Matthew Chapter 17 Verses 18 – 21

• Jesus says with the smallest bit of faith, mountains will move…and man that is true but one thing that does not mean, mountains won’t move for YOU, they move for God. James says, “You have not because you ask not and when you do ask, you ask amiss, you ask for what you can spend on yourself!” God is not going to move a mountain to a position outside of His will…make sense? Do mountains move? Yes! But not to crush or cover up God’s will…How do you forcibly, willfully bend to God’s will? Learn Him (illustration)…and then…Prayer…and fasting…
• Now look at this! What was too hard for the disciples is five words for Jesus! I need to remember that! Things easily overwhelm me and momentary circumstance can cause me to lose it in the blink of an eye…but God is faithful. He hasn’t changed. He is the same as he was a moment ago before I knew what I now know…(It’s like that country song, “I wish I didn’t know now, what I didn’t know then…” But Jesus knew it then and He’s still seated on the throne!
• Also, there could be a little bit of “you need Me” in here. There certainly is for me. Yes I can do all things…and nothing is impossible for me…but it’s I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me…and it’s with God, nothing will be impossible…Although we can move mountains and we can overcome this world, on my own, I really can do nothing…it’s stunning actually how often I forget that!

• There’s more here…I love the fact that this father doesn’t give up! The disciples were wildly unsuccessful and yet here he is, coming to Jesus (I’m so thankful for men and women like him – when the disciples fail, they go to Jesus)…It’s always too early to quit when it comes to seeking the Lord and I love the outcome of this scene because of what it reinstalls that for me…(you ever have to reinstall SW?)

• Finally, you gotta know this…the goal of darkness and evil in your life is not to feed your flesh and to give you the whole world, that’s just some of the tactics employed (branches on the tree)…the strategy, the root goal of anything of darkness and sin in my life and yours is to make you fall…burn you out, choke you out, drown you out…take you out…while the whole while you hate those trying to bring you Jesus. Be awake to this fact. Accept it or not, but be awake to it…and remember this, Jesus doesn’t mess with symptoms, He strikes right at the cause! He goes after the evil and that’s the good medicine that I need…

• I don’t need behavioral alteration imperatives or the bankrupt offerings of worldly advice and psychological antidotes…believe in myself, accept myself, blame it on my childhood or on my wife…man I don’t even want to blame it on the rain! HA! I want to own it! And then to take it, whatever it is, to Jesus…(here’s the key – changing my mountainous position) kneeling and ask for His personal help…I just don’t need symptoms treated, treat my problem…

Matthew Chapter 17 Verses 22 – 26

• How do you think Matthew felt in this moment…? I’m just sitting in the room with them, watching this scene and wondering, is Matt just staring at the ground? You know, the career tax collector. Is he wide eyed with a solution? Could be…he might be anticipating Jesus asking him how to get out of it possibly or what his thoughts are…I mean, Matthew is the expert, right? Who knows, just a thought that places me in this scene…but look at what Jesus messages…

• Matthew, you were a king of this earth and as a king of the earth, fellow man were all strangers (enemies)…meaningless to you…now you are a son of the King of kings…and in that decision, in that mind, heart, soul and strength change (Mountain movement)…now the men and women of the earth are family…It is truly amazing what God will do to and with a heart that is given to Him…

• And this statement is SO big because here’s the thing…if you are a son or daughter of God then you have chosen to be free! But if you deny the one true and living God then you yourself choose to be estranged…the tax is coming, and if you have eyes to see, the tax is already now as you rip yourself off of relationship with the Father and the life He has for you…you’re climbing the mountain constantly when He is ready to just move it out of the way for you!

Matthew Chapter 17 Verse 27

• This is interesting because Jesus, in my impression just had an intensely relational moment with Matthew and now He does the same with Peter. Life lesson time! Lesson as a result of a relationship time…and man God does this all the time! (Does He do this with you? How’s your relationship? How’s your seeking life? (Study, prayer, faith and fasting life)) Peter was a fisherman…that was his expertise…but as a king of the world, he fished with a net…broad-casting, get as much profit for yourself as you can…and when you fish like that, with a net…in the corners of your life, in a way, you will fish for the net…always looking for the net everywhere else…get the most profit for myself…
• Jesus says, cast in a hook. This must have been humbling for Peter but he could have caught what Jesus was saying (pretty punny I know). That as a king of the earth, all you do is get and gather and it’s never enough…follow me and I will make you fishers of men…you’ll have a heart for that one lost sheep…one at a time, personally and equally important to the Father and to you…
• And this is a cool scene to end on because Jesus does not have to pay this tax…but He does anyway… Culturally He doesn’t have to pay because He is a Rabbi and rabbis were exempt from paying the temple tax…but He says, “Lest we offend them.” Jesus is all about causing a stir and a scene, even a controversy or conflict, but only when it is needed…we ought to install that…
• Practically, think about this, practically He doesn’t need to pay either. He is Emmanuel, God with us…He is God Himself and thus the temple tax is, in a way, tax to His own house…He doesn’t have to pay that…if righteousness were complete at the temple, He would be the One receiving the funds! And so even the way He pays it reveals His deity.

• Spurgeon said it this way, “Thus the great Son pays the tax levied for His Father’s house; but He exercises His royal prerogative in the act, and takes the shekel out of the royal treasury. As man He pays, but first as God He causes the fish to bring Him the shekel in its mouth.”

• On top of all of that…he just explained that He is free and in Him, Peter is free as well…but look at what He does…He pays a debt that He does not owe and moreover, He pays it for others as well…where did that payment come from? That piece of payment…from the Father’s treasury…He was and is the treasure of all eternity…and the Father, because of His great love, and mercy and grace for you gave His treasure to offer to become yours…
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