Jesus' Entry = Radical Change
Notes
Transcript
Have you ever taken a moment to sit and marvel at how wonderful God is? I was thinking that this last Wednesday morning as I laid in bed for a bit. I had the first night of relatively good sleep in quite some time. I woke up feeling rested and good.
As I lay there, preparing myself to leave the comforts of my bed, I stopped as I heard the birds outside by the feeder that we have up. I listened to the various species of birds calling out to the others to let them know that food was available.
I didn’t get up right away, and I didn’t move. I just listened. I heard the wind pick up, branches of the trees outside were hitting one another, and still, the birds sang. All I could think about was how wonderful God the Father, Creator of all things is. He made everything perfect, and with such beauty.
When I did get up and began reading Scripture, the thought of God’s amazing character raced into my mind again. This is what I read...
Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
I read this Scripture and then moved on to our Gospel reading for this morning, Mark 11:1-11
Let’s read that again,
When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’ ” They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,
“Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
What struck me as I read this was how amazing it was that God foretold this very event. Around 520-518 BC, God spoke to the prophet Zechariah and said through him...
Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
And then, around 33 AD, what God spoke through Zechariah came true. Just about 500 years later and God’s Word still spoke the truth. That, like God’s wonderful creation, amazed me this week. God was so intricate and precise. It’s something that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully understand.
As we just read, God claimed that Zion’s King would come humbly on the back of a donkey, and that’s exactly what Jesus, the King, did. As Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of the donkey he was making an open and public declaration that He was indeed the King of Zion.
Jesus was the man the Jews had been waiting for. However, he wasn’t the man that they really wanted. They wanted a triumphant, mighty warrior of a king. He wanted the Messiah to be a war hero, one who would conquer the Romans and any enemy of Zion. They wanted a war chief to lead them to victory. But, instead, they got Jesus.
Humble and riding on a donkey.
Jesus, through this act, gained a lot of followers, and also a lot of skeptics and deniers. But, something happened immediately after Jesus’ humble entry into Jerusalem, he went to the heart.
The following day, after Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, it is said in Mark that Jesus did two things. The first thing he did was go to a fig tree for food. It was barren, so he cursed the fig tree. He said, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.”
This is a bit random and strange, but it is later resolved later on.
After saying this to the fig tree this happens...
Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. He was teaching and saying, “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.”
And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.
There is so much to be unpacked here, and really this is many sermons worth of material. But, something major that I noticed as I read through the Scriptures this week is the chain of events that happens.
Jesus enters into the city of Jerusalem in a humble manner. It wasn’t show-boaty, it wasn’t grand or magnificent. It wasn’t a parade with fireworks, and it wasn’t an event that called forward the leaders of every nation. It was humble, on the back of a donkey.
The very next day, Jesus dives deep into the very heart of the city, the Temple. We are told that “he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple...”
With almost no warning at all, Jesus begins his work on the very heart of the city. He chases out the people who were selling, he goes after the people there who were buying. He then goes to the money changers and the seats of the people who sold doves and he flips them and makes a mess. He destroys the wickedness that had infiltrated the heart of this city.
As you can imagine, this would have created quite the scene and drew in a pretty big crowd. Remember, this is happening around the time of Passover. Jerusalem would have been filled with people from all over.
Jesus then teaches the crowd and says,
He was teaching and saying, “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.”
He calls out the wickedness of the people, the evil that had corrupted the heart of this city. He calls out the people there, and that included the chief priests and scribes who let it happen.
Upon hearing this message from Jesus they began to plot his death. His power, knowledge, and authority scared them. He captivated his audience with the truth, and the scribes and chief priests feared this.
Now, keeping this all in mind I want you to think about last week’s message. We talked about how our heart is a central location for God’s law. It’s written there, and we often coat our hearts with the muck and grime of sin.
This week, I want us to think about Jesus’ initial entry into your heart.
Think back to the time where you became a Christian, or maybe to a time where Jesus made a HUGE impact on your life.
Think about anyone you know who became a Christian. Especially with adults, both older and younger, what happens when they become Christians?
They are on fire! They are ready to tackle the world with their newly gained zeal. They begin reading more Scripture, attending church more, joining different groups. It’s like they become a completely new person...
It’s almost as if Jesus entered into their heart and started flipping tables and chasing out the sin.
When Jesus made that initial entry into your heart, he did the same thing. He began working on it, changing it so that it would focus solely on him. Then, over time, we allowed sin to reenter, or maybe we refused to let some of it go.
When Jesus enters our lives, when He becomes a resident of our hearts, we should have a radical change of life. This isn’t a one-time thing, but an everyday thing.
When we wake up in the morning and realize that Christ’s presence is in our hearts, we should let the sins be driven out. That’s what I took away as I read over the Palm Sunday scriptures.
Jesus entered the city, he went to the heart, and he cleaned it out.
I want every day to be like that for me. I want to remember Jesus’ humble entry into my heart, allow him to drive out the wickedness and sin that lives there, and work to make sure none returns.
Brothers and sisters, as we prepare ourselves this week for Easter Sunday, let us prepare our hearts for the death that Jesus will face, but let us each wait eagerly for the resurrection that is sure to come.
Amen.