Sermon Tone Analysis

We have followed the life of Jesus through the writings of Matthew going back even before Jesus was born.

Matthew started his gospel by showing the bloodline, the lineage of Jesus.

Beginning with Abraham (Matthew 1:2) he listed the generations that came after all the way through David (Matthew 1:6) and ultimately through Jospeh, Mary’s husband (Matthew 1:16).

Now, as we get too Matthew 21, Jesus is 33 years old.

For the last three years he done what he was sent to do.

Jesus, Immanuel (Matthew 1:23) God himself, wrapped in human form, has been going out, teaching, performing miracles, all with one goal in mind:

Matthew 4:17 (ESV)

17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

He has made it very clear who he is:

Throughout our study we have learned many things from Him:

How to resist temptation

How to deal with anger, lust, oaths, and divorce

How to love, even our enemies

How to pray

How to stand boldly even when faced with persecution

How to know that we are a believer, by our fruit

These are just a small amount.

So many things we have learned.

But the greatest lesson we will learn begins right here in Chapter 21.

***CBC Creed***

So going back to Chapter 19, Jesus moved from Galilee into the region of Judea (Matthew 19:1)

We know that before he entered Jerusalem, he stopped in Bethphage, which was near the area of Bethany, just outside of Jerusalem.

This day is Sunday.

Sunday of the last week of his life before he is nailed to the cross.

He would be nailed to the cross on Friday, and this is the Sunday before.

As they arrive in Bethphage, he tells his disciples that they should go into the village and bring him a donkey and a colt.

He was specific.

He told them where to go, how to find it, what to say to the owner or anyone who asks.

Matthew points out that what Jesus did fulfilled two spoken prophecies from the Old Testament.

One from Zechariah and one from Isaiah.

The first part of what Jesus said: “Say to the daughter of Zion” comes from Isaiah 62:11 “11 Behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.””

And the second part comes from Zechariah 9:9 “9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

The disciples did as Jesus said and on that Sunday, and before he sat on the donkey, the disciples did something that I want you to see.

They put their jackets (cloaks) on top of the donkey and colt before he sat down.

Now this may not be a big deal to us, maybe you see that today as taking a piece of fabric and cleaning the chair before you sit down.

But what the disciples did and what we see the crowd do, is preparing the way for the King.

Look at verse Matthew 21 :8-9

They were treating him like a King!

And yes, he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but the crowd thought that their King had finally come to defeat their enemies, the Romans.

They welcomed him!

Hosanna!

Greek: ὡσαννά

Hebrew: הושיעה

In the Greek it is HO_San_AAH translated from the Hebrew word oh-She-Uh

These were words directed at a King.

The only time that oh-She-Uh (Hebrew) were used in the OT was for the meaning of save, rescue, or savior

They were happy!

Their savior had come.

But what they didn’t understand is that he wasn’t there to save them from death and oppression at the hands of the Romans, he was there to save them from an eternal death.

His death would replace theirs.

I think it is important for us to understand what the crowd was thinking that day.

If you were a Jew in the crowd, you knew the Old Testament Scriptures.

And maybe you were thinking about the words of the prophet Malachi:

This was before Jesus, hundreds of years before, and the Lord was speaking through the prophet Malachi.

This is why they were so happy.

Finally, all the things the prophets said had come true.

It was time for God to refine and purify his people.

again, they didn’t fully understand wha that meant.

This was a Sunday.

By Friday he would be hanging on the cross.

The next day Monday, Jesus enters the temple in Jerusalem.

Matthew 21:12–17 (ESV)

12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.

15 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, 16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?”

And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” 17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.

As Jesus entered the temple, he did not like what he saw.

There were people them setting up business, selling things, making money.

That wasn’t what the temple was for.

Why did he say, “den of robbers?”

When people would journey to the temple to make sacrifices, they would need animals for the sacrifice.

And some of them because they were from a different land would have to exchange their money for what was accepted in Jerusalem.

And the people who exchanged the money would cheat those they did business with.

They would charge them more and keep much of their money.

It seemed that going to church had become big business.

But that wasn’t what the temple was for.

Jesus points to the words of Jeremiah & Isaiah.

It was a place of prayer and devotion to the Lord God.

Look at the authority that Jesus has here.

He has authority over the temple.

Matthew 12:6 “I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.”

2.

He has authority over disease.

Matthew 21:14 “14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.”

3.

He has authority over all people.

Matthew 21:15-16 “15 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, 16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?”

And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?””

4.

He has authority over all creation.

Matthew 21:18-22

As Jesus cleansed the Temple and cursed the fig tree, he was pointing to the religious life and worship of God’s people.

And maybe specifically to Israel’s leadership, the Pharisees.

Think about the fig tree.

It looked good from the outside.

It had leaves.

And it looked healthy enough to produce fruit.

But it didn’t.

The Pharisees, even many of God’s chosen people did the requirements of the Law.

They looked religious.

But they were lacking.