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When God provokes Matthew 21.1-16

When God provokes Matthew 21.1-16. By cleansing the temple Jesus is saying -. He is a greater authority than the temple itself. “I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.” Mark 12.6

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When God provokes Matthew 21.1-16

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  1. When God provokesMatthew 21.1-16

  2. By cleansing the temple Jesus is saying - • He is a greater authority than the temple itself. “I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.” Mark 12.6 • That the temple leadership were failed leaders as they permitted God’s house be turned into a “den of robbers” (Jeremiah 7.11).

  3. By cleansing the temple Jesus is saying - • That the rulers defiled the temple by using it to separate people according to race and gender, yet God’s house was for everyone. (Isaiah 56.7) • That the temple and offering of sacrifices would soon pass away, but not Jesus’ words. (Matthew 24.1-2

  4. Religious people have always been a problem for God.

  5. Religious people believe they can - • Replace true worship with human-centered liturgy. • Possess the place and meansof worshipping God. • Serve God in a manner that they can control. • Develop systems to manage God. • Preserveauthority by domesticating God.

  6. “Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews.” • Annie Dillard

  7. God’s provocation Three parables indicting ruling religious order. • The parable of the disobedient sons (Matt. 21:28-32). • The parable of the landowner and his tenants (Matt 21:33-46). • The parable of the wedding feast (Matt. 22:1-14).

  8. God’s provocation • Jesus publicly condemns the religious leaders of the time by reciting the Seven Woes. (Matt 23:1-36)

  9. Publicity-shy • Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. John 6.15 • No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world." "The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right.” John 7.4 & 6

  10. Publicity Hound • Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!“ "I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." Luke 19.39-40 • "Do you hear what these children are saying?" they (chief priests) asked him."Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read, " `From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise' ?" Matthew 21.16

  11. God is dangerous • He is a menace to our self-righteousness. • He is dangerous towards our conceit. • He is a hazard to our narcissism. • He is perilous to our smug complacency. • He is a threat to our self-satisfaction.

  12. "Human kind cannot bear very much reality." T.S. Eliot

  13. Because He is love.

  14. “ . . .you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you." Luke 19.44

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