Sermon Tone Analysis

Today is a special day, as we congregate as brothers and sisters in this building.

As we, the ecclesia, (a called-out assembly or congregation), a.k.a. the CHURCH, come together in worship of our Lord and savior.

Just a quick reminder to all that are present today.

When you say that you are going to the church to worship, that could mean anyplace, anywhere!

The true church is the assembly of the believers; their gathering or congregating.

It is not where the building is located, but rather, where the children of God are assembled for worship!

The building is just geography!

If there were no walls around us and no roof over us, the church still exists, the church still exists right here, because we are gathered!

You and I are corporately called the Body of Christ; that is the church members are the body, (not the building!)

The only recognized building of the NT ecclesia, is the living and breathing temple of Holy Spirit.

And there again, that living breathing temple is every true blood bought saint of almighty God!

Turn to somebody and say, “You are a good looking temple!”

If nobody looked at you and said that you’re a good looking temple right then, the I’ll state it over the whole body this morning!

(“You’re a good look......ummmmm…you’re a really good.....wow, what a nice building we have here!”)

Just kidding you are a tremendously good looking group of people!

AMEN!!

So, back to what I started off mentioning, in terms of this being a special day for the church body.

Today is what we recognize as......? Yes, PALM SUNDAY!

What is so special about Palm Sunday for the church?

It is the day that we read of and remember Jesus making His triumphant entry into Jerusalem, right?

Why was this entry any more different than the other times that He would have entered into the city?

That is, why is this one called the Triumphant Entry?

What was so Triumphant about it?

Well, that is what we are going to look at this morning.

I spoke at our men’s breakfast yesterday and in the message, I was speaking on the Olivet Discourse from .

Within this message, I referred to last week's sermon and of how we were down to the last couple of weeks of Jesus regular earthly ministry before His arrest and crucifixion.

In the lesson from yesterday, we find Jesus doing everything that He can to teach and prepare His disciples for what was to come after His departure and also knowledge of the ages to come before His return.

Yesterday’s lesson was on the parable of the Ten Virgins and the instructions given by Jesus for the church (the bride of Christ) to be ready for His return at all times!

In yesterdays message, I explained of how the Jewish marriage process worked and how different it is from our culture and dating process today that we have in this country.

(Basically our culture today is date and keep giving yourself away over and over again with multiple scars and wounds, until you finally say, “this is it”, and you get married.

Then your marital partner inherits all of the past pain and grief and you spend the next few years working through it together!)

Anyway, I mentioned that the Jewish culture worked, primarily off of arranged weddings, that were orchestrated between the fathers of the prospective groom and bride.

Within this process, the father of the groom to be, had to negotiate a price with the father of the bride to be for her hand in marriage to his son.

(Because if the father of the bride to be was getting ready to lose a set of hands around his house and property, then this meant that he was losing help to keep everything running and operating smoothly!

So, a price, or what we refer to as an dowry (in the Hebrew, a mohar), was set and agreed upon between the two fathers.

The father of the groom to be, thus paid a negotiated price for the young lady’s hand in marriage to his son.

(Basically, the father paid the price for the bride of his son up front and no payment was made by the groom for the rest of his life.

Nowadays, its the opposite; no payment is made up front for the bride and then the husband pays for it the rest of his life!)

Just kidding!

Put the knives and guns back up ladies!

The point was this, that the understanding of the Jewish culture and the times in which they lived, were very relevant to understanding a lot of what Jesus said as well as what took place within the gospels and the epistles.

You will see this at the end of today’s message.

AMEN?!

So knowing this makes the whole bride and bridegroom story of Jesus and the church more beautiful.

The Father had already orchestrated the price that was to be paid for the bride and now, we are getting set to witness the payment for that marriage, that starts from today’s message!

Which, in fact, ties in with why this story is known as the Triumphant Entry!

Three of the four gospels record the initial part of this account with Jesus instructing two of His disciples to go into the village they were coming up on and they would find a young donkey that had never been ridden before and they were to untie the colt and the mother and bring them to Him.

He instructed them that if anyone questioned this, they were to simply say, “The Lord needs them” , and that would be sufficient, the person would send them at once.

(Many people say that this wasn’t miraculous, that Jesus had just prearranged the whole deal with someone ahead of time and didn’t mention this to His disciples.)

Please!

In my opinion, if you can create the world and all the science that governs it, if you can speak human life into existence and breathe/impart a living spirit into it, if you can part the waters and control the natural elements, if you can heal all manner of diseases and raise the dead and dictate to the spiritual realm their boundaries and they completely obey out of fear of your omnipotent power!

If you can do all of that, do you seriously think that Jesus had to go in secret and prearrange having a donkey to ride?!! PLEASE!

Can you imagine the same scenario taking place today though?

Ummm, excuse me dude, but what do you think you’re doing getting into my car?

(Oh, uhh, the Lord needs it!)

Well, let me tell you something Skippy John Jones, you are about to go meet the Lord in the next few seconds if you don’t get out of my car!

Ain’t coming up into my space saying, “the Lord needs your car”, and then just driving off!

You and the Lord best have some cash on hand and I’m not talking about some widow’s mite either!

I just really think it works best in their day and time, you know!

Possibly, one of the natural reason why the young donkey was needed, was related to the large crowd that had developed around Jesus as He was making His way towards the city.

You see, just before the Triumphant Entry, in John’s gospel, we read of Jesus performing that amazing miracle of raising His friend, Lazarus from the dead and many people had witnessed this, or had heard a first hand account of it.

This drew a large number of people to the city; including many Greeks (gentiles), who wanted to see, (or, experience) , this Jesus!

So, you couple the understanding of many coming to the city, because of what they have heard, along with the usual large crowd, and things get busy, pretty quick!

Estimates, from the likes of writers such as Josephus, tell us that there may have been well over 1 million people in Jerusalem at that time for the observance of the Passover celebration!

And many of these wanted to see and/or hear this “JESUS” talk and teach!

So, when Jesus saw that the crowd was gathering like crazy, coupled with the fact that they were shouting and praising and rolling out the proverbial “RED CARPET” for Him as He was making His way into the city, and that they were thinking, “this is it, this is where He assumes the role of the MESSIAH and sets up His kingly authority and establishes the new kingdom for us!”

So, Jesus calls for the donkey.

(You see, the people would be looking for an authoritative position, like the new king, if He was going to be riding on something, to come rolling in on a big, powerful steed, a war horse, and make a grand entrance!

Maybe, maybe a chariot with a team of large, gallant horses pulling it for the grand kingly entrance.

That is more like what the people were looking for.

Jesus, didn’t desire their accolades for a mighty warring king to overthrow Rome, He came to fulfill the will of His Father; and in the process, to fulfill the prophecies dealing with His entrance.

You see, Jesus was to ride in as a humble, suffering servant, on a lowly donkey (which was a symbol of peace, not war and triumph!).

He wasn’t meant to ride in a chariot with all the regalia, or upon the fancy noble steed, as the crowd was looking for!

You could probably hear some of them saying, “Whats the deal; why is He sitting on a donkey?

What kind of king does that?”

Prophet Zechariah spoke accurately of the fact that the people’s King was coming; just not the king that they were looking for!

How true TODAY this statement is for so many!

We are looking for a savior; but not a LORD over our lives and whose presence changes our wants and desires!

The people were waving the palm branches and laying them upon the road before Jesus, but why?

Well, in ancient times, palm branches symbolized goodness, well-being, and victory.

So, since the people were looking for this great and mighty king/messiah to enter the city, they lauded Him with the praise that was due to a victor!

(They laid their branches and their own cloaks on the ground before Him, as was done for great kings and rulers coming through!)

The One Sunday that Jesus Shows Up

A little boy was sick on Palm Sunday and stayed home from church with his mother.

His father returned from church holding a palm branch.

The little boy was curious and asked, “Why do you have that palm branch, dad?” “You see, when Jesus came into town, everyone waved Palm Branches to honor him, and so we got Palm Branches today.”

The little boy replied, “Aw Shucks the one Sunday I miss is the Sunday that Jesus shows up”

The waving of the palm branches was used as a symbol in a military victory!

They were right in celebrating a great victory, but they didn’t have a clue as to what the victory really was, nor what it was about to cost the victor!

, where Elisha, the prophet, anointed Jehu as king.

The people were doing the same thing with Jesus, by laying their cloaks on the ground before Him and thus honoring the king, the messiah!

The people were shouting, “Hosanna!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!

Hosanna in the highest!”

This is from Jewish Hallel, the passage from , that was a prayer that the people would memorize and say at certain religious festivals and times, such as the Passover celebration.

The word HOSANNA, is actually a derivative from two Hebrew words that combined, mean, “save, now/please.”

So, literally it was a cry for salvation to the Lord! (Within the context that the people were saying it before Jesus, was probably a celebratory decree for the new king to deliver them from Roman rule!)

How many of you today, could say that you have cried that name out for that very reason, Hosanna, save me now; PLEASE!!

The main reason that I am going through all of the details of the triumphant entry is this; there were different reasons that the people were gathered and cheering and celebrating as Jesus was making His way into the city.