The Triumphal Entry

The next day [Monday] the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.  So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!"  John 12:12-13

Prophesied in the book of Revelation:  I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"  Revelation 7:9-10

From John Piper:

"The entry into Jerusalem with waving palms (John 12:13) was a short-lived preview of the eternal Palm Sunday to come.  It needed to be said.  If the disciples hadn't said it, the rocks would have.  But if Jesus had taken his throne on that first day of palms, none of us would ever be robed in white or waving palms of praise in the age to come.  There had to be the cross, and that is what the disciples had not yet understood. . .They saw him as a king moving in to take control.  And he was.  But they could not grasp that the victory Jesus would win in Jerusalem over sin and Satan and death and all the enemies of righteousness and joy--that this victory would be won through this own horrible suffering and death. . .And their misunderstanding of Jesus' journey to Jerusalem results in a misunderstanding of the meaning of discipleship."


"Here is a question put to every believer by this text:   does discipleship mean deploying God's missiles against the enemy in righteous indignation?  Or does discipleship mean following him on the Calvary road which leads to suffering and death?  The answer of the whole New Testament is this:  the surprise about Jesus the Messiah is that he came to live a life of sacrificial, dying service before he comes a second time to reign in glory.  And the surprise about discipleship is that it demands a life of sacrificial, dying service before we can reign with Christ in glory."


[Jesus said] If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it" (Luke 9:23-24). 

"When Jesus set his face to walk the Calvary road, he as not merely taking our place; he was setting our pattern.  He is substitute and pacesetter.  If we seek to secure our life through returning evil for evil or surrounding ourselves with luxury in the face of human need, we will lose our life.  We can save our life only if we follow Christ on the Calvary road."


~Quotations taken from "He Set His Face to Go to Jerusalem,"  sermon by John Piper, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, April 4, 1982.