Was Jesus Rich And Had Amassed Wealth?
Question : Nobody can do ministry without money and it is much needed to establish it and even live life. Jesus must have been rich I believe, even though Jesus never mentioned his seamless Garment in His messages but He wore a very expensive Garment...We also do not know how much might have been in the bank account, although we know he had a treasurer because of his massive wealth. Jesus never spoke about it all, why because it was not important.. what was important? THE GOSPEL- GOOD NEWS- THE WORD. Have I said it right or was it different with Jesus?
Answer : One need not be rich to have a seamless Garment, because Jesus went about doing good and healing the multitudes of sick people, any among the rich or people with a great heart to give to God, might have desired to appreciate what Jesus did, and so could have given a expensive gift like that (Acts 10:38). More than Judas nobody knew how much they had, because Jesus always used the money that came in for the ministry for the ministry necessities like food for all the disciples and other daily needs and also used to tell Judas to give the rest of the money that they had to the poor (John 12:6, 8; 13:27-29), nobody in the company of Jesus ever thought, worried or bothered about it because of Father God's provision at the point of all their needs, except that they prayed with Jesus and wanted eagerly to learn all His secrets to living the abundant life. Jesus and his apostolic company did not have enough money to buy food for five thousand of his hearers, but depended upon God to multiply food for them which God did miraculously (John 6:5-14). This clearly shows that although Jesus had money given to Him through His supporters, He did store money to amass massive wealth (Luke 8:2-3). God provided Him and his apostolic company whenever there was a need. How can we say that, they walked on their feet all through the land and never had any kind of horses to ride which would have been possible for Him and his disciples if they had such wealth in the bank. At the end of His earthly ministry, If He had massive wealth, He would not have prophetically seen in to the spiritual realm and told His disciples to go and untie a young unridden donkey for Himself to enter Jerusalem as the King and Messiah of Israel, Jesus then told His disciples that if anybody would question them about taking the donkey, He told them to reply that the Lord needs them and they will let go (Matt 21:1-6). They did exactly that and fulfilled his command.
My question is, if Jesus had great wealth, He would not have told the disciples to go and take the donkey, instead He would have given money to buy the donkey itself. To maintain the temple, Jewish males above the age of twelve were all supposed to attend the Passover Feast and donate money. Each person also had to pay a two-drachma temple tax. The drachma represented an average pay for a day laborer according to the parable of Matthew 20. The drachma and the denarius were the basic silver coins of the Greeks and Romans respectively. When the time came to pay the tax individually for the temple which Jewish people paid to the temple authorities, He had no money to pay. Instead Jesus trusted God to provide at that time, as a result God gave Him a vision and released a word of knowledge and wisdom through the gift of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:7-8), instantly He told Peter his disciple to go and catch a fish and thus revealed supernaturally that God can provide for tax payment from within a fish's mouth to be able to pay the needed money to pay the tax for both Peter and Himself. Peter the disciple obeyed his Master's command and exactly fulfilled it supernaturally (Matt 17:24-25, 27). Yes we cannot run a ministry without money as we are all in the world which runs by money system, but Jesus trusted God to provide moment by moment, that is why He taught His disciples to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread...". Give us this day our daily bread is for material needs and food as the Bible clearly reveals, but it is also for the Spiritual needs once material needs are met with (See Matt 6:10;11). Jesus could not be differentiated from any other normal day to day guy, that is why Judas was needed to point out Jesus' among His disciples when He was betrayed (Matt 26:14-16, 47-56). Jesus Himself told that the Son of man has nowhere to place His head to rest (Luke 9:58) and this reveals to us of how much Jesus lived a purposeful life of simplicity and did not think of buying any property in this earth for Himself. Where God guides He provides, that should be our spiritual experience too, just like Jesus experienced God's provision from heaven.
God has promised to provide all our needs (Php 4:19-20), but not once He has told us that He will satisfy our greed as it will destroy our spiritual lives completely (1 Tim 6:9-10). Jesus did not pay Judas to keep him as a professional treasurer, instead he was called to work for God sacrificially and faithfully without any payment for the work done. So this particular truth cannot be speculated and exaggerated to become a lie to those who want to twist the truth to justify their own greed (2 Tim 2:14-18; Php 3:18-19; 2 Peter 3:15-17). When someone is not ready to take the healthy Holy Spirit led contextual interpretation of Scripture (2 Tim 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21), he or she is already deceived by the enemy into hearing and accepting only those teaching that satisfy their own desire, such coveteous hearted men and women will not put up with sound doctrine, instead will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear (2 Tim 4:3). Jesus spoke about money more than all subjects in His gospel except the Kingdom of God, 11 of 39 parables talk about money, 1 of every 7 verses in the Gospel of Luke talk about money directly or indirectly. Jesus talked about money more than He did Heaven and Hell combined and even emphasized that no man can serve both God and money, either he will love God and hate money or will love money and will therefore hate God (Matt 6:24). Then with a parable Jesus explained how with faithfulness we should spend the money God has given to us on earth to win souls and friendship of people for eternity. Jesus also told that if we are faithful in the least which is the money which God provides, God will give us the great spiritual blessings which belong to us as He has prepared it for us already, which according to God are considered by Him as the highest blessings to get in this world and also for the world to come (Luke 16:1-14). Though many deceptive prosperity Gospel preachers will say that Jesus spoke more about money than anything specifically, yet they will try to use that statement to justify themselves for having amassed wealth which they will try to project as a sign of God's blessing which is a blatant Satanic lie. Jesus never encouraged people to amass wealth on earth, instead He always gave advice to be content with what God has given them and exhorted them saying, " 19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matt 6:19-21). When a religious and pious young rich man wanted to inherit the eternal life of God and at the same time also wanted more and more money which he enjoyed having, Jesus challenged him saying, "22 ..., “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 23 But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich." (Luke 18:22-23). It is not God or Satan to serve, it is God or Money as this can be the only available master to influence people and take them away from God completely as long as we are in this world which is governed by the value of the money system. God doesn't want us to save, invest and multiply what we have like the world does (Luke 17:28), instead He wants us to spend what we have for the extension of the kingdom of God and wants us to depend on Him for all our needs to be supplied by Him at the right time. This is the true, 'GOSPEL- GOOD NEWS- THE WORD.' So never love money, instead love God and rejoice in the truth that Jesus has clearly taught for us to live a purposeful life on earth.
Much Blessings....
Answer : One need not be rich to have a seamless Garment, because Jesus went about doing good and healing the multitudes of sick people, any among the rich or people with a great heart to give to God, might have desired to appreciate what Jesus did, and so could have given a expensive gift like that (Acts 10:38). More than Judas nobody knew how much they had, because Jesus always used the money that came in for the ministry for the ministry necessities like food for all the disciples and other daily needs and also used to tell Judas to give the rest of the money that they had to the poor (John 12:6, 8; 13:27-29), nobody in the company of Jesus ever thought, worried or bothered about it because of Father God's provision at the point of all their needs, except that they prayed with Jesus and wanted eagerly to learn all His secrets to living the abundant life. Jesus and his apostolic company did not have enough money to buy food for five thousand of his hearers, but depended upon God to multiply food for them which God did miraculously (John 6:5-14). This clearly shows that although Jesus had money given to Him through His supporters, He did store money to amass massive wealth (Luke 8:2-3). God provided Him and his apostolic company whenever there was a need. How can we say that, they walked on their feet all through the land and never had any kind of horses to ride which would have been possible for Him and his disciples if they had such wealth in the bank. At the end of His earthly ministry, If He had massive wealth, He would not have prophetically seen in to the spiritual realm and told His disciples to go and untie a young unridden donkey for Himself to enter Jerusalem as the King and Messiah of Israel, Jesus then told His disciples that if anybody would question them about taking the donkey, He told them to reply that the Lord needs them and they will let go (Matt 21:1-6). They did exactly that and fulfilled his command.
My question is, if Jesus had great wealth, He would not have told the disciples to go and take the donkey, instead He would have given money to buy the donkey itself. To maintain the temple, Jewish males above the age of twelve were all supposed to attend the Passover Feast and donate money. Each person also had to pay a two-drachma temple tax. The drachma represented an average pay for a day laborer according to the parable of Matthew 20. The drachma and the denarius were the basic silver coins of the Greeks and Romans respectively. When the time came to pay the tax individually for the temple which Jewish people paid to the temple authorities, He had no money to pay. Instead Jesus trusted God to provide at that time, as a result God gave Him a vision and released a word of knowledge and wisdom through the gift of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:7-8), instantly He told Peter his disciple to go and catch a fish and thus revealed supernaturally that God can provide for tax payment from within a fish's mouth to be able to pay the needed money to pay the tax for both Peter and Himself. Peter the disciple obeyed his Master's command and exactly fulfilled it supernaturally (Matt 17:24-25, 27). Yes we cannot run a ministry without money as we are all in the world which runs by money system, but Jesus trusted God to provide moment by moment, that is why He taught His disciples to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread...". Give us this day our daily bread is for material needs and food as the Bible clearly reveals, but it is also for the Spiritual needs once material needs are met with (See Matt 6:10;11). Jesus could not be differentiated from any other normal day to day guy, that is why Judas was needed to point out Jesus' among His disciples when He was betrayed (Matt 26:14-16, 47-56). Jesus Himself told that the Son of man has nowhere to place His head to rest (Luke 9:58) and this reveals to us of how much Jesus lived a purposeful life of simplicity and did not think of buying any property in this earth for Himself. Where God guides He provides, that should be our spiritual experience too, just like Jesus experienced God's provision from heaven.
God has promised to provide all our needs (Php 4:19-20), but not once He has told us that He will satisfy our greed as it will destroy our spiritual lives completely (1 Tim 6:9-10). Jesus did not pay Judas to keep him as a professional treasurer, instead he was called to work for God sacrificially and faithfully without any payment for the work done. So this particular truth cannot be speculated and exaggerated to become a lie to those who want to twist the truth to justify their own greed (2 Tim 2:14-18; Php 3:18-19; 2 Peter 3:15-17). When someone is not ready to take the healthy Holy Spirit led contextual interpretation of Scripture (2 Tim 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21), he or she is already deceived by the enemy into hearing and accepting only those teaching that satisfy their own desire, such coveteous hearted men and women will not put up with sound doctrine, instead will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear (2 Tim 4:3). Jesus spoke about money more than all subjects in His gospel except the Kingdom of God, 11 of 39 parables talk about money, 1 of every 7 verses in the Gospel of Luke talk about money directly or indirectly. Jesus talked about money more than He did Heaven and Hell combined and even emphasized that no man can serve both God and money, either he will love God and hate money or will love money and will therefore hate God (Matt 6:24). Then with a parable Jesus explained how with faithfulness we should spend the money God has given to us on earth to win souls and friendship of people for eternity. Jesus also told that if we are faithful in the least which is the money which God provides, God will give us the great spiritual blessings which belong to us as He has prepared it for us already, which according to God are considered by Him as the highest blessings to get in this world and also for the world to come (Luke 16:1-14). Though many deceptive prosperity Gospel preachers will say that Jesus spoke more about money than anything specifically, yet they will try to use that statement to justify themselves for having amassed wealth which they will try to project as a sign of God's blessing which is a blatant Satanic lie. Jesus never encouraged people to amass wealth on earth, instead He always gave advice to be content with what God has given them and exhorted them saying, " 19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matt 6:19-21). When a religious and pious young rich man wanted to inherit the eternal life of God and at the same time also wanted more and more money which he enjoyed having, Jesus challenged him saying, "22 ..., “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 23 But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich." (Luke 18:22-23). It is not God or Satan to serve, it is God or Money as this can be the only available master to influence people and take them away from God completely as long as we are in this world which is governed by the value of the money system. God doesn't want us to save, invest and multiply what we have like the world does (Luke 17:28), instead He wants us to spend what we have for the extension of the kingdom of God and wants us to depend on Him for all our needs to be supplied by Him at the right time. This is the true, 'GOSPEL- GOOD NEWS- THE WORD.' So never love money, instead love God and rejoice in the truth that Jesus has clearly taught for us to live a purposeful life on earth.
Much Blessings....
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