Mark 11:7-11
Then
they brought the donkey to Jesus and threw their robes on it, and He sat on it.
Many
people spread their robes on the road, and others spread leafy branches cut
from the fields.
Then
those who went ahead and those who followed kept shouting: Hosanna! Blessed
is He who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed
is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest
heaven!
And
He went into Jerusalem and into the temple complex. After looking around at everything,
since it was already late, He went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
This could change the way you look at Christianity
This is an announcement of the Messiah
It went directly to the Temple
Showing he was king lord and messiah over the temple
The next day
He acted out what God would eventually do
He was not cleansing the temple as we traditionally believe
But He was acting out destruction not cleansing
We prefer cleansing over destruction
But to God destruction is cleansing
We’ve modernized His movement so much we forgot
That one day there would be destruction
He had the right to do what He did
Because He was saying He was Messiah
He said
He would raise it up again
Heaven and earth will be destroyed but we will get a new
heaven and a new earth
God is in the process now of destroying religion and
rebuilding it
He comes in and surprises them –
At first they are saying hosanna – hosanna
He will free us
Amen
He will free us from all our worldly enemies
But He surprises them
He comes to free us from all our worldliness
They believe He was come to be King over the earthly kingdom
Prove to the world that they were right
Religion likes exclusiveness
Calvinism is the dominant foundation of religion today
It is an exclusive theory
Is says this:
There are some people God has chosen to live forever and
there are some He has chosen to burn in hell
All men are predestined
When they evangelize – they are looking for the predestined
ones
The others don’t matter – they will be eternally in hell
They rule major religion today
And guess what?
They are all chosen – of course
And exclusiveness
And we are looking for others that are it too
Makes us feel exclusive
Because if you try to get a Calvinist to pray
They believe everything is already chosen
It is all fate
The Sovereign will of God
Then all murder –etc is God’s will
We know that is not true
So God does not do what He always wants to have done
Because it is dependent on man following through
That is why time is like it is – God waits – for those who
will
The religious leaders at that time
All thought they were it – they were exclusive –
and that Jesus was coming to prove them right
He said this temple will fall and be raised up in 3 days
He took down one and raised up another
God’s plan is bigger than us – or any one or any group
He comes in and reverses the roles
They were expecting Him to burst into the temple and speak
on the tyranny of Rome
And how they should rise up against their enemies
But instead He said YOU have made my Fathers house a den of
thieves
Call them the robbers not us
Something is wrong here
They felt He was accusing them
He reversed the roles
We today are caught in a role reversal
At that time they
fought it
Because they did not want to here the truth
They thought they had it
They were the good guys
But the King came and said
You are the problem
And He did it in the temple so there was no missing it
He reversed it
They are not the problem
They don’t belong to me
How can those who do not belong to God be a problem to God?
It’s my people that are the problem
They claim they are mine
They make high claims
But they don’t live right
He shocks them
And if Jesus were to walk in her today
What would you expect Him to say?
O you guys are great
Thanks for taking a few days a year to visit my temple
And get together with my people
Thanks for giving so much to the kingdom – please stop – you
are giving
Way too much of your time and energy to the kingdom
Why don’t you take a break – maybe go on vacation
Ill shake the
money tree for you –
No
Instead – just as He said then
It would be repeated –
My house has become a den of thieves and robbers
You rob me of what is mine
If nothing else
We rob each other of faith
Some of you
Being so excited
Tell another Christian of your excitement
And they will proceed to rob you
Our churches are filled with people who
Listen to those outside – ‘who tell us the presence of God
don’t exist
The Power of God don’t exist
We cannot listen to those who would rob us blind
We would be just like them ---
Place yourself in their position
Jesus came and they were like wow
He is great – He is come to free us
Yea – His first few sermons were great
But what is this He is doing now?
He is turning against US –
We are not the enemy
Its those who are not with us that are the problem
We better get rid of this guy
This message He is preaching will only hurt us
We are no different – we hate to be told that we are the
problem
If you ever done any counseling you will understand
Problems always involve 2 people
And as soon as you get to telling the problem –
O BOY –
When you tell him his problem I’m ok with that
But start telling me mine and
WATCH OUT
I’ll turn on you so fast –
You won’t know what happened
Things changed
from Hosanna to crucifixion
They didn’t like what Jesus had to say
They were saying
“He made us the
bad guys”
And He was right
They were bad
They sought a way to kill him
And we are the same
If we were there
We too would be plotting his demise
One day we are crowing Him messiah
The next day giving Him a crown of thorns
So here is Jesus
standing before Pilate
A condemned man
But he knew one thing
He knew that everything is about to change
He took on role reversal
And soon
Things would be reversed once again
But this time
For eternity
He knew what He was about to endure is temporary
But what He was accomplishing would change things forever
It was permanent
We need to understand this role reversal
What we are going through today is only temporary
And soon we will be on the receiving side of all the
blessings
God has for us – for all eternity
That’s how God did it
Those judging me now – will soon be judged forever
The roles will be reversed
Everything in the Bible shows role reversal – its all going
to reverse
The criminal was soon to be the judge forever
And the judge will be the condemned
The dead will live again
Those who try and save their life will loose it
Everything is going to reverse
We make the same mistake
If you want to be great (forever)
Be a servant now
Root problem – we want it all now
Popular, loved, accepted, self esteem, all now
But if we have it now
We loose it forever
Even Jesus didn’t take it all now
He came and took on the form of a servant
He understood – role reversal
We must follow that pattern now
He was obedient
So he would be worshipped forever
If we go through role reversal now
We will have what we desire forever
What we want here – we sacrifice for eternity
Want to be exalted
Humble yourself
But we want to rule now
So we not rule later
Want to be first
Be last now
Need a major move of God
And it requires us to put God first
The problem is we are first
Want to be someone in eternity
Die to self now
Want to be debt free in the kingdom
Forgive everyone their debts
Forgive those that trespassed against us
Luke 12:16-19
Then
He told them a parable: "A rich man's land was
very productive.
He thought to himself, 'What should I do, since I don't have
anywhere to store my crops?
I will do this,' he said. 'I'll tear down my barns and build bigger
ones, and store all my grain and my goods there.
Then I'll say to myself, "You have many goods stored up for
many years. Take it easy; eat, drink, and enjoy yourself."'
OOPS – he missed the role reversal –
Remember the rich man and lazarus-
Luke 16:25
"But
Abraham said to him, 'Son, remember that during your lifetime you had
everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being
comforted, and you are in anguish.
What is the lesson there?
you had it easy in this life and he had it tough
Now look –
You got it tough and he got it easy
If you choose
Its your choice
to take life easy now
You will not find it easy in eternity
We must be willing to be obedient
Sacrifice – take persecution -
And do all that God has left us here to do
We can’t take life easy and accomplish what God wants us to
do
You took it easy when Peter was crucified upside down
You took it easy when my servants suffered and died in the Sudan
Forever is a long time folks
This man made a mistake
He thought he was going to take it easy
But his soul was required of Him
We are to work now
And retire later
The meek shall inherit the world
Not the manipulators
The meek are those that accept the role God has given us in
this life
Bible says
Moses was meek
Why?
Because he didn’t really want to be the deliver - but he accepted the role and embraced it
Moses knew about role reversal
Moses was blessed
When Jesus went to the mount of transfiguration
now and for all eternity
We may not like what God has told us to do
We have to stop playing dumb
We know
We just don’t like what we are hearing
The proud will be brought low
And the humble will be raised up
Board President or custodian
It really doesn’t matter if
you are not following the pattern
That God has laid out for your life
Don’t love the world
Become a stranger in this world
Take persecution
Don’t try and be popular
Be willing to be not liked or even loved here
My life is to sacrifice for the cause of Christ
To raise a standard
And speak the truth
Like saying
We are the robbers
It’s not what people wanted to hear
So they reversed their role and crucified the king
And they may do it to you too
But that is our calling
Buy now pay later-
That is Christianity
Whatever we desire to have here in this life
We will pay for in the life to come
It’s not so sovereign that you cant choose not to do it
Come tomorrow – you may forget this message
And try to be liked by the world around you
Not very many are willing to be hated for the cause of
Christ
But God is looking for a people
who will be willing to stand out from the crowd
and be different
Because time is closing in on us
Church,
God is dealing with us first
Before he can deal with the rebellious nation around us
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