So what's happening here? According to the perfect timing of God, Jesus is actually going to force their hand. He's not some unwilling victim. No, he is literally putting them in a corner, so to speak. He's forcing them to arrest him before sacrifices take place.
Why? Because Jesus plans to die at the perfect time. He is the final Passover Lamb who came to die for the sins of the whole world.
Have you ever wondered about the perfect timing of God's plans? Today, Stephen explores Luke 19. He uncovers the amazing orchestration of events leading to Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. As you can imagine, crowning a new king involves meticulous planning and grandeur. Yet, when the true king, Jesus, arrived in Jerusalem, his entry was humble but divinely timed. Keep listening as Stephen begins a series called, Here Comes the King. You'll witness how every detail was orchestrated according to God's perfect plan. In fact, Stephen called today's message, Perfect Timing. Well, the sovereign king is about to arrive in Jerusalem. So turn to Luke's gospel.
We're in chapter 19. We have now the beginning of what we call the Passion Week, the final week of the earthly ministry of Christ, beginning on this Sunday as he rides in. We call it the triumphal entry, or I like to think of it as the not so triumphal entry on Sunday, all the way to the next Sunday, which is his resurrection. Now this Sunday in view here is the tenth day of the month, Nisan, which we call today Palm Sunday.
That's because John's gospel tells us they waved palm branches, which was a nationalistic symbol recognizing their king. Now Moses had instructed the people, the nation Israel, all the way back to the book of Exodus in chapter 12 that they were to select their lamb for the Passover sacrifice. They were to select the lamb on the tenth day of this month.
This year it was on Sunday. Over the centuries anyone, by the way, who could travel to Jerusalem longed to go. In fact, the Jewish people longed to make that ascent up as they sang hymns like Psalm 118 that they were about to sing to Jesus.
We'll see that in a moment. Now if you're older in the faith, you already know about the original Passover for the benefit of those who are newer in the faith. The death angels coming, the plagues have entered Egypt, Pharaoh refuses to let the people go. Finally, the final plague, so to speak, is the promise of a death angel that will take the life of the firstborn in every household unless they select a lamb, kill it, eat it for dinner, but first put some of its blood on the doorposts of their very humble huts. When the death angel arrived, he would see the blood and he would pass over that home, thus the name Passover.
That home was protected by the shed blood of the lamb. Now they were to do this annually. This would memorialize their deliverance for generations to come. In fact, God made it clear that they're to annually memorialize this. Moses communicates for God back in Exodus chapter 12, here's what he says, God through him, tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month, every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses, a lamb for each household, a lamb without blemish, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, keep it four days, and then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. So to summarize, each household is to select their lamb on the tenth day, this year of the Passion Week, that's Sunday, then four days later, which this year would be on Thursday, according to Luke 19, this would be the timing here, the lambs were to be sacrificed, killed. Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, wrote that a census was taken during one of the years during his lifetime to see how many lambs were sacrificed, and he noted that year in Jerusalem, 256,000 lambs were sacrificed in honor of their deliverance. And along with that, the population of Jerusalem, with all those traveling in, would swell some two million people for this Passover festival. Now, according to the Scriptures, the Passover points to the final lamb, doesn't it?
The Lord Jesus. And now he's arriving here in Jerusalem with all the other sacrificial lambs on the tenth day. So just imagine this scene, he's virtually surrounded by tens of thousands of lambs.
The sound you would have heard would have been their bleeding. All of this, again, taking place according to the perfect timing of God, which is why I believe that just as these Passover lambs will be killed, sacrificed on Thursday, so Jesus will be crucified four days after he arrives in Jerusalem on Thursday. At the same time when thousands of lambs are killed in a memorial of deliverance, the Lamb of God will be crucified for our deliverance. Now through the years, Bible scholars have been challenged, frankly, struggle with the timeline of these events. Some Bible scholars that I've read moved the crucifixion back to Wednesday, others on Thursday, the majority on Friday, that's the traditional day. Some have even moved the resurrection to late Sunday evening, and for reason given here in the Scriptures related to what Jesus himself says about his coming death. Here's the text, Matthew chapter 12 verse 40. Jesus is speaking and he says this, "'For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.'" So if Jesus' prophecy is to be understood more literally, how do we interpret the timeline?
Well, I believe we've been given some clues in the Gospel accounts that make this mystery solvable and, I believe, beautiful. There are three key passages that I want to show you. The first one, and I'll put it up on the screen for the sake of time, but it's in the Gospel of Mark chapter 15.
If you want to go there to see if I'm telling you the truth, go ahead. Mark 15. I'm going to read verse 42 in a moment. But this is Jesus who's, by the way, he's already been declared dead by the Roman centurion, and now here's what the text says. "'And when evening had come, since it was the day of preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council," by the way, that's the Supreme Court, that's the high court, "'who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage," and it will take a lot of courage, "'went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.'" This is the signature text that seems to indicate a Friday crucifixion because Joseph asks for the Lord's body, you can see it, on the day before the Sabbath. Well, the day before the Sabbath would be Friday.
Here's a point that is often overlooked in the discussion. During the Passover festival, there was an additional day set aside and treated as a Sabbath, a memorial rest day. That special memorial day was called by the nation a high Sabbath. According to the instructions going all the way back to the book of Leviticus and chapter 23, the high Sabbath was to be treated like any other normal Saturday Sabbath. No work was to be done by the Jewish people. They were to spend that day in rest.
Now, is it possible on this particular year that the high Sabbath landed on Friday so that you effectively had two Sabbaths, two days of rest in a row? Well, we can thank the apostle John at this point because he's the only gospel writer who fills in this interesting blank, this almost as an aside comment. John chapter 19, verse 30, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Since this was the day of preparation, they're preparing for the Sabbath, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath.
Now note this. John's the only one that says this. For that Sabbath was a high day, a high Sabbath. The Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. Now, of course, Jesus has already been pronounced dead. What a great symbol of resting in the one who died for us. In fact, over in the gospel of Matthew in chapter 28, another key verse, Matthew writes in verse 1, now after the Sabbath, and that noun, interestingly in the original text, is plural. You could read it, now after the Sabbaths, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, that's Sunday, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And the text goes on to tell us that Jesus has just recently arisen. After the Sabbaths, implying this reality, the memorial Sabbath and the Saturday Sabbath were Friday and Saturday of this particular year. And here's why. One of the reasons, primarily I'm bringing it up, not to create any heartburn, but I want to imply or draw from this the implication of the beauty of symbolism and the perfect timing of God, how it plays out.
So here's what you have happening. On the 10th of this month, which is Sunday this year, all the Passover lambs are being brought into Jerusalem. So just as these lambs are arriving, destined to be sacrificed, Jesus, not coincidentally, has chosen to arrive for he is destined to be sacrificed. Then on the 14th, four days later, Thursday, the lambs are killed and eaten as the nation celebrates their rescue by the blood of the Passover lamb. So also Jesus dies on that day. His blood is shed once and for all time to rescue everyone who trusts in him alone. Then on Friday, the high Sabbath, and Saturday, the normal Sabbath, the nation is resting. They're not doing any work.
Why? That's a symbol that you don't work. You trust in this Passover lamb. So Jesus is lying in a tomb who promised rest, didn't he? For the unbeliever is weary and heavy laden who wants to come to him to be rescued from the judgment of God.
Now here's something else going on behind the scenes that you ought to keep in mind as well. We know from Matthew chapter 26 that the high priest and the Sanhedrin have already decided to arrest Jesus after the Passover, after the sacrifices, after the crowd has left and gone home. But that isn't God's plan because of all that this represents. So what's happening here, according to the perfect timing of God, Jesus is actually going to force their hand. He's not some unwilling victim. No, he is literally putting them in a corner, so to speak. He's forcing them to arrest him before the sacrifices take place.
Why? Because Jesus plans to die at the right moment, for the right reason, at the right place, on the right day, at the perfect time. He is the final Passover lamb who came to die for the sins of the whole world. This is all divinely orchestrated. Okay, that's my sermon introduction to this passage here. Now, with that as a background, we're going to move through this particular event. We're going to get to verse 40 fairly quickly. I want to divide this into three scenes to help us along the way. I'm going to call this first scene the cult and its creator. Verse 28, and when he had said these things, he went on ahead going up to Jerusalem, and when he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples saying, go into the village in front of you where on entering you will find a cult tied on which no one has ever yet sat.
Untie it and bring it here. Now, the fact that this donkey's foal or cult is unbroken is not a throwaway event or a line. It's never been written. Well, that's significant if you go back into the Old Testament and discover that only animals who were not used for ordinary purposes were selected for sacred purposes. What could be more sacred than this? The animals that had never yet worked or yoked would be considered pure. In fact, only these animals would be used to carry the ark of the covenant, the very presence of God. Well, this cult is about to carry the very presence of God into Jerusalem.
Now, the obvious fact here is that unbroken means it hasn't been tamed, right? If you want to ride an unbroken cult, you usually join a rodeo. And if you can sit on that bucking bronco for just eight seconds, you win.
Eight seconds. Jesus isn't just about to ride an unbroken cult, a foal of a donkey. And you know how donkeys are so easygoing and obedient. But he's going to ride this cult through a mob of people who are shouting, chanting, waving palm branches, John tells us, throwing their cloaks in the road in front of this cult.
And it doesn't miss a step. This is the Creator in a miraculous display of authority over his creation. He's proving his ability, his right to rule.
He's also revealing his right to rule over the nation. The donkey is a symbol going back to King David. It symbolized a peaceful and humble king. It's interesting that after David and Solomon, the Hebrew kings changed to horses. That was more victorious looking.
That seemed more proud. Well, Jesus is identifying himself as a peaceful, humble king in the line of David. But even more significantly than that, when he rides here on this cult into Jerusalem, 500 years before this event, here's what the prophet Zechariah said in chapter 9 and verse 9.
Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous at having salvation as he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a coat, a foal of a donkey. This is all orchestrated by our sovereign Lord. He's been planning this for centuries. In fact, he's added plans since before time began on this particular Sunday.
Now it's time, and the timing is perfect. Now, there's another wrinkle here, though. You don't just come into town and take somebody's donkey. Doesn't that strike you when you read that? They're costly. They're valuable.
Anybody would be wealthier that would use a donkey for transportation means, but this would be like taking somebody's car, or worse yet, a pickup truck. But you notice what Jesus tells his disciples here in verse 31. If anybody says to you, why are you untying it?
What are you doing taking my car? You shall say this. The Lord has need of it. By the way, notice what Jesus calls himself. False religions claim that Jesus never personally used this title for himself. Skeptics that tend to write best-selling books say that the early church gave Jesus this title later on because they wanted to create a religion. Now, this is coming from the mouth of Jesus. Tell them the Lord needs it. Evidently, this cult belonged to somebody who acknowledged the messianic claims of Christ.
There's no argument here. They willingly offered it. And Mark's gospel, by the way, adds to the line that Jesus tells the disciples to tell the owners they'll return it very soon. Mark chapter 11 verse 3. The Lord has need of it.
I love that. The authority requires it. By the way, that statement ought to resonate in the heart of the believer today. The Lord has need of using you.
He wants you. Okay. The Lord is your authority. All right.
That settles it. One author writes that this had the ring of a royal requisition. The King has asked for it.
And you don't turn down the King. So those who were sent went away, those disciples, and found it just as he had told them. By the way, that's another miracle of his omniscience.
There it is, just like he said. And the owner said to them, why are you untying the cult? And they said, the Lord has need of it. And they brought it to Jesus and throwing their cloaks on the cult, they sent Jesus on it. Matthew's gospel indicates the cult and its mother, the dam, were tied up together and both brought to Jesus. We're not told, but the disciples more than likely used the dam for their cloaks and belongings. The unbroken cult, specifically for Jesus and Luke, focuses only on the cult that Jesus rode.
Now, the next scene takes place. I'm going to call this one The Crowd and Their Chorus, verse 36. And as they rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road, that is the multitude. And as he was drawing near, already on the way down the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his 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. So here the multitude is spreading out their cloaks on the road.
And by the way, this isn't a throwaway either. This is symbolic. The cloak represented their lives. The people customarily did this. In fact, when we're actually told, they welcomed King Jehu back in 2 Kings chapter 9 by doing the same thing.
They spread their cloaks out on the road. This was a symbolic way of saying, I am laying my life down before you. We would say, you can walk all over my life. You can invade my turf. You have the authority to do whatever you want in my life.
It's completely open to you. Well, again, Luke writes here in verse 38, the crowd is singing one of the Hallel psalms, blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. This is from Psalm 118. They sang this during the Passover festival. Psalm 118 and verse 26, however, says it differently. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
But they changed it. They're singing to Jesus, blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. All they're really doing is, well, we would think of them saying, here comes the King is what they're doing. Here comes the King.
Now, up until this point, if you've been with us, you'll notice that Jesus often told people, hey, pipe down. Don't tell people that. Keep my identity to yourself. Why? The time's not right. Now, the timing is right. He's accepting this.
It's time to declare it. But again, behind the scenes, Jesus is putting the Sanhedrin and the religious leaders into a very difficult situation. He's literally forcing them to change their plans. He's not going to let them wait until after the Passover to arrest him. He's going to create such a stir, they've got to get rid of him before it, which is according to his perfect timing. Perfect timing. The orchestration of these events, how it all winds up. Let me tell you, this scene here really ought to bring about two results, and I think it does.
I believe it does. First, the perfect timing of these events should bring the unbeliever concern. The fulfillment of a prophecy 500 years earlier, his omniscience in knowing, the perfect analogies of the Lamb with the Lord, the timing of Sunday and Thursday, the royal entrance of the humble King who traces back to David. Don't land on the side of the religious leaders who missed everything, and all they could say to him was, get back in place.
We want to keep you as a teacher. The perfect timing of these events should bring the unbeliever concern, but secondly, the perfect timing of these events should bring the believer comfort. Perfectly timed.
Miraculously managed. The Savior has arrived right on time to the very day. By the way, he's right on time in your life today as well. He's right on time. God always operates with perfect timing. Trust Him today.
That was Stephen Davey, and this is Wisdom for the Heart. Today we marveled at the divine orchestration of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The perfect timing of these events should concern unbelievers and comfort believers, reminding us of God's meticulous plan and timing. If you haven't seen it, we'd love the opportunity to tell you more about Stephen's devotional magazine.
The people who receive it find insight from God's word and encouragement to help them walk wisely every day. If you can help us with the cost of shipping, we'd like to send you the next three issues. Call us today at 866-48-BIBLE or 866-482-4253. Until next time, trust God's perfect timing in your life. Thanks for listening to Wisdom for the Heart.
