REV. AARON EIME

Father in heaven, may your presence, which rests around us and in us, amongst us,

Lord, open our hearts and our ears as we look to see in your word what you have to say to us.

Speak, Lord, for your servants are listening. Amen. Please be seated.

These lights are quite bright.

Shalom from Jerusalem.

It is my privilege and pleasure to come and speak and to look at this text from the scriptures.

Now I want to start by saying that the Gospels are finely crafted texts.

That we have four Gospels and we have lots of stories about Jesus

and we have lots of stories that have been put into these texts in certain orders.

They are there for reasons.

Now we may have, some people might know, that there's a theory

that says that there were four Gospels and they all can be redacted down to this one common source.

That Matthew and Luke are borrowing from Mark and Mark's borrowing from this mysterious document called Q

and John is just way out there onto the side.

If you have heard of this theory, please take it, roll it up in a little ball and throw it away.

In the Middle East, which is where the Bible comes from,

our Bible is a Jewish text, it is a Middle Eastern text,

in the Middle East there were probably lots of Gospels.

There were lots of stories of Jesus and the Jesus event.

What happens is Matthew, Luke, Mark, John, by the guidance of God, by His Spirit,

they decide and choose what stories to include.

And they even tell us there are so many stories that we're not going to include everything.

There's too much.

This, this is enough.

And so they choose the stories that they feel under guidance that they're important

and they put them into a certain order.

And so some stories, like Jesus cleansing the temple,

occur early in John and late in Matthew

because of the way that they're structuring their story.

And so you have these stories that are packed with meaning,

even as to why they're in their order, they have a meaning.

So when we read this text, we've got to put it into context.

We should ask ourselves two questions whenever we read the Gospels.

Two questions.

What does this tell me about Jesus?

And how do I become a better disciple?

So we'll study this text and we'll wrestle with it.

God will speak to us and we'll come, we'll look for those answers.

What does this tell me about Jesus?

And how do I become a better disciple?

So let's have a look at our text.

This is the parable of the tenants in the vineyard.

And it is placed by Matthew in here at the, as Jesus has entered Jerusalem.

Now, does Jesus just say this parable when he's in Jerusalem?

He's probably said this parable lots of times.

Like any itinerant preacher has their top ten favorite sermons,

and you would go from village to village to village,

and you would preach this sermon in the same village here,

in the same village there, in the same village there.

So Jesus, Yeshua as we call him in Hebrew,

he's probably preached this a few times.

But Matthew's deliberately putting it here.

So Jesus has come into Jerusalem.

This is his final time.

The big showdown is coming with the temple.

He enters the temple.

There's the adulation of the crowds as they welcome him as the Messiah.

And it's wonderfully seen in movies, palm branches, donkeys, coats, and things.

He gets out his bullwhip, and he does his Indiana Jones,

and he cleanses the temple.

And he tips over the money changers, and he challenges them.

He challenges their authority.

And he gets away with it.

Because by this stage, the temple's quite corrupt.

And this occurred a couple of hundred years prior to Jesus,

during the Maccabean period,

when the Jewish people overthrew the Greeks,

who had been ruling them.

We get a wonderful holiday in Israel called Hanukkah, because of it,

which we're about to celebrate after Sukkot.

And the Jewish people, the Maccabees,

they cleanse the temple, they rededicate the temple,

and they reestablish the worship of God.

It's wonderful.

But then they also begin to expand the borders of Israel.

They begin to invade other people.

And they go across the Jordan,

and they capture some of the lands that the old Philistines used to have,

drive the Greeks out.

And they begin to think that they're actually in the Messianic age.

They begin to believe that we are part of the Messianic ideal.

And we don't actually need a person as a Messiah.

We are the Messias.

And they change the temple.

They take away the natural priests,

and they put in false priests.

Instead of priests being the descendants of Levi and Cohen,

as they are supposed to be, according to the Bible,

the B'nai Tzadok,

we find priests from Benjamin,

and from Asher,

and from Naphtali.

Not all of them.

And instead of having one high priest,

we have multiple priests,

chief priests,

and they're illegitimate.

And everybody knows this.

And yet,

people still go to the temple,

because this is where God lived.

Jesus himself goes.

But he's going to challenge their authority.

And he knows they're corrupt.

So when he spills over the money changers,

the people,

they're very excited by this.

Yes, we understand what you're doing.

You're challenging the authority.

And this little portion of Matthew

talks a lot about Jesus' authority.

He already has authority over death.

He's raised people from the dead.

He's raised his friend, Lazarus.

He has fought back the demons.

He has authority over the demons.

He has authority over sickness.

He heals wherever he goes.

Nothing can stop him.

He has authority over nature.

He can command the wind and the waters to stop.

And now he has authority to teach.

Then,

Matthew puts this image of the fig tree that withers.

Jesus,

just after he's cleansed the temple,

he sees a fig tree.

And figs,

in Jewish tradition,

are loaded with meaning.

A lot of these images are,

he goes up to this tree and he's looking for fruit.

He doesn't find any.

So then he curses the tree and the tree just dies.

You go,

wow,

that's really special.

How,

how,

Lord,

did you do that?

Well,

it's not about the fig tree not having fruit.

Because the gospel of Mark deliberately tells us that the,

the fig tree,

it wasn't the season for figs.

So Jesus was never going to find fruit there anyway.

So why is he cursing a tree that was never allowed to have fruit in that season?

That doesn't seem very fair.

Well,

in,

in Jewish tradition,

the idea of a fig tree was,

was the covering.

The first time figs are ever mentioned in the Bible is where?

Genesis.

That's right.

And that's because we've got to cover our nakedness.

And,

and so Adam and Eve,

they make a disastrous decision.

They,

they eat of the forbidden fruit.

They discover that they're naked.

And they started to cover themselves with,

with figs.

Which is a rather embarrassing thing to do.

Because figs have a special sap in their leaves,

which actually makes your skin red and itchy.

Okay.

So I'm sure that God,

when he comes out and sees Adam,

probably goes,

I bet that's uncomfortable.

Okay.

And,

and that's,

that's a good,

good effort,

but I'm going to do my best.

And he,

he actually makes real clothing.

For them.

So the idea that,

that figs represent the covering of a person,

then went through,

uh,

into Jewish,

uh,

preaching tradition,

into their thinking,

that you would sit under a fig tree.

And that would be,

not a literal one,

but the,

the covering for us,

was the Torah.

That was what,

what covered us and protected us,

as we waited for the Messiah.

Now the Torah in Hebrew,

comes from the verb,

leherot,

which means to teach,

or to guide,

to instruct.

It doesn't mean law,

which a lot of our texts actually,

uh,

translate.

The word law in Hebrew is,

chok.

So if anyone can see the difference between,

chok and Torah,

that's good.

There are laws inside the Torah,

but the Torah itself,

is teaching,

guidance,

and instruction.

And according to Jewish tradition,

and also the Bible,

uh,

when do you receive the Torah?

You receive the Torah,

after you've been saved.

So the,

the,

the Jewish people,

are in Egypt,

and they're taken out of Egypt,

and saved.

Then they are taken to Mount Sinai,

and then they receive the Torah.

The Torah,

as Jewish people should know,

doesn't save you.

It is,

a covering.

What does it cover?

Lots of good stuff.

When God says,

thou shalt not steal,

why does he say that?

Because he doesn't like stealing.

So if God doesn't like stealing,

what are you going to do?

Not steal.

And so these,

these teachings,

and the guidance,

and the instructions,

are good for us.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

It's a good one.

It's good for us.

Why?

Because it stops these,

when we try and have freedom,

of,

of,

of sexual expression,

all we end up doing,

is chaining ourselves,

with these really weird,

and strange relationships.

Instead of having,

our wives,

and being faithful to them.

These are good.

It's a good covering for us.

And it's one of the reasons,

why,

in the Gospel of John,

Nathanael is sitting,

under a fig tree,

and Jesus says,

I saw you,

when you were under the fig tree.

Because he says that,

Nathanael says,

oh,

you are the king of Israel,

the son of God.

Nathanael gets that,

within 10 seconds,

of meeting Jesus,

and it takes Peter,

three and a half years,

to finally get that right,

in Caesarea.

Because,

Nathanael's probably,

not sitting,

under a literal fig tree.

He's been sitting,

under the covering,

of the Torah.

He's been looking,

through the scriptures,

for the Messiah.

And Jesus says,

you know what,

I know,

you were looking for me,

because I was looking,

straight back.

And I know who you are.

You're a true Israelite.

And there's no deceit in you.

And he gets it.

Nathanael gets it,

right up front.

But here,

it's in the context,

of the temple.

And the authority,

of the temple,

and the temple teachers.

And Jesus has looked,

for fruit.

He has looked,

that the Torah,

the teaching,

the guidance,

and the instruction,

that should have been,

coming from the temple,

to the people,

and producing fruit,

didn't produce fruit.

It wasn't there.

And so he curses the tree.

He says,

I'm going to be giving,

the teaching to somebody else.

And then,

the teachers,

in Matthew,

the teachers in the temple,

they deliberately attack Jesus.

How do you do this?

Where do you get your authority from?

And Jesus asks them a question,

straight back.

That's the way you work,

in the Middle East.

If you ask me a question,

my answer is,

another question.

It's incredibly infuriating,

to us in the West.

Because you never,

actually get an answer.

Okay?

There's never a dot,

at the end of the sentence.

It just keeps going.

In fact,

there's a great little parable,

from a rabbi,

what's his name,

Avraham Herschel,

who once said,

you're closer to God,

when you're asking questions,

than when you think,

you have answers.

Because once you think,

you understand God,

that's when you truly,

don't understand God.

And it's in the,

in the idea of asking questions,

and the search,

you're constantly learning,

about him,

who he is,

who he is character,

and how to,

to behave,

in the world,

and vis-a-vis also,

each other.

So Jesus is asked,

where do you get your,

your authority from?

So he says,

what about John the Baptist?

Where did he come from?

Is he from heaven,

or is he from,

from somewhere else?

And they choose not to answer,

so Jesus doesn't have to give them,

an answer.

He outfoxes them.

Then he begins to teach,

in parables.

and he talks about this thing called the kingdom of heaven.

Now parables, as a teaching tool of the Second Temple period,

are not unique to Jesus.

He uses that vehicle.

There is over 5,000 parables in the Hebrew commentaries

and some of them are even in our New Testament.

And the point about parables is as part of the story,

which everyone should be familiar with, they have a shock to them.

Something that wakes you up.

Something that makes you start to question,

what is he talking about and why?

So he says, listen, I have a parable for you.

We want to talk about authority.

I would like to share a parable.

There is a landowner.

He has a vineyard. It is his.

It is a good vineyard.

He has guarded it with a watchtower.

He has surrounded and protected it with his walls.

He has prepared a place to produce fruit

and to get the juice from this fruit.

And we will make wine.

And wine is a symbol of joy.

It will be a good thing.

So I have some tenants.

Please work in my vineyard.

And when it is time for fruit,

because our God is a fruit inspector,

when it is time for some fruit,

he sends some of his servants.

And they're beaten.

And in some cases they're killed.

Nasty.

And they throw stones.

And the master does something very special.

He sends his son.

And the shock that the hearers are about to hear

is that, okay, they've already killed the guys previously,

so they'll probably kill the son too.

We get it.

But what is it that these tenants think is going to happen?

If we kill the son, we will get his inheritance.

On what planet does that ever happen?

You don't ever go to a lawyer and say,

listen, I know we're about to read the will,

but I've actually just offed the guy, okay?

So I'll take his place.

Is that all right?

It will never happen.

It won't happen in Jewish tradition.

It's not going to happen in,

even in corrupt societies that doesn't happen.

Well, maybe it does.

But it shouldn't.

But in the Jewish world,

there is no way that would happen.

It's a shock.

Who are these people?

And what do they think is going on in their brain?

How have they so twisted reality

that they would even think they could fool the master?

I'm working in his field.

I'll kill his son.

He won't bother us.

He'll give it to me now.

What madness have these people got?

That's the shock.

Now, the Pharisees and the chief priests,

the leaders of the temple,

they know that Yeshua is talking about them.

They know that he is talking about them

and their interpretation of the Torah

and the way that they should be caring for the people.

He is not talking about the people.

People love him.

They've just had the triumphal entry.

Some of them really do believe he is the Messiah.

They've shouted it out.

You are the son of David.

We know who you are.

It's fantastic.

Bring on the Redeemer.

But for the leaders,

they don't like this.

They want redemption to come from another way,

in their way.

And so Jesus,

he even gives them his proof text.

When he's ready to challenge and fight,

discuss with the Pharisees,

what verse does he bring?

It's not Micah 5.2.

By the way, I was born in Bethlehem,

just so you know.

Okay?

I am the Messiah.

And by the way, if you don't notice,

I'm riding on a donkey,

so I've just done Zechariah.

Okay?

You can call me Emmanuel if you like,

if anyone wants to read the book of Isaiah.

No, he goes to a psalm.

The psalms are the prayer life of the Jewish people.

If we were Jewish people,

we would gather in our synagogues

or in the temple,

and we would pray the psalms.

You think having a lectionary is a new invention?

No.

The Jewish people had it at the time of Jesus.

They read the Bible in three years.

Today, Jewish people read the Bible in one year,

but they changed that in the Middle Ages.

But at the time of Jesus,

you would read the whole Bible.

It would take you three years.

And oddly enough,

some churches still do that today.

And that's where they get that tradition from.

Okay?

The roots of our faith,

anybody who reads the text would know

that the roots of our faith

are steeped in Jewish,

in the Jewish people

and in the way that they did things.

So here, we would,

in the second table period,

we would pray the psalms.

They would be our prayers.

We would pray these.

Every month,

we would go through the entire psalms.

And there's commentaries to the psalms.

So when we pray,

we can actually sit down

and have a Bible discussion

about what it is we've prayed

and what it is we mean.

And he says,

the stone that the builders rejected

has become the capstone.

Okay?

Some translations will say the cornerstone.

But that's not quite literal.

The literal thing is the capstone.

And the capstone

is the part of the supporting arch

which has no mortar in it.

Each brick is just put side by side

and is the force of one brick against another

that actually holds

the whole structure together.

And the capstone

is the last bit you put in.

It is the most important stone

in the entire building.

Take that out

and the whole thing collapses.

Okay?

How many cornerstones

do you have in a building?

Four.

Okay?

How many Jesuses do we have?

Okay?

One.

Okay?

So he's the one up top.

And they have a little parable

that goes along with this psalm

that while they were building the temple,

because this parable

is in connection

to Jesus challenging

the temple authorities.

There's a parable

that when they were building the temple,

they were putting one stone upon another

and in large parts of the temple,

they weren't meant

to actually cut the stone.

It was meant to be a stone.

They just found a natural stone.

They find the stone

and they're trying to put it over here.

No, it doesn't fit.

So put it over here.

No, it doesn't fit.

Put it back over that way.

Turn it around.

Twist it.

No, it just doesn't fit.

So we throw it away.

It's a useless stone.

And they keep building the temple.

And then when they get

to the final stone

to put it all in place,

the force of one stone on another

will actually hold it.

They couldn't find a stone

that would fit.

They could see,

oh, look, there's this stone,

the one that we didn't want.

Let's try that one.

That one fits.

So when we talk about

the stone that the builders rejected,

they understand, again,

this is a temple,

a parable,

and I know he's talking

about us.

I tell you

that the kingdom of heaven,

the kingdom of God,

will be taken away

and given to somebody else.

The term,

the kingdom of God,

is a very Jewish term.

when Jesus always starts

all of his parables,

the kingdom of heaven

is like this.

The kingdom of heaven

is like that.

This is what it's like

to live in the kingdom

when I'm the king.

And the disciples

never stick their hands up

and say,

Lord,

what's the kingdom of heaven

because I don't understand.

The term,

the kingdom of heaven,

isn't in the Hebrew Bible.

It's not in the Old Testament.

It's in the New Testament.

It appears

in Jewish literature,

Jewish writings,

Jewish preaching traditions,

when we come back

from Babylon.

And they start asking themselves,

God is our king.

When did he become a king?

When did the kingdom of heaven start?

So when do you think?

When did God become a king?

At birth?

Well, God wasn't born,

but yes.

Some people will say,

okay,

at Pentecost.

Jesus starts the kingdom of heaven

at Pentecost.

Okay,

that's not bad.

Some people will say,

at creation,

when God made the world,

he became king.

You can't have a king

without people in it.

Right?

So you can't have

a king of nothing.

Somebody's got to be there,

so he makes the world

and God becomes a king.

It's also not bad.

That's actually one of the Jewish prayers

that we pray every day.

blessed are you,

the Lord our God,

king of the universe.

He's the king of the universe.

It's always linked to creation.

But in Jewish tradition,

the kingdom of heaven

starts when God himself

gets a people,

when he actually has people

who acknowledge his kingship,

and that's at Mount Sinai.

So,

the children of Israel

are in Egypt.

And the purpose

of the Exodus

is not to get a bunch of Hebrews

to the promised land.

Because if that was true,

then God would have given Moses

better directions.

He would have said,

okay, Moses,

you get these people

out of Egypt,

and then you turn left.

And then when you get

to the Mediterranean,

you turn right.

You can't miss it.

Left, right,

you're there.

But that was not

the purpose

of the Exodus.

What do the children

of Israel

know about God

when they're in Egypt?

They've been in Egypt

400 years.

What do they know

about God?

What do you think?

It's a very Jewish thing

to ask people questions.

Okay, he's got promises

to Abraham.

We know something

about a wandering nomad.

We don't have a Bible.

For 400 years,

we've been slaves in Egypt.

We don't have a Bible.

We don't have a prophet.

There's no one here

telling us stories

about what's going to happen.

Don't worry.

One day,

there'll be a Redeemer

and we'll get out of Egypt.

We don't have a temple.

We don't have a focal point

where we can say,

God is here.

That's one of the unique

distinctives

of the nation of Israel.

When God chose

the Jewish people,

he chose the smallest.

Yes?

The most insignificant.

Yes?

Not the most powerful.

But the unique thing

about Jewish people

is not

that they had

funny dietary laws.

That they couldn't go

to McDonald's

and have a hamburger

with cheese on it.

That wasn't special.

It's not that they had

to wear these special

funny clothes

and put things

on their heads.

Or they had to stop

one day of the week

and not work.

What was distinctive

about the people of Israel

is that their God

lived with them.

Everybody else's God

lived somewhere else.

Lived on a mountain

in Olympus.

Lived across

the Rainbow Bridge

in Asgard.

Was put

with oracles

and you had to go

so far away

to actually encounter

your God.

Israel's God

lived with them.

That's what made

them so special.

God has always

been wanting

to come and live

with them.

As soon as he got

his people out of Egypt

he says,

you build me a tabernacle.

Build me something

and I want to come

and dwell with you.

It's not that you

have to come up here.

I want to come down there.

I want to live with you.

We don't have a temple

so we have no focal point.

We don't have prophets

or priests.

So what do we know

about God?

We have the campfire stories.

We have the story

about that God

made the world

and it didn't work

out so well.

So then there was a guy

with a boat

and a rainbow.

Then there's this

wandering nomad thing

and suddenly we're here.

We don't know

anything about God.

And then God

whom we didn't know

while we were

in the land of darkness

with a mighty hand

and an outstretched arm

reached down

and took his people

out of Egypt.

And then what does he do?

He takes them

to Mount Sinai.

He brings them

to a mountain

and he comes down

and he says

I am the God

that took you

out of Egypt.

He introduces himself.

Redemption

always leads

to revelation.

What do we have

in the New Testament?

Exactly the same thing.

While I was a sinner

Christ died for me.

When I was in

the land of darkness

the Redeemer

died for me

and set me free

and he revealed himself.

I have my own personal

and you do too

your own personal

Mount Sinai experiences.

But for the Jewish people

we were in darkness

we didn't know God

and then he saved us

and he brought us

to Mount Sinai

and then he gave us

the Torah.

Then he revealed himself.

Then he became

a king.

So God becomes king

at Mount Sinai.

We accept his authority.

We don't have land.

That's not the issue.

The issue is

the kingdom of heaven.

That God is ruling

and reigning

in your life

and in your heart.

Because when you read

the Hebrew Bible

it's all about the heart.

Moses says

Deuteronomy 6.6

Write these laws

where?

On your heart.

Not on stone.

Not in a book.

Write it on your heart.

And in the Psalms

Create in me Lord

a clean hands

and clean heart.

Circumcise your heart

the prophets say.

I'll take out

your heart of stone

and I'll put in

a heart of flesh.

It's always been

about the intention

of the heart.

And here

the king

the king is ruling

and reigning

in your heart.

Where is the kingdom

of heaven?

Where is it?

As Jesus says

it's near.

Jesus says

it's within you.

Jesus says

it's here.

It's not the earth.

The earth

isn't the kingdom

of heaven.

We are the kingdom

of heaven.

The kingdom

of heaven

in Matthew

Matthew 11

since the days

of John the Baptist

until now

the kingdom

of heaven

is forcefully

advancing.

Some translations

I think we're

using the ESV

here right?

They'll say

the kingdom

of heaven

is suffering

violence.

But the NIV

says no

we're forcefully

advancing.

That's because

the Greek

the word is

biastes

and it can

either be read

passive or active

you get to pick.

And most

translations chose

the passive

but the NIV

went a bit more

aggressive

and the kingdom

of heaven

is forcefully

advancing

that even

the gates

of hell

won't withstand

it.

And the kingdom

of heaven

is slowly

but surely

building.

You and I

are members

of the biggest

gang in history.

There are over

two billion people

right

who call

Jesus Lord.

And in Israel

that

is

attractive.

Even though

the Torah

of the current

rabbis

forbid

Jewish people

from going

into a church

guess what

happens

every day

at Christchurch?

They come.

And at

Christmas Eve

they come

in huge

numbers.

So a couple

of months

ago

there was an

Orthodox group

that was inside

the church.

Orthodox.

Can you believe

that?

With the

payot

and the

tzitzit.

And we were

having a discussion

and we were

trying to

discern

some passages

from the

book of

Isaiah.

Isaiah 48.

And then in

walked a group

of secular

Jews.

So Jews

who

don't believe

in anything.

Atheists.

And the

first thing

they did

when they

saw some

Orthodox Jews

sitting inside

a church

they didn't

have any

clue of

talking to

me at

all.

They looked

at the

Orthodox and

said what

are you

doing here?

You're not

allowed to

be here.

I'm allowed

to be here.

You're not

allowed to

be here.

And so

what do

the Orthodox

do?

They started

arguing back

with the

secular people.

Don't you

tell me what

I can't do.

If I want

to be

inside a

church,

I can

be inside

a church.

If I

want to

take his

Bible,

I can

do that.

And I'm

just watching

this argument

happen and

thinking,

wow,

this is

great.

Awesome.

People

are getting

really

excited.

Israelis

often

ignore

or

currently

the Torah

of their

current rabbis.

Even though

they are

told,

don't do

this.

It's

forbidden.

Sometimes

that becomes

attractive.

You tell

people,

don't do

something,

they often

go and

do it.

So at

Christmas

Eve,

you would

think,

why do

Jewish

people want

to come

and see

what we

do at

Christmas?

You know,

this pagan

festival of

tree worship

and all this

kind of

stuff.

Oh,

man,

Israelis

love it.

So what

do we do

at Christ

Church?

We get

the biggest

tree we

can find.

We decorate

it up with

lights and

everything.

We put

presents

everywhere.

We get

Christmas

cookies and

mulled wine,

which is an

excellent

missionary tool,

by the way.

And you give

people a little

bit of a drink.

And then

Israelis would

gather in

groups of

50 and 60.

We'll have

2,500 of

them in that

one night.

We'll say,

guys,

what do you

want?

Do you want

the Maccabees or

do you want

the donuts?

Do you want

the fluff or

do you want

the real story?

And so,

no,

you tell us

the real

story.

You're great.

And I'm

going to tell

you a Jewish

story.

I'm not going

to tell you a

Christian story.

I'm going to

tell you a

Jewish story

about a

Jewish boy

born to

Jewish parents

in a

Jewish town

as the

promised

Jewish

Messiah.

And 2

billion people

are going

to read

this story

in the

next 24

hours.

You don't

want to

miss out,

do you?

No,

good,

here's the

gospel of

Luke in

Hebrew.

It's

fantastic.

The kingdom

of heaven

is growing

and building.

When you

look at the

Middle East,

it sometimes

looks pretty

bad.

And that's

because it's

true,

because it is

pretty bad.

And people

are being

killed for

their faith.

And even if

they don't

believe,

they're just

being killed

anyway,

because they're

not like

me.

And there

seems to be

lots of

darkness and

confusion,

death and

destruction and

hatred and

rage.

But in

other parts of

the Middle

East,

like Israel,

there are

more and more

people coming

to faith in

the Messiah.

Messiah.

And that

is good

news.

And that

includes

Arabs as

well as

Jews.

For Muslims,

often, when

their communities

are so

closed, Jesus

is still

reaching down

to them

into their

dreams.

And they

come to

Christ's

church dressed

in the

hijab, and

they say,

somebody came

to me last

night and

told me I

had to come

and talk

to you.

What have

you got to

say?

So we

see that the

kingdom of

God is

being given

not to

temple

authority,

but back

to the

followers of

Jesus, both

Jews and

Gentiles.

And it is a

marvelous thing

in our

eyes.

So what does

this tell me

about Jesus?

He has

authority.

He is the

one sitting on

the throne.

He can fight

back the

demons.

He has the

power over

death.

He can take

charge of

nature.

And he can

actually interpret

the Bible

correctly for

us.

He is the

one that has

authority to

teach and

to preach.

And we

should listen

to him.

When we have

the wise and

foolish builders

story, you

all know it,

yes?

The wise man

built his

house upon

the rock

and the

foolish man

built his

house upon

the sand.

And we all

forget the

very first

line of that

story.

Jesus says,

why do you

call me

Lord,

Lord,

and don't

do what I

say?

And so we

have a

master.

He is our

king.

And if the

king says to

do something,

you should do

it.

Not because

that gets you

in or out of

the kingdom,

because you're

already saved.

You were in

darkness.

You were in

the land of

Egypt.

But with a

mighty hand,

Jesus has

redeemed us.

He has become

our covering.

He has become

our protection.

He is the

Torah made

flesh.

You should do

what he says.

And what

should I do

as a follower

of the Messiah?

Well, I should

certainly take

pride away.

That pride of

inheritance.

Because I'm a

believer in

Jesus, he'll do

whatever I say.

And he'll just

give me whatever

I want.

It's the other

way around.

The Messiah has

given us his

kingdom.

He's invited us

into this eternal

life.

And there might

be bad news

out there.

And there

probably is.

When the

prophets say,

arise, shine,

for your light

has come,

the very next

sentence is,

and darkness

covers the

earth.

But the

light always

fights back

the darkness.

And so as

followers of the

Messiah, as a

teaching parable

from the

Messiah, let's

take away that

pride of

inheritance and

submit to the

king.

Because his

kingship is

good covering.

His kingship

leads to good

fruit.

And what is

the fruit?

Describe some of

what the fruit

looks like.

Peace.

patience.

Joy.

Self-control.

Imagine what the

Middle East would

look like if we

had more of

that.

Those are the

things we want.

Not the

hatred.

Not the rage.

Not people trying

to dominate the

earth.

But instead,

having the fruit

that the king

wants to inspect

in his tree.

And it can and

does and is

happening.

every day.

And for us in

the Middle East,

when we were

having rocket

attacks and

bus bombings and

things, you might

think that's pretty

dark.

But there's a

saying, there's no

atheists in

foxholes.

Have you heard of

that?

Yeah, everybody

talking about God.

You want to know

how you witness

for Jesus?

Just open the

door and start

walking on the

street.

And they say,

why are you still

here?

Why didn't you

run away, back

to Australia?

Because my

master told me I

couldn't leave.

Because I'm

supposed to be

here.

Because there's

something that we

have.

It's called hope.

When you pull

down all of the

Christian faith into

three words.

It's a very Jewish

thing to do, by the

way.

Paul says, three

words.

Faith, hope, and

love.

And the greatest

of these is?

Yeah, not faith.

For whatever

reason.

Hope is there.

And hope is

something we can

all share with

the world that

is hopeless.

When we go

outside, there's a

world out there

that if you don't

believe in God, if

this is all that

there is, it's

pretty bad.

It's pretty dark.

Because when the

lights go out,

that's it.

You take nothing

with you.

You leave nothing

behind.

That's hopeless.

But in your

eyes, people can

see hope.

In your eyes, they

can see the fire of

the kingdom of

heaven.

In your eyes, they

can see why are you

different?

Because you know

that the Messiah is

sitting on the

throne.

You know that God

is in control.

And you know that

the fruit of the

spirit is a

beautiful thing of

peace, love,

patience, joy, and

self-control.

And God's

kingdom doesn't

shrink.

He gets bigger and

bigger and bigger.

And that is good

news coming out of

the Middle East.

Shalom from

Jerusalem.