Your Influence -- Helpful or Harmful!

Matthew 17: 24-27

There is an old story of a blind man who carried a lighted lantern at night.
Someone asked him why he always went around at night with a lighted lantern since he could not see.
He replied, " To keep others from stumbling over me."

It was in a bad idea.
He never stumbled over anyone else, at least not intentionally.
But he didn't want anyone to stumble over him either.
That should be that concerned of every true disciple of Jesus.
We must see to it that no one stumbles along the way because of us.

Discipleship demands that kind of discipline.
Jesus taught Peter this lesson in one of the most unusual and and noticed stories in the New Testament.
(Matthew 17: 24-27)

Jesus and his disciples had just returned to the city of Capernaum.
His entrance to the town was noticed by His enemies.
They were alert to His every move.
They watched Him constantly.

Soon the local tax collector, prompted no doubt by these enemies, asked Peter,
" Doesn't your master pay taxes?"
The negative form of the question suggests criticism.
It was asked with malicious intent.
He wanted to find some occasion to discredit Jesus.

The tax refer to here was a Temple tax.
It was a kind of a " poll tax" expected of every Jewish man, rich or poor, above 20 years of age.
Its purpose was to support temple worship.
The tax had its beginning in the days of Moses to support the tabernacle. (Exodus 30: 11-16)
But by this time it had been transferred to support the temple worship.

Worship was expensive in that day.
The Temple at Jerusalem was costly to maintain.
It took money to pay the worship leaders and to provide sacrificial animals, inspectors of sacrifices,
custodial services, priestly garments, and repairs on the building.
While this tax was not compulsory, it was expected that every Jewish man would meet
the obligation cheerfully.

Peter responded to the tax collector's question with an instant and confident, " Yes."
That's what you would expect from the impulsive Simon Peter.
He would answer for Jesus without bothering to ask Him.
However, he knew by general principle that whatever was right in such matters Jesus would do.
Later, when Peter went into the house, Jesus anticipated the entire encounter and said,
" Simon, I want to know what you think about something.
Do earthly kings collect taxes from their own children or from the citizens of their country?"

The answer was obvious.
Kings do not tax their own household.
In fact, it is for their household that they tax other people.
The king's son paid no taxes.
Peter knew that, and he answered it like that.


Jesus used this simple parable to remind Peter of something he already knew and to teach him
something he needed yet to learn.
Jesus was reminding Peter, " I am the Son of God.
You confessed that at Caesarea Phillipi.
Then God confirmed it on the mount of transfiguration.
But now you seem to have forgotten it.
If I am the Son of God, then I am not under obligation to support my Father's house.
The Son of God does not have to pay the taxes for the house of His Father."

Then Jesus said, " Nevertheless, lest anyone should be offended at me,
we will pay the tax."
The word, offend, means " to cause to stumble" or " to trip up."
Jesus was saying, " Though I am under no obligation to do so, I will pay the tax
lest I set a bad example for others.
I will not do anything that will be a bad influence on others."

So, He told Peter to go down to the sea, and to cast a hook into the water and to catch a fish.
He would find a coin that He was to use to pay their taxes in the mouth of the fish.
Jesus performed this miracle not because He needed the money.
The tax was so small He could easily have had the amount.
He performed the miracle to reaffirm the fact that He was the Son of God.

Peter needed to be reminded of that in a vivid way.
But he also needed to learn the place of influence in discipleship.
If he was ever going to achieve his highest spiritual potential, he would have to strive never to be
a stumbling block to anyone.
He needed to learn one of the basic requirements of discipleship, and that is to relinquish
personal rights in the interest of others.
This was the way of Christ, and it must be the way of all of His disciples.

We must be aware that people are always watching us.
And by what they see in us we become either a stepping-stone or a stumbling-block to them.
And we must not use our privileges or freedom as the children of God in such a way as to cause
any one to stumble away from God.
Even if we have to give up our personal rights to do so, we must seek to live lives
that are not offensive.
We must learn the importance of influence and the principle of relinquishing personal rights
where it can serve the interests of others.

The point is that Jesus did what He had a right to do.
He paid the Temple tax from which as he explained that he was rightfully exempt.
As Christians we should be willing to do the same.
And the opposite is also true.
We should be willing to give up what we might enjoy and what would be harmless to us
if in any way it causes us to become a stumbling-block to another.

As people were constantly watching Jesus, alert to His every move, scrutinizing His every activity,
so they are always watching us.
There is no way we can avoid it.
None of us can an escape it.
As Christians, we live in a fishbowl.

People are always looking at us, and at every area of our lives, and from what they see
they are making judgments about us.
What they see it in those places gives them a hint of what is in our hearts.
Like it or not, people are looking at us.

Someone has noted that we have for contacts with the world.
We are evaluated and classified by these four things.
1. What we do.
2. How we look.
3. What we say.
4. How we can say it.
These are our means of communicating to the world what we believe and who we are.

Paul describes the Corinthian Christians as " epistles, known and read of all men."
He called them letters of Christ written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.
And they were written not on tablets of stone but in flesh and blood. (2 Corinthians 3: 2-3)

The kind of letters he was talking about were letters of reference or recommendation.
He was saying that every Christian is a letter of reference or recommendation for Jesus Christ.

I have been asked to write many letters of recommendation for someone who wanted to
use me as a personal reference.
The inquirer wanted to know things such as, " How long had you known this person?
What is your relationship to him?
Is he honest? Dependable? Trustworthy?"
By these letters of reference from me and from others, the inquirer forms a good or bad opinion
concerning the person.

Every Christian is a letter of reference or recommendation for Christ.
Whether we like it or not, our life is an advertisement for Him.
People judge Him by what they see written into our lives and in our conduct.
The world judges a merchant of what he sells, a craftsman by the work he produces,
a church by its members, and Christ by His followers.

Paul Gilbert expressed this truth when he wrote:
" You're writing a gospel,
A chapter it each day,
By deeds that you do,
And words that you say.

Men read what you write.
Whether faithful or true;
Just what is the Gospel
According to you?"

What an awesome responsibility we have as Christians.
The greatest handicap that Christ has is the unsatisfactory lives of professing Christians.
As we go out into the world, we have the awe-inspiring responsibility of being open letters
or advertisements for Christ and for His church.
People are reading us, and by what we do and what we say we become either stumbling-blocks
or stepping-stones.
This is an awesome fact.

Jesus once used a child as an object lesson to teach us the importance of influence.
He placed the child on His knee and then reminded us that in the world it is inevitable that
there will be stumbling-blocks to cause people to sin.
He said, " Pity the person who causes a another person to stumble and fall.
It would be better for that person to have a millstone tied around his neck and his body cast
into the sea than that he should ever trip up another person." (Matthew 18: 6-9)

Tying a millstone around a person's neck and casting him into the sea was an ancient form
of capital punishment.
Nations have always had means of dealing with capital offenses.
In our country we have used the electric chair, gas chamber, or death by injection.
In the Old West they hung them.
Some countries use a firing squad.
The Romans crucified.
The Jews stoned.

But the Phoenicians had a most unique way of capital punishment.
They tied a rope around a man's neck and then tied the other end of the rope to a huge stone
and cast both of them over a cliff and into the sea.
The weight of the stone would drag the person to the bottom of the sea, and he would drown.
That was Jesus' way of impressing upon us the seriousness of our influence.

When William Culbertson died, his lifelong friend, Edwin Bustard, said of him,
" He never caused the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme because of misconduct."
We must never cause the enemies of God to blaspheme, but we must also never cause the friends
of God to stumble.
We have a responsibility for both.

The psalmist expressed the gravity of this thought when he prayed in essence,
" Lord, don't let me be a stumbling-block to those who trust in you.
Don't let me confuse those who are seeking after you."
(Psalm 69: 6)
Some Christians are woefully careless in matters of example and, by their carelessness,
contribute to the downfall of others.
We have heard that classic line, " What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?"

The world must sometimes wonder the same thing about us.
The world does not expect us to be perfect, but it does expect us to be different and to be consistent.
We must practice what we preach.
We must live what we believe.
The world doesn't understand it when we don't.

Finally, Jesus gives us a guiding principle for being a good influence.
It is the principle of sacrifice.
We should be willing to relinquish any personal right for the sake of others.
When Jesus said, " Then is the Son free?" He claimed to be free from the obligation
of paying the Temple tax.
Yet, He yielded that right for the sake of others.
The King brought Himself to the place of submission lest He cast a shadow of doubt over His messiahship.
His concern for others was greater than His concern for Himself.
This willingness to relinquish personal rights in the interest of others is the way of Christ.
It is to be our way also. (1 Corinthians 8: 9-13; 9: 12; 10: 28; Romans 14: 20-23)

This principle will help us in making decisions of right and wrong.
Christianity is not a matter of rules and regulations, but of principles.
As God's free people, we have been set free from the law, and we are governed by love -- love for God
and love for our neighbor.

The Bible is not like the official rule book for an athletic contest.
The athletic rule book not only gives the general rules of the game, but attempts to cover
ever conceivable situation that might arise.
If the Bible where that kind of rule book, it would be so large and heavy we could not carry it.

Through His death on the cross, Jesus set us free from legalism, and now we are to live our lives
in consistency with our love for God and love for our fellowman.
Yielding our rights for the sake of others is consistent with love.
It is love in action.

There are several principles that will help us to make decisions of right and wrong and
protecting our influence.
There is the principle of Scripture.
What does the Bible say?
There are some things that are always right, and there are some things that are always wrong.
They are the eternal absolutes of God.
On some things like lying, stealing, and adultery, God speaks clearly.
We must seek to square our lives by the Word of God.
We must know and do what the Bible says.

Then, there is the principle of secrecy.
Do I want to conceal my actions from other people?
If I am doing something I want to hide, something I do not want other people to know about,
something I am ashamed of, then, it is probably wrong.
If I cannot do it with a clear conscience, out in the open without guilt or shame, it probably has
no place in my life.

Then, there is the principle of stewardship.
Will doing this harm my body?
My body does not belong to me.
It belongs to Jesus Christ.
He purchased it by His death on the cross.

When I received Christ, His Holy Spirit came to dwell in me, and now my body is His temple.
I must not do anything to defile it.
I must be a good steward of the temple over which I am a custodian.
I should ask myself certain questions.
" How will this affect my body?
Will it contribute to good health and the building of a strong body?"
The body is far more important than we realize.
It is an asset or a liability all the days of our life.

A healthy body can be a wonderful servant.
A sickly body can be a terrible monster.
I must take care of my body has a good steward of God.

Then there is the principle of supplication.
What does God say to me through prayer?
The word supplication means, " to ask."
I must consult God about all matters.
I must ask for His guidance in what is right and what is wrong.

Then, there is the principle of sacrifice.
How will this affect others?
I will do what I do not have to do in order to be a good influence.
And I will be willing to give up what is enjoyable and even harmless to me if it will hurt
someone else who is less mature than I.
Will my participation make it easier or more difficult or making it more difficult for me to witness
to my unsaved friend and unsaved loved ones about Jesus?
Would an unsaved person expect me to do this?
How will my participation in this affect the cause of Christ?

Then, on the basis of these questions and answers, I will make my decision.
A religion of rule says, " You must."
But Christian principles say, " I will."

This is not to suggest you should let every neurotic person around you determine everything you do.
No matter what you do there will always be some people who will find fault in it.
However, you must seek always to maintain a life-style that sets the right kind of example.

To become all that God wants us to be in character and in career, we must learn the principle of sacrifice.
This principle finds its ultimate expression in Jesus Christ and His death up on the cross.
He did not have to die.
He could have called more than 12 legions of angels to save Him.
But He yielded His rights for our benefits.
Now we must be willing to do the same for Him and for others.

Sermon adapted by Dr. Harold L White