Palm Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday and this is the Sunday which introduces Holy Week leading up to Easter Sunday which is the day we set aside to celebrate the ressurection of King Jesus from the dead, the triumph over the powers of darkness and Gods claim to all the nations of the world as his rightlful inheritance.

Palm Sunday is a significant marker in the story of Jesus as it marks the beginning of what is the inauguration ceremony of Jesus as King.

Palm Sunday celebrates the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem AS KING OF ISRAEL, AS KING OF THE WORLD AND AS KING FOREVER.

And the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem follows the same pattern as the ancient biblical kings of Israel. For the ancient kings this type of procession was the type of procession which was held on the day of their enthronement.

So, likewise for Jesus, Palm Sunday was the royal procession of enthronement. In this moment Jesus is inaugurated as the great King who has come in the name of the Lord.

let’s read the gospel story in Luke:

Luke 19:28-32 “And Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’ ” So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them.”

Luke 19:33-38 “And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!””

The royal procession towards the cross begins.

This was in direct fulfilment of Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation he is humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

So let’s take a look at how kings were inaugurated in the the days of the kings of Israel and see how this would have been portrayed by Jesus in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Let’s have a look at Solomon’s inauguration as King.

1 Kings 1:28–48 (ESV)

Then King David answered, “Call Bathsheba to me.” So she came into the king’s presence and stood before the king. And the king swore, saying, “As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my soul out of every adversity, as I swore to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, saying, ‘Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my place,’ even so will I do this day.” Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the ground and paid homage to the king and said, “May my lord King David live forever!”

King David said, “Call to me Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada.” So they came before the king. And the king said to them, “Take with you the servants of your lord and have Solomon my son ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon. And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet there anoint him king over Israel. Then blow the trumpet and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ You shall then come up after him, and he shall come and sit on my throne, for he shall be king in my place. And I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah.” And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, “Amen! May the Lord, the God of my lord the king, say so. As the Lord has been with my lord the king, even so may he be with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David.”

So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites went down and had Solomon ride on King David’s mule and brought him to Gihon. There Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the trumpet, and all the people said, “Long live King Solomon!” And all the people went up after him, playing on pipes, and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth was split by their noise.

This was a huge celebration! To the point where the rocks split open!! (We see that in the death of Jesus on the cross) And we can see how Jesus entry into Jerusalem mirrors the inauguration of Solomon.

There is another enthronement story in the bible that captures even more of the splendour of Royal Enthronement.

The enthronement of Yaheweh was also understood by the story of King David when he likewise enthroned Yaheweh as King over Israel when he returned the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem.

This is a different kind of inauguration. Although David had been crowned and anointed king he knew that it was Yahweh who ultimately ruled over the nation so he took it upon himself to anoint Yahweh king by giving him a kingly procession into Jerusalem.

2 Samuel 6:12–22 (ESV)

So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing. And when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal. And David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn.

As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart. And they brought in the ark of the Lord and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it. And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts and distributed among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins to each one. Then all the people departed, each to his house.

And David returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, “How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants’ female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!” And David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord—and I will celebrate before the Lord. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes. But by the female servants of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor.”

Wow! What a scene! David dancing in pure ecstatic joy before the Lord. And when he is despised by the religious spirit he announces “I will be even more undignified than this”

There is a beautiful psalm that is written by David that commemorates the procession of Yahweh and beautifully foreshadows Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusaelm.

Psalm 68:24-27 “Your procession is seen, O God, the procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary— the singers in front, the musicians last, between them virgins playing tambourines: “Bless God in the great congregation, the Lord, O you who are of Israel’s fountain!” There is Benjamin, the least of them, in the lead.

So this is the pattern after which Jesus is entering Jerusalem. He is coming in fulfillment of a number of prophetic words and in the manner of the kings of old with great rejoicing and celebration.

This is the type of reception that Jesus should have been given coming into Jerusalem. The elders and the rulers of Israel coming to bring him into the city with dancing and singing. But they reject him.

Even up until this point all of the gospel writers have been working hard to reveal that Jesus was pointing to himself as the Messiah King so that when he comes in triumphal procession into Jerusalem the Elders of Israel would recognise him and receive him in celebration!

We think of before Jesus was even born the Angel Gabriel comes and tells Mary

Luke 1:32-33 “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.””

And after Jesus is born Angels appear to the sheppherds to declare that this King had arrived.

Luke 2:9-14 “And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!””

Then there is the anointing at the river Jordan which is exactly where kings were anointed and the voice from heaven echoing Psalm 2 which was an inauguration Psalm for Kings

Luke 3:21-22 “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.””

Psalm 2 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

Not to mention the fact the Luke records the genealogy of Jesus to the line of King David and when Jesus starts his ministry he claims the messianic kingship anointing of Isaiah 61:1-2 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;”

Not only does he claim it but then he fulfills it.

This continues all the way to the moment where Jesus enters Jerusalem.

So here we are at the triumphal prosession and there should be no doubt that Jesus is the Messiah King!!

But when the Israelite elders see Jesus at the head of a great procession and hear the noise and the messianic psalms being quoted as he enters Jerusalem in the manner of King Solomon they freak out and run out to the crowd and tell Jesus to rebuke his disciples for enacting such a procession.

This was a proper messianic inauguration procession and the Israelite leaders were enraged.

Here was Jesus fulfilling every messianic sign and prophecy in the scriptures and the Elders of Israel missed it.

But we have the benfit of hindsight and get to search through all of these stories and see the glory of Jesus inauguration. And when we see what the triumphal entry was and what it should have been as a celebration we don’t need to miss it.

And that is what today is about. It’s an opportunity to marvel and to celebrate the enthronement of Jesus. So today should be a day of full tilt celebration in the calibre of King David when he brought the Ark of the covenant into Jerusalem in full linen ephod dance!

Today is a day to celebrate the procession of Jesus and what it intended to accomplish

But to fully enter into the celebration of the day of procession and to be able to celebrate the week of inauguration all the way to the enthronement of Good Friday and the resurection of Easter Sunday we need to understand what the enthronement of Jesus as king accomplished

But what is it about Jesus inauguration as King that should bring us such joy??

Why Celebrate the royal reign of Jesus?

What is it that we are supposed to remember about Jesus Triumphal entry, death upon the cross and ressurection that should evoke such celebration?

This is what the enthronement of Jesus means for us.

Freedom and forgiveness from sin.

Jesus triumphal entry into our lives won a twofold battle against sin. First there was the forgiveness of OUR sins. These are our personal debts that have been forgiven.

Colossians 2:13-14 “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

This was jubilee for us. The king made a decree and wped all debts. This was why he came.

1 John 3:5 “You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.”

But Jesus didnt just come to forgive our personal sins but to deal with Sin in its entirety.

Romans 6:6 “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”

Romans 8:1-4 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Jesus enthronement meant forgiveness for our sins but more importantly a condemnation on SIN as a whole. He drew all sin onto Jesus and condmened SIN and nailed it to the cross. We don’t have to struggle under Sin anymore but if we do persoanlly sin we have an advocate who wipes away and forgives our sins.

2. The enthronement of Jesus meant the utter defeat of all our spiritual enemies!

Not only was the enemy of Sin and death defeated but the agents through which we are seduced into sin were dealt with too.

Colossians 2:15 says that on the cross “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”

Here Jesus is openly victorious against all of our spiritual adversaries, which Paul lists as principalities, powers, thrones and dominions, who try to seduce us into sin. This is the defeat of the gods who warred against us.

1 John 3:8 The reason the Son of God was made manifest was to destroy the works of the devil.”

so we can confidently sing with the psalmist that Paul quotes in

1 Corinthians 15:55 ““O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?””

All our enemies have been utterly dealt with and destroyed! That is a cause for enorous celebration.

3. On the cross He made us a new creation

Jesus defeated these enemies by making us bran new creatons which have no connection to the old anyway.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

He simply did away with the old order and made a new one in himself. The new creation is Jesus Christ crucified and ressurected and we are in HIM

This declaration makes Christ the new Eden and we join him in the new creation as brand new creatures with a brand new nature.

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

4. His enthronement meant Adoption into his family

Romans 8:15-17 “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,”

We are not just adopted into his family. We have received the Spirit of adoption. This is the Holy Spirit in us which connects us to Abba Father.

1 John 3:1 “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.

5. On the cross he Enthroned us with him in heavenly places

Because of the new family status we have this automatically makes us co heirs with Christ.

Eph 2:4-7 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

This is our position in the spirit in this world. Once we were under the principalities of this world… Now we are not only freed from them but seated high above them in authority.

Heb 12:22-24 “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”

6. Rulership

This means that we are called to rule as he rules

1 Peter 2:9-10 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

Romans 8:17 “and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

When Jesus was raised from the dead and had obtained the keys of the kingdom he said

Matt 28:18-19 “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”

And how should we rule? Well on the night that he was enthroned on the cross he showed us

John 13:1–20 ESV

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.” When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

finally

7. Reconciliation

This call to rulership through love will be the means of reconciliation.

Psalm 2 is a messianic psalm that points to the enthronment of Jesus. This psalm is known as an inauguration psalm and was likely sung at the enthronement ceremones of kings. And in this psalm the whole plan of God is revealed in the sending of the Son.

Psalm 2 The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.

The whole plan of salvation was centred around the reconciliation of the world to God through the Son.

We can hear it in the prayer of Jesus on the very night that he was crucified

John 17:20-24 ““I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

And Paul makes it clear that on the cross the Father was accomplishing this

2 Corinthians 5:19 “that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”

This ministry of reconciliation now belongs to us and we are charged to go and reconcile the world back to God. And the ministry of reconciliation will be done through servant love.

So to recap:

So why is the triumphal entry into Jerusalem cause for hysterical celebration?

Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem and enthronement upon the cross meant the forgiveness of sin and the defeat of sin and death, and the devil and all of our spiritual enemies so that we may be reconciled to the Father and receive the spirit of adoption to be seated in Christ and with Christ in heavenly places to rule and reign with him as his co-ruling royal priesthood in order to bring in the inheritance of the Lord which is every single nation on the earth!! (READ AGAIN)

And that is cause for celebration!