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1. “BEHOLD, THY KING COMETH”

a. What had Zechariah prophesied about Christ five hundred years before His birth? Zechariah 9:9.

b. Describe the fulfillment of this prophecy. Matthew 21:1–11; Luke 19:37, 38.

“No sooner was [Christ] seated upon the colt than a loud shout of triumph rent the air. The multitude hailed Him as Messiah, their King. Jesus now accepted the homage which He had never before permitted, and the disciples received this as proof that their glad hopes were to be realized by seeing Him established on the throne.”—The Desire of Ages, p. 570.

“About the Saviour were the glorious trophies of His labors of love for sinful man. . . .

“Many Pharisees witnessed the scene, and, burning with envy and malice, sought to turn the current of popular feeling. . . . They declared that such noisy demonstrations were unlawful, and would not be permitted by the authorities. But they were silenced by the reply of Jesus, ‘I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out’ (Luke 19:40). That scene of triumph was of God’s own appointing. It had been foretold by the prophet, and man was powerless to turn aside God’s purpose. Had men failed to carry out His plan, He would have given a voice to the inanimate stones, and they would have hailed His Son with acclamations of praise. As the silenced Pharisees drew back, the words of Zechariah were taken up by hundreds of voices: [Zechariah 9:9 quoted.]”—Ibid., pp. 572–575.

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2. CHRIST, THE PROMISED DELIVERER

a. What kind of deliverance did the Jews expect? Acts 1:6 (last part).

“The multitude were convinced that the hour of their emancipation was at hand. In imagination they saw the Roman armies driven from Jerusalem, and Israel once more an independent nation.”—The Desire of Ages, p. 570.

“Their dissatisfied hearts queried why, if Jesus could perform so many wondrous works as they had witnessed, could He not give health, strength, and riches to all His people, free them from their oppressors, and exalt them to power and honor?”—Ibid., p. 385.

b. Did Christ come to deliver Israel from bondage under the Romans or from slavery of sin? Isaiah 61:1; John 8:32–36.

“The period of Christ’s personal ministry among men was the time of greatest activity for the forces of the kingdom of darkness. For ages Satan with his evil angels had been seeking to control the bodies and the souls of men, to bring upon them sin and suffering; then he had charged all this misery upon God. Jesus was revealing to men the character of God. He was breaking Satan’s power, and setting his captives free.”—Ibid., p. 257.

c. The veil was removed from our eyes (2 Corinthians 3:16, 17) when we grasped the truth (John 8:32), which bids us seek the right kind of deliverance. Does Christ set us free from obedience to the Law or from disobedience, which is sin? Psalm 40:7, 8; Romans 8:6–13.

“Speaking of the law, Jesus said, ‘I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill’ (Matthew 5:17). He here used the word ‘fulfill’ in the same sense as when He declared to John the Baptist His purpose to ‘fulfill all righteousness’ (Matthew 3:15); that is, to fill up the measure of the law’s requirement, to give an example of perfect conformity to the will of God.

“His mission was to ‘magnify the law, and make it honorable’ (Isaiah 42:21). He was to show the spiritual nature of the law, to present its far-reaching principles, and to make plain its eternal obligation.”—Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, pp. 48, 49.

d. How might we summarize the truth in Christ? Psalm 119:142; John 17:17.

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3. THE DISAPPOINTMENT

a. Instead of seeing Christ crowned king, what did the people see? Luke 19:45, 46. What did Christ want to teach by the cleansing of the temple? Malachi 3:3.

“The courts of the temple at Jerusalem, filled with the tumult of unholy traffic, represented all too truly the temple of the heart, defiled by the presence of sensual passion and unholy thoughts. In cleansing the temple from the world’s buyers and sellers, Jesus announced His mission to cleanse the heart from the defilement of sin—from the earthly desires, the selfish lusts, the evil habits, that corrupt the soul.”—The Desire of Ages, p. 161.

b. What prophecy did the Jews overlook in connection with the Passover lamb? Isaiah 53:2–7.

“The Jews had become familiar with the offering of blood, and had almost lost sight of the fact that it was sin which made necessary all this shedding of the blood of beasts. They did not discern that it prefigured the blood of God’s dear Son, which was to be shed for the life of the world, and that by the offering of sacrifices men were to be directed to a crucified Redeemer.”—Ibid., pp. 589, 590.

c. Since the Jews misunderstood the prophecy about the promised deliverance (Isaiah 6l:l), were they able to discern the meaning of the Passover lamb? What did they say as they could not see that the lamb represented Christ? John 6:52.

“The Jews were about to celebrate the Passover at Jerusalem, in commemoration of the night of Israel’s deliverance, when the destroying angel smote the homes of Egypt. In the paschal lamb God desired them to behold the Lamb of God, and through the symbol receive Him who gave Himself for the life of the world. But the Jews had come to make the symbol all-important, while its significance was unnoticed. They discerned not the Lord’s body. The same truth that was symbolized in the paschal service was taught in the words of Christ. But it was still undiscerned.”—Ibid., pp. 388, 389.

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4. DISAPPOINTED HOPES, MENTAL CONFUSION

a. What did Christ mean when He said that we have life eternal by eating His flesh and drinking His blood? John 6:51.

“To eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ is to receive Him as a personal Saviour, believing that He forgives our sins, and that we are complete in Him. It is by beholding His love, by dwelling upon it, by drinking it in, that we are to become partakers of His nature. What food is to the body, Christ must be to the soul. Food cannot benefit us unless we eat it, unless it becomes a part of our being. So Christ is of no value to us if we do not know Him as a personal Saviour. A theoretical knowledge will do us no good. We must feed upon Him, receive Him into the heart, so that His life becomes our life. His love, His grace, must be assimilated.”—The Desire of Ages, p. 389.

b. How are we to avoid the pitfall of those who were offended by Christ’s reference to the bread of life? John 6:52–60.

“That which was plain to those who had true faith, became a stumbling block to those who lacked spiritual discernment. [Many of Christ’s disciples] were offended because He spoke words to them that the natural heart could not comprehend and receive, and they refused to walk any more with Jesus.

“Are there not among the believers some who love the world and whose affections are so absorbed in their relatives and friends who obey not the truth, that they are confused in mind, and through the temptations of Satan take their stand on his side, instead of on the Lord’s side? . . . [John 6:54, 55 quoted.] These were the words over which some of the disciples stumbled, but Jesus removed everything that might constitute a stumbling block, and said to them: ‘Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life’ (John 6:61–63). It is the word of God abiding in the heart that will quicken the spiritual faculties.”—The Youth’s Instructor, January 10, 1895.

c. As Christ was standing before the judgment seat of Pilate, what shout was heard from the multitude? Matthew 27:22–25.

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5. HOPE FOR THE WORLD

a. Just before Christ was to die for the sins of the world, what ordinance did He institute, and what was it to commemorate? 1 Corinthians 11:23–26; 1 Peter 3:18.

“[Christ], the spotless Lamb of God, was about to present Himself as a sin offering, that He would thus bring to an end the system of types and ceremonies that for four thousand years had pointed to His death. As He ate the Passover with His disciples, He instituted in its place the service that was to be the memorial of His great sacrifice. . . .

“The Passover was ordained as a commemoration of the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage. . . . The ordinance of the Lord’s Supper was given to commemorate the great deliverance wrought out as the result of the death of Christ.”—The Desire of Ages, pp. 652, 653.

b. What door was opened to the world by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God on the cross of Calvary? Romans 11:11, 15; 2 Timothy 1:9, 10; 1 Peter 1:18–20.

“In stooping to take upon Himself humanity, Christ revealed a character the opposite of the character of Satan. But He stepped still lower in the path of humiliation. ‘Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross’ (Philippians 2:8). As the high priest laid aside his gorgeous pontifical robes, and officiated in the white linen dress of the common priest, so Christ took the form of a servant, and offered sacrifice, Himself the priest, Himself the victim.”—Ibid., p. 25.

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PERSONAL REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. How was the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 fulfilled?

2. Describe the mistaken idea the Jews had about the expected Messiah.

3. Explain what led them to shout, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”

4. What is the symbolic meaning of Christ’s body and blood?

5. What ordinance commemorated the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage, and what deliverance does the Lord’s Supper commemorate?