The Savior's Entry

Well, this morning we are recognizing the celebration of Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is the beginning of what we call the Passion Week. It is the day that Christ ascended up to Jerusalem. That's why we have the Psalms of Ascent. Looking forward to that day where the great king will ascend himself in victory. Today begins the Passion Week because this is when Christ enters Jerusalem. We're going to look more into that, but Passion Week continues. Wednesday is the first day that Judas began conspiring with the Sadducees to kill Jesus. Thursday is what they call Maundy Thursday. And I have a funny accent, but I'm actually saying that I think right. Maundy. M-A-U-N-D-A-Y. That's recognizing the Lord's Last Supper. Friday is Good Friday. It's the day Christ dies for us. And we come back together on Sunday, and we do the same thing we do every Sunday, and we recognize His resurrection. We recognize His victory over death. We recognize that He did not stay in the grave. And so this morning, we want to look at and we want to recognize the beginning of the Passion Week. And it's called the Passion Week because of His suffering. This is the beginning of His great suffering for us out of His great love for us. Let's look at Matthew 21, the account of Christ ascending. Matthew 21, verse one. Now, when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethpage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, go into the village in front of you and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a cult with her, untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, the Lord needs them and he will send them at once. This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you humble and mounted on a donkey and on a cult, the foal of a beast of burden. The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed him. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks in the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him 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. And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the money changers in the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer that you make it a den of robbers. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple. And He healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things He did, and the children crying out in the temple, Hosanna to the Son of David, they were indignant. And they said to Him, Do You hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes. Have you never read out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies, You have prepared praise? And leaving them, He went out to the city of Bethany and lodged there. As we look at this passage, we're going to learn a lot about Jesus Christ. We're going to see that He fulfills three offices. These are very important for your understanding of who Jesus is, what the gospel is, and how you read the gospel in the Old Testament. We're going to see that Jesus Christ is the coming King. We're going to see that Jesus Christ is the perfect prophet. And we're going to see Jesus Christ is the Great High Priest. You see, these three offices were in the Old Testament, but not one single person had all three together. All three of these offices were occupied by different individuals for different times, so they could point to Christ. As you read your Old Testament, you can follow all these kings, all these prophecies. And that's what we call the scarlet thread that leads us to the cross. You can follow the theme and the typology of each king. You can follow the theme and typology of each priest and each prophet. And they all lead us to Jesus, who is the perfect prophet, the perfect priest and the perfect king. This morning, we're going to see He is the King who comes in as prophesied. He is the prophet. And He is a priest. Let's look first to Jesus Christ, our King, who comes with meekness. Let's read again, verses 1 through 10. Now, when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two 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, and tie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say the Lord needs them. And he will send them at once. 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 and mounted on a donkey and on a colt, a foal of a beast of burden. The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks. And he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him 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 stirring, saying, Who? is this. Hosanna to the Son of David. Hosanna to the One who has finally come. The Son of David prophesied in 2 Samuel 7. The Son of David who is going to come and be the true King of Israel. Bring true peace. Let's look at this. He comes and he says, go and get this colt. Go and get this donkey. To fulfill what the prophet Zephaniah said. Jesus is intentionally saying, I am that King they spoke of. He's intentionally fulfilling the prophecy to show us He is our great King. The palm branches were a way of showing honor and praise. It'd be the equivalent of the red carpet in our culture. They're laying out before Him all honor and praise. The crowds are declaring the highest praises. This is the King of Israel, Hosanna. Praise be to God. in the highest. And here it is, that son of David that should ring loudly because what they're saying is that the kings presently in charge, the great kings of the past, the great kings of the past, they've never been the true king. But here we have the one that God promised would be like a son to the Father. We have a king here who God is going to use to put right order back into his creation. Here we have the son of David as prophesied in 2 Samuel 7. What was this coming to do? Well, he's coming to do what a king does. He brings order back to the chaos of our sinful, fallen world. Now, notice here, he came with meekness. He came on a donkey. This was not how a king came if he's coming for war. This is how a king came, if he's coming humbly and with peace. He is coming as a king here in the ascent with all meekness, with all humility, because he knows that before him lies the cross. He's coming not to be bold and powerful and put all the world back in order. No, he's coming with one particular purpose. And it's the most important purpose. is to put our relationship with God back in order. The King comes to put all things back in order, but all things aren't going to be put back in order yet. This particular instance is Christ coming to die for us to put our relationship with God back in order. Hear how Isaiah prophesied this. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him with stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his stripes we are healed. We, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him, this king, the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before his shears is silent. So he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. And as for a generation. Who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgressions of my people, and they may have. And they may and they made his grave with a wicked and with a rich man in his death. Although He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth. As He comes, He's not coming as a mighty warrior yet. He's not coming, as we will see soon, as a mighty warrior who puts all things back in order. He comes with meekness. He comes like a sheep without saying a word. Because the word He must speak is the word of forgiveness. What He must do is go before God Himself, die on a cross, with meekness so that all our sins, all our offenses before God are removed. Listen to verses six and seven again of Isaiah 53. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before it shears, It's silent, so he opened not his mouth. Here, this king comes in with meekness. Why? So that all our offensive chatter before God can be redeemed, so that he could forgive us of our sins. You see, friends, life is out of control. We live in a chaotic world. We live in a world that we continue to strive for control. We continue to live in a world where we're trying to fix things. We have to realize we can't fix it. We can't fix our biggest problem. Our biggest problem is our sin. And our sin has two arms to it. One is our sin destroys us. Every time we choose to sin, we're further enslaving ourselves to sin. Every time we choose to sin, we're putting ourselves deeper and darker into the pit of despair. Every time we choose to sin, we're only training ourselves to sin more. Sin is an addictive power that only further enslaves us. But even more than that, even worse than that is sin. Sin is offensive to God. When we sin, when we rebel, when we kick against God, when we spit against Him, when we speak against Him, it brings His wrath against us. We can't remove our sin. We're empowered by our sin. We are enslaved to our sin. We are under its submission. We cannot fix that problem. That's why this King, Jesus Christ, He had to come. Friends, we have a lot of great problems. Getting a day planner isn't going to fix your problem. Getting a self-help book with steps is not going to fix your problem. Your problem is your wayward affections. Your problem is your love for yourself and your lack of love for God. Your problem is a love for sin that enslaves you. You can't fix it. Stop striving to fix it. and believe on the one who died to fix it. That's the gospel, friends. To stop trying to fix your problems, to stop trying to bring order into your chaos, and to trust the one true God who died for you to put you back in a right relationship with Himself. You see, friends, this time when He ascends, He ascends with meekness. This time when Christ comes, he came with meekness. He came with humility to die for us. The next time he comes, he's coming to reorder all things. Listen to Revelation 1911. And I saw heaven open and behold, a white horse and he who sat on it called faithful and true and in righteousness, he judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written on him, which no one knows except himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, are following him on the white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword so that with it he may strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron and he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. On his robe, on his thigh, he has a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You see, here is a picture from Revelation where the king is not coming on a donkey for peace. He's coming on a horse to do battle. And he's going to do battle and he's going to bring and exercise God's wrath with all justice. Justice is scary, friends. Justice should bring fear to us because we have offended God and justice means we receive his wrath. Here's a picture of God bringing his wrath on all those who do not know him. It's here Christ the King is putting all things in proper order. And that proper order means some sin. Many sinners will be judged and receive his wrath. There's another picture in Revelation chapter seven. After this, I look and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying, Amen. blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Revelation 19 speaks of God coming and reordering all those who are still opposed to him. Here we see a picture in Revelation 7 of all the believers. of all those who have called on His name from every nation, from every tribe, from all peoples and languages. They're standing there before the throne, praising the King. They're not afraid of the King because they believed in Him. They know His work is good for them. For which party are you going to be in? Are you in a party that doesn't believe in Christ and you will be receiving His wrath? Are you going to believe in Him and join this great throne? Join this great assembly before the throne of the Lamb and praise Him. Now, notice, if we look back at Matthew 21, the crowds are declaring, Hosanna, Son of God in the highest. And we have to assume that many of the people in that crowd are the same ones that were declaring, Crucify Him. Many that were there saying, Praise this, were also going to be the ones who say, Crucify Him. Here in Revelation, those who are sealed with Him, they don't say, crucify Him proactively. They look back and say, He is the one who was crucified me. He is our crucified King who brings us into a right relationship with God. The second thing we see this morning is that He is the prophet who proclaims God's truth. Look at verses 10 and 11. 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. Now, the crowds answer correctly, and I'm not sure if they really are getting the full weight of what they're saying here. This is the prophet. They recognize he is one who proclaims God's truth. But he's so much more than that, because he's the king and he's the priest and he's God Almighty. See, God had promised back in Deuteronomy 18 to Moses, the great prophet of Israel, there will be a prophet like you. And every prophet after Moses is somewhat a fulfillment of that promise. So Samuel, Samson, even David at times, Nathan, Elijah, Isaiah, they're all little fulfillments of that promise, but not the perfect, complete fulfillment. Because the perfect, complete fulfillment of Deuteronomy 18 is the prophet Jesus Christ. Because he just isn't a man who God uses to proclaim His Word. He's God Himself who became a man to speak to us. He's not just a man who has a special message. He is the message. So here in Jesus Christ, we see the prophet. The one who proclaims God's good truth. This morning, again with the chaos and disorder of this world, I assume many of us are longing for some truth. Many of us are longing for some significance. Many of us are longing for some way of understanding what is truth. We're looking for that Archimedean point. Archimedes was the fellow who said, you give me a place to stand and I'll move the world. He was the man of leverage. If you just give me the place to stand and the right leverage, I can do anything. What we're looking for in this life is an Archimedean point where we can stand and see what's wrong and see the truth and determine it for ourselves. If we really were given that place, we would see that we don't have a place to stand to fix our problems. We need a place to gain understanding, but we can't do it ourselves because our problem, again, is our sin. It would be easier for you to move the world than to remove your sin by your own power. If we can keep looking at the world for answers, what we should do is start looking to God's Word. God created us. God has revealed who we are and who we're supposed to be. This book tells us all about our lives. It talks about our problems. It talks about sin. It talks about evil. It talks about good. It talks about what it means to be a parent. to be a husband, a wife, a worker. It talks about money and sex. It talks about all things of life. If you want to know about life, this is your comedian point. This is your source of truth. God Himself who created you is telling you how to live well. But really, that truth is secondary to the most important truth. That primary truth when you believe is that God has forgiven you for your sins. The primary truth we need to believe before looking for how to live well is that we haven't been living well and God forgives us for that. See, the most amazing thing about God's truth, when the prophet comes and proclaims His truth, when God Himself comes and proclaims His truth, it's the truth that sets us free. We no longer have to work for righteousness. We no longer have to strive to be better. We no longer have to pretend. We no longer have to be phony. We no longer have to masquerade as if all things are good and right. We see how sinful we are and we see that God has said, I love you. Despite our sin, we long to be free. We must find it in Christ. That's the beautiful thing about the truth of the gospel. It's not about you. It's not about what you've done. It's about who Jesus Christ is as our prophet, priest, and king. It's about who He is as the perfect man and God incarnate. It's about what He did for you. He died for your sins. It's about what He did for you. He rose again. It's about what He said. I come to bring peace. Your sins are forgiven. Anyone who comes to Me will find rest. I am the way, the truth and the life. I am the resurrection. Anyone who believes in Me will have eternal life. You know what your role is? Believe that. That's it. You hear Him. You see what He does for you. And you believe it. That's how you're saved. It's not being better. It's not making yourself better so you can become a Christian. It's not striving to be a better Christian. It's believing him and what he has done. And the sweetest words. It is finished. On the cross, he declares it is finished. Death has no more sting. Sin has no more power. He's declaring to you, if you believe today, stop working. Stop trying to make yourself better. Believe in me and what I have done, what I have taught, and you will find freedom. Cast off your chains of masquerading as if you're righteous, as if you can fix yourself. Do you want the freedom that God has? Learn the Gospel. I didn't say know the Gospel. Learn it. Meditate upon it. Focus upon it. Just take this week alone, the Passion Week, and learn the Gospel. Pray that God will let you see and understand the depth of His suffering. If you want to go deeper in understanding the Gospel, if you want to go deeper in learning the Gospel, pray that God would show you more of your sin. Pray that God would illuminate how rebellious you are. Because the more you see your sin, the more you see the power of God's love, the power of the cross, and the power of the resurrection. Friends, if you want the freedom, freedom like Paul that says, to live is Christ and to die is gain, learn the Gospel. Meditate upon it. Take this week and meditate upon nothing else but your sin and how great the love of God is that destroys its power and its curse. Finally, friends, we see that Christ is our priest who is zealous for God's glory. Let's look at verses 12 through the end. And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple. And he healed them. And when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things he did and the children crying out in the temple, Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant. And they said to him, Do you hear what they are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes, have you never read out of the mouses, infants and nursing babies? You have prepared praise and leaving them. He went out to the city of Bethany and lodged there. Here are great high priests that we studied last week with Melchizedek. Here are great priests. He goes into that physical temple that represents the real temple. And he throws out the sinners. He throws out the great atrocities of the priest making money in the temple. He throws them out because he's committed to what the temple is supposed to be for, and that is God's glory. It's a place where God and man meet. It's a place where God is glorified. He is a great high priest who comes in and serves faithfully, not only in this temple, but the great temple above. I encourage you to listen to last week's sermon, if you have not, on terms of how he is a great high priest. Here we need to see is that he is committed to fulfilling Isaiah 56, 7. My house shall be called a house of prayer, a place where God is glorified, a place where God and man meet. He knows this is not the real temple. It's only a temporal temple. His body is a real temple. He said in three days, his body will be destroyed. This temple will be destroyed, referring to himself, and in three days it'll rise again. He knows He's the Great High Priest, the one who serves in the true temple. He desires what we are to desire as our Great High Priest, and that is nothing but to glorify the Father, no matter how painful that might be. Here, it's just awkward confrontation with the leaders. But as we know, He's going to glorify the Father in the coming days. by sweating blood with tears of anguish, by being nailed to a cross, and by dying for us. That's how He glorified the Father. That is great zeal for God's glory. Our zeal must be the same. Our zeal must be the same. We are now the temple of God. Christ is the head and we are His body. We are a holy temple being built up for His glory. Our zeal must be for the gospel, because the gospel is how we participate and experience the glory of God. If you want to see the face of God, if you want to experience the glory of God, if you'll be like Moses and say, let me see your glory, learn the gospel. The gospel is where we see God's glory. The real question is, are we zealous for the gospel? Do we have a zeal for the gospel? Or let's ask a different question. Where is your zeal? What do you have zeal for? What are you zealous for? As I thought about it, I've come up with four possibilities. Maybe it's our wealth. Are we zealous for our money? Are we zealous for more money? Are we zealous for more possessions? Are we zealous for spending all that we have on things of this world and all entertainment and our own pleasure? How much do you worry about your money? That would give you an indication of how zealous you are for your wealth. Do you sacrifice for your money? Do you sacrifice your family? Do you sacrifice your marriage with time spent away? Do you sacrifice your ethics? Do you sacrifice your times of prayer and study so that you can work more and get more money? Do you sacrifice for your money or do you sacrificially give your money? Do you look for ways to untie yourself from that enslavement that is a love for possessions. Our wealth is something that is easy to be zealous for. The second one, and you've got to hear me out here. This is a hard one. Are you more zealous for your family than you are for the Gospel? Are you more zealous for your family unit than you are for the gospel. Now, something that I love about this church is that it has a zeal. Something that attracted me to this church from the first day was a zeal for proper families, a proper headship of husbands and fathers, a proper love from wives and raising up children well. It's a very important thing, but it's not the most important thing. Your family isn't the gospel. Your family isn't what unites us together as brothers and sisters. Your family isn't what gets you into heaven. Your family doesn't give you forgiveness. Your family is a great important thing. The most important thing we always must be focused on is the gospel. I only want to be a good husband and father because of the gospel. I am only a good husband and father if I'm focused on the gospel. The gospel is primary. You see, that's the perversion of our hearts. We take good things. We can so easily elevate them to something more than they are supposed to be. Friends, let's be committed to the gospel and let that commit us to being better husbands, fathers, wives, mothers and children. Thirdly, are you zealous for elders? Are you zealous for elder leadership in the church? Do you think elders are going to fix the problems in this church? Elders are going to be helpful. Elders are biblical. But if you have a zeal for elders above your zeal for the gospel, you've misplaced it. The gospel is the only thing that's going to fix anything in this church. The gospel is the only thing that should unite us and build us up and fix us. Yes, let's strive for biblical centrality, for biblical church polity. But let's not think something is going to fix this above the gospel and the grace and the power of Jesus Christ. Finally, are you more zealous about this church's past and the way things have always been? Are you zealous about the gospel? and what we could do. Are you more zealous about what has always happened here? Are you zealous about the power of the gospel, unleashing it here within this body, unleashing it here within the city, and seeing God glorified? Let's not be zealous over our particular opinions. Let us be zealous over gospel-centered truth. Let us long for those things that magnify the gospel and we're in focus on the gospel. Let's keep our zeal on the gospel. Friends, I believe we can be a church united in Christ. He is our head. We can come together, be united from all walks of life, all ages, and that will glorify God greatly. But it requires each of us to be committed to one thing above everything else. And it's the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what we must be committed to. That's it. Finally, friends, let's look at this closing. We have the blind and the lame coming to the temple. We have children singing out, Hosanna to the Son of David. And we have the religious righteous folk coming and judging Christ for allowing any of this to happen. The lame come to be healed, the broken come because they need to be fixed. The children praise Him and the self-righteous judge Him. The question is, which one are you today? Which one of these figures represent you? Are you the broken hearted? Are you the one that needs fixed? And you've been striving to work to fix yourself. You've been wanting some clear Archimedean point. You've wanted some clear standing place so you can see all the problems and then fix them. Are you the broken? If you're the broken, come to Christ in faith and know that His balm is mighty and powerful to heal you. It may not heal you from your physical infirmities. It may not heal you from your debt. It will heal you from what you need healing. And that is God's wrath for your sin. It will bring you peace and forgiveness. Maybe you're the self-righteous. You refuse His power to love and forgive you. Because you refuse to believe you're a sinner. For an evaluate your life. Evaluate your desires to steal and murder and covet and envy. Evaluate your position before God and realize you can't fix it. Only Jesus and what he accomplished for you can fix you, can make you whole, can bring you peace. Friends, I hope we all want to be like these children, praising God, I hope we all long to be like these children with faith like a child, proclaiming hosanna to the Son of God in the highest. When I say faith like a child, oftentimes that means I just want a simple, easy faith without any depth to it. That's not what we're referring to with faith like a child. Paul says, don't be like a child anymore. Move on to the meat. That's not prescribed in Scripture to just be a simple Christian. No, I think what it means to have faith like a child is to have trusting expectation. I was meeting with one of the Ben's, Ben Parziali, and he was telling me about the faith that his child has for him. No matter how ridiculous his child's request is, when he asks it, he actually believes he's going to get it. He asks with such expectation. He asked with such faith that his father is good and will give him his good gifts. He asked with such expectation. He believes. Why don't we have faith like that in God, who was our good father, who gives nothing but the good gifts from heaven? We need to have faith like a child that seeks to praise him. That depends upon him. That trusts him. Let's pray. Our mighty prophet, priest, and king. Our great Saviour who has died for us, who has risen again, who gives us great hope. We thank You, Lord, for Your ascension. Not only ascending to that hill, but Your ascension into the heavens where we get to follow You. Where You are there making a place for us. And even though we don't see it, Lord, we believe Your promise. Give us more faith, Lord. Teach us to believe in what You've done. Teach us to stop striving to fix ourselves. Teach us, God, just to sit there. Just sit there and trust You. Only You can provide that faith, Lord. Bless this church with that faith. Bless this church with a unity in your glorious gospel. And you're letting me pray. Amen.