The crowds replied, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”The multitudes said, “This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.And the multitudes said, This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.
4 sermons cite this verse
… When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, who is this? The crowds were saying, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee. This is the word of God for you, the people of God. Thanks be to God. Palm Sunday is part spontaneous parade, part protest march. When Jesus rides into Jerusalem beside a donkey, residents of the city begin to whisper. They elbow each other. They point. They quote scripture. Remember that passage from Zechariah? the one that says your liberating king will show up riding a donkey. The warrior who will chase away your oppressors will enter town on the most humble of steeds. The crowd squints. They nod at each other. They get excited. Soon they're shouting, singing, dancing. They throw palms into the street. Don't let that colt scuff his hooves. Clear the way. Messiah on board. People lean out open windows in Jerusalem. Blue whistles. Hoist homemade signs. Romans out. No emperors. All along the parade route people chant. They sing verses from the Psalms. They cheer the donkey's rider. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming of the king, the descendant of David. Yes, others reply. Let's put this guy on the throne. Let's name him king. At this point, Palm Sunday starts to look like a political rally. And that's when things get dangerous. Dangerous? How? Well, first off, to name some local rabbi king is a risky play. …
And I say this just for authenticity's sake. Matthew chapter 21, verses 1 to 17. Matthew covers this from his eyes, Matthew. And then Mark's gospel, Mark 11, verses 1 through 11. Mark sees it and records it through his eyes. And then Dr. Luke, medical doctor, the gospel of Luke. Luke from chapter 19, verses 29 onward, he records it. And that's the chapter or the book I've selected for today. And then, of course, John chapter 12, verses 12 to 19. John records it from his eyes. Why is this important? I don't want to get too much into this, except that the Bible says that before two or three witnesses, the truth shall be established. Which, by the way, if you're an attorney, or maybe you're a judge, or maybe you're involved in law, did you know that our jurisprudence of the United States of America is founded upon the biblical requirement of you not being able to be convicted without multiple witnesses? Did you know our founding fathers got that from the scriptures? …
… And in Matthew's gospel in particular, he says there's a donkey and then a colt, the foal of a donkey. So a foal is four years or younger. So there's a donkey and the colt here in Matthew's gospel because of the way he's reading the text. So let me take you back 1,600 years before the birth of Jesus, all right? 1,600 BC, and it could be 1,500. We're not exactly sure the date. But Jacob, whose name was also Israel, Jacob is about to die. And Jacob invites his sons to come before him. And he's going to pronounce a blessing. This is the final blessing he's going to give to his kids. Yesterday morning, I was with one of our members who just passed away this afternoon, and I was at Hospice House. And three of his kids were there. They'd all come into town, and they spent the last week with him, or the last five or six days with him, and described how lovely and meaningful it was to have that last few days with their dad, and how, you know, until yesterday, before yesterday, he was able to talk to them and give his blessings to them, and there was just something meaningful about that. …
… And when he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved saying, who is this? So the multitude said, this is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee. Y'all see that? I want to talk about the destiny of a donkey. The destiny of a donkey. I started to call it the destiny of a jackass but I thought that might not be a good way to put it some of y'all might not get past that so it's the destiny of a donkey it is it is historically as I grew up in church it is the Sunday that we used to do this many years ago we stopped we used to pass out these palms and we stopped passing out palms for two reasons first of all we stopped passing out the palms because we had to clean up half of them out in the parking lot so we stopped buying them just to have to pick them up and put them in the trash. But secondly, in this story here, the people who laid the palms down worshipped him and one week later they said crucify him. I don't want to be in a crowd that one moment is praising him and the next moment is crucifying him. …