Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
April 9, 2006 - W0615

This is Palm Sunday -- the day in history when Jesus triumphantly rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. This story speaks about three points that will help us to calibrate our hearts correctly and understand what redemption means.

These three corrections can be illustrated by the story of how ships navigated through a very perilous and narrow channel to arrive at a port in Italy. Many ships were sunk by hitting unseen rocks and reefs until sailors came up with the idea of setting up three lighted poles that the ships could see. All the ships had to do was line their course up with the three poles and keep correcting until they made it safely into port.

Similarly, we want to follow Jesus’ three points and align our hearts as we prepare for Easter. “As He was going, they were spreading their coats on the road. As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, shouting: ‘BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!’ Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, ‘Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.’ But Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!’” (Lk. 19:36-40) So let’s talk about this appointment Jerusalem had with God. While this may sound similar to a first century ticker tape parade, this was not really the case. In fact, when compared to the preparation and treatment we give to visiting dignitaries, Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem that Palm Sunday wasn’t that elaborate. Remember that He wasn’t trying to gain favor.

Although at first glance, they received Him with cheering and shouts of praise, His purpose and message to the people wasn’t what they expected. Were they excited to see Jesus coming? Yes and no! You see, they’d witnessed Jesus multiply bread and fish. They saw Him open the eyes of the blind, cure a lame person, and resurrect Lazarus who had been dead for four days. So they figured if Jesus was able to do that, He would surely be able to deliver them from Roman rule. They wanted a king who would return Israel back to the Jewish people. They expected a military leader that would defeat the Romans.  

However, Jesus didn’t come to deliver them from their problems. He came to prepare their hearts to understand what redemption was all about. It is the same for us, but first He gives us three corrections that will help us align our hearts for our appointment with God and for His redemption invitation. The first correction Jesus came to do is to…

1.     CORRECT OUR EXPECTATIONS.

The people of Jerusalem expected a ruler who would deliver them from Roman occupation. Instead, they were disappointed when Jesus didn’t fit the role of what they thought a king should be. So their gladness soon turned to anger as their shouts of praise turned to shouts to crucify Him. As horrible as that sounds, the same thing happens to us when we are disappointed in God. We tend to lose our zeal for the Lord because our expectations are misplaced. We conclude that if we believe and have faith in God, our lives should be smooth and trouble free. On the contrary, because the Lord did not come to remove the ‘Romans’ from our lives or to diminish our problems. He came to save our souls and increase a relationship with Him. If He removed all the obstacles from our lives, we’d never experience transformation from glory to glory into His image.

So instead He sometimes takes us through struggles to give us likeness. He may not take away the problem, but He will deliver us from it so that we can overcome it and come through looking more like our Father. So the problem as we see it becomes a refining moment. That’s why it is important that our expectation of God is aligned correctly because when our hopes are shattered, we’ll be discouraged and angry. So it is essential that when we are mad at God we allow Him process through any misguided expectation. Otherwise, we will develop wrong opinions about church, leaders, or faith and soon our hearts are hardened.   

That’s what happened to the Pharisees. “Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, ‘Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.’ But Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!’”  (Lk. 19:39-40).  In other words, they believed that there was no need for all the fanfare. But the Lord disagrees by saying that if the crowd wasn’t allowed to show their affection for Him, then He’d cause the inanimate objects to do so. So the Lord comes also to…

2. CORRECT OUR PERSPECTIVE.

Sometimes we can have a wrong perspective of what we believe should take place when we come to church. Remember that we don’t set out to replace the presence of God with all the fanfare and celebration. We do that to honor and welcome His presence because He deserves our best. 

I remember a time when I took my wife to a fancy restaurant instead of an inexpensive one while we were on Kauai. Both restaurants probably bought the same food from the same wholesaler. Yet the difference was that the fancy restaurant took more time and care in preparing and presenting the food to us. The fancy restaurant honored the whole food experience with their presentation for us.

The same is so for us at New Hope. We honor the Word of God. To us it is precious and valuable. We make sure that it is presented in the most celebrated, excellent, and deserving way possible.

So the Lord makes a few corrections in His appointment with us. He comes not to remove problems, but to repair our souls through forgiveness and to make sure we have a relationship with God. And when we are upset with God, let Him correct our misplaced expectation so we’ll be transformed from glory to glory. The second correction He sometimes has to help us change is our perspective. Oftentimes people may view our celebration of Him as just a lot of unnecessary fanfare. On the contrary, our exuberance and all-out worship is not a show. It is celebrating the presence of the one who is alive and changing lives. And finally, Jesus came      to …

3.     CORRECT OUR PURPOSE.

The day after His entry into Jerusalem, Jesus cleans out the temple. “Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling, saying to them, ‘It is written, AND MY HOUSE SHALL BE A HOUSE OF PRAYER, BUT YOU HAVE MADE IT A ROBBERS DEN.’” (Lk. 19: 45-46) “

…for My house will be called a house of prayer of all the peoples.” (Isa. 56:7 NIV)

At first reading, we might believe that God did not want things for sale at church. So I looked it up and found that historically, there was a place called the Court of the Gentiles where people who were non-Jews could come and seek God. In actuality, it wasn’t the money changers on the temple grounds that God was angry at. Since the temple priests would not accept Roman currency, it necessitated having money changers and a place for people who traveled long distances to buy offerings. So Jesus did not protest what they sold. He protested where they conducted business. They had actually taken up the area designated for the Gentiles. They excluded non-Jews from the temple. So Jesus basically tells them the temple was a place for all nations and they robbed them of that. There was no room for people outside of the church to get in. Furthermore, one of the things the Pharisees didn’t like about Jesus was that He was always in the company of people they considered unworthy. On that day He brought these friends to the temple and found there was no room for them so He made room. He needed to correct their purpose.

So as we prepare for Easter, let us make room in our hearts and room in our schedules to call someone and invite them in. Our God is a loving and merciful God who will repair souls, restore relationships, and give us forgiveness and life forever. So allow Him to align your expectation of Jesus, the savior of our souls not a deliverer from our problems. Then we get to celebrate when people come to Christ because we will have a right perspective. And we will make room for people of all nations because that is the purpose of the church.

So allow the Lord to line up these three corrections so we will be ready for Easter. That is what He came for on Palm Sunday. He knew the cross was about to come, the empty tomb would be discovered, and the redemption of mankind was about to take place. But He had to prepare the church. He had an appointment with Jerusalem; He has an appointment with Hawaii.

 Study Questions

1.      What is or has been your expectation of God? Have you been disappointed?

2.      Have you felt that the church should fit a certain mold of what you perceive it should be? Do you feel differently after what you have learned today?

3.      How do you honor the Word of God?

4.      How are you making room for others to get to know Jesus? Who will you make a conscious effort to invite to church this week?

5.      What lesson have you learned today that you can begin to apply in your life this week?

Mahalo to Leighton Loo, a man who diligently aligns his heart correctly to God and faithfully serves Him with steadfast faith and commitment.