The Ultimate Barrier Breaker

Intro

We’ve been doing our series, Breaking Barriers. This series is inspired by the banners located at the Carlyle and Redvers campus. We are committed as a congregation to remove any barriers that keep people from Christ and the church. So we’ve been looking at the barriers in our own life, and as we remove our own barriers, we will be better equipped to removing the barriers in the lives of the people around us.

This morning is Palm Sunday, and there is no better way to wrap up a series on breaking barriers then looking at the ultimate barrier breaker. Jesus spent his entire ministry breaking the barriers that people had wrongfully erected, and had hindered so many people from having a relationship with God.

We will be reading out of Matthew 21 this morning. In your bible, this passage will be labeled “The Truimphal Entry” and it is one of the few stories that is told in all four gospels. Both stories we are going to look at are found in all four gospels. If you don’t know the story of the triumphal, you are going to find out why today is called Palm Sunday.

Matthew 21:1–11 ESV

Now 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 in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ” The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 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! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

Thus the reason we call it Palm Sunday. The people cut down palm branches and laid them on the road as Jesus approached the city. The way the story is told, it feels like a red carpet procession. The king is approaching the city and their animal could not walk on the ground. So the people roll out the rep carpet by placing their cloaks and the palm branches before the king.

But their is a problem. This is not like any other king. A normal king, or even a presitigious soldier, would have approached on a horse. A horse is the picture of power and elegance. A horse is an animal befitting a king approaching his city. Especially with the way the prophecy of the Messiah had been interpreted by the religious elite. The Messiah was going to be a conquering king that would overthrow the Romans and redeem Israel to it proper place of power.

But Jesus was not a conquering king. Jesus wasn’t born to a presitigious family in a castle. He was born to a carpenter in a manger. He didn’t riding a horse, dressed in fine linen and shiny armour. He rode a donkey, dressed in common clothes. In fact, the bible tells us that there was nothing special about his appearance that people would be drawn to him.

Because Jesus didn’t come to conquer a nation of people. He came to conquer a bigger enemy, an enemy that didn’t just conquer Israel, but had conquered the hearts and minds of every living every person. Jesus came to conquer sin, to conquer the devil, the father of lies whose only purpose is the steal, kill, and destroy. He came to break the shackles off people, captured in destructive habits and broken mindsets.

Jesus wasn’t the king the people were expecting, but he was the king that all of us needed.

Question #1: What expectations are holding you back in life?

Maybe you had an expectation that your life would be different. Maybe you had an expectation of your job or your spouse. Maybe you expected all this COVID craziness to be over by now. What are the expectations you have that aren’t playing out the way you had hoped? The more important question is, are you allowing these failed expectations to hold you back from the things that God is calling you into? Are you missing out on life because things didn’t go according to your plan?

It wasn’t everyone that was disappointed with Jesus. Not everyone missed the boat. Those who really needed a Messiah, those who really needed healing, really needed acceptance, they saw Jesus as the promised Christ. It was those who believed they had it all together that missed it. It was those who believed they didn’t need saving that missed how much they really needed Jesus, and how he really was everything they were missing in their life.

Which brings us to our second story. In the Gospel of Matthew, this story comes right after the triumphal entry. In Mark, there is another little story mixed in first. But just like the triumphal entry, this next story is told in all four gospels, and is equally important to the idea of breaking barriers.

Matthew 21:12–17 ESV

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 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, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.

Now there is two different things happening in this story, but both are very closely tied together. First, why is there a farmers market happening in the temple of God? If you walked in this morning and there were cages of pigeons everyone, who is walking right back out the front door, besides my wife. Michelle hates birds, that’s why.

But here is what is going on in this story. In the Old Testament, God established for the people of Israel a system making sacrifices, different sacrifices for different occasions. As well, there were tiers of sacrifices, depending on your wealth. If you were wealthy, you were expected to offer a bull as a sacrifice; if you were poorer, you could offer two pigeons for the same sacrifice. God also said within the law that if you had to travel a great distance for a festival, you were to sell the animal you were going to offer as a sacrifice, take the money to Jerusalem, and purchase an animal of the same type as a replacement. Depending on how far someone had to travel and how expensive that trip was, pigoens was problem the only thing some people could afford.

The problem was that people started seeing this as an opportunity to make money. There wasn’t just a place to go and purchase your offering; there were vendors competing with each other. Some vendors used crooked weights to help get them ahead. A system that was meant to enable people to worship God without the hassle of moving animals, now became a burden and a means to cheat your fellow man. Money was getting in the way of people worshipping their God.

Jesus came to tear down barriers. He came to remove the cloud of sin in our lives that separated us from a close intimate relationship with God our Father, and it was only a matter of time before he started tearing down all barriers. The temple of God, meant to be a place of worship and prayer, was full of robbers ans swindlers trying to make a buck. And so Jesus chased them out, seeking to redeem the reputation and atmosphere of his Father’s house.

What happens after he does? The blind and the lame came into the temple to be healed. Wonderful started to happen, and the children were crying out in the temple, the Son of David! The Messiah is here! People are being healed. People are being set free. Isn’t this amazing and wonderful!?!

Not to the Pharisee. Not to the religious elite. See they had their way that things needed to be done. No doubt the temple saw a cut of the proceeds from the market, and so having them chased out would have cramped their system. The religious elite had established traditions that added to God’s original law, and in the process made having a relationship with God that was free from guilt and burden almost impossible. In chapter 23, Jesus would criticize the Pharisees for tithing mint and cumin, but neglecting justice, mercy, and faithfulness. No one questioned the zeal and fervor that the Pharisees had, the problem was that their zeal was misplaced.

Question #2: What are you zealous for?

Jesus was zealous for tearing down the barriers that stand between people and God. Are we zealous for the things that Jesus was zealous for? Are we actively trying to open pathways for people to have relationship and experience love and forgiveness that only Jesus can give? Or are we zealous for the things that make us comfortable, and so we try to keep the people who make us uncomfortable out? What are we zealous for?

The truth is that Jesus is coming. One day, sooner rather then later, Jesus will return for his chosen people. There is coming a time of judgment and tribulation that no one wants to be around for. As awful as the world may seem now, things are going to get a whole lot worse.

And very often, I’ve heard people say that they hope Jesus will return right away. We don’t want to put up with corrupt governments and sinful media anymore. We don’t want our kids to grow up and have to face the pressures that the world is going to throw their way.

But the truth is, I don’t want Jesus to come back yet. There are too many people in our world that haven’t been saved by his love and grace. There are too many people who still reject them as their saviour, and as such will spend an eternity separated from him. Not just separated, but lost in the fires of Hell. I know we want Jesus to return, I know we want to get to heaven and be free from sin, death, pain, and misery. But I want my neighbour to be there too. And my family members, and the people in our community. I want everyone to be there, because I know that God’s desire is that none would perish, but that all would come to the knowledge of repentence. If it is God’s desire, then it needs to be our desire to.

The way I see it, we are either going to be a gate, designed to let people in, or we can be a wall that keeps people out. There is no halfway, there is no in between.

Question #3: Are you going to be gate, or are you going to be a wall?

May we be the gate, thrown wide open, that let’s everyone in, so they can meet the Savior of the world, the God who forgives and fulfills our lives.

Let’s pray.