Sermon Tone Analysis

I. Reading of Scripture

This is God’s Word, Amen.

Pray

II.

Introduction

Today is Palm Sunday.

The Sunday before Easter, the commemoration of the “Triumphal Entry.”

Picture that scene with me.

Jesus is mounted on a donkey covered with cloaks, riding in to Jerusalem where he would be crowned King of the Jews...But not with a golden crown.

Instead, it would be a crown of thorns.

He would have an audience with a high priest, a governor, and a king…But not to be honored by them.

Instead, he would be condemned by them.

He would be lifted up in the eyes of the people, exalted…But not on a throne.

At least, not yet.

Instead, he would first be lifted up on a cross.

What would take place in Jerusalem this week, is not what the crowds expected on this “Palm Sunday.”

The crowds had their own expectations for Jesus.

They had their own version of the way His Kingdom would be inaugurated, and the way His Kingship would look like.

But Jesus had challenged all of that in His teaching.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has taught about the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

And Jesus has said some astonishing things.

Things that defy expectations.

“Blessed are those who mourn.”

“If anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.”

“Love your enemies”

“Pray for those who persecute you.”

The Kingdom of Heaven, as Jesus reveals it, is not a kingdom of our expectations.

Entering it requires a greater righteousness than that of the scribes and Pharisees.

Entering it requires not only hearing God’s will, but also doing God’s will.

Entrance into it is through the narrow gate and by the difficult way.

Few find it.

Because few are looking for it.

Few expect it.

The broad gate and easy way are for those who live according to their expectations.

And that way leads to destruction.

God’s Kingdom is not a kingdom of our expectations.

It is worth evaluating what our expectations of Jesus are.

What expectations do we have of Him?

What do we expect Him to do for us?

Do we leave the door open to be amazed by Him?

Do we have any allowance in our thinking and asking to be astonished by Him?

Do we believe that He is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think?

(Eph 3:20)

We sing songs like “Have Thine Own Way”:

“Have Thine own way Lord

Have Thine own way

Thou art the potter I am the clay

Mold me and make me after Thy will

While I am waiting yielded and still”

Author: Adelaide A. Pollard (1906)

In singing songs like that, we affirm that God is not one of our own creations.

God cannot be controlled by us.

He is the potter.

We are the clay.

And as we are yielded to His will, He is molding us.

He is fashioning us into the likeness — not of ourselves, but of Christ.

Yet, if we think we have Christ figured out, we are not yielded to Him.

If we think we understand God’s ways, we are not following Him.

It may be that we are creating an image of Jesus after our own likeness and our own desires.

As if God exists to serve me, and my happiness.

In light of our text, I want to suggest, that —

If we are never amazed by the Lord, it may be that we have never known Him!

In Matthew’s Gospel, the crowds are amazed by Jesus.

The synagogue attenders are amazed by Jesus.

The disciples, are amazed by Jesus.

Matthew 19:25 even says the disciples were “extremely amazed” by Him!

If we are never amazed by Him, do we know Him at all? Have we experienced His presence?

Have we received by faith His Word?

When God’s word and God’s ways in God’s Son by God’s Spirit, confront our expectations, the result is often amazement.

Astonishment.

Being overwhelmed.

[BDAG].

And the more we think we know about God, the more we will be amazed by Him, as he reminds us of His unlimited greatness!

Easter is a time of the year for us to evaluate our expectations in light of Jesus’ teachings and Jesus’ works.

To live by faith in a way that expects the unexpected.

To not put God in a box and limit Him based on our own imaginations.

To no longer do things because “That’s the way it has always been done.”

Or “That’s what I like.”

Or “That’s what I expect.”

That’s living by our expectations we place upon God!

Is not God doing something new, as Christ enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday?

Will not God do something new when he raises Christ from the dead in power?

Does God not make us new, as a new creation in Christ, through a new birth, no longer to walk according to the flesh but by His Spirit?

Brothers and sisters, we must not submit God to our own expectations, but we must live in submission to God’s expectations for us.

Jesus is the dividing line separating those who follow His teaching, and those who follow the teaching of “their scribes.”

If we expect God to do only what we want, and how we want, according to the ways God has worked before, then God may give us exactly that, and we’ll be left behind, following from a distance, part of the crowd, and watching in amazement — but never changed.

But the way of Christ is the way of self-denial.

Taking up our cross and following Him.

Letting Him lead according to His Word, and His Way.

Church, we have been given in 2021 and beyond, a blank slate.

Empty calendars.

New and still unknown opportunities.

God’s Word has not changed, but God is leading us still in His Ways.

Old programs and structures will not serve the future Church in the same way they used to.

What we do and how we do it may look different in the days ahead, because the world looks very different than what it did many years ago.

None of us knows the future and what it will look like.

Except this — there remains a world full of future disciples of Jesus, that do not yet know Him.

And it is given to us, Christ’s Church, to go and tell them, baptize them, and teach them to obey all of His commands.

Our obedience will be measured by whether or not we are willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill the Great Commission, and whether we are willing to lay aside our expectations so we might follow Him unhindered.

Yielded to His authority.