This Is Jesus

3-29-26

Hoonah-Hadley

Palm Sunday

Matthew 21:1-11

Call to Worship Psalm 118:1,2, 19-29

Daily Verse Matthew 21:11

This Is Jesus

“So the multitudes said, ‘This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.’” Today is Palm Sunday or what is generally known as The Triumphal Entry. It is among other things, the beginning of Holy Week. Some churches have services every day of the week, many have Maundy Thursday (Last Supper) services, some Good Friday (Crucifixion) , most worship Easter, or Resurrection Sunday. Each day of the week has its particulars, individually and corporately. To say it is personal is a broad stroke, to say it is a wonderful, rich, painful, overwhelming, grateful praiseworthy celebration starts to color the canvas. The prayer is that you will come to the place in your walk with Christ that it will be a deep, abiding, heart wrenching, soul searching, renewing of the mind, bringing you ever closer to the One that gave His life for you that you might enter the gates with thanksgiving. We highly recommend that if your church doesn’t have services for Maundy Thursday or Good Friday that you find one of good report that does, and join them in worship. Each day of the week has a different sound, a chord, a tone, a color, a memory, a lesson, a purpose that will accomplish what God intents for it to accomplish, first things first, one step at a time, today is sufficient. The Triumphal Entry is an invitation to an abundant life, an eternal life, a purpose driven life, it is a victory song, a hard-fought hallelujah. Our Lord set His face like flint to finish His work. Let us join Him with childlike faith, reckless abandon, unshakeable boldness.

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This is not to lesson each day you have been given, nor diminish the birth, life and teachings of our Lord, but this week is a celebration, a remembrance of the entirety of His Fathers business, and it should be done as He did it, in humility and obedience without faltering. May our walk with Christ be yes and amen. 2 Cor. 1:20 “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.” Today is a promise, a certainty, already written, built on the chief cornerstone, the rock of ages, a strong tower, a fortress, the name that is above all other names. Phil. 2:9-11 “Wherefore God also has exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord…” Who is Jesus? At the news of His birth in Matthew 2 in the days of Herod the king, wise men came from the east to worship Him. Vs. 3 “When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” Micah 5:2 “But you, Bethlehem…though you are little…Yet out of you shall come forth…the one to be Ruler in Israel, whose going forth are from old, from everlasting.” Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in Our image…” Who is the “Us” here in the first chapter of the bible? Gen. 49:11 “Binding his donkey to the vine…He washed His garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes.” Herein prophecy written in the first book of the bible. Zechariah 1:16 and 9:9 “I am returning to Jerusalem with mercy…Rejoice greatly…shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey…” Old testament prophecy confirms the circle of life. How many of you can bear witness in your latter years God bringing you back to your beginning? John 1:1 “In the beginning was the word…” John 8:58 “Jesus said to them ‘…before Abraham was, I AM.’”

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The last book in the bible, last chapter, Revelation 22:13 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” Jesus is the Word. John 18:37 “For this reason I have come into the world, that I should testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” All four gospels cover the triumphal entry bringing prophecy full circle. The old is prophecy concealed, the new is prophecy revealed. If Christ was there in the beginning, and He is the “End” then Holy week, the triumphal entry, the last supper, the crucifixion and the empty tomb is the hinge on which the entirety of scripture lives. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the scarlet chord that binds all things from their beginning to their end. 1 Timothy 1:15 “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” Who is Jesus? 1 John 3:8 “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” Jeremiah 1:10 “See, I have this day set you over the nations…to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.” Isaiah 45:7 “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.” Depending on the version and or interpretation we may find anywhere from 50 to 150 names or titles given Jesus. John 15:15 “No longer do I call you servants…but I have called you friends…” Looking for “likes”? One will do. Who is Jesus? He’s your friend, lean on Him and He will strengthen you, comfort you, cleanse you, transform you, fill you, feed you, raise you up on eagles wings, and more, for He is Lord of Lord, King of kings, Prince of peace, Master, Savior, He is “able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or imagine.” (Eph. 3:20) He is the Lord of more, His grace is sufficient. Lk. 2:49 “Didn’t you know that I must be about My Father’s business?”

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Jesus Christ is a businessman, He comes to Jerusalem to finish His Fathers business. Matt. 21:1 “Now, when they drew near Jerusalem…Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the village opposite you…you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me.’” We don’t have to wander around in the wilderness searching for that which our Savior needs, it is already written, He knows where it is to be found. Herein our Lord sets the stage for the greatest public entrance in the history of the world. The donkey symbolizes peace and humility. Who is Jesus? He is the Prince of Peace. John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” This is Christ first coming. His second coming will be on a horse, the symbol of war. Who is Jesus? John 18:36 “Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world.’” One of the great lessons of the bible, our nature, our fallen genetic disposition is in a constant state of opposition to God. Luke 16:26 “And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed…” Romans 8:7 “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God.” James 4:4 “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity against God?” John 17:16 “They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” Christ did not come into the world to conform to our pattern of thinking, but that we might be “transformed by the renewing of our minds.” (Rom. 12:2) Stop trying to make Jesus who you want Him to be, lay your coat on the road and let Him enter your heart and be who He is, your Savior. Matt. 21:6 “So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded...” God employs people in the purposes of His kingdom. Vs. 10 “’And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, ‘Who is this?” Troubled at His birth, stirred on Palm Sunday, This Is Jesus. Be stirred. Amen