The Triumph of Palm Sunday: Praise Is Evidence of Life

This is the text of a message I preached at Roswell Alliance Church in Roswell, GA. Click on the link for the online service if you prefer to watch or listen. The sermon begins at about the 14th minute.

Video: 32 minutes

Reading time: 6 minutes

Online service – Roswell Alliance Church

Text: Luke 19:28-40

All four gospels record this account of Jesus entering Jerusalem, and most Bibles label it The Triumphal Entry. As I read them, one phrase caught my attention.

Matthew 21:6  The disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.

Mark 11:6 they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded.

The phrase is this: Just as Jesus had commanded. Here were people doing what Jesus said to do, and speaking the words Jesus gave them.

In this moment, these disciples were being like Jesus. Remember what Jesus said, “Whatever the Father does, the Son also does in like manner” (John 5:19). Jesus also said, “whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak“ (John 12:50).

Jesus did what the Father showed Him to do. Jesus spoke as the Father told Him to. So the disciples are being like Jesus. Just as He commanded, so they did and spoke.

This teaches us that, without obedience, there would be no Palm Sunday celebration. There would be no triumphal entry. Because the disciples obeyed Jesus, they found the donkey. Because they did as Jesus commanded, the owners of the donkey responded to their obedience and released the donkey for Jesus to use.

But more than this, if Jesus had not obeyed His Father to begin with, He would not be in Jerusalem this day. Jesus came because God sent Him. Jesus came into the world saying, “’Behold, I have come—in the volume of the book it is written of me—to do your will, O God.’ ” (Hebrews 10:7).

This teaches an important lesson.

Without obedience, there would be no triumph.

The triumph of this day is the obedience of Jesus and His people to the One who sent them.

Jesus has done many works: He has cast out demons; He made the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear; He has raised the dead. But here we see His greatest work: Through Him, people obey God.

The disciples did just as Jesus had commanded.

But something else is happening this day. It is expressed in Luke 19:37

the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen.

Not only are people obeying God, but they are also praising Him.

Not too long before, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. What we see here is another resurrection. Not of one man, but of a multitude.

Psalm 115:17-18 explains what we are looking at.

The dead do not praise the LORD.
But we will bless the LORD
from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the LORD!

The dead do not praise the Lord.

The praise of this multitude shows Jesus has brought them to life. It is the living, not the dead, who praise the Lord, and the whole multitude began to rejoice and praise God.

Jesus has raised them from the dead.

To understand this, we must remember the world Jesus came to.

Matthew: People sat in darkness and in the shadow of death.

John: Jesus came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

Jesus: light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light … everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light.

Jesus came to a dark world, and we didn’t want His light.

Jesus also said, “You, being evil, know to give good things.”

The Apostle Paul picks up on this: I want to do good, but can’t pull it off. I don’t want to do wrong, but I can’t stop myself.

Paul comes to this conclusion,

“I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good” (Romans 7:21).

“There is none who does good, no, not one” (Romans 3:12).

We are all dead in trespasses and sins…sons of disobedience and by nature children of wrath. Ephesians 2:1-3.

Jesus came into a world that not only was dark, but is also dead. Jesus said as much when a man wanted to follow Him but asked to bury his father first. Jesus said, “Let the dead bury the dead.”

Let me make the point with an illustration.

The story is told of a detective who witnessed a murder, captured the suspect and promised to witness against him. The crime boss has the detective’s wife kidnapped to prevent his testifying. The detective speaks on the phone with one of the kidnappers and demands, “Give me evidence of life.” He wants to hear her, or see her. Show me she’s alive.

This is the Triumph of Palm Sunday. On this day God gives us evidence of life.

What Jesus taught is playing out before our eyes.

“As the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. … the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live” (John 5:25).

There is no evidence of life in the Pharisees. They have no praise. No honor. No love for Jesus.

But the crowd? You can’t keep them quiet. God had said, “Let the redeemed of the LORD say so” (Psalm 107:2). The redeemed are crying out,

“Blessed Is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Hosanna  to the Son of David!”

Blessed means to speak well of. They are speaking well of Jesus.

Hosanna means “Oh, save!” They are crying out to Jesus, whose name means He shall save His people from their sins, “Save us!” They confess their need for salvation, “Hosanna! Save us!” And they confess Jesus as the Savior. “You whose name is salvation, do according to your name. Hosanna! Save!”

On this day, we find the disciples being like Jesus. They are being obedient.

On this day, the will of God is done. Jesus said, “all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him” (John 5:23). Here is a crowd honoring Jesus. They cry out, “Blessed!” “Hosanna!”  

On this day, men on earth are doing what is done in heaven. In Revelation, John is shown a scene in heaven that is similar to Jesus coming into Jerusalem. In John’s vision, Jesus approaches the throne of God, takes the scroll and there is rejoicing and worship. “Worthy is the Lamb.”

Jesus appears outside Jerusalem and takes a donkey, the symbol of a king. And there is worship and rejoicing.

There is only way this happens. Those who were dead in their sins have been brought to life. The dead do not praise the Lord, but the living do.

You can’t stop them. The redeemed of the Lord say so.

There is one group in this multitude that is not praising. The Pharisees want nothing to do with Jesus. They demand silence. They want the people to be like them: dead.

The dead praise not the Lord.

Their lack of praise proves what Jesus said, “if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.”

As we gather on this Palm Sunday, if we rejoice that Jesus came, let us rejoice that God has given us life. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so! The living praise the Lord!

But, if you have no praise for Jesus, this is a warning that you are still dead in your sin. If you have no honor for Jesus, you are in your grave. You are bound, as was Paul before Jesus delivered him. You want to do good, but you find evil is present and you can’t break free.

Hear the good news on this Palm Sunday. Jesus said, “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.”

Jesus has life in Himself, just like His Father, and gives life to whom He will (John 5:26, 21).

Enter into the triumph of Jesus’s arrival. May there be evidence of life in each of us today.