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[0:00] John chapter 12. John chapter 12. Well, so how far is the weekend going? Good? Good Canada Day?

[0:12] Ever see, able to see friends and family? Welcome. Thank you. If you're new visiting us, we appreciate you coming here to worship. One of the things that we've been working through for the last couple of months now is looking at the narrative of the life of Christ. We are looking at not so much spending time in the teachings, but I was trying to think of the right word to sum up what's been going on in the life of Christ. I think the right word is drama, right? There is a drama to the story that unfolds around Jesus Christ. And just as I was even reading the passage today after studying, you know, for the last couple of months and all this stuff, and I was like, but there's so much more going on here than just these words. And I was just thinking about even in my own personal study when we, it's so easy to think, hey, I'm just going to read this text without really meditating on who these people were. What were the events surrounding the text that brings out the reality or the deeper, I don't even want to say the deeper truths, but the tension, the emotion that is going on around Jesus. So last time when we were in this, remember we spent several weeks on the triumphal entry. And it was quite interesting. I found this one quote by this one scholar and he said, the triumphal entry is the single most dramatic and deliberate and focused presentation by Jesus

[1:57] Christ of himself to Israel as the Messiah. Do you get that? Like it is the most dramatic deliberate and focused presentation of himself to the nation of Israel. And when we kind of read the story, we don't think about all the dynamics that are making that true. And if you've been with us the last several weeks, you know that there was several prophecies that were realized when Jesus came in and that Jesus himself created some of the drama, right? Remember he goes in, there was this guy, Lazarus who died about six weeks prior to the event. Jesus goes there. He actually waits for the right time to go when, remember Lazarus is good and dead. Remember he's been in the tomb. He's been put away.

[2:50] They don't want to go near him anymore because the stench of the body. He shows up, opens the tomb and literally Lazarus hops out, right? He's still covered with the linen and the spices and he comes alive. And there was the text in John 12 says that the testimony of Jesus Christ raising Lazarus from the dead was so compelling that they actually gave thought of killing Lazarus. Now think of the irony of that, right? All right, go ahead and kill him. Jesus is just going to raise him up again, right?

[3:31] Keep doing it. He's going to keep doing it, right? So Jesus had this purpose in rising him. And the text tells us that by the time Jesus is entering into Jerusalem on the triumphal entry, people are there because they know they've been hearing the stories of what Jesus did with Lazarus. Then if you were with me, previously we even learned about Luke 17 where Jesus purposely heads north and he meets up in Galilee and he comes down with the caravan and several chapters tells us about these amazing teachings and miracles that he did. And he's just creating this massive level of excitement.

[4:14] So by the time he gets to the city gates, just Mark says, you know, they tossed a few garments on the ground and on the, the full, the young donkey and a few branches. We're talking about hundreds of thousands of people here. This is the high celebration for the Jews in Jerusalem. So the people had been prepped. They're ready to declare. And what is it that they sing? All the gospels confirm. They said, Hosanna, the son of David, the prophesied one, the one who is the Messiah, the one who will deliver us.

[4:50] Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest, right? There's this, this, this massive celebration of event. Remember the Jews are in basically enslaved to these Romans.

[5:08] They've been under this occupying thumb for almost 500 years. And finally, remember the Passover. It's what they came to commemorate Moses, saving them from the Egyptians. Maybe this is it.

[5:26] Maybe this is God working once again to save us from these foreign powers, these Romans. So there's this, this tension, this emotion is in the streets. People are shouting his name. Matthew even uses the term in the Greek, like the ground is shaking at the anticipation of Jesus Christ. So before I go any further, I want to break down the Passion Week for you and actually have some slides. Shane, we got the PowerPoint slides working okay on this? We didn't have them. All right. You guys are going to have to trust me. All right.

[6:01] I worked hours on these slides, nice moving pictures, all that. Anyway, basically we're going to look at Sunday is the day that is the triumphal entry. All right. And I actually believe, and we talked about this last week, if you weren't bored to death, out of Daniel 9, just how exact the prophecy was, right? To the exact day that we know that Jesus entered into Jerusalem on Sunday, March 29, 33 AD.

[6:30] Like when you work it back and you see the prophetic voice that Daniel had, we see the triumphal entry or what we know as Palm Sunday. Monday and Tuesday is what we're talking about. First Monday is Jesus cleaning the temple. And on Tuesday, Jesus teaching in the temple. And these are probably two of the most glorious days that ever happened on earth. God returned to his temple. The temple where they're to worship him, he shows up and I do not know what's going on with the noise here. Rick, what are you doing? Are you playing with your hearing aids or what's going on? Can you guys see if there's another mic maybe?

[7:15] So at the last church, the mic went off and everybody thought it was actually a gunshot. And we thought we had to rush some of our seniors to the hospital because of their hearts. All right. Yeah.

[7:28] Test, test, test. We all right?

[7:58] We good? All right. We got the thumbs up. All right. Let's keep going. So we got Monday and Tuesday is Jesus in the temple. Wednesday, we believe that the text of scripture is silent. Thursday, we come to the day of the Passover meal, the last supper, Jesus' time in Galilee. And then we focus in on Friday.

[8:17] And we all know there's several events that happen on Friday, right? We got the trial of Jesus, the eventual torture of Jesus, crucifixion of Jesus, and the burial of Jesus. On the Saturday, we have the silent Sabbath. And then on Sunday, we have Resurrection Sunday. So if you're wondering where we're going in the sermon series, just laid it out for you, right? These are the events that are happening.

[8:44] We're going to spend a couple of days on each of these events to make sure that you are able... And the whole reason we're teaching this is I really want you to understand the drama, the passion that's going on. But ultimately, it's to increase your love and worship of Jesus Christ.

[8:59] I have no desire to be a strict teacher to give you mental acumen over the facts that are going on. But I want your heart to be moved by the story that is Jesus and this incredible day.

[9:14] So we've got this Sunday. Jesus rides in as the king, the long-awaited Messiah. Jerusalem, usually the home to over 100,000 people during this event. Scholars say there's about a million people during the Passover.

[9:29] And they're waiting for Jesus to do something. Mark 11 tells us that after entering into this great jubilation, Mark 11 says, And Jesus entered Jerusalem, and he went into the temple.

[9:50] When he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. The ultimate question that we need to answer is, why do the people love Jesus so much on Sunday, to the point that they're crying out his name, the city is shaking, that four days later they kill him?

[10:17] And if you remember your biblical story, remember Pilate can't understand why these people want to kill him. And he says, why don't you take Barabbas?

[10:29] And the people, and Matthew actually says that basically Barabbas was the worst kind of scoundrel of a man. Yet the Jewish people said, give us Barabbas and crucify Jesus.

[10:44] So what happened? What happened from Sunday to Friday that could change the people's heart so?

[10:55] So that is the question I want to answer for you these next couple of Sundays. So first, on this Monday, we're going to look at the first day that Jesus cleans out the events.

[11:08] Three significant events happen on this Monday. The first one is, Jesus cleans out the temple. Two, Jesus heals the blind and the lame.

[11:19] And three, Jesus does what Jesus always does, he teaches, right? He's a teacher, that's his primary function to bring truth to lies. Matthew 21, 12 says, And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple.

[11:38] And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.

[11:54] And if you didn't pick up in Mark, the text I read earlier today, it said, And Jesus would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. What that means is people were essentially using the temple as a shortcut.

[12:08] So basically, I had these pictures of what's going on in the temple, but you need to understand the way the temple's made. It's about 40 acres. The entire scene, and I actually drew this out for you guys on the PowerPoint.

[12:22] In the middle is this great big building, which is the inner sanction of the temple. But all around the area is called the Court of the Gentiles. So what Jesus did is he goes into the Court of the Gentiles where they had set up this huge market, and he drives everyone out.

[12:41] And you have to understand, there's hundreds of thousands of people that are during this event. So what are they all doing wrong? As we said, it says that there's three offenses that are listed.

[12:54] There's the money changers. They sold pigeons. And they disrespected the temple by using it as a shortcut.

[13:05] All right, I want to deal with the small issues here. First, the money changers. During Passover, every male was supposed to pay a temple tax.

[13:17] So once a year, that is, and that money went to the temple itself. This is how the priests made their living. Now, as you can imagine, Jews came from all over the region, and they used different types of coins.

[13:30] And there was only one type of coin that was accepted, and it was the Tyrian coin. It was doing some research. No one knows why. That one was just the coin that they used. But what was interesting about the coin, it did not have a picture of a false god on it.

[13:43] So they would not accept any type of coin. Now, what the priests would do is, Hey, we know you're coming from, I don't know, further part of Rome. You're here for Passover, and you've got Roman coin.

[13:55] Tell you what, we'll do an exchange. But the temple priests would charge an exorbitant exchange, right? It's like getting your money when you're at the airport, right?

[14:05] You're always charging an upkeep on the exchange rate. So they were doing that. That was a no-no in God's eyes. So the people were taking more money. The other thing that they were doing is they were selling pigeons. When it came to the sacrifice that you were ultimately to offer, you were supposed to bring an unblemished lamb.

[14:23] The people who used pigeons were the poorest of the poor. They were the ones that could not afford a lamb. Yet the priests thought it would be a really good idea to profit from the poorest of the poor.

[14:38] Are you with me on this thing? So this was a complete disgrace. The other thing that I stated is they actually used it as a shortcut. And if you would have seen the picture, there's real pictures of what it looks like today.

[14:52] If you want to get through one neighborhood to the other one, you just cut through this court. But the greatest overriding offense that got Jesus was this was a place of worship.

[15:08] Yes, it was okay to exchange coins. You can't expect everybody to have coins. It's okay to have animals. But you don't do it in the temple, right?

[15:19] You put it outside of the temple. Now, what is it called? It's called the Courtyard of the Gentiles.

[15:31] And that's as far as a Gentile person could go. And this is something that I was kind of thinking about today. If we showed up who were not Jewish and we wanted to worship the real and living God on this Passover, how would we have been welcomed?

[15:48] We would have walked into a veritable market. People selling, buying, rushing. It would have been like chaos.

[16:00] And the ultimate thing that God is pointing out here is that God is still the God of the Gentiles. Amen? Just because he's the God of the Jews does not mean he didn't create and he's not the God of the Gentiles.

[16:14] But the Jews had risen and raised themselves to such a status, they did not even give any care for the Gentiles to come in and worship him.

[16:26] Like that's how blind they were to what God had ultimately called them to be. Remember a couple of weeks ago, we talked about the Abrahamic covenant. God says, I'm calling Abraham out of his land to be my people so everyone can see what it is to worship the real and living God.

[16:48] So all the nations would be drawn to that true worship. But what did the Jews do? They worshiped the other people's gods, right?

[17:00] Which was ultimately led them to the punishment in the situation they have here. So Jesus Christ is pointing out, guys, you've missed the point on this.

[17:14] You're not in good standing simply because you're a Jew. That's not why. It does not mean you are automatically right with God.

[17:25] And as we will find out, even your nature of worship changed from what led you to condemnation. Remember, they worshiped all the false gods.

[17:36] The Jews that are going on here, they're all about the temple, right? They're not allowing any foreign worship that's there. But they're still missing the point.

[17:49] Sorry about this. So Mark uses the word, he drives them out.

[18:04] And contained within the understanding is, Jesus actually uses force to remove the people out. It's not like he goes around, hey guys, time to close up shop.

[18:16] You know, take the temples outside, or your pigeons outside. Just, hey, hurry it up, hurry it up. No, no, no. So he's thrown over the tables. He's literally throwing some of these peoples out because they had offended his father's house.

[18:30] And the reality is the crowd loves it. Why does the crowd love it? Because they're the ones being ripped off. They're the ones who've had to endure this slavery to this religious system.

[18:43] They know they're overpaying. They're getting ripped off. And as the crowd loves it, the chief priests and the Pharisees hated it.

[18:55] And the text tells us that they sought to destroy Jesus for they feared him because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.

[19:05] So here he is. Jesus throws them out. The second event that happens in the temple that day, he does the healings. So after he throws out the robbers as he calls them, Matthew tells us that the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them all.

[19:22] Well, it's just a sentence. Have you ever thought of what it would be like if you've been lame your whole life and now you've been made whole?

[19:35] What do you think you would do? You would jump. You would run. You would dance. You would celebrate, right? Like if you were blind your whole life, all of a sudden you can see color, the skies with your loved ones, your parents look like, your friends.

[19:53] Like everything changes. So just, we just got to see the drama, picture the drama in the temple, God doing all these healings and the celebration that would have happened in the worship.

[20:08] It would have been one of the most incredible events I think anyone could have been a part of. You guys know I used to live in California, right? A couple years ago, I'm a little bit older now.

[20:20] But I got to go to the Rose Bowl game. And you guys remember the Rose Bowl? It used to be on TV all the time. It was the only thing on January 1st. Well, anyway, when I was there, USC, University of Southern California, they were going to be the national champion if they won the game and they did.

[20:38] And I was at the Rose Bowl and there's 100,000 people in the stadium. It was fun. It was massive. I believe that couldn't compare to anything that was going on to the temple that day.

[20:52] You get it? Like it's true celebration. It's true praise. It's true seeing the reality of God in their lives. And Jesus is doing these things.

[21:05] And the people are getting more and more excited. And after he does these healings, he teaches. So if you look at John 12.

[21:20] And we know that the temple had incredible acoustics in the way it was designed. So when Jesus taught, thousands were able to hear him speak. So if you look at John 12, we're going to look at verse 35.

[21:31] And then I'm going to switch over to verse 44. It says, What is he talking about?

[22:04] So let's take a look at verse 44. And then finally he says, And Jesus cried out and said, Whoever believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me.

[22:18] And whoever sees me, sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him.

[22:33] For I do not come to judge the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge. The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

[22:46] For I have not spoken on my own authority. But the Father who sent me has given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak.

[22:57] And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me. The significance of this, if Jesus had said, Hey, I'm the Messiah, I'm the King, believe in me and you'll be saved, what would have happened?

[23:15] Okay, remember, Rome controls the world at that time. Israel, one of the worst countries to patrol. If you're familiar with Rome itself or Israel, if you were to wage guerrilla warfare in any one country, this is the country that you'd want to use.

[23:33] It's got a lot of hills, tunnels, all this type of stuff. And in fact, when there was earlier rebellions in Israel, it took the Romans multiple years in order to quash them. So out of all the districts under the Roman authority that they, I don't want to use the word fear, but they had the biggest problems with this Israel.

[23:52] And they had this centralized religion, which was like unlike any other part of the world. So during the Passover, what do you think they start to do when a million people show up?

[24:04] Right? There's a little bit of nerves. You know, the guards are a little bit tense going on, right? There's some tension as they go through because the Israel does not have their own army, nor do they have their own type of police or authority.

[24:17] They rely on the Romans to keep the peace. So the Romans during that time are starting to think, all right, nobody's taking the weekend off like Canada Day here, right? No, no, no. During Passover, everyone's on duty.

[24:29] Everyone's there. And there's this tension that goes out throughout the people that are there. So if Jesus were to say, I'm the Messiah and I'm here to overthrow Rome, what would have happened?

[24:42] They would have scooped in in a heartbeat, grabbed him and got him out of there because they don't want to deal with another rebellion. And I think there's at least six in recorded history during that time.

[24:54] I forget how many earlier men claimed to be the Messiah, but Jesus Christ is the one legitimate one. But he doesn't say it, but he's saying it in words that if you were a Roman to hear, you would not understand that word that he means there.

[25:08] But if you're a Jew, you know exactly what Jesus Christ is saying. You know he's claiming the authority that he has from his father.

[25:19] Now the text tells us at the very end, it says, and so Jesus returned to Bethany Monday night. So that's everything that happened on the Monday, right? Goes in, cleans it, heals, and teaches.

[25:29] And of course, when he heals, he's demonstrate authority unlike any other. And his teaching is, I'm sent from the father. Okay? So this is everything that happens on the Monday. Tuesday, Jesus returns to the temple.

[25:43] And you need to understand the first time, Jesus caught the Jews unaware. They were not expecting this. They weren't on the lookout for this. But you can guarantee that that night, they were sharpening their swords.

[25:55] They were making sure if they had their six shooters, they made sure there was a bullet in every chamber because they were going to take Jesus on. They were not going to let him teach the way he taught. So anyhow, he shows up.

[26:07] And what's interesting is that leaders come against Jesus Christ and they offer him four challenges. All right? So the first challenge that he has is the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders approach Jesus Christ.

[26:20] You can take a look at the Gospel of Luke. Now, all these challenges are not in every single Gospel, but by all through, all four of the Gospels, we see all those challenges. You with me on that?

[26:31] There's going to be four challenges. Some of them have them all. Some of them only have partially. So anyway. So we believe when it says the chief priest, that's the chief priest. And we know his name was Sophias.

[26:43] And Sophias and Annas, we believe that was his deputy, these were the two highest priestly officials in the temple. And they go to Jesus immediately, and they're asking the number one right question.

[26:55] They ask him, by what authority are you doing these things? You've just taken over the temple. Right? All the crowd is for Jesus. No one's arguing with him.

[27:07] All of a sudden, there's no attention to the priest. Like, who are we? Right? Chopped liver over here? Why is no? You know, because Jesus is legit. He's doing his thing. So they come, they say, by what authority are you doing these things?

[27:20] And two, who gave you this authority? Now, there's one thing that you need to understand about Jewish custom culture. When it comes to determining your manhood, who's, or who's strongest.

[27:34] Right? Some people might, you know, let's have an arm wrestling competition. You guys are from Squamish. What do you guys do? Roll on logs or something like that? Or, you know, who's the real man?

[27:45] Anyhow, but in the way the Jewish did it, is they debated. Right? They used a form of debate. And the goal was to silence your opposition or to get him or the crowd to see how absurd his argument.

[28:04] Right? It was a form of rhetoric. We see this being used even in the Greeks. And the Jews kind of changed it. But this is how you would battle someone in the open court.

[28:16] So they come and they're going to make an argument with Jesus. And what they're going to do is they're going to try to trap him. So they're asking the ultimate question, by what authority? And he says, I'll tell you what, I'll answer your question, but first you've got to answer mine.

[28:30] Was the baptism of John of God or of man? And we read this this morning, right? What do you believe? Now they believed that, remember, John the Baptist was the herald for Jesus Christ.

[28:46] He was the one who announced the coming of the king. So if you believe that John was from God, there had to be Jesus as the king. But if you rejected it, what did they say?

[28:59] The people believed that John was a prophet. So if they said he was from, that he wasn't from God, they would have been strung up.

[29:10] They would have been tortured, crucified, who knows what they would have done. Most likely stoned. But they believed that John the Baptist was a real prophet. So they would have said, if you knew he was a prophet and John attested that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, which he did, why didn't you follow him?

[29:30] Right? So what did they do? In them trying to outsmart Jesus, they just simply said, neither. They said, they did not know.

[29:40] So they lied. And Jesus said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. And what's interesting about this text is some people talk about critics wondered if Jesus really controlled all the temple.

[29:57] or maybe it was just a section of it. I actually believe the text saying when Jesus controlled the whole temple, he had all 40 acres covered. He was in control of everything because the crowd was for Jesus, right?

[30:12] They want Jesus. So that's the first challenge that they bring. And then the second challenge is kind of interesting. And remember these guys, it says the Pharisees. And remember, these are the two enemies, right?

[30:25] You have the priests who control the temple and you have the Pharisees that control the people. And they all want to bring evidence against Jesus that he is there to usurp Rome.

[30:38] So they can trap him to say, I'm going to overthrow Rome. Bingo. They got him, right? They'll take him to trial. Matthew 22.

[30:49] And I'll read this well-known parable or this well-known teaching. It says, Teacher, we know that you are a true and teach the way of God truthfully. And you do not care about anyone's opinion for you are not swayed by appearances.

[31:04] That's called shining someone on, right? We're going to puff up his position. Yeah. Tell us then. What do you think?

[31:15] Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? So if he was going to do a real rebellion, let's overthrow that yoke. But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?

[31:30] Show me the coin for the tax. And they brought him a denarius, which isn't the coin that they pay. Unless they're paying. It's not the temple tax coin, but that's to Rome. He says, And Jesus said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this?

[31:43] They said, Caesar's. Then he said to them, Therefore, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God. And their response in verse 22 says, When they heard it, they marveled.

[31:59] And they left him and went away. So two challenges come against Jesus. The other guys didn't really say anything, but these guys are like, Oh, this guy's really got some wisdom here.

[32:12] Right? So their third challenge is the Sadducees. And I need to give you a little bit of a background on the Sadducees. The Sadducees, when it came to the Old Testament, only believed in the first five books of the Bible.

[32:26] Okay? The Pentateuch or Torah. They did not believe in anything after. And one of the things that the Sadducees taught was there was no resurrection. Okay?

[32:36] Why is that significant? Because they're going to tell this story to Jesus. You know, what happens because Jewish law stated that if I married my wife and I died, my brother, and if we had no kids, would legally, he would have to marry her.

[32:53] And if he died, the next brother. Right? And they're giving him this absurd story of seven brothers. So then they're asking Jesus, Hey, when there's the resurrection, whose wife is she?

[33:05] Right? Because she's been married to all seven brothers legally. So you got the one who gets the brother and then the six guys are left out to dry. You know, you kind of read in the story and you would have think the third brother on would have taken and left the whole country.

[33:18] Right? Like if the, you know, this woman being married to her is killing all your brothers. Get out of there. Anyway, so what happens is Jesus then quotes them scripture.

[33:31] Now, the only reason the Sadducees, which are the priests, believe in the first five books of the Bible, you know why? The book of Leviticus is in there. And what is the book of Leviticus?

[33:43] It's the one that directs everything in the temple. And where do they get all their money? Fame, power from being in the temple. So that's really the only book they care about because that compels the people to come to the temple.

[33:57] They run to the temple. That's where they get all their money with you with me on this one. But the other thing is they were supposed to know God's word. And Jesus responds, you are wrong because you know, neither the scriptures nor the power of God.

[34:11] And he says, for in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given to marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God?

[34:23] So he's now referring to what is written in the first five books. So you guys who were the temple priests were supposed to know this. You don't need to answer me this question.

[34:34] Ask me. If you already knew it, you would know it, right? So, and he tells them, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not God of the dead, but of the living.

[34:44] And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. So we showed up these guys that are trying to throw him up. And the response that comes from one of the texts is they even complimented him.

[34:56] Because his response was so good. They says, the gospel of Luke says, Luke teacher, you have spoken well. And finally, we're left to the fourth challenge. The fourth challenge is an interesting challenge.

[35:09] Many people actually believe that this is Paul. Because we know Paul lived in Jerusalem at this time. He was being tutored by Gamaliel. And he was supposed to be an expert in the law. That's just guesses.

[35:22] Okay. I'm not saying that that's scripture, but, but the guy is kind of asking a very honest question. Mark 12 says, And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another.

[35:33] And it's interesting. Matthew says, when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees. So he's this guy who's listening in. He's seeing how Jesus is doing stuff.

[35:45] And he says, And seeing that he answered them well, he asked Jesus, which commandment is the most important of all? Right? Jesus answered, The most important is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

[36:02] And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this. You shall love the Lord.

[36:13] You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. You had to understand Jewish thought at the day. They were always trying to take the Old Testament laws, and the rabbis would just debate.

[36:30] Have you ever heard how many angels would fit on the head of a pin? You know, they would just ruminate about all these kind of things in life. And one of the things is, how would we reduce all these laws?

[36:43] And they would argue when they write about it. We actually have records of their writings that state these things. But Jesus just boils it down to reality, right? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.

[36:54] Love others as yourselves. Boom. And the scribe said to him, You are right, teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

[37:16] Boom. The Jewish religion at that time had been all, they're making it about these sacrifices. You get it? This court of Gentiles, do you think it's loving to the Gentiles to be having this market?

[37:32] No. Are you guys picking up on some of the themes that are going on here? They're underlying, but they're significant. Like, are you guys so unloving that I chose you to be my people, to show my love to the whole world, and you became these legal fighting, I don't even know.

[37:56] You just took the law and you dissected it, and you paid more attention on trying to follow the law than actually following me.

[38:07] You with me on this? You loved your worship more than you loved Jesus Christ. You with me? That's ultimately what it boils down to. They loved their worship more than they loved God.

[38:20] And what does God want? God wants the love, right? Like, that's where the worship is to come. And it's interesting.

[38:32] And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, Jesus said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God. And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.

[38:48] And then Jesus actually gives them a challenge. He says, all right, you guys have come to me with a challenge. I'm going to come at you with a challenge. And it's an interesting challenge. And he actually quotes them this verse.

[39:01] And it's out of Psalm 110.1. And it's a psalm written by David. And in there, this is what it says. It says, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

[39:22] Now, it's kind of a funny way of saying, but what he's truly meaning there is, everyone knows in the Old Testament that David is talking about the Messiah.

[39:34] Okay? The Lord said to my Lord. And if you, when we read it in English, it would actually, it's two different words, but would David ever call someone who came after him the title Lord?

[39:54] In the Jewish culture, the understanding is the descendants are held in high esteem. You with me on this one? So the father would never call his son Lord. But what this messianic prophecy is stating is, David does call his descendant Lord.

[40:15] So Jesus simply asks this question, who is David referring to here? And he asks the question, what do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?

[40:28] And they have to say, the son of David. And who is the son of David? It's Jesus, right? Like that's what the title has been the whole time through the gospels.

[40:39] So if David then calls him Lord, how is he his son? That would mean he would have to come from the seed of David.

[40:52] And what do they respond? Right? There's no response. Now this leads to, let's look back at John again.

[41:05] So we've had these two incredible days and we haven't even finished the day. This is really just the morning of the first day. The day before, Jesus cleans out, the crowd is with him.

[41:20] He heals, the crowd is with him. He's teaching, the crowd is with him. The people who represent the religion of the day come against them and he handles all their challenges, right?

[41:35] And it's like you've got a hundred thousand people cheering for Jesus at this stage. And John 12, 42 says, nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Jews.

[41:59] Pharisees, they did not confess it, so they would not be put out of the synagogue. What he's saying is, some of the religious rulers believed in Jesus.

[42:13] They knew he was undeniably God. Undeniably God. So the question is, why would he not follow them?

[42:26] And when it says, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue, to be put out of the synagogue was social suicide. You lived only with Jews. Your whole life was around the synagogue.

[42:39] If you're put out, your family doesn't talk to you, your friends don't talk to you. You know, they lived in tribes, so the whole city is usually your cousin, your aunt, your uncles, second cousins, third cousins.

[42:49] And if you were put out, guess what? You're alone. So it's easier to say, I'm not going to say that Jesus is the Lord.

[43:04] But ultimately, John 12 says, the ultimate reason why they did not believe is for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

[43:23] Can anyone relate to that today? Do we not preach Jesus because we're afraid of what our friends might say at work? Do we not do the honest right thing when there's an ethical problem because we might have to give a defense and just say, no, I believe that's wrong.

[43:41] Hey, this is the way the business is done. It may be, but it's not how my Savior would do it. How many times do we avoid tough questions with our family members?

[43:59] Ultimately, the root problem that everyone has with Jesus, they ultimately fear man more than they fear God. Next week, we're going to conclude that final day and we're going to see what happens when Jesus really starts to get into their kitchen and starts to really start confronting them with who they really are.

[44:22] Let's pray. Father, sometimes it's so easy to judge those who came before us and ignoring who we are or how we have lived.

[44:40] how many times have we failed to testify of your truth for fear of man more than fear of God? How many times have we said we believe in Jesus but we did not believe Jesus?

[45:00] How many times have we said we love Jesus but we did not obey Jesus? today it isn't so much temple worship that we pursue but we pursue our self-worship.

[45:20] What makes us feel good? What makes us feel right? Even today we see this in our culture.

[45:32] No one pursues a religion of God anymore but they pursue the religion of man. There seems to be a pride in saying I'm for climate change or I'm for saving energy or saving the animals or and at the same time we ignore our fellow man.

[45:56] There's always been false religions since the very start. Satan uses them to take our worship off you oh Lord and put them on ourselves. Lord I pray that that would never be of us.

[46:13] Father we pray that you would reveal those areas of our lives where we seek man's glory more than we seek your glory. Maybe it's with the way we raise our kids.

[46:26] Maybe it's how we conduct ourselves at work. maybe it's how I just negotiate things with my wife or my husband. The one unequivocal truth that we can take away from the life of Christ is that Jesus was indeed the son of God.

[46:48] There is no doubt to it. but he comes with terms. Comes with the simple terms as follow me.

[47:04] Is that something that we're willing to do oh Lord? Are we willing to turn our backs on the world, our friends, our family, and all the things that we might hold in high esteem but you think very little of?

[47:19] Are we willing to choose the narrow road in order to be right with you rather than right with man? Are we willing to build our house on the rock rather than the sand where many people choose to build?

[47:40] Father, there's a storm out there and the waves cast people to and fro. Those who are unsure about you are the ones who are in the greatest of danger.

[47:54] But those of us who do call you Lord know that we are safe in the harbor. We are anchored on the rock. There is nothing that moves you.

[48:06] And all the while people may be crying out and yelling and screaming over their distress. We have no reason to do those things.

[48:19] Because scripture tells us that you hold us. That you have redeemed us. You have transferred us from the darkness into the light.

[48:33] And our sole responsibility is just to simply trust you in all things. peace. So Father as we go from this place this time of worship on this Canada Day weekend we do give you thanks for this country and the freedoms that it gives us that we may be able to meet and worship you.

[48:55] But we pray that we also have the freedom to speak to others and invite them to come and worship you also. That we have opportunities to shine the light into the darkness.

[49:05] to bring truth into the lies. And these truths all begin with you Jesus Christ. We thank you for who you are.

[49:17] The life that you lived. The death that you died. And the resurrection that you did do. We ask you these things in your most holy and precious name. Amen.

[49:27]  Amen.