Palm Sunday – Matthew 21:1-13

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Good morning Church, It’s a beautiful Sunday and I am super excited to connect you through Facebook, I believe you all are spending quality time with your family and friends and I hope you all are doing great and I am sure you all are taking good care of yourself.

As we know, the world is going through excruciate pain and suffering because of Covid-19 Pandemic, people are living in fear, anxiety and uncertainty,

This pandemic disease is out of control, many people are dead and many people are fighting for life in a sickbed, many people are jobless, many people are living in hunger and thirst.

In these chaotic circumstances, the church can play a vital role by showing Christ love to the people around us, by showing Christ care and kindness to all the people and most importantly let us point the people around us to Christ, showing them that Christ is the saviour of the world and He is the answer for all our life problems.

Last week I came across an encouraging quote from the scripture,

I want to read out for all of us.

“If God could Close the lion’s mouth for Daniel,

Part the Red seas for Moses

Make the sun stand still for Joshua

Open the prison for Peter

Put a Baby in the arm of Sarah

And Raise Lazarus from the dead

Then, He can certainly take care of you

Nothing you are facing today is too hard for Him to Handle.”

Shall we look to God in prayer: pray….. Amen

As we enter passion week, we shall look to the passage related to each occasion, since today is Palm Sunday we shall meditate from Palm Sunday passage`

Our book study from Thessalonian will continue in the following week.

Would you open your bible with me to Matthew 21:1-13?

1. As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples,

² saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me.

³ If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

⁴ This took place to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet:

⁵ “Say to Daughter Zion,
    ‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
    and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”^[a]

⁶ The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them.

⁷ They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on.

⁸ A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

 ⁹ The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna  to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”^[c]

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

¹⁰ When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

¹¹ The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

¹² Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the benches of those selling doves.

¹³ “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.

Before we see the main 3 points let’s see

What is Palm Sunday?

Palm Sunday marked the start of what is called “passion week” the final days of Jesus earthly ministry, it is the day we remember and celebrate the triumph entry of Jesus Christ to Jerusalem as Saviour and king.

Palm leaves: Signifies victory / Triumph

Jesus riding on a donkey: When a king rides on a Donkey it symbolises peace. And we know from the scripture that Christ is the prince of peace.

Hosanna: Save us now/ Deliver/ Rescue us.

Crowd: The crowd shout hosanna because they saw Jesus performing lots of miracles, heal the lame and blind, turn the water into wine, feeding 5000 people with 2 fish and 5 loaves, raise Lazarus from the dead and because of this great

They expect that He can rescue them politically and free them from Roman rule.

But Jesus mission was to save mankind from the slavery of sin and gave mankind eternal life. When the crowd expectation was not met, it was the same crowd who shout crucify Him on Good Friday.

These are a few things I would like to remind before we enter our main points.

I would like to entitle my sermon as

       “Your King is coming”

I would like to bring 3 very important points from the above passage.

1. Jesus Enter Jerusalem as a king, who will save mankind from the bondage of sin.

Matthew 21:5. “Say to Daughter of Zion,

 ‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Matthew quote this verse from Old testament Zacharias 9:9.

Prophet Zacharias prophesy 500 years prior to the Jesus arrival in Jerusalem.

As Jesus enter Jerusalem the crowd threw their cloaks on the road, they took the palm leaves and began joyfully praising God in the Loud voices for all the miracles they have seen.

And they were shouting

“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the LORD,

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.

Purpose of Christ coming to this world: before that let’s see the condition of mankind.

1. Christ our king came to this world as a Passover lamb. (Exodus 16).

(Moses told Israelites to pain their door with the blood of a lamb so that the spirit will Passover your house and your family,

In the same way if we wash our heart with the blood of Jesus, His blood will cleanse us from all sins.)  he came as a Passover lamb.

2. Christ our king came to this world to give us Eternal life. (John 3:16)

3. Christ our king came to reconcile our broken relationship with the Father. (Rom.5:1}

(Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.)

4. Christ our king came to show us the Way, the Truth and the Life. (John 14:6).

5. Christ our king came to this world to free us from condemnation of sins. (Rom.8:1).

(There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.)

5. Christ our king came to take us to heaven. (John 14:1-3.)

(1.Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God,  believe in me also.

2. In my fathers house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you,  I will go and prepare a place for you.

3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and recieve you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.)

Application:

Beloved church

Christ has redempt us, His love has captured us,

Even though if we go through this corona virus pandemic, facing all kinds of life difficulties and challenges, He promised us He will never leave us nor forsake us,

His everlasting love is with us.

Roman’s 8: 35.

35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or perils,  or sword.

38. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life,  nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,

39. Nor height nor depth,  nor any other created things, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is our bless hope and our Assurance in Christ Jesus.

He is our beautiful saviour our Lord and our King.

2. Jesus enter and cleanse the Jerusalem temple.

 ^{Matthew 21: 12-13.}

¹² Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.

¹³ “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers

Jerusalem temple was like thieves’ market, all kinds of cheating and lying and betraying business was going on in the house of the LORD.

Jesus enter and chase them out and remind them that this house is the house of prayer.

Paul also Remind us in 1 Cor. 6:19-20.

¹⁹ Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore, honour God with your bodies.

The scripture clearly taught us that our Heart is a Temple of Holy Spirit.

But sadly, many people entertain their heart with sin like those people in Jerusalem temple.

From this passage we know that God and sin can’t dwell together.

God hate sin but He loves sinners, he like to clean all our sins as He clean up the Jerusalem temple.

Beloved church how are you all maintaining your heart?

Illustration: Garbage story

You know there are times I forgot to dispose kitchen garbage, when the garbage keeps for so long it smells horrible and the garbage smell the whole room.

In the same way, if we didn’t confess our sin and didn’t dispose them, this stinking sin will poison your whole life and even killed you.

The garbage we store in our heart can be.

(Laziness, cheating, lying, selfishness, bribing, sexual immorality, drunkenness, pornography,

Lust of the flesh, lust of the eye and the pride of life)

We should not let these things rule and control our heart.

Romans 6:23 says. For the wages of sin is Dead but the gift of God is eternal life.

Application:

How are you maintaining your heart and your life?

Is it God please with the lifestyle you are living today?

Beloved Let us examine ourselves right now and if there is any sin in our life and if there is anything hindering us to love Jesus. Let us confess our sin and make right with Him.

 1 John 1: 9. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

I strongly believe that the solution for this corona pandemic is in the hand of God,

The world need to turn to God and repent for the forgiveness of sins.

May God have mercy on us.

2 Chronicle 7:14.

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

3. Jesus enter and wept for Jerusalem. Luke 19: 41-44.

⁴¹ As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it

⁴² and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.

⁴³ The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side.

⁴⁴ They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

Jesus foresee the heart of the people; he sees their miserable future;

He knows their hopelessness; He know that these people will never make it to His kingdom. Knowing all these Jesus cry for them.

In Noah days before the flood people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, they all miss the  opportunity to be to be in the ark. Everyone perish in their sin.

In the same way people of Jerusalem lose the golden opportunity.

Jesus was weeping over the tragedy of lost opportunity,

the Israelites that assembled in Jerusalem for Passover miss the opportunity to be saved from both earthly and eternal destruction.

They were visited by their saviour but they didn’t know it,

instead of receiving Him they killed Him.

Illustration:

I would like remind with the familiar story from the bible, the rich man and Lazarus

 (Luke 16:19-31).

Rich man.

God bless him with riches: He misuse his wealth in a wrong way. (partying)

God gave him beautiful life: He waste his beautiful life.

God gave him enough time to live on earth: He misuse his opportunity

He never remembers God in his entire life but he remembers God in hell fire

but it was too late for him.

Whereas

Poor Lazarus Know the true living God, he makes use of every opportunity and he ends up his life in eternal heaven.

 God gave time to all of us to come to him before iti is too late.

Application

How Jesus may be thinking of you right now?

Is he weeping of you? Like He weep for Jerusalem?

Or Is he celebrating because you are his child?

• Our life on earth is short let us make use of every opportunity.
• God is an omniscience God He know the pain and suffering we are going through right now.
• He know our financial struggles, he knows our life challenges and life struggles.
• The cool part is we are not facing all these complications alone. He promised he will take care of us. If He takes care of the birds in the air and Lily in the field, he will surely take care of us.

Matthew 11:28-30.

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Finally I wanna close with this beautiful song lyrics.

“In Christ alone”