Matthew 21

Matthew 21......
Starts out with Palm Sunday as Jesus got the donkey to ride through the town.
Verse 4 - 5.....is from Isaiah 62:11
Verse 9.....is from psalm  118:26.
The crowds answered that Jesus was a prophet from Nazareth.

Verses 12-17.....Jesus goes to the temple. This temple is a place of worship of the Father. In the courts of the temple is where all this buying and selling was going on. When Jesus got there the money changers were ripping people off. The men were changing money from roman currency and other foreign coins that were not accepted in the temple as offerings. In exchanging the currency to what was accepted, the money changers were charging excessive rates to do the exchange,  and pocketing the profits. They were also selling animals for sacrifices that was not proper to sell in this area. Jesus got mad and overturned all the tables.these men were making Gods house a den of robbers instead of a house of prayer. Our God is not all about making a profit by being unfaithful to Him. Jesus was clearly angry in this passage yet still did not sin.
Verse 16 is from psalm 8:2

The parable of the fig tree is telling us that we have to have faith. Other parts of scripture tell us we can have a small faith but we still need to have it. Faith is believing in what you cannot see. And think about this.....what use are we to God if we don't produce fruit?

Verse 23-27......the leaders try to trick Jesus yet again......but Jesus had a quick comeback for them. They want to know what authority He can do His miracles and He asks them what John the Baptist baptism was for. The leaders could not come up with a good answer so they said they didn't know. Jesus wouldn't tell them either.

The parable of the two sons is a story of confession without repentance and submission.
In other words it a story of how we can say we love Jesus and confess it but our heart may never be transformed by repenting of our sin and submitting to Christ. We can be like the first son who rejected his fathers commands but later changed his mind and did followed his commands. The second son lied the whole time. He didn't change or do what his father asked even though he tried to act like he was going to. The first som should represent all of us that have confessed Jesus as Lord of our life......repented of our sins....and submit to His word everyday.

Verse 33-45....the tenants are the leaders and the son is Jesus.....who was condemned to death by the leaders. These leaders were filled with so much greed. They wanted the vineyard so badly by lusting after power, control, and authority in Gods kingdom. They wanted it so bad they were willing to kill for it. Jesus would die for us and them as we know how this parable ends up.