Sunday Morning Service 8:30AM- The King Is Coming~ Pastor Ryan Nichols

And read verse 11 with me. The Lord will give strength to his people. The Lord will bless his people with peace. And so, Father, we do praise you for your greatness. And we praise you, Lord, that your voice is so powerful. And, Father, we praise you that you have taken upon yourself the clothes of man. And dwelt among us. And, Lord, presented yourself as the king.

And took upon yourself all the sin of humanity. So, Father, as we take time now to study your word, I pray that we would have those grateful hearts. Those thankful hearts full of praise towards you. And so, Lord, turn our eyes upon you today, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated.

And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Matthew, chapter 21. Matthew 21. Today, we come to part two of the series, our resurrection series, that I have entitled, The King is Coming. Last week, we looked at the prophecy of the king. Today, we will look at the arrival of the king. Oftentimes, what today is, what we refer to it as, is Palm Sunday.

And that, ultimately, is what this chapter is about. But before we get into Matthew, chapter 21, I feel like it's important to paint the backdrop. Because in order to understand the story of the triumphal entry, I think it's important that we understand the prophecy of the triumphal entry. I know we dealt with the prophecy last week in looking at Isaiah 53.

But I think it's important to paint the importance of exactly when Jesus came riding into Jerusalem. Because if you remember, throughout Jesus' ministry, throughout his three years on earth, he just kept saying the same thing. It's not my time yet. My time hasn't come yet. They wanted to make him king. They wanted to make him a ruler. They wanted to make him their leader.

They wanted to have him be the one who would deliver them politically. And he just kept saying, It's not my time yet. Until it comes to the triumphal entry. Why did he keep saying, It's not my time yet? Well, in the margin of your Bible, you might just write Daniel 9. Because I think for us to gain a proper perspective on the triumphal entry, it's important that we understand a prophecy given to us in Daniel chapter 9.

It's often referred to, it's the very end of the chapter, it's often referred to as the 70 weeks prophecy. The year was about 539 B.C. And Daniel was a political leader. He was a political leader in a foreign land. He had been taken captive by the Babylonians. And as a teenager, put into a very powerful position in the Babylonian Empire. And because of his reverence towards God, because of his dedication to the Lord,

God blessed him in every position that he was in. And so he maintained a high political office throughout the Babylonian Empire. And then when the Medo-Persian Empire came in and came to power, they trusted him and they trusted his leadership. And so they also put him in a high political position. And he continued to be a prophet of God. Well, Daniel chapter 9 tells the story of him receiving a vision from the Lord.

And a part of this vision is what we refer to as the 70 weeks decree. God told Daniel, 70 weeks have been decreed for your nation, for your people, Israel. And after 69 of those weeks, Messiah will come into Jerusalem. And he will be coming to Jerusalem. And he will be cut off, not for himself, but he will be cut off. And then all the other things that take place in those last seven years begin to be predicted.

But it's important that we understand that there was a decree that went out. And from the time of that decree, that 70 weeks prophecy said, there will be 483 years that will take place until Messiah comes into Jerusalem and is ultimately cut off, not for himself, but for the sins of the people. Well, there were four different decrees that went out. The first was when Cyrus made the decree that the children of Israel would go back and rebuild the temple.

The next two had to do with when Ezra was sent back to help teach about the law in the temple. The third one was when Nehemiah was given the decree to go back and help rebuild the wall. And then the fourth one was the funding for the wall. That fourth decree that was given by Artaxerxes is the one that if you follow the dating from there, on the Jewish calendar of 360 days, then you arrive at the day that Jesus came riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.

Exactly when the prophecy said that he would come riding into Jerusalem. And it's fascinating to see that God was so specific in the way that this was brought about. That God was so specific about when the kingdom... When the king would arrive. Well, that brings us to Matthew chapter 21. Jesus has lived his life on earth. He's lived three years of ministry on earth.

And it's kind of fascinating to look at all of the gospel accounts and find that in all of the gospel accounts, there comes a point in time. And I think it's Luke's account that states this the best, where it says that Jesus set his face for Jerusalem. That he knew that his journey for Jerusalem was there. And he took a few weeks really to get to Jerusalem.

And a whole lot of things took place. A whole lot of miracles took place. Not the least of which was the healing of Lazarus. A lot of things took place because he knew that his sights were set for Jerusalem. So his disciples are traveling along. And at every stop, there's more teaching that takes place. And at every stop, there's more miracles that take place.

And of course, at one of the last stops is when his feet were anointed by Mary with that costly perfume. And we start to see the true colors of Judas come forth. And that brings us to Matthew chapter 21, verse 1. It says this. And when they had approached Jerusalem, and had come to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them,

Go into the village opposite of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, The Lord has need of them, and immediately he will send them. This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets. Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, gentle and mounted on a donkey,

even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed. And he brought the donkey and the colt, and they laid their coats on them, and he sat on the coats. Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees, and spreading them in the road, and the crowds going ahead of him, and those who followed.

were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, Who is this? And the crowds were saying, This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee. Well, the triumphal entry begins like this. It begins with sort of the setting of the stage,

or the setting of the scene. And it tells us, where they were. It puts a place on exactly where they were. They were in Bethpage of the Mount of Olives. It's interesting because the Mount of Olives always played a really important role in the ministry of Jesus. Seems to show up quite a bit throughout the gospel accounts. And in this particular account, it's sort of their home base,

from which he will home base for the rest of this week. As a matter of fact, later in this week is when his disciples will say, Tell us about the coming of the end of the age. And he will give what we now refer to as the Olivet Discourse in the next few chapters. Here in Matthew. But it begins here. And he sort of sets up this home base. And you can sort of imagine them on this hillside.

You can imagine them sitting there and perhaps looking and seeing Jerusalem off in the distance and him knowing what was coming. I don't think we can underestimate the importance of what was in the back of Jesus' mind this entire week. What was in the back of Jesus' mind in this entire moment. Him knowing that his riding into Jerusalem would set into motion a series of events that there would be no coming back from.

It would set into motion a series of events that would culminate in his death and ultimately find victory in his resurrection. But it would be one of the greatest stressful tests that he would face as he would face all of the religious leaders and all of the questions that would be given to him. It would be the greatest physical test that he would face knowing the suffering that he was going to go through and the difficulties that he would face. And it would be the greatest spiritual battle that he would face knowing that he was about to wear on his back.

He was about to wear on himself the guilt of the sin of all of humanity. And so with that kind of as a scene, there's Jesus on the Mount of Olives with his disciples and in such an amazing, lovely way, Jesus has a plan. And I love this about this scene because sometimes we think God is caught off guard by things, right? Like the situation in front of him is too much.

How's he ever going to handle it? But even to the last detail of what's going to take place, Jesus had a plan. And can I just remind you as perhaps a little side note that nothing in your life has taken Jesus off guard and he already has a plan. Like he already has a donkey in place. He already knows how you're going to arrive on the scene because he already has it all laid out.

And I think that in the world we live in today where we always stress about what the plan's going to be, Lord, how are you going to handle this thing in front of me? It's really important to know that you may not know what the plan is yet, just like the disciples, didn't know what the plan is yet, but Jesus already knew how it was going to end. And so he looks at his disciples and he says something very interesting. So there he is on the Mount of Olives and they're all kind of hanging out.

I always wonder what the discussion's like among the disciples at this point in time. What are we doing here? Why is it taking so long? What's the next plan? I don't know what the next step is. Go ask Jesus. And so Jesus looks at his disciples. He says, and he looks at two of them and he says, go into the village opposite you and immediately you will find a donkey tied there

and a colt with her. Untie them. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say the Lord has need of them and immediately he will send them. Now, if I'm a disciple at this point in time, this is a strange request, right? Like I need you to go into this other village over here, the one really close to you, and I need you to go

and you're gonna find two donkeys. One's gonna be a grown, the other's a colt, and you are going to untie them. And in the disciples' minds, they're probably thinking, Lord, why do you want us to commit grand theft donkey? Right? Like, what is this about? Right? I just came up with that one just now. I felt really good about it, so I'm really glad you laughed.

So they're like, what is this about? And he still has a plan because you're going, wait, I'm just gonna go take someone's donkey from them? Like, this feels like an odd plan. And Jesus says, and you need to know something. If they say to you, why are you stealing my donkey? You say, the Lord has need of them. Now, I've never tried this in my life, but I've always wondered to myself

if at some point in time during the day, I was like, Jared, I need you to go into Ark City and you will find a place called Friendly Ford. And when you get there, there will be an F-150 sitting there. You should take it. And if anyone asks, say, Jesus needs it. I don't see why we don't try that more often. Right? But in this case, it wouldn't be an F-150. He'd be like,

there's a Kia Rio sitting there. And you should bring that back. Right? And so they go after this thing. And I just want to know, what the conversation was like between those two disciples. We are not, one of my favorite things that I read in a commentary this week is, we don't know who the disciples were and it would be ridiculous for us to conjecture it, but I think it was Peter.

And all I could think was, you just said it would be ridiculous to conjecture who the disciples would be that Jesus sent. And then you gave your conjecture on who you thought the disciple would. I don't know who the disciples were and it would be pointless for me to conjecture, but I'm confident it was Peter and John. Right? That's who I think it was. Again,

that and apparently $8.95 now will get you coffee at Starbucks, but that's neither here nor there. And so I just wonder what this conversation was like. Because remember, the disciples had no idea what was really going on in this moment. Jesus had tried to prepare them over and over again for the fact that this day was coming. That this event was coming. That this moment in time was happening

and that it was going to culminate in his death, but they always failed to truly take in the significance of the moment. And so I just wonder what the conversation was like with them as they're on their way down there. You know, if they were really good scholars of the word, they would have known exactly where they were in time. As a matter of fact, that's what Jesus is going to go on later this week and tell some of the religious leaders.

If you had only known that the day was near. If you had only known that this was your time. But they didn't because they weren't paying attention. And if I can give one more little backdrop to this, I'm going to give you a little backdrop. I think it's important to point out, Matthew doesn't point it out in his gospel account. I'm pretty sure Luke points it out in his.

That shortly prior to this, Jesus stood on the Mount of Olives and we're told that Jesus looked over Jerusalem and he wept. And he said, Oh Jerusalem, the one who slays the prophets, how often I wished that I could have gathered you under my wings as a hen gathers her chicks. He said, I just wish I could bring you in close. But he said, I just wish I could bring you in close.

But he knew what was coming. And so he sends his disciples and they go into the village to find this donkey. Well, now we come to a quick little addendum, a little commentary on the point of Matthew, which he was so good at doing. And he says this, this took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet. Say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you,

gentle and mounted on a donkey, a donkey. Even a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. This is an almost exact direct quote out of Zechariah chapter nine, verse nine. You should write that down because it's a good one. I think I haven't put it up there. It's almost a direct quote out of Zechariah chapter nine, verse nine. And I don't always spend a lot of time

when Matthew or some of these guys quote these things to go back and really read the surrounding verses and find out exactly what was going on. But this particular time, I really felt led to do, just a little bit of research into this particular prophecy. And it's interesting to read Zechariah chapter nine. So Zechariah prophesied around, shortly after Daniel had prophesied about the 70 weeks.

They were back in Jerusalem and they were in the process of trying to rebuild the temple and the people were not always wanting to do the work that needed to be done to rebuild the temple. And so part of Zechariah's job was to stir within them the desire to rebuild the temple. And so he begins prophesying about some of the things that will be coming in the future. And one of the things that would be coming in the future was the destruction of the nations around them, particularly the cities of Tyre and Sidon.

Historically, Alexander the Great would fulfill the first half of the prophecy of Zechariah chapter nine. But after Zechariah lays out all of this destruction for the nations around them, all of this destruction that this great conquering king would fulfill that was around them, there's a complete shift in tone in Zechariah chapter nine because then you come to him saying, behold, say to the Zadar of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, gentle and mounted on a donkey, even a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. And it's interesting, especially when we know that Alexander the Great is the one who ultimately fulfilled all of Zechariah chapter nine because when you think of great conquerors, he's certainly one of the ones

historically who's one of the greatest of all time when it comes to being a conqueror. The man was a legend in his own right who conquered what he knew of as the entire known world by the time he was 30 years old and kind of sat down and went, what else is there to do? And so when you think about a conquering king like that in direct opposition, in direct contradiction, in contrast to that, Zechariah says, but know this, daughter of Zion, your king looks a lot different. Your king is coming to you and he's gonna look a lot different.

He describes him like this. He describes him as gentle and mounted on a donkey, even a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. I think that there's a handful of things that we should take out of that. First of all is the word humble or gentle. That word means to be meek or to be lowly, which usually we look at as power under control, which is a fantastic definition

of the word meek or gentle. But when you look at this word in the Hebrew, it's just a little bit different. It's a little bit more colorful because there's another word that can be used of the word meek or gentle or lonely, and that word is afflicted or as if suffering persecution. And it's interesting with the backdrop of Isaiah 53 that Zechariah now prophesies of Jesus riding into Jerusalem, on a donkey as one who is lowly, as one who is afflicted.

In direct contrast to a king who will conquer all of the nations around him, he says, your king is going to look a lot different than this. Your king is going to be humble, but he's also going to be afflicted. He is going to be a suffering king. Isn't it amazing that this is not what they expected? Isn't it amazing that this was not the king that they were looking for,

even though Zechariah told them, this is the king you should be looking for. Now, if you go on to, read more, you find that this king does become a conqueror, but you have to take all of it. He is both a suffering servant and a conquering king because his suffering would conquer the thing that we need conquered the most and that's sin and death. He says, behold, your king is coming to you, but he's gentle, he's humble, he's lowly, he's afflicted, but then he's also mounted on a donkey that even a foal, the colt of a beast of burden, there were two different types of mounts that kings would ride at that point in time.

A conquering king would come in riding a horse. A king that came in peace would come in riding a donkey. This was not just true of Israel. This was true of anyone in the east at that point in time. If a king came in peace, he came in riding a donkey. And so what we see is this afflicted servant would also be a servant who would not only come in peace, but a servant who would bring peace.

And he's riding this beast of burden. And I love that that particular phrase is used there because when you think about it, Jesus came in riding a beast of burden about to carry the burden of sin in his own body on the tree. It's a fascinating prophecy that's given to us. And it's a perfect picture of who Jesus was going to be. And you can imagine perhaps the truly tuned in believers

at that point in time. And you have to wonder, was this the time when Nicodemus was like, oh, this has got to be the guy, right? Because we find that some of those guys kind of turned their view of him at that point in time. As he sees him come riding in, he's like, now I get it. Now I get it. But this is a prophecy that would be fulfilled through this time.

Interestingly enough, one of the commands given in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 17 was that kings were not to amass to themselves horses, particularly to go down to Egypt, to get horses. And a good Israeli king, a good Jewish king would have ridden a donkey because some trust in chariots and horses, but we will trust in the Lord our God. Behold, Israel, your king is coming to you. But he's lowly, he's gentle, and he's riding on a donkey, the colt of a beast of burden.

So after this fulfillment of this prophecy is seen, we're given this simple, simple statement in chapter, in verse six of chapter 21, it says, and the disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them. And can we just say, we give the disciples a hard time, right? Rightfully so, because there were a lot of mistakes that they'd made. But at this point in time, three years in, they find themselves just sort of going, I don't always get what the guy does, but he's always right.

And if this is what he wants me to do, then this is what I'm gonna do. I think had this been three years ago, three years prior to this, there would have been a lot more argument. Had this been three years prior to this, they would have bucked against it just a little bit. Think, cast your nets on the other side of the boat. Oh, you don't understand, we've been fishing all night.

It's like, just trust me, try it again. To where by this point in time, when he says, go into town, there's gonna be a donkey there. And if anybody says anything to you, just tell them that Jesus needs him. And they're not gonna give you any problem whatsoever. By this point in time, they'd reached a point where they're like, I don't always get it. But he's always right.

I have a question for you. Have you reached a point in your life where you're like, I don't always get it, but he's always right? I think sometimes in our culture, it takes longer than three years. Because we're smarter than they were. We know more than they did, right? And yet, if we will find ourselves in a place where when Jesus says to do it, we just trust that if we'll just do what the guy says,

he's always gonna be right. And it's always gonna be good. Well, now we come to the ride. So, it says, they brought the donkey and the colt and they laid their coats on them. And he sat on the coats. Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. Now, there's a handful of questions

I hope you're asking yourself right now. Did you do a quick count of how many animals they brought? They brought two. I've asked myself this question over the years a lot of times. Did Jesus just switch off back and forth between the two? I think no, right? Or did he ride the two at the same time, right? Like, I don't think Jesus was that big of a dude. I don't think he could have done that.

I think Jesus rode the colt and the mother was there. Because if you know anything about animals like that, if colt's going somewhere, ain't nobody keeping mama away, right? And yet, Jesus rides on the colt. Now, I think it's important to point something out. It's important to point out that one of the gospel accounts said no one ridden on this thing before.

Now, I don't know anything about breaking horses or animals like this, but oddly enough, my dad did. And he always would talk about the fact that this is one of the most miraculous things in the world because if you go to get on the back of an animal that's never been ridden before, they are unhappy with that situation. That's why you have to break them. It's literally breaking their will.

You have to show that you're in it. You have to show that you're in charge. And yet, all Jesus had to do was sit down on this colt and the colt knew who was in charge. Just like all Jesus had to do is to speak to the weather for the weather to know that he was in charge. Just like all Jesus had to do was speak to nature for nature to know that Jesus was in charge.

And it's all just under his power. And so there's nothing ultimately that Jesus doesn't have power over. And so he sits on this donkey and the colt says, and they're riding along. And here's the next two questions that I had. They're throwing two things down. First of all, they put the coats on the back of the donkey, which makes sense. It would be very uncomfortable, I would think,

to ride the way that they would have just on there without any kind of a coat as some sort of a cushion. But as they're riding along, two things are being thrown out in front of Jesus. Did you take note of that? That's why we call this Palm Sunday, right? The first thing that's being thrown out in front of Jesus are all of the coats. The second thing that's being thrown out in front of Jesus

are palm branches. Right here, I think it just says, let me look at this again. It says branches from the trees, but in other accounts it says the palm branches were laid out in front of him. Why did they do those two things? If you were to look back at my notes from this week, you would see that I wrote, why? Because that's always a question that I have. Why did they do this?

Well, it's interesting to study this out because there are some specific purposes for these things. Laying out of the coats was a recognition of loyalty and support. It was a... It was a Near East thing that they did that when they would lay their coats in front of the king as he was coming in, it showed their loyalty and support to this king. It was their way of saying,

all of my goods I lay before you because I am given over to you. I am supporting of you. And so as Jesus is riding in, people are laying their coats in front of him to say, I'm with you. I support you. I am loyal to you. Now, here's the fascinating part. Six days later, they're going to be saying the exact opposite thing, right? They're going to be saying, away with him, crucify him.

Which is why throughout the gospel accounts, anytime Jesus started gathering a large following, we read that there's one specific verse where it says that Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew the heart of man. People are fickle, right? Not you all, but some people are. We struggle with loyalty, right? And so, but the second thing that it says

that they lay down in front of him was palm branches. And palm branches, first of all, there was a historical reference to this, but then also a sort of pictorial reference to this. Palm branches were emblematic of victory and success. And if we were to go back to the book of 2 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Kings, whenever Jehu took over after Solomon died and he took the 10 tribes with him and the land of Israel was divided into the 10 northern tribes and the two southern, when he came riding into town, they laid palm branches in front of him.

So this was a very kingly thing that they were doing, but it showed victory and success. And so this entire procession was a acceptance of the king. And it's kind of fascinating because up to this point in time, Jesus would have never received something like this. Up to this point in time, Jesus would have disappeared from a situation like this and said, it's not my time yet.

It's not time for this to take place yet. And yet them declaring him king, this go round, he accepts it. Not only does he accept their actions of laying out the coats and the palm branches in front of him, but they begin to sing something to him. Notice what it says in verse 9. And the crowds going ahead of him and those followed were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. This is a direct quotation. Again, you might write this down. Out of Psalm 118, verse 26. Psalm 118, verse 26. All of Psalm 118 is what we refer to as a messianic psalm. It was a psalm that prophetically spoke of the coming Messiah. It was a psalm that prophetically spoke of the coming chosen one

who would be the leader of the people. Who would be the leader of the people. Who would be the leader of the nation of Israel. And so for them to shout this out was incredibly important and incredibly fulfilling of prophecy on the part of the Jewish people. It's almost like there was this moment where everybody knew what was going on. This moment that everybody got caught up in

where they realized this is the king. Let's anoint him as king. And so they begin declaring these things. Now this psalm is very fascinating because this word Hosanna, it's really interesting. The word Hosanna means save now. It means save now. And this is exactly what they were crying out to Jesus because this would be what the cry would be to the Messiah.

Only their save now looked different than the saving now that Jesus was going to do. You see when they were crying out save now, they were picturing a political Messiah who would set them free from Rome. That's why they cried Hosanna to the son of David. You and I look at that and we go, yeah, the Messiah, the son of David, the one who would take away the sin of the world.

They're looking at his Messiah, the son of David, who would assume the throne of David, overthrow Rome and make them a free nation once again. That's what they wanted him to be because while he was their long-awaited king, he was a little bit their misunderstood king. They didn't really understand why he was here this first go round. They really didn't understand what he was there to do.

And so they're crying out, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And I just want you for a moment to allow your mind to drift into what this scene would have looked like. Picture, if you will, a warm April day, right? It's a Mediterranean climate. So you're probably talking it's in the mid 70s,

maybe a light breeze blowing, the sun beating down. And you're standing out in the middle of a time when the population, the population of Jerusalem has swelled to millions because everybody's coming back in town for the Passover ceremony. So there's an incredible amount of buzz in the town. There's an incredible amount of excitement in the town because all of your family is there.

All of your friends have come to town and all of you have come for the singular purpose of worshiping God in a ceremony, in a feast that you were decreed that every male was to return to Jerusalem one of these three times a year, this feast. So there's incredible excitement surrounding this event. And then here comes Jesus. Now there was a lot of talk about Jesus.

Not everybody recognized him physically because it wasn't like he could go to the Instagram and pull a picture and go, oh yeah, Jesus of Nazareth. I remember who this guy is. But everybody heard the stories. Not to mention the fact that Jesus wasn't the guy that everybody always recognized because there was nothing physical about him to attract you. This average guy comes riding into town on a donkey,

but not an average guy. And the things that he had done in his life. He had raised Lazarus and there was incredible buzz going around about the fact that he had raised Lazarus from the dead. He was known for his really radical type of teaching where he was teaching that what the religious leaders had been telling us all of these years was always missing a point.

It was always missing something. And so he's flipped upside down everything to do with the religion at that point in time. And because of that, not only has he done great miracles and had radical teaching, but there were death threats. And everybody knew. Everybody knew that there was a potential, that there was a bounty on his head. And here is this man, this almost politically charged character

coming riding into town on a donkey, looking like everybody else, dressed like everybody else. And they recognized about him that the king is here, but not the king they were looking for. And so Jesus is riding into town and you can tell that as he got farther into town, the praises got a little louder, right? Let me paint a scene for you. So quite a few years back now, before we had kids,

my wife gave me a really cool present for my birthday. I'm a huge Chicago Cubs fan. I grew up watching the Chicago Cubs and singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame with Harry Carey every single day because my dad was a big fan. And so one year, she got us tickets to go see the Cubs. And so we went for a weekend up to Chicago. And of course, we didn't rent a car while we were there

because it's a big city. We didn't want to try to navigate it. So we just rode the train. That's what everybody did. So we got on the train in Midtown, down by, I think they call it like the Magnificent Mile or something like that, where we stayed. And with every stop on the way down, of course, I got my Cubs shirt on, my Cubs hat on, I am ready to go, right?

And with every stop, more people that weren't dressed in Cubs attire got off and more people that were dressed in Cubs attire got on. And so by the time you got to Wrigleyville, there was no one that didn't have some sort of a Cubs shirt or Cubs hat on. And there was so much excitement. And I just stepped off of the train and I just soaked it all in as I'm looking at all of the sound, or hearing all of the sounds and looking at all of the people and smelling all of the smells and it was just so much excitement.

Listen, that's what it would have been like. The further he went into Jerusalem, there were fewer people without palm branches and more people laying them down in front of him. And the sound got louder as they went. Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And the intensity and the excitement built

until he arrives at the temple. And we won't get into the cleansing of the temple today. We don't have time for that. But that's what the excitement was building to. And you can imagine some people off in the distance and this is what they said. Verse 10, when he had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred. They were saying, who is this? And the crowds were saying, this is the prophet Jesus

from Nazareth in Galilee. That word stirred is a very powerful word in the Greek. It can actually also be used for an earthquake. In other words, the entire town quaked with the sound of what was going on. And people, those who perhaps were unaware of the gravity of what was going on are going, who is this? And did you notice how they referred to him? This is the prophet.

This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth. Again, because we weren't living there at that time, we don't understand the oxymoron that they just said when they said the prophet from Nazareth. Do you remember when one of Jesus's early disciples came up to him or was told about him and he said, does anything good come out of Nazareth? Right? Do you remember what the religious leaders said

when they heard where he was from? Has any prophet ever come out of Nazareth? Right? He was very unexpected, and yet he was exactly who they needed. Well, there's four things that I took out of this that have to do with the king. And I think that they're important things for us to pay attention to. So let's wrap up with these four things over these next few minutes.

I've simply entitled this part, The King. Number one, the king, he was the long-awaited king. He was the long-awaited king. He was the long-awaited king. He was the long-awaited king. He was the long-awaited king. Israel had been waiting for this king for so long, 483 years, they had been waiting for this king. 483 years, there had been no one on the throne of Israel,

and Israel had been trampled by its enemies for 483 years and Israel had been trampled by its enemies for 483 years while they waited for their king to arrive. And he was this long-awaited king. But if I may equate this to us even more, he was the long-awaited king because he is the king that they had been waiting for since the time began. He is the king that they had been waiting for since Genesis chapter three, when it was said there will always be enmity between you and the seat of the woman.

You will bruise his heel, but he will crush your head. He was the long-awaited king who would not only deal with the sins of the people, who would not only deal with the sins of the people, of the nation of Israel, but he was the long-awaited king who would deal with the sins of the world. And can I say we're in a really similar place to the nation of Israel at this point in time because we are once again waiting for our long-awaited king. Because when he came that first time, he came as the king that was the suffering servant. But when he comes a second

time, he will come as the king who will be the conqueror. Because the first time he came riding into Jerusalem lowly and on a donkey, but the second time he'll come riding in on a horse, conquering and to conquer. He is the long-awaited king. Number two, he was the gentle and lowly king. He was the gentle and lowly king. Gentle in that he was the suffering servant. He was the

afflicted king. But also gentle and lowly in the way that he handled the nation of Israel. Gentle and lowly in the way that he came riding into town. Because again, he didn't come in as some king demanding respect. He came in as a king who was ready to serve. He came in as a king who was gentle and lowly. And can I just remind all of us that that's the way he is with us today?

That he is still our gentle and lowly king. Do you remember the way that we're going to see him? The vision? The vision that John has when he sees him in heaven. He saw him as a lamb who had been slain. And he is still gentle and lowly in the way that he handles us. I know this to be true because I know it's the way he's handled me in my life. And I know this to be true because I know it's

the way that he has handled other people in their lives. In every testimony that comes about, when people share about what God has done with them, when they share about how Jesus has worked in their lives, it's always in a gentle and lowly sort of a way. We were blessed the other night. Wednesday night, if you were there, it was fantastic to hear several kids give their testimonies of what Jesus had done in their lives. And I think that each of them, in some way, pointed this very truth out about Jesus.

That in their darkest hour, in their hardest time, Jesus came up in a very gentle fashion into their lives and dealt with the things that they were dealing with in that gentle and lowly sort of way. Not much has changed about Jesus in this way because he is still gentle and lowly. He is still gentle in the way that he handles us. And if I may apply this to our lives, if he is gentle and lowly in the way that he handles us, perhaps, just maybe, we should be gentle in the way that we handle others. Perhaps that humility, perhaps that meekness, that gentle heart is what we should have

towards the people that are around us. It's easy to lose that as we walk with the Lord, isn't it? It's easy to lose that as we begin to gain some understanding and we think that we know a whole lot. And we think everybody else should be where we are in life. And we stop being gentle with them. We stop being patient with them. And we forget that the gentle and lowly king with us wants us to be gentle

with the people that are around us. Amen. So, number one, he was the long-awaited king. Number two, he was the gentle king. But number three, he was the misunderstood king. He was the misunderstood king. He was the misunderstood king. He was the misunderstood king. He was the misunderstood king. You see, that's not the You see, that's not the the king that they were looking for. They weren't looking for the king that was going to take away

their sins. They were looking for the king who was going to establish his kingdom. And so he was misunderstood in everything that he did. But that misunderstanding was not just about that one week when he arrived in Jerusalem. That misunderstanding encapsulated his entire ministry. Everybody misunderstood who he was, what he was there to do, and how he handled himself. And because he was

misunderstood, he became the victim of that misunderstanding in everything that he did. As believers in Jesus Christ, sometimes you're misunderstood. I heard a guy say one time that if you're going to be in leadership, it's an invitation to be misunderstood. And I thought, man, it's just, it's a perfect picture of the way that it is when you try to serve the Lord. People will misunderstand your motives. They will misunderstand your purpose.

They will misunderstand your point. And if anybody understands that, it's okay. It's Jesus, because he was the misunderstood king. But then number four, he was the sacrificial king. He was the sacrificial king. It'll never not be miraculous to me that while living in heaven where everything was perfect, seated at the right hand of the Father, in all of his glory, in all of his splendor, in all of his majesty, Jesus decided to lay aside

that glory. And to put on the clothes of a man, an average guy, and walk amongst us, and endure everything that we've endured, and go through everything that we go through for one purpose and one purpose only, to be the sacrifice for sin, to be the one that would ultimately offer himself as the spotless lamb who would take away the sin of the world. And yet, that's what Jesus, as the king, came to do. That's what Jesus, as the king, came to do. That's what Jesus, as the king, came to do.

as the king arrived to do do you know the leaders people respect the most the leaders that people respect the most are the ones to get in the trenches with them when the days are the hardest the leaders that people respect the most are the or the leaders who have been through what they've been through in their life and the leaders who will lay down their life for their followers Jesus was that kind of leader because he was the sacrificial king only it wasn't in some sort of a temporary way where he was willing to just camp among us he was a sacrificial king who showed up for that one purpose and that one purpose only 33 years on this earth to end in one of the most horrific deaths anyone's ever

imagined even though he was the king so he was the long-awaited king he was the gentle and lowly king he was the misunderstood king and he was the sacrificial king but make no mistake he's still the king and he is still coming amen let's all stand and if you'd bow with me south of we come before you now and I just thank you for the time that we've had in your word lord i thank you that you are the God who saves lord i thank you that you are the one true king who showed us what it looks like to sacrifice for humanity so lord I pray that as we go through out this week knowing that you came for one purpose that our eyes would once again be directed not only to the sacrifice that you've made but the victory that you won.

And so, Lord, I thank you for this study in Matthew chapter 21 where the whole world watched you arrive in Jerusalem and said, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And so, Father, be with us as we go out from this place. I pray that you would keep our hearts and our minds focused on you. In Jesus' name, amen. Be blessed. Who am I that the highest king will welcome?

I was lost but he brought me in Oh, his love for me Oh, his love for me Who the Son sets free Oh, is free I'm a child of God Free at last He has ransomed me His grace runs deep While I was a slave to sin Jesus died for me Yes, he died Who the Son sets free I'm a child of my father There's a place I'm a child not forsaken Who you say I am? I am chosen, not forsaken Yes, I am who you say Who the Son sets free Who the Son sets free Oh, is free I'm a child of God Yes, I There's a place for My father's house In my farm There's a place for One more time, in my father's house In my farm There's a place Jesus, we thank you for your grace Jesus, we thank you for your grace Jesus, we thank you for your grace We thank you that you are our King

We thank you for your coming And we just thank you for all that you do for us We pray that you bless us this week Anoint us I pray you give us peace and hope And I pray that you bring us back here together next week In Jesus' name, amen Thank you guys, we'll see you next week