This is Palm Sunday. I'm preaching on the triumphal entry. And I want to read to you from Matthew's account of the triumphal entry, Matthew chapter 21, verses 1 through 11. And then after I read from Matthew 21, I want to read just a portion of Luke's account in Luke 19, starting at verse 30 through 44. But we'll begin with Matthew. As you know, I'm sure the triumphal entry is in all four of the Gospels. The feeding of the 5,000 is in all four of the Gospels. It obviously is a most important event in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ to be recorded by all of the Gospel writers. And we want to meditate upon that this morning. Matthew 21, starting at verse 1, reading through verse 11. And when they drew near to 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 and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, The Lord has need of them. Notice the Lord, not your Lord. The Lord has need of them, and immediately he will send them. All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet. This is Zechariah chapter 9 verse 9. Tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you lowly and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set him on them. And the them there, the nearest antecedents, the clothes. Now, he didn't ride two donkeys, okay? And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying, Psalm 118, verse 26, 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 come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? So the multitude said, This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee. And now over to Luke chapter 19. I'll not repeat what some of what we've read there in in Matthew, but in Luke 19, we have some additional history given to us of the triumphal entry of what our Lord said is in your Jerusalem. So we'll start in verse 20 and verse 30, actually, verse 30. Actually, I want to start down further than that. Let's start at verse 30, verse 37. Then as he was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice in all the mighty works 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 some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. But he answered and said to them, I tell you, If these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out. Now, as he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, If you had known even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace. But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies shall build an embarkment around you and surround you and close you in on every side and level you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation. So the reading of God's inspired word. You remember that the wise men came to Herod after they'd seen the star in the east and they said where is he was born the king of the Jews. And you remember that the Jewish leaders knowing their Bible so well they said well Bethlehem Africa because that's what it says in Micah chapter 5 verse 2. And so the wise men went to see Jesus who they acknowledged was the king of the Jews. I know the Jewish leaders didn't follow. Now, that's the last we hear about Jesus being the King of the Jews until we come to this particular passage. This is so different from all the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. Think about it. He came and did not cry out in the streets. He did not present himself to the people as someone that they should follow as a king. He just never did that. But now we come to the triumphal entry. And the triumphal entry, how can we describe it? Disappointment. Hope stashed. Faithless. All these are good words to describe the triumphal entry of our Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. I'm looking at this through the eyes of the people. Great disappointment. Great disappointment. As you very well know, just five days later, many in this crowd were crying out, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. While on this Sunday, they were saying, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Something happened. Disappointment. Hope stashed. However, if we look at this triumphal entry through the eyes of our Lord Jesus Christ, there are other words to describe this day. Glorious. Anticipation. Disappointment. Yes, I said disappointment because, as we shall see, Christ was disappointed in the people. Now, I want to focus this morning on the spiritual meaning of the triumphal entry. And we're going to do that by looking at it from two perspectives. First of all, we're going to look at it as a glorious triumph. And secondly, we're going to look at this triumphal entry as a grievous tragedy. Both are true, I believe. But before I do that, I want to set the stage if I possibly can. I feel inadequate to do this, but I'm going to try to set the stage so that we have some idea of what was going on on that Sunday. Now, let's begin on Friday. On Friday, Jesus and his disciples came to Bethany. Now, Bethany is on the northeast slope of the Mount of Olives, about two miles from Jerusalem. You've got to descend to the top of the Mount of Olives, which stands at its highest peak, I'm not sure which peak it was, at 2700 feet above sea level. And then you've got to descend the Mount of Olives and then ascend Mount Moriah to the temple site. He rested on the Sabbath. We have no record of what happened from Friday night at 6 p.m. until Saturday night at 6 p.m. because that's the Jewish Sabbath. We don't know that after the Sabbath ended on Saturday night, there was a great dinner that was prepared in his honor at the home of Mary and Martha. And of course, Lazarus was there, whom he just recently raised from the dead. And it was at that dinner that Mary took that alabaster box of a very expensive perfume and anointed him. You remember that Judas and the rest of the disciples thought that was a waste of money. But Jesus said, you always have the poor with you. But you won't always have me. And so he received that anointing and said it was in preparation for his burial. Well, then on Sunday morning, while he was near Bethphage and Bethany, Jesus sent his disciples to fetch a colt. And Matthew is the one who records that both the colt and the dam were brought to Jesus. Jesus would never want to separate a colt from its mother, would he? He's so kind. And so they were both brought. They didn't know which one he was going to mount, so they put their clothes on, both of them. Jesus obviously chose the colt. And so he sat on it, one gospel writer says. The other gospel writer says he was set, S-E-T, on the colt. Both are true. Once he had chosen which one he was to be on, they helped him sit on the young cold after their clothes were upon it. And then the crowd that had assembled near Bethany or Bethphage, it was the week of Passover. So everyone was heading to Jerusalem. Some were already there making preparations. So they were with Jesus. And they realized the significance of what was happening. They remembered Zechariah 9, verse 9. Rejoice, 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 crowd from Bethany accompanying Jesus, and I suspect that there were others on their way who heard the shouting and they probably held up a little bit so they could also accompany Jesus on his two mile ride to Jerusalem. So he rode to the crest of the Mount of Olives. And pretty soon word got to Jerusalem that Jesus was coming and that there was this shouting and there was this joy. And so another multitude from Jerusalem came out to meet Jesus as he was coming to Jerusalem. And the two crowds met and the enthusiasm mounted. And they cried out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. Blessed is the kingdom that is coming, the kingdom of our father, David. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. So we have these two crowds and the excitement and the joy and the anticipation has has reached reached one of its peaks. And then there, of course, was the They talk about Lazarus. They say he's the one who raised Lazarus from the dead. I don't know if Lazarus was in the crowd, but I suspect he may have been as Jesus was making his way down the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem. Now at this point, some of the Pharisees came to Jesus who evidently had probably either were in Bethany or come out of Jerusalem and saying to Jesus, calm the crowd down, calm them down. Do you hear what they're saying? And Jesus said, I can't calm them down if they wouldn't say anything. The stones would cry out. What's he saying? I'm the king. I am the king. He's presenting himself as the king. However, when Jesus reached the crest of Mount of Olives and began his descent, he saw the city and he begins to weep as Luke records. Now, we might not understand the the depth of weeping that Jesus was doing here. The word means not just crying, but crying with noise. It was a wailing. It was a weeping. Now, can you imagine? Can you imagine what it's like to be on the Mount of Olives and looking over the city of Jerusalem? I can. Ray and I can, because we were there. a number of years ago. And I don't know if you've ever been there, but if you listen to R.C. Sproul's little 25-minute thing about the Triumphal Entry, he says, if you haven't been to the Mount of Olives, just go there. Well, I'm not going to tell you that, but it's well worth it. Or when you come to the Mount of Olives, and when you're on the side of the Mount of Olives, we had a guide. His name was Andrew. He's one of the deacons at Grace and Truth Assembly in Gadara. And Grace and Truth is the church that was planted by Baruch Meo's, which all those of you in this congregation know him very well. And David Zadok is now the pastor of that church. And as you come, as you stand on the Mount of Olives, and I have a video recording of Andrew explaining to us about the Mount of Olives, we were at a height of the Mount of Olives. It took us about 10 minutes by automobile to get there. We were at the Mount of Olives at a place where we could look straight across and see the Dome of the Rock. Of course, that's what's there now. The temple has long been gone since 70 AD. And Andrew explained to us, he says, you look down the Mount of Olives and you're looking into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which to your left goes into the Kidron Valley, which if you follow it 20 miles goes into the Dead Sea, a descent of some 4,000 feet. And then from the Jehoshaphat Valley, you can see that you have to go up, climb another mountain to get to Mount Moriah. But the view is absolutely magnificent. I don't know how else to describe it. I wish, I mean, the temple obviously isn't there, but the Dome of the Rock with its golden dome is, you've all seen pictures of that, I know. Well, Jesus was looking at this city, He saw the temple that had been refurbished by Herod. And you know his prophecy that not one stone will be left on another. And there's a reason for that, because when Herod built that temple, he spared no expense. There were jewels in between all the rocks. And I've read from Josephus about what that temple looked like. And when the sun hit that, they said it was just a brilliance of sun reflecting off all these precious jewels. And that's what Jesus saw. But Jesus wept, wailed, if you please, as he saw it. Well, understand that it probably would have taken hours for him to go those two miles because of the crowd, riding on a colt down the Mount of Olives, into the valley of Jehoshaphat, up to the temple site. So this praise was not just a matter of 15, 20 minutes, half an hour, or an hour. I don't know how long it took. But we do know that in the morning he asked for the coal. And so he comes into Jerusalem. He comes to the temple site. And then when he comes into Jerusalem, there is the hosannas that come forth. The hosanna. Hosanna to the son of David. And again the Pharisees say, do you hear what they're saying? Stop them. And Jesus said, have you not read? Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise. And then on Sunday late afternoon, I assume it was later in the afternoon, because Jesus says, look around. I think he looked around with a kingly look. surveying the whole scene, knowing that he was the king, that this was his city, that he was the ruler over this city and these people. He looked around, and then what did he do? He left. He just simply left. He walked, not riding the cold. He walked down Mount Moriah, into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, back up to the crest of the Mount of Olives, down the other side to Bethany, the two-mile walk. He left. That's what happened. It was the next morning, on Monday morning, that he cleansed the temple. But he simply left. Now I've given you a summary of what's happened. I hope that you can have some sense of the excitement of the people, of the sorrow of Jesus, and even already you can begin to see why the people might have been disappointed. Their king laughed. He didn't accomplish what they hoped he would accomplish. So what is the meaning of the glorious triumphal entry of our Lord Jesus Christ well as I said it is a glorious triumph and it is a grievous tragedy we want to look at both of those as we understand the true spiritual meaning of the triumphal entry of our Lord Jesus Christ first it is a glorious triumph because for the first time as I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon Jesus Christ presented himself as king he is the king and he presented himself as king This was so different from all his earthly ministry prior to this Palm Sunday. Nothing like this. Nothing like this had ever occurred in the three years of his public ministry. How often did he tell people, don't tell anyone that I just healed you. Go to the priest. Don't tell anyone. Now it's true he did a lot of his miracles publicly. But many times he said, don't tell anyone. He did not seek notoriety. In fact, the Bible says that he did not cry out in the streets. He did not go into Galilee and Judea and every place he went and say, now I'm the king. Come and listen to me. He never said that. He never said that one single time in his ministry. So in fact, Jesus Christ refused to set himself up as king. One time, after he fed the 5,000, and we'll read this in John's Gospel, chapter 6, verse 15, it says, the people would have taken him and made him king. He went up to a mountain alone and prayed. No. He would not be their king on their terms. But now he presents himself as king. It cannot be missed and all the people understood what was happening because they knew Zachariah chapter 9 verse 9 which I've already quoted to you. Behold your king is coming. He is just and having salvation lowly and riding on a donkey a colt the full of a donkey. There could be no doubt what Jesus is doing. He's saying I am the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies about Messiah Messiah King. I am the king. And furthermore, he accepted the praise that was given to him from Psalm 118, verse 26. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. He accepted that. He embraced it. He said it's true. He accepted it entirely. He accepted the Hosanna from Psalm 118, verse 25. Save now. That's Hosanna. I pray, O Lord, O Lord, I pray. Hosanna, send now prosperity. Send success. He accepted all that, friends. He accepted it. Hosanna. He accepted that he was the king, the one who is blessed, because he is the king. It's a glorious triumph for him. What does Hosanna mean? Well, it's translated in our English Bibles in the Old Testament, save now, or send now prosperity. But Hosanna is a rich word, much richer than just save now. It's a word that not only means to pray, Lord save now, but it's a word that includes the hurrah, if you please, the glory, the greatness. Save now. Prayer and praise. Prayer and praise at its highest point is what our Lord Jesus Christ received. And those people, who were familiar with the Old Testament Scriptures understood the depth and the richness of what they were saying. Well, but there's another reason why we can say this is a glorious triumph, and that is because the people were offering exactly the correct words in praise. Exactly the correct words. They didn't make a mistake here. The words which they offered to Jesus were exactly the words of Scripture. What glory! What truth! Finally, Jesus is publicly acknowledged by these words of praise for who he was. Now, not all got it, because you remember when reading the Scripture, it says, who is this? It was Jesus of Nazareth. He's a prophet. Yeah, they all recognized him as a prophet, but at least in the words they were saying was they were acknowledging him to be king as well as prophet. And then it's also a glorious triumph because this forced the hands of the Jewish leaders. Before the triumphal entry, the Jewish leaders were plotting to kill Jesus. And also they wanted to kill Lazarus because Lazarus after all had been raised from the dead and as long as he was alive it was a testimony that they couldn't refute. And they were afraid that the nation would be taken away from them. So they plotted to kill him. But they said, do you remember what they said? But not during the feast because the crowds are there. Ah, but they had to put their plan on fast forward after the triumphal entry. They had to do it during the feast because things were getting out of hand. And so, in accordance with the Old Testament scriptures, Jesus, our King, who is our priest, who is our Savior, must be crucified on Passover. And he was, because he planned it. Even though the Jewish leaders said not during this time. It was a glorious triumph because he made them change their plans to follow and to do exactly what the scriptures would indicate. A glorious, glorious triumph is the triumphal entry. I'm willing to call it a triumphal entry. I heard a sermon fellow say it shouldn't be called that. I don't agree with him. It is a glorious triumphal entry. But at the same time, it is also a grievous tragedy. A grievous tragedy. The first indication of the grievous tragedy is found in Luke's account where we read in verse 41, as he drew near, he saw the city and he wept over it. He wept. And as I mentioned to you before, this word weep is, is not strong enough. It's, it's, he wailed over it. It means to weep with noise, literally. That's what it means. He wept with noise. Those who are anywhere near him could not have missed the emotion that was expressed by our Lord Jesus Christ as he wept. They just could not have missed it. Oh, our Lord was a man who was emotional. He could rejoice and he could weep and he could wail. All that's true. That's our Savior, our King, our Lord. Why did he weep? Well, you heard me read it in Luke 19. He wept because the city was going to be destroyed. Hence, less than 40 years. There'd be an embankment raised around it. And as he said, not one stone would be left upon another. You understand why Titus and the Roman army pulled down stone by stone? Because of the wealth that was in between those stones. They only left a wall, which is still there today, the Wailing Wall. And it's still used today by the Jews. And we as Gentiles can go visit it as long as we put on the little cap. to go to that wall to see them praying. He wept because the people didn't understand what they were saying. They did not understand. They just simply didn't understand. The people lacked understanding of the entire ministry that Jesus Christ had exercised for three years. They didn't get it. They just didn't get it. There was ignorance. What was it that prompted these people to use the words of Scripture at the triumphal entry? It was the hope that they would be delivered and come back to the glory that they had under the days of David and Solomon. That's what they wanted. They wanted a political deliverance. They wanted that above all else. You see, they'd been humbled. for five centuries after the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar and his army in 586 BC. And although they'd gone back and although the temple had been rebuilt, they were always under foreign domination of some sort or another, not during the day of the Maccabees. I understand that they had a little time there where it seemed like they were free, but their freedom was short-lived at best and really not a freedom at all. And so they say, here he comes, our king is coming. He's going to destroy Rome. We're going to be not only out from underneath Rome, but we're going to be the glory of the nations again. That's what they saw. That's what they wanted. That's what they were desiring. That's why they were shouting. That's why I say it is a grievous tragedy. They missed the whole point of Jesus Christ coming the first time. They didn't understand the significance of the colt. He came on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Think about it. Think about it. Now, if they'd have studied carefully their Old Testament, they would understand the significance of a colt, the foal of a donkey. In the book of Judges, we read about the Judge Jer. He had 30 sons who rode on 30 colts. He ruled, who ruled 30 cities. in a time of peace. That's why they could be on cold. There was peace, or they might have remembered Abdon, a judge who had 40 sons and 30 grandsons, and they wrote on 70 colts and judged Israel in peace. It says for eight years, in peace and see Jesus Christ came to give peace. What kind of peace did he come to give? Verse 38, we read of Luke 19, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. My dear friend, the whole ministry of Jesus tells us what kind of peace he came to bring. He came to give true spiritual peace, the kind of peace that men need more than others. They should have. They should have gotten this. You remember when he went to Nazareth and his hometown and they gave him the scroll and he opened it. He read from Isaiah chapter 61. Luke records it for us. The spirit of the Lord is vomit, Jesus said, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Jesus came to proclaim peace, spiritual peace. You remember, he stated it very carefully and very clearly. Like, for instance, you read it in both Matthew 20, 28, I think it is, and Mark 10, 45, when he said, for the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Or when he said in Luke 19, 10, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save those who are lost. That's why he came. And the Old Testament speaks of the spiritual ministry of the Messiah when he comes. You see, the crowd quoted Zechariah 9, verse 9, which they knew so very well, but they forgot Zechariah chapter 13, verse 1. In that day, a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness. They missed that verse. They got the one. but missed the other. And Psalm 118, verses 25 and 26, which we've referred to several times here, it talks about peace. But what is true peace? Well, Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Prince of Peace. John Calvin put it this way. Rather stark language from Mr. Calvin, but I'll read it to you. You can do with it what you like. Calvin says, it marks with disgrace the monstrous stupidity of that city that when God is present, it is not perceiving. Monstrous stupidity. Oh, I pray that none of you have monster stupidity sitting in your heart this morning when Christ is presented to you. What about you? Do you see why Jesus Christ came? He had a spiritual mission. It was to die, to give forgiveness and new life. He said he came to give us life and to give it more abundantly. Jesus Christ said, Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Here he is, lowly, riding on a colt. He's gentle and meek and says, Come to the people. But there are some people who only want Jesus for what they can get out of him. The multitude saw their dead raised. They saw their lame healed. They saw their dumb speak. They saw a man who could feed them. 5,000 with just five loaves and two fish. 7,000 with a few loaves and fish. They saw a man who could do that all for them, and all they could think of was, I mean, this is better than any politician could ever expect to do, to give us everything, is what they thought. But what do you want help for from Jesus? Your job? Your physical healing? your relationships that are broken. Yes, Jesus Christ is able to do all of that. And just like he did that for the people back those he he does it for people today. Oh, there's something much more that is needed. And what is needed is inward peace, forgiveness and cleansing of your sin. That is what is needed more than anything, my dear friend. And Jesus wept because they misunderstood. They didn't understand why he came and he wept and he wailed. He thought about the embarkment that was going to be around them and how the city was going to be leveled and the terrible destruction that was coming because they only wanted they only wanted a physical deliverance. from Rome and for their felt needs. That destruction that came on Jerusalem is sobering. Let me read to you just a couple of short paragraphs from Josephus, who describes what happened in 70 AD. Josephus says, while the sanctuary was burning, Neither pity for age nor respect for rank was shown. On the contrary, children and old people, laity and priests alike, were massacred." And then at another place, Josephus says, the emperor, meaning Titus, ordered the entire city and the temple to be razed. And razed, of course, means R-A-Z-E-D. means to be completely and entirely destroyed, to be raised to the ground, leaving only the loftiest of towers and the portion of the wall enclosing the city on the west. All the rest of the wall that surrounded the city was so completely raised to the ground as to leave future visitors to the spot no reason to believe that the city had ever been inhabited. That is what happened in history. They missed the reason for Jesus coming. They only saw what they wanted to see, and judgment fell upon that city. Oh, my dear friend, listen to me. Jesus Christ invites you, invites you to come and to have spiritual and inward cleansing. He invites you as a lowly savior riding on a colt to believe on him. He invites you to that. And he weeps and wails at your foolishness because of a certain destruction that will come to you if you don't understand to receive him. for who He is, the Savior, who can renew and cleanse you. You see, He is coming again. But the next time He comes, it is not on a colt. It's on a horse. John, in his vision of Revelation 19, describes it for us. He says, Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And he who sat on him was called faithful and true, and a righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses. Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should strike the nations, and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God, and he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written, Lord of Lords and King of Kings. My dear friend, now is the time to believe and to receive Jesus Christ as your King. the lowly savior who presented himself as a king, the king of peace, and he will give you peace, peace with God, peace with God through his own blood. But oh, my dear friend, if you refuse him, the destruction they experienced as a Jewish nation will pale into insignificance in comparison to an eternity in hell. and he weeps and wails for you if you reject him. He weeps and wails for you if you reject him. Don't reject him. Come to him. Believe on him as your King of Kings and Lord of Lords, as the only one who can give you peace and cleansing and forgiveness. Let's pray. or father in our God, we thank you for sending your son, Jesus Christ, and we rejoice at the triumphal entry. We see on one hand the glorious triumph of our Savior, in which we rejoice. On the other hand, the grievous tragedy of a people who did not understand, who rejected him, who were crying crucify him in just a few short days. We pray that all here this morning may come to the meek and lowly Savior as he presents himself as the one who can cleanse and forgive from sin. We ask this in the name of our King, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.