Daily Archives: March 8, 2013

Right-side Up

Christian Life

RIGHT-SIDE UP

“I’ve come to start a fire on this earth – how I wish it were blazing right now! I’ve come to change everything, turn everything right-side up – how I long for it to be finished! Do you think I came to smooth things over and make everything nice? Not so. I’ve come to disrupt and confront!” Luke12:49-51 (The Message).

This is fighting talk! Jesus is speaking about revolution here, but what did He actually mean?

We will misunderstand Jesus’ words if we take what He said literally. As always, where the literal meaning is inappropriate, the Hebrew people interpret the words according to their function, not their form; for example, wherever God is spoken of in human terms or in ways that conjure up grotesque pictures, the words are not intended to be understood literally. God is spirit – He has no hands, face, wings etc. These images explain how He relates to us.

We also need to put Jesus’ words into the context of His character. Was He a revolutionary? Yes. What kind of revolutionary? Never in the sense of using force or cruelty to change anything. His intention was always to address the issues of the heart. He came to bring radical change to society, not through political power or coercion but through the inward transformation of people, one by one.

Jesus’ work in people is never cosmetic. His death on the cross shows us that. Sin requires drastic measures to eradicate it so that the inward lives of sinful human beings can be changed. His conflict with the religious leaders raged around this point. They were satisfied to maintain the status quo as long as they could put on a show of ‘holiness’ on the outside to impress people.

Any religion that addresses behaviour without getting at the root of the sin nature is false, deceptive and fatal. No one can be changed inside by wearing the right clothes, eating the right food or carrying out the right rituals. None of that can touch the problem of sin at its core. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure…” Jeremiah 17:9 (NIV) is the Bible’s diagnosis of our plight.

Jesus came to confront and defeat the real culprit, the devil, to strip him of his power to deceive and to release us from captivity to his lies. Jesus’ death on the cross accomplished a great victory over the devil. “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us. He took 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).

To understand Jesus’ words correctly is to know He came to declare war on the real enemy, the devil, not on people. He came to rescue and redeem us from the slave market of sin and transform our hearts. Only then can society be turned the right side up when righteousness, justice and peace are restored through the men and women who put these things into practice in their lives.
Forcing people to subscribe to a religion that is heartless and cruel may be revolutionary but it can never bring peace. Jesus is the only Prince of Peace and His peace is the deep inward tranquillity that comes from being at peace with God through the forgiveness of our sins and reconciliation to our heavenly Father. In that security we can settle our issues with our fellow man and live out of our transformed hearts.

On a Steady Course to Jerusalem

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ON A STEADY COURSE TOWARDS JERUSALEM

“He went on teaching from town to village, from village to town but keeping on a steady course towards Jerusalem.” Luke 13:22 (The Message).

Jerusalem, the Holy City of God, ancient citadel of David, Israel’s model king and revered leader. Jerusalem, seat of religious government and site of their most holy shrine – the great temple of God, place of God’s presence and the rallying point of His people. The temple was their security and their expression of unity. Every year they gathered in their thousands to celebrate their feasts at the temple in Jerusalem.

Jesus loved Jerusalem; He loved the temple. His first experience at the age of twelve captured His heart. He tarried in Jerusalem while His parents set off for home, not knowing that He was still in His Father’s house, about His Father’s business. Every time He returned to Jerusalem at feast times, He taught in the temple. His passion for His Father’s house drew forth white-hot anger when greedy merchants turned it into a market place. Why would He not move with eager steps towards Jerusalem?

Jesus was fully aware of the sinister side of Jerusalem. Its beauty and fascination eclipsed its history. It was also the place where its people had murdered its prophets. Jerusalem was a place of religious intolerance and a rigid and ruthless priesthood. Anyone who threatened their position and power was dispensed with. Both political and religious threats were quickly judged and exterminated to keep the peace with Rome and to maintain the status quo.

Jesus fell into the category of a religious embarrassment. His popularity temporarily bordered on fanaticism because He was everything the people longed for. He was there for them in their physical crises; He miraculously fed them from meagre resources; He was kind and compassionate; He was the friend of sinners; He forgave their sin and restored peace in their hearts and, best of all, they fervently believed He would rescue them from their Roman oppressors.

Jesus knew that Jerusalem was the place of His final showdown with His opponents. To move steadily towards Jerusalem, knowing that they held the power to destroy Him was to commit suicide, and yet He was unflinching in His purpose. Worse still, He not only put Himself in the place of personal danger, He deliberately provoked His enemies into a frenzy of murderous hate by His exposure of their hypocrisy, His insistence on His identity as the Son of God and His unflinching adherence to the truth.

Jesus was not afraid of Jerusalem. It was the place where the climax of history would be played out with Himself the focal point. He had come to die in Jerusalem. Luke captures this His attitude in this moment in this one significant phrase, “…on a steady course towards Jerusalem.” Unlike us who are swept along by our circumstances, Jesus moved purposefully into His because He knew who He was and why He had come.

What an inspiration this is for those of us who have chosen to believe what He said and to entrust our lives and our destiny to Him! We are secure in the truth the His death on the cross was neither a coincidence nor the victory of devil-inspired religious despots but the pre-determined plan of a loving and compassionate heavenly Father who sent His Son into a dangerous world to rescue us from the clutches of the devil.

Jesus was fully aware of what lay ahead of Him and moved into it with steadfast purpose because He knew the outcome and obeyed the Father in order to carry out His rescue plan. He absorbed the very worst that human beings could do to Him, He died as a silent and unprotesting sacrificial lamb although He was innocent, and triumphantly rose from the dead to prove it.

Luke’s Story Begins

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LUKE’S STORY BEGINS

“During the rule of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest assigned service in the regiment of Abijah. His name was Zachariah. His wife was descended from the daughters of Aaron. Her name was Elizabeth. Together they lived honourably before God, careful in keeping to the ways of the commandments and enjoying a clear conscience before God. But they were childless because Elizabeth could never conceive, and now they were quite old.” Luke 1:5-7 (The Message).

Luke’s story begins with simple facts. An elderly priest and his wife, Zachariah and Elizabeth, form the focus of the opening paragraph. Why does Luke make special mention that they were a godly old couple? They lived their lives within the boundaries of God’s law and because of that, they both had a clear conscience before God.

Was it that there were others who were not as careful as they were in being honourable in their lives and service in the temple? It is sad that Luke should even have to comment on their blameless lives, seeing that Zachariah was a genuine Levitical priest of the regiment of Abijah. It should have been a given!

Luke states three simple facts about this couple in his opening paragraph; they elderly, they were godly and they were childless. Each of these facts plays an important part in their story and adds to the ‘wow’ factor that makes their contribution so extraordinary.

Being godly prepared them to be chosen parents for Israel’s greatest prophet, John the Baptist. He was the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophetic vision in Isaiah 40:3 – “A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.’ Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill be made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

He was to play a brief but crucial role in preparing the way for, and identifying the Messiah. He would be nurtured from birth by faithful parents who would teach him God’s Word and prepare him for his prophetic role.

They were elderly and childless – reminiscent of Israel’s forefather, Abraham, and Sarah, who received the miracle of a child in their old age. Because Zachariah and Elizabeth were beyond the possibility of conceiving a child naturally, they were candidates for God’s miraculous intervention. Why did God choose this way of bringing His ‘Elijah’ into the world? Why not some ordinary village kid whom He could set apart for this ministry?

God had His reasons but it is possible that He would call attention to this special child by allowing him to be conceived miraculously in his parents’ old age. God chose this couple because John needed to be raised by godly parents who would recognise the seriousness of their responsibility.

Luke sets the scene for the entrance of John by describing an impossible situation as the backdrop to the things He was going to do to introduce His Messiah to the world. John’s parents were childless and too old. Jesus’ mother was unmarried. None of these things mattered to God. He would use these very ‘impossibilities’ to enhance the glory of His revelation to the world.

Luke, The Chronicler of Jesus, Son of man

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LUKE, THE CHRONICLER OF JESUS, SON OF MAN

“So many others have tried their hand at putting together a story of the wonderful harvest of Scripture and history that took place among us, using reports handed down by the original eyewitnesses who served this Word with their very lives. Since I have investigated all the reports in close detail, starting from the story’s beginning, I decided to write it all out for you, most honourable Theophilus, so you can know beyond a shadow of a doubt the reality of what you were taught.” Luke 1:1-4 (The Message)

Luke was a Gentile, possibly a Greek or a Roman, who was acquainted with Theophilus, a Roman judging by his name, who was a believer in Jesus of high rank, either socially or as a government official somewhere. He was a follower of Jesus but he needed the anchor of an authentic record of the life of the one he had chosen to follow. Luke undertook the task, researching and writing as accurately as possible, using the verbal or written reports of eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life, but those who themselves believed in Him.

Luke was only one among many, according to him, who had undertaken this task, but it was his work that made its way into the canon of Scripture. While he used the work of others, it was his that was “God-breathed” and acknowledged as inspired. It would be a fascinating story of how a document written for only one man, made its way into the public eye and eventually into the New Testament. Did Theophilus share Luke’s story with family and friends, with work colleagues and social acquaintances? Did Luke show his gospel to Paul? Did Paul circulate copies to the churches because he recognised the value of Luke’s work?

This side of eternity we will never know but God designed this book to be part of the written witness to the life of His Son. It is part of the four-fold fulfilment of the prophetic picture of Messiah represented in the four faces of the living creatures around the throne of God. Matthew presents Jesus as the King of the Jews, the fulfilment of Messianic prophecy, symbolised by the face of a lion (Ezekiel 1:10; Rev 4:7). Mark’s picture of Jesus is that of a servant, symbolised by the face of an ox. Luke portrays Jesus as the Son of Man, symbolised by the face of a man, and John the exalted Son of God represented by the flying eagle.

Luke’s purpose was to present Jesus as the Son of Man, not just the human Jesus, but the Messiah, the God-man who was anointed by the Holy Spirit to be the link between heaven and earth; God in human form, weak, vulnerable, ordinary, yet extraordinary in His nature and function, filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit to be a perfect man and a perfect sacrifice. He was true man, yet more than a man. He was true God, veiled in a human body to live out a real human life and to die a real human death so that we can be reconnected to God.
Luke’s research and writing skill has left us with an incomparable record of aspects of Jesus’ birth, glimpses into His childhood and His short public life, and examples of His matchless teaching which are recorded nowhere else in Scripture. Together with the other gospel writers, we have a fully rounded and comprehensive record, not of every detail of Jesus’ life, but of the witness He left by His life and death to His reason for coming – a revelation of the Father through His miracles, His life and His teaching and His death and resurrection.

Luke’s story would be incomplete without the other gospels, yet in his writing he presents a very ordinary person, a man of prayer and dependence on the Father, who lived an extraordinary life and accomplished extraordinary things because He was empowered and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that fell on the church on the day of Pentecost and empowers us to live the same life He lived.

Killer of Prophets

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KILLER OF PROPHETS

‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killer of prophets, abuser of the messengers of God!
How often I’ve longed to gather your children, gather your children like a hen,
her brood safe under her wings — but you refused and turned away!
But now it’s too late; you won’t see me again until the day you say,
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.'”
Luke 13:34, 35 (The Message).

Oh the heartache of Jesus! Such is the power of deception and the terrifying possibilities in the most precious gift God gave humanity – the power to choose! But that is the nature of love – risking everything for the sake of a free and willing choice to believe and trust the God who calls us into a love relationship with Him.

Not to be able to love Him freely would be grossly unfair, to say the least. He has given us the right to choose, based on the evidence that we must evaluate for ourselves. God hides nothing from us. What He says is true with no small print to mislead or mask a hidden agenda.

Jesus could rightly claim, ‘I am the Light of the world,’ because light dispels darkness and reveals everything. He could claim, ‘I am the truth,’ because what He has spoken and what He has promised has stood the test of time. Only truth can never be destroyed and the words of Jesus have never been proved false.

Deception’s power lies, as much in what had not been said as in what has been said. Satan is a master of deception, sometimes by just plain lying, contradicting the truth of God, and sometimes by concealing the truth; for example, he makes sin look appealing and attractive but he neglects to talk about the consequences. ‘It’s okay,’ he says to young people, ‘to sleep around. It’s nice and everybody’s doing it. Nothing will happen and no-one will know.’

And then comes the unexpected pregnancy. ‘It’s okay to get rid of it,’ he says, ‘It’s only the ‘product of conception’,’ as if that changes the truth that it is a baby-in-the-making. Then, when it’s all over and there is no going back, comes the lifetime of emotional pain – guilt, shame, remorse – that he didn’t warn you about, and oh, does he rub it in, ‘You fool, you wicked person, look what you’ve done. God will never forgive you. There is no hope for you!’

Jesus wept for a city that had been deceived by its spiritual leaders. ‘He’s a devil and a deceiver,’ they insisted. ‘He works through the power of the devil. Don’t listen to Him. We are right and He is wrong.’ and so the people made their choice, swept along by the gloating deceiver himself. They murdered Him in spite of the evidence. And forty years later the city and its people paid the terrible price, the city destroyed, the temple taken apart stone by stone – just as He said – and its people slaughtered until their blood ran like a river in the streets.

Had they believed Him, they would have been as safe as chickens sheltering under mother hen’s wings. But they did not. They refused to weigh up the evidence and so, they were wilfully deceived. And that’s the biggest tragedy of all – deception is, in the end, our choice. There is enough evidence to disclose the truth, if we want it. “It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that He exists and that He cares enough to respond to those who believe Him.” Hebrews 11:6 (The Message).

Here is His non-negotiable promise, “Now this is what my Father wants; that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who He is and what He does and then aligns with Him, will enter real life, eternal life.” John 6:40 (The Message); no small print, no hidden agenda, only the truth.

But it’s your choice….