Revive Our Hearts

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Has anyone ever broken a promise they made to you? It hurts, doesn't it? Maybe you've told someone you'd do something and then you forgot or you changed your mind. You dashed someone else's hopes.

Well, whether you're on the receiving end or the giving end of pain of a broken promise, I'm here to tell you this. God always keeps His word, always. And there's great comfort in knowing that.

Hi, I'm Danna Grusch. You're listening to Revive Our Hearts Weekend. I'm so glad to have you along today. The Bible is chuck-full of promises God has made to us. Some are comforting, like, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Some are sober warnings, like, "The soul that sins shall die." Ouch.

Many of God's promises were fulfilled beautifully in Jesus. Some prophecies have yet to be fulfilled. Today I want to zoom in on one particular prophecy God gave to Zechariah in the Old Testament. It's Zechariah chapter 9, verse 9.

Rejoice greatly, Daughter, Zion. Shout in triumph, Daughter, Jerusalem. Look, your King is coming to you. He is righteous and has salvation, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

That prophecy goes along with what we celebrate this weekend in the church calendar. It's sometimes called Palm Sunday or the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Matthew and John both quote this verse from Zechariah when they're telling the story. Now I want to zoom in on a few phrases from this prophecy.

First, the part that says, "Your King is coming to you." Next, the description of Jesus as, "Righteous and having salvation." And finally, the fact that He is humble. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth will share about the humility of Christ.

So, number one, Christ came. Let's just soak in that. It's not just that He came into Jerusalem. He did that. But think back to what we celebrate every year at Christmas. He came to be one of us. Here's counselor and speaker Janet Aucoin meditating on that truth.

Guest (Female): Sometimes we're just too used to the gospel, to our shame. We talk about Christ on the cross and we go, "Yeah, I know, I know, I know." Yeah, that should do it for me. It just kind of doesn't anymore. We get so used to it, I think, in part, because we have a pretty inflated view of ourselves.

I mean, we know we're not perfect. We know we needed a savior. But I can remember, and I would never have said this out loud, but a mentality early on in my Christian life that me and God were going to do this. I mean, here is my thinking, I want Him to be glad He picked me on His team. Because like, I'm going to do things.

Which makes it sound like, why wouldn't He want to save me? Well, if He really knew me, why would He want to save me? But I didn't understand all of that then. Pretty inflated view of myself. I don't know that we understand how momentous it was for Jesus to come. I think it was in the book Knowing God, where he said, "It's amazing that the resurrection happened. The power of God on display at the resurrection. But it's more surprising that He even came at all."

It's not really surprising that He has power over death. It's amazing. But it's not surprising. What should shock us, He came as a baby. He didn't have to do that. But we think, "Well, that was nice of Him." So, you know, having little kids and we're always trying to find ways to help them understand stories. Maybe it will help if we think about it a little differently. So I'm going to stretch your imaginations a little bit.

I'm from Florida. We have a lot of beaches, walking along the beach. If you're familiar at all with tides, if you're out on low tide, a lot more beach. And you know, when high tide comes, that's not going to be beach anymore, that's going to be underwater. So, you're walking on the beach at low tide, and you see a colony of ants building their little anthill. They're working really hard because they work very hard, actually. They could put us to shame.

When the tide comes in, it's gone. Demolished and they're all going to die. You know that. Then what would you do? Okay, probably nothing, right? Because who cares? It's just ants. Okay. Let's suppose you actually cared about those little ants and you could tell them apart. And you decided to warn them. So you yell at them. They don't care. You try to draw a line, telling them, "Come this way." They don't care.

So what's it going to take for them to listen to you? What kind of love would it take for you to choose to become an ant? Because really, anybody can step on you. You're risking everything to become an ant because you love them so much. So let's just say somehow you have that kind of love and you do it. And you warn them. What would you expect? Thank you? Um, "You didn't have to do this. I can't believe that you would be willing to do this. I didn't even know what that loud roar was. That was you talking. Oh my word, I had no idea." Um, some gratitude.

And what if instead, now that you have chosen to become an ant, they pick you up, torture your little ant body and kill you? That pales in comparison. I am cousins with an ant compared to the difference between me and God. But I my brain can't go much farther than an ant. I don't know how to think a whole lot different. So for me, one of the biggest differences I can see is between me and the little ant. And I have to tell you, I would not choose to become one, even if I knew they were all going to die. I don't care.

And you know what we might even do? Kick the anthill as you go by. And watch them all scurry. And how unkind is that? But that's what we would probably do, right? Because who cares? We're lower than ants. He is far higher than a human being. And He came as a baby. He didn't even come as a 30-year-old man. He came as a baby. Purposely, because that's He lived the life we were supposed to live. So He could do that in our place and fulfill the law because we couldn't. Wow! That's amazing.

Well, it should boggle your mind when you see an ant. When you leave here and you you probably won't even notice them, right? You're stepping on them all the time. You don't even see them. Shame on me that I am not blown away by that and say, "But do I know He cares?"

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: That's Janet Aucoin speaking at a women's conference. There's such meaning and comfort in knowing that the King who rules the entire universe cared enough to come. Here on Revive Our Hearts Weekend, we're looking at some of the phrases in Zechariah 9:9, which reads, "Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion, shout in triumph, Daughter Jerusalem, Look, your King is coming to you. He is righteous and has salvation, humble, riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

So the next thing we see in those verses is that our King is our righteous Savior. He is righteous and has salvation. That's why people were shouting, "Hosanna," quoting Psalm 118, "Save us, Lord." They wanted to be rescued and Jesus did come to rescue His people from their sin. It was just a different kind of rescue than they thought they would get. Erica Van Heitsma explains.

Guest (Female): Think of a healthy marriage, in the intimacy between a husband and a wife, and you begin to get the picture that God wants with His people. God is a lover who wants to dwell with His beloved. By the days of Jesus, it was commonly taught that the deliverer, the Messiah, would come at another Passover. So every year you can almost picture the Jewish people holding their breath as they're waiting with anticipation. "Is this the year? Is this finally the time our God is going to send another deliverer to set us free?"

They were thinking during the days of Jesus, freedom from Romans. But Israel had a deeper problem than Rome. Even though it's been generations since they've left Egypt, Egypt is still in them. There's still that power of sin oppressing the nation. And no festival is able to remove it. Israel was expecting the Messiah. They were not expecting Messiah to be God. Nor were they expecting their Messiah to be another Passover Lamb.

And now we come to that New Testament connection with Passover. Did you know that hours before Jesus went to the cross, He was with His disciples celebrating Passover? We call it the Last Supper. But actually, it was the Feast of Passover. And we today have a pretty good idea of what Jesus and the disciples were doing because the Jewish people have celebrated Passover for almost the same way for the last several thousands of years. They were praising God for His redemption of Israel in Egypt. They were recounting the amazing signs and wonders God had done.

During the Passover meal, Jesus would remind the disciples of God's faithfulness, God's love, God's plan and God's promises. But if you read through the gospels, you see Jesus pick up that Passover story and add a whole new level to it. And He lets His disciples know, God is coming again. But this time, it's about to get a lot bigger. There's a whole new depth and beauty to this story because this time the enemy is a lot harder.

So knowing that all this was coming, is it any wonder that in the garden, Jesus pleads with His Father, "Take this cup from me." "There has to be another way." But knowing what was coming, "Not my will, but Yours be done. So be it. I'm willing." How? How is Jesus able to say this? It's not in His divinity because His divinity is not about to suffer. His humanity is what is about to break. It is His blood that is about to be poured out. So it is His human flesh, His physicalness that has to say yes to His Father.

How is He able to tell His Father, knowing all He's about to endure, "So be it"? "Yes." I think partly, because Jesus spent His whole life saying yes to His Father. In the little things and in the big things. His habit, His attitude, His mindset was yes, yes, yes, yes. So when that moment, that trial came, He was already conditioned. Yes. He said yes.

But another reason I believe Jesus was able to say yes was because He had just celebrated the Passover. I don't think it's a coincidence that the Last Supper Jesus ate with His disciples was the Feast of Passover. God is way too detail oriented for that. Mere hours before the cross. Jesus has just spent hours recounting the covenant story, the Exodus. He spent the time singing through very appropriate Psalms. He knows this has been His Father's plan from the beginning.

During the Feast of Passover, Jesus was reminded of the amazing love of His Father for these people. The amazing works of His Father for their redemption. He's reminded how the lover came once, bounding over the mountains, tearing heaven and earth to get to the one He loves. And now it's time to do it again.

In the Passover meal, His spirit was fortified. His humanity was reminded. So now He's able to say in the garden, "Not my will, but Yours be done." In other words, "This is the moment everything changes. This is the moment we've been waiting for. This is what we've been working for for thousands of years, Father. It's time to do it again." "This is the fulfillment of those promises we made way back to Abraham. Let's do it."

The lover is coming once again. Bounding over the mountains, leaping over the hills. Look, my beloved, there He stands. But now my beloved is covered with shame and dripping with blood. Now His body is torn. His heart has been turned to wax. His bones are out of joint. All men mock and shame my beloved. But there He is high and lifted up. Filled with faithfulness to His Father. And love for you.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: That's Erica Van Heitsma speaking about our King who came and conquered by giving His life. What a powerful concept. And what an amazing fulfillment of the promise God had made hundreds of years before through the prophet Zechariah. Our King came. Our King is righteous and with salvation. And third, Zechariah tells us our King shows us absolute humility. When He rode into Jerusalem, He rode on a donkey. Here's Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth with more about the humility of Jesus.

Now the humility of Jesus, we could spend a whole series on this. It's demonstrated in so many ways throughout His earthly life and ministry. But let's look at what some of those ways are. First of all, it's demonstrated, the humility of Christ is demonstrated in His incarnation. We've talked about that in this series on the Incomparable Christ. That moment when Christ, who is equal with God, took on human flesh and came to this earth. He laid aside the majesty, the splendor of heaven. He took on the limitations of our humanity.

His humility is seen as He was born to a poor teenage girl. In humble circumstances. No pomp, no circumstance, no fanfare. A manger, an ox stall, a cattle stall in a stable. His humility is seen as He laid aside His rights, His privileges, and the independent exercise of His divine rights and attributes.

C.S. Lewis says it this way, "The doctrine of the incarnation is emphatically at the center of Christianity, that the Son of God came down." Humility. He says, "No seed ever fell so far from a tree into so dark and cold a soil as the Son of God did." His humility.

There's a wonderful Christmas poem that was written in the 17th century by Richard Crashaw that expresses the humiliation of Christ coming to this earth. Now it's old language, so you have to listen carefully, but I think you'll get the heart of it.

"That the great angel-blinding Light should shrink his blaze to shine in a poor shepherd's eye. That the unmeasured God so low should sink as prisoner in a few poor rags to lie. That from his mother's breast he milk should drink, who feeds with nectar heaven's fair family. That a vile manger his low bed should prove, who in a throne of stars thunders above. That he whom the sun serves should faintly peep through clouds of infant flesh. That he, the old eternal Word, should be a child and weep. That he who made the fire should fear the cold. That heaven's high majesty his court should keep in a clay cottage. That glory's self should serve our griefs and fears, and free eternity submit to years. Let our overwhelming wonder be."

The incarnation, Christ stooping down. It's a demonstration of His humility. But the humility of Christ was not just demonstrated when He was born as a baby in Bethlehem, it was demonstrated all through His life and ministry here on earth. Now, at a human level, Jesus had much of which He could have boasted. His background, His gifts, His abilities, His knowledge, His inheritance, His royal heritage, and on and on. Yet the scripture says, and He says of Himself that He was lowly in spirit.

And isn't it ironic, by the way, that we who have nothing in which to boast or glory should proudly exalt ourselves? So backwards. So how did Jesus demonstrate humility during His life and ministry here on earth? Well, the scripture says that He did not seek honor or praise from men, but only from God. The Gospel of John, Jesus says, "I do not receive glory from people. I do not seek my own glory."

When we seek glory or praise from men, we're demonstrating a proud heart. But Jesus had a humble heart. He said, "I don't seek my own glory. I don't seek praise from men." We see His humility in the fact that He was totally dependent on His heavenly Father. Not independent, but dependent. John chapter 5, Jesus said, "The Son can do nothing of His own accord. I can do nothing on my own." John 8, "I do nothing on my own authority, but I speak just as the Father taught me."

And by the way, that humble dependence on His Father was seen nowhere more clearly than in His prayer life. His humility was seen in His serving. He always sought the best interests of others. He placed their needs above His own well-being. We see Jesus coming into the disciples after they had just had a side argument about which of them was the greatest. And then they come together in for dinner and what does Jesus do? He takes the lowly place of a bondservant, a slave, and washes the disciples' feet. He stoops to serve the servants.

His humility is seen in His serving. His humility is seen in what we call His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. That triumphal entry fulfilled the words of the prophet Zechariah. Zechariah 9, verse 9, "Behold, your King is coming to you." How? Humble and mounted on a donkey. Warrior kings, when they would ride into town, they would come in on a horse. If a king came in on a donkey, that was a sign of peace, not war. The Jews of that day expected the Messiah to come as a conquering warrior.

But He came instead as a humble king on a mission of peace. And because He didn't fit their expectation of what a conquering king should look like, they rejected Him. They missed Him. It was His humility that caused them to miss Him. His humility was seen not only in His serving and in His humble entry into Jerusalem, but it was seen in His suffering. His response to insults and to injury.

As throughout His life, and then even more so toward the end of His earthly life, the passion of Christ, as we're going to be studying it over these next few weeks. He was maligned, His character was slandered. He was accused of being demon-possessed, a drunkard, a glutton, crazy. And I can only say that my instinct under those circumstances would be likely to defend myself. To defend my reputation. To resent those who misunderstood or criticized me. To retaliate by criticizing them in return. But Christ did none of those things. Instead, He humbled Himself.

And then His humility is seen not only in all those aspects of His life here on earth, but His humility is seen ultimately in His death. What does Philippians 2 say? He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. We see that humility as He takes His final breath and He says, "Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit." A humble submission of Himself to His Father. And His humility is seen in that absolute submission to the will of His Father all through His life. In coming to this earth, in the life He lived here on this earth, in His suffering, His passion, His death, submission to the will of the Father. It says an expression of humility. His humble, lowly heart.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: We serve a King who not only came, who not only came to save us, but who is humble. What a powerful reminder from Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. You know, remember that as you meditate on the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem this weekend. We see the gospel in that one prophecy of Zechariah 9:9. He came. He was victorious. And He's humble. And so, what should our response be?

Well, that's also in Zechariah 9:9. Rejoice greatly. That's our response. I hope you'll do that today. Right now, rejoice. Right this moment, rejoice greatly. God kept His promise. Jesus came. He conquered sin and death. And He's humble. Aren't you grateful? Aren't you glad He came? Not to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many.

Hey, I want to let you know that Nancy wrote the book Incomparable to examine many aspects of the life of Jesus, including His humility. You can find more information on how to get a copy when you go to ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend and select today's program on the Humble King Who Came. Tammy will put a link there for you about Nancy's book Incomparable: 50 Days with Jesus.

Next weekend, we're going to be praising God for raising Jesus from the grave. Have a wonderful Holy Week. Prepare your heart to remember Jesus's death on the cross and His glorious resurrection. Thanks for listening today. I'm Danna Grusch. We'll see you next time for Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

This program is a listener supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan. Calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.