"The Coming King"

Well, good morning. It's good to see you all. I did want to follow up on Nick's announcement

about our upcoming sabbatical. One of the things I've become aware of is that I will be on

sabbatical in the season where Trinity says goodbye to a lot of people. And so I want to

invite those of you, if you are moving on at the end of this spring or this summer,

whether for work or for school, would love to just say goodbye to you before I disappear

and before then you disappear, and we don't have a chance to do that. So I did want to just

acknowledge that. We'll be at the potluck all day. So I would love to see you if you're here and are

able to do that. And then I will be here for the next two Sundays as well, just so you know.

Well, as Pastor Nick has said, today is Palm Sunday, the day that we remember back in the

first century when Jesus entered into Jerusalem to great acclaim where the crowds lay down their

cloaks before him and palm branches on the road in a royal welcome and cried out,

Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. They welcomed him with great joy

because they saw a king.

Because they saw someone who could bring them hope. And they needed that king because they didn't have

one. You see, in the first century in the people of Israel, they knew because they had heard the stories

what the kingdom of David looked like and its greatness. And they had read the prophets and the

promises of a kingdom that would still come, a kingdom of righteousness and justice, a kingdom of peace,

a kingdom where the righteousness, the goodness of God would be exalted through a kingdom in the world.

But instead of that, they were experiencing almost the opposite.

They were not a sovereign nation state. They were oppressed in a vassal state to Rome.

They didn't experience righteousness and spiritual fervor, but instead had division and frailty.

And they longed for a king who would come to make things right and bring the kingdom that their hearts longed for.

And friends, we have a similar longing in our hearts, if we're honest, I believe.

Because we want that kingdom to come too.

We want a kingdom to come so that the world will be a place of righteousness and justice,

a place of prosperity and abundance.

And we want a place of peace and goodness and beauty.

And we struggle, don't we?

Because we feel hopeless with that longing.

We see the brokenness of politics and of social movements to actually right the ship and make it a better world.

We see the ongoing effects of sin and death and the ravages of war.

And we despair.

And not just globally and structurally, but personally.

Our own lives don't have the kingdom that we long for.

Our relationships are broken and strained and fraught.

And they fail.

Our souls are prone to wander from the things that we know are good and right.

And to love things that bring us destruction.

All for the sake of a momentary hit of pleasure.

We know as we gather here on Sunday that our worship is not as single-minded,

is not as wholehearted, is not as joyful as it could be.

And we want a king to come and to make it better.

We want a king to come to make it right.

This leads us to our passage this morning.

We're going to be looking in the Old Testament.

We're going to be looking in the prophet Zechariah.

If you're using a pew Bible, it's page 748.

And I'm telling you now, because Zechariah is one of the minor prophets,

it's not always easy to find in your Bible.

So you have a few minutes to look for it while we talk about it a little bit.

Zechariah was a prophet who prophesied after the Babylonian exile.

If you remember, King David, the pinnacle of the kingdom,

and then it all went downhill from there.

Divided kingdom.

The northern kingdom fell.

The southern kingdom fell into exile.

Seventy years of exile.

And then beyond that, then through God's miraculous work,

the Jews were able to return to Palestine and reestablish Jerusalem

and begin to build its walls and begin to build the temple.

But in that time, just like in the first century,

and maybe just like today, there was a longing

because it wasn't the fullness of the restoration of the kingdom

that they longed for.

Remember, the ESV Study Bible, which, by the way, is a great resource,

just a recommendation, that's a freebie.

But the ESV Study Bible gives this in its introduction to Zechariah.

It says, there was little evidence in 520 BC

of the kind of transformation of the state of things

that earlier prophets had anticipated,

whether externally in a restoration of Jewish sovereignty

or internally in a moral reformation of the people.

Instead of returning to Palestine gloriously,

they returned.

And if you remember, when they built the temple,

they wept because it was small and puny

compared to the glory of what they had seen before.

And they longed for the king to come

and to bring his kingdom.

And in the midst of that longing,

Zechariah, well, Zechariah, this is a big book.

There's lots there I'm not going to talk about.

But in this passage today, Zechariah gives us a promise

that king is coming.

And he gives us a picture of what kind of king

God is going to bring to bring about his kingdom.

So that's what we're going to look at today.

Let's read Zechariah.

Zechariah chapter 9.

Zechariah 9 · chapter mention

We're looking at 9 verses 9 through 17.

All right.

Here's our passage for this morning.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.

Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.

Behold, your king is coming to you.

Righteous and having salvation is he.

Humble and mounted on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim

and the war horse from Jerusalem.

And the battle bow shall be cut off

and he shall speak peace to the nations.

His rule shall be from sea to sea

and from the river to the ends of the earth.

As for you also,

because of the blood of my covenant with you,

I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope.

Today declare that I will restore to you double.

For I have bent Judah as my bow.

I have made Ephraim its arrow.

I will stir up your sons, O Zion,

against your sons, O Greece,

and wield you like a warrior's sword.

Then the Lord will appear over them

and his arrow will go forth like lightning.

And the Lord God will sound the trumpet

and will march forth in the whirlwinds of the south.

The Lord of hosts will protect them

and they shall devour and tread down the sling stones.

And they shall drink and roar as if drunk with wine

and be full like a bowl,

drenched like the corners of the altar.

On that day,

the Lord their God will save them

as the flock of his people.

For like the jewels of a crown,

they shall shine on his land.

For how great is his goodness

and how great is his beauty.

Grain shall make the young men flourish

and new wine the young women.

Let's pray together and ask for God's help.

Lord, we thank you for this word.

Lord, we thank you for the encouragement

and the hope that it brings us.

Lord, we pray that as we look into it,

this morning and consider what it means for us, Lord,

that you would open our minds

to understand your word,

that you would open our wills

so that we might submit to your word

and open our hearts

that we might delight in your word this morning.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

What kind of king will God send

to bring his kingdom?

Well, first, he is a king

who will come in humility.

In this first section,

we see in verses 9 through 9 and 10,

we see how Jesus comes.

And, you know, remarkably,

when you look through it,

particularly as you look at verses,

verse 10,

you think this is the king

that everyone wants, right?

This is a king.

He says,

this is your king.

He's coming for you.

He is a king

who will bring righteousness.

That means that everything he does

is going to be evidently true

and good and right.

It will be righteous

in the sense of just.

It will be righteous

in the sense of morally correct.

It will be righteous

in the sense of bringing order

in a good and life-giving way.

Not only does he have righteousness,

but he has salvation.

He will break the powers of oppression

and bring freedom.

He is a warrior king

who will come and make victory.

This is what verse 11 is telling us.

When you look at verse 11,

I'm sorry, verse 10.

Verse 10, he's saying,

I will cut off the chariot

and break the bow.

What he's saying is,

you, Israel,

will no longer need

to have your own weapons of warfare.

With Ephraim representing

the northern part of the nation of Israel

and Judah being the south,

saying none of you

are going to need your weapons anymore

because the king will come

and he will have all the power he needs

to bring the victory all by himself.

And so there is this,

and it says,

and when he comes,

he will bring global peace, right?

He will speak peace to the nations,

all of them,

and from one sea to the other,

from the river to the,

the whole world will be brought

under his rule in peace.

And this is a pretty awesome kind of king.

This is the one that we long for, isn't it?

Right?

And when you think about what,

in the first century,

what the hopes were of the people there,

they wanted a king

who's going to ride into Jerusalem

like the emperors of Rome

would ride into Rome

after a military conquest

on a great white steed

armed to the hilt

with an army at his back

bringing the prisoners in tow.

And it was a picture of power

and might and strength.

And yet,

this king doesn't come

on a great white steed,

does he?

Verse nine again.

Rejoice and shout aloud

because your king has come

riding on a donkey.

A donkey is a symbol of peace.

As a steed,

someone who would ride a donkey

would be a peacemaker.

And it's very clear from the text.

Humble and mounted on a donkey.

The king who comes,

the one who's going to conquer,

does not come like the kings of this world,

wielding a sword,

beating down his foes.

Now look,

let me just give a caveat

because we're in the book of Revelation

in our series.

And there is a day

when these victories will happen.

There is a time

when Jesus will come

and he's going to bring that,

right?

And the imagery in Revelation

points us and reminds us

that he does have power

and he can do those things.

And yet,

when he comes to do

his signature,

his key,

his most important,

the pinnacle of the work of redemption

that he's going to do as a king,

how does he come?

He comes on a donkey.

Humble.

This is the beauty,

my friends,

of the Christian gospel

is that when Jesus came,

he didn't come

with great fanfare.

He came in humility

and in weakness

and in obscurity.

and he didn't come

to the great people

and overcome them

or win them,

but he came to the poor

and to the outsiders

and he said,

you come,

follow me.

One commentator

on Zechariah

put it this way,

the lowly scene

verse 9 creates

encapsulates the nature

of the kingdom

that Christ established.

The suffering,

humiliation,

and death

that unfolded

on the palm-strewn road

he traveled

would eventuate

in the conquest

of countless human hearts

and in his ultimate rule

over a new heavens

and a new earth.

Little did the onlookers,

the triumphal entry of Christ

into Jerusalem

that first Palm Sunday

understand the full import

of what they were witnessing.

While many shouted,

Hosanna,

some must have looked

and wondered,

why is he riding

on a donkey?

But it shouldn't be a surprise.

Do you remember

what Jesus said

to his disciples

when they were fighting

over who gets to sit

at the right hand

and the left,

who gets the positions

of power with him,

who gets to ride

his coattails

into the White House?

Jesus called to them

and said,

you know that the rulers

of the Gentiles

lord it over them

and the great ones

exercise authority

over them.

It shall not be so

among you,

but whoever would be great

among you

must be your servant

and whoever would be first

among you

must be your slave

even as the Son of Man

came.

not to be served,

but to serve

and to give his life

a ransom for many.

So this is the first thing

that Zechariah points out.

What kind of king is he?

He is a humble king

who comes not in greatness,

but in weakness.

Of course,

we know that there's more

than this.

We know that he's able

to save.

We know that he's able

to deliver.

We've already seen it

mentioned in verse 9.

Verses 11 through 13

help us see more

of how he's going

to do that.

Verse 11, 13

tell us that he's going

to come to save us

through sacrifice.

Verse 11 gives us

the context

of our salvation.

He talks to us

as prisoners, right?

He says,

I will set your prisoners

free from the waterless pit.

Now,

if you've ever been

in the Middle East,

which I haven't,

but as I've been told,

they have these cisterns,

right?

They're big pits

that they do,

and they often

are filled with water

during the rainy season.

It's one of the ways

they keep the water,

and then they preserve it

and use it

as long as it's wet,

right?

But then in the dry season,

it's dry,

and it becomes

this earthen pit

in the ground,

and it turns out

it's a very useful place

to keep prisoners

when you don't have a jail.

And so,

the picture here

is people

who've been thrown

into an earthen pit

that they can't

climb out of.

Remember Joseph

when his brothers

threw him in a pit?

I think it's the same

kind of pit here.

So,

so,

so it's talking

about those

who are stuck

in a huge dry well,

left there

to suffer

and to die.

It would be

a terrifying place

to be.

I was reading

earlier this year

an account

of a man

who survived

the death camps

as a Jewish man

in the,

during World War II

in Germany.

and when he describes

the despair

and the hopelessness

of the prisoners

and many of them

who,

who literally died

from lack of hope

as much as abuse

or anything else.

I think this is what

Zechariah is speaking

to as he talks

about the prisoners

who were thrown

into the waterless pit,

longing for freedom

and wondering

how,

how are we going

to be freed?

How do we,

how do we get out

of this pit?

How do we get out

of this prison?

We can't save ourselves.

And friends,

before we go on

and talk about

how this passage

describes how the king

saves us,

let us recognize

that the Bible

talks about

a greater slavery

and a greater prison

that we all live in.

And this is the prison

of sin.

Since Adam and Eve

fell in the garden,

we have all been stained

and infused

with sin.

and it leaves us

helpless

to experience

and to know

the kingdom of God

as he intended it

in its fullness.

Sin robs us

in so many ways.

Our ego

and our self-protection,

our lust

for our own power

and glory,

our self-centeredness

and our selfishness

that exclude God,

our desire

to make God

serve us

and our agendas

rather than serving him.

This sin holds us

like a death grip

and our souls

are dead

because of it.

This is what

the Bible tells us.

And like prisoners

in the dry well,

we can't make ourselves

alive.

But Jesus is your king

to set us free.

And we see in verse 11

the means of it.

Because of the blood

of my covenant

with you.

This is how God does it.

Now,

we need to stop

for a minute

and think about covenants.

Covenants are promises.

They're typically agreements.

They have different

kinds of forms.

Some covenants

in the Bible

seem to be conditional.

Something like

the Mosaic law.

If you obey my law,

then I will bring

blessing.

If you disobey my law,

I will bring cursing.

But we also see

other kinds of covenants

like the covenant

that God made

with Abraham

in Genesis 15.

I don't know

if you guys

know this story,

but God comes

and he says,

Abraham,

I'm going to make you

the father

of great nations.

And I'm going to bless you

and I'm going to bless

the world through you.

And then he does

this ritual.

Do you remember

this ritual?

It says,

take three animals,

cut them in half

as a sacrifice.

And then Abraham

falls asleep

and he has this vision

of a pot

that goes back and forth.

Because in the old days,

these covenants

would be made

where there would be

agreement.

You do this,

I will do this,

right?

And in this case,

God was commanding Abraham

to be circumcised

as a part of the covenant

agreement.

But it wasn't

a conditional one

because typically

the two parties

would cut animals

and then they'd come together

and walk through it together

and they would say,

may this and more

be done to me

if I break the conditions

of this covenant.

Right?

But what happened

in Genesis 15

is Abraham didn't walk

between the animals.

Only God did.

God said,

I will make a covenant

with you.

I will do this

and I will do everything

that's necessary

for you to fulfill

this covenant

so that it cannot

be broken.

And I believe

this is part

of what God,

I'm not sure

whether Zechariah

is referring

to the Abrahamic covenant

or to the Mosaic covenant

or to the Davidic covenant.

I actually think

he may be weaving a rope

and saying,

it's not one of those,

it's all of those.

I'm building towards

a new covenant.

I'm building towards

a greater covenant

that will fulfill

all of these promises

and I will do

what is necessary.

And this is what we see.

Jesus,

who walked into Jerusalem

on Palm Sunday,

four days later,

sat with his disciples

in the Passover meal

and said,

this covenant

is a new covenant

in my blood.

Shed for you

for the forgiveness

of your sins.

Do this

in remembrance

of me.

Like a Passover lamb,

Jesus goes

and says,

I will be the substitute.

I will die

for the firstborn.

I will die

for you

because of your sin

so that you

don't have to.

so that you

can come

and simply

receive by faith

the blessings

of the promise

and entrance

into the kingdom

that I've established

through my sacrifice.

So this is

what Jesus does.

He comes

to establish

his kingdom

through his death

and through

his resurrection.

through his blood

sacrifice

for us.

And friends,

we look around

and we think,

but that happened

2,000 years ago.

Where is

kingdom today?

Well,

the good news

is

that the new covenant

that was established

through Jesus

will one day

bring a new heavens

and a new earth.

We know this,

that Jesus

will come.

We know

that when he comes

again,

he will bring

all of these things

to fullness

and fruition

and we will

experience

the greatness

and the excellence

and the completion

of his kingdom.

For those of you

who want to stick around

for the rest

of the spring

as we preach

through the rest

of Revelation,

we're almost there.

We're in chapter 19.

Chapter 19 and 20

is all about

the victory over evil

and chapter 21,

oh my gosh,

it's such a beautiful vision.

It's such a compelling

hope

that we know

that Jesus the king

has already

fundamentally won

and he will

one day

bring it to fruition.

And this is

our great hope,

hope,

that the lamb

who is slain

will be the one

who will be worshipped

as king.

So Zechariah

tells us

that the kind

of king

that God

is going to send

will be a humble king

and he will be

a king

who will give himself

up in sacrifice

to save his people

and finally

he will be a king

who will come

to help us

flourish

in his beauty.

This is what we see

in verses 14

through 17.

And we need to acknowledge

that there is a picture

here of

the military victory,

right?

14, 15, 16.

It's remarkable,

isn't it?

This king comes

and he has an arrow

that's like lightning,

right?

And he will sound

his trumpet.

Remember the trumpets

that sounded in Jericho

and the walls fell down?

Trumpets have this great,

we actually talked about

trumpets in Revelation.

Trumpets are signs

of military force

coming to victory.

He will blow his trumpet

and he will march forth

with the whirlwinds

of the south.

There's a,

south of Israel,

there are commonly

these extremely strong

windstorms.

And Zechariah's pulling

on that imagery

to say,

he's going to come

like a hurricane.

He's going to come

and he's going to

blow you away.

And in the midst of it,

he's going to protect

his people,

right?

And his people

will overcome,

right?

And they will devour

and they will tread

down the sling stones,

which means that

even though the trebuchets

may be throwing

big rocks at them,

it won't hurt them.

They will tremble

over them like pebbles.

And they will roar

in victory.

Verse 16,

On that day,

the Lord their God

will save them

and the flock

of his people.

For like jewels

of a crown,

they shall shine

on his land.

For how great

is his goodness

and how great

is his beauty.

Grain shall make

the young men flourish

and new wine,

the young women.

This vision

of this king

who comes

ends in this picture

of flourishing,

of abundance,

of richness,

of joy.

The kingdom

that the king comes,

and again,

there are images here,

right?

The images

of the grain

and the wine

are images

of a healthy harvest,

a kingdom

that's flourishing,

a land

that is producing

abundantly

for those

who are young

so that they

would have joy

in the land

that they live in.

And what he's saying

here is the goodness

of God

and the beauty

of God

will feed our souls

better than wine

and grain

and we will flourish

as we gaze

upon the beauty

of this king

who came

humbly,

who came

in sacrifice,

sacrifice.

This is where

his beauty

is most fully seen.

I know,

Isaiah says

he had no beauty.

He had no human beauty,

but the beauty

of his sacrifice,

the beauty

of his love,

the riches

of his grace,

the depths

of his mercy,

this is

the goodness

and the beauty

of the king

who has come.

And friends,

we have the privilege

now to taste

of it

because Jesus

is risen

from the dead

and he is calling

his people

and even now

we can take hold

of the foretaste

of the fullness

of the kingdom.

them.

And this is why

Zechariah begins

with rejoice

because friends,

we are to have joy,

joy on this Palm Sunday

that our king

has come,

joy on this day

that our king

will come again

and that the promises

are secure

and that his work

is finished

and that he is

a savior

who is unlike

any other

who has come

to save

not the way

we think

we would want

to be saved

but the way

he in the riches

of his mercy

and grace

and his unfathomable

wisdom

the way that

he has come

for us

on that day

when the Lord

returns.

Revelation 21

says this,

and he who is

seated on the throne

said behold

I am making

all things new

also he said

write this down

for these words

are trustworthy

and true

and he said

to me

it is done

I am the alpha

and the omega

the beginning

and the end

to the thirsty

I will give

from the springs

of water of life

without payment

the one who conquers

will have this heritage

and I will be

his God

and he will be

my son.

oh friends

this Palm Sunday

let us rejoice

we have a great king

a king above all kings

let us worship him

let's pray together

Lord we do confess

that there are times

when it's hard

for us

to rejoice

in the midst

of the trials

and the brokenness

of this world

Lord when we see

that the darkness

seems to prevail

when we think

that

the rulers

of this world

will continue forever

Lord when we struggle

in our own hearts

and souls

against our sin

and the darkness

that creeps in

Lord help us

to see you

in all of your beauty

help us

to see you

who

didn't count

equality

with God

something to be grasped

but humbled himself

made himself

a servant

took on human flesh

and became obedient

even

even

unto the

death

on a cross

Lord help us

to see you

exalted

exalted

exalted

as the

one who died

and who lives

again

who now

is exalted

to the right hand

of the Father

the one who reigns

the one whom

one day

every knee will bow

heaven and earth

and confess

that you are Lord

Lord

restore

our hope

and renew

our joy

this day

we pray

in Jesus name

Amen