Hosanna: Save Us, We Pray

Penn Gillette Video Gets a Bible

How much do you have to hate someone, to believe that there is a heaven and a hell…to believe that Jesus has given you eternal life and not share that with someone else?

Matthew 21:1-11

Matthew 21:1–11 ESV

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. 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.”

I want to stream the Gospel’s 1 1/2 when we get to heaven. I feel like there is more to the guy who owned this donkey. This guy had to know Jesus. You gotta think that they said their master needed it and their master was Jesus. And then the guy immediately gives up the donkey.

You also have to think this guy and the disciples knew exactly what was going on. In fact, the people who came out to worship Jesus as He was coming in knew that Jesus was declaring Himself as the Messiah and the Son of David, the King of Israel.

Zechariah 9:9–16 ESV

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. 10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. 11 As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. 12 Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double. 13 For I have bent Judah as my bow; I have made Ephraim its arrow. I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior’s sword. 14 Then the Lord will appear over them, and his arrow will go forth like lightning; the Lord God will sound the trumpet and will march forth in the whirlwinds of the south. 15 The Lord of hosts will protect them, and they shall devour, and tread down the sling stones, and they shall drink and roar as if drunk with wine, and be full like a bowl, drenched like the corners of the altar. 16 On that day the Lord their God will save them, as the flock of his people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land.

You can tell why the people were excited. They thought Jesus was coming in to whoop Rome and set their people free from Roman occupation.

But He didn’t come to do that this time.

Hosanna = Save us, we pray!

Psalm 118:25–26 ESV

25 Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! 26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.

Sound familiar.

Matthew 21:9 ESV

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!”

The people knew exactly what they were doing. They just didn’t know what Jesus was doing. They thought Jesus was coming in as a conquering King over the physical world. But He was coming in as a humble servant and a sacrifice to conquer sin, not through strength of arms, but through surrender.

Exodus 12:1–6 ESV

1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

Jesus wasn’t just coming in humble on a donkey to represent peace that He was bringing to us.

Jesus presented Himself as the Perfect Passover Lamb.

He was presenting Himself to the people to be inspected as a the perfect passover Lamb without spot or blemish.

All that week, the religious leaders tried to examine Him and question Him, but they could not trip Him up. HE WAS PERFECT AND WITHOUT BLEMISH. And on the night of the passover, Ciaphas the High Priest condemned the perfect Lamb of God. Ciaphas unknowingly selected the Perfect Passover Lamb all of Israel and all the world had been waiting for.

Jesus didn’t come to give us a life free from difficulty…

That’s what the people were crying out for with every Hosanna.

Which is why they turned on Him and cried out for His crucifixion when they didn’t give them what they wanted.

At the root of every cry for freedom, is a heart that longs to be free from sin.

For some Hosanna is silent. You don’t know you’re in sin and the freedom you wish you had — that you are longing for — is freedom from sin.

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” - Augustine

You will go from one addiction and one slavery to the next trying to find peace always crying hosanna, but never finding salvation and peace.

You will only find it in accepting Jesus’ sacrifice for your sin. You will only find it in accepting that you are a sinner in need of a savior.

That is what Jesus came to do for us.

That’s what Jesus came to do for all the world.

You need to see the world around you crying out Hosanna.

Jesus has given you salvation, who will you share it with?

You have two sheets of paper. I want you to write the name of someone you want to invite to Easter next week on both sheets of paper. One is for you to keep to remember to pray and invite them. The other is for me and our leadership. We’re going to spend this week praying for each name. You don’t have to put last names on there.