84
John 12:16-19 THE IMPACT OF THE TRIUMPHAL RIDE OF JESUS

Introduction:
	
	In our text last Sunday Jesus rode into the city of
Jerusalem on a colt the fold of an ass.  He was escorted
into the city by thousands of people who laid out a royal
carpet before Him composed of palm branches and garments off
their backs.  The people led Him down Mt. Olives and into
the city of Jerusalem cheering Him with loud voices calling
upon Him to be their king and save them from the Romans.
	In our text today we will examine the impact which the
triumphal ride of Jesus had upon the disciples, upon the
people of Jerusalem and upon the whole nation of Israel.

I.  The impact upon His disciples

	We will consider first the impact which this event had
upon the disciples of the Lord.  V. 16, "These things
understood not his disciples at the first..."  John makes it
clear to us that the disciples misunderstood the whole
event.  They did not understand until later that this was
done in order to fulfill a prophecy which Zechariah had made
about Jesus.
	John does not tell us what impression they did get, but
it is not hard for us to figure out.  From their earlier
childhood they had been taught that the Messiah would come
and that He would become king in Israel.  They had been
taught that He would save the nation of Israel by driving
out the Gentiles who ruled over them.  That is what all
Jewish children had been taught.
	So when, under the preaching of John the Baptist, they
became convinced that Jesus is the Christ, they were also
convinced that Jesus would become king in Israel and would
drive out the Romans.   This is what they had expected of
Jesus from they time they became His disciples.
	They thought He would become king and that they would be
princes in His kingdom helping Him to govern the nation of
Israel.  They even got into a dispute among themselves over
who would sit at His right hand an be the top official under
Him.
	Jesus tried to tell them that He was not going to set up
an earthly kingdom.  He had tried to tell them that He was
going to be put to death.  He had repeatedly told them that
the Jewish leaders would put Him to death.  He even told
them that His death would be by crucifixion.  As recent as
the great supper given in His honor back at Bethany He had
told them that the ointment that Mary had poured on Him was
for His burial.  In other words, He had told them that His
crucifixion and His burial was at hand.
	But it was hard for the disciples to accept the news of
His coming crucifixion because they did not want to believe
it.  They did not want to believe it and the triumphal entry
of Jesus into Jerusalem made it easier for them to believe
that instead of being crucified, or even if He was to be
crucified, He would still be crowned as king of Israel and
rule on the throne.  Had He not told them that after He was
crucified He would arise from the dead after three days.
The resurrection of Lazarus from the grave made it easy for
them to assume that even if He were to be crucified, He
would arise three days later and that after His
resurrection, He would be crowned as king of Israel.
However, they really did not believe that He would ever be
crucified.  They really expected Him to be crowned without
being crucified.
	So when Jesus was placed on the donkey at the top of Mt.
Olive, they, like everybody else, started shouting to the
tops of their voices praising Jesus to the high heaven as
the King of Israel.
	It was a grand occasion for them.  I think it is safe to
say that they had never been happier in their life.  They
could just envision Jesus on a throne there in Jerusalem
before this passover celebration was over.  They could
envision themselves being made princes within the next few
days.  It was a grand and glorious event coming down Mt.
Olive with Jesus being proclaimed as king by thousands of
people.

II.  The impact upon the city of Jerusalem and the whole
	nation

	Later it would make an altogether different impact upon
them.  (V. 16), "...but when Jesus was glorified, then
remembered they that these things were written of
him, and that they had done these things unto him."  After
the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus they
would think back upon the ride into Jerusalem with thepeople
proclaiming Him as king and they will see it from a
different light.  They will see it, not from their desire
for Jesus to become king in Israel, but from the point of
view as portrayed by the Prophet Zechariah, and they will
understand that Jesus had come for a much greater purpose
than becoming the king of Israel and delivering the nation
from bondage to the Romans.  They will see that Jesus had
come to give Himself to die on the cross, to provide
deliverance from their bondage to sin, and to be the King of
a much greater kingdom than the nation of Israel.  He had
come to be the King of the Kingdom of God.
	V. 17-18, "The people therefore that was with him when
he called Lazarus out of his grave, and raised him from the
dead, bare record.  For this cause the people also met him,
for that they heard that he had done this miracle." John now
turns his attention to the impact that the triumphal entry
made upon the people who awaited in the city of Jerusalem.
As large as the crowd was who accompanied Jesus down the
mountain and into the city, there was an even greater crowd
awaiting there in the city.  Jerusalem had a large
population of people who lived right there in the city.  At
this season of the year there were a large number of people
who had come from all over the nation and from many other
nations around and were there in the city waiting to observe
the Passover.
	They could hardly help but know that something unusual
was going on out toward Mt. Olive.  The shouts of the crowd
as they came down the mountain would roll down ahead of them
and echo throughout the city of Jerusalem.  The people
within the city would just naturally go through the streets
of the city in the direction of the sound.  What they
encountered as the got to the edge of the city was a great
crowd of people entering the city telling about Jesus.
	Everybody in that crowd with Jesus were very excitedly
talking about Jesus.  John said that those who had been
present at Bethany and had personally witnessed the
resurrection of Lazarus were the chief spokesmen for the
crowd.  They were excitedly telling about their astonishment
when Jesus called out to the dead man in that tomb and told
him to come out of the grave.  They told all that great
crowd of people at Jerusalem how exciting it had been to see
Lazarus come walking out of that grave.
	They scattered out among all the people and all those
personal witnesses had an excited and attentive audience as
they told about Jesus raising Lazarus from the grave, about
the great crowd of people who broke off the palm branches
and took off their outer garments and laying down a carpet
for Jesus and the donkey upon which He rode and about the
whole crowd proclaiming Him to the Messiah, the promised
king who would deliver their nation from the Gentiles.
	Pretty soon all the whole city of Jerusalem was excited
about Jerusalem.  All the great crowd who had come down from
Bethany with Jesus were already excited about Him.  Those
eye witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus were especially
excited.  Then as the greater crowds from within the city
itself met with them and talked with them they, too, would
become excited about Jesus.  They were talking about Jesus
and the miracle that He had performed calling Lazarus from
the grave.  Virtually the whole city was talking about how
great it would be to have a man with great powers like Jesus
to be their king.
	But what I want you to take note of is that this was
means that virtually the whole nation of Israel was very
excited about the prospect of making Jesus to be their king.
This ride down Mt. Olive had excited representatives from
the whole nation of Israel and, at least momentarily,
persuaded them that Jesus is the promised king of whom the
prophets of old had written.

III.  The impact upon the Jewish leaders

	V. 19, "The Pharisees therefore said among themselves,
Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is
gone after him."  John now turns his attention to the impact
that the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem made on the
Jewish leaders who had plotted His death.  They now saw that
virtually the whole nation of Israel, at this point, favored
Jesus.  The masses of people not only recognized Him to be
man empowered of God to perform great miracles, but they saw
Him as a man who would make the nation a great king.  The
great masses of people were, at least momentarily, persuaded
that He is the man whom the prophets of old had talked
about, the promised Messiah, the promised Christ, who would
be their king and be a great deliverer for their nation.
	Therefore, the spirits of the Jewish leaders were
crushed.  They viewed their hopes of putting Jesus to death
as gone.  Their hopes of putting Lazarus to death were gone.
Their hopes of remaining the voice of religious authority in
the land of Israel as gone.  They were now persuaded that
Jesus would be crowned as king of Israel.  Their earlier
pretense of fearing that the Romans would retaliate and send
an army against their nation became very real.  Even if
Jesus should win in a war against the Romans, they knew once
He gained the throne, He would not keep them in a position
of leadership.  He would remove them from the Sanhedrin
Council.  To them it seemed that their world was crushed.
All hope was gone.
	What they did not know was that Jesus had no intention
of becoming the king of Israel.  He had come for the purpose
of going to the cross.  God would open up a way for them yet
to put this man to death.  They would succeed in having Him
crucified.
	Also, what they did not know was that the death of Jesus
on the cross of Calvary would be the means of providing
salvation for their nation.  It would be the means of
providing salvation for the souls of the people of Israel.
This was a far greater accomplishment than saving Israel
from the Romans.  Jesus would die on the cross to provide
the redemption of the soul for all who would trust in Him.
Yet He would die to provide not only for the nation of
Israel, but for all people in every nation under the sun.
He would die to provide the eternal salvation of the soul
for all men.

IV.  The impact upon you

	Let me ask you a question.  What kind of impact has the
entrance which Jesus made into the city of Jerusalem made on
you.  I think you should know that if He had so desired, He
could have very easily been crowned as king.  Virtually all
the people of the whole nation were ready and willing to
crown Him as king.  But Jesus was far more interested in
keeping us out of the fires of hell than He was in become
king in Israel.  Jesus rode into that city knowing full well
that His mission there was to die on the cross.
	He went there for all the people of the world and that
includes you and me.  Jesus, in His great foreknowledge,
knew about me and He knew about you.  He cared about us.  He
loved us enough that He went into that city to die for us
that we might be saved and go to heaven.
	Listen, those people were ready to crown Him as their
king.  What He wants you to do is to trust Him to be your
Savior.  Will you do it?

Conclusion:

	We are going to have an invitation hymn and while our
people sing, I am going to ask them to pray for your soul
that God may impress upon you your need of being saved.
	Will you come and trust Jesus?