God calls the people to remember Him when they enter the land, since He is the true God and the only One worthy of worship.

Jesus is the divine King who enters Jerusalem riding on a donkey, fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy about God’s promised King who would save God’s people and bring them peace. As Jesus entered the city, He offered Himself to Israel as her King, and the crowds understood this offer partially. They shouted that He was the Son of David and declared blessings upon Him.

Jesus is Lord over all. As Creator, Sustainer, and Inheritor of all things, He is the rightful Ruler of all things, yet He has graciously stooped again to rescue His church, beating death in His resurrection and bringing reconciliation through His work on the cross. All of these acts demand that His creatures crown Him with “first place (Col. 1:18) in everything––every thought, every action, every word, every moment, every church, every home, every workplace. He deserves it all.

There is one God to whom all people owe their allegiance. The nation of Israel should have known this God, since He acted so powerfully in delivering them from slavery in Egypt. God knows that the people will be likely to forget Him once they enter the land, so He commands them to continually call to mind His grace and love.

Matthew presented this amazing scene of Jesus entering Jerusalem to teach his readers that Jesus is the Son of David and to emphasize for them how the crowds misunderstood what Jesus’s identity meant. Matthew concluded the scene by citing Zechariah 9:9 and Isaiah 62:11 to emphasize again that Jesus is the Messiah. The city was in an uproar because the expectation of many was that Jesus would conquer the Romans. The others thought that He was just a prophet from Nazareth. Jesus was both and neither. Matthew has made clear that Jesus is the Bethlehem-born Son of David. He is the King, but the kingdom of heaven would come through Jesus’s death and resurrection, not through military conquest. The victory of Jesus would actually lead to the judgment of Jerusalem.

The Colossian church was in danger of moving to a minimalist gospel with a small Jesus. They needed to hear the message of the bigness of Jesus loud and clear. Paul wanted to set the record straight. So Paul includes this powerful and beautiful hymn (perhaps one that the Colossian church was already familiar with) to call them back to the gospel they first heard. Concepts like “firstborn” (Col. 1:15, 18) would have had special significance in this culture, explaining Christ’s supreme authority over all creation and over death. Even though God the Son is eternal and not created, He is the rightful King over creation because all things were created by Him. Because God raised Jesus from the dead to never die again (which is different from the other miraculous resurrections in the Bible like Lazarus in John 11), believers could know that Jesus will resurrect His people and restore all of creation.

There is only one God. All other gods are frauds. The same God who created the world in the garden is the same God who brought Israel into the promised land. He is also the same God who sent Jesus to save God’s people. Jesus was God’s plan, which means that all people need to know about Him and trust Him in faith.

God is faithful to fulfill his promises. Matthew has once again emphasized that God the Father was acting through the ministry of Jesus to fulfill the words of the prophets. Jesus was establishing God’s kingdom on the earth. Jesus was enacting the forgiveness of sins that the prophets said would take place after Israel had been judged in the exile. God is faithful to save His people!

God is all-powerful, creating everything we can see and even the things we can’t see. He even keeps all that He has created from spinning out of control. He carefully keeps the planets in orbit and the atoms bound together. When sin entered His creation, He marched in and beat it.

People are forgetful. Even though God had done such marvelous work for them, they would grow selfish and think only of themselves. All people are like this. Unless we are careful, we will forget about God and minimize all of the amazing things He’s done for us in our lives.

This passage reveals that humans are impressed by power. The people coming into Jerusalem acknowledged Jesus as a king. The problem was that their vision of Jesus’s kingship did not coincide with how Jesus was actually going to establish God’s reign. They wanted a king who would crush their enemies. They did not want the King who would be crushed for their sins.

People are God’s creatures, deserving of nothing, but people are also members of His body, recipients of everything He has to offer.

I should find regular ways to point my attention to God and His work in the world. I can do this by paying attention to God and His work in the world. I can do this by praying regularly, listening to music that praises Him, attending church, and talking with friends about the great things God has done. If I don’t do these things, I will forget about God.

I must rejoice and worship Jesus as the King who has made salvation available to me. I must submit my life to His kingly rule because He is my Savior and my King.

I must worship the One who created me and reconciled me back to Himself. I must give Him back His rightful “first place” in every area of my life. Only the grace of God and the power of His Spirit can cause me to esteem Him as first in my life.

Moses reminds the people of the critical role leaders, especially parents, play in teaching others about God’s character and works. This was, and is, the mechanism that God has established to make sure subsequent generations know God. The family is meant to be a community that reminds one another of the glory of God.

I should be skeptical of myself. I’m susceptible to the deception of power and can easily be led to follow those who promise me some form of power or position in this life. I need to remember that Jesus is the only King I need.

I should see myself as part of something much bigger. Jesus has reconciled me to Himself and placed me into His body, the church. My new life is bound up in Christ and connected with other believers. I am a part of His great mission to save sinners and restore the world.

I can ask God to bring to mind His greatness in my life. He can make me more aware of the ways He’s loved and blessed me and can help me praise Him for these things. I should also give thanks for those who have pointed me to God throughout my life.

I can pray that God will give me the grace to submit to Jesus as my King and to rejoice that Jesus has died for my sin and conquered death so that I can be saved through faith in Him.

I must give worship to God in prayer for His wonderful work in creation, His sustaining work every day, His conquering work in the resurrection, and His reconciling work on the cross. He deserves my unrestrained worship and thanks because He is the sole source of my physical and spiritual life.