Seeking once again the help of
God, I'd like to draw your attention to the chapter that we read together,
the Gospel according to Matthew and chapter 21, and the text
you'll find in verse 5. Tell ye the daughter of Zion,
behold thy king cometh unto thee, meek and sitting upon an ass,
and the colt of the foal of an ass. So I'm sure we are all aware
that today is the Lord's Day, or the Sunday which is called
Palm Sunday, is when the Lord Jesus Christ, about a week before
he entered, a week before he was betrayed and crucified, he
entered into Jerusalem to fulfill that prophecy spoken of him in
the prophecy of Zachariah. that their king would come, the
king of the Jews would come and he would be seated upon an ass,
upon the foal of the colt, the foal of an ass. Zechariah chapter
9 and verse 9. The prophet said, Rejoice greatly,
O daughter of Zion, O the people of Jerusalem. Shout, O daughter
of Jerusalem. Behold, thy king cometh unto
thee. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding upon an ass
and upon the foal of an ass. As we read through the scriptures
you will see that there are times in the Old Testament when the
kings would come riding upon a donkey. We know normally that
kings would ride horses into battle and they would ride horses
after they had gained the victory of battle. As we go to London,
you see the King's Guards and you see all the magnificent horses
and the soldiers and what a glorious sight it is as you see them trotting
down the Mall and as you see them walking around London. The horse is seen as a magnificent,
powerful animal. Very rarely would you see a soldier
on a donkey very rarely or if not ever would you see a king
riding on a donkey. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ,
as he enters into Jerusalem, asks specifically for his apostles
to go and find, and he directs them specifically to the place
where they would find a donkey and a colt, the foal of a donkey. Why is it then specifically that
Jesus requests a donkey and not a horse? In the Old Testament,
the kings going into battle would ride the horse. But if they were
coming in peace, they would ride a donkey. And the Lord Jesus
Christ, he came in peace. He rode a donkey into Jerusalem
as the king of peace, the messenger of peace, to bring about peace. between God and man through his
sacrifice upon the cross. And he came to Jerusalem which
is called the City of Peace. Very ironic that Jerusalem itself
seems to be the city of blood. It is a city that has been fought
over for thousands of years. Thousands if not millions of
people have been slaughtered through the protection and through
the attack of this city of Jerusalem, yet it stands in its name as
the city of peace. It is the city of David, the
city of the Lord Jesus Christ as he enters into it. And he came to bring about the
gospel of peace. And as this King Jesus, as he
came to Jerusalem, he was welcomed like a king. They cried out to
him, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he that comes in the
name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. They cried out, O safe, O safe. He came to seek and to save those
which were lost. His name shall be called Jesus
because he will save his people from their sins. And as he entered
into Jerusalem, they cried out, oh, save us. Maybe not really
fully understanding what they were saying, as many of them
within a week or so would be crying out, crucify him, crucify
him, crucify him. And yet they cried out at this
point, Hosanna, save us. They welcomed the king of Israel. They welcomed the king of kings,
the Lord Jesus Christ, into the city of David. And Jesus went
straight to the temple. The temple was the focal point
of all Jewish worship, was the central point of the religious
system for the Jews, the central point of Jerusalem. The high
priest were there, the Levites were there, the sacrifices were
taken there, the Holy of Holies was there, God's presence was
there in that place. And the Lord Jesus Christ, he
goes straight there to the temple. not distracted by the crowd saying
oh save us oh save us oh save us he goes directly to the temple. And what does he do there? He overthrows. He casts out. And he quotes, my house shall
be called a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of
thieves. He enters into the temple and
he purges it, he cleanses it of all its, of the worldliness
that had crept in. This is the second time that
the Lord Jesus Christ purges the temple. It's like as he enters
into Jerusalem and people are crying, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna. He goes directly to the temple
to see, has anything changed? Although these people are crying
out to me, save us, save us, save us. Let me go directly to
the heart of the matter. Let me see the religion. See
if anything has changed since the last time I overthrew the
money changers. As it's the last time I scourged
them with whips and drove them out. In John chapter 2, verse
13, at the same time of year, at the Passover. Jerusalem at
this time of year was filled with people as they flocked from
all of Israel to come and participate in the Passover. At the same
time of year Jesus again enters into Jerusalem and he goes to
the temple and he finds in the temple those that sold oxen and
sheep and doves and changers of money sitting And when he
had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them out of the temple
and the sheep and the oxen and poured out the money changers
and overthrew the tables. And he said unto them, take these
things hence. Make not my father's house a
house of merchandise. And his disciples remembered
that it was written, the zeal of thy house has eaten me up. And so at the beginning of the
ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, he enters into the temple and
he purges the temple of its worldliness, the things that should not have
been there. And he deals with it. He then
spends those three years ministering in Jerusalem, teaching in their
synagogues and proclaiming the coming kingdom of God. Then at
the end of his ministry he goes back to the temple and he finds
it exactly in the same place. Finds it exactly in the same
condition. Nothing had changed. His ministry had no effect upon
the Pharisees and the Sadducees or many of them. They had rejected
him and they had gone back to their worldliness, their self-righteousness,
their money-making. And so as Jesus comes into Jerusalem
in the final week of his earthly life he goes to the temple to
see. Has my ministry had any effect
on these self-righteous people? Is there any fruit? Is there any fruit? He comes
seeking fruit. We go back to the Old Testament,
we see that God describes the people of Israel as a vine. And
he says, I planted a good vine, but I've come to get fruit from
it and I'm just finding wild grapes. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
enters into Jerusalem. And he enters into the temple
and he finds nothing but wild grapes, nothing but worldliness,
nothing but ceremonial religion, nothing but self-righteousness. And so he comes seeking fruit
and he finds none. And isn't it the same today?
Although there's no temple yet he enters into our hearts. And
what does he find there? As he find one day he's been
in and he's upturned it, he's revealed to us our worldliness
and our uncleanness and our lukewarmness and our distance. And then he
comes again and does he find has there been any change? He
comes seeking fruit and does he find any? Does he find the
fruits of the Spirit in our lives? Godliness, holiness, patience,
love, joy. Or does he find worldliness?
Does he have to upturn us again? Upturn the money changers? Upturn the sheep and the ox and upturn
all the worldliness that has crept in and made us a lukewarm,
religious Christian? And so he entered into Jerusalem.
Yes, they were crying, save us, save us, save us. it was just
a form, there was no true change in their lives because he heads
direct to the temple and finds it in just the same condition
and it is exactly the same with us. Heads to the temple, heads
to the heart, is there a change? Is there a transforming effect
of his spirit in our lives? Is it evident by the way that
we talk? Is it evident by the way that
we live? Is it evident by the way that we deal with people?
Or has worldliness crept in and suppressed and grieved the spirit
of God? And so Christ came seeking fruit
and he finds none. And he finds none and he begins
to teach them exactly what he is seeing. How often it is isn't
it with the Lord Jesus Christ that what he sees he then puts
into a parable for them to grasp and for them to understand. And
yet we find even in the parables They don't understand what he's
talking about because the scripture said their hearts were hard. Their ears were stopped with
unbelief. And so he speaks to them a parable
about a fig tree. Verse 17. in verse 19, and he saw a fig
tree, by the way, the Lord Jesus Christ is hungry. And he came
to it and found nothing thereon. You see, he comes into Jerusalem,
he enters into the temple and he finds nothing but buyers and
sellers, no real worship, no hungering and thirsting after
righteousness, no pursuit of godliness, just a form of religion. He says there's no fruit. And
he comes to a fig tree as he is hungry and he looks on it
and he finds nothing on it but only leaves an outward form,
an outward form of religion. He says there's nothing on it. And then he says, let no fruit
grow on thee henceforth forever. And presently the fig tree withered
away. And when the disciples saw it,
they marvelled saying, how soon is the fig tree withered away? How quickly it withered. How
quickly the Jews disappeared after the death of Christ. As
they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, as they cried, crucify
him, crucify him, crucify him, and they got rid of the saviour,
they got rid of their king. How quickly Jerusalem fell, 40
years. After the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ not one stone was left upon another of the temple, was
destroyed. And the gospel went into all
the world. How quickly it withered. He came seeking fruit from his
own people. His own received him not. Still
in the darkness, loved the form of religion, but didn't have
a true heart work of religion. And Christ came seeking fruit
from those people and he found none, their king, and they cried,
crucify him, crucify him. We will not have this man to
reign over us. He then gives them another parable
about obedience that they said about the man who sent his sons
into his vineyard to work for him. One son says, no, but then
he repents and he goes. Another son says, yes, I will
go, but then he refuses to go. He tells them that they didn't
believe the preaching of John the Baptist, yet they should
have seen the evidence of that preaching. They should have seen
that the Spirit of God was working through the preaching of John
the Baptist and the tax collectors, those who were Jews who had almost
rejected the Jewish faith and working for the Roman government.
These people were coming to salvation. and the prostitutes who were
believing in the Lord Jesus, they were believing the preaching
of John, and they were turning from their sin also. They believed
the preaching of John, and yet the Pharisees and the Sadducees,
the religious people of the day, they looked the part. They could
pray the prayer. They knew the scriptures, yet
they were without saving grace. It was just a form of religion. It was nothing in the sight of
the Savior. Because he came to find fruit
from those people and he found no fruit whatsoever. Matthew 22. He tells another parable about
a king that was going to have a marriage for his son. In verse 11, the king comes to see the guests
and he saw there a man which had not the wedding garment.
And he says unto him, friend, how camest thou in hither not
having the wedding garment? And he was speechless. And the
king said unto the servants, bind him hand and foot and take
him away and cast him into outer darkness. And there shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called. But few
are chosen. And the Pharisees and the Sadducees
understood now that the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking about
them. They had a righteousness of their
own. They wanted to do what they wanted
to do. They wanted to seek to continue
to obey the law of God and not to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ
for the way of salvation. And so they were wearing their
own wedding garment. They were wearing their own righteousness
which was rejected by God as sinful because no person is able
to keep the whole law of God. The only way in which someone
may be satisfied, which may be able to satisfy God is through
the Lord Jesus Christ and to wear his righteousness, the righteousness
which he gives to his people. He completed the law of God for
his people. And so Christ, as he enters into
Jerusalem, heads straight for the temple and finds no fruit.
Now he begins to lay down the teachings of what he is looking
for, a fig tree, beautiful leaves, yet nothing for the farmer. looked
good but it had no fruit, there was no nourishment in there,
there was nothing for the Lord Jesus Christ to take. When he comes into our lives
and he looks, yes we might look smart on a Sunday, what does
he see in our lives? What does he see in our hearts?
Does he see just an outward appearance or has there been that transformation? Is our body a temple of the Holy
Spirit? Have we been truly converted? Have we been truly born again
of the Spirit of God? After Jesus lays out these different
parables He then pronounces the woes on the scribes and the Pharisees. He tells them that they are just
like whitewashed tombs. He says you look okay on the
outside. You're all painted white and
you look nice but inside you are dead men's bones. You haven't been changed. Your
heart is still corrupt. You're resting upon your own
religion. Verse 28 it says, even so ye
are outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are
full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Then Jesus cries unto Jerusalem
as he sees their self-righteousness and their rejection of him. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou
killest the prophets and stone them which are sent unto thee.
How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as
a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but ye would not.
Behold, your house is left desolate, for I say unto you, ye shall
not see me henceforth till you shall say, blessed is he that
cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus went out and departed
from the temple. Jerusalem and the people of Jerusalem. They rejected the righteousness
of God, which is in Christ Jesus, and sought to obtain a righteousness
of their own by works which can never, ever satisfy a holy God. Remember, the Lord Jesus Christ
is told, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And we see as he dies upon the
cross at Calvary and then is risen again on the third day
that God himself is well pleased with the sacrifice of his beloved
son and it is whoever believes upon the Lord Jesus Christ shall
be saved. It is not whoever works and believes
but whoever believes upon the Lord Jesus Christ and the effect
of that belief produces a lifestyle of godliness and holiness. It's
not the other way around. And so this king of kings comes
to his city, the city of peace, riding upon a donkey, a symbol
of peace. The people cry out, oh save us,
oh save us. He goes to their temple and finds
still corruption and worldliness and rebellion. But you know meekness
is not weakness. So we see the Lord Jesus Christ,
he is meek and sitting upon an ass. He's the man of peace. Often we see pictures of the
Lord Jesus Christ and they try and portray him as effeminate. They try and portray that this
meekness makes someone effeminate. that this desire for peace makes
someone effeminate but we see although he is a man of peace
and although he is filled with meekness and humility yet we
find him entering into the temple and upturning and purging all of the sin that
was there and so meekness which is a characteristic of Christ
and also a characteristic of the Lord's people. Blessed are
the meek, Jesus says, for they shall inherit the earth. And so these characteristics
of meekness and humility and gentleness and patience and submission
are all seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. And for the people of
the world or the ungodly, they see these characteristics as
weak. weak or as weakness. If someone
is meek, if someone is patient, if someone is humble often they
are targets at school or targets at the workplace for being bullied,
for those who have opposite characteristics see them as a target. Those who
are not meek but aggressive pray on those who are weak but weakness
in Christ and meekness in the Lord's people is not weakness it is a power to control the authority that they have.
Christ had all power and all authorities. He's the God-man. The winds and the waves obeyed
him that he walks into, he comes into Jerusalem and he is the
embodiment of meekness. In full control of his emotions and then we're needed, we're
needed to show that righteous anger, that just anger against
sin, he purges the temple not out of
uncontrolled rage but out of controlled judgment upon those
who had entered into his father's house and made it a den of thieves
when it should have been the house of prayer. And so meekness
is actually a characteristic of strength and gentleness. And Jesus said,
blessed are the meek. One of the reasons why Christianity
is so mocked by the world, one of the reasons why, if you remember,
at the Olympic Games, they portrayed the Last Supper and there was
no uprising by the Christians, it's because we have that characteristic,
we are meek. Other religions, if something
like that took place, they immediately rise up in anger and fight we
don't have to. The scripture tells us vengeance
is mine saith the Lord. The Lord fights for his people,
the Lord deals with his people. The other day our our wing mirror
was stolen and the glass of our wing mirror was stolen and it's
annoying. We have to pray for those who
do such things pray for the thieves, those who knocked down our wall
outside and drove off. It's annoying. It gives us extra
work to do. But even in those things, the
Lord is in control and we have to express the spirit of meekness
and humility and knowing that God will deal with all of these
things. And so the characteristic of
Christ, he came in peace to bring the gospel of peace, to bring
about peace between God and man. But he came in meekness and he
enters Jerusalem on a donkey, a symbol of peace. But he will come again. He will come again. Matthew 25 and verse 31. When
the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all his holy angels
with him, then shall he sit upon a throne, the throne of his glory. And so as he entered into Jerusalem,
the meek and mild saviour to bring peace, so he will come
again as a king, the king of kings, with all of his holy angels
with him. Revelation tells us that he will
be riding upon a great white horse. So he won't enter in peace
but who will come in victory to redeem his people before himself. And so the scripture tells us,
blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. They
will be the people of God. May the Lord grant us then that
meekness of our hearts and may we examine ourselves that if
the Lord Jesus Christ should enter in What would he find? Would he find an unchanged heart
or would he find a heart that he had once changed but now worldliness
had crept in? May the Lord help us to do away
with all worldliness and give us a true spirit of Christ, this
true spirit of meekness and humility and peace. Take away our aggression
and our hostility and give us a true love of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then one day, we will be
ready to meet him when he comes to gather up his people with
himself. May the Lord add his blessing
to these few remarks. Amen. May the Lord help us as we close
this service by singing hymn number 736. Show me some token, Lord, for
good. Show me some token of thy special
love. Show me that I am born of God
and that my treasure is above. Hymn number 736, the tune 310. my treasure is a bell. My supplication, Lord, is this,
that all my sins to me and for my curse. I'll seal thy garden to myself. that will be, what will it be? And like a spirit from the dead, in every part, and teach my time. my heart to Thee ascend and share
my love that Thou wouldst find my God. Dear Lord, we pray for thy blessing
to rest upon the word. We ask, Lord, that the buyers
and sellers, the worldliness may be turned out of our lives
and that we may be fit to be the throne of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We ask that thy spirit may dwell
in us. We may be the temple of the true
and living God. We ask that we may be dismissed
with thy blessing and may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God the Father, with the fellowship and communion
of the Holy Spirit, to be with us each now and for evermore.
Amen.