Sunday Morning Service

Matthew 21:1-21 (Click title for audio access)

"Presenting: Your King!" • 12.12.10 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service

Intro.

- We are now in the final section of the book of Matthew. His book has set up for it's readers, the case that Jesus is the Messiah, the King of Israel.

- He has shown His credentials in every conceivable way, from His geneology, to His miracle working power. Israel has been presented with His principles and His promise.

- In this section before us, Jesus will literally present Himself to the heart of the nation, in the capital city of Israel, where the scrutiny would be the greatest.

- What is set before us is historically sobering. It is upon us to heed the warnings that might trap us as well.

Text

• Matthew 21:1-5 : "Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, 'Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.' All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: 'Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.’" : Jesus is moving directly toward the cross, thus beginning the final week of Christ's life, the passion week.

- He is making a bee line toward a cross, something that we know, but was a foreign thought in the minds of even His closest disciples.

- What we are about to look at is commonly referred to as the “Triumphal Entry.” It is Sunday. Passover will be in just a few days.

- The Mount of Olives is directly across from Jerusalem and Bethphage, meaning "house of the fig," was a small village on it in Christ's time.

- Christ's instruction to the disciples was direct and seemingly bizzare. They were to go over to an adjoining villiage, and begin untying a donkey and it's offspring.

- If nobody said anything, then somebody might just come out and find their donkey missing!

- If someone did ask, the reply was simply that the Lord had need of them and this would take care of things! This week, we're going to try a little experiment...

- We understand that Christ, when He came to Earth, emptied Himself of all divine attributes.

- He did not lean upon the omniscience that He had prior to His incarnation. That being said, it can be argued that no other man has ever lived who has not been as "tuned" to the Spirit as Christ!

- He had a word of knowledge regarding where His resource would come from.

- Whoever owned the animals would quickly acquiesce to the request. In this case, I would have loved to have heard about what the Lord had done in the Donkey's owner's heart.

- When God prepares the one side, He also prepares the other!

- This drama had been foretold by the Lord many years prior to this in the Zechariah 9:9. The Messiah was going to come into Jerusalem in this humble fashion.

- Going even further, Daniel 9 predicted the very day of Christ's entrance into Jerusalem!

- The fact that Jesus is riding on a donkey's colt is very telling. When a King came into an area on a donkey, He was coming, offering peace to the citizens.

- There is a sense of benevolence and an offer to reign cordially. Jesus is offering Himself as King. They could accept His reign and acknowledge Him as their King.

- In contrast, a King on a horse was a King who had conquered! Guess what Jesus will ride on the next time He comes to Jerusalem?

- This time, He rides in offering an opportunity to receive Him as King voluntarily. That is the same truth before us today. People today can make Jesus their King.

- He can reign in our hearts and we can spend our days learning to live under His gracious rule. For those who resist, there will come a time when there will be no other choice!

• Matthew 21:6,7 : "So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them." : Matthew doesn't tell us what happened. He tells us that they went and got the animals, but does not elaborate from there.

- Both Mark and Luke tell us that they went and were in fact confronted by the owners as they were untying the animals. When they told them the magic words, the owners immediately let them go.

- When they brought these animals, they took their outer cloaks and they laid them on the donkey. Jesus was then set upon their clothing.

• Matthew 21:8-11 : "And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: 'Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Hosanna in the highest!' And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, 'Who is this?' So the multitudes said, 'This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.'" : As Jesus began His ascent onto the mount of Jerusalem, the multitudes of people followed the example of the disciples.

- They took their clothes and placed them on the road before Christ. When clothes ran out, the people took palm frawns and laid them out so that His donkey's feet would not touch the ground.

- There was such reverance and hope as Jesus came into town. The multitudes raised up their voice in celebration of their Christ, the one that they had put their national hope in.

- Thye said, "Hosanna to the Son of David." The word "hosanna" means, "Save now!" They wanted His salvation to be manifested then and there, in that time!

- They imagined a political coup and the re-elevation of the fame of Jerusalem. Jesus was the Son, the direct descendant of David, the greatest of Israel's Kings after all!

- They cried out "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord" meaning, congratulations to the man that God is going to restore the Kingdom to.

- This was a quote from one of the Messianic Psalms, Psalm 118, which was sung on the way to Jerusalem and was being applied to Jesus.

- There was genuine excitement, but complete misunderstanding! These people wanted change. They wanted Jesus to overthrow the Romans.

- Far from their hearts and minds was Christ's true mission: To bridge the gap between a holy God and a wholly sinful nation.

- They were excited about the potential that Jesus had as a Savior of their making. This is not so different from what we see today.

- People come to Christ so that He can fix their lives. They come because they imagine a life with no problems. Whatever they believe about Christ, in many, their imagination drives them.

- When Jesus does not meet their expections, like these crowds, their words turn from worship and allegiance to something quite different

- Inside the city, the people who observe the multitude had a bit of a different reaction.

- The NKJV says that they were "moved." The NLT says that the whole city was stirred as He entered. The same word is used in other places to describe fear and an earthquake!

- The people stood in fear. They asked about Jesus. The multitudes said this was the Prophet from Nazareth. This was not the most impressive title, but it was accurate!

• Matthew 21:12,13 : "Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, 'It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.'" : Jesus, the Son of God, came into the temple and His eyes saw a gross sight. He saw merchandising and exploitation.

- While this is the first time that Matthew records this, it was not the first time that it had happened. At the beginning of Christ's ministry, He had cleansed the temple.

- Three years later and it had not changed fundamentally.

- Those who would have entered that holy place would have been bombarded with opportunistic, temple-approved salesmen, many of whom were related to priests.

- The scene would have been a nightmare for those who hate crowds. Hundreds of thousands of the people from all over Israel would form a single file line on the way up to Jerusalem.

- The main entrance would bring you into what is called the "Court Of The Gentiles." This was a large area, where anyone could be. It was a chaotic place to be.

- You had to deal first with your money. Common money with Roman images could not be used because it was defiled. The money changers gave you approved temple money.

- Most would travel a long distance to worship, so bringing an animal for sacrifice would have been out of the question. Most brought money to purchase "pre-approved" lamb.

- If you happened to bring your own lamb, it was a fair bet that it would be found to be not quite spotless enough. A temple lamb was sold to you at Amusement Park prices!

- One could imagine the atmosphere being loud and contentious. This sounds more like an open air market, with the sounds of thousands of people bartering and bickering!

- Jesus saw the corruption, exploitation and the merchandising of God's people and He would not have it! This is the passion of the Christ, who knows what God’s house is meant to be.

- What we see here from Jesus is the very heart of God toward His people.

- Here are His people, who desire to come to Him and bring their offering. Their heart's desire is to worship Him.

- God is so passionate about His people, He just wants to get those obstacles out of the way!

- This is what He thinks about sin and things that distract us from our walk with Him. He so badly wants to bless His people, that anything that would keep them from it, He wants out!

- I would wish that we had the same attitude. I pray that we wouldn't tolerate any attitude or distraction, that keeps us from God's very best.

- Sadly, men often turn houses of prayer into homes for thieves!

- Jesus quotes here from Jeremiah 7:11. In that chapter, Jeremiah indicts the people of God for their attitude when coming into the temple.

• Jeremiah 7:8-11 : “Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’? Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,’ says the Lord.”

- They have treated God with disrespect. His house was meant to be a place where prayer would take place. The religious leaders used the coming to His house as a pretense to rip people off!

- They set up and made prey out of the people of God and Jesus was not going to take it!

• Matthew 21:14-17 : "Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, 'Hosanna to the Son of David!' they were indignant and 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 babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?' Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there." : Jesus has cleansed the temple and now He begins to touch the people. The lame, the blind were all healed. These were "wonderful things" but not wonderful to the chief priests and scribes.

- The children were screaming out the truth. They had heard the crowd and listened to what was being said. Now, these children are loudly making proclamations, as kids do.

- The religious leaders were angry because in their eyes, this man, and He was only a man, was not stopping people from saying these blasphemous things in the temple.

- Jesus is doing what the Messiah would do, but He was a poor Nazarene. The religious leaders, predisposed to non-belief, will not let any proof change their hearts.

- It's amazing that this is still the case: The Lord does wonderful things in the lives of His people, but those who observe, refuse to believe!

• Matthew 21:18,19 : "Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, 'Let no fruit grow on you ever again.' Immediately the fig tree withered away." : Jesus is on His way back in, looking for a bite, when He comes to this fig tree.

- From a distance, this tree would have looked like a tree that would have been ripe for picking. Having come to it, there were no figs at all. It just looked like one.

- Jesus cursed this tree and it withered away. This is not a divine hunger induced tantrum.

- This is a spiritual illustration: Jesus has shown Himself to the people of Jerusalem.

- There was not a place on earth that had more privilege. They had the law. They had the greatest scholars, priests and scribes.

- As a result, they had a reputation all over the world as being the center of Judaism on earth. They had the reputation of being alive.

- When you walked the walk toward Jerusalem, one would believe the hype. The city was beautiful, the temple was lovely, but when their Messiah showed up, they rejected Him.

- The life that they looked like they had was merely an illusion. Jesus condemns this city by taking out this fig tree. There is another passage that we need to look at that sheds further light.

- Turn over to Luke 13. Jesus gives an enlightening parable.

• Luke 13:6-9 : "He also spoke this parable: 'A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.'"

- Jesus in cursing the fig tree, is telling the world that Jerusalem has had it. He had come and given them a chance to show fruit and they had not borne any.

- This tree, the nation of Israel was seeing the beginning of the end. This city was doomed to lose it's reputation. Soon, Christ's church would rise and become the center for Jesus worship.

• Matthew 21:20-22 : "And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, 'How did the fig tree wither away so soon?' So Jesus answered and said to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.'" : It's hard to imagine that the disciples could marvel at anything, but the fig tree was a dramatic presentation.

- Jesus said that the power was within them to see the same things done because of their connection with Him.

- They asked the wrong question in my mind, as they asked how, rather than why. The how refers to the faith that was active in them. Jesus was giving this to them.

- It would be their privilege to have the power to see the impossible happen.

- The power of faith can never be understated. Disciples who have a desire to follow the will of the Lord have promises that will show the greatest power.

- Today, that has not changed. You and I are conduits that others receive the life and testimony of Christ through.

- Christ's same power is alive in us, because He is alive in us! The religious system of Judaism has been rendered powerless by the Lord to affectively bring the life of God to people.

- That job has been given to you and me, the church! Therefore, we have this power.

Conclusion

- As we close, we do well to note the warning. Jerusalem had been given a wonderful privilege that they squandered. They missed their Messiah and do miss Him today.

- Their halls were like their lives, crowded with distractions and hollow pursuits that blinded them to the Lord's will in their lives.

- Even when Christ cleared things out, they just brought them back in, and formed a barricade to the nations, instead of forming a bridge to the Lord.

- Let us be wise with the life that we have. Let us ask the Lord to identify areas of distraction and loyalty that would keep Him from working through our lives, and allowing His power to flow.