Hi everyone, and thank you for being with us for today's Beach Talk. I love to help us understand every word of God that's in the Word of God so that we can be the best followers of Jesus that we can. And our objective is simple. It's disciples making disciples who plant churches that plant churches so the grassroots movement of Jesus can continue all over the world. Now in 2021 our vision is to multiply our churches from four churches in two countries to eight churches in four countries.
Now this is a big vision. We need you to pray with us that we can accomplish this. We know there are many people in the world that need their water from the ocean for free. We're working hard on that. We also need a church. So this Saturday, one of the churches that we started is called Waves Church with Steve Martinez. He's going to be speaking on San Clemente Pier. We're going to take our Saturday night service at Sir Coffee. We're going to meet down there. Really proud of Steve.
He's 24 years old. He's the youngest pastor in South County by 11 years, and he's the only one that isn't white. We're really proud of him. We're really excited. We want to invite you to join us this Saturday down at San Clemente Pier as Steve speaks to hundreds of people down there. We're really excited about that.
So be praying with us as we continue to follow God's call for us and our church and ocean water and the opportunity that we find the doors opening up really all over the world from our small grassroots church. We're really excited about that. So be praying with us. We believe that God is doing great things in us and through us. Now we have four trips planned for the rest of 2021. We have two trips in June to El Salvador.
We have one trip to Indonesia in September, and then we have a trip to Bangladesh in December. All of those trips are coming along. The water systems are being paid for, the groundwork for the churches to be planted. We're working on those things. We have people that we're going to be training to go live in these countries for six months to help us get going. So again, be praying about how God might use you in all of this.
Now today we're in Matthew chapter 22 and it says, and Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and saying the kingdom of God is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding and they were not willing to come. Now Jesus continued to explain to the religious leaders and to the listening crowds the danger of rejecting him.
Now a wedding was and often is today the most significant social event of a person's life. Now the wedding of a prince would be a spectacular event and an invitation would be a prized one. So it seems strange that those who were invited by Jesus to a royal wedding didn't want to go. Now this illustrates the principle that there's no logical reason why people reject God's good and perfect gifts to them. Sometimes we do that in our lives. Now we find ourselves in verse four.
Again he sent out other servants saying, tell those who were invited, see I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fattened calf are killed and these things are ready, come to the wedding. But they made light of it and went their own ways. One went to his farm and another to his business and the rest seized his servants. He treated them spitefully and then he killed them.
Now when the king heard about this, well he was furious, obviously, and he sent out his armies, he destroyed those murderers and he burned up their city. Now what's happening here? Well the king persisted in making the invitation as attractive as possible. He really wanted the invited guests to show up. Now William Barclay says that when a great social event happened in the Jewish culture of the day, people were invited but without a set time. Some cultures are like that, they're lenient.
Now on the appropriate day when the host was ready to receive the guests, they sent out messengers to say that everything was ready and it was time to come to the feast. Now we don't come to God's feast and prepare our own meal, he made it already for us and we're supposed to go there to receive it and to eat it. Now the reaction of those invited really didn't make any sense but it does give an accurate description of the reaction of many people to learning about Jesus or hearing the gospel.
Many made light of it. They went back to their business, they went back to what they were doing before like many of us. So the king rightfully brought judgment on the offenders. Not only did they reject his invitation but they also murdered his messengers. They shot the messenger. This was a prophecy of what would happen to Jerusalem, the city whose religious leaders so strongly rejected Jesus and the gospel.
Now in verse 8, then he said to his servants, the wedding is ready but those who were invited were not worthy, therefore go into the highways and as many as you find, invite those to the wedding. So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found both good and bad. That's interesting and the wedding hall was filled with guests. Now the king was determined that he would not have an empty banquet hall so an invitation was given to all who would hear.
Now when the first and the second invitations were so dramatically rejected, the third invitation was made more broadly. Everybody was invited, got through a giant party. Now in this sense we can say that the parable is about grace. Those who were invited and who came were utterly undeserving of the invitation but much less the wedding feast itself. Isn't God gracious to us always giving us what we don't deserve?
Now look at verse 11, but when the king came in to see the guests he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment so he said to him, friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then the king said to his servants, bind him, hand and foot, take him away and cast him into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for many are called but few are chosen.
Now the king carefully examined his guests to see if they all wore the garments that were customarily offered to those attending a wedding feast. Now the man who did as he pleased at the wedding feast instead of honoring the king and conforming to his expectations, he suffered a terrible fate. Now this parable demonstrates that those indifferent to the gospel or Jesus or antagonistic towards Jesus, those who go unchanged by Jesus's message share the same fate.
None of them enjoyed the king's feast. Now verse 15, now when the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might entangle him in this talk, they sent him to the disciples with the herodians saying, teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God and truth, nor do you care about anyone for you do not regard the person of men. Tell us therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? That's a great question. Many of us wonder that today.
They plotted how they might entangle him in this talk. Here the Pharisees and the herodians work together. This was evidence of their great hatred of Jesus because they were willing to put aside their own differences for the sake of uniting against Jesus. Now their plotting led them to approach Jesus with flattery. They hoped he was insecure and foolish like they were. You see, they were susceptible to flattery so they thought that it would work on Jesus.
F.A. Bruce points this out. He says the compliment, besides being treacherous, it was insulting because it implied that Jesus was a simple person and vain enough to give in to flattery. Now they asked, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not to Caesar? Now Jesus' dilemma with the question was simple. If he had said that taxes should be paid, he could be accused of denying the sovereignty of God over Israel, making himself unpopular with the Jewish people.
If he said that taxes should not be paid, he made himself an enemy of Rome. So what was his answer? We find out here in verse 18, Jesus perceived their wickedness and said, why do you test me, you hypocrites? Show me the tax money. So they brought him a denarius and he said to them, whose image and inscription is on this? And they said to him, well, Caesar's. And he said to them, render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.
Now when they heard these words, they marveled and left him and went their way. What's happening here? Well, again, with his wise answer, Jesus showed that he was in complete control. He rebuked the wickedness and hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the Herodians. Now Jesus affirmed that the government makes legitimate requests of us. We are responsible to God in all things, but we must be obedient to government in matters that are civil and national.
Now Peter said it like this in first Peter 2 17, fear God and honor the King. Now William Barclay states, every Christian has a double citizenship. He's a citizen of the country in which he happens to live. To it, he owes many things like taxes. He owes the safety against lawless men, which only a settled government can give. And he owes all of the public services. Now everyone has the image of God impressed upon them. This means that we belong to God, not to Caesar or even to ourselves.
So we have a national citizenship, but we have a heavenly citizenship and that takes precedent. Now they would never had to give, render anything to Caesar in New Testament times. They would never have to endure the occupying oppression of the Roman Empire if they hadn't been obedient to the covenant with their God.
Now look at verse 23, the same day the Sadducees who say, well, there's no resurrection came to him and asked him saying, teacher, Moses said that if this man having no children, his brother should marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were with the seven brothers, the first died that he had married and married to his offspring. He left his wife to his brother. Likewise, the second also in the third, even to the seventh.
Most of all, the women died also therefore in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be for they all had her. Now William Barclay again points out that the Sadducees were not many in number, but they were the wealthy, the aristocratic and the governing class. So many of them had multiple marriages. This is an interesting question.
Now the Sadducees asked Jesus a hypothetical and a ridiculous question, hoping to show that the idea of resurrection is nonsense based on, based in Deuteronomy. If a married man dies childless in his brother's responsibility to take care of his widow and then count the child as his own. Now the Pharisees imagine circumstances along these lines and raise the questions. Therefore in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? Now again, they were trying to trap him.
Now the practice of brother-in-law marrying the widow of his brother is known as a lever at marriage. Now the term comes from the Latin levier, meaning brother-in-law. This is the specific idea in question, Mary is not the normal Greek word, but a technical term for the performance of the lever at duty. In other words, if your brother's wife passes away, you were to care for her. Now Jesus answered in verse 29 and said to them, you are mistaken not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God.
Now the Pharisees connected their thoughts to a biblical passage, but they did not think through the passage correctly. These highly trained men were mistaken in their basic understanding of biblical truth. Their mistake was rooted in two causes. First they did not know the scriptures, though they thought they did. Second they did not know the power of God being basically anti-supernatural. This was true of them, even though their religion was their career and they were highly trained.
So let's break this down. If it's possible for a person to have so much Bible knowledge, yet not fundamentally know the Bible, Paul later told Timothy to hold fast to the pattern of sound words, which you've heard from me. There's a difference between a lot of words and sound words. We're supposed to follow sound words. We're supposed to detect with a discerning heart. It also suggests that we can lose this pattern if we're not careful.
Now the Sadducees had the Bible knowledge, but they did not hold fast the pattern of the sound words. Many today are like them in this respect. Now the Sadducees denied supernatural truths such as the existence of angels or a physical resurrection of Jesus. They had a fundamental doubt in the power of God to do beyond what they could measure or understand in the material world. A lot of people are like this today. God is bigger than the material world. Now look at verse 30.
From the resurrection, neither married nor given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at his teaching. Now what's happening here?
Well first, Jesus reminded them that life and the resurrection is quite different from this life. It does not merely continue this world and its arrangements, but it is a life of completely different order. Now the passage has made many wonder if marriage relationships will exist in heaven, or if those of husband and wife on earth will have no special relationship in heaven.
Now we're not told enough about life and the world beyond to answer that in great detail, but we can understand a few principles. Now family relationships will still be known in life and the world beyond. The rich man Jesus described in the afterlife was aware of his family relationships in Luke 16, so that's a beautiful thing.
Now the glory of heaven will be a relationship and a connection with God that surpasses anything else, including our present family relationships, according to Revelation 21. Now it seems that life and the resurrection that Jesus spoke of here does not include some of the pleasures of life we know on earth. It is only because the enjoyments and satisfactions of heaven surpass what we can know on earth.
We can't be completely certain what life in glory beyond this life will be, but we can know with certainty that no one will be able to contain a double thrust since the Sadducees denied their existence. Now Jesus demonstrated the reality of the resurrection using only the Torah, the five books of Moses, which were the only books the Sadducees accepted as authoritative.
Now if Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did not live on in resurrection, they would say that he was the God of Abraham instead of saying, I am the God of Abraham. Now verse 34, but when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question testing him and saying, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Matthew gives us the fascinating scene of the opponents of Jesus working hard to embarrass him unsuccessfully.
Now the question was also planned to trap Jesus in asking Jesus to choose one great commandment. They'd hoped to make Jesus show neglect for another area of the law. Now the rabbis had 613 commandments of the law and distinguished them into greater and lesser. These later though, they thought they might be neglected or violated with little or no guilt. Now verse 37, Jesus said to them, you shall love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
Now this is the first and the greatest command and the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Now on these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets. Now perfectly understanding the essence of the law, Jesus had no difficulty answering instead of promoting one command over another. Jesus defined the law and its core principles, love the Lord God with everything and love your neighbor as yourself. Brilliant.
It is clear enough what it means to love the Lord God with all we are though it is impossible to do it perfectly. But there's been a lot of confusion about what it means for us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Now this doesn't mean that we must love ourselves before we can love anyone else. It means that in the same way we take care of ourselves and we're concerned for our own interests, we should care and have concern for the interests of other people.
Now God's moral expectation of man can be briefly and powerfully said in these two sentences. If the life of God is real in our life, it will show by the presence of this love for God and for other people. So now look at verse 41, we'll wrap up this chapter, but while the Pharisees were gathered together Jesus asked them saying, what do you think about Christ? Whose son is he? Now before they could think of another question to test him, Jesus asked them a question.
He said, what do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he? They said to him, the son of David. Now this is interesting. Now this is one of the great Old Testament titles of the Messiah, founded on the covenant that God made with King David in second Samuel. It identifies the Christ as the chosen descendant of King David's royal line. So God had this plan and this is part of his work.
Now it is possible that the Pharisees did not know or had forgotten that Jesus was in the line of David or that he was even born in Bethlehem, the city of David. Now look at verse 43, he said to them, how then does David in the spirit call him Lord saying, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies a footstool. Well now what's happening here? Well if David then calls him Lord, how is he then his son?
Now the Pharisees were partially right in saying that the Messiah is the son of David, but they didn't have a complete understanding of who the Messiah is. He is not only David's son, a reference to his humanity, but he is also David's Lord, a reference to the deity of Jesus, the Messiah. Now D.A. Carson points out that the force of Jesus's argument depends on his use of Psalm 110. Now the most frequently quoted Old Testament chapter in the New Testament is Psalms 110.
Jesus brilliantly gives a simple explanation of the scriptures that put the Pharisees on the defensive. They did not want to admit that the Messiah was the Lord, but Jesus showed them that this was true from the scriptures. Now look at verse 46, and no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question him anymore. Jesus had whooped them bad. Full submission, game over. Now their silence was a tribute.
The teacher who never attended the right schools confounds the greatest theologians that had ever walked the planet. Now logic and rhetoric proved useless in attacking Jesus. Now his enemies would use treachery and violence as their next weapons against him, as we'll see in the next few chapters of Matthew. Now this concludes our time in today's speech, talk looking at Matthew chapter 22. I want you to be thinking about now what did God say to me today?
And then we want to pray to God about that. Prayer is just talking to God. Oftentimes we need to hit reset in our life, or we need to stop some things, or we need to start some new positive habits like reading our Bible, praying, connecting with other believers. Would you pray with me now and say, God, would you just help me to change my life? Would you help me to hit that reset button? Give me a fresh start?
Help me to stop the things I know I need to stop, help me to start the things that I know I need to start. And I need your help to help me do it. And I humbly ask for your help now, in Jesus' name, amen. Now the Bible teaches us that we give as part of our worship. Now I really want you to pray about this. We have so many wonderful things happen to ocean water. We're helping so many people. We're helping people get their water out of the ocean. We're planting churches.
People are as far away from MIT are learning about God and Jesus through our church. Very, very exciting. And I'd like you to give as part of your worship. This helps us provide more water, more water systems in more places to plant more churches. It's a very, very exciting time. So I hope you'll consider giving as part of your worship today. And as always, I hope that you have a beautiful week. If you want to give, you can go to OceanWater.com and you'll find a tab there.
Just be able to do that. And as always, thank you so much for watching today and have a beautiful day.