Text: Zechariah 9:9–12
Theme: Prisoners of hope
Other Lessons: Psalm 145:1–14; Romans 7:14–25a; Matthew 11:25–30
A. In the Name of the Father…Amen.
B. The Old Testament lesson serves as our sermon text for this morning.
C. Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God our heavenly Father through
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
D. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:
King Jesus, accept our joyful shouts of praise for Your saving work. Rule
in our lives, now and always. Amen.
Introduction
A. Have you noticed that things aren’t how they should be?
1. There’s selfishness, tragedy, heartbreak, pain, evil, and injustice all
over.
A. And that is just on the outside!
2. All that is inside each of us too.
A. Even St. Paul cries out in today’s Epistle:
Romans 7:19 (NASB95)
For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I
do not want.
B. There’s not a night where we can put our head on the pillow and say,
“Thank you, God, for enabling me to live a perfect day.”
3. Every day, sin afflicts us.
A. Every day we fail even those we love.
B. Every day, others fail us too.
C. We’re a mess.
D. Not just a mess, but a hot mess.
4. Indeed, we deserve nothing but God’s punishment now and forever.
A. How we need an even more powerful and compassionate rescuer to take over!
B. Thankfully, the Lord announces to us through Zechariah:
Zechariah 9:9 (NASB95)
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of
Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with
salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a
donkey.
C. King Jesus Comes to Bring You under His Reign of Peace, Freedom, and
Hope.
1. Jesus restores God as your king.
A. When the Lord brought his people out of Egypt, he wasn’t just their God;
he was also their King.
1. But God’s people weren’t content having God as their King.
2. Other nations had earthly kings.
3. Israel wanted one too.
4. God warned them through the prophet Samuel:
a. a king will tax you,
b. send your sons to war,
c. take your daughters to himself,
d. and will ultimately fail you.
e. But Israel insisted on having a king.
5. Yahweh gave them the desires of their hearts in the form of a king,
Saul, and yes, he did indeed fail them terribly.
a. After David was anointed as king, the Lord promised that one of David’s
descendants would rule on his throne forever.
B. Even David failed.
1. He murdered a loyal soldier to hide his adultery and steal his wife.
2. Solomon, David’s son, was given great wisdom, yet he failed, being led
by his 700 wives and 300 concubines into allowing the worship of false
gods.
3. After Solomon, the kingdom was divided and grew weaker.
4. King after king couldn’t measure up to Israel’s true King, the maker of
heaven and earth.
5. Eventually, the last king, Zedekiah, was taken to Babylon in chains.
6. He died in captivity, alone.
C. By Zechariah’s time in 520 BC, it looked as though God’s promise had
failed.
1. The Jews had no king.
2. They had been in exile for seventy years.
3. They’d now returned, and the temple was being rebuilt, but Jerusalem was
still in ruins.
4. Yet, Zechariah was given this powerful promise by the Lord:
Zechariah 9:9 (NASB95)
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of
Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with
salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a
donkey.
D. A king is coming, and he is the Lord himself coming to save us!
1. He is a righteous, faithful, good king.
2. He will sit on David’s throne.
3. He has salvation.
4. All things that have gone wrong are going to be set right.
5. Zechariah’s words are filled with:
a. joy
b. Peace
c. freedom
d. and hope.
6. These words are a breath of fresh air for God’s people.
7. They only had to wait five hundred-plus years until these words were
fulfilled on Palm Sunday as Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem.
8. Jesus was coming to be King and Savior for all, to restore God as our
King.
2. Jesus is a humble king.
A. Your king, though he is almighty God, doesn’t mount a horse or chariot
to ride into battle with impressive flair.
1. Jesus is a humble king.
2. He rides a donkey into Jerusalem as he chooses to serve you in humility:
Zechariah 9:9 (NASB95)
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of
Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with
salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a
donkey.
3. Your King doesn’t tax His people but freely gives forgiveness and mercy
to them.
4. Your King doesn’t send you or your sons into battle first.
5. No, first he makes himself an army of one to defeat sin, death, and
Satan by humbly bearing the sins of the world and their deserved punishment
and damnation.
6. Then He enlists us to follow Him in His eternal victory.
7. Your righteous King perfectly fulfills all that is demanded of you and
credits that righteousness to you as you receive Him:
a. in His Holy Word,
b. Holy Baptism,
c. and His holy body and blood.
8. Your King doesn’t force subjects to bow down to Him.
9. Instead, He graciously serves you with His word of forgiveness and
peace, which causes us to rejoice in His abundant mercy and eagerly receive
Him in reverence and joy.
B. Your King looks so utterly gentle and lowly as He first reigns on the
cross, but there He establishes a kingdom that will never fail.
1. Though humble, He is powerful.
2. Though He seems weak, He alone defends us, cutting off the chariots and
warhorses and battle bows.
3. He destroys death from the inside so that it is only an empty shell of
itself.
4. He is a powerful warrior!
5. He is able to set us free!
3. Jesus offers the peace of His kingdom to all.
A. So Zechariah rejoices:
Zechariah 9:10 (NASB95)
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; And
the bow of war will be cut off. And He will speak peace to the nations; And
His dominion will be from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the
earth.
B. The word for “nations” here is the word for Gentile nations.
1. King Jesus is king for all people.
2. He is King for you, whoever you are.
3. Jesus offers peace to all.
4. Oddly enough, Israel wanted a king so they could be like all the
nations, but now in Christ Jesus, God gave His people a king who is for all
nations.
5. The one whom all the nations desperately need.
C. Zechariah 9:10 (NASB95)
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; And
the bow of war will be cut off. And He will speak peace to the nations; And
His dominion will be from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the
earth.
1. King Jesus doesn’t just speak peace.
2. He delivers peace—that is, peace with God.
3. He doesn’t give some sort of peaceful feeling.
4. Nor is His peace the mere absence of warfare.
5. But it is a rich peace of harmony, wholeness, and blessedness.
6. Through His saving death and resurrection, right now Jesus speaks peace
to you:
a. Forgiveness–restoration as his dearly beloved brothers and sisters.
b. He also guarantees that the day of resurrection is coming when, as you
remain in Him, all illness, weakness, and pain will be banished and you
will be set free from sin forever, basking in His eternal peace.
D. And already today Jesus comes humbly right into our midst.
1. Today Jesus speaks peace in his word of absolution, cleansing our sin
from us, and in:
Zechariah 9:11 (NASB95)
As for you also, because of the blood of My covenant with you, I have set
your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
2. He rides in on bread and wine, His very body and His blood of the new
covenant—the new testament—the blood-bought promise of God himself.
3. From the world’s point of view, the Lord’s Supper isn’t a powerful
event.
a. It appears to be a very small, little meal.
b. But you know from the words of King Jesus what’s actually happening.
c. Heaven invades earth right here.
d. Jesus comes to all in His body and blood.
e. Make no mistake about it: He is a powerful King coming into our midst, a
King who can destroy and condemn eternally.
f. But thankfully, to you who repent of your sins and trust Jesus’ saving
work, He comes gently:
1) to touch you,
2) to cleanse you from the inside out.
3) He forgives you.
4) He strengthens you.
5) He meets you,
6) He dines with you,
7) and He encourages you.
8) He gathers you at the table with his Father and the Holy Spirit.
E. King Jesus sets you right again with the Father.
1. Your mighty King, He defends you from Satan’s attacks.
2. He cuts off the chariots, warhorses, and battle bows and keeps you safe
in his peace.
3. As Martin Luther wrote to encourage Christians to the Sacrament of the
Altar as a defense against Satan, the world, and our sinful nature:
a. “If you could see how many knives, darts, and arrows are every moment
aimed at you [Ephesians 6:16], you would be glad to come to the Sacrament
as often as possible. But there is no reason why we walk about so securely
and carelessly, except that we neither think nor believe that we are in the
flesh and in this wicked world or in the devil’s kingdom” (LC V 82).
Psalm 91:1 (NASB95)
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High Will abide in the shadow of
the Almighty.
b. How does that happen?
1) By letting Jesus defend you and fight for you in His saving body and
blood.
4. Jesus’ reign has room for you.
A. The Lord urges us through Zechariah:
Zechariah 9:12 (NASB95)
Return to the stronghold, O prisoners who have the hope; This very day I am
declaring that I will restore double to you.
B. Zechariah started his book with these words:
Zechariah 1:3 (NASB95)
“Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Return to Me,”
declares the LORD of hosts, “that I may return to you,” says the LORD of
hosts.
C. To return to the Lord is:
1. to repent of our sin,
2. That is, to turn away from our sin,
3. to turn from trying to save ourselves,
4. to turn from despair and hopelessness,
5. to come home again trusting our gracious Father, who longs to greet us.
6. In a sense, every time we’re gathering around our Lord’s Word, we’re
returning home.
7. We confess our failure,
8. rejoice in our Lord’s mercy,
9. and turn back to the only one who can rescue and deliver us.
10. We come out of exile into the joyful liberty of God’s holy people.
D. Admittedly, we cannot see the reign of Jesus.
1. All we can see is a cosmos in chaos.
2. We are heartbroken by sin and what sin has destroyed.
3. But our Lord’s Word does not fail us.
4. He keeps His promises.
5. He is reigning.
6. He will visibly return to set His faithful forever free.
7. And Jesus’ reign has room for you.
8. In King Jesus, you will live a full life forever.
E. In the meantime, we’re “prisoners of hope.”
1. That is, we have hope.
2. Not the vague wish for a better future.
3. We have the certain, joyful confidence of what is coming in Christ.
4. Our certain hope is that Jesus will:
a. visibly return,
b. the dead will rise,
c. and we will be changed;
d. that sin will be no more;
e. that death will no more burden us;
f. that pain, heartbreak, and trial will be over;
g. that we will sin, disappoint, and fail no more.
h. The clock is not ticking down to our end but to the fullness of the
reign of our eternal King.
i. Our King has come and continues to come for us.
5. This hope in Christ:
a. holds us,
b. keeps us,
c. guards us in protective custody until our hope becomes sight.
F. Thanks be to God, King Jesus comes to bring you under His reign of
peace, freedom, and hope.
Conclusion
A. The Isenheim Altarpiece is the masterwork of a German artist named
Matthias Grünewald, painted in the 1500s for a monastery in northeastern
France.
1. Look for the picture of it on the last page of the bulletin.
2. It features Jesus’ crucifixion.
3. Jesus’ hands are wrenched upward:
A. showing both his agony and his trust toward his Father.
4. One of the unique features is the marks on Jesus’ body.
A. These depict the stripes inflicted by the Roman army’s experts in
cruelty.
B. But the scars look like the marks of the deadly, infectious disease that
many suffered at that time there in Isenheim.
C. The monks ran a hospital to help the ill.
D. In other words, if you had that terrible disease, you could see Jesus
bearing your griefs and carrying your sorrows, or if you were treating
those with this disease, you could see Jesus bearing its ugliness too.
B. So imagine how this sinful world must have appeared to Jesus’ divine
senses.
1. In His coming to us as our Brother, what did Jesus see, feel, and smell?
2. And how great the challenge to turn all of this around?
3. But He rode right into it.
4. He came not holding his divine nose but coming humbly, speaking peace.
5. Remember the opening words of our sermon text:
Zechariah 9:9–10 (NASB95)
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of
Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with
salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a
donkey.
10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem;
And the bow of war will be cut off. And He will speak peace to the nations;
And His dominion will be from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of
the earth.
6. He:
A. drove out demons,
B. healed every manner of illness and disease,
C. blew away the stench of death,
D. and replaced broken hearts with hearts of flesh.
C. So how do we live under Jesus’ reign?
1. We gather to celebrate His reign over us and to receive him.
2. We rejoice and shout aloud encouraging one another by our Lord’s song of
victory.
3. We generously forgive those who sin against us, knowing the fullness of
Jesus’ forgiveness for us.
4. We live as those confident of our joyful future:
A. every burden,
B. heartbreak, trouble,
C. and pain will not last, but our life under King Jesus’ reign will
flourish.
5. Like our King, we long for all to live with us under His reign.
6. And we wait in joyful, confident hope.
7. Our King has come, still comes to us today, and will come again to set
us free. Amen.
D. Let us pray:
Dearest Jesus, I praise You that when we are yoked to You, no burden is too
heavy. Amen.
E. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
F. In the Name of the Father…Amen.