Welcome to Truth for Life Weekend. As we look ahead to Palm Sunday next weekend, we are taking time to consider who Jesus is. Some have seen him as a prophet or a philosopher, a revolutionary.
Some see him as a madman. We'll find out why none of these categories can contain Christ. Alistair Begg explains how Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecy as our king, prophet, and priest. And that is because this particular incident is recorded very carefully for us by each of the gospel writers—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—each of them draw attention to the drama of this event.
And each of them does it in their own way, much in the same way that, as we often say, you may read an account in one newspaper and then in another newspaper of the same incident, and while the main and central part of it probably will be the same, there may be details in one that is absent in another. Matthew tells us, as we read, that all of this took place to fulfill the words of the prophet—the prophecy of Zechariah 9. And if we had been able to move among the crowd, if we'd been able to be present on that occasion, we would have found that many of the people were there—perhaps we would have been just like them—caught up in the excitement of the moment. Many of them were there because of what had happened to Lazarus.
What had happened to Lazarus was that he'd been raised from the dead. You would think that everybody would be absolutely delighted—particularly, perhaps, the religious people. And yet the record tells us that the religious people were indignant about this. They were dreadfully concerned about it.
And so it was that they were confronted by the reality of the power of this one, who was now appearing on a donkey. Their animosity and their frustration spilled over into their language. Teacher, rebuke your disciples.
We don't like to hear this kind of thing. And then Jesus quite masterfully responding and saying, Well, I could ask them to stop, but if they stop, the very stones would cry out. Clearly a metaphor of the magnificence of the glory of God. And so they looked upon one another, and they said to one another, the religious folks, We're losing the battle, they said. The whole world has gone out after him.
Now, of course, those of us who have studied 2 Samuel, we've studied it, and we've realized that there's no surprise in this, because all these years before, the anticipation was that there would come a king from the line of David, a descendant of David, and he would establish the rule of God. And now here, in this moment, the whole city is stirred, and the people are asking one another, Who is this? That, incidentally, is the great question of the ages. I wonder, have you satisfactorily answered that question for yourself?
I wonder what your answer is. Who is Jesus? A religious man? A prophet who died? A hero? A revolutionist?
No. When you come to understand, when you understand, when we understand who Jesus is, then none of those categories can contain him. And so, for that reason, all we're going to do is, as it were, squeeze our eyes together. We're going to try and use our sanctified imagination. I came across a quote from a schoolboy who said, I like the radio more than TV. The pictures are better. Now, those of you who love to read and are disappointed when you see the movie that is made about the book will understand that, because you see it and you say, But no, that's not who that person was. I know who that person was. I've lived with him all these weeks while I've been reading this book. Now, our sanctified imagination is not to fill in gaps to a picture—a picture of what God hasn't said but what he has said—so that as we think about it, we don't see what isn't there but we see what is there.
Now, the pictures are clear. First of all, the picture of him that is given in each of the Gospels of Jesus riding on a donkey—on the colt of a donkey. And this colt did not come from the used donkey lot, we're told. It was a colt on which no one had ever sat. How did he lay hold of this colt? Well, the disciples were told, You want to go to this place, and when you get there, I just simply say the Lord needs it.
Now, that may have been the password that had been prearranged. It may be an indication of Christ's knowledge. The gospel writers don't tell us.
And so it is. As he makes his approach, he's being greeted as the son of David, as the messianic king. He is approaching Jerusalem in a purposeful way. It would obviously have been possible for Jesus to go into the city inconspicuously, to go there quietly. The gospel writers tell us on many occasions he withdrew himself from the crowd.
On one occasion, when they thought to make him a king, he left them directly and immediately. And so he makes his entry into Jerusalem in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. He doesn't arrive on a chariot but on a colt.
He is going to be lifted up, but not to a throne but to a cross. This display is a display of splendor as he approaches a cross of shame. Now, for many of us, this is so familiar. And it's good for us to pause and say to ourselves, Is this what I understand? Perhaps even to be honest enough to say, I'm not sure I get this.
Very different from what I imagine. You see, because some of us have created an imaginary Jesus for ourselves—a Jesus who, if he is anything to anyone, surely must come to fix everything for us, to grant me comfort, to grant me security, to grant me health, to bring unity to the nations, to unite our families in their disunity, to grant us progress, and so on. And then we come across this Jesus and this expression and this statement.
The crowds did not anticipate it in this way. Even those who were saying that salvation is found in him, even those who were singing, Hosanna, help us, save us—they were the same ones who previously had tried to make Jesus the King by force, and he had left them. And here they're confronted by this strange juxtaposition, an expression of his majesty displayed in humility. When the prophet anticipates the coming of the messianic king, a number of things are said about him. And one of the things that is said about Jesus in his fulfillment is that he will not quarrel or cry aloud in the streets. When this king comes, he won't be a protagonist, he won't be a quarreller, he won't be shouting, he won't be drawing attention to himself, he won't be extolling his virtues when he comes. In fact, the prophet says, a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoking flex he will not quench.
Now, I think it's very, very important that we understand this. When Jesus, in the Gospels, issues his great invitation—well, you say, which is the great invitation? Well, there are wonderful invitations, but I'm referring now to Matthew 11, where, remember, Jesus says, Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. Would you find it easy to come to somebody who is behind closed doors in a palace, so removed from you? Isn't it fascinating—I hope you think it's fascinating—that the only characteristic to which Jesus refers regarding himself is there? Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, here we go. For I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. You see, Jesus comes to us so kindly, so graciously.
That's the first picture. There he is, lowly and riding on a donkey. And then—and you'll have to go to Luke's article for this one, but it's important. You'll find it in Luke chapter 19 if you want just to turn to it to verify it. And the second picture that we have is not a picture of Jesus riding on a donkey, but it is a picture of Jesus weeping over a city. And when he drew near, Luke 19.41, and saw the city, he wept over it. The Lord Jesus not only wept at the grave of his friend Lazarus, but he also wept as he looked upon the dissolution that was represented in the city of Jerusalem.
With the city spread out before him from the vantage point of the Mount of Olives, as we're told, he looks upon that scene. And in the thirteenth of Luke, he records the words of Jesus, "'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it, how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under his wings? And you were not willing.' He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. But to as many as received him, to them he gave the power to become the children of God, even to those who believed on his name. "'If only you had known,' he said, "'if only you had known what makes for peace,' he says, "'if only you had realized, and there won't be one stone left upon another,' he says of this great edifice, because you did not know the time of your visitation.'" In other words, they had clearly all the outward trappings of religion while at the same time rejecting the Prince of Peace. They rejected his message, and their hearts were hardened. I say to you as clearly and as kindly as I can that if you continue to hear the prompting, pleading, gracious, humble voice of Jesus softly and tenderly—Jesus is calling, calling to you and to me—if you continue to hear that voice and reject that voice, the passage of time will not make it easier for you to trust him.
Like the people of old, your heart will become hardened. That's why what is unfolded for us here needs to be taken in its entirety. Jesus is the one, again, according to the prophet, who has come, the King, who will speak peace to the nations. That is Zechariah. That's the very phraseology.
Where is it? And the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations, and his rule shall be from sea to sea, to the ends of the earth. This is inescapable, my friends, and this we have to understand. You see, it is only the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that prevents us from turning an event like Palm Sunday into either a form of sentimentalism or moralism, that leaves us saying, Well, that was a nice thing. It was kind of nice for the children. I'm surprised they didn't give out the palm branches, because that's really what it's all about.
My old church, they gave you a special little thing, so you would remember what it was all about. Well, good. Good. I'm not against that.
I've had those little branches as well in different places. That's okay. But the gospel is the thing that allows us to understand what's going on. Why would the king come on a cold?
Why would the king weep over the city? Why would he say that he has in himself the answer to the longing of the nations for peace, that he has in himself the answer to the human heart's quest for satisfaction and for fulfillment—a longing that can't be satisfied by success or by sex or by achievement or by fame or by any other thing? Only in him. And the Gospel of John makes it unmistakably clear. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. Do you believe?
Do you believe that? Have you ever said to Jesus, Thank you for taking all my sin to the cross? Have you ever said to him, Help me, Jesus, not to be afraid to let you know that I have sinned?
Because you would not have died for me unless you loved me. Have you ever said to him, Thank you for forgiving me? You are a wonderful Savior. The final picture is not of him riding on this colt or weeping over the city, but it is of him cleansing the temple. And we can be still in Matthew 21 for this, and Jesus enter the temple.
This should be a help to us in a number of ways. First of all, in recognizing that while Jesus is meek, Jesus is not weak. Should disavow those of us who have managed to sneak out of the average Palm Sunday service with a palm branch and a feeling like, It must be nice for somebody, but it doesn't mean much to me.
Suddenly realize that we can't just get away from Jesus just that quickly, because it's one thing to see him a crying Christ, it's one thing to see him a strange rider on a donkey. But what of this one who comes in and does this to the temple? Well, first of all, we should know that it is his Father's house. That's the temple. Now Jesus entered the temple, and he drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.
And he said to them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you may get a den of robbers. We don't have a picture of Jesus going in saying, Excuse me, I'm just wondering if you could move some of the animals out, please. So we've got a kind of wimpy Jesus. We have a meek Jesus. But we don't have a weak Jesus. We have a Jesus that goes to the cross to deal with the deepest dyes of human sin, and we have a Jesus who will not tolerate hypocrisy amongst the framework of his people.
That's the point. He has a capacity not only for amazing tenderness but for moral indignation. Now, Mark, in his record, says, When Jesus entered the temple, he looked around, and then he went out to Bethany. Given that, those of us who might be tempted to believe that Jesus, quote, s, lost his temper, we realize, no, he looked at it, he went home and thought about it, he presumably prayed about it, and he got up in the morning, and he did something about it, and he cast them out.
Well, just as the donkey fulfilled prophecy, so did this cleanup. Jesus knew what he was doing at the end of the Old Testament in the prophecy of Malachi. Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the LORD whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner's fire, and like a fuller's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD. And then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD, as in the days of old and as in the former years. I think what we have here is a point on the journey where all of the fullness of what is represented there in Malachi's prophecy has yet dimensions still to it.
But we daren't miss this. As the prophet, he unmasks religious hypocrisy. The house of God had been turned into a market. The house of prayer had become a den of robbers.
Policing people in the name of religion is not a new phenomenon. And so Jesus tackles it, and single-handedly he restores the place to its original purpose. And then what did he do? Well, we need to draw to a close, but this is what we're told again—that he was then teaching daily in the temple, under the threat of death, and as people listened, two things happened.
People were healed, and children sang. Oh, you say, there you go. I told you it was about children all along.
Yeah. Because in this instance, the children reveal the hypocrisy of the establishment. Is it too much of a reach to suggest that here we are at this point in the twenty-fourth century, and we think about our church and we think about other churches, the things that we have said are of vital importance to take place, to be done? If we're going to contextualize, if we're going to reach a community, if we're going to be, quotes, the people of God—without disavowing any of that, isn't it quite fascinating that of all the things that we're told about the people of God and the place of God, it said, it is my Father's house, a house of prayer. Only—only—as congregations go to God in prayer will people be healed, their lives restored, and the children will sing. Do you hear what these kids are saying they said to Jesus?
He says, Yes, of course I do. Have you never read that out of the mouths of babes and children, God ordains his praise? Three pictures. A king on a donkey, a prophet addressing the city with tears, and a priest cleansing the temple of empty ritual and feeble hypocrisy. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life weekend. As you get ready to celebrate Easter, we think you'll be helped by the book we're recommending currently. It's titled Is Easter Unbelievable? Four Questions Everyone Should Ask About the Resurrection Story. The author is an apologist named Rebecca McLaughlin, and she outlines the historical evidence for Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. This is a book packed with information. In fact, you can read the book cover to cover in one sitting. As you read through this book, you'll explore biblical answers to questions like, how can a rational person believe that Jesus actually rose from the dead?
Or why would a good God punish people for their sins? And here's the best part. We are sending this book in a three-pack, so you can keep one and give away two, or give away all three to friends, maybe with an invitation to your church's Easter service. Find out more about the book Is Easter Unbelievable? when you visit our website at truthforlife.org. Thanks for studying the Bible with us today. Next weekend, we'll find out that not everyone who appears to be following Jesus is truly his follower. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.
