The Lowly King Came to Save and Conquer: Part 1

I'd like to speak to you on this Palm Sunday today. The lowly king comes. It speaks of his two comings. There's two comings. The lowly king comes to save and conquer. To save and conquer. Keep in mind that if you read through the book of Zechariah, I'd like to encourage you to do so.

I was listening to Pastor John MacArthur at the Shepherd's Conference and this was his heart, passion about eschatology and about the second coming of Jesus Christ. And he pointed everyone, all these elders or these shepherds, under shepherds I should say, that shepherd God's people to the book of Zechariah.

And I didn't hear the whole message but what little I heard, I was stirred to go to this book. And I said, how fitting it is. Here we are approaching Palm Sunday. And you go to Zechariah 9 and there's so much there in chapter 9.

Especially verse 9 which speaks about his first coming and then transition to verse 10 all the way to the end of the entire book speaks about his second coming. There is much, much here. And the more I read it, the more I was meditating on it, God's Word was just taking hold of me and certain verses were just really leaping out of the pages.

And as I was reading the Word of God and hearing audibly, it's incredible. I encourage you, really encourage you, before the Lord comes back, read Zechariah. Read the book of Zechariah. And before I go any further, let's bow in prayer and seek the Lord's face in this time of worship as we open His Word and hear from Heaven and ask His blessing upon this time.

Let's pray. Our Father and our God, we come before Your throne now having access only through the blood covenant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, I come and I confess my weakness before You. Yet I tremble, Lord, before this Word,.

Your holy Word.

And as I tremble, Lord, we all do with great respect because of Your eternal Word. We come boldly, Lord, with confidence in Your Spirit, confidence in You and not in the flesh to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Lord, we need Thee.

As the old song goes, we need Thee every hour. These are desperate times we're living in. Encourage our hearts, convict our hearts and help us. Lord, we need to be praying desperately because of these desperate times.

As the prayer we heard this morning, the Apostle Paul, we pray, O God, help us by Your Holy Spirit in this hour. Hide me behind the cross, Lord. May we hear Your Word and may Jesus Christ be praised. Sanctify us through that Word for that Word is truth.

And Lord, we know that only by Your Word, as David says in Psalm 19, Your servant is warned and in keeping Your Word, there is great reward. So, Father, we pray that You will be glorified and Jesus Christ, Your Son, be lifted up.

Change us from glory to glory and from faith to faith, O God, that we would be more of a burning and a shining light in what remainder days that we have until Christ comes or until You call us home. O Lord, our prayer is that may we make a difference in our generation for Your glory.

And our heart cry is, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come and Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. We ask this in the name that's above all names, the name of Jesus.

Amen.

When we step back and view the whole Bible in its context, the panorama view astonishes us how God in His sovereignty is fulfilling His awesome plan to enthrone His Son, as Psalm 2 speaks of, His King upon Mount Zion, Jesus Christ, as King over all kings,.

Lord over all lords,.

And over all nations. This is God's goal for His Son. The Father's goal for God the Son, Jesus Christ. The Scriptures are fulfilling itself as we speak at this moment. And the events during Passion Week, especially Palm Sunday and Easter are deeply embedded into God's redemptive plan.

And saying that, an introduction here, we do well to remember the great importance of the two comings of Christ,.

The King.

And keep this before our eyes.

Sadly but true,.

There will be some like Judas Iscariot that had no place for a lowly king.

When he came.

And actually, if you read in Zechariah, it speaks about the 30 pieces of silver that Jesus was portrayed for. These people,.

The hypocrites,.

They allow their earthly visions to drive them as Judas, not even being aware of the very reason why Jesus had come humbly mounted upon a donkey. They don't understand the significance and the great humility of who it is who came.

But Jesus will soon come again in full power over all the nations to reign as King of Kings. Sadly, right down the road, there's a church, a very liberal church, a United Methodist church that has a woman pastor.

Which is unbiblical.

God does not permit a woman to be a pastor and God is frowning upon this. And yet, they put on that sign, Jesus is coming. Such blasphemy. We know that's true, right? But not for people that does not understand the biblical context of the significance of the second coming of Jesus.

They're going to be quite surprised when He comes. In the meantime, we should keep our eyes of faith upon Jesus.

Amen?

And let Christ deal with those that are blaspheming His name because this is why judgment is upon us. No matter how enticing global leaders, by the way, in the political realm, the government realm, make empty promises of peace and prosperity, we ought to keep our eyes on Jesus.

And beloved, let me say this, there's no book of the Bible that's more concise and clear, more clear, outside of the book of Revelation and the New Testament, but I speak about the Old Testament that is more precise, more clear in the Old Testament than the prophet Zechariah.

Concerning the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Specifically.

Now, as you turn to Zechariah, hold your place at chapter 9. We're going to be jumping around here, but I'd like to take you through in this introduction a brief introduction as much as possible, but Zechariah chapter 9 is tremendous.

There's a transition here. But if you read through this entire book, the prophet begins basically a call to repentance. His people to a call to repentance. But yet at the same time, in that same chapter, the Lord will comfort Zion.

There's much here. There's many prophecies that are spoke of. And if you read it, throughout this, you will see that God Himself, I heard this come up. You have to look for the verses. I didn't get a chance to write these verses down, but time and time and time again, you see that God is jealous over His people.

He's jealous over them, and they are God's people. Israel is the apple of God's eye. He's in covenant with these people. These are His people forever. And through an everlasting covenant, we will see this.

Now, Zechariah chapter 9 is tremendous, but the entire book is tremendous. So to understand chapter 9, you need to read through the entire book and what the whole message is about. This awesome book is, like I said, second in the Old Testament.

I would say second to Isaiah. I should have mentioned that at the offset, but Isaiah in the Old Testament. But when it speaks about the second coming of Jesus, Zechariah has much to say. The breadth of the prophet's writings about the Messiah is tremendous.

It's in depth. According to tradition, let's talk about who is Zechariah. Zechariah the prophet was a member of the great synagogue. He was part of the council of 120 originated by Nehemiah. So it would really pay to read Ezra, Nehemiah, and Haggai.

Zechariah's opening words are dated from 520 BC before Christ even arrived on this earth. The historical background and the setting of Zechariah are the same as that of his contemporary Haggai. So read Haggai in conjunction with Zechariah.

Matter of fact, Zechariah and Haggai were commissioned by the Lord to stir up the people of God to rebuild the temple along with Nehemiah. And as a result, the temple was completed four years later in 516 BC.

According to Ezra chapter 6 verse 15. Now we come to chapter 9. That's just a very brief introduction. There's much, much more that could be said about Zechariah. But I'd like to get right into the message.

When we come to this chapter in Zechariah, we have the first look of a promised king. This is incredible. But how accurate God's word, precise God's word is and are these prophecies. When we come to this chapter in Zechariah, we have the first look of this promised king.

And you would note a common thread throughout human history since Adam's fall and since sin entered into this world. Number one, oppression. There's oppression. Two, there's great pressures in life. The pressures of life.

And three, there's destruction. And last, there's death. Back up a little bit and look at verse 1. Before we get to verse 9. Verse 1 says, The burden of the word of the Lord against the land of Hadrach.

And Damascus, its resting place for the eyes of man and all the tribes of Israel are on the Lord. Are on the Lord. God's word says this. From chapter 9 verse 1 to chapter 14, the end of the chapter, the end of the book, to verse 21, it basically, the employing phrase, the phrase, in that day, in that day continues to rise.

You will see this pop up. In that day, in that day. That day is talking about the day, not of the Lord,.

It is of the Lord,.

But it's also day for the Lord. Day for the Lord. It's actually mentioned 18 times in Zechariah and places primary focus in his two undated oracles, which are burdens. Number one, the downfall of the nation.

Two, the salvation of Israel. And three, the establishment of the Messiah as king to reign. The first oracle in chapter 9 verse 1 to chapter 11 verse 17 deals specifically with the first and third features and ends with the prophecies of the rejection of Christ at His first coming.

Important.

So it's divided up here. Then you have a second oracle, a second burden, basically an oracle. Chapter 12 verse 1 to 14 verse 21 to the very end deals primarily with the second and third culminating with the kingdom of the Messiah.

Jesus.

Now notice the phrase with me in verse 1. The burden of the word of the Lord. The burden of the word of the Lord. This is very important to understand. This basically refers to a weighty load. A very weighty load that God places upon the prophets to speak.

I assure you it's much more of a weighty load than we will ever know. God Himself placed this upon His prophets to speak. The prophecies that God gave them as the Holy Spirit was breathing upon them were often very heavy.

And these men knew even though they were holy men of God and righteous men of God they knew that this message was not going to be pleasant because most of the time as they spoke it was a message of judgment.

A judgment because of their obstinance, their rebellion, and their sin and their iniquity and their breaking and disobedience to the commandments of the Lord and the statutes of the Lord and God was displeased with them.

Even though they were still God's people because of His covenant upon them God was always faithful to His covenant but God always acted in loving kindness and mercy even in discipline to give judgment to bring them back and to restore them.

A lot of people look at the thunders of judgment as something horrific and it is horrific but God's purpose in judgment is always to restore.

You will see this.

Order in Scripture and as God works. The prophecies that God gave so that it was very heavy upon them. The term.

The burden of the Lord.

The oracle of God the oracle of the Lord also extended to the burden upon the people and nations that heard these prophecies. Example. If you turn to Zechariah turn a few pages over. Notice in verse 1 chapter 12 this whole chapter speaks about the coming deliverance of Judah.

It begins.

The burden.

There it is the burden of the word of the Lord against Israel. Matthew and Henry basically comment when you hear the burden of the word of the Lord.

The oracle.

He says the sermon is just beginning. Thus says the Lord who stretches out the heavens lays the foundation of the earth and forms the spirit of man within them. You see this time and time again. Nahum 1 .1 the burden of Nineveh.

Isaiah 15 .1 the burden of Moab. Isaiah 17 .1 the burden of Damascus. Isaiah 19 .1 the burden of Egypt. And the NASB again and the LSB the new translation that is very accurate to the original Hebrew and Greek translates this word burden as oracle again.

Malachi 1 .1 the oracle of the word of the Lord. Habakkuk 1 .1 the oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw constantly. You see this. It's interesting as a footnote here that this phrase became so overused by the false prophets that in Jeremiah's day that the Lord himself forbade them from using it.

Period.

It is a phrase that only God's called prophets could speak. The false prophets were not allowed to speak it. As a matter of fact Jeremiah 23 .38.

Says this.

And he is speaking to these false teachers these false prophets for if you say the oracle of the Lord surely thus says the Lord because you said this word the oracle of the Lord I have also sent to you saying you shall not say the oracle of the Lord.

Kind of like people saying the Lord told me.

Flippantly praise the Lord flippantly.

Beloved this is taking the name of the Lord in vain right here in it's context. God says those who do so the Lord will not leave him unpunished. Who takes his name in vain.

And that is scripture.

The word vain.

Basically.

Does not mean necessarily a curse word. It can mean that but here in it's context it's speaking in vain means.

Emptiness nothingness.

Worthlessness.

Flippantly.

So when we when people use the Lord's name in vain without giving it it's proper weight.

It is.

Worthlessness.

That's what they are doing and God is forbidding them.

You don't speak this.

The false prophets. So the burden of the Lord.

The burden of the Lord the oracle of the Lord.

Is to be taken very seriously and those who uses his name in vain this is an abomination to God and God will not leave them unpunished. But when Zachariah the prophet uses it here in Zachariah 9 .1 the sermon begins as Matthew Henry says it's not flippant it's serious.

There is something weighty he has to say to us and it is very serious and that's why we need to be very attentive when God speaks. When we speak from this Bible.

God speaks.

Now.

Let's jump to verse 9.

This is.

Really the meaty portion of it.

The coming king.

The coming king we see his first coming here. This is a prophecy of Jesus his first coming.

It says this.

Rejoice.

Greatly.

Don't you love that? Rejoice greatly oh daughter of Zion. I cannot help to hear in my head right now a soprano. A soprano whether it be Renee Fleming or someone getting up singing from George Frederick's classic The Messiah and that part and he takes this verse and he basically puts beautiful glorious music to it and you can almost hear it.

Rejoice greatly oh daughter of Zion. Shout oh daughter of Jerusalem.

It's.

It's highlighted it's almost like a shout behold your king is coming to you he is just having salvation.

Lowly.

Riding on a donkey a colt.

The foal of a donkey.

Wonderful text isn't it?

Wonderful.

A colt.

The foal of a donkey. Now we see the promised king Jesus coming his first coming. And what we see however is not what his people really expected right? They did not expect to see a lowly king coming on a donkey as Alexander the Great conquered.

And by the way one of these verses was fulfilled by Alexander the Great in history later on as he came.

And as he conquered.

Nation after nation. And he would ride a king would gloriously ride with a with a horse and triumph as he conquered but not Jesus. The first time he came he comes riding on a donkey lowly riding on a donkey a colt the foal of a donkey.

Not what they expected right? But that at this particular time the post-exilic Israel had no king. Let's keep this in mind.

But they.

They are told to rejoice greatly because the king was coming. He would be a good king he would be a gracious king he would not be an evil king no one like Alexander the Great.

Jesus.

Would be all good and great and gracious. And there's several attributes. We'll look at them here briefly in a minute but it's described of Jesus and the New Testament basically reveals to us exactly who this king is.

And we know.

It's the Lord Jesus Christ no doubt about it. And all by the way all four gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Matthew 21 is being read this morning. Mark chapter 11 Luke 19 John 12 all four gospel writers speak about this event.

All four accounts four accounts tell and speak of how the king comes into Jerusalem now. Zechariah 9 9 and 10 are tremendously tremendously significant. It presents a prophecy.

Whose fulfillment.

Was clearly set in motion and although not completed yet by Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem.

On a colt.

The well known triumphant entry. There is more to the story that was only part of the prophecy right? But it's important.

Fulfillment.

As we see his first coming that has been fulfilled the second coming.

Not yet.

But it's soon to come both Matthew and John. This is interesting as I was looking into this in my own personal study. Both Matthew and John mention this passage. All of them do but John even notes that the disciples saw no immediate connection between Jesus.

Riding on the colt.

And his identity as the Messiah prophesied in Zechariah. Only all of them mention this event but.

Specifically.

The verse here the fulfillment. Matthew and John mention the passage but it was kind of fog to them after Jesus was glorified and basically that means after he was risen from the dead. According to John 12, 16 the scripture says then they remembered.

That these things.

Were written about him then they remembered then they remembered after he rose from the dead. These verses in Zechariah include an important transition and the arrival of the saving king is followed immediately.

By the description.

Of the effects.

Of his long term reign.

That is soon to come as king of kings and lord of lords. One commentary put it this way this is an example of prophetic compression. I like that.

Why does he say.

Prophetic compression because verse 9 and verse 10 is compressed with two comings. And as they were speaking as the spirit of God was giving these words they had no idea of the timelines. Nor do we only his first coming because we do know his first coming.

You see.

We're in between. We look to the past. They were looking to the future. We look to the past but we're in the middle. They were in the past looking to the future of the first and second coming. We're in the middle looking back to his first coming.

But in the middle.

Waiting for his second coming. You see that? Now that is a prophetic compression these two verses the two comings of Jesus Christ.

His first.

And second coming.

Is compressed.

Into two verses viewed from the broader context of the prophecy Zechariah was mentioning together the two stages.

Here.

The two phases and God's sovereign plan which are actually separated in time. Jesus came first as a humble king of peace endowed with salvation manifested in.

Jesus'.

Earthly ministry and his death on the cross as the lamb of God to take away the sin of the world.

Second.

Jesus will come as a victorious ruler on his second coming to conquer over the whole entire world and over all nations. It's going to happen and it's going to happen soon.

Beloved beloved.

We should rejoice greatly as the text says rejoice greatly greatly over Jesus' first coming and his anticipation.

To complete the fulfillment.

Of Zechariah's prophecy at Christ's glorious return as he comes again.

Now.

In verse 8. To back up a little bit notice with me I will camp around my house because of the army because of him who passes by and him who returns no more shall an oppressor pass through them. For now I have seen with my eyes rejoice greatly oh daughter of Zion.

If you notice.

In verse 9 as this wonderful text says there is a fanfare. Rejoice greatly.

Second.

There is a coronation of the king the cult's connection with the anointing.

Third.

He is just meaning righteous.

Fourth.

He brings salvation he is endowed with salvation.

Fourth.

His identity.

He is humble.

He enters Jerusalem.

On a cult.

Rejoice greatly. Oh daughter of Zion oh daughter of Zion let's look at that for a minute here daughter of Zion this is a wonderful term of endearment. Again like I said daughter of Zion Jerusalem Israel they are the apple of God's eye.

People say well pastor what about the church. Well if you read in Romans Paul basically says the church is grafted in.

So the church.

And Israel even though they seem to be two they are one. It's kind of like in marriage the two become one. We are grafted in still with Israel because of the covenant the blood covenant specifically.

But this whole book.

Is a Jewish book and it's all about.

The Jewish people.

And it's about Israel.

And you're going to see.

That God fights for Israel because he made a covenant with Israel he made a covenant with Abraham that's why he's called the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Because of the covenant he entered in with each one of them and it was renewed through the Davidic covenant.

It's beautiful.

And when God makes a covenant.

He keeps his word.

It's a contract it's an agreement that God makes.

Now.

This.

Daughter of Zion don't you love that term. It's endearment. Of course it's. It's a mountain upon which Jerusalem is built and scripture says Jerusalem is the city of the great king so Zion and Jerusalem are virtually synonymous with the context here.

This verse is reminiscent of chapter 2 verse 10 which says sing and rejoice daughter of Zion for behold I come and I will dwell in the midst of you. And says Yahweh. It's almost very similar. It is also reminiscent of Zephaniah 3 .14 which says sing daughter of Zion shout Israel be glad and rejoice with all your heart daughter of Jerusalem.

Zephaniah goes on to assure the people of Yahweh's forgiveness and his presence among them his forgiveness his presence. And may I ask this question what's the cause of rejoicing here?

Why should we.

Rejoice greatly? Well the text tells us there's much cause to rejoice.

The kingdom has come.

But not in its fulfillment. The kingdom is here and it's yet to be but the king himself has arrived that's the good news.

Isn't it?

That's the good news it ties in with the birth of Christ why he came and he comes lowly in great humility. Isn't it incredible when you see the the Lord Jesus Christ and how he comes. And this is God who made the world as we've been looking at through John's gospel and yet he comes in the most lowly and humble way.

Folks.

We really do not know what true humility is. We can know it intellectually but we don't know it by personal affliction and actually that's what.

It really means.

It means personal affliction. Well look at that now the cause to rejoice is the king has come.

And he's just.

Actually that word just means he's righteous and does not the scripture say that Jesus is the righteous one. He is the righteous one he's endowed with salvation he has salvation and he's humble he's gentle.

He's lowly.

Glorious attributes of king Jesus. The word just means righteous and lawful makes me think about Jesus as described in the Bible especially the fulfillment of the law. When he preached that great great sermon the sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter 5 verse 17 he said I did not come to destroy the law but I came to fulfill the law.

And he did. He fulfilled all the law and taught us the true meaning of the law of God. In Matthew 22 36 through 40 he is the righteous one he is the holy one he is true and faithful he is righteous who fulfilled the law of God to the very T crossing of the T and the dotting of the I.

Jesus is truly humble you know this word humble is interesting.

It means.

It's a root word meaning afflicted and oppressed afflicted and oppressed. Jesus said in Matthew 11 29 who is meek and lowly and gentle of heart.

He said.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and I am lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. I tell you what when I think about that and the way people is out and about so disturbed in their souls and so much in torment and they reject the one that can only give them rest.

For their souls.

The one that died upon the cross gentle, meek and lowly died in shame and the closest and accurate translation of lowly and gentle is this word that is literally to the original Hebrew. Here it means afflicted.

Afflicted, of course that to people that rejected him doesn't make sense. We're talking about a king to rejoice over until we recognize.

That he.

Because of who he is and because of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53.

Jesus was afflicted.

Rejected. And he's our king. Isn't that glorious? King of all kings but yet.

Afflicted.

We see this in Isaiah don't we? Doesn't it remind you of Isaiah 53? And that is a.

Wow.

That is a incredible chapter. MacArthur says this is. How did he say it brother Ben? This is the slaughter the torture chamber for the Jewish people. That's right torture chamber. Verse 4. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted.

There it is afflicted. A lot of times when we think afflicted we think of. We think of torture but it means humble.

He is humbled he humbles.

And there is affliction of the physical torments and the spiritual torments and no one took it like Jesus did. He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed.

So many of the.

Prosperity. Gospel preachers all take this as the healing. Physically. They can't get beyond the physical. Can they? This means soul healing. This means God heals your soul. We all like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Listen to verse 7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearer is silent.

So he opened not his mouth.

Wow.

Incredible lowly gentle.

Humble.

Afflicted of course the Lord Jesus Christ he is endowed now with salvation. This just one the righteous one. In the original Hebrew it means Yahshah. Yahshah it is a verb that means to save or to be a savior.

God is our savior Jesus is our savior. They are synonymous. They are together because Jesus is God. Jesus means Jehovah saves.

Actually.

Luke 2 verse 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a savior who is Christ the Lord. I can't help but think every time I read that verse. The wonderful cartoon put together by Charles Schultz.