Celebrating Holy Week with a special Palm Sunday service today at 11 am, and special Easter events next week (9 am “Sunrise service” on the church front steps, followed by an Easter breakfast, followed by 11 am worship service).
28 March 2021 Sunday Message: “A Palm Parade & a Trail of Tears”
Explanation of the Day: Today, marks our adherence of high day of Palm Sunday, which leads the church into an observance of Passion Week. Our Passover, from eternal death. The time before the Crucifixion and especially Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. In many Churches today, there will be a procession of people carrying palm branches to represent the triumphal entry of the King Jesus the Christ into Jerusalem, and more importantly into our hearts.
Call to Worship #1: Psalm 118:19-26
19 Open for me the gates of the righteous;
I will enter and give thanks to the Lord.
20 This is the gate of the Lord
through which the righteous may enter.
21 I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
you have become my salvation.
22 The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
23 the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 The Lord has done it this very day;
let us rejoice today and be glad.
25 Lord, save us!
Lord, grant us success!
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
From the house of the Lord we bless you.
Invitation, Praises, and Prayer Concerns: Father in Heaven, as we this week of your love for the creation, it reminds us of the Passion of Jesus for that same creation, us! Thank you, Lord, with all of our being, and may we bring some of that care for the less fortunate among us in our daily walk. Amen!
Call to Worship #2: Mark 11:1-11
11 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”
4 They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5 some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6 They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7 When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
“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 heaven!
Message Reading: Philippians 2:5-11
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Message; “A Palm Parade, & a Trail of Tears”
As I was thinking about just how to go about talking with you today about this incredible thing called Palm Sunday, and the week of our Lord’s Passion, our Passover from condemnation to justification and salvation, I must admit, I was overwhelmed. This is a key to our salvation and deserves a lot of thought, and I have had a hard time concentrating this last week, because this is my last week before I retire from my 41 year career out in the secular world.
I have been blessed with being an aircraft mechanic, an aircraft instructor, courseware developer, manager and analyst, and I have had a blast! The people I was permitted to support were some of the best in their fields in the history of the world, and I got to work with them.
As great as my career has been, over time I have been captivated by what God does in our daily lives. Throughout my 25 years of teaching Sunday school, Bible Study’s and Lay Ministry, I have tried to keep the two worlds separate; not preaching at work, and not talking about electronic/avionic troubleshooting or jet engine theory in church. As I get older, the harder that is to accomplish, hence the retirement from one love, and the excitement of the chance of walking even closer with the Lord. Once again, I am marrying up in my choice of the future.
So what does any of this have to do with Palm Sunday and the week of Passion? Well, this, as I was thinking about the last week the Lord would live as a human on this earth, he would experience a lifetime of experiences and actions. He knew the end (or beginning) was coming, and how people would react to Him. He knew humanity’s depravity, and yet loved them so much that He would painfully die for the people verbally and physically assaulting Him, spitting on Him, slandering His very being.
And then there is me, in my self-absorbed selfishness. Even when I try to take the high road and do good things for others, when I am doing it without walking with the Lord it stinks to High Heaven. And then I’m reminded of what Isaiah has to say about all of my self-righteousness and selfish-based good works. From our prophet Isaiah 64:6;
6 All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
Meaning, when we go it alone, there is no way our good deeds are really good. They just feel good in the moment, but the feeling changes with the winds of our adversary, our own selfishness. This is why our Church begins all of our activities (not just Sunday Worship), with a prayer inviting God’s Spirit to join, influence, and lead our activities in this wilderness we call life.
I guess that’s why I mentioned my retirement to you. This last week finishes 41 years of my career, this next week represents the Lord’s last week as Jesus Mary’s son. I have been overloaded thinking about a thousand different things that have happened in a number of countries and places, He must have been overwhelmed with billions of thoughts from the beginning of the world. I am treated with love and expressions of kindness, He receives the onslaught of the full range of human emotion, from the higher angels of our nature to the dregs of our very being, and more.
I’m a mess, and He is the living embodiment of Grace under fire, and then I begin to remember who God is and what I am not. I could give you a list of what I fail to rise up to achieve, but we don’t have time to finish it, and more importantly; is the list of all the potential we may achieve in Him who is supreme in all things.
I think that is why scripture shows our Lord continuously in prayer with the Father for aid, comfort, and strength against that onslaught. Showing all of us that even during the many challenges that blitzed the Lord’s final week, God has a roadmap guiding us through our despair to the other side where clarity, faith, and reason resides. That when we are with and in the Lord’s agenda, the aspirations of Isaiah become possible. This time from Isaiah 50:4-9a, we have greater insight of what is possible walking in the Lord’s footsteps:
4 The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue,
to know the word that sustains the weary.
He wakens me morning by morning,
wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.
5 The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears;
I have not been rebellious,
I have not turned away.
6 I offered my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
I did not hide my face
from mocking and spitting.
7 Because the Sovereign Lord helps me,
I will not be disgraced.
Therefore have I set my face like flint,
and I know I will not be put to shame.
8 He who vindicates me is near.
Who then will bring charges against me?
Let us face each other!
Who is my accuser?
Let him confront me!
9 It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me.
Yes when our Lord lives the Passion Week, He shows just what kind of grace is possible when we are under attack in our own lives. God does this by providing His Spirit, and His examples written in His Word; Scripture. My favorite verse in what we just read is;
7 Because the Sovereign Lord helps me,
I will not be disgraced.
Therefore have I set my face like flint,
and I know I will not be put to shame.
Some of you might be asking yourselves right now, hey, I have set my face like flint plenty of times and didn’t fair too well. What’s up? Well, like you, I too have set my face like flint and have given dirty looks, and the eye of death for good measure only to lose at what I was striving to achieve. So, what’s up? When it’s all about us, and not with the Lord or God’s plan, our looks of flint, reflect a mindset of selfishness, aimlessness, and ego.
Of course I lost and didn’t achieve my goals, because my goals were only about me and no one else. The Lord loves us enough to walk with us, but not to be used as a four leaf clover for good luck.
Perhaps, that is one of the big lessons to be had in the search for the meaning of Palm Sunday and the Lord’s final week as a human being walking around like you and I. This is the lesson of what happens when people have a week faith, a maturity in the lord that can be measured with a Dixie Cup, and are led by a mob driven by fear, selfishness, and ego.
What you get are the high highs of the Palm Branch celebration by the crowds as Jesus enters the city, followed the calls for His crucifixion a week later moved by a crowd living on pure emotion, and a God relationship with no depth. A people so fickle, they are outright pliable, flexible through diversion. Only to be tossed back and forth with the winds of flattery, fear, and conceit, culminating as anarchy usually does, in death. This time in the crucifixion of the creator of the very universe that gives us life.
I would like to review with you briefly an overview of the Lord’s last week, His week of Passion leading up to the crucifixion. Thanks to Christianity.com, I have a quick review of that last week.
Sunday 3, March 28
•Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem
•Spends the night in Bethany
The events of Palm Sunday and Passion Week begin at;
Matthew 21:1 / Mark 11:1 / Luke 19:29 / John 12:12
Monday
•Leaves Bethany
•Curses the fig tree on the way into the city
•Weeps over Jerusalem
•Cleanses the temple for the second time in His ministry
•Late in day, looks into the Temple, then leaves the city
•Spends the night in Bethany
- Matthew 21:12 / Mark 11:22 / Luke 19:45
Tuesday
•Leaves Bethany
•Finds the fig tree withered; teaches on faith
•Possesses the temple and its precincts; confounds and pronounces woes upon His enemies
•Leaves city; Olivet Discourse on way to Bethany
•Judas bargains with Sanhedrin to betray Jesus
•Spends the night in Bethany
- Matthew 21:20 / Mark 11:20 / Luke 20:36 / John 12:20
Wednesday is a Silent Day
•No record in the Gospels, but much activity as Jesus prepares for Last Supper and as Judas and Sanhedrin prepare for Jesus’ arrest
•Remains in Bethany throughout the day, stays night there
Thursday
•Peter and John sent to make preparation for Passover meal
•After sunset, eats meal with the twelve; washes disciples; Judas departs
•Lord’s Supper instituted
•To Garden of Gethsemane; Jesus’ agony
•Betrayal by Judas; arrest by Sanhedrin
•To the house of High Priest as Sanhedrin is convened; Peter betrays Jesus
- Matthew 26:1 / Mark 14:1 / Luke 22:1
Friday
The Trials of Jesus Christ
•First trial, before Annas during nigh time hours;
Annas is looking for an accusation, biding time till
Sanhedrin is gathered at High Priestly villa
•Second and primary trial before Sanhedrin, Jesus is
Condemned, misused
•Third trial, immediately at dawn (meanwhile, Peter denies Jesus a third time); Jesus taken to Romans
•Fourth trial before Pilate
•Fifth trial before Herod
•6th trial before Pilate again
•Jesus is tormented; the city cries, “Crucify Him or we will tell Rome!”
•Jesus is finally turned over to be crucified
•Jesus mocked (Roman soldiers); crown of thorns placed on His head
•Judas hangs himself
•Jesus bears His cross to gate on north of city and is crucified around 9 am
The Death of the God-Man Jesus: at about 3 pm; Temple veil torn, rocks rent; some graves opened and people rise (to mortality) and go into the city
•Jesus’ side is pierced
•Passover lambs are slain in the temple
•Jesus is buried by sundown
The mob, was so shallow in their relationship with God, they were easily manipulated by events. Resulting in this week beginning on Sunday with a Palm Parade, and ending in a Trail of Tears, and crucifixionon Friday. This is what typically happens when we are not in relationship with the Lord. The very failure of the people to realize the bankrupt nature of their faith in Jesus’ day, is why all of us need the Lord’s presence in our lives today and forever. A real relationship that is not anything like the crowd, but intimate, growing, and exciting.
My hope and prayer for all of you this week, is that you have a chance to review the Passion Week by diving into scripture, and then into yourselves then asking the Lord for guidance as you form your own unique understanding of how our rebellion with God lead directly to the Crucifixion. How history repeats itself when I go it alone. This time is given us each year to reflect on how our faith walk can grow stronger in Him.
And then, I hope you have a chance to study and share with others, as you build your beautiful lives, and know the Lord forgives and loves you. God bless you, and keep you.
Amen!
Benediction; Based on Isaiah 61:1-3
May the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord be upon you,
because the Lord has anointed you
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent you to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crownof beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
May you be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
Amen!