Matthew (Session 3) Chapters 3-4

now in session three of the gospel of matthew in which we're going to focus on chapters three and four i want to remind you of our epistemological epistemology the study of knowledge at scope and limits and our epistemological approach here is to first of all establish the integrity of the design of these 66 books we call the bible even though it was penned by 40 different guys over thousands of years we discover it hasn't it's an integrated message not just in themes but every number every detail even the mathematical structures underneath the text we now discover evidence a design from end to end that's absolutely astonishing once you discover its integrity of design you realize it had to have its origin from outside the time domain and one of the primary things it does is it establishes the identity of jesus christ it's astonishing to realize that most people on the planet earth have no idea who jesus christ is they have no idea they have notions they use great this and great that and they have various traditions they don't really understand that it's the creator himself incarnate once you establish that identity he of course authenticates the whole package so that's our epistemological approach integrated design 66 separate books pen by four different guys with several thousand years a design which anticipates in detail precisely events before they happen and once you realize that the extent to which that occurs you you come to the obvious conclusion that the origin of this message had to come from outside our time domain the gospels each have a different focus matthew being a jew presents jesus the messiah mark is a servant luke is the son of man his humanity john the son of god the genealogies reflect that matthew's genealogy goes from abraham down to the legal line through joseph luke's genealogy goes through mary starts from adam and goes all the way to mary through the bloodline matthew emphasize what jesus said mark what he did it's a shooting script kind of thing and luke what he felt john who he really was matthew's writing to the jew both mark and luke to the gentiles the roman and the greek and john the church the first miracle reflects that same design and the way the book ends reflects that design matthew ends in a very jewish way on the resurrection mark the ascension luke the promise of the holy spirit setting up his sequel called luke volume 2 called the book of acts and john ends his book with the promise of christ's return which of course sets up his uh sequel the book of revelation and of course all of these reflect the four camps the lion the ox the man and the eagle that modeled the throne of god when the camp was uh operative and so forth and so matthew also emphasizes groupings with the other snapshots and other focuses the genealogies are worth reviewing here adam through noah which of course if you've studied genesis chapter 5 and translated the meaning of those names man's appointed mortal sorrow but the blessed god shall come down teaching that his death shall bring god's death shall bring the despairing comforter rest an astonishing little summary of the christian gospel tucked away in a genealogy in the torah anyway luke's matthew goes from adam from abraham down to david and luke's gospel fills in between noah down to abraham so so far we have a cogent picture we get when you get to david a lot of interesting things occur we discover that boaz obed and jesse and david are predicting the book of ruth and also encrypted behind genesis 38 we went through all of that before and we went through that strange prophecy at the end of the book of ruth which essentially demonstrates it predicts david as king in the times of the judges long before samuel and the rest of it the blood curse and jeconiah a key thing that the god pronounces a blood curse on the the descendants from jaconiah which of course creates a problem because that's also where the messiah has to come from that line and yet that line carries a blood curse and the way this gets resolved of course is that matthew takes his genealogy through the first surviving son of bathsheba solomon and down to the legal father of jesus christ joseph luke being a doctor and being interested in his humanity takes a different path he started from from adam when you get up to david they're consistent but when luke gets to david he takes the left turn he goes through the second surviving son of bathsheba nathan and comes down to mary and if we read the text carefully we discover joseph is the son-in-law of eli mary's father and that's from the daughters of zelophehad the torah exception on inheritance that was requested of moses numbers 27 granted by joshua in joshua 17 in which if a father had only daughters and the daughters married in within the tribe that the husband would be adopted by the father of the bride and raise up inheritance into the line and that's even the claims of christ hang on this peculiar exception the torah this anticipates the lines of christ joseph was the son-in-law of heli if you check the greek of luke 3 verse 23 it's nomizo reckoned as by law he's the son-in-law as we would say it of heli the virgin birth hinted at the garden of eden prophesied by isaiah the virgin shall conceive required by the blood curse in the royal line we talked a little bit about the interesting observations in the constellation of the virgo the virgin and how it echoes the seed of the woman with a branch in her one hand and there's ears of corn in the other it's interesting that virgo is associated with the tribe of zebulon where nazareth is located that's another thing i thought would be useful to be sensitive to so 14 generations there so forth and 14 14 but three omitted bought it out just as the torah requires because they died violent deaths because of their idolatry so it's interesting that it at first doesn't look like it computes until when you find something not quite working out you if you peek in behind you'll make a discovery that blow you away and we could go into more of this obviously two of these are names in common in order to provide the succession but their the blood succession was through near eye of of the father of salathil and so forth okay that's by way of review last time we talked about the roman empire but also pointed out that the parthian empire was a rival during the period we're talking about a couple of centuries both before and after christ and that buffer zone explains why herod was so upset with these magi showing up and we got the three gifts that prophetic gold frankincense myrrh that we're all familiar with and prophetic of him being prophet priest and king the major lessons last time was the messianic line that truth is in the details the precision of the god-breathed text we showed that in many ways the numerics of it and so on hermeneutically we learned a few things that pattern is prophecy out of egypt i've called my son and so forth really strange strange use of hosea chapter 11 verse 1. pattern is prophetic often in the scripture the person of christ and the nation israel are almost used interchangeably in a number of passages uh israel is called god's firstborn in exodus 4 22. all through isaiah the thought shifts between the nation of messiah abram is a friend of god israel spoken of as an individual and the spirit's upon him like an individual meaning the nation and there you get to of course the capstone of this is isaiah 53 where the the jews interpret this chapter is referring only nationally not individually but all you have to do is read it yourself and come to your own conclusions it's pretty obvious okay so we that's the first two chapters of of matthew let's jump into the next two chapters together chapter three and four john the baptist and the temptation of christ matthew chapter 3 verse 1 in those days came john the baptist preaching in the wilderness of judea don't confuse him now with john the apostle this is a different guy of course and not the guy that wrote five books the new testament that's john the apostle this is john the baptist a very interesting guy that has some aspects that many people don't realize we'll try to highlight that as we go preaching the wilderness of judea saying repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand for this is he that was spoken of by the prophet of isaiah saying the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the lord make his paths uh straight john was john the baptist was born into the priesthood his father zechariah zechariah priest but he uh he's preaching outside the camp in fact 20 miles away it's interesting he's going to draw such a crowd that have to go on foot they couldn't get a rent car drive to jericho you know they had a walk and when you take that to one of the things if when you're there you begin to realize what was going on that they had so not just a few so many uh came that they had to send an inquiry team to find out what's going on so forth and uh so this is what he's quoting from from isaiah 43 40 verse 3 to 5. the voice of him that cries in the wilderness prepare you the way of the lord make straight in the desert a highway for our god every valley shall be exalted every mountain and hill shall be made low and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough place is plain and the glory of the lord shall be revealed and all flesh will see it together for the mouth of the lord had spoken it and the same john had his reignment of camel's hair a leather girdle about his loins and his meat was locus and wild honey then went out to him jerusalem and all judea and all the region round about jordan and were baptized of him in jordan confessing their sins john the baptist he was dressed like elijah john ate locust and wild honey which it may have been actual locusts he might have done that but it also could be loca pods from the locust tree which is like a carib-like fruit and that's a that's that's a very reasonable alternative john is testifying to jesus's pre-existence before birth because he was jesus cousin three months older he's three months older than jesus but he treats him having pre-existed you won't pick that up unless you watch for it he took an unyielding stand against iniquity he was chosen as a herald many quotes on that to open the door of the sheepfold and so forth let's talk a little bit about chronology because that's going to affect what i'm going to show you this chronology is not necessarily correct there are many good scholars with different views we know that tiberius was appointed in 14 a.d augustus actually died august 19th of 14 a.d and tiberius was his successor so we know from luke chapter 3 verse 1 it was within the 15th year of tiberius so you don't add 15 you you you have to add 14 to the year do you follow me because during that year so thus the ministry began we believe in the fall of 28 a.d the fourth passover would be april 6 at 32 a.d according to the dating of sir robert anderson that we we we rely on for a lot of other reasons too you will find many good scholars with different views of the chronology and that's fine but you also need to know most those chronologies that you'll find try to justify a friday juice crucifixion a lot of fog lifts when you realize he wasn't for three reasons we'll bring out when the time comes it's clear he was not crucified on a friday so we believe we'll start with i'm going to use the reconciliation from reister santala translated from the finish about a decade ago that uh is one attempt to try to reconcile the gospel timings there there's none of these are free of different views by good scholars but this may be helpful we're going to begin in effect at nazareth of course and we're going to we're going to go down here to bethebara the house of passage the the the baptism took place on that side of the jordan interestingly enough and we'll find this in in john 1 and matthew 3 and mark 1. and uh we'll go from there up to the temptation in chapter 4. both matthew 4 and luke 4 deal with that and i want you to notice where jerusalem is with respect to bethabara see that distance you're looking at like 20 miles as i remember that's a long walk if you're living in jerusalem you want to find out what's this guy doing in the jordan then up to salem according to john then to kana which is nathaniel's hometown and that's where the first disciples john peter and andrew philip and nathaniel are selected in the first chapter of john let's move on and when he saw many of the pharisees and sadducees come to his baptism he said in the more generation of vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come you know that's pretty nasty language to use to these guys because they associate vipers with genesis 3 the seed of the serpent that language is not pleasant to anybody but if you're a pharisee that has a particular bite to it if you will he's calling them the sons of satan who hath warned you flee to flee from the wrath to come bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance and think not to say within yourselves we have abraham to our father for i say unto you that god is able of these stones to raise up children unto abraham now from joshua chapter 3 you may recall when they crossed from bethabara over to the promised land they put stones there one for each of the 12 tribes and i believe that john the baptist was able to point to those stones as a memorial you say you take comfort like your sons of abram i can raise up sons of abraham from these stones is what he's saying see i should say god is able of these stones to raise up children to abraham i think he's actually pointing to those stones by the way pharisees to understand the pharisees and sadducees we use those terms thrown around a lot pharisees technically were separatists they were the legalists the ritualists out of them came the traditions of what's now known as the talmudic jew they had their the they they embraced what's called the oral tradition so they added to what god has written down with things that took very very seriously they were the extreme orthodox in a sense the sadducees were the opposite of that they're comparable to the liberals uh liberalists today the rationalists the so-called reformed modernist humanist those are all equivalent the sadducees denied the inspiration of the word of god they did not believe in the resurrection that's why they were sad you see now i'm sorry that's a corny pun but it'll help you remember which is which it'll help you remember which is which it's very interesting when you study your bible you will find some of the pharisees and priests came to faith in jesus christ book of acts makes mention of them i cannot find any place in the entire bible where a sadducee came to faith doesn't mean they didn't don't misunderstand me but i think it's interesting that the extreme legalists were able to overcome that and realize christ was the answer the liberals were too blinded apparently anyway moving on and now also this is john continuing now the also the axes laid to the root of the trees therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire i indeed baptize you with water unto repentance but he that cometh after me is mightier than i whose shoes i am not worthy to bear he shall baptize you with the holy ghost and with fire we're going to talk about shoes before we're through i believe so let's keep moving here whose fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire that was that's his preachment to him wow well one day this is kind of this this is what he's preaching then one day guess what happens then cometh jesus from galilee to jordan unto john to be baptized of him but john forbade him saying i have need to be baptized of thee cometh thou to me can you imagine it's understandable because he understood who jesus was in fact it's interesting to recognize how he introduces jesus publicly the first time but you understand his bewilderment here jesus answered and said to him suffer to be so now for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness then he suffered him and jesus when he was baptized went up straightway out of the water and lo the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the spirit of god descending like a dove and lining upon him and lo a voice from heaven saying this is my beloved son in whom i am well pleased once you understand you're seeing the trinity here all three are visible which is very rare you've got the father in terms of the voice you've got the holy spirit in the form of a dove-like appearance of some kind and the son himself the whole trinity is visible here big deal let's stop here for a minute let's pop into john 1 because john details this so nicely for us john chapter 1. we'll start about verse 6 there was a man sent from god whose name was john he's speaking here of john the baptist of course the same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe he was not that light but he was sent to bear witness of that light that was the true light which light of every man that cometh into the world he was in the world the world was made by him and the world knew him not but he came unto his own and his own received him not but as many as received him to them gave he the power to become the sons of god even to them that believe on his name which are born of not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor the will of man but of god he became the power to become the sons of god that term in the old testament in the hebrew the is always used of a direct creation of god adam was a direct creation of god you and i are not in the natural we're sons of adam not of he was he was the son of god but he sinned that gave him a genetic defect that we now have it's called sin our problem is being hiv positive our problem is being sin positive but there's a blood cure in either case okay that word sons of god is also used of angels you need to understand that we get genesis 6 but it's even used here in the same sense as many as received him to them gave he the power to become the sons of god okay that's why you have to be born again that term applies and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glories of the only begotten father full of grace and truth john bear witness of him and cried saying he was this was he of whom i spake he that cometh after me is before before me for he was before me strange remark for a guy that's three months older but he you understand it's obvious it's obvious that he understood and of his fullness have we all received grace for grace for the law was given by moses but grace and truth came by jesus christ no man have seen god at any time the only begotten son which is in the bosom of the father he hath declared him and this is the record of john when the jews sent priests and levites from jerusalem to ask him who art thou see they're expecting three different guys i'll give you explain that in a minute who are you are you elijah are you are you that prophet so are you the first are you the messiah they're trying to get who does he think he is he denied he said confess i am not the christ they ask them what then art thou elias elijah was predicted to return he said i am not in malachi chapter 4 the last few verses of the old testament is predicted that elijah would come so that's why are you elijah it says i am not art thou that prophet referring to the prophet of moses in deuteronomy 18. he said no then said they had him who art thou that we may give an answer to them that sent us see these guys were sent by the priests to do you know to get a report they need an answer what what says thou thyself he said i am the voice of one crying in the wilderness make straight in the way of the lord as said the prophet isaiah he's quoting the same isaiah 40 first first few years and they which were sent were of the pharisees and they asked him and said to them why baptize us thou then if thou be not that christ or nor elias neither that prophet you know you're not one of those three that they're expecting three different people he's not one of those the fact that they're expecting the messiah is interesting because some of them may have had a sensitivity from daniel that if the time is right right there's certainly some that were that we will we'll encounter those later john answered them saying i baptize you with water but there standeth one among you whom you know not he it is who coming after me is preferred before me whose shoes latch it i am not worthy to unloose there are three anticipated the judaism is expecting three people the messiah of course at least in the generic sense elijah who's promised to return in malachi 4. the prophet of moses that prophet as they call it deuteronomy 18. and john denies being any one of those three it's interesting that matthew 17 will encounter the transfiguration involves both elijah and moses moses present there that peter sees in fact all three of them see there and so we believe that elijah and moses have a ministry beyond their earthly ministry and we suspect it's in described in revelation chapter 11 that they are might very well be the two witnesses that are there pictured i want to talk about shoes i find this interesting you take any topic in the scripture and chase it down and you'll get a little treasure shoes moses at the burning bush was told to take off his shoes you're on hallowed ground remember that when joshua takes over from moses he gets the same command from christ who's staying there with the sword in the end of chapter five of joshua take off your shoes on halloween ground interesting remark during the wilderness wanderings for virtually 40 years 38 years actually the tabernacle was covered by the way with badger or porpoise skins they argue with what that word really means i suspect it's corporate skins but anyway which is what they were shoed with they covered the whole thing the final covering they had the embroidered cherry beam then they had the you know the the the ram skids then they had the goat's hair and then you had this purple skins and same stuff they made their shoelace and those shoes did not wear out for 40 years one of the miracles in the old testament boaz redeems the land for naomi and also takes a gentile bride to life and the shoe of the nearer kinsmen becomes a big issue in the fourth chapter of boaz it becomes it's a it's an image of disgrace to the nearer kinsmen it's a marriage license for boaz check it out and then john here comes the messiah the shoes i'm not worthy to unless i think shoes are interesting i'll leave you to run with that if you're interested let me move on these things were done in bethlehem which means house of passage by the way uh down to bethebar beyond jordan where john was baptizing so it's on the other side of jordan the next day john seeth jesus coming unto him and saith behold the lamb of god which takes away the sin of the world that is a strange title the fact that we're so familiar with it don't let that rob you of the strangeness here he's seeing jesus come publicly the first time and he says behold the lamb of god that's a jewish title that's an allusion to passover it becomes one of his most important labels it even all the way up to revelation chapter 5. then he goes on and said this is he of whom i said after after me cometh a man who's preferred before me for he was before me and i knew him not but that he should be made manifest to israel therefore am i come baptizing with water that's his whole mission there's a preparatory mission john bear record saying i saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode upon him and i knew him not but he that sent me to baptize with water the same said unto me upon whom thou shalt see the spirit descending and remaining on him the same is he which baptizes with the holy ghost and i saw and bear record that this is the son of god baptism why did jesus insist upon being baptized did he have any sins to confess or repent of then why did he have to be baptized he insisted on being baptized why he was sinless we've got plenty of verses there we don't have to beat that one down he was identifying with us he was going to be in our shoes you and i are barabbas's and he's barabbas was guilty he was innocent they changed places barabbas was given all the privileges of freedom and so forth and he took barabbas place he took our place identity this is his formal opening for the ministry the event is commemorated in the trinity we see the trinity the father through the voice the holy spirit descending like a dove and the son being baptized the next day again the next day after john stood and two and two of his disciples and looking upon jesus he walked he saith behold the lamb of god he's doing this every day that seems to be his thing behold the lamb of god that's his bit he's the advanced man done that's it okay and the two disciples heard him speak and they followed jesus and jesus returned and saw them following and say to them what's seeking they send them in rabbi which is to say being interpreted master where dwelleth thou the lamb of god introduced that way in john chapter one the lamb was the offering of abel we've got he got cain so upset in genesis 4. isaac was offered as the lamb in effect in genesis 22 the akida and of course passover the very label that is being used here is a foreshadowing here again we have the acting out of of of the nation israel maybe we got the offered as a passover and he's offered as a person isaiah 53 and as a lamb to the slaughter and so forth isaiah 53 and of course he's the kinsman redeemer of boaz as climaxed in revelation chapter 5. you won't understand revelation 5 unless you understand the book of ruth and of course the lamb is glorified in revelation 22. okay let's keep moving he saith unto them come and see and they came and saw where he dwelt and abode with him that day for what was about the tenth hour one of the two which heard john speak and followed him was andrew simon peter's brother he first findeth his own brother simon and say that him we have found the messiah which is being interpreted the christ messiah is the hebrew term christ is a greek adaptation if you will christos and he brought him to jesus and when jesus beheld him he said thou art simon the son of jonah thou shalt be called cephas which is by interpretation a stone now we can get into a whole thing here about the naming we'll take care of that at caesarea philippi later but anyway the day following jesus would go forth into galilee and he'd find a philip and say unto him follow me see now suddenly they're up in galilee okay there's a yeah there's a uh anyway we'll discover that matthew focuses on galilee john focuses on judea and they they even actually skip things from each other because they're of that focus but that's right just be aware of it um trying to fill up and see if they didn't follow me and now philip was a betheader the city of andrew and peter so this is a click here okay and philip findeth nathanael and say unto him we have found him of whom moses and the law and the prophets did right jesus of nazareth the son of joseph nathanael said on him can there be any good thing come out of nazareth see that whole term was a derogatory term you know i think in every region you have some place you really don't want to be from well that was sort of the way they treated nazareth because it was up north it was a galilee country in the first place and so on but anyway can any good any good thing come out of nazareth phillips have come and see jesus saw nathaniel coming to him and said and behold an israelite indeed of whom is no guile boy i'd love to have when jesus meets me i say something nice like that the thing said unto him knowest thou me jesus answered and said on him before that philip called me when thou was under the fig tree i saw thee nathaniel answered and said him rabbi thou art the son of god thou art the king of israel jesus answered and said to him because i said unto thee i saw thee under a fig tree believeth thou thou shalt see greater things than these the paraphrases you haven't seen anything yet [Laughter] and he said unto him verily verily i say unto you hereafter ye shall see heaven open and the angels of god ascending and descending upon the son of man and that will happen in many ways but probably the reference here is to matthew 17 the transfiguration where that literally happens okay that's chapter three let's shift to chapter four the temptation of christ we're back in matthew again before we jump into this let's understand satan that terms the hassatan in the hebrew this there are two mistakes you can make about satan one is to not believe he exists the other one is to be terrified of him and see him behind every tree satan is a person he is knowledgeable he's not stupid he's very malevolent you remember the the campus crew used to have a little little maybe still do the little booklets the four spiritual laws you know god loves you and has a plan for your life some of you came up a little and satan has a four laws he hates you and he has a miserable plan for your life they did a parody on that kidding around but anyway i always think of that one anyway he's not he's malevolent and he's a very powerful ruler we need to understand that there is a personal satan a real person who is your adversary you need to understand that there are two mistakes you can make about satan the first is you can pretend he doesn't exist that's naive and dangerous or we can become so conscious of him that he receives more credit than he deserves let me remind you that the entire planet earth is going to have a thousand year period where satan is bound for a thousand years he's no longer an excuse there'll be full knowledge of the word of god throughout the world there'll be no shortages plenty of food there'll be justice there won't be any injustice it's a perfect time we call it the millennium but there are some scholars that regard as the most evil time of all because at the end of a thousand years after everything being perfect man still rebels no excuse that may be the point of it in any case he is a created being we need to understand that he's very powerful but he's a created being he's not it's not christ uh cook did a very famous book some time ago it's a great book but the title is terrible between christ and satan it makes it sound like they're equals no jesus created satan it's misleading he is not omnipresent he has location we're going to see that when he's through with christ after the temptation he flees he can't be everywhere when he's not only god can do that even angels as powerful as they are can only be one place at a time they come and they go they move they do things he has he's a dignity it's a rather astonishing passage in the book of jude where jude's main point is that we are not in fact he's talking about apostates people are that they sh you do not speak evil of dignitaries that makes sense but he uses it as an example the most bizarre example you can imagine he's a satan and he alludes to an incident that we don't think about how when michael and satan were disputing over the body of moses whatever that was all about he said he didn't rail against him he let the lord deal with it we need to understand you i i've been in some situations where people are singing songs i'm so glad that satan's so mad and you know they sing songs that and they they make light of it inhuman dangerous stuff jude tells us not to speak evil of dignities and the dignity he picks as an example is the most bizarre one you command it's satan himself he's your adversary he's dangerous but you don't mess around with that you don't deal with that and if you're confronted with demons and such don't be bluffed but don't mess with that let the lord deal with it satan's a dignity and he is he's real he's powerful but he is defeated the victory is christ's no matter how much he might huff and puff and deny it whatever let's move on we're now matthew chapter four verse one then was jesus let up then apparently as a result of the baptism jesus now goes through a 40-day period of fasting that seems to be a pattern throughout the bible whenever you have a major need but also whenever you've had a major triumph that's a time to stop be careful fast and pray the valleys are as dangerous as the mountaintops when you're depressed and down i think you turn to the lord great of course you should but when you're at the top and the peak you've just been awarded man of the year by whomever whatever it might be that's the time to hide fast and pray here's the example then was jesus led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil and when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights he was afterward hungry that may surprise you you don't want to fast unless you do some reading on it i'm not don't go out and do it without some background but you'll discover if you do a little bit there's a number of small books that very brief easy to read give you some background but if you fast you want to get on the fast very gradually now did you you you don't just stop you do you taper it off but then you also you'll discover the first three days are tough first two days you attempt it but once you pass that third day a very strange thing happens you'll discover it's easy up until about 37 30 39 days then you'll start feeling hungry the period of time your system shuts down and it's astonishing to experience unless you've got you shouldn't do this without checking with a doctor and most doctors don't think about it anyway you've got to make sure it's the right kind of a doctor that understands this but anyway the point is that uh 40 days sounds a sound i i made a big mistake once i was on a 20 day i was going to do 20 21 day fast and i was in it about 18 19. you know exactly that the book said it was the first three days little took a little you know resolved but no problem once over that third day it really was easy but a good friend of mine was very concerned the real problem with you know fast you want to keep a secret everybody's got advice forget it um but the one the suggestions made at least i would take your vitamin bills i got you that made sense until i popped one and then oh that was a mistake see my system had shut down it didn't do any damage both mario lonza and enrico caruso died coming off a fast improperly too quickly when you come off the fast you come off gradually you go from water to diluted juices and just you do it gradually with anyway you want to know what you're doing when you do that but anyway here he is so he's been on a fast and when the tempter came to me said if thou be the son of god command that these stones be may bread now this is misleading the word if there is not a conditional it's a just a conjecture since you're the son of god it's not if prove that you are that's not the point it's a myth it's a misunderstanding and the if in the english is ambiguous it really should say since you see since thou be the son of god command that these stones be made bread he could snap his fingers and have a desert would have been a bakery right but he answered and said is written man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of god and so you know it's interesting a lot of lessons from this we could spend a whole hour preaching from just this one issue but opportunity is not mandate just because you can doesn't mean you should that's important in ministry too there'll be more needs than you can possibly deal with you want you want to do is make sure that god's leading you in the direction you're going because it needs everywhere you turn so opportunities not mandate mission focus is essential prerequisite to success you need to know what you're called to make sure that's what you're doing and don't get distracted our refuge should be his word it's interesting in all three this is the first of three temptations in all three jesus will quote the scriptures it is written incidentally jesus quotes always from deuteronomy not only here but it's the book he quotes mostly from throughout the the gospel period it is written he's this is quoted from deuteronomy 8 3 3 and it happens 40 years in the wilderness was for testing he had 40 days passing israel had 40 years in the wilderness for testing one of the seven i am seven i am statements make up the gospel of john seven miracles seven discourses and seven i am statements and the i am the bread of life is linked to the man in the wilderness so you can tie this together and challenge you you'll discover a number of places in the psalms in jeremiah and elsewhere the writer says thy words were found and i did eat them the bible is not just for reading but praise it praise god that you do but some of your richest nutrition spiritually will come from chewing on it taking a passage and reading it over 75 times don't count them but that's necessarily i don't misunderstand did you chew your you know your mother probably said did you chew 35 times no but seriously digestion to it absorb it then the devil take them up into the holy city and sitteth them on the pinnacle of the temple and say their name if thou be the son of god cast thyself down for it is written he shall give his angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear the uplift at any time thou dash thy foot against the stone now he's misquoting psalm 91 here he doesn't quote the whole thing lay it back up the devil taketh them up into the holy city some people think this was just a vision or something but the language implies they literally were transported the pinnacle of the temple has a technical term in the hebrew that shows up in daniel chapter 9 verse 27. he's going to offer um well that's excuse me that's the next that's the next temptation let me just let me leave you with that for now because if thou be this or again since thou be the son if i'll be the son of god but it's not a conditional it's it's it's not proof that you are it's that since you are cast yourself down for it is written he shall give thee there was god has promised to do that in psalm 91 to keep thee in all thy ways is what he doesn't quote jesus says as written again thou shalt not tempt the lord thy god now is that really true is there a place that you should tempt god he says you shouldn't that's the general case there is one exception malachi call it malachi the italian book because because malachi gives you an offer you can't refuse does that sound italian i kind of like that yeah prove me now god dares you to prove him god dares you to put him on the spot to tempt him test him in the tithe that's a very strange thing for the god of the universe to put himself in a box but he's put himself in a box if you do that there will not be room enough to receive the blessings you'll get that's his challenge that's your opportunity are you really there god try it and see and that puts the then puts the ball in his cart but watch out he has a mean serve each one of these temptations satan is misapplying scripture but in each one of these christ's remedies is the word of god boy there's lessons there we could preach on that for hours but we should keep moving here now this is the third one again the devil taking them up into an exceeding high mountain they're actually moving around somehow and show them all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them what a panorama that must have been and saith on him all these things will i give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me now this is a strange passage if i told you that for 10 grand i'd convey to you the title of the big golf course that for which this town is so famous would you be tempted to take me up on that of course not because you know that i don't have title of that in other words for this to be a temptation his claim to title his claim title goes unchallenged it's not a temptation unless the premise for the temptation is true does christ know who owns who owns the nations of the world i think so satan is laying claim to them all these things will give thee if that will fall he chose them all the kingdoms of the world are satans that's not just here the scripture talks about him as the prince of the power of the air he's the prince he's the god of this world etc this world is satan's when you see tragedy when you see millions of people innocent people killed slaughtered by whatever um pestilences um this is satan's world these all derive from from fundamentally from man's sin but here he is the king of the mountain so to speak he says all these things i'll give to thee if you'll fall down and worship me what's he really offering jesus jesus knows that's why he came jesus knows they're all his eventually what's satan really offering christ a shortcut don't go to the cross let's not go through all that unpleasantness you just worship me i'll give it to you and said jesus on him get thee and satan for it is written thou shalt worship the lord thy god and him only shalt thou serve that's how satan got in trouble in the first place isaiah 14 ezekiel 28 do your homework you know what i'm talking about the ownership of the nations you know it's interesting the god of this world is his title in daniel chapter 10 we have a strange strange incident daniel is on a fasting prayer for 21 days and after 21 days he gets interrupted in his prayer and this messenger comes and he says when you started your fast i was sent to see you but it's taken me 21 days to get here because i was held up by the prince of the power of persia until michael came to help me i couldn't get through i'm here now to give you a vision he's going to give him two chapters with the vision 11-12 following he says but once once i give you this vision i got to go because and fight with the prince of greece the prince of greece is 200 years later on our counter so they're in a different dimensionality somehow but what that glimpse gives us there's apparently a demonic prince of power behind each of these evil empires that are fighting there's a cosmic war going on that you and i don't see there was a prince of the power of persia a prince of the power of greece is there a prince of the power of the united states absolutely remember genesis 12 because that's a remedy to that god promises that i'll bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee god uses as his yardstick of popularity is how are we treating israel if israel's got problems that's god's problems not ours and they do have problems but god blesses us when we stand behind israel's right to exist we need to understand that people often are popular questions i get when i travel you know why hasn't god judged america even billy graham quipped so colorfully years ago god doesn't judge america he'll have to apologize to sodom gomorrah clearly this country is long overdue for judgment why hasn't he been judged the only answer i can come up with is genesis 12. i believe it's our support of israel that's been our umbrella shielding us from the overdue judgment that's why i get nervous when i see us waffle on some of those commitments i know eventually we will because all the nations will be against israel according to zechariah 12 and other passages so what's the destiny of america i don't know but it's going to hang on how we treat israel we need to re-examine our heritage it's astonishing to me to realize how popular it now is is to disparage our heritage we have the most unique heritage of any nation on the planet earth david barton has a ministry called wall builders fabulous materials you can check it out on in this regard look at the election rhetoric today it astonishes we see the depravity that's masquerades his political debate it's just it's different it's one thing to have a difference of view of how to go about what's best for america it's astonishing to me to see major political parties disparage the heritage of america the so-called liberals the military cemeteries of this country are filled with the bodies of patriots who died fighting everything they stand for the whole idea used to be that character determines destiny not today anymore not today anymore there's even debates as to whether character is a legitimate argument in the elections it's the only reasonable argument i've sat on a dozen public boards of directors and when it comes time to pick a new ceo the only thing we're interested in is his character because by the time the candidates get to our attention they're qualified the problem is which one really has the character the judgment the depth of integrity that you're that's what you're after the others you take for granted well anyway after all is the devil believeth him and behold angels came and ministered on him now when jesus had heard that john was cast into prison he departed to galilee and leaving nazareth he came and dwelt in capernaum which is among the seacoast in the borders of zebulun and nephilim i want you to recognize those tribal names it's a very important and by the way a whole year apparently goes um is inserted here the whole judean ministry that john talks about is omitted by by matthew here and but i want you to know something else in verse 13 when you speak of zebulun that's a tribal name but he's speaking geographically it's astonishing to me to realize how many people fall into confusion because they confuse the tribal names from in a genealogical sense versus the the area i can be a californian in the sense that i used to live in california i could also i might mean i'm a californian in the sense that my heritage came from california the four generations of newport beach and my wife's side and so forth generally when you use a term i'm from california i mean from the board from geographic that's why they're using it here when the northern kingdom falls through the assyrians we're talking about the the geography all 12 tribes were involved in both north and south kingdoms the people that wanted to idol worship went north the people who want to be faithful to the temple went south there aren't any 10 lost tribes you're confusing geography from with genealogy anyway move on here that it might be fulfilled which is spoken by isaiah the prophet saying the land of zebulun and the land of nephilim by the way of the sea beyond jordan the galilee of the gentiles the people which saw sat in darkness saw great light into them which sat in the region and the shadow of death light has sprung up so matthew here is quoting from isaiah 9 verses 1 and 2. nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was her vexation when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of zebulun and the land of naphtali and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea beyond jordan in the galley of nations the people that walked in darkness have seen the great light they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death upon them hath the light shine why is matthew drawing on this particular verse because he's interested his prophecies he's quoting from daniel 9 and he's quoting incidentally from the greek version the septuagint slightly different but not important for us what he's really pointing to light and dark we understand that spiritually no problem there he's pointing to zebulun and naphtali and you've that both of those come from the prophecies of jacob in genesis 49 like we quoted earlier on the other one genesis 49 verse 13 talks about zebulun genesis 49 verse 21 this is the region that jesus ministries in this is where the messiah is really making his beginning matthew's pointing out that the prophecies concerning those two tribes are being fulfilled in the fact that the messiah of israel is present in their borders and is beginning to preach that's what he's saying with me so again it's a geographical reference we'll move on and from that uh time jesus began to preach and to say repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and jesus walking by the sea of galilee saw two brethren simon called peter and andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishers he said to them follow me and i will make you fishes of men and they straightway left their nets and followed him this doesn't mean it was the first time they met them he's calling them to service there's a difference between just being a follower and being there's something that's just as important here as cleaving it's called leaving they left their nets this these are not trivial things these guys are partners in a major fishing business they had servants who find out when you study this background they left all that to to follow him and going on from thence he saw two other brethren james and john the son of zebedee and john his brother in a ship with zebedee their father mending their nets and he called them and they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him if you take everyone that's his followers that's a group i'm represented by this circle up here that's just followers when you get to matthew 12 from that point on he'll only speak to them in parables for reasons we'll cover in in matthew 12 the general public okay i really should put it this way the people outside that loop of his followers are the general public and to them he only speaks in parables after matthew 12. you with me those that are his followers he gives some special insights into within those followers there are 70 that are known as the 70. we'll read about those in the scripture within those there's a group called the twelve most of us think of his disciples we think of the twelve okay but within the twelve there's the inner circle and that inner circle is what we're talking about they were the ones that were present at the raising of jairus's daughter they were the ones that were present at the transfiguration they were the ones that were in gethsemane and those three plus andrew were present at the olivet discourse their inner core inner core that's what we're talking about here the sons of thunder john and his brother were nicknamed sons of thunder they were fishermen these guys were roughnecks these were strong guys they probably did iron men on the weekends that sort of thing whatever i'm always amused that all the little sunday school film strips and stuff you see john is always so effeminate that comes from the renaissance art da vinci's day that's the way they visualized him but that's that's kind of scripture these guys were fishermen these four peter james and john and peter's brother andrew were singled out that's an inner circle and normally just narrowed down to three peter james and john and there are a number of occasions where just the three of them were were allowed to experience the transfiguration and so forth the four were given a private briefing that we're going to spend a special time on in matthew 24 the most important um second coming passage in the among the gospels we'll get there and jesus went about all galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people the gospel of the kingdom we're gonna we're gonna summarize that in the next three chapters glibly called the sermon on the mount and don't tell me that you live by the ten commandments of the sermon the mount because you can't do either one you can't live by the ten commandments no matter how hard you try you should try don't misunderstand me but you can't be perfect if you think you can you read the certain amount and that removes all doubt so what's the purpose of it what's it all about we'll check that out as we get together next time let's continue here and his fame went throughout all syria and by syria of course it really means what we call the galan today and so forth and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments and those which were possessed with devils and those which were lunatic and those that had the palsy and he healed them he healed them now the medical ones are not the difficult ones i mean they may be today that's not trivial to heal someone don't misunderstand me but the real debate what on earth are these devils and demons there are many people modern people who think well those are just euphemisms for psychiatric problems or mental disease or or delusions whatever that's not what the scripture teaches these devils are real these demons are real we're going to encounter a case where they recognize who jesus is where they acknowledge their destiny and they plead with him with some for some very weird permissions these are knowledgeable malevolent beings that have a dismal destiny and they are out to destroy you it's in their agenda to get you entangled and destroyed we need to understand these are not euphemisms these are not figures of speech these are sentient beings that are very powerful we'll be dealing with that as we go and he healed them and they're followed him great multitudes of people from galilee from the capitalists that's ten the ten cities that are up in that area and from jerusalem and from judea and from beyond jordan so what are the major lessons that covers with our time for today john the baptist jesus in chapter 11 is going to say no man born of woman is greater than john now that's quite a statement no man born of a woman is greater than john the baptist say wow that's pretty cool in his next breath he says something astonishing he that's least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than john what on earth is that all about does that mean john's not saved what is he saying we need to understand that we've got to study john but you need to understand john the baptist is far more than just this colorful character up in the hills of the jordan preparing the way for jesus ministry he obviously is doing that and his execution ultimately is a major event in the in the history here but what's he really all about he has a significance that many bible students have no grasp of and to make sure you get that i'll hold it until we get chapter 11. the lamb of god something you'll encounter if you mix with the rabbis a little bit they have there's a view held by them of two messiahs the mashiach is the reigning king the guy is coming in power the mashiach ben joseph is the suffering servant described in isaiah 53 and so forth what has escaped the attention of many of them is that it's the same guy in two different missions he comes first as the suffering servant to fulfill his mission he's coming back as the reigning king the first and second comings are in view these passages are so clear but they're so clear that many rabbis thought they must be two different people no same guy now something else i encourage you to study in the time you might have and that's the temptations and their principle source where do the temptations come from they don't all come from satan i remember as a kid i saw a little cartoon it showed satan sitting on a curb crying and the captain says those christians are blaming me for everything there's enough residual evil in each of us to do enough damage satan doesn't have to help as much that's what the millennium really demonstrates the devil made me do it the flip wilson theology but one of the things about these we really need to understand and it's difficult for me having spent a career within the defense establishment both in the service and the intelligence community and as chief executive officer of four different publicly traded defense contractors this heritage this country means a lot to me and i grew up in the what i'll call the impressionable 50s and 60s and so forth and even the boy scouts it was gotten country and so forth i'm grateful that i wasn't in a position where i had to choose and the great tragedy is the current pattern of things has put us on put america on a collision course with god we need to understand this question of ownership we need to understand when an allegiance to your heritage becomes idol worship it's a very gray area very difficult area having marched down streaming walk at the naval academy that's very vivid in my mind when other guys were in college we were every wednesday afternoon we were marching in review on warden field for whatever dignitary was appearing at washington washington those days being part of the brigade meant something still does and yet things are different today things are different during the second world war you could applaud the clarity it was black and white it was good and evil it was clear today it's the gray men they even use that term in the in the profession nothing's black or white crisp or clear everybody's being used the worship of nations something else we should dwell on as we reflect on tonight's lesson is the cost of discipleship the cost of discipleship is not just cleaving to christ it's leaving just as in marriage in genesis 2 24 when you get married man shall leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife there's a leaving and a cleaving involved same thing in discipleship there's a cleaving of christ as you understand who he is and what he has to offer but that's also leaving that doesn't mean just abandon everything behind it's not that simple boy we wish it was but there is a concept of leaving things behind when lazarus was raised from the dead and came out of the tomb he was raised but he was still defeated he had to drop his grave clothes most of us are coming out of the tomb were saved but we're still wrapping our grave clothes we need to shed those he was dead then he was defeated but then he was dangerous it's time for you and i to be dangerous raise the bar on your personal walk pray that through well next session i want you to study chapters five six and seven i'm not presuming we're gonna take it all in one session don't misunderstand me but read those three chapters do you live by it is it even possible if so how what are you going to do with a certain amount that's tough stuff it's familiar but don't let's familiar familiarity mask what it's really saying to you what are the primary lessons skim those three chapters do more if you have time but try to figure out what are the primary lessons for next time let's stand for a closing word of prayer

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Published: Sat Oct 17 2020