Matthew (Session 15) Chapters 21-22

well this is session 15 of our exploration of the gospel of matthew and last time we took a topic in part we took chapter 21 in part and focused on that enough so that we have the remainder of chapter 21 to accomplish in this session and then we'll get into chapter 22 as part of session 15. and so to give you just a little background for those that may be joining us midstream here the outline for the what we call unit 1 the first 12 chapters the first section of that of course has the genealogy of christ the birth of christ the baptist of christ the temptation of christ and the manifesto of christ as in the opening chapters matthew being jewish is a very uh focused approach to presenting jesus christ as the mashiach the messiah the king and uh the second section of the first half of the thing is there was a whole series of of miracles 12 sent out and uh we addressed a number of questions the sabbath issues the unpardonable sin but when you get to chapter 12 that closes the unit what we call unit 1 the first half in a sense of the gospel of matthew and so chapter 12 is where they that's really in effect where many scholars feel the rejection of the nation by the nation of their messiah took place as they ascribe his his miracles to belizebet and we note that at that chapter jesus approach changes completely because he never speaks to the public except in parables he explains the parables only in private and if you haven't studied chapter 13 to pick up that change it's very important you really understand why did jesus talk in parables it's a it's actually quite a surprise but we are then having uh closed the first unit the second unit uh with 13 we have the seven kingdom parables a number of feedings five thousand four thousand climaxing in many respects in the set in the transfiguration chapter seventeen and then we had some other teachings about uh due process and torts we along the way we talked a lot about herod's there's a number of them but the key four that we should know as bible uh students is herod the great of course who slew the children in bethlehem his son was the one that killed john the baptist and that's the one before whom jesus is silent in luke 23 his son the the grandson of herod the great who has heard agrippa that uh uh kills james and imprisons peter and is active in the in the book of acts and then his son herod agrippa the second is the one before whom paul has tried and so forth so these four don't confuse them uh antipas agrippa and group of the second so but in any case and feeding the multitudes familiar parables but we invite you to notice that they are distinctive and they carry a symbolic message that's quite distinct also the 5000 being predominantly jews taking place in galilee and has a number of distinctives and the 4000 which occurs in the next chapter of matthew predominantly gentiles and gentile area and it has some symbolic implications that are distinct so i'll leave that for you to refresh but in unit 2 of course is the judean ministry that's where we're in now the and the final week and we took matthew 19 to 21 before we took the triumphal entry last the last session which is recorded in all four gospels which is a clue that that's very very important and uh very critical and the final week is what we're really starting to focus on it start in matthew starts with chapter 21 in luke 19 but i encourage you to read both sessions in parallel as we go into this climactic part of the gospel of matthew the triumphal entry being chapter 21 of matthew 19 of luke and we went into some depth on that last time and uh as we move through matthew 22 and 23 of various teachings matthew 24 is in parallel to luke 21 it's often called the olivet discourse and that's a strange label it's just a way of distinguishing this particular discourse but uh that's what's coming up and we want to be prepared to really it's one of the most important prophetic passages in the new testament and then of course we get into the final week with the the last supper or the last saturday more properly called in matthew 26 and then the crucifixion of course and the resurrection which completes the gospel and matthew 26 27 28 parallels luke 22 23-24 encourage you to read have your reading in parallel with that too as we go forward but the 69 weeks last time we talked about very strange prophecy given to daniel by gabriel in which he gives daniel four verses and jesus himself points to those four verses as the key to end time prophecy we'll find that happening in one of the subsequent sessions but we want to highlight this it's the most astonishing passage in the in the bible in my opinion gable tells daniel to know therefore and understand that from the going forth of commandment restoring to build jerusalem unto the meshiach will be seven plus three score two that is seven plus 62 which is 69 altogether 69 weeks of years and the street shall be built again on the wall even trouble times given to daniel while he was still a slave in babylon but sensitive to the fact that it was about over and that the angel tells him from the commandment to restore to build jerusalem the city under the messiah the king will be a specific period of time from one event unto the other is a very precise period of time and as we examine that the commandment what in effect gabriel is telling daniel is that it's 69 weeks of years and that would be 493 years but if we know that about the 360 day issue it's actually you can take a number of days 173 180 days and we know the commandment restored bill jerusalem was given by arctic xerxes longimanus in march 14th to 445. the real question is that what when did the messiah present himself as a king and that of course is when jesus deliberately arranges to fulfill zechariah 9 9. rejoice greatly or daughter of zion shallow daughter of jerusalem behold thy king cometh a very key part of this prophecy not just that he's writing a donkey but he's presenting himself as a king to jerusalem and that of course takes place and and uh as they they sing blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the lord on what we call the triumphal entry and uh the pharisees of course are upset when we run the risk of missing a point the pharisees always highlight it by getting upset tells with us as gentiles that we should um pay attention figure out why they're upset and of course they think they're they're recognizing that he they're the crowd is declaring him the messiah and jesus said i i tell you if these should hold their peace the stones would immediately cry out very interesting use of phrase any case it turns out as we examine all of this recognizing that all of what i've shown you here in daniel was in black and white in the septuagint three centuries before the new testament period and yet as we go through and recognize the realities here from that decree until the triumphal entry turns out to be precisely 173 880 days gabriel's margin for error was zero i never used the word approximate and god in the same sentence and that's most astonishing um prediction a precise demonstration that jesus christ is exactly uh who he is the the appointed messiah and of course he weeps over the city and many people miss this point says if he said he wept over jerusalem if thou and this happens to be preparation for some things that are coming that's why i'm doing this as a review um as he became near jerusalem he said and he wept over it and saying if thou hatch known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong to thy peace in other words this is a very specific day appointed by god but now they are hid from thine eyes because they didn't recognize that day they are blinded and they're blinded as paul this because of their failure to recognize this but now they're hid from thine eyes but then he goes on to mention something else he says for the day shall come upon thee thy enemy shall cast the trench about they encompass thee around and keep the in on every side and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee and they shall not leave in the one stone about another and it's fascinating 38 years later the roman legions literally laid siege and leveled the place ultimately and uh a million and a half children slaughtered many half men women and children slaughtered uh in jerusalem uh at the fall of jerusalem in 70 a.d and why did jerusalem fall in 70 a.d is a great question on a final exam a lot of candidate answers why there's a major negative cloudy black um milestone in jewish history why did jerusalem fall jesus answer was because they knew not the time of their visitation he held them accountable to know daniel 9. astonishing passage especially from that point of view do it's not the time so anyway that that's where we were last time we're going to continue chapter 21 in our progress here and after that event and writing the donkey in jesus then cleanses the temple which is the next major thing matthew 20 20 excuse me 21 verse 12 and jesus went into the temple of god and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold doves and said of them it is written my house shall be called the house of prayer but ye had made it a den of thieves and the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them you know he opened his ministry with a similar act back in john chapter 2 and now three years later uh the temple was defiled again by the same religious business if i can call it that of the leaders anas the former high priest and his sons helping him apparently were behind this racket according to the historians and uh so see you to comply with the regulation the temple you had to have temple coin and so you had to have convert your regular commercial currency into the coin of the temple and that of course created an opportunity for money changes which on the one hand is a valid service in one sense but obviously two things were wrong they're apparently being abusive and secondly they had no business being in the temple and so uh it was uh jesus went ahead and dealt dealt with that and uh the den of thieves comes from a jeremiah passage of the same subject by the way from the old testament and continuing then and when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did the word wonderful may be a editorial term they were odd wonderful in the classic sense or awesome things that he did and the children crying in the temple and saying hosanna to the son of david they were so displeased and said to them hearst thou what these say they're really upset because they're recognizing him messianically again do you say to him yea have ye never read out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise he happens to be quoting psalm 8 verse 2 but the main point is is that the the the chief priests and scribes are upset because even the children are recognizing the uniqueness of christ in the situation and so jesus left them and went out of the city into bethany and lodge there now bethany's about a sabbath day's journey from the temple that's one reason you find him so often bethany had friends there of course lazarus and mary and all that and but it was a it was a a legal walk that was close enough to be a legal walk on shabbat and so it's very lodged then we have this other strange event that occurred now in the morning as he returned into the city he hungered and when he saw a fig tree in the way he came to it and found nothing there on but leaves only and said unto it let no fruit grow on thee henceforth forever and presently the fig tree withered away strange event strange event and you sometimes see it rendered in movies and stuff enigmatically i mean it's quite clear that often even the people producing the movie didn't really understand what that had to do with anything was he against figs i don't think so quite the garner he wanted some they weren't there in most varieties of fig trees in that part of the country the leaves show up um the figs should actually the figs should show up before the leaves so when you see leaves you would expect the figs to be already there that's what it's not obvious unless you without that little a bit of background and so but jesus is actually making a point here in several other places not in matthew account particularly but both in luke and matthew 21 earlier to find the term bethphage for that area beth phage and bethany are in a sense almost like synonyms bethphage means the house of unripe figs strangely enough and the fig tree symbolizes now many most scholars would recognize this as symbolizing the nation of israel they would draw upon jeremiah 8 hosea 9 and luke 13 for references there there are some scholars that say it's actually more specifically the house of judah and uh so it's whether it's the nation as a whole or focusing on judah is a debate that you involve some other issues that are very tangential to our purpose here but the the um specificity of judah is suggested from isaiah 24 uh uh also isaiah 9 and joel 1. for those of you that want to get into that but the main idea here is just as the tree had leaves but no fruit so israel had a show of religion but no practical experience of faith resulting in godly living that's the net of this not just this but a number of things that are going to follow in this in the subsequent chapter you're going to discover that these things all fit into a pattern they're not just little random parables that'll surface here shortly the main point that comes out of all of this and we could spend a lot of time hammering this but i think it's pretty self-evident to this serious student the main theme is god wants to produce fruit in the lives of his people the focus here of course is israel their failure to be prepared for and receive their messiah we're going to talk heavily about that in the next couple of sessions so that has a a specific geopolitical application to the time that we're dealing with it also clearly doesn't take any imagination to recognize how it applies to us personally it's exactly god expects our lives to bear fruit often with a large audience i'll ask the audience how many of you are saved how many of you are saved can i see show of hands my second question is what have you done with it you know there's a tendency in the evangelical community to celebrate when someone makes a decision for christ they come down the sawdust trail and they answer an altar call and they make a decision for christ and we we celebrate that i'm not demeaning that but there is a misleading aspect of that that's not a climax it's a beginning the real issue isn't making that deci that decision the real issue is how are you gonna finish the landscapes littered with people for whom finishing well was not part of their epitaph and uh so god expects a real conversion to bear fruit and uh we we can't we're not here to judge gifts see i'm not interested in whether you're speaking in tongues or this or that what your gift might be i am but not not as an endpoint we're not gift inspectors we're fruit inspectors are there is there fruit in your life is the real issue and uh that's another aspect of this well let's move on in matthew 20. and when the disciples saw it that is this dried up fig tree they marveled saying how soon is the fig tree withered away jesus answered and said to them verily i say unto you if ye have faith and doubt not he shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree but also if he shall say unto this mountain be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea it shall be done and all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer believing ye shall receive that's quite a challenge that's quite a challenge easily abused but quite a challenge and when he was coming to the temple the chief priests and elders of the people came on him as he was teaching and said by what authority doest thou these things and who gave thee this authority they're upset he just cleaned house he had a major impact on their profit plan so they're challenging his authority to do all of this jesus answered and said to them i also will ask you one thing which if you tell me i and likewise will tell you by what authority i do these things he knew that they were um they're just trying to trap him there's a whole series of these attempts and entrapment that he dealing with and this is anticipatory in that sense and uh you know in verse 23 they you know why what authority our response to that is this is late in the game fella they had their chance and they blew it back in chapter 12 and following right and so he's going to give them the answer to their question when he's under oath before the high priest in a couple of about in about 34 days from now but he's not going to play their game here you want to know what my authority is if you you answer my question i'll answer yours the baptism of john what was it from heaven or amen the baptism of john whence was it in other words he's in effect asking him by what authority did they kill john from heaven or of men now you can sort of see them back off and murmur among themselves reasoning how they're going to answer this question they reasoned with themselves saying if we shall say from heaven he will say unto us and why did ye not then believe him but if we say of men we fear the people for all whole john is a prophet see the guy he's got them over a barrel he's got them right where they were trying to get him you know i it would be interesting i have never actually done this i probably should be interesting just to take these exchanges between christ and his adversaries how he always and this is not a surprise if you understand who he is he always outmaneuvers them i think it's it's masterful it's it's fun um but um so on the one hand the he's corning them because they didn't believe him he was from heaven they got a real problem if he wasn't from heaven then he's he they got a crowd around him the crowd thinks john the baptist was great news and so their answer to him was the answer jesus said we cannot tell he said to them neither will i tell you by what authority i do these things you can't you can't escape despite the tensions involved you can't escape the sense of humor in the situation you know the irony how he's got them trapped and he's got them right to where they were trying to get him if you follow me and this goes on with the caesar's coin and all that rest coming up here but but it's it's fun to see the give-and-take nothing here compares with john 8 where they call him a bastard and he says i'll tell you about your parentage and so forth you know john 8 when you read john 8 you really need to not miss the vituperative tension between them there not that this isn't tense here too but jesus goes on what thank you a certain man had two sons and he came to the first and said son go work today in the vineyard he answered and said i will not but afterward he repented and he went he came to the second son and said likewise he answered i go sir and went not you see the two the contrasts here right whether of them twain did the will of his father he's asking them here is this teaching going on here they sent him the first jesus said unverily i say unto you that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of god before you because see there he's addressing the pharisees and they they go through all the motions but they're he's looking inside where their hearts are they're losers there are others that are disparaged in the society that in fact have more access to the kingdom of god they have because they've got a chance of sincerely repenting and coming to faith it's interesting that that well let's go on for john came in unto you in the way of righteousness and ye believed him not but the public of the hearts believed him and ye when he had seen it repented not afterward that ye might believe him so the point is that you see john had fruit now he's going to subsequently get into a vineyard parable but i thought it'd be useful before we get to the next teaching of christ which is about a vineyard a model we should take a look at where he's drawing the idioms from and that's the book of isaiah chapter 5. he's actually it the first seven verses of isaiah 5 is a needful background to really grasp what jesus is about to get into in his next parable but i thought it'd be useful to rather than just summarize that is to let's go and take a look at what isaiah actually wrote in the first seven verses of isaiah 5. i've got a double reason for wanting to do this i'll explain in a minute isaiah says in verse 1 of chapter 5 now i will sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard my beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill it's kind of interesting as we're going on here his beloved here in effect is the messiah jesus is going to draw in effect on this background but i love that he's calling here the idiom that isaiah isaiah by the way is one of the most articulate of all the prophets amos and some of the other prophets came from the hill country not you know they were men of the men of of the earth isaiah was of royalty he had one of the most eloquent vocabularies in the entire old testament and he he uh executed his office before kings and you but it's interesting to see him speak of what in effect is god as the well-beloved one i think that's that's beautiful anyway my beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill on good ground okay he fenced it he gathered out the stones thereof planted it with a choice of vine built a tower in the midst of it and also made a wine press therein and he looked that it should bring forth grapes and it brought forth wild grapes these are not commercially useful this is a this is like analogous to weeds in a sense and now oh inhabitants of jerusalem isaiah's being quite clear he's interpreting it for us here what happens to jerusalem and men of judah judge i pray you betwixt me in my vineyard what could have been done more to my vineyard that i have not done in it wherefore when i looked that it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wild grapes and now go i will tell you what i will do to my vineyard i will take away the hedge thereof and it shall be eaten up and i break down the wall thereof and it shall be trodden down and i will lay at waste it shall not be pruned nor digged but there shall come up briars and thorns and i will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it the owner of this vineyard really is upset because he's done everything you could imagine to have it be fruitful and it's a loser and he's angry so he's casting it away in the face for the vineyard of the lord of hosts is the house of israel and the men of judah his pleasant plant then he looked for judgment but behold oppression for righteousness but behold a cry now that's the background we need for the coming verses in matthew matthew's gospel but i find it irresistible since i went that far i want to add a few other verses and i'll tell you why you got i think that the application is pretty obvious the vineyard represents israel and its lack of fruitfulness and because of its lack of fruitfulness it's going to incur god's judgment that's what jesus is going to amplify when we get back to matthew but as i travel people ask me where's the united states in prophecy there's a number of characters that have published books saying that you know that the america is here or there and they have their various conjectures which i don't happen to share so i won't even bother presenting them certainly not defend them people ask me where is it when i they ask me that i see america is clearly in prophecy it's in isaiah chapter 5. really yeah it's not the only place usually hosea 4 through 14 also but let's let's let's take a look at what isaiah is talking his context of course is israel but let's watch what he says when we go further you have the famous six woes follow isaiah says woe unto them that join house to house that lay field to field till there be no place that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth that's what's really saying for materialism they build house after house and add land and it's prosperity then mine ears said the lord of hosts of a truth many houses shall be desolate even great and fair without inhabitant yea ten acres of vineyard shall yield one both and a seed of a homer shall yield an ephah woe unto them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink that continue until night until wine and flame them alcoholism and the harp in the vile and the tabernacle the pipe and the wine are in their feasts but they regard not the work of the lord neither consider the operation of his hands therefore my people are gone into captivity because they have no knowledge and their honorable men are famished and their multitude dried up with thirst therefore hell hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure and their glory and their multitude and their pomp and he that rejoices shall descend into it and the mean man shall be brought down and the mighty man shall be humbled and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled he's not through he's going to go with some more woes here but the lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment and god that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness then shall the lambs feed after their manner and the waste places of the fat one shall strangers eat so isaiah is elaborating on the judgment that's coming upon israel because they forsaken forsaken god he's not through woe unto them get this one woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart rope that say let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it let the council of the holy one of israel draw an eye and come that we may know it that's a taunt that's being said sarcastically [Music] notice verse 18 woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart rope in other words they are parading their disregard of god in a parade they're drawing when you see in the press what they call the gay pride parades that's what i see in this verse one of them that draw iniquity with chords of vanity they're actually hauling this in a parade and sin as it were with a cart rope boy that's graphic how interesting it is that the katrina disaster happened on the weekend of the largest gay pride celebration on the planet earth annually how interesting and even the taunt here let's say let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it let the council of the holy one of israel draw an eye and come that we may know it what one of them that call evil good and good evil call that value relativism if you like what one of them that call evil good and good evil and put darkness for light and light for darkness and put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter the interesting inversion of values in our culture you take a guy like mel gibson who does a movie on the deity of christ and the critics ex figure it was a you know a money-making snub film you got to be kidding you have dan brown who published a fiction novel libeling jesus christ and it's considered great history believe it or not astonishing to read the reviews and contrast what's going on here fiction extolled for truth and truth even the deity of christ dismissed this fiction going on woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and putin in their own sight when i see that i think of the jesus seminar where scholars so-called exchange their subjective guesses for sound scholarship they vote on what they think jesus probably said and maybe he had enough votes he'd resign or something one of them that are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to make strong drink that justify the wicked for reward these are judges that take bribes and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him therefore as the fire devoureth the stumble and the flame consumeth the chaff so their root shall be rottnest and their blossom shall go up as dust because they have cast away the law of the lord of hosts and despise the holy word of the holy one of israel this of course is addressed this is judgment coming up on israel but i personally cannot escape the parallelism between their predicament and they're being overdue for judgment with our predicament and our heritage there's probably no nation i can think of on the planet earth that more deserves god's judgment because of our heritage other countries have not had the benefit the heritage that we had and we've disparaged it and failed to protect it therefore is the anger of the lord kindle against his people and he hath stretched forth his hand against them and hath smitten them and the hills did tremble and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets boy that's gravity where isn't it for all this his anger was not turned away but his hand is stretched out still and he will lift up an ensign to the nations from afar and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth and behold they shall come with speed swiftly well okay so much for a little background from hosea actually from isaiah 5. let's now see go return what jesus is teaching here the people here another parable matthew 21 33 here another parable there was a certain householder which planted the vineyard and hedged it round about and digged a wine press in it and built a tower and let it out to husbandman and went into a far country you see the parallel with those isaiah 5 some nuances are changing here now this guy has given it to to stewards here and when the time of the fruit drew near he sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruits of it the husband took his servants and beat one killed another stoned another again he sent other servants more than the first and they did unto them likewise that was every time he sends his representatives to get the pay that's due him they get slaughtered what do you think this guy's thinking you know the owner is getting probably pretty cool here on the whole deal but last of all he sent unto them his son saying well they will reverence my son but when the husband saw the son they said among themselves this is the air come let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance that may sound obscure to us because we're not familiar with the laws but there is a structure by which they could have aspired to gaining the property by killing the sun i don't want to get in those mechanics it doesn't suit our purpose here but then you get the idea in any case unless he's unless he's on his services they caught him cast him out of the vineyard and slew him they even killed the owner's son when the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh what will he do unto those husbandmen and they said unto him listen to they said to him well he will miserably destroy those wicked men and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen which shall render him the fruits in their seasons right they're going to lose their franchise israel is going to lose their franchise do you say to them did you never read in the scriptures the stone which the builders rejected the same as become the head of the corner this is the lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes therefore i say unto you the kingdom of god shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof and whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it shall grind him to powder graphic language stones and mountains listen god is referred to as a rock or a stone throughout the old testament deuteronomy 32 psalm 18 and so forth first corinthians 10 4 paul even says that rock that followed him in the wilderness warning was christ he's speaking idiomatically of course the stone is also a messianic title and that's of course what happens in the number of places in the first corinth corinthians 10 4 is one of them now to israel jesus was a stumbling stone and some respect still is today isaiah 8 romans 9 1st corinthians 1 and so forth israel rejected their messiah but in his death and resurrection he created the church that's the other nation expression if i can put it that way to the church jesus the foundation stone the head of the corner so so designated in ephesians 2 first peter 2 and a number of other places at the end of the age that stone is going to become a mountain remember the the the trailing part of the daniel 2 the famous nebuchadnezzar dream with the metal image the stone cut without hands smites it crumbles it and it the stone grows into a mountain that fills the whole earth the mountain is a government at the end of the age jesus will come as the smiting stone destroying gentile kingdoms and establish his own glorious kingdom and that's really the climactic thing in daniel 2 that's also portrayed with different idioms but same issue in daniel 7 as amplified of course in the book of revelation 13 to the to 20 in effect 11 45 and when the chief priests and the pharisees had heard his parables they perceived that he spoke of them in which we say no kidding dick tracy but when they sought to lay hands on him they feared the multitude because they took him for a prophet you need to understand that his popularity this is the this is passover week there's probably anywhere from one to two million people in jerusalem which for that period is an enormous crowd every able-bodied jew was to go to jerusalem on three of the seven feasts of israel on passover and that term is used for the collection of three priests the feast of passover feast of unleavened bread and the feast of first fruits collectively speak spoken of the connotatively passover all occurring the first uh uh month of the religious year they also came supposed to be there in the seventh month on the feast of tabernacles and there's a strange feast in between those right in the middle of the year so to speak uh the feast of the shabbot or pentecost so the place is really crowded because every every able-bodied jew able to come would be there and they'd all heard the stories they heard about lazarus and all this and they he was too popular for the chief priests to dare mess around here and there's another thing that'll come up in another passage in matthew they also plotted to kill him but not on a feast day because of rome they won't take him here because they're popular in the crowd they don't want to have it do it on a on a feast period anyway because if they don't want to enter in rome will not tolerate an insurrection rome almost didn't care what you did as long as you did it orderly they the way their report the the report card or the leader pilot in rome would be punched in terms of is it orderly if he has an insurrection his job is at risk so they did not plan to do it on a feast day why did it happen on a feast day because jesus forced them to he forces their hand we'll see that when we get to the last supper many people miss that okay so now we're in chapter 22. and jesus answered and speaking of them again in parables it said kingdom of heaven is like a certain king which made a marriage for his son and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding and they would not come this is a king with a wedding situation and people chose not to come that's that sounds hard to imagine again he sent forth other servants saying to tell them which are bitten behold i have prepared my dinner my oxen my fatlings are killed and all things are ready come unto the marriage but they made light of it they went their ways one to his farm another to his merchandise the remnant took his servants and treated them spitefully and slew them and now he didn't come to the party they killed his representatives again it's an echo of the same kind of thing but i think you're picking up on the eschatological issues here right in this case we're talking about a wedding ceremony there's bridegroom involved when the king heard thereof he didn't mind at all no that's not what it says i'm just want to see if you're painting when the king heard thereof he was wroth and he sent forth his armies this is a king this isn't just some upset merchant this is a king he sent forth his armies destroyed those murderers and burned up their city and then saith he to his servants the wedding is ready but they which were bitten were not worthy go there for under the highways and as many as you shall find bid to the marriage until the servants went out in the highways and gathered together all as many as they found both bad and good and the wedding was furnished with guests they went out and got republicans and democrats and got them all in here whatever now that's part a you get the picture so far there's another little lesson tucked in here in in the ps if you will when the king came in to see the guests he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment see you need to understand a custom that you and i are not familiar with probably in those days it was the tradition especially the king that when he threw a par a party like this he would provide the garments so that those that were in lower station wouldn't be embarrassed the idea was that the part of the host when you got there you got the garment given to you by the you know you were you had the a proper garment for the occasion it was provided by the host that's not you know we don't have a parallel situation too much in our culture but it's essential to understand that to understand what's going on here because king goes he finds a guy that does not have a wedding garment on he said unto him friend how camest thou and hither not having a wedding garment and he was speechless in the greek that means he didn't have an answer i'm being foreseen okay then said the king to his to the servants bind him hand in foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth many are called but few are chosen wow that's pretty spooky i don't think you want to find yourself at the marriage separate the lamb without a garment provided by the bridegroom it's not your righteousness that'll carry it you need his righteousness that's what's to cut right through it many are called but a few are chosen you see it's interesting how the parable takes that twist it's sort of a in parable but you sort of you sort of puncture the the the model by throwing them in the outer darkness you know the king is going to you follow me there's a you he sort of shifts from the idiom to reality here boy then with the pharisees and took counsel on how they might entangle him in his talk you know these guys don't no learning takes place they're still at it they're going to trick god then with the pharisees and took counsel on how they might entangle him in his thought and they sent out unto him their disciples with the herodians we'll talk about them in a minute saying master we know that thou art true and teach us the way of god in truth is this aren't they oily yes we know that thou art true and teaches the way of god and truth neither cares thou for any man for thou regard us not the person of men tell us wherefore what thinketh thou is it lawful to give tribute unto caesar or not well let's back up a minute understand what we're dealing with here first of all the pharisees were pretty familiar with at this point but who are these herodians that requires a little comment they were pro-roman jews among the jewish population there were jews that aspired to get along with and be supportive of the the rulers and be which of course is herod who's an idiot man but the point is he's really the representative rome and so this group were basically uh a pro-roman group they had nothing in common with the pharisees the pharisees were obviously very anti-roman and uh and but what does unite them here nothing ignites two enemies like having a common enemy so they're they're these are strange bedfellows if you you will here and uh so they're joining to to trip up hopefully that's in their mind and so the pharisees opposed the roman poll tax we're talking we're going to talk about tax here in a minute for about three reasons they opposed the roman poll tax because they did not want to submit to any gentile power on top of that caesar was being revered as a god that of course offended the jewish sensibilities and furthermore they had they had better uses for their money than to have it absconded by rome just the pragmatics of it now the herodians were parties supporting herod and they were in favor of the tax the pharisees opposed the tax the herodians favored the attack so they had opposite views on this issue and because sahara's authority even though idiot man and neither might uh he's he was supported by rome and herod would had a very difficult time staying in office but for rome so you've got to recognize he really represented the roman authority the roman authority here now the tax every tax that poor people had to pay was just another reminder that they were not free it wasn't just the economics of it it was the insult of it that's what i'm trying to get across here and uh in fact there was even a group called the zealots they were like an underground movement of fanatical jews that often stage protests and so they would of course oppose any roman attacks so you've got these different groups that are all out there and they're trying to confront christ with a choice do you give to rome or not because if he says yes he's going to upset all those that are anti-roman if he says no he's got real problems with the authorities it's a catch-22 kind of thing so it's easy to see why the pharisees and the heritage chose the poll tax to be this litmus test here because if jesus opposed the tax he'd be in trouble with rome but if he approved the tax he'd be in trouble with the population from several different points of view you with me so how is he going to deal with this it's a real spot and the only reason it seems so trivial because we all looked ahead and seen the answer but jesus perceived their wickedness he wasn't conned by this greasy front end he said why tempting me ye hypocrites show me the tribute money they brought unto him a penny he's going to make several points here that many people miss so let's watch this clearly they brought into him a denarius would call it a penny and he said to them whose is this image and superscription and well caesar's then say at the end of the render therefore unto caesar the things which are caesar's and under god the things that are god now most of us recognize the story it was a very neat way to get out from under the crossfire to duck there you know to escape the little trap they'd set for him no there's something more going on here you and i have dual citizenship this has a direct impact for all of us we know that christians must honor and obey their rulers romans 13 is full of that first peter 2 first timothy 2 clearly the new testament teaches us to be peaceable okay to submit ourselves to the authorities that are on us so we have a dual citizen we have citizenship in heaven as well as earth now in addition to obeying our rulers we also must honor and obey god so therein lies the rub by the way you know i grew up uh i vividly remember the 50s and 60s where in boise whether it was boy scouts or the military it was gotten country it was a noble thing to dedicate your life to the defense of this country um you could argue that being a soldier under those conditions is the noblest profession on the earth no greater love is any man than he lays down his life for his friends someone is willing to take a uniform and defend his country is a noble endeavor the great tragedy of recent decades and i'm not talking about just this administration is that we've been put on a collision course with god back in the 50s and 60s you didn't have to choose between god and country you could with good conscience close ranks on that issue today boy it's a tough call after the court martial of michael new the young airman that said he would do anything the supervisors asked but he's going to do it in american uniform because that's the oath of office he took and they insisted he wear a u.n uniform and he refused he was court-martialed boy is that a watershed decision that congress didn't rise up to the occasion to to repair and does that have profound implications on anyone that's serious about a military career the other thing is see we're supposed to obey god caesar was not god that of course is part of the issue here man bears what image the coin beared caesar's image rendered under caesar things that are caesar's and unto god the things that are god whose image are we made in see the other point that's going on here caesar's image was on the coin god's image is on man that's mr and mrs man of course genesis 1. sin has marred that image but through jesus christ it can be restored that's what ephesians 4 colossians 3 you can do your homework verse 22 when they had heard these words they marveled and left him and went their way the same day came to him sadducees this is a different group these are the liberals they're also the ones that are politically more powerful in the book of acts pharisees are powerful during the gospel period but as time went on the sadducees really became the powerful the sanhedrin so in the book of acts the sadducees are really the politicos if you will in any case the same day came to him uh sadnesses which say that there is no resurrection and ask him that phrase is put in so you understand the issues here that see the sadducees claim to abide by the torah and attempts by the pharisees to prove the supernatural from the torah turns out to be problematical strangely enough so they could see successfully maintain that they they followed the torah but they didn't believe in the supernatural resurrection that's everything say ask him say master moses said if a man die having no children his brother shall marry his wife and raise up seed unto his brother and there he's they're quoting deuteronomy 25 and 5 and following which is called the the laborite marriage the word levirite really means uh comes from the latin word levier which means a husband's brother it's not it's not levitical it's a different word l-e-v-i-r it it means in effect the husband's brother and so um he's got nothing to do with the tribe of leave or anything like that but anyway i love right marriage if if a man die having no children his brother didn't have to but he had the opportunity if he chose to to marry his dead brother's wife and raise up seed to the family and now they set this up speaking from the torah as a sadducee might but then they they dream up this this this uh hypothetical situation now they were with us seven brother and then the first when he had married a wife deceased and having no issue left his wife unto his brother likewise the second also and then the third note to the seventh in other words these brothers seem to have a real mortality problem because they keep dying off at this point you'd think you'd want to check the what's she feeding these guys or whatever but any case and last of all the women woman died also therefore in the question they're setting up here is the next one is verse 28 therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven for they all had her they're trying what this is their clumsy way to attack this whole issue of the resurrection in their minds this sort as a demonstration the whole concept of resurrection is foolishness because they can't see how this would work that's that's their the point these answers to them ye do air not knowing the scriptures nor the power of god well that's a sentence man for in the resurrection they neither marry nor given in marriage but are as the angels of god in heaven in heaven people don't die therefore there's no need for procreation procreation is an appropriate to a species that needs to prepare itself perpetuates itself because of death in the resurrection they that is the departed saints presumably here neither marry nor given marriage but are as the angels of god in heaven this does not say that the angels are sexless it says that they don't procreate the angels in heaven don't marry that's what it says many people misunderstand this because they see this as some kind of implication on genesis 6. in genesis 6 the angels are not in heaven they're mischievous falling angels i wouldn't deny technology to any mischievous angel whatever the technology they used and these are angels in heaven these are the good guys it is interesting that angels are always depicted when they do materialize as masculine in fact very dramatically so in genesis 19 where the homosexuals of the city went after them i don't need to draw your pictures verse 31 but jesus continues but it's touching the resurrection of the dead have you not read which was spoken unto you by god saying jesus is making another statement again you may miss unless you read it carefully have you not read that which was spoken unto you by god saying i am the god of abraham and the god of isaac and the god of jacob god is not the god of the dead but of the living the point here by the way isn't that god is alive is that they still are abraham isaac and jacob are still alive they're not dead they're there with him that's what they really he's pointing to here have you not read that which was spoken up to you by god i love that because that authenticates the old testament too i am the god of abraham and the god of isaac and the god of jacob god is not the god of the dead but of the living and when the multitude heard this they were astonished at his doctrine they understood what he was saying when the pharisees had heard that he had put the sadducees to silence they were gathered together he can't be all bad right then one of them which was a lawyer asked him a question tempting him and saying master which is the great commandment in the law descended him and what he quotes here by the way is this what's known as the shema it's quoted from daniel from deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4 which says hear o israel thou shalt love the lord thy god and so on the hero israel in the hebrew is shema here so they call that passage the shema if you go virtually on any jewish household or office or building you will see on the the doorpost a little decorative they call it a mesusa it's a little container inside of which is typically the shema technically there could be some other things too but usually i would say 99 out of 100 would be the schwa in there in parchment was rolled up and put inside this little container and they kiss it on the way through and that's the shema because they venerate that as the the ultimate they venerate that the way i guess christians would venerate john 3 16. they might not know anything else in the scripture but they know the shema many christians know what no other voice but you know god for god so loved the world they gave us and so forth okay so anyway so jesus christ quoting here is the greatest commandment from the son of god himself god sent him thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy mind that's essentially the shema with one subtle change that we don't have to get into here but be aware of the fact that he added one small little thing what does he mean by mind it's not your brain that's a whole another study what do you mean by heart what do you mean by soul heart soul spirit mind these are terms we use what do they really mean you don't go to a dictionary because that depends on context what you want to do is take those words in the greek and the hebrew and examine every place in the bible they appear and discover what they really mean my wife spent 20 years doing that and that led to her trilogy of books called the way of agape but the real discovery in that in my mind was the realization of what those words actually mean and they're not what you think they mean we think of mind we think it equivalent to brain that's not what the word means okay and we go into your heart and soul those are loosely used words and misused in in the colloquial environment they're used very precisely in the architecture of the temple and you won't understand that anyway this is the first and great commandment no no argument there jesus goes on to give him the second in line here the second is like unto it thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself he's basically quoting leviticus 19 18. and even an unbelieving jew would agree that jesus adequately summarized the entire bible by quoting two verses the shema of deuteronomy 6 4 and the what we would call the golden rule kind of thing that's it really isn't but anyway leviticus 1918 and it's interesting that the islamic quran has not one commandment in it cover to cover to love anything but has over a hundred commands to execute the non-believers the non-believers in islam let me just be aware of the the disinformation that's being promoted throughout our culture but anyway jesus quotes these two and then he says on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets go through the ten commandments the first three are our love of god and the rest are our love of our brother but they all def detailed together obviously when the pharisees were gathered together jesus asked them oh i love this now his turn to ask them a question he's asked them saying what thinking of christ whose son is he meaning the messiah whose son is the messiah well he said unto him the son of david okay good that's that's known as the setup okay okay you know in boxing it's the jab just before the right cross coming in here he said how then doth david in spirit call him lord saying the lord said unto my lord sit thou on my right hand till i make thine enemies thy footstool if david call him lord how is he then his son man that's a stumper the messiah is the son of david it david calls him lord you see you can't what this is highlighting is the god-man issue and you say well you know where does the messiah supposed to be you know so they have very strange arguments this nails it but here's the fun part no man was able to answer him a word neither durst any man from that day forth asked him any more questions party's over guys had your chance okay for the next session you're going to read not only matthew 23 but i want you to go ahead and review matthew 5. back when we started the study of matthew we went through the manifesto of the king the sermon on the mount which is three chapters five six and seven just review your notes after read matthew 23 read matthew 5 for some structural issues

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Length: 63min 31sec (3811 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 18 2020