Preached Palm Sunday, April 1, 2012
from
John 10:17-18

Theme: This passage gives us insight into what our Lord’s ‘Triumphal Entry’ into Jerusalem to die on the cross meant to Him.

(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

Every individual book of the Bible is a book about Jesus; because the whole Bible ultimately points us to Him. But I believe that there’s no other book that reveals the inner thoughts of our Savior to us as much as the Gospel of John.

The human writer of that Gospel—the apostle John—had a privilege that none of the other apostles had. In this Gospel, we read that during the last supper, “there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23). That disciple was John himself. He had the great privilege of being able to hear the very heartbeat of our Savior. And I think that that’s what most characterizes the Gospel that he wrote. It truly reveals our Lord’s own heart to us.

This morning, as we celebrate Palm Sunday together, I ask that you turn with me to John 10:17-18. I believe those two verses reveal to us something of what was in Jesus’ heart as He prepared to enter into the city of Jerusalem to die on the cross.

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First, let’s take just a moment to understand the context of these words. They come after Jesus had performed a great miracle. He had given sight to a man who had been born blind. But the Pharisees—the religious leaders of the day—were greatly upset over this miracle because Jesus had performed it on the Sabbath.

They confronted Jesus on this. In disputing with Jesus over this miracle, they were proving themselves to be the truly blind ones. And it was at this time that the Lord Jesus spoke of Himself to them as “the Good Shepherd” of His people. Jesus told them;

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd” (John 10:11-16).

Those are wonderful words, aren’t they? And twice in them, our Lord indicates that He was going to show Himself to be the Good Shepherd by laying down His life for the sheep. In verse 11, He said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. ” In verse 15, He says, “As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. ” In these words, Jesus was letting it be known—even to those who were opposing Him—that He was the unique Son of the heavenly Father; and that as the Good Shepherd over the sheep that the Father gave Him, He would lay down His life for them.

That’s something we need to remember whenever we celebrate Palm Sunday. It’s a day that we commemorate our Lord’s entry into the city of Jerusalem in fulfillment of Old Testament promises—coming to His people as the promised King, but riding humbly on the colt of a donkey. The people who celebrated His coming didn’t understand that what lay ahead—just a few days later—would be the cross. But Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen. He was coming as the Good Shepherd to lay down His life for His sheep.

And it’s then that the apostle John shares with us what was deep in our Savior’s heart with respect to that coming sacrifice. In verses 17-18, John tells us that Jesus said,

“Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father” (vv. 17-18).

This morning, I ask that we give special attention to those two verses. I believe they give us insight into what the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem meant to Jesus Himself. Who would know the significance of that entry better than Him? And as His very heart is opened up to us in those two verses, my prayer is that our own hearts will be moved with love to worship Him for what He has done for us.

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Look, first, at what Jesus said in verse 17. After speaking of Himself as the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep, He said, “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. ”

And in these words, I suggest that Jesus let’s us know that His entry into the city to die for us was . . .

1. MOTIVATED BY ETERNAL LOVE.

Look at that word at the beginning of this verse—”Therefore . . . ” In some Bible’s, it’s translated, “For this reason . . . ” But what exactly is that word “Therefore” pointing to?

Is it pointing our attention backward to what Jesus had already said about His role as the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep? If so, then the reason the Father loves Him is because He willingly lays down His life for the salvation of the very sheep that the Father Himself loves! And if that’s the case, then what a wonderful thing it is that the heavenly Father so love us!—and that His Son also loves us who are loved by the Father!

But what if, instead, that word “Therefore” pointing our attention forward in this passage to what Jesus says about laying down His life that He may take it again? If so, then the reason the Father loves the Son is because the Son is sacrificially obedient to the Father’s purpose; and because He lays down His life with full trust that the Father will again give back to Him the life that He willingly lays down in obedience. .

I believe the correct way to understand Jesus’ words would be as Him saying that the reason the Father loves His Son is because the Son obeys the Father with complete trust. He was going to willingly lay down His life, knowing that the Father would raise Him again and would give that life back to Him three days later. But the goal for which He obediently laid down His life was never lost from view. He laid down His life for the salvation of the sheep that both He and the Father loved.

Do you remember what Jesus said in John 12—on the very day that He rode into the city of Jerusalem to die for us? He said,

“The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:23-25).

We are the sheep that God the Father loves. And the Son of God—who loves the ones that the Father loves—came to this earth and became one of us in order to give us eternal life. But we are dead in our sins; and the only way that we can have eternal life is if we are raised from death. And the only way that He could give us resurrection-life is by becoming one of us and by rising from the dead for us. And the only way that He could be raised from the dead was if He Himself first died on our behalf. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. And so, out of love for us—and out of the Father’s love for us—that’s exactly what He did!

So, dear brothers and sisters in Christ; I believe this is was what was on Jesus’ heart when He rode into the city of Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday. It was love. It was the love of our Savior for us that was so great that He was willing to lay down His life for the sheep. And it was the Father’s love for us that was so great that He would send His Son to die and secure our salvation. And what’s more, it was the Son’s love for the Father that was so great that He willingly laid down His life in obedience to the Father’s will—trusting completely that the Father would give back to Him what He laid down on our behalf!

It was all motivated by eternal love! “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. ”

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Another thing we see from this passage is that Jesus looked upon His entry into the city as . . .

2. AN ACT OF SOVEREIGN INITIATIVE.

When we read the story of His sacrifice of love for us after His triumphal entry into the city, we find it to be a story in which one of His own disciples betrayed Him into the hands of those who sought His life. It’s a story of how wicked men took Him in hand and nailed Him to a cross. It seems to be a story in which things were under the control of sinners.

But in verse 18, in this passage where Jesus shares His own heart concerning His cross, He lets us know that—in reality—everything remained under His control. With respect to His own life, He said, “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. ”

Right after that passage in which our Lord said that a grain of wheat must fall to the ground to produce much fruit, John tells us that He went on to say,

“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name. ” Then a voice came from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. ” Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to Him. ” Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself. ” This He said, signifying by what death He would die (John 12:27-33).

He knew exactly what would happen; and it all remained under His control. Even Judas, who went out to betray Him, could not go out in the power of the devil, and do his infamous work, until Jesus had first given the piece of bread to him and said, “What you do, do quickly” (John 13:27).

One of the truly great mysteries of our Savior’s death for us is that it was done by men who were fully responsible for their actions, but the whole time under the sovereign initiative of the Lord Himself. He was under no compulsion to die for us. He willingly gave Himself. In Acts 2, when the apostle Peter preached to his own Jewish kinsmen—even to those who had crucified the Lord—he told them;

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it” (Acts 2:22-24).

It was true that they had crucified Him as an act of their own jealousy and hatred for Him. But they could only do so because He had been “delivered” to them “by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God”; and because of His own submission to the will of the Father.

So; as we celebrate the day of Jesus’ entry into the city of Jerusalem, we need to keep in mind how He viewed it all as a matter of His own sovereign initiative. No one took His life from Him. What mere man could ever take the life of the Son of God? He laid it down for us of Himself!

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Very much in keeping with that, we should remember how He viewed His entry into the city to die for us as . . .

3. A DISPLAY OF DIVINE AUTHORITY.

With respect to His own life, He said, “I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (v. 18). The word that’s here translated “power” means “authority”. Jesus acted with authority. And note that it wasn’t simply that He had the authority to lay down His life alone. With all reverence, even you and I can do that. Rather, He had an authority that no other human being who ever walked on the earth possessed. He had the authority to both lay down His life and take it up again.

Do you remember the story of one of the first things that John tells us that Jesus did in His public ministry? He went into the temple and cast out the money changers, and drove out those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves. He told them to take those things away, and to stop making His Father’s house a house of merchandise. The Jewish leaders came to Him and demanded to know where He got the authority to do such a thing. John tells us that they said,

“What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. ” Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said (John 2:18-22).

The fact that Jesus displayed the authority to both lay down His life and take it up again shows that His authority is divine in nature. He has been, as Paul said in Romans 1:4, “declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead”. He had divine authority over the temple. He had divine authority over the Sabbath. He had divine authority over blindness, or leprosy, or illness, or the wind and the waves of the sea, or even death. He even has the divine authority to forgive your sins and mine.

I believe one of the things that the Lord Jesus would want us to know that was on His mind, as He made His way to the city to die on a cross for us—and then rise again three days later—is that it was all a display of His divine authority. He had the authority to lay down His life, and He had the authority to take it again!

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Now; He closed by saying, “This command I have received from My Father. ” And so, there’s one more thing I believe He would want us to know that was on His mind. And that was how all that was about to happen—not only His entry into the city, but also His submission to the horrible agony of the cross on our behalf—would be . . .

4. COMPLETED IN HUMBLE OBEDIENCE.

Jesus laid His life down willingly. He acted in the authority that was given to Him—both to lay down His life, and to take it again. But He nevertheless did nothing on His own. All that He did was in perfect obedience to the will of the Father.

That’s one of the great characteristics of His earthly ministry that the apostle John seems to highlight. In John 4:34, He told His disciples,

“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34).

In John 6:37-40, He said to those who saw His miracles—but didn’t believe on Him,”All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:37-40).

In John 14:30-31, during His last meal with His disciples, He spoke of His coming betrayal and said,”I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do” (John 14:30-31).

And in His final prayer to the Father—just before He was arrested and taken away to be crucified—He prayed,”I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4).

I believe that Jesus would want us to know that the work He did when He came into the city of Jerusalem was done in perfect obedience to the Father. It was the Father’s will that we would be saved; because the Father Himself loves us. And it was the Son’s delight—who also loves us—to perfectly accomplish the will of the Father. He told us that He laid down His life for us of Himself; but He also said, “This command I have received from My Father. ”

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So; these were the things that were on the mind of the Son of God as He went into Jerusalem on the day of His triumphal entry to die on the cross just a few days later. It was a work that was motivated out of eternal love for us, as an act of His own sovereign initiative toward us, to display His divine authority with respect to us, and all completed in perfect obedience to the Father’s will.

The people who heard Him say these things didn’t know what to make of it. John tells us,

Therefore there was a division again among the Jews because of these sayings. And many of them said, “He has a demon and is mad. Why do you listen to Him?” Others said, “These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” (vv. 19-21).

But now that these things have been done for us, the thing for us to do is to worship Him.