Some Kind of King
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Its November of 1945, for the past four years 16 million Americans have been in the muddy trenches of Europe or the forests of Asia pacific. They have experienced what no other group of individuals had ever experienced before. War at a global scale with the advancements of modern technology. Then, after four years of combat peace is proclaimed. The world stops and breathes and the troops begin their journey home. On the coasts in the major cities and on the main streets of small towns across the nation parades break out. People fill the streets with fags and banners and signs that declare PEACE as the troops parade back home, dressed in their pristine dress uniforms, and embrace their families. The world and the nation breathes in what seems to be peace. This is a triumphant entry indeed.
Now imagine if you will, nearly two thousand years earlier a similar scene. Though this time the parade isn't the celebration of the end of war but of remembrance, God had passed over his people in Egypt and promised a full redemption in the future. They remember yet they are still waiting. They line the streets in ecstasy, like our flags they wave palm branches, a sign of an earlier victory over their captors, and in comes their king . . . riding on a donkey.
That’s odd. It begs the question, what kind of king is this and what is Jesus doing here?
A Road to Heaven (vv. 12-15)
A Road to Heaven (vv. 12-15)
As Jesus travels down the road, into Jerusalem for what will be the final week before his death he drags heaven with him and reminds people that the kingdom of God is here and now, but its different than expected.
In many ways this road is a road to heaven, the establishment or perhaps the pronouncement of the kingdom of God.
We see two ideas, however, the kingdom the people expect and the kingdom that Jesus brings, and they aren’t the same.
(vv. 12-13)
(vv. 12-13)
The scene here is familiar, people hear that Jesus is coming and they flock to him.
Now, given that these people are pilgrims here for the festival it is not uncommon that they would celebrate the arrival of anyone. Jesus is certainty well known but this not necessarily mean the people understand the full significance of his arrival.
As they Jesus come in and they remember that stories they have heard of the signs that he has done they are filled with a sense of hope that this is the king to restore the Davidic kingdom, especially during this festival.
Palm Branches
Palm Sunday
Palm branches for Israel reminded them of a political victory about a 100 years earlier.
Don’t tread on me
For this reason Carson notes that branches signify a nationalistic hope that a messianic liberator was arriving on the scene.
Hosanna
As Jesus enters they shout out this phrase “Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”
Save us, please! A petition to the LORD for Military victory.
Come God! Do what you promised . . . establish our kingdom.
Our kingdom? The people are right they need a savior a king even. And certainty Jesus is this king but he s not here to establish again a nationalistic kingdom over Israel.
Christ knows deeply the needs of people even when we can’t see it and we don’t know what we need saving from.
Israel assumes they need to be saved from others, Christ pronounces that they, and us alike, need saved from ourselves.
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
They can’t see it. They are blind. They want worldly military victory now, Jesus promises a different kind of victory.
(vv. 14-15)
(vv. 14-15)
Jesus, however, offers a different vision of the Kingdom of God. One that is different than expected.
Not a horse or mule. A donkey.
Zechariah 9:9 (ESV)
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.
You see the people were right to rejoice, but they forgot what it was they were rejoicing from. Jesus is not here to bring peace through superior fire power, he’s here to bring peace by taking what is already his.
There is no need to ride in on war horse to conqueror something that is already yours by right.
Instead of whipping the crowd in to a frenzy of political and nationalistic madness he calms them by coming in peacefully on a donkey. Much like his birth the triumphant entry of Christ is different than expected and so is his kingdom.
So what is the kingdom and purpose of Christ?
Zechariah 9:10–11 (ESV)
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall speak peace to the nations;
his rule shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
Peace, the breaking of weapons of war, setting captives free from the power of sin and death, the calling of the nations (not just about Israel) the establishment of a new covenant in blood.
To do righteousness and justice.
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
To be set free from the waterless pit. No water means death.
The fact that the coming of Jesus brings an end of chaos, even if not fully realized, is a cause for deep and unending joy.
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Jesus comes to give life. To set his people free from their sins (mt. 1:21)
Yes Jesus comes to end war and establish peace for the nations. and he comes to bring life through death.
A Road to the Cross (vv. 16-19)
A Road to the Cross (vv. 16-19)
(v. 16) John notes that they didn’t yet realize what was happening. This seemed to be such a highpoint for the ministry of Christ but John says that even still Christ had not been glorified. He has to travel down the road to the cross.
This scene seems to follow the raising of Lazarus from the dead, so you can imagine that the crowd with Jesus is large and energetic (vv.17-18).
The pharisees are furious. Up to this point they had wanted to silence Jesus quietly but their efforts were in vain. v.19 marks an ironically prophetic word from a pharisee. The world has gone after him.
Jesus is not waiting around anymore, his hour is here
And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
The cross is Jesus’ weapon for destroying the power of sin and death and banishing Satan.
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall speak peace to the nations;
The chariot, the war horse and the battle bow and their modern equivalents will be ‘banished’ (NEB), for they will be entirely incongruous when there is a ruler competent to ‘care for the true welfare’ of all the nations.
Jesus weapon of war is humility and humiliation and we are to join. To carry on the love of his sacrfiice daily in our own live.
The cross is the turning point, the work is done, and we are free.
Jesus enters Jerusalem in triumph to take the condemnation of his people on himself. In doing so he dethrones Satan, casts him out, and brings judgment on the world.
So What?
So What?
The cross and Resurrection will be elaborated more next weekend I am sure but what do we do with this king and his kingdom that has entered into our lives on this unusual road?
Worship
Worship
The people on the coming of Christ celebrate even though they do not realize all that Jesus is to do.
How much more should we who know what the coming of Christ did celebrate and worship?
Get excited about your faith.
Cry out
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.”
Kingdom Work
Kingdom Work
Kill sin.
Pick up your cross.
Serve relentlessly.
Conclusion
Conclusion
So what kind of king is this and what is Jesus doing in this story of triumph that is really just a precursor to the bloody triumph on the cross.
It establishes the reality of God’s kingdom on earth here and now.
It shows us that the kingdom of God flips our expectations on their heads and calls us to surrender.
Like servants before a king we need to fall to our faces in worship and surrender to Christ and his reign.
Cast down your ideal of what the kingdom of Christ is and pick up Jesus picture.
We miss out when we trade Jesus for our own view of Christianity
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 your visitation.”
Humble, counter-cultural, and humiliating.
Jesus has come, its different than expected, are you willing to a part of it?