New Life Bible Fellowship Church
3/29/2026

      • Psalm 118:22–26KJV1900

  • All Glory, Laud, and Honor
  • The Power Of The Cross

      • Proverbs 18KJV1900

  • Introduction:

    Over these past months we've been walking through Paul's first letter to the Corinthians and we've seen a theme emerge again and again: the wisdom of God and the wisdom of the world are on a collision course, and they collide most dramatically at the cross. Paul told us in chapter 1, verse 18, that "the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." This morning, as we pause our verse-by-verse exposition to enter into Passion Week, I want us to see that this theology Paul articulates wasn't an abstraction — it was lived out in real time on the streets of Jerusalem. Palm Sunday is the day the collision began in earnest. The crowds expected one kind of king. God sent another. And in the gap between their expectations and God's plan, we discover what the power of the cross really means. The question for us this morning is: What kind of king are we looking for?

    Text: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 & Matthew 21:1-11

    1 Corinthians 1:18–25 ESV
    18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
    Matthew 21:1–11 ESV
    1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ” 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

    Main Idea: The triumphal entry reveals that God's power looks nothing like what the world expects — the King who rides into Jerusalem comes not to conquer Rome but to conquer sin and death through the "foolishness" of the cross.

    I. The World's Expectation: A King of Power (Matt. 21:1–9; 1 Cor. 1:22)

    The crowds waving palms were not simply celebrating — they were making a political statement. "Hosanna to the Son of David" was a loaded, messianic, royal cry. They expected a warrior-king in the mold of King David.
    Matthew 21:8–9 ESV
    8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
    The crowd’s actions in verses 8–9 constitute a deliberate coronation ceremony, not merely spontaneous celebration. Spreading cloaks on the ground was the customary way to coronate a new king—exactly what the Israelites did when Jehu was crowned in 2 Kings 9:13. The branches they cut symbolized Jewish nationalism and victory. Together, these gestures transformed the entry into a political act of enthronement.
    The verbal acclamations reinforce this interpretation. Hosanna derives from the Hebrew verb meaning “help us, deliver us, liberate us, save us,” with emphatic urgency—so “hosanna” meant “Oh, save us now!” or “Deliver us, we plead!” While the crowd’s acclamation involved praise, it was fundamentally rooted in their belief that Jesus was coming to their rescue. By shouting “Son of David,” they invoked language from Psalm 118:25–26, a festal psalm for processions to the temple—but applied it to Jesus as the promised messianic king.
    Psalm 118:25–26 ESV
    25 Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! 26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.
    Critically, the Jewish crowds within the story—presumably well acquainted with this Old Testament imagery—demonstrate that they understand the symbolic action as a kingly claim. The crowd’s actions express their conviction that Jesus possesses the power—demonstrated through miracles—to liberate them from Roman occupation.
    Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:22 that "Jews demand signs" — they wanted visible, undeniable displays of power. Palm Sunday was the crowd's attempt to crown Jesus on their terms.
    The world still operates this way. We are drawn to strength, influence, spectacle, and visible triumph. We want a God who fixes our problems on our timeline and in ways that make sense to us.
    Historians tell us that there were very likely two processions entering Jerusalem that day. From the west, Pontius Pilate was riding in from Caesarea with a full Roman military cohort — warhorses, polished armor, swords drawn, standards raised — the full spectacle of imperial power on display. Rome always reinforced its garrison during Passover because a million Jewish pilgrims in one city made the empire nervous. So Pilate's procession was a show of force, a reminder of who was really in charge. That's what power looks like to the world. Meanwhile, from the east, descending the Mount of Olives, comes Jesus — no army, no armor, no war horse. He's riding a borrowed donkey, surrounded not by soldiers but by common people waving palm branches and laying their cloaks in the road. And here is the great irony of Palm Sunday: two thousand years later, the Roman Empire is a chapter in a history book, Pilate is remembered only because we say his name in the Apostles' Creed, and the man on the donkey is worshiped by people from every tribe, tongue, and nation on earth. God's "foolishness" outlasted Rome's power.
    But here's where it gets personal — because we are not so different from that crowd. I've sat with people in this very church — good, faithful, praying believers — who have said to me in honest moments, "Pastor, I've been praying and praying, and God isn't doing anything." And I understand that. I've felt it myself. But what we usually mean when we say that is, "God isn't doing what I asked, when I asked, the way I asked." We want the Pilate procession. We want God to ride in with overwhelming force and fix the diagnosis, restore the marriage, change the circumstance — visibly, immediately, unmistakably. And God says, "I am working. But my power doesn't look the way you think it does." You see, the crowds on Palm Sunday wanted a king who would conquer Rome. God gave them a King who would conquer sin and death — which is an infinitely greater enemy. But to do it, He had to ride a donkey, not a warhorse. He had to go to a cross, not a throne room. And the same God who chose that path for His own Son may be choosing a path for you right now that looks to you like weakness, like silence, like nothing is happening — when in fact, the power of God is at work in ways you cannot yet see. That is what Paul means when he says, "The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."
    Though the World's Expectation was a king of power…

    II. God's Design: A King of Humility (Matt. 21:4–5; Zech. 9:9; 1 Cor. 1:23–25)

    Matthew (21:4-5) is careful to tell us Jesus orchestrated His entrance to fulfill Zechariah 9:9 — "humble, and mounted on a donkey." This was deliberate. Jesus was not swept up in the crowd's agenda; He was enacting God's agenda.
    A king on a donkey, not a warhorse. A king heading toward a cross, not a throne room. Paul says this is "a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles" (1 Cor. 1:23). It offended everyone's categories.
    1 Corinthians 1:23 ESV
    23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
    Yet Paul adds the essential qualifier: "but to those who are called… Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men" (1 Cor. 1:24–25). The donkey ride was not a detour — it was the plan.
    1 Corinthians 1:24–25 ESV
    24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
    Now, you would think that if people could just see it — if they could just understand that Jesus was operating on a different plane, fulfilling a different script than the one they had written — they would fall at His feet and worship. But that's not what happened. And this is where Palm Sunday becomes not just a historical event but a warning.
    You see, when Jesus refused to be the king the crowds wanted, they didn't simply lose interest. They turned on Him. It took less than five days. The same voices that shouted "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" on Sunday were shouting "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" by Friday. Five days. How do you go from worship to murder in five days? I'll tell you how: Jesus did not meet their expectations, and they would rather kill Him than surrender theirs.
    And beloved, that is a sobering thing. Because the distance between "Hosanna" and "Crucify Him" is not as far as we'd like to think. It's the distance between "God, I'll follow you anywhere" and "God, why aren't you doing what I asked?" It's the distance between singing praise on a Sunday morning and quietly resenting God by Thursday afternoon because He didn't answer the way you wanted. The crowd didn't reject Jesus because He was weak. They rejected Him because His kind of strength required them to abandon their agenda and trust His. And that is the hardest thing in the world to do.
    But here is what the crowd could not see — what the Sanhedrin could not see, what Pilate could not see, what the Roman soldiers could not see — and it is the thing I most want you to see this morning. Their rejection did not derail God's plan. It was God's plan. Every shout of "Crucify Him" was driving the nail deeper into the purpose God had ordained before the foundation of the world. For God’s design of a king of humility, was one the prophet Isaiah saw seven hundred years before it happened...

    III. The Cross's Revelation: A King Whose Weakness Is Our Salvation (Isa. 53:1–3; 1 Cor. 1:18)

    By the end of the week, the same crowds would cry "Crucify Him!" Why? Because Jesus refused to be the king they wanted. He would not fit their mold. The arm of the Lord was revealed (Isa. 53:1), but not in a form anyone recognized.
    Isaiah 53:1 ESV
    1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
    Isaiah prophesied a servant with "no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him" (Isa. 53:2). The world saw weakness. God was unleashing power.
    Isaiah 53:2 ESV
    2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
    The word of the cross is the power of God (1 Cor. 1:18). Not "will become" power, not "contains" power — it is the power of God. Palm Sunday sets the trajectory: every step Jesus takes this week is a step of sovereign, saving power disguised in humility.
    1 Corinthians 1:18 ESV
    18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
    Therefore, though the world on that first Palm Sunday expected a king of power as they defined it, to fix their problem with Rome occupation, God’s design was to give them a king of humility, one that made war, not against Rome, but against the greatest, fiercest enemy of all - sin. How did he do it, by the cross, foolishness to the world, but salvation and freedom to those who believe.

    So What?

    Do we understand that it is necessary that we examine our expectations of God?
    Are you frustrated with God because He isn't working the way you expected?
    Palm Sunday warns us that our categories of power and success are not God's. Repent of trying to fit Jesus into your agenda and submit to His.
    Do we understand that at all times and in all ways we are to embrace the "foolishness" of the gospel?
    In a culture that prizes self-promotion, visibility, and influence, the church is called to boast in a crucified King.
    Does your life reflect the values of Palm Sunday's crowds or the values of the One riding the donkey? Are you willing to follow a King whose path leads through suffering?
    Do we understand that it’s essential that we trust the trajectory of Passion Week?
    If you're in a season of confusion or suffering, Palm Sunday reminds you that God's plan often looks like weakness before it reveals itself as power.
    The same Jesus who chose a donkey over a warhorse chose a cross over a crown — and it was the wisest, most powerful act in human history. Hold fast to Him this week.
    For our great problem is not our finances or our marriage or politicians or the war, it is our sin. Which is precisely the problem that Jesus came to conquer, which we will see in greater detail on Friday evening where we will see “The Power of the Cross: Where God's Wisdom Was Displayed”.

      • 1 Corinthians 1:18–25ESV

      • Matthew 21:1–11ESV

      • Matthew 21:8–9ESV

      • Psalm 118:25–26ESV

      • 1 Corinthians 1:23ESV

      • 1 Corinthians 1:24–25ESV

      • Isaiah 53:1ESV

      • Isaiah 53:2ESV

      • 1 Corinthians 1:18ESV

  • The Gospel Song
New Life Bible Fellowship Church
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