I invite you to turn with me in your copy of
God's word. Today we are looking at that triumphal
entry from Luke chapter 19. Luke chapter 19 today.
Luke chapter 19, we will begin in verse 28. And
then go through verse 44, Luke 19 verse 28. And
when he had said these things, he went on ahead
going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethphage
and Bethany at the mount that is called Olivet,
he sent two disciples saying, go into the village.
in front of you, where on entering you will find
a colt tied on which no one has ever sat. Untie
it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, why
are you untying it? You shall say this, the Lord
has need of it. So those who were sent went away
and found it, just as he had told them. And as
they were untying the colt, its owners said to
them, why are you untying the colt? And they
said, the Lord has need of it. And they brought
it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the
colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode along,
they spread their cloaks on the road, and as
he was drawing near, already on the way down
the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his
disciples began to rejoice and praise God with
a loud voice. for all the mighty works that they
had seen, saying, blessed is the king who comes
in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and
glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees
in the crowd said to him, teacher, rebuke your
disciples. He answered, I tell you, if these
were silent, the very stones would cry out. And
when he drew near to the city, he wept over it,
saying, would that you, even you, had known this
day the things that make for peace. But now they're
hidden from your eyes. For the days will come
upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade
around you and surround you and hem you in on
every side and tear you down to the ground, you
and your children within you. And they will know
because you did not know the time of your visitation.
Well, sometimes, probably oftentimes, our expectations
for life don't match up with reality. And this
may be particularly observed when you go on vacation.
I've been talking recently with some of you who
like to go on cruise ship vacations. And it seems
to me that I've heard, maybe more than once,
how the expectation of this kind of vacation,
which I've never been on, cannot sometimes match
up with reality. Maybe. You've heard a situation
where somebody has expected to go on this luxurious
trip, eat all this wonderful food, go to the
most exciting ports of call, and enjoy unique
once in a lifetime experiences, sit by the pool
that is not crowded, and just relax on this wonderful
adventure. But in reality, that trip, maybe you've
heard of one of these trips, did not turn out
like you expected. The boarding time to get on
the ship was ridiculous. The boat rocked in the
storm. You were seasick for days. Maybe you or
that person you know lost their passport. The
pool was like a bowl full of Cheerios, as it
were. And all the hidden costs of this trip blew
out your budget. Maybe you've had an experience
like that where your expectations did not. match
reality. Maybe your expectations were a little
bit too high for the reality of the situation.
The situation here with Jesus riding into Jerusalem
is quite the opposite. Reality is far better
and far greater than the people could have ever
expected or than the people desired. The reality
of Easter week was no cruise to the tropics,
putting it crudely and mildly, but instead of
reality not measuring up to expectations, Jesus
was far greater than the people could have expected
or dreamed. He was and is far better than any
of their small -minded worldly hopes. They wanted
a conquering hero who would actualize their desires
and their dreams for an earthly kingdom. But
what they received was a humble savior who would
secure them for an eternal kingdom that could
not be shaken. And it would do for them far more
than they could ever ask or think. Are you in
awe of this humble king who rides to Jerusalem,
who comes to you today, humble, and as it were
mounted on the colt of a donkey? He comes in
lowliness and gentleness. Why? Because we are
lowly and needy. While these people wanted Jesus
to help them have a better life situation, what
they needed and what we need is not Not really
someone to change all of our outward circumstances.
Because no matter what your life looks like on
the outside, it doesn't really matter if on the
inside you're miserable. And by nature, the Scripture
shows us by nature we are actually miserable
without Christ. We need a King who meets us in
our misery and changes our standing with God
and cleanses us from the inside out. So that's
why this humble King is the King we need to see
and the King we need to treasure today. That's
why Palm Sunday is so great because this humble
King truly helps miserable and hurting people
like you and like me. Well, how does he do that?
Well, as we've already said, by coming, firstly
by coming, and gentleness and lowliness. In other
words, he meets us right where we are in tenderness
and in compassion. We get a clue to Jesus' tender
heartedness even from the very geography that's
described here when it says he's drawing near
to Bethphage and Bethany. Do you remember how
special Bethany was to Jesus and what special
people were there and special things happened
there? It was at Bethany that Jesus had the deepest
of friendships with ordinary people. You remember
Mary and Martha and Lazarus there at Bethany?
Mary and Martha who provided that missionary
home for Jesus. for his rest and refuge. Remember
how Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus before
he raised Lazarus from the dead? How he comforted
Mary and Martha in their sorrow? This is where
Jesus was anointed for burial. And again, it
was a place of refreshment and rest for Jesus
that very week before his crucifixion. And so,
So what we see in Jesus' relationship to the
people of Bethany in that place is that though
Jesus was fully God, he was also fully human
and needed rest and encouragement and comfort
himself. Why? Because Jesus was fully human and
took to himself our frailty. Though he was without
sin, he entered into our frailty and so he too...
Needed rest and encouragement. He's both king
and sovereign Lord and right down on our level
too. That's why he's able to help us as we'll
see. And notice how Jesus comes into Jerusalem.
You know the story by heart. He doesn't come
on a big charging Arabian war horse. No, he comes
on the colt, the foal of a donkey. And if you
read Matthew 21, You also see that Jesus, while
he rides on this colt, the mother donkey is likely
right there alongside with the foal of the donkey
as he goes into Jerusalem. As he sends the disciples
out, they retrieve this colt from its owners,
fulfilling that great prophecy. of this day from
Zechariah 9 ,9. Rejoice, O greatly, O daughter
of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.
Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous
and having salvation as he humbled and mounted
on a donkey, on a colt, on the foal of a donkey.
He rides in on a humble beast of burden. Yesterday
some of the men went hiking up Table Rock and
one of you who will remain nameless mentioned
that they would possibly like a llama to take
them back down. Jesus rides on an even more humble
animal than that. How humble, how lowly, how
meek is this king who is in charge of the cult,
in charge of this moment, yet decides to find
the least glorious ride into the city. Also,
think about this. He brings the colt and with
the colt, the colt's mother, the donkey, likely
in order to help that small animal feel comfortable
with the presence of its mother. I mean, you
remember what's going on. There's a lot of shouting,
a lot of yelling, a lot of waving of palm branches.
You know, this could. could possibly spook a
small animal yet Jesus bringing that comforting
presence of the animal's mother along shows us
that Jesus is tender -hearted even to even to
the lowliest of creatures isn't he he is as the
Bible describes as he describes himself gentle
and lowly He's the sovereign king, but he's the
humble savior. He who was rich beyond all splendor
because he loved you so much, he became poor.
So that through his poverty we might become rich.
He's gentle and lowly. He says to us, come to
me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and
learn from me. I am gentle and lowly of heart,
and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke
is easy, my burden is light. Oh, don't you love
how Isaiah describes this tenderness of the Lord
Jesus to those who are needy, those who are like
you and me? Says of the suffering servant, the
Lord Jesus in Isaiah 42 -3, that a bruised reed
he will not break, a faintly burning wick, He
will not quench. Whether you have been marred
by sin or suffering, He is gentle and lowly and
will deal gently with you and me. He will not
remove, no, He will not remove all your troubles
from you, and He will not remove you from all
your troubles, but He will tenderly strengthen
all those who are troubled. by sin and suffering
in the midst of it. He is so near to us. Hebrews
chapter two, 17 and 18, one of my favorite passages
says, therefore he had to be made like his brothers
in every respect so that he might become a merciful
and faithful high priest in the service of God
to make propitiation for the sins of his people
for he himself suffered when tempted so he is
able to help those who are being tempted. Dear
ones, he knows suffering better than you because
he suffered the agony of the cross and his father
turned his face away. He knows temptation better
than you because he never gave in to temptation
but bore it all the way down. He knows what you're
going through and he's lowly and gentle. He's
come in humility to a people who are miserable,
a people who are humiliated. Isn't it nice to
know though, isn't it nice to know that through
all the peaks and valleys of life, isn't it nice
to know when you have somebody who's been there
too, who's experienced what you've been through.
C .S. Lewis says it this way, friendship, Friendship
is born at the moment when one person says to
another, wait, you too? I thought I was the only
one. Wait, you too? I thought I was the only
one. What a friend we have in Jesus. He says
to you, yes, me too. You're not the only one
who has been there. You're not the only one who
has been to that dark place. I've been there
too. You're not the only one who's been down
this road. I have been there as well. I can relate
to your darkness and I am the answer. So as we
celebrate on Palm Sunday, Jesus comes because
as he is born on this beast of burden, he's coming
to help us bear our burdens. If you find yourself
downtrodden or suffering in some way, maybe circumstances
have left you in some sort of gloom or despair
or inwardness that just doesn't seem to go away.
Just as Jesus rode in triumph to Jerusalem, He
comes to meet you where you are now. He comes
to be the satisfaction for your soul in whatever
situation. Maybe it's not suffering today, but
maybe it's some temptation. Maybe you're laden
with the guilt or shame or temptation of sin
or to sin. In some way, see Jesus riding to you
today, not to condemn you, but in love and in
compassion to set you free from the encumbrance
of every sin and every weight that is hindering
you. He has the power to set you free. And he's
done so, Christian. This is the kind of king
you want to pour your heart out to. This is the
kind of king, is it not, that you want to embrace
in faith and repentance as the savior from your
sin. We should long with the people to cry out,
yes, Lord, Hosanna, save me now, when we see
who this King really is and what he has really
done to comfort the hurting, to strengthen the
struggling sinner. And that's what these last
verses speak of as we look from verse 36 to verse
34. Why is it? that he can help. How is it that
he can help the lowly, the hurting, the miserable?
But by doing what he speaks of here, he makes
lasting peace and victory as he goes to accomplish
love's redeeming work at the cross. As he comes
back to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, he
is... once again, bringing the glory of the Lord
back to the temple. In Ezekiel we're reminded
that the glory of the Lord had left the temple.
Now he is coming in glory back to the temple
to cleanse the temple. And yet the people are
praising him and they know the prophecy of the
coming son of David and so they're hailing him
as the promised Messiah. The Pharisees know the
implications of this. That if Jesus comes and
overturns the power structure that the Romans
have set up, what's gonna happen? It's gonna
be very bad for them. It's gonna be very bad
for the religious establishment. And the Romans
are going to impose martial law and there's gonna
be a lot of people killed. And so the Pharisees
are saying to Jesus, here, keep your people quiet.
Tell your disciples to quiet down. And Jesus
refuses. For the very stones would cry out, he
says. if the people cease to praise Jesus. The
people rightly praise him. But, but, if you skip
ahead just a couple of verses, you see in verse
41, Jesus isn't really smiling, is he? No, what's
happening? What's Jesus' face? Oh, he has big
tears rolling down his cheeks. This isn't some
sentimental tear. No, he is sobbing. He is weeping.
He wept over the city. Do you know what it's
like to weep? Jesus is weeping. The juxtaposition
of the praises and the weeping could not be more
extreme here. Jesus weeps because they don't
understand, they don't understand that Jesus
did not come to abolish. and cast out the Romans.
No, he wasn't coming to restore David's earthly
kingdom as they cast their cloaks on the ground,
worshiping him rightly as the king. He did not
come to end their earthly humiliation and deprivation
that they'd suffered at the hands of so many
empires over the centuries. No. Oh, he had not
come to set up an earthly kingdom then. And how
tragically small -minded they were. How tragically
small -minded they were thinking that Jesus had
simply come to actualize their desires. And how
tragic, even more so, that the tongues that cried
out, praise him. Blessed be the one who comes
in the name of the Lord on Palm Sunday. Very
soon, within the week, would be crying out, crucify
him. Why? Why does Jesus weep? Because as he
says in verse 42, they did not know, even as
they cry out peace, they did not know the things
that made for peace. Oh, the sorrow and the irony.
So what are those things that they didn't understand?
What are those things that make for peace? What
is... What is the way in which Jesus brings lasting
comfort and hope and help to the lowly? It's
by doing what he did to make for peace. By firstly,
providing atonement through his blood. He was
coming to conquer, but he was coming to conquer
through death. God was holy they and we are sinful
and and and and that's why they came to the temple
to offer sacrifices for their sins But as we
studied in the book of Hebrews those sacrifices
never ended They begged and they caused the people
to long for one final atoning sacrifice and Jesus
himself is riding as it were to the altar of
sacrifice to be the final offering the eternal
spotless lamb of God to be the final covering
for all sins of his people." Oh, they should
have known this, shouldn't they? They had heard
John the Baptist when he proclaimed as Jesus
approached the water, behold, the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world, yet they
weren't looking for that kind of Messiah, were
they? They were looking for a political hero,
not for one who would atone for their sins. They
needed to know the atonement. They needed to
know about Jesus' resurrection, the promise that
He would rise from the dead providing certainty
of victory over death, vindicating and validating
that His sacrifice to God was truly acceptable.
They didn't realize that even though they were
God's chosen people in a sense, they still needed
repentance and faith. They needed to remember
that they needed atonement for sins. The resurrection
and repentance and faith, these things are the
things that make for peace. Jesus had proclaimed
repentance of sins. He'd called the people to
turn from their sins and to put their faith and
believe in him. Whoever believes in me, Jesus
said to them, would not perish but have eternal
life. In this moment, they're missing all this.
They're missing the fact that they needed to
be right with God. They needed to be right with
God by receiving Jesus by faith and therefore
being justified and having a right relationship
with God by receiving that righteousness that
comes through faith. It wasn't through the sacrifices
of the Old Testament. It's not through any of
their works, it's not through any of our works
that we're made right with God, that we receive
peace with God, but by faith alone. We're justified,
we're made right with God by faith alone, in
Christ alone. And it's been that way from the
beginning, folks. Even in Genesis, even in Genesis,
Abraham believed God, Genesis 15 -6, and it was
counted to him as righteousness. They needed
to remember that Christ's blood atoned for their
sins, that he came to die and to rise for them.
And then by turning from their sins and trusting
him by faith, they were made right with God and
had peace with God. Those were the things that
made for peace. Do you and I know the things
that make for peace? Maybe we know them in our
minds. Maybe we've heard them from the pulpit
week in and week out, but do we savor them in
our hearts? Do we savor and rest upon and rejoice
in Christ who was given for us on a daily basis?
Because it's as we rest in the reality that we
have ultimate peace with God through Jesus' blood
that we have a stability in our souls that speaks
to every sorrow, speaks to every hurt. It's as
we rejoice that we have final and lasting and
ultimate peace with God that we enjoy a tranquility
that commands every other anxiety to cease. It's
as we behold Jesus that our fears turn to confident,
loud hosannas. And as we hear Jesus sobbing in
verses 41 through 42, it redirects our hearts
to the true reason to have joy in Jesus, not
because he gives us all the goodies that we want
here and now, but because Jesus fixes everything
forever. His blood makes us right with God now
and eternally. That means that No matter what
kind of a mess you're in today, you're okay.
You're right on schedule. And one day everything
is going to be okay because of Jesus as he rides
into Jerusalem to take upon himself the humiliation
of our sin and to die and rise on the third day.
He does so so that we would know eternal joy
with the Father forever in a new heavens and
a new earth. Isn't that so much better than what
the people were expecting? Isn't that so much
better than having every earthly desire fulfilled?
Everything on our bucket list checked off. Everything
that we wrongly presume that God should give
us, an eternal home with our Father. That is
what Jesus is coming to accomplish as he comes
to reconcile us to God through his shed blood.
And so what a tragedy if on this Palm Sunday
we would leave standing in the same place spiritually
where the people of Jerusalem were then. What
a tragedy if we stood in their place and remained
in their place, simply seeking God to fulfill
all of our small -minded earthly desires. Now,
caveat, does... Does Jesus teach us to pray for
our daily bread? Yes, he teaches us to pray for
our needs and praise God. He gives us a competent
portion of all the things in this life that we
need and also a measure of earthly happiness
and joy. But that is not the primary reason why
Jesus rides in to Jerusalem for them or for us.
If Jesus were to bring you every external comfort
that you could wish for, yet your life was eaten
up by the cancer of sin, it would not matter
what comforts you had in this life, because externally
and internally, you would still be perishing.
What does it profit a man if he gains the whole
world and yet forfeits his soul? Let us see that
the people praise him rightly, but let us praise
him rightly from the heart for who he is and
what he has truly come to do to save us, to transform
us from the inside out, to give us eternal peace
with God in his presence forever. Let us see
our true need of him. Maybe today you've not
embraced this Savior King for the true salvation
from sin that he offers. Luke, the writer of
the gospel, describes the time of Israel's visitation
and that terrible things would happen to them
in verse 43 and 44 because they did not understand
the day of visitation. Do you today? Maybe someone
in this room, maybe someone within the sound
of my voice understand that maybe today you realize
that you haven't received Christ for who he is,
your savior from sin. If so, today is the day
of your visitation. Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ
and be saved. One more application here as Jesus
rides into Jerusalem. What is he doing? He's
come to purify the temple We didn't read those
verses, but but hear this Jesus comes to cleanse
the temple. He comes to bring holiness He died
for a people of his own possession to make them
a holy people to himself. That is God's end goal
for you is Your holiness as a byproduct of that
you will be happy all of your days, but are you
longing for the same? and for which Jesus died.
A holy people for himself. Are you longing for
holiness? And by the spirit's power that is at
work within you, are you pursuing holiness? By
being in the word, by coming on the Lord's day,
by surrounding yourself with godly people who
love Jesus, who embrace the gospel. Jesus came
for a holy people to make a holy people to himself,
and so we should pursue. holiness as well. He's
shown us the things that make for peace. He's
shown us that he comes to help those by making
peace for those who are lowly and miserable.
And so dear ones, if you have rejoiced in the
Lord Jesus for who he truly is on that Palm Sunday,
you will be ready for the Palm Sunday to come.
And yes, there is a Palm Sunday to come. You
can read about it in Revelation. And in that
day, Jesus will come again, not lowly so much
on a donkey, but on a white horse, conquering
all of his and our enemies. And on that day,
Christian, if you know him, you will rejoice
when the Lord our judge shall come, because he
will take you out of this life of sorrows and
this veil of tears to be satisfied. in your eternal
home with your Father forever. Now that is a
reason to shout Hosanna. That is a reason to
praise Jesus. Even so, we pray, come Lord Jesus.