Zechariah 9:9, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Palm Sunday is the celebration of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The prophet Zechariah prophesied some 500 years before that first Palm Sunday that God would send His king into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Jesus entered Jerusalem just as Zechariah promised, and this led the Jewish onlookers to begin waving palm branches and shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (John 12:13). Hosanna communicates the message, “save now!”
Let us all remember this coming week that Jesus came to “save now.” He entered Jerusalem on a mission to save the world from the penalty of our sin. Jesus is our great Passover lamb and He died a substitutionary death on Calvary so we can live. But the Gospel not only saves us from this penalty of sin, but it also saves us from the power of our sin. Through faith, we have now been reconciled to God and filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. We now have a great high priest in Jesus Christ who is ready to give us grace and mercy in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16)
So, what do you need saving from this week? Maybe you need saving from an addiction or sin that has gotten a stronghold on your life. Jesus can save you from it . Maybe your marriage is crumbling and needs help. Jesus can save it. Maybe your finances or career are in turmoil. Jesus can save it. Maybe you need saving from your greed, anger, anxiety, or shame. I want to encourage you to pray those same words they shouted on that first Palm Sunday: “save now!”
Spend some extra time in the latter parts of the Gospels for these two weeks. Focus on Jesus’ last days to prepare you for Good Friday and for Easter Sunday. Invite someone to join you for this special Palm Sunday featuring our children’s choir in both services. As a reminder, we are also taking questions this week for our upcoming “Ask Me Anything” episode on our Citizen ATX podcast. As we take a break from our Revelation study for Holy Week, I invite you to submit any questions you may have from Revelation chapters 1-18. We will do our best to answer as many of them as we can in next week’s bonus episode. You can email questions to info@austinbaptistchurch.com or send a direct message to our @austinbaptistchurch pages on Facebook and Instagram.
I look forward to seeing you this weekend for a special Palm Sunday message and hour of worship.
Onward and upward,
Jonathan Spencer
www.jonathanspencer.org 