SERMON OUTLINE:
(1). The road to the cross was a road of DESTINY (vs 12-13)
(2). The road to the cross was a road of DEVOTION (vs 14-15)
(3). The road to the cross was a road of DISCOVERY (vs 16)
(4). The road to the cross was a road of DECISION (vs 17-19)
SERMON BODY
Ill:
• Over the years there has been some classic movie quotes;
• You may know the quotation but can you name the film?
1. "Here's looking at you, kid," "Casablanca," 1942.
2. "Go ahead, make my day," "Sudden Impact," 1983.
3. "May the Force be with you," "Star Wars," 1977.
4. "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse," "The Godfather," 1972.
5. “A martini. Shaken, not stirred" Goldfinger," 1964
6. "I'll be back," "The Terminator," 1984.
7. "Elementary, my dear Watson," "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," 1929.
8. "Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast," "King Kong," 1933.
• TRANSITION: Papillon is the autobiography written by Henri Charrière
• The book was an instant bestseller;
• And the film of the book starred Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.
• It is a great film but sadly they missed out the best quote;
• In the book there is an episode where the main character has a dream,
• In that dream he is in a court room on trial,
• As he stands before the judge he is charged with….
• “The most terrible crime that a person can commit”
• You can imagine the terror that grips his mind and heart;
• And so he asks the judge “What was that crime?”
• The judge replies:
• “The tragedy of a wasted life”
• Note: One thing that can never be said of Jesus;
• Is that he wasted his life – the very opposite is true,
• He lived his life to the full and gave his life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world!
• This episode on the life of Jesus is often called; ‘Triumphal Entry’
• It is recorded by all four Gospel writers.
• To fully grasp its impact,
• You have to understand that it is a complete reversal;
• Of all that Jesus has done in his ministry to this point.
Up till now, Jesus has mostly kept hidden his identity as the Messiah.
• i.e. When a demon proclaimed Him to be the Holy One of God,
• He told him to be quiet (Mark 1:24-25).
• i.e. When He healed people,
• Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone (Mark 1:44; 7:36).
• i.e. Even when He raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead,
• He gave strict orders that no one should know about it (Mark 5:43)!
• i.e. When the disciples gained insight into His identity as Messiah,
• Jesus told them not to tell anyone (Mark 8:30; 9:9).
• i.e. The only exception to this secrecy is found in John’s gospel chapter 4;
• Where Jesus told a Samaritan woman at the well that He was the Messiah (John 4:26).
But in these verses all that has been ‘turned on its head’:
• Jesus allows a public demonstration on his behalf;
• He allows people to publicly acknowledge him as the Messiah & King!
• Now Jesus had visited Jerusalem many times before:
• As a boy, as a worshipper, as a teacher.
• But never as the Messiah and King.............. that is until now!
(1). The road to the cross was a road of destiny (vs 12-13):
“The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.
ill:
• Some time ago, a man was trying to trace his family origin.
• In the process of his research he visited several cemeteries
• He was able to collect information from the various gravestones.
• At one place he came across a monument with the following inscription:
‘Pause now stranger, as you pass by
As you are now, so once was I
As I am now, so soon you’ll be.
Prepare yourself to follow me.’
• Next to the gravestone,
• He noticed someone had placed a board with the following words:
‘To follow you, I’m not content
Until I know, which way you went’.
Jesus was on the right road, heading in the right direction (Quote: verse 12):
“The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast
heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.
ill:
• 14th day of Nissan;
• Was a date etched into the minds of all good Jewish people.
• This was the day to celebrate Passover.
• Passover is around March-April and is concurrent with our Good Friday and Easter.
This was one of the great festivals of the Jewish year when the people reminded themselves:
• Of the dramatic way in which God had saved them,
• Miraculously rescued them from their Egyptian task-masters
• (You can read about it in Exodus chapter 12).
• So this would be a time of fun and excitement;
• A party time atmosphere would be in the air.
• Large numbers of people would make the trip to Jerusalem.
• They would come from all over the world!
• For Jesus it was very much the road of destiny;
• Verse 13 informs us of how the crowds welcomed him into the city of Jerusalem.
Ill:
• If someone arrives at your house claiming to be an ambassador of the Queen,
• You would expect him or her to have proof of who they are!
• We would probably ask:
• Where is your identification?
• Where is your security pass or passport etc?
• TRANSITION:
• When Jesus arrived on planet earth claiming to be the Son of God;
• What credentials, what proof was there as to who he was.
• One piece of evidence that emerges again and again in the gospels is the phrase like:
• “So that the scripture might be fulfilled”
• One piece of evidence was prophecies written by God in the Old Testament;
• 100’s of years previously and now they are being fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
SEVERAL ARE FULFILLED IN THIS STORY:
• Bible prophecy can be both broad and narrow.
• An example of a broad prophecy is like me saying;
• “A man will win the lottery this week”
• We that’s pretty broad and can fit so many people.
• An example of a narrow prophecy is like me saying;
• “A blond haired man with a beard will win the lottery this week”
• Now all of a sudden I have ruled out so many people and narrowed it down to a few.
• The Old Testament uses both broad and narrow prophecies;
• And Jesus alone fulfilled these prophecies again and again and again.
(a). Example of a broad prophecy:
13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the King of Israel!”
• The words that the crowd shouted;
• Are taken from several Old Testament Psalms.
• Although this was a spontaneous act of devotion to Jesus;
• There was logic and reason in their choice of words.
• These were Messianic psalms and these words were for the Messiah.
(b). An example of a narrow prophecy:
• 500 years before Jesus walked on planet earth;
• A man called Zechariah wrote these words (chapter 9 verse9).
"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 colt, the foal of a donkey".
• And in verses 14- 15 of John chapter 12:
• We will read of this prophecy being fulfilled
• Quote: “There were no accidents in the life of Christ”
• He was a person destined to experience certain events.
• The script had been written in heaven;
• And the people were watching it being acted out in front of their very eyes.
Ill:
Peter Stoner in his Book ‘Science Speaks’:
• If you take only eight of the more than 300 prophecies fulfilled by Christ;
• And determined the odds of one person fulfilling just those eight.
• The results were astounding!
• They calculated the odds at 1 in 10 to the 17th power;
• Or 1 in 100, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000.
(2). The road to the cross was a road of DEVOTION (vs 14-15)
“Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written,
15 Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt”.
• Jesus was devoted to God’s plan of salvation,
• His devotion to God meant he ignored or overcame the danger signs.
Ill:
• We all know who Bear Grylls is;
• The ex-SAS British adventurer, writer and television presenter.
• Who is prepared for any eventuality
• During his regular forays into dangerous and inhospitable terrain.
• I like the man;
• But you would think he might occasionally remember to pack a few sandwiches!
• Well long before Bear Grylls the following ad once appeared in a London newspaper:
• "Men wanted for hazardous journey.
• Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness,
• Constant danger, safe return doubtful”
• Amazingly, the ad drew thousands of respondents,
• Because the ad was signed by Sir Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic explorer.
• TRANSITION: That name and the adventure he would lead them to;
• Made all the difference!
Now Jesus entered Jerusalem knowing the events that lay before him.
• So devoted was Jesus to God’s plan of salvation,
• That even the danger of what lay ahead could not turn him back.
Ill:
• Holmon Hunt (the Raphaelite painter);
• Produced a work of art called ‘The shadow of the cross’.
• It showed Jesus as a boy in his step-fathers carpenters shop.
• It is night-time and a candle is burning to provide light,
• The boy Jesus stops his hard work and stretches out to yawn;
• Behind him on the wall is cast, the shadow of a cross!
Jesus knew that not only Zechariah’s prophecy would be fulfilled in the next few days:
• But many others relating to his suffering and death.
• Bible scholars will inform you that on that first Good Friday.
• Jesus fulfilled over 33 different prophecies in one day alone!
Quote:
“A man with one watch knows what time it is.
A man with two watches is never sure”.
• Jesus marched to the tick of one clock:
• To change the metaphor, he marched to the beat of one drum;
• He was listening only to one voice – his heavenly Father’s!
Ill:
• In his autobiography, A Life in Our Times, John Kenneth Galbraith,
• Illustrates the devotion of Emily Gloria Wilson, his family's housekeeper:
• It had been a wearying day, and I asked Emily to hold all telephone calls,
• While I had a nap. Shortly thereafter the phone rang.
• It was President Lyndon Johnson was calling from the White House.
• "Get me Ken Galbraith. This is Lyndon Johnson.'
• "He is sleeping, Mr. President. He said not to disturb”
• "Well, wake him up. I want to talk to him.”
• "No, Mr. President. I work for him, not you.”
• When I called the President back, he could scarcely control his pleasure.
• President Lyndon Johnson said;
• “Tell that woman I want her here in the White House”.
Jesus was listening only to one voice – his heavenly Father’s!
• Such was his devotion, his commitment to that voice;
• Nothing would persuade him (not even death) to change course.
Ill:
• A story is told about Rabbi Joseph Schneerson,
• A Hasidic leader during the early days of Russian Communism.
• The rabbi spent much time in jail,
• Persecuted for his faith.
• One morning in 1927, as he prayed in a Leningrad synagogue,
• Secret police rushed in and arrested him.
• They took him to a police station and worked him over,
• Demanding that he give up his religious activities.
• He refused.
• The interrogator brandished a gun in his face and said,
• "This little toy has made many a man change his mind."
• Rabbi Schneerson answered,
"This little toy can intimidate only that kind of man who has many gods and but one world. Because I have only one God and two worlds, I am not impressed by this little toy."
(3). The road to the cross was a road of DISCOVERY (vs 16)
“At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realise that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him.”
As we have noted the way Jesus entered into Jerusalem was calculated & quite deliberate:
• He was claiming to be the promised king;
• The Messiah that the people had been waiting for.
Ill:
• We tend to think of a donkey as a lowly animal;
• But to the Jew it was a beast fit for a king:
• i.e. Israel’s greatest King, David rode on one (1 Kings chapter 1 verses 33-34).
• i.e. In war, kings would ride horses, but in peace, they entered the city riding donkeys.
The disciples like the crowd would soon discover that their idea of the Messiah was all wrong:
• They greeted Him as a king,
• But they were ignorant of the nature of His kingship.
Ill:
• In the year 165 b.c. the Jews had thought he had discovered the Messiah:
• A heroic leader called Judas Maccabeus.
• He helped the Jewish people throw off years of oppression by Syria.
• And in similar fashion to what happened to Jesus;
• Judas Maccabeus rode into Jerusalem;
• And the people greeted him by waving palm branches,
• And singing Psalm 118, a song for the king.
• But they soon discovered Judas Maccabeus was not the Messiah,
• He was a freedom fighter with a political agenda.
If the disciples and the crowds thought Jesus had come to destroy the Romans,
• They were about to discover they were way off track.
• He had come to defeat a far bigger enemy than Rome;
• He came to destroy life’s greatest enemies: sin, Satan, death!
Ill:
• Birthday card which read;
• Outside: “Darling you are the answer to my prayers”
• Inside: “You’re not exactly what I prayed for but apparently you are the answer”
Josephus, the Jewish historian estimates that there may have been close to 2.5 million people in Jerusalem for Passover.
• Had you asked them about the Messiah,
• I would suggest that nearly all would have been looking for a political Messiah.
• But had they read their Old Testaments a little bit harder;
• They would have seen that before he can reign he must die,
• Before the crown the Messiah must first bear the cross!
Ill:
• A number of years ago, a newspaper reported the story of:
• The 2011 Yunnan earthquake
• A total of 26 people died and 313 were injured with 133 in serious condition.
• On the 5th September 2011,
• A team of rescue workers were focused on a collapsed house;
• They carefully began to remove all the debris;
• And they revealed the body of a woman who had died.
• To their amazement they discovered under that woman a baby boy,
• Who was three months old and fast asleep.
• This woman had made the ultimate sacrifice;
• As her the building was collapsing all around her,
• Unable to escape she laid on the floor and then on top of the baby;
• To protect her son from the falling rubble.
• When the team leader found the baby;
• He was asleep and wrapped in a flowery blanket.
• The medical doctor was called to examine the boy;
• And when he took hold of the baby and opened the blanket,
• They found something else – it was a mobile phone placed inside the blanket.
• That phone had a message on the screen,
• It simply read; "If you can survive, you must remember that I love you!"
• TRANSITION: To save a lost world would take more than a perfect life;
• It would cost that life in exchange for others.
• “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us!”
(4). The road to the cross was a road of Decision (vs 17-19).
“Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word.
18 Many people, because they had heard that he had given this miraculous sign, went out to meet him.
19 So the Pharisees said to one another, See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
• As I mentioned earlier on;
• This in the only time Jesus allowed a public parade on his behalf:
• One of the reasons Jesus allowed this to take place;
• Was to force the Jewish leaders to act.
• Matthew chapter 26 verse 3-5 says;
• "That they had hoped to arrest him AFTER Passover".
Quote Ken Gire in his book 'Intense moments with the saviour':
"In so coming Jesus forces the hand of the religious aristocracy.
After this public act, they would have to cast a public vote.
No more meetings behind closed doors. No more plotting in private.
They would have to come out in the open.
They would have to confess him or curse him.
Crown him or kill him".
By entering Jerusalem in the manner Jesus did:
• He is removing all doubts from the religious leaders minds,
• He is making his claim as the Messiah, the king perfectly clear.
Quote: Luciano Pavarotti
• “When I was a boy, my father, a baker, introduced me to the wonders of song,
• He urged me to work very hard to develop my voice.
• Arrigo Pola, a professional tenor in my hometown of Modena, Italy,
• Took me as a pupil. I also enrolled in a teachers college.
• On graduating, I asked my father,
• ‘Shall I be a teacher or a singer?’
• “‘Luciano,’ my father replied,
• ‘if you try to sit on two chairs, you will fall between them.
• For life, you must choose one chair.’
• “I chose one.
• It took seven years of study and frustration;
• Before I made my first professional appearance.
• It took another seven to reach the Metropolitan Opera.
• And now I think whether it’s laying bricks, writing a book
• Whatever we choose - we should give ourselves to it.
• Commitment, that’s the key. Choose one chair.”
• TRANSITION: Sooner or later we must all make a choice regarding Jesus;
• We too either crown him or reject him and there is no neutral ground!
• Quote: William James
• “When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.”
• This choice, this will be the most important choice you ever make!
• For it affects not just this life but the whole of eternity!
• If you leave this building without making Jesus Christ your Lord & Saviour;
• You have made your choice and the answer is you have chosen is no!
• But as we pray now, what not make that right choice;
• And take Jesus Christ as your saviour and Lord!
SERMON AUDIO:
https://surf.pxwave.com/wl/?id=XGj1CIle5FJyRxZC8f18fiqLpL2p3Nrv
