Life of Christ 147
Indian Christian devotees carry palm leaves during a Palm Sunday service at Wesley Church in Secunderabad, the twin city of Hyderabad, on April 13, 2014. |
It is Sunday morning.
Jesus will die the following Wednesday afternoon. But on this morning He does
not come into Jerusalem as a suffering Saviour; He comes to present Himself to
the nation with His claim to the throne. 'Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion;
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: Behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just,
and having salvation; Lowly, and riding upon an ass, And upon the foal of an
ass.' (Zechariah 9.9).
Ungodly men assert that
Jesus simply staged this (Matthew 21.1-11) as a self-fulfilling prophecy. But
you cannot stage the strange availability of two animals in a city packed to
the gills, and you cannot stage the excited reaction of a crowd of millions. As
word got around of Jesus' formal entrance into the city an impromptu parade
route formed. Those closest to Him spread their coats on the ground in a form
of honor. Others, tearing palm branches off of their huts, waved them. Shouts
of 'Hosanna' and quotations from Psalm 118 rose in the air. There have been
high points before but nothing like this. This is the nation at His feet.
Or is it?
No, it is not. This is
not a national acceptance, and the proof of this fact would be seen in 72
hours. It was the fulfillment of a necessary prophecy, and if the crowd had
remained silent the stones would have cried out. (Luke 19.37-40) Jesus Christ
was going to be praised that morning one way or another.
No, this is not a
national acceptance. It is an enormous excited crowd. Crowds exponentially
multiply the emotions that people are experiencing, whether panic or worship or
excitement or hatred or anything else. 'All the city was moved' (Matthew 21.10)
but there was no widespread repentance and belief.
The Apostles made
several tremendous mistakes on this day, but one of the worst was equating
excitement with spirituality. They looked at the response around them and
decided that the nation had come to believe in Jesus' claims at last. Yet that
mistake is by no means limited to the Apostles of His day. It is made
repeatedly, on a wide scale, by God's people in the twenty first century.
Do not confuse
excitement with spirituality, in a preacher, church, ministry, or movement. To
be spiritual is to be scriptural. To be scriptural is to believe God's Word. To
believe God's Word is to base your life upon it – not just your emotions
temporarily. Exciting sermons, invitations, conferences, and ministries are not
wrong because they are exciting, but they are not right because they are exciting
either.
Excitement is
exceedingly temporary. Belief is permanent. The Word of God is permanent. The
promises of God are permanent. Heaven is permanent. Salvation is permanent.
Heavenly rewards are permanent. The salvation of the souls of men is permanent.
Live by the permanent not by the temporary. Be impressed with the permanent not
with the temporary. Prioritize the permanent not the temporary.
The Apostles were
emotionally caught up in a temporary mood of excitement. Meanwhile, Jesus rode
above them and wept for He saw the truth. I look around at this old world and I
see so many people caught up in excitement about temporary things. I want to
keep my eyes focused on the permanent – the truth, the Word of God, the things
of God, and Jesus Christ.
Beloved, let us be
impressed and moved, not by what is exciting, but by what is true and
permanent.
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