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  Matthew 28 ALL TO JESUS – IMMANUEL FOREVER

       [Description]

There’s no greater assurance in all of Scripture than Jesus’ closing words in Matthew’s gospel in the giving of The Great Commission. Jesus’ promises to be with his church always, even to the consummation of the age. Jesus’ promised presence guarantees that the mission will not fail. It promises encouragement and comfort as we take up this most difficult and greatest of missions ever given to mankind. And it reminds us of the goal of the gospel, communion with God Himself, enjoying His very presence, not just in the age to come but now.

But if Jesus’ resurrected body is ascending into heaven, just how is that Jesus will be with us? Jesus is with us through his Spirit, his Word, and his body, the church. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ himself, takes up permanent residence in every believer when they are baptized in the triune Godhead. Jesus is also with us through his Word, forever communicating himself to us. And Jesus is with us through his body, the church, as the fullness of Christ’s manifested presence on the earth.

Far more than a babe born in a manger, Jesus came as Immanuel, God with us, in order to dwell with us forever. 

https://youtu.be/vYk_CqK8hXM

Keeping All I Have Commanded (Matthew 28:20)
As disciples, we're brought into the family of the Triune God. But we don't enter this family knowing all that it means to be members of this family. "Teaching them to keep all that I have commanded you," is nothing less than instructing new family members to keep what is important to this eternal family of God, which isn't limited simply to Jesus' imperatives or the words in red, but the whole counsel of God. Most importantly, being adopted members of this family means learning how to reflect the perfect image of the one true Son of God so that we might resemble Christ in every facet of our lives.

https://youtu.be/VMbqF5q7qhc

    Matthew 28:18-20 Commissioning Worship, part 2: All to Jesus

The church's mission, if it's not centered around Jesus, is not Jesus' mission. The whole of The Great Commission is to be focused on Jesus. Hence the 4 "ALL"s that encompass Jesus' commissioning of his disciples: All Authority, All Nations, All Jesus Commands, All the Days. All four of these focus on our Lord Jesus. All four of them point to discipleship in some sense, because Jesus is the one with all authority, and that includes all the nations. They all belong to him. And we are to teach all the nations all that Jesus has commanded. And his presence is the one that is with us all the days, to empower us to do this. So it's all about him. It's all about his glory. It's all about commissioning worship. In fact: The Great Commission is nothing less than Jesus commissioning worshipers to go and gather worshipers to be enthralled with His glory. This week we look at the first to ALL's: ALL AUTHORITY and ALL NATIONS.

https://youtu.be/10pC60rXG4M

  Matthew 28:16-17 Commissioning Worship: Completing and Perfecting the Eleven

       Transcript 

READ: Matthew 28:16-20
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. 

SIGNIFICANCE OF TWELVE

Thursday, for my day job, one of my customers gifted me some eggs. They had like 30 chickens in their little backyard. And they gave me this carton. This carton, it held a a specific number of eggs. You'd never guess how many. A dozen. A dozen eggs. And I was just thinking, Why a dozen? I looked it up and as the story goes, you used to be able to buy an egg for a penny and 12 pennies, (this is not American money), 12 pennies was a shilling. So you for one shilling you’d get a dozen eggs. And so in one sense it had something to do with commerce. 

Twelve seems like a somewhat arbitrary number, but at the same time, those numbers, they don't just come out of nowhere, right? And so , in our culture, we tend to use here in America, and I don't know if they still do in Great Britain even though that's where it came from. We tend to use the standard English measuring system, right? We don't use the metric system. Carmen, you and Sharif may have grown up more with the metric system. But we kind of like 12, we have 12 inches in a foot. We’ve kind of stuck with that. Why? 

Why is 12 so significant? Well, we see it all over creation, don't we? There's always 12 moons in a year. I mean, sometimes there's 13, but we've ordered our calendar, what, 12 months in a year. Our days, we have our clock divided by 12. Two sets of 12 hours equals 24 hours, so that you have a full day. If you live on the equator, it's always going to be consistent, 12 hours of daylight, 12 hours of nighttime regardless the time of year. 

Something else that I I thought about, you know, listening to Robert play the piano … between every octave, there's how many notes? There’re 12 semitones in every octave. Even your ribs, have you ever counted your ribs? How fascinating!  I would have never thought... You've got twelve ribs on both sides!  Just a little trivia. 

As you think about it, God has woven certain numbers into the created order. And twelve is one of those fascinating numbers that is woven through the entire fabric of creation by a masterful Creator. And we see that no clearer than in the people of God, the elect people of God. Starting with the twelve sons of Israel, the twelve tribes, and the church. How many disciples, apostles did Jesus call? He called twelve. So most significantly, twelve shows up in reference to the redeemed people of God, and that's not accidental. 12 tribes, 12 sons. 

So when Jesus comes to inaugurate his new covenant kingdom, he calls 12 disciples. Why? Well, in one sense, he's rejecting apostate Israel. Now I'm not saying he's rejecting Israel. God hasn't rejected his people. But he's rejecting the apostate system that had become Israel. And we saw that when we looked closer at Matthew 20 and 21. 

WHY ELEVEN

Which brings us to our text, verse 16. Now the eleven. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee. Where are the twelve? What happened to the twelve? Well, we know Judas is no more. Judas went and hung himself. He betrayed his Lord and hung himself. And in Acts, we're going to have Matthias, he's going to be added into the 12. But there's something very significant about 11 here on this mountain where Jesus is going to send the disciples out on the greatest mission ever. The mission to grow His church. 

IMPERFECT

So why eleven? Why not twelve? Well, in one sense, eleven, it represents an imperfect community, imperfect people. Remember, it was just a couple chapters ago, Jesus said, You will all fall away. These disciples weren't perfect. And most of us, look in the mirror, we'll find out we're not perfect either. We have an imperfect faith. Our faith is imperfect. Our lives are imperfect. Our walk is imperfect. I'd love to say my walk is a perfect path along the straight and narrow. That's what it's supposed to be. But it's not. Not always. Not usually. The only thing perfect is our Savior and the righteousness He supplies. 

INCOMPLETE

Something else about the number 11, it's not just imperfect, but it's incomplete. As I mentioned in Acts, they'll call someone to take Jesus's place. But I think Matthias points to something more. The covenant community, the new covenant community of God's people is not yet complete. And that's what the Great Commission seeks to fulfill. 

FULL NUMBER OF THE REDEEMED

The full number of the redeemed is represented by twelves. If you turn to Revelation chapter 7, you're going to see there's 12,000 from every tribe of Israel. Now those tribes, we got to be careful because there's a there's an imperfect listing of the names in those 12 tribes that are listed. And Revelation does this twice and they're not the same because there's something greater going on. And so the perfect number was 144,000. But that perfect number of 144,000 points to something so much more significant. Because just as in chapter 5, John, the apostle John, is told, Behold the lion of the tribe of Judah. And John turns around and he looks, and what does he see? He doesn't see a lion, he sees a lamb. In the same way, John is told a number, 144,000. And he turns around and he looks, and behold, what does he see? He sees a great multitude from every tribe, every people, every language, every nation that no one is able to count. 

So 12 is representative of the redeemed. in Revelation 14, The redeemed of the earth is144,000 — a multiple of 12. Actually 12 times 12 times 1,000. They both point to the same thing. The perfect and complete people of God, but not yet. We're still 11, only 11. Right here on this mountain, eleven disciples. 

REVIVING AND HEALING DAUGHTER ZION

Something else, and I don't know if you've ever noticed this, but in all three of the synoptics, right before Jesus sends out the twelve into all of Judea, there's an episode that takes place. with Jairus' daughter who's guess how old? Twelve years old. This twelve-year-old is dying. In fact, she's dead. And there's this woman placed right beside her, right in the middle of her story, who has been bleeding, dying for twelve years. I believe there's some correlation between the people of God and these two daughter of Israel. Israel is sometime referred to by God as a daughter — Daughter of Zion to be precise. 

What takes place. The woman is healed. The little girl is revived. And immediately after, Jesus calls the twelve, their names are listed, and then he sends them out. 

What do these two daughters have to do with this? Israel, Daughter of Zion, is sick and dying. She needs to be healed. She needs to be revived. Hence the sending out the 12 to announce the kingdom. Healing has come! 

So twelve is important. It’s a portrait. It represents both the perfection and completeness of God’s people, that will only come through Christ healing and reviving. And the means he uses is this group of apostles, this group of twelve he sends out… but there’s not twelve. There’s eleven. The eleven need to be made whole. The people of God need to be made a whole twelve — or at least some form of twelve.

THE TEMPLE CITY

Now, if I’m losing you, or you think this idea of twelve is a stretch, consider the New Jerusalem as described in Revelation 21. John is told to measure the city. Its wall 144 cubits. Its length 12,000 stadia. Its foundations, its gates, its gems all twelve. But what is the city? The city is the Bride. It's the people of God. Twelve is so foundational. 

GREAT COMMISSION TO COMPLETE AND PERFECT

So to have eleven, there's something amiss, hence the Great Commission. They're being sent out to complete this number. The Great Commission is the means to complete the twelve, the fullness of Jesus' new covenant community, both to complete and to perfect, which is why when we get to the end of this passage Jesus says, teaching them all that I've commanded you. There's a perfection that's needed as well as the completion. 

MOUNTAIN IN GALILEE

Alright, moving on. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. To which Jesus had directed them. If we went back up to verse 10. Then Jesus said to them, this is to the women, Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me. Jesus directs the women to tell, Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee. Well, the women, first of all, notice, the women get the Great Commission first. Their commission is to go tell the brothers, right? To go tell the brothers. But there's something very significant here. 

GO TELL MY BROTHERS

Think of the numerous nouns Jesus could have said, you know, go tell those betrayers, those deniers, those cowards, those failures, go to Galilee. They want to try again. Go tell my brothers. There's family. They are family and they're his family. And we notice just the use of that term. He holds out forgiveness. He's not holding this against them. The gospel, it restores, it reconciles. And that is going to be the aim of the whole Great Commission. calling in brothers and sisters into the family. 

RESTORING THE BROTHERS

But notice, it begins first with restoring the eleven. These guys, these brothers, must be restored before they can take the gospel to the nations. 

And notice, the eleven, they went. They went to Galilee, to the mountain Jesus had directed. There's that faithful act of obedience. The first act of obedience before they can go into all the world. They must go. They must come. They must see the risen Christ themselves. If you don't see Jesus, how can you proclaim Jesus? Now, we don't get to see him physically on this side of glory, but we do get to see him in his word. But you gotta see Jesus first. and be restored to Jesus yourself before you can join in this mission. And when they go and see Jesus, they worship. Worship is nothing less than the fuel of the Great Commission. 

WHY A MOUNTAIN IN GALILEE?

So why a mountain in Galilee, besides Jesus directing them there? And Jesus, he does so for a theological purpose. He's not just, you know, this random mountain in Galilee. Just go there. There's always something behind everything that Jesus says. He doesn't say anything accidentally. 

Well, I would say there's three bookends. Why this mountain in Galilee? Well, one, it bookends Jesus' ministry. Two, it bookends the Exodus. Three, it bookends the canon of Scripture. 

BOOKENDS JESUS’ EARTHLY MINISTRY

Let's start with it bookending Jesus' ministry, his earthly ministry. Where does Jesus begin his ministry? Well, he begins his ministry on a mountain in Galilee. And we back up to the Sermon on the Mount. It takes place on a mountain of Galilee. This is where Jesus has first given the Law as a new Moses. He's the new lawgiver, as it were. Jesus presents himself as the new Moses, the new lawgiver. And when he is finished, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7 verse 29 The crowds are astonished because Jesus spoke as one who had authority. 

Now let's look down at our verses that we read. Verse 18 All authority is Jesus's. It all belongs to him. Verse 20 Teach all that I have commanded. Jesus is the Teacher, the Great Teacher, the Lawgiver. So that's one aspect. It bookends Jesus' ministry. 

BOOKENDS THE EXODUS

But it also bookends the Exodus. So if we were to back up in the Exodus, why a mountain in Galilee? Well, Jesus is meeting them on a mountain. It echoes the giving of the Torah from the mountain. Moses was on the mountain of God when he was first commissioned at the burning bush. And coming out of Egypt to bring a nation, a people of Israel, he brings them out to worship on that mountain at the end of the Exodus. When they come out of Egypt, they worship on that exact same mountain. This will be a sign for you. You'll come and you'll worship me on the mountain. At the end of Exodus, it ends on that mountain where they fashioned the tabernacle on Mount Sinai. 

So Jesus is here bringing about a Greater Exodus, a Greater Moses who brings the people out of bondage to sin. Not out of one nation, but out of all the nations. 

And Galilee, if we think about Galilee, Galilee was representative of the nations. In Isaiah 9 (and we see this in Matthew's Gospel in chapter 4, Matthew's going to quote Isaiah 9). When he began his ministry, the inaugural fulfillment, the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations, Galilee of the nations, They’ve seen a great light. People who walk in darkness have seen a great light. 

Why Galilee? Because it goes beyond Jerusalem, beyond Judea. It goes to all the nations. When Israel came out of Egypt, as Steve read for us, they came out with, my translation says a mixed multitude, a foreign multitude. A multitude of people. Not just from Israel, not just from native Israel. But there's a greater Exodus taking place. 

BOOKENDS THE CANON

Three, why a mountain in Galilee? Well, because it bookends not just Jesus' ministry or the Exodus, it bookends the whole of Scripture. When you think of Eden, and many theologians argue this well, Eden is presented as a mountain temple, a garden temple on a mountain, with the four rivers flowing down, watering all the land. Okay? How does Scripture end? It ends on a mountain, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, on the mountain of God, with the River of Life watering all the land, where the Tree of Life buds for what? the healing of just Israel? No. The healing of the nations. 

ARRANGED BY THE AUTHOR

To this mountain, in verse 16, Jesus has directed the eleven. That word directed can also mean, can also be translated, he arranged. or He appointed. Literally, it means to put in order. The author of history, the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ Himself, He has arranged for His disciples to meet Him here on a mountain in Galilee. Just as He has arranged all of history from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation. He's arranged it all. We shouldn't be surprised at these connections. He's arranged for worshiping God on this mountain. But this mountain points to something more significant. That the mountain has been moved. We worship God not on some physical mountain but on Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem. 

So why a mountain in Galilee? Understanding God's sovereignty is crucial to getting the story right. Otherwise, we might read Israel and then the church as some kind of plan B and then maybe even a plan C. Just as the number twelve was woven into the fabric of creation, this idea of mountain in Galilee is woven into all redemption history. 

SIGNIFICANCE OF “GALILEE” – ROLL AWAY

And Galilee, we could camp out on just the word Galilee for a little while. I'm not going to do this. But Galilee is a Hebrew word and it comes from the word Galal, it means to roll or sometimes it's translated roll away. And it's not a very common word in the Old Testament. It only shows up 18 times. But it's significant because it's used of the stone rolled over the well. It's used for rolling stones over an entrance of caves as a prison or a grave. We can picture Jesus' burial and the stone being rolled in front and then rolled away. And it's used in what I think to be one of the most significant places in Joshua 5:9,  where God says, Today I've rolled away your reproach. You see, the resurrection, it rolls away the reproach of all the disciples, all their failures, where they failed their Messiah. It rolls away all of that. 

MOVING MOUNTAINS

It also takes us back a few weeks ago, to this mountain in Galilee, to Matthew 21, where Jesus, he talks about the faith to move mountains. If you have faith, just a tiny bit of faith, small as a mustard seed. You can say to this mountain, move from here to there. And we talked about it when we looked at Matthew 21, that there’s a correlation between this and John 4. Neither on this mountain nor in Samaria will you worship the Lord, but you will worship Him in spirit and in truth. 

And so the worship of God is no longer back there in Jerusalem, not physical Jerusalem. Again, it's part of the rejecting of apostate Israel. But you will worship Him in spirit and in truth. That whole system is over. Jerusalem is behind. This is why Mount in Galilee. Jerusalem is behind. Now we're looking ahead. Galilee of the nations and from here we're taking off to take the good news to the world. Yes, that good news is going to begin in Jerusalem and then Judea and Samaria and then to the ends of the earth. But Jesus is commissioning them not from Jerusalem. He's commissioning them from Galilee. There's new horizons ahead. No longer on any particular earthly mountain, but they will worship in spirit and truth. 

That's what the Great Commission does. It brings people not to a physical location, but to a spiritual location, to Mount Zion where they see Jesus, and where we see the risen Lord Jesus. And when they see him with their eyes opened by the Spirit, they see him in truth, and they worship him in truth. 

FAITH TO GO

Which takes us to verse 17, And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. Like the women, they had great joy, but they also had fear. Well here, the eleven they worshiped. But that doesn't mean there's no doubts whatsoever. And some doubted. But notice, in faith, they went. Have you ever thought about the faith it must have taken for them to go to Galilee as directed? You know, even though Jesus had told them no less than three times what was going to happen, I’m going to be crucified. I'm going to be handed over to the gentiles, I'm going to be crucified, I'm going to die, but I'm going to rise again. He told them at least three times. They couldn't believe their Messiah, the Son of Man who would inherit an eternal kingdom would truly have to die first. 

HURDLE ONE: BELIEVING THE WOMEN

And now the women bring the news that he's alive. I trust my wife a lot in what she says. But I want to tell you there are some things I'd be like, are you serious? I mean, think about these guys hearing this news from the women. And back then, the women weren't considered credible witnesses. No doubt it must have sounded like a wild claim. Think of your unbelieving neighbors. You can tell them you worship a once dead man who's now been raised from the dead. How they look at you. 

HURDLE TWO: FACING THEIR PEERS

Second hurdle. that they had to overcome to go to Galilee is most of them were from Galilee. They were from Galilee. And they left everything to follow Jesus. Can you imagine some of the talk from their friends and relatives in Galilee? James and John, you're leaving your fishing business behind? You're a fool!  You're leaving it all behind to follow this guy here, this Jesus? And now they’re going to go back to Galilee after the person they were following was shown to be an imposter? A charlatan? I mean, he was condemned as guilty and put to death. Took a lot of faith to go back among their peers. The mocking from their acquaintances. To follow this guy, what credentials did he even have? Some of you, likely, you've experienced some pushback from your following Jesus. I know I did, still do. I remember my dad, when he was still around, he would ask, How long is this fad in your life going to last? The faith it had to take for them to go to Galilee. 

HURDLE THREE: WHAT SORT OF RECEPTION

But perhaps the greatest hurdle may have been, what if He did rise? We all deserted Him. What kind of reception can we expect? The fear of looking into the eyes of one you failed, that you let down, you denied, even knowing. I mean, just think of your close relationships that you already have when you've let them down. It's hard to look them in the eye. Matthew doesn't record it, but Luke does. Upon Peter's third denial, the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter ran off and wept bitterly. 

THE RESURRECTION ROLLS BACK ALL OUR FAILURES

Some doubted. Yet despite their doubts, they went. The resurrection, it pushes back doubt. Whatever doubt they had, they went. And the resurrection holds out hope. Perhaps the women actually did see the risen Lord. Perhaps He did rise. The resurrection, it silences the scoffers in your life. You're not a fool to leave everything and follow Jesus. As to quote Jim Elliot, He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. And that includes any reputational capital you may have before the watching world. Let it all go. It's worth nothing. And the resurrection rolls away the shame of our every failure. That's what the word Galilee points to. Galilee, here on the mountain in Galilee, the reproach has been rolled away. 

EXPECT WELCOME

Remember, Peter, he ran when he heard the news. He ran to the tomb to see that the tomb was empty. He didn't let the shame of denying his Lord hold him back. And neither should we. What sort of reception should we expect? Well, go tell my brothers, expect the eyes of mercy and forgiveness. Think about Joseph from Genesis 45, when he reveals himself to his brothers. Do not be distressed that you sold me. It was God who sent me before you. And then he lays on or falls upon his brothers’ necks. He hugs them, he kisses them. Jesus is our brother. Go tell my brothers. That's the reception we should expect. 

SOME DOUBTED

Yes, some doubted. Perhaps even upon seeing the risen Lord Jesus. We likely think of Thomas, right? Unless I see the mark of the nails and placed my finger in the nail holes and my hand in the side. But consider how fast all these events must have taken place. How fast everything took place. When you first came to know the Lord, how much was a blur? I mean, not everything settled in right there. Not everything clicked immediately. Well, the same was true with these disciples. 

LITTLE FAITH

The word doubt, it really it literally means to waver or to hesitate. And it's only used twice in the whole of the the New Testament. And the one other time that it's used is used in Matthew's Gospel, what Caleb read for us earlier. When Jesus comes walking on the water and Peter says, Lord, if it's really you, call me to come to you, command me to come to you. He does. He gets out of the boat, and he walks in water, but he sees the wind and the waves and he. And he starts to sink and he cries out, Lord, help me!  And of course, Jesus saves him from drowning in his doubt. And he says these words, You of little faith, why did you doubt? That's our word. 

But notice, Peter stepped out in faith. And when they got into the boat, they all worshiped. They're not detached, this kind of doubting. Worship is right there beside it. And we give Peter a hard time sometimes, but I mean, how many of you have walked on water? I mean, I've never gotten out of the boat thinking I was going to do it. 

GROWING IN FAITH

There's also an authenticity here. that you won't find when people are trying to sell you on something. But more than that, there's an encouragement. Because I don't know about your faith, but my faith is not always as strong as I'd like it to be. Some doubt it, it wavered. I don't think there's a believer that hasn't experienced some level of doubt along their walk. One, it's a sign that we have not yet arrived. We're still that imperfect 11. Our faith hasn't been perfected just yet. And so along the way we might need our Lord to revive us like that little girl. 

TO WORSHIP OR NOT

Matthew doesn't give us the nature of the doubt, it's possible the doubting could have been how are we supposed to respond to this man who rose from the dead? I mean, is it really is it truly right that we should be worshiping him? Maybe that's what's behind this. I don't know. But I can answer the question. Are we truly supposed to be worshiping this man? Absolutely. Which is the last thing we're going to look at. 

WORSHIP IS THE GOAL

In fact, worship is the goal of all creation. We were created to worship. It's also what went wrong in the fall. Our worship had turned inward. We want to be like God. You know, I don't want to worship God. And then we end up worshiping everything. Worship, it's also the goal of all redemptive history. It's a restoration of worship. That's what's taking place with the Great Commission is we're sent out that worship might be restored. I think I think it might be John Piper who said, you know, missions exist because worship is absent, it's lacking. So we go into the world because God is seeking worshipers. As we sing, Now to the Lamb upon the throne, we are to worship this man, to whom all blessing, honor, glory, power is to be ascribed to. Worship is the goal of the Great Commission, which we're going to look at closer next week. We are commissioned, in a sense, to disciple the nations to worship the lamb upon the throne. 

GOD IS SPIRIT AND HAS FEET

The resurrection, it gives rise to worship. Like the women, when they met Jesus on the way, they worshiped. And here, the disciples on the mountain, they worshiped. Now remember, when the women met Jesus, they took hold of his feet. and worshiped Him. But there's a problem there. God doesn't have feet. Just to go back to John 4, which I've alluded to a few times. God is Spirit, and those who worship must worship in Spirit and Truth. But here, Jesus has feet. He's concrete. Jesus is truly man. And yet he's worshiped, not just by the women, but by all the disciples. If Jesus was merely a new Moses, we wouldn't worship him. If he was merely just another prophet, another priest, another king, we wouldn't worship him. If he was merely a messenger, or the term angel, if he was just, as some cults refer to him, if he was merely an angel, we would not worship him. At the, in the apocalypse, you all were talking about apocalypse today or apocalyptic today in your class. John bows down to worship the messenger who gives them the vision. The angel who gives them the vision. You must not do that. I'm a fellow messenger. I'm a fellow servant. Worship God only. Angels know to reject any kind of worship towards them. But Jesus never rejected worship. 

THE DIVINE CHRIST

Whether the women were here on the mountain with the disciples, or any other time throughout Jesus' ministry, Jesus never once turned away worshipers. Now, this would only be problematic except for one thing, if Jesus is God. And so, just to glance at that briefly, because God alone is to be worshiped. His glory he will not share with another. We could hit so many texts. And yet, Jesus, the text, this Great Commission text, even if we just looked at this one text, it claims nothing less than the full deity of Jesus Christ. So even though we're going to revisit these next week, let's just take a snapshot real quick. 

Verse 18, All authority. All authority is mine. Well, who has all authority but God alone? But Jesus here, All authority is mine. That's a pretty high claim. Disciple the nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That's verse 19. Jesus is placing himself right in the middle of God the Father and the Holy Spirit, claiming nothing less than equal authority. He's setting himself right there with the Godhead. Putting himself on par with God himself. And then, verse 20, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded, That’s a pretty bold statement in the Pentateuch. Moses isn't, you know, it's not what Moses commanded, even though that's what the Pharisees turned it into. Well, Moses commanded us this. No, Moses commanded what the Lord commanded, as the Lord commanded Moses. That's the word you're going to read a time and again. throughout the giving of the law. As the Lord commanded Moses. As the Lord commanded Moses. Here Jesus is the one. All that I have commanded. He is the authority. And then at the very end, And I am with you always until the end of the age. Now even if it's only eleven, they send it out. Even if He's only going to be with the eleven until the end of the age, which we we know better, we know He's going to be with all His people. No person is able to be in 11 places at once. And that to the end of the age. So there's at least this idea of omnipresence going on. Who's omnipresent but God alone? 

CLAIMING DIVINITY

So when critics say Jesus never claimed to be God, that's not only a ridiculous claim, it's dishonest. You see, at every turn of the Gospels, Jesus is showcasing his divinity. But why do they peddle such dishonesty? Because they don't want to worship him. They don't want to worship the one and true living God. Everybody worships, but it's a misplaced worship. We want to worship anything but the one we are to be submissive to. 

COMMISSIONED TO GATHER WORSHIPERS

Hence, the Great Commission. First the disciples had to go as Jesus directed them through the women. Why? So they could exercise faith and meet Jesus on the mountain to worship. In turn, they will be sent out to make worshipers of the nations, bringing the nations to the new mountain of worship. Not a physical mountain, but spiritual, Mount Zion. As we read in Hebrews, you've not come to a place that can be touched. You’ve come to Mount Zion. 

PLUNDERING NATIONS

You and I, we are commissioned with this group of disciples, to borrow from our Old Testament reading from Exodus, we are commissioned to plunder, not just Egypt, we're commissioned to plunder the nations. But not plunder the nations of silver and gold and precious gems, but of living stones. in which just as the people of Israel they took all those materials that they plundered from the Egyptians and made the tabernacle, we are to plunder the nations to make a house in which God will dwell with his people. The church itself is the house in which God dwells with his people. The church itself is the temple. 

And one day, like the eleven disciples, we will all see the risen Lord. The question is, whether we'll see him in worship or not. 

MISSING RIB

Let me wrap up. I was just thinking about the dozen ribs, or the twenty-four ribs, yeah, twelve on both sides. Adam was put into a deep sleep. One of his ribs were removed. In order to what? To fashion his bride. A helpmate fit for him. There's a season in which Adam was incomplete. It's not good for man to be alone. Not until his bride was prepared for him. The body of Christ is somewhat incomplete. Not that Jesus is not... is needy, not that the Son of God is lacking in any way. I'm not saying that, so don't misunderstand. And yet the body is somewhat incomplete until the fullness of the bride is complete, until the imperfect eleven is complete. Not the calling of Mathias, but the full number of elect. 

PERFECTED AND COMPLETE

What's represented by the 144,000 is nothing less than the great multitude that no one can count from every tribe, people, language, and nation. Making the incomplete bride the new covenant community, making her a complete people. And the imperfect bride is perfected in Christ. Until Christ is formed in you, Paul will say. How? Teaching all that I have commanded. This new covenant community may at this time be incomplete. 

But through the means of the Great Commission, Jesus is completing his bride day by day, adding to her number until the fullness is saved. And this new covenant community, it may be right now imperfect. All we got to do is look at ourselves, look at this room. We've still got some growing to do. Right now we're imperfect, both individually and corporately. But we are being perfected for our bridegroom. 

PERFECTING WORSHIP

And that perfection, most significantly, involves our worship. You see, what needs to be perfected more than anything else is our worship. When our worship is corrected, when our worship is perfected, everything else falls into place. You see, everything else flows, including our holiness. It flows from our worship because what we've been set apart for is nothing less than worship. Come, see Jesus. Bow down and worship Him. 

PRAYER

Let's pray. Lord, if we're honest, our worship is nowhere near perfect. We have so many idols in our lives. Like Calvin said, our hearts are idol factories. Our Our worship wavers. We're like Peter, stepping out on the boat, out of the boat. And there are times we are sinking in our doubts. Revive our faith during those times. Perfect our worship in You by revealing to these hearts of ours the fullness of Your glory. I ask all this in Jesus' name, Amen.

https://youtu.be/KsiiVL8HFvk

  Matthew 21:1-46  The Fruit of Glory

(message transcript)

INTRODUCTION:

I want to thank everybody for who showed up for our workday and those who have been praying for our workday because it was such a blessing just to see how many people pitched in to to just serve this facility that the Lord has so graciously given us. Now I don't know how many looked at the list that we had, our list was a little bit ambitious. We did not accomplish everything we hoped to have accomplished yesterday. 

This morning, I'm going to be a little bit ambitious. I'm not sure I'm going to accomplish everything I would like to accomplish, but we are going to be looking at the whole of Matthew 21. Now, I'm attempting this because most of this should be familiar to almost everyone who is in here. Matthew 21 is a very familiar chapter. So we're going to look at this whole chapter not once, not twice, but three times. And we're going to look at it through three lenses. 

First, we're going to look at it through the idea of humble authority. Then we're going to look at it through the lens of clearing the way. And third, we're going to look at it through the fruit of faith. And so just so you have it on the front end to prepare you for what we're looking at is I'm going to give you my summary statement. Jesus comes as the humble authority who clears the way for the fruit of faith. 

READ (Matthew 21)

HUMBLE AUTHORITY

Over the past three months, you've likely noticed that the headlines have been saturated. with the latest findings and cuts from DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency. Likewise, a week has not gone by in which some appeals court hasn't issued a ruling as to the legitimacy of such cuts and layoffs. 

Well, to ease some of you as to where we're going, Jesus is not riding into Jerusalem to bring about better government efficiency. I don't think efficiency is ever on God's list of priorities. But Jesus is coming in to make some job cuts. Not for the sake of saving the taxpayers some dollars. Not to offer a reduction on your tithe. Jeremy will go through that this morning and he'll... no. Jesus has come to cut out the corruption. 

And as far as appeals court are concerned, Jesus comes as the final court of appeals. The religious leaders and elders have been in business for themselves rather than attending the needs of the people and rather than serving the Lord. And Jesus is riding into town to take care of it. 

Now, as one who bears such authority, we might expect Jesus to have commandeered a chariot with a team of stallions. I mean today, you're not going to see kings or presidents or prime ministers go anywhere, especially among a full capacity crowd, where they are not sitting in the backseat of a bulletproof, 500-horsepowered limousine of some sort. 

But here, this great military figure, the king of all the universe, doesn't climb in the back of a bulletproof limousine with however many hundred horsepower. He stoops down to a vehicle of but one, a lowly donkey. Why? 

Well, first, the Lord says he's in need of it. He recruits two of his disciples to round up this cult. Why? Because the Lord is in need of it. That's kind of ironic to think that the king, the Lord of all the universe, the God who made everything, is in need. But he is in need. He's in need to make a statement to the people. And it's going to take this donkey to do it. 

I picture Jesus here sending James and John, who we've looked at for the past couple weeks, sending maybe these two as the recruits, you know, those who were seeking positions of prestige and power. A donkey, Jesus? Are you certain that's what you want? Don't you want someone with a little bit more giddy-up? No, a donkey and its colt will do just fine. That's what I need. 

And so we have this full-grown man riding this lowly colt of a donkey. And the crowd is going wild. They are celebrating, they are rolling out the green carpet, as it were, proclaiming, Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. 

I just wondered, did the crowd miss it? Often the crowd does, often we do. With all the hype, all the stories, did they completely miss what Jesus was doing in this moment? Well, the crowd might have missed it, but Matthew records it so that hopefully you and I won't miss it. 

This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, verse 5. Now there's no doubt Jesus is riding in as a humble king. And yet, he's also making the boldest of statements. Jesus is doing exactly what the prophet Zechariah said the Messianic king would do. Here, in this act of coming in on the donkey, Jesus is proclaiming himself to be none less than the Messiah. And notice, He doesn't hush the crowd's acknowledgement that He is the Son of David. They pay homage to Him. Now, but for how long? 

Jesus may have rode in on a donkey, meek and mild. But the rest of this chapter, Jesus will appear anything but. 

Note, humble authority doesn't suggest that Jesus is a pushover. It doesn't mean denying one's rightful authority. Humility does not mean to think more lowly of oneself than what they truly are, but not to think more highly of oneself than what they truly are. Humility doesn't deny the truth of who one is. That is what we call false humility.

So when Jesus enters the temple and he overthrows the tables, he's not some arrogant glory seeker. I'll show you who's in charge. He comes with the full authority of heaven itself to execute justice and to set things right. He has authority over what takes place in the temple. 

He also has authority over the fig tree, verse 19. And if it fails to bear fruit, he has authority to wither that same fig tree. In fact, Jesus has authority even over the mountains (which we'll return to). 

He has authority over those who would question him. That's verse 23. So when the religious authorities press Jesus to explain himself as if God answers to man, Jesus turns the tables on them and tells them, Tell you what, I'll ask the questions. You answer me. 

So many people think that God owes them an explanation. That's not humility, that's arrogance. And yet, in incomprehensible humility, God condescends to our level and answers genuine questions asked in faith, questions asked from a pure heart. But get this, He has no obligation to do so. And yet He stoops, He kneels as before children. He doesn't turn them away. 

But as for the religious elite, with all their study, the seminary students of Jesus' day, they couldn't even answer Jesus' simple question. The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man? So, rather than answer their question directly, Jesus tells them two parables. 

The first concerning two sons, verse 28. A father says to his first son, Go, work in the vineyard. And the son initially refuses, but later he repents and changes his mind and goes. The second son said he would go, and yet he never went. Which of the sons honored their father by doing what the father commanded? The existing authorities are like the son who promised to do the work of their father, yet never went. 

Where the first parable concerns the authority of a father over his two sons, the second concerns the authority of a landowner over the tenants. Verse 33. So when the owner sends emissaries to collect his fruit, the tenants disregard their authority as the owner's ambassadors. Mistreating some, killing others to the point where they even killed the landowner's own son. 

But that's what sin does. Sin rebels against authority. Like the two sons, sin rebels against God's loving, fatherly authority. Either by flat out telling him no, or by merely giving lip service to what the Father requests. And like the tenants, sin denies God's rightful authority as the owner of all things. Jeremy even made that clear in our prayer for the offering. All things belong to Him. We're but stewards. 

Like a loving Father, God makes no demands of His people that are not for our good. And as the owner of the vineyard, He didn't send ambassadors to collect the fruit because He was somehow in need of what they could give to Him. 

Rather, Israel was given dominion as stewards to expand the dominion of this vineyard for the good of the nations. Not to be inwardly focused, not to hoard everything for themselves, Israel was to be a replanting of Eden, as it were, where the people were to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with the reign of God's righteousness, God's righteous reign, but instead they became as corrupt as the nations around them. bearing thorns of idolatry, thorns that would soon crown this humble king's righteous brow. 

Listen, the owner of the vineyard has the authority to lease this vineyard to every he wants. He leased it to a people who refused to produce its fruits. This owner also has the authority to take it away, which is exactly what he is about to do. Verse 43, Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing its fruits. 

CLEARING THE WAY

Now the reason we're looking at this chapter as a whole is because it all comes together as one meaning, one message, one thing that's going on here. Each of these snippets point to the same thing. The old system has become corrupt to the point it's time to do away with it completely. 

Now, it's not like God didn't know that the old system was deficient from the beginning. It was always deficient, but not because of some failure on God's part, but because of our sin, because of the people's sin. It was never intended to be permanent. Rather, it was intended to point to what was to come. It was intended to point to the coming one. It was intended to expose our need for something better, something more glorious. 

But even though the system was intentionally temporary, that doesn't excuse man's responsibility. Man was still responsible to offer right sacrifices, acceptable worship, faithful obedience. To be a son who willingly works for his father. To be tenants who give the owner the fruit of the vineyard. 

But in himself, man is completely incapable. Not because what God demands is physically impossible or physically too hard, but because we're morally unwilling. Left to ourselves, we are unwilling to submit to the authority of others. including God. We're unwilling to work for another's joy or for another's glory. Our sinful bent refuses to be content as tenants, or as sons, as priests, or as doorkeepers. Whether we admit it or not, our natural fallen inclinations inward. We are self-focused. That's why we so desperately need God's Spirit in us. 

So what does this clearing the way look like? Well, the first step in clearing the way is found in the donkey passage, if I can call it that. The donkey passage. Jesus comes offering peace. That's what he's portraying coming in on a colt instead of a warhorse. The warhorse is going to come, but not now. 

First he comes to offer terms of peace. The reason a donkey and not a warhorse is because the greatest obstacle in our way is not Rome, it's not any enemies, but our sin. And our sin must be dealt with decisively. The crowd here is shouting, Hosanna!  meaning, Lord, save us!  Well, that's exactly what Jesus has come to do. But not in the way they expected. He's come to save us from our sin. I think of Charlotte's prayer, Lord, forgive us our sins. Thank you, Jesus, dying on the cross to forgive us our sins. 

Jesus has come fulfilling Zechariah's prophecy to bring peace. by satisfying the penalty of our rebellion in full, bringing peace not just to Israel but to the nations. This is the salvation Zechariah's humble king brings. 

And because Jesus himself is going to deal with our sin, there's no need to retain the old corrupt system any longer. It has served its purpose. 

Now when I say the whole system was corrupted, it's important to note that none of what was taking place that Jesus encountered in the temple, none of it was God's system, but man's perversion of what God had set up. This was not the system that God installed. 

When Jesus entered the temple complex, what did he see? He saw worship, but not the worship of God. He saw religion, but not the religion that is pure and undefiled. He saw a festival, I mean it was Passover, but not Passover as God had intended it. He saw trade, a first century stock exchange selling pigeons and doves. 

In fact, this stock exchange was part of the Great Exchange. where mankind had exchanged the glory of the immortal God for birds. That's what it says in Romans 1, for images of birds among other things. This pigeon, it can save me, right? I'll pay my own way, this little sacrifice, I'll give a little bit of money for a pigeon or a dove. And then I can go about my own merry way, doing whatever I want. As if a dove can save anyone. But there's only one who can save, and that is the one on whom the Spirit descended like a dove. 

For this people, there was no fruit of repentance. This is why Jesus quotes Isaiah and Jeremiah in verse 13. It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.' 

We'll start with the second half of that. You make it a den of robbers. It comes from Jeremiah 7. And I know it's been a while since we looked at that. Where the people, they trusted that simply going through the motions of worship was sufficient. Going through the religious rituals. Somehow, supposedly made them right with God. “No repentance required!” at least in their minds. The temple had become nothing more than a hideout. So long as the temple was in their midst, we were fine. This is the temple of the Lord. This is the temple of the Lord. This is the temple of the Lord. Nothing to worry about. 

Well, the temple is going out of business. Why? Because the people have made a mockery of God's temple. And if we're not careful, we can be guilty of the same. We can go through religious motions thinking that such can somehow appease God. You know, doing your church thing on Sunday and then turn around Monday, you know, the rest of the week it belongs to me. 

But the temple was never intended for Israel alone. The first half of verse 13, it comes from Isaiah. Isaiah 56, I believe. The Gospel writers, they rarely quote the passages in full, but the readers are expected to know the passage. My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. In Mark's Gospel, Jesus makes clear the meaning. For all nations, for all ethnos. 

Where were these abominations taking place? If you read any commentary, they're going to tell you this exchanging, the money changers, and the exchanging money for doves and pigeons, it was taking place in what would be called the court of the Gentiles. The outermost court. This whole corrupted religious system that the people had set up, it squeezed out the nations, squeezed out any place for the nations. among God's people? Well, no longer. 

The Fig Tree. Now the Fig Tree goes hand in hand with the temple. The Fig Tree is representative of Israel as the stewards of God's promises. You can see it in several places throughout the Old Testament, but one good place to look at is Hosea 9. Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree, I saw your fathers. 

So when Jesus curses the fig tree, it's not due to some fit of rage because he is hangry. He didn't smell those resurrection rolls baking in the kitchen this morning. And I know it's pushing lunchtime and some of you are probably getting hangry too. Jesus wasn't abusing his divine authority. How dare this fig tree fail to you know offer fruit for me to eat and satisfy my appetite. 

Remember, Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness being tempted without eating a single crumb. resisting the temptation to turn a stone to bread. This is the same Jesus who fed the multitudes in the wilderness, multiplying fishes and loaves for the multitude, not once, but twice. So Jesus is certainly not venting his appetite disappointments over some barren fig tree. 

What we need is a lesson in horticulture. Now, I had heard of this, but I mean with our fig tree over the last few years that we've had it, I've never experienced it so I doubted it. And And you know reading commentaries, they talk about these little fruits that appear on a early spring fig tree when it first leaves, but I didn't really believe it. And then I had somebody like R.C. Sproul who doubted it too, so I felt like I was kind of in good company there. Well, I guess we were both wrong. 

In the spring, when the fig tree leaves, it also puts out these little unripe fruits that, well, I don't know how tasty they are, but they're edible. Jesus uses the fig tree here as an object lesson for Israel. Well, it wasn't the season for harvesting figs. There should have at least been these little tiny nubs of fruit on the tree. The sign of future fruit. 

The fig tree, though, it had all the signs of fruitfulness, but it was barren. That was a portrait of the temple. There was lots of activity going on. On the inside, Fig leaves were sprouting and covering the naked branches, but the whole thing was fruitless. And as we know from Genesis 3, you can't hide nakedness or barrenness with fig leaves. No fig leaves can provide sanctuary or a hiding place. And fig leaves, not fruit, was all that Israel had to show. 

Israel was to be the stewards of God's vineyard, entrusted with the oracles of God so to be a blessing to the nations. But they were fruitless, barren, providing no benefit to anyone. Yet they were using up God's good resources. So when Jesus curses the fig tree, the disciples are amazed that it withers at once. How does Jesus respond? Not only will He do to this fig tree, but even to this mountain. 

What mountain? Well, there's a couple possible answers, but most likely it either is the Temple Mount or Jerusalem, physical Jerusalem itself. I want to be careful here. But the whole of the New Testament points to this, and even our current chapter. 

You see, what's the point of the Parable of the Tenants? Well, I guess first we need to ask, who are the tenants? If you're not sure who the tenants are, the chief priests and the scribes, the Pharisees, they make it pretty clear Jesus was speaking about them. Now if they got it right, I hope we can at least get it right. The kingdom would be taken away from them, the current tenants, and given to those producing fruit. 

So back to the mountain. This mountain is earthly Jerusalem, and it is out of business. As Jesus states in John 4, no longer on this mountain, here in Jerusalem, or in Samaria, will you worship the Father. True worshippers will worship in spirit and in truth. And as Samuel read in Galatians 4, physical Jerusalem had become equivalent to Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. The true people of God belonged to the Jerusalem that is above the Mount Zion that is above the heavenly Jerusalem. 

So Jesus is here clearing the way, removing the authority of the priests and the elders who question His. Why? Because they're worthless shepherds. They're the blind leading the blind. And He's removing the sons who merely gave lip service to the Father's commands. He's removing the current tenants of the vineyard. 

And he's going to give it to those who produce its fruits. The question is, who would that be? And what does this fruit look like? Well, we're going to start at the end and we're going to go backwards. 

FRUIT OF FAITH

First, it's the fruit of faith. The faith of those who don't reject the cornerstone, but find their refuge. in this cornerstone. You see, Jesus is clearing the way by tearing down the old system due to its deficiency. But he's not leaving the whole thing void of nothing. He's building or setting up a new system in its place. Jesus is tearing down one temple and he is raising up another, laying himself down as the cornerstone, as the very foundation. 

Access to God is no longer through some religious system, but through Christ. When Jesus died and breathed his last, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, stating very loudly that the physical temple was closed for business permanently. Now access to God is through the torn curtain of Jesus's flesh. 

If you just back up to Psalm 18 that Josiah read, Open to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. What's the gate? Well, Jesus is the gate. How is it opened? It's opened by his flesh being flayed open, paying for our sins. That is the gate of righteousness that we enter through. You enter through Christ, and only through Christ, where you don't enter the kingdom. And you enter by faith, and only by faith. You seek to come in any other way, this stone will crush you. 

The fruit of faith, it recognizes our rightful place as stewards, not as owners, in humility, not entitlement. That all is a gift of grace. And such changes the way how we think. It changes how we approach everything else in life. When you recognize that you're a steward, you can live with your hands open. It all belongs to God anyway. And with open hands, you'll bear fruit. You'll be a benefit to your neighbors, those God has placed along the roadside that you pass by. We work as unto the Lord, not man, and definitely not self. We work as for a loving father, not a demanding slave master. 

The fruit of faith is that of repentance. Like the parable of the two sons who told their father no, they later changed their mind. This included who? Tax collectors and prostitutes. How did they become obedient sons and daughters? Well, verse 32, they believed. When the message came to them, they believed. We've all been tax collectors and prostitutes. We've all turned against the kingdom of God and sought to serve the enemy. We've all prostituted ourselves to foreign gods, but God His mercy calls us. He calls prostitutes to be daughters, tax collectors to be sons. When they heard the message, they believed. What about you? Have you believed the message? Has it led you to repent of your old ways, your old rebellious habits, and obey your Heavenly Father as the loving Heavenly Father that He is? 

The fruit of faith, it recognizes Jesus' rightful authority over all things. Unlike the chief priests and the elders who challenged Jesus' authority, do you recognize Jesus as the supreme authority over all things, including you? Including your life? Do you trust His Word? Do you keep His commands? 

The fruit of faith, it worships Jesus. not on some particular mountain, but in spirit and truth. Those who have been grafted into a new tree, as it were. You see Jesus, he cursed the fig tree, Israel's fig tree, but a new shoot sprouted up. Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it will bear no fruit, Jesus says. But a new shoot from the stump of Jesse, has sprouted. And those grafted in are those who have the faith that moves mountains, not those who set up Pharisaical barriers, like the religious leaders of Jesus' day. 

The fruit of faith also it worships like a child, that's verse 16, who come to Jesus for healing, like the blind and the lame, recognizing that something much greater than the temple is now here. 

Lastly, the fruit of faith belongs to those who genuinely desire peace between them and God. While much of this current crowd would later shout Crucify Him, we would be wrong to assume that there was now no salvation available for them. Such would be to fail to recognize the Savior who is mighty to save. You see, in the opening chapters of Acts, Peter will declare, This Jesus whom you crucified. And to be honest, if we were there, we would be guilty of the same. This Jesus whom you crucified would certainly include many who were among the crowd that day when Jesus was put on the cross and the crowd was cut to the heart. Luke records in Acts. And three thousand souls were saved that day. And from there the number only grew. 

You see the fruit of faith that enters the kingdom through a humility that recognizes the humility of Christ. who overturned everyone's expectations of the kingdom by overturning tables and overturning hearts, displaying to all that his kingdom is a humble kingdom, established in humility by a humble king who rides in on a lowly donkey, who takes a seat on the throne of cross, who wears a crown laced with thorns, the thorns of our sin. 

All this to clear the way, to clear the way of our pride, so that our hearts would no longer be hardened, fallow, barren, ground, but broken, fertile soil. that bears not merely the fruit of faith and repentance, but the fruit of love for the one who came to save. 

Hosanna!  Blessed is He who came, and blessed is He who is coming again. 

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for stooping down in such utter humility. But we also thank you for your incredible authority as Lord over all. The Lord who has the authority. to forgive. Produce in us the fruit of faith. Tear down every stumbling block, every obstacle, every hindrance that lays in our way. Break up this hardened fallow ground around our hearts. And plant your seed of love, your seed of gospel love. And may it bear fruit, and may we be those who give you the fruits in their seasons. In Jesus' name, Amen.

https://youtu.be/D_8PJU-xxgE

   Matthew 20:29-34 Seeing Glory: Open Our Eyes 

As I was preparing for this week, I considered how often I take for granted basic realities such as light. I’m guessing the Lord wanted to hammer that home, because with yesterday’s storms, we spent our entire afternoon and evening without electricity. Thankfully, my lovely wife rounded up some candles and placed them throughout the house and around the kitchen table, so I could attempt to put my dozen pages of handwritten notes into some discernable format for you to digest. You can judge whether I succeeded.

Speaking of light, some of you have reached the point where it's not safe for you to drive at night anymore. Some of us take that for granted. We don’t often think about the gift of eyesight.

Others of us tend to take for granted, if I leave my vision assistance—my spectacles—on a table somewhere or in the car or wherever, I can still get by fairly well. If my wife leaves her visual assistance somewhere, she's not going to find her way through the house.

But what about more serious visual impairments? You know, most of us look around at all this beauty around us that others will never be able to fix their eyes on. You ever think about that? What God has so graciously gifted you the ability to see, others can only imagine.

A week ago last Friday, a few in here, they made a trip to Cheekwood. [And Haley, can you put up one of those pictures?] And they went and took some photos of the Cheekwood Manor and garden. What if this was the extent of what you could see? Just a blur of the manor, when the rest of the world sees this. [Go ahead with the next one, Haley.] Or, what about flowers? If you saw flowers and this is what they look like, instead of this. Or we have one more.

Now, the young lady responsible for these amazing photos, she has a vision impairment of her own. Haley, these pictures are quite stunning. But Haley only has one good eye. She sees the world a little bit differently than most of us, but I mean just look, look at that beauty.

We're in Matthew chapter 20. And we're going to be looking at two groups with a different sort of visual impairment. One is a crowd with perfectly good eyesight, but they're blind. Another is two blind men. Their eyes do not function at all, but they see what the rest of the crowd does not.

READ (Matthew 20:29-34)

Now Matthew’s narratives are often more concise than Mark’s. So while we could compare the two accounts, Matthew has penned his gospel to stand on its own. Matthew has particular theological empheses he is aiming at.

So, here, Matthew lumps the crowd into one people for a reason. In part, he does so to warn us about the crowd, to warn us about following the masses, to warn us about following that which is popular.

In the next chapter, we’ll see that this crow follows Jesus all the way into Jerusalem. They’ll shout, Hosanna to the Son of David. Hosanna meaning please save. Please save us Son of David. This is quite similar to the cry of the two blind men. Lord, have mercy on us Son of David.

So in one sense, the crowd and the blind men both recognize this man, Jesus, to be the promised Son of David. But the crowd only partially saw what that meant. They saw the Son of David to be the warrior king who would come crush their enemies — crush Rome — and reign forever. And that’s true in a sense. But that’s a partial truth. And partial truths are most often distorted truths. And that is the case with how the crowd sees Jesus.

Also, it’s important to note that this crowd doesn’t share the same the same merciful disposition of the One they are supposedly following. 

Later Matthew records what becomes of this crowd. If you turn a few pages to Matthew 27, we see that when it becomes apparent that this Jesus isn’t the warrior king they had hoped for, that this Son of David hasn’t come to crush the Roman empire, when this mighty king is displayed in the meekness and weakness of human flesh, the crowd will no longer find it fitting to follow Jesus.

When given the choice between releasing  Barabbas, a famous criminal, and Jesus, the King of the Jews, this crowd will call for the release of Barabbas, not Jesus. You see, in their eyes, Barabbas at least took a stand against the Roman empire, against their enemies. Where Jesus seemed to have surrendered himself to their enemies. He is not a king they wish to follow. 

So, Pilate asks, What then should I do with the King of the Jews?  And the crowd cries out, Let him be crucified. And Pilate asks, Why? What wrong has he done? But —now listen to these words — they cried out all the more! That’s the same thing these blind men did. They cried out all the more, Let him be crucified.

You see, in verse 31 of our text, the blind men, they cry out all the more for mercy. But this crowd will later cry out all the more to have the Merciful One crucified. 

What are some take aways? Not every following of Jesus is the same. Many follow Jesus; they follow the hype, the excitement, the crowd, what’s popular. And they’ll follow Jesus for a spell. But they won’t follow Jesus to the cross.

Being among the crowd that follows Jesus doesn’t make one a follower of Jesus. Crowds are filling pews this morning around the globe. But sitting in a church building isn’t following Jesus.

Following Jesus’ whereabouts isn’t the same as following Jesus with your heart. The reason Caleb read Numbers 9 for us is because it shows how a people can follow God in location without following with their heart. 

That first generation the came out of Egypt in the Exodus, they flowed the Shekinah glory, the fire cloud, God’s tabernacling presence. That’s what Shekinah means. It comes from the word for tabernacle. They followed God’s tabernacling presence among them. The cloud lifted, and the people set out and followed the cloud. The cloud settled down, and the people camped. However long the cloud remained, the people remained. They followed God in location, but they didn’t follow with their hearts. 

Later you can read about what happens to that first generation that came out of Egypt. You can read about it in Jude 5, or 1 Corinthians 10, or Hebrews 3, or Deuteronomy 1, or many places throughout God’s Word.  They all describe how God was not pleased with most of them. And all of them but Joshua and Caleb perished in the wilderness. They never entered the Promised Land. Following God’s Shekinah glory, His tabernacling presence saved none of them.  

In the same way, when the crowd followed Jesus, they were following God’s Shekinah glory, His tabernacling presence in the person of Jeus Christ. As Jeremy read for us from John 1: And the Word was God… and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That word dwelt is tabernacled. He tabernacled among us. 

The crowd followed God’s Shekinah glory in the face of Jesus Christ. But for many, it wouldn’t save them. The crowd followed God’s Shekinah glory, but they followed only so long as they saw such as glorious. 

Following Jesus for a time is not the same as persevering to the end. Only those who persevere to the end will be saved. If you don’t persevere to the cross, you’re not following Jesus, at least not with saving faith. The occasional or temporary following of Jesus doesn’t make one crucified with Christ.

Last one. Waling on the road Jesus once walked doesn’t put you on the road to glory. I know many people who have taken trips to see the Holy Land. Perhaps some of you have visited the Holy Land, or hope to do so some day. Walking the roads Jesus once walked. Seeing the sights Jesus saw.  Listen. So did this crowd. They walked the same road as Jesus. They walked in Jesus’ very footsteps. But walking the road Jesus once walked doesn’t put you on the road to glory. 

The only legitimate following of Jesus is a cross-bearing following of Jesus. The crowd had no place in their theology for the cross. And many churches and denominations have no place in their theology for the cross. To them the cross is nothing more than an unfortunate tragedy at best. They refuse to define the cross biblically. Why? Because they don’t actually like what the cross stands for — Jesus’ substitutionary atonement — His death in the place of sinners, bearing God’s holy wrath in our stead, and His righteousness granted to us who have no righteousness of our own. 

Take care before jumping in with the crowd. For you just might find it leading you away from the Jesus who saves. And you might find yourself with countless others who follow an entirely different Jesus than the One portrayed in the Scriptures.

Well that’s the visually impaired crowd. What about the two blind men?

If we can say anything at all about these two blind men, it’s that they see before they see. The crowd failed to see Jesus for who he is. But these blind men see Jesus rightly. They see Jesus as the Son of David, the MERCIFUL SHEPHERD KING. 

You hear it in their plea. “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David.” So simple yet so telling. Their plea demonstrated what they believed. Our faith, our pleas, will likewise reveal what we believe.

Their understanding of who the Son of David is was far better informed than the crowd’s. 

[Here’s the thing. We believe, not primarily what we see with our eyes but what we see with our hearts. We believe what the eyes of our hearts see regardless of what our physical eyes may see. If our hearts suppress the truth, we’ll believe our own version of the truth. But one’s version of the truth doesn’t make it true. 

Now, if we believe only what we see with our hearts, you and I have a serious problem. Because as Scripture makes clear in Jeremiah 17, the human heart is deceitful. So, if we are to believe rightly, we need God to open the eyes of our hearts. That’s what differentiates the seeing of the blind men from the seeing of the crowd.]

The crowd believed one thing about Jesus, they saw one thing about Jesus, that Jesus had no time to concern himself with the needs of the weak and infirmed, that Jesus was too high to deal directly with the poor and lowly, that Jesus’ mission was too big to involve himself with the trivial, such as what ever these two blind nobodies wanted from him.

But the blind saw something different. They believed something different. In Jesus, they saw a merciful shepherd like King David who not only cared about the destitution and pitiable state of others but that he cared about them! That he cared enough to enter their brokenness. And they saw that Jesus was powerful to help.

This is nothing less than the faith that calls on the name of the Lord and is saved! (Joel 2:32, Romans 10:13.) “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord,” that’s exactly what these two blind men were doing. They were calling specifically on one of the many true names for Jesus of Nazareth: The Son of David.  

You see. Faith in Jesus believes Jesus can and that Jesus has a merciful disposition toward the meek. It’s not enough to have faith in some powerful Son of David (like the crowd did), if that Son of David has no inclination to care for your current welfare. It’s also not enough to have faith in some merciful shepherd king who is inclined to do good for you but has no power to help. These two blind men believed Jesus to be both Mighty and Merciful.

But where did such faith come from? The men may have been blind but their faith wasn’t. Genuine faith is never blind. 

Now, we know from reading our Bibles that faith is a gift from God. Yet, we also know that God uses means. 

First, He uses means to get the information to us. We need the truth revealed to us. That’s the Word—God’s Word proclaimed through God’s messengers. Right now, I want you to know that God’s Word is being proclaimed to you. 

I'm hoping to help you see just who the son of David is. So you may see the son of David as the blind men saw the son of David. 

But information alone, truth alone is not enough to save anyone. If it was, everyone would be saved. If truth was sufficient everyone would call upon the name of the Lord. 

But along with truth, the Spirit needs to illuminate that truth to the eyes of our heart,  not only so that we understand the truth rightly,  but that we would see that truth as glorious,  so that we would no longer suppress the truth.

Thes blind men (who likely weren’t always blind. Verse 34, they recovered their sight.) Their idea of the Son of David wasn’t fashioned out of whole cloth; it didn’t come from nowhere. They knew the Scriptures, either from reading them before they lost their sight or from hearing them read in synagogue Sabbath by Sabbath.

They likely recalled passages, not only from 2 Samuel 7 (where we read of the Davidic Covenant) but also from the Psalms and the Prophets. 

Take Psalm 72, penned by King Solomon. While Solomon was a Son of David, this psalm anticipated a greater king and a surpassing reign—a King before whom all other kings would fall and all nations serve. This idea of the Son of David, the crowd rallied behind. 

But Psalm 72 continues. This King delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy. In other words, this King would be both powerful and compassionate.

And in Isaiah 11, they’d have heard of the shoot from the stump of Jessee. Now who is that if not the Son of David? This shoot would not judge by what he sees or hears but with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. 

They anticipated a time of restoration when, in Isaiah 35, the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped. Yet, never before had the blind been healed of their blindness. Yes, there was a time in the days of Elisha when the Lord struck the Syrians with blindness, Elisha led them to Samaria, and then the Lord opened their eyes (2 Kings 6). But no prophet, priest, or king had ever healed the blind. And yet, these blind men believed that Jesus could do what no man had ever don in the history of the world!

They saw! The blind men saw that there must be some connection between the promised Son of David and Isaiah’s Servant of the Lord—the Servant who would no break a bruised reed or quench a fainting wick.

Yesterday, as our power was out, and I was working at the kitchen table surrounded by the candles Jenny spread around the table, one of these candles, its wick was fainting. It kept flickering in and out, barely holding on, barely putting out any light. It appeared utterly useless, unable to serve the purpose I thought needed to serve. That’s how the crowd viewed these blind men. Our Lord Jesus looks at the fainting wick differently than we tend to. He doesn’t quench the light that’s waning. Instead, He gives it light.

This servant would be given as a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, and to bring out of prison those who sit in darkness. You realize that was these two men. Being blind, they weren’t able to enjoy the light that you and I so often take for granted. They sat on the roadside in darkness … but not for long. Why? Because the Son of David had come!

So, when the crowd rebukes them and tells them to be silent, of course they cry out all the more! Wouldn’t you?

You will seek me and find me … when? When you seek me with all your heart, not your eyes! No one needs 2020 vision to see Jesus clearly. If anything, our physical eyes can distract and distort. You don’t even need functioning eyeballs to see truth! What you need, what we need, is a faith that cries out desperately to Jesus, “Lord, have mercy on us!”

And what did they want to see? They wanted to see Jesus. Where do I get that? Well, let’s back up.

If you recall last week, we looked at a request from another pair of men. And here, Matthew is juxtaposing the two pairs. Rather than a request to sit on thrones like the two sons of Zebedee who wanted to sit at Jesus’ right and left, these two blind men are sitting by the roadside as beggars. Rather than some secret request for places of honor, these two blind men cry out publicly for mercy. And just as Jesus asked the two sons of Zebedee, “What do you want?” here, Jesus asks the blindmen the same thing. But rather than a request for glory like the sons of Zebedee, the blind men ask to see glory! “Lord, let our eyes be opened!”

Now, I understand there were likely many reasons they would want their vision restored. I mean, who wants to remain blind? But I’m convinced, given the faith they exhibited in who Jesus is, the reason they wanted their sight restored more than any other reason was to see Jesus. This is their Moses moment. “Lord, show me your glory!”

They recognized Jesus without needing to see his shekinah glory … but that didn’t mean they didn’t long to see it!

And in pity, Jesus touched their eyes and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him. That phrase, “recovered their sight” is the Greek word “to look up.” The first thing they did when their eyes were opened was to look up into the face of God! O what a sight those merciful eyes of Jesus must have been!

And they followed him! These blind men had known suffering for who knows how long. Now they could run off to a “good life,” a care-free life in comparison to what they had endured. No more begging. No more missing out on all the beautiful sights this world has to offer. They could go see the world in all its beauty! Bucket List!

But instead, they chose to follow Jesus on His road to glory … where, perhaps, they didn’t know yet, but where they would witness the most beautiful sight of all: the Son of God dripping with blood, nailed to a splintery beam of wood, paying for their sins. Loved ones, what sights can the world offer compared to that!

This Jesus, who gives his life as a ransom for the many, is not too busy to stop for the two, to show compassion to the two. Is every infirmity healed in this age? No. But the Light of the World’s restoring sight to these two blind men points to the restoration to come. 

Understand, it was the two blind men, and not the crowd, who glorified this Son of David … who magnified His name. The Light of the World was glorified in these two blind men in a way that He wasn’t by the rest of the crowd. So, whatever your present weakness, disability, infirmity is, the Lord has divinely allowed and appointed such so that you might glorify Him in it.

You see, it’s a beautiful thing that our Lord doesn’t rush — that He allows time for us to seek Him desperately. Our desperate pursuit of Jesus only serves to further glorify Him. Now, some don’t like this idea of desperately pursuing the Son of God. But we may want to ask why? 

Listen. These two blind men, shamed by the crowd, could have given up their plea; they could have stopped crying out. And why might they have been tempted to do so? Because of pride and nothing else. And that pride could have sabotaged their faith. And listen. They would not have been healed. 

Scripture doesn’t portray such desperation to suggest, “Well, yeah, but there’s no expectation for you and me to be this desperate.” Their faith triumphed over their pride. Their hope triumphed over their shame. Let us look weak and helpless before the watching world. Why? Because we are! Why put up a front and pretend otherwise. That’s whom the gospel is for!

Cry out and receive the mercy you so desperately need from the only One who can give it! And by doing so, you will glorify the Deliverer. That’s Psalm 50:15. Call on me in the day of trouble, says the Lord. I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me!

Jesus’ mission — His main mission — is not at odds with our daily needs. In fact, Jesus’ mission, atoning for sin to restore us to God, in turn restores EVERYTHING else. 

Jesus came to touch what was unwell, to make it whole. And touching their eyes, they were immediately healed of their physical blindness. What surgery have you ever had that went so smooth?

In pity. The word is “σπλαγχνίζομαι.” It comes from the word many guts, or innards, or we sometimes say heart. Out of the overflow of His heart, Jesus was moved to touch. His heart preceded His hands. But it’s important to recognize that Jesus’ hands followed. He didn’t respond from afar, though He could have. He came near and touched them in their infirmity.

And just so you know, God’s hands moved with pity to respond to our desperate condition. God’s hands followed His heart. That’s why He stretched them out on the cross!

By stopping, Jesus was not sidetracked from His mission. He was fulfilling His mission. Application: Don’t think that mercy ministry isn’t a part of the church’s mission to make and be disciples. We are to stop and show compassion for our neighbors, the near ones of you, those by the roadside, as we follow Jesus to the cross.

What the blind men immediately saw upon Jesus opening their eyes, we also look forward to seeing. When their eyes were opened, everything was suddenly new and fresh. When we receive our new resurrected eyes, it shall be even more glorious than that! Where now, we see Jesus through the pages of His Word, through a glass darkly, soon, like those blind men, we’ll see Him face-to-face — but in the fullness of His glory, no longer veiled in the likeness of our fallen flesh.

And that’s just the physical. We’ll also see Him in the fullness of all His attributes, perfectly and rightly. And we’ll worship like never before. 

Are you looking forward to that day? I hope so. It’s coming. The fullness of the glory of salvation in coming. But such will only be enjoyed — not by those who followed the crowd — but by those who have had the eyes of their hearts opened to see glory … those who in seeing Jesus, follow Jesus on His road to glory, to the cross.

Is your faith in the Jesus these blind men saw? The Jesus of Scripture? Or like the crowd, is your faith in a partial Jesus, a distorted version of Jesus? 

Have your physical eyes betrayed you as you look on the delights and wares of this world … those things that the crowd esteems? Or have the eyes of your heart been opened to see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?

Is your faith a faith that acknowledges your desperate need for mercy?

What if the blind men didn’t cry out when Jesus passed by? What if the shame they received from the crowd silenced them? Jesus passed that way from Jericho to Jerusalem but once as recorded in Scripture.

In the reading of this Word, in the proclamation of the gospel, Jesus is passing by right now. There’s no guarantee that He’s going to again. If you haven’t cried out in mercy to the Lord of Glory, today is the day. 

But if you delay, if you are somehow ashamed of this gospel, ashamed of this Jesus, you may miss your chance to see His unveiled glory. 

Today is the day of salvation. May the Lord open blind eyes and grant fresh sight to the eyes of our hearts that we may gaze upon His glory. Amen.

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