Hidden away in the middle of the book of Deuteronomy Moses declared: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him," (Deut. 18: 15).
In verses 18 and 19 God speaking through Moses says: "I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him."
These verses may seem to get lost in the saga of Deuteronomy but they were not forgotten. The promise of a prophet like Moses shaped the thinking of those who expected great things from God.
No matter how tough life became or how cruel and strong Israel's enemies, there was hope. God will raise up a prophet like Moses. God's prophet will set the nation free. The prophet will speak clearly the word of God. He will lead us into a new and revived relationship with God.
Evidence of Israel's expectation of a prophet is found in the New Testament. Examine the questions put to John the Baptist. John 1: 20-23: "He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, "I am not the Christ." They asked him, "Then who are you? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" He answered, "No." Finally they said, "Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, "I am the voice of one calling in the desert, 'Make straight the way for the Lord.'"
We see the phrase used again in Philip's excited words to Nathaniel. John 1:45: "Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote-Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
Jesus himself referred back to the words of Deuteronomy when he spoke to those who doubted him. John 5:45-46: "But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.
Palm Sunday brings us to a high point in Jesus' ministry. The people who were on their way to celebrate the Passover see Jesus as coming from God. Both phrases, the Prophet and the Messiah (God's anointed one) were applied to Jesus. How the two converged (the promise of a Messiah and the promise of a prophet) or even if they did converge, we are not sure. The people were waiting for God to intervene. Jesus, through his teachings and his miracles, looked like the one they were waiting for. They were ready to celebrate. They were ready to praise and glorify God.
When Jesus climbed on to the donkey the disciples brought him, his followers caught the significance of what was happening. Jesus was entering Jerusalem as King. Hundreds of years before, the prophets Isaiah and Zechariah had predicted the event. Matthew combines the two prophecies: "Say to the Daughter of Zion, See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."
The Prophet, the Messiah, the King - in Jesus, these three titles come together. God was on the move. He was doing remarkable things. The crowd began to chant praises.
Not everyone was delighted by what was taking place. We read in Luke 19: 39: "Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"
Rebuke them for what? The Pharisees wanted Jesus to stop the crowd from singing the praises of God. Stop the people! Do it quickly and do it strongly! Stop the people from identifying you as the Messianic King. Jesus, this is getting dangerous. If you don't get control, if you don't contain these people, bad things are going to happen. We will end up having a revolution and the Romans will kill us all.
Fear of a revolution by the people and a forceful Roman intervention disturbed the religious leaders in Jerusalem. Prior to Palm Sunday, the leaders determined that Jesus could be the tipping point for a revolution. From their perspective he was so dangerous they needed to kill him. Their rationale is recorded in John 11: 47 "…Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."
The shouts, the joy and the songs of the people on what we have come to know as Palm Sunday, heightened the fears. Their only hope was to appeal to Jesus. "Jesus you are the one in control here. Stop your people from being so foolish. Restore order. You are playing with dangerous hopes and expectations."
Jesus answer was shocking. Using a figure of speech from the prophet Habakkuk he says: "If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." Later, when Jesus is in the temple, he heals many who are suffering. The children in the temple see what is happening and begin to sing, "Hosanna to the Son of David." The chief priests and the teachers of the law get angry. They come to Jesus, "Do you hear what these children are saying?" Underlying their question was: "This is crazy Jesus. You are not an object of praise. You are not the Son of David. We can't explain you but we know you are NOT the Messiah or the King or the Prophet. So get a grip on yourself. Don't let these words go to your head. Stop these children from singing your praise."
Jesus replied with a quotation from Psalm 8: "From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise." The psalmist goes on to say "because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger." Hmmmm.
Jesus did not think praise was crazy at all. He knew who he was. He knew why he came. He knew he was from God. He knew he was the long awaited Messiah, the Son of David. He was the Prophet who came to deliver and mediate between God and his people.
To the Pharisees he was saying, "Sorry, guys, but you have missed the boat. My followers and the children of our community know something you have not figured out yet. My heavenly Father and I are deserving of praise. To glorify and praise God will not doom the country. I have come to bring salvation not destruction."
The people were right on. God was using children to silence and, in this case, to frustrate and anger, the foe and the avenger.
Luke tells us that after he had said, "If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out," Jesus began to weep as he caught sight of Jerusalem. He knew that what the religious leader feared was going to happen. It would not be because the people embraced him but because they would reject him. They would reject him and keep looking for deliverance in other ways. What would take place was tragic.
Let me give you two examples. It would be like having the winning ticket for fifteen million dollars in your hand and throwing it away without claiming the prize. Or, if you are a Tim Horton's fan, it would be like having the words "You've won an SUV" under the rim but instead of rolling up the rim, you throw the cup in the garbage. A true story, so I have heard.
As Jesus thinks of the rejection both he and the Father will experience he weeps - not for himself but for those who threw him away, who treated him with contempt refusing to accept him for who he was, God's promised Messiah. Why? Because in accepting him, there was peace.
John writes his words of anguish: "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace-but now it is hidden from you eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you."
If you and I throw away a Tim Horton's cup with the grand prize unclaimed or a winning ticket worth 15 million dollars, we will grieve. But frequently the prizes bring more trouble than joy. For some the result of winning is despair. But when we reject Christ, we cut ourselves off from the source of life - life now and life forever.
Every time a person rolls up the rim of Tim Horton's cup, there is the desire to win and to win big. "Give me the grand prize." Jesus is the grand prize in life. He is the grand prize because he is life. The challenge is to see him for who he really is. When we see him for who he really is, we will come to him, we will submit to him, we will sing his praises. We will join his disciples and say: "Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest."
Who is Jesus to you? Is he the Messiah? The King? The Prophet? If he is, are you submitting to him as Lord? How is he making a difference in your speech, in your decisions, in your priorities, in your relationships, in your dreams?
If Jesus is not the source of your life, who or what are you substituting for Him? What is preventing you from embracing him as your source of life?
My challenge to you is to look to Jesus as the source of life. He is the greatest gift God could ever give us. Choose him over all else. Don't throw the opportunity away!
As a congregation it is our desire to collectively glorify the God who fulfilled his promise and sent his Son as Saviour and Lord. "Together We Glorify God" when we worship on Sunday mornings. Your presence this morning means you put worship into your schedule. You did whatever it took to get here. We glorify God when we sing his praises and heap honour on his Son. He is the most worthy object of our worship.
Our building project is for the purpose of us glorifying God together. We honour God when we move beyond singing and listening to action - the action of sacrificial and generous giving. True worship does not end on Sunday morning. True worship is listening to God and trusting him in every area of our life. If Jesus is truly Lord, he is Lord in every area of our life. That includes our willingness to trust him with our finances. This capital campaign is about listening to God and responding in trust to Him.
"Together We Build" Why? There is only one reason: to glorify God. We glorify God when we love people enough to give and to build to make these facilities assessable. The building and the giving is all about our desire to do something that will bring honour and glory to God.
Through generous giving we say, "Father, I love you. I want to express my love in a very practical way. I want to do what I can to honour you with the resources you have placed in my hand."
Remember when the sophisticated Pharisees demanded Jesus restrain the people, he said, "No. What you are seeing is a good thing. God is worthy of honour and glory." As a congregation, as people who belong to God, we exist to glorify him. In this stage of our history we say, "Together We Build". And 'Together We Build' so that 'Together We Glorify God!' Jesus is King! We want to praise and honour him.