>> All right. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to day two. This is the Tuesday of Passion Week. We are continuing to walk down the path that Jesus took to see the heart of our Savior as he goes on his way to the cross on Good Friday and to resurrection on Sunday.

Today we're going to be continuing on with that. We're going to be led in a time of two songs of praise by Jeremy followed by a testimony, a testimony of faith given by our very own Ryan Chang. So before we start this time, I'd like to invite you into a time of prayer together.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you that we can gather in such an interesting fashion. Lord, many of us here together and for those who are afar, we thank you, Lord, for the privilege. God, we want to recognize that every time we come to worship, it is not a time set aside for worship that's apart from the rest of our lives, but Lord, a continual worship.

And God, would you be pleased and satisfied by it? God, would these songs be coming from our hearts or would you help us? Because our hearts must be transformed into the likeness of your son that we might surrender and submit to your will. And Father, declare to you that we love you with all our hearts.

So God, may tonight be filled with meditation of Christ and your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We all stand for a time of worship. ♪ ♪ Jesus, Lord of heaven ♪ ♪ I do not deserve ♪ ♪ The grace that you have given ♪ ♪ Or the promise of your word ♪ ♪ Lord, I stand in wonder ♪ ♪ At the sacrifice you made ♪ ♪ Your mercy beyond measure ♪ ♪ My debt you freely pay ♪ ♪ Your love is deeper ♪ ♪ Than any ocean higher ♪ ♪ Than the heavens reaches ♪ ♪ Beyond the stars in the sky ♪ ♪ Jesus, your love has no bounds ♪ ♪ Jesus, your love has no bounds ♪ Jesus.

♪ Jesus, Lord of heaven ♪ ♪ I do not deserve ♪ ♪ The grace that you have given ♪ ♪ Or the promise of your word ♪ ♪ Lord, I stand in wonder ♪ ♪ At the sacrifice you made ♪ ♪ Your mercy beyond measure ♪ ♪ My debt you freely pay ♪ ♪ Your love is deeper ♪ ♪ Than any ocean higher ♪ ♪ Than the heavens reaches ♪ ♪ Beyond the stars in the sky ♪ ♪ Your love is deep, your love is wide ♪ ♪ Your love is great, your love is high ♪ ♪ Your love is all we ever need ♪ ♪ Your love is all we ever need ♪ ♪ Your love is deep, your love is wide ♪ ♪ Your love is great, your love is high ♪ ♪ Your love is all we ever need ♪ ♪ Your love is all we ever need ♪ ♪ Your love is deeper ♪ ♪ Than any ocean higher ♪ ♪ Than the heavens reaches ♪ ♪ Beyond the stars in the sky ♪ ♪ ♪ Jesus, your love has no bound ♪ ♪ Jesus, your love has no bound ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ There is a fountain filled with blood ♪ ♪ Drawn from Emmanuel's face ♪ ♪ And sinners plunged beneath that flood ♪ ♪ Lose all their guilty stains ♪ ♪ Lose all their guilty stains ♪ ♪ Lose all their guilty stains ♪ ♪ And sinners plunged beneath that flood ♪ ♪ Lose all their guilty stains ♪ ♪ - The dying thief.

♪ The dying thief rejoiced to see ♪ ♪ That fountain in his day ♪ ♪ And there made the vile as he ♪ ♪ Washed all my sins away ♪ ♪ Washed all my sins away ♪ ♪ Washed all my sins away ♪ ♪ And there have I the vile as he ♪ ♪ Washed all my sins away ♪ ♪ - Dear dying lamb.

♪ Dear dying lamb, thy precious blood ♪ ♪ Shall never lose its power ♪ ♪ Till all the ransomed church of God ♪ ♪ Be safe to sin no more ♪ ♪ Be safe to sin no more ♪ ♪ Be safe to sin no more ♪ ♪ Till all the ransomed church of God ♪ ♪ Be safe to sin no more ♪ ♪ ♪ E'er since by faith I saw the stream ♪ ♪ Thy flowing womb supply ♪ ♪ Redeeming love has been my theme ♪ ♪ And shall be till I die ♪ ♪ And shall be till I die ♪ ♪ And shall be till I die ♪ ♪ Redeeming love has been my theme ♪ ♪ And shall be till I die ♪ ♪ ♪ When this poor, this weak, stampering tongue ♪ ♪ Lies silent in the grave ♪ ♪ Then in a nobler, sweeter song ♪ ♪ I'll sing thy power to save ♪ ♪ I'll sing thy power to save ♪ ♪ I'll sing thy power to save ♪ ♪ Then in a nobler, sweeter song ♪ ♪ I'll sing thy power to save ♪ You may be seated.

Hello, my name is Ryan Chang. I'm a part of the family ministry here at Berean. I am married to Kate. She's my wife sitting right up here in the front. I'm thankful for the opportunity to share the story of how God saved me, truly his sovereign work of salvation beyond anything that I deserved.

I didn't grow up in a Christian household. I grew up in South Korea with my parents and my older sister. And in the eight years that I lived in Korea, I never stepped my foot in church. It wasn't until I came to the United States with my family when I was eight, when I was in about, I think I was third grade, my parents took me to church for the first time.

And it was mainly so that our family could meet other Korean parents that were living in the United States in our city. And I have some fond memories of church in my elementary years. I remember having a lot of fun playing games in Iwana. I remember going out to eat with my new friends that I met at church.

But I don't really remember learning a lot about the Bible. And I don't say that to insult the church I was going to, but that just wasn't my focus and why I wanted to go to church. My family went to that church for about two years and the church unfortunately went through a divisive split and that's when my family stopped going to church.

When I was in junior high, my friends who were going to a youth group in a different church invited me. And again, I went to church for friends. So I went for about two years, having fun, going to retreats, meeting new people. I had a great time. But as I entered into high school, my focus turned towards academics and extracurricular activities to prepare for college.

So church really became the last priority for me every week. If I had enough energy and time left over, then I would consider going to church. And so church became a very inconsistent thing in my life. And at the same time, I began to see my parents' marriage really coming under strain and stress because of financial hardship.

And so it was during this time that my dreams and my goals in life were being shaped. It came down to money. I started to believe during those years that if I have a lot of money, then I can have a happy marriage and more broadly, I can have a happy life.

And so from that point on forward, all my big decisions were made with this question in mind. How can I make the most money in the quickest amount of time? That became my driving goal in life. And what's scary is, as I look back during that time, if someone asked me if I was a Christian, I probably would have said yes because I knew that there was a God, not the God of the Bible, but a powerful higher being.

And generally, I lived a better life than a lot of the people that I saw out in the world. I had no idea what the gospel was, but that was the basis for why I would call myself a Christian. And so as I entered into my college years, I was, in the true sense of the word, hell-bent on becoming rich.

I chose a college, specifically with a good business school, and I joined a business fraternity that had a lot of connections to good jobs, and I majored in finance because people told me that finance is the quickest way to a lot of money. So I studied hard with a singular goal of working in a finance industry, and that was my fixation for the four and a half years that I was in college.

And it all seemed to pay off because I did find a job in finance. My first job out of college, I moved back to L.A., and I started working at a firm that seemed to promise the kind of prestigious career and money that I was searching for for many, many years at that point.

But that initial excitement quickly wore off. I was soon working 70, 80 hours a week. I was miserable. I was tired. And I just hated life. But even more so than the cost of sleep and health was the cost of falling into a myriad, a Pandora's box of sins that money allowed me.

I indulged in any kind of sin that I wanted to engage in because I had money. And what surprised me at that point was that none of that actually made me happy. It actually was just the opposite. The more I spent my money and the more I saved money in my bank account, I felt a bigger and bigger gaping hole in my soul.

So it couldn't really have been any further from my hopes and dreams that money would bring me happiness. But for the time being, the two years that I was there, I suppressed that misery, and I convinced myself that if I just worked really hard for two years, this would be a stepping stone to the next job at a more prestigious company with more money, and that's where I'm going to find my happiness.

I did end up finding that kind of a job after the two years in San Francisco. So I moved up to San Francisco with every hope and expectation that I had finally arrived at a place of happiness in my life. On the first day that I started on the job, my first thought was, "This is the exact same thing with a different label." And just the thought of having to do the two years that I hated so much all over again caused a lot of anxiety in my heart.

I didn't know what to do with that fear. I went home, slept on it, came back the second day, and my anxiety and fear and disappointment only grew. And I actually became angry by the end of the second day because I worked so hard for four years in college and two years at a job that I hated to get to this point.

By the third day, I didn't know what to think, and without thinking, I resigned from the company and I left the building. I still distinctly remember myself walking back to my apartment from the building that I was working at. I remember thinking, "I followed exactly what the world told me to go, the path to follow, and this is where I ended up, a complete dead end." It was a total lie.

And at that point, I thought to myself, "If everything that the world told me was a lie, I'm going to try to find an answer in another place." So I thought to myself, "I'm going to go home, and I'm going to read the Bible, the whole Bible, and to see if there's actual, real answers there." And I can't explain to you why in that moment I turned to the Bible other than the fact that this was just God beginning to draw me towards Him through His Word.

And so as soon as I got back, I opened my dusty Bible that I had never really opened for years, and I turned to Genesis 1-1, and I started reading, and reading, and I kept reading for the next 10 days. And all the while I was reading, I was praying to God, "God, if you're really there, this is the time.

I'm going to ask you to do this. I don't know what to do anymore." So as I was reading with a humbled and submissive and searching heart, it was at that point that I understood the Gospel for the very first time in my life after 25 years. I recall one passage in the Old Testament, and I only recall it very clearly because I wrote it in my journal at that time, but this one passage completely shattered my proud heart into a million pieces.

It was from Jeremiah 17-5. It reads, "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert and shall not see any good come." At that moment, I knew I was a cursed man because I lived my whole life for 25 years trusting in myself, and the promises that man gave me, and I trusted in my own strength to find the happiness that I wanted for myself.

That day, I felt weaker than a shrub without roots that is just gone with the wind. But for all that despair that I was feeling at that moment, the Word of God also healed my wounded heart. Romans 3 was a beam of light in my dark soul, when I realized that I truly am justified by grace as a gift through the redemption that is found in Christ Jesus.

I had been working all my life for 25 years to earn what I thought was valuable and would make me happy. But now I realize that infinitely more and internally valuable gift was given to me as just that, a gift by faith. For the first time in my life, I felt peace that I never knew that could exist.

And I had good reasons to be anxious because I didn't really plan it out when I quit. But I wasn't. I really wasn't anxious at all. And it must have been because I knew that I had obtained that eternally valuable gift, the blood of Christ, that saved me from my sin.

I have no doubt that the Word of God is truly living and active. This sword laid bare everything in my heart, and it truly was sharp. But I'm eternally grateful that this sword didn't simply slay me for my sin, but it caused me to repent and it awakens faith in me, which is why I stand here giving this gracious work of God's testimony in my life.

Thank you. (applause) All right. Thanks, Ryan, for your testimony. And I think that's what we're trying to do here. We're trying to see those many years ago how the life of Christ and the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ applies to people thousands of years later just like Ryan.

That's what we're doing every single day this week as we get to Tuesday that that wasn't just then, that Jesus was actually actively and intentionally, just as we learned, both on Sunday and yesterday, intentionally moving his way towards the cross so that people like you and me could have life.

And we're going to be continuing this observation of Jesus' walk on the cross today. This is Tuesday and what we see on Tuesday is kind of a heightening of this desire for the religious leaders to ensnare and to trap Jesus. That's what we're going to see. All these different people that come into play on this Tuesday, interestingly enough, is not going to be Roman soldiers they're not going to be Gentiles or Samaritans.

It's going to be all different sorts of religious leaders. The people who are trying to ensnare Christ were the leaders of the people of God. They were the people of Israel. They were the Pharisees, they were scribes, they were these Herodians and Sadducees and priests. And the crazy thing is these Jewish sects were usually at odds with each other.

There was no unity between these people but they were unifying here on this day with the same goal. They didn't simply want to trap Jesus, they wanted Jesus dead. Jesus knew this. He knew that this was on their hearts. Jesus knew who these teachers and religious leaders were and they were coming together to kill him.

Jesus wasn't startled into this realization and they were coming together to kill him. It's amazing to see what kind of obstacles can be overcome by the unity of the people of God. When we think about what it is for the people of God in the church of God to be unified that overcomes all barriers and obstacles that come united in a single cause of glorifying God and bringing his kingdom.

That's what we see here today. A unity that comes when people, even religious, these people are seemingly morally upright people coming together in their hatred of God. Isaiah chapter 29 verse 13. I want to direct our attention to this verse because we commonly go to this passage to remember but today let's take a little extra time to remember that this is the people that were being talked about here in Isaiah many, many years ago.

And it says there "This people draw near me with their words and honor me with their lip service but they remove their hearts far from me and their reverence for me consists of tradition learned by rote." In Psalm chapter 2 there's a Psalm there that describes all these nations that are coming together raging together in their unity of their opposition before God.

And so you're going to have lots of different types of people but anyone who is in opposition to God is not only found there in Psalm 2 with all the nations but you see it very clearly here even in the nation of Israel. The people that were chosen by God.

These were people who saw Jesus' miracles. They saw his might. They saw his kindness. They saw how compassionate and gracious and loving he was. They saw what he was doing and the power that he came in. They saw his spirit filled teaching. They were wondering who is this man?

And after seeing all this they schemed together. They turn around and all these different groups of Jewish leaders come together and say how can we kill this man? And this is these are all different groups of people that were looking for some sort of an understanding of God. Perhaps waiting for this Messiah for years and years and years and when they finally encounter the man who is systematically fulfilling every single little prophecy that was given in the Old Testament they come across this man and what happens?

How can we kill him? They were studying Scripture day by day and when he arrives they're seething in anger. They want him not just set aside but they want to annihilate him. They want him to be dead. They actually actively plot not just his death but they're plotting his murder.

How can we kill him? You see the intention there? How can we kill him? They overcome great obstacles and barriers and unify before this Jesus not to worship and love him but to kill him. And here is this Messiah Jesus who imposes a threat on what they truly want.

This is a kingdom that they want for themselves. This is a world that revolves around them. This is a desire to say that I want to live on that throne. I want to live as God. So on this day of Passion Week on this Tuesday this is what is heightening.

They are scheming to get him to that cross to kill him. The people who say Lord, Lord are the very ones who are out to ensnare and murder Christ. Jesus knew all of this. Think about that. Jesus was encountering these people and he knew exactly what they were doing.

Jesus who came down and loved to his people to extend a hand of grace and mercy to his people. To spend an entire earthly lifetime wanting nothing more for them to come to know him. To describe to them that I am he you have been waiting for. He has been praying for them.

He has been teaching them. He has been hoping for them to know. He has condescended to humanity and their response isn't to surrender. Their response isn't love or awe. It isn't even neglect or ignorance. It is how can we kill him. I am saying this over and over for a reason because that is what we are moving towards here on this Passion Week.

Because that is the inevitable end of the sinner. That we want to kill him. And on this Tuesday morning Jesus and the disciples wake up in Bethany and they head back to Jerusalem and the Temple. And on the way to Jerusalem they see the withered tree. The fig tree that we heard about yesterday.

And they are reminded of what happens to trees that don't produce fruit. We can't go into that too much but I was describing the nation. And upon reaching the Temple in Jerusalem this is what it says in Matthew Chapter 21 Verse 23. We have it written up for you.

It says when he, when Jesus entered the Temple the chief priest and the elders of the people came to him while he was teaching. And so Jesus, he sees while he is teaching inside of the Temple these religious leaders are coming and he knows exactly why they are coming.

They are ready to ensnare and trap him today on this Tuesday. Especially after what he did yesterday. Man, think about what happens. Sometimes when you get a good night of sleep sometimes it helps you to let the emotions subside. Sometimes it helps you to rile up even more. And they are riled up.

And they are seeking blood. Jesus is a great threat to them. To their desires. For their worldly kingdom. And if God is the means they need to go through to obtain their kingdom then so be it. They want what they want. God and his kingdom is not their end here.

Their own kingdom is their end. They attach God's name to it but it's their own kingdom. Their own desire and will. And you see it immediately in their very first exchange. In Matthew chapter 21 verse 23 they ask a question of Jesus and they ask by what authority are you doing these things and who gave you this authority?

Now anyone with a mustard seed just a small amount of faith should be able to look at what Jesus was doing and connect the dots. They ought to know by whose authority Jesus comes. This is the Messiah. But because they don't like the message because they don't like the fact that when he says he is the king it is not the type of king they were thinking of the king that would bring about my kingdom but his.

The fact that he's saying he is the Lord he is the master what happens is they refuse to submit. They don't bow the knee and so they ask a question that's not really a question they ask by whose authority do you come? The true answer will never satisfy them.

So Jesus says to them I'm not going to tell you. Why? Because you already know but you refuse to believe and so he says in Matthew 21, 27 neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things and this is recognizable to us today because it's always been like this with sinful man always.

It's never changed. God has always been used as a means to the end of the sinful man. Rather than submit to his authority we ask him to bend to my authority. So we ask by whose authority do you come? Think of the ridiculousness of that. As Jesus the creator stands before his people and the people are asking him by whose authority do you come?

It's astonishing. See this we understand this because we will pray to God we will worship God but only as much as it is to establish my own kingdom. The Lord's prayer for us is our father in heaven hallowed be my name make my kingdom come make my will be done that's how we actually pray.

And this is what was happening with the Israelite leaders and Jesus came to show that he had enough of this before he goes to the cross. This Tuesday is when Jesus makes his clearest rebuke against these leaders. Jesus goes into many parables to begin to describe to them in increasing clarity who they are.

And we'll focus on just two parables. Here's the first the vineyard landowner. This is the first parable. Jesus tells this parable of a vineyard landowner who goes on a journey and before he leaves he rented it out to people who would keep the land and to pay him his share.

But what he would do is he would send these slaves to these renters to these people who are renting the land to collect from the produce that they were gathering from. But with every slave he sends to receive some of the produce of his vineyard it says they beat them and they kill them.

He says. He sends a slave and they beat them and kill them. He sends another one and he beats them and kills them. He sends another one and he beats them and kills them. Slave after slave kill. Stand in awe at the incredible nature of the patience of this landowner.

It's almost mind blowing. How many slaves are you going to send? He just keeps killing them. What do you do? This man's patience is incredible here right? That doesn't end. He says maybe if I send my own son they will listen. This isn't foolishness. This is incredible patience and love and graciousness, kindness.

He sends his very own son. This means by the way that this is the inheritor. This is if the landowner is sending his own son. This is the very man who is one day going to inherit all of it. And the sinful heart is laid bare of these religious leaders.

Here it is in one statement the sinful man's heart and tent in verse 38 of chapter 21. They say they scheme together all these people. This is the heir. Come. Let us kill him. And what? Seize his inheritance. Jesus is telling them this parable because he knows. He knows through and through what's going on in their hearts.

And when Jesus asked the Jewish leaders what the landowner will do when they kill this son which they do. They kill the son so that they can have the inheritance which doesn't even make sense. It's almost eerie how well the religious leaders are able to answer what the landowner is going to do.

In verse 41 just three verses after the religious leader said to him he, the landowner, will bring those wretches to a wretched end and will rent out the vineyard to other vine growers who will pay in the proceeds at the proper season. And then in verse 45 it says when the chief priest and the Pharisees heard his parables they understood.

They understood that he was talking about them. Now there's many more parables but here's another one, okay? The wedding feast is the second and last parable we're going to go into. Jesus goes on to tell another parable. A king holds a wedding feast for his son and so now we've moved from a landowner to what?

A king. Matthew is all about the kingdom and the king. Okay, now we're getting increasing clarity here. Now the parable is about a king and he's holding a wedding feast for his son and he sends his slaves out to call those who have been invited to the wedding feast but the people are unwilling to come.

And so again the king sends other slaves with more information. By the way, if you haven't caught on yet these slaves, these servants that are being sent out are alluding to the prophets of old sent to the nation of Israel and in Matthew 22, verse 4, it says, "Tell those who have been invited, 'Behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready.

Come to the wedding feast." It's to enjoy. But without going into the text itself let me just explain to you but those invited pay no attention because they don't care about the king. Instead, this is what Jesus says. He describes them, okay? He says, number one, one owned a farm.

Number two, one owned a business and they said, "I have this to tend to so I cannot come." And thirdly, anyone else that's remaining sees the slaves and here it is again, they killed them. Kill. They want their own life according to their own terms. They don't care about the kingdom of the king.

They care about their very own kingdom. They actually want nothing to do with God, nothing to do with him. They want to live their own lives and remember that all these things are describing these Jewish leaders, the most religious people in Israel and he's speaking to them in the temple in Jerusalem.

But this is what they're willing to do because they honor God with the lips. They say with their lips that they love God and they worship God but they don't really. They actually want to live their own lives. They want their own kingdom and so when the Messiah comes and he does not say he's going to deliver to them what they want, they turn.

Do they just turn a blind eye? No. They seethe. They want him dead. That's what's happening on this Tuesday and Jesus knows and he's taking painstaking time to explain to them what they are. You might see all this rebuke but rebuke done by the sinless son of God, man, this is love I think.

This is grace. He's showing that this is who you are. Do you not see it? They say Lord, Lord, did we not do all these things in your name? One day Jesus will stare them back in the eye unflinching and say I never knew you. The kingdom is reserved for those who love the Lord and live for him.

The kingdom does not house people who live for their own glory and so what is the result? The king in this parable sends his armies, destroys the murderers and sets their city on fire and then the king sends his slaves to the main highways inviting anyone who would come into the wedding.

Those previously uninvited. The kingdom is reserved for those of faith. It does not matter what you look like on the outside. The kingdom is for those who have placed their faith in God and give their lives over to God. It's for the ones who have traded in all things for the king.

It's not for those who put up a religious show but it's for those who live for him. So he's been teaching all day at this temple and he concludes after a full day's work done Jesus caps it all off as if there were any question as to the message to stay in Matthew chapter 23.

Let me read to us verse 2 to 7. The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses. Therefore all that they tell you do and observe but do not do according to their deeds for they say things and do not do them. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger but they do all their deeds to be noticed by men for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments.

They love the places of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by men. And when I hear these words of Jesus all I can hear is their kingdom, their kingdom, their kingdom. That's all I can hear in that.

And so what he does is pronounces woe which is an exclamation of grief and you can think of it like this. Woes mean how greatly one will suffer. When he says pronounces a woe is what terrible pain will come. It means how horrible it will be. And he says woe to the scribes and Pharisees.

He says it seven times. Woe, in verse 13, woe to the scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. In verse 14, woe to the scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. In verse 15, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Verse 16, woe to you blind guides. Verse 23, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

Verse 25, verse 27, verse 29, verbatim, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. He's saying how horrible it will be for you that judgment is being stored and Jesus is making it clear that the proud and arrogant, you are not victims. This will be just recompense for your sin.

They are hard-hearted people who are bringing judgment upon themselves. He has spent this time exposing who they are and what their heart is like and they have proud and arrogant hearts that do not submit to Jesus as he's saying this. Jesus is standing before them preaching his heart out filled with desire.

The King that has come and all they want is for Jesus to fit their own agenda and now because he does not fulfill that, they want to eliminate the threat and so they go and scheme. It is intentional. God has been patient in his desire to extend his grace and mercy for years and years and years and so in verse 34, he says therefore, this is right after all the woes, woe, woe, woe, woe, woe to all of you.

He says therefore, therefore, the only therefore in this whole passage, okay. He says therefore behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men, scribes, some of them you will kill and crucify, some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous bloodshed on earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah.

The Jewish Bible started with Genesis, ended with 2 Chronicles and these were the front and the end, the bookends of prophets that were given that you will kill them all and in verse 37, he cries out Jerusalem, Jerusalem who kills the prophets and stones 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. Behold your house is being left to you desolate. See Jesus' heart is filled here. He's not mean. He's incredibly sad. He is angry. So on the way home, back to Bethany on this Tuesday, they stop by the Mount of Olives.

They go up and it's a place as the sun is going down where they could look out across the whole city. They can see it and Jesus begins to go into the Olivet Discourse. If you're unfamiliar with that, it's where he starts talking about the end and what it will look like.

Jesus describes the persecution, the tribulation, the judgment that happened not only to the prophets of old but to those who will continue, the people of the kingdom. That those who are willing to kill God will most definitely kill his servants. And God's ultimate judgment is coming and he warns them.

It is being reserved but it's only for a time and right now is still a time of grace. He warns them because he loves them and he warns them and he sends them out with this warning so that the church, the church can deliver this. Right now is still a time of grace but the call is still to seek the Lord while he may be found and that is why we can celebrate Passion Week, Good Friday, Resurrection Sunday every single year because we are still existing in a time of God's patient grace.

If you have friends and family who do not know Christ, bring them. Bring them on Friday. Bring them on Sunday that they might come to know him. Would you take a moment now to pray. We're going to just give you maybe three or four minutes or so to pray thinking about Jesus standing before these religious leaders and take the time to see how closely our hearts resemble and mimic these religious leaders, to confess our sins, to repent of our selfish and self-centered ways and to see it as more as flaws or wayward living but see it as what it is, a desire for the elimination of God in our lives.

Our repentance needs to match what our sin actually is. So take this time to pray. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Thank you. We're going to sing a little bit of a song for our closing song.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Son of God ♪ ♪ Shaper of the stars ♪ ♪ You alone ♪ ♪ The dweller of my heart ♪ ♪ Mighty King ♪ ♪ How beautiful you are ♪ ♪ How beautiful ♪ ♪ Son of God ♪ ♪ The Father's gift to us ♪ ♪ You alone ♪ ♪ Were broken on the altar ♪ ♪ Of love ♪ ♪ Precious lamb ♪ ♪ Our freedom's in your blood ♪ ♪ It's in your blood ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, holy one ♪ ♪ I sing to you ♪ ♪ Forgiven ♪ ♪ Savior ♪ ♪ I'm overcome ♪ ♪ With your great love for me ♪ ♪ Son of God ♪ ♪ Son of God ♪ ♪ Strength beyond compare ♪ ♪ You alone ♪ ♪ Darkness cannot bear ♪ ♪ Lord of love ♪ ♪ Your kindness draws me near ♪ ♪ It draws me ♪ ♪ Son of God ♪ ♪ Prophecy of old ♪ ♪ You alone ♪ ♪ Deeper of my soul ♪ ♪ Come again ♪ ♪ And lead your people home ♪ ♪ Come lead us home ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, holy one ♪ ♪ I sing to you ♪ ♪ Forgiven ♪ ♪ Savior ♪ ♪ I'm overcome ♪ ♪ With your great love for me ♪ Sing, "You are worthy." ♪ You are worthy ♪ ♪ You are worthy ♪ ♪ You are worthy ♪ ♪ Of all my praise ♪ ♪ You are beautiful ♪ ♪ You are beautiful ♪ ♪ I will lift up my hands and sing ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, holy one ♪ ♪ I sing to you ♪ ♪ Forgiven ♪ ♪ Savior ♪ ♪ I'm overcome ♪ ♪ With your great love for me ♪ Let's pray.

Oh God, thank you that we can sing a song that reminds us, Lord, of what a wonderful Jesus you sent to us. Oh God, thank you. Thank you so much for your sacrifice. Thank you, Lord, that we can really appreciate this week who you are and what you did.

And Father, I pray that we would not be people who just say that you are the Lord, you are God, but Father, we would be able to say with increasing conviction, you are my Lord and you are my God. Father, that we might not delude ourselves into thinking we follow you when in fact we follow our own making of you.

Forgive us, God. Accept our repentance. And I pray, Lord, that when we say your kingdom come, we love you so much, we understand our place before you enough to say that your kingdom is my kingdom. So thank you, Lord. Thank you for every night that we can spend here together.

And I pray, Father, that we would continue to edify each other, encourage each other until the day Christ returns. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, thank you everyone for coming. We'll see you again tomorrow night, same time.