Remembering a special day that occurred over 2,000 years ago, around 2,000 years ago rather, in the city of Israel, in the city of Jerusalem, in the nation of Israel, who would turn with me to Matthew’s Gospel. In Matthew chapter 21, I want to read about Jesus entering Jerusalem at the beginning of Passover. This morning I’m going to be setting some background.
I’m going to read the text first of his entry, and then I’m going to give you some background into the events leading up to this, the events that occurred during this, and the events that immediately transpired after he entered Jerusalem. To begin, let’s just start with Matthew 21:1-6.
And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples,
2 Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me.
3 And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.
4 All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.
6 And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them,
Let’s just bow and pray.
Father, I pray that you just speak to us through your word this morning, and Father, help us to understand the truths that we’re looking at. Help us understand the significance and the importance of the hour in which we’re studying about. And Lord, help us as it touched lives, as Jesus touched lives back then, and he touched lives this morning. Lord, may we see that we have the right attitude and reason for coming to worship even this day. And may we call upon the name of the Lord as our Redeemer and Savior, the one who is not only the one who created all things, and redeems us out of sin, sustains our lives, but shall come and judge all things. Lord, help us to understand the truth that is contained within the passages that we’re going to look at this morning. Just ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
As I mentioned, you cannot understand fully what was going on if you just read this passage itself. I want to tell you, and we don’t have time this morning to go and read all of the scriptures, so I’m going to tell you some of them, and we’ll look and read a few of them. But it transpired up to this moment in history. Jesus, prior to this Passover season, had been in the northern portion of Israel, and he had come up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover with his disciples.
But more significantly than that, the whole time they came, all the way up at Caesarea Philippi area, and then the area where Jesus had his base and ministry, all the way through the Galilee region up to Mount Zion. Jesus, as he walked with his disciples, and those of you who were here on Wednesday night, we studied that he told them, not once, not twice, but three times during that trek, I’m going to Jerusalem. I’m going to be tried by the Pharisees and the priests.
They’re going to beat me. They’re going to crucify me. I will die, but I will rise again. He told them that on three occasions that are recorded in scripture as they traveled. They didn’t hear what he said three times. Because they get to this particular moment, and they’re still not understanding the significance of it.
But I also want to just share briefly two events that happened before he even entered Jerusalem. Prior to his entering Jerusalem, this would have been the first day of the week, it would have been Sunday. Prior to that, at the end of the previous week, he had gone to Mary and Martha and Lazarus’ house.
At the bequest of Mary and Martha, because Lazarus had died. And the thing is, Jesus took his time in getting there. It says that he was aware of what had transpired. But by the time he got there, Lazarus was dead. Not only was he dead, but they had anointed his body and they had placed it in the tomb. Jesus comes, and Martha says, if you’d only been here, you’d be alive.
And Jesus said, where is he buried? They took him out there, and Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. Why? Because he saw the reality of death, not only on one that he cared for deeply, but how it impacted all that were around. And then Jesus did an amazing thing. He said, Lazarus, come forth! Lazarus came out, alive. He said, remove the bandages, the wrappings. And they removed him.
And it says that he stayed there with Mary and Martha and Lazarus. An amazing thing had happened, a miracle. No ordinary man could do what Jesus had just done.
And as he had done this, he revealed to all those present who he was. If they just had listened to the Scriptures, they would know that he was God come in the flesh. That he was the Messiah that had come.
And that his main purpose was not to deliver them from Rome, but to deliver them from sin and death. I want to talk about a little second incident. From there, the Scriptures tell us that they went to Jericho.
And as they got to Jericho, the crowds began to gather. And they began to cry out and praise Jesus. But it talks about the fact that in Matthew’s Gospel it says two, and in the other Gospels it says one.
And I was listening to a man and he says, this is not a contradiction. The other emphasis gives the name of one. And the two doesn’t give names.
But the thing is, they were men that were blind and could not see. And they heard that Jesus was there and they cried out for him to heal them that they could see. And I want you to understand the response of the people.
Matthew 20:29-34
“And behold, two blind men sitting by the way, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. And the multitude rebuked them.”
I want you to see that. The multitude rebuked them. They were praising Jesus, but the rebuking them needs his help. It gives you a little insight into the motivation in their hearts.
But I also want you to see what Jesus did. And the multitude rebuked them because they could hold their peace. “But they cried the more, saying, Have mercy upon us, O Lord, thou Son of David. And Jesus stood still and called them and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you? And they said unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. And Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight and they followed him.”
I want you to see something. This miracle wasn’t by chance. Nothing of God is by accident or chance.
These men had been blind, but when Jesus touched them, they could see. Jesus was going to enter the city of Jerusalem, and the people there, to a large extent, would be blind to who he really was. And those that should have known the most were the ones who could see the least, and could see nothing.
And that would be the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the scribes. Those that claimed to be the great spiritual leaders that were looking out for the spiritual welfare of the nation of Israel, yet they were leading them into greater and greater darkness. So Jesus enters the city.
Now, the manner in which he entered was in fulfillment of the prophets who had said that he would enter riding upon the foal of an ass. This is not the standard way of a conquering king. If you look at what was going on in the Roman Empire at this particular time, you saw when there was a king who conquered how he entered a city.
Because the Romans, when they conquered, the conquering general, or if Caesar was there himself, they would enter the city upon the most beautiful, strongest stallion that they could find. A war horse that would show the people they were the conqueror. And Jesus is riding on a donkey.
I want to tell you that donkey was a symbol, as the scriptures say, of meekness and humility. You don’t fight many wars on a donkey. But Jesus was coming for a totally different purpose than fighting the Romans.
And he entered meekly and humbly. But I want you to see how the people received him. And it’s very interesting.
What was he coming to celebrate? He was coming to celebrate the Passover. What was the Passover in remembrance of and what was it pointing to? Well, the Passover season, if you go back and read in the book of Genesis, and then Exodus, you will see that the Passover season is found beginning in the book of Exodus when Moses is called to deliver the people out of the land of Egypt. The nation of Israel had gone into Egypt to escape a famine during the time when Joseph and his family consisted of, the scriptures tell us, 70 souls.
They had been in Egypt for a little over 400 years. And during that time, God had done a miraculous thing in the lives of the house of Joseph, in the house of Jacob, in the house of Isaac and Abraham. He had transformed 70 people into a mighty nation.
But this nation stood helpless under the thumb of a world system that was orchestrated by Pharaoh but was motivated by Satan. And this world system was trying to prevent Israel from serving her God. And Moses had been called because the time was ready for God to deliver Israel out of Egypt and bring them into the promised land.
And if you remember the account in the book of Exodus and read what happened with Pharaoh, Pharaoh had a hard heart. And Moses went to him. And the thing is, Pharaoh would have known who Moses was.
Because 40 years earlier, Moses had been training in the same schools as Pharaoh. And many historians believe that Moses, who had been adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh, was being trained to perhaps have the position of Pharaoh himself. And now he stands in front of Pharaoh as the one who is there to lead Israel out of Egypt.
Pharaoh does not want to listen to Moses. Why? The nation of Israel had given Pharaoh a lot of free work. They were slaves.
And the Egyptians had this marvelous building program where they were building monuments to themselves. And Pharaohs would build them for themselves. They had the pyramids.
They had other structures that needed to be constructed. And the Israelites were the ones doing all the heavy lifting and not getting paid. Moses comes and says, The Lord has said, let my people go.
There are ten trials or ten times that God brings things against Pharaoh. But they’re really against the gods of Egypt. And at the end of every time that a pestilence comes, Pharaoh says he’ll let them go, but then he changes his mind.
And the scriptures tell him he hardens his heart, and he hardens his heart, and he hardens his heart. And finally the Lord says, I’ll harden your heart for you. And he hardens Pharaoh’s heart.
But the last plague that is brought upon Egypt is against Pharaoh himself. Because the firstborn of every man and animal in the land of Egypt is going to die. Pharaoh’s son is the next Pharaoh.
Pharaoh is viewed as God by the Egyptians. His son is the next God. But God is saying, your son will die.
And there’s not a thing you can do about it. But he tells the Israelites, your children do not have to die. I want you to take the blood of a lamb, and you’re to sacrifice this lamb and take its blood and put it on the doorposts and lintels of your house.
And the angel of death shall pass over every house that has the blood upon it. That’s what happened. The Israelites did that.
Passover is the Passover meal. And everything designed in the Passover meal is to remember and remind them of that day when God delivered them out from the land of Egypt. But really delivered them out from under a world system that desired to control, manipulate, and destroy them into a relationship with the true and the living God, and would bring them into a promised land.
But this was a picture of something greater to come. Because this lamb of the Passover would end up being the Messiah that God would send that He promised way back when Adam first sinned, when He said that the seed of woman would crush the serpent’s head, and this Messiah would come, and at this moment in history, the beginning of this final crushing was going to occur as Jesus began to enter into Jerusalem on that Passover week. And He’d come to destroy the hold of sin and death over mankind, and that by His blood, if you placed His blood on your life, the judgment that was meant for this world would pass over you.
This was at the heart of Christ’s coming. Now I want you to go back and think about what was happening that day, and what the Scriptures tell us. It says the multitudes were filled with great anticipation.
There were cheers and cries going out, and they were crying, Hosanna! Hosanna! The Son of David! Save us! The word Hosanna really means, save us now, or deliver us. But I want you to see, they didn’t understand the right deliverance. And the Scriptures give us some pictures that indicate why that may be.
The first thing the people did is they went out and they cut down palm branches. That’s why it’s referred to as Palm Sunday. We talk about Palm Sunday.
Some churches will put up palm branches. But what celebration were they celebrating? They were celebrating Passover. If you look at the Jewish celebrations, there’s a celebration where palm branches are used.
And it’s a celebration of tabernacles. It’s a celebration that occurs months after Passover. And it’s a reference to the Lord coming to tabernacle with His people.
There used to be a Jewish synagogue. I don’t think that they meet anymore. But it’s right down the street here.
And during the fall, during the Feast of Tabernacles, they would build a little tabernacle in the front of the Jewish synagogue. And it would look much like it’s described in Scripture. And it wasn’t quite the same because they didn’t have quite the right stuff here.
But they built it to remind them that it was the season of tabernacles and that God had said He would come to tabernacle with His people. And during that Feast of Tabernacles, part of it is palm branches. Palm branches aren’t a part of the Passover.
A tabernacle is not part of the Passover. What was the Passover? I just explained to you what the Passover was. The Passover was a remembrance of a sacrifice that had been given in their half to deliver them from out of the control of this world and from death into a new life.
And it was a foretelling of the Messiah who had come to do the same thing. Deliver them from the control of this world in their lives. Cover their sin that they could be a new creature in Christ.
Come and walk with Him. And that was what the Passover was to do. To remind them that they all needed the blood of the Lamb on their hearts.
So as Jesus enters, they’re expecting Him to come to defeat Rome. You also have to look at what’s happening in the world politically at that time. In that time, Rome was beginning to go into decline.
There was a governor that had been appointed to this particular portion of Israel. And it was Pontius Pilate. I was just listening to a man explain what was happening in Israel at this time.
And he said the worst job you could have, it was a dead-end political job, was to be governor of Israel. And that’s where Pontius Pilate had been appointed. And you have to look at what went there.
The Herods had been in control. But now there was governors that were placed there. And it’s interesting, why was Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover? Because if you look historically, where the governors resided, it would be down in Caesarea on the coast, where Herod had built this marvelous bay.
And there was the palace down there that he had lived in, and that the governors resided in. And that’s where most of their political doings took place. But now Pontius Pilate is up in Jerusalem.
Why? Because of the Passover. Because you’ve got Jewish people coming from all over the world, and one of the problems that the Roman Empire had is that Jews tended to be a people who would uprise against them. And so he didn’t want all of this to occur, this uprising to take place under his watch.
And so he was up there with his soldiers to oversee what was going on during the Passover. But it’s not by chance. Because God had ordained that all of this would happen.
But as Jesus comes into the city, the people cry out for salvation. But the salvation they want is not spiritual salvation, it’s political deliverance.
His own disciples, as we said on Wednesday night, did not comprehend at this time, nor did they fully even comprehend until he rose again from the dead and appeared to them after his resurrection. Did they fully comprehend why he had come? On the way up they were arguing who was greatest in the kingdom, and James and John and their mother
intervened on their behalf of, my boys need to be at your left and your right hand in your kingdom to come. But what kingdom was it? Was it the kingdom on earth or was it the eternal kingdom that was established? And Jesus asked them, are you able to partake of what I’m going to partake of? Remember they weren’t hearing, and now the people aren’t seeing, but Jesus is doing everything to show them.
He raised Lazarus from the dead, he healed the two blind men as they’re coming into Jerusalem from Jericho. He’s showing them the fact that he has power over death, he has power to give them sight, not just physical sight, but spiritual sight. So Jesus enters into the city, and it’s interesting what happens when he gets there.
The people lay down the palm branches, crying out, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest, and all the city of Jerusalem said, who is this? They don’t, notice their response, the people’s response isn’t, this is the Messiah! No, this is a prophet from Nazareth, he’s able to do great things, but he’s not the Messiah because they’re not seeing him as the Messiah. Then when Jesus gets to the city, and has gone down the street to the chairs of the people, he goes to the temple, and when he gets to the temple, he does an amazing thing. Verse 12, and Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but ye have made it again of food.
Where did Jesus go in the temple and do this? It would have been in the outer courts, because the people couldn’t go into the holy place, and they couldn’t go into the holy of holies, they were restricted to the outer courts, there was the court of the Gentiles, there was the court where the men and the women would go, and that’s where they went. Now remember, it’s Passover season, and Jewish people had to come from far away, but when you got to Jerusalem, you were supposed to offer a lamb at Passover without blemish. What are the chances that if you’re coming, say, from a couple hundred miles away from another country, and you’re coming to celebrate Passover as a Jewish person, that your lamb can survive that trip without blemish? Or even if you’re coming from the northernmost part of Dan in Israel, or the southernmost part from Beersheba in Israel, the animal could be injured on the way.
So there were shepherds, remember, there were shepherds when Jesus was born, abiding in their flocks by night, keeping their flocks outside the city by Bethlehem. What were those flocks of sheep for? Those flocks of sheep were being raised for temple worship, as well as other uses, but that was one of the uses. And so the Sadducees had control of the temple, because they were the priests.
And what they did is they would sell the sheep to the Jewish people that came and needed a sacrifice. The only problem is, they cheat. They would take the people who would bring their money, because you had to trade what your currency was, whether it was shekels, even if you had shekels, you had to trade them for temple currency to buy the sheep.
And so they had money changers there to change the money, but the money changers cheated, and they weren’t fair in their exchange rate. I don’t know if you’ve ever traveled to a foreign country, and it’s very easy to be taken, especially if you don’t have a clue what the rate is, because you’re out there at their mercy. And they take more than they should.
Not only that, but it’s reported historically that the priests of the temple would oftentimes take the same lamb and sell it more than once. Just have this big circle going, here’s your lamb, take it over to the priest, he’ll sacrifice it for you, thank you, next, and then they take that lamb and instead of sacrificing it, go around and come around again. And they were abusing the people and defiling the holiness of God’s sacrificial system, and really making a mockery of everything that God had established to point to his son.
So Jesus comes in, overturns the temples and calls them what they are, a den of thieves, and drives them out of the temple. When he enters into the temple, and I want you to see what he does when he enters, and the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. He drove out the false religionists, and he healed the people who came to help.
And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and then as he did these things, it says the children crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the son of David. They were so displeased. These are the ones looking out for the spiritual welfare of the nation, and they are the ones that should be caring about the people, and they are the ones that should care about the ones that have the greatest needs, but instead, they are so displeased.
Why? Their agreement wasn’t with God. These priests’ agreement was with Rome. Remember I said Pilate had come up because he was concerned about what might happen during the Passover, and there could be insurrections going on, and he wanted to be there to make sure, because he didn’t want to have his head rolling, because this was already, I don’t know if there were any lower places that you could be governor, but this was one of the last places that you wanted on your resume of political stops was Israel and Jerusalem, and now he’s there, and Jesus is here, and they’re so displeased.
Why are the Pharisees and the priests and religious leaders displeased? Because he’s revealing to them that God is the one in control, not them. God is the one that hears and answers prayer, not them. They’re there to put their trust in the Lord and His Messiah and His need of salvation, not them.
Everything that Jesus has done is displeased with the spiritual leaders. And he said on, and they told him they were so displeased, and he said on to them, Hearest thou what these say? What the Pharisees said to him, rather praising him. And Jesus says unto them, Yea, have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? In another particular, another one of the Gospels, it talks about another case of an event that went on where they confronted him during the same period, where they told him, tell the people to be silent, tell them to be quiet.
And he said, If they would be silent, the trees and the rocks would cry out. Now why did he say that? Because this moment in history, even though the vast majority of the people standing there didn’t grasp the full concept of what was going on, the Son of God was entering into Jerusalem for the Passover, where he was to be sacrificed as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. And the rocks and the hills would cry out, because this moment had been waited for since before the foundations of the world.
Because in Ephesians, Paul tells us that before the world was created, God had determined that man would be redeemed from his rebellion and sin, because he knew when he gave us free choice, we would choose wrong, but he did not want to judge us into eternal hell, but instead wanted to redeem us and bring us back into a relationship with us, so we could understand the depth of his love, the depth of his grace, the depth of his mercy, and the depth of his forgiveness. And this was the climax moment of this, where Jesus was coming to be that Lamb of God, that you and I could allow his blood to cover our sins, that everyone who has trusted in him since the beginning of history, all the way back to Adam, would be looking forward to that Messiah, and we look back and see him, and we all believe and trust in the same sacrifice, the same blood being shed, the Messiah that had been promised of God to Adam, that would crush the serpent’s head. And this moment was there in history as Jesus came in and began to heal in the temple.
He entered into Jerusalem prior to that. Prior to that, he healed along the way. Prior to that, he raised Lazarus from the dead, revealing to everyone who he was and why he had come.
And they said, we’re sort of saved. I want you to understand today, we as Christians need to understand what Jesus has done. We need to understand the full impact of this moment in history.
And we need to understand how that should make a difference in our lives. How it’s just not enough to be saved from your sins, so that somehow I can escape hell, but we need to understand that Jesus redeemed us, so that we could be brought out from underneath enslavement to a world system, the desire to crush and destroy us at the bidding of Satan. And that you and I have been set free, that we can worship and praise this wonderful, wonderful redeemer, Savior and King, and walk with him.
Palm Sunday is a day where we need to come with a proper understanding of what was about to happen. Jesus was going to die, but his death was a different death than anyone’s ever experienced, because he was dying for us. And shedding his blood for us.
And being buried for us. And rising again from the dead for us. That we could be redeemed.
That we could be set free. That we could praise and cry out, Hosanna to the Son of David. Thank you.
Let’s just pray together. Lord, I pray that you would help us to understand the significance of your coming, the significance of your entering into Jerusalem that day. How Satan tried to stop you at every corner, tried to discourage you, tried to get you to be silent, but you were there to fulfill the promise that had been made in Adam’s sin.
And you were there to fulfill the promise that you made to every man, woman, and child that had said, but believe in the Lamb of God that came to take away the sins of the world. You would transform them and bring them out from under the enslavement to sin. And you did have a marvelous life.
Lord, help us to grasp the great significance of the hour. And Lord, help us to walk with you.