The Different King Matthew 20:29-21:11

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In 1996, I was a middle school student who rode the bus every morning to school.
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I lived about three miles from the school, but every morning I was on the bus for about an hour.
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While riding the bus, we had music playing. And so I know far too much about secular 90's music that I even want to know.
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One of the songs that I heard that came out in 1996 was One of Us by Joan Osborne.
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Here's the main chorus of the song. What if God was one of us? Just like one of us, just a stranger on the bus, trying to make his way home.
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Now it goes without saying that this is not a good song, but it is a secular song with an awareness that there is a
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God. The Bible says that everyone knows that he is there even if people don't like to admit it.
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Joan Osborne asked an interesting question. What if God was one of us? Now as this question is asked, the
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Bible is not in view, but the great irony is that he was one of us. As John 1 .14
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says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as the only son from the father, full of grace and truth.
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2 ,000 years ago, God became a man, and that man is, of course, Jesus Christ.
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When the world thinks about what God would look like, it is different from who he was when he came to this earth.
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He was not one who was hungry for power, demanding respect and submission wherever he went, but he was one, as we saw last week, one who was humble, selfless, and servant -hearted.
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He was one who preferred to spend time with the lowly rather than the powerful and the well -to -do of society.
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He is so different than what the secular world thinks God would be as a man.
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It is remarkable to think about this reality, that the one who created all things, the one who holds the universe in the palm of his hands, became flesh and blood as you and I are.
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The same one who created those ferocious animals who make us tremble, who created children who are precious, who creates a beautiful sunrise and sunset, who rewards the righteous and the wicked, the one who will give a judgment one day as people stand before him.
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That person became a man. He was different from every person you've ever met.
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Every person you have come across sinned and still sins. But this man never sinned.
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This man was always in perfect fellowship with his Father. This man had more patience than anyone you've ever known.
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He loved people more than anyone. He was more grieved by the sin of this world than anyone else.
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He was more righteously angry toward evil than anyone you've ever met.
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This man was one of us, yes, but also so much different from humans in this world.
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And yet through his saving work has been making people to be like him down through the centuries to the present day.
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And this morning as we continue our sermon series through Matthew, we are going to see this man who is also
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God do something extraordinary. As the King of the universe, he does something that the kings of the earth do not do.
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He rides into the city of kings on a donkey. That's what we're gonna look at this morning.
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So this time I encourage you to turn in the Bible with me to Matthew chapter 21. We're gonna look at the end of chapter 20 and then the first 11 verses of chapter 21.
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And if you're using a red Bible, it's on page 981. The sermon is titled
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The Different King. The Different King. And here's our big idea.
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Understand the uniqueness of Christ displayed at his first coming. Understand the uniqueness of Christ displayed at his first coming.
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We're gonna see three observations how in this text. But before we jump in and we go through these verses, let me give you a little recap of where we were one
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Sunday ago. We looked at the end of chapter 20 where Jesus told his disciples what it truly means to be his disciple.
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To truly be his disciple does not mean advancing one's own profile. It does not mean getting power to benefit oneself at the expense of others.
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To truly be Jesus' disciple means humbling oneself. It is understanding what love truly is and that is living a selfless life for the sake of others.
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Jesus is the ultimate example. His life on earth is one of living for the benefit of others as he served them.
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The ultimate example he set was by going to the cross to lay down his life in order that sinners can be saved.
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The Lord calls you to live this kind of life. One where God is glorified and others are blessed by your selflessness.
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By the grace of God, this kind of life you can live. Now this leads us to our text this morning.
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I didn't begin by reading the text because it's a larger chunk of scripture, but I'm gonna begin here by reading verses 29 through 34 of chapter 20.
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And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him, Jesus. And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside.
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And when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, Lord, have mercy on us, son of David.
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The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent. But they cried out all the more, Lord, have mercy on us, son of David.
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And stopping, Jesus called them and said, what do you want me to do for you? They said to him,
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Lord, let our eyes be opened. And Jesus, in pity, touched their eyes and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.
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Now at this point, Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem. And what the text tells us in verse 29 is that Jesus and his disciples leave
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Jericho for Jerusalem. Remember, Jesus' eyes are on the cross.
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He knows what God's will is for his life and so he heads to Jerusalem.
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The second half of verse 29 tells us that as Jesus was traveling, a great crowd followed him.
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We have seen this over and over again through Matthew. Wherever Jesus goes, the crowds follow him.
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And the text doesn't just say it's a crowd, it says it's a great crowd. And as they are traveling down the road, two blind men are sitting by the roadside and they hear from the crowds that Jesus is passing by.
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And Jesus has built a reputation of helping other people. When people come to him, they receive help.
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And these two blind men know that so that when Jesus is coming to them, what they shout is,
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Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David. What we know from this statement is that these two blind men are
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Jews. We know this because only a Jew would know the title, Son of David. Son of David is a messianic title.
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In 2 Samuel 7, the Lord promised King David a throne and in this promise, the
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Lord promised that this throne would be forever. The only one who could possibly sit on the throne forever is the
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Messiah. The Messiah is the one who comes from the line of David. So this title,
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Son of David, was known among the Jews. What these two blind men tell
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Jesus is, Lord, have mercy on us. And when we see the word mercy here, what the text is explaining is that these two blind men desire for Jesus to be merciful to them and the mercy they desire to experience is healing from their affliction.
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As they request Jesus to show them mercy, the crowd has been following him for a long time here.
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What happens here, though, is that they turn hostile toward these two blind men.
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They yell at them, telling them to be silent. But even though they receive this pushback to not cry out to Jesus, they continue to cry out to him.
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As the second half of verse 31 says, they cried out all the more. Lord, have mercy on us,
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Son of David. Here these two blind men show great faith and they show this in two ways.
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First, they believe he can heal them. They have heard the word about Jesus and they believe he can do this.
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They also show faith by believing in Jesus for who he really is. Their designation to him is correct.
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The Son of David. He is the Messiah. As we read in this text that the crowds are yelling at the blind men to stop talking,
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Jesus does not listen to the crowds. The crowds wanted to be with Jesus because he was the sensation of this time.
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He was the miracle worker. Wherever he went, that's where the people wanted to be. And so they're telling these two blind men, get away, we want
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Jesus to ourselves. But Jesus doesn't listen to them. Rather, he says to them in verse 32, to the two blind men, what do you want me to do for you?
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Jesus talks to them. He gives them the time of day. In the experience of these blind men, they did not hear this from other people.
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They were a nuisance. But Jesus gives them the time of day. And they respond in verse 33 by telling him,
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Lord, let our eyes be opened. There's so many things we take for granted in life. We take for granted the five senses we have.
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Taste, smell, sight, touch, hearing, there we go.
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Always write down what you're gonna say. During COVID -19, how many of you lost your taste?
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Anybody? Food is not good, is it, when you don't have your taste? What a miserable experience that is.
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In fact, I've talked to some people, they still don't have their taste back. And that is very difficult. Could you imagine not being able to see things?
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This was the experience of these two men. What we read is that they plead with the
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Lord. Open our eyes. What we read in verse 34 is that Jesus listens to their cry.
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As the text says, he has pity on them. From what we see from the crowd, the response the blind men were used to receiving was indifference and even worse, scorn.
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It is hard enough to be blind, but even harder to be considered an outsider in society. But Jesus showed pity on them and he healed them.
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And this is a lesson for you and I. As Christ's disciples, we should have compassion as Jesus had compassion.
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One of the marks that you're saved is that you actually care about the pain of others. If you're just a worldly person, you think about yourself, right?
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Your property, your home, your job, your success. That's your focus if you're an unbeliever.
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If you're a believer, how can I help this person? It's a way different life.
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We saw this a week ago where Jesus calls his disciples to be servants. Believers are those who look at the needs of others, those who just care about those needs and desire to do something to help.
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And this is what Jesus did with these two blind men. He listens to their need. He responds to them, shows compassion, and then he heals them.
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Sometimes in life, we run into people in high places who are like this. They do not see themselves as too high above others, but they are glad to help in any way they can.
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In their high position, they use this position to have compassion on others and help. It's rare to see those people, but they are out there.
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And we see Jesus doing that right here. He's the King of Israel. He's the
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King of the universe, displaying this unique love. He did this over and over again during his ministry, helping those whom the society overlooked.
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And we see him do that right here, the King, the Son of David. This is the kind of King he is. So understand the uniqueness of Christ displayed at his first coming.
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The first observation how is through caring for the needs of the weakest. The second thing we are to understand about the uniqueness of Christ displayed at his first coming is this second observation.
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Through humbling himself at every turn. Humbling himself at every turn.
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And we'll see this in the first seven verses of chapter 21. Now that Jesus has healed them on his way to Jerusalem, he drew near to Bethpage, which is right next to Jerusalem.
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And what Jesus does is send two of his disciples. This account that we are about to see is recorded in all four gospels,
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Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Three of these gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, record that Jesus sends two of his disciples on this important task.
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Let's read this in the first three verses of chapter 21. Now, when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethpage, to the
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Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her.
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Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, the Lord needs them, and he will send them at once.
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As these two disciples are being sent, they probably don't know what is happening. They have no idea that a prophecy from long ago is about to unfold in their midst.
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This is a prophecy about the Messiah coming to take his future throne. This prophecy came from the prophet
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Zechariah, who lived about 500 years before this prophecy comes to pass.
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What we read in the first three verses is that these two disciples of Jesus are sent to a village close by.
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And as they enter this village, they will find a donkey standing there and a colt with the donkey.
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Now, whenever we talk about animals, I'm not the expert here. You are. You've lived among animals in close proximity.
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This is a lot of farmers in this community, and you have a lot of wildlife roaming through your yards, and that's been a neat experience for Bree and I and the kids over the last several years, just seeing deer.
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This week, we had two bucks walk through our yard. You have bears and all different kinds of animals.
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So, as I'm about to tell you about what these animals are, I'm the uneducated one.
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A donkey is from the horse family with long ears that makes loud and annoying sounds, right?
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Good definition. When you hear a loon, it's one of the most beautiful sounds you will ever hear.
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But when you hear a donkey, it's one of the worst sounds you will ever hear. Now, a colt is a young male horse.
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A young donkey is also called a colt. So, what Jesus tells these two disciples is that there's an older donkey, the mother, and then a young male donkey, the colt.
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This donkey and colt, unbeknownst to them, of course, were born for the grand purpose that they are about to see.
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I mean, most donkeys, right? They disappear into obscurity. These ones do not. Jesus told the disciples that if anyone asks why they are taking the donkey and the colt, they are to say, if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, the
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Lord needs them and He will send them at once. What Jesus is telling the disciples is that He is going to borrow these animals and then send them back to the owners once He is done.
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What the account in Mark 11, 6 says is this, the disciples told them, that is the owners, what
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Jesus had said and they let them go. What this tells us is that it is likely that the owners of the donkey and the colt were believers because they were so willing to give them up for the sake of what the
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Lord was going to use them for. But no one involved here, not the two disciples, not the owners of these two animals, and certainly not the donkey and the colt, knew what great moment was going on.
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What I've already explained is that a prophecy is being fulfilled as verses 4 and 5 tell us. Verses 4 and 5 say this,
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This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the full of a beast of burden.
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The prophet Zechariah, whom I mentioned earlier, made this prophecy 500 years before.
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And here we see this prophecy being fulfilled. Prophecy is fulfilled exactly how the
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Old Testament text said it would be fulfilled. That's what's so amazing about prophecy.
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And that tells us a little thing about future prophecy. Future prophecy is fulfilled the same way past prophecy has been fulfilled.
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It's exactly what the text says. And this gives glory to God because He's the only one who knows the future. What the prophet
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Zechariah proclaimed in Zechariah 9 .9 is almost exactly what Matthew recorded in verse 5.
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The Old Testament prophecy reads, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.
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Behold, your king is coming to you. Righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the full of a donkey.
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In our text in Matthew 21, the text says that the Messiah will be mounted on a colt, the full of a beast of burden.
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Donkeys were called beasts of burden because they did the labor for ancient farmers. Long before farmers had machines to do the work for them, they used donkeys for this purpose.
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Now we might wonder why God's plan would be for Jesus to ride into Jerusalem in this unglamorous way.
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But as we look at this, what we see here is consistent with what we have seen throughout Matthew.
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Jesus came to this earth in humility and in weakness. He was born in a manger, which is a feeding trough for animals.
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And from there on, this is what His life was like. We saw this last week in Philippians 2, verses 6 and 7, where that verse reads this,
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Though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but emptied
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Himself by taking the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form,
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He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. Even death on a cross.
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Jesus' life on earth was one of humbling Himself. Serving and sacrificing for others all the way to the end.
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At His first coming, Jesus did not have a palace to live in like most every other king would have.
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Jesus didn't even have a home. He lived in Peter's home when He wasn't on the road.
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Jesus said this in Matthew 8 .20, Foxes have holes and birds in the air have nests, but the
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Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. To say that He was a simple guy at His first coming would be an understatement.
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He hardly had anything. We all have way more than He had. He came to serve and not to reign in power.
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He came in weakness, not in majesty. As John MacArthur wrote, the Incarnation was the time of His humiliation, not the time of His glorification.
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When Jesus returns, it will be much different as He will come in great power. But at His first coming,
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He came in weakness, not in splendor. And this is why He rode in on a donkey. He humbled
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Himself and would be humiliated to be our Savior. You will notice in the text that Jesus had two options to choose from concerning which animal to ride into on Jerusalem.
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He could have chosen the adult donkey or the young donkey.
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Guess which one He chose? The young one. Because once again, He's been consistent with this pattern of humbling
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Himself during His first coming to this earth. What is interesting is that the reason, you might wonder, why were two donkeys chosen here?
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And I was reading this week that the mother donkey would have been there with the young donkey, its child, so that the donkey wouldn't go crazy when all the crowd was there.
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All the people. So it makes sense that that's why two donkeys were chosen. Well, let's keep reading here.
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The disciples carry out this important task that Jesus told them to do in verses 6 and 7. The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.
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They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks and He sat on them.
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So the two disciples go and get the donkey and the colt. And as we have already learned, they received permission to do this because these two donkeys belonged to the
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Lord. Verse 7 says that these two disciples put their cloaks on the donkey to give cushion for Jesus to sit on.
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This is continuing with the unglamorous way that Jesus lived on the earth.
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They didn't have blankets on them. They used their clothes, their cloaks, which is an outer garment, to put on the donkeys.
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And that's how He would ride into Jerusalem. You can see how unglamorous this is.
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Is there any animal that size less glamorous than a donkey? And the donkeys didn't even have blankets on them for Jesus to sit on.
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This king is different from every other king. He is the greatest king in the history of the world.
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And yet, he humbles himself because he knew that was God's will for him. At His first coming, he needed to do this for the sake of his people.
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And he's displaying this for everyone to see. So understand the uniqueness of Christ displayed at His first coming.
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And the second observation how is through humbling himself at every turn.
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The third observation how we are to understand the uniqueness of Christ displayed at His first coming is this.
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Through receiving an unworthy response from the masses.
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Receiving an unworthy response from the masses. This one might surprise you. But we've got to look at the text closely here.
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So Jesus sits on the young donkey and then heads into Jerusalem. And let's see how the people respond in verses 8 and 9.
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Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
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And the crowds that went before Him and that followed Him were shouting, Hosanna to the
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Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
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It is interesting that while Jesus sits on the cloaks of His disciples as He rides on this donkey, the people take off their cloaks, this outer garment, and what they do is spread them on the road.
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The spreading of the cloaks down before the king has great significance. To put cloaks down showed submission to one who was being crowned.
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To a king who was being crowned. When Jehu was crowned in 2 Kings 9, verses 12 and 13, the text says,
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Thus says the Lord, I anoint you king over Israel. Then in haste, every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps.
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And they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, Jehu is king. As Jesus rides the donkey down the street in Jerusalem, these
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Jewish people know what they are doing. They know this history. This history from Israel and other cultures where people would lay their cloaks down before the king to say, we submit to you.
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You are in authority. You are our king. And as Jesus rides the donkey down the street, what the second half of verse 8 says, is that they cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
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John 12, 13 tells us from what trees these branches came. They came from palm trees.
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Every spring, we celebrate Palm Sunday. If the cloak symbolized submission to a king and being crowned, what do the branches symbolize?
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In ancient Jewish literature, palm branches were used to celebrate prominent Jewish victories, as in the
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Maccabean era, which was in the second century B .C. The palm branches also symbolized salvation and great joy, as they were used at the celebration of the
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Feast of Tabernacles to mark God's provision over Israel during the wilderness years after they were delivered from Egypt.
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These palm branches also point ahead to the great future celebration pictured in Revelation 7 -9, which reads, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the
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Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands.
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So as Jesus travels down this road in Jerusalem on a donkey, the cloaks and the palm branches symbolize submission.
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And submission to the kingship of Jesus. They're having a great celebration as He rides down this donkey down through the city of Jerusalem.
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So as He travels down this road on a donkey, with the cloaks and palm branches present, this is what is taking place.
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This great celebration. And what we have seen throughout Matthew is that wherever Jesus goes, that is where the crowds follow.
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The disciples did not have to stage a crowd saying, okay, we've got to make this look really good.
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So let's get these people to come. We'll pay people to come. That's not what's happening here. Jesus is present.
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And people are saying, okay, there He is. Let's go follow Him. And this would have been a massive crowd.
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We saw that in the feeding of the 5 ,000. By the way, the feeding of the 5 ,000 was not the feeding of the 5 ,000.
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5 ,000 men. Not counting women. Not counting children. So He really fed 20 ,000 to 25 ,000 people.
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That's probably something what it's like here. I would say probably more. Because this is the
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Passover week. And Jews are coming from all over the place. And they're celebrating
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Jesus here. And what we have read is that the crowds are celebrating
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Him. And let's continue to read here in verse 9. And the crowds that went before Him and that followed
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Him were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the
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Lord. Hosanna in the highest. What we read in the first half of verse 9 is that the crowds go before and follow behind Him.
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You get that picture there. Massive crowds in front of Him. Massive crowds behind Him. And what they're shouting is
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Hosanna, which in Hebrew means, O, save. They are shouting what the woman of Tekoa shouted in 2
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Samuel 14. Save me, O King. We will see what kind of saving they wanted in just a little bit.
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What the crowd also says is what the two blind men said at the end of chapter 20. They call
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Jesus Son of David. This is once again the messianic title that they are ascribing to Him.
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What the Greek verb tells us is that the people are continually shouting this. Hosanna, Son of David.
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The crowd that goes before Jesus and the crowd that goes behind Him into Jerusalem believes this
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Jesus who rides on this donkey, this young donkey, is at this moment the
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Messiah predicted in the Old Testament. Now as we look at this, we need to ask the question, are these
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Jews believing in Jesus for who He really is? The humble Messiah who rides into Jerusalem on a donkey?
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Or are they believing in this false understanding of who the Messiah is supposed to be?
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We've seen this as we've gone through Matthew. Most of the people proclaiming
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Him as the Son of David, the Messiah, have a false understanding of who the Messiah is supposed to be.
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They're caught up in the moment. People knew that Jesus has been a miracle worker.
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And He has been a miracle worker mostly in a desolate place. He spent most of His ministry in the
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Galilean region, which is like where we live, kind of back in the sticks. And then
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He makes occasional visits to Jerusalem. In fact, most of His contact with the people from Jerusalem was because people from Jerusalem actually came to Him because they heard about Him.
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And as they see this miracle worker coming through the city, they see Him as one who is powerful.
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But their understanding of the Messiah is false. We have seen this over and over again.
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They believe the Messiah would come in power, drive out their enemies, the
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Romans, and then reign. And then they would be the ones in power now. We know this crowd largely has a false view of the
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Messiah because these same crowds in Jerusalem, later this week, preferred the prisoner
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Barabbas over Jesus, when Pilate offered that he would release one prisoner for the
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Jews because it was Passover. These are the same crowds. Jesus was not the
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Messiah they wanted. They wanted a Messiah of their own making. One who came only in power, who didn't show weakness, and who would deliver them from the tyranny that they were under.
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As the crowds are fawning over Jesus and declaring Him king, there's a question from those already in the city directed to the crowds.
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Let's see this question that they're asking Him. By the way, they're asking this question to those who are before Jesus and those who are after Him.
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The ones who are shouting, Hosanna, Son of David. This is what they ask Him. And when
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He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up saying, Who is this? You'd think, well, the answer should be obvious.
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He's the Son of David. But that's not what their answer is.
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What's their answer in verse 11? And the crowd said, the ones who were before Him, the ones who were behind Him, the ones who were shouting,
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Hosanna, Son of David. They're asked, Who is He? This is what they say. This is the prophet
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Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. That's it.
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This is a perplexing response. They changed their tune on Jesus. The ones who are asking this question are probably the
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Jewish leaders. The very ones who hate Jesus the most. The greatest enemies of Jesus while He was on earth.
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The ones who had power in Jerusalem. And they asked the crowds, these ordinary people,
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Who is He? Oh, He's a prophet from Nazareth. They just were shouting that He is the
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Messiah who has come to save, but now they just say, He's a prophet from Nazareth.
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Sometimes, we see spontaneous crowds where people are shouting and they don't even know what they're shouting about.
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Sometimes you see that at sporting events. Everybody gives a standing ovation and only ten people actually know what's going on. As Jesus comes into Jerusalem on this donkey, they say things about Him that they don't really believe.
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Part of them believe that He's the Messiah because of His great power. We like this part about Him.
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He can cast out demons. He can heal people. But the weakness that He continually showed at the end of the day disqualified
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Jesus in their minds as the true Messiah. They call
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Him the King, the Son of David, but then, here they have no problem demoting Him drastically because they are showing what they really believe about Him.
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When someone asks you, who is Jesus? What are you going to say? He was a good teacher?
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He was a good man? He was positive for society?
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Wrong. He's the King of kings. He's the Lord of lords. He's the meaning of life.
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He's the only Savior of the world. That's what the answer should be. If you're on a show with someone,
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I'm sick of some of these weak pastors. They get on some of these shows and it's like, just tell people what they need to hear.
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Who cares if they think you're a lunatic? I mean, look at John the Baptist. He was the biggest misfit this world has ever seen.
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That's what we need more of. I love watching John MacArthur going Larry King live.
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I mean, he's just the biggest misfit in the world. I mean, they asked
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MacArthur after, how did you know what to say? He's like, I didn't care what the questions were. I was just going to say what
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I needed to say. He doesn't even answer the questions. He's like, OK, Jesus is the only way.
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He said there's only two religions in the world, Christianity and everything else, as he sits next to a
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Hindu and a Buddhist and a Roman Catholic. I mean, that's what we need. Tell the truth.
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But these people, they buckle. We don't want, this is not the guy we really want.
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What are people going to think of us? We want one who comes in power. Not one who's weak.
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Not one who rides in on this little donkey. Now Nazareth was in the middle of nowhere.
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He's not some important prophet from Jerusalem or some significant town. He's a prophet from Nazareth.
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And when Jesus came on the scene in John 1 .46, Nathanael said, can anything good come out of Nazareth? It's nowheresville.
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The people are quickly downplaying Jesus after just crowning him the king who is going to save them.
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We can learn a lesson from this in our own lives. The closer you follow Jesus, what you will see is that people will view you different.
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Since you are not of the world, people will look down on you. This is something we need to hear more than ever right now as we live in such a polarizing country.
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I heard an interesting story about this recently. Brie and I are friends with a couple who had a good relationship with the wife's grandmother for many, many years, their whole life.
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Her grandmother was sweet to her and her whole family. The kind of grandmother who would make cookies for you.
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But because of the biblical stance that they have taken over the last couple of years, her and her whole family were written out of her grandmother's will.
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Think about that. People's opinions waver quickly.
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People might like you for a time and then they won't like you. We thought you were like us.
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No, I follow Jesus Christ. And this is where we need to be reminded that at the end of the day, that the only opinion that matters concerning our lives is
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God's. In Christ, he is pleased with you and as you follow him, he looks down with joy.
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And if the whole world hates you and God is pleased with you, that's a good place to be.
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And by the way, the whole world won't hate you. There will be people who appreciate you as you follow him. But the ones who are going in the opposite direction, they will see something about you.
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They will turn on you just like they turn on Jesus. Jesus as the God man understands this better than anyone.
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When he preached, the crowds followed him in great number. But Jesus did not care about big crowds.
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In fact, he was more than willing to make the crowd just go away. Remember that conversation in John 6 that Jesus has with his disciples?
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Are you gonna leave too? And then Peter says to him, where else would we go? Only you have the words of eternal life.
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As Jesus rode in on this donkey to fulfill this prophecy from Zachariah, he knew that most of the people here were not true believers in him.
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For a very brief period, these people thought he was king. But at the end of the day, he was not the
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Messiah that they wanted. For a moment, they would say he is the Messiah. But when they are confronted with the question from their own people, all they can say is, this is the prophet
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Jesus from the most obscure town in Israel, Nazareth. They would not believe in him as savior and Lord as Jesus' ministry called them to.
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But they only saw him as the miracle working prophet. That's all they liked about him. He was not the
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Messiah they wanted. So understand the uniqueness of Christ displayed at his first coming.
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We've seen three observations howl in this text. Through caring for the needs of the weakest, through humbling himself at every turn, and through receiving an unworthy response from the masses.
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What we saw today is the true king of the world. He is so different from everyone else.
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He cares for the weakest among us. He humbled himself so that we can be saved.
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And in this fallen world, he does not get the praise and honor that he is due. But in the call to worship,
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I read a passage from Revelation where he will get the praise and honor that he is due.
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I love what Philippians chapter two says. It talks about his humbling, right? He empties himself. He becomes a servant when he comes to the earth.
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And then it says at the end, in verses 11 and 12, but every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord to the glory of God the Father. Yep, that's the future.
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He came in humility his first coming, but he will be the king who shows his power when he comes in the future.
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Now next Sunday, and let me just say too, let's give him the praise that he is due in our lives as we go through our days that we not only glorify him with our mouths, but glorify him in the way that we live and give him the honor that he is due.
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Now next Sunday, we will see another side of Jesus. Today we saw weakness, but next
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Sunday, Jesus is going to be righteously angry as he blows through the temple and pushes people out and overturns tables.
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And we're gonna see a side of Jesus that this world does not like to talk about, but that the text of scripture shows us.
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So we will look at that next Sunday. But at this time, let's bow our heads in prayer. Father in heaven, we do worship
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Jesus. We worship no man, but the
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God man. He is our savior. He is the king.
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He is our friend. He is the only hope for this world. And it's been a joy hearing from the
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Myrons to hear about Ireland. There's so many dark places on planet Earth where people are not bowing their knee to Jesus.
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Everywhere on planet Earth, there's places like this. And we want this place, this community to be a strong bastion of Christians.
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And we pray for that, Lord. We see you working in our midst and we pray for that. We want Ireland to have revival.
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And we pray for that. May the world know who is the true king.