The Humility of the Triumphant King (Luke 19:28-44) - Pastor Jonathan Williams

I invite you to turn with me in your copy of

God's word. Today we are looking at that triumphal

entry from Luke chapter 19. Luke chapter 19 today.

Luke 19 · chapter mention Luke 19 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 19, we will begin in verse 28. And

Luke 19 · chapter mention

then go through verse 44, Luke 19 verse 28. And

Luke 19:28

when he had said these things, he went on ahead

going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethphage

and Bethany at the mount that is called Olivet,

he sent two disciples saying, go into the village.

in front of you, where on entering you will find

a colt tied on 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

and found it, just as he had told them. And as

they were untying the colt, its owners said to

them, why are you untying the colt? And they

said, 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, and 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 some of the Pharisees

in the crowd said to him, teacher, rebuke your

disciples. He answered, I tell you, if these

were silent, the very stones would cry out. And

when he drew near to the city, he wept over it,

saying, would that you, even you, had known this

day the things that make for peace. But now they're

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 know

because you did not know the time of your visitation.

Well, sometimes, probably oftentimes, our expectations

for life don't match up with reality. And this

may be particularly observed when you go on vacation.

I've been talking recently with some of you who

like to go on cruise ship vacations. And it seems

to me that I've heard, maybe more than once,

how the expectation of this kind of vacation,

which I've never been on, cannot sometimes match

up with reality. Maybe. You've heard a situation

where somebody has expected to go on this luxurious

trip, eat all this wonderful food, go to the

most exciting ports of call, and enjoy unique

once in a lifetime experiences, sit by the pool

that is not crowded, and just relax on this wonderful

adventure. But in reality, that trip, maybe you've

heard of one of these trips, did not turn out

like you expected. The boarding time to get on

the ship was ridiculous. The boat rocked in the

storm. You were seasick for days. Maybe you or

that person you know lost their passport. The

pool was like a bowl full of Cheerios, as it

were. And all the hidden costs of this trip blew

out your budget. Maybe you've had an experience

like that where your expectations did not. match

reality. Maybe your expectations were a little

bit too high for the reality of the situation.

The situation here with Jesus riding into Jerusalem

is quite the opposite. Reality is far better

and far greater than the people could have ever

expected or than the people desired. The reality

of Easter week was no cruise to the tropics,

putting it crudely and mildly, but instead of

reality not measuring up to expectations, Jesus

was far greater than the people could have expected

or dreamed. He was and is far better than any

of their small -minded worldly hopes. They wanted

a conquering hero who would actualize their desires

and their dreams for an earthly kingdom. But

what they received was a humble savior who would

secure them for an eternal kingdom that could

not be shaken. And it would do for them far more

than they could ever ask or think. Are you in

awe of this humble king who rides to Jerusalem,

who comes to you today, humble, and as it were

mounted on the colt of a donkey? He comes in

lowliness and gentleness. Why? Because we are

lowly and needy. While these people wanted Jesus

to help them have a better life situation, what

they needed and what we need is not Not really

someone to change all of our outward circumstances.

Because no matter what your life looks like on

the outside, it doesn't really matter if on the

inside you're miserable. And by nature, the Scripture

shows us by nature we are actually miserable

without Christ. We need a King who meets us in

our misery and changes our standing with God

and cleanses us from the inside out. So that's

why this humble King is the King we need to see

and the King we need to treasure today. That's

why Palm Sunday is so great because this humble

King truly helps miserable and hurting people

like you and like me. Well, how does he do that?

Well, as we've already said, by coming, firstly

by coming, and gentleness and lowliness. In other

words, he meets us right where we are in tenderness

and in compassion. We get a clue to Jesus' tender

heartedness even from the very geography that's

described here when it says he's drawing near

to Bethphage and Bethany. Do you remember how

special Bethany was to Jesus and what special

people were there and special things happened

there? It was at Bethany that Jesus had the deepest

of friendships with ordinary people. You remember

Mary and Martha and Lazarus there at Bethany?

Mary and Martha who provided that missionary

home for Jesus. for his rest and refuge. Remember

how Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus before

he raised Lazarus from the dead? How he comforted

Mary and Martha in their sorrow? This is where

Jesus was anointed for burial. And again, it

was a place of refreshment and rest for Jesus

that very week before his crucifixion. And so,

So what we see in Jesus' relationship to the

people of Bethany in that place is that though

Jesus was fully God, he was also fully human

and needed rest and encouragement and comfort

himself. Why? Because Jesus was fully human and

took to himself our frailty. Though he was without

sin, he entered into our frailty and so he too...

Needed rest and encouragement. He's both king

and sovereign Lord and right down on our level

too. That's why he's able to help us as we'll

see. And notice how Jesus comes into Jerusalem.

You know the story by heart. He doesn't come

on a big charging Arabian war horse. No, he comes

on the colt, the foal of a donkey. And if you

read Matthew 21, You also see that Jesus, while

he rides on this colt, the mother donkey is likely

right there alongside with the foal of the donkey

as he goes into Jerusalem. As he sends the disciples

out, they retrieve this colt from its owners,

fulfilling that great prophecy. of this day from

Zechariah 9 ,9. Rejoice, O greatly, O daughter

of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.

Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous

and having salvation as he humbled and mounted

on a donkey, on a colt, on the foal of a donkey.

He rides in on a humble beast of burden. Yesterday

some of the men went hiking up Table Rock and

one of you who will remain nameless mentioned

that they would possibly like a llama to take

them back down. Jesus rides on an even more humble

animal than that. How humble, how lowly, how

meek is this king who is in charge of the cult,

in charge of this moment, yet decides to find

the least glorious ride into the city. Also,

think about this. He brings the colt and with

the colt, the colt's mother, the donkey, likely

in order to help that small animal feel comfortable

with the presence of its mother. I mean, you

remember what's going on. There's a lot of shouting,

a lot of yelling, a lot of waving of palm branches.

You know, this could. could possibly spook a

small animal yet Jesus bringing that comforting

presence of the animal's mother along shows us

that Jesus is tender -hearted even to even to

the lowliest of creatures isn't he he is as the

Bible describes as he describes himself gentle

and lowly He's the sovereign king, but he's the

humble savior. He who was rich beyond all splendor

because he loved you so much, he became poor.

So that through his poverty we might become rich.

He's gentle and lowly. He says to us, come to

me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and

I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and

learn from me. I am gentle and lowly of heart,

and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke

is easy, my burden is light. Oh, don't you love

how Isaiah describes this tenderness of the Lord

Jesus to those who are needy, those who are like

you and me? Says of the suffering servant, the

Lord Jesus in Isaiah 42 -3, that a bruised reed

he will not break, a faintly burning wick, He

will not quench. Whether you have been marred

by sin or suffering, He is gentle and lowly and

will deal gently with you and me. He will not

remove, no, He will not remove all your troubles

from you, and He will not remove you from all

your troubles, but He will tenderly strengthen

all those who are troubled. by sin and suffering

in the midst of it. He is so near to us. Hebrews

chapter two, 17 and 18, one of my favorite passages

says, therefore he had to be made like his brothers

in every respect so that he might become a merciful

and faithful high priest in the service of God

to make propitiation for the sins of his people

for he himself suffered when tempted so he is

able to help those who are being tempted. Dear

ones, he knows suffering better than you because

he suffered the agony of the cross and his father

turned his face away. He knows temptation better

than you because he never gave in to temptation

but bore it all the way down. He knows what you're

going through and he's lowly and gentle. He's

come in humility to a people who are miserable,

a people who are humiliated. Isn't it nice to

know though, isn't it nice to know that through

all the peaks and valleys of life, isn't it nice

to know when you have somebody who's been there

too, who's experienced what you've been through.

C .S. Lewis says it this way, friendship, Friendship

is born at the moment when one person says to

another, wait, you too? I thought I was the only

one. Wait, you too? I thought I was the only

one. What a friend we have in Jesus. He says

to you, yes, me too. You're not the only one

who has been there. You're not the only one who

has been to that dark place. I've been there

too. You're not the only one who's been down

this road. I have been there as well. I can relate

to your darkness and I am the answer. So as we

celebrate on Palm Sunday, Jesus comes because

as he is born on this beast of burden, he's coming

to help us bear our burdens. If you find yourself

downtrodden or suffering in some way, maybe circumstances

have left you in some sort of gloom or despair

or inwardness that just doesn't seem to go away.

Just as Jesus rode in triumph to Jerusalem, He

comes to meet you where you are now. He comes

to be the satisfaction for your soul in whatever

situation. Maybe it's not suffering today, but

maybe it's some temptation. Maybe you're laden

with the guilt or shame or temptation of sin

or to sin. In some way, see Jesus riding to you

today, not to condemn you, but in love and in

compassion to set you free from the encumbrance

of every sin and every weight that is hindering

you. He has the power to set you free. And he's

done so, Christian. This is the kind of king

you want to pour your heart out to. This is the

kind of king, is it not, that you want to embrace

in faith and repentance as the savior from your

sin. We should long with the people to cry out,

yes, Lord, Hosanna, save me now, when we see

who this King really is and what he has really

done to comfort the hurting, to strengthen the

struggling sinner. And that's what these last

verses speak of as we look from verse 36 to verse

34. Why is it? that he can help. How is it that

he can help the lowly, the hurting, the miserable?

But by doing what he speaks of here, he makes

lasting peace and victory as he goes to accomplish

love's redeeming work at the cross. As he comes

back to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, he

is... once again, bringing the glory of the Lord

back to the temple. In Ezekiel we're reminded

that the glory of the Lord had left the temple.

Now he is coming in glory back to the temple

to cleanse the temple. And yet the people are

praising him and they know the prophecy of the

coming son of David and so they're hailing him

as the promised Messiah. The Pharisees know the

implications of this. That if Jesus comes and

overturns the power structure that the Romans

have set up, what's gonna happen? It's gonna

be very bad for them. It's gonna be very bad

for the religious establishment. And the Romans

are going to impose martial law and there's gonna

be a lot of people killed. And so the Pharisees

are saying to Jesus, here, keep your people quiet.

Tell your disciples to quiet down. And Jesus

refuses. For the very stones would cry out, he

says. if the people cease to praise Jesus. The

people rightly praise him. But, but, if you skip

ahead just a couple of verses, you see in verse

41, Jesus isn't really smiling, is he? No, what's

happening? What's Jesus' face? Oh, he has big

tears rolling down his cheeks. This isn't some

sentimental tear. No, he is sobbing. He is weeping.

He wept over the city. Do you know what it's

like to weep? Jesus is weeping. The juxtaposition

of the praises and the weeping could not be more

extreme here. Jesus weeps because they don't

understand, they don't understand that Jesus

did not come to abolish. and cast out the Romans.

No, he wasn't coming to restore David's earthly

kingdom as they cast their cloaks on the ground,

worshiping him rightly as the king. He did not

come to end their earthly humiliation and deprivation

that they'd suffered at the hands of so many

empires over the centuries. No. Oh, he had not

come to set up an earthly kingdom then. And how

tragically small -minded they were. How tragically

small -minded they were thinking that Jesus had

simply come to actualize their desires. And how

tragic, even more so, that the tongues that cried

out, praise him. Blessed be the one who comes

in the name of the Lord on Palm Sunday. Very

soon, within the week, would be crying out, crucify

him. Why? Why does Jesus weep? Because as he

says in verse 42, they did not know, even as

they cry out peace, they did not know the things

that made for peace. Oh, the sorrow and the irony.

So what are those things that they didn't understand?

What are those things that make for peace? What

is... What is the way in which Jesus brings lasting

comfort and hope and help to the lowly? It's

by doing what he did to make for peace. By firstly,

providing atonement through his blood. He was

coming to conquer, but he was coming to conquer

through death. God was holy they and we are sinful

and and and and that's why they came to the temple

to offer sacrifices for their sins But as we

studied in the book of Hebrews those sacrifices

never ended They begged and they caused the people

to long for one final atoning sacrifice and Jesus

himself is riding as it were to the altar of

sacrifice to be the final offering the eternal

spotless lamb of God to be the final covering

for all sins of his people." Oh, they should

have known this, shouldn't they? They had heard

John the Baptist when he proclaimed as Jesus

approached the water, behold, the Lamb of God

who takes away the sin of the world, yet they

weren't looking for that kind of Messiah, were

they? They were looking for a political hero,

not for one who would atone for their sins. They

needed to know the atonement. They needed to

know about Jesus' resurrection, the promise that

He would rise from the dead providing certainty

of victory over death, vindicating and validating

that His sacrifice to God was truly acceptable.

They didn't realize that even though they were

God's chosen people in a sense, they still needed

repentance and faith. They needed to remember

that they needed atonement for sins. The resurrection

and repentance and faith, these things are the

things that make for peace. Jesus had proclaimed

repentance of sins. He'd called the people to

turn from their sins and to put their faith and

believe in him. Whoever believes in me, Jesus

said to them, would not perish but have eternal

life. In this moment, they're missing all this.

They're missing the fact that they needed to

be right with God. They needed to be right with

God by receiving Jesus by faith and therefore

being justified and having a right relationship

with God by receiving that righteousness that

comes through faith. It wasn't through the sacrifices

of the Old Testament. It's not through any of

their works, it's not through any of our works

that we're made right with God, that we receive

peace with God, but by faith alone. We're justified,

we're made right with God by faith alone, in

Christ alone. And it's been that way from the

beginning, folks. Even in Genesis, even in Genesis,

Abraham believed God, Genesis 15 -6, and it was

counted to him as righteousness. They needed

to remember that Christ's blood atoned for their

sins, that he came to die and to rise for them.

And then by turning from their sins and trusting

him by faith, they were made right with God and

had peace with God. Those were the things that

made for peace. Do you and I know the things

that make for peace? Maybe we know them in our

minds. Maybe we've heard them from the pulpit

week in and week out, but do we savor them in

our hearts? Do we savor and rest upon and rejoice

in Christ who was given for us on a daily basis?

Because it's as we rest in the reality that we

have ultimate peace with God through Jesus' blood

that we have a stability in our souls that speaks

to every sorrow, speaks to every hurt. It's as

we rejoice that we have final and lasting and

ultimate peace with God that we enjoy a tranquility

that commands every other anxiety to cease. It's

as we behold Jesus that our fears turn to confident,

loud hosannas. And as we hear Jesus sobbing in

verses 41 through 42, it redirects our hearts

to the true reason to have joy in Jesus, not

because he gives us all the goodies that we want

here and now, but because Jesus fixes everything

forever. His blood makes us right with God now

and eternally. That means that No matter what

kind of a mess you're in today, you're okay.

You're right on schedule. And one day everything

is going to be okay because of Jesus as he rides

into Jerusalem to take upon himself the humiliation

of our sin and to die and rise on the third day.

He does so so that we would know eternal joy

with the Father forever in a new heavens and

a new earth. Isn't that so much better than what

the people were expecting? Isn't that so much

better than having every earthly desire fulfilled?

Everything on our bucket list checked off. Everything

that we wrongly presume that God should give

us, an eternal home with our Father. That is

what Jesus is coming to accomplish as he comes

to reconcile us to God through his shed blood.

And so what a tragedy if on this Palm Sunday

we would leave standing in the same place spiritually

where the people of Jerusalem were then. What

a tragedy if we stood in their place and remained

in their place, simply seeking God to fulfill

all of our small -minded earthly desires. Now,

caveat, does... Does Jesus teach us to pray for

our daily bread? Yes, he teaches us to pray for

our needs and praise God. He gives us a competent

portion of all the things in this life that we

need and also a measure of earthly happiness

and joy. But that is not the primary reason why

Jesus rides in to Jerusalem for them or for us.

If Jesus were to bring you every external comfort

that you could wish for, yet your life was eaten

up by the cancer of sin, it would not matter

what comforts you had in this life, because externally

and internally, you would still be perishing.

What does it profit a man if he gains the whole

world and yet forfeits his soul? Let us see that

the people praise him rightly, but let us praise

him rightly from the heart for who he is and

what he has truly come to do to save us, to transform

us from the inside out, to give us eternal peace

with God in his presence forever. Let us see

our true need of him. Maybe today you've not

embraced this Savior King for the true salvation

from sin that he offers. Luke, the writer of

the gospel, describes the time of Israel's visitation

and that terrible things would happen to them

in verse 43 and 44 because they did not understand

the day of visitation. Do you today? Maybe someone

in this room, maybe someone within the sound

of my voice understand that maybe today you realize

that you haven't received Christ for who he is,

your savior from sin. If so, today is the day

of your visitation. Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ

and be saved. One more application here as Jesus

rides into Jerusalem. What is he doing? He's

come to purify the temple We didn't read those

verses, but but hear this Jesus comes to cleanse

the temple. He comes to bring holiness He died

for a people of his own possession to make them

a holy people to himself. That is God's end goal

for you is Your holiness as a byproduct of that

you will be happy all of your days, but are you

longing for the same? and for which Jesus died.

A holy people for himself. Are you longing for

holiness? And by the spirit's power that is at

work within you, are you pursuing holiness? By

being in the word, by coming on the Lord's day,

by surrounding yourself with godly people who

love Jesus, who embrace the gospel. Jesus came

for a holy people to make a holy people to himself,

and so we should pursue. holiness as well. He's

shown us the things that make for peace. He's

shown us that he comes to help those by making

peace for those who are lowly and miserable.

And so dear ones, if you have rejoiced in the

Lord Jesus for who he truly is on that Palm Sunday,

you will be ready for the Palm Sunday to come.

And yes, there is a Palm Sunday to come. You

can read about it in Revelation. And in that

day, Jesus will come again, not lowly so much

on a donkey, but on a white horse, conquering

all of his and our enemies. And on that day,

Christian, if you know him, you will rejoice

when the Lord our judge shall come, because he

will take you out of this life of sorrows and

this veil of tears to be satisfied. in your eternal

home with your Father forever. Now that is a

reason to shout Hosanna. That is a reason to

praise Jesus. Even so, we pray, come Lord Jesus.