Palm Sunday
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Jesus King and Jesus Passover Lamb
Jesus King and Jesus Passover Lamb
Introduction
Introduction
The question before us today is:-
Who is Jesus? Who is this man?
10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?”
The Palm Sunday account is told in all 4 gospels, each one giving the writer’s own slant on the good news. All having a different purpose in the way that they present their accounts. Luke gives an orderly account for a man named Theophilus, John tells his story so that we might believe and by believing might have eternal life, Matthew and Mark show how Jesus is the fulfilment of the Old Testament, so each account of Palm Sunday and Passover is different in Chronology and detail. So I will draw on all 4 gospel accounts for my talk.
Jesus
Jesus
As we look upon Jesus who do we see?
A man who disturbed the religious authorities. Stripping them of their power over the people and their position in Jewish society.
A man who challenged the rule of the Romans,
A good man, a teacher of morals. An example to follow
All true but these were all secondary purposes for Jesus.
He came to die our death to reconcile us to God, paying the penalty for our sin, and our story starts at Palm Sunday.
Let us put Palm Sunday in its historical setting
Let us put Palm Sunday in its historical setting
Jews never had autonomy ever since they were expelled from their land. After the glorious days of the first half of King Solomon's reign, this earthly King allowed himself to be ruled over by his vast harem composing many foreign women with foreign God’s. When Solomon died the Kingdom of Israel split in 2. The Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom, and finally as the lessons of the past were not headed, God expelled them from the land for 70 years. Things were never the same after their return to the land of Israel. The glorious Temple of Solomon had been destroyed, and the rebuild was a garden shed in comparison, then the land was invaded and controlled by the Greeks who tried to impose their way of life, their philosophy and their gods on the population, and finally the Romans took over. So in Jesus’s day Israel’s appetite for a saviour (the long promised Messiah)was long overdue. The man who would finally restore Israel to its former glory. Jesus seemed to fit the bill on Palm Sunday 33 ad
But, in the typical irony of God , what they got was a lamb.
Now
Now
I would like us to understand that Palm Sunday is very much part of the whole Passover narrative. It directly parallels the deliverance of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. If we want to use Theological language, Jesus and his crucifixion is fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy.
I think we have lost the significance of much of the Bible story by ignoring the Jewish roots of out faith, not the least of which is calling the time of the Passover “Easter” . This is what Constantine did in 345 ad at the council of Nicaea. That is an aside.
Passover as practised by Israel
Passover as practised by Israel
At the first Passover a lamb was the given indicator to the Angel of Death to Pass over all the houses where death had already taken place. The final plague that brought deliverance from slavery and that was the Death of the First Born. The Jews were not protected from the death of first borne because they were Jews, but because of the lamb.
Every year from the first Passover the Jews were commanded to hold the Passover as a remembrance of their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Yet hidden from the view of the Jews there was going to be a fulfilment of the Passover in the future and this was the particular Passover of the 14th Nissan 33 ad. Furthermore, the Jews were commanded 3 times a year to appear before God at Jerusalem. (Note Pentecost and Tabernacles.) and that is why there were large crowds from all over the region to greet Jesus on this unique occasion.
The Parallels with Palm Sunday
The Parallels with Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday was a specific day in Spring, 10th of Nisan, it was also a specific year AD 33 in a prophecy given to Daniel about a 490 year countdown from a specific date in antiquity of 444 BC, yet interrupted at year 483 by the death of Messiah on the 14th Nisan. I mention this to show that God is in absolute control of history. Jesus showed up bang on time, not a day too early nor a day too late.
Setting off from Jericho he made the 18 mile journey to Jerusalem (36 Bus costing £2) (846 feet below sea level, the lowest place in the world) (Jerusalem is 250 feet above sea level) The summit is the mount of Olives. This journey could be done in a day but Jesus broke his journey to receive an anointing of perfume from Mary.
1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. 3 Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
Judas grumbled at this but:-
7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.
So already Jesus’s entry to Jerusalem Jesus sees as a prelude to his death. The Kingdom would not come now, but at a later date.
Let us follow Jesus down the mount of Olives on Palm Sunday
Let us follow Jesus down the mount of Olives on Palm Sunday
Just below the summit of Mount of Olives is the village of Bethphage where Jesus told his disciples to acquire a donkey. His disciples helped him onto this donkey and he proceeded up to the summit of M of O and down the other side which faces Jerusalem . There was a very large crowd there in expectant mood, expecting that Jesus in the role of messiah had come to take up his kingship; the expectation was that he would then drive out the Romans and restore the Kingdom to Israel. They considered the prophecy in Matthews Gospel siting Zechariah ch 9 v 9
5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ”
They saw Jesus as their King which was true, but not yet, he had to fulfil his role as sacrificial lamb first. They knew Jesus They saw or heard of his miracles, his teachings and authority over disease and demons, his feeding miracles and the calming of the storm on Galilee but did they understand him. They quoted or sung or shouted Psalm 118
9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
The crowds embraced Jesus that day because this was the long promised Messiah, who would bring in the everlasting Kingdom, their troubles would be over, they would crown him as Lord and he would conqueror the Romans just like a King David figure, the final restoration from their captivity.
The Theological Significance
The Theological Significance
Jesus the Lamb
Jesus the Lamb
Israel was enslaved by Egypt for 400 years and God was about to miraculously release the Jews from slavery and lead them into the promised land. Here was the plan. At the first Passover the first thing that the Jews were instructed to do by God was to select a lamb from their flock on a specific day of the year, one for each household. It had to be a male, 1 year old, and without blemish. They had to keep it for 4 days. Then slaughter it at twilight on the 4th day. Today I want to concentrate on the selection of the lamb and keeping it for 4 days. 4 days later the lamb was slaughtered.
The Selection of the Passover Lamb
The Selection of the Passover Lamb
1. On the 10th day of 1st month
2. From their own flock
3. Male
4. Without blemish
5. 1 year old
6. Keep for 4 days
7. Sacrificed at a specific place. Later the was Jerusalem
Jesus
Jesus
1. To Jerusalem on the 10th Day of 1st month (Nisan or Abib)
2. From His own Flock (tick)
3. Male (tick)
4. Without Blemish (tick)
5. In His prime (tick)
6. Kept for 4 days before His crucifixion (Tick)
The King first comes as a lamb
The King first comes as a lamb
The crowds saw Jesus as King, but not as the lamb and so as events unfolded over the next 4 days they forgot that he was king but also they never regarded him as the lamb for the Passover, and so unwittingly they acted out the Passover with Jesus as the sacrificial lamb and all in God’s plan for the salvation of the world.
What do we think. What does the church think. Discuss
By selecting him, keeping him for 4 days, then slaughtering him on a cross. This was what Passover was pointing to all along, not a lamb but a perfect sin free human being, nothing less than the Son of God
In Conclusion and summary
In Conclusion and summary
The “Triumphal Entry” is the start of this unique Passover and as the narrative unfolds Jesus lambship (invented word) was an essential prerequisite for his Kingship . Jesus could not have one without the other
2. First the lamb (saviour) then Jesus can now legitimately fulfil the requirements for kingship over those whom He saves.
3. The great heavenly love plan is unfolding for the sinner.
4. What do we need to do in response. Of necessity we need to embrace this plan for ourselves. By faith/trust. in the death of our saviour and King, reigning now in heaven and in our hearts, but soon to take up his earthly and universal Kingship when he comes back to earth at his second coming.
That is the Gospel