We have been going through a series called the Gospel Course,
but we're going to divert that for this week.
This wasn't my plan, but the Lord kind of arrested my plans
this week and getting ready for Easter.
And so today we're going to look at the triumphal entry and
prepare ourselves for this week. We have a lot of things going on
this week. Y'all this week.
Well, we have today we begin the Easter time, Wednesday we have
evangelism training, Friday we have a Good Friday service, and
then Sunday again, church for Easter.
So we've got a lot going on. Make sure you join us for those
sorts of things. Whatever you can make today is
Palm Sunday. It's traditionally called when
people would lay these branches down for Jesus.
That's going to be the story. We'll be in Matthew chapter 21.
If you want to get your Bibles ready for that, that's where
we'll be today. And then Good Friday will be
Friday night. Come back for a special, perhaps
sombre time of worship and communion.
And then next week, bring your guests and pray for for favour
and for guests as we put out all those Flyers this week that
people would come and and be with us.
So we're going to be in Matthew chapter 21.
And honestly, this passage for me is really intimidating
because there's so much going on here for Jesus approaching
Jerusalem for his final day. And I want to do all of the
study and all of the work and give you as many details as
possible. And I feel like the Lord did not
let me do that for you. We have a different view of this
time. This is the time whenever all of
Israel is gathering to Jerusalem.
They're there to celebrate the Passover.
So many people are flooding in and out of the city of
Jerusalem. And this is Jesus's last day on
earth before he's crucified. He's going to Jerusalem.
He would become their king if they would let him.
And there is a great display. People receive him well on this
day. But as we'll see this week,
people quickly change their minds.
And today, during this Palm Sunday, instead of going into
all of the details, we're going to look at 7 perspectives of the
same event. So as we read, you'll be taking
note of the different people that are at this event or in
different places, different times around this event.
And we're going to see each one from their perspective.
Before we do that, I want to ask you to come prepared to think
about which one of these people you might identify as.
And maybe you're, we'll see disciples here.
Maybe you'd say, hey, I'm being faithful, but there's some other
people that need some healing. There's some other people
feeling lost. And perhaps you could just on
your notes today, circle which one you you feel like you
identify with the most today. And we'll spend some time in
prayer at the end and ask the Lord to work in us.
So let me read for us Matthew 21.
We're going to read 1 through 17.
The Bible says, And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and
were come to Bethphage unto the Mount of Olives, then sent Jesus
to disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against
you, and straightway you shall find an ass tied.
I'm not swearing. That's what the Bible says right
there. And you'll find an ass tied in a
cult with her. Loose, loose them, and bring
them unto me. And if any man say aught unto
you, you shall say, The Lord hath needed them, and
straightway he will send them. All this was done, that it might
be fulfilled. Which was spoken by the prophet,
saying, Tell ye, the daughter of scion, Behold, thy King cometh
unto thee meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the fowl of
an ass. And the disciples went and did
as Jesus commanded them, and brought the ass and the coal,
and put on them their clothes, and they set them they're on, or
they set him there on verse 8. And a very great multitude
spread their garments in the way, others cut down branches
from the trees, and strawed them in the way.
And the multitude that went before and that followed cried,
saying, Hosanna to date the son of David, blessed is he that
cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.
And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was
moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is
Jesus the prophet of the of Nazareth of Galilee.
And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them
that sought, that sold and bought in the temple, and
overthrew the temples of the money changers, and the seats of
them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My
house shall be called the House of prayer.
But you have made it a den of thieves.
And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he
healed them. And when the chief priests and
scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children
crying in the temple, saying Hosanna to the Son of David,
they were sore displeased. And they said unto him, Hearest
thou what these say? And Jesus said unto them, Yeah,
have you never read out of the mouth of babes and sucklings?
Thou has perfected praise. And he left them and went out of
the city into Bethany, and he lodged there.
Let's take a moment and pray, and then we'll study our our
text. God, we come before your word
today. I pray that you'd help us to
hear from you that we wouldn't miss what's happening both in
the story but also what you're doing in our lives.
Would you just intersect our lives?
We ask you to speak to us. We give you our heart.
I pray you direct us, each one of us individually for this week
and as a church also direct us, go before us and encourage us
today in your word, I pray in Jesus name, Amen.
Well, if you're taking notes, we're going to look at 7 things.
So I can't hit these very quickly, but the first group of
people that we see in Matthew chapter 21 are the disciples.
We see the disciples in verses one through 7.
We see these faithful men that followed him.
These would become his apostles. His sent ones.
You see in verse one, it says then sent Jesus 2 disciples
saying unto them go into the village over against you and
they were to get a there's two animals, a colt and a baby, a
baby colt and to bring them to him.
He was going to need them. So we see this first group.
All these people are not all the same.
This is the most faithful bunch that we'll see in our text.
This this is the faithful bunch. But I I think it's a good time
for us to ask what is a disciple?
If if we're going to choose one of these things, does that
identify me? And in our church, we have a
ministry A1 on one discipleship ministry to help people grow
into a disciple of Christ. And that ministry is just all
settled in the word for the things that Jesus says what a
disciple is. So it's a good time to to be
reminded of those, but also see that in the lives of these men
that were helping Jesus come into Jerusalem.
So I have three things for you in your notes.
First of what is a disciple is that they walk in the word.
A disciple of Jesus walks in his word.
We see here in verse 2, Jesus said unto them, go into the
village over against you and he gives them a task.
This wasn't something that they felt like I'm just called to go
collect the donkeys. Man.
I really feel compelled to serve the Lord in this way.
They just said, OK, Jesus, we're going to do the thing that you
told us to do. And this thing doesn't appear to
be very interesting. It's not very sexy.
Go get an animal. Go get 2 of them.
If anyone argues, just say I need it and and they'll give it
to you. But really, this was satisfying
the scriptures. We see that in verse 5.
He he's fulfilling the scriptures in this simple task
that the disciples are doing is actually helping Christ perform
something. So for us as disciples, we, we
need to be following Jesus in his word.
Jesus says in John chapter 8, if you continue in my word, then
are you my disciples indeed. So those that will not hear and
obey what he says in the word of God, I mean you, you might be
saved, but you can't identify as a disciple if you won't follow
what he says. You can't be off on your own
mission. Secondly, we see that these
disciples are close to other disciples.
If you look at verse one, it says that that Jesus sent 2
disciples frequently as he sends them.
They are sent by twos when he sends the 12 and when he sends
the 70. And many times the disciples are
found together in the upper room, and all the things that
they're doing, they're not often found alone.
So if you're going to be a disciple, you're going to be
found with the other disciples. As Jesus says in John 13, all
men will know that you're my disciples by the love that you
have one to another. And that means we have to be
together, loving each other and putting that love on display for
others to see. So disciples hang out with other
disciples. And thirdly, disciples lead
other others to Jesus. Disciples lead others to Jesus.
What what these guys were doing in getting these animals
together and putting their own garments on the back of the
animal for Jesus to ride was to say, this show isn't about me.
I'm just going to make a way for Jesus to be great and to come
into Jerusalem and he's going to receive receive great praise and
admiration. And that's the life of the
disciple. This isn't about me.
I just need to get other people to Christ.
That's our job. And if you can't do that, that's
OK. We love you.
But disciples are actively engaged in this.
Jesus says in John 15 that when we bear much fruit, that's how
we're identified as disciples. We may not may not be Billy
Graham's or super good evangelist, but we're at least
able to contribute to helping other people identify who Jesus
is, see their need for him putting him on display.
So I put it to you this way, the disciples are who God uses to
reach the World. There are no other people in
this story. We're going to see six more.
None of the other people are really going to be contributing
to the mission. They're all going to be in
different states. So if we don't reach the World,
who's going to? And that may seem like
overwhelming reach the World. I know when I look at countries
and I see statistics for populations and accessibility to
the gospel, I just feel crushed by how can we reach them all.
But the disciples were simply asked, hey, go do the thing that
I told you. So for us, that might look
something like what we did this weekend.
We went out and put up Flyers, man.
I mean, it's kind of ridiculous. Of all things that we could do,
it doesn't feel very fruitful or evangelistic.
But in some way or another, we just need to do the next thing
that's in front of us and try to get people to Jesus.
That's all we're doing. That's the life of the disciple.
So you guys did great. I'm proud of you now be praying
that the Lord uses those to bring people in are the second
group that we see is the multitude.
The multitude, if you look at verses 8:00 and 9:00, it says in
verse 8 and a very great multitude spread their garments
in the way others cut down branches from the trees and
strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went
before that followed cried saying Hosanna to the son of
David. Blessed is he that cometh the
name in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.
This multitude is a massive group of people.
We we don't know the exact number, but by definition, the
word multitude means a state of being many.
It's a great number, however many that is.
It's enough for you to use the word multitude.
You wouldn't use that word in our church probably.
But it's a multitude. And this multitude, they, they
seem to have the right things going on.
I mean, just just look at what they're doing.
They spread their garments. They said, let's put down
something for him to walk on. Like we would roll out a red
carpet for someone famous. They cut down branches.
I don't have enough clothes. But we'll just take things.
We want to put them down before you.
They cried Hosanna, which means save now.
And they called Jesus the son of David, which is a really, that's
a, that's the right title. And he truly was the son of
David. I don't know if you understand
how important that is. We don't have time to get really
sidetracked into that. But you could read Second Samuel
Chapter 7 and 12 and verses 12 and 13, and you could see this
covenant that God made with David that his seed would sit
upon the throne of Jerusalem. And this is what the audience is
saying. He's the one.
You could also see in Isaiah 97 that He will sit on the, the
kingdoms of the governments of the world will all be subject to
Him as He's rightly the heir to the throne of the world.
You can go back. You're in Matthew right now.
If you go back to Matthew chapter 1 and look at verse #1
you see that this is truly Jesus's title.
Matthew one verse one, the book of the generation of Jesus
Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham.
This is what the crowd was saying.
He's the one. But as we'll see, this is the
same crowd that's also going to betray him.
So in your notes, I put it to you this way, that crowds of
people may feel great, but they're not loyal.
It feels good to fill the room and praise the Lord.
We get a multitude one day. That'd be good, but we really
need to focus on disciples because those are the ones that
are loyal. This same crowd I gave you those
3 verses in Matthew 26 and 27. I think I have one of them for
you where it says later in this week the chief priests and
elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas
and destroy Jesus. So this multitudes susceptible
to persuasion, they don't have deep convictions and whoever's
more powerful in their life, they say, OK, well, we're just
going to do what what those people say.
So beware the multitude. When they love you, they may not
love you very long, or maybe you can identify as that.
Your convictions aren't deeply rooted and you can be tossed to
and fro. You need to become a disciple
and not just be in the crowd. Thirdly, we see there's another
group here, the city. The city being different than
the multitude. It says in verse 10.
And when he was coming to Jerusalem, all the city was
moved saying who is this? If you could just imagine in
Jesus day there were people that were greatly on the periphery of
what was happening with this travelling rabbi that was
healing people. They maybe heard some things,
but they weren't in the circle. They weren't there for the
feeding of the 5000 or for the raising of Lazarus.
They just maybe heard some things and they saw the buzz
with Jesus coming into Jerusalem and everyone saying hosanna and
throwing their things on the ground, the son of David, and
they asked the right question, who is this?
This would be likened to the open skeptic, someone who maybe
hasn't intentionally rejected Christ but said, I'm not really
sure. I haven't heard the things that
you've heard. What is going on?
Who is that? And if you can find someone in
this camp that's a that's a good, this is the right
question. If you can ask the question, who
is Jesus, You're asking the right question.
So I have for you a famous person who asked this question
and came to the right conclusion.
Maybe if you're, if you weren't born in 1990 something, you
probably know who this is. Ryan Trahan is a famous YouTube
guy and he converted to Christianity because of his
girlfriend. So praise the Lord that I
wouldn't normally recommend you date a lost person, but in this
case it seems like it worked out.
I don't know him very well, so I'm not promoting whatever he
might believe, but I at least have a video for you that I
we'll be fine. There we go.
But that's just an example of one person that would say, let
me investigate, who is this Jesus person?
I'm open to the truth. I'm on the periphery.
I just don't know. So I put it to you this way in
your notes. When we promote Jesus, the world
will take notice. When we promote Jesus, the world
will take notice. See, the disciples, they just
were contributing to their part and there was a whole city
around them that was paying attention to what was going on.
All right, these are going to get more interesting as we go.
The 4th group of people that we see are the money changers.
The money changers, that's a word, that's one word in the
Bible and it's this group of people that were in the temple.
If we look at verse 12 that says, and Jesus went into the
temple of God and cast out all them that sold and bought in the
temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the
seats of them that sold doves. So all of Jerusalem is or all of
Israel is coming to Jerusalem. Especially the males had to show
up to this feast. They needed to bring a sacrifice
or they could purchase one when they arrived and in the temple.
This is the second time that Jesus got really upset with
these people. He weaves a whip and turns over
tables because these people were corrupting the sacrificial
system. They were extorting it.
They were converting money into other money and making gain out
of people that were there to worship and they found
themselves an adversary of the Lord Jesus.
So they would be likened unto people that are using religion
to make money. And there are a lot of examples
you could Google that. People with jumbo jets and all
that sort of thing. We don't have time to get into
all of the examples and we we maybe don't identify with that
as much here. But we do find this group very
distracted. They're not saying Hosanna,
they're not saying Son of David. They're actually on the opposite
side. They're too busy making money.
What they saw was if I can get 1% from all the extra people
come in into the city, then I can make a lot of money.
We could get really, really distracted focusing on the wrong
things. I put it to you this way in your
notes. If you're only using God for
gain, watch out. You find yourself in a place
where Jesus says that isn't, That's not what I'm all about.
I don't suspect that of you guys, but that is a group of
people that are here at this time when everyone's worshiping
and they're just making money. Matthew 6 and verse 24, Jesus
says that you cannot serve God and Mammon, you can't have two
masters. We, we can't be focused on the
money or else we're going to miss one of the most important
events in Jesus's life, coming into his Kingdom, the son of
David to take his throne. And they totally whiffed.
They totally missed it because they were focused on the wrong
thing. The fifth group of people that
we see are the blind and the lame.
The blind and lame. In verse 14 it says in the blind
and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them.
It doesn't say a whole lot, but this healer has been doing this
all throughout his ministry and here just in one sentence we
find him still doing that. He essentially restored the
temple back to a place that it should be.
He said in verse 13 it should be the House of prayer and he he
took it one step further to even bring healing to people that
needed it. But check this out in verse 14.
It says they came to him in the temple.
The people that needed healing sought Jesus out.
So in your notes it says it this way.
If you need healing, put yourself where Jesus is.
At some point you just have to hear the noise.
What's going on? Jesus is in town.
He's in the temple tearing things up.
Man, I got to get in there. I got some problems.
I've got issues. I don't even understand all the
hosanna stuff. I just know he fixes people and
I need to get to Jesus. Sometimes we just be feeling
like that. I just need to get with Jesus.
Hebrews chapter 12 says to let that which is lame be turned out
of the way and lather. Let it rather be healed.
At some point we just need to get some healing lest we aren't
able to walk. We won't be able to have
straight paths will be turned out of the way.
So if you need some healing, get where Jesus is regularly.
We meet here every Sunday. I hope that He's found in our
midst. Put yourself in a place where
you know that you can seek the Lord.
Our number six is we see children at this event in
Matthew 21 verses 15 and 16, the Bible says, and when the chief
priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and
the children crying in the temple saying Hosanna to the son
of David. And verse 16, Jesus responds and
says, yeah, have you never read out of the mouth of babes and
sucklings? Thou hast perfected praise.
See, kids are always paying attention.
They, they pick up on things. I don't even understand how this
happens. It happens on accident.
They're going to pick up on things without you even trying
to teach it to them. I recently started getting into
Formula One, the race car thing, you know, as an American, it's
like, what is that? It's in another country.
I don't know what that is, but Netflix put on Drive to Survive
and they're pushing for an American market.
Cadillac got involved in making motors and getting the team
going. And recently the my boss in the
city is into it. So I just started saying, hey
man, let's let's figure out what he's into.
And I've been just watching YouTube videos at night.
I don't even watch whole races because I don't I'm just trying
to understand how does it work and it's not really even a thing
for me. I haven't watched a race.
I don't know much about it. I've just I've only seen a
handful of YouTube videos. But my 10 year old son today
Bing, the thing that he wanted for his birthday was a Formula
One Lego set with the cars in the truck.
And I was like, why do you even want that?
And my wife was like, you don't realize how strong your
influence is on the life of your kids.
I was like, I haven't even watched the whole race.
I don't feel like I talk about it.
I don't even understand it. She's like, they've seen enough.
They know that you like it and they're now into it.
And I was like, I don't even know if I'm into it.
Like, let's not commit. We're just learning about it,
you know? But here we are.
And my kids are picking up on things that I'm barely even
interested in. I mean, I do think it's
interesting. I am learning.
It's a new cool sport thing, I guess.
But these children in Jerusalem, as all these families would come
and the multitudes are around, someone's got to be with the
kids or the kids are just there. And it would be said.
Historians say that Psalm 118, verses 25 to 27 is what Israel
would have been quoting. As they got, they greeted people
coming into Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.
Psalm 11825 to 27. Hosanna, save now, where's our
king? And this was a song that even
the kids would sing. The kids are listening to our
music. They're watching our attitudes.
They know our words. And here they picked up on the
right stuff. They didn't know a whole lot
about the world. They didn't know what was going
on in Iran or anything else. They just said Jesus is here.
We heard that's really good. So we're into it.
And that's the thing that gets us into the Kingdom.
It's that attitude. In Luke 18, Jesus talked about
it. He said, And they brought unto
him also infants. This is at a different time that
he would touch them. But when he was, when his
disciples saw it, they rebuked him.
But Jesus called them unto him and said, Suffer little children
to come unto me, and forbid them not for of such as the Kingdom
of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever
shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child shall in
no wise enter therein. It is this kind of faith, it is
saving faith that says, I just believe the Gospel.
I don't have it all figured out. I don't have a robust theology.
I don't know what I'm doing with my life.
I believe that Jesus died for me.
I believe that's a good thing. I'm going to follow him.
And yet we sometimes lose that simple childlike faith.
Out of the Mouth of Babes has perfected praise.
And if you've seen people genuinely born again and they
start reading the Bible and walking with Jesus and getting
excited, man, it's just so, it's so empowering to us in our own
faith, isn't it? So the praise of new believers
should provoke us in our own faith.
Children are wonderful and cute. Today it's Bingham's birthday,
so we went back and looked at pictures of when he was first
born. That was crazy.
I looked a whole lot younger. It was like, wow, parenting has
worn me out. They're lovely when they're
kids, they're beautiful. But man, that was so tiring.
And we want them to grow and we want them to develop.
And the same should be true of us spiritually when we're born
again, when we trust Christ, we come in as newborn babes, brand
new into the Kingdom. I just love Jesus and you need
to nurse a bottle of the Bible and grow up lest you become
carnal, fleshy, immature. The apostle Paul said to the
church in Corinth, now I can't even teach you the Bible because
you all are so jacked up. You just need to grow up in
Jesus. Grow up this Hebrews 5 would say
if you're just going to hang out with the milk if all you know is
Jesus loves me for the Bible tells me so man, that's that's
not really enough to sustain you to live the life of a disciple.
So if you identify as the the younger person in the faith,
it's just excited about Jesus. Praise the Lord man, we are so
proud and excited for that, but we also need to grow and
develop. We need to become a disciple.
Grow up in the word. Our last group of people are the
priests and the scribes. This is the most sobering group.
All of these people are present as Christ comes into Jerusalem.
Verses 15 and 16, the Bible says.
And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things
that he did, and the children crying in the temple, saying
Hosanna to the son of David, they were sore displeased.
And they said unto him, Hearest thou what these say?
Jesus said, yeah. He quotes Psalm 8, verse 2 out
of the mouth of babes and suckling.
Zeal has perfected praise. But these priests inscribes,
they see what the Bible calls wonderful things, and those
wonderful things displeased them.
They did not have the right perspective on reality at this
time. They heard the children, the
kids are saying Hosanna, the kids are saying save now come
king of Israel. And they they said, are you
Jesus? Are you picking up on what
they're saying? They're calling you the Messiah.
This says in Luke's version of this event saying, blessed be
the king that cometh in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven,
and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from
among the multitudes said unto him, Master, rebuke thy
disciples. And he answered and said unto
them, I tell you that if these should hold their peace, the
stones would immediately cry out.
So they were calling him king even more than son of David,
king with a capital K. And the Pharisees said, you need
to rebuke them. Tell them that's wrong.
It's not right of you to say that because that's what they
really wanted. They had the spirit of
Antichrist. They denied Christ as king.
So I put it to you in your notes like this, the self-righteous of
the most vehement rejecters of Christ.
This was their city. They had the temple, they had
the sacrifices, they had Moses. They did not want the son of
David. They did not want a king.
They were righteous in their own way, Romans 10 says.
For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not
submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
This is truly the way. If you're not following Jesus,
you're going about to establish your own righteousness through
some other religion or a moral means, or at very least just
rejecting Christ as some kind of authority over you.
We hung those Flyers up in the city and one of the ones right
by my office, we were actually went out on Thursday and hung
some up as well. One of the ones right by my
office. You know, we put tape all four
sides around them. Someone tore it down but turned
it upside down and put it back up.
So they had to go out of their way to carefully disassemble it
and put it back up. So I, I went back out and I
flipped it back around again and I saw it today and it was upside
down again. And what's interesting is on the
flyer is a cross and like the Satanist symbol is the upside
down cross. And that's what Portland has
been doing with our Flyers is just saying we don't want the
cross. I got another e-mail late last
night. Someone used our contact form on
our website, you know, scan the QR code, go through.
And I was like, sweet. And then I read it and it said,
please stop putting pictures of death all throughout our city.
I was like, well, that's definitely a lost person's
perspective. It is a grim looking poster, but
it's also the power of God unto salvation.
That's the spirit of Antichrist. These are the religious
rejecters. These are the self-righteous,
some kind of righteousness outside of Jesus Christ.
And you'll find that these are the greatest persecutors of the
cross. They had them in Jesus's day.
What makes us think that we'll be free of them in our day?
We can expect some kind of opposition.
We ought to. We certainly don't want it, but
these are the ones ultimately that manipulate the crowd and
the politics to crucify who would be their Messiah.
We'll find a way to get rid of you.
Those are the people we might witness to, but we're not going
to be messing with. We don't want to be strung up.
We just want to preach the gospel.
We want to find people who are interested.
So as you look at those seven things today, is there one of
them that you feel like you can relate to?
Maybe you just need to be encouraged as a disciple.
Maybe you can think about people who need to hear the gospel that
you need to just put Christ on display.
Maybe you need to grow as a child to develop.
I want to give us a moment of silence and and prayer.
I'll then I'll lead us in a prayer and we'll have one more
song. So let's take a minute and pray.