Blessed is the King
Notes
Transcript
If you have your Bibles please turn to Luke 19:28-31
After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’ ”
We begin the Holiest week of the year with Palm Sunday. The day that Jesus entered into Jerusalem. It is a week that we celebrate every year, and a week that completely changed and reshaped the world. A week when Jesus would go to the cross for our sins and incur God’s wrath on our behalf. It is a week that we should approach with reverence and awe. This week and especially next Sunday is about worshipping the Lord and understanding what Jesus did for us.
He gave his life up freely for us. He spent three and half years teaching us and showing us that He is the living word of God. Throughout His ministry the crowds epped and flowed. Sometimes there were thousands to hear Him speak, and sometimes it was only a few. It was those difficult messages where there was only a few. As we move through this week, we need to decide which kind of follower of Jesus we are. Is Jesus the Lord of everything in our lives? That is what we are going to explore this morning because on we celebrate the lamb during this week but He comes back as the Lion.
John the Baptist said it best,
He must become greater; I must become less.”
John the Baptist also had disciples and followers. He had people that followed his preaching. Those followers came to John the baptist and told him, that Jesus was now baptizing people and everyone was going to Him now. In the KJV it says, He must increase but I must decrease. That is what following Jesus is about. I must decrease. John deserves more credit for this. He kept the Messiah front and center always. How many would give up a thriving ministry, even in the name of Jesus?
John the Baptist continues to explain why.
The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
Everything has been placed in the hands of Jesus. Everything. He rides into Jerusalem as a king because as we all know He is the King of Kings. This is the truth of the world. This is the choice pressented to the world. Jesus is that choice.
Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They replied, “The Lord needs it.” They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.
They spread their cloaks on the ground as a symbol of sacrifice and dedicating themselves to Jesus. This is what people did for the king to show their submission to the king.
They quickly took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bare steps. Then they blew the trumpet and shouted, “Jehu is king!”
In second Kings, Jezebel was the evil queen of Israel. So Elisha sent another prophet to Jehu, who was the son of Jehoshaphat to anoint him as king because the Lord was going to take care of Jezebel. When the people found this out they laid their cloaks down under him.
Jesus is coming into the Jerusalem to take care of the evil in the world. He will defeat that which man cannot defeat without Jesus and that is Sin , temptation and the devil. This is where we need to think about what we lay down for Jesus. The people recognized that day that Jesus is the true king. Yet the crowds would turn against him just days later.
What is our part in laying down the our cloaks before the King? What do we hold back from Jesus in our lives? Let’s look at what Jesus says about following Him
“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.
The really interesting part is if you look up at verse 25, there was a large crowd following Him and then He tells them this. If we do not give up everything, then we cannot be His disciples. It takes our total being to truly follow Jesus. So what is our cloak we lay down? Is it the self that we built without Jesus in comman? It is the self that we built with the influence of the world and sin? It is the self that isn’t exactly what the Lord wanted us to be? but we think we are pretty good people? Because the Lord knows who you are supposed to be. In the book of Exodus Moses knows who he is supposed to be. He is the protector and liberator of the Hebrew people. But he did that first without the Lord and he murdered someone. Then he went into exile. Jesus meets you where you are that is true, but you aren’t left there. When God met Moses at that burning bush, Moses was a murderer and in exile. But the Lord knew who He was supposed to be. So it does cost a lot to follow Jesus but that reward is greater than we can ever imagine.
Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
Heaven rejoices when a sinner repents. To understand why you need Jesus , you need to understand that you are a sinner, so am I . I am the chief sinner as Paul said. My heart grieves for that other 99 righteous people that do not repent. The truth is that Jesus is our Lord and Savior because that is what we need. I was once one of those 99. I have never been so wrong about anything in my entire life than not thinking that I needed to be the one to repent.
Here is the flip side of those 99 righteous people. There are some people that think that whatever they have done was so wrong that they cannot be forgiven. When you accept Jesus , when you lay down your cloak in submission to the King of Kings. You are forgiven and the Heavens rejoice. The father and all the angels in the throne room, they all rejoice because another wayward son or daughter has come home.
When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
They had all crowded around the road giving praise to the Lord in loud voices for all the miracles that they had seen. Those were all setting the stage for the greatest miracle, the resurrections. Think about all the miracles they had seen, they had seen thousands feed, they had seen people healed, blind men see, those who couldn’t walk could walk again. They had seen Lazarus raised from the dead. The hardest question or a pastor or any teacher of the Bible. Is where is my miracle? The fact is that all of us get a miracle and that is Jesus Himself. Whether we see another miracle here on earth or not , we have our miracle secured because we have eternity with the Lord.
This is what it means to always be looking towards Jesus. No matter the pain or struggle that you go through now. Those are what refine your faith because you know that it will all be healed one day.
In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
We rejoice just like those that lined the road because in all kinds of grief there is where our faith is proven. Our faith, our love for Jesus is greater than any wealth that the world can offer.
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
On this Sunday the people got it correct. Blessed is the King. Jesus is the King , the savior that we all had been waiting for. Who you believe Jesus is, that is the most important question that you can ask yourself in life.
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
All of us in life have to answer this question. Who do you say I am? Jesus asks. The answer to this question will shape how you look at everything else in the world. Peter gives us the answer. You are the messiah, the son of God. Jesus is the one that makes us whole again, He is the on the gives us freedom from sin, the ability to defeat demons. He gives us an intercessor with the Father and secures our place in the family of God.
Palm Sunday begins the most important week in history, at least until Jesus sounds that trumpet. Everything else has been growing pains as we wait for the Lord to come back. This is what I would challenge us all on. When we reflect this week , are we all putting Jesus first in our lives as He did for us. Our relationship with Jesus is the single most important aspect of our life because that relationship influences all of our other relationships.
As we move into this week, make the time to worship the Lord. Think about what we are holding back from Jesus and lay down your cloak in submission to the king. Join us on Thursday evening as we celebrate the Lord’s supper.
Let us pray
