Questions and Answers

This recording is from Willow Creek Church in Winter Springs, Florida, where Dr. Pete Alonson is our senior pastor. Today's sermon is part one in a three-part series titled, Who Is Jesus Really? This message is taken from the Book of Matthew, chapter 20, verses 29, through chapter 20, verse 11, and it's called Questions and Answers. Now here's Pete with today's message. It's Palm Sunday, Who Is Jesus Really? Who Is Jesus Really? Well, many of us think we know, and many of us do know, in fact, who Jesus is, really. But on Palm Sunday, we find that this is a time when Jesus presents himself in a very powerful way and makes it clear beyond a shadow of a doubt what his identity really is. You know, there's some people doubt their history that leave their mark in the world in such a way that people never forget them. They never forget who they are. They keep going back to who they are. They worship them. They think about them. They follow their words. And Jesus is one of those magnetic people all the way down through history, that some people have never gotten over, that they follow him, and they continue to be drawn to him. He is, as I can see, his popular today as he ever was, and he's been around for 2,000 years. Remember that time years ago, some of you weren't there when John Lennon said, we're more popular than Jesus Christ. And that was the Beatles. And I dare say that right now, Jesus Christ is more popular than the Beatles. And some of you are saying, who are the Beatles? Well, that's the nature of who Jesus is, and the nature of some personalities. They are so powerful that people never take their eyes off them, but Jesus is not only popular. He's polarizing, isn't he? Jesus is a polarizing figure. Some people just love him, and some people hate him. And they want to destroy him. Steve Brown and his latest newsletter talked about how people are trying to destroy Jesus. Every Easter, it comes out, you know, something like these bone boxes that they found in Israel. We've talked about them a little bit, with the names Mary and Jesus on the bone boxes. And they forget to tell you that a huge percentage of people in the first century were named Mary. In the Bible, we have so many Mary's, we get a mixed up. Mary and Joseph and Jesus, people are trying to destroy Jesus by saying he was buried with his family there. Steve says, and only his style. He says, that's crazy, destroyed Christianity. That's like a knack crawling up the leg of an elephant with sexual assault on his mind. Are you crazy? No. I mean, it's not. It's not going to take far more to destroy Christianity than that. As a matter of fact, you can't destroy Christianity unless you destroy Easter. If you destroy Easter, you'd really do destroy Christianity. So Jesus is popular, but polarizing, and some people hate Jesus. Some people like Jesus, but hate Christians. Some people like Jesus, but hate the church, and hate everything we stand for. But the reality is he's still around. Who is he really? Well, on the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, as we talk about it today, and as we talk about on Good Friday, why did Jesus have to die really, and on Easter Sunday, did it really happen? We're going to be looking at who he is in his totality. But nowhere does Jesus present himself more clearly than right here, on Palm Sunday, as he presents himself as a king, and we're going to talk about that today. Let's read it from the text, Matthew 29 through 21 11, we're going to start a little bit before the actual entry into Jerusalem. Jesus and his disciples have been moving slowly bit by bit, bit by bit toward Jerusalem. He's been working his way toward presenting himself for three years. All of his life and ministry is adding up to this point as he heads into Jerusalem for the final time. And many of you are familiar with this. You know, this account, by the way, is found in all of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and many of you know that not everything about the life of Jesus is found in every one of the gospels, but this account is in every gospel, because God wanted us to know about this event. And if you're stuck in your Christian life, you're going to find that what you need is what Jesus is. Here we go, Matthew 20 verse 29. As Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us. The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, the Son of David, Lord, have mercy on us. Jesus stopped and called them. What do you want me to do for you, he asked? Lord, they answered, we want our sight. Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately, they received their sight and followed him. As they approached Jerusalem and came to Beth Page on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples. Now, it's interesting, Jesus was headed toward Jerusalem, but he seized these guys and they stopped him. And Jesus, in the midst of these crowds of people, that's probably where they got the palm fronds, is down in the Jordan River Valley, down near Jericho. That's where the palm trees were. They cut them off and they're following Jesus, and Jesus is headed to present himself, and I'm going to read it in a minute. But it's amazing. He sees these blind guys and he stops and he heals them. You know, when I talk to people, I say, how are you doing, busy? How are you doing busy? I see them next Sunday. How are you doing busy? Tired? Busy? How are you doing? Tired? Busy? That's our life. And sometimes we're too busy to stop and remember that God has never too busy for us because Jesus stops here and deals with our needs and he'll deal with your needs. Well as they approached Jerusalem and came to Beth Page on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, go to the village ahead of you and at once you'll find a donkey tied there and her cult by her untie them, bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell them that the Lord needs them and he'll send them right away. This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Zachariah. Say to the daughter of Zion, see your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey on a cult, the full of a donkey. The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the cult, placed their cloaks on them and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road while others cut branches from the trees spread them on the road and the crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, Huzanna to the son of David, blessed as he who comes in the name of the Lord, Huzanna in the highest and Jesus entered Jerusalem. The whole city was stirred and asked, who is this? Who is this? The crowds answered, this is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. Who was Jesus? Was he a prophet? Yes. He's amazing because when Jesus was first introduced, they said he's from Nazareth and says, could any good thing come out in Nazareth? Any good thing come from there? Yes. Jesus is a prophet. He presents himself as a prophet as one who speaks to God on behalf of the people. And so he takes God's words and he funnels them to God's people for their everyday life. Jesus was a prophet but he was much more. He was the long, awaited Messiah. So what I want to do with six questions is sort of explain this text a little bit to us. It's very familiar to us and some of you are saying six questions, that's six points, that's a very long time, there's a game on today, I'm going to get it done. All right? Trust me on this. Here it is. We've got communion to celebrate. So here we go. Jesus presents himself as a Messiah, but number one, first question, what's a Messiah? What is a Messiah? The word Messiah comes from the Hebrew word which means to smear or pour or anoint. The word Messiah means that the oil is involved in some way being put on something and you go all the way back in human history and oil is always being used by one culture or another to be put onto something. A lot of times oil was used as a medicinal, as a medicine. You would drink the oil or you would put it on your body. Sometimes oil was used as a pure fragments for cosmetic purposes. Back then people didn't always bathe as much as we do today. You guys look really good. You smell really good. You ever traveled overseas? You go by people so it's like you're guessing how many days it's been. And they took a shower. You want to offer them some oil or some cologne or something. Well, they did oil to cover up what needed to be covered up. By the way, this is fascinating. Oils were mixed with liquid mur, cinnamon, aromatic cane, cassia and olive oil into some pretty good fragrances, I guess, for them. I mean, I like cinnamon, but I like it on toast more than on my body. I don't know. But oil was used also for sacred purposes, always, has been used for sacred purposes. In every culture almost that ever existed. And in Israel, they would take the olive oil, the pressed, pure olive oil, and they would pour that on the priests when the priests came before the people in their ordination service. Now we've already talked about prophets, prophets spoke to the people on behalf of God, but priests spoke to God on behalf of the people. They were the intermediaries, and they had to be righteous priests, and so they would be anointed with oil. Kings were also anointed, smeared with oil. In fact, when the kings were anointed, like Saul or David, they would take that oil and pour it in a round circle on their head to represent the crown that they would wear as the king, because the kings of Israel were the anointed of God. And they were to serve the people of God as if they were God themselves. In other words, they were to lead the people of God well. So the kings were, well, they were Messiah's. They were anointed once. They were set apart. They were men that spoke with God's authority, and they were not to be trifled with. How did the kings of Israel do? Did they do a good job of leading the people? No. They read the Old Testament, no, they failed in many respects so that Jeremiah the prophet would come along and say, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says, to the shepherds who tend my people. Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away, and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you've done. Elections are here, almost. Wait, it's 2007, and we're already in the election craze. And we know that the business of electing a president, the business of electing senators and representatives, in our less cynical moments, in our most realistic moments, the business of doing that is choosing the one that will fail us the least. Isn't that true? Now, I support our president. I think he's doing a great job. Is he perfect? No. Is any president, any leader, perfect? Any guy? No, I failed you. Based on that, God says to Israel, your leaders have failed you, but I'm going to send you somebody who will never fail you. The church, the church will fail you. Your pastor will fail you. The elders will fail you. The church will fail you, but I'm going to send you a leader who will never fail you. He will be the Messiah. He will be the anointed ones. He will be the one to meet your needs, and all throughout the rest of all of the prophetic material in the Bible, Isaiah, Jeremiah, lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, do you know the rest of them? Isaiah, Joel, Amos, Obediah, Jonah, Mike, I'm not even a navigator and I know this stuff. Isaiah, Obediah, Jonah, Mike, I'm a navigator, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and the Italian prophet, Malachi, or Malachi. All of that material, all through that, God keeps coming back to this. You've sinned, but I love you, repent. Your leaders have let you down, but I'll send you the Messiah. He's coming. In Isaiah, he's called the servant of the Lord. He's also called the branch of Jesse, the David's father's name was Jesse. I will send you a Messiah who will be in the Davidic royal line, in Daniel and our ladies are studying Daniel in the Bethmore study during the week. In Daniel, the Messiah is called the Son of Man, a cosmic figure. And as you look at the Son of Man in the book of Daniel, you're kind of taken aback. You don't know what to think because he's a man, but he's bigger than that. He's awesome. He's awe-inspiring, scary even. That's another name for the Messiah, the Son of Man. When Jesus referred to himself, what did He like to call himself? Do you know what was His favorite self-designation you're thinking? He's going to put me on a spot and I'm in trouble. Jesus, more than anything else, liked to call himself the Son of Man. Because he wanted to convey who he was. Human, divine, the Messiah. Was Jesus a prophet? Yes, as the Messiah, he comes to us and he speaks the word of God to us in a prophetic role. But he also comes to us in priestly role. He comes not only to tell us the truth about God, but he comes to the cross. So on good Friday, on Palm Sunday, he rides into the town presenting himself as the king. But it's only a very short time before he goes to the cross on good Friday. And they're in on good Friday, he carries out the priestly role of offering the sacrifice and being the sacrifice who is Jesus, Jesus is the Messiah. Do you remember that time when in the middle of his ministry, Jesus pulled his disciples aside and he said, all right, who does everybody say that I am? Who do they think I am? And what does his disciples say? Well, he said, Jesus, some think you're John the Baptist. What had happened to John the Baptist? He'd been beheaded. He'd lost his head in the service of the Messiah. So he was dead. They were saying, Jesus, some people think that you are the reincarnation of John the Baptist. Do Christians believe in reincarnation? No. We believe in resurrection, but we do not believe in reincarnation. And it astounds me at times when some Christians think we do. We don't, but they thought Jesus was the reincarnation of John the Baptist. They said, well, some of some of the people think you are one of the prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah that has died, he says, okay, they got it wrong. Who do you say I am? And Peter, oh, shock of shocks that it was Peter that responds. Peter's the guy that walked into a room mouth first, as you know. He was always speaking for the disciples, whether they wanted him to speak for them or not. What did he say? You were the Christ. The son of the living God, why didn't he say the Messiah? Well, he did. Because Christ is the Greek word for Messiah. So he says, you are the Messiah. You are the long awaited Messiah from God. And Jesus then says to Peter, you didn't get that by yourself, but God revealed that to you. That's the Messiah unless God first goes into their heart and helps them receive the Messiah. Now what's, well, Jesus presents himself as the Messiah. How does he make the claim to be the Messiah? He makes the claim in his healings, and he makes the claim in his teaching. Oh, have you ever doubted God, have you ever doubted God, you had a big issue in your life? Have you ever wondered if God was? Your driving to church as a friend of mine told me last Sunday, he said, I was driving to church and I was thinking, do I really believe this? Is this really true? Have you ever had a doubt? I've had doubts at times. Their times when our physical life, our emotional life isn't such turmoil, we say, is this very real? John the Baptist did. Remember, he's in prison, and he's in prison for Jesus before he was beheaded, and he's struggling with this whole thing because he's in prison, he's suffering, suffering will make you doubt God, he'll either drive you to him or make you doubt him, and he was suffering big time. He sent his disciples to talk to Jesus' disciples and said, is he the real deal? That's in the original Greek. Is this the real, is Jesus the real deal? And Jesus sends back word to John the Baptist, what do you see? The lame are getting up and walking. People were blind from birth, now see, and the death here. And John goes, okay, he's the Messiah. In his teaching, in his healing, but then in his presentation of himself, he claims to be the Messiah. As he rides in fulfillment of Zechariah 9.9, he presents himself to the crowd, and they go wild, putting all this stuff in front of him. They're closed, branches, and everything, and they thought he was a Messiah. But they all accept Jesus in the way he wanted to be accepted as a Messiah. Some Jews rejected him out of hand. Some Jews today rejected him out of hand. Some Jews today are no longer looking for the Messiah. Back then, everybody had their idea of what the Messiah would be like. The Pharisees, thought the Messiah would wear clothes like they wore with the tassels and the Bible verses tied all over them. The Sadducees thought that they would support their getting along with Rome. We got to get along with Rome. The zealots wanted Jesus to ride into town on a horse, not a donkey. Because the zealots wanted Jesus to cut some heads off in God's name and reestablish the kingdom of God. Kind of like us today, we all have our idea of what we want God to be. Want Jesus to be. But he presents himself as a Messiah, and that's how he makes his claim that I am the king. What does a Jewish Messiah have to do with you? Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever thought about that? What does a Jewish Messiah have to do? You might not think that because you've been a Christian for a long time. But a lot of our people, our friends who don't know Christ think that, what does a Jewish Messiah have to do with me? I'm not Jewish. I'm whatever. I was in a story the other day with my wife, and we were just about ready to pay, and I noticed that there was a little table there, and on that table was a Buddha, a statue of Buddha. In the front of a store, a statue of Buddha, one of the happy Buddhas. There's the sad Buddhas, and then there's the happy Buddhas. This was a happy Buddha, a big, fat, happy Buddha, and right next to it was a little incense container where obviously sticks of incense had been lit in the store and burned down. And there's another container of full-sized incense sticks that I could have purchased, I guess. Lit in Buddha's honor. And then next to that, there was a little watermelon. I didn't know they made watermelon that small. That big was right there in offering to this God. This is strange. You imagine going to a veto marketplace into a Christian business and finding a table like this right in front, and as you walked in, you see communion plates and a Bible opened up to John 3, 16 or something. It was kind of weird. It was weird. I thought, this has nothing to do with me. I'm not Vietnamese. A lot of people think that about Jesus. What does a Jewish Messiah got to do with me? Then we understand that Jesus presents the Bible phrase, the Bible verse that is used more than anything else, and we see it at football games, John 3, 16, right? For God so loved the world. You know, I don't know why those guys put those signs up at baseball stadiums. You know, or football stadiums, John 3, 16, what does that mean to the average pagan? How about Shakespeare 4, 2? I mean, what would that mean to them? I don't know. But the verse for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes should not perish, but have everlasting life, Jesus is a Messiah for everybody, of all races. And some of you are saying that doesn't square with predestination, oh, it does. Because Jesus is saying, I've got people in every nation, every ethnicity, it doesn't matter for God so loved the world and the Jews hated him for that. But that's what it was all about for everybody. How did Jesus carry out the role of Messiah? He went to the cross. And as we take communion, remember that he went as our substitute. He went as the lamb thinking in the priestly terms, Jesus's prophet, priest and king, taking the priestly terminology, he is that lamb from the Old Testament that had to be slaughtered on behalf of the people and he was slaughtered for us, literally slaughtered. That's why there was so much blood in the movie, the Passion of the Christ, there's blood everywhere. Of course, whenever you slaughter an animal, there's blood everywhere. And he was slaughtered for us, 1 John 2, 1 through 2, my dear children. I write this so that you would not sin, but if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense. Jesus Christ, the righteous one, he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not for ours only but for also the sins of the whole world. Jesus is the lamb who is the atoning sacrifice. He had to be slaughtered in a history class, some students asked the professors, they were talking about World War I and what an ineffective war was waged by the West and how it was horribly led and the question was asked, why did it go on and on, why was it so awfully led and then the professor said, because not enough of the generals died, because the generals were all behind the line, safe and sound, sending the troops out as cannon fodder. Not enough generals died. Jesus did not send his troops out to die, he died. He is the only one who could appease God's wrath at our sins. It's good news, you're worse than you thought. Good news. Jesus' sacrifice is bigger than you thought. He is the atoning sacrifice. What was the personal motive for Jesus to do what he did? I'll tell you, you think about this and there's no better designation. He was either, as Josh McDowell said years and years ago, I love it. He was either the Lord, the liar, the lunatic, see us Lewis said something similar. I would anybody do this, offering themselves up for other people in their place. When he knew it was certain death, writing into town, why? Jesus said, no one takes my life for me. I lay it down on my own initiative. I'm not crazy. I'm not lying to you. That was his motive. What could Jesus mean to us? What you could mean a lot of things to us? If you're stuck in your Christian life, it could mean that you remember that he's a king. A king with compassion and that just as he stopped by and healed those blind guys on the road up to the biggest moment of his life before the cross, remember that he's never too preoccupied to deal. He's never too busy to deal with your stuff. Sometimes you say, I don't pray God's too busy. He's not. He's omnipotent. You can handle it all at once. So pray. If you're stuck and you think that he doesn't have the ability to work out your situation, he does. To deal with your past, to deal with your future. I'm alone. I don't want to be alone. He has the... He's a king. He can deal with that. Go with his time. He's a king. You're guilt. He can deal with that. I talked with a pastor friend on the phone yesterday and he's like, you'd love it. You'd love it. He's a great guy. He's just outgoing. He's wonderful. And he said, he loves grace because he still deals with guilt so much. I said, what? I think you've got this grace thing covered. He goes, nah. He says, I still feel guilty that I'm responsible for my father's alcoholism. He said, you're kidding. How could you think it was your fault? We carry so much shame and guilt with us. We carry that like a baggage that just weighs us down. We don't enjoy being God's forgiven children. We're facing a big challenge physically. We've got a lot of people in our church of that category and you need a king. You need a Messiah. You think your life doesn't matter. You don't know where you fit in. You are connected to Christians for 2,000 years. You have a place. You're connected to what God has been doing since Abraham. Do you matter? Of course you matter. You have a place. And as we take communion now, remember that as Jesus presented Himself, He presented Himself for you that when He rode that donkey into Jerusalem, He was thinking of you and me 2,000 years before the event because He sovereign He is God. Jesus didn't ride into Jerusalem thinking, well, hopefully I'll save somebody at some time and somebody will benefit from this. He died for you by name and by face and He thought about you before the foundation of the world. If you don't know Christ, take Him by faith. If you do know Christ, take communion no matter how bad you've been because this is a grace renewal. As we take it, we're reminded we never deserved it in the first place. But thank God that Jesus came, as our elders come, let's bow our heads and hearts and prayer. If you have never received Christ, I encourage you to receive Him as the Messiah. That's who He is, not just a human leader, I encourage you to embrace Him by faith, to simply ask Him to come into your heart and confess your sins and ask that He would be the Savior in your life that you've needed. Say, Lord God, I need a Savior and today I embrace Jesus I accept Him. He died in my place and I just asked that you would come into my life, Jesus now and forgive me and give me the power to understand that you're a king. I need a king. Lord we all need a king and now we thank you that you came and gave your body that literally physically you entered into human race so completely that you became one of us yet without sin. You are the righteous branch of God, the righteous king and so we thank you that you took our unrighteousness and gave us through faith your righteousness and that in your body you bore our sins. Meet us now as we take of this bread and remember us of what you did for us, we pray in your holy name. Willow Creek Church is associated with the Presbyterian Church in America. Our website is www.willowcreekchurch.org and our phone number is 407-699-82-11.