Sermon Tone Analysis

Recognising Who Jesus Is

Today is known as Palm Sunday, because of the events that took place on the Sunday before Jesus was crucified.

When the people saw Jesus sitting on the donkey, they recognised him for who he is.

Jesus is their king.

Matthew helpfully explains Jesus’ actions.

He chose a donkey in order to fulfill the prophecy made by Zechariah.

Jesus is the king, their king.

Jesus’ disciples were starting to understand who Jesus is.

When he demonstrated his power by walking on water, calming the storm, healing the sick, even giving sight to a man born blind, they knew he was no ordinary man.

They knew he was indeed the messiah, the one sent by God to seek and save the lost.

They saw in Jesus, their king, their saviour, their redeemer.

On this Sunday, all those years ago, they worshipped him, they said “Hosanna” which means save us!

They said, “Save us” to the Son of David!

That’s what Jesus did.

Jesus came, not by his own reputation, not by his own power, but in the name of the Father and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

What occurred when Jesus was baptised?

As he was coming up out of the Jordan River, the Father spoke from heaven and the Holy Spirit descended upon him.

From that moment on, he was at work, doing ministry.

After sustaining temptation by the devil, he called 12 men to follow him, to learn from him, to do ministry themselves, equipping them to do the work of Christ.

Jesus poured out his life into his three closest friends, Peter, James, and John.

They witnessed miracles and events that the other disciples didn’t see.

They witnessed his Transfiguration.

They became primary leaders in the church after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.

Supporting, and certainly of huge importance were the 9 other disciples.

Every one of them became important leaders.

But we know that there were others who were with Jesus from the beginning, who were not part of the 12. Matthias was chosen to replace Judas because he had been with them from the beginning.

We know that Jesus sent out the 12 to do ministry, but he also sent out 72.

We know that there were some 200 disciples who also followed Jesus and his teachings, who were with the 11 disciples in Jerusalem waiting until the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost.

Luke describes the disciples as a multitude.

These are the people who escorted Jesus into the city that day.

They didn’t fully realise the implication of their words and actions.

They didn’t realise that this day would frustrate the Pharisees and Sadducees into taking decisive action later in the week.

What Jesus Does

Jesus knew what he was planning to do.

From arranging the donkey to the disciples’ response to his going to the temple, Jesus was ready for action.

While the city was in uproar over who he is and what he was doing, Jesus entered the temple area and wreaked havoc.

The temple area was made up of different sections.

The most holy and private section was called the Holy of Holies.

It was where the ark of the covenant was kept.

Only the High Priest was allowed to enter it, and only once per year.

Next was the Holy Place.

Then there was the court of the priests, the court of Israel (only men were allowed).

Outside this inner and outer structure was the court of women.

Still outside that, and south of the temple itself, but still on the temple mount, the long rectangular field built up by King Solomon, was the court of the Gentiles.

It was the court of the Gentiles that caught Jesus’ attention.

It was meant to be a place of prayer, where God fearing Gentiles could go to be in communion with God.

It was a place of evangelism, where unbelievers could meet with priests, ask questions, and get to know God.

But it wasn’t any longer.

We can speculate how things ended up that way.

Over time, someone said, “Hey it’s always a trouble to have to separate all the coins in the treasuries.

Wouldn’t it be easier to do that a head of time?

Why don’t we set up a small booth by the entrance to the court of the Gentiles?”

“Yeah, that’s a great idea!”

Of course, the money changers decided that they ought to be rewarded for their work, so they charged a fee for changing the money.

Then those who served the temple by providing animals saw an opportunity to get in on the action.

They figured out a way to convince people to buy their animals from them rather than buying them in the city, or even bringing them from home.

“Step right up, buy your unblemished, specially bred animals here.

We’ve got rams, lambs and doves.

We’ve got something for every budget, but a real financial sacrifice gets you a real sacrifice.

Our animals have been proven to provide greater results, better health, better wealth, more answered prayers!”

Over time, these possibly innocently good ideas morphed into something else.

They became the thing, the focus, the reason for getting people to the temple mount.

They filled the space.

The court of the gentiles was filled with noise!

Animals bleating and mooing and cooing, money changers yelling out the day’s exchange rates.

It wasn’t about God anymore.

It wasn’t about praising God.

It wasn’t about creating a space for worship.

It became about the business.

Not only did the sellers and changers rob people of their money, they were robbing them of worship!

They were keeping the Gentiles out, as far from God as possible.

So Jesus came in and overturned it all.

He caught them in their lies, and he exposed them.

He reminded everyone what it was all about.

But they didn’t get it.

Praise

Those who really needed to meet with God, God met with them.

The blind and the lame came to him and he healed them.

That’s what the priests were supposed to do!

But they were more concerned with generating money, with keeping people in their place, with maintaining things they way they wanted them to be.

It got so bad that they complained about what he was doing!

There he was healing people, and they grew angry and indignant.

“Don’t you hear what they are saying—they’re calling you God!”

Praise

Jesus didn’t stop the children from praising him because they were doing the right thing.

They were praising God!

But the priests, those who should have known better were, totally blind!

They refused to see Jesus.

They didn’t want him, they didn’t want his healing.

He was upsetting everything they’d worked hard to create.

They certainly didn’t want to recognise that Jesus is God.

God has ordained praise.

He calls children and infants to praise him.

This Palm Sunday, let’s ponder and reflect.

Do we recognise Jesus?

Does he look like what we want him to be, or does he look like the person in the Bible?

Does Jesus exist for us, to meet our needs, our desires, our terms?

Or do we exist to give him praise?

Are we praising him in order to please him, to try to make ourselves right with him, following a checklist, so that we can prove our devotion to God, “Lord, I was in church on Sunday, I did this, I did that; or are we worshipping, truly worshipping out of gratitude for all that he’s already done for us?

Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords.