Lesson 71 - Matthew Ch 21 cont 2

[Music] so [Music] yeshua's journey to the cross is gaining speed as the proverbial snowball rolling down a steep hill and we find him now having now arrived at at the place of his foretold and and impending death jerusalem now in many ways it is truly ironic perhaps unfathomably tragic that of all the places for the divine messiah of the jewish people to suffer and die it would be the historical and spiritual capital of the jewish people now as his popularity and recognition as a miracle healing holy man a soddic who has come in the spirit of the son of david solomon he's become greater among the common people of the jewish holy land so has the wariness and the dislike of him become greater among the jewish religious leadership now essentially by coming to jerusalem trailed by this large following and entering the eastern gate with much pomp and fanfare jesus has invaded the jewish religious leaders territory his mere presence in jerusalem threatens everything they stand for and control worse every time they try to trap him in some kind of a theological debate or try to say he doesn't properly obey the law or try to diminish his jewishness it backfires and it exposes the leadership for their flimsy aura of righteousness that has little authentic foundation in our previous lesson we found the religious leaderships of the temple system and the synagogue system joining forces to challenge yeshua's authority to interpret and teach the torah and the prophets and thus his right to lead a growing flock of disciples now in matthew 21 verses 23 through 27 we read of this encounter and how interestingly it revolved around john the baptist that's a name we hadn't heard in a while and while the jewish religious leadership hoped to discredit yeshua by revealing his lack of credentials that they considered mandatory christ said his credentials were publicly and undeniably given to him by john the baptist and by making this claim yeshua shifted the core of the dispute to whether or not john had the needed credentials because if he hadn't then john certainly didn't have the standing to ordain yeshua for ministry trapped again the religious authorities knew that no matter what answer they gave regarding john it would cause them an impossible dilemma if they agreed that john had the proper credentials and they were given to him from heaven that made jesus credible if they said that john was given credentials by a committee of humans it did the same but if they said john did not have the proper credentials and the people would rise up against them because they revered john as a prophet now naturally when any of us lose such a public argument we also lose face and we don't usually accept our defeat and just let it go so this public humiliation only firmed the resolve of the jewish religious authorities to dispose of this galilean reformer that threatened their power base perhaps even their abundant livelihoods okay let's read a little bit more of matthew chapter 21. open your bibles to matthew chapter 21 and we're going to read just verses 28 through 32 28-32 but give me your opinion a man had two sons and he went to the first and said son go on work today in the vineyard and he answered i don't want to but later he changed his mind and he went the father went to his other son and said the same thing and this one answered i will sir but he didn't go now which of the two did what his father wanted the first they replied that's right yeshua said to them i tell you that the tax collectors and prostitutes are going into the kingdom of god ahead of you for jochen came to you showing the path to righteousness and you wouldn't trust him the tax collectors and prostitutes trusted him but you even after you saw this you didn't change your minds later and trust him now this passage put on your scholar's hat today this passage is regularly called a parable in fact the next passage that begins in verse 33 says now listen to another parable so it seems undeniable that yeshua is classifying what he has just finished saying what we just read as a parable where is that really the case see the greek word for parable is parabolic now i've explained on numerous occasions that a true hebrew parable has several characteristics beginning with the opening words that make it clear that what is about to be said is a comparison of like to like so jesus has started his parables with words such as the kingdom of heaven is like or to what we can we compare the kingdom of heaven well a fairly recent research of ancient jewish documents reveal documents mostly containing the sayings of rabbis from from shortly after christ date hundreds of years later that the way that yeshua began his parables was the standard format and that parable as a teaching method was rather common in jewish culture however other characteristics of a true hebrew parable are that they are fictional stories that seek to communicate a single moral point while making this light for light comparison now the so-called parable of verses 28-32 doesn't meet most of those characteristics so why is the term paraboli used to describe the story even by jesus well even more why is this important to all students of god's word and not just academics and theologians because if this is a true parable as the hebrew culture thought of it then we were forced to search for about a single moral and discard all other elements of the story as irrelevant on the other hand of what yeshua is saying is something of a different kind of literary form then we are freed to go ahead and find several morals or instructions or comparisons that are tucked away within it see when we look at the greek lexicons as to the meaning and the use of the greek term paraboli we find this bear with me parabola a placing of one thing by the side of another juxtaposition as of shifts into battle metaphorically a comparing a comparison of one thing with another a likeness a similitude an example by which a doctrine or a precept is illustrated a narrative it's fictitious but agreeable to the laws and uses usages of human life by which either the duties of men or the things of god particularly the nature and history of god's kingdom are figuratively portrayed a parable an earthly story with a heavenly meaning a pithy and instructive saying involving some likeness or comparison and having perceptive or admittory force an aphorism a maxim a proverb an act by which one exposes himself or his positions to danger a venture or risk here's the point as the lexicons tell us the greek word parabolic can be employed to express a y express a wide array of literary forms and uses it's more of a general word that describes numerous kinds of fictional stories in a number of settings which can be used to make a single point or even several points so we need to be conscious of the fact that christ used fictional stories all of which in greek are called parabolic in more than one way some of them only some of them are true hebrew parables others are meant to impart something else see it's for us to discern which way he meant them because it goes a long way towards aiming us in the proper direction of how to interpret those stories in this case the parabolic about the man with two sons is not a classic parable in the hebrew sense of it which always begins with some version of to what can the matter be compared that's how a hebrew parable begins rather the man and his two sons is just this fictional story that's told as a metaphor meant to illustrate not only one but several things probably rises to the level of allegory none of this is negative it's not a problem we just have to know which is which see because yeshua's immediate audience and those to whom matthew wrote his gospel do know the difference now you know the difference so we can better dissect the story and extract the in this case several several intended meanings well yeshua is instructing so addresses his audience like a teacher and his main audience remains some unidentified members of the jewish religious establishment and he says that what he's when he's done with the story he would like to hear their opinions about it now what christ is really doing is continuing his frank indictment of not only this particular group of men but the temple and synagogue leadership in general the story's really rather straightforward the fictional man goes to each of his two sons asking them to do some labor within the father's vineyard and quickly we learn that both sons are rather rebellious yet they each react to their father's request in different ways son number one well he's told to go and work in the vineyard and quite disrespectfully he just refuses however later on he thinks better of it he goes to the vineyard and works son number two well is then told to go to work in the vineyard he feigns respect see we read he replies i will sir deceitfully indicating that he will obey but he doesn't ever intend to show up some number one refuse says refuses yet he works and number two accepts but he doesn't work the short story ends and christ asks which of the two sons did what the father wanted his audience the jewish religious authorities answers the first one and jesus says they answered correctly see but now the mood rapidly deteriorates yeshua compares the first son to prostitutes and tax collectors now prostitutes and tax collectors were seen as inherently outside the scope of torah that is their lifestyles were so wicked so counter to jewish values that despite being hebrew by birth they were considered by normative jewish society as having made themselves gentile-like in their behavior born as insiders but choosing to become outsiders and yet says christ even these prostitutes and tax collectors will be allowed entry into the kingdom of heaven ahead of these religious authorities he's talking to i think the words insult and defensive aren't strong enough here i mean i think it's hard for us to imagine the depth of injury that yeshua has done to these men who consider themselves as the pinnacles of holiness and righteousness these men that are widely accepted and held up as the ultimate jewish insiders are told told by this galilean man to their faces that god sees them as lore than prostitutes and tax collectors i mean yikes well the second son represents the priests and the scribes who do not believe in john's credentials and therefore in their eyes jesus has no credentials bottom line they are the opponents of john and jesus and therefore opponents of god they are the ones who were clearly shown the path to righteousness by john the immerser but they refused to trust in what john was what he came to do even though they acted like they did but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did trust in john and so despite their sin relegating to the lowest level of jewish society due to the disgust of their professions they were invited into the kingdom of heaven thus unlike the first son that it first refused but then saw things more clearly and did what was righteous the jewish religious leaders acted like the second son they displayed a certain level of confidence to the law and to god but then they exposed themselves as deceivers and fakes and since this story is not a true parable in the hebrew sense of it and instead it's a fictional story meant to illustrate a number of things let me lay it out for you the father of the sons represents god the father the first son represents the common jewish people even the worst of them the second son represents the stubborn and prideful jewish religious leadership the vineyard represents israel in the end this is a rather simple story with several rather easily made connections although it's a hard hidden story that brings a number of ramifications along with it now the religious leadership like the second son that outwardly seems so amiable and approving and of john are inwardly stone-like they needed to appear to be accepting of john because it pleased the people but it was phony they never intended to act on john's call to repent from their sins to adopt a new and holy mindset and to actually start behaving truly righteously it's one thing to show up every time the church opens its doors and to say all the right things it's quite another to sincerely adopt and act upon god's truth this metaphorical story that jesus is told and then firmly connected the religious leaders of the jews too has another aspect we shouldn't overlook it sort of takes us back a few chapters in matthew's gospel to what i have previously said is to me the most terrifying passage in the entire bible terrifying not so much for professed non-believers but rather for those of us who claim allegiance to god and to a son matthew 7 21-23 not everyone who says to me lord lord will enter the kingdom of heaven only those who do what my father in heaven wants on that day many will say to me lord lord didn't we prophesy in your name didn't we expel demons in your name didn't we perform many miracles in your name then i'll tell them to their faces i never knew you get away from me you workers of lawlessness see now while this warning applies to all who outwardly say they are believers this applies doubly so to the leaders of the church including of course messianic synagogues and to all teachers of god's word and yet the final words of matthew 21 32 contain some of the best news imaginable is it the worst sort of sinners those whom the societies of the world have relegated as their outsiders have hope a change of mind a new and sincere trust in god brings the happiest of results the kingdom of heaven welcomes you the past is the past your future becomes victorious and glorious let's move on to the next story in matthew chapter 21 open your bibles again to matthew 21 we're going to start reading at verse 33 and go on to the end matthew 21 verse 33 now listen to another parable there was a farmer who planted a vineyard and he put a wall around it dug a pit for the wine press built a tower then he rented it to tenants and left when harvest time came he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his share of the crop but the tenants seized his servants this one they beat up that one they killed another they stoned so he sent some other servants more than the first group and they did the same and finally he sent them his son well saying my son though respect but when the tenants saw the sun they said to each other this is the air come on let's kill him and take his inheritance so they grabbed him threw him out of the vineyard and killed him now when the owner of the vineyard comes what will he do to those tenants and they answered him he'll he will viciously destroy those vicious men and rent out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the crop when it's due and yeshua said to them haven't you ever read in the tanakh the very rock which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone this has come from adonai and in our eyes it's amazing therefore i tell you that the kingdom of god will be taken away from you and given to the kind of people that produce its fruit as the head priest and the pharisees listened to his stories they saw he was speaking about them but when they set about to arrest him they were afraid of the crowds because the crowds considered him a prophet so it seems christ was still not satisfied that he had sufficiently chastised the religious leadership so he tells another parable or better parabola like the one we just finished discussing this next one is also more metaphor and allegory than true hebrew parable as much as i'm not a fan of allegorical teaching in church sermons nonetheless it doesn't mean that the allegories aren't necessarily true and here yeshua employs allegory to reveal some important spiritual truths now i'm going to say up front and i'm going to repeat it later that once again we find a vineyard at the core of the story meaning israel is at the core of the story yet there are some other nuances about this narrative that history has preserved and it helps us to better understand how jews in general would have taken the meaning and the application well the tale is actually spun around the beginning words of isaiah chapter five and i think you will immediately see the connection here's a few verses out of matthew chapter five starting at verse rather isaiah chapter five starting at verse 1. i want to sing a song for someone i love a song about my loved one and his vineyard my loved one had a vineyard on a very fertile hill he dug up its stones and cleared them away planted it with the choicest vines built a watchtower in the middle of it and carved out in its rock a wine press he expected it to produce good grapes but it produced only sour wild grapes now citizens of jerusalem and people of judah judge between me and my vineyard what more could i have done for my vineyard that i haven't already done in it so why when i expected good grapes that it produced sour while wild grapes now come i will tell you what i will do to my vineyard i will remove its hedge and its grapes will be eaten up i will break through its fence and its vines will be trampled down i will let it go to waste it will be neither pruned nor hoed but overgrown with briars and thorns i will also order the clouds not to let rain fall on it now the vineyard of adonai zeva oat is the house of israel and the men of judah are the plant he delighted in so he expected justice but look bloodshed and righteousness but listen cries of distress so now notice in isaiah how god explains straight away that the vineyard is meant to represent israel i'm going to begin unpacking this farmer and the wicked tenant story by reminding you that yeshua is still speaking primarily to the temple and synagogue authorities although without doubt other years were listening so it was mostly tailored for them even though some elements that speak of israel in general the vineyard as we find it in isaiah 5 which jesus no doubt modeled this story around so nonetheless we're going to do something in reverse rather than our first going through the parabola point by point i'm going to tell you in advance what each element of the story represents the vineyard is israel and its meaning can be expanded to include the end times kingdom of heaven second of all the farmer that owned and planted the vineyard is god the father third the tenets that the farmer rented the village to are their jewish religious authorities but in this instance they can probably be slightly narrowed down to mean the jerusalem-based religious leaders who were the highest of the leadership of both temple and synagogue next the crop or the fruit of the harvest is that portion which is owed to god by the religious leadership that is the fruit or the crop are those hebrews that have been prepared and nurtured by the religious leadership god's representatives on earth fifth the mistreatment and the non-acceptance of the farmer's servants represent the rejection and the hostility towards god's prophets sixth the sending and the repudiation of the farmer's own son represents god sending yeshua to israel and the disdain and dismissal of the jewish religious leadership that they have for him seventh the new tenants of the vineyard that replace the destroyed ones equal those religious leaders who sincerely trust in god and in his messiah yeshua and so they act accordingly now one other thing i want you to be acutely aware of the bad guys in this story are not israel not the jewish people in general and the good guys are not gentiles in general rather this entire story is about jewish religious leadership those god has allowed to be in charge of his people so this farmer plants a vineyard it was a new vineyard and as was rather standard in that era he built a wall around it not only to mark its boundaries but also to help keep critters out they could eat up the harvest next he builds a wine vat the vat described as the ancient way of extracting the juice from the grapes and while still in use in jesus day better more efficient ways were also now in use now the ancient style wine bat usually consisted of a large rock that had two depressions carved out one higher than the other and in the first depression the whole grapes would be laid where a person could stomp on them and then as the juice came out it would stream through the little small channel that was cut between the upper and the lower depressions and then once the juice reached the lower depression and it filled up it was removed for further processing and then fermentation the farmer also built a watchtower in his vineyard watchtower was used as a place for a caretaker to stay for a shelter also to be on the lookout for larger animals that might come and chew on the grapevines also for people who might come to steal from the vineyard in truth neither the watchtower nor the wine press play any role in the story other than to say that the vineyard was properly planted it was growing and everything had been set in place to be properly tended and then harvested in other words it was fully equipped and complete nothing more was needed so after the farmer who owns the vineyard establishes it he gets it going he turns it over to others to run and even to profit from to some extent of course as the landlord tenant relationship implies the landlord's the owner the tenants are just renters the renters have no rights beyond what the landlord gives to them as the story continues the grapes mature now it's time for the harvest the farmer sends three servants to collect his portion of that crop as payment from the tenants being allowed to farm and use the vineyard however the ungrateful and criminal tenants not only refuse to give the farmer what is rightly his they harm his servants one they beat up another they kill the third they stone i want to pause here before we complete the story to incorporate what each element of this story represents so far okay god establishes israel the vineyard as a new group of people set apart as his own he provides the torah god's laws and commandments to them as a protective wall a fence of sorts around his people and he uses some of the people as warrior guards to defend israel both spiritually and physically so that it may produce healthy members for god's kingdom he leaves he leaves israel in charge of leaders whose jobs it is to see to it that israel produces kingdom members abundantly but when god decides it's time to check up on his people he sends his prophets as his representatives and some are beaten up others are harmed and run off still others are killed back to our story the farmer distressed it seeing what has happened to us the servants he has sent decides he'll take the rather serious even dangerous step of sending his own son on his behalf to oversee the harvest certain that these wicked tenants would relent and obey him now but no they decide they'll kill the farmer's son as well with the idea that they'll take possession of the vineyard and therefore everything it produces so they grab the farmer's son throw him outside the vineyard where they kill him that's the end of our story now let's pause and see how this plays out using the elements that are being presented in the story god sees what the israelite leaders have done to his prophets that he's sent to israel they've been rejected and killed so later he decides he'll send his own son yeshua to israel to check on oversee god's people jesus is god's son who in the middle eastern cultures is essentially the father's agent and is to be treated and respected exactly the same way god ought to be treated and respected was recognized as god's son but the leaders of israel didn't want to accept him they wanted it all for themselves they wanted to own and run israel as they saw fit their rules their laws so they plot to kill messiah yeshua and steal israel yeshua's inheritance from him and therefore from god the father story completed christ acts asks the jewish leadership religious leadership what they think of it what would they do with such a farmer that has done been involved in this horrific this unjust situation they correctly answer well the farmer is going to come and destroy those vicious men that he had left in charge of his vineyard and he's going to turn it over to others whom he trusts in other words the farmer will simply exercise reasonable and lawful judgment upon these irresponsible negligent and criminal men to destroy them and to give their leadership rights to others that were more loyal and obedient to the farmer now sometimes it's good ask ourselves what the reasoning is behind yeshua picking the subjects he does to mold his many fictional stories around in order to teach some points he wanted to get across it's not a difficult question to answer he chooses situations that people in the holy land were familiar with and social and religious issues that were front and center in his day so what about the farmer in the vineyard you see from a jews first century perspective the farmer was an absentee landlord of which there were many at that time he was rich he held land in the holy land and he would turn it over to tenant farmers then at harvest season the absentee landlord would send certain of his servants to collect taxes from those tenant farmers he really didn't care what went on provided he got his money and most of the time the absentee landlord was a foreigner thus the galileans being mostly farmers and herders had strong views on the subject of absentee landlords that had no connection to the jewish people or the land other than to collect money for their coffers it's doubtful the jewish religious authorities authority rather was affected much by such a situation but the people they lorded over certainly were so the core elements of our story would have been of keen interest to yeshua's listeners and also to matthew's jewish readers some decades later now the story of the farmer and the wicked tenants is concluded with yeshua doing what he often does quoting scripture in this case it's from psalm 118 verses 22 and 23. however for the sake of better context here's a few more verses psalm 118 22-26 the very rock that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone this has come from adonai it is our eyes it's amazing this is the day adonai has made a day for us to rejoice and be glad please adonai save us please adonai rescue us blessed is he who comes in the name of adonai we bless you from the house of adonai now perhaps you'll recall that psalms 118 is what was known as the hallel it had become tradition to use various parts of it during the celebrations of the three pilgrimage festivals that the law of moses called for so yeshua attached this portion of the widely known hallel to his story and his open criticism of the jewish religious leadership to make a connection between some of the words of the hallel and himself he makes the cornerstone that the builders rejected equate to the farmer's son that was thrown out of the vineyard and killed and who can miss the plea to god for salvation and deliverance in the hallel that is essentially the entire purpose for which jesus christ was born and he's now in jerusalem to bring it about so when we begin to think about all that's happening surrounding christ from the first century jewish perspective matthew's gospel just blooms with beautiful color and meaning well to sum up what everything he is intended to impart to the jewish leaders means christ says in verse 43 therefore i tell you jewish religious leaders that the kingdom of god is going to be taken away from you and it's going to be given to the kind of people that will produce its fruit so jesus story has turned from a fictional has turned from fictional to representative to a serious threat the religious authorities finally had their excuse to do away with this galilean holy man now some bible versions have a verse 44. it's not present in the complete jewish bible the nab and most others of the most recognized versions do have it so i'm just going to tell you what it is it says the one who falls on this stone will be dashed to pieces and it will crush anyone on whom it falls now the nab properly puts brackets around this verse because it is nearly certainly a gloss inserted by some christian editor from a later period and it didn't exist in the early greek manuscripts so we'll not deal with it as it really doesn't add anything to the narrative or subtract from it anyway now the final verse of this chapter says that the religious authorities knew yeshua was directing this charge towards them and because they were able to take his words as a threat they intended to have him arrested immediately they would have except jesus was very popular and the city of jerusalem was bursting at the seams full of jewish pilgrims that were actually already operating in a heightened emotional state and any attempt to arrest this popular zodiac would surely have resulted in rioting and when we're told that the people thought i'm a prophet we need not to be thinking in old testament prophet terms that's not what they were thinking okay rather in the early first century a prophet was thought of as a seer or as an astute interpreter of the torah and and dispenser of wisdom these first century prophets nonetheless were revered and the people would not have stood still for them being harassed by the religious elite final comment very sadly and wrongly mainstream institutional christianity has for 1700 years said that the story of the farmer and of the wicked tenants is about god taking authority away from israel and handing it over to the gentile church that is it is yet another false pillar used to prop up the hellish replacement theology doctrine that has god transferring all of his blessings from israel to the gentile controlled church leaving only the biblical curses for israel to suffer hopefully you have noticed in this last story that only the leadership of israel is being threatened by yeshua of having their leadership authority removed there's no hint that anyone but new and more faithful israelite leaders that trust in yeshua would replace them gentiles play no role there's no sudden switch in these verses of ethnicity nor do the common jewish citizens play a role other than his victims there's no hint of some kind of new gentile fashioned faith to replace the hebrew faith so i want to leave you with some food for thought very briefly i believe that one of the most hypocritical and misleading doctrines ever concocted and mouthed throughout church history is that gentiles have accepted christ but the jews didn't gentiles have by no means made trust in jesus a universal characteristic not in the first century and not in the 21st century the high end of the estimates are that only 3 in ten gentiles in the world today are believers meaning seven and ten are not we'll be in matthew chapter 22 next time [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

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Keywords: Beatitudes, Hebrew Heritage, Parables, Torah Class, Bible, Bible Study, Christ, Christian, Christianity, God, Hebrew Roots, Jesus, Jews, Matthew, New Testament, Seed of Abraham, Sermon on the Mount, Son of God, Tom Bradford, Yeshua

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Length: 49min 1sec (2941 seconds)

Published: Tue May 25 2021