Well, happy Palm Sunday, everyone. That's pretty
loud. Yeah, Hosanna. When I scream it, they're
going to hear it at Rock Springs. So y 'all can
cut that back a little bit. There we go. They
say there is a simple way to break down structure
in a good story. There's always a promise and
then there is progress and then there is the
payoff. And throughout the gospel of Matthew,
he has been alluding to the climax of his story.
And that promise was made clear in Matthew 16,
21. The Bible says from that time, Jesus began
to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem
and suffer many things from the elders and chief
priests and scribes and be killed and on the
third day be raised. And ever since that point,
when that was made clear, that is where Jesus
is going. That is what he's going to do. We have
been seeing him make progress. coming to Jerusalem.
And now we get to the triumphal entry where we
are seeing the beginning of the climax of the
story. And under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, Matthew in particular has meticulously
organized his gospel as a master class in storytelling.
So much so that when you do come to this story,
I think careful Bible readers should be experiencing
a little sense of deja vu. And I don't mean deja
vu in the sense that, yeah, we've heard this
passage before. We're all familiar with it. But
you know what deja vu is, right? Anybody in here
experienced it before? Yes? Okay, it's that very
weird feeling where something is happening and
you feel like you've already lived this moment
before. And scientists don't even know what it
is. They think it's a misfire of the brain or
that it's the subconscious mistaking memories
for present events. But we, as Bible readers,
should be experiencing deja vu here. because
I want to ask you a question. Have you ever noticed
how similar the story of Jesus's birth is to
the story of the triumphal entry? Have you ever
thought about that? If you want to notice a few
similarities, think about it like this. The Bible
tells us that after Jesus was born, some wise
men came to Jerusalem. You remember the old hymn
refers to them as the three kings. of orient
so they come to Jerusalem and they are accompanied
by a large crowd and the reason they are there
they say in Matthew 2 2 they say where is he
who has been born the king of the Jews for we
saw his star when it rose and we've come to worship
him so what happens at the birth story a large
crowd comes to Jerusalem to worship the king
of the Jews Well, not only that the Bible says
that shortly after that did Jerusalem recognize
their king when Jesus was born No, the Bible
says in Matthew 2 3 when Herod the king heard
this he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him
and so the city is stirred up They're troubled
by the arrival of this king and then right after
that happens Matthew tells us this was actually
a fulfillment of a prophecy about how the Messiah
was to be born in Bethlehem Well, what happens
at the triumphal entry? Jesus enters into Jerusalem
as a king, and did you notice there's a small
detail in our passage when Jordan read it? The
city of Jerusalem once again did not recognize
their king. The Bible says when he entered Jerusalem,
in verse 10, the whole city was stirred up, saying,
who is this? It's the same phrase that's used
back in Matthew chapter two. They're stirred
up and troubled. Here in Matthew 21, they're
stirred up and troubled. And then Matthew tells
us this was a fulfillment about how the Messiah
would enter Jerusalem. You might say, okay, pastor,
that's one interesting observation, but we can
take it a step further. Because right after Jesus
was born, the Bible tells us he was taken to
Jerusalem. And when he went to Jerusalem, he
was immediately taken to the temple for purification
rights. Did you happen to notice what Jesus did
when he entered Jerusalem in our passage? As
soon as he enters Jerusalem, where does he go?
To the temple, to purify it. And we can take
it even a step further than that. The Bible tells
us that after Jesus was born, a Roman ruler,
this would have been Herod the king, sought to
put Jesus to death. When you go to the triumphal
entry, and Jesus enters into Jerusalem, a different
Roman ruler, Pontius Pilate, seeks to put Jesus
to death, and actually does, on the cross. And
so you look at the story of Jesus' birth, and
you look at the story of his triumphal entry,
and they are serving as bookends to the Gospel
of Matthew. And you might say, okay, but what's
the big deal? Why the parallelism here? It's
because the Bible is wanting you to see that
the climax to the story of Jesus is beginning
here. This is what the whole book has been about.
It has all been leading to Jerusalem. They say
all roads lead to Rome. In Matthew, all roads
lead to Jerusalem. It's all been pointing here,
and now we are seeing that the King has come.
And it's very interesting whether you're looking
at the birth story of Jesus or whether you're
looking at the triumphal entry. People do not
recognize him for who he is. The city of Jerusalem
and Matthew chapter 2 was stirred up and troubled
because they didn't know that Jesus was the king
of the Jews. And then when you look at Matthew
21, the same city of Jerusalem, they initially
praise him. The crowds are shouting, Hosanna.
And then less than a week later, they are going
to be shouting, crucify him. And it all has to
do with how they perceive Jesus and who they
think he is. And the point I want you to understand
this morning is, if we fail to see Jesus for
who He is, we will fail to follow Him as we ought.
If we fail to see Jesus for who He is, we will
fail to follow Him as we ought. You've probably
heard someone ask before, who is Jesus to you?
That's a terrible question. With all due respect
to anyone who asked that question, it does not
matter who Jesus is to you. What matters is who
is Jesus according to Jesus? Who is Jesus according
to how he has revealed himself in scripture?
And we have to focus on this church. We have
to prioritize this because if we do not get Jesus
right, listen to me, we're not gonna get anything
else right either. If we don't get Jesus right,
nothing else. in the church is gonna be right
either. And so the question that I want us to
consider together this morning is how do misunderstandings
about Jesus keep us from following him faithfully?
How do misunderstandings about Jesus keep us
from following him faithfully? And you might
remember in our passage, thanks to Jordan reading
it for us, that Jesus tells his disciples to
go and get a donkey for him, and this was to
fulfill a prophecy. that we read about in Zechariah
9 .9. It says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of
Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold,
your king is coming to you. Righteous in having
salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Now what you
have to understand is that all of the Jewish
people understood this prophecy to be a Messianic
prophecy. They believed that this prophecy meant
that the Messiah was going to ride into Jerusalem
as a political and military ruler. That Jesus,
or whoever the Messiah was, he was going to come
to overthrow Israel's oppressors and retake the
land. That is who they understood the Messiah
to be. And the crowds actually have a pretty
interesting choice to make here. because this
was a pretty big event going on in Jerusalem.
This is the beginning of Passover week. And you
may not know this, but it was customary for the
Roman governor of Judea to enter into Jerusalem
at the beginning of the Passover week in order
to keep peace and basically to remind everyone
you can have your festivals, you can have your
feasts and your celebrations, but no one forget
you were ultimately under Roman rule. So the
Roman ruler, he would come in, to remind everybody
of this, and so what you see is something pretty
interesting. You have a clash of kingdoms going
on in Jerusalem right now. The Bible tells us
that Jesus entered Jerusalem from the east, and
you look at Jesus and he comes riding the colt
of the donkey, and who is with him? Does he have
an impressive group with him? No, he's accompanied
by fishermen, by women, by everyday working people.
Overall, it's not very impressive. But this is
what the east side of the city had to offer.
It was one who was called the Son of God and
the King of the Jews, riding humbly into Jerusalem.
Now, that was on the east side of the city. Here's
what's really interesting. On the exact opposite
side of the city, on the west, from the west,
Pilate entered Jerusalem. And when he entered
Jerusalem, he entered with full military attire.
He was riding a war stallion draped in armor.
He was accompanied by legions of soldiers. They
were marching to the beat of a steady drum. Trumpeters
announced their arrival. And of course, Pontius
Pilate came as an extension of Caesar, who was
Tiberius Caesar, who was also known as the Son
of God. And so this is what the west side of
the city had to offer. It was a well -known military
leader. who comes as a representative of the
Son of God, he's ready for battle, he has the
soldiers and the weapons to back it up, and he's
arriving on a stallion in full fanfare. And so
if you're a citizen of Jerusalem, if you're in
the city at this time, you have an important
choice to make. It's the most important choice
you're ever gonna make, because you have to decide,
which ruler am I gonna welcome into the city?
Am I gonna go to the east and welcome Jesus into
the city, or am I gonna go to the west and welcome
Pilate into the city? And your choice says a
lot about your heart and where your stance is
with God. They wanted Jesus to come in and be
a rival to Pontius Pilate. They wanted him to
come in and overthrow Pontius Pilate. They thought
he was coming to deliver them militarily. And
yet, if you look at the Zechariah prophecy, the
larger context of it, the Bible tells us exactly
why Jesus came to Jerusalem. In that same chapter,
Zechariah 9, verses 16 through 17, it says this,
and how great is his beauty. Grain shall make
the young men flourish and new wine the young
women." So what was the purpose of Jesus coming
to Jerusalem? It was salvation, right? Did you
notice that? On that day, the Lord their God
will save them. See, you have to understand something,
folks. Jesus came to Jerusalem for one reason
and one reason only. And it was not to overthrow
Pontius Pilate. It was not to retake the land.
He came to save His people from their sins. That
is why He is here. That is His purpose for coming.
And the interesting thing is, the crowds did
have salvation in mind. I mean, the crowds here
are spreading their cloaks and their palm branches.
And notice what they're saying in verse 9. It
says, the crowds that went before him and that
followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the son
of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name
of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. The word
hosanna was originally a cry for help. And hosanna
actually comes from the Hebrew word meaning to
save. And so hosanna, it means save us, oh Lord,
save us, we pray. And it's so interesting to
look at this passage and you see this huge crowd
that's going out to meet Jesus. They're welcoming
Jesus into the city. They're shouting, Hosanna
to the son of David, Hosanna in the highest,
save us, oh Lord. And this same crowd, just a
few days later, is gonna be shouting, give us
Barabbas. Crucify Jesus. And they're gonna be
offered again, are you sure? Barabbas is a known
criminal. We know what he did. We have proof
of what he did. Are you sure? Barabbas or Jesus?
And they shouted, give us Barabbas. Crucify Jesus.
This happens over the course of a week. How does
someone go from praising Jesus to cursing Jesus
in a week's time? And I think it's because they
weren't thinking about Jesus correctly. It all
has to do with the fact that they expected him
to be someone that he never claimed to be. They
expected him to be someone, and when he turned
out not to be that person, they walked away from
him. They expected him to do certain things for
them, and when he didn't do those things, they
turned on him. And so what I want you to understand
this morning is that Jesus did not come to satisfy
our expectations, but to fulfill God's promises.
Jesus did not come to satisfy our expectations,
but to fulfill God's promises. This is ultimately
why this crowd would turn on Jesus. It's because
they were not primarily interested in salvation
from sin. They just wanted deliverance from Rome.
Their primary concern was not peace with God.
They just wanted a comfortable life. They just
wanted to be free from Roman oppression. They
wanted to live their lives however they wanted
to, and they thought Jesus was the means to get
to that end. And when Jesus doesn't do what they
want Him to do, they turn and walk away from
Him. Which is a natural human reaction, right?
Like, I mean, have you ever mistaken someone
in a crowd? It's a pretty embarrassing situation.
Am I the only one who's ever done that? You've
done that too, right? Yeah, okay. Mine was a
little worse, okay? Because I remember, I think
I was at like seven or eight or something. We
were at probably the county fair. I'd gotten
separated from mom and so I was a kid crying
out, mom, mom, where are you? And thankfully
I saw my mom a little ways off and so I run up
to her and I start pulling on her leg and I'm
like, hey, I'm here. I don't know if you're looking
for me, doesn't look like you were, but I'm here
so. glad to be back with you. And then, the person
who turned around was not my mom. It was just
some random lady who kind of looked like my mom
from behind. So, when that was not who I expected
to be, what do you think I did? I struck up a
conversation. We're still friends to this day.
I took off and ran the other direction, right?
That's what people do. When you expected to be
someone and that person turns out to be not who
you expected it to be, you leave. You get out
of there. And I think, unfortunately, so many
people do the same thing with Jesus. There are
so many people today who think they know who
Jesus is. And they think they know what Jesus
is like. And it's because, as humans, we have
this bad habit of creating our own version of
Jesus. And the funny thing is about that, our
version of Jesus always agrees with us on everything.
Have you noticed that? My idea of Jesus says
that Alex is never in the wrong. It's always
everybody else. He loves me. He loves everything
I do. It's because we create Jesus in our own
image. And we create this idea of Jesus of who
we want him to be. What he says is okay. What
he says is not okay. But the problem is when
the real Jesus doesn't do what our imaginary
Jesus is supposed to do, we walk away from it.
I saw a post going around on Twitter. the other
week, and it was a post from a man who was being
interviewed about why he left the faith and walked
away from Jesus. And this is what he said. He
said, Jesus didn't answer my prayers. He never
provided me with a wife. He didn't help me in
my career. He didn't resolve my health issues.
Simply put, he didn't do anything for me. Just
stop for a moment. Jesus didn't do anything for
you? We're talking about Jesus who left the glories
of heaven to subject himself to this sinful world
and become like us in every way and ultimately
go and suffer and die on the cross. You're saying
that's the Jesus who did nothing for you because
he didn't answer a few of your prayers? But isn't
this the attitude so many people have? I mean
so many people in the world today they expect
Jesus to fix their lives in the world around
them and when he doesn't what do they do? they
walk away. When Jesus doesn't heal the sick loved
one, when he doesn't keep someone from dying,
when he doesn't stop the setbacks and tragedies
from happening, when they don't get their dream
job, when the family just can't seem to get along
even for five seconds, when marriage isn't as
easy as they were hoping for, people are disappointed
with Jesus and they walk away from him. They
become like the people in this crowd, people
who were once so excited about Jesus and saw
so much potential in Jesus are disappointed when
he doesn't give them their personal preferences.
And I'm just gonna tell you this as your pastor
because I want you to know it and you need to
know it. That's not how Jesus works. Jesus is
not some genie who exists to grant your every
wish. I want you to understand this, that even
if Jesus does not give you any of these things,
even if He doesn't check all the boxes on your
wish list, Jesus is still worthy to be praised
and followed. Because He is God, and the Bible
says there is no other. This is God. And I think
the reason so many people have this idea about
Jesus is because we don't base our idea of Jesus
on the Bible. Because if you just picked up the
Bible and read it, you're going to see there's
nothing in there about, hey, if you come to Jesus
and you become a Christian, life's going to be
easy. I wish it said it. It doesn't. I've checked.
There's nothing in there that says if you just
come to Jesus, then marriage is going to be easy.
You're going to get that promotion. God's going
to make sure you never experience financial hardships.
He's going to keep all the sickness out of your
life. It's going to be smooth sailing from here
to eternity. If you read the Bible, it says the
exact opposite. That's why Jesus often told people
to count the cost of following Him. He says,
you're gonna have to take up your cross, deny
yourself, and follow Me daily. That's why He
tells His disciples, in this world, you're gonna
have tribulation. But take heart, because I've
overcome the world. That's why He tells His disciples,
if the world hated Me, do you think they're gonna
love you? No. If they hated me, of course they're
gonna hate you as well. This life is going to
be hard. That has nothing to do with God's goodness.
Do we understand that? Those are two totally
separate issues. The goodness of God is an established
fact, and if your life is great here on earth,
or if your life is horrible here on earth, that
says nothing about God. God is good all the time,
and all the time, God is... Good. That's why
the Bible says in Romans chapter 8 that the sufferings
of this present life aren't worth comparing to
the glories that are to come. You folks understand
we're headed to eternity, right? That's our destination.
That's where we're going. When we've been there
10 ,000 years, do you think for a second that
after you've been there for 10 ,000 years in
the presence of the Son of God, you're going
to be thinking about that hard Monday you had
a few weeks ago? I'm not saying the Monday wasn't
hard. I've had a couple hard Mondays recently.
It is hard, but in the grand scheme of things,
it's a blip on the radar. The Bible says you're
getting to go be with God. So keep eternity in
mind and make sure that you're basing your understanding
of Jesus on who he says he is and how he has
revealed himself because he didn't come to primarily
give you everything you want. Jesus came to give
you everything you need. He came to give us peace
with God. He came to pay the price of our sins
He came to reconcile us to God. He came to give
us eternal life in his presence He came to seek
and to save the lost and I want you to know this
now So that we won't be like this crowd and turn
on Jesus when he doesn't meet our expectations
As long as we have these wrong views about him.
We will fail to follow him as we ought to and
Here's the knee jerk Americanized Christian response
to this. People say, okay, I see that I'm in
the wrong pastor. I get that. I've been making
my own version of Jesus. I've kind of been living
my life however I want. So here's what I need
to do. I need to go to church. I need to go buy
a Bible, start reading it. I need to start saying
some prayers. I need to basically get some religion
in my life. And listen, hey, those things aren't
bad. That's not a bad start. It's great for you
to go to church, read your Bible and pray. Here's
the problem. If you think that that's going to
fix the problem you have with God, you're sorely
mistaken. There's no amount of religion and religiosity
that can possibly fix your stance with God, which
is why when Jesus comes into Jerusalem, he immediately
goes to the temple. Look at verse 12. And Jesus
entered the temple and drove out all who sold
and bought in the temple. And he overturned the
tables of the money changers in the seats of
those who sold pigeons. And he said to them,
it is written, my house shall be called a house
of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.
Now again, keep in mind, Jerusalem is very busy
at this time. because it's the beginning of Passover
week and people were traveling from all over
the world to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the
Passover. And the temple was one of the busiest
places and the loudest place that you could be
in Jerusalem at this time because they needed
to exchange and buy and sell and all sorts of
things like that. Basically, all donations to
the temple had to be made in Tyrian shekels.
And so if you didn't have Tyrian shekels, you
had to take whatever your currency was and you
had to exchange it for the Tyrian shekels. And
that was done right there in the temple. And
since you were coming to the temple to celebrate
Passover and you knew that you would need to
offer a sacrifice for yourself and your family,
well, you don't want to travel hundreds and hundreds
of miles with a bunch of sacrifices, right? So
what do you think? You say, Well, we'll just
buy them there. We don't need to travel with
these things. That's cumbersome. Let's just buy
all of our sacrifices there. Which was like the
worst thing you could possibly do. If you own
a modern equivalent, it's like saying, I'm gonna
go to the Clemson game on Saturday and we don't
need to eat beforehand. We'll just buy food there.
And what? Pay 18 bucks for a hot dog? Ten bucks
for a bottle of water. That's a dollar and 25
cents and a vending machine down the road Come
on, like I love Clemson, but you know, they rip
you off at those places, right? No matter the
stadium amusement park. They will rip you off.
That's exactly what was going on in the temple
The temple workers were ripping people off especially
foreigners. So what they would do when they're
exchanging their money They wouldn't give them
a fair exchange rate. They'd overcharge them
when they're buying their sacrifices. For the
Jew, it was one price. For the Gentile, it was
a much higher price. And all of this was taking
place in what was known as the court of the Gentiles.
I have a picture here you can look at. This is
an idea of what the temple would have looked
like in Jesus' day. In that whole courtyard area
that you can see there, that entire area is known
as the court of the Gentiles. This is where this
event was taking place. It was the only place
in the entire temple complex that Gentiles were
allowed to come and worship God. And the Jews
had turned it into a center of commerce where
they were buying and selling. And so it wasn't
a place that was quiet. You couldn't actually
focus on worship there. I mean, imagine you were
a Gentile coming to the temple to worship. You've
just been ripped off by someone in your exchange
rate. You've just been ripped off to buy your
sacrifice. You're thinking, OK, it's just what
I have to do. Get through it. And let's say you're
finally kneeling to pray and you can't even pray
because it's so busy. People keep bumping into
you and it's so loud from all the heckling going
on and trying to barter over prices and stuff.
You can't even hear yourself pray. And so this
was their only place where they could come and
worship the God of Israel. And yet the Jewish
people at the time had made it completely impossible.
Those who were called by God's name had become
the biggest hindrance to the nations coming to
worship God. And listen, when God's people become
a hindrance to people coming to know and worship
God, it's time for Jesus to clean house. And
we still see this happen today, do we not? Because
I think you all understand, it's never Jesus
that keeps people from coming to Jesus. It's
typically always Christians that keep people
from coming to Jesus. Even atheists, I've listened
to so many atheists, they like Jesus. They like
some of the things he said. They said he was
a good moral teacher. I really liked his philosophies
of life and spirituality. That stuff is great.
Here's who I have a problem with. It's all the
people in the church. It's all the Christians.
And people don't want to come to church because
they say Christians are hypocrites. Christians
are judgmental. Christians are mean. Christians
are self -righteous. The list goes on and on.
And so you might say, well, pastor, we're not
buying and selling in our church like they were
doing there, so we're good. Listen, we might
not be buying and selling, but I think far too
many church people make outsiders feel as unwelcome
in here as the Jews made the Gentiles feel in
the temple. And so Jesus does something about
it. and that infuriated the religious leaders.
If you look at verse 14, Jesus comes in the temple,
he's doing all these great things, the blind
and the lame came to him in the temple and he
healed them. And when the chief priests and scribes,
now notice what Matthew does here, this is amazing,
look how he describes it, just so he wants you
to be clear who the bad guys are in this passage,
he says, when the chief priests and the scribes
saw the wonderful things, Let's make no mistake,
these are great and wonderful things that are
happening. When they saw the wonderful things
that he did, and the children crying out the
temple, Hosanna to the son of David, another
beautiful image, right? Even the children are
coming to praise him. Like we had the children
down front this morning with the palm branches.
It is beautiful to see children praising Jesus.
You know who didn't like that? The religious
people. They were indignant and they said to
him, Do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus
said to them, the funniest thing that Jesus always
says to the religious leaders, yes, have you
never read? Which again? hilarious. People think
the Bible's not funny. This is hysterical because
the religious leaders were the ones who were
copying the entire Old Testament and passing
it down. They were the ones who were memorizing
the entire Old Testament. They knew the Old Testament
so well they could tell you the central word
in every single book of each Old Testament book
of the Bible. And Jesus says to those people,
have you uh have you never read? It's great out
of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you
have prepared praise And leaving them he went
out of the city to Bethany and lodge there You
see the problem with the religious leaders of
Israel here is that they didn't necessarily care
about anyone but themselves And they the worst
part is they thought that God was pleased with
them They had this idea that when Jesus came
into the temple He was going to be happy with
them You can imagine a bunch of religious leaders
just kind of standing there like this. They see
Jesus coming in. They're like, uh, there's the
carpenter's son from Nazareth. Let's see what
he has to say about this. Like, just wait till
he sees everything. He's gonna love it, right?
Crowds are following him. And as soon as Jesus
walks in, what does he do? He starts flipping
tables and driving people out. And they're in
complete shock because they were thinking, he's
gonna come in and be happy with us. Look at all
the stuff we're doing. Look at all the money
we're making for the temple. Look at all the
sacrifices that are going to be offered. Look
at all the religious things that we're doing.
We're even tithing our mint and our dill. Jesus,
look how religious we are. Aren't you happy with
us? And they are completely shocked that Jesus
is just not going to approve of their agenda
and everything that they've got going on here.
They are completely in shock that Jesus is not
happy with them. I want you to understand this
point here that we learn from them is that Jesus
did not come to approve our agendas, but to implement
God's agenda. Jesus did not come to approve our
agendas, but to implement God's agenda. And I
want you to know this and we need to know this
because it cuts right to the heart of modern
American Christianity. It exposes this false
belief that we have that Jesus is just going
to give our lives the stamp of approval no matter
what they look like. Pretty much if you look
at the South and the church in the South today,
there's this common idea that as long as you
say you believe in God, You're good. Doesn't
matter what your life looks like. Doesn't matter
if you live in obedience to the Lord. Doesn't
matter how out of line your life is with God's
expectations. In the South, the idea, all you
have to say is, I believe in Jesus. I know that
Jesus is real. You're good. You're going to heaven.
And this passage cuts right to the quick of that.
It shows us that Jesus is not interested in partial
obedience. He's not interested in superficial
obedience. He is interested in making sure God's
will is followed. Which means you can't just
look at your life and say, yeah, God's good with
me because of this reason, right? People say,
well, I believe in God so I can live my life
however I want. Yeah, I don't really make it
to church that often, but that's because I have
a lot going on. We've got a lot of busy things
on our schedule. We have a lot of activities,
and so I don't really make it to church that
often, but listen to me, but God's okay with
that because he knows I believe in him. I don't
really lead my kids and my wife the way that
I should, but the thing is God knows I'm not
really that type of person. I'm more of a backseat
kind of guy, and so even though he says I'm supposed
to do that, He's okay with me not doing that
because he knows I believe in him. And I believe
that Jesus actually did die on the cross. I don't
really pray that often or read my Bible, but
here's the thing, God knows I believe in him.
So he's okay with that. People will say, I never
share the gospel with other people. But that's
just because God knows I'm not really that type
of person. I'm more of an introvert. I'm not
really an extrovert. I don't always know the
right things to say, so I never share the gospel
with people, but God's okay with that. I know
he said to go and make disciples of all nations.
I know he said we're an ambassador of Christ
and all that kind of stuff, but he knows I'm
not that type of person, so he's good with it.
I'm not really involved in the church or the
mission of the church, but at the end of the
day, God knows I believe in him, and that's good
enough for God. Here's my question to you. Says
who? Says you? Here's what I want you to understand
this morning. We do not get the right to define
what a Christian is and is not. Only God can
do that. We don't get to say, well, I'm a Christian
and here's how I live and God's okay with it
because I said he's okay with it. We do not have
the right to define what a Christian is or how
a Christian should live. And if your definition
does not match God's definition, here's the thing,
folks, I've never known God to be wrong about
anything. And only one of you can be right. If
you find yourself saying those things, then it
sounds like maybe Jesus needs to come and flip
some tables in your life. We need to make sure
we understand who Jesus actually is and what
he actually came to do because if we fail to
see him for who he is we will not follow him
as we ought. I want you to understand this morning
what you need more than anything this morning
is not for Jesus to save you from a difficult
marriage. It is not to save you from financial
hardships. It is not to save you from failing
health. It is not to save you from a dead -end
job. It's not to save you from conflict. What
you need more than anything else in the entire
world this morning is for Jesus to save you from
your sins and reconcile you to God. That is what
you need. And if you come to Jesus for any other
reason than salvation, then you will walk away
from Jesus when He doesn't give you that thing.
He did not come to approve your life. He came
to improve your life and give you eternal life
in Himself. He came to establish God's kingdom.
He came to seek and to save the lost. He came
to open the eyes of the blind. He came to restore
the broken. He came to ransom God's people. He
came to triumph over death. He came to rise again
victorious. This is Jesus according to Jesus.
This is what he came to do. According to His
word, may God open up our eyes to see Him for
who He truly is so we can begin to follow Him
as we ought. Amen? Let's pray.