Who Is This?
- Details
- Sunday Morning Service
- Pastor James Richards
- Copalis Community Church
- 13 April 2025
- Matthew 21:1-11
Father, as we look at this passage that tells us the story of Jesus coming in Jerusalem triumphantly, Palm Sunday, we thank you, Father, that you've opened our hearts to receive the truth, that Jesus is Lord, that we put our trust in him, that there's salvation in him. And I pray, Father, as we look at this passage, that you would speak to our hearts, that you would open our hearts to hear by your spirit and have an impact in our lives. And we want to thank you, Father, for Jason's good news and pray you continue to give him good health. We lift up Devin and Les and Ann and Rocky's brother. God just be working their life and helping them as they deal with these diseases.
Bless your word now, in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated.
All right. Anyone know what day this is today? Sunday. What else? Palm Sunday.
What's that? The 13th. Anything else about this day? It's Passover week. Started Friday night at twilight.
And it's one other thing that you probably would never guess, so I'm not going to ask you, and I don't know if any remember this or not, but this is the 70th anniversary of Billy Graham's first crusade out of the United States. Anyone know where that was at? London. London. The.
The British newspapers were saying it's going to be a big flop. We don't want Billy Graham coming over here. He leased a Stadium for three weeks that held 12,000 people. And it was so successful that he preached 12 weeks in a row to fill the stadiums. And of course, thousands of people came forward and received the Lord.
I read a study, though, quite a few years ago, I don't think it was this crusade. Another one in London, where they followed everyone who came forward. Does anybody come forward in a Billy Graham crusade? No one here. I know a few people that have, and I've been to several of his crusades.
But they decided to follow everyone who had come forward for five years. And you know what they found? After five years, only one out of eight who had made a commitment to Jesus Christ were still going to church. Seven out of eight had left. In my experience, that seems about right.
Church growth experts, they label this the back door. The back door. You all came in the front door today, right? You didn't know there's a back door over here. There's people that come in the front door.
They're excited. Oh, boy. Worship the Lord, maybe pray a prayer, and after a period of time, sometimes short, sometimes long, they're out the back door. Where'd they go? And my question is why?
Why would people who had made that commitment to Christ and for some reason didn't follow through with it, why? So we're going to look at that today. I believe our passage helps answer that question. And again, Jesus comes into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. We call that the triumphal entry.
And it was the start of the Jewish Passover week. They would celebrate Passover that whole week before. They would sacrifice the lamb as part of that celebration. And as Jesus came into the city, the crowds shouted, hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest. And we're told this fulfilled the prophecy by Zechariah that was made almost 700 years before, where Zechariah says, rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Behold, your king is coming to you righteous and having salvation is he humble and mounted on a donkey, the full of a donkey. And so Jesus fulfilled this prophecy. The crowd shouted, hosanna.
And yet five days later, people were shouting, crucify him. Crucify him. Crucify him. How in the world did that change happen in five short days? I believe there's an explanation for this.
In verse 10, if you want to look at verse 10, it says, when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, who is this? Who is this? If you had to answer that question today, and I'm going to encourage you to do it, if Jesus had come into our church today and people started saying, who is this? What would you say about him? Just speak up.
Not at the same time, if you can help it. Who is this Son of God?
A guess. Yeah. Okay.
Okay. Come on. We should be doing better than this. Who is this Jesus, Son of God, the bright morning star. We can go on and on who Jesus is.
And I believe that this is probably the most important question you'll ever have to ask in life or to answer. Who is Jesus to you? Is he just some great figure that lived 2000 years ago? Is he some guy that's going to help you with all your problems and make your life easier? Is he someone that'll help you get to heaven?
Nothing wrong with saying that about him. But I'm afraid for most people, the answer is, well, he's someone who can help me. He can help me with my needs. I feel lonely, I feel depressed. My marriage isn't working financially, things are going bad, and I'll come to Jesus and he will help me.
And they end up talking about a Jesus that they fabricated out of their Own thoughts. Instead of the Jesus of the Bible, the Jesus of the Bible. We want to know who Jesus is. We have to go to the Bible to find that out. So let's look at who Jesus really is.
And several things were mentioned and they're all true, and there's a lot more. But the one I want to focus on is the lamb. The lamb who was slain. To understand this, you have to remember this was Passover week.
At the end of the week, there would be a sacrifice of hundreds, if not thousands of lambs to celebrate the Jewish Passover. Most of us know that when Israel was in captivity in Egypt and God said, let my people go. And of course, Pharaoh wouldn't let them go. So God brought 10 plagues, right? Water turned to blood, the gnats, the frogs, I mean, on and on.
But the most severe plague was the last one. What was that? Death to the firstborn. The destroying angel was going to pass through the land. And the firstborn in every family would die.
Would die. But God told the Jews, you're to take a lamb and you're to sacrifice that lamb and you're to take that blood and put it on the lentils of your doorway. And you're to stay in your house all night and eat that lamb. But when the destroying angel came through the land, he would see the blood and he would pass over that house. They would not die.
Can you imagine what it must have been like? The Jews in that safe house because of the blood herring, the screams, the cries, laments over the Egyptians dying in their home. And a horrible thing. But when the angel saw the blood, the blood of the lamb, he would pass over that house and they would be saved. Moses gave explicit instructions about the Passover.
We won't look at all of them, but I want to look at one regarding the lamb. That's Exodus, chapter 12, verse 1 through 6. Exodus chapter 12, verse 1 through 6. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, in the land of Egypt, this month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.
Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the 10th day of this month, every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers houses. A lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of, according to what each can eat. You shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish.
A male, a year old. You may take it from the sheet or from the goats. And you shall keep it until the 14th day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill the lambs at twilight. And it's interesting. When did they pick the lamb?
The 10th day of the month. When was the lamb sacrificed?
The 14th day of the month. And what were they doing between the 10th and the 14th?
They were inspecting the lamb to make sure that it was without blemish, that it was a perfect lamb that would be celebrated. And so when you see Jesus Christ coming into Jerusalem, that Monday was the 10th day. He had been selected. What did he do for four days during the week before his crucified? He went to the temple where they inspected him and tried to find sin in his life.
And of course, they didn't find any sin as a result of that. He was qualified to be the lamb who was slain before the foundation the world. And he was slaughtered for our sins on that 14th day. Understand this. We have to understand what the people were shouting on that 10th day.
Hosanna to God in the highest. Anyone know what hosanna means in the Greek? It's please, Lord, save, save us. They were crying for a savior and going back to the Passover. They were saved because of the blood of the lamb.
They didn't die in the same way. You and I are saved from our sins when that blood is applied to our life. We don't put it on the doorpost over a house, but it's applied to our lives. And that's important because were told. God told Adam that if he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in the day you eat of it, you shall die.
And of course we know that not only Adam, but Eve ate of that fruit. And ever since that day, there has been sin and there's been death in our world. And no one can escape that. And if they die in their sins, they will spend eternity in hell separated from God. And because God loves us, he provided a way for us to not experience hell, for us to experience life in his presence forever.
And that required that the lamb be slayed for you and I.
And thank God for that. That Jesus willingly came into Jerusalem knowing that he would be tested, that he would be proved worthy, and that he would die for our sins. His purpose in coming in was to shed his blood for you and I. And when someone puts their faith in Jesus Christ, it's not like you take some blood and you paint it on him. But the blood of Jesus Christ covers your sins.
His life. God sees his life in you. And result of that he doesn't destroy us, he passes over our sins. I don't know about you, but I look back at my life and, boy, the sins start popping up here and there. The things that.
Yeah, did I do that? Yeah, I did do that. And sometimes just grieve over that. But I thank God that when I came to Jesus Christ, those sins were covered by the blood of God. He no longer sees it.
In fact, how far away are they? As far as the east is from the West. And thank God for that. Peter explains what this means over in First Peter 1:18.
And he says, knowing that you were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a Lamb, without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. He is the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world, before God created those stars and he created our earth and he created you and I. He'd already planned that his son Jesus would go to that cross and die for your sins and that he'd be glorified through that. He loved us even though we were enemies.
He loved us so much that he gave his life for our sins. And that is the height of glory. To really understand what this means, who is Jesus, we need to go back to Revelation, Revelation, chapter five. And we're given a picture of God in heaven, and the scroll is going to be opened. Jesus is worthy to open the scroll.
But in verse 9 it says, and they sang a new song. Those who are in heaven, they sang a new song, saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open his seals, for you were slain and by your blood. You ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you've made them a kingdom and priests our God, for they shall reign on the earth. Then he says, then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb who is slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. And I heard every creature in heaven, on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.
And then the four living creatures say Amen. Did anyone say amen to that? Amen. And the elders fell down and worshiped. Jesus is the Lamb that was slain for you and I.
And he is worthy and one of the people. One of the reasons that people come in the front door and go out the back doors, they don't see Jesus as the Lamb. They don't realize that he alone is worthy of praise and honor and glory and all of those things. And I like what John Piper said about the worthiness of Jesus. He said, God regards faithfulness to him as more important than life.
Think about that. He regards faithfulness as more important in your life. And we've seen Christians throughout the centuries who were willing to lay down their lives because the Lamb was worthy and they wanted to be faithful. They didn't try to save their lives. Repeatedly, God shows that forsaking him is to forfeit life.
This is a radical God centeredness that is intellectually and emotionally foreign, it seems to much of the Christian, temporary, contemporary Christian church. And again, if you watch what you see on so many preachers, that's true. They're not focused on the Lamb. They're focused on people and what God can do for them. The instincts of many of today's preachers and churchgoers seem to go in the other direction, to treat life on Earth as the great central value and the honor of God as subservient to that.
One popular preacher is always talking about your best life now. And I'd like to say, excuse me, the best life is going to be with God for all eternity. You know, we're here to honor Him. He goes on, if God does not serve our comforts here, then he's unworthy. This is the great sorrow and weakness in the church for real mission.
I don't know about you, really doesn't matter what happens. I want to be one of those who falls on my knees and gives glory to the Lamb. You're worthy. You died for me in my place. You rescued me from eternity in hell.
And I want to say worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. Is there anything else left that we could give glory to Him? It covers everything. And one of the reasons that people do not continue on in the faith is they've not seen Jesus for who he is, the Savior. To save us from our sins, to save us from eternity in hell.
He is worthy of our worship. No matter what happens. If your carotid arteries get clogged up, he's still Lord. Still got heaven in plan for you. If you have quadruple bypass surgery, he's still Lord.
And if we're here today, we can worship him. And we go on and on with that, can't we? In illustration of this, we got. I think Rocky passed this on about Les, Les's prayer. And I was really touched by this.
Les Smith has breast cancer. And she's also going through some cognitive issues where it's hard to understand what's going on. But she was clear enough that she asked for prayer. And this is what she asks. She asks that we pray this way for.
Pray that each one of my days are the best possible. That's a good prayer. That's one we can all pray in. Talking to Elizabeth this morning. How are you today?
I'm okay. Okay. Well, there's levels above that, but that's all right. Okay. I'm okay today.
Thank God for that. She goes on that she will be supportive of her family. Normally you turn that around the other way, wouldn't you, that her family would be supportive of her. They will be. But she's thinking about what her family is going to go through when she goes through this disease.
And she said she wants to be brave because it's another adventure with Jesus. She said it's nice to grow up and know that Jesus is in control. If there's. Only. If there's any pain and discomfort, she wants to put on her big girl pants and hang in there.
And that's not pie in the sky or just everything's going to be okay. That's because she knows who Jesus is. And whatever she goes through in this life, he is worthy. He is worth it. When we come to that place, what are we going to want to do?
We're going to be like those angels. We want to fall down and say, worthy is the Lamb who was slain. We want to worship. I think once someone really knows Christ that way, that he's not only Savior, but he's Lord, that He gave everything for you. It seems like it'd be crazy to not worship him.
And thank God that we have the opportunity to do that, to give him glory. The Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the earth. He came in Palm Sunday the next day. Monday was the 10th, Tuesday, 11th, Wednesday the 12th, Friday the 13th, Thursday the 13th, Friday the 14th. And at twilight that night, Jesus went to the cross for you and I.
The sinless blameless son of God, who took our sins upon himself, whose blood washed away our sins and gave us the opportunity to worship him with our lives. Praise God for that. Let's pray.
Father. We'll never be able to thank you enough for your son, Jesus coming into the world sinless, blameless, perfect, and yet willing to die for us to take our sins upon himself. Lord. Nothing that we've done or could do but what he did for us. And thank you, Father.
When someone puts their faith in Jesus Christ, that His blood cleanses us from sin, that you see the blood and you pass over our sins, we thank you for this promise. I pray for each one of us here that more and more we get a clearer picture of who Jesus is, the Savior, and that we love him because of it. In Christ's name, Amen.