Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible podcast. Happy fall. Happy fall. It's November 1st. Yeah. Yeah. This is the actual first day of fall. Is it? in My books? This is the first day of fall. This is the fir. You know what Ellis's falling is? Tomorrow. We're falling back. That's right. See? And so you get an extra hour of sleep before church. Multiple falls. So everybody should be at church on Sunday. Just bright-eyed, bushy-tailed. Ready to go. Yeah, I just have a problem with October being fall because it's still like often a hundred degrees and, but it's not summer. October's not summer. I don't know. I It's more summer than it is winter. It depends on where you live because Yes, that's true. There's the country where October's pretty cold. That's true. When we in, we're in Kentucky. Yeah, it was definitely fall in October and it was winter in November, so, yeah. But here. I don't know. I don't know. It's like it's a hybrid. No, it's, we should invent a new season. You should create a new season for this one. Well, either way. Happy fall. 'cause it whatever you think. Yeah. Nobody disagrees that November is not fall. Right. Nobody disagrees that November is not fall. No, you, everybody agrees. Yes. That November is fall. That's where it's, yes. I was parsing and looking up what you said in the Greek to try to understand that. Yeah, no, for sure. Yeah. So there you go. Happy fall y'all. and oh, by the way. pastor Marks on the podcast, you're probably gonna hear him through Tuesday's edition, but if you're wondering and you looking for an update, pastor Rod should be back by the time you're listening to this. We're recording this on Thursday. He's planning to fly back on Friday. so continue to pray for him. his brother did go to see the Lord, on Wednesday and so it seems to have been pretty quick, once they moved him over to palliative care. But. Continue to pray for him, his family. any of you who have lost loved ones, know that the grieving process is something that lasts longer than the initial state of loss. and so pray for them. pray for his witness and impact with his family members as he is certainly a voice of clarity and, conviction and strength there. And so pray for him to be able to love them as they grieve, but also to speak truth. In a situation where there's a lot of different views on what happens with death, even as we talked about yesterday a little bit. but there's a lot of different views about what constitutes somebody who goes to heaven versus doesn't. And again, praise God. Pastor Rod's brother had a profession of faith and we believe that he is with the Lord, but Pastor Rise dealing with some family members that don't necessarily. Understand that in the same way. So just pray for him. Pray for wisdom, pray for that clarity and, and truth to go out there. But he should be back with us. And he'll be back on Sunday morning with us at church. And so, if you see him, let him know that you've been praying for him. maybe give him a hug. Let him know that you, that you love him. 'cause we do, we love Pastor Rod. That's right. That's right. Alright, well let's, let's keep going with our daily Bible reading. We've got two chapters today, Matthew 20 and 21. So we're not jumping from Matthew to a different gospel. We're gonna stay in Matthew. And so Matthew 20 opens with a, a parable and we say, well, how do we know it's a parable? Because verse one, it says, for the kingdom of heaven is alike. And so that's a huge clue. Tells us and signifies this is a parable. Sometimes you'll read, Jesus told them another parable saying, this time it's not there, but we know it is because Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like, and then he tells this story of a master who goes out and hires different people at different points during the day. And at the end of the day, this master's gonna pay them all the same amount. And the people that worked longer than the ones that worked a shorter amount of time, they feel like they've been robbed, even though as Jesus points out. I haven't robbed you of anything. I agreed with you for this amount, and that's what I paid you. But the people who worked longer think that they're entitled to more than the people who didn't work as long. And so they're protesting, they're arguing, they're saying, this is not fair, and we deserve more than what you've given us. And so Jesus is teaching. I think that, he's going to bring people from all kinds of different backgrounds and everyone is going to be eligible for. Salvation. The call is gonna go out far and wide. In fact, he's gonna tell that in other parables in, in the future, and those that maybe grew up in the Christian home or those at this time that were growing up in, in Judaism, in strict Judaism, they may be incensed that the offer of the kingdom is for people that, got to the party late, so to speak, just as much as it is an offer for them. And Jesus is telling them, no it's my prerogative as the king to be able to bring whoever I want to into the kingdom. Yeah. Do you think this is, do you think that this is a story about. The people of Israel and the Gentiles, or do you think that this is more literally, for lack of a better word, a description of people who came to salvation at different points in life? Maybe some at five, maybe some at 20, maybe some at 60? Yeah. I think the application is valid on both of those circumstances. I do think. Contextually in what's going on here in his interaction with the Pharisees and then you consider the parable of the wedding feast that we'll get to in a couple days. Here I think this has more to do with. The different mix of people that are gonna be brought into the kingdom than it does what's, what age or what timeframe somebody is saved. Because even at this point they don't really have a concept of a moment of conversion. Yeah. Because they're growing up in Judaism and so they're growing up. Studying the Torah. They're growing up, going to temple. They're growing up under the sacrificial system. They're not growing up going, well, I've been a juice since I was, yeah, they've always been Totally, it was a biological, it was a genetic thing. Yeah. It was a nationalistic thing. It was a religious thing as well but it wasn't a moment in time conversion the way that we think of it is, and so I. I think what Jesus is more alluding to is, Hey, there's gonna be people that, that are gonna be in the kingdom, and you're gonna think, man, what are you doing here? You don't have any right to be here. I, I've been here much longer. It's the parable of the prodigal son, right? Yeah. So it's not just the Gentiles, but it's also the tax collectors and the sinners that he's talking about bringing into the kingdom because the older brothers thinking, wait a minute, I've been here the whole time. I deserve more than they do. And Jesus says, everything I have is yours. And yet this older brother came back, we should celebrate that. So, yeah, I'm with you there. I'm with you there. Yeah. And I think if you have been a Christian, maybe it is for a long time, at least in this life or maybe you come from that Christian household. I think it can be tempting to, to look down on believers. I'm not sure it's a common temptation, but I think it is a very legitimate temptation to look down on believers. That come from different backgrounds. What? And that could even be ethnic. That could be ethnic. Yeah. but come from different places. Come from different things. And you can think of yourself as superior or better deserving somehow of salvation, than others. I think that is a temptation we can face. Yeah. Yeah. And it's one that we need to put to death for sure. That's right. Yeah. Matthew records the bold request here, and yet he says here that it was the mom of James and John who comes to make the request, the wife of Thunder, who comes to, to make the request. but still in verse 23, they apparently are in hardy agreement with this request. So whether it was them. That made the request or their mom the mom was making the request on their behalf. It's still tone deaf to what Jesus has been talking about because right before this, again, he has predicted his death and the suffering that's going to happen and awaits him. And they're going, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's great but really, who's gonna be in the positions of power? And so you have that interaction again. And then it ends with blind Bartimaeus again in Matthew chapter 20 here. in verses 29 through 34, this time you've got them approaching Jericho and Matthew there in verse 30 says, again, we talked about this yesterday, but behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside and when they heard Jesus was passing by, they cried out, Lord have mercy on us, son of David. and so there's two in Matthew's account. There's one in Mark's account. This is not a situation to take your Bible and go, oh no, I need to get a new Bible. I need to find a new religion. I need a new God. This is rather us saying, wait a minute. Is there a reason here? And we talked about some of that yesterday. If you didn't listen to yesterday's episode, this is a great time to say, let's go back and listen to yesterday's episode. 'cause we give you some insight as to why there might be a difference in number there. Yeah, I think we should be thankful there's multiple gospels too. I think this is a good opportunity to be thankful for that, that God provided us. Abundant evidence of the account of Jesus' life. And he did it through these gospels. Yeah. And I think we could be tempted to want just one transcript of it. but God and his wisdom gave us multiple, and rather than doubting, I think we should be thankful. Yeah. No, I agree. And it gives us a more, more well-rounded picture of the life of Christ. Yeah. And remember and I don't wanna take this for granted, so you've got Matthew, mark, Luke, and John. Matthew and John are the only two eyewitness accounts that were penned by the actual eyewitnesses. Matthew was there for his earthly ministry, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, and so was John. You've got. Then Luke and Luke identifies himself as a physician and Luke was researching or looking for to provide an orderly account to this guy named Theophilus, who was probably a benefactor that to, to say, Hey, okay, I'll look into this and find out what happened there. Luke has great attention to detail mm-hmm. In his accounts there. And then you've got Mark and History teaches us from the very earliest times that Mark was Peter's biographer, so, mm-hmm. Peter sat down with Mark, and Mark was the one that was writing down Peter's account of things. Still, mark is one step removed because it's him recording Peter's eyewitness account, not Peter directly recording it. So the gospels, Matthew, mark, Luke, and John. You've got two written by eyewitnesses who were on the ground for all of it. That's Matthew and John. You've got Luke, who was a physician. Committed to detail and pro providing an orderly account. And then you've got Mark, who was, again, Peter's biographer. So all of them reliable, all of them gonna give different perspectives though, just based on some of those things. Yeah. And there's plenty of people that are skeptical about the Bible out there, and they're gonna point to some of these things and say, look at these contradictions. Yet, if you go out and study. any sort of history, world history, American history, et cetera, you're gonna get accounts that are far more disparate than this. Oh, for sure. And there's gonna be a lot of debate about things that, are far more significant in impact than any of the sort of the things that people will contend. Right. break the legitimacy of the Bible. Right, right. And just in case you're still. Shaken by these things. Let me remind you, so Bart Airman is one of the leading critics of the reliability of the Bible. He is one of the leading voices that questions do, did Jesus actually say the things that he said? But when it comes to the manuscript reliability of the Bible, he points to all of the textual variants that exist out there. All of the, this manuscript says this, this manuscript says this, and even Bart Airman himself claims there's not one that exists that calls into question. Any key tenant or major doctrine of Christianity. Yeah. Which is stunning. And this guy knows his stuff. He does. Absolutely. He is very smart, very intellectual. yeah. He's made the wrong conclusions. That's right. But, yeah. And he says, your faith should not be shaken based on sexual variance. And that's from somebody who's not a believer. Yeah. Who's making that statement. So, be encouraged that the bible that we have is reliable and even those that are the enemies of. God, the enemies of Christianity have to admit and have to be brought to the reliability of the text that we have. Alright, Matthew 21. we get here the first, I think our first account that we've covered so far in the podcast of the triumphal entry. So this is Jesus entering into Jerusalem. This is the kickoff of the Passion week. The passion week is the final week of Jesus'. Earthly ministry. And so this is beginning, this is the Sunday before the resurrection Sunday. So during this week of Jesus' life, he is going to have the more opportunities for teaching. He's gonna cleanse the temple. We're gonna see here in Matthew, I think this is the second cleansing of the temple personally. But he's going to have that, he's going to have the upper room, he's going to have the betrayal of Judas, he's going to have the institution of. Of communion in the Lord's Supper. He's going to have the Garden of Gethsemane and the prayer time there, he's going to have the arrest by the Jewish leaders there. He's gonna have the trials, he's gonna have the mockery, he's gonna have the crucifixion, the resurrection. All of this is gonna take place within a week, and this kicks it off here with the triumphal entry. Isn't it amazing that he comes in on a donkey? Yeah. We think of that as like very humble and I guess in some ways it is, but. A, a donkey spoke volumes to the people who were there, who were watching. it, it says a lot. He's not on a war chariot behind horses. He's on a donkey, which was commonplace for people in authority and government. And, to write on that was a common thing. So during Times of peace. During times of peace, right? Yeah. Not, yeah, not with the war chariots, but, during times of peace. but it does speak volumes to. What's happening? Well, and I preach this way when I preach through John, but I still am. It's it. Flabbergast me that Jesus steps directly into the fulfillment of Zacharia nine, nine here. Yes. as many times as he said, it's not my time. It's not my time. It's not my time. The reason the crowds respond the way that they do is because they see him coming on the donkey and they know being biblically literate. That this is the fulfillment of Zechariah nine. Nine. Yep. And there was so much fervor, messianic fervor around him to this point that now this is them going, our suspicions are confirmed. Yep. And even for his followers, his followers are some of the ones leading the charge here. And so this is the, that moment and Jesus doesn't push it down. Yeah. In fact, later on he's gonna tell the religious leaders, he's gonna say if they don't cry out, God's gonna, he's gonna make the rocks cry out. Yeah. So Jesus just steps right into this. And yet. He came to be a much different Messiah than these people thought he was going to be. Yeah. And these people also are not missing the fact that King Solomon rode in on a donkey when David placed him on the throne. Yeah. They're not missing these things. Yep. I'm sure some of them here, there are, but the people know these things about, the Bible, the people in this crowd, at least. Yep. Yeah. After this we get the cleansing of the temple, Matthew 21, verse 12 through 14. Again I think this is a second temple cleansing. Some think that there was only one temple cleansing, but I struggle with that just because. I don't think John would've made such a glaring error to front load his gospel with the cleansing of the temple, right after the turning water to wine at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry and then forget that. Actually it was three years later and it was right after the triumphal entry, and it was right before his crucifixion. So I think there was. Twice that he did this. And I think that lines up, Jesus is bookending his public ministry by saying, there's a problem here. This system is corrupt and it needs to be cleansed. It needs to be transformed. And so he announces his arrival with that, and then he kind of announces his impending departure the same way by going in and saying, we need this needs reformation, this needs, a total transformation. And the cleansing ultimately that he's gonna provide is gonna come through the cross in, in a matter of days. Yeah, that's right. And he's. You could try to metaphorically apply this in a bunch of ways, but I think we can do that and then miss the true point of what's going on here, which is that, true temple worship belongs to God and Jesus is correcting what's not happening, right? He's overturning the tables for the sake of. Reclaiming his house. Yeah. Yep, yep. And this is the point where the Jews wants to stop the worship of the people. And Jesus says there in 21, 15 through 17, he says, Hey if they are not gonna praise me, then the very stones are gonna open up their mouths and praise me, as they're leaving. Then he passes by a fig tree and there's no figs there. And it wasn't fig season. And so Jesus curses this fig tree, and this wasn't. A moment of impetuous anger for our savior. This was a teaching moment for him because he's really indicting Israel. Again, all of this, the cleansing of the temple, the cursing of the fig tree. This is showing. What's happening right now, the present system is broken and is not the way that God wants it to be. And this is right as he's about to go to the cross and in this key moment, that is the pivot point for the brand new thing that God's gonna do through, not a system of adherence to the law and adherence to Risa tradition and hypocrisy, but now through faith and repentance in Christ. So, you've got this fig tree interaction here that Jesus is going to use as a, an object lesson to. Remind the people, Hey, there's a problem going on with Israel right now. I know we've talked about this before, but let me just ask you this question. If we have enough faith, can we move mountains to Texas? Yes, you can. So that we can go skiing in the winter. Yeah. It's just nobody has enough faith. So, I will say this, no. However, I will say, I think one of the dangers that maybe our camp runs into is we undersell this. I think there's a lot that we as believers leave on the table because our faith is small. we talked about divorce yesterday. You know, I think there's a lot of marriages that are broken right now that God is waiting to, not waiting in the sense of, well, if you just, then I would, but I think there are a lot of marriages right now that, that. With some more faith in what God can truly do. You could see some pretty powerful things take place as far as reconciliation and lives being turned around in things. So, I don't think this is permission for us to say, no, we're gonna, we're gonna see this mountain move. But I do think it's something for us to say, man, faith is a lot more powerful than we give it credit for. Yeah. And we are rightly hesitant about prosperity gospel teaching, right? We don't believe that God is going to just give you all the worldly possessions that you could possibly want. He's not going to, give you health, wealth, and all the things just because you, have enough quantifiable faith to Right, to meet the metrics necessary. We don't believe that, right. But I think we can, and you make this point, I think we can, because we're nervous about prosperity Gospel teaching, throw out this entire. Truth, right? Yeah. We can just be like, ah, you know, Nope, nope, we're not gonna go there. But I mean, it's a promise here. Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith. Yeah, yeah. No, for sure, for sure. Well, the chapter goes on and you've got this interesting interaction where the Pharisees challenged Jesus to say, by what authority are you doing these things? He's really flexing big time. And so they're gonna say, whose authority are you doing these things? If they'd been listening to him all add John chapter five, John chapter six, they would've known whose authority is doing. Things on, and I think they knew what he was gonna say. I think again, they're waiting for, is this the moment that we can get him and accuse him of blasphemy and then nail him to the cross, but Jesus masterfully turns it back on them and says, well, why don't you tell me about John's baptism? And they don't want to answer because they know that they can't win. They don't believe that it was from God, but they fear the people. And so that. They don't say that it was from God, then the people are gonna write against them. So they say, well, we don't know. And Jesus says, well, it's, I'm not gonna tell you either. And it's not because Jesus didn't have an answer or didn't want to answer, but it's not his hour yet. It is his hour in the sense that it's the beginning of the week that is gonna be, that's gonna lead to his hour, but it's not his hour yet. And so he's keeping them at bay with that. Yeah. This is masterful. This is masterful. It shows the wisdom and really the glory of Jesus here in, in his ability to discern what's going on and to. To succinctly, shut them down. Yeah. Yeah. Then you've got two more parables as the chapter ends, the parable of the two sons, which as a dad, I always chuckle that because there's the one son that says, yeah, sure dad, I'll do it. And doesn't do it. And there's the other son that's like, no, I'm not gonna do that. And then ends up going to do it. And the question Jesus says is, which is the one that was justified? And clearly the answer is the one that did it. Even though initially he was rejecting he was standing man. The one that, that eventually came around and agreed to be obedient is the one that is commendable and Jesus is saying. That's what we need to do. You've got the Pharisees, who on the outside seem to have all the right answers. Look, father, we're here to serve you. We're gonna do this, but they're not obeying the son, which shows that they're not really in. And then you've got people that may be on the outset aren't obeying God, but then respond to Jesus and they are gonna obey the son and they're the ones that are gonna be in the kingdom. Yeah. Be careful in your community groups that you don't say that you're doing all these things. You don't. Use Christianese language, just to convince other people that, you are doing the right things, and the reality is you go home and you live just like the world. Be careful that you're honest, and that you, tell people who you're close to. And I use community groups 'cause that's how our church is designed to work. Yep. to build those relationships, build those trust, be honest with those people. Have to be brutally honest, but, you know, don't fake it. when you're actually not doing any of the things that God has called you to do, that's not gonna actually help you benefit you in any way. A hundred percent agree. Yeah. Yeah. The final parable then is the parable of the tenets. And this is really about the history of Israel. That's coming to a point at this moment. because he tells about the vineyard and the. People that he leased it to, the tenants being Israel, and he'd sent his servants and his servants were the prophets, the people in the Old Testament, the prophets that went to Israel and were looking for fruit from the nation as God expected it and there was none. And they abused the prophets. They ignored the prophets, they even killed some of the prophets. And so finally he sends his son and that's meant to land with us. As you read that, that's meant for you to go, wait a minute. The son of God is telling this story. Who's the son? It's the one telling the story, right? And so they're gonna say, this is the heir. This is the one. So they're gonna kill him and think that their problem is done. And yet they don't realize that, that is the worst thing that they could possibly do. And the father's response is one of judgment and, merciless judgment against them that do this. And Jesus quotes from Psalm, one 18 There, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. And that we saw in our study of one Peter as well. So, one Peter two, seven. That, that is applied to Christ as well. And so, the one that was rejected is really the choice one the precious one. And that is Jesus. Yeah. Jesus knows what's coming to him. you can be certain that his death was planned for you. His death on the cross was not just a. Coincidence, it wasn't, just, the making of a bad situation into a good situation. This is not just the only place that demonstrates this, but Jesus knows what's coming to him and he knows what he's about. he's the one who, from the very beginning, is going to deliver that crushing blow to the serpents head. And he knows that. He knows that. and here's an awesome place where he demonstrates that. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, hey, let's pray and then we'll be done with this episode. God. We thank you for your word and for our time in it today, and we just pray that we would be sensitive to live it out. We pray that we would please you in the way that we take these truths and apply them to our lives. We thank you for Christ. We thank you for your sacrifice on our behalf, and we pray for a great rest of our day. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Keep reading your Bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Bye y'all. Bye.

​Well, thank you for listening to another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast, folks! We're honored to have you join us. This is a ministry of Compass Bible Church in north Texas. You can find out more information about our Church at compassntx.org. We would love for you to leave a review, to rate, or to share this podcast on whatever platform you're listening on, and we hope to see you again tomorrow for another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast. Ya'll come back now, ya hear? Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said