SPEAKER_00: Well, this morning, Matthew 21, let me read the text for us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 21.
SPEAKER_00: Hear the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: When they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Beth Page, the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her.
SPEAKER_00: Untie them and bring them to me.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, The Lord ha the Lord needs them, and he'll send them at once.
SPEAKER_00: Now this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the full of a beast of burden.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.
SPEAKER_00: They brought the donkey and the colt, and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them.
SPEAKER_00: Most of the crowds spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road, and the crowds that went before him and followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.
SPEAKER_00: When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, Who is this?
SPEAKER_00: The crowds said, This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Every British king for the last thousand years has been coronated in Westminster Abbey.
SPEAKER_00: It started with the Christmas Day coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066.
SPEAKER_00: The chapel where the coronations take place today was built by Henry VII, and over a dozen kings and queens are buried underneath it.
SPEAKER_00: It is owned by the royal family.
SPEAKER_00: In it takes place the coronations of kings.
SPEAKER_00: It is an epic building.
SPEAKER_00: The ceiling is 102 feet tall, making it the tallest ceiling in all of the United Kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: The ceiling is covered with this gold, intricate architecture, making it one of the architectural wonders of the world, how it can stay suspended.
SPEAKER_00: The floor is no less grand.
SPEAKER_00: It is made of onyx and glass and very rare marble.
SPEAKER_00: There's even a timeline of world history that culminates in the end of the world, according to the tile on the floor.
SPEAKER_00: If you're curious, it is 1,900 years in the future still, according to the floor of Westminster Abbey.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, the highlight of the chapel is what is called King Edward's chair.
SPEAKER_00: It is the throne.
SPEAKER_00: It was given from Scotland in the 1300s to demonstrate the unity of England and Scotland, and every British monarch since has been coronated while sitting on that throne.
SPEAKER_00: The coronation of a British king is filled with pomp and circumstance, of course.
SPEAKER_00: There's literally no more lofty and choreographed events in all of England, in all of British society.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing with more tradition and etiquette.
SPEAKER_00: The door of Westminster Abbey is built from one tree.
SPEAKER_00: It's a single source door, which means there's no seams in it.
SPEAKER_00: And that tree, I mean, that door is a thousand years old.
SPEAKER_00: That tree was probably a hundred years when they turned it into a door.
SPEAKER_00: It's incredible to think of that.
SPEAKER_00: Contrast that kind of coronation with the coronation we see this morning.
SPEAKER_00: The text I just read is the coronation of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's the high king of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But he enters Jerusalem to be inaugurated as King.
SPEAKER_00: But notice what's missing there's no door, there's no gold ceilings, there's no Westminster Abbey, there's no chapel.
SPEAKER_00: Even at a more basic level, there's no dignitaries, there's no army, there's no soldiers, there's no swords, there's no shields.
SPEAKER_00: It's a crowd.
SPEAKER_00: It's a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: But it's the king of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He had better reception in heaven, of course.
SPEAKER_00: When you get windows into heaven in the book of Ezekiel or Job or Revelation or Isaiah, you see a chorus of angels singing and proclaiming, angels eager to do the will of the Lord, to go this way or that, to be sent on his bidding.
SPEAKER_00: You saw angels at his incarnation when he was born in Bethlehem in the manger.
SPEAKER_00: He was received with by shepherds, of course, but with angels singing glory to God in the highest.
SPEAKER_00: In heaven, they're singing, holy, holy, holy.
SPEAKER_00: The whole earth is filled with his glory.
SPEAKER_00: They are ministers sent to do his will and proclaim his glory.
SPEAKER_00: That is the lowest point.
SPEAKER_00: In his temptation, in his prayer and fasting, angels came to minister to him.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly they could have come to his coronation day.
SPEAKER_00: But there are no angels.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, it is a scene jarring for its humility, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Donkeys and coats and palm branches.
SPEAKER_00: It's a scene described in all four Gospels, one of the few scenes described by all four gospel writers, and that's because just the gravity of it isn't something these disciples couldn't forget.
SPEAKER_00: No version of the gospel story is complete without this event.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus crests the mountain, and Jerusalem unfolds in front of him, and he walks in like a king, because he is the high king of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But he walks in in humility.
SPEAKER_00: We'll use that as our outline this morning, a humble king's coronation.
SPEAKER_00: This is nothing like the hallways at heaven.
SPEAKER_00: This is nothing like legions of angels with trumpets and songs proclaiming the exalted nature of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't that.
SPEAKER_00: This is the coronation of a king who came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
SPEAKER_00: This is the coronation of a king who did not come with an army of angels to overthrow the government, but came bringing children onto his lap and eating with sinners and tax collectors.
SPEAKER_00: It's a king who did not come with the sword, but who came with the scroll and had it read in their hearing and said, It is now fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, this king says, I have come to do your will, O Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That is this kind of coronation.
SPEAKER_00: It's far away from Galilee, where he spent the last three years of his life.
SPEAKER_00: This is far away from Nazareth, where he had was raised.
SPEAKER_00: This is not that far away from Bethlehem, but it is a different world from Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_00: These three cities are together, Bethlehem and Beth Page, leading all the way up to the top of the Mount of Olives, Bethany in the middle there.
SPEAKER_00: John's gospel lets you know he had stayed in Bethany for a few days before this, so he had encroached upon Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He was coming from Jericho, and in fact, Matthew chapter 20 describes this journey as coming from Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: That's the winding canyon that leads you into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: What you might not appreciate if you haven't been there is that Jerusalem is a hidden city.
SPEAKER_00: It's in a basin.
SPEAKER_00: It's surrounded by mountains, the Bible calls them.
SPEAKER_00: They're more like, you know, we call the Shenandoah Mountains, mountains.
SPEAKER_00: They're more like that.
SPEAKER_00: Don't picture the Rocky Mountains here.
SPEAKER_00: Picture the Shenandoah Mountains.
SPEAKER_00: And Jerusalem is kind of nestled inside of them.
SPEAKER_00: You can't see it.
SPEAKER_00: It's hidden, in fact.
SPEAKER_00: That's one of its virtues, one of its strategic strengths, is that it's very difficult to find.
SPEAKER_00: You would have to wind your way through that canyon from Jericho, which would take a day or two walking.
SPEAKER_00: You would first encounter Bethany and then Beth Page.
SPEAKER_00: Bethlehem is over a hill to the left there.
SPEAKER_00: You would have no sign of Jerusalem yet.
SPEAKER_00: It's not until you're at the top of the Mount of Olives that Jerusalem kind of explodes in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: The whole city is right there.
SPEAKER_00: This is a world without electric streetlights.
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't see its glow at night.
SPEAKER_00: But when you see it during the day, it is staggering.
SPEAKER_00: The temple, for example, is the focal point, and when you're coming from the Mount of Olives, it's the temple first.
SPEAKER_00: The temple's not in the middle of the city, it is, in this sense, on the southern side of the city.
SPEAKER_00: So you come from the Mount of Olives, and the temple is in your face.
SPEAKER_00: The Temple Mount that was there during Jesus' lifetime is still there today.
SPEAKER_00: You can have a little bit of this experience, only today the temple is gone.
SPEAKER_00: Still, though, that wall, the temple mount is there.
SPEAKER_00: That wall is overpowering.
SPEAKER_00: On top of that, would have been a massive temple in Jesus' lifetime.
SPEAKER_00: We can imagine that because today it's the Dome of the Rock.
SPEAKER_00: Islam, of course, came centuries after Jesus was alive.
SPEAKER_00: So in Jesus' lifetime, it was the temple, but now it's the dome of the rock.
SPEAKER_00: Yet the dome of the rock gives you that same experience a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: When you come in, and today you don't wind your way through a canyon.
SPEAKER_00: Today they built a tunnel right through the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: So you don't kind of sneak up on Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: It sneaks up on you, though.
SPEAKER_00: You come through the tunnel, no clue of what's coming next, and then out of the tunnel, bam, there's the dome of the rock.
SPEAKER_00: It feels like it's going to hit your windshield.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus had, that experience.
SPEAKER_00: On the Mount of Olives, He crests it, and there's the temples towering so high it blocks out the sun.
SPEAKER_00: I imagine he took it all in.
SPEAKER_00: He's been to Jerusalem before, of course, but not like this.
SPEAKER_00: Last time he was in Jerusalem, the scriptures say he snuck in because he was afraid they were going to put him to death.
SPEAKER_00: The time before that, he sent his disciples ahead.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't want people to make him king.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't want what we read today, he didn't want that to happen earlier.
SPEAKER_00: So he sent his disciples ahead and then he snuck in a few days later.
SPEAKER_00: This time he comes with an entourage, a massive crowd.
SPEAKER_00: The crowd's been growing for months.
SPEAKER_00: He's been on this journey from Galilee, following the Jordan River.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew and Luke let you know when he's outside of Jericho, it is a huge crowd that is with him.
SPEAKER_00: He just added two new people.
SPEAKER_00: The two blind beggars came to faith.
SPEAKER_00: He healed them.
SPEAKER_00: Church history tells us they're going to stay in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: One of them is going to be a leader of the early church in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the entourage has been growing and growing and growing, gathering momentum.
SPEAKER_00: The whole time, Jesus has been saying that he's going to go to Jerusalem and be killed.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples, on the one hand, were eager to get to Jerusalem because that's the seat of power.
SPEAKER_00: But on the other hand, Jesus kept telling them, When I get there, they're going to arrest me.
SPEAKER_00: The scribes and Pharisees and religious leaders are going to mock me and whip me and humiliate me and crucify me.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you wonder if the disciples were listening.
SPEAKER_00: Because after Jesus says that, they say, Yeah, when you're gone, can I be the greatest in the kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: You remember what Jesus told them?
SPEAKER_00: You're going to do it to you also, man.
SPEAKER_00: Can you be baptized with the fire I'm going to be baptized with?
SPEAKER_00: And they, of course, say, Yeah, as long as I'm first and second.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, You're right, it's going to happen to you.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes they get it.
SPEAKER_00: Remember when Lazarus died?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus went to go see Lazarus, and Thomas said, Fine, we'll go die with you, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: So they knew, in some sense, they knew what would happen.
SPEAKER_00: What do you think they expected to see when they crested that hill?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe Roman soldiers to seize them?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the scribes and Pharisees to confront them.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, they find an army of people to praise him.
SPEAKER_00: It would have been jarring.
SPEAKER_00: From the Mount of Olives, you can see a few things stand out.
SPEAKER_00: And they stand out today.
SPEAKER_00: The crazy thing about this, this part of the world is largely unchanged.
SPEAKER_00: The path that Jesus walked on is still there.
SPEAKER_00: You have the same view he had.
SPEAKER_00: On the left is Caiaphas's house.
SPEAKER_00: This is where the Sanhedrin met, the council of 70 people that sat in judgment over Jesus and sentenced to death.
SPEAKER_00: They threw him in a pit in Caiaphas' basement.
SPEAKER_00: He spent the night there.
SPEAKER_00: Tourists can go visit it today.
SPEAKER_00: You see it from the Mount of Olives.
SPEAKER_00: You look left, and there it is.
SPEAKER_00: To the right is Antonio Fortress, where Jesus would be stripped, whipped, mocked, and told to pick up his cross and march to his own death.
SPEAKER_00: That was a notable building, but you could see it from there.
SPEAKER_00: At the two o'clock, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: In between those two is the Temple Mount, towering over them.
SPEAKER_00: What you can't see is the rest of the city.
SPEAKER_00: That's all hidden behind this.
SPEAKER_00: The city unfolds on the other side of the Temple Mount.
SPEAKER_00: But do you know what's right in front of him?
SPEAKER_00: What's right there is the Garden of Gethsemane.
SPEAKER_00: That path?
SPEAKER_00: It's not like there's different ways to go.
SPEAKER_00: From the Mount of Olives to the temple, it's one path, and it splits the middle of the Garden of Gethsemane even to this day.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a long walk.
SPEAKER_00: It's 10, 15 minutes from the top down to the bottom, and then maybe another 10 minutes to the gate into the city.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus would have stood there.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know what he took in.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if he looked.
SPEAKER_00: Thursday.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be put on trial and condemned there and put in a basement.
SPEAKER_00: Friday, I'll be stripped and whipped there in that building.
SPEAKER_00: Four days from now, I'll be betrayed in this garden right here.
SPEAKER_00: Four days from now, I'll be betrayed with a kiss.
SPEAKER_00: That's just a few days away.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't dwell on it.
SPEAKER_00: At least the scripture doesn't say so.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he sends two of his disciples to go fetch two animals.
SPEAKER_00: And so we begin here.
SPEAKER_00: The king orchestrates his own arrival.
SPEAKER_00: He plans the ceremony.
SPEAKER_00: The details fall in accordance with his own sovereignty.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one doing this.
SPEAKER_00: He's not a passive observer here.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he's going to be killed in a few days, but it's not something that happens to him.
SPEAKER_00: It's something that he orchestrates himself.
SPEAKER_00: And his introduction to Jerusalem makes that so evident.
SPEAKER_00: The details of how he's going to descend the Mount of Olives are written in Scripture and he reenacts them.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, he sends two disciples.
SPEAKER_00: The word sent in Greek is apostelo, which is the word we get apostle from.
SPEAKER_00: So this is one of those pairings of he apostled his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: It's letting you know that he's still in charge.
SPEAKER_00: His disciples are disciple, it just means student learner.
SPEAKER_00: Apostle means sent one.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is clearly the king, he's clearly the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He is in charge.
SPEAKER_00: He's sending his disciples this way and that.
SPEAKER_00: The two aren't named here.
SPEAKER_00: But he tells them, go in the village in front of you, which is likely Beth Page or Bethany.
SPEAKER_00: They kind of bleed into each other up there.
SPEAKER_00: And immediately you'll find a donkey tied and a colt with her.
SPEAKER_00: Untie them and bring them to me.
SPEAKER_00: So this is the Jerusalem equivalent of Grand Theft Auto right here.
SPEAKER_00: Walk into that village, find a donkey and a colt, and just help yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Donkeys and cults weren't, this is not a communal society.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get to borrow your neighbor's donkey or colt.
SPEAKER_00: That is stealing, and you will be in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: But they're gonna go do it.
SPEAKER_00: They walk in, and if anybody stops you, and I can promise you somebody is going to stop you.
SPEAKER_00: Guy's gonna look out his window and see his donkey walking by.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone stops you, say, the Lord needs them.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of an ambiguous phrase.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is the word curios, so curios is the title for somebody who owns slaves.
SPEAKER_00: That's the most common way that it's used.
SPEAKER_00: It's the owner of something.
SPEAKER_00: It's a bit of an odd expression for to be the, we would say owner of a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: They call them the lord of a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: Like you're the donkey's owner, is the point.
SPEAKER_00: You're the lord of that donkey.
SPEAKER_00: The donkey has to listen to you.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever met a donkey, you know that's probably not true.
SPEAKER_00: But that's the idea.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a claim to God that God needs them?
SPEAKER_00: The Lord of heaven needs them?
SPEAKER_00: That's possible.
SPEAKER_00: After all, if it's the owner of the donkey who stops you and says, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: And you say the donkey's owner needs them, that's not going to get you very far.
SPEAKER_00: More likely, Jesus is referring to himself as the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's unusual.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know of another place he does that.
SPEAKER_00: This seems to be something that he set up earlier.
SPEAKER_00: He'd been in Bethany before to raise Lazarus from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: That's not that long ago.
SPEAKER_00: Likely he arranged the details of this and letting the person know that in such and such day I'm going to send two disciples and they're going to fetch the donkey and the colt.
SPEAKER_00: Have them ready and well fed, please.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has need of them, is how the King James says it, the Lord needs them as DSV.
SPEAKER_00: It has a kind of an echo of a password, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Halt.
SPEAKER_00: Password.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord needs them.
SPEAKER_00: Go.
SPEAKER_00: The point is that Jesus is in charge.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples had no idea.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't know this was arranged.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't know this was set up.
SPEAKER_00: Had they known, they probably would have messed it up, right?
SPEAKER_00: They don't want Jesus riding in on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: That's not acceptable.
SPEAKER_00: They would have set up something different.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to see the same thing played out four days from now when he sets up the Last Supper.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, he says go into the street and find a guy with a water jug on his head.
SPEAKER_00: It's very cloak and dagger-ish.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want to be disrupted by the crowds.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same concept here.
SPEAKER_00: He has the things set in place.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone is on his timetable.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone is working for him.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting to pair his sovereignty with his suffering.
SPEAKER_00: He is the king that will be crowned with thorns in a few days, for now he's crowned with humility and with sovereignty.
SPEAKER_00: There's no doubt that he is the one dictating the affairs of this day, down to the smallest detail.
SPEAKER_00: Well, now, donkey acquired.
SPEAKER_00: That leads us to step two.
SPEAKER_00: The king fulfills his prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just orchestrate his arrival here, but he fulfills prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: He's not just taking care of the details to organize a good wedding, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: He's taking care of the details to intentionally and deliberately fulfill prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: He's not accidentally fulfilling prophecy, he's deliberately doing it.
SPEAKER_00: It says in verse 4, this took place to fulfill what was spoken of by Zechariah.
SPEAKER_00: So marvel here a little bit about the way Jesus fulfills prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: Some prophecy is fulfilled outside of the control of his humanity, like the location of his birth.
SPEAKER_00: That just happens to him in his humanity.
SPEAKER_00: His clothes will be stripped off of him, and they're going to play games for his clothes.
SPEAKER_00: That's a prophecy from Psalm 22 that is not deliberately fulfilled by him, but providentially fulfilled by him.
SPEAKER_00: But this is a different kind of prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: This prophecy, Jesus knows about from his own study of the Word of God, and he deliberately fulfills it.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the book of Zechariah says the king will enter on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5, say to the daughter of Zion, it's quoting Zechariah chapter 9, behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: On a colt, a foal, a beast of burden.
SPEAKER_00: This is a phenomenal part of scripture that would be so well known to the Jews, it's more obscure to us, so powerful to the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: So beginning in Zechariah chapter 6, it says that the Savior, when he comes, he'll be a savior from David, a root from the stump of Jesse.
SPEAKER_00: That's the language from Isaiah, but repeated in Zechariah.
SPEAKER_00: When that descendant of David comes, he's going to come as a priest and as a king, Zechariah 6 says.
SPEAKER_00: This is something unheard of in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Kings are from Judah, priests are from Levi.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot have a priest king.
SPEAKER_00: It's two different branches of government.
SPEAKER_00: Never the two shall meet.
SPEAKER_00: It is like having a senator also be the president, also be on the Supreme Court.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus will come as a prophet, a priest, and a king.
SPEAKER_00: That's all in Zechariah chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: It's not explained how it will happen, but in Zechariah 9, it explains how you'll recognize him when he arrives.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to come to you humble and mounted on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's not a subtle sign.
SPEAKER_00: That's the prophecy written 450 years before this takes place.
SPEAKER_00: 450 years, Zechariah says, when the Son of David comes, he will come on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: You'll recognize him.
SPEAKER_00: And it says he'll come being the Lord of light, bringing salvation.
SPEAKER_00: The light of God shines through him, bringing salvation to the world from the donkey.
SPEAKER_00: A colt, a foal, a beast of burden.
SPEAKER_00: That's parallelism in Hebrew.
SPEAKER_00: It's one animal in Hebrew on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: On a colt, a foal, a beast of burden.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrew parallelism means this is the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: But it's so deliberately and meticulously fulfilled by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Deliberately, I'm saying, that he gets two animals.
SPEAKER_00: So that it's so obvious what he's doing.
SPEAKER_00: He's fulfilling prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: Now if you keep going in Zechariah, Chapter 9 he comes.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 12, he's struck.
SPEAKER_00: Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will scatter.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 14, he comes again.
SPEAKER_00: And when he comes a second time, he comes to the Mount of Olives.
SPEAKER_00: Only second time, not on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: Second time he comes and he stomps his foot on the Mount of Olives and splits it in two and elevates the temple, and ocean water flows from the temple, flows to the Red Sea, I mean, sorry, to the Dead Sea and to the Med Sea, the dead in the Med, the Mediterranean Sea, and he elevates the temple up.
SPEAKER_00: He lowers the mountains, elevates the flat places, he brings righteousness and justice and vengeance and wrath to the world.
SPEAKER_00: There will be massive bloodshed.
SPEAKER_00: The nations rise up against Israel, they go to war against him, slaughter many of them.
SPEAKER_00: But in that day, those that remain and are alive will look upon him whom they pierced, and they will weep and they will mourn as they weep and mourn for an only son whom they killed.
SPEAKER_00: And then in that day, all of Israel will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation will come to the women and the children and the husbands, and all those that survived that battle will be ushered into the kingdom where Jesus is elevated.
SPEAKER_00: On that day, he comes on a horse with blood up to the saddle, a saddle of violence with justice and vengeance written on him, bearing his sword, trotting on their blood, trampling them down.
SPEAKER_00: That's his second coming.
SPEAKER_00: What a contrast with his first coming, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: On a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: That is not the animal a king would choose for coronation day.
SPEAKER_00: A king doesn't say, I'm off to battle, bring me my swiftest donkey.
SPEAKER_00: It's my coronation day.
SPEAKER_00: Bring me the donkey.
SPEAKER_00: But it's what Jesus chooses.
SPEAKER_00: It marks his first coming with humility.
SPEAKER_00: Again, he doesn't come with the sword to overthrow Rome.
SPEAKER_00: He comes and plays with children and heals blind beggars and eats with sinners and tax collectors.
SPEAKER_00: That's his first coming.
SPEAKER_00: He rides a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: He knows he's the Davidic king.
SPEAKER_00: The blind beggars told him that just a second ago.
SPEAKER_00: They said, Oh, you're the son of David.
SPEAKER_00: They knew it.
SPEAKER_00: He knows it as well.
SPEAKER_00: He deliberately fulfills the prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples, verse 6, does exactly what Jesus says, thereby fulfilling the prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: They brought the donkey and the colt and they put their cloaks on him and he sat on them.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't ride two animals at once.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be silly.
SPEAKER_00: He sat on the coats and led them into town.
SPEAKER_00: The king receives his praise.
SPEAKER_00: The crowd begins chanting.
SPEAKER_00: Hosanna! Hosanna to the son of David.
SPEAKER_00: It's an imperfect verb in Greek, which means they kept doing it.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just Hosanna, it was Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna.
SPEAKER_00: It was raucous.
SPEAKER_00: If you've heard Jewish people singing the Psalms, the difference between singing, chanting, and shouting is artificial, to say the least.
SPEAKER_00: This would be loud and boisterous.
SPEAKER_00: They're singing Psalm 118, which is a common song to sing in Passover week.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the Halel songs, which is a song we would sing in Passover week.
SPEAKER_00: This is Passover week.
SPEAKER_00: This is Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Passover is on Friday.
SPEAKER_00: So they're singing a song, but notice how they're applying the song to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Hosanna means Lord, save us.
SPEAKER_00: Save us now.
SPEAKER_00: And there's the same ambiguity here that you had with the donkey.
SPEAKER_00: Are they saying it as a prayer to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Like, you're the Lord, save us, Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Are they saying it to God?
SPEAKER_00: God save us through Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Are they saying it in desperation?
SPEAKER_00: Just Lord, save us, please.
SPEAKER_00: You get a hint when it says Hosanna in the highest.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes in English we hear that and think, just sing it louder or a higher key.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if that's how keys work, but a higher key.
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrew, it's an idiom.
SPEAKER_00: It means save us all the way to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: From earth to heaven, from heel to head to the third heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, save us to the tippity top, where your throne room is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Save us there.
SPEAKER_00: That's Psalm 118, verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 26 of Psalm 118 says, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what they keep singing in verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: Notice, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Hosanna in the highest.
SPEAKER_00: So they're singing Psalm 118, verses 25 and 26.
SPEAKER_00: Hosanna, God save us now.
SPEAKER_00: Save us in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is he who comes in the name of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: To come in the name of someone means to have their authority, to act on their behalf.
SPEAKER_00: A police officer has the acts in the name of the law.
SPEAKER_00: When you give someone power of attorney, they can sign, and they're signing in the place of your name.
SPEAKER_00: You're hooked.
SPEAKER_00: They're your representative.
SPEAKER_00: You're in.
SPEAKER_00: It's legally binding.
SPEAKER_00: So what they're saying here, they're looking at Jesus and saying, Hosanna in the highest, he is the son of David.
SPEAKER_00: He is the son of David, prophesied in Zechariah 6.
SPEAKER_00: He is the king, he is the priest, he is the prophet, he is in the donkey, he is humble, he is light, he is our salvation all the way to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And he's here as Yahweh's representative.
SPEAKER_00: He's Yahweh's king.
SPEAKER_00: All the way to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Fourth.
SPEAKER_00: The king forces the question.
SPEAKER_00: The crowd chants, sings.
SPEAKER_00: When he entered Jerusalem, again, it would be 10, 15 minutes down the hill.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's a gate right there into the temple mount.
SPEAKER_00: It's likely that he walked around the right side of the temple and into what's called the sheep's gate, where the shepherds would bring their sheep in and out, which is itself its own wonderful picture of the Lord's sovereignty and providence that, you know, when Nehemiah built the gates of the city, I don't know if he designed that gate as a sheep's gate for one day the shepherd king to enter it, but that's what happened.
SPEAKER_00: When he gets in the city, everybody is abuzz.
SPEAKER_00: You can see the Mount of Olives from all over the Temple Mount.
SPEAKER_00: This is not happening in secret.
SPEAKER_00: There's thousands of people with their jackets throwing on the grounds and palm branches, cutting off palm branches and making a tunnel for the donkey to walk through while they're chanting, This is the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's going to draw some attention.
SPEAKER_00: The crowd in the city is asking, What in the world is going on?
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there are passerbys trying to stay neutral, like trying not to render an opinion about who Jesus is, like the guy with the water jug.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just trying to get home, okay?
SPEAKER_00: It's always closed for parade around here at Passion Week.
SPEAKER_00: Can't get anything done.
SPEAKER_00: But by and large, Jesus forces people to reckon with who he is.
SPEAKER_00: You would have to be deliberately obtuse to avoid this.
SPEAKER_00: He's forcing people to think in their heads, what kind of person is this?
SPEAKER_00: They've never seen anything like this.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody ushered into Jerusalem as the king of heaven, the representative of Yahweh, the Davidic heir on a donkey of all things with thousands of people he brought from Jericho and Galilee?
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: They've never seen anything like this.
SPEAKER_00: And so the question is: who is this?
SPEAKER_00: Who are we dealing with here?
SPEAKER_00: Now the answer the crowd gives is not the best answer.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the answer key.
SPEAKER_00: The crowd said, This is the prophet Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know what I think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Is he a prophet?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, in a sense, yes.
SPEAKER_00: If by prophecy you mean he's speaking the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the gift of prophecy is, by the way, in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: The gift of prophecy is to speak the word of the Lord with authority and conviction.
SPEAKER_00: It's less about, oh, I predict that so-and-so will win the Super Bowl, and it's more about the word of the Lord says this: repent, believe, and do it.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means to be a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, Jesus has the office of a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: He functions like a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: At the same time, he said the prophets prophesied until John.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's not simply a prophet, he's fulfilling prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: He's the object of prophecy, he's fulfilling prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: So it undercuts him a little bit to say that he is a prophet, he has the office of a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: I get that.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not the best answer.
SPEAKER_00: He fulfills prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: He is a king.
SPEAKER_00: This is his coronation.
SPEAKER_00: He is a priest.
SPEAKER_00: They're saying, Lord, save us.
SPEAKER_00: That's priestly work.
SPEAKER_00: To sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the altar is the work of a priest.
SPEAKER_00: The priest sends the goat into the wilderness saying he takes our sin away, and the priest kills the goat that remains, saying there's atonement for sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's a priest that sacrifices the Passover lamb.
SPEAKER_00: It's a priest that says, this is the offering that can atone for sin.
SPEAKER_00: Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.
SPEAKER_00: You need a priest to shed blood so that you can have your sins forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: They understood that.
SPEAKER_00: He's a priest.
SPEAKER_00: He's a king.
SPEAKER_00: And he's a prophet, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: This is Zechariah 6.
SPEAKER_00: The priest and the king will be one person on one throne.
SPEAKER_00: Reigning from the Mount of Olives, established in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: That's the question.
SPEAKER_00: Who is he?
SPEAKER_00: A prophet, priest, and king.
SPEAKER_00: Not for the second half of their answer.
SPEAKER_00: He's Jesus of Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: Well, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus of Nazareth?
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember this is back in Matthew 2?
SPEAKER_00: Matthew deliberately left kind of that Easter egg for you back in Matthew chapter 2, where he says, Jesus comes back from Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: He could have gone to Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_00: He could have gone to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He ended up in Nazareth through providential twists about the Roman government.
SPEAKER_00: I'm out of time to explain it to you.
SPEAKER_00: But he ends up in Nazareth just by a providential twist in how Herod's kids ended up on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: How different would he have been in Bethlehem?
SPEAKER_00: That's where he was headed.
SPEAKER_00: Had he lived in Bethlehem, he would have been educated.
SPEAKER_00: He would have gone to schools.
SPEAKER_00: He would have been a scribe.
SPEAKER_00: He would have gone to the temple every week had he lived in Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_00: How different he would have been.
SPEAKER_00: He went to Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: There are no schools in Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: None.
SPEAKER_00: There's barely a synagogue there.
SPEAKER_00: He grew up with a couple hundred people as a mason, building things out of brick.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he did.
SPEAKER_00: That was his life.
SPEAKER_00: Unknown.
SPEAKER_00: That sets him up for this entrance on this day.
SPEAKER_00: Nazareth was not meant as a compliment originally.
SPEAKER_00: Remember back in Matthew 2, it says he ended up in Nazareth so that he could fulfill the scripture that says he'll be called a Nazarene.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, there is no scripture that says that, so you have to ask, what does Matthew mean to fulfill the scripture?
SPEAKER_00: And the best answer is that being from Nazareth meant that he would be despised, that there would be nothing in him that people would want to set their faces upon.
SPEAKER_00: He would be considered an outcast.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing good comes from Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: That's the idea.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, even his disciple, Nathaniel, who became one of the apostles, one of the twelve, when he was told to follow Jesus, he said, What?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus from Nazareth?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Prophets don't come from Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: And that was one of his disciples that said that.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees say the same thing in John 7.
SPEAKER_00: When he's healing people in Jerusalem, they say, He's trying to act like the Messiah, but he is not a Messiah because he's from at Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: But now it's the answer of the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to make it onto his sign at his death, you know?
SPEAKER_00: Pilate hears this.
SPEAKER_00: When Pilate writes a sign that's going to go above his head, remember what the sign says?
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus, the Nazarene.
SPEAKER_00: This is not like the king they were expecting.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the king who splits the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the king who reigns from a throne in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the king that levels the whole earth and brings justice upon his enemies.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it will be that king.
SPEAKER_00: He will do all that one day, but not today.
SPEAKER_00: Today he's on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: Today he's eating with sinners and tax collectors.
SPEAKER_00: Today he's laying his life as a sacrifice for sin.
SPEAKER_00: Today he's from Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: When he comes again, he'll reign over the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we're grateful for your word.
SPEAKER_00: And thankful that you are the High King of Heaven.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for anyone here today that has never answered the question the crowd asks, Who is this man?
SPEAKER_00: I pray today that you would convict them of sin and give them faith to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the High King of Heaven, the creator of the universe, the only savior from sin, the one who lays his life down on the cross and rose again from the grave on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: That is who you are.
SPEAKER_00: You are our prophet, our priest, our king, the substitute for sinners, the hope for eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for everyone here today who has never placed their faith in you, I pray that they would do that today in earnest.
SPEAKER_00: They would shout, Hosanna save.
SPEAKER_00: We know that you hear from heaven and you do just that.
SPEAKER_00: We ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now, for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, iBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: If you want more information about the Master Seminary or our location here in Washington, DC, please go to tms.edu.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_00: I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.
SPEAKER_00: But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.
SPEAKER_00: Now may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.