Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Lord of the Temple: Mercy, Praise, and Judgment (Matthew 21:14–17)

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The Lord of the Temple: Mercy, Praise, and Judgment (Matthew 21:14–17) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. You don't.
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Usually when we envision A centuries old cathedral, there's
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this, this strict expectation of reverence.
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Right. Yeah, like you picture the
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stained glass, the soaring ceilings, hushed whispers.
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Yeah, exactly. Well, spot on.
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There's a distinct separation from the chaos of the outside
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world. The space is supposed to be set
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apart wholly. The architecture itself demands
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silence. Really, we look for a sanctuary,
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a place where the noise of daily life simply stops.
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But then imagine walking into that same gorgeous cathedral and
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instead of quiet reverence, it sounds like a frantic,
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aggressive Stock Exchange. Oh wow, that's quite an image.
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Right. You hear the clinking of coins,
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people shouting over prices, animals making noise, just a
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total obsession with commerce. The shock of that contrast would
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be entirely jarring. You would immediately realize
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something has gone terribly wrong with the very purpose of
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the building. It's the absolute definition of
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institutional corruption. I mean, the sacred space has
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been entirely hijacked by human pragmatism and greed.
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And that brings us to our topic today.
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Welcome to this deep dive for you, the listener.
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Whether you are a lifelong student of theology or maybe
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just someone trying to understand the historical
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gravity of the Bible, the text we're looking at today will
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challenge any preconceived notions you might have about
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what true worship looks like. It really will.
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Today, our mission is to do a rigorous investigation into a
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stack of expository and theological commentaries, and
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they're all focused on a single striking biblical passage,
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Matthew chapter 21, verses 14 through 17.
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Yeah, we're going to investigate how Jesus Christ exerts his
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messianic authority right in the middle of the temple,
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contrasting sovereign grace with, you know, human self
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righteousness. And these commentaries are
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incredibly dense. They don't just look at the
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surface level narrative, they dig into the historical context,
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the original Greek language, and the massive theological
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implications of what Jesus is doing in just these 4 verses.
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That's true, and to be transparent with you, the
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listener, we need to establish the specific lens our sources
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are using. Right, that's a good point.
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The commentaries we are reading are rooted in a Protestant
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Reformed perspective. Specifically, they adhere to the
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Westminster Confession of Faith. So that means they interpret
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this passage through concepts like God's absolute sovereignty,
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human inability or total depravity and irresistible
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grace. Yes.
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We are going to objectively unpack how these scholars use
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that specific framework to extract the meaning of the text.
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Just to set our rules of engagement for this Dee dive,
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we're really going to take our time to unpack this material
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thoroughly. We want to allow each other to
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speak fully without interrupting so we can really get to the
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bottom of these arguments. Sounds good to me.
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It's a weighty text, so we need that focus.
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Definitely. So to understand the events of
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Matthew 21.120 through 17, we first have to grasp the
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historical and literary environment where this
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confrontation occurs, right? Oh, absolutely.
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You can't understand the reaction of the religious
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leaders if you don't understand what Jesus did the day before.
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Right. The timeline is critical here,
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so let's set the stage. We're in Jerusalem.
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It's Passover week. This is not just a quiet Tuesday
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in the ancient world, is it? Not at all.
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I mean, this is the most massive, crowded and religiously
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intense festival of the Jewish calendar.
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Just pack. Yeah, the historian Josephus
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tells us that during Passover, the population of Jerusalem
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would swell from roughly 50,000 to potentially over 1/4 of a
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million people. No. 1/4 of a million.
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Yeah, it's staggering. Pilgrims have flooded the city
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from all over the Roman Empire. They are sleeping in tents in
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surrounding villages, basically anywhere they can find space.
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And hanging over all of this is the heavy, suffocating reality
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of Roman occupation. There are Roman soldiers
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stationed right next to the temple in the Antonia fortress,
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looking down at the crowds. So the political tension is
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incredibly high. The political tension is high,
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but the sources argue that the spiritual crisis is even higher.
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From a redemptive historical perspective, we are standing at
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the very end of the era of the Mosaic Law.
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Oh, right, because of what happens later that week.
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Yes, the nation is standing on the precipice of the New
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Covenant, which Jesus is about to ratify with his own blood.
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OK, so Jesus has just completed the triumphal entry.
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The crowds were shouting. He rode in on a donkey.
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Is the promised king. But crucially, before we get to
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verse 14, we have to look at what he did in verses 12 and 13.
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Right, the cleansing of the temple.
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Yes, he drove out the money changers and the merchants.
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And this is where your cathedral analogy comes into play.
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The religious elite, led by figures like the former high
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priest Anis and his son-in-law Caiaphas, had turned the court
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of the Gentiles into a literal den of robbers.
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And this wasn't an accident, was it?
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No, not at all. It was a highly organized,
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highly lucrative business enterprise.
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Let me pause you there. When we hear den of robbers, we
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usually think of like a dark alleyway with thieves.
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But this was happening in broad daylight in the most sacred
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building in the world. How did it become a business?
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Well, it started with a practical need.
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Pilgrims traveling from hundreds of miles away couldn't easily
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bring a sacrificial lamb without a getting blemish on the trip.
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Oh that makes sense. A long dusty Rd. would be tough
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on an animal. Right.
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So the temple authorities allowed them to buy animals on
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site. And furthermore, the mandatory
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temple tax had to be paid in a specific currency, which was
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what the Tyrion shekel because it didn't have the Emperor's
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image on it. O pilgrims had to exchange their
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Roman or Greek coins for temple coins.
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OK, honestly, that sounds reasonable on the surface.
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Where's the corruption? The correction was in the
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monopoly, the priests controlled the exchange rates, which were
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exorbitant, and they controlled the animal inspections.
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Oh, I see. Yeah, if you brought your own
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lamb, they would likely find a blemish and force you to buy one
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of their approved overpriced animals.
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Wow, so there's a shakedown. Pretty much.
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The high priesthood had prioritized institutional
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preservation, wealth, and practical convenience over the
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worship of Yahweh. And remember, the Temple was the
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visible beating heart of Jewish covenant life.
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So for Jesus to walk into the center of that massive
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institution, disrupt their commerce, and act of the way He
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does is a direct, undeniable claim to absolute ownership.
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It really is. He is acting as the sovereign
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Lord of the temple. He didn't just write a stern
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letter to the management right? He physically cleared the space
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to re establish it as a House of prayer.
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The religious leaders must have been absolutely stunned by his
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audacity. The commentators point out the
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sheer blindness of the establishment here.
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Yeah, they do. The leaders of Israel want a
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Messiah, yes, but they wanted one who fit their specific
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political and financial expectations.
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Like a military conqueror. Well, yes, they wanted someone
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who would overthrow the Romans and leave their profitable
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religious system intact. Because Jesus didn't fit their
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worldly expectations, they were completely blind to the true
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King standing right in front of them.
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Their pragmatism blinded them to the glory of God.
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And that pragmatism was violent. They were protecting their
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wallets and their status under the guise of religious duty.
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That's a heavy thought, but because Jesus clears the temple
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of that corrupt commerce, he actually creates the necessary
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space for true worship and Divine Mercy to flourish.
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He removes the false to establish the true.
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Right, and that brings us to verse 14, which simply States,
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and the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he
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healed them. Now the sources ask us to pause
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and look at the historical weight of the blind and the lame
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entering this space. Yeah, this isn't just a random
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detail. No.
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This specific action reverses an ancient tradition dating all the
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way back to King David's conquest of Jerusalem in Second
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Samuel chapter 5. I am so glad the commentaries
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bring this up because if you just read verse 14 on its own it
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sounds like a nice medical miracle.
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But there's a massive historical thread here.
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Walk us through that Two Samuel connection.
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Sure. So when David was conquering
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Jerusalem, the city was held by the Jebusites.
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The Jebusites were so confident in their fortress that they
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taunted David. What did they say?
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They told him even the blind and the lamb will ward you off.
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They were essentially saying our weakest citizens could defeat
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you. Oh wow, that's quite an insult.
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Yeah, and David hated that taunt.
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Yeah, after he conquered the city, a proverb developed.
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The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.
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So. Historically, the blind and the
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lame were excluded from certain holy precincts.
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As a result of that ancient rivalry, they were marginalized
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by a system that favored outward perfection and legalistic
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purity. Precisely so when Jesus, who is
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constantly referred to as the Son of David, welcomes the blind
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and the lame into the temple courts, he's demonstrating a
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massive historical shift. The.
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First, David excluded them due to a military taunt.
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Right. But the final perfect son of
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David welcomes them in and heals them.
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The true king has the authority to define who is welcome in his
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father's house. It's a total reversal of human
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expectations. The proud wealthy leaders are
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driven out with a whip of cords, and the broken outcasts are
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invited in to experience mercy. And we really need to look at
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the specific Greek verb used for healed here.
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The sources dive heavily into the language.
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The word is etherapusen in the Greek text.
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This is in the aorist tense. OK, for those of us who didn't
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study ancient Greek, what does the aorist tense mean in this
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context? Aora's tense signifies a
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definitive, completed, and instantaneous act.
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Oh, I see. Yeah, Jesus didn't offer them a
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gradual recovery plan. He didn't give them a medical
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prescription or like a holistic therapy routine.
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He healed them instantly and completely.
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So the blindness was gone in a second.
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The atrophied legs were instantly filled with muscle and
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strength. Spot on.
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Yeah, and these localized, perfect messianic signs fulfill
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the prophecy of Isaiah 35, which states that the arrival of
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God's, it's redemptive rain, will be marked by the opening of
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blind eyes and the strengthening of the lame.
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So the healing is basically a billboard flashing.
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The Kingdom is here. It is now the reform sources
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we're analyzing are very careful to draw a line here regarding
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modern applications of this text.
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How so? Well, they contrast these
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specific instantaneous healings with modern charismatic and
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prosperity gospel movements. Right.
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The commentaries affirm a strict cessationist view.
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Yes they do. They argue that these healings
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were unique, unrepeatable, authentic syndications of the
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King's presence, not a perpetual guarantee of physical healing
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for today. The text shows us the King
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authenticating his messianic identity, not establishing a
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permanent medical clinic in the temple.
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That distinction is vital to the reformed framework.
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The healings point to his identity.
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Furthermore, they perfectly illustrate the theological
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concept of irresistible grace. Let's break that down for the
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listener. Irresistible Grace is one of the
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famous Five Points of Calvinism. How do the sources see it
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operating in a physical healing? Think about the physical
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condition of the people. The blind and the lame were
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completely passive recipients of this healing.
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Right, a blind man can't cure his own eyes by thinking
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positive thoughts. No, he can't.
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And a lame man can't fix his own severed spinal cord by trying
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really hard. They lacked any ability to cure
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themselves. So they simply came to Him in
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their brokenness, and His sovereign grace did the work
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entirely. Yes.
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So what does this all mean for you, the listener?
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Our modern culture constantly tells you to pick yourself up by
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your bootstraps. Oh absolutely.
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We are saturated in self help, self-reliance, and the idea that
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God helps those who help themselves.
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So how does this specific healing in the temple challenge
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the idea that human beings can cooperate with God's grace to
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achieve salvation? The commentators use this
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narrative as an analogy for the doctrine of justification.
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Just like those beggars in the temple, you bring absolutely
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nothing to your salvation except your own brokenness and sin.
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You can't cooperate with God to earn your justification, just as
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a lame man can't cooperate to grow new nerves in his legs.
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That is the core argument of these sources.
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Salvation is of the Lord from beginning to end.
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In the Reformed view, the grace of the Son of David is sovereign
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and irresistible. You don't climb a ladder of your
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own moral merit. You come to him as a beggar and
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he provides the healing solely based on his own merit.
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Yes, that's it. That display of sovereign mercy
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toward the marginalized is beautiful, but it triggers a
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swift, violent reaction from the religious establishment.
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It really does. In verse 15, the text says that
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the chief priests and scribes see the wonderful things Jesus
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did, and they hear children shouting Hosanna to the son of
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David. We need to analyze the context
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of that shout. Hosanna to the Son of David is a
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direct quotation of the Messianic hell from Psalm 118.
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The hell was a specific group of Psalms traditionally sung during
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the Passover, right? Yes, Psalms 113 through 118.
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They were the soundtrack of the festival.
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Every Jewish child would have known these songs by heart.
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Oh wow. But the children in the temple
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are not just making noise. They are taking a recognized
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royal messianic title from the festival liturgy and applying it
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directly to Jesus inside the temple courts.
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And instead of rejoicing that the blind can see and the lane
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can walk, instead of weeping with joy that the promises of
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Isaiah are coming true right in front of them, the leaders are
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furious. The text says they were
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indignant. To fully grasp their reaction,
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the commentaries instruct us to examine the original Greek text
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again. Go, let's do it.
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The word Matthew uses for wonderful things is Thomasia.
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I noticed the commentaries spent a lot of time on that specific
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word. Why is Thomasia so significant?
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Because it's a Hepax. Legomenon, which means.
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That is a scholarly term, meaning the word is used only
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this one time in the entire New Testament.
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Matthew deliberately chose a highly unusual word.
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However, it appears frequently in the Septuagint, the Greek
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translation of the Old Testament.
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Yeah, so how did the Old Testament use it?
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In the Septuagint, Thomasia is used to describe the exclusive
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sovereign covenant miracles of Yahweh.
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Oh, like parting the Red Sea. Yes, things like parting the Red
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Sea or bringing the plagues on Egypt.
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Matthew is telling us that Jesus isn't performing parlor tricks,
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He's executing the exclusive works of God.
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The leaders see these Thomasia with their own physical eyes.
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Yet their reaction is absolute fury.
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Yes, the Greek word used for their reaction is ogenachtosan.
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What did that denote? This denotes a physical, boiling
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anger. It's a visceral, furious
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indignation. This reality brings us directly
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to another major Reformed doctrine, total depravity.
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These leaders possessed elite theological pedigrees.
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They had memorized the Scriptures.
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They saw the thaumasia with their physical eyes.
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Yet they're unregenerate. Hearts remain totally dark and
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violently hostile to the light. The sources argue that this
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proves that human beings are not born as blank slates.
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We are born with a hostile disposition toward God's true
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authority. It's like staring directly at
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the sun, acknowledging the heat on your skin, but getting
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furiously angry at the sun for shining instead of simply
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putting on sunglasses or seeking shade.
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That's a great way to put it. Their hardness of heart is not a
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failure of information. They had all the data.
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They saw the miracles. Their hardness is a total
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stubborn refusal to submit to His authority.
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That analogy captures the spiritual dynamic the
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commentators are pointing out. Depravity is not an issue of
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lacking evidence. It's a moral hostility toward
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God. And the text establishes a stark
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contrast here. Right.
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You have the highest in society, the educated, wealthy,
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influential priests who are completely blind to the truth.
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Yeah, and you have the lowest in society, the children and the
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begging outcasts who see clearly and confess the truth.
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That is a staggering reversal of the social order.
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It highlights God's sovereign freedom to confound the mighty
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and reveal His truths to babes. The children's praise is a
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direct rebuke to the learned unbelief of the scribes.
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Let's investigate how Jesus handles this boiling rage.
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Facing the fury of the elite, Jesus does not back down.
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He doesn't apologize for disrupting their business or for
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accepting the children's praise. No, he goes on the.
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Offensive, right? Instead, he answers their
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accusations using the very scriptures they claim to guard
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and teach. We see this in verse 16.
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The leaders demand that Jesus silence the children.
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Jesus responds by quoting Psalm 8.2 from the Septuagint.
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Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies, you have
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prepared praise. By citing this specific, Jesus
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does something monumental. He accepts the praise of the
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children, and he defends it as doctrinally accurate.
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The sources refer to the analogy of faith, which is the
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hermeneutical principle of Scripture interpreting
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Scripture. How do the commentators see
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Jesus applying that here? Well, in its original Old
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Testament context, Psalm 8 is a hymn of praise dedicated
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exclusively to Yahweh, the creator of the universe.
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It marvels that the Sovereign God ordains praise from the
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weakest of human voices to silence his enemies.
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So by applying this specific Psalm to the children praising
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him in the temple, Jesus is making a staggering theological
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claim. Yes, he is claiming to be the
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target of that Psalm. He is asserting absolute deity.
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He is. He's claiming to be the Yahweh
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of Psalm 8 in the flesh. He's showing that the Old
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Testament was designed to prepare the people to recognize
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him. The commentaries point out that
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this scene perfectly illustrates Christ's threefold office.
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He acts as the priest, healing the broken and bringing them
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into God's presence. He acts as the king, receiving
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the royal title Son of David from his subjects.
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And he acts as the prophet, rebuking the false leaders by
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quoting Scripture with absolute authority.
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And we really must note how devastating his question is to
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the scribes. He asks them.
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Have you never read? Oh wow, yeah, that's quite a
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jab. Right.
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He is speaking to the very men whose entire lives are dedicated
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to reading, copying, and preserving the text.
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He exposes that they handle the Scripture outwardly, but they
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fail to grasp its meaning because they reject the one to
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whom all Scripture points. I want to express genuine
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curiosity here on behalf of the listener.
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Our modern world is highly skeptical of exclusive religious
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claims. Sure, if I am a secular critic
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looking at this text, I might think, wait, isn't it incredibly
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arrogant for a human teacher to accept worship meant for God?
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He is overstepping his bounds. How do the sources answer
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critics who claim Jesus never actually viewed himself as
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divine? That is a very common objection
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today. People want Jesus as a moral
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philosopher, but not as the sovereign God.
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To address that, the sources cite the 2022 Ligonier State of
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Theology Survey. I read that part of the source
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material. The statistics were genuinely
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alarming. They were The survey revealed
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that 43% of professing evangelicals currently deny the
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full deity of Christ. 43. Percent.
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Yes, Almost half. They view him as a great teacher
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or a created being, but not God Incarnate.
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The commentators argue that Matthew 21.16 rigorously
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dismantles that false belief. Because if you were just a
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teacher, he would have stopped the children.
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Spot on. A mere human teacher who
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accepted the praise of Psalm 8 would indeed be arrogant or even
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guilty of blasphemy. A faithful human prophet would
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immediately correct the children and direct their worship to God
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alone. We see the apostles do that in
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the book of Acts when people try to worship them.
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But Jesus knowingly and deliberately accepts the divine
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honor. He defends it.
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He claims that the praise directed at him is the
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fulfillment of a Psalm directed at Yahweh.
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He leaves no room for the good moral teacher argument.
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The sources argue that he is either the sovereign God or he
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is an arrogant fraud. The text demands we recognize
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his full deity. The clarity of that claim is
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unavoidable, and once Jesus has healed the broken, received the
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praise of the humble, and decimated the arguments of the
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proud, he makes a sudden and terrifying geographical move.
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We see this in verse 17. Yes, verse 17 states.
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And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodge
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there. On the surface, it sounds like a
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simple travel itinerary. Just a note about where he slept
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that night. But the commentaries assign
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immense theological weight to this movement.
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They do. They focus on the Greek verb
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used for leaving, which is catalipan.
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Does that imply? This word implies A definitive
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judicial separation. He doesn't just leave the
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building, he leaves them. He abandons the religious
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establishment to its own devices.
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The sources investigate the terrifying theological concept
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of divine abandonment. Here we usually think of God's
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judgement as fire falling from the sky, or some massive
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physical catastrophe, something loud and undeniable.
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But the Reformed commentators argue that sometimes the most
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terrifying judgement is God simply handing A Sinner over to
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their own heart and desires and walking away.
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The leaders had seen the miracles, heard the praise, and
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heard the scriptural vindication.
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They had all the light they needed.
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Yet they refused to repent. So Jesus leaves them in the dark
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condition they have stubbornly chosen.
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The judgement is his absence. The contrast between the
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locations is striking. You have the massive, privileged
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city of Jerusalem. It's the center of religious
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life, the location of the temple, the hub of biblical
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scholarship. Yet A completely rejected its
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true king. Yes, and then you have the small
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village of Bethany, located just a couple of miles away on the
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Mount of Olives. Bethany provided hospitality,
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rest and belief for Jesus. It was the home of Mary, Martha
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and Lazarus. The king is rejected in his own
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capital and finds rest in a humble village.
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The commentators use this to bring the reality of the text
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straight to the listener. Proximity to religion does not
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equal regeneration. The chief priests lived in the
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temple. They were surrounded by holy
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things, holy books, and holy rituals every single day of
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their lives. Yet they completely missed the
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Savior when He stood right in front of them.
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I want you, the listener, to evaluate your own heart right
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now. Are you sitting in a Pew every
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Sunday surrounded by holy things, singing the hymns,
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knowing the vocabulary while completely missing the Savior?
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It's a sobering thought. The sources warned that you
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could be heavily involved in religious activities and still
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be entirely unregenerate. You can have a pristine
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theological pedigree and still harbor a heart that is hostile
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to the true authority of Jesus Christ.
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Familiarity with sacred things can breed a false confidence.
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The text warns us that we must not presume upon God's patience.
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The leaders stood nearest to the temple, yet furthest from its
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Lord. So how do we apply this ancient
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text to our lives today? The historical rejection of the
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king by the religious elite isn't an isolated event locked
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away in the 1st century. No, the commentaries argue that
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it directly confronts the practices of the Church and the
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individual believer today. Right.
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The sources apply this text specifically through the
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framework of the Westminster Confession, primarily chapter
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19, which deals with the law of God.
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Let's breakdown how they use the confession to interpret the
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application. Good idea.
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They look at the first use of the law which acts as a mirror.
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The pure law of God exposes our own spiritual blindness and our
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total inability to save ourselves.
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It shows us that apart from grace, we are just like the
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blind and lame beggars. Right.
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This exposure demands that we run to Christ for justification,
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realizing we have no merit of our own to offer.
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And then we have the third use of the law.
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Once we have run to Christ and received that justification by
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faith alone, the law then guides our sanctification.
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It shows us how to live in grateful obedience, offering our
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lives as a living sacrifice of praise, much like the children
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singing hosanna in the temple. Taking this into the corporate
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life of the church, the sources issue a very sharp critique of
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modern pragmatic evangelicalism. This is where the commentaries
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get incredibly pointed. They draw a Direct Line from the
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money changers in the temple to certain trends in modern church
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culture. We see many movements today that
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are described as seeker sensitive.
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Yeah, just as the chief priests in the 1st century wanted a
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profitable, culturally respectable system that didn't
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offend the Roman authorities or disrupt the local economy,
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modern churches often attempt to market the king using worldly
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methods. They try to make the gospel
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relevant by removing the offense of Christo's absolute authority.
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They turn the sanctuary back into a marketplace of ideas and
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emotions, prioritizing human comfort over divine reverence.
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The sources argue that some churches use sociological
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manipulation, concert level entertainment and marketing
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strategies to draw a crowd rather than relying on the
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gospel. The reformed commentators demand
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a complete repudiation of that pragmatism.
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The text calls for a return to the ordinary means of grace, the
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pure, unfiltered preaching of the Word, and the right
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administration of the sacraments.
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Jesus didn't tolerate a man centered, pragmatic business in
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his Father's house, and the sources argue he doesn't
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tolerate it in his church today. The church must be a place where
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the broken find mercy through the truth of the gospel, not a
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place where consumers are entertained.
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It's a House of prayer, not a theater.
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And beyond the corporate gathering, the sources also
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apply this text to family worship.
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Yes, I want to shift the focus to the domestic sphere.
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For the parents listening right now, this text asks us to
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rigorously evaluate our own households.
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The children in the temple are highlighted as the true
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worshippers, while the educated adults are the villains of the
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story. The commentators use the
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children in the temple as a model for family worship.
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They weren't silent bystanders. They were vocal participants in
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praising Christ. They had been taught the words
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of Psalm 118, and they use them rightly.
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The warning here is Stark. Are we raising our children to
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be well behaved modern day scribes who know all the rules,
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memorize all the trivia, but have no actual love for the
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King? Or are we laboring in prayer,
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teaching them to actively and unashamedly confess Hosanna to
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the son of David? The sources tell us that we
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cannot presume the regeneration of our children just because
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they grow up in a Christian home.
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Proximity to the things of God did not save the chief priests,
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right? We must continually point our
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families to the sovereign grace of the Savior, praying that God
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will grant them the sight to see His glory and the voice to
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praise His name. We have covered immense ground
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today, moving from the crowded, noisy courts of a 1st century
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festival to the deep theological waters of divine sovereignty and
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human depravity. Let's summarize the central
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theme our sources have uncovered.
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Jesus Christ possesses absolute, undeniable messianic authority.
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He uses that authority to heal the spiritually bankrupt who
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come to him in childlike faith, recognizing their own inability.
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Simultaneously, his presence exposes the lethal boiling
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indignation of self-righteous, pragmatic religion.
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He is the true Lord of the Temple.
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He demands our total submission and he offers his total mercy.
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The commentary stressed that there's no middle ground in this
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text. No, none at.
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All you either receive him as the sovereign son of David,
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bringing nothing but your brokenness, or you reject his
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authority to maintain your own self-righteous system and face
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his judicial departure. Those are the only two options.
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I want to leave you, the listener, with a final chilling
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question to ponder as you go about your week.
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This text is a mirror. If Jesus were to physically
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inspect your daily worship, your local church, or your own
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private heart today, what would He find?
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That's a profound question. Would he step in to heal your
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brokenness because you came to him in desperate need,
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abandoning your pride? Or would he find a
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self-sufficient, self-righteous system that he simply leaves
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behind, walking out the door toward Bethany?
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Keep your eyes on the true King. Rest entirely in His sovereign
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grace and thank you for joining us on this deep dive.