Title: Luke 19
By: Dan Pancake
Bible Verses
28 And when he had thus spoken, he went before, ascending up to Jerusalem.
29 And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples,
30 Saying, Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither.
31 And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him.
32 And they that were sent went their way, and found even as he had said unto them.
33 And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt?
34 And they said, The Lord hath need of him.
35 And they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon.
36 And as he went, they spread their clothes in the way.
37 And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen;
38 Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.
39 And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.
40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
I would have liked to have heard that. Wouldn’t you? He’s my King! I’m glad I have got a King that is worthy.
Story
Eighty-eight years ago, the crowd was gathered on a humid August day, for an unparcelled meeting. Hundreds of thousands of spectators gathered for what must have seemed like a storybook tale rather than real life. Six continents were represented there; forty-nine countries were gathered at the 1936 Olympics hosted in Berlin. The swastika, the most conspicuous by far, was draped anywhere and everywhere. The main attraction was not the athletes who would compete for the medals, but the one who would preside over the event—Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler rode into the event standing upright in his Mercedes Limousine, his right arm lifted in the Nazi salute. Thousands and thousands of people gathered and celebrated him. Thousands of Hitler youth, storm troopers, military guards lined his routes. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary German citizens masked along the way leaning from windows, waving flags, standing 12 or more deep along the streets to catch a glimpse of their heralded leader. As his Limousine passed, they extended their right arms in the Nazi salute. Their faces upturned ecstatic, screaming, in pulsing waves as he rode by. Heil, Heil, Heil; the noise slowing swelling and growing nearer. The loud speaker began blaring “He is coming! He is coming! He is coming!” We know he came.
Triumphal Entry
In A.D. 30, we know there was a better triumphal entry than Hitler’s triumphal entry. If you want to look at it that way, that was Hitler’s triumphal entry on the world stage. However, somebody did a better job of it. Somebody was a better leader. Somebody was more worthy of the praise and admiration.
In AD 30, another king was approaching a great city, Jerusalem; along with a lot of fanfare. Along the road, there were thousands lined. Thousands and thousands followed behind, and thousands guided the way with shouts of glory and praise for the real King, the One and Only King, the One that is worthy of all praise, honor, and glory. Amen! He’s my King! He’s my King! He’s my King! I hope He’s your King today.
Something controls everybody’s life. Something or someone controls everybody’s life. Who controls your life today? If you are in this room this morning and you know Jesus; I hope you can say, “The Lord Jesus is in control of my life. He’s my King.”
The Bible says, our Lord Jesus is a seven-way King. I want you to listen to this. He is the King of the Jews. There is no doubt about that. He is the King of Israel, without a doubt. He is also the King of righteousness. I think we can all say Amen, to that. He is the King of the ages. We will find that out when everything is said and done. He is the King of heaven. Amen! We are going to that place someday. He is the King of glory, and worthy of all praise. He is the King of kings, and Lord of lords. Our King is sovereign. Would you say Amen to that? Our King is a saving, King. I am so glad for that. Our King is God-sent, not man-chosen.
Seven-way King:
1. King of the Jews
2. King of Israel
3. King of righteousness
4. King of the ages
5. King of heaven
6. King of glory
7. King of kings and Lord of lords
Kings rise to power in about three different ways. Some are born into it. That is probably the most normal way for somebody to ascend to a kingship; such as king Charles today in England. Others take it by force. That has been another way that people become kings in life. However, there are few kings that are chosen by their people. That is our King Jesus. He is chosen by us. He is first of all chosen by God; but chosen by us to be our King, our King of kings, and Lord of lords.
A King’s rise to power
1. By birth
2. By force
3. By people’s choice
Who’s your king?
Who have you chosen today to be your king? Do you remember that old song we used to sing all the time? “He’s My King, and reigns forevermore…(song continues a little). We ought to bring that old song back and sing it more often. Amen! He’s my King! I’m not ashamed of Him. He has every right in the world to be ashamed of me, but I am certainly not ashamed of Him.
On this fateful day that we read about here in Luke’s gospel; you can read about it in all four gospels. This is one of those accounts that is in all four of the gospels and each one has just a little bit of a variation that they put into it just to give you a little bit more of the story. You see facets of the story. In Luke’s gospel, it tells very much the same thing as it does in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. However, Luke adds something. Luke adds something that we would not have had if it weren’t for the book of Luke.
40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
Give Praise
I will tell you; everybody and everything ought to praise the Lord. Amen! Everyone ought to praise the Lord. He is worthy of all praise and glory.
On this particular day, which was about 30 A.D.—and that is a long time ago. We are coming up on 2,000 years since the Lord rode into that city of Jerusalem. He was fulfilling prophecy. Did you know that? It was prophesied in the book of Daniel that a period of time would pass. Four hundred eighty-three years would pass from the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem to the coming of the King. I believe four hundred eighty-three years probably to the very day and to the very moment that the writing was signed. The King of glory rode right into Jerusalem to offer Himself as the Messiah, the Lord of every individual on the face of the earth. Amen! So, He did that. It is the fulfillment of prophecy.
Nehemiah
Back in Nehemiah, you read about where the letter was signed by Artaxerxes. Then you can read in Zechariah about this wonderful prophecy, “Behold thy King cometh.” So, you can read about that. It is a fulfillment of prophecy that He came on this particular day. Everything in the world, everything in the universe was aiming at this particular day, on that day. Everything that happened that day, had to happen exactly as God had planned. God doesn’t do anything by happenstance. God is not reactive. He is active. He plans. He carries out His plans to the letter. That is exactly what happened on this day.
Lazarus
If you were to read John’s gospel, you will find out that Jesus, the night before this, spent that night, that evening, with Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Do you remember? Lazarus was the one that He raised from the dead. I would like to have met him. “Hey, buddy; what is it like to die? Tell me all about it. Then what is it like to wake up again when you…” He probably would have said, “I would just as soon stayed in heaven.” I would have liked to have seen that. A lot of people, as it says in John’s gospel, wanted to see Lazarus who had been raised from the dead. However, He spent that evening with them—great friends.
The next morning, as they were approaching Jerusalem, like He normally would have; He sent two of His disciples to pick up a colt, that He had arranged before to pick up. Somebody says, that’s a miracle. No. The miracle is when He sat on a colt that had never been sat on before and it didn’t try to throw Him off. Even the colt knew that this is the Lord of glory. So, He sat on him (the colt). They put their clothes on him. Do you remember that wonderful story. Mark tells the story in Mark 11:1-7. I won’t read it all. You can read for yourself sometime. They brought the colt to Jesus, and He sat on it. He sat on the colt and began riding it into Jerusalem.
Humble King
I want to begin by saying, that our King—although He is a wonderful King and worthy of all praise—He is a humble King. I like humble people. I don’t have a lot of respect for proud people. I don’t like pride in me. I don’t like pride in you. It is ugly. Isn’t it? Pride is an ugly thing. Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. The Bible reminds us. The Bible also tells us; that he who is proud, he that exalts himself shall be abased. But he that abases himself shall be exalted. Isn’t that funny how the kingdom of God works? Jesus shows us clearly and wonderfully how the kingdom of God works.
The King of glory approached on this particular day in a very humble fashion. Now, this was normal. If princes were visiting an area in peace; princes/kings were coming in peace, they would often ride on a little donkey colt. That says I am coming in peace. I am not coming in war. I am coming in peace.
Here Jesus comes offering Himself to the nation of Israel, first of all and then to the whole world, in peace. He is a humble King.
The second thing I will tell you about Him is that while He was coming; news had started spreading that Jesus is coming to town and He is riding a donkey, a colt, and people are running along with Him and they are praising God. So, people in town began to run out—you see, it is about five miles from Jerusalem. A lot of people are there for the Passover that is coming up in just a few days. Therefore, they start running to greet Him as well. When they come, they have Palm leaves in their hands. So, they start throwing these down, as a way to say, we are paving your way, Lord, to come into Jerusalem. So, they are throwing the Palm leaves down. As they are throwing them down they are saying, “Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed is He that comes in the name of Lord and praising God.” I would have loved to have been there to hear that. I really would. I love it when God’s people all…
I like a service when things just get out of control by the Spirit of God. I don’t mean by a false spirit. I mean by the Spirit of God, when people are praising the Lord and the preacher has to sit down and listen for a while. Amen! Oh, that’s good news. Isn’t it church? Sometimes we need that. I have been in some wonderful services where the Spirit of God was so strong in the service that you couldn’t preach if you wanted to. We might have been able to sing a little bit, but most of all, everybody was just praising the Lord. People were being saved. People were being changed. Amen! So, I would have loved to have seen that. I would have loved to have been a part of that.
Welcome King
Our King is not only a humble but He’s a welcome King. Amen! On this particular day, He is welcome in Jerusalem. Most of the time He wasn’t welcome in Jerusalem because He stood for something that for some reason their religion did not stand for. They were supposed to be serving the same God that was riding on this donkey colt coming into town. However, they despised their God.
Isn’t that something about our world we live in today? They love themselves and despise God. The more they love themselves, the more they despise our God. The more they love the things of man the more they despise our God. When you love our God, you start thinking the things of man don’t mean very much. The things you can buy, the things you can have; they don’t mean very much because knowing Jesus, knowing our God is much more important.
Therefore, they throw branches on the way. Mark 11:8 said they spread their garments in the way and cut down branches off of trees and threw them in the way as He comes. So, is a welcome King. I hope He is welcome in your life today.
Do you remember that old song they used to sing? If Jesus came to your house, to spend a day or two… I love to hear George—whatever his name was—recusation. He would say that it was a wonderful thing. It really gave me cause to stop and think. Is my life what God wants my life to be? Is there room in my life, even as a Christian; is there room in my life for the Lord to change things up if He wants to? Is He really my Lord? Is He really my King? Am I living my life in service to Him, in love for Him? That is a good question. Isn’t it? Is He a welcome King in your heart? Say amen if He is. He is welcome here. He is welcome.
Then those loud Hosanna’s; Luke tells us and I won’t go back through it again, but those loud hosanna’s—that comes from Psalm; it is based on Psalm 118:25 & 26.
25 Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.
26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.
That was all a thousand years before He came. One thousand years before Jesus came to the earth; prophecy said, there will be a day that people would gather together and bless your name, saying, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
Worthy King
He is an ancient God. Would you say amen to that? So, He is a humble King. He is a welcome King, but also, He is a worthy King. We sung about that a little while ago. I missed a line in the song, and I always feel bad when I miss a line because I miss something I really wanted to say. At the same time, He is a worthy King. I am glad He is worthy. If I mess it up, He is still worthy. Amen! He is a worthy God. He is worthy of all praise; all honor and all glory. Not just on Palm Sunday, but every day. Every Sunday, God’s people joined together in His house for one reason; to lift up the glorious name of Jesus Christ. He is worthy.
Crowds
I want you to notice in this story; you will see the idea or thought that there are thousands of people. Now we have done a study through the gospel and when we went through it, it shocked me to realize how many people were following along behind Jesus. Now I figured there were tens or hundreds. It amazed me to realize that maybe there were ten to twenty-five thousand people with Jesus at any given time. I don’t know if you know what ten thousand people look like, but that’s a pretty good group of people. If you get it up to twenty-five, that is a really a big group of people.
I was in a group of men, at Promise Keepers one time. There were twenty-five thousand people. They started singing Holy, Holy, Holy. Something happened in that place. Something happened there. The spirit of God came. He touched my heart that day. Tears began to flow. We were almost home before I stopped crying because God is so good. God is so good. He is worthy.
He is wonderful. No wonder thousands of people follow Him. He is worthy. He is wonderful.
So, the thousands followed Him. You might want to look at the group and you would say this is the who’s who of Jewish society of that day. The politicians were there.
Politicians
Politicians have always got one thing in mind—self-advancement. Amen! Take all the money you can get but be sure you exalt yourself along the way. Amen! I don’t care what party they are in. I didn’t say Democrat or Republican. I just said politician. Most of the time it is all about them. Religious leaders were there.
If you want to talk about the lowest of the low, religious leaders. Religion kills almost all the time. Religion stops praise for God. Religion limits your ability to lift up the name of Jesus. Religion is something that is binding. I will tell you what will set you free; real faith, in a real God, giving real praise to Him. Amen!
There were others there. All the Aristocracies were there, the Bureaucrats were there, and then there was these common people. That is us. Would you say amen to that?
Common People
Are you glad that common people serve Him gladly. We are common. What does that mean? There is a whole lot of other people like us. Amen! That means you don’t have a whole lot of money. That’s okay. You don’t have a whole lot of fame. Glory to God! You can have all the Jesus you want. You can! That is worth more than any of the treasures of humanity anywhere in this world. Would you say amen one more time? Praise the Lord!
So, it is a big crowd. There is a lot of mixed emotions in this crowd. Like all crowds, a lot of mixed emotions. I suppose the day at the promise keepers when the Lord touched me; He probably touched a few others, but not everybody like that. I will tell you this. In every crowd there are some mixed emotions. There are probably some here today. One emotion you are probably having is I hope how soon he gets done so I can go to lunch. Amen!
In this crowd, they had some mixed emotions. Some of them wanted to see Lazarus. You can read that in John 12:9. They wanted to see Lazarus whom He had raised from the dead. Hey, I told you before, I would like to see him. I will see him one day; but I would have liked to have seen him that day. Wouldn’t you? Then other people wanted to see Jesus because they heard He was a great prophet. However, they did not realize how great He really was. A lot of the other group of the crowd was just there because it was enthusiastic and a lot of people like a big crowd. Therefore, they just joined in and praised anyway, not knowing what they were doing. It is amazing to me that the same crowd that welcomed Him in Jerusalem on Sunday; five days later, on Friday they said, “Crucify Him!” That was the same group, many of the same people. People are fickle. Would you say amen to that? We change our minds so often. I believe there were some there that had a deep appreciation for what He was doing.
His disciples were taking all of this in. They believed He was the Messiah, but there was a little doubt in them. Amen! You say, I have great faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a little doubt in there. Are you with me today? What is our faith all about? How does our faith grow? Our faith overcomes our doubts. How does He do that? God puts us in circumstances, in situations in life to help us rely fully on Him. When we rely on Him, in a greater way; our faith grows and our doubts shrink. Amen! That’s good. All things work together for good to them that love God. Are you among those? I am those. I am. No matter who this crowd was no one grasped the meaning of what was going on here today.
Zachariah 9:9
None of them went back across their mind, to Zachariah 9:9 where that prophecy was; “Thy King cometh on a donkey colt.” None of them went back to that. They were all saying, this is a wonderful time. Do you know what they were really looking for? The same thing a lot of folks are looking for today. A political answer to the problems they were having in their day. They wanted Jesus to come in and set up His reign as Messiah of Israel. They wanted Jesus to throw off Rome and to push Rome back to where they belonged; and to give them just a good ole down to earth Jewish lifestyle. That would be their little heaven. The Lord had a greater thing in mind. Didn’t He? He is not just the Messiah for the Jewish nation. He is the Messiah for the entire world. Messiah means the Christ, the Anointed One; the only one that can save people from their sins. He is our King who saves us from our sins. Not one that saves us from our political problem. We created most of our political problems. Believe me, we deserve what we get. I said we deserve it. I mean it too. When I say I claim Jesus as my King. He’s my King! What does it mean for me to say such a thing. You say that in your heart today. “He’s my King! He's my King!” I will tell you what it means to us is that it is more than just an emotional thing.
When I got saved, it was an emotional thing with me. I told you. I got saved around midnight. That old song, “Why Me Lord?” was playing, of all things. It just reminded me that if He can save others then He can save me. I had an emotional moment there when the Lord came into my heart. I felt like laughing and I felt like crying. Now you didn’t/don’t have to feel like I did. You don’t have to get saved the same way I did. You did/do have to get saved by the same person I did. Amen! You had/have to do it the same way. You have to come and say, “Lord, Jesus forgive me of my sins. Come into my heart.” It is more than emotion. Enthusiasm is good, but what about when the enthusiasm is not there anymore? Is Jesus still your King, when everything is going rough. Nobody is smiling. Nobody wants to see you. Nobody wants to hear anything from you. Is He still your King? Yes. Yes, He is.
This is more than an emotional experience. This is a life commitment. When you give your life to the Lord Jesus Christ; you give your life to Him forever. You give it to Him fully and freely. You accept His Lordship over your life. That means, Lord you get to control everything I do. The people I meet. Where I work. The people I live with in the home and how we act in the home. The things we do. I had better not go any further. I am going to get in trouble. Still, the Lord is in control. It is more than emotional thing. It is a life-long commitment to Jesus. Have you done that? It means that He is Lord of all. It is not just an emotional thing. He is Lord of all.
Do I spend regular time with my God? Is there a time every day—you don’t have to do it every day—you need to come to God and talk to Him alone in prayer. I believe we need to spend time in prayer and Bible reading. How much Bible do you want me to read, preacher? I would like for you to read the whole thing. However, at the same time read what you can. Amen! Some people can read a lot and some people can’t. I have come to the point where I read shorter things because I can’t retain very much in memory. I would like to do that. I have a lot of it in memory anyway. However, I like to do it so I can think over what read. It is one thing to read it but then I want you to think it through. Meditate on what you read and what you have done. Even some Christian literature is good from time to time. Then I would say that not only does it mean that He is Lord of all; it means that I have to practice self-control in personal life. We talked about this a little bit upstairs in Sunday School Class today. Practicing self-control in your life—that’s not easy church.
You were all with me when I was praising the Lord and saying He’s my King. The practical side of this thing is that He is Lord of everything. He is Lord of my life. He knows every thought I have; good or bad, decent or indecent. He knows all about it. So, I must practice self-control. I must reign in sin, in my life—quit sinning. I must quit lying. Boy! That’s hard to do! It just comes naturally to human beings to tell just a little thing off the truth, just a smidge. That’s a lie. Amen! Here is one more thing I think you and I can do, if Jesus is really our King. Go ahead and take a stand for Jesus. Let people know who you are. It is alright. If they don’t like you, they still won’t. If they want what is best for you, they will say; good, praise the Lord.
I told you that morning after I rededicated my life; I came into work. I worked at National Mines. On day turn that week—it was a rare thing for a young man to be on day turn—but I came through that door, and came down through that gangway there, just a little way down there, about midway down there. The tool room was on the right. Albert Cornett was standing there on the counter with his hands like this. He had a little stogie in his mouth about that long, puffing on it. That is the way he always was. Come down through there. The devil said, don’t tell nobody about what happened. I said, I am going to tell Albert. (LOL) So, I said, “Albert, I gave myself to the Lord last night.” He went “bu, bu, bu. Okay…” He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know whether to spit or eat peanut butter. I will tell you this. You can’t keep it a secret if the Lord is Lord in your life.
Closing
I know some of us have been around a long time and we have been saved a long time. There is that initial enthusiasm when you first get saved. You want to tell everybody what happened to you. Do it! That is a wonderful time to witness for the Lord, and your testimony; your enthusiastic testimony may be the very thing that causes someone to come to Jesus Christ. Listen church, don’t quit. Go ahead and keep telling people what happened to you as if it happened yesterday. It is new every day. We read that in the book of Lamentations. His mercies are new every day. Great is His faithfulness. He blesses us with things we could never deserve. We ought to join this crowd today and say, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” He’s my King. Is He your King? He’s my King. I love Him. May He reign forevermore. Amen! He’s my King to worship and adore and I do. I hope that you do too.
What is ruling your life? If it is something other than Jesus, you can get rid of it today. Just come to Jesus and ask Him to come into your heart.
Come and pray.