Matthew 21, we finished chapter 20 last week,
Matthew 21, Now when they drew near to
Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage on the Mount
of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying
to them, Go into a village opposite you,
and immediately you will find a donkey tied,
and a colt with her.
Loose them, and bring them to me.
And if anyone says anything to you, you
shall say, The Lord has need of them.
And immediately he will send them.
All this was done that it might be
fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet, saying,
Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold your king
is coming to you lowly, and sitting on
a donkey, a colt, the foal of a
donkey.
So let's stop there for a minute, I
want to grab a few things from here.
First we need to understand that Zachariah wrote
this prophecy, probably 500 years before Jesus' famous
entry into Jerusalem.
So 500 years ago, the Jews have been
taken captive, they're in Babylonian captivity, the Babylonians
have overtaken them, and this is what Zachariah
writes, Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold your
king is coming to you lowly, and sitting
on a donkey, a colt, and that is
a foal of a donkey.
So obviously there's two here, there's a donkey
and there's a colt with her.
And it's interesting, no earthly king would ride
a donkey or a colt.
A colt is a younger donkey there.
And no earthly king, they'd either come in
chariots and big horses, but he says, Your
king's coming.
And they probably read this and said, What?
Our king is going to overthrow.
No, this is a lowly king, he's coming,
riding a donkey, a little small horse there.
And 500 years before Jesus actually did it,
it was written.
And one of the interesting things, I'll hopefully
talk about this in a minute too, is
when God said, when Jesus said that it
might be fulfilled, God was showing his people.
And the Jews knew Zachariah very well, they
knew this passage, they knew when Jesus was
coming in, they could probably parallel that, but
I think personally that many people didn't just
kind of read this and discredit it back
in Jesus' day.
I mean, our Messiah is not going to
come riding a donkey.
And I think they kind of just bypassed
it and they didn't see it coming, their
eyes were blinded.
But it was interesting, many of you know
the king of Saudi Arabia visited America a
while back.
I don't know if you were aware of
that trip.
And if you look at photos, there's an
entourage of Bentleys, just at Andrew's base in
D.C., and they're just lined up to
pick him up.
A whole entourage to pick up this king
of Saudi Arabia, who that king actually sits
in the palm of God's hands.
And also this, I had to share this.
After his arrival in Washington, D.C., the
king of Saudi Arabia and his entourage made
their way to the Four Seasons, where they
booked every room.
Guests at the hotel were forced to switch
hotels after the king rented every room on
every floor.
Reports say he even brought his own luxury
furnishings to the hotel, including red carpets and
gold decorations.
I've got some words I could use there,
but you get the gist of it.
Here comes Jesus, the Messiah, the king of
kings, and he's coming on a donkey.
And I don't know, I mean, commentaries, I
mean, you would get the gamut on commentaries.
Oh, this, we think, I mean, we just
know what it says, other than I also
believe that this is a prophecy you can't
miss.
Behold, Zion, your king is going to come
riding a donkey.
To me, it's a very interesting prophecy.
So with the message, Jesus, king, priest, or
prophet, the first thing here we see him
as king.
King, what does a king do?
They rule my life.
The interesting thing is, Jesus already rules.
It's really not an issue of does he
rule, doesn't he, and this is what people
talk about, I sometimes chuckle, because he already
rules.
That's not the question.
The real question is, are you going to
submit?
This isn't who's ruling, who's reigning, yeah, I
think Jesus this or that.
No, he's already ruling, he's already reigning, the
devil's been conquered, he's a defeated foe.
Everything's already been written.
Read the last book of the Bible, and
you'll see he's already a king.
He's in place, he sits up on the
right hand of the Father, he directs nations.
It's always now, it's only a matter of
submission.
Do we submit to his kingship?
Do we submit to his headship, or do
we fight it?
Because there will not be any other king.
Thomas Watson said that a humble sinner is
in a better condition than a proud angel.
Let that sink in for a minute.
A humble sinner is in a better condition
than a proud angel.
Do you know of any proud angels?
They go by the name Lucifer, Satan.
He was a proud angel that God cast
down.
And that was very comforting to me, a
humble sinner is in a much better spot
than a proud angel.
It's that whole issue of humility, and surrendering,
and submission.
And people might say, Shane, when are you
going to stop talking about that?
Never, ever, ever.
Submission and humility are vital, especially in this
context of submitting to the king.
And he will rule our life, and he
will reign our life, but I found you
have to give him the controls, often.
Because he's willing to lead those who want
to follow.
If a person doesn't want to follow, he's
not going to lead them as effectively.
Well, God is sovereign, oh yeah, his sovereign
plans will prevail, whatever he wants to accomplish,
he'll accomplish.
But you can go kicking and dragging, and
kicking and screaming, or you can go willingly.
And it's a much better life when you
go willingly.
I'm not talking about necessarily comfort and different
things, but when we submit to who he
is, there's something that takes place in our
hearts, and then we're open for what God
wants to do.
But I want to talk about this part
he said here for a minute, that it
might be fulfilled.
That it might be fulfilled.
Fulfilled means to come to completion.
God's word will never return void, ever.
Whatever God says, it will happen.
He can't lie, because that goes against his
nature.
And I want to read a few promises
from God's word that will not fail.
It's actually from the King James Version.
I learned a lot of these when I
was younger, and I like the King James
Version on some of these.
Philippians 4.19, But my God, my God
shall supply all your need according to his
riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Interesting scripture.
My God shall supply all your wants, or
all your needs.
He will supply all our needs.
Needs, the essentials, what we need.
And people say, wait a minute Shane, I
can hear it now.
Wait a minute, what about those guys I
saw on the beach in the Middle East
being beheaded?
Well, those guys right now are in a
much better spot than we are.
I hate to say it, they're in heaven.
They're sitting with Christ.
They're with him.
So he does fulfill everything he says.
This life is a vapor.
But a vapor.
If I had a rope that could wrap
around the entire world and I could bring
the end of it in, I would take
the end of it and I would make
a mark with a black marker and go,
that's our lives.
In reference to eternity.
And even that doesn't do it justice.
It's just a vapor.
We're here just for a temporary time.
And God will supply all of our needs.
Those needs that we need.
We need to look to God.
Many times we don't look to God.
We look to a person.
We look to a pill.
We look to this or that.
We don't look to God to meet those
needs.
And the problem I think sometimes is we
want instant gratification, instant relief.
We want this to happen now.
And sometimes waiting on God and seeking him
and having him meet my need isn't going
to be now.
It's not microwave Christianity.
Like I just told my wife today to
our kids.
You remember this if you have kids.
They always want snacks.
All the time.
Say, I'm hungry.
You're not hungry.
You're not going to die if you go
another hour without snacks.
Or two.
And we talked about it.
It might be a good idea to actually
teach them a little bit of discipline.
When you say, I'm hungry, you can tell
the flesh, no, you're not.
Not right now.
But we want these instant quick things.
And that really hurts Christianity because Christianity is
waiting on God and saying, Lord, I know
you'll supply my need.
I'm trusting in you.
Many times the need isn't given right away
to see where our heart's at.
Because if a person says, Lord, I know
you're going to bring something or I know
you're going to take care of me.
I'm just trusting you.
That's faith.
And without faith, it's impossible to please God.
Another good one.
2 Corinthians 1.20. For all the promises
of God in him are yea in him,
amen, unto the glory of God.
Meaning all promises of God will come to
pass.
Philippians 4.13. I can do all things
through Christ which strengthens me.
I can do all things through Christ which
strengthens me.
And I've heard this scripture misapplied many times.
This doesn't say I can do anything I
want in Christ's will.
I can do all things through Christ which
strengthens me.
In other words, whatever God calls us to
do, we can do it.
Because Christ is strengthening us.
If it's God's will, it's his bill.
Right?
Where he provides all those cute things, but
they're true.
He will take us through and take you
through.
If he's calling you to do something, he
will accomplish it.
I can do all things through Christ which
strengthens me.
Here's a few keys just on that scripture.
Number one, here's what you need to do
if you're wondering, well, I want to do
something for God.
Or he's not moving right now.
Shane, I believe that scripture, but it's not
happening in my life.
Well, a few things.
Number one, patiently wait.
Patiently wait on God.
The flesh hates it.
The spirit loves it.
I don't know about you, but type A
personalities don't want to wait.
They want to get the job done.
They want to get it done now and
move on to the next thing.
So patiently waiting on the Lord to supply
our needs.
The next point, making decisions that align with
his word.
In other words, walk in integrity.
So as we're patiently waiting on God and
we're making decisions that align with his word,
walking in integrity, you can be sure that
you are in the center of God's will.
If you're following his principles, in his word,
and waiting upon him, that's a very good
spot to be.
And here's another thing.
Readjust the heart if needed.
It's okay to readjust.
Repent of ulterior motives, of wrong choices and
bad decisions and get back on track.
Because I'd hate somebody to read this and
go, I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me.
Well, I sure blew it this week.
I really wish I read that last week.
I'm going the wrong direction now.
I'm finding this isn't working.
God says, listen, readjust your heart.
Get the heart back on track.
In Titus 1-2, in hope of eternal
life, in hope of eternal life which God
that cannot lie.
It says God cannot lie.
He can't.
He promised eternal life from before the world
began.
John 14-18, I will not leave you
comfortless.
I will come to you.
2 Corinthians 7-1, having therefore these promises,
dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves.
Okay, I'm going to read something here.
You guys ready?
It's not popular scripture, but I'm going to
read it.
Having therefore these promises, promises I just read,
some of those, dearly beloved, Paul saying to
the church in Corinth, guys, please, please listen.
Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of
the flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness in
the fear of the Lord.
That's a key to so many things right
now, walking in the fear of the Lord,
living in the fear of the Lord, perfecting
holiness.
The Christian's life should be one that says,
God, because of your promises, these promises you've
given me, these promises I just read that
we just went over, because of that, I'm
going to walk in holiness.
I'm going to remove these things from my
life that are distracting.
I'm going to walk in the fear of
the Lord.
Listen, the fear of the Lord changes everything.
It changes decisions you'll make.
It changes how you'll talk to people, how
you'll act because you fear God.
And that's a very healthy thing.
Promises should not, I'm sorry, promises should change
the way we live.
When God says that it might be fulfilled
and he makes a promise, God's promises should
change the way we live, perfecting holiness in
the fear of God.
And on this theme of fearing God, let
me read a scripture I came across this
week.
Psalm 103.
The Lord is merciful and gracious.
Some of you need to hear this tonight,
I think, because sometimes we get this impression
of God that I've just done too much
damage.
He doesn't love me anymore.
I don't even want to walk in a
church.
Something's going to come and get me.
There's a feeling of inadequacy and not realizing
that the sin has already been paid on
the cross.
And that we don't have to walk in
guilt and shame on a continual basis.
Sometimes conviction is good.
I think God has given us shame and
guilt sometimes, so we see, oh, that's not
good, I need to turn to him.
But you don't want to keep harboring and
holding on to it.
Psalm 103.
The Lord is merciful and gracious.
He's slow to anger and abounding in mercy.
Either that's true or it's not.
These are promises of God.
He will not always strive with us, nor
will he keep his anger forever.
He has not dealt with us according to
our sins, nor punished us according to our
iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the
earth, so great is his mercy toward those
who fear him.
For as the heavens are high above the
earth, so great is his mercy toward those
who fear him.
As far as the east is from the
west, so far has he removed our transgressions
from us.
As a father pities his children, so the
Lord pities those who fear him.
There's that word fear again.
Why does that upset people?
He pities those who fear him.
And it's interesting, you've got to be careful
on this word pity too, because you know
how we sometimes think of it?
Hollywood makes it into a bad word.
Oh, I pity you.
Oh, I pity the...
And this word is thrown around, but it's
actually, if you look up what this word
means, it's a feeling.
God feels compassion caused by suffering.
So it's saying, as a father feels compassion
because his children are suffering, so the Lord
has compassion on those who fear him.
The fear of the Lord and walking a
life that pleases God are together.
The people that don't fear God, they don't
walk according to the Scripture because they don't
fear him.
That's why I often say that people have
this view of God as a doting grandfather.
Oh, you just kids, you go and do
whatever you want, you spend whatever you want,
and there's no fear.
Who fears a doting grandfather?
Nobody.
They love him.
Oh, that's just grandpa.
And there's no fear there, but the fear
of God.
See, when you fear the Lord, it changes
the way you live.
I fear God, not man.
It changes how I'll preach.
Trust me.
If I fear God, it's going to change
how I preach.
If I feared you, you would not hear
this message tonight.
Trust me.
If we're taking surveys on your way out,
what did you think of that sermon?
You coming back next week, it would be
completely different.
Completely different.
But when you fear God, you come up
here in fear and trembling and say, Lord,
what do you want me to say?
And how you live, how you treat your
spouse.
If a person truly feared God, they would
treat their spouse a little differently or their
kids or their neighbor.
They would not perfectly follow me around for
a few weeks.
You'll see some inconsistencies.
It's in everybody.
But then fear also leads me back to
repentance.
See, the fear of God, and I think
sometimes we misunderstand this word fear.
It's not in the same way of what
you're seeing on the news with ISIS.
This is a fear of more of a
reverence and a respect for who God is.
This creator of the world, this lowly.
The Bible says this king coming lowly in
a lowly position, dying for us.
And then it says, here's my word.
Here's how you need to walk it out.
Here's how you need to live.
Now walk in the fear and admonition of
the Lord.
That's very healthy.
It's a good thing.
It's not a bad fear.
I mean, when I fear God, I trust
his sovereignty.
They go together.
Lord, I fear you.
You are so magnificent.
I trust your sovereignty.
And if any of you have ever been
gripped with anxiety or fear before of death
and these things, let me remind you that
you are immortal in the center of God's
will until he says it's time to go
home.
If you think about that, you are immortal
in the center of God's will of what
he wants.
Nothing can harm you.
It doesn't mean you don't go drive off
the Grand Canyon.
You can change that real quick.
You know, there's a responsibility on our part
to keep following God's will.
But that's a fear.
That's a healthy fear.
See, fear of God will lead the church
in the right direction.
We'll be the church who doesn't fear God
because they'll try to entertain the masses.
They'll start to compromise.
They'll start to bring in things that aren't
godly, aren't ethical, aren't good.
And remember I talked about many, many years
ago, I wrote a book on it about
the emergent church.
And it's not really around much anymore.
But it was a younger group of guys
who came out and they really started to
say, well, we can't really trust the Bible
anymore.
You know, we're not too sure on a
lot of these.
I mean, was Mary really a virgin?
You know, that's not walking in the fear
of the Lord.
That's walking in the fear of the man
and being a man pleaser.
And I would really challenge a person where
their heart's even at.
Because when you become a child of God,
your heart cries, Abba, Father.
Not get away from me, Father.
There's a desire there for His word.
And again, I want to make this clear.
Fearing God directs my steps.
It influences my choices.
It calms the storm.
There's great comfort in fearing God.
Because when you fear God, you realize He's
bigger than the disease.
He's bigger than the crisis we're going through.
He's bigger than anything.
I mean, I've been transparent before.
I'll do it again.
But fear grips my heart often.
Raising little kids in this generation.
I mean, it could drive you bonkers.
Especially in this area of Los Angeles County.
Little kids, cute blonde-haired girls growing up.
And boy, I mean, it's just, oh.
I mean, if your mind can take you
places you never thought it could go.
Ever.
And fear comes in and grips.
It's like, oh, God.
But then I remember who's in charge.
I remember who sits on the throne.
There will be challenges.
There will be tribulation.
But He will see me through.
Because I fear Him.
You see how that changes everything?
I fear Him.
And it's a very healthy fear.
So these promises should change the way we
live.
Also, promises need to be reinforced.
Oh, my goodness.
If I could get, I would love to
just get this point across in a whole
sermon.
I have before.
When you know where I'm going with this
in a minute.
But God's promises, folks, they need to be
reinforced.
Reinforced.
Not reading God's word because you already know
what it says is like not eating this
week because you already ate last week.
Just saying, I come across, oh, yeah, I
used to read the Bible.
I read it six months ago.
Try that with food.
And let me remind everyone in this room
that spiritual nourishment is more important than physical
nourishment.
What we feed our spirit is more important
than what we consume to keep the body
going.
So God's promises have to be reinforced.
So when the enemy comes in like a
flood, the spirit of the Lord raises up
a standard against him.
Though you walk through the fire, you will
not be scorched.
Though you walk through the river, it will
not overflow you.
For the Lord is with you.
See, the promises reinforce.
What do you do without the word of
God?
I don't know why people don't just live
in this on a daily basis.
Just saturate your mind on a daily basis.
Part of me thinks it's because they don't
want to.
They know what it means.
Well, I'm going to have to change this.
I'm going to have to go forgive this
person.
I'm going to have to remove bitterness.
I'm going to have to tell my wife
sorry.
I'm going to have to do this.
I'm going to have to make these changes
at work.
I think people are scared.
They don't want to really change.
Because you can't sit in this and not
change.
It's impossible.
So God's promise is if you're feeling down,
depressed, anxious, I've had all those things in
the same week.
These will reinforce and rebuild and reboot your
system.
That's how it was designed.
We were never designed to just read this
once through and then live however we want
to live.
And this is a good time to remind
you as well.
The flesh will lead you by default in
the wrong direction.
Anytime you get out of God's word and
out of prayer and out of worship, if
you just don't do anything, your flesh will
lead you away from God.
So God's promises have to be reinforced.
Just the Psalms this week.
If you're going through a tough time, just
go through the Psalms.
Start in Psalms 1 and 2 and 3.
There are so many here talking about waiting
on the Lord, renewing your strength.
He's your high tower.
His mercies are forever.
His mercies endure forever.
He owns the cattle on a thousand hills,
and your Father will not let anything bad
come upon you.
It's just constant saturation.
I've got Fox News and CNN telling me,
oh, there's a big terrorist attack coming.
Now I've got God's word saying something different.
Who are you going to listen to?
Who or what are we listening to?
I would really encourage you to put the
media on a medium, if not at low
volume or down or off.
I know I bring this up a lot,
but it seems like nobody wants to listen
because we're dealing with the same issues, the
same things, and people are posting the same
stuff, and they're just driving this fear.
So continual renewal.
That's what the word of God, continual renewal.
It makes you think like God.
I said that last week, and it's stuck
in some of our minds.
It makes you think like God.
It changes your mind.
It encourages your soul.
It transforms your heart.
That's what it does.
In a nutshell, the word of God overrides
the flesh.
Here's why it's so important.
Do you know what the word overrides means?
If you make a decision at work, and
your boss comes in and overrides it, whose
decision is going to prevail?
Right, because override means to cancel something out.
So God's word comes into our heart, and
it overrides what the flesh is trying to
do.
It overrides it.
I'm going to make a bad decision.
I'm not going to use integrity.
It overrides it.
It comes in and it changes the heart,
and the flesh cannot dominate when God's word
does.
So that's enough on that section.
Let me continue Matthew 21.6. But where
do we left off?
He was riding the colt, and then Zechariah
gave this prophecy that your king is coming
to you on a colt.
So the disciples went and did as Jesus
commanded them.
They brought the donkey and the colt, laid
their clothes on them, and set him on
them.
And a very great multitude spread their clothes
on the road.
Others cut down branches from the trees and
spread them on the road.
Then the multitudes who went before and those
who followed cried out, saying, Hosanna to the
Son of David.
Blessed is he who comes in the name
of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
So now we have this wonderful picture of
Jesus coming in, sitting on the colt.
They're throwing down clothes, the palm branches.
That's a sign of victory.
They're submission.
This is our king.
We're throwing down our things.
And they're throwing down all their coats, the
palm branches, and they're acknowledging him as the
king.
So let's stop here for a minute, too.
So the disciples went and did as Jesus
commanded them.
This is a very important verse.
The disciples went and did as Jesus commanded
them.
The same thing applies in our life.
Obedience always opens the door to God's will.
So when Jesus says, let's fill in the
blank.
Jesus says, go and do something, that always
opens the door to God's will.
Has Jesus commanded you to do something?
Or is it just me?
He's commanded us.
And you know what it is, because you're
convicted right now.
It's coming to your mind right now.
That's how you walk in God's will.
One step at a time in the right
direction by obeying.
And I've seen so many people, they look,
wait, see, is God's will out there across
in the desert?
He just says, what's the first step?
Well, that's easy.
And as we begin to obey, obey, obey,
obey, then we end up out there.
But everybody wants to look down the road.
It's, I want to get down there.
God says, no, here's what you need to
do first.
No, I'm not doing that first.
But when Jesus spoke, they did as he
told them.
And I would just encourage you, whatever Jesus
told you to do, do it.
And then the next point here, it says
a very great multitude.
Now this is interesting too.
If Jesus would have just came in at
any other time, there wouldn't have been a
great multitude.
But with the Passover and different things, there
was probably, they estimate close to a million
people in Jerusalem.
So what better timing?
God's timing is always right on time.
God brought all the Jews from all over
to Jerusalem for the Passover, and here comes
the Messiah fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah, sitting
on a donkey.
And people are going, wait, whoa, this is
incredible.
This is what we've been waiting for.
Well, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna.
And then watch the crowd change.
Five days later, crucify him, crucify him.
So the crowd cries out, Hosanna, Hosanna.
Five days later, crucify him.
That's amazing to me.
It's unbelievable.
A very great multitude.
God's timing is always right on time.
Another encouragement I want to give you for
this year, God's timing is always right on
time.
Is there anything in your life where you're
saying, I wish He would hurry up?
Oh, a lot of heads shaking on that
one.
Maybe we better camp out here for a
minute.
You know, one of the hardest things, I
heard this before and it's true, is when
we pray or we wait, God says, no,
yes, or what's the hardest one?
Wait.
Maybe, wait.
And that wait is difficult.
It's hard to wait.
But I've found if God says yes or
no right away, we have an answer, we're
moving on.
But waiting causes me to get into His
Word and change my mind, change my heart.
And I can't think of anything really where
I look back, God moved too slowly on
that one.
I mean, I wish I met my wife
when I was younger.
That's one thing.
But then I don't because she would have
been through hell when I was in my
20s.
It would not have been pretty.
I wish I would have.
But then I look and God's timing.
Why didn't you start this church sooner, Lord?
It wouldn't have made it.
I wasn't ready.
The family wasn't ready.
It's God's timing.
And single people are always rushing to get
somebody.
Right?
I've got to hurry up.
I've got to meet somebody.
And the married people go, Oh, I was
just single again.
We're never happy.
There's an old song, I remember it.
They used to sing in churches.
His time is always on time.
He's right on time.
And that's true.
So just be encouraged.
I don't like the waiting time any more
than you do.
But waiting actually strengthens us.
It's almost like exercise.
And you're lifting or you're jogging and then
a couple weeks later you can jog farther
and farther and farther and farther.
So you're preparing.
Waiting is preparing.
Can you imagine a little tiny apple tree
about this high bringing in an abundant of
harvest?
It would collapse.
It would die.
So the apple tree has to get bigger
and larger to carry the weight of what
God has called it to carry.
Same thing in our own lives.
His perfect timing is always right.
We don't like the consequences sometimes.
We don't like what has happened.
Things don't go perfectly.
We question.
I question things a lot.
God, why?
I don't understand.
But his timing is always on time.
A million Jews at their hometown.
Here comes the Messiah for the Passover.
It's unbelievable.
So actually two major prophecies were fulfilled this
week.
Christ is King.
Here comes your King on the donkey.
And a priest.
What I mean by priest is that in
the Old Testament the priest would make atonement
for the sins of the people.
In Hebrews, if we had time, we could
go to a lot of different places.
The Bible talks about not only is your
King coming, but this is the Passover Lamb
coming as well.
So this imagery, maybe it's just me, but
I see the King on the donkey, the
King on the colt, and also the Passover
Lamb, the Lamb that was slain before the
foundation of the world.
So he's coming as a King to die
for his people.
Both prophecies are fulfilled this week.
That your coming King, he is the King,
he's been acknowledged, he's been foretold, but he's
also going to be the Passover Lamb.
I think this was on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, the crucifixion.
It's all in a very short amount of
time here.
So we see Christ as a priest.
And actually the Bible says that he is
our great high priest.
That he's our mediator.
Now we can go to God directly.
This is one of the big things that
the Protestants have against the Roman Catholicism.
Is there's nowhere in the New Testament where
it teaches you go to a man to
absolve you from sin and not go to
God.
And even interesting, if you look at the
Levitical priesthood, the priest, the high priest, wouldn't
hear all these confessions from people all the
time, but people would bring their sacrifice, they
would kill the animal, but the high priest
would go into the Holy of Holies once
a year and make atonement for the whole
nation.
And that's what Jesus did when he came.
He made atonement for the whole nation.
Whosoever believes.
Whosoever.
So it's a wonderful fulfillment of two things.
At least I saw both of these things
coming that same week.
And I was reminded on Hosanna one day
and crucifying the next, that people are fickle.
Life is challenging.
There's wonderful mountain top experiences and there are
tremendous valleys.
And when you're going through a valley, it's
hell.
It's hell.
But then you'll come out of that valley
and God will bring, and it's Hosanna one
day, crucifying the next.
The slippery slope of life is very difficult,
very challenging.
But I would just want to encourage you
in that area as well, that God as
King but also as priest to save our
life.
We should be the most thankful people on
the planet.
I've said that before.
We should be the most thankful.
Why is it so hard to get people
to reach out and serve and help people?
We're so, and I'm talking to myself too,
sometimes can be so self-focused.
There's a world out, there's a valley out
there that needs us.
But we're so self-focused.
And I think if we could have been
there at Calvary and we could have saw
him, we could have stood underneath at 20
feet away and you saw the nails going,
you saw the bodies, and Jesus saying, this
is for you.
This is for you so you don't have
to spend eternity in hell.
You don't think you'd live a little differently?
I don't know about you, but I'd be
on my knees saying, God, whatever you want
me to do, wherever you want me to
go, Father, Lord, thank you.
God, help me.
And tears flowing.
Whatever.
I don't care.
Whatever you send me here, send me there.
Whatever you want me to do.
But that's exactly what he did.
But now we don't see that.
Somehow we see God, Christ, still up on
the cross while we sit on the throne.
Like, well, if it's convenient, if it's comfortable.
If I hear I'm too busy again, I'm
going to have a nervous breakdown.
I'm not really.
I'm just saying that.
People say, no, I can't do that.
I'm too busy.
I can't do that.
I'm too busy.
We can't reach out.
We're too busy.
Everybody's too busy.
Yeah, that's a trick of the enemy.
Have you ever thought about that?
If he can get us so busy to
where we don't minister, that's actually what we're
called to do.
Go out, make disciples.
Go visit the homeless.
Go visit those in the hospital homes.
Care for the orphans, those in need.
That's what we're supposed to do.
But, yeah, we come to church and we
get full on the word of God and
we get full on food and go home
and that's it.
And it really didn't mean for the sermon
to turn into this, but it has.
Because I think all of us need to
be challenged.
We need to say, can we really look
at the cross?
Lord, what do you want me to do?
And then I found once you go and
you start doing those things, God will bring
peace and joy.
He'll open doors.
He'll lead in certain directions.
Business.
God will begin to bless certain areas of
your life because now you're serving him.
I wonder how many things he doesn't bless,
doesn't help, because we want to do our
own thing.
We want to save every kernel and every
nugget and every this and that.
And God says, listen, I died for you.
Go out and help and minister to others.
And then we pick up on verse 10.
And when he had come into Jerusalem, all
the city was moved, saying, who is this?
Now you have to remember, a lot of
these people weren't here to see his ministry.
He was traveling, I think, I don't know,
I better be careful here, but I've read
where Jesus walked 22,000 miles in those
three and a half years or three years
of ministry.
If you figure it out, get a calculator,
it might work.
But he was all over the place, everywhere.
That actually might be a good sermon sometime
for New Year's resolutions, right?
Lose weight, get in shape, walk like Jesus
walked.
Get out and move.
But that's what he did.
He walked out in surrounding areas, but then
all these people come here and they said,
what is going on?
The whole city's moved, saying, who is this?
So the multitude said, this is Jesus, the
prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.
This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of
Galilee.
Now I also found this interesting.
I'm not going to go on to Matthew,
but they didn't acknowledge his kingship, they didn't
acknowledge his priesthood, any of that, or a
good teacher, they said, this is the prophet.
And I think many people forget that Jesus
came as a prophet.
Christ as prophet.
So we see him as king, we see
him as priest, and we see him now
as prophet.
Well, what in the world is that?
Well, let me try to sum this up
for you.
Christ as king ruled us, the priest died
first, made atonement, Christ as a prophet directs
us.
That's what the prophetic role does.
Jesus as prophet directed our lives through his
word, through his preaching.
See, the teacher teaches, but the prophet preaches.
There are times when Jesus would teach, but
then there were times when he would warn,
and he would instruct, and he would preach.
That's why people saw him as a preacher,
as a prophet.
There goes the prophet, because of this preaching.
Basically, prophecy, now there's foretelling of different things,
but this is a type of what they're
talking about here, is he preached God's word
with boldness and with clarity, and he made
it clear to the people.
This is the prophet who makes God's will
crystal clear.
Psalm 81.13, O that my people would
listen to me, that Israel would walk in
my ways.
God is saying, O that my people would
listen to me, listen to me, listen to
me.
And that often, as good as Bible teaching
is, that often doesn't cause people to listen.
Many times you'll leave a good teaching and
say, Oh, that was good, that was interesting,
I didn't know that about the Hebrew.
I didn't know that about Semitic times there,
and science, and how that, that's pretty cool,
that's interesting.
And we need it, we need a plethora
of teaching, because that's how we're instructed.
But the time comes when, like God says,
O that my people would listen to me
and walk in my ways.
The way to get people to listen is
you shock them.
You shock them with the truth.
That's what Jesus said.
No man ever spoke like this man with
the authority of God.
He preached to the people.
That was that prophetic role.
And last night, reading Whitfield's journals, I was
reminded of this.
All of England, by the time he was
21, he was the best known preacher in
all of England.
By age 22, all of England hated him.
If you're going to preach repentance, you had
better pledge your head to heaven.
Look at John the Baptist.
Look at Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel.
I mean, we love these guys, we read
their books.
It was said that Isaiah was sawn in
two by wicked King Manasseh.
Jeremiah, stoned by his own people.
Ezekiel, stoned by the leaders who brought the
children of Israel out of exile.
They were killed by their own people.
Even the minor prophets, Hosea, Joel, some of
them lived, but others were killed.
They were killed by their own people.
That's why Jesus said, you sons of hell.
Your fathers killed the prophets.
And you make them nice tombs.
You are hypocrites.
That's preaching.
That's the truth of God's word penetrating the
heart.
God's voice is not popular.
God's voice is not popular in our culture.
Have you noticed that?
God's voice is not popular in our culture.
Even Elisha, when he came on and he
challenged wicked King Ahab.
Ahab said, oh you troubler of Israel.
So this prophet of God called by God
is now called the troubler of Israel.
And I wonder how soon they're going to
say, oh Shane, you troubler of America.
I mean, that's what the culture looks like.
What is this?
We don't want this.
The prophetic element of Jesus is probably, I'm
going to be careful here.
But that's probably what got him killed.
Yes, it was God's sovereignty and God from
the foundation of the world.
But it wasn't because he's a good teacher.
It's because he challenged people.
The religious leader said, look, the whole world
is following him.
And Jesus rebuked them and rebuked them.
You whitewashed tombs.
You lead people to hell.
And he just would tell them the truth.
Because that's the role of the prophetic.
Hopefully, it's to cause it.
The religious leader should have said, you know
what, you're right.
You're right.
We need John the Baptist's ministry.
We should have went to the Jordan River
and been baptized instead of stood there like
this.
And John said, you brood of vipers.
Who warned you to flee from the wrath
that is to come.
Bear fruits worthy of repentance.
So John the Baptist preached repentance and he
was beheaded.
Jesus was crucified.
That's how important this topic is.
Actually, I pulled this up an hour before
the sermon.
I said, Lord, if you want me to
read this, just remind me.
This will be good, I think, for some
people.
This is by A.W. Tozer.
This will help explain some of what's going
on.
If Christianity is to receive a rejuvenation, it
must be by other means that are now
being used.
If the church in the second half of
the century, and he's writing 60 years ago,
is to recover from the injuries she suffered
the first half, then there must appear a
new type of preacher.
The proper rule of the synagogue type will
never do.
Neither will the priestly type of man who
carries out his duties, takes his pay, and
asks no questions.
Nor is the smooth-talking pastoral type who
knows how to make the Christian religion acceptable
to everyone.
All these have been tried and found wanting.
Another kind of religious leader must arise among
us.
He must be one of the old prophet
types.
A man who has seen visions of God
and has heard a voice from the throne.
When he comes, and I pray there are
many, he will stand.
He will stand in flat contradiction to everything
our smirking, smooth civilization holds dear.
He will contradict, he will denounce, he will
protest in the name of God, and will
earn the hatred and opposition of a large
segment of Christianity.
Such a man is likely to be lean,
rugged, blunt-spoken, and a little bit angry
with the world.
He will love Christ and the souls of
men to the point of willingness to die
for the glory of the one, and the
salvation of the other.
But he will fear nothing that breathes with
mortal breath.
That's what he's talking about, Jesus here too.
That's the prophetic.
Jesus perfectly fits that.
He comes on the scene, the priestly type
didn't do, this is what the church needed
to start, and this is what the church
will need to be awakened.
That prophetic type preaching.
And on this note too, with A.W.
Tozer, you guys, you should read some of
his writings.
But when he was a young pastor, he
came to a friend of his, and he
said, I want to live for Christ more
than anybody ever has in my generation.
And his friend said, Brother Tozer, if you're
true about what you say, let me give
you a word of caution.
Be prepared to suffer greatly.
Because when you follow God with all your
heart, you will lose friendships.
Why don't you drink this and eat this
and go here and watch this?
It becomes a very lonely life sometimes.
The heart after God, because a lot of
people don't want to fall in that direction.
And that's what is needed though, is that
heart to be on fire for God.
And it is a lonely life, but that's
why we draw close to Him sometimes.
I don't want people to think, oh wow,
that was uplifting.
But listen, our nation is on more medication
than ever before.
We're depressed more than ever before.
We've got a thousand friends on Facebook, but
we're just as lonely.
But I'm telling you to seek the true
source of life.
Come to me, all who are weak and
heavy laden.
I will give you rest.
This is the water.
Drink of me and you will never thirst
again.
That's living water.
So here's today's application.
Follow God despite the cost, but make sure
that love and humility are leading.
The reason I put that in there is
because I don't want people to say, well
I'm following all these rules.
No, following God has a cost.
Jesus said, pick up your cross and follow
me.
That might mean, and people don't like this,
I don't know, well I think a few
people have done it, but people who are
struggling with certain addictions or struggling with certain
things, I say delete Facebook for the next
two weeks.
Just delete it.
Turn your phone off.
Oh man, I can't do that.
These guys are my friends.
They're taking you back into a lifestyle that's
hurting you.
They're taking you back to a lifestyle that's
away from God.
How is that friends?
That's not called friends.
That's called influences.
And misery loves company.
But following God means you will live differently.
And people won't like you.
I mean, I get invited to potlucks.
Well, I know you're not going to eat
that.
Right?
You know, it's all this fat.
Hey, don't be convicted.
Eat whatever you want.
But just living that way, or I know
there's many Christian friends who don't invite us
to things because they're going to have a
lot of alcohol there.
Let's not invite Pastor Shane.
No, we can't have fun.
I mean, because you're walking, you're trying to
follow God, and you're excluded from things.
But if He's everything, if He's an all
-sufficient Savior, then we can rest in His
promises and rest in seeking Him with all
of our heart.
We can be satisfied that way.
Yes, the world is depressing.
It's hard sometimes.
But I've never seen anybody go wrong by
seeking God with all their heart, with all
their strength, and with all their might.
And that's the application.
Follow His compassion for people as well.
It's interesting.
In all offices, we see Christ as King.
This is amazing.
And I've talked about it a lot.
I'm not going to beat it up again.
But the King of the universe died for
you, if you believe.
The King of the universe.
He had compassion on His people.
Then the priest.
I mean, why couldn't God just have done
something like, okay, let's just sacrifice a thousand
bulls, and that'll suffice.
I mean, to send your own son?
So we see Him having compassion on His
people as King, and not just moldering them.
We see Him having compassion on His people
as priest.
And we see Him having compassion on His
people as prophet.
Prophet means speaking the will of God into
their lives.
And saying, listen, here's what you need to
do.
I have compassion on you, so we need
to follow His example.
In all these areas.
And reach out to people.
I want to do a whole sermon on
that sometime too, because we're not being the
hands and feet of Christ.
We're not.
Just look at a church even this size.
We don't have enough helpers in all different
areas.
People aren't being ministered to.
We're falling short in all these areas, and
it breaks our heart.
But we don't know what to do, because
you can't force people.
If it was a company, everybody's on the
payroll, I'd be acting a lot differently.
They used to call me the steamroller.
That was before Christ's days, right?
But in all honesty, folks, we need to
reach out.
And that's where you experience the abundant life.
I think many people are fueled up, pardon
the pun, but fat on the word of
God, and they're not expending that energy.
They're not, you're right, we're designed to go
out and spread it.
There should be everybody, half the people in
here should be signed up to the hospital
homes, for example.
And ministering to those people, just read in
the Bible.
Just pray with them, just being there.
That's ministry.
That is ministry.
And I think sometimes we fool ourselves, because
I've been there before.
We come, we hear the word of God.
We say, yeah, God, that's true.
Yeah, I need to really change.
And we worship a little bit, and then
nothing changes all week.
And then we come again next Saturday, and
oh, same thing, nothing.
Is there ever a greater purpose?
If we could just touch lives in our
daily lives, that's the biblical model.
Every time people say, Shane, I want to
know God's will, serve people and reach out.
No, no, no, really, I want to know
God's will for my life.
Oh, you mean education, who you're going to
marry.
Yeah, right, those things.
They don't want to reach out and serve
others.
Before the worship team comes up, let me
read this another.
Sometimes I read the story behind the hymns.
And there's a famous hymn that was written
some time ago.
And it's by Philip Paul Bliss.
He was born in 1838.
He was a well-known teacher, evangelist, and
soloist.
He wrote many hymns, including the melody for
Horatio Spafford's It's Well With My Soul.
Bliss and his wife Lucy traveled extensively, spreading
the gospel and song.
When ministering at a meeting, Bliss spoke these
words to the congregation.
I may not pass this way again, and
after which he sang, I'm going home tomorrow.
His words and song would prove to be
prophetic.
On the 29th of December, 1876, him and
his wife boarded a train to Pennsylvania.
The weather made it very dangerous for travel.
As they were crossing a bridge in Ohio,
the bridge suddenly gave way, and all the
carriages fell into the freezing waters below.
Bliss escaped through a window only to find
that Lucy had somehow been left behind in
the burning wreckage.
Although he was advised against it, he headed
back into the fire, saying, If I cannot
save her, I will perish with her.
The young couple did not survive.
Of the 160 passengers, only 68 survived the
disaster.
The few remains retrieved from the entire accident
were placed in a monument, and another monument
was erected in Pennsylvania in memory of Philip
and Lucy Bliss.
And among Bliss' belongings were the lyrics to
that famous hymn, I Will Sing of My
Redeemer.
And the lyrics go like this, I will
sing of my Redeemer and his wondrous love
to me.
On the cruel cross he suffered from the
curse to set me free.
Sing, oh, sing of my Redeemer.
With his blood he purchased me.
On the cross he sealed my pardon, paid
the debt, and made me free.
I just thought of that earlier.
It's hard to hold back tears sometimes, because
that's truth, folks.
This isn't, like I said, pixie dust.
This isn't Frozen and Disney.
This is true.
The rugged cross, the cruel cross, he purchased
it, he sealed my pardon, he paid the
debt, he made me free.
Wouldn't we worship a little different?
If you could stand in Calvary 2,000
years ago, wouldn't you worship a little different?
I hope so.
I hope to God you'd worship differently.
You'd worship so differently, you wouldn't run out
of here, and neither would I.
We would sit and we'd worship God, because
we saw it with our own eyes.
And that's what we do during worship, is
we're supposed to reflect on the lyrics, reflect
on what Jesus did, and we worship him.
That last song, you are worthy, you are
worthy of our respect, worthy of our worship.
And that's why we seek Christ as King,
Priest, and Prophet, in all areas, to help
guide us.