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“The Road Jesus Traveled”
Matthew 21:1-11
IPC, April 5, 2009
Every day we travel on roads.
A variety of roadways.
Some are narrow and winding.
Others seem to have traffic signals
strategically placed every twenty yards.
Others sport speed bumps on them.
Some roads are actually interstate highways
and can have four or up to twelve lanes on them.
Palm
Sunday is an important date in the Christian calendar for it marks
Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.
He didn’t come into town in a Lexus or
Hummer.
He arrived on the back of a young donkey.
I
want us to look at the road that Jesus traveled that Sunday and I want
us to first realize two things: It was a road that
had to be traveled and it
was a road that would change
mankind for all of eternity.
Our
history books are filled about the triumphant lives of many men and
women.
There have been volumes written on the life
of General Napoleon Bonaparte.
They describe his accomplishments, his
military abilities, the wars he waged and the battles he won.
But when it came to his death, this is how
the Encyclopedia Britannica
describes it: “He died on the morning of May 5th in his 52nd
year.
His body was dressed in his favorite
uniform and covered with a cloak he wore at Marengo.
He was buried in a lovely spot near a
spring, shaded by two weeping willows.
‘Here lies’ was written on his stone with
no name.”
In other words, the death of Napoleon was
about the least important episode of his life, but the crucifixion was
the most celebrated event in the life of Christ.
The crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ
was the complete payment for the sins of the world.
No other sacrifice was sufficient and no
other sacrifice was required.
He laid down His life so that we might
live.
In
order for Jesus to ransom us from our sins, He first had to travel the
road to Jerusalem.
I want us to look at four things about that
road this morning, drawing from Matthew’s account in chapter 21:1-11.
It was Passover Week, a Jewish celebration
that had gone on for 1400 years, celebrating thankfulness to God for
bringing the nation of Israel out of
Egyptian captivity.
There were probably more than two million
people in Jerusalem
during Passover Week.
Try to imagine one of the busiest places
you have been…a sport stadium when everyone is exiting a game or the
mall at Christmas.
While this was a week of thanksgiving, the Jews
found themselves under the oppression of the Roman government and were
waiting for God to send them a deliverer, another Moses or David.
As Jesus enters the city, the people begin to cry,
“Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
(Matt. 21:9)
Word had spread about this itinerant
preacher from Galilee.
They had heard of Jesus’ teachings and many
had seen His miracles and perhaps some had been there when He fed the
five thousand with only a few fish and loaves of bread.
Their shout of
“Hosanna” meant “Save us!”
But the people didn’t understand Jesus’
mission.
He didn’t come to save them from their
political oppression; He came to rescue them from their sins.
There is a major disparity between what
the people saw on Palm Sunday and what the Lord was actually doing.
·
The people saw Jesus
entering in splendor to take the throne.
·
Jesus entered with a
humble spirit to accept His fate.
·
The people could smell
victory in the air.
·
Jesus was tasting
suffering and death.
·
The people thought He was the man
of the hour.
·
Jesus knew that His hour
to die had come.
1. This was a road of
humility and not of royalty.
Jesus was the rightful heir to royalty, so He
could have entered in as a king.
Rev. 19:16 calls Him the King of kings.
Phil. 2:9-11
“Therefore,
God has highly exalted him & bestowed on him the name that is above
every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in
heaven & on earth & under the earth, & every tongues confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
However,
instead of riding in on a stallion, Jesus sent His disciples to retrieve
at donkey.
Horses are a sign of war, but donkeys are a
sign of peace.
Jesus willingly accepted this humble
position.
In
the first three verses of Matt. 21, we read:
“Now when
they drew near to Jerusalem & came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives,
then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the village in
front of you, & immediately you will find a donkey tied, & a colt with
her.
Untie them & bring them to me. If anyone says
anything to you, you shall say, “The Lord needs them,” & he will send
them at once.’”
Jesus
sent His disciples with specific instructions of where to go, what to
get and told them what to say.
Jesus had a plan and we know that He has a
plan for our lives.
His plan was eternal and not just for that
day.
He knew the sinfulness of mankind and knew there
was no other way to reconcile us to God.
In order for us to follow Jesus into His
salvation requires humility.
We need to put our selfish desires aside
and seek the Lord.
We must walk down the road of humility
before the Lord.
2. The road was a road
of fulfillment.
Matt. 21:4-5
“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, & mounted on a donkey, & on a colt,
the foal of a beast of burden.”
(Cited from Zechariah 9:9 and Isaiah 62:11)
All of this occurred in order to fulfill
God’s divine plan.
Jesus didn’t randomly enter Jerusalem that day by chance, but by Divine
appointment.
Zech. 9:9
“Rejoice
greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O
daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous & having salvation is he,
humble & mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Jesus’
entering Jerusalem
fulfilled numerous Old Testament prophecies regarding the final week of
His life.
·
Betrayed by a friend.
(Ps. 41:9)
·
Sold for 30 pieces of
silver (Zech. 11:12
·
False witnesses would
accuse Him (Ps. 27:12)
·
He would be silent when
accused. (Is. 53:7)
·
He would be struck and
spit on (Is. 50:6)
·
He would suffer in our
place (Is. 53:4-5)
·
His hands & feet would
be pierced. (Ps. 22:16)
·
He would be mocked &
insulted. (Ps. 22:16-18)
·
He would pray for His
enemies. (Ps. 109:4)
·
His side would be
pierced. (Zech. 12:10)
·
Soldiers would gamble
for His clothes. (Ps. 22:18)
·
Not a bone would be
broken. (Ps. 34:20)
·
He would be buried with
the rich. (Is. 53:9)
Why
would Jesus walk the road to fulfillment?
In order to fulfill the Divine plan of
salvation for you and me.
This road of fulfillment was a road of
love.
Hebrews 12:2
“Looking to Jesus, the founder &
perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame, & is seated at the right hand of the
throne of God.”
Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem was a road to fulfilling history in
every aspect.
3. This would be a road
of obedience.
Matt. 21:6-7
“The disciples went & did as
Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey & the colt & put on
them their cloaks & he sat on them.”
In order for Jesus to be obedient, He had
to get on that donkey.
His entire life was an example of
obedience, even at the end.
In John 4:34 Jesus said,
“My food is to do the will of him
who sent me & to accomplish his work.”
In John 5:30, Jesus explained that He
didn’t come to do His will—instead He was called to do
“the will
of him who sent me.”
In John 8:29, He reiterates:
“And he who
sent me is with me.
He has not left me alone, for I always do
the things that are pleasing to him.”
He did everything to please His Heavenly
Father.
Of course, at the Garden
of Gethsemane He
again told the Father that He would do what He wanted Him to do.
Matt. 26:39
“My Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you
will.”
Our Lord Jesus knew that all of humanity
and salvation was dependent upon His going down the road of Jerusalem, ultimately to a place called
Calvary.
4. This would be a road
of destiny.
Matt. 21:8-11
“Most of
the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, & others cut branches from
the trees & spread them on the road.
And the crowds that went before him & 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!’
And when he entered
Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying,
‘Who is this?’ And the crowds said, ‘This is the prophet Jesus, from
Nazareth of Galilee.’”
That
crowd that shouted “Hosanna to
the Son of David!’ would be some of the same people crying
“Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”
the following Friday.
The same people spreading palm branches,
signifying that salvation had come, would be the very ones to nail Him
to the cross.
When Napoleon was traveling through
Switzerland
with his army, he was greeted with thunderous applause and enthusiasm.
He told one nearby supporter, “This same
unthinking crowd, under a slight change of circumstances, would follow
me just as eagerly to the scaffold.”
We
saw that in Georgia almost fifty years ago, when Marvin Griffin ran for
governor against Carl Sanders.
His strategy was to have great gatherings
around barbequed dinners all over the state.
Sometimes over 10,000 people would show up
at these dinners just to eat Marvin’s BBQ.
But when the election was over, he lost
decisively.
At a news conference, he said, “They ate
Old Marvin’s barbeque, but they didn’t vote for me.”
The people of Jesus’ time were fickle, not
unlike the American electorate today.
If
you were to look at Rembrandt’s famous painting of “The Three Crosses,”
your attention would be drawn first to the center cross on which Jesus
died.
Then as you would see the crowd gathered
around the foot of that cross, you would be impressed by the various
facial expressions and actions of the people who were there.
Finally, your eyes would drift to the edge
of the painting and catch the sight of another figure, almost hidden in
the shadows.
Art critics say this is a representation of
Rembrandt himself, for he recognized that because of his own sins, he
helped nail Jesus to the cross.
No
one could stop what was going to happen at Golgotha.
Jesus told Pilate in John 19:10-11 that he
had no power over Jesus, except what was given from above.
It had appeared that Pilate wasn’t
necessarily over-zealous in putting Jesus to death, but when the crowd
wouldn’t relent, he washed his hands before the crowd, signifying that
he was not a part of Jesus’ execution.
The politicians couldn’t stop destiny.
And
yet, we see that there was a purpose for Jesus’ destiny.
2 Cor. 5:21
“For our sake he made him to be
sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of
God.” In
Romans 6:8 we read, “Now if we
have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”
Jesus Christ is, as John the Baptist
prophesied, “The Lamb of God who
takes away the sins of the world.”
While
the road that Jesus traveled that Holy Week was one of humility,
fulfillment, obedience and destiny, it is also a road of decision.
The thieves who were executed alongside
Jesus had decisions to make regarding Him in Luke 23:39-43.
“One
of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, ‘Are you not the
Christ? Save yourself & us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you
not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And
we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but
this man has done nothing wrong.’ And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when
you come into your kingdom.’ And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you,
today you will be with me in Paradise.’”
These two different thieves had two
different responses.
And, as a result, they had two different
destinations.
This
Holy Week, please do not forget what God has done for you through Christ
Jesus.
Rom. 5:8
“But God shows his love for us in
that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
As
we travel this road we call Life, I trust that we will see our lives as
more than merely “taking up space.”
May we humble ourselves before God, placing
our wills into His hands and in obedience seek to live our lives to His
glory…not only during special seasons of the year, but each day.
Let’s pray.
Please visit us at our next worship service.
We offer "An Unchanging Word To A Changing World"
In Christ,
Bill Bratley - Pastor
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