This is the Day that the Lord has Made (Matthew 21:1-11) (3/29/26)

So we're here today on this Palm Sunday. We look

forward to God's Word and we want to take time

and study and look at the life of Christ during

this upcoming week. The Lord willing will see

you on Good Friday. Let us now ask the Lord to

bless the preaching of His Word. Almighty God,

our Heavenly Father who has ordained all things

in heaven and earth for your holy purpose. We

give thanks to you for your son Jesus whom it

pleased you that he should die for our sin that

we would be reconciled to you and have peace.

For you have demonstrated your mercies and faithfulness

at all times and in all places. Bless us now

as we give ourselves to the study of your word

and so make the words of my mouth and the meditations

of all our hearts. pleasing in your sight through

Jesus Christ our Lord the nearest kinsman redeemer

amen here we are once again reading rereading

and contemplating God's word from the gospel

so for Matthew 21 beginning at verse 1 now when

they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethpage

at the Mount of Olives Then Jesus sent two disciples,

saying to them, Go into the village opposite

of you, and immediately you will find a donkey

-tie and a colt with her. Loose them, and bring

them to me. And if anyone says anything to you,

you shall say, The Lord has need of them, and

immediately he will send them. All this was done

that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken

by the prophets, saying, Tell the daughter in

Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you. lowly

and sitting on a donkey, a colt, a foal of a

donkey. So the disciples went and did as Jesus

commanded them, and they brought the donkey and

the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set

him on them. And a very great multitude spread

their clothes on the road, and others cut down

branches from the trees and spread them on the

road. Then the multitudes who went before those

who followed cried out, saying, Hosanna to the

son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the

name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. When

he had come to Jerusalem, all the city was moved,

saying, Who is this? So the multitude said, This

is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.

These are the words of Almighty God. Receive

them from your hearts. Now there are three things

that I would like you to meditate and think upon.

And remember as we go through this passage. First

of all, Jesus comes to provide peace. Jesus comes

to provide peace. Second, God's mercy endures

forever. God's mercy endures forever. And finally,

and probably most importantly, Jesus is faithful.

even unto death. Jesus is faithful even unto

death. Children, look up here. Pay attention

to me for just a moment. Now this is going to

apply to everybody, but I want your attention.

What is your favorite story? I would guess that

that would depend on your age, right? Children

demonstrate early in their lives the very habits

that we all form. If we took a poll among the

households here, I would wager that those with

small children, I can say with strong confidence

that their parents not only know their children's

favorite stories, but they have read it numerous

times just this last week. This is true even

for us. You know, some of those stories, parents,

you can recite what? Word for word. Even as adults,

we have an appreciation for great stories. How

many times have you reread the great books? I

myself, I'm a fan of Narnia. Many of you know

this. By the time I was about 28 years old, I

had read the Chronicles of Narnia about 14 times.

And I cannot even imagine at this point what

that number must look like. I love those stories.

Great stories. need repetition. All of the Bible

is worth rereading continuously. However, if

we're honest, certain passages appeal to us more

than others. Right? When you get into the book

of Numbers, and there's all those lists of what

all the tribes gave, or all those genealogies

that you see throughout the scriptures, you're

kind of like, I don't know about that. or even

some of the unfamiliar books. You're not sure

what's going on in those stories. But other stories

like Ehud, right? Boys, I bet you know that story,

right? The judge Ehud who came with the story

and he stabbed that wicked fat king. You know

what happened next, don't you? You also think

about stories like Sampson and David and Goliath.

And those stories are repeated over and over

and over again. For the church, the very people

of God, the life of Christ is worth repeating

every single year. Hence we use this lectionary.

And why? From Advent to Pentecost, I preach the

gospel. I want us to repeat the life of Christ.

Now the life of Jesus especially, the last week

of his life, is full of the crucial and the great

story. And we should repeat it again and again.

I know what I'm about to preach today. You've

heard about Palm Sunday your whole life if you've

gone to church. You walked on Palms. You waved

them around. Maybe you took some home at one

point or another. But as we hear these stories

that we're so familiar with, let us rejoice in

the drama of God's love, His faithfulness. His

pain, suffering, death, joy, peace, and promise

of faithfulness. Remember what He said at the

end of Matthew? Lo, I am with you always, even

to the end of the age. That is the end of the

eschaton. That is the end of all time. Jesus

promises to be with His people, to help them

complete the mission He has given to them, to

the very end. of all time. As you know, Jesus

has set His face towards Jerusalem. His disciples,

of course, had warned Jesus of the last time

He was in Jerusalem, that the rulers and priests

had attempted to stone Him. They've attempted

to arrest Him. And as Jesus, as we learned last

week, came just under two miles away from Jerusalem

to Bethany to resurrect Lazarus, His disciples

again warned him to stay away. The high priests

and the religious leaders are conspiring to kill

Jesus, and as we learned last week, Lazarus as

well. They will enlist the political leaders

later in the week and they will, in league together,

kill Jesus. But on this day, found in our text,

we find that these false priests and religious

leaders are not leading, but as we so often see,

they are standing on the sidelines. They are

seen in the Gospels as bystanders to what Jesus

is doing. And they're always walking around in

fear of the multitudes. They're saying, what

do the masses think? They're holding up their

fingers. What do the crowds think? I'm very worried

about that. It's always on their minds so that

they can maintain their power, their influence,

and yes, certainly their sinful lifestyle. They

rarely present formal or legal resistance to

Jesus. They're primarily reactionaries in public

and vicious plotters in secret. These men These

plotters, these men conspiring against Jesus,

they are gathered in Jerusalem and are on the

hill of the Lord. That's Mount Zion. It's where

the temple is. And Psalm 24 provides us the question,

who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? And

really that capitalized Lord, that's Yahweh.

That's the covenant name of God. Who can ascend

to the hill of the covenant God? or who may stand

in his holy place? And the scripture answers

this question. He who has clean hands and a pure

heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,

nor sworn deceitfully. Those who have ascended

the Yahweh's hill, as Jesus has often pointed

out, do not have clean hands or pure heart. And

yes, they have lifted their souls to idols. And

yes, they have sworn deceitfully. Their hands

may be ceremonially clean, but they conspire

to control the world by trying to engineer outcomes

by their idols of money and power. Their hearts

are not pure, but are filled as Jesus says, In

Matthew 23, woe to you scribes and Pharisees,

hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs

which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but

inside are full of dead man's bones and all uncleanliness.

As Christians, we must guard our hearts and our

motives in an attempt not to control outcomes

of circumstances by money, power or influence.

Jesus, He prepares to enter to the city of Jerusalem

on this Passover feast week. He comes as the

answer to the question, who may ascend to the

hill of Yahweh? Answering once again the question

in Psalm 24. Who is the King of Glory? The Lord

of Hosts. For He is the King of Glory. Selah.

Every time you see that word, selah, it's like

a rest. It's a peace. It's a part to say, OK,

pause. Meditate on that. I know you should meditate

on it all. Can you see that? Rest in what God

is saying. Jesus sends His disciples to go and

fetch a donkey and to fold. And Jesus tells the

disciples to respond to anyone who asks. Why

they are taking the donkey, they are simply to

say the Lord has needed them. God's prophesied

plan is being fulfilled from Zechariah 9. And

it is being fulfilled and being intentionally

done by Jesus. Jesus has been intentional his

whole ministry. He's been intentional. Healing

people and the things that he said and things

he's done and he is intentionally the Bible says

that his Like it like a flint. He made his hard

head his head hard and he turned his face to

Jerusalem And he is on his way Zachariah 9 we

read it earlier rejoice greatly old daughter

of Ziah Shout Oh daughter of Jerusalem Behold

your King is coming to you He is just and having

salvation. Loving and riding on a donkey. A colt,

the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot

from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem. This

is real important. God tells the Israelites,

when you have a king, the things he should multiply

are horses, gold, and women. And what they should

do is write out the law. copy their own law,

again and again. What this is saying here is,

don't trust in the horse. Don't trust in the

mighty armies. No, he's coming on a colt, a donkey.

The battle bow shall be cut off, Zechariah goes

on to say, he shall speak peace to the nations.

His dominion shall be from sea to sea and from

the river. to the ends of the earth. That's a

quote from Psalm 72. We sang that today. Jesus

comes as the King of Peace. He is the King of

Peace. Donkeys were ridden by kings who came

to grant merciful peace to the cities and land

that belonged to them. The whole of creation

has always been Jesus. It's always been His.

having come to defeat Satan and deliver the poor,

the humble, and the helpless. He ascends to the

hill of the Lord as King whose dominion is from

sea to sea. The prophet Zechariah here in this

description is quoting Psalm 72 verse 8 which

Psalms 72:8

declares Christ's dominion over all the nations

and people from sea to sea. And in Psalm 78 we

see a description. that from the river to the

ends of the earth. It's the picture of the river

of life proceeding from the throne and the temple

to the ends of the earth. Think about all of

creation and all of history here. In the beginning,

there was a garden, the place where we met God.

And a river flowed out to the four corners of

the earth. Then in Exodus, with the tabernacle,

we have this picture, God's throne room. There's

different segments of the room out to the yard

where there was a basin of water. And then we

see in First Kings that picture magnified in

the great glories of Solomon's Temple. And that

water, that basin of water, it's now the Bronze

Sea. It's like 5 ,000 gallons of water. You see

this river's getting bigger. It's covering more.

and proceeding from that were smaller basins

of water all the way to the doors of the temple.

And then of course we see in Ezekiel, that same

image, where Ezekiel's seeing the temple. He

measures it out. And by the way, if you notice

this east thing, you've got a garden and you've

got a tabernacle, right? Then you have this great

temple of Solomon. And then you have this vision

of what God is doing in Ezekiel. And that river

flows, and we know that story, right? It starts,

the water gets up to his ankles, then it's up

to his knees, and then it's up to his head. Then

it's so big and broad, he cannot cross it. The

prophet can't cross it. And that water, that

river of life that is flowing from God is flowing

to the whole world, bringing life, giving life

where there is death. And yes, even in Revelation,

we see the very same description. description

of what God is doing with His Church, fulfilled

in the Church, flowing out to the conversion

of the nations in the power of the Spirit by

the atoning work of Jesus Christ. In all of this,

Jesus brings peace by obedience. Philippians

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 tells us that Jesus being found in

the appearance of a man, he humbled himself and

became obedient to the point of death, even the

death of the cross. Jesus knows the outcome of

this week, and yet he obeys his father, that

his father may be glorified and praise God Almighty,

that we might be delivered from sin and death.

Jesus is set upon a donkey by the disciples and

he rides into Jerusalem Passing the temple in

the crowd. It's Passover week and the scriptures

tells that there's a multitude of God -fearers

in Jews and they're from all over They are from

all over the Empire As we talked about before

during these feast weeks over a hundred thousand

people in this city and These multitudes who

went before Jesus the ones that were ahead of

him and those who followed cried out saying Hosanna

to the son of David blessed is he who comes in

the name of the Lord Hosanna and the highest

All those ahead and all those behind were crying

out from Psalm 118 Hosanna to the son of David

blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord

Hosanna and the highest Now Psalm 118 begins

with this. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He

is good, for His mercy endures forever. And in

Psalm 118 we see that refrain, for His mercy

endures forever five times. And we see it building

up. There's a progression of this eternal mercy.

It starts in the form of Israel, the people of

God. His mercy endures forever. And then Aaron

and the priests and his mercy endures forever.

And then it says all those who fear God, the

God -fearers, those are the Gentile believers.

His mercy endures forever. The multitudes were

in Jerusalem to remember and commemorate God's

deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, the land

of slavery and death. These believers remembered.

The faithfulness of God in times past in order

to look to the future salvation and deliverance

The greek word we see translated translated to

hear as hosanna Is from the hebrew roots save

now we pray Dearly beloved. I want you to hear

this right save now we pray Hear hear what it

says in verse 24 of psalm 118 this is the day

that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be

glad in it. Everybody knows that phrase if you've

been in church. Here now, verse 25. Save now,

I pray. O Lord, O Lord, I pray, send prosperity.

Again, this Lord is the covenant God's name.

So we can read it this way. Save now. Pray, O

Yahweh. O Yahweh, I pray, send. Prosperity. What

is this prosperity? The mercy of God to deliver

us from sin and death. Again, Psalm 118, the

voice of rejoicing and salvation. It is in the

tense of the righteous. The right hand of the

Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord

is exalted. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.

I shall not die. but live and declare the works

of the Lord. Jesus as described in Hebrew 1 is

the brightness of God's glory and the express

image of His person and upholding all things

by the word of His power when He had by Himself

purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of

majesty on high. Jesus' works of mercy provided

for us on the cross are forever. As the crowd

shouts Hosanna, they are calling on Yahweh God

to deliver them, to save them now, we pray. Saints

of God, our God saves. He's been about the salvation

of His people from the fall of Adam. God's mercy

endures forever. He is faithful. Jesus came to

bring us peace, to reconcile us to God, the Father.

And we know our sins are so great. Psalm 130

tells us, if you, Lord, should mark iniquities,

what are iniquities? It's perversity, depravity,

and guilt of sin. If you, Lord, should mark iniquities,

oh Lord, who could stand? but there is forgiveness

with you that you may be feared. I wait for the

Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I do hope."

When we see that Jesus had come into Jerusalem,

all the city was moved saying, who is this? It's

like an echo of Psalm 24. Who is this? So the

multitude said, This is Jesus, the prophet from

Nazareth of Galilee. Jesus knows where this week

is heading. His unlawful arrests, beatings, sufferings,

and death, all for the glory of the Father, for

the salvation for us. Jesus willingly and obediently

was faithful to God. And as you know, the story

doesn't end there. This week, as you read and

reread the story of Jesus, our deliverer, let

us cry. Hosanna. Blessed is Jesus who comes in

the name of the Lord. He is the faithful, eternally

merciful, the Prince of Peace. God save us now,

we pray. for the sake of Jesus. Rosanna from

the highest. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we

know that we are undone before you, that if you

counted our sins against us, none of us could

stand before you. We declare, save us now, we

pray, because of the work of your Son, Jesus.

May our hearts be filled with gratitude, thanksgiving,

fear, and awe. as we read, study, and meditate

on the peace we have with you in Christ Jesus.

For your mercies endure forever. We ask this

now for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord who

reigns with you in the Holy Spirit forever and

ever. Amen.