Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has
for us here today.
We're going to be in Matthew chapter 21.
That's going to be our main text for, for the morning.
And we'll be looking at some other passages as well here on Palm
Sunday.
But our main text is going to be in Matthew chapter 21.
And I posed a question to you early on in the service and, and
I want you to be thinking about it.
I hope you have been thinking about it already is who is Jesus
to you?
Because I believe that's the most important question to answer
in our lives.
I remember asking my wife a really important question.
Will you marry me?
Some of you fellows remember those days that you were nervous
maybe to ask, and I was nervous.
I thought maybe she would say no then.
What would I do then?
I don't know.
But I remember asking her and her answer was yes.
I mean, obviously.
And so we're thankful, right?
I'm thankful for the fact that she said yes, but that was a huge.
A huge question.
Will you marry me?
There's other questions that we ask in our life and answer.
But one of the things that I think about when it comes to church
and the faith and what we would call Christianity is this,
really.
There are a lot of people who will say they believe in Jesus, recognize
his existence, recognize maybe even his power, recognize the history
of Jesus and the fact that he walked in Jerusalem, he walked in
Galilee.
But many people are not willing to admit that he is Messiah,
that he is Christ.
And we're going to look at a story here today where we get the.
The account of Jesus's whole.
The whole triumphal entry from the beginning, from the Mount of
Olives down to Jerusalem.
And this is what we celebrate on Palm Sunday.
You might hear Palm Sunday and you might have seen some palm branches
in church, and you might hear that it's a week before Easter.
But what are we remembering on Palm Sunday?
Is it just another day on our calendar?
Is it just another day that we have written on our.
Our phones and our calendars on our phones?
No, it's.
It's of great significance to believers, specifically in the fact
that Jesus at this point in time, professes himself to be Messiah.
Palm Sunday is the day that we remember his triumphal entry into
Jerusalem one week there before the resurrection.
And so as Jesus entered into the holy city, and as he enters in
Jerusalem, he is now culminating his earthly ministry
and getting to a place where he.
He is going to sacrifice Himself.
And next week we're going to talk more about the crucifixion,
and we're going to talk about the resurrection and the victory
that we have in that.
But he had come to save the loss, and now it was his time to
do so.
And so he comes and he presents himself in this triumphal
entry to the place where he is going to give himself for mankind.
And people are going to praise him.
We're going to see that here in Matthew, people are going to praise
him because he comes in as a Messiah.
And they know that he's indicating that.
And we're going to see that here in this passage.
But at the end of this, we know that the end of all of this,
really there's some confusion because the same people that are
praising him, the same people that are calling out hosanna, the
same people that are throwing their garments down in front of him,
the same people that are waving the palm branches are the
same people in, in about a week or so that are going to be saying,
crucify him, because he did not fulfill what they were expecting.
They were expecting a Messiah that would come and rid them of the
rule of Rome.
They wanted a political messiah, they wanted a militaristic
messiah that would free them from their, what they would think
is the greatest bondage they ever had.
But we know that they had a greater bondage than Rome.
That bondage was the bondage of sin.
And we all deal with that bondage of sin.
And the Bible says that Jesus came to seek and to save that which
was lost.
Yes, Jesus was coming as a conqueror, but he was coming to conquer
sin.
Now we know that one day Jesus will come as the ultimate conqueror.
And at the end, there will be the greatest victory in the fact
that all evil will be destroyed.
But at this point in time, Jesus comes as someone who is presenting
to them spiritual salvation, not political salvation.
And when Jesus didn't fulfill what they were expecting, they turned
on him.
And so they had expectations in Jesus.
They had expectations in their king, they had expectations in their
Messiah.
And yet when Jesus did not fulfill their man made expectations,
they were ready to rebel.
They were ready to turn their backs.
And that's the story of the triumphal entry.
And so we're going to talk about that here in Matthew chapter
21.
And I actually want us to start at the end.
Okay, that's a weird place to start.
But we're going to start at the end and we're going to look at
verse number 10.
And what we're going to see here is the reaction of the people
when Jesus comes in on the donkey, which we're going to talk
about.
We're going to talk about how Jesus tells his disciples to go get
a donkey.
And there's great significance to that fulfillment of prophecy.
Jesus comes down and proclaims himself as Messiah.
And we're going to look at the end of that.
We're going to look at as he comes into the city, what the people's
reactions were.
And it says in verse number 10 of Matthew 21, and he was.
When he was coming to Jerusalem, all the city was moved,
they were stirred there, there were reactions.
Now, some reactions good, some reactions bad, but the city was moved,
saying, who is this?
So the question that they were asking is this, who is this guy?
Who.
Who is this Jesus?
And the response is this.
And.
And the multitude said, this is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth,
of Galilee.
So the response was, it was this, this, this prophet, this, this
guy from Nazareth, this guy from Galilee.
And, and I think that it's important for us to understand that
the answer to this question, who is Jesus?
Matters.
It has eternal implications.
Because if we respond in anything outside of that he is our
Savior, that he is Messiah, that he is the one who sacrificed
himself for my sins, he is the forgiver, he is the one who loved
me, then we are putting our faith in something else.
We are putting our faith in something that is going to fail.
But when we say, Jesus is my Messiah, he is my Savior, he is God,
then we are recognizing what he was proclaiming back so long ago.
And so Jesus came in peace as a perfect lamb.
And you know anything about the Passover?
There was this sacrifice that would be given year after year, and
it would be the Passover lamb.
And the Passover lamb was a picture or a foreshadowing of the
ultimate sacrifice.
And Jesus being the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world.
John, chapter one, verse 29, John the Baptist says about Jesus,
hey, here is the Lamb of God.
Here is the one who is going to be the final Passover sacrifice.
Here is going to be the once for all sacrifice that will not only
cover our sins, but conquer our sins if we come to him in faith.
And so as Jesus is introducing himself publicly as the Messiah,
as the King, he's Also presenting himself as the perfect
sacrifice for the sins of the world.
And so Jesus's purpose in riding into Jerusalem was to make
public his claim to be their Messiah, to make public the claim
to be the king of Israel in fulfillment to the Old Testament
prophecy.
So let's go back to the beginning of this chapter and let's
kind of set the stage.
Set the stage to this triumphal entry, says in verse number
one.
And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem and were come to Bethphage
unto the Mount of Olives, and sent Jesus two disciples saying unto
them, go into the village over against you, and straightway you
shall find an ass tied in a colt with her.
Loose them and bring them unto me.
And if any man say, ought unto you, ye shall say, the Lord hath
need of them, and straightway he will send them.
All this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken
by the prophet saying, tell ye the daughter of Sion, behold, thy
king cometh unto thee meek and sitting upon an ass and a colt, the
foal of an ass.
And so the Bible says very clearly here that Jesus tells his
disciples to go grab this donkey so that he could ride it in
so that he could fulfill prophecy.
Now, what prophecy is this talking about?
Well, I.
I do believe that it's important for a Christian to have
a wholesale view of the Bible, because if we just take one passage
out of context, we might not understand the full implications
because there is a red thread going throughout all of scripture
from Genesis to Revelation.
And, and the, the common denominator of all of the Bible is
it's a story of Jesus.
It's a story of our need for redemption and the one who is our
redeemer.
And so the whole story of the Bible points to Jesus.
And so what we're going to see here is that there's a couple passages
of scripture in the Old Testament that point to this very,
this very incident, this very activity that Jesus does here with
the donkey.
So I want you to go back all the way.
You didn't think you were going to go back all the way to Genesis,
but we're going to go to the Genesis, chapter 49.
Now, I'm not going to be able to mine the depths of all the prophecy
here, but what I do want you to see is that from the very beginning,
God had a plan.
And Jesus is the fulfillment of that plan.
Genesis chapter 49 talks of a man named Judah.
Judah was obviously one of the sons of Jacob.
And as you well know, the sons of Jacob became the tribes of Israel.
And the Bible speaks of how there will be a Messiah that comes
from the line of Judah, the.
The tribe of Judah.
And Jesus is referred to as the line of the tribe of Judah.
And so we see that prophecy here Genesis, chapter 49.
Genesis, chapter 49, verse 9 says, this Judah is a lion's whelp
or a lion's cub from the prey.
My son, thou art gone up he stooped down, he couched as a lion
and as an old lion, who shall rouse him up the scepter?
The king shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between
his feet until Shiloh come.
And unto unto him shall the gathering of the people be binding
his foal unto the vine, and his ass is colt unto the choice vine.
He washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the grape, the
blood of grapes.
And so the Bible says here very clearly that there.
There is Judah, who was a lion's cub, but ultimately there
would be the lion of the tribe of Judah who would come and be the
king, who would come and ride this donkey into Jerusalem and recognize
himself as the Messiah.
Then we go to Zechariah, chapter 9.
Zechariah, chapter 9, verse 9, tells us this very same thing.
And it's a prophecy that is fulfilled, and it's actually quoted
here in the book of Matthew and in the Gospels as well.
And so I want you to see this because I want you to see the connection
between the Old Testament prophecies and Jesus because it's
important for us to understand that Jesus isn't just a good teacher.
Jesus isn't just a person who had historical significance because
he taught morals.
Jesus not only claimed to be God, but demonstrated himself to
be God in many different ways.
And one of those would be the fulfillment of prophecy.
Zechariah, chapter 9, verse 9, says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter
of Zion, that's speaking of Israel, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem.
The people of Jerusalem, behold thy king.
The Messiah cometh unto thee.
He is just in having salvation, lowly and riding upon
an ass and upon occult, the foal of an ass.
And so this is a fulfillment there in the book of Matthew, when
we read that verse, it's talking about that reference to the
Messiah there in Zechariah chapter 9, the reference to the Messiah
there in Genesis chapter 49.
And so we say all that to say that Jesus does this for a purpose.
Jesus has a plan.
Jesus has.
Has the whole thing laid out in front of him.
And he's not just doing this by way of chance, he's following
the will of God.
And this is important because in the ancient Middle Eastern world,
leaders rode horses.
That was a sign of victory.
That was a sign of being a king.
But then we know that riding a donkey meant that he was coming in
a sense of peace.
And we know that Jesus, being the prince of peace, is coming in
peace at this point.
And so the act of fulfillment of prophecy shows Jesus's humility,
as it says there, his meekness and the peace as he enters in proclaiming
himself to be king.
He wasn't coming to overthrow Rome.
He wasn't coming there to overthrow any political power.
He was coming there in peace to offer salvation to those that
are lost.
And so as Jesus enters here, the people have no doubt that he
is entering as Messiah.
I want you to see that here.
So back In Matthew chapter 21, it says there in verse 6, and the
disciples went and did as Jesus commanded and brought the ass
and the colt and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.
And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way,
and others cut down branches from the trees and straw them in
the way.
And the Bible tells us in.
In.
I believe it's the Book of John, that it was palm branches.
And so that obviously is where we get Palm Sunday here.
And.
And obviously we.
We understand this is a sign of them recognizing who he is, recognizing
this Messiah ship.
In verse nine, it says in the multitudes that went before and that
followed cried hosanna to the Son of David.
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in
the highest.
And so.
So like we said before, the people knew that this was Jesus presenting
himself as their Messiah.
And the reason why we know this is because the people praise
him as they should, as we should when we come into the presence
of God.
When we understand who he is, when we understand who he's claiming
to be, when we understand his works, when we understand his character,
really the only natural reaction for us should be to worship
him, to recognize who he is and give him all the acclaim, to
give him all the glory, to recognize that we are insignificant
in the eyes of a creator and that yet he still loves us and he
still has grace for us, and he still extends that to us.
And so there's all these people in Jerusalem there for Passover.
This is a public event.
This isn't something that he does in private.
He's publicly declaring that he is the Messiah.
And so what we can see here in this case is that they recognize
that they verbally praise Jesus.
Verse verse number nine, they say, hosanna to the Son of David.
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
What are they doing here?
They're recognizing his royalty by identifying him in the
house of David.
That would have been synonymous with royalty.
He.
They realize that he is sent from God.
Hosanna essentially means save us God or save us God.
That's taken from Psalm 118, verses 25 and 26.
And so them saying hosanna is them recognizing that Jesus is the
one who can save them.
And I think that's all of us.
At some point in our lives, we all have to get to the point to understand
that it's only Jesus who can save us.
We cannot save ourselves.
There isn't a political leader that can save us.
There isn't some type of thing that I can do in my life that can
take me from my sin and take me from my darkness and take me from
my brokenness and move me to a place of light and salvation and
freedom outside of Jesus Christ.
And so they recognize that he is king.
They recognize that he is the one who can save.
And again, they were right to give him praise.
But it's.
But it's clear that they were confused about what Jesus was bringing
to them.
They were looking for, as we said, a military leader to liberate
them from foreign rule.
And Jesus was coming ultimately to save them from the
bondage of sin.
They were creating a savior that they wanted, not the Savior
that was needed, not the Savior that was proclaiming himself
before them.
And what.
What we can take from that is this.
There are a lot of people that are sitting in churches today in
America and around the world that are saying this.
I want Jesus to be this way.
I want him to fit into my box.
I want him to fit into my narrative.
I want him to fit into my culture.
Instead of saying, how has Jesus changed me?
How can he bring me to a place where I'm more like him?
We want to make Jesus more like us.
We want to lower him down to a level to say, well, you know what?
He's just like us.
And the fact that he is just like us is that he is 100% human.
Yes, the Bible says that in Philippians chapter 2, he limited
Himself.
He humbled himself.
But the Bible also speaks in Philippians chapter two about how
Jesus is far above us.
His name is above all names.
There is going to be a point in time where every tongue is going
to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Every knee is going to bow to Jesus Christ, whether it be in salvation
or in judgment.
And so what we have to understand is that Jesus is far above
us and therefore we cannot create a Jesus that fits into our
narrative.
Maybe you've heard it said this way.
Well, my Jesus wouldn't do that.
That's not my type of Jesus.
Frankly, in all love, that is not our decision to make.
Jesus is who he is and there's nothing that we can do to change
that.
And there's a lot of people in this world that say, you know what?
Jesus is just, he's a good guy, He's a good teacher.
I love his morals.
Did Jesus have good morals?
Of course.
Read the Sermon on the Mount.
Wonderful sermon about how to have mortal morality, how to live
righteously.
But Jesus is more than just someone who's teaching morals.
Jesus is more than someone who just had a.
Had a good insight on the life and eternity.
Jesus is more than just a teacher, though they called him Rabbi.
There's more than just Jesus being a teacher.
And so many people are willing to attest to the fact that Jesus
is a good man.
Many people are willing to even follow Jesus's teachings to
a degree, but many people are not willing to say that Jesus is
the way, the truth, the life.
John, chapter 14, verse 6.
I want you to see in John chapter 14, Jesus says, hey, you
know the way and you're gonna come with me.
And there was a guy named Thomas.
What did Thomas say?
Jesus, how we don't know the way, where do we go?
And Jesus says that famous verse, verse 6 of John 14, I am the
way, the truth and the life.
No man cometh unto me, no man cometh on the Father, but by me.
And so the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus claims to be God.
Jesus is God, and therefore we must treat him that way and worship
him that way.
And so Jesus came with power, he came with peace.
But the people were perplexed, the people were confused.
Luke records Jesus as in, in this instance, that.
I want you to see this because this is so cool.
I was reading this this weekend and I've always heard this.
I mean, we know the story of the Palm Sunday, we know the story
of the Triumphal entry.
But when I really read this and understood what Jesus was saying,
it was so shocking to me.
Luke, chapter 19.
It's another gospel account of the Triumphal entry.
And Jesus is coming in and people are praising him.
And there are some people that have a problem with that.
If you remember, the Pharisees, right, The Pharisees were
these individuals that were opposing Jesus because His teachings
were contrary to their teachings.
And obviously it was cramping their style, so to speak.
And so In Luke, chapter 19, verse 39, some of the Pharisees from
the multitude come and they say unto him, master, rebuke thy
disciples.
Meaning, don't receive this praise.
Now, if they were just praising him as a good teacher, they
wouldn't rebuke Jesus for His disciples coming there.
They, they, they said, jesus, rebuke your disciples from calling
you Messiah.
Rebuke them for saying hosanna.
And what does Jesus say?
This is so amazing.
He says, I tell you that if these should hold their peace, the
stones would immediately cry out.
Jesus comes in power and he demands worship.
And what that means is this.
If there was no one that praised him, the stones would cry
out.
Creation itself recognizes that Jesus is God.
So therefore, we understand that as believers here today, we
have to come under him, we have to submit ourselves to him and
realize that he is our Lord.
And so the people were moved by the power of Jesus, but they misunderstand,
they misunderstood, I should say, the salvation that he was providing
for them.
Jesus is sometimes viewed as.
For many people, they wouldn't say this word for word, but many
times Jesus is viewed as a good luck charm.
I want to add him to my life.
I want to make sure all my bases are covered.
I want to make sure he gives me what I want.
And, and so what we do is we go to Jesus when we need something,
or we go to Jesus when we want something and we want him to give
us what we want in our lives instead of coming to him and realizing
that he is the only way, that he is the only hope that we have.
And so what happens here is that we see Jesus as a good love
charm.
We're only going to go to him when we think we need Him.
But in many cases, we're going to miss the whole point of understanding
that he is the only one who can save us.
And so Jesus came to save us from our sins and to offer eternal
life in Him.
That is it.
No, no one.
You know, I think a lot of times we think of Jesus such a shallow
way.
Well, Jesus is going to help me with my finances.
Maybe Jesus is going to help me with my health.
Maybe.
Whatever you say to the believer that comes to Jesus, and
then what happens is that maybe their finances aren't the way
they expected them to be.
Maybe their health is not what they expected it to be, then you
would say, well, I guess Jesus doesn't love you anymore.
Well, no, we wouldn't say that.
We would say that, hey, you know what?
Jesus is more than money.
Jesus is more than your body.
Jesus is more than your circumstances.
Jesus is there concerned with your soul.
And so what the Bible speaks of is this eternal.
This eternal stake is at risk here.
It's my eternal destiny.
It's the eternal focus.
And so people miss what was right in front of them.
They missed what Jesus was doing.
They missed what Jesus was teaching.
They missed it.
And I would say here today, let us not be the ones who miss what
Jesus is teaching us in accordance to his word.
Let's.
Let's not miss it.
We're distracted with so many things in this world today.
So many things are pulling our attention away.
So many things are.
Are causing us to get off of what God would want us to be focusing
on.
But what I would say is this.
Let's realign ourselves with the truth of who Jesus is.
Let's realign ourselves with what's right in front of us and say,
lord, I want this to be my direction.
I want your direction to be my direction.
And so we need to realize that Jesus came to die for our sins and
pay the price for our iniquity.
Even.
Even they can think about it this way.
God.
God loved us even when we were unfaithful.
Romans, chapter 5, verse 8 is one of my favorite verses.
But God commended or demonstrated his love towards us
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
It's the necessity of grace.
And these people needed God's grace.
They were sinners.
We are sinners.
And so as Jesus was riding this donkey into Jerusalem on the.
On the Palm Sunday road, there were individuals there that needed
the grace of God.
Why?
Because they are sinners.
And I'm looking out at a crowd today, and I'm looking at myself,
and I'm realizing that we just in the same way, need God's grace.
We are in desperate need of God's grace.
Why?
Because we are sinners.
And therefore we cannot reach God by any other way outside of faith
in Jesus Christ alone.
And so what I want us to challenge ourselves with here today
is this.
We cannot earn his forgiveness.
It's more than a merit of our loyalty.
More.
More than just, hey, you know what?
I'm loyal to you, God.
I'm here in church every single Sunday.
I give to the church.
It's more than that.
It's having a relationship with him.
And we know that people miss the point because In Luke chapter
19, it states that Jesus wept over Jerusalem.
He wept over them because he realized that they were praising
him.
But like I said before, in a few days they're going to be chanting,
crucify him.
And so because of all of this excitement, we see that, you know,
there are people saying hosanna, there are people that are
recognizing him, proclaiming himself to be king.
But then we get to verse number 10 and it says, and when some
saw Jesus, they were moved and they asked the question, who is this?
And the multitude said, this is Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth,
of Galilee.
And we're getting back to where we started.
The most important question that we need to answer is who is
Jesus to us?
It's a life changing decision.
It's a decision that changes our eternal destination.
It's a decision that changes what we love.
It's a decision that changes who we are in the innermost core
of our being.
It changes our identity.
The Bible says that before we came to Christ, before we come to
Christ, when we are in our sin, we are enemies of God.
And then the Bible says that when we trust in Jesus Christ as
our Savior, we now become sons of God, children of God.
That's a huge shift going from being an enemy of God to now being
his child.
I, I mean, I don't have a lot of enemies in my life.
Okay, but, but an enemy is a different person than my children.
Okay?
I see my children.
I don't.
If you see your children as an enemy, that's a, that's a big issue.
Okay?
Don't, don't see it that way.
Okay?
The idea would be that we are taken as, as Peter puts it in the
New Testament, taken from darkness and moved to marvelous light.
The Bible gives a lot of references of what salvation really
is.
But I think we have to go back to the, the point and the focus of
this.
Jesus has changed me.
Jesus has moved me.
Jesus has transformed me.
Because we, we know that again, Jesus is asking all of us
that question, whom do men say that I am?
I want you to go to another passage of scripture that gives an
example of this.
It is in, in the book of Matthew and we're going to look at
Matthew, chapter 16.
This is an interaction that Jesus has with his disciples and
specifically Peter.
And even though Peter didn't have it all right, I do believe that
Peter's answer here is right.
And I think that all of us, hopefully at some point in our lives
are going to get to this place where we make a decision on who Jesus
is to us.
You might say, today, Jesus is my Savior.
Amen.
That's a beautiful thing.
But you might say, well, Jesus is someone that I come to church
and I hear about, I hear other people talk about, I see other people
getting excited about, I see other people singing about.
But the truth is that if Jesus is not real to us as a savior, we
will never sing his praises.
We will never be able to cry out to him with a true heart in worship
if we do not know him as our personal savior.
Let me give you an example of this.
What if I said to you guys, okay, I'm putting out a new product,
and I need all of you to take home this product, use it for a week,
and then I need all of you to get on the Internet and I need you
to give me a good testimony of this product.
I need to sell it, okay?
I need to make some money.
So I need all of you guys to put your name behind this product,
and I need all of you guys to take some time and maybe even if
you feel.
If you feel like it's a good product, which I hope that you do,
I hope that you put a little investment into it, right?
And you guys take the product home and.
And you want to like it, you want to believe in it, but you take
it home and immediately it breaks.
And you call someone else in the church and you go, hey, how.
How did Pastor Josh's product work for you?
And you go, well, it broke.
It broke on me, too, the first time I used it.
Well, what are you going to do?
Are you going to be able to put your name to that?
Most.
Most of you, if you're honest, would say, you know what?
We love you, but we can't put our name on that.
We can't give a good testimony of that.
I can't sing its praises.
I can't invest in that.
I can't.
I can't give my life to that.
And, And I think that's a lot of times how people see who, Jesus.
They, they.
They see Jesus as, hey, this is something good.
But I.
I don't really buy into it.
I'm not.
When the stakes get high, I'm not willing to put my life on the
line.
I.
I'm not willing to put him before everything else.
I.
I'm going to love him and I'm going to serve him until something
else better comes along.
Something else that maybe means something more to me, that
I trust in more.
And I would tell you here today, Jesus isn't a product.
He, he, he is a gift that is given to us in salvation.
And therefore when we trust in it, he will never fail us.
The Bible says he'll never leave us nor forsake us.
And, and, and so very clearly, if we believe in who Jesus is and
if we trust in him, and if we believe in what he says about himself
and we believe that he is our Savior, it will change us.
It will allow us to naturally praise Him.
If I got up here and I said, and let's, let's go into a pretend
world, none of you guys have had ever tasted chocolate.
Okay?
It's an alternate universe where I'm the only person that knows
what chocolate is.
And I get up here and I say, okay guys, I'm going tell you chocolate's
an amazing thing.
It's, it's tasty, it's good.
And all of you might to a point say, okay, I understand what
it means for something to taste good.
I understand what it means for something to be sweet.
But you would not be able to identify with my understanding of
what chocolate is because I know it and you don't.
It's the same thing with Jesus.
Sometimes there are people that are like, man, I just don't
understand how a person can be so excited about Jesus.
I don't understand why people could be so committed.
I don't know how there have been martyrs.
I don't know how there have been people like Nate Sait and Jim
Elliott who have gone down to the AKA Indians and sacrificed themselves
just to give a person the gospel.
I just don't understand that, folks.
It's because those people have tasted in the grace of Jesus Christ.
They know that he is real.
And their answer is the same answer that Peter gives here in Matthew
chapter 16.
And so let's look at that here.
This is right after Jesus is preaching some very difficult things.
And many people, many people are, are turning away from Jesus.
And, and we're going to look at it here in verse number 13 of
Matthew, chapter 16 says, When Jesus came into the coast of Cesarea
Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, whom do men say
that I, the Son of man am?
So he asked them, what are people saying about me?
And they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist.
So there's a reference to Jesus's cousin John the Baptist and
who he is and his great preaching.
Though John the Baptist was a very powerful preacher, he wasn't
God.
So there was individuals that thought that he was a great prophet,
some Elias or Elijah Others, Jeremias or Jeremiah or one of the
prophets.
And so what they were saying basically, is this.
A lot of people recognize the power in your life, Jesus, but most
people recognize you as a great prophet.
And we even saw that back in the book of Matthew.
They said, this is Jesus, the prophet of.
Of Nazareth, of Galilee.
So most people recognize Jesus as this great prophet.
They did not recognize him as Messiah.
And.
And so then Jesus goes, okay, I'm not concerned about what other
people think.
I'm talking to you.
What do you think?
And so today, I could sit up here all day and we could say, hey,
you know what?
What.
What are you finding online about what people say about Jesus?
And I guarantee you, all of you would say, well, I saw this,
and I've seen this, and I've seen this.
Okay?
Right now, at this very moment, I'm not concerned about what
other people say about Jesus, but my biggest concern is about what
you say about Jesus.
And so Jesus turns it, and he says this.
But whom say ye that I am?
Who do you say that I am?
You, Peter.
Who do you say that I am?
You, Middletown Baptist Church attender.
Who do you say that Jesus is?
And in Simon Peter answers this way in verse 16.
And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ.
Or that's another word for messiah.
King, Lord, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
He recognizes that Jesus is God.
He recognizes that Jesus is Messiah.
He recognizes that Jesus is king.
Does that mean that at that point, Peter never has any more problems,
that Peter never gets to a place of doubt?
No, we know the rest of Peter's story, but his recognition
of who Jesus is is.
And some people will say, well, Jesus never accepts praise.
Jesus never accepts that he's God.
Jesus never accepts that he's Messiah.
Go to the very next verse.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon
bar Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee.
But my Father, which is in heaven, he says, hey, this is great.
This is.
You were right.
And you didn't find that in your own strength.
You didn't find that in your own wisdom.
You didn't find that in your own righteousness.
You found that because God opened your eyes.
God revealed this to you, and the Holy Spirit has convicted your
heart.
And you've come to a place in belief, and that's what it is here
today.
None of us come to Jesus in our own accord.
None of us come to Jesus just because we're really good people.
Really, really smart people.
The Bible says very clearly, the word of God is powerful.
The Word of God is preached.
The Word of God cuts our heart.
The Holy Spirit convicts us.
And we get to a place in our life where we have to make a decision
about who Jesus is.
We can either receive the conviction of the Spirit, embrace
the conviction of the Spirit and come to him in faith, or we can
get to a place in our life where we say, well, that's a great
story, but I'm going to reject.
I'm going to push that away.
And so the Bible clearly teaches here that the right answer
to the question of who is Jesus is this.
He is God.
He is Messiah.
He.
He is my Savior.
And that's the only acceptable answer.
I would tell you here this morning that Jesus came on a donkey
there on the Palm Sunday road in his triumphal entry.
But there will be one day where Jesus does not come on a donkey.
There will be one day that Jesus comes on a horse as a conquering
king.
And.
And trust me, we want to be on the side of the victor.
The Bible says that there's victory in Jesus.
The Bible says that there.
That.
That we are more than conquerors as we have a relationship
with Jesus Christ.
But I would say to you that one day it will be too late.
One day Jesus is going to come.
And the Bible says in Philippians chapter two, as where
we started, that there will be one day that every knee shall bow,
every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Whether whether or not they believe now that they're going to
believe one day, there's going to be no more doubt.
So what I would say is this.
At this point in our history, at this point in time, the Bible
says very clearly that we have a decision to make.
It's a time of reckoning.
Are we going to believe that Jesus is the Christ?
Are we going to put it off?
Now, I would say this.
There.
There is that step of believing that he is God.
There is that step of trusting in him in faith.
But then there's that next step of am I going to be a disciple
of Jesus?
Because belief in and of itself is not enough to say that
I'm a disciple.
I can believe that Jesus exists.
I can believe that Jesus can save me.
I believe that he is my Savior.
But then at that point in time, I can just live my life the
way that I want to live it.
And I can be a Christian who's miserable because I'm not walking
in the will of God.
The Bible says that there's a distinction of what it means to be
a disciple.
Disciple literally means a learner, a follower of Christ.
I want you to see two passages of scripture that speak to Jesus.
Challenge to go past just believing in him, but to obey Him.
I want you to see two passages of scripture.
One is in John, John 8.
31, John chapter 8, verse 31.
Folks, the, the challenge for us this morning is this.
Number one, who is Jesus to me?
Well, he's my Savior.
Number two.
Is he, is he your Lord?
Is he your Master?
Are you trusting in him for salvation and your eternal destination?
Great, I hope that you are.
But number two, are we trusting in him for the everyday?
Are we trusting in him to help us grow in his work?
Are we trusting in him to, to sacrifice and to obey?
The John, chapter 8, verse 31 says this, okay, if you want to be
his disciple.
He gives us an example of what it means to be a disciple.
Then Jesus said to Those Jews, John 8.
31, which believed on Him.
So these are Jews that have believed on Jesus.
They don't just believe that he exists.
I talked about this in my Bible study this morning.
They had no problem recognizing that Jesus existed.
He stood right there in front of them.
They didn't look at Jesus and go, I don't know if he really exists.
Okay?
They knew that Jesus existed, but they believe on Him.
They believe that he is the Savior.
And so then he says, here's the next thing, okay?
If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.
And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
The challenge is, yes, believe in him as Savior.
But then secondly, continue in his word to show him that you love
Him.
Jesus very clearly says it in John 14:15, if you love him, you
keep his commandments.
And so the Bible calls us to love God with all of our heart, soul,
mind and strength.
What does that mean?
To follow him, to be a disciple?
He wants more than just your Sunday mornings.
He wants more than just your, your 10%.
He, he wants more than just a little bit here and there.
He wants your life.
He wants your all.
He wants, he wants you to be fully committed to Him.
And so we see that in John chapter eight.
But, but there's another passage of scripture that I want
you to see, cuz this is, this is really convicting.
As I read this passage of scripture here this week, I had to
do some introspection because we might call Jesus our Lord, but
truthfully, are we acting that way?
Are, are, are we really acting like he is our master?
Because that's word.
That word Lord means master.
And, and there are some people that teach lordship salvation, which
means this.
If God is not your Lord, you're not saved at all.
Okay, I, I don't believe in that.
I believe that the Bible simply teaches that if we come to
him in faith, we are going to heaven.
We are, we are saved.
But the Bible does challenge us to take that next step of committing
to him as our Lord.
What does it say here in Luke 6:46?
This is Jesus speaking.
If you have a red letter Bible, it's going to be red.
It says, and why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things
which I say?
That's a tough question.
Okay, so the first question was this.
Who is Jesus to you?
The second question is, why do you call me Lord if you don't do
the things I tell you to do?
You're contradictory.
Whosoever cometh to me, verse 47, and heareth my sayings and doeth
them, I will show you to whom he is like.
And he's about to give a parable.
He is like a man which built a house and dig deep and laid the foundation
on the rock.
And when the flood arose, the streams beat, beat vehemently upon
that house and could not shake it, for it was founded upon a rock.
And so he talks about a man who hears God's word, obeys God's
word.
His life is on the foundation of the rock.
And so when the storms of life come, it doesn't matter because he
has a strong foundation.
So let's see the other guy that he talks about here.
But he that heareth and doeth not is like a man that without a
foundation, built a house upon the earth.
Or we would call the house of sand.
Right?
The, the foundation of sand against which the stream did beat
vehemently and immediately it fell.
And the ruin of that house was great.
So what's the difference between the two houses?
The foundation, okay, the houses look the same.
There wasn't a distinction between the two different looking
houses.
The difference is the foundation.
And so if we want to be Christians who are firmly, firmly
based in the foundation of Jesus Christ, what do we do?
We hear His Word, we believe His Word and we obey his word.
That's a disciple.
A disciple is able to follow Christ and call him Lord when things
are going in a bad way, when things become difficult.
The houses were fine until the storms came.
And I'm going to tell you it's going to be very easy to live as
a Christian until the storms come.
And that's the difficult place.
Difficult place is when the rubber meets the road and the storms
come.
Are we going to be willing to say, I'm a disciple of Jesus when
it's difficult, when it's culturally okay in America to be
a Christian, we're all, hey, amen, we're all Christians.
You go down the Bible belt and everyone's a believer in Jesus Christ.
They're 10 churches on one road.
That's okay.
I'm glad about that.
But the truth is that when Christianity is a cultural thing,
it's sometimes isn't a real thing for people because it's just
what we all do.
But, but what happens when being a Christian is anti culture,
countercultural?
Are we going to be willing to say that, oh, I'm going to do the
same things for Jesus, I'm going to still go to church?
What?
Let's, let's give a real big hypothetical here.
What if they said, you can't go to church anymore, you can't preach
about Jesus anymore, you can't meet the way that you're meeting
anymore?
How many of us would say, well, there's a place in my life
where I'm going to obey God rather than man?
That's a hard question.
It's a hard question.
And thankfully we don't have to worry about that.
We all can come to church here freely today.
But I don't know if any of you guys saw recently in the news, there
was a pastor that was up preaching.
I believe it was in South Africa.
And he, at gunpoint, was taken from the pulpit and they still haven't
found him yet.
The prayer is that he's returned back safely.
Scary.
The world is a scary place.
But Jesus doesn't say, hey, follow me when everything's going
okay.
He says, follow me in all points, even when the storms come.
But where do we build that foundation?
That foundation is based in Jesus Christ.
And so therefore we go back to that first question.
Who is Jesus?
Well, he's a guy that I come and sing about on Sunday mornings.
He's.
He's a guy that I might like, watch a show about.
Is he your savior, number one?
Number two, is he your Lord?
Is he your master?
Are you willing to serve him?
Those people saw Jesus coming in and at that point they were all
about it.
Praise God, Hosanna, save us.
And then Jesus comes in.
If you know the rest of the story, Jesus comes into the temple
and he's like, I don't like what you guys are doing.
It's against what My father would have you do.
And he turned over some tables, and they said, whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa.
That.
That's.
That's hurting us in our finances.
Okay?
That's hitting us where it hurts, Jesus.
And so people started to turn a little bit.
Well, Jesus, why didn't you overthrow Rome?
Well, because that's not what my plan is right now.
Okay, well, then, no, no, no.
We don't want that.
And we even know that later on in the story, there is an opportunity
for them to have Jesus released.
What do they do instead of picking Jesus to release him, they
pick a guy named Barabbas who.
Who is a criminal who deserves death.
And all of us, to some degree, are Barabbas, right?
All of us are the ones that deserve death.
But yet Jesus takes our place.
And that's what Jesus was doing.
He was coming in to say, I'm taking your place.
And so this is the culmination of all of it.
Because if we have this proper view of the Savior, we'll understand
this.
Number one, do I have a relationship with Him?
Number two, does he rule my heart?
Does he rule my mind?
Does does he rule my actions?
And so this is a challenge this morning.
The challenge is this.
What do I believe about Jesus?
What I believe about Jesus will dictate what I believe about
everything else.
What I believe about Jesus will dictate the way that I live.
What I believe about Jesus will dictate the way that I respond.
If I believe that Jesus is God, if I believe that.
That he is the only way I'm going to trust in him and him alone
for my salvation.
If I believe that Jesus meant what he said about loving my neighbor
as myself.
If I believe what Jesus said about teaching people to become disciples.
If I believe what Jesus said about loving my enemy, if I believe
what Jesus said about living a righteous and holy life, you know
what?
I'm going to be more serious about my application of his teaching.
And so here this morning, I want you to think about that question.
Who is Jesus to you?
Matthew chapter 21 tells us that many people, most people, turn
their backs against him.
He had a few that stayed true, but even those that stayed true,
the night in which he was betrayed ran right.
There's a very select few that didn't go.
So this isn't a message about, hey, you got to be perfect to know
Jesus.
You don't have to be perfect.
You can't be perfect.
The Bible says, believe and trust in him and allow him to work
in your life.
And when we understand the Reliance of that.
He is my King.
He is my Messiah.
He is the.
The King of kings and the Lord of Lords.
He is the Prince of peace.
He is the one who I alone can find salvation in.
Then that's when we start to realize our great need for him in
our lives in every capacity.
Let him come into our lives.
Let him rule our lives.
Let him rule our families.
Let him rule our church.
Can you believe.
Can you believe that we as a church sometimes get so focused on
our busyness that we forget that this is God's work, this is
God's church.
This is his plan, this is his system of getting people to come
to him.
In the kingdom of God, he is the head.
We are the body.
Without the head, we cannot live.
And so dare I say that we allow Jesus to come into our church
and start dictating the truths instead of our culture or our opinions
are our traditions.
See, traditions.
I was okay until you said traditions.
I like traditions.
I like traditions, too.
Okay.
I'm the most traditional person you'll probably find.
But the idea would be for me is this.
If a tradition takes place of the gospel, then we've got an issue.
Now, if you're about the traditional gospel, amen.
But if you say, pastor, you can't preach about this because we've
just never talked about that before.
The Bible says that that is very clearly a danger because we
are putting man's fables and traditions before the truth of Jesus
Christ.
Now, the truth of Jesus Christ will never take us away from a place
of righteousness.
The truth of Jesus Christ will never take us to a place of sin.
So therefore, we have comfort in that.
And the comfort is, is that the Holy Spirit will always lead
us to a place of truth.
The Holy Spirit will always lead us to what aligns with the word
of God.
And so therefore, this morning, I'm going to have a time
of invitation here in a few moments.
And there's nothing magical about getting up and coming to the
steps, okay?
You can do business with God wherever you are, and that's the
beauty of it.
But there is a sense today that I would say that all of us to
some degree, need to come up with an answer as soon as possible
about who is Jesus to me?
Who is he?
Is he a good teacher?
Yes.
But he's not just a good teacher.
Is he my Savior?
Yes.
Okay.
If he saved me for my sins, then what do I.
What do I do to thank him for that?
How do I worship Him?
You know what happens sometimes in my life?
I'M sure it never happens in your life.
When I started to think, well, you know what?
My life could be a lot better.
Circumstances have gotten really tough.
I look at that person over there that has this, and I say, I
wish I had that God must not love me because of this hardship
and this hardship.
And we get so caught up in the things that don't matter.
And we put our hope in our love, in our satisfaction, and things
that don't matter that we forget about the only thing that
does matter.
How could we ever.
How could I ever doubt that God loves me?
How could I ever doubt that Jesus is the one, the true way?
Because the word of God points.
I mean, I encourage you.
If you have not read through the Bible, read through the Bible.
I guarantee you it will point to Jesus.
It'll point to our need for a Savior.
It'll point to the truth of who Jesus is as King of Kings and
Lord of Lords.
And so I encourage you all to think about.
I know it's a simple message.
I know you've heard probably nothing today that is new to you,
but what I wanted to say is this.
Sometimes we need that reminder to realign ourselves with
who he is in our life.
Sometimes I, you know, why do we have to have reminders?
Because we are forgetful people and we get so caught up in
the things that are happening right now.
Have you seen the news?
Yeah, I've seen the news.
The news has been bad forever.
Okay?
Life is.
Life is tough.
Okay?
You would go, I'm sure, if you went back to the Roman Empire, there
was bad news going along, right?
People are people.
Sin is sin.
It's going to be happening around us.
So what do we do?
We don't look to that as our hope.
We looked at Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the King of Kings and the
Lord of Lords.
So this morning, I'm going to ask if you're able to.
To stand with me.
I'm going to ask everyone to just bow your heads, no one looking
around.
I don't really want anyone to be distracted here right now.
I want this to be a time in which you can truly, truly not.
Not answer to me.
Okay?
I don't need to know your answer.
I'd like to know your answer.
But I don't need to know your answer.
The.
The only, the only person that you need to answer to is God himself.
And.
And the question that I believe he is asking all of us today
in accordance to his word is this.
Who am I to you?
Am I just a good luck charm?
Am I just something that you go to?
Kind of like a magic genie that you go to when you need something
great or c.
Are all in all, when you sing that song this morning, God is so
good.
Is that really what you feel?
Is that really what you believe?
If you believe that he is good, completely good, we will trust
Him.
And if we trust him, we will obey him.
If we obey him, we will continuously receive those blessings
of God.
We all get to receive the blessing of God in faith when we
come to him in salvation.
But I would encourage you that there's so much more than just saying,
hey, I got a ticket to heaven.
There's joy now.
There's.
There's sufficiency now.
There's fulfillment now.
There's.
There's hope now in the fact that, hey, I can live for Jesus Christ
now and the time that I have for him.
And he has given us a goal.
He has not said, hey, you have a ticket to heaven.
Sit back and relax.
He says, now that you are going to heaven.
Now bring as many people as you can with you.
Do what we call the Great Commission, Reach out, make disciples.
But like we've been saying, and you're going to hear me say this
a lot, we cannot make disciples as the Great Commission
calls us to do, unless we are disciples ourselves.
Are we willing to take the next step after, after our faith
in Jesus Christ to say, jesus, I believe that you can save me.
But I know now too that you can also preserve me and sustain
me and teach me.
Think about the contradiction it is.
Think about the contradiction it is when we trust in him for our
eternal destination, but we don't trust in him for the day to
day.
If he can handle your eternal destination, he can handle your struggle
today he can handle that brokenness.
Today he can handle that broken relationship.
He can handle that sickness, he can handle that doubt.
He can handle that financial strain that you have in your life.
He can handle the news.
He can handle our country, he can handle our world.
So folks, give it over to him today.
Believe in him in faith, trust in him, obey him, follow him.
And the blessings will continuously pour out upon us and
the hope that we have in eternity.
Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation, working
hearts and lives.
Pray that you challenge us to answer the question in the biblical
manner.
Who are you?
You are God.
You are King.
Who is Jesus?
He is Lord of Lords.
He is the Creator of the universe.
He is our Savior.
He is the Prince of Peace.
He is Messiah.
Lord, help us to all come to that place of understanding here
in our lives and help us to know it not only in our minds, but
also in our hearts.
That will go and before us and it will show in our testimonies.
Lord, I pray that that can be the case in our lives.
Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation, working
hearts and lives.
We ask all these things in Jesus name.
Amen.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
If you would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org
or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
You can also email me directly at Josh massaro@middletownbaptistchurch.com.
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Thank you so much.
God Bless.
Have a wonderful day.