Mission 66 (English podcast)
Matthew 22 Trick Questions and Perfect Answers
Many of our troubles and confusions happen because we do not know the truth of the Bible. Many people understandably have an opinion about faith and about religion, but many have never actually allowed the truth, the power and the freedom of the Bible to wash over them and really, truly impact their souls. So let me ask you friend, have you read this book of life, the Bible? This is Mission 66. Your deep dive into the 66 books of the Bible brought to you by Bible teacher and pastor Dr. Luis Ciao in collaboration with Transworld Radio. Let me remind you to download your free study guide of the Gospels. You'll be able to go deeper into God's word and follow along with each day's program. That's a great companion resource of the audio teaching of John Matthews and Esther Sussulu. To get your free study guide of the Gospels, visit mission66.org. That's mission66.org. Get ready for an impactful session as John Matthews along with his co-host Esther Sussulu guide us through today's study. My dear friend, Mission 66 is here once again to lead us through this path and to knowledge of the truth in the Bible. This is the series of studies in the Gospels and I am so privileged to be your host. My name is Esther. Now the enemies of Christ are often good at posing hypothetical situations or trick questions hoping to catch us in our words. They certainly did it to Jesus and you can be guaranteed that they may try to do it to you and me. Well, today our teacher John Matthews is going to look closely at chapter 22 of the book of Matthew with today's theme, trick questions and perfect answers. Hi John. Hello, Esther. Great to be with you and great to be with each and every one of you listening to Mission 66 today. So good to be with you as we reach the 22nd chapter of Matthew and where Jesus reaches a seismic week in the history of mankind. He arrives at the city of Jerusalem on his last week here on earth knowing that the mission he has to accomplish is going to involve huge suffering and an execution at the hands of hypocritical religious leaders of the day who hated him. And we'll find in the very beginning of this chapter the parable of the wedding banquet and Jesus begins by saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a kingdom of heaven king who gave a wedding feast for his son and he sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come." Again, he sent other servants saying, "Tell those who are invited see, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fatted calves have been slaughtered. Everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast." But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully and killed them. The king was angry and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Can you imagine the outrage this king felt, offering to host a lavish wedding banquet for these people and instead of being grateful they insult and kill the messengers. You delivered the very invitation and then he said to his servants, "The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find." And the servants went out into the road and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good, so the wedding hall was filled with guests. Only Jesus is making it clear that whilst the religious leaders and most actually of his own people are rejecting his invitation, there are others who are not on the top of the list. The outsiders, if you're like some considered, the most maligned and ill thought of in that society, criminals, thieves, people of no reputation. These are the ones who gladly accept this generous invitation from the king and will go to this great banquet. And you know this idea of a great banquet is not just powerful imagery, friends. It's real and a great banquet is coming and it's going to be hosted by the king of kings and the lord of lords, the commander in chief of the heavenly host who will sit down at the great feast with all the people of the world who believed in Jesus, who accepted his offer of forgiveness and with his help, tried their best to hold on to his word through good times and bad. And there will be people there that nobody expects to see or expected to see, but there may be others, the ones who were first invited, who will be shut out. There will come a moment of utter realization for many of these people and as a result many will try to get in, but they will be turned away. Listen to this in verse 11, this is Jesus saying, "But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment, and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness, in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen.'" Well, I mean, it's important, isn't it, to understand that in those days when someone went to a banquet such as the one Jesus is talking about an earthly banquet anyway, they would receive specific garments that they were expected to wear during the wedding and the banquet, and what happens here, well, this invited guest rejects the clothes that were given for him to wear, saying to himself, 'They can't tell me what to wear. I'll decide myself what to wear, thank you.' But what is being highlighted here by Jesus? Well, this is pride, pride and self-will, self-righteousness, and it's costly, so costly because it gets this man thrown into the darkness. When we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior, He clothes us with a robe of His own righteousness, a robe that we did not earn, did or could never have created, did not and could never buy, did not design, it's a robe that was fashioned in the heavens, which all are expected to wear, in other words, we dare not approach God in robes of our own self-righteousness, which are wrinkled, dirty, but we are to allow ourselves to be clothed with His perfect righteousness. This man's presumption, showing up at the banquet in his regular street clothes, dishonored his host, and if anyone thinks that they can attend King Jesus' wedding banquet without that beautiful and magnificent robe of righteousness that He freely offers to give us, each and every one of us, we will be sorely disappointed and perhaps even lost for eternity. And then in verse 15, it says that the Pharisees went out and they plotted how they might trap Jesus in His words, so they thought up some trick questions. Remember our theme today is trick questions and perfect answers. Before we read though, this, a little bit of background information. Before we read that though, a little bit of background information is always helpful because back in Jesus' time, there were different groups of Jews who believed different things. So you had the Pharisees, they were the more orthodox, the literalists, and then you had the Sadducees who were influenced by Greek philosophy. Then you've got the Herodians who were, well, they were into the politics of the time and they favored Roman rule. Then there were the zealots who were against Roman rule. There were also the ascends who lived separated from the community. And you know, each of these groups thought they were right and they often argued amongst themselves, but the one thing that they had in common was their hatred of Christ. So they posed these trick questions to try and corner Jesus or put him in an uncomfortable situation hoping to accuse him of saying something wrong. Verse 16, "And they sent their disciples to him." Verse 16 says, "And they sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians saying, 'Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully. Just look at these men here and they're sly intentions. They're, of course, they're being false. You do not care about anyone's opinion for you or not swayed by appearances. Tell us then what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" These are being very devious to these people. If Jesus said anything against the government, then they would be able to report him to the Romans as being treasonous. And if he said yes, they could tell people he was in league with the Romans and he would be made unpopular. You see, among the Jews, there were those who were in favor of paying taxes to Rome and then there were those who were against it. Jesus realized these men had evil intentions and that they were trying to trick him. And so he confronts them by saying, "Why put me to the test, you hypocrites. Show me the coin for the tax." And they brought him a denarius and Jesus said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" And they said, "All Caesar's." And then he said to them, "Therefore, give to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar and give to God the things that belong to God." And when they heard it, they marveled and they left him and they went away. What a trick question it was, but what a perfect answer. Jesus says to them, "Look here, you have responsibilities both before God and before the state. Stop trying to get me to contradict myself. His answer is perfect and everyone was simply in awe of his wisdom and understanding. But one trick question it seems is not enough because here comes another. The Sadducees this time who did not believe in resurrection, they come to Jesus and they decide to test his theology by saying in verse 24, "Teacher, Moses said, 'If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.' Now there were seven brothers among us, the first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. So do the second and third, right down to the seventh, after them all the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be, for they all had her?" You need to understand that in biblical times when a husband died, his wife would then marry his brother and he would be the one responsible for his late brother's wife. And so the Sadducees who loved Greek thinking began to try to get Jesus into trouble by saying, "See, it is not possible for resurrection to exist." And they present this difficult enigma complex question to see how Jesus would get out of it. Well, how does Jesus answer? Well, it's a trick question with yet another perfect answer. This is what Jesus says. You are wrong because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God, for in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God? I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not God of the dead, but of the living. And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. Jesus makes the Sadducees fall silent by explaining that we cannot think about resurrected life in the same way that we think of life here, there will be no marriage in eternity. And he was also saying that the forefathers, even though they have died, were still alive, risen. God is the God of the living and we will live if we obey the gospel. Okay, John, well, you made a very interesting statement by saying there will be no marriage in eternity. I guess the question then is why won't they be marriage in heaven? I can kind of imagine like a collective side globally from all the young people, young people and teenagers. Why won't they be marriage in heaven? You might even hear a collective side from the older folk as well, Esther and those who have worked hard to hone and refine marriage through good times and bad. Sometimes the gold in the marriage comes later on. Well, you're right. The truth is Esther. The church is known as the bride of Christ. We will be married to Christ. How's that? I'm not trying to be difficult or controversial, but listen, things are going to be different in heaven. What perfection that lasts and lasts, if we could just get a glimpse of it, we would never be concerned about this question again because none of the things that bother us about life here on earth will matter there because it will be so perfect and good that we won't miss marriage that we may experience here on earth. Okay, I think I can receive that, but won't heaven be similar to earth? I mean, didn't God the creator create the world originally to reflect his divine beauty and order, which perhaps also includes marriage? Yeah, you're right. God did create what we call the material world, the physical world, according to his perfect design and his creative genius. Just a thought here, but astronomers say there are probably more than 170 billion galaxies in the observable universe. The hands of this master designer flinging stars and galaxies even into space and this God, wherever you are listening to this today, wants to come and live and guide your heart and life. This enormous, inexplicable, undescribable God wants to come into your heart. That's just extraordinary. And even if we narrow our thinking down to our very own planet, just go and spend some time staring at the full moon over a lakeside or even something as simple as a butterfly and say there is no God. And this is all the result of some kind of chance. Well, back to the question in hand, because in this life, marriage and procreation have its purpose, but have nothing to do with our essence or our soul per se. This world is the reality for us here and now. But what's coming is so much better, so much so that we can't comprehend it. I don't even venture to speculate what it will be like because we just don't know. We might see a cartoonist here or their picture heaven as a bunch of angels sitting on clouds. Likewise, they may picture hell as a cave with a flame here or there and a devil with horns poking people with pitchforks. Well, those are pictures I think to remove from our minds altogether because heaven will be infinitely better than we think. It will be so good and it only gets better as the time goes by. I don't mean time like days and weeks because there will be no sun and moon needed. But there will be sequence, it just won't be marked as we mark it now. I don't know how it will be because God doesn't want us to see it yet. He wants us to be faithful even though we cannot see it. But remember that hell will be worse than we think as well. And listen to the reality and the truth is that it is forever. Christ offers salvation with open arms. Come to him. Well, this is Mission 66 and I'm your host Esther and our teacher John Matthews as you heard is shining the light on the account in Matthew 22 where the Pharisees and the Sadducees were trying to throw him with trick questions and trying to trap him in his words. And he always responded with the perfect answers. Now as we continue, John will tell us about another confusing situation caused by the Pharisees. Yes, Esther. You know, when they find out that Jesus had embarrassed the Sadducees with the perfect answer to their trick question, what did they do? Well, they called in an expert in the law of Moses and then questioned Jesus in this way, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law, hoping here that Jesus would stumble into a contradiction. And Jesus replied, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment and this is found in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and the second is like it, you shall love your neighbour as yourself and that one shows up in Leviticus 19. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. Now the Pharisees were great experts and had counted 613 commandments in the law of Moses and paid particular attention to the Ten Commandments found in Exodus chapter 20, but Jesus then sums it all up in only two commandments, which he says are the foundation for the entire law and the prophets, love God and love people. Well, that shut the Pharisees up and closer to the end of chapter 22, Jesus asks them a question of his own by saying, What do you think about the Christ? You son is he and they say to him, Well, the son of David because the Messiah would have to come from David's lineage and he said to them, How is it then that David in the spirit calls him Lord saying, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet from Psalm 110. If David calls him Lord, how is he son and no one was able to ask him a word nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions. Jesus naturally did not deny that he himself was the Messiah, the son of the genealogical line of King David, but at the same time he reveals that he's more than just a son because David refers to him as Lord, making it clear that the Messiah is also Lord, also King and also divine. Now, John, here in Matthew 22, Jesus says that there are many that are invited, but few are chosen. What exactly does this mean? Yeah, this is, it is a good question because the nation of Israel Esther, they're often referred to as the chosen people and many of the Jewish people accepted Jesus as Messiah and Jesus reminded if you remember the woman at the well in John 4 that salvation is of the Jews. Now, remember the early church begins in Jerusalem and it spreads out from there, but the apostle Paul though wrote in Romans, they are not all Israel who are of Israel. All being Jewish himself loved his own people so much that he wished that he could be damned himself if it would mean that his people could all understand and follow Christ and accept him. But more specifically the Bible, as you mentioned there in your question, it talks about the elect or the ones who are chosen by God to receive salvation through Christ, but the question comes back to us, doesn't it, because God's sovereignty does not cancel out our free will. So, this is the thing, everybody is invited to believe Jesus and receive salvation and kingdom status in heaven. But most sadly rejected choosing rather to enjoy life in the here and the now and live for other things and they carelessly ignore God some forever, some until it's too late. So my gentle question to you, this episode listener, if you are invited, which you are, are you willing to accept the invitation because it's in the acceptance of the invitation that you are chosen? Jesus is waiting for your answer. Well, speaking of questions, John, I do have one coming from verse 21 of Matthew 22. And you know, this is a very well-known quote that many tend to quote, "Render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." You know, I wonder if this verse is sometimes misused. What do you think? Well, yeah, I think what Jesus was saying in response to this trick question is it's possible to be both good citizens, but also good followers of God. If you honor God, you will also actually be a good citizen of your country. That follows, doesn't it? It works best when government tends to the duties set out for them by God, which is the maintenance of a civil society. And also the church lends support by paying taxes, we're told to do that. Jesus did it and our government officials are worthy of, you know, their salaries. The church should pray for government and also be a voice of conscience for society. I think the problem sometimes comes when, you know, either side oversteps their boundaries. For example, the church should not expect the government to solve problems which God has entrusted to the church, like benevolence, relief work, the work of salvation, and government should not try to interfere with evangelism or tell the church how it should reach, teach or preach people. And if this happens, then the Bible is clear. We obey God rather than man. Yeah. And you know, I think that Jesus is also saying that the government is legitimate, even though it is imperfect. Yeah. The powers and authorities are established by God, but there are limits to their authority. So we're not to rebel. You know, the kingdom of God will not be established with riots and political revolutions, but we know that no government on earth is perfect. Nowhere does Jesus say that taxes or any government actions are all necessarily going to be fair? Nor does He say that the government should be obeyed without question. And we can all, can't we point to examples of abuse of power on both sides? And besides all of that, each of us should remember that God is keeping careful note of what we do and the state of our hearts and bear that in mind as we live our lives, whether we're in the church government, or indeed both. Well, some great points were made in today's episode of Matthew chapter 22. And as always, we want to summarize some of those important points made. So John, how do we do that today? Yeah. Well, it was really interesting, wasn't it, Esther, to observe these trick questions that were thrown at Jesus and His truthful answers. Jesus always knew how to answer those who came with wicked intentions to trip Him up or discredit Him. Perhaps the key-verse of this chapter could be when Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God." You know, most of our troubles and confusion happens because we do not know the truth of the Bible. Many people understandably have an opinion about faith and religion, but many have never actually allowed the truth, the power, and the freedom of the Bible to wash over them and impact and change their souls. So let me ask you, friend, have you read this book of life, "The Bible?" It's one of the most important questions that we can ask ourselves, and it's this, what do we think of Christ? And it is on that question, friend, that we leave you here on Mission 66. It's been a wonderful journey through the Book of Matthew 22, and we look forward to joining you on our next program as we continue in the series of studies. I'm Esther, and I look forward to seeing you next time. Goodbye. As we close today's program, let me remind you to download your free study guide of the Gospels. You'll be able to go deeper into God's Word and follow along with each day's program. It's a great companion resource of the audio teaching of John Matthews and Esther Susullo. To get your free study guide of the Gospels, visit Mission66.org. That's Mission66.org. It's a great resource. You can also support the Ministry of Mission 66 when you visit the site. It will help continue the program here and around the world. Mission66 is a Ministry of Transworld Radio in partnership with Dr. Louise Ciao. I'm Rob Dempsey. [MUSIC] (gentle music)