R266 The Triumphal Entry

God has an encouraging Word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton and a message on the triumphal entry. Today we're going to be opening God's Word to the book of John chapter 12, and as we do so, we're open to pray with you at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. Now, Dr. Don Wilton. I want you to take a copy of God's Word and turn with us to John's Gospel chapter 12. Our subject this morning involves a life-changing event, one of the most significant events in all of history that has ever occurred. I have entitled our message, The Triumphal Entry.

The Triumphal Entry. I'm going to read in John chapter 12, beginning at verse 12. The Bible says that the next day, the great crowd that had come for the feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took out palm branches, and they went out to meet him, shouting, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the King of Israel. Jesus found a young donkey, and he sat upon it.

For as it is written in Zechariah 9, do not be afraid, O daughter of Zion, see your king is coming seated on a donkey's colt. At first, his disciples did not understand all of this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him. Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. As a result, many people, because they had heard that he had given this miraculous sign, went out to meet him. So the Pharisees said to one another, see, this is getting us nowhere.

Look how the whole world has gone after him. May the Lord write his word upon our hearts this morning. The triumphal entry. It seems rather significant, don't you think, that Jesus was rejected despite the things that he had done publicly and privately for mankind's consumption? We don't have the time this morning, but if you go back into John chapter two and you begin to look at Jesus turning the water into the wine, if you go back and see what happened as he cleansed the temple, if you go back and study in Luke chapter six how that he fed the 5,000, how that he healed the nobleman's son, how that he healed the man at the pool of Bethesda, if you get up into the preceding chapter as we've already discovered in John chapter 11 and we saw this remarkable account how that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, it seems rather significant, don't you think, rather sad and yet not altogether surprising that people began to reject him.

Jesus had been rejected despite his public and private demonstration of his power. And then in John chapter 12, the first 10 verses, we noticed that there was a very special gathering that took place and Jesus in all of his glory manifested his presence at their table and in their midst. But from verse 12 and following, we're going to find recorded for us one of the most significant events that have ever been recorded that has most far reaching implications for every person, man, woman, and boy and girl throughout the ages of antiquity and into the time to come.

We're going to discover a very important thing and that is that people not only rejected Jesus Christ despite the fact that he had manifested his power, but we're going to begin to discover that people rejected Jesus Christ despite the fulfillment of prophecy. And something remarkable happened here in John chapter 12 and beginning at verse 12. I'm going to submit to you today, beloved friends, that this was no ordinary event that took place in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ as we begin this wonderful march down the highway to the cross, the Via Doloroso. Let's look very briefly at this triumphant event and let's try and understand what it is that God would have us to apply into the annals of our own hearts and our own beings. This event, number one, happened on the perfect date.

Let's note that together. Number one, this event, this triumphal entry of the Lord Jesus Christ, number one, it happened on the perfect date. Historians tell us that most of the Jewish world would have circled this date on their calendar.

In fact, Josephus, one of my favorite historians, made note of the fact that it was the Sanhedrin, the governing religious authority. They would have had almost a countdown, if you please, much like we do, toward Thanksgiving and Christmas. They would have had a countdown to this unbelievable event on the religious calendar. But the most striking fact about the relevancy of this particular event, my friend, was that 483 years before it took place, it was foretold of by the prophet Daniel.

Now I want you to turn there with me. Everybody turn back into the book of Daniel. Now that's in the Old Testament for those of you that are struggling this morning. Turn back with me into the book of Daniel, chapter nine, book of Daniel chapter nine, and verses 24 and following. Listen to what the Bible tells us about this prophetic, this prophecy, 483 years before Jesus entered Jerusalem.

Listen to what the prophet said. Daniel chapter nine, beginning at verse 24, 70 weeks are decreed for your people and for your holy city to do what? To finish transgression. Number two, to put an end to sin. Number three, to atone for wickedness. Number four, to bring in everlasting righteousness. Number five, to seal up vision and prophecy.

And number six, can you believe this? Daniel said this 483 years to anoint the most holy one, but he doesn't leave it there. Verse 25, no one understand this, the prophet said. From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the anointed one, the ruler comes. There will be seven sevens and 62 sevens.

Wish I had time to get into all the details with you. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. Verse 26 is very key because verse 26 is the prophecy related directly to the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ. After the 62 sevens, the anointed one will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood.

War will continue until the end and desolations have been decreed. What was Daniel doing here? Daniel, my beloved friends, ladies and gentlemen, was dividing prophecy into three periods.

That's what he was doing. And I'm going to show you how very significant this event and this date was. Very briefly, we cannot do it complete justice, obviously. This prophecy is divided into three periods. Number one, the first period, took the Jews to the end of the Old Testament period.

It starts in 445 BC. That is before Christ. When in the 20th year of his reign, King Artaxerxes, imagine having a name like that, King Artaxerxes decreed that the prophet Nehemiah could go back to Jerusalem and he could rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. You can read about that in Nehemiah chapter two and verses one through eight. This marked the first period of prophecy according to the prophet Daniel.

Number two, the second period. This took the Jews down through what was known as the silent centuries. Choir, the silent centuries, according to history, is the period known as the intertestamental period. The silent centuries are known as the intertestamental period. And according to the prophet Daniel, this period took the Jews marching down through the silent centuries, the intertestamental period, to the time, listen, when the Messiah, according to verse 26, would be cut off. And the beginning of the cutting off would be marked by Christ's triumphant return.

Period number three, period number three, period number three swayed in the balance. Now, why did it sway in the balance? Because, friends, according to scripture, there was an apparent contradiction and a confusion between the prophecy of Caiaphas in chapter 11, who said that Jesus had to die for the whole nation rather than that the whole nation be destroyed. And what actually took place six days later when Jesus was crucified, what happened there? Well, you see, had the crowds accepted Jesus Christ, if we're talking about if because it didn't happen, if the authorities had accepted Jesus Christ, what would have happened? Well, number one, the Romans would have crucified Jesus.

There's no doubt about it. Number two, the Romans would have signed a peace treaty with the Jews. There is no doubt about that because this man would have paid the price. Number three, the Romans would have broken that truce and would have introduced a period of tribulation, an unprecedented period of tribulation upon people. And number four, the period of tribulation would have only come to an end by the magnificent return of the Messiah coming back in His glory to receive His own unto Himself. But it didn't happen exactly that way.

Why? It's at this point that the church age is interjected into the prophecy of God by the mind and by the hand of Almighty God. It was the Jewish people who interrupted man's overflow, of man's design for the pathway in which God had destined people to march down. Why did the Jews interrupt this? For a very simple reason, they did not repent. The Jews despised Jesus.

They rejected Him despite His public and private demonstration of His power. The Jews were the ones who denied the bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was the Jews, my friends, who denied even the outpouring of the Spirit of God at Pentecost, which comes later on in the Acts of the Apostles. And so it was the Jews, my friends, who brought about the final consummation or the act of prophecy born in the heartbeat of Daniel's prophecy back 483 years before the fact. And so what happened to Caiaphas and what he said in chapter 11? Here's what happened, folks. Caiaphas and everything he said happened exactly as he said it would happen.

In fact, we are told by historians and we know it for a fact of history that it was within that same generation that the Jews incurred the wrath of the Romans and they flattened the city and they burned it down and they scattered the Jews in the diaspora from north to south and east to west. And I'm going to submit to you today, beloved friends, that if we're going to understand this triumphal entry, we must understand that this event happened on the perfect date. But note in the second place that this event was accompanied by the profoundest praise. It was accompanied by the profoundest praise.

Something happened here. The Bible says they took in verse 13 of John chapter 12, they took palm branches and they went out to meet him shouting. Rather interesting, don't you think? Now there are two significant things related to these people's praise. One was the palm branches that we read about. The second was the content of their praise. How do we understand the significance of this event?

We've got to look at the profound praise that accompanied this event. Well, the palm branches, you'd say to me today, Dr. Wilton, what in the world does that mean? Well, if we're going to understand why palm branches are significant, we've got to go all the way back to the Maccabees. Folks, I'm not talking about the Maccabees from Roebuck now. I know that Ricky Maccabee would love to take credit for this.

It's just not on. We're going back centuries to the time of the Maccabees. Do you know what historians tell us? They're saying that the Maccabees every time that there was a significant event in the life of people, guess what they would do? They would get out palm branches because the palm branches would signify victory and great ecstatic joy. If we're going to understand the palm branches, we've got to go back to 164 BC before Christ. And we've got to understand that the Jews celebrated the rededication of the temple by waving palm branches. We've got to understand in 141 BC, five years earlier, five years later than that, the Bible tells us that the Jews gained full independence under the leadership of Simon and the throngs came running out onto the streets, waving, you guessed it, palm branches. If we're going to understand the significance of this profound praise and of this event, we've got to go back to AD 66 to 70.

Why? Because of the war against the Romans. The Jews went ecstatic, waving palm branches. We've got to go back to AD 32 through 35 where that incredible war under Bar Kokhba, that incredible leader and the victories that were gained and sustained. But there was something very interesting about the war led by Bar Kokhba in AD 32. You know what it was? When they won the victory, they celebrated by taking the coins, their valuable mint like our quarters and dimes and our nickels and they stamped by decree, palm stamps into those coins to commemorate the victory and the ecstatic joy of Bar Kokhba and the wars that had been won.

What's the difference? Here the Messiah had won the victory. Here the Messiah was representing everything that these people thought. It was their great messianic expectation. These people in their human limitation, they believed that Jesus Christ was the coming Messiah, who by His power coming on a war horse, dressed up to kill, was going to be able to remove and erase the dreaded and the hated Roman oppression.

And so they came out and the second significant event was the content of their praise. There were two words they used. The first one was Hosanna. Hosanna is a wonderful word, choir. I've heard you sing it with such power. Do you know what Hosanna means? It means save us now. That's what it means. In fact, I'm going to suggest to you that these people back then were the first instant coffee generation. They were. There's no doubt about it.

They just like we are in 1995. I mean we drive up to Chick-fil-A, we go out to the Beacon and we say we want it right now. And we want it aplenty too. And I mean we get it aplenty. I mean it comes and it is the most wonderful thing but we want it now.

That's why we love the Beacon and that's why we love going to Chick-fil-A. We want it now. We're in the now generation and these people were tired of their oppression. They were tired of being messed around by the Romans. They were tired of all the hate.

They were tired of their slavery. And they said Hosanna, Hosanna save us now, now, now. We don't want to wait anymore. We want it now. That's what Hosanna means.

But they took this one step further. They said blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. You see that word blessed has equal significance in their profound praise my friend. The word blessed doesn't mean everybody stand up and give a Colgate smile like we're accustomed to do.

Oh no. The word blessed in the biblical context my friends means that these people were expressing total and complete joy and contentment with thanksgiving in the completeness of everything that this person, the Christ, represented to them and for them concerning their delivery from the oppression of the Romans. May I submit to you today that this triumphal entry, this event can only be understood my friends in terms of the fact that this event happened on the perfect date. Number two, this event was accompanied by the profoundest praise. But number three, this event was carried by most unusual procession.

Now I think we're all going to agree on this one. It was accompanied by the most unusual procession. You see, these people looked up expecting the King of Kings to come riding in on his war horse. Oh yes, they sort of thought that this was going to be the best version of Caesar that they've ever seen in their lives before. They believed that this man was going to come in dressed to kill. That he was going to have bows and arrows. He was going to have an army. He was going to have foot soldiers. He was going to have tank commanders coming in behind him with their weapons drawn.

He believed he was going to have battalions of scouts who understood the meaning of self-discipline, duty and dedication and loyalty to the cause. They believed that this man was going to epitomize the very best of the very best as far as delivery was concerned and horror upon horrors he came riding on the back of a donkey. He came riding on the back of a donkey. You see, this same Jesus, my friend, was sending a statement out to the world. He was saying, I'm not a prince of the royal monarchy in Monaco in Eastern Europe. He was saying, I'm not one of the British royal family in Buckingham Palace. He was saying to them, I'm not one who has just been elevated to the luxury of the White House in the presidency of the United States of America. He was saying, I'm not just an ordinary ruler. I'm just not an ordinary man coming in in all my elected power and glory. He said, I'm no elected official.

I'm no person who's coming in according to the standards which are set by man. I'm the King of Kings. I'm the Savior of the world. I'm the Messiah. I'm the Son of God.

And the Bible says that God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world to himself. You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton, our teacher here on The Encouraging Word, and he'll be back with the rest of today's message on the triumphal entry in just a moment. But he wants you to know we're here for you. We'd love to pray with you and for you at 866-899-WORD.

Jot the number down, store it in your cell, 866-899-9673. We'd love to speak with you, pray with you, connect you with resources. Or if you'd rather go keyboard to keyboard, we'll meet online at www.tewonline.org.

That's www.tewonline.org. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. Yes, this event happened on a perfect date. This event was accompanied by the profoundest praise.

This event was carried by most unusual procession. But I want you to note in the fourth place that this event was announced by a Bible prophet. You see, there was not only Daniel, but I want you to turn back very quickly to the book of Zechariah. That's a book in the Old Testament, book of Zechariah chapter 9.

Zechariah chapter 9. Look at it with me, folks. Turn there, turn there. It's important to look at it. You might take a little while to find it. But turn there in the book of Zechariah right near the end of the Old Testament, just before Matthew.

Just have a look at it there with me. The book of Zechariah chapter 9. Listen to what the Bible prophet said from verse 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, daughter of Jerusalem. See, your King, your King comes to you righteous. And having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey.

Isn't that incredible? On a colt, the fall of a donkey. Now look what happens in verse 10. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war horses from Jerusalem. And the battle bow will be broken.

You get it? There is the tremendous mindset of the people. These are the things normally and ordinarily associated with a coming Messiah to deliver them on the battlefield. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. What is the prophet Zechariah doing here? Well, he's doing two things. First of all, he's prophesying concerning who? And he says three things about the who of the triumphal event. Number one, that he's a king. Number two, that he is the righteous one. And number three, that he's going to come riding on a donkey. That's what he says about the who of the triumphal entry of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But then he answers the next most important question. What's he going to do? What is the who going to do?

What is this all about? It's right here in the scripture. Number one, he's going to end hostility. You see, here we have the beginnings of the system of reconciliation.

Everything that God is. Number two, he's going to proclaim peace. According to the word of God, in verse 10 of Zechariah chapter nine, he's going to proclaim peace.

Why? Why is he going to proclaim peace? On what basis is he going to proclaim peace? On what authority is he going to proclaim peace? Simply because he is peace. He is the prince of peace.

That's why this one coming riding on a donkey. He is the prince of peace. What is he doing?

He's ending hostility. Number two, he's proclaiming peace. And number three, he's going to establish his rule, his heavenly rule upon this earth. I'm going to submit to you today, beloved friends, that we'll never understand the triumphal entry of the Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. We will never understand these unbelievable, earth-shattering, timeless footsteps down the highway to the cross unless we understand that this event happened on the perfect date.

It was accompanied by the profoundest praise. It was carried by an unusual procession. It was announced by a Bible prophet, but I want you to notice that it was also surrounded by a diverse group of people.

It was surrounded by a diverse group of people. The Bible tells us, my friend, that at this triumphal entry, that two crowds converged with each other. Powerful teaching from Dr. Wilton about the scripture, but I pray that you would open your heart to what Dr. Don wants to share next as he comes into the studio with each of us one on one. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin, and by faith, I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. If you just prayed to receive Christ with Dr. Wilton moments ago, or perhaps rededicated your life, we have wonderful resources we want to put in your hands. More importantly, we want to pray with you. Dr. Don wants to pray for you and rejoice in this new day, this new beginning.

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