Luke 19: 28 – 40 / Glory
Intro: One of the items on my “bucket list” is to attend the tournament of roses parade in Pasadena, CA. Many years I’ve watched that parade with the bands, floats, drill teams etc. I can only imagine the sounds and smells of that parade. In a parade, you never know what is going to come up next. You don’t know if you will feel good about it, or just want it to hurry up and get out of the way. --- Life is like a parade in many ways. You never quite know what is coming next. Although you cannot determine what’s coming next, you can determine what your attitude toward whatever it is will be.
I. The impact of attitude on life is tremendous. It is more important than facts, education, money, or circumstances.
A. As we look at the Palm Sunday parade, I can’t help wonder what about the attitude of those gathered. VS. 36 &37 – As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came near the place where the road does down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:” Excitement and anticipation
B. VS. 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” Fear of retaliation.
C. What might our attitude have been? Envy? Questioning?
II. Suppose Jesus told you, “Go to Walmart near the main entrance and you will find a brand new blue Ram truck with the keys in it. Bring it back to him and if security or anyone asks you what you are doing, just tell them “the Lord needs it.”
A. How many would actually do it? Many times God calls us to do something and we second-guess God asking, “Is this going to work? How can I get this done without going to jail? Where am I going to get the money?”
B. The donkey was used by King when entering a city in peace. The horse or stallion was used when entering as a conqueror. The donkey was also an animal of service used to carry the burdens and loads of people.
C. At the very heart of Palm Sunday is the desire of Jesus to bring peace into our lives and to be willing to carry whatever burdens in life that are weighing us down.
III. VS. 38 – Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!
A. The Jewish teaching was that Messiah would usher in a universal peace. That meant that the enemies of the Jews, the Romans would have to be vanquished. But Jesus was not that kind of king.
B. We sing our hosannas on Palm Sunday joining our voices with those long ago proclaiming Jesus as king.
C. The word Hosanna is a GK word which translates the Hebrew word, HOSHILAH NA which means SAVE NOW.
Conclu: A young woman came to the pastor’s office seeking advice and help. She and her husband had both lost their jobs, they were fighting, the bank was threatening to take away their cars and home. He son was in an automobile accident and was in danger of losing a leg. --- The pastor prayed with her reminding her about the hope God gives in hopeless situations. She started attending the church faithfully for about a month and suddenly she quit coming. The pastor saw her one day at Walmart and commented that he had not seen her in church for a few weeks. He asked her how things were going. She claimed everything was better now: she and her husband were rehired, her relationship with her husband had improved and her son was doing fine on his two legs. She closed the conversation by saying, “You probably won’t be seeing me at church anymore. I don’t know what I was thinking. Maybe I was just worrying too much. After all, things just have a way of working themselves out.”
We shout SAVE US, SAVE US and God does. What then do we do? To whom do we give the glory?
