The King Has Arrived
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Matthew 21:1-11
Matthew 21:1-11
1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,
2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.
3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.”
4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ”
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.
7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them.
8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
9 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!”
10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?”
11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
Prayer
Prayer
O Lord Our God,
I pray unto thee today that you would move me out of the way, shut me up, and speak through me that those in the sound of my voice would hear not my words but rather your words that you are speaking through me. Lord, you have laid this passage on my heart, and I pray that at the end of this sermon, your people will be edified and blessed by the preaching of Your Word. O Lord, show us your will and your way that we, as your people, be more equipped to go into a lost and dying world and be salt and light as you have called us to be. It is in the Holy Name of Jesus, the name above all names that I pray. Amen.
Introduce myself.
Introduce myself.
I love Christmas and Easter Christians.
You know the type.
Perhaps, some of you even fall into that category.
Of course, I wish that so-called Christmas and Easter Christians would follow the command of Hebrews 10:25
25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
The thing that interests me about so-called Christmas and Easter Christians is that Christmas tends to be the favorite of the two in that crowd.
Now, I think I know why.
In our materialistic society, the Christmas shopping and gift giving is the thing that really gets our juices flowing.
Let’s face it, Americans love to shop.
And the only thing we tend to love more than shopping is receiving gifts.
But as I grow older, and hopefully wiser, I find my self growing deeper in love with the Word of God.
And because of that, I also find myself being less and less interested in all the secular trappings of Christmas and more and more enthralled in the deep and rich theology of the events of Holy Week, the climax of which is of course the Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen!
With that being said, let’s unpack tonight’s passage about the Triumphal Entry of King Jesus in Matthew 21.
At times I will also be referencing the parallel passages in Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-42 and John 12:12-14.
With that as the background, let’s unpack the FOUR THINGS that this passage teaches us about God.
I. GOD IS SOVEREIGN.
I. GOD IS SOVEREIGN.
Let’s set the stage here:
At this point Jesus has taken a drastic turn in His ministry.
Early in His ministry, time and again Jesus had taught that it was not yet His time.
He would heal a person and then instruct them to tell no one.
When crowds would gather to and begin swelling with enthusiasm about their long-awaited Messianic King, Jesus would withdraw.
But not here.
Beginning in Matthew 16:21
21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
See Jesus had set His face toward Jerusalem, knowing that His hour had come to not only proclaim His rightful Title as King of Kings and Lord of Lords but also to carry out His Ultimate Purpose on earth to fulfill the will of the Father and pay the ultimate sacrifice for my sins and yours.
Look at what it says here:
1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,
2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.
First, we know from Luke 19 that Jesus sent two of His disciples to accomplish this task.
And look what He tells them, “you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.”
Now we don’t know whether Jesus had set this up before hand or simply knew that there would be these donkeys, but either way what we are to take out of this is that God is SOVEREIGN over even the most minute details.
Now in both the Mark and Luke passages, we get the detail that not only did the disciples find the colt and his mother tied just as Jesus had told them
But also that there were men there that questioned the disciples just as Jesus had said they would.
And finally that when the disciples replied as instructed, the men let the colt be untied and brought to Jesus.
And what does that teach us, one again, Jesus as God incarnate is sovereign over everything!!
If that wasn’t enough to convince you, look at what the next verses say.
4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ”
Here Matthew and the other Gospel writers are quoting from Zechariah 9:9
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Now many of you surely know this, but a donkey was NOT the animal that was ridden by a conquering king.
It was a beast of burden.
A working animal.
But how many of you know that King David himself had once ridden into Jerusalem on a donkey.
In 2 Samuel Chapters 15 and 16, King David, who had fled during Absalom’s rebellion returned from the east over the Mount of Olives through the Valley Kidron, just as Jesus did here, and he rode peacefully on the back of a saddled donkey.
Coincidence?
Rather this is God showing once again how He and He alone are sovereign over every detail of history.
And as believers, this should give us peace and strength.
For we know:
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Praise God AMEN!
Because if I know anything about myself, it is that when I try to do things on my own, that is when I screw things up, but when I rely on the sovereign Lord to control my actions, then is it that I have peace and joy and BLESSINGS!!!
II. GOD’S TIMING IS PERFECT.
II. GOD’S TIMING IS PERFECT.
Have you ever wondered why so many people in the first century were looking for the Messiah?
Fortunately, we don’t really need to guess.
See we are told in Daniel 9 when the Messiah would come.
Turn with me if you would to Daniel 9:24-27
24 “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.
25 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.
26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed.
27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”
The first thing we need to know is that when it says “weeks” in Daniel it is referring to a group of seven, much the same as we would call 12 of anything a dozen.
So, 7 + 62 is 69 weeks or 483 years.
Now there is much debate about which decree and therefore when the time of Messiah is.
But I will tell you what my educated opinion is, and admittedly it is not mine but that of Sir Robert Anderson in his book The Coming Prince published in 1894.
In it, Sir Anderson establishes the case that the decree mentioned in Daniel 9 is that of Artaxerxes Longimanus made on 14 March, 445 BC.
Anderson then accounted for leap years, did the math and found that the 483 years would be a total of 173,880 days.
So if you count forward 173, 880 days from March 14, 445 BC, you get April 6, 32 AD.
As it turns our April 6, 32 AD is the Jewish day of the the 10th of Nissan.
This is the day that Jesus rode a donkey into the city of Jerusalem.
Now if you didn’t think this was incredible, I want you to consider this:
There are three Jewish festivals that God instructed all able bodied Jewish men to travel to Jerusalem for: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.
We know of course that Jesus entered into Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover, and we now know that this was the 10th day of the Jewish month of Nissan.
Do you know what happened on the 10th of Nissan?
That is the day that the Jewish people selected their lamb for slaughter.
So Jesus, “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” entered Jerusalem on the very day that predicted in Daniel 9, the 10th day of Nissan, the day that the Passover lambs were selected.
He was then crucified for the sins of the world on the 14th day of Nissan, the day of the sacrifice of the Passover lamb.
He then rose on the third day, which was the day of Firstfruits!
And we know from the teaching of the Apostle Paul that Jesus is the Firstfruits of them that slept.
And we know that the church was then born forty days later on the Day of Pentecost!
Why?
Because God’s timing is PERFECT!!!
And if that wasn’t enough, in God’s sovereign power, this entire week was set in the busiest time of the year in Jerusalem.
The Jewish historian Josephus records that at one passover there were 250,000 lambs slain.
Each lamb could feed about 10 people, thus it is estimated that there were as many as 2.5 million Jews in Jerusalem during Passover week.
Thus the maximum number of people could be present for the perfect timing of the Passion of Chirst.
Again, look at the incredible perfect timing of God!
So I ask again, what are we as modern day Christians to take away from this perfect timing of God?
How many of you know that the answers to prayers are only three things.
Yes
No
And Not Yet!
Why? Because God’s timing is ALWAYS PERFECT whereas mine is often simply a disaster.
III. GOD WORKS THROUGH PEOPLE.
III. GOD WORKS THROUGH PEOPLE.
Let’s look now at the parallel passage in John 12:17-18
17 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.
18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign.
Think about this for a moment.
Have you ever wondered, as I have, how the people of the city knew that Jesus was coming in?
How did they know that the Messiah was coming so that they could cheer “Hosanna in the Highest. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”
They knew because God uses people.
Here we see that God used those who had been present in Bethany just days earlier and witnessed Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead to tell everyone about the arrival of Jesus.
Later in the Week, Jesus uses people to prepare the Passover meal in the upper room.
Lest we forget, Jesus is the one that called Judas Iscariot to follow him as a disciple, knowing full well that Judas would betray Him in order to accomplish His grand purpose of going to the cross for the forgiveness of sins.
And let’s face it, this has been going on since the beginning of time.
God chose a barren couple to be the mother and father of his covenant people.
God used Joseph’s brothers, who intended evil, for the good of the people in order to save them from the famine.
God used Pharoah and hardened his heart in order to accomplish the goal of showing the whole world His might in the exodus.
God used David, a shepherd boy, to slay the giant Goliath, and win victory for the Israelites over their enemies, the Phillistines.
God used Ruth, and Tamar, and Rahab, two of which were not Israelites and two of which were women of ill repute to be part of the lineage of Jesus.
And God can use you and me to carry out His sovereign will in His perfect timing.
In my medical career, I have been reminded of that from time to time.
One, in particular stands out.
When I was in Washington I was sent a patient from one of my General Surgery colleagues who had a massive melanoma on his chest.
Now he was a Christian Scientist.
And for those of you who don’t know, they often don’t really believe in modern medicine and think that they should just pray away their illness.
So, as I’m sitting here listening to this guy tell me that he’s been praying for God to cure his cancer.
And all I could think about was, “Why would you limit God like that?”
“Isn’t God free to use people to accomplish His sovereign will now as He has done since the beginning of time?”
So I said to him, “Have you ever considered that perhaps the answer to your prayers may be the man God has sent here into this very exam room that is talking to you right now?”
Because I don’t know about y’all, but I believe that God has called each and every one of us into His service in every aspect of our lives so that through our obedient service to Him, His sovereign will is going to be accomplished in His perfect timing.
After all, doesn’t the Bible teach that “whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men!!!”
IV. GOD IS CONTROVERSIAL.
IV. GOD IS CONTROVERSIAL.
I want to start by looking at the crowd here as Jesus entered the city.
9 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!”
It even says here in Matthew that the city was moved.
Now, the word there in the Greek is only used by Matthew three times, and in each of the other two he uses it to mean shaken like in an earthquake.
But I want you to think about something.
Some of the people in that crowd were the very same people that just four days later were persuaded by the Sanhedrin to ask for Barabas to be released instead of Jesus.
These same people who had just cried out Hosanna, Save NOW, will be the same ones who when Matthew 27:22-23
22 Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!”
23 And he said, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!”
But it is not like this is some surprise to Jesus.
His entire ministry, he taught in ways that divided.
In fact, in Matthew 10:34-36
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.
Did not Jesus time and again heal on the Sabbath, for which the Pharisees plotted how they could do away with Him?!
Was it not Jesus that said, John 10:30-31
30 I and the Father are one.”
31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.
Is it not Jesus, who said in John 6:55
55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”
61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
Is it not Jesus himself who stood before the Sanhedrin at His trial and said in Mark 14:60-64
60 And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?”
61 But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”
62 And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”
63 And the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further witnesses do we need?
64 You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?” And they all condemned him as deserving death.
And the controversy about Jesus Christ is no different today than it was two thousand years ago.
Some continue to claim that Jesus is just a mythical figure who never really existed.
Jews reject Jesus as their long-awaited Messiah, choosing rather to follow the teachings of their flawed rabbis.
Muslims say Jesus was just a prophet and that He never died on a Roman cross!
Modern-day so-called “Progressive and LGBT-affirming Christians” distort the teachings of Jesus to suit their own narcissistic sinful desires.
But make no mistake about it, coming is the day where Philippians 2:10-11
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
And I don’t know about you, but I LONG FOR THAT DAY!!!!
CLOSING
CLOSING
The only question now, as that day is approaching is what is your response to the controversial life and teaching of Jesus Christ?
Make no bones about it, Jesus is coming, and the day draw nigh.
The day draws nigh where Jesus will separate the wheat from the chaff on the threshing floor.
The day draws nigh where Jesus will sit on His thrown of judgement and place the goats on his left hand and His sheep on the right.
So you need to search your soul and ask yourself, “Have I given myself fully to the Lord Jesus Christ?”
Have I made Him not only my Savior, but also the Lord of my whole being?
As yourself, “When judgement day comes, will Jesus look at me and say ‘I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity,’ or will He say, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.?”
And if you cannot honestly look into your heart and with confidence say that you are a blood-bought, born-again child of the King, then what is holding you back?
If that is you, I urge you, I beg of you, give your hear to Jesus.
Fall on your knees and repent.
Accept the grace that has been freely given to you.
For there is always room at the foot of the cross for all who come to get washed as white as snow by the blood of the Lamb.
If this is you.
If you need to give yourself to God, I call you forward right now.
There is no time like the present.
The alter is open.
Would you come.
CLOSING PRAYER
CLOSING PRAYER