Palm Sunday -- 2005

A WELCOME FOR KING JESUS

John 12:12-16
"The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The King of Israel!" Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: "Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt." His Disciples did not understand these things at first: but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him."

The passage we have just read speaks of multitudes, a feast, Jesus entering Jerusalem, palm branches, a donkey, and a shouting crowd. But there is more to this story than that which meets the eye!
Please let me tell you...THE REST OF THE STORY!
The FEAST! Passover, Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles were the three compulsory festivals of the Jews. To the Passover in Jerusalem Jews came from the ends of the earth. Wherever a Jew might live it was his ambition to observe one such Passover before his eyes close in death. To this day, when Jews in foreign lands observe the Passover, they say: "This year here; next year in Jerusalem."
Its history dates back to the Exodus, that historical event wherein God delivered the children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt.
Exodus 12:1-14
"Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, "This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: "On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man's need you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat it raw, nor boil at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall

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eat it in haste. IT IS THE LORD'S PASSOVER. For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the first born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment; I AM THE LORD. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. SO THIS DAY SHALL BE TO YOU A MEMORIAL: AND YOU SHALL KEEP IT AS A FEAST TO THE LORD THROUGHOUT YOUR GENERATIONS. YOU SHALL KEEP IT AS A FEAST BY AN EVERLASTING COVENANT."
And so, down through the centuries of time, Israel kept this feast.
At such a time Jerusalem and the villages round about were crowded. On one occasion a census was taken of the lambs slain at the Passover Feast. The number was given as 255,000. There had to be a minimum of ten people per lamb; and if that estimate is correct it means that there must have been as many at 2,700,000 people at the Passover Feast! Even if that figure is exaggerated, it remains true that the number of people present must have been immense!
It was to this feast that Jesus was making His way described in the passage of our text. But the air was tense. The verses in the closing part of the previous chapter in John tells us why. There was a plot forming to kill Jesus.
John 11:45-57 (Lazarus had just been raised from the dead)
"Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, "What shall we do? For this man works many signs. If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation."
And one of them, Caiaphas, being High Priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish."
Now this he did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but also that he would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.
Then, from that day on, they plotted to put Him to death. Therefore Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, and there remained with His disciples. And the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went from the country up to Jerusalem before the PASSOVER, to purify themselves.
Then they sought Jesus, and spoke among themselves as they stood in the temple, "What do you think—that He will not come to the feast?"

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Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a command, that if anyone knew where He was, he should report it, that they might seize Him."
Now we understand why the air was tense...there was a contract out on the life of Christ! Why? Jesus had been to the Passover on the two previous years, and had created quite a stir! John tells us what happened in Chapter 2, verses 13 through 23.
"Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father's House a house of merchandise!" Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up!"
When Jesus arrives for the feast, He goes to the temple. The scene that He beheld ignited His anger and we have just read what He did! This action did not sit well with the religious authorities in Jerusalem and they didn't forget it.
Then, the following year, this traveling Rabbi from Nazareth created another stir when He came to the feast!
In Chapter 5, verse 1: "After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
JUST A WORD OF EXPLANATION: Many Bible scholars believe that Chapter 6 should be placed before Chapter 5. As we have observed, John does not write his Gospel giving a chronological order to the ministry of Jesus. The suggestion is that the concluding verses of Chapter 4 fit more appropriately if placed next to the opening verses of Chapter 6. I am aware that this explanation is questioned by some, and some commentators suggest that the feast referred to in Chapter 5 could be the feast of Pentecost. The Passover is referenced in Chapter 6, verse 4, and both feasts were held within a fifty day period. The Passover was in mid-April, and Pentecost was seven weeks later. John always shows us Jesus attending the great feasts, for Jesus did not disregard the obligations of Jewish worship. To Him it was not a duty but a delight to worship with His own people.
So the healing which is recorded in Chapter 5 took place near the time of the feast of Passover. And it was this healing which was done on the Sabbath that highly irritated the Jewish religious leaders. John 5:16 says; "For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath."
Because Jesus had cleansed the temple with His whip and because He had healed on the Sabbath...both events taking place at feasts in Jerusalem...when He arrived for the third Passover, the religious leaders were after His blood! And adding to all this, news had just reached Jerusalem that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, and the multitudes were now beginning to turn to Jesus and believe on Him! This the religious leaders could

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not allow to happen!
This is the background to the event recorded in our text which we refer to as Palm Sunday.
Our text says that a great multitude had come to the same feast that Jesus will attend. There were two crowds, the crowd which was accompanying Jesus from Bethany, and the crowd which surged out from Jerusalem to see Him; and they must have flowed together in a surging mass like tides of the sea.
AND JESUS CAME RIDING ON AN ASS'S COLT. Zechariah, the ancient prophet had described this moment in history.
"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9)
Many among these crowds were greeting Jesus as a conqueror. That, in fact, is the predominant atmosphere of the whole scene. They greeted Him with words: "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!"
The word HOSANNA is the Hebrew for "SAVE NOW!" And the shout of the people was almost precisely: "GOD SAVE THE KING!" The words, "BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES" were widely understood as a reference to the Coming One, the Messiah. This Messianic meaning is explicit in the following words, "BLESSED IS THE KING OF ISRAEL," which were not a part of the Psalm from which they were taken, but show how the crowds were understanding it. THE CROWDS WERE PROCLAIMING JESUS AS THE MESSIAH! It was Psalm 118:25,26. Psalm 113 to 118 were known as the HALLEL...psalms that were intricately connected with the celebration of THE PASSOVER!
Further, this particular psalm was intimately connected with the ritual of the Feast of Tabernacles. At that feast worshippers carried bundles made up of palm, myrtle, and willow branches called LULABS. Daily they went with them to the temple. On every day of the feast they marched round the great altar of the burnt offering—once on each of the first six days, seven times on the seventh—and as they marched they triumphantly sang verses from this psalm. This indeed was the psalm of the great occasion—and the people knew it.
Further, this was characteristically the conqueror's psalm. To take but one instance, these very verses were sung and shouted by the Jerusalem crowd when they welcomed back Simon Maccabaeus after he had conquered Acra and wrested it from Syrian dominion more than a hundred years before. There is no doubt that when the people sang this psalm they were looking on Jesus as God's Anointed One, the Messiah, the Deliverer, the One who was to come!
Jesus approached Jerusalem with the shout of the mob hailing a conqueror in His ears—and it must have hurt Him, for they were looking to Him for the very thing which He refused to be. These people who were praising God for giving them a king had the wrong idea about Jesus! They were sure He would be a national leader who would restore their nation to its former glory and rid them of the Romans.

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The mode of transportation which Jesus selected to make His entrance into Jerusalem has been noted...on a donkey! We have observed that this was an ancient prophecy by Zechariah.
But why a donkey? And why does John make sure we know that the donkey was young?
Luke tells us that it was one "whereon yet never man sat" (19:30). This is not without deep significance. Under the mosaic economy only those beasts which had never been worked were to be used for sacrificial purposes (Numbers 19:2 and Deuteronomy 21:3). Like His birth of a virgin, like His burial in a new sepulcher, on the only occasion when He assumed anything like majesty, He selected a colt which had never previously been ridden.
"Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold thy King cometh sitting on an ass's colt." Momentous hour was this! Israel's true king, David's Son and Lord, now officially presents Himself to the nation.
What then was Christ’s purpose in presenting Himself to Israel as their king? The immediate answer, to meet the requirements of God's prophetic Word. But this only takes the inquiry back another step. What was God's purpose in requiring Israel's Messiah to so act on this occasion? In seeking an answer to this, careful attention must be paid to the setting. We have made the observation that the mode of transportation for King Jesus was a donkey. To us a donkey is a lowly and despised animal; but in the East it was a noble animal. Jair, the Judge, had thirty sons who rode on asses' colts (Judges 10:40) Ahithopel rode upon an ass (2 Samuel 17:23).
Mephibosheth, the royal prince, the son of Saul, came to David riding upon an ass (2 Samuel 19:26). THE POINT IS THAT A KING CAME RIDING AN ASS WHEN HE WAS COMING IN PEACE! If he was bent on war, he came riding on a horse. Thus, this action of Jesus is a sign that He was not the warrior figure men dreamed of, but the PRINCE OF PEACE. The donkey speaks of peace. John sees accordingly not only a fulfillment of prophecy, but such a fulfillment of prophecy as indicates a special kind of king.
The Lord of glory was about to lay down His life, but before doing so the dignity of His person must first be publicly manifested. Moreover, wicked hands were about to be laid on Him, therefore the guilt of Israel must be rendered the more inexcusable by them now learning who it was they would crucify shortly. Jesus rides into Jerusalem, not on a war-horse like Solomon and the other ancient kings, but on a colt. Jesus deliberately de-militarizes their vision and declares the nature of His messianic rule; a rule of peace, gentleness, forgiveness, and universal tolerance. How evident it was that Christ had laid aside His glory. (John 17:5). He who was in the form of God, made Himself of "no reputation", and took upon Him the form of a servant. Not only does this action of our wonderful Savior mark His perfect subjection to the law of Moses, but it also brings out His gracious lowliness.
The colt was not His own, but borrowed! Truly the things which are "highly esteemed among men are an abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15).

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WHY DID JESUS ENTER JERUSALEM AS HE DID ON PALM SUNDAY?
There are several answers to that question, the first of which is that He came to die! Here Mark's account is most explicit, for he tells us that Jesus explained this to His disciples just two days earlier, that is, on the Friday preceding the Passover at which He was killed. Mark 10:32 says: "Now they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed. And as they followed they were afraid. Then He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to Him.
Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priest and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; and they will mock Him and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again."
Against this background it is certain that Jesus entered Jerusalem as He did, not to win over the people (the time for that had long passed) but rather to goad the Pharisees and chief priests into action and thus precipitate the events that He knew awaited Him.
The second reason why Jesus entered Jerusalem as He did was that He might fulfill Scripture. To us this may seem like an inverted way of doing things. We think that Jesus, as God, should be bound by nothing. But Jesus did consider Himself bound by Scripture as an infallible expression of the will of the Father, as many other Scripture-led actions throughout His ministry also indicate.
Ah! What intricacies of prophetic Scripture foretold the scene we are considering today!
THAT THE SCRIPTURE MIGHT BE FULFILLED...WHAT SCRIPTURE?
The answer to this question takes us back first of all, to the prophecy which dying Jacob made, a prophecy which related what was to befall his descendants in "the last days"—an Old Testament expression referring to the times of the Messiah: begun at His first advent and completed at His second. In the course of His divine pronouncement, the aged patriarch declared, "the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine" (Genesis 49:9-11). The word SCEPTER here signifies TRIBAL ROD. Judah was to preserve the separate independence of his tribe until the Messiah came. The fulfillment of this is seen in the Gospels. Though ten tribes had long before been carried away into captivity, from which they never returned, Judah (the Jews), were still in Palestine when the Son of God became incarnate and tabernacled among men. Continuing his prophecy, Jacob announced, "And unto him [Shiloh - the PEACEMAKER - 'thy peace' in Luke 19:42], shall the gathering of the people be." This received its first fulfillment at Christ's official entry into Jerusalem. But mark the next words, "Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine." The VINE was Israel (Isaiah 5), the ‘choice vine’ was Christ Himself (John 15:1). Here

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then, was the fact itself prophetically announced. There is another remarkable prophecy given through Daniel respecting the "SEVENTY WEEKS". This prophecy is found in Daniel 9:24-27.
"Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.
Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times.
And after sixty-two weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, and till the end of the war desolations are determined. Then He shall confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week, He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined is poured out on the desolate."
This prophecy was given while Israel were captives in Babylon. In it God made known the length of time which was to elapse from then till the day when Israel's transgressions should be finished, and everlasting righteousness be brought in.
"Seventy weeks" were to span this interval.
The Hebrew word for WEEKS is HEBDOMADS, and simply means SEPTENARIES: "Seventy sevens" gives the true meaning. Each of the HEBDOMADS equals seven years. The seventy sevens, therefore, stood for four hundred and ninety years!
Here then, is a definite computation, and a remarkable and most important Messianic prophecy.
"Messiah, the Prince" (cf. Revelation 1:5), was to present Himself to Jerusalem (note "thy Holy City" in Daniel 9:24), after the expiration of the sixty-ninth "seven" or more specifically, precisely, four hundred and eighty three years after God gave this prophecy to His beloved servant Daniel!
Now it is this prophecy which received its fulfillment and supplies the needed key to what is before us in our text in John 12!
AND HERE IS THE REST OF THE STORY!
The entry of the Lord Jesus into Jerusalem in such an auspicious manner, was the Messiah formally and officially presenting himself to Israel as their Prince.
In his most excellent book "The Coming Prince", the late Sir Robert Anderson marshaled conclusive proofs to show that our Savior entered Jerusalem on the very day which marked the completion of the sixty-ninth HEBDOMAD of Daniel 9.

Christ’s entrance into the Holy City was to proclaim His Messiahship, and to receive His doom. Again, and again His apostles even had been charged that they should not make Him known. But now, He accepted the acclamations of the whole multitude of the disciples, and silenced the remonstrance of the Pharisees with indignation.

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THAT THE SCRIPTURE MIGHT BE FULFILLED...I have made reference to the prophecy of Jacob, of Daniel, and also to the passage of Zechariah 9 which is partially quoted in our text in John 12. Thus we can say, at least three prophecies were fulfilled by Christ on His official entry into Jerusalem, prophecies which had been given hundreds of years before, prophecies which entered into such minute details that only one explanation of them is possible, and that is God Himself must have given them!
One other very important reason for the entry of Christ into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday was to show Himself to be our PASSOVER.
Paul, in writing to the Corinthian church, says: "For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."
(1 Corinthians 5:7,8)
If the crucifixion, which we know to have been on the fourteenth of Nisan, occurred on a Thursday (I am aware that the traditional view is that the crucifixion took place on Friday), then dating backwards, we find that Palm Sunday was the tenth of Nisan, which is important, because it was on that day that the thousands of Passover lambs that were to be sacrificed were taken up to Jerusalem and kept for three days in the homes of those who were to eat them. 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, thereby becoming the ultimate Passover Lamb on the basis of whose shed blood the angel of spiritual death passes over all who place their trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
Now there is a scene which is associated with this event we have just considered which I have left until now. "Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, BECAUSE YOU DID NOT KNOW THE TIME OF YOUR VISITATION."" (Luke 19:41-44)
This is one of the saddest days of human history! The King of kings came, and they missed Him!
But He will not be missed the next time He comes!
"Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God. Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, even they who pierced Him. Even so, come Lord Jesus!