The King Who Came: Palm Sunday’s Proclamation and Promise
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Summary
On Palm Sunday, we celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem, where he pronounces that he is King of the Jews. This is not a random act of praise that is being showered upon the Lord Jesus, but an announcement of his messianic kingship.
Transcript
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So today is Palm Sunday, and for many of us, we're not very familiar with the church calendar.
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I know for me, as I came up through my life in Christ, I was at a church that did not celebrate
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the church calendar. I didn't know the importance of the events, what they signified, what they
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meant to me. And so this morning, I just wanted to take some time at the beginning of our sermon
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to explain a little bit of what Palm Sunday is and why we celebrate it. Palm Sunday marks the
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beginning of Holy Week. It is the most important week of the church calendar. It is the time where
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we remember that Jesus came into the city of Jerusalem, where he pronounces that he is king
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of the Jews. This, in your Bibles, is probably marked as the triumphal entry of Christ.
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This is not a random act of praise that is being showered upon the Lord Jesus,
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but it is an announcement of his messianic kingship.
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It's the day where the world, and especially Israel,
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Palm Sunday celebrates that the true king has come,
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It's both a celebration of his kingship and a warning
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of what happens when that kingship is rejected.
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There's great symbolism in what's happening on this day.
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The use of palm branches in Jesus' entry into Jerusalem
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isn't by accident or merely a decoration for the road.
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In Jewish culture, palm branches were symbols of triumph,
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and even became symbols of national hope and messianic expectations.
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In the apocryphal book, 1st Maccabees, it's recorded where palm branches are used in this type of fashion.
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On the 23rd day of the second month, in the 171st year, the Jews entered with praise and palm branches,
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with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments
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When the people laid down palm branches before Christ
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They believed that Jesus was coming in to crush the Romans.
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That he would restore the kingdom to Israel.
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Jesus was not coming to liberate the people from Roman oppression at that time
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his mission was to come and to reverse the curse
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He would not build a kingdom that was not predicated with a cross.
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This brings us to a critical truth about Palm Sunday.
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That Jesus is not merely waiting to be crowned.
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his entry into jerusalem is not symbolic only it is a public claim to kingship
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in the beginning of his journey to the throne that would be mounted not with gold
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Too often, Christians think of Jesus as a future king.
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Coming again someday to set everything right.
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Palm Sunday reminds us that Jesus is king already.
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his kingdom is inaugurated his reign is real and true he has conquered sin and death not by the
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sword but by the cross as abraham kuyper said and i think i've quoted this probably a hundred times
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at this point but it's no less true in this place than it is anywhere else
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abraham kuyper said quote there is not one square inch over the whole domain
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over our human existence, over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry,
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Palm Sunday forces the question, do we receive this king or do we resist him?
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If we receive him, we don't just wave palm branches in excitement.
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We don't just welcome him with glad expectation.
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A king who still calls us to follow him in faith.
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this morning i want us to see in the triumphal entry of christ that christ is the king who is
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reigning right now and that we his people ought to embrace every part of his ministry
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so with that introduction if you would please turn in your bibles to matthew
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chapter 21. Matthew chapter 21. I'll begin by reading verses 1 through 7.
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now when they drew near to jerusalem and came to beth page to the mount of olives
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then jesus sent two disciples saying to them go into the village in front of you
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and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her untie them and bring them to me
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If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, The Lord needs them, and he will send them at once.
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This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
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Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.
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The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.
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They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them.
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Just a brief clarification, the scripture can read a little weird there when it says that he sat on them.
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What it does not mean is that Jesus was not straddling the colt and the donkey as he rode into Jerusalem like some circus performer.
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the them in that passage means the cloaks that were just laid on the colt jesus wrote in on
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this is where jesus enters jerusalem as a triumphal king
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this passage is describing a prophetic fulfillment
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it's a very interesting way to arrive to a city
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you would not expect him to arrive in this fashion
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But we would expect him to show up in some grand limousine, red carpets, security detail, paparazzi everywhere.
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We would imagine pomp and style and grandeur when a king comes to town.
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Now imagine instead of that limousine, Trump showed up in a minivan with muddy boots and secondhand clothes.
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You'd probably be thinking, what kind of president is this?
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Who is this who's showing up to our town dressed like this and coming in a minivan?
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This ought to tell us of the type of king that came to this town.
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He isn't the type of king that comes with jewels and gold and fancy things.
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He doesn't even really care what they think at all.
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He comes not with worldly power, but with the power of the scriptures.
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he's coming to this city to be its king and lord yet he's not coming in like all the other kings
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who came before the kings who came before were fallen and wicked
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Samuel prophesied about what type of king would rule over God's people.
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He says in 1 Samuel chapter 8 verses 11 through 18,
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This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you.
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He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen.
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He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers.
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He will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves.
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And you will cry out in that day because your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves,
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This is the type of king that the people were used to.
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a type of king who would take their sons and put them in war,
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a type of king who would take their lands and use them for his own purposes,
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a type of king who did not care about his subjects like this king cares.
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The rule of Jesus is not about taking things from the people of God, but giving them.
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The kingdom that Jesus came to inaugurate is an upside-down sort of kingdom.
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It's a kingdom where the first is last and the last is first.
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Where the wise are fools and the fools are wise.
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Where the rich are scorned and the poor are praised.
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Where the meek inherit the earth and the domineering are put to shame.
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where the servants are praised and the lofty are brought low.
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The kingdom of the world are built on riches and armies and lands.
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They're built by using people to glorify a king.
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The kingdom of God is not established like this.
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It's established by our king going before and dying.
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The king who is coming to this city on Palm Sunday.
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We have a kingdom that's altogether different from the kingdom of the world.
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And he is the one who came to fulfill all the scriptures about himself.
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He is the one who was prophesied about many years before this moment.
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He quotes from the prophet Zechariah when he says in verse 5,
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Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, lowly and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.
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Matthew here is showing in these events that Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophecy.
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Matthew directly ties this passage of Scripture to this moment in time
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to tell everyone who would read this book that this is the Messiah.
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Many of the prophecies about Jesus were not orchestrated by him specifically.
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But this one seems to be unique in that Jesus orchestrated every part of it.
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He tells his disciples to go into the town and to bring to him a cult.
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He doesn't normally orchestrate all these events to make them line up to fulfill a particular scripture.
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Did you know that there is about 1,200 prophecies in the Old Testament
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that Jesus fulfilled in his life, ministry, death, and resurrection?
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Yet this one seems to be one that he was particularly concerned to see fulfilled.
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He went out of his way to make sure that this prophecy would be fulfilled in the right way.
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Jesus wanted to leave no doubt in anybody's mind that he was the Messiah who was foretold in this passage.
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R.C. Sproul notes in a sermon on this passage of scripture,
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that this was not a spontaneous act from Christ.
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He's saying, I'm the king that Zechariah foretold about.
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Jesus is saying through this declaration, without words,
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that he is going to rule over his people by orchestrating these events he proves
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that he is the one that king to rule over god's people
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this brings us to a very important point that ties this sermon to the rest of the sermons that
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we've been preaching here at Kingsway. Sproul adds in his sermon on the triumphal entry of Christ
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that Jesus orchestrated these events to show that the kingdom is being inaugurated here,
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but it is not fully here yet. And while this is partially true, how we talk about the kingdom of
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God matters. It matters how you speak about the kingdom. If we only talk about the kingdom of God
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in future tenses, then what it really means is that you don't believe that the kingdom of God
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has anything to do with your life here and now. It matters how we talk about the kingdom of God.
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And there's been many pastors and theologians throughout church history who have only framed the kingdom of God in a future prophetic sense.
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This morning, I want us to realize that the kingdom of God is a future kingdom.
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It's a kingdom that was inaugurated in this moment in time when Jesus enters Jerusalem.
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If the kingdom of God was only a spiritual kingdom and had no manifestation in the physical world,
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If the kingdom of God is spiritual only, if it only has spiritual implications but does not manifest in the world physically, then it is a partial kingdom.
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We have a partial king on a partial throne with partial promises fulfilled.
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It creates a false dichotomy between the spiritual world and the physical world.
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the spiritual kingdom of god must be manifested physically in your life or you are living as a
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hypocrite this is what all of the bible teaches all of the scriptures point to the fact that if
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we merely have a spiritual reality of love and faith to christ without it manifesting in the
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world, we are hypocrites. The kingdom of God, while it is a spiritual kingdom, manifests itself
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physically. What do I mean by this? I mean that every time you choose to raise your children in
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the nurture and admonition of the Lord, you are building the kingdom of God.
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Every time you choose to make your business support those who are less fortunate,
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Every time you love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
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Every time you submit to your husband as unto the Lord, you are building the kingdom of God.
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Understanding that the kingdom is here, while not completely here,
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is of vital importance for you to live the faithful Christian life.
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The great preacher Martin Lloyd-Jones once said,
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The kingdom of God is among you and within you.
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He reigns in the church when she acknowledges him truly.
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and it will continue to grow and flourish upon the earth
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until it is finally consummated at the end with the return of our king.
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We have to speak of the kingdom in these terms.
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And it is your duty to profess that truth to a world that doesn't believe it.
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most of the crowds spread their cloaks on the ground and others cut branches from the trees
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these being palm branches and spread them on the road and the crowds that went before him
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and that followed him were shouting Hosanna to the son of David blessed is he who comes in the name
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of the Lord Hosanna in the highest and when he entered Jerusalem the whole city was stirred up
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saying, Who is this? And the crowd said, This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.
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Hosanna in this passage simply means, Lord, save us now.
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it comes from psalm 118 verses 25 through 16 which says save us we pray oh lord oh lord we
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pray give us success blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord we bless you from the house
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of the Lord. When the crowds were shouting Hosanna to Jesus, they were shouting a messianic
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cry of hope. The people were shouting in a hope that Jesus was coming to rid them of
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the terrible Romans and to free them from this oppression. They were joyful and excited.
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They were ready to crown him as king over Israel,
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They wanted deliverance from Rome, not from sin.
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They wanted the glory of Israel restored without the sacrifice that would make that glory everlasting.
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Many of us are like this when we come to Christ.
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Many of us are ready to accept the glory and the awe and the grandeur of this glorious calling.
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This is why Jesus himself tells us to count the cost before following him.
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Where is this king who has been born of the Jews?
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people recognized his kingship, but rejected its true meaning.
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From the cradle to the time he entered Jerusalem,
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people saw him as king, but they rejected what that meant.
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He had no form or majesty that we should look at him.
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They saw the Messiah of glory, but not the suffering servant.
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had jesus used the crowd's energy to start a revolution
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excuse me he would have been just another muhammad
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he would have been just another revolutionary
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he would have built a throne upon the blood of his servants
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This is not the way that Jesus chose to build his kingdom.
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Because this is not the type of king that he is.
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Jesus is not the king who seizes power through the sword
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or manipulates a crowd's zeal to build an earthly empire.
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He is the king who lays down his life for his people.
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Who becomes, in a sense, the first martyr of his own kingdom.
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He's the king who suffers for his subjects, not demands their suffering on his behalf.
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His reign begins not with domination, but with self-sacrificial love.
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Jesus began his rule this way because he would not have his kingdom tainted with past sinful patterns
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as every other kingdom before has been tainted with.
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He would not repeat the cycle of corruption and conquest
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He's not going to build a kingdom on pride, or violence, or human ambition.
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He came to reverse the curse, not to perpetuate it.
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If Jesus had built the kingdom by the crowd's expectations, here in Matthew chapter 21,
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it would have looked no different than any other kingdom we know today.
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There would be no glory, no purity, no salvation.
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But instead, Christ began this kingdom with cross-bearing, mercy, and resurrection.
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It's a kingdom totally different than any other kingdom.
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I want to cover that section that Pastor Dale read for us from Luke chapter 19.
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Because we see a deeply emotional and prophetic moment from Jesus right after he enters the city.
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it says in Luke 41 through 44 and when he drew near and saw the city
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he wept over it saying would you or would that you even you had known on this day the things
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that make for peace but now they are hidden from your eyes for the days will come upon you when
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your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and
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tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon
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another in you because you did not know the time of your visitation. When Jesus drew near to the
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city, he wept over it. This is the second and final time in the Gospels where we hear about
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Jesus weeping. We should take note of that. The first time was at the death of his friend
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Lazarus. And now we find him weeping over the city of Jerusalem. This is probably one
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of the most human and divine moments that we see in the Gospels. Jesus, the King of kings and the
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Lord of lords, weeps over the city. Why? I do not think, as many preachers today like to point out,
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that Jesus was only weeping because the same people
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I don't think that's his primary reason for weeping in this passage.
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just a few days after welcoming him in as a king,
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Jesus weeps for an altogether different reason.
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I believe that Jesus was weeping because he foresaw the destruction of this city by the Romans in 70 A.D.
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He saw the rejection of his people, of him and all the prophets before him,
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and the coming judgment that was due to them, and he wept.
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He prophesies that they will be destroyed because they have rejected their king.
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This is the fate of all who reject Christ as king.
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What happened to Israel in their judgment is a sobering reminder to all of us
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that to reject Jesus as the king, the Messiah, the Holy One,
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is to earn for yourself a similar judgment as Jerusalem.
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And yet, the tears of Jesus are not merely those of a disappointed prophet.
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he's not only grieving the rejection of him personally
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but the covenant devastation that their rebellion will bring
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this is the city that housed the temple the center of Israel's worship the place where
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God had chosen to dwell with man and now the very presence of God in flesh stood before them
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Jesus weeps not just because they're going to crucify him,
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but because they're about to face the covenant curses
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for centuries of hearts that have been hardened
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he sees the coming siege of jerusalem roman soldiers surrounding the city
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famine reducing the people to desperation the temple in flames children slain in the streets
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his divine foreknowledge doesn't make him indifferent to these things it makes him
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weep all the more his tears flow with the same compassion that once caused him to stretch out
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his hands and cry come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden but they would not come
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And so he weeps, because the judgment is just, but the heart of the king is tender.
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subjects, and does not demand your service without first dying himself.
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A king that's worthy of our praise and our service.
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I pray this morning that we would receive that king.
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that we remember that we worship a king who bears a crown of thorns,
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as we look upon the cross and see his finished work.
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I think that that is probably all that I can say this morning
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So join me, if you would, in praying for the church this Holy Week
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and praying for us as we remember the death and resurrection of our King.
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Lord, help us to remember this attribute of yours.
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May the seeds of it be buried deep in the souls of our hearts.
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May the truth be good fruit in our minds and lives that we've heard here.
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And may all these things remind us of how good you are to us.
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god we love you it's in jesus name we pray amen