Looking Closer at the Triumphal Entry (John Part 37)
Text: John 12:9-19
We’re continuing on with John’s Gospel this morning, and we’re looking at a text that usually gets addressed on Palm Sunday; we call it the Triumphal Entry. It’s when Jesus enters Jerusalem, riding on a young donkey, and the multitudes gather to meet Him as He approaches. Now this is one of the few events of the Lord’s earthly ministry that is recorded in all 4 Gospel accounts. And as we’re looking at this passage this morning, I want you to keep in mind what has happened before, because it will help you understand what’s taking place here.
Just a couple of days before this, Jesus restored Lazarus to life. Lazarus had been dead 4 days, and had already been placed in the tomb. But Jesus raised him up. Then the evening just prior to these events that we are reading about here, Mary had anointed Jesus with an expensive ointment called nard in its purest form. In other words; it’s now 5 days before the Passover. And what that means is that people from all over the known world have traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate. And often times, some of those celebrations included palm branches… The palm branch was kind of like a national symbol of patriotism, and had been for nearly 200 years, ever since Simon Maccabee had driven out the forces of Antiochus in 141 B.C. So think about it like this. On July 4th, you’ll see an uptick in the display of American flags. There will be little flags waving at parades, and displayed all over the nation. That’s kind of what the palm branch was like. So Jesus is getting almost a hero’s welcome here. And we’ll look at what all this signifies and means after we read the text.
Let’s go ahead and open your Bibles to the Gospel of John 12:9-19 (READ).
So, right off the bat, we see that there were already large crowds of people who had gone on to Bethany because they had heard about the miracle of raising Lazarus, and they wanted to see Jesus and Lazarus. And as Jesus leaves Bethany and heads out to go to Jerusalem, this crowd follows with Him, and even larger crowd from Jerusalem itself is going to go out and meet Him as He approaches, and they will all return to the city to begin the Passover celebrations. They’re going to be waving their palm branches, they’re going to be shouting “Hosanna!” Which literally means, “Save us now!” Or “Bring salvation now!” So in verse 13, that’s what they are saying, “Save us now!” Then they shouted “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.” And both of those, both “Hosanna” and “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord” come from Psalm 118:25-26. This was a Psalm of assent, that was sung in expectation of the Messiah, the Savior… but then the crowd adds one other part… they say, “… even the King of Israel!” Now that’s not from Psalm 118, They’re getting that from Zechariah 9:9, because Jesus is riding on a young donkey… and being that they added that extra little bit kind of shows us their intent, and how they see Jesus. They see Him as a political deliverer, like Simon Maccabee, who’s going to lead a revolution against the Roman Empire, and deliver Israel from Roman rule. They see Jesus as a physical Savior, who is going to end Roman oppression, and end economic inequality. They didn’t realize that Jesus was coming, and that He was going to die, in order to save them from the wrath of God. That He was coming to set them free from sins oppression, rather than political. And that’s why… in the end, they rejected Him, and turned on Him.
And that’s a theme we’ve seen over and over again in John’s Gospel.
Look with me at John 2:23-25 (READ)… What that’s saying is that they had certain beliefs about Jesus… they were jumping on the bandwagon… but Jesus knew what was in their heart. He knew that they had wrong expectations and that it was false faith. We could go on to John chapter 6 where Jesus fed the multitudes… 5000 men, not counting women and children, and those large crowds were ready to jump on the bandwagon then too… they wanted to follow Jesus, but it’s because they had these expectations about who He was, and what He was going to do, and once Jesus corrected them, they wanted nothing to do with Him. They turned away from Him… John 6:66 says, “After this many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him.”
We could go on… to John chapter 8, where Jesus explained that He was the light of the world, and then He rebuked the Pharisees, and John 8:30 says, that many believed in Jesus.
Was this saving faith? No… not according to the next few verses.
Because they had a misconception about the Person and the work of Jesus, and they had a misconception about God, and God’s people… so Jesus went on and explained to them that the true children of Abraham, and the true children of promise are those who have the faith of Abraham. So; in John 8:48, they turn on Him, they reject Him, and they commit blasphemy.
And now; here we are… We’ve got tens of thousands of people, waving palm branches, shouting out, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” But in five days’ time, they’ll be shouting, “Away with Him! Crucify Him!”
Now let me ask you a question this morning.
Why does John do this? Why does he give us example after example of people who apparently put their faith in Jesus, but later on we find out it wasn’t real, true, saving faith? Well he does this so that we can see the difference between the true and the false. The one crowd… they believed that Jesus was going to be a king who gave them whatever they wanted, food and water on demand, healing and miracles on demand. They were very much like the prosperity preachers we have today, but Jesus said, “No, following Me is about taking up your cross, not about having whatever you want.” The crowds here in today’s text, they believed that Jesus was going to be a king who ended social, political, and economical oppression, that Jesus would drive out the oppressive Roman Empire, and they would finally achieve their rightful place in the world. They are very much like the Social Justice/Critical Race Theory proponents of today, but they too were wrong. And once they realized that wasn’t what Jesus was about, they wanted Him dead! They wanted Him crucified! And Church, you’ve got to understand that this stuff we’re seeing today. It’s not new, it’s been tried before… There’s nothing new under the sun. To say that the purpose of Jesus’ death was to address economic, political, racial, social, and societal issues, rather than to justify man before a holy and righteous God, is to exchange the Gospel for a lie. And it’s true – a byproduct of being born again, is that we love our neighbor as we love ourselves, when we are born again, we should treat one another better, we should strive to show mercy, and grace, and love to one another. But like I said, that’s a byproduct of the Gospel, it’s not the Gospel itself. The Gospel is the good news that man can be reconciled to God, that man can be forgiven of his sin against God, that man can receive eternal life, when we were deserving of eternal death and condemnation, and wrath. To do what some are proposing, and to make the primary issue of the Gospel about solving or at the very least, going after things like oppression, and poverty, and gender and ethnic issues, is to make the primary focus of the Gospel about worldly issues and cares… and Jesus warns about that in Matthew 13:22. So let me just say it again. If you are a born again Christian who has truly been saved by the grace of God, you will be concerned about such things. You will love your neighbor, and care about your fellow man, but your primary care and concern for them will be that they are capable of standing before God, as a redeemed, and justified saint, who has been washed clean by the blood of Jesus! Yes, we want to help the poor, but shoveling money toward them is not always helpful or good, rather changing their worldview and mindset, and heart is what is going to have the most beneficial, long term, effect. Yes, we care deeply about women. I personally believe that any man who hits a woman is less than a man, and any man who rapes a woman should be castrated. I don’t even understand wy that statement seems controversial, but to some it is. But the thing is… if a person has truly been saved by the grace of God, and they are being sanctified by the Word of God, then guess what? They shouldn’t be doing this stuff to women or children anyway. Yes; we care deeply for the homosexual. We are greatly concerned for them, because we know that God’s Word is very clear concerning their eternal state. We urge them to repent, to stop glorifying creation rather than the creator, to turn to Christ, and follow Him.
And no we don’t agree that a person can be homosexual, or have same sex attraction and still be a Christian. To have such an unnatural attraction tells me that their desires are not redeemed, or transformed, that their mind and heart is still in darkness, and still twisted. To desire what is unnatural is a mark of being lost, not saved. And so we reject that teaching as dangerous, and even damnable, and out of love and concern for them, just as with any sinner, we call on them to repent and trust in Christ!
If you know history, then you know that the attacks against the truth of God’s Word tend to come in waves… first it will be a denial of the Inspiration of Scripture, and God raises up people who will speak the truth, and refute the false teachings… then it will be an attack on the Authority of Scripture, and God will raise up people who will speak the truth, and refute the false teachings… then it will be an attack on the Sufficiency of Scripture, and God will raise up people who will speak and teach the truth, and refute the false teachings… And then it will be some new, and novel way to interpret Scripture – that’s where your cults usually come from… and God will raise up faithful people who will refute the false teachings… And as we get closer to the return of the Lord, those waves will get higher and higher and come faster and faster, but God is faithful. And as the Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 2:11, not to be ignorant of the schemes of the devil… So we know what’s going on because, we’re not ignorant. We study Scripture, and we see that’s what the enemy of our soul does. He sends these attacks in waves against the foundation… against the Word of God. He wants to get you to question, “Did God really say?” And, then in the midst of those assaults, he’ll look for his own little Ephialtes.
Some of you are scratching your heads, going, “What did Pastor Ken just say?” No; I’m not speaking in tongues or anything… I’m referring to history. To the Battle of Thermopylae… it’s when 300 Spartans, and about 3700 other Greeks stood against hundreds of thousands of Persians. The Persians came at them wave after wave, after wave. But the Greeks held the pass. Until finally, the Greeks were betrayed by one of their own. A fellow Greek named Ephialtes. Or; if you want to stay strictly Biblical, we could just say – Judas.
Let me climb out of this rabbit hole and get back to the text…
So these crowds had expectations of Jesus, that were based on what they wanted, and what they thought, not based on what the Scripture actually teaches. They wanted a king, but not the kind of King Jesus was going to be… they wanted freedom… political freedom, not freedom from sin.
They wanted worldly possessions and provision, but not what Jesus was promising, or offering.
And don’t misunderstand this… the Bible is clear, that Jesus is a King… He is THE King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, and one day He will deliver His people who are oppressed, and enslaved, and downtrodden. ONE DAY. But that wasn’t His mission or His purpose in His first coming. He came to seek and save that which was lost. He came to satisfy the justice of God, and save us from the wrath of God. He came to redeem us, and forgive us, and give us eternal life… so that in the life to come we will experience eternity with Him, without the effects and ruin of sin.
That’s the blessed hope!
The day is coming when Jesus will return again, and He will make all things right, and set everything in order, and there will be no more sin. But the truth of the matter is – if you cannot accept the lowly, humble King, riding on a young donkey, who is put to shame, and who dies on a the cross for your sins, then you won’t be ready when He comes again, riding on a white horse, with the armies of heaven behind Him. And what John wants his readers to understand is that people can sing praises to a Jesus of their own design, they can sing praises for all these various things that He represents and communicates, and embodies, and still be among those who crucify Him on Friday! Remember that when you hear someone say that they are spiritual, and that they pray, and in the next breath advocate for the murder of the unborn. Remember that when a person quotes Scripture, and then affirms, or even lives the homosexual lifestyle.
The John who is writing this Gospel account is the same John who writes 1 John 3:4-10 (READ).
So what John is saying to us this morning is that you can believe all kinds of things about Jesus, but until you believe in Him as Savior and Lord, you’re just shouting vain “Hosannas”! He is Savior… meaning He saves us from the penalty, the power, and the presence of sin. And He is Lord… meaning we follow Him, and obey Him, and live and die for Him.
CLOSING
