At the beginning of the hippie movement in 1965, a rock and roll band by the name of the Who wrote a song called, “My Generation” that helped define the age. If you were part of that generation, then you knew at the time who the band was talking about. It meant anyone younger than the age of thirty. One of the most famous lines of the song was, “I hope I die before I get old.” I guess thirty was considered old at that time. But I doubt the band members feel the same way today.

But even though they had a sense of who comprised their generation, the lines became blurred as the hippies grew up and the movement expanded. Today that generation is still around, having lived twice as long as they said they wanted to live. The point being, that the idea of a generation is kind of an indeterminate designation. Though it is widely accepted that a generation is about 40 years, no one can say for sure when a generation begins and when it ends. There are still people living today, for instance, who were part of the generation that lived through WW2.

The point that I’m trying to make is that when Jesus uses the phrase “this generation” in vs. 32, we’re not really sure exactly what He means. Because generation can mean people living during a general time period or it can mean people who are closely related in age. My view, and one that I think is widely shared among Biblical scholars is that generation in this passage refers not to people closely related in age, but related by an age. People living in a certain age, or an epoch, a time.

And that principle is born out by the question of the disciples which prompted this whole discourse. It’s found in Matthew’s version, chapter 24, vs.3, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” As I pointed out last week when we looked at this, I think the key to understanding this passage is that there are three ages presented in the Bible. There is the ancient age, from creation to the flood. That age lasted 2000 years and came to an end with a world wide flood which destroyed all life on earth except for those saved on the ark. And then there was a second age, which was the Jewish age, from Abraham to the Apostles. That age lasted for 2000 years as well and came to an end with the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem and Israel. Millions of Jews were massacred and the remainder dispersed, chased from one country to another, living without a homeland. And the third age mentioned in chapter 21vs. 24 is the age of the Gentiles. We are living in the age of the Gentiles. This age has lasted 2000 years as well. It began with the trampling underfoot of Jerusalem by the Gentiles in 70AD and I believe it’s nearing the end as signaled by the Jews retaking Jerusalem in 1967 and living once again in the nation of Israel. I believe that 6000 years of human history is fast approaching it’s climax, which is going to end with the destruction of the earth. 2Pet. 3:7 “But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”

Now with that understanding it is possible to interpret this passage in a sort of sytematic way. But let me say as a caveat, that the phrase “this generation” is the source of a great deal of debate in theological circles. It has put at war various groups from differing camps within the eschatological debate that has been going on for almost a hundred years. And I don’t intend to get involved in that war this morning. I think it is impossible to be that dogmatic about a passage which obviously was intended to be somewhat obscure. So rather than focus on different viewpoints of end time theology, I would like to focus our attention on the point of it all. What was Jesus trying to say? What message was He trying to convey during these last hours with His disciples?   I think that is what is important, and not trying to figure out the day or the hour of our Lord’s return, which Jesus says is not our privilege to know. In the parallel account in Mark 13:32 Jesus adds, “But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.”

So what is the main point that Jesus is trying to make? I believe that the context of this message, known as the Olivet Discourse, is a message concerning the end of the ages. I believe that it is clear that Jesus is trying to warn His disciples about the impending judgment of Israel, and how they are to live in the last days. They were living in the last days before the destruction of the temple, the last days of Israel as a nation, and the last days before there would be a great massacre and persecution of the Jews. It happened within their generation. It happened just as Jesus predicted within the next 40 years.

And I believe Jesus message was intended as a warning for future generations as well. We are living in the last days of the age of the Gentiles. We are living in the last hours before the great tribulation, and in the last days before the judgment of God is poured out upon the earth. So I believe that the message that Jesus gives here is a message which I have titled, “How to live in the last days.”

The way that I have decided to present this last section is to identify some key phrases or thoughts that are strung through these verses to give us something to hang onto as we consider how we are to live in the last days. And here is what I have extracted from this passage as to how we are to live in the last days; we need to straighten up, lift up, look up, keep our guard up, sober up, lighten up, wise up, pray up, and listen up.

Now let’s look briefly at each of these. The first is straighten up. Jesus said in vs. 28, “But when these things begin to take place, straighten up…” What things is Jesus talking about? Well, it’s obvious that He’s talking about the persecution, the distressing signs in the heavens, the fear from natural catastrophes that will take place and so forth. It stands to reason that in order to straighten up you must first have been bent over or knocked down.

So although in these last days we may get knocked down, we don’t stay down. I like how Paul talks about it in 2Cor. 4:7-11 “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” We can straighten up in the midst of tribulations or persecutions or hardships because we know that we have a higher calling, that there is a greater purpose to our suffering, so that even in the midst of all of these trials we are manifesting Jesus Christ to the world. That knowledge should make you straighten up. Paul said in Phil. 3:10-11 “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” So straighten up.

Secondly, Jesus says when these things begin to take place, lift up your heads. Listen, when the world starts getting you down, you have to take your eyes off of the world. Take your eyes off your circumstances and lift up your eyes to heaven. Psalm 121 says, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills; from where shall my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber.”

And I’m going to stretch that phrase to include lifting up one another. Gal. 6:2 “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.” Listen, that is the purpose of the church, to bear one another’s burdens. To help hold each other up. To come to the aid of those that are hurting, or wounded. Lift up one another. Encourage the weak, the faint hearted.

Thirdly, look up. Vs. 31 says, “So you also, when you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near.” Jesus gave an illustration to help the disciples understand what He meant. He said when you see a fig tree starting to bud then you know that summer is near. I don’t know about you, but I love summer. Especially when I was a kid, but I feel like the older I get the more I like it as well. I just can’t stand winters anymore. So every year, I used to eagerly watch for the trees to start to bud. Because once I saw that happen, I knew that summer was near.

That’s what Jesus is talking about. There is no mystical message about fig trees here. It’s just when you see these things happening, be joyful. Look up! Jesus is coming back soon! It’s almost time for the consummation of the Kingdom of God. You know what He’s talking about? He said in vs. 27 that the Son of Man will come in the clouds with power and great glory. What He is saying is “Look up!” “I’m coming back soon.” Looking up means to live life with the expectancy of Jesus’ imminent return.

Jesus could come back today. Folks, how differently would we live if we had a real expectation that Jesus could come back today? Maybe early tomorrow morning. What would you do differently if you really believed that? I think one of the most poignant things that I have read was some transcripts of telephone calls from victims of the Twin Towers bombing. As the buildings were going up in flames, as people were dying all around them and they knew death for them was imminent, those people made phone calls to their loved ones. They wanted to take those last minutes to reach out to their families. I think if we lived with the expectation of Christ returning in the clouds in judgment and power and glory with all His angels, I think we would get serious about reaching some of our loved ones with the gospel. I think we would make some phone calls. I think we would visit some people. I hope so. I hope that when He comes He would find us about the business of the Kingdom of God.

Fourthly, how do you live in the last days? Straighten up, lift up, look up, and fourthly, keep your guard up. Jesus says in vs. 34, “Be on your guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth.” We need to live in these last days on guard against the schemes of the devil. We need to guard our hearts and minds against temptation. Peter said in 1Pet. 5:8 “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Listen, make no mistake. You are living in enemy territory. The devil is your mortal enemy. He wants to distract you, capture you, trap you in some sin, and ultimately to destroy you. So be on guard. Be vigilant. Keep close watch over your souls.

Fifthly, sober up. “Be on your guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness…” Listen, I’m not going to try to tell you that you can’t have a beer or a drink and be a Christian. But I am going to tell you this: the Bible makes it clear that we are to be sober. We are living in the last days. We are living in a critical time. Our enemy is fighting harder than ever, knowing that his days are short. And so God tells us 8 times in the NT to be sober. That means circumspect, calm, collected, using sound judgment at all times. We already saw that we are to be on guard. Do you think soldiers on guard should drink? Obviously not.

Peter said in 1Pet. 4:3 “For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries.” Dissipation, by the way, means wasting your resources, squandering money, talents or resources by living for pleasure. Dissipation is wasting the grace of God by living for pleasure. That is not why Jesus bought us with His blood. Our freedom is not for licentiousness. We need to sober up.

Sixthly, we need to lighten up. “Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life…” The worries of life. I’ve said it before many times, some things aren’t necessarily sins in and of themselves, but they are weights which hinder us and slow us down. Heb. 12:1 says, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”   What weights are keeping you from running the race to the fullest? What weight is holding you back from really living fully for the Lord in these last days? It may not be a sin in and of itself, but if it’s keeping you from living out God’s purpose in your life then you need to get rid of it. Lay it aside. You’re running a race. You’re almost at the finish line, and some of you are trying to run with a lot of baggage that is slowing you down.

Jesus gave the familiar parable of the soils in Luke 8:14. He said, “The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity.” Lighten up, let go of the worries, riches and pleasures of the world so that you might bring forth fruit.

Seventh, we need to wise up. “Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth.” Did you ever set a trap? I trapped once or twice when I was a boy. My dad always warned me to be careful because I could lose a finger setting the trap. The spring was so powerful and the jaws of the trap slammed shut so fast that it was very dangerous.

Jesus likens the last day, the day of judgment coming like the jaws of a steel trap, slamming shut the door before you can react. Jesus said that His coming will be like the lightning flashing in the evening sky, lighting up the sky from one end to the other in an instant, in a blinding flash. Jesus said in Matthew 24 that He is coming at an hour that you do not expect. Peter said He is coming like a thief. It won’t be announced. Jesus talked about the sudden destruction that is coming. The trap is that those people who have succumbed to the allure of this world, to dissipation and drunkenness and drugs and debauchery will suddenly find themselves mourning at the sudden appearance of Christ in glory. Wise up. Don’t be caught outside the door.

Eighth, how do you live in the last days? Pray up. Vs. 36, “But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Listen, you won’t be able to stand in that day if you are not leaning on the strength that God supplies. We need to be prayed up if we expect to be able to stand up in the last days. Ephesians 6 is the chapter which describes the armor of God. And in all the armor we have only two pieces of equipment that are offensive, that are weapons. One is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And the second is prayer.

Eph. 6:18 says, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.” To live in these last days we need to pray all the times in the Spirit. We need to be praying for one another all the time. We need to pray for our children all the time. We need to pray for our wives or husbands all the time. Paul said in the next verse to especially pray for him that he would be given the words to say. We need to pray for our pastor all the time.

Listen, I don’t dare think that I am holier or more righteous than any of you simply because I am a pastor. I’m just like you are. I bleed, I get sick, I get disappointed, I get tired, I even get backslidden sometimes. But one thing I think I do have that perhaps you don’t have. And that is I am the subject to a special strategy of Satan due to my position to destroy me, to destroy my family, to destroy my testimony, to tempt me to be unfaithful to the gospel. I know my weaknesses, and I know how hard Satan is trying to defeat me. Because if he can cut off the head, he can kill the body. I covet your prayers. We need to pray up.

Finally, number 9, we need to listen up. Listen up. Vs. 37 “Now during the day He was teaching in the temple, but at evening He would go out and spend the night on the mount that is called Olivet. And all the people would get up early in the morning to come to Him in the temple to listen to Him.” You want to stand firm in the last days? Then attend to the teaching of God’s word. Don’t neglect coming to church. Don’t neglect coming to Bible study. The word of God is truth. The word of God is life. The word of God is eternal. Jesus said in vs. 33, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.” The word of God is our strength. The word of God is our comfort. The word of God is sufficient for every need. 2Tim. 3:16-17 “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” You could translate it better, “so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

Listen, I am all for private devotions. I think everyone should have a quiet time and study the word of God on their own. But I want to impress on you the necessity of corporate worship. But it’s not just a time to get together and listen to a speech and maybe hear some songs. But God has called preachers to teach the word, to rebuke, to convict, to encourage in ways that don’t always come out of your personal Bible study. When we study our Bibles we tend to gloss over some areas and dwell on others that happen to appeal to our interests at the moment. But a God called preacher is going to preach the word of God in such a way that will exhort you to action, that will convict you of sin, and build up the weaker elements of the body.

Paul exhorted a young preacher by the name of Timothy to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” I’m afraid that time has come. It is the last days, and such a great deception has occurred that if possible even the very elect would be deceived. False prophets have risen. Church’s lamps have gone out. Christian’s love has grown cold. And people have turned away from the truth and turned aside to teachers that tickle their ears with stories and jokes and nice sounding platitudes.

If you are going to live in these last days for the Lord, then you need to come together with the body of Christ and strengthen one another, fellowship with one another, and submit to the preaching of the truth of God’s word from a pastor who has been appointed and annointed to preach the gospel.

Well, there you have it. We are living in the last days. Christ is coming back soon. It could be today. Maybe tomorrow morning. Let’s live like it’s our last day on earth. Let’s be ready when Jesus appears like lightning in the clouds, with all the angels of God with Him. On that day, the whole earth will be shaken, and every eye will see Him, and all who have not trusted in Him will mourn. Let us be ready. Let’s pray.

Today in our popular culture there seems to be a fascination with apocalyptic themes. Movies and books like Hunger Games or Maze Runner are set in a post apocalyptic world. All sorts of movies have been made which feature an end of the world scenario, where atomic blasts, or great floods or swarms of zombies end life on earth as we know it. It’s a popular topic right now.

And it’s happening on the religious front as well. Harold Kamping of Family Radio caught the world’s attention with his prophecy that the rapture would happen on May 21, 2011. Some of the biggest religious themed book sales have been from the Left Behind series. A new version of the movie is out now featuring Nicholas Cage. According to an article I saw on Fox News the other day, Hollywood now sees the rapture as viable subject matter that has found it’s way into several new offerings. The world seems to be fixated on end of the world scenarios. And a lot of things in the world have contributed to that, such as the Middle East conflict, the AIDS epidemic, the birth of the atomic bomb, and various epidemics such as the ebola virus that has so many people worried today. And not the least of all these reasons is the rebirth of the nation of Israel in 1948, and then their takeover of part of Jerusalem in 1967. What makes this astonishing is that for 2000 years the nation of Israel did not exist. And now within most of our lifetimes, we have witnessed it’s rebirth which seems directly tied to end time theology.

The most often requested book of the Bible that people want me to study through is the book of Revelation. I could probably pack our Wednesday night Bible study at my house if I would just announce that I was going to study Revelation. I will tell you right now that I have no plans on doing that any time in the near future. However, I am going to start to teach today the Olivet Discourse which is Christ’s direct teaching on the end of the age, His final message. We will just present an overview or introduction of this today, and we will probably take another couple of weeks or so to go through it. So perhaps if you will make a point of being here it will help you to develop a Biblical context of eschatology. We are not going to answer every question. I personally don’t think we can answer every question. Paul himself called it a mystery. But I do intend on doing my best to exegete Christ’s message that He gave in response to the disciples questions concerning the end of the age. The question of when will these things be, and what will be the signs of the end of the age?

For today though, I want to start by putting this in context by reminding you of my message last week. Last week we looked at the end of chapter 20 through the first four verses of chapter 21. And if you will recall, the main point of my message was Christ’s rebuke against mindless religion. He had challenged the priests and religious leaders to answer a question concerning the Messiah, who they all claimed to believe in, by contrasting certain passages in the Bible with their theology. And they couldn’t do it. They didn’t want to consider what the Bible said if it countered what they practiced. They had built a religion that they were comfortable with, that gave them a certain measure of power, that provided them with money and prestige, and they were content with that. In fact, more than that, they fiercely protected their position and all the religious trappings that went along with their doctrine. So much so that they were ready and willing to kill the Son of God because He threatened their religion. So I proposed last week that they had a mindless religion. It wasn’t based on the authority of scripture, it was based on a long tradition of rituals and teachings and interpretations that had over time corrupted their religion. It no longer saved. It no longer had the power to deliver. It was an empty, false, mindless religion.

Then if you remember the scene changes as Jesus sees the rich people coming into the outer court of the temple and giving their offerings. They gave them in such a way as to be noticed. It was done with fanfare. But Jesus noticed a poor woman who only had two cents to her name and she gave all that she had to live on to the temple. She gave her entire financial worth to a religious system that was false, that was empty, that could not do anything other than rob the poor people that were coming there hoping for some sort of deliverance.

Now that is the setting for our passage today. Jesus declares judgment against this mindless, false religion that dupes and takes advantage of people, and He declares judgment against the Godless temple and all that it represents. As Jesus and the disciples are walking out of the temple, the disciples point out the beautiful architecture and the gifts and so forth that adorned it, Jesus says to them in vs. 6, “As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down.”

Now for the disciples, this must have been a shocking statement. It must have been almost impossible for them to comprehend what He was talking about. And to illustrate that I need to give you a brief description of the temple. The temple was a massive building that dominated the skyline of Jerusalem. It was 500 yards wide by 400 yards wide. Some of the huge stones used in the construction were as long as 67’ and 7.5’ tall by 9’ thick. So it was a massive building, 5 football fields long, built upon the temple mount which was known as Mount Moriah, or Mount Zion. As you entered Jerusalem you ascended up to the temple. And as you ascended the sun would reflect with a blinding glare off of the temple which was made of white stones and covered in gold plates.

So the disciples, these simple Galilean fishermen, were obviously awestruck by the grandeur and magnificence of the temple. But to really understand the significance of the temple you also need to know a little of the history of it. As I said, it was constructed on what was believed to be Mount Moriah. This was the mountain where Abraham took Isaac to offer him on the altar. This was the location of the great first temple which King Solomon had built over a 1000 years earlier. It had been destroyed by the Babylonians but then had been rebuilt by Zerubbabel 500 years before Christ. Then Herod the Great had begun a major renovation of the temple which lasted 80 years and which was almost finished at the time Jesus and the disciples are there. So there was a thousand year history associated with it.

So not only was it important architecturally, and historically, but also socially. The temple was the religious epicenter for all of Israel, and for all the Jews scattered throughout the Middle East in various countries. It was the Mecca which Jews would travel to from all the Gentile nations at certain feast times. It was the only place where sacrifices could be offered. It was the headquarters of the Levitical priesthood and the high priest. It was in every way, the center of Jewish life, religious, judicial, governmental, social and economic. But more importantly than that, it was considered the house of God. I remember well when I was a kid being rebuked by some church lady that I shouldn’t run or make loud noises or whatever because I was in the house of God. I never quite understood that. I lived right next to the church in the parsonage, and so I was quite familiar with the building. And I knew that God was too big to be confined to that building, or that the physical elements were somehow sacred.

But for the Israelites, the temple literally was the house of God. It’s Biblical name in the Hebrew language meant house of God. The temple was the architectural equivalent to the tabernacle that Moses built which traveled with the Jews as they went to the Promised Land. It was comprised of various courtyards, starting with the court of the Gentiles, then the court of women, then the sanctuary, and inside that the Holy of Holies which was where the presence of God was.

So in every respect the temple represented so much to the average Jew that he could not imagine Jewish life without it. He could not imagine that God would allow the temple to be destroyed. It was just incomprehensible. So we have to understand the significance of the temple, to understand the significance of what Jesus is saying. When Jesus declares that there will not be one stone left upon another, it is not just the destruction of a religious edifice, but the destruction of an entire religious system, an entire way of life.

See, Jesus is pronouncing the judgment of God upon the temple as a symbol of all that Judaism represented. Judaism, as I have said, was a mindless religion. They had replaced the true meaning of the scriptures with the Talmud, which was their interpretation and application of principles and rituals which governed their religion. It was never inspired by God. And yet it had replaced the authority of God’s word. The Talmud was the authority. It was the traditions of the rabbis and religious leaders.   So their religion was mindless, false and empty.

And not only was their religion empty, but their temple was empty. God had left the building a long time before. I don’t know when the Holy of Holies stopped being filled with the presence of God. But I would suspect that it was around the time that Herod the Great took over the renovation of the temple. In the Old Testament law, the prescription had been to tie a bell around the ankle of the high priest when he went into the Holy of Holies once a year so that if he was sinful in the presence of God, then when God struck him dead they would hear that the bell was no longer tinkling. They used to tie a rope around the high priest so if that happened they could pull him out by the rope. Because no one could go in there to get him out without being killed. But some historians say that when Herod rebuilt the temple he defied the Holy of Holies. But in any case, the priests themselves had become corrupt. By this time, the office of the high priest was a political appointment of Rome. And so these corrupt, sinful priests officiated at the temple, even to the high priest going through the rituals in the Holy of Holies, and yet none of them are stuck dead. Why? The answer is that God had left the building long before.

I can’t help but make the association with many churches today. Many denominations in America were founded in times of true revival by true believers. And certainly the Spirit of God was present. They taught the Word of God. They were sanctified, holy people worshipping God in Spirit and in truth. But through the years, as godly men died off and new ministers were hired according to popular vote, by how entertaining of a speaker they were, and how nice their personality was, regardless of their doctrine or lack of it, at some point in many of our churches today in America God left the building.   They are still going through the motions, they still have plenty of people attending, still have plenty of religious activity, but God has left the building.   All that’s left is just mindless religion and Godless temples of religious enthusiasm. And I would suggest that God’s judgment is coming upon the apostate church in a similar fashion as it came upon the temple. I would remind you of Peter’s warning in 1Pet. 4:17 “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”

So we must understand that Jesus is declaring that not only will the temple be destroyed, but that the system of Judaism is coming to an end. Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD as Jesus prophesied by Titus who sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. One of his soldiers set fire to the Holy of Holies and it spread to all of the temple. Josephus records that the gold plates which covered the outside of the building melted and so they pried apart all the stones in order to get at the gold, leaving not one stone upon another as Jesus had said. Without the temple there can be no sacrifices. The sacrifices and offerings ended in 70AD. The system of Judaism ended in 70 AD. The Levitical priesthood ended in 70 AD.

We’re going to look in the next couple of weeks at more detail in regards to this prophecy and the destruction of Jerusalem. But what I want you to understand today is something that the disciples could not understand at this point. And that is that as Jesus was pronouncing doom upon the temple He was also announcing deliverance. Jeremiah 31:31-34 says, “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Jeremiah was talking about a new day that will come when God will not be worshipped externally in rituals and symbols and temples, but inwardly. God will dwell not in temples made with hands, but in the temples of our bodies, in our hearts. When Jesus offered Himself as the final sacrifice on the cross, old things passed away, and all things became new. The temple and sacrifices and priesthood were done away with. What had only been pictured in the old covenant was now realized in Jesus Christ, and so the old picture was no longer necessary because the reality was present. Jesus was now the high priest, eternal in the heavens, ever living to make intercession for us. Jesus was the Lamb of God, offered as the final sacrifice for the sins of the world. And by faith in Him, faith that He was the Son of God, faith in His efficacy to be the atonement for sin, we are forgiven for our sins. And because we are forgiven of our sins we are holy, whereby we are made holy temples of His Spirit who dwells in us.

That is the essence of the new covenant that does away with the symbolism and ritual of the old. Having been forgiven, made holy and made temples of the Spirit of Christ, who has written the law of God upon our hearts. That is, we have new desires, new appetites, new life through the Spirit who lives in us. That is how we are able to know the Lord, to have communion with God. We no longer need a high priest to intercede for us with daily sacrifices. Our high priest was the perfect, final sacrifice and now lives to make intercession for us. His Spirit dwells in us so that we have perfect communion with God because the indwelling Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

Listen, this is a simple message today. I want you to be fully cognizant of the great privilege that we have in Christ Jesus. We who were outside of the covenant, Gentiles who were unable to enter the temple, now have access to the Holy Spirit, because we have the Holy of Holies in us. On the day that Jesus was crucified, just two days from the Olivet Discourse, the veil which separated the Holy of Holies from the sanctuary was rent in two, from the top to the bottom, signifying that a new way was opened up to God. It was opened up to every race, every people of every nation. God opened up salvation from being the provenance of the Jews, to being available to all who would call upon the name of Jesus and believe in Him. The plan of salvation was given not just to a nation, but to the church, made up of people from every nation and every tongue.

But not only do we have a great privilege as the old temple system is done away, we also have a great responsibility as we are the recipients of the new covenant. 1Cor. 6:19-20 says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” See, just as the presence of God dwelt in the old temple, so the presence of God dwells in our temple. We are the body of Christ. The church is the body of Christ. His Spirit dwells in us that we might do His will.

Heb. 10:5-7 says, “Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME; IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE. “THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.'”

That is the purpose of our salvation. That is why we are here on this earth. To be the body of Jesus Christ. To be the physical manifestation of Christ to the world. To do the will of Jesus Christ. He has saved us. He has forgiven us. He has purchased us. He has sanctified us by His precious blood. So that we might be holy, temples of God, guided by His Spirit, to do the will of God, to live out the law of God, to bring glory to God, and to cause men to glorify God when they see our good works.

I would just ask you a question in closing today. Are you going through the motions in a mindless religion? Are you worshipping God in some church building that God left a long time ago, simply because it is tradition, it’s something you are comfortable with, something that you have grown accustomed to and don’t want to break away from? Every week I quote Jesus who said, “God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.”

In light of what we talked about this morning, I hope you realize that verse means that if you do not have the Spirit of God living in your temple, then you can’t worship God. If you don’t worship Him according to His truth, then you can’t worship God. God is not mindless. God has given us His word, and for those that are saved, He has given us His Spirit. And now the Spirit leads us by His word, and directs our hearts that we might obey Him and do His will.

Do you have the Holy Spirit living inside you? I’m not asking if you have had some sort of spiritual experience that you think might be attributed to the Holy Spirit. I’m asking if you have received the promise of the Holy Spirit as a result of becoming a holy temple of the Lord. Does your life, your interests, your desires, your actions reflect that He has written His laws upon your heart? Listen, the way to God has been opened up by the blood of Jesus Christ? Forgiveness from sin is available for all that will trust in Him. God will transfer your sins to Jesus and His righteousness to you so that you may be holy. And having been made holy, we are then a temple of the Holy Spirit who will guide and control our lives. If you believe that and want forgiveness, then it’s available to all who will call upon the Lord. He is ready and able to save all those who come to Him in faith.

I’m going to close by reading Heb. 10:16-25 as both an encouragement and an invitation to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. “THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART, AND ON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM,” He then says, “AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE.” Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

Recently, my brother in law, who had been a missionary for 37 years passed away from an illness. And of course, he left my sister as a widow who is going to have to figure out a way to support herself now without a husband. His death made my wife and I think about the fact that I should get some life insurance in case something should happen to me. And so last week I contacted a man in this church who sells insurance and he helped show me some of my options.

From what I gathered I could lock in a rate over 10 or 20 years by paying a certain amount of money each month. But the more I thought about it, I couldn’t help but think how ironic it is that the insurance company is betting that I would not die before the end of my term, and I am betting that I will die. If I had the faith of my insurance company in my long term health, then I wouldn’t buy insurance.

But the insurance company isn’t stupid. They are going to go over my health with a fine tooth comb. They are going to narrow the odds down as much as possible. And for my part, I am seriously considering all the options as well. This is a big financial commitment for me. There are a lot of things that are going to factor into my decision, and of course, it has potentially significant long term effects and benefits.

All of that prompted me to think, as I was preparing for this message, that a lot of people are more likely to spend more time, more money and more consideration on something like buying life insurance than on their eternal security. Blood tests, Doctor visits, urine samples, you name it, it all comes under scrutiny before I get the insurance, and then I commit to paying month by month for 10 to 20 years. And the really funny thing is, if I die, I win the bet, but I don’t get the money. My wife does. It makes you wonder who she is betting on.

But I’m afraid the average Joe is not nearly as concerned about his eternal security. From my experience, I think the average guy treats religion a little bit like buying life insurance, but with a whole lot less diligence. Someone suggested to me that I should look at some of those life insurance companies you see advertised on late night television and see if I could find something cheaper. And my response was, “No way. The last thing I want to do is spend all that money for 10 or 20 years and then find out that the insurance company was some flim flam outfit and have it not pay off.” And yet that is exactly the way a lot of people treat religion. They don’t really examine their doctrine. They blindly think that sincerity or good intentions is some measure of security. They are really just hoping that in the end it will all pay off somehow, but they really don’t know for sure.

Well, today’s passage addresses that very issue. The issue of mindlessly following a religion and hoping that somehow your sincerity will be of some merit in the hereafter. Hoping that God doesn’t care all that much about the details. Thinking He won’t look that closely. The average person doesn’t really know what he believes, and he certainly can’t say why he believes what he claims. He is just hoping for the best. He has no authority to back up what he is hoping for.

Well Jesus taught about the kingdom of God as one having authority. He spoke with authority because He was the Word of God made flesh, speaking the word of God to flesh. His message was the gospel of the kingdom of God. He was the way to the kingdom; no one can come to the Father except through Him, only by His sacrifice can we be saved. Jesus was teaching the gospel in the temple every day in the last hours before His crucifixion.

And as you will recall, a delegation made up of the religious leaders had been asking Him a series of trick questions, hoping to entrap Him in something they could use to arrest Him. So when the religious leaders had exhausted their trick questions and weren’t able to trap Him, Jesus turns the tables upon them and asks them a question. “How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?” It isn’t a trick question, it is a theological question. It is a doctrinal question. Listen, doctrine is not a dirty word, ladies and gentlemen. On the contrary, you need to know doctrine. You need to rightly divide the word of truth so that you will not be ashamed at His coming. There are many false doctrines out there. There are many deviant theologies out there. There are many false prophets and false teachers in the world. They cannot all be true. The Bible says, “Let God be true, and every man a liar.” You better know sound Biblical doctrine. You need to know what you believe and why.

I saw a bumper sticker on a car the other day in Rehoboth, and it said, “God is too big for just one religion.” Wow. What theology. What utter nonsense. First of all, you admit that there is a God. Then by that very reason, is it not reasonable to assume that if there is a God then He should have a say in how we are to approach Him? If God is really as big as you say, then does it not behoove us to find out how He desires to be worshipped? Jesus said, “God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” You better know the truth, because only the truth will set you free.

So Jesus asks a question focused on that very point. You see, these religious leaders had a religion. They had a belief system. And what is really significant is that their religion believed in the one, true Jehovah God, and furthermore, they accepted the teaching that there would come one who was the Messiah who would be the deliverer of Israel. And yet, it’s obvious from our study of Luke, that these religious leaders were not saved, they were lost. In fact, they were so blinded by their religion that they were plotting to kill the Messiah who was Jesus Christ because they did not think that He fit into their religious doctrine of the Messiah. So they were very religious and yet very lost.

I would imagine that in a crowd this size that there must be someone here today that are lost. If you died today you would end up in Hell. You are lost even though you believe in the existence of God. You believe that we should worship God. That is presumably why you are here today. And yet you are lost and on your way to Hell. You may even believe in Jesus. You believe that He lived on this earth 2000 years ago. You might even believe that somehow or another He was divine. And yet you can still be lost.

These scribes and Pharisees that Jesus is addressing are proof that it is possible to have a sort of mindless, thoughtless religion that has a modicum of truth in it and yet be lost. You can go through the motions without knowing why you are doing it. Many people are worshipping somewhere today, today being Sunday, and they don’t know why they are worshipping on Sunday rather than Saturday. And they really don’t care. They are just going through the motions. Some of them are mumbling catechisms and Latin phrases and opening their mouths to receive a tiny wafer and they don’t know why they are doing it. And yet they hope that it will somehow suffice on judgment day. Someone told them that they can achieve righteousness by going through certain rituals.

And on the other end of the spectrum it’s just as bad if not worse. People in some evangelical churches are being told that if they hold their palms up a certain way they are receiving something spiritual. And if they clap their hands together they are worshipping. And if they speak in some unintelligible gibberish they are praying to God. These poor folks are being taught that they don’t need to focus on doctrine, they need to focus on feeling. They just need to feel the love. That is all that matters. They have forgotten the exhortation of Jesus that if you love Me, you will keep My commandments.   No, they want to experience something, even if it is mindless.

These poor people are being exploited in the name of religion. They are being told that feeling spiritual is equal to being spiritual. So anything that makes you feel a certain way, or act a certain way must be of the Holy Spirit. And so in some churches today people are falling down on the ground and going into convulsions and they are told that is being slain in the Spirit. Others are falling down drunk, laughing and reeling around unable to act or speak coherently and they are being told that they are drunk in the Spirit. Others are laughing, howling at the moon, shrieking in laughter to the point that it drowns out everything else, and they are told that is holy laughter. Listen, don’t be deceived; Christianity is not a mindless religion. God is not the author of confusion but of order and discipline and truth. The Holy Spirit is not a feeling, He’s not a force, He is the Spirit of Jesus Christ living among us. If Jesus didn’t do it, then the Holy Spirit will not do it. They are not different entities, they are One God. As God is, so was Jesus in the flesh, (if you have seen Me you have seen the Father) and as Jesus is, so is the Holy Spirit. (John 16:13, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me…”) God is One. You need to know your theology and doctrine. Because many deceivers have gone out into the world and are leading many people astray. And these false prophets that are blaspheming the name of the Holy Spirit by teaching people to go after strange spirits have forgotten what Jesus said in Matt. 12:31 “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.”

It is not possible to have a sort of mindless, thoughtless form of Christianity that is void of sound doctrine and Biblical theology. But it isn’t possible to have an experiential type of Christianity that is divorced from sound doctrine. You are either worshipping God in Spirit and in truth or you will be found outside of the door of the kingdom of God, saying, “Lord, Lord, did we not do great things in your name? Lord, Lord, did we not even do miracles in your name?” And they will hear Jesus say as He promised in Matthew 7:23, “I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.”

Listen, you want to guard against a superficial, mindless religion? Then you need to go to the Word of God and get serious about studying it. Not reading books loosely based on the word of God, not watching movies with a mildly religious, positive theme. “But studying to show yourselves approved unto God a workman that doesn’t need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Tim. 2:15) You need to understand the primacy, the authority, and the sufficiency of scripture. You need to understand that Jesus is described in John 1 as the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And then you need to understand that the Holy Spirit breathed upon certain appointed men, inspiring them to write down His words, bringing to their minds remembrance of the things which He had told them so that we may have confidence in the scriptures. 2Tim. 3:16-17 says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect(complete), thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” You want to be a complete Christian? It’s not found in some mystical spiritual experience. Immerse yourself in the Word of God and obey it.

So the religious leaders confronting Jesus that day are mindless. They are thoughtlessly, blindly following a phony religion, in spite of having everything that they needed for salvation right in front of them. They have seen the truth and yet rejected it. They have stopped short of becoming a disciple. Folks, I am afraid that is exactly our problem here today. There are some people that come out here on the beach to hear what that crazy surfer preacher might say this week. There are some that might come because it’s a beautiful day, and maybe they might see a dolphin while I’m preaching and they can work on their tan at the same time. They have heard all they need to know in order to be saved and yet they are not saved. One of the saddest verses of scripture that comes to mind about this time of year is Jeremiah 8:20 “Harvest is past, summer is ended, And we are not saved.” And so we wonder why we don’t grow. We wonder why every year when we go back indoors we no longer see some people anymore. The fact is that we don’t grow by getting more and more people to come out on the beach for a service on a sunny day. The church grows by making disciples. We grow by making disciples, not by adding spectators to the church. Making disciples is being obedient to the word.

So true to form, when Jesus teaches He relies upon the scriptures. He confronts their mindless religion by asking them to consider the scriptures and make a rational decision on the basis of what it says. He asks the question, ““How is it that they say the Christ is David’s son? For David himself says in the book of Psalms, THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, ‘SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET.’ Therefore David calls Him ‘Lord,’ and how is He his son?”

Now the answer to His question is one that they either cannot or will not allow themselves to see. And there is an element to this question that may be hard for us to see, because we aren’t reading it in the Hebrew. Luke is writing in Greek obviously. But Jesus is quoting from Psalm 110 which was written in Hebrew.   And in the Hebrew there is a distinction in the word Lord. The Jews considered the proper name of God as sacred to the point that they did not say it aloud. And so they had a tradition of writing the name of God, the name Jehovah, with just the consonants. And then when reading the name of Jehovah, they would insert the word Lord in it’s place. This was an ultra conservative approach to avoiding using the name of the Lord in vain. Now in your Old Testament, you will sometimes notice that the word Lord is in all capital letters. That is done to show you that the word LORD is substituted for the name Jehovah. So when the Psalmist David says, “The LORD said to my Lord,” he is saying, Jehovah said to my Lord.

The word Lord with a capital L and small letters is from the Hebrew word, Adonai. Adonai means Lord, either used of God or sometimes used in reference to men. It means the supreme ruler. He to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master. The possessor and disposer of a thing or person. The owner; one who has control of the person, the master. In matters of state: the sovereign, prince, chief, the emperor. It is a title of honor expressive of respect and reverence, with which servants greet their master. This title is given to: God, the Messiah.

So the question is how can the Messiah be David’s son, when David writes in Ps. 110 that Jehovah says to my Lord? The scribes and Pharisees can’t answer that. They haven’t thought about it. They have a template for the Messiah that He will be a descendent of David and sit on his throne, and so therefore they are looking for a human descendent of David who will literally sit on the throne of Israel, and defeat their enemies. And so they refuse to consider any scriptures that don’t align with that doctrine.

What Jesus is trying to teach them, is that the Messiah is God in human flesh. Revelation 22:16 says that He is the root and the offspring of David. In other words, by his human nature he was the offspring of David, a branch of his family; by his divine nature he was the root of David, from whom David had his being and life, salvation by grace. What Jesus is teaching is that Christ, as God, was David’s Lord, but Christ, as man, was David’s Son.

Listen, the reason that the scribes and Pharisees were not saved, was that they would not recognize Jesus as Lord, as God. I think that we have almost the opposite problem today in the church. We recognize Jesus as God, but not as Lord. The doctrine of the lordship of Jesus Christ is not a popular doctrine today. At the very best modern theologians and preachers want to regulate it to some sort of advanced stage of sanctification that really isn’t necessary for salvation. But for the most part it is not taught at all. The whole emphasis today is upon justification by grace. But Hebrews 12:14 says that without sanctification, no one will see the Lord.

Rom 10:9 says, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” To understand what it means to confess Jesus as Lord you just need to turn back a few verses to Luke 19 where Jesus gives a parable about the land owner who planted a vineyard and sent his servants to receive his yearly allowance. And the vinegrowers kept beating up his servants and sending them back empty handed. And it says in vs. 14, “But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’” See, lordship is recognizing that Jesus Christ is the Master of the vineyard. He is the supreme ruler of the earth. Everything that we have is given to us by God. Our very lives are upheld by His power. Our heart keeps beating by the power of God. Our next breath is taken because God gives it to us. And so lordship is recognizing, confessing, that Jesus is Lord of your life. Confessing that we belong to Him. He is our Master, He decides our purpose. We live according to His will, not manipulate Him to serve our will.

These Pharisees were indicative of the citizens that said, “We do not want this man to rule over us.” They rejected Jesus as Lord. And Jesus said in the parable that when the Master returns to take His vineyard, He said “But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence.”

Jesus then gives a scathing indictment of these scribes and Pharisees, while at the same time warning His disciples. See, even disciples can fall prey to this kind of self righteous posturing, this religious fervor, that is actually a damning phony religion. He is highlighting hypocritical religion. He says in vs. 46, ““Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love respectful greetings in the market places, and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets, who devour widows’ houses, and for appearance’s sake offer long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.”

What Jesus is warning about is religion for show. About seeking publicity, seeking honor, seeking earthly prominence in the religious realm. Matthews gospel records some more of what Jesus said in this regard. He says in Matt. 23:13, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.” See, that is the danger of phony religion. They not only are not saved themselves, they make sure that no one else is saved either. And then in vs. 15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” That is another scathing indictment. Their false doctrine spreads like gangrene and corrupts everyone who hears it. And that is why Jesus says that these false teachers will receive a greater condemnation.

Jesus is not only describing the scribes and Pharisees, but He is painting a picture that should serve as a warning for us today as well. Beware of religious leaders who put on a show, who parade around in long, flowing robes, Christian costumes, hoping that they will look pious by the clothes and funny hats they are wearing. They love to be called “the right Reverend Dr. so and so, and they have all these degrees that are attached to their titles that are designed to convince you they know what they are talking about. They love the places of honor, and they love to make long public prayers so that people can be sure to see how holy they are. And yet the fact is it is all a hypocritical mask. Jesus says they do it to devour widow’s houses. What He means is they take from vulnerable widows, defrauding old ladies who are maybe easily deceived by their fake piety and they take their money by promising them some eternal benefit due to their holiness. One of the very people that the temple was to be concerned about and seek to help were widows. It is still a priority for the church though we do not have the same social structure that they had which left these women without much recourse. But the fact is that they take advantage of the most vulnerable among us for monetary gain.

I must tell you that a lot of the modern Christian television preachers capitalize on the sympathies of vulnerable, elderly women. They are flying around the country in multimillion dollar jets living in $10,000 a night hotel suites while making money off of old ladies who are hoping that their gift will be multiplied by God according to the false teaching of these shysters. Beware of these false prophets.

Finally, Luke presents an illustration to ram this principle home. I will not belabor it, since you are all familiar with it, I’m sure. But as Jesus was teaching He was sitting in the Court of the Women in the Temple where the people would come and present their offerings. The temple priests had made these trumpet type of horns that were mounted on the walls so that people could drop in their offerings. And Luke says that as Jesus is teaching He looks up and sees the rich putting their offerings in the treasury. And He sees an opportunity for an illustration. The illustration has a two fold application as we will see in a moment. But let’s look at it first.

Luke 21:2-4 “And He saw a poor widow putting in two small copper coins. And He said, ‘Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; for they all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on.’”

So here is the picture; Jesus has just finished condemning the religious leaders for their rejection of His Lordship, and He has characterized them as showboating self righteous hypocrites who take advantage of old ladies. Now He looks up and all these rich people come in to the treasury and make their offerings. They had engineered it in such a way that it was a very public thing. People could watch the worshippers come in and present their offerings. They could hear the sound of the coins clinking in the horns and tell how much or how little a person was giving. The Pharisees were known for actually blowing a horn before they gave in order to make sure that everyone knew that they were giving. But then Jesus juxtaposes this grandiose religious expression with a little old widow who comes in and probably would have escaped all notice in the activity of the temple. She wasn’t dressed in finery, she didn’t blow a trumpet, and the sound of her two cents I’m sure didn’t make a dint in the din of the temple court. No one noticed her. No one nodded approvingly or applauded. But God saw her. God knew that she gave all that she had to live on. She gave everything she had to the Lord.

Listen, I go out of my way to not talk about giving here at the Beach Fellowship. I may occasionally talk about money, as the word talks about it, then I talk about it. But I don’t talk about giving if I don’t have to. I believe that God loves a cheerful giver. So I am not going to try to compel people to give. All that I will say about this illustration is that it shows that God sees the gift, but more importantly God sees the sacrifice involved in the gift. David said in 2 Samuel 24:24 that he would not give God that which cost him nothing. God sees not the monetary size of the gift, but the sacrificial proportion of the gift. Jesus noted this widow because while others gave out of their surplus, she gave out of her poverty.

But the greater illustration that I think is here is that of the lordship principle. This widow had a proper view of the lordship of God. She rightly recognized that everything she had was the Lord’s. She didn’t have a ten percent view, but a 100% view. You know, that’s why I don’t preach about tithing. Tithing is an OT law that required Israelites to give a tenth of all they had to the Lord. And in the new covenant, we are no longer under the law. We are under grace. But listen, grace does not do away with the law, grace fulfills the law and then more. If the law was 10%, then grace is 100%. It’s recognizing that Jesus deserves everything I have because of the gratitude I have for His immeasurable gift to me. Salvation is about giving all that I have to the Lord to be used for His glory. I give Him all of me, everything I renounce, everything I turn over to Him. And so the lordship of Christ requires that I surrender all.

And there is, as I said another application of this incident. And that is that this sincere, God loving woman gave her offering to the treasury of the very men that were devouring widow’s houses. Though this woman was a great illustration of surrendering everything to God, there is no indication that she was saved. If she did not recognize Jesus as God then she could not be saved. Luke just records that she went in, gave her offering, and presumably left. God saw her gift. But unfortunately she was still victimized by a false system of religion that promised her some sort of righteousness as a result of her offering. And so she probably didn’t leave feeling all that great about her offering. The rabbis taught that the giving alms was a means of pardoning sin. It was a false doctrine. It was designed to fill their coffers, but it could not atone for sin. It serves as a classic example of how these false religious leaders were devouring widow’s houses.

And as we look at the next section in this chapter next week, we will see Jesus pronouncement of judgment upon this temple, and this system which victimized the very ones that they were supposed to be helping by teaching them a false religion and ignoring the truth of God’s word. Within 35 years from that day, the temple would be destroyed and all the priests killed or scattered. God’s judgment would be poured out on them for their false religion.

Folks, I wonder how many of you here this morning would rather continue in your comfortable, established false religion than find freedom in the truth of God’ word? I wonder how many prefer a form of religion, without the power of it, the power of the truth which brings about conversion and produces sanctification? I wonder how many will reject the lordship of Jesus Christ, and say “we will not let Christ rule over us, He will not decide for us, He will not tell us what to do.” I wonder how many will continue to think that they can be saved and not sanctified. I hope no one.   Jesus said in Luke 6:46 “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”

I hope no one leaves here today without submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Giving of themselves first and foremost, 100% to the Lord, realizing that He is Lord, and all their life and being belong to Him.

Today’s passage is one that is probably familiar to many of you here today. It’s been used in a variety of contexts, not the least of which is to augment the idea of the separation of church and state. However, it does not teach that. Neither Jesus or the apostles ever taught separation of church and state. That is not a Christian doctrine, but it is decidedly an anti-Christian doctrine that has been foisted upon us by an anti-Christian government, and fortified by a misinterpretation of this passage. God is sovereign over all the world, and as such is sovereign over all governments of the world. Man only thinks that he can separate government from God.

But we will look at the correct interpretation of this passage in just a moment. First of all though let’s look at the context of this event. This event comes as part of a trilogy of trick questions, concocted by a delegation made up of representatives of every religious faction in Israel; notably the chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Herodians and the Sadducees. I will not bore you with the differences between these various factions. Just know that this was the equivalent of getting the Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Libertarians and the Tea Party to all come together and agree on something. All of these parties were traditionally political enemies or at least adversaries for religious control in Israel. So getting them together and in agreement meant only one thing, Jesus was a considered a greater enemy, a greater threat to all of them than they were to each other. So these former enemies were united by a common enemy.

The only problem was that Jesus was anything but common. And so they constantly were undone by Jesus’ wisdom which surpassed all their combined cunning and scheming. But that doesn’t seem to stop them from trying. These guys kind of remind me of Wile E. Fox on the old Roadrunner cartoons. They keep coming up with these elaborate, clever schemes, and Jesus turns them right around on them time after time. We saw that last week with the question they had concerning from where He got His authority. Jesus answered their question with a question of His own which they could not answer without revealing their duplicitous nature, so they had to plead the fifth. His wisdom is beyond their capacity to refute.

But like Wile E. Coyote, these guys don’t know when to quit. They become even more angry, more spiteful and even more cunning in their attempt to catch Him in something they can use to destroy Him. Look at vs. 19-20; “The scribes and the chief priests tried to lay hands on Him that very hour, and they feared the people; for they understood that He spoke this parable against them. So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, in order that they might catch Him in some statement, so that they could deliver Him to the rule and the authority of the governor.”

It’s interesting that Luke characterizes these spies as having to pretend that they were righteous. Even though they were the religious elite, they had to pretend to be righteous. So these spies who are pretending to be righteous come to Jesus, try to blend in with the crowd and then try to trick Jesus by asking Him a predetermined question that had been concocted by their superiors, the highest ranking officials in the religious orders of Israel. It was a question designed to trap Jesus no matter which way He answered it. As far as they were concerned, it had no right answer. They thought that there were only two ways of answering it, and one way would seriously hurt Jesus’ standing with the people, and answering it the other way would put Him in trouble with the Roman government. And they really thought He would answer it in such a way as to enable them to charge Him with sedition against the Roman government. That was really their plan. That way He would be executed by the Romans and they would seem to be innocent of the whole affair. But of course they would reap the benefits by regaining and maintaining the status quo of their religious standing.

So here is their question, vs. 21,22; They questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, we know that You speak and teach correctly, and You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. “Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

Now we have already noted their craftiness, but notice also their flattery. Be wary of people that come to you with flattering speech, ladies and gentlemen. Righteous pretenders love to use flattery to get an advantage. Some of the greatest injury to our church has come through people who were adept at flattery. They love to butter you up by lavishing compliments on you before they stick the butter knife in your back. Beware of flattery. Note also that their own speech condemns them. They say we know you speak the truth. I love that one. Those same flatterers that I have had the pleasure of encountering can’t help but say something to the effect like “Roy is a great teacher, no one is preaching the word of God like Roy is.” And yet in the next breath they condemn you for preaching too much of it. They criticize your doctrine. One day they will be judged by their own words.

So herein lies the craftiness of their question. They really think that Jesus is just a rabble rouser. He has a rough band of disciples traveling with Him that are made up of fishermen and tax collectors and at least one or two of them are considered Zealots. The Zealots were radical insurrectionists who wanted to overthrow the rule of the Romans. So that is more than likely the association that they made with Jesus. They supposed that He would oppose paying taxes to Caesar. Now if they could get Him to say that, then they would have a hangable offense with which to charge Jesus and bring Him before a Roman court.

In fact, even though Jesus does not say that you should not pay taxes, actually quite the opposite, it does not stop them from lying and claiming that He said that when they brought Him before Pilate a few days later. Luke 23:2 says, “And they began to accuse Him, saying, ‘We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a King.’”

But the other possible answer that they supposed Jesus would say was just as condemning. Because Caesar claimed to be divine and was considered a god in the pantheon of Roman Gods. So if Jesus supported taxation they could not only use that to hurt His standing among the common people who were handicapped by the severe Roman tax on just about everything, but they could also claim He was guilty of breaking Jewish law. Furthermore, in the law it says that you shall make no graven image and the currency of the Roman government, particularly the denarius, was engraved with the image of the Emperor. So they figured they would get Him either way He answered, and they really expected Him to side with the insurrectionists.

Look at how Jesus answers them though. His wisdom exceeds their trickery. Vs. 23-25 “But He detected their trickery and said to them, ‘Show Me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?’ They said, ‘Caesar’s.’ And He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Now this is a brilliant answer, not only because He eludes their trap, but because He establishes truth in such a way that it becomes an enduring principle for the ages. He doesn’t just answer their question in such a way as to escape immediate judgment, or get out of the question, but He fully answers them in a way in which they cannot refute, and at the same time establishes an enduring principle for how we are to live our lives today no matter what the culture or the time period we find ourselves in. Such is the nature of the truth of the Word of God. It is timeless. It is enduring. Even 2000 years later it is still relevant, still pertinent and still true. That is why we preach the word of God, ladies and gentlemen. It is truth, it is eternal truth, and only the truth will set you free. Man’s attempts at rationalization cannot even begin to address life’s great questions, but God’s truth is able to discern between truth and error and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Jesus gives a two part answer and so I want to examine each part in turn. Each part is a principle that we can employ as we make decisions on a day to day basis as to how we are to live in a godless world. The first part of Jesus’ answer is, “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” Now this is brilliant. First of all, Jesus asks them for a denarius. Matthew adds some additional information in his gospel which helps us to understand the significance of this a little better. In Matt. 22:19 Jesus says “Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax.” And they brought Him a denarius.” A poll tax was the tax levied at the census, when everyone had to register. If you remember, that was the reason Joseph and Mary had to go to Bethlehem to register for the census and pay a poll tax. So this was the particular tax that the religious leaders were addressing. And that poll tax was paid with Roman currency, which was a denarius. So Jesus asks to see the coin that was required by the Romans.

And He asks them to tell Him what image and inscription is on the coin. The answer is that it was Caesar, probably Tiberius Caesar, and the inscription even alluded to his divinity. The point Jesus is making is that this is Caesar’s money, his image is engraved on it and his inscription is engraved on it. So Jesus says, “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.”

Now it’s helpful I think to understand the word translated “render.” It is “ä-po-dē’-dō-mē” in the original Greek. It means to pay back a debt, to give back something that belongs to someone else, to repay. Now that helps us to understand what Jesus is saying. Not only does the money belong to Caesar’s government, but the idea is that Caesar has provided certain things as the head of the government, and that has incurred a debt on their part. They must repay that debt to the government.

Now that is a godly principle, is it not? We are to pay our debts. If we owe something to someone, Jesus said in Matt. 5, then before you go to the temple to present yourself to worship God, go make amends with the one whom you owe. In other words, you cannot worship God when you owe a debt to someone that you haven’t paid. We saw that principle when we looked at Zaccheus a few weeks ago. When he got right with God he immediately wanted to get right with those he had defrauded.

So in effect what Jesus is saying is that since you owe the government for it’s services, it’s protection, it’s roads, it’s enforcement of laws, give them what is due them. Pay your taxes because it’s a debt that you owe to the government for providing certain services to it’s citizens. See, rather than teaching the separation of church and state, the Biblical principle is that God has established government to be His ministers of justice and order and the rule of law. Paul says in Romans 13:1-2 “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.” He goes on to say in Rom. 13:5-8 “Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.” And then Paul states the overriding principle in vs. 8 “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” That’s the royal law of God. Love your neighbor as yourself. Even to the point of loving your enemy.

Let me tell you something to help put this in perspective. When Paul wrote these words he was most likely in prison awaiting trial by none other than the Caesar of that period, who was the evil Emperor Nero. This man would one day have Paul’s head cut off. This was an emperor who castrated a young man and then married him in a public, royal, homosexual marriage ceremony. This was the same guy that used to light up his palace gardens for parties at night with Christians burning on stakes. And yet Paul says give honor to whom honor is due. As citizens we have a debt to our government that must be honored, even when it is not a God honoring government.

Now you may say well maybe Paul didn’t realize how bad Nero was. Well, Jesus certainly knew how bad Tiberius Caesar was. When Jesus looked at that denarius and said render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, He knew full well that in just 3 days by Caesar’s government He himself would be led like a sheep to the slaughter to hang from a cross by Roman soldiers. And yet Jesus said, “render to Caesar the things that are Caesars.” Listen, it’s not for you to rebel against those whom God has given a measure of authority to. God established government for the benefit of His kingdom. And God will hold Caesar accountable for things that belong to Caesar. But He will also hold you accountable for your subjection to authority.

Peter says in 1 Peter 2:13-14, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.” By such faithful acts, Christians “may silence the ignorance of foolish men” and be found as good citizens. We give no cause for offense to the government by disobeying the government. We owe them good citizenship. And when we do so we can silence the critics.

And that is exactly what happened here in the passage in Luke. The religious leaders were silenced by the answer of Jesus. They were unable to find fault with the wisdom of God. Luke 20:26 “And they were unable to catch Him in a saying in the presence of the people; and being amazed at His answer, they became silent.” Listen, if you want to silence your critics then rely upon the wisdom of God’s word and be obedient to God’s principles. Are you having wife problems? “Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.” Fulfill the royal law, love one another. Even love your enemy. Are you having husband problems? “Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.” Fulfill the royal law, love one another. Even love your enemy. Are you having business problems? “Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.” Fulfill the royal law, love one another. Even love your enemy. No matter what the problem in this world of relationships, the answer is the same. Owe no one nothing, instead love them. Give them what is due them. Honor them. Respect them. And you will silence your critics.

Now let’s look at the other side of the equation. “Render unto God the things that are God’s.” Now how are we to understand this principle? Well, first of all, use the same formula that Jesus used in the first principle. What did God make in His image? Man. Man was made in the image of God. Gen. 1:27 says, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Folks, I don’t know if you have contemplated the full implications of that verse or not. But I have as far as my limited intellectual capacity allows. We looked at it extensively in our study of Genesis that we have been doing on Wednesday night.

To be made in the image of God indicates a number of things. But one thing is fundamental. We were not made to be autonomous. We were not made to be independent, free agents. We were made for God’s purposes. We were made to be the bride of Christ. We were made to be the objects of God’s love, to be like God, conformed to the image of Christ. To be one Spirit with God. To be one in fellowship and communion with God. That is why God made man. Ephesians 5 makes it clear that marriage between a man and a woman is a picture of the church’s relationship with Christ. Just as a husband and his wife are to be one flesh, so Christ and His church are to be one spirit. That is why Christ gave His life for the church, because He loved her with an even greater love than a man loves his bride. God made man for His glory, for His pleasure, to satisfy His purposes. We are not some cosmic accident. We belong to God because He made us specifically for Himself.

Now once you start to comprehend that concept, then the principle, “render unto God the things that are Gods” starts to become a little more clear, doesn’t it? At the very least, we must respond in love to God’s love towards us. We must give our lives to God, commit our lives to God. We must give back our lives for His glory. We must give ourselves totally and completely to Him, forsaking all others, being faithful only to your Him so long as you shall live… so help you God. That’s where you start. That’s what it means to render to God the things that are God’s.

That’s what it means to be a Christian, by the way. It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship. But don’t you dare take that word relationship lightly or flippantly. It’s not a flirtatious relationship, it’s not a relationship marked by infidelity. It’s not a relationship based on a casual friendship. It’s not a modern day kind of relationship where you take all you can get without commitment, without sacrifice.   But “Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.” Fulfill the royal law, “love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and all your might.”

Listen, this passage isn’t so much a treatise on the importance of paying your taxes. It’s the message of the gospel. You were made and stamped in the image of God. You were made for communion and a relationship with God. You were made to be one with God. But sin broke that communion and relationship. Man rebelled against his Maker, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator. Man obeyed Satan’s word, and rebelled against God’s word and as such rightly brought upon himself the sentence of death. But God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes on Him, should not perish but have eternal life.  The eternal Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. But the world did not know Him. They rejected Him. These religious leaders, Peter said later in Acts 2, “delivered [Jesus] over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, and nailed Him to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.”

This same Jesus is now seated in heaven at the right hand of the Father, having paid the penalty for sin to those that will believe in Him. Peter said, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” This is the plan of God to reconcile man, to make him holy by the blood of Jesus, and to put His Spirit within them so that they might be one with Him.

Ladies and gentlemen, the question of the hour is simply this. Have you rendered unto God the things that are God’s? Have you given Him your life? Are you withholding from God what you rightfully owe Him? One day every knee will bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Caesars will bow, kings will bow, presidents will bow, all the governments will bow before the throne of Christ. But those who gave their lives in faith to Christ in this life will be seated on the throne beside Him in the next life. And those who refused to bow to Him in this life, those who refused to give Him honor in this life, those who rebelled against Him in this life, even though they may bow then, will not be part of His kingdom. But they will be cast out of the marriage feast into a place prepared for the devil and his angels, the Lake of Fire.

I trust that if you have committed your life to a marriage relationship with Christ you will be found to be a good steward today. Not only of your obligations to the government, to your marriage, to your employer, to every governing authority established by God, but also I hope you are found to be a good steward of your obligation to God. 1Cor. 6:19-20 says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” Render to God the things that are God’s. God requires nothing less than your very life, your will, your purpose. God rightly demands it all. Give back unto God the things that are God’s.

As I’m sure you realize by now, it is imperative that as we study each passage in Luke’s gospel, we must always consider the context in which it is found in first of all. And so today we must remember that this parable comes as a result of the religious leaders of Jerusalem indignantly demanding to know what authority Jesus was coming into the temple and throwing out the vendors and money changers, and teaching and preaching to the people. They wanted to know who or what was His authority.

But instead of answering them directly, Jesus asked them a question. He said, “I will also ask you a question, and you tell Me: Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?” And of course, the religious leaders decided that they couldn’t publicly answer that question because the people rightly believed that John was a prophet, in fact he was the prophet foretold of in Malachi that would prepare the way for the Messiah. So if they said that John was a prophet of God, then the obvious rebuttal would be “then why didn’t you believe him?” And if they said he wasn’t a prophet, the people might rise up and stone them. So they said, “we cannot say”, or “we don’t know.” They pled the fifth. And so Jesus says, “neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

Now that is the context in which Jesus gives this parable. It is an indirect way of answering them. He won’t answer them directly, but in the course of the parable, the answer will become clear where He gets His authority. But there is another context to this passage that is not quite so apparent, yet just as important.

The greater context of this parable is found in the Old Testament. The prophet Isaiah and Jeremiah as well as the Psalmist David spoke of Israel as a vineyard. It was a well known allegory that especially the religious leaders would be familiar with. And Isaiah in particular seems to be the one that Jesus is drawing inspiration from in this parable. Let’s look at it for a moment.

Isaiah 5: 1 “Let me sing now for my well-beloved A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. 2 He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones. … 4 “What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones? 5 “So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground. 6 “I will lay it waste; It will not be pruned or hoed, But briars and thorns will come up. I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it.” 7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel And the men of Judah His delightful plant.”

So in Isaiah 5 you have a song about the land of Judah in Israel. And God speaks allegorically how he protected and provided for and nurtured Israel. How He did everything He could do to provide for her and protect her. And that as a result of His providence He expected to see Judah produce good fruit. But instead, the song says that Judah produced nothing but worthless sour berries. So God pronounces a curse upon them and says that He will remove His protection from them and let the animals and the thieves and whatever else may come in and ravage the land.

Israel’s defining characteristic was that it did not worship a pantheon of idols, but worshipped the only true God, Jehovah. God had revealed Himself to them, through Abraham and then Moses and the prophets. God had given them His word, His promises and His law. God’s word told them that they were to be different from all the other nations of the world not only in customs and diet and ceremonies, but in every facet of society, they were to be a holy people, set apart by God to be His people exclusively, to be a testimony and a witness to the world.

But though God kept His promise and providentially drove out all their enemies and blessed them with every conceivable blessing, the people took advantage of His providence to indulge their own greediness and corruption. Furthermore, they lusted after the things that the rest of the world had. The prophets often used the analogy of a wife that turned to whoredom and prostitution, going after every gross desire of the flesh to describe how Israel repeatedly went after the false gods of other nations and worshipped them. They constantly wanted to be like the other pagan countries that surrounded them.

So God reminds them through this song in Isaiah that He had done everything for them that He could possibly do, taken away their enemies, protected them, provided for them in every way, but they had failed to produce fruit. And God warns them that because of their rebellion the day will come when He will turn away from them and His protective presence will be withdrawn. One day they will wake up and find themselves like Samson, who the Bible says did not realize that God’s strength had left him and shook himself and went out to face his attackers and was captured and tortured. So it will be with Israel.

Isaiah’s song goes on to say that even God’s favor is removed His anger is not yet spent. It says that He will call “a distant nation, and will whistle for it from the ends of the earth; and behold, it will come with speed swiftly.” This nation of warriors will be relentless, untiring, and bring devastation and destruction like a ravaging lion.

Now that is the historical, prophetic context to this parable that the hearers would have immediately recognized as pertaining to Israel. But now let’s look at the parable as Jesus tells it. And by the way, there is a parallel version of this parable in Matthew 21. Matthew adds some interesting factors to the story that Luke does not, such as He dug around the vineyard and put a tower in it which makes it almost identical to Isaiah 5.

But what Jesus does in this parable is He uses the analogy of Israel being a vineyard but then brings the focus upon those men that were put in place as vine growers, or caretakers. This is where the story is focused, on the caretakers, those given the responsibility for the stewardship of the vineyard. These were the ones who were responsible for the spiritual well being of Israel, for the good fruit of Israel. They were the ones given responsibility for the stewardship of God’s word, for the administration of God’s kingdom.

Jesus says that eventually the owner of the vineyard sent a slave to receive some of the fruit that was supposed to be returned to the owner. But the vine growers beat him up and sent him away empty handed. So the owner sends a second slave and then a third, and these they beat up as well. They refuse to give the owner his due. He invested all the resources, he provided all the things necessary to expect good fruit, but they refuse to acknowledge their debt to him, and instead beat up his servants.

So finally, the owner of the vineyard decides to send his beloved son, in hope that they will certainly honor him. But the vine growers seeing the son say amongst themselves, this is the heir, let us kill him and the vineyard will be ours. And so they kill the son.

You can bet the religious leaders by now had figured out that this was a story about them. They were the ones in charge of the administration of the vineyard. They knew that Israel had mistreated or killed all the prophets that God had sent them in the past. In fact, history tells us that Isaiah, who as I pointed out was one of the originators of the vineyard analogy, was in fact sawn in two with a wooden saw.

But there were two groups of people there listening that day. There were the disciples of Jesus that were in the temple that Jesus was preaching to, and there was the religious delegation made up of high priests and Pharisees and so forth.

So when Jesus asks the question, “What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to them?” I believe the disciples are the ones that answer ““He will come and destroy these vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others.” But the shocked religious leaders say “may it never be!” They know that what the disciples and Jesus are saying is that God will remove them from their stewardship and give it to others who will administer their stewardship in such a way as to bring forth fruit. But they say “may it never be! We will never allow it.” See, the whole point of their delegation was to say that Jesus had no authority. They considered themselves the authority in Israel, and Jesus threatened them. He threatened their power, their position, and so they wanted to kill Him. And they would in just 3 days time.

Vs. 17, “But Jesus looked at them and said, “What then is this that is written:‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone’? Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.” I love how Jesus constantly quotes scripture. He who was the Word made flesh, and speaks the word of God with authority. He sets an example for us that endures today. Especially in light of the way in which the word of God today is being discarded in favor of relativism in an attempt to not be offensive.

Jesus is quoting from Psalm 118 by the way, which most of the Pharisees would have known by heart. Psalm 118 is what the people were quoting from when they called out “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” just a couple of days prior when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. And now Jesus uses that very same Psalm to say “I am the stone which you the builders rejected. I am the cornerstone spoken of in Psalm 118. Isaiah added in Isaiah chapter 8 that He is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

Listen, why do people stumble over Jesus Christ? Why is Jesus offensive? The religious leaders stumbled over Him because first of all He told them they were sinners just like everyone else. Maybe even worse sinners than everyone else. They were worse because they refused to recognize that they were sinners. The only sin that God cannot forgive is the sin of unrepentance. Please understand something folks. The gospel, if it is being handled accurately, is not supposed to seduce people into the kingdom by singing songs of love, love, love. The gospel breaks people over the rock of offense; the rock of Jesus Christ who alone is righteous and holy. The gospel seeks to first of all convict you of your sin, to break your will to self rule, to autonomy, to doing what is right in your own eyes, and recognizing and submitting to the word of God that declares what constitutes righteousness and sinfulness. That is what it means to confess Jesus as both Lord and Savior.

That is what Jesus meant when He said, “Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.” Either you fall on the rock that is Jesus Christ in brokenness, bowing to His Lordship over your life, breaking your pride, breaking your selfishness, or the rock that is Christ will fall on you, scattering you like dust. You will be destroyed. God’s judgment will fall on you if you reject the Cornerstone.

But if you accept Christ as the cornerstone, then Eph 2:19-22 says “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” A cornerstone was laid at the foundation of a building, by which the building is made true and all it’s lines are drawn from.   Christ as the cornerstone symbolizes that His truth is laid as the foundation for the church, upon which was laid the scriptures of the apostles. The word of God then is the foundation that the church is built upon, which it must stay true to. And as Christians, we are being built up into a holy temple, as we live our lives according to it’s blueprint. When the Holy Spirit is living in our temple, then we will bear the fruit of the Spirit, having been conformed to the image of Jesus Christ laid down for us in His word.

Now that’s the interpretation of the parable. Let’s look at the application. If you remember we started with Isaiah 5. That parable was a nationalistic allegory. It was speaking of the nation of Israel that had rejected the reign of God over their lives, and though there were certainly a few individuals that had not bowed their knee to Baal, as a whole, the nation of Israel became apostate. They became idolatrous. And so God brought a nation of warriors from Assyria who destroyed their cities, the temple and their palaces, destroying thousands of them and taking others into captivity. By the time Jesus quotes Isaiah 5, almost 700 years have passed, and Israel has gone from 12 tribes to just three; Benjamin, Judah and Levi. But their apostasy has resurfaced to the extent that they actually will crucify the Messiah, God’s only beloved Son. So the warning of impending judgment is still appropriate. Within the lifetime of many of those very leaders who call for Christ’s death, the Roman army under the General Titus would sack the city of Jerusalem and kill hundreds of thousands of Jews, and destroy the temple so that one stone wasn’t left upon another. The stone that the builders rejected scattered them like dust.

I cannot help but see the parallels of Judah to the United States today. We too were a nation that benefited from the presence of God in a very special way. No other nation on earth had the blessings that America has had. No other nation in the world was founded on Christian principles found in God’s actual word other than America. God used religious persecution to bring a great nation of people together from many foreign countries, many of which had persecuted them for their religious views and for trying to be true to God’s word. We have become the greatest nation on the face of the earth. In the beginning it was established on the word of God. God’s word is written on our government buildings, its verses were inscribed on our monuments, even our currency stated our faith in God, and for almost 200 years our schools used the Holy Bible as it’s textbook. Our country went on to export Christianity to the world through missionaries to every continent on the globe. There were churches on every street corner. Some of the greatest revivals known to man swept across this country, turning men’s hearts to God with great fervor.

Yet as time went on, we like Israel grew complacent, and we grew more and more materialistic. We became consumed with possessions and the lusts of the flesh. Today America has become a nation that is not defined by their Christian values anymore, but rather defined by our decadence and rampant consumerism. And I am afraid that the time is coming soon, when God will whistle to a foreign army who will come against this nation with the same zeal that Babylon did against Israel. And God will give our stewardship to a nation that will render to Him good fruit in due season.

But Jesus’ version of this parable is not just a nationalistic allegory, but also an ecclesiastical allegory. Here in this version Christ added the element of the caretakers. This was a veiled reference to the religious leaders. The priesthood of Israel particularly had been entrusted with the oracles of God. They had been entrusted with the worship, with the administration of the temple. They were to teach and to lead the people in righteousness and holiness. But the fact that Jesus continually pointed out was that the religious leaders were actually hypocrites. They had perverted the truth for their own purposes. They had their positions by means of political appointment rather than divine appointment. They had sold out to the Roman government for a measure of power. They were in it for the money, they were in it for the acclaim of people, they were in it because they loved to appear righteous. They were in it for the social standing. And they were willing to kill the Messiah in order to keep their position and power.

Jesus is saying that their stewardship will be taken away. Within their lifetime, the temple would be destroyed. The ancestral records would be destroyed. From what I understand today no Jew is able to know for certain if they are from a particular tribe. So there can’t be priests anymore, because they had to be from the tribe of Levi. There can’t be sacrifices anymore, because they had to be done in the temple in Jerusalem. All that they relied upon, their power, their prestige, their position of reverence, was destroyed.   The cornerstone that they rejected fell on them and scattered them into pieces that could never be put back together.

Folks, once again I’m afraid that there is a direct analogy here to the church leadership in America today. We have a greater privilege than Israel ever had. We have the complete scriptures, Old and New Testaments, inspired by God, written down for our instruction. Christ took away the stewardship from the priests and gave it to the lowly disciples. The apostles who were unlearned, uncredentialed, didn’t graduate from an approved rabbinical school were given the stewardship of the gospel. And these faithful men proclaimed it, protected it, and preserved it in the New Testament scriptures and then passed it on to preachers and evangelists. Eph 4:11-13 “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

I wish I could unequivocally say that our generation of pastors and teachers had proved reliable in the stewardship of the gospel handed down from the apostles and prophets. But I am afraid that even a cursory look at the state of the church today in America reveals that we have neglected our primary purpose – the protection, proclamation and presentation of the Word of God – because we have been too concerned about our position, our social status, and our little bit of power to really preach the full counsel of the word of God. Even a cursory look at the majority of churches out there reveals that the clergy does not consider the preaching of God’s word a priority. Today ministers are more like managers, overseeing programs and employees and property administration. And the word of God is neglected. People are starving for the truth and not getting it. Instead we are building bigger buildings, adding bigger salaries, running coffee shops and bookstores and putting on concerts, but we have relinquished our number one priority; the preaching of the word of God. I am afraid that in the very near future, this enterprise in America that we call the church will be done away with. I heard Al Mohler and John McArthur speak on this subject last spring at a pastor’s conference. Already legislation is in the works to take away tax exemption from churches, not only in contributions, but in property taxes. If church contributions lost their tax exemption it would be harmful but not necessarily disastrous. But if property taxes are one day levied against the church then most churches and church based institutions would be forced to close. And when that day comes I think we will see who was in it for the money. When preaching the gospel may land you in jail then I wonder how many will want to preach at all. I am afraid that day is coming soon in America, and it will be our own fault. Church leadership has left it’s purpose which is proclaiming the whole gospel of Jesus Christ to the church.

One final application, this parable also has an individual analogy. As the Jewish people were given a stewardship and that stewardship was taken away, so as Christians we are given a stewardship. We are given the greatest gift of all, the gift of salvation. God’s beloved Son willingly gave His life as a sacrifice for the sins of those who would confess Him as Lord. We are given the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ Himself to live within us to guide us, and strengthen us and teach us. And we have been given the gift of God’s word, God’s very breath of life written down, easily available to everyone to carry with them. Today the word of God has never been more accessible, more portable. And yet what are we doing with our stewardship? Oh, we may not literally beat up the pastor, but we can despise the preaching of the Word. We may not literally crucify Christ, but we can insult the Spirit of grace by sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth. Hebrews 10:29 says,            “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, ‘THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.’ It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

God grafted us Gentiles, people who were outside of the covenant, outside of the nation of Israel, without hope, God grafted us into His vineyard. He made us part of His chosen people, the church. He has freed us from the enslavement of sin and the fear of death. He has given us an inheritance in heaven, given us a promise to reign on thrones with Christ for eternity. Such things cannot be comprehended. And yet I’m afraid that many Christians today are totally enslaved to this world. They are totally enamored by the lusts of this world. Like the Israelites, we lust after the leeks and garlic of Egypt. We lust after the very things that God has delivered us from. Rather than seeking righteousness and holiness by suffering with Christ, we seek friendship with the world, we seek social status and prestige and bigger and better material things, rather than laying up our treasures in heaven.

Listen, I will close by referring to what Matthew includes in his gospel’s account of this parable. In Matthew 21:43 it records Jesus as saying, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it.” I don’t think that this verse is teaching that you can lose your salvation, but I do think it teaches that God expects a return on your stewardship. Grace is not the result of works, but grace should produce works. Eph. 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

I don’t know your heart today. God knows your heart. But if your heart is right, then your fruit should be evident. If God is on the throne of your heart, then God has a right to expect fruit from His vine. Jesus said in John 15:16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain.”

How do we bring forth good fruit? By being found true to the cornerstone. By establishing our lives upon the cornerstone of Christ’s word, being built up into a holy temple in which the Spirit of Christ dwells. By crucifying the desires of the flesh daily so that Christ may live in our mortal bodies. By submitting joyfully to the rule of Christ over our hearts. When Christ is our cornerstone, then we will build our lives on His foundation and according to His plan. That produces a building that brings glory to God. That produces a fruit that will remain. I pray that today you come to the cornerstone in brokenness, that you may be built up according to the truth of God’s word.

Whether or not you realize it, there has been a monumental shift within the modern church in the last century or so. Particularly in the last half of the last century, events and attitudes that perhaps seemed almost imperceptible at first have quickly gained a momentum and coalesced into a movement that has brought about sweeping changes throughout the church.

I would like to say that all these changes have been good. After all, there were some movements in the past such as the Reformation that swept through Europe and into America that changed the church for the better. But I’m afraid that is not the case with this movement. It’s difficult to put a name on it that encompasses everything that is going on. Some people have suggested that the movement should be called the New Emergent Church. But I don’t know if that is too limiting and in definitive .

Whatever it is that you want to call it, it is the most dangerous movement that Christianity has encountered since the Dark Ages.   It literally threatens to destroy not only the church as we know it, but it is also demonically designed to ultimately destroy souls by deluding them as to the true nature of the church, and specifically the true nature of the gospel.

Regardless of what you call this movement, regardless of the great diversity of denominations that are being sucked into it, it’s got one characteristic which is common to all. This great demonic delusion is focused on undermining the supreme authority of God’s word.   There really is no other greater purpose of the church other than to protect, to preserve, to proclaim and publish the word of God that men might be saved.   And yet today the word of God is almost nonexistent in many main line churches. And even when it is found, it’s importance, it’s prominence is diminished and relegated to an ancillary component of what is called worship. The scripture, which is the very essence of Christ, the Word of God, the voice of God, is subjugated to the whims of fashion, trends, technology, translations that emasculate the Word, teachers that downplay the authority of the Word, and so called spiritual experiences which trump the Word.

The incredible thing is that the greatest adversary of the church is not the atheists, nor the Islamists or any of the world’s agents in the media or government. But the greatest danger to the church is coming from within the church itself. The authority and supremacy of the Word of God is being attacked on so many different levels within the church in a varieties of ways and yet the average person is completely unaware of it. One of the primary ways this is happening has been through a shift in emphasis from the preaching of the Word of God with authority to an emphasis on what is called worship, or praise and worship.

Worship leaders today are often given a form of leadership found in the church that circumvents being vetted by the credentials for pastors or deacons found in 1 and 2 Timothy and yet they have more influence in the church many times than the pastor himself. People decide church associations today not based on what kind of preacher the pastor is, or even if he is preaching the word accurately, but they pick churches based on musical styles and often the worship leader’s talent.

Worship is often presented as a time of spiritual awareness, evoking an emotional response, a euphoric feeling that comes through music, sometimes an ecstatic outburst of emotion that is attributed to the Spirit. Worship has become a catch all for a multimedia presentation that encompasses, music, lights, images and sounds that coalesce in an experience that is loosely based on an even looser theology. The problem is that very often that theology,   if it’s not in outright error, is so lopsided in it’s perspective that it rarely presents the full gospel. It’s very often a partial gospel, encompassing a lopsided view of God as a one dimensional being who is limited in scope to only an emotional quotient called love, and which consequently sacrifices all the weightier issues of salvation such as sanctification and holiness as being archaic and out of touch or even legalistic.

Now as I alluded to earlier, there is nothing new under the sun. Technology may be newer, musical styles may have changed, but false theology has been around forever. The devil just keeps repackaging it, reformatting it for the next generation. Even in Jesus day, even with Jesus present, there are elements of false worship and errant theology that He has to deal with. So in this passage we are looking at today, in addition to looking at the historical account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, we will see a contrast of true worship and errant worship.

First of all though, let’s consider the context of this passage. It is obviously divinely connected to the passage preceding it. In that parable, Jesus told a story about a king who came to receive his kingdom in a far away country. And he put his servants in charge of the kingdom until he returned. But there were people in that country, his citizens, that said “we will not let this man reign over us.” Jesus says in the story that when the king returns, he first addresses those faithful slaves who were good stewards of what he entrusted to them. He rewards the faithful. But those that were unfaithful with their stewardship he takes away even what they have and gives it to the faithful. And those that rebelled against his kingship, he says he will slay in his presence.

Now that is the immediate context of this passage we are looking at today. Jesus is the King who is coming to receive His kingdom. He came preaching “repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” He was the King come to receive a far away kingdom. And while He was on earth, He entrusts His servants with a stewardship. They are given the responsibility of managing the kingdom and utilizing it’s resources in a way that will benefit the kingdom.

And that is exactly what Jesus had been doing. He had called 12 disciples to follow Him, to learn from Him. They had been entrusted with His Word. They sat under His teaching. One day, they will transcribe those words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and compile the Holy Scriptures, the Word of God. So in the time of His incarnation, Jesus delivers the Word of God, the gospel, to the disciples, not only the 12, but all those that truly leave all to follow Him and accept Him as Lord and King.

Now on this day, Jesus begins the final part of His journey to Jerusalem. He leaves Jericho, and approaches two small villages on the outskirts of Jerusalem and sends two of His disciples ahead into the village. He tells them that they will find there a donkey and her colt tied up there. And He tells the disciples that they are to bring Him the colt and if anyone asks what they are doing, they are to say that the Lord has need of it. So they go on ahead and they find everything exactly as He said.

So they bring back the colt to Jesus and put their robes on it for a saddle and then put Jesus on it. Now this is the first part of their worship. Notice first of all that worship involves obedience. These disciples are given a set of instructions that probably seemed kind of ridiculous to them at first. Go into the next village and you will find a colt tied there. Untie it and bring it here. And if someone asks you what you’re doing, then say the Lord has need of it. They probably were saying, “Right?!” This is a good way to get arrested. It didn’t make sense. Jesus hadn’t yet been to that village, so how could He know there was a colt tied there? And yet they unquestionably obeyed His world. They didn’t argue. They didn’t question. They did what He said, and the results were exactly like Jesus said they would be.

You know, the greatest detriment to true worship of God is our own intellect sometimes. We think we know better than God how to design a church, or how to relate to people. We think we know better than God how to attract a crowd, how to keep people’s interest. So we circumvent the preaching of the word and engineer some type of human program that we think will accomplish the end result that we want. But then at some point in the future, we discover that it didn’t really accomplish what we thought it would. 1Cor. 1:21 says that “since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe.”

What those disciples didn’t realize, is that by being obedient to the word, they were also fulfilling Biblical prophecy. In Zechariah 9:9, written 500 years earlier, it was written, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

And that is another key to true worship. True worship in accordance with the word of God accomplishes the will of God. See, even though they did not initially understand what they were doing, or why they were doing it in this way, the word of God explained it. The disciples were more than willing to celebrate Jesus as the coming Messiah, as the conquering King who would deliver their nation from the iron fist of Rome. But if they had studied the scriptures, they would have discovered that Zechariah says that yes, He was coming as a King, but that His purpose was salvation, not to conquer Rome. Zechariah says, “He is just and endowed with salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey.” A donkey was not a war horse, but a beast of burden. Jesus came to bear our burdens, to bear the burden of sin to the cross and be offered there as a sacrifice for our sins so that we might have salvation. And salvation is the only way to enter His kingdom.

Jesus’ purpose in entering Jerusalem was completely contrary to the disciples expectations. Christ entered Jerusalem not to conquer Israel’s political enemies, but to conquer sin. To defeat sin, by dying on the cross, being buried in the grave, descending into hell, and then raised by the power of God after three days. He defeated sin by robbing sin of it’s penalty; spiritual death. That is another element of worship that is missing in so many modern churches today. There is no preaching about sin, no emphasis on the need for confession and repentance from sin. Listen, there is no salvation without repentance from sin. Salvation by it’s definition is deliverance from the penalty of sin which is death. But there is hardly any mention of sin in modern worship today. It’s all about relationship. It’s all about love. It’s all about grace. And yet the Bible is clear that there is no salvation without repentance of sin. Jesus said twice in Luke 13, that unless you repent you will perish.

I believe that repentance is pictured in the disciples laying down their garments in the road for Him to ride on. The robe was a man’s covering. It was his dignity, it signified his status. We have the same thing today. Our status is printed on our clothes. We put little horses and polo players on our clothes so that people will know our status. It tells people something about us. Clothes are our first line of defense. These disciples laid down their defenses. Jesus says in another place that a man’s robe was used to keep himself warm at night. And so I don’t want to belabor the illustration too much, but I believe that laying down your robe symbolized a laying down of your dignity, your status, it was humbling one’s self before God. It was acknowledging your submission to the Lordship of the King. It was recognizing that your covering was ineffective, and you needed to be clothed in the robe of righteousness that Jesus provided for us at the foot of the cross.

I find very often in modern worship, almost the exact opposite of humiliation. Instead of humbling oneself to worship, there is very often an exaltation of the musicians, an exaltation of the entertainers whereby they are receiving the adoration that belongs to God. That is a dangerous thing ladies and gentlemen. That’s why I said last week that natural talent is not synonymous with spiritual gifts. In fact, many times I think a natural talent can be a detriment to being used by God because it draws attention away from God to you. That’s why Paul said he was given a thorn in the flesh, to keep him from exalting himself. He was a brilliant man. That was well known even to the Governor Festus and King Agrippa which prompted Festus to say, “Your great learning is driving you mad.” So God gave Paul a thorn in his flesh to keep from exalting himself, so that the glory might be to God. God alone deserves our adoration.

Now look at vs. 37-38 “As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, shouting: “BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

So as the procession leaves Bethpage and ascends the Mount of Olives the disciples start to praise God with a loud voice for all the powerful works that they had seen. Now this sounds more like what we think of when we think of praise. But let’s look at the characteristics of their praise. First they recognized Him as King, and secondly they recognized him as Lord. So they acknowledge and praise Him as the rightful King of His creation, but they also submit to Him as Lord. You may remember last week I referenced that depending on the politics of the president, I may or may not care for the guy currently in office in the White House. But regardless, he is the president and I am a citizen of the United States. There are times when that is a grudging acceptance on my part. But my attitude is something else entirely when my guy gets in the White House. Then I proudly say that he is my President. Not just the president of the country that I happen to be living in, but my President. There is a difference, because I am in agreement with his politics, his platform.

That’s a poor illustration perhaps of what it means to acknowledge Jesus as King, and Jesus as Lord. Jesus as King is acknowledging His domain, His right to rule. Jesus as Lord is gladly submitting to His rule in my life. Listen, true worship is submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in my life. It’s not singing a couple of songs and continuing in my sin. It’s not clapping my hands on Sunday morning and sleeping with my boyfriend or girlfriend on Sunday night. That’s why I started off by saying that true worship is obedience and then repentance. You can’t worship God and continue in sin. Nor can you refuse to acknowledge your sin as sin. That is a big one today. In the new worship mentality they first undermine the authority of scripture so that they can no longer say with certainty what constitutes sin. Then they take away the onus of sin by an aberrant doctrine of grace, and then they eventually try to redefine sin as not sin after all. And once the devil gets you to the point where you no longer think your sin is sin then he has you in the place that he can destroy you. And that’s his goal all along.

Another important element of their praise was peace in heaven. They are not talking about peace on earth – the absence of war or strife which is the social gospel that a lot of churches are buying into. But the peace that heaven gives is peace with God. And peace with God only is possible when the justice of God and the wrath of God against sin is satisfied. Paul says in Romans that we were enemies of God and that through Jesus we have peace with God. Rom. 5:10 “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” Rom. 5:1 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And secondly, having made peace, we now glorify God in heaven. How do we do that? Do we do that by simply saying it, by praising God in song, by repeating “glory to God?” No, not just singing praise, but living lives that bring praise to God. We glorify God not just with our mouths, but by the testimony of a transformed life. We saw that in Zaccheus. His transformation brought glory to God. Bartimaeus, his transformation brought glory to God. You want to worship God? Then let your transformation bring glory to God. Jesus said in Matt. 5:16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Your good works done as a result of your transformed heart will bring glory to God as people observe your behavior in your daily life.

Now when the Pharisees and the religious leaders heard the disciples praising Jesus as the Messiah King, these men revealed that they were in fact the very ones that said, “we will not have this man to rule over us.” And so they said to Jesus in vs. 39, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!” Now this is an interesting thing for Jesus to say. It actually has a dual meaning. First and most obviously, Jesus is saying that God isn’t dependent upon our praise, but He can cause even inanimate objects to erupt in His praise if He so desires. There is a notion out there that God is this pitiful, narcissistic kind of God that sits in heaven almost in a fit of despondency, waiting and wishing that someone would call, someone would tell him how wonderful He is. That somehow God just needs people to tell Him how great He is in order for Him to be happy. And if you just do that on a regular basis, God will bless you in return.

I would just remind such people of what Paul said to the philosophers on Mars Hill, that “God is not served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things.” God’s happiness is not dependent upon our praise.

But this statement about the stones is also a reference to judgment. In Habakkuk 2:11-12 the prophet writes about the judgment of God upon the city and says “Surely the stone will cry out from the wall, And the rafter will answer it from the framework. Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed And founds a town with violence!” What Jesus is referencing here is that these men who are the rulers of Jerusalem that said “we will not have this man rule over us,” in denying Jesus the praise and recognition that He deserves are actually bringing upon their city the judgment of God for their rejection of His Son. That is exactly what the parable indicated in the previous chapter. That God would bring destruction upon those men that reject His Christ. And that is exactly what would happen to Jerusalem. God would bring judgment upon it just 40 years later because it rejected the Savior, God’s only Son. So what Jesus in essence is saying, is that even if these people were to fall silent, the stones of your city will cry out as a testament to the foolishness and the consequences of your rebellion.

Now that explains Jesus reaction and statement in the next few verses. Vs. 41 “When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

Jesus wept over the city because He knew that their worship of Him was superficial. The crowds were following Him now, but they would be calling for His crucifixion in less than a week. They had a man centered theology rather than a God centered theology. In their version, God would bring the Messiah to deliver them from their enemies, to bring prosperity to their nation, to bring peace from their oppressors. It was a social kingdom, a political kingdom, that was solely for their benefit. And so Jesus is weeping over the city because He knows that in the plan of God there must be suffering before exaltation. He must first be their sacrifice in order to be their Savior, and only then can He be their King and they His citizens.

But the crowds aren’t interested in sacrifice. They don’t want to hear about suffering. They want a solution to their immediate problems. There are a lot of people today that are drawn to God, are drawn to a superficial kind of worship that is man-centric, that appeals to their emotions, appeals to their particular crisis. And the new worship template promises them an easy solution to their problem. God is love, and He just loves to love you, and because He loves you He will give you everything you want if you just believe that He loves you. What they fail to teach you though is the full counsel of God’s Word that requires that you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and all your might. And that if you truly love God like that, then God’s will must be paramount, it must take precedence over everything and every one. That means you cannot love God and the world, you cannot love God and money. You cannot love your family member or your girlfriend or your boyfriend more that God. God must have preeminence. There is a cost to loving God, and the cost is the love of the world.

Well, Jerusalem would within the week reject Jesus Christ as their Savior, as their Sacrifice. They would call for His crucifixion. And just 40 years later the historian Josephus would record that Titus would encircle Jerusalem, he would erect a wall, he would bring a siege upon the city, and then after 6 months in 70 AD he would break through the walls of Jerusalem and massacre every man, woman and child. Some would estimate that over 200,000 Jews would be killed inside the city. And then Titus set fire to the city. They believed that the walls of the Temple had gold in them and to get at the gold they burned the city and then tore apart the walls to get at the gold.  Today there is only one fragment of the city of Jerusalem still standing, the Wailing Wall. It’s where the Jews go to pray for the Messiah to come. They still refuse to recognize that He already came and they did not recognize the time of His visitation. Some of you here today, I wonder if you recognize that today is the day of Christ’s visitation? Today salvation has been presented to you. The question is whether or not you will accept Jesus as Lord and follow Him or reject Him.

Immediately after entering the city, Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those that were selling. In vs. 46 Jesus says to them, “It is written, ‘AND MY HOUSE SHALL BE A HOUSE OF PRAYER,’ but you have made it a ROBBERS’ DEN.” What an indictment against their house of worship! They had prostituted the temple of God. They had prostituted the sacrificial service. They had set up money changers and animal brokers and so forth within the temple walls to supposedly accommodate those that were coming to worship God. But instead they had corrupted the system to the point that instead of helping people worship God they were robbing people.

Ladies and gentlemen I am afraid that many churches today are prostituting the gospel of God. The house of God has been turned into a carnival. The church has bookstores and coffee shops and bazaars and dinners and marathons and car shows and flea markets and every possible entertainment and event going on. Yet as Proverbs says the people perish for lack of vision. The church has lost it’s vision, lost it’s purpose. The church isn’t a community center. It’s not a social hall. It’s not a concert hall. The church is a place where God’s people come together to worship God in Spirit and in truth. It’s the place where the water of life is given freely and without charge. It’s the place where people’s souls are fed, hearts are encouraged, and sinners are convicted. It’s not a place where we try to make sinners feel good about themselves. But where sinners repent and are delivered and set free. But unfortunately many churches today are robbing people of the gospel of salvation.

In the earliest church in Jerusalem during the time of the apostles, they were feeding the widows and the apostles said let us set aside certain men for that task. But as for us, the apostles said, “we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:4) That’s the priority of the church. And that’s the priority of worship as well.

So Jesus cleaned house. You know, I wish all these people that only believe that God is love could have been there that day when Jesus got a bull whip and overturned all the stalls and tables and drove out all the animals and vendors and money changers out of the temple. I don’t think most of those people would recognize Jesus nor would they worship Him. This was the second time by the way that Jesus cleaned out the temple. In John’s account it says the disciples remembered the proverb that said, “the zeal for your house has consumed me.”

Folks, we need some old fashioned zeal for the house of God. We need some zeal for the word of God and the preaching of the word of God. We need to put an end to the prostitution of Christianity, the business of the church and get back to being about the business of the kingdom of God.

That’s what we see Jesus bringing the people back to in vs. 47, 48. It says, after that “He was teaching daily in the temple; but the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among the people were trying to destroy Him, and they could not find anything that they might do, for all the people were hanging on to every word He said.” You see that? Jesus was teaching daily in the temple. He was preaching every day and the people were hanging on to His every word. That’s zeal for God. I long to see people with a zeal for the word of God, that don’t want to miss a service, don’t want to miss a message. That are willing to sacrifice the enticements of the world for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ and becoming conformed to His image.

Jesus said in John 6:63 “the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” Listen folks, Paul reminded Timothy to hold onto the scripture which he had learned from childhood “which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” Let’s not lose sight of the priority and preeminence of the word of God in our worship. And then let us be obedient to the word of God. And if we are obedient to the word of God then we will have no problem submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And when the Lordship of Christ is evident in our lives then our lives will be a living testimony to the glory of God. People will see our transformation, our good works and glorify God.

I pray that starting today you will renounce superficial worship. But diligently commit to living out Romans 12:1,2. “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”