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Palm Sunday PALM SUNDAY THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY AND EXIT

MATTHEW 21 AND MARK 11

You are not an accident (You have Divine ORIGIN) You life is not meaningless (You have Divine PURPOSE) Your death will not come unexpectedly (You have Divine DESTINY)

The arrival of Jesus on the 10th of Nissan in AD30 was one of the greatest moments in all of history. Jesus hit Jerusalem with pin point accuracy. Jesus came on the very day and hour God had appointed for His presentation to the Nation and the World as God’s Passover Lamb.

Did you know there are 250 different events during Christ’s earthly life, recorded in the New Testament? Did you know that out of all those scenes we have read, loved and thought about so much, only four events find their way into all four Gospels? The “Big Seven” events of the Cross are in all four: those “Big Seven” are the betrayal-denial-trial, the cross-death, and the burial-resurrection.

I. This is significant. John said Jesus did enough to fill all the books of the world. Why did God limit the record? Every year we pay close attention to the “Big Seven” and rightly so. But we shoulkd also pay close attention to the others in the “Special Four”! A. The last of the “Special Four” is what we are doing Thursday night, when we like Jesus celebrate the Last Supper Passover. JESUS WITH HIS MEMORIAL CALLED ALL HIS OWN TO REMEMBRANCE! B. The first of the “Special Four” is: JESUS (began His ministry by going to Galilee) WITH HIS MOUTH CALLED ALL HIS WORLD TO REPENTANCE! Matthew 4:12-17 Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee; 13 And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: 14 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, 15 The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, [by] the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; 16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. 17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (KJV); Mark 1:14-15 Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of
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God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (NKJV): Luke 4:1415; John 4:43-45.

C. The second of the “Special Four” is the feeding of the five thousand. This event is JESUS WITH HIS HEART SHOWING ALL THE WORLD HIS BENEVOLENCE 1. The New Testament states that Jesus had compassion 10x (healing: Bartimaus, widow’s dead son, leper) and feeding: 4T and 5T); God 2x (King in unforgiving servant, Father in Prodigal); and the Spirit 1x (Lord of Harvest); (this word splangknoi is tenderhearted, compassionate benevolence used of Good Samaritan hearted ministry!) 2. Matthew 14:14 And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. 21 Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children. (NKJV); Mark 6:30-44 Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. 31 And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. 32 So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. 33 But the multitudes saw them departing, and many knew Him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to Him. 34 And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things.; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:115. II. Finally the other of these “Special Four” is the Triumphal Entry. This is JESUS WITH HIS METHOD SHOWING THE WORLD HIS MAGNIFICENCE. A. JESUS SHOWING THE WORLD HIS MAGNIFICENCE BY HIS TIMING. (LUKE 19:28) HE CAME AS A A DESTINED LAMB! 1. The 10th of Nissan was this 1st day of Passover week. Moses had commnded (Ex. 12:2-6) that a lamb be selected on the 10th, kept to the 14th and then sacrificed. His departure is precisely what had been predicted 1,500 years before by Moses (our Passover Lamb who had to enter on the 10th of Nissan). 2. This entry into Jerusalem by Christ was the same day the Passover lamb was to enter their homes and stay with them until it was killed for each family’s Passover feast. Thus intriguingly, Jesus entered into the home and heart of His
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people “Jerusalem” as their Passover lamb to be slain on their behalf. 3. His crucifixion on Friday would result in a perfect fulfillment of being the Passover lamb because that was when they also were killing their lambs. 4. Have you stopped and thought about it? Here is Christ paraded into the Eastern Gate of the Temple as the Lamb of God. On that day 260,000 lambs would be selected and purchased and taken home. Following the 1,476 year old tradition of Passover the countdown to the cross ticks on. It was the day of the Lamb of God. He may have been crucified as the blood of thousands of lambs was pouring down the temple sacrificial areas and streaming down into the Kidron valley! 5. What was magnificent about Jesus’ timing? He was Jerusalem’s Lamb! B. JESUS SHOWING THE WORLD HIS MAGNIFICENCE BY HIS PLANNING. (LUKE 19:31) HE CAME ON A PREPARED DONKEY! 1. The way He would come was exactly stated 500 years before by Zechariah (our King riding on a colt). Both stated how He would come: as a Lamb and as a King! a) Look at Genesis 49:10-11 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him [shall be] the obedience of the people. 11 Binding his donkey to the vine, And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, He washed his garments in wine, And his clothes in the blood of grapes. (NKJV) b) Now at Zechariah 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. (NKJV) 2. Historian Josephus of the 1st century tells us that at that time 256,000 lambs were sacrificed for the number of pilgrims in Jerusalem. Because the Bible instructed one lamb per family and up to ten could partake. a) There must have been as many as two and a half million people in Jerusalem that week! They overflowed the walls, spilling out the gates, lining the hillsides with tents. There was no room in the jammed city. Just as at His birth there was no room! b) Through this crowd streaming into Jerusalem, the disciples entered as village and found exactly what
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Christ said. Remember His omniscience encompasses every detail of our lives! 3. Your Shiloh, your King, your Redeemer is going to come riding on a donkey. And He did and they missed it! He was such a contrast to other kings who marched to town with swords held high, cruelty filling their eyes, captives trudging in their wake. No the King of Kings comes quietly on a humble donkey. 4. After all the Romans were experts at parades and official public events. They called this event “the Triumphal Entry,” but no Roman would have used that term. An official “Roman Triumph” was indeed something to behold. When a Roman general came back to Rome after a complete conquest of art enemy, he was welcomed home with an elaborate official parade. In the parade he would exhibit his trophies of war and the illustrious prisoners he had captured. The victorious general rode in a golden chariot, priests burned incense in his honor, and the people shouted his name and praised him. The procession ended at the arena where the people were entertained by watching the captives fight with the wild beasts. That was a “Roman Triumph.” Our Lord’s “triumphal entry” was nothing like that, but it was a triumph just the same. He was God’s anointed King and Saviour, but this conquest would be spiritual and not military. A Roman general had to kill at least 5,000 enemy soldiers to merit a triumph; but in a few weeks the “gospel” would “conquer” some 5,000 Jews and transform their lives (Acts 4:4). Christ’s “triumph” would be the victory of love over hatred, truth over error, and life over death1. C. JESUS SHOWING THE WORLD HIS MAGNIFICENCE BY HIS WARNING (LUKE 19:41) HE CAME WITH A NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITY ! 1. Jesus2 saw in the vision the camp of the enemy, a bank cast up round about with palisades and a rampart hugging the city closer and closer in deadly embrace. The curtain falls for a moment, then rises again on another scene. The city is razed to the ground, not a stone is left upon another, the gory bodies of her children are scattered among the ruins. The silence and desolation of death reign supreme. The fact that this picture was literally fulfilled just three decades later, when the tenth Roman legion encamped just where Jesus was standing when He uttered these memorable words, would be sufficient evidence in itself, apart from any other, to

1 Wiersbe, 2 Shepherd quoted in Pentecost, Words and Works.
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substantiate the Messiahship of the one who uttered the prophecy. 2. When Jesus broke out into the wailing dirge of funeral-like lamentation, the voice of the multitude was hushed into silence. The ecstatic vision of the Messianic Kingdom, which had inspired the souls of these pilgrim multitudes as they sang the praises of the Messianic King and had led them to the most extravagant expressions of a fealty, vanished before the dirge-like lamentation of Jesus like a fog before the morning sun. They began now to recognize that their hopes and fond illusions were vain and were not shared by Him whom they boldly acclaimed King. He, from the hill, saw the splendor of the beloved city fade in the twilight and the shadow of irreparable moral disaster darken into deepest night. He had offered Himself as the King of Peace, sitting on the before-unridden colt of an ass, as Zechariah had said the Messiah would come.’ 3. Matthew recorded the effect that this presentation had upon the city of Jerusalem: “The whole city was stirred and asked, ‘Who is this?”‘ (Matt. 21:10). Controversy ranged around the question of the person of Christ. It would be sheer insanity for any mortal to make so clear a claim to be the Messiah as Jesus has just done in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy were He not the Messiah. The crowd responded to the question by identifying Jesus as, “the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee” (v. I 1). Since the Jews believed that prophets were men from God with His message, this may infer that He on this occasion was recognized as the Prophet whom Moses promised to Israel (Deut. 19:15). 4. In fact, in all the Gospels as soon as the dust has settled from the Palm branch strewn road to Jerusalem, Christ is talking about things to come. Note what Matthew records: a) Matthew 21:41 They said to Him, “He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease [his] vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.” (NKJV) b) Matthew 22:13 “Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast [him] into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (NKJV) c) Matthew 23:33 “Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? (NKJV) d) Matthew 24:51 “and will cut him in two and appoint [him] his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (NKJV)
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e) Matthew 25:30 ‘And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (NKJV) III. We have opened our Bibles to the start of the greatest week in the history of the universe since spoken into creation by the Creator. A. Every since God flung the endless myriads of solar furnaces into space, and whispering to each their name, creation has watched, shouting the glory of God ! B. From the moment Satan rebelled and drew the third of the angelic heavenly hosts along with him into war against the Most High Creator, and the toll of death and decay echoed about the Cosmos, creation has groaned for the redemption of God . C. And on this day if the voices of countless Jews had not cried Hosanna to God in the Highest, Jsus said the rocks and the creation would have cried His praises. D. Why? Because the King of Glory, the Creator, the Redeemer and Judge was coming home to His town ! E. The events of that day (Sunday or Monday) deeply touch our lives today. Let me explain why: 1. His entrance and offering of Himself in our lives can often be overlooked. He Waits. Jesus Christ will not force His Kingship upon anyone 2. His Omniscience encompasses every detail of the lives of all who surround Him. He Knows. 3. His warnings of Doom will come to pass exactly as He promised. He Judges. F. PREPAREDNESS. How do we prepare? Try answering these three questions: 1. Do you know Christ personaly ? 2. Do you serve Christ constantly ? 3. Do you love Christ completely ? Let us sing #328 “Have you any room?”