Dear Christian friends:

The death of President Eisenhower should impress upon our hearts again that earthy kings and rulers are not all that we need. Yes, we need earthly kings and rulers and God establishes them and uses them to keep order in the world to honor those who obey and do good work, and to punish those who do evil. And today we thank God that He gave our nation a strong and honest president like Eisenhower was.

But we need more than good and strong rulers of our nation. Also they themselves are weak and die and cannot help us in our worst need. We need a better King than Ike. We need the King of Kings, Jesus Christ. In one hymn we sing, "O Jesus, King Most Wonderful".

Our text this morning again calls our attention to that wonderful King, Jesus. It shouts: "See, your king comes to you" God is saying, "Here is the best King! You need Him! Perhaps you think: "I have Him, I know, I know! Jesus is my King. I believe in Him." I hope you all do. I hope that everyone of us can say that and I'm sure that many of us can say that.

But maybe some do not really believe in Jesus. Even those of us who do believe in Him can grow stronger in our faith. Often we are weak and forget that Jesus is our King. So this morning I want to ask you that important question:


If we attend to our text it will help us to answer that question, and I hope it helps Jesus to rule even stronger in our hearts and lives.

First, our text shows that Jesus is really your King if you believe that He is the almighty Son of God. Jesus is not your King if you, like many people today think that Jesus was only a man. He is much more than a man. He is God, too.

We read in our text that when Jesus came near to Jerusalem to a small town called Bethphage, He sent two of his disciples to go get a donkey for Him. That donkey was too far away for human eyes to see. The twelve disciples could not see it, but Jesus saw it and knew it was tied to a certain man's place. Jesus even knew before it happened that the man would let Him borrow it and use it that day.

Jesus was not afraid to take the donkey He needed. He is God, and all donkeys are His. In the Bible God says, "For every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills." (Psalm 50:10)

If Jesus is your King, He is also your mighty God. That means that you should not be afraid or doubt or worry about anything that God asks you to do. If He is really your King you will be brave and trust Him to protect you and help you in your duty and work, especially when you witness and help to support the preaching of His Word.

But if you are always afraid to go ahead and witness and do what He commands, is He really your King? Lord increase our faith, we are very weak.

Secondly, our text shows that Jesus is really our King if we are humble and gentle like He is. We read in our text that Jesus on Palm Sunday rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. A donkey was a poor, humble mans transportation.

Rulers like Pontius Pilate or Caesar Augustus rode in on golden chariots with beautiful white or black horses pulling it and soldiers to run ahead commanding the people to bow.

President Eisenhower used to ride in a big black Cadillac, so does Nixon and all kings of the earth. But Jesus rode in on a donkey (like a Ford Falcon today). Earthly rulers must be proud, use force and police and soldiers or they cannot control sinful mankind.

Jesus is not like that. He comes with truth and love and offers forgiveness of sins to sinners. He wins man's hearts and changes their spirits. He makes them new a person by His Holy Spirit which lives in their hearts.

If Jesus is really your King, you, too, will be humble and kind, not proud, or envious or jealous or a big head and a big show off. You will be patient and kind and try to help others to understand about Jesus, too. You will try to love those who bother you and make trouble for you. You will pray for them and try to help them change to faith in Jesus and be kind themselves.

Here we see Jesus riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. On Friday He intended to die on the cross for all these people and for you and me, too. "While we were yet sinners Christ died for us," (Romans 5:8)

The people wanted to give Him a crown of gold and make Him a great earthly ruler like Ike, but Jesus refused that crown of gold and instead He accepted a crown of thorns because He loved us and wanted to save us from our sins.

If Jesus is really your King, you will try with His help to make yourself empty and serve God and love sinners, even if that is very hard and causes much pain.

And, finally, if Jesus is really your King, you will love Him and worship Him, as many people did that first Palm Sunday. They believed in Him, and we read they took off their robes and laid them on the street for Jesus to walk upon.

Others cut down palm branches from the trees and laid them in the way. They made an honor carpet for Him, like today we roll out a red carpet to honor someone. They they sang:

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

If Jesus is really our King we will also love Him and honor Him by many things that we do here in church and at home. I'm happy to see many of our members honoring Jesus: singing in the choir, cleaning the church, serving at the banquet, etc. Lets be here at all the Holy Week services and show Jesus and others that He is really our King.

Amen.