The King Arrives!

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Will you turn over in your Bibles with me to Mark Chapter 11, Mark Chapter 11, and we'll be reading verses 1 through 11, Mark Chapter 11, verses 1 through 11. If you're using the New King James Pew Bibles, you'll find that on page 894. Mark Chapter 11. Keep in the back of your mind the story that we had just read about with Jesus healing blind Bartimaeus as they were on their way from Jericho up to Jerusalem. Mark chapter 11, beginning at verse 1. Brothers and sisters, this is God's perfect word.

Now when they drew near Jerusalem to Bethpage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, and he said to them, Go into the village opposite you, and as soon as you have entered it, with it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat.

Loose it and bring it. And if anyone says to you, why are you doing this? Say, the Lord has need of it, and immediately he will send it here. So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it. But some of those who stood there said to them, what are you doing loosening the colt? And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. So they let them go. Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it. And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying, Hosanna!

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our Father David that comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! 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."

Prayer for Illumination

Well, in the portion of God's Word there, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. And we plead with you now that you would please help us by your Spirit to understand these words, and that you would please also impress upon our lives what this means for us. Help us, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon

Well, there's two things I like to laugh at. One are, well, maybe it's three things, car commercials, perfume commercials, and political ads. All of which will promise you if you just get this one thing, your life is going to be perfect. If you buy this perfume, all of a sudden you're going to turn into Fabio or something. If you buy this car, all your problems are going to go away and you're going to get to coast down Pacific Coast Highway and it's going to be beautiful and awesome. Or if you just elect this political candidate, all our problems are going to be gone. Spoiler alert, all of them are false. All of them are full of promises that they can't keep.

And I gotta tell you, over the last couple of elections, there's things that I find really interesting, you know, as I've watched these political ads, and as I've heard people talk about, there's, you know, people like comedians saying, you know, we thank the Lord for our Lord and Savior, Barack Obama. You know, like, okay, come on, man.

People are looking for a political messiah. Or there's the people who are like, well, if we elect this person, it's doomsday. You know, I remember somebody saying, if Hillary gets elected, then it's going to be Armageddon. And then there was a headline in a conservative, evangelical, dispensationalist-type website, is Trump going to usher in the end kingdom?

People put a lot of hopes, especially in politics. People put a lot, and you're going to live it right now, like it or not, the Iowa State Fair is still going on, And there's still politicians milling about in our state, vying for control, and whether you like it or not, for the next year and a couple months, this is going to be shoved down your throat all the time. Political ads, political ads, political ads. I think I might actually start having a little filing thing on my desk and just keep all the political ads that keep coming to the house.

You're going to get it whether you like it or not, but the question is, who is your king? The question is, are you going to place your hopes on any political candidate, or do you have a hope that actually gives you peace far better than what any politician could ever offer you? That's what the people here in Jerusalem were looking for. And that's what Jesus provides.

So let's turn and let's look here at Mark chapter 11, and as we get into Mark chapter 11, first I need to warn you, we're going to have to go to some school, because there's a lot of Old Testament background, and I don't got a lot of time, I'm already really late, so we're going to move fast.

And then after that, we're going to talk about how Jesus just The secret's out. Secret's out of the bag. And then we're going to talk about how Jesus is the King. Right, so first we need to go to school. If we're going to look to Jesus as the King, we've got to explain some things. And the first thing is, this didn't come out of the blue.

This scene, this scenario of Jesus is, I mean, filled, pregnant, it's like a balloon ready to pop with Old Testament symbology. Right, if we went all the way back, there's going to be some page flipping here, I even gave you the page numbers in your outline, so you can move quickly with me if you want to.

But all the way back in Genesis chapter 49, we have the patriarch, who is giving promises to his 12 different sons. Some of them are promises, some of them aren't so nice. But in Genesis chapter 49 verse 11, we find that it is Judah that Israel is talking to. Jacob is going to give a promise to his son Judah, and he's promising him to be king.

And notice what verse 11 says. Genesis 49 verse 11, Binding his donkey to the vine, and his colt to the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. Almost every church father that I could find in the first three centuries of the church points back to this verse as saying, from the very beginning of the Old Testament, This son of Judah was going to ride upon a colt. Was going to ride upon a colt.

This is like a... I had to look this up. I'm from Southern California. We don't have animals, right? We have like dogs and cats, right? A colt, like a young donkey, right? So think of a young donkey. And so there's this colt that's going to be tied to a vine. The donkey's colt to a choice vine has washed garments and wine. And his clothes and the blood of grapes. This was Jacob saying to his son, someday one of your sons is going to ride upon a colt as king. If you wanted to later, when you go home, you can read verses 8-12 and proof on that, right? If you think, oh, Brian's just making this up. Look at verses 8-12 sometimes. Look at that full context and see this full promise. It is the promise that Judah will be the king.

But then if we turn in our Bibles again to Psalms, Psalm 118, we just sang these words. In Psalm 118, there's this cry out to God for salvation. And in Psalm 118, beginning at verse 25, A song that the people would sing all the time was, Save now, I pray, O Lord. O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity. And now this verse that's quoted in Mark chapter 11.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. Right? They've come from the house of the Lord and they are wanting to praise Him for His salvation. This is why in Mark chapter 11 they cry out, Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest! This means, God save us! God save us! Interestingly, Jesus' name means, Yeshua, means Yah saves. God saves.

But it's not just in Genesis. It's not just in Psalms. Keep with me. I know we're still in school. We have to go back to Zechariah chapter 9 that we had read earlier. And notice again this fulfillment that Jesus has. Zechariah chapter 9 verses 9 and 10. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, who is coming? Your King is coming to you.

He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem. The battle bow shall be cut off and he shall speak peace to the nations. His dominion shall be from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.

When Jesus is orchestrating this event, and I need you to recognize, it is Jesus who orchestrates the events in Mark chapter 11. He's doing it with all the symbolism. From the book of Genesis to the book of Zechariah. He is this coming King. And there's more here that I'm not going to get in with you in the Old Testament. But this is this whole promise. That there would be a son who would finally reign on David's throne forever. Second Samuel, chapter 7. Again, I'm going to encourage you, I've put it in the book there. We don't have, in your notes there, I don't have enough time to go there with you this morning, but go home this afternoon and check it out, right? God makes David. That same David who killed Goliath was anointed by the prophet Samuel to be king.

And when he became king, finally, as he was a young man, he grew more and more and more. He conquered nations around him. He subdued peoples. He even made Jerusalem. It used to be a different city, the city of the Jebusites. And he conquered them, made it his capital, and from there, God promised him, you might have a palace. You might have a throne, but someday I'm going to give you a son who will sit on your throne forever.

And the people had waited for that king. David even thought in 1 Chronicles, he thought that maybe that king was Solomon himself, but guess what happens to Solomon? If the kids were here for VBS, they would know. He died. And they thought, oh, maybe it will be Rehoboam.

Maybe his son will finally be the king who will sit on his throne forever. And he dies. And then you have a series of horrible wicked kings, and nobody wants them to be king forever. But then you have someone like Hezekiah, and you're like, maybe Hezekiah will sit on David's throne forever. And he dies. And then you have a whole bunch of other wicked kings that nobody wants to sit on the throne forever. But then there's Josiah, and you think, maybe Josiah, right? He's a righteous one. He's going to sit on the throne of David forever. And he dies.

And then the Babylonians take over. And then they're in exile, still holding on to this promise that somehow, someday, there's going to come a king. And the Maccabites come on the scene, and there's a kingdom for a while, but it's not the one that's going to work forever. They're taken over by the Greeks. They're taken over by the Romans.

For centuries and centuries and centuries, the people have been holding on to this promise that someday there is going to be a king who would sit on David's throne. And there was going to be a king different than the Romans. A king better than the Herods. They wanted a king who was going to have a physical palace. like David's. The people wanted to have a king who would have a physical throne that would sit there in the palace that they could walk up the steps and they could see the king with their own eyes. The people wanted a king like the other kings of the nations around them. They wanted to be outside of from being under Roman rule. They finally wanted the freedom that the messianic, messianic just means the anointed, the anointed king would finally give them.

And now the secret seems to be over. See, all this time, Mark chapter one through Mark chapter 10, every time Jesus came in line with someone and he gave them a miracle or he did something miraculous, there's only one time that he told someone, go and tell other people, right? That was the demoniac of Gennesaret, right? But all the rest of them, he said, don't tell anyone. Don't tell anyone. But here, this is a hinge. This is a pivot point in the story.

Jesus isn't going to stay quiet anymore. Jesus, in front of everyone, declares who he is, not by his words, but by what he does. Jesus declares that he is the king here when he tells his disciples as they're traveling up that windy mountain road from Jericho up the Mount of Olives and eventually down into the city of Jerusalem. As he's making that road he tells, notice it's Jesus who tells his disciples, you're going to go into the next town.

And as you go into the next town, here's what you're going to see. You're going to see that there's a colt tied there. And when you go into that town and you see that colt, I want you to go and loosen that colt. And there's going to be people standing around there. And they're going to be like, whoa dude, what are you doing? And all you need to say is, the Lord needs it. And they're going to let you take it.

Now kids, how do you think Jesus knew that that was going to happen? Did Jesus, like, set this up before? Did He, like, make a midnight trip to Jerusalem and set up a secret password, like a handshake with a guy? Like, hey, you know, you do this, I'll make sure I get your donkey back to you or something?

No, Jesus knew that this was going to happen because Jesus Christ has all four knowledge. He knew what was going to happen. He knew that that cult was going to be there. He knew that if His disciples just said this one phrase, the Lord has need of it, that they would listen. Jesus is orchestrating this, Jesus is planning it, because Jesus is going to declare that he's king, and guess what?

It happens. Exactly the way that Jesus said it was going to happen. They go into the town, we don't know who the two disciples are, they go into the town, they loosen a coat, I wonder what they were thinking, like, are these guys really gonna let us just take this animal? And they do. They ask him, what are you doing? He said, the Lord has need of it. All right.

Now I gotta tell you, maybe we don't take this as seriously as we ought to. If I walked up to one of the farmer's houses and I just got in your tractor and I turned the key and you went out there and you said, what are you doing? And I said, the Lord needs your tractor. Would you be like, oh yeah, that's fine, go ahead, especially if you wouldn't let me take it. No, you would be like, what? But somehow Jesus knows. No, no, no. It's okay. They're going to let you. And they do. They let him take the colt. Because the secret is over.

Jesus rides in on this notable animal. Nobody else has ever ridden on this animal before. And things start to happen that seem to be spontaneous, and yet Jesus knows what this is declaring. They start putting their robes over the animal so Jesus is able to have essentially a type of saddle to ride on. But then something happens that would typically only happen for kings.

As Jesus rode up that windy mountain road up to the top past Bethpage and past Bethany and down the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem behind him and in front of him, people are doing two different things. As Jesus the King enters into the city, People start to take their garments off and they start to put it down in front of Jesus as he's going. This is the red carpet treatment.

This is what they did for Solomon when he entered Jerusalem on a mule. This is what they did for King Jehu when he entered in on a mule. This is what they did for the kings, blowing the trumpets saying, Jehu is king! They didn't have any trumpets, but they shouted it with the voice of their lungs. This is what they're doing with the trumpets of their own lungs, verses 9 and 10.

Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the kingdom of our father, David, that comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. The people are proclaiming, this is our king! This is the one who we've been waiting for! This is the one who will sit on David's throne! This is the one who's going to rule over us!

And this idea of Jesus, the king of the Jews, is what will be placed above Jesus' head as He's on that cross. Because see, they're expecting Jesus to become king in a specific way, and to be king in a political way. The people are expecting Jesus to be king in the sense that he's going to come in and he's going to overthrow the Romans, that he's going to give them political freedom, that they're going to have wealth, and they're going to have power, and they're going to have land, and everything's going to be great. But Jesus has a much better kingdom. Jesus is not after a political kingdom like this world, but he has a kingdom that's not of this world, a kingdom of heaven that he's bringing to them. and he is going to be king.

They would place a crown upon his head, though it would be a crown of thorns. They would clothe him in royal purple, but it would be immediately soaked through with his own blood. The Romans would bow their knee to him as their commander-in-chief, but they would do so mocking him. He would be lifted up on high, exalted amongst everyone. but it'd be at the height of a cross.

Because the kingdom that he was going to have would be an everlasting kingdom. And the victory that he was going to win would not be a political victory over the Romans in the sense that they wanted it, but he would defeat every ruler and every principality.

And he would even beat sin and death itself. I love the part in the Shorter Catechism that we're in right now, right? And wherein consisted the humiliation of Christ, right? In His being underneath the law, in His suffering the cursedness of the death on the cross, and even being subject to the power of death for a time. But Jesus, our King, entered that city knowing that He would exit that city in a different way.

And that when it came time for His exaltation, He would rise again from the dead. And He would ascend up into heaven. And there He would sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. And there He is worshipped by the angels around His throne who sing His praises. Because brothers and sisters, our King lives. He entered into Jerusalem as a king riding upon a colt, and he is our king today.

I can promise you that in a few years, there's still gonna be shenanigans going on in D.C., but your king will still live. I can't promise you in 2026 who's going to be president, but I can promise you who's going to be king in heaven. And his name is Jesus Christ. The secret is out. Jesus' kingdom is opening up here. People are starting to see it, but they're going to expect it to happen in a certain way, and the rest of the book of Mark is us being able to see how Jesus is going to earn His kingdom, and how He is going to rule, not as a tyrant king like the Herods and the Romans, but as a loving Savior who would overthrow the nations, so at the right time in the proper way, Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. He's your King. He's your King. So receive Him, rest upon Him, trust in Him, take confidence in Him, look to Him. Don't put your hope in princes or in presidents or definitely not in politicians, but in the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much that you have given us Jesus and we pray. Lord, this world tries to steal our loyalty away all the time. So Father, we pray that we would not be like ostriches and our heads in the sand, ignoring what's going on around us. But Lord, as we live in this world, we pray that by the power of your Holy Spirit, we might be able to fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. and that we would not get sidetracked with the broken promises of the politicians. But Lord, that we would trust in you and follow in your ways. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.