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Ezekiel
1:1-3
Welcome! Today I am
excited to begin with you a new series into the book of Ezekiel. Today I want
to give an introduction to the book. Ezekiel was a prophet who fit into a very
specific point in the era of kings and prophets in Israel’s history, and so the
first thing I want to do today is give a bit of an overview of the history of
this era so that we can see exactly where Ezekiel’s life and ministry fits in.
Now, I am not going to give any dates, because my experience is that any time
you mention a date, people immediately become sleepy. And the Bible does not
directly give dates either, so any time we give a date we are extrapolating
from the Scripture and possibly combining Bible information with what we know
from other sources (not that there is anything wrong with doing that). Now, the
Bible does often give relative dates, referring to one event as a
certain number of years after another. And if you think about it, even our
modern dates are all relative, relative to the time of Christ. That is where
A.D. (anno Domini – in the year of the Lord) and B.C. (before Christ) come
from. (Note that these terms were invented far after the actual time of Christ
and may be slightly in error; most Bible scholars think Christ was born in 4
B.C.) But in any case, I do believe there is something about four-digit numbers
that makes people instantly sleepy, so I will not use them today.
Although I am tempted to
start at Genesis and those who have been with us long enough know that that is
not an idle threat, as I have done this before. But given our recent series on
David, and given key content in the book of Ezekiel, I want to start with
Solomon. Recall Saul was the first king of the united kingdom of Israel, but
Saul refused to obey God, and after a long struggle, David became king. Under David,
the kingdom really established itself, defeating the Philistines and other
enemies of the Israelites. Solomon was David’s son and succeeded him as king
when he died. Solomon oversaw the building of the Temple in Jerusalem and led
Israel in a time that one could characterize as largely peaceful and
increasingly prosperous, although most of that prosperity went directly to
Solomon rather than to the people. Before we get into the negative stuff, I
want to read from the Bible a highlight of Solomon’s reign, the moment that God
came to inhabit with His presence the Temple that Solomon had made. This event
is pivotal to the book of Ezekiel. Listen to Solomon’s marvelous prayer of
dedication from 2 Chron. 6, starting at verse 14:
Matthew 28:1-20
Good Morning! He is risen!
Indeed, He is risen!
Every day in Christ is a
good day, but during Easter time the days seem a bit brighter, a bit sweeter,
hope seems stronger. Not only are we are
reminded that Jesus has overcome death, we celebrate His resurrection. The King has risen.
You know these events
well. Leading up to Matthew 28, Jesus
has lived a life set apart to God. He
has walked in sinless perfection. He
resisted temptation and did not submit to Satan’s trickery. He had a public ministry lasting just three
years. During that time, many came to
Him for a wide range of reasons. Jesus
performed many signs and wonders far beyond what anyone else had done in the
Old Testament. Many followed Him, but
many did not stay with Him during his earthly ministry.
We see a microcosm of that
even within the last week of Jesus’ life on earth.
At just the right time,
Jesus came to Jerusalem and the crowds joined together again crying out, “Hosanna
to the Son of David!” Matthew 21:9
“Blessed is he who comes
in the name of the Lord!” Matthew 21:9, Mark 11:9, John 12:13
“Hosanna in the highest
heaven!” Matthew 21:9, Mark 11:10
“Blessed is the coming
kingdom of our father David!” Mark 11:10
“Blessed is the king who
comes in the name of the Lord!” Luke 19:38
“Peace in heaven and glory
in the highest!” Luke 19:38
“Blessed is the king of
Israel!” John 12:13
Not even a week later,
Jesus is arrested and abandoned by his disciples. He is unjustly condemned, struck, spat upon,
scourged with whips, mocked, forced to wear a crown of thorns, and ultimately
crucified. Only one of the twelve disciples
was clearly at the cross. The ones who
did not abandon Him were the women: Mary
the mother of Jesus, Mary’s sister, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James
and Joses, Mary the wife of Clopas, Salome, the mother of the sons of Zebedee, and
many others.
Jesus gives up his spirit
and dies upon the cross. Ever looking at
appearances, the Jewish leaders ask that those crucified have their legs broken
so that they would die sooner, before Passover.
Even though the soldiers saw that Jesus died, they pierce His side with
a spear to be sure. Yes, it is certain,
Jesus is dead.
Joseph of Arimathea goes
to Pilate and asks for the body. Pilate
agrees, and with his permission, Joseph comes and takes the body of Jesus away
from the cross. It seems to magnify the
tragedy that Joseph is joined by Nicodemus.
Nicodemus brings nearly one hundred pounds of burial spices and
perfumes, likely those perfumes and spices meant for his own burial. Joseph seemingly gives up his own newly
prepared tomb for Jesus. I say that it
magnifies the tragedy because it is especially heartbreaking when the old bury
the young. It ought not be, and yet here
these old men from the Jewish council are burying Jesus, a man of 33 years, in
the prime of life.
Matthew 27 concludes with
the posting of a guard at the tomb on the Sabbath day, the day following Jesus’
death. The disciples did not anticipate
that Jesus would rise from the dead in spite of the fact that Jesus explicitly
told the disciples that he would rise.
He had told them so on multiple occasions. The chief priests and Pharisees did
understand that Jesus had proclaimed his coming resurrection. Unfortunately, their response to Jesus’
message was not belief, but rather to seek to prevent a conspiracy.
Let us rejoice that no
guard could prevent Jesus rising.
Let’s pray before we go
into today’s passage in Matthew 28.
Matthew
27:32-66
Last week
Carl went over the many times the Jewish leaders broke their own laws in order
to have Jesus put to death by the Romans. Today we will continue in our series
in Matthew titled Jesus, King of Kings. Picking up where Carl left off in
Matthew chapter 27 verse 32, we read:
As
they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced
him to carry the cross. They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The
Place of the Skull). – Matthew 27:32-33
This
event is recorded in the Gospel of John as:
Carrying
his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is
called Golgotha). Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each
side and Jesus in the middle. – John 19:17-18
The event
is recorded in Luke as follows:
As
they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from
the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. –
Luke 23:26
And finally,
the event is Mark is recorded as:
A
certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing
by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. – Mark
15:21
Matthew 27:1-31
Welcome! It feels great to
be able to stand up here and deliver a message here in our building. But at the
same time, I am even more thankful for all of you, whether you are on Zoom or
in person, that you have remained faithful to God and have continued to
fellowship as a part of this body despite all of the challenges,
inconveniences, and trials that this past year has brought. It has been roughly
a full year since the pandemic affected us here in South Carolina to the point
that we began to meet online. Many things have changed in our lives and in our
society, but God never changes. Politicians, employers, and even those close to
us personally may disappoint, fail, and even betray us, but God remains
faithful, and His promises are sure.
We are rapidly approaching
the end of the Book of Matthew, and we will finish on Easter Sunday, two weeks
from now. Because Easter is almost upon us, I want to recommend a video/podcast
that I feel did an exceptionally good job discussing the evidence for the
resurrection of Christ. I will include a link in the message transcript (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8nksgZerZE)
but you can also easily find it by searching in YouTube or your favorite
podcast app for “Mike Winger” and clicking on the recent title, dated March 17,
“Teen Atheist Becomes Christian Because of this Evidence.” The format is a
discussion between Pastor Mike Winger and what I think is a high-school student
in Belgium named Mario who became a Christian after studying the Bible along
with apologetic materials from Mike and others. He wrote a paper for school in
which he defended the resurrection, and the discussion deals with how to help
you answer common objections to the historicity of the resurrection and gives
many categories of evidence for it. Beyond this, the faith of Mario and the
gentle spirit and practical advice of Mike Winger are just super encouraging. I
do not make recommendations like this often, but in this case, I feel confident
that if you listen to it you will come away strengthened in your faith.
Matthew 26:31-75
On July 19, 64AD, the city
of Rome caught fire, and the fires burned for 3 days and nights. As soon as
they’d get the fire put out in one place, it would spread to another only to
reignite where they has just been fighting the fire. Rumors swirled about how
the fire started. Many blamed the deranged Emperor Nero. He liked to build
things to bring more honor to himself; many thought he started the fires to get
rid of buildings he didn’t like so that he could rebuild them. In an effort to
save his own life, Nero blamed the Christians. They were already distrusted
within the city of Rome and therefore became an easy scapegoat. The citizens of
Rome did not understand Christianity and many of their practices. For example,
they thought the Lord’s Supper was cannibalistic. Even the holy kiss was
misunderstood as a public sign of other gross practices they assumed were part
of Christianity. As a result, persecution came easily. This time however, they
got very “creative,” shall we say, with their physical persecution. Nero
himself helped with the persecution. Along with having Paul beheaded, Nero
would roll Christians in pitch and use them as torches around his garden. He
would sew them into animal skins and turn hunting dogs loose on them. Crucifixion,
racking, hanging all became more and more common forms of persecution. Shortly
after this started, Peter wrote his first epistle, encouraging the believers to
stand firm in their faith in the face of the trials. Where did he learn this
bold confidence? Wasn’t he the one that swore to a measly servant girl that he
wasn’t a follower of Jesus?
Let’s pray and find out.
Matthew 26:1-30
Last time in our study of
Matthew we wrapped up the Olivet Discourse with the last parable that Jesus told
during his life on earth, the story about the separation of the sheep and the
goats, a description of the last judgment. The sheep are welcomed into the
kingdom, and the goats are sent away to eternal punishment. People have had
questions about the meaning of this story probably ever since it was told,
since on its surface it appears to indicate that each person’s eternal destiny
is solely dependent on what good deeds they do during their lifetime. However,
we have so much other New Testament teaching that confirms that salvation is
not through good works, but only by grace, through faith, a gift from God that
we receive without deserving it. So we can understand that the good deeds
mentioned in the parable – feeding the hungry and being kind to strangers,
prisoners, and the poor – are practical actions that spring from true faith and
gratefulness to God. In the story they are described as being done
unconsciously, a reflection of a sheep’s real identity, not in an effort to earn
the favor of the King.
You may recall back in chapter
10 where Jesus was talking about salvation and rewards in a similar way, at the
end of his second discourse:
Whoever finds their life will lose it,
and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. Anyone who welcomes you
welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever
welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever
welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous
person’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these
little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly
not lose their reward. – Matthew 10:39-42
Finding one’s life in this
context implies determining one’s own destiny, being in control and striving
for personal benefit. That approach, which rejects God, will end in eternal
death. In contrast, losing one’s life – probably not literally, but in
submission to God – will result in eternal life with him. Welcoming a disciple
of Jesus is the same as welcoming him and his Father, who sent him. Good deeds,
even something as simple as giving a cup of refreshing water, will be rewarded,
but notice the element of faith here. Welcoming a prophet as a prophet and a righteous person as a righteous person requires acknowledging the source of their
truth and righteousness, namely God himself. The reward then is fellowship with
the true God, through a revelation of who he is and what he has done for each
of us.
Matthew 25:31-46
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he
will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. – Matthew 25:31
Why
is Jesus talking about this issue? I think it stems from the question back in
Matthew 24:3 in which the disciples asked, “what will be the sign of your
coming and of the end of the age?” So, it seems as if Jesus is still answering
their question. To my knowledge Jesus is only going to return once. Once he is here,
he will reign for a thousand years.
The
first time that Jesus came, he came as a lamb to be slaughtered. He was born in
a barn with no glory. He was born to two parents who were simple. They did not
have much and they did not look like much. As a young man he worked as a
carpenter. He probably had to deal with customer service issues. Like me, in my
business, he probably did not just have one boss, he had many bosses to please.
I bet there was messiness involved. Before he started his travelling missionary
work, he was baptized by a man who wore clothes made out of camel hair, and he
ate locusts...with a touch of honey. He gathered 12 men who were ordinary and
unschooled as it says in Acts 4:13. That does not sound too much like a
glorious entourage for a king. He was not like charismatic evangelists of our
time, waiting for people to come to him at his event. In Luke 19:10 Jesus said
that he was going be the one to do the seeking. In Matthew 20, some of his
disciples were jockeying for a better position in the group. He corrected their
mindset by saying, “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.” (Matthew 20:28) Later, Judas
betrayed Jesus to be arrested by the Romans. Instead of demonstrating his
glory, power and authority, he said, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father,
and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But
how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this
way?” (Matthew 26:53-54). None of these things seem to portray a king who has
glory. Well, where I come from, we had a saying. “You ain't seen nothin’ yet.”
Matthew
25:1-30
Good morning! Today we
continue our series in Matthew, looking at the first part of Chapter 25. I have
entitled the message “Journeys to the Kingdom,” but perhaps a better title
might be “Journeys Illustrating the Kingdom,” as our passage today focuses on
two parables that each involve journeys. But before we look at our passage, I
think it is helpful to recall the context, which we have explored over the past
two weeks in Matthew 24.
These two chapters,
Matthew 24 and Matthew 25, are known as the Olivet Discourse, because Jesus
told them to His disciples while sitting at the Mount of Olives. Jesus begins
by telling them that a time will come when the Temple will be destroyed. His
disciples ask Him when this will be, and what will be the signs of His coming
and of the end of the age.
Jesus gives them signs,
but also warns them that before He comes, deceivers will come who claim to be
Him, and they should be careful not to fall for them. He also tells them that
as for the day and hour of when these things will happen, nobody knows except
God the Father. He warns them to keep watch, because His coming will be sudden
and not when people expect Him. He ends Chapter 24 by warning that some will be
like servants put in charge of a master’s household who, thinking they have
plenty of time, chooses to live evilly and wildly. This person, Jesus says, will
be caught in the midst of his disobedience and “assigned a place with
hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Matthew 24:36-51
Are you keeping watch for
the end of the age? What does this even mean? As John pointed out last Sunday,
the disciples were wondering this, as they asked Jesus in verse 2 of Matthew
24, “What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” They knew
that Jesus would be bringing in his kingdom in a more complete way. They suspected
that the world as they knew it would change dramatically. Would that happen now
or at some point in the future? How would they know what to expect? Jesus had
just given them the shocking news that their beloved and honored temple would
be destroyed; maybe he would explain the complete picture of what was to
happen.
Jesus does give them a
vivid warning that it will be a tough time, but that he will return to “gather
his elect.” All the peoples of the earth would “see the Son of Man coming on
the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.” When the temple was
completely destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. no doubt many Christians wondered
if Jesus would return right then. This surely was one of the signs of his
coming, the “abomination that causes desolation” prophesied by Daniel more than
600 years earlier.
But John also pointed out
in his message last week that Biblical prophecy is usually fulfilled in
multiple ways, in the near term and also in the end times. We have to be very
careful with definitive interpretations that associate prophetic elements with
current events, in an attempt to predict the end of the world. But people have
been trying to do this ever since Jesus returned to heaven. Many times entire
communities have stopped their normal activities and just waited, convinced
that Jesus was about to return at any moment. Is that what it means to “keep
watch”? We will see from today’s passage that the answer is no. We pick up
Jesus’ discourse again in the middle of Matthew 24:
Matthew 24:1-35
Good morning! As we move
into chapter 24 in the book of Matthew, let’s look back and get a glimpse of
where we are in Jesus’ life on earth.
It is now the middle of
the Passion Week, only days from Jesus’ crucifixion and death. Jesus has been
in Jerusalem during the day and staying a few miles to the east in Bethany each
night.
On Sunday, the first day,
of the Passion Week, Jesus was ushered into the city riding on a donkey’s colt
as the people laid cloaks and palm branches before him all the while shouting
“Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!”
Then, Jesus entered the
temple courts and cleared the corrupt money changers and those buying and
selling there. This week, I happened to read the account of these events in
Mark’s gospel. There it says that Jesus also prevented anyone from carrying
merchandise through the temple courts. It seems in addition to the money
changers and buyers and sellers, other people were using the temple courts not
as a place of worship but a short cut carrying whatever goods they needed to
transport directly through the temple courts. The focus of many people in the
temple courts was not on God but on themselves.
Each subsequent day, Jesus
was in the temple courts teaching and being questioned. The events of the
Passion Week are jam packed. It is still only Monday or Tuesday as we reach
Matthew 24. The questions to trap Him, the parables He told, the repeated astonishment
of the crowds, the seven woes, all these events happened in the course of one
or at most two days.
