Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

At this point in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus has made His way down from Caesarea Philippi and gotten through Jericho.

Matthew only devoted 3 chapters to this journey, whereas Luke devoted 10.

Even in those 3 chapters, Matthew has a strong emphasis on the teachings of Jesus.

There is a pretty strong shift in the scene between chapter 20 and chapter 21.

Matthew is making it clear that the last leg of Jesus’ ministries is approaching, and this is delineated by His entry into Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is where the final scenes of His life on earth will take place.

This last part in the drama begins with His triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

At the end of , Jesus was on His way out of Jericho and was approached by two blind men begging to be healed.

He opened their eyes and immediately they could see again.

We then get to the major turning point...

Matthew tells us that when they (Jesus and the disciples) approached Jerusalem (not in it yet) and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples into town to go get a donkey and her foal.

Bethphage seems to have been either right at the summit of the Mount of Olives or to the east of the summit, between the Mount and Bethany.

Matthew says that it was at the Mount of Olives, so I am inclined to agree with the people who say that it was located where the current Church of Ascension is nowadays.

Well, Matthew points out that they are approaching Jerusalem, which sets the scene for the coming story.

The scenery would have been like the one we always see of Jerusalem, except Herod’s Temple would have been visible, instead of the temple mosque.

It is definitely a point of arrival for all travelers to Jerusalem.

At this point, you say, “We made it.”

Once they get here, Jesus commands two of His disciples to go into the village ahead of them where they will find a donkey tied there with her foal.

He commands them to untie them and bring them to Him, and if anyone asks anything, they should tell them that the Lord needs them, and He promises that he will send them at once.

Well, if there is still a village ahead of them, then maybe Bethphage wasn’t right on top of the Mount of Olives.

There must have been some small village in the Kidron Valley or on one of the slopes of the Mount of Olives.

It would be akin to one of the smaller cities surrounding Los Angeles, like Boyle Heights.

Obviously, the scale would be much smaller, but this is the general feel of it.

You remember how small Capernaum was.

These villages had maybe 80-100 people in them, tops.

Anyway, Jesus instructs two disciples to go into this small village where they will find a donkey tied there with her foal (baby donkey).

He commands them to untie them and bring them to Him and to say that the Lord needs them if anyone asks anything.

As James says, it would be akin to telling someone to go and take a car that is not yours and to tell the owner that the Lord has need of it when they ask you something.

Sure, they could be Christians too, as these people may have been believers too, but even a Christian wouldn’t just let a Christian they don’t know take their car.

Furthermore, if they were caught, and the owner wanted to press charges, they would be publicly flogged for their crimes.

It would take tremendous faith for them to obey this command.

Th

Furthermore, with these commands, Jesus is displaying a few things in regards to His power.

He is displaying His omniscience in knowing that there is a donkey tied with her foal in a neighboring village.

Who, aside from God, would know such a detail without modern technology?

Only God is omniscient.

More than that, Jesus was showing His sovereignty, for He promised the disciples that the owners of that donkey and foal would allow them to take them without hesitation if they told them that the Lord has need of them.

Jesus was in control of the whole situation, and He was making sure that prophecy would be fulfilled.

Furthermore, Jesus Himself was exercising prophetic powers, as He foretold how the story would play out.

How many times has God told us that something us going to happen a particular way and we have trouble believing?

Yet, it always ends up turning out exactly as He said.

Matthew tells us that this all took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet (Zechariah).

There is always a question that comes to my mind when prophecy is fulfilled: Were the people fulfilling the prophecy doing it purposely to fulfill prophecy, or was the prophecy simply descriptive/predictive of what would occur?

I have a feeling that it is primarily descriptive, as there were/are many people that fulfill prophecy, unbeknownst to them.

Furthermore, I think that there is a greater heart behind the things that Jesus did.

I don’t think His primary motive for fulfilling prophecy was for the sake of fulfilling prophecy, but to ride into Jerusalem like a gentle King.

Yet, this does not negate or belittle the importance of fulfilling prophecy, for it proves that God’s Word is true and that He is true as a result.

What exactly did Zechariah predict?

Well, the LORD told him to tell Daughter Zion (Israel) to behold that her King is coming to her, gentle and mounted on a donkey and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Zechariah prophesied during the time of the building of the Second Temple and afterwards.

His message was one of encouragement to the people by showing them that God was still jealous for them, and to encourage them to trust in Him.

Zechariah has many prophecies concerning the first and second coming of the Messiah.

In this chapter, , the first 8 verses are a prophecy of Alexander the Great’s conquest of the land of Israel and the nations to the north of it.

In contrast to the mighty warrior-king Alexander, the King of Daughter Zion would come lowly, mounted on a donkey.

This was what royalty rode in Israel’s past and it was also a symbol of peace.

While Alexander brought strength and conquest, Jesus came humbly in His first advent.

The main thing that Jesus wanted to portray in His entry into Jerusalem was His gentleness.

He did not want to be seen as the conqueror of men here, but their gentle redeemer and Savior.

And this had all been predicted more than 500 years earlier.

This Messiah is who Israel should have been placing their hope in.

Although it was a tall order that required much faith, the disciples believed Jesus, and they ended up doing exactly as Jesus directed them.

There is a lesson to be learned here about faith and obedience.

We have to have faith in God that He is sovereign to make everything turn out just as He has told us.

The way we show that faith is by being obedient to do (or not do) the things He has commanded us.

If we walk in His will, then we too will see everything come to fruition exactly as He has foretold.

So, they bring the donkey and its foal (in order to not separate them) and they lay their clothes on them, and Jesus sits on them.

I’m thinking that they were almost the same height by this point and that Jesus sat sideways on them, the foal functioning a bit like a footstool.

Even in this, we see that the end goal of faith and obedience is to glorify God.

As He starts making His way down from the top of the Mount of Olives, a very large crowd starts spreading their clothes on the road.

Others cut palm branches and spread them on the road.

This is akin to rolling out the red carpet for someone, which actually came from these ancient times where the people wanted to show their respect to people of honor by making the road smooth and pleasant for them.

It is also a sign of great respect that someone would take their hard earned, and probably only, clothes and lay it on something dirty to be stepped and trodden on, all for respect to the King. the disciples did the same thing when they laid their clothes on the donkeys.

The air is charged with excitement and everyone knows that this is their King riding into the city.

We know from that this large crowd is also made up largely of believers.

This means that it was actually Jesus followers who started this procession at the top of the Mount of Olives and it grew in size as people from the city of Jerusalem began doing the same thing as He approached.

Therefore, there were true believers in Jesus, there were those who believed that He was coming to free them from Roman oppression, and there were those who were just there for the spectacle.

Which one are you?

1. Did the crowd know that they were quoting the OT in or was the OT prophesying of what they would say?

This is taken from and is something that was sung to pilgrims coming to the temple from a journey and surely would not have been out of place to be sung at the Passover.

However, this was also joined with palm branches (symbols of victory and kingship) and the blessing of the people upon Jesus as the King of Israel.

They saw Him as their saving King who would deliver them from the oppression of the Romans.

He, however, came to deliver them from the oppression of sin, death, and the devil.

2. What was Jerusalem scared of in the OT quote in and why would their king coming and sitting on a donkey’s take away that fear?

This is taken from , and the original text actually does not have the words “Fear Not.”

These are actually taken from , according to MacArthur.

Zechariah actually tells them to rejoice greatly and shout in triumph at the coming of their king.

John is saying that they have no more reason to fear and showing that this was a moment that was prophesied by Zechariah.

It was also prophesied by Daniel, “So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress” ().

The command to rebuild Jerusalem was given by King Artaxerxes in 445 B.C. and 69x7 years is 483 Jewish years (360 days) which ends up being 9 Nisan A.D. 30.

They should have known the very day that the Anointed One, the Christ, the Messiah, came in Jerusalem.

He comes humble and meek, on a donkey, yet He is their king.

This is symbolic of the first coming of Jesus.

It was not to conquer through war, but through His humility, meekness, and death on a cross.

Furthermore, they were ascribing a Messianic title to Jesus by calling Him the Son of David.

Some of the strongest promises related to that title are found in .

Psalm 89:

They also ascribe blessing to Him from the Psalm and acknowledge that He comes in the name of the LORD.

He is coming in the name of YHVH.

Therefore, He is blessed.