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Homonyms

Definition: In linguistics, a homonym is one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings

• Iraqi Head Seeks Arms
• Soviet Virgin Lands Short of Goal Again (During the Soviet period, the Russians developed virgin lands for farming in Kazakhstan and elsewhere.)
• British Left Waffles on Falkland Islands
• A Chocolate Moose for Dinner

Here's One More: KING JESUS

• You wouldn't think that is a word we define differently depending on the context...but looking at the last week of Jesus' life, his biggest discussions and battles were over this term.
• Are you the king?
• What sort of a king are you?

The Title "King" Follows Jesus

At his birth, the title King rang out.

Matt 2:1-2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem  and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."  When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

Result - Herod killed all the young ones in Bethlehem

At his death, the title "King" was nailed over his head.

Mat 26 Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus said, "You have said so."

Matt 27:29     and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said. 

Matt 27:37     Above his head they placed the written charge against him: this is jesus, the king of the jews. 

Matt 27:42     "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 

Jesus was a different sort of King

John 18:36 Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."

1.  What Sort of King is Jesus?

A.  Commandeering the Colt

The animal is commandeered because "the Lord needs it."

Cultural Background:

• a major religious or political figure could request the use of livestock
• custom known as angaria

Someone who knew Jesus or his disciples might well have been ready to lend an animal to them.

Angaria applies to the Universe

My favorite Abraham Kuyper quotation comes from a speech that he once gave before a university audience in Amsterdam. Since scholarship deals with God's world, it has to be done in such a way that it honors Christ. Kuyper concluded with this ringing proclamation:

"There is not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry out, ‘This is mine! This belongs to me!'"

If this is true of the donkey ... its definitely true of everything I "THINK" I own.

• My car
• My money
• My marriage
• My body
• My time
• EVERYTHIING

Jesus Is Following His Plan

For him the coming events will include no surprises.

He has announced the sequence of events.

When the disciples' experience exactly fits what he has predicted (vv. 32-34), this theme is strengthened

The might of the world, the most sophisticated religious system of its time allied with the most powerful political empire, arrays itself against a solitary figure, the only perfect man who has ever lived.  Though he is mocked by the powers and abandoned by his friends, yet the Gospels give the strong, ironic sense that he himself is overseeing the whole long process.  He has resolutely set his face for Jerusalem, knowing the fate that awaits him.  The cross has been his goal all along.  Now, as death nears, he calls the shots. (Philip Yancey)

B.  Jesus On David's Throne

1 Kings 1:29-35 - The king then took an oath: "As surely as the Lord lives, who has delivered me out of every trouble, I will surely carry out today what I swore to you by the Lord, the God of Israel: Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he will sit on my throne in my place." ...King David said, "Call in Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet and Benaiah son of Jehoiada." When they came before the king, he said to them: "Take your lord's servants with you and set Solomon my son on my own mule and take him down to Gihon. There have Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him king over Israel. Blow the trumpet and shout, ‘Long live King Solomon!' Then you are to go up with him, and he is to come and sit on my throne and reign in my place. I have appointed him ruler over Israel and Judah."

The image of a man riding in to Jerusalem on a mule wouldn't be missed.

C.  The People Sing Psalms

Psalm 118:26: "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!

• The use of the psalm is significant
• in Jewish worship it was seen ultimately as celebrating God's plan.
• One day the one greeted as coming in the Lord's name would be the Messiah

Psalm 118:1 - Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Psalm 118:19-29 - Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation. The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. O Lord, save us; O Lord, grant us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you. The Lord is God, and he has made his light shine upon us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will give you thanks; you are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

"Peace in heaven and glory in the highest"

Song of the angels

Luke 2:14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

Jesus Accepts The Worship

Luke 19:39 - the Pharisees tell Jesus to stop the people from saying such extreme things

Jesus replies "if they keep quiet the stones will cry out."

Many say that Jesus was just a good man, a great moral teacher

If so, he would not have let the people say these things about himself.

The procession into Jerusalem clearly shows that Jesus is a KING.

The question remains, what sort of King is he?

A Military King?

- Rebellion against Rome

Jewish King?

- Only Jewish people

- Force Jewish culture on others

Jesus is the sort of king with a spiritual kingdom:

Luke 17:20-25 - Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,' or ‘There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you." Then he said to his disciples, "The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. Men will tell you, ‘There he is!' or ‘Here he is!' Do not go running off after them. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

This Text in Luke's Context

-Look for changes of subject and location

- Then see how the text flows between those natural "breaks"

Luke 19 is one unit of thought.

• Zacchaeus
• Parable of the 10 Minas
• Triumphant Entry
• Lament over Jerusalem
• Cleansing of the Temple

All these work together to show us how Luke would describe what sort of King Jesus is.

2.  Jesus is the Sort of King that Makes Insiders into Outsiders

Book-Ending the Entry are Two Odd Accounts.

• Before the Story is a parable of 10 servants
• After the story is Jesus Crying, lamenting over Jerusalem

Parable of the 10 Minas

Luke 19:11-14 - While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. He said: "A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. ‘Put this money to work,' he said, ‘until I come back.' "But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don't want this man to be our king.'

Did you notice v.14? But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don't want this man to be our king.

This is based on historical fact

• At the death of Herod the Great
• His son, Archelaus, had to (like the guy in the parable) make a great journey to receive his "kingly power"
• He had to be ratified by the imperial government in Rome
• During his absence a group of his subjects followed and made a petition to Rome for him to not be made king because of his npopularity.

These are all citizens of the kingdom by birth.

But their citizenship isn't enough.

Lament over Israel (v.41-44)

Fulfilled in AD 70

• Titus of Rome overruns the city
• Final Act is a great siege
• Rome built an embankment around Jerusalem

- Waited for starvation and frustration to come in

-  Tore it to the ground

- The people were sold as slaves, or massacred, or saved to die in the arena.

- Jerusalem was left a ruined city by the siege, its Temple destroyed, the walls nothing but rubble.

3.  Jesus is the Sort of King that Makes Outsiders into Insiders

Story of Zacchaeus

Jesus initiates a conversation with a motivated God-seeker

Cleansing the Temple

Jesus makes it clear that the fringes are to attract, not repel

ILL - Magnet and Iron Filings

NOT - a broom (sweeping cat hair)

Isaiah 2:2-4 - In the last days the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

Isaiah 56:6-8 - And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the Lord, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant- these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations." The Sovereign Lord declares- he who gathers the exiles of Israel: "I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered."

1 Corinthians 14:24-25 - But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!"

Paul Barnett--a very conservative Australian author, writes about 1 Cor 14:24-25.

"Despite all efforts to devise 'programs' for evangelism and outreach, the gathered congregation, in its life and ministry, remains a potent force for gathering in the 'outsider.' Churches and their ministers, however, must ensure that the word of the Lord is intelligible and powerfully taught so that the visitor will indeed say, 'God is with you.' " 

Conclusion

Are we followers of the King?

• 1) Test yourself, are you inside only because you have an insider mentality, or have you repented and loved Jesus as your king?
• 2) Are you working the fringe? Reaching out to the Zacchaeus' of the world? Cleaning the temple for prayer?

Will Durant, in The Story of Civilization, writes

There is no greater drama in human record than the sight of a few Christians, scorned and oppressed by a succession of emperors, bearing all trials with a fierce tenacity, multiplying quietly, building order while their enemies generated chaos, fighting the sword with the word, brutality with hope, and at last defeating the strongest state that history has known.  Caesar and Christ had met in the arena, and Christ has won.