Dancing In The Streets

Dancing in the Streets

“Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” 1 Corinthians 5:7 NIV

Intro: The triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem to celebrate his last Passover is a point on the time line of history. It is palms and praise and passion that call for hope and deliverance and salvation. There were two crowds “Dancing in the Streets” that week. The first crowd was dancing when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. A large crowd of worshipers believing Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is the Son of David the Saviour. Waving Palm Branches…, casting their coats and garments in the road as a royal carpet being rolled out for their King of Israel has come. Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the Highest.

The second group in this crowd were the Priests and traditional Zealots, Pharisees and Sadducees believing Jesus was the challenger of their vision of a future state Jesus was an enemy of their cause and an apostasy against their God. According to the Gospel of John chapter 11:47 “Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.” 49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” 51 He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. 53 So from that day on they plotted to take his life.”54 Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.

Now Jesus had come out of his hiding and was entering the city of Jerusalem. Oh, the Priest and Sanhedrin and the temple leaders would be “Dancing in the Street” as Jesus was riding straight into their trap. Oh, there was a parade on that Palm Passover day. But there were two very different reasons why people were “Dancing in the Streets.” That is why we burn the dried up Palm leaves and turn them into ashes on Ash Wednesday and weep and repent for forty days of Lent leading up to Palm Sunday. Because we know the betrayal, the lies, the deception, the back ally meetings. The plot against Jesus thickens.

John 11:55 “When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. 56 They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?”57 But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.”

Oh, there was Dancing in the Streets when Jesus came into town. But not everyone was dancing for the same reason. The same thing happens in the crowds of people who gather in our world today. It was March Madness, Apple Days, Fireworks July all rolled up into one. People came to Jerusalem from Jericho, from Nazareth, Bethlehem, Hebron, Capernaum, Hazard, Pikeville, Prestonsburg, Thelma and Van Lear. The streets were packed with crowds. Imagine a several hundred thousand people descending upon Paintsville Kentucky.

Some people in the crowd really didn’t care what was going on between the Jewish and the Disciples. They were just their to watch. In every community and in every church there are people who are nothing more than by standers. They are the crowd of apathy. The definition of Apathy is – Lack of feelings…, the lack of emotion; indifference…, boredom…, uninterested…, unconcerned. "After they had nailed him to the cross, the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice." Matthew 27:35 Apathy is one of the killers of the church today. Soldiers threw dice and divided Jesus’ clothing among themselves at the foot of the cross… Many of the people in the crowd that day had no concern..., no feelings…, about those being crucified.

“Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are.”I Corinthians 5:7 As Hebrews prepared for their Exodus from slavery in Egypt, they were commanded to prepare bread without yeast because they did not have time to let the bread rise. We also are commanded to not wait or delay because the time for our salvation is upon us as well. The day of Salvation is today. Don’t put off making a decision to give your life to Christ until tomorrow. Today is the day to begin your new life. Jesus coming into Jerusalem this week of Passover is the deliverance for us from slavery of sin. We should have nothing to do with the old things of our past. Some did realize that something dramatic was happening…, but they went away…, having not been convicted by it having decided to do nothing about the things that were happening. "And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned." Luke 23:48 (KJV) The question for us today is how can anyone stand in sight of the cross, and do nothing?