1 Thess 2:13-16; Palm Sunday and the subjects of God’s kingdom.

Sunday April 2, 2023

Title: 1 Thess 2:13-16; Palm Sunday and the subjects of God’s kingdom.

In the roles of gentle child, nursing mother, and guiding father, Paul and his toiled night and day. Not 24 hours a day, but did what was necessary when it was necessary, even when it interrupted times of rest or even sleep in the middle of the night. Their top priority was serving God who examines their hearts. If your heart is in the right shape, you will exercise God’s will in all He asks of you. Paul also adds that in all roles that he and his were not a burden to them. Unlike the false teachers, they didn’t seek to be served or pampered but served. They did not seek to receive and thus be a burden, but they only sought to serve.

They also behaved righteously and blamelessly.

A casual Christian can easily identify themselves. They have a casual relationship with God’s word. This can be seen concretely.

The Thessalonians, new believers [less than a year saved] are not casual Christians because they received God’s word not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God.

We pick it up in 2:13.

1Th 2:13

Today is Good Friday, the Sunday before the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Those who have accepted the word of God as from God and not from men are in the midst of the large crowd that gathered to see the Lord enter Jerusalem. But they are not the only type of people there. It would seem, sadly, that they are in the minority.

Palm Sunday. Triumphal entry.

Jesus and His disciples arrive in Jerusalem after a long journey. Just a few days prior, Jesus raised Lazarus. Word has spread and the whole city is buzzing with expectation. Though their understanding is only partial, what they expect is indeed coming. Jesus is going to finally present Himself to the people of Israel as the promised King, the Son of David, the Messiah.

It was prophesied that the King would enter upon on donkey.

Zec 9:5

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your king is coming to you;

He is just and endowed with salvation,

Humble, and mounted on a donkey,

Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

It is important to remember that Jesus is in fact presenting Himself as King. That means also that He is presenting the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus was not the king they were expecting, which means that their idea of the kingdom was wrong too.

He wouldn’t enter into the Sanhedrin and demand the chair of the high priest. He wouldn’t enter clad in armor trailed by an army of angels. He would enter meek and humble, on the back of a donkey, with salvation in His soul.

Salvation was in His soul because He was willing to do the will of the Father and drink the cup of the sins of the world.

There is a spirit to this prophecy, and the crowd has caught the fervor of it, but with only a partial understanding.

From person to person the excitement spread and swelled, the expectation of the King of Israel, for so long foretold, was finally upon them. And to add to it all, He was entering the holy city just before Passover.

The colt of the donkey was found as Jesus said. Word spread quickly and a crowd thronged from Jerusalem and from Bethany to greet Him, to wave palm branches and to throw them and blankets along the path to welcome the king upon a royal carpeted path. The shouted:

Luk 19:37-40

As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, 38 shouting:

"BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD;

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples." 40 But Jesus answered, "I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!"

The people did not fully understand. These same people would be demanding His crucifixion only days later. They are singing or shouting Psa 118, which they are used to doing at Passover and the feast of tabernacles.

But regardless of what the people did understand, this was the actual triumphal entry of the Messiah to Jerusalem. This would be the first time that Jesus would publicly proclaim Himself as the Messiah of Israel, the Son of David.

So, says the Lord, His first spoken word recorded for this day, “If the people don’t cry out, the rocks will.” This is the triumphal entry of the Lord.

But how will it really go? Days from that morning, what will the people do? How will they react when the one they’re celebrating and praising on this Sunday morning, cleanses the temple of all the merchants and money changers. How will they react when He says the Son of Man must be lifted up? What will they conclude when the authorities convict Him of sedition and beat and whip Him in condemnation? I think that this is the largest push from the tide of opposition upon the populace of people in the city for the Passover (most of them pilgrims from the country). The authorities had so decisively and quickly arrested and condemned Christ as a criminal. Could both the Roman government and the Sanhedrin been wrong when they were convinced they were so right? Each person would have to weigh their own conclusion about Jesus in the balances opposite the unanimous opinion of the authorities of their present world. Every generation is caught in this same conflict of God’s revelation in Christ and the world’s conclusions about Him.

1Th 2:13-16

For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. 14 For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, 15 who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, 16 hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved; with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost.

Cross section of humanity (crudely):

Believers who accept the word as from God.
Ruling elite of the world’s kingdom.
The masses who settle for the kingdom of the world.
Believers who settle for the kingdom of the world.

These are all present when the Lord Jesus presents Himself as King.

There would be believers like His disciples. These would be confounded by the coming events, but their faith, small as a mustard seed, would make them children of God. God would go to them and get them and deliver them into the light.

There would be those who wanted to kill Him. These are generally the religious leaders. Even Pilate wanted to let Jesus go. The religious leaders fall into a group. This group, which is common to mankind throughout history have influence, power, and wealth to protect. They are a minority of the populace (1-5 %). These are the benefactors.

Joh 12:17-19

So the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify about Him. 18 For this reason also the people went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, "You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him."

There are the undecided. These seem to be the majority of the population and the most complex and most interesting. They don’t possess anything close to the wealth and power of the 1%. They span the entire range of the socioeconomic spectrum.

There is a fourth category that are believers who act like the majority. These are not dedicated to the Lord. They, like the majority, seek comfort and entertainment as top priority.

On that Sunday morning, Jesus already knew that the 1% would crucify Him and the majority group would blindly go along with it. He was the only one who did.

He knew that the ruling class and the majority would do what they always did, but this time it would be done to the Son of God Himself.

Luk 19:41-42

When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, "If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.

He also knew that the believers would fear and scatter from Him. He wasn’t calling the spiritual green berets, He knew that. He would restore them. If you’re a committed believer who loves the Lord and you feel your own weakness and sometimes doubt (in God and in yourself), don’t despair, the Lord is coming to restore you. You are of the first category and you should rejoice in the strength of your faith.

In a crude way, this is a cross section of humanity. Humanity defies strict categorization, but in essence this is what is around us. They are all there on Palm Sunday.

God didn’t hide it from them. Jesus’ ministry could not have been clearer. His signs were clear. His words were clear. And now His entry on the donkey is clear.

It is a lack of faith that keeps truth hidden from people’s eyes.

The unbeliever has the worst blindness because of its result.

The believer can also be blind and therefore live without power or any ability to give to others anything of value.

Eph 1:18-19

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.

Blind believers spread grief.

1Co 3:3

For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?

This is the result of a lack of faith. Lack of faith is deadly to the unbeliever as his life will end in judgment and hell. Lack of faith for the believer is deadly to his spiritual life. He will live without power or wisdom.

Lack of faith in the Lord is why people can become so evil that they will kill God’s prophets, God’s apostles, and the Lord Jesus Himself.

1Th 2:14-16

For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, 15 who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, 16 hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved; with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost.

“The anger and jealousy of the Pharisees understood it better, and watched for the opportunity of revenge. But, for the present, on that bright spring-day, the weak, excitable, fickle populace streamed before Him through the City-gates, through the narrow streets, up the Temple-mount. Everywhere the tramp of their feet, and the shout of their acclamations brought men, women, and children into the streets and on the housetops. The City was moved, and from mouth to mouth the question passed among the eager crowd of curious onlookers: ‘Who is He?’ And the multitude answered - not, this is Israel’s Messiah-King, but: ‘This is Jesus the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.’ And so up into the Temple!

He alone was silent and sad among this excited multitude, the marks of the tears He had wept over Jerusalem still on His cheek. It is not so, that an earthly King enters His City in triumph; not so, that the Messiah of Israel’s expectation would have gone into His Temple [Jesus is an earthly King as much as He is a heavenly one]. He spoke not, but only looked round about upon all things, as if to view the field on which He was to suffer and die. And now the shadows of evening were creeping up; and, weary and sad, He once more returned with the twelve disciples to the shelter and rest of Bethany.” [Alfred Edersheim, Jesus the Messiah]