Worship Devotional LXVI
Originally posted to the Facebook group on 3/27/2021.
Worship Devotional for 3/28/21
~ Palm Sunday / Good Friday ~
For the past few weeks we have been singing about the joy and satisfaction that are found only in God through Christ Jesus our Lord. His love is better than life, and the things of this world fail to fulfill, as they are based on deception and empty promises ending only in death. This Sunday is Palm Sunday, when we remember how Jesus triumphantly arrived in Jerusalem the Sunday before His crucifixion. We read in Scripture the events that happened during the Holy Week, leading up to Good Friday when Jesus was crucified on the cross.
Matthew 21:1-11:
"When they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, Jesus then sent two disciples, telling them, 'Go into the village ahead of you. At once you will find a donkey tied there, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to Me. If anyone says anything to you, you should say that the Lord needs them, and immediately he will send them.'
This took place so that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled: 'Tell Daughter Zion, "Look, your King is coming to you, gentle, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden."'
The disciples went and did just as Jesus directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, then they laid their robes on them, and He sat on them. A very large crowd spread their robes on the road; others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road. Then the crowds who went ahead of Him and those who followed kept shouting: 'Hosanna to the Son of David! "He who comes in the name of the Lord is the blessed One!" Hosanna in the highest heaven!'
When He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken, saying, 'Who is this?' And the crowds kept saying, 'This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee!'"
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, crowds of people welcomed Him with joy and eager expectation. They honored Him and praised Him, quoting Psalm 118:25-26. They recognized a renowned prophet was coming into the holy city, and even that God had sent Him to save them and to deliver them. But things didn't unfold as they expected. How could the multitudes welcome Him with joy and praise on Sunday, then abandon Him to be crucified while the crowds (not necessarily the same people) mocked and condemned and sneered at Him that following Friday? It is because they were thinking about the things of man and not of God — they were focused on politics. Their minds and hearts were set on an earthly kingdom, and not a heavenly one. They were concerned with the temporary and fading things of men that do not satisfy, rather than eternal things of God which do.
When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He knew Good Friday was coming. He knew what He was about to suffer. He had told His disciples three times leading up to Palm Sunday what would happen, but they didn't understand. They were still clinging to the worldly idea that Jesus would overthrow the Roman government and establish an earthly kingdom. They didn't understand the cross (let alone the resurrection). The people's political and earthly agendas did nothing at all to prevent the horrible suffering that Jesus — a man who had done nothing wrong and who had lived a perfectly sinless life on earth — was about to endure. In the same way, we have to recognize that the kingdom of God is not an earthly kingdom. We are called to the eternal pleasures that are at God's right hand, and to what truly satisfies, but that means we are called to surrender all our devotion and allegiance over to a heavenly kingdom, abandoning our pursuit of worldly things. As believers, we need to recognize the deception at hand and run to the One who is true, though following Jesus may bring suffering in this life. He did indeed come to save us, but not in an earthly sense. He came to save us from the real enemy, from sin, and from death! Palm Sunday reminds us not to set our hope on the things of the world or on our own agendas, but rather to put our hope in the God who saves. He has saved us and healed us through the suffering of His Son on the cross, so that those who will believe in Him may be saved from wrath and given eternal life.
Here are the songs:
1) Hosanna (Praise Is Rising) by Paul Baloche and Brenton Brown
The word, "Hosanna," is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word which means "Lord, save us." It is used in Psalm 118:25-26, which the Jews quoted from on Palm Sunday as Jesus rode into Jerusalem:
"Lord, save us! Lord, please grant us success! He who comes in the name of the Lord is blessed. From the house of the Lord we bless you."
This week as we sing "Hosanna!" let us not do so as many of them did, thinking in our hearts that God will establish our own purposes and agendas. His ways are not our ways. We pray that His will would be done and His kingdom would come. So, when we cry out "Hosanna," we are praying that God will save according to His will. In His kingdom, people aren't merely helped, but made new and alive! What God has for us is so much better than our opinions and ideas or anything we can imagine. So let us welcome Him with our praise as we trust and believe in what He is doing according to His perfect and pleasing will.
2) Stricken, Smitten, And Afflicted
This hymn, written by Thomas Kelly in 1804, expresses the somber turn of events that took place on Good Friday. It calls us to pause and reflect on Jesus' suffering on the cross. He suffered the deepest pain and grief, bearing the weight of God's wrath toward our sin. Here we see the fulfillment of God's plan for our redemption and the depth of our sin and guilt. Here we have a firm foundation, a refuge, hope, redemption, and freedom.
3) Suffering Servant by Dustin Kensrue
Isaiah 52:13-53:12:
"See, My Servant will act wisely; He will be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted. Just as many were appalled at You — His appearance was so disfigured that He did not look like a man, and His form did not resemble a human being — so He will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths because of Him, for they will see what had not been told them, and they will understand what they had not heard.
Who has believed what we have heard? And who has the arm of the Lord been revealed to? He grew up before Him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He didn't have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at Him, no appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; He was despised, and we didn't value Him.
Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses, and He carried our pains; but we in turn regarded Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds. We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished Him for the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, He did not open His mouth. He was taken away because of oppression and judgment; and who considered His fate? For He was cut off from the land of the living; He was struck because of my people's rebellion. They made His grave with the wicked and with a rich man at His death, although He had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully.
Yet the Lord was pleased to crush Him severely. When You make Him a restitution offering, He will see His seed, He will prolong His days, and by His hand, the Lord's pleasure will be accomplished. He will see it out of His anguish, and He will be satisfied with His knowledge. My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will carry their iniquities. Therefore I will give Him the many as a portion, and He will receive the mighty as spoil, because He submitted Himself to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet He bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels."
4) By His Wounds by David Nassar and Mac Powell
Isaiah 53:5:
"But He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds."
This is the message of the gospel — how we are saved by the grace of God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He came to save us, not according to our will or our ways, but rather from our ways, which are sinful and rebellious and evil. We deserve to be punished under God's wrath, because we have gone astray and sinned against the Holy One. Yet because of His love for us, He came and lived among us without sin, so that He might become the perfect sacrifice, suffering the punishment for our sins in our place, redeeming us by His blood that was shed on the cross. We now stand justified in God's sight because the price of punishment for our sins has been paid in full by Jesus Christ the Son of God. All who believe in His name are credited with His righteousness, and are granted a share in eternal life. Hallelujah!
Theme(s): Isaiah 53, Christ's Suffering, Hosanna, Salvation
Scripture references:
Psalms 22, 80, 118
Isaiah 53
Zechariah 9:9
Matthew 16:21-23, 17:22-23, 20:17-28, 21, 26-27
Mark 8:31-38, 9:30-32, 10:32-45, 11:1-11, 12:1-12, 14-15
Luke 9:21-22 & 43-45, 13:31-35, 18:31-34, 19:28-48, 20:9-19, 22-23
John 12, 18-19
Ephesians 2
Hebrews 9-10, 13
1 Peter 2