THE PRESENTATION OF THE KING

Confrontation demands response. Of course confrontation is not always negative, but we often associate it with the negative. When I am confronted by a person regarding something the believe I have done wrong, a response is expected of me. And of course the same is for you as well. Though the way in which we respond may vary from person to person or from situation to situation, there is still always some form of response. The response may be in the form of a denial. The response may be to affirm that you have indeed done something wrong. The response may be to stand in muted silence because you don’t know how to respond.

At others times we are confronted by a new teaching that is different than anything we have ever heard before. When this happens we MUST carefully look at both our present belief on the subject and this new teaching in the light of biblical revelation to determine which, if any, is what the Bible teaches. Again, this kind of confrontation demands a response. But the response may be, and probably should be slow in coming. In other words, as Paul wrote in

Ephesians 4:14 NASB95PARA

As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;

Though the response to doctrine probably should be slow in coming, still a response is demanded. We dare not respond by not responding. We dare not take an apathetic approach.

When people are confronted with the King of kings there will always be a response. Some will respond in an affirmation of faith. Others will respond in a way the betrays confusion. Still others will respond by totally rejecting Jesus for who He is and for what His mission detailed.

This morning we come to the place in our journey with Christ when He was presented to the nation of Israel as the true Son of David, the long-awaited Messiah. If you have not yet done so, please turn in your Bible to , as we consider what is commonly referred to as the Triumphal Entry of Christ. In this passage we will see various responses to who Jesus is. We will see some will respond by embracing who He is in true faith. Others will respond with confusion because He is not what they expected the Messiah to be. And others responded with utter rejection.

As we go through this passage this morning we will look at the preparations for the king, the entrance of the king, and the results of the kings entrance into Jerusalem.

First, let’s read our passage together.

The Preparations for the King

reference the preparations for Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.

The Timing

While there is some disagreement among scholars as to the actual timing of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, most believe that it occured on either Sunday or Monday of the week leading up to Passover. provides this helpful information:

John 12:1 NASB95PARA

Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

It was at this time that Mary, the sister of the now famous Lazarus, anointed Jesus’ feet with perfume and then wiped them with her hair. It appears that with Bethany being relatively close to Jerusalem, Jesus and the twelve lodged there, perhaps in the home of this dear family. Then John indicates that it was the next day in which Jesus presented Himself to the nation.

The Example of Deity

gives us an example of Christ’s deity through His divine knowledge of what the two messenger would encounter. The fact that Jesus knew where the apostles could find this particular donkey and her colt, and that He would also know just what needed to be said to convince the owners to let them take these animals is an example of omniscience. Some scholars believe that Jesus had made a prearrangement with the owners for the use of their animals, which included a password. But there is nothing in the text to indicate that this occured.

Fulfillment of Prophecy

As we have seen throughout our study of the Gospel of Matthew, the author has an emphasis on how Jesus fulfilled OT prophecies concerning Messiah. In verse 4 we see the typical fulfillment formula: “This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:” Then Matthew goes on to quote what appears to be a combination of two distinct prophecies in verse 5:

Isaiah 62:11 NASB95PARA

Behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth, Say to the daughter of Zion, “Lo, your salvation comes; Behold His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.”

Zechariah 9:9 NASB95PARA

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Daughter of Zion was a common way of referring to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Perhaps the most startling thing about this prophecy from Zechariah is that it implies that Messiah would come in humility. Conquering kings were often pictured in antiquity as riding in on a white horse, which is the picture that we see of Christ in . But the prophet clearly indicated that Messiah would come in humility, and that is just what occured on so many levels. He had a humble birth, in a stable. He had a humble upbringing as the Son of a Carpenter. He had a humble adulthood moving around from place to place with nowhere to lay His head. He had a humble death on the cross of suffering. Not to mention the humility of God becoming man.

The disciple

Let’s look now at as we consider

The Entrance of the King

The Disciples’ Obedience

Look with me at verse 6-7a. With everything that is going on in this passage we might easily overlook the way that the disciples obeyed the directive of Christ. We might think that they would have questioned Him about His instructions. But they simply obeyed. And of course, everything went just as Jesus had predicted that it would. His word was fulfilled. In their obedience we see an affirmation of faith in who Jesus is. And of course the twelve knew better than anyone else who Jesus is. They had affirmed as much the mouth of Peter when he stated: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

Much has been made of the reference to two donkeys in this passage, when Mark and Luke only refer to one. But Mark does tell us that the colt which Jesus rode on had never been ridden on before. And it was a practice to have the mother walk alongside her colt as it carried its first passengers. And especially with the crowd and the rising sense of expectation, it would have been natural to bring mommy donkey along.

Just as these men obeyed the Lord’s directive without questioning Him, so we too ought to have an attitude of humble obedience when the Scriptures command us to do something — even if it is out of our comfort zone.

Let’s look at verse 8 as we consider

The Crowd’s Reception

I think the Christian Standard Bible gives a better translation of the first phrase of

Matthew 21:8 CSB

A very large crowd spread their clothes on the road; others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road.

It was not that most of the people in a questionably sized crowd spread their cloaks on the ground, but that a massive crowd did so. Here again we sense that momentum is building. The crowd is excited. They are elated to witness the coming of Messiah, who they anticipate will be crowned king. All this contrasts with the indignation of the chief priests and scribes in verses 15-16.

Quite some time ago, when we were looking at the Parable of the Sower and the Seed in , we learned that often people have an initial response to the gospel, or to the confrontation about who Jesus is, but then for various reasons they fade away. It may be due to Satan’s influence in this present world system. It may be due to the pressures of living life in this present world. Or it may be due to the hardships involved in following Christ.

There were many in this massive crowd who had some sort of a positive response to who Jesus was and is, and yet like the various seed that was sown by the sower, they did not respond in such a way as to produce fruit. In other words, they did not truly embrace the gospel of Christ.

Let’s look at verse 9 as we consider

The People’s Cry for Salvation

Jesus and the twelve were surrounded, front and back, by a humongous crowd of people who were crying out for salvation. Some think that the Galilean contingent who had traveled with them for days were perhaps leading the way, while the locals who were getting caught up in the excitement were bringing up the rear. But the point I am trying to get at is based on the term “Hosanna” which literally means to save now.

This chant which the crowd was repeatedly saying probably comes from , which was most likely one of the Psalms which would be sung as pilgrims from Galilee made their way to Jerusalem for Passover.

Psalm 118:25–26 NASB95PARA

O Lord, do save, we beseech You; O Lord, we beseech You, do send prosperity! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord; We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.

But from what did this massive crowd want to be saved? While certainly there were some present who did have a true understanding of who Jesus really was, namely the twelve as well as an entourage of people who had traveled with them for a long time, most of the crowd did not understand that Jesus had come to call the sinner to repentance. That the salvation He was offering was a salvation from sin and its penalty. Most of the crowd, at least in my estimation, was confused about who Jesus was as well as confused about Messiah. What they wanted was salvation from Rome! They would have been thrilled if Jesus had received a crown and a throne, and then taken up a white horse and go out conquering and to conquer!

Let’s now consider

The Results

As we consider the results we will look at Jerusalem’s reaction, Jesus’ indignation and compassion, and the leadership’s indignation.

Jerusalem’s Reaction

Our text tells us that When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred… The term stirred is perhaps too mild of a translation of the Greek term.

Matthew 21:10 CSB

When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in an uproar, saying, “Who is this?”

This was not a quiet parade. It was not simply a soul stirring moment, although I’m sure it was that. This was an uproar! This crowd was shaken by Jesus’ entrance. The same term is used elsewhere for earthquakes and apocalyptic upheavals.

The question at the end of verse 10: “Who is this?” Could indicate a few different things. It could indicate the people in Jerusalem as well as pilgrims from the dispersion who were in town for the holidays were not as well acquainted with Jesus as those from Galilee. It could be that the spiritual leadership of Israel was asking in essence “who does this guy think he is?”

More intriguing in the answer in verse 11. “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.” Which again could be take a couple of different ways. First it could indicate an ignorance of who Jesus really was. Or it could be a reference to Jesus being the prophet which Moses had promised would come in the book of Deuteronomy.

Regardless how this statement is taken, the sad truth seems to be that many if not most of this crowds who were ready to crown Jesus king on this day, were moved to cry out for His crucifixion just a few days later.

Jesus’ Indignation

Notice verses 12-13.

Jesus’ Compassion

Notice verse 14.

The Leadership’s Indignation

Notice verse 15-16.

Let’s take a few moments to consider how this all applies to us this day.

We have all been confronted with the gospel of Christ at various times in our lives. And we have all responded to the message of the gospel.

If you are an unbeliever you need to make a decisive response to the gospel message. Only through the person and work of Christ will you find salvation. We are all sinners. We all have an unbridgeable gulf standing between us and God. Only through the power of the cross can that bridge be cross. As the song said so well, the cross is the bridge to cross the great divide! I beg you to place your trust in Jesus Christ, in His substitutionary death in which He absorbed God’s wrath for your sins. In His resurrection from the dead through which He gained the victory over sin and death.

Believer, we need to understand that we too are often confronted with Jesus Christ. The gospel is not just for unbelievers. I often think of faith in Christ as being like an onion — not that it is stinky, but that there are layers of faith. If you have ever pealed an onion you will understand what I mean by layers. With each succeeding layer that is peeled you closer to the heart of the onion. And faith in Christ is like that. We delve deeper and deeper into our walk with Christ as we peel back the layers of faith.

Maybe the layer of faith has to do with trusting Christ to walk us through the valley of some sort of health issue which we have. Certainly with an aging population as we have in this congregation there is a lot of health issue, both spoken and unspoken, going on. Perhaps as parents and grandparents we struggle with our children and grandchildren not embracing our faith as they ought to. Can we trust Christ to walk us through that? Absolutely!

For the millennials, who are few and far between in our congregation, perhaps the issues involve our career. It may be in the form of a career path, or in the form of a difficult work place. Can we trust God and His word to see us through those storms? Absolutely!

John Piper once wrote a book called DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE. In this book he encourage younger folks to spend their lives making much of Jesus. That is excellent advise. Of course, we baby boomers and whatever other generation maybe present here today can take that same advise. We can commit ourselves from this day forward to spend the rest of our lives making much of Jesus.

I’m not one to do a lot of speculating on things in which the Bible is silent. But I am aware that there are those who have taught that if Jesus would have been received by the nation of Israel on the day of His presentation then He would have been crown king. I’ve always had difficulty with such teachings because it was always God’s predetermined plan that Messiah would die. It is, however, true that God held Israel accountable for not receiving Jesus as the Son of David. That is because people are always held accountable for their lack of faith.

Let’s dream for a few moments about what might have happened if Jesus had received His kingship on the day of His presentation.

Rome would have been conquered instantaneously

Israel would have experienced a lasting, yet temporal peace

It would be a time of great morality

There would not have been any salvation from sin

All of this is purely speculative because God had a predetermined plan, and nothing can frustrate His plan! It was always God’s plan for Messiah to die. Always! The prophets of old had testified to that fact.

There are many OT passages that are pertinent, but I think that the most pertinent one comes from . In this passage we find Daniel struggling in prayer after having read the prophecy of Jeremiah which had indicated that Judah would be in captivity for 70 years. God sent Gabriel as a messenger to Daniel and he gave him a message often referred to as the 70 Weeks of Daniel. In this message the 70 weeks are divided into a group of 7 weeks, followed by a group of 62 weeks, with 1 week to come a later time.

Many scholars understand that Daniel was speaking of weeks of years. In other words the seven weeks would have been 49 years, and the sixty-two weeks would have been 434 years. All of this totals 483 years. This is very significant because that is the exact time the elapsed between Artaxerxes's decree ordering the rebuilding of the Temple until this very day when Jesus had His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.

Note

Daniel 9:25–26 NASB95PARA

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. Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.

Messiah was presented to Israel, but He was cut off from the land of the living within six days of that presentation. We then see that last week, the 70th week as being the seven years of The Tribulation Period.

Only Luke’s Gospel account records this cry from Jesus on that fateful day:

Luke 19:41–44 NASB95PARA

When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

Of course it is not just the nation of Israel that rejected Christ. The fact of the matter is that most people reject Christ, even those who have heard the message of the Gospel time and time again. But for those who have embraced the message of the Gospel, those who have received Him, they have been adopted into the family of God. They have become joint heirs with Jesus. They have an irrevocable inheritance that awaits them as sons of God.

As we close this morning, I want to ask you about how you have responded to King Jesus? Have you responded in faith as did the twelve and many other faithful followers? Have you responded with a faulty idea of who Jesus is and was? Has this faulty idea left you in confusion and or frustration? Have you responded in utter rejection as did the spiritual leadership of Israel?

Let’s pray.

Closing Song: Lead Me to Calvary — No. 310