Latest / Fairview Presbyterian Church (PCA) Sermons / Christ's Humble Ride and Righteous Reign (Zechariah 9:9-10)- Pastor Kenneth Collins Maple

Transcript

Christ's Humble Ride and Righteous Reign (Zechariah 9:9-10)- Pastor Kenneth Collins Maple · Fairview Presbyterian Church (PCA) Sermons

• 0:03
  Now we turn to the Word of God. We are kind of
• 0:09
  started at last Sunday taking a brief break from
• 0:13
  Ecclesiastes as we're in this time that is celebrated,
• 0:18
  this time of remembering that Jesus went to the
• 0:21
  cross for us, this time of remembering the resurrection,
• 0:25
  right? And so to help us see this, We're going
• 0:28
  to go to a very applicable passage, a very appropriate
• 0:32
  passage for today on this, a day that's commonly
• 0:36
  called Palm Sunday, a day when we think about
• 0:39
  the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
• 0:43
  And so our scripture this morning is Zechariah
• 0:46
  chapter 9, verses 9 and 10. Now I realize It's
• 0:53
  been a long time since this church, to my knowledge,
• 0:56
  was in Zechariah, and it may have been a long
• 0:59
  time since you yourself were in this book. And
• 1:02
  so Zechariah is one of the minor prophets. It's
• 1:05
  the second to the last book of the Old Testament
• 1:08
  in the English Bible. And it is a remarkable
• 1:12
  book for many, many reasons, one of those being
• 1:16
  that as you study Zechariah, as you read it,
• 1:21
  You see Christ everywhere. You really do. And
• 1:26
  we're going to see this today within our reading.
• 1:31
  And so Zachariah chapter nine, verses nine through
• 1:35
  10, please listen. Rejoice greatly, O daughter
• 1:40
  of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.
• 1:45
  Behold, your King is coming to you. Righteous
• 1:49
  and having salvation is he. Humble and mounted
• 1:54
  on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
• 1:58
  I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the
• 2:01
  war horse from Jerusalem and the battle bow shall
• 2:04
  be cut off and he shall speak peace to the nations.
• 2:09
  His rule shall be from sea to sea and from the
• 2:13
  river to the ends of the earth. The grass withers
• 2:18
  and the flower fades, but God's word stands forever.
• 2:21
  Let us pray. Father, how we do thank you for
• 2:27
  your word, how we thank you for the book of Zechariah.
• 2:32
  I thank you that as we look at this, we see Jesus
• 2:35
  Christ. Would you help us with this to understand
• 2:39
  and apply what is here? These things we ask in
• 2:43
  the name of Christ. Amen. This week, I was reading
• 2:51
  an article that began in an interesting way.
• 2:55
  What I'm going to tell you, it almost sounds
• 2:57
  like a bad joke, or like a riddle, but the article
• 3:01
  started in this way. It said, what do donkeys,
• 3:05
  30 pieces of silver, a shepherd, and crucifixion
• 3:09
  have in common? Now, Christians, and Christians
• 3:14
  especially this time of year, that's pretty easy
• 3:16
  to answer, isn't it? All of those things have
• 3:20
  in common, of course they have Jesus in common,
• 3:23
  and specifically the final week of Jesus's earthly
• 3:25
  ministry in common. But what might not be as
• 3:32
  obvious or apparent is that all of those four
• 3:36
  things, the donkeys and the silver and the shepherd
• 3:38
  and the crucifixion, they all can be found in
• 3:42
  the book of Zechariah. Zachariah is a remarkable
• 3:46
  book for this way that it is the most referenced
• 3:50
  Old Testament book during what is commonly called
• 3:53
  Passion Week. During the final week of Jesus's
• 3:57
  earthly ministry, we see Zachariah over and over
• 4:02
  and over again. And what this tells us is that
• 4:05
  the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is
• 4:09
  no accident. It doesn't happen by chance. No,
• 4:13
  it was God's eternal plan prophesied centuries
• 4:17
  before it ever happened. If you don't hear anything
• 4:23
  else today, I want you to hear this. It was always
• 4:27
  God's plan to send the King of Kings to shed
• 4:31
  His blood for all who would believe in Him. And
• 4:36
  so what do we see in the triumphal entry? Jesus
• 4:39
  enters Jerusalem as the prophesied King. and
• 4:42
  his ride reveals his humility. His reign promises
• 4:47
  peace, and his people are to respond with praise.
• 4:53
  Let's look at the ride first. And the way in
• 4:56
  which I want us to see this is, yes, to go over
• 5:00
  Zechariah 9, 9, and 10, but I do want us to see
• 5:03
  the triumphal entry as it's explained by the
• 5:07
  New Testament. And the triumphal entry is such
• 5:10
  an important episode that it is mentioned in
• 5:13
  all four Gospels. I'm not going to read the episode
• 5:17
  in all four Gospels, but I will take you to one
• 5:20
  of them, to Matthew's version, Matthew 21, one
• 5:26
  through 11. Now, when they drew near to Jerusalem,
• 5:36
  and came to Bethpage to the Mount of Olives.
• 5:39
  Then Jesus sent two disciples saying to them,
• 5:43
  go into the village in front of you and immediately
• 5:46
  you'll find a donkey tied and a colt with her.
• 5:50
  Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says
• 5:55
  anything to you, you will say the Lord needs
• 5:57
  them and he will send them at once. This took
• 6:01
  place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet
• 6:04
  saying, Say to the daughter of Zion, behold your
• 6:09
  King is coming to you. Have you heard that before?
• 6:14
  Humble and mounted on a donkey on a colt the
• 6:17
  full of a beast of burden. The disciples went
• 6:21
  and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought
• 6:24
  the donkey and the colt and put on them their
• 6:27
  cloaks and he sat on them. Most of the crowd
• 6:31
  spread their cloaks on the road and others cut
• 6:33
  branches from the trees and spread them on the
• 6:36
  road. And the crowds that went before him and
• 6:39
  that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the
• 6:42
  son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the
• 6:45
  name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. And
• 6:49
  when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was
• 6:51
  stirred up saying, who is this? And the crowd
• 6:54
  said, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth.
• 6:59
  of Galilee. And so this is the experience, this
• 7:04
  is the episode that we remember. But isn't it
• 7:08
  so crucial and important that we see this predicted
• 7:12
  hundreds of years before the event? That's what
• 7:15
  Zechariah shows us. And so let us think for a
• 7:19
  second, what would Zechariah's prophecy have
• 7:22
  meant to the people of the prophet's day? We
• 7:27
  know many things about Zechariah. And we certainly
• 7:31
  know the timing of Zechariah. Zechariah is called
• 7:34
  a post -exilic book. And what that means is after
• 7:39
  the exile, we know of Israel's history from the
• 7:45
  Bible. And we know that there was a time of kings.
• 7:50
  There was David, there was Solomon, and then
• 7:53
  what happened? There was a splitting up of the
• 7:56
  kingdom into the northern kingdom of Israel and
• 7:58
  the southern kingdom of Judah, right? And we
• 8:02
  know that in each of those kingdoms in the north
• 8:05
  there were 20 kings. And scripture describes
• 8:08
  none of them in a good way. In the southern kingdom,
• 8:12
  we actually have about eight good kings. The
• 8:14
  Bible describes them as good. That's still not
• 8:17
  even 50%, right? And so what would it have meant
• 8:24
  for the people of Zechariah's day after the exile,
• 8:27
  after Babylon comes in and takes over Jerusalem.
• 8:32
  And then the people are allowed to go back home.
• 8:35
  And then here you have Zechariah saying, there's
• 8:37
  going to be this great king. He's coming to you
• 8:40
  and he is righteous and he has salvation. Can
• 8:43
  you imagine hearing that after all of Israel
• 8:47
  and Judah's tumultuous history and then learning
• 8:51
  there's going to be this great king? who is completely
• 8:54
  righteous and he brings salvation. This would
• 8:59
  have been very impactful for in Zechariah's day
• 9:04
  Jerusalem had no king. After the time of exile
• 9:09
  when the people get to move back home they don't
• 9:12
  have a king. There is a governor for a time but
• 9:15
  they don't have a king and yet they still have
• 9:18
  enemies. If you're familiar with the book of
• 9:22
  Nehemiah. You see this very well. Nehemiah is
• 9:26
  commissioned to go back home and to rebuild the
• 9:30
  walls. He gets to Jerusalem and he sees that
• 9:32
  his city is in shambles, right? And so they begin
• 9:36
  to build the wall, but they have enemies all
• 9:39
  around them, right? The text in Nehemiah even
• 9:44
  shows it's as if they have a hammer in one hand.
• 9:47
  and a sword in the other, they're fighting off
• 9:50
  their enemies. And so even though the people
• 9:53
  of Judah are allowed to be back home, they are
• 9:56
  not free. They're facing opposition from everywhere.
• 10:01
  And so now, what are they being promised? This
• 10:05
  incredible king. And he would be everything that
• 10:13
  the previous kings were not. But how does this
• 10:16
  king come to us as we read this. It says, humble
• 10:23
  and mounted on a donkey, right? That's an interesting
• 10:28
  picture there because we know from scripture
• 10:30
  and we know from history that in the time of
• 10:34
  the judges and in the time of David and Solomon,
• 10:37
  it was common for kings to ride on donkeys. You
• 10:41
  can see that with both David and Solomon. But
• 10:44
  after the time of Solomon, it's as if the kings
• 10:47
  trade in their donkeys for a faster, more powerful
• 10:51
  ride. At the time of Solomon, they begin to ride
• 10:54
  more horses. And so this king, it's like he's
• 10:59
  going back to the time of David. He's going back
• 11:02
  to the time of Solomon. He's going back to the
• 11:04
  time of the judges. No, this king is coming with
• 11:07
  humility. And he doesn't just ride a donkey.
• 11:13
  No, what does the text actually say? On a colt,
• 11:18
  the foal of a donkey. If you read Mark's version
• 11:24
  and Luke's version, you realize something about
• 11:26
  this donkey here. It's the offspring of donkey,
• 11:29
  but it is an unridden donkey. It probably has
• 11:34
  never been ridden before. That's what it says.
• 11:37
  It's an untrained donkey, right? This is the
• 11:41
  kind of ride for this kind of a king what's going
• 11:45
  why right? Why not ride on a beautiful stallion
• 11:50
  or some a powerful horse? Because Jesus is the
• 11:56
  humble King Jesus is the mightiest King in history
• 12:01
  and yet also the one with the most humility I
• 12:06
  like how second Corinthians 8 9 puts this for
• 12:09
  us For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
• 12:15
  that though he was rich, he became poor, so that
• 12:19
  you by his poverty might become rich. And so
• 12:23
  humility and peace and righteousness, these are
• 12:28
  the characteristics of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• 12:32
  And it all happens exactly as the prophet said
• 12:36
  it would. And so what does this mean for you
• 12:39
  and I? Why is this important to see that Zechariah
• 12:44
  prophesied something that happens perfectly and
• 12:47
  precisely? It's important because it means that
• 12:49
  all of the promises that God promises to you
• 12:53
  in Scripture will come true. Everything that
• 12:57
  God promises will come to fruition. I don't know
• 13:03
  all of you, but I know most of you. And I know
• 13:07
  what some of you are going through. And I know
• 13:10
  how some of you greatly need to remember the
• 13:14
  promises of God in Scripture. Maybe today you
• 13:18
  need to be reminded of the promise of God's presence.
• 13:24
  Well, remember that Jesus promised his disciples
• 13:27
  at the end of Matthew, I am with you always to
• 13:32
  the end of the age. Maybe today you are needing
• 13:36
  to be reminded how God answers prayer. Psalm
• 13:40
  145, the Lord is near to all who call on him.
• 13:46
  Maybe today you need to be reminded of the very
• 13:48
  mercy of God, that God is slow to anger and abounding
• 13:52
  in steadfast love. Maybe today you need to be
• 13:55
  reminded of God's protection of his children.
• 13:59
  Do not fear, for I am with you. I will strengthen
• 14:03
  you. and I will help you and I will uphold you
• 14:07
  with my righteous right hand. Maybe today you
• 14:09
  need to be reminded of your eternal home, you
• 14:12
  who are united to Christ. Remember what Jesus
• 14:16
  said to the thief on the cross. Today you will
• 14:20
  be with me in paradise. There are so many promises
• 14:24
  and God keeps all of them. And the scripture
• 14:28
  says all of the promises of God. to find their
• 14:33
  yes and amen in Jesus Christ. And so as we look
• 14:38
  at this and as we move into verse 10, keep that
• 14:42
  in mind how God is so trustworthy and he will
• 14:45
  not forget a single promise that he has made.
• 14:49
  And surely hearing something like this would
• 14:52
  have been encouraging to the people of Judah.
• 14:55
  who are still facing that constant threat of
• 14:57
  war. And yet with the constant threat of war,
• 15:00
  look at verse 10, what does God promise to do
• 15:03
  here through the prophet? I will cut off the
• 15:07
  chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem,
• 15:11
  and the battle bow shall be cut off. God is saying,
• 15:15
  I will protect you, but these weapons of warfare,
• 15:19
  I will remove them. They are not needed. And
• 15:22
  I will give you total lasting peace. The text
• 15:25
  there, as I read, mentions Ephraim and Jerusalem.
• 15:29
  Ephraim is oftentimes used as a synonym for Israel.
• 15:34
  And of course, Jerusalem was the capital of Judah.
• 15:37
  So what is God promising here? A reunification
• 15:41
  of his people, right? That as Israel and Judah
• 15:45
  were separated now, they will come together,
• 15:47
  that all of God's people will be united. And
• 15:51
  because you... believe in Jesus Christ, yes,
• 15:54
  you are God's people. You are God's children.
• 15:58
  And God promises peace, everlasting peace. So
• 16:02
  you see what's really happening in verse 10.
• 16:06
  As verse nine is reminding us of the first advent
• 16:10
  of Jesus, the first coming, what is verse 10
• 16:13
  reminding us of? That which is yet to come. The
• 16:19
  return of our Lord Jesus. And the return of our
• 16:23
  Lord Jesus shows us something incredible here
• 16:26
  within this verse. He shall speak peace to the
• 16:29
  nations. Look at his rule though. It shall be
• 16:32
  from sea to sea and from the river to the ends
• 16:36
  of the earth. King Jesus is surely the King of
• 16:41
  Kings and the Lord of Lords because his reign
• 16:45
  is forever and covers it all, right? But still
• 16:50
  you might think, well, How can a humble king
• 16:53
  riding on the foal of a donkey produce the kind
• 16:57
  of victory that God's people need? He's humble,
• 17:03
  doing away with the weapons of warfare. So how
• 17:06
  is this possible? Aren't those things needed?
• 17:10
  He does it through the cross. Jesus does not
• 17:14
  fight with instruments of war. No, Jesus is placed
• 17:18
  on the instrument. The text here when it says
• 17:24
  he brings salvation, it's quite literally being
• 17:30
  delivered, meaning that this king is delivered.
• 17:34
  How is this king delivered? Obviously, it's through
• 17:38
  the crucifixion. It's through the resurrection,
• 17:41
  right? That the death that he endured, the grave
• 17:47
  could not hold Jesus. And so he is... Vindicated
• 17:52
  in order that he truly would bring us salvation
• 17:55
  that we who believe in Jesus would also be saved
• 18:00
  And so you might say okay. Well Jesus has the
• 18:03
  victory. What is he victorious over? Here's where
• 18:08
  I want to take you to another scripture to Ephesians
• 18:11
  chapter 6 10 through 13 to see the real enemy
• 18:15
  that he is victorious over Ephesians 6 10 through
• 18:19
  13 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the
• 18:27
  strength of his might. Put on the whole armor
• 18:31
  of God that you may be able to stand against
• 18:34
  the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle
• 18:37
  against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
• 18:41
  against the authorities, against the cosmic powers
• 18:44
  over this present darkness, against the spiritual
• 18:47
  forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore,
• 18:52
  take up the whole armor of God that you may be
• 18:55
  able to withstand in the evil day and having
• 18:59
  done all to stand firm. The real enemy is sin.
• 19:08
  The real enemy is the devil. It is evil and Jesus
• 19:12
  conquers all. That's actually what the scriptures
• 19:15
  say. through Jesus Christ with his victory we
• 19:19
  are more than conquerors as he will reign forever
• 19:23
  so we will reign with him as his people and so
• 19:26
  don't you see friends that Christ's crucifixion
• 19:30
  proclaims victory over sin and death in the grave
• 19:33
  and his second advent his second coming means
• 19:36
  that all warfare will be gone forever and that
• 19:40
  he will establish his eternal dominion just like
• 19:46
  this text says, just like this text says. And
• 19:52
  so knowing all of this, knowing how Jesus is
• 19:56
  victorious and knowing how Jesus truly triumphantly
• 20:01
  came into the city, what should our response
• 20:05
  be to this? We'll look back at verse nine. to
• 20:12
  see that it is the citizen's responsibility to
• 20:16
  respond with praise. Rejoice greatly, it says.
• 20:21
  Shout aloud, it says. Rejoicing greatly, I don't
• 20:25
  know about you, but to me, it doesn't sound like
• 20:27
  mild approval. It doesn't sound like a golf clap,
• 20:31
  yay Jesus. No, this is tremendous praise and
• 20:36
  celebration of who Jesus is and what he does.
• 20:39
  The word shout aloud here. That's an interesting
• 20:42
  word in Hebrew. Anybody remember the falling
• 20:47
  down of Jericho, the walls, right? The word used
• 20:54
  here in verse nine for shout aloud is the same
• 20:58
  word used for when the Israelites surrounded
• 21:01
  Jericho and they shouted and the walls came tumbling
• 21:05
  down. And so friends, this is again, no mild
• 21:08
  approval. This is a shout of triumphant celebration.
• 21:16
  And all of these words here, this prophecy helps
• 21:18
  us to see this, that we ought to offer to Christ
• 21:23
  the praise befitting of the King of Kings and
• 21:28
  the Lord of Lords. Why? Because he is righteous.
• 21:32
  Why? Because he brings salvation. Why? Because
• 21:35
  Jesus was humble enough to take on flesh and
• 21:40
  to die a horrible death on the cross for you
• 21:43
  and for me. And so what does he do? Jesus, we
• 21:47
  can see as he goes to the cross, he meets his
• 21:51
  people in their need. Jesus is the suffering
• 21:54
  savior for a suffering people. Jesus arrives
• 21:57
  not on a red carpet, but on palm branches and
• 22:02
  borrowed cloaks. And the people, as we've already
• 22:04
  said, the people praise him in that episode,
• 22:07
  but They do that on like a Sunday by Friday.
• 22:10
  What are they shouting? Crucify him, right? Crucify
• 22:15
  him. Jesus had a great following, but nearly
• 22:19
  all of the people leave him. They scatter. And
• 22:23
  Jesus is crowned king, but he's crowned with
• 22:25
  a crown of thorns. Ultimately, Jesus entered
• 22:28
  Jerusalem to lay down his life. And friends,
• 22:36
  he did it for you. For you who believe in Jesus
• 22:40
  Christ, He laid down His life. They did not take
• 22:43
  it from Him, but He laid it down. And you remember,
• 22:47
  as we have read from Matthew 21, what they were
• 22:50
  singing as He was coming into the city, Hosanna
• 22:54
  to the Son of David, Hosanna in the highest.
• 22:57
  Well, that word, hosanna, is a wonderful word,
• 23:01
  and it is a word of praise, but what's really
• 23:04
  underneath it is this. O save us. Hosanna means,
• 23:11
  O save us. We know this from places like Psalm
• 23:15
  118, 25. Save us, we pray, O Lord. And so what
• 23:21
  does Jesus save us from? We've already read from
• 23:23
  Ephesians. We know that. And yet the people of
• 23:26
  Jerusalem, what did they think Jesus was coming
• 23:28
  to do? To be a great military leader. They greatly
• 23:35
  underestimate Jesus, don't they? They underestimate
• 23:39
  Him. He does something much more powerful than
• 23:41
  just being an ordinary King. He, as I said, is
• 23:44
  the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and
• 23:47
  He is King eternal. And a King who dies for sinners
• 23:52
  is worth every single triumph and shout. As Rick
• 23:56
  Phillips says up at Second Prez, a King like
• 23:59
  this is worth shouting over. And so, friends,
• 24:04
  I hope you see what King Jesus really does for
• 24:07
  us. He meets us where we are. Yahweh, seeing
• 24:13
  that we were kingless, He sends a king. Defenseless,
• 24:17
  He defends. In need of salvation, and He saves.
• 24:23
  As I begin to conclude, friends, if you have
• 24:28
  trouble seeing the connection, between the Old
• 24:32
  Testament and the New Testament. Let me ask you,
• 24:36
  what other king in the history of the world could
• 24:41
  be described in this way? What other king could
• 24:45
  be described like this? Their answer is there
• 24:49
  is no other king who could be described like
• 24:52
  this. And so the question then is, since Jesus,
• 24:58
  who fulfills this prophecy, Believes himself
• 25:01
  to be and knows himself to be the King that is
• 25:05
  written in Zechariah since he believes that Do
• 25:10
  you Do you believe that Jesus is the King of
• 25:14
  Kings and the Lord of Lords? Do you believe that
• 25:17
  Jesus is the King who came humbly with righteousness
• 25:21
  and having salvation? Friends I believe this
• 25:26
  text is abundantly clear again all four gospels,
• 25:32
  triumphal entry, and we find it hundreds of years
• 25:36
  before it happened. And so today, trust Jesus,
• 25:40
  worship him, not as the crowds in Jesus' day,
• 25:45
  but worship him always, because he will always
• 25:49
  reign. Let us pray.