Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr19/olbpnt1.zip/PNT.001/V00650

Text File | 1993-04-21 | 17KB | 437 lines

00650
 # Mt 20:2
    \\Agreed with the labourers for a penny a day.\\ A denarius,
 about sixteen cents, the usual full price of a day's labour at
 that time. It would buy then more than a dollar will now.
 (PNT 108)
00651
 # Mt 20:3-4
    \\About the third hour.\\ Nine o'clock. The hours were
 counted from six o'clock.
 (PNT 108)
00653
 # Mt 20:5
    \\Went about the sixth and ninth hour.\\ Twelve and three
 o'clock.
 (PNT 109)
00654
 # Mt 20:6
    \\About the eleventh hour.\\ Five o'clock.
 (PNT 109)
00655
 # Mt 20:7
    \\Because no man hath hired us.\\ These persons were idle,
 because they had no opportunity to work. This point must not be
 lost sight of. There is no promise here for wilful idleness.
 (PNT 109)
00656
 # Mt 20:8
    \\Saith to his steward.\\ The steward, to whom the duty of
 paying the labourers is assigned, probably represents Christ.
 (PNT 109)
00657
 # Mt 20:9
    \\They received every man a penny.\\ More than most of them
 expected. God does not measure our reward by the length, but by
 the faithfulness of service.
 (PNT 109)
00659
 # Mt 20:11
    \\They murmured.\\ Those who had worked all day. Like the
 elder brother.
 # Lu 15:28-30
 (PNT 109)
00662
 # Mt 20:14
    \\Depart.\\ The householder gave these all he had agreed.
 They had no ground of complaint but envy.
 (PNT 109)
00663
 # Mt 20:15
    \\Is thy eye evil?\\ Envious.
 (PNT 109)
00664
 # Mt 20:16
    \\So, the last shall be first, and the first last.\\ A
 special lesson, first, to the Jews. They had been called first
 by God, but the Gentiles who heard the call should soon enjoy
 special privileges. They would even be first in the kingdom,
 because of their greater readiness to receive the gospel. Our
 duty in the vineyard is to go to work as soon as the Lord calls
 us, and to do what he tells us.
 (PNT 109-110)
00665
 # Mt 20:17
    \\Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples
 \\aside.\\ For six months, ever since the confession at Caesarea
 Philippi, the Lord had been trying to prepare the twelve for his
 death. Compare
 # Mr 10:32-52 Lu 18:31-43
 He was now east of the Jordan, on his way.
 (PNT 110)
00666
 # Mt 20:18
    \\Behold, we go up to Jerusalem.\\ They had gone to Jerusalem
 ofttimes before, but never on such a mournful errand.
    \\Shall be betrayed.\\ By Judas, who would lead the band sent
 by the Jewish rulers to seek him in the night.
    \\To the chief priests and to the scribes.\\ The Jewish
 Sanhedrin. It included both the leaders of the priesthood, the
 leading scribes, or doctors of the law, and others. The great
 council of the nation condemned Jesus to die. See
 # 26:59-66
 (PNT 110)
00667
 # Mt 20:19
    \\Shall deliver him to the Gentiles.\\ The Sanhedrin could
 condemn, but had no power to inflict capital punishment, because
 the government had passed into the hands of the Romans--a
 Gentile race.
    \\To mock, and to scourge.\\ For comment on these words, see
 # 27:26-31
    \\The third day.\\ This expression, which occurs often, shows
 the sense in which the Jews understood the corresponding phrase,
 "three days and three nights."
 (PNT 110)
00668
 # Mt 20:20
    \\Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children.\\
 Salome, the mother of the apostles James and John, and supposed
 by many to be the sister of the mother of Jesus. Compare
 # Mr 10:32-35 Lu 18:31-34
 (PNT 110)
00669
 # Mt 20:21
    \\What wilt thou?\\ We learn from Mark that they asked
 him to grant what they wished before they stated it, after the
 manner of Herod to the daughter of Herodias, but he forced them
 to state their ambitious desire. The mother speaks for them.
 # Mr 10:35
    \\That these my two sons may sit\\, etc. They still believed
 that he would be an earthly monarch, notwithstanding that he had
 just told them of his speedy death.
 (PNT 110)
00670
 # Mt 20:22
    \\Ye know not what ye ask.\\ This is an example of ignorant
 prayer. Within a month they would see the places on his right hand
 and left occupied by the two thieves in the crucifixion.
    \\Are ye able to drink of the cup?\\ The \\cup\\ is an OT image of
 a man's lot, or portion in life, which God pours out for him.
 Drinking the \\cup\\ signifies suffering voluntarily.
    \\Be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?\\ What he would
 endure at the hands of others.
    \\We are able.\\ They thought they were able. They loved their
 Lord, and desired to share his prominence.  In offering to share in
 his suffering, they overestimated their own spiritual strength.
 (PNT 110 edited)
00671
 # Mt 20:23
    \\Ye shall drink indeed of my cup.\\ They cannot do it now,
 but in due time they shall follow him; they shall rise to their
 calling, and bravely meet all its risks and hardships. See
 # Ac 12:1-2
    \\Is not mine to give.\\ The highest honours of his kingdom
 were not now to be disposed of by him to gratify the worldly
 ambition of any one.
    \\For whom it is prepared.\\ The Father had a plan in
 reference to the honours of the kingdom. The lowliest would be
 the loftiest. They who gave up most would get most.
 (PNT 111)
00672
 # Mt 20:24
    \\The ten . . . were moved with indignation.\\ The
 indignation of the "ten" displayed the same spirit and motive as
 the request of the sons of Zebedee. It is very common that in
 the very act of condemning our brethren we are guilty of the
 same or worse faults than those we condemn.
 (PNT 111)
00673
 # Mt 20:25
    \\Jesus called them [to him].\\ Evidently their indignation
 had been outspoken, but not in the immediate presence of the
 Lord.
    \\The princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion.\\ In order
 to present the contrast between the kingdom as it would be and
 as they expected it, he pointed out the nature of Gentile rule.
 The princes "lorded over" the people.
 (PNT 111)
00674
 # Mt 20:26
    \\It shall not be so among you.\\ No such lordship, no such
 authority, can be tolerated in your fraternity. The case is a
 rebuke of unhallowed ambition. Men prominent in the church
 should be the first to heed the admonition. Such priestly
 despotism as the absolute rule of the Catholic, Greek, and of
 some Protestant churches is at variance with this principle.
    \\Whoever will be great among you let him be your minister.\\
 Your "deacon," "servant." Greatness in the kingdom of heaven
 consists in doing, rather than in being, and in doing for
 others, rather than for self. Greatness is to be found in
 service. Only those men are truly great who are the servants of
 their race, helpers of mankind.
 (PNT 111)
00675
 # Mt 20:27
    \\Whoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.\\
 In the church, the greatest one is he who serves most and best.
 (PNT 111)
00676
 # Mt 20:28
    \\Give his life as a ransom.\\ Our Lord came to serve. He
 even gave his life. He became our ransom; that is, he redeemed
 us by his blood.
 (PNT 111)
00677
 # Mt 20:29
    \\As they departed from Jericho.\\ He had now crossed the
 Jordan. At Jericho he saved Zacchaeus. Compare
 # Mr 10:46-52 Lu 18:35-43
 Jericho stood a few miles from the southern ford of the Jordan,
 on the road to Jerusalem, which was about eighteen miles
 distant. He left Jericho for Jerusalem on Friday, just a week
 before his crucifixion.
 (PNT 111)
00678
 # Mt 20:30
    \\Two blind men.\\ Mark and Luke name only one, blind
 Bartimaeus, probably well known and hence named.
 # Mr 10:46 Lu 18:35
 (PNT 112)
00679
 # Mt 20:31
    \\Have mercy on us, O Lord, [thou] Son of David.\\ This was
 virtually acknowledging Jesus as the Christ, who was to be the
 Son of David.
 (PNT 112)
00680
 # Mt 20:32
    \\Jesus stood still.\\ He does not object now to this title.
 Compare
 # 9:27
 He is now about to proclaim himself the Messiah.
 (PNT 112)
00682
 # Mt 20:34
    \\Jesus . . . touched their eyes.\\ The faith of the blind
 men had saved them. Compare
 # Mr 10:52 Lu 18:42
 Faith saved. The blind Bartimaeus
 (1) asked about Jesus as he passed;
 (2) cried to him as the Son of David, the Messiah;
 (3) asked for mercy;
 (4) kept on crying when they tried to stop him;
 (5) when permitted, sprang up and hurried to Jesus;
 (6) asked of him to receive his sight.
 This is faith in action.
 (PNT 112)
00683
 # Mt 21:1
  SUMMARY OF MATTHEW 21
  \\Christ Entering Jerusalem\\

  The Lord Leaves Bethany to Enter Jerusalem
  The Charge to the Two Disciples
  The Fulfilment of Prophecy
  The Great Multitude Who Prepare the Way
  Hosanna to the Son of David
  Jesus Enters the Temple
  The Money-Changers Cast Out
  The Barren Fig Tree
  The Controversy with the Rulers
  John's Baptism
  The Parable of the Two Sons
  The Parable of the Vineyard and the Husbandmen
  The Stone That the Builders Rejected

    \\When they drew near to Jerusalem.\\ Jesus passed through
 Jericho, where be bestowed sight on Bartimaeus and salvation on
 Zacchaeus, came up the mountain pass from Jericho to Jerusalem,
 stopping over the Sabbath in the congenial home of Martha, Mary
 and Lazarus, in Bethany, and so on Sunday morning made his entry
 into Jerusalem. Compare
 # Mr 11:1-11 Lu 19:29-44 Joh 12:12-19
 As they drew nigh to Jerusalem they ascended the Mount of
 Olives. There were three paths over the Mount of Olives:
 (1) on the north, in the hollow between the two crests of the
     hill;
 (2) over the summit; and
 (3) on the south, between the Mount of Olives and the Hill of
     Offence--still the most frequented and the best.
 Along this Jesus advanced.
    \\To Bethphage.\\ Bethphage and Bethany were suburban
 villages near to one another, and lying on the direct line of
 road that led to Jerusalem from the east.
    \\Mount of Olives.\\ A hill just east of Jerusalem, so called
 from the olive trees upon it. It was about a mile from the city.
 It was their open ground--for pleasure, for worship; the "Park"
 of Jerusalem; the thoroughfare of any going or coming in the
 direction of the great Jordan valley.
 (PNT 112)
00684
 # Mt 21:2
    \\Into the village opposite you.\\ Bethphage is in view, over
 against them, perhaps separated from them by a valley.
    \\Ye shall find a donkey tied.\\ In the East the ass is in
 high esteem. Every Jew expected, from the words of one of the
 prophets, that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem riding on an
 ass.
 # Zec 9:9
 (PNT 113)
00685
 # Mt 21:3
    \\The Lord hath need of them.\\ It is probable that the owner
 was a disciple.
 (PNT 113)
00686
 # Mt 21:4-5
    \\That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the
 \\prophet.\\ See
 # Isa 62:11 Zec 9:9
 The prophet here describes him as riding upon one of the
 humblest of animals, and in the fulfilment we find,
 (1) that the animal was borrowed;
 (2) that he rode without a saddle on borrowed garments;
 (3) that it was a colt on which no man had ever before rode.
     Only animals hitherto unused were regarded fit for sacred
     uses. See
     # Nu 19:2 De 21:3 1Sa 6:7
 This is the only instance reported in which the Lord ever rode
 on any animal.
 (PNT 113)
00689
 # Mt 21:7
    \\They set [him] on it.\\ Hitherto he had entered the holy
 city on foot; this day he would enter as David and the judges of
 Israel were wont--riding on an ass.
 (PNT 113)
00690
 # Mt 21:8
    \\And a very great multitude spread their garments.\\ Vast
 multitudes were gathered at Jerusalem at the Passover. The Law
 required the assembling of the Jewish nation. Josephus says that
 several millions were wont to gather. Among these were thousands
 of Galilaeans who had heard of Jesus, seen his miracles, and
 believed in him as their Messiah King. When the people of
 Bethlehem, during the war between Turkey and Egypt in 1836,
 sought the protection of the British consul, they "spread their
 garments in the way" of his horses, in order to do him honour.
    \\Cut down branches from the trees.\\ John says that these
 were the branches of palm trees;
 # Joh 12:13
 rather, the wide, spreading, branch-like leaves of the palm
 tree, well fitted to form a soft, level carpet. The only
 branches of the palm tree are its leafy crown.
 (PNT 113)
00691
 # Mt 21:9
    \\Hosanna.\\ A Greek modification of the Hebrew words
 rendered, "Save now, I beseech thee," in Ps 118:25, the next
 verse of which formed part of their song, "Blessed," etc. It is
 used as an expression of praise, like "hallelujah."
    \\He that cometh in the name of the Lord.\\ The words are
 taken in part from Psalm 118, a hymn which belonged to the great
 hallelujah chanted at the end of the Paschal Supper and the
 Feast of Tabernacles. The people were accustomed to apply it to
 the Messiah.
 # Ps 118:25,26
 (PNT 113)
00692
 # Mt 21:10
    \\All the city was moved.\\ The procession burst into full
 view of Jerusalem as it appeared on the Mount of Olives, 200
 feet higher than the temple mount. There, as the city appeared
 in all its splendour, according to Luke, he stopped and wept over
 its coming sorrows.
 # Lu 19:41-44
 As the procession descended, it was in plain view of all
 Jerusalem, and its magnitude, shouts and songs excited the
 wonder of the whole city.
 (PNT 114)
00693
 # Mt 21:11
    \\Jesus the prophet of Nazareth.\\ The inquiry arose
 everywhere, "Who is this?" to which the Galilaeans who composed
 so large a part of the procession, responded: "It is Jesus, the
 prophet of Nazareth, of Galilee." Of this they were sure; of his
 real character none but his own disciples knew, and they
 imperfectly. The Galilaeans regarded him the prophet named by
 Moses in
 # De 18:18
 (PNT 114)
00694
 # Mt 21:12
    \\And Jesus went into the temple.\\ According to Mark, on
 this day, after the triumphal entry, he entered the temple,
 looked around, perhaps to note the abuses, and then at eventide
 went out to Bethany.
 # Mr 11:11
 The next day, returning, he again entered the temple, and
 wrought the cleansing that is here recorded. He went into the
 temple, not as a worshipper, but as its Lord.
    \\Cast out all them.\\ This casting of the traders out of the
 temple is not to be confounded with that recorded in John, at
 the commencement of Christ's ministry.
 See note on "Joh 2:13"
 See note on "Joh 2:14"
 See note on "Joh 2:15"
 See note on "Joh 2:16"
 See note on "Joh 2:17"
    \\Them that sold and bought in the temple.\\ A Market was
 held there for the sale of animals and those things necessary
 for the temple service. Not the less a desecration because so
 great a convenience. The part of the temple occupied by the
 traders was not in the temple proper, but the Court of the
 Gentiles. In the accompanying plan of the temple, the open space
 next to the outer walls is the court.
    \\Tables of the moneychangers.\\ Money would be required,
 (1) to purchase materials for the offerings;
 (2) to present as free-offerings to the temple treasury;
     # Mr 12:41 Lu 21:1
 (3) to pay the yearly temple tax of half a shekel due from
     every Jew, however poor.
 All this had to be paid in native coin called the temple shekel,
 which was not generally current. Strangers, therefore, had to
 change their Roman, Greek, or Eastern money, at the stalls of
 the money-changers, to obtain the coin required. This trade gave
 ready means for fraud, which was only too common. Christ's act
 was a defiance to those who sought his death.
    \\Of them that sold doves.\\ Required for poor women coming
 for purification from all parts of the country, and for other
 offerings.
 # Le 12:6,8 Lu 2:24
 (PNT 114)
00695
 # Mt 21:13
    \\It is written.\\ In
 # Isa 56:7
    \\A house of prayer.\\ A place of sacred worship.
    \\A den of thieves.\\ A cave or den of robbers. The language
 indicates that it was a corrupt and fraudulent traffic, which a
 corrupt and fraudulent priesthood had permitted to encroach on
 the worship of God. It is a desecration of religious
 institutions to use them for worldly gain.
 (PNT 115)
00697
 # Mt 21:15
    \\Chief priests and scribes . . . were greatly displeased.\\
 These inveterate enemies were displeased, not only at the
 authority he had assumed over the temple, but at the
 acclamations of approval, the cries of the children, and the
 evident favour of the people.
 (PNT 115)
00698
 # Mt 21:16
    \\Hearest thou what these say?\\ Christ's answer to the
 priests is a rebuke to all who would check religious enthusiasm
 on the part of children. The quotation is from
 # Ps 8:2
 The praise of the innocent child is the perfection of praise.
 (PNT 115)
00699
 # Mt 21:17
    \\Went out of the city into Bethany.\\ Two miles east of
 Jerusalem. During the eventful week, he seems to have passed his
 nights, until Thursday, at the congenial home of Lazarus.
 (PNT 115)