Make Up Your Mind About Jesus

Make up Your Mind about Jesus Matthew 21:1-11 preached @ Hawkwood Baptist Church by Shafer Parker, Jr. March 25, 2018 Matthew 21:1 When they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage (house of unripened figs) at the Mount of Olives, Jesus then sent two disciples, 2 telling them, AGo into the village ahead of you. At once you will find a donkey tied there, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to Me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you should say that the Lord needs them, and immediately he will send them.@ 4 This took place so that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled: 5 Tell Daughter Zion, ALook, your King is coming to you, gentle, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.@ 6 The disciples went and did just as Jesus directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt; then they laid their robes on them, and He sat on them. 8 A very large crowd spread their robes on the road; others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road. 9 Then the crowds who went ahead of Him and those who followed kept shouting: Hosanna to the Son of David! He who comes in the name of the Lord is the blessed One! Hosanna in the highest heaven! 10 When He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken, saying, AWho is this?@ 11 And the crowds kept saying, AThis is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee!@ Titles matter (Elizabeth=s title slide) 1. The Lord (v.3) Notice that Jesus tells his disciples that if anyone asks why they are taking the two donkeys, they are to say, AThe Lord needs them.@ Have you ever read this story and asked yourself, AHow does Jesus get away with just taking a man=s livestock? Here is one possible back story. We know that Bethany and Bethphage were communities Jesus knew well, but it was also an area where the people knew Jesus well, and where Jesus= disciples were known. When the two disciples got to Bethphage and saw the donkey and her colt I suspect they immediately recognized the house. They probably knew the people living in it. When the people in the house came out to see what was going on they immediately recognized the disciples, and when the disciples said, AThe Lord needs them,@ everyone knew they were talking about Jesus. I think this explanation goes a long way to clear up the mystery of how the owner of the two beasts gave them up so easily. But what we often miss is how subtly Matthew introduces the fact that the people who knew Jesus called Him ALord.@ Jesus told the disciples to use that name because He knew the owner of the two donkeys would recognize it was Jesus who wanted them. Some scholars argue that ALord@ means Amaster,@ as opposed to a member of royalty. But I say, ASo what if Master means Lord.@ This only illuminates the fact that the more people were around Jesus, the more they just naturally used a title that recognized He was in charge. In fact, and this is where it gets personal, ALord@ seems to be the characteristic title for those who truly meet, and truly come to know Jesus. On the Damascus Road Paul first asked, AWho are you Lord?@ (Acts 9:5), and later he identified the dividing line of the gospel as being the moment when a person calls upon Jesus as ALord!@ (Rom. 10:9) Rabbit Trail Did you ever wonder if the people in Bethphage ever got their animals back? That was the beauty of having a beast of burden, as opposed to a pickup truck. When you got your load to its destination, you simply turned the momma donkey around, let go of the lead rope, gave her a pat on the bum and she would walk home on her own accord. 2. Zion=s King (v.5) Zion was one of the hills on which Jerusalem was built and as such Zion was often used to reference the entire city. Daughter, was a word people would use when they wanted to refer to something that was beautiful and precious. So to call Jesus AZion=s King was a direct reference to Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. It is also a direct quote from an Old Testament Messianic prophecy found in Zechariah 9:9. Throughout ancient history kings rode donkeys when they were out and about on peaceful business. Horses were for war! That Jesus came to Jerusalem on a donkey (actually a young colt never before ridden) was the clearest way to signal He had nothing but peaceful intentions toward Jerusalem. Jerusalem, on the other hand, was armed for war against Him. From the day Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead the chief priests and the Sanhedrin were determined to kill Him. You can read about this in John 11:45ff. The word had gone out through the entire city that if anyone saw Jesus they were to report it immediately so He could be arrested. 3. Saviour (v.9) You may be asking, AWhere in this text is there any reference to a coming Saviour? It=s found in the word AHosanna,@ Yasha Na in Hebrew, meaning, ASave us now!@ It comes right out of Psalm 118:25. Literally the prayer was, ASave us now, O Thou that dwellest in the highest heaven, or among the highest angels.@ ASave now, O thou supremely great and glorious God; save by the Messiah that comes in thy name.@ But what would the crowd have said if asked, ASave you from what?@ 4. Son of David (v.9) (by that time a purely Messianic title) 5. the Blessed One (v.9) (another Messianic title) 6. The Messiah (v.9) (implied in every line throughout this verse) 7. the prophet Jesus (v.10) You have to make up your mind about Jesus We=ve just seen how this short episode in Jesus= life presents us with seven titles attributed to Jesus (the Lord, Zion=s King, Saviour, Son of David, the Blessed One, the Messiah, and the Prophet Jesus). Some of these names were introduced by Matthew, the writer of this gospel. One (the Lord) was introduced by Jesus Himself, and the others were found, either in the verse from Psalm 118 that the crowd was singing, or else given out by the crowd from Bethany when the crowd from Jerusalem wanted to know what all the excitement was about (AThis is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee@). Messianic references abound here, and on that day no one could have missed what was going on. At the beginning of Passover week, the Jews= most glorious celebration, Jesus was claiming His full title of Messiah. It would be an understatement to say that reactions to that claim were varied. Four levels of understanding 1. Jesus knew exactly Who He was and what He was doing. He knew He was the perfect fulfilment of everything the Old Testament would ever say about the Messiah. Conquering King? Yes! But only after He fulfilled His role as Asuffering servant.@ He was entering Jerusalem that day for the express purpose of dying for the sin of the world, a fact He had already told to His disciples several times. 2. The disciples understood and believed that Jesus was the Messiah (Matt. 16:16), but they still struggled to understand that He would first have to suffer and rise again. In fact, John says that only after our Lord=s resurrection when he and Peter entered the empty tomb did they finally understand Jesus= death was part of a Divine plan (John 20:9). 3. The crowds were charitably disposed toward Jesus. Why wouldn=t they be? He had fed them, healed them, taught them, and loved themCand that kind of treatment was something new. Ordinarily rabbis didn=t bother with Athe people,@ and so Jesus was pretty special. But the crowd had no real understanding of Jesus, nor any real commitment toward Him. On this day they were glad to sing Psalms about Him. But a week later they were just as ready to shout, ACrucify Him.@ 4. Finally, there were the Achief priests and scribes,@ the Sanhedrin court, that was determined to kill Jesus. The gospels make it clear they wilfully blinded themselves to the Messianic signs Jesus so obviously fulfilled. They saw Him. They knew what He signified. Yet they hated Him anyway and were determined to eliminate Him because He constituted a threat to their privileges and positions. These four levels of understanding still exist 1. Jesus still knows Who He is and what He is doing in the world as He reigns from Heaven. 2. As believers we are blessed to have a better understanding than the disciples did, but we still don=t fully embrace all that Jesus is doing in the world. Like the disciples during that first holy week, we are committed to the idea that Jesus is God and Christ. But also like those early disciples, when the going gets tough we are often still weak and afraid when we should be bold and daring. Too often we don=t really believe in His ultimate victory. Too few of us really believe that if we suffer for Him now we will reign with Him forever! (II Tim. 2:12) 3. Then there is the crowd. To this day a lot of people still have some sort of appreciation for Jesus, but no real commitment to Him. People will still watch a good movie about Jesus. They=ll still sing Christmas carols and shed a sentimental tear or two on Good Friday. But the moment they sense that the tide of public opinion is turning against Him, they=ll just roll with the tide. The crowd never stands up for Jesus, unless godly men and women risk everything to stand. 4. And then, of course, those who fancy themselves as world opinion shapers, the so-called intelligentsia, the globalists, most of the media, governments, etc.: they hate Jesus as much as they ever did. They sense, even if they can=t put it into words, that a person who calls Jesus ALord,@ will never really bow to anyone else, and in their minds, people like that cannot be allowed to exist. The fifth level The fifth level of understanding about Jesus is not found in this story. It is only seen after the resurrection, after the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. I mean such a level of understanding that there is no longer any doubt as Who is in charge of this world, or where your allegiance and obedience should lie! Fifth-level people will confess that Jesus is Lord in any forum, without regard for the cost! Peter to the Jews of JerusalemCActs 2:36 ATherefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah! Peter and John before the Sanhedrin CourtCActs 4:12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people and we must be saved by it. Peter and the apostles on trial againCActs 5:29 But Peter and the apostles replied, AWe must obey God rather than men.@ Paul to the philosophers in AthensCActs 17:30 ATherefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because He has set a day when He is going to judge the world in righteousness by the Man He has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.@ I John 2:20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge. 21 I have not written to you because you don=t know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son can have the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well. The end of the matter AWhat if the men of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment got it wrong? What if God is not merely a fact of religion, but a fact? What if sense-knowledge is not the only path to truth? And what if individuals, as a consequence, have an obligation to obey not only material truths, but also transcendent truths?@ Edmund J. Mazza What if Jesus is not merely a fact of Christianity, but a fact?