The King Has Come

This morning, Luke chapter 19, making our way through the Gospel of Luke.! Hope it's been a help to you. It's been a great encouragement to me. We're coming towards the end of Jesus' public ministry on the earth.

We're going to look at something kind of unique to His ministry. Usually, He avoided these kind of ceremonial type things, these big pumps and circumstance. But now, He's moving towards Jerusalem.

We're very close. Really, Luke 19 is about a week away from His crucifixion. And so, we're going to see the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. So, if you found your place in Luke 19, you can follow along on the screen as well.

Verse number 28 says this, And when He had thus spoken, He went before, ascending up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass, when He was come nigh to Bethpage and Bethany, at the mount called the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples, saying, Go ye into the village over against you, in the which you entering, you shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never a man set, loose him and bring him hither.

If any man ask you, why do you loose him? Thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him. And they went that were sent and went their way, and they found even as He had said unto them.

And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt? And they said, The Lord hath need of him. And they brought him to Jesus, and they cast their garments upon the colt.

And they set Jesus thereon. And as He went, they spread their clothes in the way. And when He was come nigh, even now at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest.

And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto Him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And He answered and said unto them, I tell you that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.

Jesus has been making His way to Jerusalem, not for a coronation, not for a throne. Jesus is marching to a cross. But while He's here, He is giving us a glimpse that He is exactly who He says He is.

That He is fulfilling so many prophecies because He is the promised Messiah. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And so we're going to learn a couple of things about this King, about Jesus, the way that He enters Jerusalem.

So let's go to the Lord and ask Him to help us as we walk through this text. Father, You are worthy of our worship. We see it here in this text we just read. And Lord, there was many in the crowd that were curious.

There was many that didn't understand. There was many that rejected. But Lord, even today as we gather here and we open up Your Word, there may be some in those same categories.

Maybe there's some that are curious about who You are, some that know who You are. Maybe there's some that have kind of rejected Your authority in their life. They're not really sure about it. But Lord, I pray that You would just make Yourself known this morning.

That we would lift You high where You belong, Lord. That we can see You in all Your glory. And I pray that we would worship You because of that. I pray You'd be with me now.

You would empty me of self. You'd cleanse me of sin. Fill me with Your Spirit. Lord, I need You so badly right now. Lord, I need Your help. Lord, would You give me the words to say that it would be a help to the hearer this morning.

And we ask this in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. May be seated. I think we probably all notice when somebody arrives, kind of tells you about a little bit who they are.

Maybe you've been somewhere and you see kind of a caravan rolling in and you've got a police escort and you've got lights and you've got all these things. And if somebody shows up with flashing lights, escort, and security, you immediately think, somebody important's here.

You're trying to kind of figure out who it is. I'm sure you've been to a wedding. I love weddings mainly for the cake. I mean, that's why you go to a wedding. You're like, what kind of cake are you having? What kind of food are you having?

That's the best part of it. But when the bride begins to walk down the aisle, nobody has to stand up and say, hey, here's what's happening. No, no. The idea is the entrance itself tells you this moment matters.

This is important. This is why we came, whatever it may be in the situation. And as we come to our text here in the Gospel of Luke in chapter number 19, everything about this entrance of Jesus to Jerusalem tells us something about him.

The colt, the garments in the road, the shouting, the praise, the palm leaves, even the people that are angry about it, they just remind us something is different about this entrance.

See, Jesus is not just entering another city. As we've walked through the Gospels, we see that he goes from Capernaum to Galilee to Bethany, and he's just kind of moving from town to town.

But that's not what this is. This is why he came. This is what he came to seek and to save that which was lost. And while it doesn't look like it in this giant coronation, in this great time of praise, that is exactly where he is marching to.

And what makes this timing especially powerful here in these verses we read is because of where we left off last week. In the previous verses in the Gospel of Luke, we saw that Jesus told a parable about a nobleman who went away to receive a kingdom.

And some of his citizens, they were not excited about this nobleman. They didn't want him to rule over their life. In fact, they said, we will not have this man reign over us.

They weren't for him. And now Luke moves us directly into this scene, that the king is arriving, the one that many will reject.

And as we come to this text, I hope that you can see it. And when you study the other Gospels, the Synoptic Gospels, and even John's Gospels, the atmosphere is electric. I don't think we can maybe wrap our minds around it, but Passover week is coming.

And this is a special Passover, and Jewish historians, men like Josephus, estimated one to two million people in Jerusalem. That's a lot of people.

You know, and Jerusalem wasn't built for two million people. It's kind of like Gainesville right now. We're getting a lot of growth, and I'm like, where are all these people coming from? Our roads weren't built for all these people. Can you imagine two million people showing up in Gainesville?

I mean, the place is electric. And when you study the other Gospels, there was kind of a big event that kind of really got the people going. Jesus called Lazarus out of a grave.

When dead people start living again, things go a little crazy. And so they're looking around for him, and people are talking about it. And the excitement surrounding Jesus really is just at a fever pitch.

They are thinking, this is the moment. We saw that last week, verse 11. He had to tell that parable because he looked over at his disciples, and they are just so excited.

This is what we signed up for. And Jesus said, the kingdom's not coming yet. The king has to go away for a little bit. But what makes this moment really unique is this is not Jesus' normal mode of operation.

This is not how he generally came into a city. He didn't want everybody to know that he was there necessarily. When you study the Gospels, you study his life, I mean, he would do miracles.

He would heal lepers. He would heal blind people. And he would tell them this, don't tell anybody. He would tell his disciples all the time. He told his own mother, hey, my time's not come yet.

Many times crowds would gather, and the Bible says that Jesus withdrew. He was there, and he would preach and teach, and he just kind of seemed to always kind of make his way out.

You see the feeding of the 5,000. What an awesome miracle that must have been. That was just the men. There could have been upwards of 15,000 or 20,000 people there. And he feeds these people, and they're good Baptists, I guess, because they said, he fed us, let's make him king.

Read John 6, that's what they said. They said they wanted to take him by force to make him king. They figured, if this guy can take five loaves and two fish and feed all these people, he's got my vote. And that's basically what they were saying.

But this entrance is different. He is welcoming the crowds. And I just want to remind you that Jesus is not being carried along by the excitement of the crowd, kind of wrapped up in all the festivities and all the buzz in the air.

You ever been somewhere, and there's just a big crowd moving? You're like, hey, what's going on? I'm like, I don't know. I'm just going right here. You just kind of get drug along with the crowd. That's not Jesus. He's not being pushed along by these things.

This entrance is very deliberate. He isn't intentionally presenting himself to Jerusalem, to Israel, to the world, as the king.

So the question in this text is not, is Jesus king? No, here's the question we have to answer. How will we respond to the king? And really the big idea is this, is that Jesus is the promised king, and because of that, his authority and his worth and his identity, they demand a response.

We cannot remain neutral on who Jesus is. We can't kind of ride the fence, so to speak. So the question I want us to carry through this passage this morning as we walk through these verses is what do we learn about the king as he enters Jerusalem?

What can we take away from this text? The first thing that we see is found in verses 28 through 35. Number one is this, the king has authority. The king has authority.

Verse 28 says, and when he had thus spoken, he's telling this parable, he went before them ascending up to Jerusalem. Really, Luke told us in Luke 9, verse 51, that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.

And really from that point forward in his ministry, not that long of a time, Luke has been moving us towards this very moment. And this is what Jesus shows us, and Luke makes it very clear, that Jerusalem is right in front of him.

And we see the excitement in this chapter. And we see the praise, and he's worthy of it. I love that song we just say, he is worthy of our worship. He was worthy of everything that came his way, yet he knew what awaited him there.

And he keeps moving towards it. We need to let that sink in in our life sometimes. I mean, we're so thankful for the cross. I love singing about the cross.

Why? Because at the cross, my life was changed. Because I realized that was my cross, it wasn't his. He is the perfect, sinless, spotless lamb of God, and yet he bore my sins in his body on that tree.

And he knows what's coming. He knows what's going to await. He already told them, hey, they're going to take the Son of Man, and they're going to spit on him, and mock him, and they're going to beat him, and they're going to pluck his beard out, and they're going to crucify him.

And yet he's still moving towards that. In verse number 29 and verse number 30, he sends two disciples ahead. And he kind of tells them what's going to happen.

He says, you're going to go into this village, and you're going to see a colt. You're going to see this donkey tied up. And he said, here's where it's going to be, and this is the condition you're going to find it in. And just by chance, if somebody says, hey, what are you doing?

You tell them this. Why is Luke showing us these things? I mean, why do we need to know all of these little details? Because it reminds us of this wonderful truth, that God is in every single detail.

You know, we have this saying that's probably been around for a long time, the devil's in the details. You know who's in the details? God. God is in, you know what this is showing us right here?

That he is in control. That there is nothing, as we're going to move into these next few chapters, as he's moving towards the cross, and he's being betrayed. Listen, he didn't get swept up in some political system.

He's not some martyr for a cause. No, he is a sovereign savior, and he knows exactly what he's doing. And every single, even the tiny details, he says, you're going to go, and this guy's going to be like, hey, why are you taking my donkey, man?

Like, Jesus needs it. Oh, okay. I mean, that's what's going on right here. Everything happens exactly like Jesus says it was.

Don't rush past that. Understand what's taking place there. Verse number 32, And they that were sent their way, and found even as he said unto them.

Listen, we can apply that to our own life. Everything that we find here in the word of God, you know what you're going to find? It's true. Everything he says is going to work just like he says it is.

Everything he's promised, it's going to take place. And he is fulfilling all of this prophecy. Jesus is not scrambling to put an entrance together. Anybody ever scramble to get things together?

I mean, if you're like me, we've got a really good calendar at our house. I mean, the calendar's there. It's there for months. And then you pull up your calendar, you're like, they're coming over today.

Oh, no. And we're scrambling. We're like, oh, we've been planning this for a long time. Yeah, we may have thought about it for a long time. We did nothing to prepare for it. Listen, that's not Jesus. He's not winging this.

He's like, well, this just seems like a good week of any. No, he's in control of the details. He knows where the cult is. He knows the questions are going to be asked. He knows what the disciples need to say. Nothing about this moment, nothing about this entrance, nothing about the coming week is going to take Jesus by surprise.

Pilate thinks he's in control. The Pharisees, the religious establishment thinks they're in control. They think they're all moving and they're all conspiring. Judas thinks he's slick and he's going to go underneath the cloud of night and betray Jesus.

Listen, Jesus knew everything. Jesus knew when he chose Judas that he was going to betray him. And yet he loved him until the end, the Bible said. But I want us to notice this too about the choice of transportation.

It wasn't out of convenience. Jesus didn't say, hey, go into the city and whatever you can find, if it's a cow, if it's a horse, if it's a donkey, get something. No, sometimes we just read everything like, okay, that's just what it is, and I read this in the Gospels.

But what Jesus is doing, he's fulfilling prophecy after prophecy after prophecy. The Bible tells us in the book of Zechariah 9, verse 9, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem.

Behold, thy king cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding upon an ass. Everything that Jesus did was planned.

In fact, before the foundation of the world, there was a lamb that was slain. This is where history has been moving towards this moment. And the idea is the king has authority, and Jesus is not accidentally fulfilling prophecy.

He's intentionally stepping into it. He knows exactly what he's doing. He knows exactly what he's claiming. He is deliberately presenting himself as the king, as the Messiah, as God in the flesh.

But he's not entering Jerusalem the way that many of them would imagine their king would come. I mean, you study any civilization, any power, any king, any Caesar.

I mean, when they show up, we still do it here in our world today. When they show up, they bring their army with them. They bring a show of power. They want people to know that person's in control. And yet, here's the king.

No army. No soldiers marching beside him. I mean, I bet Peter thought he was big stuff. I'm Peter. They're like, who's that?

I mean, most of these disciples are probably teenagers. I mean, he's coming in with a motley crew. I mean, that's who Jesus is showing up with. There's no display of this military power.

I mean, they keep thinking Rome's going to be overthrown. Not sure how he's going to do it with this group. And see, the idea that we've seen over and over, and what Jesus is trying to weed out, is they wanted somebody to deal with their circumstances.

But Jesus came to deal with something much larger than that. He came to deal with their sin. He came to deal with death. And I think in our world today, sometimes we still have this wrong view of Jesus.

People will show up on a Sunday morning, probably all over the world right now, and here's what they want Jesus to do. Change their circumstances. You know what? He can. And he does.

I'm thankful God has intervened in my life so many times. But let me just remind you, your greatest need is not changing your circumstances. The greatest need that anybody that has ever drawn breath on this planet is our sin.

And that's what Jesus came to deal with. That's the king that he is. That he is willing to pay a debt that none of us could pay. There in verse 31, we already looked at it.

But he said, here's why. If the guy asks you why you're doing this, because the Lord hath need of him. And it really brings us to this larger truth when we think of the king and his authority.

That if he is Lord, if he is God incarnate, if he is the Messiah, then he has all the authority. He has all the power.

That if Jesus is king, then he doesn't have authority over some things in my life. Here's what he has authority over. Everything. My plans.

My priorities. My time. My resources. Relationships. My future. And Jesus presents himself as a king that is worthy to be worshipped and worthy to be trusted.

I think we like the idea of Jesus as Savior. Giving us a home in heaven. Walking on streets of gold.

But I think if we're just going to be real honest with ourselves, sometimes we don't like him as king. Because a king has the authority to say, don't do that. Do this. He has the ability to direct.

And kings have that authority. So before we ever get to the shouting crowd and the question that's right in front of us here, is am I living under the authority of Jesus? We can sing the songs worthy of worship.

But are we living like he's the king of our life? Are we living like we believe that he's not just a savior, but he's in control of all things? See, what this cult does is it really this donkey just reveals his authority.

He's coming in not as a conqueror, but as a peaceful king. A king willing to lay down his life for his subjects, so to speak. For his friends.

But as he begins to make his way towards Jerusalem, the crowd begins to understand. And maybe some of them unknowingly, they begin to declare his identity. So secondly, we see this.

That the king is worthy of praise. Look at that very last phrase there in verse number 37. The Bible says, The whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen.

They weren't just praising for no reason. They had reason to praise. They had reason to rejoice. They have watched Jesus work.

I mean, just think of this last couple weeks that we've been in Luke's gospel. I mean, Zacchaeus was saved. I mean, that was a blessing to everybody. This corrupt tax kingpin of Jericho, his life's been changed.

He's giving people money. They're like, this is awesome. Blind Bartimaeus has been healed. Lazarus there in the same time frame has walked out of the grave. They have seen him heal and restore. They've watched Jesus forgive.

They've watched him receive people that everybody else avoided. And I would imagine some of them were in the crowd. That was the man that changed their life.

They'd seen blind eyes open. They've watched lost people get found. They had seen enough to know that Jesus is worthy of all the praise they can give. And that's exactly what they do in verse number 38.

Saying, blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord. These aren't random words. It's not lost on them.

They're beginning to put some of the pieces together. Now their expectation of who he is and what he's going to do, that's a little off. But this is from Psalm 118. It's a psalm that's very closely connected to their Passover.

And it says there in Psalm 118, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Verse 26 of that psalm. But notice how Luke records it. He says, blessed be the king.

It's not blessed is he that cometh. No, he's here. They recognize the king has come. He's in our presence. And they are taking the scripture they knew and they grew up on.

And they searched and they longed for. And they're saying, it's here. It's Jesus. This is the Messiah. That last parable we looked at, they said, we will not have this man ruled over us.

But now they're screaming, blessed be the king. Hey, this is who we want in charge of our life. Same king. Two responses. And the reality is still true today.

That some reject his rule. And others rejoice in his rule. But there's something we need to understand about this crowd. What they're saying is true.

But they don't really understand what it means. Their praise is appropriate. Their words are right. But their expectations are incomplete. And that's kind of really where this text kind of presses into our own life.

That we can say the right words about Jesus and still misunderstand what kind of king that he is. We have to be careful of that. See, they're thinking a throne.

He's thinking a cross. They're thinking about Rome. And he's thinking about their sin. They're thinking about this national deliverance. And Jesus is coming for eternal salvation. See, what they wanted was a king that could fix the world around them.

And that's why they're praising him. But really what they needed was a savior who could change their standing before God. They can stand before a holy God completely righteous.

And it brings us to this wonderful, wonderful truth. That Jesus did not come to give us what we wanted. Jesus came to give us what we needed.

I'm thankful for that. I remember growing up there was times I'd ask my dad for something. Ask my mom for something. And they'd say, you don't need that. And I would say, you don't love me.

Every kid said that and thought that in some way. If you really love me, all my friends have it. And then we say, well, I'm not all your friends' dads.

You know, all the parenting things. Sometimes we associate if somebody loves us, they're just going to give us what we want. Now, when somebody really loves you, here's what they do. They give you what you need. Jesus didn't come and, yeah, he could have got Rome off their back.

But they still would have been lost in their sins. Life would have still been miserable for them. And that's why he's writing to Jerusalem. Not to wear a crown, but to go to a cross.

But I love how Luke puts this in at the end of verse number 38. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. Does that sound familiar at all in the gospel of Luke?

Maybe, I know it's been a long time since last December. But there's a verse in Luke chapter 2, verse number 14. Glory to God in the highest. Peace on earth and goodwill toward men.

You know what Luke is kind of doing? He's putting a bookend on it. He's reminding us, Jesus didn't come just to make all these miracles happen. He didn't come to make all these fun things. He didn't come so we could have Christmas.

No, he came for this moment. He came to give his life for a ransom for many. And at his birth, they announced the reason he came. And now he is entering Jerusalem as that king.

And here's what he's going to do. He's going to go to the cross and make peace possible for us. Peace with God. Peace of God. It only comes by the blood of Christ.

And that's what he's showing us here. And that's why he's worthy of our praise. We saw already in the end of verse 37, for all the mighty works they had seen.

Maybe you know the Lord as your Savior. I pray you do. Maybe you just sing those songs, just kind of stirred something up in you this morning a little bit. You know, hey, he's worthy of it. But I think sometimes in our life, worship can grow cold because we just stop remembering.

We stop remembering that Jesus, this entrance was for us. That he was coming to the cross for us. We get busy and we get distracted. We get so used to church. We get so used to that song.

Man, we sang this song last month. Hey, guess what? He's still worthy of worship. Maybe it's just good to stop and remember all the mighty works he's done in your life.

When's the last time you just praised the Lord? Listen, this is going to shock you. You don't have to wait until Sunday morning and Brother Jared tells you what song to sing. You can praise the Lord wherever you are. You can pray, hey, sing in your car like nobody's watching you.

You ever pull up next to me and stop like, I'm going to be jamming out. I mean, sometimes it just overwhelms me that God loves me that much. I don't think we should be able to get over the fact that we were on our way to hell, we were lost in our sins, and now we're on our way to heaven and we have joy and peace and all these things that God offers.

That should maybe just get a little bit of praise out of you, even a Baptist. Amen. Amen. May hurt you physically, though. It's going to be okay. When's the last time you just praised the Lord he's patient with you?

I mean, so many times this week just didn't do the right thing, messed up. You know, the Lord is patient. He's long-suffering. He's kind.

He's forgiving. When's the last time you just praised the Lord because he's been faithful to you? Listen, God's not faithful to you because you're faithful to him. He's faithful because that's just who he is.

And he knows us. That's why I love that song, Brother Cliff, say, he looked beyond my fault and saw my need. He didn't say, well, these people are really worthy. No, no. He loved us anyways. But God commended his love toward us.

And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Because we're going to see, and I know you know this story probably pretty well, the same crowd that's saying, blessed be the king. It's not going to be real long. They're going to say this, crucify him.

And yet on the cross he said, Father, forgive them. For they know not what they do. See, the more clearly we see the king, the more naturally praise flows.

That's why it's important to be in the word of God. That's why it's important to be in church. That's why it's important to have a daily prayer life for the Lord. Because the more you're around him, you can't help but praise him.

Because you realize all the things, everything good in your life, guess where it's from? Him. And they were sitting in this crowd and they were thinking, man, so and so was healed. They knew things.

They had seen it. He's worthy of our praise. The king is worthy. Hey, when life is good, he's worthy. And when life is not great, he's still worthy. But like always, the Pharisees don't disappoint.

Not everybody's praising. I mean, the disciples are celebrating. Some of the Pharisees, they want this whole thing stopped. And their response, it reveals this one final truth I want us to see in verses 39 through 40.

That the king cannot be silenced. Verse 39. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto them, Master, rebuke thy disciples.

This is some crazy irony right here. These are the people, these are the men who knew the scriptures better than anybody.

They had dedicated their life to know the scriptures. Many of them would have had the first five books of the Bible memorized. You think that's not possible?

That's what they did with their life. That's how they lived. They knew every law backwards and forwards. They spent their whole life looking for the Messiah. They knew the Torah.

They knew the Old Testament scriptures. These are the very men that should have recognized what is happening. They just said, you know what? I think I've read this somewhere. But they missed it.

And when people began to praise Jesus as the king because he is, their response is, Hey, you've got to make this stop. We can't have any of this. Listen, they understand enough to know what the crowd is saying.

This is not some generic form of praise the crowd is just offering up to some random guy riding a donkey. No, they know what's happening. This carries messianic weight. The scriptures being applied to Jesus.

They hear him being called king. And they said, Jesus, I don't know what's going on, but you need to correct this. Because I know and you know you're not him. I mean, that's what they're saying. Make it stop.

And Jesus had a perfect opportunity to do exactly that. I mean, if the crowd had gone too far, stop them. If they're giving Jesus praise that he doesn't deserve, correct them.

If he isn't the king, then this is the moment to say so. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that if these should hold their peace, his disciples, the crowd, the stones would immediately cry out.

You know what Jesus told him? The problem isn't the crowd isn't saying too much. Really, the problem is in your own life, you're saying too little. You're missing it. I love you. I'm here for you.

This is why I came. You know who I am. Jesus says, if they stop, the stones will cry out. I mean, what a statement. You know what Jesus is saying? This moment demands a testimony.

And what does the moment say? The king has come. That Jesus isn't some carpenter from Nazareth. He isn't some just good rabbi. He's not some miracle worker. He is the king.

And he said, if everybody stops, creation itself cannot remain silent. Inanimate objects would speak because he's worthy.

Why would creation speak? Why does Jesus say this? Why is this response? Because he reminds us of this truth.

That his worth doesn't depend. His identity doesn't depend on whether we recognize it or not. Jesus' identity does not depend on human approval.

The same crowd is alive and well today, by the way. I watch all these shows. Sometimes I watch the History Channel. My wife hates when I watch the History Channel. All these shows about God. And I was on, you know, maybe you have Amazon Fire TV.

There was like this ad that came up that said, how Jesus became God. And I was like, not true. You know, the world is still trying to say, well, he's this and he's that.

And, you know, he's just a good miracle worker. He's a great moral teacher. Listen, it doesn't matter if men praise him, if they resist him, if they misunderstand him, if they reject him. None of that changes who he is. He's the king.

See, human unbelief doesn't reduce divine glory. It doesn't. It didn't change. The Pharisees can tell everybody they want to stop shouting.

They can reject his authority. They can refuse to receive him. And before this week is over, this religious leadership is going to help put him on a cross. They think they put him there. But we know this.

He laid down his life willingly. Nobody can take his life from him. Not only did he lay it down willingly, praise the Lord. There's a preview. He took it up again. But none of that changes the truth.

The world has tried to silence him since he was on this earth, before he was there. But here's the truth. He's still the king. This is the crowd that said, we will not have this man reign over us.

See, the king has come. But Jesus reminds us of this truth. And we're going to see it in these next couple chapters especially. He is coming back.

He's the king now. And one day, every knee will bow. And every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of all.

Because that's who he's always been. This moment didn't make him a king. No, they just recognized that he was the king. They began to see him for who he was.

As we step back and we look at what Luke tells us here, the cult tells us that the king has authority. The disciples remind us that the king is worthy.

The Pharisees show us that not everyone's going to receive him. But Jesus makes it very clear his identity cannot be silenced. He came to make himself known.

That he would draw all men unto himself. See, Jesus is not asking us here in this text to decide whether he will be the king. The decision in front of us is this.

How will I respond to the king? Because this is not some story from 2,000 years ago. Oh, that's a cool little thing. Yeah, some people are there. No, the same truth is here today.

Will you resist his authority? You may want him as a savior. You may want him as a healer. You may want him to change your circumstances. But he's not just those things. He's the king. And he wants authority over your life.

And he loves you. How do you know that? Because he died for you. That's what the cross shows us. Maybe there's some here today that are simply just admiring Jesus from a distance.

No doubt there was like those in the crowd. Trying to go to work like, what's going on here? Oh, Jesus is coming. Oh, cool. I just want to see who he is. Sometimes we try to make Jesus into the kind of king we want him to be.

That's not what scripture teaches. Or will we receive him for who he really is? Are you willing to submit to his authority, to trust him for salvation, and to give him the praise he deserves?

That's what this text shows us. I'll leave you with this thought. It's very simple. The king has come. How will you respond? This is not just an entry in Jerusalem.

It's happening right here today. How you respond to Jesus can affect your entire eternity. Everything eternal hinges on who you believe Jesus is and what you do with him.

Here's what we should say. Blessed be the king who comes in the name of God.