Sunday School: Harmony of the Gospels

Putz and Long. Putz and Long. So, David, that's

Ty you're talking about? That's very nice. Yes. It's very nice.

It's not let us fall down, you know, flip -flops.

Man, it's pretty rough.

You need somebody to whip you into shape, that's what I thought. Yeah. Uh -huh. Oh, well, there's a shot across the vowel.

All right. I am fairly certain that we are in section 256, which is

Matthew chapter 20. For those of you who do not have the synopsis in front of you, it is in fact.

I certainly marked that we did. Yep. I may have been briefer than normal, but we got to get this done someday.

There's other parts of the Bible to study someday. So, we got to start x -ing some of these off.

We have the section 256 is a Matthew alone element.

The parable of the laborers in the vineyard, which is not found in Mark, Luke, or John.

The king of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace. I guess he was going by Home Depot.

And to them, he said, you go into the vineyard, too. Whatever is right, I will give you. So, they went. Going out about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.

So, they did not quite have as short a working day as many of us do today.

And about the eleventh hour, he went out and found others staying. He said to them, why do you stand here idle all day?

They said, because no one has hired us. He said to them, you go into the vineyard, too. And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, call the laborers and pay them their wages beginning with the last up to the first.

And when those who hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius.

Now, when the first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it, they grumbled at the householder, saying, these last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.

But he replied to one of them, friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?

Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do with what

I choose? Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?

The last will be first, and the first last. So briefly, here is a parable.

And once again, we must emphasize the necessity of focusing upon the main point of a parable.

It is very common for people to, you know, drag especially this one out into various and sundry other economic models and everything else and assign meanings to this and meanings to that.

The point is that the first will be last and the last will be first.

That is the conclusion of the parable. And the point is not so much to attempt to say, well, you know, there is an economic model here, or whatever else it might be.

The point is that the man was generous in the giving of his payment.

And one might say that if this was just a matter of strict justice or something like that, that it would not be fair to pay someone who worked only one hour the same amount that you paid someone who had worked all day.

And, of course, I am certain that an equal opportunity lawsuit would have been filed very quickly had this been something other than a parable.

At least in our day, there would have been lawyers standing around all day looking for someone to hire them to sue somebody over just a situation as this.

But the point is not any of those particular things. The point is that rewards that are given to people are not based upon strict justice in this fashion.

In fact, the householder describes his giving of rewards to those who are last as my generosity, or do you begrudge my generosity?

The householder is not arguing that this is a strict merit issue.

He is recognizing that he is being generous. Possibly we have in the background of this a little bit of a preparation for the coming in of the

Gentiles into the blessings of God. It would seem that here and what we have in Luke 16 and the story of the prodigal son both strike at the same thing.

And that is there was on the part of many of the Jewish people a sort of a feeling of, hey, we have been

God's people for a long, long time and who are you Gentiles coming in? And we see in the early church, starting in the early chapters of Acts, there is tension.

There would have been a lot of reasons for tension. The Gentiles come in and they have a different way of doing things, a different way of speaking, a different way of worshipping.

I imagine there is more tension than we even have recorded for us in the New Testament just along those lines.

But there also would have been a feeling, shall we say, of privilege on the part of the

Jewish people. And that is what is being reflected here as well.

And so I would take this particular parable as having primary application in that context, a recognition that God's generosity is not something to be assumed and that his grace is something that is free.

It is not something that is based on merit. It is not something that is based upon some type of contractual obligation.

Those who had worked all day were not defrauded. It is not like the householder took their pay and said, well,

I am going to cut it back so I have got enough to pay these other guys or something like that. That is not the case.

And so I think that is probably the best way to make application of this particular parable in the context of the early church and the

Jews and the Christians and Gentiles in the early church and their experience of the blessings of God.

All right, unless there are any questions. 257, we went through John 10, didn't we?

I think we did. Okay, so we will skip 257 because we already did that. So 258, man, we are just moving.

Are you cramping up yet? Okay. We don't want to go so fast that we see

George up there massaging the hand and doing stuff like that. That is not what we want to do.

This takes us, actually we did not do John chapter 11. And so I think it would, since we did through 10,

I think it would be worthwhile to go ahead and do that because as I am looking ahead,

I am starting to see a number of these, compare to, compare to. In other words, we have already covered those.

So let us go ahead and turn to John chapter 11. You do not really need the blue book for that because there is no parallel there.

But I am going to get the Greek out so we can look at it there. John chapter 11, the story of the raising of Lazarus.

It is a text I have used numerous times in other contexts. I remember one particular woman who called the radio program many, many years ago.

And I had raised the issue of John chapter 11 to her and she was very, very insistent upon the freedom of man to reject the work of God and salvation.

And I remember asking her, I said, so tell me, would it have been possible for the

Son of God to have said, Lazarus, come forth? And Lazarus could have said, no, thank you.

That is what I asked. I said, could Lazarus, and if I really want to make it sort of funny, what

I do is I say, well, could Lazarus have said, thank you very much, but you do not know what life is like with those two women

I am saying here. You know, that was another way of putting it.

And I will never forget that at least she was consistent. At least she was consistent. She said, yes, that Lazarus, in fact, could have exercised his free will to have stayed in the tomb.

And like I said, at least she was consistent. It is an amazing thing to see that, but she was, in fact, consistent.

Oh, no, he was totally dead. He was, no, no, from her perspective, he was totally dead.

But once Jesus did that, it is this, you know, it is this prevenient grace thing, you know, where God's prevenient grace brings everybody to this moral neutral point, and then they get to have free will.

No, we are not going to be using any princess bride theology in class today, Jamie. So, George, take care of my light work, will you?

Okay, all right. Anyhow, what is that? Okay, stop that.

I think every single person who has ever done a wedding in the past 15 years has had this almost sensational desire at some point to go, now, and just stop.

We are losing control quickly. Pilots, co -pilot, going down fast.

Pull back on that stick. All right. John chapter 11.

No more, no more. Be good out there. Now, it is a little bit scary how many people you have most of that memorized.

That is not a good thing. Now, a certain man was sick.

Now, see, we are talking about sickness. Now, how can we be talking about anything else? Now, a certain man was sick.

Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the

Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. I should, just in passing,

I didn't take much time to look at this, but I was on the Janet Mefford Show sometime this week, and this guy called in, and I had never heard this argument before in my life, which is sort of unusual, but his argument that the

Koran could not possibly be the Word of God was because it did not tell the story of Mary anointing

Jesus. And I was like, okay, he says for a gospel to be a gospel, it must tell that story, and all four gospels tell that story.

And I looked it up, and you really have to stretch it to say all four gospels. Mark doesn't tell the story.

He tells the story of an anointing, but it is not the same one, but evidently this guy is figuring that it is, but it has to be in the gospel for that to be the gospel.

And of course, I am sitting there thinking, going, well, first of all, Paul wrote his epistles before, and it doesn't tell the story, so does that mean it is not the

Word of God? It was interesting, but since this is mentioned right here, I was like, hmm, okay, because I think it is in Luke.

Luke or Matthew, one of the two is the one that says, this shall be told of her for a memorial, et cetera, et cetera, wherever the gospel is preached.

And I thought, oh, I have never heard that one before. Anyway, so the sisters sent word to him, saying,

Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. So obviously, there had been,

John has not introduced this, he is sort of giving us background information here, but obviously,

Lazarus, Mary, Martha, once Jesus does come, we can tell that this is not the first time he has visited the home or things like that.

These may have been some of the women who helped support the apostolic cause, the ministry that was theirs.

We don't know, but obviously, there was something more than just, oh, I have heard this guy named Lazarus. But when

Jesus heard this, he said, this sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so the Son of God may be glorified in it.

It also says not to end in death, not that it will not involve death, because it does.

Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, so when he heard that he was sick, he then stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Then after this, he said to his disciples, let us go to Judea again. The disciples said to him, Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you,

John chapter 10. Are you going there again? Jesus answered, are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in a day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.

But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him. This he said, and after that he said to them, our friend

Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go so that I may awaken him out of sleep. The disciples then said to him,

Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover. Now, Jesus had spoken of his death, and they thought he was speaking of literal sleep.

So Jesus then said to them plainly, Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe.

But let us go to him. Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, let us also go so that we may die with him.

So, clearly the incident in John chapter 10, which we saw, and we noted at the end, once again the

Jews had picked up stones to stone him, clearly this had rattled the disciples in a way that some of the previous encounters had not.

And so, we have a clear indication here, the disciples are resistant of going back to Judea.

It's like, it hasn't been that long, don't you think the Jews are still a little bit angry, and so on and so forth.

We also see a purposeful Jesus here. That's why so many modern liberals reject the

Gospel of John as having anything to do with a historical Jesus, because clearly Jesus is in control of the situation.

He is aware of what's going on with Lazarus. He is aware of what he's going to be doing.

He is aware that what he is going to accomplish is going to be important in causing the disciples to grow in their faith.

All of that is outside of the pale in much of modern liberal theology for anything that possibly could be true, because that would require knowledge of future, and require the fact that Jesus would actually have to be divine.

And since we know that that can't be the case, and this is all just parables, and it's written later, and it's blah, blah, blah, blah.

And so, this is how it is presented in the vast majority of Bible colleges and seminaries today, unfortunately.

Now, of course, we also need to keep in mind, he stays two more days, which means there's going to be some period of...

there's lag here. We are so accustomed in our day to instant communication.

I mean, it's really become that way, so much so that it's made driving much more hazardous, because we just have this insatiable desire to immediately respond to any text message or phone call that comes through to our device.

And as a result, we're driving down sidewalks in the wrong lane of traffic and everything else. And we just expect to hear about things just like that.

I've got apps on my Droid that's... one of them that's fun is the Earthquake app.

And you can fire this thing up, and you know where all the earthquakes in the world have been by magnitude, or how far away from you they were, and when they happened.

There's all sorts of different ways you can organize them and stuff like that, and put them on a map and see where all the earthquakes today were, and you know, stuff like that.

Used to be, for the vast majority of human history, you wouldn't find out about some major earthquake for days, weeks, or even months after it happened, depending on where it took place, if you ever heard about it at all.

Let alone all the minor ones. I mean, this Earth is trembling all the time, that you can find out about today.

So, the concept of instant communication. I remember calling my parents when

I was down in Sydney over a year ago, and it was just amazing. It sounded like they were right next door, and yet I'm on the other side of the planet, and I'm holding a device in my hand that's not attached to anything else, at least not in a visible fashion.

We are so accustomed to that, that sometimes we look at this, and it says, so when

Jesus came, he'd found he'd already been in the tomb four days. Well, it stayed there two days. So, you gotta remember, there's distances involved, you know.

To cover 20 miles in those days, you know, unless you were really, really rich and had a horse, most people are hoofing it, and when you're hoofing it, 20 miles is a day's travel, and it takes a lot of time.

And so, word does not travel all that quickly in those days. So, there's lags here.

By the time he comes, he's been in the tomb for four days. And, you know, you wonder, you know, once you send a message off, because certainly,

Mary and Martha and Lazarus himself would have seen some of the miracles of Jesus. And, I would imagine that if they were involved in the support of Jesus' ministry and things like that, you know, you get a thought that, well, hey, you know,

I've seen him heal all sorts of folks, so I just might not renew my insurance policy, you know.

I think we're okay here, you know. It's all right, you know. Is there a thought of a little bit of a privilege, you know, maybe, you know?

That would be natural to think if Jesus had a special relationship with his family, had obviously eaten in the home and things like that.

You can sort of figure that, you know, once he sent word, Jesus is going to just drop everything he's doing. And, I imagine

Mary and Martha, if they sent word, they had to have some general idea of where he was.

And so, as Lazarus is getting worse and worse and worse, you know, what's the thought process going on?

Where's Jesus? He certainly wouldn't delay. He certainly should be able to get here in time, but he doesn't come.

And so, you would expect there would be a fair amount of disappointment on the part of the sisters, and certainly on Lazarus' part as he lays dying as well.

There would be confusion. There would be darkness. So, as Jesus came, he found that he had already been in the tomb four days.

Now, Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off. In fact, you have to wonder, were they thinking the same thing the disciples were thinking?

Jesus won't come because he's afraid of the Jews? These are thoughts that, as we think about the background, come into our thinking.

Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother.

If you have seen Middle Easterners and their methodology of grieving, even to this day, they don't just call up FTD and send some flowers.

Just as weddings take forever, so grieving takes a long period of time as well, which has opened up the possibility of my saying a whole lot about the grieving process, but I'm not going to do that.

It's certainly better, I think, than what we have in the Western world, where you're given two days off of work, and then you should be better by then.

Yeah, right. Martha, therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet him, but Mary stayed at the house.

And I've heard lots of sermons and stuff about, why does

Mary stay at the house? Is this indicative of some disappointment on her part?

Did word come back? Did the people they send come back and say, he didn't come back with us?

We just don't know. But it is interesting that Martha goes out and Mary does not.

I don't want to try to do too much mind -searching or something, but it is intriguing to note that.

Martha then said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Even now

I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. Now that's interesting. What's she asking for?

What is in her mind? Clearly there is an immediate statement of,

I know you could have saved him had you been here. And there are some ladies, this is going to shock many of you, but there are some

Jewish ladies who really do speak their mind. I've met a few. And I think

Martha was speaking her mind. But there is still, even now

I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. What's she hoping for there? Is the question.

Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. And Martha's answer is the answer of a good orthodox

Jewish person of the day, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.

So it had become certainly, not amongst the Sadducees, but amongst the

Pharisees and those influenced by them, the orthodox belief in the resurrection on the last day.

One of the problems in Jesus' teaching to his disciples that he was going to be crucified, buried, and rise again the third day, one of the disconnects with them, which we see over and over again in the

Gospels, is that this went against this idea. There was no idea of a resurrection before that last day.

You can't really have a resurrection before that last day. And so Martha hears this statement, your brother will rise again, and she just interprets it within the natural context that she would have,

I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this? She said to him, yes Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, even he who comes into the world. Now, I don't know that Martha could fully plumb the depths of what

Jesus says in verse 25. John 11, 25, and 26 has clearly been one of the most repeated texts of inspired scripture.

In the funeral home, at the graveside, it is one of the great treasures of the

Christian faith. But in its context, Jesus is correcting her misapprehension that resurrection is only something that is going to happen on the last day.

It does, but God is not limited to that time frame.

And again, to hear someone say, I am the resurrection and the life, separates the one thusly speaking from any prophetic voice of history.

Once again, you just cannot look at something like this, at these words, and put them into the mouths of a mere prophet.

Moses is made like unto a god to Pharaoh in Exodus 7.

But Moses never says, I am the resurrection and the life. It's one thing to say that someone is given an exalted position and God does miracles to that person as he did to many prophets.

But you'll never find Elijah, or Elisha, or Isaiah, or Moses saying,

I am this. I am, well, the resurrection involves the giving of life.

Who is the only source of life? Yahweh. So, I am the resurrection and the life. Now, if we think of everything we've heard

Jesus say in the Gospel of John up to this point, it makes sense.

It's contextual, it's consistent. But I emphasize this over and over again because outside of these walls, and outside of our communication with, and fellowship with, and communion with like -minded believers, in liberal, what's called liberal

Christianity, you'll hear these words all the time, but they are always interpreted parabolically, symbolically, and not within the context of what

John himself is relating to us. So that Jesus just becomes somewhat relevant to the concept of resurrection and life, whatever those nebulous concepts might be.

But Jesus' statement simply cannot be limited to the nice, safe, liberal

Jesus that people can believe in today. I am the resurrection and life. He who believes in me will live even if he dies.

Obviously, referring to some type of spiritual, eternal life that transcends physical death.

And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. That is, will never die spiritually, obviously.

The idea of physical death not being what is being addressed here.

Do you believe this? Now, once again, very strong words which likewise limit this promise in a way that is frequently not limited in the use that is made of it so often at the funeral home today.

Where, of course, when someone dies, everybody wants to immediately ship them off to glory.

Even if they live their life in abject rejection of Christ and his lordship. Well, the problem is, after I am the resurrection and life, this thing about he who believes in me, everyone who lives and believes in me, this faith thing keeps coming up.

And it's clearly not the kind of faith that a large majority of the

American populace would have in regards to the mere existence of Jesus. So, he asks of Martha this confession of faith and her response is,

Yes, Lord, I have believed that you are the Messiah, the Mashiach, the

Son of God, even he who comes into the world. Now, how full is her understanding of what all that means?

When we get to the grave, is she just sitting there going, I know it's going to happen, I know it's going to happen, watch this.

Or is she just as amazed as anybody else when that stone is rolled away and out comes her brother.

And she is the one who actually states in verse 39,

Lord, by this time there will be a stench for he has been dead four days. So, I don't get the feeling that in her statement here, there is some understanding that, ah,

I know exactly what's going to be happening here, I know that he's going to raise him to life, etc.,

etc. When she had said this, she went away and called Mary, her sister, saying,

Secretly, because their house would have been filled with the Jews, the teacher is here and is calling for you.

And when she heard it, she got up quickly and was coming to him. And Jesus had not yet come into the village, but, and this is, the way into Bethany would be a fairly popular road, and so word would travel quickly, people would run ahead, and Jesus isn't running at this point, he's traveling as you would normally travel at that time, as people would obviously run ahead, that's how

Martha had known he was coming. Now, Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met him.

Then the Jews were with her in the house and consoling her when they saw that Mary got up quickly and went out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw him and fell at his feet, saying of him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

So, clearly for both Mary and Martha, there is a disappointment issue.

There is a questioning of Jesus' commitment and love issue. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the

Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, and said, where have you laid him?

They said to him, Lord, come and see. Then, of course, the shortest verse in the

Bible, the one that, you know, whenever anybody has to come up with ten verses to memorize, they always memorize

John 11, 35. Jesus wept. And so, why does

Jesus weep? Well, many answers have been offered.

I think there is much truth to be seen in the description.

Verse 33, when Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, and he weeps.

Now, Jesus knows what he's going to do. Jesus knows what the outcome is going to be.

There isn't any question about that. He's already told his disciples what's going to happen. And that it's good that he wasn't there, so they might believe.

I think we have here in miniature part of the answer that we need to give to those who question our belief in the divine sovereignty of God and in the eternal decree of God.

If you have ever spoken with people, and I do on a regular basis, concerning these matters and their objections thereto, one of the primary objections that is raised is, if there is a sovereign decree of God, the resultant

God that we must believe in seems distant, mechanical, and cold.

And not the God that I see passionately speaking to his people in the minor prophets, the

God about which the disciples are passionate in their love and their commitment.

I see a God in the Bible who interacts with his people, and I just can't believe in these two different gods.

I choose to believe in this God that is intimately involved with his people, rather than this eternal, decreeing, sovereign

God out there. But here you have a situation that I think sheds light on many other situations.

The situation with Joseph and his brothers. In hindsight,

Joseph clearly sees the hand of God and what took place in his life, even though it took a long time for these events to come about.

And yet Joseph, faithful man, recognizes God intended these actions to save many people alive today.

Now I see it. Did it dawn on him slowly over time? Was it something he couldn't see when he was in the prison?

I don't know. But you have a decree.

The decree brings Joseph through long, difficult nights of feeling of abandonment.

And yet in the final analysis, Joseph sees his short -lived -ness in comparison to the unchanging character and purpose of God.

Now you have Mary and Martha. They haven't gone through years of a feeling of abandonment, but they certainly have gone through a few days of it.

Both have expressed it clearly to Jesus. You had been or you would have died. Where have you been? There is disappointment.

There is darkness. There is confusion. Yet without a question,

Jesus has already set this up with the promise to the disciples. He knows what's happening.

He knows what's going to happen. And he knows what the outcome is. You see, the problem people have is if God knows all that, then he can't really be involved in a passionate way in speaking out against sin.

How can God speak out against selling your brother into slavery and lying to your father if he decreed it would happen in that situation?

And yet that's exactly what Scripture says is the case. And here you have the same situation.

And it is in that situation that we know that Jesus is in charge.

And yet he enters into the suffering of those that he loves.

He doesn't stop to say, oh, Harry, just hold on a little while.

And when this is all done with, you're just going to be so... I mean, you're just going to go, golly, he doesn't do that.

And God doesn't always just stop and say, well, my purposes are this, this, this, and this.

And sometimes we quickly discover what those purposes are. Sometimes it takes a long time. And to be honest with you, sometimes we just don't know and may not know in this life.

But that didn't keep Jesus from weeping. And certainly he would have recognized that there was different reasons why

Mary is weeping versus the Jews that have come to console her. Some of them had good motivations.

Some of them didn't. You had even professional mourners sometimes that would come and mourn someone's death.

And we know that of the people who will witness what's going to happen, some go away and take counsel as to how they might destroy him.

Not all. I'm certain that there were Jews there that glorified God when they saw the resurrection of Lazarus.

It's a mixed multitude. But there is this despair in the presence of death.

And Jesus is deeply moved in spirit and is troubled. And he asks, where have you laid him?

They said to him, Lord, come and see. And he weeps. And so there is no contradiction between the

Lord knowing exactly what has happened, exactly what he's going to be doing.

He has every confidence in his divine calling and the divine power to raise

Lazarus from the dead. And yet he weeps. He's not cold.

He's not distant. He's not untouched. He's not just, you know, walking through it, telling jokes or anything else.

He is truly man. And he truly enters into the situation of his people.

Those that he loves are weeping. And he weeps with them. Yet even in that context, as we'll see in Rite of Time, there is even in the crowd the same thought.

So Jews were saying, see how he loved him. But some of them said, could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man also from dying?

So even in the crowd, you have this concept that is there.

And the questioning of Jesus's motivations very often happens on the part of man in the presence of death.

The questioning of God's goodness. Now, in this situation, it's not going to be long until they see the purposes.

Sometimes it's much longer. But God's goodness is not up for grabs in any of those situations.

That's, I think, something we need to take from that. So we will pick up with verse 38, oh great keeper of the notes, in John chapter 11.

All right, let's close our time. Our gracious Heavenly Father, once again, we thank you for your word and its reminder to us of your truth.

We do pray as we have considered this very important story from the

Gospel of John that you would help us to live and to believe in the presence of tribulation and difficulty in such a way that brings honor and glory to you, that we would not place you in the dark, that we would not question your goodness in our finiteness, but that we would recognize all of the truth of your word and live in light of it.