Luke 19:28-43 Make Way for the King

You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan.

Good morning, Recast. I'm Greg Schrock. I'm one of the elders here. And, uh, as you know, our pastor, Don Filsek, and the Uganda team are traveling back later this afternoon, sometime close to four p .m. our time.

They'll be making their way back. And here at Recast, we'd like to welcome all of you back. And those of you who are visiting today or uh... new attenders, welcome as well. We'd like to welcome you, if you need to, to step up and grab a donut and grab some coffee or some juice.

We're blessed at Recast to have uh... men here gifted to be able to preach the Word of God. And in Don's absence, we're blessed today to have Bill Smith back with us, uh... bringing us a message from the Word of God.

Bill is a former elder here at Recast, and Bill also works with Youth for Christ. So welcome, Bill Smith.

Jesus Before Pilate and His Kingdom Not of This World

Good morning. Welcome to our Palm Sunday service. You know, I was thinking about Palm Sunday this morning, and palm branches end up in my message. And this thought occurred to me, uh... I wonder how many times someone had just happened to show up in church on Palm Sunday and and didn't know, you know, what that meant.

I didn't know what that meant when I was a kid growing up, and you know, it was announced that it's Palm Sunday and that, you know, uh... oh wow, they're going to read our poems today. You know, what does that exactly mean?

Uh... so Palm Sunday is a celebration of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem as He rode upon that donkey cult to bring us salvation. So Jesus was crucified on a Friday. Palm Sunday was the Sunday before uh... He was crucified.

This morning I just... I want to start out with a question, and the question is this. Who is your king? Who is your king? Now you... you know, if you're not uh... used to maybe uh... church or coming, you know, the Word of God, your mind might go to, well, we don't have a king in this country, right?

We have a president and certainly he's not my king, okay, he's our president, right? Okay, but but who is your king? If you were somewhere honest, you would say, I don't... I don't have a king. If others were honest, they might say, well, to be honestly, money is my king.

That's the first thing in my life. Or perhaps pleasure is my king. I was there at one point in my life where I was just seeking happiness and pleasure. That's a very disappointing king to have. Others might say, well, to be really honest, I'm king of my own life.

Nobody rules over me. I call my own shots. I lived that way once, too, and it did not turn out well at all. But if you believe in Jesus, most likely you would say, Jesus is my king, right? King Jesus.

But then I... I want you to think about what would that really look like for you in your life for Jesus to truly be your king? Would there be implications upon your life? Is Jesus king? I guess would be a really important question and even though our text this morning is in Luke, I want to actually start out in John this morning by way of introduction.

And I want Jesus to answer this question for us. Is Jesus king? So go ahead and grab your Bibles and turn, or your devices, open it up to John 18. If you're here this morning and you don't have the Bible on your phone or you don't have a Bible with you, we would love for you to be able to follow along in a copy of God's Word.

So Mike has Bibles. If you would like a Bible to follow along with me this morning, could you just raise your hand and let Mike know and he'll bring those around? And also you're welcome to keep that Bible if you need it.

We would love for you to have a copy of God's Word. Pray with me as we read the Scripture and let's ask God to come and meet with us and speak to us this morning. Holy Father, just thank you so much that you love us.

Thank you that you want to speak into our lives today. And Father, we want to be able to listen and hear from your Spirit. We want to walk out of here today, Father, being drawn closer to you, being challenged by you, Father, you teaching us.

And so we're asking this morning that your Holy Spirit would be our teacher, that you would give us understanding of your Word. Father, I pray for every individual here this morning that you would encourage them, that you would speak to them.

Father, that we would walk out of here this morning blessed in wanting to know you in deeper ways. We all pray this and ask this in Jesus' holy name. Amen. Alright, so the context of this is that Jesus had been arrested on Thursday night of the Passion Week.

He had faced the Sanhedrin, the high priest of his day, and then they took him to Pontius Pilate because they did not have the authority to execute Jesus and that's what they were looking to do. They wanted him dead.

And so they bring him to Pontius Pilate early on that Friday morning and Pontius Pilate begins to examine Jesus. And so we come to verse 33 in John 18 with Pilate and Jesus together. Verse 33, so Pilate entered in his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, are you the king of the Jews?

Jesus answered, do you say this of your own accord or did others say it to you about me? Pilate answered, am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priest have delivered you over to me. What have you done?

Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not from the world.

Then Pilate said to him, so you are a king? Jesus answered, you say that I am a king? For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I came into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.

And so from Jesus' own words he declares to be a king. This morning on Palm Sunday we're going to see the king coming into Jerusalem to set captives free. We're going to see the king coming in to purchase slaves out of the slavery of sin with the payment of his own precious blood.

And I want to say that yes, Jesus is the king. In Revelation 19 .16 he is called King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You see him coming back a second time with a conquering army and then his kingdom will prevail.

There will be no rival kingdoms at that time. But Jesus didn't come into Jerusalem that morning with a conquering army, but he comes humbly riding upon a donkey. He comes to give his life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.

That's why he marched into Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday. And I just want to say at the very outset that he is worthy to be our king. He is worthy of our worship and our allegiance, of our obedience. He is worthy of our entire lives, this King Jesus.

And I hope my prayer this morning as we go through the story of Palm Sunday that you'll see the beauty of the king and that you'll be stirred to go deeper in your allegiance to this King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

So I'm going to pray as the band comes and we'll have some time in worship. And if you know that Jesus is worthy, then worship him in this worship time. Okay? Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you that you are King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

That you came humbly to this earth for us as Emmanuel. That you were God with us in the flesh. That you conquered sin and conquered death. And now you sit upon the throne of God as our King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Thank you now for this time of music and worship. And we just pray that your spirit would be moving in our hearts as we sing these songs. And that even through these songs we would see more of your beauty and glory.

We love you and thank you so much for your love for us today. In your holy name. Amen. Alright, well I would like to thank you band for that awesome worship time. Cheryl told me when I came back over where we're sitting, she said, you know, he was already standing behind you.

You know, I thought there would be a band back there, but you know, you would think when I walked up here I would notice there weren't keyboards or drums. We just had the sweet psalmist of David here.

Thank you. That was beautiful. Before I start with my message, I just want to give a brief Youth for Christ update. As you guys, most of you know, I serve as a missionary with Kalamazoo Youth for Christ.

And a while ago I asked that you all would be praying about a building. We're looking for a new ministry center. It's been incredible to see our staff grow. And it needs to keep growing because there are literally thousands and thousands and thousands of students in the Kalamazoo area who are not learning the story of Jesus.

And when you don't know the story of Jesus, you're open for anything. You know, when you don't know the King, something's gonna rule your life. And most likely it's not gonna be good. Well, we have a couple buildings that we're exploring.

And we found one that is a really, really good prospect. So we're kind of doing our research to make sure that it's gonna be all that we need. And just praying that God will give us a building where we can have a youth center and young people from the neighborhoods can come in and have a safe place.

Exciting things are happening at Youth for Christ. I don't know, it was three or four weeks ago, some of you got to meet Corey, who came and visited one Sunday morning with me. He's a young man that I met in the juvenile home who has given his heart to the King, to Christ.

And I would love for you to come on April 21st. Youth for Christ is having a breakfast at the Radisson Plaza. Free breakfast, come on now. And it's from 8 a .m. to 9 a .m. and we are always done right at 9.

We've been doing these for about 7, 8 years now. We're gonna have some teenagers there sharing their stories. And part of the presentation is we always do a video with some students that we've been working with from different areas.

And this Tuesday we did a video shoot with Corey at the juvenile home and the superintendent of the juvenile home spoke on behalf of Youth for Christ. But Corey shared his heart and it's just so powerful what God has done in his life.

And so you would get to hear Corey's story too. So Joanne and Don Cole are table hosts for us and they still have room at their table and we have room for the event. So if anybody would like to come and join us, please let Don and Joanne know or let myself know and we'll get you signed up for it.

That's Friday morning April 21st. I would love for you to come and hear what's going on. So Don asked me months ago if I would be willing to do the teaching this morning and I love the Word of God and I love to teach His Word and this isn't my normal setting.

Normally I'm with teens even on Sunday mornings at the juvenile home Lakeside Academy. That's my comfort zone. Preaching in your home church is a little different experience but I do love it because we can go deeper than I could go with the young people that I work with.

And I'm always blessed way more just by preparing I'm sure than what you are blessed by as far as hearing it. But you know as I was studying through this and thinking about Jesus being my king, I had to ask myself is my life showing that Jesus is my king?

Am I living like a citizen of heaven here on this earth surrounded by lost people who are hurting and who are in darkness and who are believing lies and they need to hear the truth of Jesus the King and am I walking worthy of this King?

Is my life showing that He is my King of Kings? And you know as we read Jesus' story we see how beautiful He is and we see the extreme price that He paid for our sins as we come into Easter thinking of His suffering as we see Him marching I correct myself riding on a donkey's colt coming into Jerusalem on that Sunday morning before His crucifixion we see more of Jesus' beauty and glory and I want to look at this story so if you would turn with me this morning to Luke chapter 19 this story is actually in all four Gospels and I went through and I read all four of accounts and that's the beautiful thing about the four Gospels is each writer sheds a different light on what happened and you see more it's like taking that diamond and holding it up and turning it and seeing the different facets of it and as we look at all four Gospels we see more and more of the beauty of Jesus.

The Triumphal Entry and the King on a Donkey

So we're going to pick up His story in Luke 19 starting in verse 28 follow along with me as I read the text untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you why are you untying it you shall say this the Lord has need of it.

So those who were sent went away and found it just as He had told them. And as they were untying the colt its owner said to them why are you untying the colt. And they said the Lord has need of it. And they brought it to Jesus and throwing their cloaks on the colt they set Jesus on it and as He rode along they spread their cloaks on the road as He was drawing near.

Already on the way down the Mount of Olives the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen saying blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord peace in heaven and glory in the highest.

And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him teacher rebuke your disciples. He answered I tell you if these were silent the very stones would cry out. And when He drew near and He saw the city He wept over it saying would that you even you had known on this day the things that make for your peace.

But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground you and your children within you.

And they will not leave one stone upon another in you because you did not know this time of your visitation. Here comes Jesus to sacrifice His life for us. For three years He had been preaching this message repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand everywhere He went.

He was calling people to turn from their own self-centered ways and to turn to the King and prepare themselves for His kingdom. And now He was coming to pay the ultimate price to sacrifice His life to shed His blood to make a way for us to be in His kingdom forever.

It's beyond our imagination what that means the great adventure of passing out of this life into the next. We talked about that last week but it says in Corinthians it's beyond our imagination this place that Jesus has paid for us.

You know I think of the story and I think of Jesus coming into Jerusalem knowing fully well what He faced. Look at chapter 18 of Luke and verses 31 and 33 on their way to Jerusalem Jesus pulled the 12 disciples aside verse 31 and He said this.

He said see we are going up to Jerusalem. And everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished for He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon.

And after flogging Him they will kill Him. And on the third day He will rise. So Jesus knew fully well what was ahead of Him. He didn't have to march into Jerusalem. He could have gone the other way but but He came to that Mount Moriah.

I don't know if that name Mount Moriah rings a bell to you or not. But that is what the mountain that Jerusalem was built on was called Mount Moriah. We're going to come back to that in just a few moments.

This little town Bethpage that they were coming to. This was just a suburb of Jerusalem. In fact it was outside of the walls of Jerusalem but it was considered part of Jerusalem. It was between Bethany and the city of Jerusalem.

And the name means house of figs. Look at verse 30 with me as we now begin to explore this story in chapter 19. So He's coming near and this is what He instructs His disciples. Two of His disciples He says go into the village in front of you where on entering you will find a cult tied on which no one has ever sat.

Untie it and bring it here. Think about the two disciples that were told to do this. First of all why did Jesus even want a donkey. He normally didn't. He walked everywhere that He went. And so we have to ask ourselves what's up.

What's up with the donkey. Keep your finger here in Luke and look at this prophecy with me in Zechariah chapter 9 verse 9. So in the Old Testament we find so many prophecies of this Messiah King who all through Scripture from Genesis all the way to Malachi His coming was promised.

And so the Jews were looking for the Messiah. And here is one of those prophecies that we find in Zechariah says. Rejoice greatly. O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud. O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold your King is coming to you righteous and having salvation.

He is humble and mounted on a donkey on a colt. The foal of a donkey. Why the donkey. It's right here. This would demonstrate to the whole world that Jesus was the Messiah King. It was in fulfillment of this prophecy everything that the word said the Messiah would do.

Jesus did. This was Jesus claiming His kingdom that He was about to purchase with His own blood. He comes not in wrath to take a vengeance but in mercy to bring salvation. I was reading some commentaries as I was studying this out and I like what the pulpit commentary said about this.

Here's a quote. It says He comes to His royal sacred city in the strange guise foreshadowed by Zechariah as Prince of Peace not with chariot and horse but meekly riding on a donkey's colt claiming to a dominion from sea to sea from the river to the ends of the earth.

I like that Jesus coming to claim His kingdom. Coming to claim His throne. Notice. Let's flip flip back to Luke with me now. And in verse 30 it kind of describes what kind of donkey Jesus needed. And it was a colt.

If it was horse it wasn't a full grown donkey right? And no one had ever ridden on it. And why was that significant? Because the Jews regarded animals that had never been ridden on as especially suited for sacred purposes.

So that was the significance of this colt. Never have been ridden on. And so now let's come back to these two disciples that are sent on this crazy errand. So Jesus tells them to go and get this donkey.

I wonder what's going through their mind. We're going to prison for sure. You know what they do to donkey thieves. This is crazy. This would be like someone telling you this morning. Alright Greg I want you to walk down to front street and you're going to find a silver Mustang there a brand new one and the keys are in it.

I want you to get in it. And if anybody asks you what you're doing just tell them the Lord needs it and then bring it back here to me. So would you do that? Only if Jesus was clearly telling you you might do that.

That would be kind of crazy wouldn't it? Would you do it? If Jesus asked you to do something like this? I'm sure they were nervous as they were walking up there. This donkey. This donkey reminds me of another donkey.

If you think back in the Bible in fact I want you to see this other donkey. We're going to go to Genesis chapter 22. If you turn there with me this is 2 ,000 years before Jesus got on this donkey cult and rode into Jerusalem.

This is 2 ,000 years prior we find Abraham and God is moving into Abraham's life. You know the story you told Abraham to go to a place that he would show him that he was going to make a nation out of Abraham who was a true devoted follower of the true God.

And so Abraham after some time he finally has the promised son Isaac. And one day God comes to Abraham and he tells him in verse 1 of chapter 22. After these things God tested Abraham and said to him Abraham and he said here I am.

He said take your son your only son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on the mountains on which I tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning saddled his donkey and took his two young men with him and his son Isaac.

He cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place which God had told him to. He came to the very mountain that Jerusalem was built on. He was told to go to Moriah and God showed him the mountain where he was to offer this sacrifice.

And Abraham thought it was going to be his own son. Hebrews tells us that Abraham had such faith that he believed that God would even raise Isaac up from the dead if that was to happen. So Abraham obeyed God and it says he saddled his donkey and took two servants.

You see some parallels there two disciples going to get the donkey. I picture Isaac as a fairly young boy. Probably he was the one who rode on the donkey. He was going to be that sacrifice. And in these words take your son your only son whom you love.

Doesn't that remind us of for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. What a beautiful parallel. Of course we know the story. God all along did not intend Abraham to sacrifice his own son but God was showing us in the whole world.

He was pointing to the ultimate sacrifice that was to come. But here in verse 13 God has a substitute sacrifice for Isaac. Verse 13. And Abram lifted his eyes and looked and behold behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns and Abram went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

So Abraham was obeying God and the angel of God stopped him and showed him this ram. I think of the lamb of God and even the thorns in this picture the ram was caught in the thorns. Thorns became a symbol of the curse right.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and God was sharing the consequences of that. He said that the earth would produce thorns. Remember what they crushed down on Jesus' head a crown of thorns. You see that's the powerful love of God.

I care about my church family. But would I sacrifice my son for you. I don't think I would be able to do that. Nor would you your child. But God sent his son Jesus as the amazing declaration of the amazing love of God.

He sent his son. He became that substitute. And he rode on that donkey up Mount Moriah to be sacrificed. Turn with me back to our story in Luke. I had never made that connection before and it was just as I was studying that and I was thinking about this donkey.

I remembered the donkey in that story verse 31. I want to look at that for a minute back to Luke 19. So they're told to go and get this donkey and untie it. Jesus gives them further instruction. If anyone asks you why are you untying it.

You shall say this. The Lord has need of it. Jesus knew that donkey would be there. He hadn't prearranged this with anyone. He knew it was waiting. Jesus is the omniscient one. He's the all-knowing one.

He knew that the disciples would be challenged in their errand and even told them what to do when the people told them hey what are you doing. You can't take that. I mean that's like stealing a car. I mean that was their transportation of the day.

Donkeys were valuable. He knew what the outcome would be. He knows what our day will be. He knows what lies ahead for our future. And he's there and he's willing and ready to help us through whatever lies ahead.

He is the all-knowing one. He didn't say go and tell Amos I need to borrow your donkey and see if it's ok. He just told him go and get that donkey. That's waiting. And if they ask just tell them I need it.

You see his sovereignty orchestrating this errand. You know I was thinking examples in my own life of how God has worked things through. It was about thirty years going on. Thirty one years ago someone asked me to consider coming and serving at Youth for Christ and I was in the heating trade and my wife was a stay at home mom and our oldest daughter was born.

I had the opportunity my boss was training me to take over his company and he was going to sell me his company and it was a good business and that's what I was going to do. And God called me to be a missionary at Youth for Christ reaching out to troubled kids and I knew that it meant raising support.

And when I as God made it clear that I should do this I started thinking of all the implications and I thought wow I have to raise my entire salary. I have to raise funds for training. I have to raise funds for administrative costs.

I have to raise funds for ministry. And this figure that they had thrown out to me seemed so daunting at the time and I thought God how you're going to have to do this. And God met our needs and he raised up our support and he's kept me these 30 years.

He's protected me and my family these 30 years of being in ministry at Youth for Christ and just providing for us in amazing ways. I remember somebody had donated a suburban to Youth for Christ and I ended up with that suburban and eventually it needed new tires and the tires were like $200 a piece.

And when I got that vehicle I wasn't thinking like you know it's expensive to put tires on this vehicle and I said Lord you know we don't have the money for tires and they were getting lower and lower.

Winter was coming. I just said Father either provide tires for this or the funds. And shortly after I prayed that another family from our school that our kids were going to she said you know I know you drive a suburban and you know this is going to sound kind of weird but my husband is a safety freak and he buys new tires when he doesn't need them the tires are always still good and he still wants to get new tires.

And this was some family that had some resources and she said these tires are great you can have them if you want them. And I just laughed and I said oh thank you. You know I asked the father for some new tires for my suburban and she brought them over.

I had them mounted on that suburban and I drove that vehicle for like three more years on those tires. When I sold the car the tires were still on it. But just God's provision of how he takes care of us when he sends us on those errands.

Matthew Henry said this. He said what Christ sets us to do he will bear us out in the doing of and furnishes us with answers to objections we may be assaulted with. I'm sure you've been. God has whispered something for you to do.

And then all of a sudden those objections come up. We just need to be obedient. God told these disciples to do it and they obeyed. You know as I was thinking of this I just wrote this statement down. Christ commands must not be disputed but obeyed what he commands.

He gives the strength skill and the means to do it. So anything he tells us to do we can count on him for the strength and the resources and the skill to do it. Because we can't do it on our own. So they head over there.

Look at verse 33 we'll see how this went. And as they were untying the colt sure enough its owner said to them why are you untying the colt. And they said the Lord has need of it. And they brought it to Jesus throwing their cloaks on the colt.

They said Jesus on it. What Jesus speaks comes to pass. What he promises will be fulfilled. I like this verse from 2nd Corinthians 1 .20. For all the promises of God find their yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory.

He always keeps his promises. He is so faithful and so true. Now think about the owner of this donkey for a minute. You know Jesus didn't send him a message ahead like I'm going to need to borrow your donkey and I promise I'll give it back when we're done.

He's just like why are you untying my colt. And they say the Lord needs it and he lets him take it. He was apparently someone who had a heart for God because when someone presented a need for the kingdom of God he was willing.

Wasn't he. I would say he had a listening ear to the spirit because at that point even though Jesus was working in his heart to be able to release that he still had a free will. And he could have said no I can't do that.

But he didn't. He listened to the spirit. He was willing to use what he had for the kingdom of God. He had a proper perspective of his possessions like he knew that all God had given him were God's anyway.

I think that's how this man must have saw what he had like oh you need to borrow my car. I can help you with that. I've had people do that for me when I've been in a pinch his willingness to give helped fulfill the will and plan of God.

I think this guy is a pretty good example in this story. Now I want to talk about the donkey a little bit more. Come back to that donkey. We know that he was a colt a young donkey. And we know from verse 30 that no one had ever ridden on this donkey before.

When you sit on a horse that's never been ridden guess what that horse is going to do. He is going to buck you off. Do you think a donkey is any different? From what I've heard donkeys are even more stubborn and difficult.

Here's a donkey who had never been ridden before. And we find Jesus sitting on this donkey. And this donkey is as calm as can be. Jesus has power even over the beast. He can change that beast that is in me.

He can change the nature our natures. He can transform us. He is so powerful for him to calm. This donkey was nothing. I had all my notes prepared and I had some free time yesterday afternoon and I was studying from Colossians and I was following along in this commentary by John Phillips and I read this and it blessed me so much.

And it even mentions the donkey. And this is a teaching from Colossians and so I just have to read it because I think it's powerful. He's talking about Jesus. He controls the universe just as he did when he lived on earth.

The forces of nature owned his presence and his power. Water blushed into wine when he looked at it. Loaves and fishes multiplied in his hands. Raging seas hushed to rest at his command. Howling winds hushed to sleep at his will.

Rolling waves became a pavement beneath his feet. An unbroken colt submitted instantly to his touch. Fishes hurled themselves into Peter's net at the sound of his voice a glance from him. And instantly the cock crew after his resurrection he walked calmly through barred and bolted doors and just as easily vanished from view.

He created the universe. He claims the universe. He controls the universe. All of the entities of space matter and time are in his hands. Thrones and dominions principalities and powers all of the forces of nature all the factors in the total equation of eternity and time are at his command.