Creflo Dollar - The Triumphal Entry
This morning I want to talk to you about, and I call this, "The Triumphal Entry". "The Triumphal Entry". Palm Sunday is a significant day in the Christian calendar as it marks the beginning of Holy Week leading up to Easter Sunday. It is a day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and the people waved palm branches and laid them on the ground, shouting, "Hosanna," to the Son of David. Again, you read this in Matthew 21 and verse 9. It says, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest".
So, as we reflect on this event, we remember the significance of Jesus's entry into Jerusalem. It was a fulfillment of prophecy as it was foretold in Zechariah chapter 9 and 9. In fact, let's look there because it's important every time you hear that something was prophesied in the Old Testament and then you see it prophesied or come to pass in the New Testament, that's a big deal. In verse 9 it says, "Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous," watch this, "and he is victorious". He says, "Yet he is humble, riding on a donkey, riding on a donkey's colt".
So, the prophecy was fulfilled as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, which, by the way, was a symbol of peace and humility rather than showing up on a horse, which would be the symbol of war and conquest. So, this was a clear message that Jesus's mission was not to conquer by force, but to bring peace and salvation to all who would believe in him. And so, the people who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem recognized him as the Messiah and as the Son of David who had come to save them. They waved palm branches, which were a symbol of victory and triumph, waving those palm branches and they laid them on the ground as a sign of submission and honor. So, this was a public declaration of their faith in Jesus as the king who had come to rescue them from oppression of the Roman Empire.
Ah. So, they thought this Jesus who was raised in the dead and this Jesus who was doing miracles, man, they were celebrating him, but they thought, he is now coming to Jerusalem to deliver us from the oppression of the Roman Empire. They thought he was coming as a politician. However, the people's enthusiasm soon turned to disappointment, and even hostility, when Jesus didn't meet the expectation of a political ruler who would overthrow the Roman Empire. Instead, Jesus came to offer spiritual salvation and eternal life, which was a message that many in that day found to be very difficult to accept. Now, how does this tie into the reality of this covenant of grace that we live under? The Christ, the king?
You see, the palm branch represented, like I said, goodness and victory and it was a symbol of the final victory that he would soon come to fulfill victory over death. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 55, "O death, where is your sting? O grave, where's your victory"? Let me read it, is one of them. Well, he says, "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting"? He's gonna have victory over death. Now, as I'm looking at this in verse 55 I'm thinking about somebody here today that might ask, "And? What does that have to do with me? We celebrate Christmas. We celebrate Easter. We celebrate Palm Sunday. But what does that have to do with me? How is it that the death of Jesus Christ benefits me one iota"?
And that's where I wanna spend my time with today. I wanna talk about the things that Christ accomplished by his death. What was accomplished by his death? He's walking and entering into Jerusalem and the very next week he's gonna be operating in Resurrection power. He's coming in the place to die and he's gonna set them free in ways that they would never be able to imagine. How many of y'all you can live in the midst of darkness and have light going on in your life? And there's some crazy things going on in the world, but you gotta remember what Jesus has done for you so that in the midst of all of the stuff that has been prophesied to happen and we can't cast out prophecy that we are not going to be troubled. In fact, the Bible says, "See to it that you be not troubled. These things must come to pass". And I pray today that you will begin to rejoice as you recognize that through the death of Jesus there were things that he did for us.
He died for you, he died for me. And it was not just talking about, "He died". We need to now answer that question. So, what is it that the death of Jesus accomplish for my behalf? Number one, Jesus's death removed our sin and our guilt. This is called, in Bible school, expiation. Expiation is just simply the removal of sin and guilt. So, he didn't come just to remove sin. He came to remove the guilt associated with sin, the shame associated with sin, and the condemnation associated with sin. Now, people religiously, with a religious ear, they've heard this. "Well, what do we celebrate? What are we celebrating"? "You know, Jesus came and he died for me". "Well, what do you mean"? "He died for my sins". But what does that mean? I get so irritated when I hear stuff talked about religiously and there's no in depth relational understanding of what he really did. So, he died to remove our sin and our guilt.
Let's go to John. And all this in the NLT. Go to John chapter 1 and 29. Let's decipher these scriptures here, John 1:29 says, "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him," and here's what John said. He said, "Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world"! Through death he's dealing with the sin of the whole world. So, what Jesus did, he did for every human being that would ever be born on the earth, that if you believe it and accept it and sign for the package, then you walk in the benefit of your deliverance of sin, guilt, shame, and condemnation. And that's our job as Christians right now. We ought to have a soul winning mentality. Instead of a judgmental mentality, a soul winning mentality. Where we can go in and when somebody's not saved your antennas go up, man. You're ready to go at it, man.
Somehow, some way, I'm gonna say something. I'm gonna sow some seeds, I'm gonna water it, but I'm gonna say something. God's gonna give the increase. I can't make them get saved, but I can sure plant some stuff. Somebody says, "Well, what am I gonna plant"? Well, look at your own life. A lot of stuff we go through, when you go through it and come out, that's good testimony to sow into somebody else's life. That's a good way to go to somebody and say, "I have seen this movie that you're starring in and I know exactly how it ends. Listen to me". And so, he came as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the whole world through death. Look at Isaiah 53 and 6. Isaiah 53 and 6. I pray that if you're not born again today, this is your day. That somehow the Holy Spirit sent you here because he's trying to get something to happen in your life that's gonna make the difference in your whole life.
Isaiah 53 and verse 6 says, "All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's path to follow our own. We've left God's path to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of all of us". So, my sins, your sins, and the sins of the whole world have been laid on Jesus Christ. Think of that. He took all of our sins. All of our sins were laid on Jesus Christ. My goodness. Who does that? The greatest friend you have in the world? I don't know if he'd do this. He took all of our sins and laid it on Jesus. Now, watch this. Hebrews chapter 9, verse 25 through 26. The sins of the world laid on his body. Laid on his body. He who had never sinned hanging on a cross looked like the snake, looked like sin, but he had never sinned. He looked that way because he took all of our sins, all of our sins, upon himself.
And he did this, verse 25 and 26, "And he did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the high priests here on the earth who enter into the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal. If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice". My God. This ain't never gonna get boring to me. If you're religious, it gets boring to you. Amen? Oh, I know that. But I cannot fathom in my mind how one man could show up and say, "Hey, Dad. I'll take everybody's sin upon myself. I was born to die". Wow. Jesus did that.
So, one of the things we see that through his death he removed our sin, our guilt. Dealt with our condemnation, dealt with our shame. And he's waiting for you to accept it. He's waiting for you to sign for the package. It's one thing that he did it. It's another thing that you believe it and accept it. And my question today is, will you receive Jesus? Will you accept what he did? Will you accept this loving kindness to take the sin of the whole world, to sign the package, and to say, "Your freedom is at hand," but your signature is required? Here's the second thing that was accomplished through his death: propitiation. Whereas expiation is the removal of our sins, propitiation is the removal of God's wrath. Propitiation means compensation, or payment, or peace offering. Compensation, or payment, or peace offering.
Jesus became the compensation. He became the payment. He became the peace offering that was necessary for the wrath of God to be removed. Because of sin there was enmity between man and God and there needed, somehow, to be a reconciling of that. And so, Jesus says that this just didn't happen for free. Somebody's got to pay for this to happen. If we're going to have the removal of God's wrath, a propitiation has got to take place. He says, "I will be that payment". A propitiation is not simply a sacrifice that removes wrath, but it is a sacrifice that removes wrath and then turns the wrath into favor. Jesus became a compensation to remove the wrath between God and man and then took the wrath that God had against man and turned it into favor. And so that his love, now his love, can now realize its purpose in doing good to us every day in all things forever without sacrificing his justice and without sacrificing his holiness. Jesus paid the price.
And so, now God says, "No restrictions on my love. No more enemy between me and man. I will do him good and make him happy". Lord have mercy. The third thing that was accomplished by his death: reconciliation. So, there was a removal of wrath, the removal of sin. Reconciliation revolves the removal of our alienation from God. We were alienated from God. Romans chapter... well, hold on a minute. I rushed through propitiation. Let's back up there a little bit. That was too big, man. Look at Romans 3:25 and 26 in the NLT. You need some scripture on that so you can go and meditate, did that really happen? Yeah. 25 and 26, "For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life".
How many of you believe that Jesus sacrificed his life for you? He said, "Shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead". The reason why he didn't punish all of the ones he could have punished in time past because he was looking ahead. "And including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus". When they believe in Jesus. And then in Hebrews chapter 2:17. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 17. He says, "Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us". It was necessary for Jesus to be made in every respect like us, "his brothers and his sisters". Why? "So that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God".
He had to be made like us so he can show some mercy. "Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people". Knowing us, knowing how man was, he could become that sacrifice to take away those sins. And then in 1 John 4 and 10. 1 John 4 and 10. Oh, Jesus. Just reading the Word get me stirred up this morning. He said, "This is real love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and," watch what he did, "and then he sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins". "This is real love, not that we love God".
See, in the church, it's always about how much you love God. You're always talking about how much you love God. And I guess I believe you, but I know for a fact that you can't love God until you, first of all, believe the love that he has for you. "Oh, I love God. Don't you love God"? No. The question is, do you believe that God loves you? Okay? He says, "Here's love, though". "But that he loved us," and look what he did, "he sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins". That's that love. Amen. Think about this, ladies and gentlemen. I'm going line by line, I'm showing you scripture by scripture. You know the world is coming to an end, especially when you see Bible prophecy come to pass, China and Russia. When you see the Bible talks about the waves moving and being beat, weather.
When you see all the things that are striking up and taking place in the Middle East right now. Honey, there's wars going on that they hadn't had time to put on ABC. In fact, stuff going on everywhere. And if you can't, if you don't... listen, Jesus, he's coming back just like he said he would. "Well, I don't believe it". That's fine. Sit there, bubba. When he comes, you gonna have the biggest surprise of your life. You know, when Jesus was coming on that Palm Sunday, when he was coming through, nobody knew that was gonna be the last week. Wonder what would the disciples have done had they known this is our last week with him like this. Our last week with him like this.
And see, I'm asking you the same thing. How do you know that this might be your last week. Now, it's not because the Bible says, "No man knows the day or the hour". So, don't make me a prophet because no man knows the day or the hour. I can't tell you this is your last week. "Well, maybe you can". No, I can't. "Well, the Lord told me last night that he coming on the 7th". He ain't coming on the 7th. You had some collard greens or something before you went to bed. That ain't happening. He's coming back, dude. He's coming back. And there are people that hear that... the earth is just so filled with unbelief. This society and this generation, they don't believe nothing. And then, when it's too late and then when it happens, uh-oh.
Come on, receive the love of God, receive what he wants to do for you, receive what he's done for you. Receive him. Now it's time to believe, praise God. Now it's time for you to just shut off all of the other opinions that you are hearing and just look at this Word and pay attention to your heart. Pay attention to the conviction in your heart. There's something about your heart that knows what it knows, praise God. There's something about your heart that knows when something is right. There's something about your heart that knows when something is wrong. And I'm telling you, just by nature something on the inside knows that something's happening, something's coming.