Matthew Pt. 77 - Surrender to the King

This is the moment we've all been waiting for.

His ministry has been building. His time has been coming.

He's been the man on a mission, proceeding forward, proceeding

forward, proceeding forward. He never once flinches.

He never once hesitates. And now, as he comes into

Jerusalem, finally, after his 3 1/2 year ministry, he's got

massive, massive, massive crowds, thousands and thousands

of people. Everybody knows somebody who

knows somebody who's been healed by Jesus.

He doesn't just have 12 people following him.

Everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who's heard Jesus

preach, who has heard about it, one of the miracles who has seen

something happen. Now all the Jews are are coming

to Jerusalem for the Passover. And Jesus comes in on the very

day that the lamb is selected for the Passover.

This is the day of the week when everyone will be selecting their

Passover lamb. Jesus presents himself as the

lamb selected as the Passover lamb.

They rejoice over him and this is how he makes his entry in

Matthew 21. I'm going to read it to you.

Today is about surrender and surrender to the king and those

who had words and prophecy from the Lord.

They didn't know what this sermon was about.

If they were looking ahead, they would have thought that it's

going to be another Palm Sunday sermon, but that's not the the

way the Lord had me prepare it for salt this morning.

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethpage

into the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent 2 disciples saying to

them, go into the village in front of you and immediately you

will find a donkey, tide and a colt with her.

That's a a mother donkey and her baby donkey with her.

Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you,

you shall say, look, the Lord has need of 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 on a colt, the foal of the beast of burden.

The disciples went and did as Jesus directed them.

They brought the donkey in the colt and put on their cloaks and

he sat on them. He sat the them there as he sat

on the cloaks. He didn't sit on both animals,

He sat on the younger donkey. The other gospels explain that

most of the crowds spread their cloaks on the road, and others

cut branches from 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 had entered

Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, Who is this?

And the crowds said, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of

Galilee. Jesus is different, and Matthew

wants everybody to know it. Matthew remembers writing to

Jews so Jews understand their Old Testament.

And Matthew is constantly pointing out, hey, you know that

prophecy in the Old Testament and the Jewish readers going,

yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. And he goes, Jesus did it, Jesus

did it, Jesus did it. Matthew's gospel is all about

showing Jesus is king. Matthew's gospel is all about

saying Jesus is your king. Well, I didn't vote for him.

That's not how kings work. Jesus is your king.

He's my king. He's everybody's king, and

Matthew wants to emphasize that. Matthew wants to make that

point. He's not just a prophet.

He's the prophet. He's not another teacher.

He's the teacher. He's not a king.

He's the king of kings. Jesus presents himself on his

terms and in his timing. And this isn't just about

Matthew's opinion. This is the storyline of the

whole Bible from beginning to end.

In Genesis, Jesus is the seed that was promised.

In Exodus, he is the deliverer. He's the high priest.

In Exodus, he's the serve. He's the serpent who is lifted

up. In Numbers.

He's the prophet of Deuteronomy. He's the commander of the Lord's

army In Joshua, he's the true judge.

In the book of Judges, he's the Redeemer.

In Ruth, Jesus is the anointed king.

In Samuel, he is the faithful ruler in King in Kings and

Chronicles, he's the rebuilder of the temple in Ezra, and he's

the wall restorer In Nehemiah, Jesus is the advocate in Esther.

He is the living Redeemer in Job.

He is the shepherd king of Psalms.

Jesus is the wisdom of Proverbs. He is the meaning find

Ecclesiastes. He is the groom in the Song of

Solomon. He is the suffering servant of

Isaiah. He's the righteous branch in

Jeremiah. He's the man of sorrows and

Lamentations. He's the Son of man in Ezekiel

and the 4th man in the fire in Daniel.

He's the faithful husband of Hosea and the Spirit Pourer out

of Joel. He's the Plumb line in Amos.

He's the mighty Savior in Obadiah.

He's the greater Jonah, He's the ruler from Bethlehem and Micah.

He is the avenger in Nahum. He's the watchman in Habakkuk

and the mighty One who saves in Zephaniah.

He's the desire of the nations in Haggai.

He's the pierced shepherd in Zechariah and the son of

righteousness in Malachi. And now we come to Matthew,

where he is the promised Messiah.

He is the rightful Son of David. He is the King who has finally

come all the way to his people. In spite of all that prophecy,

people still tried to control Jesus.

That is the word of the Lord for you today.

Saints, stop trying to control Jesus.

He will not be controlled by anybody.

He never was. He never will be.

What you will find is he's extremely generous, He is

incredibly humble, He is very merciful, and he's completely

kind. Jesus loves you, Jesus is

merciful to you, Jesus is kind to you.

And also Jesus does not submit to you.

People tried to speed Jesus up. People have tried to slow Jesus

down. They have tried to make him into

something else entirely. His opponents have tried, have

tried to force his hand. His followers have wanted to

enthrone him too soon. But Jesus doesn't do anything

anyone else's way. He doesn't do things your way.

He doesn't do things my way either.

Jesus won't be manipulated. He's not improvising.

He came with a plan and he's fulfilling it down to the last

detail. Which is exactly why Matthew

takes us straight to Zechariah. He's quoting Zechariah there in

verse 5 S anytime you're reading your Bible and the Scripture

pops out to the center or lays it out, it's quoting something

from the Old Testament. He's saying that's why it says,

you know what says? Well, there's something else

written somewhere in the word of God where he's fulfilling

prophecy. So we go in Zechariah Chapter 9,

Zechariah 9 · chapter mention

turn there with me in your Bible.

You're going to turn to your left, a few, a few books, just a

couple books to your left from where you are in Matthew, in

Zechariah Chapter 9, this is the prophecy again.

Zechariah 9 · chapter mention

The whole Bible's about Jesus. Everything Everywhere is about

Jesus. Zechariah Chapter 9, verse 9,

Zechariah 9:9

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 of

Ephraim and the War Horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow

shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations.

He shall rule from sea to sea and from river, from the river

to the ends of the earth. Praise God.

This is prophecy about Jesus and this is what Jesus is

fulfilling, this specific prophecy on this specific day.

So the big deal with Jesus riding on a donkey is because

kings would always show up on a War Horse.

This is how they would flaunt. This is how they would flex.

This is how they would display. We're not so different, are we?

We want to flaunt, we want to flex.

We want to display. I have power, I have prominence.

Don't mess with me because I could hurt you.

Our kings, our presidents, our prime ministers, our dictators,

they do the same thing today. All nations have military

parades. What's the point?

The implication is we can kill you.

We have, might we have power. So all throughout history,

leaders would do that. They ride in on a War Horse.

They ride in with great strength and honor and protection around

themselves and the sword. And that was plainly understood.

I am here to dominate, but Jesus rides in on the donkey to say

I've come to bring peace. The one who can dominate

everybody with the snap of his finger, with the wink of his

eye, the one who can annihilate us all, who could have

annihilated us all as soon as we send the one who could have

saved us all in a second, instead comes to save us as a

savior. And he is so humble, which is

why he won't allow pride in our lives.

God has no tolerance for pride in my heart.

He's got no tolerance for pride in your heart because he's so

humble. He's going, look, if I can do

the infinite jump from infinite height to infinite low, who are

you, The clay that I've formed to not take your place, to not

take your role and say, Lord, I'm clay on the wheel.

Whatever you want to shape, whatever you want to do,

whatever you want to add, whatever you want to remove, I'm

yours, Lord. Like Mary, I'm the handmaiden of

the Lords. Whatever he says, he gets.

Whatever he wants, he can have. So the kings of the earth parade

their strength through military might.

The Romans did it then. It's done all over the world

today, implying what they can do with their strength and power.

But the king of all those kings, the one who has all authority in

heaven and on earth, rides a young donkey, the symbol of

peace. Instead of killing his enemies,

he shows his greater power by doing what no man on earth has

ever been able to do, change the hearts of his enemies and make

his enemies his friends, Give them a new identity and make

them a new creation. This is a picture for us outside

of Christ and inside of Christ. Outside of Christ there's

protection, there's walls, there's barriers, there's

standards. I'm living life my way, it's my

life, it's mine, it belongs to me.

And Jesus says, can I have it? And again, that's different from

the invitation. Would you like to not go to

hell? Would you like to go to heaven

instead? It's the invitation.

Can I have your whole life? And to step into that and go,

that feels like death. And he goes, I know, but there's

resurrection now. And yes, for eternity, also for

eternity. But it is life that is truly

life. It is life that is actually

abundant life that is the Christian life modelled first of

all by Jesus Christ himself. He comes and lays down his life

as a substitute. You and I would deserve

suffering, frankly. He doesn't, but he did it as a

substitute. Jesus has already been teaching

his disciples about greatness. We just saw that again recently.

What is greatness in the Kingdom look like?

And he shows us again what humility looks like.

If you want to be the greatest, serve everybody, serve them,

serve them, serve them. And Jesus came to serve with his

strengths. Jesus came to do what only Jesus

can do. Back to Matthew in verse 21.

Back to Matthew in chapter 21. Look in verse 8.

Look what the crowd does as Jesus comes in.

They're celebrating. This is a jubilant time.

Massive, massive, massive, massive crowd.

Many thousands of people rejoicing, celebrating, praising

Jesus. Why?

Because they had a misunderstanding about what was

about to happen. They did not understand and they

wanted to force him. Come on in.

Why is he on a donkey? It's OK.

Whatever. We'll we'll roll with it.

We'll roll with it for the moment.

We'll shift him. We'll get him sorted out here

soon. We'll get him sorted out here in

a minute. Of course, by Friday it's

crucify him, but today it's blessed.

Is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

They thought he was the Messiah and they were right.

But the Messiah they were expecting was wrong.

Jesus is Jesus, and Jesus is better than you think he is.

But the Jesus of Scriptures is the only Jesus that there is.

The Jesus of the Word is the Jesus who calls us to surrender

this morning, who has sent His Holy Spirit through multiple

words to us to call us to surrender.

What are the people do in verse 8?

Most of the crowds spread their cloaks on the road and others

cut branches from trees and spread them on the road.

So remember, in this time, in this place, they don't have all

massive stores of clothing like you and I do.

We're like, I got to get rid of some of these clothes.

They don't have the winter clothes in the attic and the

summer clothes that they switch out.

They don't have the shirt they like.

I haven't worn that in years. I need to take that and donate

it. I need to bless up.

They don't have that. Clothing is valuable.

Clothing is rare. Clothing is expensive, and they

lay their clothing down. What's the picture for you and

I? They take a valuable thing to

them, a costly thing, not a cheap thing.

Oh, that ain't no big deal. Let's donate that to the church.

That's worthless to me. That's worth nothing to me.

I'll give it away. They're saying this is worth

something to me. This cost me something.

This hurts. And he's worthy.

So for what they're doing in the moment, let's give him the

benefit of the doubt. They're doing.

They're doing well. They're doing what's right,

laying down what's valuable. That's what worship does.

Worship lays down what's valuable to you and offers it to

one who is more and most valuable to you.

If there is no cost to your obedience, are you truly

following Jesus? Or are you just blending into

the crowd that cheers for him and then disappears when

pressure is applied later? I'm a Christian, praise God.

So that also means a disciple, right?

Sure. That also means you're

following, right? Whoa, I liked it when we were

just back at the word Christian because it was vague enough,

didn't have enough clarity around it.

But when you start getting into the follower stuff, well, yeah,

I mean, I'm kind of following. Maybe I'm following if it's

convenient. I'm following.

But if you're not living a life of surrender, are you really a

disciple who's following him? Or are you just part of a crowd

who can be swayed? If you're actually following

Jesus, then you cannot have a self-directed discipleship.

Jesus directs your discipleship. You can't follow Jesus and

simultaneously ask him to bless your plans.

You can't follow Jesus and measure your growth by your

feelings instead of your obedience.

You can't follow Jesus and treat his church and his mission as

optional accessories. So again, these people who

didn't know what I was preaching today didn't know this was

coming in the sermon. What is Jesus asking of you?

What is he asking of you? Have you obeyed that last

command that the Lord gave you? Some of you are stuck and you've

been stuck for years because you have not obeyed a command from

years ago. And that's why you are where you

are. You will not give up the thing

that he goes. That's the thing that's going to

bring your deliverance. That that's the thing that's

going to bring your freedom. Pastor, what is it?

What is it? Well, if you know, then you

know, and if you don't, then then you don't.

But for whom the shoe fits, it should be put on if you're, if

you're stuck, if you're stalled. Man, I just, I need this, I need

that, I need it. There's there's something you

can buy that gold from him and you should purchase that gold

from him. But he said you got to buy it

from him. I thought God's grace is free.

His grace is free. But he's talking about something

else here. He's talking about a new season

now. He's talking about fresh oil.

He's talking about fresh wine. It will cost me something.

It will cost. Man, that feels like cutting off

my hand. That feels like gouging out my

eye. Now we might be getting close to

your breakthrough, then now we're probably getting close to

your deliverance. Now we're probably actually

getting close to the thing that's going to be the catapult,

the slingshot, and to your walk with the Lord and to your new

freedom and to your new anointing into your new

ministry, into your new fellowship.

He's knocking. He's saying if you let me in,

there is a feast. There's an absolute feast.

What is he asking? Are you still ignoring it or did

you only partially obey it? Did you compromise it in some

way? He said, I want that.

You go, OK, I kind of did it. That's why you don't have peace.

That's why you don't have freedom, because you chose power

instead. You chose your War Horse and you

chose your chariot because you thought you were safe in there.

What you thought was your safety inside your chariot is your

prison. And they look similar.

But if that's you, then you're not acting like Jesus.

You're not humble. You're in your mighty chariot.

You think you're strong. You see Jesus going to the

cross, and you don't really follow him.

You just pity him. Ah, man, I'm so sad for that

guy. Thanks, Jesus.

Thank you. Thank you, Jesus.

Oh, so man, Like there's nobody like Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus. He's going.

The invitation was to follow, not to watch and wish me well on

my way. Stop pitying Jesus and start

obeying Jesus. He doesn't need your pity.

Instead, as we read in Revelation, He pities you, He

pities me. I know your works.

You're neither cold nor hot. Revelation 315 would that you

would either cold or hot. So because you're lukewarm and

neither hot nor cold, I'll spit you out of my mouth.

For you say I'm rich. I've prospered.

I need nothing, not realizing that you're wretched, pitiable,

poor, blind and naked. That was the case of the church

in Laodicea. Very wealthy, very prominent,

very American, very strong, very proud.

We're good. We got our act together.

Jesus said you're wretched, you're pitiable, you're poor,

you're blind, and you're naked. I counsel you to buy gold from

me, refined by fire so that you may actually be rich.

Counsel you to buy white garments so that you may clothe

yourselves and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and

that you would get salved to anoint your eyes that you may

see. They were known for all three of

those things in that region, for their gold, for their clothing,

and for the salve that they would apply as a medication.

And Jesus said, yours is worthless, you need to buy it

for me. Instead.

Everybody came to layout, to see, to buy, and they thought

they had that flex on everybody. This is what we export.

Jesus said you don't need to export anything, you need to

import something from me. I can export things, I can

export to others, I can export to others.

But are you importing from Jesus?

Are you hungry for what Jesus has?

The humble Jesus, the Jesus who comes in gentleness, the Jesus

who comes on a donkey. Jesus is coming again.

He is coming on a War Horse, like we said, he, he's making

the nations his footstool now and later I'm happily I'm happy

to touch and hold up the feet of Jesus.

What a blessing. Whatever part of the body of

Christ I have, the pinky toe or something else, I'll take it.

Thank you, Lord, what a joy to belong to you and to belong to

your precious church. But he's not coming back on a

donkey. When he comes, he is coming back

on the War Horse. He will be flexing his muscles.

He will be coming in judgment and I don't know when he's

coming and you don't know when he's coming.

The one thing I know is that he's coming back and I know he's

coming soon and I know he's calling us into a new season.

And I'm processing all this with you at the same moment.

This morning was not a pre orchestrated event by me.

It was pre orchestrated by the Lord for us, for me and for you.

Bubba Key, bring up the music. We're going to have some

opportunity. To actually lay things down and

actually bring things to the altar.

And it's going to be like one of those times when I sure hope so.

Whatever you're afraid of this being, I sure hope it's that.

I sure hope it's every bit of it.

Whatever you're worried that this service might become here

in a moment, I pray to God that it would become that thing.

Because that's where breakthrough would be.

That's where freedom would be. That's where humility would be.

Good morning. God bless you.

See you next week. If that's enough for you, then

that's enough for you. It's not for me.

Who's going to do it? Who's going to be first?

Whoever's most humble, whoever isn't afraid of man anymore.

Whoever's not afraid of people. Whoever's willing to get out of

their powerful chariot, their place of protection, their

prison, and go. I'm just going to follow the

Lamb and surrender like the Lamb.

Jesus surrendered himself. Jesus, help me to surrender.

Help me to surrender what I need to surrender.

Help me to give what you've asked for.

If you know that there's something that Jesus has asked

of you and you haven't done it, don't wait.

Don't walk out still holding on to it.

The altar is open and I'm inviting you to come lay it

down. Come surrender it.

It may cost you something, but worship always does.

Do not admire Jesus from a distance.

He does not need your pity. He calls for your worship.

He calls for your obedience. Don't sing about surrender one

more time until you've actually surrendered.

Offer Him something to buy this gold.