A Donkey And A Horse

A Donkey and a Horse

some notes from Kenneth Trent pastor of Second Baptist, Channelview, Texas

Prelude

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With what is happening in our world today and everything seems to be pointing to the soon coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus.

It would be good to focus on this day, Palm Sunday the day that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ entered into Jerusalem as the coming Messiah.

To the people at Jerusalem they saw him as an earthly king that was going to deliver them out of the hands of the Romans.

The laying of the palm leaves was a political jesture.

Christ came as our spiritual king, bringing deliverance from the bondage of sin, a far greater king than an earthly king.

That is why I would like to share with you A Donkey and a Horse, “Symbols of the Nature of the two Comings of Christ”.

So please stand with me this morning as we read from the Word of God. Turn to John 12:12-15.

Scripture

The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out:

"Hosanna!”

“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’

“The King of Israel!"

Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written:

"Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt." John 12:12-15 (NKJV)

Prayer

Introduction

We will take a look at the “Symbols of the Nature of the two Comings of Christ”.

The first coming on a “Donkey” and the second coming on a “Horse”, as you can see the nature and purpose of the 1st and 2nd comings of Christ are vastly different.

The First Coming:

In His first coming, our Lord Jesus came as the “Suffering Servant” riding on a donkey, to redeem us from our sins by His atoning death on the cross.

Israel, as a whole, rejected Him because they thought the Messiah would liberate them from Roman bondage and return political power to the nation of Israel.

Their eyes were blinded to the great prophecies which related to the Messiah written by Isaiah seven hundred year earlier.

1. Consider:

“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned, every one, to his own way;

And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth;

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,

And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

So He opened not His mouth.”

Isaiah 53:5-7 (NKJV)

But His second coming will be totally opposite.

When our Lord returns, He will come in awesome power and unspeakable glory.

The first task of which will be the total destruction of the armies of the Antichrist assembled in the Valley of Armageddon.

Immediately thereafter, He will assume His rightful place on the throne of David from which He will rule the world in truth and justice for one thousand years.

Let us give some thought as to how the donkey depicts the circumstances that prevailed during His first coming and how the horse depicts the circumstances that will prevail at His second coming.

The donkey symbolizes the first coming of Christ!

The donkey suggests humility and was often the object of ridicule.

2. Regarding humility, our Lord said:

“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart…” Matthew 11:29.

3. Regarding ridicule:

“Now the men who held Jesus mocked Him and beat Him…And many other things they blasphemously spoke against Him.” Luke 22:63,65.

In Bible times, the donkey was ridden by kings to convey the message of “peace”.

Thus the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 is beautifully fulfilled in Jesus, which reads:

"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you;

He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah 9:9 (NKJV)

4. The Lord is Our Peace:

“For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.