Well, good morning, my friends, and welcome to the Heritage Hour. I’m Mark Gonzales, your pastoral encourager here in Southwest Florida, and I am so delighted to be with you on air, online, and in media ministry for 35 years now.

So thank you for sitting with me at the feet of the Lord to listen for his heart to touch our hearts. Well, if you’ve been with me, you know we wrapped up a series last week that I was calling The Clearly Stated Portraits of God. And we climaxed with talking about how the Lord is our resurrection and the life as we were savoring the Easter weekend that we had just a couple of weeks ago.

But it was early this month.

And so we still have this month of Easter going on. And honestly, what’s on my heart is to do a mini series to kind of wrap up this entire Easter season in this month that we’ve been celebrating it. And this mini series I’m calling the Passion Week Portraits of God. As we talked about the clearly stated portraits of God, and I’m always talking about portraits of God throughout the scripture, I thought that you would be blessed just by hearing how many portraits I see during Passion Week, starting with Psalm Sunday and then leading up to Easter Sunday.

Though, to keep it a little more brief, I’m just going to highlight Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday over the next couple of broadcasts.

So if you have your Bibles, we’ll actually be all over the place. And if you have a pen, I hope you’ll write down all of these different portraits of God, these two word combinations I love to put together just to help me see the heart and the ways and the character of God and all that he does. And during Passion Week, he does extraordinary things.

So as we get ready to start this mini series on the Passion Week portraits of God that came to my heart as I’ve studied them over the years, we’re going to start off in Matthew chapter 21 and go various places. And again, I hope you’ll jot down all the different portraits I’ll be sharing with you today. and as is our custom as we get ready to hear from the Lord let just go before the Lord and ask him to speak shall we and and oh oh forgot just a quick reminder as you making your way over to Matthew 21 that all of these messages are archived on my website at markpg I call it Helping You Hear God, markpg.org. A lot of tools there on that first landing page, but click on the broadcast box. On the next page, click on Portraits of God, and boom, you’ll have a list of the most recent broadcasts are all 27 minutes going way way back into the archives so you can see all kinds of portraits there so you can get to know the Lord better and better that’s markpg.org now as is our custom let’s just go before the Lord and ask him to speak shall we oh Lord I love coming to sit at your feet there’s no better place to be in the entire world universe the eternal world because if we’re saved we’re already eternal creatures wow so lord thank you for letting us sit at your feet to listen for your heart and as we just wind up our month of easter remembrances of the powerful work you did on the road to the cross today as i share some of the portraits that you put on my heart i pray there’ll be a blessing to my brothers and sisters as we walk through it together.

So thank you for the privilege of seeing how much you love us, how your ways are not our ways, and how during Passion Week, extraordinary things took place that could not be very clearly understood at all at the time, but oh, how we see it now. Thank you, Lord, for loving us that much. Oh, we love you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.

And we pray this in the powerful name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by his precious cleansing and healing, transforming, empowering and forgiving blood. Amen. Amen and amen. All right, my friends.

Well, let’s get started over in Matthew chapter 21, where we see the account of the triumphal entry. And this, of course, is what we celebrate on Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter Sunday. and there are four portraits I want to highlight here we’ll talk about today and then maybe we’ll make it on to Monday, Thursday and some of the portraits that we have there on this broadcast.

So yeah, let’s take a look at the scripture and then we’ll take a look at the portraits. Matthew 21 tells us this, when they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives Jesus then sent two disciples telling them go into the village ahead of you At once you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her Untie them and bring them to me. And if anyone says anything to you, you should say that the Lord needs them. And immediately he will send them.

Now verse 4. This took place so that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled. tell daughter zion see your king is coming to you gentle and mounted on a donkey even on a colt the foal of a beast of burden the disciples went and did just as jesus directed them they brought the donkey and the colt then they laid their robes on them and he sat on them And a very large crowd spread their robes on the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road. And then the crowds who went ahead of him and those who followed kept shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest heaven. And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken, saying, who is this? And the crowds kept saying, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee. And then we hear this next verse, verse 12, the cleansing of the temple complex.

Jesus went into the temple complex and drove out all those buying and selling in the temple. He overturned the money changers tables and the chairs of those selling doves and he said to them it is written my house will be called a house of prayer but you are making it a den of thieves well matthew gives us a quick a quick account of the cleansing of the temple of course the gospels other gospels really highlight more of the details, but my point here is just to take this as an overview of what was happening on that day that we call the triumphal entry, and some say following, and the next day is when he cleansed the temple.

Some say it was the same day, but the point is this. We get four different portraits of the Lord as our king here, depending upon who’s watching, who is interpreting, who is believing and who isn’t doing any of those things.

So let me unpack that for us When he entering Jerusalem here riding on a donkey and seeing the sheep the people that are laying down their robes and waving all the branches There are so many dynamics taking place here. This is an incredibly prophetic portrait of the Lord as our humble king. you heard it in the text as in verse 5 as the prophet was might be fulfilled saying this tell daughter zion see your king is coming to you gentle and mounted on a donkey even on a colt the foal of a beast of burden here’s why historically when a king was coming normally it’d be on a horse well that’s the victorious king the one who’s coming the general the conquering general and you know it’s like the white stallion and the ticker tape parade like we see in the Old Testament when David came back and the people were singing, saying, Saul has killed his thousands, but David has killed the 10,000, you know, and what a wonderful king, what a wonderful general, what a wonderful victor and all that, okay? Well, that wasn’t the case here. The prophecy said he’s going to come on a colt or on a donkey.

That is what kings would ride in times of peace. This is a humble king that is coming in, a humble king that’s entering Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, even a colt, seeing all the sheep. I say seeing all the sheep, taking that from Matthew chapter 9, also the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 5, where the scripture tells us that the Lord saw the people with eyes of compassion like sheep without a shepherd. Downcast sheep without a shepherd.

Confused, dazed, disoriented, all over the map. That’s exactly what he saw in the people who were lining the streets, some of them celebrating, because here’s the second thing. Not only was he the humble king, he was the celebrated king. He had adoring followers, his disciples, his family, and others who had gotten to know him during his years of ministry and were following him because they just adored him.

Others were just miracle watchers. They had seen what had happened when he raised Lazarus from the dead shortly before all of this. There were others who had heard about that and heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth who had done that and heard that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem. And they, being miracle watchers and wanting to see more, they gathered and they were celebrating and all.

They weren’t sure what they were going to see. They weren’t sure who they were going to see and what he represented.

But all they know is this guy does some amazing things and we want to see it. Others had already concluded in their heart that he was Messiah. I call them Messiah waiters. On that day, lining the street, our celebrated king was being celebrated by adoring followers who already got to know him.

Miracle watchers who were seeing what he was doing and saying, hey, something’s up. and Messiah waiters who are already convinced this is the Messiah we’ve been waiting for for millennia. The one who has been prophesied. He is here. He is our celebrated king.

And as I said first, he is also our humble king riding on a donkey, not coming as a conquering general, not coming to start a rebellion and overturn Rome and their dominating occupation. No, that’s not the kind of king he was. He’s a humble king, a celebrated king.

But on that day, he was also, check out this portrait. He was and is our rejected king by some. Who in the world was rejecting this humble king and celebrated king that had been prophesied for so many, many, many years? Well, the outraged Pharisees, for one.

The fearful rulers like Herod and also the governor there, Pilate in Rome. Also the scheming killers, the ones who are saying, this guy is getting a following that’s getting out of hand. We got to take him out. All of these saw him as a rejected king.

Yeah, they call him king of the Jews, but we reject that. The Pharisees saying he is violating Torah. He’s violating the law. He is heretical.

You know, don’t follow him. This is crazy. This is outrageous. No, no, no. And the fearful rulers, man, this guy’s really causing a fuss and all.

And they were being manipulated by so many different Jewish leaders. And they They were also being manipulated by their own fear. Incredible things leading all to the crucifixion, thinking they were winning. They were defeating this king, rejecting him, taking him out, assassinating him, crucifying him.

They thought they were winning. These scheming killers thought they were winning.

But of course, we know that they weren’t. more on that when we get to Easter Sunday But not only do we see on this Palm Sunday Jesus is our humble King our celebrated King and our rejected King Oh, if we could see the heart of Jesus, and He lets us see His heart, my friends. He is our anguished King. He’s our anguished King, because He sees all of the passionate responses, both the good and the bad that were unfolding before his very eyes and all the others. In his heart, we get a picture of what’s happening over in Matthew chapter 23, verse 37, with Jesus’s lament over Jerusalem saying, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city who kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to her.

Oh, how often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. Yet you are not willing. See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will never see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

That’s what the rabble, some of them faithful, some of them adoring, some of them curious, some of them amazed, were saying when he first entered Jerusalem, Jesus is saying it in a different way, in a more powerful way, the way that it was going to come later. He was anguished. he was hurting he was aching for the jerusalem hordes for the blinded souls and he had these anguished tears and honestly when we read the account of him cleansing the temple i don’t believe he was doing it in rage or in piercing anger it was with anguish no what are you doing You’re turning my father’s house of prayer into a marketplace. The sellers were mocking the ways of the Lord. And he did this cleansing of the temple.

And he’s talking about this gathering of chicks and hearts. No, no, no, you’re not getting it. What are you doing? I believe that’s the spirit behind the cleansing of the temple.

All having to do with how he was seen properly by some as the humble king and the celebrated king but improperly by others when he was viewed as a rejected king and now our anguishing king wow well passion week continues to unfold we’re told that on tuesday he was kind of call it teachers tuesday that he was our thorough teacher he spent a lot of time sharing additional kingdom parables and insights he would share woes and blessings he would share prophecies and promises all throughout that time, just laying down the bedrock of belief during this Passion Week. And then, Woeful Wednesday is when we see him now, not as our thorough teacher, but this portrait is how he is our betrayed Messiah. It’s on that Wednesday that Judas Iscariot was making a deal, selling his soul, and turning the Lord Jesus, in a spirit of betrayal, over to the murderous hordes. Maundy Thursday then unfolds.

This is when we see the Lord as our Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper takes place on this Thursday. You know the story. it’s the story of the Passover gathering where Jesus calls them all together we’re going to see the picture of the Lord’s Supper how it signifies through the bread and the cup the body and blood the covenant blood of the Lord Jesus Christ how he establishes this ordinance in remembrance of the work he was getting ready to do on the cross to allow his body to be broken, thus the breaking of the bread, his blood to be spilled, thus the cup symbolizing his blood, the atoning blood, the cleansing blood, the saving blood. Our call, our hope, embedded in the Lord’s Supper because he is our Lord’s Supper.

We also see that during the Lord’s Supper, he did something else. And this is where we see a portrait of the Lord as our foot-washing Messiah. Can you believe that? That’s almost an oxymoron.

You know, a foot-washing Messiah? Wait, wait, wait. Messiah was the coming king, the coming savior. And yet, foot-washer, that’s a lowly servant.

Hello, how can you put those two together? Well, that’s precisely the point that Jesus was illustrating. that greatness is his kingdom was about a servant’s heart, not a general’s heart. It about foot washing not grandstanding Let look at that It worthy of a slow read to see the significance here in John 13 of how Jesus, on this Maundy Thursday, during this Lord’s Supper, decides to wash the disciples’ feet. John 13, 1. before the fast Passover festival, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the father, having loved his own who were in the world.

He loved them to the end. Oh, I love that. By the way, that’s worthy of its own message. Verse two.

Now, by the time of supper, the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Simon Iscariot’s son to betray him. And Jesus knew that the father had given everything into his hands and that he had come from God and that he was going back to God.

Now, let me just stop there a moment. This is a great, great reminder that the Lord Jesus is the pre-incarnate God who took on flesh to dwell among us. And he had come from God and then he was going back to God. And all of this, this was just an amazing clue to us in the scriptures that Jesus knew exactly what was unfolding.

He knew that it was going to look like he was going to be defeated and killed and maimed and murdered. And yet this is precisely the plan that was in place since time, even before time began. He knew all this.

And so in verse four, it says, so he got up from supper, laid aside his robe, took a towel and titered around himself.

Next, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him.

Now, let me stop there a moment. For those of you that are not familiar with the customs of the day. When people would be walking among the streets, they were, of course, dirty and dusty streets. And whenever they came to a house, their feet would be so covered with dust and dirt that it was customary for their feet to be washed.

And there was often lowly servants who had that task of washing feet. Or in more modest homes, they were provided with a towel to wash their own feet sometimes.

But anyway, foot washing was the thing.

But for the Messiah, for Rabbi Jesus, who was roaming the countryside, healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing the lepers, casting out demons, proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven is at giving him every indication that he was the Messiah that they had been yearning for, for century upon century upon century, and now he’s going to wash their feet? Well, this was a stunning act. It was humble servant. It was God-style leadership, my friend.

Hang on to that. no grandstanding, no puffed out chess, no swagger. Leadership in the kingdom of God is about stunning acts of humble service, not because we have to, or we want to put on a show, or put on the pretense of being humble, but no, we’re here to serve each other as unto the Lord. Our foot washing Messiah. Giving us a picture of our privilege to be foot washing mothers and fathers and dads.

Pastors, deacons, elders. Foot washing foot washing Not lording it over people But serving them from the heart Not looking down on those that are lost but seeing them with eyes of compassion like Jesus did back on Palm Sunday and continually And seeing his disciples as those that he wants to pour himself into and empower in his way, not their own ways. and he gives them this picture by washing their feet verse five next he poured water into a basin began to wash his disciples feet and to dry them with the towel tied to him and he came to simon peter who asked him lord are you going to wash my feet and jesus answered him what i am doing you don’t understand now but afterwards you will know and by the way hang on to that one circle that Jesus, there are so many things he does and allows in our lives that we do not understand now.

But afterward, down the way, maybe even when we get to glory, then we’ll know. It’s okay. Trust him. Peter says in verse 8, you will never wash my feet ever.

Peter said, Jesus replied, if I don’t wash you, you have no part of me. Simon Peter said to him Lord then not only my feet but also my hands and my head and Jesus says this interesting thing in verse 10 One who has bathed total bath total body Jesus told him, doesn’t need to wash anything except his feet. For he is completely clean, and you are clean, but not all of you. And then it says here in verse 11, for he knew who would betray him.

This is why he said, you are not all clean. And then in verse 12, when Jesus had washed their feet and put on his robe, he reclined again and said to them, do you know what I have done for you? You call me teacher and Lord. Well, that is well said for I am.

So if I, your Lord and teacher, by the way, Lord means master.

So if I, your master and teacher have washed your feet, so also ought to, you ought to wash one another’s feet for I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done. Oh, my friend, he is our Lord’s Supper and he is our foot washing Messiah. On this Maundy Thursday, we’re going to look at more next time, what happened on this Thursday and then Friday and then Sunday But remember Palm Sunday was reminding us he our humble king our celebrated king But the people around us who treat him as a rejected king that anguishes our king and we get to share that gospel message of how the Lord God of the ages the pre-incarnate Christ the pre-existent Christ as far as the universe is concerned became flesh to dwell among us to draw us unto himself and to come to this earth in the form of a servant king, a foot-washing Messiah who would allow himself to be tortured, crucified on a cross to cover for our sin and rise again on the third day. Can’t wait to unpack that for you next time.

Lord, we thank you for these Passion Week portraits of yourself, Lord. may we savor them never forget them and walk in them and be like you in Jesus name Amen Well I’m Mark Gonzales and I hope you’ll check out my website at markpg.org for more Oh until next time Fall in love with Jesus our Passion Week Portraits A Plenty.