Opening illustration: There is a legend about an ancient village in Spain. The villagers learned that the king would pay a visit! In a thousand years, a king had never come to that village. Excitement grew! "We must throw a big celebration," The villagers all agreed. But, it was a poor village, and there weren’t many resources. Someone came up with a classic idea. Since many of the villagers made their own wines, the idea was for everyone in the village brings a large cup of their choice wine to the town square, “We’ll pour it into a large vat and offer it to the king for his pleasure! When the king draws wine to drink, it will be the very best he’s ever tasted!” The day before the king’s arrival, hundreds of people lined up to make their offering to the honored guest. They climbed a small stairway, and poured their gift through a small opening at the top. Finally, the vat was full! The King arrived, was escorted to the square, given a silver cup and was told to draw some wine, which represented the best the villagers had. He placed the cup under the spigot, turned the handle, and then drank the wine, but it was nothing more than water. You see every villager reasoned, "I’ll withhold my best wine and substitute water, what with so many cups of wine in the vat, the king will never know the difference!" The problem was, everyone thought the same thing, and the king was greatly dishonored Palm Sunday is all about a day when the King of Kings was greatly honored. Because people gave the very best they had.
Let us turn to Mark 11: 1 – 11 in our Bibles and catch up with the Palm Sunday Mission story and apply it in our own lives by bringing our best and all to Him.
Introduction: Now, we know more about the event described in these verses than Mark tells us. No doubt most of Mark’s readers were familiar with other parts of the story. They recognized Bethany as the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. They knew that a few days before this the Lord had raised Lazarus from the dead, a miracle so dramatic and so public that it created an immense stir and a very hostile reaction on the part of the religious authorities. They knew full well that by this time the Jewish leadership was determined to rid them of Jesus of Nazareth. They knew that messianic fervor, the patriotic expectation of the coming of the long-promised Messiah had reached a fever pitch both because it was Passover, the most patriotic time of the year for Jews, and because of the very public approach to Jerusalem of Jesus and his entourage. The welcome afforded Jesus on that Sunday morning was a sudden but predictable explosion of the crowd’s pent-up enthusiasm, however misplaced, however based on a complete misunderstanding of Jesus’ mission. They wanted more miracles and he came to suffer and die for sinners.
Mark’s readers knew very well that the enthusiasm of the crowd would turn into a savage blood-lust just a few days later when it became clear that Jesus had no intention of meeting their expectations. They knew that in entering the city as he did, accepting the applause of the people as he did, allowing them to greet him as virtually a king, as he did, he was, as the great Dutch preacher Klaas Schilder put it, “putting his hand on the latch of the door of the house of sorrows.” He was orchestrating the events that would lead to his crucifixion four days later.
What is the Mission for Palm Sunday? (Verse 2 & 3)
1. Encounter Adverse Situations ~ “Go into the village opposite you …”
Jesus had instructed His disciples to go into the village opposite to where they were.
A situation which was contrary to your comfort zone.
Villages in Asia live in rivalry with one another. They can go to the extent of killing one another for a piece of land. Why did Jesus not arrange for a donkey within their own village? Jesus was testing His disciples as to whether they would be willing to take this first bold step in what was about to come on Good Friday. This was only a preliminary test for the disciples.
When God puts us in adverse situations for the purpose of extending His Kingdom, it matters a lot as to how we handle and respond to it. It is just a test and greater things are yet to come.
Illustration: Personal experience of going to the Middle-East when we were not open to God’s Call in our lives. A place contrary to what we were used to or had imagined life to be all about. God put us in that situation to humble us that we will be dependent on Him alone and will become passionate about Him.
2. Discover what God desires ~ “… find a colt tied …”
Before that little donkey was alive and useful to the Lord, it had to be found and redeemed. Praise God for His life giving breath and the reason we live is just because of him. That is the only reason you and I have any usefulness to the Lord today. Praise God for the redeeming power of the blood of Jesus!
Find out exactly what is the vehicle that will carry your mission. It might take people and time to pursue it and get it. Finding it is our part in the ministry for extending God’s Kingdom. God will always give us directions and lead us to it.
Illustration: We had never ever had a desire to discover and do what God desires from us. We just wanted to live our casual secular lives, did not want anyone’s interference in our lives, make money and lead a cool life. God intruded into our lives and shook it up. A time to discover what God wanted from us and heed to His call had started. If we had not gone to the Middle-East we would not discover what God desired from us. That was our turning point in life.
3. Freedom from Bondage ~ “…Loose it …”
It was bound and had to be set free before the Lord could use it. Before you and I can be of any use to Him, the bondage and chains of our sins have to be broken and we are going to be set free. I praise His Name that is just what He does for His saints, Romans 6:14; John 8:36.
Once you are able to find the vehicle that is going to carry your vision, free it from all the bondage it is attached to and get to the Master (our God) so that He can use it for His Glory. Our part is to free it from its worldly attachments and all the strings before it can be completely used for and by Christ.
Illustration: After discovering what God wanted from us, we had to yield and be open to disposing the baggage that we were carrying ~ only God could help us do that. We had to break loose from all world attachments to things and even severe relationships that were not God ordained.
4. Bring what God desires ~ “…and bring it.”
Finally after going through the adverse situations, discovering our vehicle to carry God’s vision and freeing it from worldly attachments, we need to bring it before God Himself so that He can use it for His Glory. What God will do with that vehicle, we don’t really know. But what we really know is that anything in God’s hand can be used as the most powerful means of carrying the vision. The disciples brought to Jesus a humble animal and look at the use He put it to. No matter who you are, once we willingly surrender and bring to Christ our all, He can put it to good use for His Glory.
Illustration: The most difficult part in the mission is to bring all that God desires of you, before Him. It is an act of complete willful obedience and surrender to God. Bring our all to Him. Not bits & pieces or only what I want to give or surrender to Him. It doesn’t work that way. It has to be God’s way.
• Give Him your acorn and He will give you back a mighty oak.
• Give Him an Abram, a lost pagan, and He will give you back an Abraham, a mighty man of faith.
• Give Him your Jacob, a schemer and a trickster, and He will give you back an Israel, a Prince of God.
• Give Him your Saul of Tarsus, a mean, cruel man, and He will give you back a Paul, a mighty Apostle of God.
• Give Him you Simon, a weak, vacillating man, and He will give you back a Peter, a rock for Jesus.
• Give Him your broken, sin-scarred life and He will give you back a new start, a new life and a home in Heaven!)
Conclusion: We see that Christ makes arrangements for His donkey and learn the lesson of that: salvation took the Son of God’s humiliation, suffering, and death and for love’s sake he gave himself to that fate. What had to be done was being done! There is the proof that Jesus is the savior and the only savior of sinners. There is the proof that sin is a great offense to God and must be punished by a just and holy God. There is the proof that a great love lies in the heart of this universe; that God is love. And there is the proof that every human being must turn to Jesus and trust him for salvation. And there is the proof that anyone who trust in Jesus shall be saved. What God had long before determined that his son must and should do; it was that and that alone that Christ did. What had to be done for us was precisely what was done.
Jesus showed us that so that we would not miss the point: he is the provision that God, the living God, has provided for our eternal life.
The most pressing question facing Christians is how we can live differently, rather than living as the world does. At the most fundamental level, we are different in belief: we acknowledge Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. But we are also to be different in lifestyle. We are to display a different set of values. This is difficult to do, when the whole world, it seems, is heading another way, and coaxing us to come along. Godliness requires more than good intentions, more than will-power, more than self-exertion. It requires the spirit of the living God, who strengthens us to hold our position to stir us to please God at every moment of our life.
