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So what gets your motor running, besides coffee?

What gets you focused on a goal? There's a fable about a dog that loved to chase animals.

He bragged about this, his great running skill, and said he could catch anything.

Well, it wasn't long until his boastful claims were put to the test by a certain rabbit. it.

With ease, the little creature outran his barking pursuer, jogging back and

forth, running back and forth, darting in and out of bushes.

The other animals, watching with glee, began to laugh at the dog.

The dog excused himself, however, by saying, you forget, I was only running

for fun. he was running for his life.

You know, motivation certainly makes a difference, doesn't it?

The reason we do things certainly makes a difference in how much effort we put in.

Motivation makes a difference in how we live. But it does beg a question of

us, are you motivated to make a difference?

Does your life matter in the grand scheme of things? Do you you have a mission

in life? Do you have a purpose? Do you have a focus?

Do you know what you're here for? Do you have the end of the line in focus?

You know, in cross-country and track, you're always looking at that finish line.

You're focusing on that, imagining it in your mind, knowing that at some point

in time, you're going to cross that finish line.

If you succeed. Jesus had a mission.

He knew it had to be done, and he had a sense on how it was to be accomplished,

because Jesus knew where he was headed.

He had a true heading. He knew that he was heading to the finish line.

And after Peter correctly identified Jesus as the Messiah, the gospel writer

tells us that Jesus then began to teach them, the disciples,

that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders,

chief priests, and teachers of the law, and then he must be killed and after three days rise again.

This is not the message the disciples wanted to hear, because as those who were

on this Palm Sunday understood, they saw that this was a conquering king.

They thought he was a conquering king to come and overthrow the Roman oppression.

In fact, the conquering kings at that time would ride in on a white horse in

to take over where they were.

And Jesus rode in on donkey. So while they were cheering Hosanna to the king

of the Jews, king of Israel, Jesus is riding in on donkey in the image of peace.

And yet the apostles and the disciples and the chief priests and the teachers

of the law were all expecting a Messiah to come to overthrow the worldly rule of Rome.

But Jesus had a direction. He had a compass, and his compass was the cross.

It was dialed in on the cross. That was his focus.

That was what he was going for. In fact, the Bible tells us that he resolutely

set out for Jerusalem because he knew that he was going to the cross.

He resolved to move in that direction. He was heading to the finish line.

But this was news that was hard for for Peter to accept it.

He frankly said to Jesus that he needed to go in a different direction.

I think, Jesus, you're kind of messed up here. You're not going to a cross.

You're going to a throne, and we're going to make sure of it.

Well, Peter understood the scandal of the cross. No one should go to a cross.

No one should die without a fight. No one should yield his or her rights willingly.

No one should suffer innocently.

No one should be used, abused, or rejected.

No one should give in to the hierarchy and surrender.

Furthermore, if Jesus went to the cross, he would be classified with common

criminals, and that would wreak havoc on the movement.

Yet the very thing that peter tried

to talk jesus out of was about

to happen you see jesus was

focused on the cross with a priority to persevere he went to the cross with

the focus on the cross if you turn with me to mark chapter 11 verses 1 through

Mark 11:1–10

10 these are the words of this part of the passage and i'll be reading three

different parts of this through verse 25 but beginning with 1 through 10,

it says this, and they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphagia and Bethany at the Mount of Olives.

Jesus sent two of the disciples, saying to them, go to the village ahead of

you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there,

which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here.

If anyone asks you, why are you doing this?

Say, the Lord Lord needs it, and we'll send it back to you shortly.

They went and found a colt outside the street, in the street,

tied at the doorway, and they untied it.

Some people standing there asked, what are you doing untying that colt?

They answered, as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go.

When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it.

Many people spread their cloaks on

the road while others spread branches they had cut in the fields those

who went ahead and those who followed shouted hosanna blessed

is he who comes in the name of the lord blessed is the

coming kingdom of our father david david hosanna in the highest so 500 years

earlier the prophet zechariah had said that god's king would enter the kingdom

into the kingdom by riding in Jerusalem on the back of a donkey.

Now, that didn't make sense.

Any of those who read the prophecy from Zechariah would think, this is crazy.

In fact, when they were waiting for the Messiah, they thought that Zechariah's

prophecy was kind of strange.

And here Jesus did the very same thing. He fulfilled messianic prophecy by riding

into Jerusalem on a donkey. worse yet the cult of a donkey.

But realize that this was no small feat. These animals do not welcome such an experience.

If you've ever been around donkeys

at all, they're not, they get easily freaked out by crowds of people.

They're lone animals. They don't like to be in big bunches of people,

especially big bunches of people, weaving things and shouting.

You know, it kind of freaks them out. It does me too.

And so they don't welcome such experience. experience even

at an early age for the

donkey while you're riding along the

wayside the donkey is quite capable

of dumping you on your backside it happens so here's an animal that no one has

ever ridden on but jesus sat on him and this untamed animal was quiet responsive

and obedient obedient, just like our children.

Wait a minute, that's not in there. And carried Jesus throughout the streets of Jerusalem.

The people of Jerusalem were quite aware of the meaning of Jesus's ride.

Many of them had been waiting for Jesus to make such a move.

They were looking forward to, in an expectation that a king would deliver them.

There was an expectation that coming king would would smash the Roman oppressors

and restore Israel to its rightful place in the sun.

I think people nowadays are looking for Israel to be brought back to the rightful place of the sun.

But there was a problem with this line of thinking. Other conquering kings came

into cities on mighty stallions, but Jesus came in on donkey.

You see, although people were looking for the overthrow of Rome,

Jesus didn't come for that.

He had come riding on a donkey declaring peace, not war against Rome.

His conquering was not against men and forces. versus his conquering was against

the powers of the darkness and against sin.

Nevertheless, the people were full of expectation. They were reminded of 150

years ago when Judas Maccabeus had delivered Jerusalem from Syrian oppression.

On that occasion, known as the Second Maccabean Revolt, a great celebration

was held with praise, palm branches, and musical instruments.

These people in Jerusalem at that time saw what Judas Maccabeus came into Jerusalem

riding on a stallion, having conquered the Syrian oppression.

Now these people at this time in Jerusalem believe that Jesus was the next coming

to deliver them from oppression.

And they were right. Jesus did come to deliver them, but he just wasn't what

they were expecting. The people were literally shouting and screaming,

Hosanna, which means God saves.

Their celebration was fervent and passionate, like a political convention.

They were waving all their banners all over the place, the palm branches,

you know, their banners.

And they had some Jesus for King and elect Jesus. Well, no, they didn't have that anyway.

Their celebration was fervent and passionate. And this was no short activity.

It was a raucous, loud, and sustained celebration.

It said he came from the city of Bethany into Jerusalem, which is about an eight-mile walk.

And as he got closer and closer, the crowds kept getting bigger and bigger and

bigger. Why did they become bigger?

Because the stories were told of what Jesus had done, and they were in anticipation

of what Jesus was going to do.

Their deliverer had come, their slavery had been canceled, and they were speaking the truth.

He had come to save, he had come to set them free.

And Jesus had come to set up a kingdom, but not the kind that they were looking for.

He had come to set them free, but not the way they were thinking.

For the compass Jesus was looking at and was following was dialed in on a cross. us.

So the kingdom was much different than what was expected or hopeful,

but it was needed all the more.

You see, it was a kingdom about wholeness.

It is a kingdom that ultimately heals the sickness of spirit, emotion, and body.

It is a kingdom that repairs relational breakdowns. It is a kingdom that releases

us from spiritual oppression.

It is a kingdom that turns tragedy and the joy. It is a kingdom that defeats

the power and the grip of death.

No longer will death have its hold on us.

This kingdom was much better than what they had expected and hoped for.

And so Jesus entered into Jerusalem

determined to finish what he had started with an eye on the cross.

So you see, the second thing is

that Jesus was focused on the cross with a priority to purify his house.

While deployed in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm,

Sergeant Michael Butts was helping one of the reserve soldiers get a generator

running to power up a work tent.

After assembling the generator, they had to add one quart of regular 30-weight oil.

So the soldier went out to get it.

He returned very disgruntled following a trip in 100 degree heat to the motor

pool, a Saudi Arabian convenience store, and two Saudi Arabian gas stations.

Well, I guess I'm a failure, he said. I've been all over Saudi Arabia and I

can't find a quart of oil.

I can't help but wonder if Jesus did not feel the same frustration upon entering

the kingdom of the city of Jerusalem.

He goes to the temple to look for sincerity of worship, that which should have

been in abundance in a place like Jerusalem, in the temple of God, and he found none.

So verses 11 through 19, chapter 11, says this. Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple.

He looked around at everything, but since it was already late,

he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

The next day, as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry.

Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit.

When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves because it was not the season for figs.

Then he said to the tree, May no one ever eat fruit from you again.

And his disciples heard him say it. On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the

temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling.

He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling

doves and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.

And as he taught them, he said, Is it not written, My house will be called a

house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of robbers.

The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for

a way to kill him, for they feared him because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.

When evening came, the disciples went out of the city.

So going into the temple, Jesus conducts an inspection tour of the heart of the nation and says,

This is where the heartbeat of the nation was throbbing, represented in the

worship that was lifted up to God.

It would be like Jesus going into Washington, D.C.

And looking for his worship there.

He looked at everything, and what did he see? He saw commercialism.

He saw money changers. He saw exploitation. He saw corruption.

He saw injustice, and he saw greed. He saw dirt and filth. He saw squalor and

pride. he saw hypocrisy and haughtiness.

He saw that religious ceremonies were being carried out without any meaning

whatsoever, just miracles or mindless and heartless repetition of ongoing and annual sacrifices.

They did the same thing over and over and over.

You know, it's like the Twati syndrome. That's the way we've always done it.

They do it over and over and over and expect something to be different, but he didn't say a word.

Not yet, anyway. He just simply left. This official tour of inspection by the

king had been completed.

But we do find out his evaluation, because in tying the story to this condemnation

of the unfruitful fig tree,

we see that Jesus concluded that that which looked looked good was actually barren.

Jesus examined the fig tree outside of Bethany. From a distance,

the tree looked good, looked really good.

For the life of the tree had been spent producing luxurious foliage.

It looked like a healthy tree, but it wasn't. You see, the task of a fruit tree

is not to produce leaves, it's to produce figs that would produce more fig trees.

So this fig tree became an illustration of his disciples that the nation of

Israel had all the necessary things to bear spiritual fruit.

They looked beautiful, but they weren't bearing fruit.

There was a lot of religious activity, but it didn't make a bit of difference.

They weren't bearing fruit. They were not showing the light of God to those who were in darkness.

Darkness isn't that the way it is with many in the church today they have all

the right looks on their faces and all the right answers to the questions in

bible study but they're unfruitful,

and anything they bear is unpleasant tasting in the mouth of those they are

supposed to be witnessing to it seems that the church of jesus christ around

this world especially in america is all show and no go.

In fact, the self-righteous piety that was being exhibited by the religious

leaders of that time was a cover-up for pure greed and wickedness.

Jesus was hoping that he would not find such wickedness in the temple,

but it was still the same as it had always been.

Those with the power were making themselves rich, sound familiar,

by piling up more and more regulations on the common people to provide profit for themselves.

You see, the religious leaders were writing more and more rules to go along

with God's laws, to expound upon God's laws.

There were thousands of pages of rules written by the leaders.

How many pages are in a bill in Congress? Just a thought.

We write thousands of pages of laws that we don't want to live by,

but want everybody else to.

That's what the religious leaders were doing at that time. The temple was the

political power, and those who had the power had control.

You see, Jesus was passionately disgusted with wickedness that claimed to be righteous.

Instead Instead of attacking the Roman oppressors, Jesus marched right into

the temple and launched a surprise attack against the religious establishment of the Jews.

The Jews hoped for a rebellion against Rome.

Instead, Jesus waged a war on religion.

The temple had become a place for thieves. You see, in those days,

a temple tax had to be paid by everyone, and it was usually paid at the time of the Passover season.

During Passover, when the normal population of Jerusalem of about 30,000 expanded

to about 250,000 Jews from all over the area, people brought all sorts of coinage.

At that time, coins and money was made by every city and province and nation.

And so there are all kinds of different coinage that was going on there.

However, when you came to the the temple you had to pay your temple tax with

coinage that did not have a king or a person's head on it because to the jew

a coin with the king's head on it was a graven image,

and so there were money changers that changed the coins from that day but they

charged into the temple tax coins but they charged each pilgrim the equivalent

of day's wages for were exchanging their money into what was useful in the temple.

So instead, these merchants said, just buy what you need from us.

And in those days, in addition, they were to bring an offering.

So now you could bring a few doves or some offerings from outside the temple,

and that would have been cheaper.

But as soon as they arrived at the temple with their offering in tow,

So those in the temple would have likely found some flaw in it,

so they couldn't use that.

And so what was practiced is, well, you have to buy our dove,

our goat, our heifer, and we'll take these off your hands because they're blemished. Right.

Sneak them out the side door and come back in for the next one oh but you have to use ours,

but that's the way they did it that day so you could

either do bring your own and trade it in for a price on a new one or you could

simply buy from the temple they've already been inspected all this was infuriating

to jesus so much so that on this day when jesus came into the temple temple,

he stopped it dead in its tracks.

He would not permit anyone to carry any merchandise through the temple.

This meant that Jesus established himself as an authority of what happens in the temple.

Jesus said, in the house of prayer, this will be a house of prayer, not a den of robbers.

Can you imagine how Jewish leaders responded to this?

Probably not very happy jesus had

not read dale carnegie's book how to

win friends and influence people he just simply

hadn't read it yet jesus didn't care in

fact he knew that it put him on a collision course that would bleed to the cross

but this nation was bearing the no fruit it had nothing but leaves it appeared

to have life but in reality it was dead it appeared to have offer offer hope

to men and women of the nations of the earth, but from all over the world,

people were coming to the temple of Jerusalem, hoping to find an answer to the

emptiness and the burden of their heart.

Let me ask you, are there people in this day and age who are looking to find

an answer to their hopelessness and the burdens of their hearts?

At that time, they were not finding it in the temple. The question must be asked,

are they finding it in us?

Jesus had to at least one more time make that point to confirm the hearts of the Jewish leaders.

Jesus was focused on the cross with a priority to purify God's house.

And third, Jesus was focused on the cross with a priority to place his confidence in God.

The Jewish leaders' confidence was not in God. It was in themselves and in their laws.

Their Their confidence was in their own standards and the power that they have,

the control that they had over the people.

So let's read verses 20 through 25.

It says this, In the morning as they went along, they saw the fig withered from the fruits.

Peter remembered and said to Jesus, Rabbi, look, the fig tree you cursed has withered.

Have faith in God, Jesus answered. I tell you the truth. If anyone says to this

mountain, go throw yourself into the sea and does not doubt in his heart,

but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.

Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have

received and it will be yours.

And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him.

That your Father in heaven may forgive your sins. Jesus said, have faith in God.

Jesus said, have faith in God, but real faith brings forgiveness. It brings repentance.

It brings acknowledgement of our ways before God, and we ask for forgiveness.

Jesus communicated a very simple message to his disciples that they were not to miss.

Have faith in God. This is the way way to live. This is the way to have life

that is full, rich, and meaningful.

You must trust that the living God knows what he's doing, what he's talking

about, believe in what he says, and obey what he commands.

Jesus encouraged them and us to let go of our pride and selfishness.

The root of all sin is self, right?

They could remove a great mountain by faith, but they needed to know what that

mountain was. That mountain was the mountain of pride.

They had pride in their religious ways. They had pride in their meaningless observances.

They had pride in their buildings, in their temple.

Pride in themselves, and pride blocks the flow of the life of God to your faith.

Real faith begins with repentance and brings forgiveness, and forgiveness brings freedom.

Several years ago, Mel Gibson strayed from his typical role to play William

Wallace, the great Scottish revolutionary, in Randall Wallace's epic adventure film, Braveheart.

I don't know how many of you have seen that movie.

Even though the producer of the movie is a professed Christian and a distant

relative of the film's hero, he did not shy away from graphic detail.

Braveheart is one of the most bloodiest and most violent films I've ever seen.

Even more bloody and violent than The Passion of the Christ.

But in this remarkable motion picture, Randall Wallace, the producer and writer

of the play, has woven unmistakable theological threads throughout the entire Scripture.

His portrayal of human redemption and political emancipation captured the essence

of what Jesus accomplished on our behalf spiritually.

Spiritually as a boy william wallace grew

up watching his family and his neighbors

be beaten and killed by the ruthless evil

king's enforcers he watched

as their home and fields were burned

over and over after leaving leading a

revolt against the evil king wallace was captured and taken to the king while

the townspeople gathered together to witness his execution wallace's unmercifully

tortured before given an opportunity to pledge allegiance to the unjust king

and deny his convictions.

Because he refused, the gut-wrenching routine is repeated.

Once the enforcers, the king's enforcers, are convinced of Wallace's determined

defiance of the king, they signal the hooded executioner.

And as the scene shows the sharpened sword beginning its swift strike descent,

which will sever Wallace's head from his body,

the victim cries out, freedom and

as the execution takes place

wallace's dying word ominously echoes

back and forth throughout the city walls that

scene from braveheart is a powerful picture of the

courageous sacrifice in the face

of insurmountable evil now let's

go back in time to another scene hundreds of

years before as he takes

his final breath the lamb of

god hanging on the cross screams out it is finished his words don't echo just

off of the walls his echo his words echo throughout history in the future and goes on and on.

The one who took it all has given it all he's given it all for us and forgiveness and freedom,

has found its victory not in the one who came on a because he came on a donkey

but the one who rode to the cross with his focus on the cross with his compass

dialed into the cross all of his life was focused on bringing our redemption,

and we take it so lightly.

If this Easter, this Lenten season, this Holy Week, we might reflect not on

the celebration that came at Palm Sunday, because during that week followed,

they all turned away from him.

But our focus is on the victory that Jesus brought for us.

Forgiveness and freedom has found victory in the death and the resurrection of our Christ.

Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we oftentimes look at this day,

this Palm Sunday day, as a parade, as an exciting parade.

And it was that, but that parade was leading to a focus. That parade was leading to your cross.

That parade was leading to our redemption. That parade was leading to our new life.

Father, we thank you for sending your Son that he became the Lamb of God, which was slain for us.

And as we go through this time, this week of preparation for Resurrection Sunday,

we pray, Father, that you would lead us through these steps of this week.

Cleansing of the temple on Monday, and through the rest of the week as even

Good Friday and Thursday, your trial, Friday, your crucifixion,

Saturday, this silent day in the tomb.

Father, as we come to Resurrection Sunday next week We pray that we might have

new life Not just next week, but every day In Jesus' name, amen.