The LORD Enters
Christ in the Bible • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 8 viewsNotes
Transcript
Good morning everyone. I wanted to thank you again for the opportunity to share God’s word today.
Today we’re going to look at a very familiar passage. In fact, depending on the church you went to growing up, this may have been a standard passage at least once a year.
It’s the passage of Jesus’ triumphal entry. Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, palm branches being laid down and people screaming Hosanna. This is a common subject on Palm Sunday and many great sermon’s and lessons are explored.
Today, I want to go into a very specific question who is Jesus in this passage? Meaning, a lot of people view Jesus in many different ways.
What are some ways people view Jesus?
What are some ways people view Jesus?
Let’s see if we can come up with 10. This can be right or wrong.
All good answers, there are three though that I want to focus on today and all three are displayed right in our passage and we’ll take some time to look at the Old Testament to verify and we’ll see how we feel about this.
We are going to identify from this passage, Jesus as King, Prophet and Priest. And I hope from this study we all gain a deeper understanding not just of who Jesus is, but what he did for us.
Before we get into the scriptures, I want to point out that all four gospels speak of Jesus’ triumphal entry. But each account has slight differences. This can be confusing to some, but I think I can help as we jump in
What is this? (Glass globe)
What is this? (Glass globe)
Ask someone far away to describe it in as much detail as possible.
A Little closer
Right next to me. Let them touch it.
Was anyone wrong?
no. Different perspectives, doesn’t mean incorrect information, just different details.
So as we go through the scriptures today, remember that each writer was coming at the narrative from a different perspective and wanted different details brought up.
With that being said let’s start with John 12:12-16
12 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 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!” 14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, 15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” 16 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 gospel of John gives a short account of the triumphal entry. Reading further you’ll see the people’s motives in coming to see Jesus and a Pharisee respinse, but the important question is
Who is Jesus claiming to be in this passage?
Who is Jesus claiming to be in this passage?
King that’s right.
And where do we get that from the Old Testament?
Well, just from the crowd we get two places where we know that they are identifying Jesus as their King. Granted, they are envisioning a different type of King, but they do acknowledge that Jesus is a King.
First we have Verse 13, which cries out a word we sing many times a year. The word Hosanna comes from a very complicated greek word and I’m going to do my very best not to butcher it and have you repeat it:
Hosanna o-san-a
Okay, that was my April Fools for the month.
Can anyone tell me what Hosanna means?
Good:
We get the definition right from the scripture reference
25 Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! 26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.
From this we can see that the people calling out recognize Jesus as one sent by the LORD to save them.
This had been a long held belief that the Messiah would come one day and become their King.
We know from Jesus’ genealogy that he is from the line of David and that God set that line up to be Kings.
One of the jobs of a king is to keep the kingdom safe. A king would go out to war or ride into battle in order to keep the kingdom safe.
A common vehicle for war is a horse, or if you are being really fancy, a horse drawn chariot.
If you see a king armored up and on a horse, you know what he is about to be doing.
If you read through 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 or 2 Chronicles, every time a king goes to war he is on a horse.
So, if Jesus is a King and he is coming the way the people are expecting him to come, what should he be riding?
That’s right a Horse.
What is Jesus riding?
A Donkey.
And check out the prophecy associated with it. We get it quoted here in John, but let’s look at the context a bit and read a little more
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.
God communicates through Zechariah that when the Messiah comes to proclaim his King ship, it won’t be in war, but in peace.
Jesus is illustrating this hear.
So, Jesus is a King, the King of Kings. The one who will reign forever. There is so much more to explore and I’ll give this to you to think about. Before Saul became King of Israel the people called for a king and Samuel got mad, but God replied to him, “They have not rejected you, but me as King.”
So, if God is the true King and Jesus is the promised King, that means Jesus is the one true God.
And what does it mean if Jesus is our King?
But we have two more characteristics to look at.
Someone open up to Luke 19:38-40 And someone else. Matthew 21:10-11
38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
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.”
Here is an example of different witnesses seeing and reporting different things.
Matthew a direct eyewitness, remembers the crowds proclaiming Jesus a prophet, but it’s Luke, a man who interviewed eyewitnesses, but was not one himself, reported that Jesus said the rocks would cry out if the people were silent.
Who can tell us what a prophet does?
A prophet is one who speaks for God. Sometimes that is in telling future event’s, sometimes it’s just declaring something about God.
For example, “Hear O Israel, The LORD our God the LORD is One.” When first spoken was a prophetic statement. It still is, but me saying it doesn’t make me a prophet, but I am quoting one. That phrase may have given people information about God they didn’t know, but it didn’t give them future knowledge.
But look what Jesus did in Luke 19.
He said something to the Pharisees. What was it?
If the people are silent the rocks would cry out. Now, I know of some pretty cool shells that sound like the ocean if you put them up to you ear, but for all the times I’, stuck my ear in a rock, never have I ever heard on scream.
Now Jesus is quoting from Habakkuk 2 here, but Jesus didn’t quiet the people nor did the rocks cry out.
But …
Check out
35 And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!”
Now this is at the crucifixion and we see people watching. It doesn’t say the people are silent, but we can infer that since they are watching, that they are more than likely not speaking. We do know, however, they were not shouting praise like they were at the triumphal entry.
Now check out Matthew 27:50-51
50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
I’ve slept through a few earth quakes, so I’m not a good eyewitness to one, but I’ve talked to people that during some earthquakes, to put it one way, “the rocks cry out” as they split.
I think Jesus was making a prophetic statement that in a very short period of time, the people would stop praising him and when that happened the very rocks would cry out, or there would be an earthquake, which there was.
Jesus is our King, and only God is our King. If that’s not enough, Jesus is a prophet, one who speaks the Word of God.
And what is another name for Jesus from John 1? Anyone
Jesus is the Word, or the Word made flesh.
So, if Jesus is our King, our God, and a Prophet, that tells us we can what.
Put our Trust in Jesus
Put our Trust in Jesus
Our final passage comes from Mark’s gospel. This is either directly after the Triumphal entry or very shortly thereafter.
15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”
This passage illustrates Jesus as a Priest.
We know this from other places in scripture like Hebrews 6:20
20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
Melchizedek was a very cool dude during the time of Abraham and what one who spoke the word of God, was a King and a priest. No where else in scripture do you see one who is all three. And if they try to pull that off, like Saul and a few other Kings, they get in deep trouble.
If you were to list off a few important jobs of a priest in the temple, what might they be?
Give the word of God to the people
Serve the people,
Serve the Temple, keep it neat and tidy. Make sure it’s getting used for what it is meant for.
Now, the area of the temple Jesus cleans out is not the place where the Jews commonly worshiped. It was actually where non-Jews, or Gentiles, like me, who Loved and wanted to worship God came. The court of the Gentiles. Where a market had been set up.
Now, if a guy came in here right now and tried to sell hot dogs and diet Coke, I’d kick his rear out, because this isn’t a football stadium.
The temple of God was a place to come and worship. What should the priest have been doing?
Yes, but they didn’t. So, Jesus, the Priest of Priests, the MOST HIGH Priest, came in and drove them out.
And check out what Jesus did.
He drove them out, because it’s a place of worship not a market. And he declares something about the temple.
“It is written” what’s the first sentence?
My House...
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
Jesus just claimed the temple as his house. Whose house is it?
God’s house. So who did Jesus just tell the people he was?
That’s right, God.
Second Sentence.
You have made it into a den of robbers
11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. 12 Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim.
What does it mean if Jesus is our Priest?
Jesus, as the King and Prophet and priest, will not put up with sin in his house. Jeremiah’s context showed a little more of what Jesus was doing.
Palm Sunday is when we celebrate the start of Jesus’ final week of ministry. It is intense and the next several days have a lot. As we go through this Holy week, I’m going to recommend some reading. Check out the Holy week in the Bible. Matthew Mark and Luke’s accounts are shorter, but Johns is longer.
Matthew 21-26:13 is one
Mark 11-14:9 is a bit shorter
Luke 19:45-22:2 Is some good stuff and
John 12:12-17 which contains many things that are not in the other 3 gospels.
I encourage you to check them out this week and when we gather at the Standing Stone site on good Friday, I hope you come to worship, your King, prophet and priest, because that is our Jesus.
Let’s pray
