Heavenly Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable and pleasing to your sight. The grass withers and the flowers fail, but your word, the word of the Lord, stands forever and thank you, Lord, that in your death we see undying love. Prepare our hearts now for your word and Jesus' name, amen. Well, this week is the most important week of the entire year as we celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the king of kings and the Lord of lords that we just think about. Our hope is stirring our hearts or yearning for him and we rejoice in the fact that he has undying love for his children. And so as we prepare for this holy week, we begin by looking at the entry into Jerusalem. And before we look at the Texas morning, I'd like to give us a little background about what has just happened before Jesus entered into Jerusalem. Three days before he came into Jerusalem, he was in Jericho, and that's where he healed two blind men. And then it says that a crowd followed him to the next spot. He then goes on to Bethany, which is a small town about two miles away from Jerusalem, and he stays with his friend Lazarus, and he sees Mary and Martha, and they observe the Sabbath together which was held on Saturday during this time in history. And then on Sunday morning it says that Jesus woke up early and he instructs two of his disciples to go and find a small cult and bring them to him so that he could ride on this cult into Jerusalem, declaring himself the Messiah, the King of Kings, and the Lord of lords. So that's where we are now. If you turn your Bibles to Matthew 21, we'll be reading the first 11 verses. And as you turn to your Bibles or to this text, I'm going to be focusing on three things. First, that Jesus fulfills prophecy. That he acts purposefully and third that he bears our penalty. So let's look now at Matthew 21. As they approached Jerusalem and came to Beth's page on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, go to the village of head of you, and at once you will find a donkey tie there with her cult by her, untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away. These took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet. Say to the daughter of Zion, see your King comes to you gentle and riding on a donkey, on a cult the full of a donkey. The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the cult, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shallad, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed as he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred, and they asked, who is this? The crowds answered, this is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth and Galilee. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. On December 4th, 1976, the world witnessed the coronation of his imperial majesty, King Bokasa I. King Bokasa was entering into his royal city, Banguai, which is the Central African Empire, and he declared himself King. But this was like no ordinary, triumphant entry. King Bokasa wanted to make a statement, and so this event cost $25 million. And 35 years ago, that was a significant amount of money. Well Bokasa, at 10 a.m., when the drum started rolling and the trumpet sounded, in walks in, 8 of his 29 children, and they were walking down royal carpet to their seats. They were followed by the heir to the throne, Jean Bokasa II, who was decked out in a white military uniform with gold braid. And then he made his way to the seat right next to the throne. After Jean Bokasa II made his way to set down, then followed Bokasa's favorite wife, Katherine. You see King Bokasa had eight wives, and Katherine just happened to be his favorite one. So she got to enter into the city by herself, wearing a $73,000 gown, strewn with pearls. As she sat down, the marine band started playing his march of his majesty and enters Bokasa in an imperial coach led by six white horses. He has a 32-pound robe on him strewn with 785,000 pearls. He has on his white gloves and his royal slippers. He gets out of the coach, walks up on stage to the throne. He receives the crown, that King Napoleon wore, 773 years earlier. He puts this crown on his own head, declaring himself king, and by the way, this crown had an 80-karat diamond on it, and then he sits down on this $2.5 million throne, surrounded by golden eagles. Now isn't that the way a king should enter into a city? Well, Jesus didn't seem to think so. We know in this passage that Jesus did the complete opposite. He didn't wear a 32-pound robe strewn with pearls. He wore ordinary garments, and he entered into a city on a small cult, a small donkey. And that shows his humility and how he is gentle and approachable. Now why does Jesus do this? Why doesn't he enter in with royalty? So we know that Jesus fulfills prophecy. If you look at Zechariah 9-9, Zechariah says, rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout daughter of Jerusalem. See your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a cult, the foal of a donkey. The prophet Zechariah, over 450 years earlier, prophesies to the people of God who were discouraged, he says, guess what? Have hope because your king is coming to you. The prophet Zechariah makes it very personal to God's people by saying, your king is coming to you, and he's going to be unlike any other ordinary king. He's going to be someone who will promote peace, and he will be riding on a donkey. Now in Scripture we know that it wasn't uncommon for kings to enter into a city riding on a donkey. In 1 Kings 1 verse 32 and 34, King Solomon enters into Jerusalem riding on a mule. It says, King David said, call in Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Ben and I as son of Jehoiadi. When they came before the king, he said to them, take your Lord's servants with you and have Solomon my son, mount my own mule, and take him down to Gihon. There have Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, anoint him king over Israel, blow the trumpet and shout, long live King Solomon. So he enters into Gihon on a donkey. Why did Solomon do that? He did it because he was ruling and reigning during a time of peace. He was promoting peace. So it wasn't uncommon for a king to ride in on a donkey, but the people in Jesus' time, they were expecting a warrior like king. They wanted someone to come in riding on a horse with a sword drawn preparing his people to go into battle or even celebrating a victory from battle. They wanted war, but Jesus wanted the opposite. He wanted to promote peace, and that's what he was doing and making the statement on riding a donkey. Now it says here in this text that there were two donkeys, a mother and a cult. We know from other gospel accounts that Jesus rode the cult, and so it was a borrowed cult fit for a child or a hobbit, a small little person, and Jesus rode this cult, and he did that because he wanted to make sure that this cult had never been ridden before. He wanted to make sure by saying, okay, here's the donkey and her mom, and so that shows that this is a brand new cult that had never been ridden before, and that's what I'm going to ride on. That's why Matthew mentions the mom, the donkey and the cult. But Jesus when he's entering into the city on this cult is making the statement, I am not coming to slay you, I'm coming to save you. And he says, I'm coming to do that this time, and this is for the kingdom of God, and for you to enter into the kingdom of God. So Jesus is fulfilling prophecy that was given over 450 years earlier by Zechariah by doing this. We also know in this text that Jesus acts purposefully. Look with me in verses 8 and 9. It says, a very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. Right here tells me in some ways that Jesus is acting purposefully. He's intentional here and why is he acting purposefully? You see, Jesus wants this event to be widely known. He wants people to talk about it because he wants the Pharisees and the chief priests to plot against him. You see the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the chief priests, they hated Jesus. They despised him. They thought he was heretical. They thought that he was a threat to them and they wanted him dead. They wanted him to just be silent and get out of their life. But they never came up with a coherent plan to annihilate him. Well Jesus entering Jerusalem in this way and at this time in history and this time during the year, he's making a statement to the Pharisees that I want you to make a plot to kill me. I want to stir you up and to rile you up because I know my time has come. I know my time has come to die. And many of you know the text in Exodus chapter 12, but that if you go back to that text, you see where Passover happens. We know the story how God delivered his people, the Israelites, from the hand of a tyrant ruler, Pharaoh, and what he did was he offered all these plagues. And at the very end, the very last plague, God kills the firstborn son and the first born animal. But he tells his people he says, if you slaughter a lamb and if you put the lamb's blood on the doorpost of your house, I will pass over your house and I won't kill your first born son or first born animal because of that blood that was shed on your behalf. You see, the reality is that every single one of us in this room, every single one of us in history, our sinners. We are sinners. We make mistakes. We fail constantly. And because of our sin, God must punish our sin. But the beautiful picture of this story and of the Bible and of Christianity and of the gospel is that we have a Savior who bore our sins on the cross. And his blood was shed on the cross for our sins. He represents the Passover lamb that was shed during Passover season. And so Jesus is trying to rile up these Pharisees because he knows it's Passover week and he is to die. That's what he's doing and he's acting purposefully. Another reason we see he's acting purposefully is because he is entering into the city during Passover week and he knows there's going to be a lot of people there. Jerusalem itself averaged about 30,000 people who lived there. Well during the week of Passover they would have a number between 120 and 150,000 people who would be there that week to celebrate Passover. So Jesus had a crowd that was already with him from Jericho who followed him and then they met with another group of pilgrims who just made their way to Passover to celebrate and when these two groups merged there was a lot of excitement. There was a lot of enthusiasm and Jesus had momentum in many ways. And what people were doing was they were talking about Jesus. They were saying this is the man who healed Lazarus. He raised him from the dead. This is the man three days ago who healed two blind men. This is the man who spoke with authority. He's unlike any other man who is this man they asked and people would answer he's the prophet from Nazareth and Galilee. He's the man who did all these things. So people were talking about Jesus. They were also shouting the words, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. Well the Hebrew word for Hosanna means to save now, to save or to pray. And so people were saying this is our king who's coming and he's taking us away from Roman oppression. He's coming to save us and to rescue us from the Romans. You see during this time in history the people were oppressed by the Roman authorities. The Roman authorities would tax them more than they were supposed to. Many of you know the story of Zacchaeus, the tax collector in Luke 19. Well he was a Jew, but he worked for the Roman government. And Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector which meant he was the most hated of men. And he would tax his people, the Jewish people. He would also tax them more than he was supposed to and then extra money he would pocket for himself. And so the Jewish people were tired of the suppression. They were mistreated. Most of the jobs that Jews worked during this time were either artisans, businessmen or farmers. And the Roman authorities, as they looked for employees, they would look for Jewish people who would work for the least amount of money. And so as you can imagine these people are discouraged, they're frustrated, they're barely making ends meet. And here they are. They're hoping that this Jesus is a king who is going to save them from the Roman authorities. And so that's why they said, Hosanna, because they are saying save me. That's another reason why they were waving palm branches because the palm branch symbolizes peace, but it's peace after a victory or before you go into battle. And so they're waving it declaring this man king, Jesus king, thinking that he is going to be a general warrior who will defeat his enemies or their enemies. But Jesus had something else in mind, didn't he? He did. The other thing we see though is that the people were singing. When they said, Hosanna in the highest, they were quoting Psalms 118. Psalms 118 verse 25 and 26 say, it said, save us, we pray, O Lord, O Lord, we pray, give us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, we bless you from the house of the Lord. Psalms 113 through 118 are a compilation of what we call Haleil Psalms. And they were songs that people would sing during the week of Passover. And Psalms 118 was really the grand finale of them all. And so people were waiting till this moment and they were declaring him the warrior king who's coming in to save and protect them from the Romans. The Pharisees in Luke's account, Luke 19, the Luke's account of the story, they were so angry at this because people were talking, they were screaming, they were shouting, they were singing. The Pharisees were saying, what is going on? These people have to be silenced. This is stirring up too much. And so in Luke 19, they tell Jesus, review your disciples and how does Jesus respond? He tells them, I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. What Jesus is implying here is that he's not going to keep them quiet because this is supposed to happen. This is supposed to enrage them so they will plot to kill him during this Passover week. So Jesus is acting purposefully, but we also see here that Jesus bears our penalty. In Luke's account, we read that while the people were screaming, Jesus was weeping. Now, why do you think Jesus was weeping? Well, a couple reasons. One, he knows that the city of Jerusalem will be overthrown in AD 70, which is less than 40 years from then. And Jesus knows that's coming soon. He also knows that the people don't quite understand who he is. They think he's a king, a warrior, but Jesus is saying, I'm here to promote peace, not war. I'm here to offer you the peace that transcends all understanding. I'm here to offer you life and joy. Jesus was crying because the people were asking for too little. The people were wanting their temporary needs fulfilled and Jesus is saying, I'm offering you so much more. You want me to save you from the Roman authorities? I can save you from the powers of the evil one. I can save you from Satan himself, but yet you don't seem to understand that. All you want is your temporary needs to be met. And let me just be honest, as I was reflecting on this passage, I thought, I'm just like the Jewish people, because I'm always asking Jesus, what can you get me? If I only just had this, I'd be happy. If I had $10,000 more, I'd be happy. My dreams would come true. If I had this or that, I would be great. I would be in good shape. But what happens? Let's say I receive these things in six months, or a year goes down the road. Now I realize, okay, that may be happy for a time, but it's not my ultimate fulfillment. We know the story of the paralytic, when four men helped this paralytic, and they raised them down from the roof, while Jesus is preaching, and Jesus is first thing, he says, is your sins are forgiven, and people are wondering, why did Jesus say that? Jesus is supposed to be healing this man, and he says, your sins are forgiven. That doesn't make any sense. Jesus did that on purpose, because he's telling the man that his sins are more important than his suffering, and he needs to be cleansed from his sins, and he needs to have salvation and not just his temporary needs met. So Jesus is telling, he's thinking of these people of Jerusalem saying, you want to be safe from Roman oppression, okay, great, you may be happy for a time, but there's still you're going to be longing for something so much more, and only I can give you that. But the people don't understand. And they go from saying, Hosanna, praise him, save us now on Sunday, to on Friday, literally saying, Thursday and Friday, literally saying, crucify him. They change within a week. And why did they do that? Well, they were disappointed in Jesus, and so it led to their anger. Arcee Sproul says, one of the strongest sprees springs that feed the rivers of anger is the spring of disappointment. These people were bitterly disappointed because their expectations of Jesus were not fulfilled. He was supposed to deliver them from bondage, but instead he gave himself up with that of battle, putting away the swords like a lamb led to the slaughter, and gives himself up to a handful of Roman soldiers. This is not a popular image of the Messiah, this led to their furious anger. In other words, Sproul is saying that the people were disappointed because he didn't come in riding a horse with the sword drawn and riling the people up to go into battle against the Romans, and said he didn't do much. The next day on Monday, we know that Jesus overturned the tables in the temple, and he called it a den of robbers. Well, this fired up not only the Pharisees, but some of his own people, and they said, well, this isn't the Jesus we thought he was going to be. We thought he was going to be something completely different. Why is he doing this? And so their disappointment led to their anger, and they wanted him dead. Well, for those of you who know me, you know I'm a huge Tennessee football fan, and I understand I'm a good company. Well, the past seven years were awful because I was in Gatorland. I lived in Florida or Lando, and even though it was two hours from Gainesville, there were still plenty of Gator fans I didn't want to know. But anyway, when I was there, those seven years, that's when Florida just beat up on us, right? It was terrible. I'm tired of it. Every year, when they won, I would always have a Florida fan either wearing a Gator uniform saying in your face, or welcome to Gator Country, buddy, and it just drove me nuts. Well, I'm glad to be back in big orange country. This is where I was born and raised, and I'm happy to be here because my blood runs orange it's unbelievable. Well, in 1992, we saw a star emerge before our eyes. Johnny Majors was ill, and who stepped in, let's fill up former. He goes 4-0 beats Alabama and Florida, some big schools. The next year, he has a winning record, a great record. The next six years, he goes 54-11, and then in 2008, he goes 13-0 and wins a national championship making himself one of the best coaches in Tennessee football history. In 2001, three years later, I was at the game in Gainesville, and December, we had to play him in December, and whoever would win that game would go to the SEC championship. I was there. I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. It was amazing. When the game, I think it was 34-31, Doug Vicki at the end announced that Philip Fulmer would get a raise, and it was a million dollar raise for that victory. Philip Fulmer was on top, everybody was on fire, we loved Fulmer. I even had almost a t-shirt of him. I printed out a face of him, and I would hold it up at games and just say, Fulmer is our man, and I would just go crazy under Fulmer. What happened in 2005? He goes 5-7, or 5-6, and in 2008, he goes 5-7. And all of a sudden, I went from singing Fulmer praises to saying, fire him, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one in this room that felt that way. Now why did I do that? Because Fulmer built up these expectations, and if we lost 1, 2, or 3 games, the season's over. And so when you lose 6 and 7 games, that disappointment leads to anger. And that's exactly how these people were. They had these expectations, they were disappointed, they wanted them dead. But the beautiful reality of the gospel is that despite our anger, despite our sin, Jesus says, I still love you. I got that. I have undying love for you. And although they crucified him on the cross, Jesus knew I had to do this, because someone had to pay the penalty for sins, and that's someone as me. And I'm here to take on the wrath of my father in heaven, which is unbelievable. I'm here to take that on for you. That's why we're here, right? We're here because we have been changed from the inside out as Christians. We believe there's something bigger than ourselves. We believe in the big picture that one day this king will come again. Until he comes back though, Jesus is offering us peace. He's calling us to trust in him and in him alone for salvation. But when he does come back, Revelation 19 says he will be on a horse. And I love Revelation 19 because it's very descriptive. He says the armies of heaven will follow him and they will defeat the powers of darkness. I can't wait for that moment, but until it happens, Jesus is offering us the peace that passes all understanding. So my question to you is, will you trust in this king, Jesus today? Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you that you fulfill prophecy. We thank you that you act perfectly and we thank you that you bore our penalty. We don't deserve anything. In fact, we deserve hell because we are just like the Jews who are fickle. But despite our fickleness and despite our weakness, you still love us. And I thank you for that. And we are approaching this table now with humble hearts. And we know that you have paid it all, that your body, the bread, the blood, the wine has been broken and poured out all for love. And when that happened, the whole earth trembled and the veil was torn and we can call you Jesus Messiah. And so I pray, Lord, that you will prepare our hearts now as we dine at your table in Jesus name. Amen.