Palm Sunday

INTRO

If you have your Bible this morning you can turn to Matthew 21 and as you turn there, I want to throw a question out that I’m interested in your response. If you became king over a kingdom, what would your first action be? What would be the thing that you would establish the fact that you were king (or queen) over the kingdom? Take 10 seconds to think about that.

What are some answers?

So as you know, we will be discussing this morning Jesus riding into Jerusalem this morning which we rightfully call palm Sunday. Which will be a declaration of a lot of things, but one being that he is the king of the Jews. However, up until this time we know that he has been quiet about this. He has healed quietly pr said not to tell others about it. He spoken in parables or analogy’s so that it has not been as clearly understood. But here, Jesus makes some profound statements.

And something that we don’t usually discuss is what happens the next day after this praise party of palm branches, singing, and donkey riding. What does Jesus do to show the priority of his kingdom?

BODY

English Standard Version Chapter 21

1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,

5  “Say to the daughter of Zion,

‘Behold, your king is coming to you,

humble, and mounted on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ”

6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.

Matthew states here how this is of great importance that Jesus is riding in on this donkey. It’s not because he is afraid of horses, Jesus, was establishing something.

Jesus established himself as the King of the Jews.

1.Fulfilling Zechariah’s Prophecy

How did he do this? Matthew shows us that Jesus doing this was the fulfillment of a prophecy hundreds of years before Jesus riding in on a donkey. This prophecy was given to Israel after exile where there was joy to be back in the land but a lot of fear about how they would be built back up through a nation. Zechariah, through the Spirit of God shares that their king will be coming, and he will be humble, unlike your other prideful kings. And they held onto this prophecy through all the years and here Jesus is doing it. He was humble enough to actually mount a donkey and people understood exactly what he was doing. He was establishing himself as the promised king. How cool is that! So what do the people do in response to the king?

English Standard Version Chapter 21

7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

So here we have two more ways that Jesus establishes himself as the king of the Jews, less by his actions, but more by receiving two things from the people.

2.Palm branches (Israel’s Flag)

3.Worship (Hosanna)

So the people see their king coming in on a donkey and they start cutting down palm branches because this was 1)their nations flag, but also a 2) a way they celebrated kings and victories in the past. It would be like us waving a flag, it is national pride. But they also start singing worship to Jesus. Hosanna! Save us! Straight from Psalms 118 and it was a praise that should remind us of when King David brought back the ark of the covenant. People lining the streets, praising, worshipping, dancing, having joy in His presence! And Jesus doesn’t turn to people and say, Hey! Settle down! He just receives the praise because he is worthy to receive it.

Now, usually this is where I would end and discuss how Jesus is worthy of our praise, he is worthy of exuberant praise. Which is true. But as I was studying this what I realized in three of the four Gospel accounts all show after his triumphant entry, is what Jesus did the next day. Which is why I asked you what I asked in the beginning. Jesus just established himself as king, so what is his first actions as king? Do we start assembling the troops Jesus? Do we start thinking of a game plan to take down the Roman army? Nope, he doesn’t even entertain that, we see his priority is something very different this passover time. Let’s read and then we will talk about it.

English Standard Version Chapter 21

12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

So, let’s back up and ask, what is happening here? And where in the temple is Jesus, because that is important to know too. So I want to show you this outline if you are unfamiliar of the temples.

So Jesus is in the outer courts where the Gentiles could come and, since it is passover, many gentiles or half Jews because of intermarriage come and worship in Jerusalem during the time of Passover. However, the people “working” in the temple see this opportunity to get some extra money and they make a temple currency for buying animals that people would take to worship. So it become this commercial, dragon like activity, that should be a place for gentile believers to come and worship. Does that bring any kind of anger to you? It did to Jesus. So much so that, we just read this like, oh he filled over tables. Like he was just an emotionless person and dutch. Man, he is angry and passionate about HIS HOUSE. And then he says My house shall be called a house of prayer, which is extremely intentional.

Turn with me to Isaiah 56.

Give a summery of the chapter, then read what Jesus is quoting here.

English Standard Version Chapter 56

these I will bring to my holy mountain,

and make them joyful in my house of prayer;

their burnt offerings and their sacrifices

will be accepted on my altar;

for my house shall be called a house of prayer

for all peoples.”

So Jesus is not just a mad lunatic here, he is establishing something else. He is not just the king of the Jews.

Jesus establishes himself as Lord over all Nations.

He wants all people, including Gentiles, to have the freedom to come and worship. And the people of the temple were putting a stumbling block in their way. But we are going to put a pin in that to talk about that later, because Jesus does more here that is important for us to read and hear about.

English Standard Version Chapter 21

14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, 16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,

“ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies

you have prepared praise’?”

17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.

So Jesus heals people after flipping over the tables and the priests and scribes seeing the donkey ride, the flipping of the tables and the healing become indignant. And they ask Jesus if he hears what they are saying, and Jesus says what to them. Have you never read? To the men who have for their whole lives have been reading and memorizing scripture. This shows me Jesus is still a little passionate towards these false shepherds. These ones who have not binded up the weak, the ones who were self indulgent like we read about in Ezekiel 34. But why he quotes from Psalm 8 is intentional. Psalm 8 was something called a messianic psalm, meaning it was a psalm that they looked to to understand the promised messiah. The anointed one of God who would rescue Israel. So from this actions of Jesus quoting this verse

Jesus establishes himself as the promised Messiah

This is different than king and Lord of the nations because messiah means anointed one, sent from God. Not just another king, not just another one to Lord over the nations, but the one that has been promised for Israel since the beginning and what they have been waiting and praying for. And yet, the very ones who so desired this, the pharisees and the scribes, the church folk and pastors of the day, had an issue with Jesus. No, bigger than an issue, they hated Jesus. He didn’t fit into their little mindset about what the coming king, Lord, and Messiah should be like. And so instead of worshipping the king of the Jews, the Lord over the nations, and the promised Messiah, they hated him. But Jesus doesn’t care, he his on a mission. His time has come, and he will not let anyone get in his way.

I’m sure you can see that there a lot of ways we could go with how this applies today, but as I said before, I just was constantly drawn back to this fact that Jesus’ next act after riding in as king was to go to the temple and cleanse the outer courts so that people could worship again. Now, when he dies, he will cleanse the inner part of the temple with the veil ripping, but it it is still very important what he is doing here today with the temple.

Now we could talk about issues of commercialism in the church today, but like Jesus, I think there is something deeper that we could see in today’s text.

In 1 Corinthians 3:16 Paul tells the believers in Corinth that they are now the temple. They are the place of God’s dwelling. Which is true for us today, right? We have the Holy Spirit, and we are temples for God to dwell in.

So the question I have for us today that I have been asking myself too, is this,

Do I have tables in my temple that Jesus needs to flip over?

He is passionate about His people, we have seen that in Ezekiel. We see that here with him flipping over tables because people are showing racism, hatred, lies, self righteousness, greed, and pride.

Examples of Tables needing to be flipped over: Hate, lies, pride, self righteousness, shame, guilt condemnation, greed, animosity.

So if these were in the temple then, they could also be in our temple now. And what is really good news is that Jesus will flip these over in love, or, we could actually see him as King, Lord, and Messiah and worship him like he deserves. I don’t know why but I picture while the crowd is singing hosanna and worshipping Jesus, these men were setting up these tables getting ready to take advantage of this massive crowd. Because it really comes down to this, whose house, whose temple is it? Is it His? Or is it yours? Is it the way you see it (like the pharisees and scribes) or is it Jesus’? This is good for our hearts because if you don’t find yourself in adoration, worship or praise of Jesus, it’s probably because you have a lot of tables set up in our temples that need to flipped over.

CONCLUSION

Is he the king over your life? Is he the Lord over the nations? Is he the promised Messiah? Then if so, let’s clean house and let His house be a house of prayer for all people. Let it be a place a of praise and adoration. Let it be, His house for this church, your family, and you as a temple of the living God.