Zechariah 2:6-12 (New International Version)

Propheting: Crowning Our King

Zechariah 2:10-12&nb= sp;(New International Version)

¹⁰ "Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you," declares the LORD. ^1=
1 "Many nations will be joined with the LORD in that day and will become= my people. I will live among you and you will know that the LORD Almighty has = sent me to you. ¹² The LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem.

Zechariah 9:9-10&nbs= p;(New International Version)

The Coming of Zion's King

⁹ 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 <= br>        and from the River to the ends of the earth.

Zechariah 14:6-9&nbs= p;(New International Version)

⁶ On= that day there will be no light, no cold or frost. ⁷ It will be a uni= que day, without daytime or nighttime—a day known to the LORD. When eveni= ng comes, there will be light.

⁸ On= that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and half to the western sea, in summer and in winte= r.

⁹ Th= e LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and = his name the only name.

Propheting: Crowning= Our King

Zechariah 2:8-10, 9:= 9-10, 14:6-9

“At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow in heaven and earth…= Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

The composer of that beautiful anthem was paraphrasing scripture. The Apostle Paul t= ells us that a time will come when every knee will bow before Jesus Christ and e= very tongue confess Him as Lord. (Phil. 2:10)&n= bsp; Paul simply encourages us to go ahead make Christ Lord of our lives = now.

Closely connected to the idea of Christ as Lord is the= image we find elsewhere in the Bible of Christ as KING. The two concepts are interchangeable. We bow befor= e Lords…and Kings.

Of course, we don’t know much about kings in this country. Our forefathers beli= eved that was too much power to entrust into the hands of any one person, so we = have Presidents instead. It’s still a very important and powerful position, but it’s a far cry from being King.

1. So much of what we find in the Old Testament, however, could be summarized by the phrase, “The King Is Coming.” And THEY saw this as a good thing.= Their perception of kings back the= n was quite different from ours today.

Ancient Israel actually wanted a king. Their neighbors all had them. They = felt they would be better off if they had one too; so God gave them a king. Of course, they got disappointed o= ften—some of their kings were notoriously bad; but they still held out hope that one = day…they would have a truly great king.

Zechariah is one of many Old Testament prophets who fo= retold a time when God would send Israel such a king. He would be the perfect King! They said this = king who would be a descendant of David, who was regarded as their best king so = far--only this new king would be even greater than David.

Zechariah assures the people that God is already plann= ing to do this. They should be glad = and joyfully anticipate this King’s arrival. Listen again to what he says:

“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Dau= ghter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you…&= #8221; (Zech. 9:9a)

Now, when we get to the New Testament, we discover that Zechariah was foretelling the coming of the only king who ever deserved the position. He was pointing for= ward to the arrival of Jesus, God’s one and only Son, the “King of K= ings” and “Lord of Lords.”

Remember how Zechariah said this king would arrive in = Jerusalem? “See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, t= he foal of a donkey.” (Zech. 9:9b)

That’s not really the way we would expect a king= to arrive, but when we jump from the Old Testament to the New, we find Matthew describing how Jesus sent His disciples into Jerusalem to fetch a donkey and her colt (Matthew 21). Jesus then ride= s into the Holy = City on the back of that donkey—amazingly, just as Zechariah said He would so many centuries a= go!

A large crowd gathered that day and lined the streets = of Jerusalem to welc= ome Jesus. They cut palm branches, which they used along with their coats, to pave the way before Him. And they shouted, “Hosanna t= o the Son of David! Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (Ma= tthew 21:9)

We call this Jesus’ “Triumphal Entry;̶= 1; and we refer to the occasion as Palm Sunday, which is coming up in just a coupl= e of weeks now. The point is the p= eople of Jerusalem welcomed Jesus into their city as a King.&= nbsp;

But we know the rest of the story—how they quick= ly changed their minds and turned against Jesus. Sadly, He was not the kind of king= they were looking for—not quite what they wanted.

Instead of pledging their allegiance to King Jesus, th= ey turned on Him. How dare He disappoint them! And in their anger, they crucified Him.

We can only assume they had forgotten what Zechariah s= aid He would be like. They also had = to overlook what Isaiah and the other prophets had said about this king God would send = them.

They thought they knew what they needed, and they cert= ainly knew what they wanted; but Jesus wasn’t it! He paid a high price for being the= kind of king God chose for them instead of the kind that they would have chosen = for themselves.

Do you think that after Jesus’ crucifixion, many= of them went back to believing that “the king is still coming?” Did they hope that someday a king would arrive, and he would be just what they desired, and tell them only what they wanted to hear, and make th= em great by their own standards—which were the only ones that seemed to = matter to them?

They went back to looking for a king that God would ne= ver send. The time for “the king is coming” was over. It had already happened—the prophecies were now fulfilled.

Sadly, they missed it. They chose to wait for a king who would be more to their liking—just as so many do to this day.

2. Zechariah’s prophecy comes c= lose to the end of the Old Testament. As the Old gives way to the New, “the king is coming” is replaced = by the glad shout, “The King Is Here!”--which is what I would like for us to consider next.

The King is here, but His story is unlike any other. Consider how it begins. Jesus was born to a simple couple&= #8212;Joseph and Mary were not people of any means or influence—yet, in a way that’s still hard for us to comprehend, the baby Jesus arrived on Pla= net Earth as a King.

Shepherds got the message first—then wise men fr= om the East. They traveled a great distance to ask the whereabouts of the child who was born to be—what?= —“King of the Jews.”

That, of course, didn’t go over well with the ty= rant who was already in that position. Still, the wise men found Jesus and prese= nted Him with gifts fit for a king!

Then we come to the time Zechariah foretold—when= Jesus, all grown up now, entered Jeru= salem on the back of a donkey; and the people shouted, “Hosanna! The King is here! Blessed is the King who comes in t= he name of the Lord!”

I can’t help but wonder if maybe even that day, = some were questioning why He had chosen to ride a donkey into town—instead= of a horse. Horses are more impressive, and, well…certainly, more appropriate for a king—ri= ght?

If only they had known their Bibles better. Zechariah had told them this God-s= ent King would be humble and gentle. H= e would come to them in peace…on a donkey!&n= bsp; Maybe those images just didn’t register with them—but Je= sus arrived in Jerusalem just like the prophet said He would.

Maybe if they had remembered how King David got his start—as a shepherd boy—a humble occupation, to be sure. The point is there were so many si= gns that this new king God had for them would be different—that true greatness for God is not a function of wealth or power, but results from qualities of the spirit, like humility, love, and peace. Why is this so hard for us to see?=

A few days later, they actually crowned Jesus king. Remember? They did it in a cruel, degrading = way—by placing a crown of thorns on His head, with a bent reed for a scepter, and a sign above His head that read, “This is Jesus, King of the Jews.̶= 1;

This was no joke, however. Jesus was the “real deal,= 221; something that became much clearer three days later. God rolled back the stone from his= tomb and raised Jesus from the dead as King forever—Ruler over life and de= ath, Lord over all time and eternity.

“The King Is Here,” friends; but He did no= t come to occupy the thrones of nations. Jesus came instead to rule in my life and yours and in the lives of = all who will ever confess Him as Savior and Lord. He is, as this great doxology clai= ms, ‘…the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, to whom belongs honor and glory for ever and ever.’ (I Tim. 1:17)

3. So here is the opportunity and cha= llenge before us today: “Crown Jesu= s King!” The Old Testament prophets describ= ed what to look for when they told us, “The King Is Coming.”

The New Testament then tells us the story that “= The King Is Here.” He’= ;s arrived! Jesus fulfilled those ancient prop= hecies in such amazing ways that only God could have pulled it off. This was no fluke or accident. Jesus Christ is King!

But this leaves us with a decision to make. Do we, today, crown Jesus as our K= ing…or do we instead crucify Him as an impostor?&= nbsp;

I know there seem to be a lot of possibilities in betw= een—but in God’s eyes, I believe there’re really only these two respons= es we can make. We either receive Jesus as our King, or we reject Him. We crown Him or we crucify Him.&nbs= p;

Some try to find middle ground, I suppose—sort o= f like the crowd lining the streets of Jerusalem, people shouting praises and wavi= ng palm branches--all with great emotion.&nbs= p; But when confronted by the demands of discipleship, by Jesus’ = call to sacrificial living and giving, they refuse to follow Him further.

They crowned Him king, but only for a few days. We may seem to embrace Jesus as ou= r king, only to fade away when tested, to deny Him when confronted--in effect, to t= urn our backs to Him as He’s being led away to be crucified.

There is a better way—and it’s the only wa= y that leads to life. It is when we receive Christ Jesus as our King. It is when we give to Him the allegiance of our hearts. It is when we take up His cause in= this world and follow His lead wherever that takes us.

We may not be so familiar with kings, but I promise yo= u…we all have one. We each have a = crown that we place on the head of something or someone. Whether we realize it or not, we h= ave a king!

The crown we use for this coronation is composed of our highest love and devotion. It= ’s worn by whomever or whatever it is in which we place our faith and trust. This person or philosophy or objec= t then reigns supreme as king of our lives.

It’s not an easy thing for us to place this crow= n on the head of Jesus—even though this is required in order to follow Him= . Our lives, though, are plagued by = the same kinds of mixed motives and misconceptions as those who so long ago pra= ised Jesus one day and nailed Him to the cross a few days later.

They struggled with pride and selfishness, the same as us. They desired power and greatness, and these temptations are still with us. One of the toughest challenges for= most of us when it comes to crowning Jesus King of our lives is taking that crown off our own hard heads so that we can place it on Jesus.

There’s still that image thing. There’s something inside mos= t of us that doesn’t think a king riding on a donkey is quite the image we want to project. You know wha= t I mean?

But listen: to do what God needed done, Jesus had to be radically different from the kings of this world. Their ways--the ways of wealth and= power and politics--have never solved our problems, nor will they ever. For worldly kings, there is always= too much ME for the main focus to be US (the common good).

Only a king like Jesus—totally humble and self-g= iving, even when that meant dying on a cross—can show you and me “the = way of life.” We can’= t crown Jesus King until we admit how much we need for Him to change our lives. It’s a transformation so rad= ical that it’s like being “born again.”

It takes a king like Jesus to help us see how wrong we= are to be so focused on ourselves that there’s no room left for God or ot= her people. By the Father’s= design, following Jesus humbles us, opening us up to the exciting possibilities of living our lives for God and others—in other words, living our lives&= #8230;like Jesus.

Today, friends, we all hold a crown in our hands—= ;and we have to place it somewhere. The time has come to search our hearts and ask, “Is Jesus Christ my King? Have I placed the crown= of my highest love and devotion upon His head?&n= bsp; Do I know beyond all doubting today that Jesus is my Savior, my Lord= …my King?