Experience TRUTH - #14

Hey, this is Jim Graham from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we explore relationship instead of religion every week. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. One of my favorite Sundays the whole year is the Sunday that kicks off Holy Week, and that is well known to us as Palm Sunday. It's the beginning of Passover week. It's the beginning of Lamb Selection time in Jerusalem.

Rewind 2,000 years. This is when the King entered the city, Jesus Christ. We are there, kind of part two.

We started on it last week. This beautiful picture of Christ sending two disciples to grab a donkey, a colt that had never been ridden to fulfill privacy, and he's coming in peace because a king comes in on a donkey in peace, and he's riding that donkey as opposed to riding a steed, a horse in war, and all kinds of cool things happen. Robbie Dilmore is with me. Robbie, read the passage again, and let's get in these final questions and try to take everyone through the significance because of the clothes, what the people said as they cheered the king coming in, and all the stuff that happened there. Luke 19, 28 through 40. When he had said this, he went on ahead going up to Jerusalem, and it came to pass when he drew near to Bethpage and to 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 losing it, thus you shall say to him because the Lord has need of it. So those who were sent went on their way and found it just as Jesus had said to them, but as they were losing the colt, the owners of it said to them, why are you losing the colt? And they said the Lord has need of him. Then they brought him to Jesus, and they threw their own clothes on the colt, and then they set Jesus on him.

And as he went, many spread their clothes on the road. Then as he was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen saying, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees called him from the crowd, teacher rebuke your disciples. But he answered and said to them, I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out. What a statement.

And we talked probably last time about this powerful statement. Jesus sends these guys in blind. They're going to find some colt tied. They're going to lose the colt, bring him to Christ. It's an unwritten colt. It's never been used before, never been broken.

It's still got new colt smell. Oh, wow. Okay. This guy's added a little bit of punster here with me. But some significance, though, is what Jesus said to them. Anticipating someone stopping them along the way, he says, tell them the Lord has need of it. The Lord has need. This is a great statement of life.

We spent some time on that last time. Wow. And sure enough, that's what happened. The disciples answered as Christ had instructed them, the Lord has need of this animal.

And this is for the service of the king. And so then it all happened just as he said it. Christ's words are impeccable. The word of God is pure. The word of God is true.

And he always delivers. But this is a real fascinating thing here, Robbie, in verse, I believe it's 35, where it says, then they brought him to Jesus. That is a colt. And they threw their own clothes on the colt.

And they set Jesus on him. There's a lot of significance, just like the animal is significant to them more than us. We think it's just an animal. It can be disregarded. A goat, a colt, a donkey, whatever.

We don't think it's high. But for them, that's like a car. That's like a vehicle. That's a beast of burden. That's transportation. That's a lot of things. Yeah, it's huge.

It's very expensive. In an agrarian culture, right. The same way their clothing was really important. The Bible talks a lot about being clothed with righteousness, about the importance of clothing. Don't worry, Jesus says in Matthew 6, about your clothing, what you're going to wear, so on and so forth. But clothing is everything.

It reflects character, clothing does, or lack thereof, a lot of times. And so for the disciples to take their clothing... This was probably their ticket, right? Their prayer shawls that they carried, that would have been on the outside, that would have had the tassels, which really point to the righteous ones. So they're putting down prayers, literally, on both the colt. When they put down these prayer shawls, they're literally putting down prayers in their own way, that this is what they've been waiting for, the Messiah. This is huge. This is, you know, like, oh my goodness.

Yeah, so the disciples do their clothes, and then all these people, you know, it says, as He went, many spread their clothes on the road. So they are very symbolic, richly symbolic of, you know, we are at your service. We are at your behest. You are the king. You are the sovereign. You are the ruler of all the earth.

Not just the miracle-working carpenter's son from Nazareth, but you are the king of kings, the son of David, you know, the very son of God, recognizing that as deity authority. But they're recognizing their subservience to Him. They're saying, we are your servants, and you are God. We are not, and we are welcoming you into the city of peace, where you will reign forever and ever.

Now read this next question here. What's significant about the words of praise from the disciples? Psalm 118.

Now, so this is really interesting. So the disciples say, it was drawing near, the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice. It says the whole multitude of disciples, this could have been hundreds, maybe thousands of disciples, lying in the streets, lying in this ascent of Christ or descent, and they praised God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen. Well, what had they seen?

Well, just go back in Luke 19 and back. More miracles are recorded in Luke than any other gospel. They had seen people healed, people raised, blind men given sight, the deaf were hearing, all these things. The lepers, the 9-1 came back of the 10 and said thank you, but they saw these lepers healed.

No one did that. No one touched unclean people. They saw the poor having the gospel preached to them. They saw them the worst of all scallywag sinners, the tax collectors, all of a sudden serving God transformed.

Early on in Luke, there was Matthew the Levite, then, you know, the tax collector, then later on there was Zacchaeus and others. So they're praising God with a loud voice and they're saying, verse 38, what a great statement, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest, verse 38. So the blessed is the first word of the book of Psalms.

It's a word that literally means happy, but it's a deeper happiness. It's a state of blessedness. Christ gives the Sermon on the Mount earlier in Luke 6, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the merciful, blessed are those that mourn, they'll be comforted, blessed are the meek, blessed are you if you're persecuted.

How does that make sense? So they're making this, they're turning around and they're saying a blessed statement upon Jesus, blessed is the king, not only the king, but the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. Now this is a literal quote from Psalm 118. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice. I will rejoice and be glad in it. Right in the middle of the Bible.

This is the day. And so when we quote that verse, we quote it, we try to quote it every day. It was one of the first verses I memorized in my kitchen on Will Scarlet Road in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Mama taught me that verse and I said it.

And one day, either me or my sister said it, we were like under two and she was shocked because we could barely talk. We quoted that verse perfectly. Out of the mouth of babes, right? Stu, what possibly else could be in Psalm 118? Yeah, well, there's a lot in there. Ever heard of the cornerstone?

The stone that was rejected? That's in Psalm 118. So all of that is in there. And to the Jew, the mind was full of this of this scripture. And so you and I say, this is the day the Lord has made.

We quote it. Every day is God's. Every, you know, God is the God of every day. However, to the Jew who sees the King coming, who for hundreds of years and centuries have been praying every day, day and night, night and day, Lord deliver us. Lord, here's how you say in your word you're going to deliver us. You're going to send the seed of the woman to crush the head of the serpent.

The serpent crusher's coming. The king. The offspring of David. Of the tribe of Jesse, right? Of the tribe of Judah.

You're going to send this one. He's prophesied about all throughout Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel in the Old Testament and in Psalms. So when they see Jesus coming, Robbie, let me tell you what they said.

Let me tell you what they said. They said, this is the day. Because there is the King, and he's coming in the name of the Lord. Blessed is he.

So can you see the power of that? That verse that we quote very regularly, that we all know by heart, we have a song. This is the day. I'm going to stop singing because the listenership will go down quick.

That the Lord has made, right? I will rejoice. Sing it with me, everyone. I will rejoice and be glad.

And on and on, and we sing it. And be glad. Yes. So that all of a sudden becomes real.

Right? Graphic. That psalm is fulfilled. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. So there's a brilliant, supernatural thing happening as Christ is coming in on that colt. They've laid their clothes down, and it says the whole multitude 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.

Look at this statement. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And whenever Jesus Christ shows up, let me tell you what, the Prince of Peace comes. Peace and glory in the highest. Which is exactly what the angel said.

Luke 2.14. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will to all men. So there's God's glory. There's God's peace. There's a meaning. There's a significance because the King has come.

Because peace is not about a place, a position. It's not about a plan. It's about a person. The Lord Jesus Christ. You connect with him, everything changes. And everything was about to change in Jerusalem, but it's going to get darker.

It's going to get worse before it gets better. Verse 39. Some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd, saying, teacher, rebuke your disciples. So that's the question right here, Robbie.

Those two questions really go into the heart. So why was this so upsetting to the Pharisees? And how would this triumphal entry contrast with the crowd at Good Friday? Yeah, so I'm going to make a statement that's going to be controversial.

And we may have to go into next week with this, and that is this. It's easy for pastors to get up Easter time and say, the same mob on Palm Sunday that said, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord, is the same mob that cried for crucifixion. And I'm going to say that's not necessarily true. I'm going to say it's easy for me to say that. In fact, I may have said that in my book, Last Words of Jesus.

I need to go look at it. But it's not necessarily true, because these were disciples, those that were healed and redeemed by him, that were crying these words out. Sure, there were people that were swayed. Sure, there were innocent pastor buys that would turn on Jesus. Sure, there were a lot of religious people on Good Friday that would cry for his blood.

Yes, they would cry crucify him. But they weren't all necessarily the same, Robbie. Now I'm going to get emails and letters from this, but if you study it, I think you'll find that that's true. Yeah, there's crossover.

There are similar people and there are some of the same, but to say they're all the same is not true. One reason is, you and I both know, where were the disciples on Good Friday? They were long gone. They were running because they knew there was a cross ready for them, including the most vociferous and bold leader, Peter. Only John, the beloved disciples, left their cross with the women who stood at afar off.

We'll find out from Luke later on. So, the contrasting thing, but the Pharisees are so mad. They are so upset, and they said to him, teacher, usually up till now they go to the disciples and say, hey, tell the teacher he shouldn't have dinner with these sinful people. He'll tell the teacher we don't need to go into tax collectors. Hey, tell the teacher not to deal with this woman who's in the middle of our time. This time they went directly to Jesus, and they called him from the crowd and they said, teacher, rebuke your disciples.

But he answered and said to them, I tell you, if these should not keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out. Wow. We're going to leave it on that. Let's pick it up next week on Experience Truth. I'm Stu Everson. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. This is the Truth Network.