11-30-2025

“WHO IS THIS”

Text: Matthew 21:1-11 – Advent 1

Sunday November 30, 2025

Trinity - Creston

       Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our crucified and risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

       Our text for this 1st Sunday in Advent is the Gospel Lesson from Matthew 21 that was just proclaimed.

Let Us Pray:  Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to remind us that you come not as an earthly king but a heavenly and eternal king that’s not of this world, who comes to die on a cross and save us from our sin.   Amen.

Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:

A new church year begins. The purpose of every church year is to put Jesus before your eyes. Right now, your mind is probably filled with Christmas thoughts. The trees are up, the house is decorated, and maybe you’ve already done your Christmas shopping.

When you think of Jesus, you think of the babe in the manger. So why today the story of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem? Why bring the week leading up to his crucifixion and resurrection into Advent? Because the question of the crowd,

“Who Is This?”

is answered in two ways, both of which connect Christmas to the cross (vv 1–5, 10).

I. This man coming is your King.

A. Jesus is the promised King (vv 4–5a).

1. Years are counted BC and AD, and even those who avoid it still break at the birth of Christ. Years run toward Christ’s birth, or they come from Christ’s birth. At the center of years—and that is at the center of history!—is the birth of Christ.

2. The years before the birth of Christ run toward Christmas. Since Eden, these years are on the one hand a history of sin and rebellion against God, and on the other hand years in which God promised the Savior from sin. They are years of expectation.

When will he come who will crush the serpent’s head? The offspring of Abraham in whom all nations will be blessed? The Son of the Virgin, the Prince of Peace? When will he come who was announced by Zechariah (9:9): “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The faithful of Israel waited centuries. Generations died without seeing the fulfillment of God’s promises.

3. But then the King of the Jews was born (Mt 2:2), announced as the Savior, Christ the Lord (Lk 2:11). The waiting is over! The King has come! Jesus shows who he is in entering Jerusalem. He plans it this way; he normally does not ride but does here to show he is the promised King.

4. God keeps his promises, even if it takes a long time. He kept his promise concerning the Messiah. Christians can be sure God will keep his promises, even though he seems to delay.

B. Jesus is a different kind of King (v 5b).

1.   He is a humble King, mounted on a donkey. Through Zechariah, God calls the coming King “humble.” Normally, powerful people are not humble. They are aware of how important they are, and they expect others to be duly impressed by and deferential to them. They can be harsh and abrasive, for they have power. To be humble or gentle is seen as a sign of powerlessness.

2.    

Not so with Christ. He is powerful, but not in the way of the world (1 Cor 1:25). The weakness of Jesus is a theme from the manger to the cross. It is a weakness according to the world, but powerful because God works salvation in it.

Salvation is not accomplished by external force or by gaining earthly power. Jesus’ gentleness is not a sign of powerlessness but of a refusal to rule by force or coercion, and of his willingness to die for us.

2. He is a king, nevertheless. How can he be a king, if according to earthly standards, he has nothing one expects a king to have?

a. Because his kingdom is not of this world (Jn 18:36). Jesus’ mission has been misunderstood as political—Herod feared Jesus as competition; he is handed over to Pilate as a dangerous challenge to Caesar. But Jesus has not come to overthrow earthly rulers nor establish an earthly kingdom.

b. He rules his people for whom he cares. He rules them by Word and Spirit, not external force. They are his people not because he inherited his rule, but because he made them his. He called and enlightened them, gave them faith and a new heart, so that they believe in him and willingly recognize him as their King. They did not make him their King, but he made them his people.

c. He is a King who gives to his people; he does not live off his people. Among rulers of this world, there is a relationship of mutuality: the (good) powerful give protection to their subjects, and the subjects give money and service needed by the powerful.

Christ dies to give his people the gifts of life and salvation but does not need anything we give to him for his kingship. It is right to give him thanks and praise, because anything else would be ungracious. It is right to serve our neighbor. Neither is because Christ needs it, but both are actions of those transformed by Christ’s gift, received unconditionally.

3.   So he is in fact a mighty King! Jesus is more powerful than the great kings of the ancient world like Nebuchadnezzar or Alexander the Great. He is more powerful than the strong men of our day.

4.   Only he, by his cross, has the power to save from sin. Only he has the power to grant eternal life. Only he has the power to make enemies of God into children of God. Only he has the power to transform us so that we live godly lives.

II. This man is the Son of David coming in the name of the Lord (vv 8–9).

A. “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

1.    Hosanna here means “praise.” “Praise to the Son of David.” Christ is praised for who he is and for what he has done and does. When the King of salvation comes, what else is there to do than praise him? Those who believe praise Christ because they know who he is, the promised Savior.

2.    

Those who do not praise him are those who do not believe in him as Savior. Christians sing “hosanna” in the liturgy of the Lord’s Supper, praising Christ, who is feeding them with his body and blood for the forgiveness of sins, praising him for whom he is, our Savior, and for what he does, richly forgiving our sins.

3. “The son of David.” Christ is the Son of David. He is the branch of the root of Jesse (Is 11:1); he is the branch who shall reign as King and deal wisely (Jer 23:5). “Of this man’s offspring [David’s, that is] God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised” (Acts 13:23).

B. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

1. Christ comes in the name of the Lord as the one whom God has appointed. He is the one and only authorized in this way by God. Others who claim to come in the name of the Lord cannot deliver. They are not leading to God but away from God. Jesus is the one and only who comes in the name of the Lord—and he comes to Jerusalem to go to the cross!

2. Jesus is the one who is blessed by God, even as he will go to the cross. As the one blessed, he is also a blessing to those who believe in him.

Christians cry out, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

Christians praise Christ as their King, as the one who has made them citizens of God’s kingdom. They receive the blessing Christ has brought to them.

They are not deterred by the lack of pomp and circumstance, the lack of earthly power.

They receive him in his meekness, humbling himself to death, as more powerful than all earthly power.

They do not despise the humble form in which he comes to them, in Word, water, under bread and wine. Our King comes to us to bless us!

The Peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.  Amen.