Messiah - Gospel of Matthew - Week 27
Gilbert Lennox · Messiah
11 February 2024
https://media.glenabbey.church/talks/messiah-gospel-of-matthew-week-27

[0:00] We are in chapter 20, and we're going in a minute to look at a parable, which is intriguing to say the least, but it was spoken in answer to a question that Peter asked in chapter 19.
[0:17] So Matthew chapter 19 and verse 27,
[0:22] and Peter answered him, that is Jesus, and he said this, We have left everything to follow you.
[0:31] What then will there be for us?
[0:35] Jesus said to them, Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel.
[0:50] And everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or fields, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.
[1:04] But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
[1:12] So Peter hadn't responded to Jesus the same way as the wealthy young ruler that we were thinking about with Andrew last week.
[1:26] That young man, if you remember, he had claimed to be interested in the kingdom of heaven, but he wasn't prepared to make the king his supreme value.
[1:36] And the first thing the king asked him to do, he refused to do.
[1:40] And that's a bit of a contradiction.
[1:43] To claim to want entry into the kingdom and then to refuse the words of the king is a contradiction.
[1:52] And in rejecting the king's words, he threw away his opportunity, not just to follow him, but to put treasure in heaven, to invest in the eternal world.
[2:09] His privileged, wealthy life here had the ultimate grip on his heart.
[2:15] But Peter was different.
[2:18] He had been prepared to respond to Jesus' call on his life, accepted the king's word, even though he knew it would be costly.
[2:30] Peter wasn't that camel that couldn't get through the eye of the needle.
[2:36] And it had proved costly for Peter and the others.
[2:40] He tells us that here.
[2:43] Jesus had very specific roles in mind for them, and so he had called them away from their places of work, long periods of time away from their family and their children to follow him so he could train them and prepare them.
[3:01] Peter had responded.
[3:04] The question was, that was in his mind, obviously.
[3:08] Was it worth it?
[3:10] What is there for us who have done that?
[3:14] And let's notice immediately that Jesus doesn't rebuke him for asking it.
[3:20] You know, it sounds very much like, what's in it for me?
[3:23] But that's not really what Peter was asking.
[3:27] It's not a consumerist question.
[3:29] it's a serious issue you only get one life you only get one go at this you don't get to repeat it and whether it's 30 years, 50, 70, 90
[3:45] you only have one go this isn't the dress rehearsal it's the real thing so you do want to make sure at least I would imagine you would if you're sensible you want to make sure that you've made the right choices, and you're investing your time, your effort, your gifts, your talents in the right way.
[4:10] So it was a serious question.
[4:13] What a fool you would be to give up years of your life chasing a dream, to give up all that you might have otherwise had in Peter's case in terms of family business and all of that.
[4:28] Not that it was a massive fishing enterprise on the shore of Galilee, but there was something there to give that up and all the time invested.
[4:39] So Jesus didn't rebuke him.
[4:42] His eternal kingdom is not a foolish dream.
[4:49] There is, says Christ, going to be, and the confidence in which he speaks it is just wonderful, at the renewal of all things.
[4:58] It's almost as if, you know, it's just the next stage.
[5:01] It's so real to him, at the renewal of all things.
[5:08] God hasn't finished yet.
[5:12] He hasn't done with the material and the physical either, as Paul puts it in Romans 8.
[5:17] The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
[5:29] So since all things are going to be renewed, doesn't it make sense to invest in that eternal world rather than in a decaying, dying, temporal world.
[5:50] So the king, Jesus, assures Peter, reassures him, and in fact is very specific, says, you guys who have followed me, I have a particular role for you in the administration of the future world.
[6:09] I wonder, do you allow that kind of thing to stretch your imagination a little bit?
[6:15] It does no harm every so often to think, what is that going to be like?
[6:22] And it is impossible, of course, for us to conjure that up by definition.
[6:29] But we're giving these little hints.
[6:32] So I often like to speculate on this.
[6:35] What will the chemistry and physics be like of that future world, of the renewal of all things?
[6:41] What will the color be like?
[6:43] For those of you who are into art, as far as I know, the artists can't come up with a new primary color.
[6:49] I wonder, Will there be new primary colors in the future kingdom?
[6:54] What will we be doing?
[6:57] I've often said when I was little, the idea of going to heaven was only marginally better than going to the other place because it just sounded like a total bore.
[7:07] To hang about in a cloud singing Amazing Grace for thousands of years was not my idea of fun.
[7:12] It still isn't, by the way.
[7:14] Peace be to the choir and the musicians.
[7:18] But we're given all these little pictures of the administration of the world to come, to stretch our minds, even though it cannot be explained to us in terms that we will fully understand, but just in little hints as to what that will be like.
[7:36] But not just for Peter and the others.
[7:40] Listen in to Hebrews.
[7:41] It is not to angels that God has subjected the world to come.
[7:47] Who then?
[7:49] Well, the answer is to human beings who have placed their trust in Jesus Christ and followed him.
[7:58] God is preparing you, if you've done that, for a life in the most fantastic administration.
[8:09] And administration doesn't sound good.
[8:10] It sounds like a boring job in the civil service.
[8:12] Sorry for those of you who are civil servants, but you know what I mean.
[8:16] But let's put it this way, running the world to come.
[8:21] How fascinating would that be?
[8:25] Moreover, Jesus adds, and everyone who's left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much.
[8:36] And you mathematicians can work that out.
[8:38] It comes out at 10,000%.
[8:40] That's not bad.
[8:41] Nationwide doesn't give you that degree of interest.
[8:45] Does it give you any degree of interest?
[8:47] I wouldn't know.
[8:48] So it's always costly to believe in Jesus and make him king in your life.
[8:53] You may be kicked out of your house.
[8:55] Doesn't always happen, but it may happen.
[8:58] You may be rejected by your family, even by your children.
[9:01] You may be cut out of the family will, or it may not be as extreme as that.
[9:05] It might cost you the respect of your colleagues, your standing in the culture, promotion in work, perhaps even your job.
[9:12] It might cost you holidays that you might have had, but because you want to invest in the spread of the good news of the kingdom of God, you've decided you want to invest in that, and you have to cut back because there isn't as much money to go around for all the other things that you require to live.
[9:29] It may cost a relationship that you might have had, but you knew it would come between you and loyalty to Jesus and your freedom to use your gifts in His service.
[9:40] It is important and comforting and reassuring to know that the king believes in compensation.
[9:48] That is not a waste.
[9:50] That there is reward at all kinds of levels.
[9:54] It is not an unspiritual thing to think about.
[9:58] Unless, of course, you think you're more spiritual than Jesus is.
[10:01] But he talks about it.
[10:02] So we need to.
[10:04] And it's not just the future life.
[10:07] In this life also, as the other Gospels add in.
[10:11] Because there are different kinds of wealth, aren't there?
[10:15] I think of the wealth of relationships, of love, of shared joy in the global family of God.
[10:21] This week I've just come back from speaking with followers of Christ from around 15 different nations, including Ukraine, Israel, Slovenia, Hungary.
[10:33] But the sense of bond together, people I've never met before, people who think we're weird here.
[10:40] And of course they're right, but then I think they're weird.
[10:43] The food they like, the clothes they wear, the habits they have.
[10:48] And yet there's a bond there that has been forged by the Spirit of God in the family of God, and it's an eternal bond.
[11:00] What a fantastic thing that is.
[11:02] What a compensation.
[11:04] I encourage you to, if you need to, to get a little bit more involved in that in this life because of the reward of it, of those kinds of relationships.
[11:16] This is something that there's nothing else in this world can provide.
[11:22] But then, after saying that, Jesus said, but many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
[11:30] What did he mean?
[11:32] Well, obviously he wasn't about to negate or contradict what he's just been teaching about reward, but it does just put a little bit of a kind of stone in the shoe to indicate that God's way of calculating reward may not necessarily fit with ours.
[11:56] And Jesus told him a parable to illustrate the point.
[11:59] So let's read it, Matthew 20, verses 1 to 16.
[12:03] For the kingdom of heaven is like.
[12:06] What a great phrase.
[12:07] I love that.
[12:08] The kingdom of heaven is like.
[12:09] What's it like?
[12:11] It's important we know what it's like so that we can be sure in our own minds that we actually want to go to this kind of kingdom where these values dominate.
[12:20] This is the culture of the kingdom of heaven.
[12:23] What's it like?
[12:24] Well, it's like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.
[12:29] He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day.
[12:32] That's the normal pay for a day's work at that time in that culture.
[12:37] And sent them into his vineyard.
[12:39] So he agreed it.
[12:40] About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.
[12:45] And he told them, you also go and work in my vineyard and I will pay you whatever is right.
[12:52] So no contract, no agreement, just said, trust me.
[12:56] I'll pay you what is right.
[12:57] So they went, they trusted him.
[13:00] And he went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing.
[13:03] And about five in the afternoon, he went out and found still others standing around.
[13:08] And he asked them, why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?
[13:12] What a great question.
[13:14] Maybe some of us need to hear that.
[13:18] And they said that nobody's hired us.
[13:21] Not our fault, but nobody, you know, there's just nothing to do.
[13:25] And he said, you also go work in my vineyard.
[13:28] When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, call the workers, pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.
[13:37] So the workers who were hired about five in the afternoon with one hour, in other words, still to go, came and each received a denarius.
[13:47] So when those came who were hired first, well, they expected to receive more, but each one of them also received a denarius.
[13:57] And when they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.
[14:04] These who were hired last worked only one hour, they said, and you've made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work in the heat of the day.
[14:13] But he answered one of them, I'm not being unfair to you, friend.
[14:17] Didn't you agree to work for a denarius?
[14:22] Take your pay and go.
[14:25] I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you.
[14:29] Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money?
[14:35] Or are you envious because I am generous?
[14:38] Literally, is your eye bad because I am good?
[14:43] So the last will be first, and the first will be last.
[14:49] What an intriguing parable.
[14:52] try this out in your workplace tomorrow or the next gathering of the union representatives and see what they have to say.
[15:00] It's such an interesting thing.
[15:03] What is the kingdom of heaven like?
[15:05] What's the nature of Jesus rule as king?
[15:08] And time and time again in this part of Matthew, as we've seen, Jesus surprises and challenges and confuses people concerning the nature of his kingdom.
[15:16] We saw that as he set out the commitment of marriage, as he exposed the selfish attitude the disciples.
[15:22] We seem to think that marriage was about their pleasure and enjoyment, but not really about loving commitment and loyalty to their spouse.
[15:29] We see it again with their low estimation of the king's regard for children that we saw last week.
[15:34] Didn't expect Jesus to be bothered with them.
[15:37] He upturned their expectations.
[15:39] Now again, we come to kingdom matters, the issue of reward.
[15:44] By this time, you might expect that the king's way of looking at things is a little bit different from ours.
[15:52] This is a very unusual thing.
[15:54] It's not normally the owner of the vineyard that goes personally to hire.
[15:59] He usually sends a foreman out.
[16:01] So it's the owner himself who goes.
[16:04] And the first group entered a contract, a day's work.
[16:08] They agreed it, and they were content.
[16:11] That was the fair going rate, and they were happy at the start of the day.
[16:16] And then, as we saw, the employer went out and took on more staff.
[16:20] And this time he simply said, I will pay whatever is right.
[16:23] No contract.
[16:24] They were prepared to trust him to treat them right.
[16:26] And so on through the day until with one hour to go, he goes out and he finds these guys.
[16:32] Why are you standing here all day long doing nothing?
[16:35] Nobody hired us.
[16:37] And that's a fair response.
[16:39] It wasn't because they were lazy and did nothing.
[16:42] They just couldn't.
[16:42] They had nobody to give them work.
[16:44] So even in the last hour, he employed them.
[16:49] At the end of the day, he got the foreman to call the men in and pay them, starting with the ones he had employed last.
[16:58] And probably to everyone's amazement, he paid them a full denarius, although they'd only worked for one hour.
[17:07] And as we saw, those who had worked the whole day were getting excited.
[17:11] That must mean we're getting at least double pay, maybe triple.
[17:14] This is great.
[17:15] But they didn't.
[17:16] They got exactly what they had agreed, so now they grumbled.
[17:20] It's not fair.
[17:22] We bore the burden of the heat of the day.
[17:24] The others didn't, especially this last lot.
[17:27] And yet you have made them equal with us.
[17:30] So the owner says, I'm not doing any wrong.
[17:35] Didn't we agree it?
[17:36] You entered into a contract.
[17:38] I have stuck to the terms of the contract.
[17:41] These other guys, there was no contract.
[17:42] I have just decided out of my generosity to give them the same as you got.
[17:48] What's wrong with that?
[17:49] It's my money.
[17:52] Can't I be generous?
[17:54] Is your eye bad because I am good?
[17:58] You see, they had no right to complain because they had entered a contract.
[18:03] The others were different.
[18:05] They hadn't.
[18:06] They trusted the employer to pay them what was right.
[18:10] And he decided out of his generosity to give them the same.
[18:15] What's going on here?
[18:16] Well, there's all kinds of things.
[18:19] There is a danger.
[18:22] When we start thinking about reward and what we might get, a danger in how we perceive things.
[18:33] Is your eye bad because I am good?
[18:36] The eye is an organ of perception.
[18:39] there is a great danger that our perception when it comes to fairness in material wealth
[18:47] that our perception becomes bad influenced by jealousy by disappointment by greed by a mercenary heart a danger that we try to make bargains with the lord if i give up this you must give me that a danger that we look at others who we think haven't done as much as we have, haven't suffered as much as we have.
[19:14] I mean, I was at the prayer meeting every night and they hardly ever showed up.
[19:18] And I was doing this and they were never around.
[19:21] I mean, I've been serving the Lord for 50 years and he only became a Christian last week.
[19:27] Such a danger of that kind of mentality creeping in.
[19:35] So it is a warning.
[19:39] better to wait, better to trust this generous employer and wait till the final assessment.
[19:52] Making bargains with God are not a good idea.
[19:55] Jacob tried that.
[19:56] Oh dear, what a mess he made.
[19:58] Lord, if I do this and this, or in fact, he put it the other way around.
[20:02] If you will do this, this, this, this, this, and this, then I will do that.
[20:06] And they had to learn through long and very painful experience.
[20:11] Bargains reveal that we have no idea who we're dealing with.
[20:14] God is more generous than we can imagine.
[20:20] And they also reveal that we don't know ourselves and the greed that so easily lurks beneath the surface.
[20:30] There is coming a day of assessment, not of judgment for believers in the sense of condemnation.
[20:38] There is no condemnation in Christ, but there's coming a day of assessment when God assesses our service and our living.
[20:45] Let's just be warned from the beginning that God judges it, assesses it differently than we do.
[20:54] And let that encourage us.
[20:56] You know, there's some people who think, and I know they think that because it comes out in conversations, that they've never been a preacher.
[21:06] They've never been a missionary.
[21:08] They've never been the leading worshiper.
[21:12] They've never been a church leader and all the things that they have never being.
[21:18] And so they devalue who they are in Christ.
[21:23] They devalue the simple activities of loving God and loving your neighbor.
[21:30] The simple things, as we might put it, of bringing up your kids and investing in your grandkids, of hospitality in the home.
[21:41] Now, if God does show up and say to you, okay, I want to take you and I want to send you here and I want you to do that.
[21:47] Fine.
[21:47] Those people would be ready to go.
[21:50] But a lot of the time he doesn't.
[21:52] Because it's there.
[21:54] What is in your hand?
[21:56] He is that to the glory of God.
[22:00] And don't be thinking, oh gosh, I'm going to come away down here in the assessment.
[22:06] I am quite on the basis of this parable.
[22:08] I'm quite happy to think that I'm just hoping to get to see some of you, but I suspect you're going to be such a high level in heaven that it's going to take a few thousand years.
[22:19] I'm joking.
[22:19] But you know what I mean.
[22:20] Don't be infected by the assessment systems of this world.
[22:26] God is more generous than we think.
[22:30] But let's understand also that there is a cost.
[22:34] And it is this point in Matthew chapter 20 that we read that Jesus predicts his death.
[22:41] This is now verse 17.
[22:46] Jesus takes the 12 aside in this context if we throw up the text of the next step, thank you take the 12 aside and say we're going to Jerusalem the son of man is going to be delivered over the chief priests and the teachers of the law they will well they'll welcome him and they're going to, no they're not they condemn him to death hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified and on the third day he will be raised to life.
[23:16] Jesus placing context on life in this world and expectation.
[23:26] We're going to Jerusalem, the royal city, the city that was his by right as the rightful king, the city that had become the center of opposition and hatred towards him.
[23:41] delivered over to the chief priests and teachers, and then over to the Gentile.
[23:47] Jew and Gentile together in their hatred and mistreatment of the Son of God.
[23:57] And notice the detail.
[23:59] He'll be mocked.
[24:00] He'll be flogged.
[24:02] He'll be crucified.
[24:04] Very specific terms.
[24:06] The shame, the embarrassment, the pain, the sense of being a total outsider, being rejected by the entire society, the entire world.
[24:19] And he would take that and on the third day rise again.
[24:22] Let's never forget the resurrection.
[24:25] First the suffering, as Peter would write, and then the glory to follow.
[24:30] But in that order.
[24:34] It's easy to forget.
[24:37] We're called to follow Jesus, and most of the time we're not getting flogged or mocked or crucified.
[24:45] Not physically anyway.
[24:47] But let's never forget we live in a world that has rejected the Messiah.
[24:52] So you are an outlier, you are a stranger, You are an alien in your own country if you are now living in the country you were brought up in.
[25:05] That's the reality.
[25:07] Your home is elsewhere.
[25:08] Your king has been rejected.
[25:10] He's coming again.
[25:11] We live in that time until.
[25:14] That sets our expectations.
[25:17] But the disciples just didn't get it.
[25:21] And we have this, oh, it's such a brilliantly human story.
[25:25] Verse 20 of chapter 20.
[25:27] That's the next little bit in our reading.
[25:30] Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus with her sons and kneeling down asked a favor of him.
[25:36] What is it you want, he asked.
[25:37] She said, grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.
[25:44] You don't know what you're asking, Jesus said to them.
[25:46] Can you drink the cup I'm going to drink?
[25:48] We can, they answered.
[25:50] So the boys were there too.
[25:52] I don't know, had they persuaded their mother?
[25:53] had the mother persuaded them, we're not told.
[25:57] Jesus said to them, you will indeed drink from my cup, but the sit of my right or left is not for me to grant.
[26:03] These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my father.
[26:08] When the 10 heard about this, they were mad with the two brothers.
[26:12] Here we go again, more disgruntled, unhappy people.
[26:17] And Jesus called them together and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them, their high officials exercise authority over them.
[26:26] Not so with you.
[26:30] The system of government, if you like, in the kingdom of God is very different from any of the political systems that we have, certainly then and now.
[26:45] They had this strong hierarchical structure.
[26:50] Not so with you.
[26:52] Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.
[27:00] Whoever wants to be first, here we have it again, must be your slave.
[27:07] just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
[27:19] Now, I mean, we can understand a mother being proud of her two boys.
[27:24] I mean, look at my boys.
[27:25] Is there any such boys as these?
[27:28] That's natural.
[27:30] But in this context, we've just been hearing about what Christ is going to face in Jerusalem, and she comes up and bows before him, And you think, wow, I mean, she's got the message.
[27:40] She's bowing before the king.
[27:41] She's kneeling before the king.
[27:44] This must be to say, Lord, what do you want me to do?
[27:47] I want to invest in all of this.
[27:50] And then she said, Lord, I want you just to make sure that, you know, in your kingdom, that's coming very soon, isn't it?
[27:55] In your kingdom, my boys got to sit on the right and left.
[27:58] Now, you can decide, Lord, which one goes where.
[28:01] I don't mind, you know, if James goes on the right and John goes on the left or the other way around.
[28:06] That's fine.
[28:07] but as long as they're there because they're the best.
[28:11] Oh, you don't know what you're saying.
[28:13] Because that mindset is a product of the way the world works.
[28:22] The concept of greatness in the world, that's how it works.
[28:29] And it works that way for us, doesn't it?
[28:31] Even in subtle ways.
[28:33] The number of likes you get on Facebook or followers or whatever, just as trivial as that.
[28:39] Gives you a sense of self, of belonging, of importance, of value.
[28:44] Look at all these people looking at my photographs.
[28:46] Ooh.
[28:50] It's not to be like that.
[28:54] Greatness.
[28:55] And you see how this links back into the questions of reward?
[28:59] It's the person who serves.
[29:02] What is in your hand, you get on and do it.
[29:05] Serve one another in love because that's the heart of the king.
[29:12] We are called to the imitation of Christ
[29:16] to serve.
[29:19] And as an example, we have the final story in the chapter.
[29:22] Jesus and his disciples, verse 29, were leaving Jericho.
[29:26] A large crowd followed them, two blind men sitting by the roadside.
[29:29] And when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they shouted, Lord, son of David, have mercy on us.
[29:35] And the crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet.
[29:37] But they shouted all the louder, Lord, son of David, have mercy on us.
[29:42] And Jesus stopped and called them.
[29:46] What do you want me to do for you?
[29:47] He asked.
[29:49] Lord, they answered, we want our sight.
[29:52] And Jesus had compassion on them, touched their eyes.
[29:55] And immediately they received their sight and followed him.
[29:59] Isn't that fascinating how often in this series of incidents in Matthew, people are crossed with Jesus, are crossed with each other.
[30:08] That's so interesting.
[30:09] But that's life, isn't it?
[30:11] I mean, it shouldn't surprise you by now how often Christians are crossed with each other.
[30:16] And sometimes how often we're crossed with God because we think he's got it wrong.
[30:24] Disciples unhappy about so many things.
[30:28] He's explained then the concept of greatness, And now it's the crowd who are trying to shut these guys up.
[30:36] What would the king want to do with two blind men?
[30:41] The same attitude as the disciples had towards children.
[30:45] Why would he want to waste his time with kids?
[30:50] And we listen to the king giving an example of what he means that the son of man has not come to be served, but the servant lays life down.
[30:59] and he stops.
[31:03] What do you want me to do for you?
[31:08] How can I help you?
[31:11] What would you like?
[31:12] It's like the person who serves in a restaurant, isn't it?
[31:19] How can I help you?
[31:22] This is the king.
[31:25] I haven't noticed Rishi Sinak coming in.
[31:29] talking to me and saying, how can I help?
[31:32] No, he's all about what he's going to do to help us, and all politicians are the same.
[31:38] How can I help?
[31:39] What is it that you need?
[31:43] And these guys got it right.
[31:46] It wasn't, you know, we would like to sit in the left and right, and there's two of us, you know, so there's the right.
[31:52] No, that's not it.
[31:55] Have mercy on us.
[31:57] You are the king, the son of David.
[32:00] Now here's an intriguing thing.
[32:02] Here's something you can talk about in your groups.
[32:05] How was it that the two blind guys perceived more truth about Jesus than the Pharisees did, than the chief priests did, than even the disciples did on many occasions?
[32:21] They perceived even though they couldn't see and then he gave them their sight.
[32:24] It's an amazing thing.
[32:27] the whole question of perception comes up time and time and time again somehow they perceived that he was the king of kings and they knew that they needed mercy that was the main thing they had in their own eyes absolutely no claim they weren't like the guys who were saying look we deserve more pay they're coming and saying what we need is mercy.
[32:58] And that's where all of us are.
[33:00] Spiritually speaking, blind, needing mercy.
[33:06] And if you cry out to the King of Kings,
[33:12] he'll stop, look on you in compassion, and bring light into your life.
[33:22] The Son of Man has come to serve.
[33:28] This dust-covered figure on the road to Jerusalem, on the road to rejection, condemnation, torture, and cruel death, didn't look like a king, didn't look like Messiah, but their blind eyes were not deceiving them.
[33:43] He was and is the true king.
[33:46] He served them.
[33:47] He gave them their physical sight, and they followed him, and Jesus the king went on and led down his life as a ransom for them.
[33:55] What a fabulous kingdom this is.
[33:58] What is the kingdom of the heaven like?
[34:02] It's a kingdom eternally characterized by love.
[34:06] It's a kingdom that doesn't believe in people, especially women being exploited and then discarded.
[34:13] It's a king who believes in compensation and reward for those who follow him and suffer loss in this life.
[34:20] It's a kingdom whose values are not the survival of the fittest, with a government that is not for the benefit simply of the powerful and the self-interested, but those of the king who came to serve and to lay his life down.
[34:35] It's a kingdom that doesn't value people because of their wealth and status in this world.
[34:40] It's a kingdom where children, the blind, the poor, are of infinite value, and yet not everyone wants to be in that kingdom, even if they say they do.
[34:53] Not everyone is prepared to make the king their chief value.
[34:57] So what about us?
[35:00] What about you?
[35:02] There's a cost to our pride, to our self-centeredness, to our autonomy.
[35:09] Jesus comes to those who recognize their need, their blindness, and simply cry out to him for mercy, for salvation, and make him their chief value.
[35:20] And for those of us who follow him, he invites us to participate in this cup that he had to drink.
[35:27] If this king had not come near enough to get dust on his clothes, to have people mock him and spit on him and flog him and treat him unjustly, he would not have heard the cry of the two blind men.
[35:46] And we also, if we don't follow him on dusty, difficult roads, close enough for people to mock us if they want to, gang up on us on social media, cancel us, then we won't hear the cry of those who genuinely call for salvation.
[36:10] We'll just circle the wagons.
[36:14] The king who served them will serve us still and forever in the kingdom of God.
[36:22] But the road to that kingdom, as Paul pointed out, lies through tribulation.
[36:29] First the suffering, then the glory.
[36:33] The Christian life is a journey in two directions.
[36:38] It's a journey into this world as ambassadors and representatives of the king.
[36:45] It is also a journey towards the next world.
[36:49] So, without grumbling either at the king or at each other, but with shared joy, let's follow him on the dusty roads.
[37:02] Let's pray.
[37:16] Lord Jesus, you are the King of kings, the Lord of lords.
[37:25] we thank you for
[37:30] the character the nature of your rule
[37:39] we thank you for the kind of king you are
[37:44] and we pray that through these marvelous incidents and your teaching that our own lives may be confronted with truth and that we'll be deeply encouraged that you will give us a vision of what life is like under your rule and that we will make you and your kingdom our chief value.
[38:09] We pray in Jesus' name.
[38:12] Amen.