Setting the Stage

Introduction

It is estimated that millions of people tuned in for the last royal wedding in 2018. If you remember this taking place (I really don’t), then perhaps you remember so many people talking about it, posting about it on social media, and even borderline obsessed with the ceremony.

If you were anything like my wife, you were in awe of the fashion that was on display, in particular what Megan Markle was wearing. Maybe you enjoyed the pomp and circumstance of it all.

Some of you may even just enjoy observing the happenings of the royal family and keep up the shifts in power and different events that take place.

Whatever floats your boat is your business. All I know is every once in a while I’ll hear or observe people discussing or maybe even getting worked up about the royal family. Personally, I don’t get it or see the appeal.

Therefore, whenever the royal family is brought up again, I often wonder “why?”

I think we often get caught up in it all because its so different from what we’re used to. And, because we see everyone else so excited for a royal wedding or a coronation, so we join in on observing to ensure we don’t miss out!

This all reminds me of the crowd in Jerusalem when Jesus entered the city before His crucifixion. Enormous crowds of people came out to welcome Him to the city, with shouts and branches and their cloaks on the ground.

But, why were they there? What was their understanding of what they were doing? What was so significant to these people that they would make such a scene upon Jesus’ entry?

The title of my sermon this morning is “Setting the Stage”. By the God’s grace we will see in His word the answers to these questions. And, how Jesus was setting the stage for His trial, death, burial, and resurrection. So that sin would once and for all be killed and death be put to death, for God’s glory, for our behalf!

Preparation to Enter

21:1-5: At the beginning of our text, we see that Jesus and His disciples are heading toward Jerusalem, stopping first in Bethphage. This is where Jesus sends two disciples (we aren’t told which two) to go retrieve a donkey and her colt for Himself.

Keep in mind that this is now Passover week, just days before Christ’s crucifixion was to take place.

Matthew is actually the only gospel account that includes both a donkey and a colt, the rest only reference Jesus requesting a colt. Jesus perhaps would have requested both due to the fact that the colt Jesus would ride in on would have only been comfortable to come next to his mom.

We’ll get to why any of that matters in a few moments.

Observe the language Jesus uses in verses 2 and 3. Jesus’ preparation before entering Jerusalem is incredibly specific and calculated. And in a good and righteous way.

See the divine omniscience of Christ here! “You will find a donkey and a colt”, “If anyone asks you tell them the Lord needs them and he will send them at once.”

Jesus assures the two disciples that there is a colt and they will be able to retrieve it for Him. There’s truthfully nothing to infer here other than that Jesus knew where the donkey and colt were AND how His disciples were to get them.

We will see this come to pass in verses 6 and 7.

Now, let us focus on what Christ tells the disciples to say in verse 3. Matthew 21:3 “If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.”” Hold on a second! Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, had a need?

But, Isaiah 40 and Acts 17 tell us that God is in need of nothing!? That is of course true. Our God is completely self-sufficient, lacking nothing, self existent. From eternity to eternity, God has always been!

Matthew Barrett says “It is precisely because God is free from creation that He is able to save lost sinners like you and me.” What excellent news!

So, what are we seeing in verse 3 exactly? I suggest to you we observe two things here in Christ’s command to His disciples on what to say:

1) Christ is truly God and truly man. In Jesus’ humanity, He had needs. Food, sleep, water. Therefore, it is not blasphemous or incorrect to say that the incarnate Christ had needs during His earthly ministry.

2) More specific to the bigger picture here in verse 3, is that Christ sends His disciples to get the donkey and colt to fulfill prophecy.

Zechariah 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.”

This is what Matthew quotes in verses 4 and 5 (along with a bit of Isaiah 62:11). Therefore, Jesus was in need of the donkey and colt because He knew it was the fulfillment of Zechariah 9, that the King and Salvation of Jerusalem and the world would enter the city on a donkey!

Christ fulfills this not to boast, not to impress those around Him, not to show how much Bible He knows. He fulfills this because of the sovereign choice of God.

He knew the implications of Zechariah 9. Christ prepares to enter Jerusalem triumphantly yet humbly because He is the king of kings and the Lord of lords. He is setting the stage for His humiliation, death, burial, and resurrection to come in just a few days.

Regarding the choice of God for Christ to ride in on a donkey, just ponder that for a moment with me. What better way for the suffering servant to enter Jerusalem?

Despite the pomp and circumstance other kings and royalty may receive, the lowly Christ is to enter on a lowly donkey. Christ has gone from a manger, to a donkey, to the cross, to the Father’s right hand.

And yet, how often do we see some pastors, supposed to be under-shepherds of the Great Shepherd, flaunting extravagant lifestyles? Thousand dollar shoes, ridiculously expensive clothes, cars, or even houses.

I’m not at all suggesting pastors must live in poverty. However, we certainly must see some of the discord here?

May we as Christ followers and those who are called to pastoral ministry, strive to reflect the humility and meekness of Christ, entering Jerusalem on a mere donkey, in all areas of life.

Disciples Obedience

21:6-7: We see next in verses 6 and 7 the disciples obedience. They bring the donkey and lay their cloaks over it for Jesus to sit upon it. Note just for a minute the disciples obeying Christ.

Do you obey Him? Are you actively obeying Him today? Are we striving to fulfill the Great Commission by making disciples? Are we doers of the word of God and not just hearers only?

If we love Christ, we will obey His commands. Not, obey His commands to love Him. From our love let us fight day in and day out to obey our Messiah, Lord, and King.

See also the provision of the Lord! The Lord said a donkey and a colt would be in the village in verse 2 and gave His disciples the proper response to retrieve them in verse 3. Verses 6 and 7 show us Jesus was good on His word.

God is always good on His word. Whatever He says will come to pass. Whatever He promises He will do. That is the testimony of Scripture, that is the testimony of my life!

The end of verse 7 is where Matthew records that the disciples place their cloaks on the colt for Jesus to sit on. Jesus sits on the colt and he begins to ride into the city.

Look with me in Luke 19:41–44, where we see the King of kings weep over Jerusalem on His way into the city: “And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 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. 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 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.””

Why was Jesus weeping over the city He was entering? Because He knew they did not perceive Him to be the true Messiah that He was. They Him only as an earthly force that would overthrow the Roman government, not the lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world!

I ask you today, what is your view of Jesus Christ? How do you perceive Him? Do you care at all? Do you view Him as a political Messiah? As a social justice Messiah? Is He a savior that affirms you in your sin?

Or do you view the Christ as the Christ of the Scripture? Do you truly love, follow, and believe in the Jesus of the Bible or of your own imagination and construction?

There is only ONE true Lord, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Who was humiliated, mocked, bore the full wrath of God, was killed, resurrected, and then ascended, according to the Scriptures, for His glory, on behalf of yours and my sins!!

There is only one true Jesus Christ, revealed to us in His Word, who by the Holy Spirit gives us eyes to see and ears to hear His precious Gospel, to behold Him for who He truly is, so that we may repent and believe in Him! Repent and believe in Him today!!

According to Luke, Jesus wept because He was truly, deeply grieved over the crowds in Jerusalem.

The Crowd’s Response

21:8-11: As Jesus begins riding into the city, we begin to see the crowd’s response. They place cloaks and branches along the road, which according to the Bible and as John MacArthur points out, is a symbol of respect for royalty.

The crowds do this because they know the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9. They were eagerly anticipating the Messiah to enter Jerusalem the way Jesus was. They believed their wait was over, the Messiah had come.

John actually records this account in chapter 12 of His gospel with nothing that crowds of people were even meeting Jesus before Jerusalem. In verse 9 of our text this morning Matthew records that there were people before and following Jesus.

This is simply an enormous sea of people, responding to the Lord making His way into the city.

And the crowds are shouting Matthew 21:9 ““Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”” MacArthur explains that Hosanna, as some of us may know, is an exclamatory phrase meaning “save now”.

They shout this, along with acknowledging Jesus as the Son of David, and the He is blessed for He comes in the name of the Lord. Sure enough, they are correct to shout such things.

But as we see in verse 10, the city of Jerusalem is all stirred up. Craig Blomberg actually states in his commentary that “stirred up” isn’t an accurate phrasing here, but that the city was thrown into a commotion. Jesus’ entrance caused major waves within the city.

Many asked “who is this guy?” Then others in the crowd provide an albeit true answer, yet, a horribly inadequate one. Matthew 21:11“And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.””

This is an inadequate answer of who Jesus is. Why? Because, although He is The Great Prophet and the fulfillment of so many prophecies regarding the coming Messiah and the salvation to come, He is so much more than that .

Jesus is gloriously more than just the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee. He is the King of kings, Lord of lords, Prince of peace, the Great I Am, the Messiah, the Lord of all, the Savior of the world, the Son of God, the greater Joseph, the greater Moses, the greater David. Jesus Christ is GOD!

Thats why we can say confidently that the crowd was producing misunderstood praise. They were shouting Hosanna, laying down their cloaks, blessing Jesus because they believe that He was their coming political Messiah.

They had no interest in Jesus saving their souls, they only wanted Him to save their nation from tyranny. This is evident in Jesus’ weeping in Luke 19. He knew their motives, He knew why they would shout what they were shouting.

Why are we here today? Why do we follow Jesus? Is it out of a mere hope that He will deliver America from the oppressive powers at be? If you claim Christ, to believe and trust in Him, I ask you today, why?

Why do you make such a claim? Is it because you hope you’ll never get cancer if you do so? Do you love Jesus because you believe that will make you rich and successful and prosperous? Because you believe it will make your marriage better? Because you think its whats best for your kids? Because its just what you’ve always done?

If you love Jesus, confess Him as Lord and Savior, and trust in Him for ANY REASON other than because you know and have come to see Christ in all His glory, beauty, majesty, and worth, then you don’t love Jesus.

Rather, you love the thing you hope loving Him gets you. Charles Spurgeon is once quoted saying “If I hate sin because of the punishment, I have not repented of sin; I merely regret that God is just."

Please, if you haven’t today, COME TO JESUS. But not for what He can give you, but for who He is. The Bible says He is preeminent, top of the top, nothing else to want or gain (as Matt Chandler says). Christ is all satisfying, all sufficient, more than enough. Come to Christ for Christ Himself! He is so good.

What is so mind boggling here is that most of this same crowd in Matthew 21, shouting Hosanna and “praising” Jesus as He rides into the city, call for Him to be crucified just a few days later in Matthew 27:20–23 “Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” And he said, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!””

Beloved, let us not be so quick to look down on this crowd. This has been quoted many times from different artists and authors, but we were there in Matthew 21 and 27. I was there, praising Him one moment then calling for Barabbas the next. It was my sin that nailed Him to the cross. I was right there with Peter denying association with Christ. I was there!

But O for the grace and mercy and power and faithfulness of God. Christ took on my sin and rid me of it. What a Savior, what a King, what a Friend.

Conclusion

Jesus rode into the city prepared to die. He knew that it was passover week and it was His appointed time, planned before the foundation of the world to be sacrificed for the sins of His people.

The humble, triumphal entry set the stage for the Christ to be put on trial, take our sin upon His shoulders on the cross, die, and rise in victory on the third day.

If you have never believed in this precious Gospel today, please don’t leave without talking to myself or pastor Jared. I’ll down here during this last song. If you need prayer or need to know more about this preeminent King Jesus, please don’t hesitate to come.

PRAY