Jesus is Devoted to His Father's Business
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Since we have read the text once, I would like to get some more background information about what is happening here.
This is after the resurrection of Lazarus, and the chief priests are plotting to kill Jesus and Lazarus. Because of this Jesus went to the town of Ephraim out near the wilderness. All the Jewish people were coming to Jerusalem for the Passover, and they arrived early to purify themselves before the festivities. Jesus is anointed with perfume by Mary, not His mother. Now we have Him with His royal announcement and proclamation. For the palm branches were a symbol of freedom to the Jews. They were originally used for the Feast of the Tabernacles in worship, but later were used after Simon the Maccabee drove Syrian forces out of the Jersualem Citadel. They waved it to show that God was with them and would free them from oppression. There is a very real and distinct possibility that this was the very hopes of many of the Jewish people when Jesus walked through Jerusalem. It was there nationalist symbol.
The reason that so many people were there was that they were awaiting the Messiah during the passover festival. There are prophesies in Ezekiel talking about the Messiah coming from the east gate, and also prophesies about the ruler coming on a donkey in Zechariah. These show that Jesus was devoted to His Father’s Business. Now let us read the text again with this context.
Body of Sermon
Body of Sermon
The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
“Fear not, daughter of Zion;
behold, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”
Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks.
First we must address how important this text is. It one of the few instances that happens in all four Gospel accounts. All the Gospel authors for one reason or another thought that this text was worth mentioning. At first glance we think, kind of a big deal but nothing spectacular I mean, Jesus healed people, and raised the dead! Even these aren’t all proclaimed in every gospel. Why is this text so different? This was both a political proclamation and the fulfillment of prophecy. Both a political proclamation and a fulfillment of prophecy. To understand this we must ask ourselves why? Jesus was devoted to His Father’s business. We can see this and understand more by Jesus obedience, His temptations, and His future objective. By His obedience, His temptation, and His future objective.
His Obedience
His Obedience
For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.
This parade through Jerusalem was not just some display for Jesus’ own sake. This was a fulfillment of the Old Testament prophesies, as I have mentioned earlier. This was to show not only Jesus was who He claimed to be, but also that He submitted to His Father’s will. Some of the prophecies He fulfilled were in Zechariah and Ezekiel.
The passage in Zechariah is the one that is explicitly in the text in verse 15. What is this in reference to? In Zechariah 9:9 it is showing that God will fulfill the promise of the coming king. That He will come on a donkey instead of a warhorse like the kind mentioned in verse 10. If you read all the way through to verse 13 you get a pretty clear messianic message. This means that Jesus didn’t ride a donkey simply to seem humble or because He was tired of walking, it was a political and spiritual statement. He is the king that they were waiting for. He is no longer telling people to keep what they know about Jesus secret. Jesus is proclaiming that He is the messiah to come. Luke’s account even adds that the Pharisees would rebuke Him and tell Him to stop it, and Jesus responds with “If they were silent, the very rocks would cry out.” This is a big deal!
Even if people wouldn’t have done what needed to happen for God to fulfill His prophecy, if that is even possible, then creation itself would’ve bent the knee for His glory.
The Ezekiel passage is more about which gate He comes into the city from. It is also a crazy read. If you have ever seen those semi disturbing videos throughout social media about what biblical angels look like, this book is one of the references that they use. One of the prophesies is in Ezekiel 10:18-19
Then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim. And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth before my eyes as they went out, with the wheels beside them. And they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.
They continue to talk about the east gate of “the house of the Lord,”where the seraphim were gathering and eventually in chapter 46 reference a prince who will open these gates. Jesus didn’t do this in order to say that He was great or to make people give Him prestige. His Father already did that. These prophecies are the will of the Father. Jesus obeyed His Father, so that His will would be done to verify the prophets of old and keeping the promises of God. He continued to do so even to His death. He obeyed the Father even to the point of death. We are called to do the same. In Jesus’ death we are given life, and through our death to ourselves we would have life abundantly.
His Temptation
His Temptation
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
If we rewind to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, we will recall a time where He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. He was tempted to feed Himself by the authority He had, He was tempted to jump off a high tower to show off who He was, and He was tempted to show that He would have all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus submitted to Satan.
As far as we know there is no evidence of Jesus providing food for Himself only. When He made food for the people around Him it was to show who He was and to point them to the the bread of life, as in Himself. He denied His bodily needs to rely on the Father’s provision for Him.
He did not show off His authority, but obeyed the Father in keeping His authority a secret, so that He might spread word of His deeds all across Israel, and even to the Gentile lands until the proper time. Later on, hanging on the cross He is tempted and told to get Himself off the cross to prove His authority as Christ. He stays on the cross, not because He couldn’t get off, but to do what needed to be done. To finish the work that was started on our behalf.
The final temptation is the one ties most into our particular bible passage. Satan tempting Jesus with all the kingdoms of the world. Why is this even a temptation? If Jesus is God, then all these kingdoms are under His authority anyway right? There is a debate to how much of God’s plan for the life of Christ He had, and whether Satan knew Jesus had to die. Regardless, the temptation presented to Jesus is, “Follow me, and you can rule the world. You don’t have to listen to God.” This would mean that Jesus could establish His reign on earth, and maybe even do some good, without dying on the cross.
How is this relevant to the story of palm Sunday? The Jewish people were awaiting the Messiah. They were expecting a prophet king who would rescue them from the chains of Rome. You can see this even in how they proclaim Jesus’ entry. “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” You see that this is actually a quote from Psalm 118:25 and 26 which reads:
Save us, we pray, O Lord!
O Lord, we pray, give us success!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
We bless you from the house of the Lord.
Do you notice what is added to the chant of the people? They add “even the King of Israel.” They understand Jesus is fulfilling the messianic prophecies, and are addressing Him as such. What does this have to do with the temptation that was stated previously? Well, the people didn’t know the type of Messiah Jesus was going to be. They thought, based on the prophecies and the religious teachers of the day, that this king would be a king that they had never seen before. They were expecting a prophet king. A leader like Moses but with the military might of David to free them from Roman rule.
No where in the text does it explicitly says that Jesus was tempted so I will preface this with a big asterisk, or as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7 I, not the Lord, say this based on how distraught Jesus shows Himself to be about being crucified and the people’s misunderstanding of His mission, then if Satan is actively working against Jesus, I think it is reasonable to think that He could be tempted here. Whether it seems to effect Him or not is another story. The lack of mentioning it in the text would be good evidence that the effect would be minimal, if at all there.
Why is this important? Jesus shows that He could’ve been a political leader and military leader. God has raised men like these up before, but that’s not the Father’s mission. The Jews, God’s people, were so worried about themselves that they were missing the bigger picture. Jesus chose not to rule in this fashion, because we didn’t need someone to tell us what to do, we needed someone to pay for our freedom. Whether He truly was tempted or not in this fashion it is clear, Jesus became the king that we needed not the one we wanted, and thus was killed for it. We need to be more worried about the things of God, and less on the things of men. Christ live His life and even to His death from the people He was trying to save. There’s a quote that keeps coming up through social media that states: “How can you be at peace with the world that crucified Christ?” We must ask ourselves, if we have truly died to ourselves, does all of our life reflect Christ?
His Future Objective
His Future Objective
Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
This is the day of Judgement. Where Jesus will wage war against the forces of evil. This shows God’s power and majesty. His righteousness and glory are unmatched, and He will judge us based on our obedience to Him. Why do I mention this in the sermon about palm Sunday? This, is how He could’ve come the first time. He had every right to show us justice and to take out His wrath upon us. God has shown His wrath poured out on the earth during the flood. He didn’t, so that we could be reconciled with Him and His Father. We should be judged severely for we have all sinned and sinned grievously against God, but by His grace, we have been saved. We have had our relationship restored with God.
This is the Father’s business, that we might be made right by Him and for Him. To reconcile the lost and undeserving, so that we would be able to participate in relationship with Him. We don’t serve a God who asks us to just live perfect lives so that we can meet Him. We don’t serve a God who came down to have His patrons to serve Him, but we serve a God who came down bore real flesh, bled, died, and rose again. He served us and showed us how to serve. He paid the ultimate price so that we don’t have to.
To wrap up this week, I want to leave you with some statistics from one of my textbooks.
Churches per 10,000 people have decreased by 2/3 from 1920-1996
The number of Evangelical believers in Asia surpassed those in America in 1987 and then surpassed all of those in the Western World in 1991
As of 2010 there are approximately 200 million unchurched people in America. That makes us the 4th most unreached nation in the world behind China, India, and Indonesia.
Are we devoted to our Father’s business? Are we willing to be used by God to bring people to Christ? Are we willing to die to ourselves, so that we would be willing to share this news, that Jesus died in our place so that we can have our sins forgiven. He took our burdens and hung them on that cross. Now we are commanded to share this news. Matthew 28:18–20 “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””
Charles Spurgeon, a British preacher in the late 1800’s, has a quote that states:
“Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you're not saved yourself, be sure of that!”
Evangelism isn’t a suggestion. Evangelism isn’t extracurricular. Evangelism isn’t hateful. While some are gifted at it more than others it also isn’t a spiritual gift. It is a work of the Spirit, but it is not on any spiritual gift list. Evangelism is a command. It is an expectation. It is the most loving thing you can do for you, your neighbor, and for Christ Himself. Let us be devoted to our Father’s business, so that we may be able to serve Him like He has served us. Let us pray.