Palm Sunday
Be these attitudes • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Choir: Comes the king
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!
Song: House of the Lord
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
Sermon
Sermon
Title: Be these attitudes pt6
Text: Matthew 5:8; Luke 19:28-44
D.T We show purity of heart through humility and surrender.
Introduction: When Jesus triumphantly enters the city of Jerusalem, the scene is exciting! People are crying out Hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. When a king or prophet entered the city, it was a customary display of humility to lay down your coats or garments as he passed. When Jesus enters Jerusalem, people are excited to lay down their coats at their feet. If you didn’t have a coat, you ripped palm branches off trees so at least you’d have something to lay at his feet as he passed. The scene is happy, joyful, victorious! Kind of. As Jesus enters the city while everyone else displays joy and laughter, Jesus through tears expresses sorrow. As Jesus approaches the gates of Jerusalem his demeanor goes from being resolute to remorseful. As Jesus enters the city of Jerusalem, he says this (READ Luke 19:41-44
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Jesus wept as he entered Jerusalem because, as he said, they never knew the time of his visitation. Basically God in the flesh was in their very presence, and they never saw him. Why?
To answer this question, we go back to the sermon on the mount. More specifically we go to the beatitudes. Matthew 5:8
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Are we suggesting Jerusalem didn’t have a pure heart? Therefore they never saw God?
When you look at the leadership of the Jews at the time, we see an unmistakable trend. The people placed their hope in the messiah. Hidden within this hope were expectations. The leadership expected the messiah to look a certain way.
Jesus didn’t fit within their box, since the messiah didn’t fit in their box of expectation, it’s clear their motives and hearts were not pure.
We saw this as soon as Jesus was born. When the Magi connected the star of Bethlehem to the birth of the Messiah, the scriptures say Herod was troubled, and all of Jerusalem's leadership with him. The birth of the messiah doesn’t trouble you if your hearts are pure.
When Jesus met Herod, the bible says Herod was excited to see him. However it wasn’t because of salvation or the gospel that he was excited. He was excited because he wanted to see a miracle. Not exactly the purest of intention.
The Pharisees had multiple chances to learn from Jesus. However the scriptures remind us time and again, anytime they interacted with Jesus they sought to trap him and discredit him.
Because the hearts of Jerusalem's leaders were not pure, the people who once cheered Hosanna as Christ entered the city would later be led astray. They would be deceived into joining the Pharisees as they cried out “Crucify him!”
Because the hearts of Jerusalem's leaders were not pure, they did not see God.
So how do we ensure we don’t follow suit? How do we ensure we don’t miss God? How do we ensure we have pure hearts? Because as Jesus implies, those who have pure enough hearts are blessed, fortunate or happy. If you want an answer to this question, it’s best to look at the actions of Jesus. Jesus best displays a pure heart during holy week. During Holy week, we see Jesus do the following.
Jesus willing goes into Jerusalem, knowing what awaited him
Jesus stayed true to his commitment when his disciples could only sleep
Jesus stayed true to his commitment to God even after pleading that God remove the burden of the crucifixion.
As Philippians reminds us Jesus made himself obedient to the cross, scorning it’s shame.
Christ died for our sakes because he was pure in heart.
Christ was pure in heart when he defeated death by rising from the grave.
Jesus makes his purity of heart known in the actions of holy week, Jesus shows purity of heart through humility and surrender. Christ followers are called to make our lives like Christ. Therefore we must pursue purity of heart. We show purity of heart through humility and surrender. Just as Christ surrendered himself and allowed himself to die on the cross for our sins.
Transition into communion
Congregation: We come with gladness. Thanks be to God!
Communion Hymn: Beneath the cross of Jesus
Congregation: Thanks be to Jesus, Hosanna! The one who saves!
Congregation: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us!
Invitation: O Sacred Head, now wounded