The Visitation - Part A

Always, Jesus avoided the fanfare until now. Now he deliberately provokes a demonstration, an unmistakable entry into the city as their king, and they recognize it because they call him their king. Today on Connect with Skip Heitig, Pastor Skip shares a message about Jesus' entry into Jerusalem.

He was hailed by the people as king, though they did not understand what kind of king he was. Before we begin today, here's Skip and Lenya to tell you about a trip they're planning to Israel. I'm guessing that many of you have thought about, talked about, maybe even dreamed about visiting Israel.

Well, let's make that happen. Lenya and I are taking a tour group to Israel next summer in 2024. And I can't wait. We'll start in Tel Aviv, head north to Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, and the Jordan River. We'll spend several days in Jerusalem and see the Garden of Gethsemane, the Upper Room, and so much more. And we'll wrap it all up with a swim in the Dead Sea. Now, I've been to Israel many times, like over 40. In fact, I can honestly say, though, that visiting the places where the Scriptures unfolded, where Jesus lived out his earthly ministry, it never gets old.

No, it doesn't. The incredible sightseeing will be punctuated by times of worship and teachings that you'll never forget. And Jeremy Camp and Adi Camp will be with us to lead worship. Make plans to join us next summer in Israel. See the itinerary and book this Israel tour with Skip Heitzig and Jeremy Camp today at inspirationcruises.com slash C-A-B-Q. That's inspirationcruises.com slash C-A-B-Q.

Now, we're in Luke 19 today as Skip kicks off his teaching. You know, our brains are capable of storing some incredible information, but also of storing some worthless information. I think of my own mind, there are lyrics to songs that I learned as a kid that are lodged forever in my brain.

I'll probably never get them out. Now, there's lines of movies I remember that are also there. There's random facts that I know, and I don't even know why I know them. But when I compare our brains to God's knowledge and intellect, well, there's no comparison. Because one of the overarching truths we have discovered in this series is that not only does God know everything, not only is he omniscient, but he states sometimes what he knows in advance. He states what is going to happen in the future before it happens. And he does that, he tells us, so that when those things happen, when they come to pass, what he predicts, we will know as a signature move that's from God.

We've been looking at that in our series against all odds. We have seen that not only was Jesus coming predicted by the Old Testament prophets, but that specifics of his coming were announced, the place of his birth, the manner of his birth, where he would live, where he would move, some of those kinds of details. But it's even more precise than that. Did you know there's a whole group of predictions that talk about Messiah's coming to the city of Jerusalem, that he would come in a unique manner, riding a very specific kind of animal on a very specific date? Example, Malachi the prophet in chapter 3 says the Lord will suddenly come to his temple. Zechariah the prophet said that he will come riding in on a donkey. And Daniel the prophet said the Messiah will show up 483 years after the commandment is given to restore and build Jerusalem, which at the time was completely destroyed. So when the prophets announce some of these predictions, you just had to know that they were scratching their prophetic heads, wondering, what is that about? Who will be the one that I'm writing about?

When will he show up exactly? I know this because in 1 Peter chapter 1 in the New Testament, Peter said the prophets searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the prophets. He predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.

So the prophets wrote them down, but they didn't always know who exactly would be the one that would fulfill them. Well, we come to an amazing section of Scripture in Luke chapter 19 where Jesus comes to the city of Jerusalem, but he does so in a very unusual manner. And the story unfolds in in four phases.

And the first is the presentation. He comes, the Lord Jesus comes in a very unique manner to this city. Let's begin in Luke chapter 19 verse 28. When he had said this, he went on ahead going up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass when he had come near to Bethphage and Bethany at the mountain called Olivet that he sent two of his disciples saying, go into the village opposite you where as you enter you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever sat.

Loose it and bring it here. And if anyone asks you why are you loosing it, thus you shall say to him, because the Lord has need of it. So those who were sent went on their way just as he had said to them. But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, why are you loosing the colt? And they said, the Lord has need of him. And they brought him to Jesus, and they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him. And as he went, many spread their clothes on the road." Now this is a very different way for the Lord Jesus to walk into the city of Jerusalem.

He'd been there many times before on different occasions, but he walked into the city with his men. On this time, and this time only, Jesus calls for a donkey to be brought from a nearby village for him to sit on it, and a parade begins that picks up momentum, and the people begin a celebration. I can only think that by now the disciples had learned that whenever Jesus gives them a command, just do what he says. Don't question him.

If he wants something, it's for a reason. They learned that by now. Example, there was that time when a huge multitude had gathered to hear him teach, and Jesus said, okay guys, let's feed this multitude. And they had nothing to feed him with, and one says, well, there's a young kid here with a few loaves and fish, but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, well, bring them to me. And I'm sure one of the disciples thought, why? Why bother? What good is that going to do?

Are you going to eat it alone? But the Lord multiplied it, and that was a wow moment to them. Then there was the time when the Lord said, launch out into the deep and let your nets down for a catch of fish. And Peter said, look, we've been fishing all night.

We've caught nothing. But he did it, and they caught so many fish that the boats they put the fish in started to sink. So they learned whenever Jesus wants something, just do what he says. And so when he asked for that donkey, they went and they got it. Every time I read through this story, and I look at all the details that Jesus gives, predicting it's going to be the village next door, the donkey will be at the entrance of that village, somebody who owns it is going to ask you about it, you tell them this. I think, wouldn't it be great if we got direction for our lives like that? Wouldn't you love to wake up and have the Lord just speak to you? I mean, speak to you with such intricate detail like, well, you're going to go to the gas station today, and you're going to find a guy in a red shirt.

He's going to offer you a job. Or there's a car over there, just take it. And if somebody asks you, just say, the Lord needs it.

That'd be a lot of fun. And I don't know which of the disciples went to go get this little young donkey, but I like to imagine in my mind that because Jesus had Peter, James, and John as sort of his executive team, that maybe Peter and John went because we find them paired up a lot in the Bible, doing things. And I can just hear Peter saying, now, John, let me do the talking. I'm the blessed one, remember? Remember Jesus had blessed you, Simon, son of Jonah, that's me, so I'll do the talking because I'm the blessed guy.

And then John would rebut him and say, yeah, but I'm the disciple Jesus loves. But whichever disciples went, they went and they brought Jesus back, this young donkey for him to set on and ride into Jerusalem on. Now the date is important. The best scholarship tells us this took place in the Jewish month of Nisan on the 10th day of the month, the 10th day of the Jewish month Nisan. That was a very special day when the lambs were selected by the families to be brought home, nurtured for a few days, only to be sacrificed on the 14th day of Nisan for the Passover. So it was the day of the presentation of the lamb to the family who would take it home and sacrifice the lamb.

So Jesus comes from Jericho, from the eastern side of the Mount of Olives up the ascent of the Mount of Olives. He comes to a city that is absolutely jam-packed. Jam-packed full of people.

The best way I could describe it to you is think of balloon fiesta crowds in Old Town, in something about that size. Jerusalem swelled, we are told, to about five times its normal population. And to give you a flavor of how many people were in that little village, that town, Josephus, a Jewish historian, says that at one of the Passovers around this time, just after this time, but around the same period of time, they sacrificed in the temple courts 256,000 lambs. And it was usually one lamb per family, and the traditional minimum was 10 people per lamb.

Because you would take the lamb home, you'd have that as your meal, Passover meal, so it was 10 people per lamb. So we can safely say there were between two and two and a half million people crammed into Jerusalem at that moment. And the city was prepared. Weeks in advance, they fixed the roads up, they fortified the bridges, they would whitewash the tombs, they would make the city presentable, but they were not ready for what they were about to see in terms of Jesus approaching the city. Something else you need to know, and I bet you know this by now, is that when Jesus showed up on the Mount of Olives for that particular Passover and gave the order for them to go get that young donkey, this was not some spur of the moment decision. This was something planned long ago. It wasn't like Jesus said, you know, Pete, John, boys, I've always wanted to ride a donkey into Jerusalem.

I don't know, it's just something I always wanted to do since I was a kid. No, this was something predicted by the prophets. It's one of those 300-plus predictions from the Old Testament. This happens to be out of Zechariah 9-9, which states, rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout daughter of Jerusalem, see your King comes to you righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. The scholar William Barclay said, this was Jesus' deliberate claim to be their king.

Why is that? Because kings, though they rode horses in times of war, would ride a donkey during times of peace. When a king entered a city on a donkey, he was extending terms of peace to that city. And Jesus had never done this before. In fact, one of the things we know about Jesus is that he deliberately in the past averted, avoided any overtures of making him a king. You remember in John chapter 6, after Jesus fed the multitude, and we are told that some people in the crowd wanted to take him by force and make him a king, says Jesus withdrew from their midst. He didn't want that to happen at that point. Or how about all the times our Lord healed people of some loathsome disease or some crippling disease, and his first commandment is, don't tell anybody that I did this.

How hard would that be to obey that command? You've been a cripple you've been a cripple all your life and now you can walk down the street and somebody goes, hey, what happened to you? I can't say.

Well, how did you get better? Don't ask me. I can't tell you. Always Jesus avoided the fanfare until now. Now he deliberately provokes a demonstration, an unmistakable entry into the city as their king, and they recognize it because they call him their king.

So it moves from the presentation into a celebration. Look at the next verse. Verse 36, as he went, many spread their clothes on the road. Then, as he was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, going on the other side toward the city, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for 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.

John in his gospel adds another element. It says, they brought out palm branches, palm branches, and they went out to meet him. Now, palm branches were emblematic of their desire for deliverance, and here's how I know that.

150 years before this, there was another war that took place between their deliverer, Judas Maccabees, and the Syrians who had control of the city. After Judas Maccabees won back the city as their deliverer, they brought out palm branches and they sang and they turned it into a huge celebration. So bringing out palm branches and shouting this out was their desire for deliverance. Now, notice something in verse 38.

Notice the lyrics of the song they sing. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. They're quoting Psalm 118. That's a messianic psalm, a well-established, well-known psalm of the Messiah.

All the Jewish rabbis knew that. So they are bringing the lyrics of this song to bear when Jesus is entering the city on that donkey on that day. There's another word that is not mentioned by Luke, but is mentioned by Matthew, Mark, and John, also from Psalm 118, and it's the famous word hosanna. Hosanna, they said, which means save us now, deliver us now. And so as Jesus is going down, the crowd, probably one part sang one part or shouted it, the other part in an antiphony shared another part, and this messianic psalm as he goes down the city.

I want you to notice something else in verse 37. It says, the multitude began to rejoice and praise God with what kind of a voice? What kind of voice? Say it loud. Loud.

Okay, very good. Now you get the idea. So when they sang, when they shouted, they shouted with a loud voice.

Nobody in that crowd was doing this. Hosanna in the highest. In the highest.

And here's why. Whenever you sing or you speak in praise to the Lord of heaven and earth, the King of kings, do it with confidence. Do it with all your might. How many times does the Bible say, shout joyfully to the Lord? Or in Revelation 5, and they sang with a loud voice.

I believe that in our worship we ought to say it or sing it like we mean it. Martin Luther, and I've always loved what he had to say about this, he said, how has it happened that in the secular field there are so many fine poems and so many beautiful songs, while in the religious field we have such rotten, lifeless stuff? And if you know anything about Martin Luther, he sought to remedy that by writing fresh new expressions of worship. And he believed that the Lord should be worshiped with vigor and confidence and a loud voice.

But not everybody in the crowd that day agreed. Notice in verse 39 there are some others who aren't into celebration but consternation. Verse 39, some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd, teacher, teacher, rebuke your disciples, they shouted. But he answered and said to them, I tell you that if these should keep silent the stones would immediately cry out. Now why do you think the Pharisees were shouting that the disciples should be quiet? It's because they knew what this overture of sitting on the donkey was all about. They knew Zechariah chapter 9 verse 9. They knew the prediction of the Messiah coming on a donkey. They knew Psalm 118, the Hosanna Psalm. And they know that this crowd thinks that man on the donkey is the Messiah, which he was. But they didn't. So they said, tell them to be quiet. Which brings up something else. One of the reasons that Jesus presents himself in the manner in which he does at this time this overture, this overt demonstration that he is their Messiah, their King, is to force the Jewish leaders to act. To force them to have some response.

And here's why. We're told in Matthew 26 that the Jewish leaders wanted to arrest Jesus but they wanted to wait till after the Passover. Once the Passover's done, once the crowds leave, things die down around here, then we'll arrest him, lay hold of him, try him, and get rid of him. But let's wait till after the Passover.

But that was not God's plan. God's plan is that his Son, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, would die on Passover. Because Jesus is the fulfillment of the Passover, so just as the Lamb is presented on the 10th of Nisan, Jesus, the Lamb of God, is presented to the city on that date. And just as Passover takes place a few days later, Jesus will die on the Passover.

So it is, again, precise timing. But I love verse 40. It's one of my favorites in the Bible. But he answered and said to them, this is Jesus' response, I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.

Listen to it in the Phillips translation of the New Testament. The very stones in the road would burst out cheering. Now if Jesus would have told them to hold their peace, hey, disciples, be quiet.

It would have literally been the first rock concert in history. You knew that was coming. Whenever we take tours to Israel, we always stand on the Mount of Olives. One of the commanding views is to bring our group to the Mount of Olives overlooking the city of Jerusalem. It's a breathtaking view, right?

It's amazing. So you see that and you go, wow. And I always like to say, okay, guys, one of the best souvenirs that you could take home is right under your feet. Bend down and pick up a rock, a stone. Take it home and tell people this is a stone from the Mount of Olives. Take that stone, put it on your desk or table or somewhere in your house prominently. And when people say, what's with this rock here? That's when you can say, this is one of those stones that didn't cry out. And they're going to look at you and go, huh?

What? And you'll be able to give a witness to them and tell them this story. Is there archeological proof that Jesus existed? Did Jesus ever actually claim to be God? Is Jesus really the only way? There's a good chance you'll be asked tough questions like these at some point.

You may ask these questions yourself. That's why we want to send you Josh and Sean McDowell's new book Evidence for Jesus to help you answer crucial questions about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Was that truth challenged in the presence of knowledgeable witnesses, especially antagonistic witnesses? Peter on the truth when he says, men of Israel, listen to these words, you leaders, Jesus and Nazarene, a man attested to you, not just to us.

See, he threw it right back. And the antagonist said, attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs, which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know. I'll tell you this, folks, if those antagonists had not seen those witnesses, miracles and signs, Peter would have been lucky to have made it out there alive, instead of what happened historically.

Thousands were added to the church. Evidence for Jesus will help you confidently answer tough questions like, Is there evidence that Jesus was real? Did Jesus actually claim to be God? What makes Jesus unique from other religious figures? Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

And why does that matter? Evidence for Jesus by Josh and Sean McDowell will join classics like more than a carpenter and evidence that demands a verdict that have shaped Christian apologetics. We'll send you a copy of Evidence for Jesus as thanks for your gift of $50 or more this month to reach more people with the teaching and resources of Connect with Skip Heitzig. So be sure to request your copy of Evidence for Jesus today when you give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. And we're excited to send you more content from Pastor Skip and this ministry right to your mobile device.

To join our new text messaging group, just text the word Connect to 74759. Join us tomorrow as Pastor Skip examines the kind of worship that God is really looking for. God is not seeking for ecstatic worshipers or frantic worshipers or frenetic worshipers but authentic worshipers. Jesus said the Father is looking for those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.