In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the need for Jesus as both a lamb and a king. He highlights that regardless of race or wealth, everyone needs faith in Jesus to truly understand what is important in life. The preacher also emphasizes the temporary nature of worldly possessions and the importance of having a king to guide and protect us. He urges listeners to recognize their sins and the need for a lamb, as well as the power and authority of Jesus as the king. The sermon is based on the biblical passage of John 3:16 and emphasizes the love of God in providing Jesus as the solution to our spiritual needs.

We're gonna delay for a few weeks the study that we're doing in the book of Acts so that we can go to the beginning of this thing called Palm Sunday. Why is it called Palm Sunday? What was the origination of this celebration one week before the crucifixion, resurrection of our Lord? Let's read from Matthew about Jesus's last approach, last visit to Jerusalem, the city where he would die. As Jesus and his disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives. There Jesus sent to the disciples on ahead with these instructions, go to the village there ahead of you and at once you'll find a donkey tied up with her colt beside her. Untie them and bring them to me. And if anyone says anything, tell him the master needs them and then he will let them go at once. This happened in order to make come true what the prophet had said. Tell the city of Zion, look, your king is coming to you. He is humble and rides on a donkey and on a colt, the foal of a donkey. So the disciples went and did what Jesus had told them to do. They brought the donkey and the colt through their cloaks over them and Jesus got on. A large crowd of people spread their cloaks on the road while others cut branches, palms from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds walking in front of Jesus and those walking behind began to shout, praise to David's son. God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord. Praise be to God. Isn't that an amazing picture? A king riding on a donkey. That makes no sense at all. When the Roman emperors or a famous Roman general would come into any city after being crowned victorious or becoming the emperor of the Roman empire, they came with pomp and ceremony. They came with a long, long line of animals and carriages and chariots. And they're sitting highest of all was the great king or the emperor. Royalty deserves a certain kind of pomp and circumstance. But here was Jesus fulfilling an Old Testament verse said hundreds of years before by a Jewish prophet. And here was Jesus coming humble riding on a donkey and to the cheers of just regular people and even children were shouting his name. This stirred up the religious leaders. Do you remember that part of the story? It's not found in the Matthew rendering. The religious leaders said to him, look, the children, their kids are even shouting your name. Doesn't that bother you? He said, no, that fulfills another verse in the Old Testament. Out of children's mouths, you're going to perfect praise. What a king, what a sight. Anybody with the natural eye looks at that and says, that's no king and that's not somebody important. He's riding on a donkey and he got a bunch of kids screaming about him. This can't be somebody important. But then again, you never know from the outside how valuable something is. You got to look with eyes that have spiritual enlightenment to understand what's really happening. In other words, to the average Roman mind, the average Jewish mind is who is this crazy person from Nazareth to Galilee? He doesn't even know how to make a grand entrance into Jerusalem. He's riding on a donkey and he's got kids shouting. You can't tell the value of something from just the outside. I had this happen to me a few years ago in an unusual circumstance. I was visited by a man from another state who I was told was wealthy and he was in the jewelry business. Before this, whenever he visited, he would bring jewelry for my wife or secretaries and he would just leave jewelry there. He was interested in Bibles and the work of the Lord. He always would try to get to see me, even though the day would often be crowded. So he walked in my office this day with another person and when he shook his hand, I couldn't help but notice he's a shorter man with very stubby fingers that when he shook my hand, I saw this humongous diamond ring on his finger. I felt it and looked quickly at it and it was humongous and his fingers were humongous, which made the ring humongous, right? We got to talking and we chatted for 10 minutes and then he saw the picture of my grandson from Ethiopia on my desk that Pastor Petri and my daughter Susan have adopted, Levi, who's now four years and about five months old. He said, what a handsome boy you have as a grandson. I said, yes, thank you, he is. And we got to talking and then he's about to leave and he said, listen, as he's walking out, he said, listen, Pastor, next time I come, I'm going to bring a little something, a little jewelry for your grandson. Do you think he would like that, like a little jewelry or something? And I went, yeah, whatever, you know, and then as we were shaking hands, I noticed that ring again and I said, and why don't, why don't you joke? I said, why don't you bring me a ring like that and give it to me? So he stopped, I was joking and he stopped and he went, preacher, that's what he called me. He called me, preacher, you want this ring? I said, no, it's a joke. I don't want that ring. He said, no, preacher, do you want that ring? Do you want this ring? I'll give it to you right now. And he was that kind of erratic kind of guy. It's a huge ring with all these glittering stones all over it. And I said, no, it's a joke. I was joking with you. I don't want your ring. He said, no, God just told me to give it to you. So he took the ring off his finger, put it in my hand and walked in the elevator and disappeared. And I'm stuck with this ring. Not all of you can see it, but you see the front row here. We're talking bling here. You know what I'm saying? And it has diamonds on the side. It's glittery. It's shiny. And this is bling with a capital B, right? So I just found it yesterday. And it reminded me of how this all happened. So the minute he disappeared in the elevator, all the people who helped me on Sunday, Vanessa and everyone just ran to me and said, let's see that ring. I got to see that ring. I got to see this ring. And they started yelling, oh, that's a year of college for Levi right there in that ring. It's a big old ring. Another one came said, no, that's four years of college for Levi. And he's a jeweler pastor. He's a jeweler. He wouldn't be giving you junk or whatever. He'd give you something nice. He wouldn't be wearing that. I know nothing about diamonds. I know nothing about anything. So they started a pool in the office. How much is pastor symbol is new ring worth? Is it worth a thousand? Is it worth 5,000? Is it worth 10,000? Is it worth 50,000? Is it worth whatever? So I just kept it locked away there. I didn't know what to do with it. And I was going to give the proceeds to my grandson because the way it just happened, he gave the ring to me, but I figured, you know, put it in Levi's account. So I had her for a few days and our CFO, then Steve Rhodes was looking at it. He said, pastor, you want me to get this thing appraised? I know a jeweler in lower Manhattan. I'll get it appraised. I said, yeah. I said, the only thing that bothers me about the ring is it's a little light for, you know, not that I'm choosy. I'm happy I got the ring, but it does feel a little bit light. You know, your class ring in school or a valuable ring. I've seen baseball world series rings. They're, they're heavy. He got it appraised. He came back, brought it back to me. I had it out of my sight for a day. He said, those are little diamond sparkles, but it's not the real thing. The guy appraised it at $79. That's what that ring is worth. 79. Levi can take someone to juniors with this ring, right? But it looked good. Not everything that looks so good is that valuable. And sometimes things, wait, can look very humble. So now I want to tell you the good news of the gospel. That's all I want to do. When Jesus came into Jerusalem, he was fulfilling John 3, 16 in, in a new way. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever would believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. This was Yeshua, the Messiah that had been promised. He came to his sons and daughters of God to have a new birth and have a new way of living. God loved us so much that in Jesus, among other things, he gave us the two great needs that all of us have. I don't care what color you are, how much money you make. I don't care what country you were born in or how old you are. All of us have two great needs according to the Bible. This is foretold in the old Testament and it's fulfilled in the new Testament, constantly being referred to in one way or another. And these two great needs are this. Everyone here in this building, you need a lamb and everyone here in this building, you need a king. According to God, no matter what you believe, according to God's word, every one of us here, we desperately need a lamb and a king. And Jesus, in the marvelous breadth of his character and person, fulfills both for us. You know, way back when Abraham was asked and tested by God to sacrifice his son Isaac, the one that he had been waiting for, the son of promise, the one that God had been talking about for decades. And now the child was born and then God asked him to test him, would you sacrifice him? And when he went up to the mountain, he was so sure that God would somehow intervene or do something. The servant traveling with him, his son said to him, Isaac said to him, father, you've got the wood and you've got the knife and you've got everything for the sacrifice, but where's the animal? And then Abraham said, but God will provide the lamb. And sure enough on that mountain, out of nowhere, God provided an animal, a lamb. Why is the lamb needed? Well, let's go back to Passover, which is billing being celebrated by people of the Jewish faith right now. Passover came about after 400 years of being slaves and ground into the dirt under the authority of Pharaoh and the Egyptian empire. The Hebrew people were forged in trials and difficulties. And then God raised up Moses to go to deliver them. And Moses came with this radical message to Pharaoh. Here's what God says, let my people go. Pharaoh wouldn't listen. God visited 10 plagues on Egypt, but kept for the most part, the people of God, Hebrews safe in the land of Goshen. But the 10th plague was the worst of all. That was the plague of the death of the firstborn of everyone, the firstborn male of everyone in the land. And God said, I'm going to send judgment on Egypt. But this judgment is so pervasive. This judgment is so universal that here's the only way you, you Hebrews, you children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, here's the only way you can be saved that night. And if you don't listen closely, you could lose your life. So what you do is you pick out on the 10th day of the first month, you pick out a spotless lamb or a goat. You examine it for four days and make sure it's spotless. And then on the 14th day at twilight, you'll slay that animal and you'll pour out the blood. And when you take the blood, I want you to take it with some hyssop and put it on the doorposts of your door. And then he gives instructions how the animal, the lamb or the goat should be eaten and what it should be eaten with. And he says, this is the night after you celebrate it, that I'm going to bring you out of Egypt and I'm going to bring you to the land that I've promised you. But you must stay in the house that night. You can't boast that you're children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You can't talk to me about what good life you've led because you're sinners just like the Egyptians are. No, it's when I see the blood, I will pass over you. When the angel goes through Egypt and he sees the blood over the doorposts, then he knows that everyone in that house is safe. And that of course is nothing more than a beautiful picture, a prophetic symbol of Jesus Christ. Notice the lamb had to be examined for four days. You couldn't have a bad eye or a limp or any disease in the animal. The animal had to be perfect because he was going to be the sacrificial atonement, the substitute for the people that should die because of their sins. Jesus came and was examined by the whole world for 33 plus years. Nobody can find one fault in anything he ever said and did. This proved that he merited to be the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And we don't take any animal's blood and put it on our doorposts because no animal's blood can compare. That was temporary for Old Testament times. But when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming, when Jesus turned about 30 years old, he said, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the whole world and the whole thing of being saved today. Please listen to me. This is all I want to say to you. It's so simple, but I love to tell this old story again and again. For you across the street, for you watching on the webcast, for you sitting here, your good works mean nothing. My good works, my sermons I preach, the hard labor I've tried to put into being a pastor, it's worth nothing on the day of judgment. The only thing that saves any of us is the blood of Jesus over the doorposts of our heart. Can we say amen to that? It's when I see the blood, it's not what others think. Let them laugh at you because on the day of judgment, it won't be what they saw. It'll be what God saw. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. Doesn't matter what you've done, how many times you've done it, no matter how weak you've been, the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. There is no condemnation for those who have put the blood of Christ over the doorposts of their heart, have received Jesus as their Messiah, their Savior. Everyone needs a lamb and God in his love provided a lamb, but what a lamb, what a lamb, his own son. I have one son, two daughters. I love you all. I have to tell you, I wouldn't give my son's life for you. I don't know if I could do that and I love you. How about a world that was cursing him, a world cursing God, a world practicing sin. You know what sin is? Violation of God's law, God's word. Don't let others, don't let the media define what sin is. Sin is defined by God in his word and it says the soul that sinneth shall surely die, but God poured upon Christ the punishment that I was supposed to get and you were supposed to get. He punished him as a substitute so we could go free. He loves us so much that he gave his own son. He provided a lamb, but what a lamb. For hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, the Jewish religion in Jerusalem and before that traveling in the tabernacle, it was a bloody thing. Every day there was the morning and the evening sacrifice, sin offerings, trespass offerings. The priests had to work, the Levites and the priests had to work their arms to weariness, killing all those animals because God said you've got to shed blood to cover sin, but it was only temporary until the fullness of time should come where Jesus, the lamb of God would come. Do you all understand that watching on the webcast? Do you understand that being a Roman Catholic, being Protestant, being anything, it doesn't matter. You have to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. You have to know, wait, wait, you have to know that he's your lamb. You have a lamb. God offered us a lamb. You're either going to take that lamb or you're going to reject that lamb. There's no middle ground. Don't say I'll try to do better. Doing better isn't where it's at. We're going to be saved by mercy, not by justice. By justice nobody is saved. Nobody can merit going to heaven, the gift of eternal life. Nobody can merit it. Who could stand here and say you've never sinned in your whole life? Nobody could say that, but God seeing that and loving us so much, he gave us the lamb that we all need. Oh please, on the day of judgment, I don't want it to be said that pastor Symbol pulled your leg or played you in some way and didn't give you the full truth. Everybody here in this room, you must have a personal relationship with the lamb. You have to know that his blood has washed you and cleansed you. Not that you've never made mistakes. If that was the ground of salvation, no one would ever be saved. It's though your sins be a scarlet. They'll be whiter than snow. That's what God said to us. He provided a lamb. Everyone needs a sacrifice. A lamb, an innocent one to die in our place so that we can know forgiveness and pardon. But God's love went further than that and I'll close with this. He provided a king. I know he didn't look like much of a king coming in there, but God's ways are not our ways. What the world calls great, God calls an abomination. And what we call great, the world laughs at. You have to understand that if you're going to be a Christian. You can't be a Christian and fit into the world system. Did you hear me everybody? You can't be a Christian and think it's that the world's going to stand back and applaud and understand what we're talking about here. The Bible clearly tells us that. Doesn't work that way. You have to have faith and once you understand who Jesus is, then your eyes are open. You know what really is great and what really is silly. The things that pass away, money, power, fame. Nobody even remembers it 50 years later. Just 50 years later, nobody remembers. My mom was alive in the 30s during the depression. Do you remember all the wealthy people in Brooklyn who were living in the 30s? Of course you don't. And nobody remember the wealthy people now. It's all just illusory. It's transitional. It's temporary. But everyone needs a king. Why? Well, if you're here today and you're listening or you're watching and you're saying, I don't need a lamb because I've never done anything wrong. I don't believe in sin. I don't believe there's right or wrong. There's just you do what you do. I have no word for you. God has no word for you. He's already given you his word. The soul that sins shall surely die. The person who says he's never sinned has no sin. He's a liar. The truth is not in him. But I want to go further than that. I want to ask you if you feel your need everyone here for a king. See, everyone is ruled by something. The person who's most belligerent about get away. I want to do what I want to do. No one's going to tell me no church, no minister, no book, no anybody. I do what I want to do. I'm free. That person is the most bound of all because everyone has something or someone who's pulling the strings. We're all captive to somebody. Our lusts, our desires, our greed, our envy, our hate, our unforgiveness, our habits that are self-destructive. Everyone here in this room is listening to some trumpet. Oh yes you are. Even at your own trumpet. And that's why God in his love knowing us, God knowing how weak we are and the wrong decisions that we are capable of making. I want to stop for a second and give a personal testimony. Maybe you can relate to it. Are we not capable, all of us, of making some of the most boneheaded decisions which seem right when we do them and when we look back we go, what was I thinking? How many can relate to that? Just lift your hand. Well God, seeing how weak we are, says I'll not only give you the lamb that you need to cleanse your past. I'm going to give you a king who will rule over you. Pastor, stop there. I do not want anyone ruling over me. But don't you get it? Someone's already overruling you. I talked to one day years ago a drug addict who was here. He was a crack addict and he was telling me about, I've heard this several times, but it's like a lot of things in life. Crack sounds so severe but it's true in many other ways. He said, yeah, I worship crack. And you know, I just used it once or twice. I was instantaneously an addict. And he says, you know, it has a voice. And when it calls you, you're coming. The only question is how you're going to get the money to get there. That's the only question. It's not that you're going to come like, no thank you crack. No, no, no. When it calls, you're coming. It's a drivenness. And haven't some of the worst days of our life been when we've been driven by voices, by things, by desires that if we could step back and gain our composure, what am I doing? By hatred, by unforgiveness, by prejudice, by selfishness, by dishonesty. Once ministered to a man who cheated on his income tax every year, was robbing the government, robbing the government, robbing the government. He lived in constant fear. But when he did the income tax the next year, he cheated again. Like, they're never going to find out. You know, we go into denial. Greed can drive you. And God so loved the world that he gave us not only a lamb, but he gave us a king. That's King Jesus. Jesus is not just the lamb. He's the king. Isn't this wild? The lamb is a king and the king is a lamb. That's why he came in humble. And that's what God says. The only safe way for all of you to get through life so that you enjoy peace and joy and all the good things is to have somebody giving you orders. And what better person to give me orders than one who has nail prints in his hands who died for all of us? Can you think of a better person to let rule over you? Because something or someone is ruling over everyone right now. Right now. Right now, everyone in this room, you have somebody, something ruling over you. That's what drives you, what you think about. Your motivation comes from what's driving you. And God said, I love you so much. I'm going to give you the perfect one to rule over you. I'm going to give you Jesus. He's the lamb and he's the king. And I want to say in closing today, out of all the love that God has put in my heart for all of you, if you want him as the lamb, you got to make him the king. And if you make him the king, he'll be the lamb, but you can't have just the lamb and no king. You can't say this is modern religion now. I just want him to forgive me of my sin, but I'm going to keep doing what I'm going to do. And I'm going to run my life. It doesn't work that way. I'm telling you the truth. Make him your king today by based on your track record. Wouldn't Jesus do a better job than I have done running my life? Oh my goodness. Yes. And he won't disappoint like this ring. The ring looks so good. It's 79 bucks. Jesus is the kind, look, the people will laugh and say, that's who you're following. Oh, but he's gold. He's silver. He's precious stone. He'll lead you into the paths of righteousness. He'll let you lay down beside still waters. He'll give you food that will really satisfy. He'll protect you from all the, the, the spiritual predators that are out there. Don't you understand that just like God has a plan for your life. Don't you, don't you feel the tension? Don't you know, Satan is trying to suck you into some kind of vacuum. Don't you feel that? Look at me, be real, be real. I live in Brooklyn, born and raised here. Don't you know there's a battle going on out there? Invisible battle going on. Come on. Everybody who knows that say, amen. There's a battle going on and the enemy, the predator, Satan thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. But Jesus said in John 10, 10, I've come that you might have life and have it to the full. Some of you possibly here are not even living life. You're just living. You're not living life the way God wants you to live. Pastor, how do I get to that life? What do I have to do? Nothing. Here's what you have to do. Believe in the lamb. Believe in the King. Accept the lamb. Just say my good life, my background, parents raising me in church, it doesn't cut it. It doesn't cut it. I need the lamb. I need a relationship with my Jesus. Everyone say that name, Jesus. Say Jesus again. And I want him to be my King. Just think where he'll lead some of us. Right now, you're in a jam and you need to be extricated. Some of you watching on the webcast, you're right now in a swamp. Listen, you're in quicksand and the more you're fussing and fighting and kicking, you feel yourself going deeper, don't you? Am I not saying this true to you? The more you kick and fight and argue and lament, you're going deeper. You need a strong hand to lift you out. That's the King, Jesus. He'll protect you. He'll save you. He'll keep you. Whatever you're lacking today, it's not found in the Brooklyn Tabernacle. It's found in Jesus. It's not found in a denomination. It's not being white, black. These things are so irrelevant. It's the lamb and the King that God has provided. You got to say yes to them. You got to say, I believe. I need that lamb. I need that King. Let's close our eyes. God, I've tried the best I know how to tell them the good news. It's good news. The good news of Jesus, that he came to be lamb and he came to be King. Now, Lord, the same tension is going on that happened even when you were here. Some received you and some said, get out of here. I don't want to know about that. I want religion. I don't want a lamb and a King. I want to go to synagogue on Saturday or church on Sunday. I want that outward appearance. I don't want really reality changing me from the inside out. I can't surrender to the King. I'm too proud to say I need a lamb. Oh God, by your Holy Spirit, I've glorified Jesus the best I know how. Now, Holy Spirit, come and take this word and put it deep into the hearts of these precious people. I love them, but how must you love them? You gave your own son. You gave the lamb for them. You gave them the King, us all the King and the lamb that we need. If you're up here in the balcony, downstairs or across the street, and you say, pastor, that word was for me in some way that you don't understand, but I understand and God made it real. While you were speaking, I felt my heart strangely warmed. Then I don't care if there's just two of you. I'll pray and fight for two of you that the lamb and the King claim you and you know what it is to have peace when you go to bed tonight. Joy. You won't even know why you're happy. He'll give you joy unspeakable. You'll have direction. You'll know where you're going. How will you know where you're going unless you have someone to guide you and the King knows where you belong? Please don't turn my invitation down. I'm speaking on behalf of Christ now. I'm nobody, but I represent Christ now and I'm saying come to him. Those that labor and are heavy laden. Life is nothing but a drag Monday through Saturday. You feel a little emotion maybe in the service here on Sunday, but life is not. You're not living. You know you're not living the life that God has for you. He loves you. He has something better. But you got to claim the lamb. You got to claim the King. If you'd like me to pray for you as we dismiss and you're here or across the street or watching on the webcast. Isn't this strange? God will honor this even though you know we're not really face to face. Just lift your hand if you say pastor that was for me. I need the lamb. I need the King. I need him big time. Just lift your hand right where you are. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All over the building. Thank you. I want to pray for you. I want you to have the best Palm Sunday. I don't want your money. I don't care if you join this church. What does that matter? If God wants you here, praise the Lord. But it's not Brooklyn Tabernacle that brings peace and joy. It's Jesus. Jesus brings forgiveness and pardon. He's the lamb. He's the King. He wants to rule over your life and see if it won't be better. See if you won't come back and tell me, Pastor Sybil, what was I thinking? Trying to have my own way. His way is the master's way, the best way. God provided a lamb. He loves me so much. He gave me a lamb. I'm not going to turn away that sacrifice for my sins. God provided a King. He knows I wouldn't know how to find my way. He gave me a King. I'm going to follow the King. I want the King to rule over me. I'm so tired of having my own way. Everybody just be praying now. This is a sacred moment. Ah, what a sacred moment when someone says, Jesus, be my lamb. Jesus, be my savior. Be my atoning sacrifice. I've messed up. I've sinned. I can't undo it. But I receive your mercy. I put my faith in what you did on the cross. Story of love, indeed. God will provide a lamb. But God said, speaking of Solomon, that he loved his people so much that he provided a King. And he's provided someone way better than Solomon. He gave us King Jesus. Both lamb and King. King and lamb. Let's pray over these people. Everyone just quiet your heart now and help me to pray. Dear God, I want to thank you for these people, these men and women, these precious people. And you ordained that on this Palm Sunday, 2014, they would come to the church and they would hear a simple speaker speak a simple message about the lamb and the King. Jesus the lamb, Jesus the King. Today, I join with them in claiming Jesus as my lamb. My atoning sacrifice. The one whose blood washes away all of our sins. Doesn't matter what we've done. No sin is so deep that God's love is not deeper still. Thank you for the lamb. Thank you for the King. We submit to the King today. Jesus, King of Kings, rule over us. Guide us, govern our lives. We're so tired of doing our own thing only to end up empty. Empty, empty inside. Momentary successes we celebrate, but empty inside. Empty inside. For no money, no man, no woman, no material thing can satisfy our souls but Jesus. So we ask you to be King of their lives, my life, Jesus. Rule over me. Rule over me. Rule over our thought life. Rule over our words. Rule over our decisions. Rule over our associations, who our friends are, who we hang out with. Rule over that Lord. And where something is not good for us, show us Lord. Make these people, make us uncomfortable. We shouldn't be saying that. We shouldn't be doing that. Teach us your word so that we'll understand the rule of the King. But your law is perfect Lord. Your ways are so full of wisdom for us. Those here in the front, repeat after me. Very short prayer, but repeat after me. Dear God, thank you for loving me and giving me your son to be my lamb, to be my savior, to be my King, to be my Lord. I trust in him today. I can't do it, but you can do it. Do it in my life like you've done it for millions of people. I ask for that peace and joy that you promised. I thank you for forgiving me of all my sins, which are so many, but now they're gone because the lamb came and died for me. I love you Lord and I trust you today. I ask all of this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Can everybody in the building clap hands and say amen.