Sermon
A Welcome For The King
March 20, 2005
Pastor Donald Sheley

Today, of course, our subject has to do with Palm Sunday. It's the day that Jesus Christ 2000 plus years ago walked into the city of Jerusalem and presents Himself as the Messiah. It's a day surrounded with immense prophetic importance. It's a momentous day in the history of the world. The day we're celebrating today is a day that God had prearranged centuries before. But not only is it momentous in the sense of its historical value, there is a sadness, there is a tragedy connected with this day, and they go side-by-side.

The King comes to a nation and that nation rejects Him, and that rejection ends in a cruel cross a few days later. So there's the momentous historical value to the day, but the tragedy, of a nation that rejects their king.

Now what I'd like for you to do, from your notes lets take the record of John as he tells us about this great day, Palm Sunday. He 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 this event is recorded in all four gospels, but Luke has some insights that John doesn't include, so go with me to Luke's gospel, and Luke is going to give to us his version of Palm Sunday. Now remember, Luke is a historian. Luke was the one who wrote the Book of Acts and the early days of the church, and not only is he an historian but he's a doctor, and as such he's going to have an insight, he's going to view the situations and the happenings that surround the event in a way that is unique to an historian and a doctor, so he adds some details that John doesn't add.

Verse 28 Luke 19: "When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 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" (most likely Peter and John), "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.'"

Jesus concludes that comment with two verses that are very prophetic, in fact, they are fulfilled about 30 years later. You see Rome was ruling Palestine, the Jewish people, but they got fed up with all of the activities of the Jewish people so they made the decision in the year of A.D. 70, we're just going to absolutely destroy Jerusalem. And the Romans walked in, destroy Jerusalem, and they left not one stone upon another. They literally destroyed all the worship centers, the center of Jerusalem, and not only that, but Josephus the great historian...

Josephus was a Jewish man paid by the Romans to write the history of that time, and Josephus tells us that on that particular day when Rome decided to sac Jerusalem, over 1,500,000 people were killed that day. Now just think, a community that's no larger than San Bruno, 1,500,000 people were slain. And Josephus tells us something that I think is very, very fascinating. Remember, he's not a Christian. He's a historian, but he says in his history books that as Jerusalem and those stones were coming down, there was an apparition that appeared in the sky where the angels were leaving the city saying woe, woe, woe. Written by a secular historian, but it was a tragic day and Jesus says that day will come when your enemies will surround you, and they'll level you to the ground and not one stone will be left upon another. Why? Because you didn't know, you missed the King. You didn't know the day of your visitation.

Now let's come to our notes just for a moment. We'll get started. I suggest that when it mentions the feast, there were three feasts that were compulsory when you were a Jewish person. You had to go to the Feast of Pentecost, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Passover. And if you were a male and you lived within 20 miles from Jerusalem you had to go. It was compulsory. The result was that those feasts were immensely attended by masses of people.

In fact, if you came from another part of the world, you would come to that feast, and every Jewish person always had that dream in their heart, some day, once in my lifetime, I want to be in Jerusalem for Passover. And if you should go to a Jewish home, even to this day, and participate in their Passover event, they will say: "This year here; next year in Jerusalem." It's the dream of their hearts to spend that day, Passover day, some day in Jerusalem.

Now, when did Passover start? Well I give you the Scripture text and it's in Exodus chapter 12, and God is delivering the children of Israel from the land bondage, which is Egypt. They've gone through nine plagues, now they come to the last one, and God is saying I'm going to pass over the land of Egypt and every male, both human and beast, will be slain the night the death angel passes over. But here is the way you'll protect your house; you slay an animal, you take the blood, put some on the lintel and two on the doorposts, and at midnight when the death angel passes over, when he sees the blood he'll just pass over and the plague will not come nigh thy dwelling.

And that particular night became momentous. Notice in our notes I'm at page 2 in our notes. And that is recorded in Exodus the verses close this way: 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. God said you will always do this as a nation, and to this day, ladies and gentlemen, the Jewish people still celebrate the Passover.

Now at such a time of Passover, as we've noted there was the compulsory requirement that you attend, but people all over the world came for these celebrations. And again, Josephus the great historian records the fact that on one occasion at one of these feasts they took a count of all the lambs that had been brought for sacrifice, and the count was 255,000 lambs.

Now in the passage in Exodus it was arranged so that if you had a small family on Passover night when you slew the animal what you would do is find another family, because each lamb was suggested to cover the needs of 10 people. So if your family was small you would get another family to join you for the Passover. Now if 10 is the number that one animal was killed for, and you multiplied 10 times 255,000, you know that on that particular occasion over 2,700,000 were in attendance. That's a big crowd.

And according to Mosaic requirements, if you lived in Jerusalem on those festivals your house became a motel. You had to open your door, and so every house was full, every room was full. Tents were constructed around the city, and in the community again as small as San Bruno, you can imagine what a crowd it was. And it was a full week celebration with 2,700,000 people. Now this is the festival that Jesus is coming to.

Now it's interesting, but Jesus is coming to the Passover but He's got a contract out on His life. We learned that there are three Passovers recorded in the public ministry of Christ. The first time that He came to Jerusalem for His Passover, He walked into the temple and He saw something that just ignited His spirit, and He saw those people selling doves and selling sheep inside the precincts of the house of God. They had turned the house of God into a place of the merchandise, and He saw those moneychangers and that really got to Him.

You see the reason why the moneychangers were there is if you had traveled from any other country, say you had come down from Greece or Turkey or some place and you had come to the Passover, you couldn't put your coinage in the temple offering plate. You had to take your coinage, take it to the moneychanger, he'd change it and he charged you a fee for it. And so you put temple money into the temple, but as Jesus looked upon this He got a whip and He cleaned out that temple.

He turned over the tables and said God's house should be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. Now this upset the business, because you see the religious leaders were the guys that were getting the rake off under the table because they were allowing this business to take place in the temple. This really irritated the Jewish leaders.

They are angry. They haven't forgotten that first time He arrived and cleaned out their business. The second year, and John records this in chapter 5 that Jesus comes to a Passover feast in Jerusalem, He does something that really angers again the Jewish people. He goes over to the pool of Bethesda, finds a man that's been ill for 38 years, heals him, tells him to take up his mat and go home. In a Jewish mind when you healed on the Sabbath, you were working, and the fact that He told the man to carry his mat was a violation of Sabbath law, and they are really angry about that.

He, not only the first time upset their business, but the second time He violates the regulations of the Sabbath. And they are really...they are waiting for Him. I mean, they are wanting His blood. And the third time is the one He's coming now and it is Passover time, but something else is added to the pile. You see Jesus had just a few days before had gone the tomb of Lazarus and said, Lazarus, come forth. And I mean He was the star of the show for that Passover. Everybody wanted to see the man who had been in his grave for four days and came back to life again, and when Lazarus appeared and there people were listening to his message, and many of them were putting their trust in Jesus Christ.

Now those Jewish leaders have really got a problem on their hands. They've lost their business. This rabbi, this traveling rabbi, from Nazareth has violated their Sabbath and now He's brought a man back from the grave and everybody is going after Him. And as a result, the Jewish leaders really want Him. I'm at the top of page 4 in your notes. Now 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 took part in this procession.

Now remember the night before Jesus had gone over to Bethany. Bethany, what you did is you left Jerusalem, went down into the Valley of Kidron, up to the Mount of Olives, and then you took the southern route around the little Hill of Olivet and on the eastern side of the slope was the little village of Bethany about four miles away from Jerusalem. So Jesus went over to Bethany for His night of rest and now He's coming back to Jerusalem in the morning, and so He's bringing the crowd with Him. And here's this crowd that's in Jerusalem, they're making their way out to meet Him, and what you have is this flow of this multitude of people and Jesus is now ready to enter the city.

And Zechariah tells us how it's to take place. "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." A prophecy hundreds of years before, and so here is Jesus coming and He's on a donkey.

Why a donkey? We think of donkeys as menial animals, but in the East they were an animal of dignity and royalty. You find throughout the Old Testament as kings were making their way to the palace to take over, they road on donkeys. You see the instrument or the animal that you road on decided or determined or revealed the kind of king you were going to be. If you road on a donkey, a donkey was an animal of peace, and so come riding on a donkey implied that you're going to be a ruler of peace, a peaceful ruler. If you can riding in on a horse you were going to be a warrior, and so Jesus the prince of peace chooses a donkey to ride on indicating that He is going to rule in peace. He is the prince of peace.

Now Luke inserts a little detail, he says, on which never a man had ridden. You see under Mosaic Law any animal that was associated with a sacrifice had to be young, unblemished and unused. And that's the reason why Luke inserts that little explanation, Jesus chose an animal, because He was going to be the sacrifice that was going to Calvary so He chose an animal young, unused, and never ridden on.

Now I'm at the top of page 6, and in our notes I suggest, Why did Jesus enter Jerusalem as He did on Palm Sunday? Now there are several answers to that question, the first of which is that He came to die. Here is Mark's account, and it's most explicit, as Jesus explains to His disciples. He 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."

Now here of course with this background He's not heading for Jerusalem to win the crowds, He's lost them. I mean the masses have turned against Him, and it's a downhill journey. He's heading for the cross. The reason why He comes as He does is now is the time, and I noted in our notes, but rather to goad the Pharisees and chief priests into action and thus precipitate the events that He knew awaited Him. Jesus knew the timetable -we're going to go there just in a minute - and He knew now the hours were brief, and He had to take action that so irritated the religious leaders (claps hands) they would force a decision.

Thus, He allows the people to give Him acclamation. He didn't allow that before. He asked them to keep silent. Now He allows them to give Him all the acclamation, because He knows that irritates the religious leaders. They say, Master, tell them to shut up! He said, if I tell them to shut up, even the stones will start talking.

Another reason why Jesus came, not only had He stated it to His disciples, but He came to fulfill Scripture that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And we ask the question, what scriptures in the Old Testament talk about Palm Sunday? Take your Bible and go with me to Genesis chapter 49. This is fascinating. It's an interesting picture, Genesis 49, and it's the aged man, his name is Jacob. He has had 12 sons and they become the rulers of Israel, the tribes.

The old Jacob is getting old and he is ready to die, and according to Eastern custom the aged father brings his children in and he says blessings over every one of them. And so here is old Jacob, he's got his twelve boys around him, he's already passed his blessings on some, and then he comes to verse 8 of chapter 49. Look at what he says to Judah his boy:
"Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise;
Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
Your father's children shall bow down before you.
Judah is a lion's whelp;
From the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He bows down, he lies down as a lion;
And as a lion, who shall rouse him?
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
Nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
Until Shiloh comes;
And to Him" (Shiloh being the Messiah) "shall be the obedience of the people.
Binding his donkey to the vine,
And his donkey's colt to the choice vine."

Now remember this is hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years before Palm Sunday and this old aged man blessing Judah talks about a colt being tied to a vine. Now I know that this is prophetic talk and so I'll take just a moment to explain it. Of Judah he said, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. And the word for praise is always used as praise is worship which is offered to God. And what he was saying is, Judah, from you will come the one who will be praised. And Paul writes every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.

So in a prophetic way he's talking about the personage of praise, which is Christ. Then he goes on to say, thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies. From Judah came David, who was the first ruler, and when David takes over he of course rules over everyone, so he is talking about that moment of being over other people. Then he goes on to say the scepter shall not depart out of Judah. Now the scepter was the tribal rod, and what he was saying prophetically, when the prince comes, when Shiloh comes, you'll still be there in Jerusalem. Now that's immense, because when you trace the history of the Jewish nation in the year of 720 the upper 10 tribes are taken off into Assyria and they are known as the 10 lost tribes.

The only ones that remain are Judah down around the city of Jerusalem and one other tribe. In the year 586-3 they are taken off to Babylon for 70 years and then they come back home, and what he is simply saying is, Judah, you'll be there when Shiloh comes. And thus it was so, when Jesus walked into Jerusalem Judah, the tribe of Judah, was the major tribe.

Now there's something else. He says the binding of the donkey to the vine. What's the vine? When you go to Isaiah chapter 5 you find that Isaiah identifies the nation of Israel as the vine, and you go to John chapter 15 and Jesus says I am the true vine, and here you have this beautiful prophecy that ties Christ to tying Himself to the nation of Israel - the colt tied to the vine.

Isn't that amazing? Hundreds of years before old dad Jacob sees that scene. Now here's a more phenomenal one. Go with me to Daniel chapter 9. Remember, we're answering the question, what Scriptures were fulfilled at His coming? And here is a fascinating, fascinating prophecy. Old Daniel is having a vision, and Daniel of course is seeing something very profound...he's seeing the timetable of God as far as history is concerned.

Daniel 9:24, and look at what he writes down in his vision: "Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city." So he's referencing Jerusalem. "To finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness." So it's a dramatic moment in the city of Jerusalem where everlasting righteousness comes. It's none other than Christ.

"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." He's talking about Nehemiah's command to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. "Until the Messiah the Prince." And now he gives the computation "There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times."

Now there's more to the vision. But take your notes and go right in the middle of page 7, and I'll give you an explanation of that 70 weeks. In the middle of the page I have written: Seventy weeks were to span the interval of the time that Nehemiah gives the declaration to rebuild the walls until when the Messiah comes, and that's everlasting righteousness comes in place.

Now notice, the Hebrew word for WEEKS is HEBDOMADS, and simply means SEPTENARIES: "Seventy sevens" gives the true meaning, so each of the HEBDOMADS equals seven years. And 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, referenced in Revelation, was to present Himself to Jerusalem, the 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 him.

It's interesting. You read the writings of historians, theologians, and mathematicians as they calculate the time from that announcement by Nehemiah to the day when the Messiah is to come, and you use a 360-day calendar because that's the Julian calendar which they used and computed from - Daniel gave the exact day when Jesus Christ walked into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Absolute!

You know when you see the preciseness of Scripture you wonder how anybody can reject its authenticity and its genuineness. So here we have ancient Jacob saying the day will come when Shiloh will tie his colt to the vine or connect with the nation of Israel. Daniel says at a certain time - compute it - in God's time. And you say those Jewish people should have known. They should have been going around, do you know it's only two more weeks and Daniel said something's going to really happen! That here's the King, and He's coming.

And Luke says the multitude, some were coming out from the city some in, and here's the parade. Now it's getting ready to go into Jerusalem and what happens? Right in the middle of the procession Jesus stops the procession. What if you were watching the Orange Parade and right in the middle of the parade (claps hands) it stopped and a man kneels in the middle of the street and begins to pray? And the Bible says He wept. It means that He convulsed. It was not Kleenex tears, it was a convulsion deep, and you see amidst this scene on Palm Sunday Jesus Christ weeping compulsively.

And listen to His prayer: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets. If you would only have known, if you would only realize that this was your day of visitation! This was the day the Messiah arrived and you missed it. Because a few days later they are nailing that Messiah, our Messiah, to a cross, and in the midst of that trial the Jewish people made a statement that has forever dogged their footsteps. They said let His blood be upon us and upon our children's children. They asked for a curse, and now you know why for 2000 years the Jewish people have been chased into every corner of the world and persecuted. They said let His blood be upon us. They had rejected their king.

Old Max Dimont, a great Jewish writer of history, wrote a book entitled, "Jews, God, and History," and when he penned one of those words...I still...that phrase still haunts me. He said, the Jewish nation has been the spiritual castaways of history. Implying that because they missed their king they have spent 2000 years being persecuted by every nation of the world.

You see why I say when I come to Palm Sunday there are such mixed feelings going on inside of me. Yes the King comes marching, but they reject Him. Ladies and gentlemen, the King is coming again. Jesus, when He went away to heaven said I'm coming again, and my prayer is that none of us miss His second coming. My prayer is that there's an anticipation within our hearts and our lives that knowing that this could be the day that He comes again for us, but don't miss Him the second time!

He's going to come for those who look for His appearing; those who love Him; those who desire Him; those who want to spend eternity with Him; that's who He is coming for. If the Jewish nation rejected Him and have spent 2000 years being persecuted, those who have rejected the King now when He comes again will spend eternity in hell.

You can't turn away from the King. He's the King of kings and He is the Lord of lords. He is the Savior of the world, and He's coming again! And may to God none of us miss Him the second time that He comes. May when the trumpet sounds and the archangel blows that trumpet, may when the skies part asunder may we go to be with the Christ who comes for us the second and the last time. Amen?

Let us pray. Father in heaven, we enjoy these beautiful days of celebration, but we've looked today behind history and realized that it was a most difficult day for Jesus.

Jesus, thank you for going to that cross. Thank you for dying for me, and for all of us, and for all the world. And Jesus, we love You and we believe in You, and we are looking for You to come again. And we are going to lift our eyelids every morning with that great anticipation - this could be the day You come for us, that You waft us into Your eternal presence. O come Lord Jesus, we are waiting for You. Amen. God bless you.