The Arrival Of The King Series

A Journey to Calvary; His Passion, our Deliverance Part 1

The Arrival of the King

Am Service March 22nd 2008

Matthew 21:1-11

Introduction

I’d like to read you a little piece written by an unknown author called One Solitary Life

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.

He grew up in still another village, where he worked in a carpenter’s shop until he was thirty. Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher.

He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a house. He did not go to college. He never visited a big city. He never travelled two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He did none of the things associated with greatness.

He had no credentials but himself.

He was only thirty three years of age when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away.

He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen centuries have come and gone and today he remains the central figure of the human race, and the leader of mankind’s progress. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together have not affected the life of man on this planet so much as that one solitary life.

Of course this peace is written about Jesus, and today I we will begin a four part series entitled “A journey to Calvary; His passion and our Deliverance”. We will take a look at some of the events in the life of Christ specifically in the last week of His life here on earth leading up to his resurrection which we will celebrate on April 12th.

Today we take a look at the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem is the beginning of what is called the Passion Week. We will again look at this passage from the title “The arrival of the King”, and see what we can learn when Jesus the King arrived in Jerusalem.

Read Scriptures: Matthew 21:1-11

I. Jesus the King arrived because God never breaks a promise

Vs. 4-5 “This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: ‘Say to the Daughter of Zion, See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

This was written hundreds of years before Jesus rode into Jerusalem. Prophecy is a big reason we know the Bible is God’s Word. No other religious book has prophecy. The Bible has been accurate 100% of the time.

The Bible told exactly how Jesus would enter Jerusalem and that’s exactly the way it happened. Their King would come riding in on a donkey.

The Prophet Daniel over five hundred years before this point, received a promise from God that 490 years after the work to rebuild Jerusalem began it says in Daniel 9:26 “Shall Messiah be cut off”.

In the book of Nehemiah the work to rebuild Jerusalem began in the year 445 BC. When that work began God started His Holy stop Watch and when the time was fulfill of the 490 years exactly Jesus rode into Jerusalem. “See, your King comes to you” is a promise from almighty God, not only is He the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, but He is your personal King.

That event reminds us that God never breaks a promise to us. He never goes back on His word. My favorite promise in all the bible is when Jesus said in John 14:3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

The promise of Heaven is true and real for all of us who have truly made Jesus our personal King of our lives.

II. Jesus the King’s arrival reminds me that He came to bring Peace

Vs. 5 “Say to the Daughter of Zion, ’See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

Not only was Jesus the King’s arrival a fulfillment of God’s promise, but the manner of how Jesus rode into Jerusalem teaches that His intent is to bring peace.

The Jews were looking for conquering King, a King who would deliver them from the under the bondage of the rule of Rome. If that would have been Jesus’ intent then He would have rode into town riding a horse. But Jesus riding on the foal of a donkey, which is the son of a donkey, the foal of a donkey is a symbol of peace, so Jesus was sending them a message, “I am not going to give you peace like the world gives, but I am going to give you peace that world cannot understand”.