GREATER OPPOSITION TO THE KING AND THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN #49

 

GREATER OPPOSITION TO THE KING AND THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN #49

Matthew 22:1-46.

 This chapter continues to the opposition toward the Lord by the various leaders at Jerusalem. As was our Lord’s manner, He rebuked them by parables, and trapped them in their on craftiness.

 This parable extends from the time of Christ and His disciples to the end of the Tribulation. There had been a previous announcement to the guest that there was going to be a wedding for a certain king’s son. The time had arrived, and servants were sent to those who had been invited, but they would not come. This, we believe represents the ministry of Jesus and the Twelve.

The second attempt ended in ridicule, indifference and hostility. These servants were persecuted and slain. These represent the disciples in the Acts period. Their ministry was to Israel, and like their Lord, they too were rejected.

 It is significant that at verse seven there is an interruption in the parable. Dr. Dave Reese says in his commentary on Matthew, “The church age occurs after verse 7 and before verse 8 and is not mentioned anywhere in the four gospels” (Matthew P. 197).There is little doubt that this is a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in 70 A. D. After that, the command by the king was to send his servants out and invites anyone who is willing to come. Thus, there is a gap between verse seven and verse eight of over two thousand years. There is nothing in the parable about the church of this dispensation. There are too many doctrinal difficulties to put the church, which was a mystery, in it.

 This last commission is given to those who will preach the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven in the tribulation. If the last half of the parable is about the church, how did a man get into heaven wearing the wrong wedding garment? It won’t work, and must be forced into the parable to make others think the Lord is talking of the church.

 This event takes place on earth and this man without a proper garment represents those who will attempt to enter the Kingdom of Heaven without repentance, or submitting to the gospel for the Kingdom. In Revelation 19:7, 8; the wife had made herself ready, and was dressed in fine line, which is the righteousness of the saints. These are the ones who believed the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven, and came out of the great tribulation. It was a works and faith gospel. There is no doubt that this man went to hell. The Lord says, “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

In the following, various leaders in Jerusalem come and attempt to create problems that would put Jesus in jeopardy. The first of these are the Herodians.

• “International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. HERODIANS A party twice mentioned in the Gospels (Matthew 22:16 parallel Mark 12:13; Mark 3:6) as acting with the Pharisees in opposition to Jesus. They were not a religious sect, but, as the name implies, a court or political party, supporters of the dynasty of Herod. Nothing is known of them beyond what the Gospels state. Whatever their political aims, they early perceived that Christ’s pure and spiritual teaching on the kingdom of God was irreconcilable with these, and that Christ’s influence with the people was antagonistic to their interests. Hence, in Galilee, on the occasion of the healing of the man with the withered hand, they readily joined with the more powerful party of the Pharisees in plots to crush Jesus (Mark 3:6); and again, in Jerusalem, in the last week of Christ’s life, they renewed this alliance in the attempt to entrap Jesus on the question of the tribute money (Matthew 22:16). The warning of Jesus to His disciples to “beware of the leaven of Herod” (Mark 8:15) may have had reference to the insidious spirit of this party. James Orr”

 The hypocrisy of this group is too evident. If they really believed He taught the truth, why then did they attempt to trap Him? Why not accept Him? Such is deceit. It is usually preceded by flattery. Jesus knew them and caught them in their own craftiness, and silenced them. 

 The Sadducees were the liberals of Jesus’s day. They did not believe in the resurrection, angels or the Scriptures. Yet, they used the Scriptures to create a dilemma for Christ. The Law allowed Levirate marriage. (Deut. 25:5-10). A levirate marriage was a marriage of a widow capable of bearing children to a brother-in-law if her husband died childless. Its purpose was to continue a man’s family line. The Sadducees give a supposed case where a woman had seven such marriages. All her husbands died, and eventually she died also. Their question was, in the resurrection, whose wife is she. 

 Jesus countered with a condemnation of their ignorance of Scripture, and the power of God. In the resurrection, none will be husbands or wives, as the Mormons falsely teach, nor will there be marriages in heaven. Although angels are all male, there are no marriages between them. They have appeared as men and had intercourse with women. (Gen. 6).

 Concerning the resurrection, God has power to resurrect all. Nor have those who died in faith ceased to exist. They are with God in heaven, as is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

 These ambassadors of Satan now join forces to temp and entrap Jesus. Again, as at the beginning, the Devil used the question method to confuse and deceive Eve. A lawyer ask Jesus which is the greatest commandment in the Law. Jesus tells him that the two greatest commandments are to love God with all ones heart, and to love his neighbor as himself. It is obvious that on these two all the Law and Prophets hung. The nation did neither. They did not love God, and they hated their Gentile neighbors.

 While they were still gathered together, Jesus ask them whose son the Messiah would be. They said he would be the son of David. Jesus ask how he could be David’s son since David called him his Lord. The only possible way was for him to be Deity, to be David’s son and his Lord. They could not answer Him, and refrained from asking anymore questions.