Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.15UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.13UNLIKELY
Fear
0.13UNLIKELY
Joy
0.6LIKELY
Sadness
0.52LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.55LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.23UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.91LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.85LIKELY
Extraversion
0.22UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.73LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.81LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Introduction
Last year, I, along with a team of men from our church, had the opportunity to meet the king of Swaziland, King Mswati, the last absolute monarch on the entire continent of Africa.
It was easily one of the most intense experiences of my life.
So, they have us in this room waiting on his arrival.
In this room, you have princes and all of the members of parliament.
You’re in there with the speaker of the house of parliament and the minister of defense and the minister of economic development.
And, everybody’s just talking, until someone told us that the time had come.
Immediately, this who’s who list of Swazi and South African elites go outside to stand in the rain so that they wouldn’t miss his arrival.
Outside, they have this red carpet pre-laid everywhere that his feet will touch.
He will not walk on the same dirt as everyone else.
In a full entourage, one his fifteen wives shows up in her BMW motorcade.
Then, after her arrival more time passes, and you begin to hear a man shouting in the distance.
The shouting man comes closer and closer and his voice louder and louder.
In SuSwati, he is announcing as loudly as he can say it all of the accomplishments of King Mswati’s reign.
Then, the military band begins to play the national anthem with trumpets and trombones.
A huge BMW motorcade comes strolling up the drive, and right in the middle of all of these black SUV’s is this brilliant, turquoise blue car that the king was in.
His driver stops at exactly the right spot so that his feet will only touch the red carpet, and a man is there waiting at his door to hold an umbrella for him.
As he walks toward the area where his throne is prepared, the crowd takes photos and shouts for their king.
And, brothers and sisters, this is all for a wicked king.
This morning, we come to scene that in many ways is similar, yet in the most important ways, profoundly different.
We have come to the time in Jesus’ ministry in which He will publicly announce himself as the King of the Jews through his entrance to Jerusalem.
God’s Word
Read
The Time of Provocation has Come
“when they drew near to Jerusalem” Throughout his public ministry, Jesus has done something that strikes us as being pretty odd.
We come to stories like in where Jesus miraculously heals a leper, and then Jesus follows up this gracious and miraculous work by saying, “Be sure that you don’t tell anybody.”
And, maybe we’re thinking, “Jesus, you need to let someone help you with your marketing plan, because that is straight gold!
This is your claim to fame!” So, why has Jesus been having people remain quiet?
No part of Jesus’ life or ministry were accidental.
God the Father had decreed in eternity past that Jesus’ life and ministry would be progressively unveiled at a particular point in time.
Jesus came to die, but not immediately.
He came to live for a certain amount of time at certain point in time so that his Father’s will could be accomplished.
So, Jesus, though certainly at the center of controversy, tempered the conversation about him so that it would climax at just the right time.
And now, the time has come.
The time of provocation in which He will publicly announce himself as King.
He will lay down his own life by provoking his own slaughter through the full and public unveiling of his Messianic identity.
Jesus announced himself.
“you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her” And so, what we’re stepping into here is one of the most important moments in the Bible.
We are in the final week of Jesus’ life, a time so significant that Matthew has set aside a quarter of his book for it.
And, what we find is Jesus approaching his entrance very deliberately so that his coming is properly realized.
Nothing here is accidental.
Royal Entrance
So, why does Jesus send his disciples after a donkey?
There’s a couple of layers to this.
Now, it’s an odd request.
Outside of riding on a donkey in Mary’s womb, we have no other record of Jesus riding anything anywhere.
He and his disciples walked everywhere that they went.
And, not only that, Jesus has walked the entire way from the far reaches of Galilee all the way to Judea, and now, he’s about a mile out, and He’s asking them to go and get him a young donkey to ride.
Jesus hadn’t rolled his ankle, and he wasn’t too tired.
He had a statement to make.
You see, everybody was coming into town for the passover.
The population of Judea, and especially Jerusalem, exploded like race weekend during passover.
And, practically all of them are walking.
So, in this sea of people walking from Galilee to Jerusalem, a man sitting on a donkey would stand out.
He would be above the crowd.
And, the particular animal, a donkey, was one that was often used by royalty as a symbol of peacetime and was particularly tied to throne of David and the coming messiah.
So, it may seem to us like it’s just an donkey, but Jesus is using this donkey to stand out as the arriving King among a sea of his people.
Messianic King
“this took place to fulfill what was spoken” But, Jesus didn’t just choose to come in on a donkey because it would portray a thought of a king.
Jesus chose this because it was laid out 500 years in advance through the words of the prophet that this is exactly how Israel’s Messiah King, Savior King, Final Redeemer would come.
Jesus was trying to invoke the image of just any king; He was announcing that He was THE King.
The long-awaited one that Zechariah had promised.
Look at the specificity of this.
There are two donkeys, and one of them a foal.
This is exactly what Jesus rides.
Their King had come, and He had come exactly as they were told he would in the exact way they were told He would come.
Jesus fulfilled this prophecy through his own prophetic instruction to his disciples.
Application: The question before the people of Jerusalem is the same question before us this morning: How will you receive him?
Will you celebrate him and draw close to him, or will you reject him?
Will you submit yourself to his rule, or will you seek to assert your own authority over him?
Jesus Fulfills Prophecy Through Prophecy
“you will find...” Now, I want you to notice something really powerful in these first few verses.
Not everybody in Jesus’ day was able to see this, but Matthew makes sure that we do.
How did Jesus fulfill the prophetic words of Zechariah?
Jesus fulfilled this prophecy through his own prophetic instruction to his disciples.
Do you see that?
Jesus sends two of his disciples ahead, and He tells them the exact scene they will encounter once they arrive and how to handle it.
So, we might be prone to think: Jesus is just finding these things and acting them out.
Big whoop!
But, don’t you see, our God is the one that declares the end from the beginning.
He is the One who knows what will happen before it will happen.
So, yea, 500 years ago, God said this is what’s going to happen, and Jesus is, as we always find him to be, living in submission to the word of God.
But, Jesus is also showing himself to be God by declaring exactly what the disciples will find before they get there.
He’s fulfilling prophecy by speaking prophetically.
He’s both living out the word of God and speaking as God.
Jesus Fulfills Prophecy Through His Disciples
And, He is willing to let his disciples play a role in the fulfillment of Scripture.
How cool is that?
Jesus announces his coming and fulfills a prophecy that’s 500 years old, and He sets it up so that His disciples, fishermen and tax collectors get to play a role.
Can you imagine what it would be like to actually be there when prophecy is being fulfilled?
Can you imagine going exactly where Jesus told you to go, and seeing the foal tied up just as Jesus said it would be?
Can you imagine watching him ride it into Judea just as Zechariah had prophesied?
APPLICATION: Brothers and sisters, do you realize that this is the exact opportunity that you have?
Jesus is allowing us, his disciples, his church to be a part in the fulfillment of prophecy.
Jesus isn’t finished yet!
Every prophecy has not been fulfilled!
Every promise has not yet been realized, and by God’s grace, we have a role to play!
Jesus prophesies, commands, and then supplies.
Your obedience ; Jesus commands us to obey, but He transforms our hearts and He sends the Spirit so that we are able.
He commands, and he supplies.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9