Well, I've had two weeks now to think about this passage, and I must say, every time that
I've done it for the last two weeks, there's a song that I learned when I was a kid that
keeps coming to my mind as I read through this.
The churches that I grew up in, in their worship services, they typically, a regular Sunday
morning or Sunday night service would have a solo or group special that was performed
just before my dad would preach his sermon.
You've probably, I'm sure, been in plenty of services that are like that.
And I remember one man in particular, his name was W.T. Sanders was his name.
He's in heaven now.
He routinely would sing this song called The King is Coming.
It's a Bill Gaither song.
Maybe you've heard it before.
The song is, the music of it, it builds gradually throughout the verses, and it ultimately
crescendos into this final chorus in which he would sing out so passionately, oh, the king
is coming.
The king is coming.
Praise God.
He's coming for me.
Have you heard that song before?
And the last couple of weeks as I've listened through that or as I've read through this text,
I kept thinking about that song.
And of course, that song is about the second coming of Christ.
And that's not exactly what's happening here in this text.
But I couldn't help think that as these people are parading down this road from the Mount
of Olives to the entry into the city of Jerusalem, there was a similar type of thought, a similar
type of song that they're singing in that moment as they march down the street.
And of course, there is a sense in which their song was also about the second coming of Jesus.
They just didn't realize that.
They were a bit confused, as we're going to see as we go through.
But it has this mind with it, this kind of thought with it that the king has come.
The king has come, and he has come to deliver us now.
And now that Jesus had arrived at Jerusalem, or at least in the vicinity of it, this band of
pilgrims that are traveling with him down the road, they assumed that Jesus was there to
make his final move.
And by final move, they don't think payment for our sin.
They're not thinking atonement.
By final move, they're thinking kingdom establishment, deliverance from Rome, and from oppression.
And the king has come, and he's come to deliver us in that sense.
But we're going to see they had the right person.
They had the proper praise.
There's nothing wrong with what they said.
It's actually a quotation of scripture as they praised here.
The problem is that they misunderstood what was actually supposed to take place in the
week that was ahead of them.
And we understand, too, everything written in the Bible is essential, right?
It's all essential.
There's some passages that are certainly more impactful than others, but all of it is necessary.
And we know that first because God has given it to us.
He has given us his word in the exact way that he's given it for a particular reason.
All of it is necessary, and all of it is essential.
But whenever there are events and statements and phrases that are routinely repeated, we
find that they carry a unique weight of significance, and such is the case with this particular text.
All four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, all four cover the details of this particular
event.
And that's actually not very common between the four.
It's not very common that all four of them would see it necessary to cover the same things
in almost the same exact way.
But this is one of those events, and it means that there is a particular significance to it.
And so the question then immediately becomes, what exactly is that significance?
And why were the Gospel authors so careful to include this in their books?
And at first, we might pass it off as well.
This is just a note for the narrative, right?
It's placing the time frame for us so we can understand exactly where Jesus is and what's
going on and all of those kinds of things.
But I don't think that's exactly what's happening here.
I don't think that was the intention of including it, at least not the first intention.
The Gospels generally aren't concerned with chronology.
They're intentional in what they're writing, not just to provide a timeline of Jesus's life,
but to say something important about who Jesus is.
And among all the important dynamics of this particular event, the timing of it and the timing
of Jesus's arrival to Jerusalem is largely irrelevant.
It's not completely irrelevant.
It's just there's nothing in the Scripture that says Jesus has to arrive to Jerusalem at
this time and in this way, or the mode is important, but not necessarily the timing.
Some scholars have even suggested that Jesus might have very well been in this area for
more than a week, maybe even up to a few months at this point.
We don't know that.
There's no way for us to know that.
And I actually think that it's best to follow the layout that the Scripture gives us and that
the Gospels give.
But ultimately, the timing of it is not really that important.
That's not why they're writing about this.
What they're doing is emphasizing that what happened with Jesus in these verses is prophetically
crucial to his identity and purpose.
They're not just, this isn't just a passing note in the narrative.
This is an essential, crucial event in the life of Christ that identifies who he is and
why he came.
So they're not interested in sequence here.
They're laying out all the facts necessary for us to understand that Jesus of Nazareth is
the Messiah and the Son of God, and that his first coming was with the intention of making
an atonement for our sins.
Right?
That's what the Gospel authors are doing.
That's what the purpose of this event is and why all four of them include it.
And I would say that without the details of this event, this entry into Jerusalem,
Old Testament predictions of the Messiah would be unfulfilled, leaving us plenty of room to
question the claims of Jesus and the identity of Jesus.
And to look to someone else as this potential deliverer and Messiah.
It's an important passage.
And so that's what Mark is aiming to do for us here.
He's helping us to see who Jesus is, helping us to see why Jesus came so that we might believe
and follow him.
And so I want to take the next few moments and kind of pick this story apart just a little
bit.
We're going to have Palm Sunday in January is how it's going to work out today.
And for my notes, maybe this would be helpful to you.
I've divided it in three ways as normal.
And maybe you'll find some benefit to that.
I see prophecy fulfilled.
I see people confused.
And then I see purpose revealed.
So prophecy fulfilled, people confused, purpose revealed.
Let's first look at this prophecy fulfilled.
Look with me at the first seven verses again.
And when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent
two of his disciples and said to them, go into the village in front of you.
And immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever sat.
Untie it and bring it.
If anyone says to you, why are you doing this?
Say the Lord has need of it and we'll send it back here immediately.
And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street.
And they were, they untied it.
And some of those standing there said to them, what are you doing?
And untying the colt.
And they told them what Jesus had said.
And they let them go.
They brought the colt to Jesus, threw their cloaks on it.
And he sat on it.
Now the gospel authors didn't argue for the identity and purpose of Jesus based on their
gut feeling or just by way of a remarkable intuition.
Each of them was very careful to point out that the things Jesus did and said were precise
fulfillments of God's covenant promises.
Now remember, the entire Bible is ultimately a book about Jesus.
It's a book about redemption and who God is and how he is redeeming his people through his
own son, the person of Jesus Christ.
And it's two major sections as we're looking at the Old Testament and the New Testament.
They have to be read together to really fully understand the gospel.
As some would say, I'm sure it was Alistair Begg that I've heard this from, as he said,
it takes a whole Bible to make a whole Christian.
And there have been attempts in recent years and probably all through history to eliminate
portions of the scripture or to say that there is no need for the Old Testament, that we can
just focus on the resurrection and those things and move forward.
But that's just not true.
God has given us a full and complete word and we need both sides.
We need the Old Testament and the New Testament to really fully understand the gospel.
And so the Old Testament then are stating the promises that were made by God.
The New Testament reveals how God kept those promises through the person and work of Jesus.
And this is exactly what the apostles taught.
This is actually how they taught.
They taught from the Old Testament scriptures about the person of Jesus so that we could
understand fully the gospel.
And we need not deviate from that pattern.
Paul said it to the Corinthians that all of the promises of God find their yes in Christ.
They find their yes in him.
In other words, as we come to the scriptures and as we understand both portions, the Old Covenant
and the New, what we begin to see is God made a bunch of promises and then God kept a bunch
of promises.
And the way that he kept those promises is through Jesus.
Ultimately, no matter where we turn, we're finding a direct path to Jesus, to the cross,
to the resurrection, to the kingdom.
And this set of verses here is fraught with prophetic fulfillment and Old Testament imagery that related
to the Messiah.
Some of it is explicit.
Some of it is symbolic.
But a lot of it revolves around this simple idea or fact that Jesus mounted a donkey's colt
and rode it on his way into the city of Jerusalem.
And you say, well, what does that have to do with anything?
I'm going to tell you.
Two types of fulfillment that I want to point out, okay?
First, I see here covenant fulfillment.
Covenantal fulfillment.
Let me explain.
The message of the Bible is conveyed to us and built upon covenants that God made with
his people.
And each of these covenants, each new covenant that God makes in the scripture progressively
specifies how God intended to do his work of grace.
Okay?
So if you were to just try to zoom out for just a moment and look at the scripture as a
whole, you see all of these covenants, all of these promises that God made.
And how God has actually filled them.
And as you progress through the scriptures, you see that each of these covenants begin
to narrow in focus.
They begin to specify exactly what God is doing.
And ultimately, we find ourselves at Jesus Christ, right?
We start in Genesis 3.
God makes a promise to Adam because of sin.
And he says that he is going to one day send a deliverer, a savior, a messiah.
This deliverer will crush the head of Satan and will deliver his people from their sins.
Okay?
That's a covenant.
It's a simple one.
It's a very broad one.
But then he begins to narrow it.
We eventually get to a Noahic covenant about judgment and destruction.
Then we go a little further and we find Abraham.
And what's the covenant that God made with Abraham?
I'm going to make of your progeny a kingdom of people that cannot be numbered.
And we see in the pages of scripture, there is an immediate fulfillment in the nation of Israel.
But the ultimate fulfillment is in the people of God, the entire people of God.
And then it narrows from there.
It passes to Isaac and then to Jacob.
And then in Jacob's final blessing of his 12 sons, we see it passing once again onto them.
And then it comes specifically to one of his sons named Judah.
And the covenant promise and the blessing of Jacob then is that there will be a deliverer that comes specifically from Judah.
And then it continues on to there where one of those sons of Judah named David becomes the greatest king that Israel ever saw outside of Jesus Christ.
And then another covenant is made with David.
Now I'm telling David that the Messiah, the deliverer, the Savior is coming from your line.
And so as the Israelites would have understood these covenants, they see this progression through covenant.
And all of it ultimately is built around David.
Now I want to read you something about the blessing that Jacob gave to his son Judah in Genesis 49.
Not only did he say that a king would come, an everlasting king, one whose kingdom would know no end.
But interestingly and confusingly almost, he ties in this coming king of Judah with a donkey.
Genesis 49.
The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him.
And to him shall be the obedience of all the peoples, binding his foal to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine.
He has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes.
He says, well, it's a pretty big stretch, Jared, to say, well, that the blessing of Judah was actually a prediction of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem.
And I agree with you.
He's not predicting the entry into Jerusalem there.
This is the royal, kingly lineage of Judah that would pass through David.
As we continue in the Old Testament, we see that the Davidic kingdom, the donkey was actually a royal animal.
There's covenantal symbolic significance to this as we go through it.
All of it is pointing to the fact that Jesus is this Messiah king that belongs to the Davidic dynasty.
That's a huge significance to this particular passage.
It's pointing to his royalty.
It's pointing to his kingliness.
It's pointing to the lineage of David, which ultimately points back to all the promises.
All the promises are being fulfilled in this man who is riding a donkey's colt into the city.
Okay?
You say, that's a stretch.
Okay, let me get more specific then.
Let's look at the messianic fulfillment.
Because while the covenantal fulfillment is symbolic largely,
the messianic fulfillment is explicit.
Because hundreds of years before this, the prophet Zechariah had explicitly predicted that this is what would happen with Jesus.
Mark doesn't mention it.
But Matthew 21 and John chapter 12 both quote this prophecy as being definitively fulfilled in Jesus' entry to Jerusalem.
And there's some things that Zechariah notes.
I'm going to read it to you in a second.
But there's some things he notes.
That it's going to be Jerusalem as the place that the king would enter.
He states that the king would ride on a young colt that had not yet been separated by his mother.
Or from his mother.
And it's undoubtedly messianic.
It's content emphasizes God's salvation.
And the eternal righteous rule of this deliverer.
I'm going to read it to you.
Zechariah 9.9.
Here's what he writes.
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.
Behold, your king is coming to you.
Righteous, having salvation is he.
He's humble and he's mounted on a donkey.
On a colt.
The foal of a donkey.
Notice the precision here.
Matthew and John both picked up on this.
And they said this, what's happening with Jesus here.
This is what Zechariah said.
Notice the precision.
All four gospels note that it was a colt that Jesus rode.
And Matthew's account even states that the foal's mother was a part of the procession.
There's actually two donkeys going down the road.
Which makes sense if it's a donkey that's never been ridden before.
Having its mother alongside is going to help that procession be a little more orderly and organized as they go down the road.
But it's not the mother that Jesus rides.
It's the colt that Jesus rides.
There's precise fulfillment here.
This is where we begin to see how prophetically crucial Jesus' entry into Jerusalem was.
Notice Jesus says, there's a donkey in the village, men, on which no one has ever sat.
It has not been broken.
It has not been used for ordinary use, for bearing burdens.
There was a significance to this as well.
Anything in the Old Testament set aside for sacred purposes, as far as animals was concerned, could not be used in any other way.
Royalty in those days, in general custom, they would not just use animals that they picked up off the farm that had been working for a few years and now was broken in.
No, that's not how it worked.
Royalty rode on donkeys that no one else rode, on horses that no one else rode.
Sacrifices were made to the Lord with animals that had not been put to other uses.
They were set apart for.
They were sacred.
And there's a sacredness to this.
I saw a video clip one time of Creflo Dollar.
A prosperity preacher had, somebody was questioning him about his extravagant lifestyle and all of the money that he had spent on a particular vehicle.
I think it was hundreds of thousands of dollars.
And his response to that was, well, even Jesus rode on a donkey on which no one else had ever sat.
And, which is foolish, you know.
That's not what it was.
This is royalty.
This is sacred purpose.
All of this pointing to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah.
Jesus is this Davidic king.
He has fulfilled this prophecy.
So this was no ordinary ride into the city.
It's prophetically significant.
You know, before we move on, I just, I want to point out how deliberate Jesus was here.
You notice that?
Sometimes we, I think, can have a habit of thinking that prophecy is fulfilled by happy accident.
But that's not what's happening here.
It's not that Jesus was tired and wanted to ride the rest of the way into the city.
And by doing that, he inadvertently fulfilled this obscure prophecy that Zechariah had made.
That's not what's happening here.
Notice, Jesus is in control.
He sends the disciples into the village.
He says, there's a donkey's colt there.
It's tied up.
Nobody's ever sat on it before.
It's there for me.
Go get it.
There's going to be some people there.
They're going to ask you why you're doing it.
Tell them the Lord needs it.
He's going to bring it back when he's finished.
And they'll let you go.
He's in control of all of this.
What do we see with that?
This is deliberate action on Jesus' part.
He is intentionally fulfilling this prophecy.
This is a bold claim of Jesus as he enters the city.
I am this Messiah.
I am this Davidic king.
And you say, why do we have to care about this?
Because if Jesus had not done this, he would not be the Messiah.
He couldn't be.
All of the promises of God had to find their yes in him.
And all of them do find their yes in him.
Paul was right.
They all find their yes in Christ.
Which tells us that this is who Christ is.
There's no middle ground here with him.
This is who he is.
You must believe him.
You must take notice of what he has said.
Of what he has called us to.
Take notice of this thing that he actually does accomplish in the city.
So, prophecy fulfilled.
Let's move on.
People confused.
That's my second note here.
People confused.
Look at verse 8.
Many spread their cloaks on the road.
Others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields.
And those who went before and those who followed were shouting,
Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David.
Hosanna in the highest.
So, once the disciples had saddled the colt with their cloaks,
Jesus began this short journey from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem proper.
And I want to show you actually a couple pictures
because I think it's helpful to have a visual of this.
Will you put the first picture up there for me, Julie?
Okay.
So, this picture right here, my brother sent these to me.
He and my dad went on a trip to Israel a couple years ago.
He is standing on the Mount of Olives right here.
So, this dome right here, as you probably are well aware,
that's on the Temple Mount.
So, that's the Dome of the Rock.
That's actually controlled by Muslims at this point.
But that's on the Temple Mount right here.
And this is the Old City Wall of Jerusalem.
This right here is the Eastern Gate that we read about so often in biblical prophecy.
And all of this is a graveyard.
So, this is all Jewish graves here that lead up to the Mount of Olives.
And then what would be behind where Jonathan is standing taking this picture
would be on one end, one of the villages that would have been one of the villages of Bethphage.
And on the other end would be Bethany.
And they'd be on this road into Jerusalem.
Okay.
This is standing on the Mount of Olives.
Now, go to the next picture, Julie.
Just ignore Jonathan on this one.
I know he's a distraction.
So, this road right here, you can see again in the back, Temple Mount's there.
This is on the Mount of Olives.
This is the road that they presume that Jesus actually traveled in this procession.
Moving from the Mount of Olives down to the old city of Jerusalem, into the gate,
and then on in verse 11, eventually to the Temple Mount.
Now, I want you to picture that because I want you to see where this is happening.
We think so often with this entry into Jerusalem, we think city proper.
That's not actually where this is happening.
This is unfolding outside of the city.
This begins as a procession in the Mount of Olives and continues until he gets to Jerusalem.
But there's really no indication in the scriptures that it actually happens inside the city,
but it happens leading up to the city of Jerusalem.
Remember Zechariah's prophecy.
Your king is coming to you.
He's on the outside and he's on his way in.
And that's when these things are beginning to unfold.
And I think the picture helps me at least.
Picture exactly what's happening with Jesus in this moment.
Now, suddenly Mark introduces us then to this crowd of people.
And there's this electrifying moment of praise that begins to unfold.
And these people are enthusiastic.
You can picture them crowded on this road.
Of course, there probably wouldn't have been any walls there.
And they're crowded on this roadway down.
And there's people yelling.
And they're shouting.
And they're throwing their clothes on the ground.
And they're cutting leaf of palm branches.
And they're throwing those on the ground.
This massive procession.
Let's pick this one apart now and see what's actually taking place here.
Number one, notice the crowd.
Who exactly is this?
Who's with Jesus moving down the road?
Now, I've heard people insinuate so many times before that the folks who praised Jesus at the beginning of the week are the same people who were shouting, crucify him at the end of the week.
But I think that's a faulty conclusion.
I don't think that's the same people.
In the gospels, Jerusalem is often symbolic of Jewish apostasy.
So, everything that was the antithesis of Jesus and his gospel had a stronghold in Jerusalem.
Those people were the ones who were crying out, crucify him at the end of the week.
I don't think that's the same crowd here.
This crowd, I believe, is made up of pilgrims that are traveling on the way to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration.
They're witnesses to Jesus' miracles.
John specifically highlights the fact that they were witnesses of Lazarus' resurrection.
These are disciples, according to Luke, using that term in the broadest sense of the word, not in the way that Jesus called for us to follow him,
but just by the fact they were intrigued by Jesus, they thought he was the Messiah, and they were following him into the city.
And I want to read to you what Luke said, Luke 19, 37.
This isn't people in the city.
These are people traveling to the city that had witnessed Lazarus' resurrection.
Perhaps they had witnessed Bartimaeus' opening of his eyes in Jericho.
Perhaps they had been in Galilee and seen the things that Jesus had done there, and they believe that he's coming in this moment.
And then Luke says in verse 39 that even the Pharisees recognized this.
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him,
Teacher, rebuke your disciples for the things that they were saying.
Now, here's the point.
These weren't the kind of people who would turn against Jesus before his crucifixion, but after it.
Remember the parable of the soils in chapter 4?
Remember, I think the people of Jerusalem, generally speaking, not all of them, generally speaking,
I think the people of Jerusalem would fit the hard soil.
That the sower sows the seed of truth, but the truth never makes any kind of penetration into the soil,
and it's immediately robbed by the birds, right?
I think the people in this crowd, we could helpfully point them at the shallow soil and the rocky soil.
There's a portion of these people that is excited in this moment.
They are rejoicing in this moment that they believe Jesus is this Messiah,
but they're going to quickly wither away.
They're going to die out because you're going to find out that Jesus isn't actually there to do what they thought he was going to do.
That's who the crowd is.
Now notice their cheers.
So we see the crowd now see their cheers.
And the shouts give us an idea of what they were expecting Jesus to do once he got there.
The first thing we see them doing, spreading their cloaks on the ground.
What's that all about?
They're not spreading their cloaks on the side of the road.
They're spreading their cloaks in the middle of the road.
They were rolling out the red carpet quite literally for Jesus, for this donkey to walk over.
This was a sign of their view of his kingship.
There's precedence for this in the Old Testament.
In 2 Kings chapter 9, when Jehu was announced king, he told the people this is what the prophet has said and what they did in that moment.
I think I've actually got it written in my notes.
Yeah, then in haste, every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, Jehu is king.
So what are these people doing?
They're laying their garments on, giving a red carpet for Jesus to walk on.
Why?
Because they believe he's the king.
And they're right.
They're treating him like a king.
Next thing we see them doing, leafy branches.
They're cutting them off in the fields.
John 12 says that these were palm branches, which is where we get that term, palm sundae.
And we often think of them as waving palms, palm branches in the air.
Mark says that's not actually what they're doing.
They're putting them next to the garments on the road.
They're walking.
It's a continuation of this red carpet being rolled out for Jesus as he makes his way into the city.
Well, what's the significance of the palms?
There's a significance in Jewish history here.
150 years before Jesus had ever come to be, at least before he was born,
there was a man named Simon Maccabeus in the second Maccabean revolt
who had delivered the city of Jerusalem from the Seleucids.
As the people celebrated the victory with Simon Maccabeus,
they took palm fronds and they waved them and they laid them on the road.
And the palm frond then became the official symbol of this second Maccabean revolt.
So what is that all about?
These branches represented a nationalistic desire to be delivered from another nation's oppressive rule.
So hang with me.
We're going somewhere with this.
I promise.
Hang with me.
They're laying the garments down.
King.
Now they're laying palm branches down.
National deliverance.
He's finally going to rescue us from Rome.
No more oppression as a people, as a national people.
Now look at their cheer itself.
It's a quotation from Psalm 118, which says,
Save us, we pray, O Lord.
Hosanna means save now or save us, please.
Save us, we pray, O Lord.
O Lord, we pray, give us success.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
We bless you from the house of the Lord.
This would have been fantastic to see.
It seems like it was an antiphonal chant where there was a group of people that were going before Jesus.
And then there was a group of people going behind Jesus.
And the people in the front would yell, Hosanna!
And the people in the back would then respond with the next line.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David.
And then the front group would then chant again.
Hosanna in the highest.
This is causing quite a stir, you can imagine.
For about a mile or so, maybe three quarters of a mile.
They're traveling down the road.
People are beginning to hear the shouts of a multitude of a crowd yelling, Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
They're laying their garments on the road.
They're throwing down the palm branches.
The king is here.
He's going to deliver the nation finally.
Now, that's the crowd and the cheer.
Nothing wrong with either one.
Let's look at their confusion now.
They identified the right person.
And there's nothing at all wrong with the praises that they shouted.
The problem with the crowd is that they weren't actually looking to Jesus for personal salvation, but for national deliverance.
That's what they were concerned about.
There's no thought of sin.
There's no thought of reconciliation with God.
There's no thought of personal salvation here.
This is all about delivering the nation.
National deliverance.
They were Jewish nationalists.
They wanted to be free from Rome, but they weren't concerned with being free from sin.
And it's not very different from people who sit in churches every Sunday around us.
They have an expectation of what Jesus will provide.
But what they expect from Jesus is comfort, is prosperity.
Maybe what they have in their mind is Jesus is the gateway to heaven.
And I can at least receive in this next life, whatever happens after death, maybe I can at least go to heaven and I can experience this comfort there.
But they actually have very little interest in Jesus.
Jesus is just a way to get to what they really want.
They're not actually concerned about repentance.
They're not actually concerned about God changing their life.
They're not actually concerned about surrendering to Jesus as Lord.
They're not concerned about those things.
They just want to go to heaven.
They just want God to give them money.
They just want God to give them success.
And there's a pretty clear picture of that with these people.
As they're traveling down the road, they're excited.
The one who can bless us has finally come.
But what's in their mind is not sin and salvation.
It's not Jesus himself.
He's almost irrelevant except for the fact that he's going to get them away from Rome's grip.
It's not unlike the crowd at the feeding of the 5,000.
Maybe it was even some of the same people.
Remember, they tried to make Jesus a king by force.
And the excitement and enthusiasm with Jesus' arrival had nothing to do with his actual purpose.
And the crowd's confusion then becomes the backdrop of everything that's going to unfold moving forward in Mark's gospel.
Even with the 12 apostles.
They're a part of this at this point.
Now, do you see now how this crowd couldn't be composed of the same people crying for Jesus' crucifixion?
His death was the last thing they wanted.
In fact, it was because of his death that they abandoned him.
And what happens to these people later in the week when Jesus is arrested and tried and crucified?
They're typified in the 12 apostles.
Who were not only facing disappointment for what they felt were unmet expectations.
But were absolutely crushed.
Because they felt all hope was now gone.
Surely, if there was a Messiah, it's Jesus.
Look at what he's done.
Look at all the things that he fulfills.
And what the prophets have said.
It has to be Jesus.
And they had all of that right.
But they didn't understand his purpose.
They missed his purpose.
And they were confused.
And when it came down to it, they were crushed.
Either Jesus had completely fooled them.
Or God had abandoned them.
And just teased them.
And gave them somebody that matched all the requirements.
But then removed him before he could actually bless the nation.
And they're crushed.
And then they're faced with decision, aren't they?
The point here is you can't accept Jesus and his identity without his purpose.
Even if his purpose turns out to be different than you anticipated.
And it's not enough to view Jesus as a means to a better life or a prosperous future.
He didn't come to bring us wealth and comfort.
But to save us from sin.
And have his rightful place of lordship in our hearts.
And some of the people in this crowd would believe and continue in faith.
Many of them would see his death and say, I don't want a Messiah who dies.
He didn't do what I wanted him to do.
And they walk away in unbelief.
So that when we get to our readings and acts, we find there's 120.
120 people gathered.
That's quite a big difference from a multitude of people that are crying as they go into the city.
Where'd all those people go?
Well, some of them might have gone home that were real believers, maybe.
I think a lot of them, they saw the death of Jesus and they said,
He can't be the one.
What a disappointment.
People come to Jesus with all kinds of personal expectations now.
Many walk away when they don't get what they want from them.
And there's so much danger in the prevalence of this prosperity gospel that's out there right now.
And you can see all the things about it.
You can see it around you.
People who run to Jesus because they think Jesus' purpose is to make them rich and to make them successful.
And they do all the things that these guys tell them to do.
And then they find out that those things aren't coming to fruition.
And who is it that they walk away from?
Jesus.
Why?
Because that's not the kind of Messiah I want.
I don't want a Savior who's not going to meet my expectations.
They're happy to recognize some kind of significance in Him.
But they only want Him on their terms.
And so the question then becomes,
Well, what's your response when Jesus doesn't meet your expectations?
Will you walk away in unbelief?
Or will you find in Him that invaluable treasure that is forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with God and eternal life?
Finally, we see purpose revealed.
Verse 11.
I think there's a hint of Jesus' true purpose that's revealed in His destination.
Which for Mark is not the city of Jerusalem, but the temple.
It's not an altar or not a throne.
It's an altar.
Jesus is the fulfillment of everything that the temple represents.
And notice, that's where He went.
All the Gospels focus in on this fact.
He didn't go to the palace in Jerusalem.
He went to the altar in Jerusalem.
Now, that was a busy week at the temple.
It's full of priests and worshipers who have come for the Passover celebration.
Thousands of animals are being purchased and processed and prepared and sacrificed as a part of this celebration of the Exodus.
It's busy.
Lots of things representing atonement are happening there.
Jesus comes to that temple that day as the perfect Lamb of God who would make a full atonement once and for all for the sins of man.
But it's not just about sacrifices at the temple, is it?
The temple was full of priests.
And what was one of the responsibilities of the priest?
To make intercession for the people to God.
Jesus comes as the one intercessor and mediator between God and man.
And He stands in the temple that day, not only as the perfect sacrifice, but as the only way to God.
You don't need a priest.
You don't need me to get you access to God.
You don't need a saint.
You don't need the church.
You need Jesus.
And Jesus comes in that moment to the most sacred place in Judaism.
The place that represents communion with God.
And He stands there as the only way to actually get to God.
But that's not it either.
There's more.
The temple represented the presence of God among His people.
Jesus stands there as the image of the invisible God.
The firstborn of all creation.
He stands there as the exact imprint of God's nature.
He is the presence of God.
Jesus and what He did in His death and resurrection.
He didn't come as a supplement to the temple and temple worship.
He came as a total replacement of it.
His death and His resurrection render the temple and temple worship obsolete.
That's the significance of the veil, remember?
Jesus dies.
The veil in the temple is rent.
Indicating that everything that's happening there that day and that Passover,
now doesn't matter.
We have access to God through Jesus, through the perfect Lamb.
He is the presence of God among us.
He is our mediator.
He is our intercessor.
And once He finished His task,
He took His rightful place on the throne in the kingdom of God.
Hebrews 1.
He is the radiance of the glory of God.
The exact imprint of His nature.
He upholds the universe by the word of His power.
And after making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
Philippians 2.
And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Therefore, God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and in earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Father, both of those passages describe Jesus' kingship, His lordship, His highness, His throne.
But the pathway to that throne in both cases is suffering.
It's death.
It's the cross.
Jesus didn't come to rule in a palace.
He came to die on a cross.
That doesn't mean that He's not the eternal king.
It just means that He's made a way for you to be a citizen of His kingdom.
And I think that was the purpose of Mark including this year.
He wants us to see Jesus' destination,
because everything that begins to unfold after this is happening in and around the temple.
Why?
Because it wasn't about a throne at this point.
It's about the cross at this point.
It's about salvation, redemption, resurrection.
John said that the disciples didn't grasp the significance of this,
and of course we wouldn't expect them to, right?
Except for the fact that Jesus had told them this is what He was going to do.
A bunch of times.
But they didn't get it.
John 12 says that His disciples did not understand these things at first,
but when He was glorified, that is after His resurrection.
Then they remembered that these things had been written about Him and had been done to Him.
Now how did they remember?
Luke tells us that Jesus just told them.
He sat down with them and took His Bible and He said,
let me show you all the ways.
All the ways.
But that was all post-resurrection, wasn't it?
It was all post-resurrection.
Now think about that for us.
We have the privilege of looking back on these events
and having a better understanding than the 12 did in that moment.
Let's not give them a hard time.
We can see the whole picture,
and yet how long has it taken us to really care
and to really grasp it?
They didn't have that full picture.
There's no denying that Jesus is the Messiah and Son of God
because all of these promises find their yes in Him,
and this is just one very small example of it.
It's all over the Scripture.
There's no need for us to misunderstand His purpose like the crowd.
We can see now what they could not see at the time.
But we do have to face the same decision as they did.
Will you trust and follow Jesus on His terms?
Or will you deny Him, reject Him, and follow your own way?
Thank you.