Palm Sunday 2026

Intro

MAKE SURE THAT YOU CHECK IN

We are getting very close to Easter.

And in the Christian tradition we believe in something called Holy week

Holy week is the week that falls before Easter

And for us it is a time to remember the events leading up to the death and resurrection of Jesus

History lesson for you.

It was believed that the tradition of Holy week began around the 4th Century

And it began with the Early Christians wanting to have a remembrance over the final moments of Jesus as he was led to crucifixion

For most parts of Christianity there are 4 different days that are celebrated throughout Holy week

and each of them have names

Does anyone know the names of each of them?

Palm Sunday

Maunday Thursday

Good Friday

Easter Sunday

And like I said each of these days celebrate and important part of Jesus’s life in scripture

Palm sunday if you have been paying attention is today so we are going to talk about that

Maundy thursday takes place on you guessed it

Maunday is a translation of the latin word Manditum

Which means mandate or command

And Calvary doesn’t host anything for this day

But this day is to remember Jesus’s last supper

if you remember when he was in the upper room

He washed his disciples feet, but also gave them the bread and wine

Next is Good friday which is the day for us to remember the crucifixion and innocent death of Jesus

If you remember scripture Jesus is betrayed by one of his own disciples Judas

Jesus is arrested in the garden of Gathsemne

He is then taken before Pilate, barrabas is freed

Jesus is then stripped, beaten, whipped to the point where he is a bloody corpse

He has a crown of thorns placed on his head

As he is forced to carry his estimated 300lb cross nearly a mile

There he had nails placed through his hands and feet

Where he died of asphyxiation

Easter Sunday

We remember the resurrection of Jesus

Jesus died and he was placed in a tomb

Three days later the stone was rolled away

And Jesus was raised from the dead

All that being said we are going to talk about the first day of Holy week which is palm Sunday

And so without getting into all the details of it. I am just going to read you the main scripture that we will be in today

Luke 19:28–40 “After telling this story, Jesus went on toward Jerusalem, walking ahead of his disciples. As he came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead. “Go into that village over there,” he told them. “As you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying that colt?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it.’ ” So they went and found the colt, just as Jesus had said. And sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners asked them, “Why are you untying that colt?” And the disciples simply replied, “The Lord needs it.” So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on. As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him. When he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen. “Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in highest heaven!” But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!” He replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!””

Lets pray

As we look at this story we get to see Jesu’s first entrance into the city of Jerusalem

And as I was praying about this morning and preparing

I looked at each of these stories in scripture

Because in each of the four gospels there is a retelling of this story

And I found interesting is that almost across all translations and different Gospels this passage of scripture is called

“Jesus Triumphant Entry”

If you are taking notes today

That will be our title for this morning

What do you think of when Hear triumphant entry?

Take Jesus out of the equation for a second

I think that for many of us we think of something intense

Busted down walls

A king coming in

A whole army behind him

But Jesus in his entry shows us something completely different

And so today that is exactly what I want to talk about

What happens when Jesus enters a space

What does his entry look like?

How does it effect us?

How does he effect the atmosphere?

1. Jesus Enters Lowly

Luke 19:30–35 ““Go into that village over there,” he told them. “As you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying that colt?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it.’ ” So they went and found the colt, just as Jesus had said. And sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners asked them, “Why are you untying that colt?” And the disciples simply replied, “The Lord needs it.” So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on.”

My uncle who is now retired

Used to work for cooper tire

He had worked there for a really long time to the point were he was one of their head executives for a while

And so just to be very transparent him and his family were very wealthy

But one thing that I thought was so funny was that throughout his whole time of working there

His family had this like 2001 Toyota mini van

And to this day their family still has this mini van

So my uncle Steve would go to meetings, business trips

And there would be all these fancy business men

With Cadillacs and Mercedes

But he would have this old minivan

And I always that interesting because

There was a level of humility to it right

Part of it because he’s cheap

But also because he didn’t NEED to have the nicest stuff

Everyone has these nice cars and Fancy stuff, but he didn’t look like everyone else

In our scripture when Jesus enters. he enters in full humility

He tells his disciples to go get him a donkey

Not even a donkey, some translations say a donkey’s colt

meaning that donkey’s baby so an even smaller baby

So in every way, shape, and form this is not how king enters.

throughout history, when kings enter

There are horses

Chariots

Armies following

They are throwing out gold for the people standing there

Yet how do we see Jesus. Lowly on a Donkey with his followers

Also soldiers, or mighty warriors

But Fisherman

Tax collectors

treasurers

Normal working class dudes

What do I believe Jesus is showing us here

“Jesus shows that real authority doesn’t arrive in pride—it arrives in humility.”

How many of you have noticed before that the people in the room that talk the most are usually the most insecure?

Have you ever noticed that?

There is always something to prove

There is always something that they to show off with

But Jesus shows us that true authority comes with Humility

On Wednesday after Claire shared her testimony there some discussion questions that you went through

One of them was one is someone in your life that models trusting in God well

And the person that came to mind was my dad

His church loves him

And one of things that I hear the most is because of his humility

Pastor Chad is the same way

And so why do I say all of this

because we model our king

How many of you have ever had to lead something in your life?

Class project

Team captain

Squad leader in band

Section leader

Unite group leaders

You have a younger sibling

Guess what if your hand is still not raised

there will be some point in your life that will have authority

could be in your job

Sport

school

in your home

Here at church

Jesus is calling you to model the humility that he shows us

Humility can be one of the toughest things to walk in

Not always because you think that you are all that

But because Submitting to others can be difficult

But true humility comes from when we submit to the Lord

2. Jesus Enters unexpectedly

Luke 19:36–37 “As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him. When he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.”

How many of you know who Mike Tyson is?

If you don’t know who he is

Mike Tyson was one of the most feared and brutal boxers of all time

Still to this day he holds the record for being the youngest heavyweight champion in the history of boxing only being 20 years old receiving his belt

He also was the first person in boxing history to hold 3 title belts all at one time

In Tysons career he won 50 fights and only lost 6

But here is the craziest stat to me

44 of those 50 wins are from KO/TKO’s

in career 19 of his knock outs happened in the first round of his fights

And started off his career with a 37-0 win streak

As I said to this day Mike is still known as one of the craziest and more fierce athletes on the planet

However what I find most interesting about him is his demeanor

Now Mike had his fair share of struggles early in life

But today Mike has been known and loved by many people

For his gentleness and people loving personality

And maybe some of you have heard him talk before

But Mike Tysons voice does not make his face

Super high pitched and hes even got a lisp

all in all when you see Mike Tyson

When you hear about his achievements

Shows his true colors in very unexpected ways

Why do I say all of this

In our story Jesus does this exact thing with how he chooses to enter

Not only is he humble yes

But for the people who are there are seeing a version of a king that is very different than I am sure many of them are expecting

You see the Jews were waiting for their king to come some day

In the book of Isiah, and many of the other prophets talked about a king that would come some day and save them

And for many of them they believed that this king would just save them, but liberate them from the Roman Empire

And so for many of them

Even though we see them cheer, and lay down their palm branches

There were many of them that were doing it with a certain expectation

That Ultimately Jesus didn’t come to fulfill

And so I say all of that to make this point

Don’t lay down your palm branches with the wrong expectations

I have had to many moments in my life when I have tried to “figure out” Jesus with my praise

Jesus I will worship you in hopes that this will happen

Jesus I will give you praise while in the background I just really want you to do this

or Jesus I will give you honor, but I really hope I can hold onto this sin. I hope you don’t see it

And the truth that we need to see CSM

Jesus gets our praise simply because he is worthy of it

He is the son of God

The Lord of Lords

God in the flesh

No strings or extra reasons attached. him being who he is is enough

Its unexpected from what we may think at times

But Jesus isn’t here for our expectations or ideas that we have for him

3. When Jesus Enters the truth is revealed

I want to actually read to scriptures here for us

Luke 19:38–39 “The Crowd yelled, Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in highest heaven!” But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!””

And then I want to fast forward a bit into our story here

This is Jesus as he is arrested and taken before Pilate

Mark 15:12–15 “Pilate asked them, “Then what should I do with this man you call the king of the Jews?” They shouted back, “Crucify him!” “Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?” But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!” So to pacify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.”

We see throughout almost all of Jesus ministry there are the religious leaders the pharisee’s that want him gone

Yet one of things that we talk about so little

is the very people who we see worshiping Jesus

Are the very people who would days later scream that they want him crucified

I don’t know if you have ever thought about that before

Mind we don’t every single person did

But still

Even on a deeper level think of what was going through the mind of Jesus

He is riding into the city being praised

But fully knowing that in a few short days he was going suffer one of the hardest deaths imaginable

I share this about Jesus this morning not to just give you some fun facts about Jesus

But because Jesus always sees the truth in us

Not just because he knows the future

But because of who he is it is simply reveled

Jesus sees the real you and knows the real you

Some of have been through Easter service after Easter service for years and years

And for many of you. know this story

And yet you hide the truth from God

And i’m just saying oh I am sinning in this horrible way,

Here it is God

But I mean even just in the normal parts of life, we don’t give him all of what is going on in our hearts

Jesus see’s every part of you

And believe if you are someone that is here and has still not given Jesus all of who you are.

You still have a chance, He wants you to take that step

4. Jesus Enters with Power

Luke 19:39–40 “But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!” He replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!””

The truth is when we encounter Jesus he comes with Power

He is humble

He is loving

But he has Power

In our scripture I love it because he rides in on the donkey

And he does what we don’t expect a king to do

But what does he say to the pharisees

“If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!””

Jesus look even if I told them to stop. the rocks would cry out because of who I am

Because of how Holy

Magnificent

Mighty

and Worthy that Jesus is

He has to be praised

His will reign

And today if you get nothing out this message going into Easter

the one thing that I want you to see

There is Power in the name of Jesus

So much so that he doesn’t need the cleaned up version of you

He doesn’t the fan boy version of you

He doesn’t need the I have every scripture memorized because my parents made me learn it version of you

He doesn’t need the “I know more about God because I get to learn about him at school version of you”

Can I just tell you Jesus simply wants You

Guided salvation prayer

“Wash me clean from my sin”

“Forgive me for the ways I have wronged you”