The Coming King (2)

The Coming King

Mark 11:1-11

     We live in a fast-paced culture, but some things just ought to take more time.

     In Jim Sheeler’s book “The Final Salute,” it tells the story of Major Steve Beck, a U.S. Marine who had the task of telling the next of kin when a Marine was killed in Iraq. Beck didn’t just break the bad news and then go away; he would stay for several days, and help the family go through the process of the funeral. He would supervise the Marine honor guard that stands near the body of the fallen soldier.

     The honor guard learns from Beck how to salute their fallen fellow-Marine as they leave or resume guard with a slow salute that isn’t taught in basic training. The slow salute requires a three second raising of the hand to the head, a three second hold, and then a three second lowering of the hand—a gesture of respect that takes about nine times longer than normal. Beck explains: “A salute to your fallen comrade should take time.”

     And those who die serving our country are worthy of great honor, worthy of a slow salute, worthy of extra time. To do some things fast, just to get them done, sends a message of disrespect.

     The same thing is true of our worship of God. God deserves a slow salute. The Savior who gave his life for us is worthy of our time. (Psalm 150) And that is what we are going to see in our passage this morning. Jesus is the coming King who is worthy of all honor and praise. (Mark 11:1-14)

   1     As they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples

   2     and said to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here.

   3     “If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ you say, ‘The Lord has need of it’; and immediately he will send it back here.”

   4     They went away and found a colt tied at the door, outside in the street; and they untied it.

   5     Some of the bystanders were saying to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?”

   6     They spoke to them just as Jesus had told them, and they gave them permission.

   7     They brought the colt to Jesus and put their coats on it; and He sat on it.

   8     And many spread their coats in the road, and others spreadleafy branches which they had cut from the fields.

   9     Those who went in front and those who followed were shouting:

“Hosanna!

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord;

10          Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David;

Hosanna in the highest!”

11     Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple; and after looking around at everything, He left for Bethany with the twelve, since it was already late.

 (pray)

     In our passage this morning we see Jesus’ riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, a colt the foal of a donkey. But why? He had walked the entire way from Galilee. He had walked all the way down through Judea. He had walked up the long and winding roads to get here. Why does He want to ride now?

     This is a symbolic act that is full of spiritual meaning. It is intended to represent the fact that Jesus is coming into the city as a king. But not as a king who is coming for war. Not as a king who is coming for the lives of His enemies. But a King who is willing to die for His enemies.

     He is coming in peace. He is coming in humility. He is coming with forgiveness and salvation for all who will make Him their King. When He returns, He will return as the sovereign King of the universe and defeat His enemies. But not this time. This time He comes as a servant riding on a colt. He is not going to lead His people into war, but He will lead them into becoming a witness. That is the meaning of this passage. That is the purpose of this story.

     This is what we refer to as the triumphal entry, and it marks the beginning of the final week of the life of Christ. This is the story that you normally here on Palm Sunday at the beginning of Holy week, and it concludes on Easter Sunday with the Resurrection. This is final week in the life of Christ, and it is so important that Mark dedicates one-third of his Gospel to it.

     What we learn from this story is: Jesus is the coming King who is worthy of all honor and praise. The first thing I want you to see in this passage is the Preparation of the King. Vs. 1-6, here we see the sovereignty of God at work in the world as Jesus prepares to enter Jerusalem.

     Vs. 1 Begins with, “As they approached Jerusalem, at Bethpage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives.” Jesus has just traveled from Jericho where we last saw Him, fifteen miles uphill to Jerusalem. He is traveling with the twelve disciples and a large crowd of pilgrims, who are going there to celebrate the Passover. And now He comes to a stop on the road. He is 2 miles from Jerusalem and He is at Bethpage and Bethany.

     These are two small villages sitting on the East side of the city in the hill country of Judea. Bethpage is a place we have not heard a lot about in the gospels. It sat close to the road on the way up to the city. And we believe it is here the disciples will go and find the colt in our story. Bethany also sat two miles from the city, but it was on the southeast slope of the mountain, away from the road.

     Bethany is a place we should all be familiar with. Jesus had friends there, Mary and Martha. It is a place where He has just recently raised their brother Lazarus from the dead. Jesus and His disciples spent a great deal of time in Bethany. It was one of the few places He found refuge and a home where people cared for Him.

     We are told He is near the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives is called that because it is a mountain peak that is unusually fertile, and good for growing olive trees. Tradition has it that it was here a dove Noah sent out from the ark found an olive branch and returned it to Noah to indicate there was dry land.

     It is on the Mount of Olives we find the Garden of Gethsemane, and later in the week Jesus will pray on the night He is betrayed. It is from the Mount of Olives He will ascend into heaven in Acts chapter one, and it will be to the Mount of Olives Jesus will return at the time of His second coming. This is the location He will come back to, and this is the area He is at in our story.

     Then we begin to see the Sovereignty of God unfold in Vs. 2-6. In these next few passages, we see that Jesus is in total control of everything that is taking place. They are all under His authority. Every detail has been predetermined before the foundation of the world.

     When we read this, we think what is going on here? Why do we have this unusual story of Jesus sending two disciples to go find a colt tied up, bring it back, and it will all work out just like I say it will.  What is the purpose?  It is all designed, so we understand that every moment, every person, every thought, right down to His betrayal by Judas is all under His control.

     We do not know who the two disciples were Jesus sent out. We have reason to believe Peter was one of them because we are given this incredible detail in Mark. Mark gives us information that is not included in Matthew and Luke. For example, Mark tells us the colt was tied up at the door outside in the street. Mark also tells us about the conversation between the disciples and the bystanders. So, we believe that Peter was one of these two disciples giving Mark these details.

     Vs. 2 Jesus says, “Go, into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one yet has ever sat.” This is the omniscience of Christ who can see things no man can see and know things no man can know. He describes to them where they are to go and exactly what they will find when they get there.

     What is interesting is the colt is one “on which no one has ever sat.’ Mark’s intention here is to show us this animal was set apart for God’s use. To be set apart means to be sanctified. When a King is received the objects dedicated to his service are such that they have never been used before. In other words, they are set apart for holy purposes. All believers are to become like this colt. We are to be set apart and sanctified for the use of the King. Our lives are to be different. We are to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel.

     In Vs 3 Jesus tells the disciples how to respond to anyone who asks what they are doing. He says, “You say, the Lord has need of it.” The word “Lord” here is the Greek word ‘Kyrios’ which means master of all. A term exclusively used for God.

     Everyone in these villages have heard of Jesus of Nazareth. Everyone knows of His claims to be the Messiah. Everyone is aware of the miracles He has performed, and the lives He has touched. There is not one person who does not know of Him. So, all you have to do in any of these villages is say the Lord has need of it and they know who you are talking about.

     Verses 4-6 tell us the disciples did exactly what Jesus told them to do, and it worked out just the way Jesus told them it would. This is what faith looks like. They were obedient, they trusted the Word of God and they acted on it. Romans 8:28 says, ‘God causes all things to work to the good of those who love the Lord.’

     What we learn from this passage is that Jesus was in total control, and everything was being prepared for His arrival at Jerusalem. He had a divine appointment waiting for Him and nothing was being left to chance. God the Father had orchestrated this moment from before time began and every detail was going to take place just as it had been determined from the colt, He would sit on to the cross He would hang on. Nothing was left to chance.

     Matthew in His version of the story tells us this is prophecy from Zechariah 9:9, where it says, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold your King is coming to you: He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt the foal of a donkey.” Hundreds of years before this would take place God would speak it through the mouth of Zechariah.

     Aren’t you glad we have a sovereign God who is in control? Aren’t you glad Your life is not a series of random chances and coincidences? But God has a purpose and a plan for your life. Philippians 1:6 you can be confident of this that He who began a good work in you will continue it until the day of Christ Jesus. Eph. 2:10 says, we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. Jeremiah 29:11 says, For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Over and over, we are told about God’s sovereign plan for our lives.

     Jesus is the coming King who is worthy of all honor and praise. The next thing I want you to see in this passage is the Procession of the King Vs. 7-10. Here we see Jesus leading a holy parade on His way to the city.

     In these verses the disciples bring back the colt and they make a divine saddle out of their cloaks. And for the first time someone sits on this colt. Meanwhile, others are cutting down palm branches and laying them along the road, and still others are removing their coats and laying them before Him. And what we see here is a first century parade. This reminds me of what took place in Ann Arbor when the Wolverines won the national title. The only difference is this is the King of heaven, and He is much more worthy than all of our sports teams combined.

     This event is reminiscent of what David did for Solomon before he died. In 1 Kings 1, Solomon rode through Jerusalem on a mule and the people shouted, “long live the King.” It was a coronation of sorts. It was an announcement that there was a new King in Jerusalem. This was also symbolic of what the Romans would do after winning a battle. The conquering commander would lead a procession into the city on horseback with all of the goods and the people he had conquered. Jesus is leading His procession on a donkey, symbolic of the lowly servant He was who lives to die for His people.

     In Vs. 9-10 we see Jesus surrounded by people who are shouting praise and adoration. They go in front and in back and they shout “Hosanna.” Which means “save us.”  It is unlikely they were thinking of divine salvation, more than likely they were thinking of deliverance from Roman occupation. They had seen the amazing things Christ had done and believed He was going to Jerusalem to establish a Kingdom on earth.

     Which He will one day when He returns, and we see that in Revelation 19. But the plan of God at this moment was for Jesus to go to Jerusalem and die for the sin of the world. This time He will establish a way for us to go to heaven. When He returns at the end of the age, He will bring heaven to us 

     The picture for us here is clear. Jesus is the conquering King who is going to Jerusalem not to claim victory over the forces of the world but to claim victory over the forces of darkness. In Luke’s version of the story 19:39-40, we are told the Pharisee’s became upset by the crowd shouting Hosanna and they told Jesus to make the people stop. But, Jesus said, “I tell you If these become silent, the stones will cry out.”  It was by divine determination that Christ would be honored and praised on that day, and nothing was going to stop it.

     How does that work in your life? Is He worthy of your honor and praise? Is He worthy of your time and your talent? Are you looking for ways you can serve Him at work and in your home? Or does your Christianity disappear when no one is watching?

     Jesus is the coming King who is worthy of all honor and praise. The next thing I want you to see in this passage is: The Evaluation of the King, Vs. 11.

     Vs 11 says, “Jesus entered Jerusalem, and came to the temple.” He has finally arrived. His whole life was building up to this moment. He had reached the point of contact. The pinnacle of His mission. He had reached the place where heaven meets earth and conquers hell and death. Matthew records this event and says the city was shaken. In the Greek that’s the word seismic. In other words, something like an earthquake took place when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem and the people were asking, “who is that.”

     But in Mark, there is none of that. In Mark His arrival is so anticlimactic. This is so not what you would expect to find in the story. The parade reaches Jerusalem and there is no fanfare, there is no party. It is really pretty quiet as Jesus goes to the temple. There is no one there to meet Him. No one is there to welcome the Messiah. The temple is the place where the Jews believed the presence of the Lord lived and dwelt, but it was all so empty when Jesus arrived.

     This verse is symbolic of the spiritual condition of the people. Who honored God with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him. They were as empty of God as their temple, and they couldn’t recognize it when God showed up.

     I cannot help but think about how it reminds me of the world we live in today: empty, void of anything truly spiritually alive. If Jesus were to return today, we know He would be rejected by the world, but would He be ignored by Christians? Would He be an inconvenience to His church that has so many other things going on and are too busy to worship?

     Vs. 11 says, “After looking around at everything He left for Bethany with the twelve.” This is more than Jesus getting a glance at the way things looked in the temple. This was a spiritual evaluation. Jesus was surveying what the house of the Lord was being used for.  And we will see later in Vs 15 that He didn’t like what He saw. I wonder what He would say if He came here today and saw us and our hearts, and the way we worship and the way we maintain the house of the Lord? Don’t you know you are the temple of the living God?

     Next, we see Him leave. He departs. He arrived through the gates in a celebration, but He will go away quietly and peacefully. This is amazing to me and an indictment on the people. They went from shouting Hosanna, Hosanna, God save us, to just going about their business. And by the end of the week, they will shout crucify Him, crucify Him. I think this is the way many of us approach our relationship with God. We come to church on Sunday, and we celebrate and then we leave, and we forget what we were celebrating.

     Jesus is the coming King who deserves all honor and praise. Yet He never really receives the honor and praise He is do. Not from His own people in Jerusalem. Not from us today. I think that what God has done for us in Christ Jesus deserves a slow salute.  He deserves our respect, our attention, our time. It is very easy to take Jesus for granted because He doesn’t force any of us to receive Him. But to do that would be to miss out on the kingdom and all the benefits that come with that.

     Christ is going to come again one day and this whole event will become symbolic. This whole triumphal entry will happen a second time. And that time we will be a part of that celebration parade to the temple of God shouting Hosanna, Hosanna. God save us we pray.