palm sunday

amazing accuracy

THE Day Jesus rode into Jerusalem Daniel 9:25-26   ESV     (620 - 538 B.C.) Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. 26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. The math: 7 x 7 years = 49 years 62 x 7 years = 434 years = 483 years =173,880 days (consider leap years and 3 different calendars Jewish, Julian and Gregorian) Here’s the start of the clock: Nehemiah 2   ESV   (465 - 424 B.C.) In the month of Nisan (approximately March/April) , in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. 2 And the king said to me, "Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart." Then I was very much afraid. 3 I said to the king, "Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?" 4 Then the king said to me, "What are you requesting?" So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 And I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' graves, that I may rebuild it." 6 And the king said to me (the queen sitting beside him), "How long will you be gone, and when will you return?" So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time. 1) Nehemiah sent to restore and build Jerusalem in the month of Nisan (this month straddles our March/April) 2) Add 173,880 days and we end up with 3) Jesus riding into Jerusalem on April 6, 32A.D ———————————————————————— Jesus would ride into Jerusalem on a colt. Mark 11    NLT 1 As Jesus and his disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of them on ahead. 2 "Go into that village over there," he told them. "As soon as you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks, ‘What are you doing?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it and will return it soon.’" 4 The two disciples left and found the colt standing in the street, tied outside the front door. 5 As they were untying it, some bystanders demanded, "What are you doing, untying that colt?" 6 They said what Jesus had told them to say, and they were permitted to take it. 7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it, and he sat on it. 8 Many in the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others spread leafy branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around him were shouting, "Praise God! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessings on the coming Kingdom of our ancestor David!      Praise God in highest heaven!" Zechariah 9:9 NLT    (500BC) Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey— riding on a donkey’s colt. ———————————————————————— Jesus curses a fig tree. (This is something to take to heart) 12 The next morning as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 He noticed a fig tree in full leaf a little way off, so he went over to see if he could find any figs. But there were only leaves because it was too early in the season for fruit. 14 Then Jesus said to the tree, "May no one ever eat your fruit again!" And the disciples heard him say it. * Jesus had expectation of fruit * was full leaf - looked capable of fruit * just leaves - only a pretense - just looked good * too early in season - seems unfair to curse - figs in middle east have fruit buds even before leaves We can’t play the part of a follower but be a legitimate one. ———————————————————————— Jesus stopped the trading in the outer court. 15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, "Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers." 18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. * Why did Jesus go ballistic? * money changers exchanging foreign currency to local * using unfair weights * exchange benefit to temple - they received 99.9% Roman silver * buying imperfect lambs they knew would not pass inspection  * Jesus called this "a den of robbers" * also "house of prayer for all the nations" is a quote of Isaiah 56:7 (800 B.C.) ... I will ... give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” But Jesus was indignant mainly because:  The "Temple" was the outer court. This was the place of worship for non- jewish people - "all the nations". Only Jews could proceed into the "Temple". So the Jews had taken over the only place non- Jews could worship the True God. ———————————————————————— Jesus Is Betrayed by Judas and Arrested Matthew 27:3-10   NLT 3 When Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and the elders. 4 "I have sinned," he declared, "for I have betrayed an innocent man." "What do we care?" they retorted. "That’s your problem." 5 Then Judas threw the silver coins down in the Temple and went out and hanged himself. 6 The leading priests picked up the coins. "It wouldn’t be right to put this money in the Temple treasury," they said, "since it was payment for murder." 7 After some discussion they finally decided to buy the potter’s field, and they made it into a cemetery for foreigners. 8 That is why the field is still called the Field of Blood. 9 This fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah that says, "They took the thirty pieces of silver—      the price at which he was valued by the people of Israel, 10 and purchased the potter’s field,      as the Lord directed." Zechariah 11:12-13   NLT   (500BC) 12 …So they counted out for my wages thirty pieces of silver. 13 And the Lord said to me, "Throw it to the potter - this magnificent sum at which they valued me! So I took the thirty coins and threw them to the potter in the Temple of the Lord. ———————————————————————— The Crucifixion Isaiah 53:5-6   NLT   (800 B.C.) 5  But he was pierced for our rebellion,     crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole.     He was whipped so we could be healed. 6  All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.     We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him     the sins of us all. 2 Corinthians  5:21   TLB For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God’s goodness into us! ———————————————————————— The Earth Mourns Matthew 27:45-54   NLT 45 At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. 46 At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" 50 Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, 52 and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. 53 They left the cemetery after Jesus’ resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people. 54 The Roman officer and the other soldiers at the crucifixion were terrified by the earthquake and all that had happened. They said, "This man truly was the Son of God!"  Something to think about: Romans 8:22 For we know that even the things of nature, like animals and plants, suffer in sickness and death as they await this great event. Romans 8:19-21   MSG The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready Luke 19:40   AMP Jesus replied, "I tell you, if these [people] keep silent, the stones will cry out [in praise]!" Isaiah 24:4   ESV The earth mourns and withers Is it possible the earth itself was in mourning over what was happening to THE creator?