Palm Sunday - Aletheia

This is the series we are doing over this week. Focus on Palm Sunday, on the events of the

Passion Week leading up to Resurrection next Sunday. Then we will go back to the series

we were doing. I don't think I'll be teaching today. I'll be preaching today. If you ask

me—the time taken is the same. It won't be any shorter. But if you ask me the difference

between teaching and preaching, I can't define it, but I kind of know it. In preaching, this

side of the room can't ask questions. That's part of the preaching rooms. So guys, Palm

Sunday. Can I have a little more volume, Jonathan? Palm Sunday today. I titled it Aletheia. Aletheia

means non-concealment. The reason I call it non-concealment is because unlike what we think,

everything that happened on Palm Sunday was very confrontational. It was very deliberate.

The intent was to—it's too echoey now, man. You'll have to find that sweet spot where it's—yeah,

right now it's too echoey. Yeah. So Palm Sunday, everything Jesus did was very confrontational. It

was meant to upturn things. It was deliberate. It was to reveal who he was and how his people

were supposed to function. And so Aletheia comes from two words, er, which means not,

letheia, which means hidden, not hidden anymore. And so like I was saying earlier,

yesterday he was at Lazarus' place, and there were people that were gathered to see both him

and Lazarus. He was still healing because later on yesterday afternoon, when he left Lazarus' house,

he found a man calling out saying, Son of David, have mercy on me. Son of David, have mercy on me.

And he looks and it's Bartimaeus sitting by the road in Jericho. And people tell him to hush,

but Jesus says, bring the man to me. And he prays for Bartimaeus, and Bartimaeus gets healed.

And then he's on his way to Jerusalem, and he knows that he's going to be arrested in Jerusalem

because the chief priests have already said that if you see him, arrest him.

And he knows he's going to die. Three times he's told his disciples, I'm going to the cross,

and third time was last night. And then this morning he could have done what he always does,

come in quietly, but he doesn't. Hundred miles he's walked from all the way from Galilee,

all the way from Nazareth to Bethany last night. He's walked about 98 miles. I mean,

one of the things I think to myself is, man, if I was a disciple in those days,

I'd get myself a donkey because walking with Jesus would be quite tiresome, eh?

And so you come to this place in Bethphage, and now there's just two miles to Jerusalem. You go

down the Mount of Olives, you go through a valley, and you go up the ascent towards Jerusalem. And

those two miles he decides to take a donkey. And it makes it obvious that he wants people to know

that he is coming into town. Otherwise, he could have easily hidden himself.

And so he starts coming in on a donkey, and people immediately know what's happening. And remember,

the crowd has gone from 30,000 who normally live in Jerusalem to 180,000. The place is

thronging with the crowd. And following him are people from Galilee because this is Passover

season, and the pilgrims come out in droves. It's like going to Mecca. The only comparison we can

have is Hajj in Mecca. And so you've got hundreds and hundreds of Galileans with him, and they know

what he's done. They've seen his miracles. They've seen his wonders. And they are the ones that begin

to praise him, take off their cloaks and throw it on the ground, wave palm branches. What are they

being reminded of? Three, probably four situations. First one, they know that when David left, when

Absalom came in, he went up the same trail on a donkey. They know that Solomon, when David crowned

Solomon king, David actually says, David actually says to Solomon, listen Solomon, there is a guy

called Adonijah who's trying to take the throne. I want you to take that off the priest, and I want

you to take my donkey, sit on my donkey and go, because it was the king's donkey. We think that

Jesus was being humble by riding in on a donkey. Not true. Kings in times of peace rode donkeys.

Kings in times of war rode horses. So it wasn't a humble thing that he was doing.

He was just being king. And people recognized it. There was another scene in Second Kings

where there was a king called Jehu. And Jehu became king. The same thing happened. He mounted

mounted a donkey, started coming down towards the throne, and people started taking off their cloaks

and throwing it down on the ground so that the donkey could go over it. So these scenes that

are being repeated in Jerusalem, suddenly the crowd is beginning to realize that the one here

is more than a prophet. We've seen his mighty deeds. But when they say, Hosanna, blessed be the

one who comes in the name of the Lord, son of David, they are beginning to declare him as Messiah.

And strangely enough, Jesus is not hiding his messianic identity. He's letting it be known.

Non-concealment. I'm okay being known now. The same man who hid his kingship for all this time

now doesn't have a problem. You know who has a problem? The Pharisees, the Sadducees.

They're saying to Jesus, stop them from saying this. Because he's declaring himself as king.

And everything he does between today and tomorrow is confrontational.

There's nothing sweet and nice about it. And this is where it starts, see, where he allows them

to see him as king. It's this place where he lets people call him son of David. He lets them shout

Hosanna. He lets them treat him like they treated David, like they treated Jehu, like they treated

Solomon. And then he also knows that a prophecy is being fulfilled. Zechariah 9.9,

Behold, rejoice, O daughter of Zion, behold your king who comes riding on a donkey, righteous

and humble. And he brings salvation with him. And he knows this prophecy. And he knows that

he brings salvation with him. And he knows this prophecy is being fulfilled. The disciples didn't

know it. People didn't know it. We just assumed that everybody knew the prophecy is being fulfilled.

You usually have one of the gospel narrators writing later, when Jesus rose, they remembered.

It was not like they knew what was happening on the spot. And so here comes Jesus into Jerusalem.

And you'll find this in Matthew 21 and Mark 11. And it infuriates the Sadducees who want him to

stop the children and the people from doing what they're doing. It upsets the Jerusalemites. So if

you go to Matthew 21, and you get to verse 8, and you'll see it, Matthew 21 8, A very large crowd,

echo, echo, echo, a very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from

the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed

shouted, Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in

the highest. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred. And now they are asking,

who is this? Because the Jerusalemites are completely different from the crowd that's

coming in. They're having hassles with this. It's like two, it's like two groups. The crowds

answered, this is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth and Galilee. The Galileans are owning this prophet

from the Northern territory as their own. The Jerusalemites see it as a threat.

And this is where Jesus then quotes Psalm 8, verse 2 and 3. Haven't you heard, he says to the

Psalms 8:2

Pharisees and Sadducees, haven't you heard that God has ordained praise or ordained strength out

of the mouth of children and this praise shall silence the enemy and he wouldn't stop them.

At one point he says, if they stop, the stones will begin to cry out. But the point is that he

was beginning to reveal his messianic identity. And so there are certain attributes you have,

certain roles you have, certain positions you have, certain things you were made for

that you need to now begin to reveal. It's an emergence of Gideon from the wine press.

It's a calling of the eighth son of Jesse. Remember there were seven sons that were lined up,

the eighth son was missing. The calling of the eighth son of Jesse. It's changing water into

wine under pressure and revealing your identity. It's the striking of Jordan with Elijah's mantle

and the Jordan begins to part. Why am I saying this? What did I mean by preaching? I'm just saying that

as we take what Jesus did, the four incidents between now and tomorrow, I'm trusting that the

Holy Spirit will begin to cause something to rise in your heart regardless how old you are, how young

you are, how hopeless you are, how hopeful you are, how confident you are, how cowardly you are,

that something will begin to happen in your heart. That there are people here that continue,

and all this applies to me, that continue to behave like Gideon in the wine press,

not willing to come out. There are people here that are like Saul, head and shoulders above the

rest but still hiding in the luggage. There are people here that have been given a mantle,

all they need to do is take it and strike the waters and the waters will part.

It's time for non-concealment where you begin to actually believe who you are

and thus far you've kept it quiet, it's been hidden. Great, now it is time

to go into a phone booth and come out looking like Superman.

It is the end of being Nicodemus. You know some of the guys that didn't make it,

Nicodemus. Was it not for Mordecai, Esther would have been just a queen.

Gamaliel never spoke till Jesus died. Moses, thank God he was saved from his own dumbness

when he has an argument with God saying, but I can't speak on your behalf. Or Jacob, who just

tried getting what he needed to get through deception and through manipulation and not

through knowing that he was chosen. Time to come into your own, not based on your circumstances,

not based on whether you have a job or not, not based on whether you have an education or not,

based on the confidence that starts building in you with regard to who God has said you are again

and again and again and again. It breaks bonds, it breaks boundaries. All of us here have limitations

and boundaries. Some of them are sin boundaries, some of them are sin limitations, some of them

are in here. One of the ways they shoot vultures in South Africa is they let the vultures feed on

the carrion till they're so full of dead meat that you can go after them and send your kids

to shoot them because when they try flying their weight is greater than their ability to fly and

you can just pop them off. Time to get rid of the things that entangle me so that I can actually

begin to live up to the name that God has changed. He healed my heart, he changed my name.

And so I just pray that unlike these guys I just mentioned that you will decide that oh God it is

time for Aletheia and it is time for me to end avoidance, end deception, end comfort, end being

hidden, end waiting, end my non-relevancy, end stubbornness. Sometimes all that prevents me

from stepping into the next place is my own stubbornness.

And when you do guys you'll find that God will give you the humility, God will give you the

resolve and God will give you the power of the Holy Spirit. Three things God will give you.

One of the things that scares us is if I actually begin to function as who I am then I might get

proud, I might be abrasive, I might be aggressive, I might end up doing things I'm not supposed to,

I might end up making mistakes. All true but with it will come humility, resolve and the anointing

of God. There'll be a humility that will begin to develop inside. Why? Because one who is most

invested in you becoming who he wants you to be for his benefit is him. A strange humility will

begin to develop. You can shut it down but it doesn't mean it won't develop. Resolve as in the

determination to keep going ahead and the anointing of God because you need an anointing when you begin

to step into something. The anointing is the supernatural empowerment by the Holy Spirit

to accomplish a task long term. These are the things that God is willing to give us

as we decide that okay I know what you're saying, I will put in the work, oh God but please help me

step into this. It will provoke people, it will infuriate people, it will offend people especially

the religious, the traditional, the joyless and the legalistic, it will infuriate and provoke them.

Four people that you will provoke if you become relevant, if you walk in non-concealment, the

religious, the legalist, the joyless and the traditionalist. It will provoke them.

That's part of the package. It will invite scorn, it will invite accusation, it will cause people

to be offended, especially people that are close to you, it will invite derision, it will invite

all this but through it all one thing God will give you is humility. You know this beautiful thing

about humility is this, humility has nothing to protect. Humility has nothing to protect.

One who is humble has nothing to protect. Take away everything from him, he has nothing to protect.

Shame him, he has nothing to protect. You take away, when a man has nothing to protect and he

does not mind being shamed then you can't even make him angry. I know the flip argument that's

happening but we should not be do-mats. I'm so tired of that argument. You hardly get to be do-mats.

You get to be do-mats once every two years. Do-mats get used every day.

One of the cool things that happens with non-concealment is a gift of humility. It's given to you.

Do not define yourself by what you do.

It's very limiting. What is Jonathan, a sound man? What is Brandon, an internet man?

What is Tooney? Nothing today, he's just sitting there.

Nothing today, he's just sitting there.

We are so much more than what we do. We have to have a grasp of it. Some of us are getting older.

If not now then? When?

In all of it, be teachable. It comes with humility because pride always unseats me from the donkey

I'm riding. Pride always unseats me from the donkey I'm riding. I read this story long ago

about how Jesus was riding on a donkey coming into Jerusalem and the donkey suddenly began to

swagger because the donkey thought the people were clapping for it. They thought, wow, waving

branches, throwing their jackets. The donkey didn't realize that Jesus was the one they were doing

this for. So the moment you become proud and you get a swagger, you get unseated.

It'll reconstitute your praise life. Others will join you at the break of dawn.

These are some of the words that are so prophetic in terms of preaching. It will reconstitute your

praise and others will join you at the break of dawn, resplendent in holy armor with the

vigor of youth. Psalm 110, verse 3. You go down this road, you will find yourself as someone who

Psalms 110:3

does not wait for a Sunday or a Monday or a Tuesday for praise. You will find God reconstituting

praise within you where a joyful heart will make melody and you will find that others who have the

vigor of youth will dress up resplendently in holy armor and join you at dawn. With relevance

comes the ability for others to see there is a man, there is a woman that if I attach myself to,

I am hitting my wagon to the star. I pray God that two or three here try that. I expect much

more but two or three at least. Soon. People will lay down their allegiances and they will join you.

Prophecies spoken will be prophecies that are fulfilled. That's the other thing that will

happen. Guys, prophecies spoken will be prophecies passed. You will begin to say this is that which

was spoken and today it's fulfilled. It applies to you, it applies to Acts 29, let it be so.

I'm saying this and then move on to the next incident with Jesus. When you begin to decide that

I am going to reveal who I am, who I really am, who God called me to be and in revealing that,

I will take on the pressure of becoming that. It is by grace but the pressure that you take on

to walk in the grace. Let me pick on someone. Let me pick on Ashish. There are words spoken over Ashish.

Either Ashish can continue doing what he's doing with Jonathan and Subin building a motorbike or

Ashish can say this is who I am. Let me move out of concealment into who God has been saying

I am. God said it when I was born. God said it through prophets. God has been saying it

through my mother. God has said it through Derek. God has said it through Tooney. God has said it

through Jacob. This is who I am and I can never escape it. Wherever I go, this is who I am and I

am willing to reveal it and take on the pressure of walking in this grace. The moment he does that,

prophecies that were spoken will be fulfilled. This becomes that. Prophecies will become things

of the past. Otherwise, we will go to heaven not with a sack full of sins but a sack full

of prophecies. Knock, knock. Who's there? Me, Peter. What you got on your sack? Prophecies.

Unfulfilled? Yes. Go back. Any questions before we move on? Hey, if you're getting older, God can

accelerate it. If you're younger, God will do it on time. You know what procrastination really is?

Here's the definition of procrastination. Procrastination is not the absence of doing

things. Procrastination is choosing to do the less important things and setting aside the

more important things and being obsessed with the less important things saying,

if I don't get this, I can't do that. That's what procrastination is.

Procrastination is where we take on less important, easily doable, pleasurable things

to doing the more important, hard things. If you think you're going to sort out your life

after you sort out the three drawers in your house, you'll be celebrating 75 with me.

Isn't it command 75th or just past? Okay.

Do you think that religious and religious people will actually walk in you?

Yeah. The religious, the legalists, the traditionalists will rise up when you begin

to actually walk in you. Walk in who God has continuously been saying you should be.

They will start challenging it. Because as long as you are a volunteer, as long as you are

concealed, as long as you turn up occasionally and do a flash in the pan dance, you're okay.

But my God, when you begin to decide this has been who I am, and I'm going to take on the pressure

of walking in the grace, it is taking on the pressure of walking in the grace.

And the moment you do that, there will be traditionalist, legalists,

joyless people and religious people who will challenge you on this. This has been the history

of the earth. And it's not just in spiritual aspects, it's in every aspect.

The next thing Jesus does is that he finishes entering Jerusalem and then he has this habit

of going back to Bethany or Bethphed. And so he went back that night to Bethphed and decided,

okay, it's morning, I'm heading back to Jerusalem. It's the time of Passover.

And every time he is heading back to Jerusalem, I don't know whether he counted the days,

but he knows on the day of Passover, when the lamb is sacrificed, I will be sacrificed.

And so he goes back the next day. It's Monday morning, tomorrow morning, and he's on route from

Bethphed to Jerusalem. And if you want a title for the first bit, it's the end of concealment.

It's the end of concealment. The end of concealment. Is it the end of concealment for you?

Is it the end of concealment for Evan, for Aaron, for Ann, for Mike, for Lenny,

for John? Is it the end of concealment? Once you take on the pressure of the grace that God has

for you, you will have to change and grace will help you change. That's the beauty about grace,

right? It helps you change. If you look at it, you'll be frightened by it. And every time you're

frightened by it, what comes in? Waves of grace. What is required? One step at a time, one step

at a time, one step at a time. Ask any prolific writer how they write, and they'll say one word

at a time. So he's now walking to Jerusalem. It's not a long walk. This one I could have done with

him. And so as he's walking, he suddenly feels hungry. And so because he is feeling hungry,

he begins to look for a fruit tree and he sees a tree that has tons of leaves and it's a fig tree.

Now, whenever we talk about the fig tree being cursed, authors have criticized Jesus like crazy,

saying, how could a man who was kind and who had the power turn to an inanimate object and curse

it so that it withers away? And yet what is happening here is just so confrontational and

so symbolic. He actually was looking for something to eat and he sees a tree with leaves on it.

And he goes towards the tree, even though it was out of season. It should not have leaves

and it should not have fruit. But this tree had all the leaves that usually was indicative of

early fig fruit. And so he goes towards it. And when he goes towards it, he finds that there is

no fig on it. That is pretending to be a tree that has borne fruit when there is actually

no fruit on it. And it's at that stage that he begins to say what he says, where he

looks at the tree covered with leaves, which means it's time to look for early fruit.

And here's the thing, guys, I haven't written anything. Here's the first thing I want to write.

It

offered promise without fulfillment.

And this is what later we'll see is the condition of the temple,

is the condition of the priests and the scribes, the Sadducees and the Pharisees,

and is the condition of Judaic religion. We'll go there later. But the fact is,

he now comes and he finds that it offered promise without fulfillment. And what Jesus is doing here

is symbolic and yet it is a miracle and a sign too. He curses the fig tree. He renders it important.

Mark focuses on how you can pray. Whatsoever you say in prayer,

believe that you receive it and it shall be yours as long as you don't doubt, even if you have a

little faith. This is what Mark says in Mark 11, 23, and it's worth just detouring and listening to

that. Here's what Mark is saying. Mark is saying, hey Jacob, if you have a little bit of faith,

when you pray, if you believe that you receive what you have asked, then if you have a little

bit of faith and you do not doubt, it will be yours. No caveats there.

But Jesus looks at this tree and he curses it and it dries up. And here's the thing that we need to

understand, that what is it in your life that you know has promise but you offer promise without

fulfillment? One of the saddest things that you will deal with when you lead a people or grow your

children or teach in a class is the gap between potential recognized and potential realized.

It's one of the saddest gaps that exist where you look at someone and you think here is someone

who has tremendous potential, promise, but it remains unfulfilled.

And it's present in every life here starting with mine.

And that gap has to be shortened. And the strange fact is it cannot be closed without external help

because it could be closed without external help. You would have closed it by now.

It cannot be closed without external help.

So no more talk, guys. No more excuses. I'm writing this. You know, it's odd,

I was supposed to, I usually type out everything in one sheet, but today it was right, right,

right, right, right. Because it is almost like God is saying, can you hear it yourself and

say it as I'm saying it. That Jacob, no more excuses, no more talk, no more gap between

the potential you have and the potential you realize. Can you be confident in who I say you

are? Who I say Acts 29 is? Can you work it out with fear and diligence and trembling? Can you

set aside the things that entangle you? Can you make sure that you don't disqualify yourself?

The days of promise without fulfillment must come to an end today.

The days of promise without fulfillment must come to an end today.

Once God sees the resolve in your heart, that's the first thing he wants. He sees resolve in your

heart. He sees resolve in your heart. He begins to work. Resolve in your heart is like

rainwater on dry soil. It breaks it up. It breaks it up and God goes to work.

Tomorrow, he'll expect that resolve again. Where we fail is not in the lack of resolve today.

It is in sustaining the resolve tomorrow because tomorrow's circumstances can be pretty overpowering.

But today is all we have. And today if I resolve this, this God of the universe who knows me,

who made me, and who made me with a plan and a purpose, goes to work immediately

saying, I see your resolve. And he goes to work.

And that's what he's looking for. Thank God he's invisible, powerful, and omnipresent.

Some of the things he says will break your heart, man. The days of promise without fulfillment must

come to an end. Delight in me. Teach yourself how to discipline yourself and I will pour out my grace.

Delight and then work on disciplining yourself and I will pour out my grace. And then listen to this.

People are hungry. They are hungry. They are hungry. They are hungry. They are hungry. They are

hungry. Listen to this. People are hungry. They are looking for early fruit. There's an inability

to find it. Can they find it in you? Or will they come and look and you will be full of leaves? Or

will they find in you what will satisfy their hunger? Draw, thirst, drink from me and then

pour out and bear fruit. Spare no effort. Extend your tent. See they're coming from afar. You will

not be ashamed or disgraced if you start down this way. Then he shifts and he says, that which is

fruitless will be thrown into the fire and replaced. For behold, I have started a fire and it will not

be quenched till it has burnt up all the chaff. Do you know why?

See there's a parable in Luke 13 verse 6 to 9 where a tree is not producing fruit and the

Luke 13:6–9

gardener comes to chop it down and the landscaper comes and says, do not cut it down yet.

Give it another year so that it grows up again. But here the fig tree is not given that room.

It's cursed immediately. We don't know where the point of no return is but you don't want to play

with that. Do you know why sometimes trees are removed? It is because they are taking up precious

soil and producing no fruit. The space, the oxygen, the manure, the fertilizer,

everything that that tree needs, it is ingesting but it produces no fruit. And you and I have

been through this at different times in our lives where it doesn't matter how much is poured into me,

there's a lack of fruit. A time comes when there is a point of no return where in that area

all that I was supposed to do, I'm not able to do and God has to shift to other areas.

It's like Jeremiah who had a beautiful vase and it got disfigured. So what did God do? Couldn't

continue with that vase, took the clay, put it back on the wheel, kneaded it again and came up

with another vase because that was over. Now something new has to be restored, started.

Some things have a restoration point like in a computer reboot but some things don't.

Let me read that last bit again because it doesn't scare me, it doesn't make me feel condemned.

It's just God saying what he's going to do. Draw from me, thirst after me, drink from me,

but pour out and bear fruit, spare no effort, extend your tent. See, see they are coming from

afar. They are coming hungry, they're looking for early fruit. Will they only find you full of leaves,

Jacob, or will they find in you what will satisfy their hunger? See they are coming from afar. You

go down this road, you will not be ashamed of this grace. That which is fruitless though will be

thrown into the fire and replaced. That's in John 15. For behold, I have started a fire and it will

not be quenched till it has burnt up all the chaff. This is why sometimes Jesus would say in

the book of Revelation, repent otherwise I'll have to come and remove your lamp stand.

He's saying that to a church.

Any questions before we go on to the next one?

I'm sorry. Refuse to be clouds without rain, trees without fruit. If offered,

it's offered promise without fulfillment. We will not do that. Yeah. We will not do that. Yeah.

I pray God that a day will come when I'm preaching like this and someone will stand up and shout,

I will not do that as a response to the work of the Spirit in your solar plexus.

I did zoology for my undergrad.

You know, I was listening to a reporter on BBC. She does really good little 10-minute thingies

and she was doing a survey on young people today, 20s and 30s. And here were the stats

collected over a long period of time that three out of five young people do not know.

These are Ivy League students who've gone to Harvard and Oxford and places like that. These

are guys with really good jobs, but three out of five, that's 60% of them, do not know why they are

here and they do not have any purpose and meaning in life. And anxiety and depression is three out

of five. In universities across North America. And she was speaking to this guy who said,

I asked them a few questions that AI cannot answer. He said, any question that you can ask Google

or chat GPT or AI, if any question you ask them, it's not a question that has meaning or purpose.

And that's what we do. We go and ask AI questions. AI does not, AI can produce facts. It cannot

produce deep thinking. And here's the questions he asked them. The first question was, why do you

think you are alive here on earth? The second question was, what would you die for? And the

third question was, what can you give your heart away to? And he says, most of them cannot answer.

These are brilliant kids, 20s to 30s. They do not know why they are here. They do not know what they

would die for. And they don't know how to give their hearts away. They haven't fallen in love.

They don't even know what it is to have a broken heart. Things that AI will never solve.

Things that AI will never solve.

It offered promise without fulfillment. What are you here on earth for?

What are you willing to die for? What can you give your heart away to?

These are existential questions that should ruin a Christian if you can't find the answer.

And the answer can't be Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

Has to be a little more than that. Yeah. Even our Sunday school kids don't do that nowadays.

Monday, later in the afternoon, after he had cursed the fig tree, Mark breaks it up into

two passages where he curses the fig tree. He goes to the temple and then on the return, Mark

sees the disciples see the fig tree withered. And here's the other thing that we need to know.

When it comes to the fig tree, Jesus was only with his disciples. There was no crowd with him.

He was just walking with the disciples, the 12 of them. They're the only guys who witnessed this.

It was done quietly. Now we come to the third scene. Monday, tomorrow, later in the day,

if you want the title for this second one, the fruit, the fig tree, you can say,

confronting fruitlessness. The first one was end of concealment. The second one is confronting

fruitlessness. The third one, he is in the temple precinct and he goes to the outer courts. Now,

our idea of the outer courts might be pretty simple. We're going to go to the outer courts.

Our idea of the outer courts might be pretty small. The outer courts were about 1.6 kilometers

square. It is huge. If you've been to Trafalgar Square in the UK, this is about nine times that.

1.6 kilometers square. Huge area. This is where people would come for festivals. The ones that

couldn't enter the temple would come because this was an area where the Gentiles could come. Women

could come. Non-Jews could come. The beggars would come. The ones that had defects would come. The

ones that were not allowed to enter the temple could come. That was the area. And he enters

the precincts and what he sees there is people selling and buying. We think he was upset with

the trade of the buyers and sellers. What is happening here is a direct attack upon the

leadership, upon the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the high priests and the scribes because they

are the ones allowing this. And he calls it a cave of bandits. We've translated it to den of thieves.

It's actually cave of bandits. And when he begins to turn things over, what he's doing is

challenging the very authority. It would be like in a town like this, in a religious town, it would

be like challenging the ones who run that town. It'd be like going to Mecca and challenging the

religious leaders there or going to Dharamsala and challenging the Buddhist leaders there,

going to Rome and challenging the Vatican there where they are both rulers legally,

spiritually, religiously. And he begins to throw things up and down. In John chapter 2, it says he

John 2 · chapter mention

made a whip out of cords. It might look like John chapter 2 because it's right at the beginning of

John 2 · chapter mention

John. You might think there were two cleansing of temples. No, there was just one. John just puts it

in the beginning. And Jesus goes in there and he uses three different words for the temple. The

first word he uses is a Greek word called Heron which means temple. The second word he uses is

oikos which means house. And the third word he uses is critical. He calls it the sanctuary or naos.

And then he says, you just watch. In three days, I'll destroy this sanctuary and in three days,

I will raise it up. And it's in John that you hear what is happening. If you want a title for this

part of the conference, the clash that happened on Palm Sunday, it's consumed with zeal. Consumed

with zeal. We have this in this church but sometimes it is zeal that is unexpressed.

Zeal that is unexpressed still lacks a critical element and the critical element is boldness.

Zeal is like a steam engine that has coals being thrown into the furnace and it's building up.

It's building up but it will blow up or it will fizzle out if boldness doesn't put feet to it.

Now I understand why taking people on trips or taking people into adventures matters.

Most young people do not know what they're living for, what they would die for,

and what they could give their hearts away for.

And so he goes into the temple precincts, the outer court where the Gentiles are,

and he begins to...

Here's the thing. We may have been under the impression that Jesus goes in there,

he's like carried by the fervor of the crowd and he looks at the temple and he gets indignant

and he goes, does this. Nope. It is the day after. It's a very deliberate intentional act. It is not

a spontaneous act. It is a very deliberate act. It is not a spontaneous act. It is a very

deliberate act. That's the beauty about this. It's not spontaneous. It's not, oh, I need to

clean this place up now. No. It is very deliberate. He went home, he came back the next day. It's very

deliberate. It's very intentional. The act is a direct attack on the leadership and the priesthood

that allows the court for commercial activity. It's become a bandit cave where people are

in trade in front of a watching world. That's the worst thing. The rest of the world is watching.

And isn't it the same today? Where we watch as... I mean, I've been in India when prosperity gospel

preachers come on regular Indian TV because there's a Christian channel and they ask for

eight dollars, which is not much in dollars but is a lot in Indian rupees, from the poor and the rich

to plant olive trees on the Mount of Olives so that when Jesus returns, there will be trees on

the mountain and he will be glad and prophecy will be fulfilled. And if for 16 dollars you will get a

piece of land, you will never stand on it because your ticket will cost more than that, but you will

get a certificate saying you own 12 square inches of land in Israel. This is what is happening

that day. And what did Jesus expect this place to be? Jesus expected this place to be a place

where there was reverence and he gets upset to see the temple precincts, the outer courts being used

as a thoroughfare. Like if your house is there, instead of taking the road, the temple's open,

everyone's trading, let me go right through. He stops them. You see that by the way in every church

with a parking lot, people cut in. Jesus decided no cutting in. He stops them from cutting in.

What is he calling out for? I want you to recognize the moment he says sanctuary, everything changes.

He starts with temple, then he moves to house, and then he goes to sanctuary. And when he goes to

sanctuary, he says you will not keep being irreverent here. This was a place that was supposed to be the

dwelling of presence. This was a place where Shekinah was first brought to dwell. And now you

can't treat it so irreverently and make it a cave of bandits. He isn't taking the whip to whip people.

He's chasing the animals away. Up turning tables. There are two very sad statements in the New

Testament and the Old Testament. One is in 1 Samuel. This woman gives birth and they name the child

Ichabod. And Samuel hears it. He falls backwards and he dies. And Ichabod means the glory has departed.

The other scene is in Luke 18 or 19 where Jesus is standing overlooking Jerusalem. And he looks at

Jerusalem and he says, Oh Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem, how I've longed to gather you as a hen would gather

her chicks, but you would not have it. And then he says something so sad. He says, behold, I leave

your house to you, decimate. It's his house.

But it can come to a point where if zeal doesn't consume me for this amazing thing called the people

of God, where he now dwells, you know, when tradition comes in, when legalism comes in,

when the ways of man come in, do you know when it comes in, when power grabbing comes in,

where personal gain comes in, you know, when it comes in, it comes in when a person begins to lose

zeal for the house of God. It should be like a passion in you. He had that zeal when he created

the earth. Every day after the day would be over, he would put his feet up maybe on a planet and he

would say, boy, this looks good. It is good. And then he would start working the next day.

Everything God does, he does with zeal. Zeal has in it passion. Zeal has in it holiness. Zeal has in

it creativity. Zeal has in it boldness. Zeal has in it obsession.

So my question to you and I is what is it in your life besides your wife and child that you have this

about? We must have an answer to this. If we don't have an answer to this, we have someone who can

give us an answer to this. What is it besides your spouse and your children or child that you

have this kind of a zeal about? What is zeal? Boldness to do something. Creativity. Obsession. Passion.

And purity because it comes from God.

The triune God has this. It just boggles my mind that he has this passion and zeal.

Guess who or what it is about? You and I. Christ, the bridegroom, is obsessed with the bride.

The father is obsessed with the son's bride. The Holy Spirit is obsessed with the bride.

The church has become his magnificent obsession. Resplendent, decked out she will come down from

heaven. The bride of Christ, Holy Jerusalem, you, I. And so this need to be consumed with zeal is

important.

Matthew 21, something else happens, guys. When the temple courts are cleansed, you will find a strange

line there. It's only in Matthew. When the temple courts were cleansed, the lame and the blind came

and they were healed.

Because the tradespeople who were selling and bartering wouldn't probably allow beggars to spoil

their trade. Whenever the temple is cleansed, two or three things happen. One, the blind and the lame

will come in. Two, the book will be recovered. When Josiah started repairing the temple, he found

the book of the law. Whenever the temple becomes your church, you will find the book of the law.

The book of the law. Whenever the temple becomes your obsession, the word will become your

obsession. You cannot separate Christ and the body.

So be zealous, be relentless. Like Josiah in the repair of the temple in 2 Kings 23,

you will find the book of the law and you will live by it.

Be zealous about the liberty of the spirit. Be zealous about ending legalism in your life. Be

zealous because the letter kills. Be zealous to end performance in your life. End performance.

Be zealous that you and I will not live by a mind your own business culture. If you are part of the

church, your business has become our business. Your sin affects us. Your obedience or your

disobedience, your participation or lack of participation affects us. I read that scripture.

There is no myob culture once you enter the body of Christ.

Do you see how rotten to the core our churches have become?

And to persist with them for what? Years and years spent in a decaying edifice that had grace

for two years, 50 years ago. I don't understand it. Sheep stealing should be legal.

It saves the sheep from dying in a bad place.

I hope I'm so glad I'm not famous yet because this could end up on Twitter.

Be zealous about Richmond. Be zealous about the revival among 20s and 30s. Be zealous about the

order of the household of fathers and sons that we've been talking about.

Religious spirits will rise up. Cessationists will rise up. Legal systems will rise up.

Things in the world that are sodom-like will rise up.

Why? Because every time a church or a person or a people decide

that they will have the zeal of the Lord consume them, the enemy knows, the satanic hoards know,

that if these people rise, at least two generations will turn to God.

Choose today who you will serve, Baal or Yahweh.

And so it will be resisted. So what?

We have a God who preempts and he pours fire on altars.

The reason we don't see some of the things we should see is because we have other options.

I remember Jeevan telling me, I was with Jeevan and we were meeting a guy who asked Jeevan,

why is it that you see more miracles in India? And Jeevan's answer was simple. In India,

when you don't, when you are sick, you can't go to the doctor because the doctor will charge you

$2 and you don't have $2 so you go to God. In India, when you have to pay off a loan,

when you have to pay off a loan, you can't go to the bank because the bank will not even let you

in. So you pray to God. People become dependent because they don't have the other places to go

to before they go to God. And we can show them guys. You know, one of the things that will happen

when we begin to stand like this is in Richmond, places that are decaying will shut down.

There needs to be an end to places that have resources, but who are just spinning their wheels, man.

And yet through it all, Zechariah 9.9 has to be maintained. You know, it would be so great if

I learned, you learned judgment with humility. It's a hard thing.

Jesus could do it and so can his people. Judah, what are you doing here?

To walk. Guys, here's the other thing. Yeah, we got a few more minutes. Just imagine this.

You're in a, you're in a huge square with thousands of people selling and buying.

Your disciples are there with you and it's in the center of Jerusalem, a place

which is kind of hostile to you. How do you have the audacity to create a whip out of cords

and go around upturning tables, chairs, throwing people out, chasing the cattle?

What kind of authority is that? Just imagine yourself in that situation. He was 100% man and

100% God. He's operating there just as you would have to. How do you go do that?

This is the authority that comes with a knowing and an anointing that is so powerful, so strong,

that you become like Samson and the jawbone of an ass becomes a weapon of mass destruction in your

hands. This is what we're talking about. This kind of anointing we haven't tasted but I've heard of.

I've heard of this. I've heard of famous people who did not know what to do and would stand and

nothing would pass. But the opportunity for anointing faith, the miracles of God and the

marvels of God, the glory of God, if you want to see it, there must be an opportunity and the

opportunity must be taken. When they asked Jesus, how can I increase my faith? Jesus' response was,

come and serve. In serving, you create an opportunity and in the opportunity, you will find

his strength and his anointing. Anybody who wants to see this without stepping out will die

imagining it. Here's the other thing, guys. We do not step out when it's convenient. We do not step

out when we are rich enough, old enough, young enough. We do not step out when we have time.

We do not step out when we have the right leaders. We do not step out when we have all the

conditions working right. We step out when either God asks you to or the people of God that you

trust ask you to. That's when you step out. Any questions?

If you cleanse the temple and repair it, you will keep creating room for the blind and the lame.

I want you to read Amos 9, 11 to 14.

Guys, when it comes to the presence of God, do not honor man, do not honor traditions,

do not honor your own stubbornness and your mind. We honor our stubbornness.

We honor our stubbornness. I hate it. I had a small time argument with my sister the day before

yesterday, and I'm wondering whether I should be the first one to go and talk about it and fix it.

Or whether, since I'm the older one and since I seem to be right in this argument, should I just

wait for her to come and open the conversation? And I'm surprised at how I honored my stubbornness

more than reconciling with someone that I care for.

Stop honoring your stubbornness.

How do you do that?

How about, what did I say? Amos. Amos 9, 11 to 14.

Amos 9. Amos is after Joel. Amos 9, 11 to 14.

In that day, again, it's about zeal to restore his obsession. In that day, I will restore David's

fallen shelter, as in the church. I will repair its broken walls, restore its ruins. I will rebuild

it as it used to be. Why? So that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear

my name. You know what it's saying? It's saying, Jacob, be consumed with zeal for my house. And if

you're consumed with zeal for my house, I will come and I will repair it. I will set it up like

David's tabernacle used to be. I will set it up on a hill. I will set up my presence on a hill.

There will be no protocol. People will come and see. The very ones who long to see the ark and

who could never see it because it was hidden behind a curtain, they will see it displayed.

How will they see it displayed? Because I'm raising a people called Acts 29 in Richmond.

They will see it displayed through jars of clay that are flawed. They'll see it set up on a hill.

There shall be dancing. There shall be singing. I shall have a choir that is so loud that people

will begin to hear who I am. I will restore the tabernacle of David. This is what he's saying.

Why? Why? Not so he can get some praise and adoration. He will set it up again so that the

ends of the earth can seek him so that the Gentiles will find him so that the ones called

by his name shall be saved. You know, I was thinking this morning, I'm tired of also telling

myself that the church needs to go out there. Yes, the church needs to go out there, but people like

this will have people coming here. In a famine, if you know where food is being supplied, do you

go there or do they say, we will go and distribute it? You go there. It's both. It's not one or the

other. Then it goes on to say, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the reaper will be

overtaken by the ploughman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the

mountains and flow from all the hills. What's it saying there? Before one generation can mature,

the next generation is already maturing. Hallelujah. And I will bring my people Israel

back from exile. They will rebuild in the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards

and drink their wine. They will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in my

own land, never again to be a prudent from the land I've given them. Let's go to the last one.

The last one is challenging status quo. Challenging status quo. So this villager

who the Galileans from Nazareth are proclaiming as the prophet and his followers are now a threat

to the position of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And they ask the question that you

will get asked, that anyone who walks like this will get asked. And the question is this, by whose

authority? And when this question is asked of you and I, we usually try to defend our position.

No, no, no. God told me, that sounds pretty sad. No, no, no. The church sent me, that sounds pretty

sad. Look at how Jesus answered this. You know, I love the way he goes about it. He was evasive,

he was cunning, he was smart. I'm talking about Jesus. By whose authority have you done this? He

was evasive, he was cunning, he was smart. And he answers saying, well, John the Baptist, who do you

think he was? Did he come from God or did he not? Shut the guys up. You don't argue and have a

discourse with the religious. That religious spirit can spin a web around you if you go down that

road. Very rarely do apologetics work, honestly. Some of you may think very highly of apologetics,

bless you. But very rarely does it work to have an argument with someone about their religion that

they would die for, which is why they are at your door and arguing, which is why you are not at their

door. You don't win these arguments. Learn to be evasive, cunning, and smart. Cunning as a serpent,

innocent as a dove. He was. And so he doesn't answer them. But here's the thing about Jesus.

He's not afraid of being canceled because that's what they want to do. So he's not afraid of being

canceled. He wants nothing for his own. He isn't coming from a place of pride and he knows where

he came from and where he's going. This is essential to this kind of living. You have to know where

you're coming from and where you're going. You don't have the fear of being canceled. You want nothing from it.

Okay, okay, five minutes. Gosh, parents are sending their kids to do this now. Which child was that?

He will be accused of being a blasphemer anyway shortly and he'll be put to death in a few days

by war authority. Who do you think you are? Moses faces from his own sister and his brother. Aaron

and Miriam ask him the same thing. You married a Midianite. Who do you think you are?

Guys, the great thing is the more accusations you face, the easier you will find it getting.

Yeah, it becomes easier to handle it. And then he begins to tell them parables.

And in the parable he tells them that, listen, you need to know that you used to have the rule of God,

but I'm taking it away from you and I'm going to give it to a people that produce fruit.

This is again the outworking of the fig tree. He says to the Pharisees, to the Sadducees, to the

High Priest, I'm taking your authority and your power away from you. And I'm saying to you,

as this church begins to function the way it is supposed to function in Richmond, which it has

begun doing, there will be pastors in this city that will go find a job elsewhere because what

they have in terms of resources will be taken away from them if they're not faithful.

It will happen.

When you have the key of knowledge, what you will not enter or let others enter,

when you mislead or deviate or keep others from going forward, when you reject truth and follow

delusion, when you're okay being complacent and leading a people into greater complacency,

when you lower your standards of morality, when you have a show of godliness but no power,

when you begin to pray on people and go after their gain like Balaam and Korah,

they know that it will be taken away from you and given to someone who can be more fruitful.

Part of being prophetic is the ability to come from a place that is clean-hearted before God,

clean-hearted before God, wanting nothing from it but speaking and saying that we will be a

plumb line or a touchstone that will prove whether gold is gold or whether it is just glitter.

As the moment we begin to step into this role, know that judgment will first begin in this house.

It's always like that and I welcome it from the Holy Spirit so that 2 Corinthians 10 may come to

pass that we will pull down every stronghold, take captive every thought, reasoning, argument,

imagination against the knowledge of God and we will lead it captive in submission to the Lordship

of Christ, punishing disobedience after our obedience is complete. We are not here playing

church. We were given a city and strangely enough we will be held accountable, all of us,

starting with me, for whether we were faithful to what we were given.

Go to Zechariah 9 and we'll end with this. Zechariah 9, Zechariah 9,

Zechariah 9, Zechariah 9, Zechariah 9, Zechariah 9, Zechariah 9, Zechariah 9, Zechariah 9, Zechariah 9,

God is saying to Zion, to the people of God, rejoice. He's saying, shout.

Why? Because the king or government is coming. He is righteous.

He is victorious. He is humble.

And he is coming. I want you to remember these lines because we will talk about government at

some point. Key bearing authority, key bearing authority comes as a result

of cross bearing humility.

Key bearing authority comes from cross bearing humility. If there's one prayer I have for myself,

I have for the leaders here, I have for you, is that may you and I have the same kind of key

bearing authority that Eliakim had in Isaiah 22, 22. But that kind of key bearing authority is

the result of cross bearing humility, which is what we are all here for.

What Good Friday brings to us, humility has nothing to protect. It is okay being shamed

and therefore it doesn't get angry. I don't know whether I saw this somewhere or I wrote this

myself, but there is nothing you want to be

in the eyes of man

except what you are with him at any moment.

It's all that matters. Unafraid. Walking in humility. Teachable. Cross bearing humility leads

to key bearing authority. It's all that matters. Unafraid. Walking in humility. Teachable. Cross

bearing humility leads to key bearing authority. Let's pray. Jesus, you're something else.

All this time,

I didn't know that you had these four deliberate confrontations lined up.

You're so brave when you walk the earth and yet you were as human as I am. How did you do it?

You were consumed with zeal. You were willing to confront unfruitfulness, not from an angry place,

but from a place that always wanted that which is unfruitful to become fruitful.

And then you challenged status quo. You always challenged status quo.

And then you brought an end to concealment this morning. This was a difficult week for you, right?

Soon you'll be going up the steps to that upper room where you wash people's feet and you

eat bread with them and then you'll go to Mount Olive and you'll start sweating blood.

And then you'll start praying and everyone else will fall asleep.

And then they'll come with torches. 600 of them, 700 of them.

Most will run away except John. They'll ask you, are you Jesus of Nazareth?

And you will say, I am. And when you say, I am, 600 of them will fall backwards.

Power was pressing then too. Legion of angels at your disposal, but no, you choose.

I'm forever grateful to you. I'm forever grateful for the cross. I'm forever grateful

to you.

For you came to seek and save the lost. You did not wait for me to cry out to you.

So we are grateful, Jesus. I pray that you'll make us alert to what you went through many,

many years ago in real physical life this week. Just make us aware of it.

Praise the name of the Lord our God. Praise his name forevermore.

For endless days we will sing God's praise. Oh Lord, oh Lord our God.

We love you, Jesus, and we are glad that you touch our hearts regularly.

You touch our hearts regularly.

We are grateful for that. Jesus, you had resources that had to be distributed,

that was used for ministry. Judas was unfortunately pilfering from it, but you had people that took

care of resources, treasury, finances. And we are going to do the same in about 20 minutes in our

AGM that everyone can attend. But as we go about doing that, we just thank you for the

monies that have come into this church and the monies that are going to be distributed.

May it be done to your absolute pleasure and your will. May you just be thrilled at the way

we go about the business of money for the extension of your kingdom. So be Lord over

our session too, just as you have been Lord over our lives for the last two and a half or three

hours. In Jesus' name we pray. There's more cake outside now.