Luke 19:28-40 (28) After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up
to Jerusalem.

 Here we are at Palm Sunday the beginning of Holy Week.  This wondrous
and triumphant Sunday is one that sets off a whole series of events that
leads to the very purpose of Jesus' coming.  By the end of this week
Jesus will be seen hanging on a cross and dying.  By the end of this week
Jesus will be laid in a grave, dead.  His enemies will be gloating and
his disciples will be filled with grief and fear.  By the end of this
week, it will seem that everything Jesus was about has come to naught and
the one that many thought to be the Son of God will seem to be nothing
more than a man.  A man who lay dead, a man who was not what they
thought.
 But on this day, on Palm Sunday all that will be seems far away and
unreal.  On this day it appears that Jesus is finally getting the
recognition and glory that he deserves.  On this day it looks like Jesus
will triumph and that the masses have embraced him with their hearts.  On
this day as Jesus rides into Jerusalem, rides on a colt, the foal of a
donkey, rides in fulfillment of Zechariah's words of prophecy the hope of
the people is raised.  They see Jesus coming to be a king.  They see
Jesus coming to establish a world order, an earthly kingdom with them as
his co-rulers over the rest of the world.
 Of course, what they see is wrong.  What they think is going to be is
wrong.  They had been taught wrong concerning the Messiah.  They had been
led to believe and put their hope in falsehoods and lies.  They had been
led to look for a worldly Messiah, an earthly king surrounded by the
trappings of earthly things.  The "they" I am speaking of are the
majority of the multitude found cheering Jesus on right now.  But their
tune would change.  They would easily resort to their earthly ideas and
hopes.  They would easily become the crowd shouting for the death of
Jesus in just 5 short days.
 I suppose, for many of us, it is that particular fact that we tend to
remember about this interesting day.  The fact that the majority of the
crowd shouts his praise here and 5 days later shouts "Crucify him,
crucify him!"  In that regard they seem a fickle lot.  And by and large I
would tend to agree with you.  Agree with you about the majority.
However, today I don't want to think about the majority of the people.
Today, I want to spend some time looking at those in this crowd who were
doing things for the right reasons.  They were doing things for the glory
and honor of God.  They were involved in the service of the Lord.  Let's
look at those people and see how we might learn to imitate them.  Our
theme will be: SERVICE TO THE LORD.  1st. The colt.  2nd. The cloaks.
3rd. The Praise.
 To read the events of this day is really an exciting thing.  How it all
transpired!  How the people seem to rally to Jesus and finally give him
the honor and glory that surely was his due!  When we read this history
we tend to focus in on the bigger picture and in doing so sometimes miss
the important little details.  Today we want to focus on the details.
 One of the details that I find fascinating is connected with the colt,
that animal that Jesus would ride into Jerusalem on.  Clearly Jesus had
it in mind to fulfill the very words of Zechariah, a prophecy he knew was
about him.  It is a prophecy that speaks of Zion's King, yes, of the
Messiah of God and the kingdom he will establish.  It would be a kingdom
of peace, an everlasting kingdom, yes, a kingdom that encompassed the
entire world.  Jesus is the one who came to bring about that kingdom.  To
show that he understood this, Jesus then takes the steps necessary to
bring this day about.
 So here he is approaching Bethany a small village about 3 miles from
Jerusalem.  At this point he sends his disciples ahead telling them what
to do.  What they were to do was to find that colt, a young donkey that
had never been ridden.  They were to find that animal and bring it to
Jesus.  Jesus tells them exactly what to look for and exactly what to
say.
 Doesn't that cause you to wonder?  Wonder why the Lord would have all
these little details recorded in his Bible?  I know that there are some
that say that perhaps Jesus had prearranged all of this to take place and
that's fine, although I don't believe that's the case.  I believe that
this was done miraculously.  But rather than debate that, let's consider
another simple fact.
 What we do know is that someone owned that colt.  In all probability
that colt was there at this festival time of year, tied up where it was
because no doubt this new young animal was being offered for sale.  What
a perfect time for a sale, a time when travelers crowded the streets, a
time when such a new young animal might be most wanted.  What does it say
about the owner, when the disciples of Jesus come, untie the animal and
simply state, "The Lord needs it"?
 Here is a servant of the Lord.  What you have is an owner who willing
and obediently gives what is his to the service of the Lord!  There seems
to be no debate, no dickering as to what was going on.  The person hears
that the Lord needs it and it was given!  What a great example of faith
in action!  The Lord needs and the need is met.  Simple service to Jesus.
 Simply taking what I have and giving it to the service of God, just
taking care of the needs of the Lord.
 And if that action is awesome to you, then there is more to consider.
Take the fact that as Jesus is riding in, people begin to throw their
cloaks on the road.  It's true they also grabbed palm branches and threw
them on the road, which is really neat, but I want you to think about the
cloaks.  The cloak was the outer garment of the people or the Hebrew
equivalent of our larger coats.  It is most often described as being a
large square of cloth that one draped over the shoulders and kept in
place by a belt.  If we were to take a blanket and drape it over our
shoulders that would give us a good idea of what the garment looked like
on.  It was a fairly basic piece of the wardrobe of the Hebrews.
 For a person to take his cloak off and then lay it on the road for Jesus
to ride on was considered to be an exceptional honor.  Usually such
things were only done for high royalty or conquering heroes.  So what a
marvel that these cloaks were spread for Jesus.  And do you realize how
this happened?  All it took was for one person to start.  One person to
look and see Jesus, one person filled with love for Jesus who saw the
opportunity to give a very high honor to Jesus.  One person laid down his
or her cloak and then, as is seen, everyone else around began to do the
same.  In other words, one person, by their action, affected everyone
around them and that same action spread through the whole crowd.
 We know this phenomenon takes place.  Think of Good Friday.  One group
shouts "Crucify him" and pretty soon everyone is shouting.  Think of the
big city riots and how they start or even recently the basketball game
where fighting broke out and even made it's way to the street before it
was ended.  All it took was for one to start and what you will find is
that often others follow.  It seems to be the nature of humans to
imitate, to do what seems cool at the time.
 Do you understand what a great service was done for Jesus in this
action?  One action of love that spread to others.  One action of service
and others jump in to serve too!  That's the way we influence each other.
 We step forward and serve and others will follow.  We show our love for
the Lord in what we do and are and others will follow.  It is a simple
and great lesson found here.  A lesson to step forward and get involved
and thus help others to do the same.
 One last thing to consider yet today.  That's the shouts of praise and
excitement that take place.  The text very clearly tells us, "The whole
crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all
the miracles they had seen."  I like that verse.  It tells us that the
disciples of Jesus were filled with praise, awe and wonder about Jesus.
They were there and they couldn't keep their mouths shut.  With joy and
loud voices they praised Jesus.  And as this group of believers shouted
the praise it seems that the praise spread throughout the whole of the
crowd until almost everyone was shouting these words.
 Of course, the Pharisees didn't like what was going on.  They said to
Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"  They didn't want Jesus praised.
 They didn't want this crowd to be involved because it would hinder their
plans, their plans to do in Jesus.  It would hinder them because they
were afraid that many of these people would settle down later on and then
think about what had happened and what was done and perhaps hearts would
be turned to Jesus.
 Jesus says to them, "I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry
out."
 Such awesome words.  Do you realize that Jesus is telling us the source
of this shouting?  Do you realize that Jesus is pointing out that this
shouting had to be?  The source of the shouting would have been the Holy
Spirit of God.  The Holy Spirit who moves and motivates hearts and minds
to the service of the Lord.  The Holy Spirit who is responsible for
people even saying "Jesus is Lord" is at work here.  And if the people
would have resisted the Spirit's prompting then Jesus tells us that the
Spirit would have caused the very stones to cry out.  The power of God is
in this moment.  The testimony of the Holy Spirit that moves hearts and
minds to give praise and glory to Jesus is at work here.  The people
couldn't help themselves.  The people were motivated by God to give
praise, to raise their voices and honor Jesus, the Savior.
 But why should that surprise us?  That same Spirit of God at work on
this day is the same Spirit of God who is working in you.  You are here
giving praise and thanks to God because of His work.  You are here
raising your voices in song, lifting your hearts in joy because of the
Spirit of God.  You are doing the very same thing on this day, on every
Sunday, that this crowd of people was doing for Jesus.
 What a joy that is to know.  To know that we share the same "Spiritual"
heritage.  To know that God is still working in our hearts and minds to
be excited about Jesus and ready to share that excitement with the world.
 We open our mouths to speak of Him, we have our hearts filled with the
forgiveness that is from Him.  Our hearts are filled with Jesus!
 And the impact we can have on others will be just like the impact they
had.  Their shouts and praise caused everyone to shout and praise.  Their
marvel for Jesus caused everyone to marvel.  They weren't concerned with
what others might think or say, they were just concerned with giving
praise to Jesus.  Let God take care of who will truly believe.  What we
are to do is to give praise to Jesus, to speak his name and proclaim his
glory.  God will take care of the rest.  And like Jesus, I still believe
that if you are quiet, then God will cause the very stones around us to
shout the name of Jesus.  Let us not be silent in today's world but let
us shout the praise of Jesus just like the people on this Palm Sunday
did.
 What great examples of faith are found in these little details of Palm
Sunday.  Details that encourage us.  Details that inspire us.  Details
that are given for our learning.  Thank you, Lord for the miracle of
these lessons.  Amen.