Resurrection Road Part 2

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your king coming unto you; he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon a donkey, even upon a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zech 9:9).

Now, I see in the story of this donkey a pattern of how God deals with us.

The way Jesus obtained him, the facts surrounding the account, portray a beautiful picture of God’s dealings with us.

So let’s look at it:

Jesus knew exactly where the donkey was to be found

“Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt…”

Jesus, being God, had full knowledge of this little donkey—where he was, his condition, that he was tied, his past—that he had never been ridden…

Now, if Jesus knew all about this donkey, He certainly knew all about us before we ever met him.

The Bible says that one day,

“Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I SAW you.”

The word for “saw” in the Greek language means “to know.”

Jesus told Nathanael, “Before I ever met you in person, I knew all about you.”

He knew Nathanael’s character—“Behold, an Israelite in whom is no deceit.”

Jesus is God, and as God is omniscient—He knows all.

So church, before you ever knew Him, He knew you!

And He knew exactly where to find you!

He knew where you were.

He knew what you were doing.

He knew all about you!

The next thing we see is that:

He knew the donkey was bound

“You will find a colt…tied.”

Jesus knew not only where the colt was to be found, but also his condition—he was bound.

He was not free.

I have to think here of you and me.

Not only did the Lord know where to find us, but He knew that we were bound.

I have to think here of Mephibosheth, Saul’s grandson and Jonathan’s son in King David’s day.

Long after Jonathan had been killed in battle and David had ascended the throne, the Bible says that King David inquired about him.

“Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”

“And Ziba said to the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan who is lame in his feet.”

Now, Mephibosheth was lame because he had been dropped as a child and it crippled his feet.

Then David was told:

“Indeed he is in…Lo Debar.”

Now, “Lo Debar” in the Hebrew means “land of nothing.”

So here was this poor man, dropped as a child, living out his days in an empty land of nothing, carrying around the consequences of his fall…

All looked grim for him.

We see no promise or hope.

Until a certain king asked about him!

The Bible goes on to say:

“Then King David sent and brought him out of the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, from Lo Debar.”—2 Sam.9:2-5

He welcomed Mephibosheth into his kingly house, fed him from the king’s table, and cared for him the rest of his days.

King David brought him out of nothing into something, out of nowhere to somewhere, out of poverty into plenty.

He who had been “tied up” in tragedy and sorrow was freed.

Oh dear church, hear me.

We too were in a place called Lo Debar—a land of nothing, a land of sorrow, a land of pain…

And we too were crippled as a result of a fall—Adam’s fall into sin.

The Bible says:

“At one time you were dead because of your sins. 2 You followed the sinful ways of the world and obeyed the leader of the power of darkness. He is the devil who is now working in the people who do not obey God. 3 At one time all of us lived to please our old selves. We gave in to what our bodies and minds wanted. We were sinful from birth like all other people and would suffer from the anger of God.”—Eph.2:1-3

But a certain King had us on His mind!

And He sent His special ambassador—the Holy Spirit—to bring us out.

The Bible says:

4 “But God had so much loving-kindness. He loved us with such a great love. 5 Even when we were dead because of our sins, He made us alive by what Christ did for us.”

Like the donkey, Jesus knew where we were—Lo Debar—and the condition we were in—tied up.

But then Jesus also knew the donkey’s past:

He had never been ridden

“…you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat…”

Now, what Jesus wanted was a colt that had never been used.

He wanted what was totally unbroken, that had never been used of God for any divine purpose at all.

Do you see where I’m going?

Jesus doesn’t pick the high and mighty for His plans.

He doesn’t look for the polished and smooth.

He doesn’t search among the who’s who’s for His giant killers.

The Bible says:

“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.”

“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”

“God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are.”—1 Cor.1:26-28

When we are saved, it is a fact that we have never been an instrument for God to use.

We are those upon whom the Lord has never sat!

But He has a plan.

And the plan is that we would carry Jesus into the world…

And so, just as Jesus chose a lowly, never before used, tied up donkey to carry Him into Jerusalem, he has chosen His church to present Him to the lost!

But for the donkey’s destiny to be fulfilled, something had to happen first:

Jesus commanded him to be loosed

“Loose it!” He said, “and bring it here.”

Jesus is in the “loosing” business!

When Lazarus was called up out of the grave, though he had been resurrected, he was still bound in all his graveclothes.

Remnants of his past still clung to him.

The Bible says, “The dead man came out BOUND hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth.”

“Jesus said to them, "Loose him (untie him) and let him go."

Likewise, when we are saved, we are raised from the spiritual dead.

But the grave clothes of past habits and worldly thinking still cling to us.

And so what Jesus did for the donkey and Lazarus, He also does for you and me.

He looses us that we might do His will!

Rev.1:5 says, “…Jesus Christ, [who is] the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loves us, and loosed us from our sins by his blood;"

He knew us, He chose us, He loosed us…

But I see something else here.

The protests of the owner

“As they were loosing the colt, the owners said to them, ‘Why are you loosing the colt?”

We used to talk to new Christians about what we called, “Satan’s last stand.”

We had noticed that when many of them came to Christ—especially if they had lived in a lot of sin—the devil seemed to attack from every side.

Now I know that it was the protest of their former owner (Satan), saying…

“What do you think you’re doing walking away from me?”

The Bible says that, until we turn to Christ by faith, Satan has a legal right to keep us bound to sin.

Eph.2:1-2 “At one time you were dead because of your sins. 2 You followed the sinful ways of the world and obeyed the leader of the power of darkness.”

We had to obey because we were the DEVIL’S CHILDREN.

But when we came to Jesus, we were born again.

This made us “children of God.”

Gal.3:26 “For you are all SONS OF GOD through faith in Christ Jesus.”

So when the devil protests the loss of us, saying “What are you doing loosing the colt?”

We have the legal right to say,

“Sin is no longer my master, for I am a blood-bought, Spirit-filled, redeemed child of the living God!”

And then finally, I saw something this week I had never noticed in this story before.

The investment of others into the donkey’s destiny

“And they threw their OWN clothes on the colt, and they set their clothes on him.”

The liberated colt is brought to Jesus Christ for His divine purposes.

And many of the people standing there took off their OWN outer garments and threw them onto the colt.

This gave Jesus a sort of makeshift, cushioned saddle, and it fitted the donkey for Jesus to better use him.

What a beautiful picture of the way God brings various people into our lives that make personal investments in us.

They add “their own clothes,”

They make their own personal investment into helping us fulfill God’s plan.

There is no such thing as a “self-made” man or woman.

We all stand on the shoulders of others who “threw their own clothes” on us.

They invested time, effort, patience, encouragement.

They believed in our future, saw God’s calling, and helped make it happen.

Jesus knew the colt before the colt ever knew Him

He knew just where to find him

He loosed Him

He rebuked the colts former owner on his behalf

And others made personal investments in his destiny

On that first Palm Sunday, Jesus made him a part of history as the crowd cheered their arrival.

QUESTION:

Have you come to know Jesus?

Has He loosed you from the chains of sin?

AND TO THE CHRISTIANS IN THE ROOM…

Jesus has called us together to bring Him into the city!

Fort Worth, and other cities of the world?

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