Category Archives: Christian Life

WHAT JESUS TAUGHT ABOUT THE SABBATH

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WHAT JESUS TAUGHT ABOUT THE SABBATH

Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Luke 6:5

Throughout His public ministry, Jesus was hounded by the Pharisees. They had issues with Him because He did not fit into their idea of what a rabbi should be teaching and doing.

On this occasion Jesus and His disciples were walking through a field of grain on the Sabbath. Because the disciples were hungry, they picked some grain and rubbed it between their hands to get rid of the husks before eating it. The Pharisees pounced on them. “Why are you doing that? Don’t you know you are not allowed to do that on the Sabbath?”

Jesus quickly came to their defence. “Don’t you people remember what David did when he was hungry? He took the bread off the Table of Showbread in the tabernacle and shared it with his companions.” Now if that wasn’t breaking the law, what was?

Jesus had been explaining to them that you cannot pour new wine into old wineskins. You cannot put the new wine of relating to God as sons into the old wineskin of law keeping as a way of trying to please God.

The disciples were ordinary human beings with needs. Were they to squeeze their natural physical hunger into their religion? Is that how they were to interpret God? Was their Father more interested in their obeying a rule – and not even His rule but something the ancient rabbis had invented which did not give them more freedom but rather robbed them of it – than in meeting their need?

Jesus’ challenged the Pharisees’ right to enforce rules He did not make. He was not only a rabbi with authority; He was also the Son of God. Who made the rules that would protect His people’s freedom? He did, therefore He had the right to apply those rules in such a way that they revealed the heart of the Father.

God had given them the Sabbath law so that they would be able to take a day off. God did not value them by the amount of work they could do but by their status as sons of God. Rules that are made to control and restrict people do not come from a heart of mercy. Rules that protect, ensuring safety and freedom from slavedrivers, and the happiness that comes from doing the right thing, flow from a heart of love.

Every time the Pharisees attacked Jesus for “rule-breaking” they exposed their own hearts. They were satisfied with their own performance and critical of all those who failed to come up to their standard. If they performed according to their laws, they were content with themselves.

Jesus is concerned about the attitudes of the heart. He refused to bend to their demands and defended the men who were in the process of learning how to live like their rabbi. He was entrusting to them the task of teaching people what the Father is like by living like Him.

SIM0N PETER’S MELTDOWN

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SIM0N PETER’S MELTDOWN

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord: I am a sinful man!” …Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.” Luke 5:8,10b.

While Jesus was preaching from Peter’s boat, some fishermen were a short distance away, cleaning their nets. Perhaps Jesus noticed the dejected expression on the men’s faces. They were tired and disappointed because a whole night’s fishing had brought them nothing. That meant no income for that night’s work.

When He had finished preaching, Jesus turned to the men and gave them an unusual instruction. “Push your boats out again and let down your nets for a catch.” They looked at Him in astonishment. Didn’t He know that no-one fishes in daylight? They would be wasting their time. But something in His voice brought a response from Peter. “We’ll do it because you say so.” And they did. The result was so overwhelmingly abundant that both fishing boats were filled with fish, and they battled to keep them afloat.

In that moment, Peter saw something in Jesus’ authority, His words and His action that caused him to fall on his knees before Jesus. How did Jesus know that the fish were there? He didn’t and they weren’t. But Jesus spoke and the fish obeyed His word. By the time the fishermen threw in their nets again, fish had come from all over the lake to the place where the nets had been cast.

Peter saw Jesus as a totally whole person, acting just as God had created man to act, ruling over nature and showing infinite kindness towards a bunch of weary and frustrated businessmen whose labour had brought them nothing. He saw himself not so much as morally corrupt as a fractured and fragmented man who was self-centred and selfish.

The wholeness of Jesus contrasted with his own brokenness, frightened him. He could not bear to be in the company of one who showed him up for what he was. Peter might have been an ordinary fisherman with not much spiritual understanding, but the presence of Jesus awakened in him feelings of inadequacy. He wanted to go far away from this man who made him feel so uncomfortable.

How comforting is Jesus’ response to Peter’s fear! Instead of confirming Peter’s sense of worthlessness, He spoke words which we can take hold of and apply to ourselves. “Peter, I am not here to show you up and make you afraid of me. I am here to go with you on your journey to wholeness.”

Jesus has no interest in making people feel worthless. When we stand next to Him, we feel His perfection and our imperfection, His love, and our lovelessness, but He sees us as already complete because He sees the end from the beginning. Like the disciples, He is calling us to follow Him so that we can become like Him as the Holy Spirit reshapes us to be like Jesus.

OPPORTUNISTIC FAITH

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OPPORTUNISTIC FAITH

“A large crowd of His disciples was there, and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem and who had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases.” Luke 6:17b, 18a.

People were attracted to Jesus like iron filings to a magnet. He was exactly what they needed. The doctors of their day could not do much. Serious and chronic conditions were incurable. Jesus blew like a fresh breeze into their lives. Who would not run after someone who could alleviate suffering, fix broken bodies, and speak words of life and hope?

Even people from outside Israel came to listen to Him. It was a glorious time for broken and helpless people, and He had no lack of followers. Sometimes they crowded Him so much that He had to retreat to far-away places just to get a little rest from the clamouring crowds.

It was never Jesus’ intention just to be a solution for human problems. He came for a much greater purpose than that. He called people to be followers and imitators of Him because there was a broken world beyond their borders that needed Him and the message He came to bring.  

He was popular as long as He spoke about the kingdom of God and the love a Father, but when He began to teach them about the kind of life He expected them to live as citizens of God’s kingdom, to follow and obey Him and to be generous towards all people, to care about others more than themselves and to serve rather than be served, His popularity waned.

“Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people and said to them… ‘I have examined Him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against Him…’ …With one voice they cried out, ‘Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!” Luke 23:13, 14b, 18.   

When Jesus was on trial before Caiaphas, He was challenged to give His credentials. “Are you the Christ, The Son of the Blessed?” asked the High Priest. Jesus acknowledged the claim, “It is as you say.” Caiaphas was elated. “Blasphemy,” he roared. “Guilty as charged.” Was it not his responsibility to call witnesses to ensure that his verdict was accurate? How was he going to prove Jesus’ guilt or innocence without testing His claim? Where were the people whose lives were changed through His healing power? Where were the enthusiastic crowds who hung on His words and marvelled at His teaching and His authority?                                                    

It seems that the same people who received His mercy and compassion were among those who shouted for His death. What happened to their faith? Where was their loyalty? How tragic that many who call themselves believers today melt away when the pressure is on. Faith is Jesus is not about what we can get out of Him but about who He is. If He is the Christ, the Son of God, we have no option but to worship Him because, outside of Him, we have no hope.

MATTHEW’S DEFINING MOMENT

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MATTHEW’S DEFINING MOMENT

After this Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything, and followed Him. Luke 5:27,28.

Deep inside of us are two opposite beliefs; one is a lie and the other, the truth but, despite that, we believe them both. One is the belief that comes from our old nature in Adam. We believe that we are worthless. And yet, in spite of that, we have a feeling that there is something better to this life than where we are and what we are doing now.

It is not Jesus’ purpose or role to push people deeper into their sense of worthlessness. “I did not come to condemn the world,” He said, “but to save it.” His passion is to put people back on the path to wholeness and a worthwhile life for which we were created anyway.

Matthew had chosen a life which isolated him from his people. They despised him for his life of dishonesty just to get rich. He was greedy and selfish, yet lonely and unhappy. He knew, deep down, that he was made for something better, but he was trapped and couldn’t get out of his guilt and shame.

Perhaps Jesus sensed Matthew’s unhappiness when He passed by the tax collector’s booth that morning. He didn’t stand over Matthew in judgment or condemnation, but His presence awakened in Matthew the possibility of a better life. Matthew did not hesitate when he heard Jesus’ invitation to come after Him. He didn’t question the Master’s deviation from the rabbi’s practice of calling disciples from the rabbi school – the Beth Talmid, not the tax collector’s booth. 

He didn’t stop to ask what would happen to him or his money and possessions. He simply walked away from the only life he knew and followed Jesus. It was enough to follow Jesus because He inspired such confidence that there was no fear about the next step or the next day or the next year.

For Matthew it was the most natural thing to gather around him the people who didn’t mind associating with him because they felt like him, unclean and therefore guilty and rejected. If Jesus accepted him, then he would surely accept them. Perhaps he thought, “Let me give them an opportunity to accept the reconciliation He freely offered me,” and so Matthew planned a banquet.

Matthew had stepped into the new and better life he always knew was possible. His heart was free from the nagging sense of unworthiness. He wanted to share the joy of this freedom with those who felt like he felt. It was true – there was a better life – in company with Jesus.

Matthew’s defining moment taught him that he could be completely comfortable with Jesus because Jesus was comfortable with him. Jesus is comfortable with you too, because He has removed all the barriers between Himself and you.

THE RESURRECTION – SO WHAT?

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THE RESURRECTION – SO WHAT?

 “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”  1 Corinthians 15:20

The resurrection of Jesus is something most of us are familiar with. We celebrate His death and resurrection when we share in the Lord’s Table. Easter comes around every year and some of us even enjoy a long weekend to celebrate His death and resurrection.

But what did the resurrection mean to Jesus’ disciples? What did it mean to Mary Magdalene? She was an evil woman, probably a prostitute and full of evil spirits. One day Jesus met her, drove out the evil spirits and changed her life. She was so grateful that she followed Him, she loved Him, and she was heartbroken when He died. She wanted to take His body away just so that she could be near Him a little longer. When He met her at the tomb and called her name she was overjoyed. He was back and all she wanted to do was hold Him.

What about the two disciples on the road to Emmaus? They were devastated when Jesus died because they were expecting Him to deliver them from the Romans. Now their hopes were dashed and they were on their way home to what? When Jesus appeared to them, they didn’t recognise Him. He was the last person they expected to see. He showed them from Scripture how much bigger God’s plan was than just freedom from Rome. He came to free them from sin and death. That’s what His resurrection really meant.

The resurrection meant something different to Peter. He was burning with guilt and shame for denying Jesus. How could he ever live with himself after what he had done? Jesus knew Peter’s heart. He came to him and to the other disciples because they were also guilty for deserting Him. Instead of accusing them, He cooked breakfast and ate with them. Then he asked Peter one question, “Do you love me?” and Peter knew that he was forgiven and restored.

What about the Apostle Paul? Paul had been a Pharisee, a learned man, arrogant, self-righteous, powerful, and opposed to the gospel. He tried to wipe out the early church by persecuting the Christians. He thought he was helping God but when Jesus met him on the Damascus road, he knew that He was truly God. He had been crucified but He was alive. The resurrection changed everything for Paul. He became a bond-slave of Jesus and spent his life making Him known to the ends of the earth.

What does the resurrection mean to you? It is much more than an event in history. Perhaps it means that Jesus is alive and always near you. Do you need to know that, despite the mess in the world, Jesus is alive and His plan still on track? Perhaps you need forgiveness for your sin and peace in your heart. Do you need the reassurance that Jesus is really God?  Jesus is alive!