Luke 19:28-46

Luke 19, starting in verse 28, we're going up through verse 46.

After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

As he approached Beth Page and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, Go to the village ahead of you, and 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 untying it?

Say, The Lord has need of it.

Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them.

As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, Why are you untying the colt?

And they replied, The Lord needs it.

And they brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt, and put Jesus on it.

As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

When he came near the place where the road goes down to the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in a loud voice, in loud voices, for all the miracles they had seen.

Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, Teacher, rebuke your disciples.

I tell you, he replied, If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it, and said, If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes.

The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embarkment against you and encircle you, and hem you in on every side.

They will dash you to the ground, you and your children within your walls.

They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you.

When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling.

It is as it is written, or it is written, he said to them, My house will be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.

Let's pray.

Lord, we want to quiet our hearts before you and receive your word in our lives.

Lord, you know what's gone on in our week, and we just want to ask that by your Holy Spirit you would speak to us.

And God, we pray that you would be with those that are not among us this morning.

We pray for healing, we pray for provision, and we pray for just your protection, that you would overrule the wiles of the devil, that you, Jesus, you Jesus, by the work of your Holy Spirit, would um be their defense.

Thank you for your great work in the world, that we have this hope in you.

Lord, as we um open up this text, we will invite you to speak to us by your spirit.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated, and we are going to unpack this passage, and we finally arrived in Jerusalem.

You'll recall last week as we were looking at our text leading up to verse 27, one of the things that was going on was Jesus was having to correct a misconception.

The people that were in the crowd watching Jesus declare forgiveness over Zacchaeus' life, we see Jesus have to correct them because they're anticipating as Jesus goes into Jerusalem that the kingdom of heaven is going to appear immediately.

And that's because they're good Jews, right?

They have this Jewish framework of the Messiah that's going to come and that's going to establish his kingdom.

It's just that they don't have the timing right.

And so the people were expecting the kingdom to appear, and Jesus got, as soon as Jesus got into Jerusalem, and Jesus had teaches this parable about the servants being given these minas and being held accountable for their investment, Jesus teaches that as a response to their misconception.

And the point we should have walked away with last week is this: while we wait for the kingdom to appear, we live out this reality as stewards over the opportunities and responsibilities that are given to us.

So the reality for us as believers in, and the real ethic for us as Christians, derives from the anticipation and the foreshadowing of his kingdom being established on earth.

So sometimes within the church circles, you have kind of this question over ethics.

You know, should the church, you can do anything you want, you know, can you sin up a storm and just be welcome into the church?

Or do you need to get your act together and then come into the church?

The answer to that is really kind of resolved when you consider the kingdom.

That we're living out and foreshadowing this future kingdom.

Um that's that's kind of the the fundamental basis of our um of our um relationship with what's right and what's wrong, and then how we relate to the people around us is this idea that God's kingdom is being established on the earth.

So Jesus is pressing home this idea of the kingdom, and that concludes Jesus' teaching leading up to the entrance, his entrance into Jerusalem.

Now Jesus is entering in and he's anticipating the crucifixion.

Um, turn in your Bibles really quickly to John 11.

John 11, I want you to see this in a different in a different gospel.

So over in John 11, we have a little bit more information.

John 11 fills in some gaps for us.

So um, no, we don't have a slide for John 11.

So you have to look at it in um or or John 12.

You'll have to look at it kind of in the context.

Starting 1155, it says, when he was almost, when it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up to the country of Jerusalem for their um ceremonial cleansing before the Passover.

They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts, they asked one another, What do you think?

Isn't the coming, uh, isn't he coming to the festival at all?

But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.

So we're in this season of the Passover, right?

That's where we've that's where we've gotten to.

This Passover is about to take place.

All these crowds, almost a million people, are coming up to Jerusalem, and um they're looking for Jesus, right?

So Jesus has been doing three years of ministry all over Israel, primarily up in um around the Sea of Galilee, but he's just um healed Lazarus.

Lazarus has been raised from the dead, so this has given Jesus like all this renowned, and um the the crowd is abuzz.

And so when you get into uh chapter 12, it says, six days before Passover, Jesus came to Bethany.

Now, Bethany is two miles, two miles from Jerusalem.

I think that it says that down in verse 12.

It may say that further on in the context, but but basically, Bethany is about two miles from Jerusalem.

It's the suburbs of Jerusalem.

This is where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived, and Jesus is staying with them.

And so Jesus is staying in Bethany, but traveling, you know, the hour-long walk into Jerusalem in order to participate in the ceremonies that go on around Passover.

So if you want to look more at this text, you'll want to go back to John to kind of see some really important context.

Let me just show you.

Here's the schedule.

We're looking today at the events taking place on Sunday and Monday of the Jesus' week leading up to the crucifixion, right?

And the resurrection.

So in John 12, it talks about six days before Passover.

And then in our text, we're at on the five days before the feast of Passover, um, with this triumphal entry.

Does that make sense?

Does that give you just a little bit more of a picture there between John and uh what's going on in Luke 19?

So let's look at this story.

Verse 28 in your check, in your text.

Luke um Luke 19, 28.

We see that Jesus is entering the Jerusalem area.

He has the disciples fetch a colt for him to ride on.

The crowd shouts joyfully, praising God.

The Pharisees want Jesus to rebuke the disciples, and Jesus says that if the praise of the people stops, then the rocks would cry out.

So this story, you know, you look at it in Mark, or you look at it in Matthew, or you look at it in John, there's different different uh versions of this.

They give us different aspects.

One of the things that's unique here is the way that Luke records the shouts of the crowd is that um Luke packages it in language that would not be offensive to a Roman citizen.

It's um not overtly politically rebellious the way that Luke records the cry of the crowd.

Um here it says in verse 38.

Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven, glory in the highest.

So the way that that Luke records this, it's a quote from Psalm 118.

So this has been, this is a part of the liturgy of a Jew for years.

This has been the language that they have um rehearsed as um Jewish children.

So it it it um this is Luke's interpretation of the praise.

In John's gospel, it says that the crowd is just uh, it almost looks like the crowd is shouting and and and uh they are abuzz before Jesus rides on the colt.

Here in Luke, um the chronology seems like Jesus is saying, go get the cult, and then the crowd starts to yell.

So these are these are different accounts from different perspectives.

And I don't think they lie in conflict with one another, but it's it's fascinating to see as Luke writes this letter to a primarily Gentile audience, he records the crowd's praise from a Gentile perspective.

But the picture is this um this just this fame, it's like the crescendo, all this ministry, all the miracles, even right in the text here, it says um in verse 37 the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God with a loud voice for all the miracles they had seen.

So this is this crowd that had witnessed all of this incredible stuff that Jesus had done, and they're throwing their um outer cloaks like on top of the cult, which this cult was like barely bigger than a large dog.

Like this thing would have been struggling under the weight of Jesus.

So, what's going on in this picture?

And then I guess the question for us as the reader is like, what's going on in this picture?

And then what what does God want to say to us as we read this?

Well, we've got to go backwards in prophecy back to um the book of Zechariah.

So turn over to the Old Testament.

I think I have the I have it up here, Zechariah 9.9.

Zechariah 9.9, you gotta see this.

Zechariah talks so much about the Messiah coming to Jerusalem.

Now, you you've got to to to fully like appreciate this, you've got to know who Zechariah is and where he's prophesying from.

So Zechariah is a prophet who's lived through the exile.

So Jerusalem is sacked as a city and destroyed, and then um all of Judea and Israel is carried off to Babylon or Assyria and Babylon, and they're in exile.

They're not in the promised land anymore.

And Jeremiah warned Israel this would take, this would be for 70 years that Israel would be in exile, that they'd be separated from their promised land.

And then they're brought back in, or they're permitted under Ezra or Zerubbabel to come back in to the land, and they begin to lay the foundation for the temple.

Zechariah is one of those that comes back in.

He is a contemporary of Haggai the prophet, and they're both prophesying to the people to try to encourage them, to give them a morale boost.

So God sticks these prophets in the midst of a people like this, in this setting.

Like uh, you know, like here we are, we're here, we're we're establishing a new church in Fells Point, right?

And look how tiny we are.

And then like look how tiny we are today, you know?

And and imagine the people, some old people that had experienced the original temple, and now they come back to see Jerusalem as just in rubble, like it's it's completely destroyed.

And these people are they're trying to like rebuild it, but they're just demoralized, and it takes like 15 years to rebuild just the foundation of the temple.

And God raises up Zachariah to talk about the Messiah.

So, so this is what's crazy.

This prophet is speaking to the people, and he manages to encourage them in the work that they're supposed to do by talking about something that will still, it'll take 700 years before it actually comes to pass.

So the message of the of the prophet Zechariah is to talk about the Messiah that will come 700 years later.

In one of those passages, we're gonna look at Zechariah 9 and we're gonna look at Zechariah 14.

So even when we're done here in a minute with Zechariah 9.9, don't maybe keep your finger in it, because Zechariah 9.9 says this rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion.

Shout, daughter of Jerusalem, see your king comes to you righteous and victorious, lowly, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the full of a donkey.

Right?

A colt, a young, young donkey.

No one had ever ridden on him before.

No one had broken him in before.

So this is the word of Zechariah the prophet to these demoralized people that your Messiah is coming.

And so, at 700 years earlier than this moment in Luke, the people are encouraged and they continue the work.

So let me just encourage you this morning that Jesus is going to come again a second time.

There's the second Advent.

And he wants to encourage you today with that future coming.

When is he going to come?

We don't know.

Just like these people, they didn't know, but we have promises.

We will look at Zechariah 14, and we'll be hopefully encouraged from that text as well to know there's a future return of Christ.

And that prophet speaks to us today, and it's like it's this kind of like kick in the rear.

Like, hey, let's go.

Let's go.

Let's be encouraged in our own relationship with the Lord to press in and to build whatever work God has for us.

The only other thing I want to draw your attention to in this text is this conflict between the Pharisees and Jesus' disciples.

They're worshiping Jesus, and this will be the last conflict that takes place between the Pharisees and Jesus.

The Pharisees are concerned, they could be concerned about the Roman government watching this procession and thinking that this is a revolt against the Roman Empire, that this is an uprising.

That could have been the Pharisees' concern.

But again, if we go back to John, we see that Jesus has been in the suburbs of Jerusalem for a little while because he was in Jerusalem for the feast of dedication.

It had happened earlier in the year, and at that feast, Jesus had been talking about, he'd really affirmed himself and placed himself on an equal footing with God.

And the people, the Jews, wanted to stone Jesus on the Temple Mount, but Jesus slipped away.

So there was already this murderous intent of the Pharisees against Jesus, and it seems like this only exacerbates the issue with the Pharisees.

Here's this royal welcome of the king.

There was a king in Israel's history, I think he was a king of Judah, maybe it was King Jehu, who was also welcomed into Jerusalem in this manner.

Where there's throwing cloaks over a donkey and putting him on it, and it's a royal entry.

But the way that this takes place has this aspect of humility.

And the Pharisees are opposed.

They say, Jesus, you need to correct, you need to correct your disciples.

And Jesus, what he does is he affirms the worship and he says, if they keep quiet, the stones are going to cry out.

Now, do you know what happens on the eve of this day?

Jesus goes up to, he does this entry, then he goes back to Bethany.

I think I'm getting my chronology right here.

He goes back to Bethany.

It says in in John 10.

And that night, or no, it's the night before.

I'm sorry, it's the night before this entry, Mary pours this pound of perfume on Jesus' feet.

And do you remember in that setting?

How did the disciples respond to that?

They're like, rebuke her.

She could have used that, the money from that to give to the poor, right?

But Jesus says, No.

This is leave her alone.

It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.

Right?

So Jesus, we've seen earlier in the Gospels, he's been telling people that are healed, like, hey, don't tell anybody who I am.

Right?

He's like, keep it under wraps.

But now it's like the worship is fully appropriate, right?

Now's the time.

Anoint him with perfume.

Welcome him like a king.

It's just this royal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

Jesus deserves this worship, right?

It's appropriate.

Right.

There, and there are some that are just so out of touch with what the work of God that they're on the outside.

It reminds me of like sometime in this last year, I was driving down Pratt Street and I was going past the convention center, and they were having the My Little Pony convention, and like everybody was like dressed up, and I'm driving, and I'm like, thanking God I'm not like in the My Little Pony convention, you know?

But these people were so excited, you know, to be a part of this and like dressed up, and it was like so cool for them, you know.

I was kind of like the Pharisee against the uh My Little Pony uh convention.

You know, I was on the outside looking in.

It is it is possible even to this day that we're worshiping and other people are looking and going, you guys are just weird.

You're you you are um you're weird.

And I've said that before.

Like I've said on Sunday mornings, like we are weird for what we do.

Like you got up early.

Praise God that he woke you up this morning, caused you to gather with us, you know?

But that's weird.

It's strange, right?

There's people that probably walk by and they're like, oh, I feel bad for those people.

They're just still, they're going to church.

They don't get it, right?

They don't understand what's um what has taken place in our life that we would be worshipers of Jesus.

Finally, just in regards to this worship that that's going on, this is a uh it needs to be woven into our spiritual disciplines.

I I know for me I'm a doer, right?

I'm not much of a worshiper.

I was thinking the other day, like, I'm so out of touch with like even worship songs.

That's why it's a good thing we have Nick.

Like, I am just a doer.

Like I'm a Martha, man.

Like, I I cannot sit still.

But yet, here in this moment, it was right and good to just worship Jesus.

And this is this is a it's been a spiritual discipline for Christians for 2,000 years.

It's something that that God uses in our life to form us.

There's an appropriateness in your life about worshiping Jesus.

Think about that just for a second.

How do you worship?

I know we sing.

Maybe you're maybe you're like very musical.

Maybe you're kind of like, hey, I sing with the crowd, or maybe you're not musical at all.

But I can't remember who it was, whether it was G.K.

Chesterton or was it um C.S.

Lewis that said, the heart is the idol factory, right?

We have this ability to be worshippers.

We're created as worshipers.

What does that look like in our life as we direct our attention to Jesus?

Let's go to Luke 19, 41 through 44, this next section.

As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes.

The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side.

They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls.

They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you.

So Luke records this intimate moment of Jesus weeping.

This is not the only time that Jesus wept.

There were the other one other time, that was when Lazarus, when he came before the tomb of Lazarus, and he saw everyone mourning over the death of Lazarus.

But this is the second time that Jesus weeps, and he's weeping over Jerusalem.

I want to give you just a real quick summary.

This is significant.

If you've been with us for a while, you know that one of the grand themes of the book of Luke is that God has a plan and it is unfolding.

It is unfolding, and Luke is intentionally writing his book so that you understand when you see these stories, it is the unfolding of God's plan.

Jerusalem has this amazing history.

If you go back to Genesis 14, 17 through 20, you'll see that there's this man named Melchizedek, who's very mysterious.

Melchizedek is the king of Salem, Jerusalem, got its name from later on in history, there's the place of peace, which is Salem.

Then Jebuzites lived in the city of Salem later on in history, and so it became known as Jerusalem.

But Melchizedek, long before the Jebuzites were there, Melchizedek was the king of Jerusalem.

And after Abraham conquers the kings that take Lot and these other destroy these other groups of people, Abraham comes against them, he rescues them.

Melchizedek meets Abraham and offers him wine and bread.

So Melchizedek is like an anticipation, it's a foreshadowing of Christ in the Old Testament.

And he's associated with Jerusalem.

Then we get to David, I mean, there's a lot of history, but you get to David and the Ark of the Covenant being brought into the city of Jerusalem.

So David conquers the city of Jerusalem, which was promised to Israel, and then he establishes worship in the city of Jerusalem.

And you'll recall that he tries to bring the ark up, but he doesn't follow the scriptural instructions about how to bring it up, and Uzziah reaches out his hand and touches the ark, and he's, or um, uh, not Uzziah.

What's his name?

I just drew a blank.

Let's let's what?

Uzzah.

Uzzah, yeah.

Uzzah.

He reaches out his hand, touches the ark, he struck dead because they didn't carry it the right way.

But ultimately, David unites the kingdom with worship by making Jerusalem the center of worship and the center of the kingdom.

So this brings about unity and really strengthens Israel in an incredible way.

Then you go through the Psalms, Psalm 46, you see just how central Jerusalem was to worship.

But then when we get to 586 BC, we have the fall of Jerusalem.

The book of Lamentations is written kind of by Jeremiah looking over the city as there is this destruction of the city.

And then from 536 to 520 B.C., Zerubbabel builds the second temple.

This is all recorded in Ezra chapter 1.

Ezra 1 · chapter mention

And then in 44 B.C., Nehemiah rebuilds the walls.

So that's 44 B.C., Nehemiah rebuilds the walls, and that can be found in Daniel 9.2 and Nehemiah chapter 2.

Nehemiah 2 · chapter mention

Then in 332 B.C., Jerusalem submits under Alexander the Great's conquest, and from that time on, Jerusalem is under foreign control.

So there's a number of other historic events that take place from 332 B.C.

onward up to Jesus' time.

But then Jesus comes into Jerusalem, it's under Roman control.

And then we have in 70 AD the destruction of Jerusalem, and then we have Zechariah 14.

So look at Zechariah 14.

Zechariah 14 gives us some really just a fascinating passage that you kind of can understand why these people are confused.

Why the Jews are confused.

Because Zechariah 14 places Jesus on the Mount of Olives, right?

At the very beginning of our passage that we're looking at, it says twice, it talks about how Jesus came to the Mount of Olives.

So Zechariah 14 says this on the uh a day of the Lord is coming, uh is coming upon Jerusalem, when your possessions will be plundered and divided up within your walls.

I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it, and the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women women raped.

Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.

Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as he fights on a day of battle.

On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives.

Isn't that crazy?

East of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half the mountain moving north and half moving south.

You will flee by the mountain valley, for it will extend to Azal.

You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah.

Then the Lord my God will come and all the holy ones with him.

It goes on.

It's this beautiful passage about the end.

But literally, this is not being fulfilled here.

Here, Jesus is, his feet are on the Mount of Olives, but it's not fulfilling Zechariah 14.

This speaks of a second coming, a second advent.

So the story of Jerusalem is not over.

But here, Jesus is weeping over Jerusalem.

One commentator said this: no matter where Jesus looked, he found cause for weeping.

If he looked back, he saw how the nation had wasted its opportunities and been ignorant of their time of visitation.

If he looked within, he saw spiritual ignorance and blindness in the hearts of people.

They should have known who he was, for God had given them his word and sent his messengers to prepare the way.

They were missing it, right?

So Jesus is weeping over them in this moment, and yet the grand plan of God is unfolding.

Here's what I want you to just kind of keep in your mind this morning.

God has a plan.

He has a plan for your life, and yet it is possible to miss out, just like Jerusalem, to miss out on key moments in that plan.

Now, I believe within the sovereignty of God that we cannot, you know, mess up.

Like we can't mess up the plan of God.

Why do I believe that?

Well, because look at Israel.

Look what the Jews are going to do with Jesus, right?

They're going to literally kill God, come in the flesh, and yet that cannot subvert the plan of God.

Like God is able to accomplish amazing things through the worst human activity ever done.

So that doesn't mean, hey, go sin it up and mess up a bunch.

But know this that God has a plan for your life.

And the plan of God is secure and it's unfolding.

And you can learn from the mistake of Jerusalem to not miss, to not miss what's going on in front of you.

Do you see that language?

It says, again, the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you.

Literally, Jesus is prophesying about Tychicus Antipas when he's gonna, in 70 AD, when he's going to destroy the city, 70 AD.

He's gonna encircle it, he's gonna hem them in, they will dash you to the ground, you and your children within your walls, they will not leave one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you.

So the question from the text is are you and I recognizing the time?

Are you recognizing the time?

Then that's one of those questions where you sit with the Holy Spirit, not with your pastor, but you sit in your relationship that you own with God, and you say, God, what is this time?

What is this time?

It's easy to miss the work of God.

It's easy to both miss and be kind of apathetic, but it's also easy to kind of go get out in front of God and give God the plan and not say, God, what is your plan?

The reality is, is that right around you, right here in this neighborhood, in your family's life, at your work, all around you, God is working.

That's that's the crazy thing.

God is at work.

And our prayer needs to be, God, help me to see what that is.

Help me to recognize the time.

Help me to recognize what it is that you're doing.

I just want to join with you.

That's that's that's kind of like the one of the fundamental teachings of Scripture is that God's got the plan.

God's got the plan.

It's been unfolding since Genesis 14 with Jerusalem, and yet they didn't recognize it.

Isn't that scary?

So, so what's going on?

What's going on in the in the relationships around you?

What's going on, you know, at your school, with your work?

What what what is what is it that God is doing?

I don't know.

But here's the beautiful thing.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, let me just pull this out because this is coming to coming to mind just as I'm sharing this.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

1 Corinthians chapter 3 talks about your relationship with God and my relationship with God.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

But but Paul tells the Corinthian church, he says to them, that the Spirit of God searches the deep things of God, just like your spirit, like you know yourself deep, like you know your depths, right?

There's things that no one else knows about you, but your spirit knows about you.

Well, God's spirit, is that chapter two?

Chapter two?

Thank you.

Verse 10.

These are the things that God has revealed to us by his spirit.

The spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God, for who knows a person's thoughts except for their own spirit within them?

In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

What we have received is not the Spirit of this world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given to us.

This is what we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but with words taught to us by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with spirit-taught words.

God's Spirit reveals to us the hidden things of God, right?

And that's the Spirit that's given to you and I.

So this is one of the like, this is one of the things I treasure about being a Christian, is that we get to have our own personal relationship with God.

That this week we get to say, God, show me, open my eyes up.

Not open up Pastor Josh's eyes to see what his time is, you know, or not that your ability to recognize it is dependent upon me.

It's we each know the Lord.

That's the new covenant, right?

We each know the Lord personally, and he can speak to us.

So again, Lord, what do I need to recognize?

What is the time that I need to recognize in your plan?

What are you doing around me so that I can participate in it?

Okay.

Let's look at this last section here and then we'll finish up.

Oh, actually, there's a there's two other scriptures.

I just and we know this.

But again, just speaking of the plan of God, trust in the Lord, right?

Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding in all your ways, submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

That's how we relate to the plan of God.

He wants to bring us in to his plan.

The last two verses here in our text, 45 and 46 of Luke 19, says this When Jesus entered the temple courts, this is the very next morning, he began to drive out those who were selling.

It is written, he said to them, My house will be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.

According to Mark 11, it appears, we we know kind of the chronology here, that this is the next morning.

There's some other stuff that Mark 11 talks about happening right before this.

Jesus is staying overnight.

He's been with Lazarus and Martha and Mary, which is a family.

And what Jesus has just said earlier, he said this is the right time to worship Jesus, and now he's saying it's right for people to pray in the temple.

Basically, Jesus is coming on the scene and he's setting things right.

And do you see what's embedded in there?

When Jesus comes and he makes things right, what does he use to make things right?

He says, it is written.

It is written.

He's using the word of God to make things right.

He's driving out, he's doing something violent, but as he's correcting stuff, he's using the word of God.

In Timothy, 2 Timothy, it says that the Word of God is profitable for rebuke, for correction, instruction in righteousness.

That's its value to us.

So again, we relate to God and we say, God, set me right.

Right?

Where I'm wrong, God, you gotta set me right.

And it's it's possible, even being a religious group like this was, to get something wrong.

And here they had turned this temple in the outer courts of the temple where the Gentiles, it was kind of the Gentiles' designated place of worship, they'd turned it into an exchange where people were being ripped off.

It was a marketplace.

It was not representing, it was not representing God.

And so Jesus does something that's radical, which he did at the very beginning, at the early part of his ministry, and he kind of overturns, he overturns the tables, casts out these money changers, and um calls them back to here's here's what's written about my temple.

The house of God.

It's a house of prayer.

So just kind of the three things here.

Jesus deserves our worship, right?

He deserves our worship, he has a plan for your life, and he wants to straighten us out.

And he can do that as we engage him through the Bible, as we engage him through his word.

So let me encourage you.

Like this week, this week, weave into your week, worship, weave into your week reading your Bible, and be praying and saying, God, show me what is your plan, what are you doing, what is in this moment for us.

Amen.

Amen.

As followers of Jesus, that's what we commit to.

Let's pray.

Lord, we um we want to be a people that not just Sunday mornings, but in the whole of our life, that we're following you, that we're worshippers of you, that we've got our ear open to what you have to say.

And so, Lord, just this one theme of like that that you want to speak, that you want to speak into our our lives and show us our plan.

Lord, I pray for each person here that you would that you would reveal to them, reveal to me, Lord, for us personally, what you're doing.

Open up our eyes.

Open up our eyes so we can see what you're doing and be aware of your work in our midst.

Thank you that you let us know that.

The deep things of God by your spirit.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.