Sermon Tone Analysis

The Zealous King

Go ahead and open your Bibles to .

It says in your bulletin that we are going to be working through verse 22, but we are going to stop at verse 17.

As we come into chapter 21 today, we are pulling into the final stretch of Matthew.

From today on, we are going to be looking at the final week of Jesus.

Don’t get too excited, we probably have about 2 years worth of sermons left (kidding)

Last week we looked at how the disciples’ pre existing ideas of what the Kingdom of God was going to be blinded them from what was right in front of them.

Nothing about the kingdom was what they thought it would be.

And today, we will see that not only is the kingdom different from their expectations, but so is the King Himself.

Don’t get too excited, we probably have about 2 years worth of sermons left (kidding)

Matthew 21:1-

So we are all familiar with this story.

This is the story of Palm Sunday.

This is the grand entrance into Jerusalem.

But even though this is familiar to us, there are several things we can miss if we don’t look closely.

The first thing that is usually dealt with in this story is how Jesus knows where the Donkey is.

On that, all I want to say about it is this.

There are two main thought processes from the scholars on this, and they are that either the Spirit speaks to Jesus about the donkey, or Jesus has already made arrangements ahead of time for the use of the donkey.

I’m not going to spend time on it, because honestly, it doesn’t matter.

What matters is that Jesus is intentional in what He is doing here, He acquires the donkey on purpose to fulfill the prophecy.

The prophecy quoted there is from Zechariah, so lets look at that in context.

Zechariah 9

And again, we see that the disciples are oblivious here.

Jesus fulfills this prophecy, and John tells us that they don’t understand what happened until after Jesus ascends.

So looking back at it, we have to understand a few things in the original context.

First, it is not unusual for a priest or citizen to ride on a donkey to enter a city.

It is a symbol of peace.

However, it is highly unusual for a reigning King to ride on a donkey.

A king would enter his city triumphantly, on some kind of war horse or chariot.

He definitely would not be riding on what Matthew calls a “beast of burden”

And that use of “beast of burden” here isn’t referring to my nickname among the elders.

This is a lowly animal, not bred well for royalty, but for service.

This picture however, of the peaceful King, defies what the crowds are expecting from Jesus.

They put their cloaks down on the road, and cut off branches to put on the road, sort of “laying out the red carpet” for Jesus, and are shouting Hosanna!

Hosanna means “May God save us”

But the problem is, Hosanna was a nationalistic cry.

Much like “God bless America” or “God save the Queen.

We still see this false understanding of Christ’s mission.

They think that Christ is going to ride in on this young donkey, kick out the Roman oppressors, set up His kingly reign and bring peace to Jerusalem.

And this expectation is exactly what the Jewish leaders are afraid of

John 11:

That conversation takes place in John’s Gospel before the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, but we see here that they are worried that the Romans are going to come in and squash this talk of the “King of the Jews”

Imagine that America is taken over by a foreign power for a second.

For the sake of the exercise, lets say America is under Chinese occupation.

And a well known leader rides into NYC with the crowd yelling “God bless America!” and touting this guy as the next George Washington.

How long does that go on before the Chinese military comes in to squash it?

Not long at all.

The Jewish leaders see this as a possibility with Jesus.

They don’t believe in Him at all, and since He does not meet their concept of what Messiah will be, they see Him as a danger to their way of life, fearing the Roman Government.

But as we see, Roman occupation wasn’t the focus of Christ as He enters the city.

Matthew 21:12

Jesus again shows He isn’t the King they are expecting, but rather the opposite of what they think of as King.

The money changers that the Temple leaders allowed in, Jesus throws out.

The blind and the lame and the children that the Temple leaders kept out, Jesus brings in and shows mercy.

But there is more going on here.

Jesus does this in the courtyard of the Gentiles.

(Show Graphic)

Jesus quotes Isaiah 56

And what context is this in Isaiah?

God’s calling of foreigners to salvation.

This is the part of the temple that declares God’s salvation to the nations, and yet, gentiles are coming and they are being cheated out of money, not only at the money changer’s tables, but at the tables that sold sacrifices.

The fact that Matthew mentions those who sold Pigeons isn’t just an anecdote here.

Pigeons were sacrifices of the poor.

So those in the temple are overcharging the poor for their sacrifices, and also stealing from them in the changing of the money.

These people come daily into the temple to steal from people.

They don’t have to sneak in either, the leadership of the temple has allowed this practice to become normal.

And that is why Jesus quotes Jeremiah as well.

In quoting Jeremiah, Jesus is attacking the rampant sin and hypocrisy in the temple.

Douglass O’Donnell wrote:

“Understand what he is saying.

Thieves don’t do their robbing in their den.

Rather, their den is their safe hideout.

So here Jesus is not merely denouncing all the buying and selling.

Rather, he is denouncing the false security of those who come into the temple to offer a sacrifice for sin without the fruits of repentance.

The temple, Jesus is saying, has degenerated into a hideout where people think they can find God’s fellowship and forgiveness no matter how they live.”

We have seen time and time again how Christ confronts empty religion, and Christ here confronts a more debased evil.

This is deliberate sin.

This is premeditated, purposeful usage of the Temple of God to oppress the poor and defraud gentiles.

And most of us think about that, and our reaction is to recoil from the blatant offense that these men are displaying before the Lord, but the unfortunate thing is, this still goes on.

Tomorrow, Rob, Rick, Steve and I are going to set out to Birmingham for the SBC Annual meeting.

And the unfortunate situation we have before us is that for years, there have been Southern Baptist Pastors, deacons, volunteers and members who have used churches as a hunting ground to abuse people, many of them children.

And much like the leadership in the Jewish Temple, many of our Southern Baptist Churches have allowed this activity to go on.

Many have feared for their own reputations, the reputation of their church or the SBC as a whole, and have swept accusations under the rug.

Some have, because of a misplaced desire to be gracious, allowed for abusers to resign or leave without being reported to the authorities, where the abusers have resumed their nefarious activities in other congregations.

This has created a system of abuse where abusers were protected, and victims were vilified.

But God, in His great mercy, has shone a light on this epidemic, and we actively see the tables being flipped, and those responsible driven out.

The leadership of the Church was provided this morning with a report that was published yesterday by the Advisory Group that was set up last year by the President of the SBC, JD Greear.

The 52 page report is extensive, and painful to read.

I want to share two quotes to demonstrate the connection to this same attitude we see in the Jewish Temple.

“They found that a perpetrator’s involvement in a church community did not seem to deter their criminal sexual behavior, in fact it seemed to worsen it.”

Scripture is clear that we will have “wolves in sheep’s clothing”.

But in no way shape or form can we protect those wolves and offer more and more sheep up to them.

“As the body of Christ, charged with being His hands and feet in a broken world, we weep and lament the devastating impact on each person that makes up these statistics.

Behind each number is a face, a story, a precious person created in God’s Image.

No matter if the abuse occured within our church walls, on a college campus, or hidden inside a home, we grieve the violation that each statistic represents, and resolve to be a beacon of hope and healing to survivors and a safe haven free from abuse for future generations.”

We cannot be a convention that is a comfortable place for wolves.

We cannot be a church that covers up abuse and further abuses victims.

We are called by Christ to advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves.

For the “least of these”.

Russel Moore said,