Father in heaven, may your presence, which rests around us and in us, amongst us,
Lord, open our hearts and our ears as we look to see in your word what you have to say to us.
Speak, Lord, for your servants are listening. Amen. Please be seated.
These lights are quite bright.
Shalom from Jerusalem.
It is my privilege and pleasure to come and speak and to look at this text from the scriptures.
Now I want to start by saying that the Gospels are finely crafted texts.
That we have four Gospels and we have lots of stories about Jesus
and we have lots of stories that have been put into these texts in certain orders.
They are there for reasons.
Now we may have, some people might know, that there's a theory
that says that there were four Gospels and they all can be redacted down to this one common source.
That Matthew and Luke are borrowing from Mark and Mark's borrowing from this mysterious document called Q
and John is just way out there onto the side.
If you have heard of this theory, please take it, roll it up in a little ball and throw it away.
In the Middle East, which is where the Bible comes from,
our Bible is a Jewish text, it is a Middle Eastern text,
in the Middle East there were probably lots of Gospels.
There were lots of stories of Jesus and the Jesus event.
What happens is Matthew, Luke, Mark, John, by the guidance of God, by His Spirit,
they decide and choose what stories to include.
And they even tell us there are so many stories that we're not going to include everything.
There's too much.
This, this is enough.
And so they choose the stories that they feel under guidance that they're important
and they put them into a certain order.
And so some stories, like Jesus cleansing the temple,
occur early in John and late in Matthew
because of the way that they're structuring their story.
And so you have these stories that are packed with meaning,
even as to why they're in their order, they have a meaning.
So when we read this text, we've got to put it into context.
We should ask ourselves two questions whenever we read the Gospels.
Two questions.
What does this tell me about Jesus?
And how do I become a better disciple?
So we'll study this text and we'll wrestle with it.
God will speak to us and we'll come, we'll look for those answers.
What does this tell me about Jesus?
And how do I become a better disciple?
So let's have a look at our text.
This is the parable of the tenants in the vineyard.
And it is placed by Matthew in here at the, as Jesus has entered Jerusalem.
Now, does Jesus just say this parable when he's in Jerusalem?
He's probably said this parable lots of times.
Like any itinerant preacher has their top ten favorite sermons,
and you would go from village to village to village,
and you would preach this sermon in the same village here,
in the same village there, in the same village there.
So Jesus, Yeshua as we call him in Hebrew,
he's probably preached this a few times.
But Matthew's deliberately putting it here.
So Jesus has come into Jerusalem.
This is his final time.
The big showdown is coming with the temple.
He enters the temple.
There's the adulation of the crowds as they welcome him as the Messiah.
And it's wonderfully seen in movies, palm branches, donkeys, coats, and things.
He gets out his bullwhip, and he does his Indiana Jones,
and he cleanses the temple.
And he tips over the money changers, and he challenges them.
He challenges their authority.
And he gets away with it.
Because by this stage, the temple's quite corrupt.
And this occurred a couple of hundred years prior to Jesus,
during the Maccabean period,
when the Jewish people overthrew the Greeks,
who had been ruling them.
We get a wonderful holiday in Israel called Hanukkah, because of it,
which we're about to celebrate after Sukkot.
And the Jewish people, the Maccabees,
they cleanse the temple, they rededicate the temple,
and they reestablish the worship of God.
It's wonderful.
But then they also begin to expand the borders of Israel.
They begin to invade other people.
And they go across the Jordan,
and they capture some of the lands that the old Philistines used to have,
drive the Greeks out.
And they begin to think that they're actually in the Messianic age.
They begin to believe that we are part of the Messianic ideal.
And we don't actually need a person as a Messiah.
We are the Messias.
And they change the temple.
They take away the natural priests,
and they put in false priests.
Instead of priests being the descendants of Levi and Cohen,
as they are supposed to be, according to the Bible,
the B'nai Tzadok,
we find priests from Benjamin,
and from Asher,
and from Naphtali.
Not all of them.
And instead of having one high priest,
we have multiple priests,
chief priests,
and they're illegitimate.
And everybody knows this.
And yet,
people still go to the temple,
because this is where God lived.
Jesus himself goes.
But he's going to challenge their authority.
And he knows they're corrupt.
So when he spills over the money changers,
the people,
they're very excited by this.
Yes, we understand what you're doing.
You're challenging the authority.
And this little portion of Matthew
talks a lot about Jesus' authority.
He already has authority over death.
He's raised people from the dead.
He's raised his friend, Lazarus.
He has fought back the demons.
He has authority over the demons.
He has authority over sickness.
He heals wherever he goes.
Nothing can stop him.
He has authority over nature.
He can command the wind and the waters to stop.
And now he has authority to teach.
Then,
Matthew puts this image of the fig tree that withers.
Jesus,
just after he's cleansed the temple,
he sees a fig tree.
And figs,
in Jewish tradition,
are loaded with meaning.
A lot of these images are,
he goes up to this tree and he's looking for fruit.
He doesn't find any.
So then he curses the tree and the tree just dies.
You go,
wow,
that's really special.
How,
how,
Lord,
did you do that?
Well,
it's not about the fig tree not having fruit.
Because the gospel of Mark deliberately tells us that the,
the fig tree,
it wasn't the season for figs.
So Jesus was never going to find fruit there anyway.
So why is he cursing a tree that was never allowed to have fruit in that season?
That doesn't seem very fair.
Well,
in,
in Jewish tradition,
the idea of a fig tree was,
was the covering.
The first time figs are ever mentioned in the Bible is where?
Genesis.
That's right.
And that's because we've got to cover our nakedness.
And,
and so Adam and Eve,
they make a disastrous decision.
They,
they eat of the forbidden fruit.
They discover that they're naked.
And they started to cover themselves with,
with figs.
Which is a rather embarrassing thing to do.
Because figs have a special sap in their leaves,
which actually makes your skin red and itchy.
Okay.
So I'm sure that God,
when he comes out and sees Adam,
probably goes,
I bet that's uncomfortable.
Okay.
And,
and that's,
that's a good,
good effort,
but I'm going to do my best.
And he,
he actually makes real clothing.
For them.
So the idea that,
that figs represent the covering of a person,
then went through,
uh,
into Jewish,
uh,
preaching tradition,
into their thinking,
that you would sit under a fig tree.
And that would be,
not a literal one,
but the,
the covering for us,
was the Torah.
That was what,
what covered us and protected us,
as we waited for the Messiah.
Now the Torah in Hebrew,
comes from the verb,
leherot,
which means to teach,
or to guide,
to instruct.
It doesn't mean law,
which a lot of our texts actually,
uh,
translate.
The word law in Hebrew is,
chok.
So if anyone can see the difference between,
chok and Torah,
that's good.
There are laws inside the Torah,
but the Torah itself,
is teaching,
guidance,
and instruction.
And according to Jewish tradition,
and also the Bible,
uh,
when do you receive the Torah?
You receive the Torah,
after you've been saved.
So the,
the,
the Jewish people,
are in Egypt,
and they're taken out of Egypt,
and saved.
Then they are taken to Mount Sinai,
and then they receive the Torah.
The Torah,
as Jewish people should know,
doesn't save you.
It is,
a covering.
What does it cover?
Lots of good stuff.
When God says,
thou shalt not steal,
why does he say that?
Because he doesn't like stealing.
So if God doesn't like stealing,
what are you going to do?
Not steal.
And so these,
these teachings,
and the guidance,
and the instructions,
are good for us.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
It's a good one.
It's good for us.
Why?
Because it stops these,
when we try and have freedom,
of,
of sexual expression,
all we end up doing,
is chaining ourselves,
with these really weird,
and strange relationships.
Instead of having,
our wives,
and being faithful to them.
These are good.
It's a good covering for us.
And it's one of the reasons,
why,
in the Gospel of John,
Nathanael is sitting,
under a fig tree,
and Jesus says,
I saw you,
when you were under the fig tree.
Because he says that,
Nathanael says,
oh,
you are the king of Israel,
the son of God.
Nathanael gets that,
within 10 seconds,
of meeting Jesus,
and it takes Peter,
three and a half years,
to finally get that right,
in Caesarea.
Because,
Nathanael's probably,
not sitting,
under a literal fig tree.
He's been sitting,
under the covering,
of the Torah.
He's been looking,
through the scriptures,
for the Messiah.
And Jesus says,
you know what,
I know,
you were looking for me,
because I was looking,
straight back.
And I know who you are.
You're a true Israelite.
And there's no deceit in you.
And he gets it.
Nathanael gets it,
right up front.
But here,
it's in the context,
of the temple.
And the authority,
of the temple,
and the temple teachers.
And Jesus has looked,
for fruit.
He has looked,
that the Torah,
the teaching,
the guidance,
and the instruction,
that should have been,
coming from the temple,
to the people,
and producing fruit,
didn't produce fruit.
It wasn't there.
And so he curses the tree.
He says,
I'm going to be giving,
the teaching to somebody else.
And then,
the teachers,
in Matthew,
the teachers in the temple,
they deliberately attack Jesus.
How do you do this?
Where do you get your authority from?
And Jesus asks them a question,
straight back.
That's the way you work,
in the Middle East.
If you ask me a question,
my answer is,
another question.
It's incredibly infuriating,
to us in the West.
Because you never,
actually get an answer.
Okay?
There's never a dot,
at the end of the sentence.
It just keeps going.
In fact,
there's a great little parable,
from a rabbi,
what's his name,
Avraham Herschel,
who once said,
you're closer to God,
when you're asking questions,
than when you think,
you have answers.
Because once you think,
you understand God,
that's when you truly,
don't understand God.
And it's in the,
in the idea of asking questions,
and the search,
you're constantly learning,
about him,
who he is,
who he is character,
and how to,
to behave,
in the world,
and vis-a-vis also,
each other.
So Jesus is asked,
where do you get your,
your authority from?
So he says,
what about John the Baptist?
Where did he come from?
Is he from heaven,
or is he from,
from somewhere else?
And they choose not to answer,
so Jesus doesn't have to give them,
an answer.
He outfoxes them.
Then he begins to teach,
in parables.
and he talks about this thing called the kingdom of heaven.
Now parables, as a teaching tool of the Second Temple period,
are not unique to Jesus.
He uses that vehicle.
There is over 5,000 parables in the Hebrew commentaries
and some of them are even in our New Testament.
And the point about parables is as part of the story,
which everyone should be familiar with, they have a shock to them.
Something that wakes you up.
Something that makes you start to question,
what is he talking about and why?
So he says, listen, I have a parable for you.
We want to talk about authority.
I would like to share a parable.
There is a landowner.
He has a vineyard. It is his.
It is a good vineyard.
He has guarded it with a watchtower.
He has surrounded and protected it with his walls.
He has prepared a place to produce fruit
and to get the juice from this fruit.
And we will make wine.
And wine is a symbol of joy.
It will be a good thing.
So I have some tenants.
Please work in my vineyard.
And when it is time for fruit,
because our God is a fruit inspector,
when it is time for some fruit,
he sends some of his servants.
And they're beaten.
And in some cases they're killed.
Nasty.
And they throw stones.
And the master does something very special.
He sends his son.
And the shock that the hearers are about to hear
is that, okay, they've already killed the guys previously,
so they'll probably kill the son too.
We get it.
But what is it that these tenants think is going to happen?
If we kill the son, we will get his inheritance.
On what planet does that ever happen?
You don't ever go to a lawyer and say,
listen, I know we're about to read the will,
but I've actually just offed the guy, okay?
So I'll take his place.
Is that all right?
It will never happen.
It won't happen in Jewish tradition.
It's not going to happen in,
even in corrupt societies that doesn't happen.
Well, maybe it does.
But it shouldn't.
But in the Jewish world,
there is no way that would happen.
It's a shock.
Who are these people?
And what do they think is going on in their brain?
How have they so twisted reality
that they would even think they could fool the master?
I'm working in his field.
I'll kill his son.
He won't bother us.
He'll give it to me now.
What madness have these people got?
That's the shock.
Now, the Pharisees and the chief priests,
the leaders of the temple,
they know that Yeshua is talking about them.
They know that he is talking about them
and their interpretation of the Torah
and the way that they should be caring for the people.
He is not talking about the people.
People love him.
They've just had the triumphal entry.
Some of them really do believe he is the Messiah.
They've shouted it out.
You are the son of David.
We know who you are.
It's fantastic.
Bring on the Redeemer.
But for the leaders,
they don't like this.
They want redemption to come from another way,
in their way.
And so Jesus,
he even gives them his proof text.
When he's ready to challenge and fight,
discuss with the Pharisees,
what verse does he bring?
It's not Micah 5.2.
By the way, I was born in Bethlehem,
just so you know.
Okay?
I am the Messiah.
And by the way, if you don't notice,
I'm riding on a donkey,
so I've just done Zechariah.
Okay?
You can call me Emmanuel if you like,
if anyone wants to read the book of Isaiah.
No, he goes to a psalm.
The psalms are the prayer life of the Jewish people.
If we were Jewish people,
we would gather in our synagogues
or in the temple,
and we would pray the psalms.
You think having a lectionary is a new invention?
No.
The Jewish people had it at the time of Jesus.
They read the Bible in three years.
Today, Jewish people read the Bible in one year,
but they changed that in the Middle Ages.
But at the time of Jesus,
you would read the whole Bible.
It would take you three years.
And oddly enough,
some churches still do that today.
And that's where they get that tradition from.
Okay?
The roots of our faith,
anybody who reads the text would know
that the roots of our faith
are steeped in Jewish,
in the Jewish people
and in the way that they did things.
So here, we would,
in the second table period,
we would pray the psalms.
They would be our prayers.
We would pray these.
Every month,
we would go through the entire psalms.
And there's commentaries to the psalms.
So when we pray,
we can actually sit down
and have a Bible discussion
about what it is we've prayed
and what it is we mean.
And he says,
the stone that the builders rejected
has become the capstone.
Okay?
Some translations will say the cornerstone.
But that's not quite literal.
The literal thing is the capstone.
And the capstone
is the part of the supporting arch
which has no mortar in it.
Each brick is just put side by side
and is the force of one brick against another
that actually holds
the whole structure together.
And the capstone
is the last bit you put in.
It is the most important stone
in the entire building.
Take that out
and the whole thing collapses.
Okay?
How many cornerstones
do you have in a building?
Four.
Okay?
How many Jesuses do we have?
Okay?
One.
Okay?
So he's the one up top.
And they have a little parable
that goes along with this psalm
that while they were building the temple,
because this parable
is in connection
to Jesus challenging
the temple authorities.
There's a parable
that when they were building the temple,
they were putting one stone upon another
and in large parts of the temple,
they weren't meant
to actually cut the stone.
It was meant to be a stone.
They just found a natural stone.
They find the stone
and they're trying to put it over here.
No, it doesn't fit.
So put it over here.
No, it doesn't fit.
Put it back over that way.
Turn it around.
Twist it.
No, it just doesn't fit.
So we throw it away.
It's a useless stone.
And they keep building the temple.
And then when they get
to the final stone
to put it all in place,
the force of one stone on another
will actually hold it.
They couldn't find a stone
that would fit.
They could see,
oh, look, there's this stone,
the one that we didn't want.
Let's try that one.
That one fits.
So when we talk about
the stone that the builders rejected,
they understand, again,
this is a temple,
a parable,
and I know he's talking
about us.
I tell you
that the kingdom of heaven,
the kingdom of God,
will be taken away
and given to somebody else.
The term,
the kingdom of God,
is a very Jewish term.
when Jesus always starts
all of his parables,
the kingdom of heaven
is like this.
The kingdom of heaven
is like that.
This is what it's like
to live in the kingdom
when I'm the king.
And the disciples
never stick their hands up
and say,
Lord,
what's the kingdom of heaven
because I don't understand.
The term,
the kingdom of heaven,
isn't in the Hebrew Bible.
It's not in the Old Testament.
It's in the New Testament.
It appears
in Jewish literature,
Jewish writings,
Jewish preaching traditions,
when we come back
from Babylon.
And they start asking themselves,
God is our king.
When did he become a king?
When did the kingdom of heaven start?
So when do you think?
When did God become a king?
At birth?
Well, God wasn't born,
but yes.
Some people will say,
okay,
at Pentecost.
Jesus starts the kingdom of heaven
at Pentecost.
Okay,
that's not bad.
Some people will say,
at creation,
when God made the world,
he became king.
You can't have a king
without people in it.
Right?
So you can't have
a king of nothing.
Somebody's got to be there,
so he makes the world
and God becomes a king.
It's also not bad.
That's actually one of the Jewish prayers
that we pray every day.
blessed are you,
the Lord our God,
king of the universe.
He's the king of the universe.
It's always linked to creation.
But in Jewish tradition,
the kingdom of heaven
starts when God himself
gets a people,
when he actually has people
who acknowledge his kingship,
and that's at Mount Sinai.
So,
the children of Israel
are in Egypt.
And the purpose
of the Exodus
is not to get a bunch of Hebrews
to the promised land.
Because if that was true,
then God would have given Moses
better directions.
He would have said,
okay, Moses,
you get these people
out of Egypt,
and then you turn left.
And then when you get
to the Mediterranean,
you turn right.
You can't miss it.
Left, right,
you're there.
But that was not
the purpose
of the Exodus.
What do the children
of Israel
know about God
when they're in Egypt?
They've been in Egypt
400 years.
What do they know
about God?
What do you think?
It's a very Jewish thing
to ask people questions.
Okay, he's got promises
to Abraham.
We know something
about a wandering nomad.
We don't have a Bible.
For 400 years,
we've been slaves in Egypt.
We don't have a Bible.
We don't have a prophet.
There's no one here
telling us stories
about what's going to happen.
Don't worry.
One day,
there'll be a Redeemer
and we'll get out of Egypt.
We don't have a temple.
We don't have a focal point
where we can say,
God is here.
That's one of the unique
distinctives
of the nation of Israel.
When God chose
the Jewish people,
he chose the smallest.
Yes?
The most insignificant.
Yes?
Not the most powerful.
But the unique thing
about Jewish people
is not
that they had
funny dietary laws.
That they couldn't go
to McDonald's
and have a hamburger
with cheese on it.
That wasn't special.
It's not that they had
to wear these special
funny clothes
and put things
on their heads.
Or they had to stop
one day of the week
and not work.
What was distinctive
about the people of Israel
is that their God
lived with them.
Everybody else's God
lived somewhere else.
Lived on a mountain
in Olympus.
Lived across
the Rainbow Bridge
in Asgard.
Was put
with oracles
and you had to go
so far away
to actually encounter
your God.
Israel's God
lived with them.
That's what made
them so special.
God has always
been wanting
to come and live
with them.
As soon as he got
his people out of Egypt
he says,
you build me a tabernacle.
Build me something
and I want to come
and dwell with you.
It's not that you
have to come up here.
I want to come down there.
I want to live with you.
We don't have a temple
so we have no focal point.
We don't have prophets
or priests.
So what do we know
about God?
We have the campfire stories.
We have the story
about that God
made the world
and it didn't work
out so well.
So then there was a guy
with a boat
and a rainbow.
Then there's this
wandering nomad thing
and suddenly we're here.
We don't know
anything about God.
And then God
whom we didn't know
while we were
in the land of darkness
with a mighty hand
and an outstretched arm
reached down
and took his people
out of Egypt.
And then what does he do?
He takes them
to Mount Sinai.
He brings them
to a mountain
and he comes down
and he says
I am the God
that took you
out of Egypt.
He introduces himself.
Redemption
always leads
to revelation.
What do we have
in the New Testament?
Exactly the same thing.
While I was a sinner
Christ died for me.
When I was in
the land of darkness
the Redeemer
died for me
and set me free
and he revealed himself.
I have my own personal
and you do too
your own personal
Mount Sinai experiences.
But for the Jewish people
we were in darkness
we didn't know God
and then he saved us
and he brought us
to Mount Sinai
and then he gave us
the Torah.
Then he revealed himself.
Then he became
a king.
So God becomes king
at Mount Sinai.
We accept his authority.
We don't have land.
That's not the issue.
The issue is
the kingdom of heaven.
That God is ruling
and reigning
in your life
and in your heart.
Because when you read
the Hebrew Bible
it's all about the heart.
Moses says
Deuteronomy 6.6
Write these laws
where?
On your heart.
Not on stone.
Not in a book.
Write it on your heart.
And in the Psalms
Create in me Lord
a clean hands
and clean heart.
Circumcise your heart
the prophets say.
I'll take out
your heart of stone
and I'll put in
a heart of flesh.
It's always been
about the intention
of the heart.
And here
the king
the king is ruling
and reigning
in your heart.
Where is the kingdom
of heaven?
Where is it?
As Jesus says
it's near.
Jesus says
it's within you.
Jesus says
it's here.
It's not the earth.
The earth
isn't the kingdom
of heaven.
We are the kingdom
of heaven.
The kingdom
of heaven
in Matthew
Matthew 11
since the days
of John the Baptist
until now
the kingdom
of heaven
is forcefully
advancing.
Some translations
I think we're
using the ESV
here right?
They'll say
the kingdom
of heaven
is suffering
violence.
But the NIV
says no
we're forcefully
advancing.
That's because
the Greek
the word is
biastes
and it can
either be read
passive or active
you get to pick.
And most
translations chose
the passive
but the NIV
went a bit more
aggressive
and the kingdom
of heaven
is forcefully
advancing
that even
the gates
of hell
won't withstand
it.
And the kingdom
of heaven
is slowly
but surely
building.
You and I
are members
of the biggest
gang in history.
There are over
two billion people
right
who call
Jesus Lord.
And in Israel
that
is
attractive.
Even though
the Torah
of the current
rabbis
forbid
Jewish people
from going
into a church
guess what
happens
every day
at Christchurch?
They come.
And at
Christmas Eve
they come
in huge
numbers.
So a couple
of months
ago
there was an
Orthodox group
that was inside
the church.
Orthodox.
Can you believe
that?
With the
payot
and the
tzitzit.
And we were
having a discussion
and we were
trying to
discern
some passages
from the
book of
Isaiah.
Isaiah 48.
And then in
walked a group
of secular
Jews.
So Jews
who
don't believe
in anything.
Atheists.
And the
first thing
they did
when they
saw some
Orthodox Jews
sitting inside
a church
they didn't
have any
clue of
talking to
me at
all.
They looked
at the
Orthodox and
said what
are you
doing here?
You're not
allowed to
be here.
I'm allowed
to be here.
You're not
allowed to
be here.
And so
what do
the Orthodox
do?
They started
arguing back
with the
secular people.
Don't you
tell me what
I can't do.
If I want
to be
inside a
church,
I can
be inside
a church.
If I
want to
take his
Bible,
I can
do that.
And I'm
just watching
this argument
happen and
thinking,
wow,
this is
great.
Awesome.
People
are getting
really
excited.
Israelis
often
ignore
or
currently
the Torah
of their
current rabbis.
Even though
they are
told,
don't do
this.
It's
forbidden.
Sometimes
that becomes
attractive.
You tell
people,
don't do
something,
they often
go and
do it.
So at
Christmas
Eve,
you would
think,
why do
Jewish
people want
to come
and see
what we
do at
Christmas?
You know,
this pagan
festival of
tree worship
and all this
kind of
stuff.
Oh,
man,
Israelis
love it.
So what
do we do
at Christ
Church?
We get
the biggest
tree we
can find.
We decorate
it up with
lights and
everything.
We put
presents
everywhere.
We get
Christmas
cookies and
mulled wine,
which is an
excellent
missionary tool,
by the way.
And you give
people a little
bit of a drink.
And then
Israelis would
gather in
groups of
50 and 60.
We'll have
2,500 of
them in that
one night.
We'll say,
guys,
what do you
want?
Do you want
the Maccabees or
do you want
the donuts?
Do you want
the fluff or
do you want
the real story?
And so,
no,
you tell us
the real
story.
You're great.
And I'm
going to tell
you a Jewish
story.
I'm not going
to tell you a
Christian story.
I'm going to
tell you a
Jewish story
about a
Jewish boy
born to
Jewish parents
in a
Jewish town
as the
promised
Jewish
Messiah.
And 2
billion people
are going
to read
this story
in the
next 24
hours.
You don't
want to
miss out,
do you?
No,
good,
here's the
gospel of
Luke in
Hebrew.
It's
fantastic.
The kingdom
of heaven
is growing
and building.
When you
look at the
Middle East,
it sometimes
looks pretty
bad.
And that's
because it's
true,
because it is
pretty bad.
And people
are being
killed for
their faith.
And even if
they don't
believe,
they're just
being killed
anyway,
because they're
not like
me.
And there
seems to be
lots of
darkness and
confusion,
death and
destruction and
hatred and
rage.
But in
other parts of
the Middle
East,
like Israel,
there are
more and more
people coming
to faith in
the Messiah.
Messiah.
And that
is good
news.
And that
includes
Arabs as
well as
Jews.
For Muslims,
often, when
their communities
are so
closed, Jesus
is still
reaching down
to them
into their
dreams.
And they
come to
Christ's
church dressed
in the
hijab, and
they say,
somebody came
to me last
night and
told me I
had to come
and talk
to you.
What have
you got to
say?
So we
see that the
kingdom of
God is
being given
not to
temple
authority,
but back
to the
followers of
Jesus, both
Jews and
Gentiles.
And it is a
marvelous thing
in our
eyes.
So what does
this tell me
about Jesus?
He has
authority.
He is the
one sitting on
the throne.
He can fight
back the
demons.
He has the
power over
death.
He can take
charge of
nature.
And he can
actually interpret
the Bible
correctly for
us.
He is the
one that has
authority to
teach and
to preach.
And we
should listen
to him.
When we have
the wise and
foolish builders
story, you
all know it,
yes?
The wise man
built his
house upon
the rock
and the
foolish man
built his
house upon
the sand.
And we all
forget the
very first
line of that
story.
Jesus says,
why do you
call me
Lord,
and don't
do what I
say?
And so we
have a
master.
He is our
king.
And if the
king says to
do something,
you should do
it.
Not because
that gets you
in or out of
the kingdom,
because you're
already saved.
You were in
darkness.
You were in
the land of
Egypt.
But with a
mighty hand,
Jesus has
redeemed us.
He has become
our covering.
He has become
our protection.
He is the
Torah made
flesh.
You should do
what he says.
And what
should I do
as a follower
of the Messiah?
Well, I should
certainly take
pride away.
That pride of
inheritance.
Because I'm a
believer in
Jesus, he'll do
whatever I say.
And he'll just
give me whatever
I want.
It's the other
way around.
The Messiah has
given us his
kingdom.
He's invited us
into this eternal
life.
And there might
be bad news
out there.
And there
probably is.
When the
prophets say,
arise, shine,
for your light
has come,
the very next
sentence is,
and darkness
covers the
earth.
But the
light always
fights back
the darkness.
And so as
followers of the
Messiah, as a
teaching parable
from the
Messiah, let's
take away that
pride of
inheritance and
submit to the
king.
Because his
kingship is
good covering.
His kingship
leads to good
fruit.
And what is
the fruit?
Describe some of
what the fruit
looks like.
Peace.
patience.
Joy.
Self-control.
Imagine what the
Middle East would
look like if we
had more of
that.
Those are the
things we want.
Not the
hatred.
Not the rage.
Not people trying
to dominate the
earth.
But instead,
having the fruit
that the king
wants to inspect
in his tree.
And it can and
does and is
happening.
every day.
And for us in
the Middle East,
when we were
having rocket
attacks and
bus bombings and
things, you might
think that's pretty
dark.
But there's a
saying, there's no
atheists in
foxholes.
Have you heard of
that?
Yeah, everybody
talking about God.
You want to know
how you witness
for Jesus?
Just open the
door and start
walking on the
street.
And they say,
why are you still
here?
Why didn't you
run away, back
to Australia?
Because my
master told me I
couldn't leave.
Because I'm
supposed to be
here.
Because there's
something that we
have.
It's called hope.
When you pull
down all of the
Christian faith into
three words.
It's a very Jewish
thing to do, by the
way.
Paul says, three
words.
Faith, hope, and
love.
And the greatest
of these is?
Yeah, not faith.
For whatever
reason.
Hope is there.
And hope is
something we can
all share with
the world that
is hopeless.
When we go
outside, there's a
world out there
that if you don't
believe in God, if
this is all that
there is, it's
pretty bad.
It's pretty dark.
Because when the
lights go out,
that's it.
You take nothing
with you.
You leave nothing
behind.
That's hopeless.
But in your
eyes, people can
see hope.
In your eyes, they
can see the fire of
the kingdom of
heaven.
In your eyes, they
can see why are you
different?
Because you know
that the Messiah is
sitting on the
throne.
You know that God
is in control.
And you know that
the fruit of the
spirit is a
beautiful thing of
peace, love,
patience, joy, and
self-control.
And God's
kingdom doesn't
shrink.
He gets bigger and
bigger and bigger.
And that is good
news coming out of
the Middle East.
Shalom from
Jerusalem.