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Title: Kingdom Bound: Behold Your King – Matthew 21:1-17 Aim: See the kingship of Christ in the Triumphal Entry. Intro: As can tell by the children’s carrying & laying down palm branches, today is what we call Palm Sunday, the celebration of Jesus’ “Triumphal Entry” into Jerusalem. Skipped over good deal of Matthew to get to his account of the TE in chap21. Seems a strange interlude, but really was very significant, especially as a declaration of Christ as King. Theme: Kingdom Bound – not just bound for the kingdom of God, but bound by the kingdom of God – the Lordship/Kingship of Christ marking our lives as we recognize/surrender to Him. What has the Triumphal Entry have to do w/that? It’s by the TE that Jesus is publicly revealed as the Messiah King. Matthew 21:1-17 [READ] As said before, the Gospel of Matthew has been called “The Gospel of the King,” & Ray Stedman points out that the essential message from/thru Matthew is “Behold your King,” just as Mark’s gospel declares, “Behold My Servant” (Jesus as God’s suffering servant), & Luke’s gospel declares, “Behold the Man” (Jesus as the Son of Man), & John’s gospel declares, “Behold your God” (Jesus as God the Son) – different emphases on the person of Jesus Christ. The context of the Triumphal Entry is that Jesus, not many days before, had raised Lazarus from the dead & His fame, while great before this, had spread thruout the region like wildfire. According to John’s gospel, after raising Lazarus, Jesus w/drew from there to a town called Ephraim, to the north, because the religious leaders were plotting for His death, seeking an excuse to arrest Him. But timing is everything, & now, as the Passover drew near & the time for Him to become our Passover Lamb had come, He was making His final trek into Jerusalem (tho He slept at Lazarus’ house in Bethany, close by). In less than a week He would be betrayed & crucified. The distance from Ephraim to Jerusalem was over 10 miles, & as they drew w/in few miles, to the Mt. of Olives, Jesus directed 2 of His disciples to go into nearby town, perhaps Bethany, to get a donkey’s colt – Mark records that it had never been ridden - & to bring that colt & its mother to Him. Jesus planned to ride upon the colt into Jerusalem. This was significant for several reasons. 1st, it was to fulfill Scripture/prophecy, which Matthew made clear, quoting part of Zechariah 9:9, which reads, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold your king is coming to you; righteous & having salvation is He, humble & mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Matthew’s initial readers would recognize this quote & rightly associate Jesus w/the prophecy’s fulfillment. And so, Jesus sat upon the colt & rode the 2 miles or so into Jerusalem. Crowds had come to Jerusalem for the Passover from all over Israel & beyond, & having heard about Lazarus’ resurrection, they were all the more excited to see this Jesus. Could He be the Messiah? Was He the one they had been waiting for? Hearing that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem, many rushed out of the city to meet Him, & that’s when they laid their cloaks down before Him & cut branches off the trees & laid them before Him, This was how they greeted a conquering king, how they lauded a hero. But this was somewhat out of character for Jesus. Up to this time, whenever He healed someone or delivered them from evil spirits, or when the disciples declared who He was – the Messiah of God, the Christ – He told them to keep quiet about it, tell no one (because His time had not yet come). When the crowds wanted to make Him King He eluded them & w/drew. But now His time had come, now He would be recognized (tho not understood) for who He was. The Triumphal Entry was an open, public declaration of Jesus as Messiah & King. Jesus let them receive Him on the way. He received their lauding & praise. Barclay wrote, “Jesus could not have chosen a more dramatic moment. It was into a city surging w/people keyed up w/religious expectations that He came.” Carson added, “The applause & the crowds were not manipulated; they would have occurred in any case; but the ride on a colt, because it was planned, could only be an acted parable, a deliberate act of self-disclosure.” They shouted as He went by, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” The wd “hosanna” literally means, “save, now!” The title “Son of David” was a recognized title of the Messiah. So as Jesus literally headed toward the cross & death on our behalf, as He headed w/His face like flint to carry out the work of our salvation, the people, whether they understood it or not, openly declared their adoration for the Messiah, & Jesus let them, thus claiming to be the Christ & claiming His rightful authority as the king of Israel. They cried out for His saving grace, tho many of these same ones, less than a week later, would also cry out for the necessary means of that salvation: “crucify Him, crucify Him!” Then Matthew records that, as might expect, hearing the shouts & noise of the crowd, “the whole city was stirred up, saying, ‘who is this?’” The answer came, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” Prophet, priest & king is Jesus, & He received their worship. Let us worship Him, not just by singing or gathering together, but by our dependence upon Him as the only Savior & Lord. Whether it was that day or the next (commentators disagree), Jesus entered the temple, getting no further than the outer court, where He encountered the moneychangers & buyers & sellers of birds & other animals for sacrifice. No doubt He had seen this before, & may have even run them out before (John 2), but zeal for His Father’s house was stirred up in Jesus. A couple of things were happening here. 1st, most likely the people were being cheated. They had to use the temple currency to pay the temple tax & buy the accepted animals for sacrifice. So they had to exchange money. Most likely they were charged extra for the exchange & probably charged more than it was worth to buy the animals. 2ndly, all this happened w/in the outer court, which was the court of the Gentiles. That made it difficult if not impossible for Gentiles to come in & worship. Add to that the noise that must have filled the place – have you ever tried to pray/worship in the midst of chaos? Not impossible, but difficult. Jesus began to overturn the tables & cages – John also records that He made a whip by entwining cords together - & drove out the moneychangers & sellers. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’ (quoting Is.56:7), but you make it a den of robbers.” The cleansing of the temple was an open rebuke from the Son King, the Messiah. I believe Jesus will rebuke those who are charlatans today, moneychangers who hinder folks from drawing near to God. I caution you to beware those who urge you to send in that “seed-faith” money to them/their ministry, so they might pray for you & you might also receive a blessing (but them 1st). There are many who are genuine ministers of the gospel, proclaiming the truths of Scripture, but there are also many others who are simply out to relieve you of your money, so they can build their little empires. But the imp question is, “How might Jesus rebuke us today?” Is this church a house of prayer? Are there any ways we are hindering any who want to come to God? Reading between the lines, this cleansing of the temple may have been the opening the blind & lame were longing for. The outer court was as far as they could come, according to Jewish law, so they too had been restricted by the moneychangers. Now, they “came to Him in the temple, & He healed them.” This, as did all the miracles of Jesus, revealed His identity as the Messiah & as Lord/King. And King Jesus swung open the door – He is the door – to whosoever will come. Will you come? Come to Him in faith for your salvation, your deliverance, your healing, your transformation from wretchedness to new life in Him. Come w/your brokenness & be made whole eternally. And we who are His by faith should come to Him as His children, that He might take us w/Him where He goes, that He might make us more like Christ & use us for His kingdom work. Of course, all the miraculous healing & the joy of the healed had to have been quite a scene, causing quite a stir & being quite noisy. To that was added the voices of children, for whom also it seems the way which had been blocked by the charlatans/money-changers was opened. Jesus made room for the children, & they came. They came into the temple where Jesus was & continued the chorus that had been sung as Jesus rode into the city, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Those children were doing what came natural. Out of their innocent & sincere faith & in their purely motivated way, they were praising Jesus for who they understood Him to be – the Messiah, tho they probably didn’t fully understand all that meant. It was delightful praise to the ears of God the Father & Christ the Son, just as I believe He delights in the pure praise/worship of children here in our church & thruout His Church who sing His praise & declare His glory. The religious leaders were indignant, “& they said to Him, ‘Do You hear what these are saying?” Of course, Jesus was there & certainly heard it. They wanted Him to put a stop to the praise being heralded upon Him. He replied to them, “Yes, I hear it. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of infants & nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” That was a paraphrase of Psalm 8:2, which uses the wd “strength” instead of “praise.” But that certainly was no accident by Jesus. Praise to God is strength, declaring the truth that suppresses the lies of the enemy. The demons flee when Christ is praised. God’s enemies are silenced & defeated when He is worshiped. You can be sure that Satan was holding his ears when he heard the praise of the children. “Make ‘em stop!” In Luke’s account of the Triumphal Entry (19), he reports that the Pharisees urged Jesus to “rebuke your disciples” (those who were lauding Him). Jesus replied to them (vs40), “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” So, the children, the disciples following Jesus on the way, & the very stones on the side of the road were as open mouths full of praise to the Messiah who had come, the Savior of the world, the King of glory. So, the message of the Triumphal Entry is “Behold your King! Is He your king? Oh, He is King whether or not you recognize Him or praise Him. And He will one day rule in your life in judgment if not as Savior/Lord now. As said, many who lauded Him on that 1st Palm Sunday shouted for His death less than a week later. Mere words of praise, singing in church, cannot save you – you must be born again, born from above as you put your faith in Jesus for right relationship w/God, forgiveness, new life, eternal life – a faith that demands the follow-thru of commitment, surrender to the Lordship of Christ, a giving over of your life to King Jesus, deciding to follow Jesus as He enables you. It’s faith that falls in love w/Jesus & marks our life as delighted subjects of the king, surrendered but freed to be who we’re created to be – children of God, followers of Christ. One way or another, we are kingdom bound – bound for the Kingdom, yes; but also bound by the kingdom, the rule of King Jesus marking our lives day by day. Let us be kingdom minded & King Jesus focused.