Don't Mess With Jesus (Matthew 21-22) | Louis Azuma

Speaker: So Matthew chapter 21.

Matthew 21 · chapter mention

Now how many of you guys.

Have started driving.

How many of you guys have started driving?

Got a lot of, a lot of drivers.

A lot of people who probably shouldn't have been driving.

I started driving.

Does this scare you, by the way?

These three boys all raised their hand in the front row.

Anyway, the first time, the very first time I ever drove to school,

the very first time I drove myself to school, um, I had my permit.

My mom was sitting shotgun.

I ran not one.

But two red lights consecutively in a row.

And the reason I did that is because when I got to a yellow light, I'm

driving, Kristen probably knows this street 'cause reco hills.

Brianna probably knows this street FR goes.

I was driving on Santa Margarita Parkway down the hill towards Marguerite,

I think right by where you guys go.

Mes used to live.

I was coming down the hill and the light turned yellow and I froze.

I didn't know what to do.

I was like, do I go for it?

Do I break?

What do I do?

And so I didn't do anything and I just kept going.

And then I ran the red light, and then one intersection later, same

thing happens, light turns yellow.

What do I do?

I'm too far away for it to be easy decision, and I just do nothing.

And I go right on through the red light once again.

Now, later on, what I realized is the best thing to do.

When you get to yellow light is something, something.

Either speed up or slow down.

Do one of those things because that way you have a way better chance of

not breaking the law and stopping when you're supposed to stop or

going when you're supposed to go see.

When you come to a yellow light, it's really not telling

you to slow down necessarily.

It might be telling you to speed up.

So really what it's telling you is make a decision.

A yellow light isn't necessarily.

Caution.

It is telling you to decide you need to do something.

When you see that light change, you can't just sit passive and,

and let your car keep going.

You gotta do something.

This passage that we're looking at tonight is like a yellow light.

This passage is telling you to do something and see when it comes

to what you do with Jesus, you really only have two options.

They're not speed up and slow down your two options.

When you stand before King Jesus, when he.

He comes and says to you, here I am.

I'm the king.

Here's the message of the gospel.

Your two options are really repent or die.

You have two options.

You have two options from Jesus tonight.

When you hear his word, when you hear this sermon, when you go through

small groups, you're being faced with the decision with two options.

Repent or die.

And that's what Jesus is gonna show us tonight in Matthews chapter 21 and 22.

So.

Last week in Matthew chapter 20, the last thing that happened was Jesus.

Matthew 20 · chapter mention

He's on his way to Jerusalem, he's going to Jericho and on, and

that's on the way up to Jerusalem.

And there's this big crowd, and he walks by these two blind men and they

say, son of David have mercy on us.

They call him the son of David.

Now, if we've been paying attention and earlier in Matthew, we had

two blind men do the same thing.

They called Jesus son of David, and he healed them.

And then what did Jesus tell 'em after he healed them?

He said, don't tell anyone anything.

Keep it a secret.

And then what did they do?

They went and told everyone, right?

But this time Jesus heals them and he doesn't say that.

And so the crowd gets bigger and bigger.

He doesn't tell 'em to keep it a secret, and that's because something's changed

at this point in the story of Matthew, at this point in Matthew, Jesus is about

to make a big statement about who he is.

I probably should have showed you this.

This is exactly what I was talking about, Matthew chapter 20.

Matthew 20 · chapter mention

That's how the last chapter ended.

So now Jesus, he's got this big crowd.

He's just healed These, these blind men and the blind men, they know who Jesus is.

They say, Jesus, you're the son of David.

You're the king that the Old Testament talked about.

You're the king that's gonna fulfill all these promises that God made.

You're the king that's gonna make everything right and fix everything

that's wrong with the world.

That's what the blind men are thinking, and that's what the crowds

start thinking when they hear this.

Son of David.

So look at me at Matthew chapter 21.

Matthew 21 · chapter mention

Jesus.

He, he gets to Jerusalem, he gets to the Mount of Olives in verse one, and

then he sends these two disciples and he says, all right, go to the village and

you'll see this donkey and this colt.

So a donkey, and then the colt is like the, the little donkey.

It's, it's like the, the kid, right?

So you've got mama, donkey and, and little donkey.

And he says, untie them and bring them to me.

And then.

What we're gonna see in verse four is Matthew says that this happened.

Jesus said, 'cause it's like, why?

Why does Jesus want these two horses?

Why does he care about this?

Matthew says that this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet.

What prophet will the prophet zacharia?

And this is what Zacharia says.

He says, say to the daughter of Zion.

The Zion, that's Israel.

So he's saying, say to the people of Israel, look, your king is coming to you.

Humble and mounted on a donkey, on a cult.

The full of a beast of virgin.

So Jesus is coming as a king, right?

Your king.

That's what the prophet said.

The king is gonna come, but he's not gonna come as his strong, mighty king

with a fancy horse, like a battle horse.

He's gonna ride a donkey.

A donkey.

If you've ever seen a donkey before, they're small.

They're, they don't look that impressive.

They're just kind of there.

Jesus is riding a, a lame horse into Jerusalem.

But he's doing this because he is making a statement.

He's doing this to show the Jews, Hey, remember what Zacharia said?

I'm that guy.

I'm the king.

I'm the promised Messiah.

Who's coming and fulfilling everything from the Old Testament.

So the disciples, verse six, they, they do what Jesus says.

They bring it, and he comes in and the crowd, they start putting

their cloaks down on the road.

Now, what does, what does that mean?

Well, that's something that people did here to show honor and respect.

They're saying that we don't, we're, we think you're so worthy of respect,

Jesus, that we don't want you to have to touch the ground, right?

We're gonna put our cloaks down on the road and make sure it's all nice

for you to come in and they get.

It.

They get really excited and they shout Hosanna, which means save

us Hosanna to the son of David.

Blessed he is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

And that's a quotation from the Psalms.

So there's a lot of Old Testament stuff happening right now, and

that's because Matthew is telling us that Jesus is the king.

Jesus is the one from the Old Testament that God has promised to come and see.

Jesus today is the same king.

He's the same king, the only king that can give you what you really.

Need.

See, the Jews thought the Messiah was the, the, the one

person who could fix everything.

He could do what they thought was, was best for the world.

Who could get rid of maybe the Romans or, or even in the Old Testament,

it talks about getting rid of sin.

That's what the king would do.

That's what the Messiah would do.

And Jesus is the same king today, the only king that you should put your trust in.

And so our first point tonight is to submit to the humble Messiah.

Submit, follow right swear allegiance.

To Jesus as your king.

See, I put that word messiah there, not king on purpose because

Messiah carries all the weight of the Old Testament, right?

Jesus isn't just any king.

He's God's chosen king.

He's gonna do exactly what God said he's gonna do.

That's why we call him the Messiah.

That's why we call him Christ.

That's not Jesus' last name.

That's the Greek translation of Messiah.

So Jesus Christ, Jesus, Messiah, same thing.

Jesus the king.

But why humble?

Right?

Why did Jesus choose this specific prophecy, right, about riding

on a donkey into Jerusalem?

Why?

Why did he do that?

Well, he wanted the Jews to see that he first came as a humble king.

Him not what they wanted, which was a political king.

They wanted a king who was gonna get into Rome.

'cause the Romans were occupying the Jewish area at this time

and they didn't like them.

They were like, we don't want these foreigners running our

country, so let's get 'em out.

We knew want the Messiah to come and, and do what we want him to do.

We want a king who would get rid of our problems that we think are important.

But Jesus is a humble king.

He came not to get rid of the Romans, not to to set up.

A, a, a political kingdom where he would do his, his thing from like a

physical throne and, and start having different taxes and different laws.

He didn't do that.

He came to die.

That's what we've been learning in Matthew, that's what we learned last week.

Jesus came to die as a sacrificial substitute.

Right.

A, a lamb not to kick out the Romans.

So even though the crowds are all excited about Jesus and they're shouting and

they're worshiping him, and they're, there's all this excitement it, and.

The passage we just read, it said that the crowd was, or the city was

stirred up like it was shaken up.

Like, you know when you get a snow globe and you just shake it?

That's what Jerusalem was like at this time.

It's, it's crazy, but they, the crowds, they're so excited about Jesus.

But once they realize that he's not doing what they want him to

do, instead of shouting Hosanna, they're gonna shout something else.

They're gonna start shouting, crucify him.

The same people who are so excited about Jesus are gonna start shouting,

we want you dead because he's not doing what they want him to do.

Now, see, maybe that's why you have such a hard time following Jesus.

You want Jesus on your terms.

You want Jesus to do what you think he should do, and then Jesus comes

and you read about Jesus and you hear about Jesus and you're like, wait,

that's not what I want Jesus to do.

Jesus asked me to do things I don't want him to do.

I don't wanna follow Jesus like that.

Jesus, you want me to love that person?

Jesus.

You want me to stop saying those things?

Jesus, you care about what I think about Jesus.

You care about what?

What my words are.

Jesus.

You want me to be patient?

Wait.

I don't want Jesus to do that.

Jesus, I want follow you the way I want to follow you.

And that's why it's important we that to submit to him because we,

we say, Jesus, you're the king.

I follow you.

It's kind of like, so right now the NBA playoffs, the basketball

playoffs are in full swing, right?

And whenever a team gets knocked outta the playoffs, it's like the world's ending.

And they're always like, oh, what are they gonna do?

Is their team gonna stay together?

And all that?

And usually what happens this time of year is there's like a superstar player

who's on a team that gets knocked outta the playoffs and they're like, oh, he's

gonna leave, he's gonna leave the team.

'cause they didn't do what the, what the team expected.

Right.

And.

Some NBA players.

They're like so excited about their new coach.

And then the year later they get knocked outta the playoffs

and they're like, I'm, I'm out.

I'm leaving.

They like their coach until he does something they didn't like.

They're like, oh, we, we like the coach.

Oh.

But then he started telling me to pass the ball.

He started telling me to play defense.

Oh.

He started bringing in this other guy to, to take more shots.

We do that with Jesus.

Sometimes we start saying, wait, Jesus.

I thought following you was gonna be like this, but now you're

saying it's actually like this.

I, I don't know if I can do this anymore.

I don't want that anymore.

Jesus, I only want to follow you when my plans line up with your plans.

That's not how Jesus as the king works, right?

So when I ask you student, do you submit to God only when his

plans line up with your plan?

Us when you're like, oh, well I really want to date that person,

but I know that, that God says that person wouldn't be good for me.

Now you have trouble following Jesus.

Right?

Or maybe you're saying, oh, I, I, I really wanna watch those things and

my friends do that, or, I really wanna dress that way, but I, I know that

that wouldn't be, be good for my soul.

I would know that wouldn't be loving to other people.

See, Jesus is the only king who can give you what you really, really need.

Even if he doesn't give you what you think you want.

He gives you what you really need.

And see right now in his first coming when he came to Earth, he comes

humbly to serve, to die, to save.

He's holding back justice, to give you time to willingly come.

So I wanna invite you two to come to Jesus as the king who

offers what you desperately need.

See, you think you want things because you're like, oh, that

would be so awesome if I had this.

But the problem is, is sometimes we want things that really

aren't good for us, right?

We've talked about this a lot in the gospel.

Matthew, we, we talked about this with, with Angelo and Levi, right?

When it was raining outside Levi's like, oh, I don't wanna wear Levi's like.

Five years old.

He's Angela's son and he's like, oh, I don't wanna wear my jacket, dad.

I don't wanna wear my jacket.

Angela's like, you need to wear your jacket.

'cause otherwise you're gonna get a cold and you're gonna get sick

and you're not gonna want that.

Right.

But see, Levi, he, he's small, he's little.

He doesn't think like things like that.

So he's like, oh, I don't wanna do it.

You're such a mean dad.

You're making me do things I don't wanna do.

But really, it's good for Levi to wear the jacket, right?

Levi doesn't wanna get sick.

Levi doesn't want to have to, you know?

I bet if Levi got sick, he'd, you're really like, man, I

should have worn my jacket.

That's us with God.

God's like wear the jacket.

And we're like, I don't wanna wear the jacket.

Right?

God says, love that person.

Be patient with that person.

Forgive that person.

Or hey, stop doing, stop watching those things, or stop thinking those thoughts

or stop gossiping about that person.

And we're like, oh, I don't wanna do that.

And then when you think about it, you're like, really?

You know, that actually would be so good for me.

Or sometimes God lets you sin and you're like, oh man, God was right.

I should have done it.

That left me so empty that didn't satisfy me.

That didn't help me.

See, Jesus gives you what you really need.

'cause deep down what we really want, we want hope, right?

We're always putting our hope, our confidence in something.

We're always saying, oh, when I get here, then my life is gonna be great.

Right?

When I, uh, once I move schools, once I get out of this class,

once I can drive, once I get here, then things will be great.

And then you get there and you're like, oh, and when I

get to here, it'll be better.

Jesus gives us hope.

We're, we're always looking for something to put our hope in.

We're always looking for something to be like, oh, I, I really want to get there.

And once I get there, I'll be good.

Jesus gives us that.

He says, if you, if you trust me, I will protect you and, and lead you all the way

to heaven, and there'll be no more pain and no more suffering, and no more guilt

and no more conflict, and no more anger, and no more bitterness and no more gossip.

And you can put your hope on that and, and bank on that.

We also, we all want peace.

We want security, right?

We want someone to make us feel okay.

That's why we wear the things we do.

'cause, oh, maybe if I dress this way, I'll feel good about myself.

Or that's why we care so much about how we look or how we talk, or how

we sound, or who we're friends with.

'cause we want to feel okay.

Or once I, once I start dating, then I'll feel love.

Or, oh, once this happens to me, then I'll, I'll feel good enough.

Or once I make this team or get these grades, then I'll

feel good, I'll feel okay.

And those things always leave you empty.

But Jesus offers lasting security because you can say, you know what?

When I'm in Christ, when I'm connected to Jesus, God looks at me and I can't

earn any more favor than I already have because I'm love for, for Jesus'

sake, not because of things I do.

Or I'm fully justified in Jesus.

I don't have to worry about that person's opinion of me because

I know that the creator of the universe loves me and his opinion

matters way more than anyone else's.

These, the same thing works with joy, right?

We look for things to make us happy, but really they leave us wanting more.

But Jesus satisfies.

He gives us lasting joy that for the most amount of time.

And ultimately we need salvation.

We have a a problem, which is that we are guilty before a holy God, and we

aren't good enough to go to heaven.

And Jesus offers salvation.

So submit to the humble Messiah because he will give you everything you really need.

And when you have a hard time following Jesus because the things

you think you need aren't happening, remember that Jesus loves you and

he trusts you, or you can trust him.

To do what's best for you.

You can trust him to, to not give you something because, oh, you know what?

Jesus knows that that would be bad for me in the long run.

So he's not giving me that.

So submit to the humble Messiah, even when your plans don't line up with his.

So we've seen that the crowd is really excited about Jesus, right?

Jerusalem is.

Shaken up like a snow globe.

Everyone's off shouting and there's crazy things happening and there's a

lot of excitement, but things are about to blow up in the gospel of Matthew.

So keep going with me.

We're gonna look at, um, the next few paragraphs together.

Chapter 21.

We're gonna start in verse 12.

So, Jesus, he enters the temple and you, when the king enters the temple,

you think, oh, it's gonna be some like triumphant thing and all this.

And maybe it's gonna be, he's gonna be like, oh, I'm here.

I'm gonna kick out the Romans and we're gonna do this together.

What does he do when he gets in the temple?

He flips over some tables.

Why did that was not on my Jesus entering Jerusalem Bingo card?

What happened?

How did, how did this happen?

And then he's driving out people, 'cause there's people

selling stuff in the temple.

He's like, he's like driving them out.

John says he made a whip and started driving them out of the temple.

And then he tells them it is written.

My house is supposed to be a house of prayer.

But you've made it a den of robbers.

You're ripping people off in the tempo.

You're making them buy things that they don't need.

You're charging them way too much.

There's injustice in the temple, and then the blind and lame are brought to him in

the temple and he starts healing people.

And so then when the crowds see the healings, they're like, oh, this

is the guy, this is the Messiah.

And I know he's been doing weird stuff and clearing out the temple,

but he's healing the blinded lamb.

We know the Messiah does that.

Okay, this is the Messiah.

So they call him the Son of David again, and then the Pharisees

naturally are like way wait.

Do you hear what these people are saying about you, Jesus?

Is that okay?

They're calling you the son of David.

They're calling, they're saying Hosanna.

That's something that they say to God in the Old Testament.

Is that, okay, Jesus, are you gonna, are you gonna be okay

with them calling you God?

Jesus doubles down on this and then he said, he quotes Psalm

eight and he quotes something that the psalmist says about God.

Jesus is like, yep, that's about me.

And the Pharisees are even more upset.

But then Matthew pauses here, and so then Jesus, he goes, he leaves Jerusalem

and then he, he spends the night away from Jerusalem and he comes back to

Jerusalem, and when he comes back to Jerusalem, he entered the temple.

And then the chief priest, the elders, right?

The Jewish leaders we're in verse 23.

Now if you're following along, they came up to him as he's teaching and

they said, Hey, who said you had the authority to do stuff like that?

This, you're teaching in the temple, you're healing people.

You're flipping over tables, you're kicking people out who said

you're allowed to do this, Jesus.

And here's what Jesus says in chapter 21, verse 24.

Jesus answered them.

I'm gonna ask you a question, and if you answer my question, then I'll tell

you by what authority I do these things.

So this is Jesus question.

He's making a deal with them.

Hey, if, if you answer my question, then I'll answer yours.

Here's the question.

The baptism of John, right?

John the Baptist with baptizing people.

Where did it come from?

Is it from heaven or from man?

So did God send John or did John just start doing this for fun on his own?

And then they think about it.

They're like, okay, well if we say that God sent John, then Jesus will be like,

well, you should have listened to him.

God sent him.

You should have listened.

But if we say that John started doing this on his own, the people, the

crowds are gonna get mad at us because.

They think he's sent from God, so they're in a predicament.

Because if they say, well, John is from heaven, he's a real

prophet, then they're gonna be like, well, we should've listened.

But if they say, oh, Johns just a regular guy doing some random stuff,

then Jesus is gonna be like, well, everyone else knows he's a prophet.

So they're, they're stuck.

So they're like, we don't know.

That's their cop out answer.

Right?

It's like when your parents ask you.

Something like, well, did you do this or did your sibling do this?

And like, you don't wanna tell on your sibling, but you don't want to

admit that you did something wrong and you're like, oh, I don't know.

That's what the Pharisees are doing here.

So then Jesus says, well, I won't tell you where I got this authority either.

But then Jesus goes on to tell three parables.

So the, the Pharisees, the Jewish leaders, they're worked up about Jesus' authority.

They're like, Jesus, why is it okay that you're doing all this stuff?

And so then it creates this conflict, this battle between

Jesus and the Jewish leaders.

And we're about to see that in three parables right here.

So there's three parables to, to finish out this section.

It's Jesus versus the Jewish leader.

So he tells them three parables.

There's one about two sons, there's one about a master, and some they

call 'em tenants or hired workers.

And then there's a parable about a wedding feast and what these

three parables all have in common.

Is that the Jews have rejected Jesus.

That's his point.

The point of all these parables is that the Jews said, you know what?

We heard from God.

He sent us prophets.

He sent us John the Baptist, and he sent us Jesus.

And we said, no, not my thing.

I don't want God.

I don't.

I want to live my own way.

I'm good enough on my own.

You can.

You can go do your own thing.

God, we don't want you.

And then in a couple of these parables, Jesus says, Hey, you

guys are actually rejecting God so severely that you want to kill me.

And he's right.

They're so upset at Jesus.

They're so hard in their hearts to God's message that they're just

like, we're done hearing from God.

Let's kill Jesus.

They haven't just heard God make a suggestion like, Hey, Jews.

I really think you guys should start following Jesus.

You guys should really start trusting in his work to save you and not your own.

God's not making a suggestion.

God has come with the command and the Pharisees, the Jewish leaders,

they've decided to kill the son of God because they hate him.

Now, you might not want to kill Jesus.

But all of us are in danger of the same mistake that the Pharisees

are making in these three parables.

We're all in danger of telling God, I'm better off without you.

I'm better off without you.

I don't need you.

So point number two, repent of rejecting the ruling.

Judge

turn.

That's what repent means.

Turn 180 degree turn.

Turn from rejecting the ruling judge who happens to be Jesus, turn from

rejecting Jesus to wanting Jesus, right?

Instead of saying, God, I don't need you.

I'm better off without you.

Instead, we want to say, God, I need you.

You're everything to me.

You're the most important thing in the world.

You're the one I love most.

That's what we want to say to Jesus.

Instead of saying, ah, I don't need you.

I don't want you.

Now the main reason that the Jews are rejecting Jesus

is because they feel threatened by Jesus.

Now, that might sound weird to you, but how do they, Jesus isn't

coming with like a sword and he's like, all right guys, here I come.

How is Jesus threatening them?

Well, let me illustrate this for you.

So when I was in, when I was in fifth grade in elementary school, I was.

I was the smart kid.

I was, I was in the GATE program, if you guys know what that is.

And I was, I was the smart kid and everyone knew I was

the kid in like math class.

When I finished my test, I would like slam my book and be like, done.

I was that kid.

I was super annoying.

I was obnoxious.

I'm so glad that God saved me 'cause I would be a terrible

person even more than I am now.

So I was that kid.

Now in fifth grade there was another high, there was another elementary school in.

The great city of ranch and Margarita.

I went to Truco Mesa.

There was Cielo Vista Elementary School.

Okay.

These two kids transferred from, from Cielo Vista, Toco Mesa.

So they came from this other school to my school because they wanted

to be part of the GATE program.

'cause that other school, they didn't have a GATE program, you know?

So, um, they wanted to be part of the GATE program.

So they came to my school and one of my friends knew these kids and he was like,

these guys, these guys are really smart.

So when they came naturally, you know what we did?

We had a nerd off, we had a competition in the sandbox about who, who is smarter.

We had this competition and there was a mediator and he asked some questions

and we would just rapid fire go.

We had 10 questions that we all answered.

Now I did win seven one, but um, I felt threatened.

By these two kids.

Their names were Diego and Nathan.

I was threatened.

I still remember 'em to this day.

I, I was threatened by these kids 'cause they were coming on my turf.

They were coming into my sandbox, into my school, into my gate class, and

they were trying to be the smart kids.

And I was like, hang on guys.

I'm the smart kid around here.

I was threatened by them, so I had to defend my territory right now.

Maybe you've never thought of it this way, but your selfishness

feels threatened by Jesus.

That's why you reject him.

You're saying, Jesus, you're coming in here saying, you need to follow me.

You need to take up your cross and and die to yourself and follow me.

Jesus is coming in saying, I'm the king.

You need to listen to me.

I'm in charge.

I'm God.

You are not.

And our selfishness feels threatened.

We're like, hang on.

I wanna run my life.

I want to do the things I want to do.

I have a plan for how I want high school to go.

I have a plan for my day.

I wanna do my things.

I wanna get home and play my games and do my stuff, and I don't wanna have

to worry about what other people do.

I don't wanna have to worry about serving people and loving people.

I have my plan and my rules, my priorities, my preferences, and then

Jesus comes and says, you're following me.

And our selfishness doesn't like that.

And so we feel threatened, so we push back.

Even if you're a Christian, that can still happen to you.

Right?

You, we feel this as Christians, we feel this tension.

Oh, I, my flesh wants to be selfish, but the the new heart in me that God gave me

when he saved me, wants to follow him.

There's this conflict, there's this tension,

but sometimes rejecting Jesus.

It doesn't look like this, right?

This is, this is what the Pharisees did.

They said, here's the son.

Let's kill him.

Right?

He's a threat to us.

But see, in another parable, here's what the, the, the rejecting Jesus looks like.

See in verse six, there's the people who want to kill the

Son, the messengers of God.

But look here in verse five, there's some people who just ignore it.

You see that highlighted there.

Some people, God's word comes to them, they hear the command, repent and believe.

They hear the word of God and they just say, oh, well, and they just

ignore it because maybe you're like, well, I'm not rejecting Jesus.

I'm not like opposed to Jesus.

I don't like mind Jesus.

I just don't want to be in charge of me, like I'm okay with Jesus.

I like church.

I like going, but.

I'd rather just do my own thing most of the time.

But I like being around it.

I think Jesus is, is good.

I think I, I like the way Christians live, so maybe you're these people, maybe,

maybe you're not trying to, to get rid of Jesus, but you're just avoiding Jesus.

Maybe you're just suppressing the truth, right?

That just phrase from Romans, it's like when your trash is too full, but

you don't take it out, so you put your foot in it and you suppress the truth.

Maybe you're doing that with your sermons.

You're like, well, I know that I'm holding on to this sin

and I, I should repent of it.

I should confess it.

Maybe that's you, maybe you just distract yourself.

You hear the sermon, you feel convicted, but then you're like, oh, well, I,

I, I don't wanna think about that.

And so you just go on and do your own thing and live your life, and you distract

yourself and you don't think about it.

And, and or whenever you're convicted about something, you're just like, oh,

well, I, I'll go back to scrolling.

I'll, I'll just move on.

And you don't want to think about it.

Or maybe your rejection of Jesus is postponing.

You're like, oh, well, when I'm older, I'll become a Christian.

Uh, when I, once I do these things, I'll become a Christian.

Once I graduate, I'll become a Christian.

Once I can do this with this person, I'll become a Christian.

Let's all turn around and, and face me.

Okay?

I think that'll help you pay attention better,

or maybe you're justifying your rejection of Jesus.

Maybe you're saying, oh, it's, it's, it's okay.

It's really not that bad.

It's really not.

You know, I, I'm a, I'm a decent person.

I, I'm not a Christian, but I'm not a bad person.

So I, I think it'll work out for me that's still rejecting Jesus.

Because ultimately you're like these people.

You're saying, oh, well I heard about Jesus, but I'm

just gonna go do my own thing.

Maybe that's you,

or maybe you think you can get away with it.

You're like, oh, I'm holding onto sin.

I, but I.

I can hide it.

I can be okay.

I can still sin and, and do what, what I wanna do and, and it won't matter.

See if you keep rejecting Jesus, I realize that the second phrase of

this point, he's the ruling judge.

If you keep rejecting Jesus, whether it's distracting yourself or whether

it's outright, I don't want this.

He will expose you.

One day or another, Hebrews four says that the word of God is like a two-edged sword,

and it reveals the thoughts and intentions of the heart, and it cuts right between

what you're thinking, what you're feeling.

You can't hide anything from God.

You will stand before God and you will have to answer.

Did you repent?

Him or not, did you follow Jesus or not?

And you can't say, oh, well I liked Jesus, I liked church,

but you, you, you didn't follow him.

You will stand before God and he will expose you.

But even if you're a Christian, if you keep sending, God will discipline you.

Maybe you're a Christian, but you're like, oh, I don't wanna

tell anyone about this sin.

I'm too embarrassed.

I don't wanna confess it.

I don't wanna bring it to the light.

I don't wanna tell my leader.

I don't wanna tell my parents.

I'm holding onto this sin.

God loves you too much to let you keep sinning.

If you're a Christian, God doesn't want you to hold onto that sin.

It's killing you.

You know it is.

It's killing your conscience.

It's hardening your heart.

You know it's so bad for you, and God loves you too much to

let you keep sinning, and so he will bring that sin to light.

The Book of numbers says that your sin will surely find you out.

Proverbs says that the the wicked run when no one is chasing them, your conscience

will track you down until you turn, or maybe it won't, and you'll stand before

God and have to deal with you, with his, with his gaze on you and your sin.

But remember how, if, if that's you, if you're holding onto a sin, remember

how Jesus responds to those who come in repentance, who come humbly.

Remember how Jesus treats those people?

When someone comes to Jesus and says, Jesus, I'm a sinner.

I'm guilty.

I, I'm a terrible person.

I'm so embarrassed to admit this.

Does Jesus say, you suck?

Go away.

No.

Right.

Jesus wants you to bring your sin to him.

He doesn't want you to hide it first.

John says that if you confess your sin, if you agree with Jesus, I'm a sinner.

He is faithful.

And just to forgive it and get rid of it.

So if you're so scared because you're like, oh, well God.

Won't like my sin or God.

God will, I'm so embarrassed about my sin.

I don't wanna tell someone.

Well, God already knows about it.

He already sees it.

You can't hide it.

But also other Christians sin the same way.

And I know you, you don't believe that, but remember how Jesus treats

sinners who admit that they're sinners.

He says, I've come for the sick, not the healthy.

So the Pharisees, right?

They didn't feel that way about Jesus.

They didn't want to come to Jesus.

They didn't wanna admit their sin.

They realized that Jesus was calling them out with his parables.

And so they tried to get him arrested, and they tried to get him discredited.

They're like, Jesus, we don't like what you're doing.

You're calling us now.

You're exposing us.

You're, you're saying that God's gonna judge us, so we

wanna get rid of that, right?

They, they don't just wanna plug their ears.

They want to get rid of him, right?

Like, it's like with your alarm clock, right?

That when you wake up, you don't, you want it to stop your alarm's going off.

You want it to stop.

You can either snooze it and just ignore it, or you can just turn it

off and get rid of the alarm, right?

The Pharisees are like, we're just gonna throw the alarm clock out the window.

We don't wanna deal with this.

So that's what, that's what they're gonna do here in the rest of Matthew Chapter 22.

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

So Jesus verses the Jewish leaders part two.

So he's gonna ask, they're gonna ask him three questions about the law, and these

questions are designed to get Jesus.

In trouble.

The first question is, should we pay taxes to Caesar?

Now, the Jews ask him this question because if Jesus says, don't pay

taxes, guess what they can do?

They can be like Jesus said not to pay taxes.

The Romans should arrest Jesus.

So if he says, don't pay taxes, Jesus gets in trouble.

But if they say, you should pay taxes, are the Jewish people gonna like that?

No.

'cause they don't think they should pay taxes to Caesar because Caesar's

like an evil occupying force, right?

The Romans are occupying.

And they're like, we shouldn't have to do this.

So then the people aren't gonna like Jesus.

So they think that they put Jesus in this impossible position and

Jesus gives the most amazing answer you could ever think of.

He says, you've probably heard it before.

Give to Caesar what Caesars and give to God what's God's perfect answer.

Right?

No one can get mad at that.

Second question, they ask him, how does marriage work in the resurrection?

Because they're like, well, if what if you ha, what if you were married

and then your spouse died and then you married, you remarried, and then that

spouse died and so on, and you ended up having seven different marriages.

Who are you married to in heaven?

And Jesus says, well, actually, well, you don't know, is that it

doesn't work like that in heaven.

In heaven.

There you're not.

You're not gonna be married.

So then he answers that question perfectly.

And then the last question, what's the greatest commandment?

They're like, gotcha.

Now Jesus, there's 600 something commandments.

How are you gonna pick the greatest one?

And Jesus says, love the Lord your God with all your heart,

soul, mind, and strength.

And then he adds a bonus one.

The second is like it.

It's like two sides of the same coin.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

So he answers these questions perfectly, and then Jesus turns the

tables and he asks them the question.

This is like one of my favorite moments.

In the whole Bible, Jesus turns the tables on them.

They tried to trap him with all their smart people and

all of their, their learning.

They were like, ah, we can get Jesus on this one.

And Jesus refutes them.

And then he goes, I wanna ask you guys a question.

I wanna ask you guys a question.

Here's what he says in chapter 22, verse 41.

So the Pharisees are all there.

And Jesus asked them a question, what do you think about the

Christ whose son is the Christ?

They said to him, the son of David.

And he said to them, how is it then that David in the spirit, right in the Bible,

calls the son of David Lord or sir, saying verse 44, which is a quote from

Psalm one 10, the Lord said to my Lord.

So Yahweh said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put

your enemies under your feet.

So David is calling his descendant.

Sir.

Right.

You're, you're the Lord.

You're in charge.

Normally, that's not how things work, right?

You, your dad doesn't call you sir.

Right?

That's not how things work.

So then Jesus asked him in verse 45, if David calls him, Lord, how is he his son?

How does this work?

How, how can you say that the Messiahs, the son of David, descended from

David, but also greater than David?

The reason right is because the Messiah is God, Jesus God in the flesh.

That's why this works.

The Pharisees have no clue.

Verse 46, this is how it ends.

No one was able to answer him a word, nor I love this from that day, did

anyone dare ask him any more questions?

They're just like, we're not gonna mess with this guy anymore.

This he's, he's one.

We're not even gonna try.

He's utterly defeated them.

See, Jesus has come as, as Matthew is describing him, Jesus has come as

a prophet, he's mastered God's word and he's here to, to judge Israel.

But more than that, Matthew's also saying, he's the king,

he's the Messiah and he's God.

And so point number three, if Jesus is God, we must

worship the unrivaled prophet.

Jesus isn't just giving us advice about God.

He's not just explaining God's word.

He has come as God in the flesh.

There's no one like him, not the smartest person, not the wisest

person, not the coolest person.

There's no one like Jesus.

If you had a conversation with Jesus.

I'm confident that you would walk away floored everyone else did.

In the gospels, you hear they're astonished.

Remember they talk to Jesus.

They're like, whoa, no one spoke like this guy.

That's 'cause Jesus is God in the flesh, but he's, he's taking

all of God's wisdom, right?

God is, God is a genius and he, and he's bringing it into everyday life.

He's the expert on everything.

I don't know if you've ever felt this, you've ever been around someone or in some

kind of situation, you're like, man, this person is completely out of my league.

Right?

This person is so just much greater than, than I am.

I, I remember this one time I played soccer with these Mormons and they invited

me to, like, we were, we were trying to share the gospel with them, and they're

like, oh, come play soccer with us.

So we show up at this park at like 7:30 AM.

And play or 6:30 AM play soccer with these Mormons.

And I was like, okay.

Like I'm, I'm pretty good at soccer.

I could play, I can hang with these Mormons.

And then I realized this wasn't just like a Mormon soccer game.

This was like before work.

Real soccer players are coming to play soccer.

And I knew that as soon as the white pickup truck with the ladders on top and

the paint stains pulled up and I was like, yeah, these people are outta my league.

So, so these, these three guys who look kinda like Pastor Rod came

outta that truck and I was like.

I'm done.

It's over.

I, I am totally.

And so we started playing, man, I have never felt that unathletic

or uncoordinated in, in my life.

Like I, I was like, this is ridiculous.

Like these people have played soccer their whole life and it was crazy.

See, that's how, that's how you should feel around Jesus.

Jesus is, is not just.

He's not just giving you something to take your life from a three

outta 10 to an eight outta 10.

He's not just like, oh, here's some helpful stuff for you.

He's not just giving you like a cheat code to be happier than most people

or something to help you sleep at night when you're scared of dying.

Jesus is God, and his words are life or death.

They're not just, oh, that was helpful.

That was interesting.

They're the words of God.

When Jesus comes and has something to say to you, when you read God's

word in the morning, when you pray to him, when you hear a sermon, it's

Jesus is, is the king of the universe, and he's saying something to you.

He's not just saying, oh yeah, it'd be, it'd be nice if you did this.

So do you treat Jesus with worship or with indifference?

Are you just like, oh, okay, take it or leave it.

Or do you come to Jesus when you pray to him?

Or when you think about, oh man, Jesus asked me to, to do this, to live this way.

Are you like, oh, oh, maybe I'll think about that.

Or are you saying, man, Jesus is, is God and I mean him?

I would die without Jesus.

I'm amazed at Jesus.

I'm so excited about Jesus.

So how do you think and feel about Jesus when you think about God,

when you sing songs in church,

what?

What's your heart posture towards Jesus?

I got to see Messi play soccer last, almost about a year ago.

I got to see Messi play soccer and one of the best experiences of my life.

Now, when Messi walked out onto the field, everyone stands up and starts cheering.

I've never been in front of anything like that.

And he's so short, you're like, where is he?

But no, um, I'm a Ronaldo guy, so I had to say that, but, um, no, but that it was

unlike anything I've ever experienced.

So mess.

He's like warming up and he shoots the ball and everyone cheers.

It is like, there's no goalie.

It's like from like 10 yards out.

Like, what, what's, everyone's like, oh me.

It's crazy, right?

They're reading his name in warmups.

Like they, they, they call out the, the teams that they announced the players.

This is in Kansas City.

So he's the opposing team.

Everyone's cheering, everyone's like number, trying lean on mess.

Everyone goes, ah.

And they read off some other guy from his team.

Everyone, everyone's silent.

And I was like, okay, well that makes sense.

But that idea, right?

We, we, you, we call that aura, right?

When messy walks out, everyone's like, what?

That's, that's how you should feel about Jesus.

Right.

We're, we're feeling this way about some five foot six guy,

'cause he can kick a soccer ball.

Right?

How, how, how would you feel if Jesus walked in this room right now?

How do you feel when you pray?

How do you feel when you sing?

How do you feel when you read your Bible?

How do you feel when you serve his church?

How do you feel about the Holy Spirit living inside you?

If you're a Christian,

what's your heart posture toward Jesus?

See.

King Jesus gives you two options when you hear his word.

The gospel gives you two options.

Follow Jesus, right?

Turn from your sin, turn from yourself, and follow Jesus, or stand before God

in judgment and suffer the consequences.

So what I want to ask you tonight is what will you do with Jesus?

Will you reject him and die?

Will you repent and live?

Let's pray.

God, we want to be serious about you.

I know it's so hard to be serious.

There's so many fun things that happen, so many funny things, so

many things that make us lighthearted and not take things seriously.

But we want to remember that you are massive and we are small.

Heaven is real and hell is real.

And for those of us who who know you, we are safe.

But at the same time, you are holy.

You are not like us.

And we, we ought to be in awe of you.

And for those in this room who don't know you, as one famous preacher said,

they are dangling over the fires of hell.

One.

Aneurysm or car accident would end their life and they would see

you in all your glory and they would suffer for all of their sin.

They would be naked and exposed before you, with no place to hide.

So I pray tonight, God, that people who don't know you would, would go

from death to life, that they would, they would realize they need you.

They need the joy that you bring, they need.

To follow you.

They need to love you, but also that they need something to be done about their sin.

They can't do it on their own.

We pray that you help us to focus in small groups.

Help us to take you seriously.

Help us to honor you with what we talk about.

We pray all this in Jesus name.

Amen.