The King Is Coming

The King Is Coming

Text: Matt. 21:1-11

Introduction

1. Illustration: A little boy was sick on Palm Sunday and stayed home from church with his mother. His father returned from church holding a palm branch.

The little boy was curious and asked, "Why do you have that palm branch, dad?"

"You see, when Jesus came into town, everyone waved Palm Branches to honor him, so we got Palm Branches today."

The little boy replied, " Aw Shucks! The one Sunday I miss is the Sunday that Jesus shows up!"

2. When Jesus came the first time:

a. He rode on a donkey, but when he comes the second time he will be riding a white horse.

b. He came as a carpenter’s son, but when he comes a second time it will be as the King of King’s and the Lord of Lord’s.

c. He stood before Pilate, but when he comes a second time Pilate will stand before him.

3. There is a great contrast between Jesus first coming and his second coming.

a. He has come to fulfill prophecy.

b. He will come in glory.

c. He will be known by everyone.

4. Read Matt. 21:1-11

Proposition: When Jesus comes again He will come in power!

Transition: The first thing we see is...

I. He Has Come to Fulfill Prophecy (1-5)

A. That It Might Be Fulfilled

1. Jesus knew that His time was coming near.

a. Up until this time, He had always told people that His time had not yet come.

b. However, he knew that His time had come and He needed to prepare to do what He came to do.

2. As he drew near to Jerusalem He came to a town called Bethpage, at the Mount of Olives.

a. The Mount of Olives is a ridge about two and a half miles long on the other side of the Kidron Valley east of Jerusalem.

b. The Mount of Olives is important in the Old Testament as the place of God’s final revelation and judgment —Life Application Concise New Testament Commentary

c. Now it was to become the place of the ultimate revelation of the Messiah - His Son Jesus Christ.

3. Jesus told two of His disciples ""Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ’The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them."

a. He tells them go into town and there you will find an donkey and her colt. Untie them and bring them to me.

b. Now if you were those two disciples, you might be thinking "So you want us to steal them?"

c. But what they didn’t realize was this was their destiny. It was their purpose in being to carry Jesus into the city.

4. He says that if anyone questions you just says "’The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them."

a. "Lord" (also Mark-Luke) might mean "owner"; but then the disciples’ response would be untrue, unless Jesus owned the animals, which is extremely unlikely.

b. The title might refer to Yahweh—the animals are needed in Yahweh’s service.

c. But the most natural way to take "Lord" is Jesus’ way of referring to himself. -Expositor’s Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM

d. Just as it was their destiny to carry Him, it was also His destiny to go.

5. But Jesus was about more than destiny, He was about purpose. He was on a mission, and everything He did had purpose. Matthew clearly tells us that his purpose with the donkey and colt is to fulfill prophecy: "All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet..."

a. Christ had a reason for making such detailed preparations to enter Jerusalem.

b. He was deliberately fulfilling the prophecy of Zech. 9:9.

c. This is significant, for it means that Christ was dramatizing His Messiahship—dramatizing it so clearly that men could not fail to see that He was God’s Messiah.

d. This was God’s will prophesied generations before Christ came.

e. God wanted His Son to proclaim His Messiahship so clearly that the people could not mistake what He was doing.

B. Fulfillment

1. Illustration: Dr. George Sweeting once estimated that "more than a fourth of the Bible is predictive prophecy...Both the Old and New Testaments are full of promises about the return of Jesus Christ.

a. Over 1800 references appear in the O.T., and seventeen O.T. books give prominence to this theme.

b. Of the 260 chapters in the N.T., there are more than 300 references to the Lord’s return--one out of every 30 verses.

c. Twenty-three of the 27 N.T. books refer to this great event...