So, starting in verse 1, we read,
Now when they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives,
then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them,
Go in the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her.
Untie them and bring them to me.
If anyone says anything to you, you shall say,
The Lord needs them, and he will send them at once.
This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophets, saying,
Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.
The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.
They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them.
Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road,
and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting,
Hosanna to the son of David.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
And when he entered Jerusalem,
the whole city was stirred up, saying,
Who is this?
And the crowd said,
This is a prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.
And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple.
And he overturned the table of the money changers
and the seats of those who sold pigeons.
And he said to them,
It is written,
My house shall be called a house of prayer,
but you made it a den of robbers.
And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple,
And he healed them.
But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did,
and the children crying out in the temple,
Hosanna to the son of David,
They were indignant.
And they said to him,
Do you hear what these are saying?
And Jesus said to them,
Yes.
Have you never read?
Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes,
you have prepared praise?
And leaving them,
He went out to the city of Bethany,
to Bethany and lodged there.
In the morning,
as he was returning to the city,
he became hungry.
And seeing a fig tree by the wayside,
he went to it and found nothing on it,
but only leaves.
And he said to it,
May no fruit ever come from you again.
And the tree withered at once.
When the disciples saw it,
they marveled,
saying,
How did the fig tree wither at once?
And Jesus answered them,
Truly, I said to you,
If you have faith and do not doubt,
you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree,
but even if you say to this mountain,
Be taken up and thrown into the sea,
it will happen.
And whatever you ask in prayer,
you will receive,
if you have faith.
This is the word of God.
Great.
Thank you, Florence.
Let's pray together briefly as we consider God's word to us this morning.
Heavenly Father,
Lord Jesus Christ,
Holy Spirit,
we come before you this morning,
we come to your word,
because we want you to speak to us.
God,
we have not come to hear the opinions of man,
we come to meet with you,
the living God,
in your living word.
And so God,
won't you speak to us this morning?
Won't you make the word come alive in our hearts?
Won't you open the eyes of our hearts to see you,
and to receive your grace,
and to respond as you want us to respond?
God,
we pray,
come and be in our midst.
In your gracious name,
Amen.
Yesterday morning,
our family was driving back from the library,
went to get some books,
and we drove past a delivery van
that said,
Nelson's Removals on the van.
And my daughter,
we come from South Africa,
if you don't know,
and my youngest daughter said,
I wonder if Nelson Mandela started that company.
And we had a bit of discussion,
and we determined that the facts were hard to determine exactly,
but in all likelihood,
Nelson Mandela probably didn't start
Nelson's Removals company
in Hong Kong.
But it got me thinking,
I wonder if Nelson Mandela
ever came to Hong Kong,
actually.
And a quick Google search answered that,
that he did.
He came in 1991,
soon after he was released from prison,
and he came to urge the Hong Kong government
not to release
the sanctions that they'd imposed on South Africa
because of apartheid.
And I thought about it,
I wonder when he came,
how was he received?
I mean,
on one hand,
he's this political prisoner,
he's just been in jail for 27 years,
but he's also actually a hero in many ways.
He was obviously going to become the next president.
You know,
did Hong Kong roll out the red carpet?
Did it have an inspecting of the soldiers,
or was it more low-key?
And then I wondered about it,
I wonder how many presidents and prime ministers
and kings and queens have visited Hong Kong.
Last year,
when the Queen of England passed away,
we all saw pictures of when she came to Hong Kong
many years ago.
And I wondered,
how do people,
how people receive
when kings and queens or royalty
come to Hong Kong?
This morning,
we're looking at Matthew 21,
and it tells us about Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem.
And when Jesus arrives in Jerusalem,
there's a mixed reception that he receives.
On the one hand,
there's joy and celebration,
there's singing of songs,
and there's dancing,
there are people cut down trees,
which is like the first century version of waving flags.
And on the other hand,
there's indignation.
Indignation means fury,
anger.
And so Jesus receives this mixed reception.
And so today,
we're going to look at this passage
in four kind of scenes,
the drama unfolds in four scenes.
The arrival of the King,
the passion of the King,
the warning of the King,
and then finally,
the call of the King.
Okay?
So let's dive into the first one,
the arrival of the King.
Back in Matthew 16,
Alan preached on it a couple of months ago,
I think July or August last year.
Jesus first tells his disciples
that he's going to go to Jerusalem,
he's going to encounter the chief priests
and the leaders,
he's going to be put to death and die.
And for the last five chapters,
Jesus has kind of been making his way
towards Jerusalem.
He's been on this road trip.
And finally,
the road trip comes to an end.
Jesus arrives.
And he arrives in Jerusalem.
But first,
he stops just outside,
about a kilometer or two away,
at this town called Bethphage,
or Bethphage.
And now,
to understand this,
you've got to remember,
what's happening at this time?
If you've read some of the other Gospels,
you might be aware,
this is one week before Passover.
This is a climax in the time of Israel's history.
But it also means,
it's one week before Jesus goes to the cross.
In the Christian calendar,
this is called Holy Week,
or Palm Sunday.
It's the Sunday before the Passover weekend,
and on Friday,
just five days out,
Jesus is going to the cross.
And we're going to spend the next ten weeks,
looking at the next five days of Jesus' life on earth,
before going to the cross,
as we make our way towards Easter.
But the other thing is,
at Passover,
Jerusalem would have been packed with people.
Jerusalem normally has,
somewhere around 50,000 people living in it,
at this time.
Over Passover week,
there's about 150 to 250,
some people even say,
half a million people in Jerusalem.
There are 100,000 people camping out in the fields,
just outside.
So Jerusalem is packed with people.
It is abuzz with activity,
and animals,
and all sorts of things going on.
And so Jesus is making his way towards Jerusalem,
and he comes to this town, Bethphage,
and he sends two of his disciples out ahead of him,
and he tells them to go into the village
and get these two donkeys, right?
A mother and her colt.
Now what's going on here?
I mean, is Jesus stealing this guy's wheels?
Right?
Is the model of the story,
Jesus king,
if you want something,
he doesn't ask,
he just takes your stuff?
No, that's not what's going on here.
Everything Jesus does in this passage
is absolutely deliberate and planned.
Nothing is by accident here.
Jesus has just made a 120 kilometer trip
from Galilee down to Jerusalem by foot.
He doesn't need a donkey
to carry him the last one kilometer in, okay?
His legs are good enough.
He's planned this.
And if you see,
he goes and he says,
just like you will with the Passover meal
later on in the week,
he says,
listen, just go and do this,
and if anybody asks you,
give them the code word.
Give them the secret word.
Just say,
oh, the Lord has need of them,
and he'll let you do this.
In all likelihood,
Jesus has prearranged this.
He's planned this somehow,
that this is going to happen.
And so his disciples go,
and all this happens,
and they bring back the donkeys to him.
Now,
why is Jesus doing this?
Well, the reason is
Jesus wants to say something,
and the reason is
he's revealing who he is.
You see, up until now,
in most of the gospels,
Jesus has kind of kept
his identity hidden, right?
Remember, he heals somebody,
and he says,
don't go tell anyone.
Just go to the priest,
offer the sacrifice,
but just keep this on the down low.
And he counts as a demon.
The demon says,
I know who you are.
You're the son of God.
And he says,
shh, don't,
just keep quiet.
And Jesus' brothers,
even say,
listen,
if you're the Messiah,
why don't you reveal yourself?
Let people know.
And he says,
my time has not yet come.
But something's changing
in the story here.
Jesus now is taking off the mask,
and he's revealing himself.
He's letting people know who he is.
And who is Jesus?
He's the promised king.
That's who he is.
He's the promised king.
Look at what Matthew says
about this incident.
Jesus did this with the donkeys.
Verse four,
this took place to fulfill
what was spoken by the prophet,
Zechariah,
rejoice greatly,
O daughter of Zion.
Shout aloud,
daughters of Jerusalem.
In other words,
throw a party.
Behold,
your king has come.
And Zechariah goes on to say,
righteous and having salvation
is he.
Jesus could have walked into Jerusalem
any way he wanted.
He could have walked in.
He could have kept him down low.
He's arranged this whole,
he's set it up
because he's letting people know,
I am the promised,
long-awaited king.
The one that the prophets
have spoken about
for years and years,
that your people have waited for
for thousands of years.
Here I am.
I am he.
And look at what the crowd say.
They're quoting Psalm 118.
They say,
Hosanna,
which means save us,
son of David.
What does son of David mean?
Remember in the Old Testament,
God says to David,
because you've honored me,
there will never be a time
when one of your descendants,
one of your sons,
does not sit on the throne.
In other words,
there will be a son
that comes from David
who will be the king
who rules forever and ever,
who establishes righteousness
and justice,
who brings salvation
to my people.
There will be a son of David,
a king forever.
And now,
the people are saying,
Hosanna,
save us,
son of David.
You're the king,
the long-awaited Messiah.
That's what Zechariah says.
Behold,
your king is coming to you,
righteous and having salvation
is he.
And so they're singing it.
Son of David,
save us.
And how does Jesus respond?
Jesus doesn't say,
oh,
no,
that's not me.
That's just,
you know,
no,
just humble.
Jesus receives it.
Look at verse 14,
I think,
verse 16.
It's happening again
in the temple.
The children are saying,
Hosanna,
son of David.
And the chief priests
are furious
because Jesus
doesn't keep them quiet.
He receives the praise.
And Jesus actually
says something very funny.
He says,
haven't you read your Bibles?
Which is funny
because these guys
were experts
in the Bibles,
right?
It's like saying
to Steve Jobs,
hey,
Steve Jobs,
have you heard
of this thing
called the iPhone?
It's this thing
that you should really,
you should look at it sometime.
Okay,
Jesus is the experts
of the Bibles.
Have you read your Bibles
lately?
And then he quotes
Psalm 8,
which says,
this is how people respond
when they encounter
the living God.
Jesus receives
their praise.
He's saying,
I'm the long-awaited king.
It's a hugely
provocative statement.
And for the first time,
Jesus in Matthew's gospel
he's blowing open
his cover.
He's revealing,
this is who I am.
He's not just a healer,
not just a miracle worker,
not just a rabbi,
not just someone
who cares for the marginalized
and the poor.
He's the promised king.
The one that Isaiah,
Jeremiah,
and Ezekiel,
Zechariah,
Micah,
Samuel,
Moses,
for thousands of years
have spoken about.
He's come to bring
righteousness and salvation
to save his people.
But here's the other thing
Jesus wants us to see.
He's not just the promised king.
He's the accessible king.
How do kings
and emperors
and royalty
normally arrive
in a city,
right?
They arrive with
pomp and ceremony.
The ceremony
is meant to
communicate
awe and majesty
that someone
great and high
and lofty
has arrived.
And so they bring out,
you know,
there's an inspection
of the gods
when a foreign leader
comes to a nation.
In the old days,
what would they say?
Make way for the king.
Make way.
Which means get out the way.
Prepare the way.
Maybe these days
would be a long motorcade.
Many vehicles
and the royalty
would be somewhere
in the middle
behind bulletproof glass
and they'd give
the royal wave
just letting people know
I'm there.
But not accessible.
Or maybe
if a king or a queen
wants to appear
more in touch
with the people,
they might go
and, you know,
shake hands
at the crowds
every now and then.
But there's a barricade.
There's bodyguards.
There's snipers
on the roof.
Just making you know
you don't get too close.
But what does Jesus do here?
Matthew goes out of his way
to show us that Jesus
in fulfillment
for Zechariah's prophecy
is nothing like that.
He says,
Behold,
your king is coming,
heaven and earth's true king,
humble and mounted
on a donkey,
on a colt,
the foal of a donkey.
Now the word humble here
doesn't mean
he thinks lowly of himself.
We sometimes think
humility means
you mustn't think
anything good of yourself,
right?
So you have a baby
and someone says,
Oh, your baby's so beautiful.
And what do we say?
No, no, no.
She's actually quite ugly,
right?
We don't want our baby
to become proud, right?
We don't want them
to be humble.
No, no, Jesus,
that's not what it means.
Sometimes we think
humility means
meek or timid.
But look at what Jesus does next.
He goes into the temple.
He's quite ruthless.
Humble here
means not high and lofty,
not too exalted,
not out of touch.
He's accessible.
He's real.
He's near.
But look what happens here.
The people in the streets,
they can throw their cloaks
on the donkey
and Jesus gets on top of them.
That's how close they get.
Yeah, yeah, Jesus,
take my jacket.
They're right there.
Jesus is so accessible.
He's not like Judas Maccabeus
who 150 years earlier
rode into Jerusalem
on a war horse
to revolutionize
and to bring back Jerusalem
from the Greeks
that had desecrated it.
No, he's not like that.
He comes on a humble donkey.
Psalm 34 says,
The Lord is near
to the brokenhearted.
He's humble.
He's near to her.
And as I thought about this week,
I found myself
so grateful
for Jesus' humility,
His accessibility.
You know,
you might not know this.
I often feel
very weak
and incapable.
I felt like that this week.
I just felt like
a mess.
I felt like,
okay, God,
you've made a mistake.
You know,
I can't do this.
Just so incapable
and weak.
And friends,
I'm so grateful
that Jesus
doesn't only accept
those that are strong
and have it all together.
He comes for the incapable.
He comes for the weak.
He comes for those
that feel unworthy.
Jesus says,
I'm accessible.
I'm not high and lofty.
I'm not in the distance.
I've come for you.
Friends,
you feel weak
and incapable today?
You feel like
you don't have it all together?
You feel like,
oh, you know,
why would Jesus care for me?
No, He came for you.
He came for us.
Jesus, the humble King.
Now, what does this mean?
Well, two things
I think it means.
It means many things.
But the humility of Jesus
means it's easy
to misjudge Jesus.
It's easy to write Him off
because He doesn't
match our expectations, right?
Sometimes you look at Jesus
and you say,
really?
The creator
of the whole universe,
heaven, earth,
true King,
the one before whom
all people are going
to bow down
and worship?
Really?
This carpenter
from Galilee?
I mean,
He's not that impressive.
Okay,
He said some wise things.
But friends,
don't let His ordinarilyness,
don't let His humility
deceive you.
No,
Jesus is the King.
He's heaven,
earth's true King.
Don't overlook Jesus
just because He doesn't
look impressive
or what we might
expect Him to be.
But here's the second thing.
The fulfillment
of the Old Testament prophecies
means Jesus really is
who He said He was.
You know,
Jesus fulfills something
like over 300
Old Testament prophecies,
300 predictions
of what the Messiah
would be like.
And many of them,
He had no control over
in some ways.
Things like where
He would be born,
how He would be born,
the circumstances
around which He would be born
and which He would die.
These are things
that no human being
can manufacture,
and yet Jesus
fulfills them all.
You know what that means?
He really is
who He said He was.
Jesus wasn't a charlatan
that came and acted the part.
No, He's the long-awaited King,
the one that for thousands
of years
the people of God
have waited for.
Jesus is who He said He is.
Friends,
if you're skeptical
about Jesus,
just look at the evidence.
Look at the hundreds
of prophecies
He's fulfilled,
uniquely fulfilled in Jesus.
He's the promised King.
So Jesus is taking off the mask
and He's saying,
this is who I am.
I'm the promised King,
the arrival of the King.
Secondly,
the passion of the King.
Now look at what Jesus does
when He goes into Jerusalem.
He goes to Jerusalem,
and where does He go?
He goes to the temple.
Now,
the temple served many purposes
in the nation of Israel,
but the main purpose,
of course,
is to be the place
where worship takes place.
It's the center of Jerusalem.
It's the center of Israel,
and the reason is
because worship
is the center
of the nation of Israel.
The nation of Israel
are not just
an ethnic group.
They're not just
a political group
or geographic entity.
They are,
what defines
the nation of Israel,
they are people
who worship
the one true God.
And all this happens
in the temple.
And so,
the temple is the place
where people come
to encounter God.
It's where they freshly
center their lives
on God
and worship and prayer.
It's the place
where they can leave
their burdens
and their guilt
and their shame.
They come to the temple
feeling downcast,
and they leave
feeling a sense of,
God is with me.
The temple is the place
where they can encounter
God's grace
because sacrifices
are made.
And so,
in a word,
it's where they find grace.
But what has happened
to the temple
in this day?
It's become
the IFC Mall,
right?
It's become
Temple Street
Night Market.
There is hustle
and bustle
and there's trading
and there's commerce
and there's transactions
and there's payment
and there's animals.
And so,
rather than a place
of worship
and prayer,
it's become
a place of commerce
and payments
and transactions.
And one of the main reasons
for this,
at this time,
it's Passover week.
And so,
there are hundreds
and thousands of people
that have come
to offer sacrifices
and to bring
their offerings
to the temple.
But the temple
only accepts
a very certain
kind of coin.
It didn't receive,
didn't accept
most of the Roman coins
like a denarius.
It only received
the Tyrian coin.
And that was only
really used
in Jerusalem.
So,
if you come from Galilee
and you want to bring
your offering
to the temple,
you've got to exchange
your coins
for the temple coin.
And what kind
of exchange rate
do you think
was being offered
right there
at the heart
of the temple?
Not a very good one.
They're all getting
ripped off.
And if you want
to bring your animal,
your sheep,
and to offer
a sacrifice to God
because it's Passover
weekend,
if you come to the temple,
rather than carrying
little lamby
on your shoulders
for, you know,
200 kilometers,
what do you do?
You bring some gold coins
and when you come
to the temple,
you buy an animal
that you can offer
as a sacrifice.
And what do you think
the price of those animals
were at the temple
over Passover
weekend?
Sky high, right?
So what's happening here?
People are coming
to bring worship
and offering to God
and they're getting
completely ripped off.
In fact,
we know from
the history books
that Caiaphas,
the high priest,
moved the marketplace
from outside
of the temple
into the temple district,
into the court
of the Gentiles
and he was handsomely
rewarded for it.
He got a cut
for that move.
So the temple,
rather than this place
of worship
and prayer
and grace
and encountering God
as this place
of transaction,
of trade,
but it becomes
a place
of ripping off people.
And so,
what does Jesus do
when he comes
into the temple?
He's angry.
Jesus lets us
see a side of him
that we seldom
hear about
in the scriptures,
but he's not ashamed
to tell us about.
Before Jesus
has taken off
the mask
and revealed
he's the long-awaited king,
here Jesus
takes off the mask
and he lets them
see what he thinks
of their false worship
and their hypocrisy.
And what does he think?
He's mad.
He's mad, right?
Jesus takes their tables
where all this is happening
and he flips them open.
He takes the furniture
and he throws it out.
Jesus chases out those
that are buying
and selling animals.
I'm not sure
if your Bible says this.
My Bible calls this
Jesus cleanses the temple,
which is an unusual phrase
because he doesn't
clean it up at all.
He makes a big mess,
right?
And the temple's
more of a mess
after Jesus arrives
than when he arrives.
And so,
what's going on here?
Why does Jesus do this?
Is Jesus just having
a temper tantrum?
Has he lost his way?
No,
all this is prearranged.
Jesus is very careful
about what he's doing here.
This is a carefully
enacted parable.
What's Jesus doing?
I think Jesus
is doing two things.
One,
he's condemning
the corruption
and the injustice
that's happening.
He's saying,
this is how I feel
about your corrupt practices.
Look at verse 12 with me
if you've got that
in front of you.
The sealers,
of which animals
does it mention here
in verse 12?
He goes into the temple,
he drives out those
that sold and bought animals,
he overturns the tables
or the money changers
and the seats of those
who sold what animal?
The pigeons.
Why the pigeons?
I mean,
there's lots of animals there.
There's sheep,
there's goats,
there's lambs.
Why does Matthew
talk about the pigeons?
Well,
the reason is
because if you've read
Leviticus,
why are pigeons
brought to the temple?
If you're poor
and you can't afford
a lamb or a goat,
you can offer a pigeon,
right?
Do you remember
Luke chapter 2,
Jesus' parents
come and what do they do?
They offer pigeons
to the sacrifice
when Jesus is born
because they are
unwealthy,
they are poor
and marginalized.
What's Matthew
telling us here?
He's not telling us
that Jesus
got a soft spot
for pigeons.
He's telling us
that it's the marginalized
and the poor
that Jesus
really went after.
He's highlighting that
because he's highlighting
the injustice
that's going on.
Rather than
being a place
where worship
and praise
and prayer can happen,
this whole temple
has been turned
into a place
where the weak,
the strong are eating
the weak,
the powerful
are taking advantage
of the poor
and the marginalized
and Jesus
isn't sensed by it.
And so look at
what happens
in verse 13.
Jesus says,
it is written,
my house
should be called
a house of prayer
but you've made it
a den of robbers.
It's an explosive
quotation
that Jesus
quotes there
partly from Isaiah 56
but it actually
mainly comes from
Jeremiah chapter 7
and Jeremiah chapter 7
is an explosive
condemnation
on Israel
and what's happening
at the temple
because the people
are living
however they want.
They've got no regard
for God
or people.
They don't love God.
They don't love others
and they're using
and abusing
the temple
and they're running
there thinking,
oh, if we come to the temple
we will be safe.
And so listen to
Jeremiah chapter 7.
I'm going to read
the whole thing.
It's quite long
but listen up.
Stand in the,
sorry,
let me start
from verse 1.
The word of the Lord
that came
to Jeremiah.
Stand in the gate
of the Lord's house
and proclaim there
this word
and say,
hear the word of the Lord
you people of Judah
all you who enter
the gates
to worship the Lord.
Thus says the Lord
of hosts,
the God of Israel,
amend your ways
and your deeds
and I will let you live.
Do not trust
these deceptive words.
This is the temple
of the Lord.
The temple
of the Lord.
The temple
of the Lord.
For if you truly
amend your ways
and your deeds,
if you truly
execute justice
with one another,
if you do not
oppress the sojourner,
that means the refugee,
the fatherless
or the widow
or shed innocent blood
in this place
and if you do not
go to other gods
to your own harm,
then I will let you live
in the land
that I gave
to your fathers.
Behold,
you trust
in deceptive words
to no avail.
Will you continue
to steal,
murder,
commit adultery
and swear falsely,
make offerings
to Baal
and to go after
other gods
that you have not known
and then quickly
come and run
and stand in the temple
in my house
which is called
by my name
and say,
we are safe.
We are in the temple
of the Lord
only to go on
doing these abominations.
Has my house,
has this house
which is called
by my name
become a den
of robbers
in your eyes.
See what Jesus
is saying?
He's saying,
this is you,
O chief priests.
You've turned
this temple
into a den
of robbers
and just because
it has Yahweh
written on top
you think you're safe
here
and there's judgment
coming your way.
the passion
of the king.
What is anger?
Anger
is in some ways
in motion
but experts tell us
it's more than emotion.
It reveals
what we love the most,
what we're most
passionate about.
There's a righteous anger
that reveals
what we love the most.
Jesus is revealing
what he loves the most,
the honor of God's name.
And friends,
maybe you here today
and you think of religion
as something oppressive,
restrictive.
Something that's been
a cause of so much
evil in the world.
Maybe you're not
a Christian here today
and you've met Christians
and they're so hypocritical
and you think
these are religious people.
So it would be better
just to get rid
of all religions.
Friends,
in some ways
can you see how Jesus
agrees with your sentiment?
That a religion
gone wrong
can cause so much evil,
so much pain.
It can be such a hypocrisy.
And you see
what incenses Jesus here?
Jesus is declaring
a scathing judgment
on the temple
because there's no
longer a place
where people worship
and find grace.
It's a place
of oppression,
of classism.
The strong eat the weak
and the rich abuse the poor.
And Jesus issues
his severe judgments.
And so look at
verse 14 with me.
Who does Jesus welcome?
Who comes to him?
It's the blind
and the lame.
And verse 15,
who is it?
It's the children.
The very people
that are excluded
from the temple.
That the leader said,
you've got no place here.
Go clean yourself up
before you come.
Jesus says,
you can come to me.
You can come to me.
And so that gives us a clue
to the second thing
that Jesus is doing here.
What's going on here?
Jesus is announcing
a cataclysmic change
in the history of the world.
There's something
that Jesus is about to do
that's going to change
the temple forever.
What is it that Jesus
is about to do?
He's about to go
to the cross, right?
Five days time,
Jesus is going to hang
on the cross.
And what is going to happen
is Jesus breathes his last.
He's going to say,
it is finished.
And when Jesus hangs
on the cross
for the sins of the world
and says,
it is finished,
what's going to happen
in the temple?
The curtain is going
to be torn in two.
You know what's happening there?
In just five days time,
Jesus is going to render
the entire temple system
obsolete.
Because in five days time,
the true Lamb of God,
the true sacrifice,
Jesus is going to offer himself up
as a sacrifice
to end all sacrifices.
Never again
will another Lamb
need to be sacrificed
or slaughtered.
Never again
will another pigeon
need to be offered.
In just a few days time,
Jesus is going to make
an end to the temple
because Jesus Christ
is going to offer himself up
as the sacrifice
to end all sacrifices.
No more coming to temple
with the right currency.
No more sacrifices.
No more animals
needing to die.
Look at verse 12
in our passage today.
Jesus,
interestingly enough,
he drives out those
who sold animals.
Okay,
they corrupt the injustice,
but also those
who buy animals.
Why does Jesus
drive out those
that are buying
and those that are selling?
Because he's saying,
you'll never need
to buy another animal again.
Go and take your money
and go and have a big meal
with your family.
The Passover Lamb
to end all Passovers
has come.
Jesus is changing
the entire system.
Jesus doesn't just go
and kick out
the unjust,
corrupt officials
and install
his own management.
He doesn't say,
okay, disciples,
Peter, James, and John,
you guys run the temple.
No, he upends
the whole system.
Jesus is serving notice
on the whole temple
and saying,
your time has come
because there's
a new temple.
It's my body.
And if you will come
to me,
you will receive
everything that
for thousands of years
people have come
to the temple
to receive.
The book of Hebrews,
the writer writes this,
every priest stands
daily at his service
offering repeatedly
the same sacrifices
that can never
take away sin.
But when Christ Jesus
offered for all times
a single sacrifice,
what is the sacrifice?
Himself on the cross.
For sins,
he sat down
at the right hand of God.
His work was done.
He sat down.
For by a single offering,
he has perfected
for all things.
What's happening here?
Friends,
the curtain has been torn.
The way is open.
In 70 AD,
the Romans marched
into the temple.
They desecrated it.
They destroyed it.
But it meant nothing
because 40 years earlier,
the temple had been
rendered inconsequential
because Jesus had died
and rose again,
the true Lamb of God.
Friends,
isn't it amazing
that you don't need
to go to a temple?
You don't need
to go to a priest?
You don't need to go
to a confession booth anymore.
Friends,
this week,
every one of us
are going to do
something foolish.
Every one of us
are going to sin.
Every one of us
is going to live
for our own glory
or believe the lie
and follow some idol.
And when you do,
how are you going
to find atonement
and forgiveness?
You don't need
to go to the temple.
You don't need
to go to the priest.
You don't need
to go to Jerusalem.
You just need
to go to Jesus.
You go to Jesus
in confession
and repentance
and humility.
Jesus,
the Lamb of God
that has taken away
the sin of the world.
The arrival of the King,
the passion of the King.
You could say
the sacrifice of the King.
Next,
the warning of the King.
Now,
the last two are very quick.
We're almost done.
Look at what happens
in verse 18.
In the morning,
verse 18,
as he was returning
to the city,
Jesus became hungry.
And seeing a fig tree
in the distance
in the wayside,
he went up to it
and he found nothing on it,
no fruit on it,
only leaves.
And he said to it,
may no fruit
ever come from you again.
And the fig tree
withered at once.
Now,
what is Jesus doing here,
right?
Is Jesus just hangry?
You know,
hangry is when you're angry
because you're hungry.
Is Jesus grumpy
because he's,
you know,
there's no food
and the fig tree
promised so much
and now there's no food
and now he's just grumpy
so he just unleashes his anger.
Is Jesus against plants
and figs?
No,
no,
not at all.
Jesus is,
for the third time,
enacting a parable.
And what he's doing is this.
He's saying,
the fig tree
is a picture
of the temple.
It looks all shiny
on the outside.
There's green leaves.
It looks like it's full of life.
There's hustle
and bustle and activity.
But you look under the leaves
and there's nothing there.
And Jesus is showing
what the temple
and Judaism
has become like.
Shiny on the outside
but nothing inside.
And so,
he issues
a curse in it.
And he says,
your time is done.
Your time is done.
Friends,
you remember Jesus' words
to the church of Sardis
in Revelation?
He says,
I know your works.
You have the reputation
of being alive
but in fact,
you're dead.
And so he says,
you better repent
or I'll just come
and close you down.
Or as the words of Jeremiah say,
return and amend your ways.
And that's what's happened here.
Israel's meant to be
a light to the nations.
They're meant to be
a doorway,
a billboard of grace
to show people
this is what God is like.
Come and receive grace
and mercy.
And rather than being
a billboard of grace,
they're pushing people away.
They're repelling people.
They're telling the blind
and the lame
and the weak
and sinners
and tax collectors
and people like you and I,
you've got no place here.
Only the strong
and the capable
and those that have
got it together.
And Jesus says,
you look shiny
on the outside
but inside you are dead.
Nothing left.
Friends,
Jesus comes
and he looks underneath
the shiny looking leaves
of our lives.
The stuff that outside
looks so impressive
and he says,
what's the real fruit?
Do you love Jesus?
Do you love God?
Do you love people?
Or is our faith like Israel,
like the temple?
Nothing there.
The warning of the king.
Now as we come to a close,
I want us to see
not just who Jesus is,
the promised king,
the humble king,
the passionate king,
I want us to see
the invitation of the king
or the call of the king.
In other words,
how does Matthew
want us to respond?
How does Jesus
want us to respond?
I think there's
a couple of responses.
Let me give us
three responses.
The first response,
we could respond
like the chief priests,
right?
Anger and indignation.
We could respond
and say,
Jesus,
who do you think you are?
Or maybe you say,
Kevin,
who do you think you are?
You're just some
uneducated guy from Africa
and you're telling me
I need to repent
and get on my knees
before the king?
Who do you think you are?
Friends,
you could respond
like the chief priests.
Anger and indignation.
But I must warn you,
2,000 years later,
nobody knows who they are.
They are dead
and in the grave
and there's nothing
that exists,
nothing left of them.
And 2,000 years later,
Jesus is still worshipped
as king.
And 100 million years
from now,
Jesus will still be worshipped
as king
and there will be
nothing left of you.
So it's not a very good bet.
But that's one option,
anger and indignation.
The second option,
we could respond
like the crowds
that say,
Hosanna,
save us,
son of David.
It's a great prayer to pray,
save us,
get on your knees.
It's a good prayer to pray,
except,
what happens to crowds
just a few chapters later?
In Matthew 27,
do you know what happens
to crowds?
They're shouting something else.
Crucify him.
See,
Pontius Pilate says,
here's Barabbas,
here's Jesus,
who should I release?
And the crowds say,
Barabbas.
And they say,
what should I do with Jesus?
Crucify him.
And Pilate says,
why?
What has he done wrong?
And they say,
doesn't matter,
just crucify him.
You see,
the crowds want a Messiah
to save them,
but they want a political Messiah.
They want a Messiah
that's going to save them
from the Romans.
They want a Messiah
that's going to come
and make their life
comfortable and better.
They don't want a Messiah
who's going to tell them
to get on their knees
and to repent
and to honor him as king.
They don't want a Messiah
who's going to be Lord.
And so when Jesus comes
and says,
I am heaven and earth,
true king,
they cry out,
crucify him.
Friends,
I think there's a third response.
And it's the very last line
we see in our verse,
in our passages today.
Jesus calls us
to come to him in faith.
In faith.
He says,
come and trust me.
Come with open hands
and say,
Jesus,
have your way in my life.
You are the king,
I am not.
Have your way.
And you know where we see this
in the story?
There's one little person
that's very obscure.
In fact,
we don't even know his name.
We don't even meet him.
Maybe her.
The owner of the donkeys.
Jesus sends his disciples ahead
and he says,
the Lord has need of them.
Hand over your donkeys.
And Jesus doesn't really need them,
right?
He's Jesus.
He could do anything.
And what does the owner
of the donkeys say?
Here they are,
have your way.
Everything that belongs to me
is yours.
Friends,
Jesus comes to us this morning
and he says,
I want your life.
I want your heart.
I want you to hand over your life.
Jesus doesn't need our life.
He's Jesus.
He doesn't need anything from us.
But he knows
it's the only way
that we're going to find life.
And ironically,
if we try to hold on to our lives
and say,
no,
I want to keep it,
actually,
we lose our lives.
We die.
But if we stand with Jesus
and say,
Jesus,
have your way.
Open it.
Everything you want
belongs to you.
Christ,
come and have your way
in my life.
You know what we find?
We find we get life.
We stay alive.
Jesus gives us his life.
Friends,
Jesus comes to us this morning
and says,
will you trust me?
Will you have faith?
Will you hand over your life to me?
And when you do that,
you will experience me
as heaven and earth's true king.
You experience me
as your savior,
as your Lord.
But I'll give you life
and life in abundance.
Let's come to this king now together.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus,
we do come before you this morning
and we get on our knees,
Lord.
We bow down before you,
heaven and earth's true king.
Father,
we confess that God so often
we want to hold on to
the reins of our lives.
We want to be our king
and Lord and master
and yet all of our lives
testify, God,
that is the way
to death and destruction.
Jesus,
won't you give us faith?
Won't you help us
not to be like the chief priests
that shake our fists at you?
Help us not to be like the crowds
that praise you
but are fickle.
Help us, God,
to be like simple disciples.
Our names may never be in lights,
never written in the scriptures,
but we'll have our names
written in Lamb's book of life
because we have found true life.
Because Jesus,
you've come to give us life.
Christ,
I pray for those of us this morning
that are not Christians.
Won't you come and help us
to bow down the knee before you?
To hand over our lives to you?
To surrender to you as king?
But God,
for all of us,
whether we've never become Christians
or we've been Christians
for 50 years,
Jesus,
come and have your way in our life.
We get on our knees before you,
king.
Have your way.
This week,
this day,
this year,
Jesus,
have your way.
We pray this
in your name.
Amen.