WEBVTT 00:00:03.079 --> 00:00:07.139 Well, happy Palm Sunday, everyone. That's pretty 00:00:07.139 --> 00:00:12.560 loud. Yeah, Hosanna. When I scream it, they're 00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:15.699 going to hear it at Rock Springs. So y 'all can 00:00:15.699 --> 00:00:18.140 cut that back a little bit. There we go. They 00:00:18.140 --> 00:00:21.559 say there is a simple way to break down structure 00:00:21.559 --> 00:00:25.399 in a good story. There's always a promise and 00:00:25.399 --> 00:00:27.780 then there is progress and then there is the 00:00:27.780 --> 00:00:30.620 payoff. And throughout the gospel of Matthew, 00:00:30.980 --> 00:00:34.920 he has been alluding to the climax of his story. 00:00:35.420 --> 00:00:37.799 And that promise was made clear in Matthew 16, 00:00:37.799 --> 00:00:41.299 21. The Bible says from that time, Jesus began 00:00:41.299 --> 00:00:45.619 to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem 00:00:45.619 --> 00:00:48.560 and suffer many things from the elders and chief 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:51.179 priests and scribes and be killed and on the 00:00:51.179 --> 00:00:55.159 third day be raised. And ever since that point, 00:00:55.399 --> 00:00:58.119 when that was made clear, that is where Jesus 00:00:58.119 --> 00:01:00.280 is going. That is what he's going to do. We have 00:01:00.280 --> 00:01:03.689 been seeing him make progress. coming to Jerusalem. 00:01:03.710 --> 00:01:06.390 And now we get to the triumphal entry where we 00:01:06.390 --> 00:01:10.409 are seeing the beginning of the climax of the 00:01:10.409 --> 00:01:12.230 story. And under the inspiration of the Holy 00:01:12.230 --> 00:01:16.530 Spirit, Matthew in particular has meticulously 00:01:16.530 --> 00:01:21.209 organized his gospel as a master class in storytelling. 00:01:21.989 --> 00:01:24.370 So much so that when you do come to this story, 00:01:24.489 --> 00:01:27.909 I think careful Bible readers should be experiencing 00:01:27.909 --> 00:01:31.540 a little sense of deja vu. And I don't mean deja 00:01:31.540 --> 00:01:33.260 vu in the sense that, yeah, we've heard this 00:01:33.260 --> 00:01:36.319 passage before. We're all familiar with it. But 00:01:36.319 --> 00:01:38.319 you know what deja vu is, right? Anybody in here 00:01:38.319 --> 00:01:40.980 experienced it before? Yes? Okay, it's that very 00:01:40.980 --> 00:01:43.719 weird feeling where something is happening and 00:01:43.719 --> 00:01:46.120 you feel like you've already lived this moment 00:01:46.120 --> 00:01:48.939 before. And scientists don't even know what it 00:01:48.939 --> 00:01:51.079 is. They think it's a misfire of the brain or 00:01:51.079 --> 00:01:53.879 that it's the subconscious mistaking memories 00:01:53.879 --> 00:01:57.200 for present events. But we, as Bible readers, 00:01:57.359 --> 00:02:00.750 should be experiencing deja vu here. because 00:02:00.750 --> 00:02:03.150 I want to ask you a question. Have you ever noticed 00:02:03.150 --> 00:02:07.629 how similar the story of Jesus's birth is to 00:02:07.629 --> 00:02:11.189 the story of the triumphal entry? Have you ever 00:02:11.189 --> 00:02:13.870 thought about that? If you want to notice a few 00:02:13.870 --> 00:02:16.210 similarities, think about it like this. The Bible 00:02:16.210 --> 00:02:18.870 tells us that after Jesus was born, some wise 00:02:18.870 --> 00:02:22.129 men came to Jerusalem. You remember the old hymn 00:02:22.129 --> 00:02:25.699 refers to them as the three kings. of orient 00:02:25.699 --> 00:02:28.080 so they come to Jerusalem and they are accompanied 00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:31.060 by a large crowd and the reason they are there 00:02:31.060 --> 00:02:34.460 they say in Matthew 2 2 they say where is he 00:02:34.460 --> 00:02:37.780 who has been born the king of the Jews for we 00:02:37.780 --> 00:02:40.080 saw his star when it rose and we've come to worship 00:02:40.080 --> 00:02:43.120 him so what happens at the birth story a large 00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:47.199 crowd comes to Jerusalem to worship the king 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:50.590 of the Jews Well, not only that the Bible says 00:02:50.590 --> 00:02:53.330 that shortly after that did Jerusalem recognize 00:02:53.330 --> 00:02:56.289 their king when Jesus was born No, the Bible 00:02:56.289 --> 00:02:59.310 says in Matthew 2 3 when Herod the king heard 00:02:59.310 --> 00:03:03.729 this he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him 00:03:03.729 --> 00:03:05.830 and so the city is stirred up They're troubled 00:03:05.830 --> 00:03:08.830 by the arrival of this king and then right after 00:03:08.830 --> 00:03:11.210 that happens Matthew tells us this was actually 00:03:11.210 --> 00:03:14.229 a fulfillment of a prophecy about how the Messiah 00:03:14.229 --> 00:03:17.250 was to be born in Bethlehem Well, what happens 00:03:17.250 --> 00:03:21.349 at the triumphal entry? Jesus enters into Jerusalem 00:03:21.349 --> 00:03:24.490 as a king, and did you notice there's a small 00:03:24.490 --> 00:03:27.250 detail in our passage when Jordan read it? The 00:03:27.250 --> 00:03:30.110 city of Jerusalem once again did not recognize 00:03:30.110 --> 00:03:32.389 their king. The Bible says when he entered Jerusalem, 00:03:32.830 --> 00:03:37.069 in verse 10, the whole city was stirred up, saying, 00:03:37.110 --> 00:03:39.840 who is this? It's the same phrase that's used 00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:42.520 back in Matthew chapter two. They're stirred 00:03:42.520 --> 00:03:44.659 up and troubled. Here in Matthew 21, they're 00:03:44.659 --> 00:03:46.520 stirred up and troubled. And then Matthew tells 00:03:46.520 --> 00:03:48.960 us this was a fulfillment about how the Messiah 00:03:48.960 --> 00:03:51.620 would enter Jerusalem. You might say, okay, pastor, 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:54.439 that's one interesting observation, but we can 00:03:54.439 --> 00:03:57.240 take it a step further. Because right after Jesus 00:03:57.240 --> 00:03:59.979 was born, the Bible tells us he was taken to 00:03:59.979 --> 00:04:02.419 Jerusalem. And when he went to Jerusalem, he 00:04:02.419 --> 00:04:06.219 was immediately taken to the temple for purification 00:04:06.219 --> 00:04:09.280 rights. Did you happen to notice what Jesus did 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:11.680 when he entered Jerusalem in our passage? As 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:13.439 soon as he enters Jerusalem, where does he go? 00:04:14.039 --> 00:04:17.720 To the temple, to purify it. And we can take 00:04:17.720 --> 00:04:20.060 it even a step further than that. The Bible tells 00:04:20.060 --> 00:04:23.860 us that after Jesus was born, a Roman ruler, 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:27.000 this would have been Herod the king, sought to 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:30.040 put Jesus to death. When you go to the triumphal 00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:33.720 entry, and Jesus enters into Jerusalem, a different 00:04:33.720 --> 00:04:37.500 Roman ruler, Pontius Pilate, seeks to put Jesus 00:04:37.500 --> 00:04:40.779 to death, and actually does, on the cross. And 00:04:40.779 --> 00:04:42.879 so you look at the story of Jesus' birth, and 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:44.579 you look at the story of his triumphal entry, 00:04:44.980 --> 00:04:47.480 and they are serving as bookends to the Gospel 00:04:47.480 --> 00:04:49.819 of Matthew. And you might say, okay, but what's 00:04:49.819 --> 00:04:53.240 the big deal? Why the parallelism here? It's 00:04:53.240 --> 00:04:56.300 because the Bible is wanting you to see that 00:04:56.300 --> 00:04:59.420 the climax to the story of Jesus is beginning 00:04:59.420 --> 00:05:02.199 here. This is what the whole book has been about. 00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:05.240 It has all been leading to Jerusalem. They say 00:05:05.240 --> 00:05:08.040 all roads lead to Rome. In Matthew, all roads 00:05:08.040 --> 00:05:10.839 lead to Jerusalem. It's all been pointing here, 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:14.060 and now we are seeing that the King has come. 00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:16.339 And it's very interesting whether you're looking 00:05:16.339 --> 00:05:18.459 at the birth story of Jesus or whether you're 00:05:18.459 --> 00:05:22.199 looking at the triumphal entry. People do not 00:05:22.199 --> 00:05:26.170 recognize him for who he is. The city of Jerusalem 00:05:26.170 --> 00:05:28.449 and Matthew chapter 2 was stirred up and troubled 00:05:28.449 --> 00:05:30.930 because they didn't know that Jesus was the king 00:05:30.930 --> 00:05:33.189 of the Jews. And then when you look at Matthew 00:05:33.189 --> 00:05:37.709 21, the same city of Jerusalem, they initially 00:05:37.709 --> 00:05:41.050 praise him. The crowds are shouting, Hosanna. 00:05:42.470 --> 00:05:44.350 And then less than a week later, they are going 00:05:44.350 --> 00:05:48.569 to be shouting, crucify him. And it all has to 00:05:48.569 --> 00:05:52.050 do with how they perceive Jesus and who they 00:05:52.050 --> 00:05:54.879 think he is. And the point I want you to understand 00:05:54.879 --> 00:05:57.360 this morning is, if we fail to see Jesus for 00:05:57.360 --> 00:06:01.060 who He is, we will fail to follow Him as we ought. 00:06:02.579 --> 00:06:08.379 If we fail to see Jesus for who He is, we will 00:06:08.379 --> 00:06:12.879 fail to follow Him as we ought. You've probably 00:06:12.879 --> 00:06:15.459 heard someone ask before, who is Jesus to you? 00:06:16.139 --> 00:06:18.759 That's a terrible question. With all due respect 00:06:18.759 --> 00:06:20.939 to anyone who asked that question, it does not 00:06:20.939 --> 00:06:25.319 matter who Jesus is to you. What matters is who 00:06:25.319 --> 00:06:29.399 is Jesus according to Jesus? Who is Jesus according 00:06:29.399 --> 00:06:33.360 to how he has revealed himself in scripture? 00:06:33.439 --> 00:06:35.819 And we have to focus on this church. We have 00:06:35.819 --> 00:06:39.199 to prioritize this because if we do not get Jesus 00:06:39.199 --> 00:06:41.519 right, listen to me, we're not gonna get anything 00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:45.779 else right either. If we don't get Jesus right, 00:06:46.160 --> 00:06:48.540 nothing else. in the church is gonna be right 00:06:48.540 --> 00:06:51.300 either. And so the question that I want us to 00:06:51.300 --> 00:06:55.079 consider together this morning is how do misunderstandings 00:06:55.079 --> 00:06:58.620 about Jesus keep us from following him faithfully? 00:06:59.579 --> 00:07:02.800 How do misunderstandings about Jesus keep us 00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:07.639 from following him faithfully? And you might 00:07:07.639 --> 00:07:10.339 remember in our passage, thanks to Jordan reading 00:07:10.339 --> 00:07:13.180 it for us, that Jesus tells his disciples to 00:07:13.180 --> 00:07:15.579 go and get a donkey for him, and this was to 00:07:15.579 --> 00:07:18.550 fulfill a prophecy. that we read about in Zechariah 00:07:18.550 --> 00:07:22.170 9 .9. It says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of 00:07:22.170 --> 00:07:25.389 Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, 00:07:25.449 --> 00:07:29.029 your king is coming to you. Righteous in having 00:07:29.029 --> 00:07:32.689 salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, 00:07:33.230 --> 00:07:35.990 on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Now what you 00:07:35.990 --> 00:07:38.790 have to understand is that all of the Jewish 00:07:38.790 --> 00:07:42.529 people understood this prophecy to be a Messianic 00:07:42.529 --> 00:07:47.060 prophecy. They believed that this prophecy meant 00:07:47.060 --> 00:07:50.800 that the Messiah was going to ride into Jerusalem 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:56.720 as a political and military ruler. That Jesus, 00:07:56.879 --> 00:07:59.660 or whoever the Messiah was, he was going to come 00:07:59.660 --> 00:08:03.459 to overthrow Israel's oppressors and retake the 00:08:03.459 --> 00:08:06.399 land. That is who they understood the Messiah 00:08:06.399 --> 00:08:09.519 to be. And the crowds actually have a pretty 00:08:09.519 --> 00:08:12.170 interesting choice to make here. because this 00:08:12.170 --> 00:08:14.490 was a pretty big event going on in Jerusalem. 00:08:14.509 --> 00:08:17.449 This is the beginning of Passover week. And you 00:08:17.449 --> 00:08:20.389 may not know this, but it was customary for the 00:08:20.389 --> 00:08:24.029 Roman governor of Judea to enter into Jerusalem 00:08:24.029 --> 00:08:26.730 at the beginning of the Passover week in order 00:08:26.730 --> 00:08:29.889 to keep peace and basically to remind everyone 00:08:29.889 --> 00:08:32.129 you can have your festivals, you can have your 00:08:32.129 --> 00:08:34.809 feasts and your celebrations, but no one forget 00:08:34.809 --> 00:08:38.549 you were ultimately under Roman rule. So the 00:08:38.549 --> 00:08:41.659 Roman ruler, he would come in, to remind everybody 00:08:41.659 --> 00:08:44.460 of this, and so what you see is something pretty 00:08:44.460 --> 00:08:46.419 interesting. You have a clash of kingdoms going 00:08:46.419 --> 00:08:49.460 on in Jerusalem right now. The Bible tells us 00:08:49.460 --> 00:08:53.779 that Jesus entered Jerusalem from the east, and 00:08:53.779 --> 00:08:55.899 you look at Jesus and he comes riding the colt 00:08:55.899 --> 00:08:59.200 of the donkey, and who is with him? Does he have 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:02.500 an impressive group with him? No, he's accompanied 00:09:02.500 --> 00:09:06.120 by fishermen, by women, by everyday working people. 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:09.840 Overall, it's not very impressive. But this is 00:09:09.840 --> 00:09:11.539 what the east side of the city had to offer. 00:09:11.639 --> 00:09:14.179 It was one who was called the Son of God and 00:09:14.179 --> 00:09:17.779 the King of the Jews, riding humbly into Jerusalem. 00:09:18.679 --> 00:09:20.559 Now, that was on the east side of the city. Here's 00:09:20.559 --> 00:09:23.159 what's really interesting. On the exact opposite 00:09:23.159 --> 00:09:26.679 side of the city, on the west, from the west, 00:09:27.320 --> 00:09:30.059 Pilate entered Jerusalem. And when he entered 00:09:30.059 --> 00:09:32.960 Jerusalem, he entered with full military attire. 00:09:33.320 --> 00:09:35.960 He was riding a war stallion draped in armor. 00:09:36.279 --> 00:09:39.299 He was accompanied by legions of soldiers. They 00:09:39.299 --> 00:09:42.320 were marching to the beat of a steady drum. Trumpeters 00:09:42.320 --> 00:09:45.179 announced their arrival. And of course, Pontius 00:09:45.179 --> 00:09:49.000 Pilate came as an extension of Caesar, who was 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:52.419 Tiberius Caesar, who was also known as the Son 00:09:52.419 --> 00:09:55.759 of God. And so this is what the west side of 00:09:55.759 --> 00:09:58.019 the city had to offer. It was a well -known military 00:09:58.019 --> 00:10:00.690 leader. who comes as a representative of the 00:10:00.690 --> 00:10:03.490 Son of God, he's ready for battle, he has the 00:10:03.490 --> 00:10:05.909 soldiers and the weapons to back it up, and he's 00:10:05.909 --> 00:10:10.610 arriving on a stallion in full fanfare. And so 00:10:10.610 --> 00:10:13.049 if you're a citizen of Jerusalem, if you're in 00:10:13.049 --> 00:10:15.750 the city at this time, you have an important 00:10:15.750 --> 00:10:19.149 choice to make. It's the most important choice 00:10:19.149 --> 00:10:21.789 you're ever gonna make, because you have to decide, 00:10:22.309 --> 00:10:24.110 which ruler am I gonna welcome into the city? 00:10:24.970 --> 00:10:27.990 Am I gonna go to the east and welcome Jesus into 00:10:27.990 --> 00:10:31.169 the city, or am I gonna go to the west and welcome 00:10:31.169 --> 00:10:35.669 Pilate into the city? And your choice says a 00:10:35.669 --> 00:10:39.070 lot about your heart and where your stance is 00:10:39.070 --> 00:10:44.129 with God. They wanted Jesus to come in and be 00:10:44.129 --> 00:10:46.789 a rival to Pontius Pilate. They wanted him to 00:10:46.789 --> 00:10:49.850 come in and overthrow Pontius Pilate. They thought 00:10:49.850 --> 00:10:53.710 he was coming to deliver them militarily. And 00:10:53.710 --> 00:10:56.690 yet, if you look at the Zechariah prophecy, the 00:10:56.690 --> 00:10:59.870 larger context of it, the Bible tells us exactly 00:10:59.870 --> 00:11:03.889 why Jesus came to Jerusalem. In that same chapter, 00:11:03.950 --> 00:11:08.190 Zechariah 9, verses 16 through 17, it says this, 00:11:22.860 --> 00:11:26.000 and how great is his beauty. Grain shall make 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:29.059 the young men flourish and new wine the young 00:11:29.059 --> 00:11:31.539 women." So what was the purpose of Jesus coming 00:11:31.539 --> 00:11:35.019 to Jerusalem? It was salvation, right? Did you 00:11:35.019 --> 00:11:39.639 notice that? On that day, the Lord their God 00:11:39.639 --> 00:11:43.059 will save them. See, you have to understand something, 00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:45.879 folks. Jesus came to Jerusalem for one reason 00:11:45.879 --> 00:11:48.799 and one reason only. And it was not to overthrow 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:51.600 Pontius Pilate. It was not to retake the land. 00:11:51.799 --> 00:11:56.679 He came to save His people from their sins. That 00:11:56.679 --> 00:11:59.840 is why He is here. That is His purpose for coming. 00:12:00.159 --> 00:12:02.879 And the interesting thing is, the crowds did 00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:06.240 have salvation in mind. I mean, the crowds here 00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:08.799 are spreading their cloaks and their palm branches. 00:12:08.879 --> 00:12:11.669 And notice what they're saying in verse 9. It 00:12:11.669 --> 00:12:13.549 says, the crowds that went before him and that 00:12:13.549 --> 00:12:16.289 followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the son 00:12:16.289 --> 00:12:19.870 of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name 00:12:19.870 --> 00:12:24.909 of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. The word 00:12:24.909 --> 00:12:30.149 hosanna was originally a cry for help. And hosanna 00:12:30.149 --> 00:12:33.470 actually comes from the Hebrew word meaning to 00:12:33.470 --> 00:12:38.049 save. And so hosanna, it means save us, oh Lord, 00:12:38.210 --> 00:12:42.679 save us, we pray. And it's so interesting to 00:12:42.679 --> 00:12:45.539 look at this passage and you see this huge crowd 00:12:45.539 --> 00:12:48.299 that's going out to meet Jesus. They're welcoming 00:12:48.299 --> 00:12:50.559 Jesus into the city. They're shouting, Hosanna 00:12:50.559 --> 00:12:52.820 to the son of David, Hosanna in the highest, 00:12:53.100 --> 00:12:57.440 save us, oh Lord. And this same crowd, just a 00:12:57.440 --> 00:13:01.080 few days later, is gonna be shouting, give us 00:13:01.080 --> 00:13:07.259 Barabbas. Crucify Jesus. And they're gonna be 00:13:07.259 --> 00:13:10.840 offered again, are you sure? Barabbas is a known 00:13:10.840 --> 00:13:14.179 criminal. We know what he did. We have proof 00:13:14.179 --> 00:13:18.299 of what he did. Are you sure? Barabbas or Jesus? 00:13:18.379 --> 00:13:22.940 And they shouted, give us Barabbas. Crucify Jesus. 00:13:24.799 --> 00:13:29.519 This happens over the course of a week. How does 00:13:29.519 --> 00:13:34.179 someone go from praising Jesus to cursing Jesus 00:13:34.179 --> 00:13:38.769 in a week's time? And I think it's because they 00:13:38.769 --> 00:13:42.029 weren't thinking about Jesus correctly. It all 00:13:42.029 --> 00:13:44.590 has to do with the fact that they expected him 00:13:44.590 --> 00:13:48.610 to be someone that he never claimed to be. They 00:13:48.610 --> 00:13:52.029 expected him to be someone, and when he turned 00:13:52.029 --> 00:13:55.230 out not to be that person, they walked away from 00:13:55.230 --> 00:13:59.169 him. They expected him to do certain things for 00:13:59.169 --> 00:14:02.509 them, and when he didn't do those things, they 00:14:02.509 --> 00:14:05.399 turned on him. And so what I want you to understand 00:14:05.399 --> 00:14:08.820 this morning is that Jesus did not come to satisfy 00:14:08.820 --> 00:14:12.000 our expectations, but to fulfill God's promises. 00:14:14.080 --> 00:14:17.600 Jesus did not come to satisfy our expectations, 00:14:17.620 --> 00:14:23.340 but to fulfill God's promises. This is ultimately 00:14:23.340 --> 00:14:27.019 why this crowd would turn on Jesus. It's because 00:14:27.019 --> 00:14:29.600 they were not primarily interested in salvation 00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:33.340 from sin. They just wanted deliverance from Rome. 00:14:35.419 --> 00:14:38.279 Their primary concern was not peace with God. 00:14:38.279 --> 00:14:41.120 They just wanted a comfortable life. They just 00:14:41.120 --> 00:14:43.220 wanted to be free from Roman oppression. They 00:14:43.220 --> 00:14:45.539 wanted to live their lives however they wanted 00:14:45.539 --> 00:14:48.139 to, and they thought Jesus was the means to get 00:14:48.139 --> 00:14:51.940 to that end. And when Jesus doesn't do what they 00:14:51.940 --> 00:14:54.879 want Him to do, they turn and walk away from 00:14:54.879 --> 00:14:58.340 Him. Which is a natural human reaction, right? 00:14:58.860 --> 00:15:00.600 Like, I mean, have you ever mistaken someone 00:15:00.600 --> 00:15:03.509 in a crowd? It's a pretty embarrassing situation. 00:15:03.669 --> 00:15:04.990 Am I the only one who's ever done that? You've 00:15:04.990 --> 00:15:07.929 done that too, right? Yeah, okay. Mine was a 00:15:07.929 --> 00:15:10.769 little worse, okay? Because I remember, I think 00:15:10.769 --> 00:15:12.570 I was at like seven or eight or something. We 00:15:12.570 --> 00:15:14.769 were at probably the county fair. I'd gotten 00:15:14.769 --> 00:15:16.889 separated from mom and so I was a kid crying 00:15:16.889 --> 00:15:19.450 out, mom, mom, where are you? And thankfully 00:15:19.450 --> 00:15:21.970 I saw my mom a little ways off and so I run up 00:15:21.970 --> 00:15:23.990 to her and I start pulling on her leg and I'm 00:15:23.990 --> 00:15:25.690 like, hey, I'm here. I don't know if you're looking 00:15:25.690 --> 00:15:27.529 for me, doesn't look like you were, but I'm here 00:15:27.529 --> 00:15:31.279 so. glad to be back with you. And then, the person 00:15:31.279 --> 00:15:35.000 who turned around was not my mom. It was just 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:37.100 some random lady who kind of looked like my mom 00:15:37.100 --> 00:15:39.600 from behind. So, when that was not who I expected 00:15:39.600 --> 00:15:42.580 to be, what do you think I did? I struck up a 00:15:42.580 --> 00:15:44.259 conversation. We're still friends to this day. 00:15:46.539 --> 00:15:48.879 I took off and ran the other direction, right? 00:15:49.080 --> 00:15:51.840 That's what people do. When you expected to be 00:15:51.840 --> 00:15:54.200 someone and that person turns out to be not who 00:15:54.200 --> 00:15:57.740 you expected it to be, you leave. You get out 00:15:57.740 --> 00:16:00.899 of there. And I think, unfortunately, so many 00:16:00.899 --> 00:16:05.480 people do the same thing with Jesus. There are 00:16:05.480 --> 00:16:08.539 so many people today who think they know who 00:16:08.539 --> 00:16:11.820 Jesus is. And they think they know what Jesus 00:16:11.820 --> 00:16:15.019 is like. And it's because, as humans, we have 00:16:15.019 --> 00:16:19.259 this bad habit of creating our own version of 00:16:19.259 --> 00:16:22.960 Jesus. And the funny thing is about that, our 00:16:22.960 --> 00:16:25.779 version of Jesus always agrees with us on everything. 00:16:25.899 --> 00:16:29.639 Have you noticed that? My idea of Jesus says 00:16:29.639 --> 00:16:32.220 that Alex is never in the wrong. It's always 00:16:32.220 --> 00:16:34.559 everybody else. He loves me. He loves everything 00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:38.779 I do. It's because we create Jesus in our own 00:16:38.779 --> 00:16:42.200 image. And we create this idea of Jesus of who 00:16:42.200 --> 00:16:44.840 we want him to be. What he says is okay. What 00:16:44.840 --> 00:16:48.139 he says is not okay. But the problem is when 00:16:48.139 --> 00:16:51.039 the real Jesus doesn't do what our imaginary 00:16:51.039 --> 00:16:54.279 Jesus is supposed to do, we walk away from it. 00:16:55.139 --> 00:16:57.889 I saw a post going around on Twitter. the other 00:16:57.889 --> 00:17:00.610 week, and it was a post from a man who was being 00:17:00.610 --> 00:17:03.570 interviewed about why he left the faith and walked 00:17:03.570 --> 00:17:07.109 away from Jesus. And this is what he said. He 00:17:07.109 --> 00:17:10.789 said, Jesus didn't answer my prayers. He never 00:17:10.789 --> 00:17:13.509 provided me with a wife. He didn't help me in 00:17:13.509 --> 00:17:16.109 my career. He didn't resolve my health issues. 00:17:16.490 --> 00:17:22.930 Simply put, he didn't do anything for me. Just 00:17:22.930 --> 00:17:26.470 stop for a moment. Jesus didn't do anything for 00:17:26.470 --> 00:17:30.509 you? We're talking about Jesus who left the glories 00:17:30.509 --> 00:17:34.890 of heaven to subject himself to this sinful world 00:17:34.890 --> 00:17:37.730 and become like us in every way and ultimately 00:17:37.730 --> 00:17:40.329 go and suffer and die on the cross. You're saying 00:17:40.329 --> 00:17:42.849 that's the Jesus who did nothing for you because 00:17:42.849 --> 00:17:46.390 he didn't answer a few of your prayers? But isn't 00:17:46.390 --> 00:17:49.250 this the attitude so many people have? I mean 00:17:49.250 --> 00:17:51.309 so many people in the world today they expect 00:17:51.309 --> 00:17:54.049 Jesus to fix their lives in the world around 00:17:54.049 --> 00:17:57.289 them and when he doesn't what do they do? they 00:17:57.289 --> 00:18:01.089 walk away. When Jesus doesn't heal the sick loved 00:18:01.089 --> 00:18:03.670 one, when he doesn't keep someone from dying, 00:18:03.930 --> 00:18:06.390 when he doesn't stop the setbacks and tragedies 00:18:06.390 --> 00:18:08.789 from happening, when they don't get their dream 00:18:08.789 --> 00:18:12.430 job, when the family just can't seem to get along 00:18:12.430 --> 00:18:16.109 even for five seconds, when marriage isn't as 00:18:16.109 --> 00:18:18.970 easy as they were hoping for, people are disappointed 00:18:18.970 --> 00:18:22.670 with Jesus and they walk away from him. They 00:18:22.670 --> 00:18:24.529 become like the people in this crowd, people 00:18:24.529 --> 00:18:27.930 who were once so excited about Jesus and saw 00:18:27.930 --> 00:18:32.630 so much potential in Jesus are disappointed when 00:18:32.630 --> 00:18:34.710 he doesn't give them their personal preferences. 00:18:35.630 --> 00:18:37.549 And I'm just gonna tell you this as your pastor 00:18:37.549 --> 00:18:39.309 because I want you to know it and you need to 00:18:39.309 --> 00:18:44.309 know it. That's not how Jesus works. Jesus is 00:18:44.309 --> 00:18:48.269 not some genie who exists to grant your every 00:18:48.269 --> 00:18:53.799 wish. I want you to understand this, that even 00:18:53.799 --> 00:18:56.019 if Jesus does not give you any of these things, 00:18:56.359 --> 00:18:58.799 even if He doesn't check all the boxes on your 00:18:58.799 --> 00:19:03.319 wish list, Jesus is still worthy to be praised 00:19:03.319 --> 00:19:06.640 and followed. Because He is God, and the Bible 00:19:06.640 --> 00:19:12.000 says there is no other. This is God. And I think 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:14.140 the reason so many people have this idea about 00:19:14.140 --> 00:19:16.539 Jesus is because we don't base our idea of Jesus 00:19:16.539 --> 00:19:19.250 on the Bible. Because if you just picked up the 00:19:19.250 --> 00:19:21.190 Bible and read it, you're going to see there's 00:19:21.190 --> 00:19:24.029 nothing in there about, hey, if you come to Jesus 00:19:24.029 --> 00:19:26.309 and you become a Christian, life's going to be 00:19:26.309 --> 00:19:29.589 easy. I wish it said it. It doesn't. I've checked. 00:19:30.750 --> 00:19:32.269 There's nothing in there that says if you just 00:19:32.269 --> 00:19:35.369 come to Jesus, then marriage is going to be easy. 00:19:35.829 --> 00:19:37.970 You're going to get that promotion. God's going 00:19:37.970 --> 00:19:40.269 to make sure you never experience financial hardships. 00:19:40.490 --> 00:19:42.329 He's going to keep all the sickness out of your 00:19:42.329 --> 00:19:44.930 life. It's going to be smooth sailing from here 00:19:44.930 --> 00:19:48.720 to eternity. If you read the Bible, it says the 00:19:48.720 --> 00:19:52.519 exact opposite. That's why Jesus often told people 00:19:52.519 --> 00:19:54.940 to count the cost of following Him. He says, 00:19:55.019 --> 00:19:56.819 you're gonna have to take up your cross, deny 00:19:56.819 --> 00:20:00.259 yourself, and follow Me daily. That's why He 00:20:00.259 --> 00:20:01.839 tells His disciples, in this world, you're gonna 00:20:01.839 --> 00:20:05.019 have tribulation. But take heart, because I've 00:20:05.019 --> 00:20:07.980 overcome the world. That's why He tells His disciples, 00:20:08.599 --> 00:20:10.380 if the world hated Me, do you think they're gonna 00:20:10.380 --> 00:20:14.299 love you? No. If they hated me, of course they're 00:20:14.299 --> 00:20:17.799 gonna hate you as well. This life is going to 00:20:17.799 --> 00:20:20.500 be hard. That has nothing to do with God's goodness. 00:20:21.660 --> 00:20:24.319 Do we understand that? Those are two totally 00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:28.160 separate issues. The goodness of God is an established 00:20:28.160 --> 00:20:30.440 fact, and if your life is great here on earth, 00:20:30.599 --> 00:20:32.700 or if your life is horrible here on earth, that 00:20:32.700 --> 00:20:37.279 says nothing about God. God is good all the time, 00:20:37.339 --> 00:20:40.740 and all the time, God is... Good. That's why 00:20:40.740 --> 00:20:44.359 the Bible says in Romans chapter 8 that the sufferings 00:20:44.359 --> 00:20:48.740 of this present life aren't worth comparing to 00:20:48.740 --> 00:20:52.059 the glories that are to come. You folks understand 00:20:52.059 --> 00:20:55.220 we're headed to eternity, right? That's our destination. 00:20:55.299 --> 00:20:58.420 That's where we're going. When we've been there 00:20:58.420 --> 00:21:02.579 10 ,000 years, do you think for a second that 00:21:02.579 --> 00:21:04.539 after you've been there for 10 ,000 years in 00:21:04.539 --> 00:21:06.440 the presence of the Son of God, you're going 00:21:06.440 --> 00:21:08.220 to be thinking about that hard Monday you had 00:21:08.220 --> 00:21:12.329 a few weeks ago? I'm not saying the Monday wasn't 00:21:12.329 --> 00:21:14.369 hard. I've had a couple hard Mondays recently. 00:21:15.690 --> 00:21:18.089 It is hard, but in the grand scheme of things, 00:21:18.170 --> 00:21:21.710 it's a blip on the radar. The Bible says you're 00:21:21.710 --> 00:21:25.029 getting to go be with God. So keep eternity in 00:21:25.029 --> 00:21:28.289 mind and make sure that you're basing your understanding 00:21:28.289 --> 00:21:32.130 of Jesus on who he says he is and how he has 00:21:32.130 --> 00:21:34.809 revealed himself because he didn't come to primarily 00:21:34.809 --> 00:21:37.529 give you everything you want. Jesus came to give 00:21:37.529 --> 00:21:40.990 you everything you need. He came to give us peace 00:21:40.990 --> 00:21:43.730 with God. He came to pay the price of our sins 00:21:43.730 --> 00:21:46.490 He came to reconcile us to God. He came to give 00:21:46.490 --> 00:21:50.029 us eternal life in his presence He came to seek 00:21:50.029 --> 00:21:53.569 and to save the lost and I want you to know this 00:21:53.569 --> 00:21:56.470 now So that we won't be like this crowd and turn 00:21:56.470 --> 00:21:59.549 on Jesus when he doesn't meet our expectations 00:21:59.549 --> 00:22:03.630 As long as we have these wrong views about him. 00:22:03.690 --> 00:22:07.730 We will fail to follow him as we ought to and 00:22:07.730 --> 00:22:12.000 Here's the knee jerk Americanized Christian response 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:15.440 to this. People say, okay, I see that I'm in 00:22:15.440 --> 00:22:19.240 the wrong pastor. I get that. I've been making 00:22:19.240 --> 00:22:21.180 my own version of Jesus. I've kind of been living 00:22:21.180 --> 00:22:24.039 my life however I want. So here's what I need 00:22:24.039 --> 00:22:27.599 to do. I need to go to church. I need to go buy 00:22:27.599 --> 00:22:29.720 a Bible, start reading it. I need to start saying 00:22:29.720 --> 00:22:32.460 some prayers. I need to basically get some religion 00:22:32.460 --> 00:22:35.940 in my life. And listen, hey, those things aren't 00:22:35.940 --> 00:22:38.420 bad. That's not a bad start. It's great for you 00:22:38.420 --> 00:22:41.019 to go to church, read your Bible and pray. Here's 00:22:41.019 --> 00:22:44.019 the problem. If you think that that's going to 00:22:44.019 --> 00:22:46.440 fix the problem you have with God, you're sorely 00:22:46.440 --> 00:22:51.579 mistaken. There's no amount of religion and religiosity 00:22:51.579 --> 00:22:56.099 that can possibly fix your stance with God, which 00:22:56.099 --> 00:22:58.680 is why when Jesus comes into Jerusalem, he immediately 00:22:58.680 --> 00:23:02.700 goes to the temple. Look at verse 12. And Jesus 00:23:02.700 --> 00:23:05.279 entered the temple and drove out all who sold 00:23:05.279 --> 00:23:08.000 and bought in the temple. And he overturned the 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:09.940 tables of the money changers in the seats of 00:23:09.940 --> 00:23:11.859 those who sold pigeons. And he said to them, 00:23:12.039 --> 00:23:15.920 it is written, my house shall be called a house 00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:19.440 of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers. 00:23:20.940 --> 00:23:24.079 Now again, keep in mind, Jerusalem is very busy 00:23:24.079 --> 00:23:26.869 at this time. because it's the beginning of Passover 00:23:26.869 --> 00:23:29.890 week and people were traveling from all over 00:23:29.890 --> 00:23:32.430 the world to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the 00:23:32.430 --> 00:23:35.269 Passover. And the temple was one of the busiest 00:23:35.269 --> 00:23:38.029 places and the loudest place that you could be 00:23:38.029 --> 00:23:40.910 in Jerusalem at this time because they needed 00:23:40.910 --> 00:23:43.549 to exchange and buy and sell and all sorts of 00:23:43.549 --> 00:23:46.549 things like that. Basically, all donations to 00:23:46.549 --> 00:23:49.789 the temple had to be made in Tyrian shekels. 00:23:49.930 --> 00:23:52.309 And so if you didn't have Tyrian shekels, you 00:23:52.309 --> 00:23:54.190 had to take whatever your currency was and you 00:23:54.190 --> 00:23:56.690 had to exchange it for the Tyrian shekels. And 00:23:56.690 --> 00:23:59.029 that was done right there in the temple. And 00:23:59.029 --> 00:24:00.609 since you were coming to the temple to celebrate 00:24:00.609 --> 00:24:02.430 Passover and you knew that you would need to 00:24:02.430 --> 00:24:05.049 offer a sacrifice for yourself and your family, 00:24:06.190 --> 00:24:08.609 well, you don't want to travel hundreds and hundreds 00:24:08.609 --> 00:24:11.549 of miles with a bunch of sacrifices, right? So 00:24:11.549 --> 00:24:13.329 what do you think? You say, Well, we'll just 00:24:13.329 --> 00:24:14.829 buy them there. We don't need to travel with 00:24:14.829 --> 00:24:17.089 these things. That's cumbersome. Let's just buy 00:24:17.089 --> 00:24:19.950 all of our sacrifices there. Which was like the 00:24:19.950 --> 00:24:22.589 worst thing you could possibly do. If you own 00:24:22.589 --> 00:24:25.210 a modern equivalent, it's like saying, I'm gonna 00:24:25.210 --> 00:24:27.950 go to the Clemson game on Saturday and we don't 00:24:27.950 --> 00:24:30.730 need to eat beforehand. We'll just buy food there. 00:24:32.390 --> 00:24:37.400 And what? Pay 18 bucks for a hot dog? Ten bucks 00:24:37.400 --> 00:24:40.079 for a bottle of water. That's a dollar and 25 00:24:40.079 --> 00:24:42.240 cents and a vending machine down the road Come 00:24:42.240 --> 00:24:44.539 on, like I love Clemson, but you know, they rip 00:24:44.539 --> 00:24:47.539 you off at those places, right? No matter the 00:24:47.539 --> 00:24:49.720 stadium amusement park. They will rip you off. 00:24:50.160 --> 00:24:52.099 That's exactly what was going on in the temple 00:24:52.099 --> 00:24:55.859 The temple workers were ripping people off especially 00:24:55.859 --> 00:24:58.160 foreigners. So what they would do when they're 00:24:58.160 --> 00:25:00.220 exchanging their money They wouldn't give them 00:25:00.220 --> 00:25:02.319 a fair exchange rate. They'd overcharge them 00:25:02.640 --> 00:25:05.180 when they're buying their sacrifices. For the 00:25:05.180 --> 00:25:07.940 Jew, it was one price. For the Gentile, it was 00:25:07.940 --> 00:25:11.640 a much higher price. And all of this was taking 00:25:11.640 --> 00:25:14.140 place in what was known as the court of the Gentiles. 00:25:14.220 --> 00:25:16.980 I have a picture here you can look at. This is 00:25:16.980 --> 00:25:18.660 an idea of what the temple would have looked 00:25:18.660 --> 00:25:22.700 like in Jesus' day. In that whole courtyard area 00:25:22.700 --> 00:25:26.079 that you can see there, that entire area is known 00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:28.940 as the court of the Gentiles. This is where this 00:25:28.940 --> 00:25:32.279 event was taking place. It was the only place 00:25:32.279 --> 00:25:35.460 in the entire temple complex that Gentiles were 00:25:35.460 --> 00:25:40.819 allowed to come and worship God. And the Jews 00:25:40.819 --> 00:25:45.279 had turned it into a center of commerce where 00:25:45.279 --> 00:25:48.160 they were buying and selling. And so it wasn't 00:25:48.160 --> 00:25:50.160 a place that was quiet. You couldn't actually 00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:52.619 focus on worship there. I mean, imagine you were 00:25:52.619 --> 00:25:54.960 a Gentile coming to the temple to worship. You've 00:25:54.960 --> 00:25:57.359 just been ripped off by someone in your exchange 00:25:57.359 --> 00:25:59.799 rate. You've just been ripped off to buy your 00:25:59.799 --> 00:26:01.220 sacrifice. You're thinking, OK, it's just what 00:26:01.220 --> 00:26:03.559 I have to do. Get through it. And let's say you're 00:26:03.559 --> 00:26:06.259 finally kneeling to pray and you can't even pray 00:26:06.259 --> 00:26:08.819 because it's so busy. People keep bumping into 00:26:08.819 --> 00:26:11.960 you and it's so loud from all the heckling going 00:26:11.960 --> 00:26:15.900 on and trying to barter over prices and stuff. 00:26:16.079 --> 00:26:19.180 You can't even hear yourself pray. And so this 00:26:19.180 --> 00:26:21.240 was their only place where they could come and 00:26:21.240 --> 00:26:24.480 worship the God of Israel. And yet the Jewish 00:26:24.480 --> 00:26:26.759 people at the time had made it completely impossible. 00:26:27.900 --> 00:26:31.339 Those who were called by God's name had become 00:26:31.339 --> 00:26:34.740 the biggest hindrance to the nations coming to 00:26:34.740 --> 00:26:36.839 worship God. And listen, when God's people become 00:26:36.839 --> 00:26:39.680 a hindrance to people coming to know and worship 00:26:39.680 --> 00:26:43.920 God, it's time for Jesus to clean house. And 00:26:43.920 --> 00:26:46.839 we still see this happen today, do we not? Because 00:26:46.839 --> 00:26:51.339 I think you all understand, it's never Jesus 00:26:51.339 --> 00:26:55.509 that keeps people from coming to Jesus. It's 00:26:55.509 --> 00:26:57.950 typically always Christians that keep people 00:26:57.950 --> 00:27:02.089 from coming to Jesus. Even atheists, I've listened 00:27:02.089 --> 00:27:05.130 to so many atheists, they like Jesus. They like 00:27:05.130 --> 00:27:06.609 some of the things he said. They said he was 00:27:06.609 --> 00:27:09.769 a good moral teacher. I really liked his philosophies 00:27:09.769 --> 00:27:12.670 of life and spirituality. That stuff is great. 00:27:13.130 --> 00:27:15.470 Here's who I have a problem with. It's all the 00:27:15.470 --> 00:27:18.630 people in the church. It's all the Christians. 00:27:19.650 --> 00:27:21.049 And people don't want to come to church because 00:27:21.049 --> 00:27:24.589 they say Christians are hypocrites. Christians 00:27:24.589 --> 00:27:27.589 are judgmental. Christians are mean. Christians 00:27:27.589 --> 00:27:31.950 are self -righteous. The list goes on and on. 00:27:32.609 --> 00:27:33.990 And so you might say, well, pastor, we're not 00:27:33.990 --> 00:27:35.809 buying and selling in our church like they were 00:27:35.809 --> 00:27:38.569 doing there, so we're good. Listen, we might 00:27:38.569 --> 00:27:41.970 not be buying and selling, but I think far too 00:27:41.970 --> 00:27:44.789 many church people make outsiders feel as unwelcome 00:27:44.789 --> 00:27:47.369 in here as the Jews made the Gentiles feel in 00:27:47.369 --> 00:27:51.450 the temple. And so Jesus does something about 00:27:51.450 --> 00:27:54.099 it. and that infuriated the religious leaders. 00:27:54.400 --> 00:27:58.119 If you look at verse 14, Jesus comes in the temple, 00:27:58.240 --> 00:27:59.680 he's doing all these great things, the blind 00:27:59.680 --> 00:28:01.900 and the lame came to him in the temple and he 00:28:01.900 --> 00:28:05.680 healed them. And when the chief priests and scribes, 00:28:05.740 --> 00:28:07.700 now notice what Matthew does here, this is amazing, 00:28:08.299 --> 00:28:10.059 look how he describes it, just so he wants you 00:28:10.059 --> 00:28:12.240 to be clear who the bad guys are in this passage, 00:28:13.039 --> 00:28:15.619 he says, when the chief priests and the scribes 00:28:15.619 --> 00:28:19.470 saw the wonderful things, Let's make no mistake, 00:28:19.490 --> 00:28:21.329 these are great and wonderful things that are 00:28:21.329 --> 00:28:22.990 happening. When they saw the wonderful things 00:28:22.990 --> 00:28:25.289 that he did, and the children crying out the 00:28:25.289 --> 00:28:27.609 temple, Hosanna to the son of David, another 00:28:27.609 --> 00:28:29.609 beautiful image, right? Even the children are 00:28:29.609 --> 00:28:31.589 coming to praise him. Like we had the children 00:28:31.589 --> 00:28:33.329 down front this morning with the palm branches. 00:28:33.430 --> 00:28:37.650 It is beautiful to see children praising Jesus. 00:28:39.430 --> 00:28:42.529 You know who didn't like that? The religious 00:28:42.529 --> 00:28:46.170 people. They were indignant and they said to 00:28:46.170 --> 00:28:49.960 him, Do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus 00:28:49.960 --> 00:28:53.019 said to them, the funniest thing that Jesus always 00:28:53.019 --> 00:28:56.799 says to the religious leaders, yes, have you 00:28:56.799 --> 00:28:59.960 never read? Which again? hilarious. People think 00:28:59.960 --> 00:29:03.259 the Bible's not funny. This is hysterical because 00:29:03.259 --> 00:29:05.799 the religious leaders were the ones who were 00:29:05.799 --> 00:29:08.319 copying the entire Old Testament and passing 00:29:08.319 --> 00:29:10.980 it down. They were the ones who were memorizing 00:29:10.980 --> 00:29:14.039 the entire Old Testament. They knew the Old Testament 00:29:14.039 --> 00:29:16.740 so well they could tell you the central word 00:29:16.740 --> 00:29:20.140 in every single book of each Old Testament book 00:29:20.140 --> 00:29:22.740 of the Bible. And Jesus says to those people, 00:29:23.819 --> 00:29:27.869 have you uh have you never read? It's great out 00:29:27.869 --> 00:29:30.029 of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you 00:29:30.029 --> 00:29:32.829 have prepared praise And leaving them he went 00:29:32.829 --> 00:29:36.349 out of the city to Bethany and lodge there You 00:29:36.349 --> 00:29:37.910 see the problem with the religious leaders of 00:29:37.910 --> 00:29:40.970 Israel here is that they didn't necessarily care 00:29:40.970 --> 00:29:45.769 about anyone but themselves And they the worst 00:29:45.769 --> 00:29:47.529 part is they thought that God was pleased with 00:29:47.529 --> 00:29:50.450 them They had this idea that when Jesus came 00:29:50.450 --> 00:29:53.250 into the temple He was going to be happy with 00:29:53.250 --> 00:29:55.819 them You can imagine a bunch of religious leaders 00:29:55.819 --> 00:29:57.640 just kind of standing there like this. They see 00:29:57.640 --> 00:29:59.900 Jesus coming in. They're like, uh, there's the 00:29:59.900 --> 00:30:01.960 carpenter's son from Nazareth. Let's see what 00:30:01.960 --> 00:30:04.319 he has to say about this. Like, just wait till 00:30:04.319 --> 00:30:06.519 he sees everything. He's gonna love it, right? 00:30:07.220 --> 00:30:10.400 Crowds are following him. And as soon as Jesus 00:30:10.400 --> 00:30:12.920 walks in, what does he do? He starts flipping 00:30:12.920 --> 00:30:16.920 tables and driving people out. And they're in 00:30:16.920 --> 00:30:19.619 complete shock because they were thinking, he's 00:30:19.619 --> 00:30:22.019 gonna come in and be happy with us. Look at all 00:30:22.019 --> 00:30:24.259 the stuff we're doing. Look at all the money 00:30:24.259 --> 00:30:26.059 we're making for the temple. Look at all the 00:30:26.059 --> 00:30:28.000 sacrifices that are going to be offered. Look 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:30.299 at all the religious things that we're doing. 00:30:30.339 --> 00:30:33.779 We're even tithing our mint and our dill. Jesus, 00:30:33.799 --> 00:30:36.339 look how religious we are. Aren't you happy with 00:30:36.339 --> 00:30:43.420 us? And they are completely shocked that Jesus 00:30:43.420 --> 00:30:45.900 is just not going to approve of their agenda 00:30:45.900 --> 00:30:47.779 and everything that they've got going on here. 00:30:48.400 --> 00:30:52.359 They are completely in shock that Jesus is not 00:30:52.430 --> 00:30:57.589 happy with them. I want you to understand this 00:30:57.589 --> 00:30:59.769 point here that we learn from them is that Jesus 00:30:59.769 --> 00:31:02.890 did not come to approve our agendas, but to implement 00:31:02.890 --> 00:31:08.809 God's agenda. Jesus did not come to approve our 00:31:08.809 --> 00:31:17.049 agendas, but to implement God's agenda. And I 00:31:17.049 --> 00:31:19.109 want you to know this and we need to know this 00:31:19.109 --> 00:31:22.670 because it cuts right to the heart of modern 00:31:22.670 --> 00:31:27.289 American Christianity. It exposes this false 00:31:27.289 --> 00:31:30.130 belief that we have that Jesus is just going 00:31:30.130 --> 00:31:33.470 to give our lives the stamp of approval no matter 00:31:33.470 --> 00:31:37.089 what they look like. Pretty much if you look 00:31:37.089 --> 00:31:40.349 at the South and the church in the South today, 00:31:41.150 --> 00:31:44.390 there's this common idea that as long as you 00:31:44.390 --> 00:31:48.059 say you believe in God, You're good. Doesn't 00:31:48.059 --> 00:31:50.880 matter what your life looks like. Doesn't matter 00:31:50.880 --> 00:31:53.579 if you live in obedience to the Lord. Doesn't 00:31:53.579 --> 00:31:56.420 matter how out of line your life is with God's 00:31:56.420 --> 00:31:58.940 expectations. In the South, the idea, all you 00:31:58.940 --> 00:32:01.000 have to say is, I believe in Jesus. I know that 00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:04.359 Jesus is real. You're good. You're going to heaven. 00:32:06.620 --> 00:32:09.779 And this passage cuts right to the quick of that. 00:32:10.039 --> 00:32:13.259 It shows us that Jesus is not interested in partial 00:32:13.259 --> 00:32:15.980 obedience. He's not interested in superficial 00:32:15.980 --> 00:32:20.440 obedience. He is interested in making sure God's 00:32:20.440 --> 00:32:23.980 will is followed. Which means you can't just 00:32:23.980 --> 00:32:26.079 look at your life and say, yeah, God's good with 00:32:26.079 --> 00:32:29.619 me because of this reason, right? People say, 00:32:29.740 --> 00:32:32.599 well, I believe in God so I can live my life 00:32:32.599 --> 00:32:35.720 however I want. Yeah, I don't really make it 00:32:35.720 --> 00:32:37.359 to church that often, but that's because I have 00:32:37.359 --> 00:32:40.579 a lot going on. We've got a lot of busy things 00:32:40.579 --> 00:32:42.160 on our schedule. We have a lot of activities, 00:32:42.380 --> 00:32:43.880 and so I don't really make it to church that 00:32:43.880 --> 00:32:46.220 often, but listen to me, but God's okay with 00:32:46.220 --> 00:32:50.180 that because he knows I believe in him. I don't 00:32:50.180 --> 00:32:52.660 really lead my kids and my wife the way that 00:32:52.660 --> 00:32:55.140 I should, but the thing is God knows I'm not 00:32:55.140 --> 00:32:57.039 really that type of person. I'm more of a backseat 00:32:57.039 --> 00:33:00.160 kind of guy, and so even though he says I'm supposed 00:33:00.160 --> 00:33:02.730 to do that, He's okay with me not doing that 00:33:02.730 --> 00:33:05.329 because he knows I believe in him. And I believe 00:33:05.329 --> 00:33:08.509 that Jesus actually did die on the cross. I don't 00:33:08.509 --> 00:33:11.410 really pray that often or read my Bible, but 00:33:11.410 --> 00:33:14.130 here's the thing, God knows I believe in him. 00:33:14.369 --> 00:33:18.390 So he's okay with that. People will say, I never 00:33:18.390 --> 00:33:21.880 share the gospel with other people. But that's 00:33:21.880 --> 00:33:23.920 just because God knows I'm not really that type 00:33:23.920 --> 00:33:25.599 of person. I'm more of an introvert. I'm not 00:33:25.599 --> 00:33:27.279 really an extrovert. I don't always know the 00:33:27.279 --> 00:33:29.680 right things to say, so I never share the gospel 00:33:29.680 --> 00:33:33.380 with people, but God's okay with that. I know 00:33:33.380 --> 00:33:35.119 he said to go and make disciples of all nations. 00:33:35.160 --> 00:33:36.519 I know he said we're an ambassador of Christ 00:33:36.519 --> 00:33:38.259 and all that kind of stuff, but he knows I'm 00:33:38.259 --> 00:33:40.500 not that type of person, so he's good with it. 00:33:41.740 --> 00:33:43.579 I'm not really involved in the church or the 00:33:43.579 --> 00:33:45.880 mission of the church, but at the end of the 00:33:45.880 --> 00:33:48.319 day, God knows I believe in him, and that's good 00:33:48.319 --> 00:33:52.250 enough for God. Here's my question to you. Says 00:33:52.250 --> 00:34:01.750 who? Says you? Here's what I want you to understand 00:34:01.750 --> 00:34:06.450 this morning. We do not get the right to define 00:34:06.450 --> 00:34:10.050 what a Christian is and is not. Only God can 00:34:10.050 --> 00:34:13.869 do that. We don't get to say, well, I'm a Christian 00:34:13.869 --> 00:34:16.090 and here's how I live and God's okay with it 00:34:16.090 --> 00:34:20.000 because I said he's okay with it. We do not have 00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:23.559 the right to define what a Christian is or how 00:34:23.559 --> 00:34:26.480 a Christian should live. And if your definition 00:34:26.480 --> 00:34:29.260 does not match God's definition, here's the thing, 00:34:29.300 --> 00:34:31.139 folks, I've never known God to be wrong about 00:34:31.139 --> 00:34:36.980 anything. And only one of you can be right. If 00:34:36.980 --> 00:34:39.000 you find yourself saying those things, then it 00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:40.820 sounds like maybe Jesus needs to come and flip 00:34:40.820 --> 00:34:45.440 some tables in your life. We need to make sure 00:34:45.440 --> 00:34:49.769 we understand who Jesus actually is and what 00:34:49.769 --> 00:34:52.650 he actually came to do because if we fail to 00:34:52.650 --> 00:34:56.210 see him for who he is we will not follow him 00:34:56.210 --> 00:34:59.889 as we ought. I want you to understand this morning 00:34:59.889 --> 00:35:02.449 what you need more than anything this morning 00:35:02.449 --> 00:35:05.869 is not for Jesus to save you from a difficult 00:35:05.869 --> 00:35:09.440 marriage. It is not to save you from financial 00:35:09.440 --> 00:35:12.099 hardships. It is not to save you from failing 00:35:12.099 --> 00:35:14.179 health. It is not to save you from a dead -end 00:35:14.179 --> 00:35:17.159 job. It's not to save you from conflict. What 00:35:17.159 --> 00:35:19.780 you need more than anything else in the entire 00:35:19.780 --> 00:35:23.119 world this morning is for Jesus to save you from 00:35:23.119 --> 00:35:27.460 your sins and reconcile you to God. That is what 00:35:27.460 --> 00:35:30.980 you need. And if you come to Jesus for any other 00:35:30.980 --> 00:35:35.000 reason than salvation, then you will walk away 00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:37.019 from Jesus when He doesn't give you that thing. 00:35:38.559 --> 00:35:41.820 He did not come to approve your life. He came 00:35:41.820 --> 00:35:45.039 to improve your life and give you eternal life 00:35:45.039 --> 00:35:48.789 in Himself. He came to establish God's kingdom. 00:35:48.969 --> 00:35:51.909 He came to seek and to save the lost. He came 00:35:51.909 --> 00:35:55.150 to open the eyes of the blind. He came to restore 00:35:55.150 --> 00:35:58.730 the broken. He came to ransom God's people. He 00:35:58.730 --> 00:36:02.489 came to triumph over death. He came to rise again 00:36:02.489 --> 00:36:06.750 victorious. This is Jesus according to Jesus. 00:36:07.789 --> 00:36:11.369 This is what he came to do. According to His 00:36:11.369 --> 00:36:14.789 word, may God open up our eyes to see Him for 00:36:14.789 --> 00:36:18.230 who He truly is so we can begin to follow Him 00:36:18.230 --> 00:36:21.469 as we ought. Amen? Let's pray.