Jesus, the King of Peace (John 12:12-19; Luke 19:41-44; Zechariah 9:1-10)

James H. Cosentino II

Palm Sunday 2023 • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

John 12:12–20

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Introduction

Have a time of prayer for Nashville and for the Covenant School and Covenant Presbyterian Church family.

Read John 12:12-19

John 12:12–19 (ESV)

The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 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!” 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!”

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. 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. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”

Palm Sunday is the start of Holy Week for the church. This is the beginning of the last week of Jesus’ ministry as He is heading towards the Cross.

This morning we will look at what this day meant for Jesus, for the Jews, and for us today.

Receive King Jesus

Jesus is Revealing Himself as King

He is King of the Jews

Jesus is intentionally riding into Jerusalem on a donkey to fulfill Scripture

Jesus is revealing Himself to really be the King of the Jews

He is More Than King of the Jews

But Jesus is more than just the King of the Jews

There was an understanding that even while God had given human kings to represent Him, there was always only one true King, which was God Himself.

Jesus, in revealing Himself to be the promised King is showing Himself to be God, the one true King, even if the people didn’t fully recognize it at the time

The disciples would later look back and realize this is what He was doing.

The Jewish People Welcome Jesus as King

The People welcome Jesus by waving Palm branches

A president or presidential candidate coming through a city or town will be welcomed with a parade with people waving American flags and wearing red white and blue colors.

The palm branches were a symbol of nationalistic identity for the people as they were welcoming and receiving Jesus as their king

Some did worship King Jesus as Messiah

The people were singing praises to Jesus

Quoted Psalm 118 in recognition of who He is

We are called to submit to King Jesus and worship Him

Jesus is King, not just for the Jews, but for all peoples, whether we recognize it or not

The proper response to King Jesus is for us to submit our lives to Him and to worship Him.

To worship Him means more than just singing songs and attending a service once a week.

To worship Jesus means to submit our lives to Christ and love Him with all of our being

Seek Salvation from King Jesus

The people seek salvation from King Jesus - “Hosanna”

hosanna means save us now

many were seeking salvation from their enemies

Zechariah 9:1–10 (ESV)

The oracle of the word of the Lord is against the land of Hadrach

and Damascus is its resting place.

For the Lord has an eye on mankind

and on all the tribes of Israel,

and on Hamath also, which borders on it,

Tyre and Sidon, though they are very wise.

Tyre has built herself a rampart

and heaped up silver like dust,

and fine gold like the mud of the streets.

But behold, the Lord will strip her of her possessions

and strike down her power on the sea,

and she shall be devoured by fire.

Ashkelon shall see it, and be afraid;

Gaza too, and shall writhe in anguish;

Ekron also, because its hopes are confounded.

The king shall perish from Gaza;

Ashkelon shall be uninhabited;

a mixed people shall dwell in Ashdod,

and I will cut off the pride of Philistia.

I will take away its blood from its mouth,

and its abominations from between its teeth;

it too shall be a remnant for our God;

it shall be like a clan in Judah,

and Ekron shall be like the Jebusites.

Then I will encamp at my house as a guard,

so that none shall march to and fro;

no oppressor shall again march over them,

for now I see with my own eyes.

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.

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.

They were expecting Him to come and bring judgment upon the nations

God had promised judgment upon Israel’s enemies in the past and fulfilled it through the conquest of Alexander the Great during the fourth century B.C.

Surely, they would think that the salvation God would bring would be to judge Israel’s present enemies.

Jesus came to bring salvation in a different way

Jesus is the victorious King bringing salvation from our greatest enemy: Sin

Jesus is bringing judgment upon the sin of God’s enemies through the Cross

Jesus is bringing peace by reconciling Israel and the nations to God through the Cross

Jesus Has Come to Bring Peace by Reconciling Us to God

Admit that you are a sinner in need of salvation

Believe that Jesus is the True King, the Son of God, the One who alone can take away your sins and ask Him to save you! “Hosanna!”

Joel 2:32 (ESV)

And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

Confess your Faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord

Don’t keep your faith private. If Christ has saved you, if you have experienced the salvation of Your King, let others know about it.

The people in Jerusalem were certainly not quiet about their worship of Jesus, however misunderstanding they were about Him. They were excited to let everyone know they were worshipping their king, to the point the religious leaders were afraid Rome was going to notice and put a violent stop to this parade.

Romans 10:9–10 (ESV)

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Share the Peace of King Jesus

Luke 19:37–44 (ESV)

As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

Jesus weeps over Jerusalem

He knows that most of Jerusalem does not understand the peace that He is bringing

Because they are continually looking for an earthly kingdom instead of submitting to Him as King, there are going to be terrible consequences

We might not all face physical consequences for rejecting Christ, but there will be eternal spiritual consequences for rejecting Him

As believers we need to weep and pray for our community, state, nation, and world.

As we look out over our neighbors and over the world, we need to see it the way Jesus does

He looked on a lost world with love, compassion, and heartbrokenness

While there are certainly acts that occur that should make us angry, let us not lose the compassion that Jesus has for those who commit those acts because of their blindness

Even as enemies of God, Christ’s work on the cross can bring them peace if they will simply believe and cry out for salvation.

But how can they believe if they haven’t been told?

Romans 10:14–15 (ESV)

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

We have been invited to join Christ in this ministry of reconciliation

2 Corinthians 5:18–21 (ESV)

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

We are ambassadors for Christ

We are called to invite others to be reconciled to Christ

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