Sermon Notes

By human standards we cannot wrap our minds around a God who both LOVES us and a God that is JUST. Caught between these two words are GRACE and MERCY. So, let us consider the JUSTICE of God first.

CONDESCENSION is a very negative word by definition. However, when you add the word DIVINE in front of it, it turns to a more positive definition. This is God “LOWERING HIMSELF” to communicate wisdom to people.

Your battle today will not be against “flesh and blood” but the deceitful forces of evil (Ephesians 6:12) and the deceitfulness of indwelling sin (Hebrews 3:13). And these two forces are going to try to use your emotions against you. Therefore, your emotions are a gauge, but they should not be what guides you. Faith in God is what guides you!

This part of the Gospel of Matthew (Chapters 21-23) deal with the conflict in the Temple. After one day after his triumphal entry, Jesus transitions to flipping over tables. (Malachi 3:1; Mark 11:11) While the Pharisee’s were displeased, there was not attack on Jesus’ authority. As soon as on the third day He enters the Temple the conflict begins.

A smooth rock is not one would use to fight a giant. A sharp or jagged rock would have been preferred but even that is not a great weapon. Instead, David, who is a weak warrior in his own right, not even a full-grown man yet, stands up against an impossible fight. This story is less about David and more about the power of God.

We spend so much time talking about the judgment of God when Jesus already has told us the verdict.

Tongue in cheek meant contempt – the feeling with which a person regards anything considered mean, vile, or worthless; disdain; scorn or the state of being despised; dishonor; disgrace.

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power[a] of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.

Before we talk about the water, we must familiarize ourselves with Jewish custom.