(Sunday) The Donkey The Disciples and the Divine Plan

In this Palm Sunday episode, we explore how God uses the humble, the ordinary, and the completely unexpected to write the most powerful stories in our lives.

Walking through Matthew 21, we look at:

• Why Jesus chose a donkey instead of a war horse
• How God turns simple stuff—like a stick, a tambourine, a lunch, or a lowly animal—into tools for miracles
• The ordinary disciples (fishermen, a tax collector, a formerly demon-possessed woman) and how following Jesus made their lives extraordinary
• What to do when God’s plan for your life looks nothing like what you pictured—and honestly hurts

If you’re wrestling with questions like:

• “Do I really have anything God can use?”
• “Why is following Jesus so hard right now?”
• “Why doesn’t my life look like the plan I prayed for?”

…this conversation is for you.

Discover how your overlooked talents, everyday routines, and even painful seasons can become part of God’s bigger story—one where Friday feels devastating, Saturday feels silent, but Sunday’s resurrection is coming.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This poem of Sunday I want to share with you a simple message entitled The Donkey, the Disciples, and the Divine Plan. The Donkey, the Disciples, and the Divine Plan. God's plans are wonderful for us, but oftentimes they come through means of humility, the ordinary, and even a bit surprising. But it's through the humble, the ordinary, and the surprising that God so often reveals his glories in ways we can never imagine. And some of you are walking through seasons right now that are difficult. And I just want you to hear this message today that God will take the humble, the ordinary, and the surprising, and it'll work it for his glory in your life. Matthew 21, beginning with verse number one. Now, when they, speaking of Christ and the disciples and his friends, when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Beth Page, a small little city, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two of those disciples, saying to them, Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say to them, The Lord has need of them, and he will send them at once. And this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, Say to the daughters of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. Well the disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them, and they brought the donkey and the colt, and they put on them their cloaks, and they sat on them. Most of the crowds spread their cloaks on the road, and they cut down branches from the trees, and they spread them on the road, and the crowds went before them, and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, Who is this? And the crowd said, This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. Father, use these words in the next few moments to bring transformation into our life. In Jesus' name. And together we said, Amen. It was the procession of the coming king. A moment that is captured in the imagination of Christians this weekend. When Israel's promised Redeemer, the Messiah, who had been promised since way back in the garden, now was making what would become his final entry into the city of Jerusalem. Knowing that he was on his way to the cross to fulfill God's great plan and purpose. And as they entered in, Jesus gets on this donkey and they make their procession into the city with the great shouts of acclamation and praise and anticipation. Finally, the king that we've longed for, the Messiah, the Redeemer, he is here. And as they stood on the dusty roadways, waving their palm branches, throwing down their cloaks, they were saying to them, We coordinate you our King, we choose you as our Savior. What a moment. It's hard to wrap our mind around some of the oddity of it, though. A couple of years ago, most of us watched or at least saw the highlights of when they coordinated King Charles as Britain's latest monarch. No expense was spared. It was opulent to the point of overwhelmingly opulent. Everywhere you turned, everything had been shined, everything had been made perfect because the king was processing through the streets of Great Britain, their new king. The nation celebrated and the world watched on. Well, if Great Britain would do that for old Chuck, what say you to the King of Glory? At what expense would we not give to usher in the Lord Jesus Christ? The creator God, the one who is the promised Messiah, the healer, the deliverer, our hope, our salvation. I mean, what do you do to usher in his presence into the holy city of Jerusalem? I mean, you're talking about the one who created this, the one who simply spoke and nothing became something, and that something became so magnificent and so extraordinary, it declares the glory of God both day and night. And if the mountains don't cause us to lift up our eyes and see the strength from the Lord's name that is exalted, then what about this place when the Lord created that? Was just simply with his hand, his fingers, carving out this grand canyon. And if you've ever been there, right? If you've ever stood on the on the north or the south rim and you've looked into that canyon, you thought, how massive, how big, how glorious, how wondrous is this? How great is our God? And he's come to us. And you say, if he's coming to town, what are we putting him on? Well, he would probably want to be something like this, a great stallion, right? Strong and mighty, full of strength and authority. Well, if not him, well, maybe this guy, because you know, you know, he is called the lion of the tribe of Judah. Wouldn't that have been wonderful to imagine him walking in with giant lions on each side? Or maybe angels with flaming swords? But no, no, Jesus didn't choose any of that. Jesus chose this guy. What? Did someone get the order wrong? Did Amazon Prime mess this up really, really bad? Like, why in the world would he come on a donkey of all things? This lowly, humble beast of burden. Because doesn't it seem messed up? I don't know how what you're thinking about, but I can't see a donkey anymore. I can't hear the story of the triumphal entry without thinking of the movie Shrek and hearing Eddie Murphy as the donkey's voice. It just seems wrong. It just doesn't seem regal and worthy of the one who is the king of glory. Why would he choose this? Well, one, there's theological implication. And the prophet Zechariah, an 8th century BC prophet, the Spirit of the Lord impressed upon him that when Messiah comes, he would come into the city riding lowly on a donkey and her colt. And you'll remember Jesus did not come to abolish the law, but rather to fulfill all the law and the prophets. And every prophecy concerning his first coming, he has fulfilled to the T, and every prophecy concerning a second coming, he'll fulfill that also. Amen. So there was theological fidelity and faithfulness he needed there. But there was also a cultural understanding. If a king or a rival was entering into a village, into a community, into a city, and he came riding on a horse, that horse denoted, I've come with power and conquest, and I am here to fight. I am here to overthrow. I am coming to war against you and against your people, that I will have victory and you will become my subjects by might and by power. That's what it meant in that culture. Whereas, if a leader from another nation entered into a city riding a donkey, it was a statement of peace. That I've come not in war or in anger or in conquest over you, but I've come to you in peace. Maybe that's why one of the names of our great Lord is called the Prince of Peace, that he came to us not to wage war against us, but rather to bring us peace with God and with one another and to experience the peace of God that surpasses understanding. So there was this cultural implication. He's fulfilling scriptures. There's this cultural implication that he came in peace. Now, I think it's worthy to say in this moment that you might recall if you ever read the book of Revelation, which granted can be out there a little bit, we'll discover in Revelation chapter 19 that he is coming again, and when he comes the second time, he'll be riding a white horse. That he will exact judgment on the earth and all those who have stood opposed to him and his great gospel. But we are still worshiping the God, the Savior, who comes to us on this lowly donkey in humility, saying, I've come to bring you peace. But there's a third reason, a kingdom truth that I think is important for us this morning, and I want us to think about for just a second. It is this that God uses so often the unexpected things in life to bring about his will and his glory in our life. That God uses the very things that you and I would not use. God uses those things which we overlook, which we feel as though have no value, and God constantly is using the unexpected things to bring forth his good will and his glory in our life. We see this throughout the entirety of the scripture. It was God who was talking to Moses, and Moses says, I have nothing to offer you. And God says, What's in your hand? And he says, A stick. God says, I can use that. When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, and now they're standing on the banks of the Red Sea as God has brought them forth. It's Miriam who says, We need some worship. And someone said, We don't have anywhere to plug in our guitars, and she said, That's all right. I got a tambourine. And if you've ever been in a church service, when you got a sister with a tambourine, it can get out of control in a minute. And every worship pastor in the city just went, Amen. I don't know why I'm saying amen, but I feel that. But God will use what we oftentimes feel has no value. What about David and his slingshot or the widow in her pot of flour and a cruise of oil? It doesn't seem like much. Or what about the little boy with two fish and five loaves? They were meaningless in the greater scheme of that. But little becomes much when God is in it and we surrender what God has placed in our hands for his purposes, for his glory. God will do something great through it. Think about the donkey itself. Think about how small and how overlooked, how weak in comparison to a stallion or chariot that he is. Yet it was that donkey that the Lord decided to ride into to declare that a new kingdom has been brought forth, and there is an opportunity for us to know the Lord God in our lives. This is the story of the donkey, is that God takes the least likely things, your small talents, your ordinary jobs, your daily obedience, and he uses them for his eternal glory. He is writing those things into the story that he is writing in your life. And too often we think our insecurities or our lack, or because we don't have this resume, or I don't have this education, or I don't have these resources, I'm not networked with all the right people that somehow I'm not going to be able to be used by God. But the reality is God is oftentimes looking for the things that cause the wise to see foolishness, and God says, I will confine the confound the wise with the foolishness things of man so that you might see through that my glory working through you. I don't know what's in your hand. I don't know what's in your purse. I don't know what's in your car. I don't know what talent it is. Maybe you have buried it, maybe you've put it on the shelf, but I'm telling you, there could be a day when the Lord sends a disciple to knock on your door to say, I need to borrow the donkey. I need to borrow your donkey. Can you imagine that guy? The donkey owner. He knows about this Messiah coming into town. He's heard of the miracle worker. He knows it's Passover week. And now he hears a knock on the door, he goes there, and there's Peter and James and John or a couple other ones. And he said, Yeah, hey, wait, don't I know you? Don't you travel? Would you? Yeah, matter of fact, we do. This is, listen, he sent us to your house. Really? Really, what's he want? Does he need some money? Does he need a place to stay? Does he need my voice? What does he need? And they say, he needs your donkey. No, really, what does he need? That doesn't feel significant. That doesn't feel like a kingdom. That doesn't feel like it matters. It's a donkey. And he had to decide in that moment. Am I gonna take what the Lord is asking for, even if it feels insignificant here? And I'm gonna give it to him. You can take something else, but not the donkey. And the disciple says, the Lord has need of it. Maybe you're waiting until you have a big resume. Maybe you're waiting until your talents are fully developed and blossomed. Maybe you're waiting till you get that degree or you get that next job or that next promotion. And maybe what it is is the Lord on this Palm Sunday is knocking on your door and saying, I need the insignificant. I need that which you don't think matters. And if you'll trust me with it, I will use the unexpected things in a powerful way in your life. Now, can you imagine what it would have been like to have been that donkey owner? And in the days, the weeks, the months, the years later, sharing that story at the old watering hole. Hey, Steve, tell us again about that donkey thing. Yeah, it changed my life. He wanted the donkey, and he used the donkey. Nearly anyone that's ever accomplished anything great for God has had that moment when God says, Will you let me have this? But God, I don't think that's very special. I don't think that matters. And God says, Why don't you let me determine that? What might you be holding back today? Have you ever thought maybe what the donkey would have said? Can you imagine just being the donkey? I mean, I know we can't have a conversation with him, although there was Balaam and had a rather interesting conversation with a donkey. But can you imagine if that donkey had somehow gotten all swollen up about his own self? Can you imagine this guy walking down that road, thinking to himself, wow, look at all these people. They really love me. I must be special around here. Oh yeah, this is the year of the donkey. Donkey, it's not about you, it's about the one you're carrying. How silly would it have been? Billy Graham said it famously. How foolish would it have been for the donkey to walk around all prideful as though he was offering something glorious in and of himself to God? The reality is all he was was a donkey carrying Jesus. Friends, all we really are, Billy Graham said, we're just a donkey carrying Jesus, and we had the pleasure of bringing him into the lives of people. The donkey. Your donkey. What do you need and what do you have? But not only was it the donkey that gives us hope, it's the disciples. When you and I stop and think about the disciples, you talk about God now using unexpected people. Not just unexpected things, unexpected people. If there was ever a group of ordinary people, it was those guys and those gals who followed closely to Jesus. The only thing extraordinary about them is how ordinary they were. If you were starting a ministry to redeem all of humanity from eternity separated from God, who is it that you would want on your team? You're looking for the brightest, the most educated, the most connected, right? Those that have a big kingdom mindset. Not Jesus. He chose for himself fishermen, working class laborers. Several of those disciples that Jesus chose for himself. They were just fishermen in the Sea of Galilee, Simon, Peter, Andrew, James, and John. These were men who were literally fishing, not studying the scripture, not worshiping Jesus, going through the ordinary of their ordinary life when Jesus says, I want you to follow me, and your ordinary can become extraordinary. What about the tax collector and Matthew? He was a despised collaborator with the Roman Empire. He stole from people, yet Jesus called him away. A man that no one wanted to be around and a man that people hated and despised and even feared. And Jesus says, But if you'll walk with me, I'll do something extraordinary in your life. And today we read the text out of the letter that he would be inspired by the Holy Spirit to write. Because God takes the ordinary people and does extraordinary things through them. What about Simon the zealot, the holy hothead, who is always looking for a good fight? What about the other disciples on which we know almost nothing about their backgrounds, Thomas and Philip, James of Alphaeus and Thaddeus? What about the women that Jesus chose to be with them? Think about Mary Magnoline. You talk about a woman with a sketchy past, full of demons when Jesus meets her, delivers her. And Jesus says, You're going to be the one that I, you will be the one, Mary, with all your brokenness, all your shame, all your pain, all your crazy in the past, because you have chosen to walk with me, I'm going to do something extraordinary through you. And on the morning of the resurrection, of all the places I could be and all the people I could announce it to, I am going to make my first announcement and appearance to you. Because when ordinary people choose to follow Jesus, he does extraordinary things through their life. Here's the key truth God calls us to participate in his extraordinary plan. Listen to these words out of Mark's gospel. When Jesus chose, not the elite, but the ordinary. Says that Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to himself those he wanted, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve. Watch this, watch, watch, watch. If you don't get anything else, I pray you get this. And he appointed the twelve that they might be with him. And that he may send them out to preach. But before he gave them a task, he gave them a relationship. He says, I've chosen you not to be a pawn, not just to be a tool in my work. I have chosen you that you might be with me, that you might follow me, that you might apprentice from me, that we might walk together, and I might pour into you the love of God, and that your life in me might be transformed. See, that's what he does. He takes ordinary people who are willing to follow him. And he begins to transform their life. Why? So that he might know them and they may know him. And in becoming who they were designed to become, they begin to function in his kingdom work. Too often in the body of Christ, if I'm honest, we're too quick to just sign people up to do jobs. But the reality is, Jesus says, I'm not signing you up first to do a job, I'm signing you up to be with me. You, an ordinary person, get to walk with the King of Glory. Can you imagine what it must have been like for those disciples? All this happening. They're coming into the city, they borrow the donkey, they throw their cloaks on it, they're making their way. People are rushing out into the streets, heading into Jerusalem, waving their palm branches, crying out, Hosanna, Hosanna, and the highest blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And they're sitting there going, This is incredible. This is ridiculous. We're fishermen. We're tax collectors. We're broken men and women that he called to be with him so that our ordinary lives could become extraordinary by following him. What about you? Anyone here just feel like you're living an ordinary, non-exciting, non-purposeful light? Jesus is saying, I'm calling you to be with me. And in being with me, I will transform your life so that you may begin to function in the very plans by which I determined for you even before the foundation of the earth. When God takes the ordinary and he makes it extraordinary, you go through the Bible and you find all the heroes of their faith and you trace back their start point almost every time. It is someone out of nowhere, the ordinary, the overlooked, the small, the insignificant, the untalented. And yet, as they begin to trust God and walk with Christ, their life is completely transformed. The reason I share this with you today is because this story is played over and over 2,000 years later, that God uses the unexpected things in your life that you feel have no great value, and he says, and I will work them for my glory. And he says, and I will use you, an ordinary person, to experience extraordinary things. Can you imagine what that life would have been like to be a disciple? Not just to find a rabbi that you're apprenticing under, but now you you are with him when there's 5,000 men alone, not including the women and children, and Jesus says, Hey, we've got to feed these guys something. And one of them says, Well, here's two fish and five loaves. And they're not spectating now, they're participating in the miracle of God because it's them who are who are breaking it and they're and they're handing it out, and they end up feeding everyone that day and have 12 baskets of food to take to the boys' family. Can you imagine what that must have been like? Can you imagine what it must have been like on that stormy night on the Sea of Galilee when you feel as though your ordinary life is about to be sunk and you're gonna drown? And then the master whom you've given your life to follow walks out into the front of the ship and yells, Please be still. And immediately the waves and the wind, and you're stun there, and you're just falling on your knees, and it's like, Lord my God, what manner of man is this? Why did that happen? Because ordinary people said, If you want to be with us, we want to be with you, and we'll follow. Oh, the miracles that they saw. The story, the triumphal entry just isn't about a donkey, and it's just not about Hosanna, it's about God using unexpected things and unexpected and ordinary people to do extraordinary things. And here's where we come to the final part, and I'll land with it. All right. This story is about to take a hard turn. Because right now, everybody's going, I like this sermon. God takes unexpected things and does great things to them. Okay, I got some small things, okay. I'll give them to you. And and and what yes, God, okay, I don't feel as though I'm extraordinary. I don't feel as though I'm bringing all that to the table, but if God will use the ordinary, then maybe He'll use. Yes, I like this. The donkey, the disciples, amen. But then we get to the divine plan, and this is where it takes a terrible turn. Because the disciples and the people had already predetermined what God's plan was going to be and how Jesus would become Messiah. That he was going to storm the gates of Jerusalem. He was going to ascend to King David's throne, the rightful king of Israel. He was going to get rid of those blasted Romans and that taxation and all their imperialism that had taken over their ancestral land. They were going to get rid of them. Israel would once again become the crown jewel of the world's nations. And Jesus is our guy. And we're going in with him, and we're going to rule and reign with him, and I'm going to sit on his right hand, and I'll sit on his left hand, and we're going to see God do amazing things because we have determined what the plan of God looks like. We're storming the gates. Because that's how they had predetermined God's divine plan to be. And then they get there and they say, wait a minute, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. Why do you mean you're leaving us? Why do you mean that you're dying? Why do you mean that you're going to be rejected? What do you mean you're going to be crucified? What do you mean that one of us is going to deny you? What do you mean that one of us will betray you? What do you mean? Why are you washing our feet? You can't do this. This isn't in the plan. This is not what we want. Matter of fact, you can't wash my feet, Jesus, Peter said. Peter said, Well, then you have no place for me in the kingdom. Because this is the plan of God. Wait a minute. This plan, this is hard, this is difficult, this is uncomfortable. This is not the way we think it needs to go. No. Just get rid of our enemies. Go to the throne. And we win. And Jesus says, I'll go to the throne. But first of all, I'm going to the cross. We want a triumphant warrior king. We don't want a suffering servant sacrifice. And so many of them were offended. Not because he uses donkeys and ordinary people, they were offended because they didn't like the divine plan. And I find in the body of Christ and with the people of God, we like the idea God uses unexpected things and ordinary people, but we don't like it when our plans and his plans are different, and we want to begin to push back, and we move from Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna, and the highest blessed is he who comes into the name of the Lord, and the plan shifts from what we had predetermined, and we begin to yell, crucify, crucify, crucify. We don't want it like this. And what we discover is what the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 55. Thus saith the Lord, my ways are higher than your ways, my plans are different than your plans. And can I remind you of that? This that's good news. Because God's plans are better than my plans. And God's will is better than my will. And there will be moments and seasons in our life where we don't understand it, that it takes a turn that we were not expecting. It comes to an abrupt halt that we were not seeing. There comes an acceleration that we were not prepared for. There comes a heartbreak. There comes an ache, there comes a pain, there comes a wound. And it's like, God, what I was talking to a young adult this past week as they were in just tears, weeping before me and saying, I know I'm walking with God. I know I'm obedient. I know the Lord has spoken to me. I know this is the right path. But Tony, it hurts. It's killing me. I don't sleep. I'm so brokenhearted. I I said, I know because we all think, we all think that when I walk with God and I walk close to God and I obey, that it is easy. And sometimes the path that we're on is called the Via Della Rosa. And we got to walk behind the cross. And we got to carry a cross. And we might have to sit at the foot of the cross of Calvary, but if we'll stay with it, if we'll trust the one who chooses the unexpected things and the ordinary people, if we'll choose the one who laid out his divine plan before the foundations of the earth, that he is good and he is merciful, there will come, yes, a dark Friday where it feels like our hopes, our dreams, our excitement, our plans, our future has died and been rolled away into a stone. But if we'll stick with it, that same God who walked into Jerusalem carrying a cross will be the God that will resurrect on Sunday morning with victory over death, hell, and the grave. And in that moment, in that moment, we'll discover that though his plan was hard and difficult and unexpected and unwanted even at times, his plan was good, his plan was faithful, his plan was victorious. Though weeping may endure through the evening, there will come joy in the morning because his plans are good, his will is good, his faithfulness is from generation to generation. And therefore, on this Palm Sunday, we say, Lord, thank you for the donkey. Lord, thank you for the disciples, and thank you for a divine plan. Because you know your plans for us to give us a hope and a future. But without a difficult road to the cross, there's no hope and there's no future. And maybe right now you're in a tough place. And maybe right now you're hurting. And maybe right now you're just like, I'm kind of ready to quit this. But in God, there's always a Sunday coming. There's a resurrection available. Because what if he became David's king on David's throne? Then maybe he's just a man. But what if he becomes a king on a cross and he sheds his blood and he conquers death, hell, and the grave? Then he becomes the king of eternity that I can place my life fully in. So this is what I say to conclude. Are you willing to be used by God in just ordinary ways? Are you willing just to say, God, here am I, use me anyway? Are you willing to say, and this is a hard one, God, I'll trust your plan even though it's hard. And I may not even understand why this happened or why this road took this turn. But I believe that you're good because of the donkey, the disciples, and the divine family.