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[0:00] Please open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 21, the gospel of Matthew chapter 21.

[0:10] Last week we finished chapter 20, so we're moving now into chapter 21, and today we'll read verses 1 through 11.

[0:33] So if you'll look there with me, Matthew 21, verses 1 through 11. Now, when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her.

[0:59] Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, The Lord needs them, and he will send them at once. This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

[1:23] The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their clothes, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their clothes on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

[1:40] 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.

[1:53] Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the highest.

[2:24] Hosanna in the highest. Amen. This is what we oftentimes call the triumphal entry. It's an important event.

[2:36] In fact, it occurs in all four of the gospels. As we've gone along, we've talked about the synoptic gospels and how the gospel of John is much different. And so oftentimes we'll see stories that are included in three of the four gospels, but rarely do we see one that's included in all four.

[2:51] And here is one of those instances. We have this story included in all four Gospels. And up to this point, Jesus has avoided such scenes as what we see here.

[3:03] There have been times where they wanted to take Jesus and make him king. And remember, Jesus has refused it. In fact, at times, he's withdrawn. He's gone across to the other side of the lake to avoid the crowds, even, who wanted to make him king.

[3:16] So at every other point, up to this point, he's avoided such instances as these. He hasn't wanted this to happen until the set time. So why now is he permitting this?

[3:28] What's going on here? What's happening? What's the transition that we see taking place at this point? I think one of the things we have to remember is why Jesus is coming to Jerusalem at all.

[3:38] Now, we just looked at this previously in chapter 20. But if you will, just flip back to verses 17 through 19. In chapter 20, verse 17, we read, As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside.

[3:57] And on the way, he said to them, See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked, and flawed, and crucified.

[4:13] And he will be raised on the third day. So we have to keep in mind what's going on when Jesus enters Jerusalem. There's a reason for him allowing this. He's going for the specific purpose of being put to death, being crucified, ultimately being raised from the dead.

[4:31] But this is Jesus' purpose now in entering into Jerusalem, and we want to keep that in mind as we look at this. But there are three points to my message. I want us to see three aspects of Jesus' ministry as displayed in this passage.

[4:43] Jesus is coming to Jerusalem as the king. He is coming as the savior. He's also coming as a sacrifice. And so all three of these things we see at play in this short passage of the triumphal entry.

[4:55] And I want us to look at each of those. So the first is, Jesus is coming as the king. Or we could say the king is coming. Jesus is entering Jerusalem as the king.

[5:06] And as the Messiah that had been promised. So as I've said earlier up to this point, he's shot away from it. He hasn't allowed people to maybe quite use that terminology.

[5:17] He's performed miracles. He said don't tell people about it. But now he's publicly allowing it. And we talked about before the reason for him not allowing it has been He didn't want to too early cause the persecution to begin.

[5:32] Cause his death to happen. There's a set timing that God has prepared for this. Isaiah 9 through 7 speaks of this occasion. Or speaks of Jesus as king. It says, Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.

[5:47] On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

[6:00] And so there's this prophecy about the Messiah. What's he going to be like? Well, we understand as well with the Davidic covenant that he's to be the king who's going to sit on David's throne and reign forever. And this, the zeal of the Lord of hosts, the Lord of the army, God in his power will accomplish this.

[6:15] He will sit his king, the Messiah, upon the throne. And Jesus is now claiming that title. He's acknowledging that that's who he is as he comes. Now here into Jerusalem.

[6:28] We call this the triumphal entry. And if we think about this, though there is triumph in it, it's also very poor in comparison to what we might imagine a king to be like coming into his capital city, coming into his kingdom, coming into his rule.

[6:44] I even think about what might we expect? Well, there might be a royal parade, not just the crowd falling, but there would be people there, maybe parts of the army that would be there, maybe those blowing trumpets announcing the coming of the king.

[6:59] Even what might he be riding on? What do we picture a king riding? Well, for us, maybe it's the presidential limousine, right? The armored vehicles. But we see the president coming through, and he has the police escorts, he's got the limo with the flats on it.

[7:19] We see all that. And even in that day, we might expect him to be coming on a horse. But instead, he comes in riding on a donkey. And so he comes as king triumphantly, but humbly.

[7:37] Not with the pomp of what we might expect for a worldly king, an earthly king. And in some ways, we see even already symbolized that his kingdom is not a kingdom of this world.

[7:48] Also, consider all that we've seen already with the messianic misinterpretations that we've seen with the disciples. And I think also, even with many in the crowd here today, expecting Jesus coming into the kingdom means to overthrow the Roman Empire.

[8:05] There's going to be a coup. There's going to be this powerful overtake of Rome. And so here comes Jesus riding in to conquer Rome on a donkey. You don't exactly have that kind of picture of this is going to be a military triumph.

[8:19] And I think even in this, Jesus is symbolizing his kingdom is not of this world, but also symbolizing for us that or reminding the disciples and his followers that it's not as we might anticipate.

[8:33] It's not what we might imagine. It's different than many would have expected. And the humility that he exhibits contrasts between earthly kings.

[8:45] But also we want to think of his eternal glory. I just think, imagine Jesus in all his glory from all eternity who humbled himself and took on human form.

[8:58] It says in Philippians, humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. This is what we're seeing here. God in all his glory humbled to come triumphantly on a donkey praised by some small crowd.

[9:18] He sends two of his disciples to go fetch this donkey. Again, it's not the normal choice of a king. And we see in verses 2 through 3 this exhibition of Jesus' divine knowledge.

[9:32] Also of his sovereignty, his planning over all that's going to happen. We're reminded again, we just read chapter 20, verses 17 through 19. Jesus foretells he's going to Jerusalem to be put to death.

[9:44] He even says who's going to do it. He says how it's going to happen. It's going to be crucifixion. And he tells that he's going to be raised from the dead. And we talked about when I preached on that, that Jesus is telling us here he's sovereign over these things.

[9:56] He's not taken by surprise. The Jewish authorities didn't somehow overcome him and put him to death in the midst of his attempt to overthrow the Roman Empire. This is the plan.

[10:08] And so too, we see verses 2 through 3, he tells the disciples exactly what to do, where they're going to find the donkey in the city that he hasn't been in for, well, over a year. Where they're going to find the donkey, what they're going to encounter when they take the donkey in the colt, what they're going to say to the person, and the fact that they're going to agree to it.

[10:32] I think even God sovereignly has to be working in the heart of whoever owns this donkey, right? I mean, they didn't come in and they steal the donkey. They're going to take it, and then they're going to, wait a minute, what are you doing with my donkey? The Lord has need for this.

[10:44] Okay. I mean, what all was entailed in this? I don't want to go too far in speculation, but I assume God sovereignly had to lay it upon the person's heart. Maybe there was some dream, some way of communicating to them, the Lord's going to use your donkey.

[11:00] Be prepared for it. Be ready. Maybe even the question of, why are you taking it? It's a concern for, this donkey's reserved for the Lord. But whatever happened, God sovereignly prepared it, and Jesus knows exactly what's going to happen.

[11:19] Everything that Jesus does here, that we see modeled for us in this passage, everything that Jesus does, and he suffered, was to do the will of the Father. We see here an example of Jesus' perfect obedience to what God has designed.

[11:34] And along with that, it's to fulfill the scriptures. I think sometimes we have this view that's probably a very natural, very linear view of history, and how we might understand prophecy, that over a thousand years beforehand, Zechariah is told what's going to happen in this instance.

[11:52] Jesus reads it, he studies it, he lives it out. And I think sometimes we misunderstand what's going on here. Jesus is going about fulfilling prophecy in subjection to the will of the Father, but we also understand God's outside of time.

[12:07] God tells the prophets what Jesus is going to do just as much as Jesus fulfills what's going to happen. This is what God has designed to happen, he's foretold it's going to happen, and then Jesus lives it out perfectly in subjection to the will of the Father as God has designed.

[12:22] And so, as we see this, I just want to remind us again, that as we see Jesus submitting to this, choosing to come into Jerusalem on a donkey with a colt in fulfillment of Scripture, we see an example of Jesus' active obedience to the Father.

[12:39] And remember, we've talked about this in prior sermons, but what we mean by Jesus' active obedience is he's actively obeying all that the Father has desired for him to do. Sometimes we talk about how we might obey the commandments.

[12:53] We know God has commanded us to do certain things. But oftentimes, we, as the creatures that we are, we tend to want to obey the law strictly as it's given to us.

[13:05] And oftentimes, we delight in the fact that, well, the law doesn't specifically, whether that be the law of the land or God's Word, what doesn't specifically address this issue? And so I have great freedom to decide matters. But what we see is that Jesus is always thinking of what does God desire?

[13:20] Not just what can I not do, which is what we tend to think, right? What am I not supposed to do? Jesus is also thinking positively, what am I to do to do the will of the Father? And then as Jesus fulfills that active obedience, that is the righteousness that is then imparted to our account if we trust in Jesus Christ.

[13:40] And so no one gets into heaven without being perfectly righteous. The problem is none of us can be perfectly righteous, right? And so what we see modeled for us here is even Jesus' acts of obedience that will be credited to our account.

[13:55] And so it's not just that Jesus is working His way. We know that, I haven't said this yet, but this is Palm Sunday. We're four or five days away from the crucifixion. Jesus isn't just securing our salvation at the cross, is He?

[14:12] Even now as He enters into Jerusalem, He's perfectly obeying the will of the Father and providing for us our righteousness. So the passage that Jesus is fulfilling is quoted here for us, but it's Zechariah 9, which is a larger prediction of the kingdom of the Messiah.

[14:32] The whole passage there is dealing with this idea of the King, who is the Messiah, coming into His kingdom. And here we have quoted for us. Beginning in verse 4, we say, This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

[14:56] This is Zechariah 9, 9, and Jesus is fulfilling it. In fact, I found it interesting in studying it that if you look at this, it looks like parallelism. We've talked about this in Hebrew poetry, where often the format of Hebrew poetry is to say something one way and then repeat it another way.

[15:13] And so we have here, that He's coming on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. And we might interpret that as, well, it's just saying one thing, that Jesus could fulfill this just by coming on a donkey, but He has a donkey, and He brings a colt with Him.

[15:28] There's a specificity, even to the obedience to the command. The prophecy is very specific, and Jesus fulfills it perfectly. And Jesus, in doing this, is acknowledging publicly His kingship.

[15:40] He's declaring Himself to be king. He knows Zechariah. And to fulfill this is to say, I am not just a king, but I am the king that was promised.

[15:52] The son of David who would sit on David's throne and would reign forever. I am that king. And so now this, as it enters into Jerusalem, is a public declaration that I am the king that God has promised.

[16:07] Now consider, you may remember, we talked about Jesus up until this point has had somewhat of a private ministry. Do you remember why? Jesus left the area of Jerusalem and had a time of private ministry.

[16:18] Do you remember why? The persecution was increasing. The religious authorities were opposed to Him. And it looked like Jesus is going to be put to death. And so Jesus has avoided this.

[16:29] He's gone in private. He's been preparing His disciples for this day. And now here He comes and He declares Himself to be king. And so we can foresee what's going to happen even as we see it unfolding for us here in the gospel.

[16:43] Psalm 2, verse 6, God says, As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. Here's Jesus entering into Zion, the holy hill of the Lord, for God to fulfill what He's spoken there in Psalm 2, that He's setting His king on His throne.

[17:02] We've talked already about He's coming in humility. Look at verse 5. He's coming on a donkey, on a colt, on a foal of a beast of burden. Again, we see that messianic mystery.

[17:14] The idea of Jesus' fulfillment of Scripture coming in, as it were, two phases. Jesus here is coming as king. But this time He's coming on a donkey. He's coming as a king, but He's coming humbly.

[17:28] He's coming as a king who knows He's going to be put to death and not sit on the earthly throne at this time. But we understand as well that He's still coming to His throne here.

[17:41] I would argue, even now, Jesus is reigning on His throne. But we await, as it were, the second stage of the fulfillment of this. When Jesus will return, we will make His kingship, His kingdom known to the world, will be manifest to all.

[17:59] And so, here He comes in humility to die, but He will return in glory to judge the world. I want to say He's coming here to be judged, and He's coming again to judge.

[18:11] Here He comes for mercy and for salvation for us. And so, we see again the contrast between the messianic expectation of the disciples and the reality that Jesus is displaying.

[18:23] He's not coming to judge Rome at this time, to conquer Rome, or even the religious authorities. He's coming to subject Himself to their power as king.

[18:35] He's subjecting Himself to the rule and power of other men that He might be put to death, that He might truly enter into His keenly authority and rule. But we understand as well as He comes as king now in that day, we understand as well He's coming again in a different way, isn't He?

[18:53] Hear the words of Revelation 19, 11 through 16. Then I saw heaven open and behold a white horse. The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.

[19:09] His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems, crowns. And He has a name written that no one knows but Himself.

[19:20] He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which He is called is the Word of God. And the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following Him on white horses.

[19:36] From His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. And He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God, the Almighty.

[19:50] On His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And so we have this contrast that's intentional on God's part.

[20:02] Jesus is coming here on a donkey. But we understand His role. What I just read in Revelation I think is pretty much exactly what we might expect for the King, God, in human flesh to come to His throne.

[20:16] He comes riding on a white horse. His clothing is dipped in the blood of the nations that He's conquered. A sword comes out of His mouth. He's wearing not a crown but multiple crowns.

[20:29] He's declared the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords. And with Him comes what? An angelic army riding on horses. And so we understand that Jesus is proclaiming Himself to be King.

[20:44] And it's a foretelling or foreshadowing of a greater time when He will enter this world again as King. Secondly though, He's proclaimed to be Savior. We're told that there's a crowd that's following Jesus.

[21:01] A crowd that's gathered there. In fact, really there's two crowds that we see spoken of in this passage. But the crowd that's following Jesus, they did what they could to give Him glory.

[21:12] To give Him honor. And so they take their coats and they lay them down in the road before Jesus that Jesus might ride over their coats. Now, we might miss the symbolism of this.

[21:24] Maybe we can make some allusion to the idea of like rolling out the red carpet for someone. We think of, we lay out something special for them that's a way of honoring it. But the idea of taking your coat and setting it before someone to trample upon is also an act of subjection.

[21:41] Jesus is declaring Himself to be King and they're saying we're your subjects. We're subjecting ourselves to you. We're deferring to you. We're acknowledging that you are our rightful King. And then they also cut down branches and laid before Him.

[21:57] And the branches point us to the Feast of Tabernacles. This was something that would often happen with the Feast of Tabernacles. It was part of the Feast itself that branches would be cut down primarily palm branches and laid before them.

[22:10] And the Feast of Tabernacles itself was a proclamation of liberty, of victory, of victory, and joy. So freedom, victory, and joy. And we can see all those being displayed as Jesus comes as King entering into His kingdom.

[22:26] There's freedom for the captive. There's victory over His enemies. There's also joy for those of us who witness it. And we see Him declared as the Son of David and a prophet.

[22:39] And again, don't miss that the idea of Son of David is specifically a fulfillment of the Davidic covenant. So they're not just saying He's a king. He just happens to be from the line of Judah.

[22:51] They're saying this is the Davidic king that was promised to us in God's Word who will reign on the throne forever. And so this is the Messiah. And the idea again of prophet I think is not just generally He is a prophet even they point to the fact that He's from Nazareth in fulfillment of Scripture.

[23:10] But I think they're proclaiming He is the prophet that Moses spoke of in Deuteronomy 18 that there would be a prophet who would come after Him who is far greater than Him. And so He's the prophet.

[23:23] And so they're declaring something specific about Him. They're proclaiming He's the Messiah, the king that was promised, the one who is to be worshipped.

[23:34] And we see that they cry out Hosanna. We see that in verse 9. And the crowds that went before Him and that followed Him were shouting Hosanna to the son of David.

[23:46] Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Well, Hosanna is a transliteration of the Greek which is a transliteration of the Hebrew.

[23:59] That just means it wasn't translated this is a Hebrew word that they were then using in Greek and then even using also in Aramaic. And then we now use in English. We don't translate it either. We just say Hosanna.

[24:10] We see that they're declaring Hosanna. We're not translating what it says. But Hosanna is a prayer to God that God would save. And over time the meaning of Hosanna began to change into more of a proclamation that God is saving or that God saves.

[24:26] So it was a prayer at one point that God would save and it's become more a proclamation that God saves. I think that's important as we see what happens here. But the word only occurs one time in the Old Testament.

[24:38] It's in Psalm 118. If you're familiar with Psalm 118 it's a part of a group of the Psalms that were always sung and recited during festivals including the festival of the Passover.

[24:51] I haven't really gotten to this yet but Jesus is coming in to Jerusalem on the day in which the Passover lambs would be brought into Jerusalem for inspection and for preparation for the Passover feast.

[25:04] And so he's entering in a specific time and all during this week these Psalms would be recited. Psalm 118 is the last of the Psalms. And so it's very likely that the people already had on their mind Psalm 118.

[25:18] They've been reciting it. They've been singing it. And now here comes Jesus and they proclaim it specifically about Him. What a coincidence, right? Here's Psalm 118 verses 19 through 25.

[25:32] Open to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.

[25:47] The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be gladden in it.

[26:00] Save us, we pray, O Lord. That's the word Hosanna. Save us, we pray, O Lord. O Lord, we pray, give us success. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.

[26:13] And so let's just consider the connection with what Jesus is doing here. What is it that they're proclaiming when Jesus enters in when they proclaim Hosanna? Well, I think very broadly we can say they're proclaiming the Lord saves.

[26:29] As I said, the transition from save us, O Lord, to the fact that the Lord saves. And as they see Jesus, they proclaim in verse 9, we see Hosanna to the son of David.

[26:40] Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. The Lord saves in the highest degree. And I think even the way we ought to understand this is they're declaring salvation has come.

[26:53] Salvation is now. Salvation has happened. The Lord is saving. Even as they see the Savior, and that would be my interpretation of why they proclaim Hosanna is to say they see Jesus as the Savior and they're proclaiming the Lord saves.

[27:09] How do we know the Lord saves? Well, we know it from His Word. But they proclaim it because they know it by sight. They see the Savior coming to save.

[27:21] And to some extent, what they proclaim in ignorance because in some way many of them, maybe even most of them, are expecting an earthly salvation. Maybe a salvation from the Roman authorities or maybe even the Jewish religious leaders.

[27:37] But He comes to save in the greatest way possible. To save us from our sins. To give us eternal life. And this is what they're proclaiming. And if there's any further doubt as we look at Psalm 118, it speaks of the gate of the Lord that we'll enter through for salvation.

[27:55] So Jesus is coming entering into the gates of Jerusalem. Is that the gate spoken of? I think not. I think it's saying that Jesus Himself is the door through which we enter into salvation. salvation. And then thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.

[28:11] So God has answered and become my salvation. And so I cry out, Hosanna, the Lord save me. The Lord has become our salvation. And then it says, the stone that the builders rejected has become this cornerstone.

[28:25] This is the Lord's doing and it's marvelous in our eyes. This is a passage that Jesus specifically quotes about Himself and says, that's me. And He's about to be rejected.

[28:37] And yet He will be the cornerstone. And then we move into Save Us, we pray, O Lord. Hosanna. O Lord, we pray, give us success. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Which is a direct quote of what they sing here.

[28:49] Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Why is He blessed? Because He's coming as our Savior. He's coming as the one who would save us. So in Psalm 118, it's a cry of hope that the Lord one day will save.

[29:04] The Lord one day will send the Savior. And now, God has answered the prayer for salvation by sending His Son to be our Savior. And this is a beautiful picture of them crying out, Hosanna, the Lord saves.

[29:22] And yet, there's also this contrast because there's this second crowd, isn't there? And so we read in verse 9, the crowds that went before Him were proclaiming what we just read.

[29:33] And then verse 10, and when He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up saying, who is this? And the crowd said, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth to Galilee. So we have the crowds that are going with them, but we also have the whole city stirred up.

[29:46] This larger crowd wondering who He is. And so, some people are declaring, this is the Son of David, the King, the Messiah, our Savior.

[29:58] and then there's probably the vast majority of the city who are asking, who is this? He's not known by the crowds in Jerusalem. Matthew Henry remarks, the holy one unknown in the holy city.

[30:13] Here He is and He's come into the city where His throne will sit and they don't even know Him. And then, I think we can't miss, probably all of you have thought of this already, but we realize that the same crowd, many in the crowd, maybe most of the crowd, in just a few days' time are going to cry out, crucify Him.

[30:36] And so we see even, not only are there some that don't know Him in the crowd, but there are some who, when He doesn't meet their expectations of what the Savior ought to be, what the King ought to be, that they join with the crowds in declaring that He ought to be crucified.

[30:50] And that really leads to the third point of what we see of who Jesus is. He's the Paschal, which just means the Passover Lamb. He's our Passover Lamb.

[31:01] So, Jesus enters on the day appointed, I mentioned this earlier, by Exodus 12, for the Paschal Lambs to be taken up, to be brought into Jerusalem, and to be set apart, separated from the rest of the lambs, to be marked apart as one without blemish, one that's fit for sacrifice for the Passover.

[31:21] I won't belabor the point where I have more opportunity to talk about the Passover as we continue in the Gospel of Matthew. And we'll probably go in greater detail later, but we're familiar with the idea of the Passover in the land of Exodus, the blood smeared over the door frame and the angel of the Lord who passes over.

[31:37] But Jesus enters in, and as Jesus is entering in, it's the same time in which probably, if you've ever looked at the sacrifices, the number of families that there would have been in Jerusalem each bringing a lamb in, inevitably there had to be other lambs being brought in at the same time Jesus is brought in.

[31:51] And what I think we're not to miss is that Jesus is being brought in as it were the Passover lamb. He is that Passover lamb. And Jesus is being brought in with all the other lambs for the Passover sacrifice.

[32:08] And we realize like all the sacrifices of the Old Testament, the Passover was insufficient. Here's what Hebrews 10, 1-4 tells us. For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year make perfect those who draw near.

[32:31] Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers having once been cleansed would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there's a reminder of sins every year.

[32:44] For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. So here's the reality of the Passover feast, the Passover lambs, and all the sacrifices of the Old Testament.

[32:58] They didn't actually remove sin. In fact, in this passage what it tells us is that it actually just reminded people that they're sinners. It was an annual or regular reminder that we sin.

[33:10] And we need that reminder. God's word also tells us that God passed over or looked over the sins previously committed until the point in time of the sacrifice.

[33:22] And so these sacrifices God uses to for a time overlook sin until and understand this to overlook sin.

[33:34] The blood of bulls and goats doesn't remove sin. That's what Hebrews tells us. The blood of the Passover lamb doesn't remove sin. They were all types and shadows to point us to a greater reality. If it did remove sin we wouldn't keep doing it.

[33:47] We wouldn't need to. If there was one sacrifice that we could do that for all time would take away sin it would never be repeated. And that's what this is. It's what Jesus is.

[33:58] It's why we don't still sacrifice lambs and bulls and goats. Because Jesus is coming into Jerusalem as that Passover lamb. In fact, 1 Corinthians 5, 7 tells us Christ, our Passover also has been sacrificed.

[34:14] So looking back Paul says Christ is our Passover. He is that lamb. And so it's no coincidence that Jesus is suffering and dying during the Passover week.

[34:27] So why is Jesus now coming to declare himself? Because now is the appointed time of the Lord. It's so remarkable when we understand that what happened all those years ago in Egypt was not primarily about the deliverance of Egypt but about the salvation of God's people to come through Christ.

[34:46] And so God sovereignly predestines or plans works out in his plan all these pleads upon the Egyptian people all to bring about ultimately the Passover.

[35:01] to appoint us not just to a temporary deliverance an annual festival that we're to celebrate but to Christ who is our Passover lamb.

[35:12] And now here as they're celebrating Passover the lambs are coming in here comes the lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world. We were reminded that the elders we had our retreat we appreciate and thank you for your prayers for this weekend.

[35:29] I think the Lord blessed the retreat and we were reminded as we were studying just the story of Abraham and Isaac that Abraham taking Isaac up to the mountain to sacrifice him. You may remember Isaac's response I think it's such a normal I mean it's kind of a response we might anticipate right?

[35:49] And Isaac said to his father Abraham my father and he said here I am my son he said behold the fire and the wood but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? I just picture Isaac putting two and two together here.

[36:04] Wait a minute where's the lamb? And Abraham said God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering my son. So they went both of them together we know the story.

[36:16] They go up to Mount Moriah and there is a lamb that's provided for him but Abraham admits he's about to kill his son. Abraham believed that God could raise his son from the dead. God as it were says no now's not the time but what Abraham said was true the Lord will provide the lamb and so Mount Moriah would later come to be known as Mount Zion in the very place that Abraham was to kill his son the Lord provided the lamb and so what we see is the fulfillment of what was spoken by Abraham back then what God did through the Passover festival and feast is the fulfillment of promise God is providing for us the sacrifice I can say if we think about our three points that Jesus is coming as the king he's coming as our savior he's coming as the sacrifice there is no hope for him to be our king much more so our savior apart from the sacrifice that all three are necessary for the role of what Christ has come to accomplish and do for us just want to point you in closing to the fact that though he is our king and he deserves the utmost praise and glory he enters in humility why why the contrast why do this he came to that moment not for men's praise but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many so if you've been tracking with us in Matthew if you've been here for a few weeks we've seen all that's taking place with the disciples think back in 18.1 they're arguing over which one of us is going to be the greatest who's going to sit at your right hand and left hand when you sit on your throne and Jesus repeatedly has taught them no the greatest will be the servant of all the first will be last and the last will be first and he said to them what I just quoted to you already that the son of man comes not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many and what we see is Jesus actually doing what he said fulfilling that he's coming to serve others to give his life as a ransom for many but I think also we have to understand that Jesus came to that moment with full understanding of what's going to happen now we read that already in chapter 20 verses 17 through 19 but Jesus is coming to willingly lay down his life for our salvation and so in the days ahead as we continue to look at the remaining chapters in Matthew let us not forget as we study through the Passion Week as we look at the cross and the resurrection

[38:55] Jesus is willingly laying down his life no one takes it from me but I lay it down willingly of my own accord and so we cry with the crowd Hosanna Hosanna to the son of David blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest and we understand to say that means the Lord saves the Lord has provided for us our Savior God saves but we also understand that that salvation comes only through the substitutionary death of our Savior Jesus Christ and so I hope that as we consider this that it moves us to worship our great Savior who's come specifically to lay his life down for us and then finally in closing just would ask you to consider the crowds that were there and where would we fit in with those crowds there were those who didn't know him we're going to see in a little bit there's actually the religious leaders who are going to question even further who are obviously rejecting and opposed to him there's a broader crowd who sees him as a Savior but almost want to equate this with the prosperity gospel today they see him as a Savior because they're going to make things better maybe relieve the tax burden give them greater freedom they're looking for a political Savior appropriate reminder for us again even in this time of the election that our salvation is ultimately dependent on who gets elected but are we looking to Christ to make life a little better a little easier and considering that that crowd is the same crowd that will later turn and say crucify him when they don't get what they want and I think there's the few that Jesus has worked in their hearts sovereignly the disciples even though later they're going to turn and run and fear but do we understand that Jesus has come to be our Savior to lay down his life do we truly believe the Lord saves are we in some way or any way depending upon our own selves to save ourselves that we're going to be good enough that we're righteous enough that we can somehow save ourselves today it's not the blood of bulls and goats but are there other things that we think that are going to make us right with God

[41:02] I think with Hebrews and the sacrifices it's true for everything else in life there's nothing that can take away sin but the precious blood of Jesus Christ and here comes our Savior the Lord saves he's coming to lay down his life for our sins let us pray and rejoice in that Savior dear Heavenly Father we thank you for Christ that he would come even willingly to lay down his life for our sins that we can truly proclaim Hosanna you save by sending your son to be our Savior by his laying down his life shedding his blood for our sins Lord we thank you that he didn't come as an earthly king on horse battling to claim his throne but then he came as our Passover lamb to lay down his life that we might have salvation and yet Lord we joyfully look forward to the day when Christ will return as that triumphant king to make known what is already known to his followers that he is the king of the world that he rules

[42:16] Lord we pray that we would be prepared for that great day if there's any of this women who don't know you Lord we pray that you would work in their hearts to draw them to you that they would see here presented the gospel message that the only hope of salvation is the substitutionary death of our savior Jesus Christ may all of us in this room put our hope in him and we pray this in his name amen as we ponder the scene of our Lord Jesus entering Jerusalem and then knowing all that he would do afterwards let's stand and exalt his name as we sing 296 all hail the power of Jesus name let angels prosper fall bring forth the royal guy of them and crown him

[43:33] Lord of all bring forth the royal guy of them and crown him Lord of all and in the martyrs of your crown who from his altar call and stole us men of Jesse's rock and crown him Lord of all and crown him Lord of all and crown him Lord of all and crown him Lord of all he see of Israel so to praise he ransomed of the fall and crown him and crown him Lord of all and crown him

[44:35] Lord of all and crown him Lord of all hail him who saved you by his grace and crown him Lord of all Lord of all and crown him Lord of all and crown him Lord of all Lord of all and crown him and crown him Lord of all and crown him Lord of all and crown him Lord of all and crown him and crown him and crown him

[46:03] Join the everlasting song and crown him Lord of all.

[46:14] We'll join the everlasting song and crown him Lord of all.

[46:28] Now to the king of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, the honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.