New Life Bible Fellowship Church
4-13-25
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  • All Glory, Laud, and Honor
  • Hosanna Loud Hosannas

  • Introduction:

    We are taking a two week pause in our study of John’s gospel and are focusing our attention on what we’ve come to know as Passion (a Latin word that means, “to suffer”) Week, which is the week beginning with Palm Sunday and ending with Easter Sunday. Though the chronology of each day of Passion Week is difficult to determine (except for resurrection Sunday), some have suggested the following:
    Palm Sunday (Triumphal Entry)
    Holy Monday & Tuesday (Cleansing the temple, interaction with the religious leaders)
    Spy Wednesday (Judas arranged his betrayal of Jesus with the Chief Priests)
    Maundy (comes from the latin, to command' which refers to the instructions Jesus gave his disciples at the Last Supper) Thursday (the Last Supper)
    Good Friday (Crucifixion)
    Black Saturday (Jesus descends into hades)
    Resurrection Sunday (Jesus raises from the dead)
    Though it may be difficult to chronologically place some of these events, one thing is for certain that they did happen during that week. But before we just think of all this as a religious history lesson, I want to be quick to declare to you that all events, not just the events of the passion week, but all events that have occured throughout history up to this point and culminating with the events of this week, were planned in eternity past, in the counsel of the Godhead. Before one molecule was created, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit covenanted together to redeem a people who were not yet created. A people who when created would rebel against their creator and would incur God’s wrath and subsequent judgment.
    So why would God bother to create such people? And if so, why not destroy them and start over? These are searching questions which are beyond the scope of our message this morning, but this we know, that the Power of the Passion, which I have chosen to name this mini series, is a power that we cannot even begin to conceive, for it is the power of intense, sacrificial love over intense, blaspheming hatred, the power of mercy and grace in the light of necessary judgment and wrath, the power to make sons of God from rebellious, sinful god-haters, the power that ripped Satan from his throne as ruler over the slaves of sin, and it is this power that will be on display throughout all eternity in us, God’s glorious trophies of grace. This series is made up of three messages, each one taken from one of the synoptic gospels:
    Palm Sunday: Preparation for the Passion (Matt 21:1-17)
    Good Friday: Passover Lamb of the Passion (Mark 14:12-25)
    Easter Sunday: Proclamation from the Passion (Luke 24:1-24)
    So let’s now begin this morning by realizing that up to the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus ministry was more public, and focused on meeting the needs of people, teaching and revealing the truth of who he was and who his Father was, and training His disciples. Now, beginning with the triumphal entry, Jesus was focused on one thing, the cross, as we have been studying in the book of John! Everything that happened that final week was carefully chosen by him as a Preparation for the Passion … this passion, this suffering would culminate in the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus was about to make.

    Text: Matthew 21:1-17

    Matthew 21:1–17 ESV
    1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 “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.’ ” 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” 12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” 14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, 16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” 17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.

    Main Idea: The Triumphal Entry Commenced the Events of the Passion Week Which Were the Final Preparation for the ultimate Power to be displayed in the Passion.

    Jesus time had come to publically announce his true identity, which he had spoken of over and over again, but now it would be the crowds who would declare his identity, which of necessity must be linked to the rest of the events of the passion week in order to implement his purpose ( Lk 9:51)
    Luke 9:51 ESV
    51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.
    So we begin with the...

    I. Prepared Announcement of the King (1-8)

    You will note that the triumphal entry into Jerusalem was not a verbal discourse by Jesus, but a display of fulfilled prophecy that brought about this announcement. This announcement was necessary in order to bring together all the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah, and link them to the events of the passion week.
    Prior to his entry into Jerusalem, Jesus prepared his disciples for this final stage of his earthly ministry, and for the third time he reminds them (Matt 20:17-19):
    Matthew 20:17–19 ESV
    17 And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, 18 “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 19 and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”
    (1-3) Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” -
    (1) Bethphage - traditionally located less than a mile east of Jerusalem on the southeast slope of the Mount of Olives. Jesus had been in Bethany (according to Mark, Luke and John’s account, which was near Bethphage), the place where Mary and Martha lived, and where Mary had anointed Jesus feet with perfume, and also where their newly raised-from-the-dead brother Lazarus lived.
    (2) Jesus commanded his disciples to do something that may have seemed a bit strange to them, however, when compared alongside the quoted prophecy from Zechariah 9, it made good sense.
    (3) Also note that Jesus plainly refers to himself as the Lord, the sovereign orchestrator of these events.
    Verse 4 begins with the affirmation:
    (4) This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, - Matthew, whose audience was mainly Jewish and whose purpose in writing was to proclaim that Jesus was the King of the Jews, the promised Messiah, wrote to make sure that his readers understood that their scriptures had prophesied this very moment.
    (5) ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ” - Jesus understood that this was a prophesy concerning himself as we read in:
    Zechariah 9:9 ESV
    9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
    (6-8) The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. - From this prophecy, and with the obedience of his disciples, Jesus provided several symbols to help in his announcement:
    Colt:
    the donkey and the colt. Matthew alone mentions two animals. Having the mother donkey move alongside her unbroken colt would be the best way to calm it during the noisy entrance into Jerusalem.
    The fact that It had never been used (Luke 19:30) made it fit for a sacred purpose (Num. 19:2; 1 Sam. 6:7).
    The prophecy in (Zech. 9:9) was a public claim to messiahship (Behold your King), but a messiahship of a distinctive kind, since the donkey was the animal of a man of peace. A conquering king would ride a horse, therefore, if Jesus was the military leader they were seeking, he would not be riding on a donkey. The people seemed to have recognized the kingship part, but not the humble, and mounted on a donkey part, with its emphasis on peace. Remember our Christmas passage from Isaiah 9:
    Isaiah 9:6 ESV
    6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
    First and foremost, Jesus was the one that would bring peace between God and man. Without peace with God, there would never be peace with man.
    Remember that the hostilities that we have towards one another are symptomatic of the hostility we have against the authority and power of the eternal sovereign God!
    Romans 5:1 ESV
    1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
    Ephesians 2:14–16 ESV
    14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
    Clothes (gesture of honor reserved for royalty) - put on them their cloaks. The clothing evidently served as a saddle. The clothes on the road also formed a triumphal carpet (like rolling out the red carpet).
    Palm branches (Palm branches were called "Hosannas", signifying victory that the king would accomplish) - in this case, the victory would be won over the evil tyranny of sin and death, conquering Satan and appeasing the wrath of his father.
    As a result of this Prepared Announcement of the King, there was a:

    II. Public Acclaim of the People (9-11)

    (9) And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!
    Note: This was a common practice in those days, that a conquering king would be escorted by his people into the city.
    Hosanna: "Save, now" (Ps118:25-26)
    Psalm 118:25–26 ESV
    25 Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! 26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.
    Note that Ps. 118, called a Hallel Psalm, was sung at Passover and considered a Messianic Psalm.
    Why would they think this was the time? (Jn 12:1, 17-18 )
    John 12:1 ESV
    1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
    From John’s version of the triumphal entry we find the following words:
    John 12:17–18 ESV
    17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. 18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign.
    Son of David: The right to be King (Is 9:7)
    Isaiah 9:7 ESV
    7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, 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.
    Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord - The name of God always denotes:
    Authority of God
    Attributes of God
    Approving signature of God
    However, with all the excitement and public acclaim regarding Jesus, sadly, the crowd seemed to be caught up in a mob frenzy and was not convinced that Jesus was indeed the messiah as we read next:
    (10-11) 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
    Jesus, who had fulfilled all prophesy, performed miracles, taught the crowds the things of God, lived a sinless life and who had clearly declared who he was and why he had come, was in the final analysis despised and rejected of men.
    This same mob who so publically acclaimed that Jesus was the Son of David, would six days later with the same mob frenzy, yell, “Crucify him”.
    For, there is another group who declared their hatred for Jesus all along, and even though there was a Prepared Announcement of the King and a Public Acclaim of the People, there where those who would be instrumental in influencing this mob, as we look finally at the:

    III. Pointed Animosity of the Religious Leaders (12-17)

    (12) And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.
    If you will remember from our study of John, that John 1:13–17 recounts a cleansing of the temple early in Jesus’ ministry rather than during the final week. Many scholars conclude that Jesus drove out money-changers on two separate occasions.
    (13) He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
    My house (note Jesus is associating himself with God) shall be called a house of prayer, - a quote from Isa. 56:7
    Isaiah 56:7 ESV
    7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
    den of robbers. The phrase is from Jeremiah 7:11 (“11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord.”) . Through the prophet the Lord denounced the idea that the physical temple guaranteed His blessing in spite of Judah’s wickedness. This same superstitious notion prevailed in Jesus’ time. Unbeknownst to those to whom Jesus spoke, that within 40 years, that same temple would be destroyed.
    (14) And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.
    What a scene! While some people are expelled, others are welcomed. Jesus has not changed any. He is still the Good Shepherd. So, when the blind and the lame come to him right here, in the temple, his eyes, a moment ago flashing with the fire of holy indignation, fill with tender compassion. He did not say, “Come back some other time. I am not now in the mood for healing you.” On the contrary, the Great Physician is standing there in the midst of overturned tables, scattered coins, and knocked down benches, manifesting his healing power and marvelous compassion to those in need. None of those who came to him went away disappointed.
    (15) But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant,
    Hosanna to the Son of David! Jesus acknowledges the children’s praise and links it to Ps. 8:2, which the religious leaders should have known applied such praise to God, thus confirming Jesus as the divine Messiah.
    (16) and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”
    Jesus’ quotation of Ps. 8:2 to justify the children’s praises is astounding, for Ps. 8 says that God ordained worship for Himself from the lips of children. Jesus indirectly claims the prerogative of deity, and the ignorance of those who claim to know God and his word.
    (17) And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.
    to Bethany. A village about 2 miles (3.2 km) from Jerusalem on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. Perhaps Jesus lodged at the home of Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha, with whom he had close association.
    So this first day of the passion week was now completed, we saw that this Preparation for the Passion began with the Prepared Announcement of the King as Jesus showed who he was through the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, an announcement that was understood by the Public Acclaim of the People, and that preparation included the necessity of the Pointed Animosity of the Religious Leaders, who would be instrumental in putting him of the cross. This, we shall see was not by accident, or a result of miscalculation, for this was the whole purpose in his coming, which we shall unpack in greater detail on Friday night as we look at the Passover Lamb of the Passion (Mark 14:12-25).

    So What?

    Do we understand that it was absolutely essential that Jesus be declared as the Messiah, the Son of David in order for the preparation for the passion to be fully understood?
    This was not some mistaken identity, even by those who did not understand that significance of that identity.
    Do we understand that Jesus first and foremost came to redeem us from the wrath of God on our sin, as the prince of peace?
    I want us to understand as I have said over and over, the greatest issue that faces our world is not Iran or Humas or even the lack of common sense by politicians or the lack of peace among nations, but the greatest issue is sin. Sin brings about the symptoms we mentioned above but these symptoms are not the root cause, sin is. Sin is anything short of God’s perfection as Romans 3:23 tells us:
    Romans 3:23 ESV
    23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
    This sin in which each one of us processes as a part of our birth, has created an eternal breech between us and the Holy God; an unfathomable gulf that can not be crossed by any human effort on our part. As a result God is our enemy and will judge us for all eternally, because our sin has a wage (Romans 6:23 “23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ), and that wage is death, eternal death, unless we find some way to make peace with God.
    This is the purpose of Jesus coming to this earth, God in the flesh…the eternal son of God, stepping into time in order to bring peace between God, the Father, and those he has chosen to be his very own…the sheep for whom Christ would die.
    Have you placed your faith in Jesus the Messiah who came to save us from our sins and the subsequent judgment of God?
    Romans 10:9–10 ESV
    9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
    Romans 10:13 ESV
    13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
  • Praise the Name of Jesus
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