Sermon Tone Analysis

Each president of the United States when they have taken office each has been inaugurated into the office.

The inauguration has taken on a very ceremonial element with the president taking an oath of office and then followed or preceded by parades balls and concerts.

The inauguration is a celebration full of pomp and great ceremony that includes a grand guest list of congressmen and senators as well as celebrities.

The president is paraded before everyone with high distinction in stretched limousines and dressed very well.

Even to the point that the nation is also looking at the first lady’s attire for the day and evening,

The inauguration is a grand gala and it is our modern equivalent to the coronation of king.

King’s during their coronation ceremonies would have the same pomp and celebration.

It was filled with extravagance and splendor.

There is one King however who had a very different coronation.

There is One King whose character was different than all others whose work was different from all others and whose entrance lacked splendor, yet it was a coronation that is to bring great joy.

The Joy is in the character and work of the King.

This King is Jesus Christ and this morning we will be looking at Him as King.

We will see this morning we are to rejoice in the coming righteous, victorious and humble King.

Rejoice in the Coming Righteous, Victorious and Humble King

We are taking a break from our study in the book of Acts and we are going to begin this morning a three part series that will take us trough the Passion Week.

Passion as it is used here actually means suffering so this is the week that Jesus suffered and went to the cross.

We will emphasis three parts of the passion week the first being Jesus as the King the second is Jesus on the cross and the third will be focused on the resurrection.

These are the three major facets of the passion week and the reason why we commemorate these days.

All three of these events are recorded for us in all four of the gospel which we have today, we have Jesus entering Jerusalem Jesus dying on the cross and Jesus’ being raised from the dead.

That is the Triumphal Entry, which is Palm Sunday, the crucifixion which is Good Friday, and resurrection which is Resurrection Sunday or Easter which ever you prefer.

Even though each of these books offer the Passion Week we are not going to look directly at these four witnesses we may refer to each of the gospels but our focus for the triumphal entry the crucifixion and the resurrection will not be in the gospels.

Instead we will be looking at three other people who have something to say about these three miraculous events.

Our examination for these three events will be from three different men two of which will be looking forward to each one of these events and one will be looking back.

We will start with the prophet Zechariah who is going to be looking forward to the coronation of the King, the triumphal entry.

On Friday we will look at the prophet Jeremiah who will be looking forward to the cross and next Sunday as we look back on the resurrection we will look at Paul as He looks back to the resurrection.

We are going to begin this morning with a look at the King and not just that the King came into Jerusalem but we will look more specifically at His character and work.

Jesus as we read this morning in the book of Matthew comes into the city of Jerusalem and this is His grand coronation He comes in as King.

The people are filled with joy and rejoice at His coming in and they lay out Palm fronds as they welcome Him in.

As we read this is the fulfillment of Scripture and that is the Scripture we will look at this morning.

We are going to look at the origin of the Old Testament quote in Matthew 21:5.

The origin of this text is from the prophet Zechariah.

He is one of the 12 minor prophets in the Old Testament.

If you have your Bibles open to Matthew all you have to do is turn back two books and you are in Zechariah.

Go back through Matthew and through Malachi and boom you’re in Zechariah we will be looking at Zechariah 9:9.

As you turn to the book of Zechariah let me just explain the purpose of the book and introduce you a little to the author.

Now Zechariah was a prophet and there are 16 Old Testament books written by prophets.

There are the Major Prophets, which are Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah then there are the twelve minor prophets and the interesting thing about the twelve minor prophets is that they have a theme that runs through everyone of their books.

It’s a commonality within each of the writings which is the coming day of the Lord.

The day of the Lord refers to the judgment that God will bring about on His enemies.

The nation of Israel will receive restoration after the day of the Lord.

Now within each of the books there are other themes and purposes and the purpose for Zechariah is Israel’s comfort and glory or the preparation for the Messiah.

The dating of the events in this book begin around 520 b.c..

The nation of Israel had been in captivity in Babylon for 70 years because of their disobedience to God and at this point the Israelite exiles are returning back to Israel and are rebuilding the temple so they can worship God in their city once again.

This is the time period of Zechariah writing this letter and his intent is to encourage the Israelites of the coming Messiah.

That is the chosen One of God who will come and rule over the nation.

Now the nation of Israel for centuries has been in a state of political upheaval and under enemy oppression.

So the nation is looking for a king that will come in and lead them and bring peace to their nation and destroy all their enemies.

This is about 500 years prior to the events in the gospels and yes the nation of Israel has been waiting for a long time for their Messiah.

Well Zechariah is going to prepare the people for this.

Zechariah has been working with the people teaching them about how they are to live and about repentance and guiding them on how to live for God as opposed to living against God.

Then Zechariah comes to chapter 9 and in chapter 9 Zechariah will present to the nation a Messiah, a King chosen by God and this King that God chooses will be different from other Kings.

He will be different in Character, in His work and in His manner of entry.

Let’s look at Zechariah 9:9.

It reads, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

Our attention is first drawn to Zecahraiah’s call to the nation to rejoice.

There is to be shouts of Joy and shouts of triumph.

Taking this in its present context it couldn’t have been easy for the nation of Israel to return from exile.

There were mixed feelings and emotions, they didn’t have the grandeur of Solomon’s temple any longer they had to rebuild it and the size was smaller and the ark of the covenant was no longer there.

They didn’t have the splendor of the Glory of the Lord filling the temple as Solomon did when he built the temple.

They had no human ruler, and even though they were allowed to return and build their temple Israel was still not a sovereign nation.

So Zechariah is telling them to rejoice shout for triumph, which the word here in the Hebrew is usually associated with a battle cry which makes sense since because Zechariah is saying the King is coming and the King will be victorious.

The battle is not over but don’t be down, because the King is coming.

The King Zechariah points to here is the rightful King and Zechariah describes Him as being is just, victorious, and Humble.

These are all great characteristics that can only belong to One Man.

That Man is Jesus Christ.

Let us look at this verse, Zechariah tells the nation of Israel he is emphatic in this he tells them to rejoice to shout he tells them in be happy be overjoyed because the King is coming.

These are words that this nation needs to hear.

They are returning to the promise land and they are without a ruler without a king.

Well a flesh and blood king.

See the nation of Israel has always had a ruler, they have always had a king.

God had set up the nation of Israel so that they would have a ruler but it was not to be a monarchy like all the other nations around them.

A monarchy meaning that only one man rules over them, a king.

They were to be in a theocracy which means that God was to be their ruler, He was to be their King.

That is how God set up the nation of Israel but they weren’t happy with that they wanted a male ruler a human sovereign as opposed to a true, eternal, perfect sovereign.

The nation had rejected God as their ruler and in turn God placed a ruler on the throne over the nation of Israel.

The ruler that God chose was David and God made a covenant with David that there would always be a ruler from his blood line on the throne.

We see this covenant in 2 Samuel 7:12-16

The King that was to come through David’s blood line is the Messiah, the chosen One of God.

The One God was talking about in 2 Samuel and that Zechariah mentions here is Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God.

So you see man wanted a monarchy an earthly king and they are still looking for a monarchy but what God had in mind the entire time was a theocracy with His Son as King.

The Kingdom He rules over is greater than the Israelites realized, they have always and still have a very finite perspective on God’s Kingdom and God’s King.

Jesus Himself pointed this out when He was being tried by Pilate in the gospel of John, John 18:36

Jesus knew what His kingship entailed it was not a monarchy, His rule was greater and much more vast because He not only rules over mankind but He rules over all creation and created beings including the angels.

His rule is greater than any man’s rule can ever be or ever will be.

This is the King that Zechariah tells the nation of Israel is coming and the One that they should rejoice in and be exceedingly happy about because He is a the Great King with a kingdom beyond anything we can imagine and He is a King a character and work that goes beyond what any other King has or can do.

First of all He is Righteous

He is Righteous

Zechariah says “He is just.”

Another way to translate this word is righteous or righteousness.

This deals with the standard of which a person lives.

[3]The King that Zechariah is addressing here has the character of righteousness He will be a just King He will be right in His ruling holding to the standard that Has been placed on us by God.

The King that Zechariah is talking about here is the Son of the Living God, Jesus Christ.

Jesus holds the same attributes as God, God is holy and righteous and Jesus also is holy and righteous.

What they do and how they rule is right.

Jesus is a King that sits on the throne and he is in complete holiness.

Paul writes to the Colossian church about Jesus and Paul writes this;

This means that all of God’s character all that makes up God the Father, His Holiness, His Sinlessness, His Righteousness, every bit of Him is found in Jesus Christ.

Jesus rules with perfection and His rulings are just and wise.

Jesus’ rulings are perfect and the way He treats people are perfect.