Here He Comes!

Join us as Pastor Jack begins an Easter sermon series entitled, "The Journey to the Cross" The first sermon in this series is based on Luke 19:28-44, Here He Comes!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Welcome to Palm Sunday. Hosanna. Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna means God saves. That is the message of the day. Um we are going to um celebrate uh Palm Sunday. Uh we're gonna focus a little bit upon uh what's called in the church calendar holy week. Now um pastor called me and asked if I could substitute for him uh this uh Sunday. Normally, when I do preach here, I can preach on whatever I want. You would think. Not with this pastor. Well, that's not exactly the case. Uh he said I could preach on whatever I wanted, but um they're handing out Easter messages here, and you can get one of those at the back to see what's gonna happen on Good Friday and Sunday. But Palm Sunday, it says that the message is gonna be on Here He Comes. And the Bolton that was printed for this morning, big page, Here He Comes. So that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna talk about Here He Comes. Here comes the King. Although Holy Week is really from Palm Sunday through unto Easter Sunday, the week that we're gonna look at is actually from Thursday to Thursday. Because we're gonna see how Jesus is coming up to Jerusalem. He knew why he was coming. As a matter of fact, just before, on Wednesday and Thursday of that week, he told his disciples and those that were following him three times the Son of Man must go up to Jerusalem and be betrayed and died, and die as a sacrifice for sins. Three times. Now the disciples couldn't quite grasp that. But the amazing thing was that Jesus was preparing them, and he knew full well the necessity of going to the cross. That's the uh Easter message that the pastor has uh asked us to think about, the journey to the cross. Um, for us, it's going to begin on the Thursday before Palm Sunday. Jesus had been teaching up in the north part of uh Israel and talking about the fact that he was going to die upon the cross, but he now was wanting to get towards Jerusalem and begins the journey. He had been just a little bit south of the Sea of Galilee, where he'd performed a number of miracles, and he began the journey down that road right parallel to the Jordan River, and just before he got to the Dead Sea, he made a right-hand turn and headed up towards Jerusalem on what is called the Jericho Road. And as he comes into the city of Jericho on that Thursday, there's quite a uh disturbance and crowd gathering around. And uh there's one man that's blind, and he hears the noise, and he says, Who is this? And they kind of uh just pass by him, say, Well, it's Jesus of Nazareth. And blind Bartabeas calls out, Son of David, Jesus, son of David, he knows that this is the Messiah that has come. He knew who Jesus was. And Jesus says to him, What do you want? He says, That I might have my sight. And there on the outskirts of Jericho, he performs a miracle. And Bartimaeus gets his sight. Matter of fact, it seems like there's a couple of other people that maybe got sight, and there are other miracles as well. And then Jesus moves on into the city of Jericho. Here is an age test for you. If you know this song from Sunday school, you are old. I'm just telling you, Zacchaeus was a wee little man, the wee little man was he. He climbed up into the sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. And as the Savior passed that way, he looked up in the tree and said, Zacchaeus, you come down, for I'm going to your house for tea. There's some old folk in this church. Zacchaeus that day invited Jesus into his house. Matter of fact, that's where he stayed that night. And Zacchaeus met the Lord. He understood who Jesus was, and he surrendered to the king. And as a result, he said, he was a tax collector and a dishonest one. And what he said, I'm going to pay back to people all that I've stolen from them. There was a change in his life because he was introduced to the king. Jesus stayed there on that Thursday night, but he was anxious to get to Jerusalem. He wanted to get to Jerusalem for the Passover. That's really what was going to happen on the following Thursday. But he wanted to get there, and so as he left Jericho, he went up a hill. It was a mountain. Sometimes called in the Bible the mountain, uh the Mount of Olives. And as he went up that mountain, it's a 17-mile journey from where Jesus was to where he was going. But it was 3,000 feet up that mountain. And as he goes up the mountain, he comes to the city, the little town of Bethany. Now you might remember Bethany, because that's the city, that's the town where Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus lived. And Jesus goes there on the Friday. It's kind of a reunion because Jesus knew Mary and Martha, and he knew Lazarus because he had raised Lazarus from the dead. And a lot of people came to see Jesus. Not only to see Jesus, but I think they wanted to see Lazarus. Can you imagine talking to someone who had been dead but was raised from the dead? There was a great gathering of people there, and Jesus taught there as the people gathered in Beth in Bethany to hear him. And at the end of a long day, they went to bed and stayed there. They probably, Jesus and the disciples, probably slept on the roof, those flat roofs of the Holy Land. They probably slept on the flat roof at the top. It was Friday night. We're going to skip over what happens on Saturday and Sunday. We'll come back to that. We're going to talk about what happened on Monday after Tom Sunday. For on Monday, every night, Jesus would go back to Bethany and sleep there. And early on Monday morning, he comes down, comes down that mountain. As he comes over top of the mountain, you were able to see the city of Jerusalem. And down the valley, and as you go down, you go past the Mount of Olives, and you go through the Garden of Gethsemane and into the valley, and then you start up a hill again towards the city of Jerusalem. And as Jesus was coming down the Mount of Olives, he was hungry. Thought, oh, there's a fig tree. I'm going to get some figs. Went to get the figs. But there were no figs. Tree had lots of leaves that showed that it should have had figs, but it didn't. And interestingly, Jesus curses that tree. And later on, as he was heading back to Bethany that night, the disciples noticed that that tree had wilted and died. There's a little bit of a lesson there for us as well. Jesus taught a little bit about hypocrisy. Pretending to be something and not really being. Pretending to have figs, but just the leaves. There's a lesson of hypocrisy. Don't go through the motions. Don't pretend to be something that you're not. Submit to the king and allow the king to live his life through you. So on that Monday, after coming down the garden, going through the valley and up into Jerusalem, Jesus had an opportunity to meet people and teach. In tents, living on the streets, because it was a pilgrimage coming to the city of Jerusalem for Passover. So the temple was very busy, very busy. Lots of people coming in. And Jesus had an opportunity to teach them and did. After a long day, again, he goes back down the valley, up Mount of Olives to Bethany to rest. Tuesday morning, early in the morning, down again and to the temple. This time the religious authorities and the political leaders find out that Jesus is in town and he's creating some uproar in the temple. We're going to deal with him. So the Pharisees come. Even though Jesus has been teaching the truth of the gospel, telling people that they need to be prepared for the fact that he's going to die, to pay the penalty of their sin, that they need to surrender to the king, the religious authorities are opposed to him. And so what happens is that they come and question him, try to trick him. But he gives to them gentle teaching in a number of parables. And then in those parables, he explains to them the whole idea of that God loved them and has prepared a place for them. And so as a result, the Pharisees reject him. But that's okay. Then the Sadducees come. Sadducees, the word Sadducees in the Bible talks about a different religious group. They were called Sadducees. Do you know why they were sad? Sadducees? They were sad because they didn't believe in the resurrection. And they were mocking Jesus, who said he was going to die and be raised again. There's no resurrection after the death. The Sadducees argued with Jesus. Then came the Herodians. The Herodians were the political leaders, and they didn't like the idea that Jesus was going to be king. They wanted the Romans defeated for sure, but they wanted themselves to be in charge. The Herodians. Jesus teaches them on Tuesday. And then he sees a number of things in the temple. Some bad things and some good things. He sees over in the corner a widow come in. And she brings in a widow's might. But she brings in that and gives that to serve the king. Jesus leaves the temple and goes back to Bethany. Probably Wednesday was a day of rest, and he would need that rest. Because he comes back down on Thursday. Thursday, he is asking the disciples to prepare for the Passover. That's the day that they go into the upper room. And in that upper room, there's some interesting things happen. Jesus humbly washes the feet of the disciples. That's a common practice in Bible times. If people are greeted in your home, you would uh maybe uh give them a handshake or uh give them a hug. Uh you're welcoming them into the home. It was a responsibility of the host to do that. But here are the disciples. They're not going to do that. So Jesus takes a cloth and washes the disciples' feet. Peter says, Oh, no, you don't want to, you don't need to wash my Jesus says, if I don't wash your feet, you won't really know and grow in relationship with me. Peter, of course, is the one that also said later on, deny you? Not me. Well, we'll see what happens on Friday, the very next day. However, at that time, Jesus also teaches the disciples. He's preparing them for the fact that he died, he's going to die. And so he says, Then let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many dwelling places, and I prepare a place for you. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. After he teaches them for a while, he decides that we need to go back now to Bethany. It's Thursday, and as he goes out of the city of Jerusalem and goes into that garden of Gethsemane, he prays. The prayer is recorded in John chapter 17, where he prays for you. Yes. Although you're not named, he prays for you in John 17. And then he says to his disciples, Will you pray with me for a while? They fall asleep. I don't blame them completely. It's been a long, hard day, a long, hard week. And Jesus comes to them and finds them asleep. He wakes them up. Will you pray? And they fall asleep. Jesus prays, prays into the night. And then that prayer is interrupted because he hears some footsteps. Looks up and sees some flames coming. It's the soldiers that are coming to take him away. Through the long night. By the way, illegal to have court appearances in the night in the Bible, but through the night, court appearances. Where Jesus is convicted. Convicted, an innocent man, but he's convicted because he says he is God. He says he is the king. We'll leave the story there and allow Pastor Tyler to help us understand the Good Friday story, and you need to come back next Friday for that. But let's go back to the Palm Sunday story. For it was recorded for us and read for us already. Let's look at uh what happens on uh Palm Sunday. For um at the beginning we have these uh words again. Um in order to understand Palm Sunday, you probably need to look at all four versions of the gospel: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Because there are some things that are in some of those chapters because some of those uh books because they are wanting to emphasize a certain thing, but they're not recorded in other things. Matter of fact, Matthew is the only one that mentions uh palms. We'll talk about that uh in a moment. Um Mark gives an interesting statement. He says that Jesus went into the temple, silently observed, and then left. We don't know, but I think maybe that Jesus took that journey on the Sabbath and quietly went down that road and up into Jerusalem and to the temple on the Sabbath. And Mark's gospel says he didn't say anything. He just looked around and observed, and probably got a little bit upset about some of the things that he saw. And he would deal with those on Sunday, palm Sunday. Jesus knew that he had to go up to Jerusalem. And so uh we begin uh chapter 19, where it says uh that um uh and when he had said these things, he went ahead going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethage and Bethany, at the mount that was called Olivet, he sent two disciples saying, Go into the village in front of you where you are entering, you will find a colt tied, on which you will uh which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you why you are untying it, you shall say, The Lord needs it. Jesus now, having uh a little bit of rest uh at Bethany, at the home of Mary and Martha, and the Bible says Lazarus was there, whether or not he lived there, he was there at that time. Jesus begins the journey. He's coming. He's coming as the king, and he's coming into Jerusalem. So the little village that's very near to Bethany is the village of Bethphage. And Jesus says to a couple of his disciples, go and get a colt there. You'll see it tied. Just bring it to me. If anybody asks, you'll say to them, the Lord has need of it. Already he's beginning to say, I am the king. I own everything. I created everything, it's mine. So if someone asks, Just say the Lord has need of it. They bring the colt, put clothes, their clothes on the colt, and begin the journey down through the Khedron Valley, down uh the Mount of Olives, and into the Khedron Valley, and then again up into Jerusalem. People began to gather. There's some excitement here. For it says in verse 37, as he was drawing near, already on the way down the Mount of Olives, a whole multitude of disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying, Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. He's coming now down through the Kidron Valley, and his disciples are gathering around not only the twelve, but other followers who knew of the work that he had done. And they are saying, the king is coming. Finally, we are going to see the results. Finally, we're going to see the fulfillment of the promise that Jesus said. And they began to shout, Hosanna in the highest. Again, it's an Old Testament passage repeated. They began to shout, Glory to God in the highest. That was a prophecy coming out of Zechariah chapter 9. As a matter of fact, it would be good for you to read the book of Zechariah, one of the Old Testament prophets, because in there it not only mentions the fact that Jesus would come in riding on a colt, there's a reference to a piece of land being sold for 30 pieces of silver. Hmm. Does that have any familiar thought for you? It also talks about the fact of Jesus' death. 500 years before these events actually took place. There's prophecy in the Bible. There are over 300 prophecies in the Bible about Jesus' coming, his birth and his death. As you know, I serve as a chaplain for a junior hockey team. And at Christmas, that's what we dealt with, the prophecies of Jesus' coming. Matter of fact, we didn't deal with all 300. We have to be a short chapel. We did dealt with eight of them. Eight prophecies that were literally fulfilled. Some of them over a thousand years before were prophesied and predicted. Do you know the odds of those prophecies being fulfilled? One in a million? You mathematicians that are here, it would be one to one with seventeen zeros behind it. So I said to them, as I say to you, there must be something special about this book. That something a thousand years before it takes place can be prophesied and fulfilled literally. Like the place that Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem. So Jesus enters into the city. And as he enters into the city, he wept. Look at verse 41. And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it. But he does bring judgment. There's a cost to rejecting the king. As he came over from Bethany, over the Mount of Olives, down, he had full view of the city of Jerusalem. And like before, he wept for the city. Oh Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered you. As a hen would gather her chicks, but you would not. You rejected the king, and consequently judgment will come. Interestingly, down to verse 44, and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of the visitation. One stone upon a stone, that should ring a bell. That's what destruction was for the temple. Within a generation, in 70 AD, the temple was destroyed. Rock by rock, down leveled. Here it says not one stone would remain standing. That prophecy was fulfilled. Matter of fact, in that week that follows, between the journey up and down to Bethany, the disciples come out and they look at the temple and say, Isn't that a beautiful city? Isn't that a beautiful building? And Jesus says, Not one stone will remain standing because the judgment is coming. The king comes to give life, but the king comes for judgment. He gives an invitation to all who will believe. But he also brings judgment for those who reject him. He goes into the temple. And in verse 45, and he entered the temple and began to drive out those whose souls, saying to them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers. He goes into the temple. I think maybe what he saw the day before on the Sabbath, he now deals with. For he sees people there that are selling doves and pigeons that were used for the sacrifice. But if you bought them at the market outside, they'd be about four bucks. Inside$37. Somebody was making a lot of money. And Jesus didn't like it. There were money changers. He overturned the tables of the money changers because, see, they'd be bringing in their Roman money. Oh, we can't use that in the temple. That's got the seal of and the image of uh Caesar on it. You can't do that. You better have some um Jewish money. And so let's exchange that. Yeah, there was a certain exchange rate that was pretty high. Jesus was upset. He wasn't upset that they were offering the change of money, wasn't upset that they were selling. It was just that they were making it difficult for people to follow God. Jesus gets upset when people make it difficult to follow God. He overturns the tables of the money changer, uh, money changers, as well as those that are selling the doves. He says uh to them that uh my house is supposed to be a house of prayer. Again, God owns everything. Jesus is quoting the Old Testament, quoting Isaiah, where he says, My house. Jesus is saying, My house. This is my temple. It's supposed to be a place of prayer. You're making it den of robbers. He quotes another Old Testament uh passage, and he says that uh he's not pleased. My house should be a house of prayer, it should reflect the fact that I am the king. He um continues and takes more opportunity to teach. And uh verse 47, and he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words. Palm Sunday. So that's two thousand years ago. What does it mean today? What does it mean to you and to me? Well, I guess the question would be: have you surrendered to the king? He is the king. He is the Lord. He owns everything, he owns you. He created you, he has a purpose for you. Have you surrendered to the king? Second question would be, by the way you live, do you make it easier or more difficult for people to know the king? See, Jesus was upset with the money changers and those that sold the doves because they made it difficult for everybody to follow the king. Sometimes our actions, our attitudes, the way we live our lives, the way we conduct our business, relationships that we have, that we reject. Sometimes we make it very difficult for people to follow the king. Because they don't see any difference in our life. You're no different than I am. We live in a world of dog eat dog, and that's what you do. You don't care about anybody else. You're only looking after number one, you only care about yourself. The message of Palm Sunday is have you surrendered to the King? And uh, does your life help or hinder people in their relationship to the King? Let us pray. Father, we um humbly bow before you. We are thankful, our Father, for the glorious message of the cross and the resurrection and the gift of eternal life. But in the meantime, help us to surrender to the King. Help us to live in a way that honors him. For Jesus' sake, amen.