knows your fear, He knows the day of all of our funerals, and he announces in my kingdom i kill all that haunts you
YOUR PRESENT SUFFERING HAS AN EXPIRATION DATE!!!!!!!
That is the Kingdom and why we cry HOSANNA TO THIS KING
It is looking to him alone to bring his kingdom and make everything sad come untrue.
He is coming in Gentlesness to free us from the captivity of a world that isnt how its supposed to be
Isaiah shows us exactly what will happen when it comes in fullness
This is my favorite part of all of this
Why the palm branches?
Isaiah 55:12 (MY AMPLIFIED TRANSLATION)
For you will go out from a world that isnt how its supposed to be with saturating joy And be led forth BY THE LORD HIMSELF[by the LORD Himself] with gentleness; The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
The palm branches are the taste of what is to come in the fullness of the kingdom
I close with this
THE king has come
THis is his kingdom
His call is that this is the Kingdom you long for
If you come to him and say I really want some help he declares as King I am so much more than that
I can be brother, friend, shepherd your guide but i cannot be unless I am king
He says I want all of you
As gentley as possible he says to them and us ....
Crown me or kill me
When he comes to any city or human heart that is the claim of the King
Its ok to wrrestle with that
its ok to take offense to that
Come and talk to one of us about the claims of the gospel
Thats the point it confronts
What does that mean in a world of build a bear and misunderstood Jesus?
Tim Keller says:
Jesus is saying, “It’s not enough just to know me as a teacher or as an abstract principle; you have to look at my life. You have to crown me King dI went to the cross—and on the cross I lost my identity so you can have one.”
Once you see the Son of God loving you like that, once you are moved by that viscerally and existentially, you begin to get a strength, an assurance, a sense of your own value and distinctiveness that is not based on what you’re doing or whether somebody loves you, whether you’ve lost weight or how much money you’ve got. You’re free—the old approach to identity is gone.
I hold out the real Jesus to you today and ask you to crown Him King today it is the answer to the deepest longings of your heart and it changes everything
Lets Pray