church

INI
Palm Sunday
April 17, 2011
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

Zechariah's EXTRAORDINARY Palm Sunday Prophesy!
Zechariah 9:9-10

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
This morning we turn out attention to the Word of the Lord as He spoke
through the prophet Zechariah, chapter nine, beginning with the ninth verse, as
follows:

"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold,
your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding
on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 I will cut off the chariot from
Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He
shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be `from sea to sea, And
from the River to the ends of the earth.'” Here ends our text.

In the Name of Christ Jesus, our King, Dear Fellow Redeemed,

"EXTRAORDINARY. Adjective, derived from the Latin, meaning: beyond or
out of the ordinary; uncommon, rare; wonderful; sent for a special purpose or
on a particular occasion."

When you were getting ready to come to church this morning, did anything
about this day strike you as extraordinary? Chances are, probably not. You
dressed and had breakfast as you usually do on Sunday mornings, perhaps with
one eye on the clock so you wouldn't be late for church. Nothing uncommon or
rare in that. Parents hustled their children along; children grumbled as their hair
was combed or their good shoes were searched for. Nothing out of the ordinary
there - it's the same routine you go through every Sunday. Maybe it was when
you first approached the entry of the church and noticed the palm branches that
you remembered that there IS something special about today. "Oh, that's right -
today is Palm Sunday!"

In a lot of ways, Palm Sunday is simply extraordinary. Right in the middle of
the darkest part of the Lenten season, squeezed in between the solemn
occasions of Passion Sunday and Good Friday, comes a day of rejoicing, a day
of hosannas, Palm Sunday. What is it, exactly, that makes this day so
uncommon and rare? In our text for today, the prophet Zechariah tells us. He
paints us a vivid picture of the coming of an extraordinary King, and the
establishment of an extraordinary kingdom. The King he's describing, of course,
is Jesus Christ, and the occasion is Palm Sunday. And, amazingly, Zechariah
told of these events more than 500 years before they happened! Let's look more
closely at the inspired words of the prophet as we consider:

Zechariah's EXTRAORDINARY Palm Sunday Prophesy!

On Palm Sunday we welcome Jesus as our King, the supreme Ruler of our
lives. And that's a little extraordinary in itself, isn't it? As school children, we
"pledged our allegiance" to the flag of the United States. At athletic events we
sing the national anthem of the democracy in which we live. We're not used to
thinking of ourselves as subjects of a kingdom, but we are! As Christians, we're
members of the kingdom of God, the universal Church of all believers, the New
Jerusalem. When Zechariah addresses "the Daughter of Jerusalem," he's talking
to us. Jesus is our King. Our allegiance to Him comes even before our
allegiance to our country. And on this extraordinary day, the prophet tells us
we've got good reason to be happy - our King is coming to us! Rejoice greatly,
O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is
coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.

Rejoice! -That's what the prophet's saying to you today. You've got a King
that's unlike any king the world has ever seen! What's so extraordinary about
this King? First of all, He is a righteous King. His justice is perfect justice.
Under America’s system of justice people sometimes get away with crimes.
Frequently, perhaps! But not under God’s system of justice. There is a Day
coming when God will hold to account everyone who has broken even the least
of His commandments. The soul that sins, it shall die, the Bible says. And if we
look into our hearts, we must each confess that we have sinned, not a few
times, but many times, grievously, and every day. That’s why it’s so important
to recognize that Jesus came as a righteous King. When Christ came to earth,
He didn't simply ignore our sins, and He didn't magically make our sins
disappear - as a just King He couldn't do that. He told His disciples, "Do not
think I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but
to fulfill." Matt 5:17. Jesus knew that a price had to be paid for all the times you
and I broke God's Law. So as our just and righteous King, He came to pay that
price. Our text says that He came "...having salvation." On Palm Sunday, Jesus
was riding into Jerusalem knowing full well that, in less than a week's time, He
would be suffering on the cross to pay for the sins of the world.

Jesus is also our humble King. Ordinarily, kings are proud and stately. During
WWII, Emperor Hirohito of Japan thrilled his people and boosted the Japanese
war effort by appearing in a dashing military uniform, proudly mounted on a
magnificent white stallion. The King of Palm Sunday was extraordinary, not for
His pride, but for His humility. The everyday clothes He wore, the humble
donkey He rode - these were symbolic of the humility so necessary for our
salvation. Because it took a tremendous amount of humility to do for us what
Jesus did. In our epistle lesson a few moments ago, we were reminded that Jesus
"...made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in
the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled
Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the
cross." Php 2:7-8. Thank God our King was humble, not proud!

Jesus' kingdom, too, is quite extraordinary. Very often, it's also misunderstood.
I always ask my confirmation students the same question, "Where is the
kingdom of God?" And each time I get the same answer, "In heaven." Well,
Jesus certainly is King of heaven, and earth too, but the borders of His kingdom
are even broader than that! When the Jews asked Him about His kingdom, Jesus
said, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say,
'See here!' or 'See there!' For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you." Lk
17:20-21. In our hearts - yours and mine - that's where Jesus' kingdom is.
Wherever the Holy Spirit has given a human being faith in Jesus as his personal
Savior, there, in that person's heart, is the kingdom of God.

Jesus' kingdom is extraordinary, too, because it's a kingdom of peace. We're
used to associating greatness with a kingdom or a nation only if it has huge
armies and powerful weapons. In our world of the 21st Century, you just don't
rate as a country if you don't have a standing army of millions, and an arsenal
bristling with nuclear weapons. Which is the most powerful kingdom today?
-It's not Red China, it's not Russia, and it's not even the United States. By far,
the most powerful kingdom in this world is the kingdom of Christ! What other
power could turn millions from ignorance to truth, from darkness to light, from
damnation to eternal salvation? The world’s most famous military commander,
Napoleon Bonaparte, once said, "I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is
no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no
possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have
founded empires. But on what did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon
force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of
men would die for Him." The prophet Zechariah, in our text, likewise predicted
that the extraordinary kingdom of Christ would have nothing to do with
physical arms and weapons: I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the
horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to
the nations.

The peace our King brings us is real. It's a peace each of us can use, personally,
in our everyday lives. I recall speaking with a young Christian once who told
me, "Pastor, I just had a terrible week. Everything that could go wrong, did.
Only one thing kept me going – the realization that, in the end, none of this
really matters. Jesus died for me and I'm heading for heaven, no matter what!"
Now that’s REAL peace, peace that means something! To be able to overcome
adversity, to have a clear conscience, to be able to sleep soundly at night, at
peace with God and man – now that's a peace we can use! Well may we sing
our hosannas, well may we offer our palm branches to a King who brings us
that kind of practical peace.

What would you say was the biggest kingdom in history? The Roman Empire is
commonly considered to have been the largest unified kingdom the world has
ever seen. Under the emperor Trajan in the 2nd century AD, the Roman Empire
stretched from the River Euphrates in Mesopotamia in the east to the British
isles in the west. Interestingly, the same River Euphrates is the one Zechariah
mentions in our text. But the kingdom of Christ, he says, will stretch much
further, His dominion shall be `from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends
of the earth.'

The kingdom of Christ is extraordinary because it knows no boundaries. It's
present the world over, wherever the Gospel is preached and believed. It's in
Africa, India, Great Britain and America. It's in Russia, China, Japan and
Germany. It's everywhere there are faithful hearts that look to Jesus as their
only source of forgiveness and life. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that first
Palm Sunday, He was bringing salvation not to one city, but to the whole world.
Not to one people, but to all people everywhere, of every age and era! By virtue
of our faith in Christ, you and I are subjects of that extraordinary kingdom. And
our King has charged us with the joyous task of spreading the boundaries of His
kingdom even further. His instructions: "Go therefore and make disciples of all
the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you;
and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matt 28:19-20.

Let me ask you this: when was the last time you were so happy you shouted
out loud? Can't remember? I can. I was walking back from the mail box,
leisurely opening my mail, when I discovered a check for $800 from the IRS.
Turns out I’d overpaid my taxes. I think I actually did shout out loud. I must
have, because there were several people nearby who were staring at me. It was
embarrassing, but it was one of those instances in which you just can’t hold
back your delight. Palm Sunday is one of those instances, too! Today we
welcome Jesus, our extraordinary King, into our hearts. And Zechariah tells us
that Palm Sunday is definitely not a day to hold back! "Rejoice greatly!" the
prophet says, "and shout with joy!" God grant we all may experience the
extraordinary joy of pardon and peace in our Savior, and live that joy, until the
day when by His grace we join Him in the courts of heaven! AMEN.