THE KING IS COMING

Today is Palm Sunday, the Sunday of the Triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem prior to His crucifixion. It is a celebrated day in which children and little ones cover the church sanctuary with palms, resembling the palms the people of Israel cast onto the roads.

There is much going on in this account in the life of Jesus. We will deal with this as the Scripture progresses, but the focus I would like to take is on Jesus. The Messiah has lived the majority of His life in obscurity. For around thirty years, Jesus lived life like we do. He went to work, helped out around the house, went to Synagogue, observed the Law, slept, ate, celebrated, and mourned. For around thirty years, Jesus simply lived life. Then, He began His public ministry ().

For around three and a half years Jesus ministered to the people of Israel. This ministry included public and private teaching, miracles, sharing life together, and point people to His Father. As Jesus’ life and teaching progressed, the plan of redemption became clearer, until Jesus eventually told the disciples, “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.” ()

As the life of Christ progressed, He knew He must enter Jerusalem. In fact, in the same chapter where He reveals His future death, the Scriptures describe that Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem” (, ).

Our passage this morning has Jesus fulfilling that desire. His face is set to Jerusalem, and the King is coming.

I. THE KING IS COMING AS FORETOLD BY THE PROPHETS- Luke 19:29-30

The first point we must notice about this coming King is that He was foretold by the prophets. The Jewish people knew that the King, the Messiah, was coming. We do not have the time this morning, but were we to take it we would see that the atmosphere was beaming with messianic expectations. The prophets, Isaiah and many others, utter promises of Messiah’s coming. Jesus’ virgin birth and miracles proved the He was the Messiah. For about three years Jesus showed that He was the Messiah, the King foretold by the prophets. Just in the Gospel of Matthew alone, there are fifteen references to fulfilled prophecy. The Old Testament Scriptures are filled with promises about the coming of the King. But among those prophecies lays one of particular importance to us this morning. This prophecy is found in .

This prophecy is fulfilled in , though not directly mentioned as it is in . More than simply fulfilling a prophecy, this oracle on the Messiah gives us information about the person of the Messiah, that is, Who He is. Let us examine this verse and learn about the King that is coming.

Zechariah 9:9 NASB95

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.

There are several characteristics about this King we must note, and they run contrary to the typical idea of a king. First, the King is called “your King.” The Jewish people were expecting a King, but this King was different than what they were expecting. This King is “just (righteous) and endowed with salvation,” though this phrase is absent from , it describes the characteristic aspect of Messiah: righteous. He followed the Law of God perfectly. John describes this King as “always do[ing] the things that are pleasing to Him” (). There is another aspect of the coming of this King, which is also left out of Matthew’s quotation: He brings salvation with Him. He is a saving King. This is why the beginning of the verse starts with the command to rejoice and shout! It is glorious news! The King of salvation, this just King is coming.

II. THE KING IS COMING IN UTTER HUMILITY

But we continue looking at the characteristics of this King. He is humble, which is a packed word. It is used throughout the Old Testament to denote a lack of property, of affliction, and of gentleness. The passage that describes this best is

Isaiah 53:2b–3 NASB95

For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Does this seem like a king? Sometimes we are guilty of looking down on the Jewish people for their rejection of their Messiah. But we look back, they were looking forward, and the concepts of the Messiah’s humility, His gentleness, were almost foreign to them. This does not sound like a King, and so we learn to be patient with them. How many of us picture Jesus as humble? Yet, the Scriptures teach that Jesus is humble and gentle. There was nothing special, physically speaking, about this King.

Furthermore, Zechariah describes this coming King as riding on a donkey and the colt of a donkey. This stands in stark contrast to the conquering kings who would ride on horses, weapons of war, here the coming King rides on a donkey, an beast of burden. This King conquers without raising a sword or releasing an arrow.

By the way, this is still a prominent reason why the Jewish people reject Jesus as the Messiah. Rabbi Joseph Teliushkin comments on this,

“The most basic reason for the Jewish denial of the messianic claims made on Jesus’ behalf is that he did not usher in world peace, as Isaiah prophesied [in] . In addition, Jesus did not help bring about Jewish political sovereignty for the Jews or protection from their enemies.”—Rabbi Joseph Telushkin

[Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People, and Its History (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2001), 601.]

The King is coming, said the prophets, but the Jewish people did not recognize Him. Though many people laid palm branches and coats on the donkey and the road, and praised God loudly, they would also be the same people who left Jesus to be brutally murdered or they yelled Crucify Him!

II. THE KING IS COMING IN UTTER HUMILITY- , 35-38

The idea of the humility of the King is something we must devote more attention to, because it concerns us as much today as it did the Jewish people in the first century. As I mentioned, the Jewish people wanted a Messiah to come and free them from Roman oppression. You can imagine the shock when Jesus instructed the people to pay taxes to Caesar. Furthermore, Rabbi Telushkin describes the expectation of the Jewish people of Jesus’ day. He writes,

For the first century Jewish person, the messiah“…meant a military leader who would free the Jews from foreign (i. e., Roman) rule, bring them back from the four corners of the earth, and usher in an age of universal peace.”—Rabbi Joseph Telushkin

[Telushkin, 124] The Jewish people attempted to do this earlier in Jesus’ ministry as described in .

This King came in utter humility. We already described His riding on the donkey, but there are several other important features that demonstrate this humility.

Jesus commanded the armies of angels, and yet not one angel accompanied the King this day. Later on, as Jesus is taken by the temple guards, Peter would cut off the servant of the high priest’s ear. Jesus’ reply to Peter is, “do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” ()

Yet, the Messiah did not have armies of angels or of Israelites accompanying Him. Rather than riding a horse, He rode a beast of burden. Consider the picture of this King in .

Philippians 2:5–8 NASB95

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

This King displays utter humility. As the prophets foretold, the King is coming in utter humility. We will discuss how this affects our daily lives. Why? Because God does not always work in the ways we do. The Jewish people were expecting a conquering King coming in great fanfare, but here Jesus comes in humility and in peace.

Even in the midst of Jesus’ humility, we see people engaging in praising God for the miracles wrought by Jesus. We must remember that as Jesus performed miracles, it was never to draw attention to Himself in some vain, prideful way. He was humble.

But even as we note the humility, the utter humility of this coming King, we see lastly in our passage before us that the King is coming in unstoppable glory.

III. THE KING IS COMING IN UNSTOPPABLE GLORY- Luke 19:39-40

Now, in the midst of this joyous occasion, when the disciples of Jesus are excitedly praising God, we have those guys. The Pharisees, who repeatedly tested, questioned, doubted, and even accused Jesus of devil-possession, now protest the praise Jesus is receiving.

Notice the wording, first in verse 37 the “whole crowd of the disciples” were praising God, but the crowd extended beyond Jesus’ disciples to include the Pharisees. Some Pharisees within this larger crowd told Jesus to “rebuke” those disciples. They told Jesus to correct His disciples, because their understanding of Scripture did not match what His disciples were doing. They were wrong to praise God for Jesus. And I love Jesus’ reply.

The King is coming in unstoppable glory, and if men and women will not recognize and praise God for this King then the inanimate objects of creation will burst forth in singing praises! We call it unstoppable glory because no government, no dictator, no retailer, no individual will ever wipe out praises to God.

In fact, as we look back on this coming of the King, we remember that He will come again, and at that point He will come in the way the Jewish people understood in Jesus’ day and even in our day. Jesus will come as the King in unstoppable glory, as Paul mentions in ,

Philippians 2:10–11 NASB95

so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

It is unstoppable, everyone will, one day, acknowledge the glory of God in Jesus Christ. The Pharisees who rebuked Jesus are bowing their knees and declaring that Jesus is Lord. All who reject the Messiah, past, present, and future will one day bow their knees and declare that Jesus is Lord! It is unstoppable.

CONCLUSION

What lessons, what practical applications can we draw from this passage of Scripture discussing the truth that the King is Coming?

God’s Word stands true and trustworthy

When we consider the prophecies offered by the prophets, we can rest assured that God’s Word stands true and trustworthy. What a comfort this is in our present time! In a day when people are faced with death, in a time when many are losing jobs and retirements, we can rest, sweetly and confidently rest in the arms of our sovereign God. The kids do not worry about what they will eat for lunch, they simply trust that mommy and daddy will have it available. That is the trust we can have, Christian. Our Heavenly Father loves us as we learn from His Word. The Scriptures are depthless treasures for comfort and strength during this time. Another aspect of comfort from this true and trustworthy Word of God is that it tells us this King is coming again. Jesus says, “Yes, I am coming quickly” in . He is coming, and we can trust that.

God works in ways that we often do not understand

Another lesson we learn from the triumphal entry of this King is that God often works in ways that we do not understand. The Jewish people of Jesus’ day were expecting a conquering Messiah, but Jesus was humble, coming to die. And often God works in these ways. Consider Joseph, who was sold into slavery, but God used that to save many people. God works in ways that we often do not understand, and I would venture cannot understand. Just as a child cannot understand the actions of his or her parents, so too, we, as God’s children, cannot understand our Heavenly Father’s ways.

We must find ourselves asking, why does God allow me to experience pain? Why did God take away my…? Why didn’t God give me…? But one of the many lessons we learn from the King Coming is that God works in ways that we often do not understand. We do not need to know the why when we truly know the Who. The consistent command of Scripture, most aptly displayed in the life of Job, is to know Him.

God is a glorious God who will come in full glory

The final lesson we can learn from this is that God is a glorious God who will come in full glory. What a comfort this is to the Christian! The King is coming, as I mentioned in . He will return. Just as sure as Jesus came into Jerusalem so long ago, He will return. The righteous King will come and rule and reign. We will no longer fear the rulers of the land, for the Ruler is coming. But with that good news for us comes terrible news for those who do not know the King. Let us be busy about the work of the Gospel, praying fervently for those who need to be saved that God will draw them to repentance. And perhaps you are listening and have never considered the King Jesus. Jesus came to take the punishment that sinners deserve, and through forsaking your sin and believing this good and glorious news, you can be saved and have God as your Father and Christ as your Savior.