Take your Bibles and open up with me this morning to Matthew chapter 20. I'm gonna start there in verses 17 through 19 and then move to chapter 21, verses 1 through 11. But for this week, for this morning, as we are celebrating around the world Palm Sunday, remembering the triumphal entry. I've sent out to you links from the Gospels for a chronological reading throughout the day where Jesus and the disciples were each day of the week up until his crucifixion and resurrection. And we know by looking at that chronology closely that he actually made that triumphal entry on Monday, but we celebrate it on Sunday as Palm Sunday. And then we'll have a good Friday service, Friday evening, enjoy a time of fellowship and preaching and communion, and then next Sunday, celebrating what we, by the way, celebrate every Sunday, the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To do that, I'm actually gonna take this Sunday, Friday, next Sunday, and the Sunday after that, to preach a little four-part series here, not that it's ever little or short, but we're gonna get to it quickly, titled The Road to Redemption. We're looking at the fact that as Jesus set his face to go to the cross with determination and with willingness, at first, there was rejoicing and celebration. We'll see that this morning with the triumphal entry. Then there was rejection that happened at the hands of the religious leaders and the Romans as he was put on trial, mocked, scourged, and crucified. And then we will see the resurrection The Sunday after that, we will look at what we do now. Now that he is risen, what does that mean for us? And what is our mission? What are we to be about? Because we serve a risen savior. Might've heard the song, I serve a risen savior. He's in the world today. I know that he's living. Whatever men may say. Well, as Jesus announced to his disciples, what we're reading in verses 17 through 19, is an announcement, and this is the third or fourth time, I think, here in Matthew, that he says that he's going to go and be mocked and scourged and crucified, and this time he says he's gonna be raised on the third day. He's preparing the disciples. Of course, they didn't understand it. John's gospel tells us they didn't realize what he was saying to them. This was so unfathomable to them. They couldn't accept it at all. Peter had the mindset when Jesus said they were gonna come and take him and turn him over and he was gonna die, that Peter was like, well, I'm gonna fight to the death to make sure that doesn't happen. After the resurrection, John tells us, they remembered what he had said. And at that point, it's like your Christian life. When you go through a trial or a struggle, And Christ brings you out the other side and you look back and you see it and you go, oh, I see what he was saying all along. And it's not that we hadn't heard it. It's just that we hadn't heard it. We weren't listening. We missed it. He tells the disciples as Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, he took the 12 disciples aside by themselves. And on the way, he said to them, behold, we are going up to Jerusalem and the son of man will be betrayed to the chief priests and scribes. and they will condemn him to death. And they will deliver him over to the Gentiles to mock and flog and crucify him. And on the third day, he will be raised up." Now, we wonder why the disciples missed it, because you can't be any more clear. Not only did he say he was gonna be turned over, delivered up, he said that he was gonna be put to death. He gave them the means of that death. It was going to be crucifixion, and along with crucifixion came the mocking and the flogging, the scourging, as they would put a criminal, a terrorist, a murderer to death. You understand, by the way, that the Romans did not crucify Romans. They crucified conquered peoples. as a means of public execution to shame the people and to keep them in line so that they would not act out or rebel against the empire. It was truly terroristic, a gruesome death that was meant to be a shameful public display. But Jesus here goes on and finishes the thought, on the third day, he will be raised up. As we move then to chapter 21, this road to redemption takes us through rejoicing crowds as he comes to enter Jerusalem, ending the week with the rejection at Calvary and finally the resurrection from the garden tomb. But we're gonna look this morning at the triumphal entry, perhaps from a different perspective than previously, to look at the expectation of several groups of people as this was happening. We know that Jesus knew this was coming. Not only had he told them that he was going to be delivered up and mocked and scourged and put to death and crucified, but we know from the account here that there was a donkey with a colt tied up and waiting. And he basically gave the disciples the password. The Lord needs use of them. And that was the sign. I mean, who else is just going to let their donkeys wander off with two men they don't know? Well, this had to have been prearranged. And we know that it happened in fulfillment of prophecy. We know too that there are several groups of people. There are the disciples who seem pretty clueless because he says he's going to be crucified. And the very next paragraph there in chapter 20 is the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons bowing down and making a request of him. What was the request? My sons are your best disciples. They should sit on your right and your left. Well, be careful what you ask for. He's about to go to the cross. Do you really want to be that close? We know at the time of his betrayal, they all fled and hid. Another group was the group of Galileans coming in a pilgrimage up to Jerusalem for the Passover. As they were coming to celebrate, Jesus and his disciples were likely traveling with that group of people. They had seen his miracles. He had been to Jerusalem before. Now he's coming back. Word had spread that he had raised Lazarus from the dead there in Bethany. They knew what he had done and what people were saying about him. There were murmurings among the crowd. Maybe he's the Messiah. For sure we know he is at least a prophet. So as he's coming and their crowd is murmuring and they're beginning to wonder and they begin to put together the prophecy and they begin to see what's happening. They start to get excited because their king is coming. Redemption is nigh. Another crowd was a crowd waiting within Jerusalem. Those who lived there, who saw this horde of Hicks coming up from the North, you understand they're North and South, similar to our North and South, they didn't get along. And it was the country folk from the north that were coming down to where the city folk were in the south. And as they were coming, they had this person who had supposedly done miracles and raised people from the dead. And they were claiming him to be the king and possibly even the Messiah. And they knew nothing good comes out of Nazareth and Galilee. How could he be? No, you're kidding me. So we have political expectations. because the Messiah, you know, was coming to free the people from Rome, to establish the kingdom of God where Israel would rule the world. The people in Jerusalem, they were certain that he wasn't. They would have been in the crowd that cried out, give us Barabbas, crucify Jesus. He's just another revolt leader, rabble rouser, Messiah wannabe. Just put him to death because the more he preaches, the worse Rome treats us. And again, the disciples watching all of this, taking it in, writing it down. We know that as Jesus was on the road now to Jerusalem, again, I said he knew what was coming. He knew the agony that he was going to face. He knew, and we know he knew because he packed so much teaching into this week. We read through John chapter 13, 14, 15, and 16, all the way up to his high priesthood prayer in 17. All of those chapters, all of that teaching is during this week. And in fact, most of that is all on Thursday of this week before he went to the garden that night to pray. We knew that he understood the shame and the suffering that was involved. That's why he had come to be obedient to death, even death on a cross. Hebrews 12 reminds us, therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily entangles us, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. It's amazing to me in the midst of the agony of this week, Jesus, we're told constantly, is joyful and thankful. He went to the cross for the joy that was set before him. As he broke the Passover bread and said, this is my body, before he even did that, he prayed and gave thanks, giving thanks to God for the bread that represented his body that was gonna be mocked and scourged and put to death. His blood was going to be shed. His life, that is, was going to be laid down He was going to face mocking and scourging. In Isaiah 50, it was prophesied, Lord Yahweh has opened my ear and I did not rebel, nor did I turn back. I gave my back to those who strike me and my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard. I did not hide my face from dishonor and spitting. He knew the shame that was about to come. He knew what he was about to have to endure, enduring the judgment. We've talked about this judgment as we've read about it in the book of Ezekiel and in the book of Jeremiah. the full wrath of God on the sins of his people. And he says there, I didn't rebel, nor did I turn back. Isaiah 50 is a prophecy of the garden where he says, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. To willingly and intentionally go to the cross, to be deliberate about it. In Isaiah 53, He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hid their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our peace fell upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each one has turned to his own way. But Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter, like a sheep that is silent before its shearers. So he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. And as for his generation who considered that he was cut off of the land of the living, that for the transgression of my people, striking was due to him, So his grave was assigned with wicked men, yet he was with the rich man in his death because he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth. John 10, 18, Jesus said, no one takes it away from me, speaking of his life, but from myself, I lay it down. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from my father. You understand the dynamics of what's happening in this final week. Jesus is fulfilling the commands of the father to him. He's submitting to the father. The father isn't asking Jesus if you want to go. The father is telling Jesus, go. And Jesus says, is there any other way? If there's any other way, take the cup away. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Now, when we look at the cross and we see the agony of the garden and we understand the horrors of bearing up into the wrath of God, hanging on the cross in that darkness, crying out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The week starts off with the triumphal entry. And we think in reading this that the crowd knew that Jesus was the Messiah, and so they're praising him as if he were. A careful reading of this text, though, proves that that is not the case at all. They wanted him to be their Messiah, but they did not want him to be the Messiah that he was. This exuberance, this triumph, this hosanna in the highest is actually, for most of the crowd, a misplaced hope that their lives are going to get better. that they're gonna get rid of the oppression of Rome, that the promises of God are going to be fulfilled. They're not looking for a savior from sin. They're looking for a savior from suffering. Here, as he comes, we read. And when they had approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, go into the village opposite you and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her, untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, the Lord has need of them. And immediately he will send them. And this took place in order that what was spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled saying, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you lowly and mounted on a donkey. and on a colt, the foal of a pack animal. And the disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them and brought the donkey and the colt and laid their garments on them. And he sat on the garments and most of the crowd spread their garments in the road and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. And the crowds going ahead of him and those who followed were crying out saying, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, who is this? And the crowds were saying, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee. I have to admit that while we usually hear this preached as a moment of praise and exaltation for Christ, in studying and looking at this, the very next thing he does after this reception is to go to the temple and cleanse it. Knock over tables. to drive out those who are doing business in the house of the Lord. His reaction to what is happening with this crowd and with the religious leaders is one of holy anger. He's trying to make a point, coming in, riding on the colt, the foal of a donkey. He's living the parable, fulfilling the prophecy. He's coming in a manner that is meek and lowly. As we read, what happened in Zechariah there is what's quoted. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Make a loud shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and endowed with salvation. Lofty and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a pack animal. Verse 10 goes on, I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem and the bow of war will be cut off and he will speak peace to the nations and his reign will be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. Jesus in coming has prepared the way. Now he's presenting himself in a way that is meek and lowly. He's not coming in as a military conqueror. If he was coming as a king returning from victorious combat, he would have come in either marching in front of his troops or on a chariot with everyone cheering. But Zechariah 9, 10 says he's cut off the chariot. He's not on a horse. Now what's he riding when he comes back? A white stallion. obviously posed in victory and dominion but now he's coming not as a king to reign but as the prince of peace to die, the suffering servant. They expected a king in their messiah. They expected somebody to come and free them from being under the foot of Rome. They'd always cried out. They wanted to be free from Egypt. And as soon as they got free, they complained. We want to go back to Egypt. They were sent into exile. They wanted to get out of exile. As soon as they came back to exile, they stopped doing what they were supposed to doing and didn't even rebuild the temple. It took them 11 years before they actually got to work rebuilding the temple because they were apathetic and disobedient, weren't happy with where they were. Now they're under the foot of Rome and they're not happy about that either. And their hope is maybe the Savior will come. Maybe the Messiah will come and he'll make life better. That sounds like the easy believism being preached today, doesn't it? I just want to take Jesus and add him to my life, and this is how he's being preached. Just add Jesus as a component to your life, and everything will be better. Now, by a show of hands, I know we usually don't raise hands, we're not Baptocostal, but by a show of hands, how many of you, your life has been absolutely, perfectly, wonderful with no turmoil, suffering, or struggle since you accepted Christ? Anybody? We struggle. We're in the world, but not of it. We're not supposed to love the world or have its priorities. God's ways are not our ways, and they're certainly not the world's ways. His ways are above all of us. But here he comes, not in a chariot, not on a horse, not with battle bows like a conquering king, but on a young donkey. And in fact, the word that's used for the foal of the donkey, this is the offspring of a donkey that had never been ridden before. believed by several commentators that's why mama had to be brought along to calm baby because somebody was going to be riding him for the first time. So they make a makeshift saddle by laying their cloaks over the fold of the donkey and the people seeing him riding in With this expectation, we're coming up to town for the Passover. We've made this pilgrimage. We've talked of our yearning for the Messiah to come. We want to be free. We want to be out and done with the suffering under Rome. We want deliverance. And here Jesus is coming with us, traveling in this group from Galilee, and he has healed people. He's done signs and wonders. He's cast out demons. He's even raised the dead. We know he is at least a prophet. Maybe, and they ask, maybe, maybe could he be the Savior? Could this be the one that we've been waiting for? And in the zeal of what was happening now, they literally roll out the red carpet. to say that they took branches, palm branches and cloaks and laid them over the road. This is what they used to do for the kings in the Old Testament. This was literally to lay out the red carpet for him to come in on. This was giving Jesus a royal reception. In 2 Kings 9, Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, Gird up your loins and take this flask of oil in your hand. Go to Ramoth Gilead, and you will come there and look there for Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. And you will come in and bid him arise for among his brothers, and you will cause him to come into an inner room. Then you will take the flask of oil, pour it on his head and say, Thus says Yahweh, I have anointed you king over Israel. Verse 11, now Jehu came out to the servants of his master and one said to him, is all well, why did this mad fellow come to you? Speaking of the prophet. He said to them, you know this man and his talk. And they said, it's a lie. What did he say? Declare it to us now. He said, thus and thus, he said to me, thus says Yahweh, I have anointed you king over Israel. Their immediate reaction then was they hurried and each man took his garment and placed it under him on the bare steps and blew the trumpet saying, Jehu is king. The crowd, in messianic anticipation, quotes Psalm 118, verses 25 and 26. Oh, Yahweh, save. Oh, Yahweh, succeed. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of Yahweh. We have blessed you from the house of Yahweh. The mix in here is from Psalm 118 and also from Isaiah chapter 60. You put the verses together and the crowd cries out, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you lowly and mounted on a donkey and on a colt, the foal of a pack animal. Here he comes and they cry out, Hosanna. The term Hosanna means literally deliver us or save us. And it means immediately, do it now. This is not a prayer for salvation in the future or deliverance in the future. This is save me now. This is Peter sinking in the waves. And he cried out for Jesus to save him. He more than likely cried out in Aramaic. If he had cried out in Hebrew, it would have been Hosanna. And that's just actually just a transliteration of the word in the Hebrew. Hosanna, save now. They cry out, son of David, deliver us. In Matthew back in chapter 20. when they referred to him as the son of David, that was a clear indicator because they knew that the Messiah would be of the lineage and of the kingdom of David. And just before we got here to this triumphal entry, the very last thing in chapter 20, as they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him, and behold, two blind men sitting by the road. Hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, Lord, have mercy on us, son of David. But the crowd sternly told him to be quiet, but they cried out all the more, saying, Lord, son of David, have mercy on us. And Jesus stopped and called him and said, what do you want me to do for you? They said to him, Lord, that our eyes be opened and moved with compassion. Jesus touched their eyes and immediately they regained their sight and followed him. You see, Matthew 20 shows us what should have happened. Matthew 21 shows us a people who didn't understand when they cried out, son of David, deliver us. They put their trust in Christ and asked for their sight and he gave them their sight. And what did they do? They followed him. Now the crowd coming into Jerusalem from Galilee with him coming into the gates, they're crying out these messianic praises. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. They are confessing this is God's representative. They use the phrase there, Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the highest. That means save us now and everywhere. To the praise of your name, to show the power of your glory, do this immediately and do it everywhere. Don't hesitate. Don't hold back. This reminded me of Psalm 148. Praise YAH. Praise Yahweh from the heavens. Praise Him in the heights. Praise Him, all His angels. Praise Him, all His hosts. Praise Him, sun and moon. Praise Him, all stars of light. Praise Him, heaven of heavens and the waters that are above the heavens. Let them praise the name of Yahweh, for He commanded and they were created. He caused them to stand forever and ever. He gave a statute and it will never pass away. Praise Yahweh from the earth, sea monsters and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and clouds, stormy wind doing his word, mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and winged birds, kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all judges of the earth, both choice men as well as virgins, the old with the young, Let them praise the name of Yahweh, for his name alone is set on high. His splendor is above earth and heaven, and he has raised up a horn for his people. Praise him for all his holy ones, for the sons of Israel, a people near to him. Praise YAH. Now, you read that, and I'm reminded in contrasting the two. We read Psalm 148, and here's the idea. That's John Owen or Jonathan Edwards, okay? They want to write out the concept of praising God, and they are going to give you lots of reasons that you need to be praised. Everyone of them true and right, but they just go on and on. Have you ever known a preacher to do that? We've joked about it in preacher circles. Is he ever gonna land that plane? Coming around again. Oh, there he goes again. Oh, coming around again. Oh, caught his wind back. You see what the spirit of God does here with this crowd is it condenses Psalm 148, all of those reasons to praise him. And it summarizes it this way. Praise him in the highest. Praise him everywhere and for everything because he's come to save us. Now, not that it's not wrong that the crowd should cry this out. It was prophesied that they would. But I truly don't believe that they knew what they were saying, because the very next verses at the end of this account say that when the other crowd on the other side hears all this commotion coming into Jerusalem, they say, who is this? And the crowd that was with him said, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth and Galilee. They don't say this is the Messiah. They don't even say this is the king. They're hoping that he is. They want him to be. They're praising God for what they think God's about to do for them. They're not praising him for who he is. Even there, though, the testimony is clear. Jesus knew who he was. He knows where he was going. He knows why he was going there. Why were they praising him? The anticipation of deliverance. Deliverance from evil, deliverance from Rome, deliverance from suffering, deliverance from disease, receiving your sight, having your dead raised again. He's a powerful prophet. He can give us all of these things. He can do all of these things. Life is about to be so much better. But this was a deliverer who hailed from Galilee. But at most, hopefully, maybe he was the prophet that Moses was talking about. Deuteronomy 18, Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers, you shall listen to him. Now, their hope was true, but they didn't understand what Jesus had come to actually save them from. To cry out, save now, but not know what you needed to be saved from? This is why the disciples didn't understand. Jesus told them over and over again that he was going to the cross. He was going to be crucified. He was going to die because he had come to save his people from their sin. He'd come to save them from themselves. He'd come to save them from the wrath of God. But they wanted a savior just to deliver them from the hassles of life. The crowd in Jerusalem asked the question, could this be the Messiah? And the answer was no, he's from Galilee. The Messiah couldn't come from there. The crowd from Galilee said, oh, he's the prophet or a prophet. The religious leaders, they thought he was a threat. They feared him. As he came into town, they immediately began plotting to put him to death. They had already wanted to. but now they put it into high gear. We know at the very end of this chapter, chapter 21 in verse 46, and although they were seeking to seize him, they feared the crowds because they were regarding him to be a prophet. They think he's somebody significant, so we better not touch him. Now that got escalated rather quickly, didn't it, over the course of this week? They lost their hesitation. They stopped fearing the crowd, and in fact, were able to manipulate the crowd so that the crowd turned on Jesus. and where you have at the first of the week, Hosanna in the highest, by the end of the week, you have crucify Him. What about the disciples? What did the disciples think about who He was? Well, we know in Matthew 16, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples saying, who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, but still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Literally, you are the anointed one. You are the Messiah, the son of the living God. Jesus answered and said to him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you. But my father who is in heaven, And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. Was Peter the rock that the church was built on? No, it was that confession about who Christ is. Christ is the rock. He is the cornerstone. We stand on him. As we look at the expectations of the crowd, there's some warnings for us in the triumphal entry. We need to praise Him because of who He is. We need to praise Him because of what He's done. We need to praise Him in anticipation of what He will do. But we need to understand that we don't praise Him for all of that for our benefit. We praise Him because in all of that, we are to glorify His name. We are conditioned as human beings to react favorably to get what we want. Praising God doesn't work that way. We don't go to God and proclaim his praise so that we can get something from him and then walk happily away. An illustration there are the 10 lepers that came to be healed. He healed all 10 of them. Only one came back and said, thank you. The rest of them got what they wanted from Jesus, and once they got what they wanted from Jesus, they didn't need Jesus anymore. So they went their own way and never came back. When we come to offer praise, when we come to say hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest. This should be our heart cry every single day. Save us now. We'll proclaim it everywhere. We're going to spread the good news about what you've come to do as savior, as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We can't come to him for what we get from him. We come to him to give ourselves to him. He gave himself for us and we give ourselves to him. We can't come like the crowd with political expectations. I mean, really, if we were looking at this through 21st century eyes, if this triumphal entry was unfolding today, I want you to understand what it would look like. It would look like a political rally. There's one crowd on one side that this is their hero and savior. There's a crowd on the other side that that's the devil and Hitler. Is this not where we are as a country? And there are those that would sing the praises of the savior and he can do no wrong. And there are those that condemn the fraud and he can do no right. And then with those political expectations, if our side happens to get elected, yay, we won. Do things ever really change? Hopefully, we can pray, we can work, but we need to understand that God is not sending a political savior. He's not. He is appointing who serves him in those roles, in those nations, all the nations of the world, because ultimately God is in charge. His will is going to be done. In that, the world is going to be judged and the church is going to be persecuted. and yet he keeps us from the evil one, he guards us, he preserves us, he gives us the fruit of the spirit, so that whichever way the political winds blow, there are times I get excited when who I think are the right people win. But I've got to remind myself that even if the wrong person wins, that's still who God had in mind for his purposes. So I can't look for a political savior because all of the kingdoms of the world are gonna be ruled with a rod of iron. Christ rules and reigns. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. They also got caught up here in public excitement. And that's easy to do, to get publicly excited about what we think might be a move of God. We've seen revivals. I use that word in air quotes. We've seen revivals on college campuses and in some churches in some groups. What is the fruit? Examine the fruit to see if it's true, true life from God, true revival. We've seen things happen and people get excited. We've seen, I've never seen people get as excited as when big name celebrities get saved. because now God has a heavy hitter who can really get the word out, who has a broad stage. God doesn't need a broad stage. The world is his footstool. Why would we take somebody who the world admires and lavishes with material things and think that because the world has idolized them, that that gives the gospel more power? And nine times out of 10, those are the same big name celebrities that will use Jesus for what they can get out of him and toss him aside as soon as they have to walk in holiness and righteousness. It's easy to get a crowd excited. It's easy to get people pumped up. If you don't believe me, is it football season yet? I confess, I do not understand excitement about basketball. I just, I don't. But there are things that we can get excited about, excited for, excited against. We can get excited and worked up. But what happens? Well, we get back into the routine of life. And after that mountain experience, after that high, after that excitement, we go back home and realize what the dog chewed up while we were gone. back into the routines of the mundane. You understand, that's where joy kicks in. The fruit of the spirit kicks in in the mundane things of life. That's when we get distracted. That's when we fail to walk by faith because we just set it on cruise control and think it's all gonna be okay. So yes, this crowd was excited because there was a miracle worker coming in who possibly could make their life easier. Sometimes it is what has been termed pharisaical exuberance. We get excited about external things, temporal things, material things, things on the outside, not things on the inside. We see changes in government. We see changes in the church. We see changes in life and they're changes for the better. But if those changes are not rooted in regeneration and sanctification, those things are worthless. You hear me? We're not looking for external change. We're not looking for external conformity. That's what the cults do. That's why they all dress alike. That's why you can look at them from across the street and know who they are and what they believe. And it's external. It's an external reflection of the false doctrine that they believe, of the moralism, of the deism. We can get excited about things like the Pharisees did, What did the Pharisees actually really get excited about? This goes to their heart. For most, not all, there were exceptions, Nicodemus, others, but most of the Pharisees, they got exercised and excited about the opportunity to kill Jesus. He's exposing our self-righteousness. He's upending our religious system. He's taking our authority and our influence away. He's mocking us and rebuking us. You understand when they wanted to put him to death, they knew who he was. This is where Pharisaism takes you. God has promised to provide a savior and I'm going to work to do everything I can do to prepare the world for that savior to come. And when that savior comes, if he does not match my expectations, I would rather kill him than submit to him. That's the Pharisees. They knew what he was claiming. And that's why he had to die. I really would have liked to have seen a couple of Pharisees faces. when word began to spread through Jerusalem in the next week, that Jesus is not in the tomb anymore. What do we do now? He's alive. Now, what we need to do is have an expectation that every experience, that every trial, that every moment is an opportunity for us to praise and exalt Jesus. to praise and exalt. It shouldn't be just an odd occasion. It shouldn't just be on Sundays when we proclaim Hosanna in the highest. This should be every day, every moment, everywhere, praising and exalting Jesus. Praising him because he is King of Kings. because he is Lord of Lords, because he is our Savior. And he hasn't saved us from political turmoil or temporal suffering. He saved us from our sin and its curse, the wrath of God. He has literally saved our eternal lives. We praise him and we exalt him as prophet, as priest, as king, as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, as the mediator of a new covenant. We praise him as God with us, Emmanuel. Don't praise him for what he can do for you. Praise him for what he has done for you because of who he is. Praise him for the glory of his name. Praise him that he might be exalted. Someone asked us when they're in Bible class in high school, how, if God is everywhere, knows everything and is all powerful, how can you make him bigger than he is? How can you magnify him? You can't magnify him. He's all in all. And a friend of mine raised his hand. He said, thinking about it, I can't magnify God, but I can magnify God to others. That's how you magnify. You show others a glimpse of the greatness of your Lord and Savior. It was funny because another time in high school, there was a kid who was in all sorts of just a mess and he got saved. And when he got saved, the crowd that he ran with, they used to turn, some of you might be familiar with it back from those days, you're a Jesus freak. And I loved his response. We were with a crowd out in public, probably at a game or something, some youth event, and a group of people were harassing the Christians. You bunch of Jesus freaks. And he stood up and he said, you better believe I'm a Jesus freak. If you're a Jesus freak, I am freaking out on Jesus. When you understand who he is and what he's done and that he's done it all for the glory of his name, you don't use him like a consumer You worship Him like the Savior. You come to Him and you strive to magnify Him. We need to magnify Him to ourselves. That's what Martin Lloyd Jones said. He said, you're struggling with spiritual depression. Don't moan about it. Don't re-quote to yourself all of your struggles. Preach to yourself about who God is, who Jesus is, and who you are in Him. Magnify Him to yourself first. Pray for God to show Himself to you. that you might see him in this greatness. When you do, your response in your spirit is going to be Hosanna. Save me now. Deliver me now. And I'll proclaim Hosanna in the highest. I truly believe that of all the crowds, and by the way, you'll notice this, in this text, there are times that Matthew uses the singular crowd. There are other times that he uses, like in verse 11, crowds, again, indicating there were multiple crowds of people who were there. We are surrounded by multiple crowds of people. You know the crowd we need to be in? The crowd that is crying out, Hosanna to the son of David, because of who he is, to the exaltation of his name. not with any expectation for what he's going to do for us to make our life here any better, but just simply in faith to know that we're his and we're safe. We're his, and if we're his, we're safe. We read it this morning. In his high priestly prayer, he prayed for the father to keep his disciples from the evil one. Do you think the devil can get to you and do anything to you if Jesus is asking his father to guard us and keep us from the evil one? That's why the solution for dealing with the demonic, with the lost in the world, the solution is submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. He has no power over us. We read it there in Peter's confession. Christ is going to build his church and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. The gates of Hades, these are the schemes of Satan, even to the point of death. You know, death can't stop the church. It can't. In fact, the church is alive because of death, because of the death of Christ. He died so that we might live. And even if we die, we're going to be raised with him. It's not going to stop us. The gospel will go on. We are all expendable. If that's true, that means our time is short. Our life is a vapor. Are we proclaiming Hosanna in the highest in the way that we live? My challenge to you this week, especially as all eyes are focused on Easter and some bunny that lays eggs, and I still can't figure that out. When you look at the celebrations in the world, make much of Jesus. And I want to challenge you to do it to the point that they tell you to sit down and be quiet. And when they do, you can sit down if you want to, but don't be quiet. Just praise Jesus. It's like Psalm 148. for all of the reasons that we have to praise Him. The best, the biggest is because of who He is. Praise Him in this week to come. Let's pray together. Father, we do thank you for your word this morning. We thank you that as Jesus rode in fulfilling the scriptures, that even though the crowd was asking and not quite sure who he was, he knew why he was there. He knew what he was going to do, and he was faithful to willingly and intentionally suffer so that we might be saved. We thank you for the sacrifice of your son for us, for his submission to your will, for his willingness to go through that agony in the garden, the scourging, the mocking, crucifixion. Father, we also thank you that throughout this week in his life, there are drops of mercy. One was pulled out of the crowd to carry the cross for him. It's mercy. In the midst of your wrath, there's still your mercy. In the midst of your wrath, he prayed, Father, forgive them because they know not what they do. In the midst of your wrath, there was forgiveness. We thank you this morning for the cross, that Christ went to it obediently, suffered the indignity and the shame for the joy that was set before him, and then triumphantly was raised. There is the true triumph that we celebrate, that he was raised from that grave and has ascended to your right hand, where he even now rules and reigns over all of his creation. This morning, we thank you for Jesus and pray that you would use us in this week to come to make much of Him. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.