04/09 - The King is Coming

*TECHNICAL ISSUES: THE LAST FEW MINUTES OF THE SERMON WERE CUT OFF*

 

The King Is Coming
Matthew 21:1-11

A Moment of Triumph and Joy
> Don't you want to live in the land of Happily Ever After?...
* The moment they (Jesus' followers) had all been waiting for!
* A part of me wishes we could stay in the victory, in the "positivity," in the "feels" of this moment!
> ...Instead of in the land of Everything Falls Apart?
* Yet Jesus had told His followers how this week would end
* Did you watch the Oscars?
· My son, who LOVES "La La Land," was crushed!
· You have won best picture!!!! (cheers, joy,...) Oh, wait....
* Have you ever struggled under the weight of what might have been?
> But aren't the best stories about how after everything fell apart, there was a not-dared-hoped-for victory?
* This is the Greatest Story Ever Told, not the simplest, nor the easiest...
· Here the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of the world are clashing

Kingdoms Conflicting
> At the Western Gate: Pilate
* Welcomed by the people of power and authority
· who didn't like him at all, but were playing politics
· who would later demand that he crucify Jesus
* Projecting strength through military power (stallions and soldiers)
> At the Eastern Gate: Jesus
* Welcomed by the powerless, the voiceless
· who loved Him and wanted God's Kingdom in charge
· who were crying out so loudly that the powerful wanted them silenced
* Projecting strength through peace (a donkey and palm branches)
> Whose vision would triumph?

Sidebar: cycles of revolution
> Feelings of powerlessness lead to anger
* one of the worst feelings is lack of control, lack of voice
> The powerless throw off the oppressor
* "...Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government..."
> Often the once-oppressed become the new oppressors
* The Who, Won't Get Fooled Again, "Meet the new boss, Same as the old boss"
* The Culture War can be seen through this lens (each side views itself as oppressed and the other as oppressor)

A Week that Changed the World
> Happily Ever After yields inevitably to Everything Falls Apart
* Yet what if Someone broke this cycle by embracing suffering and defeat as the path to true, miraculous victory?
> Jesus would later tell Pilate, "My Kingdom is not of this world."
* Not just "not a physical kingdom," but "not following the pattern of worldly power and authority."
> If we follow Him, we'll not seek victory through personal power
* That's hard for me, because I've got my rights!
· And I hate being "powerless."
· (I'm used to feeling short, but I hate feeling small.)
* But He calls us to end the quest for personal power through surrender to the Father and obedience to His will.
· Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done...
· Do you have a "situation" (at work, at school, within your family) where you feel powerless, angry, threatened, like striking back? Is Christ possibly calling you to handle it a different way, following the pattern of His Kingdom?
· Trust in the One who brings Resurrection when your "happily ever after" becomes "everything falls apart"