Podcasts about scribes

Want to delve deeper into the more intellectual aspects of wizardry? Want a living spellbook you can talk to? Want to cast lightning balls instead of fireballs? Then Mickie and Ned are here to talk about why the Order of Scribes is the perfect wizard subclass for you! • • • Patreon: patreon.com/ICastFireball20 Twitter / Instagram: @ICastFireball20 Facebook: @ICastFireball2020 Email: ICastFireball2020@gmail.com Donations: ko-fi.com/icastfireball20 • • • AUDIO CREDITS Background Music was created using the "Marimbas" soundscape found at Mynoise.net And as always a HUGE thank you to Hayden Allred for our amazing theme music!

The Gospel of Matthew Chapter 23: Seven Woes to the Scribes and Pharisees by Shawn Ozbun

Caitlin and Hilda discuss the first part of "Iron Flame," book 2 in Rebecca Yarros' The Empyrean series that took Booktok by storm. While they still can't pronounce the names of most of the characters or locations, both hosts were pleasantly surprised to find that they liked book 2 more than Fourth Wing. Listen now to find out why!

Gospel Luke 20:27-40 Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone's brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her." Jesus said to them, "The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called 'Lord' the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive." Some of the scribes said in reply, "Teacher, you have answered well." And they no longer dared to ask him anything. Reflection It's always amazing to me that how much of the scriptures that Scribes and Pharisees, Sadducees didn't really understand, and I love Jesus patience with them when He points out very clearly things that they didn't see to prove that there is a answer to the questions they've always been posing to one another. It reminds us always to go back to Scripture over and over again and to seek to find the message of truth that is throughout the books. It is an incredible resource, and we could not live without it. Closing Prayer Father, your wisdom is always beyond our full understanding. But story after story, image after image is consistently presented to us ways of pondering the truth that we're called to live. And when we ponder it with your help, with your insight, with your spirit dwelling in us, we will find the truth more clearly. It motivates us, guides us, and leads us to the fullness of life. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.

When the Scribes and Pharisees attempted to entrap Jesus and accuse His disciples of sin, He rebuked them and made clear that we are to hold to the Word of God above the traditions of men. This sermon was preached at Legacy Reformed Baptist Church in East Grand Forks, MN. For more information, visit www.LegacyRBC.org.

Pueblo Lodge #8 was down to just four members after the passing of one of the five who was maintaining the quorum that kept their charter.  John Jones had recently moved to Colorado from another state and was looking to join a lodge.  One day, a man with a letter from the Grand Secretary showed up on his doorstep to meet him and possibly bring him into the lodge.  That man was Vernon Wolf, Past Grand Master of Colorado.  Brother Vernon did show up on John's doorstep and brought him into Pueblo #8.  John, in turn, helped the revival of the lodge which has continued to this day.  Unfortunately, Brother Vernon is not around to see the fruits of his labors in full bloom as he passed away.  However, his spirit lives on in the thriving lodge he left behind.  Brothers John Jones and JT Wessel join us to share memories of Vernon Wolf and talk about the many ways in which Odd Fellowship is thriving in Pueblo today and how that all stands as a testament to the dedication and hard work of Brother Vernon Wolf.  The Shoutout goes to Rushmore Lodge #39 of Rapid City, South Dakota for their efforts to welcome Ukrainians into their community with a picnic.  In the Odd Podge, Toby celebrates 25,000 downloads of the podcast, Ainslie recaps the Odd Market and Masquerade, John talks about having held his wedding reception in the old Pueblo Odd Fellows Hall,  and JT previews the next Scribes' Meeting at the Colorado Grand Sessions.

Peter rebukes Jesus and Jesus rebukes Peter. I. Disciples of Jesus need to see the necessity of the sufferings, death and resurrection of the Messiah, v21. II. Disciples of Jesus can be wildly wrong about important spiritual matters, for which we need to be corrected, vv22-23. III. Disciples of Jesus must learn to think God's thoughts after him, letting him mold our thinking, v23.

Explore the scribe gift with us in this Divine Downloads episode.

Luke 19–20 Luke 19–20 (Listen) Jesus and Zacchaeus 19 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” The Parable of the Ten Minas 11 As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. 12 He said therefore, “A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. 13 Calling ten of his servants,1 he gave them ten minas,2 and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come.' 14 But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.' 15 When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business. 16 The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.' 17 And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant!3 Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.' 18 And the second came, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made five minas.' 19 And he said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.' 20 Then another came, saying, ‘Lord, here is your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief; 21 for I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.' 22 He said to him, ‘I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant! You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? 23 Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest?' 24 And he said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to the one who has the ten minas.' 25 And they said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten minas!' 26 ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 27 But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.'” The Triumphal Entry 28 And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?' you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.'” 32 So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. 33 And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” 35 And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem 41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Jesus Cleanses the Temple 45 And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,' but you have made it a den of robbers.” 47 And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words. The Authority of Jesus Challenged 20 One day, as Jesus4 was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up 2 and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” 3 He answered them, “I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, 4 was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?” 5 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,' he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?' 6 But if we say, ‘From man,' all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” 7 So they answered that they did not know where it came from. 8 And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” The Parable of the Wicked Tenants 9 And he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. 10 When the time came, he sent a servant5 to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out. 13 Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.' 14 But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.' 15 And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!” 17 But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written:   “‘The stone that the builders rejected    has become the cornerstone'?6 18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” Paying Taxes to Caesar 19 The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people. 20 So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor. 21 So they asked him, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality,7 but truly teach the way of God. 22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” 23 But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius.8 Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar's.” 25 He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” 26 And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent. Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection 27 There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, 28 and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man9 must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. 30 And the second 31 and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32 Afterward the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.” 34 And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36 for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons10 of the resurrection. 37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” 39 Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” 40 For they no longer dared to ask him any question. Whose Son Is the Christ? 41 But he said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is David's son? 42 For David himself says in the Book of Psalms,   “‘The Lord said to my Lord,  “Sit at my right hand,43     until I make your enemies your footstool.”' 44 David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?” Beware of the Scribes 45 And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, 46 “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 47 who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” Footnotes [1] 19:13 Or bondservants; also verse 15 [2] 19:13 A mina was about three months' wages for a laborer [3] 19:17 Or bondservant; also verse 22 [4] 20:1 Greek he [5] 20:10 Or bondservant; also verse 11 [6] 20:17 Greek the head of the corner [7] 20:21 Greek and do not receive a face [8] 20:24 A denarius was a day's wage for a laborer [9] 20:28 Greek his brother [10] 20:36 Greek huioi; see Preface (ESV)

In this Bible Story, we learn about Elisha's interaction with the future King of Syria. Elisha is able to see in him a deep darkness that would cause death and destruction to many in Israel. This story is inspired by 2 Kings 8:1-15. Go to BibleinaYear.com and learn the Bible in a Year.Today's Bible verse is 2 Kings 8:10 from the King James Version.Episode 137: The reign of King Ahab had finally come to an end. But his son Joram was just as set on evil as he was. So God told Elisha of his plans to put an end to the line of Ahab. Then Elisha sent a prophet at once to go and anoint Jehu as king over Israel in secret. In the barracks of Ramoth Gilead, the men of Israel proclaimed Jehu as king, and at once, rode out to meet Joram and put an end to him as punishment for his crimes.Hear the Bible come to life as Pastor Jack Graham leads you through the official BibleinaYear.com podcast. This Biblical Audio Experience will help you master wisdom from the world's greatest book. In each episode, you will learn to apply Biblical principles to everyday life. Now understanding the Bible is easier than ever before; enjoy a cinematic audio experience full of inspirational storytelling, orchestral music, and profound commentary from world-renowned Pastor Jack Graham.Also, you can download the Pray.com app for more Christian content, including, Daily Prayers, Inspirational Testimonies, and Bedtime Bible Stories.Visit JackGraham.org for more resources on how to tap into God's power for successful Christian living.This episode is sponsored by Medi-Share, an innovative health care solution for Christians to save money without sacrificing quality.Pray.com is the digital destination of faith. With over 5,000 daily prayers, meditations, bedtime stories, and cinematic stories inspired by the Bible, the Pray.com app has everything you need to keep your focus on the Lord. Make Prayer a priority and download the #1 App for Prayer and Sleep today in the Apple app store or Google Play store.Executive Producers: Steve Gatena & Max BardProducer: Ben GammonHosted by: Pastor Jack GrahamMusic by: Andrew Morgan SmithBible Story narration by: Todd HaberkornSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pastor Josh preaches how the Scribes and Pharisees ignored Christ's answers and continued to question Him.

When speaking to the Jews in the synagogue about the Pharisees and the Scribes, Jesus says that they have taken their seat on the Chair of Moses, which is a curious phrase that speaks of the authority the Pharisees have been given by God. One should wonder since Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law of Moses, then there must be a fulfillment of the Chair of Moses.

When speaking to the Jews in the synagogue about the Pharisees and the Scribes, Jesus says that they have taken their seat on the Chair of Moses, which is a curious phrase that speaks of the authority the Pharisees have been given by God. One should wonder since Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law of Moses, then there must be a fulfillment of the Chair of Moses.

When speaking to the Jews in the synagogue about the Pharisees and the Scribes, Jesus says that they have taken their seat on the Chair of Moses, which is a curious phrase that speaks of the authority the Pharisees have been given by God. One should wonder since Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law of Moses, then there must be a fulfillment of the Chair of Moses.

When speaking to the Jews in the synagogue about the Pharisees and the Scribes, Jesus says that they have taken their seat on the Chair of Moses, which is a curious phrase that speaks of the authority the Pharisees have been given by God. One should wonder since Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law of Moses, then there must be a fulfillment of the Chair of Moses.

In this interview, Lucie Doležalová, professor of Medieval Latin at the Charles University in Prague, discusses her current research into the additions made by scribes at the end of their copied texts in late medieval Bohemia.  Lucie shows how these seemingly personal additions, sometimes humorous, sometimes requesting rewards, sometimes nonsensical, were often quite formulaic.  The research will map the scribal additions by time and place to identify the source of the more formulaic additions, and possibly the routes by which the ideas were transmitted. Scribal additions also offer a rare glimpse over the shoulder of the scribe and allows us to see the material and physical nature of the scribes' work of copying text, including his tiredness, hunger, and relief at finishing the task.This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Medieval Studies.

The Word–Fr Tony Percy– Descend into the Fertile Valley of Humility (Fr Tony says that in this Gospel with Jesus observing that the Scribes and Pharisees, he identifies that there's a certain problem. The pharisees think they're going to rise and ascend to God much easier, much quicker with a greater facility than other people and Jesus in fact says, no, that's not the case at all. In this Gospel there definitely is this idea of ascending to God, but there is also very much part of the tradition that if you want to ascend to God, then you must descend to humility. St. Therese of Lisieux, an extraordinary woman, just a very simple French nun, wrote a book called The Story of a Soul in which she says, "Yes, you want to ascend the mountain with God and scale the mountain with God, but in fact, you've got to descend. You've got to go down to the fertile valley of humility where Jesus is waiting for you.” The very first descent, the greatest descent that has ever taken place, of humility, is the second person of the Blessed Trinity, the Word becoming flesh, coming, and living among us. The second one is his descent into sin, the sinless one has been made into sin for us so that we are reconciled to the Father. Yes, we do want to ascend to God, but first we must descend into the fertile valley of humility, where God is assuredly waiting for each and every one of us.)

We’re going to continue our conversation today on Foundations on who the Scribes were and what they didSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Luke 19–20 Luke 19–20 (Listen) Jesus and Zacchaeus 19 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” The Parable of the Ten Minas 11 As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. 12 He said therefore, “A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. 13 Calling ten of his servants,1 he gave them ten minas,2 and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come.' 14 But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.' 15 When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business. 16 The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.' 17 And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant!3 Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.' 18 And the second came, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made five minas.' 19 And he said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.' 20 Then another came, saying, ‘Lord, here is your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief; 21 for I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.' 22 He said to him, ‘I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant! You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? 23 Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest?' 24 And he said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to the one who has the ten minas.' 25 And they said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten minas!' 26 ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 27 But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.'” The Triumphal Entry 28 And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?' you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.'” 32 So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. 33 And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” 35 And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem 41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Jesus Cleanses the Temple 45 And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,' but you have made it a den of robbers.” 47 And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words. The Authority of Jesus Challenged 20 One day, as Jesus4 was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up 2 and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” 3 He answered them, “I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, 4 was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?” 5 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,' he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?' 6 But if we say, ‘From man,' all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” 7 So they answered that they did not know where it came from. 8 And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” The Parable of the Wicked Tenants 9 And he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. 10 When the time came, he sent a servant5 to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out. 13 Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.' 14 But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.' 15 And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!” 17 But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written:   “‘The stone that the builders rejected    has become the cornerstone'?6 18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” Paying Taxes to Caesar 19 The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people. 20 So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor. 21 So they asked him, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality,7 but truly teach the way of God. 22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” 23 But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius.8 Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar's.” 25 He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” 26 And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent. Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection 27 There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, 28 and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man9 must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. 30 And the second 31 and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32 Afterward the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.” 34 And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36 for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons10 of the resurrection. 37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” 39 Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” 40 For they no longer dared to ask him any question. Whose Son Is the Christ? 41 But he said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is David's son? 42 For David himself says in the Book of Psalms,   “‘The Lord said to my Lord,  “Sit at my right hand,43     until I make your enemies your footstool.”' 44 David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?” Beware of the Scribes 45 And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, 46 “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 47 who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” Footnotes [1] 19:13 Or bondservants; also verse 15 [2] 19:13 A mina was about three months' wages for a laborer [3] 19:17 Or bondservant; also verse 22 [4] 20:1 Greek he [5] 20:10 Or bondservant; also verse 11 [6] 20:17 Greek the head of the corner [7] 20:21 Greek and do not receive a face [8] 20:24 A denarius was a day's wage for a laborer [9] 20:28 Greek his brother [10] 20:36 Greek huioi; see Preface (ESV)

Audio Transcript:This media has been made available by Mosaic BostonChurch. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston,or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Heavenly Father, we thank You that You are God overall, and even over those who don't yet confess Jesus Christ as Lord, You are Lord over them as well. Lord, we thank You for regulating revelation of Your holy truth. By Your Spirit, you're the one that illumines the truth into our hearts, and we pray for more revelation in our church. We pray for more revelation given to us, not just so we can store it, or hold it, or keep it unto ourselves, but so that we can share it with others. As we get light, as we get knowledge and discernment and wisdom, I pray that You give us the unction of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Spirit to then share it with others.As we come to know who You are, let us be a people that wants to testify to the greatness of Your holy name. Lord, You are so holy, even Your name is holy, and we pray that Your name will be hollowed in our church, in our hearts, and our lives, and we pray that Your name will be hollowed and considered holy and revered in the city. Lord, there are many who don't yet follow You, don't yet even believe in You, and we pray for a revival. We pray for an awakening. We do believe that Your kingdom is unstoppable.You promised that there was nothing that is going to remain hidden, You will reveal all truth, and we pray, Lord, use us in the process of this harvest of drawn many to Yourself. Give us a zeal, a burning zeal in our hearts to do everything we possibly can to see people whom we love, come to faith, to receive eternal life, to receive the power of the Holy Spirit, and to receive forgiveness of sins and a relationship with You. Lord, we pray that You instill a hope in us, a hope that is unshakeable so people around us do realize there's something different about these people, they do believe, and they build their life on this hope. And we pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen.We're continuing our sermon series to do with the incredible gospel of Mark. We've called it Kingdom Come, the Gospel of Mark and the Secret of God's Kingdom, and the title today is the Unstoppable Kingdom. Question, "What's one thing that grows the more you share it? The more you give it to others, the more you test it, the more you share, what is that one thing that grows?," and I would submit to you, it's your faith. The more you share your faith, the deeper your faith gets.The more you testify to the truth of God, the deeper your understanding of that truth is. Jesus Christ told us, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. I'll make you compel people to come into the kingdom. I'm saving you as an instrument of salvation for others." That's part of our purpose.1 Peter 3:15 says, "But in your hearts honor Christ, the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect." We should be such hope-filled people, that people around us are like mesmerized by this hope that we have no matter what the circumstances. No matter what the situation in the world, we have an unshakable hope. Why are you a follower of Jesus Christ? Well, it's because the Lord sent someone to you at some point to sow the seeds of God's word into your heart, and the fact that you're following Jesus today is evidence that the seed was planted into fertile soil.The seed goes deep and it germinates, and a root system goes deep into your heart, and that seed grows as it is nourished by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit bears fruit through us, and the fruit that the Holy Spirit bears has seeds, and that's the seed of God's word, and we are then to take those seeds and we are to sow those seeds into the heart soils of other people. Then, by the power of God, they too are saved. They're saved from God's judgment. They're saved for God's kingdom and His mission, and the intention is clear from these parables that the Lord is giving us today. We are not only to receive knowledge, but do everything we can to impart that knowledge to others, and this is how the kingdom of God grows in your life and in the world.Today, we're in Mark 4:21-34. Would you look at the text with me? "And He said to them, 'Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, nor is anything secret except to come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.'""And He said to them, 'Pay attention to what you hear, with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For to the one who has more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.' And He said, 'The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows. He knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear, but when the grain is ripe at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.'""And He said, 'With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which when sown on the ground is the smallest of the seeds on the earth, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.' With many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to His own disciples, He explained everything." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word.May He write these truths on our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. First, love the light, hunger for truth, and share the gains, second, sow the seed, trust God for growth, harvest is coming, and third, there's room for all in the kingdom of God. First, love the light, hunger for truth, and share the gains. So Jesus, in the previous text, has interpreted the parable of the sower, and now, He gives us a few more parables, of the lamp, of the hidden in the manifest of having, and not having, and that the kingdom grows like seed.These parables, with their emphasis on revelation and the necessity of paying attention, extends the theme of the word and its hearers. Verse 21, "And He said to them, 'Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand?'" Jesus uses very similar phrasing in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:14, Jesus said, "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.""In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Now, the text in Matthew 5 is very clear. Don't hide your light. Be good witnesses to Jesus Christ, and this world do good works so people see the good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. It's tempting when you come across a text like ours to say, "Oh, there's a similar phrase that's used in a different text like Matthew 5," and just assume that Jesus means the same thing because He used the same phrase.Jesus, just like us, often uses the same expressions and different context to communicate different truths. So just because Jesus is using the same image, or the same expression, or the same phraseology doesn't automatically mean He's saying the same thing. We have to pay attention to the context. In Matthew 5:15, Jesus is urging us to do something. You shine your light to the world.Here, Jesus is promising us something wonderful. He's not just calling us to action, but He's giving us a promise, and the promise is about the destiny of the kingdom of God. The parable is teaching us that the future for the kingdom of God is bright, and I just want to point out a couple of things from the text. In our translation, the English standard, it just says a light. There's no definite article.The definite article is the. In the original Greek, there is a definite article before the word, lamp, so it's the lamp. A particular lamp is in view, and where the text says that the lamp is brought in, the Greek actually says, "Does the lamp come in?" It isn't brought in, it comes in all on its own. There's a personal agency ascribed to the lamp. Meaning, the lamp is a person.The lamp comes in. The lamp here is the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is what Jesus taught us about His identity in John 8:12. "Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, 'I, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'" So probably, the best way to read verse 21 in our text is that the lamp is the revelation of God and His kingdom as has come in the person, the words, the works of Jesus Christ.It's a message, a revelation summarized in the message of the gospel. If the lamp is here and the gospel of the kingdom is here, Jesus is saying, "What's the intent?" It's here in order to be exposed. It's here in order to shine. This is what He's telling His disciples.He says, "Be patient. When it looks like the darkness in the world is oppressive, when it looks like there's so much darkness, that no light can penetrate that darkness, be patient. Continue to believe." Even with Christ, many were opposing Him. There was an antagonism that was growing amongst the Scribes and the Pharisees, and partially because they didn't want the light of God in their life.This is a lot of people, they want God's love, but they don't want God's light, but God is Love and He is Light, and you can't have one part of Him without all of Him. Many people love John 3:16, a verse that many have memorized even since Sunday school, but in the context about God loving the world, He does say like the world has rejected this love because they don't want the light, they want to continue living in darkness. Look at John 3:16-21, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.""And this is the judgment, the light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed, but whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God." He's saying the light has come and the light has come in the form of Jesus Christ, and people reject Him because people loved darkness. This is what the difference between a believer and non-believer. A believer has a brand new heart.You're regenerated. When you repent of your sin, you're given this brand new heart that longs for God's light. You want to love the light. You love standing in the light, living in the light. You love being a child of the Light, and you love God's word because God's word illuminates more of your life. It shows you more of the ways that you are to walk in and the ways that you are not to walk in light that shows the way to live.Psalm 119:105 says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." So even in the short-term, God intends those outside even if He does intend that they misunderstand this word. It's not going to be hidden forever. The truth is here, and even if people suppress that truth, there will come a point where the suppression is no longer even possible. Mark 4:22, Jesus continues, says, "For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, nor is anything secret except to come to light."He did not come to have His light hidden away, and the whole point of His coming in this veiled form, often rejected form, was so that the light might shine, undim to the ends of the earth. He came in weakness and suffering. He came as a seed to be buried in the ground. Look at Isaiah 53, one of the most powerful, prophetic passages about the person of Christ. "Who has believed what He has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?""For He grew up before Him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed Him not." Just as in the past, nothing was hidden except in order to become manifest, so Jesus is saying this is true.Even now, in the present, all the hiddenness of the current age will ultimately serve the purpose of revelation. This is exactly what happened with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Jesus, who is God, the Son of God, King of kings, comes and He proclaims the word of the kingdom. "The kingdom is here. Repent and believe. Everyone who repents and believes is welcome."But the opponents of Jesus, they misunderstood His word, and they rejected it. The word didn't penetrate their hearts, it didn't transform them, but this rejection of the word led to Jesus' death, and as a result from the divine perspective, it led to ultimate revelation, more revelation. He was killed by those who refuse to believe His word, refuse to see His identity, but in this divinely will death, which is caused by their spiritual blindness, God ushers in a brand new age of revelation. After Good Friday and Easter Sunday, Jesus now is proclaimed as the Messiah, as the Son of God, and after the Holy Spirit falls on Pentecost. Now, when the message of the gospel was proclaimed, the Holy Spirit takes that message and transforms people.He saves people. The obscurity of the word ultimately serves to lead to greater revelation. The lamp of God's word has come into the room and is casting its light into every crevice for everyone who would welcome the light into their heart. 1 John 2:8-11, "At the same time, it is a new commandment that I'm writing to you, which is true in Him and in you because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him, there is no cause for stumbling, but whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes." At the same time, we look around the world and we say, "Well, if the light has come and the light is revealing the kingdom of God, why aren't more people Christians? Why aren't more people following the word of God?," and Jesus here says, "There will come a time when everything is revealed, and at that point, it will be too late." The kingdom will not remain hidden forever. It is seemingly hidden now, in that its full power is not evident, it's concealed in some way, but there will be a day when the kingdom is completely revealed because the light of function is to expose the darkness.The kingdom of God, the kingdom of Jesus Christ cannot stay hidden. Nothing can obscure it. No shadow can engulf it or eclipse it. Why are we believers? Because God shown His light into our heart so that the knowledge of the glory of Jesus Christ is understood.The light of the gospel is chasing away the shadows of unbelief, and the people who walked in darkness are beginning to see the light. And what's our job? Our job is to believe this promise, that the kingdom is unstoppable, that the gospel light will continue to shine and God will draw the elect, will draw His children to Himself. And what's our job in the process? We are to love the truth, hunger for the truth, and impart the truth for others. The light isn't just given to us so we enjoy our lives here on earth until we go to heaven.No. We have work to do to testify to Jesus Christ, that He alone is the Doctor of our souls, that He alone is the Way to salvation. There's no other name by which anyone will be saved. That day, the judgment day, or when Christ returns will reveal that to everybody, and for most people, will be too late then. I understand in a place like Boston, it's easy to lose your hope.You look around, you're like, "We are outnumbered. Big league, we are outnumbered. We are on the losing side," and that is a lie of the enemy. As soon as you begin to believe that lie, we lose the power. We are to believe that Jesus' kingdom is growing, will continue to grow, and sometimes it feels like our light just isn't enough.It feels like you're in Fenway Park, all the lights are out, you're by yourself, and you want to light up the night just a little bit. You take out your phone with a little flashlight, and you're like, "Yeah, the light of Jesus," and it looks pathetic, puny, flickering even. It seems like the darkness is absolute impenetrable. You say, "What can my little light do?," and then you realize, "It's not my light. It's not my light, it's not my lamp."The light is Jesus Christ Himself. The light is God. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Do you believe this? Do you believe that there is no one beyond the reach of Jesus Christ? Do you believe that there is no heart so hard, that grace cannot soften it and change it forever?The light will pierce the darkness. We just need to proclaim that Jesus is the Light. He is the only Way of salvation. I'm confident of that because of the promise here, that the light came not to be hidden, it came to blaze forth and to give light to the world, and nothing can stop Jesus Christ. Nothing can stop the King.Last week, I shared that I had a toothache, and thank you for all your condolences. It was supposed to be solved on Tuesday. I woke up the happiest person to get a root canal ever. I even got a shirt, buttoned. I was like, "I'm ready to go."Did my hair. I'm like, "I'm ready to go to the endodontist." I show up, and they say, "Thank you for coming for your consultation." I was like, "What? No."So my dental appointment is on Tuesday. Tuesday is coming. Praise be to God. And so I was at a staff meeting. I came into the staff meeting on Thursday. We were praying for one another, and I shared about my toothpaste, and Raquel was praying for me, and Raquel starts praying, and it's just powerful, and then she's like, "Lord, you see the decay in Pastor Jan's tooth, just decay.""Decay. He's decaying. He's fallen apart. Decay, decay, decay." And that's all I heard.I'm like, "I am ... Yup." I said, "Amen." We are all decaying. I just want to just share that tremendous news. We are all mortal.We are all going to die. Time will be up for each one of us. The Lord knows when that is, but I'm telling you, dear soul, dear eternal soul, that moment will come, and you will stand before Jesus Christ, and you will stand before Him as forgiven, welcome into the presence of God, or He will stand before you like a judge. It's one or the other. This is what Jesus is saying, that the kingdom is inevitable.This is true. This is the greatest truth that there is. This is the truth underneath every single truth, that Jesus Christ is King, and the only way that we can be forgiven of our law-breaking, of our insubordination, of our rebellion against the King, is to fall on our knees and say, "Lord Jesus, please forgive me of all my sins. Lord Jesus, I repent," and Jesus Christ says, "The love of God will be poured into your heart. The light of God will be poured into your mind, and you will be transformed."This has to be real for every believer. When we meet friends who are not Christians, who are not followers of Christ, you need to believe that they are on their way to hell, eternal damnation apart from Jesus Christ, and this is why we proclaim the gospel, this is why we do what we do. This is the truth, and our job is to sow the seed of the gospel, and not to be afraid of it, not to be afraid of speaking the truth. There are proponents of other religions who are 10 times, 100 times more courageous than most Christians today. I watched the UFC.A lot of Muslim fighters are in there, and they're all, "Inshallah," and they're just saying, "Praise be to God. If God wills ..." They're just throwing in God in every ... I'm like, "Imagine if believers did that, just on a daily basis, speaking the name of Christ every opportunity that we get, no matter what cost." Why? Because that's how important it is.In Mark 4:23, He says, "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." He's saying that ears to hear this message are a gift from God. Repentance is a gift from God. Faith is a gift from God, but using the ears that God has given us, that's our responsibility. We are to say, "Lord, tune our ears to hear Your voice and give us grace to hear."In verse 24, "And He said to them, 'Pay attention to what you hear, with the measure you use, it will be measured to you and still more will be added to you." The wake-up call is repeated and reinforced, pay attention to what you hear. He's not saying that it's just hearing per se, you hear. No. It's hearing to understand.It's hearing with the commitment to obey no matter what it says. Also, he says, "See what you hear." That's the original. It's the sense of hearing doubled by the sense of sight, suggesting we're going to use all of our faculties to listen to the word of God, and significant in the wording, the call is to pay attention not just to how we hear, but to what we listen to. Be careful in the voices you'll allow into your life and to your heart in a world that is still, in some sense, Satan's house and his dominion.Not all voices who claim to be speaking on behalf of God really are. Many of the voices are deceitful, perhaps even satanic in claiming to be God's word. Later on in Mark 13, Jesus says that, "Satan does everything he can to lead astray if possible, even the elect." So we, as believers need to be careful, careful of the voices we allow. Listening sermons is important.You should listen to sermons, but I want you versed in the scriptures more than you are in sermons so that you can discern, "Is this truly the word of God or not?" On the other hand, when we listen to God's word with the intent to obey, God gives us more revelation, and as He does, He continues to draw us to the calling that He has for us to go and preach the gospel, to receive, and then also share the gains that we have. Romans 10:14, "How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed, and how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? How are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news?,' but they have not all believed the gospel, for Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed what He has heard from us?'""So faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of Christ." In Ephesians 1:13, "In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory." He says, "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you and still more will be added to you." Mark here takes a phrase that was known in ancient literature, a phrase that had to do with giving. If you give to others, whatever you give will return to you, but here, he applies it to epistemology, knowledge of God, in particular.What He's saying is if you receive insight from the Lord, if you receive it with a welcome heart and a pure heart, you will get more insight, and the measure of our engagement with the word, the way we respond, our desire to grasp its message and digest its truth, no matter how hard to chew, will determine the measure of blessing we enjoy from it. Do you want more blessing? Of course we do. He says, "Pay closer attention." The word teaches clearly that if you come close to God, He will come close to you.He will draw near to you. If you take a tiny step toward God, God will more than match the movement. In verse 25, He says, "For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." Now, Proverbs 13:4 says, "The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied." Diligence.Are you diligent about your faith? The Christians that I know, that I've seen them grow spiritually by leaps and bounds, and the ones that have grown in spiritual prosperity are those who are diligent, diligent in their study of scripture on a daily basis, diligent over private devotions and private prayer, diligent over attending worship services and community groups, in the same way that exercise and use of muscles are strengthened with exercise so that the soul is strengthened when we exercise the means of grace that God has given us, and we are to expend all energy to listen to the word and the promises that we will be proportionally rewarded. Those who heed the message get more understanding of the message, get more revelation, get more blessing. Those who do not heed the message end up with nothing, and the idea of the rich getting richer applies to truth, that God gives wisdom to the wise, and He gives grace to those who long for insight and knowledge. For example, Daniel 2:19-23, "Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night.""Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, 'Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.""He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with him. To You, O God, of my fathers that give thanks and praise, for You have given me wisdom and might and have now made known to me what we asked of you, for You have made known to us the kings matter." So we are to pay careful attention to how we listen, to what we listen in terms of the word of God, and let the measure of your response to the word be full, and complete, and heartfelt, and diligent, and real, and those who give themselves to the word like this, they gain much. What do you gain when you pay attention to the word?You gain eternal life. You gain a relationship with God. You gain energy and strength to persevere despite trials. You gain comforts that the world cannot even imagine and you gain a hope that no tragedy can touch, and you gain heaven itself. But to those who hear the word and do not respond like this, but respond with tepid indifference, "Oh, yeah, God," "Oh, yeah, God's word," "Oh, yeah, Christ dying on the cross, bleeding, crucifixion," "Oh, yeah, Jan, I've heard that before," well, Jesus says those who listen like that, even what they have will be taken away.So the word of God when proclaimed, no matter how familiar you are with the word, you can't ignore it. What a joy and peace we have in the word. In particular, watch for those texts in holy scripture where you are tempted to plug your ears with your fingers. "No, that's not for me. Yeah, they say that that's God's word, but that's not for me."Pay close attention to those texts. Some of you have been walking with Christ for years, and your relationship with the Lord has just grown cold. There's no obvious rebellion in your life, but it just feels like your faith is like stale bread, left out too long, dry, crusty, and moldy. The word used to come to you like fresh water from a rock in the desert, like manna from heaven, and now you just sit in services or you're reading scripture, and there's just nothing. There's no life, there's no interest.There's just boredom. At these moments, the Lord is speaking to you and say, "Pay attention. Pay attention to what you hear, how you hear because the stakes are that high," and Jesus today invites you to turn away from your lukewarmness and draw near to Him, and ask the, "Lord, send me this hunger. Send me a thirst for Your presence and for Your word, and give me this attentiveness, this desire to hear it no matter what and to obey," and the Lord will meet you there. Second, sow the seed, trust God for growth, and harvest is coming.Mark 4:26-27, "And He said, 'The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, he knows not how." The emphasis in this parable is that God grows His kingdom, that God is the One that gives the growth. The farmer, all he does is plant the seed, and then how it grows eludes his comprehension. It's beyond his control.He can't control how it grows. All he does is cast the seed and weight, and the seed germinates and develops by itself even while he is sleeping. He has no idea how it grows, and the Lord here is saying, "I give the growth." This is from 1 Corinthians. Paul says, "I planted, Apollos watered it, but God gave the growth."Verse 28, "The Earth produces by itself, first, the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear, and when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come." Our job is to preach the word. Our job is to sow the seed of God's word. What God does with His word is His business. It's only for us to make sure we're faithful in our sowing.This is our responsibility, but God is the One that gives the growth. The soil can't produce life apart from the seed, but why? Because humans are dead in sin. Life must come from the outside, and it comes from the word of God. He says, "First, the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear."The children of God are not born in perfect faith or perfect hope, or perfect knowledge or experience, but the moment you become a child of God, even the weakest child of God is a true child of God, and the true child of God is expected by God to grow. If God began the process of salvation, He's promised He's going to complete it, and the process of salvation includes maturity and growth. Philippians 1:6, "And I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." He's the one that starts the work, and He will bring it to completion. What's our job?We are to grow ... In 1 Peter 3:18 says, "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him, be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. This is how the reign of God grows in your life.You grow in grace, grow in grace by the means of grace, studying scripture, and praying, and worshiping the Lord. We receive grace when we recognize that we've sinned. "Lord, give me more grace and power me with that grace," and that's how maturity, that's how growth come. The real cause of agent of the words fruition isn't the farmer, it's the seed. It's God Himself.He says, "Keep sowing, keep sowing, keep sowing until the day of harvest comes." The day of harvest in scripture from Joel, from Revelation we see, the day of harvest is actually an image of judgment. A time when evil is judged and righteousness is vindicated. For example, Revelation 14:15, "And another angel came out of the temple calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, 'Out in your sickle and reap for the hour to reap has come for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.'" The harvest is, in the Lord's parable, is a symbol of the end of the age, the last judgment, the consummation of history, and we have the same text in Joel 3:13, "Put in the stickle for the harvest is ripe.""Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great." Jesus here is showing us a picture of the whole period of world history from the first coming of Christ to the second coming of Christ, from His first advent to the next, and Jesus is saying that, "Kingdom is growing. The kingdom is growing. The kingdom is growing.Sow the seed, the kingdom is growing, but a day will come when finally, it's time for reaping and the harvest." Our job is to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom. Were to sow the seed of the word of God. Our task is not to attempt to manipulate the seed, or force growth, or change the seed somehow. No, Jesus wants us to have complete confidence, that there's life in the seed itself, the word of God is living inactive, and the word of God is going to accomplish the work that God has for it.We are to trust in it, hope in it, and recognize that the kingdom of God is unstoppable, the kingdom of God is inevitable, and God is going to save all of the elect. Galatians 6:9, "Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season, we will reap if we do not give up." One of the reasons why this church even exists is because we believe this. We've believed this from the very beginning when we establish the church. We said, "What kind of church do we ..."We want to be a church that's faithful of God's word, and we want to do God's work God's way. Sometimes it does feel like the soil here isn't really soil, but it's kind of like concrete, and I remember a while back, I was walking my daughters to school, and I saw the pavement of a sidewalk with a little sprout growing. I was like, "Oh, that's cute," and I just walked by, and then a few weeks later, I'm walking ... I look at it, I'm like, "I can't believe it." It was a tomato plant, a tomato plant just out of the sidewalk with a little tomato, and I should have plucked it.I should have plucked it. I should have had it. I didn't plant it, though, and it was just an image of like, "No matter what, God's seeds can break through even the hardness of payment." Can God save people in Boston, Massachusetts? Of course He can, and He does, and we see it at this church, and we see it in the other gospel proclaiming ministries we support.The point of, and this is what Jesus closed it with, there's room for all in the kingdom of God. Mark 4:30, and He said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? How do we understand the kingdom of God?" Here, He's quoting from Isaiah, "To whom will we liken God or what likeness compare with Him?" Jesus is saying that the kingdom is a kingdom that's going to grow.It starts and it looks like a tiny, little seed, as tiny even as a mustard seed, but it's going to grow because God promised the. Previous parable is a call to patience. The seed's going to grow surely, slowly, but surely. This parable is a call to hope. It's not only going to grow, it's going to grow massively, so we can confidently sow and not grow weary and not grow discouraged, not lose heart.But remember, the promise that God said, "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it." We are to be content with the growth that God sends us, but we are never complacent. We are thankful for all the people that God saved here in and through this church, and sanctify, but we're not complacent. We do believe that God wants this church to grow. He wants the kingdom of God to grow.We are a kingdom building force, and how do we build the kingdom? By sowing the seed, and the seed can be even as small as a grain of mustard seed. Verse 31, "It's like a grain of mustard seed, which when sown on the ground is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth," and here, Jesus is hyperbolic. He's comparing something very tiny, mustard seed to something great, and that's the growth that comes from the mustard seed, over 700 mustard seeds to a gram, and the height of the bush or the tree can grow to 10 feet. What He's saying is that the kingdom of God grows like this.In the beginnings, there's small, paltry in appearance, but there's tremendous power, divine potency in the word of God. The mustard seed is chosen because of its commonness, and because of its smallness, but it grows into something vast and incredible. What is Jesus here saying? He's saying, "Well, look how the kingdom came into the world initially, and weakness." How did the King of kings, the King of the universe come into this world?He came as a baby, born in a manger, at Bethlehem, without riches, without armies, without attendance, without power. And who are the men that God chose to build His church? Who were the appointed apostles? Just average men. What was the last public act of Jesus' earthly ministry as the King of kings?Well, He was crucified between two criminals, between two thieves, and He was forsaken by His disciples, betrayed by one, denied by another. What was the doctrine that the first apostles, the first builders of the church ... What was the doctrine they preached? They preached Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and to Greeks. It was foolishness, but because of the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit took that message, that we have all sinned, we have all transgressed the commandments of God, Jesus Christ lived a perfect life on our behalf, and then He died on a cross as our substitutionary atonement, and then He rose in the third day, and whoever believes in Christ has all of their sins blotted out, forgiven.It's as if God cast our sins as far from us, says the east is from the west. He chooses to not just forgive, but forget our sins. When that message was proclaimed and the Holy Spirit took and applied to people's hearts, lives were changed. The world was changed, in the same way that the gospel changed people's lives, then He does so today. In all this, the mind of man can only look at Christ, can only look at His disciples and see weakness and feebleness, but we, as believers, we understand that beyond the feebleness, beyond the weakness, is the power of God, a power that can truly save. Mark 4:32, "Yet, when it is sown, it grows up and it becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."Now, this phrase, birds of the air is used in Ezekiel 31 and Daniel 4. It's to represent the multitude of the nations, that the kingdom grows and it's going to grow in vastness, and then people of all nations are going to come and build nests within this tree. Ezekiel 17:23, "On the mountain height of Israel, will I plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar, and under it will dwell every kind of bird in the shadow of its branches, birds of every sort will nest." Every time this phrase is used in the Old Testament, describing a mighty kingdom, be it Israel or Egypt or Babylon, the kingdoms will gross in vastness, that the other nations will come and seek refuge in this kingdom. What Jesus is saying here is, "My kingdom is like that.""My kingdom, the kingdom of God is like this, though its beginnings are improbable, a small seed, a crucified Messiah, suffering church, preaching, baptizing, and holding holy communion, praying. Its beginnings are improbable, but its destiny is vast, and there's room for all." In the kingdom of God, there's room for every single one of you, there's room for every single one of your families, there's room for everyone in the world that will come and repent, and to build a nest. I like the idea of just building a little nest with your loved ones. In the kingdom of God, He's like, "Make sure you're building this home that you have in the kingdom of God.""Come and find shelter," Jesus is saying, "In the shade of this kingdom." The parable emphasizes the shelter that the kingdom brings. In Psalm 91, "He who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, 'My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust, for He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings, you will find refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and a buckler.'"Jesus concludes our text in Mark 4:33. "With many such parables, He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately, to His own disciples, He explained everything," as they were able to hear according to their God-given ability to hear. What He's saying is, and He concludes with this, if you want more revelation, you do it by spending more time with Christ, by following Christ, by communing with Him and abiding in Him. Three points to summarize, and then we'll close with prayer, love the light, hunger for truth, and then share the gains.Sow the seed, trust God for growth, harvest is coming, and there's room for all in the kingdom of God. Let us pray. Lord, we thank You for continuing to build Your kingdom in and through us in this city, in a place of stifling darkness, sometimes it seems, but Lord, You are the Light, and You're the Light that shines in the darkness. Lord, as you saved us, we believe that You can save others, and we pray that You use us in the process, even this week, Lord. Give us opportunities to speak of You, speak of the gospel, speak of Your grace.We pray that You open the door for the proclamation of the gospel here. We pray for revival in this city and beyond. We pray for an awakening, and we pray that, Lord, You save many and draw them to yourself and to Your incredible kingdom, and we pray this in Christ's holy name. Amen.

We are back to the Sermon on the Mount – with "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH" – Matthew 5:17-20. Jesus is being accused of undermining and dismantling God's WORD, when just the opposite is TRUE. The spiritual leadership of Israel had replaced the written Word with Oral Traditions, as Christ rejected the Oral Traditions, the Scribes and Pharisees accused Christ of rejecting the TRUTH. So the Lord spells out his commitment to God's living Word

Audio Transcript:This media has been made available by Mosaic BostonChurch. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston,or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Heavenly Father, we thank You that You are God overall, and even over those who don't yet confess Jesus Christ as Lord, You are Lord over them as well. Lord, we thank You for regulating revelation of Your holy truth. By Your Spirit, you're the one that illumines the truth into our hearts, and we pray for more revelation in our church. We pray for more revelation given to us, not just so we can store it, or hold it, or keep it unto ourselves, but so that we can share it with others. As we get light, as we get knowledge and discernment and wisdom, I pray that You give us the unction of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Spirit to then share it with others.As we come to know who You are, let us be a people that wants to testify to the greatness of Your holy name. Lord, You are so holy, even Your name is holy, and we pray that Your name will be hollowed in our church, in our hearts, and our lives, and we pray that Your name will be hollowed and considered holy and revered in the city. Lord, there are many who don't yet follow You, don't yet even believe in You, and we pray for a revival. We pray for an awakening. We do believe that Your kingdom is unstoppable.You promised that there was nothing that is going to remain hidden, You will reveal all truth, and we pray, Lord, use us in the process of this harvest of drawn many to Yourself. Give us a zeal, a burning zeal in our hearts to do everything we possibly can to see people whom we love, come to faith, to receive eternal life, to receive the power of the Holy Spirit, and to receive forgiveness of sins and a relationship with You. Lord, we pray that You instill a hope in us, a hope that is unshakeable so people around us do realize there's something different about these people, they do believe, and they build their life on this hope. And we pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen.We're continuing our sermon series to do with the incredible gospel of Mark. We've called it Kingdom Come, the Gospel of Mark and the Secret of God's Kingdom, and the title today is the Unstoppable Kingdom. Question, "What's one thing that grows the more you share it? The more you give it to others, the more you test it, the more you share, what is that one thing that grows?," and I would submit to you, it's your faith. The more you share your faith, the deeper your faith gets.The more you testify to the truth of God, the deeper your understanding of that truth is. Jesus Christ told us, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. I'll make you compel people to come into the kingdom. I'm saving you as an instrument of salvation for others." That's part of our purpose.1 Peter 3:15 says, "But in your hearts honor Christ, the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect." We should be such hope-filled people, that people around us are like mesmerized by this hope that we have no matter what the circumstances. No matter what the situation in the world, we have an unshakable hope. Why are you a follower of Jesus Christ? Well, it's because the Lord sent someone to you at some point to sow the seeds of God's word into your heart, and the fact that you're following Jesus today is evidence that the seed was planted into fertile soil.The seed goes deep and it germinates, and a root system goes deep into your heart, and that seed grows as it is nourished by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit bears fruit through us, and the fruit that the Holy Spirit bears has seeds, and that's the seed of God's word, and we are then to take those seeds and we are to sow those seeds into the heart soils of other people. Then, by the power of God, they too are saved. They're saved from God's judgment. They're saved for God's kingdom and His mission, and the intention is clear from these parables that the Lord is giving us today. We are not only to receive knowledge, but do everything we can to impart that knowledge to others, and this is how the kingdom of God grows in your life and in the world.Today, we're in Mark 4:21-34. Would you look at the text with me? "And He said to them, 'Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, nor is anything secret except to come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.'""And He said to them, 'Pay attention to what you hear, with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For to the one who has more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.' And He said, 'The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows. He knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear, but when the grain is ripe at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.'""And He said, 'With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which when sown on the ground is the smallest of the seeds on the earth, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.' With many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to His own disciples, He explained everything." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word.May He write these truths on our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. First, love the light, hunger for truth, and share the gains, second, sow the seed, trust God for growth, harvest is coming, and third, there's room for all in the kingdom of God. First, love the light, hunger for truth, and share the gains. So Jesus, in the previous text, has interpreted the parable of the sower, and now, He gives us a few more parables, of the lamp, of the hidden in the manifest of having, and not having, and that the kingdom grows like seed.These parables, with their emphasis on revelation and the necessity of paying attention, extends the theme of the word and its hearers. Verse 21, "And He said to them, 'Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand?'" Jesus uses very similar phrasing in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:14, Jesus said, "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.""In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Now, the text in Matthew 5 is very clear. Don't hide your light. Be good witnesses to Jesus Christ, and this world do good works so people see the good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. It's tempting when you come across a text like ours to say, "Oh, there's a similar phrase that's used in a different text like Matthew 5," and just assume that Jesus means the same thing because He used the same phrase.Jesus, just like us, often uses the same expressions and different context to communicate different truths. So just because Jesus is using the same image, or the same expression, or the same phraseology doesn't automatically mean He's saying the same thing. We have to pay attention to the context. In Matthew 5:15, Jesus is urging us to do something. You shine your light to the world.Here, Jesus is promising us something wonderful. He's not just calling us to action, but He's giving us a promise, and the promise is about the destiny of the kingdom of God. The parable is teaching us that the future for the kingdom of God is bright, and I just want to point out a couple of things from the text. In our translation, the English standard, it just says a light. There's no definite article.The definite article is the. In the original Greek, there is a definite article before the word, lamp, so it's the lamp. A particular lamp is in view, and where the text says that the lamp is brought in, the Greek actually says, "Does the lamp come in?" It isn't brought in, it comes in all on its own. There's a personal agency ascribed to the lamp. Meaning, the lamp is a person.The lamp comes in. The lamp here is the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is what Jesus taught us about His identity in John 8:12. "Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, 'I, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'" So probably, the best way to read verse 21 in our text is that the lamp is the revelation of God and His kingdom as has come in the person, the words, the works of Jesus Christ.It's a message, a revelation summarized in the message of the gospel. If the lamp is here and the gospel of the kingdom is here, Jesus is saying, "What's the intent?" It's here in order to be exposed. It's here in order to shine. This is what He's telling His disciples.He says, "Be patient. When it looks like the darkness in the world is oppressive, when it looks like there's so much darkness, that no light can penetrate that darkness, be patient. Continue to believe." Even with Christ, many were opposing Him. There was an antagonism that was growing amongst the Scribes and the Pharisees, and partially because they didn't want the light of God in their life.This is a lot of people, they want God's love, but they don't want God's light, but God is Love and He is Light, and you can't have one part of Him without all of Him. Many people love John 3:16, a verse that many have memorized even since Sunday school, but in the context about God loving the world, He does say like the world has rejected this love because they don't want the light, they want to continue living in darkness. Look at John 3:16-21, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.""And this is the judgment, the light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed, but whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God." He's saying the light has come and the light has come in the form of Jesus Christ, and people reject Him because people loved darkness. This is what the difference between a believer and non-believer. A believer has a brand new heart.You're regenerated. When you repent of your sin, you're given this brand new heart that longs for God's light. You want to love the light. You love standing in the light, living in the light. You love being a child of the Light, and you love God's word because God's word illuminates more of your life. It shows you more of the ways that you are to walk in and the ways that you are not to walk in light that shows the way to live.Psalm 119:105 says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." So even in the short-term, God intends those outside even if He does intend that they misunderstand this word. It's not going to be hidden forever. The truth is here, and even if people suppress that truth, there will come a point where the suppression is no longer even possible. Mark 4:22, Jesus continues, says, "For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, nor is anything secret except to come to light."He did not come to have His light hidden away, and the whole point of His coming in this veiled form, often rejected form, was so that the light might shine, undim to the ends of the earth. He came in weakness and suffering. He came as a seed to be buried in the ground. Look at Isaiah 53, one of the most powerful, prophetic passages about the person of Christ. "Who has believed what He has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?""For He grew up before Him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed Him not." Just as in the past, nothing was hidden except in order to become manifest, so Jesus is saying this is true.Even now, in the present, all the hiddenness of the current age will ultimately serve the purpose of revelation. This is exactly what happened with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Jesus, who is God, the Son of God, King of kings, comes and He proclaims the word of the kingdom. "The kingdom is here. Repent and believe. Everyone who repents and believes is welcome."But the opponents of Jesus, they misunderstood His word, and they rejected it. The word didn't penetrate their hearts, it didn't transform them, but this rejection of the word led to Jesus' death, and as a result from the divine perspective, it led to ultimate revelation, more revelation. He was killed by those who refuse to believe His word, refuse to see His identity, but in this divinely will death, which is caused by their spiritual blindness, God ushers in a brand new age of revelation. After Good Friday and Easter Sunday, Jesus now is proclaimed as the Messiah, as the Son of God, and after the Holy Spirit falls on Pentecost. Now, when the message of the gospel was proclaimed, the Holy Spirit takes that message and transforms people.He saves people. The obscurity of the word ultimately serves to lead to greater revelation. The lamp of God's word has come into the room and is casting its light into every crevice for everyone who would welcome the light into their heart. 1 John 2:8-11, "At the same time, it is a new commandment that I'm writing to you, which is true in Him and in you because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him, there is no cause for stumbling, but whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes." At the same time, we look around the world and we say, "Well, if the light has come and the light is revealing the kingdom of God, why aren't more people Christians? Why aren't more people following the word of God?," and Jesus here says, "There will come a time when everything is revealed, and at that point, it will be too late." The kingdom will not remain hidden forever. It is seemingly hidden now, in that its full power is not evident, it's concealed in some way, but there will be a day when the kingdom is completely revealed because the light of function is to expose the darkness.The kingdom of God, the kingdom of Jesus Christ cannot stay hidden. Nothing can obscure it. No shadow can engulf it or eclipse it. Why are we believers? Because God shown His light into our heart so that the knowledge of the glory of Jesus Christ is understood.The light of the gospel is chasing away the shadows of unbelief, and the people who walked in darkness are beginning to see the light. And what's our job? Our job is to believe this promise, that the kingdom is unstoppable, that the gospel light will continue to shine and God will draw the elect, will draw His children to Himself. And what's our job in the process? We are to love the truth, hunger for the truth, and impart the truth for others. The light isn't just given to us so we enjoy our lives here on earth until we go to heaven.No. We have work to do to testify to Jesus Christ, that He alone is the Doctor of our souls, that He alone is the Way to salvation. There's no other name by which anyone will be saved. That day, the judgment day, or when Christ returns will reveal that to everybody, and for most people, will be too late then. I understand in a place like Boston, it's easy to lose your hope.You look around, you're like, "We are outnumbered. Big league, we are outnumbered. We are on the losing side," and that is a lie of the enemy. As soon as you begin to believe that lie, we lose the power. We are to believe that Jesus' kingdom is growing, will continue to grow, and sometimes it feels like our light just isn't enough.It feels like you're in Fenway Park, all the lights are out, you're by yourself, and you want to light up the night just a little bit. You take out your phone with a little flashlight, and you're like, "Yeah, the light of Jesus," and it looks pathetic, puny, flickering even. It seems like the darkness is absolute impenetrable. You say, "What can my little light do?," and then you realize, "It's not my light. It's not my light, it's not my lamp."The light is Jesus Christ Himself. The light is God. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Do you believe this? Do you believe that there is no one beyond the reach of Jesus Christ? Do you believe that there is no heart so hard, that grace cannot soften it and change it forever?The light will pierce the darkness. We just need to proclaim that Jesus is the Light. He is the only Way of salvation. I'm confident of that because of the promise here, that the light came not to be hidden, it came to blaze forth and to give light to the world, and nothing can stop Jesus Christ. Nothing can stop the King.Last week, I shared that I had a toothache, and thank you for all your condolences. It was supposed to be solved on Tuesday. I woke up the happiest person to get a root canal ever. I even got a shirt, buttoned. I was like, "I'm ready to go."Did my hair. I'm like, "I'm ready to go to the endodontist." I show up, and they say, "Thank you for coming for your consultation." I was like, "What? No."So my dental appointment is on Tuesday. Tuesday is coming. Praise be to God. And so I was at a staff meeting. I came into the staff meeting on Thursday. We were praying for one another, and I shared about my toothpaste, and Raquel was praying for me, and Raquel starts praying, and it's just powerful, and then she's like, "Lord, you see the decay in Pastor Jan's tooth, just decay.""Decay. He's decaying. He's fallen apart. Decay, decay, decay." And that's all I heard.I'm like, "I am ... Yup." I said, "Amen." We are all decaying. I just want to just share that tremendous news. We are all mortal.We are all going to die. Time will be up for each one of us. The Lord knows when that is, but I'm telling you, dear soul, dear eternal soul, that moment will come, and you will stand before Jesus Christ, and you will stand before Him as forgiven, welcome into the presence of God, or He will stand before you like a judge. It's one or the other. This is what Jesus is saying, that the kingdom is inevitable.This is true. This is the greatest truth that there is. This is the truth underneath every single truth, that Jesus Christ is King, and the only way that we can be forgiven of our law-breaking, of our insubordination, of our rebellion against the King, is to fall on our knees and say, "Lord Jesus, please forgive me of all my sins. Lord Jesus, I repent," and Jesus Christ says, "The love of God will be poured into your heart. The light of God will be poured into your mind, and you will be transformed."This has to be real for every believer. When we meet friends who are not Christians, who are not followers of Christ, you need to believe that they are on their way to hell, eternal damnation apart from Jesus Christ, and this is why we proclaim the gospel, this is why we do what we do. This is the truth, and our job is to sow the seed of the gospel, and not to be afraid of it, not to be afraid of speaking the truth. There are proponents of other religions who are 10 times, 100 times more courageous than most Christians today. I watched the UFC.A lot of Muslim fighters are in there, and they're all, "Inshallah," and they're just saying, "Praise be to God. If God wills ..." They're just throwing in God in every ... I'm like, "Imagine if believers did that, just on a daily basis, speaking the name of Christ every opportunity that we get, no matter what cost." Why? Because that's how important it is.In Mark 4:23, He says, "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." He's saying that ears to hear this message are a gift from God. Repentance is a gift from God. Faith is a gift from God, but using the ears that God has given us, that's our responsibility. We are to say, "Lord, tune our ears to hear Your voice and give us grace to hear."In verse 24, "And He said to them, 'Pay attention to what you hear, with the measure you use, it will be measured to you and still more will be added to you." The wake-up call is repeated and reinforced, pay attention to what you hear. He's not saying that it's just hearing per se, you hear. No. It's hearing to understand.It's hearing with the commitment to obey no matter what it says. Also, he says, "See what you hear." That's the original. It's the sense of hearing doubled by the sense of sight, suggesting we're going to use all of our faculties to listen to the word of God, and significant in the wording, the call is to pay attention not just to how we hear, but to what we listen to. Be careful in the voices you'll allow into your life and to your heart in a world that is still, in some sense, Satan's house and his dominion.Not all voices who claim to be speaking on behalf of God really are. Many of the voices are deceitful, perhaps even satanic in claiming to be God's word. Later on in Mark 13, Jesus says that, "Satan does everything he can to lead astray if possible, even the elect." So we, as believers need to be careful, careful of the voices we allow. Listening sermons is important.You should listen to sermons, but I want you versed in the scriptures more than you are in sermons so that you can discern, "Is this truly the word of God or not?" On the other hand, when we listen to God's word with the intent to obey, God gives us more revelation, and as He does, He continues to draw us to the calling that He has for us to go and preach the gospel, to receive, and then also share the gains that we have. Romans 10:14, "How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed, and how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? How are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news?,' but they have not all believed the gospel, for Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed what He has heard from us?'""So faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of Christ." In Ephesians 1:13, "In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory." He says, "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you and still more will be added to you." Mark here takes a phrase that was known in ancient literature, a phrase that had to do with giving. If you give to others, whatever you give will return to you, but here, he applies it to epistemology, knowledge of God, in particular.What He's saying is if you receive insight from the Lord, if you receive it with a welcome heart and a pure heart, you will get more insight, and the measure of our engagement with the word, the way we respond, our desire to grasp its message and digest its truth, no matter how hard to chew, will determine the measure of blessing we enjoy from it. Do you want more blessing? Of course we do. He says, "Pay closer attention." The word teaches clearly that if you come close to God, He will come close to you.He will draw near to you. If you take a tiny step toward God, God will more than match the movement. In verse 25, He says, "For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." Now, Proverbs 13:4 says, "The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied." Diligence.Are you diligent about your faith? The Christians that I know, that I've seen them grow spiritually by leaps and bounds, and the ones that have grown in spiritual prosperity are those who are diligent, diligent in their study of scripture on a daily basis, diligent over private devotions and private prayer, diligent over attending worship services and community groups, in the same way that exercise and use of muscles are strengthened with exercise so that the soul is strengthened when we exercise the means of grace that God has given us, and we are to expend all energy to listen to the word and the promises that we will be proportionally rewarded. Those who heed the message get more understanding of the message, get more revelation, get more blessing. Those who do not heed the message end up with nothing, and the idea of the rich getting richer applies to truth, that God gives wisdom to the wise, and He gives grace to those who long for insight and knowledge. For example, Daniel 2:19-23, "Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night.""Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, 'Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.""He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with him. To You, O God, of my fathers that give thanks and praise, for You have given me wisdom and might and have now made known to me what we asked of you, for You have made known to us the kings matter." So we are to pay careful attention to how we listen, to what we listen in terms of the word of God, and let the measure of your response to the word be full, and complete, and heartfelt, and diligent, and real, and those who give themselves to the word like this, they gain much. What do you gain when you pay attention to the word?You gain eternal life. You gain a relationship with God. You gain energy and strength to persevere despite trials. You gain comforts that the world cannot even imagine and you gain a hope that no tragedy can touch, and you gain heaven itself. But to those who hear the word and do not respond like this, but respond with tepid indifference, "Oh, yeah, God," "Oh, yeah, God's word," "Oh, yeah, Christ dying on the cross, bleeding, crucifixion," "Oh, yeah, Jan, I've heard that before," well, Jesus says those who listen like that, even what they have will be taken away.So the word of God when proclaimed, no matter how familiar you are with the word, you can't ignore it. What a joy and peace we have in the word. In particular, watch for those texts in holy scripture where you are tempted to plug your ears with your fingers. "No, that's not for me. Yeah, they say that that's God's word, but that's not for me."Pay close attention to those texts. Some of you have been walking with Christ for years, and your relationship with the Lord has just grown cold. There's no obvious rebellion in your life, but it just feels like your faith is like stale bread, left out too long, dry, crusty, and moldy. The word used to come to you like fresh water from a rock in the desert, like manna from heaven, and now you just sit in services or you're reading scripture, and there's just nothing. There's no life, there's no interest.There's just boredom. At these moments, the Lord is speaking to you and say, "Pay attention. Pay attention to what you hear, how you hear because the stakes are that high," and Jesus today invites you to turn away from your lukewarmness and draw near to Him, and ask the, "Lord, send me this hunger. Send me a thirst for Your presence and for Your word, and give me this attentiveness, this desire to hear it no matter what and to obey," and the Lord will meet you there. Second, sow the seed, trust God for growth, and harvest is coming.Mark 4:26-27, "And He said, 'The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, he knows not how." The emphasis in this parable is that God grows His kingdom, that God is the One that gives the growth. The farmer, all he does is plant the seed, and then how it grows eludes his comprehension. It's beyond his control.He can't control how it grows. All he does is cast the seed and weight, and the seed germinates and develops by itself even while he is sleeping. He has no idea how it grows, and the Lord here is saying, "I give the growth." This is from 1 Corinthians. Paul says, "I planted, Apollos watered it, but God gave the growth."Verse 28, "The Earth produces by itself, first, the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear, and when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come." Our job is to preach the word. Our job is to sow the seed of God's word. What God does with His word is His business. It's only for us to make sure we're faithful in our sowing.This is our responsibility, but God is the One that gives the growth. The soil can't produce life apart from the seed, but why? Because humans are dead in sin. Life must come from the outside, and it comes from the word of God. He says, "First, the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear."The children of God are not born in perfect faith or perfect hope, or perfect knowledge or experience, but the moment you become a child of God, even the weakest child of God is a true child of God, and the true child of God is expected by God to grow. If God began the process of salvation, He's promised He's going to complete it, and the process of salvation includes maturity and growth. Philippians 1:6, "And I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." He's the one that starts the work, and He will bring it to completion. What's our job?We are to grow ... In 1 Peter 3:18 says, "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him, be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. This is how the reign of God grows in your life.You grow in grace, grow in grace by the means of grace, studying scripture, and praying, and worshiping the Lord. We receive grace when we recognize that we've sinned. "Lord, give me more grace and power me with that grace," and that's how maturity, that's how growth come. The real cause of agent of the words fruition isn't the farmer, it's the seed. It's God Himself.He says, "Keep sowing, keep sowing, keep sowing until the day of harvest comes." The day of harvest in scripture from Joel, from Revelation we see, the day of harvest is actually an image of judgment. A time when evil is judged and righteousness is vindicated. For example, Revelation 14:15, "And another angel came out of the temple calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, 'Out in your sickle and reap for the hour to reap has come for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.'" The harvest is, in the Lord's parable, is a symbol of the end of the age, the last judgment, the consummation of history, and we have the same text in Joel 3:13, "Put in the stickle for the harvest is ripe.""Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great." Jesus here is showing us a picture of the whole period of world history from the first coming of Christ to the second coming of Christ, from His first advent to the next, and Jesus is saying that, "Kingdom is growing. The kingdom is growing. The kingdom is growing.Sow the seed, the kingdom is growing, but a day will come when finally, it's time for reaping and the harvest." Our job is to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom. Were to sow the seed of the word of God. Our task is not to attempt to manipulate the seed, or force growth, or change the seed somehow. No, Jesus wants us to have complete confidence, that there's life in the seed itself, the word of God is living inactive, and the word of God is going to accomplish the work that God has for it.We are to trust in it, hope in it, and recognize that the kingdom of God is unstoppable, the kingdom of God is inevitable, and God is going to save all of the elect. Galatians 6:9, "Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season, we will reap if we do not give up." One of the reasons why this church even exists is because we believe this. We've believed this from the very beginning when we establish the church. We said, "What kind of church do we ..."We want to be a church that's faithful of God's word, and we want to do God's work God's way. Sometimes it does feel like the soil here isn't really soil, but it's kind of like concrete, and I remember a while back, I was walking my daughters to school, and I saw the pavement of a sidewalk with a little sprout growing. I was like, "Oh, that's cute," and I just walked by, and then a few weeks later, I'm walking ... I look at it, I'm like, "I can't believe it." It was a tomato plant, a tomato plant just out of the sidewalk with a little tomato, and I should have plucked it.I should have plucked it. I should have had it. I didn't plant it, though, and it was just an image of like, "No matter what, God's seeds can break through even the hardness of payment." Can God save people in Boston, Massachusetts? Of course He can, and He does, and we see it at this church, and we see it in the other gospel proclaiming ministries we support.The point of, and this is what Jesus closed it with, there's room for all in the kingdom of God. Mark 4:30, and He said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? How do we understand the kingdom of God?" Here, He's quoting from Isaiah, "To whom will we liken God or what likeness compare with Him?" Jesus is saying that the kingdom is a kingdom that's going to grow.It starts and it looks like a tiny, little seed, as tiny even as a mustard seed, but it's going to grow because God promised the. Previous parable is a call to patience. The seed's going to grow surely, slowly, but surely. This parable is a call to hope. It's not only going to grow, it's going to grow massively, so we can confidently sow and not grow weary and not grow discouraged, not lose heart.But remember, the promise that God said, "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it." We are to be content with the growth that God sends us, but we are never complacent. We are thankful for all the people that God saved here in and through this church, and sanctify, but we're not complacent. We do believe that God wants this church to grow. He wants the kingdom of God to grow.We are a kingdom building force, and how do we build the kingdom? By sowing the seed, and the seed can be even as small as a grain of mustard seed. Verse 31, "It's like a grain of mustard seed, which when sown on the ground is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth," and here, Jesus is hyperbolic. He's comparing something very tiny, mustard seed to something great, and that's the growth that comes from the mustard seed, over 700 mustard seeds to a gram, and the height of the bush or the tree can grow to 10 feet. What He's saying is that the kingdom of God grows like this.In the beginnings, there's small, paltry in appearance, but there's tremendous power, divine potency in the word of God. The mustard seed is chosen because of its commonness, and because of its smallness, but it grows into something vast and incredible. What is Jesus here saying? He's saying, "Well, look how the kingdom came into the world initially, and weakness." How did the King of kings, the King of the universe come into this world?He came as a baby, born in a manger, at Bethlehem, without riches, without armies, without attendance, without power. And who are the men that God chose to build His church? Who were the appointed apostles? Just average men. What was the last public act of Jesus' earthly ministry as the King of kings?Well, He was crucified between two criminals, between two thieves, and He was forsaken by His disciples, betrayed by one, denied by another. What was the doctrine that the first apostles, the first builders of the church ... What was the doctrine they preached? They preached Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and to Greeks. It was foolishness, but because of the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit took that message, that we have all sinned, we have all transgressed the commandments of God, Jesus Christ lived a perfect life on our behalf, and then He died on a cross as our substitutionary atonement, and then He rose in the third day, and whoever believes in Christ has all of their sins blotted out, forgiven.It's as if God cast our sins as far from us, says the east is from the west. He chooses to not just forgive, but forget our sins. When that message was proclaimed and the Holy Spirit took and applied to people's hearts, lives were changed. The world was changed, in the same way that the gospel changed people's lives, then He does so today. In all this, the mind of man can only look at Christ, can only look at His disciples and see weakness and feebleness, but we, as believers, we understand that beyond the feebleness, beyond the weakness, is the power of God, a power that can truly save. Mark 4:32, "Yet, when it is sown, it grows up and it becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."Now, this phrase, birds of the air is used in Ezekiel 31 and Daniel 4. It's to represent the multitude of the nations, that the kingdom grows and it's going to grow in vastness, and then people of all nations are going to come and build nests within this tree. Ezekiel 17:23, "On the mountain height of Israel, will I plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar, and under it will dwell every kind of bird in the shadow of its branches, birds of every sort will nest." Every time this phrase is used in the Old Testament, describing a mighty kingdom, be it Israel or Egypt or Babylon, the kingdoms will gross in vastness, that the other nations will come and seek refuge in this kingdom. What Jesus is saying here is, "My kingdom is like that.""My kingdom, the kingdom of God is like this, though its beginnings are improbable, a small seed, a crucified Messiah, suffering church, preaching, baptizing, and holding holy communion, praying. Its beginnings are improbable, but its destiny is vast, and there's room for all." In the kingdom of God, there's room for every single one of you, there's room for every single one of your families, there's room for everyone in the world that will come and repent, and to build a nest. I like the idea of just building a little nest with your loved ones. In the kingdom of God, He's like, "Make sure you're building this home that you have in the kingdom of God.""Come and find shelter," Jesus is saying, "In the shade of this kingdom." The parable emphasizes the shelter that the kingdom brings. In Psalm 91, "He who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, 'My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust, for He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings, you will find refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and a buckler.'"Jesus concludes our text in Mark 4:33. "With many such parables, He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately, to His own disciples, He explained everything," as they were able to hear according to their God-given ability to hear. What He's saying is, and He concludes with this, if you want more revelation, you do it by spending more time with Christ, by following Christ, by communing with Him and abiding in Him. Three points to summarize, and then we'll close with prayer, love the light, hunger for truth, and then share the gains.Sow the seed, trust God for growth, harvest is coming, and there's room for all in the kingdom of God. Let us pray. Lord, we thank You for continuing to build Your kingdom in and through us in this city, in a place of stifling darkness, sometimes it seems, but Lord, You are the Light, and You're the Light that shines in the darkness. Lord, as you saved us, we believe that You can save others, and we pray that You use us in the process, even this week, Lord. Give us opportunities to speak of You, speak of the gospel, speak of Your grace.We pray that You open the door for the proclamation of the gospel here. We pray for revival in this city and beyond. We pray for an awakening, and we pray that, Lord, You save many and draw them to yourself and to Your incredible kingdom, and we pray this in Christ's holy name. Amen.

As Jesus concludes his public ministry, he does so with a clear and straightforward warning against the Jewish teachers, the Scribes. In doing so he contrasts their desire for recognition with the humble offering of a poor widow.

His Hebrew name is Jacob. He was a close kinsman of Christ, and was therefore called, according to the Jewish usage of the time, his "brother." Some accounts say that he was a child of Joseph by his first marriage; others accounts say that he was the son of Joseph's brother Cleopas and his wife Mary, who was first cousin of the Theotokos. He took the Nazirite vows of one completely consecrated to God according to the Law, and from a young age he was called "the Just" by his people. He is called James the Lesser in Scripture (Mark 15:40) to distinguish him from James the son of Zebedee, who is called the Greater. The Apostles appointed him first Bishop of Jerusalem. It was he who presided at the earliest Council of the Church in Jerusalem, where he resolved the problem of how gentile converts should be received into the Church (see Acts 15). He wrote the New Testament Epistle, addressed primarily to Jewish converts to the Faith, that bears his name. About the year 62, he ascended to the peak of the Temple in Jerusalem on Passover, and there bore witness to Christ so effectively that the people cried out "Hosanna to the Son of David." At this, the Scribes and Pharisees, fearing that all the people would be converted to Christ, cast him down to the ground. By God's grace, he survived long enough to rise, kneel and pray, like his Master, "Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do." He was then clubbed to death by one of the scribes.

Our Stories: Reimagine 10-22-2023 from Floris UMC on Vimeo. Mark 12:38-44 Jesus Denounces the Scribes 38 As he taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long […] The post Reimagine appeared first on Floris United Methodist Church.

In Mark 12:28-34 Jesus lays out the Greatest Commandment, and it begs a question for modern Christians: How well do you know your Bible? A scribe asked Jesus to identify the most important commandment in the Law. Scribes in ancient Israel were like lawyers today, and they were experts on scripture. Jesus answered not with one of the 10 commandments, but with the “Shema”. This was essentially a prelude to the commandments, and it was well known even to Israelite children. Jesus added a surprise second commandment that he called equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.' This was a relatively obscure verse from Leviticus, but it summarized the last five commandments.The Shema Series--About this episode: This is part of our Gospel of Mark series at pursueGOD.org. Find resources to talk about it with your family, small group, or mentor at www.pursueGOD.org/mark.--Additional notes:

Mark 12–13 Mark 12–13 (Listen) The Parable of the Tenants 12 And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. 2 When the season came, he sent a servant1 to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. 6 He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.' 7 But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' 8 And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not read this Scripture:   “‘The stone that the builders rejected    has become the cornerstone;211   this was the Lord's doing,    and it is marvelous in our eyes'?” 12 And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away. Paying Taxes to Caesar 13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. 14 And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances,3 but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” 15 But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius4 and let me look at it.” 16 And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar's.” 17 Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” And they marveled at him. The Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection 18 And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man5 must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. 21 And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. 22 And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. 23 In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.” 24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? 27 He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.” The Great Commandment 28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. 33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions. Whose Son Is the Christ? 35 And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? 36 David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared,   “‘The Lord said to my Lord,  “Sit at my right hand,    until I put your enemies under your feet.”' 37 David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son?” And the great throng heard him gladly. Beware of the Scribes 38 And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces 39 and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 40 who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” The Widow's Offering 41 And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.6 43 And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 44 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” Jesus Foretells Destruction of the Temple 13 And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” 2 And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” Signs of the End of the Age 3 And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?” 5 And Jesus began to say to them, “See that no one leads you astray. 6 Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!' and they will lead many astray. 7 And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. 8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains. 9 “But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. 10 And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. 11 And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. 12 And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. 13 And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. The Abomination of Desolation 14 “But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 Let the one who is on the housetop not go down, nor enter his house, to take anything out, 16 and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. 17 And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! 18 Pray that it may not happen in winter. 19 For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, and never will be. 20 And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days. 21 And then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!' or ‘Look, there he is!' do not believe it. 22 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. 23 But be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand. The Coming of the Son of Man 24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. The Lesson of the Fig Tree 28 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. No One Knows That Day or Hour 32 “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard, keep awake.7 For you do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants8 in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. 35 Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows,9 or in the morning—36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.” Footnotes [1] 12:2 Or bondservant; also verse 4 [2] 12:10 Greek the head of the corner [3] 12:14 Greek you do not look at people's faces [4] 12:15 A denarius was a day's wage for a laborer [5] 12:19 Greek his brother [6] 12:42 Greek two lepta, which make a kodrantes; a kodrantes (Latin quadrans) was a Roman copper coin worth about 1/64 of a denarius (which was a day's wage for a laborer) [7] 13:33 Some manuscripts add and pray [8] 13:34 Or bondservants [9] 13:35 That is, the third watch of the night, between midnight and 3 a.m. (ESV)

Mark 12–13 Mark 12–13 (Listen) The Parable of the Tenants 12 And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. 2 When the season came, he sent a servant1 to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. 6 He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.' 7 But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' 8 And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not read this Scripture:   “‘The stone that the builders rejected    has become the cornerstone;211   this was the Lord's doing,    and it is marvelous in our eyes'?” 12 And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away. Paying Taxes to Caesar 13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. 14 And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances,3 but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” 15 But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius4 and let me look at it.” 16 And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar's.” 17 Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” And they marveled at him. The Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection 18 And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man5 must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. 21 And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. 22 And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. 23 In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.” 24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? 27 He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.” The Great Commandment 28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. 33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions. Whose Son Is the Christ? 35 And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? 36 David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared,   “‘The Lord said to my Lord,  “Sit at my right hand,    until I put your enemies under your feet.”' 37 David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son?” And the great throng heard him gladly. Beware of the Scribes 38 And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces 39 and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 40 who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” The Widow's Offering 41 And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.6 43 And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 44 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” Jesus Foretells Destruction of the Temple 13 And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” 2 And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” Signs of the End of the Age 3 And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?” 5 And Jesus began to say to them, “See that no one leads you astray. 6 Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!' and they will lead many astray. 7 And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. 8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains. 9 “But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. 10 And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. 11 And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. 12 And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. 13 And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. The Abomination of Desolation 14 “But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 Let the one who is on the housetop not go down, nor enter his house, to take anything out, 16 and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. 17 And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! 18 Pray that it may not happen in winter. 19 For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, and never will be. 20 And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days. 21 And then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!' or ‘Look, there he is!' do not believe it. 22 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. 23 But be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand. The Coming of the Son of Man 24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. The Lesson of the Fig Tree 28 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. No One Knows That Day or Hour 32 “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard, keep awake.7 For you do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants8 in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. 35 Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows,9 or in the morning—36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.” Footnotes [1] 12:2 Or bondservant; also verse 4 [2] 12:10 Greek the head of the corner [3] 12:14 Greek you do not look at people's faces [4] 12:15 A denarius was a day's wage for a laborer [5] 12:19 Greek his brother [6] 12:42 Greek two lepta, which make a kodrantes; a kodrantes (Latin quadrans) was a Roman copper coin worth about 1/64 of a denarius (which was a day's wage for a laborer) [7] 13:33 Some manuscripts add and pray [8] 13:34 Or bondservants [9] 13:35 That is, the third watch of the night, between midnight and 3 a.m. (ESV)

Jesus asks a question of the Scribes about the nature of the Messiah. Was he just a man, the son of David, or something much more. Pastor Gene looks at Jesus's answer to that question in today's sermon.

Audio Transcript:This media has been made available by Mosaic BostonChurch. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston ordonate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Tyler. I'm the youth and hospitality director here at Mosaic Boston, and whenever I get the opportunity to preach, I always say it is my honor and my privilege to be able to deliver God's word to all of us today. We will be continuing our sermon series through the book of Mark. We'll be in Mark 3:20-35, and the sermon series title is Kingdom Come. And we're going to be looking at what does life in the kingdom of God look like? What does that look like here? But before we get into the text in today's sermon, I have something to say. "I will never forgive you." Harsh words to hear on a Sunday morning. First service was even more appalled. No, I hope you know that I'm not saying that seriously. You have not offended me. You have not done anything to cause me to hold forgiveness from you. But I want to know what would it take for us to say that to someone? What would someone have to do to us to say to them, "I will never forgive you." Maybe it's something as simple as, "If you lie to me, you break my trust, there's no way I could ever trust you again. I will never forgive you." Maybe say, "Oh, I'm a little bit more holy than that. They would have to cheat on me in a relationship. That I couldn't forgive." And then maybe someone says, "I'm a little bit more holy than that they would have to murder someone I love in order for me not to forgive them." Maybe it's things going on in the world and you say, "I could never forgive that." Maybe you're here and you're saying this is church on a Sunday. This is a trap. I know the right Sunday school answer is, "I'll forgive everyone of everything." I would ask you, does your heart really truly reflect that? If we're honest with ourselves, is there anything that we say and believe someone can do to us and we will never forgive them? Now, what if I told you that there is something that God Himself says he will never forgive? Now, this is the harsh reality of the text that we will be in is what we call the unforgivable sin that Jesus says is an eternal sin that will never be forgiven. We're going to get to that. But before we do, I want to point out something that's really important about it. It's a sin against God, not a sin against man. So what does that mean? It means that we are not able to have a sin that we withhold forgiveness from others, right? That's not our job. God is the one who forgives and declares that this one sin is unforgivable. So with that sombering mood to set the tone for our service today, will you pray with me over the reading and preaching of God's word. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you that you are a God who forgives. You are a God of mercy and grace, but you do not take sin lightly. Lord, help us to not take our sins against you lightly. Convict us where we need to be convicted. Help us to turn and run to you in repentance, knowing that you do desire to forgive and you are willing, ready, and able to forgive. Help us to trust you more. Lord, use this time. Encourage your church, speak through me. Speak through your word and your scriptures to encourage and strengthen your church and convict us where we need to be convicted. In Jesus' name, amen. So it is going to be a hard text today and there's a lot going on in it, but I do want to say I believe it is an encouragement to us. I have been greatly encouraged in my studies of this text this week, and I hope it's an encouragement to you. And so to be able to frame up our time, we're going to be spending in three sections. I hesitate to call them points. They are pretty distinct thoughts, but at the end we'll wrap it all together. We'll see how it's all connected. But our three ideas for the sermon are one, liar or lunatic, liar, or Lord, we'll get to that. Number two, the unforgivable sin. And number three, right relationship with Jesus Christ. So that's how we'll be framing our time today. And this is what we see in our text in Mark 3:20-35. If you have your Bibles, you could open it, you could find it on your phone or you could follow along on the screens behind me. God's word says, "Then He, Jesus, went home and the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat. And when His family heard it, they went out to seize Him. For they were saying, 'He is out of His mind.' And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying He's possessed by Beelzebul and by the prince of demons, he cast out demons and he called them to him and said to them in parables, 'how can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, the house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man, then indeed he may plunder his house. Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven. The children of man and whatever blasphemes they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin,' for they had said he has an unclean spirit." "And His mother and His brothers came and standing outside, they sent to Him and called Him and a crowd was sitting around Him and they said to Him, 'your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you.' And He answered them, 'who are my mother and my brothers?' And looking about at those who sat around Him, He said, 'here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother'." This is the reading of God's holy, inherent, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Point number one, the fun one, lunatic, liar or Lord? This is a phrase that was coined by C.S. Lewis in terms of these are the options that he presented that we can believe about Jesus and who He is. You can either believe that He is a lunatic, a man out of His mind claiming to be God. Think about it. Where in society today do we see people who claim to be God? Most of the times it's in some sort of institution because society has said, "You're not in your right mind." Second is liar, that Jesus claimed to be God. And so He willfully led people onto believe that even though He knew he wasn't and He was lying to lead people to follow Him. Or thirdly, that He is Lord, that He is who He says He is. And this idea was brought up by C.S. Lewis to combat the idea of Jesus as a good moral teacher and philosopher. This is something that I think is still prevalent in our society today. We're okay with saying that Jesus brought good ideas that help society, that Jesus is a good man with moral teachings, and so it was good for society that He came. But C.S. Lewis argues we cannot hold that position because good people do not claim to be God. If He willingly knew that He was God, then He was who He says He was. And if He willingly knew He wasn't and lied about it, then He's a liar and He is not a good person. So these are the only three options that C.S. Lewis presents. And many scholars believe that this text in Mark is where C.S. Lewis gets this idea from because we see all of these options here and we're going to go through them. The first option is lunatic. And this is the very first two verses, verse 20 and 21. "Then He, Jesus, went home and the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat. And when His family heard it, they went out to seize Him, for they were saying, 'He is out of His mind'." His family, His mother and His siblings said about Him, "You're out of your mind. You're crazy." This is what we mean when we say lunatic. And for the context of where this chapter falls, in the previous sections, Jesus has been healing people and been casting out demons. And while He's doing that, more and more people are coming to Him, bringing their sick, bringing those that are demon oppressed for Jesus to heal them. And so such a great crowd comes around Jesus that He goes down by the sea, He goes, "I can't stay in the city anymore. It's too much chaos. We're going down by the sea." And then the crowd got greater and greater and greater to the point that Jesus was like, "I need to retreat up in the mountains. I'm taking my disciples. We're going up to the mountains to be with the Lord and then we'll come back eventually." So Jesus is up in the mountains and then verse 20, "Then He went home." So He's coming down from His retreat in the mountains to home, but where is home? Home is in Capernaum. It is most likely Peter's house, not His own home. Why is this what we believe? Is because Peter's house is the only house mentioned in the book of Mark and His family had to go out to find Him. So it's not His parents' house, 'cause they wouldn't have to go anywhere to find Jesus. So it's not His parents' house. It's most likely Peter's house. So He comes down from this retreat and everyone's like, "He's back. Let's go find Him." So the crowd gathers again and they're swarming Him with so many people that need healing and casting out of demons that they don't have time to even eat. They can't gather anything, they're just working the miracles of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. And His family sees it and they're like, what kind of person draws such a crowd? What kind of person spends so much time with the sick and demon oppressed? He must be out of His mind. He must be crazy. So that's the first option that we see people believing about who Jesus is. And the second is that He's a liar. And this is the next verse, verse 22. "And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, 'He is possessed by Beelzebub and by the prince of demons, he casts out demons'." And so the scribes come down to see what's going on with this great gathering and they find Jesus casting out demons and they're saying, no, no, He's saying He's doing it by the power of God. He has claimed to be God the Messiah, but no, He's a liar. He's doing it by the power of Satan instead. That's a bold, bold claim. Now the purpose of the book of Mark is to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is the one true messiah, that He is God come to earth and Mark has written this book to convince the Jewish readers of his day that Jesus is the Messiah and its purpose is the same for us today. Yes, I agree with C.S. Lewis in a lot of ways that these are the only three options. We cannot say Jesus is a good person, but the Gospel's point is there's only one option. You could say that He looks like a lunatic. You can accuse Him of being a liar, but those do not hold any weight. He is clearly who He says He is. He is Lord. And Jesus proves that point in the following verses. This is Mark 3:23-26. "Jesus then calls the scribes to Him and said to them in parables, 'how can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, the kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand but is coming to an end'." Jesus defeats the arguments of lunatic or liar by these few sentences and appeals to the scribe's natural understanding of the world. Logically, He says, can Satan cast out Satan? How is that even possible? Think about it this way, if that doesn't make sense to you, how can a kingdom divided against itself stand? Think about a kingdom that's at constant civil war with one another. How is that kingdom going to stand until one of the side cedes to the other and there is unity between the two. It can't. Constant battle will eventually destroy them. So a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. And if you're saying Jesus is casting out demons by the power of demons that makes no sense. It would be a kingdom divided. But maybe the kingdom analogy doesn't work as well. So what about a household? It says a house divided against itself cannot stand? Unfortunately, this is one that many of us are much more familiar with in our day and age is the broken household. How can a broken household stand? How can a household where mother and father are constantly pitted against one another, arguing without any unity, without any forgiveness, how can that household stand? And most of the times it does not.And Jesus is appealing to their logic. He's appealing to their reason, He's appealing to their natural sense of saying, what you are accusing me of makes no sense. And by doing this, He defeats both arguments of lunatic and liar. The argument that He's making is against Him being a liar. He is saying, "I'm not lying. What you're saying, it doesn't make any sense." And He proves not to be a lunatic because He's in His right mind and He's able to out reason the scribes. Well, the question is who are the scribes? Scribes aren't just your average, everyday Joe Schmo on the block who likes to pick fights and argue? No, the scribes were religious lawyers. So they were the ones who were charged with interpreting the laws of scripture and giving it to the synagogues, that's the temple to the Jewish people, for what to follow. It was their job essentially to be the most logical and reasonable. And Jesus outlogiced and reasoned them. And He is saying, I cannot be a lunatic. I'm in my right mind. I'm more reasonable than the most reasonable people in our society. And I'm not a liar. I just proved that in the argument. So what else is there? Is Jesus who He says He is? Is He Lord? Is He God? And this is verse 27. Verse 27 is actually a statement, a claim of divinity by Jesus. Jesus says, "But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed, he may plunder his house." The strong man here is not Jesus. The strong man here is Satan. The argument is if you're casting out demons by the power of Satan, that's what they're accusing Him of, He's saying, how can I do that unless I first bind the strong man, bind Satan, then I can cast out the demons, then I could go in and plunder his house. So what Jesus is saying is He's not the strong man, but in order to be able to bind a strong man, what do you need to be? You need to be stronger. Jesus is saying, I am the stronger man. I am the strongest man. And that is where the statement takes place in terms of Jesus claiming His divine authority that he is God, because in the spiritual realm, everyone at this time understood that the most powerful spiritual being was Satan, apart from one, that there was only one who was greater in power and might than Satan, and that was God Himself. So by Jesus saying, I am stronger than Satan, He is saying to the people and they well understood it, I am God. Jesus doesn't just defeat plausible arguments about who He might be. He declares boldly that He is God. And as we are going to transition into this topic of the unforgivable sin, the first thing that we need to talk about before we get anywhere near there is who do you say Jesus is? Who is Jesus to you? I want to put forward this to you and argue and plead with you to hear that Jesus is who He says He is. He is Lord, whatever cultural or societal or prejudices or ideas about Jesus that you might have, I urge you to consider is He who He says He is? And I promise you that He is God, He is Lord, and He is savior. And that is the setup for this section on the unforgivable sin. And this is verses 28 through 30 where Jesus says, "'Truly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven. The children of man and whatever blasphemes they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin,' for they had said He has an unclean spirit." So before we get to the awkwardness of the unforgivable sin, we have to understand that this is ultimately about forgiveness as a whole and it's forgiveness by God. This is what I mentioned in the beginning, and John Piper wrote an article on his website about these verses and he says this, "First, the forgiveness in view is God's forgiveness. The sweetest news for a sinner is that God has forgiven him, that God no longer holds his sins against him. But the worst news in the world is that God will never forgive you. God is the one to reckon with. What men think about our sin is relatively unimportant. What God thinks is infinitely important." So we're talking about forgiveness from God and what does Jesus say? The first part that he says, "All sins will be forgiven the children of man and whatever blasphemes they utter." I want to pause there because oftentimes this gets lost by the following section of the unforgivable sin, we can't even hear these words of Jesus. Do you feel the weight of these words, all sins will be forgiven the children of man? I kind of say, do you feel the weight of that facetiously because it's light, it's freeing, it's something that sets us free, that we know with certainty God is able and willing to forgive us of anything we do. Do we run to Him in forgiveness? And not only is He willing, He is able, He's able, He's powerful enough to do it. This is my favorite part of that strong man section that I skimmed over a little bit. But He says He's going to go in and plunder the goods once He binds the strong man. So Jesus is strong enough to bind the strong man and plunder his goods. What is pluming goods? It's taking the goods from, say, someone's house and then bringing them into your own and saying, These are now mine, making them your own. Well, what are the goods of the kingdom of Satan and what are the goods of the kingdom of God? What are the most valuable possessions of them? It's people, it's you, it's me. It's souls. It's eternal beings that Jesus doesn't just sit back and say, "I could forgive you if you want," but he says, I am actively going in and I am plundering. I am setting free those who are in captivity to the kingdom of Satan, those who are in captivity to sin and to death and to Satan. Jesus comes in and plunders us. He sets us free from that and brings us into His kingdom and says, "You are mine now." That is the freedom of this verse and it's really important that we get it before we get to the blaspheme of the Holy Spirit because we like to hold onto the like, what about the but? But the main thing here is that there is ultimate complete forgiveness from God for all sins. Psalm 130:10-13 says this, "He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love towards those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to His children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him." God's love is so great. It is higher than the heavens. It is so great that He's willing and able and powerful enough to forgive us of all of our sins if we just turn to Him and repent. And the incredible thing about this is even if you called Jesus a lunatic or a liar or anything else, any other words under the sun, Jesus is willing to forgive you of that. Many of us at one point in time, maybe were angry with God, maybe said some things we didn't necessarily mean or maybe we did mean and don't want to admit that we meant it. But if we have called Jesus a lunatic or a liar, God is willing to forgive. If we have hated Jesus and even hated some of His teachings and said, "I don't like what the Bible says about X, Y, or Z," God is willing to forgive. Even if we say, "I hate God's people, I hate Christians, I hate the church," even if we have ever said any of those things, God is still willing and ready and able to forgive. So if you're here today and you're not a Christian, I want to encourage you, God is looking to forgive you. He is willing and ready to forgive. Nothing that you have done is so grievous that He will not forgive. And if you're here today and you're a Christian, what this means is that we can joyfully repent when we have the conviction of sin because we know that He wants to forgive us. So then you're all wondering, we're all wondering what about the exception to the rule? What about this blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? Where does this come in? I have always said that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is equating the works of the Holy Spirit to the work of Satan or to the demonic, and that is true in a lot of senses. I think it's a clear example of how we see this sin take place and it's the example we see here in our text, but I think it's a little bit more nuanced and the heart of the sin is a little bit more nuanced. And John Piper, in his article on these verses, again, the same article says this, "What then is it? The unforgivable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is an act of resistance which belittles the Holy Spirit so grievously that He withdraws forever His convicting power so that we are never able to repent and be forgiven." I'm going to say that again. "Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is an act of resistance, which belittles the Holy Spirit so grievously that He withdraws forever with His convicting power so that we are never able to repent and be forgiven." This is important because what it means is there is no sin so grievous that God holds a grudge and won't forgive. I think the initial thought-provoking question of what would someone have to do for us to say to them, "I will never forgive you?" Our mind immediately goes to how bad of a sin is that thing going to be? And the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is not unforgivable because it's so bad that God is incapable of forgiving. No, and it's not that. It just is this one thing God said, "I guess I can't forgive it, so I'm stuck in this and I can't forgive." No, it's a belittling of the Holy Spirit so grievously that the Holy Spirit who convicts us of sin, we push away, we say we want nothing to do with you. We remove the ability of God's convicting power from our lives so that way we are never caused to repent and therefore cannot be forgiven. This is where the word that the scribes use to describe the spirit that they believe God is or that Jesus is working through is so important. It's the word Beelzebul. Beelzebul. It's a actual nickname for Satan. Not a good nickname. But the title for Satan that they're kind of doing a play on is Beelzebub. The name Beelzebub means Prince of Demons or Ruler of Demons. And so that was kind of the formal name that Satan was called by. But man, the Jewish people and the scribes, they had a great sense of humor. We think that we're the greatest memers of all time, memers, look at me, I don't use memes ever, but we think that we have the best memes of all time, but it's just that we have the internet to spread it more. But the Jewish people are like, yeah, Beelzebub, we'll call them Beelzebul. Well, what does that mean? Beelzebul, by changing one letter, they changed the name from Ruler of Demons to Lord of the Flies or Lord of Dung. In a lot of ways this was a relatively good thing. Satan is not Lord of anything good, all that he rules leads to death, destruction, despair, you could say dung. The issue is the scribe said the clear working of the Holy Spirit is as dung to us. Those are harsh words to say about the Holy Spirit. It's a harsh thing to say about the Spirit of God. And Jesus's warning against the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. He uses the words very specifically saying, Holy Spirit. This is something that I learned. I don't know when, but I didn't know growing up, and I don't know if you guys know this, but the Holy Spirit is not His formal name. It's not like Holy, His first name, Spirit, His last name. It's a descriptive word many times throughout scripture, Jesus just calls Him Spirit or the Spirit of God. Holy is not a requirement to be attached, but it's an identifier. And Jesus uses this very intentionally here to counteract the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which is saying the spirit you are working with is dung to us. And He says, no, no, I'm going to tell you who the spirit is. It's the Holy Spirit, it's the anointed one, it's the cleanse, holy, clean spirit of God. That is the power by which Jesus is working His miracles here. So the question then becomes, okay, that's a whole lot of theological talk. What does it mean for us today? First, very simply, honor the Holy Spirit. Bestow honor upon whom honor is due. And this is one of the beautiful things that I love about the Trinity, is that each person of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit bestows honor on the others. The Father bestows honor upon the Son and upon the Spirit, the Son bestows honor upon the Spirit and upon the Father, and the Spirit bestows honor upon the Son and on the Father. And I think oftentimes we neglect to honor the spirit because of two temptations. One is that we are very academic, intellectually based people. And so spiritual things tend to be harder to understand. They don't come as naturally to understand. And so we kind of shy away from it a little bit. Or the other temptation is to over exalt the giftings of the spirit, right? We say the Spirit enables people to do good things, to prophesy, to teach, to do all these wonderful good things. So we want the gifts more than we want the Spirit. And so, one thing that we are called to do in terms of avoiding and getting as far away from the sin of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is to just honor the Spirit, recognize His working in our lives, recognize the conviction of sin when we feel it, recognize the gift of comfort and peace in hard times as a gift of the Holy Spirit, that God is with us, He is not leaving us. That when we are able to do work for the glory of God, that it is a blessing of the Holy Spirit and praise God for His spirit and ask for more. Say, Lord, I need more help. Lord, give me more of your spirit. Help me to live for you. And the second thing, and I think the most directly relatable to this text that we are called to do in terms of avoiding the sin of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, is if you feel conviction of sin, don't take it for granted. Don't take it for granted. If you feel conviction of sin, don't say, "Yeah, but it's not that bad of a sin. I know I got to work on it, but I'll deal with it later." Don't say, "No, I don't believe that's a sin. God, I think I'm okay. I'm going to hold onto this for now." When you feel conviction of sin, repent quickly. And while you are able and ready to forgive or ready to be forgiven and to repent, remembering again that God is willing, all sins, He says, will be forgiven the children of man and whatever blasphemes they utter. So God wants to forgive when you feel that conviction go and repent. And I think one of the lies of Satan is that when we feel conviction, we associate it with guilt and with shame. What I want to tell you today is recognize that the conviction is a gift from God of the Holy Spirit. It's a good thing. It is something to rejoice over when we feel conviction and not be ashamed about because we could say, hey, the Holy Spirit's still with me. God is with me. He's talking to me. He's correcting me, He's guiding me. It's a blessing. It is a good thing to feel conviction of the Holy Spirit. And the other side of this is the more that we reject that conviction, the easier it becomes to continually reject that conviction of sin. In a separate account of Jesus warning His disciples about this sin a second time, in Luke chapter 12, it immediately follows the passage on the warning of the leaven of the Pharisees. Well, what is that? Jesus is warning His disciples about what He calls the leaven of the Pharisees, which is a little bit of yeast, a little bit of leaven that gets into a loaf of dough will eventually take over the whole thing and the whole thing will be infected with this leaven. And so beware of the little things, beware of the little sins that continually perpetuate within you and ultimately lead to something that is much greater than what it set out and started out as. And I believe that this connection is very intentional with the blaspheme of the Holy Spirit because the more we continually reject the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the more we're going to do it, the more we're going to say, "No, that's okay. I'm good. No, I don't need to repent. I'm fine. I'm good." Until we get to the point where we're like the scribes who stand above the law, they say, we're the ones given the right to interpret the law. We're the ones given authority to say the do's and don'ts of the scriptures. I don't need to repent 'cause I know what I'm talking about. I know what I'm doing. Beware in the leaven of the Pharisees, beware the rejection of the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is not a one-time event. It's not something that you say once and it's like, "Oh, sorry, you're done. No hope." It actually comes out of the state of our hearts. It reveals the state of our hearts. And in Matthew chapter 12, it's the same story of Jesus warning, the scribes and the Pharisees about the sin of the blaspheme of the Holy Spirit. But He doesn't stop there. He continues. Matthew continues the account of what Jesus says to them. And in Matthew 12:33, it says, "Either make the tree good and it's fruit good or make the tree bad and it's fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers. How can you speak good when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." I'm going to stop there for now. But for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Jesus knew the heart of the scribes and of the Pharisees. This wasn't just something that they were wrong about. This wasn't just them not believing in Jesus. Within their hearts, they had built up this resentment towards the working of God. Why? Because they had a nice job. They had a good living. They were high in society and anything that challenged that, they wanted nothing to do with. And so they put themselves over God and over His scriptures rather than submitting to it and trusting the conviction of the Holy Spirit to the point that they have belittled the spirit so much that they couldn't hear that conviction any longer. What I want to say to you is I do believe that this text is an encouragement. I know you might be like, "How? Why?" It's an encouragement because again, we cannot forget God's willingness and readiness to forgive us when we repent. And also it's an encouragement because if you have ever worried, maybe you're worried now, have I done that? Have I committed the sin? Oh, maybe I'm headed down that way. That's a good sign because it means that God is convicting you, right? It means that the Holy Spirit is still with you, is still active, is still moving in your life. Many people when they talk about this sin, they'll say, if you ever fear that you have committed it's proof that you haven't. And I agree because that is the conviction of the Holy Spirit within you saying that you're not in a right place with God. And then whatever you need to do to get in a right place with God, do and repent of whatever sins the Holy Spirit is convicting you of. So Jesus proves that He is Lord, which proves that the working He is doing is by the power of the Holy Spirit and He exalts and lifts up the Holy Spirit, calls us to repentance. So now what brings us into right relationship with Jesus Christ. This is the last section of our text which connects back to the very beginning of this text. In verse 31 it says, "And His mother and His brothers came and standing outside, they sent to Him and called Him and a crowd was sitting around Him and they said to Him, 'your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you.' And He answered them, 'who are my mother and my brothers?' And looking about at those who sat around Him, He said, 'here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother'." Remember back in verse 20, it said that Jesus's family was going out to seize Him. In other words, seize is take by force. So they go and they finally get there. They get to where He is, and the crowd's still there and they're looking around at the crowd and they're like, maybe it's not the best idea to take Him by force. We might cause an uprising. Let's just tell people, "Hey, we're here to see Jesus. Can you tell Him His mother and His brothers are here?" So the crowd is like, "Jesus, your family's here. Go see them." If you want to start a fight with your family, go home and say these words, "Who are my mother or my brothers or my fathers?" Oh man, I said first my mom would never hit me, but she would want to slap me if I said that to her. But she wouldn't. She wouldn't. But she would want to because that is offensive. That is harsh words, Jesus. What are you getting at? What are you saying here? And Jesus is defeating another argument about Him, not just who He is, but how do we have relationship with Him? You see, Jesus's family thought, we're His family. We have the right to tell Him when He's going too far. We have the right to tell Him that He is wrong and tell Him what to do because we have that familial relationship. I want to tell you friends, no external relationship will make you right with God. I work with the teens, the middle school and high schoolers, so I often tell them, but any kids, teens that are here, you're not saved just because your parents bring you to church. The question is, who do you say Jesus is? Do you repent of your sins? Do you have right relationship with God? Maybe you're here because you're an adult, but family or friends invited you and God is good to them, so I just want to know a little bit more about this God. We're glad you're here, but God being a friend of a friend is not going to save you. Are you right with God? Do you repent of sins and trust in Him and recognize Him as Lord of all? And I also want to point out that Jesus has already, and I just wanted to loop it in here, defeated the other second presumption of the scribes and the Pharisees on how they thought they could have right relationship with God. Scribes said, we are the religious lawyers of the day. You get all the benefits of being a lawyer. We think of lawyers, what do we think of? Liars, cheaters, swindlers. My wife's a lawyer. She's none of those things. Praise God. But we think negatively of lawyers, but we recognize they make a lot of money. They do good work. They're very smart people. So take all the benefits of a lawyer and all the benefits of being a religious leader like, oh, great, they're the moral virtuous lawyers. We are so upstanding in our society. Jesus didn't care. Jesus understood their hearts were not right with God. They had the most schooling. They had the highest education of the people of their days. Friends, I tell you, God doesn't care about how many letters come after or before your name. They don't care about what degree titles you have. Those are good. I'm not saying don't study, don't get education. But when you stand before God, He's not going to say, "Wow, PhD. Nice, nice. Okay, I guess you could come in." No. What makes us right with God is right relationship with Jesus Christ alone. Nothing societal, nothing external, nothing but faith and trust in Jesus Christ and obedience to Him will make us right with God. This is why Jesus says, "Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother." Do we do the will of God? Do we understand the will of God? This is where it connects back to blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is the one who guides us in the will of God. So if you reject the Holy Spirit, you will never be able to do the will of God. So I challenge you today, Christians, anyone who is here, Christian or not, ask God for His Holy Spirit to guide you, to lead you in His will. Study scriptures that reveal God's will to all of humanity for us, and listen and obey them. I pray that we can be humble and quick in our repentance of our sin and bold in our obedience and faithfulness to Him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, you are good and You are stronger than sin, you are stronger than Satan, you are stronger than the penalty of death. Lord, we thank you and we praise you. Remind us of your greatness, of your ability to forgive and your willingness to forgive when we are in sin. Help us to run to you quickly, to confess our sins to you and to repent quickly. As soon as we are convicted, help us repent, because we know how good you are, because we know how willing and ready you are to forgive. Lord, help us to then change our lives. Help us to live in accordance to your word, to faithfully follow Jesus, to recognize Him as our one true Lord over our lives and overall, and submit faithfully to you and to Him. So Lord, we thank you and we praise you. Encourage us with this text in Jesus name. Amen.

TJ and Kris open a conversation about the influences on biblical scribes in the period of the Babylonian Exile, and then discuss Noah's radiant appearance in second temple period Jewish texts.This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/4656375/advertisement

Matthew 22–23 Matthew 22–23 (Listen) The Parable of the Wedding Feast 22 And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants1 to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”' 5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. 7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.' 10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. 12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.” Paying Taxes to Caesar 15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. 16 And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.2 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius.3 20 And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21 They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” 22 When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away. Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection 23 The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, 24 saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.' 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. 26 So too the second and third, down to the seventh. 27 After them all, the woman died. 28 In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.” 29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” 33 And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. The Great Commandment 34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Whose Son Is the Christ? 41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, 44   “‘The Lord said to my Lord,  “Sit at my right hand,    until I put your enemies under your feet”'? 45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” 46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions. Seven Woes to the Scribes and Pharisees 23 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear,4 and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi5 by others. 8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.6 9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. 11 The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. 13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.7 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell8 as yourselves. 16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' 17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? 18 And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.' 19 You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. 22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it. 23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! 25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. 27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' 31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. 33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? 34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, 35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah,9 whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Lament over Jerusalem 37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'” Footnotes [1] 22:3 Or bondservants; also verses 4, 6, 8, 10 [2] 22:16 Greek for you do not look at people's faces [3] 22:19 A denarius was a day's wage for a laborer [4] 23:4 Some manuscripts omit hard to bear [5] 23:7 Rabbi means my teacher, or my master; also verse 8 [6] 23:8 Or brothers and sisters [7] 23:13 Some manuscripts add here (or after verse 12) verse 14: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive the greater condemnation [8] 23:15 Greek Gehenna; also verse 33 [9] 23:35 Some manuscripts omit the son of Barachiah (ESV)

Matthew 22–23 Matthew 22–23 (Listen) The Parable of the Wedding Feast 22 And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants1 to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”' 5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. 7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.' 10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. 12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.” Paying Taxes to Caesar 15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. 16 And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.2 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius.3 20 And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21 They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” 22 When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away. Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection 23 The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, 24 saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.' 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. 26 So too the second and third, down to the seventh. 27 After them all, the woman died. 28 In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.” 29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” 33 And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. The Great Commandment 34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Whose Son Is the Christ? 41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, 44   “‘The Lord said to my Lord,  “Sit at my right hand,    until I put your enemies under your feet”'? 45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” 46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions. Seven Woes to the Scribes and Pharisees 23 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear,4 and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi5 by others. 8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.6 9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. 11 The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. 13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.7 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell8 as yourselves. 16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' 17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? 18 And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.' 19 You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. 22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it. 23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! 25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. 27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' 31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. 33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? 34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, 35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah,9 whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Lament over Jerusalem 37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'” Footnotes [1] 22:3 Or bondservants; also verses 4, 6, 8, 10 [2] 22:16 Greek for you do not look at people's faces [3] 22:19 A denarius was a day's wage for a laborer [4] 23:4 Some manuscripts omit hard to bear [5] 23:7 Rabbi means my teacher, or my master; also verse 8 [6] 23:8 Or brothers and sisters [7] 23:13 Some manuscripts add here (or after verse 12) verse 14: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive the greater condemnation [8] 23:15 Greek Gehenna; also verse 33 [9] 23:35 Some manuscripts omit the son of Barachiah (ESV)

Jesus responds to the accusation that he serves the devil by identifying the darkness of Pharisees and Scribes. All In Gospel Podcast is a chapter by chapter, verse by verse, in depth bible study where we seek to understand God's Word at face value. All In Gospel is recorded live at Calvary Chapel All In Gospel with Pastor Seann Dikkers. You can support this study at anchor.fm/allingospel, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ccwhitebear.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or visit us live on Sunday mornings or evenings. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/allingospel/support

Rev. TJ Thompson discusses a passage from Mark chapter 12, verses 28-34, which is also found in Matthew 22:34-40 and Luke 10:25-28. In this passage, a scribe asks Jesus about the greatest commandment. Jesus responds by emphasizing the importance of loving God with all one's heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving one's neighbor as oneself. The scribe agrees with Jesus, acknowledging that these commandments are more important than any ritual or sacrifice. Jesus commends the scribe's wisdom and states that he is close to the kingdom of God. Rev. Thompson highlights the significance of God's love throughout the Bible, from the creation of Adam and Eve to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. He emphasizes that God's message throughout the scriptures is "I Love You." The sermon also touches on the different types of love as described by the Greeks: Agape (selfless love), Eros (selfish love), Storge (family love), and Philia (brotherly love). The sermon challenges listeners to reflect on their own understanding and acceptance of God's love. It asks whether individuals truly love themselves and how they can love their neighbors. Rev. Thompson uses anecdotes and stories to illustrate the importance of self-love, self-respect, and the support of others in building one's confidence and faith in God. Rev. Thompson emphasizes the transformative power of God's love and the importance of recognizing and accepting this love in one's life. He encourages listeners to reflect on their relationship with God and to strive to love both themselves and others unconditionally.   www.venicepres.org

In this episode, I talk with Dr. Peter Gurry about some of his work on the text of the NT and the discipline of textual criticism. In our conversation, we talk about the task of learning Greek, the aims of textual criticism, the overall reliability of the NT text, and the recent publication of a new manuscript fragment of sayings of Jesus. His recent books that cover these topics are Scribes and Scriptures (Crossway) and Myths and Mistakes in NT Textual Criticism (IVP).   Gurry is an Associate Professor of New Testament at Phoenix Seminary. He is also the author of A Critical Examination of the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method in New Testament Textual Criticism (Brill).    This podcast is hosted by Ched Spellman (https://linktr.ee/chedspellman). Thanks for listening! Episode Sponsor:  https://cedarville.edu/gradpodcast Substack Series on the Canonical Approach: https://bit.ly/3rht399 My Most Recent Book: https://amzn.to/3ELxbBk Digital Tip Jar ("Buy Me a Coffee"): https://www.buymeacoffee.com/chedspellman Clarifying Note: The views of special guests are their own & do not necessarily reflect my own or the organizations with which I am formally and informally affiliated.

Psalms and Wisdom: Psalm 59 Psalm 59 (Listen) Deliver Me from My Enemies To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam1 of David, when Saul sent men to watch his house in order to kill him. 59   Deliver me from my enemies, O my God;    protect me from those who rise up against me;2   deliver me from those who work evil,    and save me from bloodthirsty men. 3   For behold, they lie in wait for my life;    fierce men stir up strife against me.  For no transgression or sin of mine, O LORD,4     for no fault of mine, they run and make ready.  Awake, come to meet me, and see!5     You, LORD God of hosts, are God of Israel.  Rouse yourself to punish all the nations;    spare none of those who treacherously plot evil. Selah 6   Each evening they come back,    howling like dogs    and prowling about the city.7   There they are, bellowing with their mouths    with swords in their lips—    for “Who,” they think,2 “will hear us?” 8   But you, O LORD, laugh at them;    you hold all the nations in derision.9   O my Strength, I will watch for you,    for you, O God, are my fortress.10   My God in his steadfast love3 will meet me;    God will let me look in triumph on my enemies. 11   Kill them not, lest my people forget;    make them totter4 by your power and bring them down,    O Lord, our shield!12   For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips,    let them be trapped in their pride.  For the cursing and lies that they utter,13     consume them in wrath;    consume them till they are no more,  that they may know that God rules over Jacob    to the ends of the earth. Selah 14   Each evening they come back,    howling like dogs    and prowling about the city.15   They wander about for food    and growl if they do not get their fill. 16   But I will sing of your strength;    I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.  For you have been to me a fortress    and a refuge in the day of my distress.17   O my Strength, I will sing praises to you,    for you, O God, are my fortress,    the God who shows me steadfast love. Footnotes [1] 59:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term [2] 59:7 Hebrew lacks they think [3] 59:10 Or The God who shows me steadfast love [4] 59:11 Or wander (ESV) Pentateuch and History: 2 Samuel 19 2 Samuel 19 (Listen) Joab Rebukes David 19 It was told Joab, “Behold, the king is weeping and mourning for Absalom.” 2 So the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the people, for the people heard that day, “The king is grieving for his son.” 3 And the people stole into the city that day as people steal in who are ashamed when they flee in battle. 4 The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, “O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!” 5 Then Joab came into the house to the king and said, “You have today covered with shame the faces of all your servants, who have this day saved your life and the lives of your sons and your daughters and the lives of your wives and your concubines, 6 because you love those who hate you and hate those who love you. For you have made it clear today that commanders and servants are nothing to you, for today I know that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, then you would be pleased. 7 Now therefore arise, go out and speak kindly to your servants, for I swear by the LORD, if you do not go, not a man will stay with you this night, and this will be worse for you than all the evil that has come upon you from your youth until now.” 8 Then the king arose and took his seat in the gate. And the people were all told, “Behold, the king is sitting in the gate.” And all the people came before the king. David Returns to Jerusalem Now Israel had fled every man to his own home. 9 And all the people were arguing throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “The king delivered us from the hand of our enemies and saved us from the hand of the Philistines, and now he has fled out of the land from Absalom. 10 But Absalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle. Now therefore why do you say nothing about bringing the king back?” 11 And King David sent this message to Zadok and Abiathar the priests: “Say to the elders of Judah, ‘Why should you be the last to bring the king back to his house, when the word of all Israel has come to the king?1 12 You are my brothers; you are my bone and my flesh. Why then should you be the last to bring back the king?' 13 And say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my bone and my flesh? God do so to me and more also, if you are not commander of my army from now on in place of Joab.'” 14 And he swayed the heart of all the men of Judah as one man, so that they sent word to the king, “Return, both you and all your servants.” 15 So the king came back to the Jordan, and Judah came to Gilgal to meet the king and to bring the king over the Jordan. David Pardons His Enemies 16 And Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, from Bahurim, hurried to come down with the men of Judah to meet King David. 17 And with him were a thousand men from Benjamin. And Ziba the servant of the house of Saul, with his fifteen sons and his twenty servants, rushed down to the Jordan before the king, 18 and they crossed the ford to bring over the king's household and to do his pleasure. And Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king, as he was about to cross the Jordan, 19 and said to the king, “Let not my lord hold me guilty or remember how your servant did wrong on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. Do not let the king take it to heart. 20 For your servant knows that I have sinned. Therefore, behold, I have come this day, the first of all the house of Joseph to come down to meet my lord the king.” 21 Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered, “Shall not Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the LORD's anointed?” 22 But David said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should this day be as an adversary to me? Shall anyone be put to death in Israel this day? For do I not know that I am this day king over Israel?” 23 And the king said to Shimei, “You shall not die.” And the king gave him his oath. 24 And Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king. He had neither taken care of his feet nor trimmed his beard nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came back in safety. 25 And when he came to Jerusalem to meet the king, the king said to him, “Why did you not go with me, Mephibosheth?” 26 He answered, “My lord, O king, my servant deceived me, for your servant said to him, ‘I will saddle a donkey for myself,2 that I may ride on it and go with the king.' For your servant is lame. 27 He has slandered your servant to my lord the king. But my lord the king is like the angel of God; do therefore what seems good to you. 28 For all my father's house were but men doomed to death before my lord the king, but you set your servant among those who eat at your table. What further right have I, then, to cry to the king?” 29 And the king said to him, “Why speak any more of your affairs? I have decided: you and Ziba shall divide the land.” 30 And Mephibosheth said to the king, “Oh, let him take it all, since my lord the king has come safely home.” 31 Now Barzillai the Gileadite had come down from Rogelim, and he went on with the king to the Jordan, to escort him over the Jordan. 32 Barzillai was a very aged man, eighty years old. He had provided the king with food while he stayed at Mahanaim, for he was a very wealthy man. 33 And the king said to Barzillai, “Come over with me, and I will provide for you with me in Jerusalem.” 34 But Barzillai said to the king, “How many years have I still to live, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? 35 I am this day eighty years old. Can I discern what is pleasant and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or what he drinks? Can I still listen to the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king? 36 Your servant will go a little way over the Jordan with the king. Why should the king repay me with such a reward? 37 Please let your servant return, that I may die in my own city near the grave of my father and my mother. But here is your servant Chimham. Let him go over with my lord the king, and do for him whatever seems good to you.” 38 And the king answered, “Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do for him whatever seems good to you, and all that you desire of me I will do for you.” 39 Then all the people went over the Jordan, and the king went over. And the king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and he returned to his own home. 40 The king went on to Gilgal, and Chimham went on with him. All the people of Judah, and also half the people of Israel, brought the king on his way. 41 Then all the men of Israel came to the king and said to the king, “Why have our brothers the men of Judah stolen you away and brought the king and his household over the Jordan, and all David's men with him?” 42 All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, “Because the king is our close relative. Why then are you angry over this matter? Have we eaten at all at the king's expense? Or has he given us any gift?” 43 And the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, “We have ten shares in the king, and in David also we have more than you. Why then did you despise us? Were we not the first to speak of bringing back our king?” But the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel. Footnotes [1] 19:11 Septuagint; Hebrew to the king, to his house [2] 19:26 Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate Saddle a donkey for me (ESV) Chronicles and Prophets: Ezekiel 20 Ezekiel 20 (Listen) Israel's Continuing Rebellion 20 In the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the LORD, and sat before me. 2 And the word of the LORD came to me: 3 “Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD, Is it to inquire of me that you come? As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I will not be inquired of by you. 4 Will you judge them, son of man, will you judge them? Let them know the abominations of their fathers, 5 and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day when I chose Israel, I swore1 to the offspring of the house of Jacob, making myself known to them in the land of Egypt; I swore to them, saying, I am the LORD your God. 6 On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands. 7 And I said to them, ‘Cast away the detestable things your eyes feast on, every one of you, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.' 8 But they rebelled against me and were not willing to listen to me. None of them cast away the detestable things their eyes feasted on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. “Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. 9 But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt. 10 So I led them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. 11 I gave them my statutes and made known to them my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live. 12 Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them. 13 But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They did not walk in my statutes but rejected my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; and my Sabbaths they greatly profaned. “Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them in the wilderness, to make a full end of them. 14 But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out. 15 Moreover, I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land that I had given them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands, 16 because they rejected my rules and did not walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols. 17 Nevertheless, my eye spared them, and I did not destroy them or make a full end of them in the wilderness. 18 “And I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, nor defile yourselves with their idols. 19 I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules, 20 and keep my Sabbaths holy that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.' 21 But the children rebelled against me. They did not walk in my statutes and were not careful to obey my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; they profaned my Sabbaths. “Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the wilderness. 22 But I withheld my hand and acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out. 23 Moreover, I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries, 24 because they had not obeyed my rules, but had rejected my statutes and profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were set on their fathers' idols. 25 Moreover, I gave them statutes that were not good and rules by which they could not have life, 26 and I defiled them through their very gifts in their offering up all their firstborn, that I might devastate them. I did it that they might know that I am the LORD. 27 “Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: In this also your fathers blasphemed me, by dealing treacherously with me. 28 For when I had brought them into the land that I swore to give them, then wherever they saw any high hill or any leafy tree, there they offered their sacrifices and there they presented the provocation of their offering; there they sent up their pleasing aromas, and there they poured out their drink offerings. 29 (I said to them, ‘What is the high place to which you go?' So its name is called Bamah2 to this day.) 30 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: Will you defile yourselves after the manner of your fathers and go whoring after their detestable things? 31 When you present your gifts and offer up your children in fire,3 you defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. And shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I will not be inquired of by you. 32 “What is in your mind shall never happen—the thought, ‘Let us be like the nations, like the tribes of the countries, and worship wood and stone.' The Lord Will Restore Israel 33 “As I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out I will be king over you. 34 I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out. 35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. 36 As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, declares the Lord GOD. 37 I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. 38 I will purge out the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against me. I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD. 39 “As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord GOD: Go serve every one of you his idols, now and hereafter, if you will not listen to me; but my holy name you shall no more profane with your gifts and your idols. 40 “For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, declares the Lord GOD, there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land. There I will accept them, and there I will require your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your sacred offerings. 41 As a pleasing aroma I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations. 42 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the country that I swore to give to your fathers. 43 And there you shall remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you shall loathe yourselves for all the evils that you have committed. 44 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I deal with you for my name's sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD.” 45 4 And the word of the LORD came to me: 46 “Son of man, set your face toward the southland;5 preach against the south, and prophesy against the forest land in the Negeb. 47 Say to the forest of the Negeb, Hear the word of the LORD: Thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree in you and every dry tree. The blazing flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from south to north shall be scorched by it. 48 All flesh shall see that I the LORD have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.” 49 Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! They are saying of me, ‘Is he not a maker of parables?'” Footnotes [1] 20:5 Hebrew I lifted my hand; twice in this verse; also verses 6, 15, 23, 28, 42 [2] 20:29 Bamah means high place [3] 20:31 Hebrew and make your children pass through the fire [4] 20:45 Ch 21:1 in Hebrew [5] 20:46 Or toward Teman (ESV) Gospels and Epistles: Luke 20:45–21:38 Luke 20:45–21:38 (Listen) Beware of the Scribes 45 And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, 46 “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 47 who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” The Widow's Offering 21 Jesus1 looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, 2 and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.2 3 And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. 4 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” Jesus Foretells Destruction of the Temple 5 And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, 6 “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” 7 And they asked him, “Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?” 8 And he said, “See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!' and, ‘The time is at hand!' Do not go after them. 9 And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once.” Jesus Foretells Wars and Persecution 10 Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. 12 But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. 13 This will be your opportunity to bear witness. 14 Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, 15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers3 and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. 17 You will be hated by all for my name's sake. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your lives. Jesus Foretells Destruction of Jerusalem 20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, 22 for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. 23 Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. 24 They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. The Coming of the Son of Man 25 “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” The Lesson of the Fig Tree 29 And he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. 30 As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Watch Yourselves 34 “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” 37 And every day he was teaching in the temple, but at night he went out and lodged on the mount called Olivet. 38 And early in the morning all the people came to him in the temple to hear him. Footnotes [1] 21:1 Greek He [2] 21:2 Greek two lepta; a lepton was a Jewish bronze or copper coin worth about 1/128 of a denarius (which was a day's wage for a laborer) [3] 21:16 Or parents and brothers and sisters (ESV)