This is part of the worship series,
"Good News!”
Introduction
Lent 1 | Lent 2 | Lent 3 | Lent 4
Lent 5 | Palm Sunday | Good Friday | Easter Sunday
PALM SUNDAY
Call to Worship
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD.
Hosanna in the highest!
—Based on Psalm 118:26, NRSV, The Worship Sourcebook, 2nd ed., K.1.2.1
Worship Song
“Hosanna (Praise Is Rising)” Brown
God’s Greeting
Worship Song
“May the Peoples Praise You / Holy, Holy, Holy” Getty, Zimmer, Townend, and Cash
Call to Confession
Like the people who greeted Jesus
as he entered Jerusalem
and then later pronounced “Crucify him,”
we are fickle people who often deny Christ
in our thoughts, words, and deeds.
Remembering the events of Jesus’ last week
helps us see ourselves for what we are:
sinners in need of a savior,
a savior—praise God—we have in Christ.
In honesty and hope, we confess now our sins to God.
—The Worship Sourcebook, 2nd ed., K.2.1.1. Used by permission.
Silent Prayer of Confession
Assurance of Pardon
Hear the Word of the Lord from Psalm 118:
Let those who fear the Lord say,
“His steadfast love endures forever.”
Out of my distress I called on the Lord;
the Lord answered me and set me free.
The Lord is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
I shall not die, but I shall live,
and recount the deeds of the Lord.
In Christ, God answers us and sets us free!
In Christ, we are forgiven! Thanks be to God.
—Based on Psalm 118:4–5, 14–15 NRSV, The Worship Sourcebook, 2nd ed., K.2.4.1
Children’s Message
Children’s Song
“Shout Hosanna” Evans
Congregational Prayer
Good News Café
A staff member told of how she learned to see the blessings of God following a season of life in which she struggled with postpartum depression and the disruption caused by moving.
Scripture Reading
Mark 11:1–11
Sermon
“Good News—Even Better than Expected”
Sermon Notes
As Jesus approached Jerusalem, the crowds shouted excerpts from Psalm 118 as they had for generations and called out for salvation from the realities of the Roman occupation. We are struggling in many ways too. The crowd expected the Messiah to be an earthly king who would restore the Davidic dynasty. While they were wrong about the kind of king Jesus would turn out to be, they were absolutely right to connect Psalm 118 to Jesus (see vs. 22 and 27, for example). The good news of the gospel for us today is that Jesus saves us from our sins even as he is with us in our struggles. We can cry out “Hosanna!” to him (“Save us!”) and know that he will.
Prayer of Application
Holy God, we give you thanks for the awesome picture of the kingship of Christ that we see here in Mark 11. We thank you that he is who he said he is. He is who the Scriptures foretold and the one that the crowds were right about even though they didn’t fully understand how. We thank you that we can cry out to you to save us—and that you can save us and will save us because of the king that Jesus is. We pray that we would be moved to repent of our sin and to believe and to follow the Lord Jesus into a life of service for the sake of his kingdom and his glory. God, speed the day when King Jesus will return and make all things new. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Blessing
Closing Song
“The Lord Is My Salvation” Getty, Myrin, and Nockels
Revised Common Lectionary
Year B: Lent—Liturgy of the Palms
