Luke 19:37-38 – His Grand Entrance
Introduction
:
Palm Sunday: Today and To Come
‘As he was drawing near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in
heaven
and glory in the highest!’”
(
Luke 19:37
,
38
)
There is no doubt what was in the disciples’ minds. This was the fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy given centuries earlier:
(
Zechariah 9:9
,
10
)
‘Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.’
John Piper put it this way:
‘
The long-awaited Messiah had come, the king of Israel, and not just of Israel but of all the earth. Jerusalem would be his capital city. From here he would rule the world in peace and righteousness. What a day this was! How their hearts must have pounded in their chests! And must not their hands have been sweaty like warriors in readiness just before the bugle sounds the battle! How would he do it? Would he whip up the enthusiastic crowds and storm the Roman praetorium—a people’s revolution? Or would he call down fire from heaven to consume the enemies of God? Would any of his followers be lost in the struggle? The tension of the moment must have been tremendous!’
Transition
: As it turned out,
The entry into Jerusalem with waving palms (
John 12:13
) was a short-lived
preview of the eternal Palm Sunday to come.
‘I like to think of all our worship in this age as rehearsal for the age to come. One day we, who by God’s grace have been faithful to the Lord, are going to stand with innumerable millions of believers from Bangladesh, Poland, Egypt, Australia, Iceland, Cameroon, Ecuador, Burma, Borneo, Japan, and thousands of tribes and peoples and languages purified by Christ, with palms of praise in our hand. And when we raise them in salute to Christ, he will see an almost endless field of green, shimmering with life and pulsating with praise. And then like the sound of a thousand Russian choruses, we will sing our song of salvation, while the mighty Christ, with heartfelt love, looks out over those whom he bought with his own blood.’
– Piper
Revelation 7:9-
10
‘After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands.
10
And they were shouting with a mighty shout, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!”
(NLT)
Transition:
2. Palm Sunday as a Threat
The Pharisees had a double reason for wanting this kind of welcome silenced.
Application
: When we give Jesus entrance, He is/becomes a threat to all that has held you back!
‘Therefore, they say to Jesus
, “‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples.’ But he answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out!”‘
(
Luke 19:39
,
40
).
No, he will not rebuke them for this. Not now. The hour has come. The authority of the Pharisees is done for. If the Romans come, they come.
He will not silence the truth any longer.
Application
:
All truth is a threat!
Especially when it comes to spiritual matters.
Application
: To be sure the disciples’ understanding of Jesus’ kingship at this point is flawed. But hastening events will correct that soon enough. In essence they are correct. Jesus is the king of Israel, and the kingdom he is inaugurating will bring peace to all the nations and spread from sea to sea. The book of Revelation pictures the final fulfillment of Palm Sunday in the age to come like this:
Transition
: What else is Palm Sunday?
3. Palm Sunday as A Declaration
Application
: All of God’s created order, knows who the true and rightful King is.
What declarations are established on/through Palm Sunday?
Back in
Luke 9
, as Jesus prepared to set out for Jerusalem from Galilee, he tried to explain this to his disciples. In verse 22 he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” And in verse 44 he told them, “Let these words sink into your ears; for the Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men.”
Application
: Jesus tried to warn them about suffering. Not only that which he would have to suffer himself, but throughout His ministry He attempted to reveal to them that they too would have to suffer.
Application
: The Rich Young Ruler. Why didn’t Jesus stop him when he walked away?
2. Declaration of Trust
Luke 9:45 tells us, “
They did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them that they should not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.
”
Application
: Notice, two things that happen here.
Application
: the journey of faith to which we commit won’t always make sense. We might not understand, we will often be afraid.
Therefore, their understanding of Jesus’ last journey to Jerusalem was flawed.
Application
: What were they expecting
? They saw him as a king moving in to take control
. And he was.
But, they could not grasp that the victory Jesus would win in Jerusalem over sin and Satan and death and all the enemies of righteousness and joy—that this victory would be won through his own horrible suffering and death; and that the kingdom which they thought would be established immediately (
Luke 19:11
).
Transition
: The last thought I want to point out is that Palm Sunday
4. Palm Sunday as a Pattern / Example
So Jesus sets out for Jerusalem, and it says in the text that
“he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but the people would not receive him
because his face was set toward Jerusalem.”
What matters for the story is simply that Jesus is already being rejected, and then
the focus shifts to the disciples’ response
, specifically the response of James and John.
James and John ask Jesus,
“Lord, do you want us to bid fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”
(verse 54).
Now what does this mean?
Transition/Conclusion
:
5. Palm Sunday as a Surprise
The answer of the whole New Testament is this: the
surprise about
Jesus the Messiah
is that he came to live a life of sacrificial, dying service before he comes a second time to reign in glory.
And the
surprise about
discipleship
is that it demands a life of sacrificial, dying service before we can reign with Christ in glory.
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