Fans or Followers? What Palm Sunday Reveals About Our Faith
The crowds shouted “Hosanna,” but they misunderstood who Jesus truly was. This message explores the tension of Palm Sunday, where celebration meets surrender, and challenges us to move beyond fascination with Jesus into a life of true worship marked by sacrifice, humility, and a cross-shaped faith.
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The Triumphal Entry
1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus[a] sent two of his disciples 2 and said to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. 3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’” 4 And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. 5 And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” 6 And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. 7 And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. 8 And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. 9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
11 And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
The One with Scars in His Hands: Worshiping Jesus for Who He Really Is
I want to affirm that God knows where you are.
He knows where you are physically. Scripture says the very hairs on your head are numbered (Matthew 10:30). Not a sparrow falls to the ground without the Father’s awareness (Matthew 10:29). He also knows where you are spiritually. He knows if you are indifferent to Him, if you are trying to grow, if you are lukewarm or cold or burning hot for Christ.
Based upon revelation, He loves you. He is for you, not against you. He wants you to understand that no matter what your self-talk says, it is not too late. His grace is greater than anything you are facing. He is merciful. There is hope. He knows exactly where you are.
As Jesus entered Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday morning, He did so with a purpose.
Jesus Came to Jerusalem with a Purpose
He knew that He was going to go to the cross. He had been saying this repeatedly in His three years of public ministry. God sovereignly ordained this out of His love for you and out of His love for anyone in the sound of my voice.
God loves you, and it is demonstrated by virtue that God sent His Son with a purpose. It is not merely a coincidence but the divine sovereignty of God that Jesus Christ was going to Jerusalem with a purpose at Passover. How do you orchestrate something like this? Passover is the season where the Jewish people take the blood of a lamb or sacrifice a lamb through its shed blood. Now, as John the Baptist had already described Jesus: “Behold, the Lamb”—not a lamb, the Lamb—“of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). This Savior, this God encapsulated in a body, was going to Jerusalem with a purpose, and He was going at Passover. How do you draw that up?
Only God could do something like this. The Apostle Paul wrote about this: “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). He was going into Jerusalem with a purpose.
Many of you are aware that, as this unfolded, enthusiasm broke out among the crowd that gathered around Jesus as He was coming into the city. They were waving palm branches as a sign of victory. They were shouting, “Hosanna, Hosanna,” which in Hebrew means “please save” or “save now.”
The crowd believed that Jesus was about to displace Roman power and set up an earthly kingdom. The crowd, as they were shouting Hosanna, were unknowingly quoting passages from the Bible, specifically the Old Testament, that are closely tied to authentic worship. Psalm 118: “Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord” (Psalm 118:25-26).
This phrase was originally written for the worship of Almighty God. However, we are aware that they were not worshiping Jesus as God.
Worshiping Expectations, Not Reality
They were worshiping Jesus based on what they believed He was about to do. They were worshiping their expectations. Their expectations were not about to come to fruition. They were worshiping what they preferred.
They ascribed messianic titles to Jesus that did not align with the revelation of Scripture. They were worshiping a Jesus they preferred, not a Jesus that truly is. They wanted a Jesus who was an earthly king. They wanted a Jesus who would make their circumstances more comfortable as they understood them. And they missed Him.
Do we realize as believers that if you only operate out of your natural understanding, apart from the revelation of God and His ways and His nature, that what can happen is you miss reality altogether?
So Jesus was riding into Jerusalem. He was riding in on a donkey. He was not riding in on a war horse or a chariot that would be accustomed for kings or some fancy wheeled vehicle. He was riding in on a donkey, and we are aware that there are hundreds of passages of Scripture that predicted, that described what the Messiah, the Son of God, who would come for us, what it would be like. He even said the word in Zechariah 9:9, that He would come “humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
We see that as Jesus came into Jerusalem and this crowd was praising Him, they were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David,” because David had an earthly rule in Jerusalem. They were projecting that Jesus would have an earthly rule over the city and the kingdom, displacing Roman power.
In Luke’s Gospel, as Jesus came rolling into Jerusalem, we are told that some Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, even as all these people were expressing enthusiasm, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples” (Luke 19:39).
Now, why were they doing that? There are primarily three sins operating in the lives of the Pharisees: jealousy, envy, and fear. John 12:19, also describing the scene: “So the Pharisees said to one another, ‘You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.’” They saw Jesus as a threat to their religious authority and their place, their good order. They were jealous of Him and envious of Him. That last phrase reflects their fear.
Sin is a sin if I am trying to control God by virtue of operating out of my fear. That is what was happening among the Pharisees.
Jesus responded to them in Luke’s Gospel: “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:40). Think about that for a moment. Why would Jesus say that if I am not praised, inanimate objects like stones would cry out?
Why the Stones Would Cry Out
When Jesus comes back again, He is coming for His bride. He is coming for His people. The Bible says He will redeem you for eternity. But that is not all the Bible says. The Bible also says He is going to redeem creation. He is going to take this world as we know it, and He is going to create a just world, and He is going to heal this world, and He is going to recreate His creation in a way where there is no sin present, and we are actually dwelling with Jesus on this planet.
This is why Romans 8:22 says, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” Even the created order longs for Christ to come.
Colossians 1:17 tells us: “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” What that tells us is that the power of our Creator dwells in the creation. We do not worship the creation. We worship the Creator. But at a subatomic level, the Creator of the universe in Christ is holding things together. The creation itself, at a subatomic level, longs for the day when the created order is restored for the glory of God.
But Jesus was also making a play on words here, because the Pharisees themselves had outward religion, but they had not been animated by the presence of God. They had not been animated by belief in Jesus as Messiah. They had not been animated by the true revelation of God. The crowd itself, projecting all its ideals onto Jesus, had not been animated by the true and authentic revelation of Jesus.
This is why George Barna says things like this:
“Around the North American church, we are more impressed by a church of 4,000 people who have no clue about God’s character and his expectations than by a church of 100 deeply committed saints who are serving humanity in quiet but significant ways.”
This is why Kirk Hadaway and Dave Roozen would say:
“We should be less concerned about making our churches full of people and more concerned about making people full of God.”
What happened is that there was a projection going on on this day of bringing words of exaltation to Jesus, but not rooted in who He is.
A Fearless Church for a Fear-Filled World
A.W. Tozer says, “A fear-filled world needs a fearless church.”
We are aware that 43 to 45 million adults are functionally illiterate in our nation. As the Bible informs us, people are made in the image of God. All people are of sacred worth. Because of that, we serve among people who have hearts that are not indifferent. When men and women volunteer in ministries like Arise to Read, support Memphis Teacher Residency, and support Cornerstone Schools, that reflects hearts that are not indifferent.
Two to three billion people on our planet have no access to the gospel. This is why we set goals as a faith family of planting churches among unreached people groups. We are on a mission because we have God’s revelation.
Three hundred eighty-eight million Christians around the world face high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith. I heard an anecdote: a believer from North America was among persecuted Christians who said, “We are praying for the church in America, that you have a greater revelation of Jesus.”
I have said many times that there is a revelation of Jesus that the persecuted church has and knows that the prosperous church desperately needs. My acquaintance said, “I didn’t have the heart to tell them that not only is the North American church not thinking about them, but she is not praying for them either.”
Maybe we, as the North American church, need a deeper revelation of what Jesus has unfolded before us.
They Lacked Perspective
Neither the disciples nor the people in general, when He came into Jerusalem, understood the depth of what was unfolding before them, even though they had a revelation. Jesus had given them revelation. In the Old Testament, God had provided revelation.
John, when he was recording this episode, said:
“His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about Him and had been done to Him.” John 12:16
They lacked a time perspective on the cross and the resurrection He had repeatedly predicted. They lacked perspective on why it was necessary. May I lovingly remind you why it was necessary?
Sometimes I will have somebody say to me when I get into a dialogue about Jesus, particularly among unbelievers, but occasionally among believers: “How can you say there’s only one way to God? How can you say that?”
Well, one, we say that based upon revelation. The Scripture says there is one mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5). The Scripture says, Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). We can get accused of being narrow in some way.
But I want to submit to you that that is not the greater question. The greater question is not whether there is one way to God. The greater question is, why would God make a way at all?
The fact that God loves like that, that He loves you like that, that He loves humanity like this, that He would make a way. And He has made a way in Christ.
Fans, Not Worshipers
As Jesus came into Jerusalem, people were missing who Jesus was and what He was doing. He came to Jerusalem at Passover, not as a lamb of God, but as the Lamb of God, as John the Baptist said, who takes away the sins of the world.
Do you know why the crowd grew so large when Jesus came into Jerusalem? It is because He had just raised Lazarus from the dead. That is not an opinion. That is exactly what the Bible teaches. John 12: “The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign” (John 12:17-18).
They were not worshiping Him as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. They were not worshiping Him as the Son of God. They were not worshiping Him as the Lamb of God. They were fascinated with the fact: “Come, this dude raises the dead. Let’s check him out.”
They were fans.
That is what was happening when Jesus was going into Jerusalem. They were fans. They were fascinated. They were not worshiping.
What Authentic Worship Looks Like
Why is that relevant? Because Jesus tells us what authentic worship looks like.
“True worshipers will worship in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” John 4:23
What that tells us is you cannot truly worship without the truth, without the revelation of who He is, without the revelation of His ways, without the revelation of His nature. Jesus said that. You, true worshipers, worship me in truth. But also, you cannot truly worship without the flame. That is without His Spirit witnessing to your little s spirit that you are a child of God, that you have been awakened, that you are born of Spirit.
Notice that as Jesus declares what true worship looks like, notice that Jesus is also declaring that God is seeking. He is looking for something. He is not looking for missionaries. He is not looking for evangelists. He is looking for worshipers. He is seeking worshipers.
The gold that God is looking for is an authentic worshiper, an authentic person from every tribe, every tongue, every nation. That is what the Bible affirms: that all history culminates there.
This is reinforced throughout the pages of Scripture regarding true worship. In fact, the Apostle Paul reaffirmed this about most of us. Most of us are Gentiles. He said in Romans 15:8-9: “Christ died so that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy.”
Here is a question: What is the number one priority of the church? Worship.
Some of us have thought the number one priority of the church is missions, the Great Commission. And that is a priority. But be mindful: missions are temporary. Worship is eternal.
Many of us do not understand the depth of the gift of worship. Think about what David described, the way he described worship in Psalm 42: “As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1-2).
So many of us do not know the meaning of thirsting for God, longing for God, in the way that a deer longs for water to quench its thirst. But that is how David describes worship.
When God’s people are like David in worship, the world stands up and takes notice. Listen to what David said in Psalm 57:9: “I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.” Notice the pluralness there. David’s praise and his worship were unapologetically public.
David can affirm that when this is done well, God will even draw unbelievers to Himself. Psalm 40:3: “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.” From a God who cannot exaggerate, many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.
The Apostle Paul affirmed this: “I am a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:16).
You know what that tells us if you are paying attention? What that tells us is that anytime we come into a corporate place of worship and characterize worship by how satisfied we am rather than by how God is glorified, we have failed to guard our own hearts and have turned worship into self-centered consumerism.
We come to this place to express the verbiage of our hearts and our lips in magnifying the praise and the adoration of Almighty God.
The One with Scars in His Hands
There was a fire in an apartment in Manhattan, and there was a little boy whose mom and dad perished in the fire. When the fire was blazing, there was a fireman who could hear the little boy’s screams. He went up a fire escape wearing these thick gloves, but the heat of the fire had heated the metal to a level that, even through his gloves, his hands were being burned. He could hear the boy’s screams, and he just kept going. He crawled through a window, grabbed the little boy, and again held him in his arms and worked his way back down the fire escape ladder, his hands being burned through his gloves. He took the boy to safety.
Months went by, and because both parents had perished in the fire, the court was going to assign who had custody of the boy. There was an uncle who was both a medical doctor and had children, and would have been a wonderful family to assign the boy to. Then there was another cousin where both the husband and wife were engineers, and there were siblings in the family, which would have been a wonderful family to assign the boy to.
But as the judge was narrating the case, the fireman and the little boy asked for permission to speak. The boy said to the judge, “Sir, I want to go with the man who has scars on his hands. Would you let me go and be with and look to the one who has the scars in his hands?”
Church family, would you look to the one who has scars in His hands? Would you bow down to the one who has scars in His hands? Would you worship and magnify the one who bled and died for you and has scars in His hands? Would you ascribe glory to the one who has scars in His hands?
Would you magnify and lift up and adore not your projection of your idea of Him, but who He really is, the one who has scars in His hands?
Will you worship and make much of Him for His glory to make Him famous throughout the earth? Will you love deeply one another, love this city deeply, out of the reality that we are looking to the one who has scars in His hands?
Oh, let us worship the one who has the scars in His hands.
TL;DR
The crowd welcomed Jesus with praise, but their expectations were shaped by what they wanted Him to do, not who He truly is.
True worship is not fascination or enthusiasm—it is grounded in truth and formed by surrender.
Jesus models worship through humility, sacrifice, and obedience, ultimately moving toward the cross.
The call of Palm Sunday is to move from being a fan of Jesus to a fully surrendered follower who lives for God’s glory, not personal preference.