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A very good morning to all of you, welcome to Gospel Light, our second English worship service, this morning, glad you can join us in our second last sermon in this series called, ‘The Authority of The King.’

A couple of weeks ago, in my own reading of the Bible, I came to this verse in the book of Proverbs 29:4 that says, “by justice a king builds up the land, but he who exacts gifts, tears it down.”  The Bible tells us that kings are really important. They, in a sense determine the fate of their people, you have a good king, you generally have a good country, you have a bad king, you generally have a bad country.

And that's why I think as Singaporeans, we watch with interest our own government being formed in time to come. We are concerned about what would happen. Who will take over the helm, when our current prime minister should step down? Will it be Mr. Chan? Will it be Mr. Heng? Will it be Mr. Ong? In no order of preference. And will it be someone else? Who will be the leader?  Who will be the Prime Minister? Because we know that a lot hinges on the leadership of the king or the leader.

And that's why we also watch with interest what happens in Malaysia, how the transition of power from Mr. Najib to Mr. Mahathir has taken place.  How that country would go after this leadership change. We watch with interest, how Donald Trump will lead USA, we watch how Kim Jong Un will lead North Korea.  And we all know that this verse is absolutely true, kings are important. And that's what the nation of Israel demonstrates.

You know that the Bible has a lot of focus on this one tiny nation called, Israel. And for hundreds of years, for centuries, the fate of the nation in a sense, reflects the kind of king they had. So when they had good kings like maybe David and Solomon and Josiah, the nation had peace and prosperity and was relatively doing well.  But when the kings were bad like Ahab and so on, then the nation suffered and was steeped in sin.

But no matter whether you have a relatively good king or relatively bad king, there was no king who was perfect.  There was no king who was absolutely great. They all had some little blips, a little fault here and there.  They never led their people to true peace, to true prosperity, to true godliness. They had some reforms but by and large, they could never lead the people to real righteousness and peace.

For example, David. David was a good king. Now, if you read about the kings of the Bible, you probably know Solomon.  David is like one of the best they ever had. But even David had his problems. David was found one day lazing around, his soldiers were out there fighting and risking their lives but he was in his summer palace enjoying himself, “keow ka” [means idling in hokkien dialect] and soon fell into an adulterous relationship with a woman named, Bathsheba, one of his men's wife. And David also committed murder. I mean, this was a good king but he was guilty of really bad stuff. And later on David was guilty of pride, how he began to number his troops, his soldiers. He wanted to see how great a king he is, how powerful a nation he leads. And God knew his heart, God struck him with a curse and 70,000 man in Israel died, as a result of their king's sin.

So even the best of kings had problems and after David, you could say in general, the stock market went down. I mean the kings just got worse and worse, sometimes good kings but in general, the stock market was having a bear run, it's just worse and worse and worse until the nation of Israel was so bad.  God had to punish them by sending a group of them to the Assyrians, captured by the Assyrians. Another group of them captured by the Babylonians, they lost their homeland. But yet throughout this time, even up till today, even up till today, Israel exists. And the people of Israel in general are still waiting out for a glorious hope that they will have a perfect king. They will have a king who is far better than David and Solomon. A king who will lead them to true peace and prosperity. Why? Because God in the Bible promises Israel such a King.

The Bible says, “for to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given” (Isaiah 9:6-7). And you can read the intervening verses but right at the end it says, “on the throne of David and over His Kingdom”. So back in those days, centuries ago, God has said that one day, there will be a Son. A child who will sit on David's throne and be that wonderful, great King who will lead people to everlasting peace.

So Israel has always been waiting. Who is this King? Who would it be? Would it be Solomon? No, Solomon didn't lead them there. Will it be that young boy, Josiah? Josiah, though a good king, did not lead them there.  Would it be Jehoshaphat? Hezekiah? One by one, the kings came, but one by one the kings proved that they could not lead people to real peace. Would it be Prime Minister Netanyahu today? Also no, but you see the King is already come.

Who is that King that can lead Israel- God's people to everlasting peace? Well, that is the whole purpose of the book [the book] of Matthew. That's the purpose of the book of Matthew, the very first book in your New Testament.  The book of Matthew is to tell you that Jesus is the promised King. Jesus is the One who would lead His people to true everlasting peace and joy and righteousness.

Now, if you have your Bibles, it will be great if you can open that up. Please do that, but I know most of you don’t have Bibles now, physical form, but you have it in the phones, right? So maybe you can, or if it even if you do not have, you can go to Google.  It will be really great if you could just do that because what I'm going to do is to just take you within what, four five minutes, a very quick overview, jet tour of the first nine chapters we have been going through.

And I want to show you that Matthew did not write his book in a haphazard way.  He was very structured, he was very organized, he was very clear. He wants to prove to his Jewish readers Jesus is the King.  “ Hey guys, the one you have been waiting for has already come, you got to believe Him!” That's his point, you got to follow Him!

1.    Ancestry
So right in the beginning in the book of Matthew, we read, he gives you the ancestry of Jesus. You say, “why is it so important?”  Because this promised King must be a son of David. I, I, I can never be that King because I'm Chinese, I don't come from David's line. But there must be someone, someone who says, “He's the King”, must fulfil this criteria.  That not only is He the, is He the son of David, He's the son of Abraham and well Jesus fits the bill.  Look at His genealogy, look at His heritage, look at this lineage, look at His ancestors. He comes from the right line.

2.    Arrival
Then number two, Matthew tells us about the arrival of this King, how He is born into this world. It was a supernatural birth, He was from the virgin Mary as Isaiah chapter 7 has prophesied. No ordinary child, He fits the bill. And then when this King is born into this world, sadly not everyone appreciated the King.

3.    Antagonistic
There were people who are antagonistic towards Him, so you read in chapter 2, Herod wanting to kill baby Jesus.

4.    Apathy
Some were not antagonistic, but they were apathetic. They did not bother, like the Pharisees, the religious leaders. They cannot be bothered even though Jesus is just born 5 kilometres away, they did not bother seeking Him out. They knew He was born in Bethlehem, living in Jerusalem, five klick away, they will not go.

5.     Adoration
But amongst all people of the nations, they were those who will worship this King and so we read of the adoration of the wise men from the East. Chapter 2, second half, you read the wise men who came all the way from the East, bearing gifts to worship and adore this King. They knew Jesus, they knew that this is the promised King of all the world.

6.    Ambassador
And then later on, there was an account of the ambassador - John the Baptist. Now, some weeks ago, I think it was four weeks ago, I was returning from church to home. I got onto the KPE and I was going to turn out to the PIE but horror of horrors, usually on Sunday afternoon it is super good traffic, right?  But on, on that particular Sunday that exit was totally jammed up.  I mean it was not even moving, usually you see cars move, but it was not moving. So I thought I'll be smart, I, I said, “wah, this must be a bad jam, some accidents somewhere, so let's drive on.” I went out the next exit and again it was jammed. I turned around, wanting to enter PIE again, but I could not enter. In fact, what I saw was something I never seen before, on a one-way road, cars were going in and then they were U-turning and coming out this way. I mean this is totally illegal but no one could get into PIE. You know why? [audience responded] Smart people! But not Trump, Sunday was the arrival of Kim Jong Un. So what I knew, I heard, I found out was that Kim Jong Un has arrived and the whole PIE is blocked out for him to go. You know there were people who went before Kim Jong Un to prepare the way, agree? There were people, traffic marshals who blocked all the roads so that the VIP would have a smooth journey.

Now that's what John the Baptist was supposed to do, he came as a voice in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. He was making paths smooth and straight. He was preaching the gospel of repentance, so that people may remove the potholes, remove the rocks, that they may receive Jesus into their lives. So the King has a particular ambassador, that's John the Baptist.

7.    Anointed
Now after that, we read that the King is now anointed. In Jewish culture, kings are set in office by this process or procedure of anointing you - pour oil over the king. It's to symbolize how a king is going to be empowered by God's Spirit. But Jesus, the King was not anointed with oil, He was anointed by the Holy Spirit Himself. The Spirit came upon Him like as a dove and there was an announcement in heaven, saying, “this is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

So Matthew systematically showing you, Jesus is the King.  Look His birth, His ancestry, look at the ambassador, look at the anointing, approval from God, the Father.

8.    Ascendancy
And then we, we see His ascendancy over the devil. So chapter 4, the book of Matthew leads us to how Jesus was tempted by the devil. Like Chinese kung fu show ah, you fight for a long time, and after that, when he is about to die, where everybody's very tired, they come out with the last 3 strokes, ‘最后三招’[zui4 hou4 san1 zhao1, the last 3 strokes/blows] and that's what the devil did, he came with his ultimate three strokes, or three blows but Jesus never fell for his temptations at all.  He deflected it all away, He repelled, resisted the devil because of His dependence on the Spirit and because He was living, not by His own emotions or desires, but by the Word of God.  He proved His ascendancy, His victory over His adversary - the devil.

9.    Address
And then we took a long look at the address of the King. Now, “address” here doesn't mean ‘His place of residence’. “Address” here means ‘His speech.’ So when Donald Trump was inaugurated as president, he gave a speech. There's a movie called, “The King's Speech.”  We understand that when you have a new leader, he gives a speech, so the King gives His speech, we call this the sermon on the Mount.

Chapters 5 to 7, we spent a long time there, it was really about the King's address.  He's telling you what the kingdom of heaven is like. And then for the past seven, eight weeks, we have been looking at the next segment, which is the King's authority.  How this King proved His authority. How do you know He is the King?  Look at him! He healed the leper! He cast out demons! He calmed the storm! He even raised the dead! He is the King!

So, Matthew has been very systematic here and I hope with that little overview you would, if you're here with us first time, you have not lost too much, you can catch up with us today. So Jesus performed those miracles, and today we see the last two miracles in this segment.

The first miracle is that of healing of two blind men. There's not a lot of details here and I'm not about to really go into each and every word. I just want to emphasize one thing, [Matt 9:27-31] the two blind men followed Jesus, they believed Jesus and Jesus healed them, straightforward. But what is unique about the second last, second last miracle is this phrase that the blind men used. The blind man says, “have mercy on us, Son of David.” This is the very first time in the book of Matthew, this public way of address is given.

Now, when we talk about the Son of David. I hope you know and remember by now, it's not just any ordinary descendant of David but it's about “The Son”, the one that has been promised, the one that is prophesied in Isaiah centuries ago. God said, “I will give you a Son of David, He will sit on David's throne.” And the blind men, amazing, they were blind but they could recognize Jesus is the Son of David.  They could recognize that Jesus is the One who is spoken of when God spoke to David, “when your days are fulfilled, David, when you die and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant, your offspring.” (2 Samuel 7-12)

It may not be someone directly after David, but one of his descendants, descendant's, descendant's, descendant’s, I'll raise up one like this, after you, and He shall come from your body and I will establish His Kingdom. This is the King, this is the one. And that's what Matthew is all about, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David.  And so the blind man could see what many people could not see - Jesus is the Son of David.

Friends, if you're here today for the very first time, I want to tell you what this church is all about. This church is all about telling you Jesus Christ is the promised Saviour, and there is no one else. You don't have to wait anymore, no one has come before Jesus who could save man from their sins. And no one will come after Jesus who can save man from their sins. He is the one!

In fact, He is the one, not just prophesied centuries ago, but thousands of years ago in the garden of Eden.  God said that there will be a man from the offspring of woman who will defeat Satan, who will crush the serpent's head. Jesus is the One and if there's anything you need to leave this place with, it is this – there's only one name given under heaven whereby man may be saved, and He is Jesus Christ.

He is God's Son given into this world through the virgin Mary, born not of man in a sense but of the Spirit and He came to live a perfect life, so that He may go to the cross and die and pay for your sins. This is your King, He triumphs by sacrifice, He leads by His humility, He wins by losing His life. This is our King. This is Jesus, who died and proved His victory with resurrection, three days later. And this is the one you need to trust in for your sins, to be saved and to be forgiven.  And so if you're here today I say, if you forget everything else I've said, Jesus is the only Saviour. He's the King who will lead men and women into true peace with God, into everlasting joy with God because He's the one who died and paid for your sins. The blind man could see very well what many of us cannot see, they saw by faith, Jesus is the Messiah, the Saviour.  That's probably where I'll leave this miracle and we come now to the last miracle.

So Jesus we see is the promised King and the last miracle here is a very short miracle recorded simply, “as they were going away, behold, a demon oppressed man who was mute was brought to Him (Matt 9:32-34). So earlier on, we read of the demonic at a gathering, he was vicious, powerful, strong, but this symptom is that of being mute, cannot speak. And Matthew didn't tell us very much. Matthew just said that the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke and the crowds marvelled, so it was very short. I think it's as if Matthews says, “this is okay, you don't you have to know all the details, just know this, Jesus has proved incontrovertibly over and over and over and over again that He is the King, He has all authority and power.”

But what's stunning about this state, this passage is the next line that goes, but the Pharisees said, he cast out demons by the Prince of demons. In other words, in the face of such clear, undeniable miracles, the Pharisees, these are the religious leaders of those days, they were jealous of Jesus.  They didn't like Jesus because Jesus didn't come from their gang.  Jesus came from a poor carpenter's home.  So they say, “how can anyone who is not from our ranks, be the Saviour, He must come from one of us, but He's not, He's just a humble ordinary man.” And so they despised Him, they scorned Him, they did not want Him to be their Saviour and so they slandered Him, they rejected Him, they despised Him.  They said, “no, contrary to what the blind men say that He's the Son of David, He's not the Son of David, He's not anyone of God, He's not empowered by God, He's the son of the devil! he's demonic!” The powers he possessed to heal and to cast out demons is all done because Satan is with him. It's so, it's very tragic and actually this is a kind of pivot to the whole book of Matthew.

Matthew now is going to take on a darker tone, it's going to be a little bit most, more, more, it's going to be sadder. Why?  Because the people, the religious leaders are going to reject Jesus more and more and more and more, you'll read of this later on. So Matthew, let me just again give you an overview, Matthew moves us into these various phases of the King's tenure here on earth.

First 10 chapters is about the revelation of the King” and so you have ancestry and so on, the King is revealed to you. But from now onwards, you are going to read a change, it's going to change gear, to a second gear, where it goes on to the rejection of the King, the King is going to be despised and scorned and rejected and the third phase will be the retreat of the King.  He's not going to continue in public ministry like as in what was the past, but He's going to focus His time and energy with His disciples.  But there will come a time where after the retreat, there will be the return of the King. The King is going to come back and He's going to go to the cross, He's going to lay down His life and died to pay for our sins.  By the very fifth movement of the book of Matthew is the resurrection of the King.

So this marks a pivotal shift from revelation, the presentation of the King, to the rejection of the King. You know you can be someone religious but you're blind. Think about that, they were religious. The Pharisees were religious but they were blind. Let me say this, they were even more blind than the blind men. They were even more demon possessed than the demon possessed men because they could not see Jesus is the Son of God or maybe I put it this way, they would not see Jesus is the Son of God.

So perhaps today you may be blind, just being religious doesn't mean you have the right relationship with God. Because religious or religious acts can be very outward, very superficial, “Oh, I come to church, Oh, I give thanks, thanks before my meals, Oh, I read my Bible.” But that does not mean anything unless you believe Jesus is the Son of David, the Saviour.

So my question to you today is, who is Jesus to you? If He is the Son of David and He's King, He's Lord, does your life reflect the fact that He is your King? Or maybe we are like the Pharisees, we say , “Jesus is not the Lord, he's a liar, He's actually the son of the demons.”

We all have a choice.  The claims of the Bible about Jesus Christ are radical and vocal and strong and clear. And you have a choice - Is He Lord or is He liar? So Jesus is the promised King but He's rejected by His own, by the religious leaders of the day.  What would you do if you were Jesus?  What would you do if you were rejected by your people? You healed the people, You helped them, but they rejected You.  What would you do ? Well, if it's me, I would say, suah lah, mai lah, kia leow, [forget it, I’ll leave in Hokkien dialect] forget it, I'll leave, I, I, you don't appreciate this, fine, I'll be gone.

But you know, the Bible tells us and Jesus went throughout all cities and villages, teaching, proclaiming, healing” (Matt 9:35). Amazing!  Almost as if totally undeterred, regardless of what the Pharisees would slander and accuse Him of. He just gets on His business, just goes. And the stunning thing about this verse, is the word, [what?] “all”. What is stunning to me is the word, “all”.  Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages.  Well, when we say all towns and cities, because we live in such a small country, called Singapore, we are not very impressed. “Aiyah, Ang Mo Kio, Choa Chu Kang, Jurong East, very fast what, take train, one day finish lah.”

But that's not the case in Jesus' times. Hmm, Josephus the historian estimates that there are some 204 cities and villages.  Villages are smaller, cities are bigger, estimated to have some 3 million people in the region of Galilee. And in those days, no MRT, no Grab, no taxis, it's bus number 11 [it means our legs], all the time, walking from place to place.  Often times, I would suggest probably have nothing much to eat, you read of that in the feeding of the five thousand. Hmm, probably walking in the hot sun, exposed to cold at night.  Probably surrounded by quite a lot of people all the time and it must be emotionally very tiring and draining besides physically tiring and draining.

But you know what, Jesus went throughout all. I think our Saviour is the most tireless worker the world has ever seen. He's absolutely hard at work and it's not easy just to do things. It's, it's not just, it's not just difficult to do things, it's hard to do things with a lot of people.

DA Carson, he says, “there's nothing quite as tiring as constant ministry to people.”  It's not easy serving people”. That's one, it's not easy serving people constantly. And Jesus, I think was constantly exposed to people. Now, you know what that feels like, right?  When you're with a lot of, with a lot of people for a long time, you just want to be by yourself, especially men. I do not know about ladies as much. But I suppose after being with a lot of people for a long time, you want to be having your own time.  And that's why, if you go to rural countries, rural villages, they are generally very hospitable when people come , “ay, ay welcome come to my house,” but when come to the city, nobody welcomes you. Because in cities you are so exposed to people, you're tired. It's not that you're just mean, but you are just exhausted, tired, constant exposure. Jesus had constant exposure to people but he was tireless at work. Our Saviour understood that being a blessing to people is not just going up to the mountain and cast a spell, “whoah, power come out.”  He went, He, He went from place to place, preaching, teaching, healing, individuals, crowds, whatever that may be. And I think our Saviour left for us an example of tireless ministry.

Now, I was reading again as I said, “Proverbs” and in one shot read many chapters and when you read many chapters in one shot, you would … I was struck, I was struck with how important slothfulness is or how warned against slothfulness is. It's like, wisdom is not being slothful. It's like your mom and dad would say to you, “don't be, don't be lazy.” That's one of the commonest wisdom that will flow from your parents’ lips, “ah boy ah, don't be lazy.” And actually, the Bible does put a kind of a premium on, on diligence.

Peter, Andrew, James and John, they were called when they were diligent at work, mending nets and catching fish. Gideon was called to serve God when he was busy threshing wheat. David was called to be king when he was diligently shepherding his flock. God puts a premium on diligence and, and Jesus was absolutely diligent. The Father is diligent. You know our God works, you know that? He works all the time. Jesus said of the Father, “My Father works hitherto,” in the King James, which means, “up to now, He's working.” Yes, He rested from creation work but there are other works that He's always doing, tireless ministry. That's the key to healing, to touching, to blessing life, not a remote casting of a spell. And I think that's a ministry example for all of us to have.

Let me ask you today, are you diligently serving people? You see, we say we, we want to be a Gospel Light, meaning we want to bless people. How do you bless people in Punggol?  We stay here and we and we keep to ourselves and we somehow hope and pray that lives will be touched. It doesn't go that way.  You got to go out, you got to be like in a sense Jesus. Because it is not a magical process, it's a very simple but clear process that Jesus Himself has exemplified, going from place to place, people to people.

And I thank God for many of you who are my examples in this church. Some of you serve God tirelessly. Many of you do so, you wake up 2 am, to get here at 4 AM to cook for us, prepare the meals.  You come early to prepare the place as traffic marshals, ushers. Many of you serve the children in the children's ministries, it’s very tiring to prepare lessons. It's easy for me to prepare sermons because that's my, my job. But many of you, you have other jobs, you have other occupations but you, you devote time to prepare lessons for the children. It's tiring, but you're tireless about it and I thank God for your ministry.  Some of you are care group leaders, it's not easy being a care group leader.  There's a lot of expectation, a lot of burden but praise God for many of you stepping out because you love God, you love Jesus, you love His people and therefore you're tireless in ministry. Because it's rare, many people choose to just take a step back and say, “aiyah ,other people can serve, I won't serve.” You can make that choice, but maybe that's not the choice Jesus Himself will make because He would step out and care for His people.

So I want to encourage all of us to follow Jesus.  Real blessing, real ministry takes place when we are willing to be tireless.  But I know what you are going to think “Pastor, I'm already so tired, I'm very busy, every day all I wish is I've two more hours to sleep, how to serve?” Is that your problem? I think that's a universal Singaporean problem.  How many of you say, “I have nothing to do, can you give me work to do.” Rare! I have not met many like this. I've most of the time, I've met people say, “I'm really busy, I can't do it right now.” I understand that, we live in a fast-paced, high demand world and society and culture. We like to be alone, we like have our me time, we like to have down time.  But, so the question is, “Pastor, you want us to follow the Bible, give us the example of our Saviour, how can we ever be like Him? So tiring and I don't have that energy to do so.”

Well, how many of you have, how many of you are not familiar with Avengers? Wah, your passion is not in Jesus, but with Avengers. I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I know. How many of you are not familiar with Avengers, you know what Avengers are, right?  Er, what are the characters? Er, Iron Man, Spider-Man , Thor, OK, all, all, all this stuff. So when I think about this, I, I thought about Tony Stark. You know who is Tony Stark? That's a test, whether you know Avengers. So Tony Stark is the, is the, is the man behind Ironman. So Tony Stark, the story of Tony Stark is that he had some grenade shrapnel embedded in his chest, threatening to kill him because it's attacking his heart, it's right at the heart. But his dad is a great scientist who somehow invented this super powerful arc generator, arc reactor. So this has tremendous energy and he sort of, I do not know how lah, use it to replace the heart, power the pumping of his blood, his circulation. And this is so powerful that it can also power the other armory and weapons and gizmos he's going to put on his body. That's how you have Ironman and I thought about this arc reactor, such a powerful little thing, but when it's in a heart, it powers him to a unimaginable degree.

And I thought about Jesus Christ, I'm more excited about Jesus and he has, [pastor to the audience: don't fake it, alright?] and He has a tremendous arc reactor.  He has a tremendous divine heart, what kind of a heart? The next verse tells us and we are going to look at this more next week, but just a little bit. When He saw the crowds, He had what? Compassion (Matt 9:36).  His heart of compassion drives Him to tireless ministry.

Now I think that the supreme motivation Jesus Christ is love for the Father, submission to the will of the Father, that, that's I think clear. But this heart not only submits to the Father, this heart has a tremendous compassion for people around. The word, “compassion” in the Greek is a word that means, “your bowels are moved”. Not, not that you ban sai, [pass motion in Hokkien dialect] alright?  But your bowels are moved in a sense that you, you when you see someone in need, you feel for the person and that there's a kind of a churning within you. That's why they say the seat of the emotions is in the bowels, the intestines and so He was moved when He saw the people, He was not focused on Himself.

When it is all about me, you would not be tirelessly serving because you're thinking about my own comfort. “Aiyah, tomorrow got do this, aiyah, tonight got to do that, don't do lah because I'm too tired.” But when you think about the needs of someone, when you put yourself in his shoes, you get under his skin, you think about what it is like for that person then, then that drives you differently. So Jesus was absolutely ‘other minded’, He was thinking about them, He saw them that they were harassed. The word here means, “to be beaten, bruised, battered, mangled”. That's what it is like an animal that has been ravaged by its predator. They saw that the people of Israel, His people in those days were helpless, left for dead.

They were like sheep without a shepherd, you know sheep are one of the most vulnerable kinds of animals, they have absolutely zero defence mechanism. I mean, they can't camouflage from nuts, from afar you say, “wah lau, 白白的.” [bai2 bai2 de4, means white in Chinese] It's very obvious, they can't camouflage.  They, they have no speed, they are very slow. They are bulky, fat generally, short legs, they are not fierce. They can't bite very well, they are blur. They have no sense of direction. Their only hope is in their shepherds, and yet they were without shepherds. In fact, they were not just without shepherds, they were surrounded by false shepherds.

You say, “who are the shepherds in those days?” Well, the religious leaders! But the religious leaders do not lead them to God.  Jesus said of the religious leaders, “you make them the twice, twice the son of hell than you yourselves are.” You block the kingdom of heaven for them. You tie to them burdens that are heavy and that they cannot bear, you devour the widows houses. You know what the religious leaders are? They were fleecing off, they were taking advantage of the people. In fact, when you read the book of Zechariah, chapter 11, there's a super graphic imagery about false shepherds.  What do false shepherds do?  False shepherds, according to Zechariah 11, “they part the hooves of the sheep.

“What do you mean by part the hooves of the sheep?  You know, sheep they have hooves, hooves are hooves, you know.  Hooves, hooves are not, not the claw but the, the feet as it were. The ends of the animal and they are, they're like little separations in the hooves and there are meat, flesh between the hooves.  And the picture is that the shepherds, the false shepherds have eaten so much from them that they are now left with only the meat at the hooves, but even then, the shepherds won't let them go, they part the hooves and take out the flesh. That's what the false teachers were doing to Israel in that day, they devour the widows’ houses. Of all people, they take the widows houses.

So when Jesus saw them He did not see successful businessmen, doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, this whatever.  He saw them as sheep - bruised, battered, ravaged, mangled, helpless. And He could not rest a day, He could not. Don't tell me He's not tired.  Don't tell me He's not hungry. Don't tell me He doesn't want to get alone and just be away from people.  But He can't because the arc reactor of compassion burns within His heart.

What's going to transform us? Do more, do more, do more?  Well, that's true, but at the end of the day, you can't do more until you have the heart arc reactor from heaven - the heart of God within you. And how do you know you're born of God?  One of the great test is, how is my heart? Is there the heart of compassion? The heart that thinks of others. The heart that says, “is not about my comfort my convenience, it's not that ministry must suit my time, but I must serve people because I see them ravaged by sin and they are lost and doomed apart from Christ.”

DA Carson had this example, he was a young intern in a church once. And, he was very discouraged in the ministry, serving in the church is not always easy. And he had a day of rest, he was so looking forward to that because he was so discouraged and he was going to go on that day of rest with his mentor to a lake. A very quiet peaceful lake. And he was looking so much forward to that time when he is going to be alone, just lie at the lake and reflect. And so he went to this mentor, but lo and behold, when he got to that supposedly quiet lake. There was a whole school full of noisy, irritating, high school students and DA Carson was upset.  He was in a sense upset with God, “what, this is my holiday and, and you have this terrible bunch of kids!” And he was, he was so upset, he got up, he wanted to go to his mentor and complain and grumble when the mentor saw him coming and say, “hey, look at all these high school kids.” And he was waiting for him to say, “yah, what a bunch of irritating people,” when the mentor says, “hey, look at all these high school kids, what an amazing mission field!”

Then, Carson thought to himself, “hey, both of us saw the same things, lots of noisy irritating high school kids, but our perspectives are so different.” We saw the same thing, but our perspectives are so different. Maybe today we need to change our perspectives.  Life is busy, school work, office work, family time, lots of things to do, your bills to pay, light bulbs to fix.  But, what's your perspective? Are we here for my comfort?  Or are we here following Jesus? Seeing the harassed, the helpless, the shepherdless and laying down our lives. For that's what Jesus did. He laid down His life, isn't it?  He did not just lay down His life on the cross, He laid down His life while He was here, tirelessly serving people and ultimately consummating that on the cross, dying there, as a payment, as a ransom for something you and I could never pay for our sins.

My friends, I end chapter 9.   Well, not quite end, next week we are going to look at two more verses . But as you come to the close of chapter 9, I just want to say, “behold your King”. This sermon is not about you, this sermon is about Jesus, our King, He is the Son of David.  He's not a random guy who popped up in the scene of Israel. He was the one that has been prepared and prophesied of old.  God has always determined that Jesus will be the one and there is no one who can save you today, it's only Jesus, you got to believe Him. This King is rejected by many people today, but our King, full of compassion is tirelessly, has tirelessly serve His people and today still lives to pray for you. Hey, this is our King! I hope you will adore Him, you will worship Him, you will worship Him so much more than Avengers. Because it is real, He came to die and pay for your sins.

Let's bow for a prayer, word of prayer together. Matthew has a very clear message - Jesus is the promised King. The King spoken of in Isaiah, in 2nd Samuel, the Saviour spoken of in Genesis 3 and throughout the whole Bible.  Let me tell you this, if you do not believe in Jesus, there is no hope for you. Now, you may not like me for saying that, you may not agree with me for saying that, but I still have to say that because whether you agree, whether you like it or not, this is the truth. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Me. There is no name given under heaven whereby man may be saved, except Jesus Christ.”

I'm saying to you folks, you've got to repent and believe in Jesus, because that's the only hope, God has given to a sinful lost humanity. I pray that God's Spirit will humble you and bring you to salvation by believing in Jesus today.

Gospel Light, what kind of a church do we want to be? A kind of a church that is no different from the world that operates everything based on what we want, what we are convenient about, what we like? Or we would demonstrate and manifest to the world that there is an arc reactor, the heart of compassion from God, from Christ, that is powering a divine life in me?

I think when that happens, I can't imagine what this church will be like, what an amazing church this will be like, serving, giving, tireless because we see not ourselves as the supreme being, but we see the needs of others as our driver in life. I pray God will help me repent my own selfishness, that He will help me to have the heart of Christ to see people for who they are before God. And I pray for you and I hope that you pray for yourself, pray for one another in this church, it will be a church of compassion and love. What an amazing Saviour, Jesus Christ, the majestic King who came to serve you and I!

So Father, thank You this morning for Your Word and bless it to each and every heart today. Some need to be saved, some need to repent, some need to behold You and adore You and be filled with Your joy that they may then go forth and serve others. O, Spirit of God, take Your Word, bless it to each heart, we pray this now in Jesus Name, Amen.

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