The Approach Of The King
28 When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
After carefully correcting His followers as to the true nature of His kingdom and His mission, Jesus heads steadfastly into Jerusalem
From Jerusalem to Jericho was only seventeen miles, and now Jesus had almost reached his goal.
b. He went ahead – knowing full well what awaited Him; knowing that He must endure the cross before receiving the kingdom, Jesus goes. In His sufferings, He deserves far more to be the object of our admiration than our pity – He knew exactly what He was getting into
29 And it came to pass, when He came near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples,
30 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.
31 “And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you loosing it?’ thus you shall say to him, ‘Because the Lord has need of it.’ “
32 So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them.
33 But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, “Why are you loosing the colt?”
34 And they said, “The Lord has need of him.”
Careful preparations are made for the entrance ceremony.
Jesus enters Jerusalem in a deliberate and carefully planned manner.
He has come to show Himself as King of Israel, and so His actions are calculated that the people would recognize Jesus as their King.
Jesus had been to Jerusalem at least half a dozen times before; but there was something very special about this journey to Jerusalem
John 11:57 makes it clear that there was a price on Jesus’ head; an “all-points-bulletin” was put out for His arrest.
John 11:57 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.
Yet, He came into Jerusalem in the most public way possible
It was an act of glorious defiance and of superlative courage.
It would have been natural that, if he must go into Jerusalem at all, he should have slipped in unseen and hidden away in some secret place in the back streets. But he entered in such a way as to focus the whole lime-light upon himself and to occupy the centre of the stage.
It is a breath-taking thing to think of a man with a price upon his head, an outlaw, deliberately riding into a city in such a way that every eye was fixed upon him.
It is impossible to exaggerate the sheer courage of Jesus.
Jesus came on that day and in that way, to show Himself as King
The prophets had a regular custom of which they made use again and again. When words were of no effect, when people refused to take in and understand the spoken message, they resorted to some dramatic action which put their message into a picture which none could fail to see.
We get examples of such dramatic actions in 1Ki 11:29-31; Jer 13:1-11; Jer 27:1-11; Eze 4:1-3; Eze 5:1-4.
It was just such a dramatic action which Jesus planned now.
He proposed to ride into Jerusalem in a way that would be an unmistakable claim to be the Messiah, God’s Anointed King.
We have to note certain things about this entry into Jerusalem.
(i) It was carefully planned. It was no sudden, impulsive action. Jesus did not leave things until the last moment. He had his arrangement with the owners of the colt. The Lord needs it was a pass-word chosen long ago.
(ii) It was a deliberate claim to be king, a deliberate fulfilling of the picture in Zech 9:9.
Zech 9:9 “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.
But even in this Jesus underlined the kind of kingship which he claimed. The ass in Palestine was not the lowly beast that it is in this country. It was noble. Only in war did kings ride upon a horse; when they came in peace they came upon an ass. So Jesus by this action came as a king of love and peace, and not as the conquering military hero whom the mob expected and awaited. c. “The ass was the mount of a man of peace, a merchant or a priest. A king might ride an ass on occasion, but he would be more likely to appear on a mighty war-horse. Zechariah’s prophecy saw Messiah as the Prince of peace.” (Morris)
(iii) It was one last appeal. In this action Jesus came, as it were, with pleading hands outstretched, saying, “Even now, will you not take me as your king?” Before the hatred of men engulfed him, once again he confronted them with love’s invitation.
Worshipping The King
35 Then they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him.
36 And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.
37 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,
38 saying: ” ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
39 And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”
40 But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”
Jesus enters the city to a humble display of praise and honor
For most of His ministry, Jesus did everything He could to discourage people from publicly celebrating Him as Messiah.
But here, Jesus goes out of His way to invite public praise and adoration as Messiah
i. In fact, when the religious leaders of His day object, He tells them “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.” (Luke 19:40)
In fact, they were crying out, for when Nehemiah had rebuilt the walls and gates of the city, there was a message in the stones. Those very stones and walls were proclaiming the gospel message, and the gates were fairly shouting, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in” (Ps. 24:7). (For amplification of this, see the author’s booklet, The Gospel in the Gates of Jerusalem.)
ii. The idea of creation itself praising God may seem strange, but the Bible speaks about it in a few places – trees, hills, oceans, rivers, mountains, valleys, cattle and creeping things, birds and fields all give praise to God (Psalm 148:7-13; 96:11-12)
e. They praised Jesus with whatever they had; with simple things like palm branches (John 12:13), but Jesus does not need great things to give Him honor. You may feel you do not have a great voice, or heart, or life – but give it to Him, and praise Him with it
i. They were all praising God: the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice. “And yet, I suppose, those disciples had their trials as we have ours. There might have been a sick wife at home, or a child withering with disease.” (Spurgeon) Yet they all praised Him!
f. They honored him with their garments (Luke 19:35-36); this meant something in that culture, where most people had only one set of clothes – to lay aside part of their clothing to let a man riding a donkey to go over them was really laying something down
Their praise was filled with remembrance; they remembered all the mighty works they had seen Jesus do (Luke 19:37) specifically, the raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 12:17-18).
They were telling of the great things God had done in their life (for all the mighty works they had seen, Luke 19:37)
A great indictment against much of our praise is that it is mindless.
We do not have anything specific in our minds that we are praising God for, things that we have seen Him do in our lives
Do you give God praise?
If so, why do you give God praise?
Praise should be intelligent and understanding.
These people praised Jesus b/c of what He had done in their midst.
What can you truly praise God for?
Their praise made Jesus’ enemies uncomfortable; it made them object to the praise being offered (Luke 19:39).
There is something about the true worship of God that often makes people feel uncomfortable, especially people who aren’t Christians yet
Often times, a newcomer who wants Jesus will think worship is a little strange; but someone who is hostile might be absolutely offended by the worship
It made them know they were being defeated
John 12:17-19 (NIV) 17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word.
18 Many people, because they had heard that he had given this miraculous sign, went out to meet him.
19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
Nothing tells Satan and his followers “you’ve lost” like the praises of God ringing in their ears.
Satan has lost because when God’s people are really worshipping, their hearts and minds are on Him