Sermon Central
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Lessons From The Triumphal Entry Prophecies Series
Contributed by Jim Butcher on May 18, 2021 (message contributor)
Summary: This sermon on a familiar passage takes a different approach, looking at the prophetic quotes within the Triumphal Entry story.
OUR FOCUS IN THIS MESSAGE: This Triumphal Entry story pauses to note its Old Testament roots.
- John 12:16.
- This is easily overlooked, but it is important that it is inserted here. What do the prophetic pieces of this passage have to tell us?
- Preaching on the Triumphal Entry normally either centers on “you should praise Jesus” or “the voices that praised Jesus one day called for His death less than a week later” (which is probably an overstatement because it’s unlikely that those two crowds were made up of the same people). I want to look at a different angle in this message and focus on the prophetic pieces.
THE PHARISEES' FEAR: All the power and popularity have gone to Jesus.
- We start with larger context of Triumphal Entry. We’ll get to in a minute, but you know that the actual “parade” involved those who surrounded Jesus praising and worshiping Him. But vv. 17-19 gives us what’s swirling around beyond that joyful assembly: fear and concern. Jesus’ star seems to be ascendant and the Pharisees know that has power implications for them.
- So power and popularity are foremost in many people’s minds at this moment. As we are going to find, though, it’s not just the Pharisees who are thinking about power.
THE FIRST GROUP OF QUOTES: Praise leading to power, not repentance.
- John 12:13.
- Jesus comes into Jerusalem to accolades and shouts. The NIV divides the sayings from the crowd into three quotations. Let’s look at them and what they reveal.
a. “Hosanna!”
- This points us to Psalm 118:25.
- “Hosanna” is a transliteration of the Hebrew word for “Help, I pray” or “Save now, I pray.” (In a similar vein, “hallelujah” is a transliteration that means “praise Yahweh.”)
- This passage is part of the Psalms that are the Hallel (Psalm 113-118) that were sung by the temple choir each morning at major Jewish festivals. These are praising psalms. And these verses come right at the tail end of these chapters.
b. “Blessed . . .”
- This is from Psalm 118:26.
- Another word of praise.
c. “Blessed is the King of Israel!”
- This is where we get back to the larger point we’re making in this sermon.
- If the first quote was Psalm 118:25 and the second quote was Psalm 118:26, what would you expect the next one to be? Right – Psalm 118:27. And look at it – it’s not a bad verse for this moment, speaking of light shining and going to the Temple.
- But that’s not what they cried out.
- If you have an NIV, you’ll see that there’s a note at the end of the first two expressions, both noting the meaning of “Hosanna” and the verse references. But there’s not a reference note at the end of the third. What’s that mean? It means that sentence is found nowhere in the Old Testament.
- That’s odd, isn’t it? There’s a perfectly good expression in v. 27 that they don’t use. There are hundreds of other quality expressions they could have chosen that they don’t use. Instead, they make up something to say. And what they choose to make up says volumes about what’s on their mind.
- What do they cry out? “Blessed is the King of Israel!”
- What does that tell us?
- It tells us their mind was on Jesus taking over. It tells us their mind was on Jesus as a political Savior. It tells us their mind was on Jesus exercising power. And, of course, that’s exactly what we’ve been talking about.
- All this leads us back to the point I gave you on your sermon outline. Are they praising Jesus? Yes. But what’s the hope of that praise? His power. It is praise leading to power, not repentance.
- Psalm 118:27 is more of a verse about repentance. Light shining, going to the Temple – those are images associated with repentance and getting closer to God.
- But they don’t quote that. No, they make up a statement instead that speaks to their real hope and desire: power and overthrow.
- This puts a different spin on the adulation of the crowd here. It’s less pure worship. It’s more mercenary. It’s less about who Jesus is and more about what they can get out of Him.
THE SECOND QUOTE: Humility leading to repentance, then power.
- Now we move on to the second quote, which is found in vv. 14-15. Here we have a direct statement within the text that what is quoted is from the Old Testament.
- Let’s look back at this reference. It’s from Zechariah 9:9. It’s either a loose interpretation of that verse or they’re quoting multiple verses with 9:9 forming the core.
