The Coming of the King!

John 12:12-16 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,
"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.

He was born to be King of the Jews. Once, the crowds tried to force him to be an earthly king. Jesus did have a kingdom but it was not of this earth. The wise men from the East knew it was true when they said, "Where is he who was born King of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him." He had announced it himself when he said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." He had demonstrated the power of the kingdom when he cast out demons, healed the sick and preached the message. He told the Pharisees, "… If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God is come upon you." He was born to be King but he didn't act like one! Now, he appeared to be getting with the program! He came into Jerusalem triumphantly! But wait, he was riding on a donkey! He should've been on a white horse with armed followers around him.

The crowd recognized that he was the Son of David!
He was descended from David on both sides of his genealogy. Matthew 1 gives us the genealogy of Joseph his adopted father. Luke 3:23ff gives us the genealogy of Mary his mother. So according to earthly standards he was the descendent of David. But he was so much more! Once, in a discussion with the Pharisees, he raised the question, "How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?… David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son?" Matthew 12:35-37 His human body was descended from David but the person inside that body was God himself!

He was recognized by those in need. There were two blind men begging by the side of the road and they cried out to him, "Have mercy on us, Son of David." (Matthew 9:27) There was a Canaanite woman with a sick child. She went further than the blind men did. Not only did she call him Son of David, she called him "LORD" (Matthew 15:22), that should only be used for God, and stood by her position even when he questioned her right to ask for healing for her daughter. Let's read what Matthew had to say, She came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." 26 And he answered, "It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs." 27 She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table." 28 Then Jesus answered her, "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly. Matthew 15:25-28.

Even Rome would recognize Jesus' royalty. When it was time to crucify Jesus, Pilate saw fit to put a sign above his head stating the charges against him. "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews" (John 19:19) The Pharisees were horrified at the charge. The very thing they had fought against was now being rubbed in their faces. They wanted Pilate to change the sign to read, "This man said, I am King of the Jews." Pilate had had enough of them. He had personally interviewed Jesus and his wife had warned him of a dream she had. As the official representative of Rome he proclaimed Jesus to be: King of the Jews!

The crowd didn't understand what they were doing.
The crowds that gathered to cheer for him and proclaim him King did so because they had seen the miracles he had done — especially that of bringing Lazarus back from the dead after four days. A little earlier Jesus had called on them to believe what he said as being proven by what he did. He had said to them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, … (The Pharisees said) ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father." (John 10:26; 36-38)
When the King arrived the kingdom was at hand! See what Mark had to say, "Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." (Mark 1:14-15) Each of the gospel accounts, one way or another, clearly states that Jesus came to usher in the kingdom of God, or, the kingdom of heaven. The King had arrived he just wasn't recognized because he came as a baby, born in a stable! He lived among men as a common boy. He must not have been too unusual in his early years. He became a carpenter and worked with his hands. Even when he became a teacher with disciples he did not impress the religious leaders, he just frightened them.

He had shown the disciples again and again. Some, or all of them, were present when he turned the water into wine, brought back to life the son of a poor widow, gave sight to the blind, cleansed the leper, lifted up the cripple, calmed the storm, fed five thousand men with five loaves and two fish (not counting the women and children!), healed the servant of a Roman centurion, healed the daughter of a Canaanite woman, brought Jairus' daughter back to life, restored a withered hand, forgave the sins of a woman in the house of a Pharisee, and another who was caught in adultery, cast out demons, they saw him transfigured on the mountain with Moses and Elijah, he healed a boy with an unclean spirit, and all the while, they listened to him teach, and at least three times, he told them he would be crucified and brought back from the dead. What more did they need?

Everyone thought of an earthly kingdom. Not just the crowd who had only seen his miracles but the disciples themselves expected an earthly kingdom. Look at what Matthew said, "Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. 21 And he said to her, "What do you want?" She said to him, "Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom." 22 Jesus answered, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?" They said to him, "We are able." 23 He said to them, "You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father." (Matthew 20:20-23) This event occurred immediately after Jesus had told them, for the third time, that he would be turned over to evil men beaten and crucified.

They needed a King.
They (we) were ruled by sin! Sin came into the world by one man — Adam! In the Garden of Eden he was faced with a choice. He could believe God and live or, he could believe the lie of Satan. Rather than exercise faith Adam followed his feelings and fell into sin. When he sinned we all became sinners. See what Paul said in Romans 5:17-21, Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
They (we) lived in the kingdom of darkness. Why didn't we recognize the fact that we were in the dark? We had acclimated ourselves to it. We had accepted it as being normal. Yet the Scripture says is true! In one of his prophecies of the coming Messiah, Isaiah said, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined." (Isaiah 9:2) In the first chapter of his gospel, John tells us, "In him was life, and the life was the light of men" and, later, in chapter 12, Jesus said, "I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness." In the late 1800s, Philip P. Bliss wrote a hymn that goes like this: "The whole world was lost In the darkness of sin,The Light of the world is Jesus! Like sunshine at noonday, His glory shone in. The Light of the world is Jesus! — Come to the light, ’tis shining for thee; Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind, but now I can see: The Light of the world is Jesus! The whole world, apart from Jesus Christ, is lost in the darkness of sin! And there's only one way out! And that is a transfer of citizenship from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light!

Only the King could deliver us. The story is told in the book of acts chapter 4 that Peter and John were brought before the Council and charged them with healing a lame man and false teaching. Peter stood before them and explained what had happened. In the course of that he said, "…there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." No other being, in heaven or on earth, has the authority to deliver us! No one else can redeem us! Our sin condemns us because all have sinned! The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord! Only the sinless Son of God could take our sin away from us! He had no sin of his own. One of the men who died on the cross beside him recognized that. He said to the other criminal, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? … This man is done nothing wrong." And then he said, "Jesus, remember me ‍when you come into your kingdom." That man knew something about Jesus I can only be explained as a revelation from God. Because of our need he took our sins into his own body and nailed them to the cross!

Jesus entered a world in rebellion against its true King. As long as man had been on the Earth (except for the early days of Adam) man was in rebellion against God. Throughout history some had recognized the true King and had suffered for it. The writer of Hebrews tells us about some of them, "Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, there were sown in two, they were killed with the sword, etc.… of whom the world was not worthy…" Jesus came to correct that for all who will come to him in faith. Where do you stand today?

All Scripture quotes are from: The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.