Palm Sunday

Mark 11:1–11 MEV

When they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, He sent out two of His disciples and said to them, “Go into the village opposite you. As soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say ‘The Lord has need of it,’ and immediately he will send it here.” They went their way and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street. And they untied it. Some of those who stood there said to them, “What are you doing untying the colt?” They answered just as Jesus had commanded. And they let them go. They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments on it. And He sat upon it. Many spread their garments on the street. And others cut down branches off the trees and scattered them on the street. Those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. When He had looked around at everything, as the hour was now late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.

This morning I want to talk to you about something that appears in all 4 Gospels.

I want to talk with you about the Triumphant entry, the reason why we celebrate Palm Sunday!

Palm Sunday is always set a week before Easter, it is the start of what we call the Holy Week.

Jesus would have been heading into Jerusalem to celebrate Passover.

For those who are unaware or can’t remember this morning I want to remind you of what Passover is.

Pesach (PAY-sahk) means to “Pass over” The Lord sent Moses to lead the children of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land. When Moses heads over to Pharaoh the Egyptian king and demands that God’s people be let go. Pharaoh refuses, back and forth they go 9 plagues were given by God to harden the heart of Pharaoh then the Lord said the firstborn males of every house would die unless the doorframe of that house was covered with the blood of a perfect lamb.

God gave Moses a way out of being a part of that “slaughter”, by telling all of the Israelites that they must sacrifice a lamb, and dip the blood of the perfect lamb with a hyssop branch and spread it over the doorposts.

That night, the Lord “passed over” the homes with blood on the doorframes.

It is important for us to remember this the Passover lamb MUST be a pure spotless lamb, a lamb without blemish. Anything less would not have been accepted and the Angel of the Lord would not have passed over that doorpost.

This is a yearly celebration for the Jews, in fact, when Jesus was 12 years old He went along with Mary and Joseph to partake in the Passover in Luke 2 the end of the chapter we see young Jesus heading with Mary and Joseph to participate in the Passover.

This is what we will be remembering and celebrating on Wednesday of this coming week at 6:30 we will start. Encourage you to be here by 6:30.

So, picture this, Jesus heading with His disciples to go partake in Passover as He did many times before, since at least his recorded age, of 12.

However, This time was different. Jesus new this, but He was headed to Jerusalem to present Himself as the pure spotless Passover lamb. Jesus knew where He was going and what He was doing. HE understood that in His coming in the manner in which we’re about to talk about He would be coming to fulfill a prophecy.

Zechariah 9:9 MEV

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! And cry aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king is coming to you; he is righteous and able to deliver, he is humble and riding on a donkey, a colt, the offspring of a donkey.

Up until this time Jesus wanted to avoid the crowds, to stay out of the spotlight. It is interesting to think that maybe he wanted to “avoid the crowds” or “get alone with the Lord more” because he understood what this week would hold, and the battles that would take place.

When we study this week of Jesus, His last week before His death and resurrection.

We might think that all chaos ensues, from a bystander position it might look like Hell wins.

He was lifted high or exalted.

He was left and forgotten.

He was betrayed by a friend.

He was flogged and beaten.

He was ridiculed and spat on.

He was nailed to a tree and left there to die.

From a bystanders perspective it would look like Hell had won.

The Savior had been defeated.

All in one week all of these things happened to Jesus.

I can assure you this morning,

that Jesus actually had everything in His full control.

John 10:17–18 MEV

Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I received this command from My Father.”

He knew everything was going to happen the way that it did.

, He knew every person that would betray Him before they did it.

Jesus was in full control of the whole thing.

Even if it looks like chaos around us and surrounding us, understand me this morning God is in full control.

The U.S. government might think they’ve got everything handled;

The UN might think they can figure it out.

The blue party might tell you they have the answers.

The Red party might tell you they have the answers.

Understand me this morning,

God is still on the throne, and the king’s heart is still in His hand!

Christ was not a victim, and He wasn’t a martyr!

He is the loving sacrificial passover lamb!

He is our Savior!

I want to give you 3 points to take home with you when you think about Palm Sunday.

The King’s Preparation

The King’s Presentation

The King’s Proclamation.

1. The King’s preparation.

There is no doubt that Jesus’ entire life He was preparing for this moment that we see Him heading into. The last time we read about Him being in Jerusalem for the Passover at the age of 12. Mary and Joseph lost Jesus because He was in the synagogue teaching the Rabbis.

A. Imagine that for a moment, a 12-year-old kid teaching the Rabbi’s people who have been studying the Torah for the entire lives, and this 12-year-old astonishing them with what He knew about the Scripture.

i. However, as they find him in the synagogue, he states to his mother and step father I have to be about my father’s business, they tell him to come on and Jesus listens. He obeys.

Jesus was being prepared firstly with Humility.

He was being prepared for what He would have to do.

In Jesus’ first miracle Mary asked him to turn water into wine and even though He said it wasn’t His time yet, He still did what his mother asked. He was being prepared with Humility.

a. I want you to understand this morning that Christ was being prepared for this moment in history.

b. Not that He couldn’t do it without preparation, rather that He was teaching us that preparation is part of the process.

ii. Jesus Christ had the power to fulfill prophecy. We talked about Zechariah 9:9. We know of around 500 prophecies that were fulfilled by Jesus. Here are just a few.

a. Isiah 9:6 “For unto us a child is born… He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God.”

b. He is to be a prophet like Moses speaking God’s words Deuteronomy 18

c. He is to be hated without reason psalm 35:19

d. He is to be a stone of stumbling to the Jews Isiah 8:14

e. He was to be born of a virgin Isaiah 7:13-14

iii. That is just a handful of the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. I am here to tell you this morning that Jesus had the power to fulfill prophecies! It wasn’t a hope it happens affair. It wasn’t’ a shot in the dark. The prophecies were given, and Jesus was the one and ONLY one who could fulfill these prophecies.

B. He has power to fulfill prophecies and He has power over nature. Jesus is able to control the winds and rain that punished the disciples when they were on the boat. Jesus is able heal diseases.

i. The sick no longer sick.

a. The lepers no longer living with leprosy.

b. The possessed the demons have to flee.

c. The blind could see when they found Jesus

d. The Lame were able to walk again.

e. Those who were dead were made alive again.

ii. I am telling you today. Jesus Christ has power of nature. When nature declares it’s going to be this way. Christ has power of that and can declare it to be another way! The King was being prepared for the mighty move of God that we call the resurrection!

a. Jesus has the power to control nature. Vs 2 and 3 says “…Go into the village opposite you. As soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone says to you, ‘why are you doing this?’ say ‘the Lord has need of it,’ and immediately he will send it here.”

iii. Just like God made the donkey speak in the Old Testament, He makes something miraculous happen here. He made the colt, which had never been ridden before to carry Him.

a. I’ve rode some horses before in my life and riding one that is just barely green broke is extremely hard to do. You don’t just jump on them.

b. Here Christ has the power to ride on a colt that has NEVER been ridden before. The colt did exactly what He was supposed to do. This wouldn’t happen unless you had power over nature.

When you have power to walk on water.

When you have power to heal a wound.

When you have power to calm a storm.

You have power over nature.

This is Jesus.

Not only that, but Jesus had full control over this whole situation.

Think about it for just a second. Someone comes and jumps into your truck or your vehicle. That 2025 Cadillac Escalade sitting outside, and doesn’t ask, starts it up and starts to take off. They get waved, down “Hey what are you doing!?”

The only thing that is supposed to be said is, “The Lord have need of it.” The owner of the Escalade says “Oh, Ok have a safe trip” and walks off.

The only explanation that I have for what we have seen here is that Jesus has full control over the whole situation.

Just a little side this morning, When the King Comes into your situation, He has full control over your situation.

It may seem like a madhouse.

It may seem like no answers are coming properly.

Trust this, the Lord has need of it,

He has it in control!

This is the Preparation of the King.

2. The King’s presentation.

Matthew 21:6–8 MEV

The disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their garments on them, and He sat on them. A very large crowd spread their garments on the road. Others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

A. No doubt to some of the Jews at the time this presentation of the King here would have been laughable. The Jews would have been used to kings coming in on horses imposing their will, and here Jesus is the supposed King of the Jews and he’s riding a colt.

i. He’s saying I’m coming in peace.

To those who weren’t allowing the Holy Spirit to change their hearts and lives this would have been laughable.

a. The Roman guards and centurions in the city at the time were probably making fun of Jesus the entire time.

ii. But Here Jesus is making a statement that He is coming in peace.

HE is presenting His plan of peace through the way that He comes.

He is declaring peace to the nations!

B. I could just imagine the crowds at the time because for the ones who weren’t scoffing and making fun of what’s going on. They were watching Jesus and understanding deep in their spirits that this is the King they have waited and longed for.

i. I could see Bartimaeus in the crowd declaring I was blind but now I see, and this is the man who healed me!

a. I could see Zacchaeus part of the crowd declaring I was greedy and dishonest but that is the man who changed who I was.

b. I could picture the Demoniac of Gadarenes part of the parade everyone remembering who he used to be and now He’s following the Savior of the world.

c. I could see Mary following and declaring He is the one who set me free from a life of prostitution.

ii. I could just see it now as every blind person, lame person, beggar, outcast, forgotten person. One by one in the parade for Jesus laying down their branches and garments before the King that saved them and changed them and made them new.

a. This is the presentation of the King! He is being presented.

b. The King is doing it in lowliness and humility.

c. He didn’t ask the people to worship Him in this manner.

d. He didn’t convince them or try to persuade them to worship Him in this manner.

e. They did it with joy and gladness.

C. I want to make mention of some of the importance of the worship that is going on here. Back in the Biblical times that this was going on in throwing your coat down would have been an act a sign of

“here I am all of me, nothing is hidden from me.”

i. See the coat was the most expensive item they had in their day. It protected them from the sun and covered them at night. It kept them warm and kept them from burning. It was their livelihood.

a. For them to throw it down on the ground was for them to say this is all I have nothing is hidden before you. I give you everything.

b. A major sign and act of humility. To let a donkey trample all over your coat and your livelihood.

ii. In the bible the Palm trees branches were a symbol of victory. They laid down the branches before the Lord to symbolize that they have victory. He is going to bring them victory!

a. Church I want you to understand me this morning. Jesus Christ brings the victory for you and I. Because of His act at Calvary, we have victory!

b. We have victory of sin.

c. We have victory over death.

d. We have victory over sickness.

e. We have victory!

iii. In this day and age, we don’t have palm branches we can throw down as easy as we could. However, we do have our palms and our arms are like branches. We can lift them up before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and let Him know we thank Him for the victory!

iv. We can praise God the same way that these followers praised God. “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest.”

3. Lastly, we have the King’s Proclamation

Matthew 21:12–13 MEV

Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who sold and bought in the temple and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it ‘a den of thieves.’”

A. Just a little background info if you will, in those days you went into the temple for only one reason and that was to make an animal sacrifice. Your sacrifice had to be approved by the temple Priest.

i. The Priests in Jesus’ time started setting up shop in the temple. There would be people who had to travel a very long way to get to the temple to make the sacrifice and would have to buy a sacrifice at the temple.

a. Instead of being fair and honest with their prices they would price gouge them forcing them to pay a higher price than what the animal would be worth normally.

b. Not only that but the people would come from those foreign countries and only have their foreign currency and so they would gouge the price of money exchange there plus the gouged price of the animal sacrifice.

ii. In short, the priests were very conniving, and they were cheating God’s people their own people out of money to line their pocketbooks. The temple that was supposed to be about missionary work indulged in mercenary work.

a. This of course made Jesus very angry. Some picture Jesus and we kind of already did with Him riding on a colt, as timid and maybe even a wimp or a sissy.

b. When Jesus wanted to make a point, He know how to make a point.

iii. I could almost see the money flying from one corner of the temple to the other as he flips the table and the whips start cracking as He runs them out of the temple.

B. With this act of tearing down the sin that had crept into God’s house, Jesus’ proclamation was complete.

His proclamation is I am the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

I am that I am.

Conclusion: This wasn’t where the story ends. It goes on in verse 14. The Blind and the lame came to Him in the temple and they were healed. Church there is healing and love, and peace, and kindness, and goodness and salvation

This place has been prepared for the King. We have prayed and fasted over this service

The King has been presented today. I have told you who He is and what He does.

The King has been proclaimed today. Through the worship and the preaching.

The question I have for you is. Are you willing to accept the King? He’s here. He’s ready, are you willing to accept the King? He makes life more bearable.

The bible tells us in John 10:10

John 10:10 MEV

The thief does not come, except to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.