Good morning. Another
parable about the kingdom of heaven: it may be compared to a king who gave a
wedding feast for his son. He sent his slaves to tell everyone it was time to
come. They were unwilling. Some even mistreated and killed his slaves. Those
people the king destroyed. He sends his slaves out to the highways to invite as
many as they find to the wedding feast. There are both good and evil people at
the feast. There is a man who is not dressed in wedding clothes. The king
wanted to know how did he come in there without wedding clothes. The king had
him cast into the outer darkness. Many are cold and a few are frozen. I meant
many are called but few are chosen. You and I would think why is the king
upset? After all he just pulled this guy off the street; why in the world would
he have wedding clothes on? Generally a rich person like a king would have the
wedding clothes himself for the guests to put on. This parable was again emphasizing
that the scribes and Pharisees were the ones who had been invited to the
wedding feast. They rejected the invitation from God and soon would kill His
Son. So God called the “nobodies" to come to the feast. This got the
Pharisees upset and so they counseled together how they might trap Him in what
He said. They start out by trying to butter Him up. You are truthful and teach
the way of God in truth, and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any.
Now the zinger: is it lawful to give a poll tax to Caesar, or not? No matter
which way He answers, someone is going to be upset - either the people because
they hate the tax, or the Roman government because He is trying to incite
people to not pay the tax. Jesus asks for a coin that is used to pay the tax.
Whose likeness and inscription is this? Caesar’s. Give to Caesar what belongs
to him, and to God what belongs to Him. Father thank You that You look after
the reader’s family. Put Your protective shield around them. Help them to feel
comforted by Your presence.
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me
Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
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