Psalm
118: 26 - 27
Good
News Bible
May
God bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord! From
the Temple of the Lord we
bless you. 27 The Lord is
God; he has been good to us.
With
branches in your hands, start the festival and
march around the altar.
Song:
Children of Jerusalem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=776497qHaRQ
Prayer:
Triumphant
Lord, We rejoice in your entry into the world and into our lives!
Joining with the crowds, we sing your praises and exalt your reign,
guide
our hearts in true worship,
fill
our minds to true understanding.
Fill
our disappoints with
your humility,
take
away our selflessness
and
sin
put
a right and clean spirit with in us.
Lord
this world seems full of war
lacking
in compassion
lead
all people
to peace.
Help us to reflect in our lives the glory of your
name.
Amen
Song:
Make way make
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alCQ7fb0hEA
Reading:
Matthew
records the scene, Chapter
21:
verses
1
to
17
1 As
they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of
Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to
them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will
find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring
them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, say that the
Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”
4 This
took place to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet:
Zechariah
5 “Say
to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and
riding on a donkey, &
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”
6 The
disciples went &
did as Jesus had instructed them 7 They brought the donkey
and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on.
8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road,
while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
9 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 heaven!”
10 When
Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who
is this?”
11 The
crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in
Galilee.”
12 Jesus
entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and
selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and
the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is
written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called
a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of
robbers.’”
14 The
blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed
them. 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the
law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the
temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were
indignant. 16 “Do you hear what these children are saying?”
they asked him.
“Yes,” replied
Jesus, Here
He
quotes
from Psalm 8 “have
you never read,“‘From the lips of children and infants you,
Lord, have called forth your praise’?
17 And
he left them &
went out of the city to Bethany,
where
he spent the night.
It
was Sunday—the day we now call Palm Sunday. Without a doubt, this
wasn’t
Jesus’ first visit to Jerusalem. As a devout Jew, He would’ve
gone to the city every year for the
three great feasts .
1)
The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Pesach/Passover)
Passover
occurs in the first month of the Jewish religious calendar, the month
of Nisan, corresponding to March, April, or sometimes May on our
calendar. On the evening before the fifteenth day of the month,
Israelites were to sacrifice a lamb and place its blood above their
door posts as a sign that the angel of judgment passed over them when
they were in Egypt, sparing their lives. After the Egyptians had
received judgment, they advise
earnestly
for Israel
to leave immediately. In preparation for this exodus, the people were
to make bread without leaven, for it had no time to rise. They were
to eat their meal in haste knowing that the following day would be
the day of their deliverance.
As
a memorial,
the Feast of Unleavened bread continued to be practised throughout
the Old Testament times and beyond, a memorial of God’s redemptive
acts for His people.
2)
The
Feast of Weeks (Shavout /Pentecost)
In
the same way that the Feast of Unleavened Bread celebrates the
origination of the Exodus, the Feast of Weeks—also known as the
Feast of Ingathering (Exod. 34:22)—celebrates the culmination of
the Exodus at Mount Sinai. The Feast of Weeks occurs seven weeks and
one day following Passover, thus the Greek term Pentecost, meaning
“the 50th (day),” following the historical account in Exodus
19:1-3 of Israel’s arrival at Sinai fifty days after the Passover.
3)
Sukkoth The Feast of Booths
The
Feast of Booths is prescribed in Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16. The
festival is a week long feast that begins on the 15th day of the
Hebrew month Tishrei, roughly
late-September to mid-October on our modern calendar. The feast
begins with a collection of palm and willow branches to be used as a
symbol of rejoicing before the LORD
(Lev 23:40). All of Israel would camp out in tents for the entire
week (23:42), offering all types of sacrifices as burnt offerings to
the LORD (Lev 23:37-38). The prescription in Deuteronomy extends
participation in the festival not only to (male) Israelite citizens
but also to priests, orphans, widows, immigrants, and both male and
female children and slaves (Deut. 16:14). The purpose of the Feast of
Booths was to remember the giving of the Law and to renew the
covenant made between Israel and the LORD (Duet. 31:10-13).
In
the past three years, Christ had also ministered and taught in
Jerusalem. But this Sunday His coming into the city was radically
different.
By
riding a young donkey into Jerusalem at a time when thousands of
worshippers were coming into the city, Jesus was the centre of
attention. Why would He take the place of prominence
before thousands of people when for the past three years He’d
deliberately kept a low profile? Why
would He accept the people’s proclamation that He was King just
five days before His death?
We
will look at the answer later on.
Song:
Ride
on ride on in majesty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHeIX8xTpYs
The
Gold State Coach was commissioned in 1760 by The King’s Master of
the Horse, Francis Hastings, 10th Earl of Huntington, to be used
at King George 3rd’s
coronation
and wedding to Princess Charlotte, but it was such an enormous
undertaking in both design and build that the Coach wasn’t ready
for use until 1762, when King George III rode in it to the State
Opening of Parliament on 25th
November 1762.
The
Gold State Coach has been used for every coronation since its
completion: Time
will tell if King Charles will use this coach but one thing I can
also most grantee that he and the queen consort will not be in a
Donkey cart.
The crowds of People will be waving flags
rather than palm leaves.
The
special nature of the Gold Coach is that it is reserved for use only
by the Sovereign and it is only ever escorted by the Sovereign’s
Escort of the Household Cavalry dressed in full state livery. Eight
white heavy horses known as Windsor Greys will
pull it.
This
breed has been used for the past century. The Coach is made of wood
with a thin layer of gold leaf over it. Due to its heavy weight and
suspension—weighing four tonnes, it can only be driven at a walking
pace.
Jesus
did not have a carriage, His is a truly unusual way for a triumphant
king to enter a city. Conquering kings normally rode on mighty
stallions. But Jesus didn’t come riding a warhorse. This reveals
what kind of King Jesus is. He came in meekness and lowliness. Jesus
came not for war, but for peace, establishing peace between God and
us
Reading:
Acts
chapter
10:verse
36;Luke
wrote You
know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing
the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of
all.
Reading:
Luke’s
gospel
chapter
19: verses
33
to
40
He
describes
the scene
as follows
33
And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, "Why
are you untying the colt?" 34 And they said, "The Lord has
need of it." 35 And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their
cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 And as he rode along,
they spread their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was drawing
near--already on the way down the Mount of Olives--the whole
multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a
loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying,
"Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in
heaven and glory in the highest!" 39 And some of the Pharisees
in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples."
40 He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the very
stones would cry out."
What
did Jesus mean by this statement? Did He mean that the rocks would
literally start shouting praises to the Lord? Most likely, not.
The expression the stones will cry out seems to be
proverbial and isn’t to be understood as a literal statement. The
meaning seems to be that it is more likely that the impossible would
happen than for the King of kings to enter His capital city without
honour.
In saying that the stones will cry out, Jesus
indicates that the people’s acclamations should be encouraged, not
suppressed. The people of Jerusalem are expressing great joy, and
that joy is so appropriate, so necessary, that, if they did not
express praise, it would be appropriate for inanimate objects to fill
the void. The idea of rocks crying out in praise to the Lord is
poetic, startling imagery. Throughout Scripture there
are
similar poetic passages that present inanimate objects praising God.
For example, in Psalm
114:6,
the mountains leap. Isaiah
55:12 says,
“You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains
and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the
field will clap their hands.” Throughout Psalm
148,
there are numerous examples of created things praising their
Creator—the sun, moon, stars, heavens, water, sky, animals, and
people. Everyone and everything was created for the pleasure of the
sovereign Lord. Colossians
1:16 says
that all creation was made for God’ glory. Everything in creation
declares His praise. However, humans are created in God’s image
(Genesis
1:27),
so we are the ones who should be praising God.
Let’s
look at the Triumphal Entry in John’s
gospel, chapter 12, verses 12 to 19
verses
12 -13
12
The
next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus
was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and
went out to meet him, crying out, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who
comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!"
This
act of praise was to
do with the festival feast of Sukkoth The Feast of Booths it was out
of season it would very much like us singing Christmas carols at
Easter
14
And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
15 "Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey's colt!" 16
His disciples did not understand these things at first,
but they had their
epiphany
but
when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had
been written about him and had been done to him.
17
The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the
tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. 18 The
reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done
this sign.
19
So the Pharisees said to one another, "You see that you are
gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.
These
words may be also read, “Look how you
profit nothing” the
Pharisees
blame each other for the failure of all their plans
Look,
the world is gone after him.—They use terms which express the
bitterness of their despair. They who had asked in scorn, “Have any
of the of the Pharisees believed on him?” who called “cursed”
“this people who know not the law” who followed Him have heard
Jews of Jerusalem express their belief in Him; look
this Nazarene
at
the head of a throng of people,
to the Pharisees
Jesus
was a
rebel.
A
little
time ago I asked Why would Jesus
accept the people’s proclamation that He was King just five days
before His death?
Because all He did was the will of this Father
to
fulfill
the scripture.
In
Jesus's words
No
one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he
has seen the Father. Very
truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. I
am the bread of life. Your
ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But
here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may
eat and not die. I
am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever
eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I
will give for the life of the world.”
Jesus
came to save the world he
came
to save you and me.
Song:
Joy to the world
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZhgpb97y7Q
Prayer
of thanks
Father
God, Your Word is true, and You are faithful. You promised salvation
through the Messiah and today we remember that Jesus fulfilled the
Old Testament prophecies of our promised Redeemer. We acknowledge our
need for salvation from our sins and rejoice that Jesus is our
Deliverer. Father God we thank you that your son
Jesus
Christ, came to fulfil the law and not to abolish it. That’s why He
offered Himself
as the sacrificial Passover lamb. He rode on a donkey as a symbol of
triumph and victory. All He did,
He
Did to give you Glory.
So
we today sing our praises and stand amazed in
the presence of your
son. We give you thanks for His amazing love for us. Amen.
Blessed
is he who comes in the name of the Lord,
Hosanna!
to
Jesus
The Son of God. Lord of Lords and King of Kings wonderful Saviour
the prince of peace. What
a man.
Amen
Song:
I stand amazed in the presence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO2o1arNynM
Shortly
after Jesus’ triumphal entry, the people would keep quiet. And, by
Friday, they would yell for Him to be crucified
Benediction.
May
Christ’s
grace enfold
you, may Gods love embrace you
may
the fellowship of the Holy spirit fill you with peace - this day and
always amen.
