Jesus Came - To Be Our King!

Luke 19:28-44

Luke 19:37-38 (NIV) When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

It’s six days before the Passover, in less then a week Jesus would be hanging on a cross.

           But right now Jesus is in Bethany a small village about 2 miles east of Jerusalem.

                      He is at the home of Simon the leper having a meal.

At the dinner are: the 12 disciples, Mary, Martha and Lazarus (who Jesus had just raised from the dead a few days earlier) they were giving a dinner in honor of Jesus.

AND SUDDENLY – their conversations were interrupted by the sound of breaking glass and the aroma of expensive perfume....

And they looked over at Jesus, and saw Mary kneeling at the master’s feet, pouring perfume on them and drying his feet with her hair.

NOW - the practical disciples, and Judas the thief, rebuked Mary for what they thought was a waste, saying that they could have sold the perfume and used the money to help the poor…

           Was it a waste to pour perfume worth a years wages on someone’s feet?

Was it worth it to pour $35,000 worth of perfume on the feet of Jesus?

Was Jesus worth that much?

WELL – it all depends on whether or not Jesus was who he said he was!

                      UNDERSTAND – if Jesus was not who said he was –

                                 THEN to even wash his feet with dirty dish water, would have been a waste…

           BUT LISTEN – if Jesus really was God in the flesh,

                      if Jesus really was the Messiah, If He really was the Savior of the world,

Is it a waste to give 10% of you income each week?
           Is it a waste to keep your building fund commitment?

Is it a waste to give your time, energy and effort to the church?
Is it a waste to put the church above all else (family, career, your wants and desires)?

                      WELL – it all depends, on whether or not Jesus is who he said he was.

IF - Jesus really was God in the flesh, if Jesus really was the Messiah, If He really was the Savior of the world, THEN – he is worth everything we have and everything we are!!!

Meanwhile back in Jerusalem, the Holy City was swelling as thousands of pilgrims flooded the city of David, to participate in the Passover feast -- the numbers often reached as high as 2 to 3 million.

           But this year, as the people arrived, they had more than the Passover Feast on their minds.

                      Jesus was on the lips, and in the thoughts, and minds, of nearly everyone in Jerusalem.

NOW - it wasn’t long before word got out, that Jesus was in Bethany.

           And thousands of people quickly left the city in an excited state to see Jesus.

In the mean time, Jesus sets out towards God’s holy City.

Luke 19:29-31 (NIV) As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it.'"

NOW – a donkey, was a respected animal back then, and it was what a king rode on, when he wanted people to know, that he came in peace.

                      Doing this was not only a sign that Jesus came in peace –

                                 but it was also a graphic and symbolic claim that He was the Messiah.

           CHECKOUT – what the prophet Zechariah wrote in Zechariah 9:9.
Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

When Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey fulfilling that prophecy – it had been 600 years since Israel had, had a King on the throne…

BUT – on the first Palm Sunday, God comes riding back in again – proclaiming to all that he is the one and only king – that he is the king of kings…

For nearly 33 years, Jesus had purposely stayed out the lime light, because it was not time yet.

           But now the time has come, and Jesus announces that He is indeed the King.

           The time had come for the great struggle to BOTH, begin and end -- it was high noon time.

                      The hour had arrived, for the world/mankind, to make the ultimate decision,

                                 (to either acknowledge her King or to renounce Him).

The time had come, for Jesus to fight the great battle with, satan, sin and death...

The moment was at hand, for Jesus to finish the work that the Father had sent Him to do.

           The time had come, for the King to claim His rightful throne.

PICTURE – the scene, Jesus is riding towards the Holy city, surround by thousands of people.

           With every step the excitement and energy increased...

           Matthew says that the whole city was stirred...

The word Matthew uses here that is translated stirred is “seismos”, which means quaking, trembling... where we derive our word seismograph.

A city swelled to nearly 3 million was exploding with excitement, it was an emotional earthquake.

Jesus was surround by thousands of people in a state of frenzied euphoria.
And then the streets erupted, with the sounds of praises, of singing, of shouting...
“Hosanna to the Son of David!"

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

                      "Hosanna in the highest!"

                      “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!"

"Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

The people are shouting king, but the robe he is wearing is not royal – it is homespun and seamless…

           And he is not riding in on a powerful stallion.

                      Nor is he surrounded by a mighty army and royal attendants.

           YET – no pageant that ever passed through the streets of any city,

                      had greater significance or impact than this one.

           The triumphal entries of the Roman, and other empires, have long since been forgotten,

                      BUT – this one, is known and retold year after year – century after century…

BUT - there is something that happened on the ride into Jerusalem, that we don’t talk about too often.

We get so caught up in the crowd, the shouts of Hosanna, the palm branches the excitement -- that it just slips right by us...

Luke is the only Gospel writer who records this event, and he being a gentile, was probably not even there at the time.

                      SO - perhaps, it was God himself who had to reveal this event to the good doctor,

                                            because no one ever noticed.

The Passover crowd in its wild celebration of Jesus, didn’t really pay any attention to Jesus.

Listen to Luke 19:41 “When the city came into view, he wept over it. "(The Message)

NOW – the word translated ‘wept,’ means much more then tears…

                      it suggests that Jesus’ whole body was heaving and sobbing,

                                 his body shaking with emotion…

Do you see that picture?
The crowds are singing, shouting, praising Jesus, surrounding Jesus, thousands of them.

                      But not one notices Jesus.

                      No one sees Jesus, His body heaving, shaking, tears flooding down his face..

                                 weeping violently, unable to stop the tears, unable to still his quivering body...

                                            The emotion is just too overwhelming.

                      Do you see Jesus?

                                 Do you see your Savior sobbing?

Why are you crying Jesus?
What’s wrong?

As Jesus nears Jerusalem…. He is not weeping for himself,

           He is not weeping over the cross that awaited him.

NO!, he was weeping over the fate that would come upon the nation.

YOU SEE - instead of the joyful shouts and praises,

                      Jesus heard: the screams, the cries, the shrieks and groans,

                                 of the men, woman, and children who would die in the city.

                      Jesus could see the burning buildings, the city turned to rubble,

                                 and he could smell the stench of death.

(UNDERSTAND – that in a little less than 40 years; the Roman Army would siege and destroy Jerusalem in 70 AD., and over a million Jews would die.

NOW - there were many faces in the crowd that day as Jesus rode into Jerusalem…
AND LISTEN - just as Jesus wept for the city’s fate -- he no doubt shed tears and sobbed for the many faces in the crowd.

                      Why?

           Because Jesus could not only see, what was in the heart & the future of the Jewish nation…

BUT he could also see, what was in the heart and future of each person in the crowd…

AND UNDERSTAND – not everyone who was shouting & singing, really wanted God (really wanted Jesus) to be their king….

One person in the crowd that day was:
Judas… (the poser)

Judas was one of the twelve, the treasurer of the group and the one who would ultimately betray Christ to the authorities.

           BUT - at this point in time, Judas had not even talked to the high priest about a deal.

YOU SEE - it would be another three or four days before Judas would go to the chief priests, and ask what they would be willing to pay, if he would betray his friend.

Now, whatever it was that had turned Judas’ heart against Jesus, happened long before this day.

           ON - the day that Jesus rode into town,

                      Judas had already had lost the first love that he had for Jesus.

                      SURE – when people looked at him on that first Palm Sunday –

they said there is a follower of Christ, one of his disciples…

BUT - both, Judas and God knew that was a lie.

UNDERSTAND - when Judas shouted hosanna that day;
he didn’t mean it…
he was acting
he was pretending, playing a part
he was going through the motions
he just look like someone who wanted Jesus to be their king
he was posing – he was a poser…

The Crowd… (the shallow)
Their was another group of faces in the crowd, and I suspect that they were the loudest, largest, and the most exuberant....

I MEAN – these guys were really cutting loose….

LISTEN - these faces belong to the shallow followers.

                      Sure they were all for Jesus now...

           Yes they were ready to make Him King of Israel, but not the King of their lives.

                      YOU SEE - they believed Jesus was about to overthrow the bonds of Roman oppression

                                 and set up a Jewish world Empire....

                      They believed that Jesus was following their plan, doing things their way -

                                 and they loved Him.

                      But once they realized, that following Jesus was not always a praise party,

                                 that there is a cost to following Jesus – that there is cost to his being their king –

                                             there praise quickly turned to condemnation.

           Yes Jesus wept for them, as he saw those same faces, shouting in just in a few days...

                      “WE HAVE NO KING BUT CAESAR - CRUCIFY JESUS! CRUCIFY JESUS!!”