Greater White Rock Baptist Church
Palm Sunday—The attitude of the crowd
Luke 19:28-40
April 4, 2004
Please note that I have recieved some additional information from sermons on sermoncentral
How many of you have ever been to a parade that had different things in it from bands, to floats, to drill teams and more? In a parade you never know what is going to come up next, whether you will feel good about it, or just want it to hurry up and get out of the way. Life itself is like a parade. You never quite know what is coming next. Although you cannot determine, what’s coming, you can determine what your attitude toward whatever it is, is going to be.
Attitude is a choice. It is something that’s very valuable, because it lets us be in control of how we feel inside. If attitude was not a choice, we could not follow Christ, because Jesus requires of us some unexpected attitudes in certain situations. Have you ever had anyone to tell you, you need to change that attitude or get rid of that attitude as soon as possible? Having a bad attitude or a poor attitude can really destroy relationships and will hurt us in the long run.
Chuck Swindoll had this to say about attitude. “The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of Attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important: than facts, than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do, than appearances, than giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home. Some folks got some real bad attitude; they think we owe them the world. They know how to roll their eyes at you and turn there back on you. You know what I mean. We get an attitude because we don’t get our way. Well if I can’t sing my song then I’m not going to sing at all. If I can read the scripture or pray then I’m not coming to prayer meeting.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the Attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the predictable. The only thing we can do is to rely on our Attitude. I am convinced my brothers and sisters that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you…we are in charge of our attitudes.”
Palm Sunday is a time for us to examine our attitudes toward each other as well as toward God. In a way, Palm Sunday is about a huge parade coming into town with one major float as its main attraction. The preparation, the launching, and the moving of the float will allow all kinds of attitudes to appear. The people have gather together to witness, to enjoy and embrace the joy and laughter that will be marching down their streets.
Let’s see when and where our own attitude shows up.
Now Jesus has less than a week to live, and He knows it fully well. He has finally decided to make it known publicly that He is the long awaited Messiah, the King that God’s people has been waiting for, for hundreds of years. He has shown His deity, for the word had become flesh and dwelt upon us. He has turned water into wine. Cause the deaf to hear and the lame to walk. He place a bakery and fish market on
the top of a mountain during His sermonic delivery “The sermon on the Mount” Deity took the funeral home out of business causing Lazarus, Jarius daughter and the young man all came back to life and they went back to the funeral home for a reimbursement. Yes deity showed up, “I am the way, the truth and the life no man cometh to the father except through me”.
We read in the Old Testament a prophecy about a King who would come into the city riding on a colt. Zechariah predicted it would happen over 500 years before Jesus was born. The time had finally come and Jesus was ready to take the next step.
Can he count on everybody’s cooperation?
He’s starting to get ready for his whole reason for being here, which was to obey God the Father. He calls his disciples together and He looks at the lineup and chooses two of them. Let’s look at Luke 19:30-31 "Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31If anyone asks you, ’Why are you untying it?’ tell him, ’The Lord needs it.’ Now the word Lord here is the name for God, which is found in the Old Testament. So Jesus is saying, tell them “God is about to do something great with it"
Now here’s the first opportunity for an attitude.
Don’t send me-but don’t send anybody else either.
I don’t want to do it, but I don’t want anybody else to do it either.
Suppose you had been there as one of the disciples. Would you have gotten upset and became envious that Jesus chose those two and not you? Some kind of miracle is going to take place with this colt. Why do they get to be the ones to go? I’ve been with Jesus before they came along. That’s not fair. He thinks he’s better than me. Notice, the text never identifies which two Jesus chose. I began to look at this more indebt and I am convinced that He did not send Judas, because Judas was a thief and Jesus had given the disciples orders on what to say when approaching the owners. Judas would have stolen the animal. He probably did not choose Matthew, for he was a tax collector and he would have taken out his tax book and see if they had back taxes due. He would not have choose Peter because he would have gotten angry if they had not given up the animals and would have been rising all kind of hell. Certainly Thomas was a doubter and would have questioned the words of Jesus. Maybe James and John were arguing over who would sit on the left and who on the right. So that leaves only six left. Who ever He choose, Jesus knew He could have depended on the two.
There are a few things that are as damaging to the body of Christ, than people having the attitude. It should have been me and not them. The attitude of envy causes us to say things about others that should never be said. We question their motives, their hearts, and their intentions. We forget that we are called the body of Christ, not the interchangeable parts of Christ. Jesus does not treat us the same, because He has different roles and ministries for each of us to fulfill. Some of us would have said, “if he was going to do it for the two, then he should have done it for the 12. That’s the only way to be fair.” They were mad at Jesus because they felt they weren’t in the in crowd. The in crowd can call pastor anytime they want to. He does more for them than for me. He always calls on them to pray and for them to say a word for the Lord. If you never come to prayer meeting and bible study how does the pastor know that you can pray? Then if the pastor cause on you to pray then you are fussing because he could have told me in advance. I would have gone home and written up my prayer. Why is he trying to embarrass me if front of everybody?
Sometimes we get upset with others over God’s call on their lives, when we do not understand what price they have paid to get to where they are. I used to say I would love to be like so and so because he has a great ministry. But I have learned to thank God for what I have, for I can handle and that which God has given to me. And as I grow the church will grow and the people will grow and the membership will grow. “Much is given and much is required” Sometimes God cannot use us in the spotlight, because we’re unwilling to pay the price to get there. Sometime your head will get big and your heart will become prideful and God can’t use you. Notice, these two disciples are going on the word of Jesus. As they are walking along, one of them probably said, “So how much money did Jesus give you for the colt.” The other said what, “I thought he gave you the money to pay for it.” What is our attitude when God calls us to do something, but God does not give us anything to accomplish it with except His Word? All we know is that God told us to do it. And God is an illogical God. God does thing that are really crazy. They are done in away that causes us to think about what we are doing. Who would think about building an Ark when it had not rain for years? Who would think that a burning brush could burn and not be consumed? Even cause the sea to depart that we might stroll through it towards freedom.
Illustration: when renovating the church.
Sure enough, the two disciples found the colt exactly as Jesus had said, in the place where he told them it would be. Everything is going fine. They go over to start untying the colt. All of a sudden there is this large voice saying, “What are you doing with our animal. In other words they uses some harsh language. Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind? What’s up with that? You must be on drugs? You are about to get wasted? What are you doing untying MY colt?” All of a sudden some guys looking pretty angry are surrounding you. Now if it had been some of us, we would have gotten a self-righteous attitude. “Don’t be accusing me of stealing your animal. I just made a mistake. I didn’t know this was your animal.” We would have lied and said, I lost my colt and it look like mine. You see we can become so interested in how we look in a situation, that we forget what it was Jesus told us to do.
They had a Defensive Attitude.
Jesus did not say defend you. He said, tell them the “Lord needs it.” When they said, “The Lord needs it”, the owner’s attitudes immediately changed from anger and suspicion to cooperation. Now God had previously spoken to their hearts to bring out their prized possession, a beautiful colt upon which no one had ever ridden. But God did not tell them how He was coming to get it. They may have been waiting for an angel from heaven to come and pick it up. They certainly were not expecting two ordinary looking men, who they mistook as thieves. We need the right attitude even with strangers, because we never know when Jesus is right in our midst.
When the owners heard, the words, “The Lord needs it”, they were eager to let it go. According to Matthew’s gospel not only did the owners send the colt, they sent along the donkey’s mother as well, so the disciples took both animals back to Jesus. God must have spoken to their hearts some time ago, “don’t ever ride on that colt, I have need of it.” When Jesus gives us the direction that He wants us to go, He will defend us. He told Jeremiah “I will put my words into your mouth”. In other words you go on my behalf and I will speak for you. We want to lie our way out and justify rather than to say that God told me to do it.
Some times God tells us to hold on to something that we might want to use for ourselves, because He has a higher purpose for it. This particular colt symbolized sacredness or holiness in that it had never been ridden before. Animals and things used for sacred purposes in the Old Testament had to be animals and things that had never been used before.
Now this colt was simply a young donkey. We do not highly prize the riding of a donkey, as a matter of fact, we would much rather see someone riding on a horse. But just like Jesus has a reason for why he chooses us, he had a reason for why he chose this new donkey. Kings used the donkey when they entered the city in peace. A King used the horse or stallion when he entered the city as a conqueror. The donkey was also an animal of service used to carry the burdens and loads of people. So Jesus is preparing to come into the city fulfilling the prophecy in Scripture and presenting himself as the King of peace, ready to carry the burdens of others.
At the heart of Palm Sunday is Jesus’ desire to bring peace into our lives and to be willing to carry whatever burdens in life that are weighing us down. But the only way Jesus can complete his desire, is for us to allow him to march in and take over without having to fight us all along the way. Have you ever told God, ”you can march over there, but don’t come this way because I’m not yet ready to surrender.” Where ever Jesus is not fully welcome in our lives is where the real battle is taking place for our attitudes. We’re doing all kinds of things hoping to find some peace, but God is saying, until you get your attitude together right here, you shall not have peace as you seek for it.
When the two disciples returned with the colt and the donkey, they placed their coats and garments upon the young colt to serve as a saddle for Jesus. The parade is about to start. So far it consists of a large number of people who have recently seen the miracles Jesus had done such as raising Lazarus from the dead and the healing of Blind Bartimaeus. They were from Galilee and other parts of the country on their way to Jerusalem for the feast. There were the disciples themselves, along with Jesus, a donkey and her colt. As the parade began, different attitudes started to manifest themselves.
The third point is: They had a “Participator” Attitude
The attitude was those who wanted to immediately offer Jesus the best that they had. They took off their coats and clothing and begin to lay it down the pathway as to form a royal carpet for the animals to walk on. They were not concerned that there clothes might not be reusable or that they would not be able to get them back. Their focus was on going all out to honor Jesus Christ. Is this your attitude when it comes to serving God? Lord you can count on me to give whatever I have without thinking about it. This was the group that gave Above and Beyond what was expected. These were the real NUTS in the crowd who could say, “We never underestimate the spirit.” They were there to participate in worship. They didn’t care if their hair got messed up or if their suite got wrinkled. They were there to receive their blessings from the Lord. In other words they were the crazies, saved, illogical worshipers. They came there to participate in the celebration of the king of glory. Who is the king of glory? The Lord is strong and mighty. Jesus the Christ.
The fourth point is: They had an “Imitators” Attitude
The Fourth attitude was another group of people with another attitude an “Imitators” at the parade that day. It’s the attitude of giving something good, even if its not the best they could give. They kept their coats and clothing, but they were willing to go and cut down the palm branches and lay them down as a means of honoring and respecting Jesus. They are in the parade and they look pretty good on the outside. They were there to see what was going to happen.
This is where many people are in the church today. They’re doing a pretty good job, and investing themselves in the work of the Jesus, but they haven’t decided that all that I am truly belongs to God. They believe it as head knowledge, but it’s not a reality in their hearts. They are still not convinced that doing things God’s way is the best way to handle their lives. They sing the right songs, they say the right language, but they are just imitators. Look good on the outside, but no change on the inside. They know how to dress right and shout right even got there fake hoop, but they are just imitators.
Another point is there are Spectators.
Then there were those who were there, but they never actually became a part of the parade, they just sort of stood alongside the road and cheered a little bit. They were willing to take notice of Jesus and to even give him a handclap now ant then, but they were too concerned with other things to actually get involved. As soon as Jesus passed them by, they went on about their business as people do once the parade is gone.
These are the people who claim to know Jesus, but are not committed in any church, nor do they seek to live the lives God has called them to live. Their attitude is, “well the Lord knows my heart.” The Lord does know our hearts, and what God has to say about our hearts should cause us to run and give our lives to Jesus Christ. Apart from Christ, our hearts are in need of a major overhaul.
There were thousands and thousands of people there on Palm Sunday as Jesus marched into the city. You see Jerusalem has hills all around it, and if you were on the right hills, you could easily see Jesus riding in on the donkey. You got to decide how close you wanted to get to Jesus then, just like you get to decide today how close you want to get to Jesus. Palm Sunday was the only time in Jesus’ life that he allowed the people to declare him as King and to openly receive their praise and worship as a crowd.
The people shouted out, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.” They were saying, “You’re the one whom God has sent.” Matthew tells us, the people were also shouting out Hosanna to the Son of David. Hosanna literally means to “save us now.” The people are shouting in our terms, “You’re the one God has sent save us now. You’re the one God has sent save us now.”
The people were hoping that Jesus was coming to overthrow the power of Rome. They are all excited about what’s going to happen next. They are going wild in their praises and expectations of what Jesus is going to do. But remember Jesus did not come into the city riding a stallion, he came riding a donkey. He was not coming to destroy the Romans, but rather to deal with the issue of sin in our lives.
The attitudes in the crowd are:
1. Don’t send me and nobody else Attitude.
2. Defensive Attitude
3. Participator Attitude
4. Imitator Attitude
5. Spectator Attitude
6. Perpetrators Attitude
The last point is there were Perpetrators.
There were religious leaders who had a lot to lose if the Romans thought Jesus was attempting to become a king. The religious leaders had already wanted to get rid of Jesus. This celebration was just too much for them. They told Jesus, “Jesus to rebuke this crowd.”
The educated religious leaders knew that the words the people were shouting were only suppose to apply to the Son of God. What they wanted Jesus to do was to tell the people, “you should not be worshipping me like this. I am not the Messiah, the one the Scriptures have spoken of for 100’s of years.” But Jesus could not deny who he was despite their attitude of jealousy, hostility, and hatred toward him. Jesus knew He was the Son of the living God. He knew He was deity, Divine and Human. He knew that it was not an ordinary man who healed the sick, cause the blind to see and the deaf to hear.
This attitude voices itself more and more in our society where people are actually hostile toward Jesus Christ. . Some of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus, have become so intimidated by our culture, that we will not back the claims of Christ, and are saying, well other religions could lead to God as well.
Jesus has less than a week to live, and before he dies he says, “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” The only thing I can break that down to and be faithful to what Jesus said is to tell others, “Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Him. Now you can call me narrow minded if you want to, but your problem is not with me, your problem is with Jesus.
Even if the religious could have gotten the people to shut up and stop praising Jesus that day, it would not have changed who Jesus was. He still would have been the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Jesus took it even a step further. He said listen, “even if I told the people to be quiet for a moment, the very stones on the ground would cry out, “He is the Son Of God.” Even the animals know who Jesus is. Think about it for a moment, what happens when you get on a horse that’s never been ridden on before. Well if you’re not prepared for the experience you’re going to hit the ground with the bucking back forth.
Yet here is this donkey that has never been ridden on before, immediately becomes submissive when Jesus gets on its back. That was the donkey’s way of offering praise to Jesus. The donkey had the right kind of attitude. Do you have a donkey’s Attitude?
What is a Donkey’s Attitude?
I thought about it for just a few moments. A donkey is submissive to it master. A donkey loves it master. A donkey depends upon the feeding from it master. The donkey knows that the master will provide shelter. A donkey is cautious of changes in their environment. Donkeys have a strong sense of survival. If they deem something as dangerous they won’t do it. It’s not stubbornness-it’s mother nature, and they are smart enough to know when they can’t handle something. With the trust and confidence in their owners, the master, the one who takes care of you donkeys can bravely go through and accomplish great things. I want a donkey attitude. I want an attitude that I will trust my master, when the going get tough and the tough get going. I want a donkey attitude when I don’t know where He is sending me, but will trust in the master directions. I want a donkey attitude that has a loving personality. They demand attention. Thank God I got a master who loves me and give me attention. I want a donkey attitude they become close to their master and to other donkeys. I want the Lord to use me, like He used that donkey, some 2,000 years ago. I want the Lord to use me, use me Lord in thy service and then I want to praise His name. He is worthy to be praise. He is worthy to be glorified? He is worthy to up lifted? Do I have a witness? He is the King of Kings. He is Alpha and Omega. He is the first and the last.
