Introduction - Three essential worldview features that called for praise on Palm Sunday

I love the Scriptures related to Palm Sunday because they show so clearly that Jesus was approaching the cross as a triumphant victor, not simply as a victim. He laid down His life on His own accord and He took it up again. Palm Sunday highlights His kingship. In fact, when you read the statements of Jesus in these last few chapters of John, you get the distinct impression that He saw Himself as winning the battle. It didn’t matter how dark things may have appeared around Him, He was driven by God’s predestined plan of triumph, not by the hopeless prognostications of those around him.

I think Palm Sunday gives us a message of hope for our own troubled times. And there is plenty to be troubled about, isn’t there? Well, from a human perspective, chapter 12 is one of those times when praise and thanksgiving might have seemed just a little out of place. The timing is tense. The apostasy is great. I mentioned a few years ago (when I preached a sermon related to politics from this passage) that at the very time that Jesus was entering the city from the east, Pilate was entering the city from the west, leading an army of soldiers. The year before Pilate had brutally slaughtered many during Passover week and mixed the blood of the pilgrims with the blood of their sacrificial lambs. I won't get into the politics of that day like I did in that sermon, but it was clear that danger was everywhere. In verse 7 of the previous chapter, Jesus had said, “‘Let us go to Judea again.’ The disciples said to Him, ‘Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?’” When He says, “Yes.” They say, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” So that gives a bit of a feel for what they are sensing all around them. Evil seems to be triumphing.

And there are other things that might have brought sadness to the apostles on that day. The Jewish leadership not only conspired to kill Jesus, but in verse 10, they conspired to kill Lazarus as well. Why would they want to kill a nobody like Lazarus? Well, his resurrection was an embarrassment to the political leadership, and like some politicians today, they decide to squash the evidence rather than to submit to the evidence. It was a deliberate trampling of the truth into the mud. They obviously couldn't refute the fact that Lazarus had been raised from the dead after stinking for days, so what do they do? They try to get rid of the evidence. There was a lot to be discouraged about, and yet verses 12-19 indicate that Palm Sunday was pre-eminently intended by God to be a day of praise, singing and thanksgiving. When the Pharisees wanted to keep the children from singing His praises, Jesus said, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.” What is there about these events that demands such praise from the people and such confidence on Christ's part? The outline says four things, but I am only going to highlight three. And I'll probably spend most of my time on the first reason.

Palm Sunday Is Christ’s Promise To Bring Blessing To The Whole World (Praise God!)

John’s first reason for rejoicing was eschatology: the doctrine of the future. The doctrine of the future sustained Jesus and called for praise. And eschatology is written all over this chapter. Let me give you a quick listing of some of the hints of the worldwide triumph of the Gospel that this King would shortly accomplish.

The Jews Who Welcome Christ Are Predominantly Pilgrims From Around The World (v. 12)

First, most of the crowd in verse 12 was made up of Jewish pilgrims from around the world. The first century historian, Josephus tells us that huge crowds of pilgrims came from every nation in the world and converged upon Jerusalem at Passover time, numbering between 2.5 million and 5 million visitors (depending on the year). What an awesome picture this would have been to have people from every nation singing praises to the King of Israel. I'd get excited! But that was just a tiny foretaste of God’s worldwide purposes for Christ’s kingdom.

Prophecy Ties Palm Sunday With A World-Wide Kingdom (v. 15 with Zech. 9:9-10)

A second testimony of God's worldwide blessing can be seen in verse 15. Jesus knows why He is sitting on that donkey, but John makes it explicit to his readers. This is a fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9-10, which predicted that even though Israel would be severely punished within a generation, the Gospel would successfully go to the whole world. Let me read you the whole passage from the Old Testament. It says,

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem [so that part was speaking of God’s War against Jerusalem. It goes on - ]; the battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.”

That’s the theme verse for our church – He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of earth. That’s an eschatology of hope.

Now it may not have looked like Christ would triumph and bring peace to the ends of the earth, but by faith Jesus believed it. And we can have the same faith. The most recent nation to declare itself to be a Christian nation is Papua New Guinea - a nation that in my youth was a cannibalistic country that martyred missionaries. In the middle of last month Papua New Guinea's Parliament passed a constitutional amendment recognizing Papua New Guinea as a Christian country. This amendment included a declaration that was to be inserted into the preamble of the Constitution. It recognizes the Bible as a national symbol. Let me read you a portion of that preamble. It says,

“(We) acknowledge and declare God, the Father; Jesus Christ, the Son; and Holy Spirit, as our Creator and Sustainer of the entire universe and the source of our powers and authorities, delegated to the people and all persons within the geographical jurisdiction of Papua New Guinea”

There were 80 votes in favor and only 4 against. 100 years ago, this was unthinkable. Other countries that have done so in recent years are Samoa and Zambia. You see, the Bible prophesied that Christ's kingdom would keep growing slowly like leaven in a lump of dough - almost imperceptibly - but non-stop.

The Pharisees Fear That They Have Lost The World To Christ (v. 19)

A third proof that Christ was entering Palm Sunday with a confidence in His victory is that verse 19 shows fear of Christ (at least on the part of the leadership). It says, “The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, ‘You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!’” Despite all their strategies to put an end to this movement, it wasn't working. John does not include that comment by accident. “Look, the world has gone after Him!” It’s a foretaste of things to come. Though the rebellion of the Pharisees looked unstoppable to many, John by the eye of faith could see that it was really the world that was being conquered.

So, my question to you is this: “Do you have Christ’s faith, or are you ready to give up because things are so bad?” I was telling a few of you last week about a recording of a speech that was given by a leader of the American Humanist Association more than two decades ago. And I will expand on that a bit. It was recorded by an undercover spy, who joined the organization so that he could figure out what they were up to. And it’s a fascinating speech. The speaker outlined the organization's strategy for neutralizing Christianity - a strategy that has for the most part worked. And I found it so humorous that he was scared to death of Reconstructionists like us. The speaker said that he had never been concerned about the Moral Majority, and rightly predicted that it would eventually peter out - which it has. He recognized that the Moral Majority didn't have a sufficient worldview that could sustain them. And he wasn't too worried about broad evangelicalism, because he said that evangelicalism was already so compromised that it was absolutely no threat. He knew that their pessimism concerning the future (in other words, their pessimistic eschatology) would keep the church from long-term efforts to overthrow their plans. But the bulk of the speech was highlighting what he considered to be the most dangerous group in America. And guess who their most dangerous group was. It was a small group of people called Reformed Reconstructionists. And you might laugh at that because we seem like such a tiny minority. But he considered us to be a threat for four reasons:

First, he said that we had early American history on our side. And I find that a fascinating admission. But, yeah, when you look at the laws of virtually every New England colony and later of those states, you realize that those guys were very desirous about applying God's law to culture - and even to politics. So the lecturer warned the group that Reconstructionists had American history to bank on.

Second, he warned the audience that Reconstructionists were strangely unapologetic about any portion of the Bible. And it mystified him. He thought that everyone should be embarrassed by the Bible. He said that when you bring up slavery in the Bible to a theonomist, they don’t apologize for it. They say, “Yeah. It’s a better penalty than prison. It pays resitution for the victim, retrains the criminal in responsibility, and eventually results in their freedom.” And I would add that prison is a very demeaning form of slavery - paid for in part by the taxes of the victims. He said that if you bring up the execution of kids in the Old Testament, the theonomists will likely say, “Oh yeah. That’s a perfect answer to gang violence.” His point was that he couldn’t embarrass us by quoting Old Testament law - like he was used to doing with most Christians. All he would have to say to the average evangelical, is “Oh, so you believe in executing homosexuals,” and they would be embarrassed and not know what to say. They knew that these tactics would put your average evangelical to silence. But Reconstructionists would say, “Amen! Next question?” So they were a bit frustrated that they couldn’t embarrass us with the Bible like they do everybody else. We embrace the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible. Praise God!

He said that the third thing that made us dangerous is that we have an eschatology that is bound to give us persevering enthusiasm no matter what obstacles we might face because we believe that we are destined to win. He recognized that anyone who has that viewpoint will never give up. He said for that reason Postmillennialists were dangerous.

And fourth, he said that we were dangerous because we were actually applying the Bible to every discipline of life, and not just treating it as a theoretical concept. The tape said that unless Reconstructionism was vilified and destroyed in the media, the courts, in the church, and every other forum that they had access to, that we had the capability of turning the nation around and undoing everything they had accomplished in the last hundred years. And what was so humorous to me was that they were scared to death of us, yet we Christians tend to be scared to death of them. It’s a matter of perspective. And Christ’s perspective was, “It doesn’t matter how grim things might look, we’ve got reason to praise God for His future victory.” Amen?

Greeks Come To Christ (vs. 20-22)

Nor is it accidental that in the very next verse John gives a little tid-bit of information that might otherwise have been lost. Verses 20-22 give a fourth hint of this worldwide intention of the cross. It says,

“Now there were certain Greeks [interesting! These were believing Gentiles. So it says, there were certain Greeks] among those who came up to worship at the feast. Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, ‘Sir we wish to see Jesus.’”

In a very real sense the world was beginning to follow Jesus. Here were Gentiles who wanted to see Jesus. And what began on that day, continues to grow to this day with this year’s official estimates of evangelical Christians numbering somewhere (depending on the poll that is taken) between 2.7 billion to 3.342 billion evangelical Christians worldwide. That is astronomical growth over the past century. Is that not a legitimate reason to praise God? Yes there is persecution, and yes there is sadness, just as there was sadness on that first Palm Sunday, but it should never shut our eyes to the worldwide victory of the Lord.

The Time Has Approached For Christ To Be Glorified (v. 23-33)

John continues to spin out this theme in the remaining verses. He speaks of Jesus' glory in verses 23-33. Verse 23: “But Jesus answered them, saying, ‘The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.’” The hour of Christ's glory has not been postponed, as so many Christians think. Christ does not separate His sufferings from His glory by 2000 years. His glory was entered into because of His sufferings. 1 Peter 1:11 speaks of the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. The glory of Christ is being exalted more and more in the world. We call this an eschatology of victory. If the whole church would embrace this eschatology of Charles Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, George Whitefield, and so many others of the past, it would have faith to expect great things from God and to attempt great things for Him. You can tell that I get excited about this.

Much Grain Will Be Harvested (v. 24,32)

In verse 24 Christ gives a sixth reason in the face of death why there is much to praise God for. And that is that much grain will be harvested as a result of His death. Much grain is a metaphor of converts coming into the kingdom. It is through dying that He brings in the great harvest. He says, “Most assuredly I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” And much grain is what Christ continues to promise for the future. Verse 32 says, “‘And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.’ This He said, signifying by what death He would die.” The eschatology of John 12 was designed to stir up faith and encourage people to be a praising people even in the midst of difficulty. What does Romans 8 say? It says that not even tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword can keep the church from being more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

The Father Promises That Christ Will Be Glorified (v. 28)

In verse 28, even the Father speaks with a thunderous voice from heaven saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” God the Father is backing up His Son in a way that the crowds can hear.

Satan’s Defeat Is Declared & The World Is Captured From Him (v. 31)

Eighth, Satan’s total defeat is also prophesied in verse 31. “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.” We have to get it into our heads that God brings triumph out of the jaws of defeat; He manifests His strength in our weakness. Our generation may well see worldwide judgments (through economics or warfare). But what is encouraging to me is that God often makes His judgments redemptive judgments - where many people come to salvation as a result of the judgment. You can think of how God brought about repentance through judgements on Israel and repeatedly restored the nation of Israel. But the point of this verse is that Jesus does not begin the reversal of history at the Second Coming. He begins to cast Satan out of his territories starting at the cross. The cross of Jesus Christ is all the power we need to conquer Satan. It guaranteed Satan's defeat and it guaranteed the capture of the world from his hands. And that same blood of Christ continues to be used by Christ's people to overcome Satan today. It says in Revelation 12 that God's people resisted the dragon, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony…”

But here’s the problem. The problem is not in the world out there. The problem is that most Christians in America no longer believe God’s promises of victory or that God judges in history. Thus they no longer use the imprecatory psalms. The imprecatory Psalms are insired Psalms that call down God’s judgements. God has commanded the church to take them upon our lips, and when we refuse to ask God to judge, God in effect says, "OK - you have not because you ask not." David Dykstra was mentioning to me the other week how sad it is that so many evangelical leaders no longer believe in the torment of hell. They just describe it as separation from God, not pain. And certainly Jesus suffered separation and forsaking so that we would not have to, but He also suffered pain so that we would not have to. These evangelicals certainly don't believe in God's blessings and cursings in Deuteronomy 28. They relegate all such things to either the Old Testament or to the Second Coming. No wonder we don’t have victories – we aren’t using His tools.

The reason the church of the first few centuries won victory after victory was because they took verses like this seriously. They took Christ’s judgments seriously. They took nation discipling seriously. They took spiritual warfare seriously. They really believed that greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world. You read the early church father, Athanasius, and his descriptions of the triumphal march of the church, the terror of demons, and you begin to realize that the church used to take Christ’s present victory very seriously, which means that they understood the theology of Palm Sunday. Let me give you a tiny snippet of insight into the constant judgments that Jesus brought against Roman emperors and magistrates because the church took the imprecatory psalms seriously - asking God to judge the wicked rulers of their age. Certainly there was persecution; but there were also judgments. In his commentary on the Psalms, W.S. Plumer said,

It is easy for God to destroy his foes... One light stroke of his iron rod will break the potter’s vessel. Yea, men are in their best earthly estate but potsherds. They are weak as water. He who spits against the wind spits in his own face. He who strives with his Maker makes certain his own ruin... Behold Pharaoh, his wise men, his hosts, and his horses plouting, and plunging, and sinking like lead in the Red sea. Here is the end of one of the greatest plots ever formed against God’s chosen. Of thirty Roman Emperors, governors of provinces and others high in office, who distinguished themselves by their zeal and bitterness in persecuting the early Christians, one became speedily deranged after some atrocious cruelty, one was slain by his own son, one became blind, the eyes of one started out of his head, one was drowned, one was strangled, one died in a miserable captivity, one fell dead in a manner that will not bear recital, one died of so loathsome a disease that several of his physicians were put to death because they could not abide the stench that filled his room, two committed suicide, a third attempted it, but had to call for help to finish the work, five were assassinated by their own people or servants, five others died the most miserable and excruciating deaths, several of them having an untold complication of diseases, and eight were killed in battle or after being taken prisoners. Among these was Julian the apostate. In the days of his prosperity he is said to have pointed his dagger to heaven defying the Son of God, whom he commonly called the Galilean. But when he was wounded in battle, he saw that all was over with him, and he gathered up his clotted blood, and threw it into the air, exclaiming, “Thou hast conquered, O thou Galilean.” Voltaire has told us of the agonies of Charles IX. of France, which drove the blood through the pores of the skin of that miserable monarch after his cruelties and treachery to the Huguenots.

8. The Scripture cannot be broken... God’s counsel must stand. The promises are confirmed by an oath. The threatenings are executed before our eyes every day. The precepts are heavenly and eternal truth. The prophecies are but God’s free, sovereign, eternal, and unchangeable purposes revealed to us. Heaven and earth may pass away, but every jot and title of Scripture shall be fulfilled...

9. The kingdom of Christ shall surely triumph... Nothing can resist its progress. Events, seemingly the most adverse, have but accelerated its march to perfect victory. The death of the Saviour was the signal for the fall of Satan’s kingdom. The persecutions at Jerusalem filled surrounding nations with the tidings and the heralds of salvation.¹

And actually, his whole commentary is filled with encouraging perspectives like that. When Jesus says, “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out”, he is saying that judgments come in history. That means that there is no reason why the enemies of Christ in America cannot face the same types of supernatural judgments if we will start asking God to judge them. There is no reason to let the humanists have victory if the church will once again take seriously the promises and statements of these verses. So to repeat again, verse 31 says, “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.” Satan was actually bound to the pit in the first century, and since that time, valiant Christians have been casting more and more demons into the pit.

Drawing All Peoples To Himself (v. 32)

But there is one more hint of a victorious eschatology. And that is the statement in verse 32: “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” When Christ rode into Jerusalem as King, it wasn’t an empty gesture. With that royal entrance comes predictions of a complete conquest of the world. This is the joy set before Him that enabled Him to endure the cross. And this is the joy that God’s Word sets before us to help us to endure the opposition. You see, people don't like to suffer and die for a Vietnam type of a war where winning is not an option. But that is the hopeless eschatology of so many Christians – winning is not an option for them. People have suffered and died willingly and joyfully for causes that were good and were victorious. But we want to know that our sufferings are not in vain. And that’s exactly what Paul promised about our suffering. 1 Corinthians 15 says, “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” This is the incredible vision for the future that can give us reason to have confident joy. And I have spent most of my sermon's time on this first point because this is a point that is being vigorously denied in even Reformed churches.

If you are a pessimillennialist; if you are expecting defeat at the hands of the humanists, then you are not able to fully enter into the rejoicing that is found on Palm Sunday. You may be able to rejoice in points II and III (praise God). But point I should not be neglected. Christ is reigning now! He has already ridden into Jerusalem as the Prince of Peace and we are not waiting for Him to ride into Jerusalem at some future time. Praise God for the victory! Praise God for Paul's promise that the God of peace would crush Satan under their feet shortly! And He did exactly that in Rome as Rome crumbled to the Gospel. Praise God for Christ's promise that He will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it – which means that those gates of hell will be broken down and smashed to smithereens! That’s the essence of that promise in Matthew. Praise God that we have a future and a hope! Amen? Without hope it is tough to have joyful confidence. But our God is the God of all hope.

God Is In Total Control of History - references to the timing of all these events in vv1,7,12,23,27, etc.

OK, a second worldview issue that enables us to have confident joy and that enables us to praise God in even the most difficult of circumstances is the doctrine of predestination and God’s total control over every phase of history. It’s what gives meaning to history. One of the things that you will find all through the Gospels is the word “must” or “needed” or “necessary.” Those are all translations of the Greek word dei, and theologians speak of the divine dei as being God’s destiny that controlled every hour of Christ’s time. He needed to go through Samaria says John 4:4. Luke 13:33 says, “Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.” Mark 8:31 says, “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.”

Likewise, one of the things that you will notice all through the Passion Week is the preoccupation with the details of timing. Verse 1 speaks of six days before Passover; several verses speak of the plot to put Jesus to death either before the Passover or after it. And Mark 14:2 explains why. It says that the Pharisees didn’t want a confrontation with Christ during the Passover. And you can see why. They didn't want to risk a riot with three to five million Jews. But Jesus had to be crucified not only on exactly the right day, but also at exactly the right hour. Verse 27 speaks of the hour that He should be glorified and chapter 13:1 speaks of the hour that He should leave the world. Everything about that week was perfectly timed. Let me just give you a few of the major events that were timed so perfectly. And it gives me goose bumps when I think about the perfect orchestration of all of these events.

The anointing with oil of verses 3-7 was on the very day when Passover lambs were marked out and consecrated for death. And if you look at verse 7 you will see that this anointing was said to be for his burial. He was marked for death with that anointing at the very time that temple lambs were marked for death.

Those lambs were later taken from the fields of Bethlehem and herded through the streets of Jerusalem, not at this point to be slaughtered, but to be brought to the temple priests who would later slaughter them. That’s the day that Jesus goes to the temple and confronts the priests who will later slaughter Him. Josephus calculated the number of lambs that were herded through the streets in his day to be 256,500. And these 256,000 lambs were being moved through the streets of Jerusalem toward the temple on Palm Sunday as Jesus moved toward that same temple to cleanse it. And when you picture the Lamb of God walking in the midst of those 256,000 lambs, it gives added meaning to the emotion in Christ's words when he talks about his death in John 12 while traveling there. He was fulfilling prophecy in perfect synchronization with the festival rituals.

We will skip over some events. There is significance to the timing when Christ was nailed to the cross, as well as the darkness from noon to three o’clock - the three hours of darkness. Those were the three hours when preparations would have been made to slaughter all the lambs. It usually took a while to do that. But God made such preparation in the temple absolutely impossible because the priests would not have been able to see what they were doing. God hindered their preparation to make it clear that Jesus was the true and the final Passover Lamb, and it would have been inappropriate to allow any competition. It must have been a frustrating thing in the temple to have the lights go out with a thick darkness at the very hour when they needed to prepare the lambs. God wanted men’s attention focused on what was happening at Calvary.

At the moment that temple lambs would have been slain (if they could have been), Christ died. And Pilate was surprised that He had died already. At the moment that priests would have entered the Holy Place, the earthquake came and the temple veil was torn from top to bottom - indicating that it was God who was tearing the heavy curtain. And so all of the people who would have been trapped where they had gathered at the temple, because it was too dark to go home without trampling one another, would have noticed as soon as the lights came on that they could see into the Holy of Holies for the first time in human history. The dividing curtain was torn asunder.

I'll skip over some events and just mention the resurrection, which occurred on the festival of Firstfruits. You have Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, and then 50 days later, but still tied thematically in, is Pentecost. Firstfruits was the day when a token harvest of grain was offered up to the Lord as a symbol of the resurrection of Christ and some saints with Him. But preparation for that began the evening before Jesus was crucified. The elders went out and marked the spot that was to be harvested by binding together the standing grain with a rope. The Jewish scholar, Alfred Edersheim, points out that that was the night that Jesus was bound by the elders of Israel. Guess where the grain was bound? Outside Jerusalem over the brook Kidron. Guess where Jesus was bound? Outside Jerusalem over the brook Kidron in a Garden called Gethsemane, which would have bordered the very field where the grain was symbolically bound. So the grain was bound on the evening that Jesus was bound.

Guess when the grain was cut down? It was the next evening when Christ was taken off the cross.

And Edersheim points out that the basket of grain would be carried away from that spot at the very time and close to the spot when and where Christ was carried to His tomb.

And the grain stayed in that omer container for three days and three nights just as Christ stayed in the tomb for three days and three nights.

And on the same day that it was taken out, beaten, purified and offered up to the Lord, Jesus in a glorified body rose from the grave, and some Old Testament saints were resurrected with Him. They were the firstfruits of the first resurrection. There are all kinds of neat parallels that are found in God's Old Testament festivals.

And all of those things show that this was no accident. This was no tragedy. This was something planned from the foundation of the world, and nothing in the world would be able to stop it from happening. The Saducees and Pharisees tried to stop it. They tried hard. Mark 14:2 says, “After two days it was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by trickery and put Him to death. But they said, ‘Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people.’” They didn’t want it during the feast, yet their hand was forced, and the day and the hour that Christ’s whole life was being prepared for happened according to plan.

And let me tell you that we can still rejoice that the perfect plan of God that worked in, around, and even through the sinful actions and hate of His enemies back then can continue to work in, around and even through the actions of His enemies today. We can trust the Lord’s timing, and we can trust His total control of history. He is, after all, the Lord of History. And if you doubt it, read the book of Esther sometime. It is a glorious testimony to God’s ability to make even the wrath of man to praise Him. It’s true that things got worse in Esther before they got better, but that was because the church was carnal and sold under sin - much like the church in America has become corrupt. So God used His enemies to bring such stress into the lives of the backslidden Jews that they came to repentance and God brought victory out of ashes. Praise Jesus! Palm Sunday has a message of hope.

Christ Is Actually Willing To Be Our King Despite Our Sin & Ignorance (Praise God!)

Christ Implies It

The Donkey Was The Animal Of Choice For A King’s Peaceful Entry (Judges 10:4; 12:14; 2 Sam. 16:2; cf. mules in 2 Sam. 13:29; 18:9; 1 King. 1:33,34)

The third major reason why we ought to praise Him is because Jesus offered peace by riding on a donkey and didn’t bring judgment for another forty years. In other words, He was willing to be their King despite their rebellion and ignorance. It is an amazing thing that Christ would even want to be our King - given our repeated failures. Yet there He is, willing to receive the title, “King of Israel” in verse 13, and riding a donkey in verse 14. And by the way, the donkey was the animal that kings rode for their coronation. It was a symbol of peace. If Christ had come in on a stallion it would have been a symbol of war. And indeed in Revelation Christ is pictured as riding a stallion when He destroys apostate Israel. But here He comes with peace to those who deserve warfare. In fact, the three prophecies that are alluded to by John all deal with Christ’s forgiveness and salvation. Great reason to praise Him!

Jerusalem Was The Capitol Of The World (Lam. 2:15), The City Of The Great King (Ps. 48:2), The Throne Of Jehovah (Jer. 3:17)

Prophecy Declares That Christ Will Rule Over These Sinners (vs. 13 (“King of Israel”), 15 (“Fear not...Behold your King...”) with Psalm 118:25-26; Is. 62:11; Zech. 9:9-10). Both Passages Quoted In John Tie The Triumphal Entry In With The Crucifixion

If you are ever depressed and need reason for joy, meditate on the fact that you aren't a burden to the Lord. Rejoice in the fact that He is willing to rule over the likes of us; He cares for us; He rejoices over His people. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Praise be to Your name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

Psalm 118:27 “Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are My God.”

He loved us so much that He was willing to die for us. And so it is a sacrificial rule and a sacrificial love. And this passage speaks of that great, great sacrifice that He was willing to make. Speaking of Christ's first coming, Psalm 118 says,

“Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD; [If you look at verse 13 you will recognize that this was the same Psalm that was being sung by the pilgrims in praise of Jesus. But the Psalm goes on to say, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD”] we have blessed you from the house of the LORD. The LORD is God, and He has given us light; bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will praise You; You are my God, I will exalt You. Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.”

Psalm 118 wants the time that this Lamb was taken and tied to the horns of the altar to be a time of rejoicing. And it is a time of rejoicing because it speaks of God’s incredible mercy and love. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Christ so loved the world that He died to save it. And He will save it. Many Scriptures say that there is coming a time when all rebels will be subdued and this will be a world in which dwells righteousness. So His sacrifice will accomplish all that it came to accomplish.

Zech. 9:11 - “Because of the blood of your covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.”

Another passage which prophesied Palm Sunday and is quoted in verse 15 is Zechariah 9:9. Zechariah 9 records Jesus coming on the colt of a donkey into Jerusalem and then says, “As for you also, because of the blood of the covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. Even today I declare that I will restore double to you.” Christ’s atonement; His sacrifice was what was being celebrated unwittingly by these people crying out these Scriptures of praise. But when you think about it, this is one of the highest reasons why any Christian should be able to have confident joy. No matter how bad your life is, it is better than being in hell - what this passage calls the waterless pit. No matter how bad our lives are, we can praise God for at least that.

Conclusion

If you go through life with little reason to praise God, you may want to walk your way backwards through those three points. Every believer has a reason to praise God. And if you are not yet a believer, you are facing an eternity not only to be separated from His presence but also to be suffering the agonies of tormenting fire. You will not be able to say that you had no opportunity to trust in Jesus. God will point to this very message and say, “You heard the Gospel, but you failed to embrace it. Depart from Me.” You see, Jesus came to give His life a ransom for many. Who were we ransomed from? It wasn’t from Satan. It was from the justice of an angry God. Zechariah 9 makes it clear that we were prisoners of God condemned to hell, but rescued by His mercy. And all it takes is an unconditional surrender to Jesus Christ, believing that He paid the penalty for your sins and casting your sins upon Him and receiving His righteousness for yourself. That’s the heart of the Gospel.

But if you are a believer and you still lack confidence, then you might consider that the problem may be one of the other two points. It may be that you are resisting His rule in your life. That leads to misery, not joy. Satan wants us to believe that doing things our way will make us happy, but it does not. Total submission to Christ’s Kingship is the way to full joy.

Or it may be that you lack a trust in Romans 8:28 – that all things work together for good to those who love God. If He could control every detail of the worst sin in history – the crucifixion, you can trust Him to take the evil that people do against you, and work it together for your good. A trust in His predestinating sovereignty can enable you to have faith to praise Him in even those difficult circumstances.

Or it may be that you lack the first point - a positive vision for the future. God’s promises for our personal future are great. He says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” That gives you a personal eschatology. He says, “For whoever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” He promises, “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Do you believe God’s eschatology for your individual life? His promises mean that your individual future is bright.

But God’s promises for the world are also bright. He promises, “Of the increase of His kingdom and of peace there will be no end.” That gives you realism and faith. It gives realism because there will always be some evil that Christ needs to keep conquering. So He isn’t promising a Pauliana type of optimism. He is realistic. But those promises also give you faith to expect great things from God and to attempt great things for God. May we find these three anchors for faith to be great reason to have confident joy and to praise God today. Amen.