Behold, Your King is Coming!

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

“You must not imagine that all those who strewed the branches in the way and cried ‘Hosanna’ cared about Christ as a spiritual prince. No, they thought that he was to be a temporal deliverer, and when they found out afterwards that they were mistaken, they hated him just as much as they had loved him, and ‘Crucify him, crucify him,’ was as loud and vehement a cry as ‘Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.’”

~Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), famed London preacher

“The American Jesus is more a pawn than a king, pushed around in a complex game of cultural (and countercultural) chess, sacrificed here for this cause and there for another.”

~Dr. Stephen Prothero, professor at Boston University

Solzhenitsyn believed the Soviets “paid Christianity the ultimate compliment by trying to kill it, while Americans have offered it the ultimate insult by seeking to domesticate it.”

~Ralph Wood in Solzhenitsyn and American Culture

“Jesus the King of Kings came first in submission to the Father which required submission that led to a Roman cross. His hands did not come grasping a crown but were stretched out to be pierced with nails by those He came to save.”

~Source Unknown

“A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.”

~Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), Indian lawyer and activist

“Lord, be Thou my King this day! Reign more absolutely in me than ever before. Let the increase of Thy government be continual and mighty in me, so that Thy name may be glorified in me now and forever.”

~Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879) British author, poet, and hymn writer

SERMON PASSAGE

John 12:12-26 (ESV)

John 12

12 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” 14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,

15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion;
behold, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

16 His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. 17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. 18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”

20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.”

Zechariah 9
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall speak peace to the nations;
his rule shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.