Palm Sunday
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
IDing babies. Fingerprints and footprints.
Considering the identification of the Christ?
The Messiah would be completely unique.
Many preconceived notions and expectation, He would upend.
As Jesus heads into Jerusalem for the last week of His life, leading up to crucifixion and resurrection.
Jesus is revealing to His followers who He is.
Present Commands are Fulfilled
Present Commands are Fulfilled
vv. 1-3
Jesus knew how things were going to end.
“Drew near to Jerusalem” = Crucifixion
Jesus upends the concept of power.
Jesus as King. The image of power and might.
Kings were surrounded by servants.
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Jesus comes as the servant King!
He arrives on a donkey. Beast of burden, dirty, stubborn.
Kings rode on mighty war horses!
Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
To ride on an animal like a donkey would be humiliating!
Not even a saddle “sat on them (v. 7)”!
Yet, Jesus shows up doing just that.
He sends his disciples to retrieve this young colt and rides it into town.
Riding a colt, unbroken animal.
Again, this is a picture of what Jesus brings - peace.
Jesus is the source of peace.
These are things that you can experience if He is your King.
Past Prophecies are Fulfilled
Past Prophecies are Fulfilled
vv. 4-5
Opening of Thunder games. Rumble and lights and fire and electricity and music and names!!
No doubt who you are there to see.
Jesus is leaving no doubt who He is.
This is why “the Lord needs them.” Not wants, desires, wishes for…
This action would announce to the crowds who Jesus is.
This “fulfilled” (v. 4) what we find in Zechariah.
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.
A passage that would be known.
Notice what Matthew doesn’t include. “righteous and having salvation is he.”
Ever left something out to emphasize it? So that people will think about it?
This would have been a “deliberate act of symbolic self-disclosure.”
Secrecy was being lifted, no more “don’t tell anyone!”
Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament.
Not what many people wanted!
But, what people wanted or expected didn’t change what Jesus came to do.
Passionate Responses are Appropriate
Passionate Responses are Appropriate
vv. 6-11
Awards season - “red carpet.” Roped off for only certain people.
This is the “red carpet” treatment.
From a crowd following Jesus.
And now they are calling out in praise of Jesus:
Hosanna! “Save!” The Son of David! This re-established king of Israel.
Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.
Save / Hosanna / Rescue. Even heal. These images converging together in the person of Jesus.
The events just experienced by the crowd following Jesus.
See Matthew 20:29 “And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him.”
Jesus healing blind men in front of that crowd: Matthew 20:34 “And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.”
This image of vision is connected to something else Jesus is doing.
The connections to Psalm 118 - a Psalm of Ascent, as they are going up to worship. The people quoting.
Look what follows what they are quoting:
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!
This imagery of light and vision and rescue.
Hope, Life, and Restoration with God.
“I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations,
to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.
This is the salvation that Jesus brings.
The right response to Jesus is worship.
And as we consider who Jesus is, “Who is this? (v. 10)?
The people would get partial credit.
He is a prophet, one who carries God’s message to God’s intended audience.
But, He is so much more.
He is The Prophet. He is The Messiah. He is the King-Priest. He is the atoning sacrifice for you and for me.
Conclusion
Conclusion
“Who is this?”
Jesus would do so many things over these eight days that would answer that question.
But, we are on the other side of that.
So, the question now comes to you.
Who is this?
Jesus is the Lord who paid for your sins and deserves your worship.
Or, Jesus is a fraud. Maybe a liar. Maybe a lunatic.
Who is this?
If Jesus is the Lord, He deserves your worship.
And He desires to be your Savior.
Jesus, as Lord, desirest to be your Savior.
How will you respond?
