Over the years, I have come to give the same response to people who are looking for a new church.  Years ago, I stopped telling people they had to find one that preached the Bible because most evangelical churches claim to preach and teach the Bible.  I have increasingly told them something like, “If you find a church you think might be acceptable, attend there for about a month or so.  Think about the picture of God that is presented. If you hear about God’s grace and mercy and love and patience, but you don’t hear about his majesty, his transcendence, his holiness, justice and wrath—not just in the songs they sin but from the Bible teaching, find another church.”  There may be churches that are imbalanced in the other direction, (and that is just as unhealthy) but not nearly as many in our day.  I use this as my yardstick because frankly, the character of God a church preaches and teaches will be reflected in the gospel they preach and it’s the gospel that is “the power of God unto salvation.”  The content of the gospel they preach is the most important indicator of its health. 

 

The Bible is a story about God and within its pages there is a very balanced view of God and the picture of Jesus presented in Scripture reflects that balance which is especially important for us to maintain with Good Friday and Easter approaching.  This morning, as in years past, we want to present Luke’s account of Jesus in his entrance into Jerusalem in all its humility. But we also want to look at another picture of Jesus to be revealed in the future to which his humble entrance very much looks forward to.  The hope is that we will see a balanced picture of Jesus that will help us to better understand and appreciate the cross of Christ which stands at the center of our faith and provides the saving power of the gospel.

 

In Luke 19, Jesus has just finished telling a parable as he approaches Jerusalem. We pick up the narrative in verse 28. “And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.  ²⁹When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, ³⁰saying, "Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here.”  As you read this account in Luke 19, you might be tempted to think this is the one time during Jesus’ Passion Week where we see him clearly as the majestic and exalted King in a context otherwise dominated by humiliating events. Though it might appear that way, that’s not the case.  In fact, Luke presents this opening scene in Christ’s final week as an acted-out parable carefully orchestrated by the Lord.  Jesus oversees every significant detail of his entrance into Jerusalem specifically to communicate his identity, not as an exalted King, but as the HUMBLE, Servant.  Let’s briefly unpack the elements of this acted-out parable to see how this powerfully radiates the humility of Christ.

 

First, as Jesus rides into Jerusalem, Luke tells us that he is on a donkey—a donkey that has never been ridden.  In the Ancient Near East, kings rode on donkeys that had never been ridden so this animal was the mount of a king.  However, in the case of Jesus no one except a couple of his disciples knew the animal had never been ridden.  So the fact that this was a king’s mount was intentionally concealed from the people.  Matthew’s account interprets these events by quoting Zechariah 9:9 and says, “Say to the daughter of Zion,’ Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.'”  It’s important to know that the Jews did not understand these verses in Zechariah to be referring to the Messiah until the fourth century AFTER Christ.  Jesus knew they were Messianic verses and Matthew, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit knew this, but the people and rabbis lining the road leading into Jerusalem would not have associated this donkey with the Messiah.  That was intentionally concealed from them.

 

The reason scholars call this story an “acted out parable” is because one of the main reasons Jesus spoke in parables was to conceal or obscure the truth.  Mark 4:12 tells us Jesus taught in parables so that the people hearing them would “…see but NOT perceive…hear but NOT understand lest they should turn and be forgiven.” This was an acted-out parable because Jesus’ royalty was intentionally kept hidden from the people.  A valid question is--“but what about the people in the narrative who said, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord?”  John’s gospel helps us out here because in his account of this event the people along the road also cried out, “Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.”[v.13] But three verses later John records in 12:16, “His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.”  The surrounding context in John’s gospel reveals that the crowds that paid tribute to a king were NOT doing so because they witnessed the easily recognizable trappings of royalty.  In truth, they were there because they were impressed with his raising of Lazarus from the dead and were prophetically shouting far more than they really knew.  This is like the case of Caiaphas, the High Priest who said of Jesus in John 18, “It is expedient for one man to die for his people.”  John tells us that he had no idea he had uttered a prophecy—he spoke far more than he knew. 

 

Gospel scholar Robert Stein is right when he says about this entrance into Jerusalem, “In the minds of most of Jesus’ audience that day, this was essentially a pilgrim’s welcome of Jesus of Nazareth.”  This entrance into Jerusalem communicates the humility and gentleness of this then-veiled King.  That’s the essential message Jesus seeks to communicate through his orchestration of the “triumphal entry.”  As we think of the humility of Christ, we must not divorce Christ’s humility from his transcendence and holiness that are also revealed in the New Testament.  Any serious attempt to appreciate the humility of Christ and what he did for us in his Passion, MUST place it against the backdrop of his awesome power and majesty. You simply cannot rightly understand or treasure the humiliation of Christ unless and until you see it in the light of the exaltation of Christ. In fact, if Christ is not transcendent—almighty—infinitely beyond us in power and glory, that drains his humiliation of its meaning.  It would be no great condescension for one of us to be crucified first because-- in our sin we deserve it and second, because--we are not the majestic Lord of the universe offering himself, bloodied and naked as a sacrifice for sin. 

 

In the case of this “Triumphal Entry,” the humility conveyed in Jesus’ first royal entrance is most appreciated when compared to the majesty of Jesus’ second kingly entrance into this world.  As we contrast this first humble entrance with his future, UN-veiled entrance as King, then by God’s grace we will begin to more fully appreciate and worship Christ for what he did for us in his humiliation. So let’s proceed by looking at the SECOND entrance of this King in the 19^th chapter of the Revelation. And as we read this, try to absorb the profound contrasts between this second entrance, with Luke’s account of Christ’s first royal entrance.

 

Let’s begin reading in verse 11.  John is recounting his vision of the second coming of Christ and says, “Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.  ¹²His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.  ¹³He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.  ¹⁴And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.  ¹⁵From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.  ¹⁶On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. ¹⁷Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, "Come, gather for the great supper of God,  ¹⁸to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great."  ¹⁹And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army.  ²⁰And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.  ²¹And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.”

 

In the Apostle John’s vision, we have a dramatically different set of kingly attributes on display.  Here, the emphasis is decidedly NOT on the humility and gentleness of a veiled, Servant King, but on the terrifying majesty and holy wrath of the Warrior King.  There are some striking parallels in these two accounts—so much so that it seems God wants us to examine these two entrances side by side.  Let’s compare first, the animals that serve as our Lord’s mount in each entrance and what they communicate about him.  In Revelation 19, Christ is pictured on a white horse exploding out of heaven.  The white horse is the blatantly majestic mount of kings and more specifically in the Ancient Near East, the white horse was the mount of kings who had gone to war and had conquered (!) their enemies.  Fittingly, his entire army rides on white horses signifying the overwhelming conquest this King will bring.  This is THE conquering King. While the never-ridden donkey in Luke 19 whispers gentleness and a concealed majesty, the white horse of Revelation 19 trumpets raw power and conquest.  Paul describes this same entrance in Second Thessalonians 1:7-8 and says at his second coming Jesus will be “... revealed from heaven with his mighty angels  ⁸in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”  The glorious and triumphant Warrior King here erupts out of heaven with His mighty host in blazing fire. On this entrance, he’s not escorted by uninformed and fickle followers who have no real clue about what is happening.  In this entrance, Jesus will be escorted by a host of warrior angels who burn with his zeal for the just punishment of his enemies.

 

A second contrast between these two accounts is seen in the disposition of Jesus toward those who witness his entrance.  Remember Jesus’ attitude toward those in Jerusalem in Luke 19?  In verse 41, He looks over the city and weeps over it.  Jesus knows that Jerusalem, the city of David, home of God’s temple—a city near to His heart will be pillaged and defiled at the hands of blasphemous Roman soldiers.  In verse 42, we see Christ’s compassion for this city.  He says, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”  He longs for the PEACE of Jerusalem and for its inhabitants.  Knowing this would not happen, he weeps over it.

 

The contrast with Christ’s disposition toward those who will witness his second entrance in Revelation 19 could hardly be more striking.  There is no weeping here--the bell has tolled, the hour, struck!  Verse 13 tells us His robe has been dipped in blood and the symbolism is graphic.  This time, the blood spilled will not be his own, but that of his enemies.  Verse 15 says the King, “will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.”  This is a terrifying picture depicting Christ in a winepress trampling over and crushing--NOT grapes to be turned into wine, but rebel sinners whose bodies will serve as bird food—his enemies, whose spattered blood drenches his robe.  This is a withering picture of divine judgment.  The most horrific aftermath scenes of our most gory military battles are only a faint shadow of the scene depicted here of the gruesome end of the millions who will oppose Christ and will be summarily crushed by him.  In his first royal entrance into Jerusalem, Christ humbly rides over freshly picked palm branches tossed in front of him.  In his second entrance, this same Christ mercilessly treads over his enemies like grapes in a wine press.    

 

Revelation 19:21 concludes the account of the violent end of Christ’s enemies.  It says, “And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.”  At his second coming, the Messiah will not be weeping over the fallen rebels of the earth; He will be slaying them with His sword, which is the word of his mouth.  The time for shedding tears is long past.  This King speaks lethal words that bring destruction upon his enemies.  The Word of his mouth, with its creative power to bring the universe into being has now become an instrument of incomparable destructive power as it instantly destroys all those who oppose God. The ironic truth about this last great battle is that there really isn’t any last battle in any conventional sense.  The armies of the world unite and form battle lines, but the two massive armies never even engage one another because the King speaks his Word of judgment and its over before it has begun—without a fight.  In his first entrance, those in Jerusalem who refuse the Kingship of Christ are portrayed as ignorant and are wept over.  In the second entrance of the King, those who refuse his reign are his enemies and they are summarily slaughtered.  The eyes that once shed tears of compassion and sorrow now appear as “flames of fire” as they burn with the searing and holy wrath of God’s judgment.

 

A third contrast between these two entrances is seen in Jesus’ level of accessibility and approachability to others. Luke shows us a King who is approachable, even vulnerable.  We can easily relate to this man.  He is riding a donkey, enjoying the adulation of the crowd.  We can almost picture ourselves standing by the side of the road, tossing out palm branches in front of this Prophet from Galilee.  He knows the decimation that will come to the city of David and he weeps over it.  There is tenderness, mercy and compassion.  Jesus, as we see him on Palm Sunday and the rest of Passion Week is accessible and vulnerable to us.  Not so, the Warrior King of Revelation 19 whose spoken words are lethal to billions.  How dramatically different that is from his Passion.  When he was suffering for us, his mouth—this ultimate doomsday weapon…remained silent.  “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” [Isa. 53:7]

 

The humble, Servant King at Calvary wears a crown of common Judean thorns placed on him by a Roman soldier, mocking his identification with royalty.  It digs into his brow and the blood from his wounds runs down His face.  Hours earlier, the soldiers had shoved a wooden stick in his hand as a mock scepter for a caricature king.  In Revelation 19, the caricature is gone; replaced by the glorious reality of the awful majesty of the Warrior King.  No one mocks this King!  Verse 12 tells us, “…on his head are many diadems…” or crowns.  The many crowns signify that there is no kingdom anywhere where this King does not rule—He rules over ALL of them!  He is the KING of all kings and the LORD of all lords and these crowns were placed on His head, NOT by some mocking pagan soldier, but by His omnipotent Father.  The ridiculous wooden “scepter” is gone.  Now he brandishes in his hand an “iron rod” or “iron scepter.”  This is the final fulfillment of the scepter of Judah about which Jacob first prophesied 4000 years ago in Genesis 49 when he said, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah” [v.10].  This is the long-awaited royal scepter of Christ signifying his eternal rule over all.

 

Revelation 19:12 says, “…he has a name written that no one knows but himself.” His approachability is gone—no one even knows his Name—it is so holy, so sacred, so divine it is hidden from common use.  There is inscrutability here.  This King is transcendent—beyond our understanding.  No created, finite being can fully grasp Him.  He is the “…the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, [to him]  be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” [1 Tim 1:17] Jesus has now shed the self-imposed limitations of this material realm and reveals Himself to be the infinite and eternal God, clothed in splendor and majesty.  In His first advent, He comes as a Lamb to be slaughtered; at His second appearing, he shows himself to be the ferocious LION of the tribe of Judah who lunges out of heaven to strike his rebel prey.  At his first coming, the Lamb offers himself as a silent and submissive sacrifice for sin.  In his second coming, we know from Revelation 6:16 that those who deserve his judgment will be “calling to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.”

       

As we said earlier, the point is not simply to contrast these two royal appearances.  The point is to remember that the Biblical texts that display the humiliation of Christ must be understood in the broader context of his exaltation.  What ultimately reveals the glory of this first, humble entrance we celebrate on Palm Sunday is the truth that this gentle, peace-bringing Messiah is in fact also the invincible Warrior King who will one day burst out of heaven in the fury of divine wrath.  This One seated on the donkey, whose homespun garment became the prize in a penny-ante craps game, will one day appear in the robe of a conquering King—a robe drenched in the blood of his enemies.  Peter said in Acts chapter two that this One who was crucified is “both Lord and Christ.” [Acts 2:36]

 

We see this Jesus when Paul in Philippians chapter two writes of him,  “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form,  ⁸he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  ⁹Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,  ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  This week, as you read through the events of Jesus’ passion, don’t forget who it is that suffered the shame, humiliation, pain and death for you.  We must see his humiliation in the light of his exaltation if we are to love him rightly.

 

Today, the image of Christ the suffering Servant is rightly much loved in the church, but Christ the Warrior seems to be something of an embarrassment within evangelicalism.  As strange as it may feel in our superficial and unbalanced church culture, our hearts should soar as we read the account of Christ’s decisive judgment on the wicked for at least three reasons.  First, the Biblical accounts of the judgment of God remind us of what those of us who trust in Christ will be spared.  When we read of Christ’s merciless extermination of his enemies with the sword of his mouth, that should cause us to overflow with thanksgiving over the undeserved miracle of God’s saving mercy toward us.  One reason why we must have a biblically balanced view of God is because what good is it if we say that God is merciful—which means he has spared us from the wrath we deserve, if we don’t know something about the wrath we have been spared.  God’s mercy draws all of its meaning from his wrath—his mercy implies his wrath—you can’t have mercy without wrath. 

 

Of what value is there—what life changing power is there in knowing that you’ve been given God’s grace and forgiveness, if you don’t know how much a holy God hates sin and just how richly, comprehensively we deserve his terrible judgment, not his grace.  Ray Comfort says that having a knowledge of grace without a knowledge of God’s hatred of sin is like being given a parachute when you’re not aware you are plummeting to your death.  The parachute of God’s grace is meaningless unless you know how much you deserve his punishment and how ready he is to issue it apart from Christ.  For the believer, pictures of divine judgment, especially gruesome ones as we see in Revelation 19, should stir our hearts with unending gratitude over what we have been spared through the cross. 

 

Second, the Biblical accounts of God’s judgment on sinners remind us that in Christ, we have the privilege of introducing people to Christ the Servant King so they will not have to taste the wrath of Christ the Warrior King.  Those who are in Christ have the one key in the universe—the gospel--that delivers sinners from the Warrior’s wrath as they call in faith on the One who died for sins.  We have this gospel message and are given the high honor of being called as ambassadors—representing our King to this world and bringing a message of peace with God to those who, as they live for themselves, are warring against him. As we picture that final battlefield with its hideous carnage and the multitudes who will be mercilessly cut down by the righteous judgment of God, we must remember that we have been charged to deliver the message of peace that alone can save rebels from their sin and deliver them from something far worse than even that field of blood. 

       

A final point of application is for you if who have never placed your trust in Christ—who have never experienced the forgiveness of your sin and the life-changing power of the gospel.  That is:  Allow the truth of both of these advents of Christ to compel you to receive his mercy.  If you don’t know him as your Lord and Savior, you must place your trust in him today.  The Bible says, “…now is the favorable time, now is the day of salvation” [2 Cor. 6:2] and the reason NOW is the time is because NOW (in this time before his second entrance), Christ weeps over those who are estranged from Him.  Now he comes to you in mercy and gentleness.  Now, he relates to sinners as a Savior.  But do not be deceived.  If you delay in responding to his incredible mercy, this window of divine grace will one day close—He will come to you, not with an open, nail-pierced hand of love, but with his lethal sword of eternal judgment.  His words to you will bring, NOT mercy and grace, but instead, instant and eternal death.  You will experience, NOT his love, but his unending wrath because your sin is repugnant to a holy, sin-hating God and He must and will punish you in unending wrath.  He died on the cross to bear my sin—to take my sin upon himself and receive the punishment I deserved.  NOW you have an opportunity to cry out to him in faith.  Confess that you are a needy sinner—place your trust in Christ alone and he will forgive your sin and give you new life in him.

 

Those are the only two options open to you.  Now, in his grace and mercy he lovingly pursues you.  But if you refuse to repent of your rebellious desire to live for yourself instead of him, then from his holy justice, you will experience the consuming fire of his holy wrath.  Come to Jesus and know mercy and redemption through the cross.  May God give us the grace to know Christ in the fullness revealed in his Word and worship him in a way that reflects all of who he is