Would you open your Bible with me, please, to Luke chapter 19? I'm glad I was born when I was. Back in 19—excuse me—I realized that I look quite young for having been born then, at least from what my wife says. But very seriously, I am glad I was born at a time when a part of Americana was disappearing. Back in the late 40s, when I was very young, and the early 50s, the culture that was centered around the family farm and the small town was quickly fading away.
I was raised on a farm like some of you were raised on a farm. Back in those days, it was a little different than today. A man and his wife and family could support themselves on a couple of hundred acres of ground. They might not become wealthy unless there happened to be oil under an acre or two of it, which was pretty rare. But they could support themselves. Today it's nearly impossible. Just nearly impossible. Life was slower then.
I'm not sure it was the good old days, but it was the old days. I remember going to town on Saturdays. That was a big deal. We got a bath for one thing. We went to town to socialize. You see, farmers were isolated by miles of dusty roads, lack of communication. And Saturday night was the night to go to town, maybe to take in a movie, but certainly to talk with neighbors and friends that you didn't see any other time. Now as a child, I can remember going in with my parents and my grandparents.
And while we played up and down the street and went into stores and out of stores and didn't shoplift a thing, the old folks, my parents, and my grandparents would stand out on the curb and greet people as they thronged up and down the streets. That's just the way it was back in those days. You don't do that anymore. People go to the big towns, the big cities to do their shopping, and Saturday night is very little different than any other night in small towns anymore.
Our little town, Main Street, was called Broadway. What else would you call it? And it was broad. It was the broadest street in town made out of bricks. And it was two blocks long. Believe it or not, it was actually that long. Two blocks and the stores went off about one block on either side, but Broadway, two blocks long. And on that night, on Saturday night, it was absolutely packed. Cars up and down the street and down the side streets and people everywhere.
Now some of you can relate to that. Others of you cannot. But I want you to know that that's sort of like what it was in Jerusalem when the Passover feast came around. People came from all over the nation of Israel to Passover. In fact, people came from different parts of the world at that time to be in Jerusalem for Passover feast. It was one of the three feasts every year in which the males were supposed to come to Jerusalem.
There were a number of purposes in that, but one of them was simply to bring the nation together on a regular basis so that they would stay unified. And it was a time for them to socialize. When these occasions came, they thronged to Jerusalem and there would see their friends. And it was a big party atmosphere. It was a festival for the people of Israel.
Josephus tells us that on this particular Passover, when Jesus was there in his last week of ministry, there were offered in the temple 256,500 lambs. Did you catch that? That's more than they sell on the market at St. Paul every day, and then some. A quarter of a million lambs were offered in the Passover season at this particular one.
Now, because of the number of people that a lamb would typically represent, Bible students estimate that Jerusalem was jammed at Passover with more than 2,500,000 people. More people than live in all of the Twin Cities area jammed into the city of Jerusalem and its environs at this Passover. It was bustling. Crowds were everywhere. The inns were filled. The citizens of Jerusalem customarily opened up their homes and took in visitors at Passover.
In addition to that, the hills and the fields around Jerusalem were filled with tents or other means of temporary housing. In Jerusalem itself, the streets echoed with the sound of laughter, of bargaining, and greeting. There was the den of carts, of animal hooves, and the bleeding of sheep filled the air. At Passover in Jerusalem, there's the sweet smell of spring blossoms, the smell of breads baking in home ovens, animal dung, and sweaty travelers, all of that mingled together.
And beyond all of that, anticipation hung in the air like humidity. On the 14th of Nisan, the first month of the Jewish year, the lamb for each family was purchased and taken to the temple. There it was killed. Its fat was burned, its blood was offered on the altar, and then the carcass was hung up to be claimed later and taken home by the family for roasting and eating.
Now it was on an occasion such as that which I've described that the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, came to Jerusalem to present Himself as the Messiah of the nation of Israel. Up to this point, He had largely sought to keep quiet the news of His Messiahship. On numerous occasions, He would say to those who were healed, tell no one about this. But now in the final few days of His earthly ministry, He did everything that He could to bring attention to Himself and to His claim as Messiah.
The arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem at this Passover was one of triumph and tragedy. I'd like to think about that thought with you this morning. How was the arrival of Jesus at this Passover a triumph? Well I say that it was a triumph for at least four reasons. In the first place, it was a triumph because He openly presented Himself as their King and Messiah. At His baptism some three years before, we observed that Jesus identified Himself as their Messiah.
He was called by John the Baptist, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The Holy Spirit came down upon Him in the form of a dove. God the Father spoke from heaven saying, this is my Son in whom I am well pleased. We see there the identification of Him as their Messiah. Then in His ministry, His teaching, His miracles, we observe His authentication as Messiah. For everything that He said and did was purpose to authenticate His claim.
In the transfiguration that we've looked at, we observe His revelation as Messiah. For His deity burst through His skin until He's shown and His clothing shown as white and as bright as the sun itself. And now at this Passover, we observe His presentation as Messiah. Jesus identified Himself in what He did with Old Testament prophecy. As we have read this morning, Zechariah said, your King will come riding on a donkey.
And the Jews commonly knew that that was to be the way that Messiah would come to them. Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, I should say in Bethany, probably on Saturday evening, perhaps Friday evening, and stayed overnight with Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. And on the next day, sent His disciples to get a full, a young, unbroken colt of a donkey. Matthew tells us that the mother came along with the colt.
Then Jesus rode upon that colt into the city of Jerusalem, knowing and expecting that the people would understand that this was a sign to them that He was their King, not coming on a white charger, but coming on a humble and lowly, peaceful beast of burden. And Jesus, furthermore, accepted their exclamations. Let's look at them in Luke chapter 19.
It says in verse 28, after He had said these things, He was going ahead ascending to Jerusalem and it came about that when He approached Bethphage and Bethany, near the mount that is called Olivet, He sent two of the disciples saying, Go into the village opposite you, in which as you enter you will find a colt tide on which no one yet has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. And if anyone asks you, why are you untying it, thus shall you speak, the Lord has need of it.
Those who were sent went away and found it just as He had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, Why are you untying the colt? And they said, The Lord has need of it. And they brought it to Jesus and they threw their garments on the colt and put Jesus on it. And as He was going, they were spreading their garments in the road, which was a way of acknowledging royalty.
And as He was now approaching near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen saying, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest.
And so going back to some of the phrases of the Old Testament, particularly Psalm 118, a psalm which spoke about Messiah, they praised Him and Jesus accepted this praise because now He was openly presenting Himself as their King and their Messiah. This was a moment of triumph for Him because of that. Here's a second reason I believe that we can say it was a triumph. That is because He presented Himself in exact fulfillment of an Old Testament prediction.
I would like you to turn to the book of Daniel. And when you found Daniel, look in chapter 9 where Daniel has been praying, praying regarding a vision God had given to him. And God sends an angel to him, Gabriel interestingly, who gives him instruction regarding things to come. We'll begin in verse 24 where the angel is speaking to Daniel.
He says, 70 weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, obviously the Jews in Jerusalem, to finish the transgression, that is the apostasy of Israel in view, to make an end of sin, that is to seal it up literally by judging it, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. Each of these phrases is just dripping with meaning.
But let's summarize it by saying that the angel was saying to Daniel, there are 70 weeks that have been decreed for the Jews in Jerusalem. Seventy weeks until the kingdom arrives, the fullness of Messianic times. Seventy weeks, now what does that mean? Literally it says 77s, not 70 weeks, but 77s. And we know from further revelation that each day stood for a year. So with 70 periods of seven years or 490 years is what the angel was saying to Daniel.
Until the kingdom would come, the fullness of Messianic times. Now he says in verse 25, so you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah, the prince, there will be seven weeks and 62 weeks or 69 altogether. In other words, 483 years. It will be built again with plaza and moat even in times of distress. That is the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem as Daniel is living was in shambles that had been conquered by the Babylonians.
The angel says there is going to be a decree issued that Jerusalem be rebuilt. Was that ever issued? Yes. By our exerxes in 444 BC. That began the ticking of God's clock toward the fulfillment of 483 years when it says there the prince would come. Bible students have studied this and approached it from several ways and with different timelines.
But inevitably it comes to this point that from the time of the issuing of that decree until that Palm Sunday when Jesus went into Jerusalem on a donkey was 483 years. His going into Jerusalem that day was triumph because it was the fulfillment of specific Old Testament prophecy. If you try to figure that out remember it's lunar years and there are some other complications to it. But that's how it figures out.
It goes on to say in verse 26, then after the 62 weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, that is nothing of his royal rights. That is he came into Jerusalem when the 483 years or the 69 weeks were fulfilled. And after that he was cut off, that is he was killed, he was crucified and had none of his royal rights. And then it goes on to predict that the people of the prince who is to come. Now if you look at Daniel you find out that that person is Antichrist.
The people of the prince who is to come, who is that? That's the Romans. For Antichrist arises in the latter days out of the Roman Empire as it will be revived. So before there was ever a Rome, Rome was identified by Gabriel in this verse. The people of the prince who will come, what does he say about them? They will destroy the city, Jerusalem, and the sanctuary. When did that happen? Approximately 40 years after Jesus' crucifixion.
The city of Jerusalem was besieged and destroyed by the Roman armies. The prophecy goes on, and we don't have time to cover it this morning, but the prophecy goes on to tell that last week only 69 of the 70 weeks were fulfilled. And then God's clock stopped for Israel. And God in this age has been doing something new that was not revealed in the Old Testament, calling out a people of Jew and Gentile to belong to the church, the body of Christ.
But that clock is still stopped with seven years to go. And those seven years are the seven years of the tribulation that come at the end of this age after the rapture of the church. And when those seven years have been fulfilled, then the time of the kingdom and Messianic fullness will be fulfilled upon the earth.
Now we've had to say more about that than we have time to say, but my point for this morning is that when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday, it was a triumph because it was the fulfillment of a specific prophecy in the Old Testament as to when he would do it at the end of 483 years from 444 B.C. And that's when it was.
But the third reason why it was a triumph, because he presented himself on the very day when the Passover lamb was selected by the families of Israel, the tenth of Nisan. God commanded them on the tenth day of the month to select the lamb. And then it was to be proven, it was to be tested, to be sure it was perfect for four days before it was sacrificed on the fourteenth. Palm Sunday was on the tenth of Nisan.
Jesus entered into Jerusalem as the lamb of God presenting himself to the nation on the very day that they as a people were gathering lambs, which were to be tested and four days later sacrificed at the Passover the day that Jesus was crucified. This was a triumph because he presented himself to them on that day, the day of the lamb's selection. And finally, I want to say it was a triumph because he presented himself just as he had been determined to do throughout his ministry.
I'd like you to turn again to the Gospel of Luke in the ninth chapter. I want you to remember with me that earlier in the ninth chapter, specifically verse 22, Jesus had revealed to the disciples for the first time why he was going to Jerusalem, what was going to happen there. He was going to suffer. He was going to die. He was going to be raised from the dead.
Now it says in verse 51, it came about when the days were approaching for his ascension, that is his return to heaven, that he resolutely set his face to go to Jerusalem. I want you to notice his determination. And it does not work to say he didn't know what was going to happen in Jerusalem because he had just told them a few days before exactly what was going to happen there. But now more than ever before, he is determined to press on from Jericho up that 17-mile road eventually to Jerusalem.
Now if you look on with me to chapter 13, verse 22, you see the continuation of this theme in Luke. And he was passing through from one city and village to another, teaching and proceeding on his way to Jerusalem. Chapter 17 and verse 11, and it came about while he was on his way to Jerusalem that he was passing between Samaria and Galilee.
Chapter 18, verse 31, and he took the twelve aside and said to them, behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. Chapter 19, verse 11, and while they were listening to these things, he went on to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem. Verse 28, and after he had said these things, he was going on ahead, ascending to Jerusalem.
The Lord Jesus was pressing his way toward Jerusalem, determined to go there and to suffer and to die and to be raised again to accomplish redemption for humankind. It was a triumph because as he entered Jerusalem that Sunday, it meant that he had arrived to the point toward which he had pressed for those weeks and months preceding his arrival there. It was a triumph when Jesus entered Jerusalem, but it was also a tragedy.
It was a tragedy which is measured, I think, by four responses that we see in our text in the Gospel of Luke and in a couple of other places. It was a tragedy in the first place because of the response of the religious leaders. We have already read verse 38 where the crowds cried out in his praise. In verse 39 it says, and some of the Pharisees and the multitudes said to him, teacher, rebuke your disciples. You see, they understood what these words meant, which the multitude was shouting.
They said, rebuke them. Don't you hear what they're saying to you? And he answered and said, I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out. Here we see the response of rejection on the part of the religious leaders, the Pharisees, at least some of them. They were saying to Jesus, stop them from saying these things. We don't agree. We do not receive you as Messiah. Stop the multitudes. Things are going to get carried away.
Jesus says, if they don't say it, the stones themselves will shout my praise. The response of rejection. And we see it continue on then through the next week leading up to that point when they culminated their plot to arrest him and put him to death. Now there were some of the Pharisees indeed who did believe, but secretly because they feared their peers. But for the most part, these religious leaders, those many of whom recognized him, rejected him.
They did not want him because he would interfere with their power and their authority in the nation. He exposed their hypocrisy. He revealed their external righteousness, self-righteousness, and their lack of internal true righteousness. And they hated him for it. But then we see another response. Verse 41, when he approached, he saw the city. You have to understand something of the geography of Jerusalem to see what this is saying. And Luke is the only one who tells us about this.
Jerusalem as a city is established itself on a mountain called Mount Zion. But then just to the east of the city is a deep ravine through which flows the brook of Kidron. And on the other side of that ravine, on the other side of the brook, directly opposite the city, is the Garden of Gethsemane. That garden is at the bottom of a larger mountain, 300 feet higher than Mount Zion, called the Mount of Olives. And on over that mountain, and to the east and to the south of it was the city of Bethany.
That's where Jesus started on this day. And so He was coming. The crowds who had gathered at Bethany going before Him, praising Him, He was coming up to the top of the Mount of Olives. And then He got to a certain point. There's a very beautiful point. It's a point today where, believe it or not, there is an intercontinental Hilton Hotel. Can you believe that?
It is a point right there at the crest of the Mount of Olives where you look out and you see the whole city of Jerusalem laid out before you. It is one of the most fabulously beautiful sites in all of the world. And as you look at it yet today, you can see the temple area because built there is the Mosque of Oman, the Muslim Mosque. And it's still a sacred place. And there right at the corner of the city, and the mosque there, you can just imagine the temple as it must have been in that day.
And when Jesus got there to this point where the whole city was laid out before Him, He begins to weep. Not silently as He had at the grave of Lazarus, but the words here mean loud lamentation. A morning He was crying out as tears flowed down His cheeks. And He said, if you had known in this day even you the things which make for peace, but now they have been hidden from your eyes. What is He saying?
Oh, if you had only received Me, if you had only understood and believed and opened your arms to Me truly as your Messiah. You see, Jesus understood that the nation as a whole rejected Him, even as some of the people shouted His praise. And He wept for the fact that the city was going to experience destruction as was the nation.
For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank before you and surround you and hem you in on every side and will level you to the ground and your children within you. And they will not leave in you one stone upon another because you did not recognize the time of your visitation. Here is a tragedy. A tragedy is measured in the tears of Jesus in His sorrow.
As He sees that the nation, while some are exclaiming His praise, the nation as a whole is rejecting Him and soon He will be on a cross. He weeps. He weeps not for His own death, but for the unbelief of the Jewish nation and for the destruction that would come upon them within a few decades because of that unbelief. We will not take time to turn there, but in John chapter 12 we see another response on this occasion. It was from Jesus' disciples themselves, the response of misunderstanding.
They did not perceive what was going on. It seems a little hard to believe until we examine our own hearts and how hard-hearted we can be in perceiving what God is doing. But somehow the disciples did not understand until after Jesus had been raised from the dead what all of these things meant going on around them. I tell you that makes me cry out and say, oh God, make me understand what You're doing in our day. Lord, I don't want to miss what You're doing in my generation.
Give me an understanding of the times You called me to live in. Then we see another response. It is with the multitudes within the city. Matthew tells us about this. Now remember, there are two and a half million people in Jerusalem. Only a few hundred thousand at the most are citizens of the city. Half of the population of Judea and half of the population of Galilee were all in Jerusalem at that time.
And you have the scene of people coming from Bethany with a man riding on a donkey and they're exclaiming his praise and then out of the city, the word has arrived in the city that he is coming. And there's a group that comes out of the city and somewhere near the Mount of Olives they join together and converge and usher him into the city. But there are hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people there. And many of them are asking, who is this? They didn't know. They did not know who he was.
Tragedy. That they could be there on that day, there in the very heart of what God was doing in the world not only at that time but for all of the ages and not know, be ignorant. But how like the multitudes today, which are ignorant of what God is doing and what God has done, many do not know because they have never heard, they have never been told. And yet many also do not know because they have not listened well.
People like you work with, people like we live around, friends, relatives of ours who are ignorant of what this all means. It was a tragedy for those reasons. Because the nation was looking for a ruling Messiah to give them political deliverance and not a suffering Messiah to provide them spiritual deliverance, they turned upon him within days. Some of those crying out, bless him, on this occasion, would cry, crucify him before long.
The triumph begun on Palm Sunday would appear to end in permanent tragedy as the week concluded with the stone at the grave being sealed and the guard set. But my friend, if his entrance from the Mount of Olives was a triumph, I want you to know that his exit from Mount Calvary was even more so. Yes, he may have been dead when he was taken down from the cross and put in that tomb, but it was not the death of defeat, it was the death of victory.
For he himself said just before he gave up his spirit to his father, it is finished. And that was not a cry of defeat, it was a cry of triumph. For the wrath of God had been satisfied for human sin. The price had been paid for you and for me to no relief, to no release, to no redemption from our sin. His cry was one of victory and not finality. He had suffered for sin. He had paid its terrible price.
God's wrath for mankind's sin had now been vented and satisfied as it was inflicted upon his beloved Son for our sake. That's why I titled the message this morning, The Triumphal Entry and Exit, because when he exited from this world, that cross, it was a triumph. But I must say that it is a tragedy beyond measurement and beyond description.
When one who has had every spiritual advantage, like the Jews of old, rejects Jesus Christ and dies in unbelief, that is a tragedy that cannot be measured, it cannot be adequately described when one has grown up able to hear and has heard and yet rejects Christ and turns from him. How can you measure the tragedy of an endless hell? But it is also a triumph of eternal importance when Jesus Christ is received into the heart of a repentant sinner and thus becomes that person's Savior and Lord.
Every one of us here this morning is either on his or her way to tragedy or to triumph. The tragedy of a Christless eternity or the triumph of forgiveness and eternal life with Jesus Christ. The way we are going depends upon what we do, what our response is to the Savior. Jerusalem on that day spoke his praise outwardly, but within days put him on the cross. It is possible to come to church on Palm Sunday and sing the hymns and go through all that we do and yet in your heart not receive him.
But would you today, would you receive him, would you open your heart, would you ask him to come in by faith as many as received him, to them he gave the authority to become the sons of God. Let's pray. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, I wonder on this Palm Sunday if there is someone here whose life is tragic now and headed toward eternal tragedy, who would trust in the Savior, trust him alone for the forgiveness of your sins. Would you today receive him and reject him no longer?
Would you lift your hand and put it down? Granted lifting the hand is not just what it takes, it is the hard attitude. God bless you. I am glad, sir. Is there someone else? I will today as an act of faith turn from my sins and turn from what I have trusted in and turn to the Savior and receive him. Is there another? Yes, sir. Someone else. Today I am trusting him for my salvation, him alone. Father, I thank you for these who have lifted the hand today.
Seeing by that act their heart decision to trust the Savior, to receive him, I pray that as they are born again by the work of God's Spirit, you will cause them now to grow in your family. Father, thank you for reminding us this morning of the triumph of Jesus and that even out of what some call tragedy there is triumph because of his victory for us at the cross, at the tomb that we celebrate next week. In his name, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
It's a privilege for us this morning at the end of this service to welcome into our church those who have in the last couple of weeks, last month rather, been accepted into the membership and I would like for them to come forward. So as I call your name, would you please step out and come right here to the front so our church family can greet you after the service. Mel and Virginia Gabrielson, Susan Boych, Julie Bleethorn, Sandy Sullivan, and Jeff Baker.
Those of you present in the service, would you come quickly? Thank you.