Catch The Fire Church Raleigh
Clash of Kingdoms | Justin Rife
This week we had the incredible honor to hear from our Community Pastor, Justin Rife, on the importance of truly knowing Jesus. He had a seat at the table for all, from zealots to tax collectors, from the poor and needy to the high and mighty. If you’re hungry for more of Him, you need to be following Him and feasting at His table. Our call is to follow Him and reorient our lives around His will, to serve His body, for His glory! Take some time today and ask yourself, do I really know Jesus or do I just know about Him? The invitation to His table is open and there’s a spot just for you!
(audience applauds) - Welcome to the Catch the Fire Church podcast. We're so glad you're joining us, and we hope you're encouraged by this message. How's everyone doing today? It's real quiet. Is that my fault? I'm the one holding the microphone. (laughs) Everybody good? Woo, we're good. Me too, amen. Let's go home. I'm just kidding, I'm kidding. So today we are going to talk about the triumphal entry. And as I was preparing the sermon, I was desperately trying to come up with a title, and I just couldn't do it. And so as I was preparing, as I was kind of writing this out and reflecting, I was listening to some soundtracks. Star Wars fans, anybody? A lot of Star Wars. And I was just like, I'm going to call this thing the duel of fates. And I told Kelly that, and she said, "Please don't do that." (audience laughs) And she said, "You should call it the clash of kingdoms." And I said, "Oh, that's actually probably better." And I was good with clash of kingdoms until we got in pre-service prayer this morning. And we're like, we're just right at the end. We're closing out in Lee in just the way Lee does. Just goes in and he goes, "Ready or not, here he comes." And I'm like, that's way better. So you have three choices, pick your favorite one. Well, we're going to talk about the triumphal entry. Some traditions call it Palm Sunday. And if you are following along in the church calendar, you would know that we are a week early on this one. So we're just going to make up the rules as we go. It's okay, time is a construct. Anyway, like we're still dealing with the aftermath of daylight savings time. Like I'm still tired, how is that even a thing? Like, does anybody know why that's a thing? I don't know. So, but it's good actually to take some time and reflect as we approach the day, right? And this gives us ample time to do that. So, unapologetically, I love the Bible. Who here loves the Bible? It should be much louder than that. I'm going to ask again, who here loves the Bible? All right, there we go. I get asked all the time what the best version of the Bible is, what's the best translation? It's the one you read. It's the one that you read and you allow to transform your heart, right? Because we don't want the words to just stay on the page. We want them to enter into us and transform us and guide us. And so, with that, we're going to pray. Lord, I ask right now that you open our senses to your truth. I ask for wisdom as we prepare to engage with your word. Clarity as we reflect discernment, as we learn to apply it to our hearts. We invite conviction and correction. And we receive your peace and comfort. I pray that as we turn our hearts and our minds towards you this morning, we will be transformed more and more into your likeness. We just say, may your kingdom come in our hearts and our bodies and our cities. Amen. All right, let's dig in. The triumphal entry, Matthew 21. If you got your Bibles, now's a good time. As they approached Jerusalem and came to best page on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, "and at once you will find a donkey tied there "with their cult by her, untie them and bring them to me." If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them and he will send them right away. This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet. The prophet says this, "Say to daughters, I on, "see your king comes to you gentle and riding on a donkey "and 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 and placed their cloaks on them for him to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, "Hosanna to the son of David, "blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. "Hosanna in the highest heaven, "when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred." And they asked, "Who is this?" And the crowds answered, "This is Jesus, "the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee." Lots to unpack here, but we are going full Jesus today. All right, who's ready to go full Jesus? Come on, me too. Somebody should make a hoodie that says, "I'm going full Jesus today. "I will wear it all the time." So we're doing this. This is the gospel of Matthew. And Matthew tells us this story of how he entered. And if we want to get a picture of some of the other things that happened, the other gospel writers all include elements of this story that Matthew didn't include. And so it's a good idea when we read our Bibles and when we study to actually read all accounts of this so we can see where the lines are getting colored in. We can see details and ways that we didn't see before, so Mark and John have some very fascinating details. John actually puts the story of Lazarus' resurrection right before this moment. And there's a lot that I can go into with that and I'm not going to, I'm just gonna leave you wanting more. 'Cause we're gonna go in a different direction. Luke has this tiny detail that if it's like if you blink, you miss it and I don't want to miss it. And so we're gonna dig into it. Luke 19, starting at verse 41, tells us that as Jesus was approaching the city, he wept and he said, "If you only knew this day, what would bring you peace?" Jesus wept. What made him weep and why was he talking about peace? What, peace? Like this was the party of the year. This was the Passover celebration, thousands upon thousands of people coming in to Jerusalem to celebrate the time when they broke free from Egypt, right? Only now, instead of Egypt, it's the Roman Empire calling the shots. And let's just talk about for a second what that looks like. Some scholars believe that the population of Jerusalem was more than doubled during the time of the Passover celebration. We're talking over 250,000 people on pilgrimage to the city, just wrap your heads around that. That's a staggering number. Hundreds of thousands of people coming into the city where they get to celebrate the time where they broke free from their ancient oppressors. And if I were Rome in this moment, I'd feel pretty nervous about an uprising. And I wonder if this is why Jesus was worried about peace. So enter Pilate, who's this guy? He was the Roman governor of Judea. He was in charge of this area and he was brought in at this time during these celebrations to make sure that everybody knew who was in charge, right? Like you can have your little celebration like good for you, but if things get out of hand, you're gonna know and you're gonna feel the full force of Rome's might. And what did Roman might look like at that time? Crucifixion. This is the world Jesus was living in. Thieves, political operatives, zealots, anyone and everyone in between felt the wrath of Rome poured out on them. And this is important to know because as Jesus was entering the city, he encountered people that were waving palm branches at him and declaring him king and declaring anyone other than Caesar king, get you crucified. And the palm branches at the time were actually a sign of the zealots. They were known as the people of the poem. The zealots, if you remember, are a sect of Jewish people that among other things believed in their core being in redemptive violence. They're the kind of people bold enough to declare Jesus king in the face of their enemy. However, they believed that when they read scripture, they believed that their coming king would come in with violence and annihilate their Roman enemy. And through the blood of Rome, they would find peace. Not saying everybody there was a zealot. I don't think that's true. I'm just saying like, how easy is it to get wrapped up in the frenzy and passion of a crowd? It's just human nature. It's how we're wired. It's how God made us actually. It's a beautiful thing. It's not bad. It's just a thing that needs to be disciplined, right? Like we're either going to be caught up in the song of heaven and singing the song of heaven or will be gathered in the city square, y'all and crucify him. So let's enter the scene now with some fresh eyes. Jesus says to his disciples to get him two donkeys. He rides into the city fulfilling Zachariah 9.9, which says, rejoice greatly daughter Zion. Shout and triumph daughter Jerusalem. Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious. Humble and riding on a donkey on a cold the full of a donkey. Again, this is significant because the people were desperately looking for their conquering king. They were desperately looking for someone to set them free from their oppressors and how many people here know they needed a savior. We need a savior, right? The end of Zachariah 9 talks about how the Lord of armies will defend them and his arrows will fly like lightning and he will save them on that day. And it's easy to see how Jesus fits that description because he does. But yet, they still missed it. And I wonder how often we miss it in our best efforts to represent Jesus in our lives. Like, do we just sometimes get it wrong? I know I do. So when Kelly and I first got married, we were looking for a church home back in Ohio. And we became more and more drawn to churches with a more charismatic expression, let's say, rather than the traditional one I was used to. And as we visited some of these churches and conferences, I don't know how to say, I'll be gentle here. Everyone was just weird. You know what I'm talking about? And I'm not like, I'm talking like Ohio weird. Anybody here from Ohio? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about. Go talk to those guys. They're the weird ones in the room. And like, I can do weird. I can do weird. I had like a Mohawk thing, I wore spikes, right? I played punk music, tattoos, almost joined the circus twice. It's a real story. Like, I'm comfortable with weird. But like, Christian weird just hits a little different. You know what I'm talking about? The first time we brought my brother-in-law to catch the fire here, it was the week we did fire tunnels. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. If you don't know what fire tunnels are, don't worry about it. But I mean, I'm in the back of the room just going like, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no." And you know what? He loved it. Of course he did. Who doesn't? Like truthfully. You love him. And I was actually at one of these conferences back in Ohio, and I was looking around and I was just so distracted. I was just so distracted by the room that I just couldn't enter worship, and I just hung my head in judgment. And I'm just right on the edge of cynicism. Do you know what I'm talking about? How easy is it to get to that place? And I said, "Lord, if this is you, I want it. If it's not, get me out of here quick." And someone came up to me very shortly after that and gave me a word that had nothing to do with any of the stuff going on in the room. But it went just directly into my heart. And for the first time, in a long time, I had experienced a bad car accident years prior, and for the first time I experienced healing in my back. They didn't even pray for healing. My heart softened a little bit, and I felt what I would call joy and are in. And I felt that and experienced it for the first time in a really, really long time. The point is this. You guys, how easy is it to miss it? How easy could it have been for me to justify my discomfort and judge what I thought was happening and miss out on what the Lord had for me? That ultimately led us here, by the way. So thank you for that, Ohio. I don't want to miss it anymore, you guys. I'm hungry for more. Who's hungry? For more. Yes, every hand should be up. Here's the trick, though. If we want more of him, we need to be following him. If we're hungry for more of what he has for us, then we should be feasting at his table. Again, it's easy to look at these characters in the Bible and suffer from what see us Lewis called chronological snobbery, which that's a fantastic phrase. That's the belief that because of our position in time and our access to higher education and the benefit of 2020 hindsight vision, we're just smarter and better than everybody that's gone before us. We're free to ignore any wisdom that they may have to offer us. Anybody with teenagers in the room knows exactly what I'm talking about. If we're not careful, we can actually adopt the same attitude towards our biblical brothers and sisters. Case in point, Jesus predicts his death multiple times pretty explicitly with a lot of detail. And somehow they just miss it and you're looking at the page and you're like, "Peter, why, how, he said it. You're dumb, right? We can do that." And I'm just going to go here, you guys. Here we are in 2024. We have the canonized Bible. We have houses of prayer. We have houses of worship. We've got Bible classes available here, online, everywhere, access to sermons from around the globe. Thanks to podcasts and YouTube. We've got multiple historical moves of God and revivals that we can glean from. We have the Holy Spirit as our guide. Jesus hasn't changed. And yet somehow it seems that celebrity Christianity has run its course. Consumer Christianity doesn't bear any fruit. And we've just got scandal over heartbreaking scandal hitting the church. And it turns out we're just as capable of missing it. I don't want to miss it. There's nothing new under the sun though, right? Jesus is still cleansing the temple. And I've become increasingly dissatisfied with the ways that I'm prone to miss it. Okay. Okay, back to the text. Here's Jesus. He's on the donkey. He's crying. And what are the people doing? They're shouting and quoting Psalm 118 at him. This. Hosanna. Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. Everybody say, "Hosanna." Alright, congratulations. You are speaking Hebrew. I don't know why the Bible translators leave the Hebrew word in there when they translated every other word, but they did. But Hosanna is the Hebrew word for save us now. We like to think that this was a peaceful parade. I grew up with little poem branches as a kid waving them at my pastor. Anybody else have that experience, right? As he came down, right? We would lay him at his feet and we'd just clap and we'd get candy and stuff. Like we like to think that this was like the peaceful parade. It wasn't. This was a battle cry. They weren't asking to be saved from their sins. They were asking to be saved from Rome. And so we've got Pilate and his entire empirical fleet coming down one side of the mountain into the city towards his palace just to let everybody know who's in charge. And then on the other side of the city, we've got Jesus. With thousands upon thousands of people waving their poem branches at him, declaring him king, poem branches that are a very well-known sign of violent intent. And Jesus, coming into the city on a donkey, the very act that is a prophetic declaration of him as king and not Caesar. And it's like everyone there is ready with their torches and pitchforks ready to storm the palace, just ready to go. You say the word Jesus, let's do it. And what does he do? He weeps. He weeps. If you only knew what would bring you peace. Which feels a whole lot like forgive them, they know not what they're doing. I wonder as Jesus enters our hearts and our homes and our neighborhoods and our cities, our nation, is he still weeping over the things and methods and ideologies that we believe will bring peace? And here my heart here, like peace is great. Peace is a good thing. Woo, I love peace. Peace is really important in the kingdom of God. It's a kingdom of peace. He's the prince of peace. Yeah? Like this is the thing that the resurrection empowers us to be. Carriers of peace. Blessed are the peacemakers. Peace is a big deal. Right? Like even in the presence of Jesus, the people with their poem branches laid them down for him to walk on. The problem is that once he didn't do what was expected of him, they just picked him right back up. How many methods of peace have we attempted to lay down at his feet only to just pick right back up in the face of disappointment? And the whole time he's just looking down at us just going, "If you only knew." Come on, follow me. If you only knew. So what are the objects of power and violence that we've latched on to praying for Jesus to destroy our enemies with? It's a good question. Sermon on the Mount says it starts really small. It's real small and so it's easy to miss and it's easy to justify and it's easy to excuse and it's easy to ignore, but it's there. Maybe it's just like a funny meme making fun of someone. Maybe it's just debasing somebody's character. Maybe it's judging somebody's worship expression. Maybe it's just the overflow from having a bad day or watching the news and exchanging our peace for fear and information. Or maybe we just participate in some good old fashioned gossip. Here's what Jesus has to say about this in the Sermon on the Mount. This is Matthew 5. You have heard it said, oh, you have heard that it was said to our ancestors, do not murder and whoever murders will be subject to judgment. Fair enough. But I tell you, whoa. He says, whoa. But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Whoever insults his brother or sister will be subject to court. Whoever says you fool will be subject to hellfire. Peace. Everybody's still woo. What about or what about in Proverbs where it says, when your enemy fails, don't rejoice. How are we doing? Jesus became the suffering servant. He chose to suffer and die on a cross. Yes, for the forgiveness of our sins, but also for the forgiveness of our enemies. All the way down to the sins of those that pierced his very heart. Like he asks us to do the same thing. He chose to be crucified rather than to exterminate. He easily could have just Thanos snapped us all out of existence. You hear me? You know what I mean? And so this is how we know what love is. 1 John 3 16, this is how we have come to know love. He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. Like last week Jess brilliantly taught that there's something about the way Jesus dies that reveals him as Lord and King. It was an amazing message. Go back and listen to it. It was incredible. And I'm just going to humbly add to the back end of that by saying that there's something about the resurrection that invites us into a way of living where the cross becomes the center of all we do and say. Right? The death of Jesus is where we find life and not just life, eternal life. Because, okay, I know we're just a few weeks ahead on this, but spoiler alert. He doesn't stay dead. He got up. He got up. This is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and the one you have sent Jesus Christ, John 17 verse 3. Here's my question for us today. Do we know Jesus? The text says that the city stirred and the people asked who is this? And if Jesus showed up today in this way, would we even recognize him? We clearly have a clash of kingdoms here. That's where Kelly got it. The kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God. And at the very center of these two kingdoms we have the cross, the place where heaven meets earth. It's here where we are saved from our sins, but it's also here where we are saved to walk in freedom from the principalities and powers that oppress us. It's here where we're able to walk free from Rome. Okay, back to the story. Jesus is weeping. The people are expecting him to raise the battle horn and it is owned. And what does he do? Does he do what's expected of him and go to Pilots Palace and kick him out? No, instead he goes directly to the temple. And he goes full undercover boss and just flips the tables over and kicks everybody out. And he's like, my house, you're in my house. Right? Like was he confused? Did he think he was going to the palace? Did he think that one of the guys he kicked out was Pilot? Like did he think that somehow he was offending Rome in some way? Did his donkey, like the GPS and the donkey just get rerouted to the wrong place? He knew exactly what he was doing. This is Matthew 21 and verse 12. Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling dubs. It is written, he said to them, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers. Aaron spoke a few weeks ago discussing prayer and illustrating God's heart for prayer and how his, on how his house is a house of prayer and that's absolutely true. But when Jesus enters this moment, it is not that. It is a den of robbers. I'm a child of the 80s. Whoo, anybody else? It's the best decade, you guys. And seriously, whenever I read this story ever since I was a kid, I can't help it. Still, even as I was reflecting this week, it happened again. I can't help it. But every time I read this story, somehow, between Jesus hopping on the donkey and by the time he enters the temple courts here, he turns into Indiana Jones. He's got the hat and he's suddenly got the whip. You know what I mean? And it's just like, I picture Jesus like, da, da, da, da, and he's just flipping everything over and he's just whipping people into salvation or something. Like, that's how salvation works. Like, there's no version of Jesus where he's whipping people. And like, this is the side that's just so sometimes it's uncomfortable to talk about because we don't see this side of Jesus very often. Like, this is it. This is what we've got. And so, we are left to our own imaginations and our own discomfort and our own wrestling to discover what's going on here and how many of us deal with our discomfort by simply imagining Jesus gleefully flipping over every single table in the room except for the one we're sitting at. Because according to me and the people that agree with me, we're right and everybody else is wrong and they could use a good whipping, thank you very much. Right? Like, Jesus had a whip. I'm his disciple. Where's my whip? I'm ready to whip some people. And it becomes all too easy to call our own anger righteous when, in fact, according to the Sermon on the Mount, it's just the seeds of murder. And murder is never righteous. And so, we know we're left to a lot of speculation, but what we do know is Jesus didn't have the seeds of murder in his heart. One thing is certain though, his anger here wasn't quick and reactive. It was calculated and personal and pointed and it was redemptive. And he entered the place in the temple where they were buying and selling doves. And because I know we spent last night brushing up on the Levitical sacrificial system and we all know what doves were used for. It was the thing that the poor were asked to bring as a sacrifice and offering. Remember Luke 2? Mary and Joseph presented Jesus as a baby in Jerusalem. And when they did, they offered two turtle doves, not a partridge and a pear tree. So, they brought these two turtle doves and when they did, they encountered a man named Simeon who blesses Jesus. Luke 2, verse 27. This is Simeon here, guided by the Spirit. He entered the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform for him, what was customary under the law. Simeon took him up in his arms, praised God, and said, "Now, master, you can dismiss your servant in peace as you promised. For my eyes have seen your salvation. You have prepared it in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and a glory to your people Israel." Did you catch it? The very court that Jesus enters is what was known as the court of the Gentiles. To put it simply, this is a place where non-Jewish people were invited to worship the Jewish God. Like God's heart has always been for every tongue, tribe, and nation. Amen. Like through the seed of Abraham, all nations shall be blessed. And Simeon got it. He got it. He was just holding cute little baby Jesus, and he saw a light of revelation to the Gentiles and the people of Israel. He didn't need the doves. He was holding the pure, unblemished sacrificial lamb. Right, fast forward. Now, 33 years later, Jesus all grown up. Tears coming down his face. Back in Jerusalem, what's going on? Corruption everywhere. The temple system was in charge of the money. The temple system was in charge of the sacrifices. The temple system was in charge of inspecting the sacrifices. So what would happen is people, 250,000 people all coming in with their animals. Imagine that just for a moment. But they're all coming in with their offerings and their sacrifices. And they would go to the temple and they would say here you go. And the temple system would look at them. And they would say, I don't know about this one. But for 1099, I'll trade you this one for the one we got in the back. That's good enough. And it's easy to see how this can be a place of exploitation and corruption and injustice. And yes, Jesus flips over the tables of injustice, but I want us to get this. Jesus spent his entire life up to this moment hanging out with the people who are being affected by injustice. It's not that Jesus just loves the poor, it's that he can actually identify with the poor. I'm going to say this as lovingly as I can. Deep breath. If you're not actively engaged with actual people dealing with actual injustice in real life oppression, then maybe it's just a good idea before you start whipping people and flipping tables over and throwing your opinions out over everybody to just pump the breaks of it. Just get off the horse and follow Jesus on the donkey to the people first. Get involved and serve rather than judge. If you want help with that, come see us. There's lots of ways to get involved. Jesus effectively, he clears the temple, calling out the sin of all those in charge, and essentially now declares himself the unblemished sacrifice. The very day that he did this was the day where they picked the lamb for the sacrifice. So from this moment on the conspiracy to kill Jesus, it's in full effect. And the temptation we have is to just let these stories stay on the page, but I feel like Jesus is inviting us to respond. Everyone's looking for salvation. But where the crowd gets it wrong is that salvation doesn't come by the blood of our enemies. It comes by the blood of Jesus. And those in the temple's got it wrong because the endless treasure of the heaven is standing right in front of them, yet in their greed they missed it. And friends, just don't let your anger and bitterness and greed and pride and ego, whatever, stand in the way of you seeing Jesus today. Going back to the beginning, Jesus says this to his disciples, go to the village ahead of you and you will find a donkey tied there in a cult with her. Do you ever wonder who the second donkey is for? He didn't ride both. That'd be weird. He wasn't Indiana Jones, but he always makes a way for us to follow him. And he always provides the resources to do it. And it's like even in this way, even if it's just the little baby version, he's calling us to follow him because we have to be faithful with the small first. And Jesus is saying, "Here's your ride, and if you follow me in this way, you will mature." How we respond to the life and call of Jesus absolutely determines the well-being of the cities and the nations that we're called to and make no mistake, we are all called. But we can respond like Jonah and arrive at the destination covered in whale vomit. Or we can choose to sit next to Jesus on the humble ride he has prepared for us. And when we do that, we will arrive at his incorruptible table. This is a table like no other table. This one can't be flipped. At this table, Jesus invites us to a feast. It's a feast of life and joy and freedom and peace in the face of the most grotesque suffering and injustice of the cross. It's where it is his blood poured out that brings the healing of the nations and the salvation of our souls. So today, I ask, are you sitting at the right table? Do you know Jesus? Is this a Jesus worth following? Don't be too quick to answer, I know we're in church, it feels like it's an easy yes. But just remember, it was shortly after this event where the crowds turned on him. They went from declaring him king to shouting crucify him. He just wasn't useful to them anymore. And I wonder, is Jesus still useful when he doesn't do what we expect him to do? He called out the powerful for making a place of prayer and holiness a place where sin was comfortable. What sin have you become comfortable with? He weeps for those of us trying to make peace in all the wrong ways, pride, ego, anger, whatever. Bitterness in the way, and maybe our shouts of Hosanna are really shouts of judgment over our enemies. So again, I just ask, do we know the Jesus that dies for his persecutors and forgives the sins of the world? Do we trust his judgments over our own? In Paul's second letter to the Corinthian church, he tells them that even though their minds are sincerely devoted to Jesus, they can very easily be led astray by the preaching of a different Jesus in a different gospel. And the hard truth that we face today is I just don't think we're exempt from the same temptation. There's a lot of talk about a kind of Jesus today, from Super Bowl ads to deconstruction to whatever else in the middle, like Christian nationalism and all the scandals and all the other stuff. In the midst of all of that nonsense and noise, there is a truth that Jesus, this is eternal life that we may know you. And he says that from the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart, and while Jesus was breathing his last breaths on the cross, he doesn't curse or condemn. He forgives. Do you know how loved you are? After he breathed his last, his side was pierced and his heart was punctured, and out of that wound flowed blood and water and blood that speaks a better word than vengeance and revenge. Abel's blood, innocent as it was, cried out for vengeance, Jesus's blood offers pardon. Here's the deal to know him is to follow him, and if the life of Jesus shows us anything, it's that eternal life isn't just about a statement of time, it's about quality. He said that the kingdom was at hand, it's within reach. He said to put his words into practice. He goes to his disciples and tells him to follow me. So we may have said yes to Jesus, but are we following him? The crowds on Palm Sunday were passionate about the version of Jesus they wanted him to be. The people in the temple courts were comfortable with the version of God and the grace that gave them the ability and justification to just get in a few more sins before the day of atonement. Even the apostle Paul thought he was doing God's will by putting Christians in jail and murdering them. They all believed they were following God and could bend the scriptures to fit their worldview. But that God is no God at all. And the ways of Jesus aren't something we flippantly insert into our daily routines and lifestyles. The call is to follow him. That means to drop everything and reorient our entire lives and thinking around what he's doing in the way that he does things. And what he's saying, not just what we expect him to do. Salvation ain't cheap. Yes, it comes to us on that cross. But a salvation that ends on a cross is no kind of salvation. But a cross that leads to an empty tomb, a cross that leads to a transformational, unbreakable union with the living God that turns us into people motivated by love and forgiveness and wisdom with the guiding, healing, supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. Now we're talking. Now we're talking. Give me some of that. I'll follow that. There's no shortage of evidence that the world needs a Savior. The question is who? Bob Dylan says you've got to serve somebody. You're going to serve somebody. And if you're going to do that, it might as well be Jesus. He didn't change the world by becoming the best politician or the most viral social media person in the world's ever seen. He changed it by enduring and conquering the most violent crime humanity could throw at him. In the way that the cross is both the most grotesque reminder of what we're capable of doing in God's name and also the most beautiful reminder of who God actually is. We'll never experience salvation by following a version of Jesus. We need the real thing. Guys, and here's the good news. I had my people call his people and he's available. He's even got a little donkey for us. Here's the beautiful truth. The tomb of Jesus is empty. It's empty. It ain't getting filled back up again. And he gives us a road map. And part of that road map is a place at the His Table, a place where both zealots and tax collectors can sit. It's a table that can't be flipped. But before we get there, the question remains, do we know him? Are we following him to this table? Let's stand and pray. Oh, Jesus, we want to know you. The palm branches in my life aren't working and I know it and you know it and everybody knows it. And I'm weary and I'm tired and I've become comfortable making excuses for the pain I've caused myself and others. Jesus come, flip the tables in my heart and rescue me from myself. And replace the idols that I've placed in my heart and replace them of you. I want to know you. I want to follow you in your ways, in the ways of eternal life. I receive your forgiveness and I ask that you fill me right now with your peace and the Holy Spirit. Continue to transform me in your likeness and use me as an instrument of your justice and righteousness. Put me in proximity of those that need to know you. I declare you king. I declare my household saved and my city saved and my nation saved, amen. Now we come to the Lord's table. If you have your communion cups, now's the time. And we remember Christ crucified. But we remember the Passover feast. This is a celebration. This is a celebration. This is a place where we have no enemies at His table. Guys, this is good news. It's good to have no enemies. But it's here where that exists. And so we celebrate freedom from the principalities and powers that seek to kill, steal, and destroy in our lives. And as we feast on the Lord's Supper, we join each other in the victory of the resurrection life. It's a victory, but it comes at a cost. And so we remember Jesus' body and blood shed for us. His body for us who are tired and sick, weary. We remember that He didn't exempt Himself from suffering. He joined us in our suffering. And He overcame the suffering. But as we take this bread on the very night He was betrayed, that He broke, we eat it. And we feast. And as the bread is being broken and torn by the gnashing of our teeth, we remember our sin and the cost. I've got good news, everybody. He didn't stay crushed. One drop of blood was enough. It would have been enough, one drop. But He didn't give us one drop. He poured it all out. And so we receive it. We receive it all. We don't want to miss a single drop. With it, we join Him in His healing and resurrection life that only His blood can give us. Amen. Thank you so much for joining us. There are so many opportunities to grow, connect, and be encouraged. To learn more, visit CTFRolly.com and follow us on social media. Thank you so much for being part of the family. We are so thankful for you. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]