This morning, if you have your Bibles and will turn with me to Matthew’s Gospel, Matthew chapter 21. As I mentioned, I want to look at events surrounding the day that Jesus came in to Jerusalem during the Passover week. Some events that occurred in the next couple of days we’re going to look at this morning.
Because they all led up to what we’re going to be seeing happens. It would have been on Thursday of that week. He came in on Sunday the 10th of Nisan.
On the 14th of Nisan, which would have been Thursday, they would have been sacrificing the lambs for Passover. He came to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover that day, that week. As he had the other Passovers prior to that, but this one was going to be totally different.
He told his disciples on the way to Jerusalem it was going to be different. He told them when they got there it was going to be different. The night before he was arrested he told them it was going to be different.
Because this Passover, he who was the Son of God that had been sent to take away the sins of the world, he would be arrested, he would be beaten, he would be tried, and then he would be crucified, he would die, be buried, and rise again from the dead. The whole purpose of his coming was going to be caught up in this week. He had come in fulfillment of the promises that had been given of God and the prophecies that had been given dealing with his coming, his first coming.
He had been promised way back when man first sinned, when Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were promised a Messiah. The seed of woman would come.
The prophecies foretold that he would be born of a virgin. It foretold he would be born in Bethlehem, the Bethlehem that is located in Judea, Bethlehem Ephratah. It was told that he would be taken away to Egypt and that he would be brought out of Egypt.
And that happened. It was told that he would come and he would be the one who would heal the blind, cause the deaf to hear, and cause those that were dumb to speak. It was foretold and prophesied that he would be able to do tremendous miracles for the people.
But it was also prophesied about this last week, this last week of Passover. It was prophesied that he would be the Lamb of God when he was introduced by John the Baptist as he came to the Jordan River. As John saw him, he cried out and John was acknowledged by the people of Israel to be a prophet.
And John cried out and said, Behold the Lamb of God which cometh to take away the sins of the world. It was foretold that he would be arrested. Isaiah is foretold in chapter 53 of the book of Isaiah, how that he would be beaten for our transgressions.
And by the stripes that would be placed upon him, we would be healed. It spoke of the fact that this one would lay down his life that we could live. And all these prophecies were coming together and being fulfilled in their fulfillment of his first coming during this week.
Now last week we looked at the fact that there was all kinds of different things going on in the city of Jerusalem at this time. You had political intrigue, you had religious intrigue, you had the people, the vast majority of which did not understand why Jesus had come the first time. They didn’t hear what John the Baptist had said, nor comprehend what it meant.
And they were coming looking at him as the one who would be the deliverer, who would deliver them out from the oppression of Rome, and it would cause them to have freedom. They look at the second portion of chapter 61 of the book of Isaiah, where it said that he would come and rule with majesty and justice, and that all the nations of the world would submit to his rule. That’s what they were seeing, but they failed to see the first verse.
And they failed to acknowledge what Isaiah said prior to chapter 61 and chapter 53. Today if you go to Jerusalem and you would try to witness the Orthodox Jews and the Jews that would hold to the Jewish view of the Bible, the rabbinical view of the Bible, and you would ask them, what is the meaning of Isaiah 53? They would say, we don’t read that book. The rabbis tell us not to read that book.
Or if they would give you an answer, they say, well, it was one of the kings of Israel that it’s speaking of, or it’s the nation of Israel that it’s speaking of, but it’s not the Messiah that it’s speaking of, because if they acknowledge that this book is speaking of the Messiah, Jesus fulfilled everything in that book. As Jesus is entering into Jerusalem, I want you to understand the intrigue is only growing, and the tension is growing greater. He’s just gotten done, a few days prior, raising Lazarus from the dead.
There are many people that have gone to Mary and Martha and Lazarus’ house to see Lazarus and to see this miracle that Jesus has done. The city of Bethany is about two miles from Jerusalem. And as the crowds had gathered as Jesus was going and marching from the northern portion of Israel to Bethany, and then ultimately to Jerusalem, the people had seen who He was, and they wanted to see His miracles.
They believed that He was coming to deliver Israel, and the crowds were gathering. At the same time, the priests, which were the Sadducees, the Pharisees, who normally hated one another, the scribes, the Herodians, were all plotting against how can we get rid of this man. He’s causing waves to the things that we have established, and so they’re plotting and planning.
Let’s pick it up at Matthew 21, verse 1, and then we’re going to continue on and look at some of the events that happened on Monday and Tuesday of that week as well. So we see the crowd, and Jesus is approaching at the end of verse 20, and then in 21 it says:
Matthew 21:1-3
And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, 2 saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. 3 And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.
I want to pause here, just tell you, you do not enter as a conquering king into a city on the foal of a donkey. Conquering kings enter on a horse, and preferably a white horse, to show that they are conquering.
To enter riding on a donkey is a sign of humility, meekness, and that you have a servant’s heart. Totally opposite of what the people are expecting. But this is what was foretold in Zechariah, that what would happen, is you would enter into Jerusalem upon the foal of an ass. And that was told a few hundred years before this event occurred.
Matthew 21:4-8
4 All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.
6 And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, 7 and brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.
8 And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. 9 And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. 10 And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? 11 And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.
Now I want you to understand some things that were just going on here.
When they’re yelling, first of all, I want you to see they put their garments down. And they put their garments on the colt. We have a picture of something like this happening in the Old Testament in the book of Esther.
King Ahasuerus has been deceived by Haman. And Haman has told him that the Jews needed to all be killed. And he set a day that they were to be killed.
And then Esther comes and he changes, he can’t change the decree because it’s the Medes and Persians. And once the law is established, he can’t change it. But he says that the Jews can defend themselves on that day.
And that anyone who would help them to defend themselves would be honored. But events were also transpiring there around the man who created all of this. And his name was Haman.
He was very proud. He was very arrogant. The king couldn’t sleep because God caused him not to be able to sleep.
And when he couldn’t sleep, he asked that the chronicles of the kingdom be read to him by one of his scribes. And he read to him an account where one of his men, who would be similar to our cabinet member, of our president, had prevented two of his servants from killing him and had overheard that happening, had brought it to the attention of the king. And the king had had these two men put to death.
And the kingdom was preserved because of this man. And the man’s name was Mordecai. Mordecai was Jewish.
He was also the cousin of Esther. And he was her caretaker. The king asked the scribe, what do we do for Mordecai to honor him for what he did for me? And the scribe said, nothing.
The king said, bring in Haman. Haman comes in and he asks Haman, there is a man that I need to honor. He has done a great service for me.
How would you say I should honor him? Haman believed that the king was speaking of him. And so he says, I would dress him up in the king’s gowns, I would place him on a horse, and I would put your robes and your clothes on him, and I would lead him through the city so that the people can cheer and honor this person. The king tells Haman, go get Mordecai, do exactly what you said to him, and you shall be the one that leads the horse.
Not exactly what Haman had planned. But the reason I bring that up is, it was a way of honoring. To place the clothes upon the steed, and to dress the person in the robes.
Jesus not only has the clothes placed upon the horse, the donkey that he is sitting on is not a horse, but they lay the clothes down in the path that is going before him. Now remember, there are three major feasts in Israel. Passover is one of them.
Passover is to remember when the land was slain, and the nation of Israel was delivered from the world system of Egypt, and really it was a prophetic statement of what Jesus would do, delivering us from the world by his blood. But there was another feast, it was called the Feast of Tabernacles. And that one was a feast where they would have build tabernacles, and the point of what it was a remembrance of, was to remind them of when the Lord had tabernacled with them in the wilderness, and they had lived in tents in the wilderness, and the Lord had been with them.
But that was looking back. But looking forward, it was to be a feast where they would look forward to the Lord coming again, to establish his rule and reign on the earth, and to tabernacle or live with his people. During the Feast of Passover, you slew a lamb, and it was a bloody sacrifice.
During the Feast of Tabernacles, you threw down palm branches, and it was to acknowledge the coming King to tabernacle with you, that God was coming to tabernacle with you. And so palm branches were part of that feast, not part of Passover. Yet we see something very interesting here.
The people lay down their clothes, they also get palm branches, and they throw the palm branches down before the donkey that Jesus is marching into the city. Now as they’re doing this, they also cry out, and I want you to look at the words that they say. These are Messianic terms.
These are Messianic cries. Hosanna. Hosanna means save now, or save us, or save.
Hosanna is he, Hosanna to the Son of David. The Son of David is a Messianic term. It’s speaking of the King that’s coming.
To understand this, remember we talked about the political intrigue that’s going on. One of the political intrigues was the fact that they had an Edomite sitting on the throne, and the sons of Esau were despised enemies of the Jews. Yet Herod and Herod’s family were of the Edomite line.
They were sitting there by appointment of Rome, not by appointment of God. And the people had not had a king that came from the royal line of David since Zedekiah during the time of Jeremiah, and he had last ruled in the late 500 B.C. So it had been hundreds of years since they’d had a true king. And they’re crying out, Hosanna to the Son of David.
The Son of David that they were looking for was the ultimate king that would come because the prophecies had spoken of the fact that it would be a descendant of the line of David that would rule and reign from the throne of David. And so they’re calling out, Save us, thou Son of David, or in other words, the one who’s the king. They’re looking for a deliverer, but they don’t understand that first they need to be delivered from their sins.
And then they cry out after that, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. And they’re acknowledging that only God can save them. So they are really acknowledging Jesus as Messiah.
The problem is, they don’t understand He’s got to go to the cross. Now all of this is going on, and the political intrigue is going on around them. verse 12.
It’s the next day. Jesus goes into Jerusalem, and when He goes into Jerusalem, He goes to the temple. This is where Jesus always went when He was in Jerusalem.
When we were in Jerusalem, on the south side of Jerusalem, they have steps that go up that just excavated these steps. And it’s in all likelihood that on these steps, Jesus would go and He would sit and teach to people in the temple, because that’s what people would do before He would go into the temple itself. He would sit on the steps and instruct people and teach them.
It’s Passover. Passover at this particular time in Jewish history, the Jews had already been dispersed, but not completely. They lived in many other nations throughout what is the Middle East today.
And when they’d come to Jerusalem for Passover, because all the Jews were to come, the Sadducees had arranged it that if you came from, say you came from somewhere like, let’s say Morocco, to bring a lamb that didn’t have any blemishes, that wouldn’t get sick, or wouldn’t get hurt taking that trip, you’d be taking a chance. So the Sadducees, out of the goodness of their heart, which was really their money making operation, said, we will sell you lambs. And we will sell you lambs that are pure.
But you have to use the temple’s currency. And in order to use the temple’s currency, we realize many of you are coming with Roman currency, or currency from your own countries. What we will do is, we will have money changers there.
And they’ll trade your currency for the temple currency. The only problem is, the Sadducees like to put their thumb on the scale. And they like to make sure that it was always to their great advantage when the currencies were traded.
It wasn’t an equal barter. The other things that the Sadducees did, they lied about the quality of the lambs. Sometimes they would sell lambs that really shouldn’t have been sacrificed.
Other times, they’d take a lamb in, and they’d bring it right around and resell it. They were doing all kinds of corrupt things that were against the law, and that God had said were an abomination to Him, because the sacrifice of the lambs was to be pointing to the fact that there was one Lamb of God that would take away the whole sins of the world, and that was Jesus. And when the Sadducees did this, they were mocking the sacrifice of Christ.
This is what was going on as Jesus entered the temple Monday morning. Verse 12:
Matthew 21:12
12 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,
Why did He throw in the seats of them that sold doves? Because God said if you couldn’t afford a lamb, you could offer a bird.
And they were even taking advantage of the poorest of the people. And Jesus was irate because of their wickedness. And they were making a mockery of why He had come.
His blood was to be shed for the sins of the whole world, not just the rich, not just the Sadducees or those that had control of the temple. It was to be shed for the whole world’s sins. And these people were mocking it.
So He went in and He drove them out. It’s the second time He’s driven them out of the temple. The other time was earlier in His ministry.
He did the same thing.
Matthew 21:13
13 and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
And that’s exactly what they had done.
Matthew 21:14
14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them. 15 And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased,
Can you stop and think about that for a moment? This is the religious leaders.
This is the men that should have known the prophecies that all said Jesus is the man. Jesus is the Messiah. They should have known the day before, the 10th of Nisan, the beginning of Passover, had it been prophesied to the day when Jesus would enter into Jerusalem.
They should have known it. But instead, all they saw was He was destroying their kingdom. And He was coming against what they had established.
And He was disrupting their power structure. And so they said, this can’t be. We’ve got to do something.
Matthew 21:15
15 And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased,
So are displeased. And said unto Him, Hearest Thou what these say?
They go to Jesus and say, Don’t you hear what they’re saying? They knew exactly what these children were saying.
They were saying, Save us, Messiah! And now they go and say, Aren’t you going to make them shut up? Aren’t you going to silence them? What does Jesus tell them?
Matthew 21:16
16 and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?
These children who didn’t understand the theology of the day, which was a wrong theology and not biblical at all, but only trusted and believed what God had said in His Word, were crying out with the truth. In another portion of Scripture, Jesus says, If they were silenced, the very rocks would have to cry out.
Why? Because He had come, as had been foretold, and the people should have known and acknowledged. That is why Jesus wept, as we saw last Sunday, as He looked over Jerusalem before He entered into it. Because you do not understand the day nor the hour of what is taking place, of what you are part of.
Your salvation is here, but it begins with this forgiveness of sins, the transformation of life, the new covenant that is given in My blood. This new covenant that had been prophesied by the prophets of old. A covenant that you did not have to keep, but it was based upon My Word, My character, and what I would do for you.
And the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees wanted nothing to do with it. And He left them and went out of the city into Bethany and Elijah.
Matthew 21:18-22
18 Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered. 19 And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. 20 And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away! 21 Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. 22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
Now what is this all about as he’s entering into Jerusalem? To understand the fig tree, the figs appear before the leaves appear. So he was fully expecting fruit on this fig tree.
It was full of leaves but it had no fruit. This fig tree was symbolic of the spiritual state of the nation of Israel at this time when he entered into Jerusalem. They had all kinds of religious activity going on but no fruit.
They were seeking their own form of religion and not following the words of God and doing what God had commanded them to do. Henceforth no fruit. But it looked like a tree.
It looked like there was religious activity. There was literally hundreds and not thousands of people in Jerusalem for Passover. But where was the understanding? Where was the looking for the Messiah that had come to take away the sins of the world? It wasn’t there.
His disciples marveled. Now literally does he saying that if we pray and believe that we can see a mountain they’ll disappear and be cast into the sea? What he’s saying is that these disciples were going to be facing challenges which were just like mountains. I want you to stop and think.
After Jesus this week lived out and Jesus went to the cross, died, was buried, rose again from the dead, appeared to his disciples, and then resurrected and went back to heaven, there was a mere handful of people that saw and believed. There were about a hundred some people that were meeting together. Yet this small group of people would literally take the gospel and turn the world upside down.
I venture to say I don’t see anybody here, maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think anybody here is from the Middle East. That’s where the church was born. That’s where the gospel message was started to be preached.
But we’re sitting from places who had descendants from all over the world, many of whom our parents or grandparents became believers in Christ in their home countries. How did that happen? By the power of God. And Jesus was telling his disciples, you think it’s powerful to speak to a fig tree and say curse it because it cannot bear fruit in its right season? I’m telling you, you should do these tremendous things.
Every one of you here has the opportunity to share the gospel and see people’s lives transformed. You cannot do it by yourself, but through prayer and through the power of God it can happen. Well, after this happens, Jesus goes and he begins to encounter this fruitless fig tree, if you would, in the forms of the Sadducees, the Herodians, the Scribes and the Pharisees.
We talked a little bit about them last week. And I want us to look at his encounter with them. Prior to that, he gives some parables dealing with the coming kingdom.
And then if you will turn with me to chapter 22. And what had happened is he gave these parables and for time we don’t have time to read through them and go through them, go home and read them. They all deal with a king who sends, who wants to establish his kingdom and leaves people in charge.
And they are, most of the servants are wicked servants and there’s consequences because they don’t take advantage of what they’ve been told to do. That’s the heart of the, and it really, and the Pharisees understood exactly he was speaking them through these parables. And so consequently what they do is they want to trick him up.
If you can imagine, Jesus has been in the city of Jerusalem now for about two days. Then came in Sunday, went back Monday, back again Tuesday. He’s been at the temple.
He’s been teaching. He’s been healing people. Lazarus is walking around.
Everybody knows Lazarus was dead and Lazarus is walking around. They’re trying to kill Lazarus too, by the way. Kind of hard to get rid of the evidence when he’s walking around in front of you.
And so they say, we’ve got to get him so that the people won’t listen to him. They’ll get upset with him. And so they come and they try to trick him through a series of encounters.
And it starts out in verse 15 with the Pharisees and the Herodians. These two groups of people are about like the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Pharisees didn’t get along with the Herodians, but they all joined together with them to get rid of Jesus.
Then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. And they sent out onto him their disciple with the Herodians saying, Master, we know that thou art true and teach us the way of God in truth. Neither carest thou for any man, for thou regardest not the person of men.
Tell us therefore, what thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not? Why did they send the Herodians with them? Because when Jesus, first of all, they laid how they wanted him to answer the question. We know you’re not a respecter of persons. You know you didn’t respect men.
You know that. And so consequently, he’s not going to respect Caesar. So he’s going to say, don’t give anything to Caesar.
And then the Herodians are going to be standing right there and they can run back and tell the Sadducees and tell everybody else he said rebel against Caesar. Don’t give him tax. Tell us therefore, what thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not? But Jesus answered their wickedness and said, why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Show me the tribute money.
Show me a piece of the money that you’re going to pay for tax. And they brought onto him a penny. And he said unto him, unto them, whose is the image and subscription? In other words, whose picture and title is on this penny? And they said unto him, Caesar’s.
Then saith he unto them, render therefore unto Caesar things that are such as are Caesar’s and unto God things that are such as God’s. Do you know what he had just done? What had the Lord told that the Pharisees knew? The Herodians, if they’re Jewish, should have known. Whose image are we created in? The scriptures tell us we’re created in the image of God.
He took the coin and said, whose image is on the coin? Caesar’s. Well, render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s. Give him the coin.
It’s his. But render unto God what’s God’s. Whose image is on your life? God’s.
You’ve been created in the image of God. And so consequently, you should render your life and give your life to God. And these people were not giving it to God.
The Herodians were seeking to have alliances with Rome. The Pharisees were trying to establish their own religion and adding to the Word of God and not following the Word of God. And so they were doing everything but giving themselves to God.
They said unto him, I’m sorry, in verse 22, when they had heard these words, they marveled and left them and went on their way. They couldn’t say anything to answer to him because they knew what he was saying. The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him.
Now remember, these guys don’t believe in resurrection, don’t believe in miracles, don’t believe in the authority of Scripture, don’t believe in the supernatural events of Scripture. They just believe in religion as a controlling force. So what’s their question going to be? About resurrection and about the law? Those who don’t believe the law are going to ask a question on the law.
The same day came the Sadducees, verse 24, saying, Master, Moses said, if a man die having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up seed unto his brother. And there were with us seven brethren. And the first, when he had married a wife, deceased and having no issue, left the wife unto his brother.
Likewise, the second also, and the third, and unto the seventh. And the last of all the woman died also. What a sad and tragic thing.
Seven brothers, none of them could bear children by this woman, and all seven of the brothers died, and then the woman died. Therefore, in the resurrection, which these guys don’t believe in, in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven? For they all had her. Jesus answered and said unto them, you do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.
And that’s exactly what their problem was. They took the Scriptures out of context, twisted and contorted them, so that they manipulated them for their own purposes. They didn’t know them, and they didn’t acknowledge nor know God’s power.
For in the resurrection they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. This was something that got Jesus in trouble earlier with all these groups where he said, before Abraham was, I am.
That was a statement he made earlier to them. And when he stated that, he was declaring his Godhood. Because only God went by the term I am, and only God could have been before Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
But now he’s saying, these men are still living. They’re not dead. They are physically dead, but spiritually they’re alive.
And these men didn’t know the Scriptures. And they contorted and twisted and took out of context everything that God had said about this whole situation that they laid out. The whole purpose of this, you can go look at in the life of Judah, who was to be in the line of the Messiah.
And Judah had three sons. And this was to be lived out in his life. He went and got a wife for his oldest son.
And he found this woman. And she came from a different group of people. She wasn’t Jewish.
But he paid her family to make her part of his family. He paid a dowry for her, so she now was under his authority, his leadership. And she was now part of his family, even though she hadn’t formally been married yet.
The dowry had been paid. He then had the wedding was carried out between his oldest son and Tamar. Before she could bear a child, he died.
He was a rebel against God. So Judah said that the second son needed to take her as his wife. He took her as his wife, but he would never allow the act of the marriage to be consummated.
And so consequently, the Lord took his life. Judah had a third son. Third son was a lot younger than his two brothers.
Tamar is a lot older. Judah says, I will preserve my youngest son for you. And when he’s of age and old enough to take care of you, I will send for you.
And you will marry him. Judah had no intention of ever allowing Tamar to marry his youngest son. He sent her back to her parents.
She went back there and wore widow’s clothes. And she sat wearing widow’s clothes for a long time. And Judah never sent anyone for her.
Finally, Tamar hears that Judah is coming to her village to do some work, some transactions. So she goes and she takes off her widow’s clothes and she puts on harlot’s clothes. And she’s covered her face so that you can’t recognize her.
And she sits along the way and she offers her services to Judah. Judah takes her up. And after they consummated the act, he says, I don’t have any money to pay you.
She says, well, I will take your signet ring, your staff. And I forget the third thing. He gave her three things.
And it was like he was giving her credit cards. These all showed who he was. Tamar goes back, puts on her widow’s clothes.
And in about two months, they can tell she’s pregnant. It gets back to Judah. Judah’s livid.
He says, she will be judged. And he goes to get her. When he goes to get her, she comes out in the encounter and Judah inquires, what is this? And she said, the man who gave me these things is the father of this child.
She gives him his staff, his signet ring, everything he left with her. Judah weeps. And he says, Tamar is more righteous than I. How can you say that when she pretended to be a harlot, seduced her father-in-law and got pregnant by him? Because the Messianic line was to come through Judah.
And Judah had no intention of letting his youngest son go and live with Tamar. She was more righteous in that Judah’s responsibility was to take care of her. Even if his all three of his sons had died, she was to be part of his house, but he sent her away.
And it’s interesting. Tamar’s name appears in the lineage of Christ. Someone who pretended to be a prostitute seducing her father-in-law because she was more righteous than him because she preserved the Messianic line.
These Pharisees, Sadducees rather, they want to use this to trick Jesus. They got seven brothers and none of them can impregnate their wife and they all die and what’s going to happen? They don’t know the law. They don’t know what it’s all about.
They don’t know the purpose of it. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished. That is doctrine.
Well, the Pharisees aren’t done. But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together and then one of them, which was a lawyer, got to get lawyers in here, a lawyer asked him a question, tempting him saying, so the Sadducees didn’t know the law, a lawyer who’s a Pharisee knows the law. Master, which is the great commandment of the law? So he’s testing him.
Which is the greatest of the commandments? Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and the great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Now, if you go and look at the 10 commandments, one of the things that you will see is the first five commandments deal with our relationship with God. The last five commandments deal with our relationship to our fellow man.
Jesus just summarized the 10 commandments in these two statements. And he said, the first thing you have to do if you’re going to obey the law is you have to love your Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, because you can’t obey any of the law if you don’t do that. And then the second part of the law flows out of that.
And that is where to love our neighbor as ourself. Because we love God and we will do what he says. And so we will follow.
And the whole law is subject to these two statements. What does the lawyer say? While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ and whose son he is? They say unto him, the son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord? Saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sitthou at my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.
If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither do any man from that day forth ask him any more questions. They could not dupe him, because he’s the one who created all things. He’s the one who gave the law.
He’s the one who created man in his image. He’s the one who established us as beings that would desire to worship their Creator. And as he did all of this, when they tried to trip him up, they couldn’t do it.
So from that time forward, they went and they determined how they were going to cause him to be taken into captivity and put to death. And that put in motion the final events that were going to take place. When men and women do not listen to the truth of God’s word, do not allow it to penetrate their hearts, but instead are so against Jesus and what he says, their only other option is to try and destroy him.
And that’s exactly what they did. Jesus gave answers to all of them that proved the reality of his existence and the reality of who he was. And that the words that have been said were true words by the children.
But no one was understanding the depth of those words. And that you and I sit here today because it’s true when they cried, save us, thou son of David, save us from our sin. Let’s just close.
Father, I pray that you’d just be with us. Help us to understand all the intrigue that was going on in the city of Jerusalem when you entered on the last Passover. But they couldn’t deceive you.
They couldn’t trick you. And as we’re going to see next Sunday, even when they put you to death, they couldn’t stop you because you were fulfilling what you promised to every one of us that you would come to take away our sin. Lord, help us to realize that great gift.
We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Your salvation is here, but it begins with this forgiveness of sins, the transformation of life, the new covenant that is given in My blood. This new covenant that had been prophesied by the prophets of old. A covenant that you did not have to keep, but it was based upon My Word, My character, and what I would do for you.
And the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees wanted nothing to do with it. And He left them and went out of the city into Bethany and Elijah.
Matthew 21:18-22
18 Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered. 19 And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. 20 And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away! 21 Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. 22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
Now what is this all about as he’s entering into Jerusalem? To understand the fig tree, the figs appear before the leaves appear. So he was fully expecting fruit on this fig tree.
It was full of leaves but it had no fruit. This fig tree was symbolic of the spiritual state of the nation of Israel at this time when he entered into Jerusalem. They had all kinds of religious activity going on but no fruit.
They were seeking their own form of religion and not following the words of God and doing what God had commanded them to do. Henceforth no fruit. But it looked like a tree.
It looked like there was religious activity. There was literally hundreds and not thousands of people in Jerusalem for Passover. But where was the understanding? Where was the looking for the Messiah that had come to take away the sins of the world? It wasn’t there.
His disciples marveled. Now literally does he saying that if we pray and believe that we can see a mountain they’ll disappear and be cast into the sea? What he’s saying is that these disciples were going to be facing challenges which were just like mountains. I want you to stop and think.
After Jesus this week lived out and Jesus went to the cross, died, was buried, rose again from the dead, appeared to his disciples, and then resurrected and went back to heaven, there was a mere handful of people that saw and believed. There were about a hundred some people that were meeting together. Yet this small group of people would literally take the gospel and turn the world upside down.
I venture to say I don’t see anybody here, maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think anybody here is from the Middle East. That’s where the church was born. That’s where the gospel message was started to be preached.
But we’re sitting from places who had descendants from all over the world, many of whom our parents or grandparents became believers in Christ in their home countries. How did that happen? By the power of God. And Jesus was telling his disciples, you think it’s powerful to speak to a fig tree and say curse it because it cannot bear fruit in its right season? I’m telling you, you should do these tremendous things.
Every one of you here has the opportunity to share the gospel and see people’s lives transformed. You cannot do it by yourself, but through prayer and through the power of God it can happen. Well, after this happens, Jesus goes and he begins to encounter this fruitless fig tree, if you would, in the forms of the Sadducees, the Herodians, the Scribes and the Pharisees.
We talked a little bit about them last week. And I want us to look at his encounter with them. Prior to that, he gives some parables dealing with the coming kingdom.
And then if you will turn with me to chapter 22. And what had happened is he gave these parables and for time we don’t have time to read through them and go through them, go home and read them. They all deal with a king who sends, who wants to establish his kingdom and leaves people in charge.
And they are, most of the servants are wicked servants and there’s consequences because they don’t take advantage of what they’ve been told to do. That’s the heart of the, and it really, and the Pharisees understood exactly he was speaking them through these parables. And so consequently what they do is they want to trick him up.
If you can imagine, Jesus has been in the city of Jerusalem now for about two days. Then came in Sunday, went back Monday, back again Tuesday. He’s been at the temple.
He’s been teaching. He’s been healing people. Lazarus is walking around.
Everybody knows Lazarus was dead and Lazarus is walking around. They’re trying to kill Lazarus too, by the way. Kind of hard to get rid of the evidence when he’s walking around in front of you.
And so they say, we’ve got to get him so that the people won’t listen to him. They’ll get upset with him. And so they come and they try to trick him through a series of encounters.
And it starts out in verse 15 with the Pharisees and the Herodians. These two groups of people are about like the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Pharisees didn’t get along with the Herodians, but they all joined together with them to get rid of Jesus.
Then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. And they sent out onto him their disciple with the Herodians saying, Master, we know that thou art true and teach us the way of God in truth. Neither carest thou for any man, for thou regardest not the person of men.
Tell us therefore, what thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not? Why did they send the Herodians with them? Because when Jesus, first of all, they laid how they wanted him to answer the question. We know you’re not a respecter of persons. You know you didn’t respect men.
You know that. And so consequently, he’s not going to respect Caesar. So he’s going to say, don’t give anything to Caesar.
And then the Herodians are going to be standing right there and they can run back and tell the Sadducees and tell everybody else he said rebel against Caesar. Don’t give him tax. Tell us therefore, what thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not? But Jesus answered their wickedness and said, why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Show me the tribute money.
Show me a piece of the money that you’re going to pay for tax. And they brought onto him a penny. And he said unto him, unto them, whose is the image and subscription? In other words, whose picture and title is on this penny? And they said unto him, Caesar’s.
Then saith he unto them, render therefore unto Caesar things that are such as are Caesar’s and unto God things that are such as God’s. Do you know what he had just done? What had the Lord told that the Pharisees knew? The Herodians, if they’re Jewish, should have known. Whose image are we created in? The scriptures tell us we’re created in the image of God.
He took the coin and said, whose image is on the coin? Caesar’s. Well, render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s. Give him the coin.
It’s his. But render unto God what’s God’s. Whose image is on your life? God’s.
You’ve been created in the image of God. And so consequently, you should render your life and give your life to God. And these people were not giving it to God.
The Herodians were seeking to have alliances with Rome. The Pharisees were trying to establish their own religion and adding to the Word of God and not following the Word of God. And so they were doing everything but giving themselves to God.
They said unto him, I’m sorry, in verse 22, when they had heard these words, they marveled and left them and went on their way. They couldn’t say anything to answer to him because they knew what he was saying. The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him.
Now remember, these guys don’t believe in resurrection, don’t believe in miracles, don’t believe in the authority of Scripture, don’t believe in the supernatural events of Scripture. They just believe in religion as a controlling force. So what’s their question going to be? About resurrection and about the law? Those who don’t believe the law are going to ask a question on the law.
The same day came the Sadducees, verse 24, saying, Master, Moses said, if a man die having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up seed unto his brother. And there were with us seven brethren. And the first, when he had married a wife, deceased and having no issue, left the wife unto his brother.
Likewise, the second also, and the third, and unto the seventh. And the last of all the woman died also. What a sad and tragic thing.
Seven brothers, none of them could bear children by this woman, and all seven of the brothers died, and then the woman died. Therefore, in the resurrection, which these guys don’t believe in, in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven? For they all had her. Jesus answered and said unto them, you do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.
And that’s exactly what their problem was. They took the Scriptures out of context, twisted and contorted them, so that they manipulated them for their own purposes. They didn’t know them, and they didn’t acknowledge nor know God’s power.
For in the resurrection they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. This was something that got Jesus in trouble earlier with all these groups where he said, before Abraham was, I am.
That was a statement he made earlier to them. And when he stated that, he was declaring his Godhood. Because only God went by the term I am, and only God could have been before Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
But now he’s saying, these men are still living. They’re not dead. They are physically dead, but spiritually they’re alive.
And these men didn’t know the Scriptures. And they contorted and twisted and took out of context everything that God had said about this whole situation that they laid out. The whole purpose of this, you can go look at in the life of Judah, who was to be in the line of the Messiah.
And Judah had three sons. And this was to be lived out in his life. He went and got a wife for his oldest son.
And he found this woman. And she came from a different group of people. She wasn’t Jewish.
But he paid her family to make her part of his family. He paid a dowry for her, so she now was under his authority, his leadership. And she was now part of his family, even though she hadn’t formally been married yet.
The dowry had been paid. He then had the wedding was carried out between his oldest son and Tamar. Before she could bear a child, he died.
He was a rebel against God. So Judah said that the second son needed to take her as his wife. He took her as his wife, but he would never allow the act of the marriage to be consummated.
And so consequently, the Lord took his life. Judah had a third son. Third son was a lot younger than his two brothers.
Tamar is a lot older. Judah says, I will preserve my youngest son for you. And when he’s of age and old enough to take care of you, I will send for you.
And you will marry him. Judah had no intention of ever allowing Tamar to marry his youngest son. He sent her back to her parents.
She went back there and wore widow’s clothes. And she sat wearing widow’s clothes for a long time. And Judah never sent anyone for her.
Finally, Tamar hears that Judah is coming to her village to do some work, some transactions. So she goes and she takes off her widow’s clothes and she puts on harlot’s clothes. And she’s covered her face so that you can’t recognize her.
And she sits along the way and she offers her services to Judah. Judah takes her up. And after they consummated the act, he says, I don’t have any money to pay you.
She says, well, I will take your signet ring, your staff. And I forget the third thing. He gave her three things.
And it was like he was giving her credit cards. These all showed who he was. Tamar goes back, puts on her widow’s clothes.
And in about two months, they can tell she’s pregnant. It gets back to Judah. Judah’s livid.
He says, she will be judged. And he goes to get her. When he goes to get her, she comes out in the encounter and Judah inquires, what is this? And she said, the man who gave me these things is the father of this child.
She gives him his staff, his signet ring, everything he left with her. Judah weeps. And he says, Tamar is more righteous than I. How can you say that when she pretended to be a harlot, seduced her father-in-law and got pregnant by him? Because the Messianic line was to come through Judah.
And Judah had no intention of letting his youngest son go and live with Tamar. She was more righteous in that Judah’s responsibility was to take care of her. Even if his all three of his sons had died, she was to be part of his house, but he sent her away.
And it’s interesting. Tamar’s name appears in the lineage of Christ. Someone who pretended to be a prostitute seducing her father-in-law because she was more righteous than him because she preserved the Messianic line.
These Pharisees, Sadducees rather, they want to use this to trick Jesus. They got seven brothers and none of them can impregnate their wife and they all die and what’s going to happen? They don’t know the law. They don’t know what it’s all about.
They don’t know the purpose of it. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished. That is doctrine.
Well, the Pharisees aren’t done. But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together and then one of them, which was a lawyer, got to get lawyers in here, a lawyer asked him a question, tempting him saying, so the Sadducees didn’t know the law, a lawyer who’s a Pharisee knows the law. Master, which is the great commandment of the law? So he’s testing him.
Which is the greatest of the commandments? Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and the great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Now, if you go and look at the 10 commandments, one of the things that you will see is the first five commandments deal with our relationship with God. The last five commandments deal with our relationship to our fellow man.
Jesus just summarized the 10 commandments in these two statements. And he said, the first thing you have to do if you’re going to obey the law is you have to love your Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, because you can’t obey any of the law if you don’t do that. And then the second part of the law flows out of that.
And that is where to love our neighbor as ourself. Because we love God and we will do what he says. And so we will follow.
And the whole law is subject to these two statements. What does the lawyer say? While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ and whose son he is? They say unto him, the son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord? Saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sitthou at my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.
If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither do any man from that day forth ask him any more questions. They could not dupe him, because he’s the one who created all things. He’s the one who gave the law.
He’s the one who created man in his image. He’s the one who established us as beings that would desire to worship their Creator. And as he did all of this, when they tried to trip him up, they couldn’t do it.
So from that time forward, they went and they determined how they were going to cause him to be taken into captivity and put to death. And that put in motion the final events that were going to take place. When men and women do not listen to the truth of God’s word, do not allow it to penetrate their hearts, but instead are so against Jesus and what he says, their only other option is to try and destroy him.
And that’s exactly what they did. Jesus gave answers to all of them that proved the reality of his existence and the reality of who he was. And that the words that have been said were true words by the children.
But no one was understanding the depth of those words. And that you and I sit here today because it’s true when they cried, save us, thou son of David, save us from our sin. Let’s just close.
Father, I pray that you’d just be with us. Help us to understand all the intrigue that was going on in the city of Jerusalem when you entered on the last Passover. But they couldn’t deceive you.
They couldn’t trick you. And as we’re going to see next Sunday, even when they put you to death, they couldn’t stop you because you were fulfilling what you promised to every one of us that you would come to take away our sin. Lord, help us to realize that great gift.
We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.