watching online. Thank you for joining us. I understand there were some sound issues on the live stream. Maybe there still is right now. I can promise you we're working on those things. So we have some solutions in mind and we're going to be working on that hopefully in the next few days this week. So but we're going to move forward in our Continue our study in Mark. So if you were with us in the morning session, the previous service, we ended Mark 10 with the healing of Bartimaeus, and then it leads, Mark takes us right into the triumphal entry in Mark 11. So we'll be in Mark 11, verse one, so you can turn there with me. Mark has been preparing us for this event for some time now in his gospel. Probably going back into chapter 10 verse one. We're not gonna necessarily read all these verses, but if you look back at Mark 10 verse one, it says, then he arose from there and came to the region of Judea. So this is Jesus' final journey to Jerusalem. He is on the way to the cross. He has the cross in view, and he's leaving behind the northern part of Israel, which is Galilee, where he was based out of mainly Capernaum and all around the Sea of Galilee. He's now making his way down toward Jerusalem. And so he has been steadfast on this mission to go there, which is the reason he came, of course, to die, to be buried and rise again. And he's been steadfast on that mission. He's walking out in front of his men. We looked at that a few weeks ago, And like the prophet said, his face like a flint. He is focused and nothing will deter him in order to reach his destiny. And now the time has come for him to be revealed to his people. And so we have this account in Mark's gospel of the triumphal entry. Let's pray and then we'll get into the text. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, so much for your word. I thank you that it speaks to us, Lord, on many levels. It penetrates our hearts. It's the sword that cuts us, Lord, into our soul, and it exposes us for who we really are, and helps us see ourselves the way you do, and most importantly, it helps us see you in the way that you truly are. So Lord, as we study this account this morning, I pray that it would help us, Lord, to understand you better, and that you would use it to work in our hearts, and only the way that you can. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, Mark 11. Again, I don't have a handout outline, but if you're taking notes, number one, the King's command, number one, the King's command. Look with me at Mark chapter 11, starting at verse one. It says, now when they drew near Jerusalem to Beth and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, and he said to them, go into the village opposite you, and as soon as you have entered it, you will find a colt tied on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it. Loose it and bring it. That's the command. Go there, get the colt, and bring it. That's the king's command. So let's look, first of all, at the geography so we can kind of get an idea of what we're looking at. So Jesus is approaching Jerusalem from the east, and Mark seems to have ordered the locations beginning at the end, which is Jerusalem. If you look there, verse one, they drew near Jerusalem to Bethphage and Bethany. It was probably the other way around that they arrived at those. In fact, geographically, it was. And I don't know how well this map shows up. I'm really sorry about that. My scaling was messed up and I couldn't get it to zoom in. But I'll describe it for you. If you can see the red line that's coming out of the big long red line is leaving Jericho to head to Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. And so Jerusalem is the farthest one to the left. And then Bethphage is to the north up above and Bethany's down below. So that's kind of the geography. And so they're coming from Jericho, where he has just healed Bartimaeus, and they're coming into the area around Jerusalem, within a couple mile radius of the city. Jesus' command to go into the village opposite you might be indicating, and we're not exactly sure exactly where Bethphage is and all of that, but probably that's where the cult was located. which is that city that Bethphage is just north of Bethany a little ways because Bethany was likely where the staging area was for Jesus' triumphal entry. We believe that's probably true because that's where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived, whose house he would visit frequently and it was probably a stopping point on his way to Jerusalem. Opposite, the word opposite there means in the sight of. in the site of so they could see the village perhaps or as they were walking by before they turned to go down to Bethany, he sends two men to go to Bethphage possibly to get this cult. We are also not told which two disciples, we know there were two, we're not told which two. One theory is it could have been Peter and John. When you read through Mark and you get to chapter 14, it's Peter and John that are the two sent to prepare the Passover meal. So perhaps it was them, perhaps it was a totally different couple of disciples, but in any case, he sends them and gives them these specific instruction. Notice he gives them the instruction that you're gonna walk into this village, and you're gonna find right away when you walk in, there's gonna be a cult, it's gonna be tied in this doorway, or this area here by this home, and no one has sat on it, and I want you to loose it and bring it, and then he gives them instructions of what to say when they're asked why are they doing that. Some would claim that this was a sign of Jesus' deity, and that he exercised his omniscience. He knew where the colt would be. He used the power, his God power, if you will, to make sure that the colt was secured for his arrival, and that's certainly a possibility. Will not be dogmatic on either side, but it also very well could have been that Jesus had already made arrangements previously with his owner, and now he was sending the disciples, and this phrase, the Lord has need of it, was the prearranged statement that they agreed upon. Hey, when my disciples come to get this, I'm gonna tell them that the Lord has need of it, and then you'll know it's those two men you're supposed to release the cult to. Could it be the omniscient side? Could it be that it was prearranged? We're not given that. We'll not be dogmatic about it, but we have to agree it could be either one. Either way, Jesus, is making sure that scripture is fulfilled. That's his main goal here. He's making sure that the Bible or prophecies about himself and his entrance into Jerusalem are fulfilled exactly as written, just as every prophecy that has been fulfilled has been fulfilled, if I can say it that way. So the king's command, I want you two to go up and get this colt. and bring it to me, and here's what you're to say, and here's what you're supposed to do. Let's go to number two, starting in verse four. The king's colt, the king's colt. If you're keeping notes, number two, the king's colt. Verse four, Mark 11, verse four. So they went their way and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it, but some of those who stood there said to them, what are you doing loosing the colt? So they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded, so they let them go. Some things stand out here in these verses. One of the biggest things that stands out is the disciples' complete obedience to what Jesus had commanded them to do. We don't see Mark's trademark word immediately, we see it back in verse three, Jesus says, immediately they will let it go. We don't see that, so immediately they went their way, and immediately they got the call, and immediately, but we don't see the word, but we see it in action. We see immediacy in their obedience of their Lord. Their obedience was immediate. Notice that these disciples, they don't argue, They don't ask a bunch of unnecessary questions. They simply obey their Lord. Jesus said to them, I want you to go there, I want you to do that, and I want you to say this. And that is exactly what they did. They perfectly obeyed him. Sometimes we see the disciples in a bad light of an example of how not to live. I would say that this passage gives us this beautiful picture of true obedience to Christ. They follow him, his word exactly, and therefore his will is carried out exactly. Many times people wonder about God's will. They believe that they need to somehow divine God's will. And there's some truth to the fact that we need to seek God's will in making decisions and trying to understand what we should do. But God has already told us what to do in his word. God's will is God's word. And his desire for us is to obey it. That's what God's will is for us. So when we ask that question, what's God's will? Well, what is the most obedient thing you can do in this situation? And that helps kind of cut away a lot of the clutter and a lot of the options. It helps us, it gives us wisdom to make decisions that honor him. There is specific commands in scripture where Christ, and I'm not even talking about the Old Testament law, although we would certainly hold to at least nine out of the 10 commandments, we would hold to to the ideas of honoring parents, for example, and not murdering, for example. But then the New Testament gives us specific commands. Christ gave us those. Paul writes out commands for the churches through the inspiration of the Spirit. God has said, I want you to do this. I want you to say that. I want you to behave in this way. Here's how your behavior should be. I've given it to you in my word how to respond in these different situations that you find yourselves. and God expects us to obey his word with the same immediacy that these two disciples did. But that's not always what we want to do, is it? Because we want to ask questions. We want to counter his word with our own, quote, wisdom. We want to provide our own arguments as to why we can't really do that, and we excuse ourselves from obeying him instead of doing it his way. One example, and I don't have the verses up here, but if you did a search in your New Testament for one another, if you look through the New Testament for a phrase, one another, two words, one another, together, one another, we have these one anothers of the New Testament. We have these instructions, love one another, bear one another's burdens, for example, care for one another, We have all these different examples of one another's, and I should have written a list out, so I didn't have to try to remember, but that can be a little homework for you. Go home this week, take out your Bible, search through for all the one another's. Make a list of them, and then start practicing them in your life. Those are our commands. It says, so they went their way, in verse four. So they went their way. What way? The way that God had given them to go. Well, that sounds too easy. It sounds too simple. And it is simple, that's the point. They went their way and they obeyed him. And what does obedience bring us? What's the motivation for obedience? It's that obedience brings us to the place God wants us to be, doing the things God wants us to do, and saying the things God wants us to say. We see it illustrated here with the disciples. Obedience brought them to the place God wanted them to be, did it not? To the village where the cold was. It brought them to do the things God wanted them to do, Jesus wanted them to do. Untie the cold and bring it to me. And then obedience helps us make sure that we're saying the things God wants us to say. They said exactly what Jesus told them to. They, verse six, they spoke to them, how? Just as Jesus had commanded. Exact obedience. That's the challenge in this passage, is the obedience. Now, is everything God asks us to do as simple as going into a village and fetching a colt? No. Sometimes it's harder. Especially those one another commands. because that means interacting with another person that I might feel at odds with, or that might be awkward or difficult to have that conversation. So sometimes it's not as simple as this, but the principle is still the same. It's still the same simple principle of obedience, and that's the two choices before us, to obey him or to disobey. We don't get a middle third choice. There's no door number three. It's obey or disobey. and God expects us and he deserves. Does he not deserve that level of obedience after what he's done for us? They find the colt tied there by the doorway, they immediately untie it, they're immediately questioned about it, and they immediately respond just as Jesus had commanded. The Lord has need of it. Now, what if the disciples had decided that that wasn't a good enough explanation for taking the cult? Especially if we think about if Jesus did prearrange it, or even if he did supernaturally plant that thought in the owner's mind somehow, either way. If they had come up with their own method of the cult, well, we'll wait till no one's looking and we'll kind of sneak it away. or we're gonna come up with some elaborate explanation as to why we're taking the cult. The success of the mission depended on their obedience. Oh, Jesus would have gotten a cult one way or another. He would have rode into Jerusalem on that cult to fulfill scripture one way or another. He always accomplishes his will. But the disciples would have missed out on the blessing that comes with obedience. had they tried to do it their own way. That's not what they do, though. Their obedience shines brightly as they respond to the question with exactly the words that Jesus gave them. The Lord has need of it. And what a record. I mean, I don't know what was going through their minds. Okay, we're gonna go to a village and get a colt and bring it back to Jesus. It sounds like I'm gonna go to I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to pick up some supplies and I'm going to come home. Do we write down this record of our trips to the store and we get them out every Christmas and every time the families gather and read about all that time I went to pick and save or Walmart? No, because it's just what we do day to day and I don't know if that's how they saw it. Maybe they were thinking of the prophecy. I think there's an argument to say that they weren't. based on some verses later in Mark 11 here, but in any case, we have this record that written down of this seemingly mundane task. 2,000 years later, we're still reading about this little errand that these men went on, where they acted just as Jesus had commanded. What a legacy. What a legacy this little errand leaves us. What an example, what a challenge for us to follow. Well, let's move on, verse seven. Then they brought the colt to Jesus, so continuing their obedience and finishing the task. They finished their mission. They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it and he sat on it. So the they here is the two disciples and then those that throw their clothes on it was either just those two or perhaps the twelve now joined in. Once again their obedience is evident but why a colt? Why would they put their clothes on the colt? Well it was a lot more comfortable to ride on something between you and the animal you're riding. So there was kind of a makeshift saddle here. But there was an ancient practice, going back to the former kings of Israel and Judah, that speaks of this. It's kind of an example of it. In 2 Kings 9.13, each man hastened to take his garment and put it under him on the top of the steps, and they blew trumpets saying, Jehu is king. So it was a way to honor him as their king. And again, I don't know that they fully grasped the significance of this. I don't think they had Zechariah 9-9 in mind based on what scripture tells us, but this helps answer and fill in the details of why this cult was so important to Jesus and why it needed to be brought. Zechariah 9-9 is the prophecy made, and what we're about to read is how that was fulfilled. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. So this is a messianic prophecy that Messiah would arrive in Jerusalem riding on, excuse me, on the colt or the young of a donkey. The colt had never been ridden on. We find that in verse two, Jesus identifies it as that. So it was significant that Jesus was able to sit upon it and ride it with no problem. The colt was glad to bear his creator. Also, as I've stated, the Messianic prophecy was not readily understood by the disciples. It's actually in the Gospel of John. Excuse me. John tells us this in verse 16 of John 12. His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about him and that they had done these things for him. So that's the passage I go to to argue that I don't think the men really fully understood what was happening. Obviously they didn't fully understand until after Jesus' glorification. But they bring the colt, they obey him. What happens next? Number three, the king's crowds. The king's crowds. Verse number eight. And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road. So now the crowds join the disciples. They take up the call. They begin in earnest to welcome Jesus into the city, following suit of the disciples. The crowds lay down their cloaks. Even palm branches are laid down on the street for the cult to walk on as Jesus enters the city. It was the first century version of a red carpet being rolled out. These palm leaves for him to walk on as he rides this cult. Now the other question that comes up then is, well, did these crowds understand? what was going on perhaps. John's gospel gives us a little more insight as to why they were excited, and it goes back to the raising of Lazarus. If you remember, that happened in Bethany, which is where they had just come from. It was only about two miles from Jerusalem. And there were people in Jerusalem that day that were there the day that Lazarus was raised from the dead. They had been eyewitness to that resurrection and they had been telling people about it and stirring up the crowds. John 12, 17 and 18, therefore the people who were with him when he called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead bore witness. What does that mean to bear witness? To tell, to speak about it. They have been sharing this information. For this reason, for this reason, the people also met him because they heard that he had done this sign. So again, I don't fully know if they fully understood that they were welcoming their Messiah in. Perhaps some did. But there were other things at play, in play here, stirring them up. Now, Something that would argue that they did maybe have some idea is what happens in verse 9. So back in Mark 11 verse 9, then those who went before and those who followed cried out saying, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We'll look at verse 10 in a moment but I want to just point out some things because they go together and we'll look at them together in a moment but the word Hosanna It literally means save now or help now. Save us now or help us now. That's the literal translation. And so when they cried out, there was a way of saying save now or help now. It had also kind of become a term of just general praise like hallelujah, that they would cry out, but that's really the meaning And when you look back at verse nine and you combine Hosanna with blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the meaning is really save us and help us, Lord. It's a kind of a cry, a prayer to the Lord of their desire for him to help. And then we add verse 10. So they cry out saying, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the kingdom of our father, David, that comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. It's a quote from Psalm 118 which is a psalm of ascent. I don't have that verse up here but another thing you can take some time to look at this week maybe. Psalm 118 is a psalm of ascent and the psalms of ascent which are found in chapters 113 to 118 They were sung as the pilgrims would approach Jerusalem. What feast were they coming to celebrate right now? Passover, right. Well, probably the biggest or one of the biggest feasts of the year, the annual Passover festival, people streaming in from all over the world, filling up Jerusalem. It was busy, filled with people. But as they would approach Jerusalem, and I don't know what the milestones were, but at some point, they wanted to end as they entered with Psalm 118. So at some point in the journey, they would start on Psalm 113. And they would start these Psalms of ascent. And why ascent? Because they're ascending, they're going up the road, up the mountain to the city, because Jerusalem is located on that city, or on that mountain. And so they're ascending up to Jerusalem. chanting and singing Psalm 113 to 118. Now these two verses out of Psalm 118 are arranged in a chiastic structure, they're a chiasm. which means A, in this case, A, B, B, A. So the first and the last statements are connected, and the two middle statements are connected. And I tried to, I was having trouble with my text formatting, but I put the A's and B's on there so we could kind of see this arrangement. And in verse nine, we read that there were two groups of people going in and creating this procession into Jerusalem. You had a group in front of Jesus, and then Jesus on the colt, and then you had a group behind him. And so it's believed that these two groups were alternating and echoing back and forth with one another. So the group in the front might sing, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. or just Hosanna and then the group behind, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes in the name of the Lord. And the crowd in front echoing back with Hosanna in the highest. And back and forth they would do this, singing and their voices getting louder and more people joining the groups. And this celebration coming into the city. The last phrase there, Hosanna in the highest or in the highest places, likely meant save us, oh God, who lives in heaven. So it's definitely a cry to God to save them. Whenever it says he who comes in the name of the Lord, that means someone arriving as God's representative or with God's authority. These are powerful statements. Now they would sing these originally to refer to a pilgrim arriving at the feast. He who comes in the name of the Lord. But here the crowds are applying it to Jesus, not just any of the other pilgrims traveling into the city. Now, we've been saying, did the disciples understand what was happening? Did the crowds understand that they were welcoming their true Messiah in? Some perhaps did not. but the Pharisees understood something about this because we see in their reaction, they're not pleased. If it was just to welcome any of the pilgrims in, I don't think it would have caused a stir, but we go to Luke's gospel and we see the Pharisees, this is a parallel passage of the triumphal entry. The Pharisees hear this chanting back and forth, Psalm 118 being sung or chanted over and over again. and their response is telling. Some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd, teacher, rebuke your disciples. So I believe that at least the Pharisees had an understanding of the messianic overtones of what was being said. Otherwise, why would they have been so disgruntled at that happening? It seems that there was some kind of messianic claim, maybe not fully understood by the crowds, but understood by the Pharisees. Psalm 118.26, which they were quoting, is a messianic psalm of praise. Well, what was Jesus' response to these Pharisees telling him to rebuke the disciples, stop that chanting, that's a messianic psalm, it has no place in your presence, but Jesus' answer, so powerful. Luke 19.40, but he answered and said to them, I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out. If the crowds kept silent, even inanimate objects like stones would break out to testify of him. Now, I was trying to wrap my mind around what that would have been like or how stones would cry out. We hear in the Psalms about the trees clapping their hands for joy. and all of creation praising him. All of history has been pointing forward to this event. Yes, the cross ultimately, but here is the promised Messiah publicly now presenting himself to the Jewish nation. What has Jesus been doing this entire time in Mark when it comes to his Messiah-ship? Has he been proclaiming it or covering it? Covering it, right? Don't tell anyone, he told the disciples, no one can know that I'm the Messiah. He was keeping his identity veiled, but now the triumphal entry is his unveiling. It is his declaration that he is the Messiah of Psalm 118.26. It's me, and if these people are silenced, there's gonna be noise from somewhere else. Even these stones are gonna start to make noise of my identity because I am revealing myself as Messiah. And we go back even to Genesis 3.15. One will come. Well, he has come now. He has arrived. and he's making his identity known. The people are making it known. God wanted it acknowledged. Jesus knew it was time to reveal himself and that would actually ultimately accelerate the time of his life on earth and accelerate his journey to the cross. Largely in part because of the Pharisees' hatred of him. Now one other interesting thing to consider is which stones was Jesus referring to? Started thinking about that. This is slightly speculation. You take it for what it's worth. But where is the other reference to stones in this area? If we go to Mark 13 verse two, the disciples and Jesus are leaving the temple. And you remember the disciples' excitement about the buildings of the temple and saying to Jesus, Lord, look at these magnificent buildings. This is amazing. And Jesus' response says, do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down, which is a prophecy that was fulfilled in 70 AD when Titus and the Romans came in and destroyed the temple. literally tearing it stone for stone, stone for stone, torn down. So what stones was Jesus referring to? Just the ones along the path perhaps, or perhaps the massive stones used to build the temple complex. We're not given exactly what. Yes. Yes, great point. Barbara pointed out in Psalm 118, just before those verses, it talks about the chief corner stone. So there's some imagery there at least, but if we think about these stones, if it was indeed the temple stones that Christ was referring to, how fitting for the temple stones to somehow cry out in praise of the God of the temple. A parallel thought to the truth that we are the temple of God and we are to be crying out in our praise to God. In Jesus' statement here, If we go back now to Luke 19.40, where he says, if the people are silent, the stones will cry out. It's actually a judgment against them. It's a judgment against those who refuse to recognize him for who he was. He's saying, you religious leaders can't see who I am. You are blind to my identity. And you should be the ones leading the procession. You should be the ones praising and honoring me. but you're not because of your spiritual blindness, and the stones are gonna put you to shame. Inanimate objects will shame you because of your refusal to see me for who I am. John the Baptist used the stone imagery to talk about, to the same group of people, actually. You guys say you have, I'm paraphrasing. You guys say Abraham is your father. You believe in your Jewish lineage and you cling to that as your righteousness before God. I'm right before God because I'm a Jew. Well, Paul corrected that in Romans 9, 10, 11, didn't he? It's not the Jewish heritage, it's their faith in Christ. God's not done with the Jews, they're his special people. He has a plan for Israel. However, their salvation is not found in their lineage, it is found in their faith in their true Messiah, Jesus Christ. And that's the point. And John the Baptist says, I'm rebuking you because of your false belief that because you're from Abraham, God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And of course, this is taking place out in the wilderness, I believe. So it could have been just any other rocks. Jerusalem or Israel has a lot of rocks. And he's saying, if God can carve out a nation from a man and a woman who are well past childbearing age, if God can carve them out of that rock, which is Abraham, then God can raise up children from wherever he wants to, because he's almighty God, and that was the point. The Pharisees would have, if we're on this little rock stone tangent, John also might have been referring to Isaiah 51, one and two, listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the Lord, look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you, for I called him alone and blessed him and increased him. Again, if God could carve the Jewish nation from the rock called Abraham, he could repeat that miracle by creating a people from any place he wanted to. That was John's point. And then when Jesus rebukes them, it should have been a wake-up call. It should have been a wake-up call to them. Wait, the stones? We're living flesh and blood. If the stones can cry out, shouldn't we be also crying out to our Messiah? Jesus, their Messiah, was right in front of them. They totally missed it. If you were here in the morning hour, we went through the healing of blind Bartimaeus. Do you remember what Bartimaeus called him while he was still blind? What did he call him? Rabboni, but what was the other one? Son of David. A blind beggar had just called him, not within, I would say, a couple of days of this event, had just called him son of David. The son of David, Psalm 118, 26 is talking about. That blind beggar understood Jesus' identity, and it's as if Mark is giving us that order to prepare us for this event. The blind man saw what these Pharisees could not see. And that is why they were rebuked. Number four, our final point here, the king's contempt, our final verse. All right, Mark 11, 11. And Jesus went to Jerusalem and into the temple. So when he had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, he went out to Bethany with the 12. Wow, how underwhelming. We've had this major procession, palm branches, singing, chanting, praising, people in front, people behind, palm branches waving, palm branches on the ground, cloaks being spread all over for Jesus to walk on. And it's like it all just vanishes in this moment. No mention of the crowds is even made. And by the time we get to verse 11, it's like between 10 and 11, there's this thing and everyone disappears. Have you ever seen one of those flash mobs? Anybody know what a flash mob is? Okay, so if you don't know what that is, it's not something bad, it might sound bad if you don't know what it is. It's where it usually takes place in a public venue, like at a restaurant or in a shopping mall or an airport or somewhere like that. And it's all pre planned. And it'll be like a group of singers or group of musicians. And so if they're at a restaurant, all of a sudden, They'll all be there, but they'll be in different places. And they'll just be dressed normally, not in uniform. So nobody knows that they're all connected. And once one person will stand up and start singing, and everyone gets quiet. And then another person over here pops up and they start singing, and another person and two more, and then three more, and then they come together and they sing the song. And it's if you just search on YouTube, you'll find some pretty cool ones. And um, Sometimes it's singers, sometimes it's music, and there's dance and whatever else involved. But it's this flash. And then as soon as they're done, what happens? They all disperse. They're gone. And it was like, wow, we just experienced this random experience of music and it was really cool. And of course, everyone's got their phones out and they're videoing it because they wanna remember it. But it's almost like that's what happened. It was this flash in the pan of praise to Jesus, welcoming him, this procession. It's just beautiful and there's loud chanting and praising and people are excited and all of a sudden they're gone. At least that's how Mark writes it for us. The hour was late. The man on the colt that we celebrated He didn't really do anything. He just rode into the temple. I guess it's time to go home. Just total contempt for who Jesus really was. And that's why I would also argue that the crowds had almost zero understanding of who they were celebrating or who the identity of the man on the call even was because of how quickly they're gone. Yes. Yes, go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So John's point was, Remember what kind of a messiah they were looking for. They were looking for a political, military messiah. Is that what they got the first time? No. They got the sinless lamb of God sacrificed on the cross. So when he rode into Jerusalem, did he take out the Romans and set up his kingdom and his throne in the temple? No, it says here he just looked around and left. And the crowd said, he must not have been anything special. They should, and many of them did come back the next day. If you keep reading, there's a reason Jesus was looking around. He was preparing for what he was going to do the next day. Once again, the crowds continue to be presented as problematic in Mark's gospel. They missed the point. Now, you can almost feel the silence when you read verse 11. It's like a hush falls over the city. Went from loud, exuberant celebration to nothing. The silence in this moment, the moment of all history, and it ends on a minor key, and it just fades away into nothing. the ultimate anti-climax. Now, I mentioned Jesus was looking around, he's surveying the temple grounds, getting ready for what he would do the next day when he comes in to cleanse the temple after he curses the tree. There's all this beautiful significance and that cursing of the fig tree represents Israel and there's just so much there we won't get to. And so back to Bethany they go, where they had begun earlier that day with the colt and the cloaks on the colt. Imagine the sober atmosphere of that return trip. I wonder what they talked about. Indeed, they probably retraced their steps. Now pilgrims are probably still streaming in to the city. They're one of the few that are making their way through the crowd to get out. And as they're walking, they realize they hear the crunching of the palm leaves. that had been laid down to celebrate Jesus' entrance, and they realize all these people streaming past to go to Passover have no idea what the palm branches are on. Maybe a stray cloak here or there that some celebrant forgot to pick up when they left. And they're walking, and of course the cult is being led along. I don't think Jesus rode it back to Bethany. I believe they led it back. Walking back along the same route that just a little earlier had been a time of praise and worship and singing and chanting, celebrating Jesus' entry was now quiet and cold. The sun was going down, discarded palm branches on the ground. They had to return the borrowed colt from where they had borrowed it from and head back probably to the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha. Everything that day had been building up. The cult was just where he said it was. And when we said those words, they let us take it. It's pretty unusual. I mean, a cult was an investment. It represented a certain investment in that society. And so for them to take it and then put their cloaks on, and then we got to Jerusalem and everything broke loose. And he was celebrated as a king. Everything that day had been building up to this excitement, the festivities, the feasts, the crowds, the chanting, the branches, and then nothing. But for us today, that nothing means everything. Because unless there is a full-blooded Jew in here, and even if there is, for us as Gentiles, the fact that The nation rejected their Messiah, opened the door for us to be saved. That nothing at the end of this day means everything to us. Yes, it was all part of God's plan to save us, save the world from our sins. The rejection of the Messiah, what would that ultimately lead to? His death, right? and he's gonna keep increasing his pressure. He refused to quiet the crowds. He probably could have, maybe, maybe. Well, he's God, he could do it if he wants, but humanly speaking, the wheel of time had already been set in motion. It was time to move forward, and as he goes through this next week, he cleanses the temple, he teaches, he calls the scribes out very personally. to ensure the fact that they will ultimately reject him and plot and carry out his death. Why? Because he came to save us from our sins. The rejection of the Messiah would ultimately lead to his death, the sacrifice that would make it possible for us as Gentiles to be saved. So we can celebrate that. And that's the triumph. Why is it called the triumphal entry? Because it It's the path to the cross, where the Messiah was bitten on the heel, but as he's biting, as that serpent is biting his heel, he's crushing the head under it. That's the triumph, and this is what kind of kicked off that process, and so we praise the Lord for it. Went past a couple minutes. Thanks for your patience. I'm gonna pray and then we'll be dismissed. Father, thank you, Lord, so much that you were willing to send Jesus who was willing to come as a man, be rejected by his own people, ultimately go to the cross for our salvation. Thank you so much, Lord, for that. Help us, Lord, to remember that. this week, help us to be mindful of your sacrifice and look for ways to spread that good news and ultimately to obey you and become living sacrifices for you. We thank you again for all you've done and for our salvation. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, thanks guys, have a great day.