WWUTT 2071 The Triumphal Entry (Matthew 21:1-11)

Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, the people singing his praises. They thought their king had come who was going to free them from the oppression of the Romans. But the Lord had something else in mind when we understand the text.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Reading Matthew 21:1-11, the Triumphal Entry

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we are up to chapter 21 today. Reading of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. I'm going to begin by reading from verse 1 to verse 11 out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

Hear the word of the Lord. And when they had approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her.

Untie them and bring them to me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, The Lord has need of them. And immediately he will send them. And this took place in order that what was spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying, Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, lowly and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a pack animal.

And the disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them, and brought the donkey and the colt and laid their garments on them. And he sat on the garments. And most of the crowd spread their garments on the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road.

And the crowds going ahead of him and those who followed were crying out, saying, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, Who is this?

And the crowds were saying, This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. So we have entered into that final week of Jesus' earthly ministry with him coming into Jerusalem in that day that we typically refer to as Palm Sunday, something that we also call the triumphal entry.

We have him teaching in the temple on Monday and Tuesday, which we will continue to read.

On.

The Olivet discourse happened on Tuesday. That's in Matthew chapter 24. Then there was Wednesday, the supper with his disciples on Thursday night, the last supper in the upper room. Then, of course, he goes to the Garden of Gethsemane, where he is arrested late in the night, taken and tried unjustly, presented before Pilate and then before Herod and Pilate again, who sentences Jesus to death and he is crucified on that Friday.

So this is less than a week away from the events that we're reading about here. And Matthew devotes most of his chapter to these events that happen within that week. So what we're reading now from chapter 21 through chapter 27, or chapter 28 even, is everything that transpired over the course of a week.

This is on a Sunday. And then the resurrection at the start of chapter 28 is on a Sunday. Now there's some days that transpire after the resurrection in Matthew chapter 28. We don't really know how many days, but Jesus teaches his disciples, of course, after he is risen from the dead.

According to Acts chapter one, there's 40 days of time between his resurrection and his ascension. But Matthew's gospel actually doesn't mention the ascension. Jesus addresses them on a mountain in Galilee and gives them the great commission.

And that's the way the gospel of Matthew concludes. But for the rest of this, from chapter 21 on, we have this final week of Jesus' earthly ministry beginning with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. So they've journeyed around variously, as we've seen in multiple chapters, spending most of their time in Galilee.

But here they have come back down into Judah and entered Jerusalem on this day, as it was foretold by the prophets. So when they had approached Jerusalem, it says in verse one, they came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives.

And then Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, go into the village opposite you and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her, untie them and bring them to me. So we have the donkey and a donkey's colt.

And it was actually the colt that Jesus was riding on. Some of the artistry that you will find regarding this account can be kind of comical. There's a what video that I did on Palm Sunday, that which we call Palm Sunday on the triumphal entry talking about the significance of it.

And there's a few drawings that I show there, paintings and things like that in that particular video, one of which shows Jesus riding on the mother donkey. So it has the, the artist at least understood there's two donkeys there, not just one, but the artist put Jesus on the big donkey rather than the colt.

But which one did Jesus ride? He actually rode the colt just as was prophesied would take place. So he's prophesying even here before his disciples saying, you're going to go into the village. You're going to find this donkey, untie the donkey and bring the donkey and the colt to me.

If anyone says anything to you, he says in verse three, you shall say the Lord has need of them and immediately he will send them. And this took place in order that what was spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled saying, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your King is coming to you lowly and mounted on a donkey and on a colt, the full of a pack animal.

So there it is said as it was prophesied, he would actually be riding on the colt, not the mother. Now this prophecy comes from Zechariah chapter nine. I'm going to begin reading here in verse nine as we read it from the old Testament will sound slightly different, but is the same verse that's being cited here.

It sounds different because what I will be reading from was translated from Hebrew, whereas what we read from in Matthew was translated from Greek. It was the Greek version of the old Testament, which was the Septuagint.

So the translations of the old Testament that we have are taken from the most original Hebrew.

That we have.

So here in Hebrews or sorry, Zechariah nine, beginning in verse nine, rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, make a loud shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold, your King is coming to you. He is righteous and endowed with salvation, lowly and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the full of a pack animal.

I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem and the bow of war will be cut off and he will speak peace to the nations and his reign will be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.

Now how do you think the Jews were taking this particular prophecy that is made about their King? They think, of course, that Jesus or the one who is coming, which they believe here at this point to be Jesus, but they believe that Jesus is going to be an emancipator, that he is going to enter into the palace.

He's going to kick out the Herod's. He's going to drive out the Romans. And just as said here from Zechariah, his reign will be from sea to sea. Israel will become an empire again. This is what the people are anticipating.

And this is the cause of this parade. They think finally, this one who has been challenging the Pharisees, who's taught these amazing things with authority, remember that was spoken about at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter seven, the people were amazed by him because he spoke not as their scribes, but as one having authority.

And he has such authority that he is able to command even the weather, that he is able to manifest food from seemingly nowhere to feed 5 ,000, that he is able to raise the.

Dead.

They've seen that and heal the sick, curing incurable diseases simply by speaking a word or laying his hands on somebody. The people have seen this. The word has spread far and wide. They believe Jesus is the guy.

So they are ready on this day for this parade, for this succession, that they may finally welcome the king, the one who is going to set us free, the one who is going to make Israel a great empire once again.

Now this parade is not simply, you know, the people are lining up because they know, hey, our king is coming this day. That wasn't really the cause of this. They knew that Jesus was coming back. They knew it was going to be Jesus.

They were ready to enter Jerusalem with him, singing his praises and shouting Hosanna to our king. But we know from the other gospels, particularly from John, that it was actually the resurrection. It was several miracles that kind of prompted this reaction.

We read a miracle right before chapter 21. Remember there was the two blind men who were beside the road and they asked Jesus to heal them and he did. So there was a miracle right before the triumphal entry, even in the context of Matthew's gospel.

But according to John, it was raising Lazarus from the dead. That very miracle that was done in the sight of many dozens and dozens of people that were likely there. And they had been there a long time mourning with Mary and Martha, who were Lazarus's sisters.

So many people were there, even Pharisees were there who saw Jesus speak into the tomb and tell Lazarus, a man who had been dead for four days to come out. And he did. So many people witnessed this miracle that it kind of reached a fever pitch and all the fervor and the enthusiasm over what they had witnessed kind of stirred the people up to this.

To this day, finally, this is going to be the day that our king is announced to us. And up to this point, Jesus has continually discouraged people from talking about who.

He is.

Sometimes would even tell those who he has healed, don't tell anybody about this. And then they would praise him and they would go out and tell people anyway. He had told his disciples, tell no one until the appointed time.

And so this is it. This is that appointed time. This is a day that had been prophesied even by the prophets that the king would come and the way the manner in which he would come. So as he enters into Jerusalem, the people know the prophecies.

They know this is the fulfillment of Zechariah 9, but the anticipation, the expectation that they had of Jesus was not what God intended. Jesus was not coming to become an emperor, to build a kingdom on the earth, not in the way that the people were expecting it, not to make Israel a great empire again.

He is building a kingdom. He's been building it even here. And he will commission his disciples to go out and build the kingdom further at the very end of the gospel of Matthew. So this is a spiritual kingdom that Jesus is building, not an earthly power.

So the fulfillment of the prophecy, say to the daughters of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you. He's going to be riding on a colt. And the disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them.

And they brought the donkey and the colt and laid their garments on them. And he sat on the garments. This is an animal that has never been ridden before. So even to show the whole purity of the presentation, Jesus is not sitting on the animal itself, but sitting on the coats that the disciples have placed on that animal and further showing this purity and the humility and the excitement of the people.

They are throwing their coats and palm branches down on the ground so that even the ground upon which the animal sets his foot will not be touching the earth, kind of like you might see in a wedding procession or something like that.

There's a long runner that has been rolled down the aisle so that when the bride comes down the aisle, she's not walking on the floor. She's walking on this, probably a pure white path, or maybe it's a red carpet.

Whenever the celebrities show up for their big night, their big fair, I guess there was just one this weekend, wasn't there? The Golden Globes or something like that. So when they show up to this place to be fawned over and given their gold statues and all of this, how do they walk in?

They walk in on the red carpet, right? You'll have those networks that'll be interviewing the celebrities out there on the red carpet. So let not a celebrity's foot touch the dirty ground. Let it be that the dirty ground is covered by something, and this is showing the purity of this entire procession.

So it is being done with Jesus as well, that the donkey's feet even would not be touching the ground, but would be walking on these coats and palm branches. Most of the crowd, it says in verse eight, spread their garments on the road and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road, and the crowds going ahead of him and those who followed were crying out saying, Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.

Now this is another way that we see this procession portrayed, whether you're watching it in a TV show or a movie, or even seeing it in a painting. How is this often depicted? It's often depicted like a parade, right?

Like we would enjoy a parade in America. This past December, my family and I even went to a Christmas parade downtown here in Casa Grande, and it went on for two hours or more. Watching all of these floats go by, and this is the traditional way that we do parades in America.

Everybody lines the road and they just kind of watch things go by. This was not the way these kinds of processions went in ancient Israel. It's not the way that it goes here, even the way that Matthew describes it.

The people went along with him and there were even those who followed him. So there were people going ahead and people who were coming behind. And as they were going, it's like they would even pick up the coats that had already been laid down, the palm branches, and they would rush to the front and they would lay them down again.

So it wasn't so many coats and palm branches that it covered everything. Some of those were being recycled. They were being reused again so that as Jesus would pass by on the donkey's colt, he continued along this trail of coats and palm branches.

So the crowd was moving with him. And this started up on the Mount of Olives. It wasn't like the people were lining the gates of the city, anticipating their king coming in. And that's often the way you see it, right?

All the people are right there. Here comes the king. He's walking in the gate. And so they watch him go by and they shout, Hosanna. And then that's kind of it. That's the end of the parade. No, they journeyed with Jesus and this went on for quite a while.

It starts up on the Mount of Olives, comes down the mountain, goes into the city and continues through the city of Jerusalem. And then Jesus even goes somewhere after this, after the whole procession and everything is done.

Where does he go after all of that is finished? That's actually the lesson we're going to get to tomorrow, beginning in verse 12. But how about these words that the people are saying? They're crying out, verse 9, Hosanna to the son of David.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Of course, Hosanna to the son of David means the people are recognizing this man is born in the line of David. He is a rightful heir to the throne, hence why they're shouting his praises.

But what does this word Hosanna mean? What does that mean? Hosanna means, oh Yahweh save or oh Yahweh succeed. And we hear this phrase in Psalm 118, verse 25, oh Yahweh save, oh Yahweh succeed. That's the verse exactly.

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of Yahweh. We have blessed you from the house of Yahweh. That sounds really familiar, doesn't it? Verse 24, this is the day which Yahweh has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

And so it's from this Psalm that the people are quoting as Jesus is coming in, Hosanna is an Aramaic word. So Psalm 118 is written in Hebrew. So as that phrase, oh Yahweh save, would be translated into Aramaic, it would come out Hosanna.

But it is asking that Yahweh would save us through this man who is the son of David. So as the people are shouting Hosanna, they're expecting, once again, this is the man whom Yahweh has appointed to be the king of Israel, who is going to release them from the captivity and the oppression that they are suffering at the hands of the Romans.

So they think as they're shouting Hosanna, this is the one who is going to save us. Now it is often said that the people who were shouting Hosanna and singing praises on this Sunday, the following Friday were instead shouting, crucify him, crucify him.

Is that true? Is that the same people who were shouting Hosanna on Sunday? Now they're shouting crucify him on Friday. The answer is yes and no. There probably were some people that were there that were also at the triumphal entry.

They were singing Jesus praises and now suddenly they're turning around and shouting crucify him on Friday. That's possible. In fact, I would say that it's likely. And it's likely because they thought this guy was going to be the one who was going to free us, who was going to release us, that Yahweh sent.

And then, of course, Jesus, in the testimony that he gave before the Pharisees, before the Sadducees, the high priest himself, proclaims himself to be God. So now the people think, oh, well, he's a blasphemer.

And so they're going to put him to death. This isn't the one whom Yahweh has sent. This is the one who who is actually blasphemed Yahweh. So therefore, it is likely that some people who were shouting Hosanna on Sunday were the people were among the people that were shouting crucify him on Friday.

But it's also the case that probably the majority of the crowd on Friday was not among the crowd that was there on Sunday. There were people at the cross that were mourning for Jesus. And so the people that were mourning his death would have been among those who had been shouting Hosanna just days before.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees surely stirred up the people with them so that they could convince Pilate to put Jesus to death. But it wasn't all the same crowd shouting both Hosanna and crucify him.

So they proclaim the name of God, the name of Yahweh himself. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. This is the name Yahweh that they are proclaiming, Hosanna in the highest. And when he had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, who is this?

So some don't recognize him. Some don't know. Jesus hasn't spent much time in Jerusalem. Like I said before, he spent most of his time in Galilee. So here he has come back to Jerusalem again. And the people are curious going, who is this man?

And people didn't have Facebook and social media or even newspapers back at that time to know his image, what what his picture looked like, so that they would know immediately that this is Jesus of Nazareth.

So it had to be proclaimed of him. This is the prophet. Verse 11, the crowds were saying, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee. Now again, as Matthew is telling this account here, after all of this has taken place, Jesus goes to the temple.

That's the way that Matthew records it. Mark records it a little bit different. We'll talk about that tomorrow when we come back to that passage. And there's something very, very significant about why Matthew would tell this account this way, that Jesus would go from this procession, this parade of being praised by the people, and he would go to the temple.

That would be the very next place that he would go. What does Matthew mean by that? We'll consider that tomorrow when we come back to this passage. But just think about this as we wrap up this passage today.

What are you expecting Jesus to do for you? Do you have this expectation of Christ, of Christianity, of the church, that we're supposed to be emancipators, that we're supposed to be culture warriors, and we would fight against the culture, and we would change, and we would transform the culture, and that's really the objective of the church?

That's what it is that we should be doing? You have that same sort of anticipation about Christ as the people had about Jesus in this particular day. Maybe God will use the church to convict the nation in which you live of its sins.

There will be great repentance and revival. Christ will be exalted in the land, and maybe your nation will become a Christian nation. Maybe that is what God intends, but maybe it's not. Maybe the wickedness that you see in your land, God means to use to punish that land and to bring judgment and to pour out his wrath upon it.

There is no guarantee that our going out and preaching the gospel is going to result in an earthly utopia. The Bible promises no such thing, but we go out with the gospel because it's what God has instructed us to do.

It's the commandment from Christ that we're to go preach the gospel to the nations. We do that so that people will be convicted of their sin and come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. That is the first mission of the church.

It is our first priority to proclaim Christ and him crucified for our sins. It's not to be emancipators. It's not to be culture warriors and transform the culture. If God means for that to happen, then it will happen through the lives of the people who are saved by believing the gospel.

But will the majority of people in your nation come to believe the gospel, or will it be a remnant as is usually the case? As Jesus said back in Matthew chapter seven, broad is the way that leads to destruction.

And many find that way because that's the easy way. Narrow is the way that leads to life and few will find it. That's the difficult path. So regardless of whatever happens in our day, we must trust Christ.

We must know he is sovereign. He is in control. He is sitting on his throne. He is ruling over all of this. There is nothing happening that is outside of his hand or his intention. So we trust Christ in the midst of everything and we remain obedient to him to proclaim the gospel that was proclaimed to us so that many others will come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and live.

And if God means for more than that to happen in our culture and in our society, may it be so by his sovereign will. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here and I pray that our desire would be to see our King come.

That he would return as John proclaimed at the end of Revelation, Lord Jesus come quickly. May he come bringing his recompense with him. May he strike down the nations with a rod of iron as proclaimed in Revelation chapter.

19.

And he will rule over all of this as he is doing now from heaven. Lord, I pray that we would be delivered from the corruption of the culture. We would not be led astray by the things that we see going on around us, nor should we become discouraged, knowing that God is working all things out according to his good timing.

Lord, if it be your will to transform a culture, that revival would sweep the land and we would see Christ exalted in the land. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. But if it is not your time and your intention that these things should take place, now or any other time, but that your wrath would be poured out on this nation, may that be done also.

Only we remain faithful to the calling that Christ has placed on the heart of every believer. May we walk in holiness before you all our days and receive us into your kingdom. Forgive us our sins and lead us in righteousness for your name's sake.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

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