What Jesus Taught

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0:30 Okay, I'm going to begin with a prayer that St. Margaret Mary Alacoque composed in the late 1600s. So this was in the 17th century. Does anybody know who St. Margaret Mary Alacoque is? Yes, the sacred heart, yes. This prayer is a consecration to the sacred heart of Jesus. God eternally is love in his very nature. But get this, God in his eternity and who he is in his infinite nature does not have emotions. But yet he's perfect and all good and all perfect and all holy and all loving.

1:24 And isn't that weird to think, if you really think about it, he can't have emotions because this is a creature feature. This has to do with the passions that are created. But God took on a humanity. He took on a created body and a created soul, a rational soul. And so, in his humanity, he has emotions. So now we can say God has emotions and God can laugh. And what's the shortest verse in the Bible? Jesus wept. He wept. I'm sorry. Yes, Jesus wept. And so, the sacred heart is focusing upon how God took upon himself a human heart. And so, he loves us, truly loves us as a human being would, but perfectly with the human heart.

2:15 And so, that's what the devotion to the sacred heart is, is recognizing God's love for us. And St. Margaret Mary Alacoque is very famous because from the time she was 20, she experienced visions of Christ. Christ would appear to her. But he wouldn't so much give revelations. But on December the 27th, 1673, he began giving a series of revelations to her. He began telling her things, which were to continue for a year and a half. And of course, as usually happens when this happens, everybody disbelieves you and everybody thinks you're nuts and they tell you to stop. But over time, she continued and theologians looked into what she was saying and what was being revealed to her. And it was eventually approved by the authorities of the church, the bishops.

3:08 In these revelations, Christ informed her that she was his chosen instrument to spread devotion to his sacred heart. People at that time needed to know about Jesus' love for them. You know, maybe it was scholastic theology. You know, looking at the little fine points of doctrine, but missing the love that God has for us. Maybe it was that. I don't know. But that's what Jesus wanted to be stressed at that point in time. And so I'm going to pray this prayer that she prayed. So let's go ahead and begin. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. I give myself and consecrate to the sacred heart of our Lord Jesus Christ. My person and my life, my actions, pains, and sufferings, so that I may be unwilling to make use of any part of my being, other than to honor, love, and glorify the sacred heart.

4:11 This is my unchanging purpose, namely to be all his, and to do all things for the love of him, at the same time renouncing with all my heart whatever is displeasing to him. I therefore take you, O sacred heart, to be the only object of my love, the guardian of my life, my assurance of salvation, the remedy of my weakness and inconstancy, the atonement for all the faults of my life, and my sure refuge at the hour of death. Be then, O heart of goodness, my justification before God the Father, and turn away from me the strokes of his righteous anger. O heart of love, put all my confidence in you, for I fear everything from my own wickedness and frailty, but I hope for all things from your goodness and bounty. Remove from me all that can displease you or resist your holy will.

5:04 Let your pure love imprint your image so deeply upon my heart that I shall never be able to forget you or to be separated from you. May I obtain from all your loving kindness the grace of having my name written in your heart. For in you I desire to place all my happiness in glory, living and dying in bondage to you. Amen. Lord Jesus Christ, be present now and let your Holy Spirit bow all hearts and love and truth today to hear your word and keep your way. Give us the grace to grasp your word that we may do what we have heard.

5:53 Instruct us through the scriptures, Lord, as we draw near, O God adored. To God the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit, three in one. To you, O blessed Trinity, be praised throughout eternity. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Last week was chapter 19, what Jesus did. And this week is what Jesus taught. And the Gospels are so full. They're so huge. They're just filled with so much that it would be impossible for in an hour and a half to go over everything Jesus said and did. First of all, because it all wasn't written down.

6:41 Because if you look in the end of John's Gospel, John says that there were many things that Jesus did, many miracles that he performed, but if they were all written down, all the books in the world couldn't contain them. And we only have a select number that are recounted for us in the Gospels. And even if I were to go through all those, we wouldn't have an hour and a half. So last week, I focused on some of what Jesus did, principally at the beginning of his mystery. His baptism, his temptation in the wilderness, his gathering of the twelve, the wedding at Cana, and the proclamation of the kingdom. And I kind of left off last week with the proclamation of the kingdom.

7:28 So Jesus did all these things, you know, but now he's starting to preach. He's starting to say things. And we'll notice that when Jesus says things, he teaches, he's not just, you know, just teaching. Like, he's not just getting up and just teaching in any old fashion, but he's teaching in a specific way. He's using the Old Testament when he teaches. And his disciples, okay, the twelve apostles, I guess minus Judas Iscariot, but even Judas seems to mirror what's going on in the Old Testament. You know, he sells Christ for thirty pieces of silver. Oh my gosh, just like, you know, where does that come from? Zachariah? Judas, just like David's friend who was one of his companions, David, David the king, the Messiah, his, so his friend betrays him, so Judas betrays.

8:17 So even kind of, you even see in Judas a little bit of alluding to the Old Testament and his actions at least, even though we don't have any of his teaching. The other apostles taught. Paul, who was considered an apostle, but not one of the original twelve, he used the Old Testament incredibly. So tonight, again, we're going to be looking at the Old Testament as we look at what Jesus taught. Let's open up our Bibles to Mark chapter 1, verse 15. Mark chapter 1, verse 15. And if you guys have a red letter Bible like I do, where it puts the words of Jesus in red, you'll notice that this is the first bit of red in Mark's gospel.

9:10 There's no red anywhere before that, because this is the first thing that Jesus says in Mark's gospel. What does he say? This is the time of fulfillment. Okay, the time of fulfillment. So, what's being fulfilled is Israel's expectations, specifically the Jewish expectations at the time. And these expectations were all the prophetic hopes of the Old Testament. So the time of fulfillment is a time when, I'm going to say, the prophetic hopes are coming to fulfillment. They're basically, these hopes are being answered.

9:58 These prophetic hopes. And we're going to look at these prophetic hopes in just a moment. So the time of fulfillment is happening. And I mentioned last week that the Old Testament is a story in search of an ending. It's like reading Gone with the Wind, but leaving out, you know, the very end. Leaving out the climax. It's expecting, it's waiting, hopeful expectation. And according to a Jew today, that expectation is still, we've still been waiting 2,000 years. But according to a Christian, that time of fulfillment occurred when Jesus was walking on the earth. That time of fulfillment had come. That time of expectation was fulfilled. Okay, what does he continue to say? The reign of God is at hand.

10:48 Or the kingdom of God is at hand. Okay, reign, kingdom. I'm going to say the kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom of God. And last week, we discussed this. What kingdom? What kingdom of God is at hand? The heavenly kingdom. But he says, he does say, you know, if it is I who drive out demons, then assuredly, you know, that the kingdom of God is at hand. It is here. It is present. He says, the kingdom of God is among you. By the way, there is a misinterpretation of the New Testament in one passage. I forgot exactly where it is. Where some people interpret it as saying, the kingdom of God is within you.

11:36 But that is a misinterpretation of the passage. It is a common misinterpretation of the original. It is the kingdom of God is among you. If the kingdom of God is here, it is among us. It is the kingdom of heaven. Heaven in a certain sense is here. And it is the kingdom of God. But what kingdom? The Davidic. Right. Because Christ is the son of David. He is born in Bethlehem. He is anointed by a Levite. He is considered the son of the Most High, which Solomon was considered. There are all these Davidic themes. So the kingdom of God is the kingdom that the Israelites have been awaiting. It is. It is just not in the form that they expected. Jesus is not going to rule by military might or political savvy.

12:25 He is going to rule by priestly sacrifice. The kingdom of God. And then what is the next? He finishes it off with what? Reform your lives and believe in the gospel. Reform your lives and believe in the gospel. What translation is that? I have a new American. I can't read it now. Oh, you have another version of the new. There are different versions of the new American. I have new. I have a really old life as a wedding present. Okay. Wow. Oh, I'm not going to. Okay. Repent and believe in the gospel. Repent which means to turn 180 degrees around. It also means you know to basically turn away from your sin. Repent and believe in me. Right?

13:13 Repent and believe what? The gospel the good news and we get gospel from God's spell which is old English meaning good news. Repent and believe in the gospel. So Jesus just basically pointed to three things from the Old Testament. The prophetic hopes of the prophets the Davidic kingdom where they're waiting for the descendant of David to arise and the gospel. Let's go ahead and turn to the Old Testament. Let's turn to well before we turn to the prophets I'm just going to do a quick recounting. What happened in 1000 BC?

14:03 What huge event occurred in 1000 BC? what occurred? There you go I wrote it up on the board for you. 1000 BC God enters into a covenant with David because David had rest round about from all of his enemies so it fulfills Deuteronomy and now he can build a temple for God and we have the Davidic covenant but David reigns and then his son Solomon reigns after him and then when Solomon dies in 930 BC what happens with Rehoboam and Jeroboam not just Israel but the kingdom of Israel the Davidic kingdom divides into north and into south and the north is composed of 10 tribes plus some Levites so I'm going to put an L here and the south is two tribes Judah and Benjamin with some Levites in the Levitical cities and then what ended up happening in 722 BC yeah the northern kingdom is conquered and exiled by Assyria and basically the majority of the people were exiled to foreign lands and were intermixed

15:53 among the people and became Gentiles and some were left in the land to intermarry among pagans who were brought into the land and so they're known as Samaritans and then so the northern kingdom is basically history and why was the northern history sent into exile is it because they just couldn't defend themselves against Sennacherib the Assyrian emperor or was there a deeper reason yeah which was the three letter word sin sin is what caused this and so we're going to look at you know so when Jesus says repent you know this is going to be turning away from sin okay and then what happened later on in 586 BC yeah the southern kingdom is conquered destroyed and exiled into exile okay by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar and then they're basically in captivity for about 70 years and then they end up returning to the land some of them do they end up returning to the land and those are who we

17:17 know as the Jews because the majority of the returnees are from Judah and we have a small number from Benjamin was a very small tribe and we have a small number of Levites okay so they're known as Jews and before the book of Ezra in the Bible which talks about this return you don't find the word Jews referring to all the people there are Judahites and they're just you know of that specific tribe okay so the prophets prophesy that sin you know caused first of all caused the divide you know in 930 caused the conquering and exile of the northern kingdom sin caused the conquering and the exile of the southern kingdom okay let's go ahead and turn to Jeremiah 23 and again you're going to see some overlap with the lessons that we did last semester or in the fall in the Old Testament it's a good thing yes repetition is good Jeremiah chapter 23 verses 1 through 8 Jeremiah 23 1 through 8 and here's a

18:41 sample appetizer of the prophets woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture says the Lord therefore thus says the Lord the God of Israel against the shepherds who shepherd my people you have scattered my sheep and driven them away you have not cared for them but I will take to care to punish your evil deeds I myself this is Yahweh speaking I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands to which I have driven them and to bring them back to their meadow there they shall increase and multiply I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them I will appoint shepherds plural for them who will shepherd them so that they need no longer fear and tremble and none shall be missing says the Lord behold the days are coming says the Lord when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David as king he shall reign and govern wisely and he shall do what is just

19:44 and right in the land in his days Judah shall be saved Israel shall dwell in security this is the name they give him the Lord our justice therefore the days will come says the Lord when they shall no longer say as the Lord lives who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt but rather as the Lord lives who brought the descendants of the house of Israel up from the land of the north those are those ten tribes in the north because Babylon was way to the east not up to the north these are the ten tribes and from all the lands to which I banish them they shall again live on their own land okay so there's gonna be a righteous shoot to David a shoot a net sir okay that's this is the the root word of Nazareth so this is why Nazareth was a key place where Jesus grew up and notice it's comparing this taking of God's exiled people Israel north and south he's comparing this taking them out of

20:51 exile and bringing them back to the land and reuniting them under the Messiah to the exodus it says in verse seven they shall no longer say as the Lord lives who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt that's the exodus so this event is being called basically you could call it the new exodus the exodus again instead of coming up from Egypt they come from all the lands to which they were scattered because of sin the new exodus and there's going to be a pointing of shepherds and I want for you to also well get back to that in a little bit I'll show you something in Jeremiah 16 okay let's turn to Ezekiel 37 and again we went over this last semester but we're going to quickly review it again Ezekiel chapter 37 Ezekiel is right after Jeremiah's lamentations then Baruch and then Ezekiel 37 Ezekiel 36 and 37 well actually it goes it goes back even further than that it goes back to let's

22:02 see here 33 yeah you can pretty much go back to 33 34 35 36 37 it's all one big narrative so I'm just choosing one small part out of this bigger narrative and if you guys have time go back and read you know all the way going back to Ezekiel 34 okay but we're just going to look at Ezekiel 37 verse 15 thus the word of the Lord came to me Ezekiel okay this is Ezekiel 37 15 now son of man take a single stick and write on it Judah and those Israelites were associated with him then take another stick and write on it Joseph and all the house of Israel associated with him okay basically the first stick represents the southern kingdom the kingdom of Judah okay those who are still associated with the tribe of Judah and then take another stick and write on it Joseph why Joseph well because Joseph's sons Ephraim the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh remember Ephraim and Manasseh were Joseph's sons they

23:17 were in the northern kingdom and they took up the majority of the northern people population wise so you could almost call it the house of Joseph because so many of them were descendants of Joseph and this goes back to the blessing that Israel gave to his grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh I'm sorry not Joseph but Israel gave to his grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh or was it Joseph who gave it gave the blessing was it Israel he was a grandfather and gave the blessing okay so these two kingdoms he says to take a stick that represents the southern kingdom and a stick that represents the northern kingdom and he's going to do a prophetic action he says verse 17 then join the two sticks together so that they form one stick in your hand when your countrymen ask you will you not tell us what you mean by all this answer them thus says the Lord God I will take the stick of Joseph which is in the hand of

24:20 Ephraim and of the tribes of Israel associated with him and I will join to it the stick of Judah making them a single stick and they shall be one in my hand the sticks on which you write you shall hold up before them to see so basically this is a prophetic action saying I'm going to reunite this kingdom physically as one people like before there's going to be a unity but if you're if you're reading this by this time you're thinking guys there is no northern kingdom where did it go I mean take them from all the lands this is going to be really miraculous okay verse 21 tell them thus speaks the lord god i will take the israelites from among the nations to which they have come and gather them from all sides to bring them back to their land i will make them one nation upon the land in the mountains of israel and there shall be one prince for them all one prince never again shall they be two nations

25:32 and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms no longer shall they defile themselves with their idols their abominations and all their transgressions i will deliver them from all their sins of apostasy remember delivering from sins of apostasy the sins of apostasy is what cause the exile so there's going to be a forgiveness of sins it's going to be associated with this restoration and cleanse them so that they may be my people and I may be their god again that's covenant language my servant David this is verse 24 shall be prince over them so who's the prince that's going to be over them the son of David who is the anointed one which means he's the Messiah the anointed one and there should be one shepherd over them all so that they shall live by my statutes and carefully observe my decrees living by my statutes and carefully observing my decrees the law of the Lord they shall live

26:33 on the land which I gave to my servant Jacob the land where their fathers lived they shall live on it forever okay so they're going to get the land there's this idea of getting land and I'm planning little time bombs in your minds little ticking time bombs that are going to explode in just a little bit okay I will make with them a covenant of peace I'm going to make with them a covenant it what's the sanctuary the temple I'm going to put the temple among them forever so there's going to be a return to the land a rebuilding of the temple the messiah a reunification a reunification and under Herod the great it looked like this was about to happen right before Jesus came you had Herod the great you know he was yes he was an Edomite but you know he God bless you and he you know he had rebuilt the temple the temple was getting bigger and bigger and better and better and you know sociopolitically

27:47 everything was going great I mean there was practically speaking it looked like these promises were being fulfilled you're having everybody's coming it's flocking to Jerusalem you know it almost looks like but things just aren't quite right because he doesn't have a Davidic genealogy so that doesn't quite match the prophets and you're missing some tribes you only really have three you know two of these tribes plus the Levites but not the other ten so let's turn to Isaiah 52 again this is the same theme another prophet same theme but looking at it from a different perspective Isaiah 52 okay we were just in Ezekiel 37 and now we're in Isaiah 52 starting with verse 1 Isaiah 52 verse 1 I dare you guys to read the gospel in the same way that you had before this study okay Isaiah 52 verse 1 Isaiah 52 is part of an ongoing narrative that started at Isaiah 40 and there's a basically there's a there's

29:09 the idea of the servant of the Lord the servant of the Lord and the servant of the Lord is going to carry out the Lord's purposes and he's never explicitly called the Messiah in Isaiah in fact the only person Isaiah explicitly calls Messiah is Cyrus the Persian king but we will see that Isaiah even though he doesn't call the servant the Messiah we will see that he does refer to him as a Messiah and we'll see why in just a moment but like back in Isaiah 49 and don't flip there I'm just going to you can write this down Isaiah 49 verse 5 and 6 you know he basically is talking about he says that it I will make you a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth okay so there's an idea that the servant will be a light to the nations and he's going to restore the survivors okay Isaiah 52 again this is part of a bigger narrative and you guys should read all this together

30:12 awake Isaiah 52 verse 1 put on your strength O Zion put on your glorious garments O Jerusalem holy city no longer shall the uncircumcised or the unclean enter you meaning you know when the Gentiles conquer Jerusalem the Gentiles are the unclean the oppressors so he's basically saying no longer will you have oppressors entering you but you're going to be basically you're going to be free and why Zion what is Zion yeah Jerusalem Zion and Jerusalem are interchangeable terms because Zion is the hill in Jerusalem the mount where the temple is built both Jerusalem and Rome are can have seven prominent hills in them seven prominent hills and so in Jerusalem one of those hills is Mount Zion and that's where the temple is built and so Jerusalem will often be referred to as Zion for that reason okay verse two shake off the dust ascend to the throne Jerusalem loose the bonds from your neck oh captive

31:24 daughter Zion okay so there's going to be a taking off your shackles loose the bonds and you're going to be money you shall be redeemed does that remind you guys of a New Testament passage Saint Peter says you were not redeemed with gold or silver but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ Peter was most probably alluding here to this famous oracle from Isaiah thus says the Lord God to Egypt in the beginning my people went down to sojourn there oh it's another reference to the exodus Assyria too oppressed them for not so Assyria is going to be like Egypt you know Egypt took the people down and there was an exodus so Assyria oppressed them but now the rulers make a boast of it says the Lord all the day my name is constantly reviled therefore on that day my people shall know my renown that it is I who have foretold it here I am and then here's a famous passage quoted by Paul in Romans 10 15

32:36 how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings gospel glad tidings good news gospel okay this is an Old Testament term it's a loaded term so when Jesus says gospel people are going Isaiah 52 you know this is what people are thinking this is in the back of their mind in the same way if I were to say I have a dream you know you people would be like oh Martin Luther yeah Martin Luther King Jr. not the other Martin Luther okay I lost my train of thought that was really weird Barbara here she's laughing really hard she turns red for me it makes me know that I'm funny because I know that I'm funny whenever she's like my meter she kind of you know how they have those meters in basketball stadiums and how loud can you get well I have my funny meter here how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad tidings announcing peace bearing good news again there's good

33:54 news announcing salvation and saying to Zion your God is king what's the gospel your God is king when the Messiah comes when God is made king through the Messiah he elevates his Messiah and Messiah takes the throne that's the gospel guys that's the gospel the gospel according to Paul and according to the New Testament authors because they got it from Isaiah is not believe it or not a timeless system of salvation like the gospel is the four spiritual laws you know and so we sinned and God has a perfect plan for us and so he needs for you to repent and then when you repent you'll be saved yes that's true that's all very true but Paul would not have called that the gospel okay the gospel was a specific term that meant the reign of God the reign of God through the Messiah and in that reign entails redemption and restoration and forgiveness of sins so the gospel effects has the effect of salvation

35:09 but the gospel itself means your God is king hark this is very important verse eight hark your watchmen raise a cry together they shout for joy for they see directly before their eyes the Lord restoring Zion okay this is the theme of restoration the restoration of Zion bringing back together and restoring the kingdom of David break out together in song or ruins of Jerusalem for the Lord comforts his people he redeems Jerusalem redemption see redemption and restoration are tied up with one another when the Lord redeems he restores Zion restores Jerusalem restores the kingdom when he restores the kingdom he's bringing redemption forgiveness of sins and this is the gospel and then that's Isaiah 52 guess what Isaiah 53 is we read it every good friday in the good friday liturgy yeah the suffering servant he surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked and he shall take away the

36:30 sins of many and win pardon for their offenses through his suffering my servant shall justify many it was our infirmities that he bore our sufferings that he endured he was pierced for our offenses crushed for our sins okay that's the suffering servant so the servant is tied up with the gospel tied up with the gospel now in the first century there were those Jews who were expecting a Solomonic or Davidic kingdom just like what Solomon had military might lots of wealth lots of camels nations coming Israel being over everybody else but they weren't getting the prophet's message that this messiah was not going to be like that this messiah was going to be a suffering servant a priest who suffers and who will take away the sin somehow through this redemptive suffering let's turn to the Sermon on the Mount Matthew chapter 5 if we really want to get to the heart of what Jesus taught we should we

37:35 the Sermon on the Mount is it I mean if I had to pick a summary of what Jesus taught I'd want to choose the Sermon on the Mount this is the Sermon on the Mount is Matthew 5 through 7 excuse me and after tonight you guys should be able to say where is the Sermon on the Mount Wow that was really loud Matthew 5 through 7 so that you can always go there and the Sermon on the Mount is an awesome thing to meditate over and to pray over really awesome why do we call it the Sermon on the Mount because in Matthew 5 1 it says when Jesus saw the crowds he went up the mountain he went up the mountain now in this area where he was there are no mountains per se there is no Mount Tabor or Mount Nebo or Mount Sinai there is no mountains in fact in Luke's gospel it says that he gives this discourse on a plain on a flat area well Matthew is nuancing he's telling the story from a certain perspective so that

38:56 we get an Old Testament reference Matthew uses other language in his gospel and I'm not going to go through it right now to show that Jesus is a new Moses that what happened to Moses happens to Jesus Moses escaped the massacre of the innocents Jesus escapes the massacre of the innocents Moses goes through the Red Sea Jesus goes through the waters of baptism there's this correspondence between Moses and Jesus and so he goes up the mountain like Moses did and it says that Jesus sat down oh man it feels good back then it was a rabbinic tradition that you would teach sitting down this is how teachers taught so you would you wouldn't you wouldn't teach standing up you teach sitting down did you guys know that it's actually in the liturgical rubrics for the mass that when the bishop preaches the homily he can sit down to preach the homily and it's not put in there just because some bishops were like

39:58 man we need a break I think we're going to put this allowance in the rubrics of the liturgy no it goes back to Jewish custom that sitting down is a sign of teaching and of authority so sometimes bishops will sit and teach like this and so when he means something he's saying that Jesus is teaching he's assuming a role of teacher let's turn to the end of the sermon on the mount real quick Matthew 7 verse 28 Matthew 7 verse 28 when Jesus finished these words the crowds were astonished at his teaching for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes see the scribes would go Moses was the man he wrote the Torah and you know that's incredible and you know this is what I think about that and you know you can follow me you can you can you know join my school of thought you can you know study the Torah like me but the Torah that's enshrined that's sacred you don't touch it and here's

41:19 Jesus going oh you heard that it was said but I say to you and you heard that it was said but I say to you and I forgot where I read this or heard this but there was a Jewish scholar once who was commenting on the Sermon on the mount and he said that any good Jew in Jesus day would look at Jesus and say who do you think you are God yeah so let's turn to the beginning of the Sermon on the mount it begins with the eight beatitudes and let's I'm just going to look at the first two beatitudes this morning I I've or this evening good grief my timetable is totally whacked long day no right no kidding these twelve hour days so the I used to be really confounded by the beatitudes he begins with blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven again here's this kingdom theme and Matthew out of all the gospels stresses the kingdom the most yes is there a difference between the kingdom

42:30 of God and kingdom of heaven no it's the same it's in Matthew's gospel where Matthew says the kingdom of heaven whereas the other gospels say the Matthew of God and one opinion why this happens is that he's trying to continually emphasize that this kingdom is not of this earth like Solomon's kingdom it's going to be heavenly it's not going to be earthly in the sense that you're going to have military might and the wealth of all the nations but it's going to be a different type of kingdom and so that's why Matthew is stressing this the kingdom of heaven not the kingdom of God so but I used to wonder like the blessed are they who mourn for they will be comforted okay so I'm supposed to be like Eeyore and I'm supposed to go around weeping and that way I'll be blessed you know is this I thought Christ came to you know make our joy complete and to give us his joy he says this elsewhere so what's

43:33 going on here what's going on here well let's turn to the Old Testament let's turn to Isaiah chapter 63 Isaiah chapter 63 what by the way what did Eeyore say do you guys remember his famous phrase nobody cares I'm no bother oh bother oh that's poo but he did say something it was like you know nobody cares I'm just okay Isaiah 60 oh Isaiah 61 I apologize I knew it was an odd number somewhere in Isaiah do you guys remember back in Luke chapter 4 Luke chapter 4 begins with Jesus sitting down or going to the synagogue in his hometown in Nazareth he goes to the synagogue and they hand him a scroll of the prophet Isaiah and he reads from where Isaiah 61 verses 1 through 2 and then Jesus says this is fulfilled in your hearing and then he sat back down and everybody is like whoa what do you mean it's fulfilled who do you think you are well let's see remember how I said that Isaiah calls Cyrus the

44:59 Messiah well let's look about at the servant figure let's see what he says about him Isaiah 61 verse 1 the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me so while Isaiah doesn't call explicitly call this person the Messiah he does say he's being anointed which means he's the Messiah right so the servant is none other than the Messiah the servant is not some other person he's this righteous shrewd of David that Ezekiel and Jeremiah have been talking about he has sent me to bring glad tidings that gospel word again to the lowly to heal the broken hearted the poor in spirit the broken hearted it's the same concept to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners to announce a year of favor from the Lord in a day of vindication what is this what Old Testament event is he talking about where you have a release of the captives liberty to captives release to prisoners

46:15 a year of favor the jubilee yeah in 2000 Pope John Paul II celebrated the jubilee and he asked for more wealthy nations to relieve the debts of the poorer nations this is what the Pope called for in the year 2000 the jubilee let's remember that when Jesus said this is being filled among you it's kind of like a new jubilee in a certain sense this is going to be important hang on to that verse two to announce a year of favor mourn that's the second beatitude blessed are those who are poor in spirit blessed are those who mourn these are allusions references to that very same place where Jesus grabbed the scroll from the prophet Isaiah and read from when he read in the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth okay so the beatitudes are yes about us but they also point back to who Jesus is if we're the ones who are blessed because we're poor in spirit and we mourn and that means that Jesus is the

47:22 Messiah the anointed one whom Isaiah just talks about here okay let's go back to the sermon on the mount so we have these wonderful beatitudes and they're all I mean there's so much rich Old Testament imagery I'm not going to get into all of them but let's look at disciples he says you are the light of the world remember that I read from Isaiah 49 it said you are to be a light to the nations the servant well he's saying you are to be a light of the world and that's Lumen Gentium one of the documents of the second Vatican council was named that light of the world Lumen Gentium light of the nations and that's Lumen Gentium takes it takes it from Isaiah 49 and Matthew 5 14 it's the Latin version you are the light of the world a city set on a mountain cannot be hidden what city set on a mountain cannot be hidden Jerusalem we're talking about the kingdom the city so in the new covenant where's

48:41 the city where's Jerusalem where's Jerusalem restored where's the city remember it's not like Solomon's kingdom where you're going to have a physical city but the city are the believers Zion is restored meaning that those people who enter Jesus kingdom are the city they're the city set on a hill that cannot be hid so the new Paul calls the church the Jerusalem from above the book of Revelation calls the church Jerusalem the church is the new Jerusalem and you know Moses went up a mountain and what did he get on top of the mountain the ten commandments but not just the ten commandments he also got the law and so here's Jesus going up a mountain he sits down he's giving the new law the new law what he expects of his disciples you know in the old covenant you know you kept the commandments and the decrees well we saw in Ezekiel that there would be a keeping of the statutes and the decrees and we

49:48 have Jesus saying in verse 17 do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets by the way the law or the prophets that means all the old testament that's how they divided it do not think I have come to abolish the old testament but to fulfill it's a word that means to make complete amen I say to you amen I say to you until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter the iota will pass from the law until all things have taken place and saint thomas aquinas who wrote his summa theologia or summa theologica would call it the summa it's like a summary in fact the summa theologia was what his students were supposed to read before they took his classes if you guys ever read the summa it's difficult reading but in the summa in the prima secunda par the first part of the second part because the second part is two parts so you had the prima secunda par and the secunda par the first

50:49 part of the second part and the second part of the part then he died before he finished it so his students wrote the tertia par the third part so in the prima secunda par the first part of the second part you have he talks about law and grace and he talks about how Jesus fulfilled the law he says that he came to fulfill and not to abolish and this is how he fulfilled the law could be divided the Jews didn't really divide the law they saw it as one big package but it can be divided into three different categories you have the moral aspects thou shalt not kill thou shalt not commit adultery seems pretty simple everybody can keep that the Gentiles can keep that part this is why Paul says that even the Gentiles have the law written upon their hearts in Romans okay there's the moral aspects secondly there's the ceremonial aspects you know all the sacrifices the that we saw last last week with the

51:51 wedding of Cana we saw numbers 19 which is part of the law it's part of the Torah we saw the purification rituals and then thirdly we have the moral ceremonial and thirdly we have the juridical or the judicial aspects and those are the that that's justice that determines equity between men and between men with God now I want for you guys to note that the law the Mosaic law was not a means by which an Israelite gets to heaven that's not what they thought about it at all that was not what the Mosaic law was not a means by which an Israelite got to heaven but it was the means by which an Israelite kept covenant with God kept covenant with God you know kept the covenant but it was mainly really pretty much the positive law of the state you know we have this today don't speed don't steal it was the law that governed them as a nation okay the positive law of the state or you could say of the nation

52:57 and so these laws basically if you kept them you were being a good citizen you were being a good citizen a good Israelite and so the judicial aspects are like you know if you kill someone's heifer you know make sure you make restitution you know equity well St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa talks about how Jesus fulfills these different aspects of the law he fulfills the moral by getting to the heart of it he doesn't say you know just don't kill just make sure you don't kill anybody but he says don't even be angry with one another and I say if you're angry with your brother if you harbor that anger you know if you have a passing feeling of anger that's not sin because your will is not doing anything you only sin with your will but we have disordered passions because of the fall so you're moved towards something but if you don't act upon it it's not sin because you're not willing it but Jesus

53:58 says you know if you harbor this anger if you're angry with your brother you're liable to judgment so he gets to the heart of it he says you know don't just not commit adultery but if you lust after another woman you've already committed adultery with her in the heart he gets to heart of it and Jesus himself perfectly fulfills the moral because he's sinless and he commands his followers to be more than just good citizens he wants them to be saints not just good citizens but to be saints and you can look to Daniel chapter 7 I believe it might be verse 14 but it's in Daniel 7 where it talks about how this the son of man when he gets his kingship so the saints will reign with him the saints of the most high you have the ceremonial aspects Jesus is both priest and victim he's the sacrifice for our sin and Jesus commands us to sacrifice not sheep not goats not cattle but to sacrifice ourselves

55:04 Saint Paul says in Romans 12 offer your bodies as a living sacrifice acceptable worship to the Lord there's the judicial aspects Jesus came to restore equity between us and God we have a debt towards God that we cannot pay yet we must Jesus has no debt with God he need not pay any debt but he can pay our debt so he brings about righteous equity between us and God and he also restores equity between us he restores relationships he restores Zion he brings his people together to where they live such a profound communion and you see this lived out in the life of the early church in Acts of the apostles chapter 2 verse 42 where they shared all things in common and broke bread and devoted themselves to the prayers and the apostles teaching there's this communal aspect where he takes care of us the judicial we can call this justification where he makes us right with the father so jesus comes to

56:16 fulfill the law he does away with the juridical aspects you no longer need this constitution we now have we have a positive law in the church it's called canon law it can and will change okay it's changeable but the juridical aspects are done away with because you don't actually the whole law you don't have to keep per se because it's all one big thing you have the ceremonial so we no longer have to do animal sacrifice and stuff but the moral aspect is not just pertains to the mosaic law the mosaic law reflects the moral aspect and Paul again says that the gentiles have this upon their hearts so let's look at what Jesus says in starting in verse 21 Jesus gives what is popularly known as the six antitheses the six antitheses and this is where he says you heard it was said but I say to you and it was also said but I say to you the six antitheses where Jesus calls us to be not just good citizens

57:24 but he wants us to be saints and so Saint Augustine said Saint Augustine said that the law was given the law was given that grace might be sought okay because the Israelites found out they couldn't keep even being good citizens they couldn't keep that so the law was given so that grace might be sought so that they might ask for God's help so they might realize their sinfulness grace the law was given so grace might be sought and grace was given so that the law might be kept and so what he means is that not that we keep the ceremonial aspects or that we keep the judicial aspects we do we live we live in communion with one another we love one another but also morally grace gives us the ability to be saints we have this new ability and we call this the new law the indwelling presence of the holy spirit and saint paul in romans chapter eight talks about this new power that those who are given

58:35 grace who have the power of grace are no longer bound to the law because you can go far beyond the law not because you're good in and of yourself not because you're really good people but because you rely upon the grace and the mercy of Christ and because you rely upon him to help you not because you are somehow intrinsically holy and you can do this on your own no it's because I just talked about that anger the second antithesis is adultery did you guys know and this is important to note I just want to note this real quick because sometimes there's confusion moral confusion with regard to these things yes anger is a sin anger is a sin so not the feeling that rises up within you you know concupiscence but when you act upon it when you feed it when you so don't just let your anger out no that's sinful guys psychologists today who say it's healthy just to let your anger out just let it rip

59:44 no your anger will increase and it's sinful to do that okay and but there is such a thing anger can actually be a virtue righteous anger you know I'm upset that guys every single day in this country more people die than have died in the entire Iraqi war well US soldiers more people died today in America through abortion than have occurred in the whole Iraqi war more people died today in abortion than occurred when the twin towers were hit about 3,000 were killed then a little bit over 3,000 4,000 every I am upset guys I am angry not to the point where I'm going to go bomb clinics now that would be sinful but I have a righteous anger and that's okay that's good that's the virtue of justice being born forth in your heart adultery is basically lust it's treating one another as an object and so lust can occur within marriage you can actually be lustful towards your spouse you can look at your

1:00:52 spouse as an object and you can treat them as an object and you cannot love them with a self-sacrificial type of love and so chastity is loving truly loving and so chastity is not just for those virgins out there but it's for married people to live out you know so that when you love one another you do it with a clean and a pure heart not just because you want to get some seriously and so we have to guard ourselves from lust even within marriage it's an important aspect of marriage preparation and we also see what happens if your eye let's look at your eye here it says he says if you're right verse 29 if your right eye causes you to sin tear it out and throw it away it is better for you to lose one of your members and to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna which was the valley of Hinnom the big garbage dump it's a figure Jesus uses to teach about hell does he mean that he actually wants for you

1:01:56 guys to rip out your eyes and throw them away yes and no not literally he's saying that mortal sin is so bad that you should take extreme measures to get away from it to get away from this type of sin take extreme measures if you have pornography on your computer if you can't get away from it throw away your computer guys it's okay you'll live without one but you'll save your soul okay he's speaking with hyperbole okay we have the teaching about divorce because divorce because marriage is a covenant and you can look at Matthew 19 where Matthew gives the extended discourse of Jesus on divorce and remarriage Matthew 19 he says it was also said it was said whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce but I say to you whoever divorces his wife except for porneia and that's called the porneia exception clause and that's a whole other subject but I say to you whoever divorces his wife

1:03:04 except for porneia causes her to commit adultery and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery so we have the teaching about divorce we have the teaching about oaths what have I been teaching you that we need to swear oaths right to enter into the covenant this is a Hebrew way of thinking here's Jesus saying verse 33 again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors do not take a false oath but make good to the Lord all that you vow but I say to you do not swear at all do not swear at all not by heaven for it is God's throne nor by the earth for it is his footstool nor by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great king and there you go you have Jerusalem the city being talked about you know the great king who is the great king no the great king that Jesus is talking about here David or Solomon do not swear by your head for you cannot make a single hair white or black you know

1:04:07 may my hair turn white if I you know if I transgress this you know that's people let your yes mean yes and your no mean no anything more is from the evil one no kidding right what was happening in the day this is the context is that people were entering into contracts with one another but they were such scoundrels they were so untrustworthy that you couldn't trust them their signature wasn't good enough so they were swearing left and right I swear by the temple I swear by the heavens I swear by this and that and people were just swearing guys what's the commandment thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain this is primarily directed towards oath swearing don't take the name of the Lord in vain and Jesus is saying in contractual relationships don't ever swear it's so sacred do not swear at all in contracts do not go to Walmart and say I swear that I will pay this credit card bill no

1:05:08 let your yes mean yes let your signature be good enough be honest trustworthy person down to the core be a saint and again he's using hyperbole this does not mean don't swear at all because somehow swearing is intrinsically sinful no this would negate the entire nature of a covenant it also negates Hebrews chapter 6 where it talks about God swearing an oath you know plus he institutes the oath of baptism we're calling upon the name of the Lord Father Son and Holy Spirit and we're you know Paul says in Romans chapter 10 he says whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved that's an oath action this is oath terminology teaching about retaliation so we've had anger adultery and divorce that's three owes that's four you have retaliation and we have love of enemies but you know I really those are kind of difficult teachings to follow so I'm just going to skip over those I mean those

1:06:10 that's a good thing I'll read that sometime later in the future and then we have Jesus reaffirms the act of penance he does not do away with penance but he gives the classical three fold form of penance classically could be divided into prayer fasting and alms giving and notice that penance has a positive aspect it's not just you know bad and doing away with things and just fasting but it's praying it's having a relationship with the Lord okay praying is considered penance of course there's fasting which has a negative connotation but you're doing it for you give up a good thing for an even greater thing God himself give up the good give up the gift for the giver prayer fasting and alms giving again alms giving is a positive aspect charity love of neighbor so we have prayer fasting and alms giving that Jesus deepens the aspects he says don't be a hypocrite don't pray you know with many lengthy

1:07:25 prayers out where people can see you but shut your door where your heavenly father can hear you and don't walk around and go oh guys I've been fasting all day long it's horrible oh but put on your makeup anoint your head and when you give alms don't be like hey guys you know look at I'm giving you this but you know don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing and right in the middle he starts off with alms giving talks about prayer then he talks about fasting but let's look at the prayer aspect he gives us the our father and we're going to do this so fast your heads are going to be spinning the our father remember how we were talking we got back to these prophets and we looked at Jeremiah 23 Ezekiel 37 and Isaiah 52 and we saw the new exodus theme the our father follows this new exodus theme because each petition of the our father is an old testament theme in and of itself

1:08:18 how does the our father begin our father it was not common for israelites to pray our father or to invoke god as father and this is why when jesus goes around calling god father and styling himself as the son of god everybody is like hey what are you doing this is christian thing this is not an israelite thing rather calling upon god and father only happens in specific instances in the old testament and let me get you guys can look at these later on but isaiah 63 which we just looked at remember well I'm sorry we looked at isaiah 61 but right in that same context of isaiah prophesying the new exodus we have isaiah 63 10 through 17 that's testament the paternoster which is latin for our father the paternoster of the old testament because it's constantly calling upon god his father to act as he did in the exodus to bring about a new exodus we have jeremiah chapter 3 verses 16 through 19 calling

1:09:23 upon god his father and 31 7 through 9 these have new exodus themes and then Tobit 13 1 through 6 so when jesus prays our father he's invoking this prophetic tradition and when he says hallowed be thy name it's not a declarative statement like you know your name's hallowed your name's holy that's a great thing your name's holy it's not a declarative statement like that he's not just declaring it rather it's an imperative request it's asking god to do something it's saying god will you please make your name holy now you know hallow your name is more is the literal connotation and there's only one place in the old testament where someone asked for god to make holy his name and you guys are going to recognize this ezekiel 36 22 through 28 what's ezekiel 36 it's right there in the restoration the new exodus the coming of the messiah okay and that's hallow your name and then your kingdom come

1:10:48 now there's a lot of talk about kingdom and you know and of the kingdom but the kingdom specifically coming a request for the kingdom to come this specific greek phrase is is so rare it's only found in one place in all the old testament just like to hallow your name and that's in Micah 4 through 8 Micah 4 I'm sorry chapter 4 verses 1 through 8 Micah chapter 4 verses 1 through 8 your kingdom come and again you'll see the new exodus theme here give us today our what bread that's not what the Greek says the Greek says give us this day our epi us bread give us this day our epi us bread the council of Nicaea they said that the son is homo us with the father he is homo the same us substance or nature as the father so the son is eternally co-existent with the father so he's epi us means nature epi means super or above so it's like supernatural or out of this world type of bread give us this where

1:12:16 was there a place in the old testament where there were supernatural bread given and it was daily it was give us this day our bread and if you kept more than for one day it would go bad because you had to collect it that morning the manna the manna when in the exodus the exodus theme okay give us this day our epi use and guess where we pray this prayer in the liturgy right after the consecration give us this day our epi us bread not daily that's not what it says and even in the catechism it talks about this in the catechism it says this isn't daily it's nowhere else found in all the bible it's like this weird word it's like saying you know I really like you God you're great transubstantiation and so blah it's like whoa where'd that come from you know so it's a very odd word okay and then forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors when is there a forgiving of debts a forgiving of the debts

1:13:22 remember we just talked about this the jubilee remember this is why I said I'm planning time bombs taking time bombs in your minds the jubilee and guess what the jubilee was if you had debts your land would be taken from you and you couldn't get to your land but when your debts were forgiven you got to go back to your land turn to Matthew 5 Matthew 5 verse 5 the third beatitude blessed are the meek for they will inherit the land inheriting the land again there's this in the prophetic themes there's the idea of returning to the land and inheriting the land and Jesus is kind of picking up this theme when he's talking about he's giving his beatitudes okay so the jubilee has returned to the land and in the exodus they basically went to their land they returned to land so there's a our father has all these old testament rich imageries being brought together and then Jesus gives a commandment against

1:14:38 polygamy in chapter 6 verse 24 he says no man or no one can serve two masters you guys didn't get that did you no man can serve two masters it's a commandment against polygamy you guys I guess it's getting really late you guys are just totally out of here you either hate one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other he's talking about polygamy here Jesus says in chapter 6 verse 33 seek first the kingdom of God there's this kingdom theme and his righteousness and all these things will be given you besides ok as we close let's turn to Mark's gospel and let's look at the second thing Jesus says Mark chapter 1 verse 17 remember he just said this is the time of fulfillment the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe in the gospel then he passed by the sea of Galilee he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea they were fishermen jesus said to them

1:16:00 come after me and i will make you fishers of men jeremiah 16 jeremiah talks about the restoration and he says specifically that the lord will send fishers of men and we already saw how was i believe it was in jeremiah he talked about how he will point shepherds over them these are who the apostles are they are the shepherds they are the fishers of men they are the stewards of the messiah who are going to bring about this restoration who are going to continue the messiah's work kind of cool huh these are the old testament themes are you guys understanding this is this making sense all right well let's close you guys look really tired you guys look really beat let's pray in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen lord jesus you are our king we are your kingdom you have delivered us from sin and you have brought us into the unity of your body you have appointed shepherds

1:17:31 over us you have fed us with manna you are so good i ask for the grace this week to be rid of pride in whatever little insidious ways that it crops up and i ask that you would give me and give the rest of these people here a gift of love so that we may become saints so that we may love in a way that is profound a way that is only done by your indwelling spirit thank you so much lord for the gift of the spirit may the spirit renew us may we be enlivened and quickened by him amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen to