There is a great deal of wisdom that can be found in the bible even for people who don’t value or even believe in the bible! Today’s lesson comes from the illustration of a vineyard and a corner stone. The idea is simple and direct.
For many of us who are believers in what the Bible teaches, we hold the bible to be the source of truth. But admittedly not everyone believes that way. While I truly believe that the bible is the sole absolute source of truth for all of mankind, not everyone sees it that way.
We all have an absolute truth. It’s either that the bible is the absolute truth for all humanity or that it is not. Those are both absolute statements. We can’t deny absolute truth at all. Just we define what it is differently.
Jesus talks about truth and what our role is when it comes to possessing truth. Check out the message and see what Jesus says about truth and how you can apply that in just about any context.
Leadership is a confusing animal to many people. Some think it comes from a title. Others think strong leadership needs a massive following. This week we had the chance to look at some critical life lessons that apply to leadership still today. We can learn a great deal about how to and how not to act by watching people who’ve been in similar situations. So let’s take a closer look at what it means to be a leader and how a leader should react when under pressure.
At our Wednesday discussion of the Bible we looked at Matthew 21. Here’s a quick synopsis. You can listen to the full message below.
The start of chapter 21 is the famous account of the triumphal entry, aka Palm Sunday. People are flocking to see Jesus. They line the streets and shout their approval. They want more and more from him. They can’t get enough of his works and famous teachings. They love the things he does and the way he speaks differently than everyone else. They are fed by him. Healed by him. Restored by him. He gives them hope. It’s no wonder the people can’t get enough of him.
When Jesus starts to gain momentum in his leadership and the people are flocking to him left and right, we shouldn’t be surprised that the established leadership gets panicked. These leaders aren’t kings or princes. They are council members in the leadership of the church. When they feel threatened by the one man who can make the most massive impact, they try to trap him. They rally their followers and try to convince the world that he’s lying and manipulating them.
On Jesus’ way through the city, he makes a straight path toward the temple where he upsets the leaders even more! He sees what’s happening. They’re cheating the people. They were changing money rates to benefit their own clan. They were inflating the dollar and charging more to some individuals in an unfair manner. They were making the system benefit themselves. They turned the temple entrance into a cheater’s house and a safe place for liars and manipulators.
Jesus can’t take it. He sees it and has to act immediately. He storms the temple area. He drives the animals out and throws the money tables over. He tells them exactly what they’re doing wrong, but it only fuels their fire. When selfish people are doing wrong things, they don’t want to hear what they’re doing wrong. They just get greedy and want more. They want to get rid of anyone who stands in the way of what they want.
After Jesus clears the temple and restores order to the system, he leaves for the countryside to stay for the night. In the morning he gives a direct message to his followers on the power that real faith can have on one’s life. Then enters the temple again.
Remember the last time he was in the temple, he disrupted their lying broken system. He cost them money and respect. So now they are angry. They’re ready for revenge. They want him gone so they’ll stop at nothing to make that happen.
We’re near the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry and things are getting increasingly heated between him and the establishment of his day. Seemingly without a word from Jesus, the chief priests and elders approached him to ask him a question intended to trap him.
By what authority do you say the things you say and do the things you do?
Jesus knows the answer to this question and to be honest so do the chief priests. However instead of giving them an answer to anger them more, he puts the ability to answer in their court by asking them another question. Their answer to this question will essentially help them know his answer. They were so hasty to get an answer that they were trapped between the right thing to do and the best thing to do.
Here we learn two critical lessons from Jesus.
Sometimes doing the right thing won’t gain you popularity but it’s still the right thing.
Just because you have something to say doesn’t mean you need to say it.
Jesus practices the greatest restraint imaginable. He doesn’t speak the answer to this question. He knows the answer. His answer is the right answer. He’s not ashamed of or scared of the repercussions of his answer. He wants his opponent to have to admit their own position and ignorance. He’s using this as a teaching moment for them and his followers.
The chief priests should know by what authority John Baptized. By not knowing, they were essentially admitting failure in their job. It was their business to know the answer to this question but they refused to answer and settled for I don’t know in an effort to save their credibility.
Jesus then uses a story to help illustrate this point. So one moral of the story here is:
Being a part of the church growing up was a great learning experience. I attended a Christian school and went to church nearly every Sunday. Growing up in the church we went through something called confirmation. This is when we learn the ins and outs of what we believe and actually claim it as our own. Up until this point, you’re learning but if I’m being honest it’s a lot of going through the motions. But in confirmation something clicks. we grow deeper and ask more questions and being to be able to apply what we know.
Growing up going to church taught me a lot. I went to Sunday worship and even bible class as a child. Then when I was old enough, I went through something called confirmation. This was when I learned the ins and outs of what the church I attended believed. We studied things like baptism and communion and prayer. But before all that we took time to study the famous 10 Commandments. In our most recent series in worship, we’ll be digging deeper into these very commandments to gain a better understanding. Let’s start here.
It’s a hard reality some days that bad things happen. Things don’t go the way we want them to go. People get sick. Jobs are lost. Finances crumble. Lives change and not always for the apparent better in the moment. When someone asks us how it’s going, we have a tendency to reply with a smile and It’s all good.
The phrase greatest of all time is a pretty strong statement. We all strive to be the best. No one wants to be the least or the loser or the worst in a pack. No one wants to fail at something. We all like to have some form of success in our lives. But what does the greatest really look like?
Ever feel like your family is a tad on the dysfunctional side? People just not get along the way they should? Have that one strange uncle who is way out in left field somewhere? Well there’s a story in the Bible about a family who is exactly like that.
Now many of you know that I’m a pastor of a church in central Ohio and many of you know that means I’m a pretty big fan of Jesus and the Bible. But lately I’ve realized that while I’m a big follower of Jesus there’s just something about the cross that doesn’t sit well with me. I’m not alone either. As a matter of fact, one of the biggest names in the New Testament didn’t like the cross either.
When I was younger I used to watch WWF wrestling. Now if you watch it you probably know it better by WWE wrestling but it’s all the same. The idea behind the whole thing was intriguing to me. Grown men and women running around in a boxing ring. Throwing stuff at each other. Trying to look like they were hurting each other without ever really doing any harm. It was pretty interesting to say the least.
But WWF isn’t the only kind of wrestling out there. We wrestle in a lot of other ways as well. We wrestle with our thoughts and our relationships. We wrestle with things don’t quite go our way. We wrestle with loved ones and even with friends. And honestly right now, we’re living in a world that’s wrestling with just about everything!
Politics is nothing more than a verbal WWF match anymore. We try to hurt one another and do as much harm as possible. It’s so disheartening to see where we’ve fallen as a society. We’d rather wrestle with one another and struggle than take the high road and love one another.
Hate is easy. Love is work. We’ve become so lazy we’d rather take the easy road and just hate one another.
This week we talked about a man in the Bible who wrestled with everyone he could only to realize that it wasn’t helping. Take a few minutes and listen as we unpack not only the damages of being a wrestler but also the way to change your behavior and make a positive impact.
One of the most powerful passages in the book of Matthew comes in chapter 16. It’s the passage where Jesus asks the disciples who the people said he was. Their opinions varied from John the Baptist to Elijah to even Jeremiah. But the opinions of the world weren’t the ones Jesus was really after. He wanted their opinion, which is why he reworded the question the second time to ask who they thought he was.
