 Welcome back everyone. Let's just begin with the word of prayer. Would someone open us in prayer please? Let us pray. Heavenly Father we just wish to thank you for this hour of study and we pray that whatever we study today Father we will be able to apply it in our lives and Father we also pray for a blessing upon our entire faculty and all the students here Father. In Jesus's precious name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Okay so we'll just quickly look at what we covered, a little bit of what we covered last week. So we did the outline of the book of Matthew. I won't go into the outline again. And then after we looked at a few specific topics one was the virgin birth. So seeing how the virgin birth is clearly talked about in scripture and that is a fulfillment of what was prophesied about in the Old Testament. We looked at what repentance means. So when Jesus, when John the Baptist are preaching about repentance, what does that repentance actually mean? And then kingdom of heaven, what does the kingdom of heaven mean? We then looked at the Lord's prayer specifically in relation to the kingdom of God and how we see that prayer impact how we live within God's kingdom. And then we looked at a few specific topics that are in the book of Matthew but also in the rest of the New Testament and what we learn from the New Testament about these things. We looked at miracles and we were looking at these topics and the relevance for today for believers today. So we looked at miracles, we looked at demons and then we came to the parables of the kingdom. So this is something that I had asked you to just read through so that since we are also trying to catch up on content, I'd asked you all to do this at home. To read this Matthew 13 3 to 50 and to note down some things that you all noticed about what was the expectations of the coming kingdom versus what Jesus was teaching. So were you all able to do that? Okay, we'll just quickly go over the notes. I do want us to be going back to scripture and not only, so we don't want to just look at notes on the New Testament, right? We want to be actually reading the New Testament through this class. So for us as much as possible to be reading directly from the word. So that's why I'd asked you all to go back and read Matthew 13. If you are able to read through the whole New Testament through this class, just read through the book. Before we discuss it in class, that would be that would be really, really good for your own personal understanding of what all we're talking about in class. But yes, as much as possible, we'll try and for each of you to go back and read parts of what we're talking about in class, so that it's not just a discussion based on the word without actually reading. Okay, so we don't have time to read through the whole chapter. We'll just look at some things that are there in your textbook on the parables. So we see the parable of the Sower and here one of the expectations was that the Messiah would come and all of Israel and all the nations would turn to him. Whereas what is taught in the parable is that each person will respond to the word differently. So the word is sown and based on the person's heart, they will either turn to God or they will turn away from them. They will reject the message that is given. And so that final coming of the Messiah and establishing the Kingdom is something that we look forward to. But in the Kingdom that Jesus had brought, the Kingdom that was initiated through Jesus's coming, it was only those who responded to Jesus who would enter into his Kingdom. The King of the wheat and the tares, so this is where the wheat and tares are separated at the end in the final judgment. So here the expectation was that all those who are righteous would rule with the King over the world. But here we see that we continue to be part of the world as people who are part of the Kingdom were continuing to be part of the world until that final harvest. That's when we will rule and reign. We also rule in this presentation in fact that we share the authority that Jesus has given us to use his name and to exercise his authority here on earth. But at the same time we are still very much in this world. We are living with the same challenges that the people around us face. And until that final harvest, the separation between us and the world will not happen. The third is the parable of the mustard seed where the small seed is sown and it grows into a large tree. Here the expectation was that the Kingdom would come in glory. That's what the Jews expected. But the reality was that the Kingdom came in a very insignificant and unexpected way. But it's over time that the greatness was realized through Jesus' death and resurrection. And that glory will only continue to grow until the final establishing of the Kingdom of God. The parable of the leaven, this is talking about yeast being mixed into the door. The expectation was that only those who are righteous will enter into the Kingdom of God. There is no place for the unrighteous, which is why the Pharisees had the sense of self-righteousness. They viewed everyone else as sinners, as people who were outside. But the reality is that the Kingdom comes to everyone. The truth of the Kingdom, everyone is invited into the Kingdom. And the message of the Gospel brings that transformation, enables us to be righteous. So the righteousness that we have comes from God Himself, comes from the message of the Kingdom, which is the Gospel. The hidden treasure, the parable of the hidden treasure, which is somebody who finds hidden treasure in the field and then hides it, goes and sells everything they have and then comes back to take it. The expectation was that the Kingdom would come in a way that everybody would see it. Everyone would know that the Kingdom has come. But the reality was that the Kingdom came in a way that was hidden. Like we see in these parables itself, that it was presented in a way that was not fully revealed. All of the understanding of the truth of the Kingdom was not revealed at that time. But only those who really wanted to know the truth of the Kingdom who wanted to pursue it were the ones who could receive that treasure. And so it's a Kingdom that is hidden but is available for those who are willing to go after it. And then the parable of the priceless pearl, which is where a merchant finds a pearl that is greater than anything of greater value than anything else he has. He sells everything and comes back for this pearl. So the expectation was that the Kingdom would bring things of value to people. But the reality is that the Kingdom demands people to give up everything else to abandon all things that they value in order to receive this Kingdom fully. And so that was the difference in the expectation between what Jesus was teaching. And then the last one is the parable of, I believe this is the one with the fish. Let me just go back and make sure that I'm saying that I think 1347 to 1550. Yeah, so this is where a fish is cast into the sea and draws up all kinds of fish and then they are separated. They are only separated at a later time after all the fish are caught. So the expectation was that the righteous and unrighteous are separated right at the beginning when the Kingdom comes. But what Jesus was teaching was that it's only at the final judgment that the unrighteous will be separated from the righteous until that time the Kingdom will continue in this world. And it will be open to anyone, anyone who is willing to receive the message of the Kingdom. So Jesus spoke all of these parables in a way that was hidden. He didn't reveal all of the truth of this, of the Kingdom to people, but to his disciples he did. We know that he chose a few people who would understand or to whom he would explain the meaning of all of these things. And so we have the privilege of now reading back and knowing the meaning of the parables that Jesus taught. So with that we come to some of the closing things in the book of Matthew. So Matthew talks about the end times, about the final judgment, about the end of all that is created and the final establishment of the Kingdom of God. And we see that Matthew 24 talks a lot about that. Like we talked about earlier, Matthew actually pays a lot more attention to the end times than the other Gospels. Matthew 24 actually refers back to prophecies in the Old Testament. We have a few references there. So Daniel 927, 1131 and 1211. So these are some passages that Matthew goes back to. So he references these passages in the things that Jesus is teaching about in his teaching on the end times. So there are various teachings on the end times in the New Testament. We see in Matthew 24 there is talk about tribulation and rapture. In 1 Thessalonians 4 there is the gathering of God's elect. In 2 Peter 310 it talks about all that is created going up in flames. So there is a complete destruction of what is created and a new creation which Revelation 21 talks about. And then Revelation 21 to 6 also talks about 1000 year period when Satan is bound. And so we have all of these different teachings on the end times. And they're not necessarily put in a systematic way. We see them in all these different books. And even within the books they're not telling us what's going to happen one after the other. So many times there are questions about the end times. There are different interpretations based on how people are reading these things. Whether the tribulation will happen before the rapture or after the rapture. There are different teachings on these things. And you all will have a class on the end times in your Bible college courses. If you all are continuing to study. And then you'll get a little more detailed look at all of these things. But here we're just talking about the fact that Matthew talks about the end times. And the rest of the New Testament talks about the end times. And the Old Testament also talks about the end times. But it's not always understood in the same way. And so what can we take away from the New Testament's teaching on the end times? One thing is that we have to look both at the Old Testament teaching and the New Testament teaching. And if we look at it, we'll see that there isn't any contradiction between those teachings. The New Testament depends on the Old Testament references. The Old Testament several times when talking about the end times. And when we look at both together, we get a fuller picture of what scripture's teaching is on the end times. At the same time, it's not given in a systematic way. Giving us what's going to happen after what. And again, because of the use of pictorial language, because of a prophetic language that is used, there is that challenge in interpretation as well. We look at some of that in our interpreting scripture class. But one thing that is clear is that what we look at about the end times should impact how we live now. So we'll just look at these two verses. 1 Thessalonians 4, 18 and 2 Peter 3, 11. If someone can read those verses for us or two people can read the verses. 1 Thessalonians 4, 18. Maybe we can read from 16 to 18. 1 Thessalonians 4 from 16 to 18. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord, therefore comfort one another with these words. Thank you. So here we see in verse 18, we know what is to come. We know that we are going to be with the Lord and that we will spend eternity with Him. So how should we live now? We should encourage one another. We should remind one another of that future hope that we have. So in the face of the challenges that may come up in our lives now, we can be encouraged. We can have something that we are looking forward to, that we are hopeful about because we know of the future that lies ahead of us. And can we read 2 Peter 3, 11 please. 2 Peter 3, 11, therefore since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? You can go on to verse 12 as well I think, just to the end of that sentence. Sure, okay. I'll start from the top then. Therefore since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Thank you. So this is a call to live in holiness, live godly lives because we are expecting that coming day of the Lord. So we prepare ourselves like those 10 virgins, the 5 virgins who were ready for the coming of the bright room and the 5 who were not ready. We should be like those virgins who are ready that we have kept ourselves holy. We have lived lives in line with God's will, waiting, anticipating His coming. And then the New Testament also shows us this picture of all of history ending as God has intended it to end. Like God is on the throne, God is the God of all time, right? And so all of time is in His hands. What happens at the end is all in His will and in His hands and He will fulfill all of those things. So having that kind of hope, like we've seen in the Old Testament, the hope was for the Messiah to come. In the midst of the suffering of the people of Israel, there was always the promise of the Messiah coming. And that was what they were looking forward to the day of the coming of the Messiah. Likewise here in the New Testament is in the midst of all that we face, whether it is persecution, danger to our lives, those kinds of things or other challenges that come up. We look forward to that future end in the presence of God, which is free from all of the suffering that we are experiencing in this present life. So that is the picture of the end times of the New Testament gives us. Matthew also writes about. And then the final thing that we look at is the resurrection of Jesus. Now, Matthew of course talks about the resurrection of Jesus, but in the whole of the New Testament, we see that the resurrection is given a very important place in the Gospel. If someone can read 1 Corinthians 15-17 for us. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins. So we see that the resurrection is such a key part of our salvation. So if Christ has not been raised, then we are still in our sin. We are still guilty of our sin. But it is the fact that Christ overcame that he was victorious over sin and death, that we have a hope of being redeemed, that we share in that victory as well. And so the resurrection becomes a key player in the Gospel, in the story of salvation and in the message that has been preached to people. So also when we look at one of the big challenges that is presented to Christians nowadays is how can someone who is dead come back to life? That is something that is questioned from obviously people who are thinking from a natural perspective who are not believers and who say that is just unbelievable. That's something that we cannot accept. But we should recognize that if we are removing the resurrection from the picture of the Gospel, then we are removing this truth of victory, of salvation, of forgiveness from sin, from the message itself. And so it's a very, very important part that cannot be lost just because for someone thinking in a natural sense, it doesn't, it can't be proved or it can't be explained. And we look more at why we can so confidently claim Jesus is resurrected as we see later on in the other Gospels and in the rest of the New Testament. Let's also look at Romans 1.4. So what all does the New Testament talk about with regard to the resurrection? Spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead Jesus Christ our Lord. Thank you. So we see in Romans 1.4, he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. We see here that the resurrection proves that Jesus is the Son of God. That's what the New Testament itself is saying. That it showed who he truly was, that he was who he said he was and who the Gospel writers were saying he is. Let's look at Acts 10, 39 to 43. Acts 10, 39 to 43. And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day and showed him openly not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us, who ate and drank with him after he arose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that it is he who was ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him, all the prophets witness that through his name whoever believes in him will receive permission of sins. Thank you. So we see the resurrection from the dead and forgiveness of sins being connected here like we talked about earlier as well. It being key to the Gospel message of us being forgiven of our sins. But even here in this passage that we read, we saw the talk of witnesses to the resurrection, right? He didn't appear to the general public, but he appeared to people who were chosen to be witnesses. And we were those who ate and drank with him after he rose. So Luke here is saying that he himself was one of the witnesses. And that command to preach the Gospel came to those who witnessed his death and resurrection. So the resurrection of Jesus is well attested. It was not only the 12 disciples. So those are some of the things that are challenged is whether the disciples themselves just made up a story like the 11 disciples who remained after Judas' death. They came up with this story and they told people. But it was so many more people than those disciples, right? We see the women who were at the tomb, so Mary and other women who visited the tomb in Matthew 28. And then we see Peter himself. We see the disciples on the road to Emmaus. We see the group that was present on the day Jesus was resurrected. Jesus appears to them. We see Thomas feeling the wounds on Jesus' side, on his hands. The disciples on the seashore where Jesus pierced them as they are fishing in the sea. And then over 500 people who had gathered saw Jesus. So this is a very, very large group of people. And then we see James, the brother of Jesus, and then those who were at Jesus' ascension. A large number of witnesses to Jesus' resurrection. So it's not something that can be disputed on any grounds of lack of evidence. There were so many people who had seen it. And the Gospel writers then write the Gospels claiming Jesus' resurrection. And those Gospels go out to so many people who read it. If what they were saying was not true, then people could have easily come against them at that time saying Jesus was not resurrected. But because there were so many witnesses, people who knew that what was being said in these Gospels is true. It was accepted and believed by people. And it's these witnesses who were key to the Gospel spreading after that. But at the same time, while we talk about there being sufficient evidence for Jesus' resurrection, we don't say that people should come to faith in Christ just based on that evidence. It has to be based on faith, right? So even in the Gospels, when Jesus is doing his miracles, there is evidence of Jesus' power, his authority. He's proving what he's declaring about himself. But those who refused to believe in him continued to oppose his ministry and were the very people who came against him. Likewise, even as we proclaim the Gospel, as people come with challenges of things like how can somebody who's dead be raised, we shouldn't go into those discussions thinking that we are going to prove Jesus' resurrection and these people are going to believe. It may not happen because if they have resolved in their hearts to not believe, then whatever evidence is provided, they will not be convinced. So it does require faith. In addition to the evidence, there must be a willingness to believe or to receive that evidence and respond to it. And then the last thing is, what is the relevance for us today? We'll just look at these two verses, Hebrews 7, 24 and 25. Someone can read that for us. Hebrews 7, 24 and 25. But he holds his priesthood permanently because he continued forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him. Since he always leaves to make intercession for them. Thank you. So our salvation and our continued walk with God is possible because of Jesus' resurrection. So we are completely saved because he intercedes on our behalf before the Father. And that continues to be true for us today. Salvation is possible for all those who come to Jesus because he is before the Father interceding for us. And we are able to experience that full and complete salvation from sins and the effects of that salvation in our everyday lives because of Jesus' intercession. And then let's read 1 John 3 2. 1 John 3 2. Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him or we shall see him as he is. So that is our present hope. A present hope is that we ourselves will share in that resurrection that it is a resurrection that will transform our bodies and we will be with Christ. We will be like him. So these are two things that we look at as how is the resurrection relevant for us today, apart from the fact that the resurrection is a hope of salvation. So for those who are coming to faith, the resurrection is a very important part. But for those of us who are already believers, it continues to be relevant because Christ is interceding for us. And we have this hope of our resurrected body of being with Christ and being transformed to be like him. So we come to the end of the Gospel of Matthew and we'll just start a little bit. We look a little bit at the Gospel of Mark today and continue on Thursday. If you have the time and are able to read through the Gospel of Mark in the meantime, please do that. So we, like we said when we were starting the book of Matthew that Mark was actually, Mark is actually a condensed form of what is used in the book of Matthew and in the book of Luke. And is believed to be the source of what they talked about. So they depended heavily on what Mark had written. Some people think that there was a separate source and all three Gospels depend on it, but Mark was the earliest of the three Gospels. And initially Mark was neglected, was looked at as a Gospel that was not very important because people thought that Mark had just was just like a small somebody of what Matthew talked about. And because it was also mostly dependent on Peter's, what Peter had talked about Jesus. If we look at first Peter 513, maybe we can just read that one Peter 513. She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen sends you greetings and so does Mark my son. So we see that Mark was ministering with Peter and so a lot of what goes into the Gospel is based on Peter's recounting of Jesus and of Jesus's life and ministry. So because the book of Mark was mostly dependent on Peter's recollection of Peter's preaching and because it was such a small book, it was thought to be something that was not as important. We did mention this earlier that Matthew was a very popular Gospel being circulated in the churches and initially Mark was not. But it's only now in present day scholarship that as people began to recognize that Mark was the earliest Gospel written and Matthew and Luke depended on Mark's account that this Gospel has started to become or be considered more important. Now Mark is very action oriented. So when you read it, it's just going from one event to the other. There's not a lot of focus on Jesus's teaching or preaching. Like Matthew, Matthew has those five different sermons, large chunks of Jesus's teaching. Mark doesn't have that. He has much more focus on what Jesus did. And so he presents Jesus as this powerful person or we look more at what he says about Jesus, but who conquers demons, disease and death. This is Jesus, the Jesus he presents, someone who is active and someone who is doing certain things to prove who he is. We see straight away and immediately used a lot in Mark. So just an indication of that action oriented Gospel. It's very, very focused on what is happening next, what happens after that and how Jesus is moving from one place to another doing different things. Mark as opposed to Matthew is focused on the Gentiles. So Matthew was focused on Jewish Christians. Mark is focused on Roman Christians. And so the language that is used is much more suitable for those who are not from a Jewish background. We'll just look at these two passages, Matthew 10, 5 and 6 and Mark 6 and 7. Just as one example of how they look at the same, they narrate the same story in a different way. Matthew 10, 5 and 6. These 12 Jesus sent out, instructing them, go now here among the Gentiles and enter no town of this American. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Thank you and Mark 6, 7. Would someone read that please? Mark 6, 7. And he called the 12 to himself and began to send them out two by two and give them power over unclean spirits. He commanded them. Oh, sorry. Thank you. So we see Matthew specifically mentioning that the disciples were sent out only to the people of Israel. Whereas Mark doesn't include that in his in his recounting of the same story. So the way they presented based on their audience, based on their focus is different, right? This is what we talked about. Why are there four gospels? It was based on their audience. What did they want to highlight? So Matthew wanted to highlight Jesus' ministry to the people of Israel. Jesus had come for the Jews. And then that gospel was also then to be taken to the world. Whereas Mark is more interested in just presenting the gospel for all people because his audience is a non-Jewish audience. So it isn't relevant here to say that Jesus told them to go only to the Israelites. What he wants to say is Jesus sent them out to minister to people. And likewise we are sent out to minister to people as disciples of Jesus. So that's the difference between their audience and how they present the same story. Mark is also very, very honest. We see this actually throughout the gospels. I did mention this in one of our classes that the gospels are also the genre of ancient biography. So in ancient biography, they would retell the story of a hero. But the difference between the gospels and those biographies would be that those biographies would highlight only all of the positive things. They would never say anything negative about the hero. And they would also exaggerate a lot so they would make the hero look like a superhuman. Whereas we don't see that in the gospels and especially in the book of Mark. We see a very honest picture of the weaknesses of the people that are being talked about. Even though these were supposed to be the heroes of that day. These were the disciples who were leading the churches. They were the ones who had established all the churches and were now raising up new disciples. But they don't hesitate to present these disciples as weak. So we see in all of these passages in Mark, the disciples lack of understanding of Jesus' mission. Lack of understanding of his, when he talks about suffering. Even when they're seeing the miracles, they don't understand. So when they see the miracle of feeding the 5,000 of the lobes multiplying. They still are confused when Jesus says, don't share in the bread of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. So they think it's about physical bread. So this displays their lack of understanding. Even though they are with Jesus, they are hearing his teaching. They are seeing his miracles. They still don't understand his mission as Mark presents it through this book. We also see Jesus' relatives not recognizing Jesus' Messiahship. If we look at Mark 321, can someone read that for us please? Mark 321. But when his own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of him for they said he's out of his mind. So we see within his family itself, the opposition that he faced that they didn't understand his ministry. So Mark isn't trying to hide that. And even though James later becomes the leader of the church in Jerusalem, Mark doesn't hesitate to present his own family, Jesus' family. James was one of them as people who viewed Jesus himself as out of his mind during his ministry. And then Mark presents Jesus as a very human person with different emotions. He doesn't hide that side of Jesus. We see in all of these verses, I don't think we have time to read them. But Jesus' sadness, his anger, his disappointment with people's lack of belief. All of those things being presented to us. Jesus is presented as a very human Messiah, not someone who is just divine. And we'll end with this. I think we have a minute. If we don't finish it, we'll continue on Thursday. So Jesus as the Son of God, Jesus as Son of Man, Jesus as Redeemer. If we look at Mark 11, we'll read these verses. Okay, let's just read Mark 11 and Mark 11. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And a word came from heaven, you are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased. So right here at the start of the gospel, Mark declares Jesus as the Son of God. So this is a very important part of who Jesus is that he wants to be made clear through the gospel. Mark 11 right at the start, Jesus, the good news about Jesus Messiah, the Son of God. And then in verse 11, the Father himself affirming who Jesus is. Jesus is my Son in whom I am well pleased. And then Mark 1539, we can read that. Mark 1539. So when the Centurion who stood opposite him saw that he cried out like this and breathed his last, he said truly this man was the Son of God. So beginning the gospel with this proclamation of who God is, who Jesus is, and then ending at the end of Jesus' crucifixion, this declaration by the Roman officer, the recognition of Jesus being the Son of God. Again, his focus on a Roman Christian audience and also the fact that this identity of Jesus as the Son of God is being established right from the start of the gospel to the end. So we'll end with this and we'll continue on Thursday. I'll just keep you notified if the class will be online or whether I'll be on campus. I'll post that on Classroom based on whether I'm able to come back in time for class on Thursday. But thank you all so much for being here. We'll see you on Thursday.