When we have a clear spiritual apprehension of the coming of Christ back to this earth to gather out His saints and glorify them, and then to assume personal dominion over the nations of the earth for a thousand years, it enables us to understand a great multitude of Scripture passages which are otherwise enveloped in great mist, or else entirely unintelligible. There are many acts in the life of Jesus which seem without significance, unless interpreted as prophetic events to be accomplished in His return back to this earth. There are many things recorded in the gospels that never have had their proper weight with believers, and are seen only as brilliant fragments in the life of Jesus, because they have not been looked upon in the light of His premillennial coming, and as prophetic events of His reign on the earth. The banquet at Bethany is declared by Christ Himself as prophetic, and when Mary anointed Him with spikenard as being a prophecy of His death and burial, and the breaking of the alabaster box, the breaking of His body, and pouring forth the ointment, the pouring forth of His life on the world. The transfiguration was given expressly as a prophetic sample of His second coming and outshining of His glory when He gathers His elect ones from heaven and earth up into the air; and there is no proper understanding of that event except as a type of His second coming. In like manner the account of Jesus riding into Jerusalem as recorded in the 21st of Matthew can have no adequate interpretation except as a prophetic event of His return to this earth. Let us turn to the 21st of Matt, and study the event recorded from the first to the sixteenth verse in the light of Christ's return, and we will see that instead of its being a mere transient act in the earthly life of Christ, it stretches away across the centuries, and assumes the magnitude of a glorious and world-wide fulfillment in the coming kingdom of our Lord.

First. We see in this account that our Lord was returning to Jerusalem for the last time from the east side of Jordan. He came up by Jericho, where He healed the blind man, and. as He approached the vicinity of Jerusalem He providentially allowed the people to make great demonstrations, and He Himself seemed about to assume the throne of David. This was a prophetic act of the time when He shall return from the wedding and come back to Jerusalem in the capacity of the King of kings and Lord of lords, to set up His throne over the nations of the earth. In His parables, Jesus represents Himself as being now in a far country, and having a kingdom prepared for Him, and that all His true servants are being put to a test in regard to their heart loyalty and their individual stewardship of His gifts and grace.

But just as certainly as this nobleman has called His servants, and given them various gifts and responsibilities, and is now gone into a far country, so certainly will He return to the very city, and country, and earth, from whence He went.

Second. we see in this account of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, that He laid aside His usual conduct of being a servant, and began to assume the conduct of authority, and royalty, and to exercise that legitimate authority which belonged to Him as an inherent king over His subjects. He sent two of His disciples into the village, and commanded them to take the young ass and colt, on which no man had ever rode, and to bring it to Him, and said, "If any man shall say ought to you about it, you shall say, 'The Lord hath need of him.' " This incident rises out from the usual tenor of the life of Jesus, as an abrupt mountain rises from a plain, and it is marked all over with the character of absolute ownership and authority over all men and animals. Jesus was the absolute proprietor of those disciples, and of that colt, and of the man who temporarily owned the colt, as He was the proprietor of every atom on the earth, and of all worlds, and of all creatures. But all through His life He acted as one utterly poor, and forewent all His rights as a God and a king, depending on others for His sustenance, and living as a beneficiary on the charity of His creatures. But in this event, the veil of absolute poverty is, for a moment, rent asunder, and He emerges from His life of poverty, and His words and actions betray Him to be absolute owner of all things. We never can understand this act in its vast magnitude until we make it the telescope through which we look over the centuries to the time when He shall again return to Jerusalem, no longer in the guise of a servant, and depending on His creatures, but as Lord and monarch over everybody and everything, whether angels, or men, or animals, or the inanimate creation. And when looked at in this light, how this simple record in Matthew towers aloft, and expands into a vast and broad significance, which gives it a meaning equal to the glorious personage of the Lord Jesus.

Third. We are told in these verses, that Jesus entered Jerusalem in the capacity of a king. "All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the prophet, saying, 'Tell you the daughter of Sion, behold, thy king cometh unto thee.'" I want to ask, in all seriousness, that if this event was not arranged as a prophecy of Christ's return to Jerusalem, to govern the earth, then where might be its real meaning? Jesus had lived on the earth about 33 years, and up to this time He had never assumed any real kingly prerogatives, nor exercised any authority over His creatures except as a spiritual teacher, and yet it is expressly said He was born to be a king over men, and over this earth, and no mythical king over an empire of Swedenborgian mysticism, but a bona fide king over real men. And now He for a few brief hours only, gives forth a manifestation of Himself in a kingly capacity, and then the brief pageant of one quickly-flying day passes out of sight; this great king sinks back into the old role of poverty and persecution, and the shadows of a disgraceful death. Let us turn to the prophecy referred to by Matthew, in Isaiah 62:11: "Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world; say ye to the daughter of Zion, behold, thy salvation cometh." Also to Zech. 9:9, "Rejoice greatly, oh, daughter of Zion; shout, oh, daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy king cometh unto thee, who is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off, and He shall speak peace unto the heathen, and His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth/

Now in the light of this prophecy it is simply preposterous absurdity to say that all this magnificent prophecy by Zechariah was fulfilled in that one transient demonstration of Jesus entering Jerusalem, which filled less than one day with an exhibition of His royalty. When we compare the huge dimensions of Zechariah's prophecy with this account of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem we see plainly that that entry was a brief, dazzling, prophetic event of the time when the prophecy should be accomplished. The prophet tells us in connection with Christ's riding into Jerusalem that there will be a doing away of war chariots and of war horses, and the destruction of the battle bow, and that it will be a time when God shall speak peace among all heathen, and the vestiges of war will pass away, and the time when the dominion of this king of Zion shall stretch from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. This prophecy does not refer to the third heavens, and where the Father now has His throne, nor to some ethereal mystical heaven which floats in common church theology, but emphatically to this earth and to the heathen nations on this earth, and to the literal city of Jerusalem, and to Jesus being the literal king over the sea and over the earth. We know that that prophecy was not fulfilled in that momentary pageant when Christ rode into Jerusalem, and it never has yet been fulfilled, for the heathen do not have peace, and wars still exist. But when we look at that event as prophetic of Jesus returning to this earth, and to Jerusalem, riding in majesty on His own creatures as absolute proprietor and king over all men, and animals, and sea, and land, then it becomes perfectly intelligible, and has an import which makes it equal to all the character and conduct of Jesus.

Fourth. When Christ went riding into the city there were two companies, one went with Him and the other came out from the city to meet Him. And so we read that one multitude went before Him, and another followed Him, and they cried, saying: "Hosannah to the Son of David.'' This was prophetic of the two companies that will greet the Lord Jesus, and hail Him as king of the world. One company will descend with Him from the wedding. Those saints who are counted worthy to be raised in the first resurrection, and those who shall be prepared to be caught away at His appearing; these will be glorified and be with Him at the banquet in the air, and these are the ones who will return from the wedding. And then as He descends in fulfillment of prophecy to put His foot again on Mt. Olivet, the people on the earth who will have passed through the great tribulations will have been sufficiently humbled to hail Him as their king, and especially will this be true of the twelve tribes of Israel, who at that time will recognize Him as their Messiah, and will gladly shout hosannahs to Him as the Son of David and as their Lord and King. Thus the multitude that has been glorified with Him and the multitude that has been subdued by the great tribulations will both unite in shouting His praises and rending the air with the melodies and thunder and of their applause as He returns to Jerusalem to set up His theocratic kingdom over all the earth.

Fifth. We see that both of these multitudes in their hosannahs said, expressly, "Jesus is the Son of David." Jesus is not only God, but a man, and, in His humanity, the offspring of King David, who was the founder of the theocracy, and Jesus as Son of David is the direct lineal heir to the throne of David. Now it is significant that since the birth of Jesus the Jews have never been able to find the rightful undeparted heir to the throne of David, for the lines of pedigree from the birth of Jesus ran off into so many directions it has been impossible for them to fix on the lineage of the true heir, and the man Jesus, the son of Mary, stands forth in history as the last and only heir to the theocratic throne which was established by David, the man after God's own heart. For nearly two thousand years the Jewish throne has been in eclipse, but the day is fast approaching when Jesus as David shall descend to this earth and triumphantly ride into Jerusalem and assume command over the twelve tribes of Israel and all the nations of the earth. This is eminently the prophecy in the third chapter of Hosea. "For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king and without a prince and without a sacrifice, and afterwards shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days." Here Jesus is definitely spoken of as the Lord and as David, and as ruling on this earth over the twelve tribes in the later days, that is, in the last age, which is the millennial age.

Sixth. When Christ went riding into the city, accompanied by these shouting multitudes, we are told that all the city was moved at the spectacle, saying, "Who is this?" And the multitude said, "This is Jesus." This item will be most perfectly fulfilled when Jesus returns to set up His government. All the people on the earth who have survived the great tribulations will be profoundly moved to the innermost depths of their being in that memorable day. Let us remember at that time the hundreds of millions on the earth will be in an unsaved condition, rent and torn by the storms of the great tribulation, but ignorant of God and of salvation, and the nations of the earth will just be emerging from a state of anarchy, so that when Christ and the glorified saints return to the earth it may well strike a supernatural awe into all other spirits.

Let us notice the striking contrast between the multitudes who followed Jesus into the city and the people of the city who were so moved at the spectacle. Those who followed Him were filled with enthusiastic praises, casting their garments in the way, they prostrated themselves along the road, their very souls bursting forth with enthusiastic applause. That scene faintly indicates the unbounded adoration and worship that will be given to Jesus by those who accompany Him back to this earth; they will throng His descending pathway from the heavenly wedding, and throw themselves millions on millions in postures of adoration and love and praise before Him, casting their crowns at His feet, and rending the very skies with their sweet voiced hallelujahs.

I may stop here to say that those persons who will be among that happy throng are those who already in this life have abandoned themselves utterly to Jesus, and often prostrated themselves in humble secret prayer, casting their words and thoughts and lives like green boughs under His blessed feet, and receive Him already as their absolute owner and king in all the affairs of life. But those people who were in the city, and who were excited and moved at the royal procession, represent the unsaved nations on the earth when Jesus comes with His glorified army to take possession.

Seventh. After reaching the temple Jesus dismounted from the colt, and went into the temple of God and cast out all them that bought and sold their merchandise, and overthrew the tables of money changers and the seats of them that sold doves. This act of supreme authority in the temple of God of purging the temple of the money changers is in perfect keeping with His whole conduct as a king on that occasion, and is prophetic of that complete purging of the holy temple, and of all the things of this earth, when He establishes His reign over the world. We are told in the third chapter of Jeremiah "that at that time Jerusalem will be the throne of the Lord," and we are told in many prophecies that Jesus shall reign in Sion, and in Jerusalem, and on the throne of David, and at that time He will purge Jerusalem. Thus when we look at this act at the close of that eventful day of purging the temple, it is a prophetic event of the earth-cleansing which Jesus will exercise at the opening of His millennial reign, it has a magnitude of meaning which this Scripture could never have, except as viewed in this light. It is also significant that immediately following this austere purging of the temple, which had been made a den of thieves, there flocked around Him the blind and the lame in multitudes, and He healed them all. What act in the life of Jesus could more beautifully set forth the character of the beginning of His millennial reign. At that time He will most thoroughly upset all the ungodly practices on the earth, and destroy every form of unrighteous traffic among the nations; but this very austerity of royal power will draw to Him the suffering, and the afflicted, and the weary-hearted ones, who have gone through the awful storm of the tribulation; and, right in connection with the suppressing of all wickedness among the nations, Jesus will exercise infinite compassion in healing all the sick on the earth, and comfort the broken-hearted, and extend His saving grace to all nations, and so work through the agency of His glorified saints, and the omnipresent power of the Holy Ghost, that in a short time from the setting up of His throne in Jerusalem, the earth shall be filled with the glory of God, as the waters fill the sea. Thus we discover that this brilliant pageant of Christ entering Jerusalem, was not merely for that one day, but, like a momentary sign in the roll of history, it furnishes a brief sample of what will occur again — not as a transient event of a day, but as an abiding and world-wide fulfillment and of a magnitude that shall comport with Him as Lord of lords and King of kings!