The New Kingdom

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0:00 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Oh God, thank you tremendously for just for the gift of life for this Holy Week as we reflect upon your Son's suffering and death out of sheer self-sacrificial love for us. Oh Lord, we could never match up to what he did for us. And we thank you tremendously for this great act of love whereby our Messiah, our King, united himself to exiled Israel and all of Adam's sons and daughters who are suffering the curses of the Old Covenant. We thank you for that incredible work on Calvary and for the resurrection.

1:03 We thank you for the gift of sanctifying grace which you bestow to us through your ministers, through your sacraments. And we thank you for the life of faith by which we are able to be faithful to you, not on our own merit, but upon that grace that you give to us. And we thank you tremendously. We ask this evening for a gift, the gift of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, courage, fortitude, piety, fear of the Lord, and counsel. Lord, please help us study well, help us understand the narrative. Please bring us clarity of mind, especially me, this evening. Please grant me the gift of teaching. Let us study the Word. Let us gnaw upon it and drink from it deeply so as to grow deeper in love with you and to know your plan and your will for our lives. Amen.

1:54 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. 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. Chapter 27, The New Kingdom, is what we're on. Chapter 27, The New Kingdom. Okay. Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to divide up this session into two parts.

2:46 The first part, we are going to talk about the 12 characteristics of the Davidic Kingdom. The 12 characteristics of David's Kingdom, the Davidic Kingdom. Do we find it in the Old Testament where it was made with David and his seed, his Zerah? 2 Samuel chapter 7. All right. Good. Okay. So, there's 12 characteristics of the Davidic Covenant. And then, the second half of tonight's session, we're going to look at Matthew's Gospel. And you know how, a couple of weeks ago, we went through Luke's Gospel? It was on the birth of the church.

3:36 But instead of starting in Acts, I started in Luke. Because in order to understand Acts, you have to understand Luke's Gospel. Because Luke's kind of preparing for Acts with his Gospel. And he has, you know, this theme of the Davidic Kingdom throughout it. So, we're going to look at Matthew's Gospel in the second half. Because Matthew's Gospel, like Luke, is filled with kingdom imagery. Jesus is referred to as the Son of David, I believe, at least seven times in Matthew's Gospel. Which is the most in any other Gospel. So, this is how we're going to divide it up. Okay. First of all, the 12 characteristics. Now, why am I, first of all, why am I covering the Davidic Kingdom? Well, who cares about the Davidic Kingdom? We're in the New Kingdom now. So, what's going on here? Well, it's important to understand that the New Covenant is not a complete abolition and doing away with the Old Testament.

4:31 And then Jesus says, I'm going to start something completely new. Just, it's going to be so amazing, it's going to be new. And forget Israel, forget the Jews, forget all of that. They can become members of this, of what we're doing here. But I'm going to start something. No, it's not like that. Rather, the Old Covenant is fulfilled in the New. And the New, the New is an extension of the Old. And it's a transformation and a renewal of the Old Testament. Of the Old Covenant. Remember, Testament comes from the Latin word testamentum, which means covenant. So, when I say Old Testament, same thing as saying Old Covenant. Now, there's a difference though, because we've looked at the different covenants that God made until the Davidic Covenant. And then, especially the covenant in Mount Sinai, in the Book of Exodus, and then with all of Leviticus, which is referred to by scholars as the Levitical Covenant.

5:33 And then, a covenant made with the second generation of Israelites after Egypt. The Deuteronomy, and you can refer to all of these covenants put together as kind of like the Mosaic Covenant. And the Levitical Covenant is bound up with the Sinai Covenant. And the Deuteronomic Covenant is an extension of the Levitical Covenant. So, it's kind of building on top of it. But, we find out that that covenant, with its law, had a temporary purpose. And we've already talked about this. How the Mosaic Law was a temporary phenomenon. It was not meant to continue on and on. And, St. Paul was very clear about this. And, he got it, of course, from our Lord. From what he did. And, we looked at what our Lord did. And, how the Mosaic Law did serve a purpose. To disclose sin. And, to, so that grace would be sought.

6:25 The law, and also to separate Israel from the nations. Because, God didn't want for Israel to contract the idolatry from the nations. So, the law, not only disclosed sin, but also separated. But, the New Covenant is not a renewal of the Mosaic Covenant. And, it's not an extension of the Mosaic Covenant. Because, in a certain sense, you're delivered from the Mosaic Covenant. From the curses of that covenant. The Deuteronomic curses that we've seen. Through the death of Jesus. Israel is redeemed. It's delivered from that Mosaic Covenant. But, then there's the Davidic Covenant. The Davidic Covenant. And, the New Covenant is a renewal and extension of the Davidic Covenant. Okay?

7:13 Where God begins to say, okay, the time for the Mosaic Covenant. You know, the time for what it entails and everything. For Israel is about to come to an end. I no longer want to separate them from the Gentiles. I now want to have unification between the two. When the fullness of time had come. So, we're looking at the 12 characteristics of the Davidic Covenant. Let's see if I can spell characteristics. Characteristics. Okay. 12 characteristics of the Davidic Covenant. And, this is important because, if Jesus is coming to restore the Davidic Covenant. To renew it. To transform it. To extend it. Then, these characteristics are going to be important because, this is what the Covenant is like. How do you, what's unique about it?

8:05 Well, this is going to be unique for the New Kingdom. Okay. First of all, it's a kingdom. Go fig. Oh, I said kigdom. I'm going to say kingdom. It's not a kigdom. And, what makes a kingdom a kingdom? It has a king. Right. It has a king. So, it's not an oligarchy. It's not a democracy. It's a kingdom. So, you have a king. And, it doesn't just have a king. You know, it has a monarchical structure in a certain sense. Where you have a king. You have the king. And, he has ministers. And, then you have the servants of the kingdom. Okay.

8:52 Secondly, the Divinic Covenant was made not so much with David. Through the prophet Nathan in 2 Samuel 7. But, it was made with who? God says, you know, I, he says, I am making this with your, your offspring. Right. Your Zerah. Zerah, which can be transliterated Z-E-R-A. Put an H on the end if you want to. That means seed. And, so, the promises, the promises are made to David's seed. Not Solomon. To David's seed. And, this does get fulfilled to a certain degree. By Solomon. And, then by Solomon's son, Rehoboam. And, then by the other Davidic kings.

9:40 And, it's going to be fulfilled perfectly by David's seed. The son of David, Jesus the Christ. So, this king is going to be David's seed. His Zerah. Okay. Thirdly, the son of David is the son of God. So, there's kind of a metaphorical, by analogy, kind of an adoptive relationship between the son of David and God. So, the son of David is the son of God. And, so, we've seen this idea of God calling the Davidic kings son. You know, I will be a father to him. He will be a son to me. I will chastise him with a rod of corrections when he does wrong. But, I will not take away your throne as I did with your predecessor, Saul.

10:33 Okay. So, the son of David is referred to as the son of God. So, the son of God in the first century and before did not mean you were divine or like you were God. Otherwise, this would say that the Davidic kings were like gods. But, they were not. They were not like Pharaoh. You know, where the Egyptians considered their Pharaoh to be God. Well, it was not that way in the Davidic kingdom. There was a certain idea of them being the son of God. So, the son of God was a title that Jesus will fulfill in a metaphysical way. Jesus is the son of God by title because he's king. But, then, even more than that, he is eternally the son of God. So, the sons of God in the Old Testament, the Davidic kings, prefigured and prepared for the revelation of the divinity of Jesus Christ. Fourthly, the son of David was anointed with oil and he was also anointed with the spirit. We find out that when he's anointed with oil, the spirit rushes upon David and David's son, Solomon.

11:35 And so, what does this make him? Messiah. Right. Messiah. And if we spoke Greek, what word would we use for the anointed one? Christ. Or Christos. And, who was the son of David anointed by? A member of what tribe? A Levite. Right. So, he was anointed by a Levite. Anointed by a Levite. Okay. A fifth characteristic of the Davidic covenant. It was everlasting in duration. Whereas, the Mosaic covenant was not to be everlasting. In fact, Moses says that these curses, both the blessings and the curses will befall you. And the Lord is going to have to do something new.

12:26 He's going to have to circumcise your hearts. Moses says this in Deuteronomy. But, it's everlasting in duration. So, we're told, of the son of David, of his kingdom, there shall be no end. And so, in the Apostles' Creed, we say that of his kingdom, there will be no end. And that goes all the way back to 2 Samuel 7. Who is sneezing? Good grief. By the way, Zyrtec works really well, I found out. It does. It's expensive, though. Oh, my gosh. Okay. Sixth. I was going to say sixthly. I don't know if you can say that. It's worldwide in scope. Whereas, the Mosaic Covenant was nationalistic. It divided. Whereas, the Davidic Covenant is worldwide in scope. So, David is not just a judge over a nation.

13:26 He's a king over other nations. Okay. The Queen of Sheba is invited to come to Jerusalem. The Proverbs include Proverbs from other nationalities. Are brought into Proverbs. Wisdom is wisdom that could apply to anybody. Not just an Israelite, but it could apply to a Gentile as well. So, the wisdom literature of the Davidic Covenant. And we'll get into this in just a moment. Because that's another characteristic, but I don't want to get ahead of myself. Okay. Seven. The capital is where? Jerusalem. And within Jerusalem, what mount or mountain is it really focused upon in Jerusalem? Which one of the seven hills in Jerusalem? Mount Zion.

14:14 Right. Jerusalem and Mount Zion in Jerusalem. So, a lot of times, Jerusalem will be referred to as Zion. And the nation of Israel will be referred to as either Jerusalem or Zion. So, this specific location is very important. Not in Jerusalem, and then even more specifically at the center of the target in the bullseye, Mount Zion. As opposed to, you know, Mount Sinai with the Mosaic Covenant. Okay. The eighthly, okay, I guess I can start using that language. Eighthly, the, what was the architectural symbol of the Davidic Covenant? What piece of architecture, like, summed it all up?

15:03 The temple, right. The temple. Okay. The temple. Wow. Huge. So huge that the temple took up one-fourth of the size of Jerusalem. Could you imagine a building that took up one-fourth the size of Houston? It was a big mount. Mount Zion is huge. One-fourth of the city. In fact, it wasn't so much like it was a temple in a city. It was more like a city built around a temple. It took up the space of 35 football fields. 35 football fields. It was the center of worship and sacrifice. It was the center of the judiciary. It was the center of economics.

15:53 So it was, you know, it was, it was, it wasn't just for worship. Okay. It was also the center of, you know, trade. This is where trade went on. So it was kind of like the White House, Wall Street, the Vatican, all summed up into one. And Wall Street, the Vatican, the Twin Towers, the Supreme Court, and the Vatican all wrapped up into one. I mean, it was, it was a huge sign and symbol. And it was, it was uniquely connected to the Davidic king because who built it initially? Solomon, the son of David. And so kings would, were always associated with the temple. So they would, they would initiate reforms at the temple or they would rebuild temples.

16:45 They were always associated with the temple. It was the number one symbol for Jewish national identity. I mean, whenever you think of St. Peter's Basilica, what do you think of? Yeah. The Catholic Church. I mean, they always, you know, they'll have a picture of, of, you know, St. Peter's Basilica with Bernini's, you know, I think that's his name with the, the architectural symbol of the arms of the, of the columns embracing the world and the, the plaza of St. Peter. And so it was the architectural symbol for Jewish national identity. So, so when you looked at the temple, it was like, wow, that's Jewish. And before the exile, you know, that's Israelite, you know, um, and it was also considered by Jews to be the navel of the world. You know, like the, your belly button is the center of you.

17:35 Well, it's like, it was, it's considered to be the navel of the, of the world and not just the world, but of the cosmos. It was the center of the universe, theologically, geo-theologically for Jews. It was, it was where heaven and earth connected. It was the place to go. I mean, you wouldn't, you wouldn't, if you got, if you want a bunch of money as a Jew, you wouldn't go to Disney world. You go to the temple. This was, this was the place to be. Okay. Nine. What is the law of the Davidic covenant? You know, covenants have law. The new covenant, we have the new law, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Summed up by the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount. We have, in the Mosaic law, we have the Mosaic law for the Mosaic covenant.

18:25 The first five books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. What is the law of the Davidic covenant? The wisdom literature. So the wisdom of Solomon, the Psalms, the Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Job. This wisdom literature is, is the, the law. And this wisdom literature, if you look at the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, it's very nationalistic. It tells how to separate from the nations, how to be Israelite, as opposed to Egyptian or Moabite or Ammonite or Perizzite or whatever. I like that name because they're kind of like parasites, you know, they're Perizzites. And, but with the Davidic covenant, the wisdom literature, I mean, heck, what do we sing from every single mass?

19:21 The Psalter, right, the, the hymnal of the temple, the Psalter. And so wisdom literature was the law. That's, that's where it was, uh, where it was focused, where you could find it. So again, it shows the, and this points back to the worldwide in scope. It's, it's applicable, applicable to, uh, all types of people. Uh, 10th feature, 10th characteristic. The mother of the king was the queen, right? So the queen mother. So, whereas in Western Christian monarchies, the queen is the wife of the king. That's what we're used to. But in ancient dynasties, especially in Israel, that was not the case. The mother of the king was the queen.

20:12 And then the king's wife would eventually become queen, you know, with her son. And it would, this is how it happened. So almost every Davidic king in the Old Testament has his mother listed. And there's even an evil queen mother, if you want to read about that. And just as there were evil kings, evil Davidic kings. So we had the queen mother. 11th, we had, like I said, the king has ministers. And there was the chief steward, the major domo. And he was the prime minister. The prime minister of the kingdom. And this chapter talks about that as well. Uh, and 12th, the 12th characteristic is that in the, in the Sinai covenant, one of the major sacrifices, you know, there's all types of, types of sacrifices. It's a Holocaust offering, a wave offering, a sin offering, all these different types of offerings.

21:10 Uh, well, in the, in the Sinai covenant, the main central sacrifice is the hatat offering. The sin offering. Because, again, the Mosaic covenant and its sacrificial system is supposed to point out your sin. And you, you want purification from sin. Well, in the temple, the main central sacrifice is not the sin offering, but it's what scholars call the todah sacrifice. Todah. And todah means, thanksgiving, well, it's, it's, it's the thanksgiving offering, basically. The todah is the, is the thanksgiving offering. And so what you would do is you'd be in a predicament, uh, and you would pray to God and you'd get out of that predicament. And you want to thank God.

22:03 So you go to the temple, you make a sacrifice, and you thank God. And there were actually, you know how the Psalms were the hymnal for the temple? They didn't use glory and praise back then. Or spirit and song. They used the Psalter. And so different Psalms were for different occasions. Some Psalms were for the enthronement of the king or the crowning of the king. Other Psalms were for, you know, certain festivals, such as Passover. You have the, the Hillel Psalms, the great Hillel and the, and the, and the little Hillel Psalms. Well, so you have todah Psalms. In fact, guess what Psalm 22 is? The Psalm, the Psalm that Jesus quoted from the cross. That's a todah Psalm. One of these associated with the todah offering. And in Greek, what is the Greek word for thanksgiving?

22:56 Eucharistia. Right. The Eucharist. So it could, it could be called either the todah offering or the Eucharist, the Eucharist. And this is, this is the central sacrifices, this, this Thanksgiving, this Thanksgiving sacrifice. Okay. Well, let's go ahead and get into Matthew's gospel. So I want you to open up to Matthew 1, 1. Matthew 1, 1. And I'll leave that up on the board just for a moment so that you guys can continue to write these things down if you haven't already. Okay. Do you guys know who Alfred Loasi is? Any people who study modernism, the synthesis of all heresies, which Pope Pius X had to battle in the beginning of the 20th century? Well, Alfred Loasi was baptized, he was baptized a priest.

23:52 No, he was ordained a priest. Actually, we are baptized as priests, but then if you want to be a ministerial priest, a minister, you have to be ordained. But Alfred Loasi was a priest who ended up studying historical criticism, studying the Bible. And he got really into it. He got into philosophy and all sorts of things. But he started to become apostate, started to lose his own faith. And so Alfred Loasi, at one point, made kind of a cynical statement. And some people say it should be taken different ways. But the statement remains nonetheless. And this is what the statement was. He said, and this is kind of one of his famous statements, you know, you know certain people because of what they said. Like John Paul II, young people, or however he said it, you know. Or, you know, we shoot to the Lord.

24:41 We give him many tanks. So we're going to shoot the Lord and give him tanks. So, you know, it's like, you know, certain people are known for certain sayings. Well, in the, Alfred Loasi said, Jesus came promising a kingdom. Jesus came promising us a kingdom. But all he left us with was the church. Okay, so that's Alfred Loasi. And I think he wrote that in his book, The Gospel in the Church, in 1902. And that's just kind of an interesting saying. And so we had Jesus promising the kingdom. The kingdom is near. But then what's the fruit of his work? The church. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, who you guys are probably more familiar with now than ever, wrote a book called Gospel Catechesis Catechism.

25:31 Gospel, it's very short. I read it in a day. Catechesis. I mean, it's really short. Catechesis Catechism. It's published by Ignatius Press. One time I just got on Amazon and... Catechism Catechism. There we go. My professors would not be happy with the way I spelled that. And Ratzinger. And when he was a cardinal, I loved his biblical theology. So I bought almost all the books I could, you know, with my dad's credit card. Because he was letting me use it at the time. Because I didn't have a job and he wanted to help support my studies. And so I'm like, hey, there's one right there, Gospel Catechesis. So I bought it and I read it. And then I found a quote in it when I was writing a paper. And so I'm going to share it with you guys.

26:20 He said that early Catholic exegesis. So we're looking at St. Augustine, St. Jerome, these early church fathers. Early Catholic ex... What does exegesis mean? Reading out. Right. Yeah, exegesis means to draw out. So we have these words on a page of a Bible. What's the meaning? What's trying to be conveyed? Well, we're going to draw that out. We're going to interpret it. We're going to translate it and then interpret it. That's exegesis. Early Catholic exegesis, a study in interpretation of scripture, often almost always, no wait, often almost completely identified the kingdom of God and the church, which it liked to describe as the kingdom of God on earth.

27:14 So Augustine, Jerome, all these guys, they're like, okay, well, the kingdom of God is the church. It's a different, it's a symbol of the church. You know, the church is, it's a field, it's a vineyard, it's, you know, there are lots of different images. Well, one is the kingdom of God. And so they would identify the two. And St. Augustine in the city of God says the church even now is the kingdom of Christ. So this is kind of how the early Christians read the Bible. And I don't just take Ratzinger at his word. I also have done this study myself. And that's the way that they saw the New Testament. Now let's begin with Matthew 1.1. Matthew 1.1.

28:02 How does Matthew begin his gospel? Yeah, the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis. The book of the genealogy of Jesus. What? Son of David. Of Jesus. What? Christ. Immediately, boom, the title of the sons of David. The Christos. The Messiah. I mean, one of the first things he says brings that up. The son of who? No, no, no. Joseph is his foster father. What do you mean, David? Okay, well, the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, meaning he descends from David. So that's kind of how he structures his gospel in a certain sense.

28:54 Okay, so we have this long, complicated genealogy, which are just like, boring. Guys, in the first century, when this genealogy was published, it would be on the front cover of Time magazine. It would be all over the New York Times, even though the New York Times would probably denounce it. And it would be, I mean, it would be all over CNN. You'd see it on Fox News. This would be the talk of the town, because this genealogy reveals something huge. Let's turn to verse 17 of the genealogy in Matthew, chapter 1, verse 17. Thus, the total number of generations from Abraham to David is 14 generations. Okay, great, wonderful.

29:45 From David to the Babylonian exile, 14 generations. From the Babylonian exile to the Messiah, 14 generations. Wow, Matthew can count. You know, let's clap for him. No, what he's doing, obviously, is he's pointing out that he created his genealogy numerically. And as the book has said in a previous chapter, in Hebrew, there are no vowels. Of course, there are vowels when you pronounce, but not when you write. And so Yahweh is like Y-H-W-H. That's kind of how you write out Yahweh. You know, you write out the consonants. Well, in David's name, it transliterates to a D, a V, and a D. That's how it transliterates.

30:34 And, he's a DVD. Wow! See, God knew. This is a Bible, this is the Bible code. God had prophesied modern technology in the Old Testament. Okay, the DVD. Guys, you guys are so good. I'm up there writing this, and you guys are like, oh! And I'm like, what are you talking about? And then I get it. Okay. D, you know, they're like Roman numerals. You know, the I means 1, the X means 10. Well, the D counts to 4. It represents 4. And what transliterates to V is 6. So, you add up 4 plus 6 plus 4, and you get 14. So, you know, Matthew's giving the genealogy, trying to point at what? What is he pointing at?

31:26 Jesus is what? David, David, David. He's David. Now, the prophets will say, I'm going to send you the son of David. The prophets say this. But they don't just say, I'm going to send you David's son, or David's successor, or the shoot of David. They actually refer to the Messiah to come as David. That's actually what they'll say. They'll say, you know, when I rise up, David. David's going to do this. My servant David is going to do this. Well, in a certain sense, Matthew's saying, Jesus is the new David. He's the son of David as he begins his gospel. Okay. So, Matthew's gospel begins with the central character of the Davidic covenant, what it's named after, its namesake. Matthew chapter 2, where is Jesus born?

32:17 Bethlehem, the hometown of David. Very small, one of the smallest clans of Judah. Matthew chapter 3, Jesus is anointed by the Holy Spirit at his baptism, which makes him the Messiah or the Christ. And who does the baptizing? John the Baptist. Who is from what tribe? Levi. Okay, there we go. This is a little bit of a review. Matthew chapter 4, Jesus goes out. Jesus goes out to the desert. And you know what the Davidic kings were known for a lot of? You know, the chronicler focuses upon David and Solomon in the temple and what they did for worship and sacrifice. But you know what 1 and 2 Kings focuses upon with the Davidic kings and the other historical books of the Old Testament? Is it about, you know, how they decorated, you know, their bathroom and what kind of gardening they did?

33:13 What do they focus upon? What do we read about over and over and over again in the historical books of the Old Testament? Yeah. Battles, wars, fighting. This is what the kings did. They were warriors. David was a warrior. He killed his tens of thousands, whereas Saul only killed his thousands, you know. And so what does Jesus do as soon as he's anointed king? He goes and he does battle. With the Romans, right? With who? With the devil. Yeah, and you know how I talked before when we went over the temptation in the desert? I talked about how prophets would represent the nation or the kingdom. The prophets were like a representative. Well, so were the kings.

34:00 The kings would represent the kingdom. So if the king sinned, the kingdom experiences the consequences. Solomon sins, so his kingdom divides. You know, the king is a representative of the kingdom. So Jesus, as representative, goes out to the desert to do battle. And Matthew is telling us that Jesus, as Messiah, is going to do battle not with the Romans, not with the Persians. You know, with that new movie, 300. Not like that, no. Not with the Spartans, you know. How's it go? Go Spartans. And Saturday Night Live, what was their favorite cheer? The perfect cheer. So whenever I think of 300, I think of the Saturday Night Live characters. The Spartans. Nope, nope. He's going to do battle with the true enemy of Israel, which really caused the exile, which is Satan.

34:53 Sin. The world. The flesh. This, uh, the evil one. Okay. And so we actually have, that's royal. The temptation in the desert is a royal action. He's doing, he's doing battle. And then after that, we have Matthew 5 through 7. And here are the Pharisees. Here's, here are the Shemites and the Hillelite Pharisees. And they're, you know, there's, there's, the, the Pharisees are wanting to be separate from the Gentiles. And they have this zeal. And they want to defeat the Romans. And they're trying to get rid of the Romans. And so, so they want to create a riot. They want to have an uproar. They want to get an army going. And Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5 on the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the meek. Blessed are the peace, peacemakers.

35:47 Blessed. Jesus starts giving us a paradigm for how are we going to bring about the kingdom. Well, we're going to do it the other way around than fighting Rome. We're going to try and win the Romans. He says, if, you know, if someone asks for you to go a mile, go another mile. Well, that's what the Romans would do. If they were soldiers, they could tell a Jew to carry their pack, to carry their supplies for one mile. That was a, that was the context of that verse. Well, Jesus says, well, if a Roman asks for you to carry it one mile, go two miles. If he asks for your cloak, give him your coat as well. You know, you're going to, basically, I want for you to think a kingship, not in political terms, not in division terms, not in nationalistic terms, but in universal terms, the conversion of the Romans. And not just the conversion of the Romans, but the doing away with sin, your true enemy.

36:37 This is, this is what I'm coming to do. So we have the royal law of the new kingdom in Matthew 5 through 7, the Sermon on the Mount. Then in Matthew chapter, let's go ahead and turn with me, Matthew chapter 8. Now we're going to start flipping through the Bible real quick. So try and stay with me if you can. Matthew chapter 8. Let's look at verse, oh, we have these healings going on in Matthew chapter 8. We have healings such as the cleansing of a leper, the healing of the centurion's son. When we say the word, my servant will be healed. That's what we say at every mass. We quote the centurion, we have the cure of Peter's mother-in-law, other healings. And these healings, as we've seen in previous sessions, are not just mere philanthropy, or Jesus trying to flex his divine muscles, or say, look at me, I'm God, or believe in, just believe in me.

37:41 But it's more specific. But his healings have prophetic significance. What do his healings mean? We talked about this. What do his healings mean? When he allows the mute to speak, bring sight to the blind, like Dr. Rexrode does. Not miraculously, but as an optometrist. And when he makes a paralyzed, you know, or the lame walk again, these are miracles which Isaiah associates with what? The Messiah. And what work of the Messiah? What's happening? Sin is being forgiven. Healings are happening. It's the end of exile. The end of exile.

38:31 Which means what? The kingdom is coming, but what? Everybody's going to be gathered together. And what do we call that? Reunification. Or the restoration. Of what? The restoration of what? The 12 tribes. The northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. The restoration of the kingdom. So we have the kingdom being restored through these healings. These healings say, Jesus is saying, hey guys, I'm coming to restore the kingdom. In Matthew chapter. And not only that, but they also show the universality of the kingdom. These various healings. So, for instance, in Jesus' own day, lepers were considered outcasts. In fact, they had to cry out, unclean, unclean. And they could not be a part of the community.

39:21 But now Jesus, you know, if you touch the leper, you would become unclean. But Jesus, and Jesus doesn't just say, be clean. But I'm not going to touch you. But be clean. And I'm going to heal you from afar. No, Jesus reaches out and Matthew says that he touched the leper. And does Jesus become unclean? No, the leper is healed. And what does that mean for the leper? He's being brought into fellowship with his brothers and sisters. The leper is coming into the family. So, again, the universality. Jesus is bringing people who were outcasts into the family by healing them. Now the leper is no longer outside of the community because he's been healed by Jesus. And this is, you know, Jesus is kind of saying, a foretaste of what's going to happen with the Gentiles. They're outside of the community. Well, he's going to do something.

40:08 He's going to take upon himself the curses of the Mosaic Covenant so that Gentiles can now become a part of the kingdom, which has this universal scope. Matthew chapter 10, there's a summoning of the 12 ministers. The royal ministers of the kingdom. And so we have the 12 who we're told in Luke's gospel will sit on the 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And we see how they start doing that in Acts as they rule and govern the church and spread the kingdom through their ministry. Let's look at Matthew 10, verse 40. This is how real this ministry is, how real this apostolicity is. Matthew chapter 10, verse 40. Whoever receives you, receives me. And whoever receives me, receives the one who sent me.

41:02 So if you want to receive the Father, if you want to be one with the Father, and if you reject Jesus, what does Jesus say? He says, you've rejected the Father. Because whoever sees me, sees the Father. For the Father is in me, and I am in the Father. And so Jesus sends out the apostles as not just ministers of Jesus, but as representatives of Jesus. Vice regents. With true authority. Matthew 11, we have the famous saying, Matthew 11, verse 28. Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.

41:51 Who made the yoke heavy in the Old Testament? In the Old, no, before that. Before that, in the Old, Old Testament. Who made, who are we, who says, you know, I made the, you know, I'm going to make your yoke heavy. You guys remember? Rehoboam, Solomon's son. And because he does that, what happens? The kingdom divides. And Rehoboam becomes the king over the southern kingdom. So Rehoboam is the cause of the disunity of the kingdom. And he does this by making the people's yoke heavy. Jesus says, my yoke is light. Therefore, meaning, I'm going to undo what Rehoboam did. And in Matthew chapter 12, verse 9, we have Jesus who heals the man with the withered hand.

42:45 And who had a withered hand in the Old Testament? Not Rehoboam, but Jeroboam. Not Rehoboam, but Jeroboam. The king over the northern kingdom who set up golden calves in the northernmost and southernmost points of the northern kingdom at Dan and Bethel. And brought idolatrous worship to the northern kingdom and helped the divide of the kingdom. By having the people sacrifice the golden calves so they won't be going to the temple in the southern kingdom anymore. And so Jesus, by curing the man's withered hand, again, he's undoing what Jeroboam had done. That's a key symbol that points us back to Jeroboam. Okay, Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12, let's look at verse 22. Same chapter.

43:36 Then they brought to him a demoniac who was blind and mute. Again, there's the blindness and the muteness. Referring back to what Isaiah says is going to happen when we have the restoration. He cured the mute person so that he could speak and see. All the crowds were astounded and said, could this perhaps be the son of David? Now, guys, I see Benny Hinn on television. And let's say I see Benny Hinn deliver somebody through an exorcism or whatnot. Do I go, wow, Benny Hinn must be the son of David? Why would they think that just because he delivered a boy from a demon, he'd be the son of David? No, scripture didn't say it would happen. This goes back to the Jewish tradition, the pseudepigrapha.

44:26 In the first century, Solomon was known as one of the greatest exorcists in the Old Testament. Solomon was known for having power over the evil spirits. And so when Jesus comes along and delivers someone from the devil, people go, I think he might be the Messiah, the son of David, the new Solomon. Matthew 13. Matthew 13, we have the seven parables of the, the seven parables of the kingdom. Where Jesus starts teaching about the kingdom. And notice that before Matthew 13, Jesus doesn't speak a single parable. He only starts speaking of parables right now because what starts happening? Part of his audience starts getting hardened of heart and it won't convert.

45:17 The unbelieving Jews, personified by the unbelieving scribes and Pharisees, they won't accept Jesus' message. So Jesus turns to parables so that those people who are faithful and meek and humble of heart can, can get the message. But those people who are unbelieving will be like, what on earth are you talking about? Because they don't want that. They don't want it. This is what parables do. And the prophets in the Old Testament, when they would speak against an unbelieving people, they would speak in parables. So Jesus starts speaking in parables about the kingdom. And let's turn to Matthew chapter 13, verse 36. Matthew chapter 13, verse 36. And Jesus had just given the parable of the sower. Remember the parable of the sower? The sower sows seed. Some falls on rocky ground.

46:04 Some falls on fertile. Some gets choked up by the weeds. Some, the sun, they don't have any shade. So the sun, you know, causes them to shrivel. Well, Jesus in verse 36 of Matthew 13 dismisses the crowds. And he went into the house. His disciples approached him and said, explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field. And Jesus explains the parable. Because who's his audience? His disciples. Those who want to follow him and want to do his will. Not the unbelievers. So now he can speak openly. He who sows good seed is the son of man. And what is that a reference to? What book and chapter of the Old Testament? Son of man? Daniel, good.

46:53 Daniel chapter 7. Daniel 7. Remember that. Son of man, Daniel 7. Every time you see son of man, you should think, Daniel 7. The son of man who gets kingship and power and dominion and is presented before the Ancient of Days. So son of man has kingly characteristics, you know, along with it as a royal ambiance. Go ahead. Son of man versus son of man. Now, which one gives the connotation that he is the son of God? Yeah. Well, the son of God, again, is not a divine title. His deity. His deity is not necessarily represented by son of man or son of God. The early Jews saw the son of man as being even a personification or possibly Israel itself.

47:50 When they saw the son of man in Daniel 7, they saw it as being both an individual and a corporate reality at the same time. And, of course, Israel didn't consider itself to be God. So neither, actually. The, we know that he's the, I would look more to the temple in Jesus saying that he is the temple. He's the new temple. Destroy this temple in three days. I will rebuild it. And that points to his divinity more than anything because the temple is what represented God. That's where God's divinity dwelled. That's where heaven and earth met. And if Jesus says, I'm the temple, I'm where God and man touch, you got the hypostatic union right there. So I would say, no, the title that necessarily does not represent it, but that represents it. Now, John in his gospel goes further and he starts teaching about Jesus's divinity using the idea of being begotten by God in eternity. And he, and he does this in Genesis 1, 1, where he equates the son with the word of God, the logos, which speaks and creates.

48:48 And so it's, it's really interesting to do biblical theology and to get back to the original meaning of the terms. And then how, how they take these truths that Jesus is divine. And then they start using analogies to speak about it, such as a son, whereas we know that Jesus is not physically a son. We know he's not physically a male in eternity. When we say son of God in eternity, he wasn't eternally being physically begotten by God. This is speaking in a, by analogy, by the way, if you guys want an amazing, wonderful, the best explanation of the Trinity I've ever seen. Oh, this guy, I love him. Frank Sheed. I'm going to give him a big hug when I go to heaven. Frank Sheed was an Australian convert to the Catholic faith who moved to England, married Maisie Ward, and they started the publishing house, Sheed and Ward. Frank Sheed wrote Theology and Sanity.

49:40 And it's either page 46 or 47. I think it's page 47. Because I was just recommending this to somebody. It's not that, like, I actually memorized page numbers. But I believe it's page 47. That's scary, right? Page 47 of Theology and Sanity starts talking about the nature of God. And he goes into the Trinity. And he does the best. I don't even try and explain the Trinity. I just tell people, read Theology and Sanity. Page 47. Published by the Pope's publisher, Ignatius Press. Ignatius Press. Out of San Francisco. Okay, so that's the, we have the seven parables of the kingdom. Let's get back to Jesus explaining it.

50:29 He who sows good seed is the son of man. The field is the world. So the son of man is out there in the world, sowing. The good seed is what? The children of the kingdom. Yeah, the children of the kingdom. It's not the word of God. A lot of times, you know, you hear homilies on this. And if I were to ask any of you right before reading this and said, and so what's the seed? People would be like, it's the word of God. No, it's not. It's actually the children of the kingdom. What are the weeds? Yeah, the sons or the children of the evil one. And the enemy who sows them is the devil. So you have children of the devil in the world. And the son of man is making, he's sowing children of the kingdom, servants.

51:28 And then you have sons of the devil. The harvesters at the end of the age are the angels. So just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so it will be at the end of the age, the son of man will send out his angels, and they will collect out of the kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. So is Jesus telling us that the kingdom of God has sons of the devil in it? Yeah. He's saying, guys, in the church, when you see sinners and unrepentant people, guess what? That's the church. He says, you're not supposed to be a perfect church, but you should expect for sin to crop up.

52:18 And when you see scandal and you see sin, you know you got it. And guess what? But that's not how the kingdom is going to be forever, because the angels are going to come, and they're going to take out the children of the evil one. And so in eternity, in heaven, do you have any sin or evil people? No. No, heaven, where the church is full, is fully kingdom, is fully church, where God reigns perfectly because everything's been subjugated to him in heaven. Not a single saint or angel in heaven has a possibility of sinning. You have the fullness of the kingdom. Yet, we have the kingdom in pilgrim form, as the Second Vatican Council calls it here on earth. We're still in via. We're still journeying. We're not perfected yet.

53:06 In fact, each of us who have sanctifying grace, we are still trying to purify ourselves. So we're not perfectly servants of the king yet. Not until we get to heaven. Not until we get to heaven. Nothing unclean shall enter heaven, we're told in the book of Revelation. In Matthew 16, 16 through 19, or 13 through 19, Jesus gives to Peter. What does he give him? Keys to the kingdom. And this is why I brought out this book today, because I'm going to read from F.F. Bruce, a former teacher of New Testament biblical exegesis at the University of Manchester, a member of the Plymouth Brethren Movement. F.F. Bruce is a great biblical scholar. I love his work.

53:53 He wrote about the keys. And he says, what about the keys of the kingdom? And this is in The Hard Sayings of Jesus. F.F. Bruce wrote this book called The Hard Sayings of Jesus. And it's published by InterVarsity Press. And he is a member of the Plymouth Brethren Movement. And he says, what about the keys of the kingdom? The keys of a royal or noble establishment were entrusted to the chief steward or major domo. He carried them on his shoulder in earlier times. And there they served as a badge of the authority entrusted to him. About 700 B.C., an oracle from God announced that this authority in the royal palace in Jerusalem was to be conferred on a man called Eliakim.

54:50 Isaiah 22, 22. Really easy to remember. Isaiah 2, 22, 22, with a colon in between. So in the new community which Jesus was about to build, Peter would be, so to speak, ding, chief steward. I mean, the major domo, right? The vizier. Okay? Great. And I got this from a wonderful book, which I have not read, but I use as a resource book because it's full of great information. And it's called Jesus, Peter, and the Keys. Jesus, Peter, and the Keys. By Scott Butler. I'm going to write in between some words here.

55:41 Norman Dahlgren. Man, that's a weird name. I hope he has all daughters so they can get new last names. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding, Norman. And Reverend Mr. David Hess. So it's written by three people. Jesus, Peter, and the Keys. Okay, so the Keys. The Keys meant this chief steward. But, okay, so Peter, we know, and we'll look more later on in the study. We'll see how Peter, you know, allows the first Gentile convert into the church. That Peter gives the first sermon, you know, at Pentecost. Peter, Peter. Peter's name is listed over 150 times, whereas the other apostles don't even add up to that much. Okay, so we see a certain preeminent authority of Peter. We see him being the chief steward. But what about when Peter dies? Is he going to have a successor?

56:32 Now, we know from early church history, we know from reading Eusebius and Irenaeus, and these other people, that there were successors. There was Linus and Anacletus, Clement, Evaristus, Sixtus. I have these memorized now. I can see them so many times. Peter, Linus, Anacletus, Clement, Evaristus, Alexander, Sixtus, Telus Forrestus, Hygienus, Pius. He actually named himself Pius. I'm Pius. Anacletus, Soter. I wonder if Soter means salvation. I think it is, like Soteriology. St. Victor. I like Victor. I'm victorious. These guys had some great names. And the first 30 or so were martyred for the faith. So, it wasn't good to be a pope back then. But what about success? Would there be a successor to Peter? Well, it's all in the idea of the keys.

57:20 Jesus, we're told, is the Messiah. There's going to be no more Messiah after him because what happens? Why do we not have another Davidic king after Jesus dies? Because what? He already fulfilled it, but why not have another? I mean, he's dead, right? He's gone, right? Oh, there was a resurrection. Oh. So, because of the resurrection, Jesus still is king. And he sits upon the throne at the right hand of God. So, Jesus is king. What about Mary? Now, we're not going to have any more Messiahs, so we can't have any more queen mothers. But we're going to see that Mary fulfills the role of queen mother because she's the mother of the king. So, she fulfills this role that Solomon started with Bathsheba. And so, are we going to have any new queen mothers?

58:10 No, because what happened? The assumption. By the way, I was just reading a... I'm going to give you guys all these titles. I was reading this book called Father Elijah by Michael O'Brien. Great book. I'm not going to tell you how it ends, but I was a little disappointed. But it's still great. Read it. It's awesome. It reads in light. You can read it. It goes so fast. One night, Rebecca and I were trying to go to bed, and I stayed up for an hour and a half in bed just reading voraciously. But Father Elijah... And Father Elijah, there's a surprise in there about the assumption. I'm not going to say anything. I'm just going to say that. Okay, so we have Jesus is king. We have Mary is queen. And we see her kind of represented in Revelation 12 as with crowned with 12 stars. She's the archetype of the church and Israel.

59:02 Because the church is the new Israel. What about Peter? Does Peter get an assumption? Well, no. The vizier, the chief steward, reigned when the king was gone. Well, the king is not gone, guys. Jesus is here in spirit. But Jesus tells us how he's going to be here. How he's going to reign. Let's turn to Matthew 18. Well, we already saw this. I don't know why we're reading it. Matthew 18, 18. Jesus says that, you know, on the testimony of two or three witnesses, right before Matthew 18, 18. I think it's Matthew 18, 16. He's talking about the testimony of two or three witnesses. And then he says, if two of you agree on earth and pray for it, it shall be granted. He says, where two or three are gathered, there I am in the midst of them.

59:49 The two are the three. The two are the three. The two. And then right in the middle of that, he says, and I give to you, and he speaks to the 12 apostles. I give you the authority to bind and loose. Which you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Which you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Basically, authority to permit and to not permit. Well, Jesus says, you know, there I am in your midst when you pray about these things because I'm giving you this authority. I'm going to be there to back up your... Well, Peter is... Jesus, you know, is not here, but he's here at the same time. But how is he here? How is Jesus governing the church? Well, he does it through these men. And he's going to do it through his prime minister, Peter. So Peter is going to be the prime minister. But again, what about Peter's successor?

1:00:36 Why doesn't Peter just go sit on a throne in heaven and then somehow he reigns through the spirit as chief, as prime minister? Well, Peter is PM. He's prime minister. Well, it all has to do with the keys. Remember Isaiah 20? Isaiah 20, 20 through 22? The keys. The keys, when Shebna, that corrupt official in Isaiah 20, 20, Isaiah 22, 20, excuse me, not chapter 20, but chapter 22, when Shebna was corrupt, did the keys go out of... What happened to the keys? Eliakim got them. Eliakim got the keys. But we're told in the book of Revelation that Jesus has the keys.

1:01:24 Jesus has the key to the house of David, we're told in Revelation. So who has the keys? Peter or Jesus? Well, it's one of delegating, one of sharing authority. Basically, keys mean authority, and it's all in the keys. The keys mean an office. Mean an office. And there was an office. And the office, for instance, that Judas Iscariot left vacant had to be fulfilled by Matthias in Acts chapter 1. Well, so when Peter dies, there's an office that needs to be filled. And it was filled by his successor. And by the way, one guy, this is great, in the Middle Ages, became Pope three times. The successor of Peter three times. I don't know exactly how the first couple of times happened, but it was really, if you look at the list of popes, we actually don't have like 264 popes.

1:02:12 We have like 261 or something like that. Because this one guy got to be in the office three times. Because he resigned the office. And they're like, get back in there. So he gets back in there. And then he resigns it again. It's crazy politics. Crazy stuff. But fun. It's fun. Okay, Matthew 19. Right after he's talking about delegating this authority to his apostles, in Matthew 19, he's talking about divorce and remarriage. And he gives such a strict command that in verse 10 of chapter 19 of Matthew, it says that Jesus' disciples said to Jesus, if that is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.

1:03:00 Good grief. You're crazy, man. You're saying that divorce and remarry constitutes adultery? Except for porneia? By the way, porneia does not mean adultery. It means unchastity. It has a much broader meaning. And elsewhere in Matthew, he uses the word for adultery alongside the word porneia. So we know that porneia does not mean specifically adultery. In fact, porneia is used quite often. Leviticus, to refer to incest. So there were different views in the early church. None of them being that if your wife commits adultery, then you can divorce and remarry. That was never, ever interpreted that way. Rather, it was, there was the Levitical law interpretation, which was where Jesus, when he says, except for porneia, he was talking about except for incestral relationships. Then they're unlawful.

1:03:48 So the New American Bible translates it in verse 9. I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, unless the marriage is unlawful, and marries another commits adultery, that phrase, unless the marriage is unlawful, means except for porneia. That's the New American Bible translation. That takes a Levitical view. Another view is that Jesus is saying, except for porneia, that besides, that debate between Shammai and Hillel, let's exclude that. No, rather, let's get back to the beginning in Genesis and get beyond the Deuteronomic concessions with Moses. Well, his disciples say, if that is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry. And so what does Jesus do? He has a little plug, teachable moment. He answered, not all can accept this word, meaning the one he's about to say, this word, but only to those that it is granted.

1:04:39 Then he gives the word. Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so. Some because they were made so by others. Some because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it. Eunuchs. We've talked about eunuchs. Remember the eunuchs? Well, some have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of God. What did the eunuchs do? They cared for the concubines and the wives of the king. And so Jesus has a kingdom, his spouse, the church, and he's saying, guess what, ministers? Some of you are going to renounce marriage for the sake of my kingdom. We have clerical celibacy right here in Matthew 19, verse 12. Clerical celibacy right here. Okay, how much time do we have?

1:05:32 Oh, we've got to go fast. Okay, we have about 12 minutes. Matthew 20, verse 20. Matthew 20, verse 20. Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee, James and John, approached him with her two sons and did him homage. Oh, oh, King Jesus. Wishing to ask him for something. He said to her, what do you wish? She answered him, command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom. A good Jewish mother, right? Jesus said in reply, you do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I'm going to drink? Can you drink this fourth cup of the Passover and suffer like I'm going to suffer?

1:06:20 They said to him, we can. He replied, my cup, you will indeed drink. But to sit at my right and my left, this is not mine to give, but it is for those to whom it has been prepared for by my father. When the ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers. Shut up, guys. Why did you do that? But Jesus summoned them and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. rather whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant. Whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so the son of man, again, there's that royal term from Daniel 7, did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. So again, Jesus' teachable moment. Yeah, you'll renounce marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven and you're not going to get a bunch of great

1:07:09 political authority. You're going to have to serve. In fact, you're going to be martyred for the faith. And you first 30 successors of Peter, you're going to be martyred for the faith in Rome. You're going to spill your blood which is going to be the seat of the church according to Tertullian, an ecclesiastical writer. And so Jesus again teaches about ministry in the church. He says this is going to be one of self-sacrifice. One of service. It's going to be a priestly kingdom. Matthew 21, verse 1, Jesus comes to the Mount of Olives and he is going to ride into Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey. On the son of an ass. That was a joke, by the way. The son of an ass.

1:07:57 And he's, so we're going to call it the foal of a beast of burden, a cult. Why? Why does Jesus do this? Why does he start riding in on a little young donkey? Zechariah 9, 9. Zechariah says when the Messiah comes, he's going to come to Jerusalem riding upon the youngling of an ass, a donkey. So Jesus is trying to fulfill Zechariah. He's saying, I'm the king coming into Jerusalem. People are waving palms. Why palms? Because that's what they use to welcome Judas Maccabeus in Maccabees. I forgot which book of Maccabees it's in. First or the second. But palms are used to welcome the victor, the king, into the city.

1:08:48 And it was also tied up with the feast of, the feast of, I think it was either booths or tabernacles. But anyways, the people say, Hosanna to the son of David. What does Hosanna mean in Hebrew? Huh? Grant salvation. So notice that we say Hosanna in excelsis. Hosanna in the highest at every mass when? Right before the Eucharistic prayer when our king comes into our midst. Every Sunday is a Palm Sunday. Every Sunday, Jesus our king comes in our midst under the form, the appearances, the taste, the touch of bread and wine.

1:09:35 But it's not bread and wine, it's our Lord. And so we shout, right before this happens, we shout, Hosanna in excelsis. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Benedictus qui vini to nomine domini. Haha, I'm stretching my Latin. Okay. So we have, again, we have the king coming into Jerusalem. Matthew chapter 21. Jesus cleanses the temple. Matthew chapter 21. He cleanses the temple, starting in verse 12. And get this, Jesus, remember, what does he do? He overturns the money changers' tables. And the money changers' tables were there in order to exchange currency because people had to sacrifice at the temple.

1:10:22 But they didn't want to bring, you know, their unblemished animal on this long journey. Instead, they're just going to bring some pocket cash. They're going to get to the temple, they have to exchange it for the local currency, and of course, the people are going to charge and exchange rate. Then they're able to buy their animal and then it can get sacrificed by the Levitical priests at the temple. Jesus turns over all these tables in the temple and what happens when Jesus does that? In other words, what cannot happen? Jesus stops the entire sacrificial system for probably a couple hours while they reorganize their money. Prefiguring what he's going to do on the cross, he's going to do away with animal sacrifice. And then he says in verse 13 of Matthew 21, he said to them, it is written, my house shall be a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves.

1:11:16 That's a quotation of Isaiah 56.7. Isaiah 56.7. And in the second half of it, the den of thieves part, you are making a den of thieves, comes from Jeremiah 7.11. Isaiah 56.7 talks about how the temple is supposed to be for all nations. It has the court of the Gentiles. But what were the Jews doing? They were making the temple a symbol of national identity. It was like the place where we're trying to keep the Gentiles out. We're trying to, in fact, come worship at the court of the Gentiles? No, stay away. We're going to exchange currency here instead. And the temple was seen by the Jews in the first century as a symbol of national revolt against the Romans.

1:12:03 It was their prize, their piece of architecture. So, of course, when the Romans defeat them in 70 AD, the Romans destroyed the temple to get rid of this national symbol. Jesus is saying, you know, you're being nationalistic. I want for you to think universal in scope. I want you to think Catholic according to the whole. Universal. Second part, you're making it a den of thieves. Jeremiah 7.11. By the way, the word for thieves, that Greek word, is the type of thief who kills to get what he wants. And so, Jesus is kind of saying, you know, you're making it a den of those people who want to kill, who want to take life. And again, this is what the revolutionaries wanted to do. They would even go, they would even take force and violence in order to get rid of the Gentiles, in order to separate themselves from the Gentiles to get rid of this Roman occupation.

1:12:51 So again, Jesus is speaking to the people of the day. But also, Jeremiah 7.11. I like that, 7.11. There were 7.11s in Jeremiah's day. There was, we have to keep this Bible study interesting, right? Because none of this is interesting. Jeremiah 7.11 happens right before Jeremiah prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. So by Jesus quoting this verse, Jesus in effect is saying, sacrifice is going to end theologically because I'm going to die, but it's also going to end in reality because the temple is going to be destroyed within a generation. Wait, did I just say within a generation? I did just say that. Hmm. We'll look at that in a moment. Okay, we've got to go fast here. Matthew 21.23. Jesus says, when they had come into the temple area, the chief priests and the elders of the people approached him as they were teaching and said, by what authority are you doing these things?

1:13:48 And who gave you this authority? And Jesus replies with more parables, the parable of the two sons, the parable of the tenants about authority. And then in verse 43, Jesus says, I say to you, and he's speaking to the scribes and the Pharisees, those who have authority, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit. So in a certain sense, they're reigning in the current Davidic kingdom that's exiled and broken and divided. And Jesus is saying, I'm going to take this authority away from you and I'm going to give it to a people who really want it. And in Matthew 23, verse 1, Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples saying, the scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.

1:14:36 Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you. Why? Because they sit on the seat of Moses. By the way, the seat of Moses, nowhere found in the Old Testament. It comes from Jewish tradition. Jesus respected this authentic Jewish tradition alongside the Torah, the Ketuvim and the Nebiim, the Law of the Prophets and the Writings, but do not follow their example. So they have true authority. Do whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach a lot, but they do a little and they bind up heavy burdens upon people and that's where earlier you got the heavy yoke of the Pharisees earlier. Okay, let's look at Matthew 24 begins the Olivet Discourse. Matthew 24 begins the Olivet Discourse where it begins this way.

1:15:27 Jesus left the temple area and was going away and his disciples approached him to point out the temple buildings. They're like, hey Jesus, look at all these great temple buildings. And Jesus says to them in reply, you see all these things, do you not? I say to you, there will not be here one stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down. Wow. So he's saying, you see this great temple, it's going to fall. He says in verse 34 of Matthew 24, verse 34, he says, Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. This generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. The temple will be destroyed within a generation.

1:16:16 And in verse 29, a little bit before, which was part of this Olivet Discourse, what's going to happen within those 40 years, a generation, immediately after the tribulation of those days, and then he quotes Isaiah, which talks about the falling of the kingdom, the defeat of Babylon. Jesus is referring it to Jerusalem. And then they will see the sign of the Son of Man, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. They will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, the enthronement of Jesus. Jesus is going to get all authority, kingship and dominion. He's going to fulfill the Son of Man figure in Daniel 7. So Jesus is going to be king. And then Matthew 27, Jesus goes to battle. He goes to battle by conquering through his self-sacrifice.

1:17:08 He's going to conquer not the Romans, the Romans are going to conquer him. And in doing so, and actually Satan's conquering him, it looks like Satan's conquering him, but he's conquering sin and death and Satan through his self-sacrifice as the new Passover lamb. And then Matthew's gospel ends in Matthew 28, verse 18. He says, All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always until the end of the age. Emmanuel, God is with you. And so the king is with his kingdom as it spreads through sacrament and catechesis. Anarchizing and teaching.

1:17:59 Okay, we're out of time. And some people have already left because we're over time. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Lord, thank you tremendously for the gift of our king. Thank you for teaching us about the kingdom through metaphor and illusion and allegory and typology. Thank you for AC, for the gift of cotton, 100% cotton t-shirts. Lord, we just thank you for Holy Week. We ask, that you would continue to be with us this week and to, of course, we know that you're always with us, but help us pray. Help us sacrifice as we await your death on Good Friday, your burial, and the resurrection at the Easter Vigil. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

1:18:56 Thank you.