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Are you still reading the NT with us in 2016? It’s not too late to start, find the plan here.

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

I’m known for getting caught-up in what I’m doing and accidentally working through a meal. Have you ever done that? You were busy doing something and do didn’t realize how thirsty you were until you stopped to take a drink and then you can’t get enough. That is where most people are spiritually. They don’t deny that Jesus is real, they just don’t realize they have not yet taken a drink from his living water. We must receive the gift of eternal life through Jesus, it’s by no means automatic. Jesus stood up on the day of the Feast of Booths in Jerusalem when streams of water were flowing through the streets to symbolize God’s provision to the people and he said “this is me! You are thirsty, come take a drink…” He still offers the same to us, “come take a drink… and never thirst again.” You need Jesus, if you don’t have him, you are thirsty and you may not even know it.

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

What happens when we disagree? We don’t walk away. When you get in a disagreement, you need to go to that person. When you hear someone “discussing” someone in the church who isn’t present, you need to encourage them strongly to go DIRECTLY to them without talking to third parties. This isn’t just a suggestion, it’s what Jesus tells us to do. “It’s not my business” isn’t a phrase church members can honestly say, we are all members of one another and thus, it is our business… that’s membership. First go to them PRIVATELY. The second you talk to someone who’s not them, you’ve already circumvented the Lord’s prescription. If they aren’t reasonable or receptive to your honest, humble, biblical, loving critique, then bring a couple of other people into the mix… but these are people who are in the know, not just people “on your side.” These are meant to be “witnesses” who are somewhat already aware, not just your friends. Then what if this person isn’t willing to change? You bring it to the church.

Jesus is really clear on this one, you don’t bring it to the Deacons, the Elder board, the Pastor etc. “Elder Ruled” church is just not the New Testament model. The ultimate authority in the church is Jesus, and he is present in the assembly of the members, all of them. You take issues of membership “to the church” not a church representative. You start privately, and if they won’t listen, you get progressively more public until you bring in the entire church. Jesus, then, is in the decision the church makes. Whenever the church makes a decision, he’s in the midst of it. The way Jesus has chosen to make major decisions like who is in and out of his church is by congregational vote

And when his disciples James and John saw it [villages not willing to receive Jesus] , they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But he turned and rebuked them. And they went on to another village.

It is easy to be so caught-up in your own decision to follow the Lord all the way that you can become frustrated with those who are not “all in.” The disciples felt this when they saw the villages, places where Jesus had done some amazing things, who didn’t want too much Jesus. It was fine for Jesus to pass through and do some good, but when he wanted to stay there… that was a bit much for them. We may want to “call down fire” on the lukewarm, but don’t. Don’t waste your energy worrying about someone else’s commitment level, don’t cast your pearls before swine. Just leave the door open and move along to those who do have a desire to follow Jesus, there are plenty who’ve not yet been asked.

John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

It is tempting, when you see someone in the public sphere (on TV or Online) teaching or doing something in the name of Jesus you find to be suspect, to seek to correct them to the general public… the only problem with that is, there’s no Biblical warrant to do that. Are you a Pastor or a Sunday School Teacher? Then by all means, educate and equip YOUR OWN PEOPLE on what is faulty (according to the Bible) in what they might have seen on a blog or in a magazine, but this public open forum of “correcting wrong” is counterproductive and a waste of Jesus’ time (assuming you’re trying to live for Jesus). Just drop it… No I don’t need to hear about how such-n-such pastor is running his church wrong, stop telling me about how this person is poison because he’s not a 5-point Calvinist or because he is a 7-point Calvinist… just stop… stop now. Are you upset that I’m telling you something? How do you like that? As a Pastor, I’ve got no authority to suggest how anyone outside my Church should act (see: 1Cor 5). So, to the folks at my church, if you see people from another congregation doing something, bless their hearts and move along. We’re not the “Christian Police.” The pattern Jesus gave us in Matthew 18 is for OUR OWN CONGREGATION, not others’. 

When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?” He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?” And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”

Historically speaking, those who picked-up and followed a Rabbi/Teacher were young teenagers. That also seems to be the case for Jesus’ followers, except for Peter. We know (from Luke) that Jesus began his public ministry at “about 30 years of age” (so mid-30s) and his disciples would have been younger, but this little exchange about the “Temple Tax” gives us more insight. This tax was for those who were 21 and older, and though all the disciples were present, only Peter and Jesus demanded the tax. That means the rest of the disciples were under 21 yet probably over 12, with Peter being older than 21 yet under 30-ish. Does that give you a different picture of the disciples? They were, by our standards, kids… yet, within 3 short years, they were released to see thousands upon thousands of people come to know Jesus as savior. Millennials are not the church of tomorrow, they are the church of today…