Palm Sunday 2025 - They thought they knew - The Missed Him!

GREET EVERYONE-

Good Morning Loved Ones

If I have not had a chance to meet you; My name is Scott and I am a follower of Jesus and have the privilege of serving Him as the Lead Pastor among the people of Stonewater Fellowship.

INVITATION

WELCOME HOME - April 27 Welcome Home Lunch!

LETS GRAB OUR BIBLES IF YOU HAVE ONE AND

Open it to Luke chapter 19 and verse 28 as we step away from our current series and consecrate this Sunday and Next to celebrate the most important event in all of human history.

Tradition Hold that we call these Palm Sunday and Resurrection or Easter Sunday.

Palm Sunday (today) marks the entrance of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem for the last time.

And Next Sunday morning will mark His departure from that city after His death on Friday for the very last time as well.

We use the word Concentrate to mean we set them aside.

We set them aside becasue they are unique, they are different they are Separate Sundays in human history and the history of the church.

We use the word “Holy”!

That is what the word Holy means. Separate, Unique, all together different.

HOLY WEEK HANDOUT!

This morning when you arrived for worship, Hopefully you were given a Family Guide for Passion Week.

My prayer for all of us is that we would use this guide; Beginning with today, and take time each day and open our bibles and read the historical record, AS it happened each day of this very week some 2000 years ago.

Here is my prayer for all of us in that activity. My Prayer is that through that we would experience in real and tangible ways the deep love that God has for us.

and How he displayed this through the work of Jesus this week step by step.

Real and Tangible.

Like on Thursday you would either gather with your small group or just with your family and you would have communion together.

Thursday is the day this week that Jesus had his last supper with His disciple.

Friday - Good Friday - the day that Jesus finished the work that the father sent Him to do - That you would take time, consecrate time, set aside time and read the historical record!

Watch the movie the Passion of the Christ with your family.

Experience the severity of the Gospel that was on display on the cross and Experience the depth of love that God really does have for you and for the whole world.

Then Sunday - Next Sunday - Easter Sunday - Rise early - Read the Historical record with your family - Know the victory of Easter Sunday -

The Victory of Jesus over sin and death- The Power of His resurrection and then come to worship and rejoice as the Church, The Assembly of the called out ones!

I hope none of us miss it

PRAYER OVER MESSAGE

That is my prayer over this mornings message - That none of us miss it. None of us miss Jesus.

In all of the movement of the season - The Festivities with kids and grand kids and the gathering of families and other groups of people.

That none of us miss the love of Jesus, The Purpose of Jesus, The work of Jesus and most especially the Person of Jesus

My prayer for all of US is that Jesus, in all of his purposes, does not get lost or diminished in the season.

A season that repeats every year -

My prayer for all of us is that as we step into this week, this most precious of weeks that a Christian can have on His or her calendar to consecrate by setting them aside - that there would be a great Gospel Renewal in our hearts and lives, following Jesus.

ENGAGEMENT

Very often we can get into a place where things feel like a rut.

Ever felt that way that your doing the same things over and over and over again and after a while it get really boring.

So boring in fact that you loose the original purpose as to why you were doing it in the first place.

And Yet we are such creatures of Habit.

I mean lets think about this. If you have been worshiping at this location for a while now

How many of us took the same roads and turns to Worship this morning that we have since we began.

Yea - And we really don’t think about it too much and if we did we might get really board with it.

Its very possible we do the same thing for work.

We do the same thing for groceries -

We frequent the same restaurants more often than trying new ones.

and some of us order the same dishes more frequently than trying anything new.

So to distract us from the boardum in our habits we add things to it.

Like music on the same drive -

Like Podcasts on the way.

Something to break the monotony!

Here is what can so easily happen and it happened top me just the other day going home from our campus.

Same rout - Same turns - Same way I have been traveling for several years now -

Praise and worship music on - cus ya know that is the distraction de-sure of pastors.

and out of the corner of my eye I think I see something different in the sidelines behind the fence line and I just keep going.

Get home and on social media someone captured what was different that day that I missed becasue I was trying to escape the boredom of my same drive home.

It was a magnificent Axis Deer that was on the fence line of one of the local properties -

A beautiful - Magnificent - Stunning - Buck with what looked like a perfect coat and huge alters.

You see I was so distracted with the normal that God had placed right in front of me that I missed the beauty of what was going on .

TENSION

And the problem that we all can have is that we hear the same stories over and over and over again about Jesus.

If we are not careful it can become like the same route we take every day.

And I think that we are so afraid that Jesus might get boring to us or be boring to others that we add things to the experience of worship to try and avoid the boring.

The Problem is that we can so easily take our eyes off of what God really wants us to see and experience with His son.

and that is His son himself!

The beauty! The majestic, The Glory, the peace, grace, reconciliation and most importantly the love of His SON!

and what so easily can happen is, when we add things to Jesus out of our fear of Him being mundane and ho hum to us is...

we begin to think differently about Jesus - Want different things from Jesus and think differently about who He really is supposed to be, and what He is really supposed to do.

One of the other things that we can so easily miss in this story is the magnificence of work of Jesus during this week some 2000 years ago!

BACKGROUND

AS we look at the time line of where we are in the time that Jesus was here as God with Us.

What is interesting is what happens right before Jesus comes into Jerusalem for the last time.

He had a conversation with a little short guy names Zaccheaus - A little man - A tax collector and a rich man -

Jesus whats with Zaccheaus - The Religious people criticize Jesus for eating with a great sinner. Tax collectors were known for being cheats - Cheating people. and the Religious people who knew nothing about the grace of God- Looked down their noses at people like tax collectors.

Ol’ Zacch - under the conviction of the Spirit while He was in the presence of Jesus. Commits to make amends to all who he has cheated -

Jesus says “behold salvation has come to this house.”

and End this conversation saying “I was sent to seek and to save the Lost”

Rich after this He speak about the Parable o using what God give us for the advancement of His kingdom - in the Parable of the 10 Minas.

He then goes back to Mary, Martha's and Lazarus's house.

Yes the same Lazarus that Jesus raised from the dead!

where Mary anoints Jesus with some very very expensive perfume and Jesus defends her for it.

The plot to kill Jesus by the religious leaders intensifies -

A contract is put out on His head by the religious leaders of the day with one of His own Disciples set up to betray Him and

It is at this point our historical text begins.

UNPACKING

Luke 19:28–29 ESV

And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples,

VSS28-29 just set the new scene - He heads to Jerusalem - He goes through Bethphage a small village and Bethany which is the place where Mary, Martha and Lazarus live.

These are little villages right outside of Jeuslaem -

Jesus has not arrived in Jerusalem just quite yet - He is probably right outside Bethany and

He speaks to His disciples in VVS 30

Luke 19:30–31 “saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’ ””

Now - you might be saying to your self - Why did Jesus command His disciples to go and borrow a colt that no one has ever ridden?

Jesus was walking - Why could he not Just walk into Jerusalem like He had done so many times before??

Great question!

One of the phenomenal things about the person and work of Jesus is that the a lot of the things that Jesus did were predicted that He would do them.

They were predicted any where from 4-5 thousand years before He even showed up- To 4-5 hundred years before He showed up.

in the Bible terms we call these predictions Prophecies - They were spoken by people and recorded in the paged of the Old testament Hundred and in some cases thousands us years before Jesus shows up.

Over 400 old testament prophesies!

Jesus entering into Jerusalem for the last time - Riding on a colt - a young colt - was one of those prophecies!

Zechariah 9:9 “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.”

So when Jesus says:

Luke 19:31 “If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’ ””

Is not simply becasue Jesus is tired and Need a ride after a long walk -

NOPE - Jesus says “tell them the lord has need of it” becasue I need it to fulfill what has been predicted about me!

As a side note - Jesus fulfills more that 400 predictions about Him in the 33 years walked as God ith us on this earth

Any Idea what the Math is on Him fulfilling just 8 of them accurately?

Here are the odds -

In fact lets compare just a minute - if you buy a Power Ball Ticket is ONE in 292 million

292 million is the number 292 with six zeros after it.

the odds of Jesus just fulfilling 8 of the old testament predictions about himself.

1 in one hundred quadrillion.

1 with 17 zeroes after it. and that is just 8

Jesus needs the colt to fulfill one of those predictions.

Luke 19:32–34 “So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” And they said, “The Lord has need of it.””

and so there are a two of the 12 disciples who had gone into probably Bethany and found the colt and of course as predicted by Jesus the Owners said “Why are you untying the colt?”

and they responded just like Jesus told them to.

Here is what is interesting to know about this part of the Story - These two disciples have no idea why they are doing this - They are just following the commands of Jesus -

Luke 19:35 “And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.”

VS 35 they complete the assignment - They complete the task and now they are all ready to go.

They place their coats on the back of the colt - Put Jesus on the colt and they all go into Jerusalem together.

Verse 36 the introduces something very interesting.

Luke 19:36 “And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road.”

SO some one put their coat on the colt and the other put their coats on the road so the colt with Jesus would walk on their coats?

YES!

And you might be thinking WHY? Why in the world would his disciples put their coats on the ground for the colt to walk on?

In fact Matthew and Mark, when they record for us this same event they talk about the coats being laid on the ground as well as Palm Branches, which is where we get Palm Sunday - Because people were laying palm Branches on the ground for the colt Jesus was riding on to walk on.

I guess we could have called it coat Sunday!

But here is why the coats and why it is called Palm Sunday

Coats were from the past

Palm branches were about the future.

Coats - Coats being laid on the ground was something that was done by Jewish people when a King was arriving.

2 Kings 9:13 “Then in haste every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, “Jehu is king.””

They were treating Jesus as King-

So that was the past and present - The Palm Branches are the predicted future that none of the people actually realized!

THE Future when Jesus is worshipped and glorified y all of creation for ever and ever -

Look

Revelation 7:9–10 “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!””

You see the Palm Branches represented the praise of creation, to the lamb of God, who took away the sins of the world- and ushered in Salvation

and this is why it is called Palm Sunday and not coat Sunday.

Luke 19:37 “As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen,”

Now this is so very important to grasp -

This large Multitude what are rejoicing and raising God are called in these verses “the whole multitude of His disciples”

and we can so easily think that these were disciples at the same level of the 12 disciples.

There is w huge difference.

The 12 were following Jesus for who He is - The Son of God - The Holy one of Israel - The promised one of Zion - Their Lord and Master - The one the Father sent - The one who has been talking about the Kingdom of God and eternal life in Him.

This multitude - They are following Jesus and praising Him - LOOK at what the verse says “becasue of all the mighty works they had Seen”

The 12 were following Jesus becasue of who He is -

These are following Jesus for what He can do!

and they are praising Him with Praise -

Luke 19:38 “saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!””

and what happens here in just a second is Jesus is going to weep over these who praise Him becasue although they praise Him now in just 5 short days thee very same people will demand that the government substitute Jesus for a criminal named Barabbas - with the words Crucify Him Crucify Him

Luke 19:39–40 “And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.””

But for the moment the crows are large and loud and the Religious leaders afraid of the Government getting every one in trouble becasue of the uproar - They come to Jesus - who is being treated like an arriving King and they call Him “Teacher”

Teacher calm the people down and make them be quiet -

Jesus says “thats not going to work - Even if these people were quiet the Stones would cry out!

Then watch what happens -

In the middle of all the fan fare and in the middle of all the praise,

if this was the first time we were reading through this story we probably would not have expected ANY of the next three verses.

If this was the first time we read this we might have expected Triumph - Celebration -

Jesus High Fiving the 12 closest disciples and saying “Great Job” The Father was really moving - Did you see that crowd?

Man the energy was great! Lets do that again and again and again -

did you hear the people - Oh what praise of what a sound -

Man if we were in a building the roof would have been lifted up!.

But that is not what we read -

What we read is

Luke 19:41 “And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it,”

Jesus seeing the city and realizing the spiritual condition of all of the people in it - And for the second time recorded for us in the Scriptures Jesus wept.

Why did He weep?

He wept because of the Spiritual condition of the people.

The people who were the chosen people of God, living in the promise of God - The Promised Land - Under the rule of the roman government becasue of their disobedience of God and they totally missed Jesus.

You see why were in praise of what they thought Jesus could do for them, Instead of who Jesus was - And watch how severe their condition was.

you see they through Jesus was going to be this savior that would deliver them from the occupation of the Romans and give them Peace in the land - Peace to be their own people - Peace to live independently - Peace to flourish as a culture and as a society.

And Jesus wept for them -

Watch what Jesus Says:

Luke 19:42 “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.”

Would that you, even you - Here is what that means “you of all the people you were supposed to know - On this day the things that make for peace.

You see Jerusalem was a city filled with Jewish people - that had all of the prophets that were pointing to this savior that would come and was supposed to bring Peace between mankind and God.

But they missed it -

And Jesus says their condition is so bad that “now they (the things that bring True peace) are hidden from your eyes!

Hidden from their eyes? Who hid them?

Listen Loved ones - God did not hide them!

What hid the truth from their eyes was their own hopefulness and their own idolatry of what they were expecting this coming messiah would do -

And they thought Jesus was this deliverer becasue of the miracles that He was doing -

Remember t large parts of this crowd were the same people that watched Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead just a week or so before he came into Jerusalem on the back of a colt.

You see what they had done is they had made a Jesus in their own image to give them the desires of their own hearts - Not the Jesus in the old testament that said I will take the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

They expect Jesus to Save them from the Romans - and watch - Jesus says: It is so sad that you think this is who I am and you are going to be so very much appointed becasue.

Luke 19:43–44 “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.””

And Jerusalem the reason this is going to happen the reason you will be sorely disappointed is becasue you did not know the time of your visitation.

You did not know the time of your visitation?

Here is what Jesus was saying - You did not know what God was doing and you f all people should have!

Why would Jesus say this - because these are Jewish people and

some 530 years before Jesus showed up on the scene -

There was this prophet Daniel that spoke of the coming of the Son of Man - He predicted that Jesus would come and He also predicted what Jesus would do.

Watch

IN this part of Daniel - Daniel is confessing his own sin to the lord and he is also confessing Israels sin to the lord and he was crying out to the lord in anguish -

While he was doing that the Angle Gabriel shows up

Daniel 9:22–23 “He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, “O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision.”

Daniel 9:24 ESV

“Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.

There is something spoken about your people - and your holy city -

The thing that spoken is about finishing the transgressions -

Putting an end to Sin - it is about an atonement for Iniquity -

It is about and Everlasting Righteousness.

The decree is about the seal or validation of both this vision and all of the prophets.

And this decree is about the anointing of a most Holy Place.

Then Watch - Watch what the Messenger of God tells Daniel

The words Spoke by God are about that But watch - In this most holy Place where all this is to be dept with -

Daniel 9:25 “Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks.

The Coming of an anointed Prince - Who is that Jesus.

You see Jesus - came to the Holy city Jerusalem - Not to concur the Romans - Not to be the earthly King that they all wanted - Not to be the God and saviour of their making

He came to finish the transgressions against a Holy God and put and end to Sin by fulfilling the whole law -

He came to be the ONE and Final atonement for sin - by being the one true and final sacrifice -

He came bring the everlasting righteousness

He came in all of his glory to validate, in other words To Seal - The Vision that was given Daniel and all of the words of the Prophets who predicted his coming.

He came to anoint the most Holy Place which was the temple of God in Jerusalem.

and Loved ones - those very people missed Who Jesus was and He wept.

THE GOSPEL CONNECTION

You see loved ones - This is the Gospel -

Jesus came to the Holy City of Jerusalem some 2000 years -

Riding as predicted on the back of a colt -

Seated on coats and with coats and palm branches laid before Him as an entering King and as the promise of salvation.

He came to do what he was sent to do -

He came to Finish the transgressions against a Holy God by being a living example and enduring temptation

He Came to Put and end to Sin by living a perfect life, fulfilling every jot and title of the Law.

He came as the prince of heaven - The Son of the Father - and anointed one!

This is why He came - this is why he cried

Loved ones this season let us abandon any notion of Jesus being the one we want -

Let us abandon any worship of Jesus becasue of what He can do for us in sings and wonders and earthly peace or any aspect of the idols of our culture

Loved ones - In the fan fare and in the celebrations and in the baskets of eggs and bunny and all the trapping of Easter -

Loved ones let us not be distracted from Jesus - Let us not miss Jesus - Let us come to Jesus simply and completely for Who He is.

Lord meaning Master and King of our lives -

AND Savior - the one who through the finished work on the cross - that we all will take pause to remember this coming Friday -

When He said it was finished and was raise from the dead on the third day -

For those who trust Him enough to make Him king of our lives and surrender to Him as Lord - He has saved us indeed from the wrath og God Because Even through HE did not sin He became sin for US so that we wold be the everlasting righteousness of GOd.

STICKY POINT

APPLICATION OR IMAGINE

PRAYER TEAM