April 2, 2023
Morning Service

Are there special days that you greatly look forward to?  Birthdays/Christmas Day/Vacation/Retirement?  I can remember counting down the days until school was going to be out for the summer.  With all of those events sometimes the anticipation of something coming in the future was the motivation we needed to get out of bed each morning.  The key to that is that we know when that day is coming and our excitement grows greater as the time gets closer.  What would happen if you knew something exciting was going to happen, but you did not know when it was coming.  Does that add excitement or add frustration?  That is exactly the state the Jewish people had been living in their entire lives.  They were taught to look forward to a day when their Messiah would come and rescue them from all the things that oppressed them.  They were persecuted at this time by the Roman government and suffered greatly from it.  They longed for the day of the Messiah’s promised coming which gave them a reason to keep hoping that something better was coming even during tough times.  They did not know when, but always hoped that it would be sooner rather than later. People had lived their whole lives anticipating His coming to only die before it happened.  How do you think you would feel when you longed for something your whole life and now your realized it was about to happen?  Here from Isaiah is one of the scriptures that built their hope that the Messiah was coming and what He would do 600 years before Jesus came.

Isa 61:1-4 "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;  (2)  To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,  (3)  To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified."  (4)  And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations.

            What a wonderful picture this paints of hope and the Jewish people held on to it tightly for 600 years. The poor would be preached to, the brokenhearted will be healed, the captives set free, vengeance would come from God, comfort and joy will be given to those who mourn, and praise will be on the lips of those who carry burdens.  He promised that “they shall rebuild the old ruins, raise up former desolations, and repair ruined cities.”  He would fix all that was broken and reward them for their longsuffering and faith that had kept them looking for His coming for many generations.  All of those years of waiting had now come to reality and the Messiah (Jesus) was finally here.  Talk about a celebration!

  It was this very prophecy from Isaiah that Jesus quoted in the synagogue in His home town of Nazareth and followed the reading by saying; “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21) This was one of the few times that He openly admitted to who He was and why He had come and it did not go well in His home town as they did not accept Him words. During most of His ministry as He performed healings, He would command the people to tell no one because His time was not yet to be openly proclaimed as Messiah.  Today in what we call the Triumphal Entry Jesus allowed the praise to lifted to Him openly with no such command; He allowed all to praise Him openly.  Let’s read Mark’s account of this exciting moment.

 

 Mar 11:1-10Now when they drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples; (2) and He said to them, "Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it.  (3)  And if anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord has need of it,' and immediately he will send it here."  (4)  So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it.  (5)  But some of those who stood there said to them, "What are you doing, loosing the colt?"  (6)  And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. So they let them go.  (7)  Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it.  (8)  And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  (9)  Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: "Hosanna! 'BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!'  (10)  Blessed is the kingdom of our father David That comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!"

            The fact that Jesus rode into Jerusalem, not on a white stallion, but upon a donkey’s colt was also confirmation of a prophecy fulfilled form Zechariah.

 

Zech. 9:9 "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.

            As He rode into Jerusalem the people “spread their clothes on the road and cut down leafy branches from trees and spread them on the road.”  Why would they do that?  It was an act of respect and worship as the recognized that after all their years of waiting the Messiah now here He was passing right by them headed into the holy city.  Their actions of praise were also accompanied by their voices of praise as they cried out; “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!”  Their understanding of who He was created within them a desire to openly worship Him in the moment.  Here is a clip of what that may have looked like.

 

Film Clip:

 

Luke 19:39-40 And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples."  (40)  But He answered and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out."

            Why would He say that?  Because finally it was the time for everyone to shout out His praise and celebrate His coming.  If the people were not faithful to sing His praises, the stones would have sung out in their place.  What about for us?  When we come to the point and realize who He is, we too need to sing out His praises and let our actions show we believe; we don’t want the stones to do our job!  That is why we are here today and we sing songs of praise and worship to Him.  We know Him for who He is; Jesus the Son of the Living God who takes away the sins of the world!  In a more personal sense we know Him as the One who paid the price for my sins by giving up His life upon the cross.  We worship Him in different fashions as one being our decision to be here this morning and to participate in the worship, prayer, communion and now the teaching parts of the service.  We come to receive blessing from all of those things, but also we must come to give of ourselves to Him in as our act of worship (telling Jesus how special He is to you) as did these people this morning.  Just as last week we discussed the spiritual warfare we are all part of in this life we must also understand our worship is also spiritual.  Jesus made that clear when He told the woman at the well this:

 

John 4:23-24 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.  (24)  God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

            As we move into this wonderful week which leads up to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, are we worshiping Him in spirit and truth?  Do we read this account as we would any story or do we take this personal knowing that He did this all with me on His mind?  As Jesus entered into through the gate of the city and heard the voices of praise, He knew how quickly things would change and by the end of the week the same voices would cry “Crucify Him!”  Still yet knowing the work He had to accomplish which would require everything, including giving His life, He went anyway.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”  (John 3:16-17)

            As we walk with Jesus through the week that we call “The Passion Week,” let’s keep the reason He did all of this fresh in our mind.  God so loved each one of us that He sent Jesus to die upon the cross in our place; He did this for me.  Today as our Lord triumphantly enters into Jerusalem, let’s worship Him together for who He is, the Lamb of God, and how much He loves us and do it in spirit and truth.  Let’s also let this set the tone for entire week as we walk with Him through all that He experiences the teaching, the persecution, the suffering, the crucifixion, and finally His resurrection.

 

Heavenly Father, grant to us the spiritual vision to see Jesus as who He really is; our Lord and Savior.  Open our eyes to see and our hearts to comprehend how He did this all with me on His mind.