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Articles 2021-2023
On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “Hosanna! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, even the King of Israel.”
Israel’s king was making His entrance to the city of Jerusalem – it was a day of celebration. When royalty entered a city, citizens would often lay out palm branches on the road and sometimes even their own outer garments so that the monarch would not have to touch the common soil. It was a gesture of respect and honor.
Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, “FEAR NOT, DAUGHTER OF ZION; BEHOLD, YOUR KING IS COMING, SEATED ON A DONKEY’S COLT.”
It was not a coincidence that Jesus rode on a donkey; He specifically sought one out for His public entrance into Israel’s capital, as the Scriptures had foretold. How different from other kings. Warriors who led armies and empires rode on great and powerful steeds. But here was a truly humble king – His kingdom was and would be different from all others.
And though His disciples rejoiced, they lacked the insight they would receive later.
These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him.
“He was perfectly fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy and we didn’t even realize the significance of what was happening!” Sometimes, it is only in looking back that we gain precious insight into events that we lived through. Prophetic hindsight is good; prophetic insight is even better. God’s strategy is to reveal to us His activity in past events so as to train us to have greater prophetic insight in His present work.
It was at this time that a great shift occurred in Jesus’ ministry – Gentiles wanted to meet with Him. And when He heard this, our Lord saw that the hour had come for Him to suffer and to enter into His glory (John 12:20 - 23).
Throughout the gospels, those who had opposed Him had sought to kill Him. And repeatedly the Scripture tells us that they were thwarted because His hour had not yet come. But now, it seemed that the Father had showed Him that His time to embrace death would come soon after people from the nations came looking to meet with Him.
Here was a distinct shift. He had not been sent to the nations but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But God had sent Him to Israel for the sake of the nations. As John had said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Or, as Jesus Himself had said to Nicodemus, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God’s vision was for the whole earth. Since Adam’s fall had brought destruction to all of humanity, Heaven’s gracious response was Christ, the solution to the sin of the whole world.
But the way into the glory would be through death.
”Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
Jesus was the seed that would fall into the earth and die. Just as an apple seed carries within it a whole tree with many apples each containing seeds for more trees, so also Christ in His death and resurrection would be the source of massive amounts of spiritual fruit that would spring up all over the whole earth. Today, the Calvary event continues to impact the nations with spiritual life rooted in the singular death of one specific seed two thousand years ago. Heaven’s strategy has been powerfully successful. And only time will reveal the enormous amount of fruit yet to come forth even in our own nation because of Christ’s perfect sacrifice.
God’s strategy for us is the same as it was for His Son. We must follow Him in laying down our lives so that others might live (2Corinthians 4:12; John 12:25 - 26).
Our Lord recognized the significance of what He was facing and became troubled in His soul. And after His Father had spoken audibly for the sake of those around Him (John 12:27 - 30), Jesus then made two startling statements.
“Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out (Greek, EKBALLO – the same term used in scripture to describe someone’s deliverance from demons).
Now. Not later. The destruction of everything opposed to God would now commence. He would make His ultimate statement of judgement concerning sin at the cross. Jesus would embrace the iniquity of the world, even receiving it into Himself, and then take it into death and leave it there defeated thus inaugurating the exorcism of the planet. From that moment on, the fate of the world and of its ruler was decreed. Paul recognized this truth when he stated that the whole world was crucified to him and he to the world (Galatians 6:14). It was executed and then buried for him when he was crucified with Christ and buried with Him through his baptism (Romans Chapter 6).
There is no hope for this present world system and its various narratives. No matter what people say, there is no hope for Socialism, for Communism, for secular humanism, etc. The only hope for this planet rests in those who have come out from death and who have partaken of the everlasting life found in Christ. These are the ones entrusted with the Good News for all who would believe. “Come, be plunged into Christ and live! It’s your only hope.”
Earlier, Jesus had been focused on His ministry to Israel. When He stated that His flesh and blood were true food and drink, many of his disciples grumbled. It was at this point that He declared that no man could come to him unless the Father granted it (John 6:65). As a result, many withdrew from Him. Some have used this verse to teach that Jesus did not come for the whole world but only for the elect. Only those designated by the Father would be enabled to believe. Calvary was limited in its intention. But the above verse was not the final word.
As we noted, something had changed when the Greeks came asking to see Jesus. From that point on, His focus became the whole earth (John 16:8, Matthew 28:19).
”And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men (Greek, PAS – everyone) to Myself.”
(John 12:32).
Starting two thousand years ago, the drawing power of the Holy Spirit was released into the whole earth. While multitudes yet resist and some even blaspheme in their rejection of Heaven’s call, still our God in His mercy continues to beckon. Everyone.
Notice Jesus’ emphasis. It was not simply that He would die but the method by which He would die.
But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die.
Why was the method of His death significant? If the Father had just wanted Him to die, it could have occurred before this on several occasions. But Jesus did not come to die by stoning at the hands of the Jewish people for the alleged sin of blasphemy. He had come for the whole world. So, He turned and embraced the greatest power in the world at that time and yielded Himself to its form of execution. When He did this, He took the whole world and the power of sin operating through it into the grave. As He had said, judgement had now come for the world and its ruler.
Since then, the age to come has been dawning slowly across the earth. Two thousand years ago, the Sun of righteousness began to arise with healing in its wings. And those who could see what was happening began to go forth and skip about like calves from the stall (Malachi 4:2).
While the full and final manifestation of God’s judgement on the world and its ruler is yet in our future, the same must also be said for the full manifestation of His merciful and insistent drawing of all men to Himself. The complete and comprehensive fruit from the seed that fell into the earth at Calvary is still coming in. We must be careful in our studies of end–time events lest we fail to see God’s heart in this matter. His priority is not that we get the sequence and timing of world events correct in our thinking so that we can then accurately predict when He will return. Rather, we must see both the incredible price that He paid for the world as well as His patient mercy to continue drawing multitudes to Himself until the final day reveals a far greater compassionate and gracious realization of His redemptive plan than we have had faith for.
Donald Rumble – December 2021
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