The Passover Lamb Presentation
Or
Following After Jesus
Sunday June 12, 2022
Scripture To Consider:
“The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD! The King of Israel!’”
“Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: ‘Fear not daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.’ His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him.”
“Therefore, the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead, bore witness. For this reason the people also met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, ‘You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!’”
John 12,12-19
Something To Consider:
There are only approximately a dozen events in the life of Jesus that are recorded in all four gospels. This so-called triumphal entry or Passover presentation of Jesus into Jerusalem at the Passover is one of the events mentioned by each of the four gospel writers. The Passover Feast was one of those mandatory feasts along with Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles.
The Passover Feast was celebrated each year in memory of the death angel passing over every household of faithful believers in the land of Egypt. By faith and in obedience to God, the blood of a lamb was applied to the door posts and overhead lintel of every believing family. By this act of faith, the death angel passed over that household.
The first Passover meal and every Passover meal since then, in God’s heart and mind pointed to this moment in time of our Scripture to consider. For this was the event that was prophesied some five hundred years before Jesus appeared on the scene of mankind’s frustrating struggle for victory over sin.
The Passover lamb presentation of Jesus, automatically created a division in the general population of humankind at the time of this actual event. At the original kingly triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem there were varying mixed emotions concerning Him. And none the less, in the eyes of God the Father, all of history, past, present, and future, hung on this Passover lamb presentation.
Something Else To Consider:
Matthew, Mark, and Luke, record the people laying down clothes as well as palm branches as they shouted, “Hosanna”, which means “Save Now!” To the people this was the long anticipated crowning moment in the history of the Jewish nation. Jesus, in the minds of the Jewish general population, was making His kingly triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
To them, though a wrong and mistaken concept, they believed the conquering king of Israel was about to overthrow the Roman rule. They were excited! But they were sadly mistaken! Just as the majority of false doctrines and man-made traditions heralded from so-called religious pulpits by secular minded preachers who have rejected the clear and concise teachings of the Word of God and especially the words and teachings of Jesus.
Jesus instructed that His true followers were to make disciples and to in turn train them to observe all things He had taught during His brief life here on earth. That has not been accomplished, at least it is not being accomplished in this 21st century generation. Teaching men, women, and young people to observe all things Jesus taught, that has been recorded in the gospels and in the seven letters to seven churches in the book of Revelation, has not, and is not, the objective of the majority of Christendom.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were wrongly teaching of the coming of a conquering king ruler who would overthrow the Roman rule. They totally and wrongly disregarded the many Old Testament Scriptures that clearly taught that the Messiah would first suffer and be brutally killed according to the written and preserved Word of God.
For the past 150 years or so, false religious leaders have also disregarded the many Scriptures that teach and verify an end time tribulation that all the earth will experience, including Christians. They falsely teach of a timely rapture of all believers before the tribulation, that the Word of God clearly does not teach.
Jesus declared in John 5.39, “You search the Scriptures, for in them [in the Word of God, not in the words of men] you think you have eternal life; and these are they [those who truly have eternal life] which testify of Me [of Jesus, the Word of God].” If what we are being taught is not found within the Scriptures, within the Word of God, it cannot be believed and must be subject to scrutiny by wise and true end time believers in Jesus Christ.
Something More To Consider:
The people shouted, “Hosanna [Save Now], blessed is He [Jesus] who comes in the name of the LORD!” This is a direct quote from Psalm 118. John also quoted a prophecy of several centuries earlier, from the book of Zechariah, that pointed to Jesus. Zechariah announced, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
And just as it was prophesied, Jesus entered into Jerusalem as the ultimate Passover Lamb and King of kings, of whom soon was to conquer sin and death in the lives of all who would put their trust and faith in Him. Was Jesus, and is Jesus to come as a conquering warrior to squelch the worldly rebellion against the kingdom of God? Yes, and a thousand times yes. Was and is Jesus coming to establish a kingdom that will endure for all eternity? Yes, and a thousand times yes. But timing is extremely important!
A Few Final Words:
Some were willing to follow after Jesus when they wrongly thought He would establish an earthly kingdom at His first coming. Many, or most, are also wrong in thinking Jesus will rapture all believers before the tribulation that is coming!
Why then does Jesus teach in His end time discourse of Matthew 24; “Immediately after the tribulation of those days [end time days of the previous 28 verses of Matthew chapter 24] the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” These are some of the tell tale signs of the final Passover Lamb presentation prior to Christ’s coming!
Jesus then declared, “Then the sign of the Sion of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes [nations] of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man [Jesus] coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He [Jesus] will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect [His true enduring to the end believers] from the four winds [of the earth], from one end of heaven to the other.”
Blessed are all those who willingly allow Jesus Christ of Nazareth, King of kings, and Lord of lords, and the one true Passover Lamb of God, to freely enter into their lives bearing the true truth of His Word, the Word of God. Therefore, let us announce loud and clear, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD! The King of Israel!”
Prayer:
Our Father in heaven, may our hearts bow down before our truly triumphant and soon coming King of kings and Passover Lamb that was slain. May we as true believers in Jesus be found following after Him and seeking to observe all things He taught. In Him Always, Amen!
According to Jesus 