Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Our dear Heavenly Father, the greatness of your soul astounds me.
I stand in wonder that you would watch Christ suffer the way he suffered for people like us who do not deserve it.
I find in my heart it difficult to believe that you were willing to make such a sacrifice.
And I pray, Heavenly Father, that we could be moved one more time in our heart to look at the majesty of Jesus Christ, to look at the wonder of Jesus Christ, and to say, somewhere in our inner self, thank you.
I want to be a better person.
We could find somewhere in our heart faith that says, I put my trust in you.
I put my hope in you.
I surrender myself to you and I pray this all in Christ's name. Amen.
They hated him.
It wasn't dislike, it wasn't annoyance.
It was pure hatred.
They hated him for who he was.
They hated him for what he did, and they hated him for what he said.
They hated him because he was the Messiah, but not the Messiah they wanted.
They hated him because he helped people, but in their opinion, not the right ones.
And they hated him because no one ever spoke the way he spoke.
They hated him so much that on two occasions they picked up rocks to stone him.
They realized that they couldn't vent their hatred in public because people loved him.
People would walk for miles to hear Christ speak.
They would stay with him days without lunch just to be around him.
And they realized that they couldn't publicly stone him.
So they met secretly and they plotted.
Their plot was to find a way to get Jesus to say something that would annoy the Romans. And the Romans could take care of him.
But if they couldn't bring a charge against him, they at least wanted to publicly humiliate him, make him look so bad that people wouldn't follow him anymore and wouldn't want to listen to his teaching.
And so the Pharisees met together and they came up with a plan.
They decided that they would choose some of the most innocent looking followers they had and they would send those followers to ask Jesus a question.
And it was the kind of question that any answer he gave would still make him look bad.
It was the kind of question that any answer would offend someone.
And the Pharisees didn't go alone.
They took with them the Herodians.
The Herodians and the Pharisees were opposite kinds of people.
The Pharisees hated the Romans.
They didn't want them in Israel.
They didn't like Roman soldiers controlling their country.
The Herodians liked the Romans. They were supporters of King Herod. And Herod only got the crown because the Romans backed him.
But on this occasion, even though they didn't like each other, they agreed to plot together against Christ.
And so Jesus was in the temple just three days before he would be crucified.
And he taught a very interesting parable about a man who planted a vineyard and leased it to other people. But when was the time for them to pay the lease? They would never pay.
And he sent his servants to get them to give him his share. But they abused them and they beat them and they killed some of them.
And so the man who planted the vineyard said, they'll respect my son.
And he sent his son to get the people to pay for the lease.
And when the son was walking up to the vineyard, the people who leased it said, it's the air.
The old man must be dead.
If we kill the air, we can have the vineyard for ourselves.
And so they killed the heir.
And Jesus said in his parable that the man who owned the vineyard got his army together, and he came and he executed those murderers. And he gave the vineyard to people who he could trust who would pay the lease on time.
And the Pharisees heard that and said, may it never be.
You see, they saw themselves as the one who. Who had leased the vineyard. And they weren't paying. They weren't giving God what was his due.
And they saw the new people who were going to lease as people who would have control that they would lose.
And right after Jesus told that parable, they set their trap.
A man walked up to Jesus and he said, teacher, we know your reputation.
We know that you only teach what is true.
We know that you know the way of the Lord.
We know that you're not intimidated by anybody's harsh luck.
And we know that you don't show partiality.
And so we are going to ask you to be make a judgment about a disagreement we have.
The Herodians believe in paying taxes. And we Pharisees, we. We don't like paying taxes.
So tell us, ah, should we pay taxes or not?
They thought they had him.
If Jesus said, no, don't pay taxes, the Romans would arrest him for conspiring against the empire.
If he said, yes, pay taxes, then everybody who hated the Romans would feel like he was a Roman collaborator and, and wouldn't respect him or follow him anymore.
But Jesus was much more brilliant than they gave him credit for.
And he said, show me the coin that the Romans require you to pay taxes with.
And somebody dug in their pocket and pulled out denarius at that time, the denarius had the picture of Tiberius Caesar stamped on the front of it.
And the coin said Tiberius Caesar, son of divine Augustus Emperor.
And Jesus looked at the coin and he held it up and he said, whose picture's on this coin?
And everybody said, that's Caesar.
And who, who, who wrote this inscription, Tiberius Caesar, son of divine Augustus Emperor? And they said, Caesar.
And Jesus said to them, well, doesn't it make sense then to give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to give to God the things that are God's?
And they were stunned.
They thought they had the perfect trap and instead they trapped themselves.
Instead of trapping Christ in their anger, they trapped themselves.
And then Matthew says nobody knew what to do, so they simply turned around and walked away.
This was all three days before Christ was crucified.
It was probably on Tuesday after. Ah, ah, the Holy Week began on Sunday with the triumphal entry.
When I read this account, several ideas seem relevant today, as relevant today as they were then.
The first idea is, ah, how easy it is to lose our faith in anger.
How easy it is to allow ourselves to be angry in unreasonable ways and for that anger to become stronger than, than our faith.
Ah, we live in an angry culture.
You can't drive a mile without somebody being angry with you.
You can't turn on the TV without people yelling at each other.
We live in an angry generation.
And I believe if we're not careful and we let this generation have undue influence on us, our faith will suffer at the hands of senseless anger.
Do you hear this, brothers and sisters?
Anger is not a tool for goodness.
Anger does not accomplish good things.
The world never became more beautiful because more people got angry.
In fact, anger does to us exactly what it did to the Pharisees.
It confuses us, it makes us less competent.
I want you to know that on a good Friday like this, we ought to remember that our anger is one of the sins that Christ died for.
When Christ died on the cross, he died for our sins.
And the anger that we are so comfortable with, it drove the nails into his hands, it drove the spear into his side, it crowned his forehead with thorns.
The second thing I notice in this is, ah, sometimes we are guilty of groupthink.
Have you ever heard of groupthink?
That's where everybody in the group thinks the same way, so they automatically assume everybody else thinks that way.
I'm sure you've all been in that kind of environment. Everybody in the room thinks one way. So they get to believing that everybody in the whole world thinks that way.
It's one of Washington's biggest problems. People who live in Washington don't think like we think in real America.
The Pharisees were guilty of groupthink. They had made up their mind that Christ couldn't be a good person.
They had made up their mind that they were doing a wonderful thing to get rid of him.
They had made up their mind that no matter what he did or how much he helped people, he was still not acceptable. And so it was all right to use any means to get rid of him.
Groupthink affects religious people as much as non religious people.
I think we would all be healthier and we would all make a good, a good commitment if we were to say to God tonight, I'm more open to your spirit influencing my thinking.
I'm more open to you challenging my assumptions.
I'm more open to letting your spirit guide my thoughts.
And I'm going to give you more influence in my mind this year than I give cable news.
[00:15:47] Speaker B: Church.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: I am afraid that in way too many Christians lives, cable news has more influence than the spirit of the living God we listen to.
Everybody picks their side on the cable news. They like, they hear what they want to hear, it supports what they want to believe.
And somehow or another, the room for the Holy Spirit to say, there is a better way, there is a more beautiful way.
The room for the Holy Spirit to say, ah, ah.
Perhaps you would live a better life if you started thinking in a different way.
In fact, the Holy Spirit might say to you, whatever is true, whatever is good, whatever is lovely, whatever has good sense, ah. Whatever is leads to better self discipline. Think on these things.
James taught us that there is a wisdom that is from above. And that wisdom nurtures what is best in us, while our biases, our opinions and our groupthink nurtures what is worst in us.
If there would have been one Pharisee, just one, who would have spoken up in that meeting and said, you know, the guy feeds hungry people.
He can't be all that.
The guy causes blind people to see again.
If he were a wicked man, how could he possibly do that?
The man is not arrogant.
One day they brought children to Jesus and they tried to shoo the kids away and say, get out of here. Jesus doesn't have time for you kids. And Jesus said, not so fast.
Suffer the little ones to come to me and don't forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
If someone would have challenged the moment and simply reminded people of how good Christ was, and what wonderful things he had accomplished. It might have made all the difference in the world.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: Church.
[00:18:36] Speaker A: Can you see yourself as that person when things are ugly around you, when people are at their worst?
Might you be the one who says, because of Good Friday, I'm gonna put in a good word for Christ in this situation.
I'm not gonna be intimidated. I'm not going along with the group think this is a perfect moment for someone to say, but you have to remember how wonderful Christ is and what beautiful things he has done and how he has changed people's lives for 2,000 years.
This passage also strikes me as, ah, a challenge to hypocrisy.
When these people pretended to be interested in what Jesus said, they were just setting him up.
And Jesus recognized it and listen to what he said to them.
Ah, you hypocrites, why do you test me?
Ah, I don't wanna read the Bible and say, yeah, they were a bunch of hypocrites. I'd never do that.
I wanna read the Bible and say, in what ways have I been hypocritical?
I wanna read the Bible and say, are there times in my life that Christ could have very honestly said to me, you're a hypocrite?
[00:20:32] Speaker B: Church.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: It'S one thing to be called a hypocrite by people who don't like church, and I've heard that many times.
It's another thing to be called a hypocrite by my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
What is hypocrisy?
At the core of hypocrisy is the impulse to pretend to be somebody I'm not.
Do you see?
Ah, and in our culture, our hypocrisy shows up most when the pressure is on and we hide our faith.
Very few people that I know are hypocrites in the sense that they're too religious.
They, they, they act more religious than they are.
Our hypocrisy is usually just the opposite. We hide our faith and we pretend not to be as religious as we are.
Church I want you to know that Good Friday is a challenge to our hypocrisy.
If at any point Jesus would have said what the chief priest wanted him to say, he wouldn't have been crucified.
If at any point he would have said what Pilate wanted him to say, he wouldn't have been crucified.
But he refused the hypocrisy.
He refused to pretend to be somebody he wasn't.
And when the priest said to him, I hold you to the oath of God, Tell us, are you the Christ? He said, I am.
And someday you're going to see me coming in the clouds of glory with all the angels of God.
And the priest tore his robe and shouted, blasphemy, Blasphemy.
And the Sanhedrin said, he's worthy of death.
He was condemned to die because he acknowledged that he truly was the Messiah, the Son of God.
When the pressure was on, when it mattered, Jesus refused to hide.
Every Good Friday, I want to say to myself, I'm done hiding my faith.
I'm done trying to please people.
I'm done trying to fit in and act like my faith isn't the most important thing to me in the world. Church the hypocrisy of the average Christian is we hide our faith and Church it's unfair to Christ.
It's absolutely unfair to Christ.
When Christ was on the spot, he.
He proclaimed, he proclaimed his deity.
Church and he did it for me and for you.
And I want to have more of that Christ like boldness in my life. That when, when it really matters, when it, when it, when there is the most pressure to hide, that's when I want to be my most bold. Church the Christ of Good Friday deserves it.
There's another point in this story that when the hypocrites ask him the question Matthew wrote, jesus knew their evil.
He saw right through their hypocrisy. He saw right through their plan. He saw right to the heart. And he knew their evil plan.
In our Christian lives, we hide evil from the wrong people.
We, we try to hide our evil from each other and leave it exposed to Christ when we should, when we should, uh, worry more about Christ's opinion of us than other people's opinion of us. Church Ah, on Good Friday, it's a day for people like you and I to confess our sin.
It's a day for us to humble ourselves and say, this year I haven't been as good as I know I should be.
Dear God, I've done a good job of hiding it from the people around me, but you are the God who knows my heart.
And you know, you know what's happening in my soul. And, and I want to confess to you my sin. And I want to make a new start with you. I want to make a new start with you.
I want to. I want to start. I want to start living the inner Christian life that you want me to live.
I want to start thinking the thoughts you want me to think.
I want to start making the choices you want me to make. Good Friday is. Is a moment where we confess our sin because he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We're going to have a time a little bit later in the service where we get a moment where we're going to kneel down to God and we're going to whisper prayers to Him.
My prayer will be divided into two sections.
The first part of my prayer, I say to God, I'm sorry for being such a jerk.
I'm sorry for disappointing you.
I'm sorry for underperforming.
I'm sorry for harboring thoughts I shouldn't harbor.
I'm sorry for saying things I should have never said.
Sorry for not doing what I should have done and. And doing what I shouldn't have done.
That's what Good Friday is for, is to remember that everything I know bad about myself, Christ has already suffered for and died on the cross.
And so I can confess it to him because he's already paid the price for it.
He is already on my side.
It is his pure desire to make every single one of us more of who he created us to be.
And then the second part of my prayer, I pray this.
I'm asking for you to work in my heart so I will be more of the man you want me to be this year than I was last year.
I'm asking that you would do your good work in me, and this year I will be more of the man that you want me to be.
I will think more of your thoughts. I will make more choices guided by you. I will treat people around me more the way you want them to be treated. And I'll live out my faith in a way that's pleasing to you.
Jesus also challenged our culture.
They said, do we pay taxes or no?
They said, does it matter to God what I do with my money?
Uh oh.
Uh oh.
Does God want me to pay taxes to Rome or no?
In our American culture, how often do we invite God into our economic life?
When was the actual. When was the last time you actually prayed about your economic life?
When was the last time you invited God to give you wisdom about what you do with your money?
When was the last time you said to God, I know it matters to you, and so I want it to matter more to me.
And I'm asking you the very same thing the Pharisees ask. But. But I hope I'm not asking it with a hypocritical spirit.
Is it good for me to use my economic resources the way I'm using them.
[00:30:41] Speaker B: Church.
[00:30:43] Speaker A: I think that is a fair Christian question. And I think the best person you can ask that question of is the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Can you hear this?
The Pharisees said, we want to trap you, and we're going to ask you this economic question to do it.
You know what I believe? I believe evil wants to trap us and it asks us economic questions to do that.
Evil says to us, oh, don't you think you deserve this?
Evil says to us, just a little more, just a little more.
Evil says to us, it doesn't matter to God whether you help other people or not.
And evil traps us in our economic life because we're not bringing ourselves honestly to Christ and saying, I know this matters to you and I want you to have more influence and I want you to guide me in a richer way in my life.
I'm going to show you one more thing.
Jesus said, give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.
That coin is Caesar's coin. He made it. It has his stamp on it. It has his words on it.
Ah, but who made you?
Who has.
Whose image do you have?
Whose words have you hid in your heart that you might not sin against God?
Can you hear me?
In the very same way the coin represented Caesar had his face and words on it. We represent Christ.
We are his image bearers. We are being recreated in the image of Christ and His stamp, His Word is stamped upon us.
I wonder if you are giving to God what is God's. And by that I mean, are you really surrendering your soul to God?
Have you ever had a holy moment in your life where you say to God, I invite you into my life.
I invite you to make me the person that you want me to be.
I accept any grace you'll give me because I see myself as belonging to you.
[00:33:41] Speaker B: Church.
[00:33:44] Speaker A: I wonder, are you. Are you giving to God what is God's and that is your soul, the soul that he created, the soul that's being recreated in the image of Christ?
Or are you giving to Caesar what is his every April 15th and holding from God what is his every Good Friday church?
Your soul belongs to God.
He made it.
You are the product of his creative imagination.
All that you ever will be has its origin in the beauty and the wonder and the brilliance of the creative God and in the loving kindness of his recreation and making us acceptable to him.
And now Jesus says to us, are you giving back to the Father what really belongs to Him?
Or have you embezzled your soul from God.
And you say to yourself, it's my life and I'll do what I want.
[00:35:12] Speaker B: Church.
[00:35:15] Speaker A: This story ends without a conclusion.
The Pharisees and the Herodians are stunned and don't know what to say.
So they just walk away.
I'm hoping for something better tonight.
I'm hoping that the Holy Spirit will pass over your soul.
And in the quiet moments when we kneel before God, I'm hoping that you'll do spiritual business and you'll walk away from here tonight a little bit different than the way you walked in that you'll walk away from here tonight with a different sense of your relationship to Christ, with a new sense of how good it feels to be forgiven by him, with a new commitment and a new dedication to live the life that he created you to live and to live in communion with him. And for this year to be the best spiritual year of your life.
Our dear Heavenly Father, I pray that as only you can, your spirit would pass over our souls.
I pray that we would sense your presence.
I pray that we would have holy moments with you where you touch our hearts and we touch your eternal reality.
Then, Father, I pray that by the majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ, we'll leave here a little differently than what we came. In Christ's name, Amen.
