Sunday
Morning Bible Study
January
8, 2017
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it address the person who is: Empty, lonely, guilty, or afraid
to die? Does it speak to the broken
hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision
Is the church loved? Regular: 2900
words Communion: 2500 words Video=75wpm
Luke was a doctor and a traveling
companion of the apostle Paul.
He wrote this book while Paul was
in prison.
In writing this book about Jesus,
Luke made use of other older documents like the Gospel of Mark, as well as
extensive eyewitness accounts.
Jesus’ ministry is well under way,
and the people have been amazed not just at the things He’s been teaching, but
the things He’s been doing.
We are now on the homestretch of Jesus’ ministry.
Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem to be crucified.
Luke has reminded us of what Jesus’ main purpose was in life:
(Luke 19:10 NKJV) for the Son
of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Jesus has just taught the parable about the nobleman coming back from a
long journey and asking his servants what they had done with the things he had
entrusted to them.
19:28-44 Triumphal Entry
:28 When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
:28 going up to Jerusalem
In the Bible, your journey to
Jerusalem is always described as “going up”, not because you’re heading north on
a map (like we think), but because Jerusalem is up in the hills, and you have
to “go up” to get to it.
He is heading west from Jericho,
going up into the hills of Judea to get to Jerusalem.
:29 And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the
mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples,
:30 saying, “Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter
you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it
here.
:29 Bethphage and Bethany
These are two villages located on the Mount of Olives, about 2 miles east
of Jerusalem.
Bethphage means “house of unripe figs”.
Bethany can mean “house of dates” or “house of misery”
village – kome
– the common sleeping place to which labourers in the field return, a
village
you will find – heurisko
– to come upon, hit upon, to meet with
a colt – polos
– a colt, the young of a horse
It would be the colt of a donkey
(Mat. 21:2).
:30 a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat
This is going to be a young donkey.
It’s not a “used donkey”.
:31 And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you loosing it?’ thus you shall
say to him, ‘Because the Lord has need of it.’ ”
the Lord – kurios
– he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of
deciding; master, lord.
:32 So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He
had said to them.
sent – apostello
– to order (one) to go to a place appointed; to send away, dismiss
went their way – aperchomai
– to go away, depart
:32 found it just as He had said to them
Something amazing is going to take place that day, and it will all start
with a supernatural prediction about a donkey colt.
I guess you could say that perhaps
Jesus already had all this arranged ahead of time, but I think the reason that
the gospel writers all mention it (Matt. 21:1-6; Mark 11:1-6; John 12:14) is
because there was something unusual about the acquiring of the donkey.
I think Jesus wants to make the
disciples aware that something amazing is about to take place.
Lesson
Supernatural knowledge
(Matthew 21:1–6 NKJV) —1 Now when
they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then
Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to
them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey
tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. 3 And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has
need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.” 4 All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by
the prophet, saying: 5 “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ” 6 So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.
(Mark 11:1–6 NKJV) —1 Now when
they drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He
sent two of His disciples; 2 and He
said to them, “Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have
entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and
bring it. 3 And if anyone says to
you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it,’ and immediately
he will send it here.” 4 So they
went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and
they loosed it. 5 But some of those who stood
there said to them, “What are you doing, loosing the colt?” 6 And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. So they let
them go.
(John 12:14 NKJV) —14 Then
Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written:
Jesus is telling the disciples
about something that is going to take place in the future.
It’s similar to a story in the Old
Testament when the prophet Samuel met a young man named Saul that would one day
become king of Israel.
The donkeys belonging to Saul’s
father had become lost, and Saul was sent to find the donkeys.
He didn’t find the donkeys, but he
did find the prophet Samuel who surprised Saul by anointing him with oil and
saying that he would one day become king.
Then Samuel said a strange thing to
Saul:
(1 Samuel 10:2–6 NKJV) —2 When you
have departed from me today, you will find two men by Rachel’s tomb in the
territory of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say to you, ‘The donkeys which
you went to look for have been found. And now your father has ceased caring about
the donkeys and is worrying about you, saying, “What shall I do about my
son?” ’ 3 Then you shall go on
forward from there and come to the terebinth tree of Tabor. There three men
going up to God at Bethel will meet you, one carrying three young goats,
another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine. 4 And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread,
which you shall receive from their hands. 5 After that
you shall come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is. And
it will happen, when you have come there to the city, that you will meet a
group of prophets coming down from the high place with a stringed instrument, a
tambourine, a flute, and a harp before them; and they will be prophesying. 6 Then the Spirit of the Lord
will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another
man.
Everything
happened just as Samuel said.
God used this to
build Saul’s faith, to prepare him for that place to have the Holy Spirit come
upon him.
I think that this
might be the same for the disciples, that Jesus is going to do one more little
thing to build their faith – by telling them what was going to happen.
:33 But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, “Why
are you loosing the colt?”
:33
the owners – kurios
– he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of
deciding; master, lord.
This is the same word that the
disciples were to use in saying that “the Lord hath need of him”.
:34 And they said, “The Lord has need of him.”
:34
the Lord – kurios
– he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of
deciding; master, lord.
Whether or not the owners were followers of Jesus, all they needed to hear
is that the “Lord” needs the donkey.
It all happens just like Jesus said it would.
:35 Then they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their own clothes on the
colt, and they set Jesus on him.
threw – epirrhipto
– to throw upon, place upon
clothes – himation
– a garment (of any sort); the upper garment, the cloak or mantle
they set – epibibazo
– to cause to mount; to place upon
:35 the colt, and they set Jesus on him
When Solomon was made king, David gave instructions
(1 Kings 1:33–35
NKJV) —33 The king also said to them, “Take with you the servants of your
lord, and have Solomon my son ride on my own mule, and take him down to Gihon. 34 There let
Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him king over Israel; and blow
the horn, and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ 35 Then you
shall come up after him, and he shall come and sit on my throne, and he shall
be king in my place. For I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and
Judah.”
Riding a mule into Jerusalem could be seen as something a king of the Jews
might do.
Solomon didn’t ride on a new colt. He rode his dad’s mule. He rode the King’s mule.
In Jesus’ day, there is no previous “king’s mule”, so Jesus is given a new
colt to ride.
Matthew tells us that this act of Jesus riding on the colt of a donkey was
a fulfillment of a prophecy in Zechariah:
(Zechariah 9:9 NKJV)
“Rejoice
greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is
just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.
There are two things to note about this:
1.
This is the procession of a king.
2.
This is a procession marked by humility.
lowly – ‘aniy – poor, afflicted, humble,
wretched
(notice this word is the root of “Bethany”, where they are
coming from)
Lesson
Great Humility
Here is the King of Creation, the Lord of Lords, riding on a lowly,
borrowed donkey.
Even though He is a king, He chooses to take a path of humility.
Just recently, Jesus has had a discussion with His disciples over
“greatness”.
James and John had been pushing to be named #1 and #2 in the coming
kingdom.
(Mark 10:42–45 NLT)
—42 So Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers
in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority
over those under them. 43 But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader
among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of
everyone else. 45
For
even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his
life as a ransom for many.”
Even after this “triumphant entry” into Jerusalem where the crowds were
proclaiming Him king, look at what He does on the following Thursday evening at
the Passover dinner:
(John 13:4–5 NLT)
—4 So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel
around his waist, 5 and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’
feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.
Washing the feet of your guests was customary when you
were having a dinner like this, but it was a humiliating job, something that servants
were to do.
Jesus didn’t think twice about being a servant.
I think the picture of Jesus laying aside His robe to serve
the disciples was a picture of an even greater act of humility.
Paul wrote,
(Philippians 2:5–8
NLT) —5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. 6 Though he
was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he
gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was
born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled
himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
Jesus gave us an example that we should follow.
Humility is not defined by how much you criticize yourself, but how much
you are willing to serve others.
Paul wrote,
(Philippians 2:3–4
NLT) —3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking
of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in
others, too.
Humility is not fun.
It’s not natural.
Yet it’s how we’re supposed to live.
How would your relationships change if you thought more
about what others need than your own needs, or trying to impress others?
Video: OneTimeBlind – Wash My Feet
:36 And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.
:36 spread their clothes on the road
spread – hupostronnumi
– to strew, spread under
This is kind of like “rolling out the red carpet”, so that Jesus’ donkey is
walking on a “red carpet” instead of the road.
There is also a sense of humility
and subjection in the picture as well, as Jesus’ donkey is walking on their
coats, as if He’s walking on them.
:37 Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives,
the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a
loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen,
He was drawing near – eggizo
– to bring near, to join one thing to another; to draw or come near to, to
approach
the descent – katabasis
– descent; the act of descending; the place of descent; that part of the
mountain where the descent is made
whole – hapas
– quite, all, the whole, all together, all
multitude – plethos
– a multitude
to rejoice – chairo
– to rejoice, be glad; to rejoice exceedingly
praise – aineo
– to praise, extol, to sing praises in honor to God
mighty
works – dunamis
– strength, power, ability; power for performing miracles
:37 for all the mighty works they had seen
One of the things that was fresh on the peoples’ mind was the raising of
Lazarus (John 11) from the dead, which had just taken place days before in
Bethany.
John tells us this was why the crowds were so large (John 12:17-18)
(John 12:17–18 NKJV) —17 Therefore
the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised
him from the dead, bore witness. 18 For this
reason the people also met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign.
:38 saying: “ ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Peace in heaven and glory in
the highest!”
blessed – eulogeo
– to praise, celebrate with praises; to invoke blessings; to consecrate a
thing with solemn prayers; to ask God’s blessing on a thing; favoured of God,
blessed
peace – eirene
– a state of national tranquillity; security, safety, prosperity, felicity,
(because peace and harmony make and keep things safe and prosperous); of the
Messiah’s peace
glory – doxa
– opinion, judgment, view; in the NT always a good opinion concerning one,
resulting in praise, honour, and glory; splendour, brightness; magnificence, excellence,
preeminence, dignity, grace; a most glorious condition, most exalted state
the highest – hupsistos
– highest, most high
:38 Blessed is the King
Mark records a few more of the words the people were speaking:
(Mark 11:9–10 NKJV)
—9 Then those who went before and those who followed cried out,
saying: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He
who comes in the name of the Lord!’ 10 Blessed is
the kingdom of our father David That comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
“Hosanna” means “save now”.
These words are drawn from:
(Psalm 118:25–26 NKJV) —25 Save now,
I pray, O Lord; O Lord, I pray,
send now prosperity. 26 Blessed is
he who comes in the name of the Lord! We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.
Today, when you visit Israel, it’s a tradition to walk from the top of the
Mount of Olives down the “Palm Sunday Road” to the Kidron Valley.
From the top of the hill, you notice two things:
The Temple Mount is directly in front of you all the way
down the hill.
The Garden of Gethsemane is at the bottom of the hill.
Here’s what the road down looks like:
:39 And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher,
rebuke Your disciples.”
the multitude – ochlos
– a crowd; a casual collection of people; a multitude of men who have
flocked together in some place; a throng.
This isn’t the same word used for
“multitude” in verse 37, which simply means a large number, here it’s talking
about the crowd, the whole crowd including all the unbelievers.
rebuke – epitimao
– to show honor to, to honor; to tax with fault, rate, chide, rebuke,
reprove, censure severely; to admonish or charge sharply
:39 Teacher, rebuke Your
disciples
The Pharisees always will put on
the appearance of doing the right thing.
In a way, if Jesus is just a human
teacher, then the disciples are indeed going way overboard in how they are
treating Him.
The problem is that Jesus isn’t a
normal “human”. He is God in flesh. He is the promised King.
There’s another problem as well:
John records,
(John 12:19 NLT) Then the Pharisees
said to each other, “There’s nothing we can do. Look, everyone has gone after
him!”
The Pharisees were
jealous of all the attention that Jesus was getting.
:40 But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep
silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”
should keep silent – siopao
– to be silent, hold one’s peace; used of one’s silence because dumb;
metaph. of a calm, quiet sea
stones – lithos
– a stone; of small stones; of building stones
immediately cry out – krazo
– to croak; of the cry of a raven; hence, to cry out, cry aloud,
vociferate; to cry; cry out aloud, speak with a loud voice
The word “immediately” isn’t in the
Greek text.
:40 the stones would immediately cry out
This is an incredibly important day on God’s calendar.
From eternity past, this day had been decreed to be a special day, a day
when Jesus must be praised.
If the people didn’t praise Him, then creation would have spoken up.
If the stones had cried out, it would have been the very first “Rock
Concert”.
:41 Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it,
:42 saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the
things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from
your eyes.
wept – klaio
– to mourn, weep, lament; weeping as the sign of pain and grief for the
thing signified (i.e. for the pain and grief); to weep for, mourn for, bewail,
one
:41 He saw the city and wept over it
Jesus didn’t weep because He was going to die.
He isn’t weeping because this is the last time He’ll see the city.
He’s weeping because of what’s ahead for this city.
He wept for the decisions He knows
that the people of the city are going to make, and results that will ultimately
follow those decisions.
Note: Here’s a city full of people that are going
to reject Him and have Him killed.
While I would have called down
destruction upon the city if I were Jesus, Jesus weeps for the city.
known – ginosko
– to learn to know, come to know, get a knowledge of perceive, feel
peace – eirene
– a state of national tranquility; peace between individuals, i.e. harmony,
concord; security, safety, prosperity, felicity, (because peace and harmony
make and keep things safe and prosperous)
hidden – krupto
– to hide, conceal, to be hid; escape notice
:42 especially in this your day
Jesus is talking about a special, specific day in the plan of God.
There has been some discrepancy
over the years on the following dates.
It boils down to the difference in calculations between Sir Robert
Anderson (who started with 445 BC) and Harold Hoehner (who advocates 444 BC). You can see the two sides compared here.
The prophet Daniel wrote around 530 BC and predicted the day the Messiah
would appear to Israel.
(Daniel 9:24–26
NKJV) —24 “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish
the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting
righteousness, To seal up
vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy. 25 “Know therefore and understand, That from the
going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street
shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times. 26 “And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the
people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of
it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.
The prophecy is built around 70 “weeks”.
The word “week” is simply the number seven. Daniel is talking about groups of seven
years.
From the time that a decree (vs. 25) is made to rebuild the city of
Jerusalem, there would be a period of 7 of these “weeks” when the city would be
rebuilt, and then another additional 62 “weeks” of years before the Messiah
would appear, or a total of 69 “weeks”
69 x 7 years = 483 years
The calculations get kind of crazy because of the mess of
ancient calendars, so it works best to convert to days instead of years.
For Daniel the Jewish prophet, a year was made up of 360
days.
483 years x 360 days = 173,880 days
Harold
Hoehner (Chronological Aspects of the
Life of Christ) has done extensive research into the next part.
The decree to rebuild Jerusalem came from King Artaxerxes
on March 5, 444 BC (Neh. 2).
When you add 173,880 days to this (a complex calculation),
you will arrive at the date of March 30, AD 33.
This just happens to be the day we’re looking at, the day
of Christ’s Triumphal Entry, Palm Sunday.
Would you say that this particular day would be special in God’s eyes? This was Israel’s day.
Turn to Psalm 118:
(Psalm 118:22–27
NKJV) —22 The stone which the builders rejected Has become
the chief cornerstone. 23 This was the Lord’s
doing; It is
marvelous in our eyes. 24 This is the day the Lord
has made; We will
rejoice and be glad in it.
I believe “this is the day” refers to the same day. It was a day that God determined, that God
had “made”. Look what the people were to
say on “that day”:
25 Save now, I pray, O Lord; O Lord,
I pray, send now prosperity. 26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We have blessed you from the house
of the Lord. 27 God is
the Lord, And He has
given us light; Bind the
sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.
Save now – or, “Hosanna”.
Wrapped up on “that day” was the rejecting of the corner stone (vs.22) and
the binding of the sacrifice to the altar (vs.27), speaking of His death for
us.
The nation missed the VERY DAY that Messiah had come as the King.
This was the day that would have made for their peace, but they will not
see it.
What about the 70th week?
(some of you will notice we only mentioned 69 of the 70 weeks) You have
to finish reading in Daniel 9 (another time). God’s time clock stopped when the
Messiah was cut off. It won’t start
again until the church is raptured, and God once again begins to move
supernaturally through the nation of Israel.
You
can see my notes on this here.
This is the seven year Tribulation period we talked about last week.
:43 For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment
around you, surround you and close you in on every side,
will come – heko
– to have come, have arrived, be present
Future tense
will build … around you – periballo
– to throw around, to put around; to surround a city with a bank (palisade)
an embankment – charax
– a pale or stake, a palisade; a palisade or rampart; pales between which
earth, stones, trees, and timbers are heaped and packed together
surround – perikukloo
(“around” + “to encircle”) – to encircle, compass about; of a city
(besieged)
close you in – sunecho
– to hold together; to hold together with constraint, to compress; to press
on every side; of a besieged city; of a strait, that forces a ship into a
narrow channel; of a cattle squeeze, that pushing in on each side, forcing the
beast into a position where it cannot move so the farmer can administer
medication; to hold completely
:44 and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they
will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time
of your visitation.”
level you … to the ground – edaphizo
– to throw to the ground; both of cities and buildings, to raze, level with
the earth
time – kairos
– a measure of time, a larger or smaller portion of time; a fixed and
definite time, the time when things are brought to crisis, the decisive epoch
waited for
visitation – episkope
– investigation, inspection, visitation; that act by which God looks into
and searches out the ways, deeds character, of men, in order to adjudge them
their lot accordingly, whether joyous or sad
:44 they will not leave in you one stone upon another
Jesus is prophesying about the coming destruction of Jerusalem in AD
70. The Romans, the “people of the
prince to come” (Dan. 9:27) would level the city.
The “prince to come” is the coming antichrist.
The Romans built “banks” or “walls”
around certain parts of the city to keep the Jews from leaving. This brought famine and disease. Eventually the Romans set fires to parts of
the city.
Titus had ordered that the temple not be burnt, but it accidentally caught
fire. The gold of the temple melted and
ran down into the cracks between the stones.
The Roman soldiers decided to pry apart the stones, completely leveled
the temple, to get the gold.
Today, at the southern part of the Temple Mount, you can see some of these
massive stones lying at the bottom of the retaining wall.
:44 the time of your visitation
Lesson
Your moment
Have you recognized the time of your “visitation”?
Do you realize that today, God is giving you a chance to know the things
that make for peace with Him?
Isaiah wrote,
(Isaiah
53:5 NKJV) But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for
our iniquities; The
chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
Jesus makes peace with God possible because He died to pay for your sins.
You are not here today by accident.
The Jewish leaders rejected the Messiah, but you don’t have to.
The Bible says,
(John 1:12 NKJV) But as many
as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those
who believe in His name: