John 19:23–24: “Now when the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took His clothes and made four shares, one for each soldier, and the tunic remained. (Now the tunic was seamless, woven from top to bottom as a single piece.) So the soldiers said to one another, ‘Let’s not tear it, but throw dice to see who will get it.’ This took place to fulfill the Scripture that says, ‘They divided My garments among them, and for My clothing they threw dice.’ So the soldiers did these things.”
That was a fulfillment of the word of God in Psalm 22:18. The reason I want to talk about this passage is because of people who have done damage to Scripture, damage to themselves, damage to millions of people who have heard them.
They speak of these things in the context of “Jesus was very rich.” They say He was very rich, so they talk about the fact that He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, and they tell you the donkey is like having a Rolls‑Royce. But they forget to tell you that somebody gave it to Jesus for that period of time (Matthew 21:2–3).
They tell you Philip said, “Even if we had two hundred denarii, it would not be enough to buy bread for these people” (John 6:7), when thousands were present. Then they say, “Okay, that means Jesus had that money.” Nothing in that passage says Jesus had that money. Philip was just talking hypothetically. There is nothing in that passage that equates to Jesus Christ having a lot of money.
Nothing in the story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey tells you anything about Him having a lot of money.
Now we come to this passage. They tell you this tunic is some special luxury item just because it is seamless. There is nothing here to show that. This is simply telling you that this is a fulfillment of Scripture, so that you do not look at Jesus crucified and conclude that God is not with Him. It is saying, “Look at how He actually fulfilled, down to the details, the words of God written hundreds of years before.”
What is the point of it? Why are we creating a “Jesus” in the image of our own greedy souls?
Jesus tells you it is going to be harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle (Matthew 19:23–24). I am talking about a blatant rejection of Christ. How can I look at the words of Jesus, mess them up, turn them upside down, and just pile on lies after lies?
People might say, “Since he is mentioning the name of Jesus Christ and thunder has not come from heaven to strike him dead, since he has a lot of jets, since he claims to have seen Jesus, since he has this massive following—therefore it is the truth.” We are lost. That is my conclusion. We are lost.
Paul talked about being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14). This is a wind of doctrine. I doubt there are many people in certain camps who have not been touched by this doctrine. It is damaging. It has damaged. It is not innocent. It means you have a creation of a “god” of your own imagination. That is an idol. So in a way you become idolaters in the name of God.
“They divided His clothes; they did not want to divide His tunic because it was seamless” is not talking about wealth. It is not.
And Jesus said, “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Matthew 8:20; Luke 9:58). It is just that: “I have no place to lay My head.” Look at Him, itinerant—moving from here to there in His ministry, staying with these people, eating with those people, withdrawing to the wilderness because of the crowds. There is nowhere for Him to “calm down.” Everywhere they are rushing Him.
Do not say, “It doesn’t mean what it says.” And do not say, “Jesus talked about money and money and money.” How did He talk about money? He said you cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24).
Is that what we are being called to? An error factory? Only God can help us. An error factory—error that does not end, that compounds and compounds.
He said you cannot serve two masters.
The problem is they weave these Scriptures together and twist them, twist them, twist them. They weave it together, and then we are blind. And it is like blind leaders of the blind (Matthew 15:14).
God bless you. See you later.