Jesus was God, breaking through into our world.  His coming matters!  It changes everything!  He is a king who ushers in a new kingdom.  He brings an end to all oppression and evil and gloom. We haven’t seen all the results yet, but the glory has begun, the joy has begun and the victory has begun.  And so the CELEBRATION has begun!  Or it should!  And that’s what this scripture tells us!  

Jesus is King, and that changes our world.  It changes our worldview.  Nothing is the same for us.  Now we see everything in life, our future, other people, our circumstances, our trouble and even evil, through the victory of this event.   

In this story we have Jesus, coming as king, riding on a donkey, and we have the crowd, celebrating him as king. There are two clear messages to us from this scripture. We are to SEE Jesus as our King.  And we are to CELEBRATE Jesus as our king.  God commands this!  

*The prophecy from Zechariah begins, “Behold your king!” Lift up your eyes from yourself and your circumstances and SEE HIM!  He is victorious and “comes with Salvation”!  He is your Deliverer!  Your Savior!  Everything is going to be alright because the king is here!  

Building up to this prophecy Zechariah 8:13,15 says, “You have been cursed among the nations Oh house of Judah, (but now) I will save you!  And you shall be a blessing!  Fear not, but let your hands be strong!”  “I have purposed to bring good to (you); fear not!”  The message of the triumphal entry is: The King is here! Do not fear! That’s exactly what John wrote about this event, “Fear NOT, behold your king is coming!”  

God wants us to turn our eyes on Jesus as king, because he is the all sufficient answer to everything! He is the salvation from all our fears and fulfillment of all our hopes! 

*And God desires us to CELEBRATE Jesus our King. He commands, “Rejoice greatly!  Shout out loud!”

We are to celebrate the blessedness of living under Jesus as our King!  A part of worship is unrestrained joy and celebration. There’s a place for solemn, reverent worship, falling on our face before God. But God wants us to celebrate the presence of our King.  Rejoicing with shouts of joy is the response God REQUIRES for the King he has sent to us!

And that is what the crowd did when Jesus entered Jerusalem.  Verse 8 they “spread their cloaks on the road, and cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.”  They did that as an act of homage or worship.  It symbolized laying down their lives before him. Verse 9 “And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

Often these people are accused of being the same people who shouted “crucify him” a few days later.  So it is said their worship was fickle. But we don’t know that. I believe this celebration was genuine.  But that’s not the point. The point is they showed the kind of worship Jesus deserved! They celebrated Jesus, like God wanted and commanded! 

Luke says Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”  This story is NOT about how right the crowd was.  It was about how right celebration of Jesus is.  God WILL have Jesus worshiped and celebrated as king!

If you don’t shout, someone else will! Or something else will!  Sometimes we rejoice in the Lord, we sing, we lift our hands, we shout Glory to God, just because our hearts overflow. Sometimes we worship just because God wills it.  

And this is a God-ordained spiritual priority. Derek Morphew said, “Before any kind of mission or service to the world, the church is to be a celebrating community”.  

Tozier said, “God wants worshipers first. Jesus did not redeem us to make us workers; He redeemed us to make us worshipers. And then, out of the blazing worship of our hearts, springs our work.”

We celebrate because our king has come. We are living under the rule of Jesus.  We are living under the love and protection, and the plan of our King Jesus. He is directing our lives and moving all human history to a culmination when all things in heaven and earth will be brought together under the authority of Christ. (Eph. 1:9,10) And we who love him will reign with him forever and ever.  There is no lasting defeat in our future!  

Everything will be all right!  So we celebrate.  When we have stopped celebrating, we have lost our awareness of Jesus as king. 

At the time of the 18th Century Methodist revival in Wales, the people were under the influence of the church of England, and their worship had become entirely formal, lifeless, dead.  Very few, even among the clergy knew what is was to be born again. But then Whitefield and Rolland and Harris came preaching that people were under the condemnation of God’s law for their sin, and then they presented the good news that Jesus delivers us from the condemnation of the law and from the wrath to come.  

When people understood how good the gospel was, they often would spontaneously would leap for joy in the middle of the service, and break out into songs. But the author said “the warmth of the revival was unbearable” to the established church. Why?  Because they had lost the sense of blessing that comes with Jesus!  Rejoicing and shouting for Jesus was totally foreign to them.  They could not comprehend that people would jump for joy over Jesus Christ. 

*“Behold your King” and “Celebrate your King” are the two unmistakable commands of this scripture from Zechariah. But I think we need to look at the bigger picture to really understand what was happening when Jesus rode into Jerusalem here just a few days before his death.

*When Adam sinned at the beginning of human history, it put all of his descendants, everyone who has ever lived, including us, in a terrible predicament.  Adam rebelled against God, and he produced a race of rebels, a line of sinners.  And with sin came the misery of sin, and the consequences of sin.  Instead God of walking with Adam in the garden as his friend, Adam became estranged from God.  He was banished from the perfect life he had in the garden. He lost the perfect joy of God’s presence.  

His relationship with Eve became strained with conflict.  And he experienced spiritual darkness and death in his own soul, and the loneliness of separation form God.  And they were both under the threat of impending judgment for their sin.  We were all born into this sinful, fallen condition and we have all felt the effects of that!  

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For things to get better, there had to be a way to remove God’s anger toward our sin.  There had to be a way to remove the monstrous and terrible consequences of sin. There had to be a way to remove death, disease, conflict, gloom, and sorrow.  There had to be a way to fix the brokenness of our lives, and most of all our broken relationship with God.

And over time, God made it clear (through the prophets) that the solution to our sin and misery would come by an Anointed Person who was qualified to lift us out of this terrible cycle of sin and death. God had the perfect answer for us! So 550 years before Jesus was born, God told his people to celebrate the Savior/King he would send to them! “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!”

Zion is Jerusalem but represents all Israel. Daughter of Zion is an affectionate name for God’s people.  So God speaks with the tender love of a father for his daughter and says, “Rejoice greatly, your king is coming to you”.

*There is supposed to be celebration because God’s king is the glorious answer to every personal need, and to every need they had as a nation.  He would solve the problem of sin and sorrow, evil and oppression. He would bring God’s people to a place of well-being and wholeness that they could only dream about!  He would bring in everlasting joy and everlasting righteousness and peace. All that was wrong with life would be solved by the coming King. 

In Matthew 21, Jesus rode into Jerusalem and proclaimed “I am that king!”   No one “makes” Jesus King or Lord!  He announces that he IS king!  But there are several remarkable details of this story that verify his claim to be the King.

First: Jesus ruled over this entire event. He initiated it and orchestrated it to the last detail.  Jesus displayed his sovereign control of all circumstances, people, even animals, to set up his victory procession into Jerusalem.  Verse 1 “Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied up, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.”  He knew the prophecy. He knew who he was.  He knew where the colt and its mother were. Just as the wind and the sea obeyed him, he had authority over these animals.  This was not a surprise party!  And it didn’t just happen!

Jesus appointed that donkey and colt for his purposes and he knew the owners, even seeing their property taken, would not resist the disciples. Even in that day, people did not just let their donkeys be taken without explanation.  So Jesus said, “If anyone asks what are you doing, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” He is ruling over his own coronation! 

Second: Jesus shows he is king by expecting unquestioning obedience from his disciples. Jesus said, “Go” and in verse 6 “The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.” The fundamental issue for all followers of a king is obedience. 

Do you realize how bizarre this thing was that Jesus told them to do? It’s like you are walking into Ankeny with Jesus, and he tells you to go to 400 SW Camden Dr. and you’ll find a Ford Mustang.  The keys will be in it.  Start it up and bring it to me.  Would you do that?! Sometimes Cindy asks me to do something and I tell her, “I don’t have the chutzpah to do that!  You might, but I don’t.”  Well when Jesus says to do something we’ve got to do it, no matter how far out of our comfort zone it pushes us.  

This is why it is so important to come to the Word of God with a heart of unconditional obedience.  Whether it is the command to be baptized, to love your enemy, to forgive, to earnestly desire spiritual gifts, to give thanks in all things; if the word of God commands it, tradition, comfort, personality, other people’s opinions, everything has to take a backseat to what the Lord says!

*Jesus shows he is king by assuming the right to take and use what he needed.  He takes the donkey and her colt because “he has need of them”.  Jesus has the right to use you, and anything you have, anyway he pleases.  Your life is his. He may choose to use you as single or married, rich or poor, in public visible ways or in private unseen ways.  It’s ALL up to him.  We give ourselves to the Lord for whatever he wants or needs.  We say “Do with me whatever you please.” 

*Jesus shows he is king by calling himself “Lord’.  He said, “tell them the Lord has need of them”.  Not too many people can get by with calling themselves “The Lord”. But Jesus calls himself Lord as easy as you call yourself by your first name.  

And when the crowd shouts “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”  Jesus does not correct them. He knows HE is the one the prophets spoke about!  He knows WHO he is!  And he accepts their praise and worship.  

*Then finally Jesus shows he is king by fulfilling the ancient prophecy by riding into Jerusalem as king seated on a colt.  Verse 4 “This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet.”  Anyone who knew the OT prophecies, (and the Jews did!)  would know that the man riding this donkey (this Jesus) was claiming to be their King and Messiah. He was putting it right in their face!              

*So by entering Jerusalem claiming to be the Messiah and King, Jesus demanded a response. We see only two main responses, the crowd and the Pharisees.  The Pharisees are furious and still reject him.  But this crowd of common people shout and rejoice and honor Jesus.  Verse 9 “And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 

Hosanna is a cry of worship but it literally means save now, save now.  They were celebrating the salvation the king would bring.  They did not fully understand God program or timetable.  They expected a king who would crush their political enemies.  And someday he will do that!  But now their cry for salvation now would be “answered with the cross. Because that was the salvation they needed right now, even if they didn’t know it. 

God had to deal with our fallen human hearts and set up Christ as king in our hearts before he sets him up as king of the nations!  They did not understand all that…. But these people got one thing right!!  They saw Jesus as king and they celebrated him with unrestrained joy and shouting!

*Of course the other response that a King requires is submission.  If you say Jesus is Lord, or Jesus is King that  requires complete allegiance and obedience!  Do you live your life under the authority of Jesus?  He is your savior, your friend, he is humble and gentle, full of compassion, able to sympathize with our weaknesses.  But he is the king!  He is not here just to give you a little help, a little guidance, and little coaching. He is not here just to help you overcome a problem, or a bad habit, or make you more successful. Jesus comes with all consuming authority over every area of life!  He comes to rule every inner thought and attitude, to rule every outward word and action.   

*YET, he comes in such a humble way!  Even though this is a glorious moment, there is something very humble about it.  Jesus did not come on a chariot decked out in flowing robes. There are no swords or spears.  He doesn’t march in as a conquering warrior. There is no red carpet rolled out for him.  There is just common people, on the spur of the moment, spreading their everyday cloaks and palm branches on the ground. Why so humble!  

*It was humble because it was supposed to be.  The prophets said the Messiah would come to the people that way. “your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey’”.  If he had come in some glorious procession, he would not have been the king the prophets said was coming! 

It was humble because Jesus was humble.  “I am gentle and humble in heart”.  

But mainly it was a humble coronation because Jesus was coming to die. He came to give his life a ransom for many.  He had an assignment that required the utmost humility.  He had to humble himself to the point of death, even death on a cross.  

Someday Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in blazing fire, dealing out retribution to his enemies. And to be marveled at by his saints.  He will rule the nations in power and glory. But FIRST he had to remove God’s anger for our sin!  First he had to conquer our sin and our hearts. He did that by dying on the cross and then sending his Spirit to rule in our hearts.

*Jesus came into Jerusalem to proclaim himself the king, but He is the king who dies for us. We sing the song, “Amazing love how can it be that you my King would die for me.”  

Just before this event in Matthew 20:18 Jesus told his disciples,  “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and will hand him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify him...”.  This was the plan and he knew it. 

His death was the great purpose of his first coming!  He said, “I came to give my life as a ransom for many.” Jesus was not some kind of hero whose life ended in a tragic death.  Death was triumph.  The work was finished.  

As king he died for us.  He is now our risen king.  And he is coming back as our king.  We celebrate our king for the great victory over sin and death he has already won for us, we worship him for his present authority and power. We celebrate him as king for all that is coming in the new heavens and the new earth.

The writer of Hebrews said Christ came once to bear our sins, but “He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await Him.” So it’s not all over.  We have only tasted of the powers of the age to come.  There is so much more to come!   But Jesus has visited us.  The king has come.  And we live under his rule and blessing right now!  And we are supposed to celebrate that!  There is nothing better that living life with Jesus as king, now and forever.   Hosanna in the highest!!!