“A Christian’s Life” – Matthew 21:1-11

Do you like parades?  Sure.  Everybody likes a parade, right?  When do we normally have parades in this country?  Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, St. Patrick’s Day and 4^th of July are the most common, I think.  Now, imagine if you combined all those holiday parades into one and had this one parade in New York City on New Year’s Eve with Donald Trump on the main float.  In fact, it’s called the Trump Parade and the purpose is just to celebrate the fact that Trump is the president.

There would be millions of people there.  Some are there because they love him and some because they hate him.  Some are just there to party or to say they were part of that history.  It would be a Secret Service nightmare, that’s for sure.  They would have to protect him from just the sheer number of people who might want to just touch him, not to mention the wackos that wanted to hurt him.

We know that such a parade would never happen for any number of reasons but if you can imagine such a scene you might have an idea of what was happening 2000-plus years ago in Jerusalem when Jesus rode into town on a donkey.  Palm Sunday is still recognized today on the Sunday before Easter commemorating Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and it is overflowing with symbolism.

There is symbolism from the Old Testament.  There was cultural symbolism.  There was symbolism in almost every aspect of it and I see symbolism for us even today.  I hope you have your Bibles with you but if you don’t you can find our text in the Bible in the back of the pew in front of you.  Turn to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 21, verses 1-11.

Now, today when we say something is symbolic we usually think that means it is worthless.  It doesn’t mean anything.  When Congress has a symbolic vote, it changes nothing.  If somebody gives a symbolic gesture, it holds no weight.  There is nothing to it.  But we need to adjust our thinking about symbolism today for this study because what is symbolic is how it is supposed to be.  It is how it is going to be and how God wants it to be so the symbolism is very important.

So, let’s read Matthew 21:1-11.

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”  ⁴ This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:  ⁵ “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”  ⁶ The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. ⁷ They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. ⁸ A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”  “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”  “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”  ¹⁰ When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”  ¹¹ The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

There may not be a lot of things that Jesus and I have in common, at least not enough things, but one thing He and I have in common is that neither one of us cares to spend much time in large crowds.  Sometimes it happened to Him but up until this point, we usually see Jesus choosing to spend time with just a chosen few or even all by Himself.  Something else we don’t normally see is Jesus making Himself the center of attention.  How many times did He perform some kind of miracle and then tell the person not to tell anybody who did it?  But today is different.  Today is special.

Jesus and His disciples are going in to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover and they are doing so because all good Jews would do that if at all possible every year.  But this year is different.  Have you noticed that all through the Bible and even today that Jesus changes everything?  It’s never boring when He’s around.  This Passover there are even more people in town and, like the Trump Parade, some are there because they love Jesus and some are there because they hate Him and I’m sure some just wanted to see the spectacle.  We know from extra-biblical sources that there were probably between 2- 2 1/2 million people crammed into Jerusalem for this.

It was actually very dangerous for Jesus to come back here even if He had just slipped in unnoticed because there were some already who wanted to kill Him but Jesus could not have come into town any more conspicuous.  First, the donkey.  If Trump came to town, he would be riding in a big, custom, fancy limo with a huge entourage and flags with the presidential seal flying from each fender.  Everybody knows what that means.

In Jerusalem, this donkey would have been just as obvious of a sign that this man is claiming to be the Messiah.  Verse 5 is a quotation of Zechariah 9:9 and everybody would have known this.  Jesus was telling everyone He was the King.  We know now that lots of people misunderstood what kind of king He was going to be but nobody was confused about the symbolism and we know that because of how all the people were worshiping Him as He came in.

They are shouting, “Hosanna!” which means “Savior” or “Save now!”  They spread palm leaves on the ground in front of Him which is symbolic of a victorious king.  They laid their clothes on the ground for the donkey to walk over as a symbolic sign of love and obedience and honor to a king.  “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” would only be said of the Messiah.  There was no mistaking who Jesus was claiming to be. 

For the first time in a public place in front of literally millions of people, Jesus, the Son of God, for the first time accepts that symbolism and accepts the worship and openly proclaims His rightful Kingship, His Lordship, His Messiahship.  What a special day that was!

There is something special about symbolism when it comes to pass.  There is something incredible about a prophecy that comes true and there is more to this passage than just a historical parade.  The very life of a Christian is portrayed here as well.  Do you want to know how a Christian should live?  Do you want a template for your own life to see if you truly are a disciple of Jesus because just like there were a lot of people who came to see Jesus put on a show, there are lots of people today who basically come to church for the same reason?

The vast majority of people who, on this day hollered, “Hosanna!  Messiah save us!” would, just a few days later, scream for Jesus to be crucified.  We think about that and think about how hypocritical that is and how glad we are that we aren’t like them but our lives outside of church on Sunday morning practically scream the same thing.  Well, I want to know the truth.  I want to know what the life of a true Christian really looks like and if you do too then look first at the obedience of His closest disciples.

First of all, they are with Him and that may not sound like a big deal but they knew just how dangerous Jerusalem was for Jesus right now and that He – and they – had enemies who wanted them dead.  Don’t you know when Jesus told them they were going to Jerusalem for the Passover that they had a little pow-wow amongst themselves to talk this over.

We know they tried to talk Him out of it.  I’m afraid that I would have suddenly “remembered” that homework assignment I needed to finish or maybe I would have come down with a bad cold or something so I didn’t have to go.  But they went, not knowing what would happen, not knowing how it would end but fully trusting Jesus, knowing that He was somehow in control and that He loved them.

We see their obedience in how they didn’t question Him when He said to go get the donkey.  They just went and they went immediately.  That’s true obedience.  In those days, a horse was great for going fast or showing that you were a warrior but if you wanted to go comfortably and in style, you hopped on a donkey.  This young donkey was for them what a Cadillac convertible would be for us and Jesus tells them to “Just go get the keys and if somebody asks you about why you are taking their luxury ride just tell them I sent you.”  They were obedient.

Neil Marten, a member of the British Parliament, was once giving a group of his constituents a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament. During the course of the visit, the group happened to meet the Queen of England walking down the corridor. The queen recognized her friend Neil among the group and said, "Neil!" Not daring to question or disobey the "command," the entire band of visitors promptly fell to their knees! 

They were immediately obedient to what they thought was a command.  Jesus said in John 14:15, "If you love me, keep my commands.”  Can you imagine what would have happened if those disciples had not been obedient?  Do you think the parade would have been cancelled?  Would Jesus have had to walk into town and not fulfill the prophecy?  No.  He could have gotten somebody else to go get them.  He could have just whistled and the donkeys would have come to Him.  God’s will would still have been done but those disciples would have had to deal with BOOCOD, wouldn’t they?

There are benefits of obedience and consequences of disobedience.  (BOOCOD) There always have been and there always will be but a true Christian’s life will be marked by immediate obedience to whatever God says whether it is in His Word - the Bible - or by what He tells you through the Holy Spirit working in your life and through prayer.  It is easier to be to be obedient, no matter how hard it is, than to face the consequences of not doing it.  “The cost of obedience is nothing compared with the cost of disobedience.” (Richard Baxter)

The Christian’s life is obvious by their obedience as we see in the disciples in this passage but we also see their worship.  A Christian who doesn’t worship or rarely worships is not a true Christian.  Now, I think that there are lots of people who go to church every Sunday and participate in the worship service but that doesn’t make them a Christian but for somebody to claim to be a Christian and never really worship, that is not reality.

Go back and look at verses 8-9 of Matthew 21.  They have completely abandoned themselves to the worship of Jesus.  There’s no pride.  There’s no concern about what somebody else might think.  There’s no concern for what is going to happen to their clothes when the donkey stepped on them.  For us today, I’m afraid we would be too concerned about getting our clothes dirty or our hair messed up for that.  They didn’t care what else might be going on or what they were going to have for lunch.  All they cared about was showing love and adoration to the King.

If you went to opening day of baseball season and you and some of your friends got there and you had great seats right up close and the weather was perfect, you would expect to really enjoy that game, wouldn’t you?  But what if the announcer came over the loud speaker and gave the order that there would be no cheering today?  There would be no clapping, no hollering or laughing; no encouragement or heckling of the players.  Would you still enjoy and appreciate the game as much if you had to sit quietly?  No way.

Do you know why?  C.S. Lewis said, “We delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment.”  It’s the same way with our worship of God.  If you delight in God and He delights in you, then it will be evident in your worship.  That doesn’t mean you have to yell and dance or even raise your hands.  It’s not about the outward.  Only you know if you are truly worshiping.  It’s what is happening in your heart.

I love to hear my Mama pray.  I don’t think I have ever heard her pray, even if it’s just saying the blessing at dinner, but what her voice doesn’t crack and she starts to cry just a little.  I think for her there is just something about coming before the Creator of the universe, the King of kings and Lord of lords, knowing Who He is and knowing who she is, even to ask some little thing, that just overwhelms her.

 A true Christian’s life will be expressed in true worship; a worship that forgets the people around us and focuses only on God.  It may cost you something just like it cost those people in Matthew.  I’m sure some of their clothes were ruined but their lives were changed and Jesus got the glory so it was well worth it.

A little boy went home after church Sunday and when it came time for him to say his prayers that night he said, “Dear God, we sure had a good time in worship today.  You shoulda been there!”  Well, God is here and Psalm 22 says He inhabits our praise so the question is, are you really here?  Are you really worshiping or are you just checking the box that you went to “worship”?  Because a true Christian’s life is marked by true worship.

One last thing that marks a true Christian’s life is evangelism.  Do you know what evangelism is?  Look at verses 10-11 again.  “When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”  ¹¹ The crowds answered, “This is Jesus!”

That’s all evangelism is.  All it is is pointing to Jesus, saying His name and giving Him the glory. When you are being obedient to what God wants and you are truly worshiping Him then your life WILL be different.  People will notice and sooner or later somebody is going to ask you about it.  They may think you are weird and that’s okay because we are all weird in our own way and the Bible tells us to be peculiar.

I Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people.”  It means we are holy, different, separate and when you are that way, people are going to notice.  When they ask about it, say His name.  It’s good to say “God”.  It’s fine to talk about Christ Fellowship but use those as segues to speak the name of Jesus.

There is power just in the name.  Use it.  When something good happens to you, give Jesus the glory.  Yes, people will think you are strange.  Mission accomplished.  It doesn’t give you license to be an obnoxious jerk. Just try to make the most of every opportunity.  Be intentional about everywhere you go and everybody you talk to.

Now, this may sound like a dumb question but I’ll ask it anyway.  Do you know how to tell if something is on fire?  It burns other material.  It catches other things on fire.  Do you know how to tell if someone is a disciple?  They make other disciples.  Some Christians are a whole lot of smoke but no flame.  That’s not a true Christian.  That is not someone who has had a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

The young salesman was disappointed about losing a big sale, and as he talked with his sales manager he lamented, "I guess it just proves you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." The manager replied, "Son, take my advice: your job is not to make him drink. Your job is to make him thirsty." So it is with evangelism. Our lives should be so filled with Christ that they create a thirst for the Gospel.  (Preaching, November-December 1985)

(Hold up water bottle with half water, half tea – looks nasty) The problem is that too many Christians say, “Aren’t you thirsty?  Look how good my water is.  Don’t you want a drink of my luke-warm, dirty water?”  You do that by complaining about everything, gossiping about your neighbor, cheating on your taxes, telling dirty jokes and falling apart when bad things happen.  Non-Christians see that and it’s no wonder they don’t want your water.  Their water looks just as good to them as what you have.  If your life is no different than theirs, don’t waste your breath.  You make the water look bad.

Maybe today your life is no different than an unbeliever because you aren’t really a believer.  There are lots of people that walk an aisle, say the right words and get baptized and maybe even go to church for years who are not real believers.  A true Christian’s life will always be marked by true obedience, true worship and true evangelism.  If that doesn’t look like you, I need to talk with you today.

Let’s bow our heads and close our eyes as the music plays and let the Lord speak to you this morning.  Let Him draw you to Himself.  Accept His forgiveness of your sin and turn away from that sin, acknowledge Him as your Lord and Savior and ask Him to change your life as you start your real relationship with Him.  He died on the cross as a substitute for you because your sins had to be paid for and now that debt is completely paid in full.  All you have to do is believe.  Do that today.