Category Archives: Bible Study

LUKE’S GOSPEL…LOST THINGS – 41b

Bible Study, ,

“Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living….“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ “ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭15‬:‭11‬-‭13‬, ‭25‬-‭32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus continued…to the real point of His stories. 

“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭15‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus’ hearers were quite comfortable with His stories until He changed gear. There was the ever-present undercurrent in the crowd. The critics were mingling…to watch, to accuse, and to gather evidence…not to listen, to learn, and to grow in knowledge and understanding. 

So, they murmured, and Jesus heard. 

Jesus never lost an opportunity to speak truth to power. Truth was His weapon of choice. Armed with truth, He came from heaven to confront the lies that were destroying His people…the delusions upon which they built their lives that led them off the path to lostness in a wilderness of chaos and confusion…and delusion. 

The Pharisees didn’t like truth. It rattled their cages. It messed with their comfortable convictions. It muddied their manicured theology…

…but Jesus loved truth. It hit the bull’s-eye every time. Truth was unchanging and infallible. He relied on truth to win every skirmish with His enemies and, eventually, to win the war. 

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

‭‭Colossians‬ ‭2‬:‭13‬-‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus died in truth and for truth…He put every one of the plethora of lies and false claims of His arch enemy to death by revealing that He was the truth, the one and only Lord of the universe. Satan’s challenge failed. He could not eliminate Him. Jesus walked out of the tomb as an ever-living witness to the power of truth. Kill Him as they did, He is still and always will be Lord. 

What was the truth His story about a lost son was about to uncover? Jesus’ story ended with an unspoken question, the one He asked of Jonah. “Why are you angry because I am merciful?” and has no answer. 

The Pharisees’ whispered challenge was, “If you are really God, how can you associate with “sinners”? Don’t you know who they are?”

Jesus’ response was, “I’ll show you who the real sinners are…not the ones who know they are lost but the hypocrites who think that God is okay with them and they with Him!”

Hence the buildup of three stories. The first two unveiled heaven’s joy when lost things are found. The third story had the punchline…

“You hypocrites! You think that keeping the rules makes you okay. You are more “lost” than the rebel who forsook his home.”

Jesus’ story sets the record straight about God’s heart for lost people. They are lost because they left God’s path and tried another way. They thought that their independence was freedom. They found out that the wilderness was an uncomfortable and dangerous place, empty, barren, and nothing but a monotonous wasteland. Worse still, there were no signposts to show them the way home. They were lost in their lostness. 

For the rebel in the story, the party was over…money and fair weather friends were gone. There was no help from them. The lost son had only one way…go back home. He had to make a choice…starve and live with pigs, or eat humble pie and retrace his steps. 

The father watched and waited. He didn’t send his servants to capture or compel his son to return. He knew that, someday, his son would hit rock bottom. That’s real life. When resources are wasted, they don’t last. When the money is finished, friends vanish. Home, that once seemed a place of slavery and restriction, finally became a place of refuge, of provision, and freedom…not from boundaries but for safety. 

What mattered most to the father? The lost one was his son…his own flesh and blood. He didn’t give up on him. He didn’t write him off because of his behaviour. He waited to restore him when he returned. Such, said Jesus, is the heart of God. 

How unlike the elder brother! His heart was bitter, full of contempt…the self-appointed judge of his little brother’s behaviour. He compared himself with his brother and came out shining…so he thought. He forgot one thing…he and his brother were both sons of the father, no matter what they did…equally loved and equally valued. 

The Pharisees refused to acknowledge God’s love and mercy that embraces all people because they are His. God has no intention to squash, like annoying bugs, those who fail.  His call is the same for everyone…those who fail and those who judge those who fail…”Come home!” Both are guilty and both need mercy. 

The Pharisees didn’t get it. They killed Jesus for that!

To be continued…

LUKE’S GOSPEL…LOST THNGS – 41a

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“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭15‬:‭4‬-‭7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus told three stories about lost things…a sheep, a coin, and a son. 

The sheep was one of a hundred, the coin one of ten, and the son one of two. Does this mean that these lost things were ascending in value? For example, was the son more valuable than the coin, or the coin more valuable than the sheep? No to the owner!

I don’t think that the value of the lost thing was more important to the owner than its condition. The sheep, the coin, and the son were lost to their condition and their purpose and needed to be found and restored. 

The sheep was one of a hundred sheep in the farmer’s flock. When it wandered away, the flock was incomplete. Not only that but the sheep was in danger and needed to be rescued. The farmer was restless, knowing that his sheep was vulnerable to serious accident or death by wild animals. He had to do something to find it and bring it back to safety. 

God often used the imagery of sheep to describe His relationship with His people. Sheep are precious but foolish. They follow…they need to be led. They wander after food, not concerned about their safety. They are vulnerable…unaware of their environment or of danger. They need constant care to stay alive. 

Jesus’ story was not only about the sheep but about the shepherd. As a true shepherd, he kept tabs on his sheep. One lost sheep meant immediate action. He left his flock to search for the lost one and refused to give up until he found it. 

The shepherd’s mission accomplished, he called his neighbours to celebrate with him. So, Jesus insisted, if a lost sheep that was found was the cause for celebration in the farming community, how much greater is the celestial joy when a lost sinner is found and brought home. 

It’s important to understand what “lostness” means. In the Bible, lostness is what sin does…leaves us wandering away from the path that leads us to the Father and into the wilderness where we are in danger of dying without shelter, food, and water or being devoured by “wild animals”.  

The shepherd goes out to “find” the sheep and bring it back to the path from which it wandered. 

The whole human race has wandered away like lost sheep, away from the truth about God…His live and purposes for us…about us, and about the danger we are in when we leave His way to follow our own. Our destiny will be the rubbish heap of wasted lives. 

“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭53‬:‭6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So, Jesus came to earth to find the lost sheep and bring them back to God’s “way”. 

“Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭19‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus fell foul of the religious leaders of His day because He kept company with the “lost” people whom they despised. So, His story led from lost sheep and a lost coin to the son who had no compassion for his lost brother and who, like them, despised his brother because of his “lostness”. 

To be continued…

LUKE’S GOSPEL…FREE BUT IT COSTS EVERYTHING – 40

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“Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple….In the same way, (that is…without counting the cost), those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.””

‭‭Luke‬ ‭14‬:‭25‬-‭27‬, ‭33‬-‭35‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Following Jesus is not popular. 

However, when we read the gospels, it would seem that, initially, Jesus flourished on popularity. No so! Unlike political party leaders of today, who go all out to canvas, with T- shirts and food parcels, for voters who will put their mark on the ballot paper next to their name…Jesus did His best to turn would-be followers away!

Now, that’s not the way to build a following or to invite people into a forever family! Why would one contradict one’s own mission?

Let’s look at it this way. Jesus came to bring a life so radical, so different from the world’s way that it would take dying to “self first”, and coming back to life a brand new person, bent only on loyalty and obedience to Jesus as Lord…who is the supreme authority over every detail of life. 

Who, in their right mind would want to do that except for one reason…the outcome? This is not about a comfortable life now. This is about the choice to adhere Jesus, the supreme ruler of God’s eternal kingdom, in a union so intimate that the life of Jesus, in the person of His Spirit, becomes the very life I now live, and the destiny of an eternity with Him. 

Jesus’ life and my life cannot co-exist. The one cancels the other out. I either live my self-centred life, and perish with it because my way is self-destructive, or His life through me because His life is eternal. Unlike any other cause or movement which requires only that we like and follow the narrative, Jesus wants only those who are inextricably joined to Him by faith and obedience. 

With this demand before them, the very ones who eagerly followed Him for self-gain, turned on Him and bayed for His death. 

Death still stalks in this scenario and the choice is left to us to make. Death either stands between Jesus and us or binds us together in an eternal union. We either choose to be on the side of death if we pamper self…or we choose life, die with Him and rise to eternal life. 

This is not about going along with Him for self-gain or self-aggrandisement like the many who initially followed Him because He could do so much for them. This is about dying with Him in a death so radical that it destroys everything but what is of value in His eternal kingdom. 

God created humans as already in this inextricable union. He filled the model He fashioned from dirt with His own breath. When we pulled away and fashioned our own lives, we prostituted the very life He gave us. We became criminals…thieves…because we took what we His and made it our own by excluding Him from our very existence. 

Am I making sense? 

Jesus calls us back to what He made us to be. It’s called repentance…returning to His way… faith…submitting to His authority and  utterly relying on Him for our very breath. 

Union with Jesus drives a wedge between us and even those closest to us. Loving Jesus turns family loyalties into what seems like hatred by contrast. Yet, strange as it may seem, when we love Jesus, even enemies within our own families are not enemies to us. They become the objects of our compassion and prayer. 

This is the true nature of our union with Jesus. While loyalty to Him becomes the energy of our lives, His love and His mercy become the very life-blood that courses through our veins. We are separated from unbelieving family and friends by the nature of the realm in which we live…Jesus’ rule and standards in contrast and opposition to the realm of selfishness and self-rule…but, at the same time, we at their side to model and present the values and benefits of life under God’s rule.  

Jesus said that those who belong to Him are like pure salt. What happens when we add salt that has been adulterated by another substance to our food? The food will decay because that salt is useless.

Likewise, if we mix our lives with worldly values or pursuits, our value as a preservative in society is lost. The salt has lost its ability to preserve from decay. 

Jesus only accepts disciples who are unmixed with the impurities of the world’s system which are characterised by selfish pursuits and worldly desires. These who are ”pure” salt will drive His kingdom forward because they model loyalty to Him and faithfulness to His mission above all else. 

So, said John…

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭2‬:‭15‬-‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

…and so prayed David…

“Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭86‬:‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus is not interested in numbers. He wants quality…those people who love Him with pure hearts, love, and absolute loyalty to Him…

To be continued…

LUKE’S GOSPEL…ENTER THE KINGDOM – 39d

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“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’ “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭13‬:‭24‬-‭30‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus called people, who heard His teaching, and His warnings, but made no effort to do what He said, even after He had made it clear and simple, “evildoers”…

…because entry into His kingdom was simple…

“Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

‭‭John‬ ‭6‬:‭28‬-‭29‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Why so? Why is unbelief evil?

The worst thing any human can do to God is call Him a liar. Unbelief is exactly that! John wrote…

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us…If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭1‬:‭8‬, ‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

No matter what we have done to confirm our unbelief…which the Bible calls “sin”, unbelief is the root  and sin the fruit. It’s unbelief that will condemn the sinner to the place Jesus said was prepared for the Satan snd  his adherents. 

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

‭‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The Bible doesn’t give us a detailed description of the place to which Satan and unbelievers will be consigned. In the Old Testament, it is described as a holding place for the dead, a shadowy realm somewhere in the underworld called “Sheol”. 

Google AI describes it as…

“Sheol is the Hebrew Bible’s term for the, “abode of the dead,” a subterranean, shadowy underworld or common grave where all people—righteous and wicked—go after death. Described as a silent, dark, and gloomy place of decay, it represents a temporary state of waiting for resurrection rather than a final destination.”

Jesus gave this place, called Hades, little more shape and colour. 

“In the New Testament, Hades is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Sheol, representing the temporary, intermediate realm of the dead holding departed spirits between death and final judgment. It is distinct from the final “Lake of Fire” (Hell) and often described as containing two compartments: a place of torment for the wicked and a place of rest (often called “Abraham’s bosom” or Paradise) for the righteous.” 

(Source: Google AI)

It seems that this state, for the dead, is a place of waiting for the return of Jesus to earth, where and when He will finalise the eternal state of the righteous and the unrighteous. The righteous will be given new bodies like the body of Jesus at the general resurrection. The unrighteous will also be raised with eternal bodies. However, we only know that those bodies will feel the torment of fire. 

Jesus’ use of “Gehenna” as a picture of Hades, the place outside Jerusalem where the city’s garbage was burned, seems to suggest that wasted lives and wasted potential will be the reason they are discarded on the eternal “ rubbish dump”. 

Jesus told another story that qualifies what faith really means …

“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭16‬:‭19‬-‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The earthly situation of these two men is reversed at death…

“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭16‬:‭22‬-‭24‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Was Jesus telling this story to scare people or was it a sober reminder of the consequences of unbelief? In the context of the story, the rich man was in “Gehenna”, the garbage dump of wasted potential, because his belief system left no room for compassion or mercy. 

Belief that does not issue in obedience is as sterile as unbelief. Hence, generosity to the poor is the other side of the coin of faith in Jesus. Faith and fruit must always go together. Proximity to Jesus without the union of faith that issues in fruit will not cut it with Him. 

“If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?…And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭3‬:‭17‬, ‭23‬ NIV

Let us not be fooled into thinking that, because we believe in God, we have eternal life. Let us do what believing in Jesus really means…turning away from our selfish independence and its fruit, renouncing our right to run our own lives, entrusting ourselves to Jesus’ lordship, and faithfully obeying His commandments under the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭10‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This takes choice and effort! 

To be continued…

LUKE’S GOSPEL…ENTER THE KINGDOM – 38c

Bible Study, ,

The Apostle John sums up Jesus’ prescription and His warning in Luke 13…

“Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭5‬:‭10‬-‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The crux of the matter is…

The Jews who heard Jesus had no guarantee that they would be a part of God’s kingdom. Despite the fact that Jesus was there, and that He was living and teaching in their neighbourhood, the door would be shut in their faces if…

“Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭13‬:‭25‬-‭27‬ ‭NIV‬‬

…they did not believe in Him. 

Such people would have to face a closed door and hear the final words, “I don’t know you!” Why? They made no effort to do anything about Jesus’ words. 

Jesus warned a group of religious leaders who refused to believe His words and their source…

“If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day. For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”

‭‭John‬ ‭12‬:‭47‬-‭50‬ ‭NIV‬‬

And after that?…

God’s realm is a protected place. It has boundaries that guard against intrusion from unwanted influences. There is an invisible wall between the righteous and the unrighteous. 

“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”

‭‭Revelation‬ ‭22‬:‭14‬-‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

‭‭Revelation‬ ‭21‬:‭23‬-‭27‬ ‭NIV‬‬

No only that but the ungodly have a place prepared for the devil and those who follow him…

“Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

‭‭Revelation‬ ‭21‬:‭7‬-‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Nothing could be clearer. God shuts no one out who has embraced His way of entry into His kingdom…through faith in Jesus, His Son. All others are excluded forever and consigned to the place where they will never forgot what they chose and what they forfeited.

To be continued…