SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Yesterday, had an unusual Saturday.
SPEAKER_01: We had the pleasure for the second time in about a year and a half, something like that, to gather together here at church to uh examine one of our pastors.
SPEAKER_01: And yesterday we spent about, I don't know, close to five hours or something like that, um testing Webb uh for his ordination council.
SPEAKER_01: It was a wonderful time of hearing his understanding and knowledge of theology and scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And he didn't come back in, did he?
SPEAKER_01: I want to let you know that the uh ordination council voted unanimously to approve him to the evangelical free church for ordination.
SPEAKER_01: And so the process now is that will be that will be sent to the national office of the Evangelical Free Church, and that will be reviewed by the Board of Ministerial Standing there, and in a couple of months we will be back to present Webb with his ordination certificate.
SPEAKER_01: So, congratulations, Webb.
SPEAKER_01: You did a great job yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: He's back there, so he snuck in.
SPEAKER_01: Please take your Bible with me to Matthew chapter 21.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 21.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you ever wonder why it is that we celebrate and remember and have on our calendar every single year a day known as Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, it's the day that we remember Jesus riding on a donkey down into the city of Jerusalem, and people put their coach down on the road and laid down palm fronds and all of that, but why is that such a big deal?
SPEAKER_01: Why should it be a big deal for you?
SPEAKER_01: Why should it be a big deal for the church to remember and to celebrate, to be challenged by?
SPEAKER_01: I think we find the answers to that in Matthew chapter 21.
SPEAKER_01: On this celebration of Palm Sunday, I decided to revisit the triumphal entry as Matthew recounts it.
SPEAKER_01: Because as any biographer would tell in a person's life story, they would tell it differently.
SPEAKER_01: Any biographer would tell a person's life story a little bit differently.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel writers do the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: They tell the story of Jesus from a little bit different perspective.
SPEAKER_01: They each have their own viewpoints and what they want to communicate.
SPEAKER_01: Luke, for instance, includes a statement from Jesus, from the mouth of Jesus, that the other gospels leave out.
SPEAKER_01: John.
SPEAKER_01: John includes details surrounding the triumphal entry that are not found in the other accounts as well.
SPEAKER_01: In the same way, Matthew included an intriguing statement in Matthew chapter 21 and verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: If you have your Bible open, you can look at that.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 21 and verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Why am I in Luke?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why I'm in Luke.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 21 and verse 10 says, and when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, Who is this?
SPEAKER_01: Now our English translations generally soften that language a little too much, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_01: The words stirred up in the English Standard Version translate the word from which we get our English word, seismology.
SPEAKER_01: It's a word that describes the ground shaking or quaking.
SPEAKER_01: A seismologist then is someone who studies earthquakes, who studies the movements and the shakings of the ground.
SPEAKER_01: And this verse, Matthew chapter 21, verse 10, is our target this morning.
SPEAKER_01: And I hope to walk us through Matthew's account to see why he chose to include that statement when all of the other gospel accounts did not.
SPEAKER_01: Why does Matthew say that the whole city was shaking on that day?
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chose to record that statement.
SPEAKER_01: So let's read it in its context.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 21, beginning in verse 1, it says, Now, when they, a whole crowd of people, moving from Jericho through Bethany and now into Jerusalem, when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, Go into the village that is in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her.
SPEAKER_01: Untie them and bring them to me.
SPEAKER_01: If any one says anything to you, you will say, The Lord needs them, and he will send them at once.
SPEAKER_01: This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, Say to the city, or to the daughter, I'm sorry, of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the full of a beast of burden.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.
SPEAKER_01: They brought the donkey and the colt, and they put on them on them their cloaks, and he sat on them.
SPEAKER_01: Most of the crowds spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
SPEAKER_01: And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Hosanna in the highest.
SPEAKER_01: And when he entered Jerusalem the whole city was stirred up, saying, Who is this?
SPEAKER_01: And the crowds said, This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple.
SPEAKER_01: And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.
SPEAKER_01: He said to them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.
SPEAKER_01: And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.
SPEAKER_01: But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant.
SPEAKER_01: And they said to him, Do you hear what they're saying?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to them, Of course.
SPEAKER_01: Have you never read out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies, you have prepared praise.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: As often happens in Matthew's biography, this section is structured around Matthew's use of scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Now, for Matthew, that means our Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: That was what he had as his Bible.
SPEAKER_01: There are several allusions to Old Testament texts here, but only four specific biblical affirmations of Jesus' identity.
SPEAKER_01: And those affirmations are accompanied by the responses of people.
SPEAKER_01: Those biblical affirmations challenge us today to know Jesus better by knowing our Bibles better.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Matthew doesn't merely tell the story of Jesus and his life and his death and burial and resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: He does that.
SPEAKER_01: But he also does much, much more.
SPEAKER_01: And so here we see that enthorial intent in Matthew's use of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Again, he includes four quotes from the Old Testament, one that comes from his own insight, one from the crowd of enthusiastic followers, and twice from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Himself.
SPEAKER_01: Those quotations form the four biblical affirmations of Jesus' identity.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, our target verse asks, Who is this?
SPEAKER_01: Who is this?
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at those four affirmations of Jesus' identity, beginning with Scripture affirming Jesus as the king who brings salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew references something very specific in verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: He says, all of this riding on a donkey thing that we celebrate and the palm fronds and all that, that took place because Scripture said it would.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Why is always a good question to ask?
SPEAKER_01: Why does Matthew say that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, he quotes something here.
SPEAKER_01: He says, say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the full of a beast of burden.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's a direct quote from Zechariah chapter 9, verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: But before we get to Zechariah, we need to back up before Zechariah, because Zechariah is informed by another prophet.
SPEAKER_01: You see, before Zechariah's time, God gave a promise of good news, of salvation, from the prophet Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: Back in Isaiah chapter 61, we find something quite interesting.
SPEAKER_01: And Matthew has already quoted this at the beginning of Jesus' ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said that he is the prophetic bringer of good news.
SPEAKER_01: And chapter 61 of Isaiah, it says, the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.
SPEAKER_01: God says, I'm promising that good news is going to come, not just to Israel, but it's going to be before all of the nations.
SPEAKER_01: That leads us into Isaiah 62.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 62 describes God's salvation coming to Zion.
SPEAKER_01: He says in Isaiah 62, verses 10 and 11, go through, go through the gates and prepare the way for the people.
SPEAKER_01: Build up, build up the highway, clear it of stones, lifted as a signal over the peoples.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Behold, Yahweh has proclaimed to the end of the earth, say to the daughter of Zion, that's like a pet name for Jerusalem, a family name for Jerusalem that only those who are really close to a person might use.
SPEAKER_01: It's a name for the royal city.
SPEAKER_01: Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your salvation comes.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, his reward is with him.
SPEAKER_01: You catch that?
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah is identifying the coming of salvation with a person and his recompense before him.
SPEAKER_01: Through his promise in Isaiah 62, 11, God promised the good news of salvation to his people so that the whole earth would hear of it.
SPEAKER_01: Just so you can put this in perspective, that's about 750 years before the triumphal entry.
SPEAKER_01: Approximately 720 to 700 BC.
SPEAKER_01: Within a decade or two of the Assyrians taking the ten northern tribes of Israel into captivity and dispersing them throughout the Middle East.
SPEAKER_01: Pressure is now mounting on the Jewish people left in Judah.
SPEAKER_01: Small group of people, a small territory.
SPEAKER_01: Pressure is mounting from the north, from the Assyrians and from the Egyptians in the south, and they're caught in the middle.
SPEAKER_01: The promise of God's salvation would be received with joy.
SPEAKER_01: What an affirmation of comfort that God is giving his people in the midst of their historical circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's about a hundred years before Nahum preached about God's judgment against the Assyrians.
SPEAKER_01: If you were here a couple of weeks ago, we looked at Nahum chapter 1, where it speaks about God's awesomeness, his massiveness, that he is a terror to his enemies, such that even the mountains will quake before him.
SPEAKER_01: That was directed against the Assyrians.
SPEAKER_01: This is a hundred years before that.
SPEAKER_01: God promised salvation, and that promise was good news.
SPEAKER_01: And that promise is very important for what we find later in the prophet Zechariah.
SPEAKER_01: In Zechariah, we find the promise of a saving king.
SPEAKER_01: Specifically, in Zechariah chapter 9, verse 9, you're gonna have to go almost to the end of your Old Testament here to find that.
SPEAKER_01: We read, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.
SPEAKER_01: Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Behold, your king is coming to you.
SPEAKER_01: Righteous and having salvation.
SPEAKER_01: There's that bringer of salvation as a person.
SPEAKER_01: How is he coming?
SPEAKER_01: Humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
SPEAKER_01: This is 200 years after Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: So we're about 500 years before the time of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: God's people have endured the Assyrians.
SPEAKER_01: That group of people were conquered by the Babylonians, and Israel was taken into exile by the Babylonians for 70 years.
SPEAKER_01: They've returned now to the land of promise.
SPEAKER_01: They are rebuilding their communities, they're rebuilding their temple, they're re-establishing their central place of worship.
SPEAKER_01: But it's a roller coaster of progress, of discouragement, of faithfulness and idleness.
SPEAKER_01: And amidst those challenges from their neighboring peoples, God steps in and commands his people to rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: He commands them to rejoice in their trials and their uncertainties with great shouting.
SPEAKER_01: Because he will send a king having salvation.
SPEAKER_01: God intended to save his people, and he promised to do it through a king that they would one day recognize riding in a humble posture on a donkey.
SPEAKER_01: That's a bit of a strange picture for people looking for salvation from enemies.
SPEAKER_01: Don't kings rescue people from their enemies by riding on a war horse?
SPEAKER_01: Ironically, or not so ironically, Revelation says that Jesus will come back riding a war horse.
SPEAKER_01: But this time he comes humble and mounted on a donkey because God often works in ways we don't understand, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_01: Now that we understand this, look back at Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew's context is that God's people had been looking for this provision of salvation through a humble king for 700 years from Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: 500 years after Zechariah.
SPEAKER_01: They looked for their king to enter Zion, his royal city, on a road prepared to exalt him, thronged with people proclaiming the coming of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: So expectations and emotions are running high already from the Passover celebrations.
SPEAKER_01: And now Jesus is traveling from Jericho, healing the blind people who are following along with him, raising Lazarus from the dead, and all of that leads to Jesus, the saving king, fulfilling God's promise by riding on a donkey into Zion, the city of God.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, you may have waited long for God to keep his promises for you.
SPEAKER_01: Never give up waiting.
SPEAKER_01: You have not yet waited for seven hundred years.
SPEAKER_01: Never doubt God's promises.
SPEAKER_01: Fight against the temptation to be discouraged by delay.
SPEAKER_01: He will keep his promises.
SPEAKER_01: He is always faithful to his word.
SPEAKER_01: He keeps his word.
SPEAKER_01: Even if it takes hundreds or thousands of years, you can trust him.
SPEAKER_01: But even more, Matthew's signature statement of fulfillment in verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: This happened to fulfill what was spoken.
SPEAKER_01: That is an inspired affirmation of Jesus' identity.
SPEAKER_01: Here he is.
SPEAKER_01: He's come.
SPEAKER_01: The bringer of salvation has come just as God said.
SPEAKER_01: Now, look at the reaction.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the reaction.
SPEAKER_01: It's twofold.
SPEAKER_01: First, the crowd prepared the way for royalty.
SPEAKER_01: It's an allusion to an ancient pattern of receiving kings that comes most likely from 2 Kings 9, verse 13, where for a Jewish king, they cut down palm fronds and laid down their coats as he rode a donkey.
SPEAKER_01: It's an element, a simple element that points to a pattern in Scripture saying, here's a king.
SPEAKER_01: Here's royalty.
SPEAKER_01: The crowd of followers, in essence, gives Jesus the red carpet treatment because he deserves it.
SPEAKER_01: He is the king.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew's declaring that Jesus is the king promised in God's word.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one bringing salvation.
SPEAKER_01: But he's also illustrating for us a proper response from those who believe in him.
SPEAKER_01: That response challenges us thousands of years later.
SPEAKER_01: God's people ought to recognize the one God promised in his word.
SPEAKER_01: And if they recognize him, they ought to have humble hearts that desire to enthrone him, to worship him, and praise him for who he is and what he brings.
SPEAKER_01: There's a reason that we ought to sing our greatest praises on Palm Sunday in Easter.
SPEAKER_01: Because those are the days when we recognize our King in the greatest of ways.
SPEAKER_01: So read your Old Testament, not to just get through the Bible in a year.
SPEAKER_01: Read your Old Testament to see Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Because they speak of him.
SPEAKER_01: And when you find him there, worship him.
SPEAKER_01: Now that leads us to the second response we see.
SPEAKER_01: It's a verbal response that is also Matthew's second biblical affirmation of Jesus' identity.
SPEAKER_01: Quoting Psalm 118, verse 25, the people affirm Jesus as the saving son of David.
SPEAKER_01: He's not just a king, he's a descendant of David.
SPEAKER_01: Hosanna to the son of David, we see in verse 9 of Matthew 21.
SPEAKER_01: Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.
SPEAKER_01: This comes from Psalm 118.
SPEAKER_01: Very briefly, Psalm 118 has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
SPEAKER_01: Surprise.
SPEAKER_01: A beginning, a middle, and an end.
SPEAKER_01: The beginning of Psalm 118 tells us that it's part of the collection of songs sung routinely during the Passover celebration.
SPEAKER_01: So that's not a surprise.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Passover time.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a surprise that the people have Psalm 118 roaming around in their minds.
SPEAKER_01: It also appears there's some records that indicate that it was part of the Jewish family catechism.
SPEAKER_01: So children would know this psalm.
SPEAKER_01: So it's well known, it's familiar.
SPEAKER_01: But the psalm also begins as a prayer of thankfulness for God's steadfast love.
SPEAKER_01: A prayer that says, his love has been displayed through his powerful rescue of his people.
SPEAKER_01: Now for Israel, that would be his rescue from Egypt, out of slavery, but also his rescue of them every time they encountered enemies coming around them.
SPEAKER_01: And so the song declares in the middle, after there's this prayer of thankfulness for God's steadfast love for rescuing them, in the middle of it, it says, Yahweh is my strength and my song, he has become my salvation.
SPEAKER_01: So it ties together God's faithful, loyal love that rescues with his power to save.
SPEAKER_01: That's the beginning in the middle.
SPEAKER_01: Now the end of the psalm turns towards the future, asking that God would save his people just as he had in the past.
SPEAKER_01: It declares Hosanna, which as Anton prayed, it's a word that means save us or save now, or we pray that you would save us.
SPEAKER_01: And then the song concludes by anticipating the Savior God will use.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed is He, a person, a saving person who comes in the name of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: Now we can't say how much theological perception the people and the crowd on the Mount of Olives had as they sang this song before Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It seems they at least understood that it was fitting, it was proper and appropriate that Jesus was coming in the name of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they didn't fully understand all that we can see today, but perhaps they sang it better than they knew.
SPEAKER_01: That Jesus is the fulfillment of the promised king from the line of David who comes to save his people.
SPEAKER_01: We can't forget that Matthew has told us from the very first page of his book that Jesus is a descendant of David the king.
SPEAKER_01: The very first page.
SPEAKER_01: He structures the entire genealogy around David.
SPEAKER_01: David is known as Israel's Savior.
SPEAKER_01: He's their great and glorious king of their golden age because he rescued them.
SPEAKER_01: But David anticipated another king who would be a new David, bringing salvation for his people.
SPEAKER_01: And Matthew now tells us from the beginning that Jesus is the son of David who came to save his people from their sins.
SPEAKER_01: And these truths now converge in this scriptural affirmation of Jesus' identity.
SPEAKER_01: He is the promised king, the son of David who brings salvation to his people.
SPEAKER_01: Now notice, notice the reaction in verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: Notice the reaction in verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: And the crowds said, This is the king?
SPEAKER_01: Uh-uh.
SPEAKER_01: This is the prophet.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The son of David from Bethlehem?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: He's from that backwater place called Nazareth.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing good ever comes out of Nazareth.
SPEAKER_01: But hey, Jesus is a prophet.
SPEAKER_01: That's good.
SPEAKER_01: You see how all of a sudden we have taken the glorious truths of these prophetic texts and just kind of set them aside and walked on them.
SPEAKER_01: They've missed the point.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew highlights the greatness of Jesus' lineage, but the common perception is that he's a mere prophet.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew highlights what Jesus brings, he brings salvation to his people.
SPEAKER_01: But they only perceive what he does.
SPEAKER_01: He prophesies, he tells people about God.
SPEAKER_01: There are some significant challenges for us in this affirmation and response.
SPEAKER_01: Most of us have been in church most of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: We would say, Yeah, I know my Bible pretty well.
SPEAKER_01: Do we know Scripture and even know it well, yet fail to recognize God's hand at work?
SPEAKER_01: Ought we to be more perceptive?
SPEAKER_01: Do we worship on Palm Sunday, on Easter, on Good Friday, while failing to personally recognize and respond to Jesus as our salvation, our hope, our God and King?
SPEAKER_01: Or do we just go through the motions of worship without truly appreciating or knowing the one we worship?
SPEAKER_01: Do we even care that Jesus fulfills Scripture?
SPEAKER_01: Do we look to strengthen our trust in Jesus as Matthew reveals him as the fulfillment of God's promise?
SPEAKER_01: You see, according to Matthew, many missed the point of Jesus' short royal ride into the city of the great king.
SPEAKER_01: They only knew him as the prophet from Nazareth, not as the son of David, the coming great king, bringing salvation.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus is that promised king, Matthew says.
SPEAKER_01: He is bringing salvation as Scripture promised.
SPEAKER_01: He is the royal son coming to save his people.
SPEAKER_01: And so we find then the third affirmation in verse 13, where Matthew tells us that Jesus is affirmed from Scripture as the God of Israel's temple.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus rode down the Mount of Olives.
SPEAKER_01: He entered the city near the temple and he immediately cleaned house.
SPEAKER_01: Or something like that.
SPEAKER_01: He made a mess.
SPEAKER_01: Literally, he made a mess.
SPEAKER_01: He flipped over the tables, creating confusion by upsetting the temple market, sent coins rolling over the stone floor, drove out people and animals.
SPEAKER_01: You can just imagine the cacophony of human voices mingled with the bleeding of goats and sheep.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew tells us why, from the mouth of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: But you, emphasized, you make it a den of robbers.
SPEAKER_01: This comes from Isaiah 56.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Come, everyone who thirsts, in Isaiah 55, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 55, verse 6, seek Yahweh while he may be found, indicating there may be a time when he can't be found.
SPEAKER_01: Call upon him while he is near, indicating there may be a time when he is far from you.
SPEAKER_01: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, let him return to Yahweh that he may have compassion on him and to our God, for he abundantly pardons.
SPEAKER_01: What a great way to begin a chapter of prophetic scripture.
SPEAKER_01: A time is going to come when God is not near, when he cannot be found, and when he will not pardon.
SPEAKER_01: So come now, while he still may be found.
SPEAKER_01: For he abundantly pardons.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah encourages people to seek the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And so Isaiah 56 then announces that turning to the Lord is crucial because in verse 1 of Isaiah 56 he says, Soon my salvation will come.
SPEAKER_01: Then the prophecy shifts to say that foreigners are going to be included in God's worshipers, not just the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: God will take those who are on the outside and make them insiders.
SPEAKER_01: And God will do this ingathering into his people because Isaiah 56, verse 8 says, He is the one who gathers the outcasts.
SPEAKER_01: I will gather yet others besides those already gathered.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because Isaiah 56, 7 says, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
SPEAKER_01: See, Isaiah 55 and 56 records the voice of God.
SPEAKER_01: They're his words.
SPEAKER_01: God himself is speaking to his people, and he's speaking to them of his work of bringing people from all nations, all over the world, to himself to worship.
SPEAKER_01: And so he speaks of the temple as his house, as his temple, and they are coming from all over to worship him.
SPEAKER_01: Now put that in Matthew's context.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew reveals that the Lord Jesus spoke these words as the possessor of the temple.
SPEAKER_01: This is Jesus' house.
SPEAKER_01: My house shall be called a house of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: It is his temple.
SPEAKER_01: He cleaned house because it's his house.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus emphatically declared that the temple wards, the Sadducees, the temple wards were like squatters who moved in and made his house into a den of thieves.
SPEAKER_01: They took advantage of the nations instead of promoting worship.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of prayer, they're promoting bartering and profit making.
SPEAKER_01: Now the gospels reveal that this event happened in the outer surrounding courtyard, the furthest out from the temple itself that you could get.
SPEAKER_01: That's as close as they could get to God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: So the only place that the nations could come to worship in the temple has now been turned into a den of thieves.
SPEAKER_01: A marketplace, a bazaar.
SPEAKER_01: The temple squatters effectively voided God's intention for his house by building a marketplace.
SPEAKER_01: They were supposed to be priests leading people to worship, but instead they took possession of God's own house for their own ends.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew tells us that Jesus is announcing, I'm here.
SPEAKER_01: I've come to my house.
SPEAKER_01: It was his house they desecrated.
SPEAKER_01: He is the promised king, the son of David, bringing salvation even more.
SPEAKER_01: He is Emmanuel, God with us, bringing salvation to his people.
SPEAKER_01: Now notice the reaction.
SPEAKER_01: The temple is cleared, or at least less busy.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 14, what happens?
SPEAKER_01: People start coming to God.
SPEAKER_01: It's amazing what happens.
SPEAKER_01: When you start doing the right thing in God's house, people start coming to do the right thing in God's house.
SPEAKER_01: The blind and the lame are coming to the only place that they can find salvation.
SPEAKER_01: They're being healed by the king in his house.
SPEAKER_01: Children in the temple are crying out, Hosanna to the Son of David.
SPEAKER_01: The children in the temple are now voicing the prayer of the crowd from the triumphal entry.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss that.
SPEAKER_01: Children are asking Jesus, save us.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew declares that the children recognized what the religious leaders were blind to.
SPEAKER_01: That Jesus is the promised bringer of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you know this, but this is why we have a focus on children's ministries.
SPEAKER_01: Children can recognize Jesus often with more remarkable perceptiveness than adults.
SPEAKER_01: Never hinder them from coming to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Encourage it.
SPEAKER_01: Discipling children by bringing them to Christ, even through age-appropriate instruction, is vital to a church's ministry.
SPEAKER_01: No, it doesn't replace what parents do, or what they should do, at least at home.
SPEAKER_01: Done rightly, a children's ministry to children enables parents to be discipled with greater focus while the body's ministry to children in settings designed for their ages builds upon what they learn at home.
SPEAKER_01: And who knows?
SPEAKER_01: Parents may even learn something from their kids.
SPEAKER_01: That's great if kids, if parents want to bring their children, or if kids want to bring their parents into the worship service with them.
SPEAKER_01: Because they believe that they're getting everything that they need at home, or they think that they must train up their children in the ways of the Lord, which they should do.
SPEAKER_01: At the same time, we are collectively the church, and we work at discipling and teaching one another.
SPEAKER_01: It may be far better for a child to be discipled in an age-appropriate setting than to be in another setting for which they're not quite ready.
SPEAKER_01: So our children's church and our nursery is not designed to replace what parents should do.
SPEAKER_01: It's intended to supplement in order to provide another manner for them to know and to worship Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And what do we have here?
SPEAKER_01: Children proclaiming the praises of a savior that no one else can see.
SPEAKER_01: There's a third reaction here.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, some today would say that, see that about anyone believing such a thing.
SPEAKER_01: But leading, teaching, and encouraging children to see, believe, and follow Jesus, that's absurd.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, shut them up.
SPEAKER_01: Make them be quiet.
SPEAKER_01: Hope you hear the facetiousness in my voice, please.
SPEAKER_01: That brings us to a fourth affirmation.
SPEAKER_01: Scripture affirms Jesus as the one for whom praise has been pre-ordained.
SPEAKER_01: That is, ordained beforehand.
SPEAKER_01: They said to Jesus, did you hear what you hear what these kids are saying?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to them, of course I do.
SPEAKER_01: Haven't you ever read, out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies, you have prepared praise?
SPEAKER_01: That's from Psalm 8, verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: This is what we might call a kind of mic drop today.
SPEAKER_01: For those that are familiar with that phrase, it's a situation where somebody's speaking with a microphone and they say something astounding and they just drop the mic and walk off the stage, leaving you to deal with the repercussions.
SPEAKER_01: Of course the religious leaders know Psalm 8.
SPEAKER_01: Of course they do.
SPEAKER_01: They know the text.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus, as the giver of the scripture, astounds the religious experts by affirming the meaning of Psalm 8.
SPEAKER_01: His affirmation reveals the psalmist's ultimate intent.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus asserts that he is the one for whom the praise was prepared.
SPEAKER_01: God prepared those children beforehand, he ordained that they would be prepared to give praise to Jesus at that very moment when no one else would.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the God for whom praise was ordained.
SPEAKER_01: And without waiting for a response, Jesus turns his back on them and leaves.
SPEAKER_01: Even more, he is God himself, Emmanuel, the only one worthy of praise.
SPEAKER_01: What do you do with that information?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: And when Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem, the whole city was quaking.
SPEAKER_01: Saying, Who is that?
SPEAKER_01: Who is this?
SPEAKER_01: A couple of weeks ago, we learned from the prophet Nahum that even the mountains shudder, shake, they quake in God's presence.
SPEAKER_01: We learned that God is righteous and dangerous.
SPEAKER_01: He is immense and fearful, while at the same time being good and relational.
SPEAKER_01: He is a refuge, he is a fortress of protection and salvation for anyone who runs to him.
SPEAKER_01: And now Matthew tells us that in those days when God the Son was present in Jerusalem, the whole city was quaking.
SPEAKER_01: It was as unsettled as a city in an earthquake.
SPEAKER_01: What do we make of that?
SPEAKER_01: Why is Matthew the only one to say that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, he tells us what to make of it.
SPEAKER_01: The city was quaking with a question.
SPEAKER_01: Who is this?
SPEAKER_01: If you hear a low rumbling sound and pictures begin to fall off the walls in your home, and objects start to tip over and buildings start to sway and sidewalks begin to buckle, you'll likely know that the ground is shaking.
SPEAKER_01: I imagine you would recognize that fairly quickly.
SPEAKER_01: And if we learn our theology well, we will know that God is so great as to make even immovable mountains quake.
SPEAKER_01: But you know, there's something about us as human beings that makes us oblivious sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: Or we ought to know that we ought to be shaking and quaking, but we don't even recognize it.
SPEAKER_01: You know, Adam and Eve knew the sound of the Lord God walking in the Garden of Eden.
SPEAKER_01: But Jerusalem couldn't tell when her God was in his temple.
SPEAKER_01: The ground didn't quake because the immense, powerful, and dangerous God robed himself in frail humility to protect his world from danger of his righteousness and holiness.
SPEAKER_01: The whole city quaked in ignorance.
SPEAKER_01: It was shaken because it couldn't decide who this man is.
SPEAKER_01: But now you know.
SPEAKER_01: You've seen it from the word of God Himself in his four biblical affirmations.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew left a record, he left a trail of crumbs to reveal that Scripture tells you just who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: He is the Son of David, the King.
SPEAKER_01: He is God in the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: He is the Savior who is humble, bringing salvation through a cross, a tomb, and an empty tomb.
SPEAKER_01: What remains now is your reaction.
SPEAKER_01: Will you believe the testimony of the Word of God?
SPEAKER_01: Will you follow Him?
SPEAKER_01: Will you proclaim Him?
SPEAKER_01: Will you run to Him for refuge?
SPEAKER_01: Will you sing His praises when no one else does?
SPEAKER_01: Or will you remain unmoved?
SPEAKER_01: Wondering, doubting, ridiculing, or even being indignant or indifferent.
SPEAKER_01: Someday, those who refuse to believe or who delay believing too long will ask the earth and the mountains to quake once more to bury them alive so as to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb.
SPEAKER_01: But those who believe, those who put themselves as though they were little children, ordained to sing his praise, run to him, believing that he is who God said he is, can stand firm within his saving refuge, knowing that we will receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so we believe, and so we follow, and so we praise and obey Jesus our King.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we lift our voices up to you this morning in prayer and reading your word and singing your praises.
SPEAKER_01: May we leave here moved by your word, by its affirmations of who you are.
SPEAKER_01: And may your spirit motivate our hearts and our spirits to rejoice, even with those children, giving praise to the one, the only one who deserves it.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.