Palm Sunday: Holiness Recognized But Then Betrayed

Palm Sunday: Holiness Recognized But Then Betrayed   4-13-13 Kelly Durant

John 12:13 Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.

2. How many of you know what today signifies? It is Palm Sunday, a day of praise! Do you know why we call it that? We read it in the Bible reading, the people were putting down palm branches for Jesus like people rolling out the red carpet today!

Jesus was returning to Jerusalem: He was the Prince of Peace going into the City of Peace, but that city has had little peace throughout time after His crucifixion! Everyone knows from history the Romans totally destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD to stop the Jewish rebellion, and more war has been there than anywhere else on earth! Only now for the past almost 50 years have the Jews had Jerusalem back and there has been a little more peace. But did you know all their neighbors over this period of time have fired over 10,000 mortars into Israel?! The point of this irony is only in heaven will peace exist from the Prince of Peace!

All of the people on the first Palm Sunday recognized Jesus as honorable, and supernatural, and they exalted Him as holy and worthy of the highest praise, and they only laid down palm branches. Some also laid down their coats for his colt to walk on! I am sure the Jews and Romans were fuming with anger because after all they never got such honored treatment! But they weren’t holy either or the Son of God! People only honored them out of fear of death! What a contrast of how Jesus was honored so much but yet He was to suffer a horrible betrayal and death just a few days later!

3. Today in history, the entire Christian world re-honors Jesus because He was at the peak of His acceptance and honor on Palm Sunday. Most of the city came out to honor Him, and they made a lot of noise! It was like a riot and out of control mob! They shouted, Matthew 21:9 “And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest”. People were convicted burning inside that He was the Holy One and this exposed their need to honor Him for who He was (is)! How should you and I react to Jesus? We should explode in praise to Him! We should bow and lay down all for Him!

The believers and followers had heard what was announced about Him, the multitude got the message that he was the Savior, the chosen one son of David, or the Messiah; the wise ones quoted the scripture that was to prove He was the Messiah.

Zech 9:9  Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.  

4. It is clear the Jerusalemites knew He was the Messiah fulfilling prophecy yelling that He is King of Israel. But even despite that, the next week our Lord was sadly crucified. Palm Sunday exemplifies the fickle populous in general: one week a person may recognize who Jesus is and honor Him, but a week later they turn their backs on Him and His followers and desire destruction.

This betrayal repeats itself over and over today: when people fear losing admiration and control like the Jewish religious leaders did, then they will always react by evil human nature throwing God’s anointed under the bus! How many congregations have been destroyed by people who didn’t get the leader or members to submit?! Judas, it is speculated betrayed Jesus not desiring His death, but to provoke Him to use His power to dominate the Romans. Jesus was (is) never about earthly power, yet some churches and people have always tried to make it into that!

Sadly some of us will always deal with people who think only they are the right ones but they may be seriously lacking in recognizing Jesus mercy, love, and holiness to all. Don’t be a person driven by impulse following the crowds and praising God one week, but then soon reverse and undo all the good done.

Haven’t we all been guilty of turning our backs on Jesus sometime or another? Or maybe we have failed to love God or others as we should! And yet Jesus knowing our unfaithfulness still agreed to die for our sins anyway! It was not just the Jews, or the Romans, or the betrayal of Judas that put Him to death; it was you and me for our sins! Never forget how much you (me) have been forgiven of! You, because of your past present, and future sins, are just as responsible for Jesus death as the ones who put Him to death! That recognition of the salvation of your soul will make you praise and thank Him eternally!

5. How many of you practice lent? How many of you follow the tradition of abstaining from meat this week? That is not a bad tradition but I would like to ask you to apply it in a different way this time. Instead of giving up eating meat a day or two, try giving up one of your flaws and then fight to give it up for the rest of your life! If your temptation to get angry fast, to be impatient, or maybe to yell bad words, or if you know you fail to love like Jesus, then now is the time to give up your personality and to abstain from your way of being to be like Jesus!

If you are the jealous type, give it up!

If you enjoy talking about the bad in others, give it up!

If you are indulgent, and you buy yourself things you don’t need, give it up!

If you are lazy and don’t do very many things for others, change, and give it up!

If you complain a lot, or have a negative spirit about your life or your responsibilities, then give up not praising God as you are supposed to!

Make yourself change and be positive by making new habits and reading God’s word every day and then seeking ways to serve others!  Do it especially this coming weekend if you want to be closer to God in this special time! Giving up a food is not much of a sacrifice at all!  Changing your character to be more like Jesus, now that is a real sacrifice! But that requires hard work and discipline so tell another your fault so they support you and hold you accountable!  The scripture says in James 5:16 “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”.  

Stop and seriously recognize where your sins are and ask God to help you! No one has confessed anything to me lately and I don’t expect that, that is between you and God. To feel the exciting presence of the Lord in your life, like the loud praising that went on in Jerusalem, you must obey scripture and crucify your flesh praise and honor Jesus to be more like Him! If you do this, then you will be honoring Him this day and forever more as you should be!

6. And if you see nothing wrong with yourself, then you really do have a problem! Palm Sunday is about you recognizing the holiness of Jesus contrasting against our need for holiness. If you act upon God’s spirit, and what you learn from the Holy Scriptures, then you must purge yourself of any big or little disturbance that is not right in your life. For many of us it is pride, a lack of submission, and a lack of love.

There are a lot of people in churches today that sin in very different ways, of course people always think their own sins are no big deal, but all sin is wrong, but not recognizing your own sin provokes others to stumble. Just ask your closest Christian family members what to change, or ask your Captain/pastor (I am going to get myself in trouble on this one!), or your best friend what are my faults?

Listen, pray and make a plan to change a bad habit or attitude this coming week. I am sure the Lord will be very pleased with that type of honoring and lent sacrifice crucifying your own flesh, denying being human in your actions. Jesus denied Himself in a huge way when He died on the cross for us!   Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:31 “I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.” You and I must not only rejoice and praise Christ like they did on Palm Sunday but die daily as well. It’s time to renovate and to grow to be more like Jesus!

7. For this week coming up let’s revisit the Jewish holiday that was happening when Jesus was being tried and crucified. It was The Passover. What was that all about? It was a celebration to remember when the Israelites were freed from being slaves in the land of Egypt, and on this date the final death plague was happening and the Lord commanded everyone to put blood over their door entrances. Why, so the angel of death would “Passover” or “protect” that home, and not kill their firstborn son.

So imagine, the Jews were rejoicing the day before the Passover with the blood of a lamb that they would be saved from the plague of death. How coincidental with Jesus atonement! But recall each one had to obey to gain God’s life protection! Palm Sunday is about being obedient to Jesus and honoring Him as honor is due!

The Lord since the beginning has been preparing the Jews, and everyone, with symbolisms. Let’s look up some useful verses. I John 1: 7 “7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Here have confirmed that it is only by Jesus blood that we have forgiveness of sins to be reconciled with God so it is His blood that takes away guilt and punishment and frees the obedient from the curse of death and sets them up for their journey into the promised land of heaven!

8. Let’s learn more about the blood.  (See Ex 12:3, 5). The blood had to be shed from a lamb, without blemish, this represents the blood of Jesus, which is the Lamb of God without blemish. And during His trail remember how Jesus was found to be innocent by Herod, Pilot, and everyone! That is amazing how he was innocent yet condemned anyway?! And the reality is we are the guilty ones!

(Ex 12:7) Here we see the blood had to be struck on the door, just as when Jesus blood goes on the door of our hearts, it does not go on or wear off easy, and it usually goes on with emotion. Jesus’ blood does not get applied to be un-noticed, it is put on thick to be noticed for protection from death! If He really is there, if His blood has saved us, then all will see Him alive in our lives!

We understand that if the blood is not present, the Lord will execute judgment, and that judgment is death! In other words, those who do not apply the blood of Jesus today in their lives will suffer a second death (a bodily one, then a spiritual one). Not just death in this flesh but also an eternal death, and eternal separation from God! But those with Him have eternal life in heaven where all is peace!

9. Heb 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. Remission is God forgiving us for our sins, we would all be guilty and condemned without Jesus blood.

The Israelites, after putting blood on the door were commanded to stay inside and feast on the meat. That is symbolic too that we must take in Jesus’ body into ours in so that symbolically His DNA becomes ours so we become pure love as He is. Can people say of you, wow, he or she just like Jesus made of pure love?

John 6:54 “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day”. From this we conclude that without Jesus being deep inside us we will not have eternal life. Rev.12: 11 “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death”. Jesus did not get honored on Palm Sunday and then pour out His blood for us to not respond; he bought our salvation with a huge sacrifice and we owe Him everything forever! And He gives us everything as well!

10. And now Jesus sits of the right hand of God getting praise forever! As we reflect on how He was praised, and then on His suffering this weekend, recall that He did it all for his love for You! Yes, you!  Any time you are tempted with your weaknesses, don’t crucify Jesus afresh by sinning. Remember Jesus’ cruel death, and it what cost Him to redeem you and me with God! That’ll make you praise!

In the end, we know the final picture, that some of the Palm Sunday worshipers later were to be traitors! Never be a traitor to Jesus! Never be like the Ones in Jerusalem that forgot about how He is the Messiah, the only begotten of the Father. One more time let His blood be applied on your heart! Let Him transform you where you need it! Give up your hidden rebellion and sins, and give your life anew to Jesus for Him to use for God’s glory!  Let’s honor and praise Jesus as the angels and Israelites did on that historic day!

Praising Him means not just a “hosanna” but obeying and loving Him totally! Can people say of you; how amazing that (name) is like Jesus, made of pure love?  Prayer ….