Secrecy is Over
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
Recap
Recap
On The Road to Jerusalem
Last week, Cry Out
Jericho is behind them, Jerusalem and the cross in front of them.
After a couple of years of Jesus telling everyone he healed NOT TO TELL ANYONE who He was, now the secret is out and Jesus will make His most public claim as Messiah yet. He didn’t sneak in the back door. He didn’t try and come in under the radar, there was no point. He, in all of His omniscience, knew what was ahead of Him. There was no reason to try and hide, it was time to Go Big and Go forward in the Father’s plan for him.
Omniscience Executed
Omniscience Executed
1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,
Show Map of Bethphage
Bethphage is after Bethany, which is between Jericho and the mount of olives. This road that Jesus is on will lead him past the garden of Gethsemane, and right up to the Temple in the city of David, Jerusalem, through the East Gate. The East gate plays a very significant role, not just in Jesus triumphal entry, but in His second coming.
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.
Jesus rode the colt not the adult donkey. In Mark 11:2 it mentions that the colt was so young it hadn’t been ridden yet. The idea is that bringing the mother would have kept the colt calm amongst the crowd.
“In the midst, then, of this excited crowd, an unbroken animal remains calm under the hands of the Messiah who controls nature.” (Carson)
In all His omniscience, he knew He “Needed them” and he knew that the owner would “send them at once”. It had to be done.
“Jesus, without laying aside his sovereignty, had taken a nature full of needs; yet, being in need, he was still the Lord and could command his subjects and requisition their property.” (Spurgeon)
He knew that Zechariah would prophecy about this even 500 years before that day because God gave Zechariah the words, predicting this.
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.
10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall speak peace to the nations;
his rule shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
Note the many details symbolic of peace in this prophecy:
· “Take away the chariots”: an end to the main vehicle of war.
· “Take away… the war-horses”: no need for horses used in war.
· “The battle bow will be broken”: no need for bows or arrows for fighting.
· “He will proclaim peace to the nations”: His message will be one of reconciliation.
· “His rule shall be from sea to sea”: the King will control extended territory with no enemies of concern.
Here, Jesus worked to fulfil the prophecy of Zechariah, but more importantly, he worked to fulfill the prophecy of Daniel 9 which talks about the 70 weeks of Daniel 9. I’ll explain that a little more later.
Jesus came to Jerusalem in humility, yet with appropriate dignity. Instead of coming on a horse as a conquering general, He came on a colt, as was customary for royalty. He came to Jerusalem as the Prince of Peace. (Guzik)
The Red Carpet Treatment
The Red Carpet Treatment
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.”
To understand this word, Hosanna, this scene harkens back to 2 Kings 9:13 with the symbolism of the laying of their garments across the animals but more importantly the road.
13 Then in haste every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, “Jehu is king.”
The disciples had gone and obeyed Jesus request, and the people were ready to welcome their new King.
“The act of spreading out the garment was one of recognition, loyalty and promise of support.” (Wiseman)
The Palm Branches were symbolic as well. They pointed to an emblem of victory and success.
9 After this I looked, 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,
“It is a mark of Christ’s presence when the church becomes enthusiastic. We sometimes hear complaints about revivals being too exciting. Perhaps the censure is deserved, but I would like to see a little of the fault. This age does not generally sin in the direction of being too excited concerning divine things. We have erred so long on the other side that, perhaps, a little excess in the direction of fervor might not be the worst of all calamities; at any rate, I would not fear to try it.” (Spurgeon)
What is the cry of crowd? It’s’ very similar to the cry out of the blind men outside of Jericho. “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”
“HOSANNA to the SON OF DAVID”
The word Hosanna means “in the original Hebrew OH SAVE! an exclamation of adoration!” They openly give Jesus the titles appropriate for the Messiah (Son of David… Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD).
“Essentially it is a people’s cry for deliverance and for help in the day of their trouble; it is an oppressed people’s cry to their saviour and their king.” (Barclay)
“‘Vox populi, vox Dei’ they used to say; but the saying is false: the voice of the people may seem to be the voice of God when they shout ‘Hosanna in the highest’; but whose voice is it when they yell out, ‘Crucify him, crucify him’?” (Spurgeon)
They also said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee”: This continues the earlier identification of Jesus with Nazareth (Matthew 2:23). It would sound strange to many — especially to the religious establishment — that a prophet would come from the obscure and unnoted city of Nazareth. (Guzik)
Matthew doesn’t write about this, but in Luke 19, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem.
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
"The cry was that of a frustrated desire. He had visited the city, with the desire to deliver it from the things of destruction; and with the offers of the things of peace. The spiritual blindness of the rulers and people was such that they did not discern the meaning of the visitation. The result was inevitable. There could be no escape from the destruction." (Morgan)
As the city was stirred with praise for the Son of David, things are set into place to take down the Son of David. But none of this is out of God’s plan. Not one thing is out of line or overriding God’s sovereign will!
Jesus had to come on this very day and enter as Israel’s messiah! It had to be.
70 Weeks of Daniel
70 Weeks of Daniel
Going back to the 70 weeks of Daniel 9, lets look at what that means.
THE SEVENTY WEEKS OF DANIEL
AS UNDERSTOOD BY SIR ROBERT ANDERSON IN “THE COMING PRINCE”
Daniel 9:24-25 says that from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem to the coming of the Messiah there will be 483 years.
7 + 62 “weeks” = 69 groups of seven years. 7 x 69 = 483 years
Therefore, 483 years x 360 days = 173,880 days
Artaxerxes started his reign in 465 B.C. The decree to rebuild Jerusalem was given on the first day of Nisan, in the 20th year of Artaxerxes. In our calendar system (the Julian calendar) that date is March 14, 445 B.C. (Nehemiah 2:1)
From 445 B.C. to A.D. 32. there are 476 years on the Julian calendar
(not 477 years, because there is no year zero).
476 years x 365 days = 173,740 days.
Adjusting for the difference between March 14 and April 6 adds 24 days.
Adjusting for leap years over a period of 476 years adds 116 days.
The total number of days from March 14, 445 B.C. to April 6, A.D. 32.
173,740 + 24 + 116 = 173,880 days.
According to his calendar, Daniel told us there would be 173,880 days between the decree and the arrival of Messiah the Prince.
Jesus’ Triumphal Second Coming
Jesus’ Triumphal Second Coming
3 Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. 4 On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward.
Jesus will not remain upon the Mount of Olives after it divides. He will enter the Eastern Gate and enter Ezekiel’s Temple.
Ezekiel saw the spirit of God leaving Jerusalem through the Eastern Gate in:
23 And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain that is on the east side of the city.
In Jesus’ day, The Holy Spirit did not occupy the Temple. The Spirit had departed. Jesus was God in the Temple in His day.
1 Then he led me to the gate, the gate facing east. 2 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. And the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory. 3 And the vision I saw was just like the vision that I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and just like the vision that I had seen by the Chebar canal. And I fell on my face.
For us today, we realize that Jesus is our burden bearer. He is the one who took our sin on the cross
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
Jesus fulfilled Daniels prophecy to the very day, something that the Pharisees and Sadducees should have seen coming and noticed when it came. Them not noticing was part of God’s plan though. Jesus had to go to the cross. It was the Father’s will. He did it because he promised that He would do it from the moment God cursed Adam and Eve and the serpent.
He promised to defeat Satan and Death. He overcame it through the laying down of His own life and the shedding of His blood to establish a new covenant, one that can not be broken. And he did all this for you and for me, but even more importantly, for himself.
19 Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
20 The wild beasts will honor me,
the jackals and the ostriches,
for I give water in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
21 the people whom I formed for myself
that they might declare my praise.