The Lord Hath Need of Them
Notes
Transcript
Scripture
Scripture
1 And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples,
2 Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me.
3 And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.
4 All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.
6 And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them,
7 And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.
8 And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way.
9 And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.
10 And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?
11 And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.
A little boy was sick on Palm Sunday and stayed home from church with his mother. His father returned from church holding a palm branch.
The little boy was curious and asked, "Why do you have that palm branch, dad?"
"You see, when Jesus came into town, everyone waved Palm Branches to honor him, so we got Palm Branches today."
The little boy replied, " Aw Shucks! The one Sunday I miss is the Sunday that Jesus shows up!"
This morning as many of you know today is Palm Sunday- The day, taken from the Gospels, where a whole city threw a parade for Jesus. As Jesus rode into the city, the people threw Palm branches in anticipation of his coming.- Thus we get our word Palm Sunday. - This day marked a time of celebration where Jesus was the worshipped and praised.
This day is Bittersweet for us because even as we read of the celebration we know that Friday is coming - The cross is coming. We know that many in this same crowd will within a few short days exchange words of praise to words of death. Shouting Hosanna, Hosanna and then later shouting Crucify Him, Crucify Him.
This event is also called the “Triumphant Entry” of Jesus.
Normally, Jesus did not try to draw much attention to Himself because His hour had not yet come. Now it was time to boldly declare that He is the Messiah.
As Jesus enters the city of Jerusalem, there are thousands of additional worshipers there because of the Passover celebration. Historians estimate the population at 2 million. This event is one of the few that is carried in all four of the Gospel accounts.
Hosanna is a Hebrew word meaning “Save us now”. The acclamation is a quotation based on Psalms 118:25-27
25 Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.
26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.
27 God is the Lord, which hath shewed us light: Bind the sacrifice with cords, Even unto the horns of the altar.
Sung at the Feast of Tabernacles. The crowd wanted salvation from the oppression of Rome, not the spiritual salvation that Christ offered.
First we see the
Committed
The true followers of Jesus
Not perfect people
People with flaws and weaknesses But committed followers who were trying hard to let Jesus rule their lives
Trying to leave their old lives and their old habits and their old hang ups behind
And truly let him be the Lord of their lives
In these committed followers we see an
Attitude of Gratitude
An Attitude of Praise
An Attitude of Awe
An Attitude of service
Then you have the Apostles that traveled with Jesus, heard Him preach, saw Him perform miracles, but probably most of all were His friends. This group made promises to Jesus but then turned their backs on Him. I can relate to that.
But I think out of all of the participants that first Palm Sunday, I think I would like to be more like the donkey. I know that sounds funny. But think about it. The donkey was commissioned by Christ to complete a specific task of carrying the Messiah into the city of Jerusalem. I would like to be known as someone who carried Christ into every area of my life.
Shouldn't we all be more like the donkey carrying Christ to our workplaces, into our schools, into our homes. Wouldn't this be a good week for us to make a commitment to carry Christ with us into areas of our lives and introduce Him to people that we know? This would be a good week to do just that.
As I said, many occurrences happened this Holy week. Jesus cleansed the temple. He told many parables. So much more that I'll get to in a minute.
Most Christians have heard about Jesus riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey while participants waved palm branches. But what is the significance of this day? Why did it happen? Why was it so special?
As we open our story, we see that for the past several weeks Jesus and His disciples have been making their way to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration like thousands of other Jews were doing. Along the way Jesus would heal the blind man, cleanse the ten lepers, He met Zacchaeus, and told many parables. He was attracting a lot of people's attention.
His last stop was at the home of his friends Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. They lived in a small town called Bethany a few miles away from Jerusalem. Jesus didn't go all the way into Jerusalem that day because He knew that the Pharisees were seeking to kill Him and it was not yet His time.
As great as it was for Jesus to be able to hang out with some of His closest friends, there were still huge crowds that followed. They came to Lazarus's house that day, too. They wanted to see this man that Jesus had raised from the dead. Wouldn't we be just as curious as they were?
But Jesus had prophecy to fulfill so the next morning, Sunday morning, Jesus made plans to ride into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. This would fulfill a prophecy that was spoken by the angel Gabriel in the book of Daniel several hundred years earlier.
But how Jesus traveled the last few miles to Jerusalem was a fulfillment of a second prophecy. Instead of walking there, Jesus sent two of His disciples to a nearby village to retrieve a young colt. Matthew records that there was also a mare there, perhaps the colt's mother, so they took her as well so that the colt would be more cooperative.
But then the mystical phenomenon occurs. Jesus somehow knew that the owner of the colt would ask about them taking the colt and that they were to answer him. "The Lord has need of it." That indeed happened and when the disciples made that statement to the owner, he just shrugged his shoulders and went back to the village. The colt fulfills a prophecy of:
Zechariah 9:9 KJV 1900
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: Behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; Lowly, and riding upon an ass, And upon a colt the foal of an ass.
Zechariah predicted it would happen over 500 years before Jesus was born.
His position (king), his character (righteous), his purpose (salvation), and his attitude (humble – Hebrew = afflicted)
Let's mention that donkey again. Now there's two interesting points about the donkey. First, Jesus asked for a colt that had never been sat on.
Luke 19:30 – “. . , “Go into the village ahead of you. As you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it.”
The Jews regarded a colt that had never been sat upon to be used for Holy purposes. So, this matches Jesus's deity.
Another significant fact about Jesus choosing a donkey is that it is such a humble animal, not big and majestic like a horse. Royalty and the military rode horses. Jesus, as a humble servant of the Father, chose a donkey that matched His attitude and Spirit. You can be sure that the symbolism of Jesus's choice of animal was clearly seen by the people of that day. It spoke volumes.
The disciples threw their clothes on the back of the donkey before Jesus sat on it. Other people threw their garments of clothing on the road before the donkey. Putting clothes on the ground was a very old custom of that time that was reserved for kings and royalty. This tells us that the people were already recognizing Jesus as the King of the Jews. Of course, they're recognition of Jesus as the Messiah is evident from their shouts in:
Matthew 21:9 – “Then the crowds who went ahead of him and those who followed shouted: Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name
of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
If you were a Jew, at this point, you were thinking that God had finally answered your prayers. God had finally sent the one man who was promised that would deliver the Israelites from the clutches of evil. Well, they were sort of right, but not really.
God had come to deliver the Israelites, but not from what they thought. They were expecting a king who would overthrow the Roman Empire and re-establish the autonomy of their nation, which is why they were yelling "hosanna" because it means "save us."
They got a king, but not the kind of king they had in mind. In those days, kings were usually highly ranked in the military. And so, the Jews were expecting someone who would wage war and overcome the evil Romans. What they didn't realize is that Jesus had come to overcome an even greater enemy than the Roman Empire. That enemy was sin and death. That's what Jesus came to overcome.
Maybe that's why some in the crowd turned against Jesus at the end of the week and chose Barabbas to be released instead of Jesus. The military general that they were expecting never showed up. So, Jesus wasn't the guy they had been waiting for. Maybe they viewed Him as a fraud that had let them down.
But on that Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into Jerusalem for the last time, those that had been following Jesus all the way from Galilee knew that He was someone special. He was someone that would change the world forever. And a few of them believed in Him enough that they would follow Him all the way to the cross.
There's a lot that we can learn about Jesus's last days between Palm Sunday and Good Friday. I mentioned a little bit ago that there were many things that happened during this week. Things like:
- The giving of the greatest commandment occurred this week.
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
- And then there was the cleansing of the temple.
And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,
And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
- The washing of the disciples’ feet occurred this week.
- This week was the week that Jesus gave the warning to watch for the signs of the last days and Jesus's second coming.
- Judas Iscariot will betray Jesus this week that will lead to His arrest.
And then there were the prophecies. Several prophecies were fulfilled this week, mostly when Jesus was hanging on the cross.
Of course, this day, Palm Sunday, leads to the fulfillment of a prophecy that we are all aware of. That is the prophecy that Jesus rose from the grave.
Psalm 16:10 “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”
Today is also the beginning of the week that leads to the prophecy of the giving of the gift of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
And what this day started, would end on Friday when Jesus was crucified, dead, and buried.
So you see, it was a very busy and anxious week, for sure. And it all began on this day in history that we now celebrate as Palm Sunday. I hope that you can see why this day should be celebrated as much as Easter Sunday.
Yes, it was a busy week, but Jesus was faithful to His mission to redeem the lost and give His body as an atoning sacrifice for our sins so that we can experience the power of His grace.
Closing
Closing
The question is: Right now He is still the King on the donkey, coming in peace, offering to you salvation, offering to you His righteousness, offering to you His life.
Understand why He came, what He gave, and what He requires of you – that is to humble yourself as He did, and come to the cross that He died on – recognize that you are there with Him, dying to yourself, and then rejoice with His rising as you rise to new life.
And also recognize that if you belong to Him then He is at peace with you for all of eternity. Can you disappoint Him? Sure. Can you even grieve Him? Yes. But will He abandon you? Never. He may discipline you, but you belong to Him - so rest in that peace.
We sometimes look for Jesus the warrior to descend on our lives and cut us to pieces – instead picture Jesus – righteous, but humble and giving to you, making peace with you forever.
So – Which part of the group watching Jesus are you?
From the people we see in these accounts there are basically three types of people with three different reactions.
Crowd – the crowd got caught up in the moment, each one thinking there was something in it for me – Jesus coming to set me free from my current physical difficulties (with Roman occupation). They feigned allegiance but when the reality of what Jesus was trying to do came out, many of them turned against him.
Pharisees – The Pharisees saw Jesus’ coming as a threat to their way of life. They had a pretty good thing going running the show. To welcome in a new king meant they were no longer “numero uno”
Disciples – in John’s account we see the disciples lifting up praise as a recognition of who Jesus was and what He had done.
As Jesus approaches your life – what is your reaction? Do you give false praise – just hoping to get something good from Him but not really recognizing what it means when Jesus says “If you want to follow me pick up your cross?”
Do you get fighting mad when Jesus touches an area of your life and says “I want to be King here.” Do you see His Lordship in your life as a threat?
Or do you fall on your knees, acknowledge your lack, and His Lordship – giving Him praise for His great works and welcoming Him in as Lord and King.