Jump Start # 2268

Matthew 16:3 “And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?”

As I write this, Saturday morning, we are under a Winter Storm Warning where I live. Heavy snow is expected. By the time you read this, Wednesday, the storm will have passed. There is a mad dash on the grocery stores for bread and milk. We have plans for this evening. Not sure what will happen. Already the two preachers have been discussing tomorrow. What happens if services are cancelled? What if the AM is cancelled but not the PM? Adjustments will have to be made.

In our verse today, Jesus used the weather as an indication of coming storms. The multitudes could tell the weather by the color of the sky. They didn’t have the Weather Channel app that gave immediate warnings nor local forecasters who showed what the temperature was in Canada and would be here in a few days. All they could do was look at the color of the sky. That was enough. That’s all they needed to determine if it was going to be sunny, rainy or stormy. They could look around and see that, but they couldn’t see the dangers of their times.

Some thoughts about warnings:

First, our lives are filled with warnings. Nearly every product you purchase has all kinds of warning labels on them. I suppose someone misused the product and to keep from lawsuits the companies have to fill pages and pages of warnings and place labels and stickers everywhere. The Bible has many warnings as well. Beware, be careful, watch, be alert are common warnings in the Bible. From youthful lusts, to angry people, to the influence of the wrong people, to strong drink, to our anger, the lists of Biblical warnings are many. It would make a great study someday just to look at the warnings of Jesus or the warnings found in Proverbs.

Second, the warnings are placed there to keep us safe. Some seem common sense, but these days, sense isn’t very common. On a chain saw you’ll find a warning not to grab the chain while it is running. On a hair dryer you’ll find a warning not to use in a shower. Biblically, the warnings are to keep us safe. We tend to think that we can be ok ignoring them, but when we do, we put ourselves in dangerous places. The safest place and the most sure way of pleasing God is to do what He says. We push things when we try to go beyond the boundaries and fly solo. We step across God’s lines and then we find ourselves in trouble and in a mess. Warnings are there for a reason.

Third, there are always those who will ignore warnings. When the word is put out to stay home, that’s all it takes for some to go out. Rather than stay home and be safe, some will go to the mall. Some will go out to eat. The roads may be dangerous, slick and hard to travel, but that won’t stop some. The same happens Biblically. There are those who flirt with other married people. There are those who question where the lines are to be drawn on modesty, social drinking, and other moral situations. There are those who don’t want to stay home and be safe. They think nothing will happen to them. But it usually does. That little flirting turns into a sexual affair. That playing around with drinking turns into drunkenness. Influence shot. Jesus forgotten about. The world pours back into the heart and a person must make up their mind, more of Jesus or more of the world. Too often, it’s more of the world because the warnings have never been taken seriously.

Fourth, unlike weather warnings, Biblical warnings do not change nor do they end. Our Winter Storm Warning is for tonight and tomorrow. By Monday, all should be fine. The storms pass quickly. Biblical warnings last a life time. We need to know them, pay attention to them, abide by them and then tell others about them.

Finally, more folks get excited about weather warnings than they do Biblical warnings. I’ve often thought that the TV weather forecasters and the grocery stories were in some secret deals together. The TV forecasters have a way of getting everyone hyped up and excited. Often the storms fizzle and do not amount to much. But by then, the stores have cleaned out of food and winter supplies.

The Bible tells us that Jesus is coming. Things will change instantly. The world will end. The dead will be resurrected. We will be cast into eternity, either Heaven or Hell. But people don’t want to hear talk about that. They’ll spend the day talking about the weather, but no one sees that Jesus is coming. Our choices, our lives reflect whether or not we believe that.

Jesus is coming soon, morning, noon or night—is the way one of our hymns expresses it. Are you ready for that? What needs to be done before He comes? Don’t wait too late!

Warnings—best pay attention to them, otherwise you’ll be caught in a nasty storm and you may not make it home safely.

Roger

Jump Start # 2266

Matthew 22:21 “They said to Him, ‘Caesar’s.’ Then He said to them, ‘Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.’”

It is interesting to see how non-political Jesus was. Aside from our verse today about paying taxes and words in Peter and Romans about being subject to the government and praying for rulers in Timothy, the New Testament is pretty quiet about politics. We certainly are not. Everyone has an opinion about government shutdown, building walls and right and left. I wonder sometimes if we have forgotten that there is an up and a down.

Our verse is revealing.

First, Jesus seemed to know whose image was on the coin. Had it been a horse, an image of a public building, that would have taken away the thrust of what He was saying. Jesus seemed to know that Caesar’s image was on the coin. Had Jesus seen coins? Being God, did He just know?

Second, Jesus understood that to belong to a civilized society that different parts are necessary to make it move. One is money. Taxation is the way a government acquires the funds necessary to build roads, pay officials, and support an army. All of this takes money. Taxing people may not be a favorite subject, but it is necessary and it illustrates the connections and team concept essential to run a society smoothly. The government taxes the citizens and the citizens enjoy the benefits of what the government provides. We all like smooth roads, safety cities and quick response from police. All of those things come with a cost.

Third, Jesus recognized that some things belong to Caesar and some things belong to God. Not everything goes to God, some things go to Caesar. Once Caesar has it, the responsibility and accountability lies with him. He can waste the tax money. He can abuse the right to tax. He can promote sinful things.

Here is an interesting thought. The taxes that Jesus and the disciples paid helped pay for the Roman army that would in time execute Jesus. Rome was aggressive, excessive and indulgent when it came to taking over other lands, spending foolishly and engaging in sinful practices. The dead emperors were considered gods. Statues, paid through taxes, lined the city streets and temples in honor of these gods. Did Jesus know that their tax money was going for such things? Certainly. Was paying His taxes a form of supporting and promoting idolatry and loose living? No. The citizen is obligated to pay taxes. What the officials do with it is their responsibility and God will iron all of this out at the judgment. To say that Jesus funded His own execution and helped promote idolatry is to stack guilt upon the Lord that doesn’t belong there.

Now, this is important. Everyone once in a while, someone will get fired up about the government paying for abortions or other offensive things and declare that he is not paying his taxes. He rebels. Sooner or later he pays. This may be after he goes to jail. Such a person misses what Jesus did here. He said to render to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar. What Caesar does with it, is his responsibility.

Fourth, Jesus understood that some things belong to God. There are things that are expected and required towards God just as we must pay our taxes. Our taxes are due. We owe them. We are obligated to pay. Likewise there are things owed to God. We must pay what we owe to God, just as we would our taxes.

Now, the question to be asked is, “What do we owe God?” What are we supposed to render to God? So often, our passage today is used to focus upon Caesar and we forget about the God-part. Just as certain things are expected by Caesar, there are certain things that God expects.

Jesus didn’t give a list here. Jesus didn’t identify this is Caesar’s and this is God’s. Not, here, but in many ways He did show us. All throughout the Gospels, Jesus was connecting us to God. His message answers our question. Consider a few thoughts here:

We owe God our hearts, will and devotion. We need to be committed to God. He expects us to worship Him as He desires. Our allegiance to God colors our faithfulness, dedication and loyalty. Half-hearted, not all the way in, hypocrisy—these are all the tell-tell signs of not giving God our all. This is why the greatest command is to love the Lord with all your mind, heart and strength.

We owe God our all because He has given the best of Heaven to save us. God has chased us down. God has put people in our lives. God has shown us His way. Over and over God has demonstrated that He has not given up on us.

The rendering difference here is that a coin could be tossed to a tax collector and your obligation to Caesar was fulfilled and completed until next tax season. With God, it’s more than tossing a coin His way. It’s more than showing up on a rainy Sunday because there is nothing else to do. What we owe God is reflective everyday by our choices, attitudes and words. We owe God a heart that pleases Him. We owe God a home that honors Him. We owe Him an attitude that reflects Him. Grace, forgiveness, kindness and compassion are not only what we owe God, but those are the very characteristics of God.

It’s much easier to pay a tax to Caesar and be done with it and what God expects from us. God wants a lifetime of loving Him, following Him, obeying Him and trusting Him. God wants our all.

There is a hymn, “I gave My life for thee, what hast thou given to Me?” Good question.

Roger

Jump Start # 2265

Matthew 6:11 “Give us this day our daily bread.”

We conclude our series this week on the miraculous healings of Jesus. One lesson that comes from this is the fact that the Lord does care about our physical wellbeing. His mission was to seek and to save the lost, but He didn’t ignore, nor was He indifferent to the physical needs around us.

One great illustration of this is our verse today. In teaching the disciples how to pray, the Lord honored God’s name, talked about God’s kingdom, temptation and forgiving—all spiritual concepts. But sprinkled among those Heavenly principles is found our verse, asking God for our daily bread. Now, could it be, as some have suggested, that “bread” here actually means God’s truth? Could be, but remember, before Jesus fed the multitudes he “blessed the food” (Mt 14:19). He again did this after the resurrection. He was with the disciples and “took bread and blessed it” (Lk 24:30). And, at the feeding of the four thousand the text tells us that Jesus gave “thanks” (Mt 15:36). He gave “thanks” at the last supper (Mt 26:27). So, it is fitting to think that here in this model prayer Jesus is showing the disciples that we ought to pray for our physical bread.

God is not just concerned with our insides. The outsides matter. God is concerned with our attitudes. God is concerned with what we do with our money. God is concerned about our use of time. Paul said, “Make the most of your time.”

All of this reminds us and teaches us that:

Our prayers must include both the physical and the spiritual. It’s easy to be lopsided in our prayers and to limit our spiritual prayer to quickly asking God to “forgive us of our sins,” as we end the prayer. We need to be praying to be strong, useful and to have open eyes to be the hands and feet of God today. However, we need also to pray for our safety, our wellbeing, our jobs. We are dual nature creatures, both physical and spiritual. Those dual natures are not separate, but intertwined with each other. One impacts the other. So often discouragement comes from what happens to us physically. The depressed Paul admitted in 2 Corinthians 7 that he had conflicts without and fears within. A few chapters before he talked about the outer man and the inner man. The outer man was decaying but the inner man was being renewed day by day.

Our preaching and our classes must touch upon both the physical and the spiritual side of life. Many of the things that causes stress and worry are fears about our jobs, money and our children. Jesus spoke more about money than He did Heaven. We could easily dismiss all of this by saying, “money doesn’t matter,” but it does. It occupies our hearts. It takes money to do things, even in the kingdom. The very fact that Jesus healed people physically shows that He was concerned about what happens to us physically. He used those miracles to point to the spiritual and especially to His authority, but the bridge those concepts traveled over was the physical health of those people.

So, from time to time we ought to teach people about being stewards and responsible with their time, money, talents. These are not solely physical topics. They drive the heart and the soul of a person. Our faith determines the proper use of these things.

Understanding how the flesh and the spirit, or the body and the soul of a person connects helps us to see greater spiritual lessons. Some do not understand what they do and what happens on a Friday is just as important as what happens on Sunday. Some see a disconnect between what is done in the church house and what is done in the corporate house or the school house. Lie, cheat and steal during the week, but put on a tie and sing those wonderful hymns on Sunday and convince yourself that all is fine.

I knew a man who served as a leader among God’s people in a congregation. Yet, at home, he physically beat his wife. It angers me to think how he fooled the people of God. But this is exactly what we are talking about. What I do at home, what I do at work, what I do at play and what I do in worship are all woven together. Together they define us. We do not have separate categories or like the children’s dinner plate that has the separate sections to it. In the belly, all the food mixes together. All the food touches each other. We may think of life like a giant plate that is sectioned off, but the reality, all of it mixes together and touches each other. My work affects my worship and my worship affects my work.

Not understanding this is where hypocrisy thrives. Around the people of God, I appear to be godly. Around work, I’m all secular. In the field of sports, I’m so competitive, that I might cheat to win. And when the people of God run into me at work or at play, they see for the first time, that I’m not the same as I am in worship. My spirit, my attitude and even my language may be all different. What this person has done is kept Christ out of his work place and his recreation. He is living two lives. He is doubled minded, as James says. He is a hypocrite and before long, one side will prevail over the other. Either he will get stronger in faith and that will carry over to his work and play, or he will become weaker in faith, and begin to drop out spiritually.

Jesus healed sick people. He didn’t say, “that’s not my concern,” nor, “I’m not here to take care of those things.” He was concerned about both the inside and the outside of us. And, He demonstrated that He was the Lord of both the inside and the outside. He commands our righteousness in our bodies and in our souls. What happens on the outside can set the tone for the inside.

Could this be why Jesus stated that the greatest command was to love the Lord with all your heart, soul and strength. Mind, body and soul—give it all to God.

Roger