Palm Sunday 2026: Not Saved to Be Silent

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our prayer is that this message would encourage your heart, strengthen your

faith, and help you take your next step with Jesus.

At Generations Church, we exist to help people know God, grow in Christ, and live on mission.

As you listen today, we invite you to open your heart, Lean into what God may

be speaking to you and allow His Word to shape your life. Let's jump into today's message.

Palm Sunday is the day that Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

It's the moment where the long-awaited Savior publicly revealed Himself as King.

And the crowds responded with praise and exaltation and expectation and excitement.

There was a buzz about the city and they cried out, Hosanna,

blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

But what's important to understand is what was happening at that time in the city.

Jerusalem was absolutely packed. It was Passover week, and all the Jews from

all over had traveled into the city to celebrate how God had delivered them

from slavery back in Egypt.

Remember that story. And so the streets were crowded, the city was buzzing,

and there was this great anticipation of what was about to come.

And everyone was thinking about one thing, deliverance.

How God had been faithful and how God had delivered them from Egypt and Pharaoh

and the slavery and bondage and work and toil and pain.

But they were also looking to be freed from Roman occupation.

Because Israel was living under that Roman occupation,

they were expecting and hoping and desiring that God would send a Messiah to

them who would rescue them again,

but this time would overthrow Rome and restore their nation.

At the same time, the religious leaders were watching closely.

Jesus had gained a lot of popularity and crowds were beginning to form and follow him.

And so these leaders began to sense that their control of the people was slipping away.

And the Romans, they were on high alert, ready to shut down anything that even

looked like rebellion or insurrection.

So picture with me, a crowded city, restless people, a longing for rescue.

And into that tension, Jesus rides in On a donkey A donkey Not on a war horse

Not to conquer Rome But to conquer sin,

The city was full of people looking for a savior, but most of them missed him

even while shouting his name.

You know, it's interesting. When something truly excites us,

we don't need to be told to talk about it or to brag about it or to post about

it or to text our friends about it.

No, we don't even take a second thought. if there's a great restaurant,

we were on the phone last night with some friends and they're like,

oh my goodness, I forgot how much we love Cheesecake Factory.

We went to Des Moines and we're at Cheesecake Factory and they just went on

and on. And I'm just sitting there watching Iowa lose.

And for the record, I bleed black and gold. Okay. So it was a rough night for us at our house.

But all I'm thinking about is, man, I could go for cheesecake.

They didn't have to think about it or wonder about it.

No, when you love something, you just automatically brag about it, right?

You don't even hesitate because when something is good news,

it naturally moves outward.

And yet, when it comes to the greatest news in the world, the gospel of Jesus

Christ, something that we say all the time, you'll hear me say it,

it's all about the gospel.

That's what Generations Church, that's our kind of our flagship that's our banner

it's all about the gospel of jesus christ.

But if we believe that, why do we hesitate to share the gospel with people?

Why do we freeze and we fail to invite people to church or invite people to

a small group or invite people out to coffee to find out where they're at on their journey?

This morning, I want to remind you that you were not saved to be silent.

You with me, church? You and I were not saved to be silent.

In fact, we are to be the absolute opposite.

And I want to remind you of just a couple passages, a couple things that Jesus

told us before this week happened.

Acts 1-8. Actually, that's after the week. But this is what Jesus said.

You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you'll be my

witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

In Matthew 5, he was talking, and in verse 13 through 16, he says,

you are the salt of the earth.

You, Dean, you're the salt of the

earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty?

It's no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

Verse 14, you are the light of the world.

Don't forget what you are. You're to be salt.

You're to be the light of the world. You're to stand out. You're to be different.

He says, you're the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.

No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket.

No. Sorry. I hear my Sunday school teacher singing songs with me.

And if you are a guest, I'm ADD and I apologize ahead of time,

but rather on the lampstand and it gives light for all who are in the house.

Verse 16, in the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may

see your good works and give glory to who?

Your father in heaven. It's all about giving glory and living life in every

single moment, whether you're in class, whether you're on a date,

whether you're online, whether you're in church,

whether you're serving, whether

you're at home arguing with your spouse or with your kids or siblings.

Every moment of our lives is to be an opportunity to give glory to God.

A.W. Tozer once said this. He said, the man who has met God is not looking for something.

He has found it. I love that.

He is not searching for a light.

Upon him, the light has already shined. And so we have the light of the world

inside of us, and those in the world are watching you, and they're searching for this light.

Will they see it in you? In Matthew 28, 19, he gave us this mission.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name

of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything. Say everything.

Everything I have commanded. We don't get to pick and choose.

We don't allow culture to define everything. God's already given it to us in

his inspired word. to observe everything I have commanded you.

And remember, because here's the key, we cannot do this on our own.

Remember, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

2 Corinthians 5.20 says, We are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us.

You know, God wants to use you to reach those people around you.

He's working divinely in your life and in your situations situations so that

he'll strategically place you where the salt needs to be distributed and where

the light needs to be seen.

We're ambassadors for Christ since God is making his appeal through us.

We plead on Christ's behalf. I love that word.

We plead, we beg, be reconciled to God.

We're pleading for people. It's like when our kids want something,

you know, and they want something so bad that they actually kind of become annoying.

And you try not to let them know that you're a little annoyed,

but they're just asking and asking and begging and pleading.

And it gets annoying for us as parents. And that's the kind of the picture that

comes to mind when Christ is telling us, be relentless in your pursuit of the lost.

Have we lost our passion for the lost? Have we misplaced it?

Scale of 1 to 10, don't answer. Where are you at with your passion for reaching the lost?

We've got to plead and beg and persist like the most persistent kid that won't

leave you alone about going to wherever.

We plead with them.

Luke 14, 23 says, then the master told the servant, go out into the highways and hedges.

And this is really strong terminology.

Make them come in. I almost seem like grabbing them by the ear.

You're going with me to church today.

Now that's not what we do, but that's our desires. We're so passionate.

We're going to be a little forceful.

Make them come in. Why? So that my house may be filled.

God's desire for every church is that it's filled.

And the vehicle that happens is by you being salt, being light,

and inviting people to come into the house of God.

That's what we've been called to do. Gary Burge says,

the church is a community or a family that invites people to touch the glory

of God, to be changed by it, and then to bear it to the world.

We're going to see as we look into Acts today, why we should be so fiery about this.

We are witnesses. We are light. We are salt. We are disciple makers.

We are inviters. But if that's true, why don't we do it?

I want to give you four quick reasons, and then we're going to look into acts.

Four reasons why we often hesitate. Number one, because many times we are afraid.

It's true. We're afraid. I hate to admit it.

When I was in Bible college, before I went to Liberty University and studied,

I went to a 12-month Bible college in Scroon Lake, New York, called Word of Life.

12-month intense, like intense. Oh yeah, Reno, I forgot you went there.

I don't know how well we're representing, but we took—I don't know if your class

did this. I was ahead of you because I'm so much older than you.

But my class, we took these classes on how to witness and evangelism,

and we had tracks, and we had different methods. And they would want us to try

the ABCs. They'd want us to try the Four Spiritual Laws. They gave us all these things.

And then I don't know if they would do this today, but they bused us up.

We drove five hours in buses and we went to New York City and they're like,

okay, here you go, kids. Go get them saved.

This Iowa boy saw things he'd never seen before, never experienced before.

And I was terrified. And honestly, like I'm standing there on the corner and

would strike up conversations. And I'm, I just had this like,

oh God, please help them not to want to talk.

Cause I didn't know, like I, I had all the scripts.

I had pamphlets. Pamphlets are great.

I had tracks galore. Some were cartoons for children, but I was terrified.

And I think a lot of the times we don't invite because we're afraid of,

We think we'll fail or we won't know what to say. Number two,

we feel disqualified or we don't feel qualified.

We don't feel qualified. How many of you would sometimes say,

man, I don't approach people in a coffee shop. I don't talk to people.

I just try to stick to myself. And I hear this one a lot. I just want to live.

I want my actions to show that Jesus is Lord. That's great.

That's great. You know, there's a famous quote by Francis of Assisi.

He said, I can't even remember it now.

You're mocking me. My wife, I love her so much.

Use words. What was that quote? Help me out. Come on. Oh, now I'm going to have to eat my crow.

That's not it. But thank you, Susan, for feeling the pain of standing in front

of people and having a loss of words.

That one Yeah, use words when necessary Like you're supposed to live it out

Which is great But we have to put a mouthpiece to it Even if you don't feel qualified,

Number three, I should just stick to my notes We don't want to be pushy, right?

We're afraid we're going to come across like we're rude or we're pushy And I

know some of you have seen pushy Christians that are in your face. You need Jesus!

Repent! You're going to hell!

Now, there are time and places for that.

But there's no love when you're up in someone's face yelling at them to stop.

And so a lot of times we're just timid because we don't want to come across like that.

Number four, one of the sadder things, I think, for many of us,

number four, we're complacent. We are complacent.

We simply don't care that much.

Our life is comfortable.

It's okay. We've got Jesus. We're going to heaven. in, we're just safe.

We play it safe.

And I want to remind you that you don't need a spiritual degree or a college

or seminary degree to share your faith.

You don't have to be an expert. You don't have to know all the answers because

you are filled with the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead.

He's living inside of you.

And so this morning, God calls us to be ambassadors. letters,

and we need to be reminded that God is calling us to share our faith.

If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Acts chapter 4.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 4, and I want to encourage you, bring your Bibles with you.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

Have you even thought about not putting it on the screen? Because I want you

to be Bible literate. I want you to know the Word of God.

We're going to look at verses 13 through Acts 4, 13 through 20.

It says, when they observed, I would circle and highlight that in my Bible,

when they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were

uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed.

Now watch this, catch this, what happened? They recognized they had been with Jesus.

They recognized and been with Jesus. And since they saw the man who had been

healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in opposition.

Verse 15, after they ordered them to leave the Sanhedrin, they conferred among

themselves saying, what should we do with these men?

For an obvious sign has been done through them, clear to everyone living in

Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.

There was no denying they had been with Jesus. There had been signs that they were with Jesus.

They couldn't deny it.

Verse 17, but so that this does not spread any further among the people.

There they are trying to squelch this, right?

Let's threaten them against speaking to anyone in this name again.

So they called for them and ordered them to not speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

Verse 19, Peter and John answered them, whether it's right in the sight of God

for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide.

For we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.

You want to catch fire for the things of God? You want to catch fire for being a witness?

Meditate on this passage. Journal through this passage. Pray through this passage.

And so this morning, I want to keep things really simple.

We have a very special moment planned for in about 10 or 15 minutes.

And we're going to get to that in just a moment. But I want to give you three

ways to be a stronger witness.

Number one, deepen your relationship with Jesus.

Deepen your relationship with Jesus. Scripture says when they observed the boldness

of Peter and John and realized they were nobodies, they were uneducated,

they were untrained, they didn't have tracks,

they were amazed, and they recognized that they had been with Jesus.

They recognized they had been with Jesus.

When you come in contact with people at work, when you come in touch with people

on the soccer field or the baseball field or football field,

when you come in contact with people at any time in your life,

do they look at you and can they say,

wow, there's something different about that boy.

There's something different about that lady.

They look different.

They've been with Jesus. That doesn't just happen.

It happens by having a deep, intimate relationship with Jesus and you're spending

time with him and you're having quiet times with him and you're worshiping him.

Your courage to witness to other people about Christ flows directly from the

time that you spend with him.

You want to be more courageous, be a better witness wherever you're at?

It starts by spending time with him.

And so the question for us is this, how much time am I actually spending with

Jesus through prayer, spending time in the word of God, scripture, study, and worship?

You see these apostles, these disciples, they were just experiencing what Christ

had already promised them.

Love this. Check this out, Matthew 10, 19, and 20. But when they hand you over,

don't worry about how or what you're going to say, what you are to speak.

I mean, we get so bogged down, like I'm just so worried. What am I going to

say? Am I going to say something wrong?

He says, don't worry about what you are to speak, for you will be given what to say at that hour.

Because it isn't you speaking, but the spirit of your father is speaking through you.

When you walk up to someone and you invite them to church or you try to initiate

a gospel conversation with someone and you feel like you don't know what to say, guess what?

It's okay. It's okay. Because the Spirit, the Holy Spirit's going to give you the words to say.

But here's the thing. He doesn't give them to you ahead of time.

When does the Spirit speak through you? It says at that hour or at that moment.

When you open your mouth in boldness, even if you're scared to death.

The Holy Spirit's going to speak through you so that he is speaking.

The Spirit of God the Father is speaking through you, but it only happens when

you have an intimate relationship with the Father and with Jesus.

Intimacy with Christ is the foundation for boldness when opposition comes.

Intimacy with Christ is the foundation for boldness when opposition comes.

Number two, speak the truth you've witnessed.

You see, at the heart of this passage, the heart is the apostles' insistence

on speaking the truth of what they saw, what they experienced firsthand.

Peter and John answered, we

are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and what we've heard.

The point here is don't let fear silence your testimony. The word boldness.

From the word parhesio, which was used for free citizens who had the freedom

to say anything in the public assembly.

And so in the New Testament, it denotes the moral freedom to speak truth publicly.

How fitting, because when we come to Christ, we now have the freedom to speak

about the fact that we have been freed.

You know who the greatest witnesses are a lot of times?

Those who have experienced the most amazing forgiveness.

Because forgiven people want other people to be forgiven.

Don't let fear silence your testimony. You don't have to have a long script.

You don't have to have five points. You don't need a nice presentation.

Back in the day, you don't need a flannel graph. Kids are like,

what the heck is a flannel graph?

I don't know, but I thought it was amazing back then. I thought it was so cool.

If you, listen, if you're in Christ, you have the same thing.

The same thing or the same one that Peter and John had.

The spirit of the living God.

And so what we testify is that I once was lost.

I once was blind to these things.

But now I've been forgiven and I'm

free and this is what I've experienced and I know where you're at in your life

and I know you're looking for freedom and I know you're looking for hope and

I know you don't have any peace but I've been through this and I experienced

peace and I know that if you had Jesus you'd be able to have peace too.

This is what I've seen. This is what I've heard. This is what I've experienced.

And I want that for you too.

Number three, choose God's authority over human pressure.

When ordered not to speak in Jesus's name or about Jesus, Peter and John answered,

whether it's right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to

God, you decide, but we cannot help.

I can't help but talk about the things of God Why?

Because that's my life He is my life My whole

life is about Him And when there's

a conflict between God's command And the laws of human authority The Christian

must obey the commands of God And also bear the consequences The Christian must

obey God Rather than man And it's happening, guys it's coming.

It's happening all over the world. Christians are persecuted.

Christians are beheaded.

Their villages are burned and torched. Their churches are burned down. The pastors are killed.

Schools now are trying to silence. Even here, some of our youth go to school all the way in green.

Trinity, dude, raise your hand. Trinity got a detention for talking about Jesus.

And then he wore his baptism shirt to serve in detention That's gutsy,

dude Then he made me a cross and woodshop Yeah, they're not supposed to do that either.

But Trinity got saved last year And I got to baptize him And now he's a different kid.

What Jesus does. And we can't help but tell people about it.

I read just this week that Canada has introduced legislation called the C9 bill.

And it's currently being debated in their legislative system,

but they're attempting to make the word of God hate speech.

That's what's going on to our neighbors in the north. If that goes through,

guess what? You can't preach.

It's illegal because it's.

May be a time soon when our kids or our grandkids can no longer legally speak

about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And we need to decide right here and right now that we will obey God rather

than man, rather than culture, rather than the education system.

Church, the time for passivity is gone.

There's too much at stake.

The lives of men and women and children are hanging in the balance.

And as we close, let me just ask you this question. Do those you come in contact

recognize that you have been with Jesus?

Simple challenge. If not, we've got to change. and you've got to start immersing

yourself in the word of God and in time with him and in worship and repent.

Are you and I speaking the truth of what we've witnessed?

Because if you've been freed from your sin, you've been free from the bondage,

you can't help but go and free others.

Are we living in boldness? Are we living in obedience?

To God's authority. We have 500 invite cards.

There's probably 55 people here-ish, 50-something.

I'm not a mathematician, but that means you can take a few.

Take a bunch, pass them out, and just say, hey, man, God's changed my life.

I used to be this. This was me, and now this is me.

I'd love for you to experience what I've experienced.

Why don't you, I'll save you a seat. Don't even give him an option.

I'll save you a seat. You want to meet me at, you know, 950.

Cause you got to get a donut, right?

There's too much at stake. The men and women and children of this community

desperately need to be freed from their sin.

They need the joy and the happiness, not happiness, sorry, the joy and the peace

that only comes from a relationship with Jesus Christ. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we love you so much, and we just ask that you would empower

us with your Holy Spirit.

Help us to speak and testify of what you've done in our lives,

of what we've seen and what we've heard.

There is no greater witness than a changed life.

And I know so many of my friends in here have experienced incredible life change over the last few years.

They're different men and women. They're different students.

God, I pray that you would give us boldness, that we would go out to the highways

and byways and into the community, and we would make this place full because

so many people desperately need you.

May your love for us and for the world fuel us to be gospel-driven,

work in our lives this week,

and bring us back here Friday and Sunday to proclaim the cross,

the blood, the resurrection.

And we give you glory. It's all about you. And all God's people said.

Thanks for listening to the Generations Church podcast. We hope today's message

encouraged you and helped you grow in your relationship with Jesus.

If this sermon spoke to you, we'd love to hear from you and walk with you in your next steps.

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