Extraordinary Interruptions

Extraordinarily Ordinary

Our daily lives are filled w/ ordinary routines.

Get up.

Quite time.

Go to work ( I may be the only one)

Lunch

Work

Dinner/supper

Monday I disciple a friend

Tuesday auxiliary

Wednesday men’s BS/PU the bread

Thursday BS

Friday date w/ Sara day, bills, etc.

Saturday evening service

Sunday

Next week: Repeat

In the midst of the ordinary there are punctuated times of the extraordinary. Rare, but real.

Saved at 17, dramatic life change. Purpose. Shy no more.

Healed when I was in college

Not a major thing but it made a major impact on me.

Each time we moved we saw God’s involvement.

1 year w/out a job was disconcerting.

But God was clearly preparing us for each other.

Nobody sinned so bad.

Nobody made a mistake or poor choice.

I don’t regret at all not getting any of those other jobs. I didn’t know it at the time, but none were as good a fit as this one.

God saved us for each other.

1 year to the day.

Then, another year to the day until our LR house sold.

Coincidence? Once maybe.

God was telling us He is trustworthy.

I can trust Him when things get hard.

There are a couple of problems we run into regarding God’s extraordinary work in our ordinary lives.

We become so used to the ordinary we stop looking for the extraordinary.

Satisfied. Content w/ managing our own life in our own power.

We can become addicted to the extraordinary and fail to see God involvement in the ordinary.

So, when nothing extraordinary happens for a while we become discouraged and we feel like God doesn’t care about us. We’re on our own now.

Both situations lead to us feeling like we need to manage our own lives instead of deepening our dependence upon Him.

Then, we encounter something hard and we don’t know how to handle it.

We’ve wandered away and been on our own for a while.

Nothing extraordinarily good has happened in a long time so in this extraordinarily hard storm we can’t see Jesus so we wonder, Is He really here?

We lost touch w/ Jesus in the ordinary.

And, we have such short memories b/c we have forgotten the times when Jesus did something extraordinary in the midst of our ordinary.

Jesus will do enough extraordinarily good in our lives so we can be sure we can trust Him when things get extraordinarily bad.

How do we know? Miracle #26

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Context

Peter has confessed that he believes that Jesus is the One.

Jesus is the Messiah. The only One who can save us.

Jesus told them He was going to build His church on the foundation of faith just like that.

Conceived in this moment; birthed at Pentecost.

This international, multi-cultural, supernatural, dynamic living organization that we are a part of today.

Ecclesia, not a building, but an association of people w/ a common purpose.

Established and built on faith like Peter’s.

Peter and the Apostles will have a major role to play.

But, he struggled w/ the idea that Jesus had to die to fulfill His calling as Messiah and Church-Builder.

In Peter’s mind, dead is gone forever.

“I’m not going to let that happen.”

His faith was correct, just incomplete, underdeveloped.

Jesus had to prove to him that dead is not gone, but still alive.

Transfiguration.

Moses and Elijah, dead hundreds of years, but clearly alive.

So, dead isn’t the end. Dead is just different.

The objective is going to become not to evade death on earth, but to achieve life in the kingdom.

Peter bets his eternal life on Jesus’ claim sets his earthly life on promoting this objective.

At Pentecost when the small group of believers come out of the upper room speaking in different languages it’s Peter who steps up and explains what is happening.

Jesus has just been executed by some of the people in the crowd who’d gathered to see this extraordinary spectacle.

Jesus is the Messiah, this is the Church. Believe and join us.

He became the unofficial apostle to the Jews.

He wrote 2 letters included in our NT.

He was persecuted, tortured, imprisoned and eventually martyred; crucified upside down.

If he was going to go thru all this, stick to the objective and the message to death, then he had to be sure it was true.

Who would die for something they didn’t believe in?!

Jesus isn’t the Messiah. Or, one of many ways to get to heaven.

He was there for all of Jesus’ messages and miracles. He walked on water. He messed up bad and personally experienced Jesus gracious reconciliation.

But, he also had the benefit of this private experience w/ Jesus which helped ensure his belief that this is all true.

Ordinary but Unnecessary

Matthew 17:24–26 NIV

After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” “Yes, he does,” he replied. When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?” “From others,” Peter answered. “Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him.

Matthew 17:24–25 NIV

After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” “Yes, he does,” he replied. When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”

Ordinary tax

When Moses led Israel out of Egypt, they were so eager for Israel to leave after the plagues, Egyptians gave Israel all their wealth.

Israel plundered Egypt w/out a war. They walked out w/ everything. Wealthy.

God instructed Moses to build a portable temple.

They were wandering thru the wilderness.

Tent of meeting.

Very specific instructions for an altar.

Very costly. Ornate. Gold.

In God instructed Moses to take a census of everyone who came out of Egypt.

Every person 20 years and older were required to pay a half-shekel tax.

A token of appreciation for God atoning for their lives.

Delivering them out of slavery.

Male, female, rich, poor all paid the same.

Out of the plunder from Egypt.

The money Moses collected was to be used to pay to create this traveling temple, the tabernacle.

It was a 1-time tax.

However, as happens in Washington D.C., temporary taxes have a way of becoming permanent when law-makers discover the revenue production and create new ways to spend it.

So, what was intended to be a 1-time tax became an annual tradition.

Ordinary tradition

Quick history:

Israel wanders for 40 years, finally enters the PL.

God promised as long as they lived faithfully and obediently they could stay in the land and it would produce.

They didn’t. Therefore, they couldn’t.

God sent Babylon in to run them out of the land.

70 years later they returned. Ezra and Nehemiah led them back.

They returned to ruins. Everything was destroyed.

And, this time, they entered poor.

No money and the needed to rebuild.

No money

So, hundreds of years later, they reinstituted the tax on their own. God did not tell them to do it this time.

And, they didn’t make it a 1x tax. It became an annual tradition.

They used the money to pay for the rebuild. But, they didn’t stop collecting when everything was rebuilt.

They used the money to buy animals to sacrifice, pay Rabbis salaries, pay for inspectors of sacrifices, copyists, bakers, custodians, water and temple supplies, and general temple repairs.

Very practical, pragmatic.

Just one problem. It is completely disobedient to what God instructed them to do.

The people were supposed to bring the sacrificial animals and grain offerings.

The Rabbis and priests were to take a percentage for their own food. They didn’t have any expenses to need a salary.

All the work and all the supplies were to be donated by the people.

They were supposed to give sacrificially and share equally, by percentage, in the care and maintenance of the temple.

This tax circumvented the process and denied the people the opportunity to share in the responsibilities.

The tax was not the law. It was tradition.

And, when Jesus showed up on the scene it was still being collected and the amount hadn’t changed.

A half-shekel or 2 drachma.

Everybody paid. There was pressure to pay.

It wasn’t the law, but this illustrates again how they had elevated their traditions above the law.

I knew of a church in Minot, ND that sent statements to their Air Force members. Every service person knows what everyone else makes as it’s based on rank.

The church leadership, very conveniently in the statements, listed the member’s rank and salary, and very politely calculating what 10% of the salary is and should be donated.

There was pressure to participate.

Shortly after arriving at Capernaum, Peter was confronted by a tax collector apparently b/c neither he nor Jesus had paid the tax.

Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?

Every know anybody who was careful to phrase their statements in the form of a question?

It was a shake-down. Pressured to pay.

The collector was probably a plant, attempting to create a situation where the temple leadership could accuse Jesus of disobedience.

Trouble-maker!

Peter didn’t need to ask Jesus. By answering in the affirmative he headed off a potential nasty confrontation between Jesus and the temple leadership.

Still, Jesus and His disciples should have been exempt.

It really didn’t apply to them.

Romans didn’t tax their own citizens to support the government, military, and infrastructure.

Jesus was recognized as a Rabbi and Rabbis didn’t pay.

They only taxed conquered people.

But that wasn’t the best reason He was exempt.

And, kings never taxed their own family.

Ordinarily exempt

This tax shouldn’t have been collected at all in the first place.

Matthew 17:24-

1x tax in the wilderness.

It shoul

Tradition over law.

Romans didn’t tax their own citizens to support the government, military, and infrastructure.

They only taxed conquered people.

And, kings never taxed their own family.

We’re talking about a temple tax.

The temple is God’s house. God is Jesus’ Father.

He’s a member of the family.

He and His associates are citizens of the heavenly kingdom.

Therefore, they were exempt by God’s law, Roman culture, and royal decree.

3 good reasons not to pay.

But, Jesus paid anyway. And, He did it in an extraordinary way.

Extraordinary and Impactful

Matthew 17:27 NIV

“But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

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Extraordinary grace

Jesus could have refused to pay the tax. But He didn’t want to offend them.

How ironic!

They’re plotting to kill Him and He doesn’t want to offend them.

This was too minor an issue to create a large disagreement.

He would have given them a reason, albeit bad one, to accuse Him and turn people against Him.

Everyone else paid the tax. What makes Him so special!

Jesus never broke the law. Their traditions were another story.

This time, He chose not to rock the boat. He decided to pay the tax.

And, He did so in a most creative way.

Extraordinary provision

Peter loved to fish. Jesus commanded that he do something he enjoyed doing.

Peter, being the obedient disciple, went fishing.

Jesus told him he’d catch a fish and find a 4 drachma coin in its mouth.

That would be enough to pay both of their taxes.

Jesus showed submission to the ruling party and Peter submitted to Jesus.

Well, it’s safe to assume he did.

Extraordinary impact

Point to the verse that describes the miracle. Not there.

Why not? The miracle is not the point.

What are the odds?

Prepared to go fishing.

Catch a fish.

A coin in its mouth.

Exactly 4 drachma, enough to pay their taxes.

Why didn’t Jesus pull a coin out of his own pocket?

Did He have pockets?

Why not go see Judas, the treasurer for the money?

Why didn’t Jesus pull one out of Peter’s ear?

Why go to such extraordinary lengths for just a shekel?

Do you think Peter remembered what happened this day?

What if Jesus just gave him a coin? What impact would that make in Peter’s life?

Jesus has claimed that He is THE Son of God, thus exempt from the temple Tax.

He has claimed that He is the THE Messiah. The only Messiah. Not one of many.

“I am the Way , and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except thru Me.”

He has proven over and over again that He alone has the power and knowledge to save us.

In order to fulfill His calling as Messiah He has to die. But He will live again. Then, He will leave.

Peter’s assigned purpose after Jesus leaves is lead the work thru which Jesus will build His church among Jews.

Paul to the Gentiles.

I’m sure there was a lot of ordinary routine in Peter’s life even after Jesus left.

But, there were times of extraordinary pain and suffering.

No doubt, he would question his calling and whether or not all the pain would be worth it.

Then, He would remember. This day. A private experience between just him and Jesus.

What are the odds he’d catch a fish?

What are the odds the fish would have a coin in its mouth?

What are the odds it would be exactly enough for their tax?

What are the odds when we all die we will see Jesus again?

What are the odds there is a heaven and the only way to get there is by faith in Jesus alone to get us there?

There is just enough extraordinarily good in our lives to trust that Jesus will take care of us when things get extraordinarily bad. Like, when we die.

Applications

Desire or drudgery

God will give you a desire to do what He wants you to do.

Don’t think that obedience requires drudgery.

If there is something you enjoy as much as Peter enjoyed fishing then there will be a service opportunity in it for you.

Just do it

Sometimes we need to do what we don’t need to do to avoid creating unnecessary conflict.

It’s not a sin. It’s wise. It’s gracious.

Don’t fight over principle alone.

Make every effort to keep the peace unless keeping the peace requires you to sin.

If it’s not that big of a deal, don’t make it a big deal.

Just do it.

Opportunity

If you never have taken advantage of an opportunity like this before don’t let this one pass you by.

For those of you who have been either faithful or occasional church attenders.

You believe God exists. And Jesus is something special.

But, you’ve never taken the step to accept Jesus as your Savior.

Or, maybe you’re hedging your bets. You believe Jesus but just in case you believe there might be another way, too, or maybe Jesus needs help.

Faith IN Jesus means faith in Him alone.

As your mind starts to consider heading down the hill for the season, if you’ve never taken an opportunity like this, take it now.

Jesus is just as involved in your ordinary routine as He is in the extraordinary experiences in your life.

Watch for His grace and mercy on a daily basis.

His mercies are new every day.

Then, when things get extraordinarily hard expect Jesus to show up in extraordinary ways.

Jesus will do enough extraordinarily good in our lives so we can be sure we can trust Him when things get extraordinarily bad.

And, He’ll make the bad, good again.