The Triumpful Entry

Purpose: To be true in worship pf the King of Kings and Lord of Lord. To know He is and give Him the honor that is due him.

I. A King of Glory ( v.1)

a. Wise king

This is a sign of the wisdom of the king that he would never leave you alone. At first glance it may not seem like a lot but isn’t refreshing to know that God always has your back even when we don’t leave according to his plan. The fact that Jesus knew is fate he was always concerned about his disciples and wanted then to know that they would never be alone. How much comfort do you find that even in your darkest hour you will still have Jesus? You cannot travel too far that he cannot hold you it cannot get so cold that he cannot warm you or to lonely that he cannot comfort you.

1Let brotherly love continue. 2Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. 4Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. 5Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6So we can confidently say,

“The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”                                    Hebrew 13:1-5

13And behold, the LORD stood above itc and said, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

The king is all wise and knows that man left to himself is a man full of trouble. We that are in Christ Jesus are never alone for he left the comforter, the Holy Spirit that we believers will never be alone, we will always have a comforter that sooths us in that hour of need and despair. This act of sending the disciples out in pairs speaks volume of the love he has towards us even as he faces the old rugged cross.

a. Omniscience King

The fact that Jesus is know all. Some sceptics say that Jesus must have made arrangement in advance in order to receive the tied up donkey and the never ridden coat. My God is Sovereign and He does not slumber nor sleep and there is nothing that can creep upon Him. The thing that brings much joy to our hearts is that not only did He tell them what to do but He also told them that if anyone says anything tell them “the Lord has need of them”Our King not only know the Question but he know the answer.

II. King of Prophecy (v.2,5,9)

Now this took place that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled, Matthew explains. Jesus’ entire life and ministry were marked by two overriding purposes, #1. to do His heavenly Father’s will (Matt. 26:39, 42; John 4:34; 5:30) and

John 4:34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work

John 5:30“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

#2. to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah’s first coming (Matt. 5:17; Luke 13:33; 24:25–27; Acts 3:21).

Matt 5:17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Acts 3:19-21 19Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

The daughter of Zion refers to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, which was sometimes referred to as Zion, because Mount Zion is the city’s highest and most prominent hill. The prophecy quoted in verse 5is from the prophet Zechariah, who 500 years earlier had predicted that the people of Jerusalem would hail the Messiah as their King as He was coming into the city and that He would be gentle, or humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden (see Zech. 9:9).

5“Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt,a the foal of a beast of burden.’”

It seems absurd and totally inappropriate that any king, much less the King of kings, should make His triumphal entry mounted on a donkey rather than a beautiful white stallion or in a regal chariot. But that is what God’s prophet predicted and that is what God’s Son did, because that was the divine plan. He was not at that time intended to come in earthly glory or to reign in earthly power. He did not come in wealth but in poverty; He did not come in splendor but in meekness; and He did not come to slay Israel’s enemies but to save all mankind. The incarnation was the time of His humiliation, not the time of His glorification.

Because He was a King like no other king, His coronation was like no other coronation. By the standards and purposes of the earth’s kings, Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem was anything but triumphant; but by the standards and purposes of God, it was exactly as it was meant to be. Jesus’ entry on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden was not a put down by His rejecters. It was the sovereign choice of God the Father and of God the Son, who Himself willingly came to earth as the Suffering Servant Savior, to take upon Himself the sin of the world. Nothing could have been more appropriate than that the Bearer of the world’s sin burden would enter God’s holy city of Zion riding on a lowly beast of burden.

Although Matthew was speaking specifically of Zechariah’s prophecy concerning Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, it is significant that the triumphal entry also fulfilled another prophecy. Through Daniel, the Lord predicted that the time from Artaxerxes’s decree ordering the rebuilding of the Temple until the coming of the Messiah would be “seven weeks and sixty-two weeks” (Dan. 9:25; cf. Neh. 2:6), that is, 69 weeks total. The literal translation is “seven sevens and sixty-two sevens,” seven being a common designation for a week. In the context of the passage, the idea is 69 weeks of years, or 69 times 7 years, which comes to 483. Two different systems of reckoning have endeavored to determine the chronology of the 483 years after Artaxerxes’s decree.

None of the disciples, including the two sent for the donkey, understood the Lord’s purpose in this or in the other great events of the coming week. “These things His disciples did not understand at the first,” John said; “but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him” (John 12:16). But the two obediently went and did just as Jesus had directed them, and brought the donkey and the colt. Because they had no blankets to pad the animals’ backs and were not sure which one He would ride, they laid on both of them their garments, on which He sat. Jesus chose the colt, the smallest and lowliest of the two, and mounted it with the help of the disciples (Luke 19:35).

Our Kingfulfills prophecies that you may not know that He is the Messiah and there is no need to look for another for th Lord is at hand. The Jewish people were expecting a warrior, someone that would make them the head and not the tail. Sometimes the package doesn’t meet our standards or expectations on what something should be, but I,m Glad that God gives me what I need when and not what I want. Let the Church say than you Jesus! What the King has to offer is sweeter than a Honeycomb.

III. A King worthy of Praise

Their cry was not a cry asking for help or consideration but it was a cry for salvation. This word Hosanna ( Save now) we must stop at this word and smell the coffee. HOSANNA the word originally was a pray requesting God’s Help, but it had become a cry of joy or a shout of welcome by this time in Jewish history.

The word HOSANNA was also associated with Jewish hope for deliverance by a political hero. When shouted to Jesus by pilgrims and children, it indicates they saw in him the fulfillment of their Messianic expectation. Jesus came as a spiritual deliverer on a lowly donkey not as a conquering military hero on a Prancing Stallion.

Still today we cry HOSANNA Lord Save Us from this miserable life,Lord save me from this situation , lord save me from this guilt and shame.

As Jesus began to ride into the city on Monday, most of the multitude spread their garments in the road. It was an ancient custom (see 2 Kings 9:13) for citizens to throw their garments in the road for their monarch to ride over, symbolizing their respect for him and their submission to his authority. It was as if to say, “We place ourselves at your feet, even to walk over if necessary.”

2 Kings9: 13Then in haste every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the barea steps, and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, “Jehu is king.”

While those people were putting their clothes in Jesus’ path, others were cutting branches from the trees, and spreading them in the road. From John 12:13 we learn that the branches were from palm trees, symbolic of salvation and joyand picturing the magnificent tribute that the “great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues” one day will present “before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches … in their hands” (Rev. 7:9).There was great excitement and frenzy as the multitude proclaimed praise to the Messiah, to the Rabbi from Galilee who taught with such authority and who had healed their diseases and even raised the dead.

The Lord was now completely surrounded by a mass of humanity, perhaps several hundred thousand people, some of whom were going before Him and some who followed after Him. Fickle as they would prove to be, the people now disregarded the warning of “the chief priests and Pharisees [who] had given orders that if anyone knew where [Jesus] was, he should report it, that they might seize Him” (John 11:57).

John 11: 57Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.

 The expectations that the Messiah would bring deliverance were so great that the crowd became totally caught up in what, from a human perspective, was a frenzy of mob hysteria. Yet completely in accord with God’s plan, they unwittingly fulfilled prophecy, just as Caiaphas unwittingly fulfilled prophecy when, a few days earlier, he had arrogantly declared to fellow members of the Sanhedrin: “You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish.” As John went on to explain, Caiaphas did not say that “on his own initiative; but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation” (John 11:49–51).

Seemingly with one voice, the whole multitude was crying out, saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest!” The Hebrew word hosanna is an exclamatory pleas meaning “save now.” But the crowd on that day was not interested in Jesus’ saving their souls but only in His saving their nation. Like the Twelve, they had long wondered why, if Jesus were truly the Messiah, He had not used His supernatural powers against the Romans. Now at last, they thought, He will manifest Himself as Conqueror. They were about to celebrate Passover, which commemorated the Lord’s miraculous deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage. What better occasion could there be for the Lord’s Anointed, the Messiah, to make the ultimate and final deliverance of His people from tyranny?

The people wanted a conquering, reigning Messiah who would come in great military power to throw off the brutal yoke of Rome and establish a kingdom of justice and righteousness where God’s chosen people would have special favor. But Jesus did not come to conquer Rome but to conquer sin and death. He did not come to make war with Rome but to make peace with God for men.

Although the shouts of the multitude were entirely appropriate and were, in fact, fulfillment of prophecy, the people had no idea of the true significance of what they were doing, much less of what Jesus would soon do on the cross in their behalf. They neither understood the Lord nor themselves. He intentionally did not enter Jerusalem with a powerful retinue of soldiers who would fight for Him to the death. He entered instead with a ragtag multitude of ordinary people, most of whom despite their loud proclamation of His greatness, would soon turn against Him, and none of whom would stand by Him

The multitude acknowledged Jesus as the Son of David, which was the most common messianic title. They were crying out for Messiah’s deliverance, pleading, in effect, “Save us now, great Messiah! Save us now!” They were quoting from a popular praise psalm from the Hallel (Psalms 113–118), in particular Psalm 118, which was also a psalm of deliverance, sometimes called the conqueror’s psalm. Almost two centuries earlier, the Jews had hailed Simon Maccabeus with the same psalm after he delivered the Acra from Syrian domination.

The multitudes knew who Jesus was, but they did not understand or truly believe what they knew. They were right in their belief that He was the Messiah, the Son of David, and that He had come in the name of the Lord. But they were wrong in their belief about the sort of Deliverer He was. They knew He was a king, but they did not understand the nature of His kingship or His kingdom. They did not realize any more than Pilate that the kingdom He came then to bring was not of this world (John 18:36). That is why, when it dawned on them a few days later that Jesus had not come to deliver them from the Romans, they turned against Him. When they clamored before Pilate for the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus (John 18:40), they shouted, in effect, the words Jesus had predicted in the parable of the nobleman: “We do not want this man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14).

The people wanted Jesus on their own terms, and they would not bow to a King who was not of their liking, even though He were the Son of God. They wanted Jesus to destroy Rome but not their cherished sins or their hypocritical, superficial religion. But He would not deliver them on their terms, and they would not be delivered on His. He was not a Messiah who came to offer a panacea of external peace in the world but to offer the infinitely greater blessing of internal peace with God.

Many people today are open to a Jesus who they think will give them wealth, health, success, happiness, and the other worldly things they want. Like the multitude at the triumphal entry, they will loudly acclaim Jesus as long as they believe He will satisfy their selfish desires. But like the same multitude a few days later, they will reject and denounce Him when He does not deliver as expected. When His Word confronts them with their sin and their need of a Savior, they curse Him and turn away.

The Romans were godless and cruel oppressors, and the Lord would not allow them to survive indefinitely. But they were not His people’s greatest enemy. Their greatest enemy was sin, and from that they refused to be delivered. God would allow the holy Temple of His chosen people to be destroyed long before He allowed their pagan oppressors to be destroyed. He would, in fact, allow those very pagans to destroy the holy Temple.

On the day after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem Jesus “entered the temple and cast out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And He said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer;” but you are making it a robbers’ den’ ” (Matt. 21:12–13). That cleansing of the Temple was purely symbolic and had little lasting effect. The mercenary moneychangers and sacrifice sellers were doubtlessly back in business the next day. But less than forty years later, in a.d.70, the Romans would utterly destroy the Temple, after which, just as Jesus foretold, not one stone of it was left upon another that was not torn down (Matt. 24:2). Not until modern times, nearly two thousand years later, could even its ruins be identified.

As far as the true intent of the people was concerned, Jesus’ coronation was a hollow, empty pretense. The words of the multitude were right, but their hearts were not. In any case, He had not come at that time to be crowned but to be crucified.

He will be crowned one day in a way that is perfectly befitting. The times of rejection will be over, and at His name “every knee [will] bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and … every tongue [will] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10–11). The first time He came, He came to provide men’s salvation. But when He comes again, He will come to display His sovereignty. His great and ultimate coronation is described by John:

And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And Thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.” And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped. (Rev. 5:8–14)

Triumphant Entry: A King on a Donkey

Bible Passage: Matthew 21:1–11

Summary: This passage describes Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, where crowds celebrate His arrival as the long-awaited Messiah. His humble entry on a donkey fulfills prophetic scripture and establishes His identity as a servant King.

Application: This sermon can encourage Christians to recognize Jesus’ authority in their lives, serve humbly, and embrace the peace that comes from His kingship. It reminds the audience that true greatness lies in humility and service.

Teaching: The teaching will focus on the nature of Christ's kingship, highlighting contrasts between human expectations of power and the Kingdom of God, which calls for humility and servanthood.

How this passage could point to Christ: This passage shows Christ as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, demonstrating that He is the promised King who comes gently, offering peace rather than conquest. It illustrates the nature of His mission—to bring salvation through humility and service.

Big Idea: Jesus, the humble King, calls us to align our lives with His values of humility and peace as we await His final triumph.

Recommended Study: As you prepare this sermon using your Logos library, consider exploring the historical context of Jerusalem during the first century, as well as the prophetic implications of Zechariah 9:9, which Matthew cites. Investigate potential text-critical issues regarding the donkey's symbolism in ancient texts and the crowd's reaction, which may illuminate deeper applications for contemporary believers.

1. Prophecy Fulfilled: Humble Arrival

Matthew 21:1-5

Perhaps you could explore how Jesus' choice to enter Jerusalem on a donkey fulfills Old Testament prophecy, specifically from Zechariah 9:9. This act reveals His identity as the promised King but as one who comes gently and humbly. Jesus demonstrates that His kingdom is one of peace, not conquest. Encourage your audience to embrace this humility and peace in their own lives, realizing that the true power of Christ's kingship is found in servanthood and love.

2. Participation in Preparation

Matthew 21:6-8

You could highlight the preparations the disciples make for Jesus' entry, demonstrating obedience and service. The spreading of cloaks and branches illustrates honor and submission. This is an opportunity to teach how acknowledging Jesus' kingship calls for active steps of preparation and humility. Encourage listeners to prepare their hearts and lives for Jesus' sovereign rule, seeking to honor Him in everyday actions and attitudes.

3. Praise for the King

Matthew 21:9-11

Maybe you could emphasize the crowd's response to Jesus, shouting praises and acknowledging Him as the Son of David. This reaction underscores the hope and expectation placed in Jesus' arrival. Invite your congregation to reflect on their own responses to Jesus' kingship—are they welcoming Him with full recognition and praise, or are there areas where they are holding back? This is a call to embrace Jesus fully, recognizing Him as the humble King who brings peace and salvation.