He's entering into Jerusalem
in fulfillment of an Old Testament passage. Zechariah chapter 9
and verse 9 talks about the Savior, Messiah, entering into Jerusalem,
which we call usually the Savior's triumphant entry. And all of
that was ordered by the Lord, programmed by God Himself The
Lord Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and as He did, the disciples, they
looked on thinking, they were kind of, I'm persuaded, they
were kind of caught up in the same idea as most of the Jewish
people were, that Jesus of Nazareth, He's the King, He's going to
assume the throne of David, and he's going to run the Romans
out of town. In fact, run them all the way
back to Rome and be done with them. And the disciples were
kind of caught up in that, just like most all the Jewish people
were. When our Lord, back in John chapter
six, when he fed the 5,000 men plus women and children, they
said, this is the prophet. And the Lord Jesus, He knew they
were going to come and crown Him the King. So He escaped from
them. Because as He said later on in
the Pilate, He said, My Kingdom is not of this world. Listen,
the Lord Jesus isn't going to come back and sit on a literal
throne over there in Jerusalem. after they have reinstituted
the sacrifices and such a tomfoolery as that. That's not going to
happen. His kingdom is not of this world. It's a spiritual
kingdom He came to establish. And He is the King Himself. And
He established that kingdom by His substitutionary death. And
He reveals that kingdom and we enter into the kingdom by the
new birth. That's what He said. Except a
man be born again, he can't see the kingdom of God. But the disciples,
they still were kind of caught up in this fantasy that he's
going to have an earthly kingdom. And here he comes into Jerusalem.
And there are thousands of people in Jerusalem after all it is
Passover time. In fact, those historians who,
they tell us that probably about a quarter of a million people
in Jerusalem at this particular Passover. This is the fourth
Passover that our Lord Jesus would have attended during his
public ministry. In fact, there was some question
as to whether he would even show up at the Passover. And he did. He did, and he makes his entry
into Jerusalem, and people are waving all kinds of branches. It's a very festive atmosphere,
and as he enters in, to the city, people began to say, this is
the King of David. They said, Hosanna to the King
of David. Show mercy on us, O King of David. And there's just lots and lots
of people there to welcome Him in. And it was such a multitude that
we get down to verse 18, or verse 19, excuse me, verse 19, the
Pharisees said, We're not getting anywhere with this. We've issued
threats. We've said, if anybody knows
where he's at, let us know and we'll go and arrest him. But
nobody seems to be fearful of us. We're losing our authority. We're losing our power. And they
said, look, the whole world has gone after him. Look what a following. He's got thousands and thousands
of people following him. In this unusual setting, John
is led of the Spirit to identify a specific event. Imagine thousands
and thousands of people gathered around the Savior. It's a great
mob of people. And they're shouting, they're
happy, they're waving palm branches and singing hallelujahs. They think this is victory for
Israel. This is a wonderful day in Israel. Here's Jesus of Nazareth. Here's
the King. Here's the Son of David. Now,
they don't need a Savior. You understand? They don't think
they need a Savior. They're not looking to Him as
the Savior from sin. They're not looking to Him as
the Redeemer. They have no idea that he is
the only mediator between God and men, that this man Christ
Jesus, they just think he's going to set up a great kingdom again. And in the midst of all of this,
there were some Greeks who, they went to one of his disciples. You'll notice it says in verse
number 20, there were certain Greeks. Not just run-of-the-mill
Greeks, there were certain Greeks. And I think there should be some
emphasis put upon that. And I hope that these were the
elect of God. I don't know whether they were
or not. I hope they were. I want to think that they were.
It makes me feel better. It's okay if I feel that way.
It makes me feel better to think that these men who are identified
by the Spirit of God as certain Greeks, certain Gentiles. And
they go to Philip. And they said, quite simply,
in verse 21, sir, we would see Jesus. Now this is more than
just, hey, we want to get a look at him. Most likely, and forgive
me if I'm reading a little bit more into the situation here
than is written, but it seems to me like most likely they've
already seen, they've had a glimpse of him anyway, because thousands
of people did as he came into the city. They don't want to merely just
have a visual sighting of Jesus of Nazareth,
but they want to see Him and learn about Him. They want to
maybe speak to Him and have an interview with Him. Well, how
could that be possible when there are so many hundreds and hundreds
of people who are gathered around Him? And here's Philip. What are we supposed to do? What's
Philip supposed to do? Well, he doesn't know what to
do, so he goes and he tells Andrew. And then Andrew and Philip, they
both go tell Jesus. I tell you what, when you don't
know what to do... I mean, this is a real dilemma here. They're
Gentiles. And these disciples, these are
men that the Lord commissioned. He taught them to preach the
gospel. He taught them the gospel. He's the one that sent them out.
And the Lord said back in Matthew chapter 10, listen, don't go
to the Gentiles. Right? That's what He said. Don't
go to the Gentiles. Now there will be a great commission
that He will issue, Matthew 28, Acts 1-8, other references as
well, but not yet. That's not to laugh to the Holy
Spirit is given. But the Lord said specifically,
don't go to the Gentiles. Moreover, as we just studied
this last Lord's Day, you remember when the Canaanite woman, she's
a Gentile, she had a daughter grievously vexed with the devil.
She went to the Savior, show mercy on me, Thou Son of David,
Lord, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And He didn't answer
her. And the disciples said, she's
pestering us. Get her off the kid, do something
about this. He said, I'm not sent, but to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now these men remember
those things. Don't go preach to Gentiles. And he had said, I'm only sent
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So what are we going
to do? Philip says to Andrew, these
people want to see the Savior. But they're Gentile dogs. What
are we going to do? He said, don't preach to the
Gentiles. He said he's only sent to the lost sheep of the house
of Israel. Andrew, what are we gonna do? Well, I don't know.
What do you think we ought to do? Well, we better go tell Jesus. And I'll tell you this. Lots
of times in life, you don't know what to do. These guys faced
a dilemma. Should we take Gentiles to the
Savior after what he said? And in addition, this adds to
their dilemma. If Jesus of Nazareth is seen
interviewing, speaking with a bunch of Gentiles, boy, you talking
about stirring up a hornet's nest. That would absolutely do
it. And so these men, what do we
do? And this is what they did. It's the only thing they could
do. They went and told Jesus. He'll take care of it. Whatever
needs to be done, He'll take care of it. Which leads me to
say this, in life's situations, in life's events, things happen we don't understand,
but we don't even know what to do. What do I do? What do I do
in this situation? Well, I'll tell you what you
better always do. Tell it to Jesus. That's the thing. Tell it to the Lord. Wait on
the Lord. That's what I read back there
in Psalm 27. Wait on the Lord. Again, I say, wait on the Lord.
Look to the Lord. Look to the Lord. Israel at the
Red Sea. Great danger. A massive army
in pursuit. What are we going to do? Well,
they're fussing and we should have stayed in Egypt and all
of that. And Moses said, there's nothing you can do. Just stand
still and see the salvation of the Lord. And there are many
times we don't know what to do. Now, sometimes Scripture gives
us clear-cut instructions as to what to do in these situations,
but sometimes we don't know what to do. You can't go to a passage
of Scripture. You can't go to a verse and say,
well, that's what the Lord tells me to do in this situation. Sometimes
you don't know what to do. What do I do? Tell it to Jesus. That's what you do. You tell
it to Jesus. As we sing that song sometimes,
tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. He's a friend. That's well known. You've no
other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone. Where are you going to find any
rest? Where are you going to find any peace? Where are you
going to find any contentment? Can you find it in the world?
No. Can you find it within? No. Can you find it in your own
holiness or righteousness? You don't have any. Where are
you going to find it? in the Lord Jesus. Go to Him.
Go to Him. Go to Him for salvation. Go to
Him for everything. Tell it to Jesus. Phillip tells Andrew, what we
gonna do, brother? Let's go tell the Savior. And He'll do what He will. And whatever He does is right. is right. Well, look at verse 23. And Jesus answered them saying,
and this is an unusual answer, because he doesn't say, well,
tell them, come over here and I'll talk to them for a little
bit. I mean, he doesn't even address, he doesn't, it doesn't
look like he's addressing this situation. He says, the hour has come that
the Son of Man should be glorified. Now He's spoken about this hour
before. His hour wasn't come. John has
recorded that they'd come to take Him and arrest Him and kill
Him. But His hour wasn't come. But
now the Savior says, the Savior says the hour It is come. It is come. That the Son of Man
should be glorified. Now we know how He's going to
be glorified. By His substitutionary death.
That's going to bring Him the glory. He'll be glorified in
the garden of Gethsemane. And He'll be more glorified when
He dies for our sins on the cross of Calvary. when he pays our
debt that we owe to the justice of God. He'll be glorified. But I'll
tell you something the disciples could never see. They could never
see, they could never get it in their minds that his glory
has to be attached to his death. They couldn't get it, could they?
They didn't get it. They didn't get it. Go back to
Matthew chapter 16. Hold your place there, of course,
in John 12. Look back at Matthew 16. They didn't see the great connection
that existed between the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and
His glory. They didn't make the connection.
You make the connection, don't you? I know He's glorified in
creation. The heavens declare His glory.
And I know He's glorified in divine providence. as He guides
everything to the end that He Himself determined before He
ever made the world. Everything is being directed
to the goal, to the end that He ordained. And I know that
brings Him glory. But His greatest glory is His
redemptive glory. It's His saving glory. It's His
justifying glory. Taking folks like us, lifting
us up from the dunghill, the filth, of sin and wretchedness
and washing us in his blood and robing us in his righteousness
and making us to sit among the very princes of his people. That's
his greatest glory. His death. And the disciples
didn't get that. They didn't get it. They couldn't
make that connection until after his death. till after his resurrection. Let me show you this, Matthew
chapter 16, and we'll be getting to this very soon in our Bible
class, because I wrote a lesson on this not too long ago, and
it'll be coming up in, I don't know, two, three, four weeks,
something like that. But, you know, our Lord Jesus, first of
all, he identifies himself, or he makes sure he's identified.
He starts off by saying, who do men say? This is verse 13,
Matthew 16. Whom do men say that I, the Son
of Man, am? And I'm not gonna take the time
to go through all these verses, but we know what Peter said,
thou art the Son of the living God. Okay, who is he? Who is
he? Number one, he's the Son of Man.
He said that about himself. That's his favorite title, wasn't
it? The Son of Man. I am the Son of Man. Who is the
Son of Man? Peter said, Thou art the Son
of the Living God. That's who He is. He's the Son
of Man. He's the Son of the Living God.
After that, He spoke to them about His death.
Now, He had alluded to it before. I don't know, maybe we say kind
of hinted at it. But He never came out kind of
bluntly and plainly and said He's going to suffer and die
before. But now He does. You see, there's
no use talking about what Jesus Christ did until we know who
He is. He's got to be identified first.
Who is He? He's the Son of Man. He's the
Son of God. Alright, that's established here
in Matthew 16. Now, for the very first time,
here's what the Savior says in verse 21. Matthew 16, 21, you
got it? He says, from that time forth
began Jesus to show, what does that mean? To manifest. To instruct
these men, his disciples, how that he must, he must go unto
Jerusalem. Why must he go? He must go because
it's written down in the eternal covenant of grace. He must go,
he must die, because that's the only way we're gonna be saved.
He must, he must go to Jerusalem. And back over there in John 12,
where we are now, where is he? He's in Jerusalem. He's there,
and in that context where we're studying that, it's only about
four days before he dies. So he must go into Jerusalem.
He must suffer many things of the elders and the chief priests
and the scribes and be killed and be raised again the third
day. For the very first time, he just
comes out with it. Here it is. Now that you men
know for sure who I am, let me tell you why I came. I came to suffer, bleed, and
die. And we know it's so that God
can be just and justify the ungodly. Now here are these men. Here's
Simon Peter. He speaks up for the group. He was quick to speak up. He's
the one who made this bold profession of faith. My, what a confession. Acknowledging who do men say
that I am? Thou art the Son of the Living
God. Blessed art thou, Son of Jonah. Christ said flesh and blood didn't
teach you that. My Father taught you that. Revelation. Not decision. Revelation. And then He begins to manifest
to them. Listen, brethren. I've got to
die, I've come to die. On another occasion, he will
say, I've come to give my life a ransom for many. Well, did they grasp that? Well, let's see, verse 22. Then Peter took him aside. Lord, I need to have a little
talk with you. I need to counsel you. He's gonna
counsel the counselor. He took him and he began to rebuke
him. To rebuke, now not out of ill
will. No, no, not out of ill will,
but in love and tenderness and respect, he began to rebuke him
for talking about dying. How in the world can your glory
be associated with dying? We're thinking in terms of a
kingdom here. Peter could have said, I've seen
lots of men die and they don't come back. How can you have a
kingdom if you die? And he talked about this, Lord.
And so he did. He said, Be it far from thee,
Lord. This shall not be unto thee.
In that expression, be it far. You know what it literally is?
Be propitious to yourself. In other words, be merciful to
yourself. Don't talk about dying. Talk
about living. Talk about reigning. And you
see, the religion of today... They neglect the substitutionary
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't talk about His death. Don't
talk about His blood. Don't talk about His sacrifice.
Talk about living with Jesus and walking with Jesus and being
buddies with Jesus. That's what people want to talk
about. Jesus who will heal your bank account and Jesus who will
heal your body and Jesus who will heal your marriage. Talk
about that, but don't talk about His substitutionary death. And
that's Simon and Peter. Lord, we don't want to hear any
more talk about that. But he turned and he said to
Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. Satan's using you right now,
Simon. These other men are listening
too. They're listening to what you're
saying. Thou art an offense unto me.
You're a stumbling block. Would you put a stumbling block
in front of me, Peter? Hey, this is the path marked
out for me from before the foundation of the world. I'm the lamb slain
before God ever made the world. And would you prevent me from
fulfilling the will and purpose of my Father, the reason I came
into this world? To die for sinners? And he said this, Thou savourest
not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Thou savourest not. You know
what it is to savour something? Your wife fixes you your favorite
meal. And you put that fork in there,
and you put that food in your mouth and say, oh, mm, oh. You can taste it now, can't you?
Oh, that's so good. And you know what? I'll tell
you, here's the children's bread, the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, it's so good. Isn't it good?
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. And we savor the gospel. It's so full of flavor. It's
so glorious. We just enjoy thinking about
the gospel, about the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus said, don't
you have a taste for this, Peter? Do you not savor this? And you know, he had read in
Isaiah 53 about the lamb led to the slaughter and how it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. Peter had read that along with
the rest of the disciples. But they couldn't connect the
dots. Here's his sufferings and his death. There's that dot.
And here's his glory. There's that dot. And they couldn't
see Those are, they're like inseparable. You can't separate His death
from His glory. So back over here in John chapter
12, the Savior says, the hour has
come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Look at this, here's
an interesting verse, verse 16, and I'll go quick here. Look
at verse 16, John 12. These things understood not His
disciples at the first. But when Jesus was glorified, when Jesus was glorified, then
remembered they that these things were written of Him and that
they had done these things unto Him. When He was glorified, they
saw Him suffer, bleed, and die, buried, and then risen again. And 40 days later, they saw him
ascend into heaven. And then it began to sink in, what had happened. And they began
to see that his death, That's how he got his glory. You see,
there is no crown without the cross. And then he says this, and I'll
give you this and quit. He says in verse 24, verily,
verily, okay, some really important's about to be said. I say unto
you, except a corn of wheat, fall
into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit. Here's the fact of his death
and the fruit of his death. Fact and fruit. If he doesn't die, he abides
alone. He's like a seed, a seed of grain. put in the ground. Notice it
says, except a corn of wheat, just one. Just one. We only have two saviors. We've
just got one savior. And he died one time by one offering. He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die. I tell you, when you men and
women plant your corn, I tell you, it isn't like a kernel
of corn. It's not like it accidentally
wound up in the ground. You put it there, didn't you?
You put it there. You committed it to the ground
in anticipation of a harvest. And you see, our Lord Jesus,
He's a corn of wheat, the corn of wheat. The Father sowed Him
on purpose. And He died. He died. If He doesn't die, He abides
alone. You see, this is the way it is
with the Lord Jesus. He's ever-glorious whether He
saves us or not. He's always going to be God whether
He saves the sinner or not. But it was written in the council
chambers of eternity, He'd come to this world and suffer, bleed,
and die for His people. In order to have His people!
In order to save His people! A seed has to be committed to
the ground. This time it's the seed of the
woman. The seed of the woman. And He dies. And he's buried. And he comes forth. And boy,
what a harvest. Oh, what a harvest! Thousands
times ten, thousands of saints, redeemed by his blood, bought
with a price. Christ Jesus gets the glory because
He's the one who suffered, bled, and died to save us from our
sins. You know, you say, well, what
these disciples, if they didn't understand substitution like
we do, well, how were they saved? They believed Christ Jesus. They
believed Him. They didn't have the New Testament
like we've got. And there were a lot of things
they were fuzzy about. But they knew He is the Son of
the Living God. And they believed Him. And they
trusted Him. And sometimes He rebuked them
because they were a little hard-headed. But hey, I believe we are too. Very hard-headed. Very hard-headed. Sometimes it takes a while to
sink in. I'll tell you what, if the Lord
ever teaches us, it'll be something well learned. Well learned. We need teachers. We need preachers. Thank God He uses teachers and
preachers. I'll tell you what, He's got
to be the one who reveals Himself to our hearts. And then we see
His glory. It's forever attached to His
substitutionary sacrifice for sin.