We call this Palm Sunday — due to Jesus making his entry into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, and the people singing “Hosanna” while waving or placing branches of Palm trees along the route as if it were a parade. In this moment they called Him their King, later in the week some will call out for a Roman king to crucify Him. Jesus is King! The Prophecy He Fulfilled, v.12-15. V.13 — Psalm 118:25-26, “Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. 26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.” Psalm 118 is part of the Hallel (113-118) sung daily during the feasts and Passover. “The crowds do not simply pronounce a blessing in the name of the Lord on the one who comes, but pronounce a blessing on the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” (Carson) V.14-15—Zechariah 9:9, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon a donkey, and upon a colt the foal of a donkey.” John bears record that Jesus’ actions were a direct fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy. “There the prophet predicted that when the King came to Israel, He would be sitting on a donkey’s colt. The daughter of Zion is a figurative expression referring to the Jewish people, Zion being a hill in the city of Jerusalem.” (MacDonald) The Pictures He Instilled, v.13-15. Palm Branches. (13a) Date palms still grow in Jerusalem today and would have been plentiful. At the Feast of Tabernacles the people were commanded to take ‘palm fronds … and rejoice before the Lord God.The palm branch had been for the previous two hundred years a general symbol for Jewish nationalism. When the Maccabees drove the Syrians out of Jerusalem and restored the temple a hundred and fifty years earlier, they were heralded with waving palms. Barclay writes that “the Jews who waved these palms were looking on Jesus as God’s Anointed One, the Messiah, the Deliverer, the One who was to come. And there is no doubt that they were looking on Him as the Conqueror. To them it must have been only a matter of time until the trumpets rang out and the call to arms sounded and the Jewish nation swept to its long delayed victory over Rome and over the world.” What is the picture instilled? The palm branches signaled the nationalist hope that a messianic liberator was arriving on the scene. Hosanna. (13b) Crying or singing Hosanna only takes that picture further. Hosanna means: Save us now. God has sent us the King Who will save us now. The picture develops even further with the donkey. Donkey. (14) Jon Courson writes: “According to rabbinical theory, when Messiah came, He would ride into Jerusalem on a white horse. If, however, Israel was not ready for Messiah, He would ride in on a donkey. And here’s Jesus riding on a donkey—not to confirm rabbinical speculation, but to fulfill prophetic indication made hundreds of years earlier when Zechariah said the King would come riding on a donkey (9:9).” Still, the people do not respond this way. They praise God for the blessed thought of soon relief. They wave their palm branches as they did when the Maccabees were victorious years earlier. They see the King on the donkey entering as a conquerer, rather than in peace. Lamb. v.12 — A great crowd was gathering for the passover feast. For this feast, many lambs would be needed. Ancient historians put the number well over 200,000!! All driven into the city on the first day of the week, the day after rest day, in preparation. Do you see the picture? Hundreds of thousands of lambs entering to be sacrificed and eaten. And right in their midst is Jesus, God’s lamb! The Perspectives He Revealed, v.16-19. Disciples. (16) In v.16 John writes of Jesus’ closest disciples, those who had long followed Him and had close access to him. Despite Jesus’ clear statements, the disciples were puzzled by the triumphal entry. Only later, when they had been enlightened by the Holy Spirit, did they understand the meaning. “The ignorance of the disciples is remarkable, since Jesus had so clearly told them what was about to happen.” (Richard Phillips) Christians today are not much different from the disciples. We cannot always clearly see the hand of God working in life. “One of the joys of heaven will be learning how God used something we said or some encouragement we gave to a struggling sinner that made all the difference in the person’s life.” (R. Phillips) Ryle observes, “We shall then discern with wonder and amazement the full meaning of many a thing in which we were unconscious agents during our lives.” Think how insignificant much that fills life now will be then! Think how significant faithful Christian worship and service will be seen in its glorious importance then and there. “Realizing this, we should make it our business simply to serve the Lord in keeping with his Word and in reliance on his sovereign grace.” (Phillips) Witnesses of Lazarus raised from the dead. (17-18, 9) These witnesses saw in Jesus a power that they hoped to harness for their own purposes. They should have recognized His deity and come to worship and serve Him. This is a problem in the world: People desire to receive the blessings that Christ might offer, without first embracing the true purpose of His saving grace. Pharisees and Chief Priests. (19, 10-11) They thought of killing Lazarus to rid the evidence of such a miracle! They said to each another: “…we are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him”. If they only knew!