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 This morning we continue our study on the Gospel of Matthew and we have come to chapter 22.

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 I'd like us to read again the verses towards the end of that chapter.

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 While the Pharisees were gathered together Jesus asked them a question saying,

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 what do you think about the Christ whose son is he? They said to him the son of David. He said to

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 them, how is it then that David in the Spirit calls him Lord saying the Lord said to my Lord,

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 sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet? If then David calls him Lord,

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 how is he his son? And no one was able to answer him a word nor from that day did anyone dare

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 to ask him any more questions. One of the most common features of human experience is that very

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 often we long for things to be different. If you look back through history all across the world

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 people long for things to change and that's not always negative because there's a sense in which

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 all the great advancements in technology, in medicine and in the arts have come from the vision

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 to make things different. But although it's it's often positive, very often in many ways

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 it's a negative thing. People find themselves in unwanted circumstances and they long for things

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 to be different. Maybe for you today that might be exactly how you feel. One group who definitely

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 felt like that were the Jews in Matthew's Gospel. For many reasons they longed for things to be

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 different. We see that in the passage before us today and we're going to think about that

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 a little bit. But what we also see in the Jews of Matthew's Day is that although they were longing

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 for things to be different, they were actually longing for far too little. And that's our title

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 today, longing for too little. And I think it's very likely that in our own lives many of us,

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 if not all of us, are longing for far too little as well. And as we look at this together we're

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 going to just think about the Jews, we're going to think about ourselves, and then we're going to look

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 at what Jesus is teaching in this passage. So for the Jews, what were they longing for?

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 Well these verses that we have before us in 41 to 45, and in fact in many other parts of Matthew's

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 Gospel we see a very strong connection between Jesus and David. So I've highlighted David's name

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 in these verses. David was a hugely important figure in the history of Israel and he's one of the

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 primary characters in the Old Testament. He was the greatest king that Israel ever had. Indeed

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 every other king who came after David was measured against him. A good king was like David, a bad king

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 wasn't. And the great hope of the Jewish people was that one day a future king like David would come

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 in order to save the nation. This coming Savior king was called the Messiah or the Christ,

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 that it means the same thing. He was to come from the descendants of David and he would be a great

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 king just like David was. So when Jesus asks the Pharisees, what do you think of the Christ,

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 whose son is he? Their instant answer is the son of David because the connection to David

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 is very important. Now in order to understand why this was such a big deal, we all need to try and

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 imagine and understand a little bit more about how it felt to be a Jew in the first century

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 as it was for those people recorded for us in Matthew's Gospel. How did they feel? Well we can

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 summarize it under three headings. The way things are, which really is referring to their present

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 situation, the way things were meant to be, which involved looking back into their past,

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 and there was the way they wanted things to be, which of course refers to their future. David

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 is a key factor in answering all of these questions for a Jew in the first century.

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 In terms of the way things were and their present situation, the Jews in these days were under

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 Roman occupation, and this was so different to how things were with David. Way back a thousand

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 years earlier when David lived, everything was so much better. David lived around 1000 BC,

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 and the 1000 years from then onwards was really a roller coaster of a millennium for the Jewish

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 people. David was the high point. They were a strong, united, and prosperous nation,

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 but from then onwards it was downhill. When David's grandson became king, the nations split in two,

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 and before long they were at war with each other. 200 years later, the northern half of that kingdom

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 was obliterated. The southern kingdom was conquered by Babylon. Most of the people were taken into

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 exile. You can see that at 586 BC. Around 70 years later, around 530 BC, people started to return,

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 but things were never the same. For the next 300 years, they were ruled by the Persians,

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 by the Greeks. For a brief period in between the Old Testament and the New Testament, the Jews,

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 they reclaimed a bit of independence, but it came at huge cost, and there was violent rebellion

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 and conflict and huge suffering. And before long, they were conquered by the Romans,

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 and that's where we find them in the days of the New Testament. And that meant that for every Jew

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 in Matthew's Gospel, they looked back to the way things were, and they thought, I wish things were

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 different. And what they longed for were those good old days of David. That was the way things were

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 meant to be. David didn't have to pay taxes to Caesar. David wasn't, he didn't have a Roman governor

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 in Jerusalem. David wasn't the puppet king of some foreign invader. In David's day, Israel were

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 strong, independent, and they were beginning to thrive. And for the Jews in Matthew's Gospel,

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 that was the way things were meant to be. And for that reason, what they saw in the past was what

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 they longed for in the future. If you asked a Jew, how do you want things to be in the next 100

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 years, they would say, I want them to be the way they, I want things to be the way they were with

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 David. I want us to get back to that. So we can picture it all like this, if you'll just bear

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 with another diagram, I'm afraid. David was the high point of their history. Since then, it's been

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 all downhill. So the Jews in the New Testament are looking at their situation, and they're looking back

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 at David, and they're thinking, that's the way I want things to be. I just wish it was back like

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 that. And their great hope was that a son of David, a king would come. And when he came,

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 he would drive out the Romans. He would give the Jews their nation again, and he would restore

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 everything to the way it was meant to be. The Christ would be the one who would get the

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 Israel nation, the nation of Israel back to the way it was meant to be. It was perhaps a wee bit

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 like, I don't know if any of you have ever walked around a redundant shipyard, or have gone into a

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 theater that's no longer in use, and you look at these great buildings, and you think, I wish

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 someone would come and restore it to how it was meant to be. That was how the Jews felt

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 concerning their nation. And there's two key words that sum up their situation.

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 One, king and enemies. For the Jews, they had no king, and they had enemies all around them.

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 But it was so different with David. With a king like David, they had a sense of community.

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 They had this, they were a nation, a family, a people. They could build a society that was the

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 way that they wanted it to be, even if it was different from what everyone else in the world

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 did. They had their identity as a national community. The king brought them all together.

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 With a king like David, they had territory. They had their own land, their own cities,

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 their own space, a home that was theirs. And with a king like David, they would have a future.

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 They could plan and build and grow and thrive and be who they wanted to be. But now,

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 in the days when Matthew is recording, the days that Matthew records for us here,

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 all these things are in the hands of their enemies. So their Jewish community and culture

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 was being eroded. Greek influence was penetrating into the population, and the Pharisees in particular

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 were desperate to hold on to their Jewish identity. Their territory was someone else's property.

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 This precious land of theirs was just a toy in the hands of some guy called Caesar,

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 who lived hundreds of miles away in Rome. And their future was in their enemy's hands.

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 They had already seen their nation crushed by foreigners on multiple occasions.

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 And with no king like David, their future was controlled by their enemies. And if only the

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 son of David would come, all of that would change. He would defeat their enemies. He would reclaim

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 their territory. He would reestablish the community. He would transform their future.

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 The Jews were longing for the son of David because they were longing for things to be different.

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 Now, you might be thinking, well, Thomas, all of that is very interesting. But what on earth

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 has it got to do with any of us today? It seems a million miles from 2020 in Scotland. Surely,

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 our problems are very different from those of the Jews in Matthew chapter 22. And in many ways,

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 that's true. We don't live under the rule of a conquering empire. We don't face the same crisis

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 of national identity. And I think there's probably no one who says, I wish we could go back to the

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 way things were a thousand years ago. But if the great characteristic of the Jews was that they

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 were longing for things to be different, then I think it's true that in so many ways, we are exactly

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 the same. How many of us look at our lives and look at the way things are and think, I wish

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 it was different? That can be as a nation. So you might be longing for Scotland to become

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 independent. Maybe you're longing that that word never gets mentioned again. It might be in society,

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 some of you might be longing for a change in rules for different policies for different laws.

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 It might be for the environment. You might long for things to be different in the face of the threat

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 of climate change. And even the way things are right now, some of you might be longing for these

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 restrictions to be lifted and for everything to go back to normal. Or it might be for you as an

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 individual, your work, your relationships, where you live, what you earn, how you look, what you've

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 achieved. Maybe you look at all of these things and long for them to be different.

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 And like the Jews, maybe you long for the way things were meant to be. Now that might be a case

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 of looking back into your own history. Maybe there's a time in your past that you that you yearn for.

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 Maybe school days, maybe student years, maybe starting out in your career, maybe having a house

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 full of children, maybe a time when you are fitter, stronger and faster. Or maybe it's not

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 necessarily something in your own history, maybe it was just something in your own hopes and

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 expectations. Maybe there was dreams of a relationship that hasn't happened or maybe there was one

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 which didn't work out the way you hoped. Maybe there was a job you always thought you were going

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 to get and it hasn't happened. Maybe there was a house you dreamed of building. Maybe you're a

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 first year student at uni thinking this is not the way it was meant to be. And all of that makes

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 you yearn for things to be different, to long for the way you want things to be. And all of that is

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 very real and very tough. And I don't think for a moment that the Jews were wrong to wish that

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 things were different. And neither are you if that's how you feel. I think that for all of us

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 there's aspects of life where we look at ourselves or look at our situation and say I wish it was

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 different. The key issue is how we respond to that feeling. And what we have to recognize is that

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 just like the Jews we have our king and our enemies. Now you might be saying Thomas what are you on

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 about? We have neither. Well I'm not so sure that that's true because when we talk about a king and

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 about enemies what we're really talking about is our security and our threats. So we want security.

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 We want to be safe in order to thrive. We want to be part of a community. We want to enjoy our own

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 territory. We want a future that's bright and we will look for a king to give us that. It might be

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 our job. It might be our salary. It might be a political party. It might be a partner. It might be

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 a certain lifestyle. And these things are not necessarily bad. There's a huge amount of good

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 in many of them. But we will make them our king if we say to whatever it is you are the key to

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 making things better. I am your loyal subject and I will do whatever you say. And equally we want to

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 overcome the things that threaten us. So it's not a foreign army that threatens us today although

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 we must never forget that we only have to go back to our grandparents to see a generation for whom

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 that was true. But for us today we might feel threatened by our colleagues, by our classmates

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 or fellow students. We might feel threatened by our circumstances whether financial or social.

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 We might feel threatened by our past that something's going to come back to haunt us. We might feel

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 threatened by people who think differently from us. Or maybe we even feel threatened by our own

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 sense of expectation or our feelings of failure or inadequacy. All of these things can make us

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 feel like we're surrounded by enemies, by threats who are trying to make things worse for us.

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 And our great hope is that our king will deal with our enemies. So king's successful career

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 will mean that I don't need to feel threatened by colleagues or classmates who are better than me.

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 King's political party will deliver us from the threat of evil king other political party. King's

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 first class honours means that I don't feel threatened by the expectations of peers or parents

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 or professors. King Nice House will neutralise the threat of feeling inadequate to my friends.

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 King's social life will deliver you from the threat of loneliness and rejection. And even king

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 outward religion can be seen as giving us deliverance from this bad world around us and it makes us

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 feel secure because we've got it right and we are just that bit better than everyone else.

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 These things are not necessarily bad but please, please you have got to recognise

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 that they are not kings.

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 The Jews were longing for things to be different. So often we are the same.

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 In all of that, what is Jesus saying to us? Well in this passage Jesus is not saying stop longing.

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 It would be easy for me to stand up and say that Jesus is telling you today stop complaining,

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 stop wishing things were different, be content, get on with life. Jesus is not saying that at all.

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 This passage is not saying stop longing. This passage is saying you are longing for far too little.

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 The key point is that the Jews' expectations were too low. They were longing for too little.

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 If we go back to the diagram that we've drawn, they were longing for David's son and at one level

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 they were right to do so because the promised king would be a descendant of David. But they were

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 longing for David's son in the sense that he would be the one to bring them back to David's level.

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 Jesus is saying that expectation is far too low. They were looking for David's son.

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 What they actually got was David's lord. In verse 44 Jesus quotes from Psalm 110.

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 In that Psalm David is speaking about the coming king, the Messiah, the Christ.

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 So we would call Psalm 110 a messianic Psalm in the sense that it's prophetic. It's looking forward

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 to the coming king and it's telling us something about him. Part of this Psalm describes words

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 spoken from God to this coming king. And David describes that in the opening verses of this

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 Psalm. But the point I want to highlight is that when David describes God speaking to this king,

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 David doesn't say, the Lord said to my son. He says, the Lord says to my Lord.

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 And the point Jesus is making is that the Christ is not just David's son. He is David's Lord.

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 He's not simply an heir who comes after David. He is the Lord who rules over David.

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 He is not just the descendant who will take them back up to David. He is the Lord who will bring

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 them far, far above David. In other words, the Jews had these great expectations.

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 But the truth is Jesus is way bigger and way better. If their dream was to get back up to the

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 level of David, Jesus is saying, hold on a minute. What you are longing for is far, far too little.

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 At its best, David's kingdom extended to a few hundred miles in the territory at the east of

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 the Mediterranean. At its best, its society was a relatively small ethnic group descended from

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 Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. At its best, it always had bigger, stronger and more powerful nations

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 surrounding it and posing a threat. At its best, its future was a case of surviving as long as

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 possible. And Jesus is saying, my kingdom is way bigger and way better than that. And this

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 chapter, Matthew 22 tells us exactly what it's like. So the kingdom of God is not this small

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 exclusive community just for the Jews only. It is a wedding feast to which all are invited.

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 It transcends all ethnicities. It doesn't matter what your background is. And it sends an invite

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 out to anyone and everyone. It's thrown the doors wide, wide open. And it's a wedding feast.

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 It's a place of joy, of celebration, of unity and love. It's a place where everyone delights

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 together in all that God has done for us. And that's why the person who sneaks in with no wedding

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 garments does not belong there. Because the person who comes in with no wedding clothes is

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 effectively saying, I want the food and the wine, but I don't really care about who the bride and

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 groom are. And that mindset is the opposite of everything that God's kingdom is about. It's

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 not about selfishly getting what we want or doing what our own thing or grabbing benefits for

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 ourselves. It's about being united together in one brilliant family with one brilliant

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 Savior who we all love and where we celebrate together. Jesus' kingdom is not one where the

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 Jews can just get back to their best and everyone else can clear off. It's one where the Jews,

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 the Gentiles, all nations of the world are united in a new, beautiful, restored humanity.

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 And the kingdom of God is not some small territory in Judea at the east of the Mediterranean. The

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 kingdom of God extends across the whole world. In fact, it extends across the whole universe.

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 Jesus is not going to get things back to the good old days of David. He is doing something

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 miles, miles bigger. He's going to restore the whole universe so that that can become the real

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 promised land. And he reigns over every square inch of it. And that is why paying taxes to Caesar

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 is absolutely nothing to get worked up over. Jesus says, give to Caesar what is his,

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 because ultimately Caesar and Rome and whoever else they are all under the sovereign authority

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 of David's Lord, the Messiah. And the kingdom of God is not giving us a future where we hope

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 we'll survive as long as possible. The kingdom of God is giving us a future of resurrection life

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 that will last forever. So when the Sadducees who didn't believe in the resurrection came up to

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 Jesus to try and catch him out with all the intricacies of what the future might look like,

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 Jesus says, you're totally wrong. And the rule of this kingdom is so great, so extensive,

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 and so untouchable. It means that all enemies and threats are under his feet. And ultimately,

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 that is not about beating the Romans or beating any other ruler or ideology or force. It is about

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 conquering death. That's the enemy that Jesus has come to put under his feet. And ultimately,

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 that's what lies behind all the other threats, whether it's the threat of an army or of illness

00:25:54.960 --> 00:26:01.120
 or of poverty or of failure. The driving force that makes all these things a threat is death.

00:26:01.120 --> 00:26:10.319
 And Jesus is saying, that's what I have come to deal with. And the result is that the Christ has

00:26:10.319 --> 00:26:18.799
 come to establish a kingdom that is way bigger and way higher than anything David ever achieved.

00:26:19.839 --> 00:26:24.720
 It's a kingdom that includes people from every nation and background. It's a kingdom that covers

00:26:24.720 --> 00:26:32.480
 all territory. It's a kingdom that has an eternal future. And at the heart of that kingdom are two

00:26:32.480 --> 00:26:42.240
 great principles, love for God and love for one another. And that's what Jesus speaks about

00:26:43.279 --> 00:26:51.440
 in this chapter. And just think about that. The Christ has come to establish the ultimate,

00:26:51.440 --> 00:26:59.759
 dominant, permanent kingdom. And the foundational culture and atmosphere and goal of that kingdom

00:26:59.759 --> 00:27:14.799
 is love. Now, compare that with Trump versus Biden. Compare that with Brexit versus remain.

00:27:17.680 --> 00:27:25.599
 Compare that with independence versus union. Compare that with me versus my colleague.

00:27:25.599 --> 00:27:40.319
 Compare that with me versus my past. David knew that there was something way bigger and way better.

00:27:40.319 --> 00:27:46.959
 But the Jews weren't seeing it because they were longing for far too little.

00:27:46.960 --> 00:27:56.640
 We do exactly the same. We think if only I can get my way a little bit of territory,

00:27:56.640 --> 00:28:01.759
 a house, a career or a full life. If only I can have a community where I can fit in,

00:28:01.759 --> 00:28:08.640
 where people won't reject me. If only I can survive as long as I possibly can. We long for health,

00:28:08.640 --> 00:28:13.759
 success, security, fulfillment and love. We feel threatened by others who are either getting

00:28:13.759 --> 00:28:19.440
 that ahead of us or who we feel might take it away from us. And we have this kind of Hollywood movie

00:28:19.440 --> 00:28:24.960
 ideal where we have the house, the job, the car, the guy or the girl, the pension. And we think if

00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:31.839
 we can just get that, then we've made it. But we've got to find it and don't let anyone take it away

00:28:31.839 --> 00:28:38.640
 from you. And maybe some people do get that or it might look like they've got it, but it only ever

00:28:38.640 --> 00:28:48.080
 lasts a brief moment. And for all of us, no matter how much of it we get, it always leaves us longing

00:28:48.080 --> 00:28:59.840
 for more. And we will walk our way into hell because we're longing for too little.

00:28:59.839 --> 00:29:13.599
 And all the time Jesus is saying, I will give you something way bigger and way better. Jesus

00:29:13.599 --> 00:29:19.039
 wants to bring us into his family where everyone is precious, where everything is being restored,

00:29:19.039 --> 00:29:26.480
 where all our scars and brokenness and failings are being healed, where no one gets judged or shunned

00:29:26.480 --> 00:29:34.799
 or marginalised, where joy and peace and hope and security abound and where it will last forever.

00:29:39.039 --> 00:29:45.519
 And the incredible truth is that that is what God longs for.

00:29:47.839 --> 00:29:55.120
 Why is God sending this King? Why is God sending his own Son? Why does God want his enemies under

00:29:55.119 --> 00:30:03.599
 this King's feet? The answer is so that you will be safe, so that you can be in God's family forever.

00:30:04.479 --> 00:30:13.039
 That is what God longs for. And thank God that his longings are never as low as ours.

00:30:16.559 --> 00:30:24.159
 So if you're longing for the wrongs in society to be put right by your political party,

00:30:24.160 --> 00:30:31.519
 that's good, but you're longing for too little. Because Jesus is going to put right every wrong,

00:30:31.519 --> 00:30:37.360
 and he will hold everyone to account, and yet at the same time he will have mercy on all who repent.

00:30:38.640 --> 00:30:43.279
 If you're longing for environmental action, that's good, but you're longing for too little,

00:30:43.279 --> 00:30:49.519
 because Jesus is going to restore the whole universe where creation's curse and all environmental

00:30:49.519 --> 00:30:55.839
 damage will be permanently undone. If you're longing for your own territory for a place that you can

00:30:55.839 --> 00:31:01.119
 call home, that's good, but you're longing for too little, because Jesus is preparing a place for you.

00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:09.279
 He's promising you an eternal home where you will be safe and secure forever. And if you are longing

00:31:09.279 --> 00:31:17.839
 to be loved in a relationship, in a family, in a community, that's good, but you are actually longing

00:31:17.839 --> 00:31:26.959
 for too little, because Jesus is saying, I will love you forever, and he will bring you into his

00:31:26.959 --> 00:31:33.439
 family where we are all united together in harmony, in friendship, in unity, in company, where those

00:31:33.439 --> 00:31:38.399
 who aren't married or don't have children or don't have parents or who don't have tons of friends will

00:31:38.399 --> 00:31:47.039
 never again feel like the odd ones out. All the time the Jews were longing for the good old days,

00:31:47.039 --> 00:31:54.000
 Jesus has come not to bring back the good old days, but to give us good new days. In fact,

00:31:54.000 --> 00:32:02.879
 to give us amazing new days, to give us a hope of our new heavens and our new earth, where sin

00:32:02.879 --> 00:32:11.279
 and brokenness and enmity and death are all destroyed and defeated under Jesus' feet, and we can be

00:32:11.279 --> 00:32:20.319
 together and we can be safe forever. That is what God longs for, and in the name of God,

00:32:20.319 --> 00:32:27.519
 I hope it's what you long for as well. That's what Jesus died in order to give us,

00:32:29.440 --> 00:32:37.920
 and all you have to do today to be part of it is put your trust in Jesus and follow him.

00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:49.279
 You just need to pray, Lord Jesus, I long for you. I know I need you. Please save me. Please bring me

00:32:50.320 --> 00:32:58.800
 into your family. And I think maybe the most amazing thing of all is that even if you can

00:32:58.800 --> 00:33:05.840
 understand all of that, and even if you can grasp all, you know, all that I've tried to say about

00:33:05.839 --> 00:33:12.240
 what God is promising, and you read the blessings that are described in the Bible about our future,

00:33:12.240 --> 00:33:18.959
 and you think, you know, I've studied this, I've thought about this, and my mind is full of all

00:33:18.959 --> 00:33:25.759
 wonder that God has for us. Do you know what? The day you get there, you will look around and you'll

00:33:25.759 --> 00:33:35.920
 think, I was longing for too little, because this is so much more than I could ever have imagined.

00:33:37.359 --> 00:33:43.599
 That's what Jesus wants for you. That's what he's offering you today. That's the invitation

00:33:43.599 --> 00:33:58.959
 that he gives. Please may we all respond with a resounding yes. Amen. Lord Jesus, we thank you.

00:33:59.759 --> 00:34:10.400
 We thank you so much that your longings are bigger than ours, and that your promises

00:34:10.400 --> 00:34:20.880
 are bigger and better than any that we could ask or imagine ourselves. We thank you that you have come

00:34:22.240 --> 00:34:33.599
 to give us hope of your kingdom, and of all of that means. And thank you so much that you died

00:34:33.599 --> 00:34:40.880
 to make that possible, and that you are now risen and calling people into your kingdom, and help us

00:34:40.880 --> 00:35:04.960
 all to hear and respond to that call today. Thank you for everything you've done for us. Amen.