“Great High Priest” [Matt's Messages]

“Great High Priest”

Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus

The Letter to the Hebrews

Lanse Evangelical Free Church

April 19, 2026 :: Hebrews 4:14-16  

“Great High Priest.”

Those three words are the title for today’s message, and they come straight from verse 14 which is our newest verse to memorize together as a church.

And they also signify the central themes of the central part of this sermonic letter to the Hebrews. 

If someone asked you what Hebrews chapters 4 through 10 are all about, you could simply answer, “Great High Priest!” (Especially chapters 4 through 7.) Great High Priest! That’s the heart of this letter.

And who is that? Who is the great high priest of the Book of Hebrews? Verse 14 clearly tells us that, as well, “Jesus the Son of God!” 

Jesus is a Great High Priest. In fact, Jesus is our Great High Priest. Verse 14 says, “we have” Him. We have Him. He’s ours. Jesus is our great high priest for the people of God.

Which sounds wonderful, but what does it mean?       

Well, it’s going to take us several weeks, probably several months, to really cover it. This is the place in the Bible where it’s most clearly taught.

The writer to the Hebrews has already used the words “high priest” to describe Jesus twice in this letter. The first was in chapter 2 verses 17 when he said that Jesus had “become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God...” 

Merciful and faithful. And then he went on to unpack the word “faithful.” I think he’s going to do the same here now with “merciful.”

And also in chapter 3, verse 1, he called upon us to “fix [our] thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.” He’s the high priest in which we believe.

And now the letter-writer is going to focus us for the next several chapters on how good it is that Jesus is our high priest. 

And He is not just our high priest. He is our great high priest!

This is the only place in the Bible where those three words are put together in that way. Some places it says, “high priest,” and others “great priest,” but here it’s all three together, “Great High Priest.”

Which sounds wonderful, but what does it mean?

In general, you and I don’t know that much about priests like this. It’s kind of a foreign concept to most modern people in the West. But it wasn’t a foreign concept to the people he’s writing this letter. 

Remember, the letter to the Hebrews was apparently written to primarily Jewish people who knew all about priests because they have had priests all throughout their history. Priests were a regular part of their world, and ever since God rescued Israel from Egypt and gave them the Law, they have had a very structured priesthood that was central to their life and worship as a people.

I’ve been reading the Book of Leviticus the last few weeks, and there is a lot in there about priests.

At its most basic level, a biblical priest is a person with a special role to safely represent sinful people to a holy God.

Priests are intermediaries between people and God. A go-between. A mediator. And specifically in the Bible, a priest represents sinful people to a holy God and makes atonement for them, offers sacrifices for them. The people are sinners who need to be redeemed. They need to have their sins covered and expunged and dealt with. They need an intermediary that somehow brings atonement for their sins, propitiating the just wrath of God through a holy sacrifice presented on behalf of the sinful people.

You see this theme again and again in the Old Testament, especially in Leviticus. Leviticus is like a handbook for priests. 

And in their system of priests, there was one priest that was the chief priest. The high priest. The big priest over the other priests. To top priest.  The priest of priests.

And he had a particularly special role. It was his job (you can read about this in Leviticus chapter 16) to make atonement for all of the people once a year on the Day of Atonement (Hebrew: “Yom Kippur”) where the high priest took the sacrifice (the blood of a bull), and he went into the tabernacle, into the holy place, and then into the holy of holies, the most holy place. 

The high priest took that sacrifice all the way in where no one else was allowed to go, and he made atonement for the sins of the people. He put that blood on the atonement cover, “the mercy seat,” on the Ark of the Covenant in the most holy place and everything was safe for another year. Only the high priest. 

So the Hebrews knew all about that. They were so thankful for that. This concept was central to their worldview.

And this pastor who is writing to them is insisting that Jesus is the high priest, and not just any high priest, but their high priest, our high priest, our great high priest. The high priest of high priests! Who has done what no other high priest has ever or could ever do.

And that makes all of the difference. If they understand this, it will cause them to fix their eyes on Jesus. Which is what he’s been trying to do to them this whole time. 

“Great High Priest”

I have only two points of application for this passage, and they are easy to find. Twice in these three short verses the writer says, “let us...” and then gives a strong word of application. Here’s the first one. It’s in verse 14.

Because Jesus is our Great High Priest...

#1. HOLD FIRMLY.

Hold firmly to your faith in Jesus. Look again at verse 14 and see its glory.  Keith put it on the front of your worship bulletin. You can’t miss it.

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.”

Hold onto Jesus and don’t let go.

Do you hear how he’s like a broken record? How many ways can he say it?

“Fix your eyes on Jesus.” 

“Fix your thoughts on Jesus.” (Chapter 3, verse 1)

“Hold on to [y]our courage and the hope of which we boast” (3:6).

“[H]old firmly till the end the confidence we had at first” (3:14).

This pastor desperately wants these Christians to hold fast to their faith in Jesus Christ.

Because he knows what’s at stake. For the last two chapters, he’s been warning them that if they fall away and don’t keep their faith in Jesus, don’t hold firmly to Jesus, then they will fall in the desert. They will not enter the promised land. They will not reach glory. They will not enter God’s (sabbatismos), His Sabbath-Rest.

But if they hear the gospel and believe and keep believing, then they will!

Remember verse 9. “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience” (Heb. 4:9-11). 

That’s what’s at stake. So he says, “Hold firmly to the faith we profess.”

Fix your eyes on Jesus, and don’t turn back.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record myself, I want to ask you how you are doing at this yourself? Are you holding firmly to the faith we profess? Are you keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus, or are you drifting away? I’m so glad you’re here today so I can ask you.  Where is your focus?  What is your faith trained upon? Which direction are you headed? Are you running the race with Jesus or are you veering off course?

The greatest thing about this letter is that it has these warnings and these exhortations to fix our eyes on Jesus, but it helps us to heed to the warnings and to fix our eyes on Jesus by teaching us and reminding us just how great He is!

And how much greater He is than anything and everything else and anyone and everything else.

In the first couple of chapters, he showed us how Jesus is greater than the angels, as amazing as they are. And then he showed us how Jesus is greater than Moses, as faithful he was.  And then he showed us how Jesus is greater than Joshua and how His rest is greater than the rest that Joshua led his people into.

And now, he’s going to show us that Jesus is greater than Aaron the High Priest and all of the other High Priests who came after him.

Great high priest. Greater High Priest! Greatest High Priest!

And he starts by pointing out where our great high priest went. Where did he go?

Church, where is Jesus right now? He’s at the right hand of the Father.  What does verse 14 say?

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens...”

What’s he talking about? He’s talking about the ascension, isn’t he?

We don’t think enough about the ascension. Jesus lifting off to heaven. We read about it briefly two weeks ago on Resurrection Sunday in Luke 24. It’s also in Acts chapter 1. Jesus blasting off. We don’t think enough about the ascension, but the writer to the Hebrews is going to make sure we do some more!

And it’s not just that He ascended. The old NIV has, “gone through the heavens.” Other versions say, “passed through the heavens.” It’s picturing Jesus as not just going to heaven, but going through the heavens–perhaps the first heaven of the atmosphere, the second heaven of outer space, and the third heaven of that holy dimension (if we can speak that way) of the place where God Himself dwells in unapproachable light (see 1 Timothy 6:16).

Jesus didn’t just go into the Most Holy Place in the mostly symbolic tabernacle here on earth.

He went into the Most Holy Place in the Universe!

And He didn’t just go there for Himself. He went there as our great high priest!

We’re going to think deeply about this for the next several months. Here’s what it says in chapter 9, verse 24. 

“Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence.”

I think that’s what he is talking about in our verse 14.

Our great high priest has gone through the heavens to the heavenly sanctuary to represent us to God! “To appear for us in God’s presence” as our mediator.

The ladies in the choir just sang about this in verse 4:

"Living for me, living for me,

Up in the skies He is living for me;

Daily He's pleading and praying for me,

All because Jesus is living for me."

    -W. G. Ovens & Gladys Westcott Roberts

And we all sang about this, too. We'll probably be singing this one a lot this year:

“Before the throne of God above

I have a strong and perfect plea:

A great High Priest whose name is Love,

Who ever lives and pleads for me.”

My name is graven on his hands,

My name is written on his heart.

I know that while in Heav'n he stands

No tongue can bid me thence depart.”

  - Charitie Lees (Smith) Bancroft

While in heaven He stands! Our high priest has gone through the heavens.

Why ever would you want another high priest?! These folks were tempted to fall back on Judaism. If they could, they were tempted to run back to whoever was the high priest at the temple in Jerusalem. We’re all tempted to find someone else to be our high priest.

But none of them has done what Jesus has done!

Because He’s (v.14), “the Son of God!” And God the Son. He’s all the things we’ve been reading about from chapter 1 on.  And He’s all we need.  And so we need to hold firmly to our faith in Him. Amen?

And that’s not all that makes Jesus great. Look at verse 15.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin.”

Wow. What a great high priest!

Now, in English, we’re not supposed to use double negatives most of the time. Nobody’s not supposed to do that. (Gets confusing.) But when you do it well, you can really emphasize something.

See the double negative in verse 15?

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses...”

The two negatives cross each other out. We do have a high priest Who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. Our high priest understands!

That’s amazing. Our high priest understands what it’s like to be us. That’s mind-blowing. Especially because we just saw how exalted He is! He’s gone through the heavens. He’s the Son of God!

He’s glorious! He’s One of a kind.  And yet, He understands. Why?

Because He became one of us, right? The Son of God became the Son of Man. He took on humanity. He became weak for us.

There is greatness in His weakness.

What did we just sing?

“Jesus Christ, one Lord of creation

From the Father, begotten, not made.

He is the Light from Light eternal 

And the God of every age.”

That doesn’t sound very sympathetic!

But then it says:

“For this world and for our salvation

He came down from the heavens above

born of a virgin and the Spirit

truly man and truly God.”

“The God We Love” - CityAlight

And He was so much a man that he could be tempted. He could be tested. He felt temptation every single day. 

I don’t think we think about His temptation enough either. Jesus was truly tempted. We read about it in Matthew chapter 4 and Luke chapter 4 and then again in the Garden of Gethsemane in Luke 22.

Satan came after Him hard.  The enemy tried to get him to disobey the Father’s will. He threw everything at Jesus. And it was truly tempting! There wasn’t anything inside of Jesus that was sinful or wrong. So He didn’t want something sinfully from His own heart. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t look good to Him. He felt the temptation with every fibre of his human being. Look at Jesus in the garden. Wrestling. Sweating like drops of blood. 

Don’t ever say that Jesus doesn’t know what it’s like to be tempted. Nobody’s ever been tempted like Jesus was. Especially because He never gave in. Sometimes I get out of temptation by giving in to it. To my shame. But Jesus never got out of temptation by succumbing. He knows like no other what it’s like to be tempted. And that’s good news for you and me.

Because His heart goes out to us. He’s sympathetic. He’s compassionate. He’s a merciful high priest.

I can imagine a high priest who doesn’t care.

I can imagine a high priest who cannot relate.

I can imagine a high priest who turns sinners away because they are weak.

But not this One. He gets us. He fully identified with us. Jesus knows what it’s like to be weak. To feel weak.

Tempted for me

Tempted for me

There in the garden He was tempted for me. (Or at least, “like me.”)

But He never gave in. Verse 15 says, He “has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin.” 

And that makes Him the Great High Priest! Great in His weakness to be tempted and great in His strong victory over that temptation. Because that means Jesus doesn’t have to be cleansed Himself. Aaron and his sons had to be atoned for themselves first (cf. Leviticus 16). But not Jesus. And it also means that Jesus could present His own blood as the atoning sacrifice.

And so we’re saved!

“When Satan tempts me to despair

And tells me of the guilt within,

Upward I look and see Him there,

Who made an end of all my sin.

Because the sinless Savior died,

My sinful soul is counted free,

For God the just is satisfied

To look on him and pardon me.”

He’s this perfect fusion of sympathy and sinlessness, empathy and purity, weakness and victory. He’s our great high priest! And because of that, we can draw near to God.

#2. APPROACH BOLDLY.

Look at verse 16 with me. Every Christian who knows it loves this verse. Our great high priest sympathizes with our weakness, was tempted in every way, yet was without sin. Verse 16.

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

You and I are invited and expected before the throne of God. We are supposed to come to God for help. And we can expect to be heard when we ask for it! We can get mercy and grace to help us in our time of need.

When is that? Most of the time, isn’t it? It’s today. It’s tomorrow. It’s when life gets hard. We need help.

And, church, we don’t deserve it.

If we get help, it will be mercy. Help that we couldn’t do on our own. If we get help, it will grace. Help that, by justice, we shouldn’t receive. You and I? If we go up to the throne of God, we should be turned away. We are sinners. We have rebelled.  We have given in to temptation time after time. Why should we expect good things from the God we’ve spurned?

And it’s not because He missed it. It’s not because we’ve pulled a fast one on Him. Remember verse 13. “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

Why should we expect good things from that God?

Because of our great high priest, that’s why! 

Church, where is Jesus right now? He’s at the right hand of the Majesty on High. He’s right there at the throne! It’s a holy throne of a holy God, and yet for us it’s a “throne of grace.” It’s a throne where we can expect a welcome. It’s a throne where we can expect help.

Do you need help today? I know you do. Where are you going for help? Go to the throne of grace. Because of our great high priest, we are accepted there. We are forgiven. We are covered. We are loved. We are not turned away. We are embraced.

“What do you need, my child?” That’s how God is towards us when we pray. When we worship Him. When we draw near to Him, we find grace.

What are you praying for these days? Are you too scared to pray? Are you too scared to bring your troubles and cares to the throne? Are you too intimidated to pray to come to the throne?

If you have faith in Jesus, you don’t have to be scared. He understands. He cares.  He’s calling you to come to Him. 

Verse 16 says, “Let us then approach the throne...with confidence.” Some of your translations may say, “boldness” or “courage.” He’s saying, let’s march right in there and ask. Don’t be afraid. Fear God. Be worshipful. Be respectful. But be expectant. Not timid. Not terrified. But bold! Tell Him what you need. Tell Him how it hurts. Tell Him how He could help. 

Be bold. Come! Approach boldly. 

Because you will not be not alone at the throne.

You’ll be there with your great high priest.

***

Messages in this Series:

01. "The Son" - Hebrews 1:1-4
02. "Superior to the Angels" - Hebrews 1:5-14
03. "Such a Great Salvation" - Hebrews 2:1-4
04. "We See Jesus" - Hebrews 2:5-9
05. "Flesh and Blood" - Hebrews 2:10-18
06. "Fix Your Thoughts on Jesus" - Hebrews 3:1-6
07. “Today, If You Hear His Voice” - Hebrews 3:7-19
Bonus Historical Message: The Gift of My Rest - A Fictional Letter of Sabbath Theology

08. "A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God" - Hebrews 4:1-13

Read More

"King: A Life" by Jonathan Eig

King: A Life by Jonathan Eig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Reading this book was a dream about a dream. What a masterpiece! Jonathan Eig has achieved the nearly impossible with King: A Life–a beautiful reconstruction of a very short yet outsized life. This biography is meticulously sourced history without feeling academic in any way.

I was amazed at how Eig brought together all of the threads to tell a complete and complex story. I especially appreciated how unflinching Eig was in presenting Dr. King’s glaring flaws (mostly hidden in his lifetime) in the context of his nearly immeasurable achievements. Eig also tells the complicated and often untold story of what Dr. King stood for beyond civil rights that wasn’t popular then and isn’t often emphasized now.

It’s not a dreamy easy read–pain on every page!–yet is worth any time invested. I understand MLK today in ways I never would have before reading King: A Life.

View all my Goodreads reviews

Read More

“A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God” [Matt's Messages]

“A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God”

Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus

The Letter to the Hebrews

Lanse Evangelical Free Church

April 12, 2026 :: Hebrews 4:1-13

You’ve may have noticed as I read this passage that there’s a word that gets repeated over and over and over again in it.

It’s a four-letter word in English, but it’s one of the good four letter words.

In fact, it means something incredibly wonderful. 

What is it? What’s the word that gets repeated over and over again?

R-E-S-T. Rest.

Ahhhh. What a good word! “Rest!”

Now, I am not very good at resting, but I love the idea of rest.

Rest is when the work is done.

Rest is when the toil is over.

Rest is when the problem has been solved.

Rest is when the broken has been fixed.

Rest is when the trouble has ended.

Rest is when there is nothing to worry about.

Rest is when things are settled and stable and safe and secure from all alarms.

Isn’t rest wonderful?

What do you think of when you think of the blessing of rest?

A good night’s rest.

A restful day off.

A truly restful vacation.

The feeling of crossing off every single item on your to-do list and nothing  hanging over your head. No more constant motion.

Some of you are like, “I don’t know what that feels like, but it sounds pretty good.”

No more fighting. 

Nobody coming after you.

Nothing to prove. Nothing to lose.

Just...rest.

Imagine if all of life was like that.

Every need met.

Nothing stressing you out.

Peace and wholeness and shalom on every side.

Not that you couldn’t be active, but that you didn’t have to be.

Like what the Sabbath day was supposed to be for the people of Israel in the Old Testament. 

They didn’t have to work to eat that day. God provided all the manna, and He said once a week, “Take it easy today. I’ve got you. Don’t do anything today but rest and enjoy Me. It’s the Sabbath, and I’m giving it to you.”

Imagine if life was like that all the time! Imagine if life could be like that every single day. 

And then we read verse 9 of Hebrews chapter 4 which is where we get the title of this message:

“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God...”

God is offering and promising to His people a special kind of rest. Not just a day of rest but a life of rest that is like the Sabbath day but even better and all the time.

The word for “rest” in verse 9 is special, and it’s possible that the pastor who wrote this letter made it up on the spot. He might have “coined” it. This is the first time this word appears in all of Greek literature, and it’s the only time it appears in the Bible.

It’s “sabbatismos,” and you can hear how it has “Sabbath” embedded in it. It’s not just “rest” (which is wonderful all by itself) but “Sabbath-rest.” Rest all the time like what the Hebrews enjoyed in their Sabbath day. It has more of the flavor of “celebrating the Sabbath” and delighting in the God Who gives the rest.

There remains, then, a sabbatismos, “a Sabbath-celebration” for the people of God. And that is good news for you and me.

And we’ve been singing about it already this morning, haven’t we?

One of my all-time favorite worship songs that we do here as a church. Sing it at my funeral, okay?

“No chilling winds nor poisonous breath

Can reach that healthful shore;

Sickness, sorrow, pain, and death,

Are felt and feared no more.

When shall I reach that happy place,

And be forever blessed?

When shall I see my Father’s face,

And in His bosom...rest?”

- Samuel Stennett (1787)

That song is singing about the Sabbath-Rest, the “sabbatismos” for the people of God.

Not just a day in a week, but “one eternal day.”

“All o’er those wide extended plains,

Shines one eternal day;

There God the Son forever reigns,

And scatters night away.”

I think that’s what verse 9 is talking about, and I can hardly wait.

“A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God.”

Now, this passage is very complex and complicated with deep and wonderful theology, but the bottom line is very simple: The writer wants us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.

Remember, that’s the point of the whole book, and the point of our whole series, and the theme of our whole year together as a church family. We need to keep our spiritual eyes–the eyes of our hearts–fixed on Jesus.

This letter was written to some (primarily Jewish) Christians who were apparently considering dropping out of the race of faith in Jesus Christ.

They were scared. Life was getting was really hard. Persecution was coming at them fast. And they were thinking about trying to go backwards and just be old covenant Jews instead of New Covenant Christians. And this pastor writes to warn them against that very bad idea. Impossible to do, and terrible even if you could. He writes to warn them against apostasy–turning their back on Jesus and walking away from Him forever.

And he’s done that by reminding them how great Jesus is and how much greater Jesus is than anything and everything and anyone and everyone in the Old Testament, as great as they all were.

He’s pointed out how Jesus is greater than the angels. As wonderful as angels are!

He’s pointed out how Jesus is greater than Moses. As faithful as Moses was!

And here in chapters 3 and 4, he’s pointing out how Jesus is greater than Joshua and how Jesus’ rest is greater than the rest that Joshua led his people into. As great as that was–for those who reached it.

Jesus is greater than all of that, so we need to fix our eyes on Him. That’s the bottom line, so keep that in mind as we delve into this deep theology together.

Now, I know that it’s been about a month since we were in Hebrews together.  So let me try to bring you back up to speed.

We’re actually dropping into the middle of a warning section of the letter. 

The writer is kind of preaching Psalm 95 at them. (Do you remember this?)

He believes that the Word of God is “living and active” and speaking to them in his day (and therefore to us in our day), so he has drawn their attention to the song of Psalm 95 which was written about a thousand years before, and it was a warning song by King David to warn the people of his day to not fall away. (Do you remember this?)

We read all of Psalm 95 and sang some of it. It’s all about how the LORD is a great God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep of His hand. It’s so good (and restful!) to belong to Him.

And then without warning, the song turns into a warning.

David writes in Psalm 95, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest’” (Psalm 95:7-11).

And there’s our word, “rest.” It’s the last word of Psalm 95.

And what “rest” was that? It’s a rest that these people if they make the wrong choice will not enjoy. In the Psalm, he’s referencing the “rest” that the people of Israel did not to get to enjoy when they did not get to enter the Promised Land. David’s song was referencing a story that happened nearly 500 years before he was born. (So 1,500 years before Hebrews and 3,500 before us.) The Retreat of Unbelief in the Book of Numbers chapters 14 and 15. (Do you remember that story?)

The people of Israel had been rescued from Egypt and marched up to the Promised Land, and then they had sent 12 spies into Canaan. And 2 of them, Joshua and Caleb, came back and said, “This is going to be great! Wait until you see the rest that God has for us.” But the other 10 spies said, “It’s impossible. There are giants in the land. And we’ll get squished like bugs.”

And the people listened to the 10 instead of the 2, and they rebelled against God and refused to enter the Promised Land. They turned away. Apostasy.

And therefore God was angry, and rightly so, and He said in His wrath, “You will never enter my rest.” And a whole generation died in the wilderness. Probably more than a million adults. 

They were bound, they were bound, they were bound, for the Promised Land. But they never arrived!

And Psalm 95 sings, “Don’t be like them. Don’t be like them. Don’t be like them.”

And the Book of Hebrews says, “Don’t be like them. Don’t be like them. Don’t be like them. Today, if you hear His voice, don’t harden your heart.”

Does that make sense? Are you with me?

Don’t take your eyes off of Jesus.

Don’t turn your back on Jesus.

Don’t stop believing in Jesus.

Or else...you will miss the rest.

But you don’t have to miss the rest! Here in chapter 4, the writer is encouraging us because he notices that the song of Psalm 95 is making a promise that God’s people can still enjoy God’s rest. God’s rest is still “on offer.” Look at verse 1 of chapter 4.

“Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.”

I only have two points this morning to summarize this passage, and here is number one.

A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God?

#1. IT STILL REMAINS!

Verse 1 says, “...the promise of entering his rest (God’s rest) still stands...”

Don’t be discouraged by all of this warning talk. Heed the warning, but hear the promise! God still is offering His rest! It’s still accessible. It’s still around. It’s still promised for all who believe in Jesus and keep believing in Jesus. 

He’s going to say it again in verse 6 and in verse 9. Verse 6 says, “It still remains that some will enter that rest...” And verse 9 says, “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God.” That’s so important. “It still remains.”

This rest is real. And it’s still available for all of God’s people.

Don’t miss that! In fact, it’s the whole point. This rest remains, it is real, and it is wonderful. It’s worth singing about, and it’s worth taking care to not miss. Listen to verse 1 again. 

“Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.”

Don't miss this. “Be careful.” In fact, that could be translated “Be fearful.”  As Christians, we are not supposed to be afraid of many things. We are supposed to fear God and not much else.  But this is one thing to be afraid of–missing out on the Sabbath-rest for the people of God. It’s one way of fearing God. And the writer includes himself in this warning. “Let us be careful...” “Let us be fearful” to not fall short of this rest.

How do you “fall short” of it? By not believing. Look at verse 2.

“For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.”

Who’s he talking about? He says that we have had the good news preached to us (the gospel), just as they did. I think that means just like Joshua and Caleb gave the good news about how good the Promised Land was to the Israelites.

“It’s flowing with milk and honey!“We’re going to have the best rest there!”

And we have had something similar (and better) preached to us. What kind of rest do we expect?

Revelation 21, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

That’s where the songwriter got:

“Sickness, sorrow, pain and death,

Are felt and feared no more.

All because Jesus is alive. Alleluia!

But did they listen to Joshua and Caleb? No. Did they believe? No! V.2 again.

“...but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.”

That’s the key. Faith is the key. You get the rest if you have the faith. That’s what he says in verse 3.

“Now we who have believed [we who have faith] enter that rest, just as God has said, ‘So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'”

It’s really simple. If you believe in Jesus, you will enter that rest. If you do not believe in Jesus, you will not enter that rest. Let me say that again. If your faith is in Jesus, then you will enter that rest. If you do not have faith in Jesus, then you will not enter that rest.

Is the difference whether or not you hear the good news? Both heard the good news. Some people hear the good news and do not believe. 

And some of them seem like they are headed for the Promised Land. They sing the song, “I am bound, I am bound, I am bound for the promised land...” But they are not. Because they do not believe. They do not combine hearing with believing.

You’ve got to hear the gospel and believe the gospel. And keep believing the gospel, or you will not enter His rest.

Now, this pastor who is writing this letter notices something else in Psalm 95 about this rest that remains. He notices that God keeps calling it, “My rest.”

Isn’t that interesting? I wouldn’t have seen this. I just thought it meant “the rest that God gives to His people,” but this pastor writing this letter sees something deeper. He sees that this rest actually belongs to God. It’s God’s own rest. 

What does that make you think of? When we talk about God “resting,” where does your mind go? All the way back to the beginning, right? Genesis chapters 1 and 2. Look at verse 3.

“And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: ‘And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.’”

This pastor may not know the reference (it’s Genesis 2:2), but he’s seeing something deep here.

God rested on the seventh day of creation. Not because He was tired. Not because He was worn-out. “Oh, boy, after making those humans, I sure could use a break!” But because He was finished with what He had started, and it was time to stop and enjoy it.

And to give His people a model for their rest. What did He eventually call that seventh day?  “The Sabbath.” That’s right. 

He rested, and He told the Israelites to rest.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Rest.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Sabbath.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Rest.

And that was on the model of His own schedule for creation week. 

I’ll say that this rest remains! It’s eternal! It’s divine! God is offering for us to share in (some mysterious way) the rest that He has enjoyed since creation! It remains and remains and remains and remains. And it’s still being offered to us Today. Look at verse 5.

“And again in the passage above he says, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience.”

He’s just repeating it all again for emphasis. If you hear the gospel and believe, you will enter that rest. But if you hear the gospel and do not believe (or stop believing) then you will not go in. You are disobeying the gospel.

Don’t do that! That’s why this song, Psalm 95, exists. Verse 7.

“Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.’”

He’s fixed on Psalm 95 right here, isn’t he? He keeps repeating it over and over again. He probably had it playing on infinite repeat on his Spotify.

He focuses on this word, “Today.” We noticed that last time.

What “Today” is he talking about?

David meant Today for his day

Hebrews meant Today for their day.

And I think it means “Today” for us, too.

Isn’t the Word of God amazing?! It’s “living and active.” It’s powerful and effective. A song that David wrote 3,000 years ago about a disobedient people 500 years before that, and it’s still speaking to us Today.

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” 

How is your heart today? What’s it like? Is your heart soft? Is your heart tender towards God? Is your heart pliable and hopeful and trusting? Is your heart open? See to it, church, that it stays that way. Do not harden your heart. Fix your eyes on Jesus. He’s our only hope. Today!

He’s talking to you Today. And He’s telling you about another day. A day that is still to come. Look at verse 8.

“For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.”

Now, wait a second. What is he saying?

He’s making another point about Psalm 95. He’s really studied that Psalm. He’s pointing out that Joshua and Caleb and the second generation did get to cross the Jordan River and enter the Promised the Land, and the book of Joshua says that God gave them rest on every side (see Joshua 21:43-44 and 22:43-45).

But Psalm 95 warns the readers that there is still a rest that they might still miss. That means that Joshua did not give them all of the rest that God has for His people. There’s another day than Today.

There is a Sabbath Day that lasts for eternity. Verse 9.

“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God...”

What is that?

That’s the kingdom!

That’s glory!

That’s heaven!

That’s Sabbath living every day for ever and ever.

That’s true rest.

That’s what the Sabbath Day was simply a shadow of. That’s what the Promised Land was only a picture of. That’s why we sing songs like: “On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Stand.” And we don’t mean the actual Jordan River. That’s just a foreshadowing of our life right now, looking into the Promised Land that is still to come when Christ returns.

Heaven! The new heavens and the new earth.

“On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand,

And cast a wishful eye

To Canaan’s fair and happy land,

Where my possessions lie.”

Where do your true possessions lie? Where is your true home? Where will you find true and lasting...rest?

“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; [v.10] for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.”

God rested, and so will we! Our work, our striving, our fight will be over! We will be settled and stable and safe and secure from all alarms. The struggle will be over. We will have rest from our enemies. And not just the Amalekites and Canaanites, but sin and self and Satan. The world, the flesh, and the devil will bother us no more!

John the Revelator said in chapter 14 of the Apocalypse, “Then I heard a voice from heaven say, ‘Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them’” (Revelation 13:14).

Doesn’t that sound so good? There still remains a Sabbath-rest for the people of God. And all of the people of God will enjoy it forever!

I can’t wait. Can you? 

When?

“When shall I reach that happy place,

And be forever blessed?

When shall I see my Father’s face,

And in His bosom rest?”

Come, Lord Jesus! Bring the rest that remains.

The application of all this is in verse 11. Here’s where he’s going with this. Verse 11.

“Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.”

Here’s point number two of two.

A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God?

#2. STRIVE TO ENTER IT.

Do whatever it takes to enter that rest. Don’t be left behind. Don’t get to the Jordan and then turn back! Don’t believe the lies that say that it’s not worth it. That it’s not true. That it’s just all a big scam.

Verse 11 says, “Make every effort to enter that rest.”

As Keith put on the front of your worship bulletin, “Strive to enter that rest.”

Now, don’t get this wrong. Some people right here might think that this is saying that we need to do something to save ourselves. 

No, no, no. We know that’s not how it works! We cannot save ourselves. Our good works will never save us. We do not strive to save ourselves. The rest of this whole letter will make that abundantly clear.

Jesus saves us!  Jesus saves us through what the choir sang to us just a few minutes ago. The Wounds of Gods! And the Empty Tomb. Jesus is the One who provides the rest. He provided purification, and then He sat down at the right hand of the Father (Hebrews 1:4). We cannot earn our salvation. He provides our salvation.

He’s our Joshua! It’s not obvious to us, but it would have been obvious to them that the name “Jesus” is a derivation of the Hebrew word Yeshua (Joshua). “Yahweh Saves.” [In fact, in the King James “Joshua” is translated “Jesus” in v.8!]

So, Jesus is our Joshua. He has provided us with the ultimate rest! And our part is simply to believe. And keep believing. We have to put our faith and trust in Jesus alone and what He did on the Cross and at the Empty Tomb. And keep our faith there. So we need to do whatever it takes to keep believing.

It’s sounds a bit strange, I know. It’s like we have to strive to not strive. We have to strive to rest. I heard one pastor say once that we need to “wrestle to rest.” That’s right.

What in your life might keep you from believing? What in your life might threaten to knock you out of the race? Hebrews says do whatever it takes to get that out of your way so that you keep on believing. 

And help each other! Entering the Sabbath-rest is a group project that we do together. The word for “make every effort” or some of your versions will say, “strive” can actually be translated “hasten” or “race.” Race to rest.

In other words, “Fix your eyes on Jesus and run the race before you.” And don’t take your eyes off Him. Not for one second. Strive! Not to earn your salvation but to keep on believing no matter what. Do whatever it takes so you keep on believing. [cf. “[L]et us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and run” the race! (See Hebrews 12:1.)]

And don’t try fool God. Don’t try to pretend. Don’t just put on a show. God knows what’s going on in your heart. Verse 12.

“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. [He’s saying that Psalm 95 is speaking to you and calling you out. And penetrating the impenetrable. You can’t trick God into thinking that you’re believing when you’re not. Verse 13.] Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

You can’t fool Him. So don’t try. Instead, trust Him. For real. Believe. And keep believing.

Race to rest in Jesus.

***

Messages in this Series:

01. "The Son" - Hebrews 1:1-4
02. "Superior to the Angels" - Hebrews 1:5-14
03. "Such a Great Salvation" - Hebrews 2:1-4
04. "We See Jesus" - Hebrews 2:5-9
05. "Flesh and Blood" - Hebrews 2:10-18
06. "Fix Your Thoughts on Jesus" - Hebrews 3:1-6
07. “Today, If You Hear His Voice” - Hebrews 3:7-19

Bonus: The Gift of My Rest - A Fictional Letter of Sabbath Theology

Read More

“Really!” [Matt's Messages]

“Really!”

Resurrection Sunday

Lanse Evangelical Free Church

April 5, 2026 :: Luke 24:34

Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed!

Indeed. Today, I want us to focus in on that last word of the “Easter Acclamation.” The word, “indeed.”

I almost entitled this message, “Indeed,” but I didn’t want you to think it was an ad for a job search company.

“Indeed.”  That’s a word we all know, and we all know what it means, though we don’t tend to use it all the time. I wonder how many of us used the word, “indeed” this week outside of worship and outside of searching for a job.

It almost sounds like a “Lord of the Rings” kind of fantasy word, “Indeed.” You have to say it with a Shakespearean accent.

“Indeed, we had pizza for supper last night. Indeed.”

“Indeed, we hid 1,000 eggs for the egg hunt yesterday at the Ark Park, and the Challenge teens hid almost another 2,000 eggs at people’s houses. Indeed!”

“Indeed” means that it’s true. That’s it’s not just a story. It’s not just fiction. It’s fact. “Indeed.”

In a word, it means “Really!” This is reality. This is the way it really is. And in Luke 24:34, a bunch of followers of Jesus came to the same conclusion: That Jesus had really come back from the dead.

Look with me at Luke 24:34. There’s a group of Jesus’ followers who gathered in Jerusalem on or just after that amazing Sunday which we’ve been celebrating all morning. They had had the most bewildering day, and they were comparing notes.

In the room were the Eleven Apostles (minus Judas, of course, who had betrayed Jesus and left Him). And there were others with them who were also followers of Jesus, and there were these two disciples, one of them was named Cleopas (we don’t know the second one’s name perhaps Mrs. Cleopas?, these two disciples), who had just had the most amazing experience of their life! And they all got together back in Jerusalem and compared notes. Look at verse 33.

“They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, ‘It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.’”

(Simon is another name for the Apostle Peter.)

Do you see the word, “indeed” there in verse 34? It’s in there. It’s in the Greek original of Luke 24:34. The Greek word is “ontoes.” “Really.” 

The NIV translates it, “It is true!” 

The CSB, the Christian Standard Bible says, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”

The KJV and ESV both say, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!”

The NASB and the NLT both say, “The Lord has really risen, and has appeared to Simon.”

“Ontoes.” Really. This is a fact. 

That’s so important! We have all gathered here today to make a big deal of the resurrection. And that’s because it’s true. This isn’t a myth or a fairy tale. It’s not just a story that we tell the kids or ourselves to make us feel good. It's not just a song. It's not just a season. It's not just a Sunday. The resurrection of Jesus is a fact! It’s real!

Do you believe that?

It is increasingly difficult these days to separate fact from fiction. There are a lot of scams out there. So many people are lying to us. And now we have robots to lie to us, too. Artificial Intelligence. A.I. Great tool, perhaps, in the right hands. Terrible tool in the wrong.

Sometimes, it’s hard to tell what is true and what is fake. I have a pastor friend who has begun gathering information about the common scams that target church members, and he’s been teaching his congregation how to keep from getting scammed these days, especially online. And one of the best ways is to check and make sure that the stories line up. Call the bank to make sure. Call your credit card company. Check with a different family member to see if what you are supposedly hearing from someone who needs money is true. Check with others to make sure the stories line up. And if they don’t line up, be very very wary.

These people in Luke 24 were checking with each other to make sure that the stories all lined up. And they concluded that they did!

It was all true. It was all real. Christ is risen indeed.

Do you remember when you first came to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead? 

Maybe you’ve always been told it’s true. And maybe you believed it when you were little, and then you started to doubt and question. Do you remember when you were finally convinced?

Maybe you aren’t so sure. Maybe you have been dragged here by someone today. You’re not convinced yet that this is all true. 

Can I encourage you to make it your life’s mission to find out? Because everything hangs on this.

If Jesus has come back from the dead, it makes all the difference in the world.

It means that that God is real.

It means that miracles are real.

It means that Jesus is trustworthy.

It means that there is life after death.

It means that forgiveness is real.

It means that resurrection is real.

If Jesus can be raised from the dead, then so can you and I.

If Jesus is raised from the dead, then His kingdom will come.

And all bad things must come to an end.

Really!

It means all of that and so much more if this is all real.

It gives us something to build our lives upon. I don’t know about you, but I want to build my life on fact, not on fiction and certainly not just on feelings. Feelings come and go. They lie to us. But I want to know what is really real and build my life on that.

Whenever I struggle in my faith (And I do. Pastors struggle, too.), I start back at this foundation. Did Jesus rise from the dead? Yes! And then I build everything on that bedrock fact once again.

If you are trying to figure this out right now, there are many books I could recommend that examine the evidence and help you make up your own mind.

This week, I read this little book, “Did the Resurrection Really Happen?” by Timothy Paul Jones. I’d be glad to loan you my copy.

Whatever you do, don’t put this off. There’s too much at stake.

The group said (v.34), “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon [v.35]. Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.”

That’s amazing story, too, that you can read in verses 13 through 32. These two disciples, one of them named Cleopas were walking on the road to a village named Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were bewildered by everything that had happened that week.

What a week! Starting on Sunday with the triumphal entry of Jesus on that little donkey’s back, “Your king comes to you!”  And everybody thought they knew what was happening. The King had come! “It’s happening!” And then it all went sideways.

Well, these two are talking and a third person joins them on the road. And it’s Jesus. But for some supernatural reason, they can’t tell that it’s Him.

And He asks them, “What are you guys talking about? What’s going on?”

And Cleopas is like, “What rock have you been hiding under?! We’ve been talking about Jesus.”

“He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 

In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see” (Luke 24:19-24.).

Cleopas there is talking about the first part of Luke 24. You might want to read that yourself this afternoon. We studied it in-depth a few years ago as a church.

These women had gone to the tomb where Jesus was buried. Yes, He was buried! That’s what you do with a corpse. You bury it. But these women had gone to visit the tomb, and they found that the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty!

#1. HIS TOMB WAS REALLY EMPTY.

There was nobody there. No body there.

There were a couple of angels...whose clothes gleamed like lightning. I can’t imagine what that was like. They did had not yet harnessed electricity. There were no LED lights. Aside from the sun, lightning was the brightest thing you can imagine. These two angels were like made of lightning. Ever close your eyes after seeing lightning, and you can still see the outline behind your eyelids? 

And these electric angels had a message, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you...The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.” (Luke 24:5-7).

And the ladies ran back and told the Eleven, and Peter (and John) ran to the tomb, and they saw that it was empty. Really!

Peter saw the strips of linen that Jesus had been wrapped in. But no Jesus. And he wondered what was going on.

Cleopas and his friend are telling Jesus this story as they walk to Emmaus together. They were having the hardest time putting it all together.

And Jesus is right there with them, and He actually rebukes them and explains to them how all of this was predicted in the Old Testament. He said, “‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?' And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” (Luke 24:25-27).

There’s part of me that would have loved to be a fly on the wall for that Bible study! 

But I’m also not too sure I’d want to be rebuked like that by Jesus or to not know that it was Jesus who was explaining the whole sweep of the Bible from Moses and all the Prophets how the whole Old Testament is about Jesus Himself.

#2. THE SCRIPTURES ARE REALLY FULFILLED.

In the suffering and death and resurrection of Jesus the Scriptures are really fulfilled.

The Christ had to suffer these things and then enter His glory. The Bible says so.

I want to invite you all to come back next Sunday as we continue our study of the Letter to the Hebrews. Because we have been learning this very thing–that everything in the Old Testament pointed towards Jesus. Right now, we’re in chapters 3 and 4 where we’re learning that the Promised Land pointed to Jesus.

The whole Bible is about Jesus. According to Jesus! And it’s all coming true in Jesus. And these two disciples are learning this from Jesus, as they approach Emmaus. And Jesus acts like He’s going to continue on the road, but they ask him to stay with them, and they stop somewhere to eat.

And that’s when they recognize Who He is! He took bread, gave thanks, broke it with His nail-scarred hands, and gave it to them. And then He was gone!

But it was Him! They knew it was Him. And they were saying to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

And aren’t all of these Scriptures really fulfilled in Him?! That’s the kind of heart-burn that I want to have! 

And they can’t sleep. They are so excited by what has happened, that they turn around and go back the seven miles to Jerusalem and find the others. Verse 33 again.

“They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together  and saying, ‘It is true! [“ontoes,” really!] The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.'”

And we don’t even know when Jesus appeared to Simon Peter. None of the gospels recount that part of the story. It’s clear that it happened, we just don’t have the details. Paul talks about it again in 1 Corinthians 15. Peter got his resurrection appearance. What a moment that must have been!

It was real. This wasn’t a hoax. It wasn’t a scam. It wasn’t a hallucination. It was real.

And then Jesus showed up again! Look at verse 35.

“Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread. While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, ‘Do you have anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.” (Luke 24:35-43).

#3. JESUS IS REALLY ALIVE!

He’s not a ghost. He may have abilities to come and go in ways that mortals do not.But He is flesh and bones.

He showed them His hands and feet. He said, “Touch me.” “Really! This is Me.” And He eats a piece of fish. “Watch me. Here I go.” He’s not a ghost.

And He’s not a zombie. A dozen years ago, I preached a sermon on Resurrection Sunday, “Jesus Is Not a Zombie.” He is not the un-dead that can be killed again. He is alive and now has the power of an indestructible life (Hebrews 7:16)!

Really! Really! Indeed!

This is worth singing about.

This is worth building your life upon.

This is worth staking everything on.

We have all gathered here today to make a big deal of the resurrection.

And that is totally right as long as this is true.

But what fools we are if it is not! If Jesus has not come back from the dead:

that means that God is NOT real.

that means that miracles are NOT real.

that means that Jesus is NOT trustworthy.

that means that there is NO life after death.

that means that forgiveness is impossible.

that means that resurrection is a fake.

If Jesus has not been raised, then we are still in our sins and won’t rise again (see 1 Corinthians 15:13-17 for more on this). If Jesus has not been raised, then you are I certainly won’t be.

And Jesus’ kingdom will never come. And all good things will come to an end.

What do you think? We all need to decide. And we need to be honest about it. There’s too much at stake to play games here.

For me, I believe Cleopas and Simon Peter and Mary Magdalene. I believe His tomb was and is really empty. I believe the Scriptures were and are and will really fulfilled in Jesus. I believe that Jesus is really alive.

And because I believe, I rejoice. I love verse 41 where it says that they were struggling to believe because of the joy and amazement!  This seems too good to be true. Jesus was dead. He was a corpse. All of our hopes and dreams had died with Him. And yet here He is! 

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Here He is. Showing us His nail-scarred hands and feet. And sending us on a mission to proclaim the good news.

The chapter ends with the risen Jesus giving His disciples one last reminder of the gospel and a mission to share it the whole world. Look at verse 46.

“He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised [the Holy Spirit]; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’ [And then 50 days later.] When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.”

And then (the book of Acts says) they proclaimed that gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth–even to Central Pennsylvania.

Really! And we’ve all gathered here today to make a big deal of it. And that is absolutely right. 

Who can you tell today that all of this is true? That you have become convinced that His tomb was open and really empty. That the Scriptures were really fulfilled. And that Jesus is really alive.

And that means that repentance and forgiveness of sins can be preached in Jesus’ name. We can turn from our sins and be forgiven because Jesus has paid for our sins and was raised for our justification. We get the gift of His righteousness because Jesus is really alive.

And one day all bad things must come to end.

Really!

Read More

“Your King Comes To You” [Matt's Messages]

“Your King Comes To You”

Lanse Evangelical Free Church

Palm Sunday :: March 29, 2026

Matthew 21:1-11 & Zechariah 9:9

King Jesus has a plan to go public in a big way.

For three years, Jesus has been in the public eye, but He has been somewhat secretive about His full royal identity.

He has taught up and down the Judean and Galilean hillsides, with unmatched authority. He has done many miracles which were sign-posts of His divinity. He has clashed with the Jewish religious authorities.  

But He has also been, at times, somewhat “cagey” about Who He truly is. Not because He’s lying about Who He is, but because He wants people to figure it out for themselves, to not get or spread the wrong idea, and to wait for just the right moment to go public in the biggest way.

And that moment is right now.

Jesus has set His face like flint and led His disciples right up to Jerusalem as so many other Jews were gathering in that capitol city (often called “Zion” for the little mountain it’s seated on) for the coming feast of Passover–that yearly festival commemorating Israel’s rescue from Egypt. When God saved them from Pharaoh. Fifteen hundred years before, when the LORD killed all the firstborn of all their enemies but passed over all the firstborn of Israel whose doorways were marked by the blood of the lamb.

Jesus has a plan to go public this day in a big way.

This is clear by this little mission He sends these two disciples on. Look at verse 1.

“As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away’” (vv.1-3).

Interesting, huh?! I don’t know if this is His supernatural foreknowledge at work or if He has secretly prearranged this in a more natural way, but Jesus clearly has a plan that He is putting into action. These two guys are to go to the next village on their way up to Jerusalem, and there will be two donkeys. One will be female, a mother. And the other will be her male child, a colt. 

Mark and Luke tell us that the younger donkey had never been sat upon. Good thing his momma’s with him to calm him down. We don’t need a bucking bronco donkey for this event! 

But the Lord does “need” these two donkeys. He’s got to have them. He’s requisitioning them. He’s “the Lord,” and He needs them for what He is about to do.

The two disciples are to untie the two donkeys and bring them to Jesus because He’s going to ride them into town.

This is the big reveal! This is the moment when Jesus goes public in the biggest way. And He has carefully chosen His ride. 

And it’s not a mighty warhorse.

And it’s not a chariot.

And it’s not a tank or fighter jet or an aircraft carrier.

It’s a little donkey.

Why?

Well, it’s important to understand that kings did ride donkeys. Donkeys can be regal. They can be royal. 

Sometimes we get the idea that no king in his right mind would ever ride a donkey. But many kings did ride donkeys in those days, and there are several examples of donkey-riding kings in the Old Testament.

King David rode a mule (the offspring of a donkey), and he specifically put his son Solomon on his own mule to ride into town when Solomon assumed his position as the successor to the king (see 1 Kings 3:33, 38, 44).

But you did not ride a donkey into town if you were coming in war. You rode a donkey into town if you were coming in peace. You rode a donkey into town to mark–not your pretension and power and battle-readiness but–your gentleness and humility and peace.

And Jesus did it because He wanted to set off all of their alarm bells that He was the Messiah that they were waiting for. Jesus did this on purpose, and Matthew understood that. Matthew understood why Jesus was doing it this way. Look at verse 4.

“This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: ‘Say to the Daughter of Zion, 'See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.'”

There’s our sermon title for today, “Your King Comes to You.”

Jesus was clearly claiming to be their king.

And He arranged for this donkey ride to ring that prophetic bell.

“See Who I am? I’m the king that was predicted in Zechariah chapter 9!”

Now, Matthew doesn’t quote the whole verse. Mark and Luke don’t quote Zechariah at all. Matthew and John both point out the obvious connections with Zechariah chapter 9.

If you have your finger there, let’s turn back and look at it real quick. Zechariah 9:9.

You understand that the whole Bible is hypertexted, right? Your whole Bible is tied together in an intricate web of interconnections. We’ve seen that in the Book of Hebrews as the author has made so many of his points from the Old Testament.

Matthew, the gospel-writer, loves the word “fulfill.” It’s almost His favorite word (after “Jesus”) because he loves to show how Jesus fulfills the promises and predictions and patterns of the Old Testament. 

Here, it’s the prophecy of Zechariah. I’ve never yet preached from Zechariah in three decades of preaching God’s Word. One of these days, we’ll study the whole thing together. 

And when we do, hold onto your hats, it’s a wild ride! You thought Daniel was wild and crazy? So is Zechariah! It’s like the Book of Revelation for the Old Testament.

And it’s full of Jesus! Zechariah was written about 500 years after King David and 500 years before King Jesus. Also somewhere between the timing of Daniel and the timing of Esther that we studied last year. 

I did a little dive into Zechariah this week, and it is wild. Interestingly, after the Psalms it’s probably the Old Testament book most referenced in the Passion Week narratives. Up there with Isaiah 53. 

I won’t try to explain all of Zechariah, but there are many prophecies in Zechariah that had not yet come to pass. And one of them is this prophecy in chapter 9 to the people of Jerusalem that their king would come to them, and this king appears to be the Jewish Messiah. The king of all kings. The king who is going to solve everything and fix everything. The king whose rule will “extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth” (Zechariah 9:10).

Look at Zechariah 9:9.

“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

For five hundred years, the Jewish people have read that prophecy and waited for its fulfillment. For five hundred years–years when the Jews were under the thumb of Persia and Greece and now Rome–they have read and re-read Zechariah and longed for it to come true.

And now Jesus is pulling this little stunt with the donkeys, and Matthew knows what is going down.

Now, notice that Matthew doesn’t quote the whole verse. If you toggle between the two passages, you’ll notice that Matthew leaves out some of the words from Zechariah 9:9. 

That’s not because he doesn’t believe the whole thing. He just doesn’t think he needs to quote the whole thing to get across his point. Matthew is counting on his readers to “double-click” (so to speak) on his quotation and go back and study the whole thing in context.

“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

One thing we immediately notice is the call to rejoice and shout. Matthew just includes that the Daughter of Zion should see her king coming. But the fuller passage in Zechariah says how Jerusalem should feel about it and react to it.

“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!”

Get loud!

Raise your voice!

Make some noise!

This is worth celebrating. Your king is here. Your king has come to you. That’s not something to yawn at. This is what you’ve been waiting for.

Was that part of the prophecy fulfilled on Palm Sunday?

Oh yes, it was. Turn back to Matthew 21. Look verse 6.

“The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them.

A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ‘Hosanna in the highest!’” (vv.6-9).

They got loud. They could see what was happening. As Jesus sat on that little donkey with the makeshift saddle of his disciples’ cloaks, the people pretty quickly figured out what was going on and they rolled out the red carpet. Actually the green carpet!

They put their cloaks down to symbolize their submission and their honor to the coming king and then cut palm branches (hence Palm Sunday) to spread them on the road as a natural royal green carpet.

It says “a very large crowd.” Can you guess how many people? Conservative estimates are that Jerusalem had about 70,000 people living in it at that time. But this is Passover. And you know what happens to State College on game day? You know how it balloons? Scholars estimate that Jerusalem would balloon to at least 250,000 people during Passover. We don’t know how many saw Jesus coming, but it wasn’t just little crowd. It was huge.

“Hey! Look that’s Jesus, and look what He’s riding. He’s riding a little donkey. And there’s it’s momma. Hey! You know what this means? That’s Zechariah 9:9 right there. You know Who He’s saying He is? He’s saying that He’s the rightful king. He’s Great David’s Greatest Son. And here He comes!"

And the crowd grows. It becomes a parade. Some ahead of him. Some behind him. Nobody worried about the Romans and what they think.

And everybody shouting!

“Hosanna!” That word literally means “Save!” or “Save us! or “He will save us!”

And it seems to have become a word that just is an exclamation of praise. Praise to the Son of David.

Praise “in the highest.” Meaning, the most praise? Or maybe, “Let the angels praise Him!”

“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” That’s a quote from Psalm 118 which we double-clicked on a few years ago on another Palm Sunday. 

Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!

They shouted. They rejoiced.

And Jesus...took it.

One of the most amazing things about this, to me, is how Jesus doesn’t stop them. He doesn’t shut them down or try to re-direct them. He doesn’t point them to someone else. He just sits there on the little donkey, swaying back and forth, riding forth into Jerusalem while these people shout praises at Him!

Because He knows that they are right.

They are not over the top.

They are not inappropriate.

They are appropriate! 

Jesus is the King!

And He’s okay with everyone knowing it.

This is King Jesus’ plan to go public in a big way!

And it shook the city. I don’t know how many people were there for the triumphal entry, but soon everybody heard what had happened. Look at verse 10.

“When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, ‘Who is this?’ The crowds answered, ‘This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee’” (vv.10-11).

“Who is this?” That’s the question! What do you think of their answer? 

It’s not bad, but it’s not enough is it?  Yes, Jesus is a prophet, but He is so much more. The crowds shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David” is much better. Because He wasn’t just a prophet. He was the coming king. 

“See, your king comes to you.”

What kind of a king is He?

Jesus is obviously a different kind of king than we are used to, and He was a different kind of king than they were used, too.

Let’s turn back to Zechariah 9 to see what it says this king would be like.

I see three adjectives. Two of which Matthew skipped over when he copied  verse 9 into his book.

The first one is:

#1. RIGHTEOUS.

“See, your king comes to you, righteous...”

What does that mean?

That means that He is right. “Righteous” means that this king does what is right and what is good. It means that he is just. He loves justice. He loves what is right. And He is characterized by this. He doesn’t just do the right thing sometimes, when it benefits Him. He does the right thing all the time and never anything but the right thing!

He never does the wrong thing. Can you imagine?

This is very different from the rulers that Israel had known. Even the greatest of them, kings like David and Solomon had massive failings in righteousness. They did not always do what is right. They did not always do what was good. They did not always do what was just.

And we see it today with those who rule over us. And in us when we have dominion over others. We fail to exercise righteousness.

But not this King! He is righteous.

King Solomon wrote a song about Him. Psalm 72. You might want to read it this afternoon.

I’m sure that on some level he wanted it to be true of himself, but he clearly failed to live up to it. Psalm 72 begins:

“Endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness. He will judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice. The mountains will bring prosperity to the people, the hills the fruit of righteousness. He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy; he will crush the oppressor. He will endure as long as the sun, as long as the moon, through all generations.  He will be like rain falling on a mown field, like showers watering the earth. In his days the righteous will flourish; prosperity will abound till the moon is no more. He will rule from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth” (Psalm 72:1-8).

Wow! And if you look down at verse 10, you’ll see some very similar words to describe the King Zechariah expects to come.

He is righteous!

And that gives us a model to follow. We should be righteous, too, and as far as it depends upon us to work towards righteousness in our society. Do the right thing!

But it also gives us hope because we will so often fail to do the right thing. But there is One who will not fail to be righteous. And He has come...and He is coming again.

Now, that He is righteous is very important for the next adjective.

#2. SAVING.

“See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation...”

That’s how the old NIV puts it. Along with the ESV and the KJV. The NASB say, “endowed with salvation.” 

But some translations like the CSB and the updated NIV have “victorious.” “Your king comes to you, righteous and victorious...”

The idea is that this king has won a great battle to save His people. Or even perhaps has been saved in battle Himself. Perhaps the battle was not going His way, and then He won after all.

This might be one of the reasons why Matthew doesn’t include that line in his quotation because, on Palm Sunday, Jesus still had His greatest battle in front of Him. Not sure.

Either way, it’s true of Him. Jesus brings salvation! This king is a saving king. Saving His people from their greatest enemies.

Now, one of the reasons why the people got excited was because a bunch of them thought that the Messiah when He came was going to overthrow their Roman oppressors.

He was going to storm in and kick out Pontius Pilate and all of Caesar’s other cronies and send them packing back to Italy where they belonged. But that’s not the kind of king that came that day. He didn’t come in on a military mount. He came in on donkey. 

But He still came to save. He came to save His people from their greatest enemies. From sin, and self, and Satan. And to do that, He had to be righteous, and He had to be this next word:

#3. HUMBLE.

The old NIV has “gentle.”

The new NIV has “lowly” like the old KJV.

The ESV and CSB have “humble.”

Your king comes to you...humble.

The Hebrew word in Zechariah is “ani” which can mean “poor” or even “afflicted.”

It’s not the kind of word you might expect to describe a king!

Especially a king whose coming is good news.

Who gets excited about their “poor king” coming?

“Oh, our poor king.”

“Oh, here comes our ‘afflicted’ king.”

“Here comes our lowly king.”

“Here comes our gentle king.”

Who gets excited about gentle kings?!

Christians, that’s who. Because we know that down is the way up in God’s world. We know that suffering is the path to glory. We know that the one who wants to be first must be last and take the place of servant. We know that gentleness is true strength. That’s why we get excited about a king riding a little donkey.

Zechariah says, “See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

He’s the long-expected king, but He’s probably not like the king you expect. (Even though you should.)

This king is humble.

Have you ever read the book Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund? It came out about 6 years ago, and we gave a copy to everybody who was in the church at that time. I highly recommend it as a study of the heart of Jesus. 

He that’s who said He is at heart. When He invited us to Himself, He said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29).

That’s the kind of king we really need.

And, praise God, that’s kind of king He really is.

So how do we apply this to our lives? Let me suggest three quick ways from these scriptures.

– RECEIVE YOUR KING!

Remember, the whole city was abuzz with the question, “Who is this?” And a bunch of them got it wrong. Some of them got partial credit with, “the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee” (Matthew 21:11). But a bunch of them decided, in the end, that Jesus wasn’t even worth listening to.

By the end of the week, the crowds weren’t shouting “Hosanna!” They were shouting “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” And they did.

This same week that they put down the branches, Jesus was betrayed,  mocked, flogged, and crucified. They put a crown of thorns on His head and whipped Him red. 

“Hail, King of the Jews!”

They didn’t receive their king. We must or else. Who do you think Jesus is? Is He righteous, and saving, and humble? 

Is He your king? Do you act like it? Do you lay down the Green Carpet for Him and do what your king says? I’m amazed at how often I see people claim Jesus is their king but act the exact opposite of Him. And the exact opposite of how our king tells us how to live. And I’m ashamed of how often that has been true of me.

Is He your king or isn’t He? Make up your mind. 

It says, “See, your king.” See Him! Recognize Him. Receive your king and rejoice that He has come.

– RAISE HIS PRAISE!

That’s the second application. The very thing that Zechariah told Jerusalem to do, we should, too.

Rejoice greatly! Shout!

What do you shout for?  We shout all the time when we are happy about things. Go to a sporting event. And you’ll hear people shouting all the time. One of these softball girls hits a dinger. Haley W. hits a dinger over the fence, whoo! We shout for joy.

We need to do that about our king! 

Let’s shout “Hosanna” together. We’ve sung it already. But we should shout it, too. Let’s do it this way. I want you to pick two numbers between 1 and 10. Okay? Like 2 and 7 and or 4 and 9. Can you do that? Got them? Now, I’m going to count to 11, and when I hit your numbers, I want you to shout “Hosanna!” which means, “He will save us!” “Praise the Savior!” And when we get to 11, we’re all going to show “Hosanna in the Highest!”

And I don’t want any mumbling, okay? You don’t have to shout as loud as you can, because we are inside. You don’t have to scream.

But this is our king. Righteous, saving, humble. Amen? Here we go:

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10!  “Hosanna in the Highest!”

Raise His praise. And not just here on Sunday mornings in this room. Every single day be grateful this is your king. That He has come and is coming again.

“We will feast in the house of Zion.

We will sing with our hearts restored.

He has done great things, we will say together.

We will feast and weep no more.”

- Sandra McCracken

Come, Lord Jesus!

And last, but not least:

– REMEMBER HIS SACRIFICE.

Our righteous king brought us salvation by being humble.

That donkey ride was not just to get attention.

That donkey ride was not just ringing a bell of fulfillment.

That donkey ride was showing us how He was going to save His people.

He was going to be humble, gentle, lowly, poor, afflicted.

He was going to take the last place.

He was going to take the nails.

He was going to be pierced for our transgressions (see Isaiah 53:6). 

He was going to be crushed for our iniquities.

He was going to take our punishment.

And die.

And we are called to remember that every single day.

And especially this week.

In Zechariah chapter 12, there is another prophecy that the Apostle John recognized as all about Jesus (see John 19:37 and Revelation 1:7).

Through the prophet, the LORD says, “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son” (Zechariah 12:10).

This same king who came so gently on Sunday, would be pierced for us on Friday.

Our righteous king brought us salvation by being humble.

Remember His sacrifice for you and me. 

***

Previous Messages on Palm Sunday

“Blessed Is He Who Comes In the Name of the LORD!” - Psalm 118 - March 25, 2018

"The Son of the Sick King" - Psalm 41 - April 14, 2019

"Shouting for the Son of David" - Matthew20:29-21:17 - July 14, 2019

“For You” - Luke 22:14-20 - April 2, 2023

"The Hour Has Come" - John 12:12-26 - April 28, 2024

Read More