The King of the World
The Gospel of John • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 3 viewsJesus is presented as the king of Israel who has come to die on behalf of His people
Notes
Transcript
Welcome
Easter next Sunday
We normally put quite a bit of emphasis on attendance for Easter. But I am not this year. I want it to be a worshipful time and not a stressful time. If people come, praise the Lord. And if people don’t come, we are going to praise the Lord. But I want our focus to be on worshiping God and not on gathering people.
This week is Holy Week.
Each day has significance of what Jesus did on His last week on earth. Try to spend a portion of each day in His Word, preparing your heart for Easter.
Scripture Reading
Psalm 118:22-29 “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief corner stone. This is the Lord’s doing; It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it. O Lord, do save, we beseech You; O Lord, we beseech You, do send prosperity! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord; We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, and He has given us light; Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I give thanks to You; You are my God, I extol You. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting.”
Pastoral Prayer
God’s Presence
God’s blessing
God’s glory
INTRODUCTION
Today is Palm Sunday
This is a very special day that really began way before Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey 2,000 years ago.
Palm Sunday began as a prophecy, a foretelling of the future when a grand King, truly the king of the world, would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey and establish a world wide kingdom.
This prophecy is found in Zechariah comes from about 500 BC, 500 years before the birth of Christ:
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; And the bow of war will be cut off. And He will speak peace to the nations; And His dominion will be from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.
What this passage declares is that a king was coming to Jerusalem. And this was written during a time when there was no king. Zedekiah was the last king in Israel and was taken into captivity in Babylon. And Israel was well aware of what kings were like. Some kings were good and the people experienced blessings, and some kings were bad, and the people experienced oppression.
But this King will not be an ordinary king, his kingdom will be global. He will not ride on a horse like other kings, but a donkey. He will not be pride and glorious like other kings, but humble and bringing peace.
This was a prophecy that called from “Great Rejoicing”. No better news had ever been given to the nation of Israel.
Now let’s look in the gospel of John, and what we are going to read in the NT is the exact fulfillment of that OT prophecy.
John 12:12-19 “On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him. So the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify about Him. For this reason also the people went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him.””
Do you see any parallels between these passages?
“Endowed with salvation” ~ “Hosanna” (save now!)
“Behold your King is coming to you” - word for word
“mounted on a donkey” ~ “seated on a donkey”
“to the ends of the earth” ~ “the world has gone after Him”
Jesus Christ completely and perfectly fulfills the OT prophecy of the coming Messiah King.
Church we are not taking a chance by worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor are we giving up our earthly lives for some fairy tale. Nor are we putting our hope in something that the 12 disciples made up on night after Jesus had been crucified.
We are worshiping, and following, and serving the King of Kings who has been sent to earth to bring in the kingdom of God. We are following the Holy One of God who is endowed with salvation, who truly is the King of Israel and King of the whole world.
Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!”
John 12:12–13 On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.”
Explanation:
What we see in this OT Scripture is the call to rejoice because this great King was coming! That means that we should have joy or delight in what we have in Jesus. But it doesn’t say just rejoice, but “rejoice greatly!”. This means great joy and great delight should be in our hearts day after day, night after night, as we walk through this world knowing that Jesus Christ rules and reigns over our lives.
And it’s not just this prophecy that speaks of rejoicing, but that Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, with the red carpet rolled out, as the King ascended to His throne on Calvary, it says that the people rejoiced as well.
They took Palm branches and waved them in the air. They shouted, “Hosanna” which means ‘save now’. They praised Him so loudly that the whole city was in an uproar saying, “who is this?”
And if that superficial crowd could praise the King in that way, how much more should we on this side of the cross?
Praise should always be on the lips of God’s people
Praise should always be on the lips of God’s people
Why do we have such a hard time praising the Lord each and every day?
And I think if we read on in this story, we will see why. It’s because this crowd that praised and shouted with great excitement had the wrong idea of what Jesus had come to do. This crowd was really concerned about the nation of Israel, not the Kingdom of God.
This is why they waved Palm branches.
Palm branches:
The palm branches were a symbol of the Jewish state. There have been Jewish coins found with Palm Branches struck on them. As we have the American Flag as a symbol of our country, the Jewish people had Palm branches as a symbol of their country.
These were the MAGA people of today who were fueled with excitement about their nation being saved from the direction it had been going for hundreds of years, because a new leader was taking the reigns!
But Jesus did not come to make the nation of Israel Great again. Jesus came the save Israel from her sins and give her spiritual life.
I wonder how much of our praise is silenced today by misguided expectations and because we are looking for things that Jesus never promised us…
There are so many expectations that we can develop of Christianity, of the church, of worship, of following Jesus, BUT these verses remind us that we are to praise Him because He is “endowed with salvation”.
Application
Do you know what good practice is to help us have hearts that praise the Lord? It is remembering our lives before we ever came to Christ.
One of the songs we sing is “In Christ Alone”. And that song goes on the say, “In Christ alone, my hope is found He is my light, my strength, my song”
First Baptist Dallas does that song so well. And I have watched them sing it several times. One of my favorite clips is with a woman in choir who has her hand raised and all down that arm is full of tattoos. And she is just bursting with joy. And when I see her sing, I think I wonder what her life was like before Christ.
Luke 7:47 ““For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.””
I think our praise would be much greater if we remembered all that He saved us from, and all that we have in Christ spiritually!
Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”
Explanation:
Had this been King David riding into Jerusalem, he would have rode in on a horse with a sword. Had this been King Solomon he would have rode in on a horse. But Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey.
Why did He ride in on a donkey?
The fulfillment of prophecy from Zechariah said that this King “endowed with salvation” would come on the back of a donkey. But that is not the only reason why!
The donkey is a symbol of peace and humility. When Jesus rode in on that donkey, He is saying with his actions that He did not come to make war with the world, but to bring peace to It. And He would do so through His humble obedience.
Jesus did not come to bring peace between men, but peace between man and God.
Matthew 10:34 ““Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
This kind of peace Jesus brings can only come through the cross. It is a peace that must somehow take away our offenses against God. A peace that would cancel out the transgressions of the Law!
This peace that Jesus gives is a peace that no man can find on His own because no man can remove sin from His own account or make himself right with God!
No one can remove his own transgressions, only God can do that!
And what this announcement begins with: “fear not….your King is coming to you”
Why are they told to have no fear?
Because the King of the World is ascending to His throne. Not a worldly throne with limited power, but a heavenly throne where His power and authority is unlimited.
Matthew 28:18 “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”
Jesus does not have some authority, but all authority in heaven and on earth. That means there is no greater power, no higher level of authority in the very existence of the world than Jesus Christ.
And because Jesus has all authority, we have no reason to fear. We have no reason to fret and worry.
Application
If you are a child of God, AND you have placed your trust in the sovereign King of the universe, then you are under the shadow of the Almighty! Under the wing of God Almighty!
You are watched over!
You are cared for!
You are on God’s side, NOT under God’s wrath
Every circumstance in your life is guarded and watched over by the sovereign rule of Jesus Christ. You think about what is worrying you right now. You think about the source of your fears and anxiety right now and that God is watching over every detail of them. He can intervene at any point in time that He wishes and drastically change or manipulate situations however He sees fit.
Our call at this church right now is to trust in the rule of the King. No matter what happens, we are to rely upon His sovereign hand in all things knowing that He will keep us in His perfect will.
Do you know another source of our fear? It is thinking that God is going to fail us when we trust Him
I wonder how much different our lives would be if we truly believe God would never fail us?
Imagine the things you struggle to place your faith in God in right now. things you know you should do, but your afraid because you believe there is a chance God could fail you. And if God failed you, your life would be destroyed, or greatly damaged.
All of us have things we fear could happen if we truly trusted God that deeply.
Deuteronomy 31:8 ““The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.””
These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him.
Explanation
The disciples watched this entire thing unfold yet did not understand the deeper meaning of it all. What they saw was Jesus riding into town and being praised as the King of Israel. And rightly so, but they like the crowds, had their own expectations of who Jesus should have been. All that they could see is the physical things in front of them and were not able to see the deeper spiritual significance of what had unfolded.
This verse says it was only after Jesus was “glorified” that they truly understood what they had seen with their eyes. The waving of the palm branches, the fulfilment of Zechariah’s prophecy, the royal entrance of the King riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. And then on the third day the resurrection and triumph over sin and death.
Jesus was glorified when He was raised from the dead. Why did the resurrection make a difference in the understanding of the disciples?
Because when Jesus ascended into heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit down to earth to dwell inside all those who believe in Him.
It was the Spirit of God that removed the natural vision from them and gave them spiritual vision. It was only after they truly believed in Jesus and confessed Him as King of their lives that they received what was needed to give them understanding. The Holy Spirit opened their eyes that they could see past the human kingship and understood the spiritual kingship of Jesus.
Bridge
There are two sets of eyes that read this story today.
Those who see this as the disciples seen it. They see Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. Palm branches being waved and shouts of praise from the crowds. Cool but a superficial understanding.
Then there are those who have had their eyes opened by God through the Holy Spirit. These see this story as their King who is riding into Jerusalem to die for their sins. They call Him King not only because He claims to be King, but because their lives demonstrate that He is King over them.
It is Jesus who opened the eyes of the blind man in John 9. It was Jesus who said to the crowds that to know Him is to be able SEE Him.
And Jesus told the disciples in John 15 that He would not leave them orphans, but would send another Helper in John 14 who would be with them forever! Who is this Helper? The Holy Spirit. If if the Holy Spirit was another Helper who was the first Helper? JESUS!
Application
1) No one can come to truly understand the things of God without first offering themselves to God as a servant, a slave, a son, ready to obey and carry out His will. To those who received Him, He gave the right to become children of God.
2) Much of what we see God doing right now, cannot be understood until we look back over our lives.
It’s seeing where God prevented us from doing this or doing that. or God opened this door and has us walk through it. Or God brought this season if difficulty into our lives, or this dry season, or this exciting time. Or this fruitful time.
And much of this we do not understand at that moment, but then looking back we can begin to connect the dots and see the work of God.
Just because we do not understand something right now does not mean that it does not have great significance in our lives.
So much of the great things God has done, I have not fully understood until a great period of time and I can look back and see every corner, every heartache, every disappointment as part of God’s unfolding plan.
And every time this happens I rejoice that He is in control over my life and not myself.
What am I saying?
Whatever God is doing in your life, TRUST HIM EVEN IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND
Whatever God is doing in this church, we must trust Him even if we do not understand.
I assure you, God is in control, and God has a plan!
CONCLUSION
John 12:17–19 (NASB95)
So the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify about Him. For this reason also the people went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him.”
Explanation
Notice what the Pharisees say here, “the world has gone after Him”. They are not happy at all about this royal celebration happening before them. They have plans to kill this King before things really get out of hand. But no matter how hard they try, no matter how much they think they succeed by even hanging Jesus on a cross, God’s plan never misses a beat. God’s plan moves forward exactly as intended and accomplished exactly what it was determined to do.
That is because nothing can overthrow the purposes and plans of God.
No amount of evil, no amount of mistakes that we make, no amount of darkness over the world can change what God has determined to do
God will use whomever He pleases
God will save whomever He pleases
God will do whatever he sees fit
His call to us is to trust Him
Jesus King of the World
He is not just the King of Israel
He is not just king of Palestine
He is King of the whole world
~PRAYER~
