The Humble King Has Come

Transcript

Well, good morning, friends. Merry almost Christmas. It’s wonderful to be with you all. Wonderful to get to open the word together, to worship together, and to sing to our King Jesus together. Amen? Amen. Friends, if we haven’t met, my name is Andre, and I have the immense privilege of serving as one of the staff pastors here at Trinity, and I have an even bigger privilege to be a member here, to be a part of this sweet congregation. This morning, we come back to our Advent series. We’re going to continue to study a number of Old Testament texts that would anticipate the coming of Jesus to us. And over the course of this series, what we’re looking to is the arrival of our King. Not just the fact that He came, but more importantly, how He came. Lowly, humble, meek. One can call Jesus’ birth in a manger surrounded by animals, born to a poor young mother, raised

The Arrival of Our King

in a working-class home, many things, but regal, impressive, triumphant, not really. Our Lord came to us quietly. Our Lord came to us unimpressively, much like how a lot of His life would go. Beloved, with the Christmas season upon us, we consider, as we do every year, the birth of Jesus. We consider His humble beginning, His coming to us. And it’s easy for the celebration of Advent, for the Christmas season as a whole, to just become something that we do, for it to become commonplace, for it to be just a part of our annual Christian rhythm, December, and then again in April. But that’s just how we are, isn’t it? At times, we can be fickle in our faith, in our walk, in our expressions of joy, in our worship, and I see it in myself all the time. I see it in myself when I anticipate without really going into the depths of what it is

I’m anticipating, and really what I’m anticipating is an event or a time of year or a thing that we do and not the person at the center of it all. And often, if we’re honest, in order to stay interested, we often long for feelings and for experiences and something more, even though what we have is so incredibly beautiful. Saints, the Creator of the universe, faithfully fulfilling His promises, staying true to His Word over the span of thousands of years to save His people and to bring them back to Himself to fix what they broke. He worked through nations and kings and wars and outsiders and people who didn’t belong and people who didn’t fit in and many generations of His own people, and He never once wavered from what He set out to do. Friends, we get to look at those promises and being on this side of history to see how

they were all, every single one of them fulfilled in one person, King Jesus, the one who came for us and the one we now get to have and behold forever. So if you’re here this morning and your walk with the Lord is feeling a little bit stayed, if your time in His Word and your time in prayer is not exactly where you want them to be, if the excitement of Christmas was more about the season of Christmas, broadly, generally, if you want to feel more, if you want to have deeper, more profound experiences as part of your usual rhythm, friend, would you look with me at Jesus, the one who came to rescue His people, the one who, although He deserves all glory and praise and adoration, came to us in humility and came to us so that He can give Himself to save us?

A Different Kind of King

Would you marvel with me at the fact that in Him we have God with us? What we get with King Jesus is a King who doesn’t look or act the way people generally expect of royalty. All of us have certain ideas of leadership and authority and power that at times we just don’t see in Him. But what we see in Him is God’s plan done His way in His timing to fulfill His purposes to His glory alone. Look with me at Zechariah 9.9, where we see a passage that’s usually referenced around Passion Week, pointing to Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But what this prophecy shows us is that God’s plan for the King that He would send, the Savior He would send, is that He would be unlike any king that the world has ever seen. Friends, would you stand with me, if you’re able, for the reading of the Word of God.

We read the following in Zechariah 9, verse 9.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

— Zechariah 9

(ESV)

This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Go ahead and be seated, friends. Would you pray with me? Father, as we celebrate the coming of our Messiah, help for us to keep our gaze ever on Him. Help us to see the beauty of Your plan done in Your way, and the gift that it is to get to go to Your Word to see You fulfill Your promises, every single one of them. Bless us and show us Jesus this morning, we ask in His name, amen. Saints, the King is here. As we celebrate Advent, we see that the King of whom Zechariah prophesied, the one who

God promised would come, is here. Why is Zechariah’s prophecy so significant? Why is it an important prophecy for us? Well, Zechariah’s prophecy was said 500 years before the events actually took place. For half a millennium, the Israelites looked for and waited on God’s King to come to them. This prophet sought to help Israel understand the importance of God’s promises, and most importantly the promise of how God would save His people. Zechariah ministered in Israel after their return from captivity. The thought of kings, the thought of their own nation, the prospect of having their own way of life, their own way of worship, their own way of doing things would have been front of mind for them as they heard from this prophet. And despite the fact that at this time Israel was not quite friendly toward their own prophets, they weren’t very excited to hear from the people of God, God nevertheless continued

to faithfully speak, continued to faithfully reveal, continued to faithfully call and bring them in. Before he tells them what God has in mind, what Zechariah does in this passage is he contrasts it with an earthly king who was also front of mind for them. He talks in the beginning of this chapter of conquest and destruction and power, all things that they would have come to expect, all things that they would come to expect to hear when they think of a dominant leader and a leader of nations and a leader of armies. But then Israel is told to rejoice and he stops them right after he paints this picture of what an earthly king looks like and he says rejoice because what God has in store for you, because God’s way is so very different from what you think will come to pass, rejoice because what you desire and what you want to come to pass is not going to happen.

Righteous and Bringing Salvation

Why? Your king is going to be so very different. You see, God promises his people that he will give them a king, but more importantly than just the promise of a king is the description of what this king will be like, righteous and having salvation is he. Fascinating. Other translations will say just and victorious. The picture is that this is a very different kind of understanding of what it looks like for people to have a king. When the word used in the Old Testament to speak of God being righteous or as some translations would say just, it often refers to God actually stepping into situations where people are being oppressed, standing up for those who are being wronged, standing up for those who are being sinned against, those who can’t defend themselves. Just consider Matthew 5 10, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The idea being that when we are wronged for God’s sake, when we are doing the right things and we are wronged and wrong is done against us, God takes care of those people. God provides for those people. God is on the side of those people and most importantly, maybe not on this side of heaven, but God will right every single wrong, righteous. Then the word translated from the Hebrew as having salvation is really just, we could say saved or having salvation, bringing salvation, offering salvation. The point seems to be that the way this King comes is not in a position of power and authority. He doesn’t wield armies, at least not yet, but he will bring a quiet, peaceful stillness with him. He will surrender himself to his enemies. He will put himself into a position of humility, of giving himself over.

Why? Why would he do this? So that he could die in the place of his people. He will bring salvation. Yes, he will save his people, but the way that he does that is by giving himself for his people. This isn’t what Kings normally do. Kings normally stockpile a wall around themselves to protect themselves from their enemies. Kings normally throw people into the wood chipper if it means saving themselves. Kings normally retreat when it means self-preservation. Kings don’t push their people aside to step to the front and say, I’ll go. Earthly Kings that is. But our King comes into a chaotic, pain-filled, sin-sick world. And from long ago, starting in Genesis 3, God promises to remove sin and save his people. He said he would judge rightly. He said he would do his work in his people. He said he would fix us and the world that our sin ruined.

The name Zechariah actually means the Lord remembers, which is quite fitting here. God promised over and over to his people that he would save them and the Lord remembers. And here he’s reminding Israel, I haven’t forgotten my promise to you. Your King is coming. Here through his prophet, he says that way of salvation is coming through a King who will judge rightly, who will bring salvation to his people, who will bring salvation to his people and who will judge rightly and who will come in humility. The beginning of Zechariah 9 speaks of the military campaign of Alexander the Great. Most historians, most biblical scholars point to this reality as he swept through different parts of the ancient world, which was actually prophesied of in Daniel chapters 8 and 11. And the transition from verses 1 through 8 into verse 9 is the transition from human

Humble and Lowly

conqueror to divine King, divine Savior, the transition from man’s way to God’s way. And so our King has arrived, beloved, the King that was promised to Israel, but also in God’s kindness and out of his love for the nations, the King who would be the Savior of the world. And how did he come? Humble and lowly. Our King is humble and he is lowly. We see in Zechariah’s prophecy and we see by reading the New Testament that God’s King is not what the people expected. The image given here is of someone humbly and slowly just sort of entering in, just kind of entering into a city on the back of a donkey. This isn’t a triumphant entrance. This isn’t impressive, but this detail also is not what we may think it is. You see, we think as riding on the back of a donkey as being something shameful, being

something embarrassing. The fact that this King will ride on a donkey is not in and of itself a lowly thing. The donkey is not seen as a lowly creature. Donkeys were seen as respectable work animals, valued and used regularly in ancient cultures. The notable thing of this aspect of Jesus’ triumphal entry in this prophecy is that a donkey is just that, a work animal. This isn’t a war animal. You see, when we picture Alexander the Great riding into a city that he’s taking over, we don’t picture him on a donkey. We picture him on a great steed, and if you’re like me, you picture him rearing up on two legs every time when you enter a city. I mean, it’s epic. Have you ever seen how donkeys walk? It’s a waddle, but it’s a functional waddle. Kings normally rode giant steeds. They impressed. They struck fear.

They struck awe. They would have wanted to look good, be seen as important, be seen as powerful. A king doesn’t want to come across as merely utilitarian. A king doesn’t use things that are just good enough for the job at hand. The best of the best for the king, the most impressive. This king, however, requires no pomp, no circumstance. What Zechariah is speaking of in the broader context, which actually helps us understand verse nine better, is in the first verses of this chapter, Zechariah describes another king who comes to Jerusalem on this war horse, bringing destruction. And that king, as I’ve already mentioned, is Alexander the Great. Everything is chaotic. Everything is terrifying. Is he going to take over our city? Are we going to get to keep our lives? Are we going to get to keep our way of worship? Are we going to get to hold on to anything once he takes over and sets up his rule?

God’s promised king coming to Jerusalem on the donkey is meant to paint the picture of the contrast that we’re given of the king and his entrance and his goals and his way of doing things. And although Alexander came with thoughts of destroying Jerusalem, God actually preserved Jerusalem miraculously by not allowing for him to do that, by stopping his plans, by softening his heart when he was shown that, hey, there was actually this prophecy that would speak of a king, I think that’s you, coming into Jerusalem and actually doing exactly what you’re doing. And so by the grace of God and to preserve Israel, God saves them and he doesn’t allow for Alexander to completely wipe them out and take over. And so God showed his continued faithfulness even in that, his staying true to his promises. And just as the people are looking at this and they’re wondering, what does this mean

for us if God is going to preserve us and he’s going to give us this mighty, powerful king that rides in on a war horse and that takes over and God even uses this king who’s not of us to take care of us? What does that mean for us? And here God shows, no, no, no. When my king comes, when the Messiah comes, when his plan comes to fruition, it will be a completely different thing than what people had previously experienced and what they’ve come to expect of a king’s arrival. This king won’t bring terror. This king won’t bring war and conquest. This king will bring salvation and peace. And he’ll do it in the most subversive way possible, humbly, meekly, quietly, crucified, pierced, beaten, bloodied, and not uttering a word in his own defense. The promise God makes to Israel in Zechariah 9 points to Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem,

The March to the Cross

but this humility is something that characterized the whole of his earthly life and ministry. Just consider how he entered the world. Consider how he lived, who he spent his time with. Consider who he served. Consider how he carried himself, how he engaged with others. Nothing about his life in the earthly sense said royalty. A homeless preacher spending time with fishermen and prostitutes and outsiders. Seeking salvation and love, saying God’s plan extends to you, those who don’t belong. People like you and like me. He was born and he lived in a way that goes contrary to what we think of as a king, but he was just that. King Jesus, born humbly so that he could die humbly. God gave us his son and his son humbly went. In his book Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortlund in speaking about the Lord’s humility says the following. In one place in the Bible, Matthew chapter 11, where the Son of God pulls back the veil

and lets us peer way down into the core of who he is, we’re not told that he is austere and demanding in heart. We’re not told that he is exalted and dignified in heart. We’re not even told that he’s joyful and generous in heart. Letting Jesus set the terms, his surprising claim is that he is gentle and lowly in heart. We want the strong, the alpha, the warrior leader, the one who will punish our enemies and the one who will wow us. We want the Alexander, the greats of the world. And when Jesus comes back for his bride, he will certainly come with power. He will come bringing violence. He will strike terror and awe into all. But when he came the first time, that’s not how he came. And that was God’s plan for the Messiah to come quietly and humbly. Being born to a young Jewish girl and setting out to reach the unimpressive and undesirable

people in society, he then surrendered himself to his enemies, our humble, our lowly king with an unassuming arrival. In the prophecy spoken about him, he was the king. At his birth, he was the king. In his death, although it was only done to mock him, what did the sign hanging above his head say? King. This king rides in on an unimpressive animal, seemingly almost surrendering himself to his enemies. Luke 19 tells us that he rides in and he brings peace. He comes in peace. It seems what’s meant to be communicated with this king’s entrance, this whole picture, is that this king is not how anyone would have thought of for a king to arrive. He’s meek. He’s approachable. He is for his people. He brings love and he brings peace. We see in verse 10 of Zechariah 9 that God’s promised king would speak peace to the nations.

He would calm the troubles that plague us. He would bring an end to our self-destruction. But how would he ultimately bring this peace? Colossians 1.20, making peace by the blood of his cross. And this is where he’s ultimately headed. The fulfillment of this prophecy is recorded in Matthew 21 and John 12. In these passages, we see our Lord mount a donkey and ride into Jerusalem on what’s now known as Palm Sunday. The crowds are thrilled to see him and they greet him cheerfully saying, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. And so in line with Zechariah’s prophecy and beyond what the people saying this would have actually understood, Israel’s king is here. And although probably for the wrong reasons, with limited understanding, they do recognize him here as such. But we also know that Palm Sunday was the beginning of something.

It’s the beginning of Passion Week, which began our Lord’s journey to the cross. The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was Jesus’ march to the cross to die in our place. Our king went to die for us. From a humble birth in a manger to a meek and lowly life spent serving others and preaching the good news of salvation, leading to a humiliating death in the place of sinners, but ultimately culminating in him being raised from the dead and defeating our greatest enemy and solving our greatest problem. Who else could do this but our humble and lowly King Jesus, our Savior, our Emmanuel, God with us. Saints, would you pray with me? King Jesus, our Lord, our best friend, our Savior, words fall so drastically short of expressing all that you are to us and giving you the glory due to your name. Jesus, thank you for loving us, for pursuing us, for giving yourself for us.

Thank you for coming to get your people. Lord, as we sing to you, as we pray to you, as we seek to live lives that are worthy of you, to honor you, to tell others of you, help us, Lord. Help us to do that because you are worthy of all that we are and we want for our lives to be given over to you. We love you, Lord, and we thank you for loving us first. Amen. Amen.