The Final Priest, Prophet, King, and Sacrifice
Download MP3The message tonight comes from Luke chapter 19 starting in verse 28. And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent 2 of the disciples saying, go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, onto which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, why are you untying it?
Speaker 1:You you shall say this, the lord has need of it. So those who were sent away and found it just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, the owners said to them, why are you untying the colt? And they said, the Lord has need of it. And they brought it to Jesus and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.
Speaker 1:And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near are already on the way down the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise god with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the lord. Peace be in heaven and glory in the highest. And then some of the Pharisees and some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, teacher, rebuke your disciples. He answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.
Speaker 1:And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it saying, would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace. But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who who sold saying to them, it is written, my house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.
Speaker 1:And as he was teaching daily in the temple, the chief priest and the scribes and principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him. But they did not find anything they could do for all the people were hanging on his words. The word of the lord.
Joel Brooks:Thanks be to God. If you would, pray with me. Oh god, we ask that you would honor the very reading of your word, that it would pierce our hearts. Now through the proclamation of your word, I pray that you would heal where there needs to be healing, and you would convict where there needs to be conviction. My my goal tonight is beyond me.
Joel Brooks:My goal is to lift up your name, Jesus. So that through the power of your spirit, I pray that would happen. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. And I pray this in the strong name of Jesus, amen.
Joel Brooks:Growing up I was always a little confused about Palm Sunday. At the church that I grew up in, it was a really big deal and they would hand out palm branches to all of the children. And I remember as a kid I would get to walk down the aisle and I would get to wave palm branches and, and people would kind of, you know, cheer and clap. And we we go up on the stage and then all the parents of course would take pictures of us. And I thought, you know, Palm Sunday it's pretty fun.
Joel Brooks:It's pretty festive. It's the day I thought, you know, when people made Jesus their king. But then during the same week, we would celebrate Good Friday. Which I always wondered why is it called Good Friday? This is when Jesus died and and you weren't allowed palm branches then.
Joel Brooks:There was no celebration. It was a very solemn ceremony, and that made me rethink Palm Sunday. I kept thinking, well, is Palm Sunday something we celebrate or we don't celebrate? Why exactly are people waving their branches? And, are they embracing Jesus as king?
Joel Brooks:Are they not? Is what are we supposed to do as a church? And I I always remember just being so confused as to whether it's a happy or sad time. Even as I was studying it, for those Lord of the Rings fans out there, I was reminded of the line from Bilbo Baggins at his birthday in which he he said, I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. And, and every time I've heard that, I've always thought, I don't get it.
Joel Brooks:You know, I'm I'm conflicted. Is is is he saying a good thing or is he saying a bad thing? And and I feel the same way every time I read this. What's really going on here? There's a tension.
Joel Brooks:Don't don't swing on either an or. There is a tension here. There is both this good and there's this bad. There is this praise, but yet at the same time there is this scorn. Jesus' earthly ministry is coming to an end here.
Joel Brooks:For 3 years now, he's been traveling, he's been teaching, he's been healing, he's been pouring himself into his 12 disciples, and now he decides to bring everything to a close on his terms. He's bringing an end to his ministry here. Make no mistake, everything that happens to Jesus here is his choosing. He is absolutely sovereign. He has carefully planned everything out.
Joel Brooks:Don't make the the mistake that you're going to hear probably this week. You know, some time magazine scholar is going to get out there and say, Jesus was just a victim of, you know, unfortunate circumstances. That he kind of stumbled into the wrong place at the wrong time and he wound up dead. Not at all. This is all according to his plan.
Joel Brooks:He he could've stayed away from Jerusalem and he would've been absolutely safe. He could've come quietly into Jerusalem and he would have been absolutely fine, but instead he decides to come in as a king. He's pushing his agenda. He's making people decide at this moment. He's bringing everything to a head in which people after this act, they're either gonna have to crown him or they're gonna have to crucify him.
Joel Brooks:But they can't be indifferent to him anymore. They will have to decide. No one's allowed on the fence. Jesus will not allow it. Well, let's let's hop into the text here.
Joel Brooks:I'm not a really a big kind of like a 4 point person, but we're gonna have 4 points tonight. I'm gonna look out, Jesus is the final king. He's the final prophet. He is the final priest, and He is the final sacrifice. Now at the start of this text, Jesus, he sends a couple of His disciples out and He says, Go find for me a colt in which I can ride.
Joel Brooks:He gives them very specific instructions And he's doing this because he wants to fulfill a prophecy. He's not gonna walk in to Jerusalem. He is going to ride on a colt Because Zechariah 99, which is a messianic prophecy says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, oh daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your King is coming to you.
Joel Brooks:Righteous and having salvation is He. Humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, The foil of a donkey. And so, by deliberately choosing to come in this way, he is saying, I am the fulfillment of that prophecy. I am the King. I am the King that you've been waiting for.
Joel Brooks:I am the Messiah. And the people seem to receive us receive him as such. You know, look at verse 36. Says, as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. They're rolling out the red carpet for him in a sense.
Joel Brooks:Luke doesn't include the the idea of the palm branches, but if you go in the other Gospels, it says not only did they throw their clothes on the ground, the robes on the ground, but they threw palm branches on the ground and they waved the palm branches and they shouted, Hosanna, Which means, save us. Save us. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. But not everybody was happy in this scene. The Pharisees certainly were not.
Joel Brooks:They're in the crowd and said, Jesus, do you hear? Do you hear what people are saying? Do you hear what your disciples are leading the people and they're saying? Rebuke them. Tell them to be quiet.
Joel Brooks:And Jesus, He responds. He says, I tell you, if they were quiet, the very stones would shout out in praise. And what Jesus is doing here, once again, He's forcing the issue. They're not gonna be quiet. You've got to decide.
Joel Brooks:Do you join in and praise or do you kill me? What is it? But he's not gonna tell them to be quiet because they're doing absolutely what they were created to do. And let me just pause here and say, I don't think, when Jesus says, if they're quiet these very stones will cry out in praise. I don't think He is talking figuratively or metaphorically here.
Joel Brooks:I don't think this is just an expression. If god can take dust and make a shape out of it, and blow life into it, and have this dust become man and sing praises, God can say rock, shout praises and a rock will shout praises. He this is within His power. This is something that He can do. And And what I think you're seeing is that, when the king, not king with a little k, but king with a capital k, the king over all creation.
Joel Brooks:When He comes into contact with his creation, his creation praises him. He brings out the full potential of of the thing he has created. And they do what they were meant to do, which is bring praise to the king. You've already seen this in the story, and all the gospel writers, they're very careful to include this. When it says that Jesus rode on a colt that no one has ever ridden on, no one has ever sat on.
Joel Brooks:And the gospel writers, they they make it a point. They're they're they all tell this. All 3 of them do. Now, I mean, I'm I'm not a cowboy. I don't know that much about horses.
Joel Brooks:But I do know this, that nobody rides on a horse until it is broken. I mean, everybody knows that about horses. Horses first have to be broken. They have to be trained before you can actually get on a horse. But Jesus says, No, no.
Joel Brooks:Get, get the colt that no one has ever sat on. And he goes, and he gets on it, and he takes this colt through windy streets, packed full of people screaming and the cult just as calm as it could be as he winds through to Jerusalem. That doesn't happen. That's impossible. What you're seeing here is, the redemption of creation.
Joel Brooks:That whatever Jesus touches, whatever he comes into contact with, its full potential comes out. This cult responded to its creator king. You're almost seeing this pre fall stage. You know, when Adam, he is with the animals and he can, he's around them and he could just call them by name. He gives them the names.
Joel Brooks:There's not that the fear of man is not in this beast of burden. I believe Jesus created everything to give Him praise. And so when he come to passages like this, when it says the very stones will cry out, and and when he come to passages like Isaiah 55, which says the trees of the field, they're gonna they're gonna clap their hands. I don't think that's metaphorical. And, and, it just makes me think.
Joel Brooks:I I I get almost giddy when I think about it. That if rocks can cry out for praise, if trees can clap and to dance, just think what you will do someday before your King. Just think. It makes me think that my life more, you know, it more closely resembles a mushroom. Now, they want, they want, I will become in his presence.
Joel Brooks:So, Jesus demonstrates to everybody here, I think, in no uncertain terms that He is the creator King. He is the King of all kings, and He accepts praise as such. But he also shows that he is the final prophet. When he first gets a glimpse of Jerusalem, he stops and he weeps. And the word that's therefore, weeping in verse 41, it's it's not like a gentle little crying in tears.
Joel Brooks:It's heavy sobbing for Jerusalem here. Now, I mean, this is just awkward. I mean, read the story and everybody's singing, they're shouting, this is this victorious march, and all of a sudden, the one you're doing all of that for, is crying. He's crying. But Jesus knows here that the people really don't understand the type of king that he is.
Joel Brooks:He knows that. He's not a king that's gonna come and conquer. He's not gonna deliver them from Rome. He's He's not gonna deliver them from Rome. He's not gonna come there and, and be, you know, come on a huge stallion with a mighty army.
Joel Brooks:He's coming quietly, and he's coming humbly, and he's coming to suffer for their sin. And this is not the King that they want. You know, when they cry Hosanna and Hosanna, as Jeff said earlier, means come save us or save us now. I really think that they meant that with all their hearts when they're crying Hosanna, But what they meant was, save us from our problems. Save us, Jesus, from Rome.
Joel Brooks:Save us from all this poverty. Save us from all this oppression. They were not saying Jesus come, save us from our sin. That's not the kind of king that they wanted. And people today, they still cry, Hosanna all the time.
Joel Brooks:They always say, God save me from my cancer. God, save me from all of my debts. God, save me from losing my job. God, save me from all these things, but rarely is it God, save me from my sin. Save me from that.
Joel Brooks:Jesus, he weeps because he knows they are calling out praise to a different king. And he prophesies against Jerusalem. Jerusalem would be utterly destroyed 40 years later. We read John chapter 1. He was in the world, and the world was made through him.
Joel Brooks:Yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and His own people did not receive Him. Jesus, He then goes into the temple. He goes straight for the temple, and this is the focus of the story. All the gospel writers talk about that.
Joel Brooks:It's not so much Jerusalem. What he's doing is he's going straight to the temple. That's his destination. And he gets there and he looks all around and he sees everything that's happening. And then little gentle Jesus, meek and mild, he goes ballistic.
Joel Brooks:Luke gives a very tame version, a summary version of what happens, and so you have to fill it in with details from the other Gospels. But John tells us that he made a whip and he began driving out livestock. He went to all the tables and he began overturning them. And I don't know if any of you have ever seen somebody, in an act of anger, throw over a table. I've seen it one time and it scared me to death.
Joel Brooks:It is a act of violence and rage. And then, Jesus, He goes to the boxes of coins and He dumps them out. He drives out all the livestock. He even removes the pigeons that that were going to be sacrificed. He completely clears house.
Joel Brooks:And then the gospel Mark says that he would not allow anybody to carry anything through the temple. So, what's going on here? I mean, what what why does Jesus act this way? The word Luke uses for drive out, that He drove the people out, is the same word that's used when He drives out demons. It's, it's when he is casting out something utterly evil.
Joel Brooks:But what's so evil? He's in the temple for crying out loud. It's absolutely crucial that you understand what's going on here. I think most Christians and many churches miss it. You know, Jesus is not impressed, I think, with what most churches are impressed with.
Joel Brooks:He's not. You know, I mean, you have on the road here to Jerusalem, people lining up on the street, singing praises to Jesus. Is he impressed? No. He's weeping.
Joel Brooks:He's weeping. He comes to a temple, house of worship, and it's packed. I mean, you can't fit everybody in. It's absolutely packed. Bustling with people and activity.
Joel Brooks:Is Jesus impressed? No. Not at all. He cleans house. What he's impressed with is a heart of worship.
Joel Brooks:You know, churches are in danger of doing the same thing here, you know, Despite what we have come to believe, the size and all the activities of a church do not indicate God's blessing. Don't make the mistake of thinking just because a church is really growing and they're growing fast and they're getting huge, that that's a sign of God's blessing. It may or it may not be. God's favor is on the people who have a heart for Him. Not just growth and busyness.
Joel Brooks:And when Jesus came into the temple, there would have been tables set up everywhere. They're exchanging money because you have all these pilgrims coming in and they need to get the right currency. You know, you know, for those of you who traveled overseas, you go to the airport and you have to swap out money. And every time you do that, you're always looking like, that's all I get. You know, I thought I would get so much more and there's this enormous surcharge.
Joel Brooks:There's no different here. They would charge a lot for their service. In addition to these money changers, there would have been all these sacrifices for sale. You could get lambs, goats, your pigeons, your doves. They were all available inside the temple.
Joel Brooks:You could buy them outside the temple if you wanted to for pretty cheap, But the priests, they they they recommended strongly by them in the temple because only theirs had the seal of approval. Only theirs you could be absolutely assured that it would be a lamb without blemish. It would be doves without blemish. And for that guarantee, you only had to pay 10 to 15 times more. It reminds me of, you know, if you go to Disney World or something, you want to get a Coke and it's $5 for a Coke once you go inside their gates.
Joel Brooks:And it's it's extortion here is what's happening. And when Jesus sees them abusing the poor, it ticks him off. He gets angry. And that wasn't all. All of this commerce that's happening, you know, it could have been happening outside of the temple gates.
Joel Brooks:It could have been happening all these different places, but it's happening in the court of Gentiles. That's where this is happening. The one place that non Israelites were allowed to come in and worship. The one place they had, and now it's being taken up with all of this selling, All of this money changing and there's there's no room for now the outsider to come in. These people are supposed to be a light unto the nations.
Joel Brooks:They're supposed to be missional. They're supposed to be reaching out, but instead, they make it impossible for an outsider to even come in. The gospel of Mark, he he really drives us home. He says that this is to be a house of prayer for all the nations. All the nations.
Joel Brooks:And so, you see the people here, they're abusing the poor. They're not being a light into the world. And these are reasons that Jesus is angry. And you're gonna find those reasons in any commentary. But I don't think that is the main reason, the primary reason for Jesus' actions.
Joel Brooks:To understand what's going on here, you have to go all the way back, like, 40 weeks now or 38 weeks to when we were looking at, you know, right at the beginning of Luke. When Jesus is 12 years old and He goes to the temple. And, that's when your dad, he would show you everything. And so, I'm sure Joseph is showing, Hey, Jesus hears the sacrifices here. This is the altar here.
Joel Brooks:This is how we atone for our sin, and he's he's walking through all this. And and certainly Jesus listened to Joseph, but he was also listening to his heavenly father. And we looked at that weeks weeks ago. And which is his heavenly father is saying, Jesus, my son, do you see that lamb being sacrificed? Do you think that lamb really takes away sin?
Joel Brooks:No. My son, that points to you. It points to you. And you're gonna be that lamb. You're gonna be the one lamb that we can truly take away sin.
Joel Brooks:And His father shows him around the temple. And then Jesus begins teaching because he has to get about his father's business. And here, he's bringing that business to a close. You see, when Jesus comes to the temple and he sees people just mindlessly going through all the motions and going through all these sacrifices. He's like, stop.
Joel Brooks:Do you see what do you see what you're doing? This points to me. This points to me. Do you get it? Do you see it?
Joel Brooks:I'm the fulfillment of of every one of those sacrifices who they point to. You know, during Passover week, the the city of Jerusalem would have been flooded with over 200,000 pilgrims coming in. You could not even imagine the scene at the temple. I mean, you would go through and it'd be so incredibly crowded. You could barely move and you would, you know, change your money and and you would pay your temple tax.
Joel Brooks:Then, you would go and you you'd buy a lamb there and you'd probably get it, get the lamb, turn here, give it to a priest, say a few words, he'd cut the he'd cut the lamb's throat, make a quick sacrifice, next in line. Because we have a few 100000 people we need to get through. And, and you absolutely, you can't have any kind of meditation. You can't have any prayer. It's just religious duty.
Joel Brooks:They're just doing this. And Jesus looks at this scene. He says, no. No. This points to me.
Joel Brooks:And so Jesus, he he gets a whip and he drives out every sacrifice. He drives out the goats. He drives out the lambs. He drives out the, the pigeons and the doves. He drives out everything.
Joel Brooks:And don't miss this. So he gets rid of every single sacrifice. And then he goes and he stands in the temple. What is he saying? I'm the final sacrifice.
Joel Brooks:I'm the Lamb of God, into which all of these point. It's me. He goes in and he makes all this commotion. He throws all this stuff around and it's He's not trying to reform the temple. I kept reading that over and over in these different commentaries.
Joel Brooks:He's not. He's not trying to reform the temple. He's ending the mission of the temple. He's closing it. At this point, there's no need for a temple.
Joel Brooks:Because everything that the temple represented, everything it stood for was now standing in the flesh before these people. You could do 2 things at the temple of God. You could bring a sacrifice for your sin, and you could come and you can meet God. Those were the two things. Well there's no longer a need for a sacrifice.
Joel Brooks:Jesus is it. As far as meeting God, well, in Jesus, the fullness of God dwelled. And so you meet Him, you have met God. There's no longer a need for a temple. Jesus is also putting an end to the priesthood.
Joel Brooks:Think about it. The priest. I mean, their duties were to make sacrifices. They can't make any more sacrifices. Jesus is there all week.
Joel Brooks:Their other duty, you know, for those of you knee deep in Leviticus right now trying to go through the Bible, it's health inspection. That's what they're to do. You know, you come to him, you come to the priest, they evaluate whether you have this disease or not, whether you're clean or you're unclean. Well, the gospel of Matthew says that Jesus healed everyone in the temple. And so there's no longer a need for priests to make sacrifices.
Joel Brooks:There's no longer a need for them to inspect people. The priests are out of a job. Jesus is now the last priest. This is gonna hopefully shed some light as you read this week about the death of Jesus. Notice who comes to arrest Him.
Joel Brooks:It's the priest. It's the officers of the temple. Notice where they take Jesus to be beaten. The home of the priests. Because they knew perfectly well what Jesus was doing.
Joel Brooks:Jesus was saying, Hey, You're gonna have to give up everything. You're not gonna have a job anymore. But I'm the priest now. Acknowledge me as Lord. Jesus was getting rid of the temple and the priesthood here.
Joel Brooks:Later, when Jesus was put on trial, people hurled all these false accusations at Jesus. But one of them that was not false was when they said, He said He'd tear down the temple. Most people, you know, they say, Oh, well, they were just misrepresenting Jesus's words. He said, Tear down this temple in 3 days, and I'll bring it back. No.
Joel Brooks:They know exactly what He means because Jesus is putting an end to the temple. Some of us in here need to put an end. We need to tear down our temple. And by that, I mean, we need to tear down this notion that through our religious duty, through our good works, through trying as hard as we can, we can somehow make ourselves right with God. We can somehow atone from our sins.
Joel Brooks:We can somehow meet with God. The temple represents the very best of religion and Jesus puts an end to it. Says, no. No. No.
Joel Brooks:You can't do anything. The best of religion will never get you into the presence of God. God has to come to you in the flesh, and there is no work that you do. I do it all. I'm the king.
Joel Brooks:I'm the prophet. I'm the priest. I'm the sacrifice. God himself came and made a way for us through the sacrificial death of his son. And we're gonna celebrate that as we partake in communion.
Joel Brooks:And it's really interesting, when Jesus, on the night He was betrayed and He, He takes the bread and He breaks it and He pours the wine and, you know, 2 very vital aspects of of the Passover meal. I'm not sure if you've ever noticed noticed this, but there's one thing that He does not draw any attention to because it's likely not there. And that's the Passover lamb. Jesus gets there, and then, they're thinking, well, here's the bread, here's the wine, where's the lamb? And Jesus is saying, the lamb is right here.
Joel Brooks:It's my blood that provides a forgiveness. It is my blood That's the blood of the new covenant. That's what we've come to celebrate.
