Matthew (Session 13) Chapters 19-20

okay well we are starting what we would call unit two of the gospel of matthew we've been through 12 sessions out of 24 behind us now we're in session 13 starting uh the second of two units and uh this is we're going to shift from the galilee to judea there's going to be a few chapters on teaching but the real climax is forthcoming and that's the final week some people would call it the passion week our lord jesus christ in the gospel of john the majority of the whole gospel is on this last week but in matthew we'll be heading into it in the next few sessions gospel of matthew tonight we're going to attack two chapters chapters 19 and 20. but just a little background we know that the four gospels are each designed with a specific purpose matthew being jewish presents jesus as the lion of the tribe of judah the messiah the meshiach nagi mark presents the lord jesus christ as the suffering servant luke being a gentile doctor is absorbed with or focuses on the humanity of our lord jesus christ and john addresses who he was the son of god and each element in their gospels supports that primary theme the genealogies in each one abraham matthew starts with abraham and gives you the legal line through joseph to jesus mark focusing on his servanthood is not interested in his pedigree as such so he's the only one without a a genealogy luke being a doctor and a gentile he starts with adam and carries it through they're identical when they get to david and but from david on luke takes a left turn doesn't go through solomon rather he goes through nathan uh to uh um the second surviving son of bathsheba down through the bloodline through mary and john has a his first few verses in his gospel don't sound like a genealogy but they are in effect the genealogy of the pre-existent one but as we go right on through the emphasis on what jesus said what he did what he felt and what he was who he was matthew writes primarily to the jew both mark and luke to gentiles roman greek respectively and john to the church and the first miracle in each one reflects that emphasis all the way through and uh they end the the gospels end consistent with their primary theme matthew ends with a resurrection a very jewish topic if you will mark the ascension both luke and john set up their sequels luke closes with the promise of the spirit and of course that leads to the acts of the spirit which we call the book of acts actually the book acts of the apostles formally and john of course sets up his sequel which of course the book of revelation promise of his return and we could go on with more of this thing in terms of the symbolism and the rest of it but we're focusing on the gospel of matthew in this context and uh in the fir we had the first half a dozen or seven chapters called section one went through his genealogy his birth his baptism his temptation and then his manifesto the sermon on the mount and then the second session there was a number of events coming the storm the demonics uh the call of matthew and so forth uh right up to uh chapter 12 which leads to the attribution of his uh powers to satan and that closes the offering of the kingdom to israel and the rejection many people think the rejection occurred at the cross and of course it did but it actually started in chapter 12. because from chapter 13 on he changes his style chapter 12 is in a watershed chapter because from that point on in public he only speaks in parables he explains the insides only to the insiders so the final chapters of what we call unit one we have the seven kingdom parables that uh reveal things that were not in the old testament and that's very very very key chapter in many respects defeating the five thousand the four thousand the declaration of caesarea philippi then of course the transfiguration 18 had a number of topics not the least of which is the due process we should be doing for tort remedies and tragically churches don't really follow that as they should but we won't go through all that again we did review some of the herod's but the four that you really want to know is herod the great of course he's the one that saw the children of bethlehem his son herod antipas was the was not really a king of tetrarch but he was the one that had john the baptist killed and before whom jesus is silent in luke 23 his son in other words the grandson of herod the great was hurt agrippa and he's the one that killed james later and imprisoned peter and uh then his son was heritage ii before whom paul has tried and so forth so these are four there are a lot of herods but these are the four that you want to try to keep straight if you can as we go forward feeding the multitudes the five thousand four thousand very familiar stories but with some very interesting distinctives because the five thousand predominantly jews took place in galilee five loaves two fish twelve baskets left over and uh the four thousand was predominantly gentiles took place on the east side of the the sea of galilee in decapolis there were seven loaves and a few fish not numbered to keep our focusing on the seven seven baskets left over versus 12. and so there are there are some mystical aspects to this that you can study and take a look at we talked a little bit about the gnostic gospels in the previous ones which are of course not gospels at all they're really speculative opinions written several centuries after the fact and totally devoid of any verifiable facts all written under false pseudonyms in attempt to gain legitimacy the early church rejected these documents uh as being inconsistent with the concept of god breathed inspiration and so they're in contrast to the contemporaneous eyewitness accounts that we have in our bible and uh there are a large number of these that emerged in the first few centuries uh and were universally rejected by the church copies of these were found at hamadi in egypt in 1945. uh the the gospel of judas which is in circulation lately was found in the 70s actually and uh but the original group that is generally associated with the hamada included gospel of thomas gospel of philip gospel of mary gospel of truth and about four dozen others just spurious uh of no historical value in that sense and of course just lately national geographic has come out with a judas gospel um extolling this particular gnostic gospel in order to capitalize on the popularity of the forthcoming release of the da vinci code blockbuster movie by ron howard and the gospel which is not a new discovery this is this is national geographic trying to capitalize on what will be talked about movie of course back in 180 a.d irenaeus knew about the gospel of judas as it's called and condemned it as heretical never taken seriously by any serious scholar and scholars widely agree that none of these texts contain historically reliable information about the life of jesus they're in contrast to the bible they're designed to confuse and undermine your faith all were written in the second century or later under false names and anyway we'll move on here the other topics we talked about in the last few chapters was the reason we believe that small children are saved we're going to touch on that in this session too they die before the age of accountability and you can second psalm 12 23 is probably your best old testament verse on that new testament verses romans 7 9 where paul talks about being alive until the law came speaking of his before his age of accountability we talked about the due process of torts and how unfortunately we don't follow matthew 18. there's many churches run management by hearsay people are considered guilty until proven innocent they can't confront their accusers we won't go through all this again but we strongly urge you to familiarize familiarize yourself with matthew 18 15-17 which has a three-step program that is tragically absent in in much of the ministries today and the 70 times 7 remark that jesus gives to peter we talked about how that might be an echo if you will of the history of israel which is really composed as composed of four 490 year periods in each case you take the counter time and subtract the time that is in disfavor servitudes or what have you and you always get 490 interestingly enough interesting observation but just a speculation or a conjecture so we're in unit two that's what we're starting tonight the second half if you will of the gospel of matthew and it's going to focus on the judean ministry matthew's had a tendency to focus on the galilee john's gospel focuses on the judean ministry unit 2 the judean ministry and the final week we're going to consist of matthew 19 through the final chapter chapter 28. so the king's instructions i'll call this matthew chapter 19 verse 1 and it came to pass that when jesus had finished these sayings he departed from the galilee and came into the coasts of judea beyond jordan with great and great multitudes followed him and he healed them there the pharisees also came to him tempting him and saying to him is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause well here again we have the pharisees trying to trap him they increasingly find him disruptive they increase they're not looking for truth they're not asking to learn something they're trying to entrap him and this question is designed to try to divide the audience the crowd there were two prevailing beliefs within the jewish community about divorce hillel taught that any reason for divorce is justified even bad cooking you burn the bread girls and you're you could be in trouble had a different just the opposite view that the only justifiable uh reason for a divorce was adultery but that was so there was a division within the jewish community and they're trying to they're asking him a question that in their mind is going to guarantee he's going to alienate one half or the other because whichever way he goes he's going to he it's a it's one of these no-win situations at least they think so but that's what they're up to here and uh and jesus answered and said unto them have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female and said for this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and the twain shall be one flesh it's interesting that this is this verse genesis 2 24 familiar to you i'm sure was quoted twice by jesus and twice by paul it appears four times the new testament direct quote out of genesis chapter 2 verse 24 and then jesus goes on to say wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh what therefore god hath joined together let none let not man put us under and so you notice by the way that verse 5 there or putting another way verse 24 to justice 2 involves an issue of leaving as well as cleaving for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and there are many tragedies where that fails to happen in some respect and shall cleave to his wife and the twin shall be one flesh and god's intended plan was two by two no polygamy no bigamy um man and wife singular and god's intent was it to be for a lifetime but what god has joined together let not man put a center but god can put it asunder by the violating of the law you violate the law of adultery was god in effect authorizing the breakage if you will so the characteristics of a marriage first of all it was a divinely appointed union in genesis no court of law can change what god has established they may try they may fuss around but that that's it's a divinely appointed union you're talking about it's a physical union the man and the woman become one flesh it's a permanent union god's law requires that a husband and wife enter into marriage without any reservations god's original law knows nothing of trial marriages it was intended to be before god a permanent union and it's a union between one man and one woman there are any variations or contrary to will of god no matter what psychologists or jurists might say so that's the that's the summary of it and uh it uh let's go on here so they continue they say unto him why did moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and to put her away well by the way that's a misquote that's not what moses said very typical you want to always be careful whenever satan's quoting scripture you know there's a hook in there somewhere okay he allowed them he didn't command them to give writing divorcement he he he allowed um that under under the under the conditions of adultery that a divorce was allowable not required but allowable and the intent here is to protect the innocent party so they can remarry that's what it's really intended to do here notice what jesus jesus said and moses because of your hardness of your heart suffered you to another allowed you to put away your lives but from the beginning it was not so there's a subtlety in verse eight do you realize that jesus here is another one of the many places he authenticates the book of deuteronomy the quote they're dealing with happens to be the first four verses of deuteronomy 24. you might put that in your notes and study it at your leisure but you'll notice there the the translation is very critical moses doesn't command he allowed them to uh writing of divorcement and again that that provision was intended to be a a blessing to the innocent party and jesus and i say unto you let's stop right there the context of this discussion is what god said through moses right jesus says furthermore i say to you what is god doing here i mean what is jesus doing here he's putting himself as the spokesman for god god you know through moses god said this and i say unto you and he goes on to amplify this is a subtle but undeniable assertion of his deity here and i say unto you whosoever shall put away his wife accepted me for fornication and shall marry another committeth adultery and whoso marrieth her which is put it away death commit adultery the disciples saying if if the case if if the case of the man be so with his wife it is good not to marry the divorce that moses permitted in deuteronomy 24 actually severed the original marriage relationship god permitted the woman to marry again and her second marriage was not considered adulterous the man she married was called a husband and not an adulterer and this explains how the woman of samaria remember she had five husbands they were five husbands and uh yet she could be living with a man not her husband so strangely enough that that ver verifies the legal structure here and uh so he said to them all men cannot receive the saying save they to whom it is given or there are some munichs which were so born from their mother's womb there are some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men and there'd be eunuchs which were made themselves that were which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sakes he that is able to receive it let him receive it so the basis for marriage there's a number of bases for marriage there's certainly the biological basis it's the means by which the human race is to procreate there's a psychological basis for marriage and that is the whole idea of two people sharing life's burdens and joys together there's a sociological basis of marriage it's the basic molecule of the community and of the nation and it the nation the community won't be any more stable than the marriages are but a surprising aspect of marriage is the supernatural one it is also the basis by which god chooses to reveal his most intimate relationships god uses the marriage to communicate his precious truths and the highest truth he has is this strange unique mystical relationship between christ and his church as you read ephesians 5 just as he gives advice there just about the time you think you understand what he's saying paul throws you a curve saying i should really speak of christ the church the husband the the wife is to to submit herself to the husband as a church to christ to christ that's paul's words the husband is to give himself to his wife the way christ gave himself for the church those are two just one rule for each but if we follow those rules everything else works out adam is a very provocative type of christ one of the one of the titles paul uses of christ is the last adam so we have a concept here of the first adam and the last adam where christ fulfills that which adam failed but there's another typological thing let's back up a second hebrew hermeneutics deals with patterns emphasizes patterns to a to it to the jewish scholar the pattern is prophecy let's examine adam's situation adam gets home one day and discovers his wife is sinned she has taken the forbidden fruit now it was you can easily visualize us coming home like that saying words to the effect boy kid you're in trouble i mean you've you've really blown it you violated god's only commandment he gave us now i'm okay i'm still close to the light i'm clean i haven't done anything but you're big in trouble kid i'll pray for you you know words laughing that would be that's not what adam did first timothy 2 14 tells us that eve was deceived but adam was not what does that mean he knew what he was doing what was he doing he loved her so much that he chose knowingly to join her in her predicament and because he did this there was a messianic line through whom redemption came for everyone that would receive it strange stuff strange stuff the messianic line came about because adam gave himself in in a typological sense don't misunderstand me not condoning what he did in one sense i'm just pointing out that from a modeling point of view he did in a sense exactly what christ did for the church christ was made sin for us we have no idea have no idea what that means that a perfect god incarnate took on sin on our behalf but you could check that first timothy 2 14 is the thing and uh incidentally people some people will quibble about what's adultery versus fornication clearly the law deals with adultery it deals with the marriage partnership but it's also clear throughout the old and new testament that fornication is prohibited deuteronomy 22 four different verses in there hammer that home and so forth and was it serious absolutely it's penalty of death penalty of death capital crime let's move on to verse 13. then we're brought unto him little children that he should put his hands on them and pray and disciples rebuke him how interesting it is jesus has just had this engagement with the pharisees over these nuances having to do with marriage one of the byproducts of marriage not its only purpose but one of its byproducts of course are children how interesting it is that having dealt with that he now blesses the children brought him to little children that he should put his hands on them and pray and disciples rebuke them there's one way you know that jesus smiled you're worried can you find jesus smiling in the scripture you can find them weeping you can find them in teaching you find them quite driving money changes out of the temple where do you find jesus smiling how do you know jesus smiled have you ever seen kids come to someone who wasn't see they wanted they anyway i submit that and the disciples though rebuked them and jesus said suffer the little children forbid them not to come unto me for such is the kingdom of heaven and laid his hands on them and departed thence another not something that's something you can build doctrine on but another indication that the children below the age of accountability are saved a lot of a lot of dispute about that there's three or four passages in addition just this this it's really just a hint here in verse 14. but uh i think it supports the view that many of us hold then we have this rich young man come along verse 16. behold one came and said unto him good master what good thing shall i do that i may have eternal life it's very interesting jesus doesn't respond to what he should do first he responds to this adjective that he used of him said to him why call us thou me good there's none good but one that is god but if thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments you know that's quite a mouthful there first of all he's challenging him and calling christ good if christ's good then he must be god and chris and jesus doesn't deny that of course there's none good but one that is god but if thou wilt enter into into life keep the commandments superficially unless you look behind what's going on here you say gee he's teaching a salvation by works here not at all what's the purpose of the law to show you that you can't earn it but that's what he's that's what he's going to get into here he says and the young man says and then which jesus said thou shalt do no murder thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness honor thy father thy mother and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself you notice the one he doesn't mention here is coveting and that's the one that's really hamstringing this young man young man said to him all these things have i kept for my youth up what lack are yet see again his mindset he's trying to earn his way to heaven that's what we call religion jesus christ was the most anti-religious person that ever walked the face of the earth all religion involves man's attempt to reconcile himself with to god invariably some form of works or charitable commitment so forth and the focus it's it's misleading because what the law is there to show us is that no matter how good we might think we are we're not good enough to earn what the lord would have us have and that can only come by the lord having fulfilled it on our behalf but any case this young man is still in a mindset he apparently has kept all the laws he thinks and still he knows he's got something lacking descendant if thou wilt be perfect or complete go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor and thou shall have treasure in heaven and then come and follow me and jesus put his finger right on the weak spot didn't he right when the young man heard that saying he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions you know the motto don't you he that dies with the most toys wins right that's the that's uh certainly the way it is in a number of major cities certainly where it was in orange county when we were down there it was a it was everything was possessions how long was your boat how many cars do you have and so forth when the young man heard that saying he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions then said jesus unto his disciples verily i said to you that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven the young man's problem was covetousness and jesus put his finger on it and then we get into another interesting misunderstanding verse here and again i say unto you it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of god when his disciples heard it they were exceedingly amazing who then can be saved jesus said to them with men this is impossible with god all things are possible even the rich can be saved queen of england said she was saved by an m a very famous quote on her part she was saved by an m because in first corinthians 1 it says not many mighty many noble are called didn't say not any said not many so she said she was saved by an m i like that you run into there's a recurring echo throughout the commentary literature that this eye of a needle refers to a small door inside a larger door of a gate and there's no substance to that i'm tracked and tracked and tracked it echoes all through the word in the greek here for eye of a needle is raphidos which is a sowing needle and the idiom here is intended to connote something that is impossible how can a camel go through the eye of a needle that's what jesus saying people have tried to say well what that really meant was a if there's some of the doors large doors had a small door and that was called the eye of a needle and a loaded camel could not go through there but first of all i know what their point is the point g is trying to make is he's using an idiom a rhetorical device to indicate something that's that's beyond just unlikely and and uh but anyway for what it's worth uh and i keep running into that and uh i haven't been able to track its source it just echoes through some of the commentaries without any substance and uh so obviously i i regard that particular perspective as as a species but in any case um the young man had a covetousness problem coverage and by the way that's one of the reasons we tithe did you know that tithe is god's answer to covetousness not the only reason but it's it's an aspect of it then answered peter and said unto him behold we have forsaken all and followed thee what shall we have therefore see peter still isn't getting it it's still he's still got this what's in it for me mentality right jesus said unto them verily i say unto you that ye which have followed me in the regeneration when the son of man shall sit at the throne of his glory he also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of israel in other words don't sweat it man you're gonna be taken care of that's what he's saying i think notice though that they're going the destiny of the 12 disciples will be sitting on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes that's interesting paul was not one of the 12 tribes 12 apostles he was an apostle but not one of the twelve and what was paul's assigned mission the church the gentiles and the door was open through peter in acts chapter 10 and all of that but clearly peter was assigned to go to the house of israel paul much to his regret he wanted so badly to go to his own um brethren the other the the the background from which he came a pharisee private benjamin schooled in the best schools of greek and the best schools in in judaism but his mission his assignment was to go to the gentiles and and he tried to speak to the jews and always ended up causing riots which is one of the reasons he did not sign his epistle to the hebrews but that's a whole other issue and everyone that hath forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife for children or lands for my name's sake shall receive a hundred fold and shall inherit everlasting life but many but many that are first shall be last and the last shall be first and jesus shortly within a few days is going to demonstrate that to them by washing their feet he's there here here he's explaining to them but he's going to demonstrate that himself matthew 20 just continues chapter 19. jesus continues teaching says for the kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that is a householder which went out early in the morning to hire laborers unto his vineyard and when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day he sent them into his vineyard the word in the greek here is denarius it actually means counting 10. it's a romans it was the very dominant roman silver coin at that time it took its name from being equal to 10 other things and the word was asses but they don't mean donkeys it's a term in coinage but it was 10 and then about 217 bc it was increased increased to 16 but it's about a little less than four grams of silver in those days it was basically a day's wage the denarius is basically a day's wage and it's here he agreed with the laborers for a penny a day or daenerys today and he sent them into his vineyard so far so good okay um he went out about the third hour now this this would be about 9 a.m by our reckoning went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace and said unto them go ye also to the vineyard and whatsoever is right i will give you and they went their way i guess they just trusted him whatever it would make sense go ahead i'll take care of you and he went out about the sixth and ninth hour and did likewise in other words about noon he went out and uh at 3 p.m he went out he found these guys milling about hey want to work go to my field about the 11th hour this is one hour before quitting time okay he went out and found others standing idle and saith unto them why stanjee here all the day idol they said it because no man hath hired us he said to them go ye also into the vineyard and whatever is right that you shall receive okay seems straightforward enough right so when evening was come the lord of the vineyards saith unto a steward call the laborers and give them their hire beginning from the last unto the first and when they came that were hired about the 11th hour they received every man a penny wow and when the first came they supposed that they should have received more they likewise received every man a penny when they received it they murmured against the good man of the house saying these last have wrought but one hour and thou has made them equal to us which have borne the burden and the heat of the day but he answered one of them and said friend i do thee no wrong does not thou agree with me for a penny it's interesting no one got shortchanged the others he was just excessively generous but that's his privilege because he's in charge right reminds me of the children's riddle where does a gorilla sleep in the forest wherever he wants to right he says take that take that thine is and go thy way and i will give unto this last even as unto thee is it not lawful for me to do what i will with mine own is thine i evil because i am good so the last shall be first the first last for many be called but few chosen you sort of get the impression that jesus is driving some of these parables home to get them off this kick of what's in it for me in the first place the whole idea of salome that not the salome that uh was the daughter of rodius but the uh there's another salome that's the mother of uh james and john and she's concerned about where they're gonna be in the in the kingdom of heaven same same situation reminds me of a poem by the way i had to throw in here just for fun i bargained with life for a penny and life would pay no more however i begged an evening when i counted my scanning story for life is a just employer he gives you what you ask but once you have set the wages well you must bear the task i worked for emilia's higher only to learn dismayed than any wage i had asked of life life would have paid i don't know why that ran through my mind when i was doing this but i thought i'd throw in here okay verse 17. jesus going up to jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way and said unto them behold we go up to jerusalem and the son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and of the scribes and they shall condemn him to death and they shall deliver them to the gentiles to mock discourage and to crucify him and the third day shall rise again wow what a mouthful this is the third time that he's announced his arrest crucifixion and resurrection and in the previous announcements he didn't mention how he was going to die but here he clearly mentioned the cross question did they understand what he was saying no they didn't get it matthew's recording it because he remembers it now but at the time they were they didn't understand was this a you know it was a figure of speech they couldn't relate to it and we see that emphasized in luke 18 34 but clearly the only ones the only ones that knew what was coming were the girls when they anointed his feet for burial they knew they they understood what was coming the disciples didn't get it then came to him the mother of zebedee's children with her son her name happens to be salome but don't confuse her with the salome that danced for getting john the baptist killed coincidence and came to other japanese children that's james and john with their sons worshiping him and desiring a certain thing of him and he said under what wilt thou she said then grant that these my two sons may sit the one on thy right hand and the other on the left in thy kingdom you say wow a typical jewish mother or something i think they were in on it too because they were she came with her sons and they were uh they knew they certainly knew they were on the inside peter james and john were the inside group and they were hopeful of getting some kind of special treatment here and that didn't go over very well jesus answered and said ye know not what ye ask are ye able to drink of the cup that i shall drink of and to be baptized with the baptism that i am baptized with they sent him we are able they had no idea what they're talking about obviously jesus said on them ye shall drink indeed of my cup and be baptized to the baptism that i am baptized with but to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my father so that was that but the other 10 were not too impressed with all of this when the other 10 heard it they were moved with an indignation against the two brethren why do you suppose that was true because they wanted the same thing right yeah okay jesus called and called them unto him and said you know that the princes of the gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that are great exercise authority upon them but it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great among you let him be your minister this is his he's inverting the pyramid here if you will and whosoever will be chief among you let him be your servant even as a son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many wow and as i say he's going to exemplify this in about four days by washing their feet and there are many groups that observe a foot washing ceremony to commemorate this kind of thing and while that at the same time it's not really not a sacrament or anything like that it is a an interesting memorial if you will to the kind of organization chart jesus has in mind the one that's going to be your chief is the one that ministers the most and serves the others and as they departed from jericho a great multitude followed him by the way they're going from jericho to jerusalem there go john tells us in john chapter 12 that there this is six days before passover if passover this year was on a friday this would be on a shabbat and they would not be able to go from jericho to jerusalem it's more than a sabbath day's journey therefore we know that passover was not on a friday some other day of the week because they were going from jericho or more more than a sabbath day's journey did you follow that it's one of three verses in scripture that seems to indicate that the the passover was on a wednesday some say thursday but clearly not a friday for what it's worth anyways the apartment jericho a great multitude follow him and behold two blind men sitting by the way sitting by the wayside when they heard that jesus passed by cried out saying have mercy on us o lord thou son of david and the multi rebuked them because they should hold their peace but they cried the more saying have mercy on us oh lord son of david my kinds of guys they couldn't be shut up they hung in there multi-rebuked them because they would should hold their peace these guys were politically uncorrect i like that but they cried the more saying have mercy on us oh lord thou son of david and jesus stood still and called him said what will ye that i should do unto you it said i am lord that our eyes may be opened so jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes and immediately their eyes received sight and they follow him brief words familiar kind of incident but we should never take it in stride this should stop us here are two people that were blind that now see because he healed them um phenomenal there are similar accounts this may sound familiar to you because matthew 20 is similar to luke 18 and mark 10. and some say there are different accounts some say there are discrepancies between the same accounts in luke they find that this occurs as they came to jericho they met and they met one beggar as they entered the city some said there's a problem here because here there was two and they're leaving here's one as they enter both matthew and mark indicate that the healing took place as they were leaving are these discrepancies of the same account some think so some scholars think so in fact they think that's good because it proves there's no collusion i don't happen to buy that i think they're two different incidents but it doesn't matter just want to call your attention the the the issue here mark and luke describe one blind man matthew describes two how many were there i believe there were two one is more prominent than the others martinez bartimaeus mark and luke focus on the one who had a better witness two blind men are healed just before the 12 were sent out to the kingdom of israel that's back in matthew 9. don't confuse that one either okay see several blind pairs that were healed is the point these are similar accounts two blind men are healed at the close of the galilean ministry and just before the triumphal entry that's what we're seeing in matthew 20. so don't confuse nine and twenty those are clearly two different incidents whether or not the incidents at jericho going in or coming out are different perceptions of the same event your call there's good scholars that look at it slightly different ways if they're the same account then it shows there's no collusion because there are subtlety differences i personally come down on the side that they're probably two separate incidents he healed a lot of blind men and which ones they chose to record as a function of the spirit leading them but uh let's just summarize a little bit where we're at we're about 31 a.d and we'll go over the how we got there in the in uh next one but back in in matthew 16 we went up from bethsaida up to caesarea philippi that's where peter jesus whom do you say that i am thou art the christ the son of the living god and from there they go up to mount the top of mount hermon i believe some say mount tabor i think it's herman in any case because mount tabor was was uh populated mount herman was not anyway go to the mount transfiguration it's in matthew 17 and uh then we had the a possessed boy in matthew 17. they get back to capernaum that's where we had the tribute money thing and the coin and the fish's mouth and all of that and that's again where they have the who is the greatest thing going on they go down to jerusalem for the feast of tabernacles in john 7 where jesus makes a speech about being the living water that's where the woman was taking an adultery this is all see john focuses on the on the judean part of the ministry makes i'm the light of the world speech and that and then returns back to galilee but that's all in the autumn of 31 a.d in the winter of 31 a.d they go from capernaum uh down to samaria and then to perea perea is the region of judea that's east of the jordan that's where the good samaritan takes place the unrighteous steward the rich man of lazarus and the seventy are sent out there then we go to jerusalem heals a man born blind that's where he does the good shepherd discourse that also incidentally alludes to hanukkah interestingly enough and he carries then at bethebara bethel bars on the east side of the jordan that's where john the baptist originally was baptizing and then we get to bethany lazarus is raised from the dead there's a plot to kill jesus then he moves to the village of ephraim up north a bit then he goes back to perea and counters the ten lepers and the parable of persistent widow and the pharisee republican the rich ruler and all that in luke 18. parable of the vineyard workers the request of the mother of the sons of zebedee that we've just seen now that's bring this is the geographies catching up with us exactly where we are now and then they had to jericho and from jericho to jerusalem i'm 20 miles probably but blind bartimaeus is there and one there's one is one of the blind pair that we saw healed that's also recorded in mark 10 and luke 15. and zac zacchaeus is going to show up in a bit and then the parable of the 10 talents then to bethany for the final week so this is heading into the big the big finish from chapter 21 on is the the close in our next session we're going to begin the final week of the lord's ministry and uh we're going to deal with the triumphal entry which happens to involve what i believe is the most astonishing passage of the entire bible of all the verses in the bible i think this is the one that's most flabbergasting it's the one that galvanized me as a teenager to take the word of god seriously i accepted christ i was a christian but when i encountered the realities that lie behind the triumphal entry i was blown away and i've never gotten over it since and so uh we want to take a look at it so what for your next session this preparation i'd like you to read matthew 21 first 11 verses all you need because we'll take the last rest of it in the following session mark 11 first 10 verses luke 19 verses 29 through 44 and john 12 12-19 what i encourage you to do for each of our forthcoming sessions is you might read in all four gospels the chapters that relate to the final week they're not that many and it there is a benefit in reading the different accounts because they each include something the others seem to overlook so i encourage you to to read matthew 21 and following mark 11 and following luke 19 and following and john 12 and following for the next time and as you do this be prepared to answer the question why is the triumphal entry not on palm sunday i thought it was palm sunday i thought that's when they had the palm branches and he wrote the donkey and all that and we'll talk about that in the next session let's stand for closing word of prayer

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Length: 49min 41sec (2981 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 18 2020