Palm Sunday, King Of Kings

April 5th Palm Sunday…

Hello I'm pastor Greg of Calvary

Reformed Church also chaplain Greg with the 110th wing in Battle Creek Michigan.

We know that this week Sunday within the church worldwide Christians Catholic and

Protestant Christians celebrate Palm Sunday. It's the time in which we, as a Christian community celebrate the time when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey.

The disciples were going from Jericho which is lower up to the higher elevation of Jerusalem, and they walked past I'm sure many vineyards such as what we have around us today. And as

they're walking through the vineyards prior to going Jesus had asked the disciples--- a couple of them to get him a donkey / colt and they did.

He rode into Jerusalem on that Colt on what we celebrate is Palm Sunday. Some respects

At that time of him saying I am the King ---I

am the king of kings

I love the aspect that he came in on

that Sunday Palm Sunday to because that

is the day that the Jewish people were

choosing their lambs for the Passover

meal for later on in the week.

Jesus rides in, and says I am the Lamb of God who will give his life for you. Also, within the vineyards we have the reality that he says I am the vine you are the branches when we abide in him he gives us Grace.

We all know right now there's a lot of

different things going on for our lives----

not just here within our area of Texas

township -- Kalamazoo city – Michigan --

the united states but the entire world ---

we're facing something that we as a

generation have never faced before, and

yet we know there is power and strength

and there is hope in our Creator hoping IN

the king of kings.

I want to teach today not on Palm Sunday

itself but on the next day after Palm Sunday. A day that sometimes we overlook, Mark chapter 11 says this to us on the, next day as they were leaving Bethany Jesus and the disciples he

is hungry so he saw a fig leaf and he

went out to it but there were no figs on

him and he said may no one ever eat of

this fruit again and the disciples heard

him say this.

This interesting because after what we're going to look at what takes place in the temple he goes back and the thig tree had died. (Here’s a side note--is THAT my prayer during this time of what we're walking through as people our faith will not die but that our faith will grow within our lives.)

But here's what I want to share today Jesus here in Mark, says on reaching Jerusalem, Jesus

entered the temple area and he began

driving out those who were buying and

selling there he overturned the tables

of the money changers and the benches of

those selling doves and would not allow

anyone to carry merchandise to the

temple courts.

I find it interesting because God in the Old Testament had set up a sacrificial system with the doves and the lambs the unblemished lambs. Part

of the aspect of the selling within the temple was to assist the pilgrims who came to Jerusalem to do that sacrifice which they were called to do.

But the religious leaders had a scam going on, all about money not about faith but about money. They were charging exorbitant prices for the lambs for the doves they were charging an exorbitant amount of exchange for the monies for

the temple money to be given as an offering.

Jesus here says no he threw them all out and he says, “no as it is written in the Old Testament the Book of Isaiah my house will be called a house

of prayer for all people but you have made it into a den of thieves:

At that point the chief priests and the teachers of the law began to look for a way to

kill him. This was not the first time they wanted

to kill him, they have done this a few other times before but now they were adamant about bringing him to death, but they were afraid of him because the crowd was amazed at his teaching.

A couple ideas I want to bring out about the temple of God the temple there within Jerusalem.

The first is as Jesus said the house of God was called to be a house of prayer a house of

Prayer. We know that in earlier in Mark chapter 1, it talks about that every Sabbath Jesus would go into a synagogue a local place of worship with Jewish people for time of Prayer.