The King is Coming

What are you looking for today? Why are you watching this message?

The King Is Coming

 Isn’t it fantastic to see these kids up here serving the Lord?

Are you looking for something to fix the fear in your heart or calm the chaos around you?

Why are you watching this message?

Children have always played a special part in Jesus’ life and ministry, and today is a great day for us to take a look at that.

Perhaps you are just trying to figure out what Christianity is all about because you are hoping it has an answer to this challenging situation we are in.

You may remember the story of how the disciples wanted to send the children away yet Jesus took them and blessed them.

If that is you, I am glad you are watching today, because today, we are going to spend some time looking at another group of people who were looking for something.

He said that to enter the kingdom of heaven, we must have the simple, trusting faith of a child.

They were looking for a king who was going to come and fix all their problems. He would bring peace and prosperity like their nation had never seen.

As we will read this morning, the people thought they had found that king, and they were ready to do anything for him.

However, as we will see, the king who came that day came with a very different purpose than what they expected.

Yes, he was bringing a kind of peace and prosperity that was greater than we could ever imagine.

Yet, as they found, it looked different than anyone expected.

Regardless, as we see him today, I pray we will recognize that he is the king we need today, just like he was then.

For Christians around the world, today is known as Palm Sunday, which marks a very interesting moment in the ministry of Christ.

But there is one more moment where Jesus interacts with children that we want to look at.

In fact, it is in the very events that we commemorate today.

In churches around the world, today is known as Palm Sunday, which marks a very interesting moment in the ministry of Christ.

During the last week of Jesus’ life, he made a formal entry into Jerusalem.

Although all four Gospels record pieces of that event, we are going to look at it out of Matthew’s Gospel this morning, so turn over to Matthew 21.

This entry of Jesus is an incredible picture of contradictions.

He is celebrated as the king he is but not nearly with the accolades He should have received.

In fact, some in the same crowd crying out for him to be king will, in a matter of days, cry out for him to be killed.

The events of that day seem a little strange to us because we aren’t a part of that culture, so we are going to walk through Jesus’ Triumphal Entry together.

As we do, we are going to make three observations about Jesus and his role as king.

 As we do, we are going to make three observations about Jesus and His role as king.

First, we see that…

1) He is always in control. (1-7)

Read with me.

These instructions are a little odd, aren’t they?

He tells his disciples to go somewhere and find a random mama donkey and her colt who has never been ridden. Walk up to them, untie them, and bring them back.

The disciples weren’t supposed to ask to take them, but if they were questioned, they would explain that Jesus needed them, and the owners were going to be okay with it.

Think about that for a minute.

Imagine Jesus told you to go down to Cracker Barrel, and in the parking lot, there would be a 2018 Ford Focus with the keys in it. Get in it and drive off. If anybody asks what you are doing, just tell them that Jesus needed it.

How well do you think that would go over?

Yet, verse 6-7 tells us that they went and found it to be exactly like Jesus said it would be!

What does that tell you?

You might be tempted to think of Jesus as simply a really good, moral teacher. You may even believe that he is God, but you don’t give him much weight in your life.

Jesus isn’t just some person because he knows things that couldn’t be known any other way.

He is demonstrating that, as the King of Kings, He was and is always in control!

In these short verses, he is demonstrating that, as the King of Kings, he was and is always in control!

Paul would later write this about Jesus:

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 Isn’t that incredible this morning? Jesus, for whom the crowds cheered as He entered Jerusalem, was at that moment in complete control.

Colossians 1:15–17 CSB

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.

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created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. (, NASB95)

Isn’t that incredible this morning? Jesus, for whom the crowds cheered as He entered Jerusalem, was at that moment in complete control.

 Isn’t that incredible this morning? Jesus, for whom the crowds cheered as He entered Jerusalem, was at that moment in complete control.

Everything that exists was held together by Him in that moment.

That’s why He knew the donkey would be there, and He knew the owners would let the disciples use it.

Not only that, but He also knew He was fulfilling the prophecy of , and was ordering all of creation to come together in this moment!

That’s why he is the king we need today: he has always been and will be in complete control of human history. No event in the last few months has surprised him or caught him off guard.

Our government officials may be doing their best to try to figure out what to do, but Jesus isn’t scrambling at all—the King who rode into Jerusalem that day was and is in complete control.

As the day’s events unfold, we see Jesus reveal more about who He is. Not only is He in control…

2) He is the king who saves. (8-14)

Pick up again with me in verses 8-11…

Based off the census numbers taken a few years after Jesus’ death, it is likely that there were over 1 million people in Jerusalem at the time. The city would have been full of people coming to worship at the Temple for Passover.

In the middle of that, potentially hundreds of thousands of them see Jesus coming and begin to lay their coats in the road.

John MacArthur notes that this was the way people showed their allegiance to their king, spreading out their coats for him to pass over as if to say, “King, you can trample me if you wish; I am your servant.”

Do you see a paradox here? Yes, they are spreading their coats out to worship their king, but what in the world is the king coming in on? A donkey?!

 Do you see a paradox here? Yes, they are spreading their coats out to worship their king, but what in the world is the king coming in on? A donkey?!

There is nothing regal or majestic about donkeys. They are ugly, obnoxious, and stubborn.

There is nothing regal or majestic about donkeys, and Jesus is even riding a young one!

A king should have a powerful white steed or a jewel-covered chariot or carriage, and yet, here is the King of Kings, and He is riding a tiny, weak, miserable donkey.

I believe God did this on purpose.

By riding on a donkey, He is showing that Jesus did come to save His people, but not like they expected.

That’s what they are crying out for in verse 9.

The word, “Hosanna,” means, “Save now!”

They are referring to Jesus as the Son of David, which points back to the fact that God promised that the Messiah would come from David’s family.

So, they recognize that Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise! He is the King who has come to save them!

Unfortunately, they had the wrong idea about what they needed saving from!

They wanted Jesus to be the king who would save them from the problems they saw; they didn’t realize that Jesus was there to save them from even greater problems.

They thought Jesus would come in and drive out the Romans. He was going to take Jerusalem back and usher in the great era where the nation of Israel would rule the world. They wouldn’t have any more unjust taxation or repression; instead, they would be in charge!

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instead, they would be in charge!

They should have taken a hint from what was going on.

Jesus didn’t come in with a battalion of the finest soldiers, mounted on a white horse and dressed in the best armor.

Instead, He came in dressed like everyone else, riding on a common old donkey, surrounded by a group of 12 men from all walks of life.

Why? Because He was coming to save them from a greater problem than Rome.

He shows this shortly after he finishes entering Jerusalem.

Look at verses 12-13.

Jesus starts by going to the temple and showing that there was a major spiritual problem.

People had to bring a sacrifice with them to the temple. For convenience sake, people set up shop to sell animals there so people didn’t have to bring them with them. The only problem was that they set up their own currency system, so if you wanted to buy something, you had to change it to temple dollars first.

Because people are greedy, they began to raise the exchange rates and price gouge on the animals, and the whole system was corrupt.

Jesus, in righteous anger, goes in and kicks all those guys out. Although they probably came back the next day, Jesus was pointing out that even the very temple of God was corrupted and that the people’s hearts were completely sick!

He keeps going. Listen to verse 14…

Again, Jesus is showing God’s power to overcome the effects of sin. Our world’s system broke because of sin. Sickness isn’t usually a result of a direct sin, but we get sick because sin corrupted all of creation, even our bodies, bacteria, and everything else.

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usually a result of a direct sin, but we get sick because sin corrupted all of creation, even our bodies and germs and everything else.

Jesus, instead of immediately setting up a battle plan to overthrow Rome, sits down in the temple and continues to heal the sick, reversing the damaging effects of sin.

He has been doing this all along, so people should have realized that Jesus is going to be the same king now that he always has been.

He specifically healed the blind and the lame, highlighting the spiritual blindness and spiritual inability of the people.

Luke highlights this by recording this verse shortly before Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem:

Luke 19:10 CSB

For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

Yes, Jesus came as a King, and he came to save! However, his first coming was to save us from our greatest problem: the problem of sin.

Sin is any time you and I turn from God and turn towards anything else.

We have all sinned, and that left us spiritually blind and unable to walk with God. Without Christ, we are lost.

In his triumphal entry, Jesus was coming as a humble, gentle king, continuing to point to our need for spiritual salvation.

That salvation would come at a great price as, only a few days later, Jesus would be crucified for us. He would die to take my spiritual blindness, my spiritual death upon himself.

The crowd that day that cried out for a king turned their back once they realized he wasn’t the king they were looking for.

Don’t be tempted to do the same today.

Many hear messages like this that Jesus died for their sins and rose from the dead so they could have life, and they think they will try Jesus so they can find out if he will fix their problems.

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they think they will try Jesus so they can find out if He will fix their problems.

Once they realize that they are still going to struggle financially, still have health problems, still have tough relationships, and that life with Christ isn’t always easy, they give up on Jesus and turn away.

Jesus in talked about people like that when He told a parable about a farmer sowing seed, and through it, He taught us about our hearts. He said that some seed fell in rocky soil and withered because it never developed strong roots. Other seed fell in among thorns and thistles and never grew because they got choked out by the cares and concerns of this life.

That’s what the crowd did that week, going from shouting “Save us!” to “Crucify Him” in a matter of days. They were excited to have a king they thought would save them from the problems they could see, but when they saw He wasn’t going to do what they hoped, they turned away from Him.

Listen: Jesus came to save your soul from an eternity separated from God. He came to give you the ability to live the life you were supposed to live, honoring God in every single aspect of life. He came to give you a relationship with Christ that sustains you in the lonely nights and give you the strength to fight for Him in the midst of the hardest days.

One day, He will return and finally make all those things right, but in the meantime, don’t make the mistake the crowd did that day and miss out on the King who truly came to save.

There is one more beautiful truth this morning about this king:

3) He came for everyone. (15-16)

3) He came for everyone. (15-16)

Read verses 15-16.

Don’t you love the way Matthew put this? “When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonders that he did…”

Their biggest complaint against Jesus was that He was working miracles and that there were children praising Him as the Messiah!

Even the children are praising God for who Jesus is.

I am sure that the kids didn’t know exactly who Jesus was or the ramifications of what they were saying, but Jesus doesn’t offer rebuke.

They were telling the truth! The promised Son of David was there to save!

Instead, He reminds the religious leaders of God’s word in .

God made the truth obvious to small children while the religious leaders were too proud to see it.

Jesus, in gentleness, was again proving that He came to save anyone who would call on the name of the Lord.

Romans 10:12–13 CSB

since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

He would secure our salvation through his own death and resurrection in a matter of days.

 John would write,

John would write:

 John would write,

1 John 2:2 CSB

He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.

and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. (, NASB95)

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That means everyone can be saved, no matter what they have done, no matter their SE status, no matter what race or where in the world they live; Jesus came to save them all.

 That means everyone can be saved, no matter what they have done, no matter their SE status, no matter what race or where in the world they live; Jesus came to save them all.

That doesn’t mean that everyone will be saved; it means that everyone can be saved if they will call on the name of Jesus.

Not only that, but Jesus came to save us no matter what age! Although there are some children who are too young to understand sin and Jesus’ death for them, Jesus can save children and adults and those on their death-bed.

The children that day were declaring that Jesus was the Son of David and he would save whoever would call upon Him.

By the way, I think it is important to notice something: How did these kids know in verse 15 to call Jesus the Son of David?

Because they had heard it from their parents and the rest of the crowd in verse 9.

Parents, many of you are getting more time around your kids right now than you typically do. What are they learning about Jesus from you?

If you aren’t talking about Jesus, how will they know who He is?

Mom and Dad, if you aren’t singing along with the music, how will your kids learn to sing these songs? If you aren’t talking about Jesus, how will they know who He is?

Jesus came to save each and every single one of these incredible kids, and He came to save you.

You see, Jesus is the king who came to save everyone. He is in control, and he is the one you need to give you peace, hope, and strength in these days.

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He may not be the king you want sometimes as he works differently than you would expect.

That doesn’t mean that you won’t face financial hardship or that those you know and love will always be well.

However, having seen him this morning, are you willing to lay your life down in front of him, saying, “Trample me if that is what you need to do?”

laid their coats before Him to show that they submitted to Him, you and I surrender our lives to Him, submitting ourselves to His control.

However, it does mean that your life is now under the leadership of the gentle King who is always in control.

If you have done that this morning, don’t forget who this king is. He came gently the first time to save us all from our spiritual death and sin; He is coming again one day to finally set it all right.

The crowds had the right response, but it came from a misunderstanding of who he was.

Let’s not make the mistake they did. Instead, cry out to him for salvation.

What are you going to do with Jesus? Are you going to reject Him because He isn’t immediately going to take away everything in life that causes you pain, or are you willing to turn to Him as the ultimate King who can save you from your ultimate problem of sin?