Good morning. Please turn in your Bibles to this morning's text, which is Matthew 21, verses 1 through 11. And if you want a jump on it, you can also put your thumb in Zechariah chapter 9, because we're going to spend a little bit of time there as well. But our main text this morning is, as we continue on through the gospel of Matthew, Matthew 21, 1 through 11. Once you're there, I'd ask if you'd please stand as we read God's Word. And again, at the end, I will ask you to repeat back, thanks be to God for his scripture. Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethpage, to the Mount of Olives, when Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, the Lord needs them. And he will send them at once. This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put them, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, who is this? And the crowd said, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee, and may God bless the reading of his word. And you may be seated. So we are in the last chapter of Jesus's earthly ministry, where you're entering the Holy Week or the Passion Week. This is the last week of Jesus's ministry. And if we're looking at the theme, and I think it's a very strong motif in the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus is intentionally presented by Matthew as the fulfillment of Israel, and he's recapitulating all of Israel's history, Jesus has entered the Jeremiah phase of his ministry, the weeping prophet. warning Jerusalem one last time before they reject their messenger yet again. So this is Jesus's last trip into this great city. And there are places in the Gospels, and as we've seen throughout the Gospel of Matthew, where we see an intense layering effect about the fulfillment and the intensity of Christ fulfilling perfectly and terminating certain aspects of the old covenant system. And this is one passage where this layering of old covenant expectation gets tremendously thick and tremendously dense. And there is difficulty, always, understanding prophetic language. We saw from the reading of Ezekiel's vision this morning. So there's an inherent difficulty in understanding prophetic language. And there is a bit of a fork in the road in terms of how to understand prophetic language. The older, covenantal approach, which is in our Statement of Faith, which talks about the covenant in terms of further steps, where there's this one unfolding, one single story that is unfolding through history, is called covenantal theology. It understands the story of Scripture to be one unified story that keeps unfolding. And this school of thought sees Christ himself as fulfilling these Old Testament prophecies. And so many of these prophecies are seen from our perspective in the past tense. They happened. Okay, so they were future to Zechariah, but they are in our ancient past. Another school of how to understand prophecy is more future-oriented. This is called dispensational theology. And so this school of thought tends to view these prophecies not just as future to Zechariah and Isaiah, but still future yet to us. And there's a stronger emphasis in this school of thought on Israel, on national Israel. And you can probably see both of those approaches around us in the wider Christian world. The Reformational understanding is covenantal, that would be my own position, that is the position that our statement of faith displays, and so that's the approach we'll be taking. But if you're wondering where some of these branches depart, there is a fork in the road here, and how we understand these prophecies, are they fulfilled in Christ? in a terminal sense, or is there something yet future that these are really Israel-centric prophecies? I'm going to make the case that these are seen by Zechariah himself as belonging to the first coming of Jesus, not to the second coming of Jesus. So that's just a little tidbit to hold on the side for now, although it will become further in focus. So again, we're moving into Jerusalem for the last time. This is the last chapter of Jesus's life. And the whole narrative just really slows down an awful lot here. So we had 20 chapters that cover the first 30 years of Jesus's life. 20 chapters are dedicated to 30 years. And now eight chapters are dedicated to one week. So this really slows down. And we really need to start seeing the significance of what all happens in the Holy Week. This is, at this time, where the narrative happens, in the time of Jesus, this is Passover week. And this is why they are going to the Holy City, to Zion, to Jerusalem, to celebrate the Passover. And yet, again, in the providence of God, in the harmony, in the unity of the story that is unfolding, for us, this becomes Easter week. This is Easter week that we are entering into as Christians, and it lands right on top of Passover week, and that is not an accident. That is, of course, by the providence of God, that there's this layering effect as the story unfolds. And many of the themes are similar. Just as Passover saw God coming in judgment and freeing those who were covered with the lamb's blood on their door lintel, so Easter is the ultimate Passover story where all those, again, who are marked with the blood of the lamb are freed, while those who are not covered by the blood are judged and condemned. So it is providential that this last trip of Jesus into Jerusalem is providentially timed right on top of Passover. We saw last week that Jesus and the disciples were ascending up to Jericho, or to Jerusalem, from Jericho. And again, if we just look at a flat 2D map, you see while Jericho's to the north, we would talk about going up to Thompson, right? Going up to Churchill, we're going north, but that's not, we're talking about elevation here, not about going north. They're actually going south, up to Jerusalem, because Jerusalem is about 3,500 feet higher than Jericho. And we saw that there's actually two sites of Jericho, the old Jericho that was ruined by Joshua's conquest, and the rebuilt Jericho that was present at the time of Jesus. But here already we see some significance that Jesus is coming from Jericho. Jesus, Yeshua, Joshua. This is not the first time that a man named Joshua has come up from Jericho to Jerusalem in a spirit of conquest and victory. And the ruins that Jesus leaves behind should remind us that it's also not a mistake that he shares the same name as Joshua, Yeshua, that is the name of Jesus quite literally. And so we see already just in this plague enacting that he's coming from Jericho, we see already that there is a greater Joshua who has now arrived. Jesus Christ is coming to claim his vineyard, he's claiming his royal city, he's claiming his kingdom. And so we pick up in verse one. Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples. Okay, so again, they're nearing Jerusalem and they stop at the Mount of Olives, and the Mount of Olives is a rich, significant place. This is a location just to the east of Jerusalem, and we read about it lots, both in the Old and the New Testament. I hope you were paying attention to Tim's reading of Ezekiel 11 this morning. Because I want you to notice what happened in Ezekiel 11. Ezekiel is writing right at the time, right before and even into the time of the Babylonian exile. So the Babylonians come and they destroy Jerusalem, they destroy the temple, God's people are exiled. And this all happens in the year 586 BC. And maybe you've heard me re-share Mark Twain's quip that history does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme. And there is lots of rhyming history in the Bible. the beginning of his book, Ezekiel observes the destruction of the first temple. This was Solomon's temple that was built in the Old Testament. And he's anticipating, by the end of the book, a rebuilt second temple. And there's different understandings, again, depending on which school of hermeneutics you take. I understand that second temple to be, in the literal sense, Ezra and Nehemiah's temple that exists later on in Old Testament history. But clearly, there's a symbolic element where that vision of the temple clearly, very clearly is not a literal temple. It clearly turns into symbolism at some point in there. So there's difficulty there too. But there seems to be two temples that Ezekiel sees. One is the old one that gets destroyed, and then the other is a rebuilt one. But in this, whatever Ezekiel sees, whatever is literal and whatever is symbolic, whatever Ezekiel sees, he sees Israel's covenantal unfaithfulness. And you'll notice towards the end of that passage that the glory departs. It's like a bird that gets up out of Jerusalem and leaves. See that in verse 25, I believe it was. The glory departs from Jerusalem. And think, if you are living in this time of history, what could be more traumatic to you? What could be more severe? What could be a greater sign of God's judgment than that the glory departs? It's gone. It leaves Jerusalem and it's sitting out there. Perhaps that may recall a story. If you remember in your Old Testament, the day that Eli dies, and his son Phinehas, and the ark is taken away by the Philistines, What could be more traumatic to you? As an Old Testament Jew, it's all over. Eli's dead. His son is dead. Our enemies have the ark of God. And Phineas' wife has a child. That day, in her trauma, she goes into labor and gives birth to a little boy. And what does she name him? Ichabod. The glory has departed Israel. You can almost hear the trauma and the anguish as this woman gives birth to this child. And you can imagine this woman, bereft of her father-in-law, bereft of her husband, giving birth to this child as Israel's glory has departed. It's an agonizing scene. And in his vision, Ezekiel shows that the glory of God leaves, goes out into the desert, And it becomes present with his faithful remnant, but it is absent from the temple. There is no glory of God in Jerusalem. Jerusalem has yet again broken covenant with the Lord, and the Lord is judging her. And of course, glory is not a physical thing like a bird or a person, but it is spoken of in this passage in physical terms. You can watch as God turns his face against Israel in judgment. And again, Ezekiel 11, 22 and 23, it says, Then the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain that is in the east of the city. The glory is gone. God damn you, Jerusalem. God damn you. You will not get over this. Where did the spirit of God go? to the east of the city, to the mountain, to the Mount of Olives. God's glory leaves Jerusalem, and he sees to it that her enemies will come in judgment. The Babylonians are on their way. They will destroy Jerusalem for her unbelief. They will destroy the temple for the unbelief. And God's glory is patiently waiting outside the city on the Mount of Olives. And yes, Ezekiel sees restoration in one sense or another. But if you remember, even on the second temple that gets rebuilt, if you read about it in Ezra and Nehemiah, you see when the temple is rebuilt, in Ezra the old men start crying. Perhaps partially because they see something good is happening again. And so perhaps it's tears of joy. But I think mixed in it is tears of nostalgia and anguish. Because this is nothing like Solomon's temple. The old men cried when they saw the shadow of what had been. But there is movement, there is forward motion. Of course, the second temple gets expanded and renovated by Herod the Great right before Jesus comes, very shortly before Jesus comes, and that temple too is destroyed shortly after the closing of the Old Testament. But there is a pattern here. of the temple being destroyed and God's glory leaving Israel when her messengers get rejected by her. And these physical temples were symbols of God's presence. And Christ calls himself the temple as he goes into Jerusalem, and he is also going to get crushed in Jerusalem. And I think that is deep in significance. This is Jerusalem's final act of apostasy and covenant unfaithfulness. They have now rejected their final messenger, or they are at least in the process of doing it. God will give them a generation to repent and come back, and those who do are grafted into Christ. They remain the people of God, and those who do not fall by the wayside. And Ezekiel's second temple, even if it was the actual physical temple, is short-lived and did not replace the glory of the first, because the glory was sitting east, outside of Jerusalem, waiting on the Mount of Olives, waiting to be present among God's people yet again. And again, to think, to try to go back in that period of time and think of the significance of God turning his face on the city, of seeing, of having no temple, of rejecting messenger after messenger and God sends another one out of grace and out of kindness and one after the other, all the prophets get rejected. And now finally the son of the owner of the vineyard comes and they are going to do it yet again. This is a stiff-necked people. It's almost like it's the Aaronic blessing in reverse. Sometimes for the benediction, read the Aaronic blessing where Moses pronounces a blessing on Aaron. But what has happened in the history of this Mount of Olives and its vantage point from Jerusalem is it almost reads, when the glory leaves, it almost reads like the Aaronic blessing in reverse. It is though he is saying, may the Lord curse you and abandon you. May the Lord keep you in darkness and give you only judgment with no mercy. May the Lord turn his back upon you and remove his peace from you forever. You stiff-necked people, I'm gone. And God's glory waits east outside of Jerusalem. And here comes Jesus, the God-man. the man who says that he is the temple of God, the man who is going to quickly perform, in the next verses, a priestly inspection of these people and of the temple before he goes to cleanse it. He is in his last chapter of his life, and the Son of Man goes where the glory has been waiting all along, and like a backpack, he picks it up and he carries it in to Jerusalem with him. that glory was waiting on the Mount of Olives for centuries, and Jesus comes and brings it in with him as he comes in victory from Jericho to Jerusalem. And the text goes on, it says, saying to them, in verse two, go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, the Lord needs them, and he will send them at once. And this sets up a difficulty that people often have. Sometimes Jesus knows what the future holds, and sometimes he doesn't. What gives? Sometimes he knows, sometimes he doesn't. Does Jesus' divinity kind of ebb and flow depending on the issue? And of course, no. But Jesus does have two natures. He is the God-man. He is fully God and fully man. And so when we encounter those passages where Jesus doesn't know something or where he gets tired or he's limited, we are speaking of Christ in his human nature. Pertaining his humanity, he does not know certain things. And yet pertaining to his divinity, he knows all things because he has ordained all things. And so Jesus not only knows that these donkeys will be there, he put them there. He put them there. In his providential working, these donkeys got there. And he even says, if the owner isn't happy to let them go, the disciples are to say that the Lord has need of them. And Jesus here is owning his divine mission. This is the Lord's will. The Lord needs these donkeys, so you need to give them up. Even a stubborn farmer will not bump God's plans off the rails. He will give them up if you tell him what's up. He will send them at once, it says. And so we're about to see that this very directly fulfills a prophecy in Zechariah. And yes it does, but we may still wonder as to the meaning. Why donkeys? Why a mother and it's cold? What's going on here? And I think there's several things that can be said. The first thing that comes to my mind is again, we saw the glory depart Israel, the Philistines carry off the Ark. Remember how the Ark gets back to Jerusalem? It becomes a curse for the Philistines. They start breaking out in tumors, and they send it back with a bunch of little golden mice. Many historians think that was the origin of the bubonic plague. They knew that that disease that was giving them tumors was spread by rodents, and so this is chapter one of the bubonic plague, spread by mice, and these people are breaking out in tumors. We're done with this arc. It's bad news. It's cursing us. We're getting sick. Let's send it back to Israel. Remember how they do it? They put it on a cart, driven by two milk cows that were just pulled away from their calves. Maybe because I'm a dairy farmer, I read something in that story that might slip you by. What happens when you pull a calf away from its mother? She'll follow you wherever you go. We've got two milk cows, they're still milking, so that means their calves are not that old. These cows are still relatively fresh. They want to listen to their calves. They want to keep going back. But the fact that these are two untrained milk cows with their calves bawling in the background just make a beeline to bring the ark back. is an act of sheer miracle. There is nothing in those cows that want to go to Jerusalem. That is the providential hand of God bringing there. These cows are willing to leave their calves behind because they would otherwise be very agitated and unworkable under normal circumstances to leave their calves behind. And here we have a mother donkey with its untrained colt, but this time they're taken together, most likely, humanly speaking, because the presence of the mother will keep both of them calm. The colt will be calm because its mother is there, and the mother will be calm because her colt is with her. So it will calm both of them down. And some of the earliest church fathers, especially those in the East, sometimes get a little bit fanciful with what's called allegorical reading of scripture, which often goes overboard. But on this particular point about this donkey and her colt, Many even Western fathers agree. So we have Origen, John Chrysostom, and Augustine all suggesting that by taking both the mother and the wild cult, what we have here is a picture of the familiar Old Covenant Jewish people coming into the kingdom together with the untrained and unruly green Gentiles. And John Gill, in his commentary, suggests that there's no reason to discard this picture. This is John Gill speaking on this. Said, the ancient allegorical sense of the ass and colt is not to be despised. That the ass may signify the Jews who had been used to bear the burdensome rites and ceremonies of the law, and the colt, the wild and untamed Gentiles, and the coming of Christ, first to the one and then to the other. But there's also direct prophetic fulfillment here that Matthew notes in verse four. It says, that this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, on the foal of a beast of burden. And this is a prophecy that actually comes from two places, and as is frequent in the New Testament, it kind of gets merged into one general prophecy. So this is partially in the opening from Isaiah 62, verse 11, but it mostly comes from Zechariah 9, 9. And that is also significant. It talks about Zion, which Zion is the heavenly hill, the heavenly mountain, which is represented by Jerusalem. And as Jesus goes up, the people are now receiving her king, and he is mounted on the colt of a donkey, exactly as Zechariah described it. Zechariah, as a book, as a whole, is all about the rebuilding of the temple, which we are seeing more and more clearly is fulfilled, in an ultimate sense, in Christ himself. Jesus calls himself the temple, the cornerstone. Peter calls us, in this room, living stones in this temple. So this is the final project. This is the eschatological, or final temple, is the Christian church, the people of God, and this is where God's spirit now rests, is among his people everywhere. We're no longer confined to a geographical location. God's spirit is wherever his people go. And that is why Paul says in Corinthians that you ought to treat yourself and understand yourself to be the temple of the Lord. Why? Well, because you are. God's spirit is with you. You are the temple of the Lord. His spirit is with you. And we need to conduct ourselves as though we are living in the presence of the Lord because we are. looking at the big picture of Zechariah and Matthew's appeal back to him. In Zechariah chapter 2, what you have is a picture of a man coming up to measure Jerusalem. There's a plumb line. You're going to get measured, Jerusalem, to see if you stand up. to this judgment, if you're gonna pass inspection or not. In Zechariah 3, we see that Yeshua will rule the temple. In Zechariah 6, it talks about God's reign extending out from the temple. In Zechariah 7, God is going to bring his judgment to the land. In Zechariah 10, God is coming to make war against the evil shepherds and leaders among her own people. And in Zechariah 14, we see that judgment begins from where? From the Mount of Olives. from east of Jerusalem where the glory of God went to go rest. Zechariah 9 is the main portion of the prophecy being applied here to Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. It says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is he. Humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. And then verse 10, as you read on in Zechariah 9, goes on to echo Psalm 72 about the dominion of Jesus Christ moving out from this location. Verse 11 talks about prisoners being freed from the waterless pit. which is kind of a weird thing, but I think there's also significance here that happens right in the lifetime of Jesus, this very week, actually. Historically, this has been understood to be the emptying of the righteous that were in Sheol, waiting for Jesus to be resurrected. sprung into paradise, so to speak. In the ancient conception, you see this in Jesus' parable of Lazarus, that there's kind of compartments of Sheol. Everyone who dies in the Old Testament goes to Sheol, the place of the departed, into the heart of the earth, they're really dead. But there seems to be two parts. Abram's bosom, where the righteous go, and then the nether gloom, or the chains of gloomy darkness, where the unrighteous go, so this can be conceived of as two sides, or perhaps layers, upper layers and lower layers. And these are called waterless places. In Matthew 12, verse 43, Jesus talks about waterless places where demons pass through. And we know from the thief on the cross that Jesus is going to be in paradise immediately after his death, but we also know that in Jesus' death, according to 1 Peter 3, 19, he was preaching to spirits in prison. So which is it? Did Jesus go to paradise, or did he go preach to souls in prison? And the answer, of course, is yes, that is correct. The understanding of the ancients was that at his death, Jesus went down to the place of the dead, to Sheol. He was really dead. He announced his victory over those wicked souls at the bottom layers of Sheol, the condemned souls, and he released the righteous and pleasant part of Sheol, which is called Abram's bosom, and transported them to be in the presence of the Lord. And the wicked stay in prison. They stay in Sheol. They will get dumped into the lake of fire at the final judgment. But the righteous escape Abram's bosom and go to heaven, what we call heaven today. Again, this sounds weird in our conception. I know we've had some of these conversations at men's night. It sounds weird in our very sanitary age that doesn't think much about the spiritual world. And yet, this is part of the biblical data. And I think in this understanding, which is a longstanding tradition in the church, This also understands why in Matthew 27, when Jesus dies, there's a small-scale resurrection in Jerusalem, where a bunch of the saints from the Old Testament come out and they start walking around Jerusalem, which is super weird, okay? Super weird. But I think that's what's happening here. 1 Corinthians 15 refers to this as Christ's resurrection as the first fruits. So this is the first resurrection, this mini-resurrection that happens together with Jesus, even as we await the final resurrection at the end of time. But whatever is all happening there, the hope of Isaiah and Zechariah are now coming to life in Jesus Christ, and to his exaltation as he takes the throne of his grandfather, David, as he moves into Jerusalem. All of these anticipated events are quickly coming together in this last week of Jesus's life. It's all coming together, and that's why I say this is dense, what is happening in this last week. All the layering, all the prophetic fulfillment coming to a head in this one week. Verse six says, the disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks and he sat on them. The disciples get the donkey and Jesus comes riding in on it. And in one sense, of course, this does show the lowliness and the humility of Jesus to come in on a lowly donkey instead of on a great big white horse as the Egyptians would have done. So we do see a theme of humility and of lowliness, of Jesus being like an everyday person as he comes, even as he comes to the city of his grandfather David. Jesus is lowly, he is humble, he is relatable. And yet he isn't the first one to come in on a donkey either. By coming in on a donkey, Jesus is actually showing that he is a legitimate Hebrew king. He comes in a long history of men like this. In Judges 10, we read about the Judge Jair, who ruled Israel for 22 years, and he had 30 sons who rode on 30 donkeys as they governed 30 cities in Israel. These men are mounted on donkeys. In Judges 12, see Abnon. Judge Israel for eight years, and he had 40 sons and 30 grandsons who rode on 70 donkeys. So again, even among the judges, there's these great men riding on donkeys. In 1 Samuel 16, when David enlists himself into the service of Saul. So this is David entering into royal service. And how does he ride up to Saul? On a donkey. David himself rides a donkey when he gets pressed into royal service. And in 1 Kings 1, Solomon also rides a donkey to his coronation. So again, if you're this Jewish audience and you know your Old Testament because everyone, you've heard the stories, you know what the content of the Old Testament is and you see Jesus reenacting it all here, all these biblical memories should be getting triggered and you should be seeing what's happening here, how this is all coming to a head in Jesus Christ. He should be triggering biblical memories of the crowd. And he's also giving hints in what he's doing about what's about to happen. that he's about to inspect the worship of the people and cast his judgment on it, and that's the next passage here, Jesus cleansing the temple. He's going to measure up what's happening here, and he will find it wanting. And by riding on a donkey, the way he does, he's also showing that this judgment is just around the corner. How? Well, here's how. The people are casting down their cloaks for Jesus to ride in on, and this also is not a new thing. In 2 Kings 9, the king Jehu, who was mostly a good king, who dedicates himself to overthrowing corrupt priests and destroying idolatry among the people of God, comes to his coronation, and when he comes riding in, the people also throw their cloaks down before Jehu. And once Jehu is coronated, he immediately gets to the work of destroying the false worship in the land. He is a mostly good king. He didn't push his reforms quite far enough, but he is mostly a good king. And so Jehu, before he destroys the false worship among the people, he rides in over the cloaks. And there's also a joyous sound of the crowd as he is going to cleanse the temple. And now Jesus is going to do that and curse the fig tree. So as this biblical memory is being recalled, we see that Jesus stands in a long line of Hebrew rulers who come to judge Jerusalem riding on a donkey. In verse 7, it says, he sat on them. Some have understood this to be he takes turns sitting on the mother and on the colt, and that's probably not the case. The them is probably the cloaks that the people put on, and he's riding the colt. That is the prophetic expectation. In verse 8 and 9 it goes on and says that most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And this crowd here is probably larger than you might imagine. We've had crowds of hundreds of people. We've had Jesus feeding 5,000, which is actually probably a crowd of 20,000 when you factor in women and children. But this isn't a crowd like that. This isn't a few hundred, and this isn't tens of thousands either. There was a census taken in Jerusalem 10 years after the triumphal entry, where it was counted how many lambs were slaughtered for Passover. So just 10 years after this, and there was 260,000 lambs slaughtered in Jerusalem 10 years after the triumphal entry. So if each lamb represents a household of perhaps 10 people, That means we have 2.6 million, possibly, people represented coming into Jerusalem for Passover week at that time. And that's consistent with the Jewish historian Josephus, who says that there was 3 million people in Jerusalem for Passover. So this isn't a crowd of 10,000 people. This isn't the bombers winning the cup and then we flood downtown. This is a large city following Jesus around. Millions of people. The commentator John Brata speaks about visitors camping for miles outside of Jerusalem. So the campground goes out for miles from the city as people come for Passover week, for Holy Week. And so the migration into Jerusalem to celebrate Passover was a big deal, and the size of the crowd indicates that here. And so those who are not throwing their cloaks on the ground for Christ's donkey to walk on are cutting branches from the trees. We know from John that these were palm trees, and the palm tree was a national symbol for Israel that are used in times of victory and celebration. The palm branches were connected to the Feast of Tabernacles, they were on Jewish coinage, They were used to decorate synagogues, and so this is a patriotic symbol. These people see that Jesus is the Messiah. He is the one that was promised to them, and they're celebrating accordingly. And they're recognizing him properly. They're calling him the son of David. And they're singing Psalm 118 in reference to Christ. So these people are welcoming the Messiah into his city. For the most part, they're actually catching on. They're getting it. And so the progression from obscurity to glory has reached a fever pitch. We've gone from Jesus working in the remote corners of the desert, telling people, don't say what I just did, to now a crowd of literally millions coming along and clearly understanding, this is what Zechariah saw, this is what the psalmist saw, this is all coming to a head, let's receive our king as he walks into Jerusalem. It's called the triumphal entry for a reason. These people are crying, Hosanna, that's a cry of salvation. They see that the son of David is the Messiah who has come to save them. And of course, we know that it's most likely that many of these people, perhaps most of them, were mistaken about the nature of Christ's kingdom, but they did understand that he was the Messiah. They did correctly identify who he was. And it's common, and I've heard this lots, there's lots of contemporary preaching, that says that this is the same mob who was demanding, crucify him, crucify him. That this mob turned on a dime. But textually, there's actually zero evidence of that. That's a guess. Maybe some of the same people are demanding crucify him. But there's no reason in the text to believe that this is the same crowd that was demanding crucify him. There may be some overlap. But this crowd gets who Jesus is. They're celebrating him as the Messiah, as the son of David, who has come to restore all things. And so now we see in Jesus all these streams, all these rivers of promise, all the prophetic hope throughout the Old Testament people are meeting together and they are now emptying out into the ocean that is Jesus Christ. And lastly, in verse 10 and 11, it says, when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, who is this? And the crowd said, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. And this is a big celebrating crowd that have made their way to Jerusalem. Because remember, most of these people are pilgrims. They're coming in. These aren't mostly citizens of Jerusalem. They're mostly visitors coming in for this holy week. And so we see how this is introducing more than one group of people here. So the city people see this big mob descending on them, right? Millions of people coming in to your city. They're celebrating, they're shouting, they're throwing their cloaks down. You've got this guy riding on a donkey and the city people are, what's going on here? So we have kind of two groups of people and so there's a stir starting to be caused in Jerusalem as this entourage makes its way into the city. It's causing a stir, just like Jesus' birth originally did. In Matthew 2, verse 3, it says that when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Okay, so Jesus is upsetting the city once again with his coming to it. And so the life of Christ is quickly coming to a close the same way it started, with the city in a buzz, getting stirred up. And we shouldn't let this pass by us either. Okay, these are backwoods people with their backwoods Messiah coming to the city of David. How might that look in our day? Well, our equivalent of Jerusalem would be Ottawa. So imagine you get a mob, let's say there's millions of beef farmers in Vida, okay? So we're going to Vida and we're gonna stir up three million beef guys from Vida and they're gonna come and they're gonna drive their tractors and their old beat up Fords to Ottawa. And they're going to say, yeah, we've got a new king. He's from Sprague. Would you believe it? Sprague. And by the way, you've been dethroned. I've got nothing against Sprague. We hunt there. It's a beautiful place. But these are backwoods people. These are people that are not in the mainstream. They're not connected to the big city. These are backwoods people with their preacher from Nazareth, which is nothing. Would have been looked down upon. And they're saying, this is the king. This is who we were waiting for. It seems odd. Backwoods people coming to Zion with their backwoods preacher, celebrating him as the ultimate king, as the ultimate prophetic fulfillment, as the one who David saw, as the one who Zechariah saw, as the one who Ezekiel saw. Here he is. He's brought this glory that was waiting for him on the Mount of Olives, and he's carrying it right into the city. He's going to his coronation. And so perhaps we know the story, but what does it mean? What do we do with this? and I think several things. In his humble beginnings, the obscure start of Jesus' ministry and even the choice of a donkey rather than a white horse to ride into Jerusalem with, Jesus Christ is showing that he does not depend on pretense like the Egyptian kings. The Egyptian kings would find a big, heavy white horse and the king would ride in on that. And here comes Jesus riding on a donkey. Jesus does not need pretense. He's the Son of God. He's got nothing to prove. He can ride in on a donkey to victory. He doesn't need big talk. He doesn't need self-promotion because he's just able to deliver the goods. He came humbly into this world. Through his earthly ministry, he ministers humbly and he offers up his own body humbly as a sacrifice for his people. And even in his triumphal entry, there are notes of humility. Despite the size of the crowd, he is showing that he is not only the savior for the big and the powerful, but the small and the weak and the sick and the blind and the poor can all approach him on their level as well. The triumphal entry and the actions and the dialogues that are going to happen in Jerusalem in this final week underscore these motifs. The son has come to claim his vineyard. We're playing the end game here. We're playing for all the marbles this week. Jesus means business. It's coming to an end. The son of David has come to take his eternal throne. Jesus Christ is about to be coronated over the kingdom of God, which originates in heaven, lands in Jerusalem, and works out from there. And this isn't exactly how the people imagined it. They thought Jesus would catastrophically push the Romans out all in a day. But as he already taught us in his kingdom parables in Matthew 13, Jesus likes to do things slowly. He likes to be patient. The mustard seed grows slowly. The leaven takes time to get through the loaf. And the kingdom of God will displace Rome, yes. It won't take that long, but it'll take longer than they thought. It'll take 300 years. But Rome will bend the knee to King Jesus. Well, Rome will not last forever, the kingdom of God most certainly will. So Jesus is showing here, he's not just putting new wine into old wineskins, he's replacing the wineskins. Things are renewed as he is about to be poured out. He's going to perform a priestly inspection of Jerusalem and he will find her wanting. Jesus is making a new people of God, people identified not by ethnicity or location, but by saving faith in Jesus Christ, in the Son of God, in the Messiah. He's making a new people, a new temple, one not made with human hands, a temple of living stones, living, breathing image bearers who have been made alive by the word of God and the proclamation of the gospel and the spirit as he breathes life into spiritually dead people. He's bringing judgment with him, and he's going to start with the household of God. Jerusalem will actually get her judgment before Rome does, and that's typical of God's pattern, all through the Old Testament as well. Judgment begins with the household of God. So what do we do? Well, today the kingdom is still going out in power, and it looks much more unassuming than we might think. The kingdom is going out in power. Well, how? Well, in very ordinary ways. Weddings. God is creating new families, God is putting people together. A wedding is an occasion where we see the power of God's Spirit doing work in creation. There's babies, there's signs of life in this church. Each baby is an image-bearer of God that God has providentially put into the families that he has put them into to learn about his ways. Also, very ordinary things. Men's theology night, where generations of men get together and challenge one another. The kingdom of God goes out in power when we go visit sick ones and loved ones in the hospital. The kingdom of God is going out in power when there's a Titus 2 tea happening, and ladies can mentor one another. The kingdom of God is going out in power when dad takes the time after a long day of work to read scripture to his family. and do devotions, and lead his children to the Lord, and show them how to pray. The kingdom of God is going out in power. The kingdom of God is going out in power when a couple who is going through a rough patch in their marriage is committed to working on it, to making this work. The kingdom of God is right there. And the kingdom of God is right here, this morning, Lord's Day worship, as we enter into the highest expression of service to the Lord. The kingdom of God is going out in power, and just like Jesus' first coming, It's humble. It doesn't look as spectacular as we might expect, but the Spirit of God is there. He is doing his work however lowly, however gently Jesus comes to us, and he does. He comes riding in on a donkey, and yet he is executing God's plan perfectly. And so we also ought not to despise the day of small beginnings in your own life. Small steps. is more important than fast progress. Which direction are you headed in? Are you walking in the Spirit? Are you trusting in the Lord? The Lord who rides into Jerusalem on a donkey can start with small things, as indeed He often does. Let's close in prayer. Father God, you have shown us over and over and over again that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the God-man, is gentle and lowly. He comes in ways that we do not expect, small beginnings, humble beginnings, and yet you are doing your work, your plan is unfolding, your spirit is there with us. Lord, and your spirit is here with us this morning, too, in things that don't always look extraordinary, and yet we want to trust your purposes. Lord, we want to thank you that Jesus is the fulfillment of the expectation, that he brought the glory back with him. That we experience small tastes as we prepare for that final day when he shall come back once and for all. And yet, Lord, we can already taste it now. We can see your spirit at work in our families, in our homes, as we worship with our friends. And I pray that we would ask for an extra dose of your spirit, that we would walk in obedience, that we would take the care and have the eyes to see the way you are working and to be thankful. Help us to notice where your spirit has accomplished things. Lord, and I pray that we would keep pressing in, not on our own strength. but on the same strength who accomplishes things, even in the time of Christ, through gentle and lowly and humble means. Lord, I pray that you would keep us humble. I pray that we would not desire glory that even Jesus himself did not take for himself in his life, but that we would serve you wherever you have us. Whatever mundane task you set before us, Lord, I pray that we would see your presence and your glory there with us, and that we would press into that glory as we live lives that are obedient to you. Thank you for your kindness. Be with us as we go. Amen. Please stand. ♪ The lips of children make sweet hosannas ring ♪ ♪ The Lord, the King of Israel, the David's royal son ♪ ♪ Who in the Lord's name cometh the King and blessed one ♪ ♪ The company of angels are praising thee on high ♪ ♪ And mortal men in all things created make reply ♪ ♪ The people of the Hebrews with poems before they went by ♪ ♪ Our praise and prayer and anthems before Thee we present ♪ ♪ To Thee before Thy fashion they sang their hymns of praise ♪ ♪ To thee now high exalted ♪ Our melody we raise ♪ Thou didst accept the praises ♪ Accept the praise we bring ♪ Who in all good delight ♪ Is thou good and gracious king ♪ Who in all good delight ♪ Is thou good and gracious king In the triumphal entry, the greater Yeshua makes his way from Jericho to Jerusalem in victory. The great high priest has assumed the glory that was waiting for him on the Mount of Olives, and he is coming to inspect his household. He comes riding a donkey, standing in an ancient line of judges and kings who ruled from the city many years ago. And like Jehu before him, Christ's donkey rides on the cloaks of the people, foreshadowing the coming destruction of false religion and idolatry. And in all of this, Christ is demonstrating a remarkable humility and lowliness. He can relate to the everyday laborer, fisherman, and farmer who is joining him on his way to Jerusalem. The prophet from Nazareth is entering the final week of his life, about to take the blow of all the curses that the covenant threatens, so that you and I may enjoy all the blessing that it promises. So the charge is this, see how your union with Christ was made possible during Holy Week. And I will leave you with the Aaronic Blessing from Numbers 6. the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to Aaron and his sons saying thus you shall bless the people of Israel you shall say to them the Lord bless you and keep you the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you the Lord lift up his countenance