So I want to ask this question. We'll pray in just a moment. We'll read back through our texts as well. But how many of you have ever heard or maybe even said yourself, God, well put this, my God would not do that. I'm just, as a very general thing, I have heard people say, my God, and I'm emphasizing on the my, I'm not saying like my God is a bad thing here, but my God would never allow bad things to happen to good people. My God would never punish somebody in sending them to hell. My God is a loving God and He doesn't do anything or allow anything bad or harm to come to people. Nobody's ever heard that before? Nobody's ever said, well, my God wouldn't do that. Nobody's ever heard anybody else say that. I'm sure that we have, and I know it was not necessarily a rhetorical question. It could be taken that way, and that's fine, because I know we all have had conversations with people, or even unbelievers would say, well, if God is so good, then why? Why does this bad thing happen to a good person? I'm not going to go into little details, because that could get not messy quick, but go into an aspect of the sermon that we don't want to go to this morning. We're in Matthew chapter 21, verses one through 11. And the reason I asked that question to begin with, because I want us really to ask ourselves this morning, as we're beginning, as we go through the text, and as we conclude, who is Jesus really? I don't want a Sunday school answer. I know I say that all the time. I know that if I were to actually ask for the answer, I would hear things along the lines of, well, he's the Messiah. He's the savior of the world. He is God. He is perfect. He is loving. He is holy. He's just. And we can go through all those things and we know them. But I'm actually talking about a personal, deeper understanding. I'm not like, okay, so let's open up the theology books and start going there. I'm not talking about that. But our personal understanding of who God is, who Jesus is as the Savior, and what his ministry looks like, looked like, what it continues to look like, and all of these things. Because there's many, many people today, many good, nobody's good, I know. Just go with me on this. Good, well-meaning, church-going people today, right now, maybe even here, that would agree with the Sunday School answer and add to it so much more. For some, As I say certain things, I want you to hear out the rest of the sentence before you stop listening because I'm going to say things that are going to sound kind of goofy. For some, Jesus came to provide hope and help in times of trouble. He did. Not specifically, but he does that. Like a friend, you know, when we're going through a hard time, we call that friend up and maybe they come and they help us out of the struggle, or they give us encouragement, talk us through these things. And that friend that will always be there. Now, when I say that, Jesus does help. He does provide encouragement and peace and all of those things and wisdom. He does always answer. He does always hear when it's a genuine, humble ask, not a prideful, self-serving ask. So he does do those things. But for many, it's Jesus is that distance, long distance friend. And we have a long distance relationship. And I only call him when I need something, when I need help. So like I said, he does do those things, but their interpretation is not the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, as presented in scripture, but a friend. Jesus is a good friend. I call on him, pull my phone, I'm not gonna do it, but pull my phone out of my pocket and call that friend up when I wanna talk with him, but he's really not, he's not the Messiah in the scripture. Or maybe, and these, I actually had to look some of these up because it just made me smile, not in a good way, but he's a spiritual guide. Does God, does Jesus give us his word to guide us in things? Yes, but he's a spiritual guide. So if I want to live a good life and a spiritual life, I just follow these commands and everything's going to be okay. He's some guru out there. A weird word. We don't use it here often, but we understand the term. So if I somehow just do the things he says and live my life like him, everything's going to be okay. For some, Jesus is a social reformer. I know that sounds really strange to many of us, but they look at the love and acceptance and justice that we see in the scriptures that he is loving, he is not, I'm gonna clarify this, he's not accepting of the sin, but you see him ministering to sinful people, because he ministered to people and we're all sinful. And as we'll look at the overthrowing of the tables in the temple, but we look at that, or they will look at this and go, you know, this is really, Jesus was a radical social reformer, and it challenges societal norms, which he did, and we've talked about that. And so he is really working towards this very inclusive community, and we need to follow that. I'm not saying that. I mean, those words are coming out of my mouth, but some people think, well, he's just a great social reformer. Others would see Jesus as a loving savior, and he is. But to the extent that, well, because Jesus is loving, he is, again, never going to allow somebody or send somebody to hell. He's never going to discipline because discipline is unloving. Again, I'm not saying this. I'm telling you how people view Jesus. His love far outshines his righteousness, justice, holiness, and again, would never have anybody go to hell. As a matter of fact, he wouldn't have even created hell and hell doesn't exist because God is so loving. Like the first idea we discussed of the person that pulls Jesus out of their pocket, if you will, and has, well, I'm in trouble. If you're real, help me out. And we kind of talked about this on Wednesday night. For a lot of people, God, and we pray, I mean, God, Jesus, we're gonna just broaden that umbrella out a little bit, is more of a spiritual vending machine. You know, we go through, I love that we have a prayer bulletin. I do. I love that people have lists of prayers. I understand that. I've had them. I generally lose the list, like I lose a piece of paper. So I kind of gotten away from that. But having this list of requests, but for so many people, it's essentially, dear Lord, however you start prayer, I want this, this, this, this, this, this, and this, and then be with this person, this person, this person, heal this person, this person, this person. Amen. You basically, you walked up to the vending machine, you hit the buttons, and you're expecting those things to come out. Now, that makes it very cold because there's a relationship involved, there's communicating with God, because prayer is communication to Him, and we're asking these things, but that's not building relationship. I told the teens on Wednesday, I said, that's like walking up to your mom or dad and saying, give me 20 bucks. Oh, and I need a new Xbox, and I need this game, and I need that game, and I need this new phone, and I want that. Oh, and I want this for dinner. See you later. That doesn't fly. That doesn't fly in my house, and I'm sure it didn't fly in your house when your kids were there, and it doesn't fly in the houses of those that have kids. Why? God is not our spiritual vending machine. He's not there to give us everything we ever wanted. And we could really go on and on from here, and we won't. But there's so many different opinions of who God is and they're really based off of our own invention. I can't accept, again, just as an example, I can't accept the fact that God would do this because I'm going to emphasize this attribute and I'm going to run it through my filter and my grade of thinking. If God is loving, then he absolutely cannot have anything There really can't be sin. There really can't be death. There really can't be hell. There really can't be these things because a loving God would never do that. Well, we see holiness and justice and righteousness and love, mercy, and grace equal. We can't get that. Well, not holy, completely. So as we go through this passage today, we're going to look at, as Tyler's already read, and if you guys are reading ahead of Sunday mornings, which I hope that you guys are to a certain extent, we see these crowds traveling with Jesus. Matthew doesn't cover a whole lot of details that happen on the way from Galilee to Jerusalem. I'll hit them quickly as we go through, but there's this group of people that's been traveling with them. They're going up to the Passover, so they're pilgrims, if you will. Crowds of people that have definitely formed an opinion of who the Messiah is, and we haven't touched on this a whole lot. We did before, not a lot recently. that Jesus is going to liberate them from Roman occupancy, provide this, I lost the word, utopian society, if you will, where everything's gonna be great, like being in the promised land again. And this crowds of people, the disciples included, like many today, have come to a wrong conclusion based on their personal and societal ideologies. So, if you haven't turned there already, Matthew chapter 21, verses one through 11, I'll pray as you turn there. Father, we are humbled at the opportunity to look at your word, to see the love, patience, that you've poured out on mankind as you are here and in your earthly ministry and working with, ministering to, and dealing with sinful humans that refuse to see the truth that you are speaking of who you are. allowing these things to happen, that prophecy would be fulfilled and working in all of these things. Father, it is an amazing passage to look through. And Lord, I pray that as we consider these things, that you would help us to really ask and answer that question of who we really believe that Jesus is and how we should be forming that understanding. Again, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this time together. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. So, verse 1, Matthew 21, 1-11, And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the Mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, I'll insert here, some people think it was Peter and John because that happens in another passage as well. But anyways, two disciples, doesn't say, saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, And straightway you will find a donkey tied, I just, like I said, I can't say that word here, or anywhere for that matter, and a colt with her, loose them and bring them unto me. And if any man say, ought unto you, he shall say, the Lord hath need of them, and straightway he will send them. And this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Bold, the king cometh unto thee, meek and sitting on a donkey, and the full of a donkey. And the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. and brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their clothes." Sorry, I'm going to pause. They didn't take their clothes off. They had like a cloak, an outer garment that they put on. I know that makes sense, but I just have to say that. And they sent him there on. And a very great multitude spread their garments on the way. Others cut down branches, as we would see in John, palm branches, from the trees and strewed them in the way. And the multitude that went before and followed cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus, a prophet of Nazareth, of Galilee. Now there's a few words that I want to kind of, not correct, but just help us to understand what it's talking about here. It's really an interesting thing as you look at it. Jesus wrote on the colt. He didn't write on both animals. That wouldn't have worked. I know we understand that. We'll cover that later. But when we look at the multitudes that are traveling with These are the pilgrims that are coming with, that have been coming with Him since Galilee. So they've been there through a lot of the miracles and stuff. They get it. Well, they get it to a certain extent. They get a lot of it wrong, but they still, they are understanding. When we're talking about Jesus coming into Jerusalem at the time of the Passover, it's not like that the town's just normal. There was a census that was done 10 years after this, and there was 260,000 sacrificial lambs. Now, the rule was that there was one sacrificial lamb for every 10 people. So yes, it's 10 years later, but understanding there's probably like 2.6 million people in Jerusalem at this time. It's insane how many people are there. And this, the city was moved. The word actually is seismic, like earthquake, very big commotion of what's going on. Jesus has been there before, they know who he is, but they're like, wait a minute, the whole town is not just stirred a little bit like they're busy and around. No, this is a huge, wait a minute, something's going on here, what is it? The very fact that they said the prophet kept him alive, because if they had said he is the king who's going to overthrow Rome, as we understand, we'll see later, he'd have been arrested and killed immediately. It's just fantastic how these things work out. But a humble coronation of Christ, usually called a triumphal entry. And I get that. I'm not saying that that's a wrong term. There's really nothing inappropriate about that. But I want us to kind of look at this from the standpoint of they're ushering him in as king. We have Inauguration Day and I'm not looking forward to anything that happens from now until Inauguration Day, I'm really not. But as we understand things and how that works out and the little ceremonial things that they do and the passing of the notes and things that the former president and the new president do or however that works out, it's televised and it's neat. But it's nothing like a coronation of a new king. We in our lifetime, and some of us have seen it twice, maybe, the coronation of the Queen and then King of England. We got to watch what it looked like for the royals and all of the opulence and majesty and prestige of things that happened with the British royal family and in the country when the king was crowned. I don't think any of us were there. We watched over TV and Internet. So we got an outsider's view looking in. But it's really kind of foreign to us. We don't, I mean, all the rich people, the dignitaries, the finest clothes, the jewels, the scepters, the archbishops, and all that stuff that happens during the coronation now is really, it's amazing. If we go back in time, the coronation was there. I mean, the new king being ushered into the capital city, leading his armies on a chariot and horses and all of these things going on. It was a big deal. I mean, Everybody stopped everything that they were doing and paid all of their attention on the glory and majesty of this new king coming in, who's conquered and won the victory. And so, yeah, it's a little foreign to us. But if we can put ourselves in understanding that, it helps us to kind of see, well, yeah, it makes sense that all of this stuff is kind of going on, not all the details, and why the city would be in an uproar about it. But like I said, it wasn't just like that. We don't see a chariot. We don't see jewels. We don't see conquest and conquering. We don't see even a horse. Jesus comes riding in on a donkey's colt. Never been ridden before. This is a young animal. It's interesting because they bring the mother of the donkey too because it's never been ridden. It's never really been in a crowd. So it's going to help guide and show the little donkey what to do. But the crowd's rolling out the red carpet. They're literally throwing cloaks on the ground, making a pathway. They're excited. Man, our Messiah is coming. He's here. The king is here. The son of David. This is fantastic. This is fulfilling prophecies from the Old Testament. They're seeing all this. There's deliverance that's coming. Throwing down the palm branches, which is a celebration thing. Excuse me. But they, as I've said many times, missed a little bit. The little bit that they missed is going to be what we'll close with. Everything was pointing to the glory and majesty of Christ as their conquering king. But this is an event. You know, we celebrate this, we read this text during Easter time a lot. I know we're not quite there. We read through it, oh cool, you know, Jesus is being ushered into Jerusalem, he's the king, they all get it. And how many of us have ever been reading through this and just kind of read through like, okay, cool, this happens. Not dismissing it, but this happens. And then six days later, Crucify Him. How many of us does that really make sense to? How can you go from He is the King, the Deliverer, the Messiah, He is going to reign over us, this is great, to kill Him in six days? Does that really make sense? It shouldn't. I don't understand that. He didn't do anything wrong to deserve that. I mean, it would be one thing if they're like, hey, this is the greatest guy, and then he went out and shot somebody. Well, maybe he's not the greatest guy, and he needs to be in jail. That makes sense. But he didn't. This passage, when we really understand it, instead of just reading through it, and I'm not saying that many do, but as we would just read through it, we miss very important details that really help us to understand why all of a sudden, six days later, they're saying crucify him. The rest of the events of this week of Jesus' life, there's so much significance to it that we miss if we miss this passage. So we start with the end of the pilgrimage. Like I said, this is a lot of I don't want to say story details. It makes sense. In verse 1, it indicates that Jesus and the disciples and the crowds, I mean massive crowds, they enter Bethphage, which on their way towards Jerusalem. Bethphage, actually, we know nothing about. There's no archaeological digs that can find it. It's somewhere around Bethany, which is about two miles from Jerusalem. So they've traveled all this way. They come into Bethany as well. And what we don't hear is... There's things that, like I said, Matthew leaves out a lot of the details. John chapter 12 gives us a little more insight. Actually, John gives us a lot more insight, like we've missed so far Zacchaeus. We did get the two in Jericho, the two blind men that received their sight and followed Christ. We didn't get to see the raising of Lazarus. All's happened in this trip. Matthew's point, and Mark and Luke as well, is not to go into all those details. They have an overall message. Matthew's is to prove prophecies that Jesus is king. And I've said this before, as we read through Matthew, that's the point. So we constantly see him focusing on those things. So we've missed a lot of this stuff. We miss pieces where Jesus has been in Bethany for a while. The crowds are coming to see him. He is anointed with oil and Judas is like, well, wait a minute, that's like 300 days labor. Our wages, we could have given that to the poor and we don't get to see that in Matthew. So all of this has been going on. He doesn't cover a lot of the ministry along the way, but Jesus has ministered in Galilee. He's come through Judea all the way up to Jerusalem at this point. He's been healing, and teaching, and preaching, and doing miracles, and all of these things, even raising Lazarus from the dead. John 12, verse 1 says, then Jesus, six days before the Passover, this gives us the date, if you will, came to Bethany where Lazarus, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. So again, we're seeing that this has happened already. There they made him supper and Martha served. But Lazarus was one of them that sat at table with him. Now, we're not going to go further in that, but this, again, sets more of the stage. A lot of things have happened. Bethphage is, like I said, it's somewhere, it's like a suburb, if you will, of Bethany. And if you think about it, and you're traveling, and you go somewhere, and you have friends in a town here, and you're going to finish your travel there, it's a nice rest, a stopover. Spend time with your friends. Relax. Not just for that, but there's a lot of things that Jesus does while he's there. There's a lot of events that happen. The crowds come to see him. the Pharisees and the Sadducees get upset because all these crowds are starting to follow him and he's right on their doorstep, if you will, and we can't let that happen. So we have to come up with a way to put him to death. That's all happening in this passage that we don't get to see, well, in this time frame at least, we don't get to see in Matthew. Six days before the Passover, there's a supper in his honor. He's anointed with oil, like I said. He was loved by everybody but Judas. Warm and wonderful time, I'm sure. The next day, John tells us in verses 9-11 that many Jews came from Bethany to see him. Having heard of the fame and all those things, having understood that he is, like, so the people, all this is saying that people are starting to understand that he is the Messiah. Like, they get that point. They got that right. Jesus is the Messiah. If we turn back to Matthew, we see that the, probably after a few days, we don't have exact timelines, maybe Monday or so, Jesus sends his two disciples. Go get the donkey. If anybody gives you any trouble, say the Lord has need of it. We're not going to get into the intricacies of that. And bring it here. Now, this is many, many, many, many, many miles that they've walked since Galilee. Does Jesus need to ride on a donkey for two miles? Really? No. But he did it so that the prophecy would be fulfilled saying that he is going to come humble, meek, mild, riding on a donkey. He's answering, he's proving his messiahship to them. So he initiates this coronation and that's where we're going to be focusing on those prophecies. And I want to say, this is a very intentional act. Jesus is not just all of a sudden swept up with the crowd who's very enthusiastic and, you know, they're the ones that are basically bringing him into Jerusalem. That's not the case. And actually a lot of people would argue that. It's not. He is doing these things very deliberately to prove from God's word in the Old Testament who he is. He's showing the fulfillment of the prophecies, the promises that God has made. He is fulfilling. Not all of them, as Jeff has said, have been fulfilled, but they will be. And he's proving this all along the way. Zechariah 9.9 and Isaiah 62.11 are the two main prophecies. I mean, there's other details that we could go into, but these two are the main ones. Zechariah 9.9 says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughters of Jerusalem! Inhabitants of Jerusalem! Behold, thy king cometh unto thee! He is just and having salvation lowly and riding upon a donkey and upon the, the, the colt of a donkey. That's a repetition. It's a, an emphasis thing. It's not, he's not riding on two animals. I, for those of you that understand riding horses, My legs aren't long enough. I'm just going to say to straddle two horses side by side. It's just not going to work. But it's an emphasis. He's riding upon this young colt, if you will. The other aspect, as I said, is Isaiah 62, 11. It says, Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh. Behold, his reward is with him and his work before him. Jesus fully intended to show the people that He is King of kings and Lord of lords. He is bringing salvation to them. And He is. He's explaining these things. He's showing, like, so as we've understood before, we said before that the Jewish people weren't uneducated. They knew the Old Testament. They knew the prophecies. They were looking forward to these things. And so when Jesus comes in riding on a donkey and they're and they're exclaiming these things, they're like, yes, look at this is our king. This is our this is our new leader. He's going to overthrow Rome. He's going to reestablish the kingdom. He's going to do all these things that we've been waiting so long for. But if we notice in Zechariah nine. It's not a triumphal entry on horse and chariot leading a military. He comes in riding on a beast of burden, lowly, meek, and humble with disciples, not military conquest. Nothing lines up. You know, kings in his day normally didn't ride into the city humbly on donkeys. They did. On rare occasion in peace times, they would do that. It has happened. As first kings, I think, I don't remember the exact reference, but it happens there too. The donkey was usually used by a priest or a dignitary in the town, a merchant even. But under these circumstances, Understanding the donkey is going to be a contradiction. What the crowd is saying and what Jesus is doing don't make sense. And it should have been a huge, like, not a red flag, but, hey, wait a minute, guys, something's weird here. We're understanding this, but he's not dressed appropriately. He's not on the right animal. You know, he's coming in on a bike instead of a limo. Like, why is he doing that? That's not proper. But they didn't. They didn't see it. Jesus' purpose all along, and even we see this in the Old Testament prophecies, that he is the King of Peace, the King of Righteousness. If we could look in Genesis, or in Hebrews, that he is a priest-king, the King of Righteousness, the King of Salem, of Peace, after the order of Melchizedek. We're not going to go into that because that is weeks of study. However, he's him. He's the guy. He's not going to do things the way he wants to. He is the king of peace. The nature of his kingdom is righteousness and peace, not conquest, not overthrowing. He demonstrates his messianic kingship as prophesied all the way throughout. So as we see, the disciples go get these donkeys. I'm going to move on from there really quickly before I do that again. They bring it over, they take their outer garments, they make a makeshift saddle, probably over both of them, but Jesus sits on the younger one and he's being led into this town by these huge, huge crowds, crying out, just praising God. for this Messiah. Praising God for the king as they're going to lay out the red carpet, usher in this new kingdom. The palm branches of praise. Hosanna to the son of David, the king. They get it. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. They get it. Hosanna in the highest. There's salvation that comes here. That's the Hosanna, the idea with Hosanna in the highest is the king is bringing salvation. The crowds are shouting and cheering and praising God so much that it's the town, the city of Jerusalem. Let's just say there's two million people. I don't know, it doesn't matter. Tons of people bursting at the seams with all of these pilgrims, these travelers coming back to Jerusalem for the Passover. All these people are disrupted in seismic proportions going, wait a minute, what's going on? Who is this guy? In Matthew, we haven't seen it. In John, we do. Jesus has been there before. Jesus was there when he was 12 and he got left behind, right? He was in the temple. They know who he is. He's not a stranger. But they don't understand, and I said it's beautiful because the crowds will then say, he is a prophet. The highest thing that they can think of at that point, and it works because he is a prophet, he is speaking God's word to the people. From Galilee, from Nazareth, from our hometown guys, how exciting is this? It's like the hometowns of great athletes, they put home of on their signs. We are excited here. They're like, hey, we've got this new king. He's coming in and he's one of us. Which is really funny because a long time ago, I was asked the question, can anything good come out of Nazareth? And here they're saying, this is a prophet from Nazareth and he's going to be king. This is great. We're so excited. And they were. They were shouting in this triumphal entry that their Messiah is coming into Jerusalem, that they would be delivered, that he would deliver them. But the question is, and I asked this morning, is from what? Like the disciples have demonstrated for so long, these crowds, as I said before, and this is our last point, they missed the point. We've talked about how in that day, the Jews were looking for, and still are, many, looking for this Messiah that's going to restore the kingdom. He's going to come back and wipe away all the oppression on them. He's going to take care of all that, and they're going to have a nice, Comfortable, if you will, safe kingdom, where their Messiah is going to rule. And he's going to. And all of this is going to happen. God has said it. And it will. But they're saying, this is what we're looking for now. They saw his credentials. They believe that he was the Messiah. They just didn't understand what that looked like. Again, he's riding on a donkey instead of a horse, or a camel, or whatever it would have been. This should have made sense, but they didn't see it. They were so excited that they missed the point. They were thinking he's going to deliver them from Roman rule. And actually what he's coming to do is deliver them from the temple. He's going to cleanse that. He's going to deliver them from the separation from God, not from the temple, that the temple's bad, but he's going to end that. He's going to cleanse the temple. He's going to tear down that veil between the Holy of Holies and us. Granting us access to God's throne. Providing salvation for sinful, dirty, rotten human beings like us. Because we are. And anybody who is a believer now wasn't at a certain point of time, and he made that possible. For somebody who's not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ today, he has provided that way for you to have that. Again, he's riding on this donkey, this humble, lowly, and meek beast of burden, showing them all along that he actually has not come to overthrow, but to suffer in humility, in serving God. His pathway was not conquest, that he was coming to die, to give his life as a ransom for many. And ultimately, within six days, I mean, this just blows my mind. Within six days, he's going to be on the cross. That's what he's been trying to tell them all along. But like people today, and people in his day, and ever since then, and now, up till now, they have this idea of a Jesus who's going to do things according to their own invention. This is one of those things where I look at this and go, yeah, I'm guilty too. We all are. We all have this idea of how we want Jesus to be. We might not articulate that out loud, but we have our wants and desires and we can't help it necessarily when we're reading through scriptures and we allow our wants and desires of who we think Jesus should be, what he would do, what he wouldn't do, to kind of cloud that. They wanted a Jesus who walks in and says, I'm going to solve all of your problems. I'm not saying to spend a whole lot of time listening to, I'm not saying all televangelists are bad. I'm not saying that all megachurch people are bad. I'm not saying anything like that. But to listen to a lot of contemporary, meaning new, current, modern preaching in churches that say that Jesus came here to make you healthy, wealthy, and wise. And if you'll just do these actions, spiritual guru style of things, then everything's gonna be great. He's gonna solve all your problems and you're gonna have $10,000 in the bank tomorrow. I mean, wouldn't that be fantastic? An extra $10,000 in the bank or whatever that looks like. They wanted Jesus to say, I'm gonna make your life wonderful for you. They, They want a Jesus that's going to come in and fix things. And what they found, and what we find too, is that the Jesus that we long for, that we desire to have, that doesn't fit the scriptures. Because a lot of times our personal preferences don't. He doesn't come in to make everything great. He comes in and cleanses the temple with a whip and flips the tables over, not in anger, wrath, and malice in a negative way, but in purifying the temple and changing our hearts, not our situation is different. He didn't come to overthrow Rome. Like I said, he came to overthrow the temple. He came in and drove out the money changers. Basically, he says to them, and as we apply this to our own selves, you don't need relief from the bondage of Rome. Understand where I'm coming from. You don't need relief from the bondage of anything of this world. by his pain or suffering or bad job, relationship, whatever. He didn't come to do societal changes. He didn't come to be a social reformer. He came to cleanse the temple. He came to solve our problem with God. The separation from God to mankind, that wall that's there, that sin problem, he came to fix that. It's not that he doesn't care about anything else. But he could have overthrown Rome and the hearts never changed. He could take whatever situation that you're in that's bad, and I don't downplay any of that, and change it without your heart changing. It's not the external things that he's really focused on, although those are important to him, he's actually focused on providing a way of salvation for mankind so that we can have a relationship with him. He came to offer men and women peace with God internally and eternally, salvation for our souls, full and free for all who will repent and believe. I usually don't quote people a whole lot, but I was reading this, J.I. Packer, whether you like him or not, said this, if the human mind is set up as the measure and test of truth, Okay, so if our mind is the be all end all of truth, it will quickly substitute for man's incomprehensible creator, a comprehensible idol fashioned in man's own image. Man wants a God he can manage and feel comfortable with and will inevitably invent one if allowed. What he's saying here is that we, and I'm speaking for all of us, and I know this, we can't understand God fully. He's beyond anything that our finite brains can understand. And because we can't understand him, being humans, we need to understand the why, the how, and all the details. He needs to make sense to us. So what we do is, what humans tend to do, is to say, well, I don't understand God fully, so I'm going to make it make sense. I'm going to fashion my view of who God is based off of my understanding so that I can manage that. Because I don't like not understanding things. And I reckon you all don't either. I want to know why things happen. I mean, how many of us have ever said, guy, why are you allowing this to happen to me? Why are you doing this? Because we want to know why. So inevitably, mankind will find and invent, you and I will find and invent a God that fits our understanding. As we close our time together today, I want to encourage us to ask ourselves that question that we started out with that I hope we were considering all the way throughout. But what do I really believe about Jesus? Who is He really in my understanding? Not according to my own human understanding is the question, because that's generally where we're going to end up falling. But is He the Jesus of the Bible who came to provide a way of salvation through His shed blood on the cross? Who came to be a suffering Savior, to provide salvation, to fix man's sin problems so that we can have that relationship with God, peace with God, to provide that for us? who lived and walked in complete obedience to God the Father in His substitutionary death on the cross, so that we may have eternal life. And therefore, give us His Word. that we can read through it and understand that this is what God wants for us. Not just, okay, so here's the basic instructions for life before death, right? I know that's a variation of something and it works to a certain extent. These aren't basic instructions where we can say, well, this is generally how this works, but I'm going to do this. This is it. This Bible, not the one in my hand, but the word of God is completely sufficient. I mean, we don't need anything else for everything that we need to know for life and godliness. Christ is a sufficient Savior. We don't need anything else other than Him to provide our salvation for us. Anything that we want to add on to either of those things is of our own invention. And it scares me because there's so many people, and I'm one of them, that will form my opinion of, well, God wouldn't do that, or I'm going to respond in this specific way because this is what I feel is best, when we can clearly go through the scriptures and go, well, actually, God doesn't send anybody to hell. We're already going there. And he provided a rescue, an escape for us, and a relationship for us. And I want to respond this way, but if you look through the Old Testament or even the New Testament and go, how did that work out for that person? Well, that doesn't work because that's a human response. And we see these things and go, no, wait a minute, if, and simply put, if we would take the time to read it and apply it and understand it, we don't need anything else. Jesus is our sufficient Savior. The other side of that, like I said in the very beginning, that a lot of people today have an opinion of Jesus that is something else. Not the Jesus of the scriptures. Not the Jesus that was prophesied from the very beginning to come and provide salvation for mankind and all of the things that go throughout. I ask the question, and maybe this is the side of the question that we need to be asking, is my view of Jesus based on my own feelings and opinions? Like the crowds of his day, and many church-going people today, well-meaning, wonderful people who wanted a Messiah that would meet their wants and desires according to their own wills. And I trust that as we consider these questions today, That we have been asking God all along, if this is the case, if my opinion, my view of who you are isn't here, isn't directly and strictly from the scriptures, then change it. Work in my heart. Transform my mind to understand who you are, God, out of the Scriptures and not out of my own invention. Correct my view today. To be out of the Scriptures alone. Let's pray. Father, we are a very broken and needy people. When left to our own devices, our own, well, left to ourselves, we will so quickly stray from your word, from a true scriptural understanding of who you are, who we are in light of you as sinners. and you as a holy God, your love and your mercy and your kindness also matched with justice and righteousness and sovereignty in all of these things, well beyond our understanding. Father, help us not to form our own opinions about you, but slowly out of the Scriptures. As we begin with today, as we close, I ask, Father, that if there's any here that does know you as their Savior, but has a wrong view of who you are and what you came here to do, and how you want us to live our lives, I pray, Father, that you would help us to change that, to work in us as your Holy Spirit takes your word, as we've studied this morning, and applies it to our hearts and removes those layers that we have built up, misunderstanding. The Lord, if there's anybody here that does not know you as their Savior, truly has not repented and believed, in you as a personal Lord and Savior, not of our own invention, I pray today would be the day, that now would be the moment that your Holy Spirit would work, move in these individuals' lives, drawing them to you, helping them to understand their need for salvation, that they would make that decision today. We thank you for our time together. And Lord, as we do close our time in our worship service today, I pray that as we go into our fellowship meal, that you'd help us to have a great time of fellowship together, that you would bless the food to our bodies, that as we spend time together and as we eat, Lord, that we would do so bringing you honor and glory, that our conversations would be such that edifies one another, builds one another up, and glorifies you through that. I pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.