Berean Community Church Passion Week Devos Tuesday

*music* *music*

Thank you. Thank you.

So, welcome. Thank you for joining us on this Tuesday evening of Passion Week. I'm going to open us with a word of prayer, followed by our worship, and then following our praise set, Elder Philip is going to come up here and share his testimony with us before we get into the word. So, join me in a word of prayer, and then we're going to join us today, Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to gather together as a church, to be reminded of what Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, had endured during this week. And I pray, God, and I pray, Lord, to have our hearts open to receive your word, and help us, Lord, to meditate on the things that you had spoken to us and communicating to us what you had endured throughout this week, and help us, Lord, to have a deep appreciation for your sacrifice for us.

And I pray, God, and I pray, and I pray, God, that we will leave here, meditating on the things that we had heard, and give glory to your name. And as we worship you and give you praise, I pray that you would help us to lay down all the distractions that we may have so that we can give you praise and honor that you deserve. And so, Lord, thank you for this time, and we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Why don't we all stand for a time of praise. Sing Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ. I think upon your sacrifice. You became a Fought out to death Many times I've wondered at your gift of life And I'm in that place Once I can live And I'm in that place Once again Once again I look upon the cross Where you died Humbled by your mercy And I'm broken inside Once again I thank you Once again I pour out my life Now you are Now you are Exalted to the highest place King of the heavens One day I'll bow But for now I marvel at this saving grace And I'm full of praise And I'm full of praise Once again I'm full of praise Once again I'm full of praise Once again Once again I look upon the cross where you died Once again I look upon the cross where you died I'm humbled by your mercy Humbled by your mercy And I'm broken inside Once again Once again Once again I thank you Once again I fill out my life So thank you for the cross Thank you for the cross Thank you for the cross

Jesus Thank you for the cross Thank you for the cross My friend Once again I look upon the cross where you died Humbled by your mercy And I'm broken inside Once again I thank you Once again I pour out my life King to us of you Every nature now Peace for our iniquities As you hung upon the cross God exalt to you To the highest place Give to you the right to bear The name above our names At the name of Jesus we should bow Every tongue confess that you are Lord When you come in glory For the world to see We will sing Hail to the King In all his splendor and majesty Hail to the King King of Kings The King of Kings Lord Jesus Our God Our God He eagerly awaits The coming of the day The glory of the risen King will shine upon the earth Will shine upon the earth And rival thrones will fall For the Lord of all

For the Lord of all Hail supreme authority In the true and the true and the true and the true and living God In the true and living God At the name of Jesus we should bow Every tongue confess that you are Lord Every tongue confess that you are Lord And you come in glory for the world to see We will sing Hail to the King In all his splendor and majesty Hail to the King King of Kings Lord Jesus Our God Hail to the King Hail to the King In all his splendor and majesty Hail to the King of Kings King of Kings Lord Jesus Lord Jesus Our God Lord Jesus Our God Lord Jesus Our God Lord Jesus Our God Lord Jesus You are our God You are our God I actually give my personal testimony in front of the congregation So here he goes This is my testimony I grew up as a pastor's kid My dad was a pastor and my grandfather was also a pastor

And as a pastor's kid I felt like I only saw the negative side of church My parents would get into arguments sometimes because of the stress of leading a congregation They were regularly criticized My dad's message was too long It was not interesting enough Someone always seemed to have something to say There was always somebody who was not satisfied It did not help that we moved around a lot We immigrated to the U.S. in 1974 We lived in Philadelphia Then moved to Kansas City, Missouri Then to Atlanta, Georgia Then back to Korea Then to California We started from Sondland To Burbank To Downey To Corona To Buena Park To Buena Park Before my parents retired and moved back to Korea My dad had insomnia So he did not sleep much My dad was a very kind and gentle man The church did not pay him enough So my mom and dad both had to work in addition to serving the church My parents were gone a lot because of church I distinctly remember thinking to myself That once I was old enough That I would stop going to church I just did not see the relevance of the church in my life Many times I wished my dad would just quit the ministry But now looking back I'm very thankful for the legacy my dad and my mom left for us I accepted Christ when I was in 8th grade I vividly remember the night when my brother Peter shared the gospel with me And if you are not aware, Pastor Peter is my older brother Now you are saying, "Oh, I see the resemblance"

So we were sitting at our dining room table It was just the two of us I don't remember exactly what he said But I do remember being in tears as I asked Jesus into my heart One important detail I left out from what I just shared Is that four days earlier My brother Peter left our house a non-believer to attend a retreat Thinking that he was going to meet people and have fun Prior to this retreat, my parents did not know what to do With my brother He was a sophomore in high school He was getting into trouble regularly My brother shared in one of his messages That he got caught stealing And a police officer brought him home This was probably one of the lowest moments for our family That is why when my brother Peter returned from the retreat And told us that he accepted Christ It was hard to believe I remember my oldest brother Paul being very skeptical However, I noticed there was something different about my brother Peter Whatever happened at the retreat, it seemed to have changed him I did not realize the extent of the change until weeks or months later We were working at my parents' dry cleaner store When we got into a heated argument like we always did However, this time he approached me after our argument And he apologized This was the first time my brother ever apologized to me He was always in the wrong But this was the first time he acknowledged and apologized Those of you who have older brothers, you know this had to be the work of the Holy Spirit

So my brother returned a changed person and met Christ His life never became the same As for me, I do not think I fully understood the whole Gospel But I do believe I was genuinely saved that night And for a period I backslid Even then I did not do anything too crazy in the eyes of the world However, I rebelled against God It was not until our church's summer retreat the summer I graduated from high school That I surrendered my life to God The little taste of the world I experienced it felt empty And I wanted something more I remember the last day of the retreat Surrendering my rebellious spirit to God And asking Christ to be the Lord of my life In that moment I had an Isaiah encounter While I was intently praying God opened my eyes To see His holiness in light of my sins He showed me my rebellious heart and all the sins I committed against Him How I offended Him I was in tears for hours just repenting That night I was never more certain of God's existence Never more certain of God's love for me I attended UCLA I was introduced to a parachurch group called Little Spark They followed the navigator motto of discipleship I grew a lot during my first year in college Because I was regularly reading the Bible and doing my devotions on a daily basis for the first time It was surprising to me just how just reading the Bible and doing what it says had such an impact on my life I also did apartment training

My sophomore year I lived with eight other guys in the house We woke up 6 a.m. every day to jog, do our devotions before attending classes I was doing cold turkey evangelism weekly I even did public evangelism on the campus of UCLA I famously said on a loudspeaker on Bruin Walk God's love is like chocolate If you never tried it, you will never know how sweet it is I must have been watching a Hershey's commercial when I came up with that one So before Forrest Gump, there was Phillip Kim Okay, so you know that So I was at the pinnacle of my spiritual enlightenment I was equipped and dangerous I studied apologetics I didn't say it But deep inside I was thinking God was lucky to have me as his disciple I soon learned that our spiritual journey is not a sprint, but a marathon After graduating college, I attended law school I was working during the day and attending law school at night I was helping out at church, but I was so spiritually dry It became so difficult to open my Bible to read I was so unmotivated It took a while, but God was gracious enough to lift me out of that state With this simple but powerful realization The faith I put in Christ when I first became a Christian Is the same faith that will sustain me throughout my life What I mean by that is that I was looking back at my prior accomplishment in college What I missed was that it was not what I did for God But that that was important

But it was who God was to me that was the most important thing God was my Lord and Savior when I accepted him He still needed to be my Lord and Savior I desperately needed Christ because I was a sinner when I accepted Christ I realized that I needed him more years later because I realized how deep the sinful nature was rooted in me I am more aware of my sins today than I was when I was first saved That is why the love of God and what he did for me is more precious to me today Than when I first accepted Christ I will end with this last thought Another major spiritual lesson I learned was this In my early 30s I was going through a crisis of purpose I wanted more out of my spiritual life but I did not know how to move past the feeling that something was not quite right I had an epiphany after attending together for the Gospel with some of the Bereans I was challenged and encouraged by the entire conference but I was especially challenged by Pastor John Piper's message The title of this message was How the Supremacy of Christ Creates Radical Christian Sacrifice He exposited on the book of Hebrews I never heard such powerful words from the pulpit Here is a sample of his message My desire and prayer for you is that your life and ministry have a radical flavor The flavor of risk, sacrifice, love, simplicity, joy, freedom, and precarious adventure In 1939, Howard Guinness, one of the early founders of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students

Wrote a little book called Sacrifice He was trying to do then what I am trying to do now He wrote Where are the young men and women this generation who will hold their lives cheap And be faithful even until death Who will lose their lives for Christ Flinging them away for the love of Him Where are those who will live dangerously And be reckless in His service Where are the men of prayer Where are the men who count God's word of more importance to them than their daily food Where are the men who like Moses of old commune with God face to face as a man speaks with his friend Where are God's men Where are God's men in the day of God's power He says Where are the young men and women of this generation Who will hold their lives cheap And be faithful even unto death Who will lose their lives for Christ Flinging them away for love of Him This was crazy talk He wants me to hold my precious life cheap for Christ I am to fling the years I invested in being an attorney for the love of Him This was crazy talk But it was like my spirit in me was crying out Yes And this is what I needed to hear And this is the epiphany I had when I returned I realized that I was living a life where I was applying the Bible The powerful word of God into my watered down spiritual life So I was taking the Bible and trying to make it relevant to my existing life So what I would do is I would take passages of scripture

And I would water it down so that I could apply it For example I was trying to For example, Luke 9:23 says And He said to all If anyone would come after me He must take up his cross daily And follow me How I would apply this verse would be To think of what was bothering me Most at the time It was probably some person That person was my cross that I needed to bear By the way, if this is This is not my wife, Marian If that's the direction you're going But my cross is to bear with that person Because of this and that So I was watering down Okay, I'm going to apply it this way But what I missed was the fact that What the Bible really said I missed the meaning in which what Jesus Christ was saying When Jesus Christ said Take up the cross and follow me He meant it And the disciples understood what the cross meant It was an instrument of death So the reason why I was feeling that something was not right Was because I was watering down the powerful word of the Bible To fit my watered down life Instead I needed to change my life To fit the truth and power of the word of God This meant that I needed to cut away the things that were sucking the joy from seeing Christ as a treasure of my life I had to deal with the habits and idols that I was refusing to let go of I certainly have a long way to go But the realization has changed the way I approach my spiritual walk and my relationship with God

A dear brother once shared that he had resolved to cut away all the distractions in his life He stopped playing golf He stopped biking He stopped training for his triathlon He stopped all the things that took away focus from Christ Because these things became idle to him As he cut away the distractions in his life The time he spent with Christ in prayer and reading of the Bible became more precious to him His love for Christ grew exponentially And after cutting away all the distractions He said All he had left with Christ I was so challenged by that I'll leave you with one of my favorite verses Philippians 3:7-8 But whatever things were gained to me Those things I have counted as lost for the sake of Christ More than that I count all things to be lost In view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord For whom I have suffered the loss of all things And count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ My prayer is that this will be a prayer for us For me, for you That we would consider all things rubbish In comparison to knowing Christ Jesus our Lord Especially this week as we remember the passion and the sacrifice of Christ Thank you Thank you Elder Phillip for that powerful testimony Please turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 21 I will not be reading through the entire chapter I will give a summary of Matthew chapter 21 And we're going to carry that over to Matthew chapter 23 as well

But as we continue to examine the final days of Jesus leading up to his crucifixion I do want to give you a summary of what has already happened This past Sunday was Palm Sunday Jesus entered Jerusalem in a procession that was fit for a king He was riding on a donkey and people were spreading their clothes on the road And others cut down branches and spread them on the road Then the multitude who went before him shouted And he said, "Sanah to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord" But as we have learned over the weekend amidst all the fanfare, all the noise, we know that Jesus' heart was troubled Then on Monday, Jesus entered the temple in Jerusalem And he drove out those who sold and bought at the temple This is the second time Jesus had to do this And Jesus had to cleanse the temple because the merchants and the priests who allowed this marketing scene to take place They didn't care for true worship They only cared about keeping rituals and making money off those who traveled to Jerusalem to worship God And Jesus had the authority to cleanse the temple because he is the Lord of the temple But you see, this angered the chief priests and scribes because the Lord disrupted their economy This then brings us to Tuesday Now, Jesus was very busy on this day And having spent the night at Bethany, Jesus woke up Tuesday morning, got himself ready like the rest of us do

And he began walking toward Jerusalem to the temple courts And you know, Jesus knew the chief priests and scribes were plotting against him to put him to death But our Lord, he wasn't backing down He did not let the religious leaders intimidate him from accomplishing his father's will So Jesus was headed to the temple courts and Jesus would spend the entire morning at the temple court Teaching and debating with the Jewish leaders But before Jesus entered the temple court Matthew tells us in chapter 21 verse 18 and 22 That Jesus became hungry And seeing a lone tree by the road He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only And he cursed it by saying No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you And just so you know, Matthew and Mark both record the cursing of the fig tree Now Mark, and this is important for us to know Follows a chronological order and lets us know that Jesus cursed the fig tree on Monday But Matthew he provides us a more a thematic narrative and not a strict chronology of events But the point I want to make is this Jesus was hungry And this may have been because he had walked from Bethany to Jerusalem which was a two-mile walk And this reveals to us the humanity of our Savior And I do want to briefly talk about the humanity of Christ because sometimes we can grow indifferent to the humanity of Christ And here's something that we have to grasp The Son of God

The Creator of Heavens and Earth He became man And yes, he was susceptible to hunger In fact, at the cross He experienced excruciating pain and he even thirsted for water But not only was he susceptible to hunger, thirst, and physical pain We also see Jesus expressing his emotions like all of us In fact, Jesus was overwhelmed with emotion when he entered into Jerusalem This would be his last week on Earth He was in Jerusalem on this Passion Week to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world And so I want you to imagine with me how emotionally alert our Lord must have been We read in Matthew chapter 23 verse 37 That after the confrontation with the religious leaders of Israel He wept over Jerusalem saying Jerusalem, Jerusalem Who kills the prophets and stoned those who are sent to her How often I wanted to gather your children together The way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings And you were unwilling And you know, we could just only imagine this scene, right?

Our Lord weeping over the spiritual condition of his own people And you know, these were people that professed to know him People that outwardly praised him with their lips And yet their heart was far from him The Jewish leaders were blinded by their religious zeal Which prevented them from recognizing their Messiah You see, they had a zeal for God But it wasn't in accordance with truth And so seeking to establish their own righteousness Scripture tells us that they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God Which is Christ And we're going to see this as the religious leaders One after another confront Jesus with the barrage of questions But I come back to emphasize on the humanity of Christ Because on this week Jesus felt the tremendous weight of the cross That troubled his soul And we know his soul was troubled Because the Lord said in John chapter 12 verse 27 Now my soul has become troubled Jesus' soul had been troubled His emotions are so intense It reached the point in which he feared the pain of death But you see, the worst of all He had to endure the wrath of his own father To receive the punishment for sinners as a substitute And you know, I can never imagine But I believe that the thought of enduring the punishment for sin was so intense That our Lord prayed fervently to the degree that his sweat became like drops of blood Again, I share this information with you to emphasize the humanity of our Lord and Savior Jesus

Scripture tells us in Philippians chapter 2 verse 6 Although he existed in the form of God Did not regard equality with God A thing to be grasped But he emptied himself Taking the form of a bondservant And being made in the likeness of man And yet with his emotions being so intense Knowing that at the end of this week He would die on a rugged cross for our sins Jesus entered the temple to teach those who were willing to hear To answer questions from his opposition And he spent the latter part of that day teaching from the Mount of Olives And why did Jesus do all this? I believe our Lord was compelled by his love and forbearance Not only for his disciples whom he loved to the very end But even for his hostile enemies Jesus spent the entire Tuesday teaching, rebuking, correcting, and instructing To equip his own disciples But also to show mercy to the opposition Because he did not wish for anyone to perish But for all to come to repentance And you know, coming back to the fig tree It tells us that Jesus was hungry And having saw this fig tree with leaves He approached it seeking fruit But the scripture tells us that the tree was barren And if you're familiar with Jesus' teachings method He often used objects from nature to illustrate his points And so on this occasion Jesus used the barren fig tree to illustrate the spiritually barren state of Israel Now fig tree produced fruit before its sprout leaves

And this is why Jesus was disappointed when the fig tree had no fruit Because the tree with leaves was indicative of fruit And because the tree was barren Our Lord used the occasion to talk about the barrenness of Israel Like the barren fig tree, Israel was spiritually dead They sprouted their spiritual leaves Meaning that they were outwardly religious But they lacked fruit You see, they had a zeal for God But not in accordance with knowledge They had the form of godliness But they were denying the power Everything that they did was external Their religion was performance based And Jesus rebuked them for this When he said, "These people, they honor me with their lips But their heart is far from me Israel had a pretense of religion represented by the leaves But the fact that they bore no spiritual fruit Was proof that they alienated themselves from the life and power of God And the most convincing evidence of Israel's departure from the Lord Is their rejection You see, Jesus came to his own and they rejected him And Jesus had to indict them for searching the scriptures Thinking that in them they have eternal life And yet they failed to understand that the scriptures were pointing to him And on this Tuesday they confronted Jesus as he began his teaching The chief priests and the elders confronted Jesus And they demanded to know by what authority Jesus was doing the things that he did

But Jesus knew this was a dishonest question And so he had to confront them head on The leaders were amazed They were distressed They were upset that he acted without any approval Without any authorization His cleansing of the temple and his return to teach in the temple was not acceptable to them But you see, Jesus was his own authority Because all authority had been given to him by the Father And Jesus said he only does what he sees his Father doing He did not need authority from man He is the authority And Matthew records Jesus' confrontation with the Jewish leaders Beginning from Matthew chapter 21 verse 23 Which doesn't end until the end of chapter 23 Again, Tuesday was a very long day for our Lord The Jewish leaders rejected Jesus' authority And that's because he did not have the credentials of a Jewish rabbi And that was the whole issue here So Jesus came to the temple And he was teaching But while he was teaching The chief priests and elders asked him in Matthew chapter 21 verse 23 By what authority are you doing these things?

And who gave you this authority? And Jesus answered their question with the question in chapter 21 verse 24 and 25 He said, "I will ask you one thing which if you tell me I will also tell you by what authority I do these things The baptism of John was from what source? From heaven or from men?" And you know, up to this point They witnessed Jesus' authority when he healed the sick Cast out demons and even raised Lazarus from death None of them could deny what Jesus had done They witnessed it They just questioned the legitimacy of it And because Jesus did not attend their schools and wasn't ordained by their institution to be a rabbi They were questioning his authority And their questioning was malicious You see, they weren't asking Jesus questions They were questioning him to trap him in his word They wanted to hear Jesus say that his power and authority is from God That would give them an opportunity to charge Jesus with blasphemy But Jesus answered their question masterfully You see, he wasn't avoiding their question He was giving them a chance to answer the question Because if they answered Jesus' question They would have an answer to their own question And so Jesus said, "If you tell me I will also tell you by what authority I do these things Now, if the Pharisees had said John's ministry was from heaven They would have to concede and receive Jesus as their Messiah Because John the Baptist had publicly declared that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world

John the Baptist had also publicly declared that Jesus came after him and yet he existed before him However, the religious leaders They also feared the public's response Knowing that if they said John the Baptist's ministry was from men Will they risk losing credibility with the people because the people regarded John as a prophet? And so with their tails tucked between their legs They had to confess with embarrassment We do not know That was their answer And so Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you" Then Jesus continued to teach only this time He shared parables to indict the Jewish leaders of their unfaithfulness In the parable of the two sons beginning in verses 28 through 32 Jesus was pointing out the hypocrisy of the spiritual leaders who claimed to obey the will of God But they did not do it And Jesus said to them in verse 31 I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you And the question is how?

And the question is how? Well, verse 32 says because the tax collectors and prostitutes believed the message of John regarding Jesus Now nothing is more insulting to a Jewish leader than to be compared on par with tax collectors and prostitutes Yet Jesus declared to these proud leaders that tax collectors and prostitutes who believed and repented at the preaching of John the Baptist would get into the kingdom of God before they would Then Jesus continues with the parable of the landowner Indicting the Jewish leaders of murdering the prophets that were sent to them But the most egregious sin of all Was the murder of God's beloved son God had graciously given stewardship of the land to Israel Israel according to this parable misappropriated all the blessings of God Robbing God of gratitude glory and honor Israel throughout its history persecuted the prophets who called them to repentance And then ultimately they murdered the son of God And notice what Matthew wrote in verse 45 of chapter 21 And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables they understood that he was speaking about them And so when they understood that Jesus was speaking about them they wanted to silence Jesus and take him into custody But they couldn't because they feared the people Then in Matthew chapter 22 Jesus shared a third parable Only this time he doesn't ask for the religious leaders response

And I'll just summarize this parable for the sake of time So in this parable the gospel is presented to the Jews first and then to the Gentiles But not everyone in Israel desired God And even those who claim to want God did not want God on his terms But those who are saved enter God's kingdom Because they accepted God's invitation to come to the son But those who are lost are excluded from the kingdom Because they willfully reject the same grace of God in Christ Jesus And then moving along the Pharisees plotted together to see how they could trap Jesus in his words Now Jesus doesn't owe these people anything He doesn't even owe them his time to answer any of their questions You see Jesus had every right to dismiss himself from the temple But he did it And I want you to imagine with me how hard it would be for you If you knew that in a few days you will be beaten and crucified on the cross And to receive the wrath of God for sinners But adding to that stress You have a hostile crowd questioning you to entrap you in your words So that they can use your own words to condemn you You would probably wallow and tell others to just leave you alone You would say do you not see what I'm going through?

Just give me my space Yet our Lord graciously remained at the temple receiving their questions and answering them And you know I believe Jesus' intent was for these leaders to hear his response And upon hearing they will know that he is their Messiah And so the religious leaders take turn in asking Jesus political and theological questions First question had to do with paying taxes to Caesar And so we read in verse 17 Tell us then what do you think? Is it lawful to give a poll tax to Caesar or not? Now if Jesus had said you must pay taxes to Caesar You know what he would be doing? He would be denying the sovereignty of God over Israel And the Jews would have hated him and labeled him as a collaborator with the Romans who occupied Israel But if Jesus answered no, don't pay taxes to Caesar Then he would have made himself an enemy of Rome And they could just hand him over to the Romans to be punished as an insurrectionist against Rome And so this appeared to be a no win scenario for Jesus Jesus seems to have found himself in a situation in which he could not escape because of contradictory rules or limitations And so the Pharisees and the Herodians were probably patting themselves on the back They probably thought we finally got him There is no escaping this Until Jesus answered and said in verses 18 and 21 He said why are you testing me you hypocrites Show me the coin used for the poll tax

Whose likeness and inscription is this? They said to him Caesar's Then he said to them then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's They were challenging the son of God and they were being humiliated publicly And hearing this they were amazed and leaving him they went away Then the Sadducees attempted to question Jesus about the resurrection Now the Sadducees they were the early versions of liberal theologians They did not believe anything that was supernatural And they were the ones who were deconstructing the Old Testament Scriptures They did not believe in the resurrection And so after asking their question about the resurrection Jesus responded to them Just as he would respond to the progressive Christians who deconstruct the Bible today He said in verses 29 and 32 You are mistaken not understanding the Scriptures You are mistaken During the resurrection of the dead he said Have you not read what was spoken to you by God?

I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob He is not the God of the dead but of the living And so everyone was astonished at Jesus' answer But then moving along in that narrative When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees They gathered themselves together for this one last attempt to trap Jesus with his words And so a lawyer who was an expert in the Mosaic Law Asked the Lord in verses 36 and 40 What is the greatest commandment in the law? And Jesus replied You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind This is the great and foremost commandment The second is like it You shall love your neighbor as yourself On these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets And you know Jesus had no difficulty answering this question And instead of elevating one command over another Jesus defined the law in its core principle He said love the Lord your God with everything that you are And love your neighbor as yourself And so none of the religious leaders could trap Jesus in what he had said All they can do is just agree with him And they were just standing amazed at his words And while the Pharisees were gathered Jesus asked them a question So he's turning the tables now Whose son is the Christ?

And the Pharisee answered The son of David Now this is partially correct It says Christ comes from the lineage of David But I want you to notice with me how Jesus completes their understanding of Scripture Jesus quotes from Psalm 110 in verses 43 and 45 And he says How does David in the spirit call him Lord Saying the Lord said to my Lord Sit at my right hand Until I put your enemies beneath your feet If David then calls him Lord How is he his son?

Christ is the son of David according to the flesh But he is also David's Lord And this is a reference to Jesus' deity And so the contradiction was being exposed If Christ is merely a descendant of David Why would David call him Lord? In history a descendant is never called Lord by their ancestors But David called Christ his Lord And so once Jesus was finished answering all other questions Verse 46 says No one was able to answer him a word Nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask him another question Now what's amazing about this scene is John picks it up in his Gospel And John mentions in John chapter 12 verse 42 and 43 That many even of the rulers believed in him But because of the Pharisees they were not confessing him For fear that they would be put out of the synagogue For they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God And so it wasn't because they lacked evidence Because John tells us in chapter 12 verse 37 Though he had performed so many signs before them Yet they were not believing in him They witnessed the signs and heard Jesus' teaching Yet because they were afraid of what others might think and do against them They would not openly confess Jesus as Lord And secondly they loved their position of authority Before Jesus pronounced his woes against the religious leaders He said in Matthew chapter 23 verses 5 through 7 He's referring to the religious leaders here

They do all their deeds to be noticed by men For they broadened their phylacteries and lengthened the tassels of their garments They loved the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues And respectful greetings in the marketplace and being called rabbi by men These rulers they were threatened by Jesus because if everyone followed Jesus they will be out of their job They will no longer be given the place of honor at the banquets And there will be no more respectful greetings in the marketplace when people come up to them and say Greetings rabbi And so because they loved their self-exalting religion and their prestigious position as rabbis They rejected Christ Their love for the world contributed to their ultimate rejection of Christ Now I don't have time to summarize Matthew chapter 23 But in it we read Jesus rebuking the Pharisees and scribes And he pronounces eight woe judgments against them for their religious hypocrisy And between Jesus's confrontation with the religious leaders in the Olivet Discourse Luke in his account wrote in chapter 21 verses 1 through 4 That Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gift into the treasury And he saw a poor widow putting in two small copper coins And he said truly I say to you this poor widow put in more than all of them For they all out of their surplus put into the offering Out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on

The rich they were giving out of what was left over But the widow she gave everything that she had And Jesus said this is what true giving looks like This is the kind of surrender where you turn to God to give And you're trusting in him And you're not just giving to the Lord what remains You're giving back to God what is essential And this is the story of the widow's gift And this story of the widow's gift is placed after the confrontation with the religious leaders for a reason You see Jesus was exposing the superficial authority and religious wealth and performance of these leaders And here was this widow contributing to the temple on the same day Jesus was confronting the religious leaders who exploited widows But the point is the widow's faith wasn't in the temple or its religious institution She was surrendering to God who had sustained her Her trust was not in man her trust was in God And so after spending the entire morning at the temple Jesus went out of the temple And he was going away to the Mount of Olives to give his disciples a lesson on eschatology And I want to encourage you to read this in Matthew chapter 24 through 25 We don't have time to go over it this evening But the main point of the Olivet Discourse is this The Lord is coming at an unknown hour Therefore be alert, be faithful, and be fruitful So Tuesday was a busy day for the Lord And in my personal time of devotion

I had to ask the question why Why did Jesus put himself through this intense day of questioning and scrutiny? Jesus knew what was about to happen to him He knew what was in man's heart He knew that the leaders had plotted to catch him with his words so that they could put him to death And yet he went into the temple on that Tuesday Taught the multitude with grace and truth And answered all of their objections All of their questions And this is how gracious and merciful our God is He owes no man an explanation He is God That our Lord was patient with the people Even though his own soul was troubled He selflessly cared for the people to teach and to answer questions from those who opposed his authority And he did all this Because he is a merciful God who wept for the very people who were persecuting him Our Lord did not desire for their destruction He wanted them to hear what he had to say He wanted them to understand and take heed so that they may live But they refused to listen to the Lord because they did not want to lose their place in the synagogue or lose the approval of men They did not want to lose their position of authority and their commerce Because Jesus was a threat to their enterprise they opposed him and they wanted him dead Their love for the world and its system fueled their hatred for Christ Like the fig tree that had withered the Jewish leaders and their followers they had a pretense of religion that was merely external

They bore no fruit And they were alienated from the life and power of God And this alienation from God was caused by their fear of social rejection and even persecution They were more concerned with their status among their peers than their obedience to God But secondly The present world that they were living in was more appealing to them than the eternal blessings of God You see they were not willing to lose their earthly authority their earthly possessions to gain an eternal relationship with God by declaring him as Lord And this is why scripture warns us in James chapter 4 verse 4 that friendship with the world is hostility toward God And so we are commanded in 1st John chapter 2 verses 15 and 17 Do not love the world nor the things in the world Because if anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father but from the world And the world is passing away in its lust but the one who does the does the will of God lives forever And so the question I have for many of you this evening is what is keeping you from completely surrendering your life to Christ?

Is it your self-righteousness? Is it your fear of man? Or is it the love of this world? Whatever your reasons may be Look you can reject Christ as having authority over your own life But he remains forever the blessed sovereign the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords Your rejection of Jesus Christ does not change who he is But it only results in a disastrous eternal consequences for you And so as we continue to remember Christ during this passion week Let us recognize the authority of Christ over our life And if you haven't done so already repent and believe in him who is the King eternal And yes for some of you the life that you may know it May change because you have decided to follow Christ who is the Lord over your life But Jesus says there is nothing in this world that is worth exchanging for your soul The decision to obey and follow Christ will be the best decision that you ever make As Elder Philip just shared with us in his testimony We should consider the things of this world And the things that we are pursuing as rubbish In the pursuit of Christ And so Jesus on this Tuesday He must have been exhausted He must have been tired fielding in all these questions And teaching at the mount of all of it But he did all of this because he cared for the people To the very end he loved his disciples But to the end he had compassion for those who are still opposing him And as we close this evening

We are going to have some time of reflection And have these prayer requests up here for you We will take some time to pray Maybe five minutes And then we will have I will come up here and close this out in prayer But First, pray that we will imitate Christ's humility in serving others Rather than seeking selfish ambition Second, pray for the ability to listen to God's word with an open heart And to recognize his authority over our lives And three, pray for a pure heart And ask God to remove from us all spiritual hypocrisy So that we may give genuine worship to Christ And so We will pray for five minutes And then I will come close And then we will close with praise And then we will close to God's word with the Lord And then we will close to God's word with the Lord

Thank you for the reminder I pray God that you would give us a heart of humility So that when we are remembering each day as you are headed to the cross Help us Lord to have gratitude in our hearts for what you had done for us And help us Lord to have a servant's heart So that with humility we would serve one another Knowing that you set that example for us And so Lord thank you for giving us years to hear and hearts to understand And help us Lord to with our lives honor and glorify your name So Lord thank you and we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Let's all stand for our closing praise

Lord thank you and we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen

Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen

Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Christ in the name of Jesus Christ Amen Father of my soul I want to live for you Father of my soul I want to live for you Father of my soul I want to live for you Father of my soul I want to live for you Your blood has washed away my sin Jesus thank you The Father's wrath completely satisfied Jesus thank you Your blood has washed away my sin Jesus thank you The Father's wrath completely satisfied Jesus thank you Thank you Once your enemy Once your enemy Now seated at your table Jesus thank you Amen And now may the Lord bless you and keep you And may the Lord lift up his faith Make his faith shine upon you And be gracious to you And may the Lord lift up his countenance upon you And grant you peace Amen Thank you Quick announcements There will be a choir practice here in the sanctuary So we need to vacate the sanctuary as soon as possible

So thank you Thank you