On the Road to Jerusalem - Part A

Well, we're looking at the road to Jerusalem. And the journey that Jesus takes to Jerusalem will end, as you know, in his death.

From a human standpoint, what happens on the road on this day that we're looking in Matthew 21, from a human standpoint, this is the day that breaks the camel's back. Remember, today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip begins his message on the road to Jerusalem to give you insights on that fateful journey our Lord took for our sake. Now, check out this month's resource that will put you on the road with Jesus before and after his death and resurrection. For those who knew Jesus while he walked this earth, the road to discovering and believing that Jesus was resurrected started in disheartening confusion, but it ended in decisive confirmation. And we're excited to send you a special set of resurrection resources by Skip to include five of his finest Easter messages for digital download or CD and a full video titled On the Road by Skip. Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. They talked together of all these things which had happened.

So it was while they conversed and reasoned that Jesus himself drew near and went with them. With your gift of support of $50 or more, we'll send you a copy of this hope-filled package of five audio messages to download or on CD and the full video On the Road as thanks for your gift to expand Connect with Skip Heitzig to reach more people in major US cities. So request your resource when you give and take a walk with Christ on the road to Emmaus.

Just call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer. Now let's join Pastor Skip for today's teaching from Matthew 21. So when I was a kid, perhaps Palm Sunday was my favorite. One of my favorite Sundays of the year. Of course I didn't get branches this big, but I love going to church on that day for a few reasons. Number one, because I actually got something back at church.

I didn't have to like just get up and be there. They gave me something and I thought that was cool. Number two, I love palm trees. We have a lot out in California and I always think of it as God's favorite tree. And then number three, because Palm Sunday was that transitional period of the year where I knew as a kid, the days were getting longer and there would be more time to play. It's a very carnal reason to like Palm Sunday.

But for those reasons, I really enjoyed Palm Sunday growing up. On one particular Sunday, a boy had a sore throat so he didn't make it to church on that Palm Sunday, but his family went and they came back. And when they came back, they all had these little palm leaves, palm fronds.

And so he said, well, what is that all about? And the father explained that the people held them up as Jesus walked by. And the little boy got very sad when he heard that and he said, great, wouldn't you know it, the one Sunday I miss church, Jesus shows up. In one church, the ladies wanted to decorate the sanctuary with anemones, little flowers like purple and white wildflowers. They came into the sanctuary and found it already decorated with these, with palm fronds. And they went to the pastor and they said, well, we'd like to decorate it with these flowers instead of these palms. And the pastor just said, well, with fronds like these, who needs anemones?

That's a dad joke. The theme this year for Holy Week, the team has chosen On the Road, and that is because so many significant events in the life of Jesus' ministry, especially in the final week, Passion Week, Holy Week, happened on the road. So we're going to consider today On the Road to Jerusalem as Jesus enters the city on Palm Sunday, a message that I have preached in different texts of the New Testament on a number of occasions. Friday, Good Friday, we're going to look at On the Road to Golgotha, Calvary, the cross, and then on Easter Sunday, On the Road to Emmaus, a post-resurrection event from the Gospel of Luke.

Jesus spent a lot of time on the road with His disciples. If you go back to chapter, by the way, turn to Matthew 21 for your text this morning if you're not already there. Matthew 21 is where we're going to be reading from. But a chapter before that, in Matthew chapter 20, before Jesus even gets to Jerusalem, we read in verse 17, Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, So there they are on the road. Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests, to the scribes. They will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify.

And the third day He will rise again. Then in Matthew 21, the very next chapter, the chapter we're going to be looking at, in verse 8, And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Roads were important in ancient times like they are in modern times. Roads connect people, they connect cities, they connect countries, they connect civilizations.

People bring goods and trade and sell and buy on roads. Armies marched on the roads. The Roman Empire was so committed to a road system that they built 250,000 miles of roads. That's a quarter million miles of roads Rome built. And of those 250,000 miles, 50,000 miles were paved roads.

We're talking 2,000 years ago. We're talking roads that they paved with stones. In fact, you can walk 2,000 years later on Roman roads still intact to this day. They wanted to make sure that those roads were kept safe, that on the roads they put soldiers stationed to protect travelers from getting hijacked, from getting robbed, from being killed. They wanted to make sure that ideas as well as commerce could travel on those roads freely, and that set up for the preaching of the Gospel through Paul the Apostle, who took advantage of those roads and spread the Gospel throughout the empire. Well, we're looking at the road to Jerusalem. And the journey that Jesus takes to Jerusalem will end, as you know, in His death. From a human standpoint, what happens on the road on this day that we're looking in Matthew 21, from a human standpoint, this is the day that breaks the camel's back. Jesus publicly stages a demonstration, the very first time He has ever done this, the first and only time. He knew what the consequences would be. Up until now, if you're familiar at all with the Gospels, you know that whenever Jesus did something like a miraculous healing, He would always tell people, keep it quiet.

Don't tell anybody what just happened. Good luck with that. But on this day, it's different. On this day, He coordinates all of what is happening in these events to make a public demonstration that will cause the leadership to think in their minds, we have to get rid of this man, we have to kill him, it's the only way out.

That's from a human standpoint. From a divine standpoint, this day has been planned from eternity past. Keep in mind, Revelation 13 describes Jesus as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. This was always in God's plan for this event, for this day to come.

In looking at Matthew 21, we're going to look from verses 1 down to verse 11. That takes up the story. We discover some very practical lessons from the road. We discover four attributes of God, four aspects of the divine personality. So we're going to look at the story through the lens of four words. Four words, sovereignty, humility, punctuality, and controversy. Those four words sum up the events of this day and provide the lens through which we notice these attributes. First of all, let's begin with sovereignty, that God is in control.

Let's just begin the story. Verse 1, Matthew 21. Now when they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, that's how we say it in English, it's actually a Hebrew word, Bethphage, which means house of unripe fig.

It's a little village just on the top of the Mount of Olives. When they 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 tide and a colt with her. So not one, but two donkeys, a mother and its child, a colt. Loose them and bring them to me. And if anyone says to you, anything to you, you shall say, 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 saying, tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you lowly and sitting on a donkey, a colt the full of a donkey.

A little background will help. The season is Passover. At Passover, the city swelled with people, up to five times its normal population.

Every Jewish male within 20 miles was required to attend three major feasts in Jerusalem. Passover was one of them. So thousands upon thousands, if not up to a million or more, were in Jerusalem at this moment. Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian, tells us that on one particular Passover around this time, between 66 and 70 AD, 256,000 lambs were slaughtered. One Passover, 256,000 lambs.

It is not unusual to have one lamb to feed 10 people. So many scholars will say up to a million, some will even say two and a half million people, could have been in and around the city of Jerusalem at that time. You also need to know that there were massive preparations already in place for Passover season.

Roads were repaired, bridges were fortified, graves were painted or whitewashed so that you could see the white and get away from them. You'd ever wanted to walk on a grave because you could become defiled as a Jewish person. This day is probably Sunday. That's why we call it Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday. In the Jewish calendar, it was the 10th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, Nisan the 10th. In our calendar, that would be April 6th, 32 AD. Jesus enters Jerusalem from the east.

It was probably a sunny day. Most days around this season are in Jerusalem. Jesus entered from the east, from Jericho. He had been in Jericho. You know what happened in Jericho? He met a short little tax collector named Zacchaeus who wanted to get a look at him.

He went to his house for lunch and won his heart. Zacchaeus could have even traveled with Jesus to Jerusalem. Also in Jericho, there were two blind men that Jesus met, one by the name of Bartimaeus. Jesus healed both of them.

They could have been with him in this entourage. So Jesus crests the Mount of Olives. He has been in town probably since Friday because that's when Sabbath starts, Friday evening. So he probably went to Lazarus' house. Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, that's where he stayed in Jerusalem since the Sabbath.

Spent Friday night, Saturday, all day Saturday till Saturday evening. And then on Sunday morning, he crests the Mount of Olives. When he does, he gives a strange request to his disciples. He's never asked for this before. A donkey. Hey, go into that village and get a donkey. Bring him. If they say anything, just say, the Lord needs it. Now, he has never asked for this before. Jesus has walked everywhere he has ever been. But there's no word of argument here like, what?

Get a what? And that's because the disciples have learned by now that when Jesus tells them to do something, you don't need to question him. He's got something going on. There's a good reason for it. So, for example, the time when Jesus said, I need that lunch that that kid brought today because he took it and broke the bread and blessed it and multiplied it and fed thousands of people with it. Or the time when Jesus told his disciples who were fishing in the Sea of Galilee, hey, throw your nets on the other side of the boat. Like that would make a difference. But it made all the difference.

They had a huge catch that day. Or when he was in Cana of Galilee and Jesus gave the order to take jars of wine that were empty and fill them with water, which made no sense at all until Jesus turned them into wine and then everybody went, oh, that's what he had in mind. So by now they have learned, you don't question them, you just do what he says.

So they did it. Now, what's amazing about this story is that when you read it, there's lots of details that Jesus gives, and it's as if when you read it, it's all been arranged. And that's because it has been arranged. You're going to go into this village. There's going to be a guy. You're going to see a couple of donkeys. You're going to ask you this question. You're going to say this, and then you're going to bring it.

It's like, wow. Wouldn't you love direction like that? Wouldn't you love every day to wake up and you have a little list of things to do that God gives you, and so you're going to go to the gas station. You're going to meet a man with a blue shirt. He's going to be driving a red Ferrari. You're going to go up to him and say, I need your keys, and he's going to go, what's up with that?

And then you're just going to say, God needs it, and he'll say, here. So two of the disciples were sent. We don't know which two.

I'm going to make a guess, and I think it's a pretty good guess. I think Peter and John went. I think it's Peter and John because during this same season of Passover, it says Jesus sends Peter and John into the city of Jerusalem to secure an upper room to eat the Passover in.

He specifically sent them to get that done, so I'm guessing he probably used those two here, and I like to picture that because I can just picture them talking to each other during this event. I can hear John saying, I'll do all the talking, Peter. You're a little rough around the edges. Besides, I'm the disciple Jesus loved. You can read that in my book.

I said so. And then Peter's saying, no, I'm the one that Jesus called blessed. Remember up in Caesarea Philippi, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. So keep rank here, John.

I'm going to do the talking. Whatever happened, happened. But what this illustrates is God's sovereignty. God is never out of control. He is never not in control, and he is the master of this situation.

Absolutely in control of every single detail. Oh, here's a detail that Matthew doesn't add, but Luke does and Mark does. The donkey that Jesus rode, it says here was a colt, but it says, upon which never a man had ridden. Jesus getting on that donkey was the first time that donkey ever gave anybody a ride. Now, I think that shows sovereignty because an unbroken donkey is not nice. An unbroken donkey would buck like crazy. It wouldn't like a blanket put on its back. And then getting it around lots of people and putting palm branches in its face would not be a recipe for a good ride. Question, why a donkey? Why a donkey? Was it that Jesus just said, you know, I'm tired.

Instead of walking, I'd rather just get... I've always wanted a donkey ride on the Mount of Olives. No, we're told why. It says in verse 4, all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet. Then he quotes the prophet in the next verse. He's quoting Zechariah chapter 9, verse 9. Tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you lowly and sitting on a donkey, the colt full of a donkey. That was a promise given 500 years before this event, 500 years. Matthew quotes it to show that God is sovereign.

He is up to something. William Barclay says in his commentary, this was Jesus deliberately claiming to be their king. He's presenting himself as their king. Like Zechariah said, the king is coming on a donkey.

And something also that is an important detail. Kings rode horses in times of war. Kings rode donkeys in times of peace. So this shows that Jesus' appearance was not a political appearance. He's not there to take anything over.

My kingdom is not of this world. He's not there to fight. He didn't come on a white horse. He will come on a white horse at his second coming, Revelation 19. He will come to make war, it says. But here he is offering peace. Here he is offering salvation to bring people into a state of peace with God. So we see Jesus in complete control, sovereignly orchestrating every single detail. And I just want you to hear that, especially those of you who have been thinking lately, my life seems out of control.

Operative word there, seems. Are you a child of God? Then it's not out of control. It's in perfect control. All things work together for good to those who love God. God is in control of everything. God rules the universe, we like to say, with his feet up. He's not stressed. Sovereignty, that's the first word.

He is in control. The second word is humility. Humility. God uses our resources. Look at verse 3. And if anyone says anything to you about the donkey that you're going to get from that town, if anybody says anything to you, you shall say, here's the magic phrase, the Lord has need of it, or need of them, and immediately he will send them. Now just meditate on this for a moment. The Lord has need of them.

That sounds like an oxymoron. The Lord has need. Since when does God need anything? God doesn't need anything. We say that God is a non-contingent being. One of the essential parts of God's nature is that he is independent. He doesn't need anyone, doesn't need anything.

When Paul stood and addressed the philosophers in Athens on the Areopagus, he said, neither is he worshiped with men's hands as though he needed anything, for he gives to all life, breath, and all things. God doesn't need anything. But here, Jesus said, just tell him, the Lord has need of that. So this shows us God's humility, that God is willing to condescend, to bow, to bend, to get down to our level so that it can be said God needs something he has provided to somebody else. God didn't need a donkey, and if God did need a donkey, couldn't he just stand there and go, poof, instant donkey.

Go get one. Say, the Lord has need of it. So because of this attribute of God, his humility, we can say that God needed a donkey to ride. God needed a boat when Jesus stood on that boat and preached the gospel to a crowd. He needs a mountainside in Galilee from which to preach. He needed bread and fish in his hands to multiply to feed the multitude. He needed to borrow a tomb to stage a resurrection after his death. So I say to you this morning, God needs your donkey.

I'm not talking about your husband. I'm talking about whatever God has given you, put in your hands, whatever resource you say is your resource. This is my stuff. I've earned this.

I own this. God needs your donkey, and the highest use of your stuff is when you allow God to use it for his glory. So God would say to you this morning, I want, I need your donkey.

I need whatever I have put in your hands. That's Skip Hyten with a message from the series On the Road. Find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Now, here's Skip to share how you can keep teachings like this one today going out around the world, connecting you and others to God's Word. When we remember all that God has already done to fulfill his promises, it helps us to trust him to fulfill every word in Scripture. And that's why we share these teachings, to encourage you to put your faith in God and follow him with confidence. And we want to invite you to help keep these messages online and on the air so more friends like you can experience God's presence in their life as they keep growing in their faith. And I'm praying that in 2023 we'll be able to reach people in more cities in the United States. But I need your help to make that happen. Would you give generously today? Here's how you can do that. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.