03.28.2010 Palm Sunday -

03.28.2010 Grace Summit Sermon - Palm Sunday from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

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Lord, we bring to You those we love – and tell You that – we think of how Jesus, when Lazarus was sick – they said, the one You love is sick, and we say that to You now – the one You love is sick and in need of You. We ask that Bill would recover quickly – and that he would be able to start the chemo and You would make is successful in shrinking the cancer – and we ask for a miraculous healing in His life. We know Your will will be done and yet we plead for Your mercy. We ask the same for Tim’s father – that he would recover from this stroke and that his blood pressure would stabilize – and we pray for Ruthie as she is delivering a baby today. You are more concerned about our concerns than we are. As we enter into this Easter week, may our hearts be in tune with Your Spirit in a fresh way.

Today, we are looking at the story of the ‘Triumphal Entry’ – Palm Sunday.
I heard of a study, an experiment, I believe – I don’t know if I have this exactly right – they did this on Americans and those from either Mexico, or Spain, I’m not sure which. They did an eye test – flashing a picture - on one side was a bullfighting event – and the other, a baseball game – those from America saw only the baseball event, and those from Spain saw only the bullfighting event. I think this shows, we see what we are predisposed to see. Last week, we looked at the 3 predictions of Jesus and His death. The Jews did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah – not even the disciples understood – when they were looking for a triumphal messiah, which is not what they got. Israel was looking for a baseball game, and what they got was a bullfight – they were looking for one thing and they were given something else. All things in their mind pointed to a conquering Messiah – but that is not what they got.
This section is titled ‘The Triumphal Entry’ – but that is not really what this is – a triumphal entry would be when a Roman general would come riding in a chariot pulled by four war horses, where the general was victorious over at least 5000 enemy soldiers, in a battle that extended Roman territory. And all of the soldiers had to have returned – that is, the battle could not still be going on. Then when all of these things came into play, the Senate would vote and there would be this great parade with all the soldiers and the prisoners in chains – and all of Rome would come out.
But what Jesus does is uniquely different.
Jesus sets this whole thing up. He knew exactly what He was doing – it was planned and orchestrated. It is really an enacted parable – like a drama to teach a lesson. He has a very specific lesson He is trying to teach.
Matt. 21:1 And when they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied [there] and a colt with her; untie [them,] and bring [them] to Me. 3 "And if anyone says something to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and immediately he will send them." 4 Now this took place that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, 5 "Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Behold your King is coming to you, Gentle, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.'" 6 And the disciples went and did just as Jesus had directed them, 7 and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid on them their garments, on which He sat. 8 And most of the multitude spread their garments in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees, and spreading them in the road. 9 And the multitudes going before Him, and those who followed after were crying out, saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!" 10 And when He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, "Who is this?" 11 And the multitudes were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee."

This is the Sunday before Passover. All the crowds would be coming into Jerusalem – using that road – and He knew that on the day He left all those people would be there – and they would be singing – “Psalms of Ascension into Jerusalem” – if you were a Jew, you wanted to be in Jerusalem for that week. Jesus, knowing this, orchestrated to come in at that moment – so He could demonstrate what He was about to demonstrate.
Jesus comes in on a donkey – now, if we go back to the definition of a triumphal entry – it is not on a war steed – but on a gentle donkey. It is not someone of power to drive out the Romans – but that was what they were expecting. There were many who claimed to be messiah at that time – and they would try to drive out the Romans – and the Romans would annihilate and crush them – read the history some time. In some ways, Jesus comes in humility – on a lowly beast of burden.

Matt. 21: 4 Now this took place that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, 5 "Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Behold your King is coming to you, Gentle, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.'"

Isaiah 62:11 – Say to the daughter of Zion…
Why did he put that in? If you were writing the Gospel of Matthew – “Say to the daughter of Zion” – Isaiah 62, and then the next part from Zechariah.
Isaiah 62 talks about this great messiah who will drive out the enemy.
Zech. 9: . 9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout [in triumph,] O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, And the horse from Jerusalem; And the bow of war will be cut off. And He will speak peace to the nations; And His dominion will be from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.
But not ALL of this is fulfilled at that time! In today’s vernacular – “He was not your father’s messiah!” –
As you go through Isaiah, you see all this conquering, but in the midst of it there is this suffering – they don’t understand Isaiah 53 like we do – they were unable to understand it. He is showing that the all powerful God demonstrates the greatness of His power through His powerlessness. He is demonstrating his great messianic victory through weakness. In some ways, we don’t see this as much in Matthew – but in John – when the leaders of Israel saw this, they thought it was making a mockery of their belief system. All the people shouting “Hosanna” – this was a messianic cheer! The leaders, in John, told him to tell the people to stop – and of course, Jesus replies, if they stop, the rocks and stones will cry out!”
He is shattering their concept of what it means to follow the Messiah. Like last week – all the guys wanted to have positions of power – but we follow Him best in humility and weakness. He is turning this whole thing upside down.

2 Cor. 4: 6 For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves;

Just as Jesus proves His power through weakness, God takes these jars of clay – that is you – you are jars of clay – think of Bill Huber – these jars are fragile. He is taking this thing – this gospel – this thing of weakness and shame – dying on a cross – no one wants – but in that God’s power is fully demonstrated – and He takes this power that no one understands and sticks it in these frail bodies of ours – that His power may flow through our weak lives.

I want to give you four applications to this concept – God demonstrating His power thorugh weakness.
1) Forgiveness. Forgiveness is a weak thing. To release someone – and everyone has been wounded in one way or point or another. There is so much power and control in holding that in – like you have control still – but the reality is that when you release that – when you forgive that person, that is where the power lies. That is where the influence lies. And in truth, that is where satisfaction lies. Holding a grudge is like a comfort to us that we go back to – but we need to forgive and release in our hearts. I understand there are some who aren’t seeking forgiveness, but you can still do what is right in your heart – and it will be out of you and will have no influence over you – forgiveness is not easy – forgiveness is, for Jesus, the cross – and it is no different fofr us – to forgive requires suffering – but in that there is power, comfort and strength –

2) Grace – over judgment or a critical spirit. You know, in the world we live in, judgment and criticism prevails – but God is saying there is much more power in grace.
I was at Giant Eagle on Friday – and I had to run – quickly – just to grab one thing – it was crowded – and went to the quick lane – and it was busy - there was a mom and a couple kids – and a younger kid further up at a different self-checkout – like 10 years old – and I wondered – where is the mom here? And the kid pulls out a credit card - And the transaction doesn’t go through. And I’m getting irritated – and then I remembered to be patient. So I went to a different line – and the lady helping started removing items to see if there was some money on the card…and I just felt compassion and decided to give him the few bucks to take care of it. She asked him – and this is what got to me – “where is your mom?” – and he replied, “I don’t know” – we need to show compassion and grace.
Quote?
Romans 14 – that is the context of this – there are some things in life that one can and should be indifferent to – we need to recognize the shade as well as the light. We are so good at recognizing black and white – but when you read Scripture, there is a lot of shade, and I think God gave it on purpose – because what really matters is grace, and love, and forgiveness. Anyone can do the right and wrong thing – the Pharisees did it – and you don’t want to be one of them.
3) Suffering is more powerful than control. Suffering has power; Jesus demonstrated it. You hear over and over again how the power of the gospel goes out through the suffering of the martyrs. China, even today – people are being persecuted and the gospel is going forth powerfully. When all the suffering and pressure comes down, it seems like God is able to work in a significant way.
4) Proximity – Incarnational – is more powerful – when we lower ourselves to come near to another in love, that is what Love requires. That is what Jesus did – God became one of us – think about it! He lowered Himself – leaving heaven and everything – to become this jar of clay – with no sin! But He was still a jar of clay – and He bled and suffered that our sins may be forgiven and He asks us to do the same as His followers – to lower ourselves. If there is someone that you need to lower yourself to love – I believe that – this week in your life – you’ll have an opportunity to lower yourself – to forget about the separating of yourself – to move near to someone you don’t want to be around – maybe at work, or in the neighborhood, there is someone you just don’t like and it is a step down to draw close and love them – in doing that there is power.
Right after the triumphal entry – Jesus does two more active parables – turning over the money changers at the temple – He drives them out – the Temple was the symbol of Israel’s separation from the world. Jesus comes in and whips it and drives them out – you have taken a house of prayer for all the nations into a den of robbers. God has called us to do the same – all the nations – all people –everywhere.
Let’s pray…