{"id":454,"date":"2013-03-12T06:35:04","date_gmt":"2013-03-12T11:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/?p=454"},"modified":"2014-11-25T10:17:59","modified_gmt":"2014-11-25T16:17:59","slug":"freedom-through-the-missional-call-of-a-humble-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2013\/03\/12\/freedom-through-the-missional-call-of-a-humble-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom through the Missional call of a Humble King"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio Version Link<\/a><\/p>\n

This is from a five minute sermon that I was to preach. \u00a0Although in general, I disagree with a five minute sermon\u00a0length,\u00a0 there are times and places where this may be appropriate.<\/p>\n

The words of God through Zechariah are spoken to the peoples of Israel.\u00a0 These same words in verse 9 are also spoken in Matthew and John.\u00a0 A reading from Zechariah chapter 9, verses 9-12.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

9<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!<\/p>\n

Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!<\/p>\n

Lo, your king comes to you;<\/p>\n

triumphant and victorious is he,<\/p>\n

humble and riding on a donkey, \u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

on a colt, the foal of a donkey.<\/p>\n

10<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0 He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim<\/p>\n

and the war-horse from Jerusalem;<\/p>\n

and the battle bow shall be cut off,<\/p>\n

and he shall command peace to the nations;<\/p>\n

his dominion shall be from sea to sea,<\/p>\n

and from the River to the ends of the earth.<\/p>\n

11<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0 As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,<\/p>\n

I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.<\/p>\n

12<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0 Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;<\/p>\n

today I declare that I will restore to you double.[1]<\/sup><\/sup><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As I searched on how to bring this message today, I struggled with not wanting to bring a stale proclamation of the same old news.\u00a0 I searched in my heart and through the scripture reading, both before and after the verses of today.\u00a0 I searched commentary both old and new.\u00a0 All that I could find was what I kept seeing myself.\u00a0 It felt like tired old news as I looked through it.\u00a0 The same stuff but another day.\u00a0 As I wrote this sermon, I had just woken up from a nap after not feeling well and struggling with what to write.<\/p>\n

It is in that Nap that the Spirit of Christ came to me in my dreams and gave me the words I speak to you today.\u00a0 I was asked, how can the old news of this glorious King riding in on a donkey, humbly, victorious and triumphant or as some translations say even better, righteous and having salvation!\u00a0 How can this be old and stale?\u00a0 This is good news of the good news that came and is here and is coming in the end. This is not old, this is not stale but glorious news to shouted aloud and rejoiced in.<\/p>\n

The words in the scripture you just heard today are the words of God as attributed to Zechariah.\u00a0 Zechariah, being a prophet to the Jews is speaking God\u2019s words to us today.\u00a0 These are words of action, they are words of not only what God has done but what God is doing and what God will do.\u00a0 When we hear them, we are called to take action, to respond to the good news contained within.<\/p>\n

We are called to rejoice greatly.\u00a0 We are tenderly spoken to as the daughter of Zion, of Jerusalem.\u00a0 It is by the virtue of Christ Jesus, that we are grafted into the affectionate terms as daughters of the people of Israel.\u00a0 God speaks in Zechariah to us today, REJOICE!<\/p>\n

There can be no doubt living as Christians, we can see the correlation of the prophets words in what Christ did as He entered humbly on a donkey into \"\"<\/a>Jerusalem, before he was killed that same week.\u00a0 We are freed from our sins in the death and resurrection of the humble king, Jesus.<\/p>\n

Oh, do not get me wrong, there are dual meanings of the words spoken for the Jews and now the Christians.\u00a0 Oh sure, the Jews have a blood sacrificial covenant with God as God\u2019s chosen people.<\/b><\/p>\n

The Jews were called to be a light to the nations, to live as a nation among nations drawing people to God in their way of life.\u00a0 God\u2019s plan however is that we too as Christians, live out the Missional life that the Jews were to live out.\u00a0 We are to have the Missional identity of the people of God, living as a contrast community of the Body of Christ, different than others, opposite of what the world calls good but instead what God calls good.\u00a0 It is there that the war-horse and battle bow is no longer needed because we will live as the peaceful identity of God\u2019s people.\u00a0 As we live our lives in contrast to the world, our identity and mission call us to be in the world but as Paul the Apostle says; do not to be conformed to the world.\u00a0 We cannot live isolated from the rest of the world and be able to proclaim the good news but we must be insulated from the effects of the world.\u00a0 We are set free from the\u00a0waterless\u00a0pit and afforded to opportunity to drink of the water that Jesus offers us and never be thirsty again, to receive the spring water gushing up to eternal life, as it says in (John 4:14)<\/span><\/p>\n

Christ\u2019s mission was and is to carry out God\u2019s mission of reconciling the whole of humanity back to how God intended it to be.\u00a0 As Christians, we have the opportunity to join Christ and we are called in mission through a Missional identity to carry out this mission in the Body of Christ.<\/p>\n

By not responding as God is calling us to do, we have failed.\u00a0 We fail.\u00a0 We fail at being part of the kingdom that has broken through to the here and now.\u00a0 We fail to realize the potential of what God wants for us.\u00a0 We by our own failings, do not get to experience the fullness of God in the here and now.<\/p>\n

It is through our Missional identity in the body of Christ that we experience the kingdom of God today and it is in this identity that others come to experience the kingdom of God.\u00a0 It is in your response, my response, our Missional identity response that we can experience the fullness of God, hear and now.\u00a0 It is in all this that God\u2019s kingdom brings peace to the world, and God\u2019s kingdom is from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of earth.\u00a0 We are prisoners of hope because we can see the kingdom and can experience some of that kingdom now as the body of Christ and our hope is in the world to come.<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n
\n
\n

[1]<\/sup><\/sup> The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version<\/i> (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Zec 9:9\u009612.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Audio Version Link This is from a five minute sermon that I was to preach. \u00a0Although in general, I disagree with a five minute sermon\u00a0length,\u00a0 there are times and places where this may be appropriate. The words of God through Zechariah are spoken to the peoples of Israel.\u00a0 These same words in verse 9 are … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,34,83,4,31],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-admin","4":"post-454","6":"format-standard","7":"category-jesus","8":"category-mission","9":"category-sermon","10":"category-spirit","11":"category-theology-of-the-cross"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2m6h5-7k","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1758,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2017\/03\/20\/goal-setting-daniel-plan-part-b\/","url_meta":{"origin":454,"position":0},"title":"Goal Setting, Daniel Plan Part B","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"March 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Daniel Plan \/ Setting Goals in Faith Why I Need Personal Goals 1 Corinthians 1:10 (NIV) 1 Corinthians 5:9 (NIV) 1 Corinthians 16:14\u00a0(NLT) 1 Corinthians 14:1 (NLT) 1 Corinthians 9:26\u00a0(NLT) Romans 6:13\u00a0(NLT) Hebrews 11:6 (NIV) Proverbs 16:9 (MSG) Zechariah 4:6 (NCV) Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT) For an audio only version, click\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Attitude"","block_context":{"text":"Attitude","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/attitude\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/bKyUGDzfsjs\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1977,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2017\/12\/24\/quietly-in-the-night-christmas-2017-message\/","url_meta":{"origin":454,"position":1},"title":"Quietly in the night (Christmas 2017 Message)","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"December 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Nativity of the Lord Christmas Eve\u2014Proper 1 Years ABC On the same date: Fourth Sunday of Advent Old Testament Isaiah 9:2\u20137 Psalm Psalm 96:1-13 New Testament Titus 2:11\u201314 Gospel Luke 2:1\u201320) \u00a0 https:\/\/youtu.be\/3b_GvkU1zUA The birth of Jesus takes place without fanfare.\u00a0 No billboards, no public service announcements and no blimp\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christ"","block_context":{"text":"Christ","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/christ\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Mary-and-Joseph-moonlight-300x225.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Mary-and-Joseph-moonlight-300x225.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Mary-and-Joseph-moonlight-300x225.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2708,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2021\/11\/29\/focus-on-the-king\/","url_meta":{"origin":454,"position":2},"title":"Focus on the King","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"November 29, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Christ the King SundayNovember 21, 2021 Old Testament Daniel 7:9\u201310, 13\u201314 (NRSV)Psalm Psalm 93 (NRSV)New Testament Revelation 1:4b\u20138 (NRSV)Gospel John 18:33\u201337 (NRSV) https:\/\/youtu.be\/Y9Lsei0T4pQ?t=794 \u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "Calling"","block_context":{"text":"Calling","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/calling\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1641,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2016\/11\/28\/christ-the-king-over-all\/","url_meta":{"origin":454,"position":3},"title":"Christ, The King over All","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"November 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Below is the video version of the sermon. 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