Behold, Your King is Coming (I)
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
The time has come for the public ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ to culminate in the cross. It has reached its climax, and He will now present Himself as the King of Israel in the most public and most official way. This is one of the very well-known events in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ on this earth, known as His triumphal entry. But while it is well-known, it is also an event that has often been misunderstood. Because while it is true—and it is—that our Lord clearly presents Himself here and meant to present Himself as the King of Israel, He knew all along that He was also presenting Himself as the Passover Lamb of His people. Behold the Lamb of God.
He entered Jerusalem this day not expecting that there would be massive national repentance and that Israel would embrace Him as her Savior King, but He understood this entering into Jerusalem will ultimately lead to His death on a cross. This is His first step towards the crucifixion. What He's doing here, He's doing it in a very deliberate way. Very deliberate. The purpose of what He's doing, the timing of what He's doing—it is all in accordance with the divine plan that is unfolding with precision.Can't help but think of His selflessness, His love for us—love so amazing, so divine—love for us that is utterly selfless, sacrificial.
He's enjoyed two great days in Bethany among friends. They held a dinner in His honor, and there you remember He was anointed by Mary, an expression of her love, her devotion, her understanding of His mission. The next day, great crowds come out to see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead, and to see Jesus, and many believed. And so the shepherd is seeing His sheep gathered to Him, even those for whom He would soon lay down His life, gathered to Him. It had to be a two days of great satisfaction to Him, great joy, peace, rest.
But now on this Monday, He willingly leaves this place of rest and joy to enter Jerusalem and to do it in a way that would ultimately lead to the cross. So we come to the triumphal entry of Jesus, and as we come to this account, there are some issues that we come face to face with that you can't really avoid if you really study the Word of God. And I have to tell you that in my study this week, when you consider all of the Gospel records about this final week of His life, and when you read all of the faithful, godly expositors and scholars, you discover there's disagreement about the timing.
What day did this occur on? Some actually say—some minor position—but some say, well, it took place on the Sabbath, that it was on a Saturday. Most have said that this occurred on Sunday, Palm Sunday. Thus we have Palm Sunday, the observance of the idea that He entered Jerusalem on a Sunday. Some have said this happened on a Monday. So much disagreement about the timing among godly expositors, so many arguments involved, so much counterpoint, that we literally could have spent the entire day today just talking about timing and setting forth the various arguments and presenting the various positions.
And I have to tell you, in preparing this week it was difficult to decide exactly how I wanted to approach it, because I do like to think through these issues together with you. But after thinking about it prayerfully, I don't think that would be the most profitable use of our time. There are few places where this is going to really affect the interpretation in a very, very insignificant, minute way. And I believe when you see so many godly people taking different positions, that's always an indicator to me at least that there must be something here more central that the Holy Spirit intended for us to lay a hold of. And that's what we want to do. That's where I want to spend our time—not talking so much about the timing of the events as getting to the meat that is found here and learning really together what our Lord really wants us to understand, wants us to learn.
I will say however, however—parenthesis—that after looking at the issues, the position that I've reached is that our Lord entered Jerusalem on Monday, 10th of Nisan, and that He was crucified on Friday, the first month of the year, their year, Nisan the 14th day. Now, if you want to do more study on your own and you want to really look into this further, I encourage you to do that. I think this is the case for this position that has been set forth thoroughly, convincingly, and thoroughly by Harold Hohner, H-O-E-H-N-E-R, in his book *Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ*. And so, if you are interested in it, you can get that book and look into it—*Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ*—connecting it to the prophecy in Daniel 9 and so forth.
But following this timeline, let me set forth the events that we're going to meet with in the four Gospels as we look at this final week of our Lord's life leading to His crucifixion and then the resurrection. So here's the timeline. On Saturday evening, Jesus is anointed at Simon the leper's house. On Sunday, a great crowd comes out to Bethany to see Lazarus and to see the Lord. On Monday, our Lord enters Jerusalem. He visits the temple, looks around, and then returns to Bethany. The day that He enters Jerusalem is Nisan 10. And this is a significant day because it is the day when the lambs were selected for the Passover. And we'll talk about that in a minute more today and next Lord's Day, Lord willing. On Tuesday, He leaves from Bethany to come again to Jerusalem and curses the barren fig tree and cleanses the temple. The religious leaders begin to seek how they might destroy Him, and then He goes back to Bethany.
On Wednesday, the disciples see the withered fig tree, the tree Jesus had cursed. At the temple, Jesus has a day of controversy with the religious leaders of the Jews. That afternoon, Jesus makes His way to the Mount of Olives, and there He gives that well-known discourse, the Olivet Discourse. He predicts that in two days He'll be crucified at the time of Passover, and it was on Wednesday that Judas plans the betrayal of Christ with the religious leaders.
On Thursday, He had His disciples prepare the Passover lamb. They observed the Passover meal according to the Galilean time frame. We're going to talk about this as we get further into it. The Judeans reckon time differently than the Galileans, and so literally there were two Passover observances, one on Thursday and one on Friday. Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples on Thursday. They had their Passover meal in the upper room, and leaving the upper room, Jesus had a discourse with His disciples and then He offered intercessory prayer for them.
Then they get to the Garden of Gethsemane, and there Jesus suffers in agony as He contemplates the cup that He will soon drink—the cup that awaits Him, the wrath of God. Later that night, He's betrayed, arrested, and during the night He is tried, first by Annas and later by Caiaphas, with the religious leaders. Early in the morning on Friday, Jesus is tried by the Sanhedrin, Pilate, Herod Antipas, and then Pilate again, and then He was led to the cross and was crucified at 9 a.m. Six hours later, 3 p.m., at the very time when the Passover lambs were being slaughtered, sacrificed, He died. He gave up His spirit, and He was buried later that day.
On Saturday, His body is lying in the tomb during the Sabbath, and the Pharisees secure Roman guards to keep watch of the tomb. Then Sunday, Christ was resurrected from the dead, fulfilled the type of the offering of the firstfruits which was offered the day after the Sabbath. He is the firstfruits of those who will be raised from the dead. This is what we're going to see in this final week from Monday to Sunday, Lord willing.
You'll notice when it comes to the triumphal entry itself, John gives us in his account a rather brief summary of this day compared with the synoptic Gospels. So we're going to keep our attention here in John's account. So if you want to look at more of the details of His triumphal entry, you'll find them in Matthew 21, Mark 11, and Luke 19. But this morning we're going to focus, and next Lord's Day, Lord willing, we're going to focus particularly with some cross-references, but particularly on John's account.
And there are four things that we want to consider together as we begin to really look into this account of the triumphal entry of Jesus. Number one, we're going to look together at the manner of His coming. And secondly, we're going to look at the meaning of His coming. Thirdly, at the message of His coming. And fourthly, the misunderstanding of His coming.
So let's begin this morning with the manner of His coming. That's all we will do this morning, the manner of His coming. And we'll pick it up where we leave off today, next time, Lord willing. The manner of His coming, and this is bracketed by verse 12 and verse 15. Let's look at these verses together now.
"On the next day, the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, 'Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.' And Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, 'Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey's colt.'"
The manner of His coming. He entered Jerusalem on this day, Nisan 10. And the first thing I want to point out here is that He came as a King. The manner of His coming, He came as a King. He came as the King. He came in such a way that it was evident He was and is the King, the King of Israel. Everything about His entry was designed to point to Jesus as the true and promised King of Israel.
The way He rode into the city, He came in on a young donkey, a colt. The disciples found this colt. Jesus told them that they would. He gave them specific instructions. He sent them into a village, and He said that they would find it there, and they did, and were told in the other accounts that this colt has never been ridden before. And you know, kings don't use used things, they don't. And so in keeping with royalty, this colt has never been ridden before until Jesus Himself rode it into the city. And so this colt was especially set aside for this purpose, this royal purpose.
And what Jesus does here is a literal fulfillment of the Messianic prophecy given to us in Zechariah 9 and verse 9. John notes that in verse 14, Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it as it is written, quoting Zechariah 9:9. Verse 15: "Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey's colt." And so when He came in riding on this donkey, it was a literal fulfillment of the prophecy concerning Israel's King.
The prophecy there in Zechariah 9:9, we read the following: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Make a loud shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and endowed with salvation, Lowly and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a pack animal." And so He comes in such a way as to say, this is the King of Israel. This is the long-awaited King.
We also note, we need to note, not only does He come in a way that really displays Him clearly as the King, but the way that He entered spoke of what kind of a King He was. It spoke of what kind of a King He was. He doesn't come with a sword. He doesn't come as a King might enter with a sword, with pomp, with power. He doesn't come riding on a horse ready for battle. He doesn't come riding on a chariot. Rather, He comes humbly. He comes peaceably, not to conquer with a sword, but to conquer by His shed blood. The blood of His death.
And so, the way that He rode in, He said clearly that He was the King.
Not only that, but the way that the crowds were treating Him. Also, if you look at all the accounts, the picture that really emerges is that Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem from Bethany with people, with an entourage of people. And after He's seated on this colt, they begin to break out in praise. There is this enthusiasm. And in fact, they're so excited, they're so enthusiastic, they put their garments on the colt and then they begin to lay their garments before Him.
As He makes His way down the Mount of Olives, they begin to lay their garments in front of Him. And then John tells us these palm trees are being waved. And by the way, palm branches—not trees, rather, branches—in the Scripture are a symbol of joy. We find them in Revelation 7:9. They're throwing down these branches before Him, a symbol of joy. You are our deliverer. You are the source of joy. You are our triumphant King.
The chief priest had already said, if you see Jesus anywhere, report to us because we want to arrest Him. We're going to arrest Him. Well, they had long forgotten this warning and they were caught up in the emotion, the hysteria of the moment. The entire place is lit up with enthusiasm, with expectation. The long-awaited hour has now come. The Messiah from God has come to us. And they are literally paving the way ahead of Him, ahead of His entrance, His path for His entrance. And they are receiving their King with open arms.
Spurgeon makes the observation that it's not insignificant. He said it is significant that John is the only one of the four evangelists who mentioned the palm branches. Others refer to branches, but not particularly palm branches. And he makes the connection. He says, and it was to John that the vision was given in Revelation 7:9 of the great multitudes which no man could number, of all nations, kindred, and people, and tongue, who stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, and cried out with a loud voice saying, saying, salvation to our God who sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
So you have this group of people now coming with Jesus from Bethany to Jerusalem, laying their garments before Him, palm branches, this excitement, this joy, jubilance. And then you have now another group coming out from Jerusalem now to meet Him. And together now, you have this outbreak of praise and enthusiasm as Jesus makes His way into Jerusalem. And they're shouting. They're shouting what? What are they shouting? A portion of Psalm 118.
When they began to shout, verse 13, John 12, "Hosanna! Blessed"—blessed— "is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel." And the verb "began to shout" is in the imperfect tense. And it really pictures the crowd beginning to shout, kept shouting, crying out, and continuing to shout over and over and over and over again the following Old Testament passages.
Of course, the bitter tragedy, the ironic, the tragic irony is that here the Jewish crowd is welcoming the long-awaited Messiah and King, but only a few days later the same crowd would cry out—using the same verb, imperfect tense—away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him. John 19:15. The fickle crowds went from crown Him to crucify Him.
But here they're shouting a portion of Psalm 118. When they began to shout, verse 13, "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel." Psalm 118, verse 25 says this: "O Yahweh, save! O Yahweh, succeed! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of Yahweh; We have blessed you from the house of Yahweh." And so they're shouting out scripture that has to do with the coming of the King of Israel.
And by the way, Psalm 118 was the benediction psalm for the Passover meal. So even the very scripture that they're citing, that they're shouting, that's going on is a foreshadowing of the very purpose for which our Lord was coming. He had come to be what? Our Passover lamb. He had come to be our Passover sacrifice, coming not only to present Himself as the King, but to present Himself as well in a moment, as we will see, as the lamb, the Passover lamb, the Lamb of God.
And so you have the celebration, people enthusiastic. They're shouting out with joy, Psalm 118, verse 25, "Hosanna." And by the way, the word Hosanna means save, please. Save, please. Or save now. Lord, save, please. Or save now, Lord. But this word, as it began to be used, pretty soon it came to mean not only would you save, but salvation is here. Salvation has arrived.
John Piper, illustrating this, said, and I quote, "it's like if you could swim and you fell into a pool of water and you were saying, someone please save me. That's how the word was first used. But as it came to be used, pretty soon it would be what you would cry out after the life preserver has been thrown to you already. And now you say, I am saved. Salvation has come. Salvation has come."
And so Jesus is making His way into Jerusalem. This is what they were shouting. Salvation is here. Salvation has come. Here is the King of Israel. He is—here comes our Savior King.
Now the people did not understand what they were saying. Most of them didn't. They had no idea really exactly what they were saying. Because as we know, by the end of the week, most of the crowd will turn against Him and they cry out for His crucifixion.
But nonetheless, God designed this. God designed this to magnify His Son, to exalt His Son. These people were speaking true words, whether they realized it or not. And as we've already seen, haven't we, that God can be at work in someone's mouth, that they would say what's right, even though they don't fully understand it or absorb it. And we saw that in the case of who, you know, Caiaphas, right? When he prophesied the death of our Lord for the salvation of the people, and Caiaphas had no idea what he was saying truly, the full meaning of what he was saying.
In the same way, they're speaking here true words, proclaiming Him to be the King of Israel, proclaiming the fact that He had come to usher salvation, to bring salvation. Powerful words. In fact, these words disturbed the Pharisees, so much so. And some of the Pharisees were present; they were witnessing this, and they were utterly disturbed, offended, in fact.
And in Luke 19, verse 37, we read, "And as He was going, they were spreading their garments on the road. Now, as soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God, rejoicing with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, saying, 'Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.' And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, 'Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.'" Jesus, do you hear what they're saying? Do you hear? Do you hear what they're saying about you? They're proclaiming you to be the King of Israel. Do something about it, rebuke them.
Listen to how Jesus, in verse 40, responds: "But Jesus answered and said, 'I tell you, if these were silent, the stones will cry out!'" Stones will cry out. In other words, they're not saying anything wrong. What they're saying is exactly right. It is true. And if these were silent, creation itself would cry out.
So this is designed by God, this is deliberate, this praise that should be given, and God has designed in such a way that Israel will be without excuse. Jesus is coming, just as it was prophesied that He would come, and He's coming in such a way that it screams out, here is your King. Behold your King, O Israel. The way that He's riding in, the way the crowd is responding to Him, clearly, clearly screams, this is your King. This is the King.
So He came as the King, the manner of His coming, the way that He comes, also speaks in another direction. He came not only as the King, but He also came as the Deliverer. He came as the Deliverer. We said earlier that He came in such a way that it not only said that He was a King and the King, but also what kind of a King He was. The way that the Holy Spirit interprets this event through John speaks of this fact, and I want us to see it this morning.
You will notice if you look back at the prophecy of Zechariah 9 and verse 9 and compare it with the verse as the Holy Spirit gives it through John, in John chapter 12, you will notice there's a slight difference. And it was deliberate. Look at verse 15. How does it begin? What are the two words? Fear not. Fear not. "Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey's colt." Fear not.
But if you read Zechariah 9:9, you don't find "fear not." Zechariah 9:9 begins how? This way: "Rejoice greatly." Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Don't believe any of the liberals. Say, ah, you see, a mistake. No, no. This was deliberate. This was deliberate. Let me explain.
"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Make a loud shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and endowed with salvation, lowly and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a pack animal." Zechariah says rejoice greatly, but here the Holy Spirit interprets this event in the light of Zechariah 9:9 and says fear not. Fear not.
Why does He say fear not? Because this is the nature of the joy that the King brings. This is the nature of the joy that the King brings. He brings deliverance from the wrath of God. He brings deliverance from the wrath of Almighty God. The wrath that we looked at Good Friday, that really expresses the character of God. He is the God of burning holiness and inflexible justice.
This is the nature of the joy that the King brings. He brings salvation from sin. He brings salvation from the judgment of God upon sin. And this is what Zechariah says when he goes on to say He's righteous, endowed with salvation. "Behold, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and endowed with salvation." This is why the people are to rejoice. Not because He's bringing political deliverance, throwing off the Roman tyranny. No, no. As He entered Jerusalem, that's not the case. It's because He's bringing spiritual deliverance, not political deliverance. He's coming to accomplish salvation.
And all of those for whom salvation is accomplished, they no longer have any reason to be afraid whatsoever. Why? Because their sins are forgiven. They are right with a holy God. They're no longer under the wrath of God. They're no longer under the judgment of God. They are right with God, with the holy God, the thrice holy God, through the death of the Passover lamb, being clothed with His righteousness.
Now they are at peace with God. Whereas before there was enmity with God, now there's peace with God. No longer fearing the wrath of God. No longer having to fear the judgment of God upon their sins. So now they can rejoice and rejoice greatly—yes, in the language of Zechariah 9:9. But you could also say they don't have to be afraid anymore. Fear not. No reason to be afraid, because not only is your King here, but He is the Savior King and He's come to deliver you from your sins and from the wrath of God and put you at peace with God, reconciled with God, adopted by God.
So He comes as the King, He comes as the Deliverer, and thirdly and gloriously, He comes as the Lamb. He comes as the Lamb. The manner of His coming says that He's come to present Himself—this is deliberate—as the Passover Lamb.
You remember when John the Baptist first pointed out the Lord Jesus Christ? How does he speak of Him? John chapter 1 verse 29: "Behold," — what did he say? — "The Lamb of God." "Behold, the Lamb of God." And what does that mean? "Lamb of God." "Behold, the Lamb of God." Well, the Lamb sent by God, the Lamb chosen by God, this is the Lamb of God's choosing, this is the Lamb of God's electing choice. Now He's our Lamb—our Lamb in terms of the benefit of His death—but He is God's Lamb in terms of His being chosen to lay down His life on our behalf, our substitute.
If you look over to 1 Corinthians 5, 1 Corinthians 5, one of the things that I see in this passage is how practical theology is, how practical doctrine is. Here's Paul, 1 Corinthians 5, having to deal with a very practical matter in the Corinthian assembly. There's this open sexual immorality going on, the church is not dealing with it properly, there's no church discipline, and so here he is dealing with a very practical matter, and yet how is he going to deal with this very practical matter? Now follow closely. He's going to deal with it in a very theological, doctrinal way, and that's an important principle for us.
You see, doctrine applied is how the church is to live. Doctrine applied is how the church ought to live. Doctrine understood, doctrine known, then doctrine applied. That's why we strive by the grace of God not only to be a Bible-believing church, but a Bible-living church. Doctrine applied, that's how we live.
So he's dealing with immorality, and I mean we've got to stop and think about that. How would you deal with an immoral situation? It ought to be the same way, doctrine applied. Look at what he does in verse 6: "Your boasting is not good." They'd actually taken the situation, turned it into something that they were glorying in. Now we could speculate, we don't know exactly how. Maybe they thought of themselves as being very patient or very loving. I don't know how they thought of it exactly, but in some way they were boasting in the fact that this man was still present in fellowship, still living in this way, and they're boasting in the fact that they are the church of Jesus Christ, and all of this is going on, and Paul says it is to their shame.
Pastor MacArthur put it this way, quote, "Look where your arrogance and your boasting here have brought you, because you still love human wisdom and human recognition and the things of the world, you are completely blinded to the blatant sin that will destroy your church if you don't remove it,"
"Your boasting is not good," verse 6. "Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump." Stop here for a moment. Passover. Passover. Nisan 14. Do you know what began at the same time, then went on for seven days afterwards? It was the feast of what? Unleavened bread. Unleavened bread. We'll talk about that next week, Lord willing. We'll deal with it next week, but here it is. Unleavened bread.
But what Paul has in mind here, the Passover, he says in verse 7, "Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ"—what does he say?—"our Passover lamb also was sacrificed." Christ, our Passover Lamb, and everything going on in His life, in His ministry on this earth, all of it—what?—fulfilling Scripture. Fulfilling Scripture. All righteousness must be fulfilled, right? He's our substitute. All righteousness must be fulfilled. Walking according to His Father's plan, doing what He's doing at precise times, precise reasons. Scripture is deliberately being fulfilled. Deliberately.
And in fulfilling the Old Testament Scriptures, He is fulfilling the types, the foreshadows, pictured in the Old Testament. And on the 10th day of Nisan, according to the biblical observance of Passover, on the 10th day, the lambs that were to be sacrificed for Passover were selected. Selected. And for three days, those lambs would be kept with the families, and then they would be sacrificed on the fourth day. And so on Nisan 10th, they're chosen; Nisan 14, they are sacrificed.
On Monday, Nisan 10, Jesus made His way into Jerusalem, and realize that on that day, that very day, thousands of lambs were driven into the city of Jerusalem for selection. Thousands. So it's not unreasonable, in the least, to think that as Jesus made His way into the city, that before Him would have been lambs coming into the city, driven into the city. Behind Him, there would have been lambs driven into the city. Perhaps even surrounding Him, along with the crowd, would have been lambs driven into the city.
And so as He made His way into the city of Jerusalem, you have not only the King, the Deliverer, but here is the presentation of God's selected Lamb. The Lamb of God. Our Passover Lamb.
James Montgomery Boyce captures this beautifully. He says, and I quote, "It was on that day that the thousands of Passover lambs that were to be sacrificed were taken up to Jerusalem and kept there three days in the homes of those who were to eat them. Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us that one year a census was taken of the number of lambs slain for Passover and that the figure was 256,500. 256,500. In other words, with numbers this large, lambs must literally have been driven up to Jerusalem throughout the entire day." He goes on to say, "Consequently, whenever Jesus entered the city, He must have done so surrounded by lambs, Himself being the greatest of lambs. Four days later, at the time the lambs were killed, Jesus Himself was killed. He laid down His life, thereby becoming the ultimate Passover Lamb on the basis of those of whose shed blood the angel of spiritual death passes over all who place the trust in Him."
Can you see why the Holy Spirit says, fear not? Fear not. There's a spiritual angel of death. The wrath of God is upon sinners. But don't be afraid because the Lamb is here. The selected one is here. The Lamb whose blood will deliver you, the Lamb who brings salvation, the Lamb who is also the King.
I want to ask you this morning, is He your King? Is He your King? Have you received Him for who He really is? Is He your King? Is He your Savior King? And you cannot divide up Jesus. You cannot divide Him up. You can't cut Him up into pieces and only respond to aspects of His person and of His ministry that you're comfortable with, that you can live with. Jesus is both Lord and Savior. He is King as well as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
And so when someone comes to Christ, they come to Him not only looking at His sacrifice as the answer for their sins—His shed blood for the remission of their sins—but they also at the same time recognize Him as their King, the Lord, their Master, their Sovereign. They come losing their life to gain His. They come bowing before Him, and they come counting the cost and realizing they are not worthy to be His disciples if they won't take up their cross and follow Him daily.
When was it? When was it in your life? What was the time? What was the day when God impressed upon you that you were lost, facing His wrath, because you are a wretched, vile sinner, unable to deliver yourself? But you understood that God has provided the Lamb for Himself, that God took the step necessary to deliver you from God—God from God—and from His holy and just wrath, that He chose His own Son, that He would come to this earth and live a sinless life, and then die a horrible death on the cross, bearing our sin, bearing our shame, bearing the wrath of God to deliver His people from their sins. The Passover Lamb of God.
And you saw this, so that you look not to yourself, but to Him alone for forgiveness of your sins. And you came not standing up, but you came bowing down, not still in control of your life, but losing your life, not wanting your own way, but surrendering your way to Him. You came to Him as the Lord who saves. When has it ever happened in your life? Has it happened? Do you realize that you could have intellectual knowledge that Jesus is the Savior and not know Him? And no one knows Him. No one knows Him who hasn't lost their life to Him.
Are you like the crowds that came out singing Hosanna, but later crucify Him? Maybe you have a surface enthusiasm about Jesus, or maybe you just have a surface allegiance to Him. And you come here Sunday after Sunday. Maybe even you come in midweek and you name the name of Christ and the label disciple is given to you. You have a name that you're alive, but in reality you're dead. And though you're called a disciple, you're not a disciple. Your life exposes you.
Listen carefully. You can know who you really are if you just take an honest stock of your fruit, as we learned last Sunday evening. And there are many, the Bible tells us, many, not a few, many according to Jesus, Matthew 7, who will one day say to the King, Lord, Lord, have we not done all these things in Your name? Have we not preached in Your name? Have we not performed this and that in Your name? Haven't we done this? Haven't we done that? And He will say to them, "Depart from Me." And here's such a key statement: "You who practice lawlessness." So you said you knew Me, but your life told a story. And for a while you said I was your Lord, but you lived for your darling sin, your darling idol habitually as a practice. "Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness."
And what did He say? I—and what's the next word?—never, never knew you. You were never, ever Mine, never. "I never knew you." You may have sang hosannas. You may have clapped your hands. You may have said you were My disciple, but I never knew you—never, ever. "Depart from Me."
Here He is presented to Israel in a formal way according to Scripture. This is your King. This is your Deliverer. This is God's Lamb. But most of them couldn't see it. Most of them didn't understand it. Most of them never responded to Him in that way. Yet Paul was able to write 1 Corinthians 5:7 that Christ is our Passover Lamb. Whose? Those who have repented and look to Him as their Deliverer.
Next time we're going to come back and we're going to understand this in greater detail. We're going to look at the Passover and see how Jesus is our Passover Lamb. We want to really flush this out. This is really critically important. But today the most important question facing each and every one of us is, is He your Passover Lamb? Are you—or are you still under the wrath of God?
Let us not be like those in the crowd that day. Let us truly know Christ within our hearts. Let us not merely sing to the Lord with our lips. Let us not merely profess His name. Let us not merely put our coats in front of Him and our palm branches. Let us truly, genuinely love Him. Let us put our trust in Him. Let us be repenters who have turned away from dead religion. Let us be true believers who by faith embrace the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us receive His salvation. He is endowed with salvation. He is the King who is the Deliverer. And He is not a reluctant Savior.
Let us lay down the coats of our lives before Him. Let us lay down the branches of our wills to do His bidding, to obey Him. Let us receive Him into our lives. Let us rejoice and receive our King into the palaces of our hearts. Let Him be enthroned in our lives. Let us receive Him and incline our will to Him.
Corrie Ten Boom, a brave Dutch woman, saved many Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust. A devout follower of Christ, she was asked if it was difficult for her to remain humble. And I love her reply. It was simple but salient. Quote, "When Jesus rode into Jerusalem that day on the back of a colt, and everyone was waving palm branches and throwing their garments on the road and singing praises," she said, "do you think for a moment it ever entered the head of the donkey that any of this was for him?" And she concluded, "If I can be the donkey on which Jesus Christ rides in this world, I will give Him all the praise and all the glory."
Child of God, you and I are like that colt at best. The only good thing about our lives is the One who rides upon our lives—the King, the Lord. And lest any one of us think that any praise or any glory is going to us when we do something in the name of the Lord, it is going to the One riding upon our souls by His grace. Let us lay low. Let us be humble and faithful in carrying Christ our King. And may He increase and may we decrease.
Oh, but let us be sturdy colts. And let it not go into our heads, for apart from Him we could do—how much?—nothing. Because I am what I am by—what?—the grace of God.
This is the entrance of the great King into Jerusalem to begin the last week of His earthly life. The sinful heart can be very interested in Jesus. The sinful heart can be very religious until Jesus exposes false religion. False coronations of Jesus go on all the time, don't they? Well, this was one for the most part. But this had a divine intent and purpose. Didn't justify it. Didn't make hypocrisy right. But God used it to bring about His purpose in the giving of His Son.
God is in charge of everything. His timetable is perfect. And in the future, the Lord Jesus, who entered Jerusalem humble and lowly, will return to earth. But it's not going to be riding on a colt, the colt of a donkey. He's going to come back riding on a steed, a white steed, according to Revelation 19, coming out of heaven, followed by the armies of heaven in white, riding on white horses in an astonishing unleashing of the glorious holy powers of heaven on the earth, led by none other than the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
And when He arrives, He will destroy the ungodly in a massive judgment that will sweep across the planet. And then He will establish His throne in Jerusalem. And He will reign there for 1,000 years in the millennial kingdom. And beyond that, forever and ever, because of His kingdom, there will be no end throughout all of eternity in the new heaven and the new earth.
But here He arrives in Jerusalem riding on a lowly donkey. Yes, He is the true King, King of kings and Lord of lords, Son of Man and Son of God, Messiah, Savior, Deliverer. And no monarch, no president, no leader, no prime minister in all of human history remotely compares to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is none so magnificent. There is none so powerful, so wise, so sovereign, just, pure, holy. And all of the elite and all of the monarchs of all of human history collectively, together, stacked on top of each other, wouldn't go high enough to touch the hem of His all-glorious garment.
And when you surrender and submit to Him, the true King, the only King, when you put your trust in Him, you will, as a true believer, say, Lord, give me what You want me to have. Reign in my life according to Your will and not mine. "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Behold the King, the Deliverer, who comes, the manner of His coming.
Let's pray.
He entered Jerusalem this day not expecting that there would be massive national repentance and that Israel would embrace Him as her Savior King, but He understood this entering into Jerusalem will ultimately lead to His death on a cross. This is His first step towards the crucifixion. What He's doing here, He's doing it in a very deliberate way. Very deliberate. The purpose of what He's doing, the timing of what He's doing—it is all in accordance with the divine plan that is unfolding with precision.Can't help but think of His selflessness, His love for us—love so amazing, so divine—love for us that is utterly selfless, sacrificial.
He's enjoyed two great days in Bethany among friends. They held a dinner in His honor, and there you remember He was anointed by Mary, an expression of her love, her devotion, her understanding of His mission. The next day, great crowds come out to see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead, and to see Jesus, and many believed. And so the shepherd is seeing His sheep gathered to Him, even those for whom He would soon lay down His life, gathered to Him. It had to be a two days of great satisfaction to Him, great joy, peace, rest.
But now on this Monday, He willingly leaves this place of rest and joy to enter Jerusalem and to do it in a way that would ultimately lead to the cross. So we come to the triumphal entry of Jesus, and as we come to this account, there are some issues that we come face to face with that you can't really avoid if you really study the Word of God. And I have to tell you that in my study this week, when you consider all of the Gospel records about this final week of His life, and when you read all of the faithful, godly expositors and scholars, you discover there's disagreement about the timing.
What day did this occur on? Some actually say—some minor position—but some say, well, it took place on the Sabbath, that it was on a Saturday. Most have said that this occurred on Sunday, Palm Sunday. Thus we have Palm Sunday, the observance of the idea that He entered Jerusalem on a Sunday. Some have said this happened on a Monday. So much disagreement about the timing among godly expositors, so many arguments involved, so much counterpoint, that we literally could have spent the entire day today just talking about timing and setting forth the various arguments and presenting the various positions.
And I have to tell you, in preparing this week it was difficult to decide exactly how I wanted to approach it, because I do like to think through these issues together with you. But after thinking about it prayerfully, I don't think that would be the most profitable use of our time. There are few places where this is going to really affect the interpretation in a very, very insignificant, minute way. And I believe when you see so many godly people taking different positions, that's always an indicator to me at least that there must be something here more central that the Holy Spirit intended for us to lay a hold of. And that's what we want to do. That's where I want to spend our time—not talking so much about the timing of the events as getting to the meat that is found here and learning really together what our Lord really wants us to understand, wants us to learn.
I will say however, however—parenthesis—that after looking at the issues, the position that I've reached is that our Lord entered Jerusalem on Monday, 10th of Nisan, and that He was crucified on Friday, the first month of the year, their year, Nisan the 14th day. Now, if you want to do more study on your own and you want to really look into this further, I encourage you to do that. I think this is the case for this position that has been set forth thoroughly, convincingly, and thoroughly by Harold Hohner, H-O-E-H-N-E-R, in his book *Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ*. And so, if you are interested in it, you can get that book and look into it—*Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ*—connecting it to the prophecy in Daniel 9 and so forth.
But following this timeline, let me set forth the events that we're going to meet with in the four Gospels as we look at this final week of our Lord's life leading to His crucifixion and then the resurrection. So here's the timeline. On Saturday evening, Jesus is anointed at Simon the leper's house. On Sunday, a great crowd comes out to Bethany to see Lazarus and to see the Lord. On Monday, our Lord enters Jerusalem. He visits the temple, looks around, and then returns to Bethany. The day that He enters Jerusalem is Nisan 10. And this is a significant day because it is the day when the lambs were selected for the Passover. And we'll talk about that in a minute more today and next Lord's Day, Lord willing. On Tuesday, He leaves from Bethany to come again to Jerusalem and curses the barren fig tree and cleanses the temple. The religious leaders begin to seek how they might destroy Him, and then He goes back to Bethany.
On Wednesday, the disciples see the withered fig tree, the tree Jesus had cursed. At the temple, Jesus has a day of controversy with the religious leaders of the Jews. That afternoon, Jesus makes His way to the Mount of Olives, and there He gives that well-known discourse, the Olivet Discourse. He predicts that in two days He'll be crucified at the time of Passover, and it was on Wednesday that Judas plans the betrayal of Christ with the religious leaders.
On Thursday, He had His disciples prepare the Passover lamb. They observed the Passover meal according to the Galilean time frame. We're going to talk about this as we get further into it. The Judeans reckon time differently than the Galileans, and so literally there were two Passover observances, one on Thursday and one on Friday. Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples on Thursday. They had their Passover meal in the upper room, and leaving the upper room, Jesus had a discourse with His disciples and then He offered intercessory prayer for them.
Then they get to the Garden of Gethsemane, and there Jesus suffers in agony as He contemplates the cup that He will soon drink—the cup that awaits Him, the wrath of God. Later that night, He's betrayed, arrested, and during the night He is tried, first by Annas and later by Caiaphas, with the religious leaders. Early in the morning on Friday, Jesus is tried by the Sanhedrin, Pilate, Herod Antipas, and then Pilate again, and then He was led to the cross and was crucified at 9 a.m. Six hours later, 3 p.m., at the very time when the Passover lambs were being slaughtered, sacrificed, He died. He gave up His spirit, and He was buried later that day.
On Saturday, His body is lying in the tomb during the Sabbath, and the Pharisees secure Roman guards to keep watch of the tomb. Then Sunday, Christ was resurrected from the dead, fulfilled the type of the offering of the firstfruits which was offered the day after the Sabbath. He is the firstfruits of those who will be raised from the dead. This is what we're going to see in this final week from Monday to Sunday, Lord willing.
You'll notice when it comes to the triumphal entry itself, John gives us in his account a rather brief summary of this day compared with the synoptic Gospels. So we're going to keep our attention here in John's account. So if you want to look at more of the details of His triumphal entry, you'll find them in Matthew 21, Mark 11, and Luke 19. But this morning we're going to focus, and next Lord's Day, Lord willing, we're going to focus particularly with some cross-references, but particularly on John's account.
And there are four things that we want to consider together as we begin to really look into this account of the triumphal entry of Jesus. Number one, we're going to look together at the manner of His coming. And secondly, we're going to look at the meaning of His coming. Thirdly, at the message of His coming. And fourthly, the misunderstanding of His coming.
So let's begin this morning with the manner of His coming. That's all we will do this morning, the manner of His coming. And we'll pick it up where we leave off today, next time, Lord willing. The manner of His coming, and this is bracketed by verse 12 and verse 15. Let's look at these verses together now.
"On the next day, the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, 'Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.' And Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, 'Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey's colt.'"
The manner of His coming. He entered Jerusalem on this day, Nisan 10. And the first thing I want to point out here is that He came as a King. The manner of His coming, He came as a King. He came as the King. He came in such a way that it was evident He was and is the King, the King of Israel. Everything about His entry was designed to point to Jesus as the true and promised King of Israel.
The way He rode into the city, He came in on a young donkey, a colt. The disciples found this colt. Jesus told them that they would. He gave them specific instructions. He sent them into a village, and He said that they would find it there, and they did, and were told in the other accounts that this colt has never been ridden before. And you know, kings don't use used things, they don't. And so in keeping with royalty, this colt has never been ridden before until Jesus Himself rode it into the city. And so this colt was especially set aside for this purpose, this royal purpose.
And what Jesus does here is a literal fulfillment of the Messianic prophecy given to us in Zechariah 9 and verse 9. John notes that in verse 14, Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it as it is written, quoting Zechariah 9:9. Verse 15: "Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey's colt." And so when He came in riding on this donkey, it was a literal fulfillment of the prophecy concerning Israel's King.
The prophecy there in Zechariah 9:9, we read the following: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Make a loud shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and endowed with salvation, Lowly and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a pack animal." And so He comes in such a way as to say, this is the King of Israel. This is the long-awaited King.
We also note, we need to note, not only does He come in a way that really displays Him clearly as the King, but the way that He entered spoke of what kind of a King He was. It spoke of what kind of a King He was. He doesn't come with a sword. He doesn't come as a King might enter with a sword, with pomp, with power. He doesn't come riding on a horse ready for battle. He doesn't come riding on a chariot. Rather, He comes humbly. He comes peaceably, not to conquer with a sword, but to conquer by His shed blood. The blood of His death.
And so, the way that He rode in, He said clearly that He was the King.
Not only that, but the way that the crowds were treating Him. Also, if you look at all the accounts, the picture that really emerges is that Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem from Bethany with people, with an entourage of people. And after He's seated on this colt, they begin to break out in praise. There is this enthusiasm. And in fact, they're so excited, they're so enthusiastic, they put their garments on the colt and then they begin to lay their garments before Him.
As He makes His way down the Mount of Olives, they begin to lay their garments in front of Him. And then John tells us these palm trees are being waved. And by the way, palm branches—not trees, rather, branches—in the Scripture are a symbol of joy. We find them in Revelation 7:9. They're throwing down these branches before Him, a symbol of joy. You are our deliverer. You are the source of joy. You are our triumphant King.
The chief priest had already said, if you see Jesus anywhere, report to us because we want to arrest Him. We're going to arrest Him. Well, they had long forgotten this warning and they were caught up in the emotion, the hysteria of the moment. The entire place is lit up with enthusiasm, with expectation. The long-awaited hour has now come. The Messiah from God has come to us. And they are literally paving the way ahead of Him, ahead of His entrance, His path for His entrance. And they are receiving their King with open arms.
Spurgeon makes the observation that it's not insignificant. He said it is significant that John is the only one of the four evangelists who mentioned the palm branches. Others refer to branches, but not particularly palm branches. And he makes the connection. He says, and it was to John that the vision was given in Revelation 7:9 of the great multitudes which no man could number, of all nations, kindred, and people, and tongue, who stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, and cried out with a loud voice saying, saying, salvation to our God who sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
So you have this group of people now coming with Jesus from Bethany to Jerusalem, laying their garments before Him, palm branches, this excitement, this joy, jubilance. And then you have now another group coming out from Jerusalem now to meet Him. And together now, you have this outbreak of praise and enthusiasm as Jesus makes His way into Jerusalem. And they're shouting. They're shouting what? What are they shouting? A portion of Psalm 118.
When they began to shout, verse 13, John 12, "Hosanna! Blessed"—blessed— "is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel." And the verb "began to shout" is in the imperfect tense. And it really pictures the crowd beginning to shout, kept shouting, crying out, and continuing to shout over and over and over and over again the following Old Testament passages.
Of course, the bitter tragedy, the ironic, the tragic irony is that here the Jewish crowd is welcoming the long-awaited Messiah and King, but only a few days later the same crowd would cry out—using the same verb, imperfect tense—away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him. John 19:15. The fickle crowds went from crown Him to crucify Him.
But here they're shouting a portion of Psalm 118. When they began to shout, verse 13, "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel." Psalm 118, verse 25 says this: "O Yahweh, save! O Yahweh, succeed! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of Yahweh; We have blessed you from the house of Yahweh." And so they're shouting out scripture that has to do with the coming of the King of Israel.
And by the way, Psalm 118 was the benediction psalm for the Passover meal. So even the very scripture that they're citing, that they're shouting, that's going on is a foreshadowing of the very purpose for which our Lord was coming. He had come to be what? Our Passover lamb. He had come to be our Passover sacrifice, coming not only to present Himself as the King, but to present Himself as well in a moment, as we will see, as the lamb, the Passover lamb, the Lamb of God.
And so you have the celebration, people enthusiastic. They're shouting out with joy, Psalm 118, verse 25, "Hosanna." And by the way, the word Hosanna means save, please. Save, please. Or save now. Lord, save, please. Or save now, Lord. But this word, as it began to be used, pretty soon it came to mean not only would you save, but salvation is here. Salvation has arrived.
John Piper, illustrating this, said, and I quote, "it's like if you could swim and you fell into a pool of water and you were saying, someone please save me. That's how the word was first used. But as it came to be used, pretty soon it would be what you would cry out after the life preserver has been thrown to you already. And now you say, I am saved. Salvation has come. Salvation has come."
And so Jesus is making His way into Jerusalem. This is what they were shouting. Salvation is here. Salvation has come. Here is the King of Israel. He is—here comes our Savior King.
Now the people did not understand what they were saying. Most of them didn't. They had no idea really exactly what they were saying. Because as we know, by the end of the week, most of the crowd will turn against Him and they cry out for His crucifixion.
But nonetheless, God designed this. God designed this to magnify His Son, to exalt His Son. These people were speaking true words, whether they realized it or not. And as we've already seen, haven't we, that God can be at work in someone's mouth, that they would say what's right, even though they don't fully understand it or absorb it. And we saw that in the case of who, you know, Caiaphas, right? When he prophesied the death of our Lord for the salvation of the people, and Caiaphas had no idea what he was saying truly, the full meaning of what he was saying.
In the same way, they're speaking here true words, proclaiming Him to be the King of Israel, proclaiming the fact that He had come to usher salvation, to bring salvation. Powerful words. In fact, these words disturbed the Pharisees, so much so. And some of the Pharisees were present; they were witnessing this, and they were utterly disturbed, offended, in fact.
And in Luke 19, verse 37, we read, "And as He was going, they were spreading their garments on the road. Now, as soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God, rejoicing with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, saying, 'Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.' And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, 'Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.'" Jesus, do you hear what they're saying? Do you hear? Do you hear what they're saying about you? They're proclaiming you to be the King of Israel. Do something about it, rebuke them.
Listen to how Jesus, in verse 40, responds: "But Jesus answered and said, 'I tell you, if these were silent, the stones will cry out!'" Stones will cry out. In other words, they're not saying anything wrong. What they're saying is exactly right. It is true. And if these were silent, creation itself would cry out.
So this is designed by God, this is deliberate, this praise that should be given, and God has designed in such a way that Israel will be without excuse. Jesus is coming, just as it was prophesied that He would come, and He's coming in such a way that it screams out, here is your King. Behold your King, O Israel. The way that He's riding in, the way the crowd is responding to Him, clearly, clearly screams, this is your King. This is the King.
So He came as the King, the manner of His coming, the way that He comes, also speaks in another direction. He came not only as the King, but He also came as the Deliverer. He came as the Deliverer. We said earlier that He came in such a way that it not only said that He was a King and the King, but also what kind of a King He was. The way that the Holy Spirit interprets this event through John speaks of this fact, and I want us to see it this morning.
You will notice if you look back at the prophecy of Zechariah 9 and verse 9 and compare it with the verse as the Holy Spirit gives it through John, in John chapter 12, you will notice there's a slight difference. And it was deliberate. Look at verse 15. How does it begin? What are the two words? Fear not. Fear not. "Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey's colt." Fear not.
But if you read Zechariah 9:9, you don't find "fear not." Zechariah 9:9 begins how? This way: "Rejoice greatly." Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Don't believe any of the liberals. Say, ah, you see, a mistake. No, no. This was deliberate. This was deliberate. Let me explain.
"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Make a loud shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and endowed with salvation, lowly and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a pack animal." Zechariah says rejoice greatly, but here the Holy Spirit interprets this event in the light of Zechariah 9:9 and says fear not. Fear not.
Why does He say fear not? Because this is the nature of the joy that the King brings. This is the nature of the joy that the King brings. He brings deliverance from the wrath of God. He brings deliverance from the wrath of Almighty God. The wrath that we looked at Good Friday, that really expresses the character of God. He is the God of burning holiness and inflexible justice.
This is the nature of the joy that the King brings. He brings salvation from sin. He brings salvation from the judgment of God upon sin. And this is what Zechariah says when he goes on to say He's righteous, endowed with salvation. "Behold, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and endowed with salvation." This is why the people are to rejoice. Not because He's bringing political deliverance, throwing off the Roman tyranny. No, no. As He entered Jerusalem, that's not the case. It's because He's bringing spiritual deliverance, not political deliverance. He's coming to accomplish salvation.
And all of those for whom salvation is accomplished, they no longer have any reason to be afraid whatsoever. Why? Because their sins are forgiven. They are right with a holy God. They're no longer under the wrath of God. They're no longer under the judgment of God. They are right with God, with the holy God, the thrice holy God, through the death of the Passover lamb, being clothed with His righteousness.
Now they are at peace with God. Whereas before there was enmity with God, now there's peace with God. No longer fearing the wrath of God. No longer having to fear the judgment of God upon their sins. So now they can rejoice and rejoice greatly—yes, in the language of Zechariah 9:9. But you could also say they don't have to be afraid anymore. Fear not. No reason to be afraid, because not only is your King here, but He is the Savior King and He's come to deliver you from your sins and from the wrath of God and put you at peace with God, reconciled with God, adopted by God.
So He comes as the King, He comes as the Deliverer, and thirdly and gloriously, He comes as the Lamb. He comes as the Lamb. The manner of His coming says that He's come to present Himself—this is deliberate—as the Passover Lamb.
You remember when John the Baptist first pointed out the Lord Jesus Christ? How does he speak of Him? John chapter 1 verse 29: "Behold," — what did he say? — "The Lamb of God." "Behold, the Lamb of God." And what does that mean? "Lamb of God." "Behold, the Lamb of God." Well, the Lamb sent by God, the Lamb chosen by God, this is the Lamb of God's choosing, this is the Lamb of God's electing choice. Now He's our Lamb—our Lamb in terms of the benefit of His death—but He is God's Lamb in terms of His being chosen to lay down His life on our behalf, our substitute.
If you look over to 1 Corinthians 5, 1 Corinthians 5, one of the things that I see in this passage is how practical theology is, how practical doctrine is. Here's Paul, 1 Corinthians 5, having to deal with a very practical matter in the Corinthian assembly. There's this open sexual immorality going on, the church is not dealing with it properly, there's no church discipline, and so here he is dealing with a very practical matter, and yet how is he going to deal with this very practical matter? Now follow closely. He's going to deal with it in a very theological, doctrinal way, and that's an important principle for us.
You see, doctrine applied is how the church is to live. Doctrine applied is how the church ought to live. Doctrine understood, doctrine known, then doctrine applied. That's why we strive by the grace of God not only to be a Bible-believing church, but a Bible-living church. Doctrine applied, that's how we live.
So he's dealing with immorality, and I mean we've got to stop and think about that. How would you deal with an immoral situation? It ought to be the same way, doctrine applied. Look at what he does in verse 6: "Your boasting is not good." They'd actually taken the situation, turned it into something that they were glorying in. Now we could speculate, we don't know exactly how. Maybe they thought of themselves as being very patient or very loving. I don't know how they thought of it exactly, but in some way they were boasting in the fact that this man was still present in fellowship, still living in this way, and they're boasting in the fact that they are the church of Jesus Christ, and all of this is going on, and Paul says it is to their shame.
Pastor MacArthur put it this way, quote, "Look where your arrogance and your boasting here have brought you, because you still love human wisdom and human recognition and the things of the world, you are completely blinded to the blatant sin that will destroy your church if you don't remove it,"
"Your boasting is not good," verse 6. "Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump." Stop here for a moment. Passover. Passover. Nisan 14. Do you know what began at the same time, then went on for seven days afterwards? It was the feast of what? Unleavened bread. Unleavened bread. We'll talk about that next week, Lord willing. We'll deal with it next week, but here it is. Unleavened bread.
But what Paul has in mind here, the Passover, he says in verse 7, "Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ"—what does he say?—"our Passover lamb also was sacrificed." Christ, our Passover Lamb, and everything going on in His life, in His ministry on this earth, all of it—what?—fulfilling Scripture. Fulfilling Scripture. All righteousness must be fulfilled, right? He's our substitute. All righteousness must be fulfilled. Walking according to His Father's plan, doing what He's doing at precise times, precise reasons. Scripture is deliberately being fulfilled. Deliberately.
And in fulfilling the Old Testament Scriptures, He is fulfilling the types, the foreshadows, pictured in the Old Testament. And on the 10th day of Nisan, according to the biblical observance of Passover, on the 10th day, the lambs that were to be sacrificed for Passover were selected. Selected. And for three days, those lambs would be kept with the families, and then they would be sacrificed on the fourth day. And so on Nisan 10th, they're chosen; Nisan 14, they are sacrificed.
On Monday, Nisan 10, Jesus made His way into Jerusalem, and realize that on that day, that very day, thousands of lambs were driven into the city of Jerusalem for selection. Thousands. So it's not unreasonable, in the least, to think that as Jesus made His way into the city, that before Him would have been lambs coming into the city, driven into the city. Behind Him, there would have been lambs driven into the city. Perhaps even surrounding Him, along with the crowd, would have been lambs driven into the city.
And so as He made His way into the city of Jerusalem, you have not only the King, the Deliverer, but here is the presentation of God's selected Lamb. The Lamb of God. Our Passover Lamb.
James Montgomery Boyce captures this beautifully. He says, and I quote, "It was on that day that the thousands of Passover lambs that were to be sacrificed were taken up to Jerusalem and kept there three days in the homes of those who were to eat them. Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us that one year a census was taken of the number of lambs slain for Passover and that the figure was 256,500. 256,500. In other words, with numbers this large, lambs must literally have been driven up to Jerusalem throughout the entire day." He goes on to say, "Consequently, whenever Jesus entered the city, He must have done so surrounded by lambs, Himself being the greatest of lambs. Four days later, at the time the lambs were killed, Jesus Himself was killed. He laid down His life, thereby becoming the ultimate Passover Lamb on the basis of those of whose shed blood the angel of spiritual death passes over all who place the trust in Him."
Can you see why the Holy Spirit says, fear not? Fear not. There's a spiritual angel of death. The wrath of God is upon sinners. But don't be afraid because the Lamb is here. The selected one is here. The Lamb whose blood will deliver you, the Lamb who brings salvation, the Lamb who is also the King.
I want to ask you this morning, is He your King? Is He your King? Have you received Him for who He really is? Is He your King? Is He your Savior King? And you cannot divide up Jesus. You cannot divide Him up. You can't cut Him up into pieces and only respond to aspects of His person and of His ministry that you're comfortable with, that you can live with. Jesus is both Lord and Savior. He is King as well as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
And so when someone comes to Christ, they come to Him not only looking at His sacrifice as the answer for their sins—His shed blood for the remission of their sins—but they also at the same time recognize Him as their King, the Lord, their Master, their Sovereign. They come losing their life to gain His. They come bowing before Him, and they come counting the cost and realizing they are not worthy to be His disciples if they won't take up their cross and follow Him daily.
When was it? When was it in your life? What was the time? What was the day when God impressed upon you that you were lost, facing His wrath, because you are a wretched, vile sinner, unable to deliver yourself? But you understood that God has provided the Lamb for Himself, that God took the step necessary to deliver you from God—God from God—and from His holy and just wrath, that He chose His own Son, that He would come to this earth and live a sinless life, and then die a horrible death on the cross, bearing our sin, bearing our shame, bearing the wrath of God to deliver His people from their sins. The Passover Lamb of God.
And you saw this, so that you look not to yourself, but to Him alone for forgiveness of your sins. And you came not standing up, but you came bowing down, not still in control of your life, but losing your life, not wanting your own way, but surrendering your way to Him. You came to Him as the Lord who saves. When has it ever happened in your life? Has it happened? Do you realize that you could have intellectual knowledge that Jesus is the Savior and not know Him? And no one knows Him. No one knows Him who hasn't lost their life to Him.
Are you like the crowds that came out singing Hosanna, but later crucify Him? Maybe you have a surface enthusiasm about Jesus, or maybe you just have a surface allegiance to Him. And you come here Sunday after Sunday. Maybe even you come in midweek and you name the name of Christ and the label disciple is given to you. You have a name that you're alive, but in reality you're dead. And though you're called a disciple, you're not a disciple. Your life exposes you.
Listen carefully. You can know who you really are if you just take an honest stock of your fruit, as we learned last Sunday evening. And there are many, the Bible tells us, many, not a few, many according to Jesus, Matthew 7, who will one day say to the King, Lord, Lord, have we not done all these things in Your name? Have we not preached in Your name? Have we not performed this and that in Your name? Haven't we done this? Haven't we done that? And He will say to them, "Depart from Me." And here's such a key statement: "You who practice lawlessness." So you said you knew Me, but your life told a story. And for a while you said I was your Lord, but you lived for your darling sin, your darling idol habitually as a practice. "Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness."
And what did He say? I—and what's the next word?—never, never knew you. You were never, ever Mine, never. "I never knew you." You may have sang hosannas. You may have clapped your hands. You may have said you were My disciple, but I never knew you—never, ever. "Depart from Me."
Here He is presented to Israel in a formal way according to Scripture. This is your King. This is your Deliverer. This is God's Lamb. But most of them couldn't see it. Most of them didn't understand it. Most of them never responded to Him in that way. Yet Paul was able to write 1 Corinthians 5:7 that Christ is our Passover Lamb. Whose? Those who have repented and look to Him as their Deliverer.
Next time we're going to come back and we're going to understand this in greater detail. We're going to look at the Passover and see how Jesus is our Passover Lamb. We want to really flush this out. This is really critically important. But today the most important question facing each and every one of us is, is He your Passover Lamb? Are you—or are you still under the wrath of God?
Let us not be like those in the crowd that day. Let us truly know Christ within our hearts. Let us not merely sing to the Lord with our lips. Let us not merely profess His name. Let us not merely put our coats in front of Him and our palm branches. Let us truly, genuinely love Him. Let us put our trust in Him. Let us be repenters who have turned away from dead religion. Let us be true believers who by faith embrace the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us receive His salvation. He is endowed with salvation. He is the King who is the Deliverer. And He is not a reluctant Savior.
Let us lay down the coats of our lives before Him. Let us lay down the branches of our wills to do His bidding, to obey Him. Let us receive Him into our lives. Let us rejoice and receive our King into the palaces of our hearts. Let Him be enthroned in our lives. Let us receive Him and incline our will to Him.
Corrie Ten Boom, a brave Dutch woman, saved many Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust. A devout follower of Christ, she was asked if it was difficult for her to remain humble. And I love her reply. It was simple but salient. Quote, "When Jesus rode into Jerusalem that day on the back of a colt, and everyone was waving palm branches and throwing their garments on the road and singing praises," she said, "do you think for a moment it ever entered the head of the donkey that any of this was for him?" And she concluded, "If I can be the donkey on which Jesus Christ rides in this world, I will give Him all the praise and all the glory."
Child of God, you and I are like that colt at best. The only good thing about our lives is the One who rides upon our lives—the King, the Lord. And lest any one of us think that any praise or any glory is going to us when we do something in the name of the Lord, it is going to the One riding upon our souls by His grace. Let us lay low. Let us be humble and faithful in carrying Christ our King. And may He increase and may we decrease.
Oh, but let us be sturdy colts. And let it not go into our heads, for apart from Him we could do—how much?—nothing. Because I am what I am by—what?—the grace of God.
This is the entrance of the great King into Jerusalem to begin the last week of His earthly life. The sinful heart can be very interested in Jesus. The sinful heart can be very religious until Jesus exposes false religion. False coronations of Jesus go on all the time, don't they? Well, this was one for the most part. But this had a divine intent and purpose. Didn't justify it. Didn't make hypocrisy right. But God used it to bring about His purpose in the giving of His Son.
God is in charge of everything. His timetable is perfect. And in the future, the Lord Jesus, who entered Jerusalem humble and lowly, will return to earth. But it's not going to be riding on a colt, the colt of a donkey. He's going to come back riding on a steed, a white steed, according to Revelation 19, coming out of heaven, followed by the armies of heaven in white, riding on white horses in an astonishing unleashing of the glorious holy powers of heaven on the earth, led by none other than the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
And when He arrives, He will destroy the ungodly in a massive judgment that will sweep across the planet. And then He will establish His throne in Jerusalem. And He will reign there for 1,000 years in the millennial kingdom. And beyond that, forever and ever, because of His kingdom, there will be no end throughout all of eternity in the new heaven and the new earth.
But here He arrives in Jerusalem riding on a lowly donkey. Yes, He is the true King, King of kings and Lord of lords, Son of Man and Son of God, Messiah, Savior, Deliverer. And no monarch, no president, no leader, no prime minister in all of human history remotely compares to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is none so magnificent. There is none so powerful, so wise, so sovereign, just, pure, holy. And all of the elite and all of the monarchs of all of human history collectively, together, stacked on top of each other, wouldn't go high enough to touch the hem of His all-glorious garment.
And when you surrender and submit to Him, the true King, the only King, when you put your trust in Him, you will, as a true believer, say, Lord, give me what You want me to have. Reign in my life according to Your will and not mine. "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Behold the King, the Deliverer, who comes, the manner of His coming.
Let's pray.
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