©2000 Larry Huntsperger
Peninsula Bible Fellowship
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4/16/00
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Here Comes The King
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4/16/00 Here Comes The King
Most of the time we spend together here on Sunday
mornings
is spent in wrestling with the principles
and the truths offered to us by our Lord
Jesus Christ through His Word.
Often that process is exciting,
sometimes it's hard work,
requiring both commitment and concentration
for all of us.
But every once in a while
it's fun to back off from the heavy stuff
and come at the truth
from a little lighter direction.
We are going to do that
for the next two weeks.
Today is Palm Sunday.
It is the day we set aside to recognize the
remarkable event
that began the week in Jesus' life that
ultimately culminated with His death and
resurrection.
I want us to gain some feel for what it must have
been like
to have been a disciple of Jesus
during those final weeks
and days of His life here on this earth.
And to do this,
we are going to have to allow ourselves
to join His band of followers.
And that means
we are going to have to let go of most of what
we know now.
We are hindered by way too much knowledge.
We look back on those events,
seeing them through 2000 years of church
history and doctrine,
and even more than that,
we look back at them through the one event
upon which all of human history pivots - the
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But, if the events of those final days
are to be understood correctly,
we must set aside our knowledge of the
future,
and allow ourselves
to move through those days
not knowing where we are going
or why.
If we would have visited one of the Mediterranean
Sea Ports
during the first century
there would have been times
when we would have seen
the Roman slave galleys gliding into the
harbor.
On each of those ships,
chained to their oars,
are rows of Roman slaves,
and at the head of those slaves
stands the taskmaster with his drum,
beating out the slow, relentless, throbbing
rhythm to which his slaves are forced to row.
There is such a rhythm to the final months of the
Master's life on this earth.
Though those of us who are buzzing around Jesus
try hard to close our ears to it,
every once in a while we can hear it -
a distant, steady, relentless rhythm
being drummed by an Almighty hand
upon the very foundation of the world
with two massive, rough-hewn timbers,
timbers that will all too soon
be shaped into the form of a cross.
The rhythm marks our pace,
and our destination -
a hill just outside Jerusalem,
a hill called Golgotha.
Each step the Master takes
coincides perfectly with the cadence.
With each step the volume increases a decibel or
two.
And each step He takes
brings Him closer to the purpose for which He
came.
Those of us traveling with Him
do everything within our power
to stop our ears to that truth,
a truth we will stubbornly refuse to accept
until we finally stand at the foot of that cross,
and feel the earth shake under our feet,
and see the sun driven from the sky,
and hear the hammered blows
upon the nails being driven
through the flesh of the Son of God.
But this day,
today, as we all gather here in the house
of Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus,
in the little town of Bethany,
just a few miles outside of Jerusalem,
the possibility of the death of Jesus
is the last thing on our minds.
The past few months have gone so very well.
After four years of teaching,
and healing,
and touching thousands of lives
in the backwaters of the Nation of Israel,
Jesus' popularity has never been greater.
Thousands now know Him by sight,
and the entire nation knows Him by reputation.
That Jesus is a mighty prophet,
gifted by God with incredible powers is
obvious.
That He is indeed
the promised Messiah,
the great deliverer for our nation
is the hope of all of us who know Him.
There are problems, of course.
Those who hold the positions
of political and religious power in our nation
have no interest in another King,
and no toleration for such talk.
It is good Jesus has spent most of His time
far from the eyes,
and the armies of those in Jerusalem.
How else could He have survived
their determined efforts to eliminate the threat of
His growing popularity among the masses?
But now at last the time seems right for Jesus'
move to power.
Now at last all the pieces are in place.
His teaching as He traveled throughout the Nation
in the past few months
has captivated the heart of Israel.
With parable after parable,
and teaching after teaching
He has fed us sweet, rich gulps of truth.
Some of His words, unfortunately,
clearly inflamed and infuriated our nation's
religious leadership,
calling them an "evil and adulterous
generation",
and calling the Pharisees concealed
tombs,
and telling them they are filled with
robbery and wickedness.
But now, at last, the great mass of the population is
solidly aligned with the Master.
Now at last, the sheer numbers of His supporters
will make His rise to power a certainty.
The party here in Bethany last night was wonderful.
Just a few days earlier
Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead.
Four days Lazarus had been dead and buried!
And Jesus just stood outside the tomb
and told him to come forth.
And come forth he did!
It was great -
the perfect culmination to the most
successful preaching tour of Jesus' life.
And now, this morning,
this wonderful, sun-filled morning,
the sense of anticipation surrounding the
Master is incredible.
Hundreds of anxious pilgrims
are all milling around,
waiting for Jesus to begin the final few miles
into Jerusalem.
The highway is already packed with people
making their way into the city
for the great annual Passover celebration,
now just a few days away.
We are trying hard to stay close to Jesus,
but the crowd is so thick,
it is impossible to catch more than an
occasional glimpse of Him through the crowd.
His 12 disciples have formed a sort of ring around
Him,
obviously bathing in the glory of what's going
on.
Look at Simon standing there!
Look at him gloat!
To look at him you'd think all of this
commotion was just for him.
Oh, now wait... what is this?
Two of Jesus' disciples have just arrived,
leading a little donkey.
Now they're spreading their clothes on the colt's
back,
and Jesus climbs onto the animal.
That helps!
Now we can all see Him better.
And what happens next
has never happened before
in the history of the nation of Israel.
The entire road from Bethany
all they way into Jerusalem
is already packed with people.
But as soon as Jesus climbs onto that donkey
and people can see Him coming
the report of His arrival flies through the
crowd.
"He's coming!"
"Jesus is coming!"
"Here comes that rabbi everyone has been
talking about."
"He's coming!"
"He's coming!"
"Here comes the King!"
For the first time since King David himself
our nation finally has the hope
of a leader who comes from our world,
a man who understands us and our lives,
a man who rides
not high an lofty in his royal carriage,
surrounded by his guards,
but a man who rides on a little donkey.
Here He is, right next to us,
in the same dirt,
and dust,
and odors,
and heat in which we live.
Here at last is a man we can trust,
a man we can follow.
Here at last is a man worthy of our adoration.
In a matter of a few minutes
everyone is pulling off their coats
and flinging them down on the ground in
front of the donkey.
And people are pulling branches off the trees
and using them to pave the way
before the coming King.
And just as the Red Sea parted before Moses
so this mass of humanity parts before Jesus.
What began as a caravan
suddenly turns into a parade
with everyone cheering,
and screaming,
and waving palm branches in the air.
Hands reach out from everywhere to touch Him,
and the shouts, and cheers, and affirmations of
praise thunder around Him.
"Hosanna to the Son of David!"
"Blessed is He who comes in the name of the
Lord!"
"Hosanna in the Highest!"
"Blessed is the coming kingdom of our
father David!"
"Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord,
even the King of Israel!"
And then, all of the sudden,
several furious Pharisees
take their stand directly in the Master's path
and bring the procession to a stop.
We can see the rage in the eyes of those blocking the
way.
We can see their clenched fists,
and pointing fingers.
The leader of the attack band
speaks only four words,
but they are words spoken with a venom
and a demand for unconditional
submission
that brings a hush to those of us
watching.
"Teacher! REBUKE YOUR DISCIPLES!"
The very thought that Jesus
would allow us to proclaim Him
the rightful heir to the throne of David
is unthinkable to these Jewish leaders.
For a few seconds Jesus doesn't speak a word,
and in that silence
we can feel the incredible tension
created by two great hostile forces
waiting for the signal
that will begin the war of the ages.
When Jesus finally speaks,
His tone is direct and matter-of-fact,
but His words carry with them
the ring of absolute authority.
"I tell you, if these become silent,
the stones will cry out!"
His words are a thinly veiled reference
to Habakkuk's prophetic promise
of what will happen
if truth and righteousness are not
affirmed within the nation of Israel.
This is great!
Jesus is obviously accepting our coronation of
Him as King.
The crowd around us suddenly erupts into a
deafening, jubilant explosion.
That same passage in Habakkuk
continues on to say this:
Hab. 2:12 ¶ "Woe to him who builds a city
with bloodshed And founds a town with
violence!
Hab. 2:13 "Is it not indeed from the Lord
of hosts That peoples toil for fire, And
nations grow weary for nothing?
Hab. 2:14 "For the earth will be filled
With the knowledge of the glory of the
Lord, As the waters cover the sea..."
It is impossible to be here,
this moment, in this crowd,
without feeling ourselves being drenched in
the first mighty wave of that knowledge, bathing us
in hope,
and it is also impossible not to take some
pleasure
in watching these arrogant Pharisees
being drowned in that same wave.
The procession moves slowly,
but what difference does it make?
We are crowning a new King.
Who cares how long it takes.
At one point Jesus stops,
dismounts from his donkey,
and stands for a time,
looking over Jerusalem spread out
before Him.
The expression on His face
seems all wrong to us somehow.
Rather than radiating the obvious reality of this
great victory march,
His eyes are filled with pain.
And the words He speaks
make no sense to us at all.
Luke 19:42 saying, "If you had known in
this day, even you, the things which make
for peace! But now they have been hidden
from your eyes.
Luke 19:43 "For the days will come upon
you when your enemies will throw up a
barricade against you, and surround you
and hem you in on every side,
Luke 19:44 and they will level you to the
ground and your children within you, and
they will not leave in you one stone upon
another, because you did not recognize the
time of your visitation. "
How could He say that?
How could He offer such a gruesome prophecy
in the face of our obvious overwhelming
support of our new Leader?
Here is the man we've been waiting for our whole
lives.
Here is the man who can heal with the touch of His
hand.
Here is the man who can feed ten thousand people
with a few small fish
and some little rolls.
Here is a man who can stand before the tomb
in which His good friend lays buried
and command Him to come forth alive.
This is the one we want as our King.
This is the one we choose for our ruler.
This is the one who can and who will
bring us all we could ever want or need.
Say what dreary words you will, Jesus,
about Jerusalem rejecting of you.
The truth speaks for itself,
and the truth is obvious to all of us here today.
Does He not understand?
This crowd is His.
This city is His.
This nation is His.
And soon this Roman Empire will be His as well.
Speak what you will, Jesus.
There can be no denying the obvious reality of what
is taking place around us.
Stand back, world!
Here comes our King!
Interesting, isn't it,
how easy it is for us to join that crowd in our
minds.
Interesting how comfortable we feel
marching along beside this Man
who could so easily do for us
everything we believe needs to be done.
If we would have pulled any individual out of that
crowd that day
and told him that
in just four days this King
would be nailed to a Roman cross,
despised and rejected by these same people
who now paved His path with their
clothing,
he could never have believed it.
And if we would have gone on to say
that that cross would become
the symbol of God's ultimate triumph over
evil,
it would have sounded like the babbling
of an idiot.
To their credit,
those people marching beside the Master that
day
did have one thing correct -
the Man for whom they cheered
really is the rightful King,
not only of Israel,
but of every human being who has ever
lived.
But virtually everything else they misunderstood.
They wanted Him as their King
so that they could have
a nation free from corruption,
so that they could have a King
who could feed them without labor,
who could heal them without pain,
who could crush all their enemies,
and who could bring them back to life when
they died.
And, you know something?
I think every one of us
has our own personal Palm Sunday
in our relationship with the King.
I think there are times in every Christian's life
when our allegiance to the Master
is based upon our belief
that He will give us what we want.
The crowds in Jerusalem deserted Jesus
when He did not deliver the goods.
But the good news is this -
our King loves us enough
to give us not what we want,
but what He knows we really need.
That week in Jerusalem
what we needed most of all
was not a great King sitting upon a throne,
but rather our eternal God hanging upon a cross.
The cross is not the end of the story, of course,
but it is an essential part of it.
And there are times in our lives
when the ultimate expression of God's love
comes in the form of death -
the death of some dream,
or some relationship,
or some success,
or some achievement,
or some thing we just knew we could
not live without.
This is a terrible place to stop our narrative for the
day,
just as it is a terrible thing
to find ourselves in life
half way between death and resurrection.
But let me conclude this morning
by offering you this one assurance -
if your Palm Sunday relationship with the Master
has suddenly,
horribly ended in death,
know this with absolute certainty -
the same God who brought Jesus to the cross
is the One who ultimately rolled away the
stone.
If what you longed for,
what you hoped for,
what you believed you could not live
without
is not what God has chosen to give you,
then it is not what you really needed,
and certainly not what would have
brought you true joy in the end.
Our God can do only good in our lives,
and sometimes that means
that between the crowd
and the crown
there must be a cross.