SHOUTING CHILDREN
MATTHEW 21: 12-17
MARCH 11, 2001
INTRODUCTION: [Orientation to school, work, or family?] A small boy is sent to bed by his father. Five minutes later... “Da-ad...” “What?” “I’m thirsty. Can you bring me a glass of water?” “No. You had your chance. Lights out!” Five minutes later. “Da-aaad...” “What?” “I’m THIRSTY. Can I have a drink of water??” I told you NO! If you ask again I will have to spank you!!” Five minutes later... “Daaaa-aaaad...” “WHAT??!!” “When you come to spank me, can you bring me a glass of water?”
TRANSITION THOUGHT: Our text for this day helps us focus on learning Jesus’ agenda for worship. Often we get in a rut or a pattern of doing things which is not the way that God intended it to be. He calls us to be guided by His Word and His Spirit that we may honor Him in all we do, and not the contrast of honoring ourselves in all we do. OUR GOAL IS TO LIVE LIKE JESUS, ISN’T IT???
THESIS SENTENCE: True worship is coming to Jesus like a child!
FOLLOWING JESUS IS ALWAYS A CALL TO REORIENTATION. HOW DOES HE ATTEMPT TO REORIENT THESE TEMPLE WORSHIPERS?
I. JESUS SAYS WE MUST GO FROM THE SECULAR TO THE SACRED (VV. 12-13)
A. FALSE WORSHIP IS SECULAR IN NATURE: JESUS ON JEREMIAH
Verse 12 and 13c “Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all woh were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.... ‘But you are making it a den of robbers.’”
1. Secular: adj. Of or concerned with temproal, worldly matters rather than with religion // profance (as distinct from sacred), not under the control of a religious body!
2. Jeremiah 7:9-11, “Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, ‘We are safe’ -- safe to do all these destestable things? Has this House, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been Watching! Declares the Lord.”
3. Exodus 30:11-16 and Leviticus 12:6-8 require business transactions to take place in the Temple area. SO, WHY did JESUS get in such a dander??????
4. Jesus sees the Temple, He sees the merchants, He has been watching and He knows their hearts. They are here for reasons profane, not under the control of a religious body. HE SEES HEARTS FAR FROM GOD!!!
5. The scariest thing about the passage from Jeremiah is that the people thought they could fool God, or they were fooled, for they all thought, “WE ARE SAFE…”(VERSE 10).
B. TRUE WORSHIP IS SACRED IN NATURE: JESUS ON ISAIAH
Verse 13a & b “It is written,” HE said to them, “‘My House will be called a house of prayer.’”
1. Sacred is the word Jesus was looking for! Sacred defined: “Consecrated, holy // set apart, esp. For the service or worship of God.”
2. Jesus knows the WORD OF GOD, HE must have been raised in Synagogue School. His Parents took him on Saturday.
3. ISAIAH wrote, “This is what the LORD says: “To the eunuchs who keep MY Sabbaths, who choose what pleases ME and hold fast to MY covenant -- to them I will give within MY temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off. And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to serve HIM, to love the Name of the LORD, and to worship HIM, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to MY covenant -- these I will bring to MY holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on MY altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations (56: 4-7).”
4. What’s the point? Those that honor the Sabbath, those that keep God’s covenant, those that bind themselves to the Lord and serve HIM, who love the Name of the Lord and worship Him, Those that don’t desecrate the Sabbath, THESE THE LORD WILL BLESS, THESE WILL FIND JOY IN HIS TEMPLE, THESE GOD WILL HEAR WHEN THEY PRAY, AND ACCEPT THEIR SACRIFICES!
5. WORSHIP IS A VERB AND PRAYER IS THE WORK AND LIFE OF A BELIEVER! IF WE WANT GOD TO HONOR OUR PRAYERS THEN WE MUST FIRST TURN FROM OUR SECULAR MINDSET TO THAT OF THE HOLY, SET APART FOR GOD! IT IS ABOUT A RELATIONSHIP!
Reorientation is going from a secular mindset to a sacred mindset. That’s how Jesus lived!
II. JESUS SAYS WE MUST GO FROM BEING STERILE TO STRENGHTENING (VV. 14-15) [FROM HINDERING TO HEALING]
A. Sterile worship Hinders and does not heal or strengthen.
“The blind and the lame came to Him at the temple... But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things He did... they were indignant (vv. 14-15)
1. Jesus knew what the Religious people thought, “The ‘blind and the lame’ will not enter the palace (II Sam. 5:8). This is from the account of David taking Jerusalem from the Jebusites, the “blind and the lame” are those “whom David hates” and the ones who are forbidden to “enter the palace.”
2. Jesus also knew what the Law said about the issue, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to Aaron: “For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God. No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; no man with a crippled foot or hand... (Lev. 21: 16-24).’”
3. Jesus also knew the hearts of the Religious, they were more concerned with the Law than with the welfare of those they were called to serve. Jesus remember an incident when the Pharisees asked Him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? He said to them, ‘If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pi on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath (Mtt. 12:10-12).”
B. TRUE WORSHIP IMPACTS THE LIVES OF OTHERS POSITIVELY!!
1. Jesus believed in touching people. The account from Mtt 12 insists that Jesus was more concerned with the wellbeing of individuals than for keeping regulations. People are more important than Laws.
2. Jesus loved and touched the unloveable and untouchable.
a. Do you remember when Jesus “TOUCHED” the man with Leprosy. Matthew 8:1-4 tells the story of a man with Leprosy. He cried out to Jesus, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He said, “Be clean!” Immediately he was cured of his Leprosy. b. By the end of chapter 8, Jesus is at it again. This time He heals two demon possed men (28-34).
3. Our text tells us that, “The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.” The chief priest saw it and were indignant.
4. Jesus knows our desperate need to be healed. That is why He said, ASK, SEEK, AND KNOCK, for those that ask it will be given, for those that seek they will find, for those that knock, the door will be open (Mtt. 7:7).
5. James tells us in chapter five of his Epistle, “Is any of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven (14-15).
DID YOU MISS OUR HEALING SERVICE DURING OUR REVIVAL?
DID YOU COME TO BE ANNOINTED WITH OIL?
GOD STILL WANTS HIS TEMPLE/ HIS CHURCH TO BE A PLACE OF HEALING: PHYSICALLY, EMOTIONALLY, AND ALWAYS SPIRITUALLY!!
WHAT IS THE BUSINESS OF THE CHURCH? IT IS TO HEAL!
Reorintation is going from a mindset of hindering to healing from be a sterile enrivonment to one of strengthening. Jesus wants us all to be healers!!
III. JESUS SAYS WE MUST GO FROM SILENCE TO SHOUTING (VV. 15-16)
A. Silence denies true worship of the living God
But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant. ‘Do you hear what these children are saying?’ They asked HIM.
1. There are always those who want to silence the praise.
2. Do you remember the disciples even tried to stop children from coming to Jesus. “Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them. Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinger them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these (Mtt. 19:13-14).’”
3. This is similar to those not wanting the “BLIND AND THE LAME” in the temple. Jesus removes all barriers, but it was not the fact that children were there, it was more what they were saying.
4. The Gospel of Mark records the same words of “HOSANNA! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
5. “Hosanna” means to SAVE!
6. WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO SILENCE THE WORD OF SALVATION???
B. JESUS SAYS IT’S TIME TO SHOUT!!
1. Jesus reminds the chief priests and the teachers of the law what the word of God says in Psalm 8:2 “From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.”
2. Did you catch that, God uses the praise of children to silence the foe and the one set on avenging!!
3. God’s economy and reality are not the same as that of the world or of the Enemy. God uses babies to stop the warrior. Case in Point: David and Goliath.
4. If you look back past chapter 19 that I read to you and go to chapter 18 verses 1-4, you will see what Jesus is really talking about. Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
5. Verse 5 may also be important for us. Jesus says, “And whoever welcomes a child like this in my name welcomes me.”
6. WHAT’S THE POINT? DO YOU REALLY WANT TO WORSHIP GOD???
CONCLUSION: TRUE WORSHIP IS GOING FROM A SECULAR MINDSET TO A SACRED MINDSET! TRUE WORSHIP IS GOING FROM BEING A HINDERANCE TO A HEALER! TRUE WORSHIP IS SHOUTING “SAVE ME!”
AND COMPLETE WORSHIP BEFORE GOD IS COMING TO HIM IN ALL HUMILITY AS A CHILD AND SAYING, “BE NEAR ME, LORD JESUS, I ASK THEE TO STAY CLOSE BY ME FOREVER, AND LOVE ME, I PRAY. BLESS ALL THE DEAR CHILDREN IN THY TENDER CARE, AND FIT US FOR HEAVEN, TO LIVE WITH THEE THERE.
CLOSING HYMN # 579 “JESUS LOVES ME”
