The Triumphal Entry, Part 2

Introduction and Review of the Triumphal Entry

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, September 6, 1987, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. I encourage you to turn with me to the 11th chapter of Mark's Gospel as we continue our consecutive expositions of this Spirit-inspired account of the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is Mark chapter 11, and will you follow, please, as I read the first 11 verses. And when they draw near unto Jerusalem, unto Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, he sends two of his disciples and says unto them, Go your way into the village that is over against you, and straightway as you enter into it you shall find a colt. A colt tied whereon no man ever yet sat. Loose him and bring him. And if anyone say unto you, Why are you doing this?

1:21 You say, The Lord has need of him, and straightway he will send him back again. And they went away, and found a colt tied at the door without in the open street, and they loose him. And certain of them that say, And they stood there, said unto them, What are you doing, loosing the colt? And they said unto them, Even as Jesus hath said.

1:50 And they let them go. And they bring the colt unto Jesus, and cast on him their garments, and he sat upon him. And many spread their garments upon the way, and others branches which they had cut from the fields. And they that went before.

2:11 And they that followed cried, Hosanna, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord, blessed is the kingdom that comes, the kingdom of our father David, Hosanna in the highest. And he entered into Jerusalem, into the temple. And when he had looked round about upon all things, it being now eventide, he went out unto Bethany. When the people of Bethany found him, it had made them abideth to see him, but these were wittel on all their Righteous as their Athenians, that they might say unto them, Whception of this the fruit of thy womb.

2:59 Now let us again go now seek the face of God into prayer asking God the Holy Spirit to come and give us understanding in his own word. To give us understanding in his own word. let us pray. Our Father, we have sung together of the imagery of your word being like a garden.

3:02 Our Father, we have sung together of the imagery of your word being like a garden.

3:09 And yet we acknowledge that we have no eyes to behold the beauty of its flowers, no strength to pluck them, no ability to appreciate them unless such ability is given by the Holy Spirit. And we would therefore corporately cry to you, pleading in the language of the psalmist, open our eyes that we may behold wondrous things out of your law. Strength in our hands that we may be able to take to ourselves in faith and obedience all that you will say to us. Bind the powers of darkness that would seek to work through remaining corruption, ignorance, prejudice, distracting thoughts, O Lord, we pray. Withhold every influence that would keep your word from being heard by the Holy Spirit. Come running and having free course among us this morning. Come by the Holy Spirit upon preacher and people that together we may all be conscious that we are having dealings with you.

4:28 Hear us as together we plead for these mercies through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now in taking up this 11th chapter of the Gospel of Mark, I, I have indicated to you in our initial study last Lord's Day that we have begun to examine the record of the last phase of our Lord's public ministry. This phase is covered by chapters 11, 12, and 13.

5:08 In taking up this 11th chapter, we also enter into the beginning of that last week of our Lord's earthly ministry, that week culminating in his crucifixion and in his subsequent resurrection. These are the events recorded, of course, in verses, chapters 14, 15, and 16. Now here in chapter 11 and the first 26 verses, Mark records several preparatory events of very strategic significance. The first of these, is what we called last week our Lord's entry into Jerusalem. This passage and the event is often designated as the triumphal entry of our Lord. And in the exposition of the passage last Lord's Day morning, I attempted to open up the substance of what it contains under three very simple headings. First of all, the preparation for our Lord's day.

6:18 For the entry into Jerusalem, verses 1 through 7a. And the focal point of that preparation is on the securing of a donkey. The whole thrust and focal point of our Lord's preparation for entering Jerusalem on this final week of his time of public ministry is indeed a focus, which finds us constantly concerned about a donkey. And then we noted the particular details of the entrance into Jerusalem, as they are found in 7b through verse 11. And here there are two focal points. First of all, there is the shout of acclamation, the constant and enthusiastic recognition, of the presence of God, by the multitudes who go before and who follow, those who go with our Lord out of Bethany towards Jerusalem, and those, according to John 12, who came out of Jerusalem and met them in the way. The focal point is their shouts of acclamation,

7:39 which throb and ooze with undeniable Messianic content. They cry out, blessed is the King, blessed is the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, or in Mark's gospel, Blessed be the coming kingdom of our father David. And so, as surely as the first 7 verses focus upon a donkey, the actual details of his entrance focus upon those, shouts the hosannas save now or save we pray and all of that hope for salvation from this one is messianic hope because the language is undeniably messianic language and then of course the second focal point of the details of his entry is that which we have in verse 11 that upon coming to jerusalem he goes immediately into the temple area and there he carefully scrutinizes

8:54 what is transpiring in that area when he had looked round about upon all things and then after considering the preparation for the entry verses 1 to 7a the details of the entry 7b through 11 we we We then concluded by considering in the third place the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage is nothing less than setting before us this ethical event in which our Lord deliberately unashamedly orchestrates a set of circumstances which would make it plain to all after the event we then concluded by considering the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage is nothing less than setting before us this ethical event in which our Lord deliberately unashamedly orchestrates a set of circumstances which would make it plain to all after the event that he was indeed

9:49 the promised king of Zechariah 9 and verse 9 in which God had said by King cometh unto thee lowly riding upon an ass upon a donkey the foal of an ass and so we are to understand from this passage that our Lord is knowingly deliberately unashamedly orchestrating a set of circumstances which would make it plain to all after the event we then concluded by considering the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage and we discovered that the central message of the passage as the Son of David. Now this morning we return to the passage in order to glean some further vital lessons and practical applications.

What the Incident Reveals About Our Lord: His Unique Glory as God-Man

10:59 I intimated last week that we would be doing this because it was not possible to expound the passage to focus upon its central message and still include these secondary but very helpful lines of application. And I've arranged them in two groups. One major, one minor. We'll spend most of our time in the first group, namely what this incident reveals concerning our Lord Himself.

11:30 What does this incident of His entry into Jerusalem reveal about our Lord Himself? And then the second and minor group will be what this incident reveals about our Lord Himself. About the principles of true discipleship. First of all then, what this incident reveals about our Lord.

11:56 And here I've arranged the material under two headings. What is revealed about our Lord in the unique glory and majesty of His person as the God-man. And then secondly, what is revealed about our Lord as the perfect pattern and example of His people. First of all then, what is revealed in this passage about our Lord as the unique or in the unique glory and majesty of His person as the God-man.

12:31 Well, I have reminded you again and again and again and you will hear it again and again, God willing, before we complete our study of Mark's Gospel that Mark never moves away from his announced, theme in the opening verse of his Gospel. The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And the Gospel is good news to sinners not only because of the things that were done in the life history of Jesus of Nazareth, but the Gospel is good news because of the precise idea of identity of the person of Jesus of Nazareth. And Mark condenses that truth in his opening statement, the beginning of the good news of Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Christ or the anointed of God and who is in His person the unique Son of God, God the Son Himself. We sinners in all of our bondage and helplessness and spiritual death need nothing less than a deliverance which brings into its orbit

14:01 all of the energy, the knowledge, and the power of undiluted Godhood.

14:12 And my friend, if you've never seen yourself to be a sinner who is a sinner, whose needs as a sinner before the courtroom of God and in terms of your own personal spiritual state are such that nothing less than the energy, knowledge, and power of undiluted Godhood can meet your need. You've never seen yourself for what you are.

14:44 And the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, will not be, any good news to you. But once you begin to take seriously what you are as a creature made in the image of God, accountable to the living God, a creature fallen in Adam, conceived in sin, born in spiritual death, held in iron chains of spiritual bondage, and you will be convinced that if you are that there is no help is ever to come to you. It cannot come from a fellow creature, however exalted that creature may be, however noble that creature may be, however wise that creature may be, if the wisdom and power and unleashed omnipotence of God does not come to your aid. You've had it, and there is nothing but darkness that awaits you, even the everlasting darkness of that horrible place called hell. And therefore we have seen again and again in our studies of Mark's Gospel those clear indications that our Savior is nothing less than the Son of God. That is,

16:12 He is God the Son. And here in this passage there is an admonition and a traditional revelation about our Lord in the unique glory and majesty of His person as the God-man. Now precisely how is that revelation given to us? Well, look at the passage and take it at its face value.

16:41 When our Lord is about to enter Jerusalem, conscious of His own messianic identity, conscious that it is the messianic King who must come according to the ancient prophetic announcements about Him, and He is determined that He shall enter Jerusalem riding upon the foal of an ass, how does He secure that donkey? He simply says, verse 2, unto the disciples, Go your way into the village that is over against you, and immediately as you enter into it, you shall find a colt tied, whereon no man ever yet sat. Loose him and bring him. If anyone says, Why are you doing this? You say, The Lord is need of him, and straightway He will send him back again.

17:45 And they went away, found a colt tied at the door, without in the open street, and they loose him. And certain of them that stood there said unto them, What are you doing, loosing the colt? And they said unto them, Even as Jesus has said, and they let them go. Now, simple question.

18:04 How did the Lord Jesus know that in the village over against them, they would find not only a colt tied, but according to Matthew's fuller description of the entire scene at that time, at that point, they would find a colt tied next to its dam, next to its mother. How did Jesus know that that colt would be one upon which no man had ever sat? Not even its master's son to playfully sit upon the little donkey. How did our Lord know the precise circumstances in which the donkey and its mother, would be found? How did He know the objection that would be raised by the owners? How did He know that in giving the answer, both of explanation and of promise that the donkey would be returned, that this would suffice and cause the owner voluntarily to relinquish the donkey? How did He know that the donkey and its mother would not spook at the voice of strangers as animals, often do?

19:20 How did He know that these animals would be amenable to being dragged off by total strangers? How do we know that that colt would receive someone the first time anyone sat upon it? How was our Lord so sure of all these things? Well, the answer is very simple.

19:43 Here is one of those incidents where there is an outshining of one of the attributes of God, that is omniscience and another, that of omnipotence. Omniscience, children, simply means that God knows all and omnipotence simply means God can do all things. And so in this particular passage, I utterly reject the naturalistic explanations. People say, well, Jesus passed through the village and while He passed through the village, knowing, He was going to need a donkey to make His entry into Jerusalem, He prearranged things with the owner.

20:25 Well, is that so? Well, how, if He had done that, would He know that at precisely the time the disciples got there, the donkey would be precisely where it was? How would there be any certainty of all of these particular details when there is no record of any previous village, any visit to the village over against them? It is much simpler to take the passage at face value and see shining through this passage another indication that this is the same Jesus who early in His ministry called a certain man to Himself and said, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. And Nathanael said, Whence do you know me? And our Lord said, You were sitting under the fig tree and I saw you even before you were called. This is the one who could say to the woman at the well when blushing under our Lord's probing demand that she call her husband, said, I have no husband, he says, you have well said.

21:41 And then tells her in substance the whole story of her checkered past. What life! Lies behind these incidents recorded in the gospel records. Well, surely it is that God is setting before us that though our Savior is indeed true man and has taken to Himself a true humanity and all that that involves sin accepted, He is nonetheless the Son of the living God.

22:19 And as the Lord says, God, there are times when that omniscience that is part of God's very essence and being that He knows all, that He has a mind that never needs to investigate to acquire knowledge. He has eyes that never need to look and to squint to perceive that our Lord Himself partakes of that attribute of deity even. Even. Omniscience and then also omnipotence.

22:54 The power to control and regulate all men and all things to accomplish His will. In this case, it was our Lord regulating the disposition of the owners to make sure that the donkey was there with its mother. Regulating and disposing the judgment and the will and the affection of the owner who according to Luke, was the very one who asked the question, what are you doing loosing the coat? And obviously loosing its mother with him according to Matthew.

23:29 Who was it that so controlled the disposition of the donkey that it did not spook at the presence of a stranger? So regulated the disposition of its mother that she did not spook in the presence of a stranger and think that someone had come to harm her offspring. Who was it that governed the natural instincts of brute beasts? The judgment and the reason of these owners who are given a very limited explanation with regard to why the colt and its mother were being taken away?

24:08 Well, it's the same one whom we've seen in Mark's gospel who spoke to the raging seas and they were calm as glass. Who created, didn't matter in his own hands when he took five loaves and a few fishes and broke and broke and broke until he fed thousands. It is the same one who a few days before in this very area stood outside a tomb where a man had been dead four days and already the smell of death had begun to filter out of his tomb and all he needed to say was Lazarus come forth and he came forth and omnipotence was manifested as death itself bent its knee and curtsied to the incarnate God. To know what he cannot see and to turn men's hearts to consent is for God and God alone is Calvin's comment on this passage. And oh dear people how we need to understand this morning when we turn to this section of the word of God and behold the Lord Jesus as the messianic king and we concentrate

25:37 upon the central message of the passage as we did last Lord's day and stand as one dear sister wrote me this week broken and crushed before the wonder of his willingness to take the path of voluntary obedience to come as the king while knowing as the king he'll be impaled upon his cross. The sister wrote and said she wept her way home last Lord's day overwhelmed with the wonder of it and well we ought to be but let us also see that in this passage there is that which even enhances the marvel and the glory of his obedience unto death even the death of the cross for the messianic king is none other than the incarnate God who here shows forth the unique glory and majesty of his person both his omniscience and his omnipotence.

26:45 Let me say by way of application my friend who is yet in your sins I've already alluded to it but I want to underscore it again the savior you need to rescue you from your native condition as a sinner must be one who brings to his work all of the unlimited resources of Godhood nothing less than a divine savior can meet us so great is our need if the mystery of Mary's womb were not his essential to our salvation can you conceive that the father would ever subject his well beloved to the limitations of a humble maiden's womb for nine months that humiliation is enough to astonish us just the humiliation of incarnation the eternal word to a humanity that is not a human being is sustained by the life that flows through an umbilical cord, all because our salvation

28:09 demanded nothing less than one who could bring to his saving work all the virtue and power of undiluted godhood joined to the reality of true humanity. And my sinner friend, that's the Savior you need, and that's the Savior who says to you in the gospel, come unto me, and I will give you rest. Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be saved. And furthermore, my friend, think for a moment of these two attributes particularly.

Application of Christ's Omniscience and Omnipotence to Unbelievers and Believers

28:52 He is an omniscient Savior. He knows all about you. Just like he knew where the little donkey would be tied and where its mother would be, and knew that the owners would come out and ask their question, as surely as he knew that the response that he put into the mouth of his disciples would be effective, he knew every single detail in his perfect omniscience, though we'll see it contrasted with the limitations of his human understanding in the very next passage. My friend.

29:27 My friend, that Jesus knows you all together, every sin you've ever committed. Just like he knew the woman at the well. He knew all about her affairs and her marriages and her broken marriages and her present-demoral relationship, and yet knowing all about her, he said, if only you knew who it is that's speaking to you, you would ask and he would give you the water of life. You mean Jesus knowing all the time?

29:58 I've indulged my mind in filthy thoughts, and my body in vile deeds, and my ears have sucked in uncleanness and untruth and gossip, and my eyes have looked upon forbidden objects. You mean knowing all that Jesus bids me come? Yes, sinner. Knowing all about you.

30:22 Because he knows all about you is why he bids you come. Because the mountain of your sin is such that none but Christ can do helpless sinners good.

30:38 That's the Savior who is the heart of the gospel. He knows you, and yet he bids you come. But now that has a flip side.

30:49 You say, well, others don't know me to be what God knows me to be and what I know myself to be. I'll bluff it. I'll fake it. I'll go on.

31:01 I'll go on fooling people. And you may. But in the day of judgment, you'll stand before him whose eyes are as a flame of fire. And then it says the secrets of men's hearts will be revealed.

31:17 Every secret thought of jealousy, of envy, of lust, of covetousness, every secret deed of uncleanness, and every secret indulgence of pride and envy, then! What has been done in secret will be proclaimed upon the housetops. Because this Jesus, the messianic king, has not completed his messianic function. It took him through the gate of Jerusalem.

31:46 It took him to a cross. It took him to a tomb. It took him to a throne. And it's going to bring you before that throne.

31:54 And as the messianic king, he'll be the judge of the world. And you'll meet a judge who knows everything. The thought and intention of your heart. And if he cannot testify that he's washed every sin that he knows in his blood, you've had it!

32:12 You've had it! The judge will say, Depart from me, ye cursed.

32:19 You don't fool with Jesus, my friend.

32:23 The Jesus of this passage is the Jesus whose glory breaks forth before us as the omniscient and the omnipotent. But this not only has a word to the unconverted, but dear child of God, doesn't it make a difference when this one says, Lo, I am with you all of the days, even unto the consummation of the age. Who is with us? Not merely one who can sympathize with us in our need, but who knows us all together.

33:06 Amen. In those times when with our struggles with our own sin and remaining corruption and our fickle human temperament in all of its vulnerability, and we don't even know ourselves, what comfort it is to throw ourselves down before him and say, Lord Jesus, you know this messed up creature all together. You can sort out all the strands of what makes me what I am, and how I think and react. And Lord Jesus, knowing me completely, you still love me, you still care for me, you still shepherd me.

33:47 Lord Jesus, out of your perfect knowledge of what I am, shepherd me. Lord Jesus, guide me. Lord Jesus, direct me. Lord Jesus, protect me.

33:59 And then to know that the omniscient one is the omnipotent one, who said, as one of his sheep, as one of his sheep I am held in his hand, and held in his hand no man can pluck me. Let all the demons in hell get together in one massive demonic huddle, and let them determine at a given point in time they're going to hurl all of their combined demonic foul energy against the hand of Christ. They can't even make him twitch a finger. I hold them, he says, and none can pluck them out. That's your Savior, child of God. That's my Savior. That's good news.

34:51 No wonder Mark says, the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, Son of God. And I say in this passage, there is a revelation of our Lord in the unique glory and majesty in His person as the God-man. But then we must hasten on to notice, secondly, what is revealed about our Lord as the perfect pattern for His people. Now please listen carefully to what I say.

What the Incident Reveals About Our Lord: His Perfect Pattern for His People

35:25 The Bible clearly teaches that the only Redeemer and Savior of sinners is the Lord Jesus, and that He saves us not by His example, but by His death, upon the cross, under the wrath of God, and His mighty resurrection from the dead, and His sending of the Holy Spirit into the hearts of needy sinners. We are not saved by the example of Jesus. We are saved by the work of Jesus Christ done on behalf of sinners. But the same Bible that teaches that, and we could bring dozens of texts to demonstrate it, goes on to teach us that those who are saved on the basis of Christ's work for them, now are to set the Lord Jesus before their eyes as their pattern and example of how they are to live, not in order to earn heaven, but in order to show their gratitude to Him who is taking them to heaven, on the basis of what He did to earn heaven for them. And so the Bible says in 1 John 2, 6, He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself so to walk

36:53 even as He walked. Or as Peter tells us, Christ has left us an example that we should follow His steps. Now liberalism has been in that it has made Christ our pattern, its dominant emphasis, and has not set before us Christ the Redeemer. But I fear that in evangelicalism we have erred, and while duly emphasizing Christ is our only Redeemer, we have not sufficiently emphasized Christ as our bona fide pattern of what it is to live a life well pleasing to God. And that's why we sang that second hymn this morning. We read in the word of God and in the law of God His will, but we say in that hymn, but in thy life we see drawn out what it means to love God, to keep the law of God, to love our neighbor. And I ask you to notice with me as time permits several of the very clear things that are revealed about our Lord as the perfect pattern for His people.

Christ as Pattern: Framing Life by God's Law (The Golden Rule)

38:14 First of all, He is our pattern in His determination to frame His life by the general demands and standard of the law of God. He is our pattern in His determination to frame His life by the general demands and standard of the law of God. The Scripture tells us that He was made under the law, the totality of the law for our Lord, including even the Mosaic legislation. But now the summary of the moral requirements of the law, the moral demands of the law, is given by our Lord in Matthew 7 and verse 12. All things therefore, whatsoever you would that men should do unto you, even so do you also unto them, for this is the law and the prophets. In other words, Jesus says God's will for His creatures expressed in the entire Old Testament revelation as it pertains to our relationship to one another is summed up in this

39:42 that is often called the Golden Rule. As you would that others should do unto you, even so do you also unto them. In other words, in every circumstance, when I consider what would I want others to do to me that would reflect sensitivity to who I am, to what I am, to what my needs are, as a human being, I am, as it were, to transfer myself into another person, get under his skin, look at the situation with his eyes and from his eyeballs, and as I would that others should do to me in those circumstances, I am to do to him. Now see how beautifully this is brought out in our passage. Put yourself in the place of the two disciples. The Lord says to you, John, Peter, or whichever of the disciples he called, come here.

40:47 And he says, now, I want you to go your way into the village that is opposite you, probably into Bethphage, and when you enter, you're going to find a donkey tied. Now what I want you to do is to loose the donkey and to bring it back. Well, immediately, put yourself in their place. What would they be feeling?

41:06 But Lord, what if the owner, someone else, sees us strangers coming into the town, loosing the donkey that's not ours? And they, the Lord says, I anticipate you're probably fearful, so what does he do? Look, if anyone say unto you, why are you doing this? You say, the Lord is need of him, and straightway he'll send him back hither.

41:31 And they went away. And as they went away, what did they have with them? They had not only their natural fears, for they were human beings like the rest of us, going on a strange mission that had some danger elements in it. I mean, is the local cop going to be walking his feet and seeing us loosing the colt and say, hey you guys, what do you think you're doing?

41:54 Come down to the hooscout. I'm going to put you down. No. They were fears, just like you and I would have fears.

42:00 But the Lord anticipates the fears, as you would that others do unto you. Even so do unto them, so he allays their fears. He puts himself, as it were, under their skin, into their psyche. He feels their apprehension, and he calms it with a word of direction and assures them that it will win the day.

42:26 Furthermore, he was also sensitive to what the owner might think if he saw two strangers loosing his little donkey and its mother. I mean, suppose someone, as you're walking out to your car this afternoon after the service, and you're just getting near your car, standing there talking to one of the brothers and sisters, and some soul stranger comes, opens the doors, gets in, sticks a key in that works, turns it, cranks up the engine, puts it into gear. What would you do? Just bang on the fender.

42:58 Hey man, what you doing? That's my car. Where do you think you're going? In my car.

43:06 Now, the Lord understood that people would have a concern for their personal property. So what did he tell them? He said, if someone asks, what are you doing? You answer in a two-fold way, the Lord has need of him.

43:20 Assuming apparently that in that area everyone would have heard, this may have even been someone who had some previously expressed sympathies for Jesus. But most of all, it was the word of reassurance. Verse 3b, straightway he will send him back again. We give you our word that the Lord who has need of him is not going to break the eighth commandment.

43:46 Thou shalt not steal. He will have a conscience about borrowed property. He will return it to you again. Now do you see what there is in this passage?

43:58 Here we have our Lord determining to frame his life by the general demand and standard of the law of God, which not only stands as thou shalt not, negative, but thou shalt. Without these positive acts of law fulfilling, we would not have a Savior. For our Savior to be sinless, dear people, not only meant that he would never lust, that he would never profane his Father's special day. It not only meant that he would not bear false witness, it meant that he had to render the positive virtues demanded by the law as well as avoid the sins and vices prohibited by the law. A virtue that is merely negative is no virtue. For the sum of the first table of the law is what? Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength.

45:11 That is a positive demand as well as the negative thou shalt have no other gods before me. And so in this passage we see our blessed Lord as our perfect pattern and example that we too like him are to seek to frame the totality of life by the general demands of the law of God. That means that in all of our personal interactions we must pray for the grace to get behind our brother's eyeballs, behind our sister's eyeballs, under our brother's skin, under our sister's skin, behind our wife's eyeballs, behind our children's eyeballs. It means that we are continually engaged in one of the most self-withering activities I know of. And that is attempting to relate to people and things and circumstances not in terms of how I naturally relate to them but how my brother, sister, wife, husband, father, mother, friend is relating to them. And as I would that others should do unto me in those circumstances,

46:38 given their background and their peculiar sensitivities and their peculiar quirks and all the rest, to accommodate my actions not to please myself, please my brother unto his edification. That's what Paul is saying in Romans chapter 15. We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good unto edifying.

47:21 For Christ also pleased not himself. Dear people, what a difference it makes in a marriage where a husband fully conscious of his God-given place of authority as we were reminded this morning, fully conscious that he cannot shake off that yoke of responsibility to be the head of his wife and of his family. But oh, what a difference when he exercises that headship after the pattern of Jesus, anticipating how his wife will feel about a given directive. And though he must give that directive as the head of the home, he doesn't simply say, I told you to do it and I'll do it. Jesus didn't do that with the disciples. He said, Go and fetch the colt. But I know you've got fears.

48:21 And he lovingly lays the fears to rest. Do you do that with your wife? Or do you just pull your stinking rotten rank and let her live a life of constant emotional trauma because you're so self-centered and unmortified in your carnal concern about how you look at it that you'll never try to look at anything through your wife's eyeballs and feel it through her fingertips? God have mercy on a wife who's got a husband like that.

48:57 Do you dare go home and ask your wife if she sat there this morning when I made that statement and said, How did Pastor know about me? Go ahead, husbands. Ask your wives. You've got nothing to be afraid of asking.

49:16 Why won't you? Because you know I've described you. Oh, no. You're not breaking the seventh commandment.

49:24 You're not laying with another man's wife. You're not consorting with harlots. You say, I'm true to my wife. But you're not loving her as Christ loved His own.

49:36 How did He love them? He knew when He sent them on an errand that caused some disturbance. He did all within His power to quiet them. He still sent them on the errand.

49:47 He exercised His authority. He said, Oh, no. But He did it in the manner set before us. And as we behold our blessed Lord in this passage, we see Him in His determination to frame His life by the general demands and standard of the law of God.

Christ as Pattern: Regulating Official Duties by God's Word

50:03 And He died that we might live the same way, Romans 8, 4. He died that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit, but the Holy Spirit. And He died that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Spirit but after the Spirit. Then notice, secondly, as our example, He is our example in His determination to regulate the official duties of His specific office by the word of God.

50:35 Now, see the progression? Not only our pattern and example in His determination to frame His life by the general demands of God's law, but in His determination to regulate the official duties of His specific office by the word of God. And I fear we appreciate too little this aspect of biblical teaching. Now, sometimes in Scripture it says this came to pass that it might be fulfilled and the people involved didn't even know it.

51:03 Like the man who prophesied that one should die for the nation. He didn't know he was making a prophetic utterance on the substitutionary death of Christ. He unwittingly fulfilled Scripture. He spoke a prophetic word.

51:16 But again and again in the life of the Messiah there are indications that He framed the fulfilling of His messianic office and functions according to His knowledge of what the Old Testament said Messiah would be and do. And that's not contrived. It sets the pattern for our fulfillment of any official duties we have in relationship to the specific offices and functional duties that God lays apart on us. For example in John 13 and verse 18 I speak not of you all I know whom I have chosen but that the Scripture may be fulfilled he that eats my bread lifts up his heel against me. Jesus said I've done what I've done that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And even when He hung upon the cross in those final hours of agony chapter 19 and verse 28 of John we read this after this Jesus knowing that all things are now finished that the Scripture might be accomplished said I thirst He knew that one of the prophetic utterances found in Psalm 69 has the suffering Messiah

52:44 crying out in thirst and that this Scripture might be fulfilled first. Now He was thirsty it wasn't that He lied or contrived the statement but He made the statement reflecting that reality that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. My wife told me last week that when I said Jesus openly knowingly engineered this entrance into Jerusalem she said honey I sat in my seat and I said let me think about that engineered that sounds contrived but she said by the time you were done you convinced my judgment so you see even my wife doesn't believe everything just because I say it and I hope that's because she's not only a true Christian but that she's been trained to think biblically and some of you may have found it difficult when I use that terminology I found a donkey would you like to sit he said you go into that village you find a donkey tied you bring him do this he engineered it all why because he deliberately shaped

54:14 and molded the activities of his official function as Messiah and King according to the word of God fathers mothers children single people there are specific directives to singles in the word of God elders deacons shepherds of the souls of men and in every official duty and function of whatever office God has placed us how are we to conduct ourselves like our Lord did in the word of God and we are to say I am doing this as a husband in order that the scriptures might be fulfilled I am to love as Christ loved I am to exercise a headship that reflects the loving responsible headship of the Lord Jesus why do I do this even in the chastening and admonition of the Lord why am I as a wife and mother of little ones to be what the world calls as a prisoner to my family a keeper at home because the word

55:42 of God says that women with little ones are to be keepers at home that's why in obedience to the word of God obedience to what the Bible said the messianic king should do namely go into Jerusalem and suck and die it shattered all the expectations of the contemporary religious world he had to go against the whole tide of what the religious world was saying they said on the Bible about what Messiah would be and do and he had religious pseudo biblical expectations of Messiah in order to do what the Bible said Messiah ought to do and my friend if you've got to stand against the whole prevailing tide of the existing religious system to be what God says a husband to be a wife to be a son a daughter an elder a deacon

Christ as Pattern: Unruffled, Thoughtful, Prayerful, Deliberate Obedience

57:12 a strict must let God be true and every man a liar and then I hasten to just touch briefly on the third area in which he is our great example in his determination to live his life and here I wrestle with the words I'm not fully satisfied but I'll give you what I have he is our example in his determination to live his life in unruffled thoughtful prayerful deliberate obedience to the will of God he is our example in his determination to live his life in unruffled thoughtful prayerful deliberate obedience to the word of God Mark alone gives us this detail found in verse 11 if you only had Matthew the same day he entered into Jerusalem in the triumphal entry that he cleansed the temple on that very day but Mark who is more careful by the guidance of the spirit in setting

58:40 out the precise chronology says verse 11 he entered into Jerusalem into the temple and had turned the tables and had made a scourge and had driven out the animals he goes in and from the subsequent narrative we find that he sees exactly the same situation all over again when he went into the temple area it says he looked round about upon all the things that he had seen in the temple and he saw that he saw that he saw that he saw that he saw that he saw that he saw that he saw that he saw really the and and absolutely faithful and truly faithful to the will of

60:09 all shunt of evil the will of all of all a that one sort thoroughly accomplish his task he doesn't do a quick fix on the temple cleansing but the scripture tells us that after he looked round about upon all things being now even tied he went out unto bethany with the twelve and what do you think he did on that road that took him down the mount of olives down path bethphage and into bethany one can only imagine the thoughts that turned over in his mind and within his soul and as he arose the next morning one can only conjecture that the burden of his prayer must have focused upon his father's house the place that should be a place of prayer of pure communion with jehovah god love shining out to the nations from the one nation that was the recipient of special revelation

61:33 as a nation and yet our lord could with unruffled thoughtful prayerful deliberate obedience wait to cleanse the temple in god's time and oh how my own spirit was rebuked and instructed in meditating upon this passage or how have we not all made fuel for repentance many times we know a lot to do what we thought was the will of god but because we Maisel ceremony coughless airway mobile lo statistical jesus Rin or law servant of the high priest here. So the Lord had to patch up Peter's impetuosity and healing.

62:35 Two texts of scripture that God brings to my mind again and again and how they came to new light in preparation for the meditation this morning. In Isaiah 28, 16 and in its messianic passage it says, and he that believeth shall not make haste. God is promising that he will lay in Zion a true and a tried stone and he that believes shall not make haste. In other words, if I'm convinced that God is committed to do his own work in his own way and in his own time, he does not need my ruffled, thoughtless, prayerless, impetuous health. He may choose to use my unruffled, thoughtful, prayerful, deliberate obedience, but he surely does not need the other. Kind but service. And the second text is Proverbs 19, to be he that makes haste with his feet sins. And Bridges commenting on this text says, the man of impulse is impatient to finish his work

63:47 before the time and therefore crowds into the day far more than belongs to it, forgetting that things are not done by the effort of the moment, but by the preparation of the day. And he says, and he says, and he says, and he says, and he says, and he says, and he says, and he says, and he says, and he says, and he says, and he says, and he says, and he says, of past moments. He that is in a hurry proves that the work in which he is engaged is too much for him. The true method is to do the thing of the day in the day. That is all God requires to be done. The affair of one day at a time is as much as can be quietly committed to God in the daily exercise of faith. Let us ever remember that without self-discipline, there can be no Christian consistency or stability. In a thousand cases, haste may plunge our feet into sin, if not into ruin. The best intentioned purposes unwarranted

64:46 by the will and word of God are only blind impulses to be checked, not followed. The real piece of faith is to stand or sit still and see how God will appear, on our side, and make a way for us through many a deep water of perplexity. And then he quotes with the text from Isaiah, he that believeth shall not make haste. Oh, what an example is our blessed Lord. He did not hastily cleanse the temple, but with unruffled, thoughtful, prayerful, deliberate obedience, accomplishes that task the next day. Well, there are other areas, but our time is gone. May God grant that having looked upon our Savior this morning, our hearts will be drawn out to love him, that we will cry out in the language of the hymn, more like the Savior daily I would be. And dear people, we become like him not by gazing at the boob-toop, but the scripture says,

Conclusion: Beholding Christ for Transformation

66:05 but we all with open face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into that same image from one stage of glory to another. Oh, that we may contemplate him as he marches before us in what one author called the gospel records, the galleries of the king. That's what he called Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four picture galleries of the king. And he says, we're privileged to walk up and down the galleries and behold him in the various scenes of life and beholding him above all and first of all and fundamental to all, trust him, commit ourselves to him as our only hope of salvation. And then out of love and gratitude, seek by the power of his spirit to be made like him more and more as his grace works in us. Let us pray. Our Father, we do praise you this morning for your beloved Son and our Savior, the Lord Jesus.

67:19 We thank you for the richness of the record left of his life, of his doings, and above all, of his dying and of his resurrection, and of his sending the Holy Spirit. We pray that you will take what we have seen of our Savior and make it a saving and sanctifying influence in all of our hearts. See you then, your word we pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.