Isn't God good? Isn't he wonderful to save us? And this morning we really come to the understanding that God wants to save us and use us and all that he has done in sending his son. So let's go ahead and stand as we read God's word in John chapter 12, verses 12 through 19. It says, the next day the large crowd that had come to the feast. heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, fear not daughter of Zion. Behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him. This is God's word. You may be seated. I love monarchies and some of you are interested in the British monarchy. Some of you have seen the weddings of Prince William, Prince Harry recently. And I remember some of you are old enough to remember when Princess Diana died. And it seemed like time stopped and we were all kind of in front of our televisions. But here today we look at a different kind of monarchy, a different kind of king. And this morning we're gonna look at the heart of this king, the mission of the king and the worship of this king. And that he deserves our worship. and our praise. Amen? He deserves our lives totally dedicated to Him. Would you agree with that? But at this time in His ministry, He is kind of like a car, a new car model that's about to be unveiled and all there is, you can see the outline of the car, there's a cover over the car. And you know about this because Jesus, even the demons, when he would cast demons out, they wanted to tell who he was, right? And he forbid the demons from telling who he was. You remember the leper who he had healed, he charged him, tell no one. And many times his disciples, he would say, do not speak about this. Very rarely did he reveal who he was. In fact, one of the unique times that this occurred was to the Samaritan woman. She was outside of Israel, right? And he revealed himself to her. She was a half-breed, you know? But to Israel, he waited to reveal himself. He waited to unveil who he was. Why? Because there was a distinct prophecy in Zechariah. I wanna look at that in Zechariah nine and verse nine. And this prophecy was something that the leaders of Israel knew and they would have taught the people that when Messiah comes, he's not going to come like any other king. There's going to be certain characteristics about this king and you'll know who he is when he rides through the gates of Jerusalem on a young donkey. This is God's moment to reveal Messiah to his people Israel. And he had been promising this since the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3 and since Genesis 12 when he promised Abraham and Sarah that they would have a promised son and that ultimately their descendant son would bless not just Israel but who? all nations, the entire world. But this prophecy in Zechariah 9, 9 is very, very important because it was written during a time when Zechariah and Haggai are building the second temple. They begin to build the second temple. And remember, there's been a stall of 18 years And they're very discouraged. But Zechariah says, hey, the Messiah is coming to this temple and you're going to know who he is by three distinct characteristics of his heart. Let's read Zechariah 9. It says, Rejoice greatly. Now, when we think about this prophecy, there's a lot to rejoice about. Amen? There's a lot to be filled with joy about. Whatever you're going through, this ought to bring you joy. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, and here are the characteristics. Behold, your king is coming to you. And what is he? He's righteous, and then he's having salvation as he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. The foal of a donkey is just a baby donkey, a young donkey, a donkey that has been not yet ridden, a fresh, untamed donkey. And Jesus is so gentle that he can ride This donkey, think about this, the almighty God who created you, who flung the stars into space. You know, we're trying to get a rocket to the moon again and maybe to Mars. I mean, that's like nothing. bazillions of planets beyond Mars, God is already there. The Lord Jesus Christ is God and by all things, by him all things were made, amen? Without him was not anything made that was made. And so this great God comes and he comes to earth and just understand that he's so gentle. And he reveals himself. It's kind of like in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, in the third book, The Return of the King. I think you say his name correctly if I mess up you Lord of the Rings fans, forgive me. But King Aragorn, he's hidden. Nobody knows who he is. And you know, in the return of the king, he's kind of under a hood and it's not until he goes into the houses of healing and he begins to heal his friends who had been struck down in battle that one of the attendants remembers an ancient prophecy that the true king would be a healer. And now the identity of the king is known. And so it is with Jesus as he rides through the gates of Jerusalem. His identity is known. And what happens there? We read about it. The people burst out and begin to rejoice just as Zechariah 9 9 told them to. The leaders, as we saw and we'll see again in the book of Luke and we saw in Matthew, the leaders are rebuking the people. The leaders are blind. The people see who Jesus is, but the leaders are blind. And really, in our message this morning, it really divides not only them, but us. Do we see the King? for who he is. Are you like the leaders who later lead the people, these kind of ignorant people, lead them to crucify the Lord of glory? Or are you like the people who shout, They knew they needed to be saved. Do you know that you need to be saved? Well, let's consider the heart of the king. This is how we know that this is the king of Israel. This is the Messiah because we see his heart. And the first thing that we realize is that his heart is righteous. You should rejoice this morning because of the heart of Jesus. Now, The word righteous speaks not only of his moral purity and perfect character, but also his ability to make right that which is wrong. Jesus' heart is righteous and he's able to make your heart right. Amen? He's able to heal your heart because he's the healer. He's able to make right your heart because he is the righteous one. And everything in this passage, both the Old Testament passage and the New Testament passages, point to the fact that in order for Jesus to make unrighteous and sinful people's hearts right as the righteous one, he's going to have to be the sacrifice that we learned about in Psalm 118. He's going to have to be the Passover sacrifice that is bound to the horns of the altar, that they sing about every Passover, bind the sacrifice. And while they bound the sacrifices because of Leviticus 23 in verse 40, they're to wave palm branches because it is through a coming sacrifice. Not the blood of bulls and goats as we heard in the previous weeks, but the blood of the Son of God is the only way that God's wrath can be satisfied for our sins. And so Jesus has to make the unrighteous righteous. Aren't you glad that Jesus has a righteous heart? He's not vindictive. He's not capricious like a child who he doesn't get his way and he takes his ball and goes home. No, when he doesn't get his way, he lays down his life for rebels and criminals because our Lord is righteous and he loves to make that which is broken right and healed. Has he fixed you? Is he in the process of fixing you? Have you been born again? Are you progressively being conformed into the image of Christ? Hey listen, isn't that something to rejoice about? That God has his hand on you. Not only is he righteous, but Zechariah says that he is having salvation. Now this phrase, translators are remiss sometimes to translate this, because it does mean having salvation. But you could literally say that this king needs to be saved. That's literally, if you were to translate the Hebrew, it would say he's saved. And it sounds kind of strange to us, so that's why we translate it having salvation. Now, why would a king need to be saved? You'd have to go through all the Old Testament prophecies and realize, like in Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53, that this Messiah is coming to bear our guilt and our sins. And He's going down to the depths of Hades. He's going to Sheol. He's going to the grave. He's going to die for our sins. But the Father is going to raise Him from the dead. Amen? He's going to be delivered. His sacrifice is going to be accepted. This is something to rejoice in. Because our God is righteous. His Son is righteous. But His Son has a redemptive heart. A heart that wants to save you and go to the very extreme to save you. He came down from heaven to substitute Himself so that you could have eternal life. Not only should we rejoice because he's righteous and because he has salvation, but also because he has a humble heart. Righteous and having salvation is he, Zechariah 9.9 says, humble and mounted on a donkey. There's a passage in Matthew where Jesus, this is a very rare instance, he talks about his heart and what his heart is like. In Matthew 11, 28 and 29, he says, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Why? Because I am gentle and what? Lowly. In heart, I wanna tell you about my heart. You wanna know the heart of God? You wanna know the heart of Jesus? He says, I could crush you, but I'm humble. And I love you. I could crush you, but I refuse to crush you. You can approach me. I know that you've sinned against the holy, righteous God of the universe, and you deserve the same death sentence that Lucifer himself gets. But instead of that death sentence, I want to give you grace because I'm humble. And I'm so humble that I'm coming down from ruling the heavens to gently ride this young donkey into Jerusalem. Rejoice, Zechariah says. Shout aloud. I like these passages because they kind of go a little bit with my personality. It gives me permission to be a little Pentecostal, my brothers. But you know, when we understand the true goodness of God, when we look at Jesus on that young donkey, I don't care what you're going through. I don't care what difficulty is in front of you. There is reason to rejoice. Amen? There is reason to shout aloud. So many times we shout because we're angry. We shout because we're afraid. We're shouting because we're surprised. But here we're told to shout because Jesus is good. Don't you love the heart of Jesus? Now what would a person, an infinite being, the God of the universe, what would he do if he had a mission? This is his heart. Let's look at his mission in John chapter 12. And we see that there are three kinds of things that are happening here. We see palm branches, we see a donkey, we hear a festival song, and we have to ask why. And each one of those elements points to the mission of Jesus. And we read this just a few minutes ago, but it says that when they saw Jesus, they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. And it says that Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, and John quotes Zechariah 9.9, fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. Both Zechariah 9 and Psalm 118, not only speaks directly to Israel, but also speaks to the nations. So the king comes through Israel as the promised son, the promised seed that the whole story is based on. But he comes through Israel not just to stay as Israel's king, but to be the king of all, to be the king of the world, to be the king of the universe, to be the king of all peoples, every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And we read about this in Revelation, when in Revelation 7 we see a crowd. And we see them dressed in white, portraying the righteousness of Christ. And what are they doing in Revelation 9? What are they waving? They're waving palm branches, and they're praising God through the Lamb for His salvation. We have a Palm Sunday scene in the book of Revelation, in this glorious vision of the future. Brothers and sisters, it's not just about the Jews. waving their palm branches. Praise God that they did that, but let's join in with them because this is a mission of Jesus that we need to celebrate because his mission is a rescue mission. It's to rescue you. It's to rescue me. Now let me just say something before I get into the text here in John and ask these three questions about the donkey, about the song, about the palm branches. I want to ask about those things. But I want to ask you, how are you approaching your life? How is the mission of Jesus affecting your life? And what we have the tendency to do is to focus in on the problem. I need to focus on my job. I need to focus on my marriage. I've got a wayward child. I need to focus on this or that. And we have a thousand lists and we're not getting anywhere. Because God didn't tell us to seek our own agenda and our own solutions first, did he? What did he say? Seek first my my kingdom and my righteousness and the rest will be added. This is this is the mission. It's the kingdom. It's Jesus. We need to seek Jesus. We need to be in line and underneath in submission to our head and our king in our lives. You can have 50,000 plans and 20 billion great ideas, but they will come to nothing unless Jesus is your head and your leader. Embrace his authority in your life. What is this mission that he's on? Why is he riding a young donkey? Because his mission is a mission. of peace. He could have come on a war horse like most kings. If you were to witness a triumphal entry in the Roman Empire, they would have the armies of soldiers coming first. And then they would have their generals and lieutenants and all of their officers. And then at the end, on the white war horse, there would be the hero, the leader, perhaps the chief general or the emperor. This is quite different. Because in Jesus' first coming, he comes on a donkey because he's on a mission of peace. It's very much like Solomon in 1 Kings. Solomon rides on a donkey. And it's the Holy Spirit telling us through Zechariah that this is not only the promised seed and the promised son, but this is the promised king. This is the ultimate fulfillment of David's son. This is the son of David. That's why they cry out about David's son. They worship David's son and they say, may you come in your kingdom. May your kingdom be established. Why is he coming on a young donkey? because he is on a mission of peace with the world. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He's come into the world to just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. He's on a mission of reconciliation. He's on a mission of peace. And so the unapproachable God becomes approachable. He does not come on a white war horse, which he will come the second time. And the devastation will be so horrendous that the blood will flow up to the horse's bridle, the scripture says. The devastation will be unrelenting and ruthless for those who have turned their backs on God's redemption. But that's not God's will. God's not willing that any should perish. He is on a mission of peace. The reason people go to hell is not because they won't come to Christ. I mean, it's not because Christ's salvation is not available to them. It's that they don't want to come to Christ. He says, you would not come unto me. And so he's on a young donkey because he's showing his humility. He's showing that he's on a mission of peace and he's fulfilling prophecy on this donkey. He's revealing his identity. He's showing what kind of king he is. His character is humble. He is God in human flesh. He has been made like us. Jesus comes on a donkey because he wants to bring peace to us. He's the humblest king ever in the history of the world. All things were made by him and he became flesh and dwelt among us. He's the promised redeemer. He's revealing his mission and he's on a mission of reconciliation. Why the donkey? He's on a mission of peace. Secondly, why the palm branches? Because he is on a mission of victory. Way back in the book of Leviticus, chapter 23 and verse 40, when it speaks of the seven feasts of Israel, the three main gatherings in Jerusalem, but two main ones, especially the Passover and Tabernacles, it speaks about bringing the sacrifice and waving palm branches. And it even refers to that in Psalm 118. It talks about binding the festal sacrifice to the altar. And the word for bind is sometimes translated a palm branch in Leviticus as well as in Nehemiah, chapter eight and 15. It's interesting because some translations actually translate that verse, Psalm 118, verse 27, to wave the palm branch as you bring the festal sacrifice. You bring the Passover sacrifice and you bind it to the altar. But this time, Jesus, as the palm branches are being waved, And they're crying out, Hosanna to the son of David. Hosanna in the highest. Save us to the uttermost. He's not going to be bound to the altar of burnt offering. He's going to be bound to a cross. He's going to be crucified. Now, how strange is this? These palm branches were always a sign of victory. in Israel, especially during the time of the Maccabees. Judas Maccabeus. Maccabee is a nickname. It means the hammer. Judas is one of the most honored names in Israel because it stands for Judah. And so Judas Maccabeus. Is the hammer and during the time when he literally was able to hold off Antiochus Epiphanes. And for several hundred years after that, there was victory in Israel. They would wave the palm branches as a sign of victory. And of course they would have been waiting for the sign of this donkey. And as they saw this one who had just raised Lazarus from the dead. We read about that in John 12. John 11 is the whole, I am the resurrection and the life. He's just raised Lazarus from the dead. He's just said, come forth. And so they see that he's a miracle worker. They've heard his preaching and that he's preaching the gospel of the kingdom as the Messiah would. He's telling them to repent, essentially Psalm 2, kiss the son, repent, accept him as your sovereign, as your monarch. And so they are convinced. And they begin to lay their cloaks down as they did for King Jehu in the Old Testament to make the way smooth for the king. They throw their cloaks on the donkey. They throw their cloaks on before Jesus actually gets on the donkey. Then he, as Jesus is riding this young donkey through the gates of Jerusalem, they are throwing their cloaks down. They are throwing palm branches down and they are waving the palm branches because they know this is the moment. The leaders don't know this is the moment. Or if they do know it, they are absolutely rejecting it. You remember what John says at the beginning of his gospel? That Jesus came unto his own and his own received him not. They rejected him. But all these humble people are receiving their king because they see he's seated on a donkey. He's coming on a peace mission. He's coming on a mission that cannot fail. Aren't you glad for that? In our hearts, I don't have palm branches. I wanted to go out. like this week and buy palm branches for everybody. We should do that sometime. Amen. We need to do that. But listen, I may not have a palm branch in my hand, but I know in my heart that he is victorious and no one took his life from him. He laid his life down on his own. He's going as a humble king through the gates of Jerusalem. He's going to walk into the temple. He's going to look around. And he's going to walk back home where his home was in Bethany with the resurrected Lazarus and Mary and Martha. And he's going to sleep there a night and he's going to go the next day and he's going to cleanse the temple. But we've answered two questions. Why the donkey? Why the palm branches? Why the festival song? You know, I grew up in, as you know, in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, and every time around this time of year, in fact, last weekend, they had the Strawberry Festival. And we have our Strawberry Festival song. Strawberries, I got strawberries. Anyway, I won't sing it for you. I won't kill you here. They're singing. And what are they singing? Remember what they're singing? Hosanna. They sing this every Passover. Because every Passover they're bringing their animals, they're buying lambs, they're buying bulls, they're buying goats. and they're sacrificing them. In fact, the main animal being sacrificed is the lamb. And Josephus records that just not too many years after this, he records when he's writing around 60 AD that 250,000 lambs are sacrificed. 250,000 lambs. There's like rivers of blood coming from the temple down the Kidron Valley. If you go down the Kidron Valley, today it's dry. They fill it up with blood on Passover in the time of Jesus. And Jesus is heading towards Jerusalem and he knows that he is the sacrifice. Remember early on in Jesus's ministry, John the Baptist points to Jesus, John 129, and says, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Aren't you glad that our Savior can save us? That's why they're singing the festal song. That's why they're singing the Passover song. Psalm 118 is the Passover song. And it's all about the sacrifice being bound to the altar. Who is the sacrifice in the ultimate drama of redemption? It is the promised son, the seed of Eve and Adam, the seed of the woman. Amen? The son of Abraham, the line of David. This is the one who will be the sacrifice. You do not have to go to hell and pay for your sins for all eternity. Bottom line, Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. He is the Passover sacrifice. It is the substitutionary atonement of Christ that gives me reason to rejoice and shout, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest. You see, Jesus is not a halfway savior. He didn't pay the price to kind of get you in and then you keep the law in order to stay saved. Amen. You see, the gospel is not only that Jesus died for your sins, but he lived a perfect life for you so that you don't have to live that life, amen? Now, we want to live that life, and if you have the Holy Spirit of God, you will live with sin not dominating you. Some days we feel like it, but we cannot live under the dominion of sin because we have a victorious savior. And that is something to sing about. He lived the perfect life. He died the death that you deserve to die. And he died such a sufficient death that he could have not only saved this world, but a billion worlds. Amen. That is something to sing about. This is his mission. It's a mission of peace. It's a mission of victory. It's a mission of salvation. Jesus has something that he gives us to sing about. We've been delivered from the penalty of sin. He's going into Jerusalem. He's going to be tried. On Good Friday, he's going to hang on a cross. He's going to say many things from that cross. And we're going to talk about some of those things this Friday. But one of the things he's going to say as he's hanging there on the cross is, it is finished. What's finished? Jesus has delivered us. He's finished paying for the penalty of your sins. Hallelujah. But it's not only the penalty for your sins because Christ, he justifies us. But then he begins to deliver us from the power of sin. He breaks the power of canceled sin. One day we're going to preach through the book of Romans, but in Romans chapter 7, Paul is crying out, you know, oh, wretched man that I am. I can't keep the law in my own flesh. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who's going to deliver me? And what's the answer? Jesus. Romans 7 is, I have no power to live the Christian life. What's Romans 8? There is therefore now no condemnation. And Romans 8 is all about living life in the Spirit of God. And that's why You, even though grace abounds when sin abounds, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? We're dead to sin. He's broken the power of canceled sin. In other words, your sins have been canceled. They've been forgiven, amen? But the power of sin, not just the penalty, the canceled sin, the penalty's gone, but he's broken the power of it over you. You never, never have to sin. When you are tempted this week, when you are ready to work in your own flesh, in your own power, according to your own ideas, in an idolatrous way, to worship yourself instead of God, I challenge you in the name of Jesus to call upon the Lord and the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of the resurrection, and you claim the power. of canceled sin. You claim the power of the Holy Spirit to say no to sin and to rest in the peace of God and the peace of his reconciliation. Why, that's something to sing about. but not only the penalty of sin and the power of sin, but one day, hallelujah, when Jesus comes again, we're gonna be delivered from the very presence of sin. And there will come a day when I wake up in glory and you wake up in glory and we will sin no more. And that's something to sing about as well. Well, let's look at the worship of the king. He's on a mission, he's a, He's a good Savior. We see his heart is righteous and humble and saving. We see his mission is a mission of peace, a mission of victory and a mission of salvation. But thirdly, we see a contrast of worship and weeping. And I want to be on the worshiping side. Here in Luke, turn over to Luke 19 verses 37 through 40. We read, as Jesus was drawing near to Jerusalem, already on the way down the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that 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 crowd said to him, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. He answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out. This was righteous worship. They had put the pieces together just as God had intended by giving them that prophecy in Zechariah 9, 9. by having them sing the festal song, the Passover song of Psalm 118. They were putting the pieces together. They had seen his mighty powers, his miracles with Lazarus and so many other healings that he did. The blind could see, the deaf could hear, the lame were leaping. What an amazing Messiah. And now he comes on a donkey. And they're rejoicing, they're shouting, this is the Psalm 2 king. This is David's son. This is the one that's going to save the world. But the Pharisees don't want to worship. The leaders of Israel want to be in charge. They don't want Jesus's kind and tender harness, his yoke upon them. And so they tell the king of glory, they speak to the author of the universe, the creator. They say, tell them to stop worshiping. That's like telling the sun to stop shining. That's like telling the planets to stop rotating. They had, by God's grace, seen all of the evidence and the prophecy and His miracles, and they came to the conclusion, this is our Savior. We are so happy that we are saved because of Jesus. Are you happy this morning? Listen, if you don't recognize it, if all the Christians stopped praising God, the stones themselves would begin to praise God for his son because he's worthy. And so we see two crowds of people here. We see the group of Pharisees, the religious leaders that desperately want to hang on to their autonomy, autonomy, autonomas, self-rule. And those who have given up their rule to the true ruler. What do you want? Are you with the Pharisees? You want autonomy in your life? Can I tell you, even before the fall, God created us as dependent beings. How do we know that? Because before the fall, what were Adam and Eve doing? They were walking with God in the cool of the garden. And what were they doing? They were fellowshipping. They were getting counsel from the Most High God. They were not fallen, they were not sinful at this time, but they were dependent Creatures, they needed God's help before the fall because they are creatures, they are finite. We are finite. We need God. This thing that Adam and Eve did in the garden is they threw off the rule of God from their lives. They threw off the harness and they said no thank you God don't want to walk with you anymore. I'll make my decisions by my self. Can I just say that autonomy for finite creatures is suicide. Do not make decisions in your own wisdom. God tells us that the heart is fallen, it's twisted, it's not able to make sound decisions. And even before the heart was fallen and twisted, it was still weak and dependent on Almighty God. So at best we're weak and dependent, but we know the truth. The reality is that our hearts are twisted. And because of the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus, God is untwisting our hearts, but we dare not lean to our own understanding. We must always go and walk as it were in the garden, in the cool of the day. At the very best times of our day, at the very best times of our life, we need to take the best part of our mind and our energy and seek deliberately and meticulously seek the counsel of the Most High God and walk with Him at all times and wherever we go. Amen? So here were these worshipers because they realized their calling that to be dependent. But look at at this sad reality. While the people were worshiping, the Savior is weeping. Look at verses 41 through 44. And we read in Luke 19, 41 through 44, when Jesus drew near the city, what did he do? He wept over it. So they're worshiping him, but he sees the city, he sees the temple, and he begins to sob. saying, would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace. But now they are hidden from your eyes, for the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you because you did not know the time of your visitation. Just say this to your neighbor, I want to know the time of Jesus' visitation. I want to know the time when he's working in me. He's speaking specifically to the city of Jerusalem, especially represented by the leaders here. The people are worshiping him. He receives their praise. But the leaders are so diabolical that It's Sunday, but by Friday, they're going to turn these worshipers, they're gonna use and manipulate these worshipers, so that the King of Glory is hanging on a cross, rejected, outside of the gates of Jerusalem, at Skull Hill, the place that looks like death. The very mountain has the imprint of mortality and death. And so, he weeps, and the leaders of Israel are looking for a king who will come against Rome with force. But here, Jesus is a king who comes to save the world in love. They want a king with a sword. Jesus comes as a king with a cross. And he rules not with great armies. He's the king of kings, ruling the world from a cross, victorious. over death and hell, conquering sin and making a public display, as Colossians says, of the principalities and powers that have gathered to affect the hearts of these leaders. And he could have called legions of angels, couldn't he have? As they were talking to him on the cross, they say, why don't you take us off? He could have called legions of angels, but instead he weeps. Instead of pounding them with the justice that they deserved, He weeps over them. What a precious, dear Savior. I am brought to the image of Jesus in Revelation 3.20 where He says, I stand at the door. And what is He doing? He's knocking. What would the almighty God knock at a door? Why doesn't he just burst it open? Why doesn't he just, he's God, he can do whatever he wants, right? One of the Puritans, I believe it was Rutherford, said, this is a picture of the humble Savior, that he would stand at a door of our heart and that he would knock. Look at this gentle Savior. I'll leave you with this. One day, those Pharisees will get a king on a white horse, won't they? Because Jesus is coming again. And when he comes again, he's coming on a white horse. And he's coming to vindicate his justice. And he's coming to pour out wrath. Inflaming fire, taking vengeance on those who know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. So this morning, it's really a choice. You want a king and a donkey? Or you want a king and a war horse? If you bypass the king and the donkey, You get a king on a war horse that has a rod of iron who will break you to pieces like a piece of pottery. And I say to you, as Psalm 2 says to all of us, kiss the sun, worship the sun. the son, get down on your knees and show homage to the son. He's worthy. Amen. And he calls us not just servants. He calls us friends. He adopts us into his family. Do not bypass this gentle King on this young donkey. He's come on a mission of peace for you. Amen. Let's stand together. Father, we thank you for Your son, we pray this week that we would be people of rejoicing. We would be people who are shouting aloud because of the goodness of who you are, no matter what we're going through, no matter what struggle, no matter what heaviness. Lord, would you lift our burdens as we look upon your son Jesus? Oh God, lift the burdens of everyone in this room. And Lord, if there's someone here who does not know you, is not certain of their own salvation, would you help them to gaze upon Jesus? Would you help them this week not to be satisfied with filling their heart with worldly things, to try to get away from the pressure of this message, the pressure of this confrontation. Lord, I'm asking that if there's anyone who's living under their own self-rule, that they would surrender to the King of Kings today. and that they would let him have his way in their life. Oh God have mercy upon us and thank you for those of us you have saved. Help us to live in victory and in the power of Jesus we ask with great thanksgiving. Amen.