A parable for the disciples to address their spiritual covetousness.

Day three of the Passion week:

 

While walking along on Solomon’s porch His authority is questioned:

 

Matt 21:23-27

 

Question of tribute to Caesar: Was Jesus a nationalist?

Matt 22:15-22

 

Mark 12:13-17

 

The widow’s mite:

 

Luke 21:1-4

 

Mark 12:41-44

 

Greeks seek to speak to Jesus and Jesus’ last appeal to Israel:

 

John 12:20-36

 

The Sadducees and the resurrection:

 

Matt 22:23-33

 

 

 

Then we saw the lawyer, a scribe, who questioned the Lord on the greatest commandment.

 

Matt 22:34-40

 

Mark 12:28-34

 

/The Lord question to the Pharisees about David’s Son and Lord.\

 

Matt 22:41-46

 

Christ’s Farewell to the Temple, to its authorities, and to Israel and it wasn’t a pleasant farewell.

 

As might have been expected, we have the report of it in Matthew’s Gospel - the Gospel of the King.

 

The Lord presents a regular series of charges against the representatives of Judaism, formulated in logical manner, taking up successively one point after the other, and closing with the expression of deepest compassion and longing for that Jerusalem, whose children He would fain have gathered under His sheltering wings from the storm of Divine judgment. But alas, it was not to be.

 

Free will baby, free will.

 

Matt 23

 

Parables given during the third day:

 

The Laborers and the vineyard:

 

Matt 19:30-20:16

"But many who are first will be last; and the last, first.

20 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner [God] who went out early in the morning [around 6am] to hire laborers for his vineyard [kingdom]. 2 "And when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 "And he went out about the third hour [around 9am] and saw others standing idle in the market place; 4 and to those he said, 'You too go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' And so they went [they trusted him to give them what was due]. 5 "Again he went out about the sixth [noon] and the ninth hour [3pm], and did the same thing. 6 "And about the eleventh hour [7pm]he went out, and found others standing; and he said to them, 'Why have you been standing here idle all day long?' 7 "They said to him, 'Because no one hired us.' He said to them, 'You too go into the vineyard.' 8 "And when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.' [the last group is first so that the first group will see the grace of the landowner - this may well be the pattern of the Bema seat judgment] 9 "And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. 10 "And when those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; and they also received each one a denarius. 11 "And when they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, 12 saying,' These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.' 13 "But he answered and said to one of them, 'Friend [believers], I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 'Take what is yours and go your way, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 'Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?' [spiritual covetousness] 16 "Thus the last shall be first, and the first last."

 

It is unknown if this parable was spoken a few months before in Perea or if it was spoken on this third day. Since it is a question and not definite, we should mentioned it here because of its relevance.

 

The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. That is never truer than it is right now.

 

We have to go back a few verses to put this parable in context.

 

Speaking to the rich man who was convinced that he kept the 10 commandments but was still lacking, the Lord told him to go and sell all that he had. Why? His riches were a hindrance.

 

It is better to be poor on earth and rich in the spiritual life than vice versa.

 

This parable is not for the rich man or the legalist that surround the Lord, but for the disciples. Peter will speak his fears and make this clear.

 

 

Matt 19:23-27

And Jesus said to His disciples, "Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 "And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."  25 And when the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, "Then who can be saved?" 26 And looking upon them Jesus said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." 

 

The question the disciples bring is one of misunderstanding. “If the rich man who kept the law in his own eyes can’t be saved then who can?”

 

I would have asked the same question if I were them and if I didn’t have the NT or the filling of God the Holy Spirit.

 

“He kept most of the commandments Lord, if it’s hard for him then who gets saved?”

 

Now slow down and think about their thinking.

 

“If he has a hard time then who gets saved?” They are thinking in comparatives and not in absolutes.

 

When it comes to salvation it is a matter of absolutes. It is a matter of, “who is the Christ, what do you think of Christ, and who’s son is He?”

 

It’s not a matter of how many commands you keep or if you even keep them at all.

 

And, as is this lesson for the disciples, the absolutes don’t stop at salvation, they continue after salvation throughout the Christian way of life.

 

You are either in fellowship or out of fellowship. You are either in the plan of God or out of the plan of God. The Christian way of life is not a competition with other believers as to who is most in fellowship. That thinking only leads to competition amongst men.

 

The Christian way of life is your very own personal relationship with God, and it is your own. It’s not measured relative to someone else. It either is or it isn’t.

 

 

 

If my relationship with Christ is personal then I am not in competition with anyone. And neither am I in competition with myself to achieve some standard since Christ fulfilled the standard, which is perfect righteousness.

 

Many believers think the CWL is a fight with their OSN in which good and evil compete for their soul, but that is misleading. The sin nature has been defeated at the cross. It was crucified with Christ; therefore confession of personal sin is the absolute victory over the sin nature.

 

This is what sets you free as a believer. God looks upon the heart, not the outward appearance. But man continues to judge the outward, because that’s what he sees and he loves to judge.

 

What are you before God? Are you good in the flesh or are you pleasing to Him in your heart? Do you think like Him, do you love like Him, do you forgive like Him, are you meek like Him?

 

This is why the Lord begins with it and ends with it: “the first will be last and the last will be first.”

 

The Lord’s reply fits the PPOG. Man cannot save himself, but God can do what most think is impossible.

 

 

 

Do you think it is impossible? Why? Because you are a sinner? Because you keep a moral law but still feel empty?  The rich man followed rules and did them, but one commandment he could not keep without faith and that is the first.

 

You shall set no other gods above Me.