Sermon Tone Analysis

Alêtheia Christian Fellowship       (Sermon 62, 03-20-05)

*9*Announcements, Celebration night in 9 days.

Although I’m extremely eager to get going on 1 John, I don’t want to miss the celebration of the most important week in human history.

Today is Palm Sunday, the triumphal entry beginning the last week of Jesus’ human life.

It would be a great disservice to ignore these events at this time of the year.

\\ This time of year has been celebrated as the greatest time of the year in Christianity since the beginning of Christianity.

The 40 days of fasting and repentance preceding Easter are a remembrance of the 40 years the Israelites wandered in the desert before coming into the Promised Land and the 40 days in which Jesus was tempted in the desert before the commencement of His ministry.

As well as other examples of *40 days of difficulty leading to joy** *in both the Old and New Testaments.

*10 11* That’s the official line.

According to the Bible the first satanic religion after the Flood was established at the Tower of Babel.

*Nimrod*, the Grandson of Ham, founded Babel, Erech and Akkad.

In what is present-day Iraq in the vicinity of Baghdad.

They were the forerunners of Sumerians and Akkadians His wife was a witch named *Semir-amis* who was the High Priestess of the anti-God cult.

She had a son named *Tammuz* who was a savior-God conceived by a sun-beam but he was killed in the early spring and remained dead for forty days mourned bitterly by his mother she became the conduit through the prayers of the people to her dead son and so she raised him back to life through her love and would forever function as a mediator for the prayers of the people.

Every year people would fast and mourn in remembrance.

She became the Great high mother goddess of dozens of nations, Ishtar, Isis, Aphrodite, Venus, etc.

While her son also became her lover and is known by many names also, like, Baal, Osiris, Eros and Satan.

Eventually she was believed to have been born of a sun beam as well.

This was the beginning of Baptism for renewal and mutilation~/*flagellation*~/suffering as well as penance for sin and pilgrimage to holy sites.

*12 *Ezekiel 8:14-15 ~~ 

Then He brought me to the entrance of the gate of the LORD’S house which /was/ toward the north; and behold, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.

He said to me, “Do you see /this,/ son of man?

Yet you will see still greater abominations than these.”

*13 *The fifth Christian council in 325A.D. formalized Palm Sunday and the Passion Week, with special supper and the giving of *alms on Maundy Thursday the Passover* day (Latin for Commandment, in recognition of Jesus’ order to love one another), *Good Friday* the Crucifixion day, The *Great Sabbath* of fasting and vigilance as well as the most common day of Baptism followed by Easter Sunday which I like to call *Resurrection Sunday* which we will celebrate next week.

The Sunday following is called *White Sunday* where those baptized are given membership in the Church.

This council took place in Nikae>a, from nikh~~>, meaning victory like in Nike shoes.

On the coast of Lake Iznik in Northwestern Turkey.

From this synod (Path-Together) we get the *Nicene Creed* formally establishing basic Christian Theology.

Pope *Gregory I, in 600A.D.* officially established the Wednesday 6 weeks prior to Easter as the beginning of the 40 days (not counting Sundays) thus it is known as *Ash Wednesday*, people wear the ashes as a symbol of the start of Lent.

Lent simply means, “*Springtime*,” in Teutonic then Old English as a replacement word for Latin *QUADRAGESIMA*, forty days.

People being people total revelry became the order of the day in the time before *Lent thus Carnival*, Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday.

Now people give up a vice for the 40 days or at least try to and they’re *usually unhappy* about it rather than just being who you say you are.

Remember this is a Truth Church and part of that is getting all of us to be Truer to ourselves, simply becoming who we are claiming to be.

Don’t be a *hypocrite*.

That doesn’t mean you are perfect or never fail, but it does mean that when you do evil it’s not the norm!

Of course even by Augustine’s day the people were not living in accordance with relational Christianity, but were operating out of social and selfish reasons.

*Augustine* is regarded as the greatest theologian of the early Church, he was born in and appointed Bishop of *Hippo* in what was the *Carthaginian* home base of North Africa, their empire spreading to Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and Spain as well.

After the 3rd Punic War it was the Roman Province of *Numidia* and is in modern-day *Algeria* just inside the border with *Tunisia*.

(Punic is from the Greek name for the *Phoenicians *who settled the area and were the ancestors of the Carthaginians.)

He wrote in 400A.D. about his despair at the ritual and abuse and hypocrisy associated with Lent, Palm Sunday and Easter.

He was killed by the Vandals in 430A.D. the Germanic nomads that raged through and overran Gaul (France), Iberian Penninsula (Spain), North Africa and sacked *Rome in 455A.D.*

 

There is a current movement fueled by the difficulty of Jesus saying He would give the sign of Jonah, *3 Days and 3 Nights* and those who support Sabbath worship to suggest that Jesus ate the Passover meal on what we would call Tuesday night was tried and executed on Wednesday just before sunset, then was resurrected on the Sabbath again just before it ended at sunset thus three full days and three full nights.

There are a lot of problems with this idea not the least of which is:

 

*14* Luke 23:55-24:1 ~~

Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed, and saw the tomb and how His body was laid.

Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes.

And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.

There’s good reason to believe the early church got it right and we know that *Sunday was considered* the day of Christian Worship and Fellowship from the very beginning.

*15* John 12:12-15 ~~

On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and /began/ to shout, “Hosanna!

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.”

Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”

The triumphal entry into Jerusalem for the Passover is recorded in all *four Gospels*.

Jesus had been staying at *Bethany* with Lazarus (whom He had raised from the dead) and his two sisters Martha and Mary.

Mary anointed Jesus with a perfume worth a years wages.

*Judas was upset* and Jesus rebuked him.

This rebuke coupled with Jesus’ persistent talk of dying ultimately led him to betray Christ.

On Sunday Jesus, His disciples and a large crowd of people who were with Him at Bethany headed for Jerusalem a short, 1 ½ mile, walk away.

Very soon they arrived at *Bethphage*, on the Mount of Olives just across the *Kidron* Valley East of Jerusalem.

He stopped and sent some disciples ahead to bring an unbroken young donkey that had never before been ridden and the donkey’s mother.

His crowd spread the word among the other pilgrims and before you know it a massive crowd with great *expectation* of the savior arrived.

*16 17 18 19* As Jesus gets on the young donkey fulfilling the Messianic prophecies the crowd went wild.

Understand that for Jesus it was nothing to walk 20 miles in a day, this jaunt was about like us walking out to the *mailbox*, so He didn’t get the donkey because His bunions were acting up.

In the Messianic Prophecy in

 

*20* Zechariah 9:9   Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout /in triumph,/ O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

That’s as opposed to a *fiery war horse*.

*21* Philippians 2:6-7

who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, /and/ being made in the likeness of men.

The valley He crosses is the Judgement valley and is a short distance, a mile or so across.

As Jesus enters the City vast numbers of other people take notice including *Gentiles*.

They are all asking what’s going on and are told by the large crowd accompanying Jesus that the Messiah has come.

Imagine the rejoicing, finally we will be rid of the Romans.

\\  

The palm branches were from the *Date Palm* in Greek foini>x, we pronounce it Phoenix.

Remember the Phoenicians?

It’s the same word because the Phoenicians cultivated and *exported the dates*.

The tree grows to 50' and is very useful for many things besides just the dates.

Laying the *fronds on the ground in the Roman* world was a sign of victory and rejoicing.

When the victorious Roman legions would return to Rome the people would honor them in this way.

The Jews had used the branches for similar purposes as they did under *Judas Maccabeus* when he overthrew the Seleucid King, *Antiochus V Eupater*, son of Antiochus Epiphanes and rededicated the second Temple in *165bc.

(Hanukkah).*

They shout in Hebrew *“Yah-shah-naw,”*  נָא יָשַׁע meaning *Save Now*, transliterated into Greek in the New Testament as wJsanna>, it refers primarily to

*22* Psalm 118:25&26a

Save now, I pray, O LORD; O LORD, I pray, send now prosperity.

Blessed /is/ he who comes in the name of the LORD!

This Psalm by tradition is the *last psalm sung* by Jesus and His disciples prior to His death.

It was the last sung after the Passover meal.

According to *Ezra, it was sung at the dedication* of the second Temple and likely was sung at the rededication.

Later, after He overturned the money-changer’s tables the *children ascribed the same Psalm to Jesus* and when the Jewish religious leaders heard it they were *indignant*, but Jesus claimed the Psalm by applying another Scripture to Himself, this time out of

*Psalms 8*, *“From the lips of children... ordained Praise.”* the reference to Psalm *118 *starts by taking us further back to *Psalm 28:8-9,* another Messianic Psalm saying, *“... fortress of salvation for His anointed one... save your people... be their Shepherd forever.”*

In *118* it says essentially, *“Oh Lord save us... blessed is He who comes in the name of Yahweh.”*

*23* *in the consonantal Hebrew text:** **Yod, He Waw~/Vav, He** *

  * traditionally pronounced:* * Masoretic pointed text:** **Shewa, Holem & Qamets*

   *presumed original pronunciation:*  Beyond the primary significance of the people proclaiming Jesus as their King and Messiah fulfilling several Old Testament Prophecies the word Hosanna is a prayer that over time and with use became an exultation of praise, just like our contemporary, *“God save the Queen,”* It was originally a prayer to God for the leader of the nation, but has become an *exultation of praise for the leader.*

On *Monday* Jesus goes back into the Temple area and overturns the tables.

This does *3 *things.

First *it fulfills* more Old Testament Prophecy about Jesus.

Second, it further solidifies the fact that Jesus is *claiming to be* the Messiah by doing these things.

Third, it completely solidifies the Jewish Leaders *desire to kill* Him which is *exactly what Jesus is trying to accomplish.*