Sermon
The King Is Coming
April 15-16, 2000
Pastor Donald Sheley

Our message today comes from John's gospel chapter 12, and John writes, "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."

Now the passage we 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. And like old Paul Harvey says, let me tell you the rest of the story. The feast; it says that Jesus was going up to a feast. What feast? Well, there were three feasts. The Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, and these were considered compulsory festivals in which Jewish people must go. And when a Jew who might live in another country, it was his ambition to observe one such Passover before his eyes closed in death he had one dream, I'm going to go to Jerusalem. In fact, to this day, if you were to visit a Jewish home when they're celebrating Passover you would hear these words said: "This year here; next year in Jerusalem." They live with that anticipation to one day spend the Passover in Jerusalem.

Now its history dates back to the book of Exodus. And I think this is so important. Sometimes we preachers use terms or talk about things that we just assume that our congregation understands. And a little lady walked up to me last night after our evening service and she said, Pastor, I've come to church for many years but I never understood what the Passover was. Thank you for explaining it to us. So let's go back in the book of Exodus. And if you're using your pew Bible it's page 45 in your pew Bible. And in Exodus chapter 12 here is the historical setting for what we call the Passover. Now the Lord spake to Moses. Now what we have to remember is Israel, the nation of Israel, has been down in Egypt for 400 years. They went there when Joseph was sold, he brought his father later on, after 400 years the Pharaohs move along and they had forgotten the history and they made slaves out of these Israelites. And it was a tough, tough time. So God says look at I'm going to go down and deliver them. So He sends Moses to deliver the children of Israel and bring them to the Promised Land.

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. So 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 persons; according to each man's need you shall make your account for the lamb. In other words, God wanted if you had a small family get another family involved so that you share one lamb together. Now your lamb will be without blemish, a male of the first year. And 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 doorposts and on the lintel, that's the top piece, of the houses where they eat. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Now do not eat it raw, nor boil it with water, but roasted in fire--its head with its legs and its entrails. And 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, sandals on your feet, staff in your hand. So shall you eat it. Eat it in haste. Remember this is the night they're leaving. It's the Lord's Passover.

For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both men 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 ordinance.

God said now listen, this is the last plague. Remember there were nine other plagues. This is the last one. At midnight the death angel is going to pass through the land, and if you don't have the blood on the doorposts and on the lintel of your house, he's going to strike the firstborn. But if you have your house marked, then the angel will just go to the next house. You'll save yourself. That's why it's called the Passover. When I pass over make sure I see the blood. So down through the ages, down through centuries of time, Israel has kept this feast, even to this day. And at such a time Jerusalem and all the villages around that place was just filled with people. Because everybody wanted to come, some historians, and especially Josephus the great historian, records census that were taken during these Passover times, and on one occasion you'll notice he says that there were 256,000 lambs slain and sacrificed during that Passover period. Now the average would be about 10 persons per lamb, so if you multiplied 10 times 256,000 that's two and a half-million people. Now remember Jerusalem is no bigger than San Bruno. Can you imagine two and a half-million people sacrificing a quarter of a million lambs in our city? I mean it was a joyous time because people were coming from all over the world, and they were meeting folks they hadn't seen for years as folks came from Alexandria and from Spain and I mean from Greece, and they hadn't seen these folks for years.

It was a wonderful, wonderful occasion. It was the highlight in a Jewish heart, and thus, this was the feast to which Jesus was coming. But notice the air was tense. Why? Well in verses in the closing part of the previous chapter of John he tells us why. There was a plot that was forming to kill Jesus. Look at what John says in John 11. Now these verses are recorded just after Lazarus has been raised from the dead, and it says, 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. Now these are the religious leaders. And the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, "What shall we do? For this Man works signs." If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both us and the place in our nation. And they said we can't let this thing go on. He's creating too much of a stir. And old Caiaphas speaks up, now he's the high priest, and he said, "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."

You say, what is he's saying pastor? Well what he's saying is there was a tradition at Passover where they released one prisoner. And old Caiaphas is saying we'll fix that one up. We'll get somebody else, but we'll take Jesus, we'll get Barabbas, and we'll take Jesus and hang Him instead of Barabbas. Now notice it says, 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. And 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 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. That meant that before they could participate in some of the activities of Passover they had to go early and go through some ceremonies and some washings, and various things to prepare themselves spiritually for this great event.

But it says then they sought Jesus, and they spoke among themselves as they stood in the temple, 'What do you think--will He come to the feast?' In other words they knew, the whole town was humming, I mean these millions of people said, you know, will that guy come? Will that itinerant rabbi from Nazareth come? And He knows they're going to kill Him. Do you think He'll come? 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. So now we understand why the air was tense. There was a contract out on the life of Jesus. They wanted His blood. Why? Well you’ll notice this would be the third Passover of Jesus' public ministry, and He only a public ministry a little over three years. So we can find the record of what happened on the first Passover, the second Passover, and now we come to the third Passover. And this Jesus, at the two previous Passovers, had created a stir. And they had it in their craw; we're going to get Him.

Now John goes back and tells us what happened at the first Passover. Look at down at the bottom of the page, now chapter 2 verse 13 in John, now the Passover of the Jews was at hand. So we know exactly the day, 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. And when He had made a whip of cords, He drove them out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and He poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, take these things out of here! Do you make My Father’s house a house of merchandise? And Jesus walked into the sacred temple. They had taken the sacred and profaned it.

You say, what did they do Pastor? Well those religious leaders out for a few dollars, they decided with all of these millions of people coming, we may as well make this a money making deal. So we're going to set up regulations. You can't offer a lamb that doesn't have a stamp of the temple on it. It has to be authorized by the temple. So you can't bring your own lamb. And secondly, you can't put your own money and pay for your temple tax. You can't put in your money in the offering because if it isn't temple money you've got to take and go out to the money changers and get your money changed, then come back and use temple money to pay the temple tax. And Jesus saw that and He got angry. Do you know why? Because I was standing there. You see I lived in a little village outside of Corinth in Greece. I was a poor peasant and I dreamed of the day when I could go to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. But I knew that I had very little money and so I went out in my flock and I got my little lamb, and I thought what I'll do is I'll take my little lamb that's less than a-year-old, and without blemish, and I'll carry it in my arms and we'll cross the Mediterranean Sea in that little ship, and when I arrived in Jerusalem I'll have my little lamb to offer in sacrifice because it's all I've got. So I arrived in Jerusalem, but when I got to the temple gates they stopped me. I said why? I said it's the only little lamb I've got. I brought it all the way from Greece. I don't have much money sir. Sorry, let me look at it. It doesn't have the temple stamp on it. You mean sir I can't use it? No you can't. Well what will I do? Well you trade your lamb in and buy one of ours. But I don't have much money. I'm going to be here for 7, 8, 10 days. That's the regulations. So I take my little lamb and I go and I exchange it. I trade it in for a lamb that the priests got a buck for stamping it. And now I come back to the temple and I'm ready to continue on in my worship and I take the drachmas, my Greek drachmas, out of my pocket and I'm ready to put in my offering, and the usher says no, you can't do that. But why? That's the only coinage we've got in Greece. We pay our bills with drachmas. Sir, that's all I've got! Sorry, you can't throw those drachmas in the temple offering plate. Well what do I do? Well go outside the temple and you trade your money with the moneychangers, and they'll give you some temple money. And those guys had itchy fingers and I mean they charged you 50 percent, probably more, for exchanging money. I'm poor. I'm not going to make it home. I’m not going to have anything to eat on the way home. They won't let me pay my temple tax. So I give them my last drachma, and now I've worshiped, I gave my lamb, and I gave my offering, but I'm sitting in the temple courts crying. Jesus saw me, and He knew why I was crying. He knew they had cheated me out of my little lamb, and they cheated me out of my money, and that's why He got mad! He took that whip of cords and He said get out of here! You've taken something that's sacred and you've profaned it. Get out.

Well they didn't like that. Notice on page 3 it says, so the Jews answered Him and said to Him, what's your authority? What's sign do you show us? In other words, you've messed up our business. What's your authority? Who told you to come and do this? Notice Jesus doesn't even answer their question. Look at what He says. Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again. And the Jews said, well just a minute, now it's taken us 46 years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days? And He was speaking of His temple the body because He was talking about His resurrection. You put Me in the grave, I'll come out in three days. Therefore when He had risen from the dead His disciples remembered that He had said this to them, and they believed the Scriptures and the word which Jesus had said. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. Now you understand now why those Jewish religious leaders are mad. This itinerant preacher comes and messes up their business. Then He steals their crowd because they want to follow Jesus, so they lose their congregation. They are mad. That's the first year.

Well one year goes by and Jesus comes for the next Passover, and I'm on page 3 down about the middle of the page, and that event takes place in chapters 5 and 6 of John. It says that Jesus walked into this pool. A man had been there for 38 years. Jesus said do you want to be healed? He said sir I really do, but he said, every time I try to get down to that pool when the water is being rustled he said, somebody beats me to it. I never make it. So Jesus said well take up your bed and go home. So that guy picks up his mat, and I mean he's hightailing it out of that place. I mean he's healed, but the religious leaders were standing around, they're angry. Why? Because He had the violated the Sabbath. You don't heal on the Sabbath. That's work. They had the craziest ideas of religion. Remember when Jesus said well if your donkey falls in the ditch, won't you get it out of the ditch even if it's on the Sabbath? I mean use your head man. But they really got angry at Jesus because He violated their tradition, He healed somebody on the Sabbath. Well what was so bad about that? Well what they were complaining about, he was carrying a burden.

You see, in their religion on Sabbath day you couldn't carry burdens. You couldn't carry a bucket of milk or a jug of water. If you wore false teeth, you say they had false teeth? Yeah they were made out of wood. But if you had your false teeth you were carrying a burden so you couldn't go to the temple. So you had to take your false teeth out to go to church. You wouldn't find me in church, but to them that was religion. You couldn't carry certain burdens, and here this man is rejoicing. He's got his old mat and he's probably waving it in the skies. Those religious leaders said, who told you to do that? Well Jesus. So the first Passover He messes up their business, steals their crowd. The second Passover, He's violated their Sabbath, and they're angry. And so another year goes by and they're out to get Him. So they decide to put a contract out on His life. At Jesus really confused them because you see, here's the Mount of Olives, over here to the West is Jerusalem. You walk around the southern slopes of Mount Olivette and over here's a little village called Bethany. So you get from Bethany go around the southern slopes and into the city. Well Jesus had stopped by Bethany and old Lazarus was stinking in the grave, so he goes to the grave and says Lazarus, time to wake up. And old Lazarus comes back to life. Now I mean the whole place is talking because this itinerant rabbi now on His way to the Passover raised a man from the dead, and that's why they said if we let this guy go any further, I mean, He's going to mess us up totally. We're going to lose our religion and our place as a nation.

Then it says there was a multitude. Well where did that multitude come from? Well you can be sure that if He brought somebody out of a grave He's already got the whole village around Him, and I mean they're heading for the Passover too. And over there in Jerusalem they've already got the news. It's only two miles away, and they're heading out to see this man who raised this man from the dead. So here you have these two masses of people, some coming out of Jerusalem, some even coming from Bethany. Here they meet on the side at a little road. And our text says there were multitudes. So now you've got part of the story. Jesus came to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday with a contract on His head. They were going to kill Him.

Now there’s another fascinating side to this. I'm going to tell you the rest of the story. Take your white sheets of notes and on page 6, turn there with me. Let me give you some more, I think, immensely interesting information to me. I already know now what the situation is where He walked into. They’re after Him. But I also know the Bible says over and over again that it might be fulfilled. That it might be fulfilled. That it might be fulfilled. Matthew says it very frequently when Jesus does something, he says that it might be fulfilled. In other words, what was prophesied in the Old Testament Jesus did it, and Matthew said now so that it might be fulfilled. And I'm suggesting to you that when Jesus came, He came to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to fulfill Scripture. You say, what Scripture? Well down in the middle of page 6 I made a note. Ah! What intricacies of prophetic Scripture foretold the scene that we are considering today! That the Scripture might be fulfilled...What Scripture? Well 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 the 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.

Now in the course of His divine pronouncement, the old aged patriarch made these words. Let me give you the scene. Remember Jacob is the father of the 12 tribes of Israel, and it was the custom in those days just before your death as a father you brought all the children together and you blessed them. So Genesis 49 you have that picture of this old man Jacob. He's got old Issachar, and he says a blessing over Issachar, and he's got Reuben, and he says a blessing over Reuben, and he's got Gad. And now he comes to Judah. Look at what he says to Judah. 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. Now this prophecy was given 1,685 years before Jesus. Here's an old man blessing Judah. What's he's saying? Well let's read it. Now the word scepter here signifies tribal rod, therefore Judah was to preserve the separate independency of his tribe until the Messiah came. Now the fulfillment of this is seen in the Gospels. Though the ten tribes had long been carried away into captivity, from which they never returned. Remember that after David the nation divided. You had your ten northern tribes, your two southern tribes. 700 years before Christ they come across from Syria and took all the northern tribes away, never to be returned again. We call them the lost tribes of the children of Israel. But, the Jews from Judah which that comes from, what old Jacob was saying, he said this 1,700 years before it happened, he said when the Messiah comes the Jews will still be in Palestine. He's talking about the descendants of Judah, the Jews.

Now look at, let's go on. Continuing his prophecy Jacob announced, unto him, Shiloh the peacemaker, shall be the gathering of the people. This received its first fulfillment at Christ's official entry into Jerusalem. But mark the next words, binding the foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine. Now when we read the Old Testament the symbolism of the vine is always used for the nation of Israel. It’s His choice vine God says. So He talks about the nation of Israel as His vine. So we have here the vine was Israel and the choice vine was Christ. Remember Jesus said in John 15, I am the vine, you are the branches. So we have here then the fact itself prophetically announced. What old Jacob said, when the vine, the choice vine, comes to the vineyard He'll be riding on a donkey. Isn't that amazing? 1,700 years before it happened.

You know, you wonder why I get so excited about the Bible. I really do. It's so precise. It is so perfect in all of its words. Well let me show you another one, and this is one that really got to me. Look at, we often refer to it as Daniel's vision of the 70 weeks. And so Daniel is going to make a prophecy concerning Palm Sunday. Look at what he says. "Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins. What's that? Calvary. To make reconciliation for inequity - salvation. To bring everlasting righteousness - that comes through faith in Christ. To seal up the 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. Remember, the children of Israel are still in bondage over in Babylon. So here's what Daniel is saying, from the time that the king in Babylon gives the clearance for Nehemiah and his team and Ezra to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild it, from that time, the day of the edict, and we have it in ancient history. From that time to the command to restore and build Jerusalem until the Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; the streets shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times. And after the 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, 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 the 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.

Now I'm not going to take time to explain all of that, but I'll just wrapped it up here just this simple. What God is saying to Daniel, now Daniel I'm going to tell you the exact number of days until the Messiah the Prince comes. So if we can go back in the chronology, those who study chronology and those who study history, they've gone back to the edict when Nehemiah left to build the walls, and they have marked every day of history until Palm Sunday, and you know the amazing thing about it? God told Daniel the exact day when Jesus would come into Jerusalem. I've got an interesting book "The Coming Of The Prince" written by a brilliant scholar named Sir Robert Anderson, a great British theologian. And what he did, he got his chronologers and his historians and they went back and marked from Palm Sunday clear back to the days of Daniel and this prophecy, and they added up the days and they calculated 173,880 days. So here's what God was saying to Daniel, in 173,880 days Prince, the Messiah the Prince, will come. Isn't that amazing?

And you say when was that given? Daniel wrote his prophecy in the year of 538. That's 500 years. And God tells Daniel to the precise day, 173,880 days later Palm Sunday would take place. Isn't that amazing? Now old Zechariah, that's the one that's quoted by John, John says they said as it is written, fear not daughter of Zion! Behold your King is coming; sitting on a donkey. Well when was that written? 483 years before Christ. Precise. That is the amazing thing to me about Palm Sunday. He came with a contract on His head, but He came to the precise day to enter Jerusalem.

Now there's a scene I haven't talked about yet so we can get the rest of the story. On the back page of your notes now, I'm on page 8. Now Luke tells us. I'm down at about two-thirds down. Now there is a scene which is associated with the event we have just considered. Listen to Luke. Now as He drew near, He saw the city and He wept over it, saying, if (and hear His prayer) if you had known, even in you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they're hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies shall 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. What's Jesus saying? In 30 years the Roman army will come, devastate Jerusalem, and when they're finished there won't be one stone left upon another. And Josephus, the great historian, tells us that 1,300,000 people died in the streets of Jerusalem when it fell in A.D. 70, precisely just like Jesus said. But notice that last phrase, because you did not know the time of your visitation.

I wrote in my notes, to me Palm Sunday is the saddest day in human history. I was challenged. I had a man come up and he said, Pastor it's the most wonderful day. I said I wrote that in the context, He came to the Jewish people and they missed Him. And they had it calculated. If they’d have just gone back to Daniel which they believed in. And said Daniel told us exactly. If they had calculated it out they would have said, that's Him. He's here. And I believe the day in history will come when as a nation they'll go back and recount it, and they'll realize they missed their Messiah 2,000 years ago. But He is coming again.

The first time He came, He came on a donkey. Why a donkey? Because a donkey was an animal of peace. If you rode into a city as a conqueror and you didn't want to make any issue of it, just ride in on a donkey and they would recognize you as a conqueror of peace. Ride in on a horse, you're a man of war. Immediately marks the kind of kingship you're going to run. King Jesus came the first time on a donkey. He'll come the second time on a horse. Where does it say that? Look at Revelation 19:11. This is tremendous. Look at what it says. And old John is having this vision of the King's coming again, he says, 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. Well who's he making war with? Evil and sin. He's going to bring an end to it. His eyes were like flames of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and the wrath of Almighty God and He has on His robe and on His thigh a name that is written: KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. They won't miss Him then! All the world will know King Jesus has arrived, and sin and evil and death shall come to an end, and a New World and King Jesus is in charge. When He comes next time there will be no question as to who He is. So I say come Lord Jesus, come. Amen? (Amen - congregation claps)

Lord Jesus, they missed You then, but we've trusted in You as our King. We've not missed You, and if we understand Your word to be true and we should be in heaven when You come back to take rulership of this old universe, we're going to be some of those on the white horses, the great armies of heaven, and we're going to conquer, and we're going to reign with You forever and forever. Ah! What a hope we have as Christians to rule and be with You forever King Jesus. And everybody said, amen. God bless you. God bless you.