Jesus, the King (Luke 19:28-40)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to Luke 19.

While you’re turning there, I’m going to tell you where we’re headed in the next few weeks. Every year around Easter, we take a few weeks from our regular series to prepare our hearts and minds to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, we do celebrate and reflect on the resurrection of Jesus Christ each week as we partake in the Lord’s Supper, but it is good for us as a church to reflect in a more concentrated way, which is what we’re doing over the next few weeks.

So, this year, we’re taking the next three Sundays and Good Friday to do just that. Each week, we’re going to take a different part of the traditional texts used by the universal church to reflect and I’m going to preach through those texts out of the Gospel according to Luke. It’ll look something like this:

Jesus, the King (Luke 19:28-40) — 3.17.24

Jesus, the Passover Lamb (Luke 22:7-23) — 3.24.24

Jesus, the Atonement (Luke 23:26-56) — 3.29.24

Jesus, the Living King who Atones as the Passover Lamb (Luke 24:1-12) — 3.30.24

Of course, this week is the first week title Jesus, the King and we’re specifically looking at Luke 19:28-40, which is a record of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. Just prior to this moment in Luke, Jesus had healed a few different people—including the blind beggar near Jericho. Jesus had just spoken to Zacchaeus in Jericho in which he makes a significant statement, “the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Immediately before the Triumphal Entry, Jesus tells a parable about three servants who were given money by their master as their master left to take care of other business. We’re told that two of them went and utilized that money in profitable ways, but the third hid the money until his master came back out of fear that he would lose the money. And if you’re familiar with the parable, you know that the master condemns the third servant for not doing as he was told. There’s a significant lesson there about how we’re to use what’s gifted to us to the best of our ability or we’ll be disobeying Jesus; and there’s a correlation here with how the Pharisees misused God’s gift of Scripture for their own benefit.

Jesus tells them this parable and immediately, we’re in v. 28, which is the Triumphal Entry.

Let’s read Luke 19:28-40 together.

Luke 19:28–40 ESV

28 And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 When he drew near to Bethphage 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.”

As we study this passage, we’re going to break it into two parts: (1) Preparation for the Triumphal Entry (28-36) and (2) The Triumphal Entry (37-40). Now, I know that those of you that have been attending churches for any significant amount of time in your life have heard sermon after sermon on Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, so let me encourage you to not allow your familiarity of the passage to stop you from learning what the text says to us and what the Holy Spirit intends to teach us. This passage shows us something that every Christian agrees with, though sometimes I think we get distracted in our daily lives and neglect to live in light of the truth in this passage. When we finish up this morning, I want you to firmly understand that Jesus is the King—and as such, He alone deserves not just our obedience and not even just our submission, but He deserves our very worship, our praise, and really all our affection.

Jesus is King, keep this in mind as we work through the text.

Prayer for Illumination

Preparation for the Triumphal Entry (28-36)

Luke 19:28–36 ESV

28 And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 When he drew near to Bethphage 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.

So, after telling them a parable, Jesus starts his ascent into Jerusalem.

Remember, we already know why He’s headed towards Jerusalem, we know the time of year in that it’s near Passover.

The Jewish people at that time believed that the only proper place to worship the Lord was at the temple, and thus, all devout Jewish people would go to the temple during any significant feast and Passover is certainly a significant feast.

And thus, as devout Jewish people, Jesus and His disciples would head to Jerusalem for the purpose of worshiping the Lord for Passover—except, Jesus has already mentioned that there’s something more significant going on.

All the way back in Luke 9, Jesus had already told them that, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

And, of course, Scripture had repeatedly prophesied of Messiah’s death, burial, and resurrection in passages like Psalm 2 and Isaiah 53.

Jesus knows exactly what’s going to happen in Jerusalem as He heads into Jerusalem because His Word had already given the prophecies concerning Himself.

And yet, He still leads His disciples to head into Jerusalem with Him.

But before they ascend into Jerusalem, he sends two of his disciples to go into a village and find a colt.

He tells them to find a colt tied up, on which no one has ever ridden, and to bring it to Him. He even tells them if someone stops them, such as the colt’s owner, to simply say that “the Lord has need of it,” and continue to take the colt.

Lo and behold, in v. 32, the two disciples find a colt just where Jesus said they would and as they started to take the colt, the colt’s owner asked, “Why are you untying the colt?” And their response, in v. 34, is simply, “The Lord has need of it.”

I’m not sure if they happened to be awfully convincing or if the owner of the colt just didn’t care much about it, but that response is enough for him, and he lets them have the colt.

And in vv. 35-36, they bring this animal to Jesus, they lay their cloaks on it, they set Him on top of it and as He rode this donkey, they spread out their cloaks on the road for Him.

Now, that all sounds like random details, but they aren’t as random as you might think.

For instance, the fact that Messiah would come into Jerusalem riding a donkey is a fulfillment of a prophecy in Zechariah 9:9, which says, “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.”

Even the laying down of cloaks in front of Jesus as He rides this donkey into Jerusalem has a purpose—we see it when king Jehu is anointed king, he comes into Jerusalem riding a donkey with cloaks being placed in front of him as a sign of respect towards the king.

None of this is random, though for the people that are witnessing it, they probably think it’s all random.

But everything that’s happening in this text are all things that were prophesied to happen.

Now, Jesus knows that because He is God and it is His Word that reveals these prophecies in the first place, but the people aren’t thinking in terms of these prophecies, in fact, it isn’t until after the fact that the disciples recognize the fulfillment of so many different prophecies.

They were following Jesus for over three years face to face and they still didn’t understand what all was going on.

So, Jesus is coming closer to the city and He’s now riding on a young donkey that’s never been ridden on before. The disciples are spreading out their cloaks on the road and the reality is that the disciples have no idea what’s going to happen next and there’s a reason for that, but I’m not going to tell you what the reason is until a little later.

Let’s keep reading in the text. This is vv. 37-40.

The Triumphal Entry (37-40)

Luke 19:37–40 ESV

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.”

In vv. 37-39, we see the actual Triumphal Entry. Jesus rides from the Mount of Olives and the multitude of disciples begin rejoicing and praising God.

Just for your own knowledge, remember the Mount of Olives is relatively close to Jerusalem—Jerusalem itself sits on a hill.

There’s a valley and then you have the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives is the same location where Jesus and His disciples will go for Him to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane—the garden sits at the bottom of the Mount of Olives.

This is also the same location in which Jesus will ascend in Acts 1:9-12.

So, as Jesus descends the Mount of Olives and He’s starting His way up to Jerusalem, a crowd of followers had already gathered and they’re all praising and rejoicing.

In particular, v. 37 says that they’re praising and rejoicing “with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen.”

I don’t know about you, but in my mind, there’s something telling about that sentence—they were praising God, but they were only praising Him because they had seen Jesus doing things.

And I don’t think I’m reading into things too much because if you remember, during the crucifixion and afterwards, many of those disciples and really many of the people simply chose to leave—to abandon Him, even Peter, one of the 12 struggles with rejecting Him when the going got tough.

They’re rejoicing, but they don’t quite understand what’s going to happen and they don’t quite understand what Jesus is doing.

We know this because Jesus regularly told people that He would sacrifice Himself and that He would rise from the grave, but they simply didn’t get it.

And even after the fact—after Jesus’ death, when the disciples are hiding in fear, it takes Thomas literally touching Jesus’ wounds to comprehend what Jesus had been saying would happen from the beginning of His ministry on earth.

We see all these people praising God for what they had seen Jesus do, but it’s doubtful they actually understood what was going on because as soon as things started turning sour for Jesus, they all left, they ran.

So, you might wonder, what exactly they think is going to happen and the answer is really in what the Jewish people expected to happen when Messiah arrived.

The average Jewish person in the first century had absolutely no doubt that Messiah was coming, but they had a misunderstanding of what exactly Messiah would do and that was the result of quite a bit of wrong teaching by the Jewish leaders.

If you read some of the ancient Jewish writings found in the Talmud or the Midrash, what you find is that they certainly believed Messiah was coming, but they thought that when He arrived, He would immediately lead the Jewish people as a political leader who would take control of the nation, restore it to its rightful position, and lead them into a period of peace, satisfaction, and tranquility.

The Jewish people during the life of Jesus thought that Messiah would take His place as king, and then take control of the land back from Rome.

Thus, when Jesus starts building up this large following of people, He performs miraculous healings and other miracles, and then He starts to enter into Jerusalem on a young donkey just like Zechariah said Messiah would, they think He’s going to take control of the nation and wage war against Rome.

It’s really no wonder then that they would celebrate in this way, but the reality is that their hope is misplaced because Jesus isn’t there to wage war against Rome or to set up an earthly kingdom at that time.

And, if they really understood the prophecy or even the symbolism behind Him riding a donkey into Jerusalem, they probably would’ve reacted differently.

Zechariah 9:9 speaks of the king coming for the purpose of saving—that was His whole goal during His brief time on earth, to provide salvation for His people.

But they think He’s saving them from the oppression of the Roman Empire when in reality, He’s saving His people from the oppression of their sins.

The symbolism of a donkey is tremendous and here’s why—when you think of a king coming into His city, you think of someone who wants to show His power and His authority.

Thus, most of the time when you think of a king entering his city, he’s on a war horse or something along those lines.

You don’t ride donkeys into war, but you do ride a donkey if you’re on your way to bring about peace.

Jesus is certainly the King, but His first time on earth wasn’t to set about an earthly kingdom, but rather, it was to save His people by mediating peace between His people and God on the cross as our substitutionary atonement for our sins.

Thus, the Jewish people are responding rightly in that the eternal King deserves praise and worship and exclamations, but because of their misunderstanding of what Jesus is actually there to do, they don’t actually recognize Him as the king that He is, but rather the king that they want.

And the king that they want isn’t the King who would be tried, beaten, whipped, and crucified on a cross.

But, they don’t know that yet, and so, they’re treating Him like the king that they desire and they’re praising God for all the mighty things that they had seen.

And v. 38 tells us what exactly they were saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

They have the right words and the right actions, but their motivation is wrong because their desire is wrong.

But Jesus doesn’t correct that issue at this very moment.

In fact, when the Pharisees in v. 39 complain about His disciples praising in this way, they tell Jesus to rebuke His disciples.

The reason for that is because the Pharisees understood that the people thought that Jesus was Messiah.

In the Pharisees’ minds, Jesus is not Messiah, He just happens to be a well-known teacher.

And if the Pharisees were right—that Jesus was just a well-known teacher—they would’ve been right in telling Jesus to rebuke the people, but they weren’t right.

And Jesus tells them that they weren’t right in the very last verse for this morning. V. 40, “[Jesus] answered, ‘I tell you, if these [people] were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

Jesus’ statement is simple. That something would be worshiping and praising at that moment. If the disciples weren’t praising and worshiping, then the rocks on the ground would.

The very creation, even inanimate objects, know who Jesus is and Jesus makes it clear that at that moment, nothing will stop Him from getting the praise and the worship that He deserves as the King coming to Jerusalem to make peace for His people.

John Martin, “The Pharisees understood the meaning of what was going on, for they told Jesus to rebuke His followers, so they would stop calling him Messiah or King. Jesus responded that there must be some proclamation that He is the Messiah. If not, even inanimate objects (stones) would be called on to testify for Him. All history had pointed toward this single, spectacular event when the Messiah publicly presented Himself to the nation, and God desired that this fact be acknowledged.” (John A. Martin, “Luke,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scripture, ed. J.F. Walvoord and R.B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 253.)

Jesus is the King, He is the eternal King that was promised and prophesied about and He is going to do what was promised. He is the one who is promised in Genesis 3—He will crush the head of the serpent as He dies on the cross and is raised from the dead; He is the one that will bless all nations as a descendent of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; He is the one promised to David as the eternal descendant that will reign forever, and everything in Scripture is pointing at what Jesus is about to do for His people as the eternal King—everything is leading up to the moment when Jesus mediates peace for His people.

And that’s precisely where our application is. Jesus is the King—the Jewish people were right, but they were wrong in what they expected Him to do, but since He is our King, let’s talk about how we ought to apply this idea.

Application

I’ve occasionally heard preachers, pastors, and regular Christians make the statement that you need to make Jesus Lord or King of your life. It’s always said with good intentions, but it’s misleading or maybe misinformed in one aspect—Jesus is already King and He is already Lord regardless of if you make Jesus King or Lord of your life. He’s already reigning as King.

What’s usually meant when people make that statement—that you need to make Jesus King or Lord of your life is that you need to submit to Him as King or Lord of your life, which is the biblical understanding of Jesus’ Kingship or Lordship. Jesus is already reigning, He’s already in control, but you, as an individual need to submit to Him. What that looks like is actually rather simple, but let me give one more qualification before I dig into what it means to submit to Jesus:

Like the Jewish people in Luke 19, you can conjure up within your mind and heart a Jesus that doesn’t actually reflect the truth.

For instance, those who fall more into liberal Christianity see Jesus’ love, grace, and mercy, but they don’t pay attention to His justice, His moral goodness, or His immutability (the fact that He never changes). So, they make up a Jesus that only ever affirms people and even their sins rather than seeing Jesus as the God who loves, but also holds people accountable for their sins. The same God who judged the sins of the Sodomites is the same God who is described as a shepherd in the New Testament. Thus, they develop a warped understanding of who God is.

Or, for example, those who tend to fall into more legalistic Christianity—the idea that you must earn God’s favor by the way you dress or the way you behave or whatever else it may be see the holiness, righteousness, and justice of God, but they don’t really see Jesus’ love, grace, and mercy. Thus, they develop a warped understanding of who God is.

It is easy for us to develop warped understandings of who God actually is and by doing so, we create caricatures of God that fit our own whims and our own desires, but neglects the truth recorded in Scripture. And really, the only way that we can fix that is to read what God has said and how He has revealed Himself to us in Scripture and allow the Word of God to transform the way that we think about Him and really about all things.

Our idea of who God is needs to be dictated by Scripture, not our own feelings or desires or thoughts because what we think about God changes everything about us and the life that we live.

AW Tozer, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” (AW Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (New York, NY: HarperOne, 1961), 1)

Because what comes to our minds when we think about God influences everything in our lives.

The Jewish people in Luke 19 had a false understanding of who God is and what Messiah would do; and thus, in this instance they praise God for Jesus, but as we continue in the narrative of the crucifixion, we find that the very same people who praised God for Jesus, reject Jesus for a murderer in front of Pilate.

But anyways, back to our application. Jesus is King and because He is King, the first place that you have to start is by submitting to Him as your King. I mentioned that this idea of submitting to Jesus as your King is really simple and I wasn’t lying, it is rather simple. It’s all wrapped in the word obedience:

He is the King and the King offers you salvation, but that salvation is only possible if you actually repent of your sins and believe in Him.

And this is really a statement for those of you that might not be sure of your salvation or you’ve never actually repented and believed.

Jesus is the King, which means that at some point you will bow the knee to the King, Revelation teaches us this, but wouldn’t you rather willingly submit to the King of eternity rather than being forced to do so?

If you’re an unbeliever, this morning, this idea of willingly submitting to Jesus as your King starts with repentance from sin and belief in Him.

As an unbeliever, this is where obedience to the eternal King starts—turn away from your sinful desires and believe in Jesus as your substitutionary atonement for your sins.

Romans 10:9–11 sums it up well, “9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.””

Jesus is your King and your King offers you salvation, but that salvation is based on more than just saying a prayer, walking an aisle, or having an emotional response. Genuine repentance and belief in Him results in you following Him—it results in you actually being His disciple. It involves you listening to what He has taught, allowing His teachings to change you, and then living in light of the change.

Or, in other words, if you’ve claimed belief in Jesus Christ—if you’ve claimed to have repented and believed in Him, but you don’t really follow His teachings, you don’t really pay much attention to His Word, and you haven’t really changed by growing in Christ-likeness, you really have to ask yourself, “Am I actually saved?”

The Bible is pretty clear that when someone meets Jesus in a salvific sense, they never walk away unchanged—the only people who walk away from Jesus unchanged, are people who never actually believed (so, think of like the Pharisees, Sadduccees, and many of the religious and even political leaders).

Those who meet Jesus in a salvific way, walk away completely changed and they walk away wanting to learn more and grow more in their relationship with God through Jesus.

As a believer, even if you’re a young believer, you ought to be listening to what Jesus taught, you ought to be changing because of His teachings, and you ought to then be living differently because of His Word.

Really, Jesus is your King and your King offers you salvation, but that salvation doesn’t leave you in the kingdom of darkness, so why would you continue to live like you’re in the kingdom of darkness?

I’d submit it’s either because you don’t actually know Jesus or you don’t recognize how significant His saving of you out of the kingdom of darkness really is.

Submission to Jesus as your King is paramount to the Christian faith, but it’s also important to remember that Jesus isn’t just a regular king, Rather, He is King because He is God. And thus, it is only right for you to praise Him and worship Him as He is God.

That includes worshiping Him through praise, thanksgiving, singing songs, reading Scripture, and listening to biblical preaching and teaching. It includes all that a local church is supposed to do.

And I’m firm on the supposed to do aspect because many local churches have abandoned what they’re supposed to do with what they want to do.

But, any local church that takes seriously worship and really what the local church is all about, will dedicate their time to praise, thanksgiving, singing songs, reading Scripture, and listening to biblical preaching and teaching.

Biblical worship is no less than this, but it also includes what Romans 12:1-2 teaches.

Romans 12:1–2 says, “1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Or, in other words, if you’re genuinely worshiping Jesus, it’s going to extend beyond just Sunday morning—you will worship God with your whole being.

Which honestly, makes sense, especially when you consider the Jewish Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4–5 “4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

Or, in other words, you shall love the Lord your God with every part of who you are. Tied in with Romans 12, the idea is that true worship extends to every aspect of who you are and it extends beyond just coming together on Sunday for worship.

True worship results in a changed life that’s transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.

And it’s right for us to worship the Lord with every ounce of our being simply because He is our King who is the eternal God.

Really, what Luke 19:28-40 teaches us is summed up in three words, Jesus is King—so, let’s submit to Him, let’s learn from Him and allow His teachings to change us, let’s obey Him. And ultimately, since Jesus is God, let’s worship Him with all of our being.

Pastoral Prayer