#301 - In the Crowd, Missing the King - A Palm Sunday Sermon

In the Crowd, Missing the King

Arvin Assembly of God | Arvin, California | March 29, 2026

Preached by Pastor Brian Overturf

Palm Sunday is the one Sunday of the year when the crowd is already excited before the sermon begins. But the original crowd on the first Palm Sunday was excited too, and they missed Him completely.

In this message from Luke 19:28 through 44, Pastor Brian traces three movements through the text: the deliberate, prophetically-loaded royal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem; the crowd's enthusiastic but dangerously misguided celebration; and the moment the parade stops because Jesus is weeping.

The palm branches were not a generic welcome. They were a military symbol rooted in the Maccabean revolt, and the crowd was waving them at Jesus because they wanted a general, not a Savior. They had received His miracles and rejected His mission. They shouted "Hosanna" meaning save us now, but had already decided what salvation was supposed to look like.

And Jesus wept. Not with them. Over them.