Topographical - The Temple Steps and Whitewashed Tombs

All right, thank you so much. Good morning everybody. Last week, there we go, last week

we celebrated as a church together at the park. Anybody was there? All right, I was

not there. But I did see pictures, heard some great things about our combined services.

My family and I, we actually were traveling on vacation all the way to the west coast.

We were in Canada on Vancouver Island, wrestling bears and things of that nature. So it's good

to be back here. We survived that. No, but it was a great time swimming, relaxing, just

kind of chilling with some family. So it was good to be away, but it's good to be here

to continue our service, I'm sorry, our series called Typography. And we've been talking

about important places in the Bible and some impactful messages and things that took place

there. And what that means for us today. So today, we're actually going to unpack a place

that I got to visit myself and Greg, we got to visit on two separate occasions while we

were doing our master's program, we got to visit Jerusalem. And you've heard Jen, she's

traveling right now, right? She's traveling with your wife right now, but we've got a

good opportunity for some of us where we've been overseas and been visiting some places

that are in fact biblical spots. So today, I'll bring our attention to Jerusalem and

we will be engaging in a story that kind of takes place on when I was there. And some

of you know that you've been around for a long time. I'm kind of a hip hop baby. And

you know, so a lot of times in my head, there's visuals or metaphors that I'll get. And the

place that we're going to talk about today was kind of like a stage of sorts to me, the

temple steps. So we'll take a gander and take a look at some of the pictures. We'll go to

the next slide, please. And it reminded me, it's set to stay like a rap battle. So somebody

like, Oh, God, here's Chris and his rap battle stuff. But because on the temple steps of

Jerusalem, Jesus has some sharp words to the scribes and the Pharisees. So while I was

there, I couldn't help but to think like, man, Jesus battled here. This is crazy. Let's

go on to the next slide, please. So it wasn't a stage like that, but this is more of the

stage of his choice for that, that these battles that we're here about today. But while we

were there, this is actually a model. This is a model replica of what Jerusalem would

have looked back in Jesus days. So this is a Jerusalem, the museum there. And so I was

there, it's pretty big. Greg, did you get a chance to go? Yeah, it's pretty big. It's

awesome. They really tried to do it to scale of what it would have looked like. And I remember

kind of going around. And then I got to the place. I'm like, these are the steps, yo,

this is so dope. So I wanted to make sure I took a picture of the stage. If you go to

the next slide, then we actually got to walk there. So that's quite a big difference, right?

Kind of looks like, honey, I shrunk the kids or something. But the temple is huge. And

when you go on these steps, it's a huge place. A lot of times when we think about stairs

or a staircase, it's like, it's not like that, my friends. It's big. Go to the next slide,

please. And again, this is a kind of more of you can see the details of the temple.

And you can see in the back, the temple steps. But also what I think is cool about the this

here is that you can see the dip in there. And you've heard me talk about the Kidron

Valley that exists. And on the other side of that dip is the mountain of olives. You've

heard a lot of things about the Mount of Olives. And I say here in Rock Island, the Quad Cities,

we actually get a really good idea of what that could kind of look like the views because

we have long view, and then it kind of goes down and we can see a bridge. So you can picture

on the other side of their Mount olives and Jesus walked this thing. All right, without

the long view path, you know, it's rugged. There's no trails and things of that nature.

So I love this because it kind of depicts the ruggedness of Jesus's everyday commute,

no Uber or anything like that. But the Jesus Sandals that we know well from a lot of the

pictures that he was traveling to the temple steps, we can keep going on another picture,

right? So I was on the other side, right? And you can see the gold dome of the temple.

You can see this is what it would look like when I went out to the Mount of Olives. And

interestingly, in the middle, you see a lot of graves. You see all these tombs, a lot

of whitewashed tombs that we'll get to that Jesus used some of these visuals in his rap

battle. Well, he used some of these visuals to point out some of the things in the people

on the steps. Let's continue on the next slide, please. So very, very hot that day. You can

see how, you know, they had us right out in the sun for this presentation right there.

A lot of us, you know, our brains was kind of dead right there. You could see the smart

people were in the shade. And I was like, yo, I hope we're not sitting here that long.

But I had to kind of get up and just move around. I took this picture and I just noticed

again what you can see when you're on the other side of the temple. Next slide, please.

Some people say, well, how do you know that Jesus went to the temple steps all the time?

There's a lot of scriptures about it. Matter of fact, when Jesus was young, it says in

Luke 2 49, why were you searching for me? This is Jesus, little Jesus. Didn't you know

I had to be in my father's house? There's a story about Jesus. You know, the parents

lost him and he was over here. He's like, where y'all thought I was going to be at?

My father's house. Go to the next slide, please. And Luke 21 37 through 38, how do we know

that Jesus kind of went that path that I was talking about? It says each day Jesus was

teaching at the temple and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called

the Mount of olives. And all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.

And this was myself and my cohort. We just were kind of looking at the view of the steps

along the wall right there. And hopefully that gives you a little better visual of kind

of the place that we'll be talking about as Jesus will use the geography of the place

and some of these things that I just pointed out to you in the words and the choices that

he used to confront scribes and Pharisees in this very place. So if you know, if you've

ever had a chance to watch a rap battle or if you even haven't, but you can think of

what it might be as two rappers that go head to head and try to outwit outshine one another

with their words and rhymes. And they use a lot of imagery. They use a lot of metaphors

to kind of dis or to put their opponents to make them look bad. Right. They also use a

lot of keywords and references to things and places around them to show their knowledge,

to show their creativity. It's very competitive. It's very confrontational form of art and

entertainment. And again, and that's what brought my mind to this, uh, this particular

metaphor because today again, we journey to the Southern steps of King Herod's temple

where Jesus confronted the religious leaders with a powerful illustration that would have

cut right to the core of who they truly were. We'll be looking at Matthew 23 verse 27 and

Matthew 23:27

28. Uh, you can take that. You can look at that on a Bible app. Um, if you do want a

Bible or physical Bible, we do have some out in the lobby that you are able to take with

you or to grab as well. To tradition, our church is to be present for the reading of

God. If you want to stand up, you can do that, but just to be present for the reading of

God's word, you can stand with me in spirit or physically Matthew 23, 27 through 28.

Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs

which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead

and everything unclean in the same way on the outside you appear to people as righteous,

but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. Let's pray. Lord, thank you

for your word. Um, for that it will speak to us today. Thank you for your son who came

to show us the truth and the way help us to listen to your word and to follow your example

and help us to be authentic and help us to be clean on the inside and not just on the

outside and to learn what that means today in Jesus name. Amen. So this passage in Matthew

23 is a part of a series of what they would call the seven woes that Jesus pronounced

against the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23. In fact, if we would have started at the

top of Matthew 23, Jesus just goes in on them. Usually rap battles like three rounds and

Jesus had way more rounds ready for him. He was like really letting these guys have it.

Um, but at the particular passage, he chose to kind of expose some of their wickedness

through the illustration of whitewashed tombs. But he also warns the disciples and the crowds

not to follow their examples or listen to their teachings. Why? Um, before we dig into

what Jesus meant by calling them whitewashed tombs, let me tell you a little bit about

scribes and Pharisees. Now the scribes and Pharisees were the religious leaders of Israel

at that time. Sounds good, but they were supposed to teach and model God's law and God's love,

but instead they twisted God's law, abused God's people. And I'll tell you a little

bit more scribes were educated. Their business was to study the law, to write them out and

make observations about them, the religious laws. They were experts in the scriptures

and uh, the tradition and held traditions like they were like the elders, the OGs in

the community. They had a lot of knowledge and influence in the society. Uh, the Pharisees

were highly religious leaders concerned about knowing and keeping the law. They were strict

in following the rules and rituals that they thought would please God and make them holy.

They had a lot of respect and authority among the people, but here's the problem. Eventually,

a lot of the scribes and the Pharisees became corrupt and hypocritical. They made up their

own rules, made up their own traditions that burden people instead of freeing people. So

at this point, Jesus knew that they cared more about their reputation and status than

about God's glory and about God's love and extending God's grace. So they looked good

on the outside, but on the inside they were kind of evil and grimy. They had all the right

answers. Imagine that they look good. Imagine that. And these were the top leaders of the

day and no one wanted to challenge them except Jesus. So let's look what Jesus said to them.

He called them whitewash tombs and what does that mean? And you kind of get the illustration,

but uh, let me tell you a little bit about the background of the story. Um, especially

like I mentioned earlier, having the privilege of visiting the Southern steps in Jerusalem.

I just again remember standing in all imagining what it was like when Jesus stood there, when

he taught there, when he was there as a kid, uh, from the Mount of Olives where we could

visibly see tombstones to the ancient burial grounds. Um, we can kind of grasp, especially

from some of the slides that I showed, some of the imagery that Jesus drew upon in his

confrontation with the religious leaders, the temple, as you saw, that was my professor

that was kind of taking some steps on the temple stairs there, but it was huge. It was

magnificent. Um, it occupied a large space in comparison to all of Jerusalem. It was

the center of worship and sacrifice for God's people. It was also the place where Jesus

taught crowds of people many times during his life. Um, the Southern steps was the entrance

to the entire temple Mount complex. People had to go through these steps to enter the

temple courts where they could pray, offer sacrifices or listen to teachers. So Jesus

went to these steps many times as mentioned in scripture earlier, he went as a child with

his parents during Passover. He went as an adult to teach and heal people. He went during

the final week of his life before he was crucified. So Jesus connection, uh, to the temple was

deep and it was personal. And in this case it was actually confrontational. And again,

as I sat and looked at the Eastern side, you all saw that there were tombs along the hills

of Mount of olives and these tombs were ancient monuments. Some of them even predated Jesus.

Some of them were even mentioned in the Old Testament. They were visible from the temple

steps, especially during certain times of the year when they were whitewashed. Why were

they whitewashed in order to worship the Lord in a temple, you had to be rich, really pure.

You couldn't be tainted by anything that would make you unclean. So one of the things that

would make you unclean was death. You couldn't touch the dead body. You couldn't touch a

tomb. You had to stay away from any form of death whatsoever. But the problem was there

were tombs everywhere around Jerusalem and some of them were not easy to spot. They were

hidden under rocks or dirt or plants. So in order to help people avoid accidentally touching

them and becoming defiled, they would whitewash them. They would paint them. Some people that

had more money would make more monuments. You would see them a little bit more monumental.

I actually got a chance to drive past. We walked past some of them as well and I got

to point out a few. If I could show you, like, wow, that's great. There were some people

that had money that would make sure they just looked really, really nice. Whitewashed very

well. But in order to help people avoid touching them or be defiled again, they were whitewashed.

But as we know, inside, they were still full of death and decay. So the confrontation itself

was picturing Jesus standing on the southern steps looking towards the Mount of Olives

with the tombs in view and he was unafraid of the powerful religious leaders that were

out just doing their thing and Jesus confronted him. Now the confrontation with the scribes

and Pharisees to me is pretty profound because it shows, you know, sometimes we look at Jesus

and people use the kind of violent Jesus or when Jesus confronts people, they use that

so they can be mean. Right? So look, he just called them out. He just told them, he just

flipped the tables. I always say people really enjoy the flip table of Jesus. They can use

that for anything. You can do something mean to somebody and be like, Jesus flipped tables.

Hey, Chris said Jesus battle wrapped. So I'm going to tell you like it is. And this is

where it's different. This is where even I take a step back and we're like, this is kind

of cool for me to think of a battle wrap or the point of battle wrap is really tear somebody

down. Jesus wasn't trying to do that. He's trying to tell the truth of who they were.

He wasn't really trying to be cute and stuff. He just did a direct hit. And he just used

illustration. Like y'all really want to know what these guys like? Look, it's right there.

But the profound thing, Jesus sees through the external facades and cause us to be honest

with ourselves, to be honest with him, to be honest with one another. So just as Jesus

exposed the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, I believe like even for us today in 2023,

what we can see from that is not this mean Jesus that's pointing fingers, but how Jesus

wants the best of us. Jesus wants us to be our true selves and Jesus, I imagine him looking

at them, not being like me if I battle wrap, but saying, no, like, let's just knock this

off. Let's knock this off. Like, I know who you truly are. You guys are like these white

wash tombs. But obviously approaching or confronting people of this stature, he expected confrontation

as we would if we had to confront someone with love, you can expect a little kickback.

You can expect because all of us in this room are like a lot of the kids, you know, some

of the first words that we know to say is no. That stays with us. Right? That kickback

is within us. It's like a built in thing. It's like, no, no. All right. How many people

that are a little older, like you enjoy being confronted about something that you know,

like you know there's something about you that needs to be checked. But when somebody

confronts that, how many of you are like, oh, I've been waiting for you to say that.

I am so happy that you just put me on blast. I mean, thank you so much. Can I just hug

you right now? You just don't hear about that. You don't want that. I mean, if you do, then

that's special. And that's great. That's great. You know, I can't say like nobody does this

because sometimes I'll have somebody be like, Chris, I heard you say that. But I'm actually

genuinely I'm like, wow, you're that's awesome. But I'm not one of them that I enjoy a rebuke

or rejoice over someone that confronts me. And again, I say confrontation in the terms

of knowing that we need that, knowing that we need to be checked on some things or we

need to knock some things off. Jesus called them whitewash tombs. And that would have

just been a tough line right there. That would have been a diss right there. Can you imagine

how they felt when they heard it? Can you imagine how the crowd reacted when they heard

Jesus say that? Because sometimes there's people that can say stuff and you're scared

to say it and you're like, oh, so and so said this. You hear what they said? This is so

and so said this. So and you kind of use that as your way of confronting. I imagine there

was some that have been abused verbally or whatnot by the Pharisees and scribes that

rejoice that someone finally spoke up. But at the end of the day, I think that again,

it's a hard pill to swallow. But sometimes we need that from Jesus. Sometimes we might

be too concerned about our outside appearance than what is going on on our inside. I think

if we took a poll, no one in here enjoys somebody that's being fake. You hear teens talk about

all the time. Oh, that person's fake. They're fake. And I'll be like, what does that mean?

They're just not real. They say something. Look at this text. I'll show you. But look

what they text. So and so they're fake. Nobody likes. But we act fake. Nobody likes it. Done

to them. Somebody being fake. But we act like that. How do I know? There's a lot of times.

Hey, Chris, how you doing? Good. Good. It's just automatic. And one of the one time I

went home, I knew I was like, I don't know why I said that. I don't feel like engaging

the conversation right now. Not right here. Not in the aisle at Hy-Vee. Ask me if I'm

good. All right. We don't want to get into the nitty gritty right on the spot like that.

So we just by default say good. I don't know the best alternative, but I know that 100%

of the time, sometimes we're just not good. And sometimes it's okay. Just to be like,

I'm not doing that good. Oh, thanks for sharing. You might not even have to get all into it.

You could just say, no, I'm not. But the big question when I look at this, because it's

hard because we can become legalistic too. It could be somebody like, well, what are

we supposed to do? Whenever somebody says that, we're supposed to sit down and have

coffee and talk to them about our lives? No. However, we can talk to God about what's going

on. We can envision Jesus asking us how we're doing, looking at us and maybe even saying

like, man, if I was on the temple steps, what would he be calling out in me right now? Imagine

that battle taking place. But not to shame you, but to call out who you really are, to

get rid of some of the trash or some of the fake facade. You can have that conversation

with Jesus. You can have that conversation and say, God, Holy Spirit, just help me be

who you truly want me to be. And sometimes I think that's better than just spilling your

guts in aisle seven in Ivy. So practically understanding that Jesus knows and that Jesus

is ready for that conversation. But we have to be the ones that are willing to step up

on that stage. He already knows. He's already knew how they work before he got to the steps.

We've heard the, many of us heard the verse on first John one nine that says that we confess

our sins, he's faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all

unrighteousness. And sometimes we just forget these truths of that confession doesn't mean

that we just have to go to a brother or sister and reveal everything. But we have a God that

sees us and knows us. We also again can ask God's spirit to guide us into the truth that

God will set us free to depend on him for the strength and wisdom and all of our situations.

James four eight says, come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands,

you sinners and purify your hearts. You double minded Galatians five 16 says, so I say walk

by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. And again, these are

some scriptures that we can take and be super legalistic and say like, Oh my God, do this

and this and this. But this is again, one of those things where it says that we can

walk into the presence of God, we can ask God's spirit to help guide us. Another thing

I was thinking about is we can love God's people and try to serve out the mission that

God would call us to and try to figure this out. That's kind of big. When we think about

our fellowship with God, the vertical way, and a lot of times we might forget about the

horizontal relationship that we have with others. I was thinking a lot of us, we're

in the day and age where we have a lot of superhero movies and stuff like that. But

also was thinking about some of us, we want to act like we're bulletproof and nothing

affects us. We're good, we got this. We might not let ourselves up under someone else's

authority. That's tough these days. When you think about church, there's a lot of people

that's going through deconstruction stuff and a lot of people maybe have church hurt.

Back in the day, there was things when people were like, we got an accountability group

or this group and we get together and do all that kind of stuff. I'm not saying that's

not needed. I'm not saying it's here or there. However, is there someone in your life that

you can build a reciprocal, trusting, loving relationship with that can be a truth teller

to you? That takes a while to develop that. Hebrews 10, 24, 25 says, and let us consider

how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up, meeting together

as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another. Encouraging one another. What

does that mean for us to be connected with another human being that we actually allow

them to speak truth and life and love to us? Not in an abusive way, not in a way where

they're in power over you, but empowering you. These are the practical ways I think

that we can strive and move forward to having authentic relationship with the Lord and more

of an authentic relationship with one another. I'd like to close with a poem that I wrote.

A few years after, I think I wrote this poem early in my 30s. There was a time when I was

reflecting on a very difficult season in life that I had in my college years. Greg and I,

we went to the same college for youth ministry, but we didn't see each other. It's kind of

crazy. We didn't even know each other. We went to the same Christian college, different

years. He graduated for me and I showed up. We might have even been there at the same

time. It's weird. We met later. But on this Christian campus, it was probably my sophomore

or junior year, if some of you have heard my story before, it was a difficult time.

Right in the middle, I was questioning a lot of things. I was going through a lot. It was

very hard and almost kind of abandoned ship, I would say, to even what I thought was my

calling as a youth ministry. I was like, man, this ain't for me. I'm going through so much

stuff right now. I felt like I'm on this Christian campus and I'm a youth ministry major. I'm

supposed to have it together. And I didn't. So for either my sophomore or junior year,

I just felt like I was just this fake dude saying all the right things, trying to do

all the right things, trying to look cool. But inside, I was crumbling. So this is a

poem I wrote for that time where I was at in my Christian faith as I reflected on it

a few years after graduation. It's called When I Was 22. It's a long time ago. When

I was 22, I thought I had this Christian thing down. Christian college, youth ministry major,

check. Christian girlfriend, yeah, she's a believer, check. Job, save a little, spend

lots every two weeks. I had a check. Back then, anyone would have banked on me as a

guy making wise investments with my time, with my energies, but I was in a place where

my faith became fake. You know, nobody witnessed the war, this war raging within and somehow

inside this Christian campus bubble, I conformed more to pop culture, insulated by Christian

community, passing Bible classes, answering any question about whom did Christ come for

and after class was over, I'd be snuggling up in sin's comfort. All name brand Christian

actions with a generic soul satisfaction and embracing gospel benefits, believing biblical

truths, but bumping into the side as my life's guide. So when it came to how I was living

biblically, I had no problem pushing boundaries and extending my lines. My blessed assurance

was more like a little insurance. And honestly, at that time, my salvation was like an insurance

policy. I become immune to the life giving biblical truths of my identity. I forgotten

I was a poem written inside of the person of Christ existing to carry out his inner

desires, but I crammed so many selfish things. First, I always showed up late for my good

works. In other words, when it came to my relationship with Christ, I could have remained

clogged art or he could have used another vessel. My junior year, my heart attacked

my junior year. God attacked my heart. So weary from wavering, no longer content with

complacency, tired of tottering, grieving over his gracefulness. I felt like I felt

like I had my first tattoo. The way I was nervous for God's word to touch me one long,

slow scratch on heart with sharp needled rebuke, Ephesians five one, seemed like it tatted

my soul and that still voice woke me from my spiritual slumber. It was as if I heard

God say, Chris, you have a choice to make. Why do you think imitating me means just sounding

like me or just talking like me? Not just remembering what I've said. What about walking

like me, living like me, loving like me? But I love you. I paid for your debt with my breath

and your breaths belong to me. My sacrifice is the only thing giving you the freedom to

exhale. Imitate me. And I remember confessing and feeling the weight lifted. I was an inmate

set free walking away from the prison I'd made for myself. At 22, I thought I had this

Christian thing down and all I was was a poor reflection of foolish follower. And I learned

something that the world is dangerous, but through Christ's death and resurrection, I

saw my biggest danger was me, a child of God, just hearing his voice but doing nothing.

I'm glad I came to my senses because I assure you, Jesus is much more than blessed insurance.

Amen. It says a lot where I was at with my faith at the time wrestling with issues and

theology and all these things thinking I was just wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. And even writing that, it was very difficult

and saying it was difficult thinking about the place that I was and if I would have just

believed in all the lies and believed that I couldn't go back to Christ. And my hope

for us as a church is that we can bring ourself on the stage sometimes and understand that

sometimes we need to look Jesus face to face for what it is and let him call out who we

are so we can come to him. Not only with that but to think again about what does that mean

with people here, people that we live with and have a community with, what does that

look like? There are some people that yearn for a community where you could be held accountable

on some things. If you know you need that, you should seek that. If it's just someone

that you can be a truth teller to and say this is what's really going on and just someone

that needs to be an ear for you, ask God to direct me into the things that I need so I

won't be walking around feeling like I'm just this white wash tomb showing up, everything

looks great but really on the inside it's not. Let's pray. God thank you so much for

your word. I pray God that more than anything that we can feel encouraged, God that we all

can understand the battle within ourselves and our minds and our hearts and our souls

and our spirits, sometimes even mentally grueling. We pray Lord that instead of being intimidated

or whatnot, that we can envision looking into eyes of love, eyes that love us and care for

us but lips that will tell the truth to us about who we are and how much you love us.

I just pray Lord that we can ask your spirit to guide us in this way to a closer relationship

with you. In your name we pray. Amen.