I have to say it was a real privilege hearing the children worshiping God in the way that they did this morning. So kids, that was great. And understand, kids, that you weren't performing for this audience. You were up here to praise and worship God. That's what it was about. I made a commitment a long time ago that I would always devote a portion of the sermon to the children of the congregation. And not just a portion, but the beginning portion. And so we begin with a portion of the sermon, the preaching, kids, for you. So you can pay attention for a few minutes because this part is especially for you. Kids, when a king is crowned in a place like England, For example, they make it a very, very fancy event. The new king wears very fancy, expensive robes and furs and clothes and has this golden crown and has jewels with him and all of that. There are lots of important people there to see it happen. There are big parades after the king is crowned. It all costs lots and lots of money And it makes a big deal out of saying to all the people, this is your new king. He is really important. He's the new boss of your country. He's very powerful. You must obey him. Kids, that's all well and good for us to have people on Earth to help guide us in obeying the laws and things, but you have to remember, kids, we have a different king. We have a different kind of king than that. And you know him. His name is Jesus. When He came to save us and to be our King forever, He didn't need all of that fancy stuff. He didn't need all of the big events. He let the whole world know that He is the King over the Kingdom of Heaven forever. But He came in a very simple way, kids, to save His people so that they would believe in Him, love Him, and obey him because he is the greatest king who loves his people. So kids, that's exactly what you should do. Believe in Jesus, love Jesus, and obey Jesus as your king. Adults. Coronation processions for the world's kings have for a long time been very elaborate, expensive and extravagant affairs. On May the 6th, 2023, you saw one of those happen. At least most of us did. King Charles III rode from Buckingham Palace traditionally to Westminster Abbey. And according to tradition, he rode in a solid gold carriage to receive his crown. The fur robes, the crowns, the crown jewels, all of those things were used in the coronation service. The processions took place afterward. All of the pomp and show were on display. The bean counters in England are not even sure at this point how much the whole ordeal cost, but they estimate that it cost between 50 and 250 million pounds. of British taxpayer money. All of this to proclaim a new king's reign. At times in history, rule has been proclaimed in another way as well by a conquering king as he marched into a conquered capital at the head of his great army with a great show of might and power Brothers and sisters, these are the ways of fallen man to assert primacy by means of the material things that impress those who are subject to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. Our Lord's procession into Jerusalem which the children a few minutes ago celebrated. Our Lord's procession into Jerusalem to begin the last week prior to his crucifixion was not like the kings of this earth. Now, he indeed made it manifestly clear that he was the king of the Jews come to his people. But what would be the result? It would result only in the final confrontation that would send him to the cross. In the meantime, this triumphal entry, as we call it, into Jerusalem, was a royal acclamation of an unexpected kind of king, an unexpected kind of kingdom. From this account, we learn that the church acclaims Christ its king according to his rightful claim of royal authority, though his kingdom is not of this world and though his claim is opposed. Now, a little bit of background leading up to this. Matthew's gospel is structured in five sections, each with a narrative that leads up to a discourse or a sermon by Jesus. The theme of the Gospel of Matthew is the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven and, of course, it's King Jesus Christ. Today's passage appears in the final section of the book where the narrative leads up to our Lord's last great discourse and the emphasis in it has turned to the Kingdom's and the King's confrontation. Chapters 19 through 20 before this emphasized the kingdom's confrontation with many of the preconceived but wrong worldly ideas that worked their way into the church of that time when it drifted away from the truth as it had for several hundred years. Now we're about to see the king's confrontation with the corrupt leaders of the Old Testament church who asserted their own authority and did not submit to the authority of God expressed in his word. That confrontation would come about because Christ asserted his authority as king of the kingdom of heaven. The confrontation, as we know, would lead to Jesus' death but through his death would lead to his victory. The triumphal entry, as we read it, yes, it was a historical event, but it was also a symbolic act on Jesus' part. A symbolic act that Christ performed to convey his royal authority as he prepared to enter into Jerusalem for the final week. So we'll consider today Christ's kingship as he announced it, Christ's kingship as the church acclaimed it, and Christ's kingship as the opposition confronted it. So our first point today, Christ's kingship as He announced it. And if you're following along with the outline in your bulletin, you'll see I have put the quotes around announced. There's a reason for that. As Jesus and the crowd approached Jerusalem the final week before His crucifixion began, the crowd had grown large. because many of his Galilean followers had joined with him on the way into Jerusalem, but so had some of the thousands of people around Jerusalem who were awaiting the Passover. The time had come, Jesus had determined, for an open declaration that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah and King for whom Israel had waited and hoped. No longer. And if you think back, there were times when he told his people, be silent, be quiet, don't announce this. No longer, no longer would he enjoin his people to keep quiet about his identity. The triumphal entry was this symbolic act by which Christ put forward his rightful claim to royal authority over the kingdom of heaven, because it was time for the kingdom to be inaugurated and established at Jerusalem, which was the symbolic center of God's presence and authority among his people. That's how they recognized the holy city. In his symbolic act, we first see Christ's kingship affirmed. Our Lord openly affirmed his royal authority by making a sort of open announcement, but not verbally. It was by his actions. First things first, his entry into Jerusalem harkened back to King David. We'll get to the importance of that in a moment. But it harkened back to King David, his route into Jerusalem brought him along with this crowd following him from the Mount of Olives through the Kidron Valley into Jerusalem from the east. That was familiar to the people because that was the same route that King David took when he reentered Jerusalem after the defeat of Absalom, accompanied by a crowd of God's people who had been faithful to King David. This was a sort of a throwback the Lord Jesus was accomplishing here, a throwback to David's royal entry. And it was his statement that he was the promised Davidic king. He therefore had this rightful claim to divinely given authority over all of God's people and the right to occupy the throne of David forever because that was what was promised the Messiah would do. In the second place, by His mode of entry, as Matthew explicitly said, Jesus fulfilled the messianic prophecy of Zechariah 9.9. It specifically promised God's people that their king would come to them mounted on a colt, the foal of a donkey. First of all, let's realize that the fulfillment of this or any other Messianic prophecy meant that the Christ who fulfilled it was indeed God's King whom He would install upon Mount Zion. This action would have been recognized by many of the Jews in Jerusalem, including the elders, the priests, and the scribes. It spoke without words, Christ's claim and affirmed his kingship loudly and effectively without the need for Jesus to utter a word, much less to raise his voice in the streets. Because we remember he was the gentle one who did not break a bruised reed or put out a smoldering flax. He did not raise his voice in the streets as a rabble rouser or as one who would bring about rebellion. Now, in his symbolic act, we also see Christ's kingly character conveyed. We can observe several things about the kind of king Christ claimed to be and the kind of kingdom that he came to establish. This was one of the important things he conveyed to those who still expected a kingdom of this world. the scribes, especially the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and so on. And so he conveyed this to those who expected a kingdom of this world and conveyed it to the corrupted leaders of a corrupted religion, which Judaism had become, because they wanted no king at all. They wanted to remain in power. They wanted no king at all. So first, it tells us that Christ is the Savior King. As the Messiah, He came to fulfill the offices of the prophet, priest, and king of His people as promised. Again, as promised. He is the ruler of His people, brothers and sisters. I know that you recognize this. I know you realize this. I'm kind of preaching to the choir here, but there's a reason for that. We'll bring these things out in a little bit. But remember, he is the ruler of his people by virtue of divinely given authority to rule the divinely established kingdom. He has the right to rule his people because he purchased us out from under sin and its liability to death and hell. He gave himself over to bear our liability for us and thereby redeemed us from every lawless deed to purify a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. And those good deeds are identified by the king's word and command. He purchased for God with his blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation and made them a kingdom and priests to our God. As our Savior King, he is the object of our love by virtue of salvation and the object of our allegiance to his command, both by virtue of our love and by virtue of his royal claim of ownership and authority over us. After all, what did Jesus say? And I know that everybody in here knows the second half if I tell you the first half. If you love me, You will keep my commandments. Jesus is our savior, King second. This shows us that Jesus is the gentle and humble king. He could ride an unbroken colt without any resistance on its part, and yet he had enough compassion even upon this brute creature to command that its mother be brought along with it for its reassurance. His strength was under control. That's a sometimes common definition of what gentleness is, brothers and sisters. Strength under control. He did not assert his rights in selfishness or empty conceit. He wasn't looking out for his own interests, but completely for the interests of others. Zechariah had foretold of a meek, lowly, humble king who would ride into Jerusalem on a young donkey, and Matthew said Jesus fulfilled this vision. No wonder Jesus himself could say, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. His is the divine humility and gentleness carried out in his kingly office. And that's how he presented himself when it was time for him to make this open claim to be king of God's people, king of the kingdom of heaven that they had awaited for so long. In the third place, Jesus. is the king of peace and his kingdom is the kingdom of peace, that which Solomon's kingdom had foreshadowed so many years before. He came into Jerusalem not on a war horse at the head of some great conquering army. He did not come into Jerusalem by force of arms over a conquered people. He came into Jerusalem amidst appraising people on a simple donkey without any force involved. He came to bring a rebellious, hostile people to peace with God by reconciling them to God through his atoning work, through the blood of his cross. All of this, brothers and sisters, adds up to a king and a kingdom that were completely different from the expectation of the leaders of Israel. And yet one whom they still believed threatened their positions of power. It's the kind of king and kingdom that Christ announced and affirmed by his actions when he entered Jerusalem. It is the kind of king and the kind of kingdom it still is. He is the kind of king that he still is. This is the kind of kingdom and subjects, brothers and sisters, that we must labor to be as his disciples while first relying on the redemption that the Messiah came and accomplished for us. That brings us to our second point today, Christ's kingship as the church acclaimed it. And once again, it was acclamation by action. It was actions that proclaimed this. So I want to back up for just a second. To observe the disciples' response to Jesus, when as their king, he commanded them to go find the donkey in its foal. Christ's authority and his own consciousness of his authority appears in several ways as he prepared to enter Jerusalem in that particular moment. He sent two disciples on what had to be a strange errand. Let's face it, has anybody ever asked you to go and untie a donkey and bring it and its colt for any reason? No, of course not. I mean, that would sound strange to our ears even then when they rode donkeys everywhere every day. But notice something. He had no qualms about commanding his disciples in even small tasks or unexpected requests. This is a sign of His authority over His people, and a sign that He was aware of that authority. Now, it's a credit to the two disciples that they went immediately to obey His command, even though it was an unexpected request, and even though they probably didn't even know His full purpose for it. Concerning this, John Calvin wrote, quote, let us also learn by their example to advance through all difficulties and offer the Lord the obedience He demands from us. For He will take away the hindrances and find out a way and not let our efforts be in vain, end quote. In that case, the Lord took away the hindrances by promising His disciples that the owner of the donkey and foal would send them immediately upon being told that the Lord had need of them. That's all they had to say. Our Lord's royal authority then also appeared in another way. He knew the donkey and the foal were in the village opposite them. How did He know that? Well, let's remember that He was fully God as well as fully man. That is the omniscient God. Besides that, he had control of men's hearts and could assure his disciples that the owner would willingly send his animals to serve the Lord. Both of these things reveal the divine authority that Jesus has, to which his people, are you listening, to which his people are always to respond. Divine authority is royal authority indeed. Divine authority can be no other than the royal authority of the king of the kingdom of heaven. Now in addition to acclimation by action, there was also acclimation by procession and praise. And of course, this is the part of the triumphal entry account that most of us are so familiar with, that we are most familiar with, that which the children a little while ago just celebrated and once again sort of reenacted for us. There were many in the crowds that surrounded Jesus that were His longtime Galilean disciples who believed in Him, had faith, saving faith in the Lord Jesus. Others of these people came from Jerusalem and the surrounding districts, as we said. They acclaimed Him as the coming King. They acclaimed Him for His royal authority by means of this royal procession. Not one like the earthly kings with all of the pomp and show. It was far different from the kind of royal procession that we saw for King Charles or any other earthly monarch. Because Jesus Christ is a far different king. Remember, he is the king of kings. And his kingdom is not of this world. His royal procession was not filled with earthly pomp. Look at how they did this procession. They placed their cloaks, their coats, basically, on these donkeys as though they were festal coverings. They placed their cloaks in the road as a sort of improvised common people's red carpet. And when they ran out of cloaks, they used branches from nearby trees to cover the road for his passage. Of course, we tend to think that they were all palm branches. They weren't. They cut greenery from nearby trees to place in the road as well. But yes, there were a group of people who came out from Jerusalem to meet him who were bearing palm branches, palm fronds. How do we know this? There's one little detail in one, only one of the accounts of the triumphal entry in John's gospel that tells us that. They came out carrying palm fronds with which to greet Him, and then of course to cover the roadway with those as well. Now that one little detail, it's interesting how we sometimes focus on one little detail, but that is the reason that the Sunday before Resurrection Sunday is called Palm Sunday. But we have to ask ourselves, why would they do that? Why would they come out from Jerusalem carrying a bunch of palm fronds specifically palm fronds, waving them and praising the Savior and then laying them down in the roadway for him to proceed over them into Jerusalem. Why would they do that? Well, having just moved from Hawaii, a place with a lot of palm trees, I can tell you a little bit about them. They are, in a sense, evergreen. They don't go barren in the winter. Palm trees don't die. The fronds at the top of the palm are always green. The tree never stops growing. That's why when you see a trimmed palm tree, it's got all of the places where the fronds have been cut off near the bottom, leading up to what? Where the fronds are still green on the top. It just keeps on growing. Coconut palms and date palms, I can tell you this from experience on the golf course, by the way, where we sometimes had to move the coconuts out of the way in order to golf. Coconut palms and date palms never stop producing fruit. So palm trees are a very fitting symbol of eternal life. the life that believers in Jesus Christ have from him because he died to our sins and rose again from the dead never to die again. This is exactly why Solomon had palm trees carved on the wooden walls and doors inside the temple. This is exactly why when you read Psalm 92 it refers to God's people as though they were evergreens. It's a symbol of eternal life. So you see, there were at least some of the common people in Jerusalem who understood that this Messiah king was also the source of eternal life for his people. So they welcomed him with palm branches in a royal procession for their acknowledged king. They also acclaimed him for his royal authority and his saving purpose, of course, by means of their praise. They praised Him with loud hosannas. What does hosanna mean? It is a word that means save, we pray. It was originally meant as a supplication, save, we pray, but had long taken on the character of praise for the Savior God, to whom they knew they could pray and receive the answer, yes. They praise Jesus as the son of David, acclaiming and proclaiming that he was the Messiah come to submit the hearts of his people, his chosen people to God's rule, as well as to reveal the will of God for their salvation and offer himself once for all as a sacrifice to satisfy God's justice and reconcile his people to God. They blessed him. And every time we see that in the scriptures, we need to understand that when we bless God, It's not quite the same as when He blesses us. He benefits us. When we bless God, that's a combination of praise for Him, praise of Him, and thanksgiving for Him. And in this case, it was thanksgiving for the one who came in the name of the Lord. He was the one whom God sent into the world to give Himself for them, to be the propitiation for their sins, and to establish His kingdom by the authority and dominion that He received from the Father through His death and resurrection, which, remember, would happen just one week later. And so they blessed Him who came to lay the foundation for the rule of God's people in the name of the Lord and lay that foundation by His death and resurrection. This is the church acclaiming Christ as King. Now in our day, His saving work is finished. His kingdom and reign are inaugurated and established. He has been crowned king. He occupies the covenantal throne of David and is the risen king of God's people forever. There is no further royal procession necessary. But we can and we should still give him royal acclamation as our king. We should praise and bless Christ for saving us by subduing us to himself when we were rebels, which is a part of his kingly office. We should praise and bless him for ruling and defending us as his people. We recognize Christ's faithful and perfect execution of his messianic redemption and his office of king. And we know that some of the wonderful, these are some of the wonderful motives for heartfelt expressions of heartfelt praise. It is one of the great gospel realities that should cause your heart to overflow, as we sang in Psalm 45 a little while ago, for the goodly theme of Christ's kingship is ours. We ought also to pray for Christ's kingdom. Pray for the continued advance of the kingdom through the king's conquest and subduing of the elect to himself according to his triumphant death and resurrection. Pray for the continued increase in the doing of God's will through the reign of the King of Glory. Pray also for his people everywhere faithfully to uphold the gospel in the face of doctrinal drift and abandonment by those who corrupt the true religion as they had done in that day. All of this is part of faithful discipleship as a subject of Christ's kingdom. That brings us to our third point today, Christ's kingship as the opposition confronted it. I want us to go back to Matthew 21. Take me a second to turn there, of course. Let's go back to Matthew 21 for a moment, and we're going to look at verses 10 through 11. Because we often take these, I think, in a little bit incorrect way. Verses 10 and 11. And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up saying, who is this? And the crowd said, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. Christ's claim to royal authority as the King of God's people by his and his disciples' actions caused no small consternation among many in Jerusalem, especially the leaders. who wanted no king." What we're seeing here in those two verses was not a great upheaval of happiness on their parts, as is often thought. They were shaken. They were shaken as when God's voice shook the earth at Mount Sinai and he promised, saying, yet once more, I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven. They were visibly upset, as though God had just shaken their world and turned their expectations upside down and ruined by the arrival of this different kind of king what they had set up for themselves. They asked indignantly, who was this? who so recklessly claimed to be king. It threatened the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes of the day. They thought it would bring down the anger of the Romans on their heads. And you can see right there in the question itself, if you think about it that way, you can see the confrontation developing. It added fuel to their fire then to hear the answer, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. Prophets had always spelled conviction of sin and gloom and disaster for Jerusalem when they had drifted off into idolatry and false worship, false shepherds, and other corruptions of the true religion. They didn't want to hear a prophet. And this one with whom they had dealt before, this Jesus, was just as bad, if not worse, than all of the prophets before. For this one to come from Galilee, that was a people they despised, well, that was still worse. Brothers and sisters, this is what the Lord's disciples, the king's subjects, could expect then. It is what we can expect now for extolling our king as the only redeemer of sinners. We don't understand sometimes why, because we have the greatest and the most wonderful message on the face of the earth, and when we bring it, what do we run into? Opposition. Because we are proclaiming a king of a totally different kind than what's expected. When we proclaim Him as King over His people, when we speak about acting according to His authority, namely with blameless and sanctified lives, what do we draw? Opposition. Confrontation. And that's because the light of our lives throws into sharp relief the darkness of their sinful ways and corrupt doctrine. All who desire, you listening to this? Okay, quote from the Bible. All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Not might be, not could be, will be. But Jesus also said, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, blessed are those who are persecuted for my name's sake. The opposition will come, brothers and sisters, because we are in a different kind of kingdom and we serve a different kind of king who threatens their way of life. Just as surely the opposition and confrontation from the earthly kings of this world will come along because Christ's kingship threatens to be their ultimate undoing. So we've seen that the church acclaims Christ as king according to his rightful claim of royal authority, though his kingdom is not of this world and though his claim is opposed. Now, the big question with which we finish here, how can we acclaim Christ as our king today? First of all, simply trust him as your mediator, redeemer, and savior. By the power of God in the new birth, and as he creates faith in you, he subdues you to himself, makes himself your king. Acknowledgement of Christ as your savior is also the acknowledgement and acclamation of Christ as your king. Next, simply obey him unquestionably according to his word. Now, we all know we're sinners saved by grace. We all know that we have sin remaining. Our obedience to our king, Jesus, is not going to be perfect. That doesn't mean that by his grace we should not strive for that. But we also blessedly realize that when we are imperfect at it, By the grace of God, our Savior's sacrifice covers us, that the blood of Jesus keeps on cleansing us from all sin. But how else can we acclaim Christ as our King today? Well, you've just heard about acclaiming his reign over you by your actions. Strive to be like him who is gentle and humble of heart and maintain peace in his kingdom of peace. You do realize you are the kingdom of Christ. Praise and acclaim his reign and lordship in your everyday life of devotion to him. Give him a royal welcome. As you have done today, give him a royal welcome every Lord's Day as you meet with him and you have audience with your king among his people. Brothers and sisters, again, you are the local expression of the kingdom of God. Welcome and rejoice in your king in the simplicity of biblical worship, not worldly pomp. He is not the king of England. He is the King of Kings, and we are to worship Him in exactly the way He prescribes. He does not need or command extravagant outward trappings. He has all the glory of God in Himself. How in the world could any earthly trappings add to that? And finally, no matter the opposition or the confrontation, keep acclaiming Him King by the Gospel as you hold forth the Word of Life to the world, and He will bring about His victory through that, the victory that He has already won at the cross and at the empty tomb, which we anticipate in one week. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, as we come before you, we acknowledge Christ as our King, and we do pray that you would give us the grace to be good subjects of our King Jesus, not only acclaiming and proclaiming Him King, but doing so by the actions of our lives out of the love of our hearts. We ask this in Christ's name, amen.