The King: A Lenten Season SeriesThe Humble KingWarren Jae M. Sandoval

Okay, because we are on to the Lenten season and today is Palm Sunday we’ll be talking about why this is being celebrated and hopefully at the end of this topic we will have a firmer grasp of how the kingship of Jesus has everything to do with our salvation and how His finished work deserves and compels our total obedience.

Well the kingship of Jesus Christ on some sorts are the same with the world view and in some sorts are very different. We’ll see how that is with our main text for the day in Matthew 21:1-9. Please bring out your Bible and turn to Matthew 21:1-9 and let’s read the message then pray. If you do not have a bible, you can share with your neighbor or you can refer to our presentation in front.

Matthew 21:1-9“As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me.3 If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

5 “Say to Daughter Zion,    ‘See, your king comes to you,gentle and riding on a donkey,    and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

Prayer…

The scripture tells us in verse 4 that Jesus choosing to ride in Jerusalem on a colt took place to fulfill the prophesy of Zechariah

Zechariah 9:99 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!    Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!See, your king comes to you,    righteous and victorious,lowly and riding on a donkey,    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

However, I don’t think that this was the only reason Jesus had to what He did, but to contradict the prevailing notions about Israel’s Messiah.

You see Israel was hyping up the notion of the kingship of the messiah

1. The Hyped-up King

Zephaniah 3:15The LORD has taken away your punishment,    he has turned back your enemy.

The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you;    never again will you fear any harm.

They were expecting him to act and appear the way a king should’ve appeared. They were expecting him to be a political and militant messiah. They were expecting Him to lead them to victory in that time.

So they welcomed him shouting praises to Him, spreading their cloaks on the roads and cutting branches and laying them on the road. Those branches weren’t just to show their enthusiasm, it was a show of nationalistic pride symbolizing victory.

However true those might have seem, Jesus was not going to lead the victory through a militant act or those kinds of things. There is going to be a victory, but it’s not going to be how everyone expected it to be. Heck, Satan would not have even expected what he was going to happen.

2. The Humble King

While Kings are known to ride warrior horses, Jesus’ kingship would rather be unorthodox, not the usual, even the opposite of what is expected. Recognize how he went into Jerusalem? He was riding a donkey!

If I were the “king” that time, I would have chosen to ride on a golden chariot, robed in velvet and crowned with gold! But that’s not what Jesus did. He rode a donkey.

However, the humility of this King would involve more than simply riding into town on a young donkey. Sure, this savior will accomplish all that have been prophesied of Him and His victories, but the decisive victory will be won in the most unimaginable and humblest of ways.

The righteous King from the Lord will need to suffer and die in place of his unrighteous and undeserving followers. The promised savior will be a “Suffering Servant” and Jesus Christ reflected this humility from the very first day He was born.

He was born in a manger with animals and hay by his side. He grew up to be a worker- a carpenter. His friends were laborers. There was a reason for this humility and it’s more than just fulfilling prophesies.

Isaiah 53:3-6 explains the significance of Jesus humility:

Isaiah 53:3-6New International Version (NIV)

3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.Like one from whom people hide their faces    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.4 Surely he took up our pain    and bore our suffering,yet we considered him punished by God,    stricken by him, and afflicted.5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,    he was crushed for our iniquities;the punishment that brought us peace was on him,    and by his wounds we are healed.6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,    each of us has turned to our own way;and the LORD has laid on him    the iniquity of us all.

Then, on his death, his humility dimmed into humiliation.

3. The Humiliated King

This humiliation is the very least the Jews would expect to happen to their humble King, but it is the very thing that’s needed to happen to redeem His people. This humiliation didn’t just mean Jesus’ passion during his last hours, the humiliation started even during his incarnation as a human being. A true God becoming a human for me would be humiliating in itself. He took it for Himself.

Remember how much humiliation Jesus got during his trial and execution?

Matthew 27:28-5028 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. 30 They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31 After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

Another humiliation that we haven’t heard before was this seeming act of compassion in Matthew 27:48

48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 

In the first century, people usually use a sea sponge placed on a stick to clean them after using the toilet. So that sponge they gave to Jesus was not to quench him from thirst but to humiliate and defile him some more.

4. Implications of Jesus’ Humiliation and Death

Jesus took on all the humiliations available to be able to claim the greatest and most righteous redemption. It’s just like Manny Pacquiao taking on all possible hits from the opponent and then in the end gives the final blow and erases all doubts and speculations of who really is the champion.

Did you see the two sides of the picture there? The first step is the humiliation, all the things that happened while he was here on earth. The second is the exaltation where Jesus defeated the enemy and rose back into his perfect glorious image.

What did Jesus’s death accomplish on the cross?

Besides the details of how the Messiah suffers (in fulfillment of the Lord’s plan, v. 10), the prophet Isaiah had prophesied its implications as well:

Isaiah 53:5New International Version (NIV)

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,    he was crushed for our iniquities;the punishment that brought us peace was on him,    and by his wounds we are healed.6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,    each of us has turned to our own way;and the LORD has laid on him    the iniquity of us all.9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,    and with the rich in his death,though he had done no violence,    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

The substitutionary nature of the redemption to be accomplished by the Messiah is clear in 53:5, 6;

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,    he was crushed for our iniquities;the punishment that brought us peace was on him,    and by his wounds we are healed.6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,    each of us has turned to our own way;and the LORD has laid on him    the iniquity of us all.

This is only possible because

(1) He is God in the flesh—the King Eternal himself (1 Timothy 1:16, 17)—making his sacrifice infinitely valuable and gloriously efficient to save all who would call upon the name of the Lord (Romans 10:13);

1 Timothy 1:16New International Version (NIV)16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.

and because(2) He remains sinless as a man (as alluded to in 53:9 “though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth,” quoted in 1 Peter 2:22; cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 John 3:5).

1 John 3:5New International Version (NIV)5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.

Furthermore, Isaiah 53:10, 11 says,

10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light[of life] and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

Christ taking our sins upon himself, so that his righteousness (or perfect performance record) can be given to us. Martin Luther calls this “The Great Exchange.”

This is that mystery which is rich in divine grace to sinners: wherein by a wonderful exchange our sins are no longer ours but Christ’s, and the righteousness of Christ not Christ’s but ours. He has emptied himself of his righteousness that he might clothe us with it and fill us with it; and he has taken our evils upon himself that he might deliver us from them.”

CONCLUSION:

Jesus’ humiliation in suffering and death forgives us of our sins.

Hebrews 12:2

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Romans 4:25He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Because Jesus was humiliated (“put to shame”), those who trust in him (i.e. for salvation) wouldn’t be.

Psalm 25:3No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame...

KING JESUS’ HUMILIATION WAS FOR OUR EXALTATION.