Acts of Christ 1

Life Of Christ Teacher’s Guide

Tonight we want to cover some of the Interesting acts of Christ in the New Testament. We touched a few of His parables, We have been covering His miracles in Sunday School, so I felt it good to move on to the next section, and you can use the study guide in your own studies if you would like. The incident we want to talk about tonight is when Jesus cleaned the temple, however to cover that we must also cover the Triumphant Entry. This is found in Matt 21:1-16 Mark 11: 1-18 and Luke 19:2-48. Each of these different renditions give us different clues as to what has been happening. Take Matthew-

· Jesus has sent his disciples into town to get the donkey and had his glorious ride into Jerusalem. What that must have been like to hear the people crying - “Hosanna to the Son of David, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.” Isn’t that what happens to us today when Jesus comes in our midst in Spirit. We cry and shout and have a time, Notice this didn’t happen all the time. They were not to live on this alone “Man doesn’t live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God.” Albert Barnes tells us this didn’t happen on the same day but probably the next day.

· Mark tells us he entered the temple and looked around on everything. Then left What an example to us. Let’s think and pray things thru before we act rashly. It’s sometimes easier to just let everyone know how we feel or what we think, I doubt the disciples even knew what Jesus was up to till it had already started.

· We find the story of the fig tree following that. I could branch out on several of these stories but I want to stay with this however I can’t go on without saying “Lord help us to have more than leaves. To have more than a form of godliness, to just look good, or look holy. Tell story of Lady at Salvation army thinking we looked so holy. I want to be holy not just look it. I want to have fruit not just leaves.

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· I. The Entry

· A. It is interesting that Jesus knew just who to send and where to send these disciples to get the donkey. It is also interesting that it is one that has never been ridden before. Bro. Jack knows quite a bit about horses, I know there is a little difference between the two but they are close enough for this kind of comparison,

· 1. “BRO Jack, would you ride a horse that has never been ridden or even broken in before?”

· 2. I see several things about Christ and God in this scenario-

· A. God knows everything

· 1. Skeptics could have said he had made prearrangements, However that still doesn’t explain why he told them what to tell anyone who asked what they were doing.

· 2. Christ was caring and gentle even to animals. “Bring THEM to me” The disciples were not to separate the colt from its mother.

· 3. Shows his power in several different ways. A. He never told anyone to worship him. It just happened. Isn’t it amazing that when we sense God or sometimes when we intentionally worship him it just comes automatically. You just can hardly help yourself. NO it’s not confusion or Paul commanded that everything be done in, “Decency and order.” A lot of this crazy sensationalism going on under the name of Christ today is one of the biggest causes of confusion there is. But they just began to worship him. If they hadn’t He had the power to have the stones cry out his praises. Wouldn’t that have been something to see, but I’m glad there were some people close enough to God that it never happened.

· B. And it seemes he had power over the animal and he rode it. Beverly Carradine in his book, “People I Have Met” tells a funny story of how they used to break in mules. They would rope them and they would buck, and pull, and kick and carry on. Christ didn’t have bit of trouble climbing on and riding this animal. Isn’t that wonderful. Taking the scripture as best as I can interpret it as it is not extremely clear in this instance, they put their clothes on the colt and Jesus climbed upon it. Now the prophecy was - “Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.” This is found in Zech 9:9 And has left many people scratching their heads. Which one was Jesus riding? Mark tells us it was the colt,

· 1. I think the main Idea is that a donkey was a sign of peace. They were not normally used in war, like a horse, they were not as agile or fast. Two of them represent what I think He was called, “The Prince of Peace”

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· Any questions on his Triumphant Entry?

· II. His cleansing the Temple - It is interesting he had power over the donkey but had to drive out the moneychangers. Man has a will and it seems to be God’s choice to not override that however one songwriter put it and you’ve heard it before. He may not make you go against your will, but he’ll sure make you willing to go. I pray God will do that for some folks I’ve been praying for.

· 1. There was a lot of thievery and dishonest practices in this situation. The priest and moneychangers were taking advantage of people. And beside God’s house was to be a house of Prayer not a market place. That’s why we have Wal-Mart or the Christian bookstores.

· 2. Again we see Christ’s power over people they did what he said but he did have to drive them out.

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· The main theme of our lesson tonight is to point out Christ first of all and then for us to be submissive to him just as the people and the donkey was, in the first part, and to keep our hearts free from anything that would make him uncomfortable in the temple of our hearts. You know our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. Lest keep him at home and make it a house of prayer.

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· Any questions or comments?