For my God is the Ancient of Days. For my God is the Ancient of Days. I'm alive and well, your spirit is within me. Because you died and rose again. Amazing love. Father, I thank you for that testimony. And God, thank you for your word that we're about to open that shows us what our Savior did.

And Father, that every step that he took was so necessary, and not just necessary, but the only way. Father, without him having done what he did, we would have no hope. Without Christ, Father, we are nothing. And so as we go into your word, I pray that our eyes and ears would enlarge and God to be able to hear and be captivated again by what you did.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, we're continuing here to observe his walk to the cross. And as Pastor Mark left us with last night, Jesus, he overturns the tables at the temple. And these religious leaders are scheming. They're scheming together. And they're trying to ensnare Jesus. And this is all heightening as time goes.

And what's amazing is that it wasn't the Romans who were leading the charge in this crucifixion, and it wasn't the Samaritans. It wasn't the Gentiles. The people who were trying to ensnare Jesus were the leaders of the people of God. Now take a moment to drink that in. The people of God, these were the Israelites.

So these Pharisees, the scribes, the Herodians, the Sadducees, the priests, all these Jewish sects that were normally at odds with each other were unifying with this common goal to try to ensnare Jesus at this moment in time. They didn't simply want to trap him, though. They actually wanted Jesus dead.

Jesus knew this. Jesus knew intricately what was going on in the hearts of these people. He knew who these teachers and religious leaders were. He's known this way before, by the way. Jesus wasn't startled into this realization. They were coming together to kill him. There's a unity in this desire that these men had.

In their hatred of God, seemingly morally upright people. And these were people who saw Jesus' miracles. They saw his might, his kindness, his grace, his power and spirit-filled teaching, and they turned around and schemed together to kill him. People who are waiting for the Messiah for years when they encounter the man who is systematically accomplishing all that their word, all that the law and the prophets had described.

When he comes into the world, the one that they were studying day by day, when he arrives, they seethe in anger. They want him not just set aside, but they want him annihilated and killed. And they overcome great obstacles and barriers to unify before Jesus. Not to worship him, not to love him, but again, to murder him.

This is the Messiah Jesus who imposes a threat on what they want. A kingdom for themselves. They want a physical kingdom with their names, their desires promoted, and turning to God only as a means of achieving their ends. This is what these men were trying to do. So on this day of Passion Week, this is what's heightening.

These people who say, "Lord, Lord," are the very ones who are out to ensnare and kill him, and it's shocking how deep their hatred goes. Now there's a passage in Matthew 11, verse 13 that shows how shocking this is. It says, "Then he said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' He stretched it out, and it was restored to normal like the other." Now who was this man?

He was a leper. This was an amazing miracle accomplishment. Look at verse 14, look at how they turn around. "But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him as to how they might destroy him." This is absurd. What is going on in the mind of Jesus then? Well, Jesus knew all of this about these religious leaders.

Jesus had come down in love to his people to extend a hand of grace and mercy to his people, and he had spent an entire earthly lifetime wanting nothing more for than his people to come to know him. Jesus had condescended to humanity. He was born into the world as a helpless baby, spent a life laboring in the brokenness of this world, walking amongst sinners.

The creator with creation, enduring temptations and trials and mockery and scorn. And for all this mind-blowing effort of God who had come flesh to save them, the response by the people he came to save was not surrender, love, and awe. Again, it was to crucify. It would have been better maybe for there to be neglect or maybe ignorance, right?

It would have been better for someone just to turn away in apathy, but their response is so indicative of the sinner. It's kill. On this Tuesday morning, Jesus and the disciples wake up in Bethany. I put up a map as well. And they head back to Jerusalem and the temple, and on the way to Jerusalem, they pass by the withered fig tree from yesterday.

I took a cue from Pastor Mark, and there's a tree. There it is for you. And as they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. Being reminded, Peter said to him, "Rabbi, look, the fig tree which you cursed has withered." So this was a blossomed, bloomed, full of leaves tree the day before, and now they're passing by again the next day on Tuesday, and it had withered.

Now he says, being reminded by Peter, who had said, "Rabbi, look, the fig tree which you cursed has withered," trying to show his disciples what happens to people who do not bear fruit, that the only end is death. It's judgment. And they pass by this fig tree to the temple in Jerusalem, where the people of God are.

They're gathered here because it's Passover time. And it says in Matthew 21, verse 23, "When Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people, they come right up to him. They came to him while he was teaching, and Jesus sees that they're ready to ensnare and trap him today, especially after what he did yesterday in cleansing of the temple." Jesus is a great threat to them, to their worldly kingdom.

See, these are people who want what they want. God and his kingdom is not the end for these people. Their own kingdom is their end. It's what they want. And they attach God's name to it, and you see it very immediately in their very first exchange. In Matthew 21, verse 23, these men who had come up to Jesus, they asked this question, "By what authority are you doing these things?

And who gave you this authority?" I mean, up to this point, anyone with a mustard seeds amount of faith would have been able to answer that question. Who? Like, whose authority is he able to do this? But because they don't like the message that he is the king, that he is the Lord, that he is the master, that it is Jesus' kingdom that Jesus comes for, they refuse to submit and bow the knee to Jesus, and they ask this question, "Then by whose authority?" even though it should be so clear who he is by this point.

The true answer won't satisfy them. So Jesus says, "I'm not going to tell you." Why? Because he has already been given every evidence as to who he was. And yet they were unwilling to yield and turn to him in faith. This is the unbeliever's heart. We have been given every ounce of evidence that is needed for us to place our faith in him, to know who he is, to understand who we need, and yet the sinner's reaction is to go after personal kingdom.

And if it means we've got to go through Christ, then so be it. And so Jesus answers in Matthew 21, 27, "Neither will I tell you then by what authority I do these things." Jesus had come to show that he had enough. Before he goes to the cross, this Tuesday is when Jesus makes the clearest rebuke to these religious leaders.

Jesus goes into many parables, actually, to describe it to them, but we're going to focus on two parables. The first parable is the vineyard landowner. Jesus tells a parable of a vineyard landowner who goes on a journey, and let me read this for us. In Matthew 21, 33, he says, "Listen to another parable.

There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and rented it out to vine growers and went on a journey. Now when the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine growers to receive his produce.

The vine growers took his slaves. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third." So again, he sent another group of slaves larger than the first, and they did the same thing to them. But afterward, he sent his son to them, saying, "They will respect my son." But when the vine growers saw the son, they said amongst themselves, "This is the heir.

Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance." They took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Jesus is telling a parable to them, and it's pretty clear what he's trying to say to them, right? They want the inheritance. Jesus knows this as he's looking at these leaders.

They want Jesus' inheritance. They want Jesus' kingdom. They want the world that belongs to Christ. Even though he is the Lord, these religious leaders want it all. They want the kingdom without the king. They want the perks of God's world without God or worship of God. And Jesus is describing what they are willing to do to him.

Jesus knows what he's walking into. He knew every step of the way what was going to happen to him, and yet he continues down this path. And so what is the answer they come up with when he asks this question? Well, in verse 38, he says, "This is the heir.

Come, let us kill him and seize an inheritance." Jesus asks these Jewish leaders what that landowner will do. They're able to answer with remarkable clarity. It's disturbing how well they understand what the landowner should do. Listen in verse 41. "The religious leaders said to him, 'He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and will rent out the vineyard to other vine growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper season.'" And it says, "If we weren't clear that they understood that he was talking about them." Matthew 21, 45, "When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they understood that he was speaking about them." Now, why do they not turn at this point?

Parable number two, the wedding feast. Jesus goes on to tell in another parable, "A king is holding a wedding feast for his son. He sends his slaves out to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, but the people were unwilling to come. Then the king sends other slaves with more information." These slaves, by the way, were alluding to past prophets of Israel.

They had been given evidence after evidence, prophecy after prophecy, all that they needed to believe that he is the Messiah. He fulfilled every single prophecy. And those invited in this story, if we look at Matthew 22, 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.' But these invited pay no attention to this invitation." And instead, Jesus says three things happened. One, he owned a farm that he wanted to tend to. Second person, he owned a business that he wanted to tend to.

And the third one, the rest seized the slaves and killed them. And there it is again. They want their own life according to their own terms. They actually want nothing to do with God. They want nothing to do with the king. They want to live out their own lives.

Remember, these are all describing these Jewish religious leaders. He's speaking inside of the temple at Jerusalem, at the most important Jewish festival season. It's the people who are supposed to be the closest to God, who are the most seething, who are the most scheming, who are the clearest depiction of what a sinner looks like.

These are men who honor God with their lips. They say they love God, but they don't. They say, "Lord, Lord, did we not do all these things in your name?" And one day, Jesus will stare them back in the eyes, 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 kingdoms, who live for their own glory. And so what's the result? Similar to the parable of the vineyard landowner, the king sends his armies, destroys the murderers, which is found in verse 7 of chapter 22. But the king was enraged.

He was enraged, and it's obvious that he should be enraged. He extends his hand of grace to these people to invite them to the wedding feast of his son, and that's how he treats them? That's how they treat them? And it says, "And he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire." And Jesus is telling this parable.

The fig tree, the parable of the vineyard, the parable of this wedding feast all ends in the same way. It's death. It's destruction. It's judgment. Jesus is saying, "This is what lays. This is what exists at the end for the sinner." And Jesus knows that as he's walking on the way to the cross, that for those he will lay down his life for, this is what he's facing.

It is not something he is just yelling out at a bunch of people. He is willing to lay down his life. The king sends his slaves to the main highways, inviting anyone who would come to the wedding, those previously not invited. And this kingdom is reserved for those of faith.

It doesn't matter what you look like on the outside. The kingdom is for those who will place their faith in God and give their lives up to God. It's for the ones who have traded in all things for God. It's not for those who put up a religious show.

It is not for those who posture and pose. It is for those who live for the king. So this takes us into the afternoon of Tuesday. He's been teaching all day long at the temple, this very temple just a day before where he had overturned those tables. A full day's work of teaching done to this afternoon point.

And Jesus caps it all off as if there were any question as to the message that he was trying to portray in Jerusalem that day in Matthew 23. I'll just read verses 2 through 7. "The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses. Therefore, all that they tell you, do not observe." This is no longer a parable.

He says, "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 place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by men. And the result is a woe." Woe is an exclamation of grief. It is literally a statement of intense hardship or distress. It's disaster being pronounced upon people.

You can think of it like how greatly one will suffer. He's pronouncing this kind of suffering and judgment. What terrible pain will come? Is this not clear enough? Jesus has this on his mind, saying, "This is what lies in wait for those who will not turn." Seven times he pronounces these woes, a perfect number.

Clearly stating that the proud and arrogant are not victims. They are hard-hearted people who will bring judgment upon themselves. He has spent this time exposing who they are and what their heart is like, but these proud and arrogant people do not submit to the Lord. And they will do anything in their power to make sure that they gain their kingdom.

They will, if there is no other option, eliminate the threat that stands before them, even if it is the Messiah himself, deceiving themselves into thinking or saying, into believing that perhaps this is not he, even though every evidence was given to them. That this man does not fit their agenda.

This man does not fit the way they think their worship ought to be. It is a supremely man-centered worship that they exist in. This is the heart of sin. This is the heart of the rebellion of mankind. And God has been patient in his desire to extend grace and mercy for years and years.

And so he concludes in Matthew 23, 34, in this teaching. He says, "Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and 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 blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar." Verse 37, "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." This is Jesus' heart. It's angry. And it is incredibly sad. The Lord's desire is for none to perish, but for all to come to repentance.

Jesus is exposing his heart, not just of the Jews, but for the sinner. Desiring to live my way. It's not just wayward living. It's not just a flaw. It's not just something to be rectified. It's not just something that we have to try better and harder. It is something that goes so much deeper than that.

That this type of living Jesus is trying to describe, that it ends only in judgment. Why? Because in the face of these religious leaders shows that for the sinner, it is not just a flaw. It is a desire of the death of God in our lives. Which we will see as we continue as he walks towards the cross.

This week, every step that Jesus takes is intentional. Every thought that he has, every word he speaks is an intentional thing that is accomplished sovereignly. So, we come back to the slide. After Jerusalem, he's headed on his way back to Bethany. Perhaps on Tuesday, there's the most packed teaching and most described about what Jesus did.

And so, we didn't even get to touch the Olivet Discourse. Maybe next year, we can do that. But they stop by on the Mount of Olives and look over the city of Jerusalem. And Jesus begins to describe to his disciples the one who do know who he is. The ones who have given up their lives to follow him.

His true disciples. What to look for. Because he's going to come back. That they have not yet seen him die. But to the ones who love him. And so, as he explains God's ultimate judgment that's coming. As he talks about this discourse. This judgment that's being reserved. There is something afterwards that I like to think that the disciples saw.

That until that judgment day comes, we do still exist in a time of grace. Where the message of the cross still belongs. Because there is hope. And there is grace. For anyone who today would turn their faith towards Christ. I wanted to conclude with Romans chapter 5 verse 6 through 8.

You see, at just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person. Though for a good person, someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

I hope that as we keep going through Wednesday and all the way to Good Friday and then Resurrection Sunday. That we remember this together. That this is what Jesus was doing. And on that cross we will see fury and we will see love. And Jesus had all that in his mind as he looked upon his people.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would help us to have the right mentality. And God to have a humble posture. That we would wonder again how our God, how our creator, our Lord, our Savior and Master could do this for us. And so God, even as we conclude in song.

I pray Lord that it would come from a deep place of deep seated worship. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. We all stand for our closing praise. Though the nations Though the nations rage Kingdoms rise and fall There is still one King Reigning over all Oh, I will not fear For this truth remains That my God is the Ancient of Days None above Him, none before Him All of time in His hands For His throne it shall remain and ever stand All the power, all the glory I will trust in His name For my God is the Ancient of Days Though the dread Though the dread of night Overwhelms my soul He is here with me I am not alone Oh, His love is sure And He knows my name For my God is the Ancient of Days None above Him, none before Him All of time in His hands For His throne it shall remain and ever stand All the power, all the glory I will trust in His name For my God is the Ancient of Days Though I may not see What the future brings I will watch and wait For the Savior King Then my joy completes Standing face to face In the presence of the Ancient of Days None above Him, none before Him All of time in His hands For His throne it shall remain and ever stand All the power, all the glory I will trust in His name For my God is the Ancient of Days For my God is the Ancient of Days Would you take a moment to pray on your own and I'll close us in prayer.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. So Father, as we continue just gathering together, what a joy and privilege it is to do that. God, I pray that the cross, though it happened 2,000 years ago, would have so much relevance for us, not only at the moment of our conversion, but today.

And so Lord, we want to thank you that you, our God, walked amongst us, that you would care so much, that you would dwell amongst your people. And Father, that we will give you the worship that you rightly deserve. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, well tonight, again, we're going to be keeping this place open until 9.30 and we're shutting it down.

So feel free to fellowship with one another until then, and we'll see you tomorrow night.