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I’ve noticed over the years that some people get quite nervous—even fearful—with the thought of God coming close to then. Some people have told me, “I can’t go to church—the roof will fall in on me!”
If I’m honest, I had a time in my life when I feared God’s approach. I didn’t want to pray, “God, use me however You want to” because I just knew He was going to send me somewhere I didn’t want to go, or ask me to give up something that was special to me.
But from the the birth of Jesus until His ascension, the consistent message is: Fear not! and Rejoice!
Today we celebrate what is now called Palm Sunday. This is the triumphal arrival of Jesus in the Holy City of Jerusalem, just a few days before His earthly ministry will reach its climax at His crucifixion. This is a story recounted by all four Gospel writers.
Matthew 21:4 says that Christ’s arrival on a donkey was “to fulfill” another one of the jots and tittles. And John adds, “Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written, ‘Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt’” (John 12:14-15).
Typically, conquerors came with a show of overwhelming force, not a show of humility. But Jesus came to Jerusalem with the same message repeated at His birth, “Fear not.”
This is elaborated on in the original prophecy found in Zechariah 9:9-14, where the opening word is, “Rejoice!” We rejoice because He is coming to take away the instruments of war that the occupying forces used to keep the citizens in bondage. He is coming to bring freedom He is coming to announce hope and restoration.
With all of these jot-and-tittle prophecies, we have been asking three questions.
(1) What did it mean then? Quite simply, on that first Palm Sunday it meant that this was not the time for judgment.
(2) What does it mean now? Since the final judgment has not taken place, it must mean it still is not a time of judgment, but a time of favor. God is still drawing people to Himself by His kindness (Romans 2:4).
Zechariah 9:14 makes it clear that there will be a day of judgment. And Peter says that God’s not being slow about this, but He is demonstrating His patience so that none will have to perish without Him (2 Peter 3:9-10).
(3) What does it mean for me? It means that I don’t have to fear the approach of God.
First, there is no fear when God calls me to stand before Him because my sins have been forgiven (Romans 8:1).
Second, there is no fear when God asks me to give something to Him because God has equipped me ahead of time to respond obediently. When Jesus sent His disciples ahead of Him to bring back the donkey that He would ride into Jerusalem, Jesus must have already informed the donkey’s owners that this would be coming. The disciples were simply to say, “The Master needs the donkey now.”
God has already prepared me to say, “Yes” to whatever He calls me to do (Psalm 139:16).
Finally, there is no fear when God asks me to give something to Him because I’m only giving back to Him what is already His. You and I are just stewards of what God has given us. When the disciples talked to the steward of the donkey, they assured him, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly” (Mark 3:11). And the prophecy in Zechariah, God says, “Now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you” (Zechariah 9:12). Maybe not here on earth, but the rewards in Heaven will be incalculable for His faithful servants!
Those who know Jesus as their Master can live as fearless stewards.
We don’t fear the requests of our King, but we rejoice to allow Him access. We don’t fear the approach of our Judge, but we rejoice to stand before Him forgiven and rejoicing!
If you’ve missed any of the other messages in this series, you can find them all here.
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Craig T. Owens 
Links & Quotes
February 24, 2024 — Craig T. OwensWe’ve added things that we think should be in our prayer vocabulary. But kingdom praying should be as natural as talking to the most loving Father you can imagine! Check out more thoughts in my series of posts called Kingdom Praying. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” —Michael Jordan
In the post-Flood rock layers, fossils are often found of animals that were much larger than are currently observed. This has been called giantism. “Evolutionists claim that adaption occurs as random mutations make some organisms better fitted for their environment, and the less-fit organisms then die off. … This supposed, random, trial-and-error process requires long periods of time waiting for the ‘right’ random mutation to occur. In contrast, ICR gives credit to Jesus. He designed organisms with built-in sensors that enable them to detect changes in their environment. Internal genetic programming then allows these organisms to rapidly adapt to these changes in predictable ways. Such adaptation is often too rapid for natural selection to be the correct explanation. This design-based paradigm of adaptation is called continuous environmental tracking (CET).” This is an excellent article.
“If the stone falls on the pot, alas, for the pot; if the pot falls on the stone, alas for the pot.” —Jewish proverb, based on Psalm 118:22 and Luke 20:17-18
Godly leaders don’t minister to please people, but to lead people to God. So godly leaders are ever aware that in all they do, they must hear God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
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