The Gospel of John (7)
Pray Psalm 47.1-4.
Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples!
Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
For the LORD Most High is awesome;
He is a great King over all the earth.
He will subdue the peoples under us,
And the nations under our feet.
He will choose our inheritance for us,
The excellence of Jacob whom He loves.
Selah
Sing Psalm 47.1-4.
(Truro: Shout, for the Blessed Jesus Reigns)
O clap your hands, you peoples all, with joy to God your songs intone!
Shout out to Him, and on Him call, He is the mighty, sovereign One!
High is the LORD, O, fear His Name! He rules, a King o’er all the earth.
Nations and peoples He has tamed, the heritage of His holy worth.
Read Jn. 1.47-49; 12.12-16; 18.33-37;19.19-22; 20.24-28; meditate on John 12.12-16.
Preparation
1. How did the people greet Jesus as He entered Jerusalem?
2. How can you see that Jesus was conscious of fulfilling ancient prophecy?
Meditation
Jesus both wrote the script for this triumphant entry and played the lead role in His own drama. The people had seen and heard enough of Jesus to know that He had been sent by God and, extrapolating beyond Psalm 118.26, that He was the King of Israel. The long-awaited King of Israel.
Which is to say that they were about to be in for a huge disappointment. For Jesus was not the king they expected. He acknowledged that what the people were exclaiming was true (Lk. 19.39, 40). He had come to their capital as their King, but humbly, sitting on a donkey’s colt, to bring not military victory over the Romans but salvation for the people of God and the world (Zech. 9.9 entire).
Jesus never denied those who addressed Him as King, whether an amazed and humbled Nathanael (1.47-49) or a confounded and troubled Pilate (18.22-27; 19.19-22). And while His disciples did not understand the meaning of all this triumphal entry hubbub (12.16), they ultimately would and in full, as a belated Thomas acknowledged (20.24-28).
Jesus is King. King of all. He is King of kings and Lord of lords, as Psalm 47 acknowledges. There is no authority, no rule, no power, and no kingdom above that of Jesus. We who are His have been conveyed into His realm, and we are called to seek the progress of that Kingdom, on earth as it is in heaven (Col. 1.13; Matt. 6.10, 33).
Do we understand?
Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
“He had come to their capital as their King, but humbly, sitting on a donkey’s colt, to bring not military victory over the Romans but salvation for the people of God and the world.”
The issue God’s people needed to understand was that the Romans were not Jesus’ enemies. They were the enemy; those who were in direct disobedience to God.
The issue is the same today. Jesus is not going to swoop in and undo communism, or fascism, or paganism, or satanism, or any of the other isms that are antithetical to the Gospel. That is not His calling, nor His job. “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here” (Jn. 18.36).
We, His people, needed saving, badly. And He did, in fact, swoop in to take the punishment we deserve from God and put it upon Himself. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Rom. 5.8, 9).
“…at that time you were without Christ…having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, Who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity” (Eph. 2.12-16).
Jesus Christ, the Promised Messiah, put to death the enmity—the outright distaste that God has for those who disobey His Law and break His covenant—between God and ourselves. We were all on our way to hell before the forgiving work of Christ on our behalf. We, in our lost and helpless condition, were the enemy—not the Romans.
Jesus Christ is our King, our LORD, our Savior, our Promised Messiah.
Just as surely He is the Savior of the whole world.
“You say rightly that I AM a King. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice” (Jn. 18.37).
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3.16).
“Rejoice greatly…Shout…Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey…
He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River
to the ends of the earth” (Zech. 9.9, 10).
“‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘that I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;
a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth’” (Jer. 23.5).
Our King, to save us from the wrath of God. For indeed, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10.31). JESUS is our Hero.
We—the problem. HE—The Perfect Solution.
Reflection
1. Jesus is King and we are His servants. How should knowing this affect your daily life?
2. Is there anything left of the “enemy of Christ” in your soul? How should you deal with that?
3. Whom will you remind today that Jesus is King of all, and how will you encourage them to follow Him?
Zechariah gave this prophecy after the return from Babylon toward the conclusion of prophecy. But there is no record of a Jewish king since that time, such as the prophecy predicts, except our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whom this prediction was fulfilled. Eusebius of Caesarea (263-340), Proof of the Gospel 9.17
Pray Psalm 47.5-9.
Jesus is King and Lord! And we are His servants. Praise our King, and call on Him to send you forth in His Name and for His Kingdom in everything you do today.
Sing Psalm 47.5-9.
(Truro: Shout, for the Blessed Jesus Reigns)
God has ascended with a shout, the LORD with sound of trumpet bold!
Sing praise to Him, let praise ring out; let praise throughout the world be told!
God is the King of all the earth; sing praise to Him with glorious psalms!
He rules the nations by His worth, and on His throne receives their alms.
Princes of peoples gather all to Abraham and to our God.
Exalt the LORD, and on Him call. The earth is His, so praise our God!
T. M. and Susie Moore
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
Other columns of interest this week: Our Read Moore podcast takes up the book Understanding the Times to help us in knowing how to live and proclaim the Kingdom. Our twice weekly column, Crosfigell, is well into a series on the life of Brendan the Navigator, one of the great saints of the 6th century. Our ReVision series, “The Kingdom Economy”, continues to unpack the secrets of the Kingdom. And new in our bookstore, our book, The Ongoing Work of Christ shows us how the book of Acts provides a template and footprint for all who take up the work of building Jesus’ Church.
And please prayerfully consider supporting The Fellowship of Ailbe with your prayers and gifts. You can contribute online, via PayPal or Anedot, or by sending a gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, P. O. Box 8213, Essex, VT 05451.
Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.
