Sermon
The Gathering Storm
April 3, 2004
Pastor Donald Sheley

Our lesson this evening is a lesson that gives us some wonderful information with regards to what we've been talking about, the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem. Before I read the Scriptures, I gave the title of our lesson this evening 'The Gathering Storm', and the reason why I did that is because I wanted you to understand the environment around the scene of Jerusalem during the time that Christ entered the city for the last event. When we understand the storm that was really brewing...there were three major portions of society that were involved.

You had the Pharisees. They were the religious people of Christ's day. They really were the reformers coming out of Ezra and Nehemiah's day and they lived by 631 commandments, 345 of them I think were positive and the others were all negative, but that was their religion, and they also has oral tradition that had been passed down. So they were the religious leaders, but they did not like Jesus. And the more that he preached, the more he disturbed them because he did not follow all of their traditions, and he did not follow all of their legalism. Their desire was to get rid of this man who was upsetting their form of religion. And the longer that he preached, the more angry they became.

Then there were the Sadducees. The Sadducees were the priestly political group. They were the smaller aristocracy of the society, but it was from the Sadducees came the priests. And the priests are very, very closely connected with the Roman government because the Roman government at that time ruled over Palestine, and so they put politics above religion. Religion to them was secondary. They did not believe either in resurrection nor did they believe in the oral tradition of the Pharisees, and oft times there was a very strained tension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. But when it came to Christ, the Sadducees were agreed -- if we allow this man to go on and keep preaching he's going to upset our whole system, and we're going to get into problems with Rome, and therefore it's imperative we shut him up as soon as we can. We want things to remain status quo. We don't need this reformer out here preaching from town to town. And so as a result the Pharisees and the Sadducees formed a hatred, a defiant hatred, for Christ.

But there was another group and that was the group known as 'the crowd' or the population of that area. At first when Jesus came on, they really, really responded tremendously to him, but the longer that he preached they became disappointed. Because here's what they had in mind: It's promised of ancient past that we will have a Messiah that will come, rid our nation of these that occupy us, and once again restore the throne of David. This was their hope for Christ, but the longer that he preached the more they realized that hope was not going to be realized in him. And so as a result, because of hopes that were almost gone, they turned with defiance against him.

But also what caused the crowd to turn against Jesus was the message that he preached. His message was very, very demanding. If you love father and mother more than me, you're not worthy to be my disciple. He said there's a straight gate. He was very, very blunt. He said to the rich man go out and sell everything you've got, give it to the poor, and come follow me and then you can be a part of the kingdom.

And the bluntness...in fact, as I was reading through some of the text this week I realized the radical demands that Jesus made to be a part of his kingdom, and it was the radical demands that turned them against him. In fact when he's preaching in John chapter 6 in the synagogue you'll notice that as he's talking about when he says, 'I am the bread of life, you must eat of me and you must drink my blood', they all walked out on him. And he looks around and all that's left are his disciples. And with a pathos so deep -- every time I read it, it says he turned to those disciples and said, Will you also go away? It was the severity, the radical demands that Jesus made to be his follower that turned the crowd against him.

So he's got the religious leaders against him. He's got the political priestly group against him, the Sadducees, and he's got the crowd. And that's the setting, that's the gathering storm into which Jesus walked into Jerusalem. Always when I come to Palm Sunday I have mixed feelings, and I'll tell you why. I know that it was a glorious event when Jesus fulfilled the promise of the coming Messiah, but just as soon as he leaves Bethany and comes around the hill, and if you've been to that part of the world and visited Palestine you'll notice that as you come around this road -- it's only about 2 miles -- soon you see the glistening of the temple dome and the Bible says that when Jesus saw that dome and Jesus saw that city he wept. O Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered you under my wings as doth a chick, but you would not. You do not know the day of your visitation. He stopped to weep on his way into the city.

And then to know that those voices that are crying out one way, rejoicing at his coming, will be the same voices that will turn against him, because this was his last chance, his last opportunity to rise and become the ruler of his nation and he turned it down as far as they're concerned; and they're going to turn and say crucify him. So when I come to Palm Sunday I've got mixed feelings inside me.

But let's read the story: take your notes now, Luke 19:29-44. And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, saying, "Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here. And if anyone asks you, "Why are you loosing it?" thus you shall say to him, "Because the Lord has need of it."

So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them. But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, "Why are you loosing the colt?" And they said, "The Lord has need of him." Then they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him. And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.

Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying: "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples." But He answered and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out."

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."

In our notes, one of Holman Hunt's most famous paintings titled, 'The Shadow of Death,' depicts Jesus in the carpenter's workshop in Nazareth. It is the close of the day, and the last rays of the setting sun are streaming in through the open door. The young carpenter, who has been toiling at the bench, raises himself for a moment from his cramped, stooping position and stretches out his arms. Just then the dying sun catches his figure and casts its shadow on the wall behind him, and its form is the form of a cross. It is the artist's striking way of reminding us that right from the beginning of Jesus ministry, death was in the air.

And from the very start the end was certain. In the hour when Jesus out in the wilderness of the temptation flatly and finally rejected the line of compromise, when He settled it once for all that His attitude to the world powers and to spiritual wickedness in high places was to be one of uncompromising downright defiance, in that hour the shadow of the cross fell. And by the time of the great confession at Caesarea Philippi it was something more than a shadow. When Peter was asked who he thought Jesus was, his answer was: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." From that time, Matthew tells us, Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised on the third day.

So from this point, Jesus began to speak quite explicitly about His coming death. Direct and clear as His words were though, however, they failed to stab the disciples fully awake to the truth. The thing to these men was incredible. It was all against their preconceived ideas and hopes. It must be some strange parable their Master was telling them. "Lord," exclaimed Peter: "this shall not be unto Thee"; whereupon Jesus, realizing that even His best friends would fain interfere with His doing of God's will, replied, "Get thee behind Me, Satan.

How difficult it was for Jesus to get them to grasp the dread truth may be seen from the fact that after all this they could still go on babbling about the best places in the Kingdom, and even more from the fact that when the blow did fall it found them amazed and staggered and utterly despairing. Only Christ saw the cross steadily and went unwaveringly to meet it.

Now as Jesus sets His face toward Jerusalem the Passover was nearing. From the time of Israel's redemption from Egypt, the annual slaying of the Passover Lamb has looked forward to; the Lamb of God who by His sacrifice would provide redemption for those in bondage to sin. And the law required the Jews to observe the Passover Feast in Jerusalem, and so Christ went there at that time for the feast. It was time for the event that Christ had discussed with His disciples to be accomplished-that event for which He had come into the world.

And the event we know as the triumphal entry was prophesied to the exact day by Daniel almost six hundred years before it happened. This to me is a phenomenal thing folks. You wonder why I believe my Bible from cover to cover. Listen to Daniel as he writes the prophecy almost 600 years before. Daniel was 16 years old in the year of 606 B.C. He writes, "Now while I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God. While I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering, 3:00 in the afternoon.

He gave me instruction and he talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding. At the beginning of your supplications the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed; so give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision.

Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place. That's the description of Christ coming into Jerusalem. So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.

And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.

Now Christ said most significantly, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring peace-but now it is hidden from your eyes." And the important phrase in the Lord's words was "this day." In Daniel's great prophecy that we just read of the seventy-sevens, God had revealed the specific time in which the Messiah would be presented to the nation Israel. And while the nation was unmindful of the divine timetable, Christ was obviously conscious that this day in which He made His entry into Jerusalem was the specific day foretold by Daniel for the Messiah to be presented to Israel nearly 600 years before.

I want you to ponder with me the exactness of this prophecy. It's concluded by most historians that Christ's crucifixion occurred on Friday, Nisan 14 -- that would be the month of Nisan according to the Jewish calendar -- in A.D. 33. Reckoning His death according to the Julian calendar, Christ died on Friday, April 3, A.D. 33. Now although Nehemiah 2:1 does not specify which day of Nisan the decree to rebuild Jerusalem occurred, it cannot have occurred before Nisan 1. Now this study will assume that Nisan 1 as the terminus a quo although realizing it could have occurred on some other day in Nisan, that month of Nisan.

Nisan 1 in 444 B.C. was March 4, or more likely March 5 since the crescent of the new moon would have been first visible so late at night (at probably 10 p.m.) on March 4 and could easily have been missed. Now using the 360-day year the calculation would be as follows. Multiplying the sixty-nine weeks by seven years for each week by 360 days gives a total of 173,880 days. The difference between 444 B.C. and A.D. 33, then, is 476 solar years. By multiplying 476 by 365.24229879 or by 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45.975 seconds, one comes to 178,855.28662404 days or 173,855 days, 6 hours, 52 minutes, and 44 seconds. This leaves only 25 days to be accounted for between 444 B.C. and A.D. 33. And by adding the 25 days to March 5 of 444 B.C., one comes to March 30 of A.D. 33 which was Nisan 10 in A.D. 33. This is the day that Christ made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Now I'm not a mathematician but I find that so fascinating that 600 hundred years prior to the day Daniel foresees the vision of Christ entering Jerusalem. Ladies and gentlemen, that's why I have such a deep love and a respect for the word of God. Its preciseness. The prophecies they are so exact. And I put this in here because some skeptics disbelieve the Bible, but when you can take a prophecy and bring it to its exact day I say it's time for us to bow our hearts in worship. Amen? And I put that there: When we consider that, Daniel in vision, saw the exact day nearly 600 hundred years later when Christ would enter Jerusalem, all we can do is bow in worship!

I'm on page 5. Messiah as the Prince of Peace came on the appointed day to bring peace to the nation. This then, was the day of Christ's official presentation of Himself as Messiah to Israel. Christ was identified before the nation as the Messiah at His baptism. He was authenticated as Messiah at His temptation. His glory as Messiah was revealed at His transfiguration. But it was at His triumphal entry that Christ made an official presentation of Himself as Messiah to the nation. Such was the significance of our Lord's statement, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace. And John had anticipated, "The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." Jesus wept over the city because the people received none of the blessings that He had come to provide for them.

Now what I've done is I've gone back and here we have the chronology of the days of the week just preceding the cross. Follow along with me: A few days before the final Passover, Jesus drew near to Jerusalem, arriving at Bethany six days before the Great Feast, namely, the Saturday before the Passion week. That evening, Jesus was anointed at Simon the leper's house. And on the next day which was Sunday, there was a great crowd that came to Bethany to see Jesus. And of course, as you know, they went there because they had heard about Lazarus and so they wanted to see both Lazarus and Jesus.

The next day which was Monday, was Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, His visit to the temple, and then His return to Bethany. The day of the triumphal entry would be Nisan 10 when the lamb was selected for Passover. Hence, the triumphal entry was the day when Christ presented Himself as Israel's lamb slain before the foundation of the world.

On Tuesday on the way from Bethany to Jerusalem, Jesus cursed the fig tree, and then He went to Jerusalem to cleanse the temple. The religious leaders began to seek how they might destroy Him that evening, and that evening Jesus left Jerusalem, presumably returning to Bethany.

On the way to Jerusalem on Wednesday, the disciples saw the withered fig tree. At the temple in Jerusalem Jesus had a day of controversy with the religious leaders, and that afternoon Jesus went to the Mount of Olives and he delivered the Olivet Discourse. Two things also occurred on that day: Jesus predicted that in two days He would be crucified at the time of the Passover, and that was the day that Judas planned the betrayal of Christ.

Thursday: He had His disciples prepare the Passover lamb. Jesus and His disciples celebrated their Passover meal in the Upper Room, and leaving the Upper Room, Jesus had a discourse with His disciples and he offered an intercessory prayer in their behalf. That would be John 15, 16 and 17. They arrived at the garden of Gethsemane, and it was here where Jesus suffered in agony in intense prayer. Father, if it be Thy will, let this cup pass from Me. Later that night, Jesus was betrayed and arrested. During the rest of the night, Jesus was tried first by Annas and later by Caiaphas with the religious leaders.

Friday: Early in the morning, Jesus was tried by the Sanhedrin, by Pilate, by Herod Antipas, and by Pilate again. Jesus was then led to the cross and crucified. Christ, the Paschal Lamb died at the time when the Israelites were sacrificing their Passover lambs in Jerusalem.

Saturday: Jesus was lying in the tomb during the Sabbath, and the Pharisees secured Roman guards to keep watch over the tomb. Then came Sunday: Christ was resurrected from the dead. He is the type of the offering of the First Fruits which was offered the day after the Sabbath.

Conclusion: The week of the Passion was filled with many events, beginning with Saturday before the Passion Week and ending with the crucifixion of Christ on Friday, and the resurrection on Sunday. One week - and that's the week we are approaching as we begin Sunday.

Now let's think just for a moment in our closing, some of the details about this triumphal entry. After arriving from Jericho...Jericho is a very interesting city. It's to the east of Palestine. It was the city where most of the priests lived. You remember there were approximately 3000 to 6000 priests in existence at all times because it was of a particular tribe. So they lived in Jericho and they'd make their way into Jerusalem to serve for their week. The only served one week a year then they went back to their home the rest of the year. So Jericho was the city where the priestly people were. It was a city that had a lot of tax collectors because around that city they had a lot of balsam, so they transported a lot of balsam out of Jericho to other parts of the world and they had to pay the taxes. And you remember that's where old Zacchaeus was the tax collector. That's why he was so wealthy. It was because he got the taxes on that balsam wood that was sent all over the world at that time.

Now on the morning of His triumphal entry, Jesus sent two of His disciples to Bethphage. Passing from under the palm-trees of Bethany, they approached the fig gardens of Bethphage, the "House of Figs", a small suburb or hamlet of undiscovered site, which lay probably a little to the south of Bethany. The minute description of the spot given by Mark makes us suppose that Peter was one of the disciples dispatched. And if so, he was probably accompanied by John. So those two disciples that went to get the lamb were most likely Peter and John.

As Jesus had said, they found a colt tied outside in the street, tied at a doorway. It was not the usual custom for a pilgrim entering Jerusalem to ride a donkey. Yet Jesus took pains to insure that His entry into the city would be accomplished in that manner. These preparations recall the importance of the great messianic prophecy found in the Old Testament book of Zechariah: "Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey on a colt, the foal of a donkey." Though the Old Testament foretells the king coming on a donkey, the episode remained ambiguous to Jesus' contemporaries. You see, among the Jewish rabbis there were those who believed that the Messiah would arrive in one of two ways depending upon whether or not Israel was worthy of His appearance. If the nation were worthy, the appearance would be on clouds of glory. But if the nation was unworthy, that is unprepared spiritually, then His coming would be by the lowly means of riding on a donkey.

Jesus issued instructions that the animal was to be a colt of a donkey upon which no man ever sat. Why did he say that? Look at Numbers 19. He was fulfilling Old Testament prophecy: The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: "This is a requirement of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke."

After the donkey was brought to Jesus, it was draped with garments by the disciples. And this, of course, was a way of showing honor. I use an Old Testament where Jehu enters the town and it says: They hurried and took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bare steps. Then they blew the trumpet and shouted, "Jehu is king!" So it was a way of showing honor to a king.

Now in John's account of the triumphal entry he mentions the use of palm branches in the acclamation Jesus received from the crowd: "The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet Him, shouting, "Hosanna!"

And speaking of the crowd...you know I've often said it's difficult when we read the Scriptures to kind of put our own minds in that setting, but Jerusalem was really a very small village, probably just in the thousands. But when it came to the festival days they would jam the city, and if you were an Israelite you had an obligation to make sure that every room in your house was used by guests. There could be no empty rooms. You were obligated to do that. People set up their little abodes and their tents on the streets and in the empty lots, and all around the hillsides around Jerusalem.

Josephus, the great historian, tells us on many occasions there were between 2 to 3 million people in that vicinity during a festival. Now just imagine...we have 30,000 people who live in San Bruno multiply that by 100; 3 million, can you imagine 3 million people in our area scattered all over coming for worship?

I'm at the top of page 8. Josephus, the historian, records that on the Passover celebration as many as 2 to 3 million people were present. It's estimated that half of the population of Judea and Galilee were at the feast. These observations are not without importance. They show that our Lord's rejection and death is not merely to be laid to the malevolence of the party of the Sanhedrin and to the wild clamors of a city mob, but may justly be considered, though done in partial ignorance, the act of the nation. Pilate made it his proposal and the multitude were unanimous when they said crucify him, crucify him.

Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, "Hosanna!" Jesus is hailed with the language of the psalm. It refers to the Old Testament promise of "The One Who is Coming." To come "in the name of the Lord" is not merely to come by God's authority; it is to come as a divine revelation by which the Lord makes Himself known.

And according to Luke's Gospel, not everyone who was present for the entry in to Jerusalem joined in the celebration. The enemies of Christ were also assembled and they took note of what was going on. The Pharisees also shouted to Jesus. Their shouts were not of acclamation, but rebuke. They demanded that Jesus put a stop to this public display of adulation: "Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!" He said, I tell you, that if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.

You know, each year we come to this event and like I said when I started our lesson this evening, Palm Sunday always thrills me with a mixture of feelings because I understand the tremendous event. It's the fulfillment of a messianic prophecy that was 600 years old. Jesus filled it to the exact way of which the old prophets had said. It was a remarkable event, but that remarkable event was cloaked with tears, and finally a cross. And when it comes to Palm Sunday, I have to be honest with you, I don't know whether to shout or to cry. Because when you know the total story of what Jesus went through to be our wonderful Savior, to fulfill all the prophecies that had been given, and then ultimately to go to that cross, I think the triumphal entry becomes a somber moment in Christ's history, but a wonderful moment.

Let's pray. Jesus, we have taken time this evening to consider the great prophetic significance of what took place on that triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We're amazed at this precision of the fulfillment of prophecies. But we follow along with the crowd and we watch you pause and weep over a city that had rejected you, a people that would soon crucify you. We follow your steps ultimately to a cruel cross where there you paid the penalty for our transgressions and for our sins.

I'm so glad, Lord Jesus, we have Easter Sunday. That beautiful day we can shout to the top of our voices with joy and adulation and praise: He is risen, he has risen indeed! And because we know all the story, Lord Jesus, we as your followers rejoice in the glorious truth of our Christian faith. You're our risen Lord, our ascended Christ, the King of kings, our great High Priest, and our soon coming King. We love you this evening and we worship you, in Jesus' name, amen. God bless you folks.