The Gospel Age Began Before Jesus’ Death & Resurrection - David Bercot

I've heard so much from evangelical Christians that the Gospel age did not begin until Jesus died on the cross. And then with His death and resurrection, now you have the Gospel age; the rest is the Old Testament. Now they say that so they can totally rule out all of Jesus' teaching. So everything He said before He died, which is, you know, 99% of His teaching, including the Sermon on the Mount—oh, all of that, that doesn't apply to Christians. That's of a different era. That's either Old Testament teaching or it's going to be in the future in the Kingdom Age, but it doesn't apply to Christians today. I mean, I've heard that a lot, but no, Jesus said.

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All right, so we're going to continue going through the Historic Faith Commentary series on Matthew. And today we're in chapter 11. Now, I'm not going to be going through the whole thing because we're going to spend about a half hour. I thought it would be most helpful to hit maybe some of the things that have puzzled Christians. I can say personally puzzled me for years and years. And the first one is concerning John the Baptist. I'll just read to you. This is Matthew 11:2-3. It says, "Now when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples who said to him, 'Are you he who is to come, or should we look for another?'" Now, for years, I know when I was growing up, I was always told, "Well, see, John the Baptist was having doubts.

You know, when he was there in prison, he wasn't quite sure. Is this really the Messiah or is there somebody else?" And that's—I don't think I ever heard anything different than that until I was reading what the early Christians said about this passage. And it was like, you know, they were looking at it as like, "No way was John the Baptist having doubts at the 11th hour."

The issue wasn't John the Baptist who had doubts; it was his disciples. They're the ones who had these big doubts about Jesus Christ. And in fact, when you think about it for a moment, why on earth were there still disciples of John the Baptist at this point?

He had encouraged them to go over to Jesus. He had pointed to Jesus. And yet he still had these hanger-ons. He's in prison. Jesus is the one out ministering. And I think his disciples were doing baptizing and stuff. And so here's this small group of people who know we're still attached to John. So John sent them not because John was wondering, but because his disciples were not yet ready to embrace Jesus Christ. And they needed to. I mean, you know, he probably knew his time was very limited here on the earth.

So the question was for the purpose of his disciples that they would hear the answer. Also, perhaps for Jewish people in general, and particularly the religious rulers, the scribes and Pharisees who had not embraced Christ at all.

And you know, the early Christians point out some of the things that should have made it obvious to all of us, explaining that this isn't John asking this question. Okay, first of all, before he was even born, when he was still an unborn baby in his mother's womb, he leapt, you know, in the womb just when Jesus, still in the womb himself, comes in the room. So here's the guy who was able to identify the Messiah when he was still a fetus before he was even born. And then he had all of these revelations, these direct testimonies from God telling him, "Okay, when you see the Spirit descending on this man as a dove, then he's the one."

And John gave witness to that. And all of this was before Jesus had performed a single miracle, had done anything to even make someone think that he was the Messiah. John was the very first one to identify him. "Look, this is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." The one telling his disciples, "I must go on decreasing. He must go on increasing."

When people came to him and said, "Are you the Christ?" His answer was, "I am not the Christ, but I was sent before him. He that has the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, my joy is fulfilled." So he had no doubts. He knew his role. "I'm a friend of the bridegroom, and Christ is the one who's the bridegroom." Even more during that same passage when he was explaining to his disciples, he said this. He says, "I mean, and this is before anyone had any concept of even there being a Son of God, of Jesus being the Messiah or anything else."

He said, "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand." This is John the Baptist saying this. "He who believes on the Son has everlasting life. But he that does not believe on the Son shall not see life, for the wrath of God remains on him." I'm reading from John chapter 3. So he had all this revelation. He knew that he was not only the Messiah, that he was the Son of God, that believing in him, a person could have eternal life. So with all that revelation, it would be absurd. I mean, it would be one of the greatest spiritual defeats if after he has proved faithful and boldly witnessed to the scribes and Pharisees denouncing them, boldly witnessing to Herod denouncing his marriage, oh, then now at the final hour, he starts wavering as like, "Are you really the Messiah?"

I mean, it's just absurd. No, he was asking the question so his disciples could learn. In fact, Jesus gave him this answer. He said, "Go and tell John those things that you hear and see." Okay? In other words, he's telling these disciples, "What are you seeing and hearing? The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." So these disciples of John had witnessed all these things. They were there in the crowd, and they come and ask him this. So yeah, John believed before he saw any miracles. Before he even saw Jesus, he believed in him. So yeah, John isn't wondering; it's these disciples who needed to see all these miracles and to think about it.

And also the Jews. He was saying this for the benefit of the Jews who were still—those Jews who were still undecided, which was the majority of them. They saw the miracles. They saw that he was a prophet, but they weren't ready to accept him yet as the Messiah.

So I mean, the miracles that he talked about, I mean, in like probably the first month of his ministry, he did more miracles than all of the Old Testament prophets combined, including Moses. I mean, that would have been just in the first month, maybe just the first week. I mean, during his lifetime, like I say, you could add up all the miracles in the Old Testament put together. And Jesus performed—I mean, he performed so many that often it's just listed. He healed, you know, multitudes. The crowds came, and he healed them all, and that sort of thing. And you can't even count how many people he cleansed from leprosy, how many blind people he gave sight to, and the deaf, and those sort of things.

So the disciples needed to see these miracles and believe for themselves. And he ends by saying, "And blessed is he who is not offended by me." Now, surely that's not a reference to John. Was John ever offended by Jesus? Was he ever in any way jealous? Not in the least. As I said, he pointed his disciples to go to Jesus. He said, "You know, I have to—I'm going to decrease. He's going to increase." Not the least bit of jealousy there or offense. But his disciples took great offense. They wanted to stick with John for whatever misdirected reason, and they didn't want to move on to Jesus. So they're the ones who were taking offense. And of course, the scribes and Pharisees were taking offense as well.

Okay, so then these disciples of John, they leave. And then after they leave, Jesus says this. It says, "As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John, 'What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?'" So Chrysostom points out he waits until the disciples leave because if he said all of these complimentary things—and he's going to go on and say more wonderful things about John the Baptist than were ever said about anybody up to that point.

And if he said it to those disciples of John and starts bragging about John, it might appear that he's saying this so they'll go back and say, "Jesus is saying all these nice things about you because, you know, John's faith needed to be built up or something." So to make it clear, I'm not saying this because John needs to hear this. He waits until John's disciples leave, and then he tells the crowd how great John was in case—because of their witnessing, his disciples asking this question—in case they were wondering, "Is John now wavering at the last moment?"

And he says, "Yeah, what did you go out to see? A reed shaken by the wind?" He says, "He doesn't answer it, but it's implied, no. But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? No, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses." So probably most of those people had gone down and listened to John preach and had been baptized by him. And he said, "So what did you go out to see?" Well, they saw this fearless prophet who, like I say, was willing to stand up to the scribes and Pharisees. I mean, he was a bold man. Did you see a reed shaking in the wind? In other words, did you see this cowardly person who would wishy-washy, who later is going to have doubts?

In other words, he's wanting to make it clear. Look, the problem isn't John. He's not having doubts. I mean, was he a reed shaking in the wind? No. I mean, he was this fearless, bold man. So yeah, don't you be thinking John is the one having the problem. It's his disciples.

And he says, "But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet, for this is he of whom it is written, 'Behold, I send my messenger or angel before your face who will prepare your way before you.'" So he's saying you went out to see a prophet like Elijah or Isaiah, these fearless prophets of old. But he said he's more than a prophet. He's the one who was foretold in Malachi of the messenger who would prepare the way for the Messiah. So this is far above the Old Testament prophets. In fact, I mean, they prophesied about Christ, but John prepared the way for Jesus and pointed him out when he came.

Furthermore, John was the only prophet who was—not counting the apostles—the only prophet who was actually foretold in the Bible. His coming was foretold there in the book of Malachi. So yeah, he was head and shoulders above the prophets. So yeah, he's telling the crowd, "Don't you imagine that he's having doubts at the last moment. No, he's going to be faithful until the very end."

And he said, "Truly, I say to you, among those born of women, there has not arisen one greater than John the Baptist." Can you imagine hearing those words from Jesus that the crowd heard? Nobody greater than John the Baptist. I mean, that means Abraham, who the Jews looked up to as their father, Moses, who was their great lawgiver, who was the one who God used to bring on the ten plagues on Israel, who God used to separate the Red Sea, and all of these other miracles that either John is greater than them or at least he is as great.

Or Elijah and Elisha, all the miracles they performed. Daniel, look at the godly man Daniel and all the things that he saw and all that. But he says, "John, no one born of woman, that is, any human, is greater than John the Baptist." I mean, he got supernatural revelations, like I say, when he was still in the womb. So yeah, Jesus is—we shouldn't—and like I say, we shouldn't have any doubts about John. And yeah, I'm amazed when I look back, you know, once the early Christians helped me to see the truth, it's like, "Wow, I'm surprised. I never questioned this." But this is what I was told, like I say, from the time I was a boy.

You know, I remember hearing one of the ministers say, "You know, even John the Baptist, he had his doubts, you know, there at the end." And okay, I just accepted that and never once questioned it, although it seemed to me a little surprising.

Now, this next one, though, is a little bit more puzzling. "Nevertheless," Jesus said, "He who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." Now, what does that mean? The early Christians were not sure. I mean, on a lot of things, like on the fact that it isn't John doubting, they're uniform. They all say the same thing. But there are always passages that just weren't clear, and so you get different views. So I found three different views, and I think all of them are plausible. One of them is Jesus is saying that anyone still living on earth, John the Baptist was still living at that moment, that anyone who's gone on to their reward, who is in paradise, is greater because they can't stumble.

In other words, any possibility of stumbling is behind them. While you're still here on the earth, until you die, it's always possible you could stumble at the last moment. Probably not likely if you've been faithful your whole life and you're near the end of your life, but it's possible. But certainly for all of those, you know, people in the prime of their life, yeah, anyone who has gone on is already in paradise, they're greater because they cannot fail at this moment. They cannot sin, but we can. So that's one meeting. That seems to be the predominant view. But then another view is that he was talking about the angels, that the least being in heaven, in the kingdom of heaven, is greater than anyone here on the earth.

You know, man was made lower than the angels so that the angels are greater than any of us here on the earth. Now, the time will come when we will judge angels, not all the angels, but at least some of them, but that's not while we are here on the earth. So that's another possibility. A third one that I think is also very plausible, Chrysostom mentions it, and that is he may have been referring to his apostles because we're in the kingdom of heaven now. I mean, in one sense, we inherit the kingdom of heaven after we've died and after judgment day. So there's kind of two phases. But then in another sense, we enter the kingdom of God once we're baptized right now on the earth.

We're citizens of the kingdom. We're in it now. So one possibility is that he's talking about the apostles, that the least of these apostles of the 12 would be greater than John the Baptist, or at least the least of the faithful ones, not counting Judas. And I think that's possible too, that all 12 of the apostles, the faithful ones, counting now Matthias, that they are greater than John the Baptist because the church was built on them. In Revelation, it talks about the 12 foundation stones being the 12 apostles. So that's another, I think, possibility there of what he means by that. Now, during the Reformation, they started teaching that all Christians are greater than anyone who lived before Christ because, you know, we have the new birth and that.

And that's what, again, I was taught when I was a boy, that Christians are going to be greater now, which means we're going to be greater in the kingdom of heaven, that we're going to have a greater standing than Abraham and Isaiah and all of these people. The early Christians did not believe that, and I realize now that that can't be right. That would be so unjust that just because of chronology, that we happen to be born after Jesus came, that we have a greater standing in eternity than faithful men and women of old, who many of them died as martyrs and who went through all kinds of trials on behalf of God and proved faithful.

And we're going to be greater than them just because we happen to be born, you know, in 2021 or whatever, you know, 1950. And so we're greater. So I don't think that's a very plausible explanation, but like I say, that's the common one that is out there in many commentaries and is what I grew up with.

Okay, now this is, I think, in the same speech, but we're moving on to a little bit different subject. And that's the verse of Matthew 11:12, another one that my whole life, until I read the early Christians, I didn't know what this was talking about. "And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force." I mean, just reading that, it's like, what? Who's assaulting the kingdom of heaven and taking it by force? Well, the early Christians are pretty uniform in what this is talking about, what Jesus means. The violent are those of us, you know, Jesus said, "Strive to enter in through the narrow gate."

So we are the violent, those of us who strive after the kingdom, who persevere in fervent prayer. The kingdom of heaven isn't for the sluggered. It's not for the people who want easy believism. And of course, there's all these people who've embraced easy believism who think, "Yeah, I'm going to be in heaven the minute I die." And it's like, for most of them, probably they aren't. I'm not judging who is and who isn't. But there's so many carnal Christians, quote Christians or whatever, who, yeah, are convinced, "I know I'm going straight to heaven because I said this prayer and invited Jesus in my heart." And they aren't the ones at all who Jesus said are going to inherit the kingdom.

So he's using, again, kind of a metaphor talking about the violence since his gospel is a gospel of peace, a gospel of non-violence, that there is a kind of violence that God wants us to be fervent in prayer. He wants us to grab hold of the kingdom and whatever we have to forsake, even if it's family members, we do that to grab hold of Christ and to embrace the kingdom.

Okay, moving on, and this is still in the same discussion to the crowd there. Jesus said, "For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John." And again, he's pointing out how important John was. So the Old Testament period ended with John. The law and the prophets, they prophesied until John. After that, Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is preached." So the kingdom age began. John is sort of the bridge. He's the last Old Testament prophet, but he's also the first prophet of the kingdom of God. He pointed to the kingdom of God and preached the kingdom of God. So he's sort of in the middle. He's the bridge between the Old Testament and the new, which again shows what a great place he plays in the history of Christianity and the history of the kingdom of God.

But what is important in this passage, why I wanted to briefly mention it today, is I've heard so much from evangelical Christians that the gospel age did not begin until Jesus died on the cross. And then with his death and resurrection, now you have the gospel age. The rest is the Old Testament. Now they say that so they can totally rule out all of Jesus' teaching. So everything he said before he died, which is, you know, 99% of his teaching, including the Sermon on the Mount, oh, all of that, that doesn't apply to Christians. That's of a different era. That's either Old Testament teaching or it's going to be in the future in the kingdom age, but it doesn't apply to Christians today.

I mean, I've heard that a lot. But no, Jesus said the law and the prophets were until John, and since then, the kingdom of God is preached. So Jesus' teaching was part of the Christian gospel. It wasn't something from the Old Testament. That is a terrible heresy. I mean, the early Christians would have just flat out called that heresy. And if somebody was teaching that and didn't repent of it, I feel certain they would have been put out of the church.

Okay, the next one, and I want to mention this because of the translation. "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." A verse that's quoted quite a lot, and it's the other side of Jesus. He gives us some very hard teachings, but on the other hand, he says, "Those of you heavy laden, come to me for rest." He was probably talking about the law, all the regulations of the law, the nitpicky ones. God gave those for a reason. It was to keep the Jews heads in. It was like a guardian put on them. In fact, Paul said that the law was, well, the King James says a tutor.

A better translation would probably be guardian, a pedagogue who was more a slave who acted as a guardian to the children. He wasn't the one who taught them. So these regulations were given to hold the Jews in so they wouldn't go into idol worship, but they became a heavy burden. So that's probably what he's meaning. All of you laid down with a heavy burden. Also, all these extra regulations. I mean, the law was enough, but then you add all the regulations of scribes and Pharisees put on top of the wording of the law. You had a huge burden that these people were carrying. But Jesus said, "Yeah, come to me, those of you who are heavy laden."

Now, it could also be talking just as much about sin. I think that's a proper application, and particularly today when we're not dealing with the law, most of us, that, yeah, we all carry a heavy burden of sin. And yeah, come to Christ to lay it down. It doesn't happen automatically. I mean, when we believe and are baptized, all of our past sins are forgiven, but it doesn't mean we're automatically free from sin. We're still having to deal with it, but Christ is the only one who has the solution to it.

Then he says, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest from your souls." Well, how do we learn from Christ? Well, he set the example. He's not telling us to do something that he didn't do himself, that God put, the Father put his yoke on Christ, and Christ came to earth to do his Father's will. And it was a pretty heavy yoke, not with a bunch of regulations, but wow, just to live and become a human being when you've been deity, and then to be tortured, to die a torturous death on the cross. He suffered all of this joyfully for the sake of his Father.

So he said, "Learn from me." And also, he set the example of being meek and lowly. And if he was, wow, what is wrong with us if we get arrogant if Jesus himself was meek and lowly and we aren't?

Now, this last one is one where we have a bad translation that has unfortunately muddied the waters for most Christians. He said, "For my yoke," in most Bibles, "my yoke is easy and my burden is light." We've heard that it's in Handel's Messiah. So we hear it every time we hear Handel's Messiah, and Handel's Messiah is quoting the King James.

Now, the Greek word that is used there, Christos, doesn't mean easy. It's the word that means good. I mean, in the Septuagint, it's there 25 times. Every time it's translated in the Septuagint as good. And it's obvious from the context that that's the meaning.

The New Testament, I think, is always translated as good. I think there's one time it's translated as kind or something like that. So in the commentary, I translate it, "For my yoke is kind and my burden is light."

The problem with easy, well, of course, it leads to easy believism that, oh, being a Christian is easy. Well, yeah, yes and no. It's easy in that we don't have a lot of man-made regulations on us, or at least we shouldn't. But no, I mean, it calls for a strict life. It calls for a life of sacrifice. I mean, Jesus said, "If we aren't willing to give up all for him, then we can't be his disciple." I remember being in Sunday school. This would have been 40 years ago.

And somebody asked the question, the Sunday school teacher, "What does it cost to be a Christian?" And this was in a Protestant church. And everyone, the answer was nothing, nothing, nothing. I remember everyone saying that. And well, yeah, I didn't say anything different because I'd only been there a short time, and I didn't want to be out of step with everyone. I thought, "I would have said everything."

And the teacher at least correctly said, "Yeah, in one sense, nothing. We don't have to pay anything to be a Christian. On the other hand, it costs everything because we are to give all to Christ." So I was glad the Sunday school teacher at least corrected that notion. But people get that from translations like this. Well, I went back through all of these old Bibles to figure out, okay, where did this come in? Since, like I say, the word is clear, Christos. I mean, it does not mean easy. And Wycliffe, he's translating it as, what did he say?

I thought I don't have it here in front of me. Something like a gentle that he used. We're talking about a yoke. Now, a yoke, I see them in Honduras when I go down there. I used to see them everywhere. Now it's pretty rare, but you still see some ox carts, and it's a wooden attachment that hooks the two, binds the two oxen together so they're not going different ways. They're bound to each other. So Christ's yoke, he said, "You know, my yoke." So we're yoked to Christ, not in the modern-day sense of, "Oh yeah, Jesus does everything for me and all of that." But rather, we are to be walking by his commandments. He gives us power.

He's yoked to us for sure in the sense of he gives us power. His life is there if we follow him. But if we're not following him, then we're not yoked to him. If we're not walking in his teachings, then yeah, we've broken the yoke and we've decided to go our own way. But he wants us to be yoked to him not only for his power, but that we are obeying his teachings and walking in the way that he gave to us. So yeah, Wycliffe had a correct translation. It was William Tyndale stuck easy in there, "My yoke is easy." Now, he was very influenced by Martin Luther, and this may have been, he would put it in there for that reason.

On the other hand, he may have been using easy in a different sense. Easy can mean not oppressive, not harsh. And I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that that's what he meant by putting in easy, that it's not a harsh yoke.

If so, it's not a good translation today. There's no excuse for modern translations putting easy in because in modern language, yeah, easy can still mean that. But most people, when they hear my yoke is easy, they mean, yep, it's a sense, no problem, no sacrifice involved.

Okay.

I think I'm going to stop there. We've used our time up, and these are, like I say, are some of, I think, the most misunderstood passages in Matthew chapter 11. Now, again, I'm going to encourage you to go into the commentary because, yeah, there's a lot more to Matthew 11, a lot of blessed teaching in that that I'll just direct you to the commentary of how the early Christians understood what Jesus said, which always fits in so well with all of the rest of scripture.

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