CERRO GORDO CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN
April 13
It’s Sunday but Monday is Coming!
Mark 11: 1-11,15-19
Today is
Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week. The most important week on the
Christian calendar and I would say the most important week in the history of
the world. This morning’s message is entitled “It’s Sunday, but Monday is
Coming”. Cathy probably remembers this but the message title comes from something
we heard on the radio program, Focus on the Family about 40 years ago.
On this
episode James Dobson had a man by the name of Anthony Campolo on. He retold something
that he had been a part of maybe earlier that year maybe years earlier. I
believe it may have been at a Good Friday service at a black church. There were
several speakers at this service and he was the next to the last speaker, by
the way I believe he was the only White speaker at this service. He spoke for a
while and when he stepped away from the microphone, he spoke to the Pastor who
was going to close out the service and asked do you think you can top that?
Apparently at
some Black Churches they aren’t bashful when they feel the Lord is really
moving thru them. This Black minister told Tony Campolo to sit down and listen
and for the next half hour to hour he repeatedly hit one message It’s Friday
Sundays a comin. That’s a long-winded way of telling this is where the
inspiration for this message title came from. Unlike the message Antony Campolo
retold which tells the victory story for all who believe this one goes a
completely different direction.
I believe
everyone here this morning knows today is what all of Christianity calls Palm
Sunday. I have told this story from the pulpit before and I am sure most all of
you have heard and read the story of Palm Sunday many times before.
To briefly
revisit it once more it is all about Jesus and his disciples going to Jerusalem
to celebrate with thousands of other Jewish people, what was the most important
day on their calendar at this time.
While the
disciples didn’t know this Passover would be different than any they had celebrated
before they soon realized this fact. Jesus was traveling into Jerusalem and the
closer and closer they got more and more people lined the road. Many of them
laid their coats on the road as Jesus drew near others cut branches from the trees
and laid them on the road, a sort of red-carpet welcome.
We read that
once Jesus arrived, he immediately went to the temple but because it was late
he actually left Jerusalem and went to Bethany to spend the night. Bethany was
only a short distance from Jerusalem and he had many friends there including
Mary, Martha and possibly even Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead.
When he woke
up the next day he went back to the temple in Jerusalem and was outraged at
what he saw. In the outer courts of the temple people were selling animals and
other things for people to provide the Priests for sacrifices. Leading up to
the Passover celebration it would have been common for people to offer
sacrifices for their sins to be in a right standing with God for the Passover
celebration. What was completely wrong was the buying and selling within the
temple grounds. I can’t help but think Jesus was mad at everyone involved. First
of all, the Priests who not only allowed it to happen and probably were
profiting from what was being sold. Next, he was mad at the sellers for, in all
likelihood, ripping off the people by over charging them.
Finally, he
was probably mad at the people buying because they should have known better
than to be both lazy and casual in the way they got the sacrifices that were to
be offered on their behalf. So, what did Jesus do when he saw this happening?
He drove all of those involved out of his Father’s house. Saying this “My house
will be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of
robbers.”
So, in a way,
all of the excitement of Sunday changed to hatred in the matter of a few
minutes. In many ways he angered most of the Jews in the city in one brief
moment in time. None more than the chief priests and teachers of the temple. To
the point that we read that they began to look for a way to kill Jesus.
From this
point on events began to happen at lighting speed as more and more people were stirred
up to not only be against Jesus but literally hate Jesus and want him dead. As
we celebrate Holy Week, may we remember it was Palm Sunday but Monday was
coming. This is an example of how good intentioned people can be deceived into
doing things that they would never have believed could happen. In just a few
short days the ones who lovingly welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem were calling for
his death.
This would
be a truly tragic event if it weren’t for the fact that God the Father had a
plan to not only redeem those who participated in these tragic events but all
of those for generations forward who will receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. In
ways so much more than happened when Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, we
should be encouraged by the plan God had through Jesus where it says in Genesis
50:20 “what man intended for evil, God intended for good.” As we remember the
events of Holy Week beginning with Palm Sunday, it is true that it is Sunday
Monday is coming but more than that, by the end of the week we can celebrate
what Anthony Campolo shared from his time at that black church 40 years ago. The
truth that by the end of Holy Week it will be Friday but Sundays a comin.
May each of
us in our own ways take some time to reflect on all of the life changing events
that happened this most Holy Week. The most important week in the history of
the world. May we praise God for offering the perfect sacrifice fulling
realizing all the events allowed to happen before Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday
to take place.
After all
what Satan and man intended for God made sure ended for good.
Pastor Larry
Announcements:
Sunday
School 9:00
Tuesdays
9:30
Bible Study
Today Snacks
due for college care packages—we know of 6.
April
17 6:00 pm Love Feast here
May 4 Walt
Wiltschek wil be with us for worship; we will have a potluck dinner afterwards
for all.
--Please
sign up to give a children’s message during worship and/or in the nursery
during the sermon.
First
Sundays: Food Bank donations
Pastor
Larry Traxler (217) 454-2362
Keep in Your Prayers
Family of Evelyn
Eads; Vallen (Tracy’s granddaughter); Pat Creviston; Stacie Warren; Doris
Morganthaler; Nancy Fansler; Ruth Siburt; Dorthea Wood; Mike and Kathy Gentry;
Steve Needham; Larry Traxler; Nancy Gorrell; Nora Hanaver; Ron and Kathleen
Petersen; Doug Larrick; Louis & Carol Sulwer; Shirley & Carroll
Clarkson; David and Jan Bower; Debbie Garvey Leibrock; Adiline Young; Mayo and
Darlene Hanaver; many unspoken requests; victims of shootings and of natural
disasters; shut-ins; the Nigerian church; the Haitian church; the CoB in the
Democratic Republic of Congo; those in the middle of war and violence; military
and other services and their families; Brethren Volunteer Service workers;
Disaster project workers
District Prayer Calendar: Spend time in quiet reflection and
rejoice in the hope of resurrection.
