Speaker 1: 0:13

It's done. It's done. We're here Today. We get angry. Jesus, oh, I like it. All right, everybody buckle up Passionate. Yeah, it's a good word, jeffrey. Thank you, brother. All right, good to be with you. Friends, if you're with us online, thanks for hanging with us. I know our servers were down for a minute, but if you're with us, this is not live, it's actually happening. I'm talking. My name's Larry, one of the pastors here, and it's really good to be with you.

Speaker 1: 0:43

Two quick highlights or announcements I want to tell you is we are starting first Fridays of the month we're going to do worship nights and so this next week congratulations, we're almost to May, it's unbelievable we're going to do worship night. It's at seven o'clock, so you can come check it out, and then you can kind of plan out and just know like, hey, what a great way to start your month off. On every first Friday of the month, we're going to do worship in here. You can come. Kids are welcome too. Whoever's welcome. Bring some people. We're going to lean in. We're going to have some prayer moments. We'll kind of theme them some different ways. It'll be different than our Sunday morning morning, so invite you to that. The other thing is. I'm going to be letting you know over the next couple of weeks. But a really important, I feel like, phase or season is going to be taking place in our church. We're going to be pausing starting on the 26th of May, so next month, so you're ready for this. We're going to be pausing for 12 weeks in Matthew and we're going to do a series that we're calling Hope and Help, and these are mental health conversations and we're getting like all the way down into it and we want to create a safe space to have these conversations, because there's really stunning statistics out there like one in five, like one in five people struggle with mental health issues, and so maybe you are the one in five, maybe somebody you love is the one in five, and this is going to be an awareness, educational experience and how to care for those. If that's not something you're struggling with, and if it's something that you're struggling with, we want to give practical hope and practical help through this, and so I've gathered a handful of professionals that's really been leaning in and been working with us for quite some time to make sure that we're resourcing all of us and we really, really want to make this a safe place.

Speaker 1: 2:23

3.8, get this 3.8 million of our Gen Zs struggle with suicidal thoughts, like it's just not okay, and so we should have. The church should be where we have these types of conversations, not just letting the community try to figure it out and talk about it. Like we should be having these conversations and caring for each other. And even more than that at all ages struggle with self-harm, image depression, anxiety, you name it stress, burnout, like it's incredible. So hope and help.

Speaker 1: 2:55

So you know, is coming up next month. This is something that you'll see. We're going to start kind of like putting some stuff out there. This is going to be, again, a great opportunity for you to invite someone that you love, that this is a safe place. This isn't just a prayed away and it'll be okay, and if it doesn't get okay, then you're not okay place. This is a it's okay to not be okay in here, and so we want to create that environment. So, as a heads up, there's your first announcement of that. We'll be talking much more about that as we kind of walk closer to that and then get involved. Be on the lookout, though. We're going to send out a survey this week to everyone and it's like four questions. It's literally going to take you 20 seconds. It's anonymous, but it's, so we can understand who we're sitting next to and who's dealing with what.

Speaker 1: 3:42

So, matthew, like Jeff said, we've been walking through that slow and methodically. We are in the last week of Jesus's life. Actually, we're in the last days of his life. We're in Matthew, chapter 21. We've been on this road trip really since the end of chapter 16, but oh, 17, 18, 19, and 20 has been this road trip where it started up, at Caesarea, philippi, where Jesus had this really significant conversation with his disciples about who he was, and he was Israel's king. But he was going to become king by dying, being brutally murdered, and this was like a shock to the disciples, as you would think and understand, and they constantly thought he was going to be a different kind of king. And so Jesus, we're told at that point, after that conversation happened, set his face towards Jerusalem and then begins heading down there to arrive during Passover week, which was very intentional. And so, for chapters now, we've been following these conversations that Jesus has had as he heads towards this, and many of them have been really clearly redefining who he actually is and what his role is, because there was just so much misunderstanding about Jesus and actually misunderstanding about what it means to follow him.

Speaker 1: 4:57

And so now, this last week, we saw that the road trip was over and it ended in this really, really dramatic way and something shifted. We saw things shift. We've seen this. You know a Jesus who operated much more under the radar, although we've noticed, you know kind of throughout, that Israel's leadership has been kind of picking, that Israel's leadership has been kind of picking up and hearing the mumblings and grumblings and frustration. They've been aware of this kingdom movement that's been going on because he's been gaining massive followers. But last week we saw Jesus, how he changed the way he behaves publicly for the first time and if you've been following us through this series, you've noticed this that Jesus has come into Jerusalem to bring his kingdom, this upside down kingdom, and there's people that are excited and they're pumped. They know who he is. You know we saw this like laying tree branches and making this red carpet. You know scene and there's some people that are stirred and in turmoil and disturbed about this. They're not happy.

Speaker 1: 5:59

And this story right here really happens in these three scenes that are all dramatic. So we did scene number one last week, this epic scene of him coming into Jerusalem. And then this week we're going to go into clear like the first place he goes, and he goes into the house, he clears out the temple and then next week he's cursing a fig tree. And we'll get to that next week. Those are the three scenes, so let's hop into scene number two for today. So let's go for it.

Speaker 1: 6:25

Let me read you chapter 21, starting verse 12. So he's just come in immediately. Jesus entered the temple courts. So this is like going to the White House and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned tables of the money changers and benches of those selling doves. It is written. He said to them my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers. So who he's quoting? Right? There is actually two prophets. One of them is Isaiah, from Isaiah 56. And one of them is the really sad, weeping prophet, jeremiah. This is from Jeremiah, chapter seven. We'll get back to that in just a minute.

Speaker 1: 7:07

Verse 14, the blind and the lame came to him at the temple and he healed them. But when the chief priest, so like finally the White House staff, shows up and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things that he did and children shouting in the temple courts Hoshanna to the son of David. They were indignant. Do you hear what these children are saying? They asked him. He's like of course I do. Yes, replied Jesus. And then he says this really snarky line have you ever read? Like he's talking to Bible scholars here, like it's so funny. He's like have you ever read your Bibles? Like yeah, and so then he quotes Psalm 8. From the lips of children and infants, you, lord, have called forth your praise. And he left them and he went out of the city to Bethany where he spent the night. This is the end of Monday. This is Monday. This is how we're finishing his office.

Speaker 1: 8:09

So see, jesus has, he has all eyes on him and he just made this very, very public claim that he is Israel's true king. And so where does he go? Right off the bat, he goes right to the center of power, to the heart of Israel's life and culture and leadership. And then what does he do? He gets angry and like, goes on like a rampage. We're told in the gospel, according to John, that this required him, like making a whip to let people know he was really serious, like to drive stuff out and like he made people run. Right, not everybody right Children. They were cool, the blind, the lame. They were actually really comfortable with them, weren't they? They weren't like freaked out by what was going on, but not the leadership. They were indignant. They were running. They were like leaving this place and you had these money changers right. So now just think about this what are they doing in this moment?

Speaker 1: 9:03

Have you ever traveled to? You know if you've ever traveled to? You know if you've ever traveled to another country? What's one of the first things you do when you land there, or you need to do when you get there? You need to go to an exchange booth and get the currency. Now, what's the interest rate when you do this, when you go to these places? Well, it varies depending on where you go.

Speaker 1: 9:21

You know, just in Jerusalem, literally today, you still actually get really taken care of Jerusalem. Literally today, you still actually get really taken care of. Excuse me, advantage of not taken care of. It becomes really unfortunate and it becomes like a lot of bartering. I remember we were getting like a gift for one of our kids when we were there in Jerusalem, like a little like purse satchel thing, and went up to them and was like, oh, how much is this? I mean, it's like fabric. And they were like $350. And I was like US dollars Like 350? Are you kidding me? It was like what? No thanks, and we played this game. I ended up getting it for like 30 bucks, right, but it's like they would have just been like, oh, it's Holy Land material, it's Jerusalem, you're in the capital, and that's literally what's happening here. Like you get taken advantage of, so people are changing money, and you have, remember, like 150,000 people who don't live there. They're all there for the Passover. Remember, like the city has exploded for this week and they've grown three times as big as it normally is because they're all going to be in Jerusalem for a week, and so there's times as big as it normally is because they're all going to be in Jerusalem for a week, and so there's like money changers and it's Passover. There's going to be lots of sacrifices going on and people need to buy their sacrificial animals, and so what's Jesus objecting to here? Well, you know, like these people are just doing their business. Why are the? If you think about it, though, the money changers are making like a handsome profit off of people when In the temple.

Speaker 1: 10:52

I've shown you this before. This is a model of a reconstruction from everything we know about the shape of the temple that Jesus would have walked into. And so the temple is like that tall building right inside there, really tall In the middle of there is a series of courtyards around that and like there's the altar of sacrifice would have been right in the outer court of the building around the temple and then you have like this really big courtyard and then, if you look off to the left, there, that red roofed building, this is a pillared portico. It's called the portico of Solomon. That's where Jesus pulls the stunt off, right here. That's where the money changers would have been.

Speaker 1: 11:31

That's where, if you were from Galilee which you know, where he did much of his ministry. It's like 110 miles away. Like you don't want to bring like little baby Lambie with you on this long journey, and so you would bring money instead, because you would need money to exchange them so you can buy a sacrifice, and that's what people are doing. You know, just off to the Jerusalem, the city right there, little town, bethlehem is right there, and then you have the shepherd's fields. Remember this from the Christmas story? That's what those shepherd fields were for they were actually raising the little lambs for sacrifice, and so it was local and close, and so that's kind of what's taking place Now.

Speaker 1: 12:07

What's interesting is that we know that the money changers and the people that were selling the animals weren't always there. We actually know that Caiaphas he's the high priest that we're actually going to meet in just a couple of chapters we know that Caiaphas moved the money changers and everybody from, like, outside of the temple in the lower city area and he recently relocated them right into the heart of the temple and we know that that would have made him a handsome prophet, like it would have lined his pockets. And you know it's like you know the vendor that's closest to the stuff right, the things that are going on. You don't want people to work for it. It's like I got your stuff right here. You can make it happen and notice where Jesus goes. What animal table does he go after here? This is like this really random detail. You're like why do we need to know this random detail here? What animal does he go for? The one selling doves?

Speaker 1: 13:04

Now you read in Leviticus this is Old Testament, all these rules about sacrifice and what you do and what it's for, and there's five different kinds of sacrifices you can do, depending on what's going on. But if you're a poor Israelite and you don't have enough money to buy a lamb, but you still want to show your thanks to the God of Israel or do some sort of sacrifice, what you can buy instead, if you don't have the money to do that, doves, doves, doves were the offering of the poor in Israel. And so Jesus walks into the temple, the house of the God he has called Father, and he sees there's been some renovations that have taken place. He sees that Caiaphas has moved the business center right into the temple courts itself, and he sees that, instead of being a place of prayer and praise of the God of Israel, the poor are being taken advantage of as they come to buy their offerings and people are undergoing extortion as they try to exchange their money. And he gets ticked, like he gets like, because, like in Jesus's mind, this is yet just like another example of the corruption of Israel's leadership.

Speaker 1: 14:22

And so what does he do? In this great symbolic form? Like a prophet, he quotes the poetry of Israel's leadership. It is written. He said to them my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers. And so again he's quoting these two prophets one, isaiah, that talks about how the temple is the meeting place of heaven and earth all coming together, where Israel would become this light to the nations. And yeah, that's not happening. And so then he quotes from the prophet Jeremiah, and I actually want to subject you to the whole poem in context and you'll see, like I don't even really have to tell you, I'm just going to read it to you and you'll put all the pieces together.

Speaker 1: 15:13

So he says, through Jeremiah the prophet, he says Hear the word of the Lord, all you, people of Judah, who come through these gates to worship the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says. Reform your ways and your actions and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say this is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, if you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place and if you do not follow other gods, to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors, forever and ever. But look, you are trusting and deceptive words that are worthless. Will you steal and murder and commit adultery and perjury, and burn innocence to ball and follow other gods you have not known and then come stand before me in this house which bears my name and say we're safe safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house which bears my name become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching, declares the Lord.

Speaker 1: 16:34

And what you read as you read the rest of Jeremiah 7, is God saying like, because of your bad decisions, the Babylonian empire is on its way and God's going to destroy this house and the temple that Israel built to honor the God of Israel. And so what do you think, as Jesus is quoting this, what do you think is going through the minds of these priests? They know exactly what's going on, because it is all intentional. They know what he's saying and they know what he's doing. And Jesus is going to become the king of Israel by saying that the temple is going to be destroyed. I mean, it's brilliant. Jesus is brilliant here. He has ridden into Israel and these are the covenant people of God, who are called to be the people who would host the presence of the living God. And the temple was this place where heaven and earth would meet, where Israel would come to praise and to honor the God who has showered them with love and generosity and with life. And so what do they do? What do they end up doing? They end up turning it into this shallow religious icon, they turn it into an idol, and the temple has become idle to them. And as long as, you know, the building's shiny and the rituals are cruising, then surely we're fine with God. Like, as long as I'm going to church, at least, like once a month, like surely we're good to go. And Jesus comes and he asserts himself as Israel's king and he says, no, everything is not fine. And he will teach us in scene three, next week with a fig tree. And so what do we do? What do we do with this story right now?

Speaker 1: 18:24

Scene two you know, the purposes of our Sundays is to gather and to come and to worship Jesus. To worship Jesus and to meet with him and to meet with his people. And so how are we supposed to respond to Jesus when he's like aggressive, like in a confrontational space, because he's very hostile towards the leaders of Israel, but who is he immediately compassionate and aware of their needs in the temple? Do you remember the blind and the lame? Like the hurting and brokenhearted. And brokenhearted Jesus can't stay away from hurting people, and so he's like in angry mode pronouncing judgment on the temple, and then he like notices blind and lame people. And so this is Jesus.

Speaker 1: 19:21

And you just don't get like the meek and the mild Jesus who tells you just love everybody If you want that. You also have to reckon with the Jesus who says that God will bring justice on human evil and corruption, and actually you want those two Jesuses to be the same Jesus, even though you may not feel like it all of the time. So we're here to worship Jesus today and I don't know some of you might be kind of like, actually bothered, like in a visceral way, that when we see Jesus get angry like this, like when he gets super aggressive, that maybe it actually stirs something up in some of us here because of your story, because of anger. You know, like people or adults or parents that you've had in your life. And so you're like I just want to love the meek and mild Jesus who moves towards the blind and the lame. But when Jesus friends, when Jesus gets angry and he like makes a whip and he starts like shoving, and you know, like there's some of us maybe that are just like well, I just don't really actually know what to do with this here.

Speaker 1: 20:36

So I would say, think of it this way Jesus gets angry, he gets ticked, he's claiming to be the embodiment of the God of Israel, who's coming to his own covenant people and like he's planted them, he gave them everything that they could need and they've produced no fruit. It's not even that they've produced no fruit, though that's the image we will get next week. Isaiah the prophet says that it's like produced stinky fruit, like horrible, wretched, like rotten fruit is coming off the tree and this arouses Jesus's anger, like they're hurting and taking advantage of one another, and so like there's this anger, right, and I think that's kind of the question. What's anger? If you look at the definition in the dictionary, anger is a strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure or hostility. It's this emotion, it's a strong instinctive reaction, but it's all of this emotional energy. But experts actually tell us that anger, in a way, is actually not an emotion. It's a reaction to a deeper emotion, and a deeper emotion that can come from all kinds of things, and those things can be bad and those things can be good, and what we're talking about is Jesus's passion.

Speaker 1: 22:02

At least the way for me, at least the way for me to understand this, would be to talk about the anger that's aroused in my own personal life, in me. So the best way I can do and explain that is I have four kids and explain that is I have four kids. That's it. That's all I was going to tell you. Like when okay, you get this if you're a parent. Like when your kids like pick and poke and smack or hit or make fun of, or just like you're like we're humans are fascinating, right. Like all of those things. Like where they're like we're humans are fascinating, right, like all of those things. Like where they're just constantly like perpetuating on each other. It's remarkable, the passion that that ignites like in the inside of me, like I've never felt like this before. Like when they're just poking or tearing down. It's like eye for an eye or like I'm gonna one up you and you just watch it.

Speaker 1: 22:54

And before I get really angry, because that's like what's happening inside of me when I see these things going on, I really have to check myself that I don't express it in an inappropriate way, but like my instinctive reaction is to be like dude, what are you doing? Or like girlfriend, girlfriend, come on, like you're awful right now and you get. So it's not anger, it's the reaction or the symptom of the passion that's inside of me and what's that root emotion. I love them, like I love all of them, right, and I'm like so dedicated to them. And like I think about, like you know, the older kid who's picking at the younger kid, or like the kid who, like you know, reacts and hits something because they're upset and they're angry, and I'm like frustrated about that.

Speaker 1: 23:44

Because I love them, because I'm like this isn't how you respond to things. Like your life's going to be difficult in the future. If you just go around smacking people, they're going to smack you back, and like I'm worried about your future. And so I love them, I'm concerned about their future. I love my younger one. You know, they're just innocent and adorable and, like you know, sticking up for the underdog. And you know, that thing that's inside of me is this love for, like, these little humans. But what they see is anger. They're like, oh, you're like so angry right now. It's like, yeah, this thing, like, don't do that to each other, like you're hurting each other. And anger is this secondary emotion, and so I think there's something like that happening here in this scene and we're going to see it again.

Speaker 1: 24:29

We're going to see Jesus get really angry with the leadership of Israel and with a fig tree, and it's not because he hates people or trees, it's exactly the opposite, like it's exactly the opposite because he loves people. Jesus is the embodiment of the passionate love of Israel's God and he wants more than anything to be reconciled to this rebellious world and whose response to this rebellious nations was not to destroy them but to set in this motion, this plan to bless them through this family of Abraham. And now this family has rebelled, we've all rebelled, and so Jesus comes as the very embodiment of love and compassion of Israel's God and he calls Israel to account and he warns them. He's actually going to weep over the city in the next chapter, Jerusalem. You know this. If you only knew what I was trying to do for you, but you would have none of it, he says. And so I think you know, let's focus here.

Speaker 1: 25:45

There are moments where the passionate love of Jesus is confrontational, and it happens especially when he sees hypocrisy, when he sees idolatry, when he sees religious people who just think that they're fine with God. Like the temple of the Lord, we're safe, the building's shiny, the sacrifices are going on, but no, it's stinky fruit, it's rotten. You're taking advantage of the poor. There's apathy, injustice, there's compromise and Jesus confronts Because he loves. And there are other times when his passion and his love will move him toward people who desperately need him, like the blind and the lame. And it's the gentle Jesus that we love who moves towards people and their need. And so let's meet this Jesus as we respond in worship. Let's meet this Jesus as we respond in worship.

Speaker 1: 26:48

You know you can hide behind his anger or maybe you need to actually stand in front of his anger. You need to stand before it and the group that may need to stand before it and stand before the angry, passionate Jesus. You might not think it's you, but you know what? If we're honest with ourselves? We've become shallow, we've made compromised decisions. We've dishonored Jesus by how we live and how we treat people, and we actually need him to confront us and to get serious with us, to stand in front of his anger. And he may want to say to you stop thinking because you're standing in the presence of the temple you're good, just because you're in the room right now, that you're good. Stop, you can do better. He wants better because he loves you.

Speaker 1: 27:47

So have you become shallow? Have you made compromised decisions? Have you dishonored Jesus by the way that you live and how you treat people? You actually need him to confront you and to get serious with you and the fact, friends, that he loves you and he gave himself for you and for your sins. Don't let today, don't let this day pass you by before you actually allow him to confront you.

Speaker 1: 28:20

And there might be some of us in here who's just in a place where you're just. You're in a place of pain in your life, where you're just feeling. You're in a place of pain in your life where you're just feeling blind and lame and confused and trying to figure out what's going on. And today you get to hide behind his anger because he's angry for you, your pain, your confusion, your lame, your broken hardness and friends. The scriptures make it so clear that even in this story today, that Jesus comes precisely to those people with gentleness and patience and compassion. Friends, this is our Jesus, the loving passion of Jesus for the people who are lost and confused. This is the real Jesus, a man of passion for people.

Speaker 1: 29:19

Let me close in a word of prayer. Thank you, jesus, for your example of righteous anger and loving passion. Father, I actually ask that just your Holy Spirit would move in this room today and confront us where we need to be confronted. And may even we respond to that in confession. And may we speak the name of Jesus over those broken things in our life and accept you as our true king, compassionate, patient, loving, grace-filled Father. Thank you for your presence in this room. Thank you for your presence in our hearts, our minds and our souls. We love you and we speak the name of Jesus. In your name, we pray amen. Would you stand as we respond? Come on, can we give God a hand, clap and praise for that word today?