The Ride Into Jerusalem

Matthew 21.1-11

God bless our readers from France, Germany, Russia, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, The Ukraine and South Africa today.

Today is Palm Sunday. We remember the event of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a colt as Passover was just days away. On that day He allowed the crowds for the first time to proclaim Him the Messiah. 

Before this day...

Matthew 16:20 Then He ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that He was the Messiah.  This was when He was transfigured. He rejected  premature attempts to get Him to announce His messiahship. (John 6 is an example)He told His disciples not to tell until after He had been raised from the dead.

After the ride in He cleansed the temple and healed many. The children shouted Hosanna to the Son of David.

It was a ripe time for the Messiah. It meant deliverance.

Deliverance from

*Excessive Taxes  by the Romans

*Turmoil within the nation and world

*A Religion which had been reduced to a form of godliness.

*A gloomy feeling about the future of the Nation

*A heaviness due to the other abuses the Roman government heaped on them 

Palm Sunday was when hope was reborn in the hearts of pilgrims on the way to the Passover Feast. They looked at Jesus as only the son of David, not as we do, as the Son of God as well.

Palm Sunday was...

1. A Day When Ancient Prophesies Were Fulfilled. v.4-5

Not many of those days. Specific days. Prophesy is fulfilled every day. The prophecy of scripture. Just read the Proverbs. But this was prophcy concerning a specific day. Still one to come.

All the prophesies pointed concerning the coming of the Messiah were in some way wrapped up in this Day. The Son of David, God's Son coming into the temple during the Passover Feast, being presented to Israel.

*Specifically it as Zechariah's prophesy being fulfilled, the Word of the LORD through Zechariah. The donkey was a royal animal, an animal of peace. It was ridden in by kings after a victory. In some ways this was a coronation celebration as well. Scripture was being fulfilled

*It was also prophesy in Psalms.

Psalm 24:7-10 Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 

Psalm 118

*Prophesy by Jesus Himself.   

Luke 13:34-35 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the LORD.’” 

The prophesies concerning His messiahship all aimed at this event of Palm Sunday. This where the beginning of His reign was publicly announced, where the New Covenant was set up. "It is finished," was in part a pronouncement of the fulfillment of the Old Covenant, an end of animal sacrifices and the beginning of the New Covenant.

2.  The Day When Jesus Allowed the Crowds to Proclaim Him King Openly v.6-9

The proclamation was of the popular notion of a Messiah and what he would be by the people. Please be on your guard against pop theology today. Positive thinking, health and wealth, there is no hell, everyone is going to heaven and whatever does not line up with God's Word must be avoided. Those who minister and live extravagant life styles are just as bad. They do not portray what following Jesus is about!  It does not matter how good they sound. Watch out! Be on your guard! This was the Son of God Who said, "My kingdom is not of this world." (John 18.36) 

A kingdom in which the court is made up of His disciples- ignorant fishermen.

A kingdom without any written bylaws.

A kingdom whose glory is not based on riches.

A kingdom without armed forces.

I want to seek that kingdom more than ever. May Your Kingdom come O LORD!

What was the common notion of Jesus' day for the messiah? 

 They expected him to be a temporal prince, one who would make war upon the Romans and restore to the Jews their lost nationality... they imagined that He might probably restore to Israel the kingdom and set them free.- Spurgeon

3. A Day When the Whole City Of Jerusalem Was Stirred. v.10-11

This happens from time to time. I was there one afternoon when it happened.

Temple Mount most debated piece of real estate on the planet. Hard to fully understand. It is where the temple stood in Jesus' time. It is where the Dome of the Rock now stands. When the Jews recaptured Jerusalem in 1967 from the Arabs a paratrooper put the Israeli flag on it. Moshe Dayan had it taken down. The Temple Mount belongs to Israel but is under the auspices of Islam, allowing the Islamic religion to keep their mosques fully operating there. Dayan understood that this would have precipitated a Holy War.

Once when I was there the whole city grew strangely quiet. Riot Police and Soldiers were dispatched. The assistant mayor had seen a Palestinian flag on what he thought was the Temple Mount. It turned out to be a false alarm. It was on the roof top of a house in the Muslim Quarter. 

Another time, back in days of film, I had left a roll at Antonio's Fortress on the Via Delarosa. I ran back (with the permission of our tour guide) . Shouts were going out along the way, "American in trouble! American in trouble!"

One other time we were walking and suddenly the street grew silent. There were fruit carts turned over and above us Israeli Police with their guns drawn. An Arab had been running from them and they caught him outside the Damascus Gate. you could feel the tension all over as we got out of there quickly.

When Jesus rode in the whole city was shaking , trembling, thrown into a tremor, quaking for fear, rocked back and forth.

He was viewed as a prophet. The people knew His influence.

Psalm 119:136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed. 

We need a stir in our nation today, in the hearts of many people who claim to follow Him.  We need refilled with His Spirit. This is a time of remembering the events of that week and even into the  next two months as we remember the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.

We are in such great need  morally and spiritually today.  People are dying of thirst for the Living Water. When God's laws are broken our hearts break, if there is not repentance then eventually the nation collapses. Israel in Jesus' time was on that slide, it happened within a generation. America is following- there is still good- Friday evening Alice and I at an Eagle Scout ceremony at St. Pat's... when I left Girl Scouts here... both have in their pledge

to serve

Into Jerusalem and into People's Hearts

On Palm Sunday long ago

Jesus rode a donkey

Into Jerusalem

Son of God, Man of Sorrow

Crowds came to cheer

The end they thought

Of Roman Rule and tyranny

Jesus of Nazareth is setting us free

They didn't know nor suspect

That by this Holy Week's end

The Messiah would lay down His life

for His friends

He sought to enter people's hearts

As He does today

His desire to bring real peace

But so often He's turned away

Jerusalem shut Him out

Yet there were those who believed

Keep spreading the Good News

Planting that precious Gospel Seed

For meek souls will receive Him Still

And He will enter in

like Nicodemus of long ago

They will be born again

Lord, strengthen Your Church

In these last days

Give us holy fire

We'll do your Work

While its still light

Seeking souls deep in the mire.

Lead on O King Eternal

For soon time will be no more

It won't be long until we all

Are gathered on heaven's shore.