Loading summary
Transcript10 lines
- [00:01]
Pastor Vanny
Hey, Bible nerds.
- [00:02]
Dr. Manny Arango
This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible Department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the Journey family. Welcome to day seven. Luke chapter one 20 to 22 is what we're covering in today's reading. Hey, if you haven't done the reading yet, just go ahead, pause this episode. You don't have to continue watching and go read today's reading. It's packed. I mean, we're in the last couple of days of Jesus life. And I think these chapters of the Bible are just, should be really, really impactful for any Christian. If you actually enter into the emotion and enter into like, what's happening. This is the last moments that the disciples are going to share with Jesus before the cross. And so these are precious, precious moments. And so go ahead, read chapter 20, 21 and 22 and then come on back. I'll be right here. So for the rest of us who have already done the reading, we're almost towards the end of Luke and there's just a couple of verses that I want to highlight as we kind of work through today's reading. Everything that we're going to talk about today kind of in some way shape or form has to do with finances, which is pretty interesting. There may be a bit of a curveball that you'll see in a bit. We're going to start in chapter 20 and we're going to actually go to verse 20. This is, like I said, last couple of days of Jesus life. He's giving final teaching and final testing. So. So in the same way that a lamb has to be inspected by the chief priests in the leaders of the temple, Jesus is really around the temple teaching and preaching, but he's also being tested. And I would say he's being inspected. He's being inspected by the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the chief priests, the teachers of the law. And they keep testing him. They've got all these questions for him. He's giving some final parables. He's. But then it says this in verse 20 of chapter 20, keeping a close watch on him. They sent spies who pretended to be sincere. They hope to catch Jesus in something he said so they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. So they actually, they want to arrest him in public. But that's proving to be difficult. They're also scared to do that. They don't want a riot around Passover. But they're attempting to. They're sending spies to Jesus so that they can kind of trip him up in something that he says. So the spies question him. Of course they're going to question him about taxes. There's anything that you're going to get arrested for, it's going to be for not paying some taxes. Okay, teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right and that you do not show partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Remember, these are Jews who are dealing with a foreign oppressor. They're being occupied by a foreign government. And so it's normal to ask, like, hey, do we even need to, like, we need to pay taxes to this, like, corrupt system? He saw through their duplicity and said to them, show me a denarius whose image and inscription are on it. Caesar. They replied. He said to them, then give back to Caesar what is Caesar's. Okay, since Caesar's image is on the coin, then give back to Caesar the coins. Right? So then give back to Caesar what is Caesar, and to God what is God's. Okay, pause. So what's God's? This is where I think this is my nerdy nugget for. For the day. What is God's? We need to do some hermeneutical work to figure out. Wait a second. It's almost like Jesus is giving one half of the riddle, but not providing the second half of the riddle. Whose image is on the coin? Caesar's image is on the coin. Okay, great. Since his image is on the coin, then give the coins back to him since his image is on it. Okay, but give God what belongs to God. What belongs to God? Are we talking about tithing? Are we talking about? Is this, like the temple tax? What are we talking about? Well, this would require for us to ask this next question. Where do we find the image of God? We find the image of God on humans. We find the image of God on you and I because we are made in the image of God. And so Jesus says, give back to Caesar what is Caesar's? How do we know what is Caesar's is what his image is on. And give to God what is God's. How do we know what is God's? What God's image is on? And so we don't just give God money, we give him our lives because we're made in the image of God. You see how Jesus gives one half of this riddle but doesn't give the second half of it. You kind of have to put it together. And so my nerdy nugget for the day is to go ahead and interpret that passage for you, to kind of make it easier for you to understand. What Jesus is saying is that, go ahead, give Caesar the money. But what God gets is your whole life. And if God gets your life, he'll inevitably get money as well. But the number one thing that you need to offer to the Lord is your life, your very existence. Next, in chapter 21, they're gonna see a widow. It says this in verse 1 of 21 of chapter 21, as Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. Truly, I tell you, he said, this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put, put in all she had to live on. So first, poverty is not an excuse to not be generous. Okay, we're gonna see this even later when Paul is talking to the Corinthians, he says that, hey, the Macedonian Christians, even in their poverty, they were generous. So this widow, she's poor, but she is still required to operate in generosity. Second thing that we want to note is that Jesus is watching their giving every Sunday. This is a timeless truth. Every Sunday when people are gathered together in a church, Jesus is watching what we put. Whether the pastor knows, whether the deacons know, whether anybody else knows, whether it's actually 10% or more than 10%, or what you gave, or whether you gave according to what you said you would, or what the Lord said to you to give. God knows and there is no fooling him. He is watching us as we give. And then lastly, she's giving to the temple treasury.
- [07:19]
Pastor Vanny
What if I told you that what you're learning in this video was just the tip of the iceberg? The Bible department is actually powered by arma. What is arma? I'm so glad you asked. ARMA is an online subscription based platform that we design to help people, everyday people, learn the Bible for themselves. We started ARMA so that anybody, anywhere can have access to trustworthy and entertaining Bible and theology content. In addition to this podcast, we have over 60 courses on individual books of the Bible, on theology topics, and on some hot topics like homosexuality, tithing and women in ministry. But really, pharma is A community. A community of people that I've gotten to know. A community where thousands of people are currently finding family, asking questions and nerding.
- [08:14]
Dr. Manny Arango
Out on the Bible together.
- [08:16]
Pastor Vanny
If you want a community to read the Bible with you this year, or if you want to dive into some deeper theological content, or if you want.
- [08:24]
Dr. Manny Arango
More exclusive access to me and the.
- [08:27]
Pastor Vanny
Entire armor team, how about you go to thebibledepartment.com I'll be sure to post.
- [08:33]
Dr. Manny Arango
The link in the description of this video.
- [08:36]
Pastor Vanny
Let's make this your year to become a Bible.
- [08:42]
Dr. Manny Arango
What is the temple treasury going to be used to fund? Hmm. Let's skip down to chapter 22. We're going to go to 22, verse 47 while he was this is after the Last Supper. This is after Jesus is praying at the Mount of Olives. Verse 47, chapter 22. While he was still speaking, a crowd came up and the man who was called Judas, one of the 12, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus asked him, judas, why are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss? When Jesus followers saw what was going to happen, they said, lord, should we strike with our swords? And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. And Jesus heals the man said, no more of this. And Jesus said to the temple guard, am I leading a rebellion? And you have come with swords and clubs every day. I was with you in the temple courts and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour and darkness reigns. So remember, they wanted to arrest him during the day. They did. They sent out spies earlier in chapter 20 because they wanted to arrest him in the day. But they were scared so they chose to arrest him at night. Which is why they need someone to point out who Jesus actually is. Now everything that we have in scripture actually points us to believe that Jesus looked like a commoner. Like Jesus doesn't look like. He's not. Like he's a foot and a half tall and everybody he blends in. Jesus is probably average height and average build, average looking individual. So since they don't arrest him in the broad daylight, they arrest him at night. It means they need someone to really point out who Jesus is. Also, he's being arrested by Roman soldiers. And the Roman soldiers don't give a rip who Jesus is or who any religious figure is. So Jesus is famous amongst the Jewish people, but Jesus is not famous amongst the Roman audience. And since it's Roman soldiers, they definitely need someone to lead them to Jesus. So they don't arrest the wrong person. Now, let's get our strand that we've left kind of laying. When the widow in chapter 21 is giving to the temple treasury, what is she giving towards? Well, Judas is paid 30 pieces of silver in order to lead these soldiers to the right person. And guess where those 30 pieces of silver would have come from? You guessed it, the temple treasury. So this widow is actually giving to a corrupt system. And she's still, by Jesus, she is still doing a good thing. I think so often, especially millennials, we want to know where the money's going. Like, I'll give, but I need financial transparency. I want to know exactly how much is going towards salaries and I want to know how much we're giving away and charitable giving to other organizations and how much money is going towards church planning and how much money is going towards digging wells in Africa and this and that and this and that. Well, this widow here in chapter 21 of the book of Luke, she doesn't know where the money is going. Actually, I bet she probably knows that the money's not going to a good place. I mean, it's. The temple's corrupt in this point in history, and the money is going towards a man named Judas to betray Jesus. But still Jesus looks at her and says that what she's doing is good because she's giving with pure motives, she's being generous, and she's not giving to the temple treasury, she's giving to God. I think a lot of times we think, yeah, I'm going to give to this church because I believe in their mission. You're giving to the Lord. The tithe that you're giving doesn't even really belong to you. It belongs to the Lord. Now, do I think that it's important for church to have financial transparency? Yes. Do I think that churches should abuse the fact that people give us the benefit of the doubt? The benefit of the doubt? Of course not. But this reluctance around giving and the excuse that we often use that I don't know where the money is going just isn't founded in the story of Jesus. That's not consistent with a biblical worldview. Last, why does Judas betray Jesus? Because once Jesus is going to be in the temple courts, teaching and preaching, being tested, and then we're going to have the Last Supper, then he's going to get arrested, and then he's before Pilate and Herod. That's what these chapters are really recounting for us. And so I think it begs to ask the question why? Why does Judas do this? Actually have a theory around why Judas does this? I want you to remember, they all pull out swords, okay, to fight. And down to the end they're ready for revolution. Okay. When Jesus starts talking about the Gospel, most of these guys, these Jewish men are thinking the violent overthrow of the Roman government, okay, they are being occupied by the Romans. They do not want to pay taxes to Caesar. They don't want to their land to be occupied by foreigners who are oppressing them. And so most of these guys who are walking with Jesus are ready. They're ready. They actually think that the thing that's going to happen is that Jesus is going to violently overthrow the Roman government like Judas Maccabeus or like anybody, like Joshua in the Old Testament, like Joshua defeats the Canaanites or like David who defeats the Philistines. This is not like crazy for them to assume Jesus is going to be a military leader just like a ton of leaders in the Old Testament and during like Jewish leaders in the intertestamental period. Here's what I think Judas is actually doing. Because I don't think Judas cares about the money. Here's what I think is happening. I think Judas is disappointed that Jesus has not started a revolution yet. A violent overthrow of the Roman government. And I think Judas thinks he can force Jesus hand here. That if Judas leads the Romans to Jesus, that Jesus actually has a trick up his sleeve. And that Jesus is actually going to do the thing that they've all wanted him to do all along, which is violently overthrow the Roman government. But Judas is wrong. Jesus actually meant what he said. He meant that he was going to go to the cross, he meant that he was going to die, he meant that he was going to suffer. He actually meant those things. I think Judas thinks he's calling Jesus on his bluff. But the reality is that Jesus is not bluffing. And that is the sad tragedy, tragic irony of this story if you ask me. I think that Judas actually probably thought he was forcing Jesus hand. What Judas doesn't realize is that he actually plays right into Jesus's hand and he betrays him. According to Old Testament prophecy and according to the will of, of God that had already be been ordained from the foundation of the earth. Peter actually does something just as foul and wrong, which is to betray Jesus. And the reality is that Judas would have gotten forgiven just like Peter gets forgiven. But instead of being filled with godly sorrow, he's filled with worldly sorrow, takes his own life. If you ask me, why do I think Judas does this after following Jesus around for three years. I think it's because he had not yet died to his definition of the Kingdom of God or what it meant to be a Messiah. He had not submitted his definitions for those terms to Jesus and replace them with Jesus's definition to those terms. And because of that I think it caused him to try to force Jesus hand, not realizing that there was not a hand of force and he was actually being played into Jesus plan the entire time. But it's the timeless truth. Timeless truth for the day is to actually allow Jesus to define himself to you instead of you being stuck to whatever definition you have come up with for Jesus. All right, I gave some context clues, a nerdy nugget or two and you got a Thomas Truth for the day. I'm so proud of you. You're making your way through the Bible this year. One week down, another week to go as we go from day seven to day eight. I'm so proud of you for sticking with this all week long. Love you guys. Pastor Vanny here. Peace. Thank you so much for joining me on the Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, it would mean the world to me if you'd give us a follow rate and review the show. And don't forget to share. You can learn more about the show@thebibledepartment.com and find us on Instagram hebible department if you want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com. we'll see you back here tomorrow.