Sermon Notes: Palm Sunday 2022

Reachcommunity - April 10, 2022

Sermon Palm Sunday 2022
Pastor James Weidner

Announcements:

Wednesday 7pm The Road To The Cross, with a couple surprises.
Friday 7pm The Bloods Speaks Part 1
Saturday 3pm OutReach at Koop Park
Sunday 10am Resurrection Sunday The Blood Speaks Part 2
Break Week April 18-23 For RLC, Groups, and Services
Men’s Night moved to April 27th 6pm
Glory Night moved to April 29th 7pm, which will also be Night of Prayer until Mid-night.

Offering: Mary’s Anointing Of Jesus

John 12:3-7 Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. 4 But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who would betray Him, said, 5 “Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6 This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it. 7 But Jesus said, “Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial. 8 For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always.”

Mary’s offering was an expensive offering.
The offering was an act of worship.
It was a response of thankfulness, Lazarus had already been raised from the grave.
But likely, and most importantly, the offering had a purpose that was a centered upon Jesus, preparing Him for burial.
Becoming a generous giver is a difficult challenge.
People in your life will ridicule you calling it a waste.
There is much more immediate satisfaction with spending the excess in our life on ourselves.
The resources God has given us is one of the tools to accomplish the plan of God for your life and the plan of God in general.
Until you have the revelation that your provision was given for a purpose.
Jesus needed to be anointed. Mary was the vessel. The spikenard was the tool. The plan of God was accomplished.

Offering Song.

Introduction:

John 11:40-44 (NKJV) 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” 41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” 43 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” 44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”

Picking up from where we left off last week.
What a great miracle that we witness in the reading of the Word of God.
From the waiting Jesus, to the groaning Jesus, to the weeping Jesus, to the miracle working Jesus.
And so the time came when Lazarus was commanded to come forth, so come forth he did.

1. Lazarus’ miracle was a picture of salvation.

One who was once dead and now is alive.
Sometimes we Christians and Preachers mistakenly make a distinction between *being saved* and someone *being radically saved*.
Lazarus’ resurrection helps us to see that there is no distinction to be made… when you were dead you were dead, there are no different levels of dead.

Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

Though Lazarus was raised to new life he was bound with grave cloths.

Lazarus coming out of the tomb was shocking but likely a little funny also.
Having been prepared for burial he was tightly bound up and placed in the grave.
He needed help to be loosed as does most people who come into new life with Christ.
This is where community, patience, and discipleship come in.
People need to be loosed to let them go back into life.
Once the grave cloths were removed Lazarus was exposed yet free.
I don’t want to take this point too far but there is some truth to needing to be completely exposed to be completely free.

Lazarus’ resurrection sparked a miny revival.

John 11:45-48 (NKJV) 45 Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him. 46 But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did. 47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. 48 If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.”

Many jews began believing.
Other went back and told the chief Priest and Religious leaders what had happened.
And instead of rejoicing they were concerned for their position.
It is easy to get off track when your concern is over position, notoriety, wealth and success.

The religious leaders of our day make the same tragic miscalculation.

John 11:49-52 (NKJV) 49 And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.”

We see it with the current documentary that has come out about Hillsong.
I have not watched the documentary. Will I watch it…. I am not sure yet.
Let me say that it is a tragedy any time a Pastor, or Church falls into scandal and it is never good for the body of Christ.

One underlining cause is the desire to be someone on this earth.

Wanting to be someone will inevitably lead to misplace priorities and goals.
Once you make the decision that you are going to be someone that goal takes priority over all else.
Not to mention it is contradictory to the essence of Jesus’ message “the first shall be last and the last shall be first”.
How do we get followers, how do we build bigger, how to we get the money to accomplish being someone.

This was Caiaphas and the High Priestly family.

Caiaphas was the son-in-law of Annas, the former high priest, which may have accounted for his own rise to power. Caiaphas was also a member of one of the ruling Jewish sects, the Sadducees.
Sadducees were often wealthy men of high position and, as they sought to appease their Roman rulers, were heavily involved in politics. They held the majority seat in the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high court, over which Caiaphas ruled for the 18 years he served as high priest.
In terms of theology, Sadducees denied the afterlife and any existence of the spiritual world (angels, demons, etc.). Because of these things, they were often at odds with Jesus due to His teachings about humility, heaven, and His own deity.
As we will learn more on Wednesday. Caiaphas was the symbolic High Priest but Annas was the power broker.
Jesus Was Brought To Annas First.

“For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor an angel, nor a spirit” (Acts 23:8). They were the anti-supernatural liberals of their day. This is why they were “sad-u-see.”

Such is the obstinate nature of spiritual prejudice. Don’t believe that “seeing is believing” business. Seeing is not always believing. The Sadducees, by their own admission, could not deny that a miracle had taken place. But their prejudice was too deeply ingrained to allow them to believe what they were seeing with their very own eyes.

The High Priest’s prophecy was not on his own authority.

John 11:51 Now this he did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.

When you think you are saying one thing but the Lord is actually saying something else out of your mouth.
This is why and how the Lord can use whomever or whatever He chooses to speak His Word.
Caiaphas thought he was saying something completely different than what we can clearly see today.
Caiaphas thought, in today’s language, he was saying “let’s put a hit out on this Jesus and take care of our problem”
Instead what the Lord was really saying through Him was that Jesus had to die at the hands of evil men to receive eternal life.

It was with a Word of Prophesy that the plot to put Jesus to death was implemented.

John 11: 53 Then, from that day on, they plotted to put Him to death.

John 11:54 Therefore Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, and there remained with His disciples.

The Lazarus miracle forced Jesus into solitude with His disciples for a period of time.
From that time until the Triumphal entry Jesus no longer walked openly.
Instead Jesus went to a nearby city called Ephraim to have alone time with His disciples.
Around 15 miles away from Bethany and Jerusalem Epraim was a good place to hunker down and have some focused final discipleship time to prepare them for what was coming next.

To be continued on Wednesday.