The King Has Come | Palm Sunday 2026

In Zechariah chapter 9, verse 9, the Bible says this Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.

Zechariah 9:9

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, on the foal of a donkey.

Church, this is the word of the Lord.

Praise be to God.

Yeah, learning.

You may be seated.

I'm gonna move this over here.

Just feel like it's judging me.

Well, the time of this passage in Zechariah, it was a very difficult time in Israel's history.

After having been conquered, you know, we talked in the last couple of weeks, especially last week, we talked about how the kings of Israel led the people of Israel into idolatry and apostasy.

And as they did, God would send prophets to them and tell them, Repent, turn, why should you perish?

He doesn't have any delight in the destruction and the punishment of the wicked.

That he wanted them to turn.

He was crying out to them and sending prophets, and the people would kill the prophets.

They would stone them, they would saw them in two.

And so finally the destruction came, they were taken away into exile, and the kingdom of Judah, the the Jerusalem and Judah were conquered, they were taken into Babylon, they were there for 70 years, and finally they were allowed to return back to the land.

And so they had begun rebuilding the city of Jerusalem, they had begun rebuilding the temple.

In fact, the temple at this point was done, but there was still just something missing.

I mean, for one thing, the temple was nothing like the grandeur and the greatness of Solomon's temple.

And also, we read in the Bible in the 2 Chronicles, I believe, when Solomon dedicated that temple, it says this the glory of the Lord fell upon the temple and filled the temple so that the priests could not even stand to minister.

And yet we never read of that happening again in this temple.

And then economically they're hurting.

There's not a lot of money, there's not a lot of resources, and there's still no king.

They're really still under subjection to the nation of Persia, and Persia is sending governors to rule over them, and so they really don't have their independence.

They don't have a descendant of David seated upon the throne, and so they're just struggling and they're frustrating and they're feeling discouraged.

And so it's into this moment that God sends the prophet Zechariah to tell them, Behold, your king is coming.

Righteous and having salvation is he humble and mounted on a donkey?

And it's as if God is saying to them, you know, don't be discouraged.

Hang in there.

Your true king is coming.

And he says he's humble and he's mounted on a donkey.

Did anyone else besides me ever wonder what the heck this donkey thing is all about?

Why did Jesus ride a donkey?

Why did Solomon ride a donkey?

What is that all about, the donkey thing?

Well, in the ancient world, there were basically two ways that a king could come into a city and take a crown.

And the first was a war horse.

Okay, if you came in on a war horse, you came in as a conqueror.

Okay, your armies had probably defeated the armies of the existing king, and you came in on your war horse with your head held high and probably some battle scars, and you walked into the throne room and you probably threw the old king in prison and you took his crown, settled on your head, and you sat on the throne as a conqueror.

The other way was on a mule, on a donkey.

But the only way to come into a city and take a throne from the back of a donkey is if you come in peace and if you're the rightful king.

Right?

And so there was a time in Solomon's, you know, in David's time when he was getting older and his son uh Adonijah had tried to take the throne, kind of claim it for himself, and he declared himself to be king, and he got his buddies around him, and he's throwing a like I'm the new king party, and you know, they're they're all drinking and eating food and stuff like that, and then David catches wind of it, and he goes, uh-uh, I don't think so.

And so he proclaims Solomon is king.

And he says, Go get my royal mule and bring him and set him on it.

And then Solomon rides the the David's own donkey around while he's being proclaimed the king, because he was the rightful heir to the throne.

And so God gives his people this prophecy of hope and through the prophet Zachariah.

But in the meantime, you know, for generations still, they're living in subjection.

They're living under Persia, and then Greek and the Ptolemies and the Seleucids, and then the Hasmoneans that still weren't Davidic kings, all the way through, and now they're under the Romans, and they're so they're in subjection to other nations all the time, and all that time they're just waiting and they're hoping and they're believing that when their true king came, he would overthrow the occupying powers, and he would throw out the illegitimate kings, and he would restore Israel to the honor that they once held, being a kingdom of priests, a people for his own possession.

But during that time, there was just silence.

You know, after the prophet Malachi in the Old Testament, and between the Gospels and the New Testament, there's a period of like 400 years of just silence, where no prophet spoke, there was no angelic visitation, there was no new word, there was just this waiting and then this hoping, you know, and and and there was a spiritual darkness that was just kind of on the world at this time.

And into this spiritual darkness, the apostle John tells us that once again, just as he did in the creation, God spoke.

In John chapter 1, it says, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

John 1 · chapter mention

He was with God in the beginning, and all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made.

And in him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

And it's no accident that as we read this verse right here, that we're instantly reminded of the beginning of another book of the Bible: Genesis, the beginning of the whole Bible, where he had said, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness covered the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters, and God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

John's purposely echoing back to this verse.

In that beginning, where God, where Elohim, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit created the heavens and the earth.

In that verse, in that passage in Genesis, we see all three persons of the Godhead as the Spirit of God hovers in the darkness over the waters, anticipating the work that the Father is about to do.

And then we see the Father speaking and commanding his will, and then we see his word going forth to perform his will.

And that word is the same word that John's talking about in John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

That same word that brings physical light to the physical darkness now in John brings spiritual light into spiritual darkness.

In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God, he was with God in the beginning, and all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made.

So here John tells us a few things about this word.

The first is the word was with God.

The second is that he was God.

The next is that he's a he.

Okay, this is not an impersonal force.

This is not some kind of weird spiritual power.

This is a he and that he was in the beginning with God and he was God.

And then he tells us this that all things were made through him, and without him, nothing was made that was made.

What John's opening verses immediately do is destroy any notion that Jesus is anything less than God incarnate.

It proves that he's infinitely more than simply a good teacher or a spiritual guide or a moral example or a healer or an angel or even a regular human being that was just created normally but somehow attained to some sort of deity or superior spiritual enlightenment.

Because all those ideas are floating out there in the world.

But if you look at the word, the word tells us clearly who Jesus is.

Jesus is God.

Jesus is God, He's God incarnate.

Jesus is the God who created the heavens and the earth.

Colossians said he's the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created by him and for him.

And he's before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Church, who's Jesus?

Let's say it a little better, a little more enthusiastically.

Who's Jesus, Church?

I like it when church talks, right?

Just like the call and response, you know.

We we I speak and you speak too.

You know, you're like, hey, that was wrong, or hey, amen.

You know, speak, speak.

This is church.

I got off my message, so I gotta find my place.

And then the verse goes on.

It says, In him was life.

So in this eternal word was life.

And the life was what the life was light.

And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

In other words, God speaks, and the eternal word, the logos, the second person of the Godhead, goes forth into the world as light into darkness.

And he, as he enters the creation, the darkness begins to be pushed back because it can't stand against the light.

Like when Jesus said, On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Amen?

So the light gets pushed back.

And John gives us a further clue to who this word is in verse 14.

He says, And the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

And we've seen his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Son, Father of the Father, the only begotten Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

And John is telling us exactly who this word is.

He's Jesus.

See, John is one of those who followed Jesus, who was his disciple that lived with him, who ate dinner and lunch and breakfast with him, who probably slept in the sleeping bag next to him.

He watched Jesus do his miracles.

He saw the blind healed and the deaf healed, and he saw people healed of neurological disorders, and he saw people healed of Parkinson's, and he saw people that were healed of cancer.

He saw people who were healed of other things and brought out of comas.

He saw Lazarus get raised from the dead.

Okay, so this man walked and lived and learned from Jesus, and he was also one of the three who went up on the mountain with James and with Peter also, and he saw Jesus transfigured into the glory that he had with the Father before the world began.

And so he says, We've seen his glory.

So he's testifying, he's telling us, I've seen him, and I'm gonna tell you who he is.

So before I get in to telling you about his ministry and his life and his miracles and his teachings, and even about his passion and about his resurrection, his ascension, I just want you to know who Jesus is.

But verse 9, if we just step back just a little bit, it paints kind of a sad picture.

It says, the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world, and that the world was made through him, and yet the world did not know him.

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

This is maybe like the saddest story ever told, you know?

That despite centuries of sending his promises to his people, of him knowing our condition, of our fallenness, our brokenness, our separation from him, and our inability to fix ourselves, and our tendency to run after idols or to try to fix ourselves or to try to look to other people and all of our tendencies that are in us, God doesn't abandon us to our sin and fallenness.

Instead, he continues to point his people toward his plan, to his promise, to his provision for our sin and his plan to redeem us.

And yet, when the moment comes for our redemption, when the child is born, when the son is given, he comes to his own, those people that he created, that he formed from dust and breathed into the nostril the ruach, the breath of life, and then humanity just fails to recognize him.

And yet, even this failure was known.

It was taken into account, he made it part of his plan.

Because verse 12 says, To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

And as we know, Jesus did come and he was born of the Virgin Mary, and he grew up into a man, and he had his earthly ministry, and he he taught, he preached the good news to the poor, and he did heal the blind and the deaf and the mute and the lame and all of those, and he healed the lepers, and he raised the dead.

And though many rejected him, there were some who believed.

And so as we come into Luke chapter 19, Jesus has come to the end of that public ministry, and he's entering his final week.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

And this scene is going to be his final march toward Jerusalem as he goes to overthrow a kingdom and to reclaim a throne.

And yet notice that as he approaches Jerusalem, he doesn't do so from the back of a war horse, does he?

What is he riding?

A donkey.

Yeah, you're talking.

I like it.

Woo chapter 19, verse 29, it says this: When he drew near to Bethagy in Bethany, at the moment, at the mount that is called all of it, he sent two of his disciples, saying, Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, and which no one has ever sat.

Untie it and bring it here.

If anyone asks you, Why are you untying it?

you shall say this, the Lord has need of it.

So those who were sent went away, found it just as he had told them.

And so as they were retired, untying the colt, its owner said to them, Why are you untying the colt?

They said to him, The Lord has need of it.

And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.

And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road.

As he was drawing near, already on the way down the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest.

And can you picture it now in your mind, this scene?

This is Palm Sunday.

I didn't know what the heck that was for so long.

Palm Sunday, palms?

Like what.

This is what that is.

It's the celebration of God's people as they see the king that they've been waiting for for centuries, for generations, coming.

You know, and the excitement is just in the air.

The king has come.

Zechariah 9:9 is being fulfilled.

Zechariah 9:9

And then he had proven himself.

They had seen him prove himself by his works.

They'd seen him multiply the fishes and the loaves and feed 5,000 people.

They saw him command Lazarus, a man who had been dead for three or four days, say, Lazarus, come forth.

And the dead man stood up and walked out of his tomb.

There was another instance, a little girl who passed away, the daughter of Jairus.

And he went into her house and he said, Teletha kumi, little girl, arise, and she rose up and she came back to life.

They saw these miracles.

They had witnessed these things, and they knew that this was their Messiah.

And so they worshiped him, laying down their cloaks as he rode down the road.

And John's gospel says it this way: that they cut palm branches and shouted, Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

But some of the Pharisees, the religious leaders, they see what's going on.

And they know the word.

And they see that Jesus is riding on a donkey, and they see the people with their palm branches waving, and they hear the things that they're saying.

And so they go to Jesus.

Jesus, they say, Jesus, teacher, rebuke your disciples.

They're like, Stop them, man.

They're calling you the Messiah.

They're worshiping you.

Rebuke them.

Stop them.

They're proclaiming you as the promised king.

And so Jesus is like, okay, guys, no, calm down.

No.

Did Jesus stop them?

Did Jesus stop them?

No.

He said, I he answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.

And maybe I'm weird, but I think about things sometimes.

Like what it must have been like when Jesus was walking the earth in his earthly ministry, what the difference would have been like to observe him as a human being.

Okay, so you just see this man walking down the road with a following, and he's doing amazing things.

But otherwise, like from the outside, he just kind of looks like a normal person, you know?

He looks like an average person from his his area.

You know, he probably did not have blonde hair and blue eyes like the movies always make him, but he looked like just a normal person.

And so, because of that, a lot of people would like not take him seriously, you know?

Some people would doubt him, they would they would argue with him, they would debate him, they they even struck him at one point and they end up crucifying him.

But did you notice the difference of what happens when the spirit beings see him?

What do the demons do when they see him?

I know who you are, you're the holy one of God, and they fall on their knees before him and they beg him and they plead with him, please do not torment us before our time.

What must have Jesus looked like in the spirit?

That on the outside he's just this human person, but Colossians tells us in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, that in the spirit he's walking, and this the demons are like, It's God, it's God, it's the Son.

And even the creation in the Gospels recognizes him.

Remember the story of him in the boat?

He's sleeping in the boat, just snoozing, and the wind and the waves come up, and the boat's about to be capsized, and the disciples wake him up and they're like, Jesus, Master, don't you care that we're perishing?

And he sits up, he's like, You have little faith.

Why did you doubt?

And then he stands up and he says, Peace, be still.

And the wind and the waves, everything just goes calm.

And the disciples are afraid.

And they say to each other, Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?

See, as human beings, we're given physical.

See, he gave us the tools we need to live in a physical world, right?

We were given the senses necessary to live in our environment.

That's why we can't go live at the bottom of the ocean.

We can't go live up on the moon because we don't have the ability, we don't have the senses to be able to do that.

We have sight, we have we have hearing, we have smell, we have taste, and we have touch, and we can see and interact with the world around us like this, but we don't have a sense that lets us see things in the spirit.

Amen?

And so the people of Jesus' day couldn't perceive that in him all the fullness of God was dwelling.

But the creation knew its maker.

And I wonder, like, if as Jesus passed by, did the creation just sort of tremble at the presence of the one who made it, you know?

As he stepped his foot upon the road to Emmaus, did did did the did the did the ground sort of just kind of go, oh my gosh, that's the that's the creator, that's the one that that made us?

And so not only does Jesus not rebuke his disciples, but he turns to the Pharisees and all of his authority as the second person of the Godhead and said, If these ones remain silent, the very stones would cry out.

The creation recognizes him.

But as the people are celebrating, Jesus is experiencing a different emotion.

See, there's a big difference between what the people's expectations were of what was about to happen and what Jesus' actual mission was in the moment.

See, what the people was were expecting was, hey, here he is.

This is the king.

Okay, so he's gonna come into Jerusalem, he's gonna kick Herod off the throne, he's gonna take the throne, he's gonna command the Romans just like he did all the other stuff, you know, command the demons to flee.

He's gonna be like, be gone, Romans, and they're gonna flee, and he's gonna establish his kingdom on the earth, and Israel's gonna rise to prominence once again, and they're gonna be the kingdom of priests and the holy nation and all that.

But what Jesus was actually coming to do was to right the wrong that was done in the garden thousands of years before.

See, in the beginning, God had created man and woman, and he had given them dominion over the earth, over the creation.

He said, Have dominion over it, rule it, care for it, keep it, multiply.

But when they gave themselves over to sin and then submitted themselves to Satan, what happened is by proxy, they submitted themselves under his authority.

And so when you see the scriptures that say things like that Satan's the God of the world, that he has a kingdom, the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of Satan, you see things like that.

Well, his kingdom, his authority, his dominion, his power is all only because human humanity, Adam and Eve, our forefathers, submitted themselves under him, under his authority.

And so, because a man was the one that lost it, only a man who walked in human flesh could be the one that came to reclaim it.

And so Jesus had come to overthrow a ruler, he had come to take a throne, he had come to establish a kingdom, but his sights were set a lot higher than Jerusalem.

And his sights were set a lot higher than the Roman army.

He had come to overthrow Satan, to redeem humanity, to reconcile all of creation to God.

And unfortunately, for those who were hoping for a political revival, there were a lot harder days to come for them.

In verse 41, it says, And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes.

For the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of their your visitation.

And so as the crowds cheered, Jesus began to weep.

And he wept for this city, and he wept for this people that he had loved for so many centuries and so many generations, that he had given to them his promises, that he had sent to them his prophets, only for them to be stoned and killed.

He had cried out to them to repent and turn to him that they might be saved and healed.

And now the Son Himself had come in human flesh, and what was about to happen is that they were going to crucify him, and he was gonna become the final sacrifice for their sins.

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, but the world did not know him.

He came to his own people, and his own people did not receive him.

So Jesus knows what they're gonna do to him.

He knows that the majority of these very people who are cheering for him right now are gonna be the same people that are shouting for his execution later in the week.

He also knows what's gonna happen to them because of their rejection of him.

That in 70 AD, the general, the Roman general Titus is gonna surround the city with his armies, and he's gonna tear down the walls, and he's gonna tear down the temple, and he's gonna kill and take captive the people and lead them away to captivity.

And so Jesus weeps and he says, if only you had known the moment, in this moment, the things that make for peace.

But now they're hidden from your eyes.

But I think for us today, it's the final line that should make us stop and think.

He said, You did not know the time of your visitation.

In other words, you were waiting for God to act, and you were hoping for salvation, and you were looking for a king, and then your king came, and yet you missed him.

And could it be possible, church, that we're capable of doing the exact same thing?

Amen.

I like the talking.

Seriously, though, we can know the story.

We can sit in church every week, we can hear the word, we can say amen, we can celebrate, Jesus, celebrate.

And yet we can still miss him.

They missed him because he didn't show up in the way that they expected him to.

They wanted a political savior, but he came as a suffering servant.

They wanted military victory, but he came for spiritual victory.

They wanted Rome overthrown, but he came to overthrow sin and death and open a way for reconciliation with God and eternal life.

But if we're honest, we can do the exact same thing.

We can want Jesus to fix our circumstances, right?

But we don't want to surrender our lives to him.

We can want him to rescue us, but we don't want him to rule over us.

I mean, come on.

It's a little much.

We want his benefits, but we just don't want to bow down to him as king.

And so the question we need to ask ourselves today is are we actually surrendering to Jesus as our King?

Or are we just hoping that it'll fix a few things in our lives to make us more comfortable?

I can't answer that for you, and you can't answer that for me.

But it's really critical that we slow down long enough and take the time to think through that question and answer it honestly for ourselves.

And that's why what we're about to do this morning is so important.

Because in that same week that the that that same week that Jesus was coming, the king that they were celebrating would be the same king that they would reject.

The one that they shouted Hosanna to would would be the same one that they screamed crucify him.

And he knew this.

And yet he didn't turn away.

He came in peace because he was the rightful king.

But the way he would take his throne was not by leading an army in, conquering the earthly king.

The way that he would take his throne was by the cross.

By riding the wrong that was done in the garden, by letting his body be broken for us, by shedding his blood upon the tree, by letting it soak the ground for us.

By taking upon himself our punishment so that we could be reconciled to God.

Not standing before the Father in our own righteousness, in our own ability, in our own goodness, and because I think I lived a pretty good life, but standing before him, clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, as he takes our sin.

And so before he went to the cross, he sat down with his disciples and he left them with something that they could remember him by.