500 years before Palm Sunday, the prophet Zechariah had written, “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.” (Zechariah 9:9)

Daniel, writing in exile in Babylon - 500 years before Palm Sunday - Daniel had prophesized that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem 483 years after the Jews - in exile - were given permission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. (Daniel 9:24-27) That permission came about 50 years later on March 28, 445 B.C. in an edict given by the Persian King Artaxerxes. (Nehemiah 2:1-8)

Many years ago there was a English lawyer named Sir Robert Anderson. Sir Robert was for a long time the director of England’s Scotland Yard. He was also a Bible scholar. With his mind trained in logic he analyzed the book of Daniel. This is the kind of study that makes my mind spin. Starting from March 28, 445 B.C. - the date of King Artaxerxes decree - Sir Robert counted forward - making adjustments for differences in calendars and other variables. He determined that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on April 6, 32 A.D. - just as Daniel had said - exactly 483 years after King Artaxerxes decree. (1)

Jesus is riding into Jerusalem and God is moving in human history. Palm Sunday is foremost a fulfillment of prophecy - a declaration - a coronation - of who Jesus really is - God’s Messiah.

It is crucial that we understand what God is doing.

On Palm Sunday, close to 3 million pilgrims from all over the Jewish Diaspora are gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover Festival - commemorating God’s salvation of His people from Pharaoh - from bondage in Egypt. As Jesus enters Jerusalem the crowd cries out, “Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21:9)

The words they shouted come from Psalm 118:25,26. “Hosanna” meaning “save.” “Son of David” meaning Jesus’ anticipated role as King. “Moses saved us from Pharaoh. Jesus will save us from the Romans. Save us Jesus. Be our King. Restore David’s kingdom.”

Given all that, it’s obvious from reading the Gospels that this crowd - and even the disciples - didn’t get it. They were so focused on themselves and what they thought Jesus was going to do for them. Somehow, as they were shouting the words of Psalm 118:25,26 they’d missed the earlier verse of Psalm 118 - verse 22: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone.”

“The stone” - Jesus - is rejected - crucified in our place - offering us salvation from our sins. Jesus becomes “the chief corner stone” - the beginning of the church - the beginning of what God desires to do in our lives. As Jesus enters Jerusalem God is moving in history - but His movement is not focused just on the declaration of who Jesus is.

We need to be very clear about this. Often we hear this Palm Sunday message - the Jews welcomed Jesus on Palm Sunday and they crucified Him on Good Friday. So don’t reject Him like they did. Have you heard that before? That’s true. But, we need to go farther - to get beyond Palm Sunday into the life that Jesus offers us. The crowd completely missed the point of what was being offered to them - the personal implications for their own lives.

Please turn with me - forward in time - to Matthew 21:18-22. Matthew 21:18-22 takes place on the day after Palm Sunday. Its Monday morning. Jesus is returning to Jerusalem from Bethany where He had spent the night.

Matthew 21:18: Now in the morning, when He - Jesus - was returning to the city, He became hungry. Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered. Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, “How did the fig tree wither all at once?” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. And all these things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

Thinking through the truth that we need to move beyond Palm Sunday - to go farther - to live the life that God is offering us in Jesus - there are two very personal implications here for us that I’d like to focus on. First - in verses 18 and 19 - Jesus is teaching His disciples that God expects us to produce fruit. God is results orientated. We either produce fruit for God or we experience God’s judgment.

How many of you have grown figs? I’m told that around here they used to have a lot of figs. Someone said, “They know figs in Merced.” Some of you are probably way ahead of me on this one. But, this cursing the fig tree has really bothered me.

In Mark’s Gospel - Mark 11:13 - as Mark records this scene - Mark comments that the time of the Passover wasn’t the season for figs. Which seems strange. Why would Jesus curse a fig tree that was doing what seemingly it was suppose to be doing? Growing by the side of the road and not producing figs. I’ve been thinking about this and doing some research.

What I’ve found out is that some kinds of fig trees produce two crops each year. Around May they produce a crop and then again in late summer - around August - they produce another crop. How many of you knew that? Something else - the two crops are related. In other words - if a fig tree doesn’t produce figs in the Spring it probably won’t produce figs in Summer.

Around the time of the Passover - March and April - even though it wasn’t the season for figs - the figs weren’t ripening to be harvested - there should have been little figs forming on this tree. But, this tree was all leaves and not fruit. It was being downright deceptive - having leaves and acting like a fruit bearing fig tree. But, it hadn’t produced fruit. It wasn’t producing. It had no potential to produce. So Jesus cursed it.

Here this - as Jesus is teaching His disciples - the fig tree is symbolic. It represents the nation of Israel. Israel had the leaves of a fig tree - the outward appearance of being God’s people. But, they hadn’t produced fruit. They hadn’t responded to God’s work in them and His expectations for their lives.

I recently read what I understand is a true story about a young virtuoso pianist in England. At the end of his first concert the audience jumped to their feet and cheered wildly. When this young pianist walked off the stage, and the concert manager said, “It’s a standing ovation! Go back out and play an encore.”

The young man replied, “No, I can’t.”

The manager exclaimed, “Listen to the crowd. They love you! They want to hear you again.”

He said, “Not everybody is standing. There’s one man in the balcony who has remained seated.”

“What do you mean, one man?” Said the concert manager. “So what?”

The pianist said, “That man is my teacher.” (2)

How easy it is to produce leafs - acts of righteousness - advertising that we’re one of God’s people - when inwardly we really don’t personally know Him. When inwardly we’re spiritually barren. How easy it is to get caught up in the excitement of a crowd - carried along by the expected - the familiar - the acceptable things - to act like the church. But, is Jesus pleased with the fruit we’re producing with our lives? How would He judge our fruit? Would He give us a standing ovation?

Going beyond Palm Sunday means that our lives must produce fruit that’s pleasing to God.

Second - in verses 20 to 22 - Jesus very practically - reminds us that to produce that fruit we must rely on Him. Say that with me, “We must rely on Him.”

In verse 20 the disciples are looking at this fig tree in amazement. A leafy tree one minute a withered stump the next. They ask, “Jesus, how did you do that?” We can almost hear them thinking to themselves, “Whoa! That’s pretty impressive. I wonder if Jesus could teach me how to do that?”

It’s like seeing the celebration - the triumphal entry - and missing the potential of what Jesus is offering. Jesus isn’t just doing tricks to amaze and astonish His disciples. There’s a point here that goes to the heart of where we live our lives - the core of the potential of what God can do in us and through us.

In verse 21 Jesus is talking about faith. Faith in Him. Faith that moves mountains. No circumstance or situation is too large - or too massive. Any barrier - any obstacle - to the forward march of His people is blown out of the way - as we have faith in Him.

In verse 22 Jesus is talking about prayer. Prayer offered through Him. Prayer that empowers ministry. Prayer that empowers us for ministry for God. Prayer that teaches us to rely on God as He empowers our lives.

Jesus said - in John 15:5,6: “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me - and so produce fruit - he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.”

Years ago I knew a man - a man in whose house we were having a Bible study - a man who one night very proudly showed me his “Five Year Sunday School Attendance Pin.” Imagine this - when he was a child - for five straight years he hadn’t missed a day of Sunday School - not one day. As he showed me that pin he was extremely proud of it. He was hanging on to it as a trophy of what He had done for God.

And yet, that night - listening to this man - now in his late 70’s - listening to him share about his life and what had transpired since those Sunday School days - it was sadly evident that this man had no idea of the potential of what God could have done in Him and through Him. He had no idea of what it meant to abide in Jesus - to have Jesus abide in him.

If we really “get” Palm Sunday - the implications for our lives - it means that we need to receive Jesus as our personal Savior - to personally accept His offer and work of salvation for us on the cross. Then - abiding in Him - Him living in us - we should produce fruit.

God wants to do the miraculous in our lives. He wants to produce in us changed lives - empowered lives. God desires to conform our hearts to His - to produce in us the fruit of Godliness - righteousness - Christ likeness - the fruits of Godly love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. (Galatians 5:22)

God wants to mold us into Godly parents that produce the fruit of Godly children. He wants to shape our character to produce in us the fruit of His power and grace and love - that will transform our homes and work places and community. His desire is to flow through us to produce the most valuable fruit - to eternally impact the lives of men and women - leading them to salvation in Jesus Christ.

Who was this man who rode into Jerusalem on a donkey 2,000 years ago? He is the great I Am. Jesus - the Son of God - the Messiah - the King of kings and the Lord of lords - the Almighty Creator - the Savior of mankind. Jesus who offers to us salvation from our sins - eternal life - peace with God. This Jesus calls us to give our lives to Him that He would produce fruit in us and through us. Fruit that we can never produce on our own.

That’s going farther - beyond Palm Sunday - and beginning to live the life that God offers us in Jesus Christ.

__________________________
1.  Stedman, Ray “The King is Coming” - sermon on Mark 11:1-25
2.  Zeisler, Steve “Hearts on Fire” - sermon on Luke 24:13-35