INTRODUCTION [On screen: Carpe Diem ] Can anyone tell me what this means? (Seize the day) It comes from a Latin poem by Horace. Palm Sunday, the event known as The triumphant entry is all about this. [On screen: ] Now, the title of the sermon was written in these strange Hebrew letters. It is the word: ( Meshiach ; Messiah) The triumphant entry is also, all about this. Matthew 21 4. All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: 5. "Tell the daughter of Zion, `Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.' '' 6. So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. 7. They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. 8. And a very great multitude spread their garments on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: "Hosanna to the Son of David! `Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' Hosanna in the highest!'' 10. And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, "Who is this?'' 11. So the multitudes said, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.'' What exactly is going on here? It is the beginning of Passover week. Jesus is about to officially enter Jerusalem. He has gone to great pains to make sure it is done in just the right way. And one of the arrangements is to ride in on a donkey. It fulfills something important enough that it is mentioned in quotes: "Tell the daughter of Zion, `Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.' '' Where did that come from? Why so important? It comes from: Zechariah 9 9. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. If we went back to this chapter, we d find it is talking about a savior king and superimposes the words of God with this king. There was no doubt it was talking about the Messiah. The image was God come in the flesh to save the remnant of His people. It describes this King Messiah as a polar opposite to the kings of this world. He is not lofty, but humble. He doesn t come to conquer but to heal with peace. 1 P a g e
For people to be shouting Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! It meant they believed they were addressing this Messiah. And there is a real immediacy to what they are crying out. Hosanna doesn t simply mean save, it means save NOW. Here is the point I am getting at; this was an incredibly unique opportunity. It was more than a once in a lifetime opportunity, it was three thousand years in the making! And now it was happening on that very Passover week, that very day, that very hour, in fact, that very minute. For those people in Jerusalem, everything had lined up to get close to God. They were in the right place at the right time, the message had gone out; God was coming within touching distance. Think about it for a moment: Even though the opportunity to see the Messiah after 3000 years was in their grasp; all they had to do was sleep in and they d miss it; and they d never see those circumstances again. Palm Sunday, the triumphant entry of Jesus was Carpe Diem to the max! It was a serious Messiah opportunity. It was happening now ; the appropriate cry was save NOW! The implication of this is extremely sobering. YOU CAN MISS GOD! God s offers are a limited time offer! Well, isn t God always willing to accept those who earnestly seek Him? -Yes, guaranteed! But that is not the same as: The opportunity to meet God is always available. That sounds almost un-evangelical so I ll explain: How can a person be cut off from the opportunity to get right with God? I m deliberately using that broader phrase get right because it may be a case of missing out entirely on God s saving grace, or it may be missing out on God s purpose, or some other significant blessing. In other words, there is a profound warning in the message of Palm Sunday; it is the warning of missed opportunity. That being said; let me offer three real-life stories on how people have missed the opportunity: Story #1~ Lost by Personal Nature Kathy said it was ok, so I share a story of hers: Many years ago, even before I knew her, she was blossoming in her spiritual life. She had grown to love the Christian camp meeting that happened every summer. She had been praying for someone who was very close to her and finally got him to come down to the camp meeting. On the way to the meeting, he had a close call on his motorcycle. It was one of those accidents he knew he was fortunate to walk away from. And it got him thinking of other events in his life, like how an illness should have killed him at sixteen. He had a sense that the only reason he was still around was because something or someone was looking out for him. At that camp meeting, in that summer, He was open like he had never been before. 2 P a g e
That summer they had a powerful speaker at the meeting. Everything was lined up; inside and out. The Messiah was within touching distance. This person even responded, at least on an emotional level, you might say he reached out to touch, but he did not take hold. There never came another time like that again. In fact, he drifted a long, long way in the other direction. -Would God accept him if he earnestly reached out again? Of course God would. Could it still happen? -Yes, but his nature has hardened further with each passing year. If he didn t take hold then, it is very unlikely now. We can lose out on God s opportunity because our personal nature. God, in His wisdom and timing, opens an opportunity, perhaps a few, where we can rise above our nature. But if we don t seize the opportunity, our own nature closes in on us. It forms a wall of ice between us and God that in all likelihood, we will never break through. Matthew 12 31. "Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. The word blasphemy, in a literal sense, means to shout down someone; to drown out their voice. To blaspheme the Holy Spirit means to scream so loud and long in your resistance that your spiritual eardrums have ruptured. The call of God s voice is still there, but it is lost to your mind and heart. Story #2~ Lost in Circumstances This is closely linked to the previous story, but it really comes down to the living situation we set up for ourselves. Many of us have known people who have gone this way: God has slowed down a person s life so that they can actually look at the real priorities; I mean the issues that affect our eternity. Maybe it s during a time of sickness, or job loss when God has set a cross roads before them. Then along comes a job or some change in circumstances in which they chase after. It s not even that their heart has hardened. It s just that their desire for that brass ring has them running in the wrong direction. Worship, prayer, and fellowship don t just go on the back burner; they are taken off the stove! You don t see them for a Sunday, then two, three, four; circumstances completely consume them away from God. Does that mean you shouldn t pursue that career or love interest, or whatever it might be? -If it s within the prescripts of Christ s teachings, of course not. But realize that even in the blessing there is a built-in danger. All we need to do is prioritize wrongly and we will lose the OPPORTUNITY of God by the circumstances we create. 3 P a g e
Can such a person return to God? Of course, but as long as they are locked in that focus, God s opportunities will never even come into view. And as the years whiz by; one, two, ten; all God s opportunities evaporate into time. Story #3 Cut Short in Time On the way home from the last workshop in Chicago, I was carpooling with Pastor Tom from Terre Haute. He was telling me one of his experiences from a few years ago. There was a lady who had been brought up in the church, but she had gotten off track. She was trapped in a very rocky marriage, but she managed to get to church sporadically. He d see her one Sunday, then perhaps a few Sundays later. At one service Pastor Tom sensed the Lord wanting him to give a word to this young lady. The message was basically, I know you ve been running away from me. I want you to know I love you and want you to come back to me. I am giving you one last chance. So the pastor wrestled with God a bit, What Lord! I can t say something like that. -But as usual, God won the argument and my pastor friend sat down next to this woman. And as he began to speak, he could see in her eyes that she knew exactly what he was talking about. He said she had that expression of someone who has just been found out. Two weeks later, this woman is sitting in the family van with her husband and three children outside a strip mall. The husband was convinced that the youngest child wasn t his. He pulls out a 44. The woman runs from the van, she reaches a motel, banging on the door for the night clerk to let her in. But not knowing who she is, the clerk doesn t open. Her husband catches up to her and pulls her away by the hair and then unloads an entire clip into her, pulverizing her body. I hope that no one in here is in that kind of domestic danger, but there is still no guarantee that your life or mine won t end just as abruptly. There have been people in this very congregation who were enjoying life in July, and because of cancer or some other illness, never saw Christmas. They knew God was opening opportunities to reach Him, but there was lots of time. Very few people get to see when that hour glass is really going to run out. We can lose God s opportunity in the abruptness of time. James 4 13. Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit''; 14. whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Palm Sunday On THIS Palm Sunday, how do we seize the opportunity? We do it the same way they did it in that first day; at least in principle. 4 P a g e
The laying of palm branches meant they were accepting the Messiahship, that is, the authority of Jesus as God come in the flesh. They were laying their personal authority at the feet of Christ; He was the boss. They laid their cloaks on the dusty ground. The common person didn t have a closet full of coats. That cloak was valuable. It was personal treasure. They laid what was personally important at the feet of Jesus. It was an exchange; those things for a relationship with the Messiah. That is what it took to seize this opportunity. CONCLUSION It is still the same today; it is still that exchange. We have to exchange our personal control and what is personally most important for a true relationship with the Messiah; lay it at His feet. There is a phrase from the Rabbinic teaching, the Pirkei Avoth (Chapters of the Fathers 1:14). It parallels Horace s words, Seize the day. It is this: And if not now, when? In the time it takes us to play a hymn, there is an opportunity for you to respond to the Messiah Christ. Each person; take a sticky note. Write what is most valuable to you; family, career, possessions; whatever. Write the things you need to turn over control to God. Up at the front we have laid down the same type of branches that were laid down before the Messiah on that day. Take your sticky note, lay it at the feet of the Messiah here on this cloak. (Do it only if you mean it.) Then take a branch in exchange. Take that branch home and place it somewhere prominent throughout this Holy Week. See it as a reminder of what you have laid down at the feet of Messiach, Messiah, Jesus; God who lives within, and transforms people. The opportunity is open for the few minutes it takes to play this song. Write a meaningful note, come up and exchange. Let it be said on this Palm Sunday, you seized the day. 5 P a g e