Monthly Archives: December 2019

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE= UNMARKED GRAVES!

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UNMARKED GRAVES!

“You’re hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You love sitting at the head table at church dinners, love preening yourselves in the radiance of public flattery. Frauds! You’re just like unmarked graves. People walk over that nice grassy surface, never suspecting the rot and corruption that is six feet under.” Luke 11:43, 44.

Unmarked graves!

This is one of the tragedies of the Christendom of this age – perhaps of all ages, this putting on airs and graces in the name of Jesus when this attitude is the complete opposite of all He taught and stood for.

What is the root of this attitude? When we look at Jesus, we see a person so secure in God and in Himself that He did not need the accolades of people to make Him feel good about Himself. He knew who He was and could be authentically Himself without needing affirmation and approval from the people around Him.

Perhaps their learning had so inflated the self-worth of these Pharisees that it obscured the wickedness and greed in their hearts. They had lied to themselves so much that their cloak of ‘holiness’ became their all-time cover-up for what they were really like inside. Their egos had become so big that they were oblivious to the evil buried beneath the surface of their religious performance.

But even that was second to their attitude. This was what angered Jesus the most. Not only did they think their performance made them acceptable to God, but they despised everyone who did not measure up to their standard. Everyone who was not in their class was beneath them, making them act as though they deserved the attention and approval they received from the ‘lesser mortals’ who admired and deferred to them.

They not only thought they deserved the highest honour and admiration from the crowd, but they also expected and demanded it. They would never think of taking the lowest place at the dinner table. They would not wait to be escorted to the place of honour beside the host. They would simply take is as their right.

It is a sad fact that there are Christian ‘leaders’ who act in exactly the same way in the public eye today. Their success in the church game, their wealth which they see as evidence of God’s ‘blessing’ and their exposure through the media has given them so much visibility that they have begun to think that they are more important and better than the ordinary people around them. They love titles – Apostle, Prophet, Reverend, Doctor, Father, because these boost their ego and set them above others.

This is not God’s way. Jesus used words like ‘servant’ and ‘little child’ to describe the attitude of true greatness in any son of God. Jesus was first and foremost a servant to the world He came to rescue. He never pulled rank to re-enforce His authority. His authority came from His humble submission to His Father. He did not need to cover up what was inside Him.

He stands on the side of His Father who ‘resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ When we entertain the Pharisee attitude, God says in effect, ‘You’re on your own. I can do nothing with you or for you.’

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – RELIGIOUS FRAUDS

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RELIGIOUS FRAUDS

“I’ve had it with you! You’re hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing every nickel and dime you get, but manage to find loopholes for getting around basic matters of justice and God’s love. Careful bookkeeping is commendable but basics are required.” Luke 11:42.

Jesus’ perspective on what is important to God is very different from ours. Every man-made religion considers what we do more important than what we are. The gods of human imagination always require rule-keeping and rituals as the way to gain the god’s favour and get what we want.

Does it really matter who or what we worship as long as we worship something? It is in the basic nature of humans to worship and to pray. We are incomplete without allegiance to a higher power. To many people, sincerity is the most important ingredient in our worship. “It doesn’t matter who you worship, as long as you are sincere.” they say.

This is flawed thinking because every action in life has consequences. It does matter who or what we worship because we become like the thing we worship. What we embrace as the source of our life, we embrace as what we value and where we end.

The tragedy about the gods of human imagination is that they inevitably reflect the worst of human nature; cruel, heartless, demanding, unpredictable and unstable. Worst of all is that they do not exist but are the deception of demons to entice us to worship Satan.

Whether people bow down to idols of wood or stone or some invisible ‘god’ some human being told them to worship, the outcome is the same – behaviour that says one thing but hearts that are still rotten to the core.

What is God’s remedy for this terrible dead end? A heart transplant. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you…” Ezekiel 36:26,27a (NIV). Can God make good on His word? Yes! The evidence of a changed heart is a changed disposition.

Jesus’ quarrel with the Pharisees was that their religion was a cover-up for greed and wickedness and the people thought they were ‘holy’! They lived double lives, hypocrites playing to the crowd, but underneath they were worse than the tax-collectors, prostitutes and ‘sinners’ whom they despised.

Jesus was more comfortable with the outcasts because they had no reason to pretend. God cannot do anything for ‘holy’ people, those whose religious cloak keeps Him out. He is near to those who know they cannot pretend with Him. He can change the hearts of those who know their need but He can do nothing for those who think they are okay.

No matter what the barrier is between us and the only true God, only one thing will give us access to Him – to admit that we were deceived and to believe what He says.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – STUPID PHARISEES

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STUPID PHARISEES

“When He had finished this talk, a Pharisee asked Him to dinner. He entered the house and sat down at the table. The Pharisee was shocked and somewhat offended when he saw that Jesus didn’t wash up before dinner. But the Master said to him, ‘I know you Pharisees burnish the surface of your cups and plates so that they sparkle in the sun, but I also know your insides are maggoty with greed and secret evil. Stupid Pharisees! Didn’t the One who made the outside also make the inside? Turn both your pockets and your hearts inside out and give generously to the poor, then your lives will be clean, not just your dishes and your hands,'” Luke 11:37-41.

Every religion has a standard of right and wrong. The religion of the Pharisees was no different. Although they believed that they were worshipping and serving the God of Israel, there had been a slow and subtle change in their understanding of who He was and what He wanted.

From the earliest time of their history, God had revealed to them the nature of His righteousness – doing what is right because of who He is. He is ‘gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and full of love and faithfulness’ – Exodus 34:6. His laws reflected His nature. He expected them to treat each other the way He treated them.

Because of their refusal to obey His laws, over time they were punished again and again for their idolatry and injustice by war and exile. They came to believe that God was only pleased when they obeyed the many petty and trivial laws that were formulated to ‘protect’ His Law. The heart of their religion became legalistic and God was reduced to the level of ‘rule-keeping’ as the standard of righteousness.

Jesus came to reveal the heart of the Father and hence He clashed with religious leaders because, like all religions, its devotees were ruled by fear. ‘Break the rules and you fall foul of the god whom you are supposed to be appeasing by keeping them.’   

Does it really matter to God whether we wash our hands before meals? For hygienic reasons, yes, but it makes no difference to the state of our hearts. What is it that really exposes what is in our hearts? Strangely enough, according to Jesus, it’s what we do with our money. Since money is the power that drives the world, who owns our money and our attitude to it reveals what is really in our hearts.

Jesus insisted that we cannot serve two masters. It is either God or money that is in the control centre of our lives. The love of money drives our selfishness, greed and attitude to other people. If money is our master, we will go to whatever lengths necessary to get it even at the cost of lives. If Jesus is our Master, money will be one of the currencies we use to make other people’s lives better.

Isn’t rule-keeping often a cover-up for wickedness in our hearts? Just like the Pharisees, we meticulously observe rules and rituals to appear ‘righteous’ but inside the ‘cup’ is the filth of greed we cannot hide from God. How do we break its power? Jesus said, ‘Be a giver, and you’ll become generous, like your heavenly Father.’ Generosity will not save us, but it will go a long way to setting us free from the ‘evil eye’ that rules the world.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – LIGHT UP YOUR WORLD

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LIGHT UP YOUR WORLD

“No one lights a lamp, then hides it in a drawer. It’s put on a lamp stand so those entering the room have light to see where they’re going. Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don’t get musty and murky. Keep your life a well-lighted room.” Luke 11:33-36.

As a Jew, Jesus would have used the words, ‘light’ and ‘darkness’ from the understanding that they would be interpreted functionally, not literally. The ‘eye’ represented a person’s perspective on life. To have an ‘eye of light’ indicated that the person had a heart that was one (echad) with God with an unselfish and generous disposition. To have a dark or evil eye meant that the person was selfish and greedy, unable to see beyond his own nose.

People who believe that Jesus is the Son of God and have responded to His invitation to take His yoke, follow and learn from Him, have been relocated from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of light. They have had a change of master and a change of disposition. They are no longer ruled by greed. They have become generous givers, not only of their resources but also in attitude towards other people.

Jesus used this as the test of a person’s true response to Him. When Zaccheus received Him into his home and into his life, his first action was to overturn his old life by being generous to the poor and by making restitution for his dishonesty. This, to Jesus, was evidence of a truly changed life.

This kind of life cannot be lived in secret. Just as there is not value in putting a light under a bed, a changed and generous disposition is intended to be a witness to God’s grace in a life, setting the person free from the greed that brings judgment and replacing it with the joy of giving.

In his letter, James made a case for the futility of faith without good works. Good works in themselves cannot save, firstly because anything ‘good’ we try to do comes from polluted hearts, and secondly, because God is not impressed by our best self-effort. But when our sins have been removed and our hearts changed by God’s power, we are free to express the new life in us by a changed attitude to other people. We can now see them through God’s eyes and feel their need in our hearts.

God’s way of involving us in His government of mercy is to meet the needs of others through us. He provides for us through others so that, in turn, we can give away to those in need. In this way we create a current of resources which keeps circulating as long as we keep giving. What we hoard stops the flow of that current and shuts down the joy that comes from doing life God’s way. ‘Keep the current flowing,’ said Jesus, ‘and your life will be lit up with God’s presence and joy.’

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – A GREATER THAN JONAH IS HERE

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A GREATER THAN JONAH IS HERE

“On Judgment Day the Ninevites will stand up and give evidence that will condemn this generation because, when Jonah preached to them, they changed their lives. A far greater preacher than Jonah is here, and you squabble about ‘proofs’. On Judgment Day the Queen of Sheba will come forward and bring evidence that condemns this generation because she travelled from a far corner of the earth to listen to wise Solomon. Wisdom far greater than Solomon’s is right in front of you and you quibble about ‘evidence’. Luke 11:30-32.

Jesus condemned the people of His generation because they refused to accept the evidence staring them in the face that His words, His works and His ways all testified to His identity as the Son of God. They preferred to keep following Him around and demanding signs because He was the latest person on the popularity polls.

Both the Ninevites and the Queen of Sheba were held up as examples of people with more discernment than the people of God in Israel. They had only one opportunity – the Ninevites were pagans, the cruellest nation on earth in their day – and God sent a prophet to warn them of the consequences of their ways. Their response was startling, considering Jonah’s five-word message! They repented to a man, and God spared them.

The Queen of Sheba came from far, probably from Africa; no jet airliner to transport her, not even a motorised vehicle on a tar road. But she made the effort to listen to a mere man because of his supernatural wisdom.

The people of Jesus’ day had the very Son of God with them, teaching them and demonstrating the kingdom of God with signs and wonders and they refused to believe Him.

But what of my generation? When I read magazines, watch TV, listen to the radio, I am aware that God is conspicuously absent. The only mention of God is the use of His name as an expletive. How blind are people today! The evidence of God’s presence is everywhere – “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.” Psalm 19:1 (NIV).

Just like the Apostle Paul’s contemporaries, this generation stands guilty before God. “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse.” Romans 1:18-20 (NIV).

No generation has had more opportunity to discover the truth about God than this one. His Word blankets the earth in both written and spoken form and yet…godlessness and wickedness are on the increase. What chance does this generation have if the people in Jesus’ day stood guilty and condemned before God because they refused to believe?