OUTLINE Rendering to Caesar Rendering to God INTRODUCTION What is the relationship between God and politics? That question will open up a can of worms. And right now in this moment in time when we have been two years under government mandates that have affected various freedoms many are asking this question. We have seen the recent Canadian Truckers Convoy that sparked off other convoys around the world. In our own country we have just seen the end of a 23 day protest outside of parliament. As long as there have been humans who have power over the lives of other humans we have come up against the question of God and politics. Does God expect us to live under tyranny; can Christians engage in civil disobedience and bloody revolution? These questions are not new they were also being asked in the first century. You will remember that the Jews who were God’s people, who had been given the holy land by God and were forced to be under Rome’s authority and put up with their invasive forces monitoring their activities and taking certain rights away from them. There would have been various groups with differing views on how things should work out. There were the Herodians who approved of Israel’s occupation by Rome, who welcomed progress, the legal reforms Rome brought, the improvements to society, and its high culture. Then there were the Zealots who were full of Jewish nationalism and wanted a repeat of the Maccabean revolution. Then there were the Pharisees who saw the Roman invasion as a curse on Israel for her disobedience to God’s law and how a pursuit of holiness who bring about God’s deliverance. Then there were those who were filled with Political Messianism, who were putting their hope in a miraculous military...

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OUTLINE A history of past hard-heartedness A revealing of present priorities A prophecy of future judgement INTRODUCTION We come to the last full parable in Luke’s gospel. There are other parables that are told between now and the crucifixion that the other gospels record like the parable of the virgins and the sheep and the goats. But this is the last parable that Luke tells, and this is for a reason. This parable will be known to us as the parable of the wicked tenants, but I love what one of the commentators calls it: The Parable of the Murder of the Owner’s Son. Jesus is 48 hours away from His crucifixion, He is 48 hours away from being wrongfully condemned and murdered by Israel and her leaders. This parable is a peculiar one in that it is an extended allegory. Where many other parables illustrate an important spiritual truth like the parable of the Prodigal Son that reveals God’s delight to receive penitent sinners, this parable is different. This is a parable that reflects on the history of Israel’s sin, the present rejection of their Messiah and the future judgement that must fall upon them. It has an overview of redemptive history, a messianic claim, and a prophecy of judgement that is coming. Each of the characters in the parable have clear correspondence to understood realities. The landowner is God, the vineyard is Israel, the tenants are Israel’s leaders, the servants are God’s prophets, and the beloved Son is Jesus. On display in this parable we see the grace and patience of God; the hardness of the human heart; and the inevitable judgement upon those who reject God’s overtures towards them. We will look at this parable under three headings: a history of past hard-heartedness; a revealing of present...

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OUTLINE Turning Tithing Testing INTRODUCTION ‘The bible leaves no question about it. God’s people are supposed to be rich…. God’s people are to be rich—financially wealthy and prosperous in every possible way, with plenty of money.’1 That is a quote from Kenneth Copeland. The prosperity gospel is a modern error that abuses many parts of the Bible, the portion before us is one of the most abused portions of the Bible by the prosperity gospel. The teaching on God’s character and grace and our responsibility to repent and to honor Him is overshadowed by a greed that seeks to control God through a mechanistic and formulaic abuse of these verses. We come to the 5th of 6 disputes in Malachi. God turns from the clergy to the laity, from the sins of the priests to the sins of the worshippers. There are various sins that are committed by Israel that they have been rebuked for. These sins have provoked God’s discipline of them and caused the deprivations they are suffering. V5 had listed several sins that they deserve judgement for, but v6-12 focuses on their worship and in particular their practice of tithing. Today as we look at God addressing this matter we will be looking at them under three heading, turning, tithing and testing.

OUTLINE The question of Jesus’ authority The question of John’s baptism INTRODUCTION It is Wednesday in the passion week, and this is a day of conflict and controversy. Just look down at chapter 20, notice v19, ‘the chief priests sought to lay hands on Him at that very hour.’ This chapter has several encounters of conflict. It begins with the leaders of the people questioning Christ’s authority, v1-8; v9-18 has the parable of the wicked tenants a hard hitting parable that condemns the rejection of the Messiah and the judgement that will follow; then we see Jesus questioned over taxes in an attempt to ensnare Him; then there is a question to try and catch Him out in His teaching on the resurrection; Jesus responds with a question which none of the leaders can answer and ends the chapter with a scathing denunciation in the hearing of all the people to beware of the scribes. Jesus is questioned about His personal authority; His political allegiances and His theological correctness, and in each encounter Christ proves to be more wise than those trying to ensnare Him. Jesus has just recently resurrected Lazarus from the dead, the popularity of this event led the leaders to conspire to kill Jesus so that the Romans won’t think it another revolt, John 11:45-53. Jesus then rode into Jerusalem like the King of Israel and would not silence the accolades and the praise that announced Him to be so. Jesus we know has just openly countermanded the High priest by driving out those moneylenders and vendors that he had approved, and openly accused him of neglecting God’s purpose of prayer and using the temple for criminal personal gain. The leaders are out for blood, they want to eliminate the problem of Jesus so that they can...

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OUTLINE The accusation The answer INTRODUCTION Sin creates reversals. Marriage as a relationship where we are to serve each other gets distorted into a relationship where we serve ourselves. God’s gifts in creation which are given to us that we might serve Him with them, get turned into gods that we serve as idols. The anger we are given to reflect God’s own passionate hatred of sin gets weaponized and turned against those we love. Another reversal exists in the text before us, the guilty accused make accusations of injustice against the holy Judge. In other words what we have before us is a typical problem of sinners accusing God of injustice because they are suffering. You will remember that Malachi is a Post-exilic prophet. The people of Israel were rightly exiled because of their sins, they spent 70 years in exile and God graciously restored them to the land though He had every right to wipe them out. Upon returning to the land they began to rebuild but many of the old sins began to reassert themselves. We see corruption in the priesthood, apathy in worship, and sin prospering in society. As a result the people of God who were hoping for better days, for God’s blessings, for more food and prosperity, but they were not seeing it. Malachi 2:17-3:6 is the fourth dispute between God and the people, here God exposes this accusation and makes His response. We will look at this section under two headings, the accusation and the answer.

OUTLINE Jesus enters the temple Jesus cleanses the temple Jesus’ zeal for the temple INTRODUCTION There are certain texts in the Bible that are pregnant with meaning; they have layers of meaning to unravel. Jesus’ actions in cleansing the temple is one such passage. The birth of Christ, the baptism of Christ, the transfiguration of Christ, these events are multivalent as they bring together several lines of promises, types and prophecies in the OT to a climactic fulfillment in Christ. Although Luke records Jesus cleansing of the temple in very few verses, they are packed full with significance. Today as we look at these verses we will be examining them under three headings: Jesus enters the temple; Jesus cleanses the temple’ Jesus’ zeal for the temple.

OUTLINE Children and divorce The heart and divorce Hatred and divorce INTRODUCTION We are in our third sermon looking at the matter of divorce. So far we have looked at the spiritual consequences for those who pursue divorce; what constitutes a marriage and last week we laid out an overview of the Bible’s teaching on divorce. We got as far as looking at Genesis to the teachings of Christ. I wanted to say one last word based on the teaching of 1 Corinthians 7 before we moved on with our exposition of Malachi 2:13-16. I feel that there is a missing ingredient in most discussions around Christians divorcing and it is the reality of membership and church discipline. Jesus told us that God allowed but did not command divorce because of hardness of heart, Matt. 19:8. Jesus helped us see that divorce for any reason is sinful but there are situations that involve sexual unfaithfulness that make it allowable. Paul in 1 Cor. 7 adds to the grounds for divorce including desertion. Paul says that if an unbeliever walks out on an unbeliever then the unbeliever is to be at peace. The Reformed churches have recognized that the innocent parties in these situations are free to remarry in the Lord. This where church discipline and the role of the church becomes so important in any divorce. Contrary to popular belief divorce is not a private matter that is just between the married couple and their lawyers. Every Christian is to be a member of a local church, being shepherded faithfully by elders. So if a marriage between members in the church is heading towards divorce, because hardness of heart, in other words sin is involved, the elders will have to get involved to seek a reconciliation. And if one or...

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OUTLINE The prophet King The humble King The weeping King INTRODUCTION The coronation of royalty has always been a loud and expensive affair. When Napoleon decided to crown himself emperor he got a crown called ‘the crown of Charlemagne’ made; a mantle that weighed eighty pounds and had to be carried by four helpers; he held a scepter that belonged to Charles V and a sword belonging to Philip III. The Pope was dragged into crowning Napoleon giving the impression of the approval of the Roman Catholic Church in an elaborate ceremony in Notre Dame. A hot air balloon with 3000 lights in the shape of the imperial crown was released during the ceremony. The whole affair cost 8.5 million francs. Compare that with the King of Israel coming to His capital Jerusalem in what has traditionally been called, the triumphal entry, Luke 19:28-44. The account of the triumphal entry is found in all four gospels. Jesus wears no crown or royal robes. Jesus has to borrow a colt to ride on. He was wearing all He owned and it would soon be taken from Him and gambled for. All the kings of the earth have delegated authority and power, but here is the one time when the true King walked among us and was received as King. There are two clear perspectives in the event before us, the perspective of the people and the perspective of the King. There was the perception of the people and the King they wanted; and there was the perception of the King and who He really was. Luke portrays for us all the various attitudes, we see the false expectations of the disciples; the rejection of the Pharisees, and the harsh realities of Jesus perspective. As we look at Jesus beginning His passion...

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OUTLINE The King receives His kingdom His servants await His kingdom INTRODUCTION ‘When Herod the Great died in 4 b.c., it was obvious to almost everyone that his son Archelaus would take his throne in Judea. However, there was only one man in the entire world who had the power and authority to crown Archelaus as king: the emperor Caesar in Rome. Although Archelaus began to rule immediately upon the death of his father, his royal title could be ratified only by Caesar Augustus himself. So Archelaus made the long journey to Rome, where he expected to be crowned as king in the temple of the Palatine Apollo. Unfortunately for Archelaus, there was active opposition to his monarchy, and when he arrived in Rome, he discovered that some of his own family members were rival claimants to the throne. Even worse, a delegation of fifty Jewish leaders came from Jerusalem seeking an audience with Caesar and claiming that Archelaus was unfit to govern. During Passover there had been a disturbance at the temple, and soldiers of Archelaus had rashly slaughtered some three thousand worshipers. The delegation from Jerusalem, backed by thousands of Jews who were then living in Rome, petitioned Caesar to liberate them from the authority of Archelaus. The whole business took much longer than anyone expected, but eventually Caesar decided to give Archelaus the opportunity to prove that he was worthy to be the king. Not surprisingly, when Archelaus returned to Judea he executed swift punishment against the men who had rebelled against his rule. He went away as a contender, but he returned as king, ready to exercise his royal authority.’1 These events that happened shortly after the birth of Christ 30 years earlier would be still be etched on the minds of the Jews, and it...

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INTRODUCTION Last week we began to engage with the second problem that Malachi was addressing around marriage in Israel. The Israelites were divorcing their wives to marry idolaters. We have dealt with the issue of being unequally yoked, last week we looked at the nature of marriage, today we continue with a look at the biblical teaching on divorce. Knowing how many questions there are on this matter I have chosen to expand our investigation. At present there are three main views held in the Christian Church. There is the view of acceptable divorce on the grounds of adultery and desertion, but with no remarriage. The second view allows for divorce on the grounds of adultery and desertion, and the right to remarry for the innocent party of these situations. And the third position says that there are many grounds for divorce and nearly all can remarry. I find myself between the second and the third views, for I feel that the only grounds for divorce being adultery and desertion are inadequate, and that there are many other situations where a Christian can remarry, but there are cases where I would also refuse to marry certain people. In our study today we are not going to explore all three of the views and argue theirs various points, the complexity of the views would need several volumes to record. We are going to put forward a particular view, moving from Genesis to the NT.