Luke 20- Son of God

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And he said unto them, How say they that Christ is David’s son? And David himself saith in the book of Psalms, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore calleth him Lord, how is he then his son? Luke 20:41-44

The religious leaders continually challenged Jesus , as they often stated “How can God have a Son”? We still hear these arguments today from Jews and Muslims, how can God have a Son? Well Jesus answers the question, he provides a prophecy foretold by David in the Old Testament (Psalm 110:1) David prophesied “Yahweh said to My Lord” if you look at the original Hebrew of Psalm 110 , The LORD is translated from Yahweh. So in this prophecy God the Father is talking to God the Son

Now one thing to note here, the concept of the Triune God is not unknown to the Orthodox Jews. Here in this prophecy the Triune God interacts with each other. If this concept was completely foreign to the patriarchs of Israel , such as David, then this prophecy would have made no sense. Those who claim the Trinity is a creation of Roman paganism, don’t really know or understand the Old Testament. You only have to look at far as Genesis 1 to see the Triunity of God in creation, “Let US make man in OUR image “ (Genesis 1:26) God is not only the Father, if he were God the Father would be talking to himself.

A Psalm of David. The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies Psalm 110:1-2

Jesus pointed the religious leaders to Psalm 110 to understand he is the Messiah and the Son of God. As Jesus was pointing out David addresses God as Lord, how then can David be the Messiah or Son of God? Because we know he’s not, David was not talking about himself, but was prophesying about Jesus Christ. And we see the Messiah will come through Israel as Christ accomplished through Mary.

For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Acts 2:34-36

Apostle Peter also preached about Psalm 110 by the Holy Spirit. He made it clear , David was not the Messiah, because he is dead and buried. Jesus is the Messiah and Lord of Lord, the same one who Israel crucified. None of this is Roman paganism or Greek mythology, this is straight from the Torah

Jesus proved to the religious leaders that He is the Messiah, He is the Lord, He is the Son of God. Yet the self proclaimed legal experts rejected and crucified him. Don’t harden your hearts like this world, let the Holy Spirit reveal to you Jesus is Lord and God , Amen!

Luke 20 – God of The Living

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Then came to him certain of the Sadducees, which deny that there is any resurrection; and they asked him, Saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any man’s brother die, having a wife, and he die without children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.There were therefore seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and died without children. And the second took her to wife, and he died childless. And the third took her; and in like manner the seven also: and they left no children, and died. Last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them is she? for seven had her to wife. Luke 20:27-33

Again here we see Jesus being tested by the religious leaders, hoping to trap Christ into misspeaking or saying something that would contradict the Torah. However as they don’t seem to get, Jesus is the Son of God, he has all knowledge and power over everything, human wisdom will never outsmart God. And here we see them use a ridiculous scenario, a woman whose husband dies so she keeps getting remarried to their brothers because they keep dying. Now understand this law was meant to protect the widow, as women in that time period couldn’t work and support themselves. So the law was that the brother of the husband would support the woman as his wife. However the religious leaders took this example to the extreme and killed off 6 of the brothers

Now their trap for Jesus , was whose wife will be this woman when everyone gets resurrected. The interesting part of this is Jesus reveals a little bit about the afterlife. Also to demonstrate how insincere this question was, the Sadducess asked this question even though they didn’t believe in the resurrection. So it shows you they really didn’t care about a truthful answer, they were just looking to trap Jesus with a trick question.

And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection. Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him. Luke 20:34-38

Jesus gives us some insight to the New Heavens and Earth, those who are resurrected in the afterlife will no longer marry and they are equal with the angels. It kind of gives us perspective on the purpose of marriage in this current world as a foundation of creation. But also shows us the afterlife will be alot different than this current fallen world. I think it shows us why the Bible is so adamant about the covenant of marriage and against sexual immorality

Jesus makes a profound statement here “He is not God of the dead, but of the living” for those who believe in “soul sleep” we don’t worship the God of the dead, we are alive in Christ forever. As the Apostle Paul said “To depart from the body is to be with The Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8) Those who believe they are going to become dust until the resurrection would have to contend with the words of Jesus Christ

Jesus reveals to us that we worship the God of the living and not the dead for those that are Children of God through Christ Amen!

New Year’s Thought

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As we come closer to a New Year, we typically begin by evaluating all the things we want to change in our lives. We make a list of goals that we believe will make us happier and a better person. However this is our first failure, to believe we can fix  or transform ourselves.

It all begins with understanding we need Jesus Christ, we are broken, we are in need of change and we can’t save ourselves. Until we come to the realization that life is beyond us, we will continue to struggle in our sins and failures. Until we come to the foot of the cross and ask Jesus to be the Lord of our entire life, we will always be lost

God knows we need a savior, that’s why he sent his only begotten Son into the world to redeem us. The rescue mission has begun, but are you willing to get into the Ark? Are you willing to repent of your pride and deceit, and cry out to The Lord, because everyone who calls upon the name of Jesus shall be saved

If you want a change this year, if you want to start new, if you want to become renewed , come to Jesus Christ! Unless you are Born Again you will not see the Kingdom of Heaven, we must come to Christ and be made New. Jesus said “Come to me all who are tired and weary and I will give You Rest”, If you want a new beginning, come to Jesus because He is making all things new Amen!

Luke 20- Render to God and Country

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And they watched him, and sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor. And they asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly: Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar, or no? Luke 20:20-22

Again we see the religious leaders trying to test and trap Jesus, but again their ignorance and pride makes them blind enough to think they can trick the Son of God. Not only did they try to trap Jesus with a theological question, but they used a more political subject to get the Jewish people on their side. The used the topic of taxes, as we know the Roman Empire oppressed the Jewish people by making them pay extremely high taxes and leaving mostly all of them in poverty or debt to Caesar

So they asked Jesus “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar”? Now the religious leaders believed they had Jesus trapped, if he answered Yes, then the Jewish people would revolt and turn on him. If he answered No, then the Roman Empire would throw Christ in prison. They believed they had a bullet proof plan to finally eliminate this Jesus of Nazareth

But he perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, Why tempt ye me? Shew me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Caesar’s.And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s. And they could not take hold of his words before the people: and they marvelled at his answer, and held their peace. Luke 20:23-26

Jesus being the Son of God and Christ, he knew the hearts and minds of these wicked religious leaders, so he responded with a question “Whose image is on the denarius” A denarius was the Roman coin used during this time period typically for a day’s wage. The crowd of course answered Caesar’s image on the coin. Then Jesus responded “ Give to Caesar what is Caesars and give to God what is God’s” basically Jesus was saying “pay your taxes and pay your tithes”

This response was so perfect , nobody could come up with a response. It also shows us Gods sovereignty as he is the one who establishes governments and allows them to operate (Romans 13) We as Christians are to be good citizens, we are to obey laws when they don’t conflict with God’s moral law and pay our taxes. The religious leaders had no response for Jesus, so they held their peace. Again Jesus wins another theological round with the religious leaders.

Render to God and to Country, while we are here on Earth, we are to be the salt of the Earth, we are to live as good citizens. If the salt is no longer good, what use is there for it? (Matthew 5) With that said , we are also to “Obey God and not Man” (Acts 5:29) when it comes to issues that conflict with God’s moral Laws. Give to your country what belongs to your country and give to God what belongs to God Amen!

Luke 20- Parable of The Wicked Tenant

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Then began he to speak to the people this parable; A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long time. And at the season he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard: but the husbandmen beat him, and sent him away empty. And again he sent another servant: and they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, and sent him away empty. And again he sent a third: and they wounded him also, and cast him out. Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence him when they see him Luke 20:9-13

Today Jesus teaches us the parable of the wicked tenant, now here’s a spoiler alert, this parable is about Israel. The husbandmen or tenant is Israel, God gave them the land He promised to them and continued to send his servants/ prophets, but time and time again they beat or sometimes killed the prophets of God. This was confirmed by Jesus Christ himself in Matthew 23 “You are descendants of those who murdered the prophets” (Matthew 23:31)

So notice what God decided to finally do, He sent his only beloved Son, because He believed they would receive him. Now Israel claimed to be Children of God, however they didn’t even know the Son of God. As Jesus told them “You honor God with your lips, but your heart is far from him” (Matthew 15:8) Israel didn’t really love God or even know him, if they did , they wouldn’t have kill all God’s prophets and eventually kill the Messiah

But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. So they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them? He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, they said, God forbid. And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. Luke 20:14-18

We see alot going on here , first Jesus is prophesying about his death again. This is important because first the Messiah had to die to be the ransom for the sins of the world. But secondly , because it appeared nobody including the Apostles understood Jesus had to die for our sins. Even after Christ predicted this over and over again, the message wasn’t getting through to his followers

Next we see the prophecy of the New Covenant, as Jesus said in this parable “We shall give the vineyard to others” The Kingdom of God is now not just for Israel but also the Gentiles through Christ. This is why the cross was so important, by the blood of Christ we can become Children of God

The stone the builders rejected is the Chief corner stone, Jesus is the Chief Corner stone, Israel rejected their own Messiah, but there is no salvation without Jesus Christ, he is our rock and foundation, Amen!