Divided Loyalties Don't Work Scripture: Matthew 6:22-24

²² Your eyes are like a window for your body. When they are good, you have all the light you need. ²³ But when your eyes are bad, everything is dark. If the light inside you is dark, you surely are in the dark.

²⁴ You cannot be the slave of two masters! You will like one more than the other or be more loyal to one than the other. You cannot serve both God and money. (CEV)

- When I was in grade 10, I didn't realize that I needed glasses.

- I assumed that I could see as well as everybody else or that everybody else saw the same way I did.

- I sat in class, squinting at the board, taking longer than everyone else copying notes often wondering why I was always so slow to get my notes down on paper.

- I never noticed anyone else squinting at the board.

-That fact should have been an indicator, a hint that I had an eye- sight issue, but I was so busy trying to get my work done because of my seeing problem I never noticed.

- For the longest time, it never occurred to me that I might need glasses.

- My problem was not just a sight problem. It wasn't simply the fact that I couldn't see properly.

- My problem was a perception problem.  I assumed that I was okay, when in fact I wasn't okay.

- Before I could get my eyes tested and get glasses, I had to realize that there was something wrong in the first place.

- Jesus said, "Your heart will always be where your treasure is." (CEV), and he went on to talk about how our hearts control our point of view, how we see and perceive our life.

- If we value or treasure eternal things, then our hearts are in the right place. But if we value or treasure earthly or worldly things, then our hearts are not in the right place.

- The state of your heart influences your perception.

- Your heart in what you treasure controls what you see.

- Only when our hearts are in the right place because we treasure eternal things can we see things and evaluate things for what they truly are.

- I had to learn that my assumptions about my eyesight were wrong before I could get eyeglasses to correct my eyesight.

- Eyes that are focused see properly.

- When we focus on the eternal our hearts become filled with the generous grace of God.

- We don't see double. We don't have blurred vision. Our focus is in the right place.

- Since our focus is in the right place, we can see with clarity the world God has made and the needs within it, and we can see how God wants us to meet those needs.

- However, for those who store up treasure down here on earth, their vision is bent out of shape and blurred by materialism.

- Hoarding money and goods is really materialism which is worshiping something less than God.

- New Testament scholar Craig S. Keener writes, "Those who justify their pursuit of material possessions by comparing themselves with others will blind themselves to the truth of their disobedience and affect their whole relationship with God" (Keener, Matthew, 232).

- Those that focus upon material wealth are not focusing upon the light, but upon darkness.

- Materialism is unhealthy and sick because it creates in people's lives a lack of light.  Wherever there is a light deficit evil thrives.

- So what Jesus was saying was that when we hoard money and stuff for ourselves, and refuse to help others in need, then we fill ourselves with darkness.

- Storing up treasure in heaven is what creates inner light, and without inner light, it is impossible to shed light in the darkness.

- If those who are supposed to produce light produce only darkness, then how terrible is that darkness.

- The healthy eye Jesus talked about represents the light of God's goodness shining into our lives, while the unhealthy eye Jesus talked about represents evil in that it is always self-centered and greedy.

- Jesus talked about one eye to draw our attention to the fact that we need to be single minded in focusing upon our devotion to God.

- If we have a single eye, meaning a single focus, then our vision is undivided.  Our eyesight will not be divided between two masters.

- By saying "no one can serve two masters" Jesus was, of course, exaggerating because we do serve the interests of our employers and our families and we have other loyalties as well as to God.

- But, Jesus exaggerated to make a point, which was that full loyalty cannot be divided between two masters who have "competing and conflicting interests" (Evans, Matthew, 156).

- Loyalty to material wealth, i.e., money and stuff, demands a self-centered life, while loyalty to God requires service to others.

- The two loyalties cannot coexist.  Eventually, one will win out over the other and God has not left room for self serving indulgence.

- Those who place their loyalty in wealth come to rely upon it and instead of mastering their wealth, their wealth masters them and their wealth becomes their god.

- It is impossible to be completely loyal to God while indulging a loyalty to wealth.

- Divided loyalties don't work; instead, let's give our all to God.

- God has called everyone to take up the cross of self denial as we follow Jesus.

- That picture of self denial is not a carbon copy for everyone because we all live different lives and we are all different people. 

- But there will be enough similarities for people to recognize that there is something different about us and that something is that we have been with Jesus.

- Divided loyalties don't work; instead, let's give our all to God.

- The single largest competitor for a vital and authentic Christian faith in the Western world is materialism, i.e., the love of money.

- Materialism is the dominant false religion of Western culture.

- So, the question we must answer if we want to have an authentic Christian faith is:

- How is my eyesight?  What is my perception?  Where is my loyalty?

- Let's take time for a reality check.

- Am I possessed by my possessions; mastered by my money?

- OR...  Am I set free from slavery to stuff because I have made loyalty to God my focus?

- Divided loyalties don't work; instead, let's give our all to God.

The Invitations of Jesus, 2; Kingdom Stewardship, 1: "Eternal Investment" Matthew 6:19-21

- Someone once said, "Save a little money each and every month, and at the end of the year, you'll be surprised at just how little you have."

- It's funny, isn't it? Not funny, as in, "ha ha, that was funny," but funny, as in, sad and true.

- When we invest or deposit very little, then we will have very little to show for it.

- That is exactly what Jesus taught about investing in the kingdom of God.

- And Jesus wasn't just talking about being generous with money; he was talking about generosity as a lifestyle.

- Many of us get uncomfortable when pastors start talking about money. Let me comfort you, I am uncomfortable too.

- But if we are going to be faithful followers of Jesus, then we have to talk about money because Jesus talked about money more than he talked about heaven, hell or prayer.

- Let's face it. We live in a consumer oriented society, which means that our society is focused on the buying and selling of goods and services more than anything else.

- Our society is focused on creating and building up material wealth, getting more stuff and making more money.

- The world in which we live lives by this motto: more is better.

- As Christians who claim to follow Jesus, we need to learn to see the insanity of focusing our lives on more money and more stuff.

- The sad truth is: sometimes more is not better. Sometimes more is just more.

- Where we invest our time and our money plainly reflects what we value most.

- Jesus invites us to practice his resurrection and grow God's kingdom in our lives by pursuing a more sensible way of life rather than hoarding money and stuff.

- As Eugene Peterson puts Jesus words. ^19-21 “Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.

- As we learn to trust God, we will stop hoarding stuff and money here on earth and start living like stockpiled heavenly treasure is what really matters.

- One way or another, money and stuff disappear.

- Stuff wears out or gets damaged beyond repair. Money gets spent replacing worn-out and damaged stuff.

- The closer we hold money and stuff to our hearts, then the further our hearts turn away from God.

- The apostle Paul tells us, "the love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil," (1 Timothy 6:10).

- It's the love of money that makes big business corrupt. It's the love of money that causes people to turn a blind eye to poverty and injustice. 

- As a people who confess that Jesus is Lord and believe God raised him from the dead, we must align our priorities with God's kingdom.

- Where are our priorities? What is most important in our lives?

- Jesus demands that his followers make a break away from hoarding money and stuff because the love of money corrupts the heart.

- As followers of Jesus, Jesus asks us to hold our stuff and our money at arm's length rather than tightly against our chest so that we may freely give them to Jesus when he has need of them.

- Jesus wants his followers to know that his call upon our lives goes deeper than just the basics like tithing.

- As Jesus said, "You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things." (Matthew 23:23b)

- Investing in heaven is about helping the poor and the needy; it's about doing good works. 

- Jesus expects those who believe in his resurrection to practice it through generous works of justice, mercy and faith.

- Jesus wants to know where our loyalty is. Will worldly wealth rule over us or will we allow Jesus to rule our hearts and lives?

- Our loyalties lie with what we value most, so let's value God's kingdom most.

- God is the great provider. He named himself Jehovah Jirah, meaning, I am the Lord who provides.

- Jesus promises abundant life to those who follow his ways and yet our mentality is a "have not" mentality.

- We live in a so-called have not province so we think we are a have not people.

- We need to realize something. If we believe that we are have not people, then we believe a lie rather than God's truth.

- Let's look at reality for a moment.

- If you have food in your fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, then you have more wealth than 75% of the world.

- If you have money in the bank, your wallet, and some spare change, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

- God has provided abundantly for our needs, and that's the truth.

- Jesus warns against hoarding wealth, but Jesus does not condemn our wealth. Instead, Jesus gives us a promise.

- Jesus promises eternal rewards to those who share their abundance with the poor and needy.

Wordeed 8: "Expect the Unexpected" Scripture: Matthew 28:1-15

- In a modern-day court of law the reliability of a witness's testimony is of great importance, which is one of the reasons why the modern justice system favors expert witnesses.

- Unless the evidence clearly contradicts an expert's testimony, their statement is proof enough.

- In Matthew's Gospel, we have a situation that pits the expert testimony of the Roman soldiers against the witness of the women and the reader is given a choice.

- Whose testimony will the reader believe either the expert testimony of the Roman soldiers or the testimony of the women?

- Whose testimony will you believe?

- First, let's look at the testimony of the Roman soldiers.

- ¹¹ While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. ¹² When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, ¹³ telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ ¹⁴ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” ¹⁵ So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

- Matthew tells us, "Some of the guards...reported to the chief priests everything that had happened."

- Now, we need to ask ourselves, what did the guards experience? What did they witness?

- Matthew tells us: ² There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³ His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. ⁴ The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

- The guards experienced the earthquake.

-The guards saw the angel of the Lord coming out of the sky.

-The guards saw the angel go to the tomb, roll back the stone and sit on it.

- The guards saw the glorious form of the angel.

- The guards were so terrified by this experience that they fell into a dead faint.

- What an experience!

- What did they do after they came to?

- Some of them went and reported their experience to the chief priests.

- Why is that important?

- It was the chief priests which held political power over the Jews, second only to Rome.

- To say the least, they had no desire to see an uprising by the Jews (their own people) that would threaten their power.

- If the resurrection of Jesus was real, then they had motive to cover it up, which is exactly what they tried to do.

- They gave the soldiers a large sum of money, ¹³ telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’

- Not only did they pay the Roman soldiers to spread false testimony. They also promised the soldiers that they would deal with the governor.

- ¹⁴ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.

- The evidence that the Roman guards gave the chief priests was strong enough that the chief priests found it impossible to bring charges against the soldiers.

- So, what did they do? They resorted to payoffs and lies to silence the guards' story of Jesus' resurrection and put a stop to this new threat.

- Now, Roman soldiers were held to the strictest of disciplines, and failure to carry out their duties was punishable by death.

- We read that "Some of the guards" reported to the chief priests.  Some of the guards! How many were there?

- History shows that the smallest number of soldiers for a Roman guard unit was four, but the usual number of soldiers for a unit was 16.

- These were professional, well-trained, highly disciplined soldiers.

- Because Matthew tells us that "some of the guards" reported to the chief priests, rather than all of the guards, then there's no reason to suggest that the guard posted at the tomb was less than the usual number, 16.

- Why is any of this important?

- It is important for two reasons: 1) the tomb was well guarded; and 2) the disciples could not have removed the body illegally.

- Now, this brings us right back to their original testimony and to the fact that the chief priests bribed them not to tell the truth about their experience.

- The Roman soldiers as disciplined, highly trained professionals were our expert witnesses. What can we say but so much for their expert testimony;

- Their false witness actually serves to support the women’s story

- What of the women's testimony? Just like the soldiers...

- The women experienced the earthquake.

-The women saw the angel of the Lord coming out of the sky.

-The women saw the angel go to the tomb, roll back the stone and sit on it.

- The women saw the glorious form of the angel.

- The women were also terrified...

- ...but that's where similarities end.

- Matthew describes for us the rest of the women's experience.

- ⁵ The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. ⁶ He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. ⁷ Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

⁸ So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹ Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

- The women heard the angel's testimony that Jesus has risen, as he promised.

- The women saw that the tomb was empty.

- The women met Jesus and touched him.

- The women were instructed, first by the angel and also by Jesus, not to fear and that he would meet his disciples in Galilee.

- It is no secret that in the ancient world under Roman law a woman's speech and testimony was questionable.

- And under Jewish tradition a woman's testimony was never accepted over the testimony of a man.

- If Matthew wanted to create a resurrection story with reliable witnesses, then he would've made the first witnesses to Jesus resurrection men.

- At that time, the report of the guards, although easily proven false, would have received more respect.

- So why did Matthew include the women as the first witnesses to Jesus resurrection?

- The first reason is simply because the story is true.

- The women were in fact the first witnesses to the resurrection, making them the first to share the good news of Jesus' resurrection with the rest of his disciples.

- The second reason has to do with God's agenda, his plan (i.e., it's a theological reason).

- Just as Jesus allowed women to sit at his feet to hear his teaching alongside men, God is doing a new thing in the resurrection of Jesus.

- In a society that robbed women of their voice and their rights, God announces and restores the dignity of women as created in God's image together with men.

- Because of Jesus, women and men can lift their voices together to witness to the good news that Jesus is risen.

- Women can act as equal witnesses.

- So, whose testimony will you believe? Will you believe the testimony of Roman soldiers who were bribed by the chief priests not to share what they really experienced that Easter Sunday 2000 years ago?

- Or will you believe the testimony of the women who saw the angel, the empty tomb, and heard the message that Jesus lives, and also saw, touched, and heard Jesus and took this news to the rest of his disciples?

- Whose testimony will you believe?

- I hope your choice is to believe the testimony of the women.

- God chose women who would never officially be chosen to speak to be the first to share the good news of Jesus.

- Well, now what? God uses unexpected people to share the unexpected message that Jesus lives!

- Most often, God doesn't use the experts to share the truth that Jesus lives and what it means for us that he lives.

- No, most often God uses unexpected people.

- God longs to use unexpected people, people like you and like me, to share the true story that Jesus is risen.

- The question is: do we want to allow God to use us?

- Once we have accepted the testimony of the women and chosen sides, God expects that we will do the unexpected.

- As we learn to follow, trust, and obey Jesus more, then we can become a people devoted to doing the unexpected.

- God uses unexpected people to share the unexpected message that Jesus lives.