Luke 19:28-48; The Triumphal Entry

Jason Sterling March 9, 2025 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL Bulletin

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you have a copy of God's Word, turn with me to
Luke 19 this morning.
So go to the New TestamentMatthew, mark, luke 19.
This year, we have beenstudying the Gospel of Luke, and
every gospel has a perspective,an emphasis, a theme, and one
of the things we've learned thisyear is one of the themes and

(00:23):
emphasis in the Gospel of Lukeis the table, and so the way we
have been working, at least upuntil today, we've been working
our way through Luke by lookingat different meals in which we
find Jesus showing up.
Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a
meal in the gospel of Luke, andso we've been looking at that in

(00:46):
those different mealsthroughout this year.
This morning, though, in aneffort to prepare our hearts as
we approach Easter, we're goingto shift gears this morning in
our study in Luke, and, insteadof eating with Jesus this
morning, we're going to startwalking with Jesus to the cross.
Over the next several weeks,we're going to walk with Jesus

(01:09):
and journey with Jesus duringthe last week of his life, and
this morning we come to apassage that is known as the
triumphal entry, where Jesusrides into Jerusalem.
So follow along with me as Iread.

(01:29):
This is Luke 19.
We're going to look at 28through 44.
I've put through 48 in yourbulletin for some context, which
I'll refer to in a moment.
We'll be reading through verse44 this morning in our passage.
So this is God's Word.

(01:52):
And when he had said thesethings, he went ahead going up
to Jerusalem.
When he drew near to Bethany,and Bethany at the mount that is
called Olivet, he sent two ofthe disciples saying go into the
village in front of you where,on entering, you will find a
colt tied on which no one hasever yet sat.
Untie and bring it here.
And if anyone asks you why areyou untying it, you shall say

(02:14):
this the Lord has need of it.
So those who were sent wentaway and found it, just as he
had told them.
And as they went and and asthey it's a time change, sorry
and as they were untying thecolt, its owner said to them why

(02:36):
are you untying the colt?
And they said the Lord has needof it.
And they brought it to Jesusand, throwing their cloaks on
the colt, they set Jesus on itand as he rode along, they
spread their cloaks on the roadand he was drawing near already,
on the way down to the Mount ofOlives, the whole multitude of

(02:57):
his disciples began to rejoiceand praise God with a loud voice
for all the mighty works thatthey had seen, saying Blessed is
the king who comes in the nameof the Lord.
Peace in heaven and glory inthe highest.
And some of the Pharisees in thecrowd said to him Teacher,

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rebuke your disciples.
He answered.
I tell you, if these weresilent, the very stones would
cry out.
And when he drew near and sawthe city, he wept over it saying
Would that you, even you, hadknown on this day the things
that make for peace, but nowthey are hidden from your eyes.

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For the days will come upon youwhen your enemies will set up a
barricade around you andsurround you and hem you in on
every side and tear you down tothe ground, you and your
children within you, and theywill not leave one stone upon
another in you because you didnot know the time of your

(04:05):
visitation.
This is God's Word.
Let's pray, let's ask theSpirit to help us, let's pray
together.
Father, it's a gloomy Sundaymorning this Lord's Day, and
some of us are tired, some of usare anxious, some of us are

(04:26):
stressed and struggling.
Some of us are full of joy.
We come from all over the place, but you've brought us here.
It's no accident that we'rehere.
You have brought us here onthis day to hear this word, and
so would you give it throughyour spirit, and would you give
us hearts that would receive itin faith.

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Jesus, do your thing with thisword Convict and challenge,
rebuke, correct, train, but morethan anything, I pray that you
would show us the King, show usthe true King, king Jesus, and
may he be more beautiful andglorious as a result of our time

(05:13):
together.
This morning.
We ask these things in His name, amen.
It's been said, and I love thisway of saying it, that the
Gospels are passion narrativeswith long introductions.
The Gospels are passionnarratives with long
introductions, and that's reallywhat we see in the Gospels.

(05:37):
The Gospels tend to we see thisin Luke tend to race through
Jesus' early life and ministryand then they seem to come to a
screeching halt.
They seem to come to a crawl.
When we enter the last week ofJesus' life, everything that
Jesus has said and done up untilthis time, the last week of his

(06:00):
life, is viewed in the light ofwhat is about to happen here in
what is known as Holy Week, thelast week of the life of Jesus,
and if you're looking for whatJesus is about to do, I think
our passage this morningprovides a really good summary

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Because, in short, jesus is hereto be crowned king.
One of the most compellingthings about the life of Jesus
is that Jesus himself, but alsohis followers, repeatedly called
him the king.
And it might sound foreign tous, it might sound strange to us

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because we no longer live in amonarchy, but I want you to
realize this morning that,regardless of your preferred
form of government, I want youto know that everyone has a king
.
Everyone is bowing down to andserving a king.
You are bowing the knee tosomeone or something in your

(07:14):
life.
It's how you were made as ahuman being.
As a human being, you were madeto worship, you were made to
give honor.
You were made to bow down tosomething.
It's either Jesus or it issomething else, and that king or
something else could be money,it could be power, it could be

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success, it could be sex, itcould be approval, it could be
image, it can be reputation, andthe list goes on.
And so the question thismorning is not do you have a
king?
The question is, what king areyou serving?
What king will you crown?

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What kind of king rules yourheart and your life?
And this morning, through thetriumphal entry, jesus shows us
that he is the king.
As he enters into Jerusalem andmoves towards the cross, and in
doing so he shows us what kindof king that he is.
And we see three things in thispassage that Jesus is a saving

(08:21):
king.
He's an unexpected king.
Secondly, and he's a weepingking.
A saving king, an unexpectedking and a weeping king.
Let's look at those in turnthis morning.
Number one a saving king.
Jesus, really, since chapter 9,in chapter 9 we are told that

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Jesus has resolutely set hisface on Jerusalem.
So for a better part of theGospels, of the Gospel of Luke,
jesus has been marching towardsJerusalem and now he's there.
He is entering into Jerusalem.
That time has come.
Look at verse 28.
He went ahead and going up toJerusalem.

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Why Jerusalem?
What's so special?
Let's just ask obviousquestions about Jerusalem.
Well, because Jerusalem iswhere the temple is located.
And if you look at verses 45and following, that's where
Jesus is headed.
He's headed towards the temple.
Why is the temple so important?

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Well, because that's where theGarden of Eden is.
What do I mean by that?
Well, I know it's gloomy, Iknow it's a time change, but we
have to engage here.
Gloomy, I know, it's a timechange, but we have to engage

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here.
And I want us to engage becausewhat I'm about to say is vital
to understanding the entireBible.
So you ready for the wholeBible in two minutes.
Let's go.
Genesis, chapters 1 through 3.
Human beings, adam and Eve, ourfirst parents, are placed in
the Garden of Eden, where manand woman are at peace with God,

(10:12):
without shame and without fear.
Genesis, chapter 3, thatrelationship with God is broken.
And really, from Genesis 3,through the rest of the Bible,
through all in the world, whatJesus is doing in the Bible and
in the world is bringing hispeople back to the Garden of

(10:33):
Eden.
After Adam and Eve rebelledagainst God, he kicked them out
of the garden and he put angelswith a flaming sword outside of
the garden to guard the tree oflife, so that now, in order to
get into God's presence, theremust be the shedding of blood.
That's why sacrifices had to bemade at the temple in order to

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go into the Holy of Holies,because without the shedding of
blood there is no forgiveness ofsins, because without the
shedding of blood there is noforgiveness of sins.
And so here is King Jesusriding into Jerusalem in order
to bring us back to the Gardenof Eden.
To say it another way, jesus isgoing into Jerusalem, he's going
to the temple to reestablishpeace with God, to reestablish

(11:23):
our relationship with God.
How will he do it?
Good Friday, which we'll get toin a few weeks?
He does it by going to a cross,and on that cross he will take
the swords that guard the treeof life into himself.
Jesus goes right to the heartof the problem.

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He goes right to the heart ofwhat's wrong with us and what's
wrong with the world and thereason why we got kicked out of
the garden.
And Jesus is riding in toJerusalem to do something about
our greatest problem and theworld's greatest problem once
and for all.

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But it gets even more amazingBecause when Jesus returns for
his second coming in all of hisglory, you know what the Bible
says in the book of Revelationthat Jesus is going to bring
he's going to bring a city.
You know the name of that citythe new Jerusalem.

(12:31):
The new heavens and the newearth, and the glory of God will
radiate to the entire planetfrom that one spot, the new
Jerusalem, and if you are aChristian, that's where you're
headed for all eternity.
And in that place, guess whatelse we'll find?

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Revelation, chapter 22.
The tree of life will be there,but guess what?
This time, because of whatJesus has done, that tree is now
unguarded.
You have a renewed relationshipwith Jesus and you have been

(13:17):
reconciled with God because ofHis work on your behalf.
Isn't the Bible amazing?
The whole Bible is a storyabout God taking us back to the
Garden of Eden.
That, friends, is what thetriumphal entry is all about,

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and it is huge.
Now, do you see why Christianscelebrate Holy Week, why we get
so excited about things calledPalm Sunday?
You see, if you're a Christianthis morning, my question for
you is is this your Jesus?

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Is your Jesus this big?
Is this the Jesus that you'recelebrating and worshiping as
you prepare your hearts forEaster?
Is Jesus the one who has doneeverything in order to bring you
peace with God?
That's the first point.

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Jesus is a saving king.
Secondly, he's an unexpectedking.
Look at verses 30 through 38with me.
It's interesting.
The triumphal entry in some wayswas expected, because in
Zechariah 9, verse 9, 500 yearsbefore it actually happens, it's
prophesied Zechariah says Shoutaloud, o Jerusalem, your king

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is coming, and he's coming on adonkey.
And that's exactly what we seehappening.
Jesus, the king, is coming.
He sends his disciples to getthe colt.
They mount Jesus on the, thecult.
He rides into Jerusalem.

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They're laying down theircloaks and in Matthew's account
it says that they're waving palmbranches.
That was the national sign thatthe king had come, because when
the kings would return, afterthey would win a war, they would
parade into the city and allthe people would line up and
they would win a war.
They would parade into the cityand all the people would line
up and they would start wavingtheir palm branches.

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That's what's happening here inthis parade.
Verse 38, the crowd begins topraise God in loud voices,
saying Blessed is the King who'scome in the name of the Lord.
And one of the things Jesus isdoing as he enters into
Jerusalem is he is forcing theissue of his identity, because,

(15:52):
you see, if Jesus is the king,as he's claimed to be, then
there is no middle ground inyour response to him and in many
ways, all of the Gospels, andall the Gospel of Luke, has been
leading up to this moment whereJesus says, essentially crown

(16:13):
me or kill me.
That's what's happening.
Jesus will not come into aheart, he will not come into a
life, he will not come into acity as anything other than a
king.
He is saying here that, yes, Ican be your helper, I can be

(16:35):
your healer and your counselorand your shepherd, but none of
those things will be realized inyour life unless Jesus is first
crowned king of your life.
Jesus is coming as the king, andone thing you quickly see here
is it's not the kind of kingthat the people expected.

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They expected Jesus to bringwar.
Jesus goes to a cross.
They expect Jesus to pull outhis sword and fight and Jesus
instead turns the other cheek.
They expected Jesus tooverthrow the Romans, but

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instead this king, jesus, is theone who gets overthrown.
And we know it's not the kingthat they expected, because here
they're praising him Five dayslater.
You know what they would besaying Crucify him.
He rides into Jerusalem, not ona war horse, with a chariot,

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like Roman soldiers, but herides in on a colt, a borrowed
donkey.
This king doesn't have a horse,doesn't have or own a donkey,
and so he has to borrow one.
He doesn't have a saddle, andso he has to use a cloak as a

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saddle, and it's not even hiscloak, it's a borrowed cloak.
Jesus is signaling here that heis a different kind of king,
and it tells us something sogood and wonderful about Jesus
and his humility and why that isso important to us this morning

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.
You see, this is important thatJesus comes not on a war horse
but on a donkey, because it isJesus' way of saying that I am
the king for everyone.
I am the king for everyone.
I am the king for the Jews andthe Gentiles, I'm the king for

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lepers and tax collectors andprostitutes and addicts and old
people and young people and richpeople and lowly people and
poor people.
Whoever you are, whateveryou've done, you see, the
triumphal entry is saying Jesusis the king for you Because,
unlike all the other kings inthe world, you can reach Jesus,
because Jesus came to reach you.

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And so I don't know where youare this morning.
I know some of you because it'salways the case someone's in
the worst week of their life,always in a room this size.
Some of you feel very low, someof you feel broken.
Friends, the good news of thegospel is you can't be too low,

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you can't be too broken for thisking, king Jesus, because he
comes on a donkey, not a warhorse.
He comes for you, you can reachhim and he came for you.
Lastly, we see that Jesus is asaving king.

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He's an unexpected king.
Lastly, he's a weeping king.
Look at verses 39 through 40.
We'll slow down and walkthrough this.
So the religious leaders, thePharisees, tell Jesus hey,
rebuke all of these people,rebuke your disciples and I love
this.
Jesus says if they're silent,creation itself is going to cry

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out.
He's saying I can't silence thedisciples.
If I do that, then the rockswill start singing.
Their blindness, the blindnessof the religious people, runs so
deep that even the rocksunderstand the significance of

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this event better than they do.
Verse 41 and 42.
As Jesus makes his way closer toJerusalem, instead of
displaying a confident gaze of amajestic king, this Jesus, this

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king, has tears in his eyes.
He is sobbing, weeping.
The word can also be translatedwailing.
Would that you, even you, hadknown on this day the things
that bring you peace, but nowthey are hidden from you, jesus

(21:34):
burst into tears because he islamenting the lost opportunity
and the rejection of his ownpeople and their refusal to
crown him as the king and to seewho he really was.
43 and 44, look at those versesStrong.

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Your enemies are going tobasically barricade and build a
barricade around you and tearyou to the ground, leaving no
stone unturned.
Jesus is referring here to AD 70, when the Romans would utterly

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destroy Jerusalem, and Jesus isweeping here because he knows
that, he knows what is comingand he knows the consequences of
their sin and rebellion that isgoing to come and hit them in a
way that they don't currentlyunderstand in this moment, and
it brings Him to utter tears.

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Jerusalem was the center thinkabout it in the hopes of the Old
Testament.
It's where God established thekingship of David, it's where
Solomon built the temple, it'swhere the Holy of Holies was,
it's the presence of God.

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And so you would think that,out of all the places, that this
would be the place Jerusalem,the temple that would fling open
the doors and welcome Jesus,god's long-awaited Son, the
long-awaited Messiah.
But they don't.
They shut him out, and itbreaks God's heart.

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And so then, the question iswhat do we take away from this?
What are the applications forus?
What does this mean, as we liketo say for Tuesday at 2 pm?
Well, I think it means a coupleof things.
The first thing is this is awarning to us.
It's a warning, first, that weneed to be careful when we try

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to make Jesus fit into ouragenda, because if we try to
make Jesus into our image, intowho we want him to be, rather
than let him be who he truly is,we can miss Jesus entirely.
And so what are the ways thismorning that you have dismissed

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Jesus from your life?
Because he's not who you thinkhe should be, or he's not doing
what you think he should do, orthe things that you want him to
do, or the things that you wanthim to do.
And there's another warning,and the warning is also for
people like us who arereligiously close to Jesus, in

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proximity, but you can, at thesame time, have a heart that is
very far from Jesus, and you canbe in great danger.
And this should wake us up onthis gloomy Sunday morning.
It should, in a sense, shake usout of our complacency and our

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spiritual slumber, because thispassage is saying that you can
be it's very possible to sit ina room like this and be very
close to religious things andgood things, but actually be
blind and be far from Jesus inyour heart.

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And so I ask the question whereare you with Jesus this morning
?
Do you find that you aresomeone moving towards Jesus or
have you found yourself movingaway from Jesus?
This passage also, so it's awarning, but I also think one of

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the things we see in thispassage is it should also not
just warn us, it should melt us.
Do you weep over the people yousee around you, the culture you
see around you that has rejectedand completely missed Jesus, or

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do they just make you mad?
Does the culture just make youangry when you see it?
Do you find yourself lookingdown in judgment and contempt
rather than weeping and having aheart of compassion?
It broke Jesus.

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It broke His heart and filledHim with tears and compassion,
and it should do the exact samething in us.
Jesus weeps as he moves towardsJerusalem because he knows the
peace that the world needs andthat the people need.
He knows they need peace withGod and the people completely

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miss it because they think thething they most need is
political and social andeconomic peace.
They don't see their ultimateneed as being peace with God
because of their sin andrebellion.
And we do the exact same thing,don't we?
At least I do.
How often do we look at theworld and think what we need is

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a harsher justice system, weneed better police response and
better economy and a new andbetter political system, and the
list goes on.
Okay, you know what the Biblesays.
No, the biggest problem in theworld is that we are not people

(27:43):
are not right with God, and weneed peace with God.
And we, in and of ourselves,cannot dig our way out and fix
it.
Only God can come and save us,and so what the world most needs
is Jesus.

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You see, the triumphal entry isa huge deal, because Jesus is
riding into Jerusalem to dosomething about the world's
greatest and biggest problem.
And Jesus is riding in and he'sgoing to face an enemy far more
ruthless than Rome.

(28:24):
He's going to face the enemy ofGod's wrath and justice on a
cross.
He will be beaten and mockedand spit upon and crucified, so
that you and I could be maderight with God.
Romans, chapter 5, verse 1,.
Since you have been justifiedby faith.

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You now have peace with Godthrough the Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who weeps is the onewho will one day dry up all of
our tears, because this kingcried the greatest tears of
agony on a cross when he criedout my God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?

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Jesus is the true temple.
Jesus has done everything thatthe temple sought to provide is
now provided in the Lord Jesusis now provided in the Lord
Jesus, who is the Savior of usand the one who has died for our

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sins through the shedding ofHis blood.
I'll close with this story.
Queen Elizabeth.
After she passed away, severalstories started to emerge about
her and some of those funny andsome things about her
personality and differentstories.
And one of the stories was froma former royal protection

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officer by the name of RichardGriffin.
And Richard Griffin tells astory about the time they were
in Scotland at her holiday home.
About the time they were inScotland at her holiday home and
they were walking just outsidethe property and up walked two
American hikers and he saidnormally the king would engage
or the queen would engage andhave fun with them and meet them

(30:12):
and stop and say hello.
And Griffin said.
The officer said he knew rightfrom the very beginning that
they had no idea who she was anddid not recognize her at all.
And so she decides to playalong.
And they begin by telling thequeen all of the sights and you

(30:33):
know all the sights they'd seenaround Great Britain and then
they ask her where do you live?
And she says where do you live?
And she says, well, I live inLondon, but I've got a holiday
home just on the other side ofthe hill.
And the officer said theylooked and says well, how often
do you come up here?
And the queen looked at theseAmericans and says I've been

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coming to this castle for over80 years.
And then the hiker said well,have you ever met the queen?
Have you ever met QueenElizabeth?
And Queen Elizabeth says well,I haven't, but Officer Richard
here meets with her regularly.
And then no true story theAmerican hikers put their arm

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around this officer and giveQueen Elizabeth the camera and
say would you take a picture ofus so that we can show our
friends they have been with thequeen, that he had been with the
queen.
And so the point is this theywere in the presence of the
queen, in the presence of theQueen and they completely missed

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it.
Friends, this morning we are inthe presence of the King, the
King of Kings and the Lord ofLords, jesus Christ Himself,
through His Spirit.
Don't miss His beauty, don'tmiss his beauty, don't miss his

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glory that it's before you thismorning.
He is a saving king.
He is an unexpected king and heis a weeping king.
He is the king that you need.
He is the king that brings thehope that you need and the peace
that you need, and so thequestion this morning is will

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you get out your palm branch andwill you worship this king?
King Jesus, let's pray.
Father, thank you for coming inhumility, thank you for doing
everything necessary in order tobring us peace with God.
Would you forgive us for theways that we miss you, the ways

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that we try to make you into ourimage or the ways that we make
you too small?
And if there's someone herethis morning that is skeptical
or maybe doubtful, I pray thatyou would fill them with faith
so that they see you clearly.
We ask these things in Christ'sname, amen.