[0:00] Well, this morning I get the privilege to preach, and the subject is beautiful.
[0:10] ! I get to preach about the triumphal entry of Jesus our King, Palm Sunday. We have heard already, and we'll read it again, believe it or not, in the New Testament.
[0:22] We've heard already the story, the New Testament story out of the book of Matthew of the entrance of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem as a King, announcing Himself to the Jewish nation as the King, acknowledging that He is the Messiah.
[0:41] But this morning, we're going to actually have a text out of the Old Testament. I'll be preaching out of the book of Zechariah. This morning, in one verse, is going to be the focus of our time this morning.
[0:54] We'll look at the context. Next, I'll talk about that, but predominantly, we're going to look at the one verse in Zechariah 9. And if you don't know where that's located, if you go to the Matthew and you go backwards two books, you'll be at Zechariah.
[1:08] So I would ask, if you will, to open a Bible. If you don't have your own, there's Bibles in the seat back in front of you or in the tray underneath the seat. We'd encourage you to open the Scriptures this morning.
[1:20] We will look at more than just the one verse. It would be good to be able to glance at that. So if you're physically able to stand, I would ask you to stand in honor of the reading of God's Word this morning out of Zechariah 9.
[1:33] Let's pray one more time. Let's pray one more time.
[2:04] God, would you make this truth come alive. Would you move us to rejoicing that, Father, we too this morning would sing of your great mercies that you've given to us.
[2:15] And I pray in your name. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. Well, I've said this before and I'll say it again. It's not right to cherry pick one verse out of a book in the Old Testament from a prophet and not paint the picture of the context that we're reading it from.
[2:35] So I want to take a couple of minutes and talk about the time frame of this message that was given by God through the prophet Zechariah to the people of God that lived roughly 500 years before Christ was born.
[2:52] So if you will think about the history of the Jewish nation, you would remember that they were gifted by God the promised land.
[3:06] And because of unfaithfulness, they were conquered. The northern tribe was conquered by the Assyrian kingdom and they were distributed never to be seen again as a gathering of people.
[3:17] They were taken and splashed around the kingdom of the Assyrian empire. And then in 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed the southern kingdom and deported most of the people to Babylon.
[3:32] He left some, but most of them were deported to Babylon and they were there for 70 years until the time of Cyrus, the Persian king.
[3:42] So the Babylonian kingdom was destroyed by the Medo-Persian empire. And when Cyrus was made king, he declared to the Jewish people that they were free to go back to Israel.
[3:56] And a small remnant of the nation of Israel chose to go back. It was roughly 50,000 that made the long journey back to Israel.
[4:08] And they were intending to rebuild the temple and they started to do that. But because of the fear of the people around them, they stopped.
[4:22] Until Zerubbabel was moved by God to do that, to begin to rebuild the temple. And that is the time we find ourselves in the life of the nation of Israel.
[4:33] God raised up two prophets. One of those prophets was Zechariah. And Zechariah is speaking to the people during that time frame when they're small in number in Israel and they've got all the people around them that do not want them to rebuild that nation.
[4:52] They do not want them to rebuild the temple. And so Zechariah prophesies. The first eight chapters in the book of Zechariah is his prophecy to the people of that time.
[5:04] It was meant for them in that time frame. And then in chapter 9, there's a transition. You see the first verse of chapter 9.
[5:14] It says, The oracle of the word of the Lord. This is a transition that from chapter 9 to the rest of the book, Zechariah is prophesying about the future.
[5:31] He's prophesying about what will come to pass after all of these people have passed away. And it's real interesting, this text in chapter 9, what he's prophesying.
[5:45] He's talking about in chapter 9 verses 1 through 8, he's talking about a king. And this king is a great conquering king and he's on conquest.
[5:59] And as you study the book of Zechariah, you will learn that he's talking about Alexander the Great. If you were to follow the exploits of Alexander the Great and you see the path that he took along the Mediterranean in this area, that he came from the northeast and he came down toward Tyre.
[6:20] And if you look, if you were to read this and study it, it talks about Tyre and Zidon. It talks about Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron. These are cities that are along the Mediterranean.
[6:32] It also talks about, in verse 8, it talks about Alexander the Great coming to Jerusalem. And it's a fabulous story to chase and see how God protected them from Alexander the Great.
[6:47] These other cities were destroyed and yet Jerusalem was preserved. And we see the prophecy of that truth here. It's fascinating. And then in verse 9, we see a change.
[7:02] So you have Alexander the Great, the conquering king on conquest. We see here a message that there's another king and another conquest. And so we read about this king.
[7:16] And if we read on through the rest of the chapter, not only do we get to know about him in verse 9, which is where we will spend our time here in a few minutes, we get to know about him, but we also get to know what he did or what he's prophesied that he will do.
[7:34] This is a prophecy that was given in roughly 500 B.C., specifically 520 B.C. is what we believe. And it talks about, if you look quickly at verse 10 and following the rest of the chapter, you're going to see something very interesting about this king.
[7:56] And it's God speaking, I will cut off chariot and war horse and battle bow. I will cut him off from my nation.
[8:08] And I shall speak peace, or he shall, that is this coming king, will speak peace to the nations. Interesting. That this is a king who's coming with peace. And if you keep looking, there's something in verse 11 about a covenant.
[8:25] A covenant associated with blood. Interesting. Interesting. He says, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set the prisoners free from the waterless pit.
[8:40] Interesting. This king is doing something different than Alexander the Great. This conquest is much different than what Alexander the Great did.
[8:50] He destroyed. Yet this king seems to be bringing peace. He seems to be bringing something different, setting prisoners free.
[9:01] In verse 12, there's hope that's talked about. He talks about in 13 that he's going to use his people as if they were a bow and an arrow.
[9:12] He talks about the Ephraim in the area of land above Jerusalem. He talks about Judah.
[9:25] So the Judah being the southern portion. He talks about using them as a bow and arrow as a weapon. He's using his people as a weapon. What type of weapon is he talking about?
[9:37] We want to look at that. We see that in verse 15 that there is going to be bloodshed. But it's different.
[9:49] There's a message here that is difficult perhaps to understand. As we read this, it's like, all right, who is this king? Now, some of you may never have read or at least never have studied the book of Zechariah.
[10:05] And you might wonder, who is it talking about? Though I've never studied the book, there is a ring in my ear. I've heard this somewhere before. Well, we've heard it because we read it this morning in one passage in Matthew.
[10:21] And I want to read it again. And I want you to listen to who the New Testament says this king actually is. So we read the Old Testament prophecy and we wonder, who is this?
[10:35] And then we come to the New Testament and it answers the question for us. No longer do we have to wonder who that king is out of Zechariah chapter 9 because Matthew and Mark and Luke and John, they tell us exactly who this king is.
[10:52] Specifically, there's two places verse 9 is quoted in the New Testament. First is in Matthew. Listen again to what was read earlier this morning. Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethpage, we all pronounce that word different.
[11:09] I don't know how it's really pronounced, but that's the way I'll say it. To Bethpage, to the Mount of Olives. And Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, go into the village in front of you and immediately you'll find a donkey tied in a colt with her.
[11:21] Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say the Lord needs them and he will send them at once. This took place to fulfill.
[11:33] I will stop there. To fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. Which prophet? Zechariah. Zechariah said there's a king coming and Matthew just said, here's when it happened.
[11:50] This is the moment that was spoken of by Zechariah. This is the fulfillment of the promise that he gave about this coming king.
[12:01] And notice what it says about this king. Say to the daughter of Zion. Zion is a term that refers to the people of God.
[12:12] In essence, say to the people of God, behold your king. Now you know, and we've talked about this, that the people were expecting an earthly king to have an earthly reign and an earthly ministry.
[12:29] So they would hear this in Zechariah and they had an expectation that there was going to be conquering. And there was, but not in the way they thought. Behold, your king is coming to you.
[12:43] He is humble. And he's mounted on a donkey on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. That is the prophecy of Zechariah 9.
[12:56] And there's no question who's being spoken of here. Because we read right below it and it tells us that this is talking about Jesus. And so we look, the disciples went and did as Jesus had directed.
[13:11] They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
[13:21] And the crowds that went before him and those that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
[13:33] And the whole city was stirred saying, Who is this? And they said, This is the prophet Jesus. How clear could it be? How much clearer could it be to know that Zechariah is talking about Jesus?
[13:49] Let's see what John says. I won't read all of it. I'll read a little bit of it. Listen to the book of John talking about the same event. The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.
[14:06] So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him crying, Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.
[14:17] Even then, they're acknowledging that he's the King of Israel. Well, if you were a Jew, you would understand what that meant. That meant that he's the Messiah.
[14:31] And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it was written, Fear not, daughter of Zion. Behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt.
[14:43] And I could read more there about that process. But I want you to hear this. There is absolutely no question who Zechariah is referring to as we look at this Old Testament prophecy.
[14:56] He says, there's coming a day, he doesn't tell how many years, but there's coming a day. We know that it was roughly 500 plus years. And Jesus came as that King.
[15:08] Well, this morning, I want us to focus the rest of our time on verse 9. And there's five points I want you to see this morning out of verse 9.
[15:19] Five points. And the first is this. If you'll look at verse 9. Rejoice greatly. Rejoice greatly. This is a time for incredible rejoicing.
[15:34] Why? Why is it a time for rejoicing? Because your King is coming. And notice, I want you to notice that he specifically talks about two terms or a group of people that would be included by these phrases, O daughter of Zion, O daughter of Jerusalem.
[15:58] He's saying to these people, whoever that refers to, he's saying to them, this is a time for rejoicing. Well, if we look back at the New Testament text and we look at the actual event when this was fulfilled, what do we see?
[16:16] Do we see a time of rejoicing? Amazing rejoicing. They're shouting, Hosanna. They're, they're, hallelujah. They're, they're, I mean, they're so honoring him that they're taking their cloaks, their clothing, and they're putting it on the ground so that not even his donkey gets dirty.
[16:35] So that they honor him as a king. It's just a way to, to, to honor the triumphal king as he comes into the city and proclaim, you are the Messiah.
[16:49] We see incredible rejoicing and that's, there's call for rejoicing. But remember how I said that they were thinking one thing.
[17:00] As we walk through this, we're going to see that what they were thinking was not what was intended by the passage. We're going to see that the conquering, this conquering king is conquering something much different than Alexander the Great conquered.
[17:16] And we'll look at that as we go along. Rejoice greatly. This is a time to shout and to rejoice and to be thankful and to celebrate. You know, that would be true back in those days when the men went to war, went off to war, and they fought and after the battle, if they won the battle, what would they do?
[17:41] They would take the spoils and they would take them into the town. And so when, when it's all done and all the people that are still back at town, when the army comes back in, they ride in with great procession.
[17:54] And there's incredible rejoicing. The excitement that our men are back, that they were not defeated, that we weren't defeated, that we're safe, and all the spoils of war that come along with it, it is a time of, of incredible rejoicing and thankfulness.
[18:12] And so we see that mirrored here, this entrance, we call it the triumphal entrance, right? The triumphal entrance of a king. And this king, Jesus, has defeated.
[18:26] And we will see that here in just a second as we talk about that. He is coming into Jerusalem, he's letting the world know, he's announcing that he is the king, he is the long-awaited king.
[18:39] You know that the nation of Israel has been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. As a seven-year-old kid, do you remember waiting for Christmas?
[18:52] As a guy who works, you know, in the marketplace and you think December's coming, I sure hope my bonus is big this year. And you wait all year, you work hard, looking forward to that.
[19:03] Many things we wait for, nothing like this. For hundreds of years, they've been waiting for this. We would know that God has said, even as far back as Genesis chapter 3, that I will send a snake crusher.
[19:19] that gives us a little clue into what this king is coming to conquer. But the word says here, behold, your king is coming to you, this long-awaited king.
[19:35] We think of Genesis. We think of what he said to David. You remember the covenant he made with David? He said, you will always have on the throne a king from your line.
[19:47] You know who he was talking about, right? He was talking about Jesus. This king is in the line of David. This king is the one that's from the Lord. This is the long-promised king.
[20:01] He has come. And where else would we see this in Scripture? You know, so many places in the Old Testament point us forward to what God is doing.
[20:17] And what is he doing it for? It's his redemptive plan. This king is not coming to fight a physical battle, to win a physical war, to set up a physical kingdom.
[20:32] This king is coming for a different purpose. He's coming as a redeemer. He's accomplishing the redemptive plan of God.
[20:42] And if we look at another very familiar passage to us, we would recognize this quickly that it's talking about Jesus.
[20:56] We talk about this at Christmas a lot. So listen to what Isaiah says about what God is going to do, who he's going to send. Isaiah says this, for unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government, I'll stop there, the kingdom, the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
[21:27] Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. You see why they thought it might be a physical kingdom? It's talking about government.
[21:39] But you remember what Christ said about his kingdom? He said, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, but my kingdom is not of this world.
[21:52] Okay, Jesus, what is your kingdom? His kingdom is a heavenly kingdom. And in his kingdom, all the people that are part of his kingdom will be redeemed.
[22:04] They will be made right with God. This is a spiritual conquest. So we're looking at the message of Zachariah and he talks about a physical conquest of Alexander the Great, but he talks about a spiritual conquest with this far greater than anything Alexander's ever accomplished.
[22:24] Because the result of this conquest is hearts that are yielded to God. The results of this conquest is people that are redeemed and purchased and given new hearts and made right and in relationship with Almighty God.
[22:40] They have a hope of a city, an eternal city. And so we continue here, of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.
[23:05] The zeal of the Lord will do this. Do what? Establish this kingdom. What kingdom? This heavenly kingdom through his son Jesus Christ. By what means as a Passover lamb?
[23:17] We look here and it says, Behold, your king is coming to you righteous. Point number three. So if you missed it, point one, it's a time for rejoicing.
[23:29] Point two, the long-awaited king is coming. Point number three is this, this king is fully and completely righteous. He did not come for self.
[23:44] He did not come to make a name for himself. Alexander the Great came to make a name for himself, to conquer in his name and the esteem that he would get because of his great accomplishments.
[24:01] You know, Christ didn't come with that. Christ came in righteousness with righteousness. And with New Testament eyes, we look at Christ and we say, he was sinless in every way.
[24:14] He never sinned. Matter of fact, he was born of a virgin. What's the big deal? To be born of a virgin means that he's not born in Adam. That means he's not born with original sin.
[24:26] He's not born with Adam's sin. God placed him in the womb of Mary. The hand of God placed him in the womb of Mary. He did not come into the world as a sinner.
[24:40] He came into the world as a son of God, as a savior. sinless in every way. And he lived his life honoring the Father with everything he said and everything he did.
[24:51] He fulfilled all of God's will. All of it. All of it. This is a righteous king and he came to give or bring righteousness.
[25:02] You know that all people that he purchases, all people that he forgives and redeems, you know that all are considered righteous. The word of God talks about that the righteousness of Christ because he lived and died in our place is given to us.
[25:21] We give our sin to him and he carries it to the cross on a cruel death and he gives us his righteousness. And like a garment you can picture a coat that you would put over your shoulders and would totally cover you.
[25:35] We're made fully righteous not by what we've done but by what this righteous king has done on our behalf. And notice what it says point number four he comes this king comes having salvation.
[25:53] This king comes to save. You know the children of Israel thought yes he's coming to save us he's going to free us from the oppression of these countries these kingdoms that are oppressing us and they're lording over us and making us slaves and servants to them and he's going to destroy all that no no no he's going to destroy an enemy much much greater than that much much bigger than that.
[26:19] Do y'all know who our real enemy is? You know if we look at Ephesians Paul says this he says we war not against flesh and blood but our true wars against principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness and spiritual wickedness in great places there is a kingdom a demonic kingdom headed by Satan who seeks to devour that's our enemy and even our in addition to that we have an enemy that's called sin we were born as sinners we were born as slaves to sin Paul says in Romans 6 we were slaves to sin because we're born in Adam we could not do anything righteous we could not do anything that honored God because of our innate sinfulness the word of God says that we were enemies at birth against God but this king comes bringing salvation it is the redemptive plan of God right we've talked about what God intended through all of the prophecies and all of the covenants all of them pointing to one man and they're pointing to
[27:35] Jesus and what was the intention of God he was intending to write what was destroyed in the garden but we've already preached about revelation the end is far greater than even what was in the garden it's this hope and this dream and this reality that we will enjoy in the heavenly kingdom where there will be no sin there will be no tears there will be no crying we'll be face to face in the presence of God we don't I don't know that we realize the greatness of that gift that we've been made right with almighty God we will enjoy what he brings and this salvation is talked about let me just mention a couple of places in the scripture where this type salvation is mentioned what is the salvation that Jesus brings is it saving us from other kingdoms other people other groups from the Roman empire no no no no it's saving us from sin sin is what separates us from God sin is what caused Adam and Eve to be pushed out of the garden and they placed an angel with a flaming sword at the entrance and said you cannot come because of your sin you can't be face to face or in relation with the holy God you can't be and so our sin is separate us from
[29:01] God but the word of God says this it says the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God in Christ Jesus excuse me the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus the wages of sin is death all of us all of us all of us were born in sin and guess what that means that means that we spiritually speaking are dead physically we're alive spiritually speaking we're dead until the free gift of God is extended to us and by faith we see that the life that Christ lived the death that he died was in our place for us in Acts the book of Acts it says this it said this Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you talking about the leaders of the
[30:03] Jewish nation you the builders which has become the cornerstone and there is salvation in no other name excuse me there is salvation in no one else for there's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved and then Romans says it this way it says if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved for with the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses is saved for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved you that was coming that would establish a kingdom that's spiritual in nature and those who receive the work of Christ by faith will be a part of that kingdom the word of God says the New Testament says Paul says it it's by faith that we accept these truths it's by faith that we believe what
[31:09] God has done is for us those who reach out to him and say I recognize I'm not able but I know you are Lord I need you and I ask you to forgive me for my sins and you would save me because of the work of Christ in my place friends have you done that have you understood that have you received!
[31:35] the salvation that he's talking about in Zechariah so point one is it's a time for rejoicing point two is there's a long awaited king that's been proclaimed that God was going to send point three is this king is righteous in every way and worthy worthy to receive a kingdom and fourth he is bringing salvation this redemption that is salvation in Christ his spiritual in nation and number five the last point here is a conquering king have you ever wondered!
[32:09] why he would choose to ride in on a donkey you know it's not the first time we see this in the scriptures matter of fact David the king rode on a donkey it was a royal mount instead of the humongous thoroughbred or the huge thick beefy war horse he rides in on this royal mount this donkey why would you ever if there's any risk of a kingdom that you're fighting getting ready to attack why would you be sitting on a donkey who's slow it's a beast of burden it's not a war horse if there was any war still raging guess what you'd be on the war horse if you come back in for provisions could not conquer he conquered them on our behalf that we might be made right that we might be in a relationship with
[34:18] God that we might have the hope of the heavenly kingdom that we might see the father face to face one day praise be to Jesus let's pray Lord Jesus we marvel at the brutality of what you had to endure the wrath of God against sinners Lord Jesus that you would take on our sins and you would carry them to a cross and you would endure the wrath of your father that was intended for us because of our sinfulness Lord Jesus a marvel that you would be so gracious as to invite me to be in your kingdom and Lord I am so thankful that many here today would have that same confession a confession that you've changed our life you've caused us to be born again that you've brought us into your kingdom that you've paid the ransom price for our soul that you've promised us a place in heaven that you've made us to be a part of the bride that we will enjoy the wedding supper of the lamb
[35:46] But God I wonder Is there anyone here Lord that doesn't know you I pray that you would speak to their hearts this morning and that Father you would share that apart from the work of King Jesus bringing salvation to them there's no hope on our own we have no hope it's only through your Lord Jesus and so would you do a work in the heart of anyone here that doesn't know you as Lord and Savior this morning I pray would you show them the gift that you freely offer through your son our Lord Jesus Christ and I pray in your name amen