The Final Days: Jesus's Leadership Journey through Jerusalem

I wonder what episode this is we should look .

I have all the colored buttons , but Dr Posey has this array of dad joke boxes , calendars printed sheets and he is sporting that side of the table .

this off right now . Today we're going to be talking about the last part of the book of Matthew , starting with chapter 21 , which is the beginning of Holy Week , the triumphal entry as we call it , or Palm Sunday as it's referred to historically . But let's just talk about that in relationship to preparation for a podcast like this .

You know you can't just walk in and do it . You've got to be proactive . Jesus was so proactive about everything , Even when he was praying he was proactive about that . I think that's one of the signs of a good leader is that they are proactive 100% . And they're ready , they're proactive , they think about things .

Sometimes , when we're proactive , we might , you know , make a wrong choice . Jesus never made a wrong choice . We make wrong choices sometimes , but it's like the question for those of you who are , you know , out and are listening on , is how proactive are you when it comes to leading ?

Let's just say you're the leader of your softball team , you know softball season , you know , do you kind of wait until you get on the field for the game in order to do the lineup , or are you ready ? Do you sit down and think about the lineup before you even get to the field ? I mean , think about the night before or maybe a couple of days before .

And I think just being proactive is such a fundamental essence characteristic of leaders . And so we see that , with Jesus here , he had completed his mission on earth . It was the last week of his life . He was going to get on a donkey and ride into the city of Jerusalem , which was very prophetic . People were waiting for the Messiah .

From the Old Testament we see that the Messiah was going to ride in on a donkey , and so he did that very proactive about who he was going to be , what he was doing what he was going to be doing the rest of the week . And so just think about that . In your life as a leader , how proactive are you ?

Or are you just kind of waiting with your to-do list and going ? I don't want to . I just don't want to do that , and I do think even that one characteristic separates a good leader from an average leader is how proactive are you , not on just one thing , but how proactive are you on many things ?

The bell rang at about 8 , maybe 8.15 . I don't exactly remember . My mom would try to get me up , starting about 7 . I finally got up about quarter to 8 and jump in the clothes , eat a quick breakfast and just jump out of the you know over the back fence and get to class . That is not being proactive . Being proactive is saying you know what ?

I have a responsibility to be at a certain place at a certain time and I would like to be early things actively so that when I actually get to school I am ready . Oh , I forgot my backpack . It's because I didn't pack it the night before . Oh , I didn't pack my lunch , it's because I didn't get up early enough to do that .

So being proactive means you take the initiative to do things that you know you need to have happen , but you do them without being told Okay , so you just take the activity yourself . You take the initiative to do the things that you know need to happen , but you do that because you want to do it . Does that make sense ?

Oh , I need to call this person because we said we were going to have lunch , so I'm going to take the initiative to call them and set up a time to do that together . So that's being proactive . Jesus was very proactive

with his teaching , with his discipling , with his ministry , and so we see that , specifically at the last week of his life , when he was saying hey , you know , my time on earth is done . I'm going to be proactive , I'm going to get on the donkey ride in to Jerusalem , knowing what's coming , but I'm still going to do it anyway . Right .

We already have the time set up , everything's set up Everything , and my mom's like I don't know , but I really think she's going to let it because we've already planned out all the times I can let her know hey , you need to go home at 9 am instead of this 11 . We planned , but that's okay , and so I really think mom's going to let us do it tomorrow .

I'm so excited and I was proactive when I planned that , because we were all on the phone for an hour .

And then I'd like oops , I forgot to do that , and so I started writing things down , making a list , you know , doing the Stephen Covey thing with the ABCs .

And then you can think , oh , these are the A things I got to get done tomorrow , or these are the B things that I can put off till maybe Wednesday or Thursday , and these C things if they happen , great . If they don't happen , great .

But so many people they make maybe a list of ABCs and then they do the C list , you know , and they always do the fillers and they never get to the priority stuff .

But I drew a picture and I knew he overgrown tables because there were verses that went with it , and so I looked at all the verses and it told everything about that it told every day of what I should draw . So I drew it , and I actually know that . The one who betrayed jesus I forgot his name . Do y'all know judas ?

Yes , judas , he actually traded gold coins for jesus's info .

So he flipped tables filled with these items and he was so mad that he was going to kill him . And he was going to kill him and he was going that they were selling so they would scramble , run , get away , go go , go .

But the problem was it should have been outside the temple area and they had made the temple area which was supposed to be a holy place of prayer and gathering of the people . They had turned that into , like you said , a marketplace . And Jesus said no , this is my Father's house , this should be a house of prayer .

Jesus said , no , this is my Father's house , this should be a house of prayer . And you've turned it into a marketplace . So he said I can't take this anymore . I'm going to stand up , I'm going to draw the line and we're not going to do this anymore .

And I think what a great leadership principle in that is that sometimes , as leaders , we have to look at our organization and realize where have we stepped over the line ? You know we're going to draw the line and say you know what , we're not going to do this anymore . Whatever that is , you know a good leader will evaluate that .

Now , sometimes you have to get some input from your you know your managers or your other , your colleagues or whatever , and say you know what ? I don't think we need to either have this product anymore . We don't need to be about that . Maybe we need to downsize this area right here so we can focus on this . And that's what Jesus was saying .

Hey , we're here to focus on God . You know , if you want to sell , go sell over there . But in this area , right here , this is dedicated to God . And so he drew the line and I think what a great leadership principle that we say .

You know , sometimes we have to just set boundaries to say we're going to be focused on this and we're not going to be focused on stuff outside the boundaries . And sometimes that's really hard , especially if you've been doing that for a long , long time and an organization's kind of been , you know , just kind of gotten by .

And you know , sometimes you have to let people go . Sometimes , you have to let a product line go .

I mean , you've got to draw a line at some point .

disciples together .

We read what you just said , elisa , that Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and because Judas had an idea that he wanted Jesus to be a leader of the people to revolt against Rome and Jesus was not that kind of leader—Jesus had this Last Supper with his disciples and Holy Communion , or the Eucharist or the Mass , is based on that evening's meal with

the disciples , and so part of my doctorate dissertation was based on that particular evening and the study of Holy Communion throughout the centuries , like what happened at the Last Supper and how does that ritual change over time to different denominations .

And so that was a fascinating study but very powerful event there that Jesus was telling his disciples hey , this is my last night with you . You know you're going to fall away , but we're sending the comforter to you .

And so if you actually begin to read from John 13 , I know we're in Matthew , but if you read that through chapter 17 , it's called the Great Priestly Prayer talks about all of that . In the book of Matthew we read about the Last Supper . So they have this supper .

They go out to the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus prays and I'm thinking he says , hey , you wait here , I'm going to go pray . And so it's like what a great example for leaders . Sometimes you just have to have some alone time . You just have to have time to think , process , pray , just think what am I ? Is this really what I need to be doing ?

You need to evaluate , I'm sure in the housing business , what you're in for decades . You're thinking you know what . We need to sit down and really process this architectural plan . We need to think about our budget . We need to do it . You can't just run ahead and move forward . We got to sit down and really process it .

So , yeah , so that was a very important evening in the life of the Christian faith , with the Last Supper and the prayer in the garden and the betrayal and Jesus being arrested and all that yeah .

set everything up . You know , that's one thing . Jesus sort of had some thoughts , and you know where I'm trying to go , is you know ? I just had this big leadership class I taught last week . Where I'm trying to go , is you know ? I just had this big leadership class I taught last week and I talked to him .

I taught him the difference between training somebody , coaching somebody and empowering somebody . You know , empowering is when you just let them do it . I mean , that's what Jesus , basically empowering him , said you don't need me to do this .

You know , and you know , when you're starting out and you have somebody that has the potential , then yeah , you simply can put them in training or a coaching program to get them up to the point where that's what every leader strives for .

If you're good as a leader and you can handle that , but you want to try to empower your people and that's one of the biggest things .

And in order to empower others , which Jesus did , you have to realize that in order to make the company better , or whatever you're leading better , you really need to have the people around you be the best they can be . You can't always rely upon you .

And one of the things I taught in the same class is if somebody calls me and says Richard calls me and says , hey , we got a problem out here at this , you know , smith job , I'm like all right . Well , what's the problem ? And I think I might've even mentioned on here before I don't tell them the answer to the problem .

I go how would you solve this if it was me ? And they're like I don't know . I'm like well , think about it and call me back . Well , they'll think about it , call me back , and then they'll tell me their answer and I'll be like that's exactly how I would solve it . And it's as simple as that . And what you're doing is training them to go .

I can make the decisions . I'm thinking like Tim . I'm thinking now I know how to do this and if you can get to that point , that is just a major deal that you want to do empower them .

I mean , there's so many good things when you are empowering others to do the work , and that's just a great leadership principle . Some leaders , unfortunately , are so insecure that it's difficult for them to empower others , because they think they might . Someone might take their job or you know , whatever it's like . No , just the opposite is true .

You empower others , your company's going to thrive even more , and so I just encourage that . So I know we're , you know , getting to the end . So let's just finish the end of Matthew .

not resurrection , okay . So I'll get to resurrection in just a minute , because we were talking about the crucifixion . So Jesus was arrested , he was beaten and mocked and all that kind of stuff , which was tragic . He was put on a cross . It was the most cruel form of punishment in the Roman world was crucifixion , and Jesus grew up seeing that .

And there were two other people crucified with him at the same time , one on his right , one on his left . And so then we see that he hung on the cross for several hours before he died .

Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body , took the body off the cross , wrapped it in linen where we get the Shroud of Turin from and then he was laid in a tomb and Jesus said , hey , I'm going to raise in three days . Now they heard it , but they didn't really get it .

And what we see here is that the women that were followers of Jesus went to the tomb first , and so normally we think of when we read the Bible .

The angels told them hey , he's not here . And then they were really the first evangelists . And then they were really the first evangelists . And so , thinking about the leaders , your company , your organization , whatever , you've got to realize that every person has potential to make an impact , and sometimes we only think of the people that maybe we're closest to .

We might not realize that we can make an impact , literally . This morning , before I came to the studio , I was at the gym working out . They had a great swim . I'm getting ready to get in the pool . There's this guy walks into the gym .

I've known this guy for probably 20 years because he was a member of the church where I used to pastor , and so we talked a little bit and he was saying just sharing I won't share his name , but he was just sharing that there was a friend of his like a neighbor friend who was not doing well .

He got to know this person and that person started coming to church and was baptized last Sunday .

Because every person has potential for something . And so we see that in the women , and they took the initiative to go to the tomb . They didn't see the body . They ran back , told the disciples . The disciples didn't believe them . But even though the disciples didn't believe , it didn't change the woman's conviction of what they had seen .

And so let's get to resurrection . Resurrection means that when we physically die , that our soul , spirit , is up in heaven with Jesus . Okay , our body is not Our body's in the ground , but we are alive for all eternity because of our belief in Christ . And so reincarnation would mean that we would die and we'd come back as another person or an animal .

And some religions believe that . Christianity doesn't . They believe in resurrection so that we live forever with God in heaven . And so we see that in the book of Matthew , and at the very end of the book of Matthew we read what's called the Great Commission .

And so Jesus said hey , go into all the nations , baptizing them in the name of the Father , son and Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you . I will be with you to the end of the age .

And those few words have transcended through time as what's called the Great Commission and has been a stimulus for so many people to evangelize , to go around the world for literally 2,000 years , to share faith , to promote Christianity . And so let's just think about leadership principles . What is your mission statement ?

Doing that Is your mission statement motivating people . Is your lifestyle motivating people ? Are your habits , whatever they are ? Are they motivating people to promote the company , to build a company , or are they just kind of being lackadaisical ? Jesus gave a powerful message there at the end . That's still motivating people 2,000 years later .

And so I'm thinking wow , as a leader , what am I doing to motivate my people ? Is it me ? Is it my encouragement ? Is it my tone of voice ? What am I doing to do that ? And so everybody's got to be open to a self-evaluation to figure out what am I doing to motivate my team ?

If you're , like , deceased and you want to watch a family member , maybe you could look through somebody's like a bird or somebody's eyes , because sometimes a cardinal will fly by and eat some food from our feeder and me and my brother and my dad will say oh look , there's Grandma Popcorn .