Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Get to Heaven | New Testament | Matthew 22

Episode Date: January 31, 2023

If you follow all of God's rules, will you get to heaven? What qualifies you for God's kingdom? Is the kingdom of God fair? In today's episode, Tanya shares what qualifies you for eternal life according to Matthew 22. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in 2023. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Matthew 22

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmeth. Imagine that you bought your tickets, you made matching shirts for everyone in your family, and you got to the gates of Magic Kingdom and Disney World. And then you found a sign at the gate that said, today's entrance is free. There will be no refunds or tickets that are already purchased,

but anyone is welcome to enter today. You might be frustrated and rightly so. you paid for your family to be there, you don't want to face super crowded lines. This isn't fair. This isn't the Magic Kingdom experience you've spent a year planning for. The Jewish leaders and teachers might have had a similar attitude to the things Jesus was saying about the kingdom of God. It didn't seem fair. They had dedicated their lives to upholding the rules and the laws. And what Jesus taught about himself, being the only way to enter God's kingdom, clashed with the kingdom that they wanted to live in. Their status and their power came from an

outward way of life they had constructed, and Jesus wasn't the kind of king they wanted to attach themselves to. And then to make matters even more challenging, Jesus could see through their words and into their motives. And this made them uncomfortable and angry. And then they grew in their resistance to Jesus and the things that he was teaching. So the more Jesus spoke about the upside on nature of his kingdom, the more upset and frustrated the Sadducees and the Pharisees became. In Matthew 22, Jesus had already made his entry into Jerusalem, and he was in some of the final moments of his earthly teaching, and the tension of his ministry was building, and it was about to climax in his arrest. And in this chapter, the zealots, the Sadducees, and the Pharisees,

came to Jesus with questions, and they were questions not really based on curiosity, but more intended to trap Jesus and try to get him to say something that would be grounds for arrest. But Jesus used each of these questions to do a couple of things. First, he used them as a catapult to deliver a truth that was far superior to what the actual question was looking for. And second, he used them to penetrate the depths and the truths of the human heart. Now, the first group that came to Jesus was the political zealots, and under Roman authority, the Jews were subjected to a highly contested Roman poll tax. Now, the zealots had initiated a battle against this tax 25 years earlier,

but the tax was still present and it was strongly, strongly resisted by patriotic Jews. So to Jesus, they said, we know you're a man of integrity and that you teach in the way of God. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? Obviously, it was a loaded question. To support the tax was impatriotic and to resist it was dangerous. So thinking they had tricked him into a position that would falsify his authority or make someone on some side angry or mad, they waited for his answer. But Jesus turned the tables on their scheme.

He exposed them when he asked someone to show him a Tenarius. A patriotic Jew shouldn't even be found carrying a Roman coin, but when they quickly produced one, it revealed their own hypocrisy and double standards. So what can we learn? Well, they wanted to reduce God's kingdom to one culture, to one politic. And this was a very self-centered version of the kingdom. Our politics, our cultures, our rulers, and our authorities are many, but they all serve King Jesus. Now next, the Sadducees took a turn questioning Jesus. As accustomed, the

Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. They held only to the first five books of the Bible, which gave what they thought was only the Mosaic law. So when they asked whose wife a woman would be in heaven, their question wasn't curious, but was intended to poke fun at Jesus claims that the son of man would die and rise again. Now, Jesus explained that resurrected life isn't just a mere continuation of this life in a different place, but a full or richer life in the restored kingdom. And even in the first five books of the Bible, we can learn a lot about God's restorative plan and the covenant he makes with his people to be with them eternally, a covenant that is not frustrated by death. What do we learn? There is a future state of our physical bodies and our

physical world where we will live in God's presence forever. What do we learn? There is a future state of our physical bodies and our physical world where we will live in God's presence forever. Jesus is the way we know this is true. Jesus made it true. Jesus qualifies us for eternal life. With the zealots and the Sadducees quieted, the Pharisees had their turn left, and one of them called a lawyer who was sent forward to try to trap Jesus into nullifying some part of the law by forcing him to prioritize one commandment over the others. So the lawyer asked teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus beautifully and brilliantly brought all of the law together

and summed up the foundation as love. Love God and love your neighbor. He showed that obeying God's law goes beyond following its requirements and involves the deeper attitudes and motivations behind what we do, and those should be driven by love. What do we learn? Life in God's kingdom is not based on outward appearances. What can seem so spiritual on the outside may not necessarily reflect a worshipful, sacrificial, and surrendered heart.

So today, when we read this chapter, we should examine the way we think about our spirituality. Do we approach Jesus' teaching with an attitude like these Sadducees and Pharisees sometimes? Do we ever look for loopholes that fit in better with the kingdom that fits our lifestyle, or loopholes that fit in better with today's culture? The Bible warns us over and again that we don't know the truth of our own hearts. And that's why we need God's word. That's why we need the Holy Spirit. That's why we even need other believers to help us.

But if we approach those things and act like the people in this chapter, we end up walking away from church services and Bible studies and small groups, whatever it is, without understanding and without real change. You might be familiar with Decks Shepard. He's an actor, podcaster. In 2020, he was actually pretty successful with his podcast with over 20 million monthly listeners and about a $9 million per year profit. Much of his platform, though, was built on his authenticity about his struggle with addiction. But he had been sober for 16 years.

However, in 2020, not only was he successfully podcasting, but he was also quietly hiding a secret from his friends and his family and his listeners. He was no longer sober. and he had relapsed for the last few months. So the foundation of his platform, well, it was no longer true. After seeking help and being sober for only seven days, he did something really, really courageous. Dax bravely shared the truth with his audience. It was a huge risk for obvious reasons.

But he said he didn't want to be inauthentic, and he didn't want the outward success without truly being sober. See, the gospel, well, it's really good news because Jesus invites us into a kingdom of truth, a kingdom where what happens on the inside is far more important than what we look like on the outside. It's also good news, and I love the way author Elizabeth Woodson says it, Jesus doesn't make bad people good, he makes dead people alive. So what about you? Do you run toward this kingdom or resist it?

will you find the rest and the joy and the peace that come when you open your heart to the Lord? Before you forget, sign up for the brand new TMBT newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help you beat the midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.