Our King and His Kingdom

Matthew 21:1-11 (ESV) 1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 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. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went 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!” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

Introduction:

• Today we once again remember and celebrate Palm Sunday.
• The day our King entered into the beloved and precious Jerusalem.
• The which marks the onset of Jesus’ final days here on earth before fulfillingscripture to become the Lamb of God slain for all the world.

1. Our King and His Kingdom.

Zechariah 9:9 (AMP) Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O Daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you; He is [uncompromisingly] just and having salvation [triumphant and victorious], patient, meek, lowly, and riding on a donkey, upon a colt, the foal of a donkey.Right before His deepest humiliation and severe temptation.

1.1. Jesus enters as a King.
1.1.1. The proclamation of Jesus’ Kingship.

1.1.2. Riding through the streets of Jerusalem on a donkey was a plain and simple manifesto of the fulfillment of scripture.

1.2. Jesus enters not as a conquering earthly king, but as the Spiritual King and goes straight to His palace, the Temple.

1.3. This would be His third visit to the Temple:
1.3.1. The first time He was the baby King.
1.3.2. The second time He was the student King.
1.3.3. The third time He enters as the Cleanser, Healer, Teacher King.

2. The King of a different kind of Kingdom.

2.1. A Kingdom of love and light built for the glory of God.

Revelation 22:5 (NIV) There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
2.2. A Kingdom which there is no more hinderance from each of us fulfilling our designed purpose for being created.
2.3. Here on earth we attempt to appeal to our vanity by motivating people to want to be in His Kingdom because of streets of Gold, gates of pearl, precious jewels for trim.

2.3.1. The most precious commodities of this earthly kingdom are used for simple building materials in His Kingdom because the His glory is the real reward.

2.3.2. The reality is we may not even notice the streets of gold for the first million years as our gaze is fixated on Him that is infinitely more valuable.

2.4. Not a Kingdom built by conquering other Nations.
2.4.1. Not one built upon the taxation of the people.
2.4.2. “(Parallel Commentary on the New Testament – Spurgeon) No blood, no tears, no devastation, no burned cities, no mangled bodies! King of peace, King of peace, this is thy dominion! ‘Tis even so in the kingdom over which Christ is king today, there is no force to be used. If the kings of the earth should say to the ministers of Christ, “We will lend you our soldiers,” our reply would be, “What can we do with them? –as soldiers they are worthless to us.”

2.4.3. A Kingdom which “(Parallel Commentary on the New Testament – Spurgeon) The poorest man that loves Christ, or the humblest woman who is willing to accept him as her teacher, becomes at once one of the nobility that wait upon Christ Jesus. What a kingdom is this which makes fishermen nobles, and peasants princes while they remain but fishermen and peasants still! This is the kingdom of which we speak, in which discipleship is the highest degree, in which divine service is the patent of nobility.”

3. They people of this Kingdom looked different.

Matt 21:6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them.

3.1.The army looks different; the methods are different.

2 Timothy 2:4 (ASV) No soldier on service entangleth himself in the affairs of this life; that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier.

3.1.1. The army of God that was surrounding this King upon entrance into Jerusalem looked different from armies past and present.

3.1.2. Not armed with weapon but with palm branches and shouts of worship.

2 Chronicles 20:6 (ESV) and said, “O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. 2 Chronicles 20:21-22 (ESV) 21 And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the LORD and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and say, “Give thanks to the LORD, for his steadfast love endures forever.” 22 And when they began to sing and praise, the LORD set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed.

3.1.3.The prayers of the saints

3.1.4.The worship of the army.

3.1.5.The weapons of our warfare are not of earthly decent.

2. They stripped themselves in worship.

Matt 21:8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went 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!”

2.1. Each worshipper strips themselves of earthy garments when the King arrives upon His humble chariot.

2.2. (Parallel Commentary on the New Testament – Spurgeon) “Listen again, and this perhaps is a striking part of Christ’s kingdom–he came to establish a kingdom without taxations. Where were the collectors of the King’s revenue? You say he had not any; yes he had, but what a revenue it was! Every man took off his garments willingly; he never asked it; his revenue flowed freely from the willing gifts of his people. The first had lent his ass and his colt, the rest had given their clothes. Those who had scarce clothes to part with, plucked the branches from the trees, and here was state for once which cost no man anything, or rather for which nothing was demanded of any man, but everything spontaneously given.”

2.3. A kingdom in which noting is required from the inhabitants yet every thing is willing given once the King gets a hold of our heart.

3.3. When the King arrives in your life our perception of all the things both upon us and around us take on new meaning.

3.3.1. We begin asking ourself the question: How can this serve the King and His mission.

3.3.2. True worship begins once a stripping has set in.
3.4.Then there is a stirring in the city.

Matt 21:10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

3.4.1. (Parallel Commentary on the New Testament – Spurgeon) Such, then, the first effect of Christ’s kingdom! Wherever it comes, the city is stirred. Do not believe the gospel is preached at all if it does not make a stir. Do not believe, my brethren, that the gospel is preached in Christ’s way if it does not make some angry and some happy, if it does not make many enemies and some friends.

4. The unexpected actions of a King.

Matthew 21:12-16 (ESV) 12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” 14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 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, 16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”

4.1. Jesus enter the Temple and what came next no one would have predicted.

Matthew 21:12-16 (ESV) 12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

Mark 11:11 (NKJV) And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.

John 2:15 (NKJV) When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables.

4.2. The 1st day He took a look around.

4.3. That night while pondering what He was going to do He called out to Peter and asked for 3 straps of leather. And they all sat there quietly no one dare asking what He was doing and why…

4.4. began over turning the tables.
4.4.1. Seems a bit uncharacteristic of King, until we remember…. Psalms 69:9 (ESV) For zeal for your house has consumed me,
4.4.2. Ela… If you have not had some tables overturned in your life yet by Christ then I suggest you get ready.
4.5. (Parallel Commentary on the New Testament – Spurgeon) I will never believe that Christ, the King, has made your heart his palace till you are unselfish. Oh, how many professors there are who want to get so much honor, so much respect! As to giving to the poor, thinking it more blessed to give than to receive, as for feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, as for living for other people, and not for themselves–they do not think of that. O Master, come into thy temple and drive out our selfishness, now come, turn out all those things which would make it convenient to serve Mammon by serving God; help us to live unto thee, and to live for others by living to thee, and not live unto ourselves!

Mark 11:16-17 (ESV) 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”

4.6. Ela… story of refusing to work the merchandise table in Teen Challenge. A conviction that has stayed with me all these years. I can bear charging for things in the House of God. Maybe for food but to avoid at all cost turning the house of God into a retail store of merchandise.

In Conclusion:

• Maybe this all sounds ridiculous to you.
• (Parallel Commentary on the New Testament – Spurgeon) The kingdom of Christ, you say, is ridiculous; you do not believe perhaps that there are any people who are ruled by him though we say that we own him as our King,

• 1 Corinthians 1:23-24 (Parallel Commentary on the New Testament – Wesley) 23. We go on to preach, in a plain and historical, not rhetorical or philosophical, manner, Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block – Just opposite to the “signs” they demand. And to the Greeks foolishness – A silly tale, just opposite to the wisdom they seek.
• 24. But to them that are called – And obey the heavenly calling. Christ – With his cross, his death, his life, his kingdom. And they experience, first, that he is the power, then, that he is the wisdom, of God.
• A man said to me once after having been in the Church for years and years “I don’t believe what you believe” and he went on to describe what he believed how each one’s life consist of what he makes of it through hard work, decisions and determination.
• But maybe the Kingdom of God is a Kingdom that intrigues you.
• One that you want to rule in your heart.
• You say to yourself could this be, is it true…
• Is there another kingdom that could rule my heart and my life that is different from the pursuit that I have been on.