Jesus Is King: The Deity and Humility of Christ

You know how it goes, we're about two things here. Worship and family, that's right. Welcome to the best place you can be on a Sunday in the Tri-Cities. Let's just lift our hands together, would you? Father in heaven, we welcome you here. Lord, we make a place for you in our midst. To come and to rest upon us. We make our hearts a resting place for your presence. We come today, Lord, to lift you high. We say that this is the day the Lord has made and we will rejoice. We will be glad in it. In Jesus' name. All right, let's do it, guys, again. At your name. The mountains shake and crumble. At your name. The oceans roar and tumble. At your name. The angels will bow. The earth will rejoice. Your people cry out. Lord of all the earth, we shout your name, shout your name. Filling up the skies with endless praise, endless praise. Yahweh, Yahweh. We love to shout your name, oh Lord. At your name. The morning breaks in glory. At your name. Creation sings your story. At your name.

The angels will bow. The earth will rejoice. Your people cry out. Everybody. Lord of all the earth, we shout your name, shout your name. Filling up the skies with endless praise, endless praise. Yahweh, Yahweh. We love to shout your name, oh Lord. Sing it again. Lord of all the earth, we shout your name, shout your name. Filling up the skies with endless praise, endless praise. Yahweh, Yahweh. We love to shout your name, oh Lord. There is no one like our God. We will praise you, praise you. There is no one like our God. We will sing, we will sing. There is no one like our God. We will praise you, praise you. There is no one like our God. We will sing, we will sing. There is no one like our God. We will praise you, praise you. There is no one like our God. We will sing, we will sing. There is no one like our God. We will praise you, praise you. There is no one like our God. We will sing. Oh, come on.

Lord of all the earth, we shout your name, shout your name. Filling up the skies with endless praise, endless praise. Yahweh, Yahweh, we live to shout your name, oh Lord. Sing, oh Lord. ♪ Lord of all the earth, we shout your name, shout your name ♪ ♪ Filling up the skies with endless praise, endless praise ♪ ♪ Yahweh, Yahweh, we love to shout your name, oh Lord ♪ One more time, come on. ♪ Lord of all the earth, we shout your name, shout your name ♪ ♪ Filling up the skies with endless praise, endless praise ♪ ♪ Yahweh, Yahweh, we love to shout your name, oh Lord ♪ Yeah. ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, mm ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ ♪ Ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh ♪ ♪ Ohh, sweetest love ♪ ["It's a Strange Dream"] ♪ To him who sits on the throne ♪ ♪ And unto the Lamb ♪ ♪ To him who sits on the throne ♪ ♪ And unto the Lamb ♪ ♪ To him who sits on the throne ♪ ♪ And unto the Lamb ♪ ♪ To him who sits on the throne ♪ ♪ And unto the Lamb ♪ ♪ To him who sits on the throne ♪ ♪ And unto the Lamb ♪

♪ To him who sits on the throne ♪ ♪ And glory and power forever ♪ ["It's a Strange Dream"] ♪ To him who sits on the throne ♪ ♪ And unto the Lamb ♪ ♪ To him who sits on the throne ♪ ♪ And unto the Lamb ♪ ♪ To him who sits on the throne ♪ ♪ And unto the Lamb ♪ ♪ To him who sits on the throne ♪ ♪ And unto the Lamb ♪ ♪ Be blessing and honor and glory and power forever ♪ ♪ Be blessing and honor and glory and power forever ♪ ♪ Be blessing and honor and glory and power forever ♪ ♪ Be blessing and honor and glory and power forever ♪ ♪ To Him who sits on the throne and answers their prayers ♪ ♪ To Him who sits on the throne and answers their prayers ♪ ♪ To Him who sits on the throne and answers their prayers ♪ ♪ To Him who sits on the throne and answers their prayers ♪ ♪ To Him who sits on the throne and answers their prayers ♪ ♪ Be blessing and honor and glory and power forever ♪ ♪ Be blessing and honor and glory and power forever ♪ ♪ Forever ♪ ♪ Be blessing and honor and glory and power forever ♪ ♪ Be blessing and honor and glory and power forever ♪ ♪ Forever ♪ ♪ Say worthy is the Lamb who was slain and seated on the throne ♪ ♪ There's no one like the Lord ♪ ♪ Let the streets of town be a place to live in the Lord ♪ ♪ There's no one like the Lord ♪

♪ Say worthy is the Lamb who was slain and seated on the throne ♪ ♪ There's no one like the Lord ♪ ♪ And all those creatures bowed be praised in the name of the Lord ♪ ♪ There's no one like the Lord ♪ ♪ Be blessing and honor and glory and power forever ♪ ♪ Be blessing and honor and glory and power forever ♪ ♪ Be blessing and honor and glory and power forever ♪ ♪ Be blessing and honor and glory and power forever ♪ ♪ Be blessing and honor and glory and power forever ♪ ♪ Be blessing and honor and glory forever ♪ ♪ Be blessing and honor and glory forever ♪ ♪ Be blessing and honor and glory forever ♪ ♪ Be blessing and honor and glory forever ♪ ♪ There's no one like you, Lord ♪ Held as creatures by Given praise, even if alone There's no one like You Oh, just begin to lift up a song Just begin to lift up a song Sing out in the spirit Lift up a song of praise Held as creatures by Given praise, even if alone There's no one like You We crown You King of Glory We crown You King of Glory We crown You King of Glory We crown You Lord of all We crown You, You are glory We crown You, You are glory

We crown You Lord of all We crown You King of Glory We crown You King of Glory We crown You King of Glory We crown You Lord of all We crown You, You are glory We crown You, You are glory We crown You, You are glory We crown You Lord of all We crown You King of glory We crown You King of glory We crown You King of Glory We crown You Lord of all We crown You Lord of all We crown You King of glory We crown You King of glory We crown You King of glory We crown You King of Glory We crown You King of glory We crown You King of glory We crown You King of glory We crown You King of Glory We crown You King of Glory You're still worthy is the Lamb Who was slain and seated on the throne There's no one like the Lord Helpless creatures bow Embraced and on their own There's no one like the Lord Worthy is the Lamb

Who was slain and seated on the throne There's no one like the Lord Helpless creatures bow Embraced and on their own There's no one like the Lord Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain and seated on the throne There's no one like the Lord Helpless creatures bow Embraced and on their own There's no one like the Lord There's no one like the Lord There's no one like the Lord There's no one like the Lord There's no one like Him There's no one like the Lord ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ You are lifted high, holy, holy forever. ♪ ♪ If you've been forgiven, and if you've been redeemed, ♪ ♪ Sing this song forever to the world. ♪ ♪ If you're walking free, and if you bear his name, ♪ ♪ Sing this song forever to the world. ♪ ♪ We'll sing this song forever to the world. ♪ ♪ When the angels cry, holy, all creation cries. ♪ ♪ Holy, you are lifted high, holy, holy forever. ♪ ♪ When people sing, holy, to the king of kings. ♪ ♪ Holy, to the king of kings. ♪ ♪ Holy, you will always be. ♪ ♪ Holy, holy forever. ♪ ♪ Holy forever. ♪ ♪ Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. ♪

♪ Your name stands above all. ♪ ♪ Above all thrones and dominions, all powers and positions. ♪ ♪ Your name stands above all. ♪ ♪ Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. ♪ ♪ Your name stands above all. ♪ ♪ Above all thrones and dominions, all powers and positions. ♪ ♪ Your name stands above all. ♪ ♪ Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. ♪ ♪ Your name stands above all. ♪ ♪ Above all thrones and dominions, all powers and positions. ♪ ♪ Your name stands above all. ♪ ♪ Angels cry, call on me. Operation Christ, call on me. ♪ ♪ You are loved and high, call on me. Call me forever. ♪ ♪ You are liberty, call on me. Until the king of kings, call on me. ♪ ♪ You will always be, call on me. Call me forever. ♪ ♪ You will always be, call on me. Call me forever. ♪ ♪ You will always be, call on me. Call me forever. ♪ ♪ You will always be, call on me. Call me forever. ♪ ♪ You will always be, call on me. Call me forever. ♪ Let's just keep singing that. ♪ You will always be, call on me. Call me forever. ♪ No matter the circumstances. You'll always, you'll always be holy, holy forever. In every situation I know you'll be holy, holy forever. Even when I don't feel it, I know you'll always be holy, holy forever. You'll always, you'll always be holy, holy forever. You'll always be holy, holy forever. You'll always be holy, holy forever. Oh, holy forever, so holy forever. Holy.

You'll always be holy, holy forever. You'll always be holy, holy forever. I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice to worship you. Oh, my soul, rejoice. Take joy, my King, in what you hear. May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear. I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice to worship you. Oh, my soul, rejoice. Take joy, my King, in what you hear. May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear. Amen. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪ ♪ Praise Him all creatures here below ♪ ♪ Praise Him above ye heavenly host ♪ ♪ Heavenly host ♪ ♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪ ♪ And amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ We sing amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ Father, we thank you. Jesus, we love you. Thank you that you're always faithful, to show up and show off who you are, God. May we leave this place with a deeper revelation of your holiness, Jesus.

In your name we pray. You know, one of the things that I've noticed over these last years I've been in ministry is that everywhere I go, everybody is looking for a calling. You know, we want to know what our calling is. If I wrote a book called, like, How to Find Your Calling, I could sell, you know, 100,000 copies of it. And, you know, if I told somebody, hey, we're gonna do a conference, and if you come to my conference, I'll teach you how to know what your calling is, oh man, people would be lined up down the street to find their calling. Here's the thing, I can, you know, maybe what people are really asking for is they want to know how to spend the next 50, 60, 70 years of their life. The truth is, your calling isn't what you do for the next 50 or 60, 70 years. Your calling is what you're gonna do for the next 100 million years. Your calling is the thing that you will spend the most time doing, and the thing you'll spend the most time doing is not as a musician or an administrator or, you know, an apostle or a prophet or evangelist or pastor or teacher. Your calling is to worship Him,

to sit at His feet, to come before His throne, and to pour your praises out upon Him. And I think sometimes we feel like, no, no, there's gotta be more to it than that. And I want to caution you today, don't fall into that trap, because there's really not. To worship Him is to set Him at the center of your focus, to set Him on the throne of your life, and to say, Lord, I will serve you and you alone all the days of my life. Your pleasure is my highest priority, and I will chase that reality with everything I have, with every opportunity and every resource that's given to me. So I understand, we're constantly sort of faced with this temptation to come into church, to come into worship, and to think, we're just gonna sing a few songs, and then we're gonna stop, we'll move on from worship, and we'll do other things. Can I tell you, I don't know that there's anything more dangerous to the human soul than to move on from worship and begin to do other things. I heard, I listened to a message recently from Paul Washer.

Sometimes I like to get beat up, and so he blesses me. I'm so grateful for him. And what he said, he said, if you turn your feet toward the path of sin, you have already turned your heart away from the pleasure of God. And if you turn your feet toward the path of sin, you've already turned your heart away from the pleasure of God. Guys, I need you to hear this. If the orientation of our heart is to give God pleasure, to bring God pleasure, then sin can have no place in our life. But if we find ourselves constantly falling again and again and again into temptation, the reality is that our heart is oriented toward maybe our own pleasure, maybe our own satisfaction, maybe the pleasure or the satisfaction or the praise of those around us. Maybe God brought you here today for no other reason than to invite you to lay that down on the altar and say, Lord, I'm going to make your approval the only approval I seek. I'm going to make your acceptance the only acceptance I seek. I'm going to make your word the only word that I seek to obey or to fulfill or to accomplish. I'm going to make you the Lord of every part of my life. Y'all, you know, normally we send the musicians down and we let you go take your seat. And then I talk to you about the offering, but I. If we really are created to be worshipers, we're going to talk about this more today. If we really were made by God to be worshipers, if that's our highest, most sacred calling, I don't want us to be quick to just turn it, turn it off and to shift gears. And so we're going to, we're going to receive the offering here, but I want us to just stay in this, in this place of worship while we do that. And uh, and I want us to understand that our giving to the Lord, it's, it's, it's not just about like financing the church.

It's about, it's about saying, God, you are the God that's, you're, you're, you're worth my singing and my dancing. You're worth my Sunday mornings, my Wednesday nights, God, you're, you know, you're worth my, my obedience and you're worth infinitely more than any treasure I can lay down at your feet. And so in a, in a really true way, long before worship was ever connected to song, worship was connected to sacrifice. And so this morning we're going to continue our worship by way of sacrifice. We're going to give to the work of the Lord. We're going to give to the house of the Lord. We're going to give this morning in our offering. And uh, and so I want you to just sort of right where you're at to just continue to, you know, we just sang this song, praise God from whom all blessings flow. I want you to know that the job that made the money that sits today in your bank account, that's, it was God that blessed you with that, right? The Bible tells us that every good and perfect gift comes down from above from the father of lights. So we, we, we praise the God from whom all blessings flow and we recognize Lord as we give, you know, as we give this morning, we recognize that the God who has been good to us to get us to where we're at today, he's not going to stop being good to us tomorrow. The God who's been faithful to us to get us where we are today, he's still going to be faithful tomorrow. And so, uh, so this morning I want you to just meditate, let's meditate on the goodness of God, how worthy he is to be praised and honored this morning. And let's out of that place. Let's engage in our giving. If you can throw the, the graphic up on the screen there, as you know, there are a few ways you can get, there should be an envelope in the seat in front of you and, uh, and then the QR code, you can use that to scan using your phone or, uh, if you have the app, you can give through the app.

But I want us, for those of you that maybe you're giving from right there in your seat, go ahead and do that. And then let's just stay for just a little bit longer. Let's linger this morning in worship and, uh, and really let this moment be, uh, all of it. The Lord wants it to be, but if you are giving, using the envelope, you're given by cash check or card, you can use that envelope and, uh, and whenever you're ready, uh, we'll be receiving it right here up at the front for the rest of us. Let's just continue to, to lift our hands. Let's continue to lift our voices. Let's just continue to find words to say thank you to the one who is worthy. Come on. The suspense was killing. Thank you. Be seated. It's good to see y'all. Let's, let's talk about that. Uh, that class that Dr. Rich is going to be teaching, um, throw that graphic up again. So I once heard a, uh, a pastor, a mentor of mine say, uh, I can fix every problem in the world by, uh, by fixing the authority problems in every home. He said, if I could put a man of God as the head of every household, I can fix every problem in the world. And, uh, and the more I have seen. life and ministry and leadership play itself out, the more I realize that that really is true. I think, you know, so many of our problems revolve around the way that we respond to leadership and the way that leadership responds to us. And I think the thing I'm maybe most excited about with this class, and it's you should know this, I'm not sort of putting Rich up to this and saying like, Hey, I need you to, you know, tell

everybody to submit to me. It's like, I, here's something I've been saying a lot, not from from the pulpit, but a lot as I've just been talking with people over the last year or so is that submit really just means trust. And, and my, my hope is to be a leader that you can trust. And if for any reason I'm ever not a leader that you could trust, I hope you'll find a leader that you can trust. And I don't necessarily want it to be any more complicated than that. But this is a principle that you see all over the scriptures, it's actually crucial to an effective ecclesiology. That is like the way that we build or organize our church. If we're going to have a church structure that works right, we have to understand spiritual authority, the accountability and responsibility that leaders have, and what we should look for in the leaders that we trust or submit to or follow. But also how we ought to relate to those leaders, that's honor and order. And so I would really encourage you if you're just trying to understand church in general, what the Bible teaches about how a church should function or how we should relate to church leadership, I would strongly encourage you. And, and actually I would even go further. It's not just about church leadership. We're also going to speak about God's order for your home, God's order for your workspace, how you ought to deal with, you know, coworkers, with friends, with family members, how husbands and wives ought to interact with each other, how parents and children ought to interact with each other. You know, these principles of spiritual authority, honor and order, they are principles that go beyond just ecclesiology or just church organization. So I really do hope that you'll make this a priority and that for those six Wednesdays that you will make sure to be a part of

those classes on Wednesday nights. All right. All right. I also need to address, I was wrong last week and you know, I told him, well, yeah, it happens. This isn't the first time I've done this. I would love for it to be the last, but I, I, last week I mentioned that Cain had a son named Enoch and that is true, but it is not the Enoch that is referenced multiple other times. He was from the line of Cain's other younger brother, Seth. And so I just, I told you, I want to be the kind of leader that you can trust. And I, I feel like maybe a part of that is acknowledging when I missed the mark. And so I just, I didn't study carefully enough. And I, I made a point last week that was not biblically accurate. And so I need to just correct that. I'm sure most of you didn't even catch it because you trust me and I thank you for that. But I, I just want you to know I was wrong on that point and I am committed to being better. I've studied this week extra hard. So, you know, recently there has been some scandal surrounding the phrase that will be central to, to my message today. The phrase that is simply the declaration that Christ is King. Now, recently Ted Cruz declared or argued that, that Christ is King is an anti-Semitic declaration that it's somehow against the Jews to declare that Christ is King and, and, and that people are using the phrase Christ is King as a way to insult or oppose or belittle Jewish people. And, and I am not necessarily here to argue with Ted Cruz, but to tell you people can feel however they want to feel about that statement. But truth is the truth. Christ is King. Christ alone is King. And, and over these last couple of days, as I've been praying and preparing for this message, I've had this sense of excitement maybe, or urgency or expectancy about what this week represents.

You know, today is Palm Sunday. This is the beginning of Holy Week. This is sort of the, the, this moment in time throughout the year, this week, millions of people will consider the possibility of the resurrection of Christ. They'll consider, they'll ask themselves questions that maybe they never ask at any other point throughout the year, did Jesus really come back from the dead? And that's interesting for me. You know, I was in a debate years ago with a, with an atheist. who said, you know, you just have, you just have all these ancient documents about some teacher named Jesus. And we just, like, how could we even believe? Like people don't come back from the dead. How am I supposed to believe that? And I said, listen, here's the thing. Jesus was a carpenter from Galilee and a carpenter from Nazareth. And there are hundreds of times, maybe thousands of times more records of his life and teaching than there are emperors and generals who lived at the same time. That would be like if I could go forward in time, 2000 years, and the most widely attested figure from 2026 was like a plumber from El Paso. And that seems ridiculous, but I'll tell you this and this doesn't feel like a big jump. That plumber from El Paso would have to do something pretty incredible to have more documentation than the Elon Musks and Donald Trumps and you know, whoever else may live at our time.

For that guy to be the most widely remembered, widely recorded figure in all of human history, I think is actually pretty compelling evidence that maybe he did raise from the dead because there were lots of teachers. There were lots of leaders. There were lots of sort of revolutionaries at the time. Lots of Jews tried to mount rebellions against Roman occupation. That stuff was common. And so it couldn't have just been that he was another teacher. It couldn't have just been that he was another priest or prophet. It couldn't have been that he was some political figure that people rallied behind because we wouldn't still be talking about him. He would be one among many, but there's something that happened during the life of Jesus that is entirely unique. So unique, in fact, that everybody at the time said, we cannot forget what just happened. We have to make sure everyone knows about this man, Jesus of Nazareth. And so this week, I think people are gonna maybe consider that in ways that they wouldn't otherwise. And multitudes this week by the grace of God will come to salvation by surrendering to him as their Lord.

So today I wanna challenge you to be bold throughout this week and in every week with your witness to the resurrected King. I want you to proclaim what Christ has done, but just as important, and this is what I wanna focus on today. I want you to proclaim who Christ is. And so to this end, I wanna help you see this morning precisely who Christ is revealed to be in the scriptures. That is not just a teacher, not just a prophet or a priest, but as God incarnate, holy and eternal. I wanna go to Matthew chapter 21 to begin with. And we're gonna jump around a little bit today because this is a small entry into a big story. And I wanna go to Matthew 21, and I'm just gonna read this story to you. We'll just read through verses one through 17 and then we'll sort of go back through and we'll consider what this means and how it ties into the broader story of God's unraveling of history. It says, starting in verse one, it says, now when they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, go into the village opposite you, and immediately you'll find a donkey tied and a colt with her.

Loose them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say the Lord has need of them. And immediately he will send them. All this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet saying, tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you lowly and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them and set him on them. And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out saying, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved saying, who is this? So the multitudes said, this is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee. Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And he said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer,

but you have made it a den of thieves. Then the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, did. And the children crying out in the temple, saying Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant. And they said to him, Do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes, have you never read out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants, you have perfected praise. Then he left them and went out of the city to Bethany and he lodged there. Okay. You good? You guys, this is a familiar story. Maybe we're a little bit familiar with the triumphal entry. This is what we celebrate on Palm Sunday. And, you know, as we as we read the story, I think it's easy to sort of take it at face value and to just go, you know, Jesus is coming into Jerusalem and people are laying palm branches down and they're worshiping him. And it's this sort of beautiful moment. But I want you to see that this moment is actually really strategic. This demonstrates God's wisdom and his intent over the course of the ages of human history in an amazing and really profound way. But I want to just go through and we'll sort of draw some things out here. See how the Lord will apply them to our life. I want you to see this. Jesus gives them instruction back in verse two. He says, Go into the village opposite you. And immediately you'll find a donkey tied in a colt with her loose them and bring them to me. It says, moving on in verse four, he says, All this was done. It says all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet saying, Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is

coming to you lowly and sitting on a donkey. I want you to understand this. And I think this is critical for our right view of Christ, that Christ has always allowed common or even lowly things to carry his presence. That's why it's actually so important to our Christology. That's our theology pertaining to Christ. It's so important to our Christology that we not ever entertain any pseudo Christian mythology that presumes that Christ's association with a person or a place is due to some inherent holiness that that thing holds. Here's what I mean. Everybody was very offended that Jesus would be from Nazareth. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Like what is this so special about Nazareth that of all the places the Messiah could come from, that would be the place? You want to know what the answer is? Nothing. There's nothing special about Nazareth. And people, they heard Jesus begin to speak with authority. And he would say, Isn't this Mary's son? This is the carpenter's son, his mother and his brothers, we know them. What's so special about, about Mary? I, you know, I'd even say that there's, you know, an entire sects of faith that sort of argue that there was something inherently special, that Mary was born without original sin, and that because she was born without original sin, that she was uniquely qualified to bear Christ. And I would say, actually, it's really, it's not just wrong, it's actually really important that we understand that that's wrong. The reason it's really important that we understand that's wrong is because if we begin to say that to carry Christ means that you have to have some special qualification, then we disqualify all of ourselves from ever carrying Christ. The truth is, God has always chosen common

things to carry his presence. This is why we argue so fiercely that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, that salvation isn't because you, you know, you went to the right church, you were born into the right family that you have gone through the right classes, you got the right degree or whatever, you were confirmed or, you know, ordained through a particular church, like salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, we put our faith in Christ. And that alone qualifies us that he actually would set his presence on us, even though we are common and lowly like this donkey, you know, I, I love that God, like he did to Balaam still speaks today through donkeys. Right? This donkey is a little bit different. This one in Matthew chapter 21, this donkey speaks through the ages that the Lord Jesus is not intimidated by your lowly station. He is glorious in majesty, and he is also glorious in humility. He is not looking for a person who's born into the right family or raised in the right household or trained in the right school. All he wants is a soul which is yielded to his will. And the soul that is yielded to his will will be able to carry his presence in a way that many may have thought impossible. There's a guy I have met a couple times, I might call him an acquaintance, a man named Todd Pierce. And he is a pretty incredible minister. He's a cowboy and was for a long time. And what he does recently, my son Kai and I, we were at a conference where he ministered. And the way that he ministers is he brings a wild horse into a pen in the middle of this conference. And in front of all the people gathered at the conference, he breaks this horse. He teaches this horse to accept a rider,

a horse that's never been ridden before. He establishes a rapport, a connection with the horse, and then he works to earn the horse's trust. And then he works to teach the horse to accept his weight on its back. And it's an incredible thing. And I watched him do this. I've seen it now a couple times. And most recently when I watched him do it, he got bucked off of the horse several times. And he would get back up and he would begin to draw near to the horse again. And he said something that was so profound to me at the end of this demonstration when he's riding around on the back of this horse that had never been ridden before. He said about this horse, it was a female, and he said, you know, if she would never have yielded to my authority, if she would never have allowed my presence, the weight of my presence to bear down upon her, she'd spend the rest of her life thinking she's free, locked inside of a fence. But he said, because she has accepted my presence and my authority, now she can go anywhere in the world. She doesn't need a fence. She can run trails through the mountains. She doesn't need a fence. She can ride on the sidewalks of the streets of our city. Because she's yielded to my authority,

she doesn't have to live the rest of her life in a cage. She can be free to go and see all that this beautiful world has to offer. I thought that's such a profound reality. And so this too, I think, is what Christ is looking for. Not, you know, not the most prominent or prestigious, you know, entrance into Jerusalem, but a demonstration of his humility and, you know, fulfillment of what is communicated in Zechariah chapter nine. Just as it says in verse four, all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet saying, tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you lowly. I've got that word circled in my Bible, lowly and sitting on a donkey. There's two words here that seem to be in opposition to each other. The first is king and the second is lowly. So you don't hear those words go together very often. This is the way of Christ. His identity is royal. His identity is divine. His identity is glorious and majestic. And yet his character, the way that his authority demonstrates itself is through lowliness. Behold, your king is coming to you lowly and sitting on a donkey.

Now this is a fulfillment to the prophecy or an illusion or a reference to the prophecy that the prophet Zechariah released in Zechariah nine, verse nine. And he says, I don't know if you guys have it, Zechariah nine, nine. It says, rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion. Shout, oh, 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. But I want you to see, I want to just keep reading. There's something about context that really helps the Bible come to life. Let's just keep reading here. Look at verse 10. It says, 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. Look at verse 11. This is my favorite. As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Hey, this is pretty cool. There's this idea. Jesus is coming into Jerusalem

a few days before he sheds his blood to establish a new covenant. It actually would be shortly after Jesus fulfilled Zechariah chapter nine that he would sit with his disciples at the last supper. He would pour the wine and he would say, this is my blood, the blood of a new covenant in my blood. This take as often as you drink it. Do this in remembrance of me. See, there is divine wisdom at play here. God is alluding not just to the humility of Christ. Like the scriptures are not just showing us the humility of Jesus to allow a common or lowly thing to carry his presence, but he's also communicating that 500 years earlier, more than 500 years earlier, almost 600 years earlier when Zechariah was writing during the Babylonian captivity that he saw this king who would come riding on a donkey prophetically. And then he said, there's gonna be blood poured out through a covenant that will set captives free. And so Jesus comes and he fulfills Zechariah nine. by not just by riding on a colt, but by shedding his blood for a new covenant. And so the disciples, they hear his instruction and they went and did as Jesus commanded them. It says in verse seven, it said they brought the donkey and the colt, they laid their clothes on them and set him upon them.

A very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. You notice everybody's just taking their clothes off in this story. It's anti-Semitic. And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. I'm gonna talk about that. Others cut down branches from the trees and they spread them on the road. And the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out saying, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. I want you to pay attention to this. The disciples, they take their clothes off, they take their robes off and they lay them across this donkey. And then all the people, they see Jesus coming on a donkey and they begin to take their cloaks off and lay them on the road. You know, clothing is for us what it was for them. It was an identifier. You could tell if somebody's rich or poor by the clothes they wear. You could tell somebody's estate, their nationality, their upbringing, their lifestyle, oftentimes their job based on the clothes that they wear. And so what they removed in this moment is they removed the things that identify them

to other people. And I think there's something so profound about this idea that these people said, I don't actually have to be known as a wealthy man anymore. I don't have to be known as a beggar anymore. I'm gonna take off my beggar's robes and I'm going to become what I was always meant to be and that is a worshiper. Like that's the beauty of this demonstration here is that these people, as they begin to take off their cloaks, suddenly they're all exactly the same. I think Billy Graham said that the ground is level at the foot of the cross. There's this beautiful idea that Jesus is coming through and now suddenly it doesn't matter who's rich or who's poor, who's from a good family and who's from a bad family, who's been successful and responsible and who's been irresponsible and unsuccessful. Like it doesn't matter what you do for a living. It doesn't matter where you came from, what nation you were born in. What matters is that Jesus is here and we were born to worship him. They removed their accomplishments, their identities and their security and they adopted a new state of being. That is that they became worshipers and worshipers alone. You know, I talked about this earlier. That is our calling.

We spend so much of our time saying, you know, Lord, am I called to be a missionary? Am I called to be an entrepreneur? Am I called to get married one day, Lord? Am I called to be a parent? Am I called to be a teacher, Lord? I'm just not sure. Give me a direction and I just want you to hear this, none of that matters in a thousand years. And in a thousand years, you will still be looking at the one who sits on the throne, declaring his praises and pouring yourself out to worship him. And so if you aren't clear about what God has called you to do, shoot, join the club. People have asked me a lot through the years, Pastor Matty, you know, how'd you know you were called to be a pastor? And I sort of jokingly respond the same way every time. And I say, I'll let you know if it ever happens. I'm just loving the people God sends me, you know? And I'm grateful for this opportunity, but it's not like a calling. My calling is to adore Christ. My calling is to worship him. And every other thing that I do is just to better facilitate that. Every other thing that I do is just to afford that, to finance that,

to raise my children in the family business, which is the worship and adoration of the King of Kings. And so what I see in these people, both the disciples and then the people that line the road into Jerusalem that day, is that they all say, it actually doesn't matter what family I came from. It doesn't matter how much money I paid for these clothes. It doesn't matter my social status or my job or my place in society. What matters is that Christ is exalted when his presence comes before me. And so they begin to cry out. It says, the multitudes who went before and those who followed, they cried out and they began to say this, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Now, I've got to tell you, for many years, I sort of just thought, I don't know what Hosanna means. It's just a word that they would put on a flag in our church around Easter time. And I just thought it was. It's a word like hallelujah that just means like praise God, but it's actually not. This is a lyric from a song that the Jewish people would have been familiar with. It's, it's from Psalms chapter 118. And, uh, and this isn't, uh, a word of praise.

Hosea is not a word of praise. It's a word of, of prayer. It's a cry for deliverance. And in fact, I want to show you, let's go back to Psalm 118 verses, uh, 25. We'll start in verse 25 and we'll just see how far we go. Um, so yeah, Psalm 118 verses 25 through 29. I think you guys have those. Um, it says, uh, save now. That's Hosanna Hosanna save. Now I pray, Oh Lord, Oh Lord, I pray send now prosperity. So that phrase from Psalm 118 25, that's Hosanna. So Psalm 118 would have been at the time, something like a liturgical prayer. It would have been something that the Hebrew people prayed that they would have been familiar with. This is what we cry out. This is a song we sing when we need God to rescue us or to save us. Because here's, here's the thing. It says, save now. I pray, Oh Yahweh. We see in your Bible, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. That's the personal proper name of God. It's not, it's not Lord, like master. It's, it's the Lord like Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey, or Yahweh. That's the proper name of God. And so, so 118 25, what these people are quoting here in Matthew chapter 21, it's a prayer that is clearly and repeatedly aimed at Yahweh himself. Save now, I pray, Oh Yahweh, Oh Yahweh, I pray send now prosperity. Let's keep reading. Look at the verse 26. It says, blessed is he who comes in the name of Yahweh. We have blessed you from the house of Yahweh. God is Yahweh and he has given us light. Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are my God and I will praise you. You are my God. I will exalt you. Verse 29 says, Oh, give thanks to Yahweh for he is good. For his mercy endures forever. Who is Psalm 118 written to?

Somebody say Yahweh. I just said the name. There you go. I just said it a dozen times. You know, here's the thing. Obviously overwhelmingly Psalm 118 is a song written to Yahweh. It's a song crying out saying Yahweh save us. Our only hope for salvation is Lord, if you step into our situation and deliver us from our oppression. And so this is scandalous because isn't this the carpenter's son? Aren't his brothers here with us? We know him. That's Mary and Joseph's kid. He's nothing special. And yet he's riding in on a donkey, but people are, well they're not just honoring him like a king, which would be problematic, but maybe we could understand it. They're not just honoring him as a king. They're worshiping him as God. That's a different level entirely. And that's why in verse 10 says when he'd come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved saying, who is this? That is the question. That's the question that all of Western civilization will have to answer over the next seven days. Who is Jesus? Is he just a teacher? It's hard to believe people would go to such great lengths to record the teachings of a teacher when you had lots of other teachers that didn't get the same attention. Is he a prophet? Is he a, you know, the founder of a new religion? Is he a liar that manipulated people? A con artist? Or is he the Lord Yahweh in the flesh? Now that's who these people were treating him as. They're praying prayers to this man from Nazareth who's riding on a donkey. That's really problematic, at least in the minds of the leaders. And so after that, he sort of doubles down.

He not only is that pretty scandalous and it seems, you know, if I'm one of the scribes, I'm looking at that and thinking, this is, these people don't know what they're talking about. You know, they have poor theology, you know, and I'm scoffing at, these people are praying to Jesus like he's God. That's crazy. And then in verse 12 it says, then Jesus went and pay attention to that word then. It's, it's important when you see that in the Bible because it means These two things are connected. It doesn't mean eventually at some point in the distant future. It means like the next thing Jesus did, after riding through the streets and receiving worship and prayer that are only due to God himself. Verse 12 says, then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And he said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. And so in this, he quotes, he quotes, what is that Psalm? Isaiah 56 and Jeremiah 7, 11. But this is the thing that I think is actually really interesting to me is that Jesus comes in and the first thing that he does,

he clears the temple, but specifically it says that he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. Now, here's the thing about the money changers is what they were doing is that they were selling animals to be sacrificed in the temple. So people were coming into the temple saying, I am a sinner and I need to make atonement for my sins. In fact, in Leviticus chapter five, there's an explicit exception. There's sort of a instruction for sacrifices for the atonement for sins. And then it says, if you can't afford a ram or a goat, what you can do is buy a dove, get yourself a dove and sacrifice that instead. And so this is the way that poor people would have to make atonement for their sins. So they would come to the temple and they would take the money that they'd earned and they would buy a dove and they would bring that dove to the altar and a priest would help them sacrifice it so that they could be forgiven for their sins. So it seems really interesting that Jesus would come into town and his first act in Jerusalem would be to halt this practice of the atonement for sins. He stops in its tracks,

the religious activities that were instituted actually in the Old Testament. And he says with his actions, like no more, this is over. Jesus shut down in that moment, he shut down an industry that for many people made religiously mandated sacrifice possible. They could not continue to make sacrifices to atone for their sins. Why would Jesus shut down the practice of sacrificial atonement for sin? Why would he do that? Because the all sufficient sacrifice had just come into town on the back of a donkey. Because he was declaring, like understand, Jesus wasn't overwhelmed with emotion and just angry at the money changers. Jesus was declaring with his actions, strategically saying, I need you all to understand that this entire system of animal sacrifice was pointing to me. And I'm now just days away from laying myself down, shedding my own blood to make atonement for the sin of all who would put their faith and their trust in me. Why would Jesus make it impossible for people to continue making sacrifices to pay for their sins? Because he himself would make the ultimate sacrifice to pay for their sins. And so he says to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you've made it a den of thieves.

And then the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. And I love this, the blind and the lame, the poor might be another way to say it. They would come to the temple to try to buy a dove to get God to forgive them so that maybe God might bless them somehow and Jesus met them where they were at and without charging a fee, healed them. See, this is the beauty of the gospel. It's that it is always accessible to any heart willing to yield to him, any heart willing to admit that they are in need of a savior. I think that's the only prerequisite is that we would be humble and honest enough to say, I cannot pay for my own sin. I certainly can't make myself free from it. Jesus, wash me in your blood and save me. From my sin, this is what Jesus begins to do in the temple. The blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. But as always happens with people that hold control in religious institutions. When the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, they were indignant. And they said to him, do you hear what these are saying? They said, Jesus, these people are praying to you like your God. They're making two big mistakes. Here's what they're saying. They're saying, Hosanna to the Son of David.

Now this statement, that one exclamation, is steeped in centuries of religious history and theology. In fact, that word Hosanna, we talked previously that it's borrowed from Psalms 118, verse 25. Save now, Hosanna, I pray, O Yahweh, O Yahweh, I pray, send now prosperity. But then they call him the Son of David. Now if you're familiar at all with the story of David, you know that in 2 Samuel chapter 7, that God made a covenant with David. And he made this covenant with David in 2 Samuel chapter 7, that from his line, that there would be a king born, and a kingdom established. That the Messiah, the anointed one, that would set up a kingdom, which would stand forever and ever, and which would never be overthrown, that this person, this king who would be coming, that he would be the descendant, or the son, of David. And so these people are indignant, they're offended, they're upset, they're furious, because these people are doing two things simultaneously by saying Hosanna to the Son of David. The first is they're praying to Jesus like he's God. And the second is that they are declaring Jesus to be the fulfillment of God's promise to David, the Messiah that they've been waiting for, for centuries. And so they're upset, they're offended, Jesus, don't you hear what these are saying? Here's what they're saying, really, Jesus, you've got to know these people's theology is bad, right? I mean, they're praying to you like you're God. Don't you want to clear some things up? Jesus, don't you want to just set the record straight? These people are praying to you like you're God, they're honoring you like you're the promised Messiah. We know that you're doing good things, you're healing some people in the temple, that's cool, but you've got to set the record straight for all these poor, uneducated people. You're not really God, right?

I mean, you're not really the Messiah, Jesus. Can you clear this up? And I love Jesus' response here, you want to know what it is, yes. This is what he says next, Jesus, do you hear, and this is, what is this, verse 15, 14, 16. And they said to him, do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, yes, period. Yeah, I hear them. And then he asked them a question, have you never read out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants you have perfected praise? And Jesus quotes Psalms 8, yeah, of course, they're praying to me like I'm God. Haven't you read Psalms chapter 8? And I'm sure you're wondering what Psalms 8 says. And so he quotes Psalms 8, verse 2, now let me find this for you, but I'm going to start in Psalms 8, verse 1, okay? Remember, Jesus says, yeah, they're praying to me like I'm God, but haven't you read out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants you have perfected praise? This is what Jesus quotes, Psalm chapter 8. You should have read this by now, scribes. You guys should know Psalms 8 pretty well. Here's how Psalms 8 starts, O Yahweh our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth who have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants you have ordained strength. Because of your enemies that you may silence the enemy and the avenger. So I love, this is the conversation that happens. The chief priests and the scribes come to Jesus and they say, Jesus, they're praying to you like you're Yahweh. Can you correct them? And then Jesus goes, of course they are. It's because I'm Yahweh. This is what he's, in Psalms, like this is the thing.

You hear people on TikTok will say, well, Jesus never claimed to be God, incorrect. It's incorrect. He's doing it right now. Like Psalms 8 is literally, what are the first, look at Psalms 8, 1. Who is this song to? Oh, Yahweh, our Lord. That's how it starts. Jesus is given the opportunity to go, hey, listen, guys, I'm not Yahweh, I'm just a guy. And he doesn't do it. He says, of course, they're praying to me like I'm Yahweh. I am Yahweh, that's who I am. Oh, Lord, oh, Yahweh, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth, who set your glory above the heavens out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants. You have ordained strength because of your enemies that you may silence the enemy and the avenger. I wanna keep reading because I love this psalm. He says, it continues, when I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you visit him? For you've made him a little lower than the angels and you've crowned him with glory and honor. You've made him to have dominion over the works of your hands. You've put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field,

the birds of the air, the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas. Oh, Yahweh, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth. Guys, this is Jesus' response. When given the opportunity to clear up exactly who he is, he does just that in a way that is beyond scandal and utterly offensive to the religious spirit. When given the opportunity to clear things up for the scribes who were very concerned that people were praying to and worshiping Jesus as if he was God, his answer was simply, yes, that's because I am God. Now, this is the single most scandalous reality in all of human history, that the God of glory, the holy and righteous king of the cosmos would lower himself to step into humanity, not to be loved and adored, revered as a king, but to be born to a poor couple in Bethlehem, to spend much of his time with tax collectors and prostitutes and fishermen, to ride into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, ultimately to be arrested, humiliated, crucified, and killed by the same people he chose to die for. Scholars and scribes, they're okay with the idea of the God of endless glory and majesty, but the God of endless humility and lowliness still confounds and eludes them. It demands, the revelation of the God of endless humility and lowliness demands that we recognize Christ as God

and God as infinitely more meek and humble than we will ever be able to articulate. And the only response to the revelation of the God who has condescended, that is the God who has lowered himself to be knowable and accessible to mankind is our unreserved and unceasing adoration. What do we do with a God who becomes a man who rides a donkey into a city that will kill him a few days later? We take off the things that identify us, the things we use to impress and attract others, and we say, Lord, you alone are worthy of our honor and our adoration. You are holy and you are good, and we will follow you even if it means death. Guys, I want to challenge you this week, and I'll leave you with this. I wanna challenge you this week to spend time considering the radical humility of God and what this week communicates to us about the radical humility of God. Let's let go of this idea that God is, you know, isolated on some cosmic throne a billion light years away from human existence and recognize that that God who easily could be isolated on some cosmic throne stepped into time and space to know humanity and to be known by humanity. In this season of the year, as people maybe stop to consider or debate,

or decide who exactly Jesus is, we have to remember that Jesus is the demonstration of the humility of God, and he is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only means by which anyone can come to the Father. And I wanna challenge you this week to live with some urgency, to recognize that there may not be another Easter service to invite people to. Your neighbor may not get another chance. That family member you've been praying for and waiting for the opportunity, they may not get another invitation. There may not be another moment that they get to say maybe later. This might be the last opportunity they ever have to come to the house of God, to hear the gospel proclaimed and to respond to it. So this week, I want you to pray and say, Lord, can I maybe be the reason somebody comes to church for the first time? More importantly, Lord, could I maybe be the reason someone comes to faith? And I want you to just ask God to show you those opportunities and to give you the courage to make the most of them. Amen. Lord, we thank you for your humility. Thank you that you are not just the God of majesty and glory, but you're the God of humility and lowliness.

And Lord, we pray that you'd teach us your ways. Let us be those who are willing to lower ourselves to serve those around us. Teach us, God, humility, true humility. Teach us to serve and not to be served, to love and not to have to lead. Father, we thank you that you have placed each one of us strategically in relationships and industries and neighborhoods that desperately need the good news of Christ. Thank you, Lord, that that gospel is alive in each one of us. We pray, Father, that you'd make us bold this week to maybe step across some of the lines that culture has drawn for us, to connect with those around us and to invite them not just to our church, not even just to our religion, but to invite them into our family and into our lives. Lord, we give you our hearts today. And we say, Lord, be glorified in us and through us by any means necessary. And we ask this in the mighty, wonderful, victorious name of Jesus, your son. Amen. Family, God bless you. Thank you so much for being here. We'll see you Wednesday night for our last class on our identity in Christ. Thank you, guys.