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Sunnyside Baptist Church Palm Sunday "A Good Day to Shake Things Up"
To this beautiful Palm Sunday here at Sunnyside. Blessing to enter Holy Week and Passion Week together starting today. A few announcements as we get started this morning and everyone is seated. Looking ahead we'll have our regular evening service tonight here at the church at 530 p .m. and then Wednesday as well at 545 and the meal for everyone in the fellowship hall and then 630 prayer for the adults and tag for the kids.
Next Sunday is Easter Sunday so looking at that actually just prior to that sorry on Friday we're going to be having our Good Friday service together that starts here at the church at 630 p .m. and then after that after those three days Sunday April 17th our morning service for Easter regular time but there will be some small refreshments and things out for people to partake of together but regular time not a sunrise service that day.
A few more announcements we're going to be collecting some supplies particularly medical supplies for folks in the Ukraine. We're thankful that the Smoots have helped to organize that. If you'd like to contribute to that there'll be a flyer located out in the foyer with the items listed that could be used to be sent over there to the people in Ukraine and we thank you very much for your support.
And then lastly Pruned to Bloom women's ministry is going to be coming back. Did it used to be called Mugs and Muffins or it's still called Mugs and Muffins? Pruned to Bloom is the women's ministry but okay Mugs and Muffins is the activity so flowers and muffins and mugs and all of that good stuff you ladies will enjoy together.
They're going to be meeting again in the fellowship hall Saturday April 30th from 10 a .m. to noon that morning come to gather in fellowship be encouraged and enjoy a meal and spend time together in the word and prayer together.
If you have more questions or need more information see Haley Mounts for that. Any other announcements before we begin our worship this morning? All right I will go over our fighter verse here comes from Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 4 and 5.
Hear O Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. We're gonna take some time to meditate on that verse to prepare our hearts for worship and then when we're done with that dad.
Will come up and open us in prayer. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.
O Lord those words of David are the expression of our hearts today. Let us exalt your name together. May your praise continually be in our mouths. May our souls boast in you. May the sound of that praise humble our hearts before you and cause us to be glad in Christ the one in whom we enjoy all your blessings.
Help us Lord to worship you today in Jesus name amen.
Would you stand with me for our call to worship? Our passage this morning is found in Psalms chapter 77. We'll be reading verses 11 through 16. Read with me together. I will remember the deeds of the Lord.
Yes I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds. Your way O God is holy. What God is great like our God. You are the God who works wonders. You have made known your might among the peoples.
You with your alarm redeemed your people the children of Jacob and Joseph. When the waters saw you O God when the waters saw you they were afraid. Indeed the deep trembled. So if you would turn to your Psalms for worship hymnal page 77 B and we'll sing.
Verses 4 5 6. Turn to page 118. E. This morning is Psalms Palm Sunday. We'll be.
Singing several songs that recognize that. If you know verse 16 here. Oh blessed is the one who comes in the Lord's great name. A blessing from the.
Lord's own house upon you we proclaim. Scripture reading comes from Isaiah 21.
We're gonna be reading verses 11 through 17. Against Duma. He calls me out of Seir. Watchman what of the night? Watchman what of the night? The watchman said the morning comes and also the night. If you will inquire inquire.
Return come back. Against Arabia. In the forest in Arabia you will lodge. Oh you traveling companies of Danites. Oh inhabitants of the land of Tima. Bring water to him who is thirsty. With their bread they met him who fled.
For they fled from the swords. From the drawn sword. From the bent bow. From the distress of war. For thus the Lord has said to me. Within a year according to the year of a hired man all the glory of Kadar will fail.
And the remainder of the number of archers the mighty men of the people of Kadar will be diminished. For the Lord of the Lord God of Israel has spoken it. Let us pray. Oh Lord who is Edom? Who is Arabia?
Before your great name. And as it was said so do we say b'shem Adonai. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Help us to remember you are the one who causes nations to rise and to fall. That the kingdom of your son increase of its governance.
You may be seated. Christ's triumphal.
Entry into Jerusalem. See the picture of the people's laying down the palm branches and palm leaves and crying out. Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. So if you would turn to page 174 in the regular hymnal.
We'll.
Sing Hosanna. Loud Hosanna. Thank you for gathering us here today on Palm Sunday.
Rejoice in Jesus Christ our King. To sing praises to his name. To honor him in his authority. To confess his glory. To rejoice in work that he came to do. The work he still does in ruling and reigning as our King.
Help us to rejoice today as we behold our King. It is in his name, the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Mark chapter 11. Mark chapter 11. We'll be reading verses 1 through 11 here in a moment.
An opportunity for us on Palm Sunday and Good Friday and Easter to pay attention to the most important facts of the universe. The person and work of Jesus Christ carved in historical certainty and detail.
Standing at the center of everything. A title for our sermon today is a good day to shake things up. Which is a good way to describe Palm Sunday and what went on one thousand nine hundred and seventy-two years ago.
A good day to shake things up. Good Friday might be called a good day to make a new covenant and Easter Sunday could be called a good day to turn the world upside down. We'll be spending our time in the Lord's will today and Friday and next week in the Gospel of Mark as we consider the person and work of Jesus.
So we begin with Mark chapter 11. Your heading in your Bible, if you have headings, at the top of chapter 11 may say the triumphal entry or it may say something about Palm Sunday. But this will be our text.
Chapter 11 verses 1 through 11. This portion of the Gospel of Mark begins the final third of Mark. The whole third of the material of Mark is dedicated to the week preceding the resurrection and also some material just after the resurrection.
And this is common when you read the Gospels that a full third or a fourth of these hefty books are dedicated to those last few days. We see the importance. We see the vital meaning of the person and work of Christ magnified in these last days before his death and resurrection including and focusing on his death and resurrection.
But to understand what goes on in chapter 11 that it's more than a parade. It's more than a pleasant outing filled with singing. To understand the import of what goes on in chapter 11 there are a few key verses from chapter 10 which I think will help us.
For example, in Mark chapter 10 in verses 32 through 34 we read this. Now they were on the road going up to Jerusalem. You always went up to Jerusalem because it was high in elevation. They were traveling south but they're going up.
And Jesus was going before them. Now notice the attitude, the perspective of his disciples. And they were amazed. Which doesn't mean you know like how impressive is our Savior. They were astounded with great fear.
And as they followed they were afraid. Then he took the 12 aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to him. Behold we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes.
And they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and scourge him and spit on him and kill him. And the third day he will rise again. A lot of conflict has been brewing between Jesus and the religious leaders.
Judea, Jerusalem is not a safe place for Jesus to go. And as we read the context we discover that Jesus is going to Jerusalem and a huge crowd is going with him. It doesn't appear that he's going to be sneaking into enemy territory.
It appears that he's going in boldly and the disciples are afraid of what is going to happen. And Jesus tells them exactly what is going to happen and the meaning of it as well. Now Jesus says this about his going to Jerusalem and his death and resurrection just after the encounter with the rich ruler, the rich young ruler, in which Jesus begins to talk about how salvation is only possible through God.
And it's not about us bringing what we have to God in order to be saved, but what God will do to save us. And then isn't it fitting that Jesus then begins to describe how he's going to Jerusalem to do what God demands for our salvation.
The disciples just finished saying, well who can be saved? And God and Jesus says, only God can do that and here I go. I'm going to go do the work for your salvation. Just after this, unfortunately, the disciples begin arguing with one another about who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Who is really the most impressive here? About grabbing positions of honor and power. And then Jesus sets them straight by revealing the meaning, the underlining meaning, of why he is going to suffer and die and be raised.
And he says this in verse 45, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Now we have to keep those verses in mind when we read chapter 11. The disciples were afraid.
They didn't know what's going to happen. Jesus tells them what's going to happen. It doesn't sound pleasant, but Jesus shows that he is the servant that God has chosen to go and lay down his life as a ransom, purchasing a people for God.
That's the background to what we read in chapter 11, verses 1 through 11. So I invite you to stand now as we read this together. Mark 11, beginning in verse 1. This is the word of the Lord. Now when they drew near Jerusalem to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and he said to them, go into the village opposite you and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied on which no one has sat.
Loose it and bring it. And if anyone says to you, why are you doing this? Say, the Lord has need of it. And immediately he will send it here. So they went their way and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street and they loosed it.
But some of those who stood there said to them, what are you doing loosing the colt? And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. So they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it and he sat on it.
And many spread their clothes on the ground and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then those who went before and those who followed cried out saying, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when he had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
This is the word.
Of the Lord. Praise be to God. You may be seated. Every time Jesus shows up, things.
Get shook up. It's the way it was at the announcement of his birth. Jesus showed up. Things got shook up. Wise men from the east came and said, we've seen the star of the king. We've come to worship him.
And they make this announcement at the logical place, the capital city Jerusalem. And they make this announcement to the logical person, King Herod, who's suddenly having a bad day. Because he's just been told that a new serpent king has been born.
Matthew chapter 2 verse 3 says that Herod was troubled in all of Jerusalem with him. A word meaning stirred up, shaken. When the king shows up, when the king arrives, he comes like a storm and everything stops.
You know what it's like when the storm arrives? We don't have our normal routine. We have a normal storm routine. We stop. We pay attention. We assess. We analyze what the proper action plan is going to be.
We all watch our favorite meteorologist. And we may or may not go take cover. But everything stops when a big storm comes and everything changes and we begin to do different things than normal. That's like what it's like when the king shows up.
It's like war when the king shows up. Everything stops, changes. Things are different now. We don't do anything the way that we used to do when war comes. When the king arrives, there is a sifting of affections.
There is a crisis of allegiance when the king arrives. There may be raging or repentance, but the fiction of neutrality evaporates immediately. It's fine to say, oh, I don't really take sides until the king arrives and the sides must be chosen.
And it makes it evident that the side has already been chosen before the king arrives. His arrival just makes it clear. And make no mistake, when we read chapter 11 of Mark, verses 1 through 11, indeed it is the king who has arrived.
And his announcement has been made by a most unlikely herald. It's, of course, John the Baptist, but another unlikely herald at the end of chapter 10. Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus, heading out of Jericho on the Jericho Road towards Jerusalem.
There was a man, a blind man, who saw things clearly. Bartimaeus, an Aramaic expression meaning the son of the unclean. Son of the unclean. Whose fault was it that this man was born blind? Was it his fault or his parents' fault that he was born blind?
Perhaps this is an expression. Perhaps this is an insulting name. Perhaps this is not his original name that he is, but he's been called the son of the unclean because he's blind. A name full of shame.
A name that indicates that the judgment of God is upon him. But look at the grace of God at work in his life. And though he is blind in his eyes, when he hears that Jesus of Nazareth approaches, he knows exactly who it is.
It is the son of David. It is the Messiah. And this is his only chance to be healed. And he cries out, not caring about those around him, saying, have mercy, son of David. Save Hosanna, son of David. You see, he's the one who started the whole thing.
He's the one who started the inspiration for the song that came later. The king has been announced. The whole crowd heard him. At first they told him to be quiet, but then they realized, okay, Jesus is cool with this.
He's being called the son of David. He's being shown as the Savior. And so, okay, let's all join in. Look, he healed Bartimaeus. Let's rejoice in the son of David. And when he shows up, when the king shows up, things get shook up.
What happens here in Mark chapter 11, I think, lies behind the couple of chapters in C .S. Lewis's Voyage of the Dawn Treader, where King Caspian the Tenth arrives upon the Lone Islands, which have been long in rebellion and in cut off from the true ruler of their lands.
And he shows up, and there's some question as to whether or not Lord Gumpus is going to receive him or not, because he's been long without anyone looking over his shoulder and holding him accountable.
And so Caspian is advised to show up in full armor, glinting in the sun, with a parade of people who are happy to see him. And they storm the castle, not with force, but with glory. And they blow right past the guards, and they show up right in the house of Lord Gumpus.
And when they arrive there, well, a table does get flipped. Very much what we read in Mark chapter 11, about the arrival of Christ being praised by a parade. And he arrives in the house and begins to flip some tables.
As we look at Mark 11 verses 1 through 11, there are two responses that we are called to. They are not hard to understand, but they cost a great deal. The first is this, behold your king. Behold your king.
The second is this, bless his kingdom. Bless his kingdom. Let's think of the first. Behold your king. Notice the particular instructions that Jesus gives to his disciples. They are drawing near to Jerusalem.
They're at the house of unripe figs, and the house of sorrow. They pass through Bethphage and Bethany, and now they're at the Mount of Olives. They are very, very close to the walls of Jerusalem. All that separates them is a single valley.
And then he says to them, okay, hold up. We're going to get a needed element. He tells his disciples, go to the village opposite you. As soon as you have entered it, you will find a colt tied on which no one has sat.
This colt is unbroken. Nobody has ever ridden this colt before. I don't know if any of you have ever tried to break a horse, to train something to ride on. The first ride is not smooth. This is a peculiar kind of instruction.
Jesus says, go get a colt upon which no one has ridden before, and bring it. And when they ask why you're stealing a car off the street, it would be their equivalent. Say, the Lord has need of it. Who is this Lord?
Well, the Son of Man is coming to Jerusalem, you see. This royal one who is declared from Daniel 7. The Son of David, the Messiah, Bartimaeus has declared him to be. He's arriving in Jerusalem. The one from the lineage of David has arrived to take the throne.
So here comes the Son of David. The Lord has need of this colt, and sure enough, they ask them what they're doing, and they reply in just the way that Jesus tells them. Now, Jesus is going to ride on a colt that has been unbroken.
It hasn't ever been tamed. He's going to ride on this colt into Jerusalem, and we see that he goes all the way to the temple. It was customary in this day for all the pilgrims coming to Jerusalem to walk, to not ride.
It was the sense that one should come humbly for the Passover, to gather into Jerusalem without riding on beasts of burden. But Jesus is going to do something that is entirely different than what everybody else is doing.
He's going to come riding on a colt. This is going to get attention. This is going to turn heads. Not only does he ride on a colt, but as he goes, you see all of these people praising and singing this psalm, making a whole bunch of noise.
The fact that he's on the colt actually has prophetic significance, and what they sing has prophetic significance. Jesus is doing things intentionally and allowing things and encouraging things intentionally that garner attention to him.
This is very surprising for the reader of Mark. As you read through the Gospel of Mark, time and again as Jesus heals someone, delivers someone, does something wonderful for someone, he then follows it up by saying, don't tell anyone.
Don't tell anyone. We're going to keep this on the down-low. And now all of a sudden, he's doing everything to gain maximum attention. His style is Zechariah 9 -9. His walk-up music is Psalm 118. There's a massive parade, a lot of noise, a great deal of attention.
Why? Because of what it says in the Scriptures. Because he came to fulfill that which was written in the Prophets concerning the Messiah. So he rides on a colt, unbroken. Of course, he was born of a virgin unknown, and he was laid in a tomb unused.
He comes in holiness. He comes as the master of creation, riding on a colt that should be completely bucking him off and squealing and doing everything it can to get this foreign load off of its back.
But the one who can calm the wind and the waves rides the colt in utter perfection. And all of this points to a very deep significance. There is intentionality here, and it stretches all the way back to Genesis 49, verses 8 through 11, which, of course, lies behind Zechariah 9 -9.
In Genesis 49, Jacob is prophesying over his sons, and he says of Judah, verse 8, Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise. Your hands shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's children shall bow down before you.
Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down like a lion, and as a lion, who shall rouse him? You've heard of the lion of Judah. Verse 10, the scepter, which is the ruling staff, the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes, a man of peace.
And he's a ruler. He has authority. To him shall be the obedience of the peoples, the nations. Binding his donkey to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes.
His eyes are darker than wine and his teeth whiter than milk. What does he say? When Shiloh shows up, with him comes the promised land. And when he shows up, pay attention, he'll have a colt with him.
Now this, of course, is heard again in Zechariah chapter 9. Zechariah chapter 9, verse 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Probably like what they're doing in chapter 11, Hosanna, Hosanna.
Okay. Behold, your king is coming to you. Behold your king. Your king is coming to you. He is just and having salvation. So sing Hosanna. Sing Hosanna. Sing salvation. O save. Now notice how he comes, lowly and riding on a donkey.
A colt. The fall of a donkey. What is Jesus doing? He knows Zechariah 9. He was the one who, by the Holy Spirit, inspired Zechariah to write it down. He knows Zechariah 9. What's the best way at Passover, the week of Passover, to communicate to everybody in Judea and Jerusalem that the Messiah has arrived?
That the king has arrived? What's the best way to set things up so that everybody there will behold their king? Disciples, go get me a colt of a donkey. I'm gonna ride on that into Jerusalem. Do you see the intentionality of what Jesus does?
After so many opportunities and him saying, no, no, don't tell anyone. Don't tell anyone. Now he tells everyone, in his own way, fulfilling the Scriptures, go get me a colt to ride on. This is how we're going to go into Jerusalem.
Not sneaking into enemy territory, but coming bold and obvious. The king is arriving. Further on in verse 10 of Zechariah 9, I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem. The battle bow shall be cut off.
He, your king, behold your king, he shall speak peace to the nations. His dominion shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. Which is, of course, from Daniel. He speaks peace to the nations.
He says, no more chariot for Ephraim. No more horse out of Jerusalem. Okay, Israel, you're not going to go kill the Gentiles anymore. You're not gonna go attack the nations anymore. No, I speak peace to the nations.
So once again, just as in Genesis 49, the ruler comes, the king comes, and what does he bring? Peace. Zechariah 9, the ruler comes, the king comes, and what does he bring? Peace. Are we catching the theme of what Jesus is communicating on Palm Sunday as he arrives in clear claim to authority as the king?
He says, I come to bring peace and a peace to all the nations, even peace between the Jew and the Gentile. Do you see what he's claiming? This is backed up even more. Zechariah 9, verse 9 obviously comes from the prophecy from Jacob concerning his son Judah.
Zechariah 9, verse 10 comes out of Psalm 72. Why are we looking at this? Because this is exactly the text that Jesus is expositing by his physical actions on the road into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He's making his exposition in physical form, in activity.
He's not even saying anything as he's riding on the donkey, but he's still as the master teacher expositing the text. So what lies behind Zechariah 9, verse 10? When we go to Psalm 72, we have a Messianic Psalm all about the son of David, the son of David, in which we hear in verse 3 that the mountains will bring peace to the people.
In the days of the son of David, verse 7, in the days of the king, the righteous shall flourish in the abundance of peace until the moon is no more. Verse 8, we hear Zechariah 9, 10, he shall have dominion also from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.
And we see all the nations falling down before him and serving him. Verses 9 through 11, just like in Genesis 49, the obedience of the nations are to him. What I'm trying to demonstrate is that Jesus Christ, in giving these particular instructions, is fulfilling the prophecies of the Old Testament, declaring what they declared, that he's the king, he has the authority, and he has come to bring peace.
Peace between God and man. Peace between man and man. That he comes to reconcile God with sinners and to reconcile the warring nations, the warring Jews and Gentiles together as one. Don't you see that as we gather together in Christ, we beat our swords into plowshares and we're no longer at war with one another?
Don't you understand that even as nations like Russia and Ukraine fight each other, that Russian and Ukrainian Christians take communion together? Don't you see where peace is at is in Christ? And he brings it to pass by his own authority as the king.
Isn't the name of the son of David, Sholomon, peaceful? The man of peace? So what do we see as a deeply significant event? That there is joy at Christ's arrival, he rides in as an occult, he's declaring his authority, and he's declaring peace.
What kind of peace? Peace with God. Peace with man. But you notice that he comes in and this peace is only brought about by submission to his authority. Rejecting the authority of Christ leaves you at war with God.
Rejecting the authority of Christ leaves you at war with one another. It is only by beholding the king and then blessing his kingdom, rejoicing in his authority, that peace may be had between you and your creator.
Between you and your neighbor. How many powerful implications that are here. The symbolism is so deep that it's so redundant that it's hard to miss. Do you remember when Solomon was made king? We read through that section on Sunday night together.
That was not what you would call a smooth transition of power. Even though Solomon's name means peaceful, he's the son of David. That transition was not very smooth. There was an usurper who tried to grab the throne.
And what did they do to make sure that the true son of David, the true king of Israel, was declared king? What did they do? They put him on a mule and paraded him down to the springs of Gihon, shouting and giving praise to the king, the son of David.
Sound familiar? Who's the usurper in this story of Mark chapter 11? It's those stewards who are in Jerusalem. The Jewish religious leaders who have said, we will not have this man reign over us. The king is arriving, the stewards are to hand over power.
But they plot to kill him, to remove him, so they may maintain their own hold on their city, their culture, and their land. They lay down coats for Jesus to sit on, coats for his cult to walk on. What does that come from?
They're not laying out the red carpet. That's not what that means. We don't read that silly custom of Hollywood back into the scriptures. What are they doing? They're declaring a new regime. They're declaring there's a new king in the land.
This is exactly what happened in 2 Kings chapter 9 verse 13, when God has declared judgment upon the house of Ahab and Jezebel. Ahab and Jezebel and their descendants have been set aside for destruction.
Their regime will come to an end. They are wicked, and they are idolatrous, and they are under the judgment of God. Therefore, God raises up a new king called Jehu. And what do they do when they declare that Jehu is king, even while the descendant of Ahab is on the throne?
What do they do to show that this Jehu is the true king? They take off their coats, they lay them on the ground, and he walks on them and stands on them. You see, the current regime in Jerusalem is under the judgment of God, and the king has arrived, the true king.
And he comes, and he declares judgment on them, and we see that as well in chapter 11. There's a power struggle going on. There's a crisis of authority going on. When the king shows up, everything gets shook up, and those who are still holding on to the authority that doesn't belong to them are getting angry.
They're getting scared. They're plotting to kill him. Jesus has made it as clear as clear can be that he's the king. He's come to take over. He's the one in charge, and everyone needs to kiss the sun and find refuge in him lest they be destroyed.
Now, what's the practical impact of this for us? Behold your king. Behold your king. How does Zechariah read? Look, behold, see over there. Pay attention how much of our lives are filled up with looking here, there, and everywhere.
Look at this. Pay attention to that. Check this out. What do we need? We need to behold our king. We need to behold our king. How much of our life, how much of our good is simply this, seeing Christ in his glory and rejoicing in his kingdom?
How much of it simply comes down to that? We're in discussing what true holiness is at the end of Colossians 2 through Colossians 3. Paul says, set your attention on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God and that paying attention to Christ and looking at him and glorifying him results in a renewal in which we are made godly.
A renewal in which we are brought to peace with one another. How much of our good is simply this, beholding Christ in his glory? Paul also says in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18, but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the spirit of the Lord.
How much of our good is simply looking at him in the word so that we may look like him in the world? How much of our good is simply beholding Christ? Every Sunday is a good day to shake things up because we come together to look at one person, our king, and to hear from him as the scepter of his authority, his word holds sway in our lives.
Behold your king. It'll shake your life up. Bless his kingdom. Behold your king. Bless his kingdom. This is what the crowd is doing here in Mark chapter 11. They're blessing his kingdom. So he's made it very clear he's the king.
He's on the cult. He's heading into Jerusalem. I mean the clothes are on the ground. Everything is apparent. He is the king. So now what is the response of the crowd that goes out before him and behind him?
What do they say? They say, oh no, this is a bad idea. This is going to offend some people. I mean we're going to lose followers over this. What do they say? They say, Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. They start blessing the authority of Christ, blessing his kingdom using Psalm 118. Like, well there's only one psalm to sing right now.
As we're traveling up to Jerusalem, let's sing a psalm of ascent. We're on the ascent. So let's sing a psalm of ascent. Let's sing Psalm 118. Let's sing Hosanna. Hosanna to the son of David. We're almost there.
So let's sing the last portion of that psalm, as we've already sung the other ones. So here's the last portion of Psalm 118. We're almost there. Let's sing the psalm of ascent. Let's give praise to the king.
Give praise. Look what they say. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes in the name of the Lord. In other words, this one, this one is the descendant of our father David.
This one is the son of David. He is the king. He, just, just like Bartimaeus said, he's the son of David. He's the king. Hosanna. Praise be to him. Now Psalm 118 itself is very rich with proclamations of Messiah.
And we should pay attention to that on Palm Sunday. Verse 22. The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Who are, who are the builders in Jesus' day that are rejecting him?
It's those that he's come to proclaim judgment on in this regime change. This was the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. What kind of day is it?
It's a day to shake things up. The day that we rejoice in is not the day where our routine remains undisturbed and we may please ourselves however we like. That's not the day that we rejoice in. The day that the Lord has made that we rejoice in is the day that things get shook up because Christ shows up and his authority holds sway in our lives.
Save now, I pray. There's the word, Hosanna. Save now, I pray, O Lord. O Lord, I pray. Send now prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.
God is the Lord and he has given us light. Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are my God and I will praise you. You are my God, I will exalt you. O give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endures forever.
I give praise to the Messiah, the stone that the builders rejected. The stone the builders rejected. The stone that was uncut by human hands. That fell from heaven. And what does Jesus say about this stone in the Gospel of Luke?
He says, it, whoever falls across it is broken and whoever it falls upon shall be crushed. He comes with authority that shakes everything up politically. It shakes up everything culturally. It shakes up everything economically.
When he shows up, things get shook up because he's the king. And if the Jews who believe in him find refuge in him, how blessed are they? But if they find him a stumbling block and they trip across him, Jesus warns, you will not survive.
You will be broken. So when you behold the king, what's the proper response? You bless his kingdom. You rejoice in his authority. You rejoice in his authority. And this is what the lowly are praising him for.
They're praising him. Even back to where you find the son of the unclean, Bartimaeus, is giving praise to the Lord. This is a crowd from Galilee. And they're traveling with Jesus down to Judea. The praise of the lowly, giving glory to God.
And look where he goes. He goes to the temple. Verse 11 says, Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when he looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
He gets all the way to the temple. You know, he sees a problem there. There's a problem with the leaders. Are they glad that the king has arrived? As stewards, are they glad that the owner has arrived to see the state of their stewardship?
They are not happy at all that he has arrived. When he arrives, he looks at everything, and then he leaves, and then he comes back. And he turns over the tables and cleans house. Spring cleaning in a very important way.
Why? He says in verse 17, is it not written, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of thieves. Their den of thieves was simply an extortion racket wherein they said to everybody pilgrimaging to Jerusalem, your money is unclean.
You have to trade it out with our clean money at a really bad exchange rate. Your sacrifices are unclean, but ours are clean. You'll need to sell yours, and we'll buy it from you at a reduced rate. And then sell you really good clean animals at a higher rate.
And remember, all of this goes to a good cause, beautifying the temple. Look at all the gold here. That's what Jesus sees going on on the 37 acres of the temple complex. Why is it 37 acres large? Because you have everybody traveling to Jerusalem.
Because you have all these animals. Because you have all this business going on in the temple. Jesus looks at it all and then comes back later and does not flip over two tables and go home. He cleans house in a big way.
Why did they kill him on Good Friday? Why did they plot to kill him, put him on a kangaroo court trial, break all of their laws to murder him? Why did they make deals with the devil to kill him on Good Friday?
Because of what he did on Palm Sunday, and the day after that, and the day after that. Because he showed up and said, I am the king. And they said, we don't want you to reign over us. It was an authority struggle, a power struggle.
The leaders did not want him there. And they're afraid of the people, so they don't make any moves at the first. But notice the theme of authority. At the end of the chapter, what did they do? Verse 28, they said to him, by what authority are you doing these things?
And who gave you this authority to do these things? They mean, who gave you the authority to come to the temple and blow it up, to shake things up? Who gave you the authority to ride in Jerusalem on the cold of a donkey and say, you're the king?
Who gave you all that authority? They're saying, we didn't give you that authority. By what authority are you doing these things? And Jesus showed them that they feared man rather than fearing God. So he said, you don't get to know.
I'm not going to tell you because you don't fear God. If they did fear God, they would know he had his authority from God, his father. They would not bless his kingdom. They would not bless his kingdom.
When you behold your king, we are to bless his kingdom, his authority, to rejoice in that. This is the Palm Sunday lesson. This is the Palm Sunday lesson. Prior to this, throughout the ministry of Christ, what was he doing?
Going on his circuit, preaching, teaching, telling parables, healing people, delivering people, showing kindness, teaching about the forgiveness of God, even giving bread and fish. I mean, who can complain, really?
But after Palm Sunday, everything changed because he showed up in full authority. He'd been saying, don't tell anyone, don't tell anyone. Then he says, I'm telling everyone, here's my authority. And after that, nothing was the same.
There was no turning back. It was, they were going to either completely submit to him or they're going to kill him. That was it. The Palm Sunday lesson, nothing gets to stay the same when Jesus comes in.
Nothing gets to stay the same when Jesus comes in. There's going to be repentance or there's going to be resistance, but there's not going to be any middle ground. That's the Palm Sunday lesson. Be wise.
Take counsel, O judges and kings. Kiss the son. Do homage to him. Lest he be angry and you perish in the way. How blessed are all those who find refuge in him, the king that God has set upon Mount Zion.
This is true in the big picture. When Jesus, nothing has ever been the same since Jesus went parading into Jerusalem, since he died upon the cross and was raised from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the father.
Nothing in this world has ever been the same since. You're either for him or you're against him. The entire world is split into those who are in Christ and those who are outside of Christ. There's conflict at raging in the world today because Christ is king and his crown rights have been declared over every aspect of this earth, of this world.
All authority has been given to him in heaven and on earth. Therefore, there's conflict. It's true in the big sense and it applies to everything. It applies to politics, applies to culture, applies to economics, everything.
But it's also it applies to you personally. His authority is personally catastrophic. Nothing is off limits in your life. He shakes everything up. We don't get to hold on to preferences as our own priorities as what we will not negotiate.
We don't get to hold on to any of that. It's all his. It's all his. There's nothing off limits. He gets to determine how everything goes in our lives. That's what it means for him to be king. That's what it means for him to be Lord.
When Jesus shows up, things get shook up. That's Palm Sunday. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the time you've given us in your word. Lord, we see the disparate responses, reactions to those who rejected Christ and those who rejoiced in him.
Some sang Hosanna. Some shouted, crucify him. Lord, give us the grace to behold our king, Jesus Christ, in your word. Give us the grace to bless his kingdom, to rejoice in his authority, rejoice in his salvation.
Give us the grace to submit everything.
In our lives to him. Let me pray these things in Jesus' name. Michael was talking about.
Blind Bartimaeus. I couldn't help but remember July 12, 1983. I was over at Starlight Crusade and Holy Spirit revealed to me that I was spiritually blind. He convicted me of my sin. That evening, he convicted me of my sin.
Jesus Christ became my savior and my Lord. My life changed radically at that point. You see, Mom brought me here to church as a baby. I attended Sunnyside. Pat Hall probably took care of me in the nursery.
I don't remember, but going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to McDonald's makes you a hamburger. So, you know, today is the day of salvation. So, if you do not know the Lord as your personal Lord and savior, go to him in repentance.
Go to him crying out for mercy and he will save you. He will be your Lord and your savior. Stand with me for our song of benediction. And at that point, you can sing with the thousands and the millions.
Oh, four thousand tongues to sing.
And the grace of the Son and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. We are dismissed.
