In this sermon, Pastor Babij examines Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem as recorded by Mark. Pastor Babij explains how Jesus’ good and glorious character is on display in the Jerusalem entry. Jesus shows Himself to be:
1. The King with Sovereign Control
2. The King with Humility
3. The King on a Mission of Peace and Salvation
4. The King Faithful to the Prophesied Mission
5. The King Displaying Patience and Justice
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all right let’s take our Bibles this morning and turn to the Gospel of Mark chapter 11 the Gospel of Mark chapter 11 and let’s pray Lord this morning as we again come before thee I pray Lord that you would remove the distractions that we may have this morning of the things that happened this past week so we can focus our attention on you because I know Lord that in the Christian life what we need to know more is who you are and I pray Lord that we would do that so we would fall more deeply in love with you and we would be constrained by your love in every aspect of our service we would do it because we love you and because we know more clearly what you accomplished in our behalf so I pray Lord as we focus in on this portion of Scripture that it would bring us to the place that we are more aware of who you are and how were to serve and I pray this in your name Amen now as I’ve been saying the Gospel of Mark embodies really the record of what the Apostle Peter preached and taught about Jesus the Gospel of Mark is really the nearest approach we will ever possess to an eyewitness account of the life of Jesus Christ and and Mark’s aim was to give a picture of of Jesus as he was of what Jesus said and what he did he tells the facts about Jesus life in the in the simplest and the most dramatic way and he never forgot the divine side of Jesus and no gospel really gives us a human picture of Jesus like the Gospel of Mark mark invoked in his writing a wonder and astonishment and awe that is displayed in Jesus life and and as you read through it you’ll find that that’s how it is it feels like it pulls you in and it puts you right there and what’s happening and so that means that the Gospel of Mark has been really teaching all along that true faith always involves not only trusting in Jesus death and in his resurrection but also in surrendering to him as Lord and submitting to him to his authority over your life that Christ really must must be the highest priority in your life and if not the Bible simply says it cannot be his disciple can’t be his followers if that’s not the case so Jesus his disciples and the slew of others have been following him and now they have left Jericho to embark on a 17 mile trek up to Jerusalem and just by a correction that I said last week I said Jericho was 9,000 you see of course if you take a young earth approach the earth is only six thousand years old so that means that probably Jericho from the scholars say that it’s about four thousand five five hundred years old which is the oldest cities they all agree that is one of the oldest cities in the world and so just want to make that correction this morning so we have arrived at the end of Jesus public ministry and Jesus now fixes his eyes on the things that must be prepared as he heads to the cross of Calvary so you may get the in rushon from reading a Matthew Mark and Luke that Jesus this is the first time Jesus comes to Jerusalem but that’s not the case according to the Gospel of John Jesus regularly went to Jerusalem for the great feasts for example in John 5 it says after these things there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem and then in John 7 when his brothers had gone up to the feast then he himself also went up not publicly but as it were in secret because he became more popular and had to restrict him being viewed publicly by others but however when Jesus became well-known it actually became dangerous for him to go into Jerusalem he did not go publicly until the right time and God’s plan when he was supposed to enter in Jerusalem and so that’s where we’re at right now in the Gospel of Mark it is called the triumphal entry of Christ that Jesus did not enter Jerusalem at this time in a stealth manner but he actually entered in a very public way as we’ll see in our text now what we actually see here in in this text this morning is really the true character of Jesus coming out bleeding through this last third of the gospel so actually this is we’ve been through two-thirds of the gospel and the last third of the gospel actually is just this last seven days of Jesus life so from actually chapter 11 through 16 is going to be the Passion Week so it remains a significant event in the life of Jesus and in the history of redemption that the events in the Passion Week uncover like never before Jesus true messianic nature and it is triumphal entry into Jerusalem but accomplished not how people would think he would accomplish it but accomplished actually by suffering and death on a cross that’s what people weren’t getting they weren’t getting that part of it that’s where Jesus was rejected when he showed himself as a suffering Messiah so as we come to verse number 1 of chapter 11 I want you to read it it says this this is as they approached Jerusalem at Bethpage and Bethany neared the Mount of Olives let me just stop there according to the Gospel of Matthew there are two multitudes one coming from the city of Jerusalem and the other coming with Jesus into the city and they’re kind of converging there and so the crowd came to Bethpage in Bethany and Bethany is on the Jericho Road about two miles east of Jerusalem and this is where Jesus stayed during the Passion Week you’ll see Jesus going into Jerusalem and then going back to Bethany at night to spend time there and of course it says in verse number one there that it was near the Mount of Olives now the Mount of Olives is a very significant and important place in scripture matter of fact the Mount of Olives rises if you ever went to Jerusalem and you are standing on the Mount of Olives you’re looking right across at the city of Jerusalem or it’s also called Mount Zion and right there is the eastern gate so you’re looking down at Jerusalem and in between you and the city is the Kidron Valley and you can see it goes down then it comes up so this the Mount of Olives actually rises 200 feet higher than the city of Jerusalem and Mount Zion and a cret its crest is less than a mile directly east of Jerusalem and of course it is known for its many olive trees and that’s why it’s called that but in that place Mount of Olives that’s where as eeo witnessed the glory of God that’s where Jesus made of course his royal entry into Jerusalem that we’re gonna look at today it is there at Mount of Olives where Jesus wept over the disobedience and blindness of Jerusalem it was there at mount olives that the disciples witnessed Jesus ascension into glory all right and then of course it says in Scripture right there on the Mount of Olives Jesus would come again in the same way the disciples watched him go and in fact in Zechariah it tells us in that day is a Cariah chapter 14 his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives which is in front of Jerusalem on the east so the eastern gate right now is is stoned up you can’t walk through the eastern gate the golden gate but there’s gonna be one person who’s gonna walk through that gate someday and that’s gonna be Jesus Christ and so that’s coming that’s prophetic that’s in the future so I pray today that as Scripture brings to our attention the clearer view of the true character of Jesus the Messiah that you and I would fall more deeply in love with him so that your motive for service will be constrained by Christ’s love and nothing else and that you’re putting your death the sin would be constrained by nothing else but your love for Jesus Christ and that you would have victory in those areas because you’re loving him it was the great missionary Hudson Taylor in interviewing some young people who had volunteered for the Lord’s service he asked several practical questions to find out how well qualified they were for a life of the life that they were anticipating of billion being missionaries and of course one would say and it would say to them why why do you want to be a foreign missionary I want to reach out across the sea because Christ commanded us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature one replied and another said I want to go because millions are dying without ever having heard Jesus and the only one who who can save them is him and others of course gave similar answers and as Hudson Taylor looked at them thoughtfully for a moment and then said all your motives are good but I fear they will fail they will fail you in times of severe testing and tribulation especially if you are confronted with the possibility of having your to face death for your testimony in Christ Jesus he said to them the only motive that will enable you to remain true is stated in 2nd Corinthians 5:14 Christ loved constraining you will keep you faithful in every situation and I completely agree with that the more and more I’m studying the Word of God more and more I realize that you and I need to know who Jesus Christ is in a deeper more abiding way so we come to love him more so our life is motivated by that and what we do is motivated by our love for Christ so in our text take notice this morning of the characteristics that should invoke a wonderment an astonishment and awe and a love for Jesus some of them are simple some of them are a little bit more profound but I want you to notice the first one in verse number two well in verse 1 it says and they approached Jerusalem at Bethpage in Bethany near the Mount of Olives he sent two of his disciples and said to them go into the village opposite you and immediately as you enter it you will find a Colt tied there on which no one yet has ever sat untie it and bring it here now the carrot heuristic here is that Jesus is showing himself as a king who has sovereign control of everything and all the details that would go that in other words every detail is planned by Jesus which of course reveals his supernatural knowledge of what is going to take place that the disciples that Jesus sends to do this are unnamed here right so the focus is not going to be on them but on what Jesus is saying to them and most likely one of them is was Peter because so many details seem to come from someone who was actually an eyewitness of this event and we know that mark is using the Apostle Peters account of Jesus life and ministry so as Jesus came closer to Jerusalem he starts carrying out his plan it was Friday when Jesus sends his disciples on a mission to find a cult for him to mount and ride into Jerusalem now the village opposite them was Bethpage the Gospel of Matthew tells us the COPE came from this village also Matthew tells us it was a donkey and her coal so it would be the mature animal and then her her baby I guess or the younger animal of that the donkey would have produced and it seems like in the Gospel of Matthew that Jesus did not want to distress the animals so not by separating them so he had a donkey and the Colt comb but as far as our text is concerned in mark we are focusing on the cults all right and so the disciples brought the cult back to Bethany and Jesus and His disciples would spend the Sabbath that’s a Saturday in Bethany and then entered the city of Jerusalem from that village on Sunday now if you notice in verse 4 of mark chapter 11 they went away and found the cult tied at the door outside the street and they untied it so the cult was tied outside the door of the house where the owner lived so if anyone would ask anyone who came and took the cult the owner would have taken notice well the owner does see them coming and taking the cult and questions the disciples and so the two disciples are told what to say if someone questions them and I want you to notice in verse number five verse verse number three it says if anyone says to you why are you doing this you say the Lord has need of it and immediately he went he will send it back here and then verse five some of the bystanders were saying to them what are you doing untying the cult they spoke to them just as Jesus told them and they gave them permission so in other words just to bring you into the context and for your information Jesus just a short time ago in this area raised Lazarus from the dead so Jesus became well known by that particular miracle indicating that this owner knew about Jesus and was glad to release the cult for the Masters use and so the Bible says in verse number three of them mark 11 it says the Lord has need of it and of course that word Lord can also mean the sovereign one in other words Jesus is being characterized in the Gospels as being in controlled to being the sovereign king of everything so he’s in charge of all the details he becomes the focus of the text the next characteristic I want you to look at for your information is found in verse number two and of course this characteristic again is seen in his humility if you notice it says he said to them go into the village opposite you and immediately as you enter it you will find a cold and there on which no one has ever sat untie it and bring it here now these details are so specifically important and the reason for that is because a coke of course is an animal usually of burden but this particular colt was young and no one had ever ridden on it before this really does show us that Jesus even though presenting himself as a king is a humble King because in other words a king would not pick a colt to ride into a city you understand that right see Jesus is not coming into Jerusalem in pomace and in ceremony like a king and his entourage mekomo he’s coming in meekness he’s coming in lowliness that Jesus is the professor of a glory equal with God and yet he took upon himself the form of a servant preparing himself to be humbled even to the point of death of course it tells us that in Philippians so this is a characteristic that the Bible doesn’t want us to miss that he was a humble King he was a king that chose the lower place not the higher place like a king would matter of fact he’s doing the opposite of what a human King would do and yet it’s important for us to see them to show the character of Jesus Christ and then the third characteristic of Wonderman is found in verse number seven that Jesus character is seen in his mission as a king who comes in peace endowed with salvation notice what it says in verse seven it says they brought the Colt to Jesus and put their coats on it and he sat on it in other words see when a king went to war he rode on a horse when he came in peace he wrote on a donkey or in this case a Colt now but there’s a question that comes up in in studying this text he did the people did the crowd that’s coming from Jerusalem to meet Jesus and with Jesus into Jerusalem did they see Jesus as a king who has come to conquer or and shatter their enemies or did they see Jesus as a king of humility and love who comes to bring peace how did they see him now this becomes an important part of our text well the only way to answer that question is to examine their reaction to Jesus and so we’ll see the evidence in our text this is the crowd I’m calling it the crowd all right now the crowd becomes significant it’s not focusing now on the disciples it’s focusing on the crowd and how the crowd sees Jesus now the first thing that we notice in verse number eight is that the crowd makes a kind of carpet of their robes and leafy branches on the dusty road for Jesus to ride over now it is a sign of honor for Jesus and the crowd is recognizing him right off the bat as a conquering King the witness says in verse 8 it says many spread their coats in the road and others spread leafy branches which had cut had been cut from the fields now you have to ask the questions where the crowd get that that kind of thing to do where’d they get that from well they got it from the Old Testament but it was from an Old Testament passage found in first Kings we’re back there the crowd was spreading their garments on the ground in this in the same way they did when the man of blood Jay who was anointed as King 4 it says in 2nd Kings in chapter 9 in verse 12 I have anointed you king over israel then they hurried and each man took his garment and placed it under him on the bare steps and blew the trumpets trumpets saying ju is king so in other words they’re viewing jesus in a certain way by their actions all right secondly the crowd in our text shouts in verse number nine those who went in front and those who followed were shouting Hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord so the crowd shouts Hosanna like a joyful shout of acclamation and spiritual joy and many times when we read it with the exclamation marks that’s the way we reading but the problem is that’s how the crowd is viewing Jesus that is now not how Jesus is displaying himself all right so in other words they’re getting him wrong yet they’re getting him right but at the wrong time all right now so the second word Hosanna actually is a word that is expanded that means blessed in the name of the Lord is he who comes right it literally means saved now so the people sought the protection of a king who would come and conquer Israel’s enemies right now that’s how they’re looking at Jesus so Hosanna is actually a cry to God to break in and save the people now that the Messiah has come all right so the crowd is consistently getting Jesus wrong also a third thing you notice in verse number 9 and 10 the crowds shout it with reference to psalm 118 now it says this in verse 9 those who went in front and those who followed were shouting Hosanna Hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord bless it is the coming kingdom of our Father David hosanna in the highest so in other words they were referring to psalm 118 which psalm 118 says Oh Lord do save we beseech you O Lord we beseech you do send prosperity blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord we have blessed you from the house of the Lord so psalm 118 is really a psalm that commemorates the great day of purification and the battle that Maccabee is one and so they were referring the crowd was acquainting Jesus with a warrior king not a peaceful king the rides on a donkey not a humble King that comes in peace they’re not equate ngey PSA’s with that at all in fact historically we know that Antiochus the fourth a king in Syria in 167 BC had a mission his mission was to Helen eyes Palestine that means bringing Greek thought bringing Greek life bringing Greek religion bringing Greek language that was his his motivation and so when he came to Palestine he made it illegal to have a copy of the law he made it illegal if you wanted to have your child circumcised those things were punishable by death and so Antiochus did everything he could to wipe out the Jewish faith now here comes four years later Maccabees a right and he drove intact his from Palestine reap yura fide and reconstituted the temple and of course this historical event is still commemorated in the feast of dedication or we call the feast of Hanukkah all right so it was was this a misunderstanding of Messiah well the here’s the bottom line the crowd sought to give Jesus a conquerors welcome yes that means the crowd had mistaken had a really had a mistake enjoy about Jesus crowd did not see that the sorrow of the cross must take place first before true joy can come now that becomes important to what else the third of mark is going to be talking about the whole Passion Week of Jesus it doesn’t talk about Jesus becoming a conqueror it doesn’t talk about Jesus overthrowing the government of Rome it doesn’t talk about Jesus doing any of those things Jesus did not come the first time to purge Israel of foreign domination no he came to purge his people of their sins see that’s why he came so isn’t this still the problem today what is the great problem in humanity today well it’s this and if you go to the mall ministry you’ll find that out real quick it’s this that God has sent His Son Jesus into the world to provide for the real needs of the human race he provides a light to us he provides true knowledge to us understanding to us peace to us reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ the god man dying in our place he offers everything we need and yet the world rejects him and still reject and refuse him to this very moment that’s our problem that is the problem of the world now why would anyone reject the person like Jesus Christ he came into the world to solve our deepest problem and remove our greatest obstacle sin and Jesus even said of himself I am the light of the world he who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of Life see you see as long as the crowd calls the shots and dictates what is right to believe the results are usually always confusion which leads to unbelief and the proliferation of religions human religions we got millions of human religions why because of this because people are designing thing on how they have contact kind of a connection in the spiritual world whatever it may be how they get right with God by doing something by some workspace’ system and yet it is because they have outright rejected the true Messiah Jesus Christ it was a seminary president Leegin Duncan who said in today’s world we increasingly faced the pressure of waking up day after day breathing a looming toxic poisonous air of unbelief all around us this requires us to put our feet on the floor and believing deliberately and to have a foundation that sustains our belief and he said this maintaining a high view of Scripture and a commitment to the verbal inspiration in an Aaron C and final authority of the Bible will enable us to sustain our belief I really agree with that that the Gospel of Mark is so much needed for our times today at the first-century account of the person of Jesus Christ is was radical then and it is radical today there’s no difference Jesus Christ is radical because the testimony of the Gospel of Mark really pushes against the preconceived expectations of the Messiah in their day and in other words there is always a danger of misrepresenting the truth about Jesus always a danger in misrepresented the essence of real genuine biblical faith but what does it take for someone to be made right with God that’s the ultimate answer right when you die and stand before God what are you gonna tell him why should he let you into his holy heaven there’s got to be something you know you can rationalize you can philosophize you could bring in anything but there’s one answer what was one answer is Jesus Christ that you believed in him and his death and resurrection you believe he took your place that he was an atonement for your sin that he ransomed you from the slave market of sin which we’ve been looking at in the gospel mark that’s it it’s the only thing there’s nothing else there’s nothing to offer God because he did it all for us so see Jesus hearing the gospel is giving us a different picture of himself then with the crowd is seeing see that’s why we can’t listen to the crowd we can’t listen to the many we have to narrow it down to the few remember Jesus only had 12 disciples why didn’t you have thousands and thousands well you had more than 12 you know twelve apostles II and many more disciples but the things that he had twelve apostles why they just pick twelve course we know some reasons for that but he had a small group of people and so many times the truth is found in the details in the minutia of things and yet it’s quite clear to us that it is there for us to know that Jesus is giving a different picture of himself in his first coming that Jesus sat upon a cult that had never been ridden before and had not been broken so see no Kings had ridden on a donkey since the time of Solomon remember when Solomon what what was made King and David had to be reminded that listen someone else is taking taking the throne you need to remind you know your son Solomon supposed to have the throne and so David was reminded of that and this is what David said listen take the servants of the Lord and have my son Solomon ride on my own mule and bring him down to give Aeons let’s a doc the priests and Nathan the Prophet annoying him there as the king over Israel and blow the trumpet and say long live King Solomon so not since then did anyone ride on a Colt on a lowly animal so in other words cults were employed in humble tasks that go with times of peace so Jesus is coming in peace and he’s coming for peace that is the characteristic of our Lord he’s coming in that manner the first time now there’s a fourth characteristic that should bring an awe and Wonder to us and it’s found in verse number 7 and then in verse number 11 and I want you to notice and it’s this the characteristic as Messiah Jesus Christ is seen to be faithful to the prophetic word that he’s faithful to the task of the word of God what’s been written already about it and he’s carrying it out in detail and verse number seven of chapter 11 says they brought the Colt to Jesus and put their coats on it and he sat on it now that’s very significant that that’s there in the scripture and then secondly in verse 11 it says Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple so we see the picture is Jesus Christ sitting on a Colt riding into Jerusalem on this Colt and he rides in and he goes right to the temple now I want you to take your Bibles and I want you to turn to zechariah chapter 9 and i want you to notice in verse number 9 what it says there zechariah chapter 9 and verse number 9 it says this now this is prophecy this is this is what happened hundreds and hundreds of years this was prophesied about Jesus Christ and it says in verse number nine of Zechariah chapter nine it says rejoice greatly o daughter of Zion shout in triumph o daughter of Jerusalem behold your king is coming to you he is just and endowed with salvation humble and mounted on a donkey all right that is prophecy about how Jesus would come into Jerusalem now I don’t know about you we can’t get things right from day to day from month to month and year to year and here’s a prophecy that’s hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years before this would take place and it takes place exactly in the detail given in Zechariah chapter 9 and so you cannot mistake that all right that in this passage of scripture it says behold your king is coming to you he is just endowed with salvation humble humble humility is the opposite usually of king of a king and of course he’s mounted on a donkey even a coax the foul of a donkey so Jesus Christ is of course prophesied and now he’s carrying out the Word of God in detail as he was supposed to now just to give you a quick history of the Davidic King ship the lineage of the Kings many years prior to David’s birth God had designated the tribe of Judah as the royal tribe that is in other words that’s where the tribe the Kings are going to come from and so in Genesis 32 the patriarch Jacob before his death in ancient Egypt whose name was of course changed to Israel gathered his twelve sons around him at his deathbed for their final blessing and when Jacob came to Judah he saw Israel’s future a specific King to come from the line of Judah and in fact it says in Genesis 49 and let me read it to you says the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes and to him shall be the obedience of the people he ties his foul to the vine his donkeys coal – the choice vines he washes his garments in wine in his robes in the blood of grapes so in other words Jacob way back when this is before Zechariah way back then he’s giving the prophecy to that Jesus would come from the line of Judah and he would be a king so Jacob had prophesied about the coming king Messiah and his kingdom the fulfillment of Jacobs prophecy began of course with the anointing of King David when the spirits when Samuel the priests took a Horn of oil and anointed David in the midst of his brothers and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David and of course anointed him with oil and he became king even before he actually became king he was anointed as a king so it says your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever your throne shall be established forever so there will be a final king that will come from the tribe of Judah and his name is Jesus see he is the king he is the god man he is the son of David who will sit on Israel’s throne forever and you know what if you just read the scripture you’ll find that before his birth and right up until his death scripture has always pointed to Jesus as a king in fact in Luke chapter 1 verse 32 before his birth the angel Gabriel told his mother Mary and he will be great and will be called the son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and even when the virgin was born and the wise men came the Magi came would they come to do who’d they come to they came to a king for it says in Matthew 2 – where is he who has been born what King of the Jews for we saw his star in the east and we have come to worship Him and then of course right here in our passage it tells us in mark 11:11 saying blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord all right that’s in Matthew 19 and so when he was nailed to the tree when he was nailed to the cross what happens at the cross well an inscription was written in Greek and Latin and Hebrew and what did it say King of the Jews right so all over the Word of God we have at the second coming of Christ he will come to fulfill that office in its fullness where it says in Matthew 25:31 but when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him then he will sit on his glorious throne revelation 19:16 and on his robe and on his thigh his name written king of kings and Lord of lords and even Isaiah the prophet remember that passage of Scripture we read during the Christmas holidays and there will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it to uphold it with justice righteousness from then on forevermore the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish it see in other words that everywhere you look in scripture the Bible always points to Jesus as the king but the first time he came he did not come as a victorious in other words King as the world will see him he came as a humble Messiah king who had to do something very significant for his people before they can have a relationship with God and he had to come and he had to suffer and you had to be nailed to a cross as a substitute fulfilling all the types of the Old Testament of all the animal sacrifices and he had to die completely for the same of his people so they can be saved and so they can be saved by him so Jesus in other words had to be welcomed to Jerusalem in his true character he rode into the city that day as the king of Israel but not as the king who would fight the battles for his people in an earthly way but as a king who would fight the battles for his people in a spiritual way on the cross defeating death and Satan that’s what he came and that’s what people weren’t saying that’s what they missed the entry into the city took place late afternoon on Sunday when Jesus got into the city he went right to the temple to look around and to notice the abuses that had crept into the temple look at verse number 11 and this is the final at least in this section characteristic of Jesus the Messiah is that he displays an incredible amount of patience and justice see just because people sin and they think they get away with it they will not get away with it because God is just he will hold responsible all those who have committed in Justices and so we see in verse number 11 it says this and Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple and after looking around at everything he left Bethany with the twelve since it was already late now I’m going to end there but this is what he did see he went to observe what was going on in the temple he’s going to do something on Monday that he didn’t do on Sunday he will come as the Messiah king of justice he will curse the temple because the nation of Israel should have been bringing the other nations to God instead they were driving them away see at this point the world should have been ready for Jesus to come but they were not see what Jesus will do and say at the temple will ultimately infuriate the leadership of Israel and I want you to look at verse 17 and 18 quickly I’m not just to read it look what it says and he says in verse 17 in mark chapter 11 he began to teach him to say to them is it not written my house shall be called the house of prayer for all the nations but you have made it a robbers den the chief priests and the scribes heard this and began seeking how to destroy him where they were afraid of him where the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching see these are two really different responses to Jesus one is they wanted to kill him another was wow this is amazing what’s happening right here and this Jesus is the most awe-inspiring amazing person that I have ever met in my life and it will he will be the only person that you’ll ever meet who’s like him because there’s no other one like him so the question I have this morning for you are you astonished are you all inspired by who Jesus is in his true character as we we see it unveil even more I pray for you and for me that these scriptures would invoke a wonderment and an astonishment and an awe to have a as I started out a deeper love for Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior because not only do we need to be saved from our sin but every day we need salvation that comes in the person of Christ and believe me when it comes to knowing him you can’t exhaust the barrel there’s just so much to see in who he was and what he did and so that’s the purpose of the Gospels to get to know who if you don’t know him as your Lord and Savior then submit to him as your Lord and Savior today because this may be the only chance if you do know him then continue to grow more deeply in him you’ll be unlike any person that you will ever meet Jesus Christ so I pray today that some of these characteristics and what’s going on this text will just again stir in your heart a desire to want to grow in the Lord love him let’s pray Lord this morning after looking at a text like this and seeing Lord how you in extreme detail have not only kept the Word of God have not always displayed humility and at the same time kindness and justice and Lord even when you knew the crowd was not seeing you as you should have been noticed but Lord you continued to fix your eyes upon your mission and Lord you have been the Messiah who comes in peace and Lord you established peace by the blood of your cross to all those who believed in you that you come Lord as someone who is in control of everything that there’s nothing that is out of your control and so lord I thank you that not only have you come the way the Scriptures already prophesied the way you come and we know the chance of you fulfilling even three prophecies would be almost impossible but for you to fill all the ones that are recorded is impossible but Lord all things are possible with you so I thank you this morning Lord for who you are and I pray Lord that you would impress upon our hearts everyday who you are that Lord we may come in humility under your mighty hand to respect you and reverence you and worship you for you truly are and I pray Lord that even when we serve you we would serve you out of gratitude we would serve you because we love you and we don’t want to sin against love so I thank you Lord this morning and I praise you for all that you’ll do in our life in Christ’s name Amen