Throughout the world today the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is being celebrated. Men, women, boys and girls, of every nation, every tribe, every tongue, are being made aware that God took on human flesh, came and lived among us, was rejected by His own people, was crucified and died a cruel and agonizing death. Then, miraculously, on the third day, he was raised from the dead.

The question we are confronted with is what does it matter to me today?

Today is Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week on the Christian Calendar. It is the week Christians around the world commemorate the events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus followed by the celebration of the resurrection on Easter Sunday. I believe this is the most significant event in the history of the world! It is the culmination of all Old Testament prophecy! It launches the Kingdom of God and the victory and triumph of God over His enemies, including death!

Our primary text this morning is Matthew’s account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem during that final week before the crucifixion.

This mornings text takes one of the most misapplied passages in all of Scripture and seeks to bring Biblical light to the teaching of Jesus regarding mercy.

Our Forty Day Devotional Journey toward Easter Sunday is taking us through Matthew chapter five and Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. I have often referred to the Sermon on the Mount as Jesus’ Kingdom Manifesto. It is a look at the character of the Kingdom and a great opportunity to reflect on our personal devotion to Him and His ways.

Each year, during these forty days leading into Easter Sunday, there is an opportunity to re-examine and re-commit to a life of devotion and intimacy with Jesus Christ. The uniqueness of the Kingdom of God is that its focus is on the thoughts and intent of the heart. He calls us to live our lives in this world in such a way that His Kingdom is attractive to the people around us. Integrity, purity, responsibility, generosity, compassion, are the kinds of descriptive words that paint the picture of the Kingdom.

Our Forty Day Devotional Journey toward Easter Sunday is taking us through Matthew chapter five and Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. I have often referred to the Sermon on the Mount as Jesus’ Kingdom Manifesto. It is a look at the character of the Kingdom and a great opportunity to reflect on our personal devotion to Him and His ways. Todays message takes us into an examination of sexual purity.

As we begin our third week of Lent...a journey with Jesus to the cross...a time of heart preparation as we look toward the celebration of Easter. An element of this journey is to focus on Jesus embracing what lay before Him, full of the knowledge that He had come into the world for this purpose. He came to die. He made clear to His first century followers that they too, would suffer persecution, and even death.

What does it look like to live and walk in victory as a Christian? The past two Sundays we have looked at “Naming the Enemy” and “Naming Victory”. We’ve seen that in order to overcome the enemy we have to name the enemy, to correctly identify the threat we face. Our enemy is spiritual in nature, the rulers, the powers, the world forces of darkness, the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. He has one purpose...to kill and destroy us!

What does it look like to live and walk in victory as a Christian? Last Sunday we looked at “Naming the Enemy” and saw that the first step of spiritual warfare is to name the enemy, to correctly identify the threat we face. Today we define, or name, victory.

As Christians we have an enemy. Our enemy is not playing a game, but rather has a goal of our total destruction — to kill, steal, and destroy — through faith in Jesus Christ, our victory is assured. We are not to fear him, but we must understand him. We must not be ignorant of his schemes. He develops strategies and implements attacks against us, firing flaming missiles at us. He cannot be defeated by ignoring him, or pretending that he doesn’t exist. We must clearly understand the strategy and tactics of our enemy. We must engage him in battle. The victory is assured, but we must show up on the battlefield!

Why are we here? Not just here in Church, but why do we exist? The teaching of Scripture is that we exist for one reason…to be a reflection of the glory of God in the earth. We exist for His glory. We exist as demonstrations of His story. We exist for the Kingdom of God! We exist for a purpose that is bigger than ourselves…bigger than our individual happiness.