The King Has Come

[0:00] From as early as the 4th century, Christians have recognized this day as Palm Sunday, which of course commemorates the moment when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.

[0:15] It's often referred to as Holy Week. Of course, Holy Week culminates in the celebration of Christ's resurrection on Easter Sunday.

[0:39] And perhaps beginning on this day and through the week, you have a particular reading plan. Perhaps you're reading through the Gospels, as they tell, of the days leading up to the crucifixion and then, of course, the crucifixion itself and the resurrection.

[0:53] Our church has never really followed a liturgical calendar, at least not very rigidly. We do what most churches do, of course, with Easter and Christmas, and occasionally we'll throw in one of the other dates as well.

[1:08] But today, we're going to jump on board with the typical Christian liturgical calendar, joining with literally millions of Christians around the world today who are meditating on the significance of this moment in the life of Christ.

[1:23] And we're going to do so by considering the account of this found in the Gospel of Luke. Luke 19, beginning at verse 28. When he had said these things, he went on ahead going to Jerusalem.

[1:42] When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of his 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.

[2:00] 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 away and found it just as he had told them.

[2:14] And as they were untying the colt, its owner said to them, Why are you untying the colt? Reasonable question. 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.

[2:32] And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. 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 they had seen, saying, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.

[2:54] Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. And he answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.

[3:12] And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes.

[3:27] 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 not leave one stone upon another in you because you did not know the time of your visitation.

[3:49] And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer. You have made it a den of robbers.

[3:59] And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him. But they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.

[4:16] Amen. What is important for us to remember what the Gospels, by Gospels I mean the four Gospel pieces of literature in the New Testament, it's important for us to remember what they intend to accomplish as a literary genre.

[4:37] Many people will equate them to biographies, but while they contain biographical information, the authors of these Gospels were not intending simply to tell us a few things about Jesus' life.

[4:52] That's not exactly what they are. The Gospels are collections of historical data meant to persuade, meant to persuade the readers of a particular thing, of the identity and the work of Christ, of Jesus, of Nazareth, and to persuade the reader, therefore, to trust in him as the promised Messiah and the Son of God who has come to save us from our sins.

[5:23] So they're not storybooks designed to entertain us. They are arguments meant to convince us. That's what the four Gospels are.

[5:35] That's what they intend to accomplish, what their authors intended to accomplish. Now, each of the four Gospel authors have unique sources. They also have unique audiences for their material.

[5:51] Matthew and John were both part of Jesus' band of disciples and were themselves eyewitnesses of the events and the teachings of Jesus' ministry.

[6:02] John Mark was not a direct disciple of the Lord Jesus, but he came shortly thereafter and was mentored by the Apostle Peter. Some point along the way throughout their ministry in Rome, those who had been listening to Peter's preaching and hearing Peter's eyewitness testimony of the things of Jesus asked that Mark would record those things that they may have a copy of it and the Lord has used that so that we might have Mark's Gospel as well.

[6:32] And then we come to Luke. Luke was a companion of the Apostle Paul and because of that, he moved in prominent Christian circles in the first century and his Gospel presents the accounts of various eyewitness testimonies of the Lord Jesus.

[6:51] And the purpose of this collection of testimonies by Luke's own admission is that we might have certainty about the person and the work of Jesus of Nazareth as it relates to our personal salvation.

[7:08] Let me just read you the opening dialogue of his Gospel, the very first four verses. Luke says, Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

[7:51] So, the events recorded for us in Luke 19 are there to contribute to Luke's persuasive argument about the Gospel of Jesus.

[8:04] If we're trying to wonder why are these here, what is their purpose, fundamentally, Luke has already told us, they are here as part of an orderly account of the life and ministry and teachings of the Lord Jesus in order that we might have certainty about what actually happened in His life so that we may increase in our faith in Him as Messiah and Lord.

[8:32] Now, the significance of the triumphal entry, as we often refer to it in Christian language, the significance of it to the arguments of the Gospels is undoubtable because all four of them include a detailed account of this particular event.

[8:49] Now, that's unusual. It's not unusual for Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the synoptic Gospels, to share lots of material between one another, although, with differing perspectives, they have lots of the same material that they're covering.

[9:03] John is different from that. John is doing a different kind of thing with his Gospel, filling in some gaps. It's unusual for us to find moments in Jesus' life that are recorded in all four, and so when they are recorded in all four, we should pay careful attention to why they're there.

[9:20] Well, this is one such story. It's in all four of our Gospels, and it's not merely mentioned in the four Gospels. It's actually covered in incredible detail. It highlights a significant moment of prophetic fulfillment, and it reveals a great deal about Jesus' character, purpose, as the Messiah of God.

[9:45] And what Luke does here for us in Luke 19 that I find to be so helpful is he groups three unique scenes together to help us see Jesus as our prophet, priest, and king.

[10:01] Studying through this this week, I thought about the toys that I had, that we had as kids. I think Mattel made them. They were called viewfinders, which were like these funny little camera-looking things.

[10:12] You'd put your eyes up to it, and they had the reel, the picture reel that you'd stick in the top. You could change out the reels, and there was a lever on the side. When you look through the camera, you saw a picture, and if you pull the lever on the side, the reel turns, and you see the next picture.

[10:26] You guys have those as kids? Yeah, okay. So you know what I'm talking about. Viewfinders, Mattel made them. I don't know if they make them anymore, but I remember them as a kid. I thought about that. As Luke is compiling these eyewitness accounts, and as he gets to chapter 19 here, and he's telling us about this momentous moment in Jesus' life and ministry, and he groups these three pictures together, I want to take the viewfinder approach to the text.

[10:52] That is, I want us to kind of flip through the three scenes pictured here so that we might get a general idea of what happened while thinking primarily about how each scene contributes to our understanding of the gospel, our understanding of the gospel of Jesus.

[11:12] So that's what we're going to do. We can't cover every detail. I'll have to leave that to you, but what we're going to do, we're just going to pull the lever a couple times. We're going to see the scenes. We're going to examine them briefly, and ask how is this contributing to our understanding of the gospel of Jesus?

[11:26] scene number one. We might call it riding down the road. Riding down the road. The first picture here is our Bible viewfinder.

[11:39] It's a celebratory scene. Jesus is mounted on a donkey traveling from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem. A growing multitude of people are beginning to line the streets with clothing and palm branches.

[11:56] The crowd greets the Lord Jesus not as a rabbi. They greet him in this moment as a king. And their shouts are shouts of salvation from God.

[12:10] Clearly, they believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah King come from God to deliver them. Their triumphant shouts then suggest they expected him to make his move during this particular Passover event.

[12:28] And they weren't entirely wrong. Jesus indeed was the promised Messiah King and he would indeed deliver his people during this celebration of Passover.

[12:42] But he wouldn't do it at all how they wanted or at all how they expected. He didn't come as a conquering king to defeat Roman oppressors.

[12:54] He came as a humble king to lay down his life as a sacrifice for their sins. I want to highlight three ideas for you in this picture that's presented to us by Luke.

[13:07] The first thing I want you to notice is that the scene here is deliberate. It's deliberate. Look with me at verse 28. When he had said these things he went on ahead going up to Jerusalem and when he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the mount that is called Olivet he sent two of his 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 yet sat.

[13:35] 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.

[13:56] Deliberate is what comes to the surface here. There is a common notion about Jesus that he was an incredible teacher who just unfortunately was crushed beneath the will of history as one writer put it.

[14:15] That he was just kind of he was doing a lot of good things he was he was a notable man and he just happened to be wrong place wrong time and was crushed by the corruption of his day. The idea it intends to portray the Lord as a good man caught in circumstances that were out of his control those circumstances being Roman oppression in Palestine of the day those circumstances being a corrupt spiritual government among the Jewish people who of course were his enemies in these moments and we understand how all of that went.

[14:51] The Bible however repeatedly asserts the opposite of that. At no point was Jesus ever in anything but total control of what was happening to and around him.

[15:05] He knew from the very beginning what his purpose was. it was to die for our sins to raise from the dead. He repeatedly revealed this to his disciples even telling them exactly how it would unfold and how it would take place.

[15:21] And at this point in Luke's gospel if you were to trace the chapters leading up you would find that what Jesus is doing is he's making a very direct purposeful deliberate intentional move towards Jerusalem acknowledging that this will be his last move toward Jerusalem.

[15:42] That what awaits him there is betrayal he will be turned over to the Roman authorities he will be crucified and then subsequently rise from the dead.

[15:54] It's all deliberate. He's in total control. Even in his own trial you'll remember Pilate urging him at one point to answer for himself.

[16:05] Pilate unwilling to crucify him in that moment says don't you realize that I have the power to free you. You'll remember Jesus' response. You would have no power over me were it not given you from the Father.

[16:20] He's in total control. He knows what's happening and he's moving towards that and this story is no different. What we see here in the triumphal entry in the moments leading up to it we see on Jesus' part careful premeditation.

[16:36] He's moving toward Jerusalem he's probably two miles outside of the city he intentionally pauses near the villages of Bethphage and Bethany as he was prone to visit many times before and he prepares himself for this royal procession.

[16:55] now how he knew the donkey would be there and would be tied up isn't explained to us in the text. Perhaps it was his omniscience and his divine person and his divine nature that was just aware and knew what would unfold.

[17:11] I think the simplest explanation is the best one in this case which is that Jesus just planned for this moment. It's almost as if he's even made his arrangements with the owners of this donkey and he's even supplied a passcode as if to say hey I'm going to send some people your way eventually and when you see them untying it ask them what they're doing and if they say these words the Lord has need of it you'll know it's from me.

[17:36] I think it's just deliberate arrangement premeditation he's working things out he's doing it on purpose but why?

[17:48] Why would he arrange such a thing? John and Matthew's gospels remind us that this was an explicit fulfillment of something spoken by the prophet Zechariah.

[18:02] Zechariah chapter 9 verse 9 he 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 this is fulfillment of the prophecies Jesus intentionally moves towards this he intentionally arranges it in order that he might fulfill what the prophets had spoken there's no coincidence here this is premeditated careful planning on the part of the Lord another thing that contributes to this idea is the fact that this is different from how Jesus typically operated in Jerusalem his attendance at the various festivals and feasts was always greatly anticipated by the people and if you read through the gospels you'll find that this is not normal for Jesus

[19:05] Jesus often arrived late he often arrived in relative secrecy in order that he might prevent this very thing from happening we even read of other times in his ministry where the crowd so impressed so moved by his power sought to make him a king by force we find it in John 6 in particular the feeding of the 5,000 what do the people do?

[19:28] they move in order that they might make him a king by force and what does Jesus repeatedly do in those moments? he escapes he gets out of there it's not time his hour has not come this is not normal for Jesus this isn't glory seeking in a selfish sense in a human sinful sense at this point no this is deliberate action on Jesus' part held off for this particular moment in order that he might communicate a specific thing he was unequivocally identifying himself in this moment as the Messiah King that's its purpose it was deliberate intentional premeditated Jesus in this act fulfilling the scripture says I am him but the scene isn't only deliberate we find that the scene is also quite dramatic isn't it?

[20:27] verse 35 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 to praise God with a loud voice notice the singular tense there multitudes of people multitude typically means it's not even worth bothering trying to count there's so many multitude of people but what are they shouting and singing?

[21:02] with one voice with unity of voice in unison together an amazing moment why are they shouting? verse 37 for all the mighty works that they had seen what were they saying?

[21:17] blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord peace in heaven and glory in the highest dramatic so word quickly spreads that Jesus was on his way as he gets closer to the city the crowd grows larger and larger but the drama comes from what the people did as Jesus passed by we're told here that they lined the streets with their clothes their cloaks they cast them down on the road as if to roll out something of a red carpet for the Lord but then Matthew Mark and John add something that Luke does not include which is that they were also laying down palm branches which is why we refer to this as Palm Sunday what is the significance of that?

[22:08] it's depicting a royal procession it's implying triumph over their enemies those of you who like the Hunger Games will remember the Mockingjay being an emblem of revolution in the fictional country of Panem in the similar sense the palm branch was a symbol it was an emblem of salvation and deliverance to first century Jews who were crushed beneath the oppressive rule of the Roman Empire it dates back to the second Maccabean revolt just two centuries before the time of Jesus they began to print them even on coins these palm branches it was a symbol it was an emblem of revolution against Rome an emblem of salvation from God against their enemies and as Jesus rides into the city from the Mount of Olives they roll out the red carpet so to speak they throw down the palm branches why?

[23:06] they're shouting for salvation he has come to deliver us finally from our enemies there's also drama in what they said quoting Psalm 118 which was common at this festival in particular the people shouted praises to God declaring that Jesus was the promised one sent from God to bring them peace Hosanna they shouted which just means save us Lord blessed is your king who has come what is this?

[23:42] the people believing Jesus to be that king greeted him with emblems of deliverance and shouts of triumph for God's salvation and indeed they had the right person and their concept of what this person would do was not far off but their expectations of how he would fulfill his mission were completely wrong by week's end some of the people in this crowd will turn against him turning their shouts of Hosanna into shouts of crucify others will simply be crushed under the discouragement of another Messiah who has failed to do what they hoped he would do and would abandon hope and go home such is always the case for those whose expectations of Jesus are skewed people come to Jesus for all kinds of reasons they come hoping that it will bring some kind of prosperity to their lives they come hoping that it will bring some type of comfort or reassurance to their anxieties that they feel there's all kinds of reasons for people to come to Jesus but if you're not coming to Jesus for who he is and for the purpose for which he came to fulfill you're ultimately going to walk away disappointed even angry ready to completely turn against him but their misunderstanding here it doesn't take away from the significance of the moment what they did was right what they did was necessary they just didn't realize how right it was and how necessary it was it's deliberate it's dramatic thirdly it's divinely determined the scene is divinely determined look at verses 39 and 40 the Pharisees always tend to pop up don't they and some of them did here they're in every crowd

[25:46] I suppose and some of the Pharisees said teacher rebuke your disciples and he answered I tell you if these were silent the very stones would cry out now unsurprisingly the Pharisees take notice of the commotion and they move to rebuke the Lord now perhaps their concern is simply that this is a lot of commotion this is loud these are shouts of kingship have they forgotten that we are occupied by Rome that there's a proconsulate from Rome who is here there is a garrison here perhaps their concern is that Rome is going to the Romans are going to get their attention is going to be sparked they're going to come they're going to think that this is some sort of insurrection that would be good for no one and so perhaps the Pharisees are just bringing Jesus' attention to that I don't know I think maybe there's more to it than that

[26:46] I think they recognized exactly what was happening I think they understood they recognized Jesus' actions as a deliberate statement of his messianic identity and they demanded in this moment that he set the record straight publicly hey teacher while all these people are around saying that you're Messiah why don't you just go ahead and correct them before things get out of hand and we must appreciate Jesus' answer in verse 40 rather than quiet the crowd or argue with his detractors Jesus pointed to the purposes of God it was God's determined plan to send his son for the purpose of our salvation and that truth would not be silenced even if every person on the road that day suddenly became mute such is God's truth that if every person refused to speak it the rocks themselves would cry out the glory of God and of our

[27:53] Lord and Savior Jesus Christ it cannot be stopped it's definely determined if we won't do it God will use another portion of his creation to do it the world can silence God's people it can never silence God the heavens declare the glory of God wrote David no power of hell no scheme of man will ever overcome what God has determined to do the Pharisees say teacher do something about this he doesn't argue with them he doesn't silence the crowd he just says this is God's doing it's God's doing to quote Psalm 118 again it's the Lord's doing it's marvelous in our eyes even if they stop the rocks will cry out you can't stop what God is doing to save his people Jesus says here amazing that's scene number one riding down the road we're gonna pull the lever now we're gonna move to scene number two we might call this one weeping at the wall weeping at the wall look at verse 41 and when he drew near and saw the city he wept over it now I can't imagine that if this was your first time coming to this chapter and you just got through this celebratory event that you would have expected that the next thing to happen would be

[29:20] Jesus weeping and yet that's what happens indeed it differs greatly from the first scene the setting is essentially the same only Jesus is a little closer to the city perhaps as he's come down from the Mount of Olives if you're familiar at all with the geography of that he would have been viewing the panorama of the east side of the wall of Jerusalem the expanse of the city comes into his view the contrast between this and the first scene though is that as the crowd celebrates his arrival the Lord laments traveling over the Mount descending toward the eastern gate of Jerusalem Jesus suddenly burst into tears tears this is not merely the swelling of your eyes when you're somewhat moved emotionally this is a likely loud weeping wailing kind of moment for the

[30:22] Lord based on the language that's used here and they weren't tears of joy over his reception by the people they were tears of sorrow over his rejection by the people seems backward doesn't it as the people shout Jesus weeps but why well the answer is in his prophetic lament look at verses 43 and 44 Jesus says the days will come upon you he's speaking he's anthropomorphizing the city of Jerusalem here is what he's doing he's referring to the city as he looks at the city and he says the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you they will surround you they will hem you in on every side and they will tear you down to the ground you and your children within you they will not leave one stone upon another in you because you did not know the time of your visitation now the shouting crowds we've already said they believe

[31:31] Jesus was there to free them from Rome and yet as soon as Jesus gets to the city he prophesies a coming day when Jerusalem would endure a terrible fate at the hands of Rome already cluing us in on the fact that what he actually came to do was quite different than what any of them expected him to do his mission was not at all what they wanted which is why many of them would ultimately turn against him by weeks end of course what just a few years later the Roman general Titus raised the city including the temple complex itself to the ground but don't misunderstand the weeping here Jesus tears did not flow out of concern for brick and mortar he wept over the souls of the people who would continue to reject his rule and ultimately suffer the wrath of

[32:34] God as a result that's why he's weeping doesn't care about a wall he'd come to replace the temple he doesn't really care about that temple what is he weeping over it's the souls of the people how do we know well verse 42 here's what he said would that you even you had known on this day the things that make for peace but now they are hidden from your eyes and as a result of that their blindness their spiritual blindness this destruction would come peace the people thought of peace only in terms of their relationship with Rome Jesus spoke of peace in terms of their relationship to God peace was the purpose of his incarnation peace was the purpose of his ministry peace was the purpose of his crucifixion and his resurrection and his ascension peace between

[33:46] God and man it would be achieved through an atonement that he would make for sin he would do it on a cross just days after this moment Jesus the sinless son of God bore the wrath of God in the place of sinners who by nature hate him and in taking our sins Jesus then imputes he credits to us his righteousness righteousness reconciling man with God peace between God and those who have rebelled against him peace Jesus speaks of not peace with Rome peace with God was he Messiah yes had he come to deliver them during this Passover yes was it to bring peace with Rome no it was to bring a greater peace the things that make for peace what

[34:50] Jesus refers to in verse 42 are simply repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ those are the things that make for peace he would supply the peace the things that make for peace are repentance and faith and this was not a new message from Jesus this is what he had preached from the very beginning Mark tells us in Mark Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God saying the time is fulfilled the kingdom of God is at hand therefore repent and believe in the gospel what are the things that make for peace repentance and faith repentance toward God faith in his son who has achieved the peace for us Jesus wept because on the whole the people remained in darkness they were blind to the things that make for peace they refused repentance they refused faith unless it was convenient but a convenient faith is never a proper faith the destruction of

[36:12] Jerusalem was merely an emblem of their continued rejection and upon entering the city their lostness brought Jesus tremendous grief if in scene one Jesus is the humble king in scene two he is the weeping prophet but there's one more scene we'll pull the lever again the third scene we might call it cleansing the corruption cleansing the corruption now in this third and final picture the entire scene changes he's not outside the city anymore there's no donkey there's no shouts no palm branches all of it's different he's not weeping over the unrepentant holy city of Jerusalem anymore that moment has now passed in this picture Jesus is actually in the temple complex and he's cleaning out corruption as he teaches truth verse 45 and he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold saying to them it is written my house shall be a house of prayer but you have made it a den of robbers the first half of that is a quote from

[37:27] Isaiah the second half is a quote from Jeremiah we'll get to that in a second but notice what he clears the corruption to do 47 and he was he gets out the dross so that he can do the work of the word and what's the response the chief priest and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him but they couldn't find anything they couldn't find any way to destroy him because all the people were hanging on his words I like this scene the final image we find Jesus acting as the faithful priest he's a humble king he's a weeping prophet he's a faithful priest and as our faithful priest he is purifying the people's worship and he's instructing them with God's truth both responsibilities were crucial to the priesthood but as you can see corruption had pervaded the hearts of the spiritual leaders here causing the people to forsake a genuine spirit of worship and suffer serious spiritual abuse the abuse came from the sellers and the money changers the sellers peddled animals these animals were used for the festal sacrifices a traveler one such as

[38:58] Jesus traveling from Galilee would not bring a lamb with him he would go to the temple complex or somewhere near the temple complex and he would purchase one a blemish one without blemish one suitable for the sacrifices and that's what these sellers were doing but the animals were sold at exorbitant markups so that the merchants were profiting off of the people's worship knowing that they had no option but to purchase their animals if they were going to do what God had instructed them to do you see the corruption in that the money changers did a different thing they provided a service to those who had to pay the temple tax there was a certain kind of currency that had to be used for this and it was a different currency than what was used in everyday trading so what the merchants and money changers would do is they would set up their booths so that someone who had to pay the temple tax would have to come in and they'd give maybe some minas or maybe they'd give some denarii and in exchange they would receive the proper coins that they would have to give for the temple tax so what did the money changers do well they charged incredible fees for this because if you're going to obey the lord you had no choice but to exchange with them and they set the exchange rates and they set them high abusing the people padding their pockets the leading priests then who were responsible for all of this allowed the people to be abused so that they could line their own pockets and on top of all of that this was all taking place inside the gentile court which was meant to be a place for non-jews to worship and to hear the truth of god and jesus as he had done on a previous occasion comes in sees the corruption and as the faithful priest does what all of the other priesthood were afraid to do or unwilling to do he drives out the animals he drives out the merchants he turns over the money changing tables he purifies the corruption zealous for true worship the lord drives out those who had corrupted it pronounces the judgment of god on those who commit such profane acts in relationship to worship now i'll leave it to you to dig in further into the old testament quotations here but let me just mention the jeremiah quotation it's jeremiah chapter 7 and verse 11 if you want to write that down in your margins it's the second half of what jesus says here you have made it a den of robbers that verse in jeremiah's prophecy it it comes in the context context of god's wrath being poured out against those who went through the rituals of worship but profaned god's house in the process so this was no new thing in fact over and over in the old testament we find this very thing happening again and again with god's people they do the sacrifice they do the letter of the law but they do a lot to profane that as well over and over god says your lips praise me but your heart is far from me jesus quotes one of those passages here a passage of judgment a passage of wrath how foolish we are to think that merely associating with the things of god makes us safe from god your attendance here today does not make you safe from god your participation in whatever christian ritual we may put forward the celebration of palm sunday or perhaps baptism or communion or whatever else we may do those things do not make you safe from god just as jesus purged the temple of those who profaned it so

[43:00] will he one day purge his church and those who only pretend to know and believe god will be driven from his presence into eternal hell but the scene isn't only about corruption that's the good part here why is jesus cleansing the corruption well he's zealous for the true worship isn't he but he's clearing out the way so that he might do what a faithful priest was meant to do teach the bible teach the gospel proclaim the good news and the law of god to the people and that's exactly what he does he teaches truth jesus jesus our faithful priest proclaims god's word to the disdain of his enemies who did not appreciate the things that he said but to the building up of his people such zealousness for purity of worship and proclamation of truth that ought to be characteristic of all those who follow in the footsteps of jesus but the spiritual leaders of the day only angered them sets the stage for a midnight trial murderous execution just a few days later jesus came to be what those leaders were meant to be and never were never could be he is our faithful priest now after we've looked at the three scenes we've gone through our bible viewfinder what do we see well there's a lot that we might see but we see a king unlike any the world has ever known isn't that why we would celebrate something like palm sunday isn't that the main idea here here is our king and he's different than anything we've ever expected he's certainly different than anything we've seen before in each one of the pictures there's this juxtaposition of character that is unusual in scene one you have royalty paired with humility in scene two you have judgment expressed with compassion and in scene three we find authority paired with meekness gentleness and what's the point of it all well Luke told us it's to give us certainty of the fact that Jesus of Nazareth truly is the

[45:40] Christ and the son of God he indeed is our messiah king who won our eternal salvation through his death and resurrection salvation and if you will only open your eyes to the things that make for peace namely repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus he will save you so then with a true heart you might then cry out with the crowds blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord peace in heaven glory in the highest peace in heaven voy!

[46:35] voy! voy!