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S1 E8: The Triumphal Entry

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Sermon Overview

Series: Palm Sunday

Title: The Triumphal Entry

Text: Luke 19:28-48

Date: March 29th, 2026

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SPEAKER_00

Good morning. Don't sit down. Don't sit down. I don't want you to go down and come back up. So don't sit down. Can anybody guess what we're talking about this morning? Triumphal entry. It's talked about four times in the Gospels, but the one we're going to focus on today is in Luke 19. So if you've got your Bible with you, go ahead and turn to Luke 19. Just going to read one verse. Going to look at a lot of scripture this morning, so I'm going to ask you to hold on. But Luke 19, verse 41, kind of our core verse this morning. Luke 19, verse 41. If you're there, say amen. If not, say wait. I'm waiting over here for a moment. Luke 19, verse 41. And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it. Saying, Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace. Father, add your blessing to the reading of your word in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. Since it's Palm Sunday, it's fitting that we look at the triumphal entry. As Jesus enters into Jerusalem, he also enters into the final week of his earthly ministry leading up to the cross. It will be an emotional week filled with teaching, ministry, opposition, and his crucifixion. We have a tendency to think that Jesus was not aware of the danger this week, that he was somehow lured into a situation where he would be wrongfully accused, arrested, unjustly tried, and crucified. However, we must remember that all that occurs this week is divinely sovereignty designed, directed, decreed, and controlled by him. John 10, verses 17 through 18, Jesus says, For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I've received from my Father. So nothing that happens this week is a surprise in Jesus' life. Now if you go to verse 28 here in the triumphal entry narrative, Scripture says, and when he had said these things, some of your versions may say, Therefore. What happens when we find a therefore? Thank you, Lori. We have to go back and find out what it's therefore. And so we're not going to dive right into the triumphal entry yet, but we're going to go back to the parable that Jesus teaches immediately before. And so there in Luke chapter 19, I want you to go back to verses 11 through 27. This is the parable of the minas. A minor is a three months' worth of wages. The reason this parable is important in the triumphal entry verses is because it sets the stage for his disciples to understand what's happening that week and to understand the Jerusalem leadership and Christ's future. So look with me at chapter 19 of Luke, beginning in verse 11. As they had heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. He said, therefore, a nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and then returned. Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, Engage in business until I come. But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, We do not want this man to reign over us. When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business. The first came before him, saying, Lord, your minor has made ten minas more. And he said to him, Well done, good servant, because you've been faithful in very little, you shall have authority over ten cities. And the second came, saying, Lord, your minor has made five miners. And he said to him, And you are to be over five cities. Then another came, saying, Lord, here is your minor, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief. For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow. And he said to him, I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant. You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit, and reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money in the bank? And at my coming I might have collected it with interest? And he said to those who stood by, Take the minor from him and give it to the one who has the ten minas. And they said to him, Lord, he has ten minas. I tell you that to every one who has, more will be given. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me. When the king returned, he called the servants in to find out what they had done with the money. The minas in this parable refer to a thing of value. It's the gospel. The good news is that Jesus is the Messiah, and we must be saved through faith in him, the essence of the gospel. The first two servants had used the minor to be productive for the king. The last servant hid the minor in a handkerchief, ultimately earning no profit. Each of these servants were given a reward commensurate with their use of the minah. The implication for the servant that hid the king's gift was that that servant did not really expect the king to come back. He was not at all concerned about the king's return, so he did not bother with the king's business. This indicates that this servant really belonged to the group of people who did not want the king to reign over them. The analogy of this parable is clear to Jesus' hearers. Through the way of the cross, Jesus is going to receive his kingship. When he returns, he will establish a kingdom. Until that time, his followers were to fulfill the responsibilities he gave them, which is sharing the gospel. On his return, he will reward the faithful, and his enemies will be brought before him and slaughtered. That's the context for the triumphal entry. Now in verses 28 through 40 of Luke 19, we see the king of peace. And we see the king of peace getting ready in verses 28 through 34. Read along with me. And when he had said these things, when he had told them the parable of the miners, that he was going away, he was going to receive a kingdom, and he was going to come back, and those who would hate him, he was going to judge. And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of his disciples, saying, Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it, bring it here. If anyone asks you, Why are you untying it, you shall say this, the Lord has need of it. So those who were sent away found it just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, Why are you untying the colt? And they said, The Lord has need of it. In spite of the rising opposition, in spite of the plotting and the planning to kill him, Jesus enters Jerusalem for the last time of his earthly life. Not armed for battle in order to conquer Rome on behalf of Israel, but humble, lowly, seeking those that were lost. Coming as a king of peace to conquer sinful hearts. Everything that Jesus does is with purpose. He traveled from Jericho toward Jerusalem and he pauses at Bethany. Bethany is on the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives. These two areas outside of Jerusalem, Bethany and the Mount of Olives, is where Jesus often finds rest and relaxation. Bethany is Jesus' place of fellowship, where Martha and Mary and Lazarus live. The Mount of Olives, that's his place of prayer. It is the place from which he will ascend back to heaven, and it is the place when he returns, he will return to the Mount of Olives. Zechariah chapter 14, verse 4 through 9 tells us this. On that day when he returns, his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the mount shall move northward, the other southward. And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him, and the Lord will be king over all the earth. From atop the Mount of Olives, you can view the entire cityscape of Jerusalem. As the sun dawns down behind it be dawns behind you, the totality and the majesty of Jerusalem is not lost on you. Where Jesus stood, he could see the gleaming gold of the temple. It's not there today. However, today, if you were to visit the Mount of Olives, you could stand between beneath some of the olive trees that witnessed the triumphal entry. Some of those olive trees heard Jesus speak, heard him teach, heard him pray, watched his tears, saw him sweat great drops of blood, and watched him be kissed by Judas and arrested. Trees have been there for over 2,000 years. For some in this region, Jesus' ministry had a profound effect. Some have rejected him outright as a fraud and a liar. Some have respected him as godly and a righteous rabbi. Others have received him as Lord and Savior. When the disciples tell this owner of the cult the Lord has need of it. The word Lord they use here is the word Adonai, which points to God, the Almighty Ruler. The term Adonai here is centered on Christ's divinity, his authority, his sovereignty. The word in its root means master, ruler, owner, Lord. And when it's applied to God, it emphasized his supreme dominion over creation and his people. The owners of the cult didn't put up a defense or anything. They knew exactly who Adonai was. Then in verses 35 through 38, we see the crowd's reception. And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. And as he was drawing near, already on the way down the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. As Jesus leaves Bethany, comes down from the Mount of Olives, he's traveling towards the eastern gate. In Hebrew, the eastern gate is known as the gate of mercy. In Arabic, it's known as the gate of salvation. And it's on this day, this triumphant day, that Jesus is offering mercy and salvation to Jerusalem. Mercy and salvation to Israel. Where he has chosen to enter Jerusalem has been planned by him in order to be the backdrop for his offer of peace to the people. Much of Israel was so immersed in their desire to be loosed from Roman oppression that they could only myopically consider that Jesus is an earthly king coming to save them. There were some who may have acknowledged him as Messiah, but in the main, they only saw him as a savior who would save them from Roman oppression. However, conquering kings don't ride on donkeys. They ride on horses. Jesus, in fulfillment of the prophecy concerning himself, prophetically rides into Jerusalem on a colt, the foal of a donkey. As is evident, the crowds and the owners of the colt understood the symbolism behind what he was doing. Jesus was fulfilling Zachariah's prophecy in chapter 9, verse 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation as he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of the donkey. Jesus advanced down the side of the Mount of Olives towards the city and was praised by the crowd as their Messiah. The act of spreading their cloaks on the road in front of Jesus was a sign of respect. The whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God for all the miracles that they had seen. These believers quoted from Psalm 118, which is a messianic psalm of praise. And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. He answered. Since the Pharisees understood that the people were hailing Jesus as the king, as the Messiah, they told Jesus to rebuke them and tell them to stop. For the most part, the keepers of Judaism, the religious leaders and their followers, had turned from God, following man-made traditions and customs. The leaders of Judaism were keeping the people from coming to Christ. They were the dissenting voices of their day. They denounced the Son of God. They were the ones who slanderously said he was a blasphemer, that he was demon-possessed, that he associated with sinners. These were ones that Paul referred to in Romans 1 verse 18 as those who suppressed the truth in their unrighteousness. They did all they could do to keep the people from coming to Christ. During this week, Matthew tells us in Matthew 23, Jesus tells the scribes and the Pharisees, he calls them hypocrites. For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces, for you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Therefore, God's eternal judgment was already upon many of them. Many of them. There will be no circumstance. There will be no crowds of support. Just people chanting, crucify him. Crucify him. All those who support him here in the triumphal entry will be silent. From that cross, Jesus will cry out with a loud voice and yield up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple will be torn in two from top to bottom. And the earth will shake, and the rocks will split. The crowds will be silent, but the rocks will cry out at his crucifixion. Even though Jesus is not riding into Jerusalem to overthrow Rome, this is a victory parade. A victory parade that will end in his crucifixion and death. But a parade nonetheless that will demonstrate victory over sin, hell, death, and the grave. Many in Jerusalem wanted to be saved from the heavy boot of Roman oppression. And that's where they thought their peace would come from. They thought a change of circumstance would bring lasting peace. They thought a change of government would bring lasting peace. During this week, Jesus will say, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, do I give to you? You see, in Christ's kingdom, peace is not the absence of conflict, it's the presence of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, in your life. Peace only comes from a right relationship with God the Father that has provided through faith in God the Son. Jesus was teaching them that any oppression that you may encounter from the outside is no match for the oppression of unconfessed sin on the inside. And that's the king of peace. He's offering peace to Jerusalem, humble, lowly, on a donkey. If you want peace, turn to me, he says. Then we see the king of compassion, verses 41 through 44. And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace. But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you, and surround you, and hem you on every side, 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. Not know the time of your visitation. When we look at verses 41 through 44, there's a passage in Exodus 34 that perfectly explains Christ, who is truly God and truly man. Exodus 34, 6 through 7, God tells Moses, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. You may have looked at verse 41 and said, Why did he weep? John answers that in John chapter 1, verse 11. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. The majority of his own people, Israel, had outright rejected him. These are the people who were they were adopted by God, they'd seen God's glory, they had God's covenant, they had the law, they had the worship, they had the promises, they had the patriarchs, they were descended from the Abrahamic race according to the flesh. Christ had come from them. If they had embraced the significance of this day, the nation would have experienced a true inner peace with God, which is what they were truly longing for. Not release from Roman oppression, but inner peace that comes with a right relationship with God. But Jesus is weeping here because for many of them, he knew if they continued to reject his offer of salvation, what was coming? Around 70 A.D., the Jews of Jerusalem revolted against Nero because they wouldn't call him a god. Nero sends his general Vespasian to subdue all Israel. The siege of Jerusalem begins in the spring of 70 AD by Vespasian's son Titus. On July 17th, the daily sacrifices were interrupted. Titus desired to spare the temple if only the Jews would stop their resistance. But the providence of God directed otherwise. The destruction of the temple occurred on the Jewish Sabbath, August 10th, 70 AD. And ever since, no sacrifice has been offered up to God on Jewish altars. In all, 1.3 million Jews died. Jesus rejected Jerusalem because Jerusalem rejected Jesus. Verse 44. And tear you down to the ground, you and your children with you. You and your children with you. Because many of the adults in religious leadership in Israel denounced Jesus as the Messiah and Savior, it had a profound effect on their children as well. Parents labor much to make sure their children learn their reading, their writing, and arithmetic, but far too often go lax when it comes to religion. Let me put it this way: as parents, we need to do all we can to give our children the best possible chance at a spirit-filled, sanctified life in Jesus Christ. We can bring them to church, we can bring them to Iwanas, we can bring them to VBBS, but the most important question is: are we bringing them to Jesus? There's no greater privilege in a parent's life but leading their children to Christ. But the Jewish leadership, the fathers, the mothers, they refuse to teach their children the truth about salvation, and they were not proactively leading them to Jesus. They might as well have just handed them over to Titus themselves. And from many pulpits in America, including this one, people are warned that judgment's coming, that Christ is going to return, and he will judge men, women, boys, and girls for their sinful ways and rebellious rejection of God's offer of salvation through Jesus Christ. For many today, Jesus is an interruption, Jesus is an inconvenience, Jesus is in consequenza. That's why he weeps. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers. 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. At the beginning of his ministry, when he first came to Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple and cleansed it there. Three years later, the corruption is back in the temple, and for the second time, he's driving out the corrupters. He's expelling them with physical violence. That's what the term tribe means. In John 2, when we see him first come to Jerusalem, he drives them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen, pours out the coins of the money changers, overturns their tables, and he tells those who are selling pigeons, take these things away, do not make my father's house a house of trade. As he entered Jerusalem, the people and the leaders would have expected him to cleanse Pilate's house. They would have expected him to go to Herod's house. They would have never expected him to come to the temple, the very seat of the worship of Yahweh, and cleanse his house. Jesus' issue with Jerusalem was not Roman occupation, it was religious corruption. This would be like Jesus riding into Tampa, and we're expecting him to clean out the bad places on Del Mavery, but he stops at the church first. Peter said, it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome of those who do not obey the gospel of God? And being Messiah, it makes perfect sense that he would bring ceremonial cleanness to the temple and to the nation. Jesus here quotes from Isaiah 56 and Jeremiah 7 as he was driving out the people who were selling in the temple. They were swapping acceptable sacrificial animals for bad ones. All this led the people into formalism. You could travel to the temple, buy an animal, have it offered as a sacrifice, and without having anything to do with the animal. It's almost like sacrifice by proxy. They were charging exorbitant fees to exchange foreign money for shekels, making the temple a den of robbers. And the worst part about it is they were doing it all in the court of the Gentiles, where devout Gentiles would come and pray, that's where they were doing all the commerce and stealing from the people and defaming the sacrifice. So in the triumphal entry, we see the king of peace, we see the king of compassion, and we see the king of purity. How do we summarize these three pictures? Israel wanted peace. They wanted to be out from the heavy boot of Roman oppression, but that was not the peace they needed. For there to be any genuine peace, Jesus knew that someone must have a right relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ the Son. There has to be righteousness. You have to be rightly related to God through Jesus. James says in James 4, draw near to God, he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. Isaiah says in chapter 32, verse 17, and the effect of righteousness will be peace. And the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. Israel wanted peace. Like Israel, we need peace with God the Father through a right relationship with Him that only comes by trusting in Jesus Christ to be rescued from the eternal punishment due for our transgressions. But for there to be any genuine peace, there also must be purity. There must be purity in the life of the believer. Purity that only comes from a right relationship with God the Father. Purity in Scripture means devoted to Christ, striving for holiness. Close with Philippians 4, 8 through 9. Paul said, finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. So on this triumphal entry day, do you have peace with God? Have you trusted in Jesus Christ alone to be saved from God's wrath on your sin? I trust that you have.