Palm Sunday 2015 - A Ransom for many - Matthew 20:17-28
Matthew 20:17-28 · Vern Peterman · Mar 29, 2015
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Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926459495566

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're going to take for this Sunday and next, we're going to take a kind of a detour from our study of the Gospel of Luke. And so we'll be looking at this passage here in Matthew for today, which is Palm Sunday. And then next Sunday, taking a look at another passage and then resume our study of the Gospel of Luke. So we have here, and this is also reflected in your handout in color, a chart that we want to go through. The second page is similarly another chart, and we'll go through it step by step.

Our reason for doing that is because the Bible teaches actually not one gospel, but two gospels. The first time I said that, I remember Nancy just was stunned. But yes, the Bible teaches two Gospels and we'll want to go through that step-by-step here. One we call the Gospel of Substitution, that is Christ died in our place and was buried and rose again. And the other is the Gospel of the Kingdom. So the way we have it is the Gospel of Substitution is on the top part of the first page of your handout. So let's step through that.

The first part is in Genesis 3.15, and this is referring to the seed of the woman there in Genesis 3.15. And this is at the very beginning, after the fall of man, God is already putting in place a Savior and revealing that fact.

Next, in Exodus 12, and by the way, this is just a sampling, not exhaustive at all. Next in Exodus 12 is the Passover lamb, and this again is the gospel of substitution, that Christ is our Passover is revealed by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians. So Exodus 12 talks about the Passover lamb and it gives the Passover observance that the Jews are to have and that is a pointing forward to Christ as our Passover.

Next in Isaiah 53 and this is one where the entire chapter refers to Christ and Him dying in our place. Isaiah 53, He will bear their iniquities. So Christ bears our sins, actually the sins of the whole world. And we'll take a look at that in a little bit as John the Baptist refers to that as well. Next, in Acts chapter 3, this is the time after Peter has given the day of Pentecost message and he talks about Christ would suffer and very interesting because it had only been months before that that Peter didn't understand this. He didn't understand it at all but it's something he came to understand enough to present that Christ would suffer for our sins. The last one we have, there are several passages in the book of Revelation that come across with this gospel of substitution.

One is in Revelation 1.18, and this is the first time John the Apostle has seen Christ for basically over half a century. Can you imagine seeing Christ resurrected, not having seen him for over half a century, and then he has a vision of Christ, and Christ calls himself the Living One.

Revelation 5.9, purchase for God with your blood, and this is Christ's blood, himself being the sacrifice. In Revelation 5-6, all the way through the last chapter of the book of Revelation, Christ is repeatedly called the Lamb, the one who was the sacrifice for us. And of course, this ties together with the Passover lamb.

So we see from this sampling here, and we've quickly swept through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and we could pick many more passages, but we have from beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation, and many places in between, that we have the gospel of substitution, that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. Now, we also have, in the bottom part of that first page, the gospel of the kingdom, Christ the Messiah will reign. So the gospel of substitution focuses on Christ's first coming, and now this gospel of the kingdom, which was proclaimed in his first coming, will actually be fulfilled and enacted during his second coming. So here we have in the Gospel of the Kingdom, Christ the Messiah will reign.

And that begins in Genesis 12 and 15 in reference to the land. This is the land that is promised to Abraham. So this is the land that will be part of Christ's rule and reign over the Jews. And secondly, and at the end of Genesis, as Jacob is blessing his sons, he comes to Judah, who by the way did not deserve any blessing, right?

But he comes to Judah and we have reference there to the Lion of Judah, which as we'll soon see, shows up again in Revelation 5.5. So this is in reference to the gospel of the kingdom. This is looking forward to Christ's second coming.

Next, 1 Chronicles 17, this is where Nathan the prophet is speaking to David with regards to his son Solomon and his descendants. And there he says, I, it's God speaking, will establish his kingdom forever. This is the descendant of David, right? So this is a promise that Christ will reign and his kingdom will be established forever as a descendant of David.

Also in Acts chapter 3, this is the one we saw previously, Peter was speaking and he had talked about Christ's suffering. Here also in Acts chapter 3, Peter talks about sending Jesus the Christ and that the Christ word pair would mean the Messiah, the Anointed One. And now we have the last one, also several passages from Revelation.

We have the fulfillment of Revelation 5.5, the Lion of Judah. So this is part of the Gospel of the Kingdom. not the gospel of substitution, but the next one, Revelation 1-19, the sword from his mouth, that refers to judgment, and that sword from the mouth word picture is one that comes out of the book of Isaiah. One of the points we've made in the past is 70% of the book of Revelation is out of the Old Testament, and this is one of those things. Revelation 20, verse 6, talks about reigning with him for a thousand years. And this, again, is the gospel of the kingdom.

So this is the two gospels evident from a kind of a sweeping survey from Genesis to Revelation. throughout the Bible. And now we're going to take a look, focusing on the Gospels and looking at the first coming of Jesus Christ. This you'll find on the second page of your handout there. First, we'll take a look at the Gospel of Substitution as reflected in the Gospels. And again, this is just a sampling just to indicate the two Gospels coming out of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

The first one we have there, this is what was revealed to Joseph in a dream, Matthew 1, 20 and 21. Jesus is his name and he will save his people from their sins. I think it's very interesting that as it was revealed to Joseph and Mary, Joseph was told about the gospel of substitution, that he would be the Savior to save people from their sins. Mary was told about the gospel of the kingdom as the angel Gabriel spoke to her. So interesting, they each got revealed different aspects of what Christ's coming would mean. Next here is John the Baptist, a relative of Jesus, a cousin of some kind, we're not exactly sure which, but in John chapter 1, verses 29 and 36, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Now that takes away doesn't mean that the sin goes away. Let me explain a little bit. The word takes away means he lifts the sins off of us and puts them upon himself. Okay? Puts them upon himself. So it doesn't make the sin just go away, it takes the sins off of us to put them upon himself. Takes away the sin of the whole world, which tells us that Christ died for the sins of the whole world, not just for those who would believe. Okay? Then here is Matthew 1240, 1621, and we'll see it in today's passage as well.

Christ tells the disciples multiple times, and Matthew 12.40 is the first time in Matthew, He tells the disciples multiple times ahead of time that He is going to die and He will rise again. He gives that message multiple times. As a matter of fact, if you were to put it together from all the Gospels, you'd get quite a number of times that he's telling them ahead of time that he is going to die and rise again. And we'll see that they don't get it, and we'll see why in a little bit here.

We have the record from all four Gospels that Jesus is crucified, buried and raised, and we have it from 1 Corinthians 15, that he appeared to as many as 500 witnesses at once. Multiple times to sometimes the same group of people with some overlap and other times large groups of people at once.

Now we switch to the Gospel of the Kingdom being referred to in the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And so here's the one I referred to earlier. Here's Luke 1, 30-33, where the angel Gabriel is speaking to Mary. And there, Mary is told about not the Gospel of substitution, he's going to die and save people from their sins, but rather the Gospel of the Kingdom. talks about the throne of his father David. David lived about a thousand years earlier. And reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end.

Next we have in Matthew 3.2 we have John the Baptist and then in Matthew 4.17 Christ both saying repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What's interesting is if you look at the words of John the Baptist, John the Baptist and Jesus both talked about the gospel of substitution, that is Christ died for your sins, was buried and rose again, and both of them also talked about the gospel of the kingdom. And here they used the same phrase even, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The next one, Matthew 10, Jesus sends out the twelve disciples.

And they're told to go only to the lost sheep at the house of Israel. Don't go even on a road that leads to the Gentiles. As a matter of fact, even though we have record that Jesus went to the Samaritans, at this point in time, he says, don't even go there. Go only to the lost sheep at the house of Israel and tell them the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

This is the gospel of the kingdom, which tells us something. We're going to observe this in a little bit. They understood the gospel of the kingdom. They didn't understand the gospel of substitution, that Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose again. They did not comprehend that until after Christ was resurrected.

Finally, we have Christ ascends from the Mount of Olives to return to the Mount of Olives at His second coming. He's going to come back there. This is Acts 1, 1-11. where it says he will come back in the same way in which he departed, but also Zechariah 14.4 is the passage that also says his feet will touch the Mount of Olives when he returns. So back to that place.

Alright, so we have the gospel of substitution in both the Old Testament, New Testament scriptures, and then specifically mentioned in the Gospels, the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and the Gospel of the Kingdom as well. Alright, so that Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, Matthew 4.23 says, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. And the gospel of the kingdom is not the same as the gospel of substitution. So early on Jesus proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom to the Jews and explicitly targeting that message to the Jews. Jesus was going through all the cities and villages and teaching in their synagogues, and it turns out as we examine this, Jesus had probably 80% of his ministry in the area of the Sea of Galilee, and most of that in the northern half of the Sea of Galilee.

Very interesting that he focused it particularly there, although he did go to other places as we know. And he went proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and every sickness. And one of the things that we have observed is he did so not just to go and heal, but also as an indicator to signify that he was in fact the Messiah, because these were things that were promised of the Messiah. It was to fulfill what was promised about the Messiah, that the Messiah would go about healing and delivering people from demons and things of that sort.

All right. And so we have, when Christ returns, we will have Him coming back with the angels of heaven, with ourselves, down to earth. That's the beginning of the kingdom. One of the things we pointed out here is the domain that is the land fulfillment of the kingdom. And this is not in your handout. This is Genesis 15, 18 through 21.

It begins on the Mediterranean coast and continues all the way over to the Euphrates River. It encompasses what is now about eight different countries. And it also has an interesting pattern, and that is that the various tribes are given land in strips that go across from the Mediterranean all the way to the Euphrates River. Ezekiel 48 talks about the land by tribe.

And one more thing, Ezekiel's temple, this is Ezekiel 40 through 48, variously understood in terms of what that means. There's a couple of different kind of artistic renditions of what Ezekiel's temple will look like. Very interesting, one of the things we noted in our trip to Israel is the Romans did a very good job of completely tearing apart the temple that was there. This will be a fourth temple after the tribulation period temple.

Now, let's talk gospel of substitution. In Matthew, Jesus presented that he would die and then be buried and raised. We mentioned that in Matthew 1240, and that's, I believe, quoted on the top of your bulletin there. This is the one where he talks about his Jonah with three days in the heart of the earth, and then so will the Son of Man be. And then Matthew 16, 21, one year before the passage that we're studying here this morning, we'll be studying and looking at. Then Matthew 17, 23, Jesus tells them again that he's going to die. and be buried and raised. And then the passage we're in today, Matthew 20, 18 and 19. So here's 20, verse 17, is the preface there.

As Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and on the way he said to them, and you have this on a slide on page 3. Behold, we're going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes and they will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify him and on the third day he will be raised up. Now, could this be more clear? This is very clear about what's happening, right?

They're going up to Jerusalem which means They started from the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is roughly 700 feet below sea level. They've gone farther below sea level as they follow along the Jordan River. They get down to about where Old Testament Jericho is. And from there, it's very steep uphill. So that's why I would say we're going up to Jerusalem. So they're going up to Jerusalem.

Jesus tells his disciples very clearly, as he said before, that he's going to be crucified and be raised up on the third day. Now, this is amazing that they still are not understanding it. They've had multiple times when he's told them exactly what's going to happen, right? You have basically the message of the gospel of substitution. that he's presenting to them. He pulls them aside and tells just them this message.

So believing the gospel of substitution, that Christ, the Son of God, died for your sins and was buried and rose again, is alone what saves you. There's nothing else we can do. There's nothing else that anybody else can do. It's believing those things that saves a person. Specifically, it's called out real clearly also in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1-4. So, salvation is by faith in God's provision through Christ and not in our own merit. We don't earn anything. We can never deserve it. It's entirely by grace, entirely by faith. So now, though the disciples understood and even preached the gospel of the kingdom, that's Matthew chapter 10, they went out and preached it, and they understood it. So these twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them, don't even go in the way of the Gentiles, don't enter a city of the Samaritans.

Rather, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That's out of Matthew 10, 5 through 8. So the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That's exactly the message that Jesus had previously said himself and John the Baptist had said. That's the gospel of the kingdom. So now we have in the Gospels the presentation not only of the gospel of substitution but the gospel of the kingdom.

So here's Mark 9.30 through 32 and Luke 9 43 through 45 which we'll look at shortly here and it says in Mark 9 30 through 32 for he was teaching his disciples and telling them the Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him and when he has been killed he will rise three days later they did not understand this statement And they were afraid to ask Him.

Isn't that amazing? We're going to find out why in this next slide. Let's look at Luke 9, 43, and I have B and C, that is, I'm starting partway through the verse, into verse 45. And it reads, But while everyone was marveling at all that He, Jesus, was doing, He, Jesus, said to His disciples, Let these words sink into your ears, for the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men."

He's telling them again and again. He's told them repeatedly, and he will tell them repeatedly some more. But verse 45, this is key. But they did not understand this statement, even after repeatedly telling them they didn't understand. And this next part is a fascinating revelation. and it was concealed from them so that they would not perceive it."

Whoa! What is that? It was concealed from them so that they would not perceive it. Wow! And they were afraid to ask him about this statement, which of course we saw in Mark. Why was it concealed from them? Why was it concealed from them? Jesus told them numerous times, but it wasn't sinking in that this would happen. It was a protection for them at this point. Later on, they would understand. So here's Matthew 20, 20 through 23. And then we get into this next part.

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons, bowing down and made a request of him. And he said to her, What do you wish? She said to him, Command that in your kingdom these two sons of mine might sit one on your right and one on your left.

Oh boy! What a thing to ask! Now, it's obvious from the response that these two sons had worked with their mother, to have her do they ask him. Isn't this amazing? So the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, makes an appeal to Jesus for her sons to be seated on his right and on his left when Jesus would reign in his future earthly kingdom in Israel. Wow! The audacity!

Jesus answered to James and John, you, plural, okay, so even though the mother did the asking, Jesus turns around to the sons because he knows that they're behind this, right? You, plural, do not know what you are asking. Are you, James and John, able to drink the cup that I am about to drink? And they said to him, quite ignorantly, we are able. Oh, yeah. Right?

Not a clue! Not a clue! Do they understand what's about to happen to Jesus? No, they do not. They are clueless. He said to them, and notice he doesn't respond to her directly, he responds to these sons, because he knows that though she came up and asked the question, that they're behind this. My cup you shall drink, But to sit on my right and on my left, this is not mine to give, but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father."

So both James and John would indeed suffer. They would indeed suffer. As a matter of fact, Suffering, patiently, is a characteristic of an apostle. They were to find this out. James would be the first of the apostles to die. Really, if you look at it, these two brothers were like bookends of the apostles.

James is the first one to die. He's the only one whose death is recorded in Scripture, and that's Acts 12, 1 and 2. Acts 12, 1 and 2, he's killed with the sword. So yes, he would drink the cup, the cup of suffering, and he would be the first one of the apostles to die.

His brother John, by a much later account, not recorded in scripture, so it has not the same scriptural reliability, but nonetheless, it says in that account that he was boiled in oil, but did not die, and so for that reason he was exiled to the island of Patmos. Well, we didn't kill him, so we're going to have to exile him to this isle of Patmos, off the coast from Ephesus.

And he says, my father. But as for the two treasured seats to the right and to the left of Christ in the coming kingdom, those two would be assigned by his, Christ's father. Those for whom it's been prepared, it's already designated. But the Father is the one who does that, not me. So in essence, though Christ will have great authority, this isn't His to grant. He says that's the Father's to grant, not mine. For the Father to decide those things.

Which also tells you something else. That the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three separate personal beings, one essence. But the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are not just different modes of the same person. Something else, there are certain things that are left to God the Father, including setting pivotal times and epochs.

In Acts 1.7, where the disciples are asking Jesus He says, that's for the father to set. So there are certain things that the father has reserved to set himself.

And we have revealed here what some of those things are, including who's going to sit on Jesus right and left. This likely also means that the father will call the time when Christ comes for us, the church, as his bride. According to the Jewish wedding ceremony, The father would tell the bridegroom, when it's time, go get your bride. And so the father will tell Christ to come get his bride, the church.

Something else about my father. In the Jewish tradition, saying our father was just fine. So the Jews could say our father and that would be acceptable but to say my father meant that you had a special relationship with him and it was actually a claim to deity actually a claim to deity so Jesus is saying the father is God and I am God but we are distinct persons and the father has certain authorities and I as the son will have other authorities but we're not one in the same. Here's Matthew 20, verses 24 and 25.

And hearing this, the ten became indignant, well, of course, with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to himself and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. So, the other ten became indignant. And we could understand that. One might expect that.

Jesus had already told them that they would rule as judges over the tribes of Israel in the coming kingdom. So here is the previous chapter. He's already told them, you guys are going to rule over the tribes of Israel, right? So that they're kind of getting set up for thinking about, okay, here's this coming kingdom and here's the place we're going to have. And so James and John had tried to do a special number on top of that and say, well, we want to rule the tribes, but we also want to have this special place sitting next to Jesus.

And of course, he told them that's not to be given. Jesus said that seeking a higher rank is not where it's at. And this is a principle not only for the kingdom, but it's a principle in the church as well. Seeking higher rank is not where it's at. The Gentile rulers lorded over their subjects, but that is not what the disciples were to seek for themselves, neither are we.

Peter, who's listening to this, gets the picture, as he instructs regarding church elders. Therefore I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder, notice that though he's an apostle, he doesn't put himself over even the other elders, and witness of the sufferings of Christ. So he witnessed it, he didn't understand it till later, right? And a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, yet coming. Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God, and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness, nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge."

The apostle Peter got this. He came to understand what this meant. But proving to be examples to the flock, and when the chief shepherd appears, he's the chief shepherd, right? He's the chief shepherd. You will receive the unfading crown of glory. So Peter got it. Peter understood this, at least eventually. So here's Matthew 20, 26 through 28.

It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many." The first half of verse 28 certainly conveys the servant message, with Christ Himself coming to serve in His first coming on earth. Christ's coming on earth was a service. His death on the cross was a service to us. His burial and resurrection was a service to us.

In less than a week after this time here, Jesus would wash the disciples' feet, by the way, including Judas' feet. And he did it so lovingly that none of the other disciples could figure out that Judas was the betrayer. You can imagine, Jesus not only washed Judas' feet, but Jesus died for Judas' sins. Judas was also among those who were indignant here.

The second half of the verse conveys the message of the gospel of substitution to give his life a ransom for many, to buy back the lives of many. So Christ didn't go reluctantly to the cross. Was Christ a victim? No, not at all. He gave His life willingly and deliberately.

God, John 3.16, God loved and He gave His Son.

From then on the pattern is Galatians 2.20, Christ loved and gave.

Ephesians 5.2, Christ loved and he gave.

Ephesians 5.25, Christ loved and he gave. Christ was not a victim. He deliberately and intentionally gave himself. He was not surprised by what the Jews and the Romans did, but rather intentionally walked into it. So the gospel of substitution is told throughout the Gospels and Jesus here in Matthew 20 is telling them, I'm going to fulfill this within a very short period of time, within a week basically. So we have a question here.

Why would Jesus tell the disciples repeatedly things that he knew they didn't understand and as we saw there in Luke from that passage in Luke, things that were concealed from them that they could not understand. Why would he repeatedly tell them something that they're not going to understand? Is that baffling? Is that puzzling? Jesus tells the disciples again and again that he's going to die and be buried and rise again on the third day Even they will he will give his life a ransom, and they just do not Understand they don't get it So why tell them at all?

Because later They're going to remember it and later they're going to understand in John 14 26 and in just hours before Christ would be arrested and then crucified but the helper the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you first of all they didn't understand it they didn't get it even though he repeatedly told them Now He's telling them, you will remember as a work of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will teach you what it means. So He told them repeatedly so that later on when they were given the Holy Spirit, they would not only remember it, but understand it. Later. Later. Think of the things that would happen eventually.

Thomas would realize that Christ was in fact crucified and buried and resurrected. He would talk to Peter who would in fact deny Jesus multiple times and put Peter back into service. He would ascend from the Mount of Olives. All those things would come to pass. Peter himself would, in less than two months after denying Christ, Peter himself would be the one to declare the gospel on the day of Pentecost. Not only the gospel of substitution, but the gospel of the kingdom, both. Peter would present the gospel and Paul, later on, would come to know the Lord, having first been one who sought the death of every Christian that he could come across, and himself be a missionary.

One of the things that would happen with these apostles, and add Paul to the list, is they would go through decades of aha moments, discovering what had already taken place. and going, oh, now I get it, only to find out that sometime later they would say, oh, well now I get it, and then later on they would say, now I get it, right? They went through about three decades of aha moments, and perhaps beyond that.

One of the things that's revealed about us, We believed that Christ died, was buried, and rose again, and because of having believed that, God saves us. However, did we know when we were first saved that we were identified with Christ in that crucifixion? That we were identified with Christ in that burial? Did we know that we were identified with Christ when he was raised? No, probably not. Probably not.

What happens in the Christian life is we spend the rest of our life catching up to what God's already done. We were identified with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection when we believed. But we didn't discover that identification until later, I would say for most of us, perhaps all. We spend the rest of our lives catching up to what God's already done. The fact that we were ascended and seated with him is only revealed in Paul's letters about three decades after Christ was crucified and buried and raised and ascended and seated.

The disciples themselves were having aha moments And we, too, have aha moments, catching up to what God's already done. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you as we look at this, all the things that you accomplish. And Lord, yes, we are often catching up to what you've already done, realizing much later the immense accomplishments that you have already brought about by your doing. And we just thank you for that. Thank you for the salvation that we have. Thank you for what we can look forward to because of you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.