Human beings are wired to love the idea of a king. Not the boring constitutional monarchy kind, where the king mostly cuts ribbons and waves from balconies, like King Charles of England — but a real king. A strong, decisive, rides-in-on-a-warhorse, fixes-everything, defeats-the-bad-guys kind of king.
We love stories about good kings riding out to conquer evil and set every wrong right. Think about it. Star Wars, Avatar, the Marvel movies, and all the stories of King Arthur and Robin Hood reflect our longing for a conquering king who will set the world right. It is in our DNA.
You see it today in our politics, no matter whether you are a Republican or Democrat — our politics are really just people arguing about who the best king would be. We want a leader who will ride in, take charge, and make everything right. I think that is why Trump has been so popular with conservatives. He tends to be a no-nonsense, kick-down-the-door, get-the-job-done, regardless-of-the-cost kind of leader.
That’s not a statement about whether he is a good president, but just my theory about his popularity and his following.
We all long for a good king! The crowd that gathered when Jesus rode into Jerusalem at the beginning of Passover week was no different.
After four hundred years of silence from God, four hundred years of foreign occupation by the Romans, crushed rebellions, and a longing for change, here comes Jesus, riding into Jerusalem to the shouts of “Hosanna, Son of David!” and people waving palm branches (everytime you hear me mention branches, that’s your cue to wave your palm branches, let’s practice: everyone was waving palm branches), and laying their cloaks on the ground for His donkey to walk on as a sign of honor.
This is their king moment. This is what they have been waiting for, but Jesus is about to redefine what being king really means.
Our series has been Who is Jesus? This is the most important question you will ever answer. How you answer this question will define your identity, the course for your life, and where you spend eternity. That seems like a question worth considering.
Who is Jesus? This morning, we will look at Jesus, the King. That is the title for my message today.
It is the Sunday of Passover week in Jerusalem. The city is full of Passover pilgrims, people who have traveled there to celebrate. Everyone is buzzing with anticipation, whispers running through the crowd: Is this the one? Is this finally the moment?
Passover, if you don’t know, is a celebration of the Exodus, God delivering His people from a foreign oppressor, Egypt. The political side of the Passover celebration was obvious to everyone. It was the whole point of the season for many Jews.
Rome was watching. The Roman governor Pontius Pilate rode into Jerusalem from Caesarea Maritima, opposite Jesus, during Passover with soldiers to maintain the peace during the festival season.
Here is the thing most people may not realize: First-century Jews, as they were waving their branches, were not waiting for a spiritual Savior in the way we use that term today. They were waiting for a conquering king — a son of King David who would drive out Rome, reestablish Israel’s sovereignty, and usher in a golden age of national glory.
They are not wrong that He is King, but what they are about to discover is that His kingdom is not what they think it is. That is why the same people who are crying out for Jesus to deliver them will be crying out for Him to be crucified 5 days later.
Let’s look at Matthew’s account of Jesus’ triumphal entry to Jerusalem to see what kind of king Jesus is.
Matt 21:1-3 (CSB)—When they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, Jesus then sent two disciples, telling them, “Go into the village ahead of you. At once you will find a donkey tied there with her colt. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them at once.”
First, Jesus is …
The Intentional King
Jesus had planned this moment. He knew exactly what He was headed into and was deliberate in His actions.
The Triumphal Entry is not spontaneous. Jesus is intentional with every detail. He has been preparing the disciples for what comes next, telling them that He is going to leave them soon, but that the Holy Spirit will come and lead them. When they get near Jerusalem, He sends disciples ahead with specific instructions. He knows exactly where the animals will be. He knows exactly what He is doing.
This is the only moment in the Gospels where Jesus deliberately stages a public, visible display of His identity. He has repeatedly withdrawn from crowds. He tells those He heals not to reveal His identity. Look at what happens earlier, after Jesus feeds the five thousand:
Jn 6:14-15 (CSB)—When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Therefore, when Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
Up to this point He kept his kingly identity under wraps. Now, with the cross days away, He rides in openly, on the colt of a donkey.
It’s probably hard for us to understand Jesus’s choice of transportation for His entry to Jerusalem. Imagine a modern nation in the grip of military occupation, waiting for a liberator. Word spreads that the liberator is arriving today. Crowds line the streets. And then — he pulls up in a minivan.
That’s basically what Jesus did. The crowd, waving their branches, wants a warhorse. They get a donkey. They want General Patton. They get someone who rides in on an animal that symbolizes peace.
Why now? Because the time is right, the time of God’s choosing has come. The King is making His claim — not with armies and weapons, but on His own terms, in His own way.
Jesus is intentional about His coming to Jerusalem. To everyone else, even His disciples, the scene probably seemed chaotic, but all the events of that day happened by God’s design.
A good reminder to us that even in the chaos of our own lives, God is intentional and His plan is playing out. Someone this week said it to me this way: God is in the details. He is in the details of our lives. Not just the big moments and giant catastrophes, but He is even in control of the small details.
Next, we see that Jesus is:
The Prophesied King
Matt 21:4-5 (CSB)—This took place so that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled: Tell Daughter Zion, “See, your King is coming to you, gentle, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
This is a direct quote of Zechariah 9:9, written 500 years earlier. The prophet described Israel’s coming king arriving not on a warhorse — the symbol of military conquest — but on a donkey, the symbol of peace.
As they are waving their palm branches, the King has arrived exactly as advertised — for anyone who had read the advertisement.
Matthew’s entire Gospel is built around the theme of fulfillment — Jesus is the completion of everything Israel’s story was pointing toward.
When Pastor Matt talked about Jesus the Historical Figure, he showed us that the historical evidence for Jesus is solid. Here we see not only that Jesus was a real person in history but also that His coming was anticipated centuries before He arrived.
Many of you have heard this illustration before, I know I have talked about it, but I think it is worth sharing again.
In his book Science Speaks, mathematician Peter Stoner calculated the probability that any one person would fulfill just eight of the over 300 messianic prophecies found in the Old Testament. His figure was one in ten to the seventeenth power — that is, a one followed by seventeen zeros.
The chance of one person fulfilling 8 messianic prophecies = 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000
To illustrate that number, he suggested covering the entire state of Texas two feet deep in silver dollars, marking one of them, and asking a blindfolded person to reach down into that sea of coins and pick up the marked one on the first try.
Jesus fulfilled not eight but over 300 messianic prophecies. The Triumphal Entry — riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, people waving branches and Jesus hailed as the Son of David — was one of them, written down five centuries before He arrived. Think about that for a moment.
The kind of King Jesus is, was never hidden. It was written down 500 years in advance for anyone willing to read it. The question is not whether the evidence is there — the real question is whether we are willing to follow that evidence to where it leads and deal with the implications of its truth.
Jesus is the Intentional King and the Prophesied King. He is also
The Misunderstood King
Matt 21:6–9 (CSB)—The disciples went and did just as Jesus directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt; then they laid their clothes on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their clothes on the road; others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road. Then the crowds who went ahead of him and those who followed shouted: Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!
They got the King right but the Kingdom wrong.
Theologically, the crowd is correct. Son of David is a royal, messianic title. They are identifying Jesus as the promised King of Israel. What they are shouting is not wrong.
But their Hosanna—save us now! — has a specific kind of salvation in mind. They want Rome gone. They want Israel restored. They want a political, military, national deliverer.
By Thursday night, Jesus will be arrested, and by Friday, He will be dead. The crowd turned on Jesus that quickly, not because He failed to be King, but because He wasn’t the kind of king they wanted.
When answering the question, “Who is Jesus?” We are all prone to creating, in our minds, a Jesus who fits our agenda. A Jesus who will bless our plans, endorse our politics, and give us the kind of life we’ve already decided we want.
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the crowd assumed they knew what kind of kingdom He was building.
What happens to our faith in Jesus when He doesn’t meet our expectations? What happens when life does not go the way we think it ought to be going? I’m not saying what you are going through isn’t genuinely excruciating. I’m not saying that your difficulties are insignificant or unimportant.
I simply think we need to remember that even though life circumstances can be horribly difficult, that doesn’t mean God is not intentionally involved. Those circumstances are not an indicator of the depth of your Heavenly Father’s awareness or His love for you. Don’t misunderstand what God may be doing.
Why? Because Jesus’ kingdom often doesn’t look the way we expect it to, but even though it may not be what we expect, it is greater than our finite minds can imagine.
When the Apostle Paul prays for the Ephesian church in Ephesians 3, he ends his prayer with this:
Eph 3:20-21 (CSB)—Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us—to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
His kingdom is greater than we can ask or think and that kingdom and that power is at work in those who love Him and follow Him. But the crown for that kingdom came at a cost.
Jesus is an Intentional King, a Prophetic King, and a Misunderstood King, and He is also …
The King of a Costly Kingdom
Matt 21:10-11 (CSB)—When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in an uproar, saying, “Who is this?” The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”
They were waving branches and shouting. The city was in an uproar. The Greek word used here for uproar is σείω (seiō). It means to shake or tremble. Jerusalem is shaken by His arrival.
And within the week, it will be shaken again, literally this time, when Jesus dies on the cross.
Matt 27:50-51 (CSB)—But Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit. Suddenly, the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth quaked, and the rocks were split.
The word for “quaked” in verse 51 is that same word, σείω (seiō). Jerusalem was shaken once again, but for a much different reason than the first time.
As Jesus was nailed to the cross, they hung a sign above Him that read: This Is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Though it was hung there to mock Him, they didn’t know that they were actually participating in the coronation of the one true King.
But this King’s kingdom would come with a high cost. His crown was made of thorns that would bloody his head. His royal robes came with a flogging by a cat-of-nine-tails. His throne was a cross as He was crucified with nails through His hands and feet.
Just five days earlier, people were waving branches and celebrating Jesus, but now His enemies thought Jesus’s kingship was defeated. But nothing could be further from the truth. The King who rides in on a donkey in peace is the same King who lays down His life in love.
What they did not understand is that this costly kingdom operates entirely upside-down from every kingdom the crowd in Jerusalem — or we — would ever design. The power of Jesus’ kingdom is expressed through surrender. Victory is achieved through death. This is a King who saves not by crushing His enemies but by absorbing their worst sins and betrayal because of His love for them.
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What I am trying to say this morning is that following Jesus as King is not transactional. It is not a deal that you make with God where you follow Him, and He improves your existing life.
Following Jesus is a transfer of lordship. Following King Jesus means taking yourself off the throne of your life and putting Jesus there.
It costs you the kingdom you’ve been building for yourself. And what He offers in exchange is not a better version of what you had, but something you could never have built on your own. A kingdom that is above and beyond all that we could ever ask or think. It is a kingdom where we are made sons and daughters of the King himself. It is a kingdom that will never end.
If Jesus is this kind of King — one who conquers through sacrifice and reigns through love — then He is uniquely positioned to be the ANSWER to the deepest questions and longings of the human heart.
Chris Hankel 
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