back to indexPassion week - Monday
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giving God the first fruits of their morning. 00:00:10.620 |
I'll be covering the events of Jesus's day on Monday 00:00:15.040 |
of the Passion Week, and let us begin by reading 00:00:29.400 |
I'll give you a little time to find the passage. 00:00:34.160 |
Okay, so I'll go ahead and read and just follow along. 00:00:41.160 |
On the following day, when they came from Bethany, 00:00:54.060 |
When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, 00:01:06.280 |
And they came to Jerusalem, and he entered the temple 00:01:15.040 |
And he overturned the tables of the money changers 00:01:17.960 |
and the seats of those who were sold pigeons. 00:01:20.960 |
And he would not allow anyone to carry anything 00:01:36.480 |
And the chief priests and the scribes heard it 00:01:46.600 |
And when evening came, they went out of the city. 00:01:54.480 |
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you Lord for this morning. 00:02:00.840 |
We thank you for everyone who is gathered here, Lord God. 00:02:09.340 |
is so important in our own Christian walk, Lord God, 00:02:12.960 |
because what it stands for, that the son of God 00:02:24.480 |
Lived among us, Lord, so lovingly and sacrificially. 00:02:27.840 |
And eventually died on the cross for our sake. 00:02:33.920 |
Those you came for rejected you, and you sacrificed. 00:02:43.160 |
and your passage, Father, your word in the events 00:02:46.760 |
of this week is powerful in themselves, Father. 00:02:50.320 |
And I pray that we would put it into proper context 00:02:53.440 |
of importance in their lives, and that you would 00:02:59.920 |
meditating on your word and what you did on Monday. 00:03:03.560 |
That you would continue it on through the day, 00:03:08.520 |
so that we can remember what Christ has done. 00:03:12.280 |
We could remember all that we have received in Christ, 00:03:17.200 |
and we could rejoice for what we have in Christ, 00:03:23.000 |
We thank you, pray all this in Jesus' name, amen. 00:03:26.120 |
Okay, so let me set the stage for events of Monday. 00:03:32.120 |
It is morning time, Jesus is walking towards Jerusalem 00:03:36.640 |
from Bethany, and Bethany was Jesus' base station. 00:03:47.880 |
Pastor Peter mentioned yesterday that over a million 00:03:53.640 |
was very crowded, so even if the Jesus and disciples 00:03:58.640 |
wanted to find housing there, probably there was 00:04:48.080 |
are coming from Bethany, and Jesus sees a fig tree, 00:04:52.040 |
and a strange thing happens, and in Mark's account, 00:05:00.400 |
and seeing in the distance a fig tree and leaf, 00:05:04.560 |
he went to see if he could find anything on it. 00:05:07.680 |
When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, 00:05:10.680 |
for it was not the season for figs, and he said to it, 00:05:20.280 |
In Matthew 21, 19, it says the fig tree withered at once. 00:05:29.400 |
the tree may have died at once, but in Mark's account, 00:05:33.040 |
11, 14, suggests that the withering and the visible 00:05:36.800 |
image of the withering actually happened the next day, 00:05:40.520 |
so we see that as they were coming back on Tuesday 00:05:43.960 |
to Jerusalem, the disciples saw the withered tree. 00:05:47.160 |
Often, the Old Testament refers to the nation of Israel 00:05:51.480 |
as a fig tree, so we see that Jesus pronounces judgment 00:05:55.920 |
upon the fig tree, and says, may no one ever eat fruit 00:06:00.840 |
The withering of the tree is a foreshadow of the judgment 00:06:10.520 |
The Romans came and completely destroyed Israel. 00:06:15.300 |
As from time of AD 70, there was no nation of Israel, 00:06:20.180 |
and all the genealogy that dates back to who is from 00:06:27.700 |
and all that was destroyed, 'cause they completely 00:06:31.340 |
destroyed it, they took it away, and they took captive 00:06:35.320 |
the Israelites, so we see the pronouncement of the judgment, 00:06:38.940 |
and we see that this judgment that is pronounced, 00:06:47.100 |
this was symbolic of what was gonna happen to Israel, 00:06:53.460 |
Jesus' heart was very heavy, and we know that 00:06:56.500 |
because in Luke's account in chapter 13, 41 to 44, 00:07:08.440 |
he wept over it, saying, "Would that you, even you, 00:07:12.200 |
"had known on this day the things that make for peace, 00:07:19.000 |
"for the days will come upon you when your enemies 00:07:21.540 |
"will set up a barricade around you, and surround you, 00:07:32.140 |
"and they will not leave one stone upon another in you, 00:07:35.220 |
"because you did not know the time of your visitation." 00:07:43.880 |
he was weeping inside because he foreshadowed 00:07:48.880 |
So Jesus pronounces this curse upon the fig tree, 00:07:55.840 |
enter the city of Jerusalem, and Jesus enters the temple, 00:08:05.720 |
And this is what Mark says, "And they came to Jerusalem, 00:08:08.860 |
"and he entered the temple, and began to drive out 00:08:11.660 |
"those who sold, and those who bought in the temple, 00:08:14.880 |
"and he overturned the tables of the money changers, 00:08:20.200 |
"And he was teaching them, and saying to them, 00:08:31.440 |
First, I don't see a man who is out of control with anger. 00:08:44.300 |
but I also see one who's perfectly in control 00:08:56.260 |
that Jesus was teaching them and quoting scripture. 00:09:04.000 |
So I believe Jesus was trying to open up their eyes 00:09:09.220 |
It should have been a house of prayer for all nations, 00:09:27.400 |
In Genesis 12, God makes a promise to Abraham, 00:09:35.840 |
"and I'm gonna bless all nations through you." 00:09:38.840 |
Other passages in the Old Testament reiterate this, 00:09:54.060 |
So what was happening is you have the court of Gentiles, 00:10:05.520 |
where the Gentiles could come and pray and worship God 00:10:25.080 |
So if you brought the sacrifice from outside of the temple 00:10:31.740 |
what was going on, then the priest would not accept it. 00:10:44.500 |
because that's the only place that you could buy a sacrifice 00:10:51.620 |
So Jesus says that they had turned the temple 00:11:03.540 |
I believe the state of the temple was indicative 00:11:07.500 |
of what was happening to the nation of Israel. 00:11:10.320 |
They had lost their way and have gone so far from God 00:11:17.960 |
but instead it was a place people stayed away from, 00:11:34.280 |
when the gospels begin telling the gospel story, 00:11:42.640 |
Jerusalem and Judea, going out to the wilderness 00:11:55.800 |
So this is what, I'll read from Mark 1, 4 to 5 about this. 00:12:06.640 |
And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem 00:12:11.960 |
by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 00:12:20.280 |
to John the Baptist for the sake of repenting. 00:12:28.760 |
Where are you supposed to go to find atonement 00:12:34.520 |
If you ask for forgiveness, where are you supposed to go? 00:12:38.160 |
I'm thinking they're supposed to go to the temple, 00:12:43.720 |
you see them in droves going out to John the Baptist 00:12:49.280 |
Why would they go there when you have a nice temple, 00:12:53.960 |
great temple, temple of, you know, Herod's Temple, 00:12:58.580 |
but instead they choose to go out to the wilderness. 00:13:01.280 |
And I don't know about you, when I think about wilderness, 00:13:07.520 |
of the nation of Israel when they were wandering 00:13:12.520 |
in the desert in the wilderness for 40 years. 00:13:15.360 |
Another imagery that is spoken of in the wilderness, 00:13:19.880 |
it talks about in the day of atonement, right? 00:13:22.720 |
The high priest would make sacrifice of a bull 00:13:26.320 |
for his own sin, put the blood on the mercy seat 00:13:31.320 |
and cleanses it, and then they have two goats. 00:13:34.920 |
And of the two goats, they would go ahead and do lots 00:13:43.280 |
and which one will be the goat that is sent out, 00:13:58.080 |
where the sins of Israel is placed on this goat 00:14:09.480 |
But instead, we still see them going in droves 00:14:12.120 |
to John the Baptist instead of going to the temple. 00:14:15.400 |
So you see that there was something not right. 00:14:27.760 |
Instead of the temple, they were going out to the desert, 00:14:33.720 |
So we see a sick temple, a temple that lost its purpose. 00:14:44.400 |
on what happened this morning, what happened on Monday, 00:14:50.440 |
We see, first, we see the cursing of the fig tree, 00:14:58.320 |
Then we see the temple that was to be a place of prayer 00:15:01.440 |
for all nations, but it become a corrupt marketplace. 00:15:05.920 |
So we further see the people not going to the temple, 00:15:09.160 |
but away from it into wilderness to find forgiveness. 00:15:13.280 |
The nation of Israel had become so much like the world 00:15:16.560 |
that there was no distinction such that it became no more. 00:15:20.920 |
So the purpose of the nation of Israel was to glorify God. 00:15:24.600 |
The purpose of the temple was to house the presence of God. 00:15:28.120 |
But we see both the temple and the nation of Israel 00:15:42.280 |
let's all turn to Hebrews chapter 13, verse 12 to 14, 00:16:07.480 |
in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 00:16:24.320 |
This morning, let us examine our heart and our lives. 00:16:32.280 |
outside our comfort zone, and go to him outside the camp? 00:16:39.600 |
in Hebrews it's all about the supremacy of Christ. 00:16:44.760 |
He is greater than the Old Testament sacrificial system. 00:16:51.240 |
He is greater than all things, the supremacy of Christ. 00:16:56.000 |
And in chapter 13, the Hebrew writer is challenging us, 00:17:03.480 |
to the wilderness to seek repentance in John the Baptist. 00:17:11.640 |
outside the city, and he was crucified there. 00:17:25.020 |
So the call to that is for us to go to a place 00:17:28.880 |
that is not comfortable, that has persecution, 00:17:37.080 |
So as we meditate this week, I mean, this week, 00:17:40.520 |
people just talk, I mean, it's just in the air about Easter. 00:17:56.100 |
So it is uncomfortable sometimes to bring up a topic 00:18:05.780 |
And the call for us is that, to go outside the camp 00:18:10.120 |
and do the things that are sometimes uncomfortable. 00:18:31.140 |
his mercy and grace, and that we share that with others. 00:18:36.880 |
Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you, Lord God. 00:19:00.140 |
And you said where we are gathered together in a group 00:19:02.940 |
where two or three are gathered, that you are there. 00:19:05.300 |
So we know, Father, there is power in the gathering, Lord. 00:19:10.120 |
I pray that this morning that we would've been challenged, 00:19:17.860 |
and Lord God, that you would use this morning, Lord, 00:19:26.820 |
And Father, we pray that you will be glorified 00:19:32.420 |
and what it means, that you will be glorified. 00:19:40.900 |
how we think in our minds, that it will be a sacrifice, 00:19:47.120 |
I thank you and I pray all this in Jesus' name, amen.