Palm Sunday | The Triumphal Entry: Luke 19:28-40

[0:00] Welcome to Ontario Community Church, where we're dedicated to encouraging, equipping, and engaging lives for Christ. Located in Ontario, Oregon, Pastor Patrick Daly preaches insightful sermons from the Word of God, offering practical applications for modern living.

[0:16] We're delighted to share this sermon with you. I want to start off by wishing you a happy Palm Sunday. This is where we raise our palms and we say, Hosanna. We say that together, Hosanna.

[0:30] It's one more time, Hosanna. All right. It's just such a great time that we celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ on this Sunday.

[0:44] I have to tell you that I cannot believe how fast this year is going by already, that Easter is right around the corner. Pretty soon, I mean, my gosh, it's starting to warm up, praise the Lord for that.

[0:57] It's just absolutely just remarkable. Time flies. There's a saying, time flies when you're having fun. I hope that you guys are having fun in this year. Palm Sunday is a time where we can see a pivot.

[1:10] It's a shift. It's a transition from the ministry and the teachings and the miracles of Christ, the lessons from Christ to the fulfillment of prophecy.

[1:21] One of the things we're going to go over today is the fulfillment of prophecy from Zechariah 9.9. We have been going over our sermon series titled, Sacred Journey from Death to Life.

[1:35] Today is a great Sunday as we have just been going through this sacred journey, our time, our Lenten series together. We began talking about repentance and what it means to change your mind.

[1:48] Remember Meta-Noyah, right? To change your mind about who Jesus Christ is. In the same way that we change our mind about sin and what it means and to follow in the footsteps of Christ.

[2:00] We talked about temptation and that quite honestly, we're going to be tempted in this life much like how Jesus was. We talked about what it means to be a disciple of Christ and what it means to carry our cross that we are not alone when we carry our cross.

[2:17] We've talked about the new covenant and the idea of redemption in Christ. This leads us to this Sunday, which is the title of this sermon. I'm going to go ahead and put that on the screen here.

[2:28] Palm Sunday, the triumphal entry. I just love the idea of Palm Sunday, all these people who are gathered around. They're waving their palms and they're so excited about Jesus passing them by.

[2:42] It's just a wonderful part of the story of Christ. Before we go any further, I would like for us to open in a word of prayer and we'll go ahead and begin on this time where we go over the triumphal entry.

[2:58] Will you pray with me? Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing us here today on this Palm Sunday. We are gathered here today to remember and to celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

[3:17] We ask that your Holy Spirit will guide us into knowing more about who you are, knowing more about the truth of your word.

[3:28] We ask, Father, that you help us to understand the importance and the appreciation of this remarkable event in Scripture. The triumphal entry was so important in the fulfillment of prophecy for the coming of Jesus Christ.

[3:45] Help us to see that fulfillment of such prophecy goes to show that God, you are constant and you keep your promises. You provided a way for salvation in faith.

[3:56] We ask, Father, that you open our minds to the truth and our hearts to love. Let us open these doors to make way for the King of Kings into our lives.

[4:09] It is in the name of Jesus, the name that is above all name that we pray and we all say together, amen. At this time together, let us turn together to the Gospel of Luke where we will read this together.

[4:20] I'm going to put that on the screen. It's Luke chapter 19 verses 28 through 40. It's going to be found on page 1044. Feel free to turn there in your ESVP Bible or a Bible of your choice, a mobile device.

[4:37] I prefer a nice hard copy, but it's your preference on that. All right, 1,044, are we there?

[4:56] We're going to be reading from verse 28 through verse 40. Let's read it together. When he had said these things, he went on ahead going up to Jerusalem.

[5:09] When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany and the Mount that is called all of it, he sent how many disciples? Two disciples saying, go into the village in front of you, where on entering you'll find a what?

[5:23] A cult tide on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you why are you untieing it, you shall say this, the Lord has need of it.

[5:37] So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. As they were untieing the cult, its owner said to them, why are you untieing the cults?

[5:49] They said, what did they say? The Lord has need of it. They brought it to Jesus and throwing their cloaks on the cult, they set Jesus on it.

[5:59] As he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. 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 quiet voice, a loud voice for the almighty works that they had seen saying, blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest.

[6:25] Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, teacher, rebuke your disciples. He answered them, I tell you, if these were silent, the what?

[6:37] The very stones would cry out. As we begin, I want to go ahead to turn to this slide. It's also found in your notes, which is the breakdown of the verses here.

[6:48] It might be a little hard to read on here. But we start off with the command and the cult, which is verses 28 through 33. Then we go to the triumphal entry verses 34 through 38.

[7:02] Then there's the Pharisees versus the praise. Let me tell you one thing, you cannot stop the praise of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Let's start off with the command and the cult.

[7:13] That's our next slide here. Verse 28 through 33, it speaks about the command that was given by Christ to the two disciples.

[7:24] Christ gives specific instructions to search for a cult that is tied, which no one has ever sat in. I always thought that was very interesting. Well, that's so specific. It's interesting to see that Jesus had the foreknowledge of what was going to happen.

[7:40] He told his disciples to do something very specific and it was done so. The disciples did what was commanded of them. The disciples were to go into town to find the cult that had never been written.

[7:52] If someone asks, let them know that the Lord needed it. Can you imagine if you were to think of a modern day context, if you were told, hey, you need to go and take this car.

[8:03] If someone asks you, hey, God needs it. It sounds funny when we think about it, but when God intervenes into our life, much like how Jesus is commanding these two disciples, God must have gone to whoever was the owner of this cult.

[8:19] Maybe in a vision or a voice or somehow there was divine revelation saying, hey, look, God's going to need this. He was okay with it and I just think that's really amazing.

[8:30] It's not like the Wild West, it wasn't like someone was saying, hey, give me your cult, it wasn't like that. It was divine instruction that came from Christ. Again, whoever owned the cult was either he was chill and just go with the flow, I take my cult or perhaps I tend to think it was more divine revelation saying, hey, look, someone's going to come and going to ask you for your cult.

[8:53] Can you go along with this? Come on. You had the two men who would ask for the cult and in any case, we know that the cult was given because Jesus ends up riding on the cult.

[9:06] So we don't know exactly what happened with this owner, but we know that eventually he did give it. What's also interesting about this is the understanding that what you're reading, what you're seeing in scripture here is a fulfillment of prophecy.

[9:20] I want us to turn to this next slide. It's going to be Zechariah. Zechariah 9, Chapter 9, verse 9. So let's read it. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zylon.

[9:33] Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your what? Your King is coming to you, righteous and having salvation.

[9:44] That's pretty remarkable right there. Having salvation is he humble and mounted on a donkey, on a cult, the fowl of a donkey.

[9:54] It's remarkable right that you're finding this in the Old Testament. I don't know about you, but I find it incredibly wonderful when we see something like that in the Old Testament. That is having a connection with the New Testament, a prophecy if you will, that is to be fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

[10:10] Clearly, this was a prophecy that was told and fulfilled by Jesus Christ entering into Jerusalem, amen. So finally we go into the triumphal entry, the verses 34 through 38.

[10:26] This is where we see in the Gospel of Luke the laying of cloaks. Well, what about the palm branches, right? We just read, okay, they're laying the cloaks on the colt where Jesus can ride on and they're also laying their cloaks for Jesus to make way, but what about the palm branches?

[10:45] I don't see it anywhere here. Well, not to worry too much. It's found in the other Gospels. It's found in Matthew and Mark mentioning the cloaks and the branches.

[10:55] The Gospel of Luke is the only one that's mentioning just the laying of the cloaks. The Gospel of John specifically mentions the palm branches. So it's talking about branches that are being held up or being laid, right?

[11:09] Your cloaks are being laid. Basically what's happening here is just the celebration of Christ coming into Jerusalem. And it's really wonderful to see because we can conclude from the Gospel accounts, right?

[11:22] There was both of these things are happening, right? People laying down their cloaks. I tend to think of how in older movies where if it's raining and a gentleman is laying down his coat for a lady to cross over a puddle, right?

[11:36] Very similar, but for a king instead, right? Instead of laying a cloak for someone to go over a puddle. This is showing for imagery about recognizing that Jesus is king.

[11:49] So again, both of these things are happening to show that the people are celebrating Jesus entering into Jerusalem and they are recognizing Jesus as king.

[12:00] And can you imagine a crowd of people saying, Hosanna, peace in heaven, glory in the highest. The crowds are just excited for Jesus riding into Jerusalem.

[12:12] And it's what a wonderful moment we see in Scripture. Now there's something that's very significant, even though it wasn't in our reading of the Gospel of Luke.

[12:22] I do want to point out that there is a significance in the palm branch. How many of you have your palm branch? Why don't you hold up your palm branch real quick? You know what's really cool about the palm branch?

[12:34] Is that it's been used in the Old Testament, in the Gospel accounts. And we're going to find here that it's also been used in Revelation. It's symbol for celebration and for victory.

[12:48] And that's so powerful as we're celebrating this time of the triumphal entry. But there is such significance. You can put your palms down. The palm branch is found throughout Scripture.

[12:59] It's something that was used to welcome a king. It's a symbol of victory and promises from the Lord. And I'd like to turn to a few verses where you'll find it's also in your notes that goes to show.

[13:12] Where is the palm branch in Scripture? Starting with Leviticus 2340, right? Let's read it together. You shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, the what?

[13:24] Branches of palm trees. And boughs of leafy trees. And willows of the brook. And you shall what? Rejoice before the Lord your God. Seven days.

[13:34] Okay, so there it is in the Old Testament. This verse is speaking of palm leaves using during the festival of tabernacles. And I know we're not going too far into this, but this is the final feast of the seven feasts that is found in the Old Testament.

[13:50] It's wonderful if you look at Leviticus when you're seeing the feasts, how they align with the story of Christ. But we're not going into that today, but it's just wonderful to see that alignment here.

[14:02] The palm branch was used as a way to celebrate and rejoice before the Lord. It is at this time where people are laying their cloaks, they're waving their palms, right? They're even laying their palms on the ground.

[14:13] They are believing that Christ is going to be king and that he will deliver them from the Roman Empire. But instead of conquering the Roman Empire, what does he do instead?

[14:24] He conquers death itself and he pays for our sins and he's making way to fulfill what has been foretold. Not only do we find palm branches being used during the Feast of Tabernacles in the Old Testament, but we see it here in the triumphal entry, not specifically in Luke, but also in the other Gospels.

[14:47] Did you know that the palm branch is used in Revelation? Let's turn to that verse. It's very interesting. It's going to be from Revelation 7, 9 through 10. Let's read it together.

[14:57] And after this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number, right? It's a lot of people from every nation, right? From all the tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the what?

[15:10] Before the Lamb clothed in what? White robes with what? Palm branches in their hands. And crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

[15:26] Much like is what is happening here when the people are celebrating Jesus triumphally entering into Jerusalem. We can see here in this verse a similar event is happening.

[15:37] What is to be fulfilled? And what a wonderful yet simple plant. If you think about it and I hope the next time you look at a palm branch, you'll see that how God has used this plant as a symbol for victory, part of the consistency and the promises of our Lord.

[15:56] The palm branch was used here today to celebrate and remember Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It's wonderful when you see things that are connected in Scripture. Such significance.

[16:09] And this brings us to the final part, the next slide here, which is going to be the Pharisees versus the Praise. And you can see in the front here some of these, I tried, okay, trying to find some Pharisees pictures here, where they're not really happy.

[16:27] I mean, they probably are celebrating in the Feast of Tabernacles, but they're not really happy with what's going on. The prophecy is being fulfilled from Zachariah. The crowds are going wild.

[16:40] And many of the disciples there who are celebrating the King's entry into Jerusalem, yet despite all of this, Pharisees, what are they doing? They're telling Jesus that the disciples need to just be quiet here.

[16:53] They're telling Jesus, hey, you need to rebuke your disciples. Maybe they're being a little too rowdy. What's going on? Let's go to that verse here. What's it say here? And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, what did they say?

[17:06] Teacher, rebuke your disciples. Ugh, talk about a killjoy right there, right? But Jesus answered them saying, I tell you, if these were silence, the very stones would cry out.

[17:24] Hallelujah, right? Even if the Pharisees were successful in silencing the disciples, celebration and praise of Jesus Christ, riding on the cult of a donkey, going into Jerusalem.

[17:37] Even if they were quiet, the stones would cry out. That's just a remarkable thing. The question then comes up, why in the world are the Pharisees telling Jesus to rebuke the disciples? What's going on? Well, there's a couple ways we can look at this.

[17:50] We can maybe the Pharisees were afraid of military uprising, right? Maybe they just wanted the disciples to not be too loud. Maybe they just had sensory issues.

[18:01] But I tend to think the reason why the disciples were saying this has to do with what we were seeing in verse 37, which is saying that there was a multitude of disciples. They were rejoicing and praising God with a loud voice.

[18:14] They are praising Jesus for the mighty works they have seen. And in doing this, the large groups of disciples were saying that Jesus is king.

[18:27] For a multitude of people saying that Jesus is king and proclaiming that Jesus is the one who comes in the name of the Lord, that may not make some people happy here.

[18:40] The disciples, they want to praise God and because of this, it would lead one to believe that the Pharisees are in disbelief of who Christ is.

[18:50] They want to shut this down. They don't want to hear people saying, oh, Jesus is king. I don't need to hear that. We're celebrating the feast here. They're not recognizing who Jesus is in this moment.

[19:02] It's disbelief of who Christ is and they want to put a stop to the nonsense. And unfortunately, the Pharisees, it appears to be they're angry or perhaps they're blinded.

[19:15] It is Christ who responds to the Pharisees by saying that if these disciples were silent, the stones would cry out. And this is indicative. This goes to show the power of Jesus Christ that the prophecy will be fulfilled one way or another.

[19:31] It's going to happen. It's just... It's going to happen one way or another. Again, even if the Pharisees were successful in silencing the disciples, can you imagine the stones crying out and praising God?

[19:48] What an incredible sight that would be. If you think about it, and it reminds me that our Lord, our God, is worthy of our praise, even nature.

[20:02] There's a verse out there, the heavens declare the glory of God. Some of you know that one, right? And if nature is going to cry out to the Lord and praise the Lord, why don't we?

[20:15] That's a question to think about. The Pharisees have no authority of who is to praise the Lord. Because I want to tell you one thing here. You cannot silence the Lord Jesus Christ.

[20:27] You cannot stop the praise. You cannot stop the power of who Jesus Christ is. What God has said into motion will be seen into fruition.

[20:38] Our God is constant. And he set a plan into motion from the foundation of the world to have Jesus as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

[20:50] It is on a Palm Sunday like this where we're celebrating Jesus being King. Jesus being Lord, that triumphal entry of Jesus Christ.

[21:02] It is with our Palm branches that we recognize that our God, he keeps his promises. And in the end, do you know the end of the book?

[21:12] Do you know what happens? The end of this book, the Bible? There's victory in Jesus. As we close our time of this Palm Sunday sermon, I'd like for us to take to heart what is happening here.

[21:28] It is a moment in scripture, a moment in biblical history. Palm Sunday is a time where we are like those or we should be like those disciples who are praising the name of Jesus Christ.

[21:43] We should declare who Jesus is. We should say Hosanna, Hallelujah. Jesus is here for Jesus Christ is the ruler.

[21:57] Jesus Christ is the King of King. When we went over the Palm branch, it is that representation of victory. And it reminds us and it should remind us that God keeps his promises just like how God is the same.

[22:16] Right? Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. How wonderful is it to know that our God keeps his promises? He's not a liar, God is light, God tells the truth.

[22:30] And what comfort we have. Have you ever been lied to before? How much that hurts when someone even tells a white lie, a partial truth?

[22:41] That's not how it is with our God because he keeps his promises. The Lord remains the same. He doesn't change.

[22:52] We pray that none of us will be like the Pharisees who rejected Christ or wanted to silence the praise or to stop the great things that were happening in the Lord.

[23:03] Let us remember that God laid down his son for us and he laid out a path for us to have salvation through belief. Let us be like those disciples who wave the Palm branches or they lay down their cloaks on the road.

[23:20] Recognizing who Jesus is. Will you lay down your coat? Will you celebrate by raising a palm and lifting a shout of praise?

[23:30] At this time I want to invite the musicians on up. They can hear me for our final song before we go into our final song. I would like for you to think of the Palm branch and the promises of God.

[23:44] Let it be a representation of who God is. Let it be a symbol. Not only of the commitment that God made to us but how we should commit to live and to love like Jesus.

[23:59] It all begins with faith as the foundation, the firm foundation that exists in Christ. Let this Sunday be an encouragement. Let it be a move.

[24:11] Let it be a call for you to believe in the Lord, to change your mind, to repent of your sins and to follow in the footsteps of Christ. The choice is up to you.

[24:22] Are you going to be like the Pharisee who's going to want to rebuke? Hey, rebuke your disciples. They're a little too rowdy. Or are you going to be like the disciples who are lifting their palms up praising Jesus's name?

[24:36] Which one are you going to be? I hope you make the right decision. Let us be committed to making that decision for Christ believing in the Lord and being saved and being disciples.

[24:49] Lifelong students of the Bible and the teachings of Christ. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, as we are about to sing this last song, let us sing praises to Jesus.

[25:05] Let's be thankful and in gratitude for who he is. Let us be like those disciples who lift up a shout of praise. Let us worship God together.

[25:16] This Palm Sunday is so important as we recognize the significance of the Palm Branch, the promises that you keep and the entering of Christ into the Holy Week for this year.

[25:30] Let the story of Palm Sunday inspire us to believe in you, to be changed by you and to live and love like you. May our lives, may they forever be transformed.

[25:43] May our hearts be softened, not to be like the Pharisees who just want to shut things down. May we not be like the ones who reject the Lord. Rather, let us be people who live and love for the Lord and are committed and dedicated to following in those footsteps.

[26:03] Let us be like the disciples who proclaim the name of the Lord and let us live our lives dedicated to Christ. It is in Jesus' mighty name that we pray and we all say together, Amen.

[26:18] Thank you for tuning in to the Ontario Community Church sermon podcast. For more about our church and how you can get involved or support our mission, please visit ontariocommunitychurch.org.

[26:31] May God's blessings be with you.