How will you meet your king

How Will You Meet Your King?

March 29, 2026

Luke 19:28-40 & Revelation 19:11-16

The last several messages on the sermon on the mount have been meaty. In Matthew 5 we seen that God’s Word is prescriptive (in that it shows us His Law on (murder/adultery). His Word is also descriptive in that He says that wrong anger IS murder and lust IS adultery. But it is also emotive. It causes the heart of the hearer to move in their emotions. I have heard from many of you this week. The sermon on the mount has caused deep thought, strong emotions and even actionable changes.

I have heard people walking away from things normally approved of (Game of Thrones etc), anger that has been the cancer in hearts and other vices. Praise GOD! Over the next two weeks during the Easter season, I am going to give you an opportunity to reflect and prayerfully prepare for Matthew 5:31,32. It will be a big topic!

Today and next Sunday we will give you a breath and speak on what our Lord did for us on Palm Sunday, Good Friday and finally, Easter morning. Notice, when I say breath, that does not mean relax. God’s Word is never lighthearted. It is always convicting, edifying and challenging.

Today we will look at Palm Sunday. Now, forgive me but I have to laugh a little about this meme. No matter the age, I feel like this from time to time.

PLAY DARTH VADER COMING HOME WHEN THE KIDS YELLED AT MOM

Early in our marriage, I never wanted Heidi to present me this way. I never wanted her to use the words “wait tell your father comes home.” I never wanted my kids to dread my arrival. But, as life happens, as kids decide to do what they do, there were times when I felt like Darth Vader. I would hear her voice on the phone as one of the boys had pressed her and I may or may not have rolled into the house like this.

But there were other times (more than not) when I came home in a decent mood ready to not be the heavy. I think Heidi did a great job allowing the kids to make the decision on what type of dad they wanted to see, the Vader or the dad that was ready to play and wrestle on the floor.

For the true and mature believer of God, the depth of their love for God is shown by how they view His real identity, His nature and His character. When His true followers understand the defining characteristics of who He is, they greet Him with open arms when He comes instead of dread of His return.

The main question I have for all of us is this. How do you plan to meet your King? I am in no way comparing our LORD to Vader! But when Jesus does come back, He will come in a much different way than He came the first time. You may not even recognize Him as king, but that does not remove Him from His throne. He IS king. But how do you plan to meet Him?

READ TEXT Luke 19:28-40 and Revelation 19:11-16

My true desire for all of us today is that we meet Him when He is on a donkey, not on the horse. I want to be behind Him as He is leading the way. Church, know Him in His humility, do not wait to meet Him when He comes in judgement.

1.        Triumphal entry of humility.

The entry of Christ is taking place right after He had conducted many miracles (to include healing of lepers (17) and healing the blind Barimaeus (18) and most impressively, on the heels of raising Lazarus from the dead. Jesus’s reputation for the healer had created a following.

Luke records the true intent of the crowd and just how shallow their passions were in vs 37 where Luke writes “the whole multitude of his disciples (not apostles) began to rejoice and praise God…for all the mighty works that they had seen…”

In this chapter it is the week of Christ’s passion (5 days before the cross). Jesus was foretold that He would come into Jerusalem riding on a colt in humility in (Zechariah 9:9). Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled every step and every prophecy of Him riding into town in humility on a donkey on this day and on this path. Just a shameless plug for adult Sunday School, the study we are in is discussing His active and passive obedience to the cross as He fully paid the penalty for our sin. By fulfilling every prophecy obediently, Christ satisfies the just wrath of the Father.

The donkey was a symbol of peace. All four Gospels record this event. Matthew notes the fulfillment of Zechariah’s donkey prophecy in chapter 21:1-11. But the question I have is why ride in with humility when He was still and always was and is the King spoken of in Revelation?

Jesus’s first entry was a demonstration of the humility of the King to those who need a savior. The Lord’s position on a colt speaks to those whom He is calling and goes right back to the sermon on the mount. How does that sermon start?

Matthew 5:2 “and He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (those who know just how broke and in sin they are)…”Blessed are those who mourn” (those who weep over their awareness of their sinful condition)… “blessed are the meek” (those who see their sin as the limiting factor that keeps them from their King.)

When a soul is in this condition, the poor in spirit CAN and want to come to their savior when He is on the donkey, not the war horse. HE came this way to welcome those who see Him as their only hope. The prideful heart is not able to see His humility as of value. The one who would appreciate this humble King riding on a donkey is the one who understands what He is doing for them personally.

The LORD is demonstrating to the target audience who He is calling. He is calling those who are poor, mournful and without any pride. He is calling the one that the sin and failures of life have stripped them of pride and arrogance. For Christ, there is no room for pride. Remember who is on that colt in light of who will come!

The reason why He is demanding this level of humility is because of the price that was needed to be paid for such a huge expense. The person riding on that donkey was that infinite price, of infinite value to pay for every sin of those whom He came to save.

EXAMPLE: I want you to picture a person that lives 80 years and commits 1 sin in his life. Never repents and never will…for argument's sake. He lied, just once and never repented or asked for forgiveness of it. Then he dies, he will eternally be lost according to scripture. We may protest that the punishment does not fit the crime. But what we do not understand is who the crime was against. This crime was against an infinite holy God with infinite holy value.

I found that this graph helps us understand our position better:

Sin as……

Man

God

Christ

Debt

Debtor

Creditor

Surety

Enmity

Enemy

Violated One

Mediator

Crime

Criminal

Judge

Substitute

This came from RC Sproul’s little book “The Truth of the Cross”. On the left side you have the condition we are in. All of our sin creates debt, separation or enmity and is a crime against a Holy and Just and Perfect God. The column under Man tells us that we are debtors, enemies and are criminals (all of us: Romans 3:10).

Most people never associate the criminal aspect of our condition. Scripture clearly teaches we are all three, debtor, enemy and the criminal.

When I think of this, I can pay a debt financially on my own. I can even pay the debt of someone else. But I can’t pay the criminal burden they have. If you rammed your car into someone and totaled it because you were under the influence, I can possibly help pay the financial burden. I can’t take away that DUI and the time you are going to spend in jail.

That is how we stand before God but worse. I don’t have a currency to clear my debt. I don’t have the ability to pay my criminal charge against a just and righteous God. So that is why we need Jesus so bad! He does have that currency.

Then you have God’s position. He is the One we owe the debt to as the creditor, the One who we violate His laws in the end, the rightful judge.

But that last column is Christ’s position. Through His humility and love, He is the surety (payment for our debt) to the creditor. He alone is our mediator and our substitute. In the ultimate show of love and grace, God provided that third column to people who are His enemies. This is why Christ he came on a donkey. As He rode that little donkey into a dusty city on this day, He came to pay the wages for every sin on the Roman cross in five short days. Oh, dear brothers and sisters, do you see the value of what is sitting on that donkey? Without Him, on that donkey, there is no hope against Him who comes on that white horse! You need that level of value if there is to be any hope.

What scripture is teaching is that God’s love, grace and mercy have an expiration date. It is the date of your last breath. It is today that your salvation is being offered to you. It may not be here tomorrow! Do not presume on God’s goodness any longer! It is key that we MUST see His actions here to offer peace between sinful men like us and a Just Judge.

If you have yet to see His value like this, then you may think you are at peace with God but you in fact are not. If not IN Christ (meaning you don’t recognize who is on the donkey) then He sees you as His enemy because of your nature and bent toward sin. You need to be reconciled! You need His forgiveness ONLY offered by Christ Jesus!

The good news is God loves to reconcile wayward sinners to Himself. The good news is the ONE who offers the peace between you and the Father and He is coming humbly before you now. The people even cry out:

Vs 38 “blessed is the KING who comes in the name of the LORD: Peace in heaven and glory in the Highest.” They are quoting Psalm 118:25

Sitting on that colt, Christ is taking care of the issue of sin. He is offering peace to those who are at odds with their savior. It is no wonder they sang. Unfortunately, those in the crowd did not fully understand who they sang to or about. The same crowd screamed for His murder in just five days. They may not understand now, but they will.

Philippians 2:10-11 “…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 is Christ the LORD…” He is LORD, even while on a donkey.

The sad truth is that some of them, in their unsaved hearts were praising God. How do I know this? Because some of them in their unsaved hearts in five days say kill Him. Then in Acts 2 when Peter preaches Him risen from death cry out in conviction to Peter, “what must we do to be saved? “Acts 2:36-38 Peter preaches:

[36] Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

[37] Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” [38] And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Talk about whiplash! This is a perfect example of the hard heart! One minute I love being around Jesus, the next, kill Him followed by, “what must I do?” Only by the grace of God and His regenerating work does the heart come around to “what must we do?” God says, “I will replace your heart of stone for a heart of flesh that beats for me.”

How about we recognize who He is while He is on the Donkey first so that we can be in the right position when He comes back.

2.        Triumphal entry in glory.

Let’s turn our attention to Revelation 19:11-16

Church this is a simple concept. It is in fact the same Person (Jesus Christ) but on a much different mission. We see two entries with two different objectives. The first was to offer salvation. The second to execute justice. You have a choice. Receive Him in humility and come with Him behind Him. Or ignore salvation and be at the tip of the sword. Notice there is no offer of peace in our second account.

Here is the same person but on a different mode of transportation. He is not humble, meek or mild. He is coming to conquer and exact the just judgment of those who have rejected the offer of humility.

John is writing this passage. He sees heaven open and behold a white horse and “HE who sat on it is called Faithful and True”. We know this is Christ in that He is referred by these titles in other passages (Matt 24; Ezk 1; John 1; Rev 4; 6; 3; Psalm 96; Is 11). These are some of His defining titles.

The image that John saw was nothing short of CHRIST in Glory as He is waging war. He is the only One qualified to be on this white war horse doing what He is about to do. Contextually, when John saw this, the symbol of the war horse was that of a conquer, warrior and One who subdued the enemy, of which those who did not recognize His humility is now facing His justice.

Vs 12 “His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many crowns and a He has a name that no one knows except Himself.” This is Royalty that is uncomprehensible especially for Americans. Just one crown will not do. HE has MANY crowns. This is power that we cannot contain or even get our heads around. We can only assume we understand what this will look like.

Look back at verse 13 “He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which He is called is the WORD of GOD.” He is covered in blood but look at who follows. “And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure were following.” They are 100% pure. They are that way because of who was stained in blood, HIM on that white horse. He made them pure!

His is the ONLY robe dipped in blood, no others. No other person besides Him will engage in executing judgement. He is the only One who is qualified and He does it with only His spoken Word.

I want to take this time to compare that to what the people said in Luke to what was heard by John here in Revelation. The people said in Luke, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the LORD.” Now compared to His name on His thigh: This is the LORD and HE iscoming.

Now to be clear, there is no offer of peace in Revelation. There are only two positions. Behind Him, or at the tip of the sword. Church, I want you to be ready for when your Father comes home.

3.        Be prepared to meet your King.

Going back to my introduction. Heidi did a great job covering for my boys. She would say, when your dad gets home, let’s be ready. How do you want him to act when he walks through that door. Do you want him to play, be happy or do you want him to correct you? She is a perfect mommy. She helped them see that there is justice in dad AND there is love. She offered them the opportunity to meet me in humility.

You and I will meet our king. My question is this, will you see your King in humility and cry out today, “Pastor, what must we do to inherit the kingdom of God?” Or will you see the conqueror coming to exact the perfect righteous payment for the sin that we negotiate with on a daily basis?

Church, you and I will meet Him in three categories.

a. Category 1: Ilived a good life. I was a good person. I was never as bad as other people. I helped others, I attended a church all my life, Iserved, I was baptized and I even said a prayer when I was little. I even gave money at the church! Please notice the most used word in everything I said there. “I” was used 10 times.

To that person please hear me, that is the answer that will not get you across the finish line. All of those “I”s point to the fact that HE is nothing to you but a good idea. You may like the idea of Him, but He is anything but LORD. To that the scariest verse in all of the Bible reads “depart from me, I never knew you.” That word KNEW is a deep personal and intimate knowledge.

To be KNOWN by Jesus means that HE shapes every decision, convicts you of sin while offering a means of grace to avoid sin. He changes your desires, changes your walk, and changes your identity. If you can honestly say I look no different than I did before I professed Christ, then the issue is that you may have only professed Him with your mouth, not your heart.

b. Category 2: You may say, “He is no king of mine.” However, that doesn’t dethrone Him. When He comes back, His just judgment will be based on how you handled Him when He humbly offered you grace and forgiveness. Just because you may not recognize Him as king does not make Him less than king.

c. Category 3: I make no claims of deserving salvation, rather my only hope and assurance is found humbly on that donkey who went to the Roman Cross for a wretch like me. May Christ be 100% my salvation and IN Him and Him alone do I place my faith. This is where we MUST BE!

Here is a diagnostic question: do you LOVE God for who He is or do you just love the idea of Him? When you sin do regret getting caught or do you weep over the fact that your sin contributed to His death on a cross. Are you asking Him to change your desires of your heart? If you can say yes, take heart dear saint! His blood made you pure.

FOR THE BELIEVER: Over the last several weeks of covering the sermon on the mount, has your love grown deeper in Him? If you can say yes, then you are falling more in love with His identity based on how He reveals Himself through His Word.

For the believer we get numb to these accounts of Jesus because we have heard it so many times. If that is you, please remember the value of the price that has been paid for you! Look at who is on that donkey vs who is on that horse. Do not take that for granted or become arrogant in it! Pride is NOT a characteristic of a child of God! The Gospel is the grace we need every single moment of the day.

You are either growing or not growing. You are either running or not moving. You are either obedient or disobedient. When He comes, how do you plan to meet your King?