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SPEAKER_01: Happy Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you wore your green, some for the masters, I've been told.
SPEAKER_01: Turn your Bibles to Mark chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: We're continuing on this series.
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SPEAKER_01: Well, I wanted to start this morning uh looking from the vantage point of Jesus as he was peering down.
SPEAKER_01: So I've got a little video that Google Maps helped me with.
SPEAKER_01: So if you all watch this, doesn't have any music, but just watch from his vantage point coming in.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's gonna move.
SPEAKER_01: From the Mount of Olives, he's seen Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: This scene is one of the most climactic scenes in the story of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: As he's overlooking a familiar territory for him, a landscape that he would have known.
SPEAKER_01: He stands atop that Mount of Olives, some 2,600 feet above sea level, and he's peering down over that population.
SPEAKER_01: Historians tell us that the population in Jerusalem around this time was about 80,000 people, but during Passover week, two to three million people would crowd the streets in celebration and anticipation of Holy Week.
SPEAKER_01: That's where we're at today.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want you to put yourself into this story and see this vantage point.
SPEAKER_01: Pray with me.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we love you.
SPEAKER_01: We are thankful for your goodness to us.
SPEAKER_01: God, we're thankful for Holy Week and Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: And God, for the entrance of a worthy King.
SPEAKER_01: God, I pray that you would meet with us through this service, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that we can, even as we're listening and hearing from your word, that we would be worshiping our worthy King.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, help us.
SPEAKER_01: God, the things that we brought in this morning, I pray that you would just check them now.
SPEAKER_01: Empty our minds, clear our hearts, let us hear what you have to speak.
SPEAKER_01: Get me out of the way.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, this is your agenda.
SPEAKER_01: We love you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Mark chapter 11, look down at verses 1 through 3.
SPEAKER_01: And the first thing I want you to notice this morning, the gospel on the ground is worthy to fulfill prophecy.
SPEAKER_01: Mark 11, verse 1 to 3 says, Now when they drew near Jerusalem to Bethage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, Go into the village opposite you, and as soon as you have entered it, you will find a coat tied on which no one has sat.
SPEAKER_01: Loose it and bring it.
SPEAKER_01: And if anyone says to you, Why are you doing this?
SPEAKER_01: say the Lord has need of it, and immediately he will send it here.
SPEAKER_01: Letter A is this a messianic expectation.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus had been in Bethany just a few weeks prior, they say, uh late winter or early spring, as spring was coming, to raise Lazarus from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: And according to John chapter 12, six days before Passover, before Holy Week, Jesus was back in Bethany.
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting, the name for Bethany means house of the poor, a place where Jesus decided to put his self into often, and some of his friendships were there.
SPEAKER_01: But there in John chapter 12, I want you to realize what Jesus was facing as he peered out and looked over from the Mount of Olives.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things it says later in John 12 that he was dealing with as he faced this oncoming holy week.
SPEAKER_01: It says, John 12, 27, 28, My soul is troubled within me.
SPEAKER_01: What shall I say?
SPEAKER_01: Father, save me from this hour.
SPEAKER_01: But for this hour I've come.
SPEAKER_01: Father, glorify thy name.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus looked over that city, and it says later that he looked over and he was moved with compassion over the city.
SPEAKER_01: This expectation that's come.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is holding the weight of years and years.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, 400 years or more have gone by since the last prophet until the birth of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You know what's happened in 400 years?
SPEAKER_01: 400 years from today, the Mayflower Compact was signed.
SPEAKER_01: 1620.
SPEAKER_01: 1638.
SPEAKER_01: The literal first Baptist Church was formed.
SPEAKER_01: The first First Baptist church.
SPEAKER_01: 1638.
SPEAKER_01: Now we have 47,000 Southern Baptist churches in 400 years.
SPEAKER_01: The first Baptist church, 1638.
SPEAKER_01: A lot can happen in 400 years.
SPEAKER_01: None of us that I know has ever spoken of a tie that they have to 1600 or 1700.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody's ever told me of any ties that you have to that.
SPEAKER_01: I had a grandmother who was born in the late 1800s.
SPEAKER_01: And when I knew her, the whole time I knew her, she was old.
SPEAKER_01: I think she was born old.
SPEAKER_01: That's how they were born back then.
SPEAKER_01: 400 years of expectation.
SPEAKER_01: Everything about this culture that I know has changed in my lifetime.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all with me?
SPEAKER_01: In 40 years, it is vastly different from the way that I grew up.
SPEAKER_01: So in 400 years, 10 times that?
SPEAKER_01: So the expectation of this moment to me is quite surprising.
SPEAKER_01: 400 years have passed, and the people, two and three million people, are packing Jerusalem for an expectation of a Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_01: I thought about that.
SPEAKER_01: We could use a little expectation.
SPEAKER_01: There's power in expectation.
SPEAKER_01: But you and I and our kids for certain we live in an instant gratification world.
SPEAKER_01: We almost don't experience expectation anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Define the word hope without expectation.
SPEAKER_01: Define the word faith without expectation.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 11:1 says, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
SPEAKER_01: It's this anticipation, this waiting, this expectation of something that will come.
SPEAKER_01: I've been talking lately to my kids about money.
SPEAKER_01: And it's difficult.
SPEAKER_01: They have it difficult.
SPEAKER_01: I believe this, because they've never known anything of a world that hasn't been instant.
SPEAKER_01: Their idea of expectation is waiting on the one-day Amazon delivery.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all with me?
SPEAKER_01: How did they check with mom?
SPEAKER_01: Is it here yet?
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, you know, we're hours of expectation.
SPEAKER_01: One time, I won a Gatorade sweepstakes because the Chicago Bulls won the championship in six games, and I got the cap and I sent it in the mail and everything that went with it.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm telling you, so much time went by that I when it came in the mail, I totally forgot that I mailed something to begin with.
SPEAKER_01: It was like, I can't believe this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking months past, and all of a sudden a Gatorade dump just fell at my door, and I'm like, wow! I've forgotten all of this.
SPEAKER_01: I was thinking about vacations growing up, right?
SPEAKER_01: Our kids have everything to sit in the car with and keep their minds occupied.
SPEAKER_01: And like we we would go to Ocean City, Maryland, and along the way, as a kid, I learned the things that were on the road along the way.
SPEAKER_01: This was just two hours.
SPEAKER_01: But I would start getting more and more excited as I seen that store and that movie theater and that dinosaur golf place and all this stuff.
SPEAKER_01: That was Ocean City.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, kids, my parents, the other vacation place we went was Mountain City, Tennessee, 500 miles from home.
SPEAKER_01: We rode in the back of a truck cab.
SPEAKER_01: No seat, but I'm talking the back of a truck.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all hearing me?
SPEAKER_01: And if we needed something, we had to knock on the drive-thru window and ask mom.
SPEAKER_01: 500 miles like that.
SPEAKER_01: Talk about expectation, anticipation.
SPEAKER_01: I felt every bump.
SPEAKER_01: Boom.
SPEAKER_01: Me and my sister, sometimes my cousins.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we did, and that was expectation.
SPEAKER_01: Man, expectation.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all remember Layaway?
SPEAKER_01: This is a seedy department in the back of Walmart that you didn't want to see nobody in.
SPEAKER_01: Heather and I put a TV on Layaway when we got married.
SPEAKER_01: Took us three, four, five weeks, I don't know how many, but we go back there and we hope we didn't see anybody, and we would slip somebody a handshake, cash, and turn back around.
SPEAKER_01: Waited weeks to get that TV, right?
SPEAKER_01: Expectation.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let me even get into TV programming.
SPEAKER_01: One time I waited 16 weeks to finish the wonder years.
SPEAKER_01: These kids know nothing of expectation.
SPEAKER_01: They'll just binge, and seven hours later, they wake up the next morning for school and have seen a whole series.
SPEAKER_01: The world has lost expectation.
SPEAKER_01: How much time, church, do we spend in godly expectation?
SPEAKER_01: How many days have we prayed yearning for a move of God in our life?
SPEAKER_01: Have we sought God over something, over an opportunity, over somebody's soul?
SPEAKER_01: We've lost expectation.
SPEAKER_01: We're missing the priority of expectation.
SPEAKER_01: It to me is by no mistake that the curtain of eternity is drawn with a 400-year intermission and this godly expectation.
SPEAKER_01: You ever been in one of them plays, husbands?
SPEAKER_01: And intermission came and you were thank God for intermission.
SPEAKER_01: 400 years of this pause, and in the grand moment when the stage was set and all the props were in place, God from eternity pulled back the curtain and he said, Action.
SPEAKER_01: And the camera moves to let her be a momentous equestrian.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to see, turn your Bibles to Zechariah 9, verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: Not certain this is what everyone thought was going to happen after 400 years.
SPEAKER_01: But it's prophetic.
SPEAKER_01: Zechariah 9, verse 9 says, Rejoice, O daughter of Zion, shout Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, our King, he is just, having salvation, and is lowly riding on a donkey.
SPEAKER_01: The camera pans over to prophecy as Jesus is seated there at the Mount of Olives there in Bethany, and he's peering down, and prophecy is beginning to unfold.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 3.15 is the first occurrence of this prophecy.
SPEAKER_01: As Adam and Eve sinned in the garden and the serpent is cursed.
SPEAKER_01: These words came forth.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 3.15, her seed shall crush your head.
SPEAKER_01: And that was talking of the future seed of Jesus coming, and his heel would crush the head of the serpent.
SPEAKER_01: This was coming.
SPEAKER_01: This was prophecy.
SPEAKER_01: It's the first prophecy.
SPEAKER_01: We have creation, family, the fall of man, and then the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: And then Isaiah 7 says the virgin would bring forth a son.
SPEAKER_01: And then in Micah 5, 2, it says he would be born in Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 53 says he would be despised and rejected.
SPEAKER_01: But here in Mark, from Zechariah, Mark here says, the Lord hath need of him.
SPEAKER_01: Think about that.
SPEAKER_01: The creator of all things, who's been doing miracle after miracle, hath need of something.
SPEAKER_01: And what did he have need of?
SPEAKER_01: He had need of a donkey.
SPEAKER_01: This must have been the most famous donkey in history.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we got Eeyore.
SPEAKER_01: Balaam's donkey in Numbers 22, you know, a speaking donkey.
SPEAKER_01: And this donkey.
SPEAKER_01: I think this must be the most important donkey in history.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus mounts this lowly donkey.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's important that you see some Old Testament tradition.
SPEAKER_01: Exodus 13, 13, if you have time to turn there, I want you to see some of the history steeped in Jews.
SPEAKER_01: Exodus 13, 13 says, Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb.
SPEAKER_01: If you will not redeem it with a lamb, then you shall break its neck.
SPEAKER_01: Jewish tradition is this that to re the redemption of a donkey be by a lamb.
SPEAKER_01: You see, a donkey was seen as an unclean animal, and so if you wanted to redeem it, if you wanted to use this donkey, keep this donkey, use it, then you had to offer a lamb.
SPEAKER_01: The Israelites would learn the lesson that a donkey is a picture of us in our uncleanness.
SPEAKER_01: It's a picture of us in our sin.
SPEAKER_01: And if you were an Israelite and you wanted the use of your donkey, it had to be redeemed by a spotless lamb.
SPEAKER_01: Or else the donkey was to have its neck broken.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 6.23 said, For the wages of sin for the sinner is death, a broken neck.
SPEAKER_01: But the gift of God was eternal, the gift of God was eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 6.23, and so the wages of sin, death is to come upon everyone, and for in order for us to have redemption, the donkey had to have a lamb.
SPEAKER_01: And you remember what the entrance music was of John the Baptist the great announcer?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Behold, the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of all the world.
SPEAKER_01: And that lamb came riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.
SPEAKER_01: Are you seeing that picture?
SPEAKER_01: Point number two this morning, he was worthy to be the potentate.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Mark 11, verse 5 through 8.
SPEAKER_01: But some of those who stood there said to them, Why are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: Loose loosing the colt.
SPEAKER_01: And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded, so they let them go.
SPEAKER_01: Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and he sat on it, and many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
SPEAKER_01: We see letter A, this lowly entrance.
SPEAKER_01: A lowly, a humble, a mild entrance.
SPEAKER_01: Four hundred years of expectation, and here Jesus comes on a small donkey.
SPEAKER_01: Not a great horse, not a chariot fit for a king.
SPEAKER_01: This unimposing donkey.
SPEAKER_01: He is bringing salvation, but just a lowly donkey.
SPEAKER_01: That word lowly means ani or poor and afflicted.
SPEAKER_01: The Greek word for it is prouse, and it means meek.
SPEAKER_01: What's that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Proverbs 11 2 says this church pride comes with disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: He came in humbly.
SPEAKER_01: James 4, 6 and 10.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 6 says, God resists the proud and he gives grace to the humble.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this, verse 10 of James 4.
SPEAKER_01: Humble yourselves before the Lord and you will be lifted up.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians 3 tells us that as a Christian, the clothes of a Christian, we should be clothed in humility.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you struggle today with humility?
SPEAKER_01: All those with their hands down.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Proverbs 15, 33 said, before destruction, I need you to hear these verses.
SPEAKER_01: Before destruction, a man's heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.
SPEAKER_01: But humility comes before honor.
SPEAKER_01: That is repeated in Proverbs 18 and Proverbs 29.
SPEAKER_01: Humility comes before honor.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Jesus ministered quietly into this moment.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was trying not to get astir or rallied around him before his time was come.
SPEAKER_01: And when his moment was come, he comes in humbly on a donkey.
SPEAKER_01: The Romans who would later read this would have been appalled by a king coming with this lack of pomp and circumstance.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was both royalty and divinity, God and man, all wrapped in a single individual.
SPEAKER_01: And he willfully arrived in a lowly manner.
SPEAKER_01: Riding this small donkey.
SPEAKER_01: Well, there's a shift, letter be, of lofty exaltation.
SPEAKER_01: He's riding in, he's coming down that pathway into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Verses 9 and 10.
SPEAKER_01: Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying or singing, Hosanna.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed is the kingdom of our Father David that comes in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Hosanna in the highest.
SPEAKER_01: So there's people there who understood the expectation.
SPEAKER_01: And there's people who understood the prophecies.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's people there that see the weight of the moment and they would have understood it.
SPEAKER_01: There are people there who are just the crowd.
SPEAKER_01: And there's people there that are waving leaves with them, palm branches with them, that are just with the crowd.
SPEAKER_01: Often you're going to see through life there's a lot of people who are just with the crowd.
SPEAKER_01: Where the wind blows, they'll go.
SPEAKER_01: Where the trend goes, they go.
SPEAKER_01: And so there are people with the crowd, and there are people who understood the moment.
SPEAKER_01: That word hosanna is Hashinah, and it means save us now.
SPEAKER_01: So as the Messiah's coming forth on a donkey, they begin to sing, save us now.
SPEAKER_01: We're finally, some people thought, finally going to be freed from Roman tyranny, from political power, from military struggle, finally.
SPEAKER_01: But some said, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: A recognition of the real Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Now the curtain has been pulled and people begin singing.
SPEAKER_01: Luke's account, Dave made mention of, that the Pharisees that were there in the crowd, it was not well received to them.
SPEAKER_01: They did not like that people were shouting, Hosanna, save us.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus, who had been quiet, maybe talked about it to his disciples, but now on this public display, says, if they had not sang Hosanna, the rocks would have cried out in praise in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: Think about the crowd that day.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know, but who might have been there?
SPEAKER_01: Remember, he was in Bethany, and just months before he raised Lazarus from the dead, which is a big turning point why the people started to come after him.
SPEAKER_01: Lazarus might have been in that crowd.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe Mary and Martha just before this happened, maybe now seeing Bartimaeus, formerly known as blind Bartimaeus.
SPEAKER_01: Full of people in this crowd who had been healed and ministered to and delivered by Jesus was part of this crowd.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to tell you, in that parade, I'm there.
SPEAKER_01: Aren't you?
SPEAKER_01: And this long parade that's continued all the way throughout eternity of the people and the lives that Jesus has touched.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine it.
SPEAKER_01: It reminded me in the study this week of the old hymn.
SPEAKER_01: There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It says, There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: No, not one.
SPEAKER_01: No one else could heal all of our diseases.
SPEAKER_01: No, not one.
SPEAKER_01: Here's this lowly Jesus coming into this town, and there's a divide of the crowd of which understanding of what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus is the one who became poor so that one day we could be rich.
SPEAKER_01: He is the one that became sin because of my sin.
SPEAKER_01: He is the one that left eternity that you and I could enter one day into eternity.
SPEAKER_01: He is worthy of worship.
SPEAKER_01: He is worthy.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, come to him with song.
SPEAKER_01: God says, come to him the psalm with hands raised.
SPEAKER_01: And in John, he says he seeks true worshipers to worship him.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to tell you today, church, sometimes we come in and hit it, we just we're we're held back because of our mind space or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01: And the whole point in worship is to do what pleases God.
SPEAKER_01: Not what pleases you.
SPEAKER_01: Worship isn't about pleasing you, it's about the beautiful truth that we are here to please him.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to tell you, when we do please him, we find ourselves wonderfully pleased.
SPEAKER_01: But not quite in the way that all of Israel had its sights on.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came on a mission to save.
SPEAKER_01: Hear me, there were some Israelites here who did not like some people.
SPEAKER_01: And if I ask you today, do you have any enemies?
SPEAKER_01: Are there some people you do not like?
SPEAKER_01: You might be with the Israelites on this one and go, whew.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus didn't come as just the Israeli Messiah of political and military might.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came on a mission to save all Israelites and all Samaritans and all Gentiles and even all Romans.
SPEAKER_01: He was bringing what only he could bring.
SPEAKER_01: No one else could save in this way.
SPEAKER_01: He was bringing what John 1 12 tells us.
SPEAKER_01: But to all who would receive him, to them gave he the power to become sons of God.
SPEAKER_01: Any.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus Christ came to bring as a Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: He was coming not to be victorious over Rome, but over sin and over hate and over condemnation and over the cross and over Satan and over the grave.
SPEAKER_01: He was coming to bring a Messiah in totality for all of everyone, everywhere, for all of time.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he was bringing.
SPEAKER_01: So to that we sing, Hosanna, save us.
SPEAKER_01: It was much more than they could grasp.
SPEAKER_01: That takes us to the third point.
SPEAKER_01: Worthy of God's purposes.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 11 through 14.
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting, the last thing that sort of seems to happen on Palm Sunday, he's come through this crowd.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple.
SPEAKER_01: So when he had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
SPEAKER_01: So letter A is teaching for edification, and letter B is a temple examination.
SPEAKER_01: The last thing that happens on Palm Sunday, Jesus came in, he fulfills this great prophecy, and then he peers in over the readiness of the temple.
SPEAKER_01: He's looking in at his temple.
SPEAKER_01: Well, he wakes up, verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Let's see what it says.
SPEAKER_01: Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, he was hungry.
SPEAKER_01: And seeing from afar off a fig tree having leaves, he went to see if perhaps he would find something on it.
SPEAKER_01: When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.
SPEAKER_01: In response, Jesus said to the fig tree, Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.
SPEAKER_01: And his disciples heard it.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus wakes up after Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: And remember the situation that's happening.
SPEAKER_01: Mark does a good job at always going back and teaching us this is the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_01: Always telling us that he was fully God, fully man.
SPEAKER_01: And so he tells us a couple of things in this passage.
SPEAKER_01: One was Jesus had need of a donkey, right?
SPEAKER_01: The creator of all things had a need.
SPEAKER_01: And now he tells us he wakes up, and all the men said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: He was hungry.
SPEAKER_01: He woke up hungry.
SPEAKER_01: He needed breakfast.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody wake up like that this morning?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody.
SPEAKER_01: My soul.
SPEAKER_01: What a healthy church we have.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to have to work on this, Benji.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to have a buffet next week and see who's being honest.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus wakes up and he has need of sustenance.
SPEAKER_01: So he goes to a fig tree and he's disappointed.
SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you know this.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know it before this week, but the fig tree is mentioned over 60 times in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: If something's mentioned that many times, it's important.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus was with God at creation, and at the onset, creation, we see creation, the fall of man, and then God uses fig leaves of a fig tree to cover Adam and Eve's nakedness and shame.
SPEAKER_01: Jeremiah 24, we're told that good figs were a picture of obedience and rotten figs a picture of wickedness.
SPEAKER_01: You can understand that.
SPEAKER_01: You've seen rotten fruit and went, oh, right?
SPEAKER_01: But it's interesting here.
SPEAKER_01: Laughable to me, verse 13 and 14.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus beelines to this fig tree, sees no fig, and Jesus throws a curse on it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus talks to a tree and curses it.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, he went to bed, considering the temple, and ever the disciple, I think, in this moment, looks for a moment, finds a tree with a leaf but no fruit, and curses it.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go on.
SPEAKER_01: We'll come back to what happens with the tree.
SPEAKER_01: Mark 11, 15 through 17.
SPEAKER_01: He goes from the fig tree.
SPEAKER_01: So they came to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Then Jesus went into the temple, and he began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves, and he would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple.
SPEAKER_01: Then he taught them, saying, Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of thieves.
SPEAKER_01: So immediately Jesus goes into the temple and he drives out all buying and selling, tosses tables and seats.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it looks like a scene from the world wrestling, you know, federation.
SPEAKER_01: John 2 describes a similar occurrence.
SPEAKER_01: As Jesus started his ministry, he did not like this kind of outfitting in the temple.
SPEAKER_01: As he began his ministry, he made a whip and chased people in the temple in John chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: I think we found a similar photo of uh something from that time frame.
SPEAKER_01: There he is.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus hates his temple being misused.
SPEAKER_01: He went to sleep thinking about his temple.
SPEAKER_01: And after this display, Jesus curses the unfruitful tree.
SPEAKER_01: Then he goes to the unfruitful.
SPEAKER_01: Hear me, unfruitful temple.
SPEAKER_01: The tree is a picture of Israel holy in the temple, a picture of Israel particularly a nation and now the church.
SPEAKER_01: Finishes with the temple, flips tables.
SPEAKER_01: Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter, remembering, said to him, Rabbi, look.
SPEAKER_01: The fig tree which you cursed has withered away.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the problem is this when we are all leaf and no fruit, all show and nothing else, there's a heart problem.
SPEAKER_01: It had life, but it had no fruit.
SPEAKER_01: People were coming to the temple of God hungry, but they were leaving without any help.
SPEAKER_01: God help us, CCW.
SPEAKER_01: If people come here hungry and leave empty, that they would never have that happen.
SPEAKER_01: On Palm Sunday, Israel sang Hosanna, but on Good Friday, some of the same people shouted, Crucify Him.
SPEAKER_01: All leaf and no fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Dried up.
SPEAKER_01: Not really looking to meet with Jesus and worship, just looking to feel better about theirself.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the issue in the temple is the same issue that many have today.
SPEAKER_01: It's an issue of worship.
SPEAKER_01: Worship.
SPEAKER_01: The church in Israel had a banded authentic worship.
SPEAKER_01: When the word of God is read, we should hang on every word.
SPEAKER_01: This is the written word of Almighty God for our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And it becomes background noise.
SPEAKER_01: And for some they say Hosanna and they mean it.
SPEAKER_01: And for some others, this is wherever the wind's blowing.
SPEAKER_01: They abandon authentic worship.
SPEAKER_01: Every word of God we should be hanging on.
SPEAKER_01: When we sing to a worthy king, we should lift our song, not look at others.
SPEAKER_01: When we pray, we should seek God and attach our amen to the prayers.
SPEAKER_01: We should bow at an altar, we should raise our hands, we should clap, because worship is about what He is worth.
SPEAKER_02: And what is He not worth, church?
SPEAKER_01: Because the worship of God was set to the side.
SPEAKER_01: The temple had become a flea market.
SPEAKER_01: The hodgepodge of whatever and whoever.
SPEAKER_01: And the crowd, hear me.
SPEAKER_01: That's going on.
SPEAKER_01: And the crowd was literally missing the walking presence of Almighty God in the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: And my fear today, church, is that so many churches could miss the presence of Almighty God.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he could be sitting here giving you a feast, and we would walk by wondering what the trend is, and the next thing that's going to happen is.
SPEAKER_01: Because we're not here to worship him.
SPEAKER_01: People are missing the presence of God because ultimately they want to worship themselves.
SPEAKER_01: What am I worth?
SPEAKER_01: What will God give me?
SPEAKER_01: Their chance turn from Hosanna to crucify him.
SPEAKER_01: What are the chance in your life to a worthy king?
SPEAKER_01: What does it look like on Monday and on Wednesday?
SPEAKER_01: Are we worshiping this worthy king?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the worthy king among them, and they missed it.
SPEAKER_01: He is worthy.
SPEAKER_01: The Lamb is worthy.
SPEAKER_01: And the one who rode the donkey was the only one who could save.
SPEAKER_01: Church, don't miss a worthy king today.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to invite us at the close of the service in a few minutes to worship him.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss the opportunity we have to worship a worthy king.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I read this illustration this week and I wanted to share it.
SPEAKER_01: It was about a young musical virtuoso.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you are musical?
SPEAKER_01: That's more than we're hungry for food, but okay.
SPEAKER_01: This young virtuoso had spent years crafting his musical talent.
SPEAKER_01: His teacher was a master violinist.
SPEAKER_01: And on one particular performance at a great concert hall, he entered the room.
SPEAKER_01: There were some times that he would enter the room, and it would be an elaborate show starting the concert, but this would be no grand entrance.
SPEAKER_01: He simply walked onto the grand stage and he began the most beautiful performance that he'd ever given in his life.
SPEAKER_01: The best instrumental, instrumental, his sound was sharp.
SPEAKER_01: The tone of the music was crisp and clear.
SPEAKER_01: His handling of movements and his style drew the crowd into the story, and after his final note, there was a momentary hush throughout all of the great hall.
SPEAKER_01: And after that hush came a thunderous ovation.
SPEAKER_01: This young musical talent, it would have been normal for him to take bows and bask in the moment.
SPEAKER_01: But what he did in that moment was interesting.
SPEAKER_01: He looked through the bright spotlights, looking and peering out, searching for the sight of his master.
SPEAKER_01: And as the crowd stood to their feet, he recognized his master in the back standing.
SPEAKER_01: And he knew at that moment that it was a satisfying work.
SPEAKER_01: He knew in that moment that it was worthy.
SPEAKER_01: Well, as the crowd continued in loud ovation, the master musician had no other option but to come back out on the stage and give an encore performance.
SPEAKER_01: And he finished that performance, and now, louder than ever, crescendoed the applause of all these people standing back to their feet.
SPEAKER_01: And once again he looked back, peering through the spotlight, and he saw his master standing at his feet.
SPEAKER_01: And he said he knew in that moment that his life work was worthy.
SPEAKER_01: Church Jesus composed a masterpiece.
SPEAKER_01: And he came onto the grand stage lowly, riding on a donkey, mildly on Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, and even the crowd joined in singing with him, Hosanna.
SPEAKER_01: But he would come to the grand finale moment.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was put on a cross and he was crucified.
SPEAKER_01: And a holy hush came through all creation as the sky was darkened.
SPEAKER_01: And he came to the end of that finale and he said, Teleste, it is finished.
SPEAKER_01: And some three days later, church.
SPEAKER_01: They rushed to the tomb, and there was an angel there, and the stone had been rolled back, and the angel said to them, He is not here, he is risen.
SPEAKER_01: And in that moment, those words echoed all the way to the heavens as Jesus had completed a sacrifice worthy of his master.
SPEAKER_01: God the Father was well pleased.
SPEAKER_01: A sacrifice that would take the wrath of his cup and redeem every man, woman, and child.
SPEAKER_01: Well, today is Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: And we celebrate that lowly entrance and that masterpiece that Jesus gave.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to tell you, church, there is an encore performance that is coming.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to ask you to stand with me as I read the encore because Jesus came in on a lowly donkey.
SPEAKER_01: But in Revelations chapter 19, verse 11, it says, Now I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse.
SPEAKER_01: And he who sat on him was called faithful and true.
SPEAKER_01: And in righteousness he judges and makes war, and his eyes were like a flame of fire.
SPEAKER_01: On his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no one except himself was clothed with a robe dipped in blood.
SPEAKER_01: And his name is called the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses.
SPEAKER_01: Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should strike the nations, and he himself with rule with a rod of honor, and he himself treads the wine presses of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
SPEAKER_01: And listen to this, and he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_01: Can we give him some praise this morning?
SPEAKER_02: He is coming again.
SPEAKER_02: Do you believe he's worthy?
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe it?
SPEAKER_01: Because Revelation gives us one more sound that we need to know.
SPEAKER_01: And I hope that we'll sing to it this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna invite you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna come to this altar, and if you would like to come with me, I would love for you to join me.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's a song called the Eternity Song, the Heaven Song.
SPEAKER_01: And it's about his worth.
SPEAKER_01: Heaven, day and night, Revelation 4, 8, 11 through 13 says the song of heaven, 24-7.
SPEAKER_01: That will be sung is that we have a worthy king.
SPEAKER_01: Holy, holy, holy, worthy is the Lamb.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't like that song and you believe you're going to heaven one day, you're gonna like it.
SPEAKER_01: I hope you like it now.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna sing it to Him, Church, and I would love it if you'll join me at this altar as we sing to a worthy God.
SPEAKER_01: This worship is not about you or me, it's about worshiping him.
SPEAKER_00: We're excited you joined us for today's message.
SPEAKER_00: Our heart is to connect with others in our community to grow with one another and build a bigger kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: If you accepted Jesus today, we want to hear about it.
SPEAKER_00: Take a moment and text CCW Connect to 94,000.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you again for joining us on the CCW podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you'll make plans to join us in person on Sundays.