Grace Bible Church Pastor Teacher Robert R. McLaughlin Another Palm Sunday to Consider. 032016 As we noted this past year, the Bible predicted in Dan 9:25 that in 173,880 days, the Lord Jesus Christ would come to Jerusalem and present Himself as the Messiah. And after Dan 9:25 was written, 173,880 days later, on the same exact day, the Lord sat upon a donkey and rode into Jerusalem and presented Himself as the Messiah. 483 years from this prophecy, exactly 173,880 days later on the tenth day of Nisan, which would be April 6, A.D. 32 on Palm Sunday in fulfillment of this prophecy, Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem and presented Himself as the Messiah. This morning many people will be going home with palm branches, a sign of negative volition toward doctrine. Joh 12:12-13, On the next day the great multitude who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and {began} to cry out, Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. That s a very important statement which describes to us what Palm Sunday really represents, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. Notice the phrase the King of Israel not the Savior of the world. And that s because the Jews did not want a Savior, they wanted a king, and they didn t want the Cross, they wanted the crown. Joh 12:14-16, And Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey s colt. These things His disciples did not understand at the first; And there s the key to something that is happening this morning, no one understood what was going on! Except for two individuals, as we will note. And of course that s typical, people don t understand unless they have some doctrine. Joh 12:16-18, These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him. And so the multitude who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb, and raised him from the dead, were bearing Him witness. For this cause also the multitude went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign. The Pharisees therefore said to one another, You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him. There s a typical Pharisaical conversation. They re talking to each other pointing the finger saying, You see that you are not doing any good not we are not doing any good.
Now, let s begin in verse 12. Joh 12:12, On the next day This is Sunday. The Jewish weekend begins Friday night. Friday night at sundown is the Sabbath. And the Jewish Sabbath goes from the sundown from Friday night to the sundown on Saturday night. Sunday to the Jew was the first day of the week and the first working day after the Sabbath. Now we have two huge crowds which are about to meet. We have a crowd coming from Bethany to Jerusalem, and we have a crowd coming from Jerusalem to Bethany...and this is how we get the Palm Sunday account. We have one crowd who have just come back from celebrating the feasts in Jerusalem and another crowd who have just come back from Bethany where they saw the lord raise Lazarus from the dead. Now, don t miss this point! One crowd has just come back from a great religious experience in Jerusalem and we have a crowd that has just come from a great emotional experience in Bethany, they have seen a miracle, the raising of Lazarus from the dead. And when religion and emotionalism comes together, you re going to have problems. The two crowds come together that s when you get Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. or the Palm Sunday incident. The news of the Lord raising Lazarus from the dead has already hit the Jews who were worshipping in Jerusalem. Joh 12:12-13, On the next day the great multitude [thousands of people] who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and {began} to cry out, Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. The crowd didn t understand what was going on, they were either too wrapped up in their religious experience which they just had in Jerusalem or they were too wrapped up with the miracle they just saw in Bethany. Therefore, they did not understand what our Lord was doing at this time. Just like many believers today are celebrating Palm Sunday and don t understand a thing about it! In fact, we only know of two people who really understood what was going on at that time, the Lord and Mary who anointed His feet, she understood. She knew that the king must die before He would get his crown. Mary understood that the cross must come before the crown. Before you get the crown you must come by way of the Cross. Even Satan tried to bypass the cross when he said to the Lord in Mat 4:9, If you will fall down and worship me, I will give you the kingdoms of this world. So, what Satan suggested to the Lord in the great temptation of the wilderness, these two crowds are now suggesting the same thing. They want the Lord to set up His kingdom and be the king, they want the crown and not the Cross. For when they said in Joh 12:13, Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel, they are saying in effect, forget the cross, let s get the crown, King Of Israel! And so the crowd doesn t know what s going on, the disciples don t know what s going on. So in Joh 12:12, On the next day the great multitude who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. Now, this is the Sunday before the Wednesday that He dies. By the way, there s no such thing as Good Friday, He didn t die on a Friday, common sense would tell you that. The Bible says that He would be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights, Mat 12:40. How could he be raised from the dead on Sunday if he died on a
Friday and be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights? That s impossible! So He died on good-wednesday and this is the Sunday before and the crowd is cheering Him now. However, in three more days, this same crowd will be shouting Crucify Him, Crucify Him, and then insulting and mocking Him while He s on the Cross. This is the crowd! This is the populace and the popularity that many people crave for! Now, when it says in Joh 12:12, On the next day the great multitude who had come to the feast, the feast is a reference to the approaching Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread, and there are Jews who have come from all over the Roman empire. Joh 12:12...when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, They heard that Jesus was coming. Let me give you a series of events which are about to happen. On Tuesday night, which is really Wednesday for the Jew, we have the beginning of the Passover. Also on Tuesday night we are going to have the upper room discourse where our Lord was celebrating the Passover and then instituted the Lord s Supper, which we call communion. Then on Tuesday night he will have two trials and Wednesday morning before 9:00 AM, He will have four more trials, totaling 6 (the # of man and sin). Then at 9:00 AM on Wednesday morning, the Lord will be on the Cross from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Then there will be three hours of crucifixion, three hours of bearing the sins of the world, and then He will be in the grave before the sun goes down. And that was God s schedule from billions and billions of years before. Christ was to die on the Passover because Christ is the Passover, 1Co 5:7. So, in verse 13, we have the action of the crowd. Joh 12:13, they took the branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and {began} to cry out, Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. Now, why did they take these branches from the Palm trees? The Branch is a sign of Messiahship, Jer 23:56. Zec 3:8, 6:1213, Isa 11:1. For example, in Exo 15:27, the palm tree represents the fact that God will sustain his people on their journey to their homeland. Christ is the root and the branch. Christ is the founder of Israel, Christ is the Sustainer of Israel. And so one of the great messianic titles is the branch, this is especially emphasized by Zechariah. Now, what the crowd did in verse 13 was to take branches off of the palm tree to indicate recognition of Christ as the Messiah and as the King. This is something that the Jews are doing and they are doing it in ignorance. Millions of people will do this again when they recognize the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and will take the branches of the palm trees and worship Him in Heaven, Rev 7:9. Rev 7:9, After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; First, it actually takes place in heaven, then it takes place on earth after the second coming when the Lord Jesus Christ sets up His kingdom. In other words, taking the branches off the palm trees is something that the Jews will do when the Lord sets up His kingdom literally on earth. They were not to do it before the Cross, but after. However, in their ignorance they did it and they
celebrated Palm Sunday not knowing what it was all about. They wanted the crown before the Cross rather than the Cross before the crown. Joh 12:13, took the branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and {began} to cry out or shout, In fact, the Greek says that they kept on shouting and shouting and shouting. Now, notice what they shouted Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. However, they skip an important phrase in Psa 118:25 having to do with the Cross and then they quote Psa 118:26. Hosanna is a transliteration and it means save now, and that is a quotation from Psa 118:25. And they said in Joh 12:13... Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. Now this is very important because Psa 118:25 says O Lord, [Hosanna] do save, we beseech Thee; O Lord, we beseech Thee, do send prosperity! And this has to do with saving them from their sins and sending blessing and prosperity. Then in Psa 118:26 it says, Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord; We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. This speaks of the second advent. Only, I want you to notice something, they did not just say Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord ; they said Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. The Jews have put the two scriptures together and they are saying that the King has arrived to set up His kingdom. They don t want to be saved from their sins, they want to be saved from the Roman Empire and be given fantastic prosperity. Now, why did they say the King of Israel? Because they re holding palm branches representing the King of Israel. They are setting Him up as King in opposition to the Roman empire. These are Jews, some believers and some unbelievers, and they all have one thing in mind, deliverance from the Roman empire. They are recognizing the Lord Jesus Christ as the King of Israel because He has just brought back a man from the dead. Now, anyone who can bring a man back from the dead can bring the kingdom of Israel back into its own...independent of the Roman Empire. They make this move for political reasons only. They do not cut branches because they want Christ as the Messiah and Savior. When they say Hosanna (save now) they are talking about their earthly kingdom. They want the First advent to be the Second advent. They want the Lord to set up His earthly kingdom without going to the Cross. They don t want Him to die as their Savior, they just want to use Him to overthrow the Roman Empire and make them a great nation. That s the true meaning behind Palm Sunday. This is why they call Him the King of Israel not the Savior of Israel. Joh 12:13, they took the branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and {began} to cry out, Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, They want the crown before the Cross, but the Cross must come before the crown. Now, let s see what our Lord does. Joh 12:14, And Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written,
Now, John is simply showing us that the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled the Father s will and the plan of God even though the majority is trying to stop Him. The scripture involved here has to do with Zec 9:9, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. The riding upon an ass which has never been rode before is a fulfillment of Num 19:2, Deu 21:3. Joh 12:15, Fear not, daughter of Zion; [stop being afraid], Why? Because Christ is going to over throw the Romans? No, because Christ has come to die for your sins and go to the Cross. Joh 12:15, Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey s colt. And this refers to the first advent for salvation. Joh 12:16, These things His disciples did not understand at the first; [at the first means while the event was going on]; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered. They finally realized that palm branches belong to the Millennium. At this time the disciples were so ignorant that they did not know the difference between the Church-age and the Millennium and that s why they have the upper room discourse so that they can get straightened out. And then they are going to understand why they shouldn t have held palm branches in their hand. Just like a lot of believers today...they ll be holding palm branches and taking them home and putting them in a sacred place...and all it is, is an emblem of NVTD. It s religion, superstition, and ignorance in action. It s palm branches in the hand, nothing in the head. They are ignorant and the funny thing is that ignorance is always ready to admire itself. And therefore everything that the disciples and the crowd are doing here pertains, to the Second coming and they are advocating that the crown should come before the cross. Joh 12:16, These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him. They had done means they, the disciples themselves, they recalled their own stupidity. The disciples, like the rest of these dodo s, picked up palm branches and palm branches belong to the Millennium. Joh 12:17, And so the multitude who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb, and raised him from the dead, were bearing Him witness. This is why we have such a crowd, only they were not accepting Him as their Lord Savior, they wanted Him to simply free them from the Roman Empire! And that s why verse 18 says, For this cause also the multitude went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign. They didn t believe in Christ but they were saying, He can do us a lot of good. Anyone who can bring back someone from the dead can deliver us from the Roman Empire. And therefore palm Sunday is about a crowd who gathered together for political expediency, not spiritual recognition.
Now let s go back to the Old Testament and see why all of these Jews including the disciples missed the whole point. To understand this we start with Psa 118 which is a hymn sung at the Passover. We will start with verse 14. Psa 118 is Israel s victory hymn. This hymn was also sung at the Passover. Psa 118:14, The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation. When the Bible says that they sung a hymn and went out, this was the hymn that they would sing at the Passover. And this hymn was also sung at the feast of the Tabernacles...why? Because half of this hymn has to do with the cross and half of this hymn has to do with the Millennium. Half of this hymn had to do with the first advent when the Lord would come to die for the sins of the whole world. Half of this hymn had to do with the Second advent when the Lord would come and set up His kingdom for a thousand years. So it s a hymn of victory concerning the Cross and the crown. Psa 118:14-16, The Lord is my strength [provisions for this life] and song [you sing when you have happiness and this is a reference to that inner happiness], And He has become my salvation. The sound of joyful shouting and salvation is in the tents of the righteous; The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted [resurrection]; The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. Verse 17 is the personal testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was also the personal testimony of the author of this Psalm, probably David. And it is also the personal testimony of the nation Israel. Psa 118:17-22, I shall not die, but live, And tell of the works of the Lord or Jehovah. The Lord has disciplined or chastened me severely, But He has not given me over to death [that means not permanently over to death]. Open to me the gates of righteousness [this is a reference to imputed righteousness]; I shall enter through them, [this is a declaration I will believe in Christ] I shall give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous will enter through it. I shall give thanks to Thee, for Thou hast answered me; And Thou hast become my salvation. The stone [that s the Lord Jesus Christ] which the builders rejected [these are the Pharisees frustrated in the gospel of Joh 12:19] has become the chief corner stone. The chief corner stone means that Christ is the head of Israel and that Christ is the head of the Church. Psa 118:23, This is the Lord s doing; [His death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension is a part of God s plan so that the Lord here is God the Father] it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the first advent! This is the Cross. Now in verses 24-26, we have the Second advent. Verse 23 is the Cross. Verse 24 is the crown.
Psa 118:24-25, This is the day [the day of the Lord is the Second advent of Christ] which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. O Lord, do save, [or hosanna, deliver us now], we beseech Thee; O Lord, we beseech Thee, do send prosperity! Please notice what this refers to and what they ask for; prosperity. This is the Second advent, the second time that our Lord comes back and sets up His kingdom. And this is what they are quoting over in the gospel of John. Hosanna means, deliver us now, save us now, deliver us now, with prosperity. Psa 118:26, Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord; [the one who brings the prosperity and the kingdom] We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. And the house of the Lord refers to the Millennial temple. Now, you can understand the crowd mixing this up. They put the crown before the Cross. And the Cross must come before the crown and Palm Sunday is nothing more than saying to God; We don t know our doctrine and we would rather have the crown before the cross. And so the waving of palms is to take place in the beginning of the Millennium. Our final passage is found in the gospel of Mar 11:1-10. Mar 11:1-10, And as they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples, and said to them, Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied {there,} on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it {here.} And if anyone says to you, Why are you doing this? you say, The Lord has need of it and immediately he will send it back here. And they went away and found a colt tied at the door outside in the street; and they untied it. And some of the bystanders were saying to them, What are you doing, untying the colt? And they spoke to them just as Jesus had told {them,} and they gave them permission. And they brought the colt to Jesus and put their garments on it; and He sat upon it. And many spread their garments in the road, and others {spread} leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. And those who went before [that s the crowd coming from Jerusalem], and those who followed after [that s the crowd coming from Bethany], kept on shouting, [quotation from Psa 118:2526] Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; This includes the crowd from Jerusalem, they quoted Psa 118:25-26. The crowd from Bethany, they quoted Psa 118:25-26. And all of the disciples, they quoted Psa 118:25-26. And all three crowds were mixed up. In fact, everyone seems to be mixed up except one woman, Mary! Now, that same day before the sun went down, the Lord did a very wonderful thing, He straightened them out! And how did He do it? Mar 12:1-5, And He began to speak to them in parables: A man planted a vineyard [that s God the Father and the vineyard is Israel], and put a wall around it, and dug a vat under the wine press, and built a tower [this is divine protection], and rented it out to vine-growers [these are the Jews] and went on a journey. And at the {harvest} time he sent a slave [this is an Old Testament prophet] to the vine-growers, in order to receive {some} of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers. And they took him, and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. And again he sent them another slave [another Old Testament prophet], and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and that one they killed; and {so with} many others, beating some, and killing others. Notice how they treated the Old Testament prophets. This is always the attitude of religious people. Mar 12:6-9, He had one more {to send,} a beloved son; he sent him last {of all} to them, saying, They will respect my son. But those vine-growers said to one another [these are the religious Jews of Jesus day], This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours! And they took him, and
killed him [the Cross], and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come [that is come in Judgment] and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others. Notice what the Lord says. Mar 12:10, Have you not even read this Scripture: And notice where the Lord starts, He starts with Psa 118:22, the part of that Psalm that deals with the cross before the crown, Psa 118:22, The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief corner {stone.} That same day, He starts where they should have started. And notice what He says; Mar 12:10-12, Have you not even read this Scripture: The stone which the builders rejected, This became the chief corner {stone}; This came about from the Lord, And it is marvelous in our eyes? And they [the religious leaders] were seeking to seize Him; and {yet} they feared the multitude; for they understood that He spoke the parable against them. And {so} they left Him, and went away. Palm Sunday is nothing more than a blasphemous celebration of ignorance. Palm Sunday is an individual saying, We are ignorant of what the Bible says, we are simply religious people who have no idea, who don t get it! And the problem as usual, ignorance.