We're going to be looking at
Matthew 21. Chapter 21. The title of the
message is Hosanna in the Highest. Hosanna in the Highest. And of
course what we're talking about is when Christ made his triumphal
entry into Jerusalem. He's going to Jerusalem. Look
at verse 1 of Matthew 21. It says, and when they, that's
Christ and his disciples, and there were probably the 12, but
others, when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, they were come to
Bethphage, Bethphage, that's probably how it's pronounced,
unto the Mount of Olives, and then sent Jesus to disciples,
saying unto them, go into the village over against you, that's
the nearest village, and straightway or immediately you shall find
an ass tied and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them unto
me. And if any man say aught unto you, you shall say the Lord
hath need of them and straightway he will send them." Up to this point, you know how
many times the Lord told his disciples, he said, don't go
out and tell the general public about these things, about the
Messiahship of Christ. And he wasn't trying to hide
the message or hide himself, but there was a time frame set
before the foundation of the world for all of these things
to happen in their time. You know, I preached last week
from Ecclesiastes 3, there is a time for this, a time for that.
Well, God set those times. And there was a time set for
Christ to go to Jerusalem, to be arrested, to be sent to the
cross, And all of that, to be buried, to die and be buried
and raised, all that was set. And so that's what he was establishing
when he would tell them, don't go out and tell these publicly
because it wasn't his time to be arrested, to go to the cross,
but now comes the time. God sent forth his son in the
fullness of the times. And that's what's happening.
So here they are, they're coming near to Jerusalem, they go to
this city called Bethphage, and to the Mount of Olives, and then
there's the fulfillment of a prophecy right away. And so, we'll talk
about that in just a moment. But let me just, let's just refresh
our memories by praising the Lord once again, in realizing
why all this is happening, and what's going to happen, and what
it means to us. And I don't know about you, well
I do know about you. You don't get tired of hearing these things.
I want to hear the gospel, don't you? And I thought about this,
and I can't get away from it. This was the work that was foretold
in Christ, in the very name of Christ. His name shall be called
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. He's
going to go to the cross for His chosen people. That's why
He said in His high priestly prayer in John 17, you know,
I've come to do the work that you gave Me to do, to finish
it. And that's what we talk about.
And then I always think about Daniel chapter 9 because in Daniel
chapter 9 verse 24, there's a comprehensive view, an overview in several
phrases that tells us about the work of Christ. And I put those
in your lesson because when we talk about him going into Jerusalem,
he's going to die. He's told his disciples that.
They didn't really understand exactly what was going to happen
because they sorrowed and even Peter tried to stop him. And,
you know, I think it was Thomas who kind of had this defeatist
attitude. He said, well, if we're going
to go and die, let's all go and die. You know, that kind of thing.
Like it's going to be over. And after his death, some of
the disciples kind of acted like it was all over. They went back
to fishing and all of that. I mean, you know, there was some
misgivings and doubts and confusions in their mind. And I'm not putting
them down to say that. We all have to suffer the battle
of doubt and misgivings. We do. We know that if the Lord
didn't keep us and preserve us, we wouldn't be kept. We would
fall a thousand times a day. But listen to what he said in
Daniel 9, 24. Why is he going to Jerusalem? He's going to finish
the transgression. Now, some commentators say that
that's talking about our fallen Adam, and it could very well
be the transgression. We have many transgressions.
You know, to transgress means to step over the line. It means
to rebel. And so to finish the transgression,
which literally means to shut up, remove, and abolish the guilt
of his people by his death as our surety, our substitute, and
our redeemer. And then Daniel said, and Daniel
speaking by inspiration, he not only is he gonna finish the transgression,
he's gonna make an end of sins. Don't you love that? He's gonna
make an end of sins. Christ and what that means, He's
going to clear the account, He's going to pay the sin debt in
full where nothing else is required in order to save us and He's
going to do away with any charge that could have ever been charged
against us. For who shall anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. And you
need to understand, if he hadn't made an end of sins by his death
on the cross, sin would have made an end to us. You've heard
people say when they get in a fight and they hate somebody, say,
I'm gonna make an end of you. Well, sin cannot make an end
of us. And then he says to make reconciliation
for iniquity. That's why he's going to Jerusalem
now. He's going to make reconciliation. That's the propitiation. That's
to satisfy God's justice, saving his people, not at the expense
of God's justice. That's what that reconciliation
is all about. That's why he's doing all this.
God's justice had to be satisfied. It had to be exhausted. The full
payment had to be made. And so, not at the expense of
God's justice, but with its full support and approval as he honored
the demands of justice. The just for the unjust to bring
us to God. And then what's all this gonna
result in? Well, Daniel said this, to bring in everlasting
righteousness. This is all in Daniel 9 24 now. To bring in everlasting righteousness.
This is the righteousness of God, that is revealed by the
Spirit to God's people in the preaching of the gospel. This
is the righteousness of God that we are made by the imputation
of the merits of His obedience unto death to our account. And
that final, all of that, establishing that righteousness of God's law
and God's justice. Having done that, He arose from
the dead. And so that means life is given
out of Christ, who is the Lord our righteousness. I love that
passage in Romans 8.10 that says that the body is dead because
of sin. And we think of our physical
bodies and what we're going through, and especially as we grow older.
Some are cut down in youth, some grow older, and I think about
our sister Sue. I think Sue's 87, if I'm not
mistaken. But we see others going through
in their youth or in middle age or you know I tell people I'm
in the fall of life or I'm probably in the winter. But we think about
that. This body is dead because of
sin, that's a consequence of sin, but it's not a condemnation
because the spirit is life because of righteousness. And where we
find righteousness? In Christ. And then Daniel said
to seal up the vision in prophecy. Right away when he enters and
gets close to Jerusalem here, we see a prophecy fulfilled from
the book of Zechariah chapter nine and verse nine. And I'll
get to that in just a moment. In other words, what Christ is
doing here is he's finalizing the word of promise and all prophecy
of his coming into the world to save his people from their
sins and secure them unto glory. Everything that the Old Testament
in prophecy and picture and type is being fulfilled right here.
It's already been fulfilled, but it's continuing till it's
finalized. by his death, and then to anoint
the most holy, which I believe means to enter in the holy presence
of God, to make intercession for his people, for whom he died,
and to preserve us unto glory. So that's his entry into Jerusalem,
fulfills that, in his death on the cross. Well, look at, and
of course he told him, he said, now, you go into this town, and
you're gonna find a donkey, an ass, and a colt, and you tell
them that the Lord hath need of these things. The Lord, straightway,
and he said this, he said, if they question you getting these
things, like you're stealing them or something, just say the
Lord hath need of them, and immediately they'll send them. There'll be
no argument, you don't have to pull a gun on them. They'll send
them. Well, look at verse four. And
I didn't put that, I should've put Matthew 21 there. It should
be, it's five through seven, it should be four through seven,
I'm sorry. One of my big mistakes. It's four through seven. I didn't
notice I did that until now. But there is a verse four here.
It says, and all this was done, that it might be fulfilled, it
might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet. Now that's
the prophet Zechariah, and it says, saying, in verse five,
tell ye the daughters of Zion, behold thy king cometh unto thee,
meek and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.
Now, I printed out in your lesson here, the actual prophecy of
Zechariah. And there's one thing added in
Zechariah that Matthew didn't quote, and I'm not gonna get
into that, I don't know why, but you know, when he talks about
the word Hosanna, we're gonna see that, that means Lord save
us, Lord save me. But here's what Zechariah said.
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy king cometh unto
thee. And here's what Matthew left out. He is just and having
salvation. Now the term hosanna means that. So it's there. And it says lowly
and riding upon an ass. What's that a picture of? Humility. How did they expect the Messiah
to come? Out of the clouds, bearing a
sword, riding on a white horse. Well, you know what? That's gonna
happen. But not until his second coming,
Revelation 19. Here he comes riding on a white
horse, a warrior, a conqueror, successful. But here he is riding
on a lowly donkey. and the coat of that donkey behind
him. So he says, look at verse six,
and the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them and brought
the ass and the coat and put on them their clothes and they
set him thereon. So what we have here is the king
of kings The Messiah, the Savior of sinners, riding into Jerusalem,
the city of David, city of peace, on a donkey. Not riding in on
a white horse. No one would expect a king to
come in on a donkey, would they? And this is indicative of the
ignorance of the people. the people of Jerusalem, because
they expected the Messiah, but what kind of Messiah did they
expect? Now, they did give credence to Jesus of Nazareth, some of
them did, a lot of them did, as being the Messiah, because
he healed the sick, he fed the hungry, he calmed the storm,
he raised the dead, But they still had it in their mind that
He's coming to conquer Rome, to defeat Caesar, to set us free
and to set up His kingdom here in Jerusalem and rule the whole
world with us being His lieutenants. That's what they had in mind.
And we know that because even the disciples had a smidgen of
that kind of thought. And it lasted even up to after
the resurrection. Read Acts chapter one. When Christ
was going to ascend unto the Father, they said, when you gonna
establish the kingdom here on? He'd already established the
kingdom by his death on the cross. But they were confused about
that issue. So what they were expecting was what Christ would
come in his second coming. But they rejected him as the
Messiah, the savior of sinners. It's almost like they'd say,
we don't need salvation. We just need vindication. Come
down on a white horse, conquer Rome, and pat us on the back. That kind of thing. They didn't
expect this one to come and to die on an ignominious cross. Your king, your messiah? I read
a book one time where a guy was talking about trying to look
at Jesus on the cross and he said that was his undoing. No,
that was his victory. But they didn't see it. They
didn't see their need of a righteousness worked out by the death of a
substitute through redemption. They thought they already had
one. They were seeking it by the law. That's what Paul wrote
in Romans chapter nine. They didn't find it. They weren't
submitted to the righteousness of God. They didn't expect him
to come and judge the world in righteousness, which he was going
to do in his second coming. And so these disciples, they
did as they were commanded, and they brought him the ass, and
look at verse eight. And a very great multitude spread
their garments in the way. Others cut down branches from
the trees and strawed them in the way." So here he is, a great
multitude greeting him. The hour of his death, that's
what's approaching here now. And at this point in time, he
determined that it was all going to be very public. I put in there
that, you remember when Paul was preaching to King Agrippa? And he told Agrippa, he said,
this thing wasn't done in secret. It wasn't done in a quarter,
it was all wide open, in public. And Christ, he would announce
in a very public way who he is now, the Messiah, the savior
of sinners. You know, a lot of times you'll
hear in modern religion, you'll hear about Bible codes, secret
codes, and secret issues done in a clandestine way. That's
not the Bible. That's not the gospel. It's all
open. There's no code here. There's
no biblical code, secret code. Now, people cannot understand
it until God, by His power through the Spirit, gives them eyes to
see and ears to hear. But it's all open, it's all above
board. Christ didn't do this in secret, some kind of a hoax. No, it was all very public. His
resurrection from the dead was seen by so many people, and it's
recorded. I listened to something where
this girl was questioning a man, said, if you can show me proof
that Christ rose from the dead, I'll believe it. Well, what proof
do you need? The man told him, said, well,
if you can show me proof that George Washington was the first
president of the United States, I'll believe that. How are you
going to do that? Well, what's written? People
there saw him face to face. Well, that's what's written about
Christ. in his resurrection from the dead. Why don't people want
to believe that? Because they don't want to face judgment by
this person whom they hate. But it's coming. God's going
to judge the world in righteousness by that man. And so here they
are, the multitude is bringing him in in glorious fashion. And listen to verse nine now.
It says, and the multitudes that went before and that follow cried
saying, Hosanna to the Son of David. Now that's Messianic language. Lord, save us. The Messiah, the
Son of David. Blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Well,
again, they looked upon him as the promised Messiah, and they
called him Lord. They called him the son of David.
They said, Hosanna. Lord, save us. But what were
they wanting to be saved from? Rome. I'm convinced of that. You can look at it in the context.
They weren't looking to being saved from sin. They weren't
looking to find a righteousness that they couldn't produce because
they thought they had produced it. And the whole Bible tells
us that. That's why the gospel's so offensive
to men and women. It's because it tells them that
their righteousness is no good. It's evil deeds. It's fruit unto
death. It's sinful. So they cried, Lord,
save us. And another proof of that is
you gotta understand that the same multitude right here who
are crying Hosanna, Lord save us, what did they cry later on
when Pilate brought Barabbas to them? They chose a thief and
a murderer over Hosanna. That's right, and they cried
crucifying. Somebody told me one time, well,
that must have been a different group. No, it was the same one. Same group, I don't know how
many. Some, I've got in your lesson here, some biblical historians
estimate that there were well over a quarter of a million people
in Jerusalem. See, this was the time of the
Passover. So you're going to have all kinds of people. We're
going to look at that next week when he drove out the money changers
from the temple. Why were they there? It's because
there's so many people, even foreigners who came in. It was
the time of the Passover. So they sought deliverance from
Caesar. They sought deliverance from
poverty. They sought deliverance from sickness, but they did not
seek deliverance or expect deliverance from sin. We need to be saved, right? What
do we need to be saved from? We need to be saved from sin,
because sin is the problem. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners, Paul said, of whom I am chief.
You see, when you talk about poverty and sickness and all
of this, That's the consequences of sin. But the Messiah came
to take care of the heart of the problem. To finish the transgression,
to make an end of sin, to bring in everlasting righteousness. He took care of the problem and
he brought in the solution. The problem is sin, the solution
is righteousness, that's why he came. And whether we're under
a conqueror like Rome, or whether we're free to go whichever way
we want to go, we still need salvation from sin. We still
need a righteousness that we cannot produce. And that's it. Well, look at verses 10 through
11. And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved,
saying, who is this? That word moved means shaken,
like an earthquake. In other words, the rumblings
of this happening got out. And look at verse 11. And the
multitude said, this is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. They looked at him as a prophet,
much like what probably Nicodemus, remember back in John three?
Much probably like the rich young man. They looked upon him as
a prophet, but he was more than a prophet. That question, who
is this? Boy, that's an important question,
isn't it? What? Thank ye of Christ. And the answer
that you give must come from the revelation of God of him
in the Bible. Most people today think of him
as a prophet. And they think of him as a savior
who came to try to save everybody and will save you if you'll let
him. Well, that's not who he is. If that's what you think
of him, you're thinking of a false messiah. Because this one came
to save his people from their sins and he did just that. He
shall prosper, the scripture says. He shall see of the travail
of his soul and be satisfied. Now Moses spoke of him as a prophet,
but more than a prophet, and I've got this cited in your lesson,
Deuteronomy 18, that prophet. Remember back in John, I think
it's chapter one, when they are, John one, two, and three, when
they were questioning John the Baptist, and they said, are you
Elijah? Are you that prophet? Meaning
the prophet that Moses would prophesied of being the supreme
prophet. The very word of God. Well, that's
who Christ is. Not just any prophet, not just
like Samuel and Elijah and Elisha and the other prophets, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, not just like them. Now, they were prophets, but
they were sinners saved by grace. Christ is the prophet. He's our
prophet, he's our priest, he's our king. The redeemer who gave
himself a ransom. for our sins imputed to him,
and who gave us his righteousness imputed to us, and who gave us
life from the dead so that we might know and follow him, the
Lord of glory. Hosanna in the highest. Lord, save us. Save us from our
sins. Save us from ourselves. Okay.