WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 We've been looking through some of the parables in the Gospels, and we've been specifically 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:08.880 looking at some of the parables of the kingdom. 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:14.359 So these are parables where Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like this. 00:00:14.359 --> 00:00:20.080 And parables, they're just short stories taken from normal experiences of a first century 00:00:20.080 --> 00:00:22.199 person, often agricultural. 00:00:22.199 --> 00:00:27.460 Here we have a story about a scribe, and God uses them, God uses stories. 00:00:27.460 --> 00:00:29.839 Much of the Bible is written in narrative. 00:00:29.839 --> 00:00:35.120 These stories really pack a punch, and they're meant to sit with, to sit with for long periods 00:00:35.120 --> 00:00:38.200 of time, to think about, to wrestle with. 00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:42.840 Sometimes the commentators tell us a parable can be one point, or it can be, it can have 00:00:42.840 --> 00:00:45.240 two points or three points. 00:00:45.240 --> 00:00:50.600 Sometimes the parables are allegories, where every single aspect of the parable is a symbol, 00:00:50.600 --> 00:00:52.560 a kind of thoroughgoing symbolism. 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:53.840 That's an allegory. 00:00:53.840 --> 00:00:57.320 I think that's what we have here in this parable today. 00:00:57.320 --> 00:01:02.280 But one of the interesting things is that if you open up Matthew 13, at the beginning 00:01:02.280 --> 00:01:05.840 there's the parable of the sower, one of the most famous parables. 00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:07.680 It's quite long parable. 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:13.000 And then after the parable of the sower, there are seven more parables where Jesus says the 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:14.879 kingdom of heaven is like. 00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:21.039 So there's this sevenfold movement mimicking the days of creation in Matthew 13. 00:01:21.039 --> 00:01:25.539 Seven parables, seven parables of the kingdom, and what Jesus is doing is saying, these seven 00:01:25.540 --> 00:01:30.360 parables are teaching you that the kingdom that has come is like creation, but it's new 00:01:30.360 --> 00:01:32.320 creation. 00:01:32.320 --> 00:01:37.160 Sevenfold creation, a sevenfold parable, to say that what I've brought to you is new creation. 00:01:37.160 --> 00:01:41.360 New creation has come into the world right here where I'm standing. 00:01:41.360 --> 00:01:45.960 And so we have looked at four of the seven kingdom parables. 00:01:45.960 --> 00:01:48.800 Today we're going to look at the last one, the seven, which is the fifth. 00:01:48.800 --> 00:01:49.880 And then we'll go backwards. 00:01:49.880 --> 00:01:52.760 We're not doing them quite in order the next couple of weeks. 00:01:52.760 --> 00:01:56.880 I think this is probably the most ignored parable in all the Bible. 00:01:56.880 --> 00:02:01.880 So one sentence is something that probably you might not even remember this parable if 00:02:01.880 --> 00:02:03.880 you've read through the gospels. 00:02:03.880 --> 00:02:05.439 It's hard to understand. 00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:09.240 A scribe is a master of the house who brings out his treasures old and new. 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:10.240 That's the parable. 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:13.960 It's a story, very short. 00:02:13.960 --> 00:02:16.200 It's a bit of an enigma, but it's got depth. 00:02:16.200 --> 00:02:17.840 It's got riches. 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:19.040 It's the words of Jesus, right? 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:25.959 So let me just ask you, will you today allow yourself to sit with this parable and be changed? 00:02:25.959 --> 00:02:26.959 Be changed by it. 00:02:26.959 --> 00:02:28.680 That's what it's here for. 00:02:28.680 --> 00:02:33.560 So just take a moment maybe right now and decide, I want the words of Christ here to 00:02:33.560 --> 00:02:37.199 flow over me this morning and to leave. 00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:39.639 For me not to leave this place the same as I was. 00:02:39.639 --> 00:02:41.439 That's the power of the parables. 00:02:41.439 --> 00:02:42.560 So let's wrestle with it. 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:43.759 Let's think about it. 00:02:43.759 --> 00:02:44.759 Let's dig into it. 00:02:44.759 --> 00:02:49.000 Let's think about it deeply and wrestle with it like Jacob did with the angel of the Lord. 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:51.479 In the Old Testament, just two quick things. 00:02:51.479 --> 00:02:54.120 One, very simple, very obvious. 00:02:54.120 --> 00:02:55.599 What is this about? 00:02:55.599 --> 00:02:56.800 It's elusive. 00:02:56.800 --> 00:02:58.680 Let's try to understand it first. 00:02:58.680 --> 00:03:00.599 The main idea, the big point. 00:03:00.599 --> 00:03:05.800 And then right after that, in every single one of the images that's given, there I think 00:03:05.800 --> 00:03:12.479 is a fourfold way that Jesus shows us what it means to be a disciple. 00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:16.759 So this is a parable, I think, ultimately about discipleship, about what it means to 00:03:16.759 --> 00:03:17.759 follow Jesus. 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:18.759 So let's think about it together. 00:03:18.759 --> 00:03:20.599 First, what does it mean? 00:03:20.599 --> 00:03:21.599 It's elusive. 00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:26.039 The meaning is not obvious when you first listen to this, like some of the other parables come 00:03:26.039 --> 00:03:28.079 out a little more clearly than this one. 00:03:28.079 --> 00:03:29.879 So let's try to think about it. 00:03:29.879 --> 00:03:35.439 The first thing Jesus says in verse 51 is, have you understood the things I've been telling 00:03:35.439 --> 00:03:37.000 you to the disciples? 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:44.399 Now if you are a reader of the Gospels, you can confidently say that when they say yes, 00:03:44.399 --> 00:03:46.639 we have understood all that you've said. 00:03:46.639 --> 00:03:51.000 You later know the answer is actually no, they have not understood all that Jesus has 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:52.000 said. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:54.919 So they've understood some of it, but not all of it. 00:03:54.919 --> 00:04:00.439 And Neil read for us at the beginning of Matthew 13, toward the beginning, that Jesus says, 00:04:00.439 --> 00:04:04.079 the parables I'm about to give you are meant to do two things. 00:04:04.079 --> 00:04:09.599 They're meant to reveal things about the kingdom, but also conceal things about the kingdom. 00:04:09.599 --> 00:04:11.419 And that was true for the disciples. 00:04:11.419 --> 00:04:16.079 Some of the stuff was revealed to them, but we know for sure someone was still concealed. 00:04:16.079 --> 00:04:17.680 They couldn't quite see it. 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:23.439 And so there's a sense in which Jesus says, I am telling parables to conceal. 00:04:23.439 --> 00:04:25.359 And you say, why would you do that? 00:04:25.359 --> 00:04:29.800 And one of the reasons I think is very simple, that Jesus is trying to teach us in this seven 00:04:29.800 --> 00:04:35.120 fold movement, kingdom parables, that the kingdom, as we've said the past couple weeks, 00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:37.879 is so rich, it's so vibrant. 00:04:37.879 --> 00:04:42.399 There's so much about the kingdom of God that we do not understand. 00:04:42.399 --> 00:04:46.199 Still, in that we won't understand until we see the kingdom of God. 00:04:46.199 --> 00:04:49.639 There's a concealment in this movement. 00:04:49.639 --> 00:04:55.959 But the more precise reason for the concealment, it's back in verse 11 and verse 13, he says, 00:04:55.959 --> 00:05:00.679 hearing they do not hear, seeing they cannot see. 00:05:00.679 --> 00:05:02.519 Who is he talking about there? 00:05:02.519 --> 00:05:08.359 He is talking about the religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees, the scribes, the 00:05:08.360 --> 00:05:15.160 Sadducees, particularly the scribes, who hearing the word of the law better than anybody, more 00:05:15.160 --> 00:05:17.960 than anybody, yet they can't hear it. 00:05:17.960 --> 00:05:22.280 Seeing the things of God in the Bible better than anybody else, the scribes, the scholars, 00:05:22.280 --> 00:05:26.480 the theologians, these were the professional theologians of the day, yet they can't see 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:27.480 it, they can't hear it. 00:05:27.480 --> 00:05:28.680 That's the concealment. 00:05:28.680 --> 00:05:31.639 And so concealment for Jesus was there. 00:05:31.639 --> 00:05:38.399 He gave the parables to say, to help the scribes, the Pharisees, the religious leaders, the 00:05:38.399 --> 00:05:42.079 teachers, us realize what we don't know. 00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:46.919 To actually say, when you don't understand, it's meant to be there to lead you to conviction, 00:05:46.919 --> 00:05:51.279 to say there is so much about the things of God I don't know, I don't see, I don't yet 00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:54.560 understand, and to bring you to a place of humility. 00:05:54.560 --> 00:05:57.639 And that had not happened in the lives of the scribes. 00:05:57.639 --> 00:06:03.360 Now that context is so important to understand this parable, because immediately you see 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:12.159 when he gives the parable from verse 51, 52 I should say, he says, therefore every scribe. 00:06:12.159 --> 00:06:14.479 So the parable is about a scribe. 00:06:14.479 --> 00:06:19.120 And in the context he's saying the scribes are the ones who think they see, but don't 00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:23.899 see, who think they hear, but cannot hear the word about the kingdom. 00:06:23.899 --> 00:06:28.439 And so now Jesus turns and says, now the real scribes. 00:06:28.439 --> 00:06:34.560 So this parable is about what it means to be a true scribe of the kingdom of God. 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:40.399 There is such a thing as a real scribe, a true scribe in God's kingdom. 00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:44.879 And he's saying, but it's not the scribes that are around us listening right now. 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:45.879 He's separating from them. 00:06:45.879 --> 00:06:47.519 And he's saying, what is it? 00:06:47.519 --> 00:06:51.319 What is it that makes somebody a true scribe in the kingdom of God? 00:06:51.319 --> 00:06:55.639 That's the question here, and there's a very, very important piece of grammar that you have 00:06:55.639 --> 00:06:59.319 to see, I think, to get the meaning. 00:06:59.319 --> 00:07:09.319 The ESV here has given us a highly interpretive translation, one that doesn't give you exactly 00:07:09.319 --> 00:07:12.279 what Jesus said, but interprets it for you. 00:07:12.279 --> 00:07:16.920 And I think it's really important to get underneath that to actually understand the parable. 00:07:16.920 --> 00:07:24.100 And so in verse 52, when Jesus says, in verse 52, therefore every scribe who has been trained 00:07:24.100 --> 00:07:30.960 for the kingdom of heaven, Jesus uses the word for every scribe that is a mafaites of 00:07:30.960 --> 00:07:32.200 the kingdom of heaven. 00:07:32.200 --> 00:07:34.680 That's the word disciple in Greek. 00:07:34.680 --> 00:07:41.200 And so the very literal translation is, therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of 00:07:41.200 --> 00:07:43.200 the kingdom. 00:07:43.199 --> 00:07:47.120 And the ESV has translated it, interpreted it for us. 00:07:47.120 --> 00:07:53.599 But it says actually, every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom is like this. 00:07:53.599 --> 00:07:55.719 Now that is so important. 00:07:55.719 --> 00:07:59.959 That language has become, it's passive. 00:07:59.959 --> 00:08:02.079 It's something that you receive. 00:08:02.079 --> 00:08:03.439 You've become a kingdom. 00:08:03.439 --> 00:08:05.639 You've become a disciple of the kingdom. 00:08:05.639 --> 00:08:07.399 Not that you've been instructed for it. 00:08:07.399 --> 00:08:08.680 You've been trained for it. 00:08:08.680 --> 00:08:11.480 No, you've become of the kingdom. 00:08:11.480 --> 00:08:15.680 Now why, why is that grammar, that bit of grammar so critical? 00:08:15.680 --> 00:08:22.439 Okay, first century describes the professional theologians, the teachers of the day. 00:08:22.439 --> 00:08:23.439 Why? 00:08:23.439 --> 00:08:29.640 It's important for us to remember that most people in the first century in Jesus' context 00:08:29.640 --> 00:08:31.879 could not read. 00:08:31.879 --> 00:08:36.480 So literacy was low and nobody had a book. 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:40.200 So nobody listening to Jesus owned a book. 00:08:40.200 --> 00:08:43.800 So if you wanted to read a book and you were one of the few people that could read, you 00:08:43.800 --> 00:08:48.400 had to go to one of the public libraries, typically the synagogues to read. 00:08:48.400 --> 00:08:50.120 Very few people, you didn't even have books. 00:08:50.120 --> 00:08:54.759 You had scrolls and codexes that were stitched together and things like that. 00:08:54.759 --> 00:08:59.800 One of the interesting things, I don't know if you've read Umberto Echo, any of him, one 00:08:59.800 --> 00:09:02.440 of his books, very famous, The Name of the Rose. 00:09:02.440 --> 00:09:10.080 It's a murder mystery set in 1327 in Italy and wild times in the 14th century in Italy. 00:09:10.080 --> 00:09:11.080 In that book. 00:09:11.080 --> 00:09:17.639 And in this murder mystery, there's this scene where this man goes to a library and he asks 00:09:17.639 --> 00:09:20.480 the librarian, can I read one of your books? 00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:23.040 And this is 1300 years after this event. 00:09:23.040 --> 00:09:26.480 And the librarian says, why do you want to read one of the books? 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:29.639 And he says, well, because I'd like to know what's in it. 00:09:29.639 --> 00:09:30.639 I'd like to read the content. 00:09:30.639 --> 00:09:32.200 You know, I want to read it. 00:09:32.200 --> 00:09:35.320 And the librarian says, no chance. 00:09:35.320 --> 00:09:37.320 Well, why can't I read it? 00:09:37.320 --> 00:09:39.879 And he says, that is not a good enough reason. 00:09:39.879 --> 00:09:41.439 You just want to read it to know what's in it? 00:09:41.439 --> 00:09:42.799 He says, no, no, no. 00:09:42.799 --> 00:09:46.639 If we let every single person who comes into this library read the books that just wants 00:09:46.639 --> 00:09:50.120 to read the books, the books would have disintegrated by now. 00:09:50.120 --> 00:09:53.559 You see, now that's 1300 years later. 00:09:53.559 --> 00:09:57.480 And that gives you a picture that you couldn't just go read a book. 00:09:57.480 --> 00:10:02.639 And so what happened was the scribes are really just the people that could read. 00:10:02.639 --> 00:10:05.519 And they would become a scribe for that reason. 00:10:05.519 --> 00:10:11.639 And you would never go read the Bible, you would come to the synagogue and hear the scribe 00:10:11.639 --> 00:10:14.079 tell you the Bible, read it for you. 00:10:14.079 --> 00:10:15.919 These are the people who have the text. 00:10:15.919 --> 00:10:21.879 And so they know, and they've made their life in knowing things, right? 00:10:21.879 --> 00:10:28.159 They've sought power through their pride because nobody else knows like the scribes know. 00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:30.679 They know the law backwards and forwards. 00:10:30.679 --> 00:10:34.199 And in knowing that, the old, the law, they're the only ones that can read it. 00:10:34.200 --> 00:10:38.920 They've rejected Christ very publicly and said, this is not the Son of God. 00:10:38.920 --> 00:10:39.920 They've rejected him. 00:10:39.920 --> 00:10:44.520 And so in Matthew 23, Jesus says, the scribes sit on the seat of Moses and they teach the 00:10:44.520 --> 00:10:48.160 law of God, but they do not practice what they preach. 00:10:48.160 --> 00:10:52.360 So they know the law, they see the law, they hear the law, they've got the Old Testament, 00:10:52.360 --> 00:10:56.640 but they don't see, they don't hear because the kingdom of God has come down from heaven 00:10:56.640 --> 00:10:59.480 and is standing right in front of them. 00:10:59.480 --> 00:11:00.560 And they can't see it. 00:11:00.560 --> 00:11:01.560 They reject it. 00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:06.119 So Jesus then turns and says, okay, well, what does it mean then to be a real scribe, 00:11:06.119 --> 00:11:08.519 a true scribe in the kingdom of God? 00:11:08.519 --> 00:11:13.959 And that's when he says, a true scribe is one who has become a disciple. 00:11:13.959 --> 00:11:15.079 That's the language. 00:11:15.079 --> 00:11:16.799 And so you see what he does in the context. 00:11:16.799 --> 00:11:20.919 It's hard for us because we're not first century people, but boy, he was flipping things upside 00:11:20.919 --> 00:11:24.879 down because how do you become a real scribe in the first century? 00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:31.519 You know how to read and you're smart and you take power and prestige through that 00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:34.600 fact, through the ability to read books and to be able to teach other people. 00:11:34.600 --> 00:11:36.279 And he says, no, that's not the real scribe. 00:11:36.279 --> 00:11:41.439 The real scribe is one who knows that the only way to be a citizen, a disciple, is to 00:11:41.439 --> 00:11:43.559 become one. 00:11:43.559 --> 00:11:44.559 In other words, D.I. 00:11:44.559 --> 00:11:47.159 Carson puts it like this. 00:11:47.159 --> 00:11:52.279 He says, the emphasis in the first part of this verse rest not only idea that the scribe 00:11:52.279 --> 00:11:57.840 has been instructed about the kingdom of and therefore understands more than other people, 00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:04.440 but that he has become a disciple of the kingdom and therefore his allegiance has been transformed. 00:12:04.440 --> 00:12:12.160 Now Jesus is saying, look, a real scribe is a person not who knows a lot about God, but 00:12:12.160 --> 00:12:16.600 who has bowed the knee before the Lord and said, this is my master, who's given their 00:12:16.600 --> 00:12:19.399 allegiance away and said, this really is God. 00:12:19.399 --> 00:12:20.600 This is the Son of God. 00:12:20.600 --> 00:12:22.720 This is the King of the world. 00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:29.120 Now let's bring that home a little bit and we'll move to the characteristics we see here. 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:34.639 The first simple application, and it's very simple, is just to say Jesus is trying to 00:12:34.639 --> 00:12:44.800 tell us that anyone who says, I'm a follower of Jesus does so truly by becoming a follower 00:12:44.800 --> 00:12:49.519 through receiving, not acting, not grasping. 00:12:49.519 --> 00:12:54.159 In other words, he's saying it's not by research that you come into the kingdom of God. 00:12:54.159 --> 00:12:56.879 It's not by instruction that you come into the kingdom of God. 00:12:56.879 --> 00:13:00.279 It's not by grasping and reaching for knowledge that you come into the kingdom. 00:13:00.279 --> 00:13:03.399 It's by a posture of humility and reception. 00:13:03.399 --> 00:13:07.759 You enter in by bowing the knee, by turning your allegiance to the master, that it's first 00:13:07.759 --> 00:13:11.679 not about how much you know about God. 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:17.120 One of the ways we could describe it, you might ask yourself this question today. 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:21.759 If you're a person who really likes to know things about God, to know things about the 00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:27.120 Bible, to really dig in and find the depths of things, it's a very good posture. 00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:28.279 It's a very good thing. 00:13:28.279 --> 00:13:32.960 But one of the questions you can ask yourself today is, do I seek understanding for the 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:36.080 sake of my understanding? 00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:40.080 Or do I really have in my life a humble faith seeking understanding? 00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:42.600 That's the way the theologians of the Middle Ages put it. 00:13:42.600 --> 00:13:48.120 The posture of the Christian, the posture of the true scribe, faith, allegiance, bowing 00:13:48.120 --> 00:13:52.159 the knee, seeking understanding, and not the other way around. 00:13:52.159 --> 00:13:54.480 That's the question I think before us today. 00:13:54.480 --> 00:14:02.480 We simply learn here, you don't become a disciple by learning, by study, by doctrinal accumulation. 00:14:02.480 --> 00:14:06.840 It's very possible, it's very possible for some of us that we have been in church our 00:14:06.840 --> 00:14:14.840 entire lives and have accumulated a lot of doctrine and have steadily stacked on top, 00:14:14.840 --> 00:14:18.840 knowledge after knowledge after knowledge, and understand better than maybe the average 00:14:18.840 --> 00:14:23.000 person, the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament and all sorts of things 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:25.160 like that. 00:14:25.160 --> 00:14:32.320 But we may not yet be a true scribe of the kingdom because we've made understanding the 00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:37.320 object of our faith instead of the object of our faith leading to understanding. 00:14:37.320 --> 00:14:41.600 And Jesus is just inviting you to examine your heart for a moment and say, is the object 00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:45.160 of my faith my own knowledge? 00:14:45.160 --> 00:14:49.320 Am I a scribe of the old way or am I a true scribe of the kingdom? 00:14:49.320 --> 00:14:51.680 That's the question. 00:14:51.680 --> 00:14:54.280 Let me take it one more direction. 00:14:54.280 --> 00:14:59.880 It could be possible today, on this Sunday, some folks here, I have no doubt in July, like 00:14:59.879 --> 00:15:05.360 we said last week, that are visiting from all sorts of backgrounds, a variety of religious 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:06.360 backgrounds. 00:15:06.360 --> 00:15:11.080 I know that I've heard in our city, I've talked to people in our city, I've talked to people 00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:17.559 that have been around St. Columbus and the community who have said, I like being around, 00:15:17.559 --> 00:15:20.960 I only wish I could believe. 00:15:20.960 --> 00:15:25.120 And I just don't have the same kind of faith that you have. 00:15:25.120 --> 00:15:30.480 And I want to believe, but if I could understand more, if I could get enough research, if I 00:15:30.480 --> 00:15:35.560 could find the right piece of evidence, then finally I would be able to come to faith. 00:15:35.560 --> 00:15:39.519 In other words, they want to say, if I understand, then I can believe. 00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:44.240 And Jesus is doing something here, the Bible does something that flips that upside down 00:15:44.240 --> 00:15:47.879 and says there comes a point in your life where you have to realize that faith is the 00:15:47.879 --> 00:15:49.879 beginning of all knowledge. 00:15:49.879 --> 00:15:53.000 And it's faith that then seeks understanding. 00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:55.879 This is the Jordan Peterson phenomenon. 00:15:55.879 --> 00:16:00.039 Jordan Peterson, very famous, most of you probably are aware of him. 00:16:00.039 --> 00:16:03.919 He's been asked so many times, do you believe in Jesus Christ? 00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:08.919 He was recently asked that again by Alex O'Connor, who recently visited our city. 00:16:08.919 --> 00:16:13.080 And Alex O'Connor asked him, do you believe, this is what he said, do you believe that 00:16:13.080 --> 00:16:18.799 if we brought a Panasonic camera to the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea that Christ was buried 00:16:18.799 --> 00:16:24.719 in, that a man on Sunday morning would walk out of the grave and that that camera would 00:16:24.719 --> 00:16:30.399 have captured that image of a human being who was once dead walking out of the grave? 00:16:30.399 --> 00:16:35.120 And Peterson, this is just a few weeks ago, Peterson says, I believe, yes, the camera would 00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:38.479 have captured a man walk out of the grave. 00:16:38.479 --> 00:16:43.479 And then Alex O'Connor says, so why do you keep telling people that you don't believe 00:16:43.479 --> 00:16:45.399 in the resurrection of Jesus Christ? 00:16:45.399 --> 00:16:51.679 And this is what Peterson says, because I just don't yet know exactly what it means. 00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:55.360 And he's got it exactly backwards. 00:16:55.360 --> 00:16:58.959 And there comes a point in life where you have to realize that in order to see the world 00:16:58.959 --> 00:17:04.079 rightly, it has to begin with faith, begin with things that you can't yet prove and then 00:17:04.079 --> 00:17:07.319 say my faith then can determine my understanding. 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:08.319 I love the way C.S. 00:17:08.319 --> 00:17:12.480 Lewis puts it, he says, I quoted this two weeks ago, but we'll do it again. 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:18.160 I believe in Christ in the same way I believe in the sunshine. 00:17:18.160 --> 00:17:23.079 Not because I walk around staring at it, but because by the sun I see everything else clearly 00:17:23.079 --> 00:17:25.400 in my life. 00:17:25.400 --> 00:17:28.799 Faith, faith is the beginning of knowledge. 00:17:28.799 --> 00:17:32.839 And the true scribe is one who bows the knee in allegiance to Christ and then says, now 00:17:32.839 --> 00:17:34.599 I want to know. 00:17:34.599 --> 00:17:38.319 Now I want to know more of the world, more of the things of God, because I've got the 00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:39.319 sun at my back. 00:17:39.319 --> 00:17:41.440 I've got the wind in my sails. 00:17:41.440 --> 00:17:43.080 The true scribe of the kingdom. 00:17:43.080 --> 00:17:47.680 Secondly, finally, briefly. 00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:54.320 Then Jesus in each of the images gives us four characteristics then of what this looks like, 00:17:54.320 --> 00:17:57.600 how this plays out in our lives as followers of Christ. 00:17:57.600 --> 00:18:00.000 So let me give them to you very quickly. 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:02.360 Each of the images here gives you something. 00:18:02.360 --> 00:18:07.240 First, he says, therefore, every scribe. 00:18:07.240 --> 00:18:08.240 Very simple. 00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:14.200 Say, Jesus is teaching us here that every single disciple, if you are a Christian today, 00:18:14.200 --> 00:18:21.319 a follower of Jesus, you are called to be a scribe of the kingdom of God. 00:18:21.319 --> 00:18:23.759 Being a scribe is not an elite position. 00:18:23.759 --> 00:18:29.240 It's not merely the teachers of the church or something like that. 00:18:29.240 --> 00:18:36.279 Jesus says here that every single disciple has become a scribe of the kingdom of God. 00:18:36.279 --> 00:18:37.880 In other words, let me say it like this. 00:18:37.880 --> 00:18:44.840 Jesus won't let anybody in here come today and say, I'm a Christian, but learning more 00:18:44.840 --> 00:18:50.000 and seeking more knowledge about God in the Bible is just not my thing. 00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:53.120 He's saying, no, once you've bowed the knee and given your allegiance over to Christ, 00:18:53.120 --> 00:18:56.720 you've been called to know the things of the Lord. 00:18:56.720 --> 00:19:00.120 Not just to know the things of the Lord, because in knowing the things of the Lord, you know 00:19:00.120 --> 00:19:02.000 the Lord more and more. 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:05.240 You conform to the image of the sun more and more. 00:19:05.240 --> 00:19:09.359 You just think about who he's talking to in this setting. 00:19:09.359 --> 00:19:10.359 Who's there? 00:19:10.359 --> 00:19:15.960 It's a bunch of fishermen, tax collectors, public centers. 00:19:15.960 --> 00:19:20.240 And he's saying, in all of you, you lowly fishermen in the first century who are not 00:19:20.240 --> 00:19:23.920 elite people, you are the scribes of the kingdom of God. 00:19:23.920 --> 00:19:26.039 It's a call for every single one of us. 00:19:26.039 --> 00:19:27.960 Secondly, afford. 00:19:27.960 --> 00:19:33.839 The second image we see here is then he says, okay, if you're a disciple, you're a scribe. 00:19:33.839 --> 00:19:38.119 And if you're a scribe, you're also, he calls you a master of the house. 00:19:38.119 --> 00:19:42.959 Okay, this is not master of the house in the lay-miss variety. 00:19:42.959 --> 00:19:45.839 Master of the house, you know. 00:19:45.839 --> 00:19:49.079 Not the despot, innkeeper in lay-miss. 00:19:49.079 --> 00:19:51.480 That's what I think of when I see this phrase. 00:19:51.480 --> 00:19:52.879 Most of you apparently don't. 00:19:52.879 --> 00:19:57.439 But not that at all. 00:19:57.439 --> 00:19:58.439 What is a master? 00:19:58.439 --> 00:19:59.439 What is he saying? 00:19:59.439 --> 00:20:01.599 If you're a disciple, if you're a follower of Jesus, you're a scribe, you're a master 00:20:01.599 --> 00:20:02.599 of the house. 00:20:02.599 --> 00:20:03.599 What does that mean? 00:20:03.599 --> 00:20:05.159 It's an allegory. 00:20:05.159 --> 00:20:11.000 The house, as it often is in scripture, is actually everything that God has said about 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:13.759 himself in his word up to this point in history. 00:20:13.759 --> 00:20:15.559 And now what we have, the Old and New Testaments. 00:20:15.559 --> 00:20:17.439 That's what the house is here. 00:20:17.439 --> 00:20:21.879 And so he says, if you are a disciple, if you've bowed the knee to the true Son of God, 00:20:21.879 --> 00:20:24.319 Christ, you've become a scribe of the kingdom. 00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:28.839 And if you're a scribe of the kingdom, you ought to seek to be a master of the house. 00:20:28.839 --> 00:20:35.119 And the house here is the mini-roomed mansion and estate of all that God has revealed about 00:20:35.119 --> 00:20:36.519 himself. 00:20:36.519 --> 00:20:39.559 And so he's saying, in other words, you're an owner, you're a master. 00:20:39.559 --> 00:20:45.439 Not that you master the things of God, but that you're a possessor. 00:20:45.439 --> 00:20:47.759 You can see, you can know, you can hear it. 00:20:47.759 --> 00:20:49.480 You can read the parables and understand. 00:20:49.480 --> 00:20:55.000 And so then God's word becomes for you like a mini-roomed mansion where you run around 00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:57.559 and open all the doors and find all the treasures. 00:20:57.559 --> 00:21:02.200 And so he's talking about a warm-hearted, let's be practical. 00:21:02.200 --> 00:21:07.839 He's saying that every single disciple, every single disciple becomes a disciple not by knowing, 00:21:07.839 --> 00:21:09.960 but by bowing. 00:21:09.960 --> 00:21:14.000 And then once you've done that, you become a scribe. 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:15.000 And what is a scribe? 00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:16.000 Well, a scribe is a master of the house. 00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:17.000 And what is a master of the house? 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:23.079 He's saying that every single Christian is a theologian, that you're called to be a theologian. 00:21:23.079 --> 00:21:27.480 You're called to seek the things of God, to know more, to be hungry, to want to run around 00:21:27.480 --> 00:21:31.920 the house and open all the doors and find the treasures, find the riches that are there 00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:36.400 for you, to know what is true, what is good, and what is beautiful according to what God 00:21:36.400 --> 00:21:37.900 has said. 00:21:37.900 --> 00:21:41.360 That's the call here in this image of the master of the house. 00:21:41.360 --> 00:21:43.519 I like Kevin Van Hoeser. 00:21:43.519 --> 00:21:49.839 He describes the work of theology, the work of Christians, all of us together doing theology. 00:21:49.839 --> 00:21:50.839 This is what he says. 00:21:50.839 --> 00:21:57.519 It is the passionate work in community that seeks to know and love the God of the gospel 00:21:57.519 --> 00:22:01.119 and to demonstrate it in obedient speech and practice. 00:22:01.119 --> 00:22:02.679 You hear how practical that definition is? 00:22:02.679 --> 00:22:08.439 He's saying, true theologians are people who are being so changed by the power of the gospel 00:22:08.439 --> 00:22:12.959 that they want to know the things of God to become passionate, obedient lovers of God 00:22:12.959 --> 00:22:13.959 and people. 00:22:13.959 --> 00:22:15.959 That's how he defines it. 00:22:15.959 --> 00:22:18.959 Third, then he gives us the third image, this allegory. 00:22:18.960 --> 00:22:24.319 He describes you're a master of the house and then he says right after that, and you 00:22:24.319 --> 00:22:28.799 bring out the treasure from the storeroom. 00:22:28.799 --> 00:22:30.799 We could add what is new and what is old. 00:22:30.799 --> 00:22:32.480 You've been trained for the kingdom of heaven. 00:22:32.480 --> 00:22:38.200 You're like a master of a house who brings out his treasure, what is new and what is old. 00:22:38.200 --> 00:22:42.880 The commentators will talk here about there's something implicit and that's that there is 00:22:42.880 --> 00:22:46.200 a treasure room here. 00:22:46.200 --> 00:22:48.480 It's what the Bible calls the storeroom. 00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:54.160 The storeroom in Greek is the word thesaurus from where we get our word thesaurus, a storeroom 00:22:54.160 --> 00:22:56.160 of words and ideas. 00:22:56.160 --> 00:23:01.039 In the Bible, the storeroom, the treasure room is typically a metaphor for the heart. 00:23:01.039 --> 00:23:06.000 The next implicit image we see is that a true scribe, a disciple of the kingdom goes to the 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:11.839 storeroom which is the heart and finds treasure there, new and old. 00:23:11.839 --> 00:23:17.559 The idea is that the Bible is bedded down into the heart here and that you can, when 00:23:17.559 --> 00:23:22.039 you're out and about in your life, you can go into your heart and pull out the treasures, 00:23:22.039 --> 00:23:28.799 old and new, old testament, new testament and pull them out and show them to other people. 00:23:28.799 --> 00:23:33.519 The biggest emphasis here though is old and new. 00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:36.440 Down in the treasure room of your heart, there's both old and new. 00:23:36.440 --> 00:23:37.440 What is he doing? 00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:41.480 He's talking about the scribes that are all around him versus what it means to be a true 00:23:41.480 --> 00:23:43.119 scribe. 00:23:43.119 --> 00:23:50.519 The scribes all around Jesus were saying, it's all about the old, away with the new. 00:23:50.519 --> 00:23:53.919 Jesus you've come and you've said you're the Son of God, you're the Messiah, but we know 00:23:53.919 --> 00:23:57.959 the law, we know the old, we know the old testament, the old covenant. 00:23:57.959 --> 00:24:00.039 Out with the new, we keep the old. 00:24:00.039 --> 00:24:06.479 Jesus says no, a true scribe loves the old and the new and sees how they fit together. 00:24:06.479 --> 00:24:10.679 That means what Jesus is saying here is that one of the ways that you know you're a growing, 00:24:10.680 --> 00:24:17.000 ensuring follower of Christ's scribe, faith seeking understanding is that you're growing 00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:23.480 more and more in your love for the Bible and your love for the interconnectionality, the 00:24:23.480 --> 00:24:29.080 intertextuality as the scholars put it, between the old and new testament. 00:24:29.080 --> 00:24:34.920 That you love to see how what God revealed in the old is fulfilled in the new and how 00:24:34.920 --> 00:24:40.039 what's unveiled in the new shows you what was concealed in the old. 00:24:40.039 --> 00:24:44.480 He's saying, the scribe of the kingdom, the one who longs for the word of the Lord, loves 00:24:44.480 --> 00:24:49.079 to dig the treasures out of the old and new and see how they connect to one another. 00:24:49.079 --> 00:24:56.559 Jesus in Luke chapter 24 says, he says, the Torah, the law of Moses, the prophets and the 00:24:56.559 --> 00:24:58.680 Psalms were all about me. 00:24:58.680 --> 00:25:01.000 That's what he says just before he ascends into heaven. 00:25:01.000 --> 00:25:05.119 He tells the disciples, as you leave, I want you to know that you need to go back to the 00:25:05.119 --> 00:25:09.920 old testament and seek the treasures, old and the light of the new. 00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:13.880 Our real scribe longs to do that, a follower of Christ. 00:25:13.880 --> 00:25:17.800 Are you growing in your love for the scriptures is one of the obvious questions that comes 00:25:17.800 --> 00:25:22.400 up here, but another thing to say here, and we'll talk about this really explicitly in 00:25:22.400 --> 00:25:29.039 September, but one of the distinctive commitments of St. Columbus in the past and especially 00:25:29.039 --> 00:25:34.560 going forward is that we want to be a church who finds Christ in all of scripture, who 00:25:34.560 --> 00:25:39.440 sees the gospel in every single chapter and every single passage all throughout the scriptures. 00:25:39.440 --> 00:25:43.559 And here we're being told that's exactly right, that that's what a scribe of the kingdom 00:25:43.559 --> 00:25:44.559 does. 00:25:44.559 --> 00:25:46.920 Now, fourthly, finally, and we'll close. 00:25:46.920 --> 00:25:52.480 The last thing that he tells us here, the emphasis is not only do we go into the storeroom 00:25:52.480 --> 00:25:56.960 of the heart and find the old and new testament hidden there, but then he just noticed that 00:25:56.960 --> 00:26:02.880 he says, and the scribe of the kingdom brings it out and shows it to people. 00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:10.440 And so just to say, a true follower of Jesus, a scribe of the kingdom, hiding the word of 00:26:10.440 --> 00:26:15.680 the Lord old and new in all of its connections about Christ in the heart cannot help but 00:26:15.680 --> 00:26:18.080 bring that out for other people. 00:26:18.080 --> 00:26:19.520 It's a public faith. 00:26:19.520 --> 00:26:24.040 The real scribe is seeking to help people, exactly the opposite of the scribes of the 00:26:24.040 --> 00:26:28.800 day, who Jesus said, are closing the door of the kingdom to the people all around them 00:26:28.800 --> 00:26:30.320 they're meant to teach. 00:26:30.319 --> 00:26:35.039 And so the question today, disciple of Christ, if are you a follower of Jesus, do you have 00:26:35.039 --> 00:26:39.720 in your life a little bit of Christian maturity more than somebody else? 00:26:39.720 --> 00:26:41.599 Of course you do. 00:26:41.599 --> 00:26:46.319 You're at a stage of the journey of the Christian walk a little bit further along than the next 00:26:46.319 --> 00:26:47.319 person. 00:26:47.319 --> 00:26:49.919 Who is it in this community? 00:26:49.919 --> 00:26:55.039 Who is it outside of this community that you are seeking to open the treasures old and 00:26:55.039 --> 00:26:56.599 new with? 00:26:56.599 --> 00:27:00.879 And he says, that's the scribe of the kingdom, you can't help but bring it out and show it 00:27:00.879 --> 00:27:03.679 to somebody else and say, can we read scripture together? 00:27:03.679 --> 00:27:05.919 Can we explore the Bible together? 00:27:05.919 --> 00:27:07.279 It's the path of discipleship. 00:27:07.279 --> 00:27:11.359 It's disciples making disciples is ultimately what Jesus is talking about here. 00:27:11.359 --> 00:27:13.839 Now let's close with this. 00:27:13.839 --> 00:27:17.599 How do we become more like this? 00:27:17.599 --> 00:27:24.359 Scribes of the kingdom, allegiance to Christ, treasuring the word of the Lord in the heart, 00:27:24.359 --> 00:27:29.159 bowing in the native king Jesus, treasuring the things of God because we treasure God 00:27:29.159 --> 00:27:30.159 more than anything. 00:27:30.159 --> 00:27:31.319 How do we become like this? 00:27:31.319 --> 00:27:32.919 And we'll just close with this. 00:27:32.919 --> 00:27:39.519 In Matthew 23, Jesus said, woe to you, you scribes. 00:27:39.519 --> 00:27:46.479 Woe to the scribes, you hypocrites, for you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. 00:27:46.479 --> 00:27:50.839 You neither enter it yourselves, you don't allow those who you're meant to teach to go 00:27:50.839 --> 00:27:51.839 in. 00:27:51.839 --> 00:27:55.959 Woe to you, you scribes and you Pharisees, you hypocrites. 00:27:55.959 --> 00:27:58.919 You teach the things of God, but you don't practice them. 00:27:58.919 --> 00:28:00.759 And when the Messiah comes, you reject him. 00:28:00.759 --> 00:28:01.759 Woe to you. 00:28:01.759 --> 00:28:06.799 Now, we know that the scribes were some of the primary people that sought to crucify 00:28:06.799 --> 00:28:09.679 Jesus. 00:28:09.679 --> 00:28:13.159 And there's a real temptation, I think, when you get to Matthew 23 and you get to a parable 00:28:13.159 --> 00:28:19.799 like this to say, oh, those scribes, those are the bad guys. 00:28:19.799 --> 00:28:20.919 They killed him, they murdered him. 00:28:20.920 --> 00:28:22.960 They were hypocrites, they were the awful teachers. 00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:25.320 They closed the kingdom to so many people. 00:28:25.320 --> 00:28:30.039 They said to everybody, love God and your neighbor, and they didn't do either. 00:28:30.039 --> 00:28:34.720 And there's a real temptation to come and say, woe to them, I want to be a real scribe. 00:28:34.720 --> 00:28:37.200 I want to put away pride. 00:28:37.200 --> 00:28:41.759 I want to be a real follower like Jesus talks about here. 00:28:41.759 --> 00:28:43.160 And the temptation would be to miss this. 00:28:43.160 --> 00:28:46.920 How do you become a disciple and a true scribe of the kingdom? 00:28:46.920 --> 00:28:51.800 And the answer is not by looking at the scribes and saying, oh, the bad guys. 00:28:51.800 --> 00:28:57.960 And instead, it's saying, oh boy, that is exactly who I am. 00:28:57.960 --> 00:29:00.080 It's to say that scribiness. 00:29:00.080 --> 00:29:01.680 Can I say that word? 00:29:01.680 --> 00:29:06.200 There's a scribiness down in the bottom of my soul. 00:29:06.200 --> 00:29:10.800 And boy, I know that I am motivated by pride and by power. 00:29:10.800 --> 00:29:15.120 And if I was the only person in the first century that can read, you better believe. 00:29:15.119 --> 00:29:17.639 I would have used that to my advantage. 00:29:17.639 --> 00:29:18.639 There's a scribiness. 00:29:18.639 --> 00:29:19.639 There's a pride. 00:29:19.639 --> 00:29:21.919 There's a power hunger deep down in the bottom of my heart. 00:29:21.919 --> 00:29:24.439 And it's that that nailed him to the cross. 00:29:24.439 --> 00:29:26.239 It's my scribiness. 00:29:26.239 --> 00:29:31.159 It was my pride, my power hunger, my seeking to be exactly as the scribes were that put 00:29:31.159 --> 00:29:33.279 him there, that nailed him there on the cross. 00:29:33.279 --> 00:29:38.439 See, it's the more you enter into the reality of your sin, that you come out bowing the 00:29:38.439 --> 00:29:44.000 knee in humility and allegiance, and you become more and more a scribe of the kingdom. 00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:47.759 Full faith, seeking, understanding. 00:29:47.759 --> 00:29:49.519 Try this this week. 00:29:49.519 --> 00:29:50.960 Last word. 00:29:50.960 --> 00:29:51.960 Try this this week. 00:29:51.960 --> 00:29:53.640 Something to try. 00:29:53.640 --> 00:29:58.640 Remember that in the first century and before, and all the way up to even a couple centuries 00:29:58.640 --> 00:30:03.160 ago, overwhelmingly most people could not read. 00:30:03.160 --> 00:30:09.160 And so when you come to church 200 years ago and beyond that, very likely for all of us, 00:30:09.160 --> 00:30:14.160 we would have only heard the word of the Lord, never read the word of the Lord. 00:30:14.160 --> 00:30:17.480 And when you read the Bible, one of the things you might notice is the Bible doesn't that 00:30:17.480 --> 00:30:19.920 often say, read God's word. 00:30:19.920 --> 00:30:20.920 What does it say? 00:30:20.920 --> 00:30:24.519 It says, hear the word of the Lord. 00:30:24.519 --> 00:30:28.519 This week when you, with the gift, oh boy, do we have a gift we can read. 00:30:28.519 --> 00:30:30.880 Most people can read in our modern Edinburgh. 00:30:30.880 --> 00:30:32.000 You've got a Bible. 00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:35.000 Oh boy. 00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:40.119 When you come this week to read it, make a slight transition from saying, I'm coming 00:30:40.119 --> 00:30:45.119 to read God's word today where I'm active to saying I'm coming today to hear the word 00:30:45.119 --> 00:30:50.079 of the Lord, where God is active and I am passive. 00:30:50.079 --> 00:30:52.240 That's the posture of a true scribe of the kingdom. 00:30:52.240 --> 00:30:53.680 Let us pray. 00:30:53.680 --> 00:30:59.319 Father, we ask that you would give us deep humility that we would not rest in our knowing, 00:30:59.319 --> 00:31:01.440 but in what Christ has done for us. 00:31:01.440 --> 00:31:07.279 And so I just pray that for us as a church today that we would long to be true scribes, 00:31:07.279 --> 00:31:12.200 that we would long to know about you because we want to know you and only because we have 00:31:12.200 --> 00:31:13.640 first been known. 00:31:13.640 --> 00:31:17.799 So I pray that for us, Lord, please give us that heart, that posture, and we pray it in 00:31:17.799 --> 00:31:18.799 Christ's name. 00:31:18.799 --> 00:31:31.799 Amen.