Palm Sunday

20/3/2016

 Last Sunday, Major Leanne took us on a journey with Jesus,

showing how His birth and His life were prophesied in the Book of
Isaiah, and then took us through the highlights of His life, which led
Jesus to the cross, His resurrection, His ascension and His place in
Heaven today.
Today, we are also go on a journey, to meet the King of Kings, but
maybe not in the way you would expect.
But first a little bit of background.
INTRODUCTION
It has been shown that people living in Western society, with Western
Theology, sometimes miss significant teachings and meanings from the
Holy Scriptures, because they do not understand the culture, heritage, or
history, of the Jewish people.
The Lord proclaimed to Moses the Holy Feasts which must be observed by
the Jewish people in the following references: Lev. chapter 23, and Duet.
16:1-17.
There are four types of Jewish festivals, as prescribed in the Old Testament
2

 These are:
Pilgrim Festivals :
People coming to Jerusalem as commanded by
God.
Penitential Festivals : Festivals of repentance.
Miscellaneous festivals : To cover many different events : e.g. marriage,
birth of a child, etc.
Sabbath Feasts :
The feasts prescribed to be held in each Jewish
household once a week, to celebrate the Sabbath, to remind them of the
marriage relationship between God Almighty and the Jewish people.
There are 3 pilgrim festivals which are mandatory for all Jews.
These are : a) The Feast of the Passover (The First Fruits Harvest)
b) Shavuot, (the Feast of Weeks), held 50 days after Passover
which Christians call Pentecost) (The Main Harvest)
c)
The Feast of Tabernacles (The Final Harvest)

Remember, everything in scripture aligns itself to the Jewish Spiritual Calendar.

John 12:1 [6 days before Passover] which is the 8th day of Nisan, a feast is held
in Jesus honour at Mary, Martha & Lazarus house.

Layout of a Jewish table for a Special Feast

Chair left vacant for the

"Bridegroom" - the Messiah

Chair reserved for the guest of honour

Specially made bread with 6 folds in the weaving of

the crust - to remind us that 6 days God provided
manna from heavens and on the 6 th day He
provided enough for the Sabbath also.

Chair for the host.

Who esteems
everyone greater
than himself.

 Jesus was, like David, already anointed to be king over Israel.

Jesus could have sat in either of these two chairs
The chair reserved for the Messiah, or
The chair reserved for the guest of honour.
Jesus was already the Messiah, King of Kings & Lord of Lords, but
He chose the Guest of Honour chair, and left the Messiahs chair
vacant, because He had not yet completed His mission on earth.
There were still some prophecies to be fulfilled before the cross.
Mary (the sister of Lazarus not Mary Magdalene) takes a Roman
pound of perfumed ointment (about 320 grams) made from Nard
which is a very expensive oil producing plant. This perfume is so
strong it fills the whole house. She anoints the feet of Jesus with
ointment and then wipes it with her hair.
In doing this act (using her hair) she was offering her self-worth and
her self-respect, as defined in 1 Cor. 11:15. Mary was placing her
whole life at the feet of Jesus in total submission.

 Because Bethany was a village of very poor people, her act of

dedication was much more significant.
In our journey of self denial today, are we prepared to lay our lives
down at the feet of Jesus, just like Mary did?
Sitting at the table was Jesus and His disciples and Lazarus, whom
Jesus had raised from the dead.
Judas Iscariot, (who was to later betray Jesus) was a thief and he
got upset because he saw a fortune being wasted. This perfumed
nard was very expensive, he could make a lot of money by selling it.
He did not care about the poor people, he just wanted access to the
money, so he could siphon off some of the proceeds for himself.
He was showing the attitude of many Jewish leaders by his actions,
and unfortunately the actions of many people in leadership today.
Money is more important than salvation!!!

So the stage is being set for a very interesting encounter.

Martha working hard in the kitchen & serving the food, [Trying to get
to heaven by works.]
Lazarus, reclining with Jesus at the table. [Just pleased to be alive
again.]
Mary anointing the feet of Jesus with some perfume left over to be
used at His burial. [dedicating her whole life for Gods service]
Judas seeing his fortune disappear & he cant complain too much,
otherwise his secret will be out -- that he robs the treasury. [The love
of money being the root of all evil]
In John 12:4-8: Jesus commanded them to leave Mary alone, stating that
she may keep the left over perfume, for the day of His burial, for the poor
are always with you but you do not have me always.
[He was prophesying His death & resurrection, but the disciples missed it
at this time].

 6 days before Passover:

It is 2 days before every Jewish house must buy the Passover Lamb.
So it is with great excitement that many people from many nations have
gathered in Jerusalem, to attend the mandatory Passover Feast, and the
markets are a buzz with the latest gossip.
One story which has gone viral is about Jesus raising Lazarus from the
dead, just like Elijah and Elisha, the prophets.
Many people make the 6 km journey from Jerusalem to Bethany to see if
the story is true. Did Jesus really raise Lazarus from the dead?
Could He possibly be the Messiah?
John 12:9 says: When the large crowd of the Ioudaioi (which means
Judean Jews) learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account
of Him, but also to see Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on
account of Him many of the Judean Jews were going away (from the
temple) and believing in Jesus

 People came to see the miracles; A man raised from the dead.
Just like today, people want to see the miracles; the signs and
wonders that follow those people who believe (Mark 16:17-18)
Just like today, others came to hear from Jesus and believe.
Many Jewish Rabbis came and decided to follow Jesus, because
they recognised Him as the Messiah.
Others were spies, who came to see and report back to the
Sanhedrin what was happening in Bethany.
Jesus was attracting followers from the various religious groups
within the Temple leadership, which was causing fear to spread
among the leaderships team.
They feared loosing their power among the Jews, and they feared
that the Romans would no longer consult them on matters affecting
the Jews in Israel.
They must do something!

 The Sanhedrin had already decided to kill Jesus, because He was a threat
to their power base, so now they decided to kill Lazarus as well. They
must get rid of all these distractions, so they could maintain their power
base.
They would stop at nothing to keep power and keep control of the Temple
and the Temple purse strings. It was all about power and money.
Unfortunately, we see this in the churches around the world today as well.
Irrespective of whether what is happening around them is a move of
God or not, the leadership within churches across the world wants to keep
control of what is happening in their church.
It is not THEIR CHURCH. They have not got the revelation that Jesus Christ
is building HIS church and the gates of hell wont prevail against it.
John 12:12-13 The next day the large crowd which had come to the feast
heard the Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm
trees and went out to meet Him, crying out. Hosanna! Blessed is He that
comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel

10

 When the crowd heard that Jesus was coming they threw
their clothes on the road, or palm branches to greet Him, so
that He could ride over them on his donkey.
No scripture is written in the Bible to make the book bigger, so
why did they do this? Why did they throw their clothes and
palm leaves onto the road in front of Jesus?
They were doing this to proclaim another victory. They were
proclaiming that their King was coming the King of Israel.
This was done previously during the Maccabean
liberation, 200 years before.
1 Maccabees 13:51 The Jews made their entry into
Jerusalem on the 23rd day of the second month of the year
171 BC, with acclamations and carrying palms, to the sound
of harps, cymbals and zithers, chanting hymns and canticles,
since a great enemy had been crushed and thrown out of
Israel.

11

 For most people this maybe a new reference from the

Bible. From the time of the silent period, 171 years
before Christ; It was in the Bible when Jesus was alive.
This was part of the Old Testament, up until 1611 AD.
It was included in the First Edition of the King James
Bible, in 1611 but removed after political pressure was
put upon King James by the English Puritans, and a
Second Edition was published with several books
removed, including this section of sacred scripture.
It was re-inserted in 1966, when the Jerusalem Bible
was published in English, so the Jerusalem Bible
contains the same number of books as the King James
Bible First Edition.

12

 The Jews believed that Jesus, like the Maccabees, was going to
lead an army and overthrow the Roman rulers. They did not
understand that He came as a servant king.
They called out Hosanna.! In Hebrew hosha na, which literally
means Save, please!
They were giving Him a greater honour by shouting; Barouk abar
ashem Adonai which means; Blessed is He who comes in the
name of the Lord,
Yes, the King of Israel.
John 12:14-16 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just
as it is written. [Zechariah 9:9] Fear not daughter of Zion,; behold,
your king is coming, sitting on a donkeys colt! His disciples did not
understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then
they remembered that these things had been written about Him and
had been done to Him.
All the signs were there, right before their eyes, and even though
they knew the scriptures, they still missed the significance of what
was taking place.
13

 In John 12:20-24, we have the request from Greek Jews who had
come to the mandatory Passover Feast to see Jesus.
Andrew and Philip went to see Jesus with this request and Jesus
told them that the time had now come that He, the Son of Man, now
be glorified.
The prophecies of Isaiah the prophet were now to take place.
Jesus was to be captured, tried by an unauthorized kangaroo court,
found guilty and taken before Herod and then Pilate to be executed.
Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem hailed as the King of the
Jews, but within a few days, the fickle crowd turned on Him,
demanding that He be executed, Crying out; Crucify Him, Crucify
Him!
How easily are crowds swayed, who are not well founded in the
word of God, by clever talk from people with an agenda.
We have to be ever vigilant of what we hear and what we say, as we
go on this journey to meet Jesus, the King of the Jews, and Jesus
the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

14

 It is ironic that Pilate insisted that these words be written above the
head of Jesus on the cross, Jesus Christ; King of the Jews, to
be remembered by all future generations, in fact forever.
Jesus, the King of the Jews, the Son of Man, was prepared to
give up his life for a sinful world, so that we have a bridge to the
Father, as a result of His shed blood.
There is no other religion on earth, where the spiritual leader was
prepared to die for His followers.
This is what makes Palm Sunday and the Last Passover so special.
Jesus the King of Kings, becomes the perfect sacrificial lamb, who
suffers, sheds His blood, dies and is raised up from the dead, so
that we can experience everlasting life.

15

In Johns gospel it is not mentioned, but it is in the gospel of Luke.

The chief priests told Jesus to tell the crowd to stop praising His name, to
which He replied that if the people stopped praising the Lord, then the
stones would rise up and start praising the Lord, in their place.

Earlier in the service today we asked the question:

Are you Lord God Almighty? And then we responded; Worthy is the
Lamb, Worthy is the Lamb, For You are Holy, Holy.
Today as we celebrate Palm Sunday, the challenge is the same.
Are you going to stop praising the Lord, or do you want the stones to rise
up and take your place?

Let us praise the King of Kings forever, for He is worthy of our praises.
Let us sing Agnes Dei once again, as our celebration benediction.
16