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Page Three:  “A Truly Humble King” - 03/24/2013
  It’s so important for us to believe what the Bible says. And it clearly says that Jesus was recognized as a king at His birth and then in His death, He was crucified as the King of the Jews.

  But let me add this. The word “Christ” means “The Anointed One. Christ is the same as the Hebrew word Messiah. So, when you read these words in the Bible “Jesus Christ,” you are reading “Jesus the Messiah.”

  The Messiah was the divinely appointed King of Israel. The OT Scriptures predict that He was to descend from the line of David and restore the Jews back to their homeland and reign over them.

1. He was to descend from King David – II Chronicles 7:18
2. All Israelites would return to the land – Isaiah 11:12
3. There would be no more hunger, illness, or death – Isaiah 25:8-9
4. The dead would rise again – Isaiah 26:19
5. There would be tremendous joy and singing, and all sorrow and mourning will be removed – Isaiah 51:11
6. He would bring peace – Isaiah 52:7

  And then Jesus, the Promised Jewish Messiah arrived and the Jews, especially the Jewish leaders refused to acknowledge Him as their king.

  So I began to wonder. Why? Why did the Jews refuse their Messiah? And the answer is found in the Palm Sunday story. The answer is found in this one thing.

  What kind of king was He to be?

  And the answer is one that, not only the Jews, but the entire world should be willing to receive. Here it is.

  Jesus Christ came as a truly humble king.

  First, Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the King of Israel.
  Second, if He were a king, wouldn’t Jesus, the King, have ridden into Jerusalem on a warhorse (a stallion)? Instead He rides in on a donkey? a lowly donkey?

  Would the Promised Messiah come to His people on the back of a donkey? 
  Again, go back to the Scriptures for the answer. Here’s the prophet Zechariah.
Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
(10) And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.”

  The Jewish leaders did indeed believe some of the OT predictions about the coming Jewish Messiah. But they completely disregarded passages like this one.

  Here’s what Zechariah predicted five hundred years before Jesus was born. Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.”

  The whole reason why Jesus rode into the city on a donkey was this. He came, not for war; but for peace. The donkey, rather than the warhorse, symbolizes humility, gentleness, and peace. The simple fact is that Jesus came to bring peace.

  And He is our Peace. Ephesians 2:14 “For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;…”

1.    First, then Jesus truly is a king.
2.    Second, He announced Himself as a humble king.
3.    Third, Jesus has the qualities of a good king.

Here’s a list of qualities that you will find in the life of Christ, the good king.

1.    He’s loyal.
2.    He’s generous.
3.    He’s bold (courageous).
4.    He’s sinless.
5.   He’s just. Proverbs 16:10 “A divine sentence is in the lips of the king: his mouth transgresseth not in judgment.”