WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN THE PARADES (2007)

WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN THE PARADES Matthew 21:1-11 February 11, 2007 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction Half the fun of a parade is the getting ready. If you’re an observer, it’s carefully planning to get that great, curbside seat. You simply can’t get there too early. Sitting among the people while the crowd grows from the early-bird few to the swarm of just-in-timers, it’s fun to sense the build of excitement, especially among the kids. Kids just seem to have fun wherever they go, but especially at the parade as they nervously wait for the floats and candy, the motorcycles and candy, the school bands, the antique cars, the festooned clowns, and of course, the candy. If you’re in the parade it’s also true that half the fun is the getting ready. Getting the gang lined up, rehearsing routines, making sure nothing’s forgotten, last minute repairs to the float. Tuning up the instruments, motorcycles and mini-cars revving their engines, jittery horses, costume adjustments, quiet prayers for sunshine and no rain. Half the fun of a parade is getting ready. Jesus organized a parade once. From start to finish He made all the arrangements. He wasn’t nervous about the weather or how it would go over, because He was focused on one thing. Until now Jesus always warned people not to celebrate Him and His miracles too loudly. He wouldn’t let demons speak because they knew who He was--they would fall down and cry out “You are the Son of God”, but Jesus commanded them not to tell who he was; healing the leper, he sternly warned him not to tell anyone; He healed the twelve year old girl giving strict orders not to let anyone know about it; the same when he healed the deaf man and the blind man. He even told his mother at Cana, My time has not yet come. Even when Peter identified Jesus as the Messiah, the “Christ,” Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. But all that was about to change—because it was time—time for celebration, announcement, the public revelation of who He was. John 13:1 – Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Now it was time to release all the pent up excitement. Jesus freed the people for praise and adoration and allowed them to celebrate. He said, in essence, in the celebrated words of Jack Buck, “Go crazy, folks! Go crazy!” Parade Number 1 - Matthew 11:1-11 So, Jesus, the Grand Marshall, the star attraction and in fact the only celebrity, makes arrangements for His own parade. But He had to do it right. The people were hoping He would be a military leader, so He couldn’t enter the city riding on a horse--that was the way political conquerors entered the city. No, he must enter as the Prince of Peace, so He would ride on the foal of a donkey, one which had never been ridden before. In His heart He rehearsed the words of Zechariah 9:9-11 – Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle-bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations, His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit. Now the shroud of secrecy will be lifted--no more mystery about who Jesus is. He had told His followers He would be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law and they would hand him over to the Gentiles who would mock Him, spit on Him, flog Him and kill Him; then, three days later He would rise. They hadn’t understood or they didn’t want to hear it. But this day of glory was a necessary prelude to that passion week. Today was His day of recognition and glory, momentary though it was. Today He publicly fulfills Zechariah’s prophecy by entering Jerusalem on the Peace donkey, drawing noisy attention to Himself, and the statement will be clear to everyone--He is, as the people had hoped, the Messiah and Son of David. The response of the crowd to this one-float parade was awesome. Some joined the decorating committee by laying their cloaks on the colt. The rest of them, and apparently there were many, laid their coats on the road. Others cut branches from the nearby trees and lined the street with the branches. These branches were known as the LULABIM and were taken from palm, myrtle and willow trees. This was normally done at the annual Feast of Tabernacles, during the reading of Psalm 118:25-27 - O, Lord, save us; O, Lord, grant us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you! The Lord is God, and he has made his light shine upon us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar. This was the cue for the people to wave and shake their branches and shout aloud “HOSANNA” (“Save your people, Lord!”). So today’s crowd, at the triumphal entry of Jesus to Jerusalem, the people spontaneously erupted in praise to the Lord, waving their palm branches and shouting, “Hosanna--blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” WE call it the “Triumphal Entry” – author Wallace Viets calls it a day of Temporary Triumph. Behind the scenes, though, the real drama was building. The exciting arrival of Jesus will draw spontaneous praise from the common people, but it will draw venomous outrage from the religious leadership. They were not ready to relinquish control, nor ready for Jesus’ kind of kingdom. The crowds thought they were, but they didn’t yet realize all that Jesus represented. They only wanted Rome out of their politics and hypocritical religion out of their Temple. So they celebrated Jesus, who blessed and encouraged them, healed their sick and raised their dead. When I was a child there was a television program called “Queen for a Day”. One contestant who qualified because she had a special need would be selected as the winner and “queen for the day.” Advertising sponsors showered her with gifts and money. Then came the climactic moment of the show when the curtain would lift, and there would be the one thing in the whole world she needed (maybe a new washer and dryer, or maybe airline tickets to see her sister whom she hadn’t seen in years because she couldn’t afford to travel). And the crowd would cheer and cry and everybody was happy--for a day. Then, the “queen” would go home to whatever had been her unfortunate existence before, a few trinkets richer. Queen for a Day. That day in Jerusalem, Jesus was King for a Day. Parade Number Two – Matthew 26-27 But there was another parade coming. It would begin just five days from now. Jesus will be the star attraction of this parade, too, but He will not organize it. The devil will be the organizer, judge and Grand Marshall of this parade. He will personally make all the arrangements, get all of his workers lined up, and put his show on the road. The preparations for this parade begin as Jesus is betrayed and arrested the night before. Very early the next morning he will be dragged before the chief priests, elders and scribes along with the whole Sanhedrin. Then on to the procurator Pilate with contrived, conspiratorial charges. Pilate would remind the religious antagonists about the custom that one prisoner was to be released each year at the Passover. “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” Pilate will ask, knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. Under the sway of their evil director, Satan, as well as their own vanity and ambition, the puppet priests and the seditious Sadducees beguile the crowds to turn against Jesus. And the devil loved it. Half the fun of the parade is the getting ready. The crowds, many of whom, five days ago, had shouted, Hosanna! now shout, Barabbas! ”What shall I do, then, with Jesus, who is called the Christ ?” Pilate asked them. Right on cue, the crowds responded: “Crucify him!” “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” They called for another parade, this time a death march. To satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas. And the second parade begins as Jesus is taken to the Praetorium for preparatory beatings and his costume for the parade: a bare back, lacerated by whips, and a crown of thorns. After beating and mocking him they led him out to crucify him. The parade made a turn down the Via Dolorosa on the way to Golgotha. The crowd was there again watching Jesus, once King—now convict. They were getting their wish—a crucifixion of the one who had offended their religious leaders, the one who was not living up to their expectations, who had let them down. The Prince of Peace was impaled on a cross, hoisted above the earth He created. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross if you are the Son of God!” In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. Then He died. So ended the second parade. Or so they thought. For three days, measured in earthly time, Jesus would march through Hades preaching to the spirits in prison, and return to revivify the lifeless, murdered body the disciples sadly left in the tomb. Then the parade of one proceeded out of a cold grave, into the presence of His disciples. The Bible records that a crowd of up to 500 people at a time were the surprised spectators of the parade’s real finale. In his resurrected body, Jesus extended the parade into Jerusalem for the final instructions to the embryonic church, then up to glory to be seated at the right hand of the Father. And the parade still isn’t over. The King is coming back someday to claim His own! What Happened Between the Parades? Come back with me to Jerusalem, and let’s ask a haunting question: “What happened between parade number one and parade number two? How could the crowd have had such a radical change of heart? How could they so quickly move from “Hosanna” to “Crucify him”? Sunday they glorified Him and Friday they hurled insults at him. One day they are laying down their cloaks for him and five days later they laid him on a cross. There’s a related question: why do religious people so often praise Him on Sunday and then fail Him on Monday? How does Sunday worship deteriorate into Friday’s carnality? The devil is still at work trying his best to get two things to happen between Sunday and Friday. 1. Superficial Worship You know, there are some really good Cardinals fans around St. Louis, especially when they are world champions! That is to say, there are more Cardinals fans right now than Rams fans! These fans love to go to the game and really get into it. They holler and get all lathered about winning and playing well, then go home to their normal lives. But then there are what I call full-time fans. They’re the ones who buy the souvenirs and display them, they buy the official Cardinals jackets and shirts and other gear and they wear them. These are not just fair weather fans--they’re thinking about the team all the time. There are what we might call part-time worshippers as well. Lots of enthusiasm for God on Sunday, but no staying power during the week. What is missing, and what is present in the full-timers is durative worship. Praying, studying and seeking the Lord daily. They’re stronger, more loyal, more ready to serve and far less likely to fall prey to the enemy later in the weak. How about it: is worship for you a one-Hosanna-a-week experience? Or does your worship of the Lord have more staying power? Do you praise Him only when it’s expected, or are you living in the wonder of His presence? Superficial worship—the kind the devil loves for you—is usually more Sunday than Friday. And even the Sunday experience is a bit anemic, because it is not buttressed by the solid relationship and devotion that comes from a faithful, daily time with God. Superficial worship is also very often more self than God. Satan will do whatever he can to keep you more worried about yourself and your needs than committed to giving the Lord a genuine sacrifice of praise. Symptoms of the more self than God syndrome are frequent complaints about the accoutrements of worship—from dissatisfaction with the music or song selection to sermon cynicism, and you name it. I’m suggesting that if you find yourself drifting, and all of us do at times, into such negativism your worship is probably more superficial than it ought to be and it may be time for some soul-searching and deliberate effort at drawing closer to Him. Our friends in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday certainly loved Jesus as long as it was exciting and safe, but when it got dangerous to serve Jesus, they turned on Him, partly because their worship was superficial, selfish, short-term. Another form of superficial worship can be when your worship to the Lord is more soul than spirit. Jesus taught that the Father is looking for those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. That simply means worship that is genuinely directed to Him. We should be cautious when differentiating between our soul and our spirit, but there is scriptural warrant for it, and it is helpful on occasion to consider the difference between what makes our soul feel better and what is pure spiritual worship to the Lord. Are there certain worship songs or hymns you like much more than others? There’s nothing wrong with that. But have you ever asked yourself why it is a favorite? Maybe you have a very special memory connected to the music and you “go there” when you sing or hear that song. Maybe you’re a rhythmic kind of person and you like to dance. Some music will take you there, quite aside from whether you are really worshipping God. It’s easy to settle for good music alone, especially when the worship team that is leading is so good like ours is. While there is nothing wrong with the soul being satisfied and even being ministered to by the music, God’s people must never settle for soulish satisfaction to the exclusion of giving Him a sincere sacrifice of praise, in spirit and truth. If in our worship of Him we settle for less than spirit and truth on Sunday, we may become more vulnerable to being less devoted to Him on Friday. One more word about the satisfying effect of music in our worship. I believe music is a very precious gift from God—and that He created our souls with the ability to enjoy and use music in worshipping Him. But let’s remember that worship is a much larger category than music and singing. Let me suggest a little test for you. If you find that you cannot honestly offer the Lord genuine praise and worship without the aid of music/song, you might be stuck at a soulish level. Ask God’s Spirit to teach you a new and deeper level of spiritual worship. I guarantee, you will enjoy worship even more as your devotion to Him deepens. 2. Simplistic understanding of His will and His ways The other thing that was occurring and allowed for the tragic transition between the parades was a simplistic understanding on the part of the people concerning the will and the ways of God. The crowd was anticipating a Messiah Moment once Jesus took His Zechariah-prophesied donkey ride. They were convinced that this day marked the beginning of the end for Roman domination of Palestine. They fully expected Jesus to lead a garrison of zealot commandos against the Roman presence and free Israel again. What happened? The next day, Jesus gets violent--but he is overturning the tables in the Temple Courts! Did He get it wrong? The temple-keepers are our guys, not Romans! Was he fighting the wrong war? Whose side was He on? One of the most dangerous things a Christian can do is remain simplistic in his understanding of God’s will. When I was a new Christian, I was convinced it was God’s sole purpose to make me happy. After all, Jesus saved me, He gave me His Holy Spirit, showered me with all kinds of heavenly blessings--this is God’s way! He makes me feel good! I memorize passages about salvation and blessings and hope and comfort. Nice, cozy, womb-like. Then things started happening to me that were not as comfortable. It shocked me. I said, “Hey, God, did you miss one? I think you forgot to fend off a problem that got through.” Then, WHAM, another one! What happened? Am I not saved any more? “God, this is not your way of doing things here! You’re supposed to keep me happy.” And He began to teach me in no uncertain terms that it was not my place to define His will. I started encountering some new truths I had not chosen to research and recognize about God’s dealings with me. Like: “Whom the Lord loves He disciplines” and “though now you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials so that you faith may be proved genuine...” I used to think that that wonderful passage in Romans 8--where it says “nothing can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus" [webmasters note: Romans 8:39] -- I used to think that meant He was not going to allow trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness danger or sword to get to me. Then I got surprised by how much bigger the plan of God was in my life, and I read it again and, sure enough, it said these things would not separate me from the love of God, but it did NOT say I wouldn’t face any of them. Furthermore, I learned that hurtful things happening to me did not mean God didn’t love me; in fact, they proved He did! We are in a spiritually precarious spot when we remain where we are in our understanding of God’s will and His ways. In such a simplistic state we often fail to see what God is doing because of our prejudice against His ever doing anything like that. We are unable to think outside the box, to change, to allow God to do a new thing. That’s what the Jerusalem crowd did. Spiritual maturity comes from staying in the Word of God and growing in the wisdom of His ways. When you stop growing, you can no longer understand when God is engineering the next steps of growth in your life. And when he starts to change you, you will resist and rebel against Him. The simplistic crowd worshiped Him, they then crucified Him. When you are out of step with the Lord’s will and ways the devil is always ready to offer a new plan—one that is not in agreement with God’s plan. There is terrible spiritual danger in self-centeredness. This is why Jesus warned repeatedly that His disciples must deny themselves; they need to sell out to Him and to serving others in His name; consider others more important than yourselves; love one another; serve one another. The disciple who has not crucified “self” is never really ready to serve Jesus or His people. The same is true for the believer who started out fully committed to the Lord, but decided somewhere along the line that serving self is more to his liking. Jesus demands and deserves to be your Lord all of your life. This is really the sum of all the wrong things that happened between the parades for the crowd. And the sum of everything that causes us to move from “Hosanna” on Sunday to “Crucify Him” on Friday. Christian friends, the next time you find yourself hurting or disappointed with God or His people, it is probably an indication that your self has not died to Christ lately. Dead men don’t bleed, they don’t hurt and they don’t get disappointed. Ironic, isn’t it? The way to stay spiritually healthy between the parades, between Sunday and Friday, is to die to yourself and live unto Him. Jesus said, If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. [webmasters note: Matthew 16:24]  When Jesus is Lord of your life, He is not King for a day. As one astute author put it, IF HE IS NOT LORD OF ALL HE IS NOT LORD AT ALL.     [Back to Top]