Latest / Scripture Unscripted / Matthew chapter 20
Transcript
- 0:01Matthew chapter 20. Let us pray.
- 0:07Lord God Almighty, thank you Jesus for another day.
- 0:14Thank you Jesus for waking us up and putting us on our feet.
- 0:18Thank you, Jesus, for breath and our lungs.
- 0:22Thank you, Jesus, for the gift of salvation.
- 0:25Thank you, Jesus, for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit
- 0:29within us. Thank you, Jesus, for giving us
- 0:32the ministry of reconciliation. Thank you, Jesus, that you came
- 0:38and that you are coming and that you will come.
- 0:40And the Spirit and the bride cry out.
- 0:43We say, come, Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus.
- 0:48Make every wrong thing right, Jesus.
- 0:52Lord, I pray that you'll save us from ourselves.
- 0:56Save us from this wicked and perverse generation.
- 1:01Lord, I pray that we could walk in the Spirit today, be filled
- 1:05with the Spirit today. I pray in the name of Jesus for
- 1:10discernment in this hour. Lord, I pray that we can discern
- 1:15what it is that you're saying to us, what it is that you want to
- 1:18say to us. Lord, open up our hearts and
- 1:21minds as we open up your word. I pray that you'll teach us your
- 1:26eternal truths today. Father, hide me and hide my
- 1:30words. Hide my thoughts.
- 1:32Holy Spirit, you be the teacher, God, you get the glory.
- 1:37It's all about King Jesus. It's always been about King
- 1:41Jesus. It'll always be about King
- 1:43Jesus. We love you, Lord, we love you
- 1:46so much. We love every single thing about
- 1:50you. We enter into your gates today
- 1:53with praise and Thanksgiving. We enter into your gates today
- 1:57crying out Hosanna in the highest.
- 2:00We enter in, Father, boldly before the throne room, Father.
- 2:06We enter into the holiest of holy places today, God, we want
- 2:11to worship you in spirit and truth.
- 2:14Today, Father, seek us out. Search us, God.
- 2:18Search our motives. Search our thoughts, God, Search
- 2:23US, Lord. And I pray that you'll put a
- 2:26finger on anything in our lives that do not belong, anything
- 2:30that we need to purge out. God, I pray that you'll refine
- 2:34us in the refiners fire. God, make us look like you, King
- 2:40Jesus. Lord, we want to be your hands
- 2:44and feet today. Lord, let us take the whole word
- 2:47to the whole world today. Thank you, Jesus, for all that
- 2:50you do and all that you've done. And it's in your holy, holy,
- 2:57holy name that I pray. Amen.
- 3:02Let's start in verse one, for the Kingdom of heaven is like
- 3:09unto a man that is a householder which went out early in the
- 3:14morning to hire laborers into his vineyard.
- 3:19While the tapestry and the layers here is unbelievable,
- 3:28here Jesus is continuing on his discourse with Peter as Peter
- 3:37came and asked him in the previous chapter what they were
- 3:41going to get for all their sacrifices.
- 3:45And Jesus told him, well, you'll get more than you could have
- 3:51ever given up. And it's true for us today,
- 3:55friends, you cannot outgive God. It's a very simple principle.
- 4:00God has the cattle on 1000 Hills.
- 4:04God is unlimited in His resources, but He's not after
- 4:09just giving everyone all the material blessings that we
- 4:14equate with being blessed. That is not how God operates.
- 4:20He can and He does when He wills it, when He wants it, when He
- 4:26believes that we can steward it. If you've been faithful with
- 4:30little, you'll be faithful with much.
- 4:32There's a lot here, friends, and God Almighty knows what is best.
- 4:38And here He's going to gently and softly rebuke Peter for his
- 4:45individualistic approach to following after him and wanting
- 4:50to know what will we get, Which is not the approach when we are
- 4:56serving the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
- 4:59We're not after the street of gold.
- 5:01We're not after the gifts and rewards.
- 5:03We're not after the crowns that we lay at His feet.
- 5:06What we're after, more than anything, is him and him alone.
- 5:14His eyes like fire and hair like wool.
- 5:18We are just after King Jesus and Peter, in the previous chapter,
- 5:26he was giving Jesus his pedigree of all the things that he had
- 5:32given up. And we know that Peter was
- 5:35married and we know that there was land that was given up
- 5:41houses. We know that there's a lot of
- 5:45sacrifice here. And just so you are aware, St.
- 5:51God sees everything. God notices when a Sparrow falls
- 5:56out of the sky. He knows all of the sacrifices
- 6:00that you make in secret. We do not need to make those a
- 6:04public proclamation, friends. What we need to do more than
- 6:09anything is just lock eyes with Him and serve Him for the sake
- 6:15of serving him because of everything that He has done for
- 6:18us. If you could catch that, if you
- 6:20could just catch a glimpse of what it means to fall in love
- 6:26with King Jesus. Not the rewards, not what we can
- 6:29get, not the blessings, not the safety, not the security, not
- 6:35the promise of eternity, but just fall in love with King
- 6:39Jesus. And I pray that's what we're
- 6:41doing here in this 20th chapter of Matthew.
- 6:44I pray that we've been locked in now for almost 3 weeks of just
- 6:49falling in love with this man because here we are.
- 6:53We're in the passion, here we are.
- 6:55We're starting down this very, very narrow straight Rd. here.
- 7:04And this is where a lot of people get to this place where
- 7:10they realize that following after God, following after Jesus
- 7:15is going to cost them something. And a lot of people fall away
- 7:19and they're offended by the way that God works.
- 7:22Let's see what Jesus has to say to us and what he had to say
- 7:27here to Peter and his disciples. He likens in verse 1, He likens
- 7:35the Kingdom of heaven to a vineyard, which we know a lot of
- 7:39times the vineyard is in relation to Israel.
- 7:45He likens this householder. This is God, by the way, the
- 7:53laborers. That's you friend, and that's me
- 7:57too. And when he had agreed with the
- 8:00laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
- 8:06So the word that you need to hyper fixate on in verse 2 is
- 8:10agreed. There was some kind of agreement
- 8:13here, OK. They agreed to the penny a day.
- 8:15They were happy with the penny a day.
- 8:17That was the day's wages and it was plenty for them.
- 8:23Just remember that word. 3 And he went out about the third hour
- 8:28and saw others standing idle in the marketplace.
- 8:32So this practice still goes on today.
- 8:35If you go to some of the major cities, you're going to see at
- 8:39the beginning of the day, early in the morning before the light
- 8:43cracks the dawn, you're going to see that men stand out in front
- 8:50of places to get hired for the day and they are called day
- 8:56laborers. And so during this time of the
- 8:59harvest, it was very important that you get all of your harvest
- 9:05in the dry before the rainy season came and it was all
- 9:09ruined. So you would go out, people
- 9:12would go out, much like today, people would go out and they
- 9:16would just hire somebody for the day.
- 9:20So that is what you're getting to see here for.
- 9:24And said unto them, go you also into the vineyard, and
- 9:29whatsoever is right I will give you.
- 9:31And they went their way. So here you notice in verse 4
- 9:35there is no agreement. There was no agreement like
- 9:39there was with the first ones. OK.
- 9:41And so I want you to understand what is happening here in 4
- 9:45verses. You're getting to see He's
- 9:47picked three different camps and he's told them you are going to
- 9:53go. The first ones made an agreement
- 9:55for the penny a day. These next ones he says whatever
- 9:59is right, I will give you and they agree to it.
- 10:02They didn't want some kind of bargaining chip.
- 10:05They did not want to know what they were going to get.
- 10:07They were OK with whatever the householder was going to give
- 10:13them. There's so much application
- 10:16here, friends. We could camp out here for an
- 10:20hour and just talk about what these 4 verses are representing.
- 10:25But just know all of this is the Kingdom of heaven is like dot
- 10:32dot dot. This is what the Kingdom of
- 10:36heaven is like. Verse 5 again he went out about
- 10:41the 6th and 9th hour and did likewise.
- 10:45What did he do? He said, go into the vineyard,
- 10:48whatever is right I will give you.
- 10:51And they went their way, OK. Verse 6.
- 10:54And about the 11th hour he went out and found others standing
- 10:58idle, and said unto them, Why do you stand here idle all day?
- 11:04Seven They said unto him, Because no man has hired us.
- 11:08He said unto them, Go you also into the vineyard, and
- 11:12whatsoever is right that shall you receive.
- 11:17So again and again and again and again and again, these camps
- 11:23here, these people that he went and found, none of them were
- 11:27like the first ones. The first ones wanted an
- 11:30agreement. 8 So when the evening had came, the Lord of the
- 11:39vineyards said unto his steward, Call the laborers and give them
- 11:43their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.
- 11:47So, so many applications here. The first shall be last, and the
- 11:53last shall be first. So these people who were hired
- 11:57right before the sun went down, he knew and he needed them for
- 12:01an hour or so. They get called up first and
- 12:04notice it's not, it is not the householder who divvies out the
- 12:11pay. Notice that he has his notice
- 12:18that he says his steward. He tells his steward to call the
- 12:25laborers and give to them their hire beginning from the last
- 12:29unto the first. So he's the the householder.
- 12:33He is standing aback, he's listening to the conversations.
- 12:40He's trying to figure out what these people are going to say
- 12:44when he calls up the last ones. 1st to get their pay 9 And when
- 12:55they came that were hired about the 11th hour they received
- 13:00every man a penny. So they received an entire full
- 13:04day of wage for their hour or so of work. 11 and when they had
- 13:17received it. Verse 10 But when the first
- 13:26came, they suppose that they should have received more, and
- 13:30they likewise received every man a penny.
- 13:33So verse 9 was talking about the ones that were hired last.
- 13:38They got paid 1st and they got paid for an entire day.
- 13:41Verse 10 were the ones that made the agreement for the penny a
- 13:45day. And even though they agreed to
- 13:47the penny a day to the day's wage, they were upset because
- 13:55they were thinking after watching the last ones get paid
- 14:01a full day's wage, they were thinking somehow they were going
- 14:05to get more. Even though if you remember in
- 14:08verse 2, they had agreed to the day's wage, 11.
- 14:14And when they had received it, they murmured against the good
- 14:19man of the house. This is the murmurings of so
- 14:23many believers today. This is how we are behaving and
- 14:31how we will lose a lot of our rewards because we murmur and we
- 14:41complain about how God works. We are offended by the way that
- 14:47God works. He doesn't think like we do.
- 14:52He doesn't behave like we think He should.
- 14:57He has mercy on those that He will have mercy upon, and He has
- 15:02grace upon those whom He will have grace upon.
- 15:06And it is not in the fashion that we want him to.
- 15:11We cannot fashion God in our own minds, friends.
- 15:15We must look it to the Scriptures.
- 15:18We must believe every word. We must take every single
- 15:23syllable that's in this holy book of ours and apply it to our
- 15:28minds and our hearts and our lives, friends, and all of our
- 15:32relationships, friends, and how we are dealing with mankind on
- 15:36this earth and this hour for such a time as this.
- 15:39This is the call for us, friends.
- 15:41It is to get in this authority, the complete authority of God
- 15:46Almighty, and it is to be a student of the Word of God.
- 15:50It is to apply every single one of these words to our lives.
- 15:55But how would we know if we're not getting into the good book,
- 15:59friends? That is the principle here.
- 16:02Here we must learn how God operates by studying his Word
- 16:08and not be offended when we have all of these preconceived
- 16:12notions of how God is to operate and he doesn't operate in the
- 16:17way that we want him to, friends, and we fall away
- 16:20because we're offended by Him. 12 Same.
- 16:29These last have wrought but one hour, and you have made them
- 16:34equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.
- 16:38You know this is a very sensible approach to the way things
- 16:45should operate. You would think to yourselves,
- 16:51Well, yeah, they bore the heat of the day, They were out there
- 16:55the whole day. But the principle remains.
- 16:58They had agreed to the day wage of a penny, so we should not
- 17:08throw a fit whenever we get what we have agreed to, which they
- 17:19were murmuring, which is such a an application for us today.
- 17:26Friends, we should not complain and murmur, because when you do,
- 17:29you lose your reward. 13 But he answered one of them and said,
- 17:35Friend, I do you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a
- 17:44penny? You know, you might think that
- 17:46this is sly and cunning on the master.
- 17:52This is an application to how God treats us.
- 17:57Friends, you remember these are the principles of how the
- 18:01Kingdom of heaven is like. And we can see here that Peter
- 18:08over in chapter 19, he wanted to know what are we going to get
- 18:12for all of our sacrifices? And Jesus tells him that the
- 18:16first shall be last and the last shall be first.
- 18:18And then he waxes eloquently in this parable.
- 18:23And he tells Peter how the Kingdom of heaven is like
- 18:27friends. And he's showing us that God is
- 18:31not fair, but he is just. We do not need a fair God,
- 18:38friends. If God treated you fairly, we
- 18:44would be damned to hell forever and ever, a billion deaths over.
- 18:53We do not need God to treat us on a fair basis, but because of
- 18:58the blood of Jesus Christ, we can receive justification.
- 19:06And it's just if I'd have never done it because of Jesus, that's
- 19:13the only way we're going to get there.
- 19:14Friends 14 take that dine is, and go your way.
- 19:24I will give unto this last, even as unto you.
- 19:28He's saying there's nothing that you can do to twist my arm.
- 19:34I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy upon, and I will
- 19:38have grace upon whom I will have grace upon, and I will reward
- 19:43those whom I will choose to reward.
- 19:45And the question is, what are you going to do about it?
- 19:5515 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own?
- 20:02Is your eye evil because I am good?
- 20:0716 So the last shall be 1st, and the 1st last, for many be
- 20:11called, but few chosen. There's so much application
- 20:15here. We can spend so much time
- 20:19unearthing all the jewels and gems and riches in this parable,
- 20:25but the application remains that this is grace and rewards.
- 20:30We cannot get out of the Gospels.
- 20:33We cannot get out of the teachings of Jesus Christ
- 20:37without understanding that there are rewards, but we do not work
- 20:41for the rewards. And when he says that few are
- 20:45chosen here, many are called. There are so many people who
- 20:51come running in and when they get in to the fold and they
- 20:56start looking around and they start trying to figure out how
- 21:00to profit off of this gospel, how to profit off of
- 21:06Christianity, how to usurp their authority over others.
- 21:12There are so many people who come running in thinking that
- 21:15they're going to get something out of it, and what they find is
- 21:19that the Word of God is an offense.
- 21:24What they find is that it doesn't work out the way that
- 21:30they think it should. And many are a lot like Judas,
- 21:36and they're just after the money and they're just after the
- 21:40power. And what happens is they fall
- 21:45away because God Almighty is perfect and pure and He does not
- 21:53work in the way that we think that he should.
- 21:58He is holy and we are not, and He will do whatever He pleases.
- 22:08There are so many who are called, but only a few find that
- 22:13straight and narrow gate and way, friends.
- 22:21And that is an application for us today, that we should not
- 22:27harden our hearts when the Holy Spirit is trying to correct us.
- 22:31We should not sear our consciences when the Holy Spirit
- 22:35is whispering to us and trying to get us to understand these
- 22:39holy truths. There's so many people who only
- 22:44want to go so far as to see what they can get out of this.
- 22:52And they are offended and fall away.
- 22:55When the hard times come. And when they pray the paint off
- 22:59the wall and their loved 1 still dies.
- 23:03When they pray the paint off the wall and they still have the
- 23:08disease, and they're offended and they fall away.
- 23:12Friends 17 And Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the 12
- 23:19disciples apart in the way and said unto them.
- 23:23Notice here that he's going unto Jerusalem.
- 23:30Notice here that he is very aware of what is about to
- 23:37happen. Notice here that the disciples
- 23:43have not yet received the Holy Spirit, and they do not have the
- 23:49divine wisdom that you and I have who are indwelled with the
- 23:53Holy Spirit. Friends. 18 Behold, we go up to
- 23:59Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief
- 24:03priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to
- 24:07death, 19 and shall deliver him to the Gentiles, to mock, to
- 24:12scourge, to crucify him. And the third day he shall rise
- 24:16again. He makes it as plain and 2
- 24:19verses friends. In 2 verses he makes it as plain
- 24:24as humanly possible and they still missed it.
- 24:30He gives them prophecy after prophecy after prophecy.
- 24:34Jesus is foretelling things that the Bible has prophesied but
- 24:41that Jesus in and of himself could not make happen.
- 24:47The fact that the Jews would not condemn him to death, that they
- 24:54had to give him over to the Gentiles for the death sentence.
- 25:01The fact that he tells them that they would crucify him.
- 25:07There were other ways of death, but the fact that he knew that
- 25:12he would be crucified and it was all written before and it was
- 25:17being fulfilled. And Jesus knew that he was
- 25:20coming to fulfill all of these things.
- 25:23And he still prayed in the garden.
- 25:25Lord, if it is possible, take this cup from me, but not my
- 25:29will, but your will. And that should be our prayer
- 25:32today, friends, not our will, but God's will over our lives.
- 25:36And he tells him he's going to rise again.
- 25:39And notice that there is no response here from the
- 25:43disciples. We do not know what they said or
- 25:48what they were thinking. It was just crickets. 20 Then
- 25:57came to him, the mother of Zebedee's children, with her
- 26:00sons, worshipping him, desiring a certain thing of him.
- 26:06So here we can see that Salome here, she's the mother of James
- 26:14and John, the sons of Thunder. We can see she's been following
- 26:20them around. We can see it and she's trying
- 26:25to find some kind of angle here with the Lord as he's entering
- 26:29in. They still are thinking that
- 26:32Jesus is this political ruler who's going to come and
- 26:37overthrow the Roman government. They still have not caught it.
- 26:41He just got done saying that he's going to die and rise
- 26:46again. He's going to be handed over.
- 26:49And here she comes and she wants to ask him about her sons.
- 26:59She worshipped him, and then she wanted a certain thing of them.
- 27:03How many of us, when we go into worship, we're going in with the
- 27:11wrong motives. We're trying to see what we can
- 27:14get out of it instead of just coming to adore the face of
- 27:19Jesus Christ. Far be it from us to seek the
- 27:25presence over His presence, Friends. 21 And he said unto
- 27:33her, What will you? She said unto him, Grant that
- 27:39these my two sons may sit, the one on your right hand and the
- 27:44other on the left, in your Kingdom.
- 27:48So they're thinking of this earthly Kingdom.
- 27:51They're thinking of him going into Jerusalem to overthrow all
- 27:58of the Roman army and all of the Roman officials there, and to
- 28:07purge the Holy Land of the presence of all of their rulers.
- 28:19And much like the Maccabees did. And they were thinking that
- 28:25Jesus was coming to show his authority over the land, which
- 28:33he will and his second coming. But they had intermingled and
- 28:36intermixed these two different time frames, thinking that it
- 28:43was here at this time. They were thinking he was coming
- 28:48as the Lion of Judah, that he was going to roar and that he
- 28:57was going to be the one who completely annihilates them with
- 29:03the double edged sword of his mouth at this time.
- 29:07And I would have you to know that we are no different today,
- 29:12even though we have the full counsel of God's Word that we
- 29:16hold in our hands. So many of us at this time, in
- 29:21this hour, friends, we look at Scripture and we think it has
- 29:26only one application. And we cannot see that there's
- 29:34so many different nuances to one part of Scripture, to 1
- 29:40prophecy. There could be different time
- 29:43frames and we would do well to see prophecy and to see
- 29:49Scripture as looking out over the mountains and you're
- 29:55standing on one mountain and there are distant mountains that
- 30:02you can go to. And then there are yet even
- 30:06further mountains out that are way in the distance.
- 30:12And a lot of times, 1 prophecy will be like that.
- 30:16It will be containing so many different prophecies wrapped up
- 30:22in just a couple verses and we err on the side of thinking of
- 30:28just one angle. And that is what I would have
- 30:31you to think about, friends, and to really meditate upon are all
- 30:38of the different prophetic nuances in a few verses and how
- 30:46they should not just be dialed down into just one angle.
- 30:52And that is what the Jews here were betting on.
- 30:57They were wanting their Messiah to be the second Advent Messiah,
- 31:02and they were not willing to receive all of the prophecies.
- 31:08Many, many, many, many, many, many prophecies that showed Him
- 31:14as the suffering servant, and they were not willing to accept
- 31:22it, and they erred egregiously. Friends. 22 But Jesus answered
- 31:34and said, You do not know what you ask, Are you able to drink
- 31:39of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the
- 31:42baptism that I am baptized with? And they said unto him, We are
- 31:47able. Look how quick.
- 31:50There was no discourse. There was no, well, what do you
- 31:53mean? They just knee jerk reaction.
- 31:56We're able. And they had missed that Jesus
- 32:04had just told them a few lines up that he was going to be
- 32:08mocked and that he was going to be scourged, that he was going
- 32:15to be crucified, which the root word of crucifies excruciating.
- 32:25And it was excruciatingly painful and it was drowning in
- 32:33your own fluids. And he's asking them, are you
- 32:37able to drink this cup? And how quick they are to say
- 32:40we're able. And then look at them in the
- 32:42garden, when they all scatter, when the sheep scatter.
- 32:48But look how quick they are to say, we're able.
- 32:51And it's no different today. It's no different in our time
- 32:53and our hour. We're quick to say we'll do
- 32:56anything, we'll go anywhere, but we sure do like our comforts. 23
- 33:12And he said unto them, You shall drink indeed of my cup, and be
- 33:17baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with.
- 33:21But to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give,
- 33:25but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my
- 33:30Father. Look at the meekness of Jesus,
- 33:33look at the humble servant of Jesus, and he gives all
- 33:40authority unto Father God. And there is such an
- 33:44encapsulation here of the Trinity.
- 33:47And we can see God the Father and God the Son, God the Holy
- 33:51Spirit. We can see three in one, We can
- 33:53see all the offices of the Godhead, and we can see God had
- 33:59in bodily form here, and we can see Him telling them that Father
- 34:06God is the one who will put all of the apostles in their correct
- 34:15place, because He had in his mind from the beginning this
- 34:20entire plan. None of this is a surprise and
- 34:26it is the divine counsel and wisdom of God Almighty that is
- 34:34putting all of these pieces together.
- 34:36And it's no different in our time and our our friends.
- 34:39All of the prophecies are moving perfectly in line today.
- 34:46We should not be afraid. We should not fear.
- 34:48Do not fear, do not be afraid, friends.
- 34:52Do not bite your nails trying to figure out what's going to
- 34:56happen. It's all moving according to
- 34:59plan. The only thing that you need to
- 35:01do is make sure that you are right with God Almighty, that
- 35:05you have surrendered everything unto Him.
- 35:07Not just a little bit, but surrender all, every bit of it,
- 35:12every oz, every fiber of your being.
- 35:15Serve the Lord thy God with all your heart, all your mind, and
- 35:19all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
- 35:25And he's He is showing the disciples that they have the
- 35:31wrong motives. And he's telling James that he
- 35:33would be the first martyr. And he's telling John that he
- 35:36would be exiled to the island of Patmos.
- 35:40And he's telling them that they will have to suffer and drink
- 35:44the cup of following after him. 24 And when the 10 heard it,
- 35:50they were moved with indignation against the two brothers.
- 35:54So 24 they were afraid that the two brothers had gotten some
- 36:00kind of special privilege, and they were indignant towards
- 36:05them. 25 But Jesus called unto them and said, you know that the
- 36:11Princess of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and
- 36:16they that are great exercise authority upon them.
- 36:20Imagine Jesus and he's moved with compassion, and he's moving
- 36:24into the Passion week and he's moving into Jerusalem.
- 36:28And he knows that he's going to be crucified, and he knows that
- 36:31he's going to have to suffer and be put to death.
- 36:34And imagine how he has to stop and pause and deal with the
- 36:39disciples humanity, and how they are worried that these two
- 36:48disciples might get something that they're not going to get.
- 36:5126 But it shall not be so among you.
- 36:56But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your
- 37:01minister. 27 And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be
- 37:07your servant. 28 Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered
- 37:14to, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many,
- 37:20there was a debt that we could never pay friends.
- 37:23And he came, and by the sacrificial, perfect, atoning
- 37:27blood that he shed on Calvary, he ransomed you.
- 37:32You will stand before God Almighty holy because he is
- 37:37holy. Blessed is the man whose sins
- 37:42will never be counted against him, whose transgressions will
- 37:47never be remembered because of this ransom.
- 37:52And look at how he's telling the disciples and he's telling you
- 37:55to take the low position and you will be honored and exalted.
- 38:02But if you try to push your weight around and you try to
- 38:08take the highest position, you will be leveled, you will be
- 38:14humiliated, you will be put at the bottom.
- 38:20These are the principles of following after Jesus that we
- 38:23would do well to remember, especially in our day and our
- 38:27hour. Where we are celebrated for
- 38:33being prideful, we are celebrated for taking first
- 38:41place. We are celebrated friends.
- 38:45Whenever we usurp our authority over others.
- 38:50It's a celebrated event and we would do well to take the low
- 38:59position to take the humiliation and let God exalt us in due
- 39:06time. Friends, there are many things
- 39:08that He is desirous to pull out of you that do not belong and
- 39:13they've been integrated into your thought processes over a
- 39:18long period of time. We have been indoctrinated to
- 39:22think that it is OK for us to be prideful.
- 39:26We've been indoctrinated to think the following after God
- 39:30means vanity. We have been indoctrinated to
- 39:33think that we deserve riches. We've been indoctrinated to
- 39:41think that it is prosperity that marks a true believer.
- 39:49And God here is showing his disciples that if we want to be
- 39:57great, we must. Take the position of a servant
- 40:04to be the janitor, to be the garbage collector, to clean the
- 40:10bathrooms, to wash the feet, to shine the shoes, and watch how
- 40:20God lifts you up. Friends 29 And as they departed
- 40:26from Jericho, a great multitude followed him.
- 40:30Imagine that they're leaving out of Jericho.
- 40:34Imagine how they're heading towards Jerusalem.
- 40:38Imagine how the multitudes are just following after him.
- 40:44They see this miracle worker. They want healing and they want
- 40:51deliverance, and they think that he's coming as a powerhouse of
- 41:00administration over the Romans. 30 And behold, 2 blind men
- 41:08sitting by the wayside. When they heard that Jesus
- 41:12passed by, they cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O
- 41:16Lord, you son of David. So they gave him his messianic
- 41:20title, and here you can see that they were blind, and they were
- 41:23sitting by the road, and they were sitting on the way to
- 41:27Jerusalem. 31 in the multitude rebuked them, saying they should
- 41:33hold their peace, but they cried the more saying, have mercy on
- 41:38us, O Lord, you son of David. Here they are giving him his
- 41:44proper messianic title. They are acknowledging Jesus
- 41:48Christ as the Messiah. They are not willing to be
- 41:52silenced. And it's It would do well for us
- 41:58to understand that we were once blind.
- 42:04It would do well for us to understand that we were once
- 42:08deaf and dumb. And it would do us well to know
- 42:17that we need to cry all the more when people tell us to be quiet.
- 42:24When people try to silence us. We would do well to cry all the
- 42:29more after him, to be undone and undignified, to be undignified
- 42:38in the presence of the multitudes, to refuse to be
- 42:42silent, to speak out against all of the atrocities of this day,
- 42:49in this hour, even when people tell you to be quieter, that
- 42:52you're going to get in trouble. We should speak out against
- 42:55them, friends, because he is worth it.
- 42:58He is worthy, and we need to know that he is able and he is
- 43:05willing to heal and to save to the utmost. 32 And Jesus stood
- 43:16still, and called them, and said, What will you that I shall
- 43:21do unto you? He already knew he wanted to
- 43:24hear their voice. 33 And they said unto him, Lord, that our
- 43:29eyes may be open, we'll end on. 34 So Jesus had compassion on
- 43:35them, and he touched their eyes, and immediately their eyes
- 43:38received sight, and they followed him.
- 43:46What a chapter here, what a what an ending here.
- 43:53Jesus's compassion, Jesus's healing power.
- 43:57This is him showing the crowd, showing the multitude, his
- 44:05divinity, his authority, his messianic claims.
- 44:12He's revealing to them. His ministry is no longer
- 44:16hidden, it's out front page. And Jesus here, you can see that
- 44:29he loves well, You can see that Jesus here did not even
- 44:38hesitate. He healed these blind men.
- 44:42They cried out. It was their faith and their
- 44:45refusal to be silenced. And that is an application for
- 44:48us today, friends, when the healing doesn't come the first
- 44:53time or the second time or the third time, keep pressing in.
- 44:57Be the persistent widow, be the persistent neighbor.
- 45:00Just keep pressing in with God. Up your prayer life today.
- 45:10Praise the Lord for this beautiful chapter here in
- 45:13Matthew. I hope you've been blessed by
- 45:16it. I know I sure have.
- 45:22I'm praying for every single one of you.
- 45:25I love you, so does God. We'll see you back here
- 45:31tomorrow. God bless you.