Sermon

April 13, 2003
Palm Sunday
Zechariah 9:9-12
Pastor Joel Zank

Jesus Goes about His Father's Business

(Zechariah 9:9-12) Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war?horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. 11As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.12 Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.

In Christ Jesus the King of kings and Lord of lords, dear fellow redeemed,

Have you ever seen anything like it? I'm talking about the images that have been beamed into our homes these last few weeks, images of war, not videotaped, but live feed, as it's happening, coming to us by way of embedded reporters using satellites and video phones. The technology is truly amazing.

And yet we have something before us today that is even more amazing-we have a reporter in place broadcasting to us the events of the first Palm Sunday-and here's the truly amazing part, this reporter lived and died 500 years before there was a Palm Sunday. Through the miracle of prophecy, Zechariah the prophet was able to look 500 years down the road toward Bethany and see Jesus approaching Jerusalem, headed into enemy territory to fight and win his people's greatest battle. What a miracle-a miracle that is still in progress as the prophet's voice travels not 2500 miles through space, but 2500 years through time, making its way to your heart today, extending to you this wonderful invitation: See Your King! 1) Look how he comes; 2) Look how he conquers.

The prophet's invitation is timeless and so are his reasons for sending it. Zechariah first spoke his prophecy to the people of God who had recently returned from Babylon, the land where they had spent 70 years as captives in exile. By God's own doing the captives were free at last, but they had little time to celebrate. There was a great deal of work ahead of them. They returned to their land only to find it in ruins. Their capitol city, Jerusalem and the Temple of God located there had been completely destroyed. Rubble was all that was left. At first the people were eager to take up the task of rebuilding, but as time went by the job proved more difficult then they had imagined. No sooner would they rebuild a wall and some enemy would come and knock it down. It wasn't long before the people grew discouraged. They let their failures and setbacks rob them of all joy.

So it was to such discouraged souls as these that the prophet said, "Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!" (Zechariah 9:9a). I hear love and concern in the prophet's voice, but I detect a note of rebuke as well. Zechariah is talking to the church, to God's people who have reason to be the happiest most joyful people on earth. Why? Because their King happens to be their God who has secured their release, not just from Babylon, but from the dungeons of hell itself. What possible reason could those people have to mope through life?

Zechariah would ask that same question of us today. What has us feeling blue? A bad report from the doctor's office? A layoff from work? Marriage or family troubles? Credit Card debt? Lousy grades? Loneliness? Any one of these or a hundred other problems can make our lives seem unbearable. But when we let that happen, when we permit our troubles to rob us of all peace and joy, what are we telling our God other than we don't trust him to take care of us. Isn't all of our moping in life, no matter how hard we try to disguise it, nothing less than a complaint about the way God is running, or should I say ruining our lives?

It is to people like us, then, people who find so much to be discouraged about that the prophet is forced to say, "Rejoice greatly and shout, you people of God!" I wish I didn't need such a reminder, but since I do, I'm glad Zechariah offers it. I'm even happier that he's willing to remind you and me about the cause and source of our joy as he points us in the direction of Jesus today and says, See your King? Look how he comes to you-as one who is righteous. In other words, King Jesus, is a king who always does the right thing. I can't think of another king about whom that can be said. Instead that old maxim comes to mind, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." But not in the case of our King. He uses his almighty power over all things to do what is right every moment of every day.

Of course, for people like us who so often find fault with our King, that thought is more than a little frightening. It would seem that the right thing for Jesus to do with us complainers is to give us a reason to really be miserable by locking us away in hell forever. That's what we deserve. But that's not what Jesus has in mind for us. Instead his has in mind to save us from the sin that would damn us. Zechariah says, "See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey" (Zechariah 9:9b).

Rather than destroying us in his righteousness, Jesus was actually willing to use his righteous life to work out our salvation. You heard the Apostle Paul say earlier that Jesus, "...made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant" (Philippians 2:7). You see that here don't you? Look at your King, the Lord of lords, riding into Jerusalem, not in a war chariot taking aim at us sinful targets of opportunity, but riding on the back of borrowed baby donkey to let us know that he comes as our humble King-a King willing to make up for all our doubting, all our complaining, all our wrongs by doing everything right in our place so that his Father would credit our whole world of sinners with our King's one perfect life.

Is it any wonder the Prophet Jeremiah calls Jesus, "The Lord our Righteousness"? Look how he comes to us-bringing us the very salvation he has earned as our righteous substitute; but that's not all. As you see your King today through the prophet's eyes, be sure to note something else about this unique Ruler-look how he conquers in a way so different than any king here on earth.

Our heavenly King says, "I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war?horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken" (Zechariah 9:10a). The reign of King Jesus will put an end to hostilities-and end to the war. How will he accomplish such a thing? Not by force, not by threat of punishment, but by the power of his gospel--the good news that all sin is forgiven. That's what Zechariah says, "He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth" (Zechariah 9:10b).

Let's be sure to understand what war the prophet is talking about. The war which our nation is currently fighting reminds us that all creation is held prisoner of sin's awful effects. As long as this world endures there will be such wars. In fact Jesus says even the very rumors of such terrible events serve to remind us of his Second Coming. Hostilities among nations here on earth will continue until our Kings returns. But the most frightening war in all of history has been brought to a happy conclusion by our King. The war between God and sinners ended on that Friday when our King carried our sins into hell on his back and suffered there until every last one of them was paid for. That's the day when hostilities were ended, the day God's wrath toward sinners was satisfied once and for all.

Sadly so many sinners haven't heard this good news, so they keep on fighting with God. But God has a plan to conquer their hearts too-the hearts of sinners from every nation on earth. His strategy is simple but brilliant. God wants you and me whose hearts he has already claimed by faith, to tell others of the peace that is ours in Christ. And so like a candle's flame that peace will spark more peace and spread from sinner to sinner till it reaches the ends of the earth.

But of course you and I have no time to share God's peace if we're too busy moping through life, so our King returns to our hearts today to secure them as his own. Again he does so by the power of his promise. He says, "As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.12 Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you" (Zechariah 9:11-12). Last week Pastor Berger told us about God's one-sided covenant with us, a relationship in which God does all the work, forgiving our wickedness and remembering our sins no more (Jeremiah 31:34). Here God himself makes mention of his covenant-a covenant that is binding and unchangeable because it has been signed with the blood of Christ, the very blood that "...purifies us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).

In this covenant, God not only promises us eternal blessings, but he promises us help here and now. That means he is with you whose marriages have been ruined by sin. He is with you whose homes are filled with turmoil. He is with you who are sick or dying, with you are buried in debt, with you who are unemployed, with you who are frightened and alone. He is with all of you who find yourself trapped within some pit of despair. Your God is with you to help you first by reassuring you that he has already won your worst battle for you, freeing you from the pit of hell and forgiving all your sins. So the problems you are facing cannot be a result of his anger nor a punishment for sin. God wants you to know something else. In his mercy he already has a plan to bring your problems to an end in a manner and at a time of his own choosing. Until then you must believe that whatever troubles you are having are playing an important part in God's plan to see you home to heaven. They can serve no other purpose than to bring you God's blessing. That's a promise from your King who rules all things for your good (Romans 8:28).

This promise is our fortress, a place of safety in God's Word-a place where our King wants to meet us there every day so that we who find ourselves feeling like prisoners in this sinful world may realize that we are prisoners of hope, that is prisoners who live with the hope that our King will keep his promises to restore to us twice as much, and see to it that "our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all" (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Now that's news worth sharing isn't it - news to shout at the top of our lungs so that sin's prisoners everywhere may rejoice with us to know the war has ended and there is peace with God now and forever through Christ our King. Amen.

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