Your Savior is Here
Matthew 21:1-9
It’s Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday begins “Passion Week,” which is the final week of Jesus completing our salvation. This is the week that takes up the majority of the gospels. There’s more written about this week in the gospels than any other event in the life of Jesus because this is THE week. This is the reason Jesus came.
And as we celebrate our Salvation and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ this week, each day this week, we’ll be sending out devotions by texts from Word By Mail to prepare us for Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. These special “Resurrection Week” devotions will also go with our Alone With God daily journal. So, it will be a good way for you to get a feel for the journal guides. If you would like to get these daily devotions, text “DEVO” to (877) 790-9673.
Palm Sunday is the day we celebrate the event we call The Triumphal Entry. On that day, Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem, clearly announcing, “Your Savior is HERE.” On this day, more than any other day prior to the Resurrection, Jesus Christ made it perfectly clear to Israel, and to you and me, that he IS your Savior, the Messiah, sent by God to save you. He doesn’t want you to miss it! He didn’t want Israel to miss it. He made sure to make this truth miraculously clear in his Triumphal Entry. So, my prayer is, at the end of this message, that you would have more confident assurance if Jesus is already your personal Savior or that Jesus would go from being THE Savior to being YOUR personal Savior.
The Triumphal Entry occurred at the beginning of the Passover celebration. Passover is the celebration of the sacrifice of the Innocent Lamb that was slain to save God’s people from the Angel of Death (in Exodus 11, the 10th plague) and free them from Egypt (which is a picture of sin). And as God (through Moses) had the people put the blood of the Lamb on the doorposts of their house, then the Angel of Death would pass over their home. That’s what Passover is. This is what “broke them free” – what began the Exodus from Egypt.
And 1 Corinthians 5:7 says Jesus is OUR Passover Lamb slain to save us from the wages of sin, which the Bible says is death. Jesus is our Passover Lamb. He is the Lamb that was slain for the sin of the world. And if we cover our lives in his sacrifice, then the Angel of Death will pass over us, and we will be freed from sin. That’s the picture of the plagues of Egypt in Exodus, specifically in Chapter 11.
On that same day, as Jesus rode into Jerusalem in the Triumphal Entry, the Passover Lambs were also being brought into Jerusalem to be prepared to be sacrificed to remind the people of God saving them from Egypt and the Angel of Death. So, Jesus is going to come in from the Eastern Gate, what we call the Golden Gate, which is a beautiful Gate, sealed up by the Turks because of the prophecies that Jesus will return through that Gate (that’s another story). Not far from the Eastern Gate was the Sheep Gate, now called the Lion’s Gate. (Some of you have been through that gate with us, right where the Pools of Bethesda are.) And that gate is where the sacrificial lambs were coming in to be sacrificed on Passover.
So, as the picture of THE Passover Lamb, as the type of the Passover Lamb was coming in the Sheep Gate, THE Passover Lamb was coming through the Eastern Gate, the Golden Gate. The lambs were sacrificed throughout the week because there were so many of them, but at the END of THIS Passover week, the True Lamb of God would be slain for the sin of the world as a perfect fulfillment of all that the Passover Celebration pictured. It is the culmination of an innumerable amount of lambs that have been sacrificed that week as a picture of Christ being THE Lamb. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is the big deal. This is the time when God says, THIS is IT! This is your Savior! It’s a huge supernatural prophetic display of Jesus being the Savior.
And so, months prior to the Triumphal Entry, Jesus is in the far North – Caesarea Philippi – (leaving the famous “You are the Christ” with Peter) and coming down south to Samaria. He’s far out, eighty miles out from Jerusalem. And we read this in Luke 9, verse 51.
Luke 9:51 (NLT)
51 As the time drew near for him to ascend to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.
Your Bible might say, “He set his face towards Jerusalem.” He’s months out. Most people think he is six months out. He’s in the North. He’s got a ton to do, an absolute ton of ministry work to do as he moves towards Jerusalem and this last trip to his last Passover. So, months prior to the Triumphal Entry, Jesus “resolutely set out for Jerusalem” because he had to make sure that he would enter Jerusalem on a very specific and very exact day. He had set it in eternity past with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, and so he had to make sure that he would enter Jerusalem on that exact day, at that exact time, in order to fulfill some very, very exact prophecies.
And when THAT DAY came, the Lord of All Creation made sure
That every single detail went
exactly when it was planned
exactly how it was planned
exactly how it had been written long ago, in prophecy that was in print in Greek in 275 BC – 300 years before these events, and was written much older than that (500-700 years older).
So THAT Israel and you and me would have
every possible chance to make the connection
every possible chance to believe
every possible chance to put our full faith and trust
IN GOD who orchestrated all of these events before time began.
Here’s how it started.
Matthew 21:1-3 (NLT)
1 As Jesus and the disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the town of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives. (Bethpage is kind of on the Southeastern side of the Mount of Olives, right near Bethany, where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived. This was a common way to come into Jerusalem at that time.) Jesus sent two of them on ahead.
2 “Go into the village over there,” he said. “As soon as you enter it, you will see a donkey tied there, with its colt beside it. Untie them and bring them to me.
3 If anyone asks what you are doing, just say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will immediately let you take them.”
The exact day had arrived, and the prophetic signs were about to fall into place, and suddenly the colt of a donkey become crucial to the even because the Holy Spirit is perfectly orchestrating every detail.
So, Jesus says, “Go borrow a donkey and it’s colt. If anyone asks, just tell them ‘The Lord needs it,’” and that’s exactly what happened.
In Mark 11, verses 5-6, it says this.
Mark 11:5–6 (NLT)
5 As they were untying it, some bystanders demanded, “What are you doing, untying that colt?”
6 They said what Jesus had told them to say, and they were permitted to take it.
This moment went perfectly as planned, as every moment of this Passover Week would, because on this day (and this week), everything has a purpose, every detail matters. The world is changing during this week. An eternity is changing during this week. Every single detail will go perfectly because Jesus was fulfilling multiple mind-boggling specific prophecies about the arrival of your Savior, which is what the next verse in Matthew 21 says.
Matthew 21:4-5 (NLT)
4 This took place to fulfill the prophecy that said,
5 “Tell the people of Jerusalem, ‘Look, your King is coming to you. He is humble, riding on a donkey - riding on a donkey’s colt.’ ”
This is the exact prophecy in Zechariah 9:9. Everything that’s happening is happening according to a plan that was set outside of time for your salvation. Everything that happens at the Triumphal Entry is extremely prophetic and precisely prophetic in order to give Israel, and you and me every possible chance to make THE Savior OUR personal Savior.
Your Savior is here – don’t miss him.
Matthew 21:6-7 (NLT)
6 The two disciples did as Jesus commanded.
7 They brought the donkey and the colt to him and threw their garments over the colt, and he sat on it.
Normally, a king would ride into a city on a war-horse showing strength and victory. But to ride on a donkey was a symbol of peace – not war and even more so to ride on the colt of a donkey.
And 700 years earlier, Isaiah had prophesied the Messiah would come as the Prince of Peace. And when Jesus was born, the Angels of Heaven announced that peace had come to earth.
And today, Jesus is riding into Jerusalem as the “King of Peace” on the colt of a donkey.
And listen, please. This is important. That is the only time Jesus allowed a public celebration like this of WHO he WAS. And, he didn’t just allow it, he completely orchestrated it because Jesus did not want Israel or you and me to miss the fact that our Savior is here.
So, it was the beginning of Passover week, and Jews from all over Israel were making their pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover. Jerusalem would swell to over one million people on Passover, and many of them would be walking up this same road to Jerusalem at this same time. The road from Jericho is a dirt road, and it was the only way into Jerusalem. That road, in that time, goes around the south edge of the Mt of Olives instead of over the top as it does now because the Mt of Olives is a little steep, and went right through Bethpage and Bethany, right between those two little towns. So a million people making the pilgrimage into Jerusalem, coming up that road, and many of them carrying spotless lambs to sacrifice for their families.
And the word about Jesus had been spreading like wildfire for some time. His fame was already spreading around Israel. He had been doing so much the past year and a half to two years. The word is spreading. But then, just before the massive crowds started entering Jerusalem, with perfect timing, Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead. In John 11, Mary and Martha send a message to Jesus to say their brother is sick and he needs to come. Jesus stayed a couple more days where he was at. And when he does arrive, Martha asks him what and why. And in John 11 is the famous section where Jesus said to Martha, “Martha, Martha. I AM the Resurrection and Life. Do you believe this?” Martha says yes, and what does Jesus do? He goes to the tomb and raises his close friend from the dead. The raising of Lazarus from the dead had put the fame of Jesus over the top, and now all of these people were looking for Jesus because they wanted to enter Jerusalem with him for the Passover Celebration.
These crowds were hoping that Jesus would be the Messiah they wanted him to be. They were hoping Jesus would overthrow Rome and become the King of Israel. They wanted a political, military, and social King. They wanted everything that they wanted in a Messiah, and they wanted it in Jesus. And ultimately Jesus will do that and ultimately Jesus will be that. And ultimately Jesus will rule Israel from a throne in Jerusalem for the Millennium. But today, Jesus was entering Jerusalem for a much, much larger victory. The victory for you over sin, death, and the grave.
But still, this huge crowd just fell right into place to play their part in this great prophetic announcement that your Savior is here.
Matthew 21:8 (NLT)
8 Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
This was customary treatment at that time for a victorious king entering a city, and it made it clear that a new King was entering Jerusalem, and the crowd was shouting out the perfectly correct – prophetic words. Let me switch to the ESV here, and you look for that great word of praise -HOSANNA!!!
Matthew 21:9 (ESV)
9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
HOSANNA means “Save now” or “Save us now.” It was Israel’s praise to God for sending a Savior. It wasn’t so much a plea that God would send a Savior; it was a praise, it was a celebration word for God sending a Savior, which is exactly what Jesus was coming to BE, but in a much greater way than the people were thinking. And Jesus IS the Greater Son of David (as they were shouting). Jesus IS the Messiah, and he IS the King of Israel. And Jesus had come to save and Jesus would (ultimately) rule on the throne of David, and everything about the Triumphal Entry is screaming out – your Savior is here!!! Don’t miss it!!!
So many people missed it. So many people on that day missed it. The religious leaders deceived them. Some of them, in five days, would be shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” in Pilate’s courts.
But this incredible event was not just to announce to Israel and us – our Savior was here! It was also to accomplish another critical event because as the religious leaders saw the crowd growing and growing, and as they heard the people shouting and shouting that Jesus was their Savior and their King, it drove the religious leaders to do exactly what God needed them to do. Jesus knew he was only five days away from the Cross, and Jesus knew that all that was happening IN the Triumphal Entry would ensure that the Jewish religious leaders got Jesus to the Cross on time (at the exact right time).
Here’s something that I always struggle with. Our reformed brothers and sisters, most of them don’t really remember this, but the original Reformers were horribly anti-Semitic. Horribly. They were strong Hitler supporters, and they hated the Jews. And you think, “How could they? They were great men – they put the Bible into people’s hands.” But they also had this weird thinking that the Jews killed Jesus. The Jews didn’t kill Jesus. Your sins killed Jesus. My sins killed Jesus. The Jews didn’t kill Jesus. The Romans didn’t kill Jesus. The hammer that drove the spike in his hands was my sin.
And so, when the Pharisees saw what was happening here, we read this in John 12, verse 19.
John 12:19 (NLT)
19 Then the Pharisees said to each other, “There’s nothing we can do. Look, everyone has gone after him!”
You can just hear them saying, “There is no way we’re going to allow this ragamuffin from Nazareth to become King of Israel. We must ensure that he is removed permanently!”
So, the religious leaders (like the crowd) were playing right along with God’s perfect orchestration of this moment.
But why on this particular day???
Prior to this day Jesus had side-stepped every attempt to proclaim him as Messiah and King. In fact, he would slip out, even disappear, whenever the people started chanting these things. And in a number of those situations, Jesus responds with the words, “My HOUR has not yet come.” But that was not some kind of spiritual metaphor. There actually was an hour that had been predetermined in the throne room of Heaven and that day and that hour HAD COME just as it had been very specifically prophesied.
So, at this point in the Triumphal Entry, we read this in Luke’s account.
Luke 19:39–40 (NLT)
39 But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!” (meaning things reserved only for the Savior)
40 He replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!”
On THIS day. At THIS moment. If those people would not have been crying out the announcement that the SAVIOR was HERE, then God would’ve had the rocks on the road cry out that same announcement because God had clearly and specifically promised that Israel’s True Messiah and King would come to them ON this exact day and IN this exact way.
Five hundred years before Jesus was born, the prophet Daniel made it clear (in Daniel Chapter 9) when the Israelites were in exile in Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the Temple, that there would be 69 sets of 7 years between the time the decree to rebuild the Temple was given to the day the Messiah would announce himself to Israel. 69 sets of 7 years is 483 years (or 173,880 days) from the time the decree to rebuild the Temple was given to the day that the Messiah would present himself to Israel.
In Nehemiah 2:1, the month that the decree was given to rebuild the Temple is clearly stated. Nehemiah 2 verse 1 marks that date as our APRIL of 445 BC, and it takes some complicated math adjustments. But many scholars have confirmed what a detective named Sir Robert Anderson first determined (lunar, solar, two different types of calendars, and there’s no year “0” by the way it goes from 1 BC to 1 AD and leap years, and all this stuff) 69 sets of 7 years if you use the days (not the years) and that is that 483 “years of days” (173,880 days) take us right to Passover week in 32 AD and that Passover started with the Triumphal Entry of Jesus Christ that we are looking at today.
This is a supernaturally accurate prophecy (and if you’d like to see the math on that, let me know). But there are actually over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament that Jesus Christ fulfilled in his life, death, and resurrection. Three hundred miraculous, prophetic announcements that your Savior is here and most of Israel and too many people that you and I know are still missing it. We have all the signs, all the miraculous proofs. But still, there are far too many people who refuse to see what God has made so clear.
So, just one more Prophecy for today. AS Jesus crested the Mount of Olives and started down toward Jerusalem, we read this in Luke 19.
Luke 19:41–44 (NLT)
41 But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep.
42 “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. (because they refused to see it)
43 Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side.
44 They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not recognize it when God visited you.”
Jesus is prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by Rome which occurred in 70 AD. And as verse 44 says, when Rome destroyed the Temple, they did not leave one stone on top of another. And when we’re there, we stand next to a huge pile of stones that were toppled off the Temple Mount when Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome in 70 AD.
Guys, in the Triumphal Entry, Jesus gave us his clearest signs prior to the Resurrection. So many prophecies came to pass here so clearly. But . . . for the most part, the religious leaders and the people still missed it. God gave them crystal clear, miraculous, undeniable, prophetic proof that their Savior was here – but they still missed it!!!
Don’t miss the signs that your Savior is here.
God has given you so many clear, miraculous, undeniable, prophetic signs that Jesus Christ IS WHO he says he IS, and he is going to DO what he says he’s going to DO. But in order for you to not miss it, you must reach out (in faith) and receive it.
You must have “eyes to see,” and you will see
You must have “ears to hear,” and you will hear
You must choose to believe, and then God will continue to reveal himself to you, and the Lord Jesus Christ will be your Savior.
And as we celebrate our Salvation and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ this week, each day this week, we’ll be sending out devotions by texts from Word By Mail to prepare us for Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. These special “Resurrection Week” devotions will also go with our Alone With God daily journal. So, it will be a good way for you to get a feel for the journal guides. If you would like to get these daily devotions, text “DEVO” to (877) 790-9673.
Palm Sunday is the day we celebrate the event we call The Triumphal Entry. On that day, Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem, clearly announcing, “Your Savior is HERE.” On this day, more than any other day prior to the Resurrection, Jesus Christ made it perfectly clear to Israel, and to you and me, that he IS your Savior, the Messiah, sent by God to save you. He doesn’t want you to miss it! He didn’t want Israel to miss it. He made sure to make this truth miraculously clear in his Triumphal Entry. So, my prayer is, at the end of this message, that you would have more confident assurance if Jesus is already your personal Savior or that Jesus would go from being THE Savior to being YOUR personal Savior.
The Triumphal Entry occurred at the beginning of the Passover celebration. Passover is the celebration of the sacrifice of the Innocent Lamb that was slain to save God’s people from the Angel of Death (in Exodus 11, the 10th plague) and free them from Egypt (which is a picture of sin). And as God (through Moses) had the people put the blood of the Lamb on the doorposts of their house, then the Angel of Death would pass over their home. That’s what Passover is. This is what “broke them free” – what began the Exodus from Egypt.
And 1 Corinthians 5:7 says Jesus is OUR Passover Lamb slain to save us from the wages of sin, which the Bible says is death. Jesus is our Passover Lamb. He is the Lamb that was slain for the sin of the world. And if we cover our lives in his sacrifice, then the Angel of Death will pass over us, and we will be freed from sin. That’s the picture of the plagues of Egypt in Exodus, specifically in Chapter 11.
On that same day, as Jesus rode into Jerusalem in the Triumphal Entry, the Passover Lambs were also being brought into Jerusalem to be prepared to be sacrificed to remind the people of God saving them from Egypt and the Angel of Death. So, Jesus is going to come in from the Eastern Gate, what we call the Golden Gate, which is a beautiful Gate, sealed up by the Turks because of the prophecies that Jesus will return through that Gate (that’s another story). Not far from the Eastern Gate was the Sheep Gate, now called the Lion’s Gate. (Some of you have been through that gate with us, right where the Pools of Bethesda are.) And that gate is where the sacrificial lambs were coming in to be sacrificed on Passover.
So, as the picture of THE Passover Lamb, as the type of the Passover Lamb was coming in the Sheep Gate, THE Passover Lamb was coming through the Eastern Gate, the Golden Gate. The lambs were sacrificed throughout the week because there were so many of them, but at the END of THIS Passover week, the True Lamb of God would be slain for the sin of the world as a perfect fulfillment of all that the Passover Celebration pictured. It is the culmination of an innumerable amount of lambs that have been sacrificed that week as a picture of Christ being THE Lamb. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is the big deal. This is the time when God says, THIS is IT! This is your Savior! It’s a huge supernatural prophetic display of Jesus being the Savior.
And so, months prior to the Triumphal Entry, Jesus is in the far North – Caesarea Philippi – (leaving the famous “You are the Christ” with Peter) and coming down south to Samaria. He’s far out, eighty miles out from Jerusalem. And we read this in Luke 9, verse 51.
Luke 9:51 (NLT)
51 As the time drew near for him to ascend to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.
Your Bible might say, “He set his face towards Jerusalem.” He’s months out. Most people think he is six months out. He’s in the North. He’s got a ton to do, an absolute ton of ministry work to do as he moves towards Jerusalem and this last trip to his last Passover. So, months prior to the Triumphal Entry, Jesus “resolutely set out for Jerusalem” because he had to make sure that he would enter Jerusalem on a very specific and very exact day. He had set it in eternity past with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, and so he had to make sure that he would enter Jerusalem on that exact day, at that exact time, in order to fulfill some very, very exact prophecies.
And when THAT DAY came, the Lord of All Creation made sure
That every single detail went
exactly when it was planned
exactly how it was planned
exactly how it had been written long ago, in prophecy that was in print in Greek in 275 BC – 300 years before these events, and was written much older than that (500-700 years older).
So THAT Israel and you and me would have
every possible chance to make the connection
every possible chance to believe
every possible chance to put our full faith and trust
IN GOD who orchestrated all of these events before time began.
Here’s how it started.
Matthew 21:1-3 (NLT)
1 As Jesus and the disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the town of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives. (Bethpage is kind of on the Southeastern side of the Mount of Olives, right near Bethany, where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived. This was a common way to come into Jerusalem at that time.) Jesus sent two of them on ahead.
2 “Go into the village over there,” he said. “As soon as you enter it, you will see a donkey tied there, with its colt beside it. Untie them and bring them to me.
3 If anyone asks what you are doing, just say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will immediately let you take them.”
The exact day had arrived, and the prophetic signs were about to fall into place, and suddenly the colt of a donkey become crucial to the even because the Holy Spirit is perfectly orchestrating every detail.
So, Jesus says, “Go borrow a donkey and it’s colt. If anyone asks, just tell them ‘The Lord needs it,’” and that’s exactly what happened.
In Mark 11, verses 5-6, it says this.
Mark 11:5–6 (NLT)
5 As they were untying it, some bystanders demanded, “What are you doing, untying that colt?”
6 They said what Jesus had told them to say, and they were permitted to take it.
This moment went perfectly as planned, as every moment of this Passover Week would, because on this day (and this week), everything has a purpose, every detail matters. The world is changing during this week. An eternity is changing during this week. Every single detail will go perfectly because Jesus was fulfilling multiple mind-boggling specific prophecies about the arrival of your Savior, which is what the next verse in Matthew 21 says.
Matthew 21:4-5 (NLT)
4 This took place to fulfill the prophecy that said,
5 “Tell the people of Jerusalem, ‘Look, your King is coming to you. He is humble, riding on a donkey - riding on a donkey’s colt.’ ”
This is the exact prophecy in Zechariah 9:9. Everything that’s happening is happening according to a plan that was set outside of time for your salvation. Everything that happens at the Triumphal Entry is extremely prophetic and precisely prophetic in order to give Israel, and you and me every possible chance to make THE Savior OUR personal Savior.
Your Savior is here – don’t miss him.
Matthew 21:6-7 (NLT)
6 The two disciples did as Jesus commanded.
7 They brought the donkey and the colt to him and threw their garments over the colt, and he sat on it.
Normally, a king would ride into a city on a war-horse showing strength and victory. But to ride on a donkey was a symbol of peace – not war and even more so to ride on the colt of a donkey.
And 700 years earlier, Isaiah had prophesied the Messiah would come as the Prince of Peace. And when Jesus was born, the Angels of Heaven announced that peace had come to earth.
And today, Jesus is riding into Jerusalem as the “King of Peace” on the colt of a donkey.
And listen, please. This is important. That is the only time Jesus allowed a public celebration like this of WHO he WAS. And, he didn’t just allow it, he completely orchestrated it because Jesus did not want Israel or you and me to miss the fact that our Savior is here.
So, it was the beginning of Passover week, and Jews from all over Israel were making their pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover. Jerusalem would swell to over one million people on Passover, and many of them would be walking up this same road to Jerusalem at this same time. The road from Jericho is a dirt road, and it was the only way into Jerusalem. That road, in that time, goes around the south edge of the Mt of Olives instead of over the top as it does now because the Mt of Olives is a little steep, and went right through Bethpage and Bethany, right between those two little towns. So a million people making the pilgrimage into Jerusalem, coming up that road, and many of them carrying spotless lambs to sacrifice for their families.
And the word about Jesus had been spreading like wildfire for some time. His fame was already spreading around Israel. He had been doing so much the past year and a half to two years. The word is spreading. But then, just before the massive crowds started entering Jerusalem, with perfect timing, Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead. In John 11, Mary and Martha send a message to Jesus to say their brother is sick and he needs to come. Jesus stayed a couple more days where he was at. And when he does arrive, Martha asks him what and why. And in John 11 is the famous section where Jesus said to Martha, “Martha, Martha. I AM the Resurrection and Life. Do you believe this?” Martha says yes, and what does Jesus do? He goes to the tomb and raises his close friend from the dead. The raising of Lazarus from the dead had put the fame of Jesus over the top, and now all of these people were looking for Jesus because they wanted to enter Jerusalem with him for the Passover Celebration.
These crowds were hoping that Jesus would be the Messiah they wanted him to be. They were hoping Jesus would overthrow Rome and become the King of Israel. They wanted a political, military, and social King. They wanted everything that they wanted in a Messiah, and they wanted it in Jesus. And ultimately Jesus will do that and ultimately Jesus will be that. And ultimately Jesus will rule Israel from a throne in Jerusalem for the Millennium. But today, Jesus was entering Jerusalem for a much, much larger victory. The victory for you over sin, death, and the grave.
But still, this huge crowd just fell right into place to play their part in this great prophetic announcement that your Savior is here.
Matthew 21:8 (NLT)
8 Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
This was customary treatment at that time for a victorious king entering a city, and it made it clear that a new King was entering Jerusalem, and the crowd was shouting out the perfectly correct – prophetic words. Let me switch to the ESV here, and you look for that great word of praise -HOSANNA!!!
Matthew 21:9 (ESV)
9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
HOSANNA means “Save now” or “Save us now.” It was Israel’s praise to God for sending a Savior. It wasn’t so much a plea that God would send a Savior; it was a praise, it was a celebration word for God sending a Savior, which is exactly what Jesus was coming to BE, but in a much greater way than the people were thinking. And Jesus IS the Greater Son of David (as they were shouting). Jesus IS the Messiah, and he IS the King of Israel. And Jesus had come to save and Jesus would (ultimately) rule on the throne of David, and everything about the Triumphal Entry is screaming out – your Savior is here!!! Don’t miss it!!!
So many people missed it. So many people on that day missed it. The religious leaders deceived them. Some of them, in five days, would be shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” in Pilate’s courts.
But this incredible event was not just to announce to Israel and us – our Savior was here! It was also to accomplish another critical event because as the religious leaders saw the crowd growing and growing, and as they heard the people shouting and shouting that Jesus was their Savior and their King, it drove the religious leaders to do exactly what God needed them to do. Jesus knew he was only five days away from the Cross, and Jesus knew that all that was happening IN the Triumphal Entry would ensure that the Jewish religious leaders got Jesus to the Cross on time (at the exact right time).
Here’s something that I always struggle with. Our reformed brothers and sisters, most of them don’t really remember this, but the original Reformers were horribly anti-Semitic. Horribly. They were strong Hitler supporters, and they hated the Jews. And you think, “How could they? They were great men – they put the Bible into people’s hands.” But they also had this weird thinking that the Jews killed Jesus. The Jews didn’t kill Jesus. Your sins killed Jesus. My sins killed Jesus. The Jews didn’t kill Jesus. The Romans didn’t kill Jesus. The hammer that drove the spike in his hands was my sin.
And so, when the Pharisees saw what was happening here, we read this in John 12, verse 19.
John 12:19 (NLT)
19 Then the Pharisees said to each other, “There’s nothing we can do. Look, everyone has gone after him!”
You can just hear them saying, “There is no way we’re going to allow this ragamuffin from Nazareth to become King of Israel. We must ensure that he is removed permanently!”
So, the religious leaders (like the crowd) were playing right along with God’s perfect orchestration of this moment.
But why on this particular day???
Prior to this day Jesus had side-stepped every attempt to proclaim him as Messiah and King. In fact, he would slip out, even disappear, whenever the people started chanting these things. And in a number of those situations, Jesus responds with the words, “My HOUR has not yet come.” But that was not some kind of spiritual metaphor. There actually was an hour that had been predetermined in the throne room of Heaven and that day and that hour HAD COME just as it had been very specifically prophesied.
So, at this point in the Triumphal Entry, we read this in Luke’s account.
Luke 19:39–40 (NLT)
39 But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!” (meaning things reserved only for the Savior)
40 He replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!”
On THIS day. At THIS moment. If those people would not have been crying out the announcement that the SAVIOR was HERE, then God would’ve had the rocks on the road cry out that same announcement because God had clearly and specifically promised that Israel’s True Messiah and King would come to them ON this exact day and IN this exact way.
Five hundred years before Jesus was born, the prophet Daniel made it clear (in Daniel Chapter 9) when the Israelites were in exile in Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the Temple, that there would be 69 sets of 7 years between the time the decree to rebuild the Temple was given to the day the Messiah would announce himself to Israel. 69 sets of 7 years is 483 years (or 173,880 days) from the time the decree to rebuild the Temple was given to the day that the Messiah would present himself to Israel.
In Nehemiah 2:1, the month that the decree was given to rebuild the Temple is clearly stated. Nehemiah 2 verse 1 marks that date as our APRIL of 445 BC, and it takes some complicated math adjustments. But many scholars have confirmed what a detective named Sir Robert Anderson first determined (lunar, solar, two different types of calendars, and there’s no year “0” by the way it goes from 1 BC to 1 AD and leap years, and all this stuff) 69 sets of 7 years if you use the days (not the years) and that is that 483 “years of days” (173,880 days) take us right to Passover week in 32 AD and that Passover started with the Triumphal Entry of Jesus Christ that we are looking at today.
This is a supernaturally accurate prophecy (and if you’d like to see the math on that, let me know). But there are actually over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament that Jesus Christ fulfilled in his life, death, and resurrection. Three hundred miraculous, prophetic announcements that your Savior is here and most of Israel and too many people that you and I know are still missing it. We have all the signs, all the miraculous proofs. But still, there are far too many people who refuse to see what God has made so clear.
So, just one more Prophecy for today. AS Jesus crested the Mount of Olives and started down toward Jerusalem, we read this in Luke 19.
Luke 19:41–44 (NLT)
41 But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep.
42 “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. (because they refused to see it)
43 Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side.
44 They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not recognize it when God visited you.”
Jesus is prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by Rome which occurred in 70 AD. And as verse 44 says, when Rome destroyed the Temple, they did not leave one stone on top of another. And when we’re there, we stand next to a huge pile of stones that were toppled off the Temple Mount when Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome in 70 AD.
Guys, in the Triumphal Entry, Jesus gave us his clearest signs prior to the Resurrection. So many prophecies came to pass here so clearly. But . . . for the most part, the religious leaders and the people still missed it. God gave them crystal clear, miraculous, undeniable, prophetic proof that their Savior was here – but they still missed it!!!
Don’t miss the signs that your Savior is here.
God has given you so many clear, miraculous, undeniable, prophetic signs that Jesus Christ IS WHO he says he IS, and he is going to DO what he says he’s going to DO. But in order for you to not miss it, you must reach out (in faith) and receive it.
You must have “eyes to see,” and you will see
You must have “ears to hear,” and you will hear
You must choose to believe, and then God will continue to reveal himself to you, and the Lord Jesus Christ will be your Savior.