THE PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

Most holy and gracious Father, whose love for sinners is poured out in the sacrifice of Your Son, Jesus Christ: we pray, in His name, that You will now send forth the promised gift of the Holy Spirit upon us anew, to renew our minds and to sanctify our hearts by the truth of Your Word. Come among us, O Lord, and be glorified in our midst as Your gospel is proclaimed; and by Your power may the deaf hear, the blind see, the lame walk, and the dead be raised to life eternal; all to the praise of Your glorious grace. Amen.

THE ASCRIPTION OF PRAISE

"Now to Him who loves us, and who has freed us from our sins by His blood ..." — to Jesus Christ be all praise, honor, and glory, now and forever. Amen.

THE SERMON

For the past number of weeks, we’ve been making our way through a sermon series on The Ten Commandments, and although last Sunday we focused on the Tenth Commandment (and you might have supposed that the series concluded last Sunday), the sermon today is really an important part of the series through the Ten Commandments.

Think with me now: what do we celebrate and commemorate today? Today is called "Palm Sunday," because on this day (five days before Passover), Jesus entered Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, and a great crowd went out to meet Him, waving palm branches — symbols of victory and peace — and shouting, "Hosanna!" an exclamation of praise, meaning "Save! Save us!" The crowd welcomed and praised Jesus as the blessed King of Israel, the Savior, the King of victory and peace. And so we refer to this event as Jesus’ "Triumphal Entry" into Jerusalem on "Palm Sunday."

But why was Jesus going to Jerusalem? First of all, Jesus was going to Jerusalem, just as He had every year at this time, to celebrate the Passover. And what was the celebration of the Passover all about? The celebration of the Passover was all about the greatest redemptive event that had ever taken place in the history of Israel, the victory of salvation which God won when He brought the Israelites "up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."

On the night before the exodus from Egypt, the LORD God struck the land with a final plague — the death of the firstborn. But the LORD gave instructions to Moses, to tell the Israelites to take a lamb — one for each household — a lamb without defect, without blemish, and to sacrifice it and to eat it all, together with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. And the Israelites were to take the blood of the lamb and put it on the sides and the doorframes of the houses of their houses. And God gave them this promise:

And on that night, the LORD delivered the Israelites and brought them up out of Egypt with a mighty hand. For more than fourteen-hundred years (1450 years from the time of Moses to the time of Jesus), the Israelites had celebrated Passover as the memorial feast of God’s great work of salvation, and Jewish law required that every Israelite male come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover each year. And so Jesus came, just as He had come every year. But this time, something was different.

This time, Jesus came to Jerusalem not merely as a Jewish man to observe the Passover and to celebrate the memory of the exodus from Egypt; no, this time, Jesus came to Jerusalem as the spotless lamb of God without blemish or defect, to offer Himself as the true Lamb of the true Passover, and to bring about a new and true exodus. This time, Jesus came to Jerusalem to set His people free from their sins by His blood, to bring them up out of the slavery of their sin and the bondage of guilt and death. Dear friends, the Passover and exodus that took place in Egypt — as marvelous and wonderful as it was — was only a foreshadowing of the great work of salvation that was yet to be revealed and accomplished through Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Listen to the way in which the New Testament itself speaks of the salvation accomplished by Jesus Christ. Revelation 1:5, as an ascription of praise says, "To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood ..." — has freed us from our sins by His blood — that sounds like the freedom of the exodus that came through the blood of the Passover Lamb, doesn’t it? First Corinthians 5:7 says, "Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed,"and First Peter 1:18-19 says, "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed ...but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect."

Now, I want you to think about this, about Jesus Christ as the true, human, Passover Lamb without blemish or defect. What does it mean to be "without blemish or defect?" Spiritually, it means to be without sin. This is the point at which this sermon ties into the series on The Ten Commandments. Think about human sinfulness, in light of the Ten Commandments. Think about your own life in light of the Ten Commandments. Is there anyone here who has perfectly obeyed the Law of God? Is there anyone here who can stand up before God, and before others, and confidently claim that he or she has always done all that the Law of God requires, and that he or she has never done anything which the Law of God forbids? Can you confidently declare that you have not only obeyed the Law of God in terms of strict, external obedience to the letter of the Law, but have also obeyed in terms of strict, internal, spiritual obedience to the spirit of the Law? Is there anyone here today who can stand up and say with sincerity, "O God, according to the standard of Your moral Law, I am righteous before You, because I have never done anything that You forbid, and I have always done all that You require, and I have done so in spirit and in truth, and because You look upon the heart, O Lord, you know that I am without blemish or defect."

Is there anyone here today who could stand up and say that truthfully? Can you imagine anyone who could? You don’t have to use your imagination. He is a real man. His name is Jesus Christ. Dear friends, do you see how wonderful, how beautiful, how magnificent and glorious and great He is? Do you see that all for which you long is found in Him, and that all for which you are ashamed about yourself is absent in Him? Do you see that Jesus Christ is the infinitely perfect, infinitely righteous, all-sufficient, sinless Savior whom God the Father has sent into the world as the Lamb without blemish? He is the perfectly righteous Man who therefore can offer Himself to the world, and offer Himself for you, as your sinless Savior.

We’re not talking about a ghost, or a spirit, or an angel; we’re talking about a man. "But," you say, "Jesus was the Son of God, God in human flesh and blood." Yes, no doubt. But Jesus was no less human than you or I. No, He wasn’t. He wasn’t God "disguised" as a man. He was, and is, God united with a human nature. God became human and lived upon the earth. That’s who Jesus was, and is. And in His human nature, as a man, as a man born of woman under the Law, as a man who lived a human life accountable to the Law of God, He was sinless. Of course, in terms of His divine nature, He was sinless; that’s "no problem" to understand, but that’s not the point. The point is that in His human nature, as one of us, as a man tempted by Satan, as a man with human affections and human will and human desires and inclinations, He was sinless. He was a sinless man! He lived a sinless life! As the Scripture says, Jesus "suffered when He was tempted" (Hebrews 2:18), and He was "tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin" (Hebrews 4:15), and so the Scripture declares that Jesus meets our need — our need for a sinless Savior — because he was "holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners" (Hebrews 7:26). What a man! What a Savior! A man who in every way met the demands of righteousness according to God’s Law!

His whole life was characterized by humble obedience to His Father. Jesus said, "I seek not to please myself but Him who sent me" (John 5:30), and "the One who sent me is with me ...for I always do what pleases Him" (John 8:29). Jesus perfectly fulfilled all the righteousness of the Law of God, doing what God says to do, and not doing what God says not to do, in word, thought, and deed, in spirit and in truth. And dear friends, please understand: Jesus’ sinlessness does not mean that He was "less human" than you or I; no, quite the contrary. Jesus’s sinless life, His life of unbroken love for, obedience to, and fellowship with His Father, is what human life is all about, and what human life was meant to be. He is not "less" human than you or I — He is the real Man, the true Man, the perfect Man. And it is we, in our sinfulness and our brokenness who are "less" than human. Man — male and female — was created in the image of God, with a mind to know God, a heart to love God, a soul to serve God, and a spirit to worship God. The glory of God is man fully alive, but because of our sin and brokenness, we are not truly human and we are not fully alive — fully alive in loving fellowship with God. And so we see what a true Man really is, revealed in the life of Jesus Christ, and He has come to restore us in His image, that we might live in the fullness of life as His redeemed people.

On that first "Palm Sunday," Jesus rode into Jerusalem, having fulfilled all righteousness, having kept the Law of God in thought, and word, and deed, in spirit and in truth. He rode into Jerusalem as the Sinless Savior. He came into Jerusalem as the perfect Man, without sin, in order to offer Himself as the perfect Passover Lamb. Dear friends, Jesus rode into Jerusalem to be your Passover Lamb, without blemish or defect, and if His blood is upon you, then the wrath of God will pass over you, and God’s curse upon sin will pass over you, for you have the promise of redemption through the blood of the Lamb slain for sinners.

But now I want you to think about this: Jesus Christ not only died for you — which, of course, He did — but first of all, He lived for you. He could not have been the Lamb slain for sinners, if He had not first of all lived a sinless life. His sinless life, His perfect obedience, was necessary to qualify Him as the true Passover Lamb with blemish or defect. And not only was His death the substitute for your death under the wrath of God, but His righteous, holy, sinless life was for you! He lived His sinless life as a substitute for your life before God!

Adam fell to temptation in the Garden, and so sin and death entered the world, and we were born dead in trespasses and sins. But Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience, resisting temptation in the wilderness and all the way through His life, through Gethsemane, and to the cross. And by His obedience comes life for all who trust in Him. He took our place, so that His obedience might be the substitute for our disobedience (see Romans 5:12-21).

It’s as simple as this: the Law of God requires us to live righteously, perfectly before Him. But we can’t do it, because we are born dead in trespasses and sins. But whenever there’s something that you need to do, but you can’t do — just take a simple illustration — there’s a bill you need to pay but you don’t have the money; there’s an errand you need to run but you don’t have the time; there’s a repair you need to do at home, but you don’t have the skill — what do you do? Well, oftentimes, you try to find somebody else who can do it for you, someone you can trust, someone you know will do whatever needs to be done, and will do it right.

Brothers and sisters, we have a life to live before God, and we can’t do it. We can’t do it. We have a life to live under and accountable to the Law of God — in spirit and in truth, in thought, word, and deed — and we can’t do it. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? Find Someone who can live your life for you — Someone who can and will do for you what you cannot do for yourself, Someone who can and will live His life for you, in your place, under the Law of God, accountable to the Law of God, Someone you can trust who you know won’t let you down, Someone who can do what needs to be done and will do it right. I know who that Man is. His name is Jesus Christ, and He has already been there and done that for you. Not only His death, but His life, His perfect, righteous, sinless life was lived for you and is offered to you freely, so that through faith in Him you might be clothed with His righteousness. And what that means is that through faith in Him, you receive not only the forgiveness of your sins, cleansing by His blood, but also you receive the blessings of His righteousness, the blessings of His right-standing with His Father, the blessings of His obedience to the Law, the blessings of favor upon His well-pleasing life.

It is a wonderful thing to be a forgiven sinner, to know that your sins have been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb; but how much more wonderful is it to know that not only are your sins forgiven, but that also now the Father sees in you the righteousness of His own Son. You see, because Jesus lived His life for you, His obedience is credited as your obedience, His sinlessness is credited as your sinlessness, His righteousness — His keeping of the Law, in thought, word, and deed, in spirit and in truth — is credited as your righteousness. This is what God has given to us in Christ! He has given to us a Sinless Savior as our Righteous Redeemer so that His righteousness might be our righteousness through faith! How wonderful it is that though your life is riddled and broken by your sins, the Father sees your life in Christ, and so He sees your life as it has been lived for you by His Son, and therefore He sees your life redeemed and restored in the perfect obedience and sinlessness of Jesus. As the Scripture says, Jesus was "born of woman, born under the Law, to redeem those under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons" (Galatians 4:4).

Dear friends, take hold of the gospel, and don’t ever let go! Take hold of Christ, and don’t ever let go! Do you see that in Jesus Christ you have the one and only Savior who could ever do for you what needs to be done? And He is completely able, and completely trustworthy to do all that He promises to do. And therefore He is completely worthy of your highest allegiance, He is worthy of your praise, He is worthy of your love and devotion, He is worthy to be honored, adored, and worshiped, and obeyed; for by His life and death and resurrection, He has brought us up out of the land of death, and out of the house of the bondage — He has freed us from our sins by His blood. To His name be praise and glory, now and forever. Amen.