Christ the King

Good morning, everybody.

It's Palm Sunday.

It's kind of hard to believe, isn't it?

There are not many times over the past 14 years that I have forgotten in the coming weeks that Palm Sunday is happening.

But I would say about three weeks ago at a staff meeting, one of the uh people in our meeting said, Well, you know, Palm Sunday is such and such a date.

And I said, Wait, what?

It's just absolutely uh mind-boggling to me that this year has gone by so quickly that here we are yet again.

It is good news.

But as easily as it is for me to forget, or perhaps for us to forget, because we are um not single-minded in our focus, I don't suppose there was one moment of Christ's life and ministry on earth where he forgot his messianic purpose in going to the cross.

I don't suppose there was one single moment when he uh was caught by surprise where he was headed.

And so those final days, as we read uh familiar words, those final days, as he and his disciples come into Jerusalem and the crowds are gathering around, they're taking off their cloaks, they're laying them on the road, and they're cutting branches and putting them into the road, crying out, Hosanna to the Son of David, save us, son of David.

You can just imagine the scene as thousands and thousands of people because of Passover are gathered around the city, and there's this buzz.

What is going on?

Who is this person and what did he come to do?

We're gonna ask God by his Holy Spirit now to give us help before we read the text that years of perhaps uh uh childhood Sunday school stories of knowing the same story and hearing it read over and over again, that God would give us fresh eyes to see new and important uh truths from his word.

Heavenly Father, we would lift up to you our time together today, and we confess our um eagerness uh for Easter Sunday, the Sunday that we get to celebrate your resurrection.

But we also equally confess uh, Lord, our ignorance to remember, our lack of single-mindedness, the can the ways that different things compete with our lives, that cause us to forget Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday.

But as soon as we confess those things, Lord, we ask that you not only forgive us of our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, that you would show us the love of our Savior through uh your word this morning.

We pray for help for the Holy Spirit as we read your word.

We believe it is true, and we believe that it can change our lives, and we pray it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Matthew chapter 21, verses 1 through 11.

Matthew 21:1–11

Now, when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Beth Page to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her.

Untie them and bring them to me.

If any one says anything to you, you shall say, The Lord needs them, and he will send them at once.

This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.

They brought the donkey and the colt and put them on their cloaks, and he sat on them.

Most of the crowds spread their cloaks on the road, and the others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest.

And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, Who is this?

And the crowd said, This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.

This is God's holy and inspired word.

I can remember, like it was yesterday, though it was 13 years ago now, taking a trip along with a number of members from Kabul Park Church to Odessa, Ukraine, and working for the week in an orphanage that largely worked with children with mental disorders, especially those with autism.

And though I can remember much about the week, one of the things that perhaps stands out the most in my mind was the look, I'm sure on mine, but also on uh the other members of the team's faces as we arrive at the orphanage and as they uh gaze not upon the children, but rather upon those that have chosen to give their lives entirely to these kids.

It's a government-run orphanage.

In fact, most, if not all, of the orphanages in Ukraine are government-run.

And so uh you can only imagine the conditions not only for the children, but also for uh the teachers, those that uh some of them that live with them, others that come in for the day.

It was a look of amazement on uh the the team members' faces, a look of wonder as we saw uh teacher after teacher, even the director of the whole place, giving their lives to these children who were so trapped in their mind.

They would sit down on the floor with them and play games.

When the kids refused to play games, they would take them by the hand and walk around the playground, sometimes singing, sometimes praying, sometimes just walking in silence.

They would sit on the swings, they would be patient with them as they uh experienced different um uh tantrums and difficulties.

They were patient with them uh during lunch when food often was uh was everywhere.

It was the most remarkable display of self-giving, really, that I've ever seen.

But for whatever the reason that these people chose to give of their whole lives to these children, it was good news.

They're coming, they're showing up, they're serving, they're giving of themselves to these kids was good news.

Um in the past eight days, uh, two dear um friends to our congregation have passed away.

Jesus has called both of them home to be with himself, one in his sixties, one in his thirties.

And if we look over the events of the past week with the devastation and death brought by the tornadoes, some of you perhaps uh whom were affected in some small ways, perhaps others in significant ways, were just reminded that the coming of Jesus is really good news.

Even as uh we were at the uh funeral yesterday uh celebrating the life of one man, it was just a reminder that the coming of Jesus, his coming not only to earth to take on uh flesh, but his coming into Jerusalem that final week to go to the cross to pay for the sins of you and me is really, really, really good news.

So we're not going to be complicated today.

We're just going to say what, if the coming of Jesus is good news, what then is our duty?

What's our responsibility?

What's our response to the good news of the coming of Jesus?

The first response is to proclaim Jesus as king, to proclaim the king.

He is eternal, and he is also the Messiah.

What does it mean to say that he's eternal?

It means to say that his kingship lasts forever.

Listen to the words that Jesus gives some instructions to the disciples about going ahead of them to prepare the way, to ask for uh a donkey for him to ride on, and then Matthew gives his own commentary about why that happened in verse 4.

This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

This prophecy is from Zechariah chapter 9.

Zechariah 9 · chapter mention

We read it uh in our call to worship, Zechariah chapter 9.

Zechariah 9 · chapter mention

Uh the prophet Zechariah ministered to the people of Israel about 20 years after they returned from captivity in Babylon.

National morale is at an all-time low.

There was rejoicing and the ability to come back home, but when they came back home, they found the temple in just utter destruction.

The efforts to rebuild the temple had started, then stalled, taxes were high, government was strong, morale low.

And the people wondered, where is God in all of this?

I thought you were bringing us back to a good place.

I thought you were with us.

It was difficult to see God's purposes, it was difficult to see God's reign, it was difficult to see God's rule in the midst of such uh hard times.

And in the midst of that, God gives a promise to his people through Zachariah, say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you.

The phrase daughter of Zion refers to the people of God.

Why would they need to hear that now?

Because when the when the evident work of God seems to be inactive, the people need reminding that they have an eternal king.

That prophecy, friends, was made almost 500 years before this day.

What does that mean?

His kingship is eternal.

Now, how how the obvious application question is how would the promise of a king who was to come 500 years later be good news to the people then?

Well, I think we need to answer that question in the same way that we ought to see our own lives in terms of its application.

How is the promise of the coming of Jesus, or how is the actual coming of Jesus now 2,000 years ago, good news to us today?

Because Jesus' kingship was not limited to the 33 years that he walked on this earth.

His inauguration into king and into his kingship didn't happen as he rode into Jerusalem.

All the people crying out, Hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord as they laid their cloaks and branches on the ground.

That didn't start his kingship.

He has been the king of the world since before its foundation.

He is eternal.

And the eternal nature of his kingship gives us hope that when we can't see God's work at work, he still rules and reigns.

And there's not a square end of this earth as one theologian says that he does not stand and proudly proclaim that this is mine.

Jesus is king.

But an eternal king without the without the ability to identify with his people or do something for his people isn't much of a king now, is he?

That's why he's not just an eternal king, but he's a he's a messianic king.

He's the Messiah, he's the one who saves.

Listen to the text again.

Say to your to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

Jesus is um uh pictured here as the Messiah, the one who will come uh to his people.

Um, and we ought not to let it uh escape us as they come into the city as they as this prophecy uh is fulfilled.

It's the time of Passover.

Remember what happened at Passover?

Passover was the time uh in the uh that the people of Israel celebrated that annual uh on an annual basis, that event that happened in Exodus when God commanded the people of Israel to take a lamb, a uh a pure and spotless lamb, and to uh and to kill it, and to put the blood of the lamb over the door so that the angel of death, as it passed through the place of Egypt, would see the blood of the lamb and pass over that house, sparing the life of the firstborn son in that house.

And so to commemorate that event, the people of Israel celebrated the Passover by coming to Jerusalem and sacrificing a lamb and eating the lamb in the same way that the people did and spreading the blood on the doors.

So at the time of Passover, at this time in history, it's estimated over half a million people packed into the city of Jerusalem.

Think at that.

The small city, five hundred thousand people, all buying their own lambs for their families.

Think of all that slaughter, and in the midst of all that slaughter, we can imagine the one who rides on a colt on the foal of the donkey, riding in that the scriptures say, uh John the Baptist says, Behold the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world.

All that all those lambs who were slain are only a picture pointing towards the real lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world.

He is the Messiah.

What does that mean?

Just make it just very plain.

He came to us to take on our filth and to give us new clothes.

During part of that trip 13 years ago, there was uh one particular boy.

I've told this story before.

In particular, I tell it often um in wedding ceremonies.

You might ask me later why I do it in wedding ceremonies, but it's to describe the love of Christ.

Um, and this particular uh boy named Maxine was um was so tortured uh in his in his mind that he found it uh almost impossible to dress himself, to eat, to communicate well, and certainly uh to do other uh important functions like even use the restroom by himself.

One day while we were there, um the uh the workers at the orphanage um did not get Maxime to the toilet in time.

And he was covered in his own uh filth and unable to do absolutely anything about it for himself, uh, those dear ladies took him into another room and piece of clothing by piece of clothing they peeled off his soiled clothes and cleaned him and gave him new clothes.

And as he came out of that room, led by them, and sat down at the table again.

I can see it in my mind.

I thought it's a beautiful picture of what Christ did for us.

He took our soiled clothes that we might call sin.

And he stripped us of that soiled clothes, and he gave us his righteousness.

You see, we don't just have a king who's eternal, but we have a king who who comes to us.

It says, say to the daughter of Zion, your king is coming to you to do what?

To take on your sins and to give you his righteousness.

But we don't just proclaim the king.

We go on, the text says we go on to proclaim the king's work, but not for personal gain.

In other words, we don't proclaim Jesus' work to take advantage of ourselves.

That makes a little bit more sense as we understand what the people of uh Jerusalem said in verse 9.

The crowds that follow and went before him were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.

Hosanna means save us.

Save us, son of David.

It's a nationalistic cry.

Some of it undoubtedly meant it genuinely to the extent that they understood, but most of them meant it in the same way that we say, God bless America.

Um at best, it's a plea for God, in fact, to bless our country.

But at worst, it's a cry of people that believe that God will bless whatever Americans do.

It's a nationalistic cry.

Hosanna to the son of David.

In other words, the people in Jerusalem there were just like the people that Zechariah was speaking with.

Morale was at an all-time low.

The temple stood, sure, but it was filled with nothing but um activity that prevented worship.

And not only did the temple prevent work the temple activity prevent worship, but the the oppressive Roman government was was the thumb was so heavy that the people had they had no real rights, no ability to worship God on their own, and they thought, oh, at last, a king.

Hosanna, save us.

In other words, their crib betrayed their own desire to use Jesus as a charm to make their life better.

Oh boy.

What if that's true of me and you?

What if it's true that I use Jesus as an insurance policy to make sure that I'm gonna be okay eternally, but right now I can live however I want to live.

So that I can spend my time how I want to spend it without considering him spend my efforts and energies, my gifts, my abilities, my money.

The people of Jerusalem give us a warning, I think, that in their cry, save us, son of David, we can see a mirrored reflection of our own image that says, We'd like for Jesus to save us.

But if we're honest, we'd really like to live our lives the way we want to live 'em.

But the good news is.

That Jesus will have none of that.

Because not only did because not only did he not come for personal gain, but he came for spiritual peace.

How do you know?

Where do we see it in this text?

Now we know from the later pages of scripture.

In this text, we see him in his choice of transportation.

I've heard it said before, and whether or not it's true.

You can learn a lot about a man by what he drives.

I suppose on some level that's that's true.

The minivan driving uh dad with uh gummy worms stuck to the carpet and crayons uh string nobody has any of that.

No stickers on on the inside of the car and on the outside of the car.

That says family man.

The uh the man who drives a car with 37 empty Taco Bell wrappers in the back says college student, right?

The middle-aged man who drives uh red convertible, sorry if that's any of you, says I need therapy.

But what is a messiah, what is a king doing on a donkey?

Have you ever heard a donkey bray?

It's the most painful, embarrassing, ridiculous sound ever.

And here's Jesus.

We can imagine the donkey excited by the crowd, just braying and braying, and the leaders of the city saying, Who is this?

The phrase, the whole city was stirred up, is meant to remind us of the time when Jesus was born, and the text says, uh, and all of Jerusalem was troubled with him.

As the local governor sought to destroy all the male children uh born two years and under, the whole city is troubled.

It's the same kind of phrase.

The whole city's stirred up, all the religious people are stirred up.

Who is this guy?

He's on a donkey.

Why is that important?

Why am I making a big deal about a donkey?

Because kings don't ride on donkeys, they ride on war horses with chariots, but not Jesus.

He rode on a beast of burden, a nobody animal.

Because he didn't come for the result of kicking out the Romans.

He came to bring peace to God's people, not for their personal gain, not for some nationalistic endeavor, not just to make their lives better now and free them from all suffering, but to give his own life in order that they may have hope eternally, that the promise of suffering in that day, the reality of suffering in that day, would give lead way to the promise of heaven one day.

Our job then is to proclaim the king's work.

That's the so what?

Proclaim the King, Jesus' King, and proclaim his work in our own lives.

That he comes not to just make our lives uh clean up our lives and make them better, but to give us eternal hope.

We also proclaim the king's rule as prophet, priest, and king.

The whole city stirred up, they're all troubled.

Who is this?

And the crowd says, Oh, this is the prophet Jesus.

Well, yes, Jesus was a prophet in that uh Jesus held three offices perfectly prophet, priest, and king.

As prophet, he spoke God's word to God's people.

As the eternal word of God, he was the true word of God to God's people, so that when he spoke, God spoke.

But he's not just prophet, he's not just as the people say, he is also priest.

That is, in a few verses, when he will enter the temple and run out the money changers and those who sold uh all kinds of animals so as to prevent worship.

He is the true priest of the house of God.

But not only is he the true priest over the house of God that oversees the house of God, but he's the true priest who will offer himself as a sacrifice in just a week's time that we celebrate this Good Friday.

And he's also king.

Though he may not look like it, though he may not have acted like it, Jesus on a donkey into Jerusalem with thousands of people gathered around, most of them crying Hosanna to the Son of David, and one week later crying, crucify him, does not change the reality that Jesus is king.

And what happened 2,000 years ago, friends, doesn't change the reality that he still rules as king today.

And so really I think what we what we have to do is we have to make a we have to make a choice.

Are we going to acknowledge him as king in our lives or not?

I love how the author C.S.

Lewis puts this, puts it.

He says, let's have no nonsense about calling Jesus a great human teacher.

He didn't leave us with that option.

We can't just look at Jesus as an insurance policy.

We can't read this text and be unaffected by it.

We can't forget Palm Sunday.

I'm indicting myself.

We can't just take his words and read them and say, boy, that those that sounds really smart.

He's not just a good human teacher, he's the king.

And we're either going to have to crown him as such in our own lives or reject him.

And for those that um for those whose lives are consistent rejection of Jesus, you need to know it is for you that Jesus came.

If you have forgotten Palm Sunday, and I don't just mean the date, but forgotten the purpose of it, don't care about it.

And I realize I'm speaking to everybody actually in church, but on some level, we all have an experience where we allow it to slip past us.

You need to know that the mercy of God is new for you, and he gave his life for you, and we get to celebrate that reality, not only today, but also this week.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the reality of the cross to which you came.

And we celebrate, Lord, your coming into Jerusalem two thousand years ago, and we proclaim you as king.

We proclaim your work not for our own personal gain, but for spiritual peace.

We proclaim your rule as prophet, the word of God, as priest, the sacrifice to and of God, and as king of our hearts and indeed of the world.

So we pray, Lord, that you would fill our hearts with hope for you, with love for you, and that you would take our indifferent minds and transform them into affections that cannot be quenched for you.

And we pray it in Jesus' name.

Amen.