Sunday, 18th March 2021
Rev Daniel Xi An Poon
Matthew 21:1-11
The Spirit of God really wants us to seek Him seriously, for His direction and what He want us and our church to be. As a church, we must become one voice, one spirit and one body. During the period of fasting and praying, God has revealed a vision to our church, what He wants us to be.
1) God wants us to be a Healthy Church
Healthy in body, in soul and in spirit. If we are not healthy, everything will be destroyed. We must be a healthy church, to be a healthy person, to have a health relationship with others, to bring the good health to our family, our work, our community, our nation and the world.
2) God wants us to do a Good Thing
We often interpret ‘doing good thing’ to be doing charities. But in here, God wants us to do the thing He wants us to do. We need to do the things that are right in the eyes of God.
When we first received Christ as our Saviour, we became a child of God. At the beginning everything was exciting, we experienced God’s love and lots of miracles. After some time, we will step into the identity as the sons and daughters of God, to really seek God’s Will and partnership with Him in good or difficult times.
Today is Palm Sunday, it was the seven to last day of Jesus in this world. Everyday was counted. Before He entered Jerusalem, He spent six months with His disciples and talked to them about His calling.
Jesus was in the mountain of Olive, at the time He knew He only had seven days of His life on earth. He wanted the disciples to know deeper why he came to Jerusalem, so He started performing miracles. Every miracle Jesus did has meanings. In Mathew 21:2, Jesus asked the disciples to go into the village. When we enter into the village, what will we see? A donkey and a colt.
The donkey and the colt must belonged to someone else, but Jesus asked the disciples to bring them and if anyone said anything, just say, “the Lord has need of them”. It means no one has the authority to stop the disciples to loose the donkey and the colt for Jesus. Where is our village? Where does Jesus send us to?
We all have a village, where Jesus sends us to, and in there we will see the donkey and colt being tied up. They serve their master all their lives, being ridden or carrying burdens. They serve the world and their children serve with them. But Jesus wants to loose them! By His power, His order and His authority, Jesus wants to set them free! We should not live in bondages like our forefathers, and Jesus is giving His authority to the disciples to loose the donkey and the colt!
The first day of the seven days, Jesus wanted to set us free! He knew He was facing the cross in seven days but He did not concern for Himself but to set the world free! Jesus loves us and wants to set us free from any bondages!
The disciples brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their clothes on them. In the Book of Genesis, when Adam and Eve sinned they needed to leave the Garden of Eden. For the first time, God killed the lamb and used its skin to cover Adam and Eve. God covered their shame with the lamb. In the same way, the disciples put cloths on the donkey and the colt, then let Jesus ride on them.
The donkey and the colt might have entered Jerusalem many times in the past with their master. But on this day, because Jesus’ mercy, they are no longer just a donkey and a colt, their stories are being told until today! What a special donkey? All because of Jesus! As the donkey carrying Jesus, the King of the kings, he saw people on the left and right put their clothes and palm leaves on the road for them to walk through. This represents welcoming an important guest.
When the disciples put their clothes on the donkey and the colt, they became different; when Jesus rode on them, people respected and honoured them. We might be struggling our whole life, we might see many problems in our lives, but Jesus sees us differently. When the servant of God come and set us free, we will be different. Do not listen to what the world tells us, the world tells us that we can’t change, the world reminds us of our shame, and the world puts us down. But Jesus knows us, He prepares us, He leads us, and He can change our lives, as long as we believe and allow Jesus to ride on us.
On the other hand, the people put their cloths and palm leaves on the road for Jesus to go. Everyone was praising and shouting, the whole city was moved and people asked “who is this?” But the answer was “this is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”
A lot of Christians do not really know who Jesus is! We think like the people that He is only a prophet from a small town. We only come to Him when we are facing problems or hard times. Jesus is asking us to go into the village, but we only see ourselves. We think we are too busy and there are better things for us to do instead of going into the village.
Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, He wants to come to our lives and give us His honour and glory. We need to be humble and be willing for Him to ride on us, so He can give us a better life! Jesus does not need us, He can walk by Himself to enter Jerusalem. But He wants to set us free and let us walk with Him!
We are poor in spirit, we live in a double-stand life, when we face the world we use our strength, ideas and strength. But on this Palm Sunday, God is using Matthew 21 to speak to us. He wants us to know who He is!
In Matthew 16:15-19, Jesus said to His disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” Do we know Jesus is the Christ, Son of the living God? If we do, then we are blessed. Not only this, Jesus will also give us the key of the kingdom of heaven, whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever we loose on earth will be loose in heaven!
We must know Jesus well! He is not just a prophet, who we come to when we face difficulties. Let Jesus reign in our lives, it’s no longer us but Jesus lives in us!