Hosanna! Behold the Lamb of God!!

Rev Enoch Thompson | April 2, 2023 | Matthew 21:1-17

KEY VERSE:

"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!" Matthew 21:9 (NIV)

MESSAGE:

We shall interrupt our verse by verse reflections in the Gospel of Matthew and pay attention to our celebration of Easter, by following the traditional reflections on the happenings of Holy Week, the records in the Gospels that sum up the events between the triumphal entry of the Lord Jesus into Jerusalem through the crucifixion and Resurrection.

Today the whole Christian world is celebrating the entry of the Lord Jesus Christ into the city of Jerusalem. The scene is charged with the Lord Himself riding a donkey and a colt, multitudes around the Prophet from Nazareth, clothes thrown on the road and tree branches placed before Him to show welcome and honour to their accepted Messiah. The loud proclamations of the crowds were significant; _"Hosanna to the Son of David!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Hosanna in the highest!" (NIV). The people were quoting Psalm 118:25-26, they were acknowledging Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah and their King. Hosanna was a cry for salvation; the crowds were calling for the intervention of the Saviour to deliver them from what they saw as their greatest affliction, their being subject to Roman rule at the time. The Lord did not rebuke their cry for a misguided salvation. And today many are calling ourselves Christian, not because we have come to the Lord to deal with our sin disease but because we seek some solution to some challenges of life. The Lord entertained their welcome and their support because at the higher level He was bringing to pass the eternal plan of God to bring salvation, not only to the Jewish nation and for material comfort, but from the rule of Satan and to people everywhere who would accept His self-sacrifice that He had come into Jerusalem to bring about.

The day on which the Lord rode into Jerusalem was the tenth day of the month for the celebration of the Passover, that great reality and picture of deliverance from oppression and misrule in Egypt. The Jews selected the lamb to be sacrificed for the Passover meal on this day, and kept it till the fourteenth day when it was slaughtered (Exodus 12:1-7). Whatever else was happening politically and socially God was making an eternal spiritual declaration, a public declaration that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was the Lamb of God who was to fulfil the essence of the Jewish Passover lamb, by being selected and presented this day, to be sacrificed by the fifth day of that week. The triumphal entry into Jerusalem aroused different emotions in different people at the time. But for us and for all generations thereafter, we must see and appreciate what was done for us, the Lamb of God was set apart to shed His blood, willingly, for our new Passover. Hosanna! Behold the Lamb of God!! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!!!

FEET AND HANDS FOR THE MESSAGE:

Celebrate the exactness of the fulfilment of God’s promises which brought about our salvation in the Lamb of God so graciously provided for us. Sing Hosanna with meaning, salvation from the rule of Satan and sin, and then salvation from all that afflicts us.

PRAYER:

Lamb of God, the King who dies for His people’s sins, thank you for the great free offer of your sinless self to stand in my sinful place. I cry “Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.” Now and always to worship you, For your dear Name’s sake, Amen.

THERE SHALL BE SHOWERS OF BLESSING.

SHOWERS! BLESSINGS!!