back to index2021-03-30 Passion Week Tuesday
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And I think that's what we're trying to do here. 00:00:12.080 |
We're trying to see those many years ago how the life of Christ and the death of Christ 00:00:18.960 |
and the resurrection of Christ applies to people thousands of years later just like 00:00:24.920 |
That's what we're doing every single day this week. 00:00:26.960 |
As we get to Tuesday, that that wasn't just then. 00:00:31.720 |
That Jesus was actually actively and intentionally, just as we learned both on Sunday and yesterday, 00:00:38.800 |
intentionally moving his way towards the cross so that people like you and me could have 00:00:44.500 |
And we're going to be continuing this observation of Jesus' walk on the cross today. 00:00:50.640 |
And what we see on Tuesday is kind of a heightening of this desire for the religious leaders to 00:01:03.160 |
All these different people that come into play on this Tuesday, interestingly enough, 00:01:11.840 |
They're not going to be Gentiles or Samaritans. 00:01:13.840 |
It's going to be all different sorts of religious leaders. 00:01:20.160 |
The people who are trying to ensnare Christ were the leaders of the people of God. 00:01:32.440 |
They're these Herodians and Sadducees and priests. 00:01:36.560 |
And the crazy thing is, these Jewish sects were usually at odds with each other. 00:01:47.920 |
But they were unifying here on this day with the same goal. 00:02:05.960 |
Jesus knew who these teachers and religious leaders were. 00:02:11.520 |
Jesus wasn't startled into this realization, and they were coming together to kill him. 00:02:19.160 |
It's amazing to see what kind of obstacles can be overcome by the unity of the people 00:02:24.560 |
When we think about what it is for the people of God in the church of God to be unified, 00:02:29.640 |
that overcomes all barriers and obstacles, that come united in a single cause of glorifying 00:02:38.360 |
But there's another side too that brings great unity, and that's what we see here today. 00:02:43.680 |
A unity that comes when people, even religious, these people are seemingly morally upright 00:02:50.240 |
people coming together in their hatred of God. 00:02:58.640 |
I want to direct our attention to this verse because we commonly go to this passage to 00:03:04.160 |
remember, but today let's take a little extra time to remember that this is the people that 00:03:09.840 |
were being talked about here in Isaiah many, many years ago. 00:03:14.160 |
It says there, "This people draw near me with their words and honor me with their lip service, 00:03:19.840 |
but they remove their hearts far from me, and their reverence for me consists of tradition 00:03:29.820 |
In Psalm chapter 2, there's a Psalm there that describes all these nations that are 00:03:33.940 |
coming together, raging together in their unity of their opposition before God. 00:03:43.860 |
And so you're going to have lots of different types of people, but anyone who is in opposition 00:03:49.140 |
to God is not only found there in Psalm 2 with all the nations, but you see it very 00:03:54.580 |
clearly here even in the nation of Israel, the people that were chosen by God. 00:04:07.180 |
They saw how compassionate and gracious and loving he was. 00:04:11.960 |
They saw what he was doing and the power that he came in. 00:04:24.300 |
And after seeing all this, they schemed together. 00:04:27.860 |
They turn around and all these different groups of Jewish leaders come together and say, "How 00:04:41.220 |
These are all different groups of people that were looking for some sort of an understanding 00:04:46.780 |
of God, perhaps waiting for this Messiah for years and years and years. 00:04:52.540 |
And when they finally encounter the man who is systematically fulfilling every single 00:04:59.740 |
little prophecy that was given in the Old Testament, they come across this man and what 00:05:20.940 |
They want him not just set aside, but they want to annihilate him. 00:05:28.320 |
They actually actively plot not just his death, but they're plotting his murder. 00:05:44.140 |
They overcome great obstacles and barriers and unify before this Jesus, not to worship 00:05:51.600 |
And here is this Messiah Jesus who imposes a threat on what they truly want. 00:05:56.340 |
This is a kingdom that they want for themselves. 00:06:03.020 |
This is a desire to say that, "I want to live on that throne. 00:06:09.740 |
So on this day of Passion Week, on this Tuesday, this is what is heightening. 00:06:13.600 |
They are scheming to get him to that cross, to kill him. 00:06:23.040 |
The people who say, "Lord, Lord," are the very ones who are out to ensnare and murder 00:06:36.560 |
Jesus was encountering these people and he knew exactly what they were doing. 00:06:43.840 |
Jesus who came down in love to his people, to extend a hand of grace and mercy to his 00:06:49.280 |
people, to spend an entire earthly lifetime wanting nothing more for them to come to know 00:06:54.920 |
him, to describe to them that, "I am he you've been waiting for." 00:07:05.880 |
He's been hoping for them to know he's condescended to humanity and their response isn't to surrender. 00:07:20.400 |
I'm saying this over and over for a reason because that is what we're moving towards 00:07:25.900 |
Because that is the inevitable end of the sinner, that we want to kill him. 00:07:35.700 |
And on this Tuesday morning, Jesus and the disciples wake up in Bethany and they head 00:07:45.240 |
And on the way to Jerusalem, they see the withered tree, the fig tree that we heard 00:07:51.200 |
And they're reminded of what happens to trees that don't produce fruit. 00:07:54.520 |
We can't go into that too much, but that was describing the nation. 00:07:59.440 |
And upon reaching the temple in Jerusalem, this is what it says in Matthew chapter 21 00:08:05.160 |
It says, "When Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people 00:08:11.840 |
And so Jesus, he sees while he's teaching, inside of the temple, these religious leaders 00:08:17.000 |
are coming and he knows exactly why they're coming. 00:08:21.320 |
They're ready to ensnare and trap him today on this Tuesday, especially after what he 00:08:31.920 |
Sometimes when you get a good night of sleep, sometimes it helps you to let the emotions 00:08:48.040 |
Jesus is a great threat to them, to their desires for their worldly kingdom. 00:08:55.680 |
And if God is the means they need to go through to obtain their kingdom, then so be it. 00:09:13.440 |
They attach God's name to it, but it's their own kingdom, their own desire and will. 00:09:21.120 |
And you see it immediately in their very first exchange. 00:09:25.320 |
In Matthew chapter 21, verse 23, they ask a question of Jesus and they ask, "By what 00:09:30.320 |
authority are you doing these things and who gave you this authority?" 00:09:34.640 |
Now anyone with a mustard seed, just a small amount of faith should be able to look at 00:09:44.720 |
They ought to know by whose authority Jesus comes. 00:09:52.520 |
But because they don't like the message, because they don't like the fact that when he says 00:09:58.240 |
he is the king, it is not the type of king they were thinking of, the king that would 00:10:10.240 |
The fact that he's saying he is the Lord, he is the master, what happens is they refuse 00:10:36.600 |
So Jesus says to them, "I'm not going to tell you." 00:10:43.400 |
Because you already know, but you refuse to believe. 00:10:49.840 |
And so he says in Matthew 21, 27, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these 00:10:54.880 |
And this is recognizable to us today because it's always been like this with sinful man. 00:11:03.880 |
God has always been used as a means to the end of the sinful man. 00:11:11.400 |
Rather than submit to his authority, we ask him to bend to my authority. 00:11:21.940 |
As Jesus, the creator, stands before his people, and the people are asking him, "By whose authority 00:11:37.800 |
We understand this because we will pray to God, we will worship God, but only as much 00:11:47.360 |
The Lord's prayer for us is, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be my name. 00:11:57.880 |
And this is what was happening with the Israelite leaders. 00:12:00.480 |
And Jesus came to show that he had enough of this. 00:12:05.080 |
Before he goes to the cross, this Tuesday is when Jesus makes his clearest rebuke against 00:12:11.840 |
Jesus goes into many parables to begin to describe to them in increasing clarity who 00:12:24.520 |
Jesus tells this parable of a vineyard landowner who goes on a journey. 00:12:29.040 |
And before he leaves, he rented it out to people who would keep the land and to pay 00:12:35.760 |
But what he would do is he would send these slaves to these renters, to these people who 00:12:41.000 |
are renting the land to collect from the produce that they were gathering from. 00:12:48.000 |
But with every slave he sends to receive some of the produce of his vineyard, it says, "They 00:13:01.400 |
He sends a slave and they beat them and kill them. 00:13:04.040 |
He sends another one and he beats them and kills them. 00:13:06.280 |
He sends another one and he beats them and kills them. 00:13:18.080 |
Stand in awe at the incredible nature of the patience of this landowner. 00:13:31.120 |
This man's patience is incredible here, right? 00:13:38.840 |
He says, "Maybe if I send my own son, they will listen." 00:13:46.080 |
This is incredible patience and love and graciousness, kindness. 00:13:57.120 |
This means, by the way, that this is the inheritor. 00:14:02.320 |
If the landowner is sending his own son, this is the very man who is one day going to inherit 00:14:20.440 |
And a sinful heart is laid bare of these religious leaders. 00:14:25.720 |
Here it is in one statement, the sinful man's heart and intent. 00:14:28.920 |
In verse 38 of chapter 21, they say, they scheme together, all these people, "This 00:14:47.360 |
Jesus is telling them this parable because he knows. 00:14:54.040 |
He knows through and through what's going on in their hearts. 00:14:56.920 |
And when Jesus asked the Jewish leaders what the landowner will do when they kill this 00:15:01.200 |
son, which they do, they kill the son so that they can have the inheritance, which doesn't 00:15:10.200 |
It's almost eerie how well the religious leaders are able to answer what the landowner is going 00:15:19.240 |
In verse 41, just three verses after, the religious leader said to him, "He, the landowner, 00:15:25.000 |
will bring those wretches to a wretched end and will rent out the vineyard to other vine 00:15:29.680 |
growers who will pay in the proceeds at the proper season." 00:15:35.160 |
And then in verse 45, it says, "When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his 00:15:44.760 |
They understood that he was talking about them. 00:15:49.040 |
Now, there's many more parables, but here's another one, okay? 00:15:53.360 |
The wedding feast is the second and last parable we're going to go into. 00:16:00.600 |
And so now we've moved from a landowner to what? 00:16:07.120 |
Matthew is all about the kingdom and the king. 00:16:13.240 |
Now the parable's about a king and he's holding a wedding feast for his son. 00:16:18.960 |
And he sends his slaves out to call those who have been invited to the wedding feast. 00:16:25.300 |
And so again, the king sends other slaves with more information. 00:16:29.040 |
By the way, if you haven't caught on yet, these slaves, these servants that are being 00:16:32.240 |
sent out are alluding to the prophets of old, sent to the nation of Israel. 00:16:38.200 |
And in Matthew chapter 22, verse 4, it says, "Tell those who have been invited, 'Behold, 00:16:43.560 |
My oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready. 00:16:50.260 |
But without going into the text itself, let me just explain to you. 00:16:54.600 |
But those invited pay no attention because they don't care about the king. 00:17:14.120 |
And they said, 'I have this to tend to, so I cannot come.'" 00:17:20.820 |
And thirdly, anyone else that's remaining, "Seize the slaves," and here it is again, 00:17:31.380 |
They want their own life according to their own terms. 00:17:34.140 |
They don't care about the kingdom of the king. 00:17:38.100 |
They actually want nothing to do with God, nothing to do with him. 00:17:44.260 |
And remember that all these things are describing these Jewish leaders, the most religious people 00:17:50.660 |
And he's speaking to them in the temple in Jerusalem. 00:18:00.260 |
But this is what they're willing to do because they honor God with the lips. 00:18:04.060 |
They say with their lips that they love God and they worship God, but they don't really. 00:18:12.720 |
And so when the Messiah comes and he does not say he's going to deliver to them what 00:18:33.620 |
But Jesus knows and he's taking painstaking time to explain to them what they are. 00:18:46.980 |
You might see all this rebuke, but rebuke done by the sinless man, the son of God. 00:19:04.980 |
They say, "Lord, Lord, did we not do all these things in your name?" 00:19:12.140 |
One day Jesus will stare them back in the eye, unflinching, and say, "I never knew 00:19:18.980 |
The kingdom is reserved for those who love the Lord and live for him. 00:19:22.340 |
The kingdom does not house people who live for their own glory. 00:19:29.420 |
The king in this parable sends his armies, destroys the murderers, and sets their city 00:19:38.660 |
And then the king sends his slaves to the main highways, inviting anyone who would come 00:19:47.660 |
It does not matter what you look like on the outside. 00:19:49.980 |
The kingdom is for those who have placed their faith in God and give their lives over to 00:19:54.820 |
It's for the ones who have traded in all things for the king. 00:19:57.820 |
It's not for those who put up a religious show, but it's for those who live for him. 00:20:07.780 |
So he's been teaching all day at this temple, and he concludes, after a full day's work 00:20:12.300 |
done, Jesus caps it all off, as if there were any question as to the message to stay in 00:20:22.500 |
The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses. 00:20:26.460 |
Remember all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds. 00:20:32.100 |
They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling 00:20:38.140 |
But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men. 00:20:40.540 |
For they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. 00:20:43.660 |
They love the places of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and 00:20:47.300 |
respectful greetings in the marketplaces, and being called rabbi by men. 00:20:50.900 |
And when I hear these words of Jesus, all I can hear is, "Their kingdom, their kingdom, 00:20:58.260 |
And so what he does is pronounces, "Woe!" which is an exclamation of grief. 00:21:03.100 |
And you can think of it like this, "Woe!"s mean how greatly one will suffer. 00:21:07.620 |
When he says, pronounces a "Woe!" is what terrible pain will come. 00:21:13.700 |
And he says, "Woe to the scribes and Pharisees." 00:21:19.540 |
"Woe to the scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" 00:21:22.700 |
"Woe to the scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" 00:21:25.540 |
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" 00:21:30.260 |
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" 00:21:36.020 |
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" 00:21:40.300 |
The judgment is being stored, and Jesus is making it clear that the proud and arrogant, 00:21:52.060 |
They are hard-hearted people who are bringing judgment upon themselves. 00:21:55.620 |
He has spent this time exposing who they are and what their heart is like. 00:21:59.220 |
They have proud and arrogant hearts that do not submit to Jesus as he's saying this, Jesus 00:22:03.420 |
is standing before them, preaching his heart out, filled with desire. 00:22:15.000 |
The King that has come, and all they want is for Jesus to fit their own agenda. 00:22:20.720 |
And now, because he does not fulfill that, they want to eliminate the threat, and so 00:22:31.540 |
God has been patient in his desire to extend his grace and mercy for years and years and 00:22:38.860 |
And so in verse 34, he says, "Therefore," this is right after all the woes, "Woe, woe, 00:22:43.580 |
woe, woe, woe to all of you," he says, "Therefore, therefore," the only therefore in this whole 00:22:50.820 |
He says, "Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men, scribes, some of 00:22:57.420 |
them you will kill and crucify, some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute 00:23:01.460 |
from city to city, so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous bloodshed on 00:23:05.300 |
earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah." 00:23:08.500 |
The Jewish Bible started with Genesis, ended with 2 Chronicles, and these were the front 00:23:14.820 |
and the end, the bookends of prophets that were given, that you will kill them all. 00:23:20.380 |
In verse 37, he cries out, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who 00:23:26.220 |
How often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks 00:23:32.700 |
Behold, your house is being left to you desolate." 00:23:50.780 |
So on the way home, back to Bethany on this Tuesday, they stop by the Mount of Olives. 00:23:58.300 |
They go up, and it's a place as the sun is going down where they could look out across 00:24:05.060 |
They can see it, and Jesus begins to go into the Olivet Discourse. 00:24:09.500 |
If you're unfamiliar with that, it's where he starts talking about the end and what it 00:24:18.060 |
Jesus describes the persecution, the tribulation, the judgment that happened not only to the 00:24:22.860 |
prophets of old, but to those who will continue, the people of the kingdom, that those who 00:24:30.420 |
are willing to kill God will most definitely kill his servants, and God's ultimate judgment 00:24:39.700 |
It is being reserved, but it is only for a time, and right now is still a time of grace. 00:24:44.580 |
He warns them because he loves them, and he warns them, and he sends them out with this 00:24:57.460 |
Right now is still a time of grace, but the call is still to seek the Lord while he may 00:25:00.700 |
be found, and that is why we can celebrate Passion Week, Good Friday, Resurrection Sunday, 00:25:06.580 |
every single year because we are still existing in a time of God's patient grace. 00:25:14.940 |
If you have friends and family who do not know Christ, bring them. 00:25:20.020 |
Bring them on Sunday, that they might come to know him. 00:25:25.100 |
We're going to just give you maybe three or four minutes or so to pray, thinking about 00:25:31.620 |
Jesus standing before these religious leaders, and take the time to see how closely our hearts 00:25:39.260 |
resemble and mimic these religious leaders, to confess our sins, to repent of our selfish 00:25:48.220 |
and self-centered ways, and to see it as more as flaws or wayward living, but see it as 00:25:53.980 |
what it is, a desire for the elimination of God in our lives. 00:26:01.120 |
Our repentance needs to match what our sin actually is.