{"id":3501,"date":"2018-03-27T21:32:32","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T03:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/?p=3501"},"modified":"2018-03-27T21:32:32","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T03:32:32","slug":"palm-sunday-hosanna-john-1212-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/?p=3501","title":{"rendered":"Palm Sunday – “Hosanna!” (John 12:12-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Processional Gospel, which was read earlier.<\/p>\n

The hustle and bustle is here. The Passover is here and that means a plethora of people in Jerusalem, even more than usual. They are all gathered to celebrate the yearly remembrance of what God had done for His people many years ago when the angel of the Lord passed over the Israelite people. The atmosphere has changed, becoming almost electric. And then John records this: \u201c<\/em>The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.\u201d<\/em><\/span> It\u2019s Jesus, the miracle worker. It\u2019s Jesus, the prophet. It\u2019s Jesus, the healer. It\u2019s Jesus\u2026the Son of God?<\/p>\n

What exactly is Jesus here to do? Clearly He\u2019s here to celebrate the Passover, but what else is He here to do? Whatever Jesus is going to do, the people flock to see Him. For some, He\u2019s a miracle worker. For others, He\u2019s a prophet. For others, a healer. But for some, Jesus is all of those and more. He is the Son of God. He is the Messiah that the people have been waiting for. \u201c<\/em>So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, \u201cHosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!\u201d\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The one who comes in the name of the Lord? King of Israel? Surely that can\u2019t be descriptive of who Jesus is, and yet that\u2019s what the people proclaim. That is indeed who Jesus is if you know your Scriptures. As we heard from Zechariah earlier, \u201cRejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.\u201d <\/em><\/span>Jesus enters Jerusalem as Zechariah prophesied. Things are beginning to look like Zechariah had proclaimed. Jesus is beginning to look a lot like the promised Messiah of old.<\/p>\n

As Jesus made His way from Bethany to Jerusalem, not only did you have the usual traffic of people going there for the Passover Feast, but you also had the crowd following Jesus. As Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, there was a different feeling in the air. The people began to do something that they normally had not done upon entering Jerusalem: they begun to have a palm procession. This wasn\u2019t just any palm procession that they were having; this procession was for Jesus. They cut palm branches and went out to meet Jesus. They received Him as their king, as the Jewish leaders feared they might.<\/p>\n

The people had just one simple message they were shouting: \u201cHosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!\u201d<\/em><\/span> But what was it exactly were they saying? Hosanna, \u201csave, I pray.\u201d This psalm was one that was sung as part of the Passover feast. Jews sang it when the Passover lambs were sacrificed. Now, they sung it for their Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, on His way to be their sacrifice. But they weren\u2019t thinking of sacrifice. They received Jesus as heavenly royalty, Israel\u2019s King.<\/p>\n

As they were preparing to celebrate the Passover feast, they didn\u2019t even know that their own Passover Lamb was coming to be sacrificed for them. Today, you celebrate your Passover Lamb coming to be slaughtered for your sins.<\/p>\n

For you, Jesus had set His face toward Jerusalem. He had an appointment that only He could keep: He had an appointment with the cross. He had come from Galilee preaching and teaching with healing as He went, but ultimately, Jerusalem was the goal of His journey. This sets in motion everything that was going to take place during the week: His betrayal, His arrest, His mock trial, His crucifixion, and ultimately, His resurrection. Everything that was going to take place began with this one moment \u2013 His triumphant entry into Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Most of the people who were gathered there that day had no idea what was taking place when Jesus entered Jerusalem, what it meant to them personally. Jesus had taught them that the definition of the Christ is to suffer, die, and rise from the dead on the third day, and yet, they still missed what was taking place here.<\/p>\n

Do you understand what is going on here or are you missing it as well? This is meant for you. Here comes your Passover Lamb, to make death pass over you and earn for you everlasting life. This Lamb goes forth uncomplaining, doing the task by which He has been sent: to bring about the salvation for God\u2019s creation. Unlike every other lamb that was brought to the slaughter for the Passover, Jesus Christ not only died to purge from you your sins, He also rose for you as well. He rose triumphant for you, to proclaim your victory over sin, death, and the devil, once and for all. He has opened heaven for all mankind by His blood shed on the cross.<\/p>\n

As John records for us, \u201cHis disciples did not understand these things at first\u2026.\u201d<\/em><\/span> Truth be told, the disciples weren\u2019t alone in not understanding what was going on as Jesus entered. The people were shouting \u201cHosanna!\u201d but didn\u2019t know why they were shouting it. Nonetheless, it doesn\u2019t take away the reason why they were shouting it. They needed to shout it, just as we need to shout it even today. This is the very reason that He came, was crucified, died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven to occupy His kingdom. By His blood and Holy Spirit, He has swept us clean of all filth, so that all who believe in Him are righteous and blessed, and will someday pass through temporal death into His heavenly kingdom.<\/p>\n

It is interesting to note what the Pharisees say to one another: \u201cYou see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.\u201d<\/em><\/span> It might have been true at the moment, but would we agree that it is true today? Does the world really go after Jesus or does the world go after something or someone else? Does the world find its salvation in the cross of Christ or is salvation found somewhere else? Maybe a better question to ask is this: do you go after Jesus or do you go after something or someone else? We might find temporary comfort in what this world has to offer, but the comfort that this world gives is fleeting at best. It is here today but gone tomorrow. What Christ has done for you was here yesterday, it is here today, and it will be here tomorrow. The gift of salvation won for you by Jesus Christ on the cross was here yesterday, here today, and will be here tomorrow. We cannot say the same about the false comfort that we receive from the world.<\/p>\n

Jesus would fulfill every sacrifice that God had demanded. He would live a sinless life as the Lamb without blemish. He would die the death that was meant for us; a death filled with suffering and eternal separation from God. Instead, we reap from His death on the cross. He gives to us His righteousness in exchange for our sins. It is no coincidence that in the celebration of the Lord\u2019s Supper, we recite the words of Palm Sunday, singing, \u201cBlessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest.\u201d<\/em><\/span> You and I can be thankful that Jesus has gone to Jerusalem to pour out His life, for by this He has forgiven our debt to God and set us free. May we forever sing, \u201cBlessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.\u201d<\/em><\/span> In Jesus\u2019 name, amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Processional Gospel, which was read earlier. The hustle and bustle is here. The Passover is here and that means a plethora of people in Jerusalem, even more than usual. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26095,903750,9016],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lent","category-palm-sunday","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3501"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3503,"href":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3501\/revisions\/3503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revtucher.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}