{"id":918,"date":"2021-02-15T17:01:47","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T17:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/?p=918"},"modified":"2023-01-14T22:28:03","modified_gmt":"2023-01-14T22:28:03","slug":"your-king-comes-to-you-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/02\/15\/your-king-comes-to-you-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Your King Comes to You"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The First Sunday in Advent<\/strong>| <strong>November 29, 2009<\/strong>| Rev. Rolf Preus|<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/AdventOne2009.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u00a0 St. Matthew 21, 1-9<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them &#8220;Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me.&nbsp; And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, `The Lord has need of them,&#8217; and immediately he will send them.&#8221;&nbsp; All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: &#8220;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.'&#8221;&nbsp; So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.&nbsp; They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them.&nbsp; And a very great multitude spread their garments on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.&nbsp; Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: &#8220;Hosanna to the Son of David! `Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!&#8217; Hosanna in the highest!&#8221;&nbsp; St. Matthew 21, 1-9&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We don\u2019t have kings these days.&nbsp; I saw the king of Norway when I was a boy.&nbsp; It was a pretty big deal.&nbsp; But it\u2019s not as if he had any real power.&nbsp; He was just a celebrity.&nbsp; Royal monarchs are a thing of the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But authority is something everyone understands.&nbsp; The man says do it and you must do it.&nbsp; That\u2019s authority.&nbsp; If you don\u2019t do what he says something is going to happen to you and you won\u2019t like it.&nbsp; Nowadays authority is much less personal than it used to be.&nbsp; Half the time you can\u2019t even find out who made the rule or who can change the rule.&nbsp; I think most of us would probably rather have a king than an impersonal bureaucracy that will fine you because you didn\u2019t do what you didn\u2019t know you had to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We confess that Jesus is our king.&nbsp; We are the daughter of Zion.&nbsp; We are the true Israel.&nbsp; Jesus is the Son of David and the true king of Israel.&nbsp; He is the Christ: the final prophet, priest, and king.&nbsp; He is the prophet.&nbsp; His word is the final word from God.&nbsp; Indeed, he is the Word made flesh.&nbsp; He is the priest.&nbsp; He offers himself as the sacrifice to God to reconcile the holy God to this sinful world by taking away the world\u2019s sin.&nbsp; He is the king.&nbsp; As king he governs with full authority.&nbsp; He rules.&nbsp; What he says goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But his authority is different than other rulers.&nbsp; He is different.&nbsp; He is God in the flesh.&nbsp; He knows what a mere man would not know.&nbsp; He knows where the donkey and the colt will be.&nbsp; He knows that his disciples will have no trouble finding them.&nbsp; He knows that everyone will cooperate with their efforts.&nbsp; After all, he is the one who inspired Zechariah the prophet to write:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!<br>Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!<br>Behold, your King is coming to you;<br>He is just and having salvation,<br>Lowly and riding on a donkey,<br>A colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9, 9)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He is the one who will see to it that the prophecy is fulfilled.&nbsp; His authority is divine.&nbsp; He is the Lord Jesus.&nbsp; His authority is biblical.&nbsp; He comes to fulfill what was written of him.&nbsp; Think of how often the New Testament writers say that something happened to fulfill what was written by the prophet.&nbsp; Our King\u2019s authority is divine.&nbsp; It is biblical.&nbsp; It is evangelical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that\u2019s a word tossed around quite a bit in the church: evangelical.&nbsp; We know that evangelical is good.&nbsp; But what does it mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s an adjective.&nbsp; It modifies a noun.&nbsp; Jesus has evangelical authority.&nbsp; He is an evangelical king.&nbsp; His church or kingdom is evangelical.&nbsp; Evangelical comes from the word evangel which means gospel or good news.&nbsp; The good news is that Jesus has lived and died for us and has taken away our sins by his vicarious obedience.&nbsp; He has obeyed the law in our place.&nbsp; He has suffered for our disobedience to the law.&nbsp; In so doing he has set us free from the judgment of the law.&nbsp; He has saved us or rescued us from our sins and from the death we deserved.&nbsp; He has destroyed the power of the devil over us and has set us free.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Bible uses many words to express the truth of the gospel: redemption, forgiveness, justification, salvation.&nbsp; The gospel makes no demands of us.&nbsp; It is the good news that tells us what Christ has done and is doing to rescue us from our sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The reason we know we need a Savior from sin is because we know God\u2019s law.&nbsp; God\u2019s law tells us what we must do and not do.&nbsp; God\u2019s law teaches us to love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God\u2019s law teaches us to love God above all things.&nbsp; It teaches us to use God\u2019s name reverently and faithfully in prayer and to confess his truth.&nbsp; It teaches us to love his holy word and to seek out instruction from him.&nbsp; It teaches us that we must love God and what he says more than we love ourselves or anyone else in the world.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God\u2019s law teaches us to love our neighbors.&nbsp; We are to love them as much as we love ourselves.&nbsp; The law doesn\u2019t tell us to love ourselves.&nbsp; We naturally do that.&nbsp; The notion that people need more self-esteem is one of the biggest spiritual cons of our generation.&nbsp; We don\u2019t need more self-esteem.&nbsp; We need the very opposite.&nbsp; We need to humble ourselves before others, placing the needs of others before our own.&nbsp; We need to set aside our own desires for the sake of honoring our parents and others responsible for us.&nbsp; We need to care as much about our neighbor\u2019s wellbeing, marriage, property, family, reputation, and future as we care about ourselves.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God\u2019s law tells us to love God above all things and to love our neighbors as ourselves.&nbsp; God\u2019s law teaches us to love.&nbsp; God\u2019s law condemns us for our failure to love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then comes our king.&nbsp; He loves.&nbsp; He meets the demands of love.&nbsp; He meets the demands we didn\u2019t meet.&nbsp; He shows us how it is done.&nbsp; But much more than that, he loves in order to fulfill the demands that love placed on us.&nbsp; He loves as our substitute, as our representative.&nbsp; He meets the demands that divine loved placed on us all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Look at Jesus and you will see love.&nbsp; He has all authority in heaven and on earth and yet he comes to his people in humility.&nbsp; Look at how he exercises power.&nbsp; Look at how he chooses to appear to his people.&nbsp; He is lowly.&nbsp; He is humble.&nbsp; He comes to his people riding on a donkey.&nbsp; He doesn\u2019t come to strike terror in the heart.&nbsp; He doesn\u2019t come to judge.&nbsp; He doesn\u2019t come to lay down the law.&nbsp; He comes in humility to save his people from their sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the key to understanding his kingship and his kingdom.&nbsp; It\u2019s a question of authority.&nbsp; It is evangelical authority.&nbsp; It\u2019s the authority of the gospel.&nbsp; St. John writes of him:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And<sup> <\/sup>of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.&nbsp; For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (St. John 1, 16-17)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Legal authority can only do so much.&nbsp; It can show us what is right and wrong.&nbsp; It can teach us what to do.&nbsp; It can teach us what to avoid doing.&nbsp; It can urge, threaten, judge, and punish.&nbsp; But it cannot make us obey.&nbsp; The law is powerless to empower anyone to do anything.&nbsp; The law is power.&nbsp; But it is power only to destroy.&nbsp; It cannot deliver us from our own sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We need a king with evangelical authority.&nbsp; Jesus is that king.&nbsp; He has the authority to forgive us our sins.&nbsp; He has the authority to fill us with his Spirit who changes us on the inside and moves us to obey God.&nbsp; Jesus doesn\u2019t threaten us.&nbsp; He doesn\u2019t judge us.&nbsp; He doesn\u2019t punish us.&nbsp; He comes in humility.&nbsp; He is the almighty God.&nbsp; He is the one before whom everyone in heaven and on earth will bend the knee and confess him to be the Lord God.&nbsp; But he comes to us in a way that we can receive him.&nbsp; He hides the majesty of his glory underneath deep condescension.&nbsp; Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Advent is a forgotten season of the church year.&nbsp; It used to be a time of repentance.&nbsp; The Church would eliminate the Gloria in Excelsis and the Hallelujahs from the Divine Service.&nbsp; She would focus on preparing to celebrate the birth of the Savior.&nbsp; First we need to confess our sin.&nbsp; Then we need to hear the gospel.&nbsp; There is no evangelical authority \u2013 there is no authority to forgive sinners \u2013 except where the law has done its work.&nbsp; We must acknowledge our sin.&nbsp; We must confess it.&nbsp; The gospel of the forgiveness of sins is for sinners who want to be set free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nowadays Advent is largely ignored.&nbsp; The Christmas season begins with the Thanksgiving holiday.&nbsp; It\u2019s a busy time of the year.&nbsp; It\u2019s a sentimental time of the year.&nbsp; It\u2019s an expensive time of the year.&nbsp; It\u2019s as if we can achieve peace and goodwill by spending money.&nbsp; But we cannot.&nbsp; The peace of Christmas is for those who are brokenhearted.&nbsp; They have exiled themselves from God by their sin.&nbsp; They know it.&nbsp; They can\u2019t deny it.&nbsp; They need a king with evangelical authority.&nbsp; Jesus comes to them, claiming the authority to forgive sins.&nbsp; And he does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Church sings.&nbsp; Jesus enters.&nbsp; \u201cBlessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.\u201d&nbsp; And so he comes.&nbsp; Not with vengeance.&nbsp; Not with judgment.&nbsp; Not with punishment.&nbsp; He comes to us in his very body and blood.&nbsp; He invites us to eat and to drink.&nbsp; He forgives us all our sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your king is coming to you.&nbsp; He is coming to rule over you.&nbsp; He will do so by taking off of you the burden of guilt that you carry with you.&nbsp; He carries it himself.&nbsp; He takes it to the cross and there he sheds his blood to wash it way forever.&nbsp; Your king is coming to you.&nbsp; He is coming to rule over you.&nbsp; After taking your burden of sin off of you he fills you with his love.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are his holy Church.&nbsp; As such, we bear his own name and that is the LORD, our righteousness.&nbsp; By making his righteousness our own he identifies us as his.&nbsp; He lays claim to genuine evangelical authority over us.&nbsp; We live under grace.&nbsp; That is the abundant life.&nbsp; It\u2019s the only life worth living.&nbsp; Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The First Sunday in Advent| November 29, 2009| Rev. Rolf Preus| \u00a0 St. Matthew 21, 1-9 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them &#8220;Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied,&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/02\/15\/your-king-comes-to-you-3\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,4],"tags":[5,282,238],"class_list":["post-918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-sermons","category-sermons-by-historical-lectionary","category-sermons-by-rolf-preus","tag-advent-1","tag-matthew-21","tag-rolf-preus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":920,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918\/revisions\/920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}