1. Bethpage was 2 miles from Jerusalem. Jesus is now only 2 miles from where he will be crucified in a couple of days.

Transcription

1 Ch Bethpage was 2 miles from Jerusalem. Jesus is now only 2 miles from where he will be crucified in a couple of days. 2,3. It took faith for these disciples to walk up to a donkey, untie it, and take it without asking for the owner's permission. What will the neighbors think? They would think, we caught ourselves a couple of donkey thieves. But the disciples will do it because they trust the word of God. Faith is doing what God says, even when it may look ridiculous to others. 4,5. In those days a king rode a horse if he was making war; he rode a donkey if he came in peace. Jesus will ride into Jerusalem as their king, bringing an offer of peace. He is not coming to judge, or punish; he is coming to die for the sins of man. The king is coming to reconcile sinners to God. 6. This is a big day for Jesus. It's a day of great prophetic importance and fulfillment. Consequently, Jesus sends two men that he can trust to follow orders, and they do follow orders. The more dependable, and trustworthy we are the more Christ can use us. God says, if he cannot trust us with little things, then he will not trust us with big things years from the time God said it would happen, on the very day God said it would happen, it happened. Jesus the messiah rode into Jerusalem officially offering himself to them as their messiah, and king. 8. They were welcoming Christ, but for the wrong reason. Laying branches before someone was a symbolic way to welcome a national liberator. So we see that the people we're not thinking about repentance. They were excited about the prospects of Jesus crushing the roman empire, and giving Israel her independence. They think that this is Israel's 4th of July. 9. Their words suggest: long live the king. Jesus is king, but when they find out that he will not crush Rome this same bunch will scream, kill him; he isn't our king. 10. We're so used to television, magazines, and newspapers that it's hard to imagine that a famous person like Jesus wasn't recognize, but he wasn't. Everyone heard about Jesus, but few from Jerusalem had seen him so when he arrived they didn't recognize him. Unlike the famous people of today, Jesus could have walked down main street in a lot of towns and not been recognized. 11. The crowd knew who Jesus was because many of them were from out of town. The 1

2 people from Jerusalem were asking, who is that man on the donkey? 12. The temple complex looked more like the midway at a fair then the house of God. Hucksters were pedaling animals for sacrifices, and Jewish coins needed for worship. They had a very profitable business because this was the only place to buy these things and because they inflated the prices to take advantage of the out of town worshipers. They were using God to make money. 13. Anyone who would use the church, or Christianity to market something is like these who Jesus condemned as being thieves in robbers. Anyone who sees worshipers as potential customers is thinking the wrong way. A person's mind should be on Jesus not money or potential customers when they are at church. 14. We are seeing both sides of God in Jesus. You've seen him furious at sinners, and now you see him compassionate towards the needy. Jesus never turned it needy person away. 15. Jesus did a good thing when he cleared the house of God. The religious rulers had tolerated the hucksters who turned the house of God into a carnival midway, but Jesus drove them out. Jesus did what the rulers should have done a long time ago. What did the rulers do in response to Jesus' righteous actions? They got angry at Him. If someone doesn't have the holy nerve to do what is right themselves then they should at least get out of the way of someone who does. 16. The rulers are angry because Jesus is allowing children to praise him as the messiah. But Jesus would not stop the children because they were right in what they were doing. The arrogant religious rulers were too caught up in themselves, and too jealous of Jesus to praise him as the messiah, but the children did. Little children do not have an agenda. Their faith in God is simple, and pure, and often they can teach adults what it means to be spiritual. Instead of suppressing them, the people should try learning from them. 17. It is holy week. Jesus spent nearly every day of that week in Jerusalem. At night he would go to Bethany where he probably stay with his friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. 18,19. This is the only reported miracle of Christ where he destroyed life. But he was making an important point, and this miracle illustrated it. From a distance this tree looked healthy, with plenty of leaves. But upon close examination there was no fruit. That tree failed to do what it was created to do so Jesus destroyed it. 2

3 God is God. He owns everything, and everyone. God has the right to create or destroy. 18,19. Here's the lesson: this tree symbolized Israel. Israel's religion but good on the outside. They had their fancy temple with all its fine rituals. However, like the fruitless tree, Israel did not have any spiritual fruit or holiness. God was not pleased. Outward religion is great, but there must also be a heart for God, or it is useless. 20. Usually a tree withers and I slowly. This one died, and immediately shriveled which of course is unheard of under normal conditions. Why did it dies so quickly? Because Jesus wanted it to die quickly. Jesus can do anything quickly. He can skip the normal process any time with anything and make something happen right away, when he chooses to do it that way. 21. Removing a mountain was a figure of speech in those days. It referred to removing a problem, or rising above the problem. Jesus is saying, we can overcome any problem by faith. We can pray for it to be removed, or we can, by God's grace, learn to live with it, and allow God to use it. 22. Believing that God is able to do what we ask him to do is one condition for answered prayer, but it is not the only one. Not having any confessed sin is another. It also has to be God's will, and God's time. 23. In other words, Jesus, who gave you the authority to teach, and to do miracles, and to drive the money changers out of the temple? They wanted to know which Rabbi certified Jesus is ministry. 24,25a. They demanded to know where Jesus received his authority. Jesus said, I will answer your question, if you answer mine. Where did John the baptist get his authority? Was he sent by God, or man? Now remember, John preached repentance, and also declared that Jesus was the messiah, and therefore Jesus needed to be followed. Jesus is saying, OK religious rulers, I want you, in public, right now to tell all of us what you believe. Was john right about me or not? Was john from God or not? 25,26. If they say john the baptist was from God, then they are admitting that they are out of God's will because they have not followed Jesus like John told people to do. If they say John isn't from God, then the people will not like them because the people believed that he was from God. What a miserable way to live. People who care more about what people think then what God thinks always have to calculate everything they say. Say one thing when you're with one group and say something entirely different when you are with the next group. It's much 3

4 easier to live to please God, and let others think what they will think. 27a. Liars! They had an answer. It was the wrong answer, but it was an answer. They didn't believe that John the baptist was from God; that would be their honest answer. But they didn't have the guts to say it, because they didn't want to lose any of their popularity. 27. They were not being honest with Jesus so Jesus will not give them an answer. Why should he? People who play games with the truth, and are dishonest do not deserve an answer. People who know the truth, but refuse to admit the truth do not deserve an answer, and Jesus didn't give them one. 28,29. This son was a rebel, and he didn't try to hide it. He was who we was, a disobedience son. But one day he snapped out of it. He came to his senses, an obeyed. 30. This son was a rebel also, but he pretended that he wasn't. He said all the right things, but he didn't do the right things. He was worse than his brother. At least his brother was honest about his rebellion. At least his brother didn't add hypocrisy to his sin of rebellion. At least his brother repented. This guy was content being obedient in word only. 31. The tax collectors and harlot's were bad, and they, along with everyone else knew it. But many of them repented, and consequently were forgiven. Meanwhile, the arrogant religious rulers did not repent. They were self satisfied, and content with their religiosity, and the died lost. God will forgive any sinner who repent, and turns to Christ. But God has no use for the arrogant who looked down on others, and never repent themselves. 32. The scribes and the pharisees were supposed to be the religious leaders of the day but they were not even good spiritual followers. The harlots were ahead of them because they repented. The scribes and the pharisees thought they were too good to repent so they didn't. That's why the harlots are in heaven, in these religious rulers are burning in hell. 33. Let me give you the players in this story. The householder is God the father. The tenants are the religious rulers. The vineyard refers to Israel. 33,34. The servants in this story refer to all the old testament prophets that God sent to Israel. 35,36. Time after time God raised up holy men to call his people to repent, but they would not do it. They refuse to be holy, they did not produce good spiritual fruit. Instead of doing good they killed the prophets who were sent to them. 37. Here's another player: the son. The son of the landowner of course is Jesus. For centuries the Israelites rejected God's prophets, but God does not give up easy so he sent his son. They 4

5 may reject servants, but you have to be a miserable snake to reject the son of God. 38. In those days if a land owner died, and his heir was also dead the land would go to any tenant who might be renting it. That's why these tenant farmers who didn't care about anyone except themselves decided to kill the son. Eventually they would get the land. 39. What these tenant farmers did to the son is exactly what the religious rulers will do to Jesus. They will take him outside the city limits of Jerusalem, and have him murdered on the cross. They thought they were so smart, but they forgot one thing. God the father knows what they did, and God will certainly make them pay. 40,41. Will they get this answer right. Jesus is talking to the religious rulers who were plotting his death. And, by this story, Jesus is saying, I'm not stupid; I know what you are planning. 40,41. The message is this, you better think long and hard before you kill the son. This is your last chance with God. This is it! God has warned you many times, and he will not warn you again. Get serious about God, now. if you kill the son you will suffer like never before. 42. The religious rulers rejected Jesus, but that doesn't change a thing as far as God's plan is concerned. They don't accept Christ as lord; too bad for them, he is still lord. 99.9% of the world could reject Christ, but he would still be the son of God, and the only way to heaven. If 99% of the people reject Jesus Christ than 99% of the people will burn in hell; it's that simple. God does not adjust his plan of salvation to suit the will of the majority. 43. Jesus said that God will take the kingdom of heaven away from Israel, and give it to another nation, and that nation, is a spiritual nation, and that nation is the church. The Jews rejected the savior so the kingdom of God was taken from them, and given to the church. That means in order to be right with God a person must receive Jesus Christ as lord and savior. The doorway to heaven is Jesus. 44. Those who stumble over the fact that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven will be crushed to pieces. That's because to stumble over Christ means to reject Christ, and those who go to their grave rejecting Christ are rejecting God's forgiveness. 45. And they perceived correctly. They knew what Christ was saying to them. He was saying I'm your last chance with God so you better make it good, or God will grind you to powder, and you'll burn in hell. 46. The fear of hell did not stop them from trying to arrest and kill Jesus. These rulers, who were supposed to be the teachers of truth, in reality despised the truth. They despised the truth so much that they wanted to kill the one who spoke it; namely Jesus. But smothering the truth doesn't get rid of it. Those who submit to the truth we'll be saved; those who cover 5

6 the truth will be damned. 6