Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to the YA Podcast. Lean in as we dive into the practicals of life with Jesus as spirit filled young adults.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: Well, hello everyone.
Welcome back to the YA Podcast. I'm back. It's Kelsey. It's my first episode back for this season. A lot has happened. Had a whole baby, been a whole mother. It's been a good time and I'm really happy to be back with you guys. This season so far has been amazing. You've got to hear some from some really phenomenal people about a lot of really important things as we're talking through Matthew and the kingdom. And this episode's coming at a great time because we're in Holy Week as we're recording this right now and we're talking through Matthew 21 to 25. And I have a very special lady with me today to help me record this podcast and her name is Amy Mioni. Do you want to say hi to the people? Hello, everyone you see busting out of your skin. Do you want to say hi?
[00:01:16] Speaker A: Just waiting to say hello. Hello. How are you to be here?
[00:01:20] Speaker B: It's good to have you fun.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: I'm always up for a yap with Mrs. Kelsey McDonald.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: Amy is someone that is very well loved in our young adult community. She's been around forever and ever and ever. And actually you were the first person I ever went for coffee with when I came to Melbourne. So I'm very thankful for you.
[00:01:37] Speaker A: Shout out to Maker.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Yes. Come on now. We love makeup, but you are very well loved in our young adult community and you are a woman of wisdom and you are someone that is, yeah, a voice of wisdom. And I know that as we talk today, it's going to bless the people's ears and their hearts and their spirits. So I reckon we should just get straight into it.
As I said before, Matthew 21:25, and really the overarching topic we're talking about today is the coming kingdom. And we see in Matthew 21, sort of this beginning of the momentum of the things that are about to take place.
We.
I feel like we should just go for it. We're talking about the triumphal entry and anyone who wasn't here over the weekend just gone. Pastor Joel and Pastor Thomas both brought incredible messages about this, so go and utilize those resources.
This is happening on what we call Pub Sunday and it's a few days before Good Friday, then Resurrection Sunday. So, Amy, do you want to just give us a little bit of context about what's happening here, what you're observing out of this, this part of the scripture.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: Yeah, 100%. This is such a cool part, because we are really picking up as we're coming to this big moment where we see the two kingdoms, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Earth, almost come into this moment of where it's like, all right, there's going to be one victorious kingdom. Who's it going to be? Obviously, we know the answer, but we pick up in the triumphal entry. And this is where Jesus is actually coming back into Jerusalem. He's coming down from the Mount of Olives, which there's so much historical context. That's why you've got to go listen to those sermons. But he's coming in, and there's almost like this processional greeting of him, and people are throwing down palm trees, laying clothes on the road. He's riding in on a donkey. And really, there's just this moment where people are shouting out hosanna, which means save now. It actually is something that is, in the psalms, previously used, that word is something that you can look up, but it is this moment where people are just like, save us now. You are our king, almost. They're shouting, hosanna, Hosanna. And at the very same time, there is another entry happening in a different part of the city where actually Pilate is entering, and he's not entering on a donkey like Jesus is, but he is entering on a war horse. And this is where you see this moment where you have this, okay, you've got a guy who's entering on a donkey and a guy entering on a warhorse. The Jewish readers, which we know, as we talked about in different podcasts, that Matthew is written to a Jewish audience, they're expecting, like, a war horse moment. They're waiting for someone to write in and save the day.
[00:04:36] Speaker B: And you even see that in the way that Jesus almost, like, handles so many of the moments up until this point of him, you know, not wanting people to talk about the miracles that are happening because he wants to almost, like, guard the ministry that he's doing to ensure that people don't get this, like, wrong idea in their head. Almost.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: No, exactly. I'm just even blown away. The.
The reason Jesus comes in on donkeys, obviously, to fulfill the prophecy from Zechariah 9, verse 9. But he is doing this, and there's a group of people who are recognizing, like, oh, wait, this is what was written about. And I. I love that, because the way Matthew records it, he's recognizing that this audience knows the scripture, so he pops it in there for us. So Then we know. But there's a whole lot of context where there's a moment people are recognizing, oh, wait, I think this might be it. And there's this hope and expectancy that's stirring up in the city, I suppose.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: Did you want to speak to why Pilate's coming in at the same time as Jesus is coming in?
[00:05:41] Speaker A: I'll let you take that.
[00:05:42] Speaker B: I can talk a little bit into that again. Go and listen to Tom's podcast. He explains it so much better than we will. But the reason that Pilate is coming. So Pilate essentially had this responsibility to ensure that there was peace in the nations.
And he's essentially hearing of this uprising that's coming as Jesus is coming in. And while we read this and we go like, hosanna. Hosanna. And you would imagine this to be this incredible, like, magnificent moment, which I do believe it would have been. But from Pilate's perspective, he saw this as a rebellion.
[00:06:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: And part of the reason why Pilate's coming in at the same time and there's this, I guess, battle almost starting to form between the two sides, is because he's coming to, he would say to maintain peace, but to an extent, I guess it would almost be to shut down what Jesus is trying to do.
And you see, just all through this scripture, I'm starting to see this confrontation of the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of earth, and there's almost this desire of Pilate to want to arrest Jesus because they're confronted by what he's trying to do. And they're trying to maintain the social hierarchies. They're trying to maintain the political hierarchies. They're trying to maintain the norm that has been lived for so long, even though the people are so desperate for this coming Messiah that they've read about in scriptures, it's almost like they want to keep things all in order. And now this Jesus is coming to confront that. And actually, like, this is just what I keep seeing through this scripture is this confrontation of Jesus. Yeah. And while he is a humble servant who comes on a donkey, while there is this political, like, coming from the other side on a war horse, this power, this power and oppression and this status and authority that Pilate is carrying. And we're seeing Jesus on this humble donkey.
It's almost like the visual is of humility, and his heart is humility. But also at the same time, Jesus is so confrontational and so offensive and so, you know, justice driven that he wants to see his kingdom come. And his will be done, that he's not afraid to start to oppose and to confront the views that have stood for so long. Because really, we're in this final moments before he goes to the cross. And so he's trying to really speak his mind before he goes, you know what I mean?
And, yeah, I guess I almost see this triumphal entry passage start to lead us into the continued discussion. We see through Matthew 22, Matthew 23, 24 and 25, where this same posture of confrontation that Jesus has is starting to, I guess, trickle into the conversations he's having.
[00:08:34] Speaker A: Definitely.
[00:08:34] Speaker B: And we see the conversations he's having with the religious elite, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and they're almost kind of going, well, what about this? And what about this thing? And, well, we've always done it like this and what about that? And Jesus just always has the comebacks, man. He does. Jesus has an answer for everything.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: It's a master class in confrontation, literally.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: But he's almost in the same way that as he enters in down the Mount of Olives and there's this moment of realization of the kingdom that is coming, as he confronts the Pharisees and Sadducees, he is drawing them away or almost rebuking them from the religious doctrines and the wrong mindsets that they've been in for so long. And he's actually starting to paint this new establishment of the kingdom that's coming.
And he's, I guess, almost like putting things back in their right order because he actually doesn't discount every single thing that the Pharisees and Sadducees say. No, and we see this in Matthew 23 in one of the woes to the Pharisees and Sadducees he's talking about.
Yeah, about in verse 23, you tithe meant dealing human and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the elders. So he's not actually saying. He's actually reaffirming the tithe there. And he's saying, don't stop tithing. Like that's important.
But you have nitpicked and you've been so particular about this one part of the law that you've actually neglected the weightier matters of justice, mercy and faithfulness. And we see him use this analogy of straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. And really what he's saying here is you've focus so closely on the tiny little details that you've actually missed the Greater, I guess, like matter of what God's kingdom is supposed to represent.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:33] Speaker B: Did you have anything you wanted to say on that?
[00:10:35] Speaker A: I love all of that because I think it. Even bringing it to us in the sense of we quite often can go through all the motions, we can do all the right things, we can even be talking about the Lord during our everyday life, but yet we can miss him so easily.
[00:10:55] Speaker B: So true.
[00:10:56] Speaker A: So, so easily. And the Lord uses quite strong language when he's talking to the Pharisees and the religious leaders. He. He calls them hypocrites. He literally is pointing out, like, guys, you are saying a thing, you're doing the thing. But, like, your heart is so far, you're missing it. You're pretty much even the. The fig tree, the. That he. He speaks to. And pretty much it withers up. And disciples are like, what's with that? That is a moment where he saw that fig tree and it was producing leaves that we're told those leaves meant the fruit should actually be on the tree. There actually should be something to show when those leaves are there. So when Jesus got to this victory, he's like, whoa, you were showing me that you had fruit on it from a distance. But I get close to you and I realize that you're really not fruitful at all. And that's shown again in the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and even in our lives, it's like we can display, like, yes, I'm a Christian. I'm doing the right things. I'm even reading my Bible, and we can still be lacking fruit.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Every time I read that, I'm like, oh, okay.
[00:12:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And I feel like there's almost again, like, it's touched on so much through the Gospels. It's really essentially the entire ministry that Jesus is coming to bring. But I feel like there's even almost this kind of like, re. Establishment that the kingdom of heaven. And talks about this in John 4 with the woman at the well. I think it's John 4, the woman of the well. Anyway, you guys know the scripture. You guys know the scripture when he's saying, because she's going, well, I can't get to the temple. I can't go to worship. And he's going, well, that's okay. Because the kingdom I'm coming to establish, God's looking for people who are willing to worship in spirit and truth. There's this almost like re establishing of the kingdom that it's not something that we see in the temple per se. The temple's important. Church is important, but it's not something that we're going to look to the religious elite to be carrying, but it's actually something that the Lord redistributes amongst all his sons and daughters.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: That's it.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: And it's something that he desires to see his kingdom advance through the hearts of his children. And even we can read in the scripture earlier that talks about the coin of Caesar.
[00:13:20] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: And Jesus is saying, render to Caesar what is Caesar's? And render to God. What is God? What is he saying that he's saying what Caesar's. He can have.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:13:30] Speaker B: What's God's. What is God actually desiring to have obtained? Again, he's wanting his children back. He is. He's wanting to be reconciled to his children. And that's literally the entire point of his kingdom coming, is that. And he says it. What is the greatest commandment? To love the Lord your God, and then to love others. He's coming to establish his kingdom by reconciling himself to his children first and foremost. And then as they begin the journey of becoming more Christlike and actually being continually reconciled to him in their hearts, then we start to overflow into love for one another. That then. That is actually the advancement of his kingdom. And so coming back to this idea of, you know, straining the gnat and swallowing the camel, he's essentially saying to the Pharisees and Sadducees, you're focusing so much on these tiny details that you're missing the greater thing, which is to love God and to love others.
[00:14:25] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: And that you should show that through justice and mercy and faithfulness. And we see, you know, those same themes start to carry through the rest of these scriptures through 24 and 25.
And he even talks about this analogy of the men and women who are working and one man will enter into the kingdom of heaven and one won't. One woman might enter into the kingdom. Kingdom of heaven, and one won't. And when I read this, I almost. It's the reminder again that it's not what we see with our visual, with our own eyes that actually determines what will enter into the kingdom and what won't.
[00:14:58] Speaker A: Exactly. Y.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: Because you could come to church on a Sunday and you could see someone up on platform, you could see someone preaching, you could see someone, you know, even the people that we look up to and we honor as our pastors and our leaders, but we don't know what's happening behind the scenes.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:13] Speaker B: And that's a really hard thing to. I Guess reconcile in our heart. Sometimes it's like, well, how could these people that we trust sometimes do things that aren't actually in alignment with the word of God? But there's this reminder here that that is not ours to hold on someone else's behalf. But actually our job is our responsibility to steward what the Lord's asking us to carry.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:37] Speaker B: And to be accountable. Accountable in our own hearts of. Well, I know my heart is right before the Lord.
You know what I mean? Like, I feel like it's. Yeah, it's this reframing and this refocusing of. And almost this dispersion of the kingdom of heaven, that it's not just in this central place with the religious elite, but it's actually something that we all hold the responsibility to carry into every facet and every space and place in our life.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think as you're speaking about that, I'm thinking through Matthew 24, and Jesus is really talking about the destruction of the temple, the great tribulation, all different things. All things that are fun and a bit scary to read sometimes. But when you really go through it, he's talking about an element of like, hey, guys, the world's going to get a bit crazy.
It's going to get a bit wild for a while. But I've noticed the priests aren't really doing their job or the religious leaders aren't really doing their job too well. And he almost is just kind of exhorting the disciples because it's the disciples who actually asked him the question. Let me find it in verse three of Matthew 24, he. They say now, as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. So it's definitely to the disciples saying, tell us, when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? So Jesus is addressing the disciples, talking about the end of the age, destruction of the temple, his coming, all the sorts of things. And he's really telling them, guys, I want you to be ready, be prepared.
The priests aren't doing what they're meant to be doing, but actually it's not just their job. I want you to do it too.
[00:17:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: I want you to persevere. I want you to take care of the oppressed and the people he need, who need help. Take care of my people. Because that was a priest's job actually was to take care of God's people and do a lot of the things and minister to the Lord. And that's actually something that's been given to us.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: We.
[00:17:47] Speaker A: It's like they stewarded the presence of God, and that was their role. But with Jesus coming, the role of steward in the presence of God now became ours.
[00:17:58] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:17:58] Speaker A: All of ours. And in chapter 25, he then goes on to tell a few parables which are really, you've got the parable of the 10 virgins, and that's like, be prepared, be ready, but then you've got the talents parable. And that kind of. When you were talking about, can you. Yeah. It's. You're meant to steward what is given to you. It's not up to you to steward what is given to someone else. And I'm so reminded of that parable, because even if you're given five, if you're given two, if you're given one, steward what you have, look after what you have. And I think that emphasizes what you were saying just before.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: Yeah. And I feel like I almost see that parable as an encouragement as well. Because, you know, even in our modern context and some of the conversations we have, even around, like, evangelism and what does it mean to fulfill the Great Commission and all of these sorts of things, I see the encouragement in this of.
I guess there's. You could almost compare the parable of the talents and the parable of the minners.
[00:19:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:06] Speaker B: When we read the parable of the Minners, the emphasis of that parable is, we have all been given the gospel and we all have equal access to the gospel to share.
[00:19:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:16] Speaker B: And so what are you going to do with it? Whereas the parable of the talents is more. The emphasis is on, yes, we all have the same gospel to share, and we have the same access to the advancement of the kingdom. But there is different measures apportioned to different people in the mission that you are responsible for in your particular sphere of life.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: Definitely.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: And so I see the encouragement in that of, you know, I'm not a bad Christian if I'm not bringing 10 people to the Lord every day and standing out on the street corner preaching the gospel or running rallies like Tim hall and seeing thousands of people saved. Because that might not be my mission.
[00:19:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:52] Speaker B: My mission might be to take the gospel to my local barista.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: Or, you know, my life group and inviting people to life group or uni or work or whatever that is. That God has us in particular places so that we can be the advancement of the gospel in those places.
[00:20:08] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:20:09] Speaker B: And my mission is going to look different to your mission. My people are going to look different to Your people. But the question that the Lord is going to be asking me when I come home is, did you steward what I have entrusted to you? Well, yeah, and I feel like that's the question we can almost leave this on now and think about and ponder for the week, is what is the Lord asking me to steward? Actually, first of all, the first question, where have I allowed myself to get tied up in the minor details? Church life, personal life, reading the Word, all the things that we can sometimes get tied down in. Where am I focusing more on those things than the greater, wider call of the kingdom of God, which is to love God with all our heart and to love others? The second question being, what does the Lord ask me to steward? Yeah, who are the people? Who are the places?
What are the, you know, intercessory prayers I need to be praying? Who are the people I need to be comforting, talking to? Who do I need to be ministering to that I know the Lord has placed in my world so that I can advance the kingdom into that place?
[00:21:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:16] Speaker B: And actually, yeah, let's reflect on that this week and see how we can be greater carriers of the kingdom of God into the places that he's entrusting to us. Did you have anything else you wanted to add?
[00:21:26] Speaker A: I think the only thing I'll add to that, because I think that is very much the question to. Or the two questions to come out of this scripture with. But I think it's just a healthy little reminder that, yes, we may all have different. Different portions given to us, I suppose, but we're all sons and daughters. Yes, we all literally come from the same place, the same value when the Lord looks at us. And right now you're in motherhood, I'm in the workplace. Different spaces, different things. But when God looks at us, he sees a son or a daughter. In our case, a daughter and a daughter. But there's just so much love in the Lord's eyes for each one of us. And when you're contemplating this week on different things that maybe the Lord has given you that might be different from other people, just remind yourself that he looks at you the same way as he looks at the person. And we don't have to have this competition sometimes that we have. I think the Lord is doing a beautiful work in removing a bit of competition from us at the moment, which is so kind of him to do. Yeah.
[00:22:37] Speaker B: I literally said to Tom the other day, I feel like something is happening in the church, the big C church, at the moment of just truly what we've been talking about for the last 20 minutes. This returning to first love.
[00:22:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:53] Speaker B: This returning to the simple gospel.
[00:22:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:57] Speaker B: And there's just this authenticity and this, I guess, beauty of the simplicity of what's happening.
[00:23:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:05] Speaker B: And so many people are getting saved. I said to Tom, if there's any time to get saved, it is now. Because the Lord is just doing such a beautiful work. And I love that we get to have these sorts of conversations because, honestly, there's so many things that, you know, I grew up in beautiful church environments, but this. I feel like there was still things over the last, you know, 10, 20 years where we've seen performance paradigms and we've seen, you know, this desire for hype and this desire for numbers and big, mega churches and all of these things that, in all honesty, have meant that I've had to work through some stuff.
[00:23:43] Speaker A: Same here.
[00:23:44] Speaker B: And I'm just like, man, to think, you know, we're all fleshy. Right. There's always going to be things to work on. So fleshy. But my hope and prayer is that as we come back to this revelation that the church would continually be purified, that as new disciples come into the house, it's like my hope and prayer is that my kids never have to wonder about this performance paradigm.
[00:24:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: Because they haven't seen it. Because there's just this purification of the church happening that it's not even something they have to think about. And as new disciples come into the house, my prayer is that they just know this. This greatest commandment that the Lord gives to us. That we would love him first and foremost and we would love others, and that that would actually be how we see the kingdom advance.
That is my prayer.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:24:29] Speaker B: Yeah. That's my prayer for my life. That's my prayer for our church and our young adults.
And, yeah, we hope this episode has blessed you. So fun to be back. I've had such a good time.
[00:24:41] Speaker A: So good.
[00:24:43] Speaker B: Yeah. I pray that this has been helpful for you guys and that you have a bit to think about.
Thank you for joining me, Amy. It was always pleasure.
[00:24:51] Speaker A: Thank you for letting me chat with you.
[00:24:53] Speaker B: Of course. And I love you all and see you very, very soon.
[00:24:57] Speaker A: Bye, guys.
