The Sovereign King Enters Jerusalem-Mark 11:1-11

This morning we are going to briefly skip over chapter 10 of Mark and move forward to chapter 11. The plan is to go back to Mark 10 after Easter. As we have journeyed through the Gospel of Mark, we understood, early on, that the Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees wanted Jesus out of the picture. This was never hidden from the mind of Jesus either, in fact, beyond that, all of this was a part of His divine plan from before He ever came to earth. You will notice the title of this morning’s message is “The Sovereign King Enters Jerusalem”. As we move forward this morning, His sovereignty over all things should become abundantly clear, this includes His perfect timing in all things. Before we read these verses this morning, let me briefly recount a few of the things that have taken place leading up to Mark 11. To begin with, just a few weeks earlier, while Jesus was in Bethany, He raised Lazarus from the dead, and while this was not the first time Jesus rose someone from the dead, this was easily the most dramatic. In each of the other cases, the death had just occured when Jesus came onto the scene. Not so with Lazarus, he had been dead for 4 days and there had already been a funeral. Some may have attempted to explain away the other times Jesus raised someone from the dead, but there would be no way to explain this one away. We find out towards the end of John 11 that this hastened the desire of the Pharisees and chief priests to have Jesus put to death once and for all. As was mentioned a few moments ago, they were not alone in their desire to see Jesus out of the picture, the Sadducees also wanted him gone. Although these two groups were enemies, they counseled together as to what to do with Jesus. Caiaphas was the chief priest at the time. Before long he spoke up. His words are recorded in John 11:49-50. Next Slide

John 11:49–50 ESV

49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.”

Unwittingly Caiaphas became a pawn in the Hands of the Sovereign God. John made this clear in the next 2 verses where we read: Next Slide

John 11:51–52 ESV

51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

Did I mention yet that the title of this morning’s message is “The Sovereign King Enters Jerusalem”?

But according to the perfect plan and perfect timing of God the Father, the time for Jesus sacrificial death was not quite at hand. As a result, Jesus heads northwest from Jerusalem, near the wilderness to a town called Ephraim. There He hides out for a short period of time until the timing was perfect. During that period, He did some traveling, a lot of teaching as well as a few miracles.

One of the most popular movies in 2000 was the movie “The Perfect Storm” Starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg. In the movie, based on an actual event that took place around Halloween in 1991, 3 massive and dangerous storm systems collide and in the end, the fishing vessel, Andrea Gail, perished into the sea.

In many ways that is exactly what we see taking place in this morning’s passage. With the raising of Lazarus from the dead, Jesus popularity had reached its peak. On top of that, Israel was approaching the Passover, which meant that huge numbers of Jews from all over the region were making their way to Jerusalem for the celebration. The closer everyone got to Jerusalem, the more the news spread of the raising of Lazarus. Along with that news was the speculation that Jesus, Himself, would be there for the Passover.

After a short period of time, Jesus headed south and west, gathering greater and greater crowds along the way. Part of His journey took Him through the town of Jericho, where He had an encounter with, what was likely the most hated man in the town, a small man by the name of Zacchaeus. From Jericho, Jesus and the growing crowd headed east towards Jerusalem stopping in Bethany, where Jesus stayed in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. When the crowds found out that Jesus was in Bethany, they rushed to the area, wanting to see Jesus, but also wanting to see Lazarus with their own eyes. With this, the anger of the chief priest’s grew even greater as more and more people were abandoning them to follow Jesus. So, they now plotted to kill both Jesus and Lazarus. This leads us to this morning’s passage. With that, will you please stand for the reading of God’s Word? Next Slide

Mark 11:1–11 ESV

1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples 2 and said to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. 3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’ ” 4 And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. 5 And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” 6 And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. 7 And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. 8 And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. 9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” 11 And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Word, please be seated.

Moving forward this morning, the Sovereignty of God will become clearer and clearer as we see His Infinite Hand at work in each and every detail and these details started well before the day of the Triumphal Entry.

How many of you may recall from our time in the Book of Nehemiah? Towards the end of 2019, while looking at chapter 2 of Nehemiah, we looked at a prophecy that took place approximately 100 years before Nehemiah was written. The prophecy was by the Prophet Daniel and it is found in Daniel chapter 9. In Daniels prophecy, he gives the exact timeline to the day, on which the Messiah would enter Jerusalem. The countdown begins the day the order is given to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. We see King Artaxerxes give that order in Nehemiah 2. Based on Daniels prophecy, 173,880 days from the day that Nehemiah was given the command to rebuild the walls - which was March 14, 445 B.C. - Jesus the Messiah would be presented to Israel. That is exactly what we see taking place in the Triumphal Entry. So, more than 500 years before this event took place, God the Father established the perfect time table, but wait, there is more! This is just the beginning of the move of the Sovereign God in the events of this day.

(Look over but don’t read Mark 11:1-2)Next Slide

Mark 11:1–2 ESV

We find out in Mark 11: 1 & 2 that Jesus instructs 2 of His disciples to enter the small town in front of them, which was most likely Bethphage, and upon entering the town they would immediately see a young donkey tied to a post. We learn in one of the other Gospels that He also prophesied that the mother of the donkey was be there. Note that Jesus specified that no one had ever ridden this donkey. The 2 disciples were told to untie both of the donkeys and bring them to Jesus and that if anyone tried to stop them they were to tell them that “The Lord has need of it.”

Think about this for a moment, how is it even possible for Jesus to forecast not only exactly what they would see the moment they entered the small town, but also what they would then be questioned, and how to respond to the question, and that those that questioned them would honor their request? I guess when You’re the One who created the universe, the infinite One, the One with knowledge of all things, Who knows the beginning from the end, Who is not bound by time or space, in other words God has the ability to travel into the future, or into the past, in a split second and as a result not only knows what is going to take place, but can dictate what will take place. That is the God we are studying about as we go through the Gospel of Mark, that is our Jesus.

But why a donkey, even more so, why the foal of a donkey? This brings us to another Old Testament passage. The passage is Zechariah 9:9, which is a prophecy about the coming Messiah. In it we read: Next Slide

Zechariah 9:9 ESV

9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

So, the first reason Jesus chose a donkey, or even more detailed the foal of a donkey, is to fulfill a prophecy written more than 500 years earlier. A couple of other things to note. One, notice this donkey had never been ridden on. According to my research, donkeys are similar to horses, in that they have to be broken in before being ridden. Where they are different is that they don’t tend to buck the rider off, they just stand still and do nothing. It takes months and months before a donkey will obey their master. The master has to earn the trust of the donkey before the donkey will obey. Yet, here Jesus is, specifying a donkey that had never been ridden on, yet immediately the donkey trusted Jesus as his Master. Evidently this young donkey understood Who it’s Master it truly was, or perhaps the donkey had the ability to see things other could not see. This wouldn’t be the first time this had happened. In Numbers 22, we read the story of Balaam and his donkey. How Balaam, a prophet, turned his back on God for money. He was going to prophecy against the Nation of Israel for gold and silver. As Balaam was traveling on his donkey, the donkey could see into the spiritual realm and saw an angel of God about to part Balaam’s head with a sword, so the donkey stopped. Maybe the donkey in this morning’s passage also had the ability to see into the spiritual realm, and knew Jesus was God the Son.

The next thing to note is, often times a horse or donkey was reserved only for a king. In other words, no one else was ever to ride the animal. As the King of Israel, Jesus was going to ride on a donkey no one else had ever ridden on. Additionally, kings were permitted to use a subject’s “beast of burden” which is exactly what a donkey is considered, at anytime, simply by requesting it. Again, verifying Jesus as the King.

But why a donkey? I mean, wouldn’t you have expected Jesus to ride in on a horse? My guess is that is exactly what the disciples were expecting. They were still struggling with seeing Jesus as the suffering Servant, still were looking at Him as the conquering King. I would imagine that with the now massive crowd, probably in the 10’s of thousands and growing bigger each step of the way, they were expecting Jesus to commandeer a white horse on which to ride. That is what a conquering king would ride. But Jesus wasn’t coming as a conquering king, He was coming as THE Suffering Servant, He was coming in peace, and in ancient times, when a king was coming in peace, he rode a donkey. But there is at least one other thing at play here, again this goes back to Zechariah’s prophecy in Zechariah 9:9, Zechariah prophesied that the messiah would come “humble and mounted on a donkey, the foal of a donkey.” Jesus was providing all present that day a beautiful picture that He was a humble, prophecy fulfilling, Servant King.

As we read on in Mark, we see everything unfold exactly as Jesus said it would. Then, starting in verse 7, we see more details emerge:

(Look over but don’t read Mark 11:7-10)Next Slide

Mark 11:7–10 ESV

7 And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. 8 And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. 9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”

To begin with, the disciples, as a sign of reverence to Jesus, lay their cloaks on the donkey, as sort of a saddle for Him. Then they led Jesus, on the donkey, into Jerusalem. By now the crowd has grown, very likely to the hundreds of thousands. Keep in mind, this is the time of The Passover. The Jewish historian, Josephus, wrote about a passover that took place about 10 years later, that brought crowds estimated to be 2 1/2 million people. This crowd was huge, and most knew of many the things Jesus had done, including raising Lazarus from the dead. The excitement was at a fever pitch now as many in the crowd were anticipating Jesus to be the long awaited Messiah. The one Daniel wrote about in Daniel 9. They began to lay their own cloaks on the road before Him. This was a sign that they were making themselves available to Him, to do as He bid them. Additionally some in the crowd laid palm branches in the road before Him. The crowd sang a chorus to Him. Look at verse 9. (“Hosanna! [meaning ‘Save us now we pray’] Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord”)This is taken from Psalm 118, a Psalm of declaration of the coming Messiah.

This crowd had the same expectation as that of the disciples, that Jesus was getting ready to lead a revolution against the Roman Empire. Many had heard or seen of Jesus doing the unexplainable. Including raising Lazarus from the dead. Who better to lead them into battle. Maybe some of them thought that with His power to raise the dead, He could bring people who were killed in battle back to life! Kinda like Aslan did in C. S. Lewis “The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe” in the last battle scene where Aslan would take those the white queen had turned into stone and restore them to life. They also understood the prophecy of Daniel from Daniel 9. The problem was, they had ignored verse 26 of Daniel 9, which clearly stated that; “an Anointed One shall be cut off and shall have nothing.” In other words, this Triumphal Entry, would not end well for the Messiah. But it would end well for us, because His being “cut off” was when He purchased our salvation on the cross. We will look at that more a little later.

In reading this same account in Luke 19, we see that about this time some of the Pharisees that were in the crowd approached Jesus and said “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples!” The Pharisees were terrified that they were loosing any grip they might have on the people. John recorded that they said “the whole world has gone after Him.” They wanted this to stop, and stop it now. I love Jesus response to them. He said “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” Keep His reply in mind as we move forward in Luke account.

Luke goes on to write; “And when He drew near and saw the city, He wept over it”. When it says that He wept over the city, the Greek word denotes an “agonizing sobbing” over what was going to take place. Jesus went on to prophesy of the destruction of Jerusalem. This was to take place about 40 years in the future when the Roman Empire would come against a Jewish revolt and completely decimate the city, in the end not leaving one stone upon another. Fulfilling Jesus Words as He wept over the city and proclaimed that not one stone would be left on another. But that also gives a picture of Jesus response to the Pharisees. When Rome was destroying Jerusalem, it was as if the “very stones” were crying out.

I would like to close this morning with the way Jesus forced the hands of the Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees. We learn in other passages in the Gospel’s that the last thing the Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees wanted to do was put Jesus to death during the Passover Celebration. They feared a revolt from the huge crowd. But Jesus left them no choice. In looking back at Mark 11, in verse 11 we find out that upon entering Jerusalem, Jesus went into the temple, looked around at everything and left. Jesus here is scoping out the place, for the next day he would enter the temple and drive out the money changers and those selling pigeons for the sacrifice. He also drove out anyone who was carrying anything in the temple. As the week progressed, Jesus confronted the Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees every chance He could. In the end He forced their hand, they had no choice but to have Him crucified and the sooner the better.

According to God’s perfect plan, Jesus death was to take place the very day of the Passover. In fact at the very time of the Temple sacrifice, with thousands upon thousands of spotless lambs were being sacrificed, lambs who’s blood had no cleansing power whatsoever, who’s blood from the very outset looked forward to One particular Lamb, Jesus was That Lamb, The Spotless Lamb of God Who’s blood cleansed the sins of the world. As the precise moment that the blood of those lambs was being shed, Jesus blood was also being shed. Shed that all who call upon Him as Savior and Lord, would be saved by the cleansing and transforming power of that blood.

And that is what we look forward too this Passion Week. Our Sovereign Lord was in control of all things, that He might purchase our redemption.