The Bible Study Podcast, episode 267. Today, the Bible Study podcast continues the study of the kingdom of God.

Welcome to the Bible study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. Last week, we started a study on the

kingdom of God, specifically looking at references in the New Testament to the kingdom of God.

We talked about how easier it was for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

And we also talked about how when Jesus was accused of

casting out demons by the power of demons, he used references to the kingdom of God to talk about

a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. To start with, we're going to finish up the final

two references to the kingdom of God in Matthew, and these are in

Matthew 21, starting in verse 28. And to put a little context here, Jesus is teaching in the temple

in Jerusalem, and he's just been asked, by whose authority are you doing these things? And he doesn't

answer the question. He asks them whose authority John the Baptist

was using, and they can't answer that question without getting in trouble with the crowds.

And so he tells them these two parables, and these would be related to the Pharisees.

Matthew 21, verse 28. What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said,

Son, go and work today in the vineyard. I will not, he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

Then the father went to the older son and said the same thing. He answered, I will, sir, but he did not go.

Which of the two did what his father wanted? The first they answered. Jesus said to them,

truly, I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God

ahead of you, for John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him.

But the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this,

you did not repent and believe him. They come and they ask Jesus about his authority. And Jesus

doesn't say in this particular verse, but it is implied in the next two parables that his authority

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