Sunday - A Triumphal Entry With Tender Tears Series

A. Including today, we are eight Sundays away from Resurrection Sunday.

1. God has put it on my heart to do something I haven’t done in my 35 years here at Wetzel Road, and that is to preach a sermon series on the final week of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry.

a. I have preached through three of the four Gospels over the years, so we have worked through the final week of Jesus several times, but never as a separate series.

2. I’m calling this new series: “Final Week, Eternal Lessons”

3. This final week of Jesus’ life is often called “Holy Week.”

a. It actually includes 8 days.

b. It starts with the Sunday traditionally known as Palm Sunday – the day of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

c. And it ends with the Sunday traditionally known as Easter Sunday – the day that Jesus arose from the dead and made his first post-resurrection appearances.

4. Beginning with today, and for the next 7 Sundays, we will explore a day in the final week of Jesus’ life.

5. I want us to try to grasp the significance of each day for everyone involved, for Jesus, for the disciples, for the religious leaders. for the masses of Jewish pilgrims in Jerusalem, and then finally, for us.

6. I want for us to explore what Jesus and everyone else was thinking and feeling and understanding.

7. But most importantly, I want us to discover the eternal lessons that can we learn from what Jesus did and what He taught during the final week of His earthly life and ministry.

B. Today’s sermon is day #1 of the final week of Jesus’ life and I’ve titled today’s sermon: “Sunday: A Triumphal Entry with Tender Tears.”

1. I like the T-Minus counting system that NASA created for countdowns to rocket launches.

2. As we enter into the events on that Sunday, 2000 years ago in the life of Jesus, it was T-Minus 5 days until the crucifixion and T-Minus 7 days until the resurrection.

3. Can you imagine what it must have been like to be Jesus and to know that your death was 5 days ahead? That’s only about 120 hours away, give or take an hour or two.

4. How do you think you would feel if you knew you only had 120 hours left to live?

C. None of the events that took place in the final week of Jesus were a surprise to Him.

1. At least 3 times, Jesus had told His disciples exactly what was going to happen in Jerusalem.

2. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, just before the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, Jesus reminded them about what was going to happen to him in Jerusalem.

3. Here is how Luke reports it: 31 Then he took the Twelve aside and told them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. Everything that is written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. 32 For he will be handed over to the Gentiles, and he will be mocked, insulted, spit on; 33 and after they flog him, they will kill him, and he will rise on the third day.” 34 They understood none of these things. The meaning of the saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said. (Luke 18:31-34)

4. Jesus could not have been clearer, and yet the meaning of it was somehow hidden from them.

5. They were going to Jerusalem, and Jesus would be handed over to the Gentiles, then He would be mocked, spit on, flogged and killed, but then He would rise on the 3rd day.

D. A few days after making that prediction, the day for the Triumphal Entry arrived.

1. All four Gospels share this important event in the life of Jesus, and we will try to gain some insight from each of those Gospel accounts today.

2. Mark’s account begins: 1 When they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 2 and told them, “Go into the village ahead of you. As soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. 3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here right away.’ ” (Mark 11:1-3)

3. And so we see, that on that important Sunday, Jesus and His disciples left Bethany, and came near the village of Bethpage.

a. Bethany and Bethpage were about two miles from Jerusalem.

b. We know that, at least in the early part of His final week, Jesus and His disciples traveled back and forth from Bethany to Jerusalem each day, spending each day in Jerusalem and each night in Bethany.