The King Comes Meekly

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Easter” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 12, 1992.

Sermon transcript

Taking note of the fact that this is Palm Sunday, we are turning tonight to Luke chapter 19. And we are reading from verse 28. After Jesus had said these things, he was going on ahead, ascending to Jerusalem. And it came about that when he approached Bethphage and Bethany, near the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying, Go into the village opposite you, in which as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one yet has ever sat.

Untie it and bring it here. And if anyone asks you, why are you untying it, thus you shall speak, the Lord has need of it. And those who were sent went away and found it just as he told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, why are you untying the colt? And they said, the Lord has need of it.

And they brought it to Jesus and they threw their garments on the colt and put Jesus on As he was going, they were spreading their garments in the road, and as he was now approaching near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, saying, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest.

And some of the Pharisees in the multitude said to him, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. And he answered and said, I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out. And when he approached, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace, but now they have been hidden from your shall come upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank before you and surround you and hem you on every side, and will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.’ And he entered the temple and began to cast out those who were sowing, saying to them, It is written, and my house shall be a house of prayer. to have made it a robber’s den. And he was teaching there in the temple that the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among the people were trying to destroy him, and they could not find anything that they might do, for all the people were hanging upon his words.

Our God, we would not forget in our prayers those offices of ministry and service and rule that you have given to your Church. We do ask, Father, that you would grant many to your Church who would love your word and proclaim it without hesitation. We are asking our God, even for our own assembly, that you might grant to us strong leadership, wise counsel from those who rule. We do thank you, our Father, for those who have granted us what a gift they are to this church. We praise you for that. We thank you as well, Lord, that you have granted us those who would lead us in service to the poor and those who are without enough. May we learn from their example, may we follow their lead, and may their humility speak volumes to our souls. So may it please you throughout your church in the world to grant such offices as these in abundance, so that your people might be well-ruled and well-served. We ask it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Some of you may know that one of the distinctive features of Luke’s gospel is the long that some have described a rather tedious, drawn-out account of Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem. In this, Luke is unique amongst the Gospel writers. His account of that last journey to Jerusalem by Jesus stretches over ten chapters and takes up a large portion of the Gospel.

It starts in the ninth chapter, the 51st verse, and concludes in the 19th chapter, the 27th verse. As it comes to a close, we are given then three very, very powerful but brief glances at Jesus’ relationship to that city, the city of Jerusalem. These come in rapid-fire succession. and what revelations they are, revelations of our Lord, as they wonderfully present to us his significance, specifically in terms of the offices that he has within himself, but also in terms of the marvelous revelation that these instances make of his inner life, of the emotional life of our Lord. So it is that in verses 41 through 44 of this nineteenth chapter, we are told about Jesus’ tears, the fact that Jesus weeps for Jerusalem. His grief inspired lament over the city and his prediction with regard to that city. Here, Jesus appears as that heartbroken prophet the fulfillment of that long line of prophets, most notably Jeremiah, who is known for his lamentations for Jerusalem and the people of God. In this story, then, that we have of Jesus’ tears, his weeping over the city of Jerusalem, set before us is the figure of our Savior in prophet form, as if he were the culmination the culmination of the line of the prophets whose hearts had been broken over the state of God’s people, and specifically over this gem of a city, the city of David, Jerusalem itself.

We move on to verses 45 through 47, and if the previous verses had presented us Jesus the prophet, these verses present us Jesus the fearless priest.

The priest who in his righteous rage clears God’s house of wickedness and then sets about to teach clearly the word of the Lord. We know about the services of the priests in the Old Testament. We know how Committed to them was that specific ministry whereby they were to see to it that the Lord’s law was implemented faithfully within the precincts of the Lord’s house. Not only that, but the word of the Lord was faithfully taught to the people of God.

Here, once more, Jesus appears as the culmination of the line of the priest. He reminds us specifically of Ezra. Recall Ezra’s ministry in the days of the Restoration, when he specifically took to his ministry that task of purifying the people of God and calling them back to a faithful walk. Here, Jesus reminds us of such a ministry, the ministry of Ezra, as if Ezra were finding his goal in the ministry which Christ now performed.

As we look towards the end of the chapter, we have these successive stories. Christ is presented to us as the prophet. He is presented to us as the priest. We see, as it were, his soul opened up for us, his tears, his weeping, also his rage as he is concerned for God’s righteousness and for God’s law. falls upon the opening story in this section, the opening story in this series of stories, the story that appears in verses 28 through 40. And this story, as you can see, brings before us most specifically not Jesus’ office as a prophet or as a priest, but his office as a king, and sets before us as well the inner that certainty that Christ had with respect to this specific office, that of his Lordship. It could be remarked, I suppose, that this story of Jesus’ triumphal entry evidences something of his prophetic office as it does his kingly office. After all, in this story we have set before us Jesus’ predictions.

He does state to his disciples that they will find thus and so in a certain village to which he sends them. He predicts what they will find there as he sends them on this errand to secure for him the colt upon which he is to ride as he enters the city. verse 32, qualified as things. So that whatever prophetic interest we find in this story, it gives way to the major consideration, namely the fact that Jesus is the King. You will note verse 32 ends with the statement that the disciples found everything just as Jesus had told them. It is clear from the statement that more confronts us here than just Jesus’ predictive ability. The fact that Jesus has the ability to forecast the future, to predict what is yet unseen, what has yet not happened.

The one presented to us in this text is the one who identifies himself and is recognized by others as the Lord. The disciples carry this message with them, and with this message they secure the cult. The Lord, they say, the Lord has need of it. In view is specifically Jesus’ authority as the Lord and the King.

And as the Lord, he does more than just predict events, even these specific events as the disciples go into this particular village and find things as he has predicted them to be. In fact, as Lord, Jesus’ power and authority far exceeds that of any human Lord, any other Lord.

His ability to command men, such as these disciples, such as these owners of the cult, is his thoroughly supernatural ability to command and order events, to command and order circumstances. He is literally controlling the events in that city, in that village, into which he sends his disciples. They are as he has said they will be because he himself is controlling them. He is ordering them.

Because this is true, we gain no small encouragement and instruction from what is played out in front of us here in this text. register well upon you. You see, Jesus is bodily absent from that village to which he sends the disciples. He is physically absent from the village to which he sends his disciples. He commands and orders men and circumstances while physically, bodily removed. Physically distant.

Physically removed. Jesus faces no barrier for the kind of Lordship that he is exercising in the village. You see how this matches things with respect to our specific circumstance? You see, presently Jesus, in his body, is removed from us. He is removed from this world. In his body, Jesus is presently in heaven at his Father’s right hand. Jesus, in his body, is distant from the villages, all the villages, all the cities, all the communities of this world.

Yes, he commands men and their affairs. He commands people and their circumstances for the sake of his glorious kingdom and its realization. You see then why We should glean great encouragement and great instruction from even this dimension, from this particular story. What kind of Lord is it that we have? One who, although he is physically removed from us, is still controlling the events, the circumstances, the affairs of mankind. He is controlling our lives and our destinies. He is sovereign over all of our personal affairs. He is directly involved in all that takes place with respect to his people. as they find their place in his kingdom.

What a comfort. What a marvelous, marvelous comfort. You don’t see him, do you? Yet you know he is Lord and confess him to be so. And you are certain, are you not? that he is directly involved in all of the circumstances of your life. There is something else here too for us in this story that helps us and encourages us, instructs us.

You will note, interestingly, that in verse 33, the owners of this particular cult are identified with the word that in the New American Standard that has been translated, owners, but in actual fact is the word for Lord. These owners of the cult are themselves spoken of as if they were lords. So the Lord is directing the lords. The Lord is sovereign over the lords.

Jesus’ lordship constrains events and men, even if those men be the world’s masters, and this to the end that his authority, namely Christ’s authority, would survey and encompass the entirety of the created order. We may well think that there are lords in the creation whose power and authority seemingly rivals or even eclipses authority and power of our Christ. Not so. Jesus’ lordship is over all, and even this world’s masters rise and fall according to his So from a distance, from heaven, the glorified, exalted Christ reigns as King. But now, as the story progresses with respect to Christ’s triumphal entering, the specific form of his reign in the world becomes more pointed and more poignant. This one is the Lord, who can constrain events and circumstances, who can constrain every man be as high as the world can make him to bow the knee. Yet this one who is Lord reigns. In a way, the world itself finds particularly troublesome. He appears, you see, as one who is meek and lowly. He confounds the world by the type of rule that he exercises. He comes, this lord, this king, in the form of a servant.

The king approaches the city mounted upon the colt. as one meek and gentle, thus exemplifying the manner in which his body, that is the Church, is to communicate his sovereign disposition within this era. Not with force, but with meekness. Not with might, but with an appeal. Not with a sword, but with humility. even with humiliation, humiliation that ends in Christ’s cross.

By root of this manifestation of Christ’s kingship and lordship, the Church of Christ will find her life defined and her ministry outlined. How tragic when the Church turns to force. How tragic when the Church coerces. How tragic when the Church takes up the sword, forsakes humility and meekness, and the gospel as well. The ministry which the Church bears As in the case of Her Lord meets a mixed response, there are those who welcome it, there are others who scorn it, there are those who violently reject.

As we see Jesus’ approach to the city, this scene played out, telling us something of Jesus’ present reign, lordship. As we see as well the Church brought into view, and the way in which the Church matches Christ, His meekness matched with her meekness. His humiliation matched with her humiliation. We are driven on to consider as well the climactic element that appears here as well in the text.

We are driven beyond the provisional nature of Christ’s approach to Jerusalem that day so many years ago, and even beyond our approach as the Church of Christ to the city of this world. We are driven beyond these to the ultimate approach which Christ makes to this world in the judgment that brings everything to a conclusion. Beyond that day When Jesus entered the city in Jerusalem, beyond this present day when the Church makes her appeal to the world, comes the day of Christ’s return.

And in that day, all those truly who love Him will praise God, rejoicing as never before because of all of the wonderful displays of His kingly might, those which they have beheld. Our songs will proclaim His worth as the King. the one who comes not just in the name of the Lord, but truly with the name of the Lord. In that day, the angels’ song will receive its appropriate reply, that song sung by angels at Christ’s birth about peace on earth. Here, in the last day, the earth will answer back with the refrain, Peace in heaven, just as appears in verse 38. as the interest of the Lord’s own is directed consistently and perfectly to the regions above. And even though that day will be marked by the tragic exposure of unbelief and rebellion as God’s judgment comes justly upon those who have rejected the gospel, its superlative nature will satisfy the souls of the elect as they hear the very stone and together with the rocks and the mountains and the trees and the stars and all the posts of the created works of God, sing in exultation to their King. Angels and saints praising the King, proclaiming peace in heaven through Christ’s efficacious work upon the cross on their behalf, for the entire creation as that creation reaches its goal in seeing the saints arise in glory before their Lord.

Amen. Our Father, how wonderful that day was when Jesus entered the city How wonderful this present day, Lord, as your Church, the very body of Christ, takes with all humility and meekness the message of Christ’s Lordship to the nations. But how glorious the day, Lord, to which that day so long ago and these days point. Father, what a privilege. that we shall participate in that day within the embrace of our Savior, singing praises to him that shall never end. O God, bring the day in which our Savior will appear, he coming in triumph upon the very clouds of heaven with all of his holy angels with him. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.