It may surprise some people to learn that one
half of the materials recorded in the Gospels,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, deals with the
final week of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The other half deals with 33 years. But one half
of the total material of the Gospels focuses
upon this last week. of his earthly ministry.
It would seem that obviously that is the main
point in their writing. There are some people
who might wonder if there is really that much
else to tell. Well, you may remember that John
the Apostle conjectured that the world itself
would not be able to contain all of the books
that should be written. recording the instances
in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact,
there are some scholars today who tell us that
Jesus in his ministry, for example, healed so
many people that disease was practically wiped
out in Palestine in those years that he was alive
on the earth. The writers carefully selected,
however, the material, that they wrote. That,
of course, was done under the supervision of
God's Holy Spirit so that they wrote inerrantly
and yet purposefully. The Gospels are not intended
to be a complete record of the life of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Each writer had a specific purpose
and theme in view and collected by the direction
of God's Spirit. the materials that would present
that theme. However, when we find an event or
a parable for that matter that is in two of the
Gospels or three of them or in some cases all
four, we recognize there is something very significant
about it. And what we are... Thinking about today
on this Palm Sunday and that which we will read
in the Gospels, in the Gospel of Luke, is one
such case. What is found here is recorded in
each of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, John, as
well as Luke. We're going to read Luke's account
beginning in verse 28 of chapter 19. And after
he had said these things, he was going on ahead,
ascending to Jerusalem. And it came about that
when he approached Bethphage and Bethany, near
the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two
of the disciples, saying, Go into the village
opposite you, in which as you enter you will
find a colt tied, on which no one yet has ever
sat. Untie it and bring it here. And if anyone
asks you, Why are you untying it? Thus shall
you speak, The Lord has need of it. And those
who were sent went away and found it, just as
he had told them. And as they were untying the
colt, its owner said to them, Why are you untying
the colt? And he said, The Lord has need of it.
And they brought it to Jesus. And they threw
their garments on the colt and put Jesus on it.
And as he was going, They were spreading their
garments in the road. And as he was now approaching
near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the
whole multitude of the disciples began to praise
God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles
which 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 multitude said to him, Teacher, rebuke
your disciples. And he answered and said, I tell
you, if these become silent, the stones will
cry out. When he approached, he saw the city
and wept over it, saying, If you had known in
this day, even you, the things which make for
peace, but now they have been hidden from your
eyes, for the days shall come upon you, when
your enemies will throw up a bank before you,
and surround you and hem you in on every side,
and will level you to the ground and your children
within you. They will not leave in you one stone
upon another, because you did not recognize the
time of your visitation. We see in this text
quite a contrast of emotion. It is drama in its
highest form. We see first the ecstasy of the
crowd. to be followed by the agony of the Christ.
I believe that this event underscores the determination
of Jesus Christ to accomplish our redemption
on the cross. Think with me of the triumphal
entry as we find it in verses 28 through 40.
What we see here is not happenstance. It is not
accidental. It is not coincidental. In the first
place, the timing of it was determined. We see
in verse 28, and after he had said these things,
he was going on ahead, ascending to Jerusalem.
The picture is that Jesus is out in front of
the disciples and those who were following along,
leading the way, pressing on with urgency and
vigor toward the city of Jerusalem. Actually,
sometime before this day, Jesus had determined
to go to Jerusalem. Turn back with me a few pages
to Luke chapter 9, where we see this mentioned
by the writer. Verse 51, And it came about when
the days were approaching for his ascension.
What does that mean? That means his return to
the Father, his exaltation to heaven once again.
When those days were approaching for that to
take place, he resolutely set his face to go
to Jerusalem. The time for his return to the
Father's presence was near at hand, and therefore
he set his face as though it were a flint. to
go to the city of Jerusalem and there accomplish
the will of his Father. Jesus' statement in Luke
9 .51 comes right after the climax of his Galilean
ministry. He had fed 5 ,000 men, not counting
the women and the children. He was exalted for
that great miracle that he performed. And yet
got alone with his disciples and queried, Who
do the men and women say that I am? And they
responded what the crowd was saying. And he said,
But who do you say that I am? And Peter, answering
for the group, said, You're the Christ, the Son
of the living God. And immediately after he had
spoken those words, Jesus replied to Peter and
to his disciples, the very first word of prophecy
regarding his own death. In verse 22 of this
chapter, the Son of Man must suffer many things
and be rejected by the elders and chief priests
and scribes and be killed and be raised up on
the third day. And he was saying to them all,
if anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny
himself and take up his cross daily and follow
me. pinnacle of His popularity in Galilee, Jesus
announces to His disciples that His purpose was
not found in the exaltation of the crowd, but
rather it was to be found in His rejection by
them, His death, and His resurrection. And He
tells them for the first time of their own cross
that they must be willing to take up if they
were to follow Him. It is at that point that
Luke begins to write material that is mostly
unique to his gospel. And these chapters from
Luke 9 up to 19 contain some of the most beloved
of all the parables that Jesus told. But I want
you to notice with me how determined Jesus was
to be in Jerusalem on time. Look at verse 53
of this chapter 9. And they did not receive him
because he was journeying with his face toward
Jerusalem. Look in chapter 13, verse 22. All
of this time he's walking, moving, ministering
to people, but in the same direction. Verse 22
says, And he was passing through from one city
and village to another, teaching and proceeding
on his way to Jerusalem. Chapter 17, verse 11.
And it came about while he was on his way to
Jerusalem that he was passing between Samaria
and Galilee. Chapter 18, verse 31. And he took
the twelve aside and said to them, Behold, we
are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which
are written through the prophets about the Son
of Man will be accomplished. For he will be delivered
to the Gentiles and will be mocked and mistreated
and spit upon. And after they have scourged him,
they will kill him. And the third day he will
rise again. The Lord Jesus Christ had to be in
Jerusalem for this Passover feast in order that
the prophecies of the Old Testament might be
fulfilled. And as we come to our text now in
chapter 19, verse 28. That time has come. The
determined time has arrived and he is coming
to Jerusalem right on schedule. The day in which
this took place, this triumphal entry, was the
Sunday preceding his crucifixion and exactly
seven days before his resurrection from the tomb.
That is why it is called Palm Sunday. and recognized
and celebrated on this day. I want you to put
yourself in your mind back to that day 2 ,000
years ago, and let's try to recreate something
of the mood and the atmosphere in Jerusalem at
that time. Let's notice first of all this crowd
that is gathering. There is a certain mood running
through the crowd. It is not necessarily a pleasant
one. Storm clouds were brewing. in that multitude.
They had seen, they had heard, they had watched
the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only
that, but word had come to them about Lazarus,
living but two miles from Jerusalem, who had
been raised from the dead, and some of them had
been there and seen it. They had heard as well
about a blind man back down at Jericho just a
day or two before this. who had been healed of
his blindness miraculously. These reports were
coming together. They wondered whether this one
Jesus of Nazareth would use the power that was
his to throw off the Roman yoke of bondage. And
so there were storm clouds brewing in that multitude.
They had heard of the miracles. They had seen
the things he had done. They had heard the teachings.
They knew his great power with crowds. And they
wondered, he is coming, will he use this opportunity
to deliver us from Rome? The disciples who were
walking with Jesus had the advantage of personal
revelation from him. And yet they were confused
about what Jesus was saying. They were unwilling
to accept his words about dying. for that was
too incredible that he should be killed. And
yet they despaired because of those words. Thomas
said, let's go up to Jerusalem so that we can
die with him. Jesus himself knew what lay ahead.
You and I can only try to imagine the thoughts
of his own heart. The climax for his coming was...
just at hand. And with a certain joy, he anticipated
these days in Jerusalem and what would be accomplished.
He was not coming to Jerusalem as a reluctant
martyr, but he was coming rather as a sovereign
Savior who was going to lay down his life and
then take it up again that he might redeem lost
men. And then, along with... The disciples and
the crowd were those who were his declared enemies.
The elders, the scribes, the Pharisees, they
fretted and fumed over his popularity with the
crowds. They attacked him for his teachings.
They sought some way to put an end to his challenge
of their position of leadership before the people.
Therefore they plotted his death, how they might
kill him. And already at this time, on this Sunday
that we examine in this text, they had issued
a decree for his arrest, according to John 11,
57. So do you see what was taking place that
day? There was the mixing together of elements
that made an explosion inevitable. In the crowd
there was a messianic fever that was rising.
It was fed by the words of Bartimaeus when he
was healed, and he cried out, Jesus, thou Son
of what? David, have mercy upon me. And they
all recognized that that title, Son of David,
had a messianic implication. And so what even
Bartimaeus, that blind man said, fed that messianic
fever. that expectation that was rising in the
nation. Jesus was not a victim of these circumstances.
Indeed, he was in control of them and of this
popular mass movement. You see, the timing of
all of this was determined by God. He was bringing
it about just at the right time. My friend, as
you and I walk in the will of God, we need to
learn to relax in the timing of God. We may not
be able to understand what is taking place around
us. We may even be tempted to disappointment
because our plans did not turn out as we wanted
them to. But let's learn to relax in the perfect
timing of God. As Jesus went toward that city,
the timing was perfect and it was determined
by God. But so were the details. Such an interesting
account, as they came to the Mount of Olives,
Jesus sent two of his disciples to a little village
nearby to pick up his transportation into the
city. And that transportation was a colt that
had never been ridden before. We have here a
record of his omniscience. For the Lord Jesus
Christ was able to tell his disciples where the
colt was, what it would be like, it would be
with his mother. And he said, they're going to
say this to you and you reply in this way and
they'll let you have the colt. Now it may be
that these people knew Jesus so that when the
disciples responded, the Lord has need of him,
they knew exactly who they were talking about.
And so they gave the colt willingly. Jesus was
not taking the colt unfairly, the colt was to
be returned. But it shows to us his omniscience,
how carefully these details were determined by
the Lord. We see exactly the same thing when
the Last Supper was arranged, where he told the
disciples to go in and make certain preparations,
and he said, they're going to say this to you,
and you respond to them these words, and so on.
Do you see how carefully the details are arranged?
And they are arranged for the fulfillment of
prophecy in the Old Testament. In the book of
Zechariah, chapter 9, verse 9, there is the prophecy
that the king would come exactly as Jesus was
coming. We see that more clearly than in Luke.
In the record of Matthew, and I invite you to
turn back there to Matthew chapter 21, verses
4 and 5. It says, Now this took place that what
was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled,
saying, and here he quotes now Zechariah, Say
to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is
coming to you, gentle and mounted on a donkey,
even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.
Do you see how carefully God arranged these details
for the exact fulfillment of the prophetic word?
And notice that Jesus the king, the Messiah,
did not come riding into Jerusalem. on a horse,
an animal of war. But he came riding on a donkey,
even a young, unbroken colt of a donkey, an animal
of service. That tells us, yes, of his humility
and his gentleness, but it speaks of something
else. According to some commentators, including
G. Campbell Morgan, There were donkeys that were
especially kept in that day for royalty, so that
in certain instances when royalty wished to announce
its presence, the king would get on to the donkey
and ride through the crowds on a gentle beast
of burden. Thus is the significance of a donkey
being chosen. For Jesus to enter the city of
Jerusalem. For he was not only coming in humility,
but he was coming as declared royalty. He was
making the claim by the way he prepared to enter
the city that he was in fact the king of Israel.
And frankly it was intended to provoke the multitudes.
He intended to stimulate them to the fervor that
we see recorded in the Word of God. He wanted
public attention drawn to this event. The details
were carefully determined to accomplish exactly
that. And then we see as well that the praise
was determined. For as the people shouted, they
shouted Scripture, including Psalm 118 verse
26. which is quoted here in the Gospel of Luke.
That psalm, by the way, may have been written
at the laying of the foundation of the second
temple, or perhaps at the dedication of that
same temple. Others say it may have been written
for the Feast of Tabernacles, which was celebrated
at that day. Nonetheless, it comes from that
same time period, the return... from captivity
of the Jews to their land. They had the city,
they had the temple, but they had no king. Now
their king comes. And the psalm that had been
written hundreds of years before to celebrate
the temple and the city of Jerusalem and the
reestablishment of the feasts of the Lord. That
psalm is used as the basis for the praise of
the king who was coming to Jerusalem. They shouted,
Hosanna. The word simply means, save now. But
it is an exclamation which came to be equivalent,
essentially, to the statement we hear today sometimes,
God save the king. In other words, this statement,
Hosanna, was more than a cry for saving, but
it was actually an exclamation which saluted
a sovereign. So that as they said, Hosanna, they
were declaring this one to be the king. And that
is why the enemies responded as they did. Furthermore,
they took palm branches, the fronds of palms.
And they waved them in the air. And they took
their coats and threw them down on that dusty
road so that the donkey would have something
to walk on. You didn't do that for everybody.
You only did that for royalty. For royalty. And
so everything they were doing and saying proclaimed
Jesus to be the king that he was. The enemy said,
Teacher, rebuke your disciples. You see, they
understood what all of this meant. And Jesus
responded by these strange words, I tell you,
if these become silent, the stones will cry out.
What he may have meant by that was that it's
impossible to shut up all of these people. Or
he may literally have meant that if these people
would be quiet, that somehow inanimate nature,
would proclaim who he was. The interesting thing
about this praise is that it was mostly superficial
praise. The crowd was caught up in this idea
of the Messiah. They expected the Messiah, however,
to bring a Jewish kingdom to pass. And listen,
that is why... many of these same people who
proclaimed Hosanna on Palm Sunday cried, crucify
him later in the week. You see, they expected
that their Messiah King would take advantage
of this moment to throw off the yoke of Rome,
and he did not do it. Not only that, but a few
days later, he would allow himself to be arrested
without any resistance. He would be judged before
authorities and say only a few words and would
finally be placed upon a cross to die a shameful
death. That is a Messiah? Ha! And that is why
in 1 Corinthians 1 .23, the apostle says that
Christ crucified is a stumbling block to the
Jews. Messiah crucified is unreasonable, it is
unthinkable, it is unexpected. And the nation
stumbled over him. Yet as always, Jesus was quite
in control of this situation. He was determined
that it should allow to be revealed who he was,
and he was determined not to allow what was taking
place to divert him from his cross work in a
few days. Foster, in his book, The Final Week,
says, Although Jesus brought it about that he
entered the city in such startling messianic
acclaim, Yet his purpose was not selfish ambition
or vain display. The triumphal entry cannot be
separated from the crucifixion, even as the latter
cannot be separated from the resurrection. Jesus
was deliberately coming up to Jerusalem to give
his life as a ransom for the sins of mankind.
It was God's will that the sacrifice should be
made in such a public manner that the attention
of the world and of the ages should be concentrated
upon it. He was not to be assassinated in a dark
street or done to death in secret. And that is
why he caused the focus of all of the people
of Jerusalem to be upon him as that feast began,
so that when its climax came and the Passover
lamb was slain, he, God's lamb, would be crucified
in the sight of them all for their sins. It surely
is the focus of the ages. And the reason for
this Palm Sunday is that it might be just exactly
that. But then a strange thing happens. From
this ecstasy of the crowd, we come to verse 41
and we see the agony of the Christ. When he approached,
he saw the city and wept over it. And then he
gave a warning. You see, as man he wept, as God
he warned. And what he warned of was judgment.
In contrast to the ecstasy around him, his agony
of spirit spilled over into tears. The word that
is used here is not just the word for tears being
in the eyes or trickling down the cheeks, but
this is a strong word that means to lament with
sobs. It is a person who is weeping with such
emotion that his chest heaves. It is the kind
of emotion that would be expressed at the grave
of one who had died. With all of the ecstasy
around him, Jesus bursts into tears, and he speaks
of judgment. And the cause of judgment is found
in verse 42. He said, If you had known in this
day, even you, the things which make for peace.
The cause of judgment was the ignorance of the
nation. Indeed, the willful ignorance. of some
of them. Their lack of peace. Their refusal to
accept him for the Messiah that he was. They
wanted a different kind of Messiah. They had
rejected his teachings. They wanted his miracles.
They had rejected his revelation of God. They
wanted the bread that he could make. They had
rejected repenting and coming to the Lord. They
wanted a revolution against Rome. Judgment. And
it was inevitable. He says, now they have been
hidden from your eyes. At first Israel would
not believe, and then Israel could not believe,
because God gave them blindness. And my friend,
that is God's judicial act when the human heart
hardens itself. Pharaoh is another example, for
he hardened his heart against what Moses was
saying, and in response to that, God hardened
his heart. And here we see Israel as a nation
doing the same thing. They rejected their Messiah,
and therefore God gave them blindness so that
they could not receive him. It was inevitable
that the nation would be judged, and he describes
the judgment. He says, the day shall come when
your enemies will throw up a bank before you,
surround you, and hem you in, and will level
you to the ground, and will not leave one stone
upon another. In 40 years, approximately, this
prophecy was fulfilled exactly. In 66 A .D.,
Titus marched upon Jerusalem with the Roman armies
to take the city. Apparently because of a warning
that Jesus had given, there were believers in
the city who escaped before they came. But once
the soldiers got there, they surrounded the city
and laid siege to it. And that siege didn't last
for six months or a year. But my friend, it lasted
four years. No one went into Jerusalem and no
one came out of the city. And it was so desperate
that some of the people even turned to cannibalism.
And finally the armies threw up their banks against
the walls of the city, went in, took it. and
then used ropes and horses, great teams of horses,
and they began to pull the buildings down until
there was not one stone left on top of another
in the city of Jerusalem. Why did that happen?
Because the nation had rejected her Messiah.
Jesus had said some words about this back in
chapter 13. You may want to look at them. There's
something additional here. Here he says in verse
34, Luke 13, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city
that kills the prophets and stones those sent
to her. How often I wanted to gather your children
together just as a hen gathers her brood under
her wings and you would not have it. You see
the rebellion, the resistance to God. Behold,
your house is left to you desolate. And I say
to you, you shall not see me until the time comes
when you say, blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord. Does that sound familiar to
you? Actually, the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking
of yet a future day, not the day when they spoke
this as he entered the city on Palm Sunday. But
the prophecy that Jesus speaks here is this.
That on that day when they finally put him to
death and rejected him, the nation would see
him no more until he would return to the nation.
And they would cry out, Blessed is he who comes
in the name of the Lord. And that refers to his
second coming. A time yet future when he will
return to the earth, to Jerusalem, and will stand
on the Mount of Olives again. and will enter
the city of Jerusalem. And there will be another
triumphal entry as he comes to establish then
his kingdom upon the earth. What a day that's
going to be. But here we see Jesus weeping, weeping
over the hardness of hearts, the sureness of
judgment. G. Campbell Morgan said, regarding
Jesus weeping. It does not mean merely that tears
forced themselves up and fell down his face.
It suggests rather the heaving of the bosom and
the sob and the cry of a soul in agony. We have
no stronger word than the word that is used here.
And then he quotes this little poem. The Son
of God in tears, the wandering angels see. Be
thou astonished, O my soul. He shed those tears
for thee. Will you be aware, please, that the
hardness of heart in Jerusalem, the citadel of
rebellion against God that it became, is but
an example of every human heart. For every human
heart is just like that, except the grace of
God bring repentance. When Jesus cried for Jerusalem,
he actually wept for all of humanity because
of our rebellion and resistance of his love.
I'm talking to some people here today, a few
perhaps, but some... almost certainly, whose
hearts are in a state of rebellion against God.
And the Spirit of God has been knocking at the
door of your heart. He's been telling you. He's
been visiting you. Do you notice how Jesus ended
that statement in Luke 19? He said, you did not
know the time of your visitation. My friend,
without Jesus Christ, will you please know that
that conviction you feel within, that guilt that
presses so heavily upon you, that that is actually
the love of God revealing to you your sin, your
rebellion? And the Lord Jesus Christ 2 ,000 years
ago wept over hearts just like yours today. And
it's his desire that you will receive him and
know that he is visiting you today, asking that
he might come into your life and save you. Will
you let him? Will you let him come into your
heart? Will you receive him as your Lord, as
your Savior? Will you make him the king of your
life? Jesus weeps here because of the tragedy
of human sin. The unbelief, the self -centeredness,
the independence from God, which sin produces.
If you've never trusted Jesus Christ before you
leave here this morning, will you do that? I
recognize that there are many of us here who
have already made that decision. We are believers.
We have received Jesus Christ. Let me bring a
different application in closing to you and to
me. We see here that the Lord Jesus Christ was
determined to go to the cross for us. How determined
are you to live for him? How committed are you
to your own cross that he's called you to bear?
Or to say it another way, How quickly do you
forsake God's purpose in your life because it's
too costly or too painful? Too painful. Our Savior
set his face to go to Jerusalem, and there was
nothing in all of earth, in all of hell below,
that could keep him from that cross. He was determined.
to die for us. Are you determined to live for
him with that same intensity of love and devotion?
Lord Jesus, forgive us for our lukewarm love,
our half -hearted devotion. For we see here the
example that you set before us. And we repent
of the casual way that we look at living for
you. Father, we weep within our hearts because
so often we say that bearing that cross you've
called us to bear is too painful. It's going
to cost too much. I pray that you will give us
today a fresh zeal, a fresh and deeper determination
to live for you, whatever the cost, and to take
up the cross and follow you. Lord, search out
our hearts in the quietness of these moments
as we close. May we do significant business with
you. And depart different than when we came in.
I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. I'd like us
to conclude our service by singing number 436.
And as we do, we lovingly and sincerely offer
to you an invitation to respond to the word of
God. If today you have no assurance of your sins
being forgiven, If you are not a Christian, if
you've never received Jesus Christ into your
life, we have counselors who are waiting here
at the front who would like to personally take
you aside and without coercion, without pressure,
I promise you, simply explain to you how today
you can be saved and know it.