You're listening to audio from Ascend Church. For more information about Ascend or to access more gospel-centered tools to grow as a disciple of Christ, visit ascendkc.org. Thanks, Ben. You know, we say here at Ascend that we are a soft liturgical church. What that means is liturgy is the form, it's the structure, it is the repetition of corporate worship and the Christian life. And so we are not against that. But we aren't so invested in it that all we do is the same thing over and over again. We want to make sure that it doesn't become white noise. And so at this point of the service, we usually move from that prayer to another song and then preaching, and that's a good rhythm. But I want to pause right now and invite us to take an extra step to prepare our hearts for the preaching of God's word. As Ben said, the Holy Week services are going to focus on this question of what if. And what if is usually something we think of as a potential for evaluating conspiracy theories or whether or not events of the past happen, like landing on the moon. But you know, this idea of what if is really something with which we are intrigued from our earliest moments of consciousness. Imagine what a child is processing that's been laying on his or her back for days and weeks. You can almost tell that they're wondering, what if I don't have to stare at the ceiling all day? What if the mushed peas that are in front of me aren't something that I want to eat? We're intrigued with what if. And you know, as we get older, we consider what if in more complicated questions. What if I had different parents? What if I had a different shape or I looked different? What if I had different talents or I had any talent at all? And then we begin to focus on the future. What if my friends no longer like me? What if I never get married? What if I get cancer? What if I lose my job? And this whole idea of what if can be a cause for anxiety and frustration and sorrow. But I think God intends to gift us with the tool of what if. There will be a quote up on the screen that moves us into this territory. I think what if is a tool that God uses in our lives to cause us to live in the tension between our reality of the past, present, and future and what could have or what could be different. And I think he wants us to use this question in our lives, but to do so in a way that actually causes us to see those questions through the lens of the gospel. That actually causes us to have the what if tool in our lives move us to a greater commitment to God and his will. And so what we're doing is taking the three events of Holy Week and attempting to accomplish two things through the question of what if. One is to educate us. Ask the question, what if Palm Sunday? What if the crucifixion? What if the resurrection didn't happen? And then show the proof and the purpose of why it did. But then we also want to equip us. so that as you engage with your own what ifs, you can learn the framework through how we evaluate these three events in such a way that will use what ifs in your life to move us toward Christ rather than away from Him. And so the worship team is going to sing a song, you might be familiar with it. Reflect on the words, pray there at your seats. But would you use this time that is not typical to invite the Holy Spirit to prepare your hearts to make it fertile ground so that as you participate in these three services and these three events of Holy Week, that you are moved to a place of seeing Christ more accurately and being equipped to handle the what ifs in your life. Let's turn in our Bibles to Matthew chapter 21. And if you don't have a Bible, the ones in the seat in front of you will offer you an opportunity to follow along in Matthew 21 on page 826. And as you're turning there, I do want to once again highlight the awesomeness of the spring fest yesterday and all of you volunteers who weathered the cold weather which those of you outside that volunteered you have a greater reward in heaven i can tell you that i stayed inside during my time here and a lot of work went into that especially katie gloria and laura fisher and their teams We don't need, we shouldn't take this for granted that an event like this is pulled off by a lot of hard work and a lot of preparation. So thank you to all of you who were involved. That is not just a event to benefit our church, but also the community. And so we're grateful for what God has accomplished and what he will continue through those efforts. Matthew 21, if you look at the top of your English Bibles, most of you will have a header that says something to the effect of the triumphal entry. Others of you might know this story and this account as Palm Sunday. And so the opportunity for us is to unpack potentially a familiar story and a familiar passage in the form of what if. What if the King, Jesus Christ, escaped the entry to Jerusalem? And in asking the question in that way, it's an opportunity for us to relate to Christ, isn't it? Because I would imagine that each person here has some event in their past, their present, or anticipating in their future that they would like to escape. So what we find in Christ through this story is the opportunity to ask, what if Christ escaped? And then to quickly answer, he didn't, he stayed. And as we study in this fashion, the big idea you can see in your notes is this. Jesus had plenty reasons to escape from entering Jerusalem. And don't you and I have plenty reasons why we would have rather escaped memories of the past, or escaped present realities, or escaped what bad things could happen in the future? But Jesus stayed, and he provided a framework for us to stay committed to following him. That's the gift of studying this story in this way. Let me read this passage, and then we will unpack it together. Matthew 21, beginning in verse one. Now, when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethpage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, go into the village in front of you and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, the Lord needs them and he will send them at once. This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet saying, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the full of a beast of burden. The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up saying, who is this? And the crowd said, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple, Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant. And they said to him, do you hear what these are saying? Jesus said to them, yes. Have you never read out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise? And leaving them, he went out to the city to Bethany and lodged there. You know what's interesting is the relatability of Jesus and the characters of scripture, and we see that in number one, that he had reasons to escape. He had reasons to escape, and we as modern readers are introduced to that in a word that we naturally move right past, and that's the first word in your ESV Bibles in verse one is translated now. Do you see it in the text? Because as English readers, now doesn't really elicit anything for us. It doesn't really jump off the page. But for the original audience, I believe it would have. And what it would have done is remind them that the story continues. You see, for us, we are jumping right into chapter 21, jumping right into verse one, but for the reader, they would have had the context of everything leading up to it. They would have understood that this account is not in isolation. It is a continuation of the previous context, which actually introduces us to the reasons Jesus had to escape. Now, I'm gonna rapidly go through them, give you some references. I would encourage you to write them down, but this will help us relate to Jesus that there were reasons for him to escape. Would you write down Matthew 16, verse 21? Jesus said to his disciples, I must go to Jerusalem. Now, that in itself would not have been alerting to the disciples, but what followed was, he says, I must go to Jerusalem to suffer and be killed. Matthew 17, verses 22 through 23, Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man, and he says the Son of Man must be delivered up and they will kill him. Matthew 20, verse 17 through 19, says that he was going to Jerusalem to be delivered to death and flogged, and then listen to this, and crucified, and again, for us, who might be familiar with the story, we think, of course, or else we wouldn't be wearing crosses around our necks. But for the disciples and the Jews, this was ominous. That our rabbi will be killed was one thing, but with the tool of Roman execution was completely another. This was the background that Jesus gave his disciples and that Jesus had as we get to the now of Matthew 21. In fact, let me stretch that out a bit further. If you go over to the Gospel of John, and you look at chapter 11, verse 8, this was Jesus wrestling with the news that he had just received about his dear friend Lazarus, who was sick to the point of death. And he said, we must go visit him. We must go to Judea. And the disciples say, wait a minute, Judea is where they just were trying to stone you. Why are you going back? And then Jesus convinces them. And then Thomas in verse 16 says, okay, if you're resolved, let us go with you and we will die with you. So you see that there were reasons for Jesus to escape entering the city. You know, many of our what-ifs of escaping past or present or potential future realities are pretty valid, aren't they? We typically want to escape those things that have caused pain or that could potentially cause pain. We have experiences in our lives that whether we know it or not, and we're asking for what if our reality could be different, they are based on valid observations. The child on their back, the person who's single that wants to be married, the person who was persecuted by somebody who should have loved them instead in the past, the anticipation of very tragic or horrible circumstances in the future. All of these what ifs that we would desire to escape had valid reasons, but how do we process our evaluation? Because naturally we follow not the example of Christ, we follow the example of our first mother, Eve. Would you turn back to Genesis 3? If you don't wanna turn there, you can just look at the screen, the team will put it up on there. Our first mother Eve, I believe she was a historical, literal person, the first female ever created, was in a situation with her husband that she desired to escape. The situation was that her creator said, you may eat of all of the trees of the garden except one, right? The tree of the knowledge, of good and evil. So from Eve and Adam's perspective, they were kind of enslaved. They were kind of kept from freedom and liberty. And so Satan capitalizes on that, doesn't he? And he comes through the serpent and he begins to plant seeds of what if with Eve. In fact, you can look at them in the text, verse 5. He says, what if you ate and your eyes were opened? What if you ate, you would become like God? What if you ate and you could understand the difference between good and evil? And then look at verse six. The woman processes this what if question. What if I could escape the law of God and enjoy freedom? And she sees that the food is good, doesn't she? She sees that it's a delight to her eyes, that it has the potential of making her wise. She sees the potential of a different reality from the one she was experiencing, and she processes this, and what does she do? She takes the fruit. She gives it to her husband, and we get to experience the residuals of that decision. You see, the question of what if my reality was different was modeled poorly and tragically by Eve, but I want you to see, it's actually modeled beautifully and triumphantly by Christ. All flowing out of this one word, now. You see, Jesus understood, because he was the son of God and God had revealed it to him, that entering Jerusalem was horizontally bad. that entering Jerusalem and going through with this would actually lead to intense pain. This was not horizontally desirable, but there was a difference between how Eve processed what if, and how Jesus processed what if, and I wanna draw your attention to that from the Gospel of Matthew by drawing your attention to two passages. The first one, and you can write this down and look at it later, is Matthew chapter four, verses four, seven, and 10. Matthew 4, verses 4, 7, and 10, and if you're familiar with the Bible and you hear Matthew 4, you likely understand that this is the wilderness temptation of Christ. By whom? Same person, same being that tempted our first mother Eve, Satan himself. And he gives Jesus three what ifs, doesn't he? What if, during this time of fasting, when you're very hungry, what if you said to those stones, become what? Bread, that's right. The second what if opportunity was what if you climb to the pinnacle of the temple with all of those crowds being able to see you and you threw yourself off, the angels, the Old Testament says, will hold you up so that your foot doesn't even dash against a stone and so in your efforts to fall off and the angels catching you, all of the crowds will know you are Messiah, what if? And then the third one is Satan takes him to the highest point in Israel and says, look out over all the known nations of the world. And even though Satan had been given the nations when he was cast out of heaven, he was actually offering to Jesus something that was his. And he said, what if during this time, you didn't have to wait. Right now you can have the kingdoms of the earth. What if you escaped your present reality? How did Jesus respond? with Scripture, which by the way, Scripture reveals the will of God. Jesus was focused on the will of God. That's what drove him, that's what motivated him. You can also write down Matthew 6, verse 10, just a couple chapters later, when Jesus is giving the template of prayer to his disciples, he says, let your will be done where? on earth as it is in heaven. What drove Jesus was the will of God. What drove Eve was her own will. And what I want you to see before we move on to number two is that what this simple observation provides for us is not a formula for our lives, but a framework. And by the way, can I do just a quick nugget of truth about counseling? You know, if you all participated in the Friday and Saturday events of Soul Care, you're beginning to see how the Bible presents counseling. And wow, that Friday night session, I hope we have the ability to distribute it through our recording, but Dale Johnson, the Executive Director of ACBC, the Certification of Biblical Counselors, was unpacking how much of our lives as Christians is influenced by secular psychology. In fact, Sally and I were reflecting on that Friday night and just realizing there are phrases we use in our home that come right out of Freud. Didn't realize that. And what Dale did is really, it's really a twofold. He didn't just blast psychology, but he did expose it. and how it's a secular worldview that many of the founders of modern psychology had intentional design to go against God's word. And so if you've got a whole system that's built on that, there should be warning signs, warning signs, warning signs. But he also shared that there is value because a lot of the secular counselors actually go into the burning buildings of our lives rather than run away from them. There is value with people who actually choose professions to do that. They just don't use the right tools and they don't have the right objective. Which, listen, the right objective is not a formula to fix your life's details, but a framework so that you can glorify God through them. You know, so many of us go to counseling, and we're asking, God, through counseling, I want you to tell me, should I marry this person, or should I have more children, or should I take this job? That's not ultimately the objective of counseling. In fact, a quote the team will put on the screen is that more often the Bible gives us a framework than a formula. There are formulas in the Bible. Ephesians 5.18, do not be drunk with wine. That is a formula. But when it comes to should I marry Sally Morris or not, I cannot go to chapter and verse and get that answer. When it says, should we have three children or four children? I can't go to chapter and verse. John, you know, 395. Four is the perfect number. No more, no less. It doesn't say that. It doesn't tell me whether I should continue being a pastor, whether I should go get a job that pays more money. It doesn't tell me those details. But listen, it does provide a framework. And what I love about the example of Jesus is that he drives home this reality, and that is this. The will of God should drive our processing of our what ifs. And we see that by the fact that Jesus himself had reasons. But number two, he chose resolve. He stayed on course. Look at the verbs, verse one of Matthew 21. Now, when they drew near to Jerusalem, he came to Bethpage. There's action there. Jesus sent two disciples. There's action there. He told the disciples, untie, there's action there. Verse two, bring the donkey to me. Now, there is action there. There is instruction there. There is duty there, isn't there? Which doesn't this highlight for us the tension of the Christian life between duty and delight? Because maybe right now you might be tempted to think, oh, here goes pastor again. The Bible says it, so we just have to suck it up and do it. Don't we think that's the Christian life often? Oh man, the Bible's just filled with do's and don'ts, and all it wants me to be is a robotic soldier. No, there's a tension between duty and delight. In fact, pastors recognize this. Look at this quote from Matt Chandler. Duty not driven by delight will not last. Isn't that true? Just think about your New Year's resolutions. I'm going to work out two times every week. I'm going to go off sugar. I'm going to go off coffee. I'm going to read the Bible every day. How many of us are still going on our New Year's resolutions? I'm sure some of you, but the statistics show most of us don't. And the reason for that is so often we focus only on duty and not delight, and duty without delight will not last. But here's another side of it, and this is my quote, so it's way less pithy than Chandler's. Delight required before duty may leave duty never accomplished. So if we acknowledge this tension and we're like, okay, the Bible says delight, and I'll show you that here in just a moment. So I'm just going to wait till I delight to go to church, or I delight to read the Bible, or I delight to take care of my physical life. I delight to maintain and cultivate relationships. I'm going to wait till I delight in it. Well, then most of us will never get to the duty of what the Bible says we're supposed to do. So there's a tension. Let me show you that the Bible acknowledges this tension. Matthew chapter 21 is where we'll come back. Psalm 1 is where I want you to turn. Psalm 1 is a great place for us to start to see that the Bible acknowledges tension. Verse 1 says, blessed, so the reader should want to follow The instruction that follows, and there are three kind of aspects of life that we're supposed to avoid in verse one, but then look at verse two, but his delight. You see the word? God expects us to delight in the law of the Lord. He's not satisfied with us being able to say, I read through the Bible in a year, but did you delight in it? He's not satisfied with you being here and fulfilling a duty that if you are a Christian, this is what you're doing right now, a duty that God expects of you. Hebrews 10, 24 and 25. But if you're fulfilling the duty and at some level there's no delight, then there's an important ingredient that's missing, but duty is also required. Verse two says, and on his law he meditates, what does the text say? Day and night, there's duty with that. I've got to wake up in the morning and be intentional. I've got to go through my day and be intentional. I've got to end my day intentionally. There's duty and there's delight. So what's the solution? Well again, God doesn't provide a formula. He provides a framework. And the framework in this particular story is the example of Christ. Look at the framework of Jesus' resolve by looking at verse two. What does Jesus tell his disciples to bring back to him? What does it say? A donkey. I want to show you where this is clear resolved by Christ, but we've got to do a little work because most of us as 21st century Americans that are pop culture people immediately think of donkey and we think of Shrek. And in Shrek, what purpose does the donkey serve? Well, the comic relief, he's the goofball. Most of us as 21st century Americans think of donkeys as like poor animals, like we don't go to the zoo to see donkeys. But see, what a reminder this is, that the Bible is written in a historical context, right? What a reminder this is that we don't come to the Bible with our modern lenses as the primary evaluator. We actually let the Bible speak for itself, which, by the way, that's why I'm passionate about the system of biblical theology, which, oh man, I haven't said this yet, but we have, our marriage conference is going to be so blessed, our 10th marriage conference, Jim Hamilton. One of my favorite professors at Southern and one of the authors I leaned heavily on in our commentary of Revelation is going to be our speaker. I cannot wait. He's gonna teach us a biblical theology of marriage. Biblical theology moves us as modern readers to read the Bible in its own terms, not in our terms. And so when we see donkey, let's not think of Shrek. Let's not think of, you know, political mascots. Let's actually think of what the Bible would have understood when it said donkey. Which, by the way, The Chosen helps us with that, doesn't it? If you've watched The Chosen, you've seen how do Jesus and his disciples move from town to town? Not on animals. They walk. And when you study the Gospels, I don't know of any other situation where Jesus said, okay, I'm tired, I'm gonna ride on an animal. So Jesus is making decisions here that is going to draw attention to himself. And he's choosing a donkey, which by the way, let me highlight to you that a donkey is not an animal of poverty. I know we're gonna get to the verse that says this was too fulfilled and it's a beast of burden, but this is a valuable, important animal. In fact, there's gonna be some verses up on the screen. Take a picture of them, look at them later, and what you're going to see from the Bible itself is that donkeys were valuable. Prophets rode on donkeys. Princes rode on donkeys. Donkeys were in lists of animals that were lists of wealth. When entourages would come from other nations, they would bring, with their gifts, donkeys. Every family in the ancient Near East would try to make sure that they had at least one donkey. Donkeys were very, very important. So this is not an illustration of poverty. This is actually, though, drawing attention to Jesus because what Matthew helps us with in verse four. Do you see it? This all took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. Now let me just pause right here and acknowledge the tension of me standing up here and you sitting out there. I listened to myself preach last night and I have way more empathy for you today than I did before. Let me just give you a window into what my goal is when I stand up here week in and week out. I've studied the text for hours, and it's washed over me. I've studied the text and gotten to a place where I believe I understand it, and I am so excited. Maybe you don't see that, but I am. to share it with you with clarity so that you understand it. But I acknowledged last night as I'm going like to Zachariah and Psalms and Genesis and I'm like, how does anybody follow me? Don't you sometimes feel like you're drinking from a fire hydrant? Well, I don't apologize, but I want to just continue to equip both of us. I'll continue to keep that in mind as I prepare my sermons, but just give you an illustration. Remember, every week you come is an opportunity to put another building block on the foundation of your understanding. See, if you today will recognize what we're talking about with Zechariah 9-9, and you will file that away, and that becomes part of your foundation of understanding God's Word, and then you come next week, you'll get another one, and then the next week, you'll get another one, and then months go by, and years go by, before you know it, you're gonna be like, yeah, pastor, I already knew that Zechariah 9-9. So let's partner together and continue to grow. But Zechariah 9.9 is an opportunity for us to once again understand that when the New Testament authors quote the Old Testament, they're doing two things. Would you write this down? This would be helpful for you as you study scripture. When you see the New Testament say, this was to fulfill, or as it is written, or you say, well, wait a minute, they seem to be quoting from the Old Testament. The New Testament authors have two objectives. Number one, to honor the context of the Old Testament. They're not just plucking the Old Testament up and making it mean whatever they want it to mean. They're actually honoring the context of the Old Testament. But then number two, they're wanting to shed more light on that Old Testament passage to help us better understand it. So Zechariah 9-9 being quoted here honors the context of Zechariah 9. So let me bridge back to Zechariah 9 so we can understand what the context was. In verses one through eight, we are introduced once again to the arch rival of Israel. Does anybody know who that was? The Philistines. In fact, I was reading 2 Samuel chapters three through five this morning, and it was amazing to see that when David was established as king of all of the tribes of Israel, guess who the first enemy was that coordinated their attack to go against David? The Philistines. So in Zechariah 9, one through eight, there's an oracle or a prophecy of judgment upon the Philistines that promised Israel that God is going to destroy the Philistines. Now, that would have been exciting for that original audience, wouldn't it? So wouldn't you expect in those first eight verses that there would be some mention of celebration, some mention of rejoicing, some instruction by God to his people to rejoice over the defeat of your enemy? But we don't see that in the first eight verses. We see it in verse nine. And the prophet says this, rejoice, daughters of Zion, your king is present. Okay, see that was one of those moments when this whole week I've been excited about this moment, and I'm looking at it, I'm like, okay, I need to give you a moment. The king is present! Okay. But that sets up the point of Matthew including this, and why Jesus chose a donkey. Because listen to this. If a king was returning in victory, he would have ridden an animal, but not a donkey. The king would have ridden a white war horse. That's why we see through John in Revelation 19 that the image that John uses is that Jesus will return to judge the world system and set up his kingdom on a what? A white horse. See, that's what the Jews were expecting. Isn't that often what we expect when we come to Christ? Deliver what I think I need, what I know is best. You see, what Zechariah 9 tells us is that the ultimate gift and the ultimate answer to prayer is Christ's presence. So that means no matter what is going on in your life, no matter what you're trying to escape of past, present, and future, as long as God is present, that's the greatest gift you need. Ask away, but be content with Him. So he says in verse two, go, disciples, untie. And so there's the command. So that should be enough. That should be enough for us to fulfill the duty. If we love Christ, if he says something, we should go do it. But he gives us more, doesn't he? And here's the tension of the delight. See, if we want to be satisfied with God's presence, we need to just continue to grow in knowing who he is and valuing his character. And that's on display in verse three. Did you see it? If anyone says to you anything, here's what you need to fulfill my calling. That's awesome. And if you don't see that from the text, let me give you some other ones. 1 Thessalonians 5.24. He who called you, he who called me, is faithful, he will do it. But what if there's a wall? He'll give us what we need to dig under to go around or go over. If he called you, his character promises he'll give you what you need. Well, where do I find it, pastor? Is it Amazon? It's 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. All scripture is profitable. You mean Leviticus? Oh yeah. You mean Lamentations? You mean Ezekiel? Yes, yes, all scripture is profitable. Just open it up and read it. And then 2 Peter 1.3, it's everything that we need for life and godliness. That's not just our spiritual lives, it's life. It's what you choose to eat this afternoon. It's who you choose to marry. It's whether you choose to be single. It's what job you choose. Everything that we need, the framework is there for life and godliness in God's word. Why don't we go to it? The resolve of Christ overcame his reasons to escape. Which moves to number three, it left people to respond. When Jesus reveals himself, we must respond. Everybody has to respond. You here that are watching, if you're watching online, when Jesus is presented for accurately who he is, you must respond. And we see responses in this passage. Look at verse six. The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. Wouldn't it be nice if his disciples always did that? Wouldn't it be nice if we always did that? And it's not just that they did the duty. They're sacrificing. They're willfully sacrificing. Look what it says. They took off their cloaks and put it on the animals. And then look at the crowds. They do the same thing, which by the way, the ancient context was not like ours, where we go to the closets and we have tons of clothes. They usually had one or two, and they're taking off their one, and they're putting it on the dirty ground to be trampled by a donkey, and they're doing it willingly. Then it says they're cutting off branches. That means it took work for them to do that. John 12, 13 says that many of these branches were palm branches, which is why we call this Palm Sunday. And look at what they're declaring, Hosanna, God save us. They're saying Son of David, they're referencing. This could be the fulfillment of 2 Samuel 7, 14. Son of David, who's going to have an everlasting kingdom. This could be the fulfillment of Isaiah 11, 1, the descendant of Jesse, who will shoot up and will never be cut down. They're actually on the right path, aren't they? And then it says the whole city was stirred up. I'm hoping you'll see this in the text. It's not just me making this up. The whole city is stirred up. And what are they asking? Who is this? They're not asking who is this, they're asking who is this? Because remember, this is festival time. There's pilgrims coming from the entire region. The population of Jerusalem swelled to be five times what the normal population was. So these people are coming. You better believe they knew who this guy was. They had seen him heal people. They'd seen him cast out demons. So the crowd isn't asking, or the city isn't asking the crowd, like, tell me horizontally, who is this? What's his name? No, no, no. What they're asking is, who is this really? Are you interested in the answer to that question? Because the crowd's on the right path. Look at what it says. It says, this is, look at it, the prophet. That's not just a translator's choice there, this is the prophet. The Old Testament promised from the greatest prophet in Israel's history, Moses, that another prophet would come who would be better than him. And so the Jews were looking for generations for the prophet, and the crowd is saying, this could be him. Him. Him. Do you delight in that statement? The hymn of Genesis 3.15 who is prophesied to bruise the serpent's head. The hymn who is the fulfillment of the thousands of animals and the blood that was shed on so many altars. The him who is the greater Adam, the greater Moses, the greater David, the fulfillment of the tabernacle, the fulfillment of the temple, the perfect prophet, priest, and king, the crowd is growing in their crescendo. This could be him. And at this point, from a movie perspective, we would expect the soundtrack to be growing like John Williams, look, getting the violinist, and the screen is fading to black, and the credits are about to roll. But there's one problem, isn't there? Look at verse 12. Jesus enters the temple, the place that everybody should have been waiting to celebrate him. And he drives out those who sold in the temple and overturned the money changers' tables and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And look at what he does. He sees beyond their presenting response to their actual hearts. Verse 13, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer. See, when we are in the presence of God, It's supposed to be the place where we worship. I mean, this place is the place where you should be able to clear out March Madness. This place is the place where all of the challenges of the world out there get to be laid aside for a moment, or this becomes the lens through which you look at all of those. That's the presence of God. That's the house of prayer. But Jesus sees beyond what they're presenting, and he sees their actual hearts, and he says, you've made this a den of robbers. What a tragic observation. You know, I hear people say Jesus meets us where we are. And that's true, isn't it? But here's the reality. He refuses to accept our staying there. I want to be careful when I say this because I said it in such a way and it was misunderstood in the last service. This is both the appreciation that I have and the concern that I have for the He Gets Us movement. What they get right is the first part. He does meet us where we are. In fact, the imagery that God uses of Israel and Ezekiel is a child wallowing in its own blood. God comes toward us rather than run away from us, no matter how we are living out our lives. And I think as Christians, we need to remember that. But he doesn't just let us wash the feet of somebody whose life is a burning building. He expects them to access the water, to put it out. And that is our job. That is our privilege. That is our gift. So Jesus had reasons to escape, but he chose resolve, and people must respond. And it really brings you and I to number four, how will you respond? Because we know the rest of the story, many of us do. The disciples who obeyed in verse six in just a few days will flee Jesus and even one will deny him. You see the priests in verse 15 who are supposed to guard the people spiritually and the scribes who are supposed to be the theological experts of Israel They're indignant because children are actually worshiping Christ. There's only one response in all of this that Jesus himself acknowledges as correct. And that's what the children were saying. Isn't it interesting, the children are not swept up in the hosanna and the triumphal entry. What causes the children to respond with the messianic pronouncements that they do? It's the healing of the lame and the blind in the temple. Do you see that in the text? Look at it in the text because I'm gonna tie this to the Old Testament. I actually was just reading this this morning. In 2 Samuel 5, David refers to the Jebusites in Jerusalem, and the Jebusites look down on David and say, you guys are lame and blind, and you guys will never come in here. And David says, okay, we're gonna show you. And he references the lame and blind, but you know what Jesus does here? He doesn't just bring the lame and blind with him, he heals them. And somehow those little children are connecting the dots in the way that the crowds and the scribes and the chief priests did. See, Mahomes is out of here. And they, verse 16, Declare praise. Literally, it says they declare strength, and here's a quote that I hope will highlight what the significance of this is, and that is, their strength, these kids' strength, resides in the cry of the one who has privileged access to the one who embodies strength. See, they are not depending on their own strength. They're kids, they get it. But they have privileged access by acknowledging Jesus on his own terms. And now they're embodying his strength. Beloved, that's the gospel. And there might be some of you who have spent your entire life trying to live out this life on your own strength. It's time. Follow the example of these children. It's not your own strength. You see, Christ only allows for and approves of one response to him as king, and that is surrender. That is faith. That is repentance. If you've never responded in that way, would you do that today? And then, friend, if you have, this is your opportunity to see, is your life patterned by the response of the children or the crowds or the city or the priests or the scribes. How do you know? Well, verse 17 actually tells us. It says, leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. He's continuing, isn't he? He's heading toward the event that we will celebrate Friday, and the event that we will celebrate Sunday, and that's how you can tell if you are genuinely a follower of Christ. Not the snapshots of your life, but the patterns. Because we have reasons to escape. But are we, like Jesus, committed with resolve? And responding to him by accessing his strength on his terms, this is your opportunity to answer the question, what if? Father, I thank you for this opportunity. We've had to evaluate the story in a different light, and thank you that Jesus didn't escape. Thank you for the framework that is provided in the study of these details. I pray that you would move us to a place where even though we might have past, present, or future realities that we wish we could escape, that we would lean in, that we would have as our motivation the will of God. that we would follow the example of Christ, choose resolve, and that we would respond not as the crowd, or the city, or the priests, or the scribes, but instead, like Jesus, and thankfully, like the disciples, or at least 11 of them had demonstrated, and that is, even though they had failures, the patterns were, they were desperate to depend on the completed work of Christ. May that be our testimony, because when it is, Christ will be reflected and you will be glorified. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.