"The Entry Of The King"

As you know lent season has come to a close but I want to give you this as we journey to our text because I want you to be prepared for next lent season. Lent season is where we take the time to remember the events that led up to the crucifixion of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.

When we look at the Lent season it is a sacred time. During this time we see many sacrifices taking place. My brothers and sisters if there was ever a time to sacrifice things, I believe during this lent season would be the best time to sacrifice. I say that because it was God who gave us his son and his son sacrificed his life. With Jesus Sacrificing his life for us to have eternal life the least thing we can do to remember and commemorate him is by sacrificing something during this Lent season.

When is the last time you sacrificed something for your savour? Sacrificing is very important. Many times as Christian we may not want to sacrifice but we must do it. Take for instance Abraham God had promised him this son and told him that his offspring that he promised would inherit the land.

But God Said take your son and offer him up as a sacrifice to me. So Abraham did this and he went up to the mountains and Got ready to sacrifice his son and God told him to stop and provided a ram in the bush to sacrifice instead of his son.

God was testing Abraham to see if he still loved God more than his son. He was testing Abraham to see if he would be Obedient to the one who allowed him to get be blessed with a son.

Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son to Remain faithful to God.

What are you willing to sacrifice to remain faithful to God. Will you sacrifice you Time, Your money, Your Job, your dreams, what are willing to sacrifice to remain faithful to God.

Just nudge your neighbor and ask them when is the last time you made a sacrifice for God?

We make all types of sacrifices to go on trips, we make sacrifices to be at our children’s game, we make sacrifices to make have date nights, we make sacrifices to stay up and watch our favorite Tv show, we make all these sacrifices.

But I just want to know when is the last time you sacrificed to get up early and seek the lord, when is the last time you sacrificed staying up to read your word. When is the last time you made a sacrifice to push your way to church even though you wanted to go to brunch. When is the last time you sacrificed a meal to spend time in fasting and prayer.

Sacrifice, We must be willing to sacrifice Church it may not always feel good but Its Going to work together for your Good. But you have to sacrifice willing and not in a reluctant manner.

So I came to encourage you today, that your sacrifice not only during this season is important but overall Sacrificing for the Kingdom is important.

Many in the bible had to sacrifice for the Kingdom

Moses Sacrificed

Moses was a Hebrew that grew up in an Egyptian palace. As he grew older and learned about his Hebrew heritage, he did not like seeing the mistreatment of the Hebrews by the Egyptians. One day he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and he killed the Egyptian. When he found out this thing was known, he feared for his life and ran away, He ended up in Midian and started a new life. He was as some say living on easy street. Until one day God called him and told him to go back to Egypt. God was going to use Moses to deliver his people. Moses had all kinds of excuses why he couldn’t go, but God would not accept any of those excuses. Moses finally agreed. He gave up excuses. He gave up his new life of comfort and returned to Egypt. His sacrifice led to the deliverance of millions of Hebrews from Egyptian slavery.

Church your sacrifice just might lead to someones deliverance. We must learn to do what God says because we may never know our sacrifice can lead to someone being set free.

Ruth made a sacrifice to leave her country and her people and return with Naomi, her mother-in-law to Bethlehem. Naomi encouraged her two daughter-in-laws to return to Moab as she would not have any more sons. It was difficult for a woman, especially a widow with no children ( and Ruth was also a foreigner) to be able to sustain herself.

But Ruth replies, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go, wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us. When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more.

Ruth was willing to sacrifice the safety of her future to stay with Naomi. She was willing to sacrifice the hope of a future relationship with a husband to honor the relationship with Naomi. Eventually Ruth did marry Boaz, a kinsman redeemer, of Naomi’s family. Ruth and Boaz had a child named Obed. Obed had a son named Jesse and Jessie had a son named David. Because of Ruth’s sacrifice, she became the great grandmother of David, and part of the lineage of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We also see Mary, the mother of Jesus who sacrificed her plans, her convenience and her reputation to become the mother of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Mary had plans to get married to Joseph when the angel came to inform her she was chosen to be the mother of the long awaited Messiah. Mary wasn’t sure how it would happen, but she knew everything would change. But Mary said , Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

Mary Understood this wasn’t for her but it was for a greater purpose so she sacrificed and went on and gave birth to our saviour. I’m sure they talked about here because she wasn’t married and was a young teenage girl but even in the midst of all that she still did the will of the Lord and carried our savior and gave birth to him.

Brothers and sisters sacrifice comes with a Price, They may lie on you talk about you ridicule you run your name through the mud but if you are sacrificing for the kingdom it’ll all work out for your good.

What have you sacrificed? We are all called to sacrifice according to Romans 12:1-2 “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” We must present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God.

Don’t let this lent season be the only time you sacrifice.

Lent season is coming to a close and today starts Holy Week. Holy week is the week that leads up to the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

As holy week begins we know this Sunday to be Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday where Jesus made his triumphant entrance.

Lets look at the text i got a few points a little holler and i promise i’ll be out your way.

The bible declares in John 12:12

John 12:12 ESV

The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

Jesus here had just left Lazarus house where he was staying and his headed to the holy city of Jerusalem.

The people are in Jerusalam getting ready for the passover. But they hear about this great man that is getting ready to come to town. They hear that Jesus is on his Way to the city.

I’m sure the people that got word that Jesus was on his was began to get excited. They probably got excited because they had seen and heard about the many miracles and that he had performed.

I can just imagine them now talking amongst themselves saying that isn’t the guy who is coming through the city the one who Changed water into wine in John 2 and how he fed the 5000 in John 6 and how he healed the blind man from birth in John 9 and How he recently just raised his Best friend back to life in John 11.

So these people are excited to hear that the man who did many miracles was coming to the town.

My brothers and sister we should still get excited about the things that jesus has did. These people had probably seen the miracles and probably had seen Jesus do things time and time again but they still were excited about him coming to Jerusalam.

Today we live in an age where people are not excited about experiencing Jesus anymore. I might get in trouble but we are living in an age where people are coming to church to receive a prophesy rather than coming to church to receive an encounter and experience with Jesus.

I can remember when the saints would get excited about Jesus. Now they just get excited when somebody says in 10 days you will receive a blessing or they get excited when they here the prophet say they are getting a house or car. I’m not knocking prophets but there was a time The saints would tear up the church just off that one name alone because they realized that if they called on Jesus things would began to shift, and things would began to change, things would began to line up in their favor. Is there anybody here other than me that can testify that Things began to change when they called on the name of Jesus......

Some people call him Jehovah Jireh some call him everlasting father, and prince of peace, Grandma would say he is my walking stick and leaning post, some know him as a bridge over trouble water but sometimes you may not have the time to say all of things, all you have to do is Say JESUS.

I’m trying to tell you if call on him things will change if you come experiencing him. Come with an excitement. Come seeking the Saviour. Come to worship. Let’s Get excited about Jesus.

We as a Church must get back to being excited about Jesus. The church has lost its Excitement when it comes to Jesus.

So Point number one is we must be excited and show excitement about the entry of the King.

Look at your neighbor and tell them don’t lose your excitement when it comes to Jesus.

Now we see here the people are so excited that they grabbed palm branches.

Ok lets look at the text.

John 12:13 ESV

So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”

They took palm branches. Let’s just work with the palm branches. When you look at palm branches the meaning behind them mean victory and triumphant meaning something was defeated.

If you go back to the old testament you will find out about how the Israelites were in bondage. After God delivered them, they had a yearly celebration called the Feast of Tabernacles, the feast was held for seven days and during this time, the Israelites lived in booths made of palm branches. In Leviticus 23 we can see they use the palm branches during the celebration to commerate and show as a sign of victory that God have delivered them from their enemies.

Palm branches will also be displayed in the end times. We see people from every nation raising palm branches to honor Jesus. Revelation 7:9 “After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands.”

The people Got these palm branches and the took them and ran to meet where Jesus was . They had an understanding that With jesus coming that Victory was coming. These people understood that their victory was in Jesus. They heard and seen all the miracles so they took their palm branches and they ran to where jesus was and began shouting and waving their palm branches because they out of all the things they been through from the roman empire and from suffering things under their leadership they had the realization that Victory was coming with Jesus.

I don’t know who i am preaching to today but its time to get your palm branch and wave it as a sign of victory. You can wave it as a sign of victory because we who are born again and are christians know how the outcome is going to end. In the end we win but sometimes life gets the best of us and we get down and go through storms but i come by to let you know today when ever you get down think about or get you a palm branch as a reminder that you are victorious. With Jesus on your Side you have no reason to fear.

You have victory over depression, You have victory over high blood pressure, you have victory over diabetes, you have the victory!!! The saints use to sing a song that said victory is mine victory is mine ..... Just look at your neighbor and tell them you have the victory.

So Let us celebrate our King today for the victory he has given us over sin and death.

So my Second point is with the entry of the king brings Victory

Lastly Looking at verse 13 i want to break that Hosanna down. Hosanna has 2 meanings. It has a meaning in the greek and it has a meaning in the Hebrew. The people were not only just waving their palm branches as a sign of victory but they were shouting hosanna as well.

When you look at hosanna it is spelled both the same in Hebrew and in greek.

The Hebrew meaning when they said Hosanna it was a a cry out of that meant please save. We see this in Psalms 118:25

But when we get over to the new testament that changes to Salvation has come.

Thats all i come by to tell you this morning is that this great entry not only brought us victory but it brought us Salvation. Is there anybody in here grateful for salvation.

The people understood that In jesus was salvation and he was coming to save. Thats why they took their palm branches and went out yelling hosanna because they understood that Jesus was coming to save. They didn’t want salvation from another king or another priest but they wanted salvation from God himself the Righteous Ruler.

There is a story that might help you better understand the Hosanna.

Picture a Super Bowl game, and (believe it or not) the Vikings are three points ahead of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers are on their own 35 and have no more time outs. There are two seconds remaining on the clock. The Vikings’ fans are going wild. The Steelers line up, fake a pass to the receivers on the left sideline, and run a wide sweep around the right end, and the quarterback breaks into the open and heads down the right sideline—40–45–50–45. The only hope for the Vikings is Willie Teal, the safety, cutting a diagonal across the field. And out of the Vikings’ grandstand come two kinds of hosannas, the old kind and the new kind. One part of the crowd is yelling: “Catch him! Catch him, Willie!” (That’s the old hosanna.) The other part of the crowd is yelling, “You got him! You got him, Willie!” (That’s the new hosanna.) The word moved from plea to praise; from cry to confidence.

So when we sing “Hosanna” now, let’s make it very personal. Let’s make it our praise and our confidence. The Son of David has come. He has saved us from guilt and fear and hopelessness. Salvation! Salvation belongs to our God and to the Son! Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!

So I just came to tell you this morning that Salvation is here and that we should move from Plea to Praise.

We are moving from plea to praise because Salvation has shown up. Hosanna means salvation is here. Who is Salvation, Salvation is Jesus. Not only is he salvation but he is everything that we need.

So if you need to be save i dare you to cry out hosanna , if you need deliverance i dare you to cry out hosanna if you need healing i dare you to cry out hosanna. Jesus is here he is making his great entrance can’t you see the people now crying out Hosanna as jesus Rides in on this donkey.

Today we should be praising God because Salvation is here.

Hosanna , Hosanna, Hosanna,

Whatever you stand in need of Just cry out Hosanna.

Is there anybody here that knows Jesus as Hosanna.

Has he saved you from anything.

Im leaving now but i just want to know do you know jesus as Hosanna.

It was Hosanna that saved you from going down that wrong path

it was hosanna that saved you from that hurtful and abusive relationship

it was hosanna that save and delivered you from drugs and achohol.

It was jesus.

The people were waving