Sunday 3/29/15
Topic: Expectations – Palm Sunday
Series – What Expectations did you bring.mp3
Podcast: Download (Duration: 58:10 — 79.9MB)
What’s your expectation
As Jesus was entering Jerusalem the week prior to His crucifixion, the Jewish community were singing His praises, laying down coats and palm branches before Him as He came riding into town on a colt. They were shouting,
“Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’ Hosanna in the highest!” – Mat. 21:9
After a week of Jesus being in town, they changed their tune and began to cry “Crucify Him!”
What happened during that week?
What does it say to us…what does it have to do with us?
Expectations create misunderstandings:
Israel had an expectation of their Messiah, to which Jesus did not live up. The knew that in the Old Testament, the Messiah would usher in an everlasting Kingdom, but they misunderstood the words of the prophets for they did not have eyes to see nor ears to hear what God was really saying to them.
What is it that causes mankind to be blind to the meaning of God’s words? In a word, it is selfishness. We have our own desires and objectives and so when the only One Whose words could make a real and lasting difference speaks, we interpret His words through a filter which allows us to see and hear what we want.
They knew the prophet Daniel had prophesied about the Messiah, but they refused to hear all that Daniel said about Him.
“Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times. “And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined. Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.” – Dan. 9:25-27
Yes the wall was rebuilt back in Nehimiah’s day and the city of Jerusalem was completely rebuilt in 49 years and that during troublesome times. This brings us to 408B.C., then we count 434 more years (62 x 7) and you are brought to 27AD the year of the Lord and His ministry.
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However, what they failed to see is that the kingdom He was establishing was a spiritual Kingdom not a natural one. Yes, other Old Testament passages refer to a natural rule and reign of Messiah, and that will in fact happen during the millennial kingdom following the tribulation (Daniel 7:13-28), but the establishment of His real kingdom, the eternal one, was accomplished at the end of this week!
The everlasting kingdom spoken of in Daniel could NOT be a natural kingdom for in a natural kingdom the King spoken of would have had to live physically forever.
“Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.” ~ Dan 7:14
The One Who was to rule this kingdom is Messiah, and yet, Daniel 9 tells us that Messiah will be cut off – meaning killed at the end of the 62 weeks spoken of in Daniel.
“He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked— But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth.” ~ Isa. 53:7-9
If Israel had, had eyes to see and ears to hear – they would have known that the Messiah had to die and was not hear to establish a natural kingdom first, but a theocracy without national boundaries. In other words, He was coming to rule and reign in the hearts of all who would humble themselves under His reign – Jews & Gentiles alike across the whole globe!
So we can see that Israel missed their day of visitation because of the false expectations they had concerning messiah. By midweek, these same people were so disillusioned by Him…so disappointed, that they believed Him to be a false Messiah and therefore worthy of death.
What are your expectations?
Palm Sunday was a mockery of what God truly intended by way of misunderstanding. They sang praises to a King they did not truly know, they exalted a ruler that they refused to follow and that may be you today.
The problem with Israel is our problem as well. They were asking the wrong question – “Is He the Messiah who will deliver us from Roman and restore the kingdom to Israel?” The question they should have asked was, “Is this Messiah and if so, what does the scriptures tell us to expect from Him so we might truly know if Jesus is He?”
You and I have many “filters” (expectations) through which we see God and most of them do not allow the King to rule supreme in our hearts. The only way in which Christ can rule and reign is if He is Lord. I do not just mean in the sense that He is your savior, I mean Lord. Without that relationship solidly in place, we will misunderstand Him, misinterpret His words to us and ultimate fail to follow Him.
Hosanna (come and save)
So what are we to do?
Well the Israelites started off the week very well with the proclamation of “Hosanna” over Christ. Hosanna means, “Come now Lord and save”. In reality though, so often times it is not true deliverance we want, but comfort in the middle of our own decisions, and is something He is simply not offering.
A great example of this is the man whose demon possessed son, the disciples could not deliver. The man ran to Jesus, called Him teacher and asked ‘IF’ He could do anything to save his boy. Jesus looked at the man and placed his son’s future back on his shoulders buy saying, “If I can do anything? Anything is possible to him who believes.” Then man was “HEARING” for the first time and it brought him to a state of utter destitution. This father felt his own inability deeply, yet something within him compelled him to come to Jesus. In other words he believed, but still had unbelief, so he cried out in desperation, “LORD, I believe…help my unbelief.” The man walked away that day with his son fully restored to him and it was because his desperation forced him to see Christ as LORD instead of just “teacher” and this new found awareness placed him in a position to receive from Him what he desperately needed but could not do for himself. – Mark 9:17-27
We encourage you…give it a listen!
