Ep. 15 Luke 19: Preacher's Delight | The Debrief Podcast with Matt Brown

Show Notes

Pastor Matt Brown, Justin Pardee and Stephanie Keen talk marriage, healing lepers and ministering safely. Walking through Luke 19 they discuss how Christians should treat people they disagree with, how God expects us to use our time, money and skills and what to do if you have one very special donkey.

What is The Debrief Podcast with Matthew Stephen Brown?

Real faith. Real life. Hosted by Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown of Sandals Church, The Debrief Podcast goes beyond Sunday conversations—diving into the questions, stories, and struggles that shape who we are. Thoughtful. Honest. Unfiltered.

Matt Brown: 00:00

Okay. You're gonna have to pee like three times if you keep chugging like that.

Justin Pardee: 00:03

I can hold it dude. My grandpa was in the air force. Well, hey, everybody and welcome to the Debrief, a weekly q and a podcast from your friends here at Sandals Church. I'm your friendly host, Justin Party, and I'd like to say hello to the black, to the white, to the red, the brown, the purple,

Stephanie Schaefer: 00:28

and yellow. Yellow. And what you hear is not a test, folks. I am Stephanie Keene, and we are excited to be answering your questions.

Justin Pardee: 00:34

Yep. And, we're here with you, pastor Matt Brown, the rapper's delight. Preacher's delight. Preacher's Preacher's delight.

Stephanie Schaefer: 00:42

There it is.

Justin Pardee: 00:43

Yes. That is awesome. Guys, we're so excited to have you with us here each and every single week. We want to try and get your questions from the sermons and your own bible study on the show. If you have a question you wanna get here on air, man, hit us up at sandalschurch.com slash the debrief and ask a question.

Justin Pardee: 01:00

We've also got some great news as well.

Stephanie Schaefer: 01:02

We sure do. So we stocked out our campuses with Debrief t shirts this weekend, you can buy those and help support the podcast. This weekend, we'll also have debrief stickers for you to place on your laptop or water bottle or wherever you see fit.

Justin Pardee: 01:15

And here's the deal. We are, selling these shirts to help raise some funds to keep improving the technology behind the scenes here at the debrief. We already had to restart our technical gear once during the pre show, and we wanna buy some better stuff so that we can make sure the show is coming at you great. So here is the deal. We're gonna run a contest this week.

Justin Pardee: 01:34

If you here's what we want to see you to do. We want to see you post a picture of yourself wearing the debrief t shirt and encouraging people to listen and subscribe to the show. Use hashtag the debrief on Instagram, make sure your public profile so we can see you. And then whoever is doing the best pitch to, get people to listen to and subscribe The Debrief and or pick up a shirt, we're gonna name next week's episode after you. We sure are.

Stephanie Schaefer: 01:59

And by best pitch, we are gonna be completely subjective and just pick our favorite.

Justin Pardee: 02:02

Exactly. Make make it happen. Speaking of our favorites or rather your favorites, we're now up to a hundred and thirty five five star reviews in the iTunes store and they keep coming. First reviews from our good old friend, gamer Eric. I'm so very blessed by the blend of truth and grace dripping from the podcast.

Matt Brown: 02:20

Wow. Dripping You

Stephanie Schaefer: 02:20

know, am blessed by that description.

Matt Brown: 02:22

I think he's purple.

Justin Pardee: 02:24

Dripping is better than oozing from

Matt Brown: 02:25

the They're pod listening.

Justin Pardee: 02:27

Okay. Here we go. He says, the the Christian world tends toward the extremeness of either rigid law, keeping or unbridled licentiousness. Wow. I know dude, big word for a gamer there.

Matt Brown: 02:37

Maybe he should be running the debrief.

Stephanie Schaefer: 02:39

Yeah. We we need to get you on our team.

Justin Pardee: 02:40

Yeah. He probably calls it the debrief. Yes. So, and then last one is, another great another great review from Tim the Terror. He says, one of the best podcasts I listened to hands down, PMB.

Justin Pardee: 02:52

See what he did there? Think that's a PMB. The Preacher's Delight PMB breaks down a bunch of theological concepts that are super hard to understand and imparts biblical wisdom every single week. Thank God for the debrief.

Matt Brown: 03:03

Amen. Mhmm. Thank God for you.

Justin Pardee: 03:05

That's fine. Thank God. Yes. Exactly. For wonderful wonderful listeners.

Stephanie Schaefer: 03:09

So every week here on the debrief, are taking your questions. So we're gonna dive right in and actually have a little follow-up conversation about a topic we had into last week.

Justin Pardee: 03:16

This is our best week of follow-up, by the way. Three follow-up questions.

Stephanie Schaefer: 03:19

Yeah. This is really fun. So if you hear something in this podcast and you wanna follow-up on that and talk about it a little deeper, we wanna hear those questions. This is what we're here for. So send those in at sandals church dot com slash the debrief.

Stephanie Schaefer: 03:29

This week, we are gonna kinda go back to our conversation about marriage and singleness that we had last week. Pastor Matt, you started talking about how it is actually better to be single in a lot of ways. You're able to serve God in different ways and in some better ways. And some folks had some questions including Wyatt, who sent in a question if that's the case, if you're more freely able to serve God single, why is it that pretty much all pastors are married?

Matt Brown: 03:50

Yeah. And that's just because, you know, over time, every every believer that's ever existed is a servant to their own culture. And so that's why we have to be so careful is, I mean, they're subservient to their own culture. And so we interpret the bible through, you know, our current cultural conditions. This is why many Christians, when slavery was legal in The United States Of America, thought the Bible promoted this idea of slavery.

Matt Brown: 04:13

And it's because they were interpreting scripture through the lens of their current culture. And so over time, for whatever reason, I I think primarily to be anti Catholic. So a lot of theology arrives from not being something else. So Catholics don't get married, so we as Protestants do. Right?

Matt Brown: 04:30

And it becomes this normative pattern behavior. And before long, nobody knows why you have to be married, but you can't be a pastor until you're married. When in fact, the scripture say it's better to not be a pastor because you can serve God more freely. Especially for those of you who are thinking about missions. I think, you know, one of the things that I think we really really need to do a better job at for those who are fill the call to be missionaries, really need to look at, you know, is marriage on the table, and are children on the table?

Matt Brown: 04:58

Because it's very very difficult to, you know, serve those three masters at the same time. Serve Christ in that order, to serve your wife or husband in that order, and then your children, and then especially large families. And I think that, you know, some people under the theological persuasion that, you know, the Bible says be be fruitful and multiply, and so that's a command. I don't think that we're under that anymore. I think we've been fruitful.

Stephanie Schaefer: 05:19

There's a

Matt Brown: 05:20

lot of people out there. Know billions of them. You know, that original order was given to two. So, well well done humanity. Move on.

Stephanie Schaefer: 05:28

Nailed that one.

Justin Pardee: 05:29

Exactly. Okay. So, we had another great question coming in from last week. Luke 17, talked we about the story where Jesus heals 10 guys and only one of them come back to say thank you to Jesus. And Jesus says to that man in verse 19 of Luke 17, stand up and go, your faith has healed you.

Matt Brown: 05:45

Mhmm.

Justin Pardee: 05:45

Here's here's what's the question came in. He's already healed all 10 of them. Is all is this guy getting saved?

Matt Brown: 05:51

Yeah, absolutely. So what Jesus Christ is talking about here is, you know, there's there's this there's this beautiful picture of what's happening here. So yeah, all 10 were healed, but one is saved. And so the Greek word for healed and saved is the same word. It's tzotzot, which means, you know, to to to redeem that which is broken.

Matt Brown: 06:09

And so think about healing ultimately is the condition of fixing something that's broken. The same thing occurs when that which is lost is found. You're healing something that's broken. And so it's the perfect word to describe what's taking place here. So yeah, all 10 were healed, all 10 experienced a physical healing, but only one came to salvation and he came back and just was so thankful and so grateful for what Jesus Christ had done.

Matt Brown: 06:33

And, you know, it's just interesting that he may not be able to articulate the Samaritan, you know, the words of I'm repenting of my sins, I'm placing my faith and trust in you Jesus Christ, but faith is something that is not created out of saying the right words. It's not something that we, you know, so many times as Christians, we gotta be very very careful because the way we tell people to save sounds like something out of a Harry Potter movie. Right? Say these words, abracadabra, and then this is the result. And so faith is not the result of saying the right words, that's magic.

Matt Brown: 07:03

Faith is the result of a right heart condition towards God. And so this individual, although he is not mouthing the biblical formula, so to speak, for what we say when we're saved. It's happened in his heart. And Jesus knows our hearts better than anybody, so he's acknowledging that salvation has come. And Jesus does this many many times.

Matt Brown: 07:22

You know, he just says, hey, salvation has come to this home today. Salvation has happened. Yeah. This person is saved. We're gonna talk about Zacchaeus.

Matt Brown: 07:27

He's gonna say the same thing. You know, this guy just got saved. Even though the language of salvation, of repentance and faith in Christ is not uttered, the heart condition is there. Right. And so, you know, our words follow our heart.

Matt Brown: 07:40

And so that's one of the things we gotta remember as Christians, is a lot of times people are saying things, and I I did this a lot when we first started Sandals Church, is I would rush people to saying the the salvation prayer. Mhmm. And you know, I I feel terrible about it because they may think they're saved, but the reality is those words were not spoken out of their heart. It was spoken out of pressure by me to say these words. And I think it's important that that people you know, it's just like if you're in a relationship, you don't wanna be forced to say I love you.

Matt Brown: 08:10

Right? You don't be you don't wanna be pressured into that. You don't wanna be guilted into that. You want the words I love you to come from a condition of your heart. Yeah.

Matt Brown: 08:17

And the same thing is true with God is faith is the condition of your heart changing, and the attitude of your heart towards God changing, God, I love you. Mhmm. And so then how that comes out is very very different in each person. But we still need a formula to communicate to people what that looks like, repentance and faith in Christ. Those are the two things that go together.

Matt Brown: 08:37

I'm sorry, God, and I love you. Mhmm. So I don't know if that answers it completely.

Justin Pardee: 08:41

Yeah. Totally. That's good.

Stephanie Schaefer: 08:42

Yeah. Totally. The next question we have is from Becky's group. And if you're Becky with a good hair, I wanna talk to you.

Justin Pardee: 08:48

Got some questions.

Stephanie Schaefer: 08:49

Yeah. I've got a lot of questions. She asked, we know that Jesus ministered to and must have even been followed by unstable or possibly dangerous people. And she says, I find myself avoiding certain people sometimes for my own safety. How do we know when to reach out and when to stay back?

Stephanie Schaefer: 09:03

Or how should we minister minister to people when we feel unsafe around them?

Matt Brown: 09:08

Yeah. So as a woman, I think you need to be particularly wise in this area because you can find yourself being hurt wounded or you know, even in a really really dangerous situation. And so you have to exercise, I think, wisdom, you know, as a female. So the Bible says, right, you know, in Christ that we're no longer male nor female, nor Greek nor Jew, we're all one in the body of Christ. That doesn't mean you're not a woman.

Matt Brown: 09:28

You're still a woman. Right. So you need to exercise judgment as a woman, and not put yourself in situations where you could be physically or sexually compromised. And so you have to be very very careful here. And so, you know, I think as men, we have a little more discretion in this area, because we are, you know, have 30% more muscle mass.

Matt Brown: 09:47

We have a different skeletal system, and we can handle ourselves differently, and we can be more bold in this area. So I think it's important for women to exercise extreme wisdom and judgment, and listen to the Holy Spirit. If there's a person that makes you feel uncomfortable, if you feel like the situation is unsafe, move on, get away from it. Don't hang out there, don't stay there, and don't be manipulated by somebody who, you know, wants to pray with you. And and I've even seen this, you know, weird dudes will want counsel or prayer with women, you know, send them to a guy.

Matt Brown: 10:12

So I do this, and you know this Stephanie, when a woman at the church will say, you know, I just really wanna meet with you pastor Matt. I was like, send them to another lady. Because that's an unsafe unsafe situation for me. I don't wanna be in a morally compromising situation, so I just send them on their way. You know, for for a woman, you don't wanna be in a in a physically compromising situation where something could happen to you.

Matt Brown: 10:32

So exercise judgment, use extreme caution, and there's nothing wrong with saying, I'm gonna stay away from this person. You know, there's no example in the gospels of a woman going up to, you know, the naked scary guy, you know, who's busted his chains. It's Jesus who's handling that. And so, you know, we we're the body of Christ. And so if there's someone that you feel like God wants you to talk to, but they're a scary person, that's what the body of Christ is for.

Matt Brown: 10:56

Find some guys in the church that can go talk to the person and connect them with them. You know, don't give out your number, don't do things like that. You know, when you're inviting somebody to church, you know, that's why the church has an address. That's why the church has a phone number. That's why the church has a website.

Matt Brown: 11:10

Use those things Right. And trust in those things. You don't need to do that. Because ultimately, if the person wants to change, if they're scary, they're gonna figure out a way to get here. They don't need you to do that.

Matt Brown: 11:20

And so, just be very very cautious. You know, Jesus says that we must be as wise as a serpent and as innocent as a dove, and so you need to exercise real wisdom.

Justin Pardee: 11:30

So, I think there's really good wisdom there. I'm wondering if we should take into or how we could take into account the idea of first John four eighteen that says, perfect love casts out all fear. Is that relevant at all?

Matt Brown: 11:42

No. So that that that verse has completely to do with our relationship to God and drawing close to him. Okay. And so we don't have to be afraid of judgment is the context of that verse. And we can draw close to God.

Matt Brown: 11:53

We have nothing to fear of the day of judgment. It doesn't mean that we should never be afraid of anything. Certainly, you see, even in the book of acts as we move in, the church is afraid of God. They have a sense of fear with the miracles that happen. They're afraid of the authorities.

Matt Brown: 12:08

There's things there's things that happen. And and fear is a good thing when it when it helps you exercise wisdom.

Justin Pardee: 12:15

Mhmm.

Matt Brown: 12:15

Right? Like if I'm if I find myself surfing and there's a shark, at that moment, fear is a good thing. Fear says, move on. People without fear are not wise people and don't live long. So you you need to utilize that gift that God has given you.

Matt Brown: 12:28

Now don't become a prisoner to fear or a slave to fear, you know, because we also have that end of the spectrum where people are so afraid they don't ever do anything. So again, try to exercise wisdom and trusting God with, should I talk to this person? And if the person's scary, if it's dark, is it nighttime? Where are you? You know, take all of those things into consideration.

Matt Brown: 12:48

Is it a public place? You know, are there people who can help you? Then go ahead and talk. But you know, I've had many encounters with very very scary people in my life doing ministry. And, know, I exercise sometimes, you know, my wife says almost too much of a spirit of toughness, but I want them to know that I'm in control of this situation, and you're not going to catch me by surprise.

Matt Brown: 13:12

And so, you know, I wanna be loving, but I don't wanna get stabbed. I don't wanna get you know, hit over the head. So I want I want to use wisdom as Good I

Justin Pardee: 13:21

stuff. Okay. So let's jump into Luke 19. There's like a lot of different good things in here. And we spent a lot of time talking about Zacchaeus this weekend, which was awesome.

Justin Pardee: 13:29

That was one of my favorite stories as a little kid, because he's that wee little man. And, one of the things that's just been sticking out to me this week in verse chapter five, when Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. Zacchaeus, he says, quick come down, I must be a guest in your home today. And his reaction and response to Zacchaeus is so different for someone that he is a known sinner, somebody he would totally disagree with and it seems really different than how a lot of Christians maybe respond especially on things like social media with issues like folks with transgender issues, Muslims, those kinds of things. How do we move towards having this attitude with Jesus with somebody he disagrees with?

Matt Brown: 14:07

Yeah. So I mean, Jesus didn't have to deal with social media. So, you know, those things there's two things that I've seen that bring out the worst in Christians. One is voting, which is why we don't vote on anything at the church, know. Voting, even in my own family, hey, where does everybody wanna go to dinner?

Matt Brown: 14:21

Right? Then then everybody's so upset at the end that I don't even wanna go to dinner with them because everybody's mad that they didn't get their way. And the same thing happens in church. You know, voting is the stupidest idea ever. And and look at it in our political system.

Matt Brown: 14:32

Right? We vote, everybody's angry when their person doesn't win, and we all wanna take our ball and go home. And, you know, the second area is just this idea of social media. And social media brings out the very worst in people because I think the first thing is, the person isn't in front of me, and so I'm free of any kind of physical consequence for being a totally awful person to that person. And so I I just think people are crueler and meaner on social media because there's not an immediate consequence, and they just fired off so quickly.

Matt Brown: 15:03

And it it it's just a very very ugly thing. And so this is what I would say is when you see somebody on social media that's just being awful and they represent Christ, you know, in as loving way as possible, just say, hey, you know, I think that we may disagree, but we we should be a little more loving here. You may not wanna engage with that person at all, drop them as your friend, move on. Mhmm. And that's just what I do.

Matt Brown: 15:25

Angry people wanna be angry. And so they're looking for an excuse. And so religion's a powerful excuse to be mean. Pol politics is a powerful excuse to be mean, and so oftentimes people are just looking for an excuse to be awful. And so they're gonna focus on the scriptures or the verses that allow them to do that.

Matt Brown: 15:44

And so, you know, I I get targeted all the time on my Twitter. You know, I'll have a Muslim person try to engage me, and I just typically ignore it. If it if they're being mean or cruel, I just I just don't even respond to it. And that's what I would say is not every criticism is worthy of a response. You just gotta be able to move on.

Matt Brown: 16:03

Because a lot of people don't want an answer, they wanna fight. So so just watch that. So what I would just say is be as loving as you can, be as kind as you can, and I've I've messed this up in my life. I've made mistakes, know, and then just repent. So, you know, I wasn't in the right attitude.

Matt Brown: 16:17

I wasn't in the right spirit. That's that's not the spirit of God, you know. Ultimately, God wants us to love Muslims. God wants us to love homosexuals. God wants us to love transgender people.

Matt Brown: 16:27

But he also wants us to be salt and to point out the truth. And so, you know, I can love a Muslim as my neighbor and disagree passionately about, you know, who Jesus is with them. They they reject him as Messiah. I believe that he's the Messiah. And I could hold to that and talk about reasons for that.

Matt Brown: 16:44

The same true is with the, know, the homosexual person. I can love them. I can be their neighbor. I can be their friend. And I have homosexual people that are my friends, and and people that I care about, and I love deeply.

Matt Brown: 16:54

But if the gospel is true, and I believe that it is, and if the word of God is true, and I believe that it is, I'm not loving to them if I don't point them to truth if the opportunity comes. In the same way, I want them to point me to truth. The same thing with this whole transgender issue. Know, my heart is broken for these individuals who are who are truly torn, you know. I mean, their body says they're a male or female, and their mind is saying the opposite.

Matt Brown: 17:17

And that that breaks my heart for that person, and I think that we need to be a, grateful that we don't have that struggle, and b, compassionate to the person who is in that struggle. And, you know, the church needs to not lose its voice. And that's what I think is that happens repeatedly is we draw a line in the sand and we lose our voice. And so who's the transgender person that we need to speak to? I believe the one that either a believes in Christianity, or b is really wrestling with what the best decision is.

Matt Brown: 17:46

You gotta give people the freedom to choose. And so I think what we do for those of us who are, you know, on the right conservatively, you know, about the transgender issue is we just say it's just totally a choice and we just completely just ripped them apart. I don't think anybody would choose that, maybe somebody has. But then on the left, they're just as close minded. And they say, the only the only thing you should do is completely embrace that.

Matt Brown: 18:07

And then you have this person who's not ministered to by the left or the right. And so that's where I think Jesus comes in. And we just say, hey, we're gonna walk with you. We're going to love you. And you know, ultimately, I think the Bible's pretty clear, you know, your your gender is determined by the sex that is given to you at birth, and you need to do your best to submit to that, regardless of the struggle that may be taking place in your mind.

Matt Brown: 18:29

And we need to love them and care for them, but we can't be judgmental, or that's terrible, or we have to actually care about the person, not just the policies. And that's where I think Christians get caught up is, we get caught up in this political battle between the left and the right, and what's being forgotten is the person who's struggling. And so try to minister to them. We have transgender people that come to our church.

Justin Pardee: 18:49

Mhmm.

Matt Brown: 18:50

You may not even know them depending on how well they, you know, they they can pull And it so you just love and care for them, and then ultimately try to, you know, speak the gospel because God loves them. And and I believe that there's a real brokenness there. We're all broken, but there's a there's a there's a legit brokenness there between what they identify as and what they are. I think that's a classic example of brokenness, and so a classic example of a person that's lost. So how do we help them be found?

Stephanie Schaefer: 19:18

Mhmm.

Matt Brown: 19:19

And so I think that we need to do that rather than just, you know, yelling at people over who who gets to use a bathroom. Mhmm. What we need to do is remember the person that's hurting.

Justin Pardee: 19:27

Is that the key kind of? Because like, I mean, Jesus seems to walk around just being totally compassionate to everybody and kind of on both sides. And is that because is that focusing on the person, the individual?

Matt Brown: 19:38

Well, I would say Jesus Jesus is compassionate to the sinner. He is rough with the religious Got it. Self righteous Although

Justin Pardee: 19:46

he's heartbroken over that too. That's maybe what I was

Matt Brown: 19:48

Sometimes, yeah. I mean, he's he's pretty angry though with those who think they're awesome. I mean, he doesn't he doesn't have a lot of room for them in his life. But for those who know they're broken, right, he says, I'm here for you and I and I care for you. And so, you know, Sandals Church is open to anyone who understands their brokenness and is willing to walk with us to discover how Jesus says to be healed.

Justin Pardee: 20:09

Is there a way to cultivate that compassion towards sinners? Because I think that can be a little bit unnatural for I mean, it's it's difficult and then especially for a lot of folks in church, there's key differences.

Matt Brown: 20:22

Yeah. Well, I I I think I think the issue is twofold. So some people air on the side of love, so they love and they never speak truth to anybody, and they say things like, well, who am I to judge? Well, as Christians, we're not supposed to judge anybody, but the Bible has clearly stated some things, you know, some truths. And so when I say, who am I to judge?

Matt Brown: 20:41

And I'm not going to share with somebody if they ask me what the bible says, then I am judging. I'm not judging the person, but I'm judging God. Which is worse. So then there's the other person that right, the truth is the truth, and we gotta speak the truth. And the reality is they just wanna be a jerk, and they're looking for a platform to espouse their ideas.

Matt Brown: 20:59

And so I think we have to embrace truth and love together. And we have to bring those two things together as best we can and love people enough to share with them the truth. Right. And I think that's how we cultivate it. So this is what I, you know, in every relationship, and this includes when I'm frustrated with my wife, or my kids, or you guys.

Matt Brown: 21:15

Mhmm. What's my motivation?

Justin Pardee: 21:17

You've been frustrated with us?

Matt Brown: 21:18

Yeah. Deeply with you. Not with Stephanie ever, because she's an agent.

Justin Pardee: 21:22

Pray for me guys.

Matt Brown: 21:23

Yes. This may be Justin's last episode.

Stephanie Schaefer: 21:25

No. It's been

Matt Brown: 21:26

a The good time, truth is, you have to love somebody enough to confront them. And if and if the motivation is not love, what are you doing? You know, anger is never an excuse to confront. Just don't just don't do it, you know. And people say, well, Jesus was angry.

Matt Brown: 21:40

Yeah. And you're not Jesus.

Justin Pardee: 21:43

Sick burn.

Stephanie Schaefer: 21:44

Yeah. So the next story that Jesus goes into after this is the parable of the 10 servants. And a king is leaving, and leaves his servants behind and in charge. And in verse 14, it says, but his people hated him and sent a delegation after him to say we do not want him to be our king. Why did this king's people hate him?

Justin Pardee: 22:00

Also, the he's like a rich guy going to become a king

Stephanie Schaefer: 22:02

or something? Yeah. Like going to like take

Justin Pardee: 22:03

on a new kingdom.

Matt Brown: 22:04

Yeah. So there's a couple things that's happening here. So let me get bring you up to speed with history. In the ancient world, the way that one received kingship was he had to get powers or authorities from somebody higher above. So in a more recent time, you went to the pope and the pope said, you're the king of England, you're the king France, you're the king of whatever, and so you were validated by a higher authority.

Matt Brown: 22:24

So during this time, the way that Herod became king is he went to Rome, and he got paperwork, and he came back and said, Rome says, I'm the king. So this was just an understanding of the way things worked in the world as you went to whatever the supreme ruling power was, and they gave you authority to be a regional king. So what Jesus Christ is talking about here, is he's talking about that he's going to be gone for a while. Where is he going? He's going to come, he's going to go to heaven, he's going to sit at the right hand of the father, and then he's going to return after a long period of time with authority.

Matt Brown: 22:56

He's gonna come back with authority. So he's gonna come back

Justin Pardee: 22:58

with When say gone for a while, like we're talking he's leaving earth

Matt Brown: 23:01

Yes.

Justin Pardee: 23:01

After he dies, resurrects. He's saying, I'm leaving earth.

Matt Brown: 23:05

Yeah. So Luke is trying to point out for us that Jesus is going to be gone for some time. Okay. So because a lot of the followers believe that Jesus was his imminent, his return was imminent. In other words, like tomorrow, the next day.

Matt Brown: 23:15

Like, and and so Luke is trying to tell us, no no no, This is going to be a while. Peter will tell us that it's going to be like, he says the day to a day to the Lord is like a thousand years. Yeah. And so he's not been gone long according to God's calendar, but it's been only gone a long time according to our calendar. And why?

Matt Brown: 23:32

Because he wants the full amount of people that are gonna come to Christ to be saved. And so he's waiting for that moment in time. And when that happens, Jesus Christ will return. And so why why don't they like him? It has nothing to do with who the king is.

Matt Brown: 23:44

The king is the rightful heir and ruler. And so that's the point. The point has nothing to do with his character of the king, it has to do with the character of the people who reject him. And so the reality is, they don't want a king. They don't want.

Matt Brown: 23:58

They wanna be in charge. And so this is what is the course in? So this is why I hate, you know, like, you go down to Huntington Beach, and there's some person there preaching the 10 commandments. Have you ever lied? Then you've broken them all.

Matt Brown: 24:08

Here's the one sin that you need to deal with, and you don't need to go any further than that, and it's it's the first commandment. Thou shalt have no other gods but before me. We are all rebels. We don't want God to be in charge of our lives. We believe that we should be able to choose and do what we want to do, and so we reject God's authority.

Matt Brown: 24:25

That is the greatest sin. And so what are they doing? They're rejecting the king's authority. We don't want you to rule and to reign over us. We reject him.

Matt Brown: 24:34

This is not the one that we wanted. The problem is, who is Jesus? He's the one God has appointed. And so that's what saying here is, we you don't get to decide who rules and reigns over you. The one who is legitimate gets to rule and reign over you.

Matt Brown: 24:47

And so he he's, you know, he's not an awful king. He's the righteous king, he's the good king. And so Jesus is sharing this story with him to describe what's gonna take place. Israel's going to reject the righteous king. The one they've been waiting for, the one that they've longed for, they're gonna reject him.

Stephanie Schaefer: 25:04

So you were talking about how the like, the one who's in place and authority over us, like, our king. I see on social media all the time Christians, like, even ones that I like tend to respect bashing like a president and all that. So when we say like, yes, Jesus is a rightful king, what like what should our view and treatment of the president be? Because that tends to fend me when

Matt Brown: 25:24

see the It should be we should always respect the office and disagree with policy. So, you know, it it's tragic and sad how just ugly and awful people are to their king. And again, not their king, but our leader. And the bible says very clearly that God appoints them all. So, I mean, here's the harsh reality.

Matt Brown: 25:40

Why is president Obama the president of The United States? Because God has made it so. So, woah, deal with that. So we can disagree with policy. We can push again to be salt unto the earth and and for right things.

Matt Brown: 25:56

But regardless of how frustrated I get with any president or official, and there are many times where I'm very frustrated and very upset with some of the things that they're doing, specifically in regards to the tightening, so to speak, of religious freedom. For those people to, you know, practice religious freedom, we have to be respectful. And so even during the Revolutionary War, there were many Baptist ministers who who resonated deeply with the revolutionary cause. You can read this in American history, but they did not see a biblical case to be able to rebel against King George. They felt like they they couldn't do that.

Matt Brown: 26:32

Because he was the rightful king and heir. And it was actually a deep divide between revolutionaries and loyalists. And it was a real problem within church, and you actually had, you know, pastors from denominations fighting on two different sides. Because one interpreted scripture one way, and another interpreted the other way. And so all that's to say is, we need to on the side of respect.

Matt Brown: 26:55

There may become a time when, and Christians in Germany wrestled with the same thing when Hitler came to power. What do we do? What is our response to that? And I think ultimately, the right response would have been, in that case, Hitler had to die. Mhmm.

Matt Brown: 27:10

Because it would be a greater evil to allow him to kill all the people that he did, than to simply submit to his rule and his authority. So that's the thing is there comes a time when things get so bad and things get so ugly that it is immoral to not stand up. And so we we have to we have to wrestle with that. But we also have to remember that the Apostle Paul and the church is flourishing under an incredibly hugely immoral government. You know, the Caesar was not moral.

Matt Brown: 27:37

The the senators were not moral. But what it allowed, and this is what Christians need to look for in terms of our our our our political leaders. Here's here's the two qualities. Number one, that we want them to keep us safe. So I don't want my kids to die.

Matt Brown: 27:51

I don't want, you know, so we want safety, and the next thing is religious freedom. We want to be able to worship God. Those are the two things. And any leader that I think allows us to do those two things, we need to praise God for. So we can get upset about illegal immigration, we can get upset about, you know, all these other issues.

Matt Brown: 28:08

Those are secondary issues to these two. Am I safe and can I worship? And if I can do those two things, praise God. So

Justin Pardee: 28:15

Okay. So in the middle of this parable, Jesus is telling about this king. Before he leaves, he gives servants a bunch of silver and then he comes back and holds them accountable for this. Is he just telling the story to teach us about how do we use our money or is there other things going on here?

Matt Brown: 28:31

No. So I I think what he what he's talking about here. So Luke talks a lot about money. So money's a big issue for Luke.

Justin Pardee: 28:36

Yeah. This is the eighth parable in Luke so far.

Matt Brown: 28:39

Because and and and so people don't realize this, but Jesus Jesus talks about money more than any other issue. And the and and why is that? Because people have a bigger issue over money than any other issue. It's the greatest issue of your time, you know. And so Jesus said, you can't love both God and money, you gotta choose.

Matt Brown: 28:53

You gotta make a choice. And so it's not just money here. You just need to understand that God has given you talent, God has given you your treasure, and God's given your time. So those three things. So he's given you a certain amount of talent, your abilities, he's given you a certain amount of time, and he's given you a certain amount of money.

Matt Brown: 29:08

All three of those things came from God. You didn't pick any of those things. You didn't pick the color of your skin, you didn't pick the home that you were born in, you didn't pick the talents that you were given, you didn't pick the country that you live in. All of those things have been given to you by God. And so, you know, you could have been born a kid in Cambodia, you know, and received nothing.

Matt Brown: 29:28

I mean, think about the, you know, just the horrible things that happened there the last thirty years where literally like a third of their population was slaughtered. I mean, you didn't choose. God gave you your position, your power, your abilities, and he's going to hold you accountable for what you did. And here's the key of the parable. What he's gonna hold you accountable for is how did you use the things that he gave you to glorify him and his kingdom.

Matt Brown: 29:50

That's ultimately. God's not gonna hold you accountable for how much money did you make, how much education did you get, you know, did you vote right or wrong? He's gonna hold you accountable for what did you do to build my kingdom. Why? Because what he gave you is his investment in you, and on the day of judgment, you're going to be held accountable for what you did with his investment.

Matt Brown: 30:10

And these are all of our things, our time, our talents, and our treasure. It's not just about your money, but what did you do with your life? And this is huge for us as Christians, we all need to look at ourselves and say, what am I doing with my life? Because so many of us are caught up in buying all this stuff, going all these places, and and what we're trying to do is, I mean, most Americans are living for the grandest, biggest, best vacation they can possibly afford, and right, if you're super rich, you're on vacation your whole life. Mhmm.

Matt Brown: 30:34

Like that's the dream, that's the goal that we're all aspiring to. And Jesus is saying, no no no no, the king is returning, and he's gonna hold you accountable. K? So vacation is called eternity, where you're gonna spend that vacation with God or apart from God forever. But the question is, what did you do for me now while I was gone, and I gave you these things?

Matt Brown: 30:53

And so we're all gonna be held accountable, and we're all gonna stand before God. And so, you know, Luke 19 here is a picture of what judgment day could look like.

Justin Pardee: 31:01

Got it.

Stephanie Schaefer: 31:02

So while this, like, is about more than just money, this is also the eighth parable in Luke we were counting that talks about money. Like, why is that? Why does he keep going back?

Matt Brown: 31:12

Like I said, because it's such a huge issue for us as people, and you know, you can't love both God and money. You're gonna love one and hate the other. And so, again, so the money is his. He gave them what what's interesting here is he gave them the amount of money that he gave them is really about three months wages, so it's not a lot of money. But look in proportion to what he does to them.

Matt Brown: 31:33

So so the first one that he gives, he says, I'm gonna put you over all these cities. So I only gave you three months wages, but because you were faithful in a little, listen to what happens. I'm gonna put you over all these cities. You're going you're going to rule in my place. And so what Jesus is trying to tell us is look, you don't get this wrong.

Matt Brown: 31:49

Be faithful with your time, be faithful with your talents, be faithful with your treasure now, so that when I return, I can bless you with so much more. He says in another instance that he will bless us a 100 times. A 100 times whatever we invest for him. You you can't out give God, you can't out bless God. And so all these people that have been so self focused, and so self centered instead of God centered are gonna be very disappointed on the day of judgment.

Matt Brown: 32:13

And so each of the individuals is blessed, but one individual, right, he does nothing with the money. He just, I think in this story, he puts it in a handkerchief and buries it in another one, buries it in a field, and he says, you wicked servant. You did nothing. And and he and he faces judgment. So it's harsh harsh judgment.

Justin Pardee: 32:33

Let me ask you a question really quick. There's This story is kind of similar to ones that are in other of the gospels like Yeah.

Matt Brown: 32:39

Matthew and Mark.

Justin Pardee: 32:40

There's like the parable of

Matt Brown: 32:42

Of the talents.

Justin Pardee: 32:42

Of talents. Yeah. Is this the same story?

Matt Brown: 32:45

Well, this is what I think. And so nobody nobody knows the answer to that question. Here's what I think. I think it's feasible and reasonable to assume that Jesus told the same stories multiple times. So there wasn't newspapers, right?

Matt Brown: 32:56

He couldn't tell a story, he couldn't give a speech, and then it wouldn't be distributed throughout the area. So what he did is he probably talked about the same things over and over again to different cities, different towns. And sometimes, what he may have done depending upon the situation is adjust the story a little bit. Change it up a little bit based upon his audience. And I think that's what Luke here is demonstrating that this is this is a story that Jesus probably taught multiple times, and the rendition that Luke is reminding us of specifically speaks to the audience, the Gentile audience that he's trying to speak to.

Matt Brown: 33:28

You know, why did why did Israel ultimately reject the coming of of its king? They blew it. Mhmm. So now he's saying, now don't you reject the king. So for Luke, he wants them to understand the king has come.

Matt Brown: 33:42

God's king has come. And Israel rejected and and we'll we'll face judgment for that. Don't you reject the king and face judgment for that. Mhmm.

Justin Pardee: 33:52

Cool.

Stephanie Schaefer: 33:52

So after Jesus finishes this parable, Luke talks about Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. And before he heads in, he there's verses thirty and thirty one where Jesus is talking to his disciples, and he says, go into that village over there, he told them. As you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks why are you untying that colt, just say, the Lord needs it.

Stephanie Schaefer: 34:14

So in your sermon this weekend, you talked about how sometimes we're gonna need to release things to God no matter how sacred they are to us or how holy they may be. What like, what was so special about this donkey?

Matt Brown: 34:25

Yeah. So Zechariah nine nine talks about that when the Messiah returns, he will be riding a young horse. It could be translated horse or donkey. Colt can mean either. Okay.

Matt Brown: 34:35

And so what what the people of Israel did in these towns is is the belief was that he would enter on the East Side Of Jerusalem so that he would come from the East. And so what they did on the East Side is they families would prepare these donkeys, and they became very very powerful and very special. And, right, the holier your family was, you have this this donkey. And so the problem is, what we do with religious items is things that we think are sacred, oftentimes we end up worshiping them rather than God. And so they become more important to us than God does.

Matt Brown: 35:05

And you see this if you come with me to Israel, is the church building and the things that are in the building will become more important than the one the building was built for. And so it's just so tragic. And so you see this in churches. You saw this during the the Jesus movement in the sixties and early seventies, people cared more about the building, you know, don't let the hippies come in with no shoes, no shirts, and sand on their toes, because they cared more about the facility than facilitating the faith in people, and they get it backwards. And so we've gotta be very very careful.

Matt Brown: 35:35

We've got to be willing to relinquish whatever the Lord wants, whatever he calls for, whatever God says I need, I give it. And so, you know, Tammy and I tithe, we give our tithes to the church, we support missionaries. When we built the buildings that we're in, you know, Tammy and I gave over and above as a part of our offering to the Lord, and and a great deal of money. Sometimes it was actually more than our tithe for that year that we would give to the building. Why?

Matt Brown: 35:59

The Lord needs it. Because people need a place where they can come and worship. And so my job is not to hoard a bunch of cash and a bunch of things for myself. My job as a Christian is to release those things to God when he needs it. And so this is what I try to talk about at the offering time.

Matt Brown: 36:13

A lot of people think that the offering time is kinda lame, and I always see people scurrying out, you know, at the offering time. It's so sad because that's the time where we release, where we let go. And you know, yeah, the church needs money to pay the bills, to pay salaries, to to pay gas bills, to pay all of those things. The Lord needs it. And so what do I do?

Matt Brown: 36:32

I release it, and I give it I give it to him. And so sometimes God will speak specifically, but sometimes, you know, God will just speak generally. So so we all need to be giving up of our our tithes and our offerings on a regular basis. Because without it, man, there's no church. If we don't have tithers, we don't have givers, and we don't have people making offerings, Sandals Church doesn't exist.

Matt Brown: 36:51

So the Lord does need it, and it's our responsibility to relinquish it. And so this this this donkey would have been something very very precious to this family. It symbolized their righteousness, their holiness. It's a symbol of their importance in the community. And what I love about this story is they just let it go.

Matt Brown: 37:09

And that's what the apostle Paul does. Right? He has all this power, he has all this authority, he's an up and coming leader within the church, but he can't let it go. Go back to last week, the rich young ruler, who was probably a member of the Sanhedrin. So he's he's a member of the ruling family.

Matt Brown: 37:23

So this guy is destined for greatness. He says, what must I do in eternal life? Jesus says, there's one thing that you lack. There's only one thing you need to let go of, and then you will have eternal life. What is that one thing?

Matt Brown: 37:34

Your money. And he can't do it. The Lord asked for it. The Lord needed it. He wanted it.

Matt Brown: 37:39

He couldn't do it, and he he walked away, and he missed out on eternity, and Jesus was sad, and so was the rich young ruler. Whereas you look at Zacchaeus this week, he's not even asked to do it. And he says, I'm gonna give half of of what I have away, and four times if I've ripped anybody off, what what I'll pay them back. Four times, which is amazing, because Leviticus and Numbers, there's two occasions in the Bible in the Torah. So in the book of Leviticus, the book of Numbers, where it talks about how do you pay somebody back if you've ripped them off.

Matt Brown: 38:10

So the bible actually speaks to this. If you've stolen from them, if you've sinned against them, if you've grieved them. And what the bible says is you pay them back the full amount, and you add 20%. It says you actually the the the Hebrew is you add a fifth. So I'm just telling that's 20%.

Matt Brown: 38:23

A fifth is 20%. So what's amazing is he's giving way more than that. You know, 20 times Mhmm. Back. He's going above and beyond because salvation has come to the house that day, and he, you know, wants to to make it right.

Matt Brown: 38:40

So we've got to release things to God. We gotta release the tithe. If you're not a tither, you need to figure out a way to get there. I just had lunch with a new member in our church, you know, who'd just only been saved a year, and he's talking about his process of quickly trying to get to the tithe, how difficult that was for them at first, but how excited they are to be there, because his heart has changed. His priorities have changed.

Matt Brown: 39:02

And so the reason that people struggle with the concept of tithing, oh my gosh, that's too much money, is because their heart is still clinging to things and not to Jesus. And so once my heart is right, tithing is not, I don't even look at it as a bill, I look at it as a joy. It's something I enjoy giving. It's something that I enjoy doing. I don't do it for the tax write off.

Matt Brown: 39:19

I don't do it out of guilt. It's something that I enjoy doing because God has changed my heart. And it says in acts, it's better to give than to receive.

Justin Pardee: 39:28

Okay. I want to make sure I understand really quickly. At the beginning, you're saying it's likely that there was a bunch of people with donkeys and stuff Yeah. You had had them ready to go just waiting for this one day?

Matt Brown: 39:38

Yeah.

Justin Pardee: 39:38

Wow. It never.

Stephanie Schaefer: 39:40

So my question too is, so obviously, in our culture, we don't all have a bunch of donkeys that we're waiting to give to the Lord and the Gods We

Matt Brown: 39:46

have a bunch. Well, we had a bunch here at Sandals. We did. They're all good. Somebody took them.

Stephanie Schaefer: 39:49

That's really sad.

Matt Brown: 39:50

I don't know where they went.

Justin Pardee: 39:50

Farewell. Farewell, Burrows. Just take

Stephanie Schaefer: 39:52

a moment of silence for them. But also so in addition to tithing or giving an offering, how do we know if there's maybe something that's really special to us in our lives? How do we know if God's asking us to give that up? Because I feel like some people may be struggling with guilt right now, like, oh, I have this really nice thing. Am I holding on to that?

Stephanie Schaefer: 40:07

Is God asking that? How can people discern if God's asking them to maybe give up something that's really special to them?

Matt Brown: 40:12

Yeah. So I I I think I think that God will reveal it to you, and you need to number one, you need to be asking that question. Is there something in my life that I love more than God? I remember years ago, we were raising money for a mission trip, and I had this brand new surfboard, and I loved it. I had saved up for it, and I mean, I I don't wanna say I worshiped it, but it was pretty dang close.

Matt Brown: 40:30

And I really felt like God said, you need to give it up. I've had that on several occasions. Couple years ago, you know, I bought a a luxury car, an Acura, it was really nice, and, some people in the church had a problem with it. And they confronted me with it, and I was I was a little upset at first. But, ultimately, I felt like what God was challenging me to do was to ask this question, what do I care more about?

Matt Brown: 40:53

Him or my stuff? And so I don't you know, I think there's nothing wrong with people having nice things. I I just think you can't live for those things, you have to live for Jesus. Now for me as a pastor, what I felt like was my nice car was preventing people from being generous in giving. Because what they wanna give to give to is God, not my nice car.

Matt Brown: 41:11

And I understand that. And so what I did is I got rid of the car. Mhmm. You know? And I bought a Honda Civic, so that's what I bought.

Matt Brown: 41:18

And and I drive a nicer car than that now, so I've moved on. But I've just made the decision in my life that it's so important to release things, I'm not gonna have things in my life that are a stumbling block for people. So I'm not gonna have those things. I'm not gonna present myself as a person of wealth, I'm not wealthy, but I'm not gonna present myself. Because a lot of times people drive a nicer car than they can afford.

Matt Brown: 41:39

And so my wife and I actually drive cars not as nice as maybe as what we can afford, because I don't wanna be a stumbling block for people. I want people to know that we need to release everything to Jesus, whatever that is. And and for me, you know, I wanna be able to be able to give. I mean, some people are in a position because they're so about stuff they can't give. Because they're driving more they're they're spending too much money on phones, cars, trips, all these things, and they say, I can't give.

Matt Brown: 42:04

I can't give to Jesus, because and the reality is because you're not a good steward of what he's given you. So you need to figure out a way to get to a position where you can be generous and you can give.

Justin Pardee: 42:13

Okay. So Jesus gets this donkey, they give it up. He's riding into town, and everybody is throwing down palm fronds in their clothes, and he's coming in, and there's like a almost like a parade going on.

Matt Brown: 42:24

No no palm fronds in Luke. Oh. And there's a there's a reason for that. That's Palm Sunday.

Justin Pardee: 42:28

Okay. This is Palm Sunday. Yeah.

Matt Brown: 42:30

So well, it's Palm Sunday in Matthew. It was the robes. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

Matt Brown: 42:35

So yeah. So they throw down robes in this one. And there's a reason for that. I don't know if you've ever watched like So take this immigration issue in America. Like it always catches me off guard a little bit when you see Hispanics talking about their rights as American citizens waving Hispanic or not Hispanic, but Mexican flags.

Matt Brown: 42:54

I'm like, that doesn't help your case. Mhmm. So Luke here is very very politically savvy. What does he get rid of? He gets rid of the Mexican flag.

Matt Brown: 43:03

Why? Because he's writing this letter to Romans. So the Romans are going to see the palm fronds as a political symbol. Oh. And it's going to be a stumbling block.

Matt Brown: 43:13

So what what he emphasizes is they throw down Okay. They throw down their their clothes. So Jesus is coming as king. But why is he doing that? Because Jesus isn't just the king of Israel.

Matt Brown: 43:23

He's the king of all. So he takes away the political I don't know what the issue He takes away the political hand grenade, so to speak, so that he can present this to Romans because right, they're gonna they're gonna understand everything from their perspective. Yeah. And so ultimately, he wants them to do is he wants them to come to Christ. And he doesn't want them to get caught up in a a political decision.

Matt Brown: 43:44

Am I Roman or am I am I an Israeli? Am I am I a Judean? And the answer is, you're a Christian. So how does he do that? He takes away the symbolism that Matthew because Matthew's writing to Jews.

Matt Brown: 43:56

And so that's why I believe that Matthew is the first gospel that's written. Some people hold to Mark in priority, which is that Mark is the first gospel that's written. I think Matthew is the first gospel that's written because where would you need the first gospel? In Jerusalem written to Jews. And I think Matthew probably wrote that first account.

Matt Brown: 44:11

Now, that's an opinion we don't know. Sure. Because they don't say one two three four on them. Yeah. So we don't know.

Matt Brown: 44:16

But I think Matthew writes the palm fronds. He says, look, your your king came. So because he's writing two Jews, your king came and you killed him. Luke is saying, the king came. And by the way, Jews and the Romans killed him.

Matt Brown: 44:33

Okay? They're both. And so when we get into Acts, that is that is evidently clear. Gentiles and Jews participated in the death of Christ. Why?

Matt Brown: 44:43

The world is guilty for the death of Jesus. So

Justin Pardee: 44:46

Okay. So as he comes in, there is this big parade that's going on. Jesus has been trying to keep his ministry pretty low key, right? But now we have all this pomp and circumstance, so to speak.

Matt Brown: 44:56

Right. Yeah. Because it's time for him to die. So think about this, you know, this next week we're in, you know, Luke 20, we're gonna move right into the betrayal, and ultimately the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is it.

Matt Brown: 45:08

Okay. He's coming to the temple to die. He's coming to Jerusalem to die. So I think that it's important to understand here that what Luke is trying to prepare us for is that Jesus is no is no longer interested in Israel simply being something that's nationalized. And that's a danger of religion.

Matt Brown: 45:25

And so, for example, think about England. They made Christianity theirs, and it was their empire that was spreading, or France theirs, or the Pope theirs. That's when Christianity gets really really wobbly. Christianity must, if it's to remain healthy, always be a global phenomenon. It cannot, it is not contained by borders.

Matt Brown: 45:45

And so, you know, so Luke is simply omitting the section of Jesus going up into the city. He actually focuses on him coming down the Mount Of Olives where simple cloaks are laid down and thrown on the donkey. But he he just he just chooses not to talk about as he comes up in the palm branches being thrown down. Because he wants he wants the Roman reader to understand that this is a global phenomenon. And this wasn't just some regional, you know, election where Christ was presenting himself as king.

Matt Brown: 46:15

And and I think the Roman would have been turned off by, you know, these crazy Jews that just constantly keep killing each other and declaring them. He wants him He wants to move past borders and and bring people to Christ. And I just think it's so essential that as Christians, remember the question you asked me, how important is it that we reach out to each other in love? We we need to not erect borders. You have to cross these lines, you have to agree with these barriers, you have to you have to agree with me on all this philosophy so that you can come to Christ.

Matt Brown: 46:42

What we wanna do at Sandals is, how many borders can I tear down without compromising the gospel? So I'm not gonna compromise the gospel, but I gotta tear down as many things as possible, so that I can make the person who's lost have the easiest access to Christ. And this is why churches don't grow, because they throw up all these walls and then wonder why nobody's coming and nobody's getting saved. And so Luke is demonstrating here that he understood that. Because he's writing to Theophilus.

Matt Brown: 47:10

He's writing to a powerful man, probably in Rome, who's very very wealthy, who's gonna be turned off by this insignificant city, you know, in the middle of nowhere, if it's just a regional power struggle. And it's not. It's not about being a nationalized Jew. It's not about becoming an Israeli. It's about becoming a follower of the king of heaven, the Lord of earth.

Matt Brown: 47:30

And so I think Luke does a great job and we can learn a lot from his strategy in terms of asking, okay, what are the barriers that's going to keep my friend, my family from coming to Christ? How many of those barriers can I knock down? Because right, we can't you can't tell people they're not a sinner. That's a barrier I can't tear down.

Justin Pardee: 47:49

Right.

Matt Brown: 47:49

You can't tell people that Jesus isn't the only way. That's a so there there's enough barriers there. We don't need to add any to them. And so Luke is saying, I'm gonna take that down.

Justin Pardee: 47:58

Yeah. That's good.

Stephanie Schaefer: 47:59

So then there's a bunch of people responding to all this, like, crazy pomp and circumstance in celebration, and Jesus responds to that person and says, if they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers. This is kind of a side question. What does Jesus mean? Like, can inanimate objects praise God and celebrate God's existence?

Matt Brown: 48:16

Yeah. No. I just think he's I just think he's making a statement that, you know, that it's impossible. You know, that I don't think that, you know I mean, can can Jesus make the rocks cry? Sure.

Matt Brown: 48:28

He can do whatever he wants. He's the creator of the universe. I mean, he made me cry out, so he can do whatever he wants. I think his point is is that the acknowledgment of Christ as king is inevitable and unavoidable. It cannot be stopped.

Matt Brown: 48:41

He will be celebrated regardless of the protests of others. And I think it's just a nice way of saying no.

Justin Pardee: 48:47

Got it. Okay. So at the in verses forty one forty two, Jesus is like coming into Jerusalem and as he does that, Jesus says verse 42, how I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace, but now it is too late and peace is hidden from your eyes. Why is Jesus saying you of all people about Jerusalem?

Matt Brown: 49:07

Yeah. Absolutely. And so, I think most of us who read the scripture in English, and maybe don't have a little background in Hebrew or Greek are gonna miss how powerful this is. And so, you know, oftentimes cities names mean something. So like our city, the city of Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.

Matt Brown: 49:23

So it's a it's a an ancient Greek word that means, you know, brotherly love, and so it becomes Philadelphia. And so I don't know if you've to Philadelphia, but not always the most full of brotherly love, you know. You think I think specifically about the one year when the Eagles fans threw their soda cans at Santa Oh. During the Christmas season. So yeah.

Matt Brown: 49:43

So I mean, that was an eighties. I just dated myself. But they're pretty famous for mean, who throws cans at Santa? They did. So Santa.

Matt Brown: 49:48

Which is now why you can't get like bottles in football games. So now you have to have just paper cups. Oh. So yeah. And you thank Philadelphia for that.

Matt Brown: 49:56

Here's the irony. Jesus is saying, you above all people, who's he speaking to, should understand and receive peace. Why? Because Jerusalem is to is is the name is built on two words, Jeru and then Salam. And so, Salam is the ancient word shalom, which means peace peace with God.

Matt Brown: 50:16

And Jeru is it can be translated foundation or city. So what's its name? City of peace or foundation of peace? So what he's saying is Jerusalem, the city of peace, the foundation of peace, you of all people should be at peace, but you're missing it.

Stephanie Schaefer: 50:32

Mhmm.

Matt Brown: 50:32

Isn't that interesting? The one place where it's supposed to declare how we can have peace with God, how we can be right with God is the one place that continually kills all the prophets, and ultimately kills the son of God, kills him. And so that's why he weeps for them. And he's weeping for two reasons. Number one, because they've rejected peace.

Matt Brown: 50:50

And number two, because he knows that judgment is coming. And I think Does he talk about it in this chapter? What's gonna happen? I think he talks about that they're gonna be surrounded Yeah. And people are gonna For

Justin Pardee: 50:59

long enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and closing on you every side that will crush you into the ground and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place because you did not recognize it was God that visited you.

Matt Brown: 51:12

Yeah. And so for those of you who will go with me to on our trip to Israel, I'll actually show you when we go out to Masada, you can actually see it's it's it's the furthest eastern base of military base of of the Jews. And so to this day, you can actually see the wall that the Romans built around the fort. And it was just such an intimidating thing. Because what they're saying is you think you're safe inside your little fortress, so they build a fortress around your fortress and say, you're never getting out.

Matt Brown: 51:43

It's pretty intimidating. And you can still see these walls to this day. So two thousand years later, the walls that the Romans built around Masada are still there, and you can see it. And Jesus is predicting the future. He's saying there's gonna come a time because you guys rejected me, you rejected me, God's going to judge you.

Matt Brown: 52:00

He's going to judge the city of Jerusalem, and he's gonna tear it down to the very foundations of the city. I mean, they're gonna be utterly destroyed. Why? Because the city of peace rejected God's offer of peace. They rejected the coming of the Christ, the Messiah, And they're gonna be slaughtered, and it's gonna be terrible, awful, and ugly, and his description of what's coming is terrible.

Matt Brown: 52:21

And what's amazing about that conflict in 8070 that takes place is the city was divided. And so not only were they fighting Rome, but they were fighting each other. So within the city of Jerusalem, had different factions of different leaders following supposed different messiahs. And so they they were terrible to each other. And ultimately it was horrific what happened.

Matt Brown: 52:43

I mean, were so hungry, women ate their own children. That's what happened. It was, you know, Josephus records it as one of the most disgusting things ever, because why? The judgment of God had fallen upon them and he used the Roman army to bring that judgment. And Jesus is weeping because he can see what's gonna happen.

Matt Brown: 53:00

Mhmm. But it's interesting. He's not weeping about his death, he's weeping about theirs.

Stephanie Schaefer: 53:05

So Luke wraps up this chapter talking about Jesus coming into the temple and kinda losing his mind on people who are selling stuff in the temple. He says to them, the scriptures declare my temple will be a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of thieves. What exactly were they doing that made Jesus so angry? Like, is it bad to sell stuff at church? Like, we're selling some Debrief t shirts Yeah.

Matt Brown: 53:26

No. No. So and a lot of times people quote that and they get very upset when, you know, church has a coffee shop or whatever. We're not selling stuff in the worship center. K?

Matt Brown: 53:33

We're not doing that. That's where the people come in to pray, to connect, and worship. Nothing is being sold in there. Nothing is preventing people from participating in that. And so what makes Jesus so offended here is that and again, hopefully you can come with me to Israel, start saving up now.

Matt Brown: 53:49

I think we're gonna go in 2018 or '17. I can't remember the summer, but it's gonna be soon. It's about thirty five hundred bucks, so start collecting cans now. So when you go there, you can see that the temple is broken up into sections. And so two sections specifically that are marked out or is the court of the Gentiles and the court of the women.

Matt Brown: 54:09

And so women were not allowed in a certain section of the temple, and non Jewish men were not allowed in a certain section. But Isaiah chapter 60 says that the purpose of the temple is to be a house of prayer for all nations. So Luke, for whatever reason, omits all nations. Matthew includes it. Right?

Matt Brown: 54:28

I I don't think Luke included it. My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. And I think that Luke probably omitted that because at the time of his writing, the temple no longer exists. It's been destroyed.

Justin Pardee: 54:41

Got it.

Matt Brown: 54:42

So because I think it would be confusing to a Roman who says, oh, so I'm supposed to go to Jerusalem to pray, but it doesn't exist. Mhmm. So no, because now we have a direct connection because of Jesus Christ, and we pray to God through Jesus.

Justin Pardee: 54:55

Sweet.

Matt Brown: 54:56

So I think that's why he omitted that. Again, one is writing to a Jewish audience, Matthew, who talks about the the purpose of the temple, and everyone would have known that. Luke is talking to a Gentile audience who doesn't know the purpose. And so what I think he's trying to communicate here is the one thing that makes God mad is when you keep people from him. And so we never ever wanna keep people from him.

Matt Brown: 55:15

For example, you know, at the coffee shop, you know, if somebody needs cup of coffee and they don't have money, then they're gonna give it to him. We're not here to make money. We're here to help and serve people. You know, most Christians understand things have costs. We don't get it for free, and so we're just passing that cost on on to you.

Matt Brown: 55:30

But the church is not here to make money. The church is here to lead people to Christ and to be a place of prayer, and for people to connect. And so, we don't do fundraising gimmicks or things inside the worship service. We don't. That's your time to worship God, to hear from God, to pray to God, and to sing to God.

Matt Brown: 55:45

And so we don't allow anything to get in the way there, because we don't want anybody to feel separate from there. And so what they did is they set up all these merchant booths. So it's kind of think of like a flea market, and it's completely packed. Like there's no room for anything. And so that's what happened is they turned the court of the Gentiles and part of the court of the women into a marketplace.

Matt Brown: 56:04

And that's where the that was as close to God as those people could get. And so think about it, it'd be loud. You'd have animals. You'd have money changing. You'd have arguing.

Matt Brown: 56:12

Right? Bartering is taking place. And those poor people have come all that way to connect with God and they can't. And so Jesus gets angry. And in the gospel of Matthew drives him out, makes literally whips and drives him out.

Matt Brown: 56:25

I think in Luke, he admits that part too and just says that he got angry and said, look, this is not the purpose. This is not the point. For whatever reason, Luke throughout the gospel tends to not include Jesus's emotions. It's just interesting. So although he included that he wept, this is the only time that we know where he wept for the temple.

Matt Brown: 56:46

But typically, where Matthew and Mark and John will tell us how Jesus was feeling, Luke tends to for whatever reason not. So so he didn't deal with his anger in that issue.

Justin Pardee: 56:58

Got it. Well, man, Luke 19 had a ton of really good stuff. That was awesome. We'll be excited to keep moving forward. We're coming close to the end of Luke, right?

Justin Pardee: 57:09

Yeah. 24. Four chapters. Mhmm. So we are winding down slowly.

Justin Pardee: 57:15

And if you guys have questions that came up from the podcast this week from this conversation or if you're reading ahead into Luke chapter 20 and have some questions for pastor Matt or have some questions from the past, we would love to get them here on the show. Go to sandalschurch.com/thedebrief and, that will get the your questions in front of our eyeballs. And before we go, Stephanie, can you take us out with a a really great inspirational quote?

Stephanie Schaefer: 57:39

I would love to. Here you go, pastor Matt. Sing like no one's listening, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like nobody's watching.

Matt Brown: 57:47

I love it. Alright. Fine. Yeah. I love it.

Matt Brown: 57:50

I think it's great.

Justin Pardee: 57:51

Okay. Let's cut the Periscope feed and pass it back. It's your turn to just dance like no one's watching.

Matt Brown: 57:55

But people are watching. People are

Stephanie Schaefer: 57:58

always watching.

Justin Pardee: 57:58

We'll close our eyes, dude.

Matt Brown: 57:59

We got I believe you. Oh, you're right. I know that Stephanie will close her eyes because she'll be embarrassed. Yeah. But you will watch.

Justin Pardee: 58:05

I wonder what your moves are.

Matt Brown: 58:06

You're peaker. I know. I can tell. You are. You're you're that person in church when I say every head bowed and every eye closed.

Matt Brown: 58:13

You're like, I can't do it.

Justin Pardee: 58:30

Okay. So, all of you guys are laughing at me. To me, made total sense. This is what that means. We'd go on road trips, I'd be in the back of the station where I get facing the opposite direction that we're moving like waving at people in minivans, have to pee so bad.

Justin Pardee: 58:44

And my grandpa would say, we'll be at Albuquerque in an hour and fifteen minutes. You can hold it. And I'm like, okay, grandpa.

Stephanie Schaefer: 58:54

I thought like being in the air force like gave your grandpa Yeah.

Matt Brown: 58:57

Yeah. You were stressed special ladder

Stephanie Schaefer: 58:59

powers and so therefore, you have inherited those.

Justin Pardee: 59:02

No. I meant like You were like trained in this. We would go on road trips. My grandpa would always be driving and he would not he was not interested in bowling over for the sake of urination.