Jesus Arrives At Jerusalem

We are in a study of the life of Christ and have been for some time, about two years, I guess, and we are actually now making a turning point. We come to a new chapter in the life of Christ beginning the last week of his life. We actually tonight will talk about the event that takes place, one event at least which takes place on the Friday before he will be crucified the following Friday. So we are entering into the last week of his life. And we saw that in John chapter 11 last time we were together a couple of weeks ago when last time I was here. We saw that that Jesus arrived at Bethany. Now Jesus arriving in Jerusalem is the topic of our study tonight. But he arrives first of all at Bethany which is we'll see a map of it a little bit later is just outside of Jerusalem, a suburb actually of Jerusalem, about two miles outside of the city of Jerusalem. And we saw last week in or a couple of weeks ago in chapter 11 verses 55 to 57. We looked at the atmosphere before his arrival and the fact that people are going up to Jerusalem before the Passover to do the ceremonial cleansing. They're looking for Jesus. They're wondering if he's going to show up. They're in the temple courts asking each other. What do you think? Is he come into the festival? You don't think he would come do you? And we saw that it is a question which anticipates a negative answer. You don't think he's going to come. Do you really? And then the chief priest in Pharisees had given orders in anyone that found out where Jesus was. He should report it that they might arrest him. Other passages tell us that they want to kill him. But also that they're afraid to arrest him because of the popularity that he has and what they're afraid that might incite but we have a riot or the response of the crowd. So there's a very, very tenuous situation here. Let's take a look at the timing of his arrival in chapter 12 and verse 1. Six days before the Passover. The Passover begins on a Thursday. So that identifies this as the Friday before Jesus will die the next Friday. Six days before Passover. So this is on a Friday. Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Let's take a look at a couple of pictures and a map to kind of orient ourselves here. Jesus has been spending a good bit of time in Korea in the latter part of his ministry, the latter weeks of his ministry. He had gone back to the Bethany area to raise Lazarus from the dead and because that sparked such outrage on the part of the Pharisees, you may recall that from there he went north kind of escape the the pressure again went to this area of Ephraim and then the Bible says that he skirted through Galilee again before coming back down for the feast is last time we saw him he was in Jericho and now he has traveled up to Bethany. Here's a picture kind of a panoramic view. It's a little difficult to really see much but it gives you an idea if you can see this is the Eastern wall of the city of Jerusalem. This is a current picture but the wall around the city is fairly much the same as it was in Jesus day a little bit more expanded in this area but the dome of the rock is right in here right there it is actually and so this is the Kidren Valley. This is the Mount of Olives right here you can see a little shaded on the back it's a little difficult to tell from this view but it is a mountain that's about 2600 feet in elevation. We're going to see Beth Page mentioned in just a little bit that's where the donkey is found that Jesus will ride into Jerusalem on that right here Bethany is over here so you leave the city of Jerusalem you can see really it's very close but the typical route would go up this way and out of road this way to Bethany. Here's a picture an old picture of the town of Bethany as it would have looked a couple hundred years ago probably. So that's where Jesus is. Jesus comes to Bethany that's where Mary and Martha and Lazarus live just to get a feel for the responses to his arrival. Skip down to verse 9 we'll come back to the events of verses 2 through 8 later that actually happens on Tuesday I believe of the last week of our Lord's life but there's kind of a summary statement several summary statements that give us a clue as to the responses regarding Jesus's arrival. First of all verse 9 meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there in Bethany and came not only because of him but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead that group of people we could call the curious. There's a huge crowd of people that are just coming to see Jesus and to see Lazarus. They've heard the stories that Lazarus has been raised from the dead. Now they want to see him and remember there are lots of pilgrims in Jerusalem Josephus the Jewish historian estimates 2.7 million people would be in Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. That's about 90% of the population in Israel. I mean it's just everybody converges on Jerusalem. Every spare spot of ground would be would be covered with tents and so forth with people there for the feast. So a lot of people curious they've heard about it they want to see Jesus they want to see Lazarus so those are the curious verse 10 so the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well. For on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him. Verse 10 we could call the conspirators. They were making plans the religious leaders chief priests making plans to kill and notice not just kill Jesus but kill Lazarus too. Just try to imagine they're thinking for a minute. Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead and so they want to kill him because of that. Think of that think of that they want to don't they believe Jesus would raise him again. I mean it's obvious they know Jesus raised him from the dead but they want to put away this evidence of Jesus power and so the conspirators are mentioned in verse 10 trying to think of some way to kill not only Jesus which they've already determined to do but to kill Lazarus as well. And then verse 11 mentions the converts on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him that miracle certainly was tremendous proof of who he was and if his claims to deity and to be the Messiah many people were believing in him because of that miracle and and that of course is the reason why the the chief priests want to do away with both him and Lazarus. So you've just got this feel of such incredible tension in the air as this Passover feast nearers and Jesus is near Jerusalem just outside the city staying in Bethany and there are lots of folks who just want to see him they just want to see Lazarus because they've heard about it chief priests are wanting to kill both of them and and a lot of people are believing in Jesus so there's this incredible amount of stuff going on here. Well that kind of sets the tone for what's going to happen in the last week of our Lord's life as you get the sense of what it's like when he arrives. Any questions before we get to the next event in our Lord's life which you want to spend most of the time on tonight. Okay the next event that's recorded in the gospels is actually Jesus arrival in Jerusalem we call it the triumphant entry of Jesus it happened on Palm Sunday so there are no events recorded from Saturday. Why do you think that would be true? I think I heard it. Why would there be no events recorded on Saturday? It's the Sabbath. Yeah it's the Sabbath day and so there's nothing that happened. Jesus was no doubt resting on the Sabbath day as Jews were commanded to do and so from Friday night sundown till Saturday night Saturday evening sundown would be the Sabbath day and Jesus would have been no doubt resting knowing what was ahead of him. Can you imagine what he must have been thinking that day on that last Sabbath day of his earthly life before the crucifixion. He's resting to prepare himself for all that will happen in this next week but the next event that is recorded is the triumphant entry of Christ and all four gospels recorded you can see the references I have there for you on your outline. We're going to follow Mark's account that's why it's underlined in your outline. So let's look back at Mark chapter 11. Before we actually get into the text though I want us to put this event in its proper setting to get some perspective on this event. So let's talk about the setting of the triumphant entry in Jesus ministry. How it fits in his ministry. Jesus, let's put this in the big picture. Now Jesus is at the end of a journey that has taken him nine months. The journey began back in Luke chapter 9 verse 51 when it says he set his face like a flint to go to Jerusalem but there are nine months of events that take place on that journey to Jerusalem. It was not a straight line journey. It was a circuit circuitous route. It was from here and there and lots of different places that he was. In fact in that nine months Jesus purposefully would travel through all four of the major Roman provinces that made up Israel in the first century. Galilee, Samaria, Judea and Peria. All four of those Roman provinces either making up Israel or surrounding it. Jesus spent time in and we have references to 35 different localities. 35 different places where Jesus taught or ministered in those nine months. So he was on the move a lot but he's purposefully visiting every area of Jerusalem leading up to the crucifixion. The timing is done to lead up to the feast where Jesus the feast of Passover where Jesus will be crucified but he has already arrived on the outskirts of the city at Bethany. The expectations are at fever pitch as we have just read. Everybody is wondering what's going to happen. The topic of conversation is about Jesus as he approaches this last week of his life. He has earlier raised Lazarus from the dead which creates a tremendous amount of buzz. He has just a few days before healed Bartimaeus, the blind man in Jericho and so that news has already traveled quickly along with all the pilgrims who've come up from Jericho to Jerusalem. Crowds are swelling because of those two things we've just seen in John 12. Many people, one is Jesus wanting to see Lazarus. Lots of folks talking about what's going to happen. The chief priest is anxious to kill him. Many people believing in him. Everything is focused on Jesus. From the religious leaders to the curious crowds to the earnest believers to the disciples, everything is focused around the Lord Jesus. Great, great crowds. The religious leaders trying to figure out how to kill him. So this is the time of a tremendous tension, unprecedented tension. No one has ever seen anything like this in Israel. Everyone is talking about what's going to happen in the markets, on the streets, in the temple, in their homes, and Jesus is the center of conversation. Will he make his move at Passover? Is he going to establish his kingdom? Everybody wants to know. Is he going to be here? What's going to happen? Will he make his move to establish his kingdom now? And if so, how will the authorities respond? Everybody's mind is on this. And what I want you to see tonight is that Christ does take definite, premeditated, calculated action to demonstrate who he is. What we're going to see with this event is unlike anything that's happened in our Lord's life, at least in the last year and a half, where he has sought to distance himself from the crowds, claiming him to be king and pushing him toward that, where he has told people he's healed not to go say anything to anybody, because he didn't want to precipitate a kind of push toward Messiahship or toward kingship from people who had no interest in the spiritual side of his kingdom. But now this is what he's going to do next is going to be totally unlike that. And I believe, I do believe it is calculated, it is premeditated, it is a definite statement on the part of Jesus. It is literally an electrifying beginning to this week. What happens on Sunday? And so I want us to look at it here in Mark chapter 11. That's the setting, but let's look at the preparation for the triumphal entry, verse 1. As they approached Jerusalem and came to Beth page in Bethany at the Mount of Olives, you saw that earlier on the map. Beth page is right on the backside of the Mount of Olives. It's almost at the crest of the Mount of Olives and then Bethany, a little ways back from that. But when they arrived there, Jesus sent two of his disciples saying to them, go to the village ahead of you and just as you enter it, you will find a cult tied there, which no one has ever ridden, untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, why are you doing this? Say, the Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly. Now, what fascinates me about this whole story and everything that will happen in this last week is Jesus calmly demonstrating his authority and his control over everything that's happening. Jesus is going to, in a very calculated way, present himself publicly to force the hand of the Pharisees and the chief priests. Come back to that in just a moment. But as he begins to make preparation, notice how his omniscience, the fact that he knows all things is demonstrated and he is calmly in control of everything that's happening. Just look at those verses again. What he tells his disciples, what are the things here that demonstrate his supernatural knowledge, his omniscience? What are they? Listen for me. He knew where the cult was. He knew exactly where it would be. He knew what town it would be in. He knew that it would be just as you enter that town. What else does he? It's never been ridden. We'll come back to that in a moment. That's a very important statement. It has very important symbolic meaning. But Jesus knows that this has never been ridden. Okay. What else? Okay. He anticipated there would be some questions about what the disciples were doing. Didn't he knew someone would ask? And sure enough, they will. He knew it was tied up. He knew it had never been ridden. Yes. Okay. Jesus really is demonstrating his complete knowledge, his omniscience. As he sends his disciples to get this cult, he knows everything about it. He knows everything about the cult where it will be everything. And he's demonstrating that he is operating on God's timetable by God's clock with supernatural wisdom and insight and knowledge. And he is in complete control of the whole situation. Now, I want to stress that as we go through the last week of our Lord's life, because there is a view of what happened in Jesus' death. It was promoted by Albert Schweitzer in his book, I think in 1906. It was one of the first liberal views of Christ and his person and his work. And Schweitzer promoted the view that Jesus was caught in this popular swell of opinion about him. And he was trying to force himself to be a king. And he got caught in a mess that he couldn't get out of. And as he describes it in a very famous passage in that book, he pushed the wheel of history to try to make it turn. And then suddenly it did begin to turn. And he threw himself on it and it crushed him as it rolled. And that's how Schweitzer viewed the death of Christ completely out of his control. He got caught up in a movement. He was trying to direct it but got swallowed up by it and crushed by it. And what I want you to see is that is not at all how the scriptures present what happened. Jesus is calmly in a calculated way orchestrating every event that will happen in this last week of his life. He is in complete control. So that's the preparation. Verse 3 makes a comment I'm interested in. If anyone asks you, why are you doing this? Say, the Lord needs it. He's working out his plan for how he will go into the city of Jerusalem and he knows exactly what he needs to accomplish this plan. And it is very specific. In fact, this is exactly the way it must be done. We'll see why in just a moment. But Jesus needs a cult. The full of a donkey that has never been ridden before. It has to be that specific or the whole symbolism of Jesus riding into the city loses its significance. So he's in complete control. He knows exactly what he's doing. Now look at verse 4, they went and found a cult outside in the street tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people were standing there asked, some people standing there asked, what are you doing? Untying that cult. They answered, as Jesus told them and the people let them go. By the way, Matthew's Gospel, Matthew 21, 2 that tells us that this cult was not a horse. It was a cult of a donkey. So Jesus is going to ride this cult into the city of Jerusalem. He is completely in control directing all of these events. Any question about the first six verses? We really want to spend the rest of our time on verses 7 through 11 which describe and there's so much packed in here about what is going on. But any questions about the lead up to the arrival? Yes. Does the very fact that the priest predicted his own death year in advance take over and all those who have been in the way of the little view that he had been in the city, if he was caught up in that he had no soul, he didn't know all of the things that were in the city. He predicted his death and he did the very holy deed here in the city. Yes. That's certainly how we would view it. Jesus did predict his death. We certainly believe that of course, you have to understand the liberal view of the Gospels is that they were not historically accurate anyway, but they were the disciples recollection and shading of events to try to prove who they thought Jesus was. So that's the way the liberals would answer that. Well, Jesus really didn't predict his own death. The disciples put those words in his mouth. So that again, liberals approach the scriptures from a set of presuppositions that they are not inspired of God that they are just a document written by mere men who manipulated the historical evidence to prove a point. They start with that premise and so they read everything in that premise. Admittedly, we start with presuppositions too. And our presupposition, I believe, has much more validity, has been proven in many books written on apologetics that the Bible does show itself to be a divinely written book, a divinely inspired book. And with that premise, we have no problem with the prophecy that you're talking about, Steve, and the idea that Jesus would predict his death or anything supernatural. We have no problem with that because we come from a presupposition which says the Bible is God's truth. It is God's Word. But what makes it so difficult to argue with the liberals on that is they start from a completely different set of presuppositions. If you study apologetics and that's not our purpose tonight, I don't want to get too far field, if you study apologetics, there are lots of solid arguments, both internal evidence and external evidence for the trustworthiness of the scriptures. Re-Josh MacDowell's books, Least Robles' books, and a lot of other people. William Craig Lane and Robbie Zacharias, lots of people have written on these things. And there's good evidence for our presuppositions, not just what the Bible says about itself. But yes, Jesus did predict his death long before. These events ever took place. Did everybody hear that? Because that is a key point to where we're headed. Why did Jesus ride in on a donkey? There are three reasons, by the way, and we're just about to get into that. So thanks, Lindsay for a segue in this right into that. That's where I was headed next. Thanks. It is absolutely critical for three reasons that Jesus ride in on a donkey and not a stallion, a white charger, like the Romans would have done. Okay, there are three good reasons for that. So let's jump right on into that. The events of the triumphant entry, it is first of all a prophetic event. Let's look at verse seven. When they brought the cult to Jesus and through their cloaks over, he sat on it, verse eight. Many people spread their cloaks on the road while other spread branches they had cut in the fields will get to what they said a little bit later in verse nine. But why why a young donkey? The first reason is because it fulfilled scripture. This is a prophetic event. It did fulfill what the Old Testament said. And Matthew tells us that in Matthew's account, if you'll just look at it real quick, Matthew 21. Matthew 21, the first three verses basically the same as what we've read in Mark's Gospel. But in verse four, this took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet. And then he quotes directly from this verse, Zachariah 9.9. The verses on the screen for you, rejoice greatly, daughter Zion, shout, daughter Jerusalem, see your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey on a cult, the foal of a donkey. In Bible times, in the scriptures, a cult, a donkey that had never been ridden on before was an animal that had been kept apart, kept aside for a sacred purpose. So this animal should never be ridden by a human being. It is being kept for a sacred task. It is not put to ordinary farm use. So it's not worked on a farm. This animal is kept for a particular purpose. It's that kind of an animal that Jesus chooses to ride into Jerusalem. But the first reason is simply to fulfill scripture. I mean, that's what the Old Testament predicted. Zachariah writing hundreds of years before this event prophesied exactly how the Messiah would enter Jerusalem. So that's one reason, obviously, that's a given. Second reason, riding a donkey identifies Jesus with the line of David. And that is a tie-in to him being the Messiah, because the Messiah has to come from the family of David, from the line of David. That's clear from the Old Testament. All the Old Testament prophecies are that it is David's throne that will last forever. Second Samuel 7, the Davidic covenant. That's the promise made to David. When Jesus is born, the angel Gabriel tells Mary, his mother, that he will rule on the throne of his father, David. He is taking David's throne. And to show that he is coming from David's line and he is inheriting David's throne. He rides in on a donkey. Why? Because up until David's time, through David's time, the royal animal, written by kings, is a donkey. It is not a horse. It is later under Solomon that horses become, and you know where Solomon got that idea? From the Egyptians. In the ancient Near East, in Israel and in other kingdoms, the donkey was supposed to be the animal that a king used. And there was a reason for that. And it's our third reason why he chose a donkey to ride in on. A donkey proclaimed the character of a king. This is what it was designed to show that he was humble and he was bringing peace. He was not a warrior. He was bringing peace. He was not a conqueror coming to subdue his own people. He was bringing peace. And there was a lot of symbolism then in the donkey. And why a donkey would be written in contrast to the kings of the earth, like the Romans, who proudly ride in with great power on their huge horses. Jesus shows the pop of Rome that I'm a different kind of king. And he's also showing the people who were trying to proclaim him king without understanding the nature of his kingdom, what kind of king he was. That's why the scriptures say that he came in lowly. That's in that's in Zachary a nine quoted in Matthew to one. He comes in lowly gentle riding on a donkey. So he's showing that he's a king unlike the Roman rulers. He is a king who will promote peace, love, mercy. By the way, in the Old Testament also, particularly in the book of Psalms, kings are referred to as shepherds. And the reason for that, again, not warriors, but shepherds. They are designed to lead and care for and nourish their people, not to subdue them, not to mistreat them, not to rule harshly. They are to be shepherds. And you see that in the book of Psalms. That was a very common ancient Near Eastern metaphor even in other countries. If a king wanted to present himself as a benevolent ruler, he would present himself as the shepherd of his people, which again just makes Psalm 23 come alive, doesn't it? The Lord is my what ruler, dictator. No, the Lord is my shepherd. That's not that's not just an agrarian term. That was an ancient Near Eastern term for a benevolent ruler. He is my shepherd. And so it's a beautiful, beautiful picture that Jesus is presenting as he rides in on a donkey. He's fulfilling prophecy. He's laying claim to David's throne. And he's also showing what kind of king he is. One of gentleness, love and mercy. It's a beautiful symbolism that is being used here. So it's a prophetic event. It goes back into the Old Testament for its origins. Any comments or questions about that part of it, the fact that Jesus is riding on a donkey, John? There are those who would say, yeah, he was just following a script. And in some sense, he was, wasn't he? He was, he was, that's at least one of the reasons, Jesus will fulfill to the letter, everything the Old Testament prophesied about him. And so there was a script already written about what he would do and not just in this instance, in many others. And he was fulfilling that to the letter. So in that sense, he was. But I think what you're saying, John, is it? Yeah. He had read that and knew it was going to happen. So he was just doing it because of that. Yeah, that could be a more liberal slant on that thought. But when you put, when you put all of the Old Testament prophecies together, many of which were done to Jesus by others, you know, that he didn't, he didn't follow a script on. When you put all that together, that, that kind of gives the light to that view of following a script. Yeah. Okay. We've only got about six or seven minutes before the little ones take over. So we better and they don't write in on Donkeys either. They come in, you know, full bore. So let's finish up here verse, verse eight, this is also not only a prophetic event, it's a public event. And this is what I really want to stress. Jesus writing into Jerusalem the way he did was the most public event of his whole ministry. Please see that. This is the most public event of his whole ministry. There are 2.7 million people in Jerusalem. Every square foot of ground is covered with tents with lambs that people have brought for the sacrifices. Pilgrims all over the place have come to Jerusalem. Over, over half some estimate up to 90% of the population of the entire nation is here. Jesus has for the last 18 months or so discouraged public announcements and demonstrations of who he is. We've seen it many times haven't we? Where he has discouraged people from saying who he was and told people not to proclaim things that he has done or not. And even when like in John 6, when he had fed to 5,000 the next day they want to take him to Jerusalem making keem right away, he left. Remember, he left when across the sea went up into a mountain to pray. And so Jesus has avoided this. He's withdrawn from the crowds. But now he's inviting it. And in so doing he's courting danger. He is publicly proclaiming himself to be the king. And he's been saying no, no, no, don't do that for at least 18 months now. But you see this is all in God's timetable. The Lamb of God must die at Passover. This is the appointed time. It's actually the very day that Jesus would ride into Jerusalem and present himself as king was prophesied in Daniel 9 with the prophecy of the 70 weeks, the 490 years. And it can be figured out to the very day that Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem. Jesus is in control of the calendar and all the events that are taking place. So he knows exactly what he's doing. He must, he must die. The Pharisees are meeting secretly to try to figure out how to kill him. They're asking people to spy for them so that maybe they can arrest him, but they are afraid to arrest him. The scriptures say because they're afraid of the crowds. They're afraid of his popularity. So Jesus in a calculated deliberate act pushes them to the limit. And there is a sense in which Jesus puts the Pharisees in a position where they have to do something. There is a showdown between his authority and their authority. And he is in complete control of everything that's happening. This should never be seen as Jesus kind of blundering into the mistake of getting arrested and crucified. Oh, Jesus is forcing their hand. He's going to, he's going to put them in a position where they will do something public because he has done something public. And by the way, just as a sidelight, he's also going to do this very publicly for the benefit of the disciples in the book of Acts. Remember what the two on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24 said to Jesus when he showed up as a stranger and they're headed back home after the crucifixion of resurrection had just happened. They didn't know about it yet. And Jesus says, why are you so downcast? And they say, what do you mean? You've been in Jerusalem? Have you been in Jerusalem and you don't know what's happened? Okay. They say, this thing was not done in a corner. This thing didn't happen secretly. This was wide open public stuff. Everybody knows what happened these last three days. That was Jesus' intent. The reason he does this is not to promote himself as king so that he can be made king and then suddenly it gets spoiled. No, no. Jesus is publicly presenting himself so that he can force the hand of the Pharisees and that he can provide a fertile ground for the disciples minister in the book of Acts because everybody will know what happened. And so there will be plenty of people asking questions when the book of Acts comes up and Jesus capitalizes on that. Real quickly, let me just finish up here before the kids come in. Well, we do have a couple of maps here. We do want to look at those. I hate for the pursuit of do all the work to put this together. Let me not use it. Here's Bethany. Here's Beth Page. This is a satellite view of the actual topography. This is the Mount of Olives right here, this right in this area. Here's the Garden of Gethsemane. You would go down this mountain into the temple area. This is where Jesus is going to ride. This is his ride down into Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday. Another panoramic view. This is what Jesus would see. As he crests the Mount of Olives, he would see not obviously enough the dome of the rock. This is a current picture. But this is pretty much the Kidren Valley going down the Mount of Olives, the Kidren Valley up the other side and this city wall right here. This is where the temple would have been. Jesus would have seen it very clearly. Another view looking more straight on as you crest the Mount of Olives looking straight at where the temple would have been. Temple would have been right in this area. And Jesus would have seen that and seen the city as he was going down the Mount of Olives. I think we have one more picture, an artist's depiction of what it might have looked like as Jesus rides into the city with the palm branches and people putting their cloaks both on the donkey and on the ground. Let me just say very quickly what that was all about. The Bible says that they put cloaks over the donkey and then spread cloaks on the road. That was a gesture of reverence. That was a common ancient and Eastern way of showing that you were submitting yourself to the authority of whatever royal figure was entering town. You put your possessions down at his feet. I mean that was a common ancient and Eastern way of doing that. The palm branches, verse eight, other spread branches they had cut in the fields. The branch was a symbol of deliverance ever since the time of the Maccabees and the deliverance of the nation of Israel from the Syrians. It had been palm branches had been a symbol of deliverance. And so waving the palm branches basically is a way of saying here comes our deliverer. He's the one who's come to deliver us. Notice what they're saying in verse nine. Those who went ahead and those who followed us out. Hoseanna means save, save us. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David, Hoseanna in the highest heaven. You know what they were quoting? They were actually quoting. They were singing the last part of what's called the Haleil Psalms that would be sung as people journeyed up to Jerusalem for the feasts. Psalm 113 to Psalm 118. They're actually doing the end. The last thing that would be sung as you entered into Jerusalem is a song of crying out for God to save and deliver us. Psalm 118 verses 25 and 26. And so they are literally it was a song that was sung for the king who had delivered them from their enemies. This is a song anticipating that Jesus will pronounce himself king just quickly a couple of other things. In Luke 19 the Bible says that the Pharisees were telling Jesus, calm your disciples down. Stop them from saying this and Jesus would not. Remember what he said to them? He said if they're quite even the stones will cry out. No, no, we're going to do this publicly. Again, another sign that Jesus was not, he was doing it purposefully. This was a purposeful public demonstration of who he was. But at the same time that the crowd is singing Psalm 118 and proclaiming him the deliverer and he's going to set up his kingdom. Luke 19 goes on to say when Jesus came over the top of the Mount of Olives, he looked over the city and he wept. He wept. And the word for wept is the Greek word to sob heavily. I mean, wasn't this little trickle coming down to cheek? He was sobbing literally. And the reason was he says in Luke 19, O Jerusalem, if only you had known the day of your visitation. But he says there will come a time when there will not be a rock left on top of one another and he describes the destruction of the city by the Romans in 70 AD. They will be judged by God because they did not recognize the time God was visiting them in the person of his son. And so all of that is going on. The crowds, the palm branches, the cloaks, the singing of Psalm 118, Jesus sobbing, knowing that this city will be judged because of their rejection of him. Absolutely amazing scene. And it's all done purposefully on the part of our Lord. Now, verse 11 says he'll go into the temple courts, look around. It's late in the day so he heads on back to Bethany for the night. And that ends Sunday. And I think that's our cue to end here as well. So let's do that. Let's stop. Thank you, Father, for our Lord's life and his purposeful directing of the events right up to the time of his death. Thank you for his masterful control over all things. His purposeful deliberate actions, which he knows the reasons for. He knows the purposes for. Lord, as we walk with him through these days, leading up to his crucifixion, help us to marvel once again that he came to do it all for us, to pay for our sins, what a majestic, glorious king we have. It's in his name we pray, amen.