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Information about this sermon:
Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Luke 19:29-40
As Jesus rode into Jerusalem he came peacefully, willingly, and faithfully. This is the same way that Jesus comes into our lives as we receive Him as our Savior and King. Come listen to the incredible gospel revelation of Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem as we enter together into Holy Week.
Transcript
Happy Palm Sunday to you all you know Palm Sunday is uh it’s a a beautiful celebration as we begin Holy Week um and and it’s it’s appropriate that we begin Holy Week with the the Liturgy of the Palms although in the Luke reading we just had it doesn’t say anything about palms so that’s always a little bit confusing you know why aren’t we waving cloaks in the air and throwing them on the ground uh but in John chapter chapter 12 verses 12 to 14 and John’s account of the triumphal entry we’re told this the next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem so they took branches of palm trees palm trees and went out to meet him crying out Hosanna blessed he who comes in the name of the Lord even the king of Israel and Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it so we see why with with Palms we wave them it’s a tradition that that goes all the way back to the early Church in fact it was a a tradition that they continued when even when Christian Martyrs uh when they were killed uh they would their procession and their their funerals were were accompanied with waves of Palms at the Triumph of Christ uh over sin and death but also we have another imagery another image the scriptures paint for us of the Palms themselves in Revelation 7 verses 9 and 10 and this is what we’re told as the uh of the picture of when God will gather uh all of the of the Nations to himself says after this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation from all tribes and peoples and languages standing Before the Throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice salvation Belongs To Our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb so not only is this a reminder of what has come in Jesus triumphal entry it’s a picture of what is to come for all of us when we know the full salvation of Jesus in the new Heaven and a new Earth so it’s a beautiful and fitting uh way to begin our Holy Week uh together uh but just in a few minutes we’re going to go from this dramatic celebration of uh the Liturgy of the palms and the hosana to God in the highest and this joyous celebration we’re going to be reading the the passion narrative after I finished talking and so from shouts of Salvation we’re going to turn to shouts of crucify him crucify him it’s a it’s an emotionally heavy heavy Sunday Palm Sunday is uh as dramatic and in a personal way as we are reliving and stepping into to that moment uh placing ourselves though in the passion narrative we’ll be placing ourselves as well in the place of the crowd of the disciples dealing with on how on one side of our mouths we Proclaim Jesus as Lord and Savior and king of our lives and with the other we betray him we betray him that’s what we do every time we fall into sin we’re denying Christ we’re betraying him but for now I want us to focus on the triumphal entry before we get into the the passion narrative in just a few moments because in many ways the the triumphal entry is a picture of Jesus into Jerusalem as a picture of the way that Jesus enters into every one of our lives and our hearts when we receive him as Lord and Savior and King Of Our Lives but to I think get a little background of Jesus coming into Jerusalem uh itself we we can see from uh in in Luke 13 a a picture before Jesus even gets there he has something to say uh about Jerusalem uh in verses 31-35 of of Luke 13 He said to that very hour some Pharisees came and said to Jesus get away from here for Herod wants to kill you and he said to them go and tell that fox behold I cast out demons and perform curses today and tomorrow and the third day I finish my course nevertheless I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem oh Jerusalem Jerusalem the city that kills the prophets and Stones those who are sent to it how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing behold your house is Forsaken and I tell you you will not see me until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord so that’s kind of the background Jesus’s lament over Jerusalem for those who’ve been with us through the the season of uh of Lent we’ve been we’ve preached through and read through the whole uh book of Lamentations and so it’s incredibly appropriate but from there Jesus continued after in Luke 13 he continued his journey toward WS Jerusalem knowing what he said knowing full well that his own perishing must take place in Jerusalem and so as we look at uh as we look at the triumphal entury in our Luke reading this morning there’s three incredible gospel Revelations about Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem that that so uh so impact our lives today with the gospel number one he came peacefully number two he came willingly and number three he came faithfully and because he did our lives are forever impacted so I want to look at each of these for just a few moments together that first one uh that we looked at when Jesus came in the triumphal entry in our into jerus M he came peacefully now make no mistake Jesus came to conquer he came to conquer but he came to conquer in peace seems like an oxymoron doesn’t it he came to conquer in peace well how do we get that picture how can we draw that conclusion that Jesus was coming in this triumphal entry uh in peace in a peaceful way well because of the Donkey because of the donkey uh you know it’s really interesting is is you know Luke makes a very uh you know particular uh issue of the fact of how the whole Donkey thing came down right that he told some of his disciples that they were to go to the next town uh and that they would find a donkey there and if anyone asked uh they were to tell him the Lord has need of it and they went and of course that’s how they found it and they brought the donkey back uh back back for Jesus as he made his triumphal entry but you know as I was thinking about this this week how often in the gospels as Jesus said he had need of
anything you know it may allude to some things or some things we could you know we could conclude you know he certainly asked uh his disciples to come with him as he went away to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane it gives you a feeling that he really felt a heartfelt need for them to be there uh with him but never so strongly as he said I need it I got to have it I got to have this donkey and this is how you’re going to get it why why did he need it why was the donkey so important to him well because that donkey was the Fulfillment of God’s word through Zachariah chapter 9 verse 9 Rejoice greatly Daughter of Zion shout daughter of Jerusalem see your king comes to you righteous and Victorious is lowly and riding on a donkey on a Colt the full of a donkey it had to be this way Jesus had to ride in on a donkey uh because it had to be the Fulfillment of God’s word just as Jesus had said but donkeys are are there’s even more to donkeys in in the Old Testament itself donkeys are a symbol of peace they’re a symbol of peace the horse that’s a beast of War that’s a beast for battle but the donkey is is a beast of Peace we see it in King David uh when King David was ready in his old age to uh for Solomon to follow him and to take his throne and to to fulfill God’s promise that the scepter would never depart from from his throne uh he had Solomon set up on his donkey and he Mar had him marched into Jerusalem as a symbol of peace that God’s promise remains that God’s peace through his the line of David would continue Jesus riding in on a donkey was incredibly uh purposeful because it’s a sign of David’s line is being fulfilled God’s promise is being fulfilled in David or to David in Jesus that there’s going to be peace although it wasn’t the kind of peace they were expecting they were looking for more of the warhorse kind of Peace but the peace that Jesus was coming was a piece to conquer the spiritual forces of Darkness of sin and death and the devil friends as Jesus makes his triumphal entry into our hearts when we receive him as king he comes in peace but it’s a conquering peace it’s a con conquering peace that Reigns triumphant over sin and death and the devil our sins have been forgiven have been washed clean by the blood of Christ and his perfect sacrifice on the cross death has been destroyed and his resurrection from the dead and the devil has been defeated has been defeated that’s what the triumphal entry is symbolizing and is all about for us but secondly not only did he come uh in peace perhaps the most incredible revelation gospel revelation of the triumphal entry is that Jesus came into Jerusalem
willingly willingly consider he knew he had already said it right he had already he said it when I when I read to you earlier in Luke 13 he had already he knew that suffering and death and his own perishing was coming in
Jerusalem he had every chance to run he had every chance to to raise up an army they would have he had every chance to take every precaution to protect himself and he did none of it despite the danger despite knowing that his own death was coming Jesus willingly marched into Jerusalem but secondly there I think there’s another aspect to this willingness of Jesus uh to March into Jerusalem not just that his own death was was waiting waiting there think of the kind of people that were
there the people that were awaiting him the people that he was going to have to deal with he knew that the high priest was there that Herod was there pilate the leaders of the Pharisees the leaders of the Sadducees and the whole Sanhedrin those people who would been fighting him all along those people who were unwilling to receive him unwilling and defiant but not just them it’d be nice if it was just them wouldn’t it but even his own disciples he knew that what awaited him there was his own betrayer the one who walked with him the one he loved he knew the cowardice of his own disciples who were shouting hosan in the highest in this moment but in a few
moments betraying him denying him running away to save their own lives he knew the political corruption that awaited him in Jerusalem he knew the religious hypocrisy that he was going to face he knew the greed he knew the lust for power and control he knew all the people who didn’t deserve
him not one of them not his opponents not even his beloved
disciples but despite it all Jesus
willingly came into Jerusalem to conquer in peace the forces of Darkness that bind all of us sin and death and the devil friends Jesus knows that we’re not worthy Jesus knows that we don’t deserve
him but Jesus willingly comes and longs to come into our Our Lives by his grace and
mercy to Reign triumphant over our sin to give us new life to destroy the devil’s work not because we deserve it but because he loves us and he is
willing finally Jesus came into Jerusalem Faithfully he came Faithfully you know Jesus came peacefully to conquer he came willingly to those who did not deserve him and finally he came Faithfully to an Unfaithful
people from our father Adam and from his First Act of unfaithfulness we’ve all been unfaithful to God we are all unfaithful to God every one of us every one of us has sinned every one of us as Isaiah said all of us have gone astray each of us have turned to our own way and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all the scriptures are full of God’s faithfulness over and over and over again God’s faithfulness and over and over and over again people’s
unfaithfulness but now God has sent us a new and a better Adam we like Adam want to be like God that’s why the whole thing started right wanting to be like God to have his knowledge to have H his power to have his immortality to have his control that’s what all of us want that’s what’s at the root of all of sin we want to be like God and yet God sent his own son fully man and fully God who though he possessed all knowledge and all power and all immortality and all control he gave them all up we want them and we want to seize them for ourselves yet the Son of God gave it all up to Faithfully submit himself to his father’s will to rescue to reverse the curse of Adam by being obedient to his father all the way to his own death his death on our cross as Paul wrote in to the Philippians in chapter 2 verse 8 and being found in human form Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a
cross see death came as the consequence for Adam’s
sin but but new faithful life with God it comes by the sacrifice of our new Adam our obedient and faithful Savior Jesus Christ friends when Jesus comes into our lives the way he came and Triumph into Jerusalem when he comes he comes bearing his faith his faithfulness his obedience is enough for us his faithfulness covers the depth of our unfaithfulness and we are
rescued friends in the triumphal entry Jesus came peacefully he came to conquer sin and death and the devil for us and he came willingly despite our unwillingness to receive him and he came Faithfully that he that we might be reborn born to a New Life by his faith alone Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem becomes our triumphal entry into the kingdom of God when we lay down our lives before him receive him as Lord and savior of all and to cry out to him salvation Belongs To Our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb who was slain for us all.
amen
