What do I know with Isaac Carroll
What do I know with Isaac Carroll
Walking Through Matthew 21: Palm Sunday, Temple Cleansing, and Divine Authority
The triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem marks a pivotal moment in history when the long-awaited Messiah publicly revealed himself to Israel. Riding on a donkey—a powerful symbol of peace rather than war—Jesus fulfilled ancient prophecies while making a profound statement about the nature of his kingship. The crowds recognized this significance, laying palm branches and shouting "Hosanna!" in a celebration that terrified the religious establishment.
What follows this royal entrance, however, is not what anyone expected. Jesus immediately confronts the corrupt religious system by cleansing the temple—overturning tables and driving out those who had turned worship into profit. This bold act sets the stage for his confrontation with religious hypocrisy that continues throughout the chapter.
Perhaps most fascinating is Jesus' curse of the fig tree, which withers immediately at his command. Far from a random miracle, this becomes a powerful object lesson about the emptiness of religious appearance without spiritual fruit. The tree, covered in leaves but bearing no fruit, perfectly symbolizes the religious leaders who maintained all the trappings of godliness while producing nothing of spiritual value. Through clever parables and direct challenges, Jesus systematically dismantles their authority while revealing a shocking truth: tax collectors and prostitutes who respond to God's message will enter the kingdom before those who merely perform religion.
This powerful study challenges us to examine our own lives. Are we merely maintaining religious appearances, or are we bearing genuine spiritual fruit? Have we embraced Jesus as the humble King who calls us to authentic faith? Listen now and discover why true discipleship isn't about looking holy but about allowing God to produce real fruit through a transformed heart.
May God bless you and lead you always.
Welcome to the podcast. I'm Isaac Carroll and this is what Do I Know. Alright, in today's Bible study we're going to be beginning chapter 21 of Matthew. I was really hoping that I would get here last week. Last week was the start of Cross Week, which was the week we celebrated this very chapter. This past Sunday was Resurrection Sunday. This past Sunday was Resurrection Sunday and, like I said, I had planned on getting this here at the beginning of last week, but I had an opportunity to go to Clarksville, around Atlanta in Georgia, to join a sin relief project there.
Speaker 1:Sin relief is a they help refugees and I had an opportunity to go there. So Sin Relief is a they help refugees and I had an opportunity to go there and to join with them in helping refugees and showing the love of Christ to people. As I was there, we spent a lot of time in the class coming to understand the unique situation that refugees are in and help us have a little compassion towards them. With today's society and with all the illegal immigrants and everything that's been going on in our country over the last few years, and it's just really had a bad effect on how people look at refugees, and none of the churches around Clarksville had really joined in with Sin Relief, in showing the love of Christ to people who are in desperate need of something. They're in another country with different laws, different cultures, different things that they do, and they didn't necessarily ask to be here. They were fleeing from an opposing army or they were fleeing from death, and that's what they call refugees. They're seeking refuge from a crisis in the country they were in and I'm sure, as I've talked to a lot of them, they wanted to be back home. So they were misplaced and come to a place where people look at them strangely and unwelcoming, and especially in this time and season in our country. So no one was really accepting to them and the church filled with normal people just like me and you, who have the same ideas and see the same thing going on in our, in our media. I guess we just can't help but be influenced by it and it shows a bias in the church that it really shouldn't be there. And I'm not telling you all this so that it will change your mind and show how the church needs to be the body of Christ that it was meant to be, but to explain why I find myself in a unique situation of trying to go through cross week or go through the Palm Sunday, the week of the crucifixion and the resurrection, after we've already celebrated it. But I refuse to do it a disservice because I know you guys have already been through it. So I'll do my best to give this the attention it deserves.
Speaker 1:All right, let's begin in verse 1. When they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, jesus said to his disciples, saying to them Go into the village opposite you and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with it. Untie them and bring them to me, and if anyone says anything to you, you shall say the Lord needs them and he will send them immediately. Now this took place so that what was spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled. Say to the daughters of Zion Behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them, and they brought the donkey and the colt and laid their cloaks on them and he settled on the cloaks. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road. Now the crowds going ahead of him and those who followed were shouting Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the son of David Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest. When he entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred saying who is this? And the crowds were saying this is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. All right, let's stop here at 11 and discuss what's going on Now.
Speaker 1:I'm sure by now you've heard or probably have read this significance of Jesus riding in on the colt, what it represents symbolically. All right, there's two ways. One, when a king rode in on a donkey that had never been ridden, it was to show he came in peace and that there was a transfer of power. That was the reason why the coat could have never been ridden before. The second symbolization of this fulfillment of prophecy is what the donkey stands for as opposing to a white war horse, which is a conquering king, a donkey symbolizes service, peace and peace. As the donkey was seen as a lowly animal of labor, jesus was announcing his intentions as he moved to enter into the city. Their king had come to bring peace by being a great service of which no man can accomplish besides himself.
Speaker 1:No entry of a new king would be complete without its fanfare, an outcry of the people, and they shouted Hosanna, which is a cries of praise, and it means savior or rescuer in Hebrew. The very act of cutting palm branches and laying them before Jesus was a deep, significant Jewish culture which showed that they were affirming Jesus as the prophesied Messiah, the coming King. He was the Christ and they were affirming that by actually laying these palm branches ahead of him, that he would walk over them. They were affirming their belief that he was the Messiah. The act was so significant of Jesus' triumphant entry that the Pharisees saw it and they were greatly disturbed and they approached Jesus in Luke 19. They said but some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him Teacher, rebuke your disciples. Verse 40,. He says. I tell you he answered If they remained silent, the very rocks would cry out in their place. It's as if nature itself was welcoming its king. All right, let's continue in verse 12.
Speaker 1:And Jesus entered the temple area and drove out those who were selling and buying on the temple grounds and he overturned tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves and he said to them it is written my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves. And those who were blind and those who limped came to him in the temple area and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he had done and the children who were shouting in the temple area Hosanna to the Son of David, they became indignant and they said to him Do you hear what these children are saying? And Jesus said to them yes, have you never read From the mouth of infants and nursing babies? You have prepared praise for yourself. And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany and he spent the night there.
Speaker 1:Now, early in the morning, when he was returning to the city, he became hungry and seeing a long fig tree by the road, he came to it and found nothing on it except leaves. And he said to it no longer shall there ever be any fruit from you. And at once the fig tree withered. Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked how did the fig tree wither all at once. And Jesus answered and said to them Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was just done to this fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea, it will happen. And whatever you ask for in prayer, believe it and you will receive it all. All right, let's stop here at verse 22. We have just read where Jesus shows his authority by turning over tables and rebuking those who were trading his house, the house of God, as a place to make money. Yes, yes, I can hear the sermon being preached now. How many churches out there who are having their hand out on every little chance they get? And let me just tell you, I know that ministry costs money, but God knows the heart and he shows here that he will punish everyone who takes advantage and uses his house for a house of profit.
Speaker 1:The lesson of the fig tree gets lost. The significance of a tree and leaf is that it has all the trappings, all the outer trappings, of a beautiful, healthy tree. When Jesus goes to the tree, and Jesus being Jesus, he knows that there's no fruit on it. And he sees no fruit on it. He curses the tree and it withers the outer trappings of a person. The way they look means nothing if there's no fruit. And I know Jesus meant this for the Pharisees and the scribes, because they had all the outer trappings of a good, godly man and the people looked up to him as being righteous. But in truth there was no fruit there. Without the fruit, how you look matters not at all. It's the fruit that matters, and it's the fruit that matters in our lives just as much as it does to scribes and the Pharisees.
Speaker 1:Jesus goes on further to expound on this later in this chapter, where he says to them the authority that you have will be taken from you and given to another who will bear its fruits. Jesus isn't asking us to look a certain way. He's asking for our hearts to be changed. And when you truly change, when God truly changes your heart, fruit will naturally be the outcome of a life that is changed, a life lived, and it won't even really be you producing the fruit. It'll be God producing the fruit in you, and it won't even really be you producing the fruit. It'll be God producing the fruit in you, but you'll be more worried about doing the work than what it looks like to do the work. These men were more worried about the authority and what they look like and being praised by everybody else about how they looked than they were actually getting God's work done of saving souls and showing the love of God, of protecting the innocent and helping the widows and the orphans and all the things that God tells us to do. They were more worried about looking good than they were doing anything of real significance in the kingdom of God. All right, let's continue in verse 23.
Speaker 1:When he entered the temple area, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him while he was teaching and he said by what authority are you doing these things and who gave you this authority? But Jesus responded and said to them I will ask you one question which, if you tell me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things the baptism of John. What was its source? From heaven or from men? They began to consider this implications among themselves, saying If we say from heaven, he will say to us, then why did you not believe him? But if we say from men, we fear the people, for they all regard John as a prophet. And answering Jesus, they said we do not know. And he also said to them Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things, but what do you think?
Speaker 1:A man who had two sons and he came to the first and he said Son son, go work today in the vineyard. But he replied I do not want to. Yet afterward he regretted it and went. And the man came to the second son and he said the same thing and he replied I will, sir. And yet he did not go. Which of the two did the will of the father? They said the first. Jesus said to them, truly, I say to you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you, for John came in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did believe in him and you, seeing this, did not even have a second thought afterward so as to believe him.
Speaker 1:Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and he dug a wine press in it and he built a tower and he leased it to vine growers and went on a journey and when harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine growers to receive his fruit. And the vine growers took his slaves and they beat them. He killed another and stoned another Again. He sent other slaves, more than the first. They did the same things to them, but afterward he sent his son to them, saying they will respect my son.
Speaker 1:But when the vine growers saw the son, they said among themselves this is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take possession of his inheritance. They took him and they threw him out of the vineyard and they killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine growers? They said to him All right, we come to the end of chapter 21. To arrest him, they feared the crowds, since they all considered him to be a prophet. All right, we come to the end of chapter 21. I'm going to end this one here. We'll pick back up in Matthew 22 in our next podcast. Until then, you guys, I love you. God bless you. Goodbye.