Patient Endurance, Waiting for Jesus (Ezekiel 10; Zech. 9:9-10; Mark 11:1-11)

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Patient Endurance, Waiting for Jesus (Ezekiel 10; Zech. 9:9-10; Mark 11:1-11)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, April 13, 2025

Timothy Keller writes:

In The Lord of the Rings, the trilogy. The little hero is a remarkable Christ figure because he has a burden, and the burden is he has to go right into the heart of the realm of the evil lord and take his ring of power and throw it into the mountain of fire and destroy it.

In order to go toward that evil and go toward that terrible doom, he feels it in front of him all the time. At one point, the narrative says just like a man, if you close your eyes you can always tell which direction the sun is because you feel it beating on you, he felt his doom beating upon him. It became a wheel of fire. When he even closed his eyes, he saw the ring, the doom.

Now this is Jesus. Jesus is always thinking about his death, and he’s always thinking about us. He always has it on his heart. Do you know the place in John 17 where he says to his Father, “And for their sakes I sanctify myself …”? Do you know what that means? To sanctify means to totally devote yourself to something. It means, “I have excluded everything else. I am living for them. Everything about me, all of my powers, all of my privilege, everything, is completely dedicated and devoted to living for them.”[1]

Today is Palm Sunday. Today, we celebrate Jesus entering Jerusalem, and the people were ready for a King. The crowd hailed Him King. They cried out:

38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Luke 19:38 (ESV))

Or, as Mark’s Gospel reads:

Mark 11:9–10 (ESV)

9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”

Today’s theme is “patient endurance.” That theme fits Jesus’s triumphal entry. Throughout the Old Testament, the people were waiting for a King. They were waiting. They were enduring. Jesus came, entered Jerusalem, was beaten, crucified, and rose again. He will come again.

  1. In the Old Testament, they were waiting for a Savior.
    1. D. Greear shares:
    2. Ezekiel 10 records that Ezekiel saw the light of God’s presence leave the temple, hesitate at the threshold, depart from Jerusalem by way of the east gate, ascend up the Mount of Olives and into heaven—seemingly forever. And years later, when Jesus makes his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, he takes the most unusual route. Matthew tells us that Jesus first ascended the Mount of Olives, then rode a donkey down into Jerusalem, where he entered by the east gate. The first place he went? The temple. He was reversing Ezekiel 10.[2]
    3. Wow! That is a different way of thinking of this.
    4. This procession of Jesus into Jerusalem was a fulfillment of an Old Testament prophesy.
    5. Let’s go back in time and talk about the passage prophesying Jesus’ procession.
    6. Now, let’s read Zechariah 9:9-10: Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
      Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
      See, your king comes to you,
      righteous and victorious,
      lowly and riding on a donkey,
      on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
      10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
      and the warhorses from Jerusalem,
      and the battle bow will be broken.
      He will proclaim peace to the nations.
      His rule will extend from sea to sea
      and from the River to the ends of the earth.
    7. Notice this passage prophesies that the King will come and the King has come. We see this in verse 9 and we see it’s fulfillment in Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-10; John 12:12-13; Luke 19:29-38
    8. Why is this?
    9. They needed a Savior.
    10. All through the Old Testament they sacrificed animals and these were types pointing to Jesus. Jesus was the antitype. That means He was the fulfillment of the types and the prophesies. animals could never ultimately take away sins. But Jesus sacrificed Himself for us.
    11. Jesus entered Jerusalem to take our place on the cross.
    12. The passage says, “Rejoice.” The passage says to “rejoice greatly.”
    13. Why? Your King is coming to you.
    14. Now, that is something to be excited about, right?
    15. The passage says that the King will come humble and riding on a donkey.
    16. Now, that is something to motivate the troops.
    17. Early in Israel’s history, very early, it was respectable to ride around on a donkey. But by Solomon’s time, it wasn’t. See, Solomon brought into Israel horses. He had literally…some say 30,000 horses in his private group of horses. He introduced the horse. And from that time on, nobles and soldiers and important people rode horses and the donkey lost its dignity. You were really admitting your poverty by putting around on a donkey.
    18. But the passage acknowledges Jesus’s humility.
    19. Could we miss King Jesus because He came in humility?
    20. I think we certainly could.
    21. Now, let’s jump to Mark 11. We read parts of the passage earlier, so we will not read them again.
  2. Jesus came.
    1. Jesus came.
    2. Jesus lived some 33 years, and He never sinned. His whole life He was going to the cross.
    3. Simultaneously, His whole life, the people were patiently enduring, waiting, for a Savior.
    4. Then, Jesus entered Jerusalem.
    5. We can notice that in the first few verses Jesus’ disciples obeyed Him and went and got a colt.
    6. Before we get there, it is important to note that in this Gospel Jesus’s Divinity is called a “Messianic secret.” Jesus would tell them not to tell anyone. An example of this is Mark 8:29-30. Peter had confessed Jesus as the Messiah, and Jesus told him not to tell anyone about this (Mark 1:43-45 is another example.).
    7. However, in this case Jesus allows people to worship Him. In this case He allows Himself to be known as King.
  3. In verses 8-11, Jesus now makes His entrance.
    1. But He is going to enter riding on a donkey. He is fulfilling the prophesy that we talked about.
    2. Mark doesn’t really tell us why this happened, but Matthew does.  Matthew 21:4: “This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet.” What prophet? Zachariah, 500 years before Zachariah 9:9, Zachariah said, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold your king is coming to you gentle and mounted on a donkey, not even a donkey but even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden…the foal of a donkey.’”[3]
    3. Now, they put coats on the donkey for Jesus to sit on and then they put coats and leafy or palm branches on the road. Spreading coats under a person was recognition of royalty.
    4. Now, this happens during Passover and Jewish hopes of a Savior ran high, so Rome, not wanting any trouble, had extra soldiers around.
    5. People in front and all around Jesus were shouting: “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; blessed is the coming Kingdom of our father David; Hosanna in the highest!” This comes from Psalm 118:26. Hosanna is Hebrew and means “save us.”
    6. Jesus entered Jerusalem, knowing that He was going to the cross. His eyes were on the cross.
  • Jesus is coming again.
    1. In Zech. 9:10, this passage prophesies judgment, this is still to come.
    2. Jesus is coming as the judge. Verse 10: I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
      and the warhorses from Jerusalem,
      and the battle bow will be broken.
      He will proclaim peace to the nations.
      His rule will extend from sea to sea
      and from the River to the ends of the earth.
    3. If you turn to Revelation 14:14, it says: I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.
    4. This is about Jesus coming as judge. We see this also in: Luke 21:27; Phil. 2:9-11.
    5. See also 2 Peter 3:9-10: The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
    6. Verses 9-10 of Zechariah are double prophecies. They were fulfilled in Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey, but they will be fulfilled again when Jesus comes again as judge and literal King.
    7. We could even look at Zechariah 9:1-10 as a triple prophecy since Alexander the Great fulfilled part of the passage.

Keller:

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, they were yearning for a Savior. We are still yearning for a Savior. We need a Savior. They were patiently enduring waiting for a Savior. We are patiently enduring waiting for a Savior.

C.S. Lewis says, in several places, “We want something else which can hardly be put into words. That is why, in the oldest stories, we have peopled the air and the earth and the water with nymphs and elves. That is why our lifelong longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we feel cut off is no mere neurotic fantasy, but the truest index of our real situation. For if we take the Scripture seriously, God will one day give us the morning star. The trees and the hills will sing with us [Ps. 96; Isa. 55], and so the ancient myths and poetry, so false as history, may be truth as prophecy.”

The Messiah is going to bring this! The Messiah is going to bring back the glory of God. The Messiah is going to be the ultimate priest. He’s going to be the temple. He’s going to mediate the presence of God. It’s going to surround us. We’re going to be healed![4]

Let’s worship Jesus. Let’s patiently endure waiting for Him to come again!

[1] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[2] J. D. Greear. Blog. 12.10.2024

https://jdgreear.com/the-only-light-that-reveals-and-heals/

[3] https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/41-56/the-false-coronation-of-the-true-king

[4] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[5] Adapted from Jean Fleming, Pursue the Intentional Life (NavPress, 2013), page 44

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