Key Takeaways:

– The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem was a pivotal moment that revealed the expectations of the people and the true nature of His kingdom. The crowd’s quick shift from praise to hostility underscores the volatility of human loyalty and the importance of understanding Jesus’ mission beyond our own desires. [48:19]

– True leadership in the kingdom of God is marked by humility and service, not by titles or positions of authority. As followers of Christ, we are called to be brothers and sisters, serving one another and rejecting the temptation to elevate ourselves above others. This principle challenges the hierarchical structures of our world and invites us into a radical equality before God. [01:07:16]

– The dangers of religious hypocrisy are ever-present, as demonstrated by the Pharisees. Regular engagement with scripture and religious practices does not guarantee a heart aligned with God. We must continually examine our motives and ensure that our external actions reflect an internal commitment to God’s ways. [01:09:13]

– The power of our words to build up or tear down cannot be overstated. In our relationships, especially within the family and community, we are called to speak life and encouragement, fostering an environment of growth and love rather than criticism and negativity. This practice can transform our personal spheres of influence and bring us closer to the heart of God. [01:11:16]

– The story of Kathy Smith serves as an inspiration for all believers to serve faithfully without seeking recognition. God sees our hearts and our service, and in His timing, He elevates those who serve with a pure heart. This narrative encourages us to remain steadfast in our service, trusting that God’s plans for us will unfold as we walk in obedience. [01:14:22]

Transcript:

So, um, but real—I’ve done this long enough to just be gracious because there will be a few folks that will sneak in with a shocked look on their face. So anyways, last week we started a series, um, I’m just calling it “The Road to Redemption.” It’s our road to the cross. It’s kind of funny because a lot of my Easter series, I don’t include the time between the triumphal entry and the cross because when Palm Sunday comes, we talk about Palm Sunday, and then the next week we talk about Easter. But there is a ton that happened in between. In fact, 35% of the gospels are devoted to this last week, um, from the triumphal entry to the cross, and I don’t spend as much time in those. I kind of actually was kind of a revelation. I’ve been doing this for—I’ve been doing this for 18 and a half years here, and I was shocked. I’m like, “Wait a second, how am I—I’ve skipped this.” It’s not that I haven’t preached on it, but on Easter, I’ve just skipped this whole beautiful section.

And so that’s what we wanted to look at, and so last week, in fact, let me recap because some of you weren’t here, and those that you were have probably already forgotten. So, we started with Jesus coming in with the triumphal entry, riding on a donkey as a fulfillment of prophecy about the king will come in the city riding on a donkey, and what the king will bring. And the people, when you look at that Zechariah 9 chapter, the people thought he was going to be a military presence to bring peace to the whole world, and they didn’t really understand. So they’re all excited, people are praising Jesus, and they’re all excited that he’s coming, the Messiah is coming to deliver us. But of course, he had a different type of deliverance plan in place, but the people didn’t get it.

And so it’s pretty amazing that they could be so excited on a Sunday afternoon, and by Friday, they’re all yelling “Crucify him!” And it’s amazing to think how fast there can be a change of heart within these people. And so that’s what we’re going to kind of explore, is what happened, and then look more into, and then we get a chance at the tail end to look at the redemption plan in the latter part of the series as we get closer to Easter.

So Passover, this is—they’re celebrating Passover week. Passover is one of the three major feasts: you got Passover, Pentecost, and Trumpets. And it’s a—it’s a basically a week-long vacation. Think of Thanksgiving, you know, everyone loves Thanksgiving because you usually have Thursday and Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off. Well, they would also include Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, right? It would be a full week celebration, right, which all of you would appreciate, a full week, no work, um, just, you know, and get to eat and celebrate with family. And that’s what Passover was.

But Jerusalem had a population of about 25,000 people, and it went between 150 to 250,000 people because everyone’s coming to celebrate in Jerusalem. And they come into the temple to make their offerings, and the temple is packed. And so Jesus does his triumphal entry, and the first place he goes is into the temple. And so last week, we looked at Jesus coming into the temple, and he didn’t like what he saw. In fact, he was so upset that he flipped over the tables, the money exchangers.

People are coming from around the world; they’re bringing their Roman currency, their Greek currency, they’re coming up from Africa, bringing their currency. And a lot of times, they’d have a coin that would have the face of a king on it, or it’d have the face of their god on it, of a god from their culture on it. And the Jews are like, “No, no, no, no, that’s not—we don’t—that’s not gonna fly here.” So they would have money exchangers. It’s a good service. They would sell doves for those who couldn’t afford to do a sheep sacrifice; they could do doves. And they would sell doves. It’s a good service because if you’re coming from Corinth, it’s kind of hard to bring a dove all the way from Corinth and keep it alive and keep it—you know, it’s cumbersome. So they would be able to sell it.

But, you know, it’s like when you go to a stadium to get a hot dog, right? They jack the price up just a hair, like a big hair, right, compared to buying a hot dog at other places. They were jacking the prices up on everything, and Jesus just—it just—he was like, “No.” And so he’s flipping the tables over; he’s upset. And he said, “This, my house, should be called a house of prayer.”

And so, church, we talked about last week, there’s a lot of good things that church does, but if we’re not praying right, if we’re not worshiping, if we’re not being about the heart of God, we’re missing it. It’s amazing that we can miss it, and you can come to church every week, and you can still miss God’s heart. I’m hoping not, but it’s possible. People have pulled it off.

And so, Jesus goes—after he’s—his temp—after this, after flipping over all these, he goes back to Bethany. Bethany’s two miles east of Jerusalem, and he’s probably staying at Lazarus’s house. Lazarus was the guy that about two weeks earlier, Jesus raised from the dead. And so everyone’s excited because, you know, “Look at what Jesus is able to do.”

Well, Jesus comes back the next day, and where’s the first place that he goes? The temple, right? I wonder how much of a change happened the day before. He’s flipping over tables, and he’s—you know, get—you know, getting people to try to clear all this stuff out, and he comes back the next day. It doesn’t say, but I’m just curious how much change happened. Did the money changers move to a different location? Did the priests decide to start doing—you know, “We’re going to have a Bible study over here,” and so we’re going to make a—I don’t—we don’t know. We don’t know what type of change happened, but he comes back the next day, and he starts teaching, and he starts talking, and it doesn’t look like he’s all angry.

Um, for—for the temple, by the way, I got a picture of the temple here, um, for those that aren’t as fully aware. This is just a model of it in Israel right now. So the—the temple, the main temple’s in the—in the center there. You have—this is a much larger area than you realize. Then you have the whole Temple Mount, um, that it’s on, with the outside walls. That is 35 acres in size. It’s—it’s a very large—when you’re up there, it’s amazing how much room there is.

The outer courts, outside those inner walls, there is called the temple—it’s a—it’s that Gentiles can come in there, so it’s as far as the Gentiles can go. And then you can come in, and then there’s the women’s section there, and front, and then the—the men—I know, they were sexists, I’m sorry—but then the men had their special area that they could go that the women weren’t allowed. That was a cultural thing.

So, we don’t know where all the money changers were and everything, um, but we do know that Jesus came back, and he continued to teach in the temples. And so here’s what he says because he made some—the Pharisees and the religious leaders—a little—little upset, and the—by turning all this over in the temple. But now he focuses his attention and really makes the guys upset.

So then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’s seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.”

This is the classic—uh, have you ever heard the phrase, “Do as I say, but not as I do”? Right? This is—this is what Jesus is saying about the Pharisees, right? Listen to their teaching because they’re teaching the Bible, right? Listen—you know, honor those in authority, honor the message of God’s word, but watch what they’re doing because what they’re doing is not the example of what the Bible is laying out for them.

And so he go—he’s the—he’s sticking it to them. By the way, these guys, because we don’t really have a good context of the—the religious leaders here in America, um, you know, you call me pastor, and that’s great, but their role is different than just pastor. So they’re a mixture of—a of a professor of law mixed with the U.S. Senate, right? The—these guys are the religious, legal—you know, the religious experts, the law experts, um, and kind of the—the leaders of the society. They are big time; they’re kind of—they’re celebrities.

And so they—uh, they had to—by the way, they worked hard for this. They just like—um, today, you know, you don’t just show up and say, “Hey, I want to teach college,” right? No, you probably have to go through a lot of hoops to be able to get—become that professor. In fact, I got a—I got a picture here, maybe, of this one. So this is just an example—you know, have you ever been to a graduation ceremony? And if you’re an undergrad, you would have a certain type of gown that would be on the left, and then if you are in the middle, it shows represents that you have a master’s degree, right? Have you ever seen those guys that preach—that speak at commencement services? They have these, like—they’re the doctorates, and they’re the ones that have all the extra—some of you are like, “Paul, what are you talking about?” I’m just—I’m just letting you know, you know, that when you’re in the academic world, and you come to these ceremonies, they—they like to wear and dress and show their level of achievement, right?

These Pharisees and religious leaders have gone to school; they have put in some work. In fact, they probably didn’t start at the big temple; they probably started—there’s—um, uh, there’s many, many synagogues throughout Israel. Like, even in—even in Nazareth, there’s a little synagogue, and some of them had to start small, probably little—little—little synagogue in the middle of nowhere, and they work their way up, and they’re kind of proud of—of how hard they’ve had to work to get up.

Another one that we might be able to—uh, to recognize, do I have another picture? Yeah, thank you. Oh, so this is—um, I think we jumped ahead. Never mind, we’ll—we’ll come back to that one. I had it on my notes, but now that I remember when I put that together, the pictures for these guys, I let—I just said, “Ah, let’s not go there,” but I didn’t take it out of my notes.

So these Pharisees have worked hard, right? But here’s the difference: remember the guy, the cap and gown, and you got the guy that’s got the doctorate? He’s not wearing that doctorate thing everywhere he goes, you know what I’m saying? He—you know, it’s okay for him in a special commencement service, but he’s not showing the whole world that, “Hey, look at me, I got this doctorate.” In fact, you can run into them at WCO and never know that they’re anything special.

The Pharisees were a little different. They wanted everyone to know at all the times that they were—who they are. They wanted the respect, and they wanted the honor. In fact, here’s what—here’s what continues to say in Matthew 23: “Everything they do is done for people to see. They make their phylacteries wide and their tassels on their garments long. They love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogue. They love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.”

By the way, phylacteries—does that ring a bell to anyone? Yeah, oh, thank you, Sharon. Yeah, of anyone in the room, I figured you—yeah, maybe a couple of you. So my picture—my picture that we can come back to now—this, a phylactery is a box that they put prayers and scriptures in. And so you can see this—this guy, this is actually a very common—even current day, if you go to Israel and you go to the temple, you will see this every day, not just on one person. You will see hundreds of people like this every day. They’ll have a box on their forehead; they’ll have a box on their arm. And why in the world, and where in the Bible does it tell to put a box on your arm and a box on your forehead?

Yeah, thank you, Sharon. Thank you. So Deuteronomy 6 says this: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.”

So we might look at that picture and say, “What, that kind of looks weird,” right? They’re literally trying to fulfill the word of God, and so—so would the—so were the Pharisees. So they would have their phylacteries; they’d have their boxes full of prayers, and he said they would make them wide, and they would make them large, right? Instead of having a little box, “Mine’s bigger than yours,” right? You know, because—and they—for them, it was, “I got more prayers than you. I got more scripture.” I—I don’t know, but they loved to go around impressing people with their looks.

Now, if they walked around in our society, we’d be—that’s not quite as impressive, right? But there’s things that we do in a different culture that follows the exact same things. In fact, you know what I call it? It’s kind of—I don’t want—if none of you are wearing suits, I call it “sin in the three-piece suit,” right? We can do the same thing where we can—we can deck ourselves out, and we can look good on the outside, but inside, we’re—we’re all a mess, right? I mean, it’s—it’s okay to—it’s okay to accept that.

Um, but here’s what gets me: when I was studying this this week, we always look at the Pharisees as the bad guys, and the more I looked at this, I’m like, “Boy, their backyard’s awfully close to my backyard.” There’s some characteristics that they have that I’m not that far away from. Here’s some examples: you have a kid that’s getting a 4.0 in school, or you have a grandkid that’s doing really good—good in school. You know what you like to do when you got a grandkid that’s being successful, Brad? That’s it; you want everyone to know about it, and you do. “My grandkid’s the smartest three-year-old in the world,”
How quickly are you to share, you know? Oh, can you, you know, we kind of cover it up, or we don’t let people know, or have you ever done this where you twist the truth just a little bit to still make yourself sound good? Or you make your kids sound good? You just kind of, you know, what they call it in the political world, spin doctor. You ever hear—you’re familiar with the phrase, right? Where you take something that’s kind of a negative, and you try to spin it your way to still make you look good as well as you can. We love to make ourselves look good, just like these Pharisees, just like the people that Jesus is calling out and saying, “Don’t do what they’re doing.”

I think of it this way. I was thinking about it this week, kind of a silly illustration. You go to a costume party, right? Have you ever gone to, like, a Marvel’s comic superhero costume party? I know we’re all adults, and we’re above that, but just follow with me, right? Go to a Marvel comic superhero, you know, Comic-Con, or party, or whatever. Everyone’s dressed up as their favorite superhero, but then an emergency happens, something happens, right? And everyone’s standing around, and they look like they are the real deal. They look like they should be able to come into the rescue and save the day, but they don’t have what it takes. They’re just dressed up on the outside, right? And we can do that in a lot of ways, where we look like we have it together on the outside, but really, we’re just covering up some things that are going on the inside.

Um, I—I—I—I call it this way: we like to put ourselves up on a pedestal. We like to lift ourselves up to be able to stand up, and other people can be respectful and look at the pedestal that I’m standing on. These guys would do it all the time. “Look at me, look at me,” and Jesus is like, “No, you aren’t to do that.”

What pedestal are you on? Some people put themselves on the pedestal of achievement, meaning this: your value is based on what you do. It’s based on your achievement, and so you’re going to constantly try to work harder. You’re gonna constantly try to keep doing more and more and more to be able to achieve and to keep up to that standard, and you just—you’ll keep going and going and going.

Other people like to be put up on the pedestal of other people’s praise, where everyone likes you, and everyone likes to speak well of you, and you’re constantly living your life trying to please others because you’re wanting this pedestal of praise from others. And it’s so subtle that it sneaks into our life; we don’t even realize that it’s there. And here Jesus is saying to these—to the disciples, “Don’t do it the way the Pharisees are doing it. They’re trying to receive people’s praise and achieve, you know, they’re achieving this accomplishment by doing, doing, doing.”

Jesus continues in Matthew 12. I’ve always scratched my head on this; follow with me, and, uh, um, I think I understand it better now, but I remember at times where this verse just—I struggled with. “But you are not to be called Rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on Earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and He is in Heaven. Nor are you to be called ‘instructors,’ for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

I always struggled with the “What do you mean I can’t call someone ‘father’ or ‘teacher’?” Right? I can’t call someone—it didn’t make sense to me. But when I looked at the context of it, the more and more—here’s what I realized, and—and—and Jesus said it, that “you are all brothers.” Right? We like to put ourselves up on this pedestal of importance, and Jesus is saying, “Wait a second, you’re all equal. You’re all brothers, myself included. We’re all equal in this. We’re all on the same team. We’re all on the same playing field.” And Jesus is saying, “Don’t lift yourself up.” In fact, what He’s saying is, “Humble yourself. Humble yourself instead of lifting up yourself.”

Our society tells us that you need to be the one that defends yourself, that you need to be the one to, you know, make yourself look good. And Jesus’s culture is saying, “No, humble yourself. Make others look good.” You know, this—you know what’s amazing about these Pharisees? They read the Bible every day. They carried scriptures and prayers with them every day, and they missed it. You can come to church, and you could still miss the heart of God, right? And I’m not trying to pick on anyone; I’m not trying to scare anyone. I’m just—I’m just being real. We can miss it, and you can be around it all the time.

Matthew 23:33, Jesus said about this: “You snakes, you brood of vipers, how will you escape being condemned by hell?” He’s actually talking to the religious leaders. They didn’t take this too well, by the way. This is probably a piece of the puzzle on why they crucified Him, but, um, but He knew what He—Jesus knew what He was doing. But He said, “You can miss Him.”

And here’s—here’s—here’s what I want to encourage you with, what Jesus is saying in this: Who are you called to be? You’re called to humble yourself. You’re called to build up others because here’s what sin likes to do. Sin likes to operate out of a couple of different platforms. One platform is fear, right? And so some people make choices based on fear all the time. Fear cripples them; it consumes them, and it is what dictates the choices they make, right?

Another one is insecurities, and so we make choices based on our insecurity all the time. We want to protect ourselves; we want to look good. And what happens is, when we try to make ourselves look good, you know what you end up usually doing? You put someone else down. You—you—you—you realize that you say something good about yourself, but what in reality you’re doing is you’re putting someone else down, and in—you’re trying to put them in their place so you can be up on that pedestal.

And Jesus says this: “No, no, humble yourself. He who exalts themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” And so, doing things God’s way is just a totally different perspective than what—what we get, what’s natural to us in our society. We’re called to build up others, even if that means me not looking good. That’s hard, right? That’s what maturity is—is building up someone else, investing in them.

Here’s a—just a—I—I don’t have the scriptures overhead, but there’s a couple that came to my mind where in Ephesians 4:29, it says this: “Do not let any unwholesome words come out of your mouth, but only what is useful for building up others according to their needs.” That’s an amazing word. “Do not let any unwholesome words come out of your mouth.” That can change some of your marriages, by the way. That can change some of your marriages if you came in with the mindset, “I’m not going to let any unwholesome, negative, critical, hurtful words come out of my mouth, but I’m only going to speak what is beneficial to my partner.” That will change your family, right? That will change your work environment when you’re like, “I am not going to put down and crush others, but I’m going to build them up and speak life into them.”

The Bible says that the tongue has the power of life or death. What are you going to speak? Are you going to use your words to build up others, or are you going to use them to tear them down? Because I tell you what, Jesus is telling us to do: humble yourself and build others up. And then Jesus says, “God said, ‘I—then God will exalt you. Then God will build you up.'”

Jesus wants us to let go of that fear and insecurity and to put our trust and confidence in Him and do it His way. And you know what? It’s easy for us to criticize the Pharisees, but it’s also easy for us to be just like them. And so, as I just—I want to encourage you, we have to do it His way. Don’t just come to church, “Good word, Pastor, that was great,” then you go home, and you go throughout the rest of the week, and it never changes, right? And we still live to try to protect ourselves or to build ourselves up, and we’re putting others down. No, no, it’s time for us to say, “Okay, I’m gonna try to do it God’s way and humble myself and build up others and—and do it His way.”

And when you build up others, and when you honor them, you know what you’re doing? You’re making the world a better place. You’re making your community a better place. You’re making your workplace a better place, in a healthier atmosphere. You’re making your family a better place when you learn to do it Jesus’s way of, “No, no, you don’t need to lift yourself up, but learn to lift up others instead.”