"Hosanna to the King!"

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Matthew 21:1-17

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Well, good morning. Isn't it great to know that we can take it to the Lord in prayer?
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Appreciate Kelly Bliss helping out this morning on the piano and looking forward to good service together with you today.
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I came in the church building this morning, fully expecting to see nobody but my wife and Kelly, and turned on the lights in the back of the auditorium, and I just saw about 65, the backs of 65 heads.
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Well, they're paper heads anyway. So if you have Facebook, you can go on the church
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Facebook site, and you can see the congregation that I get to preach to this morning.
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I wish I could take the camera and pan the auditorium, but I can't do that.
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It's pretty much stationary halfway back. So anyway, thank you for joining us this morning, and I trust that today's service will be a blessing to you.
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A couple of announcements to share before we get into the service itself. Again, through this month of the stay at home order, we'll be doing a
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Facebook Live session every day at noon, and thinking about expanding that to be able to use it on the website.
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But if I do that, I have to do that right in here in the auditorium. So I'm still thinking about that.
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But anyway, if you can catch that on Facebook at noon, every day,
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Monday through Friday. Now, this week on Thursday night, we'll be having a Maundy Thursday service.
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So there won't be a Wednesday evening service, but there will be a service at seven o 'clock this
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Thursday for a Maundy Thursday service. What I'd like to do in that service is include the
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Lord's Supper for us as a congregation. Now, that may seem really odd and strange, and it definitely will be.
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The Bible says, when we come together, let's do this and fellowship around the
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Lord's table, remember his death until he comes, and so forth, and we read those instructions in First Corinthians.
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We cannot come together physically, but we can come together virtually, and we can do that and share the elements all together at the same time in a very unique way.
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So I've ordered and we've received a bunch of little cups that look like this.
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I know you can't really see it, but this little cup is fully sealed and sanitized and everything else.
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But on the top, there's a seal. You remove that seal and it has the bread, and then there's a second seal and you remove that, and the juice is available.
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So what we can do for that Thursday night communion, the
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Lord's table service, is get those cups to you. We can distribute them to your homes, and we can do this in a way that will honor the six -foot rule, if you will.
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You let me know how many of those you would like for your family, and of course, this is for baptized believers only, understand that.
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But you'd let me know how many you need. You can send by Facebook or text message. You can call that number in, send me an email with your family name and number, and then we'll distribute those to you sometime on Thursday, and then
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Thursday night at the appropriate time, and here's the caveat. Here's the condition. Everybody is to do this at the same time.
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We do it together as a congregation. So I would lead in that at a particular time in that Maundy Thursday service, and then we can enjoy the
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Lord's table together. So that's Thursday evening.
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Also on Thursday, when we come and drop those supplies off for the
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Lord's table, I also would plan to bring a Resurrection Sunday booklet, giving those out the last few years to just something to meditate on, on Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, and I think that would be a blessing to you as well.
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To begin our worship service this morning, you realize our focus, our attention the last several weeks has been on the coronavirus.
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Do you know what corona means? It struck me this morning.
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We've been talking about that and thinking about the coronavirus for the last couple of months and really intensely for the last few weeks.
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Been on our mind. It's been the focus of our attention. The word corona means crown. It's like this
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COVID -19 is the crown virus. Well, let's take the crown off the virus and put it where it belongs today.
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This is Palm Sunday. It's a day of recognizing that Jesus is the
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King and to him belongs that crown. So as we begin our service this morning, Psalm 47 verses 6 and 7, encourage us, sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises to our
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King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth.
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Sing praises with the psalm. I'd like to start this morning with the hymn,
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All glory, laud, and honor. All glory, laud, and honor to thee,
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Redeemer King, to whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring.
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Thou art the King of Israel, thou David's royal son, who in the
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Lord's name comest the King and blessed one. The company of angels are praising thee on high, and mortal men and all things created make reply.
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The people of the Hebrews with palms before thee went. Our praise and prayer and anthems before thee we present.
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To thee before thy passion they sang their hymns of praise. To thee now high exalted our melody we raise.
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Thou didst accept their praises, accept the prayers we bring, who in all good delightest, thou good and gracious King.
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Our Father and our God, we're so grateful today that you are the
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King, the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
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You are the King of all the earth. You are the God of all creation.
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And though while there are plenty of would -be kings and rulers of the world, we come before you today and bow before you, the
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King of all the earth. And we pray that on this Lord's Day our attention would be focused on our
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King, our great King and High Priest, our Lord Jesus Christ.
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To him be all the glory, praise and honor. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. On that triumphal entry, the crowd sang out loud hosannas.
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And when they did, they were quoting from Psalm 118. I'd like to read a portion of that psalm this morning.
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It's Psalm 118, verses 14 through 29. The psalmist writes, the
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Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous.
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The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord exalts. The right hand of the
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Lord does valiantly. I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the
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Lord. The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death.
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Open to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the
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Lord. The righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.
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The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the
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Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made.
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Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us, we pray,
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O Lord. O Lord, we pray, give us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
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Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is
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God and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords up to the horns of the altar.
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You are my God and I will give thanks to you. You are my God. I will extol you.
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Oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever.
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Next, I'd like to share the hymn Hark the Glad Sound, the Savior Comes. May not be that familiar to you, but enjoy the text as Kelly plays in the background.
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Hark the Glad Sound, the Savior Comes. Hark the glad sound, the
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Savior comes, the Savior promised long. Let every heart prepare a throne and every voice a song.
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He comes the prisoners to release in Satan's bondage held, the gates of brass before him burst, the iron fetters yield.
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He comes the broken heart to bind, the bleeding soul to cure, and with the treasures of his grace to enrich the humble poor.
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Our glad Hosannas, Prince of Peace, thy welcome shall proclaim, and heaven's eternal arches ring with thy beloved name.
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Well, as we pray together this morning, some prayer requests to share with you. Our missionary this week are, as the
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Baccarat serving in the Philippines, and as we've been mentioning for the last few weeks, our missionaries, all of our missionaries are under the same kind of restrictions and limitations as we are.
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It doesn't matter where they are in the world, it seems. This is a interestingly global event that is being handled pretty consistently around the world.
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So pray for the Baccarats while they're in a limited ministry. Pray that they would be able to accomplish much during this shelter -in -place order.
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They have many projects that they wanna be able to get done while they don't have all of the other responsibilities on their plate at this time.
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So I wanna pray for them. And then we also wanna pray for the Carl family.
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Remember that family as they gather together tomorrow for a private graveside service, reflecting upon the death of George this past week.
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I thank the Lord for giving safe travels to that family, to many of the family coming from a distance away.
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So pray for them tomorrow as they gather. The Lord would give comfort, encouragement to their hearts, and then some have to travel back a great distance as well, and pray that they have a journeying mercies as they go.
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Then also send out to the church family this morning a prayer request for, I'll just give the initials,
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J .H., who is suspected has the
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COVID -19 virus, has some of the symptoms. Many of the symptoms has ruled out the flu and is awaiting the results of the
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COVID -19 test. So pray for him, pray for God to give grace to him. And in his living situation, there are many people who live around him and in close proximity.
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So if he does have that COVID -19 virus, pray that it does not spread to others in the home.
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And then we wanna pray for our community. You surely have seen the news or heard the news this past week.
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One local business in Dixon has closed for at least the duration of this virus time.
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Halo, one of the largest employers in the community has had to cut back on their employees, let some go, some furloughed, some reduced hours.
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And some in our congregation work there and have had that kind of reduction. So we wanna pray for them and pray for the survival of the businesses of our community, especially all the businesses, but think especially these small businesses who really need ongoing support.
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So let's look to the Lord in prayer, shall we? Again, our
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Father, we are grateful that this is a day that you have made and we will rejoice and be glad in it.
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There's all kinds of things that could occupy our minds and cause us to be discouraged and distressed, to be perplexed, confused, fearful, fraught with anxiety.
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But this is the day that you have made and we will rejoice and be glad in it.
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We can, again, we can rejoice because the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
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And our Lord Jesus is the ruler even over all things in this day.
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We thank you for that confidence that we can have today. Father, we do praise you that you are our
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God, you are our Father, and you have called upon us, you bid us to come to you as Father.
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And so our Father, so we come. And we pray today that your kingdom would come, that your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.
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And may your name be hallowed. May it be evident and clear that you are at work in this troubled, troubled world.
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We come to you confessing our sins to you, Father. We confess to you that we are so prone to wander in our thoughts away from you.
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We are prone to be filled with anxiety and fear, uncertainty, the confusion that surrounds us these days, the conflict within our own government and between governments of this world is distressing.
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And all of these things can cause us to be anything but confident and trustful and dependent upon you, our
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God. We confess that tendency to turn from you and to turn ourselves, our thoughts inward and to be filled with fear and anxiety.
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Forgive us of this. Forgive us our lack of faith. Father, we have, many have certainly expressed our distress in untoward ways.
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We have been unkind to others around us. We have been selfish in our thoughts and in our actions.
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Forgive us our selfishness. So Father, we come praying that you would forgive us and cleanse us from our unrighteousness.
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And we pray that confidently that you will do so because so have you promised. We pray today for people in need.
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We think of our missionary families and the struggles that they are facing through the limitations placed upon them and through the uncertainty of the future for them as well.
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We pray for the Baccarat's today and through this week. Just give them grace and wisdom in the use of their time and grant them good success in all that they plan and intend to do.
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Father, we pray for the Carl family that you would give comfort to their hearts in the loss of George.
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And thank you that he is with you and he is free from this troubled world right now. And what rejoicing that is for him and even for those in his family who can see exactly what he has spared from enduring and dealing with.
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Nevertheless, they sorrow. And I pray that you would give comfort to their sorrowing hearts.
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We pray, Father, for J .H. We pray that you would heal his body, that if he does have this virus, it would clear up quickly.
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Pray that you'd protect those around him. We pray, Father, for people in our congregation and in our community affected by the job losses and the cuts in pay.
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And Father, we pray that you would provide and supply the needs. Thank you that you have promised to meet the needs of your children and none of those in need are unnoticed by you.
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I pray for these companies and businesses in our community that they would survive and ultimately thrive once again.
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We pray, Father, that you would protect our bodies from illness and you would protect our hearts from restlessness and anxiety.
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And you would protect our minds from being filled with fretful speculation and a wasteful obsession that just constantly is mulling over the challenges and the uncertainties of this day.
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We pray for those in authority over us, lawmakers and political leaders.
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Father, our hearts are grieved when we see the conflict there and we pray that you would so work powerfully to defeat those who would try to defeat those who are doing good.
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Give wisdom to those in responsibility over us. Again, Father, we pray that truth would triumph.
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We pray that righteousness would reign. We pray that justice would prevail.
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We pray that your kingdom would come, that your will would be done.
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And this we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Before we look at the scriptures together this morning, one other triumphal entry hymn is the song,
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Ride On, Ride On in Majesty. Ride on, ride on in majesty.
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Hark, all the tribes hosanna cry. O savior meek, pursue thy road with palms and scattered garments strode.
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Ride on, ride on in majesty, and lowly pomp ride on to die.
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O Christ, thy triumphs now begin o 'er captive death and conquered sin.
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Ride on, ride on in majesty. The angel squadrons of the sky look down with sad and wondering eyes to see the approaching sacrifice.
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Ride on, ride on in majesty. Thy last and fiercest strife is nigh.
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The father on his sapphire throne expects his own anointed son. Ride on, ride on in majesty.
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And lowly pomp ride on to die. Bow thy meek head to mortal pain.
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Then take, O God, thy power and reign. Our message this morning is on the
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Palm Sunday text, the triumphal entry. It's Matthew 21. I wanna read verses one through 17.
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If you have a copy of scripture before you, follow along as I read. Matthew 21, verse one says, now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the
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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.
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Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, the
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Lord needs them. And he will send them at once. This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet saying, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the full of a beast of burden.
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The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks.
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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.
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And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David.
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Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. When he entered
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Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up saying, who is this? The crowd said, this is the prophet
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Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple.
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And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.
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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,
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Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant and they said to him, do you hear what these are saying?
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And Jesus said to them, yes. Have you never read out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies, you have prepared praise?
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And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.
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May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word, brief prayer. And so our father,
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I pray that as Jesus is recognized as king in this passage, we would recognize him today.
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This we pray in Jesus' name, amen. When Queen Victoria was crowned as queen in 1838, the coronation ceremony was quite a significant event.
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It was marked by pomp and luxury, the company of great number of dignitaries, all to celebrate her coronation.
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We read that she wore a crown encrusted with giant rubies and sapphires surrounding a 309 carat diamond.
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She was carrying a scepter, she was walking with a scepter and was capped with an even larger diamond cut from the star of Africa and weighed over 516 carats.
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Well, that's usually what we think of when we think of a royal procession. Pomp, dignity, dignitaries, a great deal of displays of wealth and luxury and so forth.
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But in today's text, this text that's the basis for calling today Palm Sunday, it describes the procession of another king, the king, the king of kings, in fact, but there is none of that splendor and there aren't really any dignitaries there to welcome this king and to crown him.
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On the surface, that may seem a strange way to welcome a king, but it is exactly the way
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Jesus would have it, doesn't bother him in the least bit. In fact, this is exactly what he's anticipated all along.
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Now, years ago, there was a radio or television show broadcast called
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You Were There, and the whole premise of that broadcast was to take some event in history and do it in the sense that you were there and you put yourself in the middle of that place in history.
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I want you to put yourself in this place today. Put yourself on that road from Bethphagy to Jerusalem as Jesus comes mounted on the back of that donkey.
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I want you to put yourself there and see that as you extol
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Jesus and you shout your hosannas, that Jesus, in the first place, anticipates this all along.
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Isn't that clear from these first seven verses, how Jesus fully expects what is coming? We see this expectation or anticipation of your hosannas in the way that Jesus orchestrates the events in verses one through three.
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Comes, leaves this little village of Bethphagy. It's less than a mile east of Jerusalem, and in verses one and two, he purposely sends the disciples on this mission.
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He tells them to go into that village and he tells them what they're going to see. He sends them on this mission, and as he sends them, he clearly knows the circumstances that they're going to come across when they arrive.
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He tells them, go in this village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her.
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You're gonna see this. And, he says, if somebody asks you about this and wonders what in the world you're doing, then here's what you're to say.
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So he gives them careful instructions. He tells them what to look for in terms of the donkey and the colt that's tied there.
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He tells them what to do with the donkey and the colt to unloose them and bring them to him, and he tells them how to respond if somebody were to object to what they're doing.
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And notice what he says, and I think that in itself is significant, isn't it?
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He says, if anybody objects, then say to them, look at what he says, say to them, the
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Lord needs them. The Lord needs them. Now, when
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Jesus was approached by people in the crowd and they wanted to ask him a question, people would often refer to him as rabbi or master, but Jesus here refers to himself as the
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Lord. He is referring to himself and acknowledging and communicating that he is the sovereign one who is actually orchestrating these events.
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The Lord has need of them, and so on they go. So Jesus anticipates your hosannas by actually orchestrating the events that are going to bring about those hosannas.
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But there's more behind this anticipation. There's actually something that fuels the anticipation, and what fuels it is what we read about in verses four and five.
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It's an ancient proclamation from God himself through the prophet
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Zechariah. In Zechariah nine, verse nine, the prophet said this.
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Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. And here's what
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Zechariah said, and part of this is quoted here in Matthew. Zechariah said, he said rejoice greatly.
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Behold, your king is coming unto you. He is just and having salvation, lowly, and riding upon a donkey, upon the colt, the foal of a donkey.
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Notice what Zechariah adds here. The king is coming to you.
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He is just and having salvation. He's having salvation.
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He's bringing salvation. So the bringer of salvation is the king.
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The king who is here coming is the bringer of salvation. And so this prophecy that was given over 500 years earlier, this prophecy fueled the anticipation of the coming king who would with him bring salvation.
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Jesus the king anticipates your hosanna as he orchestrates the events and as he fulfills this prophetic proclamation from half a millennium earlier.
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And in verses six and seven, as the disciples have come together and brought the donkey and then respond to this situation, their participation in the events actually heightens the anticipation.
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Look what they do. In the first place, they did exactly what they were told to do. The disciples went, in verse six, the disciples went and did as Jesus directed them.
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So they did what they were told when they were confronted about the taking of these animals.
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They didn't cower and say, oh, you know, maybe we shouldn't do this after. I know he told us to do this, shouldn't we really do this?
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I mean, what if these guys, you know, dah, dah, dah. No, they did exactly what Jesus told them to do.
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And then having brought these animals to Jesus, verse seven says, they brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks and he sat on them.
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Actually, another one of the gospel writers tell us that the disciples made sure that he got on the animal itself.
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In other words, what these disciples did to heighten the anticipation of your
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Hosanna was they elevated Jesus to this place of prominence. Oh, yeah, you know, you and I read this and it was a place of prominence.
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I mean, how is this a place of prominence? Actually, this is reflective of Israel's second king.
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Well, I should say third king. Israel's third king. Remember, David succeeded
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Saul as king and David was the king that God appointed and David was the king to whom
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God promised that he would always have a descendant, an heir upon his throne, that his kingdom, his throne would rule forever and ever.
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Well, when David was about to die and pass off the scene, it was time to appoint a successor to the throne and David appointed
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Solomon as his successor. And you can read this if you have in your
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Bible, in 1 Kings 1, verses 38 through 40, we read of how
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Solomon was announced to be the king.
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In verse 38, it says, and so Zadok, this is 1 Kings 1, verse 38, so Zadok the priest,
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Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Terethites and the Pelethites went down and they had
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Solomon ride on King David's mule and they brought him to Gihon.
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There Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the trumpet and all the people said, long live
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King Solomon. And all the people went up after him, playing on pipes and rejoicing with great joy so that the earth was split by the noise.
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This is a very similar thing that's happening 1 ,000 years later at the coming of Jesus on this road leading into Jerusalem.
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He's riding on the back of a donkey and the people are going to proclaim these loud hosannas and the whole earth is going to shake with it all.
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This is a very similar procession. But the disciples, the disciples, as they participate in the events that Jesus has orchestrated, they heighten the anticipation of your hosanna.
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Well, in verses eight and 11, here comes Jesus on this donkey with his disciples.
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And as one placed in the position of a king, the heir of the
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Davidic throne, Jesus accepts your hosannas.
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Verse eight and verse nine talk about the crowd. Says most of the crowd spread their garments and so forth.
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Who is this crowd? Who's making up this crowd? I think some of us preachers, and I have made the mistake myself in the past, have equated this crowd with a crowd several days later that is crying out, crucify him.
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But the more I've thought about this and studied it over the years, I don't think it's the same crowd at all. This crowd is made up, first of all, of those who had followed him from Jericho.
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You look back a few verses in your Bible at chapter 20, verse 29, and it says, as they went out of Jericho, that is
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Jesus and his disciples, as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him.
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Now, Jericho isn't all that far from Jerusalem, and this crowd is following Jesus to Jerusalem.
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And this crowd was also made up of other people that they picked up along the way, and the
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Gospel of John tells us, in John chapter 12, that others who were part of this crowd were those who had witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus from the tomb.
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They heard that Jesus was coming, word preceded him, Jesus is coming down the road. They ran out to meet him, and they make up this crowd.
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And this crowd, this crowd, as they gather together, offer their respect unto him as king.
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And there you are, remember, you are there. Are you there as one of the crowd who respect him as king?
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Jesus accepts this, in verse eight, the way they show their respect for him as the king is their spreading of their cloaks on the road, and others who had cut branches from the trees and spread those on the road.
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These are symbolic gestures on the part of the members of the crowd. The casting of their garments before him on the ground and having him ride over those garments as he goes was a way of expressing their submission to him as their sovereign, as their king.
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And the taking of the palm branches and casting them down on the road, this was an action that was conducted by those recognizing our conqueror is here.
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They're honoring him as the conquering savior. They may not know all that's implied in that, but this is what their symbolic gestures communicate.
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They're respecting him as their king, and he accepts that respect.
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The question for us today is, do you, do you, do
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I express submission to him as my sovereign?
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Do I honor him as my conquering savior? Am I looking to someone else to save me?
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Oh, think of us, think of our hearts and our minds in this day of crisis. To whom are we looking to save us?
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Well, Jesus accepts this respect, these hosannas that come from people who respect him.
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In verse nine, they actually, what they're communicating in verse nine is actually a declaration of him as king.
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The crowds went before him and that followed him, were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. That title, son of David, was a title acknowledging one who was a rightful heir to the throne of David.
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They were praising him as a king, the king who rightfully has a rightful title to the throne of David, this throne that was to know no end.
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And their shouting of Hosanna or save now is a way that could be translated, is the offering of praise to him as the savior, praising him as savior, praising him as king.
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But they're furthermore offering praise to him as the fulfillment of a promise made long ago.
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When they say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest, they are actually quoting from Psalm 118, verses 25 and 26, that psalm that we read earlier.
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They're declaring that their king has come. Now that declaration is certainly an incomplete declaration.
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Nobody in that crowd who was extolling him as the savior understood from what they would be saved and how he would become their savior, what he would do to be their savior.
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When they were extolling him as king, they few if any really recognized the nature of his kingdom and the nature of his reign.
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But at least they had the insight to see who he was, that he was much more than just a man.
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He was the fulfillment of this Old Testament promise. Now there's a day coming that will be the ultimate fulfillment of that which is seen in a kernel, if you will, on Palm Sunday.
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We read of it in Revelation chapter seven, verses nine and 10, looking yet into the future.
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John writes, after this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.
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Now remember on Palm Sunday, those who were shouting Hosanna, blessed is he that comes in the name of the
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Lord and Hosanna to the son of David, they were all of one nation. These were all
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Jewish people who were looking at Jesus as their Messiah. But the day is coming when you will be there if you are in Christ Jesus.
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And it doesn't matter what your nationality, it doesn't matter what your ethnicity or the color of your skin or the language of your birth.
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There will be people there from every nation, from all tribes and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our
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God, Hosanna. Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne and to the lamb.
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Jesus accepts this and he accepts your Hosanna when you exalt him to the position of king.
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Again, in our text in Matthew, the people do this though incompletely, though not fully understanding everything they were saying and all that was implied in it.
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In verses 10 and 11, the city of Jerusalem is stirred up. They hear the ground shaking.
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They hear the cries out there on the road making its way toward them and coming in their direction and everybody is stirred up.
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The whole city is stirred up. The word stirred up is an interesting word. It communicates the idea of extreme anxiety.
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It's the Greek word from which we get our word seismology. Like the seismologists who measure the shaking of the earth tell us how big of an earthquake is on the
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Richter scale. The whole city is extremely anxious.
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Who is this? What's going on? They wanna know. And the people respond in verse 10 by telling that this is the prophet
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Jesus from Nazareth. So here, these imperfect people subtly affirm him as the king.
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They don't say this one is the king, but look at what they do here. In the first place, they overcome their prejudices because you remember there's this longstanding prejudice against anything from Nazareth.
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Jesus encountered that early on in the beginning of his earthly ministry.
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Can anything good come out of Nazareth was the question. Implication is if Jesus is from Nazareth, there's no way in the world he could be the
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Messiah. But these people are fully ready to affirm that this is
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Jesus the prophet. And in that statement, they are communicating that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise or the prophecy of Moses hundreds and hundreds of years ago when
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Moses said there's going to come a prophet like unto me someday. And they're saying that this one,
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Jesus is the prophet. He is from Nazareth. They overcame these prejudices and acted upon what they understood.
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That this one whom they've just declared to be the son of David, the king, is also the prophet.
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They are exalting him to the rightful place of our prophet, our king.
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And when they say save now, even our priest. And Jesus accepts it all.
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He accepts it all. But then as this scene moves and transitions into the city of Jerusalem, Jesus then acts upon your hosannas.
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And he does so, I think, partially, to test the sincerity of those hosannas.
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Let me explain what I mean. What he's doing in verses 12 and 13 is he is displaying,
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Jesus is communicating the primary realm of his reign. The primary realm of his reign.
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Let me explain. When these people were crying out, hosanna, save now, son of David.
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They're recognizing him as the king. But what was their understanding of him as a king?
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What kind of salvation were they expecting him to bring? Most would have thought of him as a political ruler, as a military conqueror, as one who was going to save them from the dominion of Rome.
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That was the thought of their salvation for many. And a military conqueror was their notion of him as a king.
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But look at what Jesus does. Jesus entered the temple, and he 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.
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He didn't go to the Roman praetoriate. He didn't go to the Roman guard.
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He didn't go to the Roman enclave and seek to overthrow that. He didn't call for a mob with weapons to come and overthrow the
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Roman soldiers that were in the city of Jerusalem. He went to the temple. And he overthrew the tables of the money changers, and he drove out those who were buying and selling in the temple.
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And he said to them, listen to what he says. My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.
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There's an interesting thing going on here. Jesus' public ministry is bookended by this same kind of activity.
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Go all the way back to John chapter two. In John chapter two, verses 13 to 16, we read that the
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Passover of the Jews was nigh at hand, and this was right after Jesus began his public ministry.
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The Passover was nigh at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and when he got there in the temple, it says he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers sitting there.
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And Jesus, making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen, and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
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And he told those who sold the pigeons, take these things away. Do not make, listen, listen to what he says.
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Do not make my father's house a house of trade. At the beginning of his ministry,
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Jesus referred to the temple and all this commerce going on in the temple as my father's house.
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But now, here he is, just a few days before the crucifixion, and just a few more before the resurrection, and what does he call it?
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My house, my house. The point is that this difference between John two at the beginning of his ministry and Matthew 20 near the end of his public ministry, this difference reveals the realm of Jesus' rule.
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It is a spiritual realm, his rule. He's not interested in overthrowing
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Rome. He's interested in overthrowing sin. He is the ruler of salvation, your soul's salvation from the curse of sin.
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He is, his rule is over sanctification. His rule is over your relationship with God.
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How many of the Hosanna criers were looking at him merely for political and military victory when he is primarily interested in spiritual conquering of sin?
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Well, hey, bring this into the 21st century. Are you looking to God through Jesus?
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Merely to deliver you from a pandemic, from a disease, a physical disease, a virus that might make you very, very sick and could potentially take your life?
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Have you looked at him, Jesus, as the one who is primarily concerned with the saving of you from the disease of sin, saving your soul from its destruction, saving you for all eternity from its curse?
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Well, I trust if you're looking to him to deliver you from the pandemic that you have first and foremost looked to him as your deliverer from the true pandemic of sin that is plunging this whole world into destruction.
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His rule and reign is a rule of salvation and sanctification in your relationship with God.
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He is a ruler. He is a ruler of spiritual life now as well as life eternal.
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Do you proclaim him as king? Do you shout Hosanna to Jesus as your king and as the exclusive way to the
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Father? So as Jesus acts upon his
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Hosannas that he hears, his declaration of his kingship, he discloses the primary realm of his reign.
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And then in verse 14, notice how he also demonstrates the vast extent of his reign.
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So after he leaves the temple, it says that the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them.
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What does that tell you? It tells you that not only is he the ruler over the spiritual realm, but he is also the ruler over the physical realm, over physical life.
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These who were lame, couldn't walk, he made them to walk again.
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Those who couldn't see, Jesus spoke the word and their eyes were opened and they were able to see.
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He is the ruler over the physical realm. But listen, here's a question for you who shout Hosanna to Jesus and are focusing wholly and solely on the physical.
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Do you still proclaim Hosanna when there is no healing?
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Do you still declare him to be your king when life hurts?
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Do you recognize him and acknowledge him as king, the son of David?
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Shout Hosanna to him in the midst of a global upheaval?
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Jesus is the king of all the earth as well as the king of spiritual life.
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And then finally in verses 15 and 16, Jesus declares the legitimacy of his reign.
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Will you accept that, you shouters and proclaimers of Hosanna, will you accept the legitimacy of his reign?
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Verses 15 and 16, the chief priests, the scribes, they saw the wonderful things that he did and they heard the children crying in the temple,
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Hosanna to the son of David and they were ticked. They were indignant. And they said to him, do you hear what these are saying?
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What did Jesus say? Yes, I hear it and they're spot on. He says, yes, have you never read out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes?
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You have prepared praise. Jesus is saying is what they're saying is absolutely legitimate, it's absolutely correct.
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But here's our question to ponder. When you hear the modern examples of the chief priests and the scribes criticizing those who proclaim
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Jesus as the king, as the savior, and it becomes a terribly unpopular thing to do, it's a politically incorrect thing to say.
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When doing so, when extolling and lifting up and exalting Jesus as the king, when that becomes something that is mocked and jeered, will you still shout
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Hosanna? I think for example of the experience, the recent experience of Mike Lindell, maybe you know that name and maybe you know exactly what
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I'm talking about. Mike Lindell is the owner of that MyPillow company. It was just recently recruited to and offered his company to make the face masks for people in the midst of this virus.
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And he was taken to the Rose Garden and presented to the audience and President Trump explained what he was doing and he went on to himself explain what he was doing with his company.
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But in the course of Lindell's speaking in the Rose Garden, he said this.
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He says, God had been taken out of our schools and lives. A nation had turned its back on God.
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I encourage you to use this time at home to get back in the word, read our
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Bibles and spend time with our families, end quote. And for those words, this man has been mocked.
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He has been belittled. He has been shouted down for simply saying the truth.
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This is a nation and those who have belittled him so have proved it, that has turned its back on God.
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Get back into the word he was saying. Oh, but listen to the hostility.
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Will we cower, we who claim Hosanna, proclaim Hosanna to the son of David, the king of kings and the
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Lord of lords. Oh, it's not so popular anymore. Will we now cower back down from that proclamation?
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Jesus declares that this is a legitimate thing to do. So even if, even if the modern day scribes and chief priests shout us down, shout you down, let us affirm nevertheless, this is a legitimate proclamation.
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Jesus is the king. Jesus is the king. He is the savior king who is worthy of all praise and all glory of every
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Hosanna. And yet he serves as a point of division.
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Some will recognize, submit to, honor, respect, trust him with their life, with their eternal soul, with their salvation.
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And they, and I trust you, shout Hosanna to the king.
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Others will reject him, wanting nothing to do with him, considering him utterly unworthy of any praise whatsoever from which side you fall.
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Father in heaven, I pray that we would see Jesus for who he is, the son of David, the king, the prophet of promised of old, the savior of our soul.
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We pray in Jesus' name, amen. I wanna close with a hymn,
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Hosanna, loud Hosanna. Hosanna, loud
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Hosanna, the little children sang, through pillared court and temple, the lovely anthem rang.
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To Jesus, who had blessed them, close folded to his breast, the children sang their praises, the simplest and the best.
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From all of it, they followed mid an exultant crowd, the victor palm branch waving and chanting clear and loud.
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Bright angels joined the chorus beyond the cloudless sky, Hosanna in the highest, glory to God on high.
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Hosanna in the highest, that ancient song we sing, for Christ is our redeemer, the
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Lord of heaven, our king. Oh, may we ever praise him with heart and life and voice and in his blissful presence, eternally rejoice.
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Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way.
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The Lord be with you all. In the name of Jesus, the king, we pray, amen.
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And the Lord bless you, give you a good week, good day of rest and refreshment.
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And I trust that the Lord will give your mind rest and peace, as well as your heart.