Sermon Tone Analysis

Today is Psalm Sunday.

It is the day historically, that the church remembers and celebrates what we call the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ.

In the triumphal entry account, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a colt.

Large crowds of Jews followed his entry and spread their cloaks before Jesus or cut palm branches from trees and spread them on the road and they cried out in praise to Jesus.

Mark 11:9–10 (ESV)

9 And those who went before 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!”

Luke 19:38 (ESV)

38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

John 12:13 (ESV)

13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”

Matthew 21:9 (ESV)

9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest!”

Matthew’s account tells us that the triumphal entry was a prophetic event.

Jesus fulfilled the words of prophecy of Zechariah.

The people thought Jesus was coming as a conquering king- but according to the words of the prophet Zechariah, Jesus was coming as a humble servant to bring salvation to the people.

The first coming of Jesus was to provide salvation for the whole world and the triumphal entry was the beginning event that would ultimately lead to the crucifixion.

But if you listen to the shouts of acclimation of the Jewish people during the triumphal entry it is clear that they thought Jesus was entering Jerusalem as a king.

Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!

Hosanna to the Son of David!

Why did the Jews anticipate that Jesus was coming as a conquering king?

Because it is all over the OT that the Messiah would one day be King.

This morning we are going to think about the kingship of Jesus Christ, the Messiah from Psalm 2.

“Psalm 2 is a messianic passage that predicts the coming earthly reign of the Messiah, who is God’s “Son,” over the nations that currently are in rebellion against God.

God will defeat scoffers and establish His Messiah as King over the world.”

— Michael Vlach (The Old in the the New, pg.

119)

Let me take a minute and set the stage for why this Psalm is so important for us to think about this morning.

In the Bible God reveals for us is ultimate plan for this world, for his creation.

Maybe you are a student of the Bible and you already know what God plans to do with the world in the future.

But, maybe you have never taken the time to read the Bible and find out for yourself what God says is going to happen in the future.

God’s Word tells us that one day Jesus is going to come back to the earth.

There is going to be a major battle, Jesus is going to to win that battle, and he will establish an earthly kingdom.

His throne will be in Jerusalem and he will rule the world in righteousness and justice and his rule will be unending.

So imagine this scenario.

This is just hypothetical, I am not trying to be prophetic here.

But, given what we know about Scripture this could be a likely timeline.

Russia and Ukraine war escalating, WWIII, rapture/tribulation, Jesus 2nd coming and establishing of his earthly kingdom.

Could happen soon, or it could happen 1000 years from now.

The point is it will happen.

Jesus will come and he will rule as king one day.

How should we respond to such information?

God tells us in his Word that Jesus is coming one day and he will be King over the universe.

How should you respond right now to what God tells us in his word?

Here is the repose I am aiming for in my sermon this morning.

You must welcome Jesus as your King!

Right now, today, before it’s too late- you must welcome Jesus as your King!

Why should you welcome Jesus as your king?

1.

Any attempt to usurp the authority of God is futile

It can be helpful to think of Psalm 2 as a play with four difference scenes.

Each scene takes place in different locations with different characters speaking.

Scene#1- is in vv.

1-3.

It takes place on the earth and the characters of the scene are the kings or the rules of the earth.

Imagine we are sitting in on the war counsel of the most powerful military nations in the world.

Maybe we are sitting in on the war council of the United Nations and all of the leaders of the superpowers of the world are holding council together.

David starts by asking the a pointed question- why do the nations rage or rebel- why are the nations in an uproar or why do they conspire?

And why do the peoples plot?

So you have nations raging or rebelling

and you have the peoples devising plots

And the most important word in this verse is the last one- all the the plotting and raging against the Lord is ultimately vain!

It’s useless or pointless or its doomed to fail.

Not just nations and peoples plotting, now it is kings and rulers.

What are the kings and rulers doing?

They are setting themselves?

What does that mean?

They are taking their stand.

All of the nations of the earth are coming together they are forming a unified front they are banding together.

And they are taking counsel together they are collaborating together.

Imagine if Russian, China, North and South Korea, All of the Middle East countries including all the terrorists, all of the UK, all of the rest of Europe, Australia, and the US- imagine if all the kings and the rulers of these countries got together and formed a coalition.

They took all of their tanks, and ships, and planes, and nuclear missiles, and armies and they formed them into one super army.

What is the purpose of this world wide collation?

First- it is against the LORD (Yahweh) and again his Anointed (Messiah)- they are plotting against God the Father, and against God the Son.

Why are they plotting?

What is the goal of the kings of the earth?

“Let us burst their bands apart”.

That is let’s tear off these chains or these shackles.

And cast away their cords from us.

Or let’s free ourselves from these ropes or restraints.

Now are these literal ropes and chains and shackles?

No- we are speaking metaphorically of authority about who is in charge.

These kings recognize that God and his Anointed are the ones in charge.

It is their authority that matters and they don’t like it!

And they think that if they just combine all of the military might of all of the armies of the world they can throw off the authority of God and they can take control.

And what is God’s response to this? Go back to v. 1

It is all vain!

Why should you welcome Jesus as your king?

Because any attempt to usurp the authority of God is vain!

How does this apply to me?

I am not a king, I am not part of a super coalition!

True, the question for all of us personally is- how do you respond to the authority of God? Are you like these kings?

Do you want to throw it off?

How do we do that?

Evolution- I don’t want to believe in the existence of a God so I will create a world where he does not need to exist.