Palm Sunday 2025
Notes
Transcript
If you have your Bibles please turn to
The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the king of Israel!”
So we have arrived at Palm Sunday. This coming week is Holy Week. We begin with Palm Sunday. The day that Jesus entered into Jerusalem. This is the week that would change the entire world. Jesus will teach throughout the week and of course He goes to the cross.
I want to set the scene for his entry into the city. There were thousands of Jews in the city because of the pilgrimage for Passover. Jesus had previously rejected these grand entrances but the time had come. Yet Here Jesus comes but even now as He enters the city it isn’t in the way people would expect.
Definition of Hosanna: “Please save” or “Save now”
The crowd is shouting Hosanna, please save Jesus. They need a savior. We shout Hosanna. The world around us is groaning as Pastor Rick said last week. We are in need of a savior. They wave palm branches because it was the symbol of victory. They are ready to anoint Him King. We are all searching for a savior. We need to wake up as a society to the only Savior and that is Jesus. Instead we are asleep, and searching for a savior in other places. We have decided that humanity can be a savior. That we can progress things further. The truth is that only Jesus can save, Him and Him alone.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you.
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, So all of these are to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies and yet they still do not quite understand the enormity of the situation. This is the start of the moment when Jesus will fulfill the prophecies. This is the moment that starts the greatest act in the history of the world.
Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:“Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”
We already looked at this Prophecy from Zechariah but it is very important to understand why He comes into the city like this. Jesus riding on the donkey was a sign of peace. This is not the way Kings entered a city. He does not enter the city on a war horse. He does not enter with any weapons. He doesn’t even enter on a wheeled vehicle which is how many kings entered a city. He enters on a donkey. Jesus the son of God, Jesus the savior of humanity, again shows us what it means to be humble.
Look at Christ. He rides not upon a horse which is a steed of war. He comes not with appalling pomp and power but sits upon an ass, which is a gentle beast to bear burdens and work for men. From this we see that Christ comes not to terrify, to drive, and oppress, but to help and take for himself our load.
Martin Luther (Founder of the German Reformation)
I love what Martin Luther has to say here. He doesn’t come to terrify. He comes to help us. I look at this week and today with a lot of reflection and seriousness because that is what it deserves. He takes our burdens, He takes our sins. He helps us. Anything I say from the pulpit, I do not say lightly. Jesus comes to help you. It does not matter what you have done. Al of us are sinners. We have all violated the Law of God. Please read the laws in the Old Testament. There is not one person that can fulfill those laws. So Jesus does it for you and pays the penatly. Your guilt over what you have done. He takes that. Your slate is wiped clean because He loves you that much. Your sins are forgiven, and He wants to continue helping you. No ones life is together but you can change your life , you can change your circumstances if you give your life over to Jesus completely. He comes on an animal of peace. He comes as Lord and Savior to help you. It isn’t just the forgiveness of your sins but also the ability to give you the life that God wants for you. He gives you the ability to repent, He gives you ability to live with true freedom which only comes when you lose your life to Jesus.
At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.
Hindsight is always 20/20. In this moment the disciples do not understand. However if you look at the Gospels and then you look at the Book of Acts, the disciples have been completely transformed by Jesus. They are different people. I also want to warn that when we are reading the Gospels, it is easy for us to look upon them and question why they did not get it. Yet we have the whole Bible. But we also need to point that eye towards ourselves.
Citing the findings from a just-completed national survey of 2,033 adults that showed only 4% of adults have a biblical worldview as the basis of their decision-making, researcher George Barna described the outcome.
We do not understand Jesus either. We need to see the world with a Biblical view. If you truly want to follow Jesus and glorify God then the cost is high, but the rewards of Jesus are infinitely outweigh that cost. To truly follow Jesus , we must unlearn everything that the world has taught us. We must learn everything that Jesus is teaching us. Jesus comes into the city on a donkey not as a conquering hero. He goes to the cross and dies for our sins. He does not lay waste to the Roman empire. The ways of Jesus transcend the ways of the world. In the same way you must abandon the ways of the world.
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
If you truly wish to be transformed by Jesus, if you truly wish to give your life over to Jesus, we must turn around from the world. These things that John lists here are still going strong today. Do not focus on the world but focus on the Father. Turn away from worldly desires and fill them with the desires of God.
Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
Jesus is teaching this just after He enters the city. The first part of these two verses is Jesus talking about Himself. Because of His death, look at what has happened to the world. Through His sacrifice, not only our own lives but those of so many people lives have been saved. It is truly remarkably what Jesus accomplished on the cross. It isn’t just for you and I in the room right now. It is for everyone that believes in Jesus. This is why it is so important that we follow the Great commission and tell me the Good News of Jesus Christ.
We look at the next part of the teaching. Anyone who loves their life will lose it , and those who hate their life in this world.
He is talking about probably one of the most fundamental sins in the history of the world. We cannot be self-centered people. The pride in oneself is what leads to destruction. It will pull you away from who God wants you to be. It will pull you away from what you want to be. Anything in this life can become an idol and take over your life. We are all wired to worship and we must worship the one true God. Do not accept false substitutes in your life.
“Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
Now let us take the first part of the verse. Jesus is modeling for the disciples and for us about not being self-centered. His soul is troubled because of what must happen.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Jesus by going to the cross is the ultimate sacrifice for our sins but also the ultimate example of what it means to give up your life for the will of God.
Now God Himself speaks in this moment. And hear is how the people respond to this amazing moment
The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.
The crowd is spilt on what actually happen. This is why it is so important to have a Biblical worldview. Now I don’t know about you but I have a heard a lot of thunder in my life. I have never heard thunder speak words. Those who believed knew what they heard. Those that didn’t believe , they missed the Living God speaking directly to them. Please do not miss God working in your life. Do not be afraid to ask questions about the Bible. Do not be afraid to ask someone to disciple you in the ways of Jesus. When God speaks to you, do not write it off as thunder.
Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
Jesus in one week’s time. When we meet again to celebrate Easter and Jesus walks out of that tomb. Jesus changes the entire world. The devil is defeated. Death is defeated. Jesus will ascend to Heaven and He is the only way to the Father. Finally as we have been learning in the book of Revelation. He will come back for us.
This is the start of Holy Week. As I said at the start of the message, this is a very important week. I want you to set this week apart from all the other 51 weeks of the year. Spend a lot of time with God this week and really think about your life and your faith. Do you have a Biblical worldview? Do you need to give your life over to Jesus,. Have you been thinking about Baptism but have been waiting for the right moment ? The right moment is now. This week we love feast. It is the same thing that Jesus did at the last supper.
I want to end with one final thought. Jesus was never about people being comfortable. It is about living the way God wants you to live now, and finally where you will be when Jesus returns to gather us. Jesus entered the city on an animal of peace. He returns on a white horse. There will be judgement and there will be consequence for those that have not followed Jesus’ words. Please come to Jesus when it is a time of peace and not wrath.
Let us pray
