You Don't Own this King

Well, let's take our Bibles again and let's turn back to Matthew 21. We've already had read to us the beginnings of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday. and what we want to do is to pick up that narrative where it was left off and finish and see all that jesus had to say one thing we need to remember about palm sunday it was a day where jesus by his actions and his word declared himself to be a king and in these he declared us to us what kind of king and so you follow along carefully as we read Matthew 21 beginning in verse 18 to the end of the chapter. In the morning as he was returning to the city he became hungry and seeing a fig tree by the wayside he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves and he said to it may no fruit ever come from you again and the fig tree withered at once.

When the disciples saw it they marveled saying how did the fig tree wither at once? Jesus answered them truly I say to you if you have faith and do not doubt. You will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith.

And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching and said, by what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority? Jesus answered them. I also will ask you one question and if you tell me the answer then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things the baptism of John from where did it come from from heaven or from man and they discussed it among themselves saying if we say from heaven he will say to us why then do you not believe him but if we say from man we are afraid of the crowd for they all hold that John was a prophet so the answer Jesus we do not know and he said to them neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

What do you think? A man had two sons, and he went to the first and said, son, go and work in the vineyard today. And he answered, I will not. But afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same And he answered I go sir but did not go Which of the two did the will of his father They said the first Jesus said to them truly I say to you the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.

For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him. Here another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants and went into another country.

When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first and they did the same to them. Finally, he sent his son to them saying they will respect my son. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, this is the heir.

Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance. And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? They said to him, he will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their season. Jesus said to them, have you never read in the scriptures?

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him. When the chief priests and Pharisees heard this parable, they perceived that he was speaking about them.

And although they were seeking to arrest him, They feared the crowds because they held him to be a prophet. Let's pray. Once more, Father, we come to you and ask for your enlightening power. We pray that the Spirit would open our eyes and more than that would move us to understand and to live by what Jesus says. so help us now as we look into this text help us to hear your voice and we'll thank you in Jesus name Amen it was more tumultuous than Columbus after Ohio State wins the national title It was even greater more joyous than a Super Bowl victory parade If you can just imagine what it was like, that's what the entry of Jesus was like into the city of Jerusalem many centuries ago.

The mass of pilgrims headed in Jerusalem had reached a fever pitch of enthusiasm for the famous rabbi who was riding into town in the midst of the crowd on a donkey. But they weren't celebrating his skills as a teacher. They were wild with enthusiasm over the fact that the promised king was now among them. And Jesus had declared that very thing by purposely finding a donkey, a foal of a donkey, and purposely riding in on that donkey in fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah. wildly entering the city and running through the streets, the pilgrims were just shouting, just screaming at the top of their lungs, Hosanna to the Son of David.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Now, Hosanna, that's an interesting word, isn't it? It's the Hebrew word that essentially means salvation, and it's meant as an exclamation. Salvation. So Hosanna is essentially, hooray for salvation.

It's coming. It's here. salvation, salvation that's kind of what they were saying Hosanna to the son of David the son of David is our salvation hooray for the king salvation belongs to the king blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord rejoice because the king who delivers salvation has come the one promised by God Hosanna in the highest let all the angels in heaven join the song of praise salvation, salvation let the heavens sing That's what was going on. They thought the day had come.

Salvation had arrived with the king. Finally, they get it. They finally get it. They love Jesus, and they understand that the king who brings God's salvation and his kingdom has finally arrived. They finally get it. But the question is, if they understood what Jesus was, then why is it that within the week they're crying for his blood?

What is going on? And what turned them? What is it? It all virtually disappears. And they hand him over to the Romans So by Friday he a dead man Is Jesus king or not Is Jesus king or not? Actually, the question is not, is Jesus king?

The question is, what is the lordship of Jesus like? That's the question. what does it mean what kind of rule kind of reign does jesus have what does the rule of jesus mean now those enthusiastic crowds confessed the truth but the problem was they did not understand the truth they had the wrong idea of what the king was all about as do most people today now this is palm sunday when those who profess jesus declare him king but the question is do you understand what that means? Do you understand what it means when you say Jesus is king?

You see, we think we grasp what Jesus is king means, but what we do is we tend to force the king into our mold. In our thinking, Jesus ends up serving our agendas rather than us serving him. so the first thing i would say to you this morning is beware of serving a king who serves your agenda beware of serving a king who serves your agenda what happened back then anyway what was going on back then in this wild enthusiastic almost riotous celebration of jesus entering Jerusalem. What in the world was going on?

The time to celebrate Passover was a few days away. It's going to come within the week. And pilgrims crowded into the city to celebrate the festival. It was the dream of every Jew, if he could possibly do it, to at least make it to Jerusalem once in a lifetime to celebrate the Passover. And so that's what all these pilgrims were doing. and there's tons of these people coming to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.

And the Passover made the Romans nervous, because they knew what it was about. The Jewish Passover celebrated the liberation of the people from slavery centuries before. And so this was not just a religious... This is not just a religious celebration, it was a patriotic occasion. And nationalist sentiments ran high during the Passover. Because here they were, what?

They were slaves again. They were under the thumb of the Romans. And that made the Romans nervous when Passover came around. The Romans were so wary of this time of year that they increased the normal of number of troops in the city. And not only that, but the governor, Pontius Pilate, whose seat of government was in Caesarea, further north and on the coast, would purposely come to Jerusalem at that time of the year and make that his headquarters for the occasion.

And the Romans had good reason to fear on this day. When Jesus came over that hill, on that donkey, the people reacted. It was the moment they and generations of people before them had waited for, the arrival of God's anointed, the Messiah, the promised king. It was here. It had finally arrived. So the Romans, no doubt, were really nervous about this time.

And they knew what he was about to do. Hooray for salvation. The son of David is our salvation. Hooray for the king. Salvation belongs to the king. He will win our liberty.

He will rain down judgment on our enemies. He will run the oppressors out. He will rally his people. He will organize the military and the paramilitary forces already operating with the city and drive out the hated Romans. That's the salvation they're looking for, you see. He will achieve the ascendancy of the nation.

He will sit on the throne of David and reign once more over a very proud and independent Israel. He's going to produce the prosperity of the promised land that God had promised centuries ago. He will preserve our religious way of life, the people of God living a quiet religious life as they always did, as they always wanted. That's what was on their minds.

That's what they wanted. Now, we have a tendency, as we always do, to look down our noses at the people back then and to say, those sad sacks, man, why don't they get it? Why don't they get it? We get it. Why didn't they? Well, before we do that, let's think this through, right?

We all know that Jesus is the king who would promote the planet ecological well condemning the nasty industries that causing global warming and who would certainly drive a hybrid car He would oppose our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan for he is the Prince of Peace And Jesus is the compassionate King who would certainly have lobbied Congress when Obamacare was up and would certainly have seen that it was passed. And he certainly would smile on the efforts of the Presbyterian Church USA and the Episcopalian Church USA and the Methodist Church USA and United Church of Christ in their efforts to love and inclusiveness with including homosexuals in the ordained ministry of the Word of God. Surely he would be for that.

Now, I know what you're thinking. You go, yeah, yeah, those liberals, they always do that with Jesus. Before you start getting too excited, we all know that Jesus has been marching with the picketers around the abortion clinics, don't we? And it's a no-brainer to know that Jesus would lead the charge against same-sex marriage in our country and who would surely support a constitutional amendment to that end.

And we all, no doubt, know that our righteous king would fight for the right to pray at high school football games and graduations. Because he's a just king, he would make sure that American foreign policy would reign supreme in the world because we are an exceptional nation. And no doubt, no doubt at all, Jesus would be part of the effort to make America great again.

Let's not look down on the liberals too much, shall we? You might be saying right now, wait a minute, Pastor Tim, are you saying that Jesus doesn't mind pollution? And that he loves war? and that he has no concern for poor people? Do you mean that Jesus would support same-sex marriage and abortion and that he doesn't care whether people pray or not? Do you think Jesus...

No, no, no, no, that's not what I'm saying. That isn't what I'm saying either. But Palm Sunday ought to stand as a warning to us from Jesus. It is too easy to reduce the lordship of Jesus and the kingdom of God to our own agendas and in the process miss the king agenda It much bigger than what we think and oftentimes much different. So the second thing I would say to you this morning is, serve the king who has a better agenda.

What is it? His agenda is laid out for us in this narrative. what does it mean when we say jesus is lord what does it mean when we proclaim him proclaim that he is the king well let's take it apart verses 12 and 13 now i'm not going to read through the whole narrative again it's pretty long so you refer to these verses as we go through just read through them. Verses 12 and 13, Jesus enters the temple and starts throwing tables around and flinging money around.

Here's the first thing. Here's the first thing on his agenda. The king demands a people known for prayer and holiness. The king demands a people known for prayer and holiness. Wow, what a disappointment Jesus must have been. He doesn't rouse the people with a speech, right?

He doesn't ride into town now and rouse the people with a speech. He doesn't lead a public demonstration. He does not mobilize the forces of change to rid his people of oppressors. Instead, the king, no, the king turns on his own people, accusing them of wrongdoing and calling on them to change. Now don't miss the irony of this. They have just thrown down their coats.

They have laid out the palm branches. There's almost been a riot of celebration because the king that brings salvation has arrived and the first thing he does is turn against them. He goes into the temple, the very heart of their national life, and he starts throwing the tables around and driving out all these people. He says that his temple should be a house of prayer.

Why is he talking about prayer? Right? By the way, what's the present day temple? I'm looking at it I looking at it Are we known for demanding justice in public demonstrations Are we known for being a praying people My house should be a house of prayer. And he says that holiness must be our badge. He says that because he says, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.

Now, don't misunderstand what Jesus is doing here. It wasn't wrong for them to have money at the temple. It wasn't wrong for them to be buying and selling. Pilgrims would come from all over the world. They could not bring their sacrifices with them. They had to buy them.

They needed to buy their sacrifices. There were things that were going on there that were necessary for the system to go on. It's not that people had money. It's not that they were transacting business. That's not the point. What he's doing is quoting the condemnation that comes from the prophet Jeremiah. almost it's almost word for word what Jeremiah had said and what Jeremiah had said is you are a wicked people and what you do you're like robbers who come into a cave and find refuge so what you're doing is you live these wicked unjust lives outside and then you come in to the temple thinking that if you go through all the motions God will forget about all the other stuff you just pull all the right chains and punch the right buttons, and you're okay with God.

He says you're like these robbers that come in for refuge. This is a house of prayer. This is where holiness ought to be. You must live holy lives everywhere all the time, not just when you show up. Are Christians known for that? If you were to ask this question, are Christians known for the fact that they're people of prayer and they're holy, or what are they known for? verse 14 the king demands of people who will touch the untouchables you see the problem here these kinds of people are not allowed in the temple courts and whoever touches them becomes unclean are we known for touching the untouchables now look i'm going to be really frank with you We may argue about whether, for example, we may argue about whether Obamacare is a good thing or a bad thing.

We can have a difference of opinion on that. We can argue whether or not the government should be... involved in medical care. Okay, we can argue about that. We can talk about that. So what? And at the end of the day, what are you doing to touch the downtrodden?

The thing is, we argue about all that stuff, and yet we don't even know who the suffering people are in our own neighborhoods. We need to know that. We need to help. Verses 15 through 17. The king demands of people who make much. Of Jesus.

The children are running around. Saying. Saying these things. And the religious leaders get angry about what the children are saying. And the implication being. Make them stop.

You know that what they're saying is wrong. That's what they're saying to Jesus. Make them stop. Make them stop saying things about you that are wrong. Tell them to stop. And Jesus quotes to them from Psalm 8.

And the word here. Prepared praise. you have out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies, quoting Psalm 8, you have prepared praise. This is praise prepared for God. Do you see what he's saying there? This is prayer prepared for God. The children, in Psalm 8, the children silenced the enemies of God's glory by proclaiming his praises.

Do you understand the implication of what Jesus says here? He's saying, I'm the fulfillment of that. I'm the God they're supposed to be praising. So he's telling them, I'm not going to tell the children to be quiet because they're making much of what they should be, that I am who I say I am. They're praising God for me. And that's what they should be doing.

You know what? Again, we need to make less of the hot-button issues of today and make more about Jesus. Not what Jesus does to support our agenda, but Jesus himself. Jesus himself. Jesus is the king who has come to reign over people. He's the one that offers them peace.

He the one that says come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you peace take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart We need to make a lot about Jesus. Isn't it interesting that we're willing to talk to our unbelieving friends and talk all day long about this particular political issue or that, but we don't make much of Jesus. We need to make much of Jesus. verses 18 through 22 18 through 22 this is the story of the fig tree that seems kind of weird but you've got to connect it with what he says about faith and prayer verse 21 and jesus answered them truly i say to you um you know that how did the fig tree wither at once and jesus says truly i say to you if you have faith and do not doubt you will not only do what i've what has been done of the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and thrown in the sea, it will happen.

And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith. He intended to teach an object lesson. The religion of that day had lots of activity. People devoted to the only true God, and they would die for the temple. And look at the events of the day, the recognition that Jesus was God's anointed, the unrestrained cries of the children, and the great enthusiasm for Jesus, but like the tree, it was all show and no fruit.

It was all show and no fruit. Do you see that today? Jesus is not, listen, Jesus is not looking for great public demonstrations. He's not looking to fill stadiums with people singing praise songs. Okay? That's how we measure success.

Do you know that? Don't we? Wow! 20,000 people showed up at that stadium and they were singing Getty songs all day long. Wow, God must be at work. Jesus isn't about great public demonstrations.

He's looking for confident, mountain-moving faith. He's looking for a confident faith that expresses itself in fervent prayer, that believes that God can do what he says he's going to do. By the way, footnote here, freebie. This one's not even in my notes. Jesus is not in any way saying, if you have enough faith, you can, you know, move Pike's Peak. Right?

It's like our idiom, you know. Man you want to get that guy you want to get that guy to do the job for you because he can move mountains Do we really mean that guy can move a mountain No what are we saying about him He can really get things done. That's what Jesus is saying. You have faith in a God who can really do what he says he can do. One writer put it this way, Jesus wants us to trust God boldly, confidently, assuredly, knowing that God is propitious to us through the fully satisfying work of Jesus, knowing that this is how Jesus wants us to pray so confidently makes our prayers much more than I love this makes our prayers much more than a hoping mumbling and transforms the life of prayer into an adventure.

God would you save my uncle if it's your will. Let me tell you a story about this passage. some years ago what year was it 2003 was that the the uh sesquicentennial of the rue 2003 all right so everything's in everything's going man the community's going so they decide to get the the the pastors together the pastor and the priest together right i'm thinking oh boy this is going to be fun and before that meeting they're going to have this meeting and i'm thinking what are we going to do i mean you know we want to promote the gospel but we don't want to say what you guys are doing are right because some of what they were doing was wrong we don't want to you know and so i was praying i came across this passage praying you'll receive if you have enough faith you'll get it and i said oh boy what so you know what i said i said this god after i read that I got a meeting this afternoon. I don't want to be a curmudgeon, but I want to stand for truth.

God, help us in some way to make the gospel, right, to make the gospel clear in some way. How can we do that? Lord, I'm confident you can do that. So that afternoon we had this meeting with the clergy. And you know how much I hate that word clergy. and of course yeah you know we hear the rumors that you know you baptists don't want to do anything with anybody else because that means you miss your offering and you know all that kind of It really bizarre So I thinking Lord what are we going to do Let have a worship service together Oh, no, let's not.

And then, no kidding, this idea pops into my head. Pops, I put pops into my head. It says, look, why don't we get together that afternoon? and we can sing songs together and your choir can sing and our choir can sing let's go to the park and have a meeting and we can tell the history of our churches and that's what happened that was God answering I said God make the gospel clear help us to do something and that's what happened if you remember what happened we got together down there the churches we sang some songs together the choir sang and since I was the senior guy I got to give our history last right so they tell the history of the particular churches and they were okay it was good to hear the history of these other churches right I didn't know that the Catholic church had started because of some of the Irish workers on the railroad right and that was really cool that was interesting to know when I got up I said well y'all know we're Baptists and this is the history of Baptists And our church got started here.

And we Baptists believe in baptizing believers. By the way, here's what we mean by believers. And I got to spend the next 20 minutes talking about the gospel. Now, why do I tell you that story? It's because that's the kind of faith Jesus wants us to have. Not to say, oh, God, help us if you can.

But God, really do something here. Please, please do something here. Make your word clear. God, do this. We're begging you to do this, and we're confident you can do that. That's the kind of prayer he wants us to have.

Now the question is, are we Christians in this country known and feared more for our ability to build political coalitions or for our unqualified confidence in God? What are we known for? We're known for an unqualified confidence in God. That's what we should be known for. verses 23 through 27 the king demands of people characterized by unquestioning submission to jesus unquestioning to Jesus.

And 23 through 27 is that little debate about by what authority are you doing these things? And so Jesus says, well then you answer me this question before I answer yours. By what authority did John the Baptist do what he did? And the point is he's not playing a cool debate trick in his conversation. You see, if they affirm that John was from God, then they have to affirm that what he said was right.

And what he did say was Jesus was sent from God as the promised one. So if you say that John got his authority from God, then what you're also saying is what he said about me was true. You see? And Jesus undermines their authority by essentially asserting his authority. If Jesus is from God, then we better submit to his commands without question. We better accept his teachings and do what they say without arguing.

Instead of Jesus, instead of us making Jesus the spokesman for our causes, we need to listen to him more and obey him more. Less talking, more listening and more doing. You say, okay, Pastor Tim, what does this have because we're heavily invested in pro-life ministry, aren't we? Right? So you're saying Jesus is for abortion? No, I'm not saying that.

I'm saying let's quit talking so much about it and let's do something that Jesus tells us to do, which is what I think we're doing. Right? We're working into the lives of people so we can introduce them to Jesus and make a lot of noise about Jesus in their lives and not so much about the cause. It's more about Jesus than the cause. Is the cause unrighteous?

No, it's not unrighteous. But who's the center of all of it? It's Jesus. That's what it has to be. Right? We want unquestioning submission to Jesus, not agree with my views.

Okay? Okay verses 28 through 32 The king demands of people more concerned about including people in the kingdom rather than excluding people from it The religious people of Jesus day were all about keeping their distance from sinners Okay? So he tells this parable of the two sons. He says to the first son, I want you to work in my vineyard. And he goes, I'm not interested, Dad.

But then he goes. The other one says, Dad, I'll do whatever you say. and just continues to watch television, right? So who does the will of God? The one who said, I won't, but actually does it. All right, now the religious people of Jesus' day were all about keeping their distance from sinners. And Jesus says the sinners, the ones who are saying, I'm not interested in what you have to say, fine, they go, they do it.

Those are the prostitutes. Those are the tax collectors. Those are the scum. They're the ones who are saying, nah, we're not interested, but then end up doing what God says. And then you've got the Pharisees who say, yeah, we're all about God, but don't do anything that he says. They missed the whole point.

What's the point? It's about the fact that they were all about keeping their distance while the sinners are the ones entering the kingdom. Jesus is less about defeating the homosexual agenda and more about saving homosexuals. You see the point? It's not about defeating their agenda. It's about winning them.

It's giving them the glorious joy of serving Jesus and not their own agenda. It's less about a triumphant foreign policy and more about a triumph of the gospel in other lands. What do we get more excited about? Where do we spend the most time, energy, and resources as Christians? We need to ask that question. So it's more about including people in the kingdom rather than excluding them.

Verses 33 through 44. This is the parable of the vineyard. The king demands of people who will produce the fruits of the kingdom. Now let me explain the parable very quickly. Who are the tenants that are given the vineyard? That's Israel.

Who are the messengers that the owner sends to them? Those are the prophets The prophets of God keep coming to them and telling them what God wants from them and they keep killing them So finally God says you know the master says I send my son And they kill him too. Right? So the master comes and just punishes them and gives the vineyard to people who produce the fruit.

The punishment is a reference to the judgment that's going to come on the nation of Israel. Their stiff-necked stubbornness against God reaches its ultimate culmination in rejecting the very Son of God. And so God, by the way, in 70 A.D., wipes Jerusalem off the map, destroys the temple, completely gone, never to be built again. Why? Because Jesus is the way.

What's the point? don't miss what he says here this is what really really really puts it in stark relief rather than defeating the hated Roman oppressors and shutting them out of God's kingdom Jesus says he will take the kingdom from the Jewish people and give it to the Romans and other unworthy Gentile people. Don't miss that. I'm going to take the kingdom away from you and I'm going to give it to those people.

Right? And they're the ones. They're the ones who are going to produce the fruit. And by the way, it's going to happen by my defeat and my rejection. All that's going to happen because I'm going to be the one that's rejected who becomes the cornerstone of the whole thing. This world needs people producing the fruit of the kingdom.

People who rejoice at the salvation that Jesus brings, the calling of all men to him by his free grace. People who, because of that grace, truly love God and spread his fame where they live and also among the nations. People who because Jesus had mercy on them show mercy on their neighbors People who enemies of God are loved who will not go out and love enemies as well People confident not in the power of the state or particular political parties, but confident in the power of the gospel to change lives forever. see that's what Jesus is looking for on this Sunday Palm Sunday we see King Jesus and we confess that he is our king we confess it, we own it we say Jesus is our king but what does that mean what does that mean I'll tell you what it means it means we need a new view a fresh view of the power of God in the gospel.

The power of God in the gospel. That we should quit enlisting Jesus for our agendas. And we ought to start serving him. Because his kingdom agenda far surpasses ours. In fact, his agenda is a better, more powerful, more gracious one. we don't own this king he owns us he owns us and we need to serve the agenda of him and his gospel father thank you for your word thank you for our king the lord jesus lord we confess him as lord he's king he's master he's the boss would you help us to live by his agenda first of all help us to recognize his agenda and then to live for that.

Father, we too often have our own agendas and we want Jesus to serve them. Would you please cause us to think deeply about his agenda and to serve it. We're thankful that he has come. help us to serve him we pray amen