Amen, and please be seated. Now if you have a Bible, let me invite you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 21 as we continue our way through Matthew this morning we're in verses 14 through 17 and Once again, what we're gonna see is we're in Holy Week Remember we saw this a few weeks ago that and Holy Week is the week that Jesus dies on the cross for our sins So that all who trust in him can be freed from released from their sins and what they are due for them And so on Holy Week, he dies on the cross taking the just judgment we deserve so that we can be reconciled to God And he does that as a substitute in our place. He's the Lamb of God who takes away the Son of the world Now our passage is earlier in the week. We've been looking at the first couple of days So we've already seen that he's entered Jerusalem in verses 1 to 11 as the true king And then we saw last time that he's entered the temple as the true priest and today We're going to see that he's the true prophet who simultaneously fulfills scripture Even as he corrects religious hypocrites by rightly interpreting the scriptures they have not understood So let's look again at this Messiah who is our prophet priest and king here now the word of God from Matthew chapter 21 verses 14 through 17 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple Hosanna to the son of David they were indignant and they said to him Do you hear what these are saying and Jesus said to them?
Yes Have you never read out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise and Leaving them he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there Amen, this is God's word me. He right at our hearts. That's a woman prayer Father in heaven teach us this word by the work of the spirit through the word that you've given lift Jesus before our eyes grant us a Heart to trust in him and even praise him like these children do in your name. We ask it.
Amen So once again, we have a confrontation between Jesus and the religious leaders of his day in fact Well all the way back at verse one since then at least he's been making very public Himself drawing great attention to himself in order to actually provoke this confrontation with the religious leaders of the day that that as many as possible in Jerusalem might hear of him be aware of him so when he goes to that cross they'll know of it and Then when he rises, of course, they might have joy in it So he's he's provoking a confrontation here and he gets it you may remember back in verses one through eleven Just just remember that Jesus had on what we call Palm Sunday He had ridden into Jerusalem on the cult of a donkey in accordance with prophecy and he was hailed as the king of the Jews He was hailed king and the people cried hosanna Blessed be the one who comes in the name of the Lord and and the king had come as was foretold not on a war horse Not not with an army behind him, but in humility There's not much of a threat when you're on a donkey and as a symbol of peace And then we saw the next day on Monday our passage from last week in verses 12 to 13 Then entered the temple he came to purify it to cleanse it of the commerce that was corrupting it of the buyers and sellers and the money Changers who had turned it into a den of robbers He came to purify the temple for God had said my house would be called a house of prayer for all nations But you have made it a den of robbers he told them so he drove out those who were polluting the worship of God and squatting It in the court of the Gentiles making it Impossible or next to impossible for the Gentiles to come to a place even for them in the temple and he turned over the tables of the money Changers and he flipped over their chairs and and he drove them away So he came as the humble king offering peace But he also came as the true priest who brings cleansing and purification in his temple and now this morning We see that he comes to Jerusalem as the true prophet rebuking the religious hypocrites With the word of God he proclaims what happens when he cleanses the temple notice what we see in verses 14 to 17 Notice three things that happen when he cleanses the temple first the week in the needy have a place and are cared for Second the children learn to praise him and thirdly the religious hypocrites are rebuked Let me about you think about these three things that happened because Jesus cleanses the temple first the week and the needy Have a place and are cared for look at verse 14 and the blind and the lame came to him in the temple And he healed them now that the riffraff have been driven off now that the buying and selling of animals in the court has stopped There's space to move about and the blind and the and the lame who would find it difficult with all those animals being sold and all those people Throwing the place now they seek him out and he healed them now. Why is Matthew telling us this after all? It's it's well. We might say reverently almost superfluous Because time and again we've heard about Jesus healing people he's healed the blind he's healed the lame Well, why one more account of it in fact none of the other gospel writers mention it not that it didn't happen But that telling us it did happen really wasn't on their agenda for what they were writing, but Matthew make sure we know Why is he telling us it happened besides the fact that it did happen?
Well, three reasons at least the first is this in welcoming the lame and the blind into the courts of the temple Jesus was correcting a false interpretation of scripture that God didn't want them in his house Where did that false interpretation come from well? The background is second Samuel chapter 5 you don't need to turn there second Samuel chapter 5 verses 6 through 8 when when David was king and he was he had an army behind him to Attack the Jebusites who had made Jerusalem their stronghold and he had been sent by God to conquer it and at second Samuel chapter 5 verse 6 King David was mocked by the Jebusites who said to him you will not come in here But the blind and the lame award you off it was an arrogant put down Sightless eyes and helpless legs is enough to repel you guys But then they had to eat their words because in verse 7 We read nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion that is the city of David or that is David conquered it And then it got his name then in verse 8 we learn how David accomplished this Whoever he says would strike the Jebusites let him get up the water shaft to attack the lame and the blind Who are hated by David's soul somehow what he's referring to and somehow they did they found a way up a a Well hidden shaft that supplied water to the city providing them water in the cases of siege And it was a sort of a secret passageway that allowed them to go up that water course and into the city and gain the upper hand What's important here are these words let them attack the lame and the blind lame and blind there in David's words are the mockers Among the Jebusites who said we can beat you even with the lame and the blind right David is an interested in killing Lane people and blind people but the Jebusites he turns it back on them in their mockery and it becomes a proverb and at the end of Verse 8 in 2 Samuel chapter 5 therefore it is said quote the blind and the lame shall not come into the house Not at all meaning that those who are physically blind and lame can't come into the house But those who are rebels like the Jebusites who won't submit to God's king King David And we know that many Jewish authorities did in Misinterpreting and misapplying that passage taking it literally They banned the lame and the blind and by extension other people with disabilities from offering sacrifices in the temple We even know that the Qumran community and we have this from the Dead Sea Scrolls from the century before Christ arrived in their community rule Their notes say in fact even worse that people defiled by impurities who are paralyzed lame blind deaf Dom or have a visible blemish Are not allowed even to enter the assembly Let alone the sacrifices they said you can't come even into the temple let alone into the temple courts to offer a sacrifice They banned them but now in a striking reversal the lame and blind are welcomed into the temple by King David's greater son and they are healed by the one who is himself their sacrifice for sins Because God cares for the weak and the needy and the disabled and he always did and the son of God came to make them whole So this is the welcome and hope God's church teaches and may it be the welcome them hope and hope God's people live as We continually offer to the disabled and to the weak and the needy and the weary a refuge found in Jesus and among his people Now the second reason Jesus healed the lame and the blind was not only to correct a false interpretation of Scripture But to fulfill to fulfill a prophecy of Scripture and we've seen this before in Isaiah 35 the writer says behold your God will come He will come and save you and how we know that he's come and and is saving you in Isaiah 35 verses 5 and 6 It says then the eyes of the blind shall be opened in the ears of the deaf Unstopped and the and shall the lame leap like a deer in the tongue of the muting for joy Right these ailments in their generation were considered impossible for a physician to heal and would only God alone could heal But Jesus comes and fulfills the prophecy because he's God in carnit in the flesh come to earth And this too is the good news we must preach But the third reason Matthew is telling us this is so we won't be flustered by the toughness of Jesus What do I mean by that? What he's just told us in verses 12 to 13 that Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling pigeons And he drove them all out of the temple now. How did he drive them all out?
Well, it may be this because we know that in John chapter 2 in the early days of his ministry Jesus drove them out and now here at the end of days in his life on earth He drives them out and in John 2 we learned that Jesus made a whip of chords And presumably cracked the whip and the den of robbers fled before him So you're catching sight of Jesus who the Bible said well the Bible tells us that judgment begins with the house of God and Jesus enters the temple and Begins his judgment and nobody could stand before him not even an angry crowd of money-grubbers, right? Why did they not all gang up against him and beat him up and kick him out in the month? They were afraid of him maybe because of the whip maybe because of his stature his presence But he was tough and so they fled and the purpose of this of course was to exercise his strength so that the week would not be oppressed so that All the God-hungry foreigners and Gentiles and disabled and others could be safe from the oppression of the money changers as They saw the face of God in the temple now If you were there at the scene however, you might too have been one of the terrified You might have been running like them maybe you'd come and bought a lamb for an offering Just when you thought perhaps that Jesus this is too much and Jesus you're too aggressive You're you're too scary then Matthew says well now that you've seen how tough he is. Let me show you how tender he is Yeah, he threatened a river of blood with his cord Of whip but it was to roll out the red carpet for the poor and the needy all these vulnerable folks flock to him He cares for them and it shows you why Jesus stands tall and strong and tough For the good of the week and the needy and the oppressed Don't we all admire people who are tough when that's what's needed and yet we're also tender when that's what's needed I tore it out of my notes But we have a little time and now I may get the details wrong But some of you will remember back to the future the movie that I think supposedly happened in our generation now But I remember with George McFly Marty McFly's dad in that movie was just a meek little man But he comes upon the car where Biff who was a bully has got Marty's mom future mom in the front And he is assaulting her and Biff opens the door He thinks he's gonna do something about it I mean George opens the door and Biff looks at him like it's a get out of here Right and then George is like no No, no then Biff gets out and he starts shoving him around and then she gets out Marty's future mom or past mom Whatever you lost in that story She gets out and she tries to help George and Biff shoves her to the ground and has got George by the arm And then and then they do a close-up on his other hand as he balls his fist And you can you can see it coming and he does and he catches him and he spins them around and he's drops to the ground And somewhere later on in the movie Biff is doing detailed maintenance on vehicles for his boss the tough but tender George McFly Now, I don't know about you, but it was a glorious moment in the movie I'm not celebrating violence, but that guy deserved it, you know, well We like it when a bully is stood up to and made to stand down Jesus made these bullies stand down who were ripping off the people So that the lame and the blind could come and be healed and meet with God in the temple courts This is our Jesus So if this is our Jesus shouldn't we also care for the lowly and the least the outcast and the downtrodden people barely hanging on And not merely the up-and-comer Well, when you're weak and vulnerable you need someone tough and tender so Matthew corrects a false Interpretation of scripture and he fulfills says he's Matthew tells us Jesus fulfills a prophecy of scripture and he says don't get flustered by his toughness.
He's tender too Now what else happens when Jesus cleanses the temple? Well the children this is the second thing the children learn to praise him You see that in verse 15. I mean the chief chief priests and scribes They saw the wonderful things Jesus did and they heard the children crying out in the temple who's Anna to the son of David Now perhaps you can understand how these children came to be saying that Obviously on the one hand when Jesus came into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday There were children among the adults hearing the adults hail Jesus with just these identical words And of course then they've seen this tough and tender man so approachable by the least They marvel and wonder and praise as well, but their praises an echo of what they've already heard They admire him for driving out the den of robbers for establishing the house or re-establishing it as a place of prayer for welcoming the weak And their admiration comes out of their mouth in the language that they have heard and have been taught That's what children do and that's what these children do when Jesus cleanses the temple That's what that's what children do when Jesus is at work in his church children admire him and children praise him This is in fact what got his plan as Jesus notes quoting in verse 16 the psalmist Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise you have ordained praise That's from Psalm 8 verses 1 and 2 which begins like this in the Septuagint version which Jesus is here quoting Oh Lord our Lord how majestic is your name and all the earth you have set your glory above the heavens out of the mouth of babies and infants You have prepared praise and so let me just say where did the dear children here among us today? This is what God has made you for to see his glory to delight in his majesty to speak his praise And it reminds all of us of the importance of children to the church and the pleasure God takes in the praise from their lips Once again, we see another story that tells us in the kingdom of heaven heavens King welcomes the little children Listen to the little children and saves the little children.
He isn't merely a Savior and King for grown-ups For the least of these in a Matthew 19 you remember we saw this when parents brought their children to Jesus Infants babies Luke tells us to be to be prayed for by him He took those children in his arms and he blessed them But of course the disciples repute the people because they didn't understand this about Jesus But Jesus said let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven So he laid hands on them. He prayed for them. He blessed them and when you're blessed by Jesus You're really blessed by God because Jesus is God And if the kingdom of heaven includes the infants of believers and heavens King delights in the praise of infants and nursing babies And don't think they can't John the Baptist leaped for joy in the womb of his mother in the presence of his Savior in the womb of his mother You don't know what the Holy Spirit's doing in the littlest of these Well, if this is the case we should also have a robust view of the importance of children in the church of the Lord Jesus Evidently Jesus doesn't just ascribe to the notion that children should be seen But not heard because he the lights in hearing them cry Hosanna to the son of David It's another example of why we believe here at Redeemer the children of the church should be included with their parents in the public worship of God To learn the language of praise to join in our worship and learn by observation and practice To see what's important to you that it might become important to them and served in a church I've told you this story I think and I can't remember how long ago but a long time ago I served in the church in youth ministry where and it was a growing church with gospel preaching church But in order to clear space in the sanctuary they had developed a special children's church that was separate and all the little kids in All-money school went somewhere else while the adults and the spiritually mature and the elders all worship together And they had multiple services like that and then they then they realized we need more space And so they started to service in the fellowship hall for the teenagers of the church and those are the kids I worked with That's where I worship three years at that church and there's nothing wrong with the fellowship hall But they carved out the little kids of the church and then the teenagers of the church And then you know what was so interesting and unsurprising was that these kids would graduate high schools many of them would go away Off to college and they would come back at holiday and say I can't find a church They weren't comfortable in a church with adults With an ordained pastor preaching the word and elders getting to know them and and so where did they go when they came home? They went back to the fellowship hall with the teenagers and it's not that there wasn't a worship service going on there But the 24 the 22 year old graduate with no seminary training was oftentimes the preacher and he wasn't very good and his name was Ted It's true and I look back at some of that so I threw it all out one day I had him on cassette tapes and I got rid of them all I think there were occasions of you know gospel truth worked in there, but you see my but it was so unhealthy It was incredibly unhealthy because God means for his children and his little ones to learn among us And grow to do what we do and from the heart And so they have a place in the body of Christ our and our session retreat last week in the elders discussed the mission of the church and even the great commission Very famously in Matthew 28 where Jesus says you know go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them and teaching them And we reminded ourselves of those most basic priorities I mean you can't go beyond the basic priorities We need to make disciples of all nations, but we noted the first consideration in a church's mission as it is going Is to make disciples of its own children Remember that little servant girl in second Kings chapter 5 name and commander of the army of the king of Syria Was a great man And he was in high favor with his master the king of Syria Because the lord had actually given him victory and he was a man of valor But he was also a leper Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of israel And she worked in service to naman's wife.
She was a slave in the household working for his wife And she said to her mistress would that my lord the lord Who has the leprosy Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in samaria he would cure him of his leprosy And so naman told his master the king what the girl said and they agreed together that he could go and see alisha The prophet of god and he was healed because a little servant girl Who had been stolen from her parents torn from her house transplanted from her country with no hope of escape She knew the lord and that the lord had his prophets and that he was merciful And this guy could get help there Even as the enemy of god's people And he did out of the mouth of babes God has ordained praise Did you notice when jesus quotes this psalm it speaks of children praising the lord god first one saw me oh Yahweh our lord how majestic is your name and all the earth and the religious leaders hear these children saying to jesus hosanna and blessing his name And they say to do you hear what they're saying And jesus says you bet i do You bet i do because i am the lord god of psalm 8 i am david's son and david's lord And it is right for them to praise me So what else happens then when jesus purifies his temple the weak and needy find salvation the little children learn to praise him and The religious hypocrites are rebut verse 15 again the chief priests of the scribes see the wonderful things that are being done and the children crying out the temple Was an unto the son of david and they were indignant Once again jesus then says have you never read and quotes their bible back to them Because once again he points out that the people who ought to know Don't know what they ought to know The priests of the scribes are the teachers in israel and yet they understood neither the scriptures promises nor its fulfillment Even when its author and its fulfillment is standing in front of them They weren't seeking him like the lame and the blind they weren't praising him like the children They were angry and sought to rebuke him when they ought have been leading the worship of jesus They were trying to throttle it and this is the way of the hypocrite They're sure they are right and won't change their mind They think they know what they need to know and they can't be corrected They assume what the scripture says and won't hear the scripture itself contradict them This attitude unfortunately is not Well, if you know yourself completely rooted out of any of us even when we could become genuine believers not not till glory And so we all ought to learn to humble ourselves and distrust ourselves and let ourselves be taught And rebuked and corrected by the scriptures. That's what they're for And to have the scriptures Hold out to us jesus. He's the king who came to die for us and then to reign over us with such gracious meekness and gentleness and humility He's the priest whose deepest longing is that we should be a fellowship made clean and pure And be such a place that the needy may come and find christ and healing and salvation And our children might delight in the love of the lord and to love him in return And he comes as a prophet to unmask the awful layers of hypocrisy that lingers still In our lives. Do you see who he is?
Do you see like these children see What you join your voice with theirs and praise his glorious name Let's do so first. Let's pray But lord our lord how majestic is your name in all the earth We praise you as prophet priest and king messiah and savior of sinners like us We need you be glorified receive our praise in your name. I pray amen. Let's stand and sing