Rev. David Holwick L Palm Sunday
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 9, 2017
Revelation 7:9-11
MODEST TRIUMPHALISM
I. He's coming!
A. Some leaders know how to do it right.
In 2002, a world leader visited the drought-stricken southern
African country of Malawi.
He arrived with an entourage in two Boeing 707s, two transport
aircraft and his own personal jet.
He also had two security buses loaded with machine guns,
assault rifles and rocket launchers.
He brought his own mobile hospital, 600 support personnel and
70 armored vehicles for the drive across the country.
One of the vehicles stocked with $6 million, much of which
he tossed freely to villagers who had lined his route.
I am sure this Arab leader got an enthusiastic welcome.
#17863
B. Jesus did it differently.
1) He rode on a single young donkey.
2) Many of those who cheered him were children.
3) He offered no money and displayed little power, yet the
people spontaneously honored him as their king.
C. Everyone wants to be on the winning side, the victorious side.
1) We like winners because we want to be winners ourselves.
a) We have very definite ideas about what winning should
be like.
b) Power and glory and popularity rate highly with us.
2) Christians are no different, but we must face a stark truth:
God's idea of winning is different than ours.
a) Are you willing to accept his version of triumph?
II. The meek and mild Jesus came as a king.
A. Jesus is fulfilling a cherished prophecy of the coming Messiah.
1) Zechariah 9:9, written 500 years before Jesus, says,
"Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!
Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey."
2) The details are modest, but significant.
a) The Messiah would enter Jerusalem on a young donkey.
1> Not too impressive, but it was a symbol of
Jewish kingship and the people "got it."
b) He also comes gently, in a non-threatening way.
B. Yet the passage is also about a king of great power.
1) The next verse in Zechariah says,
"I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
and the warhorses from Jerusalem,
and the battle bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations.
His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River
to the ends of the earth."
2) He is so powerful he can bring lasting peace.
a) This is the ultimate kind of conqueror.
b) Any of us would vote for such a guy!
3) He will rule a country that will be the greatest on
earth.
C. Most of us would like to triumph in power.
1) We measure ourselves against others by the size of our
salary, the value of our house, the attractiveness of
our spouse, the achievements of our kids.
2) Americans always strive to be winners.
a) We like to say losing is not an option.
b) A big part of winning is being liked and respected,
and sometimes even feared.
c) So winning is mostly about us.
III. The danger of triumphalism.
A. The dictionary meaning.
1) Triumphalism is the excessive exultation over your
success or achievements.
2) Politicians fall into this very easily.
a) So do Christians.
b) We rejoice when we have vast crowds and news coverage
and we win cultural battles.
c) Sometimes we rejoice so much, we forget the Lord.
B. Was Palm Sunday triumphalistic?
1) No, because Jesus didn't gloat in the attention he was
getting.
2) Instead, he was contemplating his next step, which was
to overturn the tables in the temple area.
a) He wasn't in it for the glory.
C. The crowd had the right idea on Palm Sunday.
1) They are acknowledging Jesus as the fulfillment of this
prophecy and praising the heir of King David.
2) It is the most exuberant greeting Jesus received in his
time on earth.
3) We should rejoice in Jesus as well, but always keep
God's perspective on it.
IV. Jesus conquered, but in a way the world could not anticipate.
A. Palm Sunday led quickly to Good Friday.
1) Jesus conquered by dying.
2) It was not a tragedy, but a plan. God's hard plan!
a) Jesus knew it was coming and warned his disciples
about it.
b) They wouldn't let it register because they were so
focused on glory and winning.
B. Sometimes Christians triumph in a worldly way.
1) The Christian church is on a roll.
a) It may not seem like it in America or Europe.
1> Many of our churches are shrinking, even closing.
2> Some are in danger in our own community.
b) But strong growth is happening in other places.
1> Latin America, Africa and Asia are hot.
2> Millions are converting to Jesus, with many having
no other Christians in their family.
I read an article about a BBC reporter who saw
a young Chinese convert doing her devotions
in a fast food restaurant.
He wasn't reporting on religion, he just noticed
her.
There are tens of millions like her in China.
2) It is even happening near us.
a) Chinese in Morris County.
Meiyu, a local Christian with a Chinese background.
Their congregation meets in a warehouse.
Most of the members run oriental restaurants but
they worship Jesus on Sunday.
They are growing so much they may buy out another
church.
b) Mision Latina here in our own neighborhood.
1> They have done in 10 years what took us 140.
2> They have great enthusiasm and represent 20
countries.
A> They even get audio-visual equipment to work
right every Sunday!
C. Numbers don't always equal success.
1) Jesus had high numbers this Sunday, but Friday was different.
a) Then, the crowds opposed him.
2) Sometimes God's way is best shown in shrinkage.
a) A victory of smallness.
I collect sermon illustrations and came across one that
had a different angle.
Curious, I dug a little deeper and found it was from what
used to be the Worldwide Church of God.
It is a movement that Herbert Armstrong founded.
Armstrong had some weird ideas:
He believed Anglo-Saxons are descendants of Jews.
Specifically, the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.
Therefore, we are literally God's Chosen People, and our
nations are the Kingdom of God on earth.
Because we are the Ten Lost Tribes, we should follow
Old Testament kosher laws for food.
Church should be on Saturday and all the Old Testament
festivals should be followed.
Churches that don't follow this are counterfeit.
We should also tithe like they did, which he interpreted
to mean 10% one year, on your gross income, not net.
The next year you did that 10% and another 10% to pay to
go to their Feast of Tabernacles.
It was an awesome meal - at that price it should be.
The next year you did those two tithes and a third one,
which was distributed to poor people.
Imagine giving 30% of your income to God.
Our "working balance" in the bulletin would never be
negative!
It was an expensive group to belong to, but their
commitment level was very high.
He taught that Jesus was coming back in 1975 so you didn't
need a lot of money anyway.
133,000 Americans identified with Armstrong's sect.
The group owned $300 million in property and had a college,
a radio and TV program and a nationally distributed
magazine called "The Plain Truth."
Then Armstrong died, and something very weird happened.
The new leadership studied their Bibles and began to think
Armstrong was wrong about a lot of things.
Americans weren't part of the Ten Lost Tribes.
Their emphasis on prophecy and the Old Testament was
unbalanced.
Over a ten-year period they discarded these teachings and
changed to become orthodox Evangelical Christians.
It was like Jehovah's Witnesses deciding to become Baptists.
The results?
Their attendance dropped almost two-thirds, to 50,000.
Their budget collapsed and they had to sell almost all
their property.
The magazine and radio and TV programs had to be shut down.
The group's employees went from 1,000 to 40.
Sort of what most Americans call abject failure.
Here is what their own website says:
"We acknowledge that many of our doctrines were erroneous.
We acknowledge that the organization would not exist
without those erroneous doctrines.
"But we do not conclude that Jesus Christ rescued us as a
group merely to have us disband.
He has bought and paid for this church.
It belongs to him, and we have told him that he can have
it!
If it is of any value to him, he can use it as his
instrument, and we are happy to let him lead us."
#65808
b) To me, this is a great triumph for God.
1> They shrank in numbers and power.
2> But they became true to the gospel.
3> In God's eyes, they are winners.
V. Genuine triumph always has God behind it.
A. The End of the World will reveal this.
1) In Revelation 7:9-11, a massive multitude of people are
worshipping God.
a) They are beyond counting.
2) Yet they have come out a world that has been united in
opposing God.
a) A world where everyone worships Satan and his Antichrist.
b) The world will think the church is defeated.
1> Judgment Day will show we were huge.
B. What are the most important accomplishments in your life?
1) Does God have anything to do with it?
2) Does he receive any glory from it?
3) It none of this is true, you are not a winner.
C. The only true triumph is a final triumph.
Remember my opening story about an Arab leader who threw
$6 million out of his cavalcade?
His name was Muammar Gaddafi, the dictator of Libya.
Nine years later he was hiding in a drainage pipe in his own
country as rebels moved in to kill him.
His body was put on display in a local food market.
#17863
It is ironic that Jesus ended up much like Gaddafi.
Both went from glory to ignominious death.
But Gaddafi has stayed dead.
Jesus did not, and now rules in heaven.
Are you willing to make Jesus' values your values?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#17863 “The King Is Coming!” The Times (London), July 17, 2002.
#65808 “A Victory of Smallness,” Rev. David Holwick, April 8, 2017,
adapting material from Wikipedia and The Grace Communion
International Website; <link>.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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