Now look across the page and you’ll see our scripture for today. Mark chapter 11 verses 1 through 11. We’ve been studying in the gospel of Mark and we’ll jump just a little bit ahead to do our Palm Sunday thoughts for today. And I expect next week we’ll also jump a little further ahead to the resurrection. But today it would be Mark chapter 11 verses 1 through 11. This is God’s holy word.
Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, go into the village in front of you and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever yet set. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, why are you doing this? Say, the Lord has need of it and will send it back here. He was sent back here immediately.
And they went away and found a colt tied at the door outside in the street, and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, What are you doing, untying the colt? And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and He sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields.
And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest! And He entered Jerusalem and went into the temple, And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.”
Thus far, God’s holy, inspired, and infallible Word. Thanks be to God. Our gracious Heavenly Father, now as we come to study this passage, a familiar one, one that we come to at least once a year, we pray that you will bless it now with new understanding, new insight, that you will help us to want to live by it and to help others to live by it also. We thank You, Lord, that when Your Word is brought forth, it never returns to You void, but always accomplishes what You intend for it. But we add our prayers now to that and pray that You may be glorified in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I’ve entitled the sermon today, The Arrival of the Servant King. Jesus’ favorite title for Himself was Son of Man, a name that stressed His humanity as well as His identification with down-to-earth prophets like Jeremiah, Amos, Ezekiel, and even closer in time, John the Baptist. Jesus did not shy away from being called the Son of God, but it was not the usual way that he presented himself. On the day of his noisy entrance into Jerusalem, that is what we call Palm Sunday, he for the most part put aside his mild-mannered persona and accepted the kind of adulation reserved for the mightiest and most glorious ruler, the King of Kings. This morning we’re going to examine this surprising event.
Now I said that Jesus presented himself and really when you stop and think about it that’s what a parade is all about. Now the parade that we’re probably most familiar with is the Rose Parade that will come at the beginning of the next year. But What’s the purpose of the Rose Parade? Yes, to see all these beautiful flowers and floats and decorations and the brilliant engineering that has gone into these things. But ultimately, somewhere along the line, you meet the Rose Queen, the one who is supposedly the star of the show at this point.
And, well, I think a lot of people, maybe the vast majority of the people, never heard of this person. And if it were not for the fact that her name was on the side of the car, or maybe some loudspeaker was explaining it, you wouldn’t know who she was.
But the purpose of the parade, any parade really, is to present someone, to present them. And that’s what you have in this procession that actually began down in Jericho, but kind of picked up steam, especially when it got near the Mount of Olives. And Jesus had up until this point not ridden on an animal, but he sent these disciples to get a colt for him to ride on. And so it becomes a genuine parade at that point.
And it becomes a sort of official presentation of who He is. Now, that doesn’t mean that He wasn’t presented on other occasions and in different circumstances, but this is sort of the official presentation, if you will, of the true King of Israel, the true King of the world, King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords. So there are several ways I want us to think about how He presented Himself to the people as He entered into Jerusalem on that Sunday. He presented himself, first of all, as the King of Israel. Secondly, he presented himself as the guardian of his people. Third, he presented himself as the promised sign of God’s victory. Fourth, he presented himself as the Savior of Israel and of the world.
And finally, he presented himself as the Lord’s suffering servant. So this parade had certain goals in mind in terms of presentation. Jesus is saying, I want you to understand Me in these five ways. Now, if you searched further, you might find a few more ways, but I think these are the most dominant ones here.
So we begin with, He presented Himself as the King of Israel. How do we know that He was King? Because God appointed Him to be the King. Now, way back in the days of Moses, when God gave the commandments to Moses and an explanation of how the people of Israel were to live, He included the idea that there would be a king, that in most cases, God Himself would be the king, but there would even be earthly kings that they were to attend to.
So you have Moses, and later on when Samuel comes along, he kind of says, you’re too interested in earthly kings. You want to again recognize that I am the king of Israel, the Lord God, and you should treat me ahead of any earthly person that sits on the throne. But he said probably there will be earthly kings indeed. So you have Moses and Samuel, and then you have what’s mentioned here in the passage.
You have the king David, the one that the Lord said was a man that was very dear to Him, that He wanted to be king because of His commitment to the Lord. And then He indicated there would be one to come following Him, a son of David. And of course, everyone who was in that line from Solomon on down through the different kings, there was always the idea that this was the one who would really bring in the fullness of the kingdom of God. But we know, of course, that the one that the Lord himself had in mind was the Son of God, the Son of Man, as he called himself, Jesus, the incarnate, eternal God who came to live among us.
Now, in Mark, as over against some of the other gospel presentations, you have a very compact representation or evaluation or presentation of this whole thing of the king entering into Jerusalem. So it’s compact, and to put it very quickly, Jesus sent for an animal, he got on it and started riding, and as he rode along he was hailed by the people all around, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, blessed is the son of David, and so forth. And finally he arrived at the temple and he went in and had a look around and then went back out to Bethany to spend the night. Now he was going to have another week, the week we call Holy Week, to take care of some other matters, to do some more teaching, to present himself in some important ways. But this was the initial and powerful presentation that God had ordained that he should ride into Jerusalem in this parade, as it were.
Now the son of David is none other than the king. Anybody you call the son of David is going to be a ruler, is going to follow in the footsteps of David, or it might be more accurate to say that David would take his lead from the one who would come after him, if you can make sense of that. The idea of the sonship of the line of David lay dormant for a long time. Kings would arise and some of them were good kings and some of them were terrible kings. But the real king, the one they were looking for, was sort of sleeping, waiting to happen.
And when the time came, then that Son of David was enlivened. And we know this through the virgin birth of Christ and all the to-do that went on with His announcement, the announcement of His birth and then His coming and so forth. The Son of David who would truly own that title, He would come into the world. And now He was being presented. And notice how He was presented.
It wasn’t different than often happened when kings rode here and there and had their parades and so forth, but there were those who went ahead. And we know that they had cloaks and palm branches and things that they had cut down, and they laid them in front of Him, symbolically saying, we want you to have a smooth ride into town. We want you to know that we are laying down ourselves before you as your servants. So this parade that’s taking place, this King’s Parade, this presentation of Jesus, has those who go before. They are the ones that are heralds. if you will, they are somewhat pushed, you see, by Jesus coming up behind them, but they’re pushed ahead, and they’re saying, look what’s coming, look who’s coming.
That’s their job. And then, of course, there were those who followed, and they represent those who say, well, we will follow this king, wherever he may lead us, however he may direct the workings of society, we will go in that way, we will follow him. So it’s quite a wonderful parade, really. Again, it’s kind of the parade you might see in other places, but this one has real meaning.
The ones who go before him say, here he comes, here he comes. And the ones who follow along say, we’ll go with him. Join us and let us be a part of the kingdom that he is establishing. So he comes also, we’re told, in the name of the Lord, which means he exercises the authority of Yahweh or Jehovah.
He has that authority given to him. So this is not just a pretty picture, but it’s something with real meaning, with power. Jesus riding in his horse. ones that’s going ahead of him. I don’t know what the word is for that. But anyway, he goes ahead of him and the ones that come behind him, it’s all a part of now his readiness to exercise great power.
Then you also have the throne. Now, the temple itself, you see, was a throne room, essentially. Because the deeper you got into the temple, you came to the mercy seat. You came to the place where God sat in judgment. It was His throne room. Now, the temple itself was just a picture of heaven. but an important picture, one we’re supposed to pay attention to.
So Jesus went in, He looked around, He said, looks like everything is in place. My throne is there. I’m satisfied with that. And then He went on to Bethany and then to the later days of that week. But you do have this throne that belongs in the highest. It says here in our passage here, Hosanna in the highest. What’s the highest? It’s heaven itself. The temple is a picture of heaven. Jesus goes in and says, yeah, it looks like they’ve painted a good picture here.
They’ve got everything in place. And I’m now ready to sit on the throne. And ready means not right that second, of course, but he would go through other things. I mean, he would, of course, be arrested and he would suffer and die and rise again from the dead and then ascend, where? Into heaven to be seated on the throne. God’s throne, seated at the right hand of God, the Father.
So that’s the first presentation you see here. He’s presenting, saying, I am the King. You’re right. And people should go before me and say, look who’s coming. People should come after me and say, follow him. We’re following him. You join us in following him.
So that’s our first point then. He presented himself as the king of Israel. And on this Palm Sunday, that ought to enter your mind and heart too. This is my king. And he is still leading. He’s in different circumstances, but he’s still leading. To whatever extent God gives grace, I’ll go before Him and say, look who has come. And then I’ll be also a follower and say, join in this parade. Alright, we’re going to move on to the second thing then.
He presented Himself as the guardian of God’s people. There’s a hymn we sing sometimes that talks about our shield and defender, the Ancient of Days. Our shield and defender. Well, that’s what a guardian does. He’s a shield. He’s a defender. And in John’s account of the triumphal entry, Palm Sunday activity, these words come, fear not, fear not. Why not? Because the guardian is here. You don’t have to be afraid when the guardian is present. Fear not, the King is coming to do what?
To rescue His people. In this world, we’re not ever quite at home. The old song says, this world is not my home, I’m just a passing through. So we got troubles here, but our Guardian is ready to come to our rescue. The Guardian King is coming to defend the rights of the Lord. and He’s coming to attack His and our enemies, drive them back from us. What a blessing. We think about Palm Sunday, think that our Guardian is coming. In fact, He’s here. Our Guardian stands ready to defend us, to be a shield and defender for us.
In the temple itself, you have the Guardian saying, I’m not going to let anything happen to what this represents. Now, later on, he’s going to say that the stones are going to come tumbling down, the Romans will come and level this place, and so forth. But he says, what it really stands for, heaven itself, that’s never going to go away. He’s the guardian of our place in heaven. Jesus said, at one point, I’m going to prepare a place for you, and where I go and prepare a place, I’ll receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
So he’s the guardian of our place. If you go off and leave home, you’re going away for two weeks, you’d like to have somebody looking after the house, right? Or looking after your things. Well, the guardian says, I’m looking after everything here. Many, of course, of these people saw another guardian. Rome. Rome was their guardian. The power of Rome, all these troops and soldiers and the power of the governors and so forth, surely that was the guard and protector for them. Well, the Lord says, no, no, I’m your guardian and your protector. In fact, I’m sending the guardian himself.
And you need, if you have any questions or any fears or any troubles, just go to him. He is your guard and protector. And of course, when Jesus sent for that colt, that donkey to ride on, well, He was saying, I want to take everything, bring it together in just the right way that it serves me, and I want you to have that same attitude. You’d say, Lord, whatever I have, you untie it and take it. You can take better care of it than I can. I’ve locked the doors and I’ve asked for guards to come from the surrounding thing. I’ve done everything I can. But Lord, You’re the one who can protect. You’re the one who can keep. He’s the guardian.
And that’s how He presents Himself. And that’s what made these people so happy. Rome hasn’t done very much for us. They’ve just oppressed us. But now we have a guardian. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Well, then we have, he presented himself as the promised sign of God’s victory. We don’t often think that Jesus was a sign. We say all the signs were pointing to him, and that’s true, but Jesus has a certain responsibility as a sign.
Now in the Bible, you’ll see four signs that relate to the Lord Jesus Christ. Are there more than four? Probably, but I picked out four anyway. You have the babe in Bethlehem. So the angel said to them, this shall be a sign unto you. You’ll find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. So what was the sign? The babe. The babe was the sign. Yes, dressed in a certain way and kept in a certain way, but he was the sign there.
And then you have all the healings that Jesus did. And John the Baptist at one point said, I’m not so sure that this is really the Messiah. So he sent some messengers and said, can you verify that you’re really the Messiah? And the Lord said, look at all these signs that I’ve done. Healing the sick, raising the dead, and so forth. All these miracles that I’ve done. So He’s a sign in that way. When the miracles happen, it’s because of Him. He’s the sign. He’s the miracle worker. And then you have the resurrection.
That’s when the Lord said, I’m only going to give you one sign, and that’s the sign of Jonah. As Jonah was three nights and days in the belly of the whale, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the earth.” What does he say? He says, a sign. Jonah is a sign. And he says, my resurrection then is a sign. I’ll be buried, but I’ll rise again from the dead. There’s another sign.
And then finally, there’s the apocalypse or the end of the world itself. All the amazing things that are going to happen there happen for Jesus’ sake. Either Jesus is causing nations to fall or he’s causing peoples to rise, but he’s the end times as it were. So when you think, are there any signs concerning Jesus?
He is the sign. He’s the babe that was born in Bethlehem. He is the one who heals the sick. He’s the one who rose from the dead. He’s the one who’s coming again to bring the world to the right place that He wants it to be. John, in his remarks, talked about Jesus being lifted up. Or he was quoting Jesus. And Jesus said, if I be lifted up, will draw men to Myself. That’s a crucifixion. Lifting it up means to be nailed to the cross and lifted up. And there’s a sign, you see. Jesus lifted up on the cross is the sign that the sins can be forgiven if you put your trust and faith in Him. The sins paid for in that way. Then you have Lazarus. Now Lazarus wasn’t healed on Palm Sunday. But, it was only a month or two previous to that, that Lazarus was healed. And the healing of Lazarus, therefore, is associated with Palm Sunday. And Jesus says, I’m the resurrection and the life. You’re looking for life? Then look to Me. And Lazarus then was a sign in that sense.
And this final triumphal entry is a sign the kingdom is coming. Why do we pray in the Lord’s Prayer? Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is a sign of the Son of Man in heaven, if you will. The Ascended Lord has accomplished everything for our salvation. If you doubt that, then look for the sign of the Son of Man. Where is that sign? It’s in heaven. Some people say, oh, it has to be this star. There has to be some spectacular astrological thing. Just look to heaven. You say, I can’t see heaven. Yes, you can.
You have a Bible. And it shows you Jesus. And where’s Jesus? He’s seated, as we said before, at the right hand of God. He’s the sign. You need a sign? Look to Jesus. He’s a sign coming and going, up and down, left and right. He’s the sign that you need to look to Him in order to be saved. God has given you many signs. The Israelites kept saying, Lord, give us a sign. Lord, give us a sign. God says, how many signs can I give you?
I’m not giving any more. This is the sign that I have come I have exercised my ministry. I’ve risen from the dead. I’ve gone to heaven. I’m coming back again. What a wonderful sign we have in Jesus himself. Well, we move on. He presented himself as the Savior of Israel, the Savior of the world. First John 14, I’m sorry,
14. First John 4, 14. It speaks of Jesus as the savior of the world, savior of the whole world. When Jesus talked to the woman at the well in Samaria, he said, I’m a savior of the whole world. The parade watchers were shouting Hosanna. You know what that means? Save us, save us. Hosanna! Save us! Here’s Jesus riding in this great parade. He’s presented Himself in such a mighty and glorious way.
He’s the King, the Guardian, the sign itself. And the Lord is saying, look, you want someone to save you. You want Him to save the nation. You want Him to save you. Look to Jesus that He’s the one who can do that. And what do the people say? Save us! How can we be saved? Jesus. Then save us! That’s their cry and their call at this point. The people thought the Romans could save them, but no, as we said, they couldn’t, nor any other Gentiles. But Jesus can save them. But not just save the nation and the politics and all that, but save from sin and give you a place in heaven. John the Baptist’s father prophesied the coming one would save Israel from her enemies, Luke 1 verse 71.
The Samaritans of Sychar, whom Jesus visited briefly, and we mentioned the woman at the well just now, but there he’s called the savior of the world. The people sought the Savior’s deliverance. And he says, I’m here to deliver. But you see, there’s two steps here. There’s a salvation from sin, and then there’s a salvation that encompasses the world and all that’s in it and doing away with what’s evil and bringing what is good and right. People thought the Savior’s deliverance was at hand, and it was, but it was a salvation from sin.
And that ought to be our concern on a Palm Sunday when Jesus shows Himself and presents Himself. Lord, save us not from this president or this political party or somebody in the foreign lands. Save us from ourselves. Save us from our sins. Which brings us to the final of these presentations that go with this entrance into Jerusalem.
That is, He presented Himself as the Lord’s suffering servant. He said, the son of man must suffer many things. He said that more than once. sometimes rode donkeys to pretend that they were humbled. It was supposedly saying, I don’t need a white horse or a charger, I’ll just humble myself and ride upon a donkey. And Jesus wasn’t the first one to do that. But when Jesus did it, it really had some meaning. He wasn’t pretending anything.
He humbled Himself. Truly humbled Himself. And Philippians says, obedient unto death, even the death on the cross. How humble do you have to be? Well, Jesus was all that, you see. Kings pretended sometimes to be humble. Jesus was humble. In His daily ministry, Jesus had established Himself as meek and lowly. He says, I come to you as one who is meek and lowly.
And He came accepting abuse. He was abused a lot verbally. And then when he was arrested, of course, physically, and finally he was killed. His bitter enemies, the Pharisees, who were always hanging around, they’re not in the parade, but they’re on the sidelines here, wandering along. And they had nothing but disgust for Jesus. They did not want Him or anything that He claimed to be, and so they ultimately did kill Him, using the Romans as the instruments of that. And by this presentation, as Jesus comes into Jerusalem, God was making known the kind of sacrifice necessary for the salvation of sinners. What kind of sacrifice was it? That the Lord of heaven would come down to earth. What humility!
The Lord of heaven would walk the dusty paths of Galilee and Judea and whatever trails were in between. And he would be among the people, yes, people very interested and willing to be healed and all. But he didn’t go and live in a king’s palace. He didn’t claim to have great riches that people could come and ask for money or these sorts of things. He humbled himself.
What kind of sacrifice was needed? Well, the picture again using the temple was this little lamb, had no power, nothing but a weak little kind of animal sacrifice that was made. And what happened? He was slaughtered. and the blood of the Lamb was picturing the blood of Jesus.
And so, Jesus comes into Jerusalem in this humble way, not pretending, but meaning it, saying, I who left the glories of heaven have come into this world, I’ve demonstrated my meekness and humility, and now I’m going to the cross to die for sinners. And if you put your trust in Me, then you’ll have everlasting life. And you won’t be lifted up and made so important that you think you’re great. You’ll be humble too. You’ll be humble like I am. You’ll follow in my footsteps. And even when you get to heaven, you won’t have any stuck-upness there either.
We’re all sinners and all without hope except for our willingness to say, Lord, I’m nothing and You’re everything. What did John the Baptist say? I must decrease and He must increase. This is the kind of sacrifice that’s necessary for the salvation of sinners.
So we find Jesus then coming in a parade of victory and kingliness and so forth, but He’s not going to His coronation. The procession didn’t stop there at a certain point in Jerusalem and say, now we’re going to crown you king. Now, He went on forward to His arrest and His suffering and His execution, of course, followed by His resurrection and glorious ascension into heaven. But at this time, on this Palm Sunday, not to a coronation, but to execution. That’s where He was headed. And that’s what we recognize and praise Him for today.
We think too highly of ourselves, but you left the glories of heaven. You came to save me. You gave your life and shed your blood in the most humble of circumstances there on a cross, surrounded by thieves and yelled at by the people who hated you. You came so that I might not perish, but have everlasting life.
I hope as you think of Jesus this Palm Sunday, riding into Jerusalem in this procession, you’ll see where it all leads. it leads to the cross and to the resurrection. then praise God today and enjoy this Palm Sunday for that very reason. Let’s pray together. Lord, we ask you to bless this understanding of Palm Sunday to our benefit, to your glory, and we pray, Lord, that we might be able to communicate to others just how great and glorious you are, whether you’re in a parade or whether you’re in other circumstances. You are our king. You are our savior. You are our sign. You are our hope and life all because you suffered for our sake. And this we thank you for in Jesus name, amen.