Good morning everyone and happy Palm Sunday! We are going to take a couple of weeks off
from our regular sermon series to celebrate the Easter season. This morning we will be looking at Jesus’
entrance into Jerusalem
a week ahead of his resurrection in what is known as Palm Sunday. Now, there is always a danger in preaching a
message on Christ’s triumphal entrance into Jerusalem – that is the danger of boredom. And we know in our culture today there are
not many lower sins than that of boring someone. Have you ever noticed how the statement,
“That was so boring” or “I am so bored of this” is such an indictment. And if boredom is one of the highest sins of
our culture I am in grave danger this morning because I am going to retell a
story that many of you have heard since the beginning of time or at least your
life. Who here was in a Palm Sunday or
Easter Sunday play as a kid? Who
remembers the song, “Sing Hosanna” with the words “Jumping Up and Down, Jumping
Up and Down, Jumping Up and Down, Shout Hosanna!?” Anyhow, you know what I mean
– this is a story you have heard over and over again and may seem boring. Yet,
I do not believe that God’s word should ever be boring because it issues from
an infinite and unfathomable God. We may
have heard this story over and over again but it is highly unlikely we have
really understood what the story is about.
So, I hope, but God’s grace, to bring to us a fresh understanding of the
incredible events of that day 2000+ years ago when Jesus entered Jerusalem. And we need a miracle for that to happen, so
let’s go to God in prayer.
28 And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 When he drew near to Bethpage and Bethany,
at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, 30
saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you
will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it
here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord
has need of it.’ ” 32
So those who were sent went
away and found it just as he had told them. 33 And as they were untying the colt, its owners said
to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” 35
And they brought it to Jesus,
and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 And as he rode along, they spread their
cloaks on the road. 37 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, 38
saying, “Blessed is the King
who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39
And some of the Pharisees in
the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I
tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” 41
And when he drew near and saw
the city, he wept over it, 42 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. 43 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 44 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 your visitation.” Luke
19:28-44 (ESV)
Now, the first thing this section in Luke says is , “And when
he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.”
Now what things had he said? It
probably figures that whatever the things he said had some relevance to Jesus
going up to Jerusalem. Now, we won’t go fully into the teaching
Jesus brought before going on towards Jerusalem
but we can glance there and see that Jesus was teaching in response to the
expectation that the kingdom
of God would appear
immediately. The teaching basically
talks about the blessing of being those that continue to labor in patient
expectation of the return of a delayed king versus those who oppose him or
neglect their duties. Now, he is
speaking of himself in this passage and indicating to his joyful followers that
their expectations might be a little off.
That is an important aspect to bring into our text today. For the polarized reactions of those on Palm
Sunday with those on Good Friday flow from false expectations of the promised
King. And the question for us this
morning as we look at this story of the coming King is “Do we know what it
means to have Jesus as King?”
First, to have Jesus as King is to have him who rules over
all time and space for his purposes.
Check out the beginning of the story.
They are approaching Jerusalem
and Jesus tells his disciples to go into the village in front of them and get a
colt tied, on which no one has ever sat.
Now, he had very specific reasons for this which we will cover in a
minute. So he sends two of his guys on
ahead and he tells them what they will find and what the owners of the colt
will say and what they are to say to get permission to take the colt. This story isn’t here because it is a cool
little tale. This is here because as
Jesus approached Jerusalem
he approached as the King. And not just
any earthly King but the King of Kings, the Lord of the universe, the one who
commands the storms, the one who heals the sick, the one who feeds the 5
thousand, the one who raises the dead, the one who knows the future and
determines all things. And thought he
was dressed as a commoner and had nothing in his appearance to attract us to
him he was God in the flesh, dwelling among us.
And as such he knew exactly what was going on and had predetermined that
on that day at that time all things would be arranged just as he planned, just
as he willed, just as he wanted. He was
going to Jerusalem
and he was to ride on a colt – so his disciples found the colt just as he
planned it. He is the type of King that
rules over all circumstances according to his will. Is this the sort of King that you
follow? Do you follow the one who is
sovereign over all circumstances and works out everything according to his
plan, even using evil to work out his holy and excellent ways? Do you serve a God who is bigger than
circumstances? Or do you serve a God who
is weak and incapable and uncaring? That
is not Jesus, that is not the type of King he is. Oh how the Pharisees and rulers missed
it. They looked at outward appearances
and missed that inside that gentle face is the Almighty Sovereign, the
King. What sort of King do you
follow? He is a Sovereign King! This should be of immense comfort to all his
followers and a cause of concern for all his enemies! Alexander Carson says, as quoted in Trusting
God by Jerry Bridges, “Nothing can be more
consoling to the man of God, than the conviction that the Lord who made the
world governs the world; and that every event, great and small, prosperous and
adverse, is under the absolute disposal of him who doth all things well, and
who regulates all things for the good of his people… The Christian will be
confident and courageous in duty, in proportion as he views God in his Providence as ruling in
the midst of his enemies; and acting for the good of his people, as well as for
his own glory.”
He is the Sovereign King and he is the promised King. You see, he arranged for that colt to be
there because he was aware of a promise to fulfill. And he always keeps his promises! You can flip back to book of Zechariah, the
second to last book in the Old Testament, right before the only Italian prophet
in the bible, Malachi. Look in chapter
9. Now, Zechariah was written to encourage
the finishing of the second temple after the people returned from exile. It speaks a good deal about the promised
shepherd, even predicting his rejection by his own people. But in verses 9:9 it days, "
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."
(Zechariah 9:9, ESV) So Jesus, 400 or so years later arranges to sit on
a donkey, the foal of a donkey, as he travels into Jerusalem.
He does this because he is indeed the humble King that was promised to Israel. Not only promised in Zechariah but promised
throughout the entire Old Testament, even before Israel existed. Every promise made to mankind is yes in
Christ as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:20.
He comes to fulfill all that God has called men to and all that men
need. He is the ultimate man, the ultimate
human being, the fulfillment of all things.
He is the apex of all history – all history flows from Him and to Him.
Now, that is fabulous enough, that all these glorious
promises we see in scripture are fulfilled in Christ but there is more to
it. For, the next question is why? Why is it so important to fulfill all these
promises? What is the point? Why is it
important to follow a promise keeping King?
Because the fulfillment of these promises is ultimately about something
greater – first, the glory of God and second, the good of his people – and
these two are intricately tied together.
You see, God made all that exists as the overflow of his glory. He has existed from all eternity and he will
exist for all eternity. He has never
been lonely, he has never suffered lack, he has never been bored. Yet, from his glory he decided to express his
manifold qualities in his creation and so he made all things as the overflow of
his glory – including you and me. And he
did so knowing and anticipating that those made in his image would turn from
him in horrible misguided rebellion. Even
this was for his glory, for he determined to express his everlasting divine
qualities even through this tragedy. You
see, before he made you, before he made anything, he set his affections on his
people and loved them with a love that only God could have – a love of infinite
proportions and infinite worth. A love
that motivated Him to promise that the very ones who participated in the cosmic
rebellion called sin would be rescued from that sin and its penalty. But wait, his glory in the form of his justice
says that the soul that sins must die, the wages of sin is death, the penalty
of cosmic rebellion is cosmic separation from God. How could he promise love and forgiveness and
redemption when his perfection forbade him to pass over the sins of his beloved? That is where Jesus comes in. On one hand there is the promise of love and
redemption God made from the eternal love and counsels of his heart. On the other hand is the promise of perfect
justice and holiness. There are two
hands of promise. And all these are yes
in Jesus. He came as the promise keeping
King – for the glory of God and the good of his people. And so he marched and
rode resolutely to Jerusalem as King to reconcile these two seemingly opposing
promises and die on the cross to satisfy God’s promise of justice towards sin
and sinners so as to allow God’s promise of love to be realized for all his
people, all who would turn from sin and self and embrace the King. And so the King had to be a promise keeping
King. Do you follow a promise keeping
King? He will fulfill all of God’s
promises – he has demonstrated that through the cross already.
So he is a Sovereign King, he is a promise keeping King and
he is a humble King. Isn’t that
amazing? How many humble kings do you
know of in history? Any? I can’t think of one – maybe good King
Wenceslas. If ever there was a King who
had a right to be a proud and mighty King it is Jesus. What does it say in verse 37? “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.” Jesus had gone
throughout the land healing the sick, feeding the hungry, delivering the
demonized, raising the dead and preaching the good news of the kingdom. He had amazed all of Israel. Can you imagine what it would be like if
Barack Obama, or any other political figure, in his bid for the presidency
started praying for people who were sick and seeing them healed, started
providing free lunches and dinners to the crowds from his own hand, started
redirecting hurricanes and started raising dead people, (maybe just dead
democrats) – how much attention that would get?
And can you imagine Barack Obama remaining in a position of humility after
all that? I think he, like any man in
power, would eventually use that power for ill purposes, at least for selfish
gain and his own fame. Yet Jesus, as the
one who did all these things and as King of the universe chooses to be a common
poor man and chooses to enter Jerusalem on a donkey and not in a chariot or at
the head of an army. He is the humble
King. And not only the fact that he rode
a donkey’s colt into Jerusalem but also that in less than a week he went out of
Jerusalem not on a donkey but under a cross of shame and suffering. He humbled himself to the point of being your
servant to the point of death – for he died your death for your sins as the
humble King. Do you follow a humble
King? Do you demonstrate this by eagerly
embracing humility yourself and humbling yourself before others? Carl Henry, the famous and very gifted
evangelical leader of the last century, when asked by DA Carson how he managed
to stay humble after all his accomplishments said, “How can anyone be arrogant when he stands beside the
cross?” Folks,
how can any of us ever be arrogant in any way when we stand beside the humble
King on the cross for such as us? He is
the humble King!
He is the humble King, He is the promised King, He is the
Sovereign King and he is the praiseworthy King!
His disciples knew this, thought they didn’t know the fullness of what
it meant. As he rode in on that donkey
they were exuberant in their praise. The
disciples laid their garments on the donkey so Jesus would have a royal
mount. It was the custom of the ancient
near east to take off their outer garments and use them as carpets for a great
king. These folks knew how to express
honor and praise. And so, as they saw
the King coming they threw down their cloaks on the road, they cut palm
branches and spread them on the road before Jesus and they shouted a mix of old
refrains from Psalm 118 and new enthusiasm for the King. They shouted “Blessed is the King who comes
in the name of the Lord!” and “Hosanna to the Son of David!” and “Blessed is he
who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!” We don’t use the word ‘hosanna’ much, perhaps
we should. It basically means, “Save!,”
and carries with it the sense of joy and anticipation of the coming
kingdom. The sentiment behind it is akin
to the cheers you would have heard in the closing minutes of the 2004 World
Series when the Red Sox finally won.
And I love baseball but if there is anything worthy cheering
it is the arrival of the King and the inauguration of his kingdom. This King is worthy of extravagant
praise. He is the Saving King, the
Sovereign King, the Humble King, the Promised King, the Faithful King, Heaven’s
Champion, the Perfect Man and God Incarnate, He is the Creator and Sustainor of
all, He is the First and the Last, He is the Radiance of God’s glory, He is the
Lion and the Lamb, He is the Second and Perfect Adam, the Firstborn from the
Dead, He is the Propitiation of Sins, He is Our Righteousness, He is the
Resurrection and the Life, He is the Captain of the Army of Hosts, He is Ruler
of All Principalities and Powers, He is the Source and Object of All Creation,
He is the Lover of our souls, He is the giver of Living Water, the Bread of
Life, He is the Good Shepherd, Immanuel – God with Us, He is the Prince of
Peace, He is the Lord of Life, the King of the Universe seated at the right
hand of God, He is Jesus the Christ, Our Savior and King. And if his disciples don’t praise him the
very rocks will cry out.
They knew in part who he is.
We know more fully who he is. The
revelation of the gospel is complete.
How can we, who know even more about Jesus be outstripped in our praise
and worship of the King. Palm Sunday is
a day to acknowledge the King and all that this means. The King is a worthy King and if there ever
was anything worthy of admiration and praise and delight and devotion it is
Jesus. This is the secret to life – to
see and value Jesus as he really is – the source and focus of all of life. If you want to know how to have real and full
and abundant life than make Jesus Christ your highest praise for he is the
worthy King! Praise Him!
And that is what this whole passage and really the entire
bible and all of life is about. In our text
today we see two types of people – the disciples and the Pharisees, those who follow the King and find their life
in him and those who are jealous of his praise and spurn his kingship. And all of humanity falls either into one
category or another, some because of partial ignorance, others because of
willful and knowledgeable rejection line up with the Pharisees. But many by the grace and goodness of the
King himself line up with the disciples. Which will you choose to be? If we would be disciples, let us this day
behold our King and rejoice and celebrate that the King has come and has died
and risen and now reigns and will soon return.
Behold your King! Let’s pray.