Palm Sunday

Just this past Monday, April 4th…My son who is always awake before everyone jumped on our bed and said: “its my adoption day” and he was right, April 4th is a significant day for him

And I would love to tell you that this date is so significant for him because he felt the warmth and love of his family and maybe it is... But that’s not the reason...

The reason is because one time I bought him a happy meal on his adoption day and ever since he has associated his adoption day with happy meals!

So of course he loves us…but to him the big question is am I going to get a happy meal on April 4th?

We all have these moments in our lives that are anniversaries …They remind us of Good things

Birth’s, adoptions, anniversaries…Your dog’s birthday

Sometimes we have days that remind us of hard things, the death of a dear friend or relative

or The day it all came tumbling down for you because you lost your job. or a loved one died

But we all have these moments built into the year that remind us of something significant...

Today marks the beginning of one of these moments:

In a week’s time we will traverse through three of the great themes of the Bible

But more than that, we get to see the heart of God clearly on display for humanity

In Palm Sunday we see the Kingship of Jesus

In Good Friday we see the Forgiveness of Jesus

and in Easter Sunday we see the New Creation of Jesus

And ever year we go back over these themes because we need to...

Because they are powerful...

Because they shape us and mold us

So we have a lot to uncover today

But in order to get there

There is this video that an animation group called the Bible Project makes to kind of explain these three great themes.

I am going to let the guys at the Bible project do this today:

Messiah Video 5 min

This video is so Good

It reminds us:

We lost something in the garden!

Adam and Eve listened to the serpent!

and they lost their authority and did damage to the rest of humanity

SO your in your notes your first fill in is this:

The story of the Old Testament is about a coming king who will one day defeat sin and restore the human relationship to God

Ever since the garden of Eden, All of Israel is looking for the man who can defeat sin...

They are looking for the true king

And the whole Old Testament is pointing toward that day when God would come as king and save his people

And there is an impotrant twist in this story...

One that the video didn’t show us...

So let me just take you down a tiny rabbit trail because I want you to see how significant it is that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey...

Ok so a few thousand years before Jesus would come…Israel was escaping from Egypt in the dessert (its called the exodus)

There was this man named Balaam and he was a bad guy…The king of Moab had hired him to curse the Israelites.

And he went to go curse the Israelites…God intervened and Balaam just couldn't curse them…Because these were the people of God...

But when he looked out from Moab he says this:

Numbers 23:9 NIV

From the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them. I see a people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations.

So he see’s Israel all Stretched out over the dessert and he says...

Wow…This is a set apart people...

They are not like the other nations

these people are different

And what Balaam was speaking was true...

God always intended for Israel to be a set apart people, not like one of the nations

Then Israel sets up their nation

See if you read the Bible, in the story after the Exodus you will see that God sort of set up this way of governing his people...

There were this system of judges and priests, But God was always the King...

see when God structured this nation of Israel, he didn't have a standing army, he didn't have a centralized government, because he was the center of the whole nation

And Israel keeps having the same problem...

When they are disobedient and neglect God, then they get over run by the other nations who had fancy stuff like armies

Pretty soon, the people want an army…they want a king…they want to be like other nations

and then this happens:

1 Samuel 8:4–9 NIV

So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.”

Did you see what they said?

Appoint a king such as the other nations have!

These are words right from Numbers 23!

And then God’s response is to actually comfort Samuel...

He is like Samuel you have to understand…its Isn’t you that they are rejecting…its not because your a bad leader…They don’t want me as their king?

And something about this whole interaction reveals God’s Character: But I have always been fascinated by this: God gives Israel what they want even though it is not good for them.

What the people are saying in this whole exchange to God is we want our own authority

And God gives it to them even though it isn’t best for them.

Because it is what happens when we try and take God’s authority into our own hands.

See the central message of the Bible is that we need to be under God’s authority...

That we need to willfully place ourselves under his rule and reign

Some people figure this out the easy way…They come to find and follow Jesus and always live their lives under the authority of the King…and even though life isn't always easy, they thrive!

And some people learn this lesson the hard way:

They take authority into their own hands and are always fighting to keep it…Life is hard for them...

So God gives us what we want, even though at times its isn’t the best thing for us.

What Israel wants is to have a king who will raise up an army so that they can live however they want and feel protected from God’s judgment

So this is very impotrant to understand today

Israel rejected God as king

And you saw in the video how bad this went...

I mean David was a good king, and there were a couple of good kings mixed in there…But for the most part the kings of Israel kept spiraling out of control…they were bad guys

This is what happens when any human gets more power and authority than they could handle..

In the video we watched you saw how the kings were corrupted and the prophets kept talking about one of these coming kings:

One of those times was this

Zechariah 9:9 NIV

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

He talks about this victorious king who comes riding on a donkey!

A donkey is a symbol of peace and humility

What is crazy about this is that the historian Josephus records that 200 years after Zechariah wrote these words, Alexander the great rode into Jerusalem on a war horse…A white stallion...

And the people honored him by laying down their garments and shouting for joy when Alexander came in...

But Alexander was never a righteous king…He wasn't the king that Zechariah was looking forward to

He was the kind of king though that every Jew was looking for back then

See the kind of king that God wanted would have been a king who could defeat the garden serpent...

A kind of king who was righteous in everything he did

The kind of king who could absorb the sin of the world

The kind of king who could overcome sin and death

SO here are a couple of points for you to remember

Israel was supposed to be unlike other nations (Numbers 23:9)

Israel rejected God as King (1 Samuel 8:4-9)

The prophets always pointed toward the day when the righteous king would come (Zechariah 9:9)

I want you to see this as part of a larger story because it is so significant!

Ok Now Jesus is on the scene and he is just doing things like healing people

He is forgiving people

He is feeding people in miraculous ways

he is walking on water

He is making a lot of enemies because people are following him..

Now turn with me to the book of Mark

Mark 11:1–11 (NIV)

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’ ”

They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

The entire Old Testament comes together in this moment.

So lets talk about what is going on in this scene:

Jesus is coming into Jerusalem...

People in Jerusalem are crying Hosanna which means “save us” It is something that you say to the messiah or a king

They are saying Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David...

There is this recognition that they have a king among them!

They knew the promises that the new king would come from the line of David

But just as impotrant here: In this scene of the triumphal entry we see the people of God placing themselves under the authority of Jesus

Palm Sunday is this:

It is an invitation to the authority of Jesus

And I know we sort of recoil when we hear the word authority…it almost seems like a bad word these days but the authority of Jesus is vastly different from my authority or your authority

Jesus would explain it this way

The New International Version Chapter 11

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Jesus is strolling back into Jerusalem…where his authority was rejected...

And he’s reclaiming his authority over Israel...

and there is some really significant stuff packed in to Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem....

The Place

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives,

This might just seem random that Mark is mentioning all of these places, but all through the Old Testament there is this description of the messiah coming from the mount of Olives into the temple (Zechariah 14:4, Ezekiel 11:23; 43:1-5)

I mean if you were a father in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus you might point to the mount of Olives and say…This is where the Messiah will come from…And you would say he is going to enter into these gates

And jesus would tell his disciples:

“Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden.

So then Jesus says go find a donkey that no one has ever ridden:

And to me this is the whole point of the text…I could talk about this for the rest of the day...

It speaks to the ultimate source of Jesus’ authority...

The biggest thing is that you can not get on an unridden colt and ride it very far.

If it is unbroken, no one else has ridden it yet…Normally it takes at least a few months of training just to get it to go a little ways

And for Jesus to ride this unbroken donkey up to a mile which it could have been…It could take months of seriously training this colt.

But Mark the author of this text sees something in Jesus and is trying to tell us who he is all though his gospel…Please allow me to take you on a quick tour of the book of Mark

He lived at peace with the animals:

Mark 1:13

The New International Version (Chapter 1)

13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

Why would mark mention this?

HMMMM…A man in the wilderness living at peace with the animals? Sounds like Eden right???

He walked on water

Mark 6:49 (NIV)

but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out,

Why would Mark talk about this?

Maybe its because in creation God’s spirit hovered over the turbulent waters, creating the world but first calming the waters

He rode an unbroken colt

Mark 11:7 (NIV)

When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it.

Again…Jesus is at peace with the animals

He cursed a fig tree and it withered

Mark 11:14 NIV

Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.

Mark 11:20 NIV

In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots.

This one is way more complex and so deeply thematic that it would take another sermon to talk all about…But It is essentially Jesus’ power over nature

I think Mark is writing down his account of Jesus and he keeps writing in these little details that you might just otherwise skip right over and he wants us to know

All of creation obeys Jesus

because jesus is the king of all creation

To the gospel author mark it is as if Jesus just stepped right out of Eden and into modern day life...

He is the righteous king...

He is not like other nations

This is God coming in the flesh to reclaim his rightful seat as king

Even nature obeys Jesus

And the rest of this text is basically Jesus fulfilling prophecy…It is Jesus clearly revealing to the world that he is the king that was rejected in 1 Samuel 8, and he is coming back to take his throne on the cross

He is the king that walked with humanity in the Garden

He has all authority…And it goes beyond human authority…he isn't just the king of a sliver of land in the middle east he is the king of creation, the only one worthy enough to sit on the throne of your heart

Response:

So Just like my son Jacob…We all have these days that stand out to us…Days that are significant…Days that we remember because something changed on that day!

Maybe your here today because God has designed that type of day for you...

Maybe your here today because he wanted to confront you with his own authority

And maybe April 10th, 2022 is a date that you remember...

A date that you come back to ever year because it was the day that you realized that to live under your own power and your own authority is death compared to the life that is available to you

So maybe your here today and you have been living under your own authority and the truth is that you need to surrender your life to the one who is the real king

The one who commands creation

The one who has true good authority

The only one who can save you...

Maybe your here today because God wants to do work in your life.

I want to encourage you today, just during this next song to surrender