Matthew 21: 9
Hosanna to the Son of David

It is about the kingship of the Lord Jesus just as the crucifixion and resurrection were about his saviorhood. It is not the extension of the almost, tribal kingship of the O.T. theocracy but the universal kingship that Jesus claimed over his people and his church and eventually over the world. It is not so much a continuation of the O.T. kingship as it is the fulfillment of it.

Because the shift from Jewishness to non-Jewish ethnicity in the rest of the N.T. after the Gospels, the word changes from the Semitic idea of "king" to the Greek idea of "lord." but the meaning is the same. These Jews, speaking Aramaic -- a dialect of O.T. Hebrew -- acclaimed him king, following him, throwing their garments on the path and waving palm branches before him and shouting over and over again "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" But that same sentiment was echoed some 30 years later in the book of Philippians in the context of Greek culture as "every knee (should) bow, in heaven and on earth and every tongue (should) confess the Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." To the Greeks and Romans, the idea of a king was something like our idea of a dictator and the apostles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit changed the theological category primarily to "Lordship," though they did not entirely abolish the term "king." And during these years of the Greek sharing of the Gospel it sounds as if they actually had as a regular or frequent part of their worship services to exclaim, perhaps in unison: "Jesus Christ is Lord!"

Now for your reflection this morning, consider the sense in which this expression "Jesus Christ is king"/ "Jesus Christ is Lord" is relevant and meaningful to the Christian. There are several areas in which this is true. This is not new to many of you but I beg of you to be reminded of them once again.

I. THE FIRST OF THEM, OF COURSE, IS OBEDIENCE.

1. I have often spoken of this but it is a matter that needs continual emphasis. He is our king: we obey him. Basic Christian morality is a clear, objective structure as to what this obedience is.

It is said that a pastor was accosted by a sometime parishioner about the new practice of repeating the 10 commandments every Sunday in church. The man complained about the new "innovations." The pastor said, "We are really going to have innovations because we are not only going to read the commandments; we are going to start keeping them."

2. The 10 commandments and the many, many commandments that are essentially an expansion of them are the heritage of the Christian.

But the history of Christianity where it has taken over and become the majority religion is just a history of the wholesale disregard of one or another (or all ) of these commandments. The idolatry of the Middle Ages, the sexual immorality of the Renaissance, the blasphemy of the European societies; the neglect of the Lord's Day Sabbath almost everywhere; the covetousness of the American economic system held by non-Christians and Christians alike are examples of this. 

But the Christian has committed himself to the Kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a matter that needs continual consideration.

II. But not just obedience but PROMOTING THE KING'S AGENDA. 

1. All of the Christian's life and activity is to be subjugated to the interests of the King. His occupation, his family status, his possessions, his recreational emphases, his thinking, his looks, his hours, his days. In all of them he is to say as Paul said at the time of his conversion: "Lord what will you have me to do?"

2. How often, if the truth can be told, do all our concerns revolve about our own lives as if the sun revolves about the earth and not the earth about the sun? Are our efforts, our goals, our anxieties, our prayers very much directed toward our own things? But the Biblical way is that of subservience to the King and then all things fall together for us.

III. IN THE THIRD AREA IN WHICH THIS KINGSHIP/ LORDSHIP IS TRUE AND RELEVANT TO THE CHRISTIAN IS IN THE AREA OF PREEMINENCE. 

1. He is the focus in Christianity. "God the Father has exalted him and given him a name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord."

The church is just a self improvement group or a mutual admiration society in some quarters. In others it has the qualities of a political action group, in others of a therapy group or a social-action group. But this kingship, this lordship puts the glorification of Jesus right in the midst of everything.

When I was a student in Palestine before the Jews conquered eastern Palestine in the War of '67 -- when it was a part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, I well remember that the picture of the then-young King Hussein was conspicuously displayed in every business and in almost every home. Everything was seen in relation to him. He was the symbol of what they believed politically. That is just an illustration of how King Jesus who we now call "Lord" should be prominent in every church and life -- no, not just prominent but preeminent! 

2. We are unapologetically Christians. Not just children of God; Not just spiritual Jews with a warmed-over O.T. Judaism; Not just theists; Not just spiritualists. Christ is central. He has the preeminence in Christianity He is king. "Jesus Christ is Lord!"

All hail the power of Jesus' name! Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all! 

Let every kindred, every tribe, on this terrestrial ball;
To him all majesty ascribe and crown him Lord of all. 

1. We recognize him as the light that makes clear the whole Christian system of thought .
England, even in these days when the monarchy is a mere formality, is difficult to understand without consideration of the monarchy. It is a personalization of something impersonal and the monarchy is a scheme for understating it. In much the same way the Lord Jesus Christ in his kingship is a personalization of whole rule of Heaven and the reality of the things of eternity. We find it very hard to imagine the nature of the resurrection body and what life in that body is like and even more the difficult things about the intermediate state when we will be disembodied spirits in the presence of God. But we have an aid to the understanding of these things in the prominence of our Lord Jesus Christ in the realm of heaven and of eternity. "We shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is," John tells us.

And how could we ever understand God the Father; God the trinity or the Third Person, the Holy Spirit? Our Lord Jesus Christ who is our king, our Lord is the human embodiment of eternity, He is God brought down on the human level by the incarnation and enables us to know God and to grasp the true reality of the unseen aspects of eternity and of the person of God the Father.

Whatever be the case, let you be the modern equivalent of these primitive Jews who threw down their garments on the rocky trails and threw their treasured garments on a filthy beast of burden and took up palm branches and waved them in unison as they shouted louder and louder, acclaiming him king: "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!"