revelation of our king

8/9/2019 Revelation of Our King

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Revelation of Our King

Palm Sunday Sermon - Luke 19:28-39Preached by Tyler Vela

At Trinity Presbyterian Church

In

Hinsdale, IL

Unlike most of the events of Jesus life on earth which are depicted in two or three of the

gospel accounts, very few events are depicted in all four gospels. Only events like thefeeding of the 5000, the crucifixion, and the resurrection are treated in Matthew, Mark,

Luke, and John. But today we are looking at one incident in the life of Jesus that the

gospel writers thought was so pivotal that all of them included it. It was necessary for the

movement of each of their gospels. Today in the Ecclesiastical calendar, we celebrate theTriumphal Entry. This was that day when Jesus, the true King of Israel, was ushered into

Jerusalem with shouts of praise and joy.

So what makes this event so important? Why did all four gospel writers include thisepisode as vital to their portrayal of his life and death?

Because it is a pivotal moment in the life of our Messiahour Redeemer King

But before we turn to our passage, let us turn to our God in prayer.

PRAY.

I want to begin by first telling you not about the king, but about the people in the crowd.

You see, they werent all there for the same reasons.

They had different hopes for this Jesus, this Messiah, their King.

Those who want to see or experience another miracleto see this Houdini of the Holy

Land perform another magic trick.

They had seen or heard about the exorcismsdemons cast out one, two, or a thousand at

a time. And they had heard him teach with an authority that no other preacher had ever

claimed. They had seen the healingsthe blind gaining sight, the cripples walking, a

mutilated hand returned to be good as new.

In fact, just a of couple days earlier Jesus had performed the most pronounced miracle of

his career. He had raised Lazarus from the dead! Now we know from the Scriptures thatJesus had raised more than just Lazarus from the dead. But the others had been private,

behind closed doors, invitation only so to speak. But when Jesus raised Lazarus from the

dead, all of the paparazzi were there. Everyone saw it! Lazarus came out of the tomb, still

embalmed and wrapped in grave clothes. They could smell the stink of death upon him!


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We know from Johns passage that those who had seen Jesus call Lazarus out from the

tomb were going throughout Jerusalem, shouting aloud what Jesus had done! He did it!He did it! He raised someone from the dead! I saw it! And John tells us that on account of

the testimony of these people, the crowds came out to inaugurate their king.

But this is not the first time that the Jews had seen a miracle and tried to set Jesus up astheir King. We remember in John 6 where Jesus fed of the 5000, that the Jews actually

tried to make Jesus king by force. But Jesus rebuked them. He saw their hearts were

selfish and he said that it was not his time to assume the throne.

WHAT?! How could it not be time for the king to be king? Because Jesus wasnt that

kind of a king

Give us a miracle! They were like Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar who sang Prove tome that youre no fool, walk across my swimming pool!

They wanted a sign!They were like the Pharisees who asked Jesus to prove his identityby working a miracle. But Jesus said that none will be given but the sign of Jonah, the

sign of Jesus dying and descending into the belly of the earth for three days.

Then there were those who wanted to overthrow Rome. In 63 BC The Roman General

Pompeii conquered Israel and put the Jews back under oppression, they were no longer in

exile, but they still were not free.

We know that sometime near 6-4 BC the puppet King Herod finished the Temple

restoration and the people must have thought, Surely we will be delivered soon! Wehave out temple back! We can finally worship God in splendor! But soon after, King

Herod the Builder would become King Herod the Killer! When he was told that the

messiah was born, the one who would be hailed the true king of Israel, he slaughter of the

new born sons in all of Israel to protect his rule! And Israel sunk back into despair.

In about AD 10 Zaduk the Pharisee leads a rebellion against Rome that was WILDLY

unsuccessful. About 2000 men are captured and crucified. But they were not simply hungup at Golgotha or some out of the way place. They were hung along major roadways

surrounding Jerusalem. If we were to place these crosses along the 20 Miles on 290 from

here to Chicagothat would be one crucifix every 52 feet! It was a constant reminder of

what Rome did to rebels!

One historian estimated that there were one average 5 10 rebellions every year during

the last decade of Jesus life. And here they were on the edge of another riot!

This was the busiest time in the life of Israel! MILLIONS of Jews descended on

Jerusalem for the celebration of the Passover.


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They knew the prophecies!

From Bethlehem Nazarene Poor are fed

Blind See Deaf hear Mute speak

and the dead are raised

That he would be from the tribe of Judah, and specifically in the Line of David.

In fact, in 1 Kings 1 when David was establishing Solomon as the successor to his

throne, he had Solomon ride into Jerusalem on a donkey.

So NOW is the time! Now Jesus is riding into to Jerusalem! Now their king is here!!!

Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold,your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on

a donkey, on a colt, the foul of a donkey.

So they threw down their coats and waived Palm branchesthis was a common OT wayto dignify a King.

And they shouted aloud from Psalm 118, Blessed is the one who comes in the name of

the Lord. For those of you with Jewish friends, you may know that this Psalm is still

read at some of the Jewish feasts even to today as a greeting to those in attendance.

Except instead of it being used as the greeting for those who were attending the Feast of

Passover, who are still awaiting the Messiah it is applied to the Messiah himself! Jesus

is the blessed one the ONE who comes in the name of the Lord.

They cried out Hosanna In Hebrew it is a plea, - hoshi-anah - it means Save us

now! And it is exactly what he planned to do but he had a much greater salvation in

mind than simple freedom from Rome.

Give us freedom! Prove to me that youre divine, drive out these Roman swine!

We know what this is like... we all recently watched the inauguration of President Obama

where millions of people descended on Washington D.C. Now love him or leave him, the

excitement surrounding the election of Obama was tangible!

People wanted change. People wanted justice. People wanted stability.

And Im not here to say whether or not Obama was the right choice, but my point is thatthis crowd and the excitement in Jerusalem should not be so hard for us to imagine.

And it seemed so clear! Jesus was their king! If his followers didnt say it, then even the

stones that were used to build the city itself would have cried out This is your King!!!

But something went wrong


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Jesus didnt come carrying a sword Jesus allowed himself to be arrested

In can imagine his followers saying, What is going on? Did he give up? Is heabandoning us back to Rome?

And the shouts of Hosanna! slowly faded into the distance

Then he makes no defense at his trial he completely submits to the will of Rome.

And we hear a new rumbling.

crucifyCrucifyCRUCIFY HIM! We have no king by Caesar! Crucify him!

Jesus was ushered into to Jerusalem as its King but stumbled out of it viewed as a

criminal. Consigned to death on the cross

They even hung the sign over his head in three languages King of the Jews King

of the JewsKing of the Jews and they thought, what a joke.

We expect this from the Pharisees, and from the Romans to them Jesus, if he reallywas a king was threat. He would take away the ability of the Pharisees to exploit those

who came to the temple to worship and to line their own pockets. He would change their

comfortable way of life. And the Romans didnt want a new upstart to try and lead

another rebellion. So they were squashing a possible threat to the kingdom.

But what about his own followers What happened? How could his people so

misunderstand what his purpose in coming to earth was? They read the same scriptureswe do! Even his disciples didnt understand it at the time. It was only after theresurrection that the apostle John says, that they remembered that these things had beenwritten about him and had been done to him.

Why?

It is because he didnt act like a king; at least not any other king. He was poor andhumble, the son of a carpenter. He came from an obscure region in the nation. He

associated with sinners and the lowly of society.

What kind of king does that?

He performed the tasks of the lowest servants; he washed the feet of his disciples. He is

the rejected father who waits by the fence to see the instant his runaway son returns. He is

the spurned lover who goes and spends all he has to buy his bride back from prostitution.What kind of king does that?

He is the king who allows us to call him by his first name and to approach him as sons.

He is the king who I sin against, and yet steps down off the throne, takes off his crown,and takes my punishment upon himself!


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What kind of king does that?

Our king does. Our king does that! This why we throw our crowns at his feet. That is all

our crowns are good for.

But this is not a license for self-righteousness. How can we think that we are better thanour unbelieving family? Or neighbors? Or co-workers? Or friends? The gospel is not

Gods stamp of approval for us to become the very religious hypocrites that Jesus

rebuked during his time on earth! The difference between those of us with the hope of

heaven and those without is not the goodness of our works but the goodness of ourGod and King!

Yet we can still ask: How do we as believers, on the other side of the resurrection, make

sure that we dont come to another false understanding of our king?

Do we see him as a Genie in a lamp there only to bless us when we call on him? Is he a

senile, old, grey bearded grandfather who is entirely permissive of what we do as long aswe try to be good and show up for church on Christmas and Easter? Are we looking for a

political overthrow of our enemies, to re-establish Christendom? Do we just want breadfor our bellies or freedom from our foes?

The best way to guard against a skewed belief is to study the true one. And thankfully for

us there is an entire book of the Bible devoted to telling us what our king is like.Yet sadly we rarely read it. We are often so intimidated by its language, its imagery, and

its style that we are willing to overlook its content.

But we have the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Penned by the Apostle John,

Revelation was intended to comfort a church suffering under Roman occupancy and

oppression..

I will not give you detailed interpretation on the symbols in the book or promote a certain

millennial scheme. I wont have time to tell you what the locusts are, what the seven

trumpet judgments represent, who the Beast and the False prophet are.

What I am going to tell you is that this is a book about our King. Our Bibles title the book

simply Revelation, but John calls it the Revelation OF JESUS CHRIST! It is not a road

map to the Armageddon or a compass to help you navigate through the newspaperheadlines concerning the middle eastern conflict. It is a beautiful and awe-inspiring

treatment on our glorious king, Jesus Christ.

The first description of the Church is found in 1:5-6 and says that Christ freed us from

our sins by his blood to make us a KINGDOM We are not a just a community of

believers, we are not just a family of faith, we are a Kingdom and this means that we

have a king and John goes on to tell us in the next 22 chapters exactly what is our kingand his kingdom are like.


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With what little time I have, I have distilled the major themes concerning Christ in the

book of Revelation down to three. There are so many more and I encourage you to bebrave and delve into this book on your own and ask yourself what God is revealing about

Christ in this book.

We have all been told over and over again that Revelation is the only book that comes

with a blessing. But we often miss what the blessing actually says. It is not simply forhaving checked off the box for reading it. The blessing is for the one who stands and

reads the book aloud to the congregation and for the congregation who hears and who

KEEPS what is contained with in it.

But if the book is only about the future; if it is only about Gods wrath on the worldlysystem and if the church is not even involved because it has been raptured before any of

what is described occurs, then there is nothing for us to keep. But on the other hand, if the

book is about our king and our right response to his reign over us and his sovereigntyover all of creation, then there is something for us to keep. There is a message for us to

internalize, and cling to, and to feed our hope.

But I only have time to give you three major ways that Christ, our king is depicted in

Revelation. Three different ways that the Apostle John describes the king that we serve.

First, John tells us that we serve a GLORIOUS, VICTORIOUS king.

Revelation 1 describes the Glorious appearance of Christ

Voice like a trumpet and like the roar of many waters

Clothed in majestyIN A LONG WHITE ROBE Hair as white as snow - pure Eyes like a flame of fire, they pierce the soul Feet were like burnished bronze Double edged sword coming out of his mouththe truth and judgment of his Word Face shining like the sun in full strengthJohn lived in the middle east, he knew

what the sun in full strength was like.

First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the EndChrist isEternal. He was before the foundations of the world and he will be forevermore!

And when John see this glorious sight, he falls down at Jesus feet as though dead.But there is a great irony our passage. In fact, the use ofcontrasts is a normal literarytool in Revelation.

o John hears the 144000 sealed from the Tribes of Israel and turns to see acountless multitude of believers from every nation

o He hears the Lion of the tribe of Judah and turns to see the Lambo The Beast seems to be dead but is actually still alive.o The people of God seem to be on the verge of defeat but have never been

closer to salvation.


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And now

Jesus is pictured as glorious and eternal because he submitted himself to the cross and

overcame death itself.

In V18 Jesus said, I died, and behold, I am alive forever more! He is glorious in chapter1 but the most common way of referring to Christ in the book is not so majestic He is

the lamb who was slain a meek, flawless being who took on the wrath of God on mans

behalf.

Jesus was the required sacrifice. This is why the donkey had to be unridden. According to

Levitical law, if an animal was to be used in a ceremonial service, it had to be

unblemishedit could never have been used for common labor.

Jesus knew that his trip to Jerusalem was for a sacred service. He was making a sin

offering to God on behalf of the his people. The donkey that carried in this sacrificial

lamb had to be unblemished.

Yet the crucifixion, as we know, did not defeat Christ!

Christ was victorious over death!

Christ was victorious over the grave!

Christ was victorious over sin and satan!And Christ will be victorious over the whole world!

And we as believers are citizens of his kingdom. His kingdom is victorious and so we arevictorious. We will not suffer eternal death because Christ defeated it on our behalf!

Not only do we serve a victorious king, but,

We serve an all powerful, all knowing, SOVEREIGN king!

Christ knew the mule and its colt would be in that city.Christ knew what the disciples would need to say to be able to obtain the colt.

He knew the reactions of the crowd.

o The accolades and the accusations! He knew the cheers he would receiveon that first day, and the jeers he would receive on the last.

He chose when to enter. He knew that he would die that week.

o He chose to enter during the week that the Passover was celebrated. Passoverwas the celebration in memory of when God commanded the Israelites whowere in captivity in Egypt, to slaughter a lamb and smear its blood upon the

doorposts of their homes. And when God passed through Egypt that night,

killing the first born sons of Egypt to show that the Lord was the only true

God, the Jews would be passed over, because of the blood on their doorposts.The lamb that they killed was to a substitute for them. The lamb was slain so

that they would not be.


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o So its not by accident that Jesus, THE Lamb that was slain, chose to enter intoJerusalem during a festival rich with significance.

o He was throwing down the gauntlet before the Sanhedrin and the Romangovernor, saying Arrest me! Now is my time to die!

And we see in the book of Revelation the awesome control over history which our king

has.

o Trials and tribulations of his peopleo Environment and Natural Disasters: commonly shown to be a result of his

judgments and wrath against the world and the bring salvation to his people.

o Who is involved in what wars and the outcomes of every battleo Judgment of the nationso Deathover when, where, and how they pass from this eartho Eternal destiny of every single human being

In fact one major theme of the book is the one who sits upon the throne. Over and over

again God is referred to as The one who sits upon the throne. We are constantlyshown that the throne is not empty. No matter how much we want to live like there is

no authority over us, that there is no governing king over the universe, there is and He is

not aloof HE IS NOT UNINVOLVED he is not impersonal he is sovereignlyruling all of creation from the courts of heaven.

And Revelation affirms to us that those whom he elected before the foundations of theworld to believe in Jesus Christ will reign with him.

So our king is Victorious! Our king is Sovereign, and finally

Our King is COMING BACK!

Jesus begin his triumphal entry by descending down from the Mount of Olives and oneday he will again stand upon the Mount of Olives!

He came the first time on a MuleNot only did this mule have religious significance, butin ancient times a mule was a sign of peace. A king who was coming on a diplomatic

mission would ride a mule. A king coming on a military mission, would ride a horse.

You see, Jesus was not coming in order to over throw the reign of the Romans but ratherto overthrow the reign of sin and Satan. He came to offer peace to the world through his

blood. He came from a position of power, from the courtrooms of heaven where God

rules and reigns, to offer peace to us. In our sin, we are in constant rebellion against God!But Jesus, the mightier of the combatants, was offering us peace.

But revelation tells us that when he comes again, he will not be on a mule, but on a great

white horse. A stallion of war. He is coming back as a great warrior king!

His name will be Faithful and True


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On his head will be many diademsmany crownsYou see, Jesus is not onlyking of the Jews, but the rightful king of every tribe, every people, every nation,

and every tongue- and all will bow low before him.

No longer will his robe white, but it will dipped in bloodBut this is not theblood of his enemies as some would say. This is his blood that identifies that he is

Lamb who had been slain, the Redeemer king. The one who laid down his ownlife to save the lives of his people.

Followed by the armies of heaven From his mouth will come the sharp, double-edged sword which he will use to

strike down the nations that opposed him.

And he will carry an iron scepter he will rule the world with true and steadfastjustice. He will dish-out both salvation and judgment!

All those times when we wonder how something so awful could happen and why God

would allow this illness, or that death, will be stilled. God will wipe away every tear fromour eyes. God will make all things right. The Lion will lie down with the Lamb.

The Bibles picture of the final day, the day of the Lord is both glorious and terrifying.

The book of Revelation, as the turn of phrase goes, is meant to comfort the afflicted, andafflict the comfortable.

For those of us who have put our faith and hope in Jesus Christ, the message ofRevelation about this day will be comforting. That will be the day when God sets all

things right. When there will be no more pain or suffering. When we will no longer

struggle with sin and evil. When we will enter into the fully realized Kingdom of our God

where we will be in a constant state of adoration, joy, peace, wholeness, and blessedness,and he will rule over us in peace, and kindness, and majesty.

But for those of us who reject the reign of Christ now, who still yell out with the crowd

Crucify him! We have no king! this day is the beginning of an eternity of judgment.This is the day that Revelation describes as the day of the wrath of God and of the Lamb.

On that day, all the kings and the mighty men of the world will climb into caves and ontocliffs and call out to the stones to fall upon them because they are afraid to stand in the

presence of God and be judged!

Those of us who say that Jesus is meek and will accept us into his kingdom regardless ofwhether or not we believed sorely miss the message of Revelation, and indeed of all the

scriptures. Yes Jesus is meek. Of course Jesus is loving and forgiving and longs for all to

believe. But there will come a day when he no longer comes on the back of a mule, or asthe lamb who was slain, but as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. The rider on the white warhorse. If this is you, if you still spurn your rightful king, who suffered and died in your

place to make you right with God, who spent all he had, even his very life to buy you

back from prostitution; who waits by the fence to see the instant that you return to him,do not leave today without humbling yourself before the throne of Christ. He died on the

cross, taking our punishment upon himself, so that those who believed would be saved.


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I know that this seems absurd to some of you. That it seems like if God loved us he

would just accept us as we are. That he wouldnt need to have sacrifice or to have Jesusdie on the cross in some kind of cosmic child abuse to appease him. But at the same time,

when you hear of a child being killed, a friend being assaulted, the rich sponging off the

suffering of the poor, or the attempts at genocide of entire people groups, we naturally

long for justice. We know deep down that its not right. That this is not how it issupposed to be. And how many of you, though you want God to pat you on the back for

being good and accept you as you are, would be appalled at a God who told Hitler, or

Dahmer, or that neighbor who assaulted your friend, or even the department store

manager who wouldnt give you that refund that one time, that he wouldjust ignore what

they had done. We naturally want justice.

You see, a God who doesnt care about our sin is not a loving God, he is an unjust one.How many of you let your children get away with murder? How many of you never

discipline your children for lying? That God is a God of our own making that we use to

shield ourselves from the responsibility of our evil action. We all want justice when it

comes to them, but we fear it when we know it falls on us. But God, the true God isjust but also is LOVE. He is not just loving, but is the standard for love itself. God

demands payment for evil but who also who pays the price himself so that we would

not have toRather than letting us all bear the weight of our iniquities, he bore them for

us now that is a loving God. That is a God worthy of our worship.

The first triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem was for the crucifixion. To die as thesacrifice for our sins and pay the price that was due to us. To obtain forgiveness for his

people.

The second, will be for consummation, to set all things right; to judge the living and the

dead, to separate the wheat from the chaff, the righteous from the unrighteous, the elect,

from the reprobate; to renew all of creation and to usher in an eternal kingdom of peace

for the glory of God.

As we remember the triumphal entry of Christ some 2000 years ago, when he began his

final march toward his crucifixion, let us not forget that our king achieved the victory forus that we could never achieve on our own.

That our king is sovereign over all of human history. We can praise God and give him

glory and honor for everything in our lives, not only when we know he has blessed us,

but also when things are going horribly wrong, when we dont know why we have suchpain and suffering and persecution, because we know that in his perfect timing, all things

will be made right.

That when we sing Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, it is Jesus alonewho is worthy to come into his city, to enter into his temple, and to receive the praises of

Gods people.


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And let us never forget that our king is coming back and when he comes, those of us who

believe will be brought in to his eternal kingdom. We sing Hosanna to Christ becausehe saved us from our sins by his blood, to make us his kingdom.

The apostle John ends the book of Revelation with these words:

He who testifies to these things says, Surely I am comingsoon. Amen. ComeLord Jesus! Let us pray.

revelation of our king

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