Pastor Daniel Slaughter
March 28, 2021
Palm Sunday
Hands of Praise (Disciples and Crowds)
Sermon Text: Mark 11:1-11
Some people are so afraid that heaven is going to be boring that they’re not interested in going. I bet if you say there will be no Xbox or Nintendo systems in heaven, you will get that sarcastic eye roll from your children. Grown-up children have the same kind of issues. They hear from their preachers and read in their Bibles that heaven is a place where we praise God, where we worship and sing, where we stand before our Creator and thank him for all the wonderful things and the great love, he has shown to us. Worship? Praise? Singing? What’s next? Floating on clouds and playing harps with dull religious people? No thank you.
Unfortunately, these are the same ideas that keep people from praising God on earth. It doesn’t take much of an excuse for a weak soul to stay away from God’s house. All a faltering soul needs to hear is that church is boring, he will have all the reason he needs to stay away. All a fearful sinner needs to know is that there are some bland religious people at a church, and he will be condemning them as hypocrites before he meets one. All a lazy, sick soul need to hear is that it is harder to read and understand the Bible than it is to push the power button on his 80’’ OLED TV remote.
Today is Palm Sunday. It is one of the greatest days of worship and praise of the whole year! It is not only a day in which we join in praise, but also a day on which we learn how to praise God and why we praise God. Jesus’ triumphant march into Jerusalem is the backdrop of praise. His humble and royal entry on a donkey draws all attention to him as a king. The clothing and the palm branches encourage our gifts. The singing of the children and the crowds draw out our hymns of praise. Though many in our world would rather go to hell than to find joy in worship and praise, today we will learn to find joy in raising to Jesus our Hands of praise.
Many people think that praising God is just something that you do on a hard pew. The reality is that most of the praising of God that happens on earth takes place outside of the church building. All the Palm Sunday praise of Jesus took place outside of God’s house. Some of the greatest praise of Jesus took place before the triumphal march, the singing, and the spreading of palms. The first praise came from the obedient hands of the disciples who listened to Jesus’ instructions. To go get a young donkey which was tied up in the town ahead of head of them. That if anybody said anything, they should simply say that Jesus needed it. Not only did the disciples do what they were told without question, but the men to whom the animal belonged would raise their hands in praise by giving the cold to Jesus without question.
The obedience of the disciples equals enthusiastic praise of Jesus! Unquestioning obedience to God is the kind of praise the Lord wants more of today. Praise of Jesus means more than saying and praying, “Your will be done on earth,” while at church or at home with our children. It means actually doing Jesus’ will on this earth without questioning the Lord’s wisdom or his love. Granted, Jesus’ instructions were unusual. Granted, the disciples who were told to get the donkey probably had questions. “Jesus how do you know the donkey will be there? How do you know we can take it without asking? How do you know the owner will let us take it?” But they didn’t ask. They did not question Jesus. They praised Jesus with their obedience.
Our world does not give Jesus that kind of praise. They question why God and his Word and his church have a right to tell us what to do at all. They question how God can send troubles into our lives and still claim to love us. They accuse the Bible of patriarchy when it names man the head of the woman and woman the helper of man. They question why they can’t live together without marriage, why they have to go to church if they feel fine without it. But believers strive to praise God with their obedience. Christians strive to live good, clean, decent, and honest lives outside the church in the world every day. They don’t just say and pray, “Your will be done.” They go out and obey so that Jesus will is done on earth.
But we recognize something too. We don’t do this all the time. We’ve let the world’s influence make us question God. We have failed to live our lives the way God demands. Instead of making excuses, what do we do? We come and worship. We confess our sins. We receive the forgiveness of sins. We look at the king who rode triumphantly into Jerusalem to die, to forgive, to rise. It rejuvenates us, so we can go out and obey so that Jesus will is done on earth.
Coming here during the pandemic, I have heard how you have showed praise to God with your money! During this unprecedented time, it seems to me that you stepped up and showed your praise for your Savior through your support and offerings. It reminds me of the crowds on Palm Sunday who were not tight with their praise of Christ. They were lavish with their gifts of money and material things. One person happily gave the use of his donkey. The disciples took off their own cloaks and put them that donkey on which Jesus rode. Others took their coats off and put them on the dirt so that the donkey that Jesus rode would not get its hooves dirty. Still others having nothing else to give cut down palm branches as a symbol of Jesus’ victory. The crowds, the disciples praised Jesus with what they had.
Another kind of praise on that first Palm Sunday was the praise of mouths. “Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, ‘Hosanna!’ ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ‘Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!’ ‘Hosanna in the highest heaven!’” (vv. 9,10). When the praise of obedience and the praise of money is there, the praise of the mouth will naturally follow. It is enthusiastic. It is loud. It is joyous and happy. There was no printed liturgy or hymnal in front of these people. There was no rehearsed choir music. They didn’t object to the dull and boring nature of the praise, and they didn’t refuse praise unless there were at least drums and an electric guitar. In fact, the enemies of Jesus were looking on, watching closely and jealously as these people praised Jesus with their mouths when they weren’t even in church!
Jesus still desires the praise of our mouths, but not just our singing in church. He desires the spontaneous, sincere praise of our mouths out in the world where his enemies are listening. We will not convert any souls to Jesus by cursing and swearing, by arguing and fighting about religion or anything else, by bad-mouthing Jesus’ church or its members, or by being pessimistic and grumpy. But we will give praise to the King by confessing our faith to the weak and sinful, by praying openly for those in need, by singing hymns around the family table, by speaking for the spiritual work of the church at committee and board and voters’ meetings, by being friendly when we usher someone down the aisle, by being faithful in making our rounds and calls as stewardship visitors, by volunteering to canvass with our evangelism committee, and by visiting the sick and imprisoned. Jesus needs the praise of your mouth, not just here in church, but out in the world, especially in the hearing of his enemies.
What moves us? What makes us get off the couch and want to come and worship? What makes us want to go and live obedient lives? What makes us want to give our offerings? What makes us want to praise Jesus with our lips? Think about the chain of events that today led toward. How Jesus was arrested, beaten, and abused. How he was tried, sentenced, and executed. How he suffered in our place for the sins we committed. But then on Easter he rose. He rose from the grave. He did it all for you and me. He did it for the people who shouted praise to him on Palm Sunday and for those who cursed him on Good Friday. He died for the sins of the World and that forgiveness is received through faith! Maybe the questions should be, “Why wouldn’t we want to worship not only now but for all eternity, the one who did everything for us?”
You can think that heaven will be boring only if you think that praising God is boring on earth. And you can believe that only if you are standing by and doing nothing on this Palm Sunday. There were only two groups of people watching Jesus enter Jerusalem: those who praised him and those who hated him. Dear Lord Jesus, enter our hearts as King. Let us praise you. Let our hands praise you with our unquestioning obedience. Let our hands praise you with our money, knowing that all the money in the world will not be able to repay the blood you shed for us. And let us praise you with our mouths every day in every way outside the church. Then one day soon we will praise you in heaven, where our praise will be anything but boring. Amen.