DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES

(The Life and Ministry of Jesus #40)

The King Comes (See Matthew 21-1-11, Mark 11:1-10, Luke 19:29-44, John 12:12-19)

At His birth the Savior was dependent upon the hospitality of strangers. The manger in which He lay was a borrowed resting place. Now, although the cattle on a thousand hills are His, He is dependent on a stranger’s kindness for an animal on which to enter Jerusalem as its King.

Never before in His earthly life had Jesus permitted such a demonstration. He clearly foresaw the result. It would bring Him to the cross. But it was His purpose to present Himself now publicly as the Redeemer. He desired to call attention to the sacrifice that was to crown His mission to a fallen world.

The events connected with this triumphal ride would be the talk of everyone, and would bring Jesus before every mind. After His crucifixion, many would recall these events in their connection with His trial and death. They would be led to search the prophecies, and would be convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, and in all lands converts to the faith would be multiplied.

He remained true to the humble lot He had accepted. The burden of humanity He must bear until His life was given for the life of the world.

Jesus stops and gazes upon Jerusalem, and the vast multitude hush their shouts, spellbound by the sudden vision of beauty. All eyes turn upon the Savior, expecting to see in His countenance the admiration they themselves feel. But instead of this they behold a cloud of sorrow.

They are surprised and disappointed to see His eyes fill with tears, and His body rock to and fro like a tree before the tempest, while a wail of anguish bursts from His quivering lips, as if from the depths of a broken heart. What a sight was this for the angels to behold! Their loved commander in an agony of tears!

The tears of Jesus were not in anticipation of His own suffering. Just before Him was Gethsemane, where soon the horror of a great darkness would overshadow Him.

His was no selfish sorrow. The thought of His own agony did not intimidate that noble, self-sacrificing soul. It was the sight of Jerusalem that pierced the heart of Jesus. Jerusalem that had rejected the Son of God, and scorned His love, that refused to be convinced by His mighty miracles, and was about to take His life.

Reports have reached the rulers in Jerusalem that Jesus is approaching the city with a great concourse of people. But they have no welcome for the Son of God. In fear they go out to meet Him, hoping to disperse the throng. As the procession is about to descend the Mount of Olives, it is intercepted by the rulers.

The rulers inquire the cause of the tumultuous rejoicing. As they question, “Who is this?”, the disciples, filled with the spirit of inspiration, answer this question. In eloquent strains they repeat the prophecies concerning Christ.

Adam will tell you, It is the Seed of the woman that shall bruise the serpent’s head. Genesis 3:15.

Abraham will tell you, He is the Priest of God Most High. Genesis 14:18.

Jacob will tell you He is Shiloh of the tribe of Judah.

Isaiah will tell you, “Immanuel,” “Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 7:14, 9:6.

Jeremiah will tell you, The Branch of David, The Lord our Righteousness. Jeremiah 23:6.

Daniel will tell you, He is the Messiah.

Hosea will tell you, He is the Lord God of Hosts, the Lord is His memorial. Hosea 12:5.

John the Baptist will tell you, He is the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. John 1:29.

We, His disciples, declare, This is Jesus, the Messiah, the Prince of life, the Redeemer of the world.

Even the prince of the powers of darkness acknowledges Him, saying, “I know You, who You are, the Holy One of God.” Mark 1:24.

The great Jehovah has proclaimed from His throne, “This is My beloved Son.” Matthew 3:17.

A Doomed People (See Mark 11:11-14, 20-21, 21:17-19)

The triumphal ride of Christ into Jerusalem was the dim foreshadowing of His second coming in the clouds of heaven with power and glory, amid the triumph of angels, and the rejoicing of the saints.

The disciples saw the hatred of the Jewish leaders to Christ, but they did not yet see to what it would lead.

Upon searching the fig trees branches, Jesus found nothing but leaves. It was a mass of pretentious foliage, and nothing more. It symbolized the priests and rulers.

Christ’s act in cursing the fig tree had astonished the disciples. It seemed so unlike His ways and works.

God “delights in mercy.” “As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” (Micah 7:18 and Ezekiel 33:11) To Him the work of destruction and the denunciation of judgement is a “strange work.” (Isaiah 28:21) But it is in mercy and love that He lifts the veil from the future, and reveals to humanity the results of a course of sin.

Had the leaders and rulers kept the law of God, they would have done the same unselfish work that Christ did. But love to God and man was eclipsed by pride and self-sufficiency.

No one can live out the law of God without ministering to others. But there are many professed Christians who do not live out Christ’s merciful, unselfish life.

Mercy may plead for years and be slighted and rejected. But there comes a time when mercy makes its last plea. The heart becomes so hardened that it ceases to respond to the Spirit of God. Then the sweet, voice of the Holy Spirit pleads with the sinner no longer, and reproofs and warnings cease. The very means God uses for their recovery become to them a stone of stumbling.

Christ is shedding bitter tears for you, who have no tears to shed for yourself. Already that fatal hardness of heart which destroyed the Pharisees is manifest in you. And every evidence of the grace of God, every ray of divine light, is either melting and subduing the soul, or confirming it in hopeless impenitence.

Christ foresaw that Jerusalem would remain obstinate, and impenitent. Yet all the guilt, all the consequences of rejected mercy, lay at her own door. Thus it will be with every soul who is following the same course.

The Lord declares, “Oh Israel, you have destroyed yourself.” “Hear, oh earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not harkened unto My words, nor to My law, but rejected it.” (Hosea 13:9, and Jeremiah 6:19)