A Hidden Kingdom Series

Imagine being a disciple, maybe Peter or Andrew or James or John, and the resurrection is taking place. Jesus ascended into heaven and you're kind of lying there on your bed sometimes, and you go, “Whoa, do you remember what He did then? Oh, now I remember why He did that.” Particularly while you were sitting in church. These guys sat in church then afterwards or participated in church services. And mostly they read the Old Testament. They’d come across a verse and they’d go, “Oh, that ties right into Jesus. Wow, this is amazing.” That's what we're going to see today as John tells us that, that we didn't realize these things that were going on until later and we recognize how valuable and important they were.

Today we're going to look at the story of the triumphal entry. A famous story. Usually we talk about it at Easter, not at Christmas. But we're going to look at that story today because that's where we are as we're going verse by verse through this passages in John 12. So in John 12:13 we're going to look at the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ, a story that's told in all four gospels. Every one of the gospel writers want us to know there's something in this story you don't want to miss. I think it's the wow factor. Because they realize that this coming, this presentation of Jesus coming into Jerusalem is powerful, it's significant. And there's some wows attached to it. We're going to get into those in just a moment.

Let's read this. Would you please stand with me as I read John 12:12-16.

It says this: The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna (which means save us)! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!” His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.

Fascinating.

I just imagine them sitting in church and they're reading through a passage of scripture. They go, “Whoa, those are the same things that we saw in Jesus’ life.” It all starts to connect the dots. So the gospel writers include a number of prophecies that help us see what's taking place in the Old Testament, how it's connected to the New Testament. Let's go back to this passage and look at it from the beginning.

It says – The next day (this is the day after that big dinner they had in honor of Jesus that we talked about last week) the large crowd that had come to the feast... Now this is the feast talking about Passover. Passover is one of the three feasts that people would come to Jerusalem. There's a pilgrimage. You would come if you lived in Africa. You wouldn't be saying, “Oh, I can't go to the feast this year. Maybe I'll go to the next one.” If you're a Jewish person scattered throughout all of the world, you would say, “I want to go back. I know that I should go to Jerusalem. I would like to do that.” So if you lived in Asia, you'd want to come back if you could. If you could work it out to come back. So people were from all over the place coming to the feasts.

There was a large crowd there and they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. The word was out. They didn't have Twitter, or email, or Facebook, or Instagram, but they knew about this Jesus. This was the one who raised Lazarus from the dead. We can talk to Him and we know who He is. This is the one who healed a man who was lame from birth, and now he walks. This is the one who healed a blind man who couldn't see it, and now he sees. We've heard about this Jesus. We've heard about this Jesus that took five loaves and two fish and turn them into a meal for 5,000 people. We've heard about Him. And He was in Bethany two miles away. We heard that He's coming to Jerusalem.

So there's an excitement. There's a buzz in the air. People are eager, they're watching for Him, and then they know He's coming.

When they know He's coming, notice what they do in verse 13. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him. Now what they did was they laid down these branches of palm trees and, Matthew tells us, their coats as well to create like a red carpet for Jesus. Because they believed that Jesus would be the King, the Messiah. They knew He was the Messiah or they believed He was the Messiah, but He would be the King who would come in and rescue them. He would save them. What is He going to save them from? Obviously, He's going to save us from the Roman government. He's going to overthrow the Roman government and He's going to relieve us from all the taxation that we have. And wouldn't He make a great king? No more welfare system. He could take care of everybody with food. He could set up stations where people could bring their five loaves and two fish, and it would turn into food for the whole town.