THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRIES

THE FIRST TRIUMPHAL ENTRY

“Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” Before the week was over the same crowd would be crying, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” They wanted a King, but not the kind of King Jesus wanted to be. Pilate finally understood what the crowd had already found out when he said in John 18:37, “Art thou a King then?” Jesus said unto him, “My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world then would my servant’s fight that I should not be delivered unto the Jews, but now is my Kingdom not from hence.” Then He said, “To this end am I come into the world, and for this cause came I into the world.”

So when Jesus rode into Jerusalem He knew He was riding into a crucifixion, but Jesus rode on. He knew before the week was over He would be spit upon, but Jesus rode on. He knew before the week was over they would crown Him with a crown of thorns, but Jesus rode on. He knew before the week was over He would be scourged until His back looked like raw meat, but Jesus rode on. He knew before the week was over, nails would be driven through His hands and feet, and a spear pierced His side, but Jesus rode on.

We can rejoice that Jesus rode on, for this battle at the cross was the greatest battle ever fought on this planet because it had the greatest victory, the victory over the grave. Hebrews 2:9 speaks of the scope of that victory, “But we behold Him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He should taste of death once for every man.” Jesus died for us, not to give us a few more years of life in this world beyond threescore years and ten, but life in glory for endless eternity. The triumphal ride of Jesus began on Sunday and ended the next Sunday at the empty tomb when the voice of the angel proclaimed, “He is not here for He is risen even as He said.”

Now this ride began when Jesus sent two of His disciples and said, “Go into the village that is over against you, and as ye enter you shall find a colt tied in a place where two ways meet, loose him and bring him unto me.” As soon as they entered the village they found the colt exactly where Jesus said, and they loosed the colt. Jesus had told the disciples, “If the owner objects, tell him the Lord hath need of him and straightway he will send him, and I will send him back again.”

The Lord needs him. The owner may have wondered, “Why does the Lord need my colt?” There was a reason for it. The same reason that I heard one time many years ago, as a preacher was shaking hands with the people at the close of the service, and called out to me over the heads of the people as I passed by from the side of the church, “What are you going to do with your life?” I said, “Nothing.” He said, “The Lord needs you.” That was news to me, and I wondered, “Why would He need me?” The reason He needed me was the same reason He needed the colt. The Apostle John said of Jesus in John 2:25, “He Himself knew what was in man.” I did not know what was in that colt, and I did not know what was in me, but Jesus did.

There is something else about that colt that needs attention when we learn that they found the colt at a place where two ways met. It was a crossroads; a fork in the road. Many times we come to a fork in the road and the way we choose can have bearing on the rest of our lives. It may be in the choice of friends, or the choice in marriage and many other things, for the better, or worse. But the most important decision you can make is at the fork in the road of your decision of what will you do about Jesus?

I knew a man years ago that became a Christian, and really went all out for the Lord. He spoke of the Lord in no uncertain terms to everyone. One man asked him, “Jack, where is this hell you are always telling me about?” Jack told him, “You have asked me a straight question, and I will give you a straight answer. If you want to know the location of hell, you just keep on going the way you are going, and you can’t miss it.”

Another thing about that colt is the fact that the two Apostles found the colt exactly where Jesus said he would be, “…as ye enter into the city.” 1st Kings 8:56 says, “There hath not failed one word of all His good promises.” Then again in Ezekiel 12:25, “For I am the Lord: I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass.”

And then one more thing about that colt was why would Jesus feel free about asking for someone’s colt? He felt free to ask for the colt because the colt really belonged to Him anyway. The Scripture speaks of divine ownership. It is said in Psalms 50:10, “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.” The prophet says in Haggai 2:8, “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine saith the Lord of hosts.” Everything we have is ours on loan from God. Jesus has a right to ask for what belongs to Him.

In 1st Kings 17:11-16, A poor widow in a time of drought had just enough meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a jug. She was gathering a few sticks, for a fire so she and her son might eat one last meal and die. Elijah the prophet said, “Fear not; go and do as thou hast said, but make me a little cake first. For thus saith the Lord, The barrel of meal shall not waste, nor the cruse of oil fail, unto the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.” She went and did as Elijah said and the barrel of meal wasted not, nor the cruse of oil fail as the Lord had said until the drought was over. The message of God to us is always, “Make me a little cake first.”

Jesus had borrowed the colt. Actually Jesus borrowed a lot of things according to the famous writer Anonymous:

They borrowed a bed to lay His head when Christ the Lord came down.

They borrowed the ass in the mountain pass when He rode into town;

But the crown that He wore, and the cross that He bore were His own,

The cross was His own.

He borrowed the bread with which He fed on the grassy mountain side.

He borrowed the dish of broken fish with which He satisfied;

But the crown that He wore and the cross that He bore were His own,

The cross was His own.

He borrowed the ship in which to sit as He taught the multitude.

He borrowed a nest in which to rest; He had never a home so crude;

But the cross that He bore and the crown that He wore were His own.

The cross was His own.

They borrowed a room for Him a tomb, the Passover meal to eat.

They borrowed a cave for Him a grave; they borrowed a winding sheet;

But the crown that He wore and the cross that He bore were His own.

The cross was His own.

So Jesus rode on into the city of Jerusalem, and wonder of wonders when the multitudes heard the shouts of praise some said, “Master, rebuke Thy disciples,” and Jesus said, “If these held their peace the stones would cry out.” It was true, the stones did cry out. That great stone that weighed several hundred pounds was dropped into a slot and sealed with the seal of Tiberius Caesar. That great stone was rolled back by an angel, and has been crying out for the last two thousand years, “Christ is arisen from the dead.” The tombstones cry out as you pass the cemetery as in Hebrews 9:27, “It is appointed unto men once to die.” The stones of the temple cried out in 70 A.D. that Jesus predicted in Matthew 24:2, “There shall not be left here one stone on another that shall not be throne down, as a testimony of the rejection of the Son of God.”

In the crowd that day were some who asked a strange question, “Who is this?” These were the ones mentioned in John 1:11, “He came unto His own and His own received Him not.” Ask Moses and he would say, “The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent and the serpent shall bruise His heal.” Ask John the Baptist and he would say, “Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” Ask Thomas after the resurrection and he would say, “My Lord and my God.” Ask God, “Who is this?” And He would declare, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him.” “Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

THE SECOND TRIUMPHAL ENTRY

And now the second triumphal entry in Revelation nineteen begins when John tells us, “I saw the Heaven opened.” As far as the Christian is concerned, anytime the Heaven is opened it is wonderful news.

The Heaven was opened in Matthew 3:16, And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway from the water; and lo, the Heavens were opened unto Him; and lo, a voice out of Heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” And would not the Father be well-pleased for the Christian also, when we obey His command in Christian baptism, and open the Heavens for us?

The Heavens were opened again in Acts 7:56 just before Stephen was stoned, “Behold, I see the Heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” It is a great thought that the Christian at death may be welcomed home by the Lord. After all, Paul did say in 2nd Corinthians 5:8, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”

The Heavens were opened again in Acts 10:9-16, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour: and he became hungry and desired to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, and he beholdeth the Heaven opened, and a certain vessel, descending as it were a great sheet let down by four corners upon the earth wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts and creeping things, and birds of the Heaven. And there came a voice to him, “Rise Peter, kill and eat.” But Peter said, “Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” And a voice came unto him a second time, “What God has cleansed make not thou common.” Later, Peter found out the meaning of the message. The gospel was to be preached to all men of whatever race.

The Heavens were opened to Peter when he went up on the housetop to pray, and his prayer was answered. The answer was not exactly what Peter may have been praying for; but when we accept God’s answer to prayer the Heavens will always be opened unto us. Not my will, but Thine be done.

So John saw the Heavens opened and behold, a white horse, and He that sat thereon is called faithful and true; and in righteousness does He judge and make war. And His eyes are as a flame of fire, and upon His head were many crowns. He was arrayed in a garment dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God; out of His mouth proceedeth a sharp two-edged sword, and on His garment and His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords because He was King in the cradle. The wise men said, “Where is He that is born King of the Jews?” He was King in His trial before Pilate; the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on His head and mocked Him saying, “Hail, King of the Jews.” He was King on the cross when Pilate wrote a sign and put it on the cross and it was written in Hebrew, and in Latin, and in Greek, “This is Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.”

This was the real triumphal entry: no more riding on the donkey, but a white horse, wearing many crowns. “Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

What a triumphal entry! John tells us in Revelation 1:7, “Behold, He comes with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him, yea and they that pierced Him.” Paul again tells us of the descent of Jesus at the Second Coming in 1st Thessalonians 4:15-18, “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are left, shall together with them be caught up to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

And then in 2nd Thessalonians 1:6-10, Paul tells of the descent of Jesus at the Second Coming in relation to both saved and lost, “It is a righteous thing with God to recompense them that afflict you, and to you who are afflicted, rest with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from Heaven with the angels of His power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus: who shall suffer punishment, even destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of His might, when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at in all them that believed.”

In Revelation 11:12 John gives us further insight on the descent of the Lord at His Second Coming when he says, “And they heard a great voice from Heaven saying unto them, ‘Come up hither,’ and they went up to Heaven in the cloud; and their enemies beheld them.” The Heavens were opened unto them, even as their enemies saw them go up. “Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

He will come perhaps at morning, when to simply live is sweet,

And the arm is strong unwearied by the noon time toil and heat.

When the undimmed eye looks upward on the shining heights of life,

And the eager heart is beating, yearning for some noble strife.

He will come perhaps at evening, gray and somber is the sky,

Clouds around the sunset gather, full and dark the shadows lie.

And we long for rest and slumber, and some tender thoughts of home;

Fill the heart with vague sad yearning, then perhaps the Lord will come.

If He only finds me waiting in the mornings early light,

Or the fierce and fiery noontide, or the coming of the night.

If He only finds me waiting, listening for His sudden call,

Then His coming when I think not is the sweetest hope of all.