The Crowd: A Palm Sunday Message
- Pastor George Sawyer
- Mar 29
- 3 min read
Finding Your Faith When Everyone Else Has a Voice
There’s a moment we all face, whether we admit it or not, where we have to answer one question:
Am I following Jesus… or just following the crowd?
Palm Sunday forces us to confront that. Not in theory, but in reality. Because when Jesus entered Jerusalem, it wasn’t quiet. It wasn’t sheltered. It was loud, emotional, and packed with people.
A crowd.
And inside that crowd were very different hearts.
The Power and Danger of the Crowd
In the Gospel of Matthew and of Luke, we see Jesus entering Jerusalem during Passover, a time when the city would have been overflowing with people.
Thousands gathered. Voices shouting. Palms waving. Cloaks laid down.
It looked unified… but it wasn’t.
Some people in that crowd had seen Jesus heal the sick.Some had watched Him raise the dead.Others? They were just there because everyone else was.
Same crowd. Different convictions.
Today, we’re still surrounded by crowds, just in different forms. Social media. Culture. Opinions. Trends. Everyone has a voice telling you what to believe, how to think, and who to be.
But here’s the tension:
Just because you’re in the crowd doesn’t mean you truly know Jesus.
“Hosanna” But Why?
The crowd shouted, “Hosanna!” which means “Save us now!”
But not everyone meant the same thing.
Some were crying out from real faith, believing Jesus was the Savior of their souls. Others were hoping for a political revolution. They wanted freedom from Rome, not freedom from sin.
They wanted a king… just not the kind of King Jesus came to be.
And that’s the danger of shallow faith. It celebrates Jesus when He meets expectations, but walks away when He doesn’t.
If we’re not careful, we can do the same thing.
We praise when life is good.We question when life gets hard.We follow… until it costs us something.
The King No One Expected
Jesus didn’t enter Jerusalem on a war horse. He came riding on a donkey, just like the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 said He would.
That mattered.
Because kings rode horses when they came to conquer.They rode donkeys when they came in peace.
Jesus wasn’t coming to overthrow Rome.He was coming to defeat sin, death, and the grave.
Not just for a moment but for eternity.
And the crowd? They missed it.
Because they were looking for something immediate… while God was doing something eternal.
Faith That’s Actually Yours
This is where it gets personal.
Because real faith isn’t borrowed.It’s not inherited.It’s not built on what a pastor says, your family believes, or what the people around you are doing.
Real faith comes from personal encounter.
It’s being able to say, “I know what Jesus has done in my life.”
Not just what you’ve heard.Not just what you’ve seen in others.But what you’ve experienced yourself.
That’s the kind of faith that holds when everything else shakes.
Who’s Actually Influencing You?
Hebrews paints a different picture of a “crowd.”
In Hebrews 12:1, it says:
“We are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses… let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
That’s a different kind of crowd.
Not one pulling you in every direction…But one pushing you toward purpose.
The question is: Which crowd are you listening to?
Because one will pull you into confusion.The other will call you into clarity.
Step Out of the Noise
There’s a powerful moment in Scripture where a blind man throws off his cloak to get to Jesus.
That cloak represented his identity, his limitations, his past, his label.
And when he encountered Jesus, he let it go.
Not just identifying the crowd—but stepping out of it.
Letting go of the noise.Letting go of the pressure.Letting go of the need to fit in.
And choosing Jesus, fully, personally, and boldly.
This Is Your Moment
Palm Sunday isn’t just a story. It’s a mirror.
Because every single one of us has to decide:
Am I just part of the crowd…Or am I truly following Jesus?
Take a moment and get honest with God. Ask Him to show you where your faith has been shaped by the crowd instead of rooted in Him.
Then make the shift.
Lean in.Press closer.Build a faith that’s real.
Because when everything else fades, the noise, the opinions, the pressure, there’s only one voice that will still matter.
And it’s His.
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