{"id":12203,"date":"2020-10-30T20:00:50","date_gmt":"2020-10-31T03:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/luke_20_9-18-copy\/"},"modified":"2020-10-30T20:22:41","modified_gmt":"2020-10-31T03:22:41","slug":"luke_20_19-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/luke_20_19-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Be Wise with Your Words"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luke 20:19-26 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Luke 20:19-26. Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Luke 20:19-26 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n19 \u00a0The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him\u00a0<\/em>immediately,<\/em>\u00a0because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.
\n20 \u00a0Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be honest. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor.
\n21 \u00a0So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is\u00a0<\/em>right,<\/em>\u00a0and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
\n22 \u00a0Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
\n23 \u00a0He saw through their duplicity and said to them,
\n24 \u00a0“Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and inscription are on it?”
\n25 \u00a0“Caesar’s,” they replied. He said to them, “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
\n26 \u00a0They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 19-26: The teachers of the law and the chief priests were fully aware that Jesus\u2019 parable of the tenants (verses 9-16) was Jesus\u2019 way of exposing their intent to kill him.\u00a0So they thought, \u201cThe sooner we can get rid of this guy the better\u201d. The question is how.\u00a0They were too scared to oppose Jesus publicly anymore, thinking, \u201cIf we oppose him publicly, he might humiliate us again, or else the people who love him so much will come to his defense and make us look bad.\u201d So because \u201cthey were afraid of the people\u201d (v19), the teachers of the law and the chief priests pay some spies to question Jesus about paying taxes, in the hope that Jesus would say something \u201canti-Roman\u201d that they could then take to the Roman governor. However, Jesus, aware of what they were trying to do, would not be trapped by their schemes. His brilliant response to the spies\u2019 question about paying taxes was not anti-Roman at all, but affirmed the importance of being good citizens and good lovers of God.\u00a0Thus the spies had nothing on Jesus to complain about to the Roman governor.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Part of loving God is respecting the laws of the land where you live, to the extent that those laws don\u2019t offend God\u2019s own laws.<\/p>\n

2. From these verses I learn the importance of speaking carefully and tactfully. How careful are you with your words?\u00a0Have you ever gotten yourself in trouble because you weren\u2019t as careful as you should be with your words? Proverbs 12:13 says, \u201cAn evil man is trapped by his sinful talk, but a righteous man escapes trouble.\u201d \u00a0Jesus himself says in Matthew 12:37, \u201cFor by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.\u201d\u00a0Since our words have the power to get us into trouble or to make us a blessing, let\u2019s ask God for wisdom in the way we use our words<\/strong>. As Paul writes in Colossians 4:6, \u201cLet your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lord Jesus, thank You for all those who took part in our church wide fast these past 3 days.\u00a0We remember today that the reason why we fast is not to earn Your approval or to force You to give us what we want.\u00a0After all, the way we sacrificed our bodies can never compare to the way You sacrificed Your body for us.\u00a0So we fast and pray simply out of love, to humble ourselves before You and to focus on You. Would You bless all those who sought You with a humble, open heart these past 3 days, and would You bless Your church to do even greater things going forward.<\/em><\/p>\n

We also pray for wisdom in our words, that we would be more like You in the way we speak to others, using our words to give You praise, to avoid unnecessary trouble and to be a blessing to others. In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Luke 20:19-26. Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Luke 20:19-26 (NIV)\u00a0
\n19 \u00a0The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him\u00a0immediately,\u00a0because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.\u00a0
\n20 \u00a0Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be honest. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor.\u00a0……<\/p>\n

On verses 19-26: The teachers of the law and the chief priests were fully aware that Jesus\u2019 parable of the tenants (verses 9-16) was Jesus\u2019 way of exposing their intent to kill him.\u00a0So they thought, \u201cThe sooner we can get rid of this guy the better\u201d. The question is how.\u00a0They were too scared to oppose Jesus publicly anymore, thinking, \u201cIf we oppose him publicly, he might humiliate us again, or else the people who love him so much will come to his defense and make us look bad.\u201d So because \u201cthey were afraid of the people\u201d (v19), the teachers of the law and the chief priests pay some spies to question Jesus about paying taxes, in the hope that Jesus would say something \u201canti-Roman\u201d that they could then take to the Roman governor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12205,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12203"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12286,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12203\/revisions\/12286"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}