As we enter what is referred to as “Passion Week”, beginning with Jesus’ Triumphal entery into Jerusalem, and ending with his glorious resurrection, our desire is that you will become mesmerized by the events of that week and how they forever changed the course of humanity. The fear is that every year it is the same messages, and though we believe them to be important, we become almost numb to the spiritual reality and instead allow ourselves to be entangled with bunnies, and eggs, and ham dinners. The truth is, without the events we are about to unpack in the three sermons of our passion week series entitled,

However, praise the Lord, those events did happen, and as we review them one by one, we will see that what began with great sorrow, ended up with an explosion of immense joy where the glory of God is indelibly cast in our hearts and minds. So we will begin our series, this morning, with a look at the Preparation for Joy, as Jesus rides into Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday, and is declared to be the Son of David. What does that have to do with the events of Passion Week? Let’s look together at that this morning from Matthew 21:1-11.