Participants: Glenn Russell & Ranko Stefanovic (Host)
Series Code: MTBOTB
Program Code: MTBOTB00004A
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00:21 Hi, I'm Glenn Russell.
00:23 Welcome to another in the series of Books of the Book. 00:27 This is a series exploring the gospel according to Matthew. 00:31 I like you to meet our guest teacher, Dr. Ranko Stefanovic. 00:34 Ranko, welcome, glad to have you back again. 00:36 This is another in the series. 00:39 It's been fascinating so far to 00:41 begin to get into this wonderful book. 00:43 We got more ahead. 00:45 Welcome, glad to have you with us. 00:47 Glenn, it's so nice. 00:49 We were in the same department as teachers, 00:50 we're coming for about nine years 00:53 and it's so nice now to be together here 00:56 and open the word of God. 00:57 Now let's ask God to lead us in that process. 01:00 Let's begin with prayer. 01:02 Lord, thank You for the assurance. 01:04 Wherever two or three are gathered 01:07 You're also gathered to teach us from Your word. 01:10 We asked that Your Spirit may guide us and teach us. 01:12 In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. 01:16 Ranko, we're talking about the gospel according to Matthew. 01:19 Matthew is writing to a--originally 01:24 to a predominantly Jewish audience 01:25 and he's showing that Jesus is 01:27 the fulfillment of all their hopes, 01:29 all their wishes, all their dreams. 01:32 Just as we would say today, 01:33 Jesus is the fulfillment of all that we could wish for. 01:36 But more than that, he's showing us 01:38 that Jesus has a particular role, 01:40 has an identity as one from the Father, 01:43 and now we've moved through Chapter one 01:47 with the genealogy of Chapter two 01:48 with his birth and now where are we going this time? 01:53 Glenn, I think that it is very important 01:56 to underscore something is. 01:58 You see the gospel of Matthew 01:59 was originally written to certain people 02:04 who were of Jewish background. 02:07 So the language of the gospel of 02:08 Matthew appealed to them. 02:11 And this, similar could be said about 02:15 every book of the Bible. 02:16 But, even though the Bible was written to certain people, 02:20 it was not written only for them, 02:22 it was written for all people 02:24 including us who lived there. 02:25 This is very, very important. 02:28 So in order to understand how that Bible 02:31 speaks to us today, first we have to understand 02:33 the language, the issues 02:36 that the book address to the original readers, 02:38 and then it replied the message to us today. 02:41 So there is ancient and yet a contemporary meaning. 02:44 It's timeless, but it's also timely, 02:46 it has a place and time. 02:48 All right, what are we going to explore this time? 02:50 You see so far, we saw that Jesus came, 02:54 what genealogy couldn't do, 02:56 Jesus came to save His people from their sins. 02:58 We saw last time how He came. 03:01 He was born as a baby in Bethlehem. 03:04 Now the time has come for Jesus 03:07 to begin his public, public ministry. 03:11 But there was somebody who came to announce 03:14 the coming of the Messiah. 03:16 The name of that person is John the Baptist. 03:19 This is actually what we read in Matthew Chapter 3. 03:23 So Glenn, I would really like to ask you, 03:26 if you can read Chapter 3, verses 1 to 6 03:30 and may be in sentence were to tell us 03:32 what we have in the rest up to verse 5. 03:36 All right, but first I'd like to 03:37 ask you very briefly a question. 03:39 Many people would wonder, how come there's not much 03:41 about Jesus early life, His years as a teenager, 03:45 young adult, goes from his birth to his ministry 03:48 with John and started there, why? 03:51 Because the Bible does not concern everything about Jesus. 03:55 What the Bible concern is, why Jesus came? 03:58 How He came? 04:00 See the reason that we read about His birth 04:02 is to understand that Jesus didn't came like 04:05 an ordinary human being, born as a result of 04:08 sexual relationships between a male and female. 04:12 Actually, He came because 04:13 the Holy Spirit made the inception, etc. 04:18 And now we see how He came 04:20 to save His people with climax to the cross. 04:23 So, the Bible is concerned of this. 04:25 Unfortunately, we would like to ask 04:27 many questions about Jesus and the Bible is quiet, 04:30 and that's the reason why in the second century those 04:33 apocryphal gospels appear, trying to fill that gap. 04:36 And fortunately, those things are not in the Bible. 04:38 Something will wait for heaven, won't we. Yes, yes. 04:41 Now you said something about some silence 04:43 and there has been some silence for a period of centuries. 04:48 Yeah. Okay. 04:49 You would like us to go now to John Chapter 3. 04:51 3:1, 2, 2-6. All right. 04:55 In those days John the Baptist came preaching 04:57 in the wilderness of Judea and saying, 04:59 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 05:03 For this is He who is spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying, 05:07 'the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 05:09 prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.' 05:13 "Now John Himself was clothed in camel's hair 05:16 with a leather belt around his waist, 05:18 and his food was locusts and wild honey. 05:20 Then Jews from all Judea 05:22 and all the region around the Jordan 05:25 went out to Him and were baptized by Him 05:28 in the Jordan, confessing their sins. 05:31 But when he saw many of the Pharisees 05:33 and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, 05:36 "brood of vipers, who warned you 05:37 to flee from the wrath to come? 05:39 Therefore bear fruit worthy of repentance 05:42 and do not say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father, 05:46 for I say to you that God is able to 05:48 raise up children to Abraham from these very stones." 05:51 Yes. Quite a character. 05:54 So a very unusual person appeared, 05:57 by the way this very unusual person, 06:00 unknown person in the gospel of Matthew. 06:02 We want to learn more about that person, 06:04 we have to read those at the gospel of Luke. 06:07 He was actually a relative of Jesus. 06:10 Was it common in this time period for God 06:13 to be sending prophets, Ranko? 06:15 See the problem is when we read 06:19 the Jewish writings from the time previous to-- 06:24 prior to this period we read that 06:27 they said this is the time of Malachi. 06:30 They said, there has not been a prophet among us. 06:34 The Jews believe strongly we have so many 06:39 indications in our writings that actually 06:42 the last prophet, the prophetic voice, 06:44 the last time was called prophet Malachi. 06:46 So can you imagine now a person appeared 06:49 dressed as the Old Testament prophets. 06:52 His message that he started preaching 06:55 was the message of the Old Testament prophets 06:58 and the results were the results 07:00 of the Old Testament prophets, 07:01 immediately people recognized 07:04 that God once again visited his people. 07:08 So there's a continuity and God is at work again. 07:11 Yes. Because something has happened. 07:13 But you see the question is why John the Baptist, 07:17 of course, we always say, 07:18 he came to prepare the way for the Messiah. 07:21 But there is one expression, 07:23 actually metaphorical section, 07:25 the John, he use when people ask him, who are you? 07:30 Actually, this is another quotation 07:33 from the Old Testament prophecies. 07:35 This time from the book of Isaiah. 07:37 He says, "the voice of the one crying 07:40 in the wilderness make ready 07:42 the way of the Lord, make his path straight." 07:46 And I know, the casual readers 07:48 they don't see anything significant, 07:50 but if we lived in the first century and those ancient times, 07:56 we would easily catch the significance of this statement. 08:00 By the way I'm coming from the part of the world 08:03 that it's border between the west and the east. 08:08 So I lived among the people with that eastern mentality 08:11 and I myself, I lived within that mentality. 08:14 Actually I was in one part of the world, 08:17 I lived for about two years and my brother took me 08:20 to one place to see something. 08:23 We were driving for about, let's say about 10 miles. 08:26 It was a fantastic road, but not maintained. 08:30 There was a lot of grass 08:31 and I said to my brother, there is no single car. 08:34 He said, just wait you will see it. 08:36 We came to the end of that road beautiful pavement, etc. 08:40 and there was a house, it was a mansion. 08:44 Beautiful, then there nobody lived there. 08:47 Some windows were broken, etc., 08:50 so I said, what's going on? 08:52 This road, this road just led only 08:54 to this house, there's nothing else. 08:56 He said, you know, when the US President 08:58 came to visit here this country, this road was built for him 09:02 and this mansion was built for him. 09:05 So when he left, it was abandoned, 09:08 nobody lived there and suddenly this text came to me. 09:11 You see in ancient times when the king, 09:14 when the ruler would go to visit 09:16 a part of his kingdom what did people do? 09:18 They actually fixed the roads. 09:21 There are some roads they were very, you know, curved, etc. 09:24 They tried to make it straight. 09:26 They provided good pavement, why? 09:28 Because the king is coming. 09:30 When the king is coming, you've to fix the road 09:33 so that the king has safe, you know, 09:36 journey and travel to that part of his kingdom. 09:40 Actually, the saying from the prophet Isaiah, 09:44 that Matthew inspired by the Holy Spirit 09:47 implies to John Baptist was exactly there 09:51 by keeping in mind that ancient custom 09:54 that is used here metaphorically. 09:56 The messiah is coming and the role of John 09:59 the Baptist was actually to fix, 10:02 to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. 10:06 All right, so the idea of his preparatory role, 10:09 of course that means if somebody 10:10 is coming after, if you're preparing. 10:12 You're preparing for something, 10:14 but let's explore a little bit more 10:15 about this role of John the Baptist. 10:18 He's dressed a certain way, 10:19 he's eating certain food, he has a certain message. 10:23 Let's explore that little bit more, Ranko. 10:28 John appeared evidently like 10:33 Prophet Elijah of the Old Testament. 10:36 You know that Elijah he lived some 10:39 isolated place there, etc., 10:41 and we have in the conclusion 10:45 of the Hebrew Scriptures, The Book of Malachi. 10:49 You know, the last verse of our Masoretic 10:54 text of the Old Testament is that before 10:59 the terrible day of the Lord comes, 11:01 God will send Mosses and Elijah 11:04 and they will turn the hearts of 11:05 parents, fathers, toward their sons, 11:08 and sons with their fathers. 11:10 So the Jewish people could easily recognize 11:15 in the coming of John the Baptist, 11:18 in the message that He preached. 11:20 The fulfillment of this Old Testament prophecy 11:24 and that's why you have a lot of people 11:28 running there to listen to John Baptist message. 11:30 So there is a tremendous surge of expectation. 11:34 What they've been hoping for, 11:36 longing for, this Messiah, his deliver. 11:40 Now something is happening 11:41 is giving him idea He's coming soon. 11:43 Actually, when you see the context of 11:46 John the Baptist message, it's actually 11:49 the content of Elijah's message. 11:52 I mean it's really cut to the truth. 11:54 What is the key word of John the Baptist message? 11:57 Said, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 12:03 I know Christians are using very often the word repent. 12:09 And we have all kind of ideas 12:11 and so many times people are asking me, 12:12 what is the meaning of repentance? 12:14 Is that repentance a genuine repentance, 12:17 un-genuine repentance, so called repentance? 12:19 You know people have, we've to understand 12:21 that Hebrew word shuv simply means turn around. 12:28 A person is going in certain direction 12:32 like in the parable of the prodigal son. 12:35 And the person comes to his senses 12:38 and the person makes turn around 12:42 and going back to God, that's what repentance. 12:43 So it's a U-turn and about phase. 12:46 In the New Testament, metanoia, 12:48 it means to change your mind, 12:50 you follow after your mind changed. 12:52 This is in the prodigal son. 12:53 He came to his senses and he said 12:57 I'm going back to my Father. 12:59 This is what repentance is. 13:01 So, John the Baptist message was, 13:03 you are away from God. 13:06 You're disobedient to God. 13:07 You see they were not -- 13:10 they once welcomed the messiah, etc. 13:12 So, John the Baptist said you have to make 13:14 that significant around in your life. 13:17 You've to come back to God and that's how 13:20 the coming of the messiah will be meaningful to you. 13:23 And so that whole message is summed up in that second verse, 13:26 "repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 13:29 It was calling for a radical change of Abraham. 13:32 They expected others to repent, 13:35 but this is a message you need to repent. 13:39 And then, and then, if you see the rest, 13:42 all kind of people were coming to listen 13:45 to John the Baptist, but his message was, 13:49 turn around in your relationship with God, 13:52 look into the world in completely different way. 13:55 Change the course of your action 13:57 and try to correct the things that you have done in the past. 14:00 That was actually the message of John the Baptist. 14:03 And we're gonna get much more into 14:04 the meaning of repentance right after our break. |
Revised 2014-12-17