Alright, last time when we quit, we saw that Jesus had cursed the fig tree, came to an understanding of what that means, but it's not quite clear that the disciples understood what that means. Specifically, after Jesus curses the fig tree, let's take a look at it in Matthew. Again, we're going to go back to Matthew. After Jesus curses the fig tree, the disciples ask a question, and it might not be the very best question that they could ask. What they ask, Matthew 21-20, is this, how did the fig tree wither so quickly? What should they have asked? They should have asked, why did you make the fig tree die? When they ask, how did it wither so quickly, what does it seem like is on their mind? How? Very good. Can we do that too? That's neat. That's neat. Have you ever saw that before? That's power. This could come in handy. Alright? How did it wither so quickly? Now, here's a thing we need to observe about Jesus in the way He treats people. When His adversaries ask Him a bad question, He often refuses to answer. Would you please perform a sign for us? No, I won't. He said sometimes. Nicodemus asks Jesus' question. He doesn't answer in the way they're asked. When Jesus is working with His own people or with doubters or seekers, He answers their questions. Even if they're bad, even if they're inadequate sorts of questions, He is still merciful in simply telling them how it happened. So here we go. But one more thing, and that is that He doesn't just leave them there. We'll see. He answers their bad question, but He also tries to move them back to the question they should have been asking. Here's how He answers. He says, I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but you can also say to this mountain, go throw yourself into the sea and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. Now, how do we say this? We have a little Christian saying about this. What do we say? Prayer can move mountains. That's our saying. What does Jesus say? Jesus says this mountain, this mountain. Now, if you believe that every word counts in the Bible, and I do, and I think most of you do too, then we need to pay attention to the difference between mountain or A mountain and mountains, and what Jesus actually said, what He said was this mountain, this mountain can be moved, this mountain can be thrown into the sea. Now, Jesus is clearly teaching that faith can accomplish great things. And the prayer in faith, offered in faith, can be a mighty instrument. That's part of the answer. How did you weather the fig tree? Well, by faith, by a prayer. But you know, you could have this powered by prayer. But He's not a Muslim fig trees to mountains and not mountains in general, but to this mountain. Now, I want to go back to what I said to you earlier, and that is, the Jerusalem is a city built on a hill or a mountain. What's it called in the Old Testament? It is called Mount Zion. If you look at it from this side, this picture of a replica of the temple. From one side, from the north east sort of, it is pretty flat, but from three sides, as you can see, somewhat from this particular picture, it's really quite steep, leaving up. And as I said earlier, it was even steeper than 2,000 years ago than it is now. There is a significant down and up as you enter Jerusalem from Bethany. That's where Jesus spent the night. That's off to the east. You would go over the Mount of Ols, which is not a high mountain. It's about 2,500 feet, 2,300 feet, something like that, I forget exactly. But you go up and then you go to top and you can see from there a beautiful view of the city of Jerusalem. And then you go down the very sharp valley, even now, and then back up again, if you approach Jerusalem from that direction. So when Jesus says you can move this mountain, what mountain might he have had in mind? He might have had, and I think he did have the temple mountain in mind. I will tell you one reason why. I believe he is thinking of the temple mountain. One is because he seems to be interested in the temple mountain. He just cleans the temple, which is on the mountain. If you look at it, the way out of the temple itself is such that part of the wall of the temple was right on the edge of the steepest part of that slope. So you would be standing on the Mount of Ols and you would look slightly down, but mostly across at that mountain that Jesus had just symbolically judged. Furthermore, we have the fact that Jesus only uses the phrase, this mountain three times in the Gospels. In 1917-20, it's the mountain of his transfiguration, he calls it this mountain, speaking to the woman in, which is a real mountain, tall mountain. When he's speaking to the woman at the well in Samaria, he talked about this mountain and that well, which still exists to this day, is under the shadow of Mount Gerasim, which is the highest mountain in that part of the country. So the other two times, he says this mountain, he means a particular mountain is right there. So we have two reasons to believe that when he says this mountain, he's not talking about mountains in general, he's talking about the temple mountain. So if you want to remove this mountain, if this mountain is to be judged and to be restored again, what it takes is faith. That is the teaching that he is giving us in this part of his word. We could even say something more broadly, and that is it's possible to view Jesus' entire last week as an issue of moving mountains. Because mountains in the Bible are not just a place where particular things happen, but a mountain is often a symbol in the Bible of that which lists itself or exalts itself against God. Many of the cities in the ancient world were built on mountains as citadels, as fortresses, and the idea was we're going to build our city on a mountain. We're going to defend it. We're going to pray to our gods, and our city will stand. We will take care of ourselves, read the Old Testament prophets. I will not be destroyed, the boast of the pagans is. The symbol of mountain is so strong in the prophets, still so strongly alive with the idea of rebellion against God and human pride. Then in Jeremiah chapter 51 verse 25, Jeremiah calls Babylon a destroying mountain. Now Babylon is built, was built, and ruined today because it's not a city anymore, is built on the flattest plain and old ancient sea bed in those people think. If you saw the pictures of the Gulf War a number of years ago and just those endless flat, slightly rolling sand dunes, that's where Babylon was. It is just as flat as can be for dozens of miles, but Jeremiah calls it a destroying mountain. And Rome in Revelation chapter 17 verse 9 is called a city built on 7, what do we call it? We call it 7 hills, but you know what, you know what, Revelation calls it? City built on 7 mountains, to suggest that it is lifting itself or exalting itself against God. Now you want to move mountains, you want to move the mountain of Israel's sin, prayer, can't destroy it, can't pray for it. You want to move the mountain of Rome, that power that exalts itself against God and has no regard for the God of Israel. The way to move that mountain is not through a Messiah deliverer who will come and defeat them coming on a war horse and with great armies. The way to defeat them is by prayer. The spiritual root is the root. Israelites would not take that, Jesus wept over them, but he told us disciples that is the path ultimately victory and you know it was. I mean you think about the actual spread of the church, it was not done with the sword, it was not done by means of warfare, it was done by any human means it was by the blood of the martyrs. And after suffering and not resisting for 300 years, then the church eventually began to have a secure hold and peace in the Roman Empire. Let me just stop for a question or comment.
That's Jesus teaching on how things are accomplished spiritually and his view of the Jewish nation. Mike, good question, Mike asks, do you think that Jesus hunger when he approached the fig tree was representative? You know what I'm going to say is humanity is probably hungry, but he used that as he so often did. He used what was at hand to make a spiritual point and so I think it's a very good perception that he was using this barren fig tree and his quest for figs as a symbol of God's hunger and his own hunger for righteousness and Israel. Definitely good point. Yeah, question about the temple. Question is, would the people who were there, especially the high priests, have picked up the illusion to Jeremiah chapter 7 from that simple phrase, den of these, would that be enough? The answer is, I'm really glad for these questions, very good question. The answer is, I don't know how many of them got it, probably some did, perhaps most of them did not. But remember what Jesus speaks, he's speaking to those in the diverse audience that he has there, his believers and unbelievers. Some of them are going to just hear his words and be angry. I mean, you know what is, when somebody's upset and you're upset at them, you aren't really listening to them, you're just getting rid of answers and telling how wrong they are. None of you here have ever done that, I know. But some people actually do that. So some people weren't listening. Other people, like the disciples, whatever remembered, would have pondered, would have perhaps asked them what it meant. Certainly, I certainly believe that Matthew, by the time he wrote this, book knew what it meant. And it might have taken him, who knows, years, the Holy Spirit showed him that the disciples got together and searched the scriptures. Hard to say what means were used. Certainly Jesus intended for Matthew to write it down. He certainly intended for us to pick up the illusion because it's the pattern throughout, as we've seen several times in this course, throughout the gospels to give partial quotations that allude to larger sections of the Bible. And the more you know the Old Testament, the better you understand, the new. I think we all knew that. Good question. Another question? Okay, let's take a look at the next episode where things go next. They go into the temple courts. Just by way of an analogy while you get ready to look at that part of your notebooks. Wonder, men, how would you rate yourselves as a handyman? Anybody here to rate yourself an A handyman, A, anybody? One. Okay, that's root two. Okay, I believe that. I don't even give yourself a B. How many C's? How many F's? Okay. So you know what, my view as a teacher, the worst possible grade a teacher can give is a D plus, which means I have to give you the plus because I recognize that you tried. Actually, the worst grade is F plus, which means you tried and you total disaster, but nobody ever gives an F plus. So the worst grade you can actually give is D. You tried and D plus you tried and you still got a D. Well, that's me. I give myself a D plus as a handyman. I would say that, you know, I try and then when it gets really bad, I call for help. That's basically my motif. And when the help comes, I often look in the tool, chest, the toolkit, and I think to myself, I know it's false, but this is what I think. I think to myself, if I had those tools, if I had those gadgets, if I had those, you know, those, whatever they are, or those tools, you know, those replacement parts, I could have done that for sure. Well, yeah, if I had known what order and when, I could have done it, but that's of course the bigger part of the problem. Well, Jesus, just to slip from the illustration of the analogy, Jesus is kind of like a repairman coming to fix a wide variety of problems in Israel. We've seen some of them already, we're going to see more. And he has a lot of tools in his kit. Now, his tool is words. We've already seen that we know that. Jesus is not conquer with a sword, where does the sword come from, with which Jesus conquers? It's the sword of his mouth. Jesus does his work with words, and of course, with works, his miracles. But he's going to use words, but he uses all kinds of words. He uses symbols, he uses debates, he uses parables, he uses laments, all with the purpose of bringing some, at least, among the Jewish nation to repentance, and also to show his disciples where things need to be heading. Let's take a look at first of all the debates, and we'll do this thematically, we'll just look at two of them, the debates. The first debate is in chapter 21, verse 37, 23 through 27, sorry, and we've already alluded to it, and that is when Jesus enters out of temple courts for the first time to teach. Now here we go, here are the temple courts looking into teaching where people will be gathering to worship God, and when he has asked that question by what authority do these things and who gave it to you, Jesus says, alright, let's play a little game. You ask me a question, I'll ask you a question. Here's a question I have for you, you answer this one, it's easy, I'll answer yours, okay? The question is, John the Baptist, John's baptism, where did it come from, did it come from heaven or from men? Now this is a most clever question, because if they say from men what will happen? The people regarded John as a prophet, and so they will lose their credibility with the masses, and if they say from heaven what will happen? They'll say why didn't you believe them, because John testified to me. In John's message, what we know of John's message, repent for the kingdom as a hand, John's message is, so far as we know John's message, remarkably similar to Jesus' early message. I did the same message, except that John said someone greater than me is coming, and here he is, so why didn't you believe? Either answer is unacceptable, and so they have to say we don't know, now I want to tell you this is embarrassing. It'd be like somebody coming to me and saying, Dr. Dorianne, you know I've always wanted to have heard different things, what is your opinion of Billy Graham? Is he a man of God or not? And I would say I don't know, I have no opinion on that matter. You would say you've got to be kidding me, and this is the leading person, you know, for decades, and his ministry will occasionally controversial as well known, surely have some opinion. No, I have no opinion. I would look like a fool, and so the day Jesus silenced them said, you want to answer me? I want to answer you. There's another question they asked Jesus, this time putting him on the defensive, so they thought, not questioning him about his right to cleanse the temple, but this time putting to him a question that they thought would embarrass him as he had embarrassed them. It says in chapter 22 verse 15 that the Pharisees went out and laid a plan to trap him in their words, and they sent their disciples with him along with the Herodians. Red flag should go up, what is strange about this? The Pharisees with the Herodians, what's wrong here? Great. These are the last people in the world that should be together, be like hearing that the most liberal senator in the United States Senate, and the most conservative, who have been sworn enemies for ten or twenty years, are sneaking around and having a lunch early in the morning and coming up with some legislative plans. They'd say, something's wrong here. Pharisees in the Herodians doesn't belong together. Then they start flattering him. They say, teacher, we know you're a man of integrity. Oh, yes, we do. And we know that you teach the way of God truly, and you aren't swayed by men because you pay no attention to who they are. So then, give us your opinion. Since you just tell the truth and you don't care what anybody thinks about it, just go ahead and tell us. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Now, Jesus asked them, here's that question, and again, he answers with a counter question. He says, can you please show me the coin used for paying the tax? This would be a head tax. It would amount for an average working person to three percent of their years wages. Total tax rate, FF Bruce thinks, might have been as high as forty or more. Forty percent or more. This one was just for being alive. You had to pay three percent. It was a call to head tax or a poll tax. And they produced a coin. Can anybody here, by the way, I didn't bring a quarter with me or something. Can anybody produce a quarter for me?
It curved. Here it is, to tell you the truth, I had a quarter, and I did that on purpose to make a point, and that is, in about five people reached for a quarter, to make the point that you can all reach for a quarter. You'll have money on you. That's kind of a given. The very fact that Jesus asked for money and they produced it is already the beginning of an answer. Because if you are using Roman coins with inscriptions on them, you are taking advantage of that which Rome provides for you, aren't you? And if you're taking advantage of their services, and they also walked on Roman roads and drank water that came down Roman aqueducts, if they're receiving as the coin symbolizes the benefits of Roman rule, then it is right to pay some taxes. Let's face one of the answer. But those of you who have quarters, maybe take a look at them right now. What do you see? Or maybe try to remember? What do you see in a quarter? Whose head is on a quarter? George Washington, okay. What else is on a quarter? Maybe don't look right now. Just try to remember. Okay, in God we trust is on a quarter. Anything else? There's an ego on the back. Very good. There's the date, right? Okay, it says United States with America identifies the country. There's liberty. It says how much it is, doesn't it? Quarter dollar. Anything else? You know, here it was printed. Eploribus Unum. Who said that? What does that mean? Eploribus Unum. Out of many, one. Okay, and that's the United States of America. So coins have a variety of messages on them, don't they? We reviewed George Washington our first president. We are the United States of America. We are one out of many states and in God be trust, at least officially in God be trust. Now coins had inscriptions in antiquity also. I have a few coins here, a wire and there's, you can't really see it all that well, but that would be a cluster of grapes. Would be signs of abundance or plenty, the idea being that the government helps provide abundance for the people. These are pictures. It's probably a war scene, a scene of a victory, a vanquished person here, conqueror here, and there would be inscriptions of commonly the emperor's image on a coin. Those are all things that are on a coin in antiquity. It is also true that in antiquity, just as now, there were words written. And one of the words or groups of words that were written had to do with deity then as now. Here are some common inscriptions on coins in those days. One was this, Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Augustus. What is that saying? That sounds like Emperor worship, doesn't it? Son of the, he's not claiming deity but he's saying I'm son of the divine. Here's another one on one side of a coin. Divers at pontifex maxiness. Anybody here studied Latin lately? Divers is divine, God. So we get the word divine from. The God and pontifex, any former Catholics here? Pontiff priest, high priest. Maximus the highest. So God and high priest. So on the coins you'd have the image of Caesar and the claim of deity. Render under Caesar are the things that are Caesar's to God, the things that are God's. Pay your taxes. Isn't say that, render to Caesar, what is Caesar's? Namely, take advantage of his services, pay his taxes. Render to God, the things that are God's. Don't render him the worship that he requires or at least asks of you. So Jesus without saying it, without spelling it out, says, this is the answer and I'm saying this slightly had a sequence. But of course the dilemma was if Jesus said pay the tax, then the Jews, if he'd said simply pay it, the Jews would have become less enamored with him. If he had said, don't pay it, he could have been charged with sedition. So he avoids the errors while yet managing to teach his disciples. And of course he teaches to this day that with regard to the state, to this day, we ought to give it its due, namely obedience to just laws and pair taxes. But when the state claims to care for us and to be our guide secular as it is, then we do not give it that for God must be our God and the one whom we worship. We just stop for a question or comment there. Okay, on we go. After the debates, Jesus next tells some parables. I'm doing this by grouping not necessarily verse by verse, that was chapter 22 right after 21. Let's go back to 21. 21, there are two parables that we've alluded to already in this course. I just want to mention them briefly. One is the parable of two sons. And with the parable of the two sons in Matthew 21, 28, Jesus suggests to the Jews that they are like a son who said to his father, yes, I'll obey you and didn't. Whereas others, sinners, outcasts are like a son who said, no, but then repented of it and indeed obeyed. The next parable, 21, 33, 46, the parable, the tenets in the vineyard, tells the story which you've already alluded to of an owner who plants a vineyard and provides for it in every way and then leases it out the tenets. The tenets, however, bear no fruit. They don't give the rent. So he sends messengers, whereas the rent they beat them, they kill them. More and more are sent. Finally he says, I'll send my son, surely they'll respect him. But the tenets, verse 38, saw the son and said, this is the heir. Come on. Let's kill him. Then we'll take his inheritance and the vineyard will be ours. And they did it. They threw him out just as the Jews did with Jesus. They first threw him out of the city and then they killed him. But Jesus says, you know, they just made one mistake and that is that the owner was a powerful man and he will eventually come with others. Therefore, when the owner comes, what will he do to those tenets? And the people answer, he will bring those wretched to a wretched end. There is a play on words in the original language that the NIV conveys very nicely here. He will treat those wretched would be another way of translating it perhaps. And he will rent the vineyard to others. Jesus says, in essence, how right you are, more right than you dream and then he speaks to them directly. Haven't you ever read the Scriptures? Now, this is not a question about their literacy. When he says, haven't you read? He's not asking if they read their Bibles. He's asking, didn't you take it in? Didn't you understand? Didn't you apply this? Didn't you meditate on this? Didn't you comprehend what they need to comprehend? You need to comprehend that the stone, the prophecy, the stone from Psalm 118, that the builders rejected has become the capstone. The Lord has done this. It is marvelous in our eyes. Now, Jesus is using a term here. The word rejected is a kind of a special word in the original language. And it conveys this. It's sort of a family of words that do a testing. Have you ever seen a look to the toaster on the bottom when you're shaking the crumbs out of your toaster? What does it say on the bottom? What does it say? Don't you shake the crumbs out of your toaster? Of course you do. I don't know why everybody does that. Don't you have any right to shake the dust out of your crumbs out of your toaster? If you look at the bottom, what does it say? You are approved. You are tested. Laboratories have tested and approved. Right? Or somewhere on your iron or on your vacuum, it says those things, right? And some people think this is funny. I don't know why exactly. This is just too mundane. But here we go. When it says tested or approved, it means this thing has been put to the test. If it's if it's supposed to bear 20 amps, we've run 30 amps through it and it's still didn't blow. That's what they're saying. Or at least 20 amps and it didn't blow. You test and approve. To be proved. Talk about a work when approved by God's same idea. Somebody's put to the test and approved. That's what it means. We want to be able to say, I was put to the test and approved. That's what it means when it says our faith is proved by adversity in Peter and in Romans. It means that test was put to you and you had a chance to deny your faith and you didn't. Now, on the other hand, there's a word that means to test and reject to run 20 amps through that thing and watch it blow up. Right? It's actually a toaster used to make poptarts, never mind. There was there was some toasters and some poptarts that used to catch on fire. Did you know that? It actually happened. Now, how, you know, then they had to be rejected and so forth. They reformulate the poptarts. Tested and rejected. The leaders of the Jews put Jesus to the test. They said, we're going to see how much He can bear. We're going to see if He's the Messiah. We're going to see if He's the real article. They looked Him over. They listened. They examined carefully. They pondered and they said, nope, He doesn't pass. They rejected Him. They put Him to the test. They said, we see the signs. We hear the words, but He is not the Messiah because He does not meet our standards. This is predicted by Psalm 118. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. That is the teaching that Jesus is giving to warn the people of what they have done. Jesus goes on to say, therefore I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit, couldn't be more plain now, could it? He who falls on the stone will be broken to pieces, but He on whom it falls will be crushed. Then the chief priests and Pharisees knew He was talking about them. They didn't understand. They got caught up in the story and they rightly condemned themselves. Now, here's, here's what we need to notice as well. The kingdom will be taken away from you and given to a people, that word people is actually the word nation. Now, who is the nation to whom the kingdom is given when it's taken away from the Jews? It is given to the Gentiles. The Gentiles were commonly called in the pages of Scripture, the nations. Taken away from you and given I think a better translation than people is given to a nation that will produce the fruit. The Gentiles would produce the fruit and therefore because Israel failed, slaughtered the prophets, killed the sun, God will create a new nation and that new nation will believe and will bear fruit. And that is why, when you read through the New Testament, you find that in books like really all the books, but maybe especially just for now in Peter and Romans, that the promises that were given to Israel and the terms of love and privilege given to Israel are now given to the church. For example, just take a listen mentally with me, you don't need to turn to 1 Peter 2 verses 5 to 10. There, the church is called a holy priesthood, a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, that people belonging to God created to praise God, those who are not as people are now as people. Now, who are those things originally spoken of in the pages of Scripture? Originally, they are all of Israel. Many of them in Exodus 19 and 20, when God constitutes Israel as a nation, others found you can look it up in your Bibles but others found in Isaiah and Hosea and Malachi, they are all taken from the Old Testament. Likewise, also in Romans, if you just run through the privileges of believer in Romans 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, all the privileges of believer were originally offered to the Israelites. Justification by faith, who is the first person to be justified? Abraham, the father of the Jews, and now it's ours. The forgiveness of sins, Romans chapter 4 quotes the great psalm of David, the blessedness of him whose sins are not remembered, not remembered anymore, and he's not going to be called to account. That's Psalm 32. That's a blessing of Israel, forgiveness now given to the nations. Peace with God, hope, the giving of Holy Spirit, grace abounding, the many constituted righteous, all those things just in Romans 4 and 5 were first promised or given to Israel. When we read the Old Testament, we hear those blessings that God offered to His people, then we understand that through Christ, they are now ours. We are the nation that is the heir of those blessings. That's a clue to how to read the Old Testament. Again, let me stop and see if anybody. I know in some places to say such a thing would sound like I'm denigrating importance of the nation of Israel. I don't mean to do that. Just saying that the nation Israel is not the focus of God's redeeming love and purposes and grace in this age. Let's say that God has no interest in Israel as a nation, but as a nation. They are not the people of God in the sense of the churches. In the sense of the people of every nation, you know, Korea and Rwanda and Taiwan and Germany and any nation you want to mention? Yes. What do I say to the Church of Israel? I think that's biblical. I think it teaches that. It's not a prominent theme in the Bible, but I think that we are the true Israel. I think Romans and Galatians make that point. Not a nationalistic sense, certainly, because again, it's for all the nations. But unquestionably, we are now the chosen of God, set apart the people of God. Whoever we may be, from whatever land or creed or nation, if you turn to Christ, we are the real Israel, the true Israel, as Paul says. To put down the nation, and I'm not trying to attack the nation of Israel, just saying God has another greater purpose for us. Matthew 23, after we leave the temple, we're almost ready to leave the temple precincts. Jesus enters into a kind of teaching that may really shock us, and that is the woes, the seven woes given to Israel. You notice some of the language here, woe to you, teachers of law, Pharisees, you hypocrites, you blind guides, verse 16, you blind fools, verse 17. You string out on that and swallow a camel, you blind guides, verse 24, you hypocrites, you're full of greed and self-indulgence, verse 25. You have your white wash tunes, 27. Beautiful on the outside, inside, full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. This doesn't sound much like the songs I learned in Sunday school. I'm reading a little Lord Jesus, no crying, he makes a gentle, kind, quiet, sweet baby Jesus, and Jesus always smiling in all the pictures. What's going on here? How could Jesus, gentle, mild, loving, tender Jesus, say things like this? This is God's justice, Islinda. What else? How could Jesus say things like this? This has been spoken before. This is the clearer statement of themes already mentioned, yes. Is it maybe a last-caldor repentance? It is most definitely a last-caldor repentance. The word woe in itself is one we almost never use. Another, the closest word in English to it, that I can think of is another one we almost never use, and that is a last and not a-l-a-s-s, but a-l-a-s. Yes, a last, what does woe and a last mean? It means judgment is coming and I am sorrowful over it. It's not hooray, it's not hallelujah, it's with sorrow, Jesus speaks to this generation. It's not just for the Jews, the leaders, the scribes, the Pharisees, the high priests, as one of us pointed out. It's also for the benefit of disciples. You might notice that Jesus says to the crowds, 23 and 1, and it was disciples. So this is actually for the benefit of his disciples that he judges others. In fact, I would guess that if the priests were there, they might have decided to leave after a while. Have you ever been in a demonstration? I've been at one demonstration in my life. In this particular demonstration, it was about one of those not-in-my-back yard issues. Some of them were burning toxic waste from a mercury plant and all this kind of stuff. Literally two blocks away from a major residential district. People were waking up in the middle of the night smelling really horrible smells. I mean, they were so bad that weak people up in the night and in the summer and in the day it never happened when the inspectors were around. And so the people from the community got together and had a demonstration. And the leaders of the demonstration, it wasn't garbage amalgamated. That's when I call them, said, you know, garbage amalgamated, your days are numbered. You're reaping profits off the lives of our children, poisoning our blood and atmosphere for a few lousy dollars. Your day of reckoning is going to come. Well, I want to guarantee you, there was nobody there from garbage amalgamated. That speech, which was ostensibly addressed to the leaders of garbage amalgamated, were really addressed to the people of the demonstration. In order to get them to see that they should come to the next demonstration and the next town hearing and to work them up to see things in the way that the demonstrators, the leaders of the demonstration believe was right. Now, use that as an analogy. That is what Jesus was doing. To speak to people who weren't there, in order to educate those who were there. And you just say, one more time, the Pharisees and scribes and priests, not the priests so much, but at least some of the priests were generally revered by the masses, by the ordinary person. Jesus has to break their attachment to false teachers. It's vital for them to learn what Jesus says in verses 1 to 12. And again, maybe some of these people are here for the Passover and might have never heard Jesus before they need this. Don't do as they do. Don't call them father. Some of their teaching is good. Don't do what they do. They're hypocrites. Don't look to them as ones whom you should revere. They will not lead you into the way of the truth. They tell you things like don't tithe. They tell you things like tithe, mint and dill and common. Those would be, you know what mint is, of course. Mint is basically a weed that you can use to flavor your tea or various other things. It's a weed. For goodness' sex, they tithe their weeds. They said, it's a very important need to tithe your weeds if they have any value whatsoever. Mint, dill and common. Tithe your weeds. Well, I suppose it's not bad to tithe your weeds. It shows a certain interest in obeying and serving God, but Jesus says, listen, they've neglected. Now, while they can care of mint, dill and common, they're forgetting about justice, mercy and faithfulness. Those are definitely more important than weeds and the commercial value of weeds. Go ahead and practice the latter. He says in verses 23 to 24, but don't neglect the former. Jesus is warning the people. It's an act of His grace. It's an act of His instruction. It's an act of kindness to warn people. Don't follow false teachers. Don't listen to those who lead you astray. Don't heed those who major in minors. He says to them, these people are hypocrites. He says it over and over again. You know, there are two kinds of hypocrites in the world. One is a deliberate hypocrite. The person who says, I want to appear to be what I am not. You know what the other kind of hypocrite is? Somebody who has been playing the game so long, they don't know they're playing anymore. They have deceived themselves so long that they don't even know it. They don't even know what they're doing. They deceive others. We might say unintentional hypocrites. The Jews were unintentional hypocrites. Jesus says they traveled in this passage, that they traveled land and sea to make one convert. That sounds like sincerity to me. You know, and they fasted twice a week and they tithe scriptlessly. They were sincere hypocrites. I know it sounds like an oxymoron, but they were speaking. They were sincere and they were hypocrites because they played the game so long. They didn't know they were playing. Let me get you just a minute, Senator. So Jesus needs to warn, Jesus' words of judgment do two things. One, I would say it's his last chance, his last effort while on earth to break through to these people and say, don't you see yourselves? He tried gentler medicine and now he uses the full strength medicine to see if they'll respond. But also for the sake of his disciples, less they follow them. And it's not with delight, but rather it is with sorrow. Notice what Jesus says in verses 37 to 39. He says Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who killed the prophets and stone those sent to you. How often I have long to gather your children together here? I've longed for this as a hand gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing back to divine sovereignty, human responsibility. You were not willing. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. In other words, if you say that I'm blessed and I come in the name of the Lord, then you will see me. And I want that. I want that. And my words of judgment are meant to elicit from you, not anger but conviction and real repentance. Meanwhile, it is necessary to jump up a couple of verses. It is necessary to warn against these people because, verse 35, just a tiny bit earlier than what I was just quoting. Jesus says, the judgment is coming on you. You're not going to escape condemnation unless you repent because, sorry, and so, verse 35, upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth. What does that mean? All the righteous blood that has been shed on earth will come upon you. First of all, you will be accountable for it. For the blood that comes upon you, you will be held accountable. But how can Jerusalem be held accountable for all the blood shed on earth? Because, in God's sight, although the martyrs were slain in Babylon, and they were slain in Assyria, and they were slain in Galilee, and they were slain in Rome, in a hidden sort of way. I'll put it this way. There's a hidden solidarity between all of God's foes. I want you to look for a moment with me at Revelation 11. Revelation 11, verse 8. I'm turning to Revelation more than once tonight because it does work on these same themes of Jesus' judgment and his victory ultimately. In 11.8, it says of the two witnesses, and I'm not going to go into who they are. I'm going to assume you know the book of Revelation. The two witnesses who testify to God, when they finish their testimony, verse 7, the beast who comes from the beast will attack them over power and kill them, verse 8, their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom, and Egypt, where also the Lord was crucified. What? Well, Sodom, the city of sensuality, Egypt, the city of oppression, the land of oppression, Jerusalem, the city of hypocrisy. What he's saying in Revelation, words of Christ, in what Jesus is saying here is this, those who indulge in sensuality, and those who indulge in oppression, and those who use religion as a cloak are all one and the same. They are all my adversaries, just in different ways. They're all evil doers. They've all arrayed themselves against me and my gospel and my people. And I will even say, if so far as to say, it's possible that the most dangerous of them all is the person who comes in the cloak of religion. And that is why Jesus says that is where the judgment of them all will lie. So the warning comes, so the warning goes then, and the warning comes now. There's a vital part, a sad part of God's word, one upon which we ought not to dwell overly much as teachers and preachers, they can be pretty tedious to preach through the seven worlds. You know, I actually know somebody that spent 12 weeks on Matthew, chapter 23, I think that was a mistake. I think there are times when you have to hurry on to the cross. And you know, there's probably nobody who's sinning today quite like the Pharisees' sin.
We could develop that if we wish, but there's nobody who's precisely in their position, and it's not so good to make people think that they are. If you preach the church and address them with the sins of the Pharisees, you could make those who are just before God by grace feel that they're guilty again, and we certainly wouldn't want to do that in preaching or teaching. Nonetheless, in this part of God's word, there is much that is vital if we would understand the contours of Christ's life, what he did, why he did it, who he is, the judge of all the world, and the one who said what had to be said even when it would cost him his life.