Amen. Well, if you return in your Bible to the gospel of Matthew, chapter 21 will be our text, verses 1 through 11, Matthew, chapter 21, verses 1 through 11. This is the beginning in Matthew's gospel of the final week of the ministry of Jesus. All of the gospels spend the majority of their content on the final week of Jesus and Matthew begins here in chapter 21 through chapter 28, eight chapters on Christ's final week out of his three and a half years of ministry on the earth. Last time we saw Jesus healing two blind beggars, as he began his descent to Jerusalem, that 18 mile road, 3,000 feet uphill. Like we used to say when we were kids, we went uphill to school both ways. Jesus had to go 3,000 miles uphill. That's the road from Jericho to Jerusalem. And the account ended last week with Jesus for the first time allowing himself to publicly be called and proclaimed son of David, that is Messiah, unmistakably. He accepted the attribution that he was, the Messiah. And now that small allowance from two blind beggars becomes a deafening roar as a great multitude begin to proclaim him as Messiah, as son of David as king, even as he begins to enter the city of kings. Jerusalem, the capital of God's people, God's nation as he ordained and chose Abraham and his seed, the nation of Israel. Jesus comes to his own in this text. He comes into Jerusalem as king. It's a famous text. We call it Palm Sunday on the church calendar, right? What does it mean? What does it mean for them? And what does it mean for us today? Well, that's what we're going to see in our text. Let's pray as we turn to God's word. Father, again, we pause for prayers. We turn to your holy word. We are not worthy to hear. It's acceptance, judgment and condemnation. But you've given to us in good news, in a gospel, for our salvation, the salvation of sinners, rebels. Father, God, cause us to truly be humble, to truly treasure your word. And may you visit it in us in power, that you would be our king, and that it would be seen. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Here now, the word of the Lord from Matthew chapter 21, beginning in verse 1, this is God's holy and perfect word. Now, when they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethfage the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, go into the village office that you and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a cult with her, lose them and bring them to me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say the Lord has need of them. And immediately he will send them. All this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet saying, tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you lowly and sitting on a donkey, even a cult, the fall of a donkey. So the disciples went and did, is Jesus commanded them. They brought the donkey and the cult, laid their clothes on them and set him on them. And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out saying, Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. And when he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved. Saying, who is this? So the multitudes said, this is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth, of Galilee. May the Lord bless and establish this word in our hearts this morning. First of all, this morning I want you to notice the awareness of Jesus. I want you to notice the awareness of Jesus. Well, we know from the other gospels that Jesus left Jericho Friday morning and he got to Bethany Friday evening just before the Sabbath and he spent the Sabbath in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper with Lazarus and Mary and Martha and Matthew doesn't tell us any of those things. And the night before that Sabbath evening, Jesus was anointed. Remember the anointing at Bethany with the woman with her hair breaking that that costly jar of slight knot and spreading it all over Jesus, anointing him for his burial. And again, Matthew doesn't tell us any of those things. He skips to Sunday morning when their Jesus is now about to enter in Jerusalem the first day of the week. And it says they came to Beth foggy and Beth foggy was on the east side of Jerusalem right next to Bethany. So now they're going into the city and as they're going into the city, Jesus tells two of his disciples to the 12th to go to the village office that you go back to Bethany and follow his instructions with regarding this donkey and this cult. Kind of a strange path is right verse two. Go into the village office that you and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a cult with her, lose them and bring them to me. What's going on here? John Calvin said Jesus had two things to do at the same time. He had to exhibit some proof of his kingdom that's Calvin, proof of his kingdom and he had to show that it does not resemble earthly kingdoms and does not consist of the fading riches of this world and quote John Calvin. He had to give a proof of his kingdom and he had to show it's not a kingdom of this world. It doesn't resemble the kingdoms of this world with earthly riches and earthly pomp and circumstance and all of that. So that's why he's doing these things. On another level, a larger level, Jesus knows who he is. He knows he's the King of Israel. He knows that he's the promised messianic son of David. He knows he's the eternal son of God, the Lord. Why is that important? Because if you read any of the scholarly literature, Jesus doesn't know any of these things. None of these things were ever true and no one thought of these things until hundreds of years later when the church made it up, decided that he was these things so that they could read it back into the gospels and all the revisions and edits and put it back in in little hints and clues so that they could celebrate Jesus as a God and get people to believe in him and worship him so that they could have this power and authority over people. And that's the scholarly opinion and all of it's complete nonsense and refuted from our texts and there's not a shred of actual evidence for any of it, but that's what they believe and so they read it into the scriptures. But in our text, Jesus knows who he is. You see it unmistakably in verse three. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say the Lord has an event. Jesus is talking to his disciples. Clearly, they knew and customarily called him Lord. Otherwise, he wouldn't have spoken of himself in the third person saying to them, tell them the Lord, you know, need has need of it. And also Jesus claimed therefore that title for himself, that he was the Lord. And again, the scholars say that that never happened. He never called himself Lord. Right in our text, tell them the Lord has need of it. I have a need of this animal and I am the Lord and I know that I am the Lord. Jesus knows God's plans for himself. He knows that he's going to offer himself by the hands of wicked men to God as a sin offering. He's been prophesying this repeatedly to his disciples since chapter 16 when Peter rebuked him for it and ever since every time he mentions it, they're confused. They're anxious. They're fearful. They're sad. They don't know what to make of it. But he keeps talking about it. Then he's going to die. Then he's going to be betrayed. Then he's going to be crucified the last time he even said crucified. He knows all these things are going to happen. In fact, it's not just his knowledge. It's his plan. He's making it happen. He's bringing it to passable of it. The plan will be brought about by Israel in her leaders rejecting her king and the Gentiles in their leaders crucifying him. And so Jesus is intentionally arranging this event knowing that it will greatly alarm the leaders in Jerusalem who are against him knowing that it will happen. He's going to cause them to change their timeline. They're going to say we've got to kill him but not during the feast. Less there be a tool to multiple the people. Well, Jesus is going to push and they're going to have to change their timeline and do it during the feast, which means you'll have to do it at night and you'll have to do it quickly. And all those things happen as we know, but it's Sunday now. It's it's the triumphal entry. Jesus rides a donkey into the city. Matthew tells us why all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet saying, verse five, tell the daughter of Zion behold your king is coming. Your king is coming to you slowly sitting on a donkey even occult the fall of a donkey. It's a claim to kingship because this passage which we read in our scripture reading in Zacharias chapter 9 was clearly understood by the rabbis and the scribes to be a messianic passage. The Messiah will do this they said they understood it that way. They knew the Messiah would do these things. And so Jesus takes this well now messianic passage and he fulfilled. He does what the text says. He comes as king. He he's claiming the kingship by doing this. Something that he didn't allow his disciples to make known before. Now publicly he proclaims it as it were and the people are proclaiming it as we'll see in a moment. They're proclaiming it clearly. They're calling him Messiah and he's doing all these things. And we could ask, well why would God have his son? Why would he have the king, the promised king, the great king, the greater son of David, ride a donkey into the city? There's a lot of reasons. There's a lot of written on this donkey. You could have priests, people have priests, sermons on the donkey. I'm not going to do that this morning but I'm going to talk about him a little bit. Donkeys were used for travel. People rode them. They were written by the judges. If you read the book of judges in several places where the judges would go on donkeys throughout Jerusalem or on white donkeys. And sometimes they put all their sons on donkeys. It was kind of a symbol for a royalty in that sense. But a humble, a peaceful symbol. The donkey was in an animal of war. The horse was an animal of war. The donkey was an animal of peace, an animal to travel. In peacetime, an animal to carry burdens. You would put your packs and so forth on a donkey. Donkeys, by the way, are actually very smart. They're actually very good at noticing and discovering predators, even better than dogs. Sometimes they would have guard donkeys to let them know when a lion or a bear or something was near because the donkey would let them know quickly. For Jesus rides on this donkey because he's the king. Remember when David wanted to show that Solomon his son was king when Adonajah was claiming himself to be king and he had several people, several important people like Joab with him. David said to Nathan it's about Shiva take my mule and set Solomon on my mule and do some other things. But it was by putting him on his donkey that no one else rode that David was showing Solomon as my choice for king. And that's how he put down the attempted rivalry of Adonajah by having Solomon ride his donkey. It's interesting that the donkey was the way in which Israelite leaders, judges and kings would show their royalty because it is a lowly thing it is a humble thing it's not the pride and power of a horse. Pilot came in to Jerusalem on horse with guards, soldiers, armed. Jesus comes alone on a lowly beast of burden to show that he is lowly and humble and hard and he is going to carry our burdens. And paganism everyone is the servant of the king. Look in the eastern realm, the eastern cultures, everyone was Pharaoh's slave or everyone was the flavor servant of the king of Babylon or Syria. The eastern tradition, the non-Christian tradition, the pagan tradition is that the people are fought for the king. The western tradition founded on scripture is that the leaders are servant. That's where we get the idea of civil servant. Leaders are to serve the better, greater good of everyone. Why? Because there are no higher, there are no better. Yes, they have a higher office but they come lowly as one among equals. And that's why God's people, the judges and the kings would write Adonajah and here's the son of God writing a lowly donkey. Calvin said, quote, he intended to show by a solemn performance, what was the nature of his kingdom? But it was a lowly kingdom, a general kingdom. Jesus should come and he should destroy our sinners. But he comes lowly in gentle and hard. He doesn't come with destruction and lightning and thunder as God came on Mount Sinai, right? He comes lowly in gentle and invites all sinners to come. Just acknowledge him as king. You'll be your king this way, not by destroying you, but by saving you, by serving you, by burying your burden. Hendrickson agrees, listen to this longer quote from Hendrickson, such a good quote, quote, he also shows the crowds what kind of Messiah he is, namely not the earthly Messiah of Israel's dreams, the one who wages war against an earthly oppressor, but the one who came to promote and establish reconciliation between God and man. The thing that everybody doesn't even think they need, right? In our world today and much of the church, oh God loves everybody, he's gonna accept everybody. He doesn't need someone to die for us because we're so heinous that somebody actually has to take his wrath or we could never be accepted. He comes as Hendrickson tends to promote and establish reconciliation between God and man. Now this is still Hendrickson, but the people in general, their minds filled with earthly ideas concerning the coming one, did not understand or appreciate this. Oh, Jesus is gonna help me in this role. That's what Christianity's about. The Messiah becomes the means to serve the end which is self. We do that. Israel was doing that. That's what Christianity is truly for, for many professing believers, a means to serve the end which is me. Why are you a Christian or because it makes me feel better? It helps my emotional self, my psychological self, my self-esteem. It's a very important means for me to worship the ultimate God which is me because I'm all about me in this life and boy, doesn't Christianity make me better? We have to be willing to say like Joe, though God's slaming, I will serve him. Like Daniel's three friends, even if he does not save us from the fiery furnace, we will not disobey. We don't serve God for what he will give us in this world. We serve him because he's God and because we put him first before pleasure, before comfort, before anything, what kind of Christ the user, a worldly Christ or a heavenly Christ. Jesus was aware of who he was. His people were wrong about him and the Gentiles were wrong about him. What about you? What Christ are you serving? What Christ? Do you hope in and trust in and live for this life or for eternal life? Secondly, I want you to notice the sovereignty of Jesus. I want you to notice the sovereignty of Jesus. I know it is in a complete dichotomy there by serving God for eternal life, by looking to Christ for reconciliation with God. We do have a better life, but that can't become the idol. None of the blessings of God can become the idol. Everything we have is from God. We must put him first, even if he takes all those things away. That's what I'm getting at. But I want you to notice the sovereignty of Jesus. Look again at verses two and three. We see the doctrine of providence. Do we not go into the village opposite you? And immediately you will find a donkey tied to specific details. And a cult with a cult or a fold is a one-year-old male donkey. The other gospels tell us that this cult was one upon which one had never ridden or never had even sat. No one had ever sat upon this fold, this cult. And no one had ever riddened. Matthew doesn't make that known to us, but he does make known the details of this prophecy of Christ. It is a prophecy in a sense. Loose them and bring them to me. And if anyone says anything to you, Jesus goes on. You shall say the Lord have needed them. And immediately he will send them. And the other gospels again tell us that this happened. That the disciples are taking the cult. And some people come running, hey, hey, what are you doing? The Lord has needed them. Take. Sure. I don't know about you, but if somebody was out in parking lot starting to drive up my car, the Lord had need of it. I know some ministers who have said those kind of things, right? You probably seen them, charlatans. The Lord has need of that thousand dollars that you need to give to me. You wouldn't have believed it. There's more than just the prediction here. There's something going on. John Calvin actually says in this way, he proved his divinity. That's a quote. Calvin says in this way, he proved his divinity for both to know absent matters and to bend the hearts of men to compliance, belonged to God alone. Beloved, the doctrine of providence is not simply God knows the future. The doctrine of providence is that God upholds all things. He sustains things in existence. This table, this building would flash out of existence if God didn't continue to keep the molecule and the laws of physics working. There's no power in those things. God is the sustainer. God is the one who governs and directs and disposes all things according to his good purposes. The doctrine of providence refers to God's plan about how he overrules everything and is bringing his purposes to pass and we these scriptures like not even a sparrow can fall to the ground apart from your father's will. If all of the forces of men and angels, if all of the rebellious creatures, the demons, and all of the might of fallen man were to join together to try to take a sparrow out of the air, one second before the plan of God for that sparrow, they wouldn't be able to do it. This is the providence and power of God, and this is what Christ is exercising. Prophecy, Beloved, is not so much simply God's foreign knowledge of the future. It's God's power and saying, I'm going to do this in the future, and that's what Jesus is doing here in this text. I'm going to bring this about. I don't have a donkey. I'm going to borrow one, and it's going to be a willing lender. By the way, a lot of scholars here see the poverty of Christ that he doesn't have a donkey, none of the disciples have a donkey, the twelve of them going all over the place ministering, and they don't have a single path deal for their belongings. He doesn't own a saddle. We see that in verse seven. They put their clothes on them, because there's no saddle again, a sign of poverty. Our Westminster standards say that when Jesus became human, he came up, quote, of more than ordinary abasement. It's a really fancy old English way of saying he was poor. Physically in this world, Jesus didn't have a lot of stuff, of more than ordinary abasement. He was lower than the ordinary. He was a base. He didn't have much. He doesn't have a donkey, but he doesn't steal it. He doesn't beg for it. He doesn't take it by force. He uses his authority as the Lord. He exercises it, and he borrows what he owns already from people that he owns already, and they are willing, and they give it to him. Verse four tells us all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet five hundred years before Zachariah wrote those words about a donkey and a cult in this city that would take the Messiah in, and Jesus brings God's word to pass as he declares it and he fulfills it. Psalm 33 says the Lord brings the counsel of the nation to nothing. He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever the plans of his heart to all generations. God accomplices his plan, and man's plan is not able to thwart him. God brings his word to pass his way, and that's what Christ is doing here. This is a fulfillment of Jeremiah 33, 14. Behold, the days are coming since the Lord, that I will perform that good thing, that I have promised to the house of Israel and the house of Judah in those days, and at that time I will cause to grow up to David, a branch of righteousness, and in our text it's the right time. It's the day. It has come. The branch is ready, and God sends him into Jerusalem to accomplish his mission. So Christ rides on an animal of peace, a beast of burden, into the city of Jerusalem to accomplish what he calls in John, his exodus, and he is fully aware of what will happen, and he is actively bringing it about,
there's something else in the text that's worth noticing, if anybody knows anything about horses or donkeys, the fact that Jesus gets this cult, this fall of a donkey, this one-year-old male, that's about what a donkey is, about one, a fold is about one-year-old male donkey upon, which no one had ever sat. Do you know what happened the first time a person would sit on that animal? Yeah, I'm looking at somebody who owns a horse. It isn't going to work. Nobody just sits on a donkey or a horse or a mule that's never been sat on. It takes weeks to break them so that they will ride, so that they will trust a person to get on them, especially someone that they've never met before. There's so much of God's sovereignty in this text. Jesus tells them, get this cult. No one's ever sat on it. I've never seen it. It comes. They put their clothes on it. Jesus sits on it and it carries them without a complaint. Well, he is his maker. And so he exercises his authority and in a sense, overcomes the laws of nature at this point because that animal by nature would not do that. Another little miracle that Jesus is showing his power, his authority, his might, his ability, and his intention to bring to past God's word, that even animals that normally wouldn't cooperate will because he's the son of God. It's not hard to figure out. And he doesn't with compassion, beloved, just because he's sovereign, just because his power and might and he's in control, doesn't mean that he doesn't feel and it doesn't mean that we are not responsible for what we do with what we know to be true. He had proved to Israel that he was their king and they do proclaim him as we'll see here very shortly. But we are responsible. And this is why the gospel of Luke tells us, chapter 19, verse 41, as he drew near, he saw the city and he wept over it. Can you imagine this? Jesus on the donkey, everybody shouting around him and he sees the city and he starts to weep. And he says, if you had known even you, especially in this your day, Christ says, the things that make for peace. But now they are hidden from your eyes. Beloved, do you recognize that God is sovereignly bringing to pass his plan in your life, in the world, in the nations, in Israel, in the church? Are you responding to his sovereignty? Are you humbling yourself before him? Are you seeking to obey him, recognizing him as the sovereign king? Therefore I want you to notice, thirdly, the outward receiving of Jesus. I want you to notice the outward receiving of Jesus. Verse 5, tell the daughter of Zion. The whole of your king is coming to you, lonely and sitting on a donkey, occult the full of a donkey. Jesus is doing these things to tell the daughter of Zion. By the way, the daughter of Zion is Zion, just as the son of a wise man is a son of a fool, is a fool, just a way in which the Hebrews would express things, the daughter of Zion. Zion was the mountain upon which the temple sat, but it becomes in scripture symbolic of the people of God, sex too preached on this last Sunday evening, that Zion itself becomes Jerusalem. Sometimes Zion is Jerusalem. Sometimes Zion is all of the Israelite people, all of God's covenant people. We are Zion, here in our text, if you look back to the scripture reading, and Zachariah 9, which this is quoting from, Zion is the people of God, Jerusalem, particularly Jerusalem, because Jesus is this lowly humble king. Again, the opposite of the kingdoms of this world, with their retinues, and you imagine when you have these great important people coming in the world, what do they have? They have their security, they have their motorcades, they have, you know, they come with helicopters and cars, and all the rest, and everybody around them, and Jesus is coming alone. Now, people are gathering spontaneously around him, but they're not part of his party, as it were. They're not employed by him, they're not part of his retinue, his glorious host, as it were. Again, when Pilate came in with his army and chariots, Jesus is coming alone on a donkey with just people spontaneously gathering around him, and he comes again to accept that he is king, and this is crucible, beloved. He knows these prophecies, he knows who he is, and he accepts it. He accepts the kingship. I think sometimes we don't get that, or don't we don't emphasize that. He came as the king of Israel, as the son of David. He comes to be king over his people. They're proclaiming him as king. Your king is coming, he's saying, and doing these things. Zechariah is saying, your king is coming, and in verse 8, what do they do? A very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Well, what's that about? That was an old custom that you would put your clothing down for the king to walk on. They also put branches of palms down for, and they don't have enough clothes, maybe, but a lot of times they take their shirt, put it, the king would walk over it, and then they'd run back and get it and do it again. You know, if you're young enough to do that sort of thing, and they would put down these palm branches. Some see here the fulfillment, perhaps, of Leviticus 2340, where God commands his people to rejoice with palm branches. Why, by the way, John tells us they're palms, so we know they're palms, even though Matthew doesn't mention it, but they couldn't be like big branches of an oak tree. You know, the talk he's not going to be able to get over, oh, but they're palms, again, they're doing it to cover the road. They're doing it to cover the road. The king ought not to step on the ground. We see this kind of a custom back in 2nd Kings chapter 9, where it says, when Jehu is proclaimed king, verse 13, then each man hasten to take his garments and put it under him on the top of the steps. And they blew Trump up saying, Jehu is king. The king is too good to walk on the ground. You put your clothing down. You put the palms down. It's interesting. We have kind of a custom like that today, right? We have a celebrity event or something. We have a great dignitaries coming from a foreign country to Washington, or the president goes somewhere and his whole entourage goes with him. And what do we do? We roll out the red carpet because they're too good to just walk on the ground. We do it at weddings. After everybody comes through the bridal procession and the only ones left is the bride. Sometimes two usheres will take what's called the crash and they'll unroll it. You know, this white elegant, silky looking thing that you walk on that sometimes is kind of slippery. And you've got to have it tacked in the bottom or it'll snap off. And they unroll it for who's a bride because nobody else gets to walk on that. Well, sometimes it'll be a little girl. She'll be going forth with what rose petals because even though the white silky things not elegant enough for the beautiful bride on this her day, right? This active royalty covering the ground. They're doing that for Christ. They're acknowledging Him as King. But even more, they're acknowledging Him as King by what they're saying in verse 9, then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying, Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. What was this cry? It's kind of like a transliteration of Hebrew. And in that day, they would have been saying, and it's a quotation from Psalm 118 that we read in our call to worship. They would be crying out in Hebrew. And that's what it means. Hosanna, Hanna, Hiyomah, Hattilihanna. Save now. We pray. Throuce for now. We pray. We beg Me. That's what it means. Hosanna. Hosanna to work in Hebrew. Save. It was a well-known Messianic text. The Jews, the rabbi, the rabbi describes all new that this was referring to the Messiah. They're proclaiming him the son of David. That's the king. They're telling him to save now. That's what you cry out to the one who comes in the name of the Lord. And this Psalm 118 that we read in our text is also traditionally sung at Passover. In fact, many scholars believe that where it says in the gospel of John in the upper room after Jesus gives a high priestly prayer in John 17 and then it says, and they sung to him. And then they went out to the Mount of all of the most scholars believe that what they sung was a Psalm 118. Which as we saw in our cults called worship right after saying save now says bind the sacrifice to the altar because Jesus is going up to offer himself. Though they don't know it. The receiving Jesus as King Mark has them saying 1110. Blessed is the kingdom of our father David. That comes in the name of the Lord. They saw Jesus bring in the kingdom. Why? Because he's the king. Luke 1938, they're saying, bless it is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. And John 12, 12, all four gospels had the triumphant entry. John, they're just saying, well, let me get the text again. The king of Israel. They're calling him the king of Israel. Do you understand why the authorities might be a little concerned? It was a great multitude doing this. And what happens when he gets into the city versus 10 and 11 when he's coming to the Jerusalem. All the city was moved saying, who is this? You know, you don't ride into a city in that day. Nobody rides into a city except the conquering king. Even a donkey. You get off the donkey. You don't ride through the gates. Jesus rides the donkey in the Jerusalem in triumph. And the people celebrate him in triumph. They're proclaiming him as king. They're proclaiming him as prophet. Luke tells us they're proclaiming and they're celebrating God for all of his works. Luke, 1937, as he was drawing near the descent of the mouth of all of the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they have seen. Which again, so forth, his glory that he can do these great works of healing and accessism and power. And so the whole crowd of people before and after and yet beloved, where are the rulers? Where are the leaders of the church? The leaders of the state, they should be coming out with him. They should be taking off their hats. They should be bowing the knee. They should be bowing the head. They should be proclaiming him as Lord and king. And there's not a single ruler mentioned. There are some of the other gospels and we'll see later that are upset with what's going on, but they're not out there. They're not celebrating him. They're not receiving him in glory and praise and adoration and pledging their obedience because he is the rightful king. The text says in verse 10 that the city was moved. It's the word a seismic from. And the next time this word appears in Matthew, it's in Matthew chapter 27 where it says the whole devale of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and the earth quaked to that word. The word for earthquake, seismic, the city was shaken like an earthquake when they see what's going on. And they said who is this and their trembling trouble that day came to Jerusalem and it wasn't Jesus that brought it. It was the rebellion of man because everybody should have been rejoicing. Everybody should have been in peace. Everybody should have been proclaiming him. There should have been no trouble. There should have been no shaking. There should have been no fear. There should have been just rejoicing because the king is here. But they weren't ready for the king and they didn't want the kind of king that he said he was. They were not ready to bow to me. What about you? Have you bowed to me really and truly not just outwardly and this outward show, the importance it was. Have you bowed to me to Christ in your heart, the real Christ, the real Christ who comes to the king of your heart. Though we still have evil rulers in this world. And so I want you to notice fourthly and lastly, the true receiving of Jesus, the true receiving of Jesus, the third point was the outward receiving of Jesus. That's happening here and that was important, but you can have the outward without the true. The true receiving of Jesus, the crowd were, they were right to receive him as a prophet. They were right to celebrate his miracles, but their focus was on their relationship to other men in this world even as they presume that their relationship was good with God. The Jews often did it because they were the children of Abraham. Remember John the Baptist says, don't think you hear anything because of that. God can raise up stone from Abraham. We do it because of our baptism maybe because I don't know. We just say that God is love and he's going to accept everybody. We presume they presume they presume they were more worried about what he could do for them. They might do to them if they get in trouble with the Romans. Christ rise in triumph into the city of Victor, though he had not yet thanked his foe. He does that on the cross, but it was right for them to rejoice and proclaim him and triumph because in the providence of God, he surely would. He is the almighty son of God. He will win. We can celebrate his victory before. In fact, Jesus says that if they weren't crying out in one of the other gospels, if these people, this crowd, you know what the leaders call sometimes the ignorant rabble, if they weren't crying out, Jesus said the very rocks would. Somebody had to celebrate the fact that the son of man was entering into the city of God to fulfill the word of God for the glory of God and the people do when they were right to do it. And yet beloved, their joy, their rejoicing, their pleasure, their good feelings. It was without right knowledge for the vast majority of them. If you look immediately prior in our call to worship, the truth, the two verses that immediately proceed in Psalm 118, what we began with in our call to worship, 118 verse 22, and this says this, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing it as marvelous in our eyes and then our text that we use in the call to worship. He's going to be rejected. Yes, they're all proclaiming him king, they're rejoicing, they're laying down palms, they're throwing down their clothes. And this same crop in five days is going to be shouting crucify, crucify, crucify. At the instigation of their leaders, they're going to do it. They were not truly receiving him as king. When final point followed, close with this, we know from scripture that the Passover is commanded to be on the 14th day of the month. This year, the 14th day of the month occurred on the Thursday. That's the night in which Jesus eats the Passover with His disciples. The night of the last supper. But according to scripture on the 10th day of the month, which would be today, which would be Sunday, Palm Sunday, four days earlier, from Thursday. Everyone in Israel was to select a lamb, to select the pastor. That occurred on the 10th day of the month. Let me read the past to you from Exodus. The 10th day of the month, you were to select instead of part the lamb that you were going to kill on the 14th day of the month, for the Passover to remember how God passed over you because of the blood of the lamb and His wrath did not fall on you, though it should have. Exodus 12, 3, speak to all the congregation of Israel saying on the 10th day of this month, every man shall take for himself a lamb according to the house of his father, a lamb for a house. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. Now you shall keep it until the 14th day of the month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. God was selecting his lamb on the 10th day of the month, and he brought him to the people. The lamb, the true lamb of God is coming into the city on the 10th day of the month, even as the word God commanded. And this is how the kingdom of God comes to us, beloved. It's really what brings believers into the kingdom of God, that we would receive Christ as the lamb, as the lamb who takes away our sins, who reconciles us and saves us from the wrath of God. The wrath that fell on Egypt took the first point. It would have taken the first point of every Israel light. The only reason it didn't was the blood of the lamb, and even the first point, even that was a tremendous act of mercy and forbearance on God's part because he should have killed everybody. He only took the first point in much mercy and much restraint of his holy wrath. That was a sign of the judgment that's coming as simple because there's a day coming when his wrath will fall unminigated fully upon all. And the only thing that will save us is the blood of the true lamb of God. If we believe in him, if we look to him, if we trust in him as our king, that's how we receive him as king. If we trust in him to avert God's wrath, that's the fulfillment of the Passover. As the Israel lights actively puts that blood on their door and God's thought and Passover, as we actively believe in him. And God's wrath is removed from us, it's extinguished. His wrath is taken away, and we are his children and saved. Save now, we pray. Save now, son of David. Christ's kingship, beloved, is not about as acceptance by the worldly leaders and governments. He did not come to be served, but to serve. This is how his kingdom is established and manifested in this world. When in our hearts, we humble ourselves and we believe in him to reconcile us to God. They weren't interested in that day. This kingdom was not erected by men, John Calvin says, and is not upheld by the power of men, but remains invincible through heavenly protection. The fact of the matter is Christ will come again. He will come again as conquering King to rule over this physical universe that he's allowing to rebel even to this day because this day he comes as king of salvation. This day, he still comes humble and lowly. This day, he still says, on a donkey, on a beast of burden, how would be your king? Would you receive me? Would you receive me? Today is the salvation, day of salvation, not the day of judgment. It was a triumphal entry in Jerusalem that day. Beloved, has the triumphal entry of Christ as king occurred in your heart? Do you believe in trust in Jesus? That's what I'm saying. Do you follow him as Almighty God our Father? How we thank you that you sent your son, Lord Jesus, to be the king of your people. Lord Jesus, you reign right now in the hearts of all your people. This is where your kingdom is. Your kingdom is still over all the rest of the world, too, and yet the world rebels, and you have not brought your judgment against that rebellion, not yet. Because you are a humble king, you are a lowly king, you proclaim terms of peace, you proclaim salvation, and you've been doing it for 2,000 years. Though the world's sin cries out for wrath yet you stay your hand, you still to this day show mercy and grace, you offer even yet peace as you come in peace. Lord, I pray that if there are any who don't know you, that they would see and recognize their need of peace with God that comes only by the Son of God, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, nothing else can. Lord Jesus, how we pray that those of us who have believed in you, that you would reign more in our hearts, that we would more subdue ourselves to you, that we by the power of your spirit would strive to buffet ourselves. We would seek to bring ourselves in a conformity of your word, that we would love your word, that we would love it even when the law does the hard work of convicting and reproving us, because we need that. We received the law in a context of the covenant of grace, where it's a good thing to us again, where it shows us our sin, where it shows us how to please you, and we're able to do that because we come to you in Jesus' name, who's taken away our sin. We come to you in the name of the King, Father, receive us, hear our prayers, sanctify us, make us better servants of your Son, the King, in Jesus' name amen. Amen.