Follow the Signs

Exodus 12:3, 5a, 7, 12-13                     Zechariah 9:9-10                        Matthew 21:1-11     

Follow the Signs

Can anyone tell me what is special about today? Yes, it is Palm Sunday. 

That’s a funny name for a day, don’t you think?

Why do you think we call it Palm Sunday?

The Bible often uses pictures to describe things we might not always understand. 

And often those pictures are meant to be signs pointing us in the right direction.

In the passages we read from today, the book of Exodus, the book of the prophet Zechariah, and the Gospel according to Matthew, we find a beautiful picture full of signs pointing to the Messiahship of Jesus.

So, let’s go through some of the signs that helped the people understand that Jesus was their promised King and Saviour…and let’s see if these signs can help us understand more about too, shall we?

SIGN 1: 

 

Our first sign is the humble donkey mentioned in Matthew 21:1-11. 

How was the donkey a sign for the people?

Yes, by entering Jerusalem on a donkey, the people realised that Jesus was fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9-10. 

But this sign was a bit of a problem.

Does anyone know why?

Yes, the people had been taught that the Messiah would be a warrior like Joshua or a conquering king like David.

SIGN 2: 

By riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, Jesus was telling them that he was not coming as a conquering political warrior on a big horse like the leaders of the day, but as a humble and gentle king, symbolising his message of peace and humility.

You see, Jesus is our King, but not in the earthly sense of power and authority. Jesus came to save us from the power of sin and death. He came to conquer the devil and every evil thing.

But how could Jesus conquer sin and death and the devil?

To answer that question, we need to go back to the sign we read about in Exodus.

Can anyone remember what that sign was?

SIGN 3:

The Passover Lamb, yes.

Can anyone tell me what the Israelites were told to do?

Yes, they had to sacrifice a perfect lamb and spread its blood on their doorposts.

What a funny thing to do! Why did they have to smear the blood of the lamb on the doorposts? 

It was a sign…but what was it for?

For protection, yes! When the angel of death saw the sign then he would pass over the house and move on elsewhere.

In the very same way, Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, offered himself as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, his blood serving as a sign to mark us as redeemed and saved.

But how was Jesus offered up like the Passover Lamb? 

SIGN 4: 

Yes, Jesus died for our sins on the cross.

Did he just die for our sins on the cross or did he do something more?

Yes, Paul tells us in Colossians that Jesus cancelled our sins on the cross, but that he also defeated and disarmed the devil and his evil angels. 

So, in that sense, Jesus was a warrior king, wasn’t he? 

But I want you to think about what the sign of the cross means for us today.

The Apostle John tells us that what Jesus did on the cross for us shows how much God loves us!

So, for us, the cross is a sign that God loves us so much that he was willing to be our Passover Lamb…dying for us so that we might be protected and delivered.

But do you think that’s what the disciples understood on that awful day when Jesus was arrested, tried, and executed on the cross?

No, I think they didn’t understand the sign of the cross at all.

What do you think they thought as they stood watching Jesus die on the cross?

They thought it was all over, didn’t they? That this was the end.

They thought they had been following the wrong man…that Jesus wasn’t the Messiah after all.

But they were misunderstanding the sign, weren’t they?

SIGN 5:

 

They thought that when Jesus died on the cross everything, they believed in was not true.

They thought they had been mistaken all along.

And now they were scared and they felt very alone.

Have you ever felt that way?

That everything was going wrong?

That nothing was working out the way you thought it should?

How did you feel then?

Did you feel alone? Did you feel frightened?

But we know that the cross was not the end, don’t we?

How do we know that?

Yes, because Jesus gave us another sign, didn’t he?

SIGN 6:

Yes, Jesus gave us the sign of an empty tomb. 

What does that mean?

Yes, Jesus is not dead anymore! 

The Bible tells us that on the third day, he rose triumphantly from the grave!

But that is the story for next Sunday…

So, what have we learned about signs today?

Signs point us in the way we should go.

Signs point us to Jesus.

But are we always right in the way we understand signs? 

Not always… that's why we need to take all the signs and put them together like one big jigsaw puzzle…when we see all the signs together, then we see the picture more clearly.

So, what shall we pray for?

Ask children to pray…and then close with prayer.