Behold Your King || Unvarnished Jesus

forty days ago we entered Lent on Ash Wednesday and began our journey with Jesus toward his death and resurrection in daily meditations how many of you have been following those daily meditations in daily meditations and weekly sermons we've been seeking to encounter the unvarnished Jesus that is Jesus stripped of cultural assumption and comfortable accommodation now we've arrived at Palm Sunday in the beginning of Holy Week my Palm Sunday sermon is entitled behold your king Luke chapter 19 verse 37 as Jesus was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice saying blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord the goal of Jesus ministry was to announce to embody to enact to inaugurate the kingdom of God why did Jesus come to bring the kingdom of God of course every Kingdom has a king and the kingdom of God has as its king the Lord Jesus Christ as the early church father Origen said Jesus is the Kingdom in person I like that if it doesn't look like Jesus it's not the kingdom of God so Jesus comes to bring the kingdom of God and to become the king of that Kingdom Christ Jesus means King Jesus what Christ means it means King Jesus is the anointed Jewish Messiah whom God has raised up to be king of the nation's so on Palm Sunday I want us to behold our King from his triumphal entry all the way to his coronation now 400 years before Palm Sunday 400 years before Palm Sunday the Hebrew poet Zechariah gave this prophecy rejoice greatly o daughter of Zion shout aloud o daughter of Jerusalem behold your king is coming to you triumphant and victorious is he humble and riding on a donkey on a Colt the foal of a donkey that was four hundred years before Christ now Jesus and his 12 apostles and a crowd of disciples are on their way from Galilee to Jerusalem yes they are going to Jerusalem for the Passover the annual feast of Passover that's part of why they're going there but this is a very different Passover for Jesus for his Twelve Apostles for the crowd of disciples because they all know the real reason they're going to Jerusalem at Passover is for Jesus to finally step out of the shadows and with no ambiguity about it become king Jesus is coming to Jerusalem to be crowned as king and of course this is dangerous there are three powers represented by three men who will violently resist anybody making a messianic claim claiming to be the anointed king they are of course Harrod who has the title king of the jews the king of Judea Herod he's going to oppose that Caiaphas for his own reasons the Jewish High Priest will resist that and of course maybe most of all the Roman prefect the Roman governor Pontius Pilate and all three are in Jerusalem for Passover and so Jesus is going right into the face of the enemy he is confronting the principalities and powers in his claim to be the Messiah that is the Christ that is the king as Jesus stages this invasion and that's what it is as he big stages his invasion from Galilee into the capital city he leaves healing in his wake I love that invading armies always leave death and destruction in her wake but Jesus has a different way of doing things and as Jesus steadily advances upon the capital city with his invasion from heaven he leaves healing in his wake probably the last stop before Jerusalem is Jericho and in Jericho there's a blind beggar by the name of bartimaeus and you know what happens he is healed by Jesus and now Bartimaeus joins the crowd that is following Jesus up to Jerusalem but Jesus isn't the only one coming to Jerusalem yes there's all of the passover pilgrims most historians think that the number of passover pilgrims to come to jerusalem in the time of jesus was around a half a million jerusalem was ordinary ordinarily a city of sixty or seventy thousand about the same as saint joseph but it passover it would swell to half a million you can imagine what that's like well among those that are required to be in Jerusalem at Passover is Roman governor Pontius Pilate the prefect of Judea appointed by Caesar from ad 27 to ad 37 Pontius Pilate Roman governor you understand Judea is part of the Roman Empire they're occupied by Roman troops the governor has a palace way up in the coast it's a lovely setting accessory and named after Caesar Caesar is Caesar Caesar City it's really what I mean Caesar City on the coast and he has a lovely Palace and that's where his headquarters are and that's where he would prefer to stay but he has to come to Jerusalem at Passover it's just part of his job why because he's the Roman governor he's part of the military apparatus of occupation he's there to keep order and if there's ever going to be a revolt if there's going to be a Jewish revolt when is it going to break out it's gonna break out in the capital at Passover which is what a feast of celebration celebrating the liberation of God's people from a foreign power right that's what Passover is a celebration of so already they're energized with that and there's a half a million people there a half a million Jews that are not at all happy about the Roman occupation so the Roman governor must be in Jerusalem at this time so he journeys from Caesarea and he approaches Jerusalem from the West and he's riding his warhorse and he has a battalion of soldiers with him yes he comes to Jerusalem to keep order that's the main thing and he'll he'll take up residency in the Antonia fortress which was a military barracks with tall towers so they could watch over the temple built right to the temple with these garden towers where they could just peer and and just watch what's going on in the temple see if any riots are breaking out and of course you know the Jewish people hated that fortress right there looming over their temple complex that's where that's where Pontius Pilate will take up residence during Passover but he also has another very important task when he's in Jerusalem this is gonna freak you out he has to give to the high priest his vestments his priestly robes that are necessary for performing the rites of Passover as the high priest the Jewish high priest did not have his ritual robes his vestments they were locked up in the Antonia fortress you see the whole message there in other words it's Rome saying oh okay you can have your religion but we're gonna tell you how to do it how to perform it when you can do it in fact the high priest was a political appointment from Caesar and so every year the Roman governor comes to Jerusalem unlocks the priestly robes and gives them to the high priests is okay now you can do your little Jewish stuff it's Rome sending its message well Jesus after the steady advance that's going on for a week or more progressing towards a ruse l'm leaving healing in his wake now finally crests the Mount of Olives Jesus is coming from the east Pontius Pilate came from the West Jesus comes from the east and as you reach the Mount of Olives which is this Ridge along the eastern side of Jerusalem that that as you Chris that Ridge the city just lies before you and a beautiful panorama one of my favorite things to do and I do it use it more than once when we're in Jerusalem is to go up to the top of the Mount of Olives and then walk down that path and try to relive the triumphal entry of Jesus Jesus reaches the the Mount of Olives and there there is the city that says Gold that's his destination but he pauses stomps everybody stops and Jesus has to do something he's got to get a donkey he's got to get the Colt of a dog he's got to get a little tiny donkey pilots gonna ride on in his big Arabian warhorse Jesus is gonna ride in on a two sizes too small donkey because it's what the Prophet said and also it's making the point that the kingdom of God doesn't come on the back of a warhorse comes on a little bitty donkey and so John tells us like this 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 and so they're coming down the Mount of Olives and and they're taking off there that the crowd of disciples are taking off their garments and they're laying it and from the donkey as Jesus comes this what you do for a king this is a king and they're waving their palm branches this was a practice that started about a hundred and fifty years earlier with Judas the hammer Jew Jew two Maccabees and it became a symbol of God acting but it's also found in psalm 118 the palms and so they're there they're waving their palms if they're putting you know they're laying their coat in front of that donkey they're gonna give Jesus a royal entrance because he's the king you understand and they're waving the palms shouting Hosanna which means save now liberate now rescue now and the Pharisees have wool you understand how dangerous this is pilots in town Harrods in town of course Caiaphas is always in town and here's a rabble from Galilee staging an invasion heralding another king I mean they're saying blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord hosanna and the Pharisee says Pharisee saying oh Jesus you better you better shut your disciples up you that's today there's nothing more dangerous you can do in Jerusalem than to have something like this you better you better tell your disciples to be quiet and Jesus said not today not today psalm 118 verse 24 this is the day in which the Lord has acted we must rejoice and be glad and he said in fact if these don't cry out the stones will this is the first time that Jesus has allowed himself to be publicly recognized as the Christ the Messiah the king previous to this when somebody would say you're the king aren't you you're the Christ aren't you the Messiah he would say don't tell anybody don't tell anybody on Palm Sunday Jesus says all right tell everybody or the stones will cry out yes blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord hosanna and Jesus is publicly identified as the Messiah the Christ the King because he's come to Jerusalem for his coronation this week in the upper room we'll trace Jesus journey through Holy Week but now we're hitting fast-forward on the remote three we're jumping up to Thursday night we're jumping up to just after Jesus is arrested in the garden of gethsemane and first brought before Caiaphas because in his coronation in becoming King Jesus will have to stand before all three representatives of the principalities and powers he will stand before Joseph Caiaphas the high priest he will stand before Herod Antipas the King he will stand before Pontius Pilate the governor and all three in their own way will somehow or another proclaim him King Jesus has been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane by the temple police he's brought in the dead of night to the Sanhedrin this is the ruling Council of Jerusalem religious and nature but really they exercised control over the whole city under the auspices of Rome Jesus is brought before the Sanhedrin why well Caiaphas knows that if people begin to proclaim Jesus as king the Romans will come and crush the rebellion destroy the city put him out of a job and just say okay we're we're not gonna put up with this and so he even prophesized and says it's necessary that one man die and not the whole nation perish so Jesus has been arrested in the middle of the night in the Garden of Gethsemane he's brought to a late-night emergency convening of the Sanhedrin and what they want to do is they want to find him guilty of blasphemy why because blasphemy carries the death penalty the series of false witnesses come forward and they make accusation but they can't get the stories to line up Caiaphas is frustrated so he just says no okay enough of witnesses and he puts Jesus under oath and just flat-out asks are you the Christ are you the Messiah are you the king jesus said you have said so behold I tell you from now on you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven and with that Caiaphas tore his robes those robes that had been given to him by Pontius Pilate because they were kept under lock and key by Rome he tears his robe in a demonstration of how appalled the years of this blasphemy and he says to the rest of the council you heard it with your own ears you've heard the blasphemy he claims to be the Christ the Messiah the king what do you say and most of the council not all there were dissenters joseph of arimathea being one Nicodemus being another but the majority of them said he deserves death he deserves death this is blasphemy and in our law it's punishable by death and they began to spit in his face and then they began to slap him in the face and say prophesy to us you king who slapped you spits slap prophesy Christ prophesied Messiah prophesy keeping their calling King prophesy you King who slapped you so they have found Jesus guilty of blasphemy so they can put him to death except they can't put him to death they're not allowed to Rome says okay you can you can punish people in various ways according to your laws but you cannot execute anybody only we execute so if you have a capital case if you have a if you have a case that carries the capital punishment you got to bring it to the governor and that's what they do right in the middle of the night they go when they wake up well it's early in the morning and they wake up the governor the governor's not terribly excited about this okay I hate coming to this town I'm one of these religious squabbles and so it begins a preliminary inquiry and when he finds out that Jesus is a Galilean soil that's not even my jurisdiction really that's Herod's Galilean ok that's that's Herod Antipas is jurisdiction send him over to king herod pontius pilots in the Antonia fortress they're kind of toward the north side of the city King Herod has he has palaces everywhere and they're all mad majestic and just impressive but he has one in Jerusalem too and so that's on the south side and so they take him from the Antonia fortress to the palace of of Herod I said kind of Herod King Herod and O'Haire is delighted because he's been wanting to see Jesus Herod Herod Antipas II he likes these religious guys now he'll cut their head off in the end but he likes them he likes to hear him anyway he likes good preaching he doesn't mind that but what he really wants is a miracle he wants to see a miracle it's Jesus do a trick pull the rabbit out of the Hat or something and so he's got we're told he has all kinds of questions for Jesus he's got questions he wants to see a miracle anyone's here Jesus reach because Jesus is famous what he's heard all about him and all of that and he's just all these questions and he said come out doing miracle I want to see do something and Jesus says nothing the elders and the chief priests have come to the palace of King Herod and they're bringing their accusations but here is not really listening just I want to say something let me do something got some water here when turned into wine I've heard you ever heard he can do that and Jesus does nothing he says nothing and so Herod grows bored with Jesus wait a minute before he sends him back he does this as a joke because the thing is apparently Jesus has claimed to be the Messiah that is the Christ that is the king and says all your look at you how that's no way for a king to be dressed and Herod goes to his closet and gets one of his royal robes and he puts it on Jesus and and they go this will work for they gave him a little reed for a scepter Herod dresses him up as the King he's Jesse Methos a king and sends him back to Pilate and Luke tells us that they became friends that day Herod and Pilate didn't like each other they were an M natee but they became friends that day over this joke this mockery of Jesus oh I'm sorry since you're King back to you see that you see the joke but you also see that the Sanhedrin has already said you're the King as they spit on him and slapped him in the face you see Herod saying oh he's your king and puts the robe on him and sends him back as a king so now he's come back to Pilate and Pilate has to get involved and Pilate isn't gonna fool around with religious questions he couldn't care less about that they don't want to know about prophecies or miracles or he just wants them he just you know he's a Roman governor he's gonna get to the point he's really a military commander he's a military governor and he wants to get right to the point he says are you the King of the Jews this is all I want to know see if Jesus says yes I'm the king of the Jews it okay that's treason only Rome can install the key you can't install yourself can just walk around in the Roman Empire saying I'm the king now so Pilate has one question and one question only for Jesus you King and Jesus says my kingdom does he's a king my kingdom does not come from here it's swore here it's coming to here but it doesn't come from here here what is here here's here's the world the world with all of its kings and Pharaohs and Caesars and emperors and dictators and potentates and strongman and all of that that in one way or another through might and through force and through violence they come into power that's that's this this world and Jesus says My Kingdom does not come from that way or that world whereas his kingdom come from it comes from heaven something's not gonna stay in heaven Jesus is answering the prayer he taught us to pray thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven Jesus is bringing the kingdom of heaven into her and Jesus says the pilot for this purpose I've come that I might bear witness to the truth whoever is of the truth listens to my voice and pilot infamously said now what is truth and he sends Jesus back into the barracks with those Roman soldiers to be scourge it's a punishment that is nearly lethal they go and scourge him maybe he'll learn how to talk right he's taken down to the Roman barracks and they scourge Jesus as I said it's a punishment that's nearly lethal and then it's the Roman soldiers to put the crown on him a crown of thorns this is his coronation people understand this is Christ becoming King he has a robe here's a scepter now he has a crown of thorns and they kneel before him these Roman soldiers and say hail King of the Jews yes yes it's all in mockery but this is the true coronation of RK then he's brought back to Pilate and then Pilate because the chief priests Caiaphas and the chief priests and the elders they they won't come into pilots headquarters because it's the eve of Passover I mean it's Passover now and and they don't to be the file they can't go into a Gentile place so Pilate says okay and he bring he comes out onto the steps onto the balcony think of it like that he comes out onto the Antonia fortress where the where the crowd of chief priests and elders are and what does he say he says behold your King behold your king so what Zechariah had said behold your king this is the coronation of our king I want you to get that can we look at Christ in his humiliation he's been scourge he's been beaten he's been spit upon he has a he has a scepter that is nothing but a reed yes he has a royal robe but it's been put on as a joke he has a crown but it's made of thorns people have even given an homage and said hail King of the Jews and now Pilate introduces him behold your king can we look at Christ in his humiliation and see his glory that this is the glory of Christ that when he could call upon a legion of angels he doesn't he bears it all this is Christ in his glory this is Christ in his coronation if we cannot look at Christ in his humiliation and see his glory then we'll end up saying what Caiaphas said we have no king but Caesar I want you to see the scene Jesus crown of thorns robe read for a scepter having been beaten spit upon mocked is brought out onto the balcony the Roman governor Pontius Pilate says behold your king the high priest Joseph Caiaphas said we have no king but Caesar that's the ultimate betrayal he's the high priest he knows the scriptures he knows that Psalm 10 says Yahweh is our king for ever and ever but the high priest says we have no king but Caesar you see Caiaphas does not serve God Caiaphas serves power religion is just his game it's his mask it's his means the part we could say it this way power is his robe by which he conceals his true intentions his true intentions are not to serve God his true intentions are to wield power and so he tells the truth we have no king but Caesar well once Caiaphas has played his trump card Pontius Pilate washes his hands and says crucify him on Good Friday right in here we will look at the enthronement of Christ our King at gaga but right now as I close I want to say this when we think we have to be in control of political power in order to bring about the will of God we betray Christ in the manner of Caiaphas when we base our love and respect for other people on shared political opinions we have confessed we have no king but Caesar and when we prioritize national greatness over the truth that Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount we have washed our hands of Jesus and said crucify them but today is the sixth Sunday in Lent and so we still have time to repent we have time to change our thinking and confess that truth is found in Jesus Christ not in the propaganda of Caesar we have time to renew our mind and realize that only the way of Jesus brings real change trying to change the world through the force of partisan political power always ends up as meet the new boss same as the old boss so on Palm Sunday a week before Easter we have just enough time to return to our first love and pledge our complete allegiance to the Son of God as we confess we have no king but Christ amen stand with me

Channel: Word of Life Church

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Id: aLNRV9ISxh0

Length: 32min 35sec (1955 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 14 2019