A little boy missed out on church one Palm Sunday. His mother stayed home to watch over him. When dad came home, there he was, sick on the couch. When he noticed dad come in with a huge palm branch in his hand, he was curious and asked, "Dad, what’s up with that palm branch?"
His dad said, “It’s Palm Sunday, son! You see, when Jesus came into town, everybody waved these Palm Branches to honor him, so we all got Palm Branches today.”
The boy was upset because he missed the celebration and he said, “Just my luck, dad! The one Sunday I miss is the Sunday that Jesus shows up!”
? Do you ever feel like you missed church the Sunday when Jesus showed up?
You know, fortunately for us, Jesus shows up at church every Sunday… Especially here at Valley Community Church! This has to be one of His favorite hangouts! He has a lot of good friends coming here… And all we have to do is make it here to meet Him!
That brings me to an important question… Why are we here?
To experience a life changing encounter with Jesus Christ.
A lot of people don’t really understand what Palm Sunday is all about… I think you’ll learn today, it’s about a lot of things. In a way, it’s like a birthday you celebrate when you’re getting older than you want to be… You’re happy, but you know you’re that much closer to d-day.J
In the same way, Jesus, when He traveled down the road to Jerusalem that Sunday 2,000 years ago, knew this as a day of celebration, but He also had the impending knowledge on His heart, that in just a few days, He would lay down His life, and so Palm Sunday was bitter sweet in that way…
Today is Palm Sunday! Jesus is here to be experienced, to be worshipped, to be honored and to be celebrated and we’re going give all that to Him today, AMEN?
Palm Sunday is a day of exuberant celebration: a day of high praise!
Palm Sunday is a day when words like REJOICE and HOSANNA are used frequently!
Glory to God, Salvation in the Highest! Hosanna to the King of Kings!
The Bible tells us, Matt 21:7-11, On Palm Sunday over 2000 years ago, the disciples… “…brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road [that’s what you do in the 1st century when a king rides into town.], while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Hosanna in the highest!"
Hosanna in the highest… What does it mean? Hosanna means SALVATION: SALVATION in the HIGHEST… When Jesus entered the holy city of Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, the crowds proclaimed, “GLORY TO GOD! SALVATION IN THE HIGHEST…”
For a brief moment in time, for a small glimpse in history, Christ’s people the Jews finally celebrated His Lordship and majesty, and they were close to realizing His salvation.
You see, the Jews didn’t understand what Christ had to offer. They had been delivered before. They had been saved time and time again by the Lord. They were delivered from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land under the leadership of Moses by the power of God.
They were delivered from exile and slavery in Babylon back to their holy city to rebuild the temple of their God, through righteous men and women such as Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah…
They had experienced radical rescues and incredible salvations before, but this was different. Jesus the Christ would bring to the Jews and to the Gentiles a salvation like never before. Never had they experienced salvation like that salvation, which would come through Jesus… Never had they known salvation like that of this King: their Messiah: Jesus Christ our Lord… His was SALVATION IN THE HIGHEST ORDER!
Not just salvation from their hard labor and oppression at the hand of their enemies, from the dryness of the desert, but salvation from sin: freedom from the enemy of our souls. Christ’s was the highest order of salvation that ever came and His salvation is the only salvation that will ever save your soul.
He’s called the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega: the One who is, who was and who is to come. Rev 21:6, He’s the “Beginning and the End. [And He says,] To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.” Are you thirsty for the Lord? Are you hungry for righteousness? This is the salvation of Jesus Christ: salvation in the highest!
The Jews had no idea: the vast glory and greatness of their King. They didn’t know they were proclaiming the very Gospel when they shouted, “BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD! HOSANNA: SALVATION IN THE HIGHEST.”
Palm Sunday was that glimmering moment for Jesus and the Jews… It was the moment the Jews recognized Jesus for who He really is: Messiah: the Anointed one of God, King of the Jews…
As He rode in, they lay their garments on the road in front of Him and waved palm braches in His honor, laying them on the ground.
Why such a huge celebration in Jerusalem that day? Thousands of Jews from all over the region were celebrating the Passover Feast. Many of them had heard of Jesus, and when they heard the commotion: a celebration of salvation, they came to see this savior for themselves.
It was more than a celebration. It was a proclamation. The waving went way back to Old Testament times, with the peace offering, better known as the WAVE OFFERING…
Why the wave? Because it was tradition!
The wave is a tradition began with Moses and the Israelites as a peace offering before God. Blood was sprinkled upon the sides of the altar, offerings were waved before God, consumed by the priest as a symbol of God’s acceptance, and celebrated the covering of sin, forgiveness by God and the restoration of a right relationship with God, from whom life itself comes, and therefore a celebration of new life in that restored relationship.
What a coincidence! The Jews were giving a wave offering: celebration of new life, and Jesus was offering new life:
SALVATION IN THE HIGHEST!
THE CONTEMPORARY FORM of the WAVE OFFERING occurs when men and women of God raise our hands in worship.
When you lift up your hands in worship, God sees that as a peace offering, a wave offering: a gift of thanks, praise and adoration: a petition for atonement by the blood of Jesus Christ. It’s a full surrender and a sign of our deep desire to be in a right relationship with Him!
The Jews waved their branches on Palm Sunday in celebration of the day’s events and their “King for a day”… Unfortunately, the same men and women would see Jesus stand before the judges and condemned Him to death just five days later.
Little did they know as they worshipped, that they were making a wave offering to the Father and this Messiah’s blood would be the blood sprinkled on the sides of the altar of atonement for the reconciliation of God’s people: you and you and you… unto Himself.
Little did they know their creator and Lord would offer Himself up just five days later, become their sin, die in their place, experience Hell for them, them rise again to life 3 days later so we might rise to new life with Him.
They didn’t know, or the job of crucifying Him would have been that much more difficult.
They didn’t know on Palm Sunday, and they wouldn’t understand, but in a few days they would…
Friday, they would curse at Him. They would spit upon Him and crush Him with hateful words… Then they would feel the ground tremble, they would see the temple fall to pieces, the veil torn in 2… Then they would understand He’s King of the Jews.
Today, all they understood was the celebration.
We’re not much different than they. There’s a lot we don’t understand today. The more we think we understand, the less we really do.
1 Cor 13:12, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
But today, what we do have is a hope through Jesus Christ: HOSANNA, SALVATION IN THE HIGHEST and today we celebrate this salvation:
THAT, “…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
2 Corinthians 5:17
That’s what today’s all about…
Oh, there’s one more significant thing I need to tell you about Palm Sunday…
It prophesies a celebration to come: ETERNAL ATONEMENT!!!
Rev 7:9-12, “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." [HOSANNA] All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: "Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”
Palm Sunday picture: a foreshadow of a future celebration in which…
Palm Sunday is an exciting day. It’s a day of celebration… This is the day the Jews finally recognized Jesus for who He is: King of the Jews, Messiah: The Christ.
? Isn’t it time YOU recognized Him too?
Altar call…
