Tag: Jesus Christ

The Great Commandment — Matthew 22:34-40

Matthew 22:37

The Great Commandment

Matthew 22:34-40

In Matthew 22, we are following Jesus and His encounters with the religious leaders in the temple at Jerusalem. Remember that this happened only a couple days before Jesus would be betrayed by Judas, arrested at prayer, put on trial, falsely accused, unjustly convicted, beaten, and crucified. The confrontations in Matthew 22 draw attention to the unrepentant unbelief of the Jewish leaders, while at the same time, highlighting the courage, wisdom, and compassion of our Lord Jesus.

Recall that first, the Pharisees, together with the Herodians, tried to ensnare Jesus in His words by asking a question about paying taxes to Caesar. Next, the Sadducees tried a trick question about the resurrection. Jesus had not only wisely answered their perplexing questions, He exposed their sinful unbelieving hearts. By the end of the chapter, Matthew records, “And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore” (Matt. 22:46). When their trap questions fail, the religious leaders will conspire to get rid of Jesus through crucifixion.

Today, we look at the last question they ask Jesus, and next time, Jesus Himself will ask them a question of His own about His identity as the Son of God. Even though they were trying to trap Jesus, He still gave them an invitation to believe. More →

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The Question of Resurrection — Matthew 22:23-33

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The Question of Resurrection

Matthew 22:23-33

We gather each week at this time to read, exposit, and apply the scriptures. We do so because we believe what the Apostle Paul says, that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). We believe that the Bible is the very word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and is completely authoritative and sufficient. Today, in our study of Matthew 22, we meet a group of men who claim to know God, but who do not understand or believe the scriptures.

Remember our context: Jesus was teaching the people in the temple (Matt. 21:23) just a couple days before the crucifixion. The religious leaders in Jerusalem opposed Jesus at every turn. They questioned His authority (Matt. 21:23-27). They refused to believe in Jesus (Matt. 21:32) and sought to lay hands on Him (Matt. 21:26) and destroy Him (Matt. 12:14).  

So, they plotted to entangle Jesus in His words (Matt. 22:15) by asking Him some perplexing questions designed to trip Him up, discredit Him in front of the people, or indict Him before the Roman authorities. And each time, He their questions with such wisdom and authority that His opponents were silenced. First, the Pharisees sent their disciples and some Herodians to ask a political question about paying taxes to Caesar. This morning, we see another group, the Sadducees, who ask Jesus a theoretical question about the resurrection. And like the Pharisees, these men were not seeking the truth. They were unrepentant and settled in their unbelief.

As believers, living in the midst of a fallen world, unbelieving people may confront us with perplexing questions too. Sometimes, the questions come from those who have a genuine desire to know the answers. The lawyer’s question about the greatest commandment that we’ll be studying next time may fit this category (Matt. 22:34-40). But often, they come someone who has already made up his or her mind to ‘disbelieve’ before they ask the question. In those cases, the questions are just an attempt to make faith in Jesus Christ look absurd.

That’s the nature of the Sadducees question about the resurrection of the dead. In answering, Jesus not only teaches the truth about the resurrection, He also gives us an example of how to answer their suborn unbelief. He teaches us how to faithfully affirm the word and power of God when faced with the scoffing questions of unbelief. Our text has two main parts, the Sadducees riddle and Jesus’ answer, followed by Matthew’s account of the people’s response.

First, let’s look at . . .

1. The Resurrection Riddle (Matt. 22:23-28).

Matthew 22:23 says, “The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him…” Having just dispensed with the trick question of the Pharisees, Jesus had barely caught His breath when a group of Sadducees showed up with their own trick question. 

A. The Questioners: Sadducees (Matt. 22:23).

Who were the Sadducees? In the days that Jesus walked on the earth, there were three or four basic religious “parties” among the Jewish people. Only two of them figure prominently in the New Testament. The first, the Pharisees, we have encountered already a number of times the gospel of in Matthew. They were careful students of the law of Moses, and they sought to expand upon that law through their traditions, rules, and regulations in order to protect themselves from breaking God’s law. Their name suggests the idea of “separation” from the common people they considered sinners. For the most part, they were popular among the people because of their outward show of righteousness. They opposed Jesus because He exposed their hypocrisy and unbelief.

The second group were the Sadducees. They were generally wealthy, and their influence was mostly among the upper classes of society. They High Priest and all the chief priests in Jerusalem were Sadducees. At the time of Jesus, they held the Jewish political power. Their name likely comes from a Hebrew word that means “the righteous”. They rejected the oral traditions that the Pharisees insisted on and believed that the only authoritative scripture was the first five books of the Old Testament, written by Moses.

Because of this, the Sadducees denied angels, spirits, and the afterlife (Acts 2:38). They denied that the dead would be raised unto eternal punishment or eternal rewards. They didn’t believe Moses taught those things. Therefore, the promises of “rewards” from God only concerned life on this earth. Their view of life was, for the most part, materialistic.

As you can imagine, the Pharisees and the Sadducees didn’t get along with each other. They constantly debated and jockeyed for power in the Sanhedrin. But they had this in common with the Pharisees: they also opposed Jesus and saw Him as a threat to their religious and political power. So, when these Sadducees watched and saw that the Pharisees failed to trap the Lord, they stepped in to try to trap the Lord.

Let’s look at . . .

B. The Question: Resurrection (Matt. 22:24-28)

They came to Him with a courteous greeting—calling Him “Teacher“; but they had hatred in their hearts against Him. They said, “Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother” (Matt. 22:24).

The setting for their riddle comes from a law found in Deuteronomy. It was often called “the levirite law”—taken from the Latin word for ‘brother-in-law’ (levir). The Sadducees believed in this law, because it was found in the Scriptures given through Moses. Deuteronomy 25:5-6 says,

“If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside the family; her husband’s brother shall go in to her, take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. And it shall be that the firstborn son which she bears will succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel” (Deuteronomy 25:5-6).

To the Jewish people, it would be a great tragedy for a man to die without any offspring to carry on his name and preserve his inheritance of land. So, God gave this law to provide for the widow who remained, and to perpetuate the dead man’s name and inheritance. The Sadducees quote the law as saying, “his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother” (Matt. 22:24). The verb they use for “raise up” is the same root word as the term “resurrection”. And it’s here where we see the subtlety of the Sadducees. This was their form of resurrection belief. People are only resurrected in the sense that their children are raised up to continue their line.

They weren’t really concerned about the levirate marriage law. They just used it to craft their “trick question” to trap Jesus in His words. In Matthew 22:25-27 we have their riddle:

25 “Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother. 26 Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh. 27 Last of all the woman died also.”

The Sadducees said that these seven brothers were “with” them, but it’s pretty safe to assume that they made up this story. Can you really imagine all seven brothers willingly marrying this woman, after all their brothers before them kept dying as her husband? It is so far-fetched and extreme that it could never happen in real life. The Sadducees built off this Old Testament law using this absurd scenario of seven brothers, each of whom keeps marrying the same wife and then dying before they have any children. Their intention is clear. They want to make the whole idea of resurrection look just as absurd as their scenario.

The technical name of this form of argument is reductio ad absurdum. It was meant to follow a speculation about the resurrection all the way through, until it was reduced to the level of absurdity. It’s a little like how one famous atheist used to ask if, when God bodily raised us from the dead on the last day, He was planning to resurrect all our old haircuts and fingernail-clippings as well. It was not a sincere question. It was simply a question asked out of a spirit of unbelief—one that was designed to make our Lord scramble around for some answer to a ridiculous question in an effort to save face.

Having laid the trap through this crazy story, they spring it on Jesus by asking, “Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.” (Matt. 22:28).

They think they’re so smart! Just like the Pharisees thought they “got” Jesus with the question about paying taxes to Caesar, the Sadducees think they’ve “got” Jesus with this question. She can’t be married to them all, right? So, whose wife will she be? Is it the first brother? The last one? One of the brothers in between? It’s a ridiculous scenario which they think proves the absurdity of the resurrection.

However, just as Jesus got the better of the Pharisees in last week’s passage, so he gets the better of the Sadducees in this week’s passage. Look at …

2. Jesus’ Response (Matt. 22:29-32).

First, Jeuss tells them they are in error.

A. Two Errors of Unbelief (Matt. 22:29)

Jesus tells them right away, “You are mistaken . . .” The word that He used is one that meant “to be led astray” or “to be made to wander about”. The idea is that they were not just in error, they were lost, “deceived” in their thinking. They had wandered far from the way of truth. They had derailed from the straight path of the word of God. Jesus says that they were led astray by the condition of their thinking—”not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God” (Matt. 22:29).

The word “knowing”, in its normal use, simply refers to having information that results in understanding. But it can also refer to having a close and intimate relationship with something or someone. And, in some cases, it refers recognizing and having respect and reverence something or someone. A good example of this is found in 1 Thessalonians 5:12; where Paul writes to his believing friends and tells them, ” And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you.” The ESV translates it “respect those who labor among you.”

Here is the nature of their error: It was all in the attitude of their minds and hearts. The Scriptures and the power of God had been set before them; but they didn’t “know” these things. They didn’t recognize or respect them. And because they didn’t begin with an attitude of respect for God’s word or God’s power—or more to the point, because they chose to “disbelieve” these things at the very start—they were led astray in their thinking and were “mistaken”.

So then, having exposed the attitude of unbelief from which the question was raised in the first place, notice how Jesus shows them their error regarding . . .

B. The Power of God in the Resurrection (Matt. 22:30).

The Sadducees had assumed that, when the Bible taught about the resurrection, it meant a resurrection into exactly the same state of being that the person was in before he or she died. And so, obviously, such an assumption would create a ridiculous picture—seven resurrected brothers having to arm-wrestle over whose wife the resurrected, seven-time widow would be. But Jesus says, “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven” (Matt. 22:30).

“Marriage” is something that God made for life on earth. God provided marriage for the perpetuation of the humankind because He knew people would die. It was how God’s commandment to Adam and Eve was to be fulfilled—to be fruitful, and multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it (Gen. 1:28). It was also God’s means of preserving a “godly offspring” in this dark, fallen world (Mal. 2:14). And because God decreed that it is not good for man to be alone (Gen. 2:18), marriage is His gracious provision for the deep human need for a companion and fellow-heir in “the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7).[1]

But in the resurrection—when God’s people are raised from the dead to enter into the full experience of eternal life—this “earthly” arrangement will no longer be needed. We will be “like angels of God in heaven“. We won’t be angels, of course, but we will be like angels. We will have none of the limitations and needs that we experience now in these unglorified bodies of ours. Because there will be no more death in heaven, there will be no need to perpetuate the human race by procreation. There will be no need for the same kind of companionship we needed in the struggles and trials of earthly life, because those things will be no more. We will all be together, forever, in perfection and in perfect joy.

Like many of you, I love my wife, and want to be with her forever in heaven. And I will. It may not be in the same kind of relationship that we enjoyed on earth, but it will be in a relationship that is deeper and more profound than what we can understand even in marriage. All our relationships in heaven will be free from sin and its effects.

The point is that the Sadducees were mistaken in not giving proper respect and reverence to the power of God. They didn’t know just how great God’s power is to transform His people from the state of sinful fallenness, which characterizes us now, into a state of heavenly glory that is like that of the angels.

C. Proof of Resurrection in the Scriptures (Matt. 22:30-32)

Second, Jesus sets the Sadducees straight about the Scriptures with respect to the resurrection of the dead. As you remember, they only regarded the five books of Moses as authoritative. But Jesus shows them that they didn’t even respect those Scriptures. Jesus shows them that these very same Scriptures support the resurrection that they denied. He says, “But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God . . . ?” (Matt. 22:31).

He then quotes God speaking from Exodus 3:6, saying, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” (Matt. 22:32). At the burning bush, God introduced Himself as the God of Moses’ ancestors—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And even though those three men had physically died centuries before Moses’ time, they nevertheless still existed before God, because God said that He was—right then—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

From the very Scriptures they claimed to esteem, Jesus shows that these three patriarchs didn’t cease to exist when their bodies died. They still lived. They still owned God as their God. And God still owned them as His. Therefore, Jesus concludes, “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” As it says in Luke 20:38, “… for all live to Him.”

If Abraham, Isaac, and Joseph still lived before God apart from their decaying bodies, then He is absolutely capable of giving life to their dead bodies once more. If God could create man’s body from the dust of the earth, He could just as easily recreate men’s bodies from dust or ashes.

The point is that the Sadducees did not give proper reverence and respect to the Scriptures. They trifled with it but didn’t allow themselves to see the truths of the resurrection that were revealed in it—or in the other portions of Scripture that they arrogantly rejected.

Finally, notice . . .

3. The Response of the People (Matt. 22:33).

33 And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching. (Matt. 22:33).

Notice that Matthew doesn’t tell us the Sadducees’ response. Instead, we read of the multitudes that listened. I suspect that the multitudes had heard this kind of debate between the Sadducees and Pharisees before. But when they heard the Lord’s answer, we’re told that the multitudes literally were “struck out of their wits” by it.

What do we learn from our Lord’s answer to this “resurrection riddle”? Certainly, we learn that we can trust what the Bible teaches us about the hope of the resurrection. Most of all, we can trust it because our Lord proved it by rising from the dead Himself just a few days after this question was asked.

But we also can learn that when we are confronted with unbelieving questions designed to trip us up, we can follow the Lord’s example. We should always respond with courteousness and love. But when the question comes from someone who is stubbornly committed to unbelief, and whose motive is to discredit the faith, I believe our Lord’s example teaches us not to simply jump to the question first—as we’re so easily inclined to do.

First, we should prayerfully, lovingly, but resolutely—in the power and authority of the Holy Spirit—expose the unbelief in the heart of the one asking the question. We should be bold and honest, saying something like, “You are mistaken, friend. You are led astray by the fact that you have chosen to begin in the wrong place. You have chosen from the outset not to esteem God’s power nor His revealed word. You have chosen to begin in disbelief in these things and then to argue from your disbelief. And because you began on the wrong path, you will end up in the wrong place.”

And then, the Lord’s example teaches us that we should affirm what God’s word says. We’re to put His revealed word forth to them plainly, and let it speak for itself. They may hear it and repent. Or they may hear it and harden their hearts against God even more as the Sadducees likely did. But the results are not up to us. They are up to the Holy Spirit. Our job is to simply give them God’s truth from God’s word and let it do its work.

The apostle Paul summed this up for us very well. He said,

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ . . . (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

 

[1] Greg Allen, Giving an Answer to Unbelief, https://www.bethanybible.org/archive/2008/052508.htm

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God and Caesar — Matthew 22:15-22

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God and Caesar

Matthew 22:15-22

In this section of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus has just rebuked the religious leaders in Jerusalem for their unbelief through a series of three parables. And Matthew 21:45-46 tells us their attitude when Jesus taught these parables:

Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them. But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet. (Matthew 21:45-46).

Now they retaliate by trying to ensnare Jesus with trick questions. They plot together to confront our Lord—all with the intention of trapping Him in His words. They bring three challenges to Him in here in Matthew 22. They first ask about paying taxes to Caesar, then about the resurrection, and thirdly about the greatest commandment. Each of these question were calculated to damage the popularity of Jesus and to find a reason to condemn Him. In all three attempts, Jesus answers them in such a way as to make them marvel, and to leave them with nothing more they can say.

The first thing we see in our text today is…

1. The Ensnaring Question (Matt. 22:15-17)

Matthew tells us, “Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk” (Matt. 22:15). This was a calculated attack. Matthew says they “went and plotted.” We have heard that word before, all the way back in Matthew 12:14 when “… the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him.” We will hear it again when they plot to put Jesus to death in Matthew 27:1 and when they plot to cover up the resurrection by paying off the guards in Matthew 28:12.

Their plot this time was to “entangle” Jesus in His words. They intended to trap Jesus, to ensnare by what He said. They had huddled together in order to set the trap by asking the perfect question that would catch Jesus saying something that would discredit Him before the people or accuse Him before the Roman authorities.

When Luke tells this same story in his Gospel, he gives us more details about their evil intent; “So they watched Him and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, that they might seize on His words, in order to deliver Him to the power and the authority of the governor” (Luke 20:20). Their intention was to “catch Him in His words in the presence of the people” (Luke 20:26). That was their motive.

Notice, then, who they sent to ask the question. The Pharisees didn’t go themselves. They sent their ‘students’, whom, as Luke tells us, they had put to work as “spies”. Matthew 22:16 says, “And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians“.

It’s hard to imagine two political groups more opposed to one another than the Pharisees and the Herodians. The Pharisees were devoted students of the laws and instructions of Judaism. They were proud of their Jewish heritage and deeply resented the rule of the Roman Empire over them. They expected the Messiah to come and rid them of their Roman oppressors.

The Herodians, on the other hand, were Jews who were sympathetic with Roman occupancy through the rule of the successors of Herod. The Herodians sought to fit in with Roman government because their cooperation brought them money and power. They encouraged the people to pay taxes to the Romans. I believe that the Pharisees invited the Herodians to be there in case Jesus sided with the Jews in the matter of this poll tax. These Herodians could then go back to Pilate and testify that Jesus was a traitor to Rome.

What could bring such opposite political and religious groups together? It was their opposition to a common enemy—the Lord Jesus Christ. They came to the Lord—these students of the Pharisees, and these Herodians, together—under the pretense of seeking His wisdom and advice concerning a matter of debate between them. But their purpose was to trap Jesus.

So, they bait the trap with flattery. They say things to Him that are accurate in and of themselves, but that they didn’t really believe: “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men” (Matt. 22:16).

If they had really believed that Jesus was “true“, and that He taught “the way of God in truth“, and that He didn’t “regard the person of men”, then they would have bowed down to Him and received Him as Lord—because that’s who Jesus taught that He was. But they had no intention of bowing to Him. They were seeking to destroy Him!

Let me stop here for a moment and make a point of application. Be on your guard against flattery. It’s one of the devil’s greatest tools. Proverbs says, “A man who flatters his neighbor Spreads a net for his feet” (Pro. 29:5). It says, “24 He who hates, disguises it with his lips, And lays up deceit within himself; 25 When he speaks kindly, do not believe him, For there are seven abominations in his heart; … 28 A lying tongue hates those who are crushed by it, And a flattering mouth works ruin.” (Pro. 26:24-25, 28). Don’t use empty flattery and beware of those who bait their trap with flattery.

The words of praise that they spoke to Jesus were just a set-up. These phonies hoped that they could lull the Lord into a place where He’d relax His guard, so that they could trap Him with His own words. That’s the bait.

Now, notice the trap they set for Him. It’s a question about taxes. They said, “Tell us, therefore, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” (Matt. 22:17).

Obviously, the Pharisees would have answered “no”. They deeply resented paying taxes to the Gentile overlords. Every time they paid the required tax to the Roman government, it was a vivid reminder that they were not a free people or their own sovereign nation. They believed that they were God’s special people. But here they were, under the thumb pagan rulers.

On the other hand, the Herodians would have answered “yes” to the question about paying taxes. By paying the tax to the Romans, they continued to enjoy the benefits of their rule.

The Pharisees crafted this clever question and enlisted the Herodians to discredit Jesus before all the people. If He said yes—that it was legal to pay taxes to Caesar—then the Pharisees could accuse Him before the people, and say that He was not the conquering Messiah they expected. And if He said no—that it was not legal to pay taxes to Caesar—then the Herodians could immediately reported Him to the Roman governor. Either way Jesus answers, He loses.

But as we’ve read about our Lord in the Gospel, one of the things we have seen about the Him is that He rarely gave “yes” and “no” answers. And so, look next at . . .

2. The Exposing Response (Matt. 22:18-22)

Matthew 22:18 says, “But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, ‘Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?’” The Lord blew the cover right off their plot. He saw right through their flattery and trickery. They had put forth the false appearance of virtue, but their hearts were full of wickedness. In Matthew 23 Jesus will repeatedly condemn their hypocrisy.

I love how Jesus puts the question back to them. He says, “Show Me the tax money” (Matt. 22:19). So, someone “brought Him a denarius.” The denarius was a Roman coin that bore the graven image of Emperor Tiberius. At the time of Jesus, most coins would have had the following inscription: “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus” and “Pontifux maximus”, meaning highest priest. No wonder the Pharisees hated paying it! And Jesus held it up and asked, “Whose image and inscription is this?” (Matt. 22:20).

Jesus masterfully causes them to answer their own question by answering his. When they said the obvious—that the image and inscription on the coin were “Caesar’s”, then Jesus simply replied, “Render, therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s . . .” It’s Caesar’s coin. Give it back to him.

And that brings us to our final point. In Matthew 22:21, Jesus gives us …

3. The Enlightening Principle (Matt. 22:21)

Jesus didn’t fall into their trap of saying yes or no to the question of paying taxes. Instead, by using a brilliant but simple illustration, He helps us understand the right relationship between God and government. We often struggle to find the right relationship between religion and politics, between God and government.

Jesus’ enlightening principle regarding God and government is: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matt. 22:21). The principle is straight forward. The word “render” literally means to “give back” or return. It is the verb for paying a bill or settling a debt. In their question, the Pharisees asked if they should “give” the tax to Caesar. Jesus says to give it back, implying a debt that is owed. By admitting that it was Caesar’s coin, they acknowledged their subjection to his government and their obligation to pay what they owed.

The Bible consistently teaches the rightful domain of government and our obligation to it. Romans 13:1-7, for example, says;

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor (Romans 13:1-7).

Fulfilling our God-appointed obligations to the government, as good citizens, is a matter of obedience to our Lord Himself. I am, first, a citizen of My Father’s kingdom. And because I am a citizen of His eternal kingdom first, I am therefore obligated to be a good and faithful citizen of the temporal kingdom in which He has placed me. This is why I pay my taxes, obey the laws, and fulfill my duty to vote.

But I believe the greatest emphasis in Jesus’ principle is not on that first part of our Lord’s answer, it is on the second part. We are to render “to God the things that are God’s” (Matt. 22:21).

That second obligation, it seems to me, is what really brought the conviction down on those who were seeking to trap Him with their question. Matthew tells us “When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.” Luke tells us, that “they could not catch Him in His words in the presence of the people” (Luke 20:26). If they had given to God what first belonged to God, they would not only render to Caesar what was Caesar’s, but they would have also bowed down before the Lord Jesus Christ and pledged their first allegiance to Him.

Jesus’ statement implies that just as the Roman coin had Caesar’s image stamped on it and thus rightfully fell under his jurisdiction, so every person has God’s image stamped on him or her and thus rightfully belongs to God. Genesis 1 declares that God made mankind, male and female, in His own image. We owe God our very existence. We rightfully belong to Him. Everything we have belongs to Him.

If we are not yielding ourselves completely to God’s sovereign lordship, we are disobeying the supreme authority of the universe! By challenging Jesus, these Pharisees and Herodians were guilty of not rendering to God the things that are God’s. They came to Jesus, not to obey Him, but to trap Him. They acted as if they were sincerely interested in His opinion about a moral issue, but they had no intention of obeying what He said.

Listen, the only way you can come to Christ is to come honestly, repenting of your sins, believing in Him, being willing to obey Him. If you come to contend with the Lord in order to get your own way, beware! He knows the secret motives of your heart! One day every knee will bow before Him. So the overarching principle is that we must submit all of our lives to the absolute sovereignty of God, the supreme ruler of the universe.[i]

How careful are we to render to God the things that we owe to Him? This is a greater obligation than all others. How are we doing in terms of keeping it?

Do you make the worship of God a priority? Spend time reading God’s word and praying. Worship God in your homes with your families. Be faithful in your attendance at church. It’s rendering to God the things that are God’s. You owe your worship to the Lord because He is worthy. Jesus died for you that you might live for Him. Therefore, you owe Him your life. You owe Him your love and your worship. You Him your loyalty and your obedience. You owe Him your humble confession of sin and your desire to please and glorify and honor Him first in your life. Everything you have comes from God. Therefore, you owe God everything.

Hymnwriter Frances Havergal wrote:

Take my life, and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my silver and my gold,
Not a mite would I withhold;
Take my intellect and use
Every power as Thou shalt choose.

Dear brothers and sisters, it’s our duty to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But let’s be even more sure that we do the greater duty—to faithfully render to God what is God’s.

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[i] Steven Cole, Lesson 92: Guile, Government, and God (Luke 20:20-26), https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-92-guile-government-and-god-luke-2020-26

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Parable of the Vineyard – Matthew 21:33-46

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Parable of the Vineyard

Matthew 21:33-46

The parable of the vineyard is the second of three parables in a row that Jesus spoke as He was being confronted by the chief priests and elders of the Jews in the temple. It was just a couple of days after He made His triumphal entry into the city, and a couple of days before His death on the cross. In the temple this last week, Jesus had cleansed the temple, healed the blind and lame in its courts, received worship in it as Messiah, and taught the people within its walls.[1] The religious leaders refused to recognize Jesus’ authority to do these things, asking Him, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” (Matt. 21:23).  

When the chief priests and elders refused to answer Jesus’ counter-question about the authority of John’s baptism, He declined to answer their question about His authority. If they had repented and recognized John’s authority from God, they would have had the answer about Jesus’ authority. Yet, Jesus doesn’t just drop the matter. He tells a series of parables and continues to question them in order to highlight the real issue, namely their stubborn refusal to repent and believe.

Last time, we looked at the first parable. It told of two sons, one told his father no, but then changed his mind and obeyed. The other said yes to his father, but then didn’t obey. The first was a picture of repentant obedience, the second of hypocritical profession. Jesus applied this parable to them saying,

“Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him” (Matthew 21:31-32).

Swindoll comments, “Jesus’ sharp denouncement left the religious leaders reeling, stunned that He would publicly call them out and accuse them of faithlessness and disobedience. But Jesus wasn’t finished with them yet. He followed the first jab with a second, taking a swing at them with a parable …”[2] This parable came with an even stronger judgment—the kingdom of God will be taken from them and given to others who will produce its fruit.

Let’s look at …

1. The Parable (Matt. 21:33-39)

Speaking with the authority of His Father, Jesus commands, “Hear another parable…” (Matt. 21:33). Imagine how this hit these proud men. They did not want to hear another parable, especially not another like the one Jesus just spoke against them! But Jesus didn’t need their permission to speak the word of God in His Father’s house.

First Jesus gives us the,

A. Setting (Matt. 21:33)

“There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.” (Matt. 21:33).

Jesus lays out the parable of a certain landowner who owned a vineyard. This man made every provision possible for the success of his vineyard, so that he could draw from it the fruit he desired. While he was away, the landowner leased the vineyard to tenant vinedressers.

There are 6 main components in this parable and each represents an element of God’s relationship with Israel: 1) The landowner obviously is a picture of God the Father; 2) The vineyard represents Israel as God’s kingdom people; 3) The tenants/vinedressers are the Jewish religious and civil leadership; 4) The landowner’s servants are a picture of the prophets who remained obedient and preached God’s word to Israel; 5) The son is Jesus the Messiah who will be killed that very week; and 6) The other tenants who would produce fruit represent the church made up of the remnant of believing Jews and also believing Gentiles.

No Jew would fail to recognize in this story a picture of the relationship between the Lord and His people Israel. Jesus’ parable of the vineyard begins almost exactly like Isaiah’s Song of the Vineyard in Isaiah 5:

1 Now let me sing to my Well-beloved
A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard:
My Well-beloved has a vineyard
On a very fruitful hill.
2 He dug it up and cleared out its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine.
He built a tower in its midst,
And also made a winepress in it;
So He expected it to bring forth good grapes,
But it brought forth wild grapes.
3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.” (Isaiah 5:1-3).

I’m sure the religious leaders (and even the common people) heard the echoes of Isaiah’s prophecy when Jesus spoke His parable. As Isaiah 5:7 says, “For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.” (Isa. 5:7).

The LORD God had planted them. He called their father Abraham out of a pagan world and promised to make him into a great nation. He renewed that covenant with Isaac and Israel. He delivered them from bondage in Egypt and gave them the land of promise. He protected them from their enemies. He gave them good statutes and ordinances that would bless them. He dwelt in their midst in the tabernacle and temple. He entrusted Israel’s care to its priests, kings, and nobles—the “vinedressers” who were to teach the people His word and lead them in His ways.

God, like the landowner in the parable had a right to expect the fruits of His efforts. So next we see Him,

B. Sending the Servants (Matt. 21:34-36)

34 “Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. 35 And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them.” (Matt. 21:34-36).

The landowner gave the vinedressers time to produce the fruit of the vineyard, then sent his servants to collect what was due him as the owner of the vineyard. But instead of honoring the owner, they abused his servants. But the landowner is gracious and patient. He sent other servants; but they were treated the same.

Clearly, the story represents the Lord’s repeated appeals to His people through His prophets. When Israel did not produce the fruit that God desired, He sent His prophets, but just as the tenants in the parable mistreated and even killed the servants, Israel rejected God’s prophets (2 Chr. 24:15-16). Jeremiah was beaten and cast into a pit (Jer. 26:7-11; 38:1-28); John the Baptist was killed (Matt. 14:1-12); and others were stoned (2 Chr. 24:21).

In Matthew 23, Jesus will say to the scribes and Pharisees,

34 “Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. 37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Matt. 23:34-37).

At this point, the landowner does an amazing thing by …

C. Sending the Son (Matt. 21:37-39)

Jesus continues the parable, saying, “Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’” (Matt. 21:37). When the son arrives, there should be no doubt that he carries the authority of his father, the owner of the vineyard. Even if they did not respect the owner’s servants, surely they will honor his son.

But instead, they do the unthinkable. Jesus says, “But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.” (Matt. 21:38-39). The tenants see an opportunity here. They believe that if they kill the son, they will then receive his inheritance, possession of the vineyard. It was bad to mistreat the servants. It was worse to kill them. But to kill the owner’s son is an outrageous act of evil and greed. What a contrast between the gracious and patient landowner and the wicked and irascible vinedressers!

They did not kill the son because they didn’t recognize him. They killed him precisely because they did.[3] This implies conspiracy to commit murder by the Jewish leadership, and it is prophetic in the sense that Jesus is now telling them what they are going to do to Him (see Psalm 118:22; Isaiah 28:16). Although the Gospels do not record their being, “This is the Messiah: come, let us kill him”; yet, in the light of the Scriptures, their rejection of him was no less culpable than if it had been that.[4] They knew His miracle power. They knew His claims. They knew He spoke the word of God. Still, they refused to believe in Him and sought to kill Him.

Once the parable was over, Jesus asked the chief priests and Pharisees a question that brought the application of it home to themselves. So we see the …

2. Self-Indictment by the Religious Leaders (Matt. 21:40-41)

Jesus asks the chief priests and elders, “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?” (Matt. 21:40). And they gave an answer that—perhaps without their realizing it at first—completely condemned them. They said “He will destroy those wicked men miserably…” Or, as it is in the NASB, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end.” What’s more, they admitted that he would rightfully “lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons” (Matt. 21:40). Having pronounced the judgment on the wicked vinedressers, they indicted themselves as worthy of destruction.

Jesus now applies the parable to them. So we see the …

3. Divine Indictment by the Lord (Matt. 21:42-44)

Jesus shows their condemnation by first taking them to the prophetic word.

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’?” (Matt. 21:42).

Jesus is quoting from Psalm 118, the same psalm that the people quoted when they praised Jesus on Palm Sunday. When Jesus asks them, “Have you never read?” He knows they have read this Scripture he is quoting. They read it every Passover, and they would be reading it again in just a few days. He is really asking them, “Have you never understood?”

The chief cornerstone was the most important stone in the building. The word here could refer either to the cornerstone which formed the foundation of the building or the capstone which was the final stone placed at the top of an arch, completing the building and securing the structure. Jesus is both. He is both cornerstone and capstone. He is the foundation and beginning of God’s kingdom, and he is the one who completes it and brings everything to fulfillment.[5]

Jesus is the stone the builders rejected that God has chosen to honor. The religious leaders are the builders who are rejecting Him even now. It was shocking, “marvelous in our eyes,” that the builders, the Jewish religious leaders would reject the cornerstone, their own Messiah. If anyone should have been able to recognize a perfect cornerstone, it should have been the builders. Yet, in their evil pride and arrogance, they cast out the cornerstone.

But this was no surprise to God the Father or to Jesus. As the psalm says, “This was the LORD’s doing.” It was God’s plan all along. It was prophesied long before it took place. Jesus knew they would have Him killed in fulfillment of the word of God.

To reject Jesus is to reject the son of the landowner and to be like those wicked vinedressers. By the chief priests’ and elders’ own admission, it would be right for the landowner to take the vineyard from them and to give it to someone else. And so, Jesus gives them His verdict, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruit of it” (Matt. 21:43).

The privilege of Israel, of her leaders, would be ripped violently away, and it would be transferred to others. No longer would Israel’s twelve tribes comprise the people of God. Rather, through His twelve apostles Jesus would build a new people of God, His church, a new race comprised of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation, being fruitful, multiplying, and bearing fruit for His kingdom.

The dividing line is the cornerstone Himself, Jesus Christ. He is both the Savior and the Judge. He says, “And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” (Matt. 21:44). Jesus is quoting from two Old Testament Scriptures: Isaiah 8:14, which speaks of a rock of stumbling, and Daniel 2, which speaks of the rock of the kingdom which will crush all the other kingdoms of the earth (Daniel 2:44-45). In quoting these passages, Jesus applies these Scriptures to Himself. He is the Messiah, the Son of God. He is the Savior to all who will receive Him, but He is the rock of judgment to those who reject Him.

The repentant tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners were like the ones who were broken by Jesus. They believed God’s message (Matt. 21:32). They repented of their ways (Matt. 21:28-29). Their old lives were broken. But Christ saved them, healed them, and gave them new life. They were being granted entrance into the kingdom (Matt. 21:31).

The religious leaders to whom Jesus was saying these things were like the ones this same stone falls on. When it came to true righteousness, they were all show and no substance (Matt. 21:30). They were missing the kingdom (Matt. 21:31). They did not believe God’s message when they first heard it from John, and they did not believe and repent even now (Matt. 21:32). They were the vine-growers who killed the landowner’s son to claim his inheritance (Matt. 21:39-39). They were the builders who rejected the chief cornerstone of God’s kingdom (Matt. 21:42). This stone would fall upon them and scatter them like dust (Matt. 21:44).

The apostle Peter says the same thing about Jesus in 1 Peter 2 where he writes: “7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense.” They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.” (1 Peter 2:7-8). Jesus is the cornerstone. He is precious to all who believe in him. But to those who do not believe, He is a stone that causes them to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.

What will you do with Jesus Christ? Either you will fall on Christ, repentant and broken over your sin, believing in His death and resurrection for salvation, or, rejecting Him, you will be crushed, ground to powder by His judgment. You will either bow the knee to Him in this day of grace, or you will bow the knee on the day of judgment.

Now, you would think that any sane person at this point would repent, But no, Jesus was right about them. Look at the …

4. Reaction by Chief Priests and Pharisees (Matt. 21:45-46)

When Jesus told the religious leaders the meaning behind the parable of the tenants, they only hardened their hearts even further. Matthew records,

45 Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them. 46 But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet. (Matt. 21:45-46).

Matthew’s conclusion gives us three insights into the attitude of the religious establishment. 1) They are jealous and envious of Jesus’ popularity with the common people. This encroaches on their authority and power to govern. 2) They have come to the realization that Jesus is talking about them. This hurts their pride and embarrasses them in front of the people. 3) They understood the analogy of the son and that Jesus was referring to Himself. To them, this was blasphemy, and they would now seek to kill Jesus. From here the leaders would meet in secrecy to plot how they would get rid of Jesus. God in the Scriptures foretells this very event, and these men, prompted by hatred, rush to bring it to pass.[6]

We apply this parable to our lives by asking two questions. First, have you come to know Christ as your Lord and Savior, or have you rejected Him like the Jewish leadership did? You need to repent and believe in Christ as the only One who can save you from the penalty of your sins. Fall on Him, He will save you now.

Second, if you are a believer, are you producing the fruit of righteousness? You owe Christ your very life. You have been saved because of the mercy, grace, and patience of God. You deserved none of it. Are you living in grateful obedience to Christ? Is your life bearing fruit for the kingdom? Believers may vary in the amount of fruit they produce, but there is no such thing as a fruitless believer.

———————————————————

[1] Greg Allen, An Encounter with the Cornerstone, https://www.bethanybible.org/archive/2008/042708.htm

[2] Charles Swindoll, Insights on Matthew 16—28, Tyndale House Publishers, p. 161.

[3] R. Alan Cole, The Gospel According to Mark, Wm. B. Eerdmans’ Publishing, p. 259.

[4] D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 453.

[5] Ray Fowler, Kingdom Taken, Kingdom Given, https://www.rayfowler.org/sermons/matthew/kingdom-taken-kingdom-given/.

[6] D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 454.

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Lessons from the Fig Tree

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Lessons from the Fig Tree

Matthew 21:18-22

In Matthew 21, we are following the events of the final week of Jesus’ earthly ministry before He went to the cross. It began in Matthew 21:1-11 with Jesus’ triumphal entrance into Jerusalem riding on the colt of a donkey in fulfillment of scripture. Then we saw Jesus go into the temple and cleanse it of the money changers and those who were buying and selling, saying, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” (Matt. 21:13). The temple off God was full of hypocrisy, extortion, greed, and deceit. What should have been a house of prayer had become a den of robbers.

Jesus then healed the blind and the lame and received the praise of the children. thus fulfilling prophecies about His true Messiahship. He then left the temple and spent the night in Bethany near the Mount of Olives.

In Matthew 21:18, Jesus is returning to the city of Jerusalem. He will go back into the temple (Matt. 21:23) where the religious leaders will question His authority (Matt. 21:23-27). Then Jesus will teach two parables: the parable of the two sons (Matt. 21:28-32), and the parable of the tenants (Matt. 21:33-46). The first is a man who says he will work and then doesn’t. The second is a group of men who say they will produce fruit from the vineyard and then don’t. The last parable is the climax of the section, illustrating that Christ has been rejected by His own fruitless people, and so the kingdom will be taken from them and given to a people who will bear its fruit.

The issue is fruit that comes from genuine faith in God. Jesus is sick and tired of the fruitless hypocrisy of Israel’s religion. He heard their hypocrisy as He rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He saw it in the greedy trampling of the temple courts. He will teach parables about their hypocrisy in the temple. And right between these events, Jesus cursed the fig tree. It’s an unusual incident, and, like the cleansing of the temple, one that seems uncharacteristic of Jesus at first. We don’t normally think of Jesus driving people out of temples or cursing fig trees. But Jesus never does anything without a purpose, and His purpose here is to teach His disciples. The cursing of the fig tree is a parable in action, illustrating the fruitless hypocrisy of Israel’s religion.

Our short passage breaks down into two parts: the withering of the fruitless tree and the word about faith in prayer.

1. The Withering of the Fruitless Tree (Matt. 21:18-19)

Matthew tells us that it was in the morning that Jesus and His disciples were making their way back from Bethany to Jerusalem. And “as He returned to the city, He was hungry” (Matt. 5:18). Since they spent the night at Bethany, it would be safe to assume that Jesus and His disciples stayed at the home of His dear friends Martha, Mary and Lazarus. And from what we know of Martha, she likely would have made sure everyone was well-fed before they left. But for whatever reason, Jesus was hungry. Perhaps, as He had done so often, He rose early to pray and didn’t eat with the others. Perhaps Jesus’ hunger was intentional, so that He could teach this object lesson to His disciples.

As they journeyed along toward the city, Jesus saw a fig tree by the side of the road (Matt. 21:18). This would not be unusual. Remember, we saw in Matthew 21:1 that near Bethany and the Mount of Olives was the village of Bethpage, meaning house of figs. The original language tells us that it was a “single” fig tree—all alone, which is perhaps what made it so easy to see. And what’s more, Jesus could see from a distance that it bore leaves. And if you were hungry, that was a very good sign. Fig trees in that part of the world produced a sort of early fig in the springtime, a small one that came before the leaves began to grow. They weren’t as big and juicy as the later figs would be, but they were still very tasty.

But Matthew tells us that, when Jesus came to the tree, “He found nothing on it but leaves” (Matt. 21:19). Now leaves on a fig tree without any fruit is very unusual. Usually, the leaves and the fruit develop together. So, there is definitely something wrong with this tree. It had all the promise of fruitfulness—all the appearance of bearing something He desired. But on closer examination, it had only the outward appearance of ‘fruitfulness’. It bore none of the fruit.

But then Jesus does something even more unusual. He curses the fig tree. He said, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again“; and we’re told that “immediately the fig tree withered away” (Matt. 21:19). Now from what we have seen about the authority and power of Jesus, He could just as easily have told the fig tree, “May you bear fruit right now!”, and the tree would have been filled with figs. But Jesus cursed the fig tree instead, and immediately the tree withered. Mark tells us that it was “dried up from the roots” (Mark 11:20). This was a big, thriving, healthy tree until Jesus cursed it. And when He did, it never bore fruit again.

“Why did Jesus curse the tree like this?” Was it simply because He was hangry? Was He in a bad mood that morning? Of course not! Jesus is never just impulsive or out of control. Everything He does, He does on purpose. So, what we need to ask is, “What’s His purpose in cursing the fig tree?”

First, let’s find out some things about fig trees in the Bible. In the Old Testament, fig trees were pleasurable things. The fruit of the fig tree was good and sweet. Fig trees were symbolic of prosperity (Deut. 8:8; Hab. 3:17; Hag. 2:19), pleasure (Judges 9:11), and security (1 Kings 4:25; 2 Kings 18:31; Isaiah 36:16; Joel 2:22; Nah. 3:12) in the land of Israel. When the people of Israel would see the fig-trees putting forth the early “green figs”, they looked at it warm-heartedly as a sign that springtime had come (Song 2:13).

It’s not surprising, then, that the Bible uses the fruit of the fig-tree as a symbol of Israel. In Hosea, the LORD says, “I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstfruits on the fig tree in its season” (Hosea 9:8). God gave the prophet Jeremiah a vision of the remnant people of Judah as a basket of either good ripe figs, or figs so rotten they couldn’t be eaten (Jer. 24:1-10).

And so, when God warns through His prophets that He is going to strike the fruit of the fig tree, it is a sign of judgment on His people Israel. In Jeremiah 8:13, He says, “‘I will surely consume them’ says the LORD. ‘No grapes shall be on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things I have given them shall pass away from them’” (Jer. 8:13; cf. Joel 1:11-12).

I believe that Jesus, when He cursed the fig tree, was illustrating a prophetic word of judgment.  Through the prophet Micah, The LORD indicated what He expected from His people:

With what shall I come before the LORD,
And bow myself before the High God?
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings,
With calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
Ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:6-8).

But when the LORD examined His people closely, the prophet writes,

Woe is me!
For I am like those who gather summer fruits,
Like those who glean vintage grapes;
There is no cluster to eat
Of the first-ripe fruit which my soul desires (Micah 7:1).

Think about what Jesus had just done. He came to His temple, expecting to find genuine fruits of faith from His people. Instead, He was greeted with unbelief, opposition, and the abuse of His Father’s house. There were religious practices all over the place—offerings being made, Scriptures being recited, and lots of animals being purchased for sacrifice. It was very, very religious. But all their religion was nothing more than the mere outward “promise” of fruitfulness and nothing more. There was no real spiritual “fruit”. It was all “fig leaves”; but no “figs”.

In his Gospel, Luke doesn’t record this incident. But in Luke 13, after Jesus says to the Jewish people, “unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:5). Jesus tells a parable about a fig tree:

6 He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 “Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ 8 “But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. 9 ‘And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ “ (Luke 13:6-9).

Think about it. Jesus came to the temple and instead of finding the fruit of faith, He was greeted by the religious leaders with opposition and unbelief. Jesus had been among them for more than three years ministering to them. For three years, Jesus had been patient. For three years, Jesus had sought fruit from the Jewish people. His patience was long. Yet finally, there reached a point when His patience would run out. I believe that the cursing of this fig tree was a living parable to indicate that the time for judgment had come.

This is the theme of the rest of the chapter: Israel lacks fruit. Here, the Messiah is entering Jerusalem. The Jewish people ought to receive Him. But, rather than doing so, they reject Him. In verse 23, they question Jesus’ authority. Beginning in Matthew 21:28, Jesus will tell a story of two sons. The first promised his father that he would work in the vineyard. Yet, when it came time to do so, he didn’t go. The second said that he wouldn’t work. But later, he repented and did go to work. The son of empty promises is like the nation of Israel. There is outward talk of righteousness, but no fruit of righteousness. They had leaves, but there were no figs. Beginning in Matthew 21:33, Jesus will talk about the vine-growers who hated the owner of the vineyard. Their hatred reached such a point that they would kill the son of the owner. Jesus made it very clear that the religious leaders were like the vine-growers. They hate the Son and have rejected the chief cornerstone. Israel missed their Messiah! They didn’t believe in Him. Their religion was all show. Their religion was all cultural and external—all leaves and no fruit. In Matthew 21:43, Jesus tells them, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.”

So, on one level it’s a story about Israel, but it is also a story about us. It is an acted parable with an intended meaning. Just as Jesus went to the fig tree looking for fruit, God comes looking for fruit in our lives. The prophet Isaiah in sang a parable in song about fruit. We read in Isaiah 5:

1 Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard On a very fruitful hill. 2 He dug it up and cleared out its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, And also made a winepress in it; So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, But it brought forth wild grapes. … 7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help. (Isa 5:1-2, 7).

God looks for fruit in our lives, and not just fruit – He is looking for good fruit, not bad fruit. He is looking for real spiritual fruit of righteousness, not merely the leaves of external religion. Mere religiosity without genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ may look good before men, but it greatly displeases the Lord. When God comes looking for fruit in your life, what will he find? Will he find the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23)? Will he find the fruit of righteousness and holiness (Heb. 12:11)? Will He find the fruit of good works that please Him (Col. 1:10)? Will he find the fruit of witnessing as you share with others about Jesus and the gospel (1 Cor. 3:5-6)? Will he find the fruit of praise upon your lips (Heb. 13:15)?

And that leads us to the reaction of the disciples to what they saw; and to the next lesson we’re to learn …

2. The Word about Faith in Prayer (Matt. 21:20-22).

The disciples had a hard time learning the lessons of dependency upon the Lord. They had seen Him perform many miracles. But when they saw Him curse a fig tree, and then saw the fig tree wither and die afterwards, they marveled; saying, “How did the fig tree wither away so soon?” (Matt. 5:20).

It’s interesting that He didn’t answer their question directly. Instead, it seems to me that the Lord told them something that they weren’t expecting.

21 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. 22 “And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” (Matt. 21:21-22).

Jesus told the disciples something similar back in Matthew 17:20 when He answered their question about why they could not help the man with the demon possessed son. There He said: “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”  

Remember that these two verses are not just a random insertion by Matthew about faith and prayer. They come in the context of the cursing of the fig tree, directly in answer to Jesus’ disciple’s question about it, and the in the larger context of conflict with the Jewish religious leaders. They come in the context of the fruitlessness of the religious leaders and the Lord’s desire for good fruit.

So let me ask you, based upon what Jesus teaches here, how does one live a fruitful life before God? The answer: FAITH. The problem of no fruit is the problem of no faith. Jesus says “if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done” (Matt. 21:21). Jesus is using hyperbole here to show that there is nothing that faith in Him cannot do.  We can’t make fig trees wither or cause mountains to throw themselves into the sea. But nothing is impossible for God. Faith lays hold of God’s power to do things that are impossible for us to do.

And then Jesus goes on to tell us that God answers the prayer of faith. He says, “And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” (Matt. 21:22) That is an amazing verse. It is a breath-taking promise that God will answer your prayers when you pray in faith believing.

Now I don’t believe that Jesus is giving us some kind of “blank check” to do whatever we want independently from His Lordship. Did you notice that He specifies, “if you have faith and do not doubt . . .”? Who is it we’re to have faith in? Obviously, we’re to have faith in Him! What is it we’re not to doubt? We’re not to doubt His will expressed clearly in His word. It’s all about Jesus—not about what we want. The promise He makes in this passage is NEVER something we’re to try to claim in any other way than with complete, heartfelt, sincere, dependent faith on Him and in obedient trust in His word.

Jesus shows that a lack of fruit is a result of a lack of faith in Him. And a lack of faith in Him is revealed by a lack of prayer to Him. A person who doesn’t pray is a person who wreaks of self-sufficiency. They are a person who is all leaves and no fruit. They are a person who is doing things on their own and in their own strength. And when you do things on your own and in your own strength, do you know what happens? NOTHING. In John 15, Jesus said,

4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.“ (John 15:4-8).

The kind of faith our Lord wants from us is characterized by “abiding” in Him. It’s the kind of faith in the Lord Jesus that recognizes that we draw our very life from Him, and cannot do anything apart from Him. And it involves an understanding of His revealed will through the holy Scriptures; and a commitment be completely yielded to that will without doubt or without wavering.

So, here’s two lessons our Lord wants us to learn from the fig tree—and both lessons have to do with a vital faith in Jesus Christ. First, the tree that is covered with leaves but is barren of fruit teaches us the barrenness of mere religion on the outside when there’s unbelief in Jesus on the inside. Is your religion just an outward show, or is it bearing the fruit of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17)?

Second, the promise of the Savior to the disciples teaches us that real fruitfulness is a product of genuine, living, personal, dependency upon Jesus Christ in faith. Such faith in Jesus brings glory to the Father. When your life is full of fruit, your prayers will be filled with faith, and God will accomplish His purposes through your life and in our church. Is your faith demonstrated by believing prayer?

 

 

 

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Cleansing the Temple – Matthew 21:12-17

matthew-the-kingdom-of-heaven

Cleansing the Temple

Matthew 21:12-17

In our study of Matthew’s Gospel, we’ve come to the great events of that last, holy week of Jesus’ earthly ministry. It began with our Lord’s ‘triumphal entry’ into the city of Jerusalem in Matthew 21:1-11 and will end in Matthew 27 with Jesus’ crucifixion. If you’ve ever wondered, how do you get from Palm Sunday when everyone was cheering Jesus to Good Friday when Jesus hung on the cross, the answer is what happened between Sunday and Friday during this final week of Jesus’ life. Of course, we have seen opposition to Jesus from the religious authorities mounting throughout the Gospel of Matthew. But in the plan of God, the hostility toward Jesus comes to a head during this week and will culminate in His execution on the cross.

Luke records that the Pharisees were upset by Jesus’ triumphal entry, and told Jesus to rebuke His disciples who were praising Him as the King (Luke 19:39). Matthew told us that the whole city was shaken by that event (Matt. 21:10). But if that day offended the religious leaders, just wait until you see what happens next. Nothing infuriated the Pharisees and the chief priests more than disrupting their religion. And that is exactly what Jesus does next. Jesus performs two prophetic acts of judgment: the cleansing of the temple and the cursing of the fig tree. The first deals with false worship, and the second with false profession. Israel’s worship was corrupted. They performed religious rituals to God in their worship, but without a true relationship with God. They professed a desire for God’s Messiah, but rejected Him when He came. And for that, they would be judged.

Matthew 21:12-17 tells us the story of the Son of God’s entry into the temple—into His Father’s house. The Old Testament prophesied that when the Messiah came, He would come to the temple and clean house. We read in Malachi 3:

1 “Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” Says the LORD of hosts. 2 “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire And like launderers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the LORD An offering in righteousness.” (Malachi 3:1-3).

Jesus came to the temple in fulfillment of prophecy, and He came to clean house. The worship in the temple was corrupted. And in an act of judgment, Jesus cleansed it. Matthew’s brief account tells us what Jesus immediately drove out of the temple, what He welcomed into it, and what He received and enjoyed in the midst of it. And in doing so, he teaches us three important truths about worship and God’s house. God’s house is to be a place of prayer, healing, and praise.

1. Jesus Drove the Market Out (Matt. 21:12-13)

Matthew 21:12 tells us, “Then Jesus went into the temple of God.” Let me give you a picture of what He saw. First, He saw a huge crowd of people. It was Passover week. Jews from all over came to Jerusalem, and the temple was the focal point of everything that week. All of these people had come up to Jerusalem to offer up sacrifices, according to the law of God (Exodus 12). These sacrifices were performed at the temple. Now certainly, what Jesus wanted to find in the temple were sincere worshipers of God.

In addition to the crowds in the temple, Jesus saw the market. The temple complex consisted not only of the temple building itself, which housed the inner holy place and the holy of holies, but also the several courtyards and colonnades that surrounded the temple building. So when Jesus entered the temple, it was not the temple building itself, but the outer court of the temple called the court of the Gentiles. There, He saw the market.

MacArthur gives some background on the business in the Temple. The business enterprises in the Court of the Gentiles came to be known as the “Bazaar of Annas,” whose chief priests and other associates oversaw the Temple franchises. Merchants would buy rights to a concession for selling sacrificial animals, wine, oil, or salt, or for exchanging money into the proper currency and denominations used in Temple offerings. They provided a necessary service for those traveling from far away. When you arrived in Jerusalem, you could purchase what you needed rather than having to bring it all with you.

So, if these were necessary services, what is the problem here? Well, there are a couple of problems here. One is the location. They’re doing all this in the temple! That’s not what the temple is for. They could have done all this business outside the temple gates. And the other problem is they are taking advantage of the people. There is extortion and price gouging going on. In addition to the franchise fees the operators would often be required to pay a certain percentage of their profits to Annas. According to Levitical law, any animal approved by the priests could be offered in the Temple. But the chief priests often made certain that animals not bought in one of their franchises would be judged unacceptable. A person would often have to pay as much as ten times what an animal normally cost. As if that extortion were not enough, those who needed to have foreign currency exchanged or who had to have their money converted into the exact amount for an offering were charged a processing fee.[1]

You can imagine what this did to the temple. It turned it into a marketplace. There would be buyers and sellers dashing back and forth. There would be lines of impatient people, and crowds pressing at tables. There would be haggling for the best price, and very likely would have been the kind of language filling the air that characterizes the trading of goods and money even today. And of course, there would be profits being made. In short, the temple was being used in selfish pursuit of business, rather than to offer sincere worship to a holy God.

That’s what Jesus found when He came into His Father’s house. And He drove it out. Matthew 21:12 tells us that Jesus “… drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.” Jesus put an end to the selfish abuse of God’s house.

And notice how Jesus justified His actions. He quoted Scripture. Jesus didn’t just act out of His own passions. He always did what He did in accordance with the written word of God. Matthew 21:13 says, “And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ “” Jesus is quoting here from two prophets in the Old Testament: Isaiah and Jeremiah (Isaiah 56:7; Jeremiah 7:11).

In context, the prophecy from Isaiah reads,

1 Thus says the LORD: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, For My salvation is about to come, And My righteousness to be revealed. 2 Blessed is the man who does this, And the son of man who lays hold on it; Who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, And keeps his hand from doing any evil.” 3 Do not let the son of the foreigner Who has joined himself to the LORD Speak, saying, “The LORD has utterly separated me from His people”; Nor let the eunuch say, “Here I am, a dry tree.” 4 For thus says the LORD: “To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, And choose what pleases Me, And hold fast My covenant, 5 Even to them I will give in My house And within My walls a place and a name Better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name That shall not be cut off. 6 Also the sons of the foreigner Who join themselves to the LORD, to serve Him, And to love the name of the LORD, to be His servants–Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, And holds fast My covenant– 7 Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices Will be accepted on My altar; For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” (Isa 56:1-7 NKJV)

That was the intention of the Father for His house. It was to be a house of prayer—a holy place. It was even to be a house of prayer “for all nations”—so that the Gentiles who sought the God of Israel could freely come within its courts and pray to Him. Yet what Jesus found was that the very court of the Gentiles, where the nations were supposed to come and pray, had been turned into a bazaar.

Even worse, Jesus says, “you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’” Jesus spoke the words of Jeremiah 7, where God sent His prophet to stand at the gate of the old temple and speak to the people entering it (Jer. 7:1-2), saying,

3 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.’ 5 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, 6 if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, 7 then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. 8 Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, 10 and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’? 11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the LORD. (Jer. 7:3-11).

The people in Jeremiah’s day felt as long as they had the temple, it was proof that they were God’s people and would be safe from their enemies. They thought they could live as they pleased and still come to the temple to worship and pray. Jeremiah spoke of thieves, murderers, liars, and idolaters (Jer. 7:9).  These were wicked, sinful people who came into the temple, saying “we are delivered!”

People sometimes do the same today. They go to church on Sundays, and then do whatever they want the rest of the week. But that is not what church is all about. Just as the temple was God’s house in the Old Testament, the people of Christ’s church are God’s house in the New Testament. Here’s the bottom line. You cannot live in sin all week long, and then come to church on Sundays as though none of that matters.

When you put together these prophecies from Isaiah and Jeremiah as Jesus did, the thrust of His message was that the worship that was being offered in the temple of God was corrupt, sinful, and evil. God calls their worship an abomination.

The marketplace in the temple made me think of the multitudes of times I’ve turned the television to a religious channel, and saw an 800 number and a credit card symbol on the bottom of the screen. It made me think of all the churches that adjust their schedules and reshape their style to reach a particular “target audience” from a higher economic level. It made me think of all the things of the world that churches are bringing into the holy house of God in a desperate effort to appear “relevant” and “tolerable” to the world. It made me think of how many churches and pastors are becoming increasingly hesitant to preach God’s word out of a fear of turning people away, and are preaching instead a market-driven message that the people of this world will find more acceptable.[2]

God’s house is a house of prayer. That doesn’t mean the only thing we do is pray. Rather, it means everything we do is done in an attitude of prayer. We come with a heart dependent on the Lord and seeking His face. That’s the first thing we learn from our passage today. God’s house is a place of prayer, not profit – a place of holiness, not a place for sin, selfish gain, or abuse.[3] This is why Jesus drove the market out.

Next, we see that …

2. Jesus Welcomed the Needy In (Matt. 21:14)

Matthew 21:14 says, “Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.” It’s interesting to notice that when Jesus came into His temple, He not only drove out what the Jewish leaders had allowed to come in. He also brought in what they sought to keep out.

Under the Old Testament law, members of the priestly family who had the sad misfortune to suffer a defect were not permitted to serve in the temple. “‘For“, as the law says, “any man who has a defect shall not approach“; and specifically, “a man blind or lame” (Leviticus 21:18). The law even prohibited making an offering of any animal that was “blind or broken or maimed” (Leviticus 22:22). The Jews had misapplied these scriptures, leading to the unmerciful belief that the blind and the lame would defile the temple, and that they should be forbidden from coming into the temple area.

Who should be allowed to come into God’s temple more than those who need His mercy most? And what characterized the merciful ministry of the promised Messiah more than the prophecies of the Old Testament, that “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped“, or that “the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing” (Isaiah35:5-6)? Jesus excluded no one from His holy presence, or held anyone off from approaching Him, who truly sought His mercy. Those who most know their need for Him always find themselves loved and welcomed by Him. And so, here, we see that He doesn’t simply walk outside the temple area in order to heal the blind and the lame. He clearly expresses His heart for needy people by permitting them to come into His Father’s very house; and by healing them in the very court of the temple.

What a lesson for us as a church! All are welcome in God’s house. The church is a place where people of all races, backgrounds, and social status can join together to worship and serve the one, true and living God. The church is not a social club. It is the family of God, and all who come truly seeking God are welcome. It is a place where healing happens. Whatever your background, whatever your past, whatever sins you are currently struggling with, you are welcomed by Jesus.

One of the wonderful things about church is you don’t have to fix up your life before you come. Church is not a place for holy people who have it all together. It is a place for sinners to be healed. We come to church as broken, hurting, sinful people. We put our trust in Jesus who died on the cross for our sins. He heals our sin-sick souls and transforms us into children of God who walk according to His word.

So we see the Jesus welcomed the needy. Finally, we see that …

3. Jesus Received the Praise of Children (Matt. 21:15-17)

By this point, you would have thought that the high priests and scribes would have readily recognized Jesus for who He is. He had ridden into the city on a humble foal of a donkey as the prophet Zechariah had promised. He had entered into the temple and boldly cleansed it as had been predicted by the prophet Malachi. He had ministered before their very eyes as the Book of Isaiah promised the Messiah would do; healing the blind and the lame.

And now, they’re given one more sign. Matthew writes,

15 But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant 16 and said to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?” (Matt. 21:14-16).

These were small children, and they were probably shouting, inside the temple, the same sort of words that they heard the crowds shout about Jesus as He approached the city (Matt. 21:9). The chief priests and teachers of the law were not happy about all this. The temple was their area, and Jesus was invading their territory. And so, when they see Jesus healing the sick and all the children shouting Jesus’ praises—in their temple! Instead of joining in with the praises, they begin to protest instead.

They asked Jesus if He heard what these noisy little children were saying—no doubt expecting that Jesus should share their indignation, and command the children to be quiet. And I love Jesus’ answer to their question. “Yes.” It’s a simple, straight-forward, bold answer, as if He was saying “Yes! I of course I hear the children. And I have no intention of stopping them. I gladly receive their praise.”

Instead of hushing the children, Jesus silenced His critics by asking them, “Have you never read …” Again, Jesus appealed to the authority of God’s written word. Surely they had read Psalm 8! There, in front of them, they were seeing prophecy fulfilled—if they had only had the eyes to see it. Out of the mouths of these little ones, Jesus was receiving the praise in the temple that the high priests and the scribes were refusing to give.

Jesus quotes Psalm 8 in this manner: “Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise” (Matt. 21:16b; Psalm 8:2). The word that is here translated “perfected” is a term that refers to the repairing and knitting of a thing together so that it is united and complete. The NASB translates it “prepared”. The NIV translates it “ordained”.

The point is that it was through the praises of the little children that praise to our Lord was “perfected” and made “complete”. It was ordained by God that way. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 19? “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 19:14). Pure, unadulterated praise, like that of little children, is what God desires.

I believe that Jesus wants God’s house to be a place where the meekest, the smallest, and the seemingly most insignificant are welcomed, respected, and well-received in their praises to Him. He does not consider His praise to be complete unless it comes from little mouths.[4]

And notice that Jesus is the rightful recipient of our praise. He is the Son of God, the divine second person of the triune God. He receives worship rightly because He is worthy. We read in Philippians 2: “… that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phi. 2:10-11).

The worship of Jesus is where the continental divide of all religions takes place. All religions either worship Jesus as the only true God or they don’t worship Jesus as the only true God. And those that refuse to worship Jesus are false religions. When the chief priests and scribes refused to worship Him and sought to hinder those who were, they demonstrated themselves to be false. They hated Jesus. They wanted to destroy Jesus. Perhaps this is why we read in Matthew 21:17, “Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.” He didn’t find what He had a right to expect in the temple in Jerusalem; and so He went out from them and left them. They had refused to worship Jesus. They had attempted to stop the worship of Jesus. As we will see next time in the cursing of the fig tree, Jesus leaving them was an act of judgment on their false worship because they did not believe in Him.

What we learn about Jesus in the temple in Jerusalem we can apply to ourselves as the people of God. Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 3:15, “… I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” What does the Son of God want to find in His Father’s house? This passage shows us three things: 1) that His church is a holy place for all who seek Him; 2) that those who most need His mercy are welcomed; and 3) that His praises from the smallest among us are encouraged and respected.

—————————————————————

 

[1] John MacArthur, Macarthur New Testament Commentary: Matthew 16-23, Moody Publishers, Chicago, p. 268.

[2] Greg Allen, What Jesus Wants to Find in the Church, https://bethanybible.org/archive/2008/030908.htm.

[3] Ray Fowler, God’s House, https://www.rayfowler.org/sermons/matthew/gods-house/.

[4] Allen, ibid.

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Who Is This? Matthew 21:1-11

matthew-the-kingdom-of-heaven

Who Is This?

Matthew 21:1-11

Matthew 21 begins the last week of Jesus’ ministry before He would be crucified. Matthew devotes seven chapters to the events of this week. It is the culmination of Jesus’ mission as the Son of God. From the beginning of his Gospel, Matthew has presented Jesus to us as the promised Messiah and King.

But most Jews in Jesus’ day missed Him as their Messiah and King because they were expecting a different kind of Savior. They thought that Messiah would be a mighty political deliverer, who would lead Israel to military victory over their Roman oppressors. They were not looking for a lowly Savior, riding on the foal of a donkey. They could not conceive of a suffering Savior, who offered Himself as the sacrifice for sinners. And so, tragically, they missed the coming of their King![1]

Yes, the multitudes rejoiced as Jesus rode that donkey’s colt into Jerusalem. But did they truly understand Who He was and why He came? Our text today calls us to worship Jesus as our King with rejoicing. Yet if our praise is to be more than just empty emotion, we must understand correctly who Jesus is and what He came to do. In Matthew 21:10, the people were shaken when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, and they voiced this decisive question, “Who is this?” Who is Jesus? Matthew answers that question for us in this passage (Matthew 21:1-11).

Notice first …

1. The Planned Presentation of the King (Matthew 21:1-5)

Our text begins, “Now when they drew near Jerusalem …” (Matt. 21:1). As we know from our previous studies of Matthew, Jesus had planned His arrival in Jerusalem. On several occasions, Jesus had told His disciples that they were headed to Jerusalem and why. In Matthew 16:21, Jesus “began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.” He repeated this prediction in Matthew 17, adding that He would be betrayed (Matt. 17:22-23). Then again, in Matthew 20, Jesus told them again in more detail, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again” (Matt. 20:18-19).

Jesus went to Jerusalem for a specific purpose: to suffer at the hands of sinful men, die upon the cross, and rise again. In Matthew 20:28, Jesus told us the purpose of His death, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” His death was a redeeming death, a sacrificial death, a vicarious death, and a saving death. When Jesus died, He paid the debt for our sins.

Everything that Jesus did as He entered Jerusalem and everything that occurred that day was on purpose. Jesus planned it and executed it on purpose. Remember, up to this point, Jesus had not broadcasted the fact that he was the Messiah. Throughout His ministry in Galilee, Jesus often warned those He healed to “tell no one” (Matt. 8:4; 9:30; 12;16). In Matthew 16, after Peter confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” (Matt. 16:16), Matthew writes, “Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ” (Matt. 16:20). After Peter, James, and John saw Jesus transfigured before them in His divine, royal splendor, “He commanded them, saying, ‘Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead’” (Matt. 17:9).

But now, Jesus intentionally goes public. Jesus knew that the hour for His suffering and death was at hand. He will no longer conceal who He is. He is the Christ, the Messiah who has come giving sight to the blind and raising the dead. He is the Davidic King who has come to save His people. But He is not the kind of Messiah and King the people are expecting.

So, look what Jesus does:

1 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. 3 And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.” (Matt. 21:1-3).

Jesus is in control of everything that happens here. First, Jesus sent two disciples to bring His ride to Him. Notice that the disciples didn’t have to look for the animals. He said that, as soon as they came into the village, they would “immediately” find not just a donkey, but a donkey and her colt tied together. Two animals—requiring two disciples to bring them.

Second, we see that they were instantly allowed to take the animals. Jesus told them, “And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them” (Matt. 21:2-3). Luke’s Gospel tells us that’s exactly what happened. When the owners saw the two disciples untying the donkeys, they wanted to know what they were doing. And when the disciples said what the Lord told them to say, they just let them go.

Everything went exactly according to plan. Now, some will say that these things took place just as Jesus had spoken because Jesus had made prior arrangements with the owner of these donkeys. That’s pure speculation, because the scripture doesn’t say that. Since Jesus had clear foreknowledge of the specifics of His crucifixion and resurrection, it’s not a stretch to believe that Jesus simply knew where the donkeys were and how the owners would respond.

Whether Jesus prepared for it supernaturally or not, the point is Jesus was clearly in charge of the events surrounding His death, including the triumphal entry, the betrayal by Judas, and the death plots of the Jewish leaders. None of it took Him by surprise. He is the King of authority who controls all things according to His purpose, even the events of His death (Acts 2:23; 4:27-28).[2]

And all of this, Matthew tells us, was in keeping with the promise of the Scriptures, “All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet” (Matt. 21:4). Then Matthew quotes from Zechariah 9:9, “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.’” (Matt. 21:5). The “daughter of Zion” refers to the people of Jerusalem. It’s a prophecy to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

It’s important for us to know that when Matthew quotes the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy, he doesn’t just pull a verse out of thin air. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Matthew is writing his Gospel to Hebrews who know their scripture and the context in which it was written. Zechariah prophesied four centuries before the coming of Christ to the Jewish remnant who returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. In the first part of Zechariah 9, God promised to judge the nations surrounding Judah through the coming of a conqueror from Greece. From history, we know him as Alexander the Great. He would strike terror into the hearts of those in his path. He often slaughtered all the men in a city and sold the women and children into slavery. He was a conqueror obsessed with his own power and dominion. The later part of Zechariah 9 then predicts the future prosperity of Judah and how God would then bring judgment on Greece.

However, right between these prophesies of judgment, Zechariah gives a prophecy to Judah about their coming King (Zech. 9:9) who would speak peace to the nations and whose dominion would be to the ends of the earth (Zech 9:10). Here is what the Lord said through Zechariah,

9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is just and having salvation,
Lowly and riding on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.

10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
And the horse from Jerusalem;
The battle bow shall be cut off.
He shall speak peace to the nations;
His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea,
And from the River to the ends of the earth.'” (Zech. 9:9-10).

Zechariah says that the Messiah King would be “just” or righteous. He will exercise justice perfectly. And Zechariah says this King will come “having salvation”. He will come to save His people. Zechariah says, “He shall speak peace to the nations” (Zech. 9:10).

However, the part of the prophecy that Matthew stresses is the humility of this promised King. In contrast to the proud Alexander on his war horse, Jesus came “Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey” (Matt. 21:5). The donkey was a lowly animal, used for peaceable purposes by those who were of no rank or position. By riding the foal of a donkey, Jesus was showing Himself to be the King, in fulfillment of our text, but not the exalted political king and military commander that the people expected. MacArthur shows the contrast, writing,

Alexander the Great inspires fear. Alexander the Great inspires dread. Alexander the Great makes war. But this king in verse 9 and following does not inspire fear and dread, but praise. He doesn’t make war; He makes peace. He’s not a foreign tyrant; He is Israel’s own king. He’s not cruel and oppressive; He’s kind and righteous. He doesn’t slay; He saves. He’s not rich; He’s poor. He’s not proud; He’s meek. He’s not riding a white horse; He’s riding a colt of a beast of burden. Very stark contrast.[3]

Jesus is the gentle King who said, “28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30). He is the humble King who said, “27 And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave– 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matt. 20:27-28). The angel told Joseph to name Him Jesus because, “He will save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). In His first coming, Jesus was the suffering Messiah who offered salvation and peace with God through His death for us on the cross.

God spoke it through His prophet four hundred years before Jesus came. And the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled it perfectly according to God’s word. God sovereignly determined how the Lord Jesus would present Himself as King in Jerusalem. It was a planned presentation.

Who is this? He is Jesus Christ, the King of authority, justice, salvation, peace, and humility.

How did the people respond to Him?

2. The People’s Praise of the King (Matthew 21:6-9)

Matthew tells us, “6 So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them.” (Matt. 21:6-7). Having retrieved the donkey and colt as Jesus instructed them, the disciples then made a saddle using their own cloaks, and Christ sat on this colt as the procession began to wind its way to the city of Jerusalem.

Matthew 21:8 says, “And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road…” Multitudes of pilgrims and disciples joined Jesus on the way to Jerusalem for the Passover. And seeing Jesus riding the donkey’s colt, they did what would have been appropriate for the coming of the long-awaited King. First, they create a royal carpet of sorts by spreading their cloaks on the road before Him. This custom goes back to Old Testament times where the people would spread their cloaks on the ground before the approaching king. One example is with King Jehu, in 2 Kings 9:13: “Then each man hastened to take his garment and put it under him on the top of the steps; and they blew trumpets, saying, ‘Jehu is king!’” Spreading your cloaks on the ground was a sign of submission and respect. So, when the people spread their cloaks on the ground before Jesus, they are welcoming Him into Jerusalem and symbolically saying they submitted to Him as their King.

Matthew tells us that “others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road” (Matt. 21:8). Palm branches were a sign of joy, especially in the occasion of a military victory. And so we begin to understand what kind of king the people expected Jesus to be. If Palm Sunday for Jesus was all about the humility of a donkey, for the people it was all about the pageantry of the palms.[4] They weren’t looking for a gentle and peaceful king. They were looking for a military king who would deliver them from the power of Rome and inaugurate the Jewish kingdom.

The crowds got bigger as they approached Jerusalem, and now there were crowds of people ahead of Jesus as well as crowds of people following, and they are all shouting: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Hosanna in the highest!” (Matt. 21:9). “Hosanna” is a cry of salvation from Psalm 118:25. It literally means, “Save us, now!” “Son of David” is a messianic title. The Old Testament prophesied that the Messiah would be a direct descendant of David. The Christ would be a King who would take the throne of His father David and reign forever. So, when the people cry out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”, they are proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah.

They also said, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD,” quoting Psalm 118:26 about the coming of the Messiah. And they shouted, “Hosanna in the highest!”, affirming that Jesus’ coming into the city was a cause of praise to God. It echoes the worship of the heavenly host at Jesus’ birth in Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest!”

As Christ entered Jerusalem, the people were singing a prayer that the Son of David might save them. And Jesus truly is the Savior. Only He didn’t bring salvation in the way that the Jews expected. When we read Matthew 21 in the context of everything else that takes place in the rest of the book, we clearly understand that Christ’s kingdom isn’t a political kingdom. He didn’t come to physically reign over Jerusalem that day. Jesus was establishing a spiritual kingdom. He came to save His people from their sins by giving His life a ransom for many.

Who is this? This is Jesus, the Messiah and King who has come to save. He is blessed for He comes in the name of the Lord in fulfillment of God’s word. He is worthy of the highest praise. And as He comes, the people rejoice and praise Him as the King in fulfillment of prophecy.

But did they really understand what kind of King and Savior He would be?

Finally we see …

3. The Perplexing Person of the King (Matthew 21:10-11)

We see the confusion of the crowd as Matthew reports, “10 And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?”” (Matt. 21:10). Imagine this great multitude, as they marched into the city, shouting, celebrating, and singing ‘hosannas’ to the Lord! It caused quite an uproar! The whole city was shaken. Due to all the commotion, the people of Jerusalem were asking, “Who is this?”

So, who is this? We have already seen the people welcome Jesus as their King. We have seen them proclaim Him as Messiah. And now they also identify him as the Prophet. Matthew 21:11 says, “11 So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”” What did they mean by this? Perhaps some simply meant that Jesus of Nazareth was a prophet sent by God who, like the prophets of the Old Testament spoke the word from God. It was clear from His miraculous power that He was from God. But was He more?

Back in the Old Testament Moses told the people of Israel: “The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear.” (Deuteronomy 18:15). Now, the people in the city ask, “Who is this?” and the crowds answer, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.” Jesus was the prophet like Moses whom God raised up in fulfillment of prophecy.

We can view the Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem in two ways, for it was two things at once.[5] It was a planned presentation of Jesus as King, a public declaration of His Messiahship. By entering Jerusalem this way Jesus threw down of the gauntlet to the religious leadership. He forced the people and their leaders to make a decision about Him. Was He the King and Messiah? Would they accept Him? Or would they carry out their plot to destroy Him (Matt. 12:14)? Jesus came into Jerusalem as a King and dared the religious authorities to do something about it. His hour had come. There was no turning back. Jesus knew that He came to Jerusalem to suffer and die. And when the people hailed Him as Messiah, Prophet and King, it put Him on a direct collision course with the chief priests and teachers of the law, who later that week will condemn Him to death and turn Him over to the Romans to be mocked, beaten, and crucified.

Because, while the triumphal entry presented Jesus as the Messiah and King, it also declared that He was not the Messiah that the people were expecting or what the leaders wanted. He had not come to overthrow the Roman oppressors but to give His life a ransom for their sins. He entered Jerusalem as a king, to be sure, but as a meek and lowly king, riding a donkey. Jesus boldly proceeded into Jerusalem, knowing everything that would happen to Him there. He accepted the praises of the crowd, knowing that everything they proclaimed about Him was true. Jesus stirred up the city, knowing that this would lead to His final confrontation with the religious leaders.

Who is this and how should we receive Him? Let’s receive Him as the Messiah whose coming was promised by God, and prepared far in advance for our salvation. Let’s recognize Him as the King who comes meek and gentle and lowly—not as our Judge now but as our Savior—and as One who takes our sins upon Himself at the cross, so that we need not experience the fear of judgment for our sins. Let’s celebrate Him as the promised King, who’s coming is the answer to the cry, “Save now, O Lord!” And above all, let’s be sure that we place our trust fully in Him who came into Jerusalem to give His life on the cross for our sins.

Because although Jesus comes to us as the humble, servant King today, He has also promised that He will come again. And at His second coming, Jesus will return as the mighty sovereign to judge and to reign forever. Instead of a donkey, He will ride a white horse. Instead of bringing peace, He will make war. Revelation 1911-16 describes it:

11 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. 13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. 15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

What a contrast there is between that first entry into Jerusalem and the second! The first was on a meek and mild donkey—a symbol of gentleness and peace, but the second will be on the white stallion of a warrior. The first was to make atonement for our sins, but the second will be to judge, to make war, and to tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. Jesus wore no crowns at that first entry; but at His second, He will wear many crowns. At His first entry, the clothes of the happy crowds were thrown before Him, but at His second, He will wear a robe dipped in blood. Crowds of humble people went before Him and behind Him at His first entry, but at His second, He will be accompanied by the white-robed armies of heaven. He came to His own people that first time to be struck down, but He will come the second time to strike the nations and rule them with a rod of iron. When He came that first time into the city, they announced Him as Jesus, the prophet from the humble town of Nazareth of Galilee, but when He comes the second time, He will be called by the name “The Word of God“, and will bear the title “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS“.[6]

Listen, your eternal destiny at the time of Christ’s second entry into Jerusalem is going to depend upon whether or not you have properly responded to His first coming. If we receive Jesus as the Lord and Savior now, we will reign with Him when He comes again. The crucial question today is, “Who is this?”

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[1] Steven Cole, Lesson 12: Rejoice! Your King is Coming! (Zechariah 9:9-10 and Matthew 21:1-11), https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-12-rejoice-your-king-coming-zechariah-99-10-and-matthew-211-11

[2] Cole, ibid.

[3] John MacArthur, The Humble Coronation of King Jesus, https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/81-42/the-humble-coronation-of-king-jesus.

[4] Ray Fowler, Destination Jerusalem, https://www.rayfowler.org/sermons/matthew/destination-jerusalem/.

[5] Robert Rayburn, The Triumphal Entry, Matthew 21:1-11, https://www.faithtacoma.org/matthew/the-triumphal-entry.  

[6] Greg Allen, “Jesus’ ‘First’ Triumphal Entry”, https://www.bethanybible.org/archive/2008/030208.htm.

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The Last Will Be First

parables-of-the-kingdom

The Last Will Be First

Matthew 20:1-16

Christianity is supremely a religion of grace. We sing about God’s amazing grace, grace greater than our sin. Paul’s epistles are saturated with the concept of God’s grace. But, even so, I think that God’s grace is often not well understood and sometimes not really believed. In his book, “What’s So Amazing About Grace,” Phillip Yancey points out that part of our problem is in the nature of grace itself.[1] Grace shocks us in what it offers. Grace is a gift that costs everything to the giver and nothing to the receiver. It is given to those who don’t deserve it, barely recognize it, and hardly appreciate it. In grace, God does for others what we would never do for them. By grace God saves what we think are the not-so-bad people and also the very worst of sinners. In fact, no one is saved apart from God’s grace.

Today we are looking at Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard in Matthew 20. Although our text does not use the word “grace”, it powerfully illustrates it.  

Think about the context in which Jesus taught this parable. Jesus is on His final journey to Jerusalem with His disciples (Matt. 19:1). The conflict between Jesus and His adversaries began to intensify, and the time for our Lord’s sacrificial death was drawing near. In Matthew 19, when some parents brought their little children to Jesus for Him to bless them, the disciples tried to prevent them. But Jesus rebuked His disciples saying, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 19:14). The scribes and Pharisees didn’t see it that way. They thought that heaven belonged to them, because of their religious efforts, and because of their positions.

Then a man came up to Jesus and wanted to know what he needed to do in order to have eternal life. He was young, rich, powerful, and moral—a success by this world’s standards. And yet, he knew that he didn’t have eternal life. Since this man felt that he had fully kept the law from his youth, Jesus had to show him how far he came from measuring up to God’s standards. So, Jesus told this “rich young ruler” to sell all that he owned, give the proceeds to the poor, and come follow Him. That was too high a price to pay, and so sadly, the rich young ruler went away without Jesus and without eternal life.

Jesus then turned to his disciples and pointed out how hard it is for the rich who trust in their wealth to enter the kingdom of heaven. When Jesus said that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matt. 19:24), the disciples were shocked. Jesus highlighted God’s grace when He said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matt. 19:26).

Then Peter looked at himself and the other disciples. They certainly weren’t powerful and successful like that rich, young, ruler. And yet, they had done what he could not do. And so, speaking behalf of the others, Peter said to the Lord, “See, we have left all and followed You. Therefore what shall we have?” (Matt. 19:27). Jesus told them,

28 Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. (Matt. 19:28-29).

Jesus assures them that following Him would certainly be worth it in the end. They would have the very thing that the rich young ruler could not earn for himself—eternal life. But lest any of His followers should think of themselves as “greatest in the kingdom” because they sacrificed more, or followed longer—or, on the other hand, lest any of them should be discouraged and think that they would never amount to much in His kingdom—Jesus then teaches: “But many who are first will be last, and the last first” (Matt. 19:30).

And to help explain this proverbial statement, Jesus told the parable of the workers in the vineyard, showing that our rewards for salvation and service will not be on the basis of human merit but rather on the principle of “grace”. Our Lord evaluates His servants in a far different way than the people of this world do. He loves to shower His grace on those who are the most unworthy in this world’s eyes. When it comes to the work of His kingdom, “many who are first will be last, and the last first“.

I have divided Jesus’ parable into three parts for our study today: the hiring of the workers (Matt. 20:1-7); the unusual payment of the workers (Matt. 20:8-13); and the owners explanation (Matt. 20:14-15). Then Jesus concludes His teaching by repeating what He said at the beginning, “So the last will be first, and the first last” (Matt. 20:16).

1. The Hiring of the Workers (Matt. 20:1-7).

Jesus begins by saying, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard” (Matt. 20:1). Like most of Jesus’ parables, the subject is “the kingdom of heaven.” In our context, that means salvation and eternal life. What is the kingdom of heaven like? It is “like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.”

In those days, a normal day was numbered in twelve hours from sunrise to sunset. So, “early in the morning” was probably the beginning of the work day around 6:00 am at sunrise. It was probably time to harvest, and the landowner needed workers to pick his grapes. So he went to the place where the day laborers gathered to seek work. These were unskilled workers near the bottom of the social-economic scale. Many lived at a level not far above beggars. They worked from job to job, many of which lasted no more than a day. So, they would gather in the market place, the local labor pool, before dawn to be available for hiring.

Jesus goes on to say, “Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.” (Matt. 20:2). A “denarius” was the standard wage for a Roman soldier. It was a generous wage for a day laborer. And so, that agreement being settled, off they went to work.

But as Jesus tells the story, clearly the landowner needed more laborers than those he had just hired. So Jesus says,

3 “And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. 5 Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.'” (Matt. 20:3-7).

The third hour would be about 9:00 am. As the owner goes to the marketplace again, he finds more unemployed men and hires them as well. This time, saying “‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you” (Matt. 20:4). Even though the owner did not promise them a particular wage, these workers obviously trusted him to pay them what was fair. The owner then goes back again “about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise” (Matt. 20:5)—that is, about noon and 3:00 in the afternoon he hired more workers. Finally, “about the eleventh hour,” just an hour before the work day concluded at sunset, “he went out and found others.” They were not “standing here idle all day” because they were lazy but because “no one hired” them yet. The fact that they were still there at the eleventh hour shows just how desperately they needed the job. Even getting paid for one hours work would help in their hopeless situation.

So the workers are hired. The first went to work after the promise of a certain wage. The rest, including the last, went to work trusting the goodness of the master.  

Next in the parable Jesus tells about …

2. The Unusual Payment of the Workers (Matt. 20:8-13).

In Matthew 20:8 Jesus tells us how this took place, “So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’” The landowner’s steward must have lined up all of the workers. The first in line were those who had agreed to begin working last, at the eleventh hour. To the shock of everyone, we read, “And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius.” (Matt. 20:9). What a pleasant surprise for those men who were late in getting hired! They had expected fair payment for the one hour they worked. What they got was extremely generous compensation, a whole day’s wage—much more than they deserved! I’m sure that they went away rejoicing. They had wasted most of the day standing idle in the marketplace with nothing to show for it. But, then, this kind landowner came along and paid them a full day’s wage! What looked like the worst work day ever just an hour ago has suddenly turned into the best day ever!

I’m sure that as the others watched, they were pretty excited. They began calculating in their mind what might possibly take place. “If these guys who worked only an hour received a full denarius, I wonder what is in it for us? Certainly, we will receive even more because we worked more.” Then the twist in the story comes in Matthew 20:10, “But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius.” Does that seem fair? They didn’t think so. Jesus tells their response, “And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’” (Matt. 20:11-12). In their minds, this was really unthinkable and totally unfair. So, they grumbled and complained because even though they worked longer and harder in the heat of the day, they all received the same amount no matter how long they had worked.

That brings us to …

3. The Explanation by the Vineyard Owner (Matt. 20:13-15).

The landowner said to one of these complaining, grumbling workers, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?” (Matt. 20:13). The laborers who signed up at the beginning of the day agreed to work in the vineyard for a denarius. They worked all day. They received their denarius. The contract was fulfilled. There ought to have been no complaint. Therefore, the landowner tells the complainer, “Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.” (Matt. 20:14).

Now remember, this parable is about the kingdom of heaven. It is about salvation and eternal life. The landowner clearly represents the Lord. He calls men into His kingdom and compensates them for their service to Him. So what does this teach us about God and salvation?

Three lessons:

A. God will keep His promises (Matt. 20:13).

The landowner kept his promise to pay the first workers what they agree to work for. He did not cheat them. And even though they did the most work, they only had the opportunity to work at all because the owner graciously agreed to hire them.

We should never forget that it is a privilege to be called to serve the Lord in His kingdom. It is an unspeakably great honor to serve the Lord.  Have you been called to teach a Sunday School class? Have you been called to provide some repair or maintenance work in the house of God? Have you been called to visit someone who is sick? Have you been called to provide transportation or meals to someone? Have you been called to share your faith in some particular setting? Do you see something in the work of the kingdom that needs to be done that you have the unique capacity to do; and are you feeling God’s call to get to work?

It doesn’t matter God called you to salvation and service early in life or in your twilight years. If He has called you, He has work for you to do. Whenever He called you into His service, don’t question the fact that He called you when He called you! Go to the vineyard and work—knowing that He knows what He has planned for you to do, and that He will reward you rightfully for your faithful service.

If the Lord has called you into the service of His kingdom in any capacity, Rejoice in it; and rise up immediately and get to work! Give yourself fully to that thing the Lord has given you to do. Don’t hold back, waiting for something better to do. Don’t put it off, looking for some other time. Do what He has called you to do now for His kingdom’s sake!

Jesus said, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.” (Matt. 19:29). God will keep His promises.

B. God will be sovereign (Matt. 20:14-15)

The landowner said to the complainer, “I wish to give to this last man the same as to you,” and then asked him the rhetorical question, “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?”  God is free to do what He desires with each of us. After all, it is His universe. He created it all, including us, for His own purposes. We belong to Him. He can do as He pleases. God calls whoever He wants to salvation and service and He does it whenever He wants. He is God.

We must understand that our salvation and our service to God is all a matter of grace—from beginning to end. It what God does—not at all what we do. We could not be saved apart from the gracious work of God and we could not serve except for the grace of God. If we don’t keep that in mind, we won’t have the right attitude about our service or about others whom He calls into His service.

On the one hand, we think that because we’ve come to believe on Him too late in life, or that we’ve spent too many years in sin, we couldn’t possibly do anything of significance for the kingdom. Or we may fear that we’re too unskilled or untalented to do anything that would really count for much to Him. And this parable lets us know that, because He operates on the principle of grace rather than human merit, we can give ourselves faithfully to His service in whatever area He has called us—knowing that we work for a Master who does not measure the value of His laborers as the world does.

But on the other hand, if we forget it is by grace, we may begin to feel that we deserve a higher place of honor in His kingdom because we have walked with Him longer, or because we believed sooner, or because we have labored more diligently, or that our efforts were more valuable than others. And this parable reminds us that, because our Lord operates on the principle of grace, we must be humble and not think of ourselves more highly than we ought, nor look down on others.

Our Lord is sovereign in who and how and when He calls people to salvation and service.

C. God will be gracious (Matt. 20:15-16)

When the landowner gave those hired last a full day’s pay, he was not being unfair, he was being gracious. It was an act of mercy and kindness because the owner was good. Knowing that they had not been able to work a whole day because no one had hired them, he nevertheless gave them what they did not deserve. He gave them the means to provide for their families. He didn’t reward them on the basis of human merit; but rather on the basis of grace. Just as God always gives what He promises, He also gives more than we deserve.

When I think the great grace that was shown to these last worker, it reminds me of the story of the thief on the cross next to our Lord. Luke tells us that, as Jesus hung on the cross, one of the criminals who hung next to Him blasphemed Him; saying, “If You are the Christ, save yourself and us” (Luke 23:39). Mark, in his Gospel, even lets us know that the other criminal had chimed in and was blaspheming the Lord almost to the very end (Mark 15:32).

But something had happened in the heart of one of those dying criminals. He eventually turned to the other criminal and said, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” We’re told that he then said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom“, and that Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:40-43).

What grace! There was no time for this criminal to do any good deeds in order to make himself worthy. He didn’t have any time to reform his life. All that he had time to do was to repent and believe in Jesus saying, “Remember me when you come into Your kingdom.” He was literally called at the eleventh hour of his life. And yet, Jesus promised that he would be that very day with Himself in Paradise! And his single act of service to the kingdom—giving us an example of how to be saved—has done more for the service of the kingdom than any human being could estimate! Truly, the last shall be first! Our Lord will be gracious!

God’s rewards in the kingdom of heaven are not according to the merit system. They are according to grace. Salvation is the gift of God. It is not by works, lest any should boast (Eph. 2:9).

Aren’t you glad that God is more than just? Aren’t you glad that God is generous? Or as the landowner said, “Or is your eye evil because I am good?” (Matt. 20:15). Be careful that you do not despise the grace of God. God is not unfair to you when He is generous to someone else. The first workers complained to the landowner, “You made them equal to us!” That’s right. We are all equal in God’s kingdom – equally sinners, equally loved, equally redeemed. That is how the last are first and the first are last—because we all finish equal. We al receive far more than we deserve. How do the last become first? By grace. By God’s grace. By God’s grace alone.

Some of have sinned a little. Some of us have sinned a lot. Some of us come to Jesus early in life. Some of us come to Jesus much later in life. Some of us serve God in many ways. Some of us serve God in very few ways. But everyone who puts their faith in Jesus receives eternal life.

You are never too old to come to Christ. You are never too sinful to come to Christ. Come to Christ now, even in the eleventh hour, and he will gladly welcome you into his kingdom. Our God is a good and gracious and generous God. The more you feel your need for grace, the better candidate you are to receive it. Hold out your empty hands and ask God for His grace. You will not be turned away. It’s never too late. Though your sins are as scarlet, God says they will be white as snow. Here is good news for sinners. Free Grace! Free Grace! Free Grace! Shout it, sing it, tell it, and share it. And above all else, believe it, for in believing, you will be saved.

When we get to the kingdom of heaven, there will be no contest to see who is most deserving, because none of us deserve heaven. There will be no contest to see who has earned more rewards because God rewards according to grace, not merit. Maybe the only contest will be to see how truly grateful we are when we sing Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.

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[1] Phillip Yancy, What’s So Amazing About Grace, Quoted by Brian Bill in his sermon, The Scandal Of Grace, https://sermoncentral.com/sermons/the-scandal-of-grace-brian-bill-sermon-on-salvation-57664

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Let the Little Children Come

matthew-the-kingdom-of-heaven

Let the Little Children Come

Matthew 19:13-15

Today, we come to a short and simple text in the middle of Matthew 19. It tells the heart-warming story about Jesus blessing the little children. This same story is included in the gospel of Mark (10:13-15) and the gospel of Luke (18:15-17). And in each of these accounts, the story is almost exactly the same. It begins with some parents bringing their children to Jesus. They wanted Jesus to place His hands upon the children, bless them, and pray for them. But the disciples attempt to turn the parents away. Jesus was displeased by His disciples’ response. He told them to allow and not forbid the children to come to Him. Jesus took them into His arms, blessed them, and prayed for them.

We’re glad to read about this little, tiny slice-of-life incident in Jesus’ earthly ministry. We’re thankful for a Savior who took the time from His busy ministry activities to welcome children, take them in His arms, and pray for them. We are enamored with our Lord, who genuinely loved humanity—even the insignificant and “least of these” who had no accomplishments or great abilities to their credit.

Even though this story is brief and uncomplicated, it is not undemanding. Like the disciples, we too can easily miss the heart of the Lord and need correction from Him when it comes to our attitudes toward children. What this passage teaches us is so important because it is crucial for the advance of the kingdom of God. As a church, if we ignore the lessons of this passage, we do so at the cost of our church’s future and at the risk of receiving the Lord’s rebuke.

This is not the first time Jesus has spoken about little children. You may remember that in Matthew 18, when His disciples came to Him asking who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus took a small child to Himself, set him in their midst, and said,

Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me. (Matthew 18:3-5).

Although these two passages are similar, there’s an important difference between them. In Matthew 18, Jesus spoke about the “little ones” because the disciples were valuing themselves to highly—arguing over which of them was the greatest. But in Matthew 19, Jesus spoke about the “little ones” because the disciples were failing to value the children highly enough. Far from receiving or welcoming little children, in our text the disciples rebuke those who bring them and try to prevent their coming to Jesus. It seems that the disciples have not learned the lesson and they need a remedial course. They needed their attitudes changed. And I would ask each of us here today: do we need to have our attitudes changed to line up with Jesus’ heart for the little children?

Our text has three parts. In Matthew 19:13, we have the situation where children are brought to Jesus and the disciples rebuke them. In Matthew 19:14, we have Jesus’ invitation to the children and their kingdom significance. Finally, in Matthew 19:15, we have Jesus’ blessing and His departure.[1]

1. The Controversy over the Children (Matt. 19:13)

Matthew 19:13 begins, “Then little children were brought to Him.” Let me point out two things from this opening statement. First, the word translated as “little children” refers to very small children who needed to be taught and disciplined. When Luke tells this same story, he uses the word that is translated “infants”. These are little children, even babies, who are brought to Jesus. Second, the verb “brought” is passive. That is, the children did not bring themselves, they were brought by others—most likely their parents or grandparents.

And they brought them for a purpose. Matthew makes the reason clear for us, “… that He might put His hands on them and pray.” This implies both something about those who brought their children to Jesus.  Those who brought their children to Jesus had likely heard of what great things that Jesus had done. They knew of the miraculous power that He possessed, as He healed people with His tender touch. Jesus touched the leper, and he was instantly cleansed (Matt. 8:3). Jesus touched the hand of Peter’s mother-in-law, and the fever instantly left her (Matt. 8:14). Jesus touched the eyes of blind men, and they received their sight (Matt. 9:29). These parents wanted to have their children receive a blessing from this mighty rabbi and healer, Jesus. Jewish children in Jesus’ day were often brought to rabbis and elders to be blessed, customarily by placing hands on them.[2] Perhaps you remember when Jacob placed his hands on his grandchildren and blessed them (Gen. 48:8-20).

Perhaps many of these parents had grown to have significant convictions about who Jesus was. Was this an expression of faith in Jesus to bring their little ones to Him?

Matthew sets these parents as a positive example. They brought their children to Jesus for a blessing. One of the greatest responsibilities we have as members of the Body of Christ is to bring little ones to Jesus Christ. If God has entrusted you with the care of children or grandchildren, you have the spiritual duty to actively bring them to Jesus! When they are tiny, and you hold them in your arms, you must whisper to them about the God who made them. You must take them on walks or let them look out the window; and tell them about the God who made the world around them. As they learn about God’s love for them, you must tell them about His Son, Jesus Christ. When they disobey, you must tell them about the reality of sin; and about how Jesus paid for our sins on the cross. And you must tell them about the eternal home Jesus is preparing in heaven for those who trust Him.[3] Bring them to Him!

Just before the people of Israel were about to enter the promised land, Moses, speaking by the Holy Spirit, said to them,

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).

In other words, in the everyday activities of your family life, bring your children to know the Lord. Do you see how vital it is that word of God be passed down from generation to generation? Do you see how important “children” are in the plan of God? Let’s not break the chain of “faith” that runs from one generation to another. Let’s make it our commitment to follow the example set for us in this passage; and actively bring the little ones to Jesus!

We read about these people bringing children to Jesus and we say, “Of course! We should want children to come to Jesus.” But do we really? Or are we sometimes l more like Jesus disciples? Matthew 19:13 ends by telling us, “but the disciples rebuked them.”

Why did they rebuke the people who brought their children to Jesus? Perhaps the disciples were annoyed that Jesus was being delayed on his journey (Carson). Perhaps they were being interrupted in their important discussion with Jesus (Carson). Perhaps they were trying to protect Jesus from the nuisance that these children might be to Him, especially as He appeared to be tired and filled with tension while He thought about approaching Jerusalem (Barclay). Perhaps they thought that it would somehow dishonor Jesus to do such a lowly task of praying for children (Spurgeon). Perhaps they thought that children were lower class citizens, and not worthy of sharing the stage with Jesus. Perhaps they thought that “children were to be seen, but not heard.” We don’t know the exact reason, but we do know that their attitude was very wrong.[4] In Mark’s Gospel, we’re told that Jesus was “greatly displeased” with His disciples for trying to send them away (Mark 10:14).

So next, Jesus corrects their wrong perspective of children…

2. Jesus Welcomes the Children (Matt. 19:14)

The Lord gave His disciples a command in two parts. First, He said, “Let the little children come to Me” (Matt. 19:14a). This is the positive part of the command. And isn’t it interesting that He didn’t say, “Let the parents bring the little children to Me“? Notice that He focused on the children—”Let the little children come to Me”. The children were no burden to Jesus. He could see that even these tiny ones wanted to be near Him, and He Himself welcomed them to come.

Notice how joyfully Jesus accepted these children. You get the sense that He was eager to receive these children into His arms. He eagerly wanted to pray for them and to bless them. Jesus took these children into His arms because they were welcome to enter the kingdom. The song is true, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.” Yes, it’s also true that even the smallest of children are born as members of fallen humanity. None of us are born into the human family innocent, or without the taint of sin upon us. Even in a small child—given time—the flesh will begin to rebel against the grace of God. But it seems to me that when tiny children learn of who Jesus is, they are not so easily inclined to withdraw from Him as they would prove to be in later years—out of arrogant pride, or a love for sin. It’s a prime time for them to draw near to the Savior and learn of Him.

So, parents, bring your children to Jesus – raise them in the church and in the Lord. Grandparents, bring your grandchildren to Jesus – pray for your grandkids and be a loving and godly example to them. Churches, bring the little children to Jesus – pray for the children in your church; pray for the children’s ministry in your church; give and volunteer where you can.

The negative part of the command is “and do not forbid them.” The present imperative is telling them to stop forbidding or hindering them from coming. This is what the disciples were presently doing. In effect, Jesus says, “Stop it!” But before we wag our fingers at the disciples, let’s ask ourselves if we are ever a hindrance to children coming to Jesus. We can hinder them by allowing the things of this world to crowd out their vision of Him—filling out lives and theirs with so many activities that we forget the priority of worshiping and serving the Lord. We can hinder them by treating their budding love for Jesus as if it were something that didn’t matter. We can hinder them by not living a consistent Christian life at home before them—playing the hypocrite. We can hinder them by leading them into unbelief and sin. Think about Jesus’ words of warning from Matthew 18:5-7,

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!” (Matthew 18:5-7).

May we never do anything to hinder little ones who are drawn to Jesus! Jesus rebuked His disciples for trying to stop the children from coming to Him. Would He rebuke you?

Jesus says that reason that we must let the little children come and we must not hinder them from coming is “for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 19:14). The kingdom of heaven is characterized by children such as these. Again, remember what Jesus said in Matthew 18,

“Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 18:3-4).

These children are a picture of the humility, dependence, and trust of those of any age who enter His kingdom.[5] These are the things that make children such an example for all of us. These are the sorts of characteristics that those in the kingdom possess. And the kingdom belongs to those who are like this. Jesus said in Matthew 5:3: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Who are the poor in spirit? They are those who recognize that they have nothing to bring to God but their sin and who gladly receive the free gift of salvation from His hand. They are those who have humbled themselves and become like little children.

If we understood true greatness in Jesus’ kingdom as He taught us, we’d never again be irritated by the presence of children who truly love Him and believe on Him. Rather, we’d be honored. As a church, children ought to be important to us. We ought to eagerly receive them. We ought to do what we can to help them, to teach them, to nurture them, and to train them.

Finally we see that …

3. Jesus Blesses the Children and Departs (Matt. 19:15)

Matthew 19:15 says, “And He laid His hands on them and departed from there.” Laying His hands on the children implies that He prayed over them and blessed them just as those who brought them wanted Him to. How very important this was to Jesus is indicated by the last phrase, “and departed from there.” Where was Jesus’ journey taking Him? We find out in the next chapter, Matthew 20:17, where it says that Jesus was “going up to Jerusalem.” That is why He crossed over to Judea beyond the Jordan in Matthew 19:1. It was His final journey to Jerusalem. And what was it that He was going up to Jerusalem to do? In Matthew 20:18-19 Jesus tells His disciples,

“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again” (Matthew 20:18-19).

Could there be any more pressing matter than that? Was there any higher priority for Jesus than going to the cross to die for our sins? And yet, even as Jesus is bound for Jerusalem to finish this dreadful mission that the Father set before Him, nevertheless, Jesus prioritized the time to welcome the little children, to take them in His arms, to place His tender hands on them, blessing them, and praying over them.

Listen, if, in that context, Jesus prioritized giving His time and energy to the care and ministry of little children, then as a church of His followers we’d better do the same! So, let’s be sure that we do those things Jesus teaches us to do in this passage: that we actively seek to bring little ones to Him; that we earnestly seek His blessing upon them; that we do nothing to hinder them in drawing near to Him; that we humbly recognize the great value He places on them; and that we place as high a priority in ministering to them as He does.[6]

To minister to the little ones who believe on Jesus is to do the work of His kingdom!

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[1] Grant Osborne, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Matthew, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, p. 710.

[2] D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 420.

[3] Greg Allen, Let the Little Children Come!, https://www.bethanybible.org/archive/2007/120207.htm

[4] Steve Brandon, Let the Little Children Come, https://sermons.rvbc.cc/sermons/2004-035

[5] John MacArthur, MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Matthew, Moody Publishers, Chicago, IL, p. 181.

[6] Greg Allen, ibid.

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Care for the Little Ones

matthew-the-kingdom-of-heaven

Care for the Little Ones

Matthew 18:10-14

I want to begin today by reading a passage from 1 Peter 5. Like our passage in Matthew 18, the apostle Peter wrote to the church about humility and care for the flock of God:

1 The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: 2 Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; 3 nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; 4 and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. 5 Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” 6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. (1Pe 5:1-7).

Peter learned from the Lord Jesus that some Christians need to be humbled because they have too exalted an opinion of themselves. Others need constant encouragement because they tend to dwell too much upon their own inadequacies. So, he wrote to the elders of the church under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to feed God’s flock in such a way that would convict the proud without utterly discouraging the weak. He encouraged Christians to humble themselves and cast all their cares upon God, quoting the proverb, “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble” (1Peter 5:5; Pro. 3:34). I am sure that there are some of us here today who need to be humbled because we think too highly of ourselves, and others who need the encouragement that God cares for the lowest and weakest believer.

This is what Jesus does so masterfully in Matthew 18. Our Savior, using a little child as an object lesson, very effectively humbled the self-seeking disciples. Yet, at the same time, He showed weak, lowly believers that they were precious in God’s sight. He told the Twelve that they needed to become like that little child—ever realizing their personal inadequacy and their complete dependency upon Him, not coming on their own merit or achievements. If they failed to do so, they would not be fit to take their places in His kingdom.

And our Lord also pointed out that every single little Christian, no matter how obscure and unimportant in the eyes of man, is still precious to God. To receive these lowly ones is to receive the Savior (Matt. 18:5). To harm them or cause them to stumble in sin, incurs Jesus’ stern warning of judgment (Matt 18:6-9).

Throughout the first fourteen verses of Matthew 18, something that strikes me is the repeated emphasis Jesus places on the word “one“. In Matthew 18:5, Jesus said, “Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.” You see it again in Matthew 18:6: “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin.” Then in Matthew 18:10, Jesus says “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones.” In Matthew 18:12-13, He emphasizes the great value of just that “one” straying sheep over the ninety-nine that didn’t. In Matthew 18:14, He concludes, “Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” Jesus wants us to know that each and every single “little one” who trusts in Jesus is invaluable to His Father. He views each one as uniquely precious. When it comes to those who come to Jesus in simple, humble, child-like faith, He makes it very clear that He places a particularly special value on each one. And we had better be sure to do the same![1]

In Matthew 18:10-14, Jesus teaches us how to care for these little ones. First, Jesus teaches us …

1. Do not despise the little ones (Matt. 18:10).

Jesus says in Matthew 18:10, “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.”

Jesus issues a command here to “Take heed” or ‘see to it’ that we “do not despise” His little ones, even the weakest and lowest believer. To “despise” literally means to “think down on” or “think little of” someone. When we despise someone, we hold them in contempt or scorn because we think they are too far below us—they are insignificant, inferior, and therefore unimportant. Jesus is saying, “don’t look down on any of God’s children.” Don’t put yourself above them and look at them as if they were below you, as if they were useless or worthless, not worth your consideration.

How easy is it to copy the way of the world by undervaluing or discounting little children, or, for that matter, other believers who are weak and fragile in their faith.

How could we be guilty of despising God’s little ones? Just in Matthew 18, Jesus shows that we could despise other believers through pride, thinking ourselves greater or that our contributions and achievements are superior to them. We saw that in Matthew 18:1-4. We could despise the little ones by not receiving or welcoming them in the name of Jesus (Matt. 18:5). We despise them by offending them and causing them to stumble into sin (Matt. 18:6-9). We could despise them by failing to seek after them when they go astray (Matt. 18:12-14). We despise them when we fail to try to restore a brother who has fallen into sin (Matt. 18:15-20). We despise each other when we do not forgive one another from the heart (Matt. 18:21-35).

Do you ever find yourself looking down at other believers? Do you find them inconvenient and irritating? Do you criticize them for their lack progress in the faith? Do you ever think, ‘Why can’t they just grow up and be more like me?’ Then Jesus has a word for you this morning. He says, “Don’t think that way.” We all come to Christ as little children. We all need to grow in our Christian faith. The ground is level at the foot of the cross.

Why is it so important that we not look down on even one little believer in Christ? Jesus says, “for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 18:10). Some people have taken this verse to say that each child has a guardian angel assigned to them at birth who follows them around and takes care of them. I suppose that’s possible, but the Bible never really says that we each have one specific angel assigned to us. In fact, it says something better. We have multiple angels watching over us and serving us as God’s children.

Psalm 91 says about those who have made the Lord their refuge and their dwelling place (Ps. 91:9), “11 For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways. 12 In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.” (Psa. 91:11-12). Hebrews 1:14 says about the angels: “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?”

So, believers in Christ have something much better than a single guardian angel. All of God’s angels are entrusted with the task of watching over believers and serving us.

Jesus says these angels always see the face of His Father in heaven. This expression tells us that God is constantly watching over His little ones. God has assigned His angels to minister to His children, and those angels are in constant communication with God the Father in heaven.[2] Therefore, Jesus says, don’t look down on any of God’s children, because God is always watching over them. They are precious to Him.

In our church life, in our individual homes, in our social relations, in whatever context we may meet with those who are Christ’s little ones by faith—whether they be one year old, or one-hundred years old—let’s be very sure that we “take heed” not to despise even a single one of them. For they are clearly very highly esteemed in the courts of heaven and before the face of our heavenly Father.

Second Jesus teaches us …

2. Diligently seek the wandering ones (Matt. 18:11-13)

Matthew 18:11 has Jesus saying, “For the Son of Man has come to save that which is lost.” Some Bible translations put this verse in a footnote or brackets because many reliable ancient manuscripts do not contain it. It may have been added by a copyist who saw its clear connection to what Jesus taught here. Nevertheless, what it says is true. Jesus said these very words in Luke 19 when the despised chief tax collector Zacchaeus came to salvation, “for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10).

To illustrate God’s care for His little ones, Jesus then tells the brief parable of the lost sheep:

12 “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? 13 And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.” (Matt. 18:12-13).

This is such a precious parable. The shepherd doesn’t leave the one lost sheep to fend for itself. He keeps looking for it and doesn’t stop. Jesus also taught with this parable in Luke 15. There, Jesus was being confronted by the Pharisees and scribes because He allowed all sorts of sinful people to draw near to Him (Luke 15:1). He even “received” some of the most notorious sinners of society; and even went so far as to “eat” with them! (Luke 15:2). So Jesus told this parable to the Pharisees to illustrate His passion for saving lost sinners and the need for them to also repent.

But in the case of our passage this morning, Jesus was speaking to the disciples—those who already believe on Him and have accepted His forgiveness; and was teaching them that every single “little one” in His flock—no matter how “insignificant” they may seem on a merely “human” level—is so important to Him that He would have every possible effort extended to retrieve them when they wander away.

Some people wonder about the ninety-nine that the shepherd leaves on the hills. Doesn’t he care about them as well? Of course, he does. There is no indication from the parable that the ninety-nine are in any danger. We can assume that the shepherd has left them in a safe place or perhaps under the care of other shepherds. It’s not that the shepherd cares more for the lost sheep than the rest of the flock. He cares for the whole flock, but part of the flock is missing. The other sheep are okay for now, but this lost sheep needs finding. If any of the ninety-nine wandered away, he would go looking for them, too, and when he found them, he would rejoice over them in the exact same way.

Think of what He’s saying. A good shepherd would be so committed to the needs of his sheep that he would leave the remaining ninety-nine, go to the treacherous places where the lost sheep had wandered, and search for it. For a good shepherd, there would be “no sheep left behind”. And once he found the lost sheep, the shepherd would actually rejoice more over the one that was found than he would over the ninety-nine that never went astray. A good shepherd has that much of a heart for each one of the individual sheep entrusted to his care.

Jesus Himself is the Great Shepherd of the flock (Heb. 13:20). In the Gospel of John, He says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” (John 10:11), “… and I know My sheep, and am known by My own” (John 10:14), and “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand” (John 10:27-29).

This is the way that Jesus cares for each little sheep in His flock. If Jesus care for them this much, how could we ever despise any of them? How can we know that He was willing to lay down His life for His sheep, but then not even lift a finger to draw them back into the fold when they wander? How can we know that He knows each one by name; but then ourselves not even notice when they’re gone?

Christ’s love for His people is personal, relentless, and joyful. This passage reminds us that no one is beyond His reach or care. As believers, we are called to imitate God’s heart by valuing, pursuing, and celebrating the restoration of those who have gone astray.

Finally, Jesus concludes teaching us to …

3. Discern the will of God for His little ones (Matt. 18:14).

In Matthew 18:14, Jesus says, “Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” The word that Jesus uses for “perish” is a particularly strong word that means “to destroy, lose, ruin, or render useless”. It is not the Father’s will that even one of His little ones should perish in any way. The Lord does not want any of His children spiritually damaged even for a brief time.

This speaks to the security of the believer in Christ. In John 6, Jesus said, “This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:39-40).

God seeks sheep that has gone astray and will make sure that His little ones do not perish. We read in James 5: “19 Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, 20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:19-20). Jesus teaches us this: Never look down on anyone. Never give up on anyone. Never write someone off. God seeks the one who has gone astray, and so should we. We should seek them even when the stray is someone who has hurt or offended you, which is what we will look at in next week’s passage. May the Lord Jesus find us faithful in our care for His “little ones”!

And if you are a lost or wandering sheep today, there is nothing preventing you from coming back to God. There is no reason to waste any more time in the wilderness. Jesus Christ is the good shepherd of the sheep who seeks after His wandering sheep, brings them home, and rejoices at their return. Do you feel the Holy Spirit of God tugging at your heart even now? What could keep you from coming back to Him today? Christ has done everything necessary to save you. He died for your sins and was raised for your justification. Repent—let Christ change your heart and mind. Come to Him now. Believe in Him. He will save you. He will restore you if you have strayed. He loves you. As Peter wrote, “humble [yourself] under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:6-7).

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[1] Greg Allen, Respect the Little Ones, https://bethanybible.org/archive/2007/101407.htm

[2] Ray Fowler, Hope for Wanderers, https://www.rayfowler.org/sermons/matthew/hope-for-wanderers/

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