Be WHO you have to be - Mat. 21

Church: Be who you have to be

General view of the Triumphal entry of Jesus in Jerusalem

1.Mount of Olives - David escaped Jerusalem via mt. of Olives, in order to live, but Jesus entered Jerusalem via Mt of Olives in order to die! (2 Sam. 15:30)

2.The donkey - there is a dramatic contrast between the royal figure of Gen 49:11–12, who in the best traditions of royal excess and self-indulgence tethers his own beast to the vine in order to satiate himself on the richness of wine and milk, and the figure (no less royal) in Luke [now Matthew] of one who must borrow a donkey in order to stage his royal entry into Jerusalem …, and who does so with full anticipation of rejection and execution’. Nolland John

! It was a custom for those who lived close to Jerusalem to prepare donkeys for the pilgrims. But Jesus was not a pilgrim. He was The Lord coming Home.

! Zec. 9:9 - Jesus fulfilled the prophecy about the Humble King!

! One or two? Matthew is quoting Ze. 9:9 as it is, without trying to change the words. There was a rhetorical repetition involving synonymous parallelism! Nolland J.

Corrie Ten Boom about the donkey: did you ever think to praise yourself?

3. Just bring the donkey - and they did it! You don’t have to ride it. Bring the donkey. Move the stone. Share the bread.

4.Garments: an allusion to the honouring of the newly anointed Jehu as king (2 Ki. 9:13).

5. Branches: supplies for garments running out.

6.Hosanna: a ritualized welcome for arriving pilgrims.

Hosanna means “save indeed”. But our text says “Hosanna to the Son of David” (Matt. 21:9). It seems that “hosanna” have become a greeting. In many cultures and languages greetings are frequently derived from prayers, blessing, or invocation.

God be with you stands behind “good-bye”!

7.In the Temple: you are making (Matthew) not “you made” (Luke).

What’s the problem? The money? The absence of sacrifices? The absence of prayer? They were all there. We are going to speak about that later.

10.The fig tree withers: why? As a symbol of Israel. Why so fast? In order to show that the judgement will follow at once.

God’s search for Israel & God’s search for the church

! God does not search His church because He knows everything about her (I say her because the church is not “IT”. The church is a bride! And a bride cannot be “it”).

But the church has to search herself (see 2 Cor 13:5)

There is no difference between “church” and “congregation” (Biserică și Adunare)

I have often said “The congregation may be bad but the church is always holy”. This is a nice statement but it’s a false one.

1 Corinthians 1:2 - to the church of God! Paul didn’t say the congregation from Corinth. At all.

The church has problems. The church has bad people in it. The church is doing wrong. But the church is in Jesus’ hand!

Why did Jesus bother to bother others?

Jesus knew that He had to die, anyway. But not every way is leading to death! But only the justice, the right, the holy way. If Jesus would made peace with the priests, He would not die anymore: Come on, guys, let me perform some miracles for you in order to have a higher facebook rate.

Teachings from the Triumphal Entry of Jesus in Jerusalem

1.Get the whole story. A half of story is no story at all.

! The jews missed one important detail: gentle! (Zec. 9:9)

! One word can change the story. Gentle!

World War II - Mokasatsu.

The jews missed the correct view of the Messiah because they only took for themselves what they considered right and good for them: King? Perfect, we need a king because Herod is so a zero. Salvation? We hate romans since the first day they cam up here. Donkey? He can walk if He wants that, we don’t care how he’s gonna be here.

עָנִי֙ ʿā·niyʹ = basic meaning is “without property”. It can mean “gentle” or “needy”, “poor”, but also it can mean “trouble”.

2.Ritual or real worship?

The problem is NOT that the jewish missed out everything they had to do. They did a good portion of the law: there were sacrifices, thousands of them. There were people going there, thousands of them. But still, there was a den of robbers. How so?

The main message: you are like robbers, who steal everything they can and after that they go and make sacrifices for their guilt. They never repent! They never change! They wait for the sheep, goat or dove to wash everything away..

Who are we? What are we supposed to be?

A. Community of love

The church of Jesus Christ is not a house of prayer. We use to say that because we just read things about the temple and we do a simple thing: copy-paste. But the Redeemed church of Jesus Christ is more than a house of prayer. More correct it would be to say that we are “A house that belong to the incarnated Hoy Word of God, Jesus Christ the Prince of Heaven”.

She, the church, is the bride of Jesus Christ.

How does Jesus call the church? Little flock, His family,

How does the Holy Spirit calls the church? Temple of God himself, body of Christ (Paul), living stones, holy priesthood, chosen people, holy nation (Peter).

What is the church meant to be? A sweet meeting with cool songs, nice preachers and not-that-long prayers? That’s all? This is the church? We didn’t follow even the letters. The jews did follow the letter and they were called “den of robbers”. How then are we going to be called?

Ritual = some religious activities, required by God himself, that have no connection or echo or influence in my daily life.

The Temple as a den of robbers: they had a sinful daily-life but a perfect ritual-life.

!If daily life and the congregational life are synonymous, we can call ourselves a true worshiper. If not, we are a den of robbers indeed.

B. For all nations, not only for the jews!

What did stop all the nations to come to worship?

Corruption.

Oppressive practices were involved.

But using the outer court for trading meant that if a Gentile came to the temple to pray, the only place he could do it was in the middle of a busy bazaar. Morris L.

What about us? Are we making disciples from all nations? Do we obey to Jesus last commandment?

Jesus is in the middle of the church. He knows everything and He wants to teach us this lesson: be always the same. At home, in the church, at work, and everywhere.

! We have to think about what the Bible says we have to be:

BRIDE

It was all that a young woman could do to maintain a conversation with a fellow Christian while waiting for her fiancé’s jet to bring him home to her after a three-week separation. Once the plane was at the gate, conversation was impossible as the engaged woman stood watching, eagerly waiting for the moment when she could throw her arms around her loved one at last. As she peered down the passage, the friend with whom she had been talking earlier was heard to say, “What a beautiful picture of the church watching for the return of her bridegroom.”

BODY!

This is a story about four people in the church whose names were Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.

The church had financial responsibilities and Everybody was asked to help. Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it. But you know who did it? Nobody. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done. Then the church grounds needed some work, and Somebody was asked to help. But Somebody got angry about that, because Anybody could have done it just as well and, after all, it was really Everybody’s job. In the end the work was given to Nobody, and Nobody did a fine job. On and on this went. Whenever work was to be done, Nobody could always be counted on. Nobody visited the sick. Nobody gave liberally. Nobody shared his faith. In short, Nobody was a very faithful member. Finally the day came when Somebody left the church and took Anybody and Everybody with him. Guess who was left. Nobody!

To dwell above with saints we love,

O that will sure be glory.

But to dwell below with saints we know,

Well, that’s another story!

We are the bride of Jesus Christ. We learn today to be what the Bible says we have to be. We learn today to do what the Bible says to do. Always and everywhere. For the glory of God, for the nourishment of the church and for the sake of the lost. We were lost, but our King found us. He wants us to be WHO He said we have to be.

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