Brannockstown Baptist Church

Welcome

Thanks for looking up this study that in normal times would have been the Sunday service in Brannockstown Baptist Church on 5^th April 2020. I hope you find it challenging and encouraging as you learn, grow, and worship God through his son, Jesus Christ. Simply work your way down through each item until you're finished, which should take under an hour. God bless,

Rich

In the Christian calendar, today is what we sometimes call Palm Sunday. It’s the Sunday before Easter Sunday. It’s the day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, at the start of the week that would end with his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead.

The crowds who saw Jesus arrive into Jerusalem on that first day of the week sang his praise and welcomed him as a king like King David of old. But by the end of the week they called for his death, and for Jesus this was the climax to his mission to rescue us from God’s judgment on our sin.

So we’re going to pray, but before we do, listen to this from the OT prophet Zechariah:

Zechariah 9:9–12 

⁹ Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!

Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!

See, your king comes to you,

righteous and having salvation,

gentle and riding on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

¹⁰ I will take away the chariots from Ephraim

and the war-horses from Jerusalem,

and the battle-bow will be broken.

He will proclaim peace to the nations.

His rule will extend from sea to sea

and from the River to the ends of the earth.

¹¹ As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you,

I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.

¹² Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope;

even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.

(NIV 1984)

Pray

Father God, on this Palm Sunday morning as we read Zechariah’s prophecy, your sovereignty and Jesus’ humility are so clear. What other king could conquer warhorses and warriors by riding the foal of a donkey? What other king could break the battle bow and the backbone of all warfare by the brokenness of the cross? What other king could overcome tyranny with a reign of peace? What other king would offer his life and death for the redemption and restoration of rebels and idol-worshippers like us? What other king could make prisoners of sin and death into prisoners of hope? Only our Lord Jesus. There is no other king like him. He is the King of Glory. He is the King of Grace. He is the King of Kings & the Lord of Lords.

So Father, in the midst of the differing circumstances of our lives, as this Easter Week begins, we can be joyful, for he have come to us righteous and victorious, freeing us from sin so that we may live as prisoners of hope.

And Father we need that hope. We need Easter hope in the face of death. And we need it now in the face of all that’s going on in our lives and in the world at large.

• We pray for the million or more who are sick, and the many more to come. We pray for treatment and for healing, if that is your will.
• We pray for doctors, nurses, carers and workers, all those working so hard in such difficult and emotional circumstances. Father protect them in body and mind.
• We pray for so many who have lost employment and income, for people around the world who simply cannot afford to isolate themselves, who face hunger and pain, who may not even have clean water and soap for something so simple as washing hands.
• We pray for all those in government, making difficult decisions and feeling the weight of their choices to keenly. We pray against those governments that would use any opportunity to consolidate power.

Father we pray above all that you would use this time in the way that you have ordained, even if we don’t know what that is. We trust you with this time. Would you shake the hearts and lives of many and bring them low, so that they might seek you. Even more than healing, Lord, we pray for your saving grace to be poured out across this world. Give us chances, Lord, even in isolation, to share with even one person, the hope that we have in Christ. We pray all these things in his name and for his glory. Amen.

Listen to the sermon or watch it below

John 12

Sing along

Pray

Almighty God,

whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,

and entered not into glory before he was crucified:

mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,

may find it none other than the way of life and peace;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

Amen

Common Worship: Collects and Post Communions, material from which is included here, is copyright © The Archbishops' Council 2000 and published by Church House Publishing.

Well done!

Well done for working through this study. I hope you found it helpful. Keep in touch, stay safe, and God bless.