The Story Of A King

Please stand as we read from God's Word. The Old Testament scripture reading this morning is found in Zechariah, chapter nine. We'll be reading verses nine through 13. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.

Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation, as he humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off.

And he shall speak peace to the nations. His rule shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope. Today I declare that I will restore to you double, for I have bent Judah as my bow. I have made Ephraim its arrow. I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior's sword.

The Triumphal Entry and Zechariah's Prophecy

New Testament reading this morning is in Matthew, chapter 21, verses one through 17. Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethpage, to the 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.

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. 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, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

And the crowds went forth before him, and that followed him, were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he entered the Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, who is this?

And the crowd said, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who sold and bought at the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

He said to them, it is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant, and they said to him, do you hear what these are saying?

Jesus said to them, yes, have you never read? Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise? And leaving them, he went out to the city, to Bethany, and lodged there.

If you would join me in prayer.

Before we look into the word of God. Father in heaven, once more we come before you and thank you for your word, which sheds light on all things. It sheds light on our world. It sheds light on ourselves.

It sheds light on our triune God. Help us now to see what you would have for us when we think of Jesus. We're looking for the light that glorifies him. Help us now then as we look into your word, help us to know, help us to change, as we understand more of our King Jesus, and we'll thank you in his name, amen.

The King Announced in Isaiah 11

I want to tell you a story this morning, the story of a king. He was a popular king. His subjects loved him and acclaimed him as their indisputable ruler in a great festival of praise. What we know is a triumphal entry.

But within the week they killed him, hanging him on a cross as if he were a hated traitor. By all appearances, his kingdom had come undone, and the king had been rejected. Yet this morning, I want to tell you that just the opposite is true.

His kingdom expands and continues. And if you understand the story correctly, this king will one day achieve triumph that far surpasses the triumphal entry he received at first. The story of the king starts long before he ever was praised by the people.

It begins centuries before. It begins with the announcement of this king. Turn in your Bibles this morning to Isaiah chapter 11. I'm going to warn you again, this is going to be one of those grand trips through the Bible, all right?

So we're going to start in Isaiah chapter 11. I'll begin reading in verse one. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.

And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist and faithfulness the belt of his loins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together.

And the little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.

They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the seas. Isaiah said these words. He lived some 700 years before Jesus ever appeared on the scene and he served some of the kings of Judah, the most famous being Hezekiah.

He lives in a time of competing, warring nations and empires. The most powerful at that time being the Assyrian Empire which was like a superpower in that age, in that era. And Assyria had invaded Judah and had conquered some of the principal cities and was on the verge of conquering the entire nation and God's people would have to submit to this pagan, cruel empire.

But then God makes an announcement of a coming son of David who will be the greatest king ever and we just read about him here in Isaiah chapter 11. Look at the reign of this king. First of all, note, he comes from the family of David.

The stump of Jesse is another way of saying the family of David in accordance to the promise of God. But notice how the description of his reign escalates as you read through that. He will have the spirit of the Lord in such a way, in such a measure that he will actually embody wisdom and the fear of the Lord.

Now you can't get a better ruler than that. Can you imagine, can you imagine a nation where the leader is the embodiment of wisdom and the fear of the Lord?

Can you imagine that?

I mean, just let that sink in. You know, when we go to the polls every four years to elect a president, we can pretty much say that that's not what we're voting for, right? But this king is the very embodiment of the wisdom and the fear of God.

He will bring perfect justice and on an international scale and when it says that he won't judge by what he sees or by what he hears, he's saying he won't be thrown off. He won't be led astray by the way somebody looks.

He won't be led astray by fancy words. He will judge the people of God with a perfect justice, one that gets to the very core of the issues and he will also end the terrorism, the greed, the warmongering, the deceit, the pride and the corruption that seems to drive the world's kingdoms.

All of that will come to an end and most unbelievable of all, with this king's reign comes the end of the curse. Here is the restoration of Eden, the revelation of glory, the renewal of all creation so that now everything is at peace, even the beasts of the world are at peace with one another.

Children don't have to be afraid of snakes. Imagine that, you won't have to be afraid of snakes. The point is this king brings total salvation. The end of everything that's connected to sin is eliminated, is gone and so begins this story, right?

It's just the king that's going to come. See this king announced but now see the king arrive. When the king does arrive, it's two people again who are oppressed by a pagan power, the empire of Rome and God's people long for the one to come who will fulfill exactly what Isaiah 11 is talking about.

And sure enough, the king arrives and he proclaims himself his arrival. Look at Matthew chapter four.

Matthew chapter four, beginning in verse 12.

Now when he heard that John, this is Jesus, now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee and leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.

The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.

From that time Jesus began to preach saying repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus dawns as the light in the darkness of oppression and death. He is the light because he comes proclaiming the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven says here, and which has arrived in his person.

And he begins then to fulfill Isaiah's promise. He begins to fulfill the promises of Isaiah's announcement. It seems that he has the power to actually reverse the curse of sin, drop down to verse 23. And he went throughout all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

So his fame spread throughout all Syria and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics and paralytics. And he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis and from Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.

Here he seems that he has the power to reverse the curse of sin. He's healing people, epileptics, paralytics, people with pains and diseases. He reveals the wisdom and the fear of God as well as his justice.

You go to the very next chapter, what do we see? Look at verse two. And he opened his mouth and taught them saying, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely.

On my account rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Ah, you see, here is the wisdom of God. Continue, verse 21. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder and whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.

But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire.

So much so is their wisdom here that when you come to the very end of the Sermon of the Mount, chapter seven, verses 28 and 29, it says, and when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes.

He wasn't deriving his teaching from anything. He seemed to embody here the very wisdom of God. Here is the wisdom and the fear of God. And you know what, it's interesting that even the world looks at the Sermon on the Mount and says, wow, that is amazing.

Yes, it is.

There is the wisdom and the fear of God on full display just in this little portion, not to mention all the other things that Jesus says and does. You see the kind of justice or righteousness that sees beyond mere appearances, right?

And he reveals, this Jesus at this, and he reveals that this king brings not so much a kingdom of conquest but a kingdom of righteousness. Now after a consistent ministry of proclaiming the kingdom, the people themselves proclaim the arrival of the king.

We heard it read just a few moments ago in Matthew chapter 21, the triumphal entry. It's very familiar to us. We read it just about every year at this time. We read it sometimes during the year but we're all familiar with this wonderful triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

The people believe that he is truly the son of David. Note what they say about him. Note what they say about him. Hosanna to the son of David, right? Hosanna to the son of David. They recognize that he is indeed the promised king who would do such wonderful things.

They recognize it. They proclaim it. Hosanna to the king, the son of David, the very one who's predicted who would come. This surely must be the one who'll bring justice to the nations. This surely is the one who will conquer them and reverse the curse.

Here is the one who will conquer the evil Roman empire by the rot of his mouth. Here comes the one who will vindicate and elevate us and give us international predominance. But then as you continue reading the story of this king, you find him executing his promised unerring judgment.

He does not judge by what his eyes see. He does not judge by what his ears hear. Appearances do not throw him off. He can cut to the very core. He does judge the poor with righteousness, nor does he fail to decide with equity the meek of the earth.

But these people, these adoring subjects had not counted on him turning that unerring judgment on them. They were waiting for him to do it to them, to those other people, to the Romans, not to him, not to them.

But he turns the spotlight on them. Wait a minute, that's not supposed to happen. As you continue reading in Matthew 21 all the way through 24, you see that he cleanses the temple and he calls their worship contemptible.

He tells them that the kingdom they longed for will be given to another people. He reveals that they had actually missed the kingdom because they rejected the invitation to that kingdom. He even goes so far as to curse the religious leaders.

And suddenly the triumph of the son of David vanishes in an explosion of hatred and rejection. The leaders take this king, the one who's supposed to fill the earth with the knowledge of the Lord as the seas cover the earth, and they execute him for blasphemy.

They haul him off to the representatives of the world's kingdoms and they kill him. Rather than conquering the evil kingdoms with the rod of his mouth instead, they conquer him with the sentence of death.

The king has failed to achieve that glorious rule promised so long ago. Or so it seems. And I would say to you, look and see the king reigning. You know that Jesus is executed and he's raised from the dead, spends some time with his disciples, teaches them, tells them to wait for the spirit to come upon them, and then to go out on their great mission of carrying the gospel to the rest of the world.

And in the very first sermon in the age of the church, here's what we see Peter saying at his sermon at Pentecost. I want you to, and you know something? I think maybe every year I go to this passage, maybe every other year, but I go to this passage a lot because to me this is the cornerstone of what unfolds in the rest of the New Testament regarding the kingdom of God.

This is an amazing thing that Peter says in the midst of this sermon on the day of Pentecost. I want you to pick it up with me in his sermon at verse 29. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing, for David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Do you see what he's saying? He's saying that the throne that is next to the throne of God is the throne of David.

He now rules.

The Enthronement of Christ at God's Right Hand

The king occupies the throne of David. Yes, the resurrection and the ascension is the very fulfillment of the promises that one would rule on the throne of David, that this one would be a descendant of David.

And Peter identifies the throne upon which he now sits as the throne that was promised to the Christ, the Messiah, the descendant of David. But note, instead of conquering the rival kingdoms now, he reigns above the kingdoms of this world.

He has not been defeated. He reigns above the kingdoms of this world. He is on the throne. And this king begins to accomplish the promise of that announcement from long ago. He begins to reverse the curse of sin.

How so?

Look at Colossians one for a moment. Colossians chapter one. Look with me at verses 13 and 14. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin.

Man brought this curse through his sin and God must deal with his sin and he does it. He does it now by delivering you from the kingdom of darkness, from the kingdom of Satan, transferring you into the kingdom of his son, the kingdom of his son in which there is redemption expressed in forgiveness, no longer under the curse.

That is the kingdom that God had promised, the kingdom of light, a kingdom of forgiveness, a kingdom where sin's curse upon us would be alleviated. He's begun that work. He has begun that work. And now from that throne, he rules and he reigns for the benefit of God's people, Ephesians chapter one.

Ephesians chapter one, verses 22 and 23. Well, let's start reading. Wow, it's one of those long sentences. So we'll start reading in verse 22. And he put all things, that is God the Father, put all things under Jesus' feet and gave him as head over all things for the benefit of the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

What he says here is that Jesus is reigning for the benefit of his people. He is reigning for the benefit of his people. The kingdoms of this age, both satanic and human, cannot win against God's people.

He so controls them that they always work good for his people. Remember that. This is part of the kingdom. He is ruling, overruling the kingdoms of this world, the events of this world, the people of this world.

He's ruling in such a way that it is all for the benefit of his people, all for the benefit of the church. Jesus is ruling so that that boss at work who is really making your life hard is working for your good.

He's ruling in such a way that no matter what awful things that boss does to you, he's ruling for the benefit of the church. All that's happening in Ukraine today is under the rule of the son of David for the benefit of the church.

You say, how is that? I've heard that the churches in Ukraine have been destroyed. He's working it for the good of his church. Who knows what's going to come out of that? Who knows what'll come out of that?

But he's working for their good. This king reigns for the good of his people. He reigns now. Jesus reigns today in triumph over sin and death and providentially uses evil for the good of his people. That's his reign right now.

The Final Triumph of the King

The last thing you need to see, you need to see the king triumph forever. Revelation 11. Revelation 11. Let's start at verse 15. Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet and there were loud voices in heaven saying, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever.

And the 24 elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God saying, we give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.

The nations raged but your wrath came and the time for the dead to be judged and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints and those who fear your name, both small and great and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.

See, at last the king arrives in final triumph. He's already proven the triumph he's had over sin and death. He's already shown his triumph over the curse and by his providence, he overrules the opponent of his people and of his kingdom.

Now he arrives once more to make his rule visible and irresistible. Rival kingdoms no longer exist for all opposing powers have been eliminated. All creation willingly submits to this king. At last, the ultimate triumph of this king that was promised so long ago.

The irresistible power of God accomplishes his purpose. His unerring judgment destroys his enemies and vindicates his people. Jesus triumphs over all and that will end the story of the king. Well, he'll always be king but we will not have any obstruction to seeing that but the question is where do you fit into this story?

Where do you fit in this story? Maybe you need to know this king and his story. Maybe you're ignorant of it and what you need to do is to get to know it and get to know him and seek to understand exactly what's going on.

Maybe you reject the rule of this king. His commands mean nothing to you. He commands you to believe and find life in him but you reject it. You want life on your terms. You don't want life on his terms.

He offers you, this king commands you to repent and believe and then to have his commands define your life but you don't want that life. You don't want that life. Can I say to you this morning if that's where you fit into this story, continue your rebellion and the terror of his unerring perfect justice will fall on you.

You won't be able to talk your way out of it. You won't be able to look good. You'll see right to your heart and his justice, his justice will be played out. Maybe you see the powerful, maybe you see the people, the powerful people and the horrific events that are going on around you, just the chaos of the world around you and you're losing hope and you're losing hope.

You've lost sight of the king that rules over all events and all people for the good of his church. You've forgotten that this king will come someday in glory to crush his enemies and your enemies and to bring glory.

You've forgotten that. Gotta know the story of this king. Where do you fit in the story? Where do you fit? Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the very plan, the very purpose you've had of exalting Jesus as king.

Father, this day we ask that you would help those who have rejected his rule, help them, Father, to bow the knee, to see the absolute foolishness of rejecting his reign. Oh God, I know there are some here today who have never bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus.

I beg you, help them to see that this king who now offers them life will bring judgment if they refuse his commands. God, I beg you to do that. Father, for your people today who lose hope, I ask that they would see Jesus as king, that they would see Jesus reigning and ruling on his throne for our benefit.

Give us hope, we pray, in this king. Help us to know this king and to know his story. Draw us to him, we pray, in his name.