Enter the King

Luke 19:28-44

Intro:

1. Jim and the furnace parts.  In matters small and great God sets divine appointments.
2. This day is the remembrance of God’s sovereign oversight of the convergence of time and events. This day that we celebrate is the convergence of history in a divine appointment that has affected nations and eternity.

What I want to say:  When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that first “Palm Sunday” He was both fulfilling and foretelling prophecy.  He was at once offering Himself as King and enacting His return to reign.  Jesus is more than a symbol of kingship.  He is the chosen King of all that is.

I.      The coming of the King was foretold (John 12:12-19; Zech. 9:9; Daniel 9:25)

A.    Timing is everything: When Messiah will come

“So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks… Daniel 9:25 NASB95

This is 69 WEEKS
or 69 "SEVENS" of YEARS
69 x 7 x 360 = 173,880 DAYS.

1.    Using a lunar year (as the Israelites did) of 360 days, this date fell on what we now call Palm Sunday – 32 A.D.

B.    Prophets told how Messiah would come (Zech. 9:1-9)

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

1.    Prophecy prepared Israel for this day. God spoke through the prophets and His prophesies are always fulfilled in detail. Zechariah wrote about 500 years before Christ was born.

2.    He gave a way of identifying the Messiah

a)    He would come seated on a donkey’s colt

b)    Although we now prefer horses, it was not unusual for a king to ride on a donkey. Horses were rare and expensive and their use was reserved for war.

c)    The people of Jerusalem understood this sign immediately

3.    It was a sign of peace and humility – in contrast to the way Alexander the Great would come (Zech. 9:1-8)

a)    The great trade cities of Tyre and Sidon along with Ashkelon, Gaza and Ekron would be devastated by Alexander’s armies.

b)    But the Lord would guard Jerusalem

4.    This king would come on a donkey’s colt – that was unusual

a)    Not a war horse

b)    Not a chariot

c)    Not even an adult donkey but a donkey’s colt

5.    Isaiah foretold the coming of Messiah with these words:

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 ESV

6.    What God says will happen does happen in just the way He says it will.

II.    The King has come

Map – show where Jesus was going

A.    The time to accept the Messiah was right (Luke 19:40-44) 

1.    In the things of God, there is always a tide when everything rises to the right moment.

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law… Galatians 4:4 NASB95

2.    “pleroma”  = fullness – i.e. used of a cargo ship that was full of freight.  “Chronos” = the passing of time. Paul was saying that the earthly time was ripe and God sent the Messiah to be born.

3.    This was the moment in history that was ripe for the revealing of Messiah.

4.    Just as tide rises, it also falls. When, a few days later, the Jews rejected the same one they had hailed as their King, the moment for response had passed.

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. John 1:11 ESV

5.    Often we will tell someone about Jesus and assume that if they do not accept Jesus as their savior there will be another time soon. That is not necessarily so. Jesus came to Jerusalem and offered Himself to them. They refused and lost the opportunity.  One day Jesus will return as King and all Israel will follow Him.

6.    Now is always the time to respond to God’s Holy Spirit.  For someone here today, it is the right time to accept the Savior.

B.    Popular acclaim is not the same as spiritual perception (John 12:13-18)

1.    (12:13)  - Psalm 118:26 is quoted – this Psalm is a song sung at the Jewish Passover – again linking Jesus’ coming death with the sacrificial lamb.

a)    This also linked Jesus to Isaiah 53 and Zech. 12:10 – the suffering servant.

b)    The people of Israel did something at that moment – they combined Psalm 118:26 and Zech. 9:9 and declared that this person was the King of Israel.

2.    (:16) John explains that at the moment, they did not realize the significance of what was happening but later it dawned upon them.

3.    (:17) – the initial crowd was the disciples.  This grew as people realized that this is the person who raised Lazarus from the dead

4.    (:18) the initial crowd of the disciples was growing as the word spread among all those who were in Jerusalem to celebrate Passover.

C.   God prepared the way for Jesus’ entry (Luke 18-19; John 11)

1.    If you were watching this story as part of a movie, you would hear the music rising in tempo and volume as each of the events leading to Palm Sunday take place:

Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished.

“For He will be handed over to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon,

and after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him; and the third day He will rise again.”

But the disciples understood none of these things, and the meaning of this statement was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said. Luke 18:31-34 NASB95

a)    Jesus approached Jericho (Luke 18) where He gave sight to Bartimaeus

b)    Bartimaeus glorified God – and began following Jesus

c)    The observers of this miracle also gave glory to God

d)    Zaccheus the wealthy tax-gatherer trusted in Jesus as his Savior when Jesus looked up in the tree and invited Himself to Zaccheus’ house

e)     Jesus restated His mission.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”  Luke 19:10 ESV

2.    John 11 – Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead

3.    Cp. 19:11 – the disciples synthesized Jesus His nearness to Jerusalem and the coming kingdom of God

a)    They assumed that from the things Jesus was saying that the time for the coming of the kingdom was imminent

b)    Jesus told the parable of the nobleman who went to a far country

c)    This parable was to prepare them for what is just ahead: He was leaving earth and would return on a day in the future

4.    19:28-35 – Jesus foretold the obtaining of the colt.  The colt was secured just as foretold.

D.   The glory of God is revealed in His Creation (Luke 19:39-40)

1.    Even nature will declare God’s glory even if mankind, God’s highest creation does not.

2.    Even atheists will one day give glory to Jesus as God

a)    Atheists often object to honoring God through public observances of religious events. They complain that they have no holiday dedicated to their beliefs.

b)    Psalm 14:1 tells us “the fool has said in his heart there is no God.”

c)    Therefore we can say that atheists already have a day – April 1.

3.    It is the saddest thing when the creature does not acknowledge the Creator.

III.   Our King will come again

A.    Jesus will return to Jerusalem

1.    Jesus likely entered Jerusalem through the Golden gate

Show photo

2.    The gate is located in the middle of the eastern side of the Temple Mount. The portal in this position was believed to have been used for ritual purposes in biblical times.

3.    In Jewish tradition, this is the gate through which the Messiah will enter Jerusalem. Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I sealed off the Golden Gate in 1541, allegedly to prevent the Messiah's entrance. The Muslims also built a cemetery in front of the gate, allegedly in the belief that the precursor to the Messiah, Elijah, would not be able to pass through, since he is a Kohen (priest).

4.    Just as prophecy foretold that Messiah would come and how He would come, so prophecy tells us that Jesus will return to the earth.

…“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11 ESV

5.    He will return to earth (Zech. 14:4, 9)

On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. Zechariah 14:4 ESV

And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one. Zechariah 14:9 ESV

B.    The next time will be different from the first (Philippians 2:5-11)

1.    God always keeps His word.  God was fulfilling His promise to send Messiah.

2.    In rejecting their Messiah the way was opened for salvation to be offered to the whole world.

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9-11 ESV

Concl:

1. Between here and that day, how will you live?
2. Will you be ready when Jesus returns?