Hear the word of God from Psalm 118. "Open for me the gates of righteousness. I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteousness may enter. I will give you thanks for you answered me. You have become my salvation. The stone the builders has rejected has become the capstone. The Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Oh Lord save us. Oh Lord grant us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the House of the Lord we bless you. The Lord is God and He has made his light shine upon us. With bows in hand join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar. You are my God and I will give you thanks. You are my God and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. Love endures forever."
May God add his blessing to his Holy and inspired word this morning. I'm amazed time and time again by the symmetry of our God. How the smallest details throughout the countless ages are woven into an elaborate pattern to proclaim the purpose and the power of our God. This morning is no different. In fact, this morning especially, we need to understand how our God chooses to work. On this Palm Sunday, in order to understand the shouts of the people. In order to understand the exultation of Jesus. In order to realize how this day fits into the week that is upon us. I want us to consider first of all, the Palms and then the Psalms, a patriarch and then the purpose of God.
The scene is very familiar to us. We've heard it time and time again, year after year. We can picture it in our minds. Jesus coming down the Mount of Olives and the multitude beginning to gather. The disciples full of joy and they begin to lay their coats before Jesus. The people begin to take the branches, the bows off the trees and they begin to wave them, and they begin to shout Hosanna. Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We know that the Passover season is a season of high expectation. Of messy [antic 00:03:12] hope. The people waved their branches and they cry out, "save us, save us." Do they really know what they want to be saved from? They wave the branches of victory. The branches that were waved when Judas Maccabeus and his brothers came and drove Antiochus Epiphanes and the pagans from Jerusalem, the small people of God raising up to drive out a superior military political presser. So they waved the branches hoping for another victory over the oppression of the Romans. "Save us," they cried. Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Like so many times ourselves, the people of Israel have forgotten their past. They've forgotten their history. They've forgotten the promises of God. As the palms wave and the cries go up, to understand what is going on we need to turn to the Psalms. In particular, Psalms 113-118 and they're called the Great [Hallel 00:04:35] Hallelujah Psalms. They were sung by the children of Israel as they gathered for the festivals, as they gathered for the feast in Jerusalem. The pilgrims would sing them along the way. As they gathered there in the courtyard temple they would lift them up and they would form the structure of their worship and of their praise, for they were a recitation of the promises of God, of the history of God.
In particular, on Palm Sunday the Psalm that is upon the lips of the people is Psalm 118. In particular, the verse that we read beginning at verse 19, that called the people to celebration. That called the people to procession. That the people come and they lift up their pride to God in verse 25. Oh God save us. Oh God grant us success. What is that word? It's Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna; their cry goes up to God not to a military conqueror. Not to a son of Judas Maccabeus. Not to a false Messiah. That prayer is reserved for God alone. Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we will bless you. This Psalm is more than just a cry for salvation. For within the cry is the answer to the prayer that is prayed. That is why this Psalm is so important in light of the events of Palm Sunday.
I want you to pay attention to the words of verse 27. The Lord is God and he has made his light shine upon us. With bows in hand join in the festal process up to the horns of the alter. Do you see the imagery of Palm Sunday? Do you see the image of the waving bows? It's already been foreseen in the Word of God. In the word of the Psalmist, he sees Palm Sunday, but he sees something that the people miss. For where does the victory parade go? The waving of the palm leads to what? It does not lead to Antonia Fortress, The Stronghold, The Garrison of the Roman Army. The festal parade does not lead to the house of Pilat.
The prophetic word does not say that in the time of the coming of the Lord the Romans will be overthrown. The joy and the excitement of that moment ends at the altar of sacrifice. Not in the courts of power. Not in the barracks of a strong military force. Not in the mechanizations of leadership. The Palm Sunday, in order to be Palm Sunday must end at the altar of sacrifice. "Lord save us," they cry as they wave the palms. "Save us through the alter."
Now, there's something unique here. The NIV does a pretty poor job of translating this for us, but the latter part of Psalm 118:27 ought to be translated thus. The Lord is God and he has made his light shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with ropes and take it up to the horns of the alter. You see, the binding is missed in our translation, but the binding is important. The bound sacrifice is at the heart of the Palm Sunday victory celebration. It is that verse, that when it is read to the people of God, when it is sung by the people of God, takes them back into their history. It takes them from the Psalm to the patriarch. It takes them to a lonely desolate mountain, Mount Moriah. It takes them to the father of their faith. It takes them to Abraham. Abraham, who in Genesis 22 was tested by the Word of God to take your son, your only son and offer him as a sacrifice upon the mountain for which I will tell you.
That is one of the most powerful stories in all of scripture. The ancient patriarch with shuffling steps, leaving his service behind and with his young son, bearing the wood and the torch beginning that climb up the mountain. A sad parade. The little boy asked innocently, "father I see the wood and I see the fire but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?" What was the word of Abraham to his son? Says God will provide the lamb. They reached the summit of Mount Moriah and he binds his son. In fact, in the Hebrew way of telling the story, it's not called the sacrifice of Isaac, it's called the binding of Isaac because it's his binding that is so crucial to the story. The wiling submission to God. There is that horrific moment when the knife is raised above the throat of his son. An angle of the Lord says, "Abraham stay your hand." "God has seen that you are willing to give up your son, your only son for me." "Let him go." In that moment when Abraham's attention was turned to the thicket and there was the lamb, the lamb caught in the bushes. Scripture says that Abraham named that place Jehovah Jireh. For it was on the mountain of the Lord that God provided the lamb.
The symmetry of God is coming together. The people, they're crying out for salvation. In the words of an ancient Psalm that points to the sacrifice. That points to the promise made to Abraham that God will provide the lamb. Israel never forgot the story. They never forgot the provision of sacrifice. God, when he was instituting the law for the children of Israel when they were to come into the promise land, gathered them on that first Passover and he gave them these instructions. He said, "on the tenth day of the month of Nissan, you are to choose the lamb for the sacrifice." "You are to choose for your household the lamb of sacrifice." "You are to bind him and you are to hold him for four days, and at the end of the four days of examination at twilight on the fourteenth day of Nissan, you are to offer the lamb in sacrifice for the sins of your heart and of your children."
What's all this mean this morning? What does it mean that we have the waving of the palm branches saying, "Hosanna save us." The words of an ancient Psalm that say salvation comes through the alter of sacrifice. What do we make of the promise of God to an old man that he will provide the lamb, and what difference does it make that God said in the book of Exodus on the tenth day of Nissan, you are to choose the lamb for the sacrifice?
Let me tell you. So often we get caught up in the palm stories, story. We see the waving of the palm branches. We hear the shouts of hosanna and the little children singing, but there's another sounds that was just as evident in Jerusalem that day. It's a sounds that we need to hear anew today if we're to understand why this day is so important in the last week of Jesus's life. I talked about the wonderful convergence of God and how all the strings come together. Jesus is coming down the Mount of Olives to the shouts of hosanna there with the pilgrims streaming in. At the next gate over, the sheep gate. , the Bethlehem lambs are being brought to the temple. Somewhere in the courtyard of Herod's temple amidst the worshiping throngs the lambs are brought for selection. The Bethlehem lambs are brought so the people of God might choose who their sacrifice might be. At that exact moment God is bringing his Bethlehem lamb to the same place.
You see, for the Hebrew, the Jew, the Israelite of that day. The day that Jesus enters into Jerusalem is not Palm Sunday. It's selection Sunday. It is the day that they choose the lamb for the sacrifice. As the lambs are paraded before the people and the people are choosing their lamb, God is offering the people the choice. Here is my lamb without blemish, without spot. Now, we said that the lamb was chosen on the tenth day of Nissan in order that it might be sacrificed on the fourteenth day. What goes on during those four days? The priest have to exam the lamb. They have to certify that that lamb is without spot and is without blemish, and is worthy for the sacrifice.
For four days the gospels tell us that Jesus is examined by the Pharisees, by the teachers of the law, by the Scribes. They question him, they try to trick him. They try to trap him, but at the conclusion the gospel says ultimately that they kept silent because they could say nothing against him. The lamb was spotless. God takes it a step further. He brings his son bound into the presence of the government, the ruler of that day represented by Pontius Pilat. We know again what happens don't we? Pilat examines him. He keeps coming back saying, "I find no fault in him." "I find no fault in this man." He is spotless, he is pure. The lamb selected by God. His Bethlehem lamb is presented before the world. We know what happens don't we? Pilat brings him out, "Ecce homo," he proclaims. The old man is a choice to be made. God has brought his selection. The people have brought their choice.
On the fourteenth of Nissan at nine o'clock in the morning the multitudes who had been waiting outside the gates of the temple rush in as the priest open the doors. Within a matter of moments tens of thousands of worshipers and their perfect Bethlehem lambs are brought. There's an assembly line that begins with thousands of priests and they're standing there, and the lambs are being sacrificed and the bowls are being filled. The blood is being passed and in a moment the marble and the gold of the temple is a gutted with gore. Blood is running down the gutters in rivers pouring into the Kidron Valley.
At nine in the morning, God's Bethlehem lamb is lifted high upon a cross. He says, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." Throughout the day the lambs come. Then at the last hour, the ninth hour, the sacrifice is made for the people of Israel. The high priest takes the one perfect lamb in their estimation, brings him into the holy of holies and offers the blood upon the alter.
At the ninth hour the lamb of God cried out, "it is finished," and the temple curtain is torn in two. God has rejected the lamb of Bethlehem. He said my lamb, my lamb alone can bring salvation. The words of Abraham are fulfilled. God has provided his lamb.
What's that mean for us today in the present on this Palm Sunday? On this Selection Sunday? God is still holding forth his perfect lamb. He is still offering to the world his choice. Will you take the solutions of the world that will never satisfy, that will never save or will you take my lamb? Perfect, who's blood avails for the sin of the world.
This morning we had two young people make their choice. This morning they stood before you and before God and chose His lamb. They said, "we take Jesus." "We cry out Hosanna Jesus, you and you alone can save us." They've joined that heavenly parade that stretches from eternity to eternity. They've joined that group that one day will stand before the lamb in heaven. Where clothed in white robes the festal banners will wave once more, but no longer will the cry be "Hosanna save us." No longer will the cry be, "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord." The cry will go up that says salvation does belong to the lamb upon the throne. We are saved. He has come.
We do a disservice perhaps when we refer to today as Palm Sunday. I think we ought to once again, recover it's ancient Hebraic roots and to say it is a day of selection. It is a day of choice. "Who will you choose?" I challenge you today to choose God's lamb. Examine him if you will. Test him if you will. Try him if you will, but you will find at the end of the day that he is trustworthy. That his promises are true. That you can depend upon him. That your salvation is assured.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The Lord is God. He has made his light shine upon us. With bows in hand, join the festal procession up to the alter, up to the cross, up to Christ. Amen.
