The Triumphal Entry

It's a great day to be here. We're celebrating Palm Sunday, which is the triumphal entry of Christ. There's many passages we could choose from because it's recorded in all four gospels, but we're gonna be looking at Matthew, Chapter 21, verses one through 17. So you may want to open up your Bibles to that as we'll be referring to those verses and reading them as we go.

The Palm Sunday or the triumphal entry basically marked Christ's official presentation as the Messiah to Israel. He had been in Jerusalem before, he administered, but much of his ministry, what did he do? He told folks, "Don't tell folks that I've healed you." He was trying to subdue their enthusiasm because already we find and remember John, Chapter six, when Christ provided bread for the crowds, there was a crowd of 15,000 or more people. What did they want to do? They wanted to make them king. They sought to take them by force, and he had to slip away from them. Right? So this is the point though, that Christ was brought into this world for his passion, his suffering, his death, his burial, and his resurrection. And that's what Palm Sunday marked the beginning of.

Jerusalem was filled with Passover worshipers during this time. This was one of the three feasts of Israel in which all the males had to appear before the Lord. They'd often bring, of course, their families with them. And during this time, the crowds in Jerusalem just became so great. 30 years after Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, there was a Roman governor who took a census of the number of Passover lambs that were slain because the Romans were very interested in this religion, right? And he counted that year about 250,000 lambs. According to Jewish regulations, one lamb could suffice up to 10 people. So many scholars do the math on that, that there could have been as many as 2.5 million people in Jerusalem because they would have come from all over these areas to participate in this Passover celebration. And already the buzz, so to speak, the talk about Christ had grown and grown and grown. They knew that he was a teacher. They knew that he confounded the scribes and the Pharisees. They knew that he worked miracles. We find just before this, when Jesus is in Jericho on his way up to Bethany, that crowds are already joining him and following him. We find also in John's Gospel, Chapter 12, it talks about the healing of Lazarus, how that made people wonder greatly, "Who is this man who can bring the dead back to life?" And so many people were following him. The Jews, the leaders of the Jewish religion wanted to kill him for it, and Lazarus for that matter. So there's a lot of intrigue about Jesus during this time. But amidst all this anticipation about Christ, Christ had his head squarely on his shoulders. He knew exactly what he was there to do. That was to be our sacrifice. Passover took place about four days after Palm Sunday. And so this day, the 10th day of the month is when the Palm Sunday was celebrated, was when they would actually pick the Paschal Lamb for each household and bring that into their house and present it. And four days later, it would be sacrificed. And what his triumphal interest was, "I'm the Paschal Lamb. I'm the one who's going to be sacrificed for you." So Jesus knew what he was doing amongst, amidst all this fanfare, if you will, and celebration that was he knew that he was there to die. If you read Matthew chapter 20, which is the prior chapter, verse 17 through 19 says, "Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. He took the 12 disciples aside, and on the road he said to them, "Behold, we are going to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priest and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day, he will rise again." It's the third time that he's predicted his death, burial, and resurrection in the Gospel of Matthew. And he does this just before the triumphal entry. So he knows what he is there to do. Let's read Matthew 21 verses 1 through 5. It says, "Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, they came to Bethphias at the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied in a colt to her, loose them, and bring them to me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say to them, "The Lord has needed them, and immediately he will send them." All this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet, saying, "Tell the daughter of Jerusalem, "Behold, your king is coming to you, lowly and sitting on a donkey, a colt in the fall of a donkey."

Jesus was outside of Jerusalem. To the east of Jerusalem was a Mount of Olives. There on the eastern side of the Mount of Olives was what we call Gethsemane. That was the garden where Jesus often went to and prayed. On the other side were several small little towns, including Bethany, where Lazarus lived, and Mary and Martha. So he's coming down and he tells his disciples, "This is what I want you to do. I want you to go, and I want you to find a colt, basically a donkey, and her baby, and bring them to me. And if anyone stops you, tell them that the master has needed them." Many scholars have tried to guess what was going on there. Did Jesus go and pre-arrange this? Did he have some kind of a password to give them? I don't think he needed to do that, right? God is the one who tells the waves where to stop, right? He's the one that gives us breath into our very lips. He's the one who causes the sun to rise in the set each and every day. He can sovereignly ordain even the minutest details. Later on, you'll find that when they go to find the upper room, what does he tell his disciples? "Follow the guy with the water jug on his head," right? You think he told a guy with a water jug to walk back and forth until his disciples saw him? No. That's just God's foreordination, right? And that's what we see taking place here.

Christ's trample entry was an acted parable. Many of the prophets of old acted out their prophecies. Who can forget Jeremiah who put a yoke upon his neck, right? Who could forget about, say, Isaiah who was to lay naked in the streets for two years or so, right? Who could forget Ezekiel had to shave his head and shave his beard to show the shame that he had of becoming upon Israel? Who would forget? Hosea, right? Taking Gomer to be his wife, right? These were prophets who declared the word of God and they often acted it out in dramatic fashion to bring it into the foremost of their, the hearers' minds and perceptions. Well, that's what Jesus was doing here. He was fulfilling the prophecies in the Old Testament. And in verse five, he quotes, it says verse four and five, "And it was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophets, saying." And in verse five, the writer, Matthew, he actually takes two different prophecies and combines them together. The first is Isaiah 62, 11 through 12. It says, "Indeed, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the world, say to the daughters of Zion, surely your salvation is coming. Behold, his reward is with them and has worked before him. And they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, and he shall be called salt out, a city not forsaken." This was a prophecy about the restoration of Israel that the Messiah would bring, that it would no longer be cast into the city, but they would find their salvation in the Messiah, saying this is fulfilled in Christ. It's not something future. This was fulfilled in Christ's triumphal entry.

The second prophecy is related, Zechariah 9, 9 through 10. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold, your King is coming to you. He is just and having salvation, lowly riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from me from the horse from Jerusalem. The battle bow shall be cast off. He shall speak peace to the nations. His dominion shall be from the sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth." The prophet Zechariah is telling them, comforting them that their Messiah is coming, and he's not coming like the Roman kings who would often come on war horses. He was coming on a donkey, which was a symbol of peace. And look what he says here. He says, "The King is coming to you. He is just." Was not Christ the just one, the righteous one, the perfect spotless Lamb of God so that he could be our sacrifice? He's just. It says also that having salvation, Christ is Yahweh, is salvation. That's what Jesus means, right? He is the Savior. There is no salvation apart from union with Christ. Union with the one who has salvation, who is salvation. He's the one who is our life, who brings us to

Look what also it says in Zechariah, "Speaking peace to the nations." The salvation would not just be for the Jew, but be for the Gentile alike. That's what nations mean. The Messiah would come and would lay down his life for the entire world. "That whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." And look what also it says, "His dominion shall be from the sea to the sea and from the rivers to the ends of the earth." We understand the land of Palestine having a border of a river to the sea. Well here in the Old Testament it's predicted that Christ's domain would rain from shore to shore, right? It would know no bounds on its east and no bounds on its west because Christ is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And in new heavens and new earth, we all inherit that as God's children. What a glorious promise that that is.

So Matthew is using these two quotes from the Old Testament to show that Christ is the fulfillment of the messianic prophecies, that he has come riding on a donkey, proclaiming peace to the nations, gentle and lowly, if you will. He is the righteous one, the just one who is our Savior, and his salvation is for all men. What a glorious promise that was, and Christ was acting this out riding on this donkey into Jerusalem. Christ is a yes and the amen to all the promises of God. We find that in 1 Corinthians 1, 20, which means that he's the sum of all the promises, all the messianic promises pointed to Christ, and Christ is their fulfillment. And we see the beginning of that fulfillment there on Palm Sunday.

The application to you is this. Look to Christ. If you are not a Christian, you have a life that's unfulfilled. You have a life where you need a Savior. You need salvation. You have a life that has no purpose, that has no glory, but in Christ you'll find that purpose. In Christ you'll find that glory. In Christ alone, you will find that salvation. Look to Christ because only he is the just one, and only he can save. If you're a Christian, I encourage you in the same way, look to Christ. As Christians, we often look at ourselves, and we draw our eyes into morbid introspection. Am I good enough? How can God love me? Look to Christ. He is the just one. Look to Christ. He is the Savior. Yes, you're wretched, but you have a glorious Savior, right, who gave himself for you. What a glory that is to know that he is just and he is my Savior.

Christ the King is triumphantly welcomed as King. And we see this in Matthew 6 through 11. It says, "So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. They brought the donkey and the colt and laid their clothes on them and set him on them." I'm gonna stop right there. Matthew's the only one who mentions the donkey and its colt. People wonder, what does that mean? Well, we know from Mark's gospel that Jesus requested an animal that no one had written on before, one that was set apart for the King. No one rides the King's horse, right? And we see

shadows of this in the Old Testament, right? The utensils that were made for the temple were only for use in the temple, right? Remember the Ark of the Covenant, the rods, and then the cart itself that carried was only supposed to be used for God's holy service, right? And this young colt had never been written on before. Jesus, the King of glory, would ride on that colt. But why did he bring his mother? We don't know, but perhaps it was probably to calm the young donkey. I grew up in Texas where we had rodeos, right? And you had to break a horse in.

A horse may be scared of having someone riding on it, but had his mother with him and Jesus was there on the donkey is probably the best explanation of that. Verse 8, "In great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went out from before those who followed cried out saying, "Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna and the highest." And when he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved. Who is this? The word moved there means "quaked." It was shook.

So the multitude said, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee." When we think of Jesus riding on a donkey, we think from a Western point of view that a donkey is often referred to as a dumb animal, right? As a source of ridicule, right? Don't be a donkey. But it actually has an ancient tradition of being a royal animal.

In Genesis, chapter 49, verses 10 through 11, I'm not going to read that there, but this is a messianic prophecy talking about when Shiloh comes. The Hebrew is difficult, but the New King translates it that he will tie his donkey to the vine, that the Messiah would come riding on a donkey. You'll find in Judges that these important men and their families who were equally important, that the men rode on donkeys because these animals were considered regal. They were considered kingly. Christ rode on an unwritten donkey. He was honored as a king. He was welcomed as a king. It's said that the people put their clothes down on the road, their garments.

This would have struck into their memory the remembrance of Jehu in the Old Testament. Remember, Ahab was so wicked and evil that even while Ahab was alive, Elisha saw to it that

Jehu was anointed as king to replace Ahab. And when he was anointed as king, what did the people do? They threw a makeshift celebration. They took their clothes off, their outer garments, and they threw it down before King Jehu. It's not at all unlike today. You see a Hollywood premiere or you see a VIP event. Maybe we're a politician speaking. They roll out what? The red carpet. But this was a very endearing way for the people not only to show him deference, but also they're committing themselves to them. They're taking their own garments and putting it down. The poor people, many of them, their garment was what they slept in at night. They kept them warm, right? This was many of the things that they're one of the most precious possessions. They didn't have Walmarts back then. You know, where you go and you can buy stuff like this. They were near and dear to them. And they laid down what was near and dear to them before the king. Besides their clothes, they also laid down palm sprawls. As you can see, Nancy gloriously decorated this here before us as a reminder of that. Palm sprawls were symbols of celebration, symbols of joy, and symbols of victory in the ancient world. In fact, let me read to you

from one of my favorite passages in the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter seven, verse nine.

"After these things I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could number of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed with right robes with palm branches in their hands." A symbol of victory, symbol of joy, of worship. "And crying out with a loud voice saying, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. And all the angels stood around the throne and the elders and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, amen, blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor, power and might be to our God forever and ever, amen."

It's what these palm branches were symbolizing. Their joy, their victory, their worship of the Lord. He says in verse nine, "That all those who are following cried out, saying, Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest." Hosanna means save now. It's a cry for salvation. And they are crying out to Messiah here, save now. Whether they realize the import of it, I don't know. A few of them probably did. They were probably thinking of him more in kingly terms, earthly terms. So no many were looking for a Messiah to throw off the yoke of Rome to restore Israel's freedom and no longer to be subordinate to Rome. But we know that there were always a remnant, right, who knew the scriptures well. In fact, they were actually seeing here from Psalm 118. Psalm 118 is part of the Hillel, the praise. It is said at the end of every Passover

service or ceremony that was held. And I want to read to you a few verses from it. Psalm 118, 22 through 29. "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone." Already the Pharisees and the scribes had rejected Christ. "This was the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in her eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it." This captured the spirit of what was going on as they welcomed the king. "Save now, I pray, O Lord. O Lord, I pray. Send now prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the Lord. We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. God is the Lord and he has given to us light. Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horn of the altar." It's prophetically speaking of Christ.

"You are my God and I will praise you. You are my God. I will exalt you. O give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his mercy. His covenant faithfulness endures forever." This is what they were seeing. This is what they were welcoming Christ the Messiah, Christ the King into Jerusalem.

"Christ is a king, but for which every knee must bow and every tongue must confess that he is Lord. In his humiliation, he comes riding on a donkey and he would face a living hell over the next several days as he would be mocked, as he'd be scourged and eventually crucified." I want to read you that great passage from Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 through 11. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in the appearance of a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, those in heaven and those on the earth and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He is the one that we welcome." The application to you

is rejoice in Christ, that the King has come, that he has been bound to the horns of the altar for you. Rejoice in your King. Christians, we often lose our first love, do we not?

It's so easy to get called up in the world and in our economic situation or job, family issues, whatever it is, and we forget that Christ is worthy of worship, that he's worthy of joy, he's worthy of our praise, that we should put our clothes in front of him and make a way for him, lay down palm springs in front of us, recognizing the victory that Christ has won for us. So rejoice in the Lord. This is a perfect time this week if you have forgotten the joy of the Lord to seize it again. We have Good Friday coming up where our Lord Savior was crucified for us. And then next Sunday we're going to be celebrating the resurrection, where Jesus, who lay down his life, he takes it again. This is the time for joy. This is the time to find joy in Christ. Christ is the King. He triumphantly cleanses the temple. We find this in Matthew 21 verses 12 and 13. It says, "Then Jesus went into the temple and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And he said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves." It's interesting that Christ in this triumphal procession into Jerusalem that he did not head first to Herod's palace. Herod had built a magnificent palace and it overlooked the temple precincts because Herod wanted to keep an eye, close eye over everything that went on in the temple's goings. But Christ the King, he did not go to Herod's temple or Herod's palace. He went instead to the temple of God. You see, Christ is King, but he's a priestly King who reigns forever according to the order of Melchizedek. You find that in Psalms 110. Pastor Casey has referenced that many times as we've been going through the book of Hebrews the last couple of months. He's a kingly priest who functions as both. He's a mediator who is both King and priest. So where does he go? He goes to the temple where he's trod as both King and priest. When he goes into the temple, he sees a horrible sight there. He sees that the temple of Gentiles is run over by money changers and traders. Traders is in people trading animals, livestock that would then be sacrificed during the Passover week.

This is not the first time that Christ has seen this sight. The first time is recorded in John chapter 2 at the very beginning of Christ's ministry. After he had turned the water into wine, what does he do? He goes to the temple and he fashions a cord of whips. It's not gentle meek Jesus. He drives out the money changers. See what happened to all these people. Thousands, perhaps millions had flooded into Jerusalem. They had to pay the temple tax. The temple tax had to be in a certain currency. Their favorite currency was the silver from Tyre because it had a higher silver content. You would have to have whatever region you were from, you would bring your money and they would get a cut of it when they would change it into the preferred money that would only be received by the temple. So they were making money with this and the high priest was in on it. Not only that, people would bring sacrifices. A poor person would bring a turtle dove. A dove may have cost them in the open market, say five cents or something like that. Well, they would bring before the priest and the priest would say, "No, it's blemished. Why don't you go buy one of mine that has my little seal of approval on it?" And you pay 25 times there inside the temple precincts, right? And this commerce, the sickening commerce, was going on in the court of the Gentiles. The temple was, if you could consider it, two things, both the temple proper and then the temple precinct that surrounded it. The outside, the largest part of it was called the temple of the Gentiles where all nations were welcomed. You did not have to be a Jew to go there. Next through there was the court of the women, which only Jewish women could go to and Jewish men as well. Then beyond there, you had the court of the Jewish men where only the Jewish men could go.

The court of the priest, this was outside the temple proper. And the court of the priests, where only a priest would officiate and you had the lather there, you had the brazen altar, and they would perform the sacrifices there and then bring them into the temple.

Jesus saw this going on in the court of the Gentiles. And here at the end of his ministry, he cleanses the temple again. This tells you about his holy character.

This tells you about what he values in his dwelling, right? Are we not now the dwelling of God?

It's not God's desire holiness from us. You bet you.

He quotes here in verse 16, "Have you never read out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants?" I'm sorry, I skipped over. Verse 13, "He said to them, "It is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a denotheves."

Here, Jesus is quoting again, two different prophets, two different prophecies and combining the first one that he quotes is Isaiah 56, 7 through 8, which is a remarkable prophecy. Here, he's telling the people of Israel that when God restores Israel, when the Messiah comes and he restores Israel, to bring salvation to them, that it would be not just for them, but be for all people. He says remarkably that it would be for the eunuchs, and he explains that in Isaiah 56, the eunuchs were not able to be circumcised to be set apart for the Lord, right? Not only does he say that, but he also says the foreigner, those who were born outside of Israel, the Gentiles, that if they submitted to God, if they became covenant people with him, that they would be accepted too. And that's what he quotes from here in Isaiah 56, 7 and 8, is regarding the court of the Gentiles with this in mind. He says, "Even then I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in the house of prayer," speaking of these foreigners, speaking of these folks who were outsiders of Israel. "Their burnt offering and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar. For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations." And the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, "Yet I will gather to him others beside those who are to him." Not only was God, the Messiah, coming to bring the outcasts of Israel, but he was bringing others, those outside of Israel, those who were not Israel at all, to make them one people of God.

The second prophet that he quotes in this, as he cleanses the temples, Jeremiah 7, 8 to 11,

"Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit." This would be aimed at those money changers at the priests who were allowing it. This is, "Will you steal murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before in this house which is called by my name and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations.

Has this house which is called by my name become a den of thieves? In your eyes, behold, I even I have seen it, says the Lord." Say, how dare people go after lies and defile his temple.

Christ came, the Messiah came as the true temple of God. What did Jesus say? He says in John's gospel, "Destroy this temple and I'll build it again in three days." Right? What do we know from John 1.14, that Christ tabernacled among us and we beheld his glory full of grace, full of truth, right? Christ is the dwelling place of God among men. Are you going to trust in his gospel?

Are you going to be like Jeremiah says, "Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit." Where is your faith going to be? The application for us is this, dwell in Christ.

Dwell in his holy character, dwell in his holy ways, dwell in his holy precepts, his holy word. Don't trust the lies of this world. They only rob, they only defile, they only keep people from the presence of God, dwell in Christ. Christ the King triumphantly manifest the glory of God. We find this in verse 14. This is immediately after he's kicked out the

changers, the traitors. "Then the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them."

As soon as the court of the Gentiles was cleared from those who defiled it, who came to him but the blind, who came to him but the lame. Christ in acting this out is actually showing Old Testament history but in reverse. We find in 586 BC, Ezekiel records, you'll find this in Ezekiel 10 and 11, the glory of God leaving the temple of Jerusalem,

going out through the gates, going up through Gethsemane and lighting and resting on the Mount of Olives. What does Christ do? Comes from the Mount of Olives, rides into the city of gates, and he goes into the temple and he performs the glorious wonders of God that no one had ever done inside the temple. He's manifesting the very glory of God in the midst of Israel in front of all these thousands and millions of people who have come. He's making the blind to see and he's making the lame to walk. I want to show you from Hebrews 1.3, this is one of our memory verses, we just repeated it a little bit earlier in our service. Hebrews 1.3 says, "Speaking of Christ, who being the brightness of the glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had himself purged our sins sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high." Christ is the very glory of God. Isaiah 35, we're not going to read it because of time, but read Isaiah 35, it's a messianic psalm and in Isaiah 35 it says that the Messiah would come in glory and he would make the blind to see and the lame to walk. Christ fulfilled that on the very day that he cleansed the temple, he brought the glory of God before Israel and manifested the presence of God in their midst. Only God can do this. Do this.

The application is this, let Christ's glory shine through you.

You'll find in 2 Corinthians 4.6 that it says that God who said, "Let the light shine," he's shown in darkness and he's caused the very glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus to shine forth through you. If you're a believer, you have the Spirit of Christ living within you. Christ in you, the hope of glory, right? Just as Christ manifested the very glory of God, you are his ambassador. Tell people of the glory of God. Show people the glory of God. Help the lame. Help the blind. Help the sick. Help the outcast. Just as Jesus did. That's how you can let your light so shine before men. You can glorify Christ and have the very glory of Christ shining out through you. Christ the king triumphs over false teachers and we see this in Matthew 21 verse 15. "But when the chief priest and the scribes saw the wondrous things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple saying, "Hosanna to the son of David," they were indignant. They were angry.

The scribes and the chief priests, these were the leaders of Israel. The scribes were often members of the Sanhedrin. They copied out the law by hand. They were experts in the law. They knew what the law said. So when there was a matter of jurisdiction within Israel, they would go before the scribes and the scribes would judge the nation of Israel, would handle those matters. These are supposed to be their leaders. Were they dismayed at the commerce, keeping Gentiles in all nations outside of the temple precincts during the most holy week, the week of Passover, when everyone was to appear in Israel? Did they lift up a finger and say, "No, we're not mad about this." No. Did they show any indignation at that? No. But when Christ comes and he manifests the very glory of God in the blind sea and the lame walk, they're indignant. They're mad that the temple is now serving its purpose, that healing is taking place, that the glory of God is on display because it's robbing their leadership. It's robbing their importance. And they wanted nothing to do with that. So they were indignant. They were angry. Christ was not the first king to ride into on a donkey. In the Old Testament, 1 Kings chapter one, we're not going to read it, but you'll find that David, King David was old in his years. He's kind of checked out. He wasn't paying attention to what was going on. One of his sons, Adanja, decided that he would make himself king. And he had a military leader, one of David's generals, and he also had one of chief priests and others join him to anoint him to be king.

Thankfully, David had people who were loyal to him, including Bathsheba,

who knew that God had already foreordained that Solomon was to be the rightful king. In fact, David had already anointed him, so to speak, to put him second in line that he would be the king of the world. David dies, but now there was an actual coronation that was going to take place for one of David's other sons, who was going to usurp David's authority and the very authority of God and proclaim himself king. So what does David do? He anoints Solomon the second time, and he takes his own royal donkey that no one had ever ridden on but himself, and he puts Solomon on it, and Solomon walks into Jerusalem, the same steps that Jesus had just done here in the triumphal entry, coming into Jerusalem as the rightful king over and against the imposters, over and against who would seek to overthrow God's temple and his kingdom.

What Jesus does here is he tells those leaders that what they have done is against God.

What they have done by being indignant is that they are trying to usurp the very authority of God and keep his people from being redeemed, from being saved. Christ is saying that I am the true son of David. I'm the true Solomon, and I'm greater than David and greater than Solomon. If you read in Matthew 22, you know in the very next chapter, remember where he stumps the Jews who come to him, the leaders, the scribes, the Pharisees, and they say, he says to them, "Tell me,

David and the Messiah." How does that work? Whose son is the Messiah? They said, "The son of David."

And what did he say? Well then how does David then call him "Lord?" And they couldn't answer the question. It goes back to Psalm 110. The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand." Because Christ in taking on flesh indeed was the son of David. But remember he's divine too. And he always has been king. He's both the root and offspring of Jesse. There's one greater than David. There's one greater than Solomon. And it's Christ Jesus our Lord. The application to you is this.

Who are you going to follow? There's all kinds of voices crying out for you to follow them.

I got the answers. Follow me. My way is easy. It doesn't involve sacrifice. My way is easy. It doesn't involve subservience. You can make a lot of money if you follow my way.

We'll take advantage of some people. Have a good time.

Are you going to follow those voices? Are you going to follow the false leaders who want to keep people away and only do harm to people? Are you going to follow Christ who is the true son of the true Messiah? Christ the king is triumphantly exalted as God. We find this in Matthew 21.16.

The children were crying out in the temple saying, "Hosanna to the son of David." Verse 16.

And he said to them, speaking to the chief priest, the scribes, the religious leaders who were dignit. He said to them, "Do you not hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes, have you never read out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have perfected praise?" Sorry, let me rephrase that. They said to Jesus, "Do you not hear what these are saying?" These young children who are crying out, "Hosanna, do you not hear what they're saying?" And Jesus says, "Of course I hear what they're saying." He's saying, "Have you not read out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have perfected praise?" The children are singing from Psalm 8. Psalm 8 is a messianic Psalm. It's quoted many times throughout the New Testament. We've actually already referenced this here in our Sunday mornings in Hebrews chapter 2, right? Speaking of Christ.

What's quoted is Psalm 8.2, "Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have ordained strength because of your enemies that you may silence the enemy in the avenger."

He's telling the scribes, he's telling the chief priest that God has ordained what they are saying. God has put this praise on their lips. God often uses the meek things of this world, the weak things of this world to condemn the wise, right? The foolish to confound those who think they are something. He uses the nothings of this world is what Paul writes, quoting again Psalm 8 here. Jesus is saying that these lips from the children were actually being filled from God with his praises. Hebrews 2, 9, which quotes Psalm 8 says, "And we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor that he by the grace of God might taste death for everyone." Psalm 8 is a royal psalm. It's about the Messiah and it says that Christ was humbled in taking on flesh so he might taste death for everyone. He might be our savior, right? You find that Christ is the true Adam, the perfect man. Only by taking on humanity could Christ suffer in our place. Could he be reviled? Could he be persecuted? Could he be nailed to the cross? Could he be crucified and buried? Only by taking on humanity. Christ did that because he is a true Adam as we find in Romans chapter 5 and also 1 Corinthians 15 as in Adam all die. So in Christ the second Adam, the greater Adam, all live, right? You trust in Christ, his righteousness is imputed to you and we receive God. So we see here in these verses that Christ is the true Messiah. He is the true king.

He is the true temple. He is the true glory of God and he's the true perfect man. And I pray that you will keep Christ front and center and let him be your joy over this next week. Let's bow our head in prayer. Heavenly Father, we praise you. There's none like Jesus. There's none like him. Glory and honor and praise and majesty be to our savior forever and ever. Amen.