Matthew Twenty-One

Jesus asked His disciples to do something out of the ordinary. He asked them to go to town, find a donkey, untie her, and bring her to Him. Jesus gave very specific instructions, and the disciples, "went and did exactly what Jesus told them to do."

Do we do exactly what Jesus asks us to do?

Jesus got on the donkey and made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Crowds were putting their garments and branches on the road, giving Him a royal welcome. Everyone around Jesus was celebrating. While the text doesn't say this specifically, I imagine that as the crowds celebrated, Jesus began to feel the weight of what He was going to Jerusalem to do.

It's okay to not feel the same way the crowd does, or the way others think you should feel. Only you know what's really going on inside.

The first stop Jesus made was as the Temple. He got there to see that merchants had set up shop. It made Him angry that people were using God's House for the wrong things.

Here's an interesting story:

A father asked his sons to go work in the field.

Son #1: He didn't want to, but he did it anyway.

Son #2: He said he would, but he didn't do it.

The first son did what the father asked. It's not about whether we want to do it or not, it's about obeying our Father and doing what He asks us to do.

Jesus was not afraid to upset people. He told parables and performed miracles that offended many, especially the Pharisees. His reason for telling stories was to point people to the Father. Jesus is the only way to God. He continuously used the OT as a basis for His claims, because He knew the Pharisees would understand His references since they were Bible scholars.

Jesus demonstrated the power of prayer. He saw a fig tree that wasn't producing fruit and said it will never produce fruit again.

Jesus said we also have this kind of power through prayer. Absolutely everything, ranging from small to large, as you make it a part of your believing prayer, gets included as you lay hold of God. Amen.