Chapel – Kyle Best
Benjamin Reynolds
Welcome to this first community chapel of Spring, even if it doesn't quite feel like it outside, and in this fifth week of Lent. Thank you for our worship team, for leading us in worship; grateful for them. Kyle Best will be our speaker today, and it's my privilege to introduce him.
Kyle completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in Biblical Studies and Theology here at Tyndale. He is one of those students who enjoyed his final year of Tyndale online. I appreciated having Kyle; usually he was in the front row of my classes until he was in the front screen in the last year. But Kyle spent some time, three years in our admissions office, and now he's been two years in the Student Life Office serving students and prospective students during his time here.
He met his wife, Alexis; it was a Beamer House love story in those dark years when Beamer House was still under the curse. So we're grateful to have Kyle here. He's a winsome person, thoughtful student, and researcher. He's continuing his studies at Tyndale Seminary in the MTS program. Kyle was part of a group that I led during those pre-covid years when we would read through St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, and so we had some really good conversations around that. So looking forward as Kyle leads us in continuing in worship. Thank you, Kyle.
Kyle Best
Well, good morning Tyndale. Good morning, it's wonderful to be with you all this morning, and if I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you yet, yes, my name is Kyle Best as Dr. Reynolds mentioned. And I spent the last nine years of my life here at Tyndale, which is kind of crazy to say; starting as a student in 2017 and becoming a staff member in 2021. And yeah, I'm close to finishing my Master's as well, hopefully this summer, hopefully.
It's in this place that I've just made lifelong friends. As was mentioned, I met my wife, Alexis, here as well. Who knew a TTC ride going downtown on the Downtown Adventure during orientation week would change my life forever? And yes, shout out to Beamer, thank you. It is in this place that I've also learned to love God. It's in this place that I've learned to love my neighbor. It's in this place that I've learned what it means to follow Jesus.
Tyndale will always be more than a school to me, it'll always be more than a workplace. It just holds far too many beautiful memories to be called just those things. I don't really have another term to describe it. I won't just say that Tyndale is my home, that it's my safe place, that it's my community. Instead, I summarize all that Tyndale is under one word, Tyndale; it just holds all of those things that I think about.
And at Tyndale, I did fall in love with God's word as well; a lot of classes with Dr. Reynolds will help you with that. Studying God's word, being formed by it, and teaching it to others, has always been a passion of mine, and so I'm grateful that I get to learn about God's word as well with all of you here today. And I'm so grateful to be going through a passage that was given to me as part of this series that we're going through for this chapel semester.
But this passage is in Matthew 21 so, if you have your Bibles with you, I encourage you to open up there right now Matthew 21 starting at verse 12. This passage has been so impactful over the last few weeks for me, and I hope you can get a sense of that as I share with you. And hopefully this passage will speak to you as well in your current circumstances.
So please read with me, Matthew 21 starting at verse 12, the Word says, "Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 'It is written,' he said to them, 'My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.' The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did in the children shouting in the temple courts, 'Hosanna to the Son of David,' they were indignant. 'Do you hear what these children are saying?' they asked him. 'Yes,' replied Jesus, 'Have you never read, "From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise?"' And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night."
Kyle Best
If you would actually please join me in a word of prayer at this moment. God, we thank You for Your word, and we ask in this moment that You would speak to us. God, would You highlight a word or a phrase or a message that even we just read that will stick with us? God, I pray that as I share about Your word, that You would give me clarity of speech and thought. Lord, may the things that I say be true of Your word. But God above all, I ask that Your Word would speak, that You would speak to us. I pray this all in Your name, amen.
One Bible scholar describes this scene in chapter 21 as "Jesus and the Temple of Doom". Sounds like a pretty awesome title for a movie, doesn't it? The temple, as Jesus discovers upon His triumphal entry to Jerusalem, has become a place of corrupt and exploitative business and commerce. He says it's run by a den of robbers. While selling animals and money exchange were an aspect of temple worship at the time, it is likely that those selling were exploiting others, as Jesus was angry and upset for a good reason. And based on this, we can infer that the business being done lacked safety, hospitality, and clearly had strayed from its intended purpose.
And Jesus, in this passage, famously flips tables. He flips the tables of the commerce, showing His displeasure of what is occurring in the temple. And ironically, He's also showing us that He's flipping the tables within Israel, and change is happening before these people's very eyes, as Jesus fulfills the work of His ministry. Now I think, unfortunately, this story is often shrouded by Jesus' flipping of the tables. Perhaps you've heard a message before about Jesus's righteous anger, and I think this unfortunately leads us away from a really beautiful aspect of this story as well, where Jesus has this really beautiful interaction with the teachers, the disabled, and the children.
Matthew tells us very clearly and succinctly that people were coming to Jesus; they had various struggles, and they were coming to Him for healing. They believed they could, that He could do something about their misfortune. And by flipping tables and healing people, Jesus is doing what God does; restoring and making things right. And with the overturning of the tables and healing of those in need, we are also told that there are children who are praising Jesus by saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David".
However, the chief priests and teachers of the law who are present are upset by the events that have taken place, and the children's praise of Jesus just seems to be this cherry on top; sets them over the edge. And they turn to Jesus in displeasure, they ask Him, "Do you hear what these children are saying?" As I read through this passage in preparation, that question just kept coming to my mind as well, "Are you hearing what these children are saying?"
The praise of these children leads to this really interesting discussion between Jesus and the priests and the teachers about whether or not Jesus is hearing what they are saying. But they are expecting Jesus to rebuke the children for saying such outlandish things; expecting Him to tell them that He is not the son of David, He's not the Messiah who has come to save. However, Jesus flips the tables on them, and He quotes, with a little bit of adaptation, a verse from Psalm 8, which says, "From the lips of children and infants, you Lord, have called forth your praise".
Now much can really be made of this quotation as Jesus is directly connecting Himself to the recipient of praise in Psalm 8, which, in the case of the Psalm, is actually God. Jesus is receiving praise called forth by God from children, and this praise called forth in the Psalm is by God, for God, from children. I know there's kind of a train of thought you got to catch there, but I'd encourage you, in your own time to do some research on this as well. And scholars debate about what Jesus was really intending here. I mean, don't you just love when people say that, "scholars debate"? Of course they do, they're scholars.
But there is some debate about what Jesus fully intended here. However, I want to highlight something specific for you that seems pretty clear to me, because what Jesus is doing here, by citing Psalm 8 is He's legitimizing the praise of the children. He's defending their praise. Is because it's invited by God. And at the same time, He seems to also be revealing a little bit about Himself to people as well; revealing that He is the Messiah worthy of praise.
What Jesus rightly does here is He acts, He teaches, He responds, and He questions in such a way that it challenges the religious figures of His day. He's challenging them to rethink their beliefs, their motives, and their actions. Jesus just always knows what to say, what not to say, what to quote and what questions to ask. He always manages to dig deeper into the motives of those He interacts with, and I think His questions can even do the same for us today.
Now I've spoken about kind of three central characters or figures in this story already. There's Jesus, of course. We also have the teachers and the priests, and then the children and with them as well, the disabled, who are there too. And so for the remainder of our time, I actually want to focus on each of these characters in the story and just offer some points of reflection and consideration for us based on their experience here with Jesus.
So first, let's talk about the religious leaders. Of course, I don't think it's wise to paint the religious leaders and the priests and the teachers as just enemies of Jesus, with only one clear motive among them. Many Pharisees, teachers priests, were probably just skeptics of Jesus, curious, unfortunately blinded by their bias, unwilling to consider that Joseph's son from Nazareth could be the long awaited Savior. Perhaps some were just jaded by waiting for a Messiah. Some may have been resistant to just seeing change occur in their culture. Perhaps some were upset that their power and way of life might be disrupted by Him.
I'm sure there was a diversity of reasons for why people rejected Jesus, but regardless of their motive, the religious leaders here are found to unfortunately, not be upset by the corruption found at the temple. They're not upset by people being taken advantage of. They're not upset by people being failed, by people being failed to be cared for. Instead, they're angry that children are praising their Messiah, the very thing that they should be doing as well.
For us, I think, as the church, my hope is, is that as we look at the experience of these religious leaders, that we might too be willing to listen to His questions. May we be willing to listen to Christ, our Savior? I know many of us here in this room follow Jesus. We consider ourselves to be disciples of Christ, and our predicament is different than the religious leaders of this time, but we should never forget the simple call to listen, not just hear, but to truly listen.
For even within the church, we can disregard each other simply for being different. Perhaps we feel like we know more than others. We could say, I have more biblical training than they do, so I don't have to listen to them. They don't have the same experience that I do, so I don't have to listen to them. Frankly, we can even write off children in the church in this way, we could say things like, "Oh, they're just cute kids, but they don't really get it. They just believe and sing songs because we tell them to." When we do that, though, unfortunately, we're missing the truth that children often grasp God and His presence in ways that we adults have closed ourselves off to.
So, may we truly not just hear, but may we listen to God and to one another, young and old, new believer and seasoned veteran, discerning what we are saying to each other, certainly, but also not disregarding each other instantly. My hope is is that we can seek out the truth by listening, by pondering, by chewing upon the words of Jesus and holding fast to our sure hope in Christ. For, while the religious leaders failed in this moment, we are reminded by their experience to simply be more open, to be more curious; and of course to listen when God speaks, but also to listen to what I might call the unexpected voices, especially from children and the marginalized.
So with that being said, why don't we shift over to the children. The children this story rightly praise Jesus for who He is. That's what they do. They praise Him because He is the Messiah who has come to save. Through this passage, we see that not only do children reflect the glory of God, but they also declare it. The children look at Jesus and proclaim that salvation is here, "Hosanna, hosanna to the Son of David."
This term, hosanna, in its early use, was something as simple as, "Help, God, please save me". But over time, it's kind of developed into also a praise filled and hopeful tone, such as, "Our salvation is here. Salvation is coming." I think of hosanna as this kind of desperate, expectation filled hope that God will save us. And in this story, the children are those who see Jesus as their Messiah. They see Him as their salvation, both in desperation and in hopeful expectation, because they sought Jesus, they praised Him.
The disabled as well come to Him for healing; they believe that He has the power to do something about their condition. His salvation is what these people desperately seek out and cry for. And so we as the church as well, may we speak about the great salvation and hope that we have in Jesus; to do so thoughtfully, honestly, and lovingly, and even possibly as passionately as these children do.
I want to be clear as well. I don't want you to think that I'm saying this from a vantage point of being some great evangelist out in public. Most of my attempts to praise God in such a way have felt awkward and have often humbled me. And if you wouldn't mind, I'd probably, probably be beneficial if I just shared a few examples with you.
I previously worked as a teaching pastor at a church in Kitchener during my time here in Admissions. It was a wonderful experience. The lead pastor, who was training me, he had this great idea of, "Why don't we do these outdoor church services in the summer?" Right? We're all hoping for that beautiful weather coming soon as well. And once the weather got warm, he said, "Why don't we take the church outside of our walls and to go out into the community, even just to host our service in the local park?" And so with that came the responsibility for me to also teach in that environment.
I've never preached out into open air before in that way, and so I was quite nervous. I'm grateful to have had many opportunities to speak at different places, but never in this environment. And I was afraid, I thought, as I was preparing my message, I mean, what if, while we're outside, what if somebody just stops and sees us? And what are they going to think when they hear this guy preaching about Jesus in the park while everybody else is around and then we're singing songs together? And what if people are upset by that? What if the neighbors are upset because we've taken over the public park on a Sunday?
And those concerns ate away at me. And I remember, as I was preaching, my sermon also about us, as the Church, being the city on the hill; great passage to choose for that environment; I remember that I was preaching and this guy on his bike just came and he stopped. He stopped and just checked out what was going on. And I remember I was preaching and words were coming out of my mouth. I'm sure I was following along with my script, but I remember my mind was just thinking, "What is that guy thinking right now? Does he like what I'm saying? Is he? Is he okay with what's going on? Is this just weird to him?" My mind was just consumed the thoughts of what he might be thinking.
And after a few minutes, he got back on his bike and rode off. That actually turned out to be just a great summer. We did these services in the park. Everything went well. People got to see us out in the community in a way that was inviting to them and not forceful. We weren't being abrasive with people. We were just praising God in public. But I needed time, after all of that, to simply reflect on why, why was I so afraid? Why wasn't I as really, as brave as these children, even in this story, to just say, "Hosanna to the Son of David". I was fearful to do that.
Another example comes from my same church experience in Kitchener on one Sunday, my wife and I were walking in to the church, and we noticed a man sitting on a bench that was just outside of our building. And I could tell that he clearly was struggling with something, something was going on for him. And my wife looked over and just said to me, "Well, hey, why don't you go and invite that guy to join us, to join us in church this Sunday?" And I responded back to my wife, and I just said, "Oh, well, I don't want to bother him." And then she just looked at me dead in the eyes, and she said, "Well, it doesn't look like anybody's bothering him".
And that punched me in the gut. The conviction from the Holy Spirit hit me right there, because I realized in that moment I was not concerned about whether or not this guy was was bothered, in a sense, it was just insecurity. I was insecure. I was worried about the possibility of something happening if I went over there and asked him to join us. But in my conviction, I picked myself up and walked over to him. I said, "Hey, my wife and I would love it if you joined us this Sunday in church, and you know, no requirements on you to do anything, but we just love if you sat with us."
And he said, actually, very politely back to me, says," I really appreciate that you invited me. I'm not going to join you this morning. I just am struggling with some hurt from my previous church and not really sure where I'm at right now, but I really do appreciate that you invited me." I said, "Okay, like I'm happy, if you, if I see you here again, you know, please join us another Sunday." But after that conversation, I walked into church and I really didn't pay attention to anything that Sunday, because I had to sit there with almost like this grief again of like, why? Why was I so scared to invite him to join us?
Did I not see this man as someone in need of Jesus? Do I not see the desperate cry of these children in this passage for "Hosanna, the son of David"? Do I not see that as something is true? Am I not desperate to see people meet Jesus, their only hope, my only hope. Yet these children at the temple bravely cry out for their Messiah, not concerned with reaction or response, not bogged down by thinking of themselves as a burden to others. They're children. They're just there. They carry on the cry of the people as Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and they shout it proudly for all to hear. Because we know that people heard. Some people were upset by it. These children just praised their Messiah.
And I want to look again here at Jesus, kind of this third, of course, central figure in our passage. For us today, I hope that you can see that we can find hope in Christ. I know that sounds kind of basic or simple, but truly, this is what we're learning in this passage. "Hosanna to the Son of David", is a message of great hope, the message that Christ is our Savior, our only Savior.
And so I ask you, Is Jesus your hope today? Is He the one that you turn to in the chaos and in the desperation of life? Do you come to Him in desperation, but also in hopeful expectation that He can do something in your life, because this story teaches us nothing short of knowing that He loves to hear our praises and our cries. I love that hosanna kind of summarizes those two things, a praise and a cry. Regardless of age, affliction, how lost, how hurting we are, or how long we've been waiting for something, He loves to hear our praise and our cries.
He has no shame, friends, of being associated with us. He desires to be with us and that's the very reason why He came to this earth to live with us, to die for our sin on the cross, and to be buried in death, to raise up from the grave; so that, we too may die, be buried and raise with him; so that, we may live with Him in His Kingdom, here on this earth as it is in heaven. Hosanna, salvation is here.
I hope that you can see in the chaos of flipping tables, healing people, the shouting, the praising, Jesus both honors the praise of His children and reveals Himself, even subtly, that He is our salvation worthy of praise. So, I want to leave you with a question, "How will you respond in your life to the wonderful things the Lord has, is, and will do?" In the chaos of life, opinions, and the noise, who will you choose to listen to? Who will you choose to praise? Who will you seek out? For just like these children, our God calls forth our praise as well. He is our defender, the Lord of all, our King. He's the one who flips the tables. He heals the hurting, He cares for the children. He is our salvation.
And so I want to leave you with that question, but I also want to leave you with a prayer, and I want to pray through Psalm 8, the very Psalm from which Jesus cites from in this passage that we read this morning. So if you would, would you please close your eyes, bow your heads, and if you're willing, just open your hands to receive from God.
Kyle Best
In Psalm 8, "Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens. Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings, that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels, and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet, all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" Amen. Thank you, friends. Hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and go in peace.
