"And They Crucified Him…” (Palm Sunday)

Illus: A magician was performing on a cruise ship. Each night while performing, he would wave his magic stick and “pouf,” something would disappear. However, his parrot kept telling on him saying,

• “It's up his sleeve!”

• “It's in his pocket!”

• “It's in his shoe!”

• “It's in his pants!"

This annoyed the magician greatly. One night, while he was doing his tricks, the ship's boiler blew up and the ship sank. The magician was able to grab on to a table and survived. The parrot also made it to the table and survived.

The parrot and the man were drifting at sea when the parrot said, "I give up... what did you do with the ship?"

A misconception is to interpret something incorrectly. As we read the New Testament, many of the Jews had wrong ideas about Christ’s coming. They thought that Christ had come to set up His Kingdom on earth. This is not what He had come to do!

The Jews failed to understand the two-fold ministry of Christ.

• His first coming was to die for the sins of mankind.

• His second coming would be to set up His Kingdom on earth during the millennium

The Jews and even the Lord’s own disciples had a difficult time understanding that:

We can see the MISCONCEPTION in Matthew 20:20-24, we read, “Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren.”

They literally thought He had come to set up His Kingdom.

• He was doing all kinds of miracles

• He was drawing large crowds to follow Him

On what we call Palm Sunday, they literally cheered Him and waved Palm branches as He rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey.

His popularity was widespread, and the politicians and the religious leaders knew that He could have the multitudes vote Him in as their king. HE WAS THAT POPULAR!

But then something happened only a short time later. We see -

I. THEY NAILED JESUS TO THE CROSS

Look at Matt. 27:35 “And they crucified him...”

• Often we come to church and the preacher preaches about Jesus being nailed to a cross, and we do not think that much about it.

• Often we hear Sunday School lessons on Him being nailed to a cross and we do not think that much about it.

• Often we sing about Him being nailed to a cross and never shed a tear.

The mention of these four words should cause all of us to stop and meditate on this simple statement, “And they crucified Him…”

WHO DID THEY CRUCIFY? They crucified the Son of God! Listen, it would have been bad had they crucified the most honest citizen in Jerusalem, but they CRUCIFIED THE SINLESS SON OF GOD!

WHO DID THIS AWFUL THING? The Bible said, “And THEY crucified Him…” Who is the “they” referring to?

Illus: In March of 2004 four Americans were killed in Iraq. They were viciously attacked while driving in their car. After they were killed, the news showed what looked like thousands of people rejoicing over their death as they dragged the bodies down the street and hung them from a bridge. The American military is studying the videos of this horrendous crime and they are going to find the culprits and make them pay for what they did.

We do not have a video to show us who nailed Jesus to the cross, but we do have the Word of God.

The Word of God said, “And THEY crucified Him…” They are many people; but one group of people were the Jews.

Illus: When the Mel Gibson movie about “The Passion Of The Christ” came out, the Jews protested the movie vehemently. They felt that it might cause anti-Semitic feelings in this country toward the Jews. They did not want us to think that the Jews were the reason for His death on the cross.