SERMON: Christ is King: The Triumphal Entry (John 12:12–19)
Christ
is King:
The Triumphal Entry (John 12:12–19)
Series: “John: Life in Christ’s Name” Text: John 12:12–19
By: Shaun Marksbury Date: January
14, 2024
Venue: Living Water Baptist Church Occasion: AM Service
I.
Introduction
There are some who have questioned whether it is right to
see Jesus as King today. This is due in
part because of how we see prophecy presenting His coming reign; if He hasn’t
returned to earth yet, is it proper to consider Him King yet? Moreover, some say that it isn’t that
important to consider Him Lord, emphasizing Jesus’s work of salvation and
saying it’s possible to be saved without following Him.
However, Scripture is clear.
In the Great Commission, Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me
in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18). Hebrews
1:3 describes Jesus as currently seated “at the right hand of the Majesty on
high.” Similarly, Ephesians 1:20-22
tells us that He’s above every power, in this age as well as the age to
come. That last reference notes that the
Father gave Jesus “as head over all things to the church” (v. 22). Jesus is currently exercising authority, over
the world stage as well as over the church.
We would do well to acknowledge Him as King!
Of course, the people in this passage were willing to do
just that. As we noted last time, there
are many honors which our Lord receives in this chapter. The first was the meal where He received
service from beloved friends and the sacrificial anointing. We’ll see people continue to come to Him in
this chapter and the voice from heaven attesting to Him. Yet, this will not keep Him from the cross,
nor will the nation ultimately accept Him.
For this moment, though, they are ready to hail Him as
king. The account of His entry into
Jerusalem, often called the Triumphal Entry, is an event so pivotal that it is
found in all four Gospels (here, as well as in Matt. 21:1–11; Mark 11:1–11;
Luke 19:29–44). There is more detail in
those other Gospel accounts, but John, writing later, chooses to only review
the main points.
Jesus Christ is King.
This morning, we’re going to be considering the King’s entrance into
Jerusalem. We’ll note His presentation,
performance, and power. Let’s consider
the first of those.
II.
The King’s Presentation (vv. 12–13)
On the next day
the large crowd 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 shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the
Lord, even the King of Israel.”
We are reading about the Triumphal Entry, traditionally
remembered as “Palm Sunday” during the final week of our Lord. As I mentioned last time, there is a bit of a
debate about the traditional ordering of events for the Passion Week. The supper in Bethany where Mary anoints
Jesus’s head and feet is traditionally considered to be on Wednesday evening of
that final week. That would have been
the same night that Judas went out and conspired with the Sanhedrin, so it’s
sometimes called Spy Wednesday. Yet, traditionally,
those are the only two events for a day in the middle of a busy week, and
John’s chronology provides difficulty in that telling.
So, some theologians have proposed that these events were
actually before the Triumphal Entry.
That fits better with what John tells us, that Jesus’s entry into
Jerusalem occurred “on the next day” following the anointing. Moreover, a few (though, this is admittedly a
minority position) have suggested that Palm Sunday was instead “Palm
Monday.” By moving this forward, these
theologians close the gap of essentially an empty day during the Passion
Week. There’s nothing wrong with reading
it and continuing to commemorate it on Sunday, but this view is attractive.
Whether this is Sunday or Monday, Jesus will enter with this
large crowd. They were originally coming
for the feast, the Passover, but they heard that Jesus was in Bethany. Twice the text describes the crowd as “large”
(vv. 9, 12). There could have been
anywhere between 100,000 people[1] to
over a million participating with the Passover,[2] so this crowd could
conceivably be in the hundreds or even thousands. When word got around that Jesus wasn’t
avoiding the feast, but was instead going into Jerusalem, they got ready for an
impressive presentation.
Certainly, a large factor stirring the people up would have
been Christ’s recent miracles. Primarily
here is the raising of Lazarus (recorded in John 11), but this would also
include the healing of the two blind men on the roadside (Matt. 20:29–34). The people were understandably excited, and
the next verse says they took up palm branches.
Some have wondered where they would have gotten these palm
branches, and Judean date palms would be the most likely source. As one commentator notes, they would have
been plentiful on the Mount of Olives, on the road from Bethany to Jerusalem.[3] These plants grew in Judea in the first
century, and though they began to die off over a millennium later, they are
once again populating the region.
These branches were most often used in the construction of
temporary structures for the Feast of Tabernacles. However, they also began to be used after the
Maccabean revolt[4] to
celebrate victory, peace, and the coming of royalty.[5] Branches would also be placed on the ground
for dignitaries to keep the dust down, creating a path as they rode into town.[6] This was a symbol befitting the Messiah, one
we see again of Jesus in Revelation 9:7.
As they went out to meet Him, we read that they “began to shout, ‘Hosanna!” This shout of hosanna is both a prayer for
the salvation of the Lord as well as a proclamation of praise[7]
(like hallelujah). As one study
notes, hosannas were sung by a choir “during
the Feast of Tabernacles (7:37) and associated with the Feast of Dedication
(10:22) and especially the Passover” and in the original context of Psalm 118,
it “may well have been the pronouncement of blessing upon a Davidic king.”[8] So, this term has messianic implications, and
as another commentary notes, this continues to reflect the praise in Revelation
7:10, which says that “they cry out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation
to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”[9]
This great crowd
didn’t stop with their hosannas. They
continued by shouting, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even
the King of Israel.’ ” This continues
that refrain from Psalm 118, specifically verses 25–26. Scripture says there, “O Lord, do save, we beseech You; O Lord, we beseech You, do send
prosperity! Blessed is the one who comes
in the name of the Lord; we have blessed you from the house of the Lord.” Here, the Davidic King comes in the name of
Yahweh the Lord, meaning as a representative of God. The people acknowledge that the Father has
blessed Him, and they acknowledge that Jesus is true King of Israel, as
Nathanael had (John 1:49).
Now, it’s obvious
that the people don’t understand what all this means. We read in a moment that even the disciples
lacked full understanding. None of us
fully understand what it means that Jesus is Lord and King when we first come
to Him for salvation. In fact, many of
theirs was a superficial celebration, willingly turning to shouts to crucify
Him later, which is why Jesus weeps over Jerusalem in Luke 19:41–44. Yet, the Lord is gracious to those who
honestly worship and don’t fully understand why.
He allows all this display concerning Him. As one study notes, “Until this point, Jesus
had discouraged expressions of support from the people (6:15; 7:1–8). Here He
allowed public enthusiasm. He entered
Jerusalem on the back of a young donkey.”[10] He cares not anymore if the leaders will be
provoked by this kind of presentation; He purposefully permits it! And that brings us to the next point:
III.
The King’s Performance (vv. 14–16)
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; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these
things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him.
Jesus comes, not only allowing the people to make this grand
display over Him, but also to participate in the display. He purposefully seeks to fulfill prophecy
concerning the Messiah. How does He go
about this?
First, we read that He found a young donkey. Of course, according to the other Gospels, He
did this first by sending His disciples.
For instance, in Mark 11:2–3, He directs 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. 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.” Matthew mentions the mother
donkey (Matt. 21:2, 7), but Jesus obviously chose to sit on the colt. He then rides into Jerusalem on this young
animal, just as Scripture predicts.
This indicates that Jesus is feeding into the Messianic
fervor in a premeditated manner. John
here quotes Zechariah 9, which talks about the coming of Alexander the
Great. In contrast to the war horse and
the chariot, the Lord says this in v. 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.” This humble entry of the King of Israel would
mark salvation for the people.
As such, John adds the words here, “Fear not!” He may have had Isaiah 40:9 in mind, which
says, “Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news, lift up
your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news; lift it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, ‘Here is your God!’
” The Lord comes with good news of
salvation for all Israel, and beyond.
There is no need to continue living in fear.
He is the prophesied king riding into Jerusalem, and this is
their time of visitation (cf. Luke 19:44).
They were supposed to be expecting the Messiah. Another prophecy about Him is in Daniel
9:24–26, which predicted the Messiah would come in sixty-nine weeks of years,
or 483 years from the decree of Artaxerxes.
As MacArthur notes, there has been more than one calculation as to when
this would place the Messiah, the two most detailed being from Sir Robert
Anderson and another from Harold Hohner.
While the exact years in these calculations suggest a date of
crucifixion in the years 32 or 33 rather than 30, as MacArthur notes, “whatever
may be the precise chronology, Jesus Christ is the only possible fulfillment of
Daniel’s prophetic timetable.”[11] In other words, the timing of the prophecy
announced that the Messiah would be presented in this year of history,
and this is the King’s Triumphal Entry.
Sadly, many that day had a limited view of what this
meant. Salvation can and often does
refer physical deliverance from enemies, so it seems that many thought this
moment signaled a fall of the Roman Empire and a restoration of the kingdom of
Israel. If this were the time for that,
though, it would be more fitting for Jesus to come riding upon a white
horse. The Lord will do just that in the
end, coming to wage war (Rev. 19:11), but the image here is one of
humility. He’s here for a different
salvation, one which comes only through His humiliation and death upon the
cross. This is the salvation of the soul
from sin and deserved damnation, a salvation we all need, and which only comes
through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Even the disciples did not fully understand this, as v. 16
says. This was, of course, a common
malady (Mark 9:32; John 2:22; 14:26).
Some see this as a problem in the text — how is it that the disciples
wouldn’t understand? Yet, if we consider
that they, men of their times, would have shared the same, limited, political
view of the Messiah as their kinsmen, then they probably viewed much of the
teaching of Jesus through the lens of their traditions. It would take the death and resurrection of
the Lord to shake them of this, and the comforting reminders the Holy Spirit
would later give them (cf. John 14:26) — then they would remember and process
all that happened.
For now, Jesus had multilayered reasons for doing what He
did. He is the King to be
presented. Yet, He came to provide a
spiritual salvation for the people of the world before He would provide a
physical one for His people. He also
knew His presence in Jerusalem would provoke the rulers, leading invariably to
His betrayal and death, providing the salvation only He could. He comes willingly, accomplishing all of this
and more for the glory of God.
This is the King we serve!
He is able to accomplish so much.
And on that note, let us consider the final point:
IV.
The King’s Power (vv. 17–19)
So the people, who
were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the
dead, continued to testify about Him. For
this reason also the people went and met Him, because they heard that He had
performed this sign. So the Pharisees
said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world
has gone after Him.”
The miracles of Scripture are not allegories or
metaphors. These were real events in
history, and they affected everyone. As
we can see here, the crowd waving their palm branches were doing more than
shouting, “Hosanna!” They were also
testifying of the wonderous deeds of Jesus, telling every traveler they could
of the miraculous acts they witnessed. So,
as the march continued up into the gates of Jerusalem and through the streets
to the temple, the word about the king’s power spread like wildfire.
The ones who heard the witnesses came by droves. This is the second crowd of people that v. 18
mentions. Perhaps some pilgrims were
already in the temple worshipping as was their custom, while others were
engaged in commerce in the marketplaces around the temple, preparing for their
stay in Jerusalem. Wherever they heard
the word about Jesus’s ability to even raise the dead, they came out to meet Him
and the singing crowd.
There’s a sharp contrast between the scene of Christ’s entry
and the one which occurs just days later.
The people cry their hosannas as they flock to see Him, but some will
later erupt with disillusioned demands to crucify Him. Those who would not accept His words later in
this chapter walk away from Him because He didn’t meet their expectations of a
political, earthly Messiah.
This contrast would be sparked by those who were always
against Him. We read in v. 18, “So the
Pharisees said to one another, ‘You see that you are not doing any good; look,
the world has gone after Him.’ ” Another
way of translating that is, “See, y’all are not accomplishing nothing,” containing
a double negative in the original language for emphasis. Perhaps these are the Pharisees with murderous
intent speaking to the more moderate voices among them, telling them that
everyone is going after Jesus.
We know that there were a few Pharisees and rulers who
believed in Jesus. However, they were
afraid of others, as we see down in v. 42.
The ones urging violent action against Jesus had the voice, but even
they were afraid of the crowds. They
could not act as they wished and just seize Jesus, fearing a riot (Mark 14:1–2).
Of course, this speaks of the King’s power, too. He wouldn’t be taken before His time. All their plans are ineffectual before
Him! As Matthew Henry notes, “Those who oppose Christ, and fight against
his kingdom, will be made to perceive that they prevail nothing. God will accomplish his own purposes in spite
of them, and the little efforts of their impotent malice.”[12]
V.
Conclusion
Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He was not just presented that way by others
— He arranged it so that He would underscore their presentation. His entire performance was in line with
Scripture. And, His power formed the
foundation for the Messianic claims, demonstrating He was and is who prophecy
predicts.
Have you turned to Jesus as Lord? Does He rule and reign in your life, or do
you live for yourself? If you pursue sin
and don’t follow His ways, this could indicate that He is also not your
Savior. He isn’t divided — He is both
Lord and Savior. Confess your
sins, trusting in Him for salvation, and then prayerfully consider His commands
as you seek to follow His ways.
[1] Gerald L. Borchert, John 12–21, The New American Commentary, (Nashville: Broadman &
Holman Publishers, 2002), 25B:40–41.
[2] John F. MacArthur Jr., John 12–21, MacArthur New Testament Commentary, (Chicago, IL: Moody
Publishers, 2008), 15.
[3] A. T. Robertson, Word
Pictures in the New Testament, (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1933), Jn
12:13.
[4] MacArthur, 15–16.
[5] Matthew Henry, Matthew
Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume,
(Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), 1998.
[6] John D. Barry, Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, Michael
S. Heiser, Miles Custis, Elliot Ritzema, Matthew M. Whitehead, Michael R.
Grigoni, and David Bomar, Faithlife Study
Bible, (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Jn 12:13.
[7] Ibid.
[8] John MacArthur Jr., Ed., The MacArthur Study Bible, electronic ed., (Nashville, TN: Word
Pub., 1997), 1609.
[9] Henry, 1998.
[10] Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne
House, The Nelson Study Bible: New King
James Version, (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1997), Jn 12:13–15.
[11] MacArthur, John
12–21, 14–15.
[12] Henry, 1999.