The Day of Selection (Part A)

It's going to create a lot of twists and turns in the minds of those who are going to observe His entry, His teachings in Jerusalem, His betrayal, and His crucifixion. Just like today, there are things that Jesus allows to happen that create a condition for me to have to struggle through and trust by faith according to His Word. The apostles had to trust Him according to His words. He said He would die and rise again.

They had to be a part of that experience. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Mark.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Today, we join Pastor Rick for a brand new study called the Day of Selection in Mark chapter 11. We are in the Gospel of Mark chapter 11 verses 1 through 11.

Now when they drew near Jerusalem to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples. 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.

And if anyone says to you, Why are you doing this? Say, The Lord has need of it, and immediately He will send it here. So they went their way and found the colt tied by the door outside the street, and they loosed it. But some of those who stood there said to them, What are you doing loosening the colt? They spoke to them just as Jesus commanded, so they let them go. Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it.

And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying, Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of Yahweh. Blessed is the kingdom of our Father David, that comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. And Jesus went into 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 twelve. The day of selection, we know it as Palm Sunday. And here we have the story, of course, of Christ coming to Jerusalem. The disciples are always a part of the picture of His ministry, and a very important part.

We have the crowds, we have the man who owned the colt, we have the colt itself. And then we have what was going on in Jerusalem. And it is Sunday in ancient Israel on this day, when the sacrificial animals for the Passover were selected by the head of the household, the men of the household. They were selected four days before the sacrifice.

They'd be set aside and observed to make sure there were no defects with them before they were offered up to God. Exodus chapter 12 verse 3, Moses told the people, speak to the congregation of Israel, God of course speaking to Moses to tell the people, saying, On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. Now the tenth was four days before the fourteenth, obviously, which was the day of Passover, the fourteenth of Nisan. And so it is the day when the Passover lamb would be selected. And Jesus, of course, is the Passover lamb selected by the Father.

And hopefully I can bring that out as we move forward. Verse 1 now, Now when they drew near Jerusalem and Bethphage, and Bethany at the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples. The two villages named here are close to one another. Bethany means the house of dates.

It's not where you go to find someone to go out with for the night. Of course, the date palms are there. And Bethphage means the house of unripe figs. You know, they didn't put too much on the names after they were named. We do. I mean, it's interesting they would name a place that, a place of unripe figs.

Doesn't sound very appealing. But Bethphage was the lodger of the two. Bethany is where the disciples will find the cult. Jesus had dear friends in Bethany, and we'll come to that towards the end of this morning's consideration. But the mount of Olives, this two-mile long ridge on the east side of Jerusalem, forming that eastern border of Jerusalem, it's about 300 feet higher in elevation, so you have a clear view of the city of Jerusalem to this day. You stand at the mount of Olives, you can see the Temple Mount, you can see the Dome of the Rock. Interesting thing about the Dome of the Rock, we know it doesn't belong there. But God put it there to keep Jerusalem from being bombed, and from other reasons.

The wisdom of God, things that are just not comfortable for us have a meaning with him. Well, that's a side note, but you can see the city, and the many olive groves that used to be there, thus the name the Mount of Olives. It is where Jesus was betrayed and arrested, and where Peter swung his sword and hacked off the ear of Malchus. When Christ returns, his feet will touch down upon the Mount of Olives.

A very significant place in the scripture and in history to come. Zechariah 14, in that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. The Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west, making a very large valley. Half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south. We who believe will be there to see that, and I'm very excited.

Please don't get in my way, I want a clear view of this going on. Anyway, it is also the exact point where he ascended into heaven from this Mount of Olives. Acts chapter 1, the angel speaking to the disciples, verse 11, who said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?

You've got work to do when you're looking up into heaven. And this same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in like manna as you saw him go into heaven. Then they return to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet, which is the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey. And so the Mount of Olives, a very special place for us who believe, verse 2, And he said to them, Go into the village opposite you, and as soon as you have entered it, you will find a colt on which no one has sat.

Loose it and bring it. It is specifically stated that no man has ever been on this animal. And it is, if it had been, it would have been unfit for service, because the Jews regarded animals that had never been ridden particularly suited for holy purposes. And this one again, no one had ever sat on it before.

And yet it will perform as though it were well trained once the master gets his hands on it. Verse 3, And if anyone says to you, Why are you doing this? Say, The Lord has need of it, and immediately he will send it here.

Evidently this was a prearranged meeting. Jesus did a lot of work in Bethany and stayed there often. And at some point, who knows, he may have healed this person or someone in their family, and he said, I'm going to need a donkey.

I'd like you to supply it, and here's what I'd like to do, and here's when, and there we have it acted out. And so he bestowed on this man, when he says here, immediately he will send it. There were others involved, but someone was the boss. And that person has the unique and the priceless privilege of ministering to the master with his donkey, like nobody else. He has a share in the fulfillment of prophecy, because this is prophetic. The Lord again, through Zechariah, called this out. We'll get to that Zechariah 9 quotation in the end of the section of this morning's consideration. But this man forever has a place in the story.

He participated, even though he doesn't seem to have gone to the parade. There are lessons all over that. We'll move to verse 4 now. So they went their way and found the colt tied by the door outside the street, and they loosed it. But some of those who stood there said to him, what are you doing loosening the colt? And they spoke to them just as Jesus commanded.

So they let them go. Another interesting point is Jesus, as often as he could, he'd send out his disciples in twos. We go into that in other sections of the scripture, but he sent two of them this day to get the colt.

And as he said, it happened. It was all anticipated, and just the authority of Christ and his word and the readiness of those to submit to what he had to say. But there are some facts concerning this little animal that are quite interesting from the scripture, and I think that they minister to us. That donkey had to be redeemed when it was born. The law commanded the firstborn donkey to be redeemed by a lamb, or its neck was to be broken. Sacrifice to the Lord, or suffer the loss. Exodus chapter 13. But every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck.

Well, the owner said, I'm not going to break it. I need the donkey. I will redeem it. I will pay the price. But it's sort of out of place. All of a sudden there's this donkey in the Old Testament, Exodus, getting this attention in connection with the lamb.

And then when we come to this section, it's an easy connection. We can understand that this little donkey was born under the sentence of death. Redeem him or kill him. And redeem him with a lamb. Either the donkey had to die, or the lamb had to die.

Which would it be? And it was redeemed. This donkey was redeemed and it was ready to serve. But, while it was redeemed, it had life, it was tied to a post. That's pretty interesting too, because it had life, but it did not have liberty. It needed to be released if it was going to serve. Before it could bear the weight of the Lord on it, it needed the Lord's commandments.

It needed the freedom to do so. That donkey would then be ruled by the Lord, as we will see it happen. It was not free to run off and gallop and do whatever it wanted to do, simply because it was redeemed.

It was tied and it was preserved and it was used at his word. And I look at this story and I think, if that donkey can serve the Lord, I can serve the Lord. If that donkey can submit to the Lord, I can submit to the Lord. If the Lord can redeem the donkey, the Lord can redeem me.

There's so many meanings that belong to this little moment in history. And once that donkey was brought into obedience to Christ, it was able to serve him. Isaiah says this interesting thing in Isaiah chapter 1. It says, The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know. My people do not consider. So the prophet is saying, dumb animals, they understand their master.

What is your problem as people who are supposed to be far more intelligent, far more capable? And so this little donkey and the story that goes with it illustrates God's law of liberty, freedoms to be a servant of God. We are free to be his slaves and we should not be intimidated by that word because of what men have done to other men. We should understand that we are bondservants of Christ. We are willing slaves of Jesus Christ.

That is a special category. Verse 7, Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and he sat on it. So you see the attention and the care that he is getting in the presence of this multitude. Christ is now going to mount this colt and that provides a picture of humility for us because as he's riding on this little donkey, his feet are somewhat scraping the ground. He's not riding in like a general on a steed. This is a picture of humility.

He's saying, I could wipe this place out. That's not what he came for. The Son of Man came to seek and to serve those who are lost, which is mankind. All eyes are on Jesus and the donkey is a part of that and they're watching him as he's riding in. Again, if the donkey can serve the Lord, so can I.

There is not much of an excuse that remains for Christians to not be involved. And that little donkey carrying the Christ of God into the city amid the crowd, the multitudes, the hosannas, the excitement, and he seems to be just such a cool, calm figure. Just plodding along, carrying the Lord, delivered from death by the Lamb, free to be his servant. Verse 8, and many spread their clothes on the road and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road. That's why most of these are date palms and the palm branches put on the road there, we call it Palm Sunday.

This is, as I mentioned, a Sunday. Even in the days of Israel's kings, they did such things. 2 Kings chapter 9, then each man hastened to take his garment and put it under him on the top of the steps and they blew the trumpet saying, Jehu is king.

Jehu turned out to be a rotten king, but he drove his chariot in a very fierce way. But my point is that this was a custom of announcing that this is the king and Jesus is doing just this. He had suppressed his messianic ministry, now he's publicly declaring it.

Verse 8, and many spread their clothes on the road and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Again, as they did in the days of the king and the Lord is making his public ministry known to everyone, as I just mentioned. This messianic ministry, this is important.

This is vital to the story. He had held it back while he ministered. As hard as it is to believe in Christ, even after you become a believer, there are things that will try to get us to doubt him or to doubt parts of him, to accept parts of his word and doubt other parts of his word. How much more difficult would it have been to doubt Christ if he did no miracles? But the fact that he did so many of them attracts us, strengthens our faith. There are countless miracles just by knowing the future, telling the future, the lessons he taught, the people he healed, the walking on the water, which was really a delicate touch.

It was outstanding. And many of these people had witnessed these things take place. In fact, these Jews that are yelling Hosanna are primarily the Galilean Jews, not the Jerusalem Jews, which becomes a problem when the church is established in the book of Acts because you had the Hellenistic Jews that were influenced by the Grecian culture and then you had the Jerusalem Jews that spoke the Hebrew and they looked down many of them on anyone who did not and it became sort of a grounds for Satan to create a clash between the believers. But the apostles dealt with it then in those days as the ministers have to deal with such clashes to this day.

But this is his official entry into Jerusalem as the son of David, publicly declaring himself, I am the king. It's going to create a lot of twists and turns in the minds of those who are going to observe his entry, his teachings in Jerusalem, his betrayal and his crucifixion. Just like today, there are things that Jesus allows to happen that create a condition for me to have to struggle through and trust by faith according to his word. The apostles had to trust him according to his words. He said he would die and rise again.

They had to be a part of that experience. Bartimaeus, blind Bartimaeus in the last chapter, he called it out loud. He identified Christ as the rightful heir to David's throne. Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. That son of David was saying he's in the line of the king. This is Messiah. Verse 9, Then those who went before and those who followed cried out saying, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of Yahweh. That's that covenant name of Yahweh between the Jews and God. Hosanna, this comes from Psalm 118, which is a messianic psalm.

It became a cry of joy and blessing to say Hosanna, which as they are using it here, they're using it in the proper context, but they really don't go far enough. We'll get to see that in a moment. How's this crowd going to feel four days from now when Christ is going to be on the cross? Perplexed?

Broken hearted? For sure. But they will not be the ones that will be shouting, crucify him. That will be a different group. These are pilgrims. They're coming for the Passover feast primarily from the east, route from Capernaum, this region of the Sea of Galilee, and they have these expectations that Christ is the fulfillment of the prophecies as Messiah. He is, but they did not understand it would be two parts to this fulfillment. And so this time he comes as a spiritual deliverer, lowly, riding on a donkey.

Next time he comes as a conquering hero on a war horse. That's why when we read this in Revelation chapter 19, we like it very much. Revelation 19 verse 11, I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse. And he who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. And then it continues down verse 14, And the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses.

That will be us, the believers. I have some questions still about heaven. For instance, will we be ticklish? So important, right?

Well, it is if you don't like to be tickled. It continues here about this army. 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. And he himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he has on his robe and on the thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This is the same Jesus that is riding into Jerusalem on that faraway day on a donkey.

He is returning, and he will be on a horse. Paul tells us what then happens. First Corinthians 15, then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom of God to God the Father.

Let me reread that. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom of God the Father, when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. No more politicians. Man, that alone makes it to heaven appealing just that much. As I mentioned, within four days another crowd will be howling, but it will not be Hosanna. It will be crucify him. And that I said these were the Galilean Jews coming to the Passover. John, who is writing about this very moment in the 12th chapter, says, Then the next day a great multitude had come to the feast. Those are the pilgrims coming to the Passover. The men were required to come to Jerusalem for this celebration. All the male Jews were required to come to Jerusalem.

And, of course, many would bring their families. And so this was a big crowd, a lot of people there. It continues in John 12. When they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him and cried out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of Yahweh, the king of Israel.

And so what John, why I'm quoting John is because I'm pointing out that, again, there are two crowds that will be crying out within these four days. The Galileans, who enjoyed so many of his miracles, and the Jerusalem Jews, who did not enjoy as many because of the leadership in Jerusalem, because they were so hostile to him. Matthew chapter 21, 10, And when he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? Well, the Galilean Jews didn't have to ask that question. They knew who Christ was.

That's why they're cutting down the palm branches and laying it before him and cheering him on. But the Jerusalem Jews did not know, most of them, a great multitude of them. And they're the ones that are making that inquiry, and Matthew picks it up, thanks again to the leaders who made Jerusalem a hostile place where Jesus could not function as he could function further to the north. John's Gospel 11, Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a command that if anyone knew where he was, he should report it, that they might seize him. There's that hostility that I was mentioning, why he ministered so much in other areas. And so our eyes, as we look at this event, our eyes are on him, on Christ. We hear their praise, but we see him marching toward death and life for us. He has no reason to do this but for sinners.

There is no motivation in the universe as to why God would send his Son to suffer such things except to redeem, to purchase back sinners. And by definition, people that aren't very appealing. We may be appealing, have things about us that are appealing to each other, give it time.

Go on a trip with somebody for a week. By day five, you're looking at it, maybe by day two, depending on your personality, you're looking for relief. As you can see, this is a wonderful person, wonderful relationships because we're sinners. We're messed up. God knows it and he doesn't give up on us and that tells us we're supposed to do some of that to others too.

We're not supposed to give up on other people just because they're not behaving, playing properly in life. We know these things and we are devoted, those who believe, to improving our performance as Christians. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the book of Mark like here on Cross Reference Radio.