PALM SUNDAY

Praise the Lord, I'm glad to have you this morning with us in worship.

Gotham loves salvation

From space and time In fashion worlds

to his.

His angels most

revered.

Hung the stars like chandeliers Numbered every grain of

sand He knows the heart

of every is.

Forevermore.

Which

we

can't

jury.

Buried by the sun.

Welcome, welcome to the gathering.

The Lord's Day gathering is always a special time.

It's for us to come together.

But today is a unique Lord's Day.

In that we come together to celebrate our Savior's Triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Where He is openly declaring that He is the King.

The King forevermore.

The King that reigns.

The one that we sing of this morning.

And the church universal all over the world at this moment Is joining together and rejoicing and

remembering How our Savior Jesus While fulfilling Old Testament prophecy

Revealed that kingship Entering into Jerusalem just as Prophet

Zachariah had prophesied Centuries before as the Savior of His people.

And now today we worship our Savior and King.

And because He's delivered us.

Not because He's delivered us from external Oppression or difficulty.

But that He has delivered us from the enemy Which is sin and death.

He has bought us and purchased us And made us heirs and joint heirs with Him as He

reigns.

That's good news, isn't it Saint?

Well that's why we gather this morning.

Yet as all of us realize.

And we know deep in our hearts There's still this ongoing sin That is within each of us.

If we are in Christ today We've been delivered.

But this sin keeps pulling at us.

It has affected each and every one of us.

This week and this morning even As we prepared to come and gather.

Sin that makes us feel as though we're unworthy To come into the throne room.

Sin that we realize in our lives Is not up to the standards of the King.

And it draws our hearts and our minds away Forgetting that He has once for all

delivered us From the domain of darkness and sin and death.

We forget that.

So before we start our worship officially this morning.

And this gathering to start.

Let us stop and let us go to Him In a prayer of confession and assurance

A prayer for us to pray Of Lord we acknowledge our sin before You.

We know that we are sinners.

But we also know that we belong to You.

You've paid for even that.

Let us pray.

Oh dear Heavenly Father We bow before You this morning

Acknowledging our sin.

Both individually and corporately.

God we know that we fall short.

In and of ourselves and in our flesh God we think the things that we ought not

to think.

We do the things that we ought not to do.

We fall prey to the things that dishonor You so often.

We're drawn away by our own desires And then enticed.

And then that gives birth to sin.

And then we forget to gaze upon You And to look to You.

And in doing so we look to other things.

And we fall.

We fail.

We acknowledge that before You.

We lay it before You.

Because we also know That even in those sins

Grace abounds.

Not that we would go on sinning.

So that grace may abound.

As Paul says.

Certainly not.

But that we know that we fall short.

We are not Christ The perfect one.

And in this flesh that is warring against us We fail You.

Oh but.

But King Jesus You You have saved us You have delivered us

You have taken on Even that sin that we've committed this morning In our own hearts and

minds And in our lives.

You had taken that upon the cross.

And You took the wrath of God for us Even for that sin.

And now You have given us Your righteousness.

And we stand in that righteousness Not a righteousness of our own

But Your perfect righteousness.

And so when I sin God When we sin as a people We are no

less loved by You than Than the Father loves the Son

Because Your righteousness covers even that.

Thank You Thank You for Your grace and Your mercy.

And in light of it Oh Lord help us Help us not to fall prey to sin Help us

to mortify And run from sin even more Because we long to

obey and honor our Savior In Christ's name.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's go to the Lord in a call to worship.

One that would align our minds and our hearts to His truth.

Today's call to worship is actually adapted from Psalm 118.

And as I read portions of this psalm Your response will be Hosanna to God.

Hosanna in the highest.

This word Hosanna comes from two Hebrew words actually.

One that means to deliver, to save And another that is a begging and a pleading.

It's an acknowledgement that salvation is only from God That He is the source of

all good things And that we are fully and completely dependent upon Him.

The psalmist says give thanks to the Lord For He is good.

His steadfast love endures forever.

Let Israel say His love endures forever.

And all who fear God say His love endures forever.

With the Lord on our side What can we fear?

What can humankind do?

Hosanna in the highest.

We shall triumph over those who surround us And stand in confidence in the Lord our God.

The Lord is our strength and our might.

The Lord has become our salvation.

Hosanna to God.

Oh Lord we rely upon You solely.

We are dependent upon You and that's why we come and we worship You.

The one that is worthy of praise this morning.

Let us pray once again a prayer of adoration.

Before we begin to sing to our great God.

Oh Lord we bow before You once again.

We know that You are sovereign That You reign.

You are our strength and our might.

You are our salvation.

You are everything to us Lord.

You are the beginning You are the end.

You are the means in which we are sustained.

That we are saved That we are brought into glory.

We thank You.

We thank You Triune God.

For who You are.

God the Father that loves us Has set His love upon us

Before creation Before time.

God the Son who came and voluntarily redeemed us Purchased us

Bought us from the wrath of the Father And presented us to Him

spotless By His own righteousness.

And God the Holy Spirit who now seals us As a guarantee for that glorious day

When we will be brought into perfect union with the Triune God

And works in us Convicts us of sins Draws our hearts and minds

towards You Awakens the dead souls and spirits That

are at enmity with God And brings them into the light.

Oh God You are a powerful, wonderful, amazing God.

And Your great love for us is overwhelming.

We only know love because God.

You are love.

I pray that this morning our small

sacrifice of praise Would be a sweet smelling aroma to You.

I pray that we would be reminded of this This glorious act of redemption by a Triune

God.

In Christ's name.

How great, how great is Your love.

How great, how great, how great is Your love.

How great, how great, how great is Your love.

For us

Lifted

in the

heights

of heaven.

You stepped down to earth In perfection

Life for us.

How great, how great is Your love.

How great, how great is Your love.

Is Your love

Perfection Live your life.

A God like You Love so true

Love it Love me

Love so Love it.

How great, how great is Your love.

How great is Your love.

Until then we are sojourners left Here for kingdom purpose.

And King Jesus has left us with an ordinance

That is but a taste of that feast.

It is also a symbol and a remembrance of what Christ has accomplished

In order to bring us into glory.

To bring us into union with Him.

It's the Lord's table That He introduced there at that last Passover

meal with His disciples.

And so together today before we get to the sermon.

And as we typically do this at the end of the sermon We would like to go ahead and worship the Lord through the ordinance

of the Lord's Supper.

So let us pray now That God would be honored in our worship as we come to this table.

Dear Heavenly Father we come to You once again.

We thank You for that great feast.

For glory that You will bring us into one day.

That You have paid for our sins.

And You've left us here with this table.

This table that is meant to drive our hearts and minds towards You And remembering

the sacrifice of Christ.

The spilled blood and the body given over for us to redeem us.

To pay for us, to purchase us.

To bring us into union with You.

I pray that You are honored in it as we partake together.

That we would know that this is not just wine and bread.

But this is a symbol The blood and the body of Christ.

And that Christ Jesus You express Your presence with us in a unique way As we come

together, as we gather on the Lord's day.

For this Lord help us to see the glory of the gospel.

Search our hearts.

I pray that no one in this room would come to this table in an unworthy manner.

For as Paul said some are sick and some have even died for doing so We thank You

for it.

We thank You for this great act of worship that we get to partake in towards You in Christ's name.

Amen.

And today we are going to partake together.

So guests if you are not familiar with our process We have a table on this side and a table over here.

Pastor Keith and Pastor Jeremiah are here and can help you.

The way this works is you'll go out around the sides.

And get in line and take the wine and the bread.

And then come back through the middle to your seats.

I believe we're pretty even this morning.

So I think we'll be okay.

If some of you back in this back corner could come to this side I think that would help.

But we will take the elements but don't partake of them just yet.

Go back to your seats and once everyone has them We are going to come together.

We are going to read from scripture.

From 1 Corinthians together.

And we are going to partake as a family.

You're welcome to come to the table.

1

Corinthians

chapter

11.

Verse 23 The Apostle Paul says For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you

That the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed Took bread

And when He had given thanks He broke it

O Lord we are humbled to To

acknowledge that We could not pay the price for our sins

Our body of flesh was corrupt.

It was at odds and enmity with the Creator.

We had no righteousness.

None.

None to offer.

We were hopeless and helpless In darkness

Under the wrath of God The righteous just wrath That we

deserved.

Oh but your body was perfect Your flesh was sinless.

You were not You were not born in Adam You were the seed of the woman And you were the God

man That never failed That fulfilled the covenant of works That Adam

failed to fulfill.

The one that carried out the law of God perfectly Was the perfect

spotless lamb To represent us your people.

We thank you For your sacrifice In the name of

Jesus Christ.

Amen.

He broke it and said This is my body Which is for you Do this in

remembrance of me.

In

the same way He also took the cup.

After supper saying This cup is the new covenant in my blood Do this as often as

you drink it In remembrance of me.

The perfect blood of Christ

spilled on our behalf.

Paul says for as often as you eat this bread And drink the cup You proclaim the Lord's death Until He

comes.

That's what we're waiting for right?

He's going to return And it's no longer going to be just a taste.

We will feast in the house of Zion With King Jesus Amen.

Let's keep singing Let's sing that song some more here.

Today I'll be reading out of the book of Zechariah Chapter 9

verses 9 through 13.

It's called the coming King of Zion.

Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion.

Shout aloud O daughter of Jerusalem Behold your King is coming to you.

Righteous and having salvation is He.

Humble and mounted on a donkey On a colt the full of a donkey.

I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the war horse from Jerusalem.

And the battle bow shall be cut off.

And He shall speak peace to the nations.

His rule shall be from sea to sea And from the river to the ends of the earth.

As for you also Because of the blood of my covenant with you I will set your

prisoners free From the waterless pit.

Return to your stronghold O prisoners of hope Today I declare that I will

restore to you double.

For I have bent Judah as my bow.

I have made Ephraim its arrow.

I will stir up your sons O Zion Against your sons O Greece And wield you

like a warrior's sword.

You may be seated.

Well that prophecy

that Pastor Keith just read Had been given over 500 years

before Jesus would come and fulfill it.

It was such an important prophecy to fulfill.

That its fulfillment is one of a few accounts of Jesus'

earthly ministry.

That we find recorded in all four synoptic gospels.

We see it in Matthew 21.

As a matter of fact that's going to be our text today.

If you have a copy of God's word with you You can begin to turn to Matthew chapter 21.

We see it in Mark 11.

We see it in Luke 19 and John 12.

You see its significance cannot be overlooked.

If all of the gospel writers addressed this.

And this is one of the few accounts.

Then there's something important here for us to notice.

As you're turning there to Matthew chapter 21.

And as we look at Matthew's account here This brings us into the last week of

Jesus' earthly ministry.

Where we see this culmination of everything being fulfilled.

Everything that we saw introduced in Genesis 3.

All the way back when Adam and Eve had fallen.

And there was signs of a coming Messiah.

The seed of the woman.

All of this is coming into fruition.

As a matter of fact it's so important.

This last week of Jesus' earthly ministry.

His ministry was roughly what, three years?

But now we have almost a quarter left in the book of Matthew.

That's just given to the last week.

And as a matter of fact I think in John I think it's almost half of John's gospel account.

That is given to just this very last week in Jesus' ministry.

So again, this is vital.

So there in Matthew 21 Let's start reading there in verse 1.

It says, now when they drew near to Jerusalem And came to Bethage, to the Mount of Olives.

Then Jesus sent two disciples Saying to them, go into the village in front of you.

And immediately you will find a donkey tied And a colt with her And tie them and bring them to me.

If anyone says anything to you, you shall say The Lord needs them.

And he will send them at once.

This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet.

Here's that prophet that was just read by Pastor Keith.

Saying, say to the daughter of Zion Behold your king is coming to you.

The disciples were humble and mounted on a donkey On a colt, on a fowl of a beast of burden.

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.

They brought the donkey and the colt And put on them their cloaks And he sat on them.

Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road.

And others cut branches from the trees And spread them on the road.

And the crowds that went before him And that followed him.

Were shouting Hosanna to the son of David.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest.

When he entered Jerusalem The whole city was stirred up Saying who is this?

And the crowd said This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.

And Jesus entered the temple And drove out all who sold and bought in the temple.

And he overturned the tables of the money changers And the seats of those who sold

pigeons.

And he said to them It is written my house shall be called a house of prayer.

But you make it a den of robbers.

And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple And he healed them.

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw The wonderful things that he did And the children crying out in the temple

Hosanna to the son of David.

They were indignant.

And they said to him Do you hear what these are saying?

And Jesus said to them Yes, have you never read Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies.

You have prepared praise?

And leaving them he went out of the city To Bethany and lodged there.

This is the reading of God's word Let us pray once again.

Would you pray with me as we ask the Holy Spirit To guide us and illuminate our hearts and minds to the truth.

Lord we ask that You would be honored in the proclamation of your word.

We know that It is often times Difficult for us not to read

ourselves into the text.

Difficult for us To understand the perspicuity and.

Precision.

And exactness and clarity of your text

Because of our flesh And so we ask this morning that you guard our

hearts and minds From untruth Open our hearts and minds

to Your word That we would see the glories of Christ

Lord that we would be overwhelmed by Your greatness And the prophecies

fulfilled And the imagery that is given So that we may have a strengthened faith

Knowing that this is not just a blind faith This is a faith based upon fact.

Help us Lord Guard my lips from error In Christ's name.

Amen.

You know just as I prayed we often read these accounts.

And we miss the significance of fulfilled prophecy Of imagery that is interwoven

Into particularly Things like this, narratives.

An account given of something that actually happened And in doing so we misunderstand its great

meaning.

We overlook it and we consider lesser things Leading us to read them as

Sometimes as just good moral life principles.

For example I once heard This very text taught.

And you know what the main take away was?

It seemed to me the main take away As the person taught this is Well if Jesus is humble enough to

ride on a donkey Then so should I be.

I should be humble, you should be humble.

And though that is not altogether inaccurate Jesus is our example

of humility.

We are to follow his example.

But it is most certainly not the purpose That Christ set out to accomplish In accounts like this.

So I would like for us to spend some time Looking at the significance Of what Christ has accomplished here.

And near the end I want to show you How every person, every person in this room Every person that's

ever lived Every person in all of creation Falls into one of three categories

When presented with the reality Of what Christ was declaring With his triumphal entry

into Jerusalem.

And so the first thing that I want us to see Is there in verse 1, look at it with me.

And it says now when they drew near to Jerusalem.

Well so Jesus has set his sights on Jerusalem.

Has he not?

This is where he's headed.

Jesus has purpose.

If you notice everything Jesus does Is perfectly intentional.

Read the gospel accounts.

Every step that Jesus makes is intentional.

He's never just shooting from the hip.

He has a mission He has a plan.

Jesus doesn't just enter a town Or take a path that isn't strategically timed And

sovereignly orchestrated.

Every person that he comes in contact with Was in the exact moment In the exact time.

So this of course is true here.

And what do they do?

It says and came to Bethphage To the Mount of Olives.

Now if you like the map section of your Bible Some of you may look at those maps And see the

layout.

It kind of gives you the visual Of what's happening in scripture sometimes.

But if you look at that map You see that the Mount of Olives Is just east of Jerusalem.

And this town Bethphage Is there on the Mount of Olives.

And as we see in verse 2 Jesus.

And we'll look at that in a moment.

But Jesus is of course He has purpose For being there For going to

Bethphage To being on the Mount of Olives As he directs his disciples To go and retrieve a donkey

And a colt.

However Jesus could have Chosen any town or any path And provided that need.

You realize that right?

It didn't have to be Bethphage.

It didn't have to be the Mount of Olives.

He could have chosen any direction In any way And provided the need of the donkey.

So why this particular one?

Why this particular town?

It's because this particular one Has been a long time in the making Eternity to be

exact.

All of this had purpose From the very beginning When the triune God Made a covenant of

redemption Amongst the three persons of the Godhead That they would create a people And

deliver a people to himself.

All of this was planned out But specifically for our purposes In

prophecy 619 years before this.

Before this very entering into Bethphage Right before the destruction

Of the first temple That was carried out by Babylon.

If you like Old Testament history The prophet Ezekiel

He gives us an account Of something that he sees.

He sees the glory of God.

Depart from the temple And go to the east

To the mountain.

That's significant.

He sees the glory of God.

Leave the temple.

And now as Jesus is getting ready To publicly reveal who he is He has

sovereignly chosen this path To finally descend from the east.

Because Jerusalem is not his primary location of arrival.

You realize that, right?

It's not Jerusalem that he's necessarily after.

It's what's in Jerusalem.

Look at verse 12.

What does Jesus do?

As soon as he enters the city Jesus entered the temple.

He goes directly to the temple The place where the glory of God Once met with his

people 619 years prior to that.

The glory of God With his people in the temple But has now been

turned into a den of thieves.

Hasn't it?

That's what the passage says.

That's why Jesus goes in And turns the tables over And runs them out.

It's turned into a den of thieves.

And so what does Jesus do?

He cleanses the temple.

And once he's done with that Look down at verse 17 And leaving them He went out of the city.

It wasn't Jerusalem he was after.

It was the temple that he was going to.

What is the imagery of what Jesus is doing here?

The glory of God had departed By way of east of the city Into the mountain.

And now Jesus As John says in John 1 14.

And the word became flesh and dwelt among us Speaking of Christ.

And we have seen his glory.

Glory as to the only Son From the Father full of grace and truth.

This is Christ Jesus The glory of God Revealed to man.

The glory of God once again As I said Descends out of the east From the top of the mountain And back into

the temple.

But notice something.

It's not to dwell.

Jesus doesn't go to the temple The glory of God And back into the temple To dwell there As he

once did But to declare He has purpose in this.

He had already previously hinted At the fact that he himself Is that temple.

Hasn't he?

He said that it would be destroyed And rebuilt in three days.

And of course his disciples Didn't fully understand this.

They had a slightly distorted view Of what Christ was here to do.

They did not fully understand it.

He wasn't there to restore that temple.

How do we know that?

Well later on Look down at chapter 24 of Matthew.

Chapter 24 Remember he's already entered into the temple.

The disciples still don't get what he's doing.

They don't fully understand this.

And in verse 1 of chapter 24 Jesus left the temple.

He was back at the temple But left and was going away When his disciples came to point out to him The buildings of

the temple.

It's almost as if they were game planning.

Weren't they?

In their minds.

Man the Messiah is here.

Jesus is obviously the Messiah.

The Messiah Man when he finally takes over And he kicks Rome to the curb.

And we get this whole place back.

Man look.

Jesus Look we could do this over the temple We could restore this over here at the temple.

It was almost like a game plan.

They were like Man we're going to be We're going to be in the upper echelon With Jesus right here We've been following him the whole time

Like we're going to reign here.

But look at verse 2 But he answered them You see all these.

Do you not.

Truly I say to you There will not be left one here One stone upon another That will not be thrown

down.

It's like Jesus was saying Yeah I'm going to decimate all that Into ruins.

I'm.

I'm going to replace it with the real thing Something that you're not fully Understanding and grasping in the moment.

And as he begins the final week Of his earthly ministry He begins to reveal these things More

openly.

We see this right before Chapter 21 As he walked by the two blind men The very last

paragraph.

In chapter 20 We see these two blind men That are sitting on

the side of the road.

And they said there in verse 31 Lord have mercy on us.

And they make a statement here.

They give him a title.

They say son of David.

Lord have mercy on us Son of David.

You see he had been called the son of David before.

Yet this is the first time he acknowledged it.

Look at what he says Verse 32.

And stopped Jesus called them and said What do you want me to do for you?

Before he would ignore the title.

Now He's just answering to it.

You see before this Jesus was concealing his identity.

He had even ordered his disciples To keep quiet.

We saw that back in Matthew 12.

We see it in chapter 16 When it says he.

Then he strictly charged his disciples To tell no one that he was the Christ.

He was concealing it From the world.

He was not publicly open about it.

But now all of a sudden he's answering to it Publicly claiming it For him

to acknowledge this title Son of David.

Is him publicly acknowledging That he is truly the Messiah.

We see this same title being attested to him As he enters in the city.

Look at verse 9 there of 21.

And the crowds that went before him.

And that followed him.

Were shouting Hosanna to the son of David.

And this is the thing That enraged the religious leaders the most.

This is what set them Over the edge.

And why is that?

Because they knew what this title meant.

They knew What was being said When he's given the title Son of

David.

Look at verse 15.

But when the chief priests and scribes Saw the wonderful things that he did.

Okay so he's seeing miracles.

They're seeing the same miracles That everyone else is seeing.

The people that are declaring Hosanna son of David.

These religious leaders are seeing the exact same miracles.

Right?

They saw it.

The wonderful things that he did.

And the children crying out in the temple.

And this is what sets them off.

Hosanna to the son of David.

There it is again.

The children are even declaring this.

And it says they were indignant.

Angry.

Enraged This pushed them over the edge.

This made them so angry.

And they said to him Do you hear what these are saying?

Do you hear what these children are saying about you?

They're giving you the title Of son of David.

Basically you better stop this.

This is blasphemy.

Again because they knew what it meant.

And how does Jesus respond?

Jesus said to them Yes.

Have you never read?

And then he quotes Psalm 8 Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies.

You have prepared praise.

Jesus is doubling down.

Jesus man.

He hit right to the core.

He's so intentional With every word and every movement.

He's like Yeah I hear it.

And it's true.

And the whole of the Old Testament Attests to that.

So what is it about this title That has everyone in a tizzy?

Has everyone Clawing to get their way to Jesus.

Has others wanting to kill him.

Why?

Well this again is prophecy In the Old Testament.

Back in 2 Samuel chapter 7 In verses 12 and 13 Of 2 Samuel 7

It says.

It says when the days are fulfilled And he's speaking to David Right now King David And

when your days are fulfilled And you lie down with your fathers When you die and you're buried

I will raise up Your offspring after you Who

shall come from your body And I will establish His kingdom

He shall build a house for my name And I will establish the throne of his kingdom.

Forever.

All of Israel Have held to that promise

All of Israel Have believed that that Is going to come

about.

They knew the seed of David Would be the Messiah The one to establish His

kingdom forever.

That's why Matthew starts out his gospel With a genealogy.

You realize that?

Have you ever wondered Why does Matthew start out with just a bunch of names.

Begat who and begat who.

And father.

It's because Matthew is starting the whole gospel account off With this very fact That

here's David.

We can tie it to the line Of Jesus here He's the lineage of David.

You see the problem was though That these religious leaders were holding to a promise That they didn't understand.

They had distorted this promise.

They thought that this Messiah Was going to be Like David An earthly

king A powerful king One that would deliver Them

from the oppressors like Rome Essentially just another David.

They wanted earthly power Earthly reign.

Isn't that what we all In our flesh desire?

The here and now The circumstances now.

Well.

The children of Israel are no different.

Especially the religious leaders.

Jesus exposed This as a matter of fact.

Over in Mark chapter 12.

You can flip over there with me if you'd like.

But Mark chapter 12 verses 35 -37.

The religious leaders there You know always confronting Jesus.

It says there in 35 of chapter 12 of Mark It says.

And as Jesus taught in the temple He said.

How can the scribes Say that Christ Is the son of David.

There you go you see it.

They held to it.

The scribes believed this.

They believed that passage back in 2 Samuel.

They knew that God had promised From the seed of David.

And they held to it.

But Jesus says how can the scribes say That Christ is the son of David.

David himself in the Holy Spirit declared.

And then again quoting Psalm 110 This is David's words.

The Lord said to My Lord Set at my right hand

Until I put your enemies under your foot.

Jesus says in verse 37 He says.

David himself called him Lord.

How can he be his son.

What's Jesus doing here.

He's pointing out that the Pharisees Did not understand this title.

That he is more than the physical Son of David.

Later on in Revelation chapter 22 In verse 16 Jesus declares Jesus himself

Says I am the root And descendant of David.

What's he saying.

He's saying I am the creator And the descendant of David.

Something far far More spiritual and great.

As Paul said in Romans 1 He says concerning his son Who was descended from David.

According to the flesh Is what Paul says.

And was declared to be the son of God In power according to the Spirit of holiness By his

resurrection from the dead Jesus Christ our Lord.

You see the two together.

He is Lord.

He is King He is the spiritual reigning King.

And he is the descendant of David In his physical form.

So when the religious leaders Hear him being called the son of David They know that title Is reserved for

the Messiah.

Yet they have no clue as to who that Messiah is And what he's actually going to accomplish.

Because even though Miracles are being done Prophecies are being fulfilled.

They can't see past their blind Idolatry of what they want In a Messiah.

Do you see that.

They see the same miracles.

They see the prophecies being fulfilled.

Yet they can't see their blind Idolatry What it is that they want in a Messiah.

They don't care what God Has in store for a Messiah.

They want what they want in a Messiah.

And so when they read the Old Testament text They see it through the lens of their God Their idolatry

Theirselves.

Look back with me at our passage in Matthew 21

The last part of verse 1.

Then says then Jesus sent two disciples.

And into verse 2 Says saying to them Go into the village in front of you.

And immediately you will find a donkey Tied and a colt with her.

Untie them and bring them to me.

If anyone says anything to you You shall say the Lord needs them.

And he will send them at once.

And now here's that prophecy being fulfilled.

This took place to fulfill what was spoken By the prophet Saying.

And there's that passage that Pastor Keith read a moment ago From Zechariah Say to the daughter of Zion Behold your king

is coming to you humble Mounted on a donkey on a colt The fowl of a beast of burden.

You see as I said earlier Everything Jesus does is intentional.

He knew where to find these animals didn't he.

He knew exactly where they'd be tied up.

He was sending them ahead of him.

And he says hey they're right there.

And he has sovereignly ordained That they would be in that exact place In that exact time.

And he had already even prepared The hearts of the people looking on.

He'd already prepared them.

He knew that they themselves Would gladly give their livestock To the need of the Lord.

Because those people that they would come in contact With in that town Jesus already knew That they saw him as

king.

And you gotta understand Back in this day one of the prerogatives Of a king was that he could commandeer Your livestock

at will.

He could come onto your property And say that horse is mine That cow is mine, that goat is mine.

And just take them.

And you have nothing to say about it.

And so as they enter in there He has already told them Tell them that the Lord needs it.

And they will willingly do that.

He had already prepared that.

And this is what he would ride into Jerusalem.

Now think about that.

The religious leaders Knew that prophecy.

They had read that passage Yet I can only imagine That it bothered

them.

They probably thought And explained it away as.

Well that's just imagery That can't be A true prophecy

Of actually what's gonna happen With a donkey.

After all our king Doesn't ride on a donkey.

This can't be right.

This is a proud bunch.

Remember.

After all everyone knows A king rides on a gallant steed He doesn't enter into the city

On a donkey He enters on a beautiful large horse With power and with might

With fanfare.

This donkey riding son of a carpenter Can't possibly be it

Even though the prophecy.

Was clear.

Their idolatry blinded them They couldn't see it.

The imagery Doesn't even stop at the donkey.

It gets clearer.

Look at verse 6.

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.

They brought the donkey and the colt And put on them their cloaks And he sat on them.

Most of the crowd Spread their cloaks on the road And others cut branches from the trees.

That's why we get Palm Sunday, right?

Palm branches from the trees And spread them on the road As Jesus makes his triumphal

entry.

Into Jerusalem.

A red carpet of sorts Is laid beneath him.

A carpet of coats and branches.

A declaration.

This has kingly significance So much so That

it gets the whole city's attention.

Look at verse 10.

And when he entered Jerusalem The whole city was stirred up Saying, who is this?

Who is this that's being lauded As a king.

You gotta think These people in Jerusalem Are just confused at this point.

The surrounding cities That have seen these miracles And all of the amazing.

Some of the people in this town Is the very town where he had risen Lazarus from the dead.

So these people have seen the power of Jesus.

They're following him to Jerusalem.

They're laying their coats on the ground.

They're putting palm branches on the ground.

They're singing Hosanna to the son of David Declaring and shouting These things.

And the city's like, what?

What is happening?

Who is this?

Because everyone knew the significance of the coats.

They knew when they saw Coats laid on the donkey to be set on.

And they saw coats laid on the road.

Oh they knew what this meant.

He may not be riding On a gallant steed.

He may not be on a giant beautiful horse.

He may be on a donkey.

But the significance of the coats.

Gave them pause to realize This is kingly kind of stuff.

Because we see back in 2 Kings.

Remember wicked king Ahab?

His reign is coming to an end Because of the wicked paganism And idolatry.

He was a wicked terrible king Always seeking the life of the prophet Elisha.

And so what does God do?

God replaces him With Jehu.

Remember the story?

In 2 Kings 9 .13 Says.

Then in haste every man of them Took his garment.

His cloak.

And put it under him on the bare steps.

And they blew the trumpet and proclaimed.

Jehu is king.

God was replacing The wickedness, the wicked reign And replacing it with a king That

would be a shadow Of the substance of the king to come.

And so as these people are laying their coats On the ground They're declaring kingship.

And everyone knows it.

Jesus' disciples They're saying the same thing.

And while the religious leaders looked on With disdain and hatred This is definitely not our messiah In

their minds.

The onlookers were confused.

Who is this?

And why are we treating him like a king?

But neither understand what the messiah was coming to do Completely

missing the point.

They knew there was a king That was going to come.

They knew that God had promised.

The seed of David was going to come.

And a messiah is coming.

We're waiting at any moment.

And he's going to deliver us.

But this can't be it.

This can't be it.

Even though the prophecies Are being fulfilled All the while.

Followers were shouting out there.

In verse 9, Hosanna to the son of God Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna

in the highest.

Many of those Whom did not even know What they were declaring

At a small glimpse Some of them Very limited

As I said At the beginning of our service And our call to worship.

Hosanna is a pleading A cry for deliverance

A begging for For a deliverance.

And some were crying out For a temporal deliverance From circumstances and oppression.

They were tired of being oppressed by Rome.

They were tired of not being the world's powerhouse And reigning And conquering.

They were tired of it.

They were tired of struggle They were tired of difficulty.

They were tired of the work.

They were tired of all of it.

What they didn't know.

Is that Christ wasn't there for that.

He was there for something far greater Than temporal deliverance.

As they're declaring these truths.

Even the truth comes out of misunderstanding.

Understanding.

Because they were asking for deliverance.

They were pleading for deliverance.

Deliverance from what?

From sin.

From their own flesh Not from external circumstances.

From themselves.

We need someone to deliver us From us.

His disciples are living proof of that That he

wasn't there To deliver them from earthly circumstances.

They of all people Suffered greatly in this world.

Once Christ left They were even killed For the sake of Christ.

Their life wasn't easy.

It wasn't rainbows and sunshine.

Jesus didn't solve All their financial problems.

Did he?

But they had been given something far greater New life and life abundant Life eternal Something of

value.

This life is a blip on the radar.

Suffering is good for us.

Difficulty is good for us In this broken world.

Because to live is Christ And to die is gain.

In order to do that Christ had to accomplish what he came to do.

He was there to be their representative To suffer And take the wrath of the father on

their behalf To sacrifice himself.

For he is the true And better David.

Even David is as good an earthly king As he was And how he was lauded by the people of Israel.

We just want another David.

He was not willing to die for his people.

Oh but King Jesus Voluntarily did so.

He marched into it Boldly orchestrating it.

This entrance into Jerusalem Shows us his great love For his people.

Knowing.

Knowing what he's What he's come to do.

He knowing what was to come For him this week.

That even many in the crowd that are shouting.

Hosanna.

Hosanna in the highest Would in less than a week be shouting crucify him.

And he knew that.

And he voluntarily walked into it Boldly.

And I believe this is why there at the end Of the passage we read verse 17.

We read it a moment ago Part of it It says.

In leaving them he went out of the city To Bethany And lodged there.

Pastor what's the significance of that.

There's imagery in all that Christ has done.

You realize that Bethany That city the meaning of that name Is house of sorrow.

He chose That place To go Showing that Jesus

Christ Came in as a reigning king.

Hosanna in the highest.

But he must suffer.

He must go.

And he must suffer for the sake of his people His children.

You know I mentioned at the beginning Every person falls into one of three categories When presented with The reality of

what Christ was declaring With his triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.

And I want to I want to mention those three to you now.

There's the person Who like the religious Leaders can't see the clear prophecies.

Fulfilled.

Maybe you're here today.

You've heard and seen The evidence.

You've seen the same passages that we've all Seen this morning.

You've heard them yet you were blinded By your sin and idolatry.

It's just foolishness to you.

It's a stumbling block.

It means nothing.

You just don't see it.

You're blinded in your sin.

You're dead in your trespasses.

It means nothing.

All the prophecy in the world Fulfilled right before your eyes.

You don't even notice it.

You excuse it away Because it doesn't Fit your

Understanding of your God.

The second person Like many in the crowd See the prophecies

wrongly.

You shout out Hosanna in the highest Deliver us For

you Our God.

Because to you Jesus is a conquering King who is going to deliver you From your woes

and your Circumstances.

Someone led you to believe that Jesus Will fix all of your earthly problems.

That Jesus will help you with your financial Struggles.

That Jesus will help you In your marriage.

That he'll fix it.

That Jesus will fix your children.

That Jesus will Make sure that you don't lose your job.

That Jesus is just Going to fix all the stuff Around you.

And so you worship him.

You're willing to Worship that God as long as He's your genie in a bottle.

You ask He delivers.

So.

A famous rapper that A few years ago claimed to Come to Christ Saw this

week in an interview He was holding worship services and everything Just a couple of years ago.

And now in the interview he says You know I asked Jesus to show up

And fix some things in my life And he just never did.

So now I've realized I'm my own God.

That's an exaggerated Form of what many Today believe when they Come

to Jesus And they worship him.

They are the seed that Landed on rocky soil Sprouted up for a moment But never

produced fruit And was burnt out by The sun and the weather And the

thorns.

They are the one that Came to Jesus for what Jesus Could give them.

It was just idolatry It was just It was their own God

Stealing the name of the One true God.

Finally and thirdly The person who sees the glory of Christ In these fulfilled prophecies.

Remember.

Everyone falls in one of these Three categories.

The person who sees the glory of Christ In fulfilled prophecy.

If you have truly tasted And seen that the Lord is good You have become painfully aware That your

problems are not your problem.

Your sin was your problem And it was a problem you most

certainly Had no power to fix.

So you shouted Hosanna.

Hosanna.

To the son of David.

You knew who that was.

You knew that God had promised There in Genesis 3 That the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent.

You knew that he would clothe you In his righteousness.

You knew he was coming and that's him.

I've seen him.

I plead with him Save me.

Deliver me from myself.

Deliver me from the wrath of God That is due me.

That I deserved.

That I will undergo And be under the wrath For eternity And still never be able to scratch the

surface Of fulfilling it.

Oh that he has paid for you.

Blessed is he who comes In the name of the Lord.

Which one are you?

You fall in one of those three categories.

Are you indifferent?

Are you looking to Jesus for what he can give you?

Or have you seen the glory of Christ?

Has he paid for your sin?

Did he on that cross When he said it is finished.

Take the wrath of the Father Upon himself.

For you.

Hosanna Hosanna.

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

This is what Jesus was Proclaiming as he made his Triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

This is why we, Church Universal Celebrates Palm Sunday.

What a beautiful picture Of fulfilled prophecy, Amen.

Amen.

Let's pray Oh dear heavenly father Oh dear heavenly father Oh thank you

Thank you for all that you have done For us, for we were helpless And hopeless

Our father Adam Had sinned against you

And at that moment We were all stillborn.

In sin.

Born in iniquity In enmity With the creator.

But you.

You redeemed us.

Your children Brought us in as heirs And join heirs with Christ himself Our

savior, our redeemer Our messiah.

Salvation belongs to the Lord.

You are the one that gives it.

Lord we pray this morning That if there are those in this room That are in those first two categories This morning that are

indifferent to it And or seeking out After the Jesus of their own mind God I

pray that the Holy Spirit Would awaken them Breathe life into their Spiritual

deadness that they may see The glory of Christ.

They would repent and look To Christ as Lord And savior

The reigning king.

We thank you.

We pray this morning as we take up the offering.

Father we pray that You would be honored in our Active worship of giving.

We pray that That these resources would be used For your glory that they would not be used For selfish

gain or Used unwisely.

Father these are kingdom purpose Things God help us to Be good stewards of what already belongs To

you.

God as we give Lord as each one of us Gives as you've laid on Our hearts.

We thank you.

We thank you for what You are doing in our midst and we pray That you would continue to be honored In our lives as

we continue Our worship now through giving In Christ.

Name amen.