Who's who in the multitude that comes out to see Jesus on the colt. John 12:12-19; Zec 9:9; Gen 49:10

This brings us back to John 12:12 where the Palm Sunday incident is recorded. But remembering that John is the Gospel of the Son of God it will be handled in a little different way.

 

John 12:12 On the next day the great multitude who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,

 

John is writing about the crowd that have come up the hill from Jerusalem, while the synoptic gospel writers write about the crowd that followed Jesus from Bethany. All of them will meet together at the outskirts of Jerusalem.

 

Those that were at Jerusalem have all come for the Passover. They have come from the surrounding provinces and from other foreign nations all controlled by the Roman Empire and by some estimates there are almost 3 million of them. Some portion, maybe thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands have come out to see the man who raised a man from the dead.

 

And all these Jews who have been under the yoke of the Roman Empire in Africa, Asia, and here in Israel all have been dreaming about one thing - their glorified state and nation that is prophesized in the scripture.

 

They all have national pride and lust for the fulfillment of the unconditional covenants which will be fulfilled by the Millennial reign of Christ. But what they have missed in their scriptures because of their lust for glory was that the suffering Savior has to come before the glorified Savior.

 

John 12:13 took the branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and began to cry out, "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel."

 

“Took branches of palm trees”—John makes it very clear that these were in recognition of Messiahship, but they had the wrong dispensation.

 

Lambanw[Lambano] doesn’t mean they took them, it really means to receive. The very items that they used to misrepresent the Lord was given to them by God the Father to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles so they might remember His covenants.

 

A palm tree in the Greek is a Phoenix, foinic. [phoenix] Palms trees—the branches—is in recognition of Christ as the Branch, a title of the Lord Jesus Christ found in Jeremiah 23:5,6; Zechariah 3:8; 6:12,13.

 

Palm trees grew in abundance along the Mount of Olives between Bethany and Jerusalem. They were used for the feats of the Tabernacles, according to Leviticus 23:40 and Revelation 7:9.

 

LEV 23:39-43     

'On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day. 40 'Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. 41 'You shall thus celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 'You shall live in booths [tabernacles] for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths [tabernacles], 43 so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths [tabernacles] when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.'"

 

The tabernacles they lived in for these 7 days were to be a reminder of the promised Jerusalem to the Jews which would be realized in the Millennium. Abraham knew all about it.

 

HEB 11:9-10

By faith he [Abraham] lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents [tabernacles] with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; 10 for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

 

But if there is no cross, Abraham can in no way live in a future city that is built thousands of years after his death. Without the regeneration that is the result of the cross no one can live in an eternal city.

 

But as for the Jews at this day, who have no idea about what Abraham had faith in, so, as far as they are concerned, cancel the Passover, lets get to the feast of the Tabernacles [Millennium].

 

But you don’t change the plan of God by shouting, by waving branches, or by any of the actions of a crowd.

 

This simply demonstrates once again what has always been true: a crowd cannot think; a mob cannot think. Anything that is done by a mob, by a crowd—forget it.

 

And then John mentions the same quote from Psalm 118 as we saw in Mark.

 

John 12:13 took the branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and began to cry out [Greek word means to scream at the top of your voice], "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel."

 

And when they scream, “King of Israel,” they are adding to the scripture, even though it is the wrong quote of Psalm 118 at the wrong time. By adding to the scripture they show us all their true desire, which is not salvation from their sins, but salvation from the Romans.

 

They want Him now! They want the Millennium now; they want to bypass the cross. God the Father has a plan; God the Father stuck to His plan, and the only thing that God the Father was doing at this time was the presenting seventh credit card, which was the resuscitation of Lazarus directly before His entrance into Jerusalem so that they could all see that He was their promised Messiah.

But instead of this screaming truth we find a lot of people trying to use Jesus to further their own ends and their own lusts.

 

Be very careful of using Jesus and the awesome Christian way of life for your own ends. The plan of God is based upon the glorification of Christ and the service of others. It was never designed for you to use it to your own ends.  

 

Jesus Christ did not let people use Him in a power grab in the Roman Empire. He refused to be used by the mob. The adoration of Jesus by the mob was political! It was political hot air. It was political expediency rather than spiritual recognition.

 

There are certain people on the political right who are using Jesus for their own political ends right now. They desire to make the USA a Christian nation rather than what was beautifully designed to be - a republic where the government simply secures freedom.

 

Don’t be fooled by the right or the left in politics. The government needs good administrators and not ideologists or religiologists. The government is to protect freedom and not impose ideology.

 

John 12:14 And Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written,

 

This was prophesized by Zechariah who was, going back to tie in to Mark 12, one of the slaves [prophets] sent to the vineyard [Israel].  

 

Zech 9:9

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion [God’s right woman - the nation of Israel and not individual believers as in the CA]!

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,

Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

 

Earlier a prophecy was given by Jacob on his death bed concerning the son and tribe that the Lord would come from.

 

GEN 49:8-12

"Judah, your brothers shall praise you;

Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;

Your father's sons shall bow down to you.

9 "Judah is a lion's whelp [Lion of Judah];

From the prey, my son, you have gone up.

He couches, he lies down as a lion [seated at the right hand of God],

And as a lion, who dares rouse him up?

10 "The scepter [King] shall not depart from Judah,

Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,

Until Shiloh [Messiah] comes,

And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples [the saved and unsaved for He will be the Judge at the GWTJ].

11 "He ties his foal to the vine [the vine is the Lord and He is tied to the colt while entering Jerusalem],

And his donkey's colt to the choice vine [selected vine = elected Christ];

He washes his garments in wine,

And his robes in the blood of grapes [substitutionary spiritual death].

12 "His eyes are dull from wine,

And his teeth white from milk [prosperity].

 

John 12:15 "Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey's colt." [ZEC 9:9]

 

John 12:16 These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified [resurrection, ascension, and session], then they remembered that these things were written of Him [by Zec the prophet], and that they had done these things to Him [Jesus’ vineyard parable and Psa 118].

 

Notice that the disciples, who have been with Jesus, learning doctrine every day for three years, did not understand.

 

They didn’t understand the anointing of His feet and they didn’t understand the fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy, but they will remember and recognize it later.

 

The principle is: don’t get fat headed because you know a bit of doctrine.

 

When you know a lot of doctrine and understand it so as to apply it and be in the super-grace life then you won’t be fat headed, but the believer who knows some doctrine is in a dangerous place because he doesn’t fully understand and arrogance occurs.

 

The disciples will understand later mainly for the reason that they will have God the Holy Spirit, the promised Helper who would teach them all things.

 

Now in verse 17 we hear from those in Bethany who witnessed the resuscitation of Lazarus and believed in Christ and are in heaven today because of Christ and His cross. 

 

John 12:17 And so the multitude who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb, and raised him from the dead, were bearing Him witness.

 

They were repeating the raising of Lazarus and the words that Christ said outside the tomb.

 

       

John 11:25-26

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this? "

 

John 11:40-42

Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you, if you believe, you will see the glory of God?"  41 And so they removed the stone. And Jesus raised His eyes, and said, "Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest Me. 42 "And I knew that Thou hearest Me always; but because of the people standing around I said it, that they may believe that Thou didst send Me."

 

John 12:18 For this cause also the multitude went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign.

 

These would now be in contrast to the believers since they only go out to see Him because He raised Lazarus. “Let’s go see a miracle. All these cleansing rituals for the Passover are getting boring and it’s cramped and smelly here, let’s go see a miracle.”

 

They don’t realize how boring, cramped, and smelly the Lake of Fire is going to be if they don’t believe He is the promised Savior of the world.

 

And so, positive believers who are there, negative believers and unbelievers who are there, all leave the city and the temple to run up the hill to see Jesus.

 

And somebody is left standing in the temple with a sparse amount of people where normally it would have been packed with worshippers - the wittle ole Pharisees and priests.

 

Remember the law the Sanhedrin made?

 

John 11:57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he should report it, that they might seize Him.

 

Well there He is on the hill and they know He’s there and the people have run out to Him without so much as a report or confession, and they’re thoroughly frustrated.

 

But they can’t run up there and kill Him without discrediting Him first, otherwise He’ll end up as a martyr and martyr’s can overthrow kingdoms and they know it.

 

They know they have to discredit Him to sway the crowd and that’s what the 6 unfair trials are for. These religious types are very good at what they do. You should be as meek as a dove, but around them, wise as a serpent. The same people shouting Hosanna right now will be shouting “crucify Him” is just a few days.

 

Another meeting is called. Have you noticed they they’re constantly having meetings. Have you ever been in an organization like this that just keeps on having meetings, useless meeting where everyone knows that nothing gets done, but the meetings are called anyway?

 

John 12:19 The Pharisees therefore said to one another, "You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him."

 

They point to each other and blame each other for not discrediting Jesus enough, for not scaring the people enough about the law they made, for not capturing Him under the right circumstances so that they may kill Him violently, and they’re completely scared of losing their power hold over the people.

 

The world has gone after Him. No, not the world [kosmos = satan’s world], your world [idea of losing power] has gone after Him.

 

However, they did not know that most of these people who had run out to see Jesus did not do so to believe in Him or because they believed in Him, they were just curious to see a miracle and would certainly remain under the yoke of religious slavery.