Monthly Archives: January 2020

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – THE GOD-SEASON

Bible Study, , ,

THE GOD-SEASON

“Then He turned to the crowd: ‘When you see clouds coming in from the west, you say, ‘Storm’s coming’ – and you’re right. And when the wind comes out of the south, you say, ‘This’ll be a hot one’ – and you’re right. Frauds! You know how to tell a change in the weather, so don’t tell me you can’t tell a change in the season, the God-season we’re in right now.'” Luke 12:54-56.

What was the God-season of which Jesus spoke? For four hundred years, God had been silent and apparently inactive. But behind the scenes He had been preparing both His people and the world for the moment when He would break into the earthly scene with His personal and final revelation of Himself.

His appearance ushered in a new revelation of His nature: “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 (NIV). Over the centuries, the people’s understanding of God had been eroded away until they perceived Him as one who was legalistic and only appeased by strict adherence to a rigid code of conduct, mostly rules that their own rabbis has superimposed on God’s prescribed way of living.

Jesus came to show His people that the Father is not like that at all. The essence of God’s nature is a loving Father who passionately longs for fellowship and oneness with them. Jesus brought grace and truth to light by showing God’s compassion and mercy in His healing and teaching ministry.

It was truly a new season for His people, oppressed and harassed both by Rome and the devil. He came to teach them how they could live in a new inner freedom, regardless of their circumstances, because their restored relationship to God the Father as His sons and daughters meant that they were no longer burdened by rules and ritual. His death would free them from the bondage and power of sin to live in fellowship with the Father.

Tragically, the religious leaders refused to understand what He had come to do. They resisted His teaching; they blasphemed His miracles, attributing to the devil what the Holy Spirit was doing through Him and, at the same time, they accused Him of blasphemy because He claimed to be the Son of God. They chose not to examine the evidence of His claim and condemned Him to death for being guilty of being the Son of God and the King of the Jews!

Yes, Jesus came to usher in a new God-season of grace and truth, and has given the world an extended opportunity to return to the Father and escape the judgment we deserve because of our rebellion against Him. For two thousand years the Holy Spirit has been actively wooing and nudging people back to the Father. Jesus paid the debt of our sin so that we can experience the unconditional love and forgiveness of the Father. “…God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.” 2 Corinthians 5:19 (NIV).

How tragic that millions in the world have heard the message but have rejected it as did the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, choosing rather to continue in their false belief system, enjoying their sin and not caring that there is a day of reckoning coming. “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.” Hebrews 9:17 (NIV).

God has made provision for us to live in the eternal glory of His presence and blessing, but the choice is ours.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – DISRUPT AND CONFRONT

Bible Study, ,

DISRUPT AND CONFRONT

“I’ve come to disrupt and confront! From now on, when you find five in a house, it will be – three against two, and two against three, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against bride and bride against mother-in-law.” Luke 12:52, 53.

Is it Jesus’ intention to cause trouble in families? Never! That would be contrary to His nature as God. God is one – ECHAD – unity in diversity expressed by His essence, love. It is God’s intention to restore everything that Adam’s disobedience destroyed, to its original oneness in Himself. “For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him (Jesus), and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood shed on the cross.” Colossians 1:19, 20 (NIV).

Jesus is not speaking about intention but about outcome. He is stating the fact that a relationship with Him is so deep and so radical that it cuts across even the closest family ties. There is a deep-rooted underlying problem in the human heart of which Paul speaks in Romans 5:10 – “…we were God’s enemies…” Enmity against God causes us to resist someone else’s faith in Him, even in the very closest of family members. Our belief system which is shaped by the deception sown in our minds by God’s enemy, the devil, causes us to resist the truth and to oppose those who believe and receive God’s word.

There is a second flaw in our fallen human nature that persistently causes trouble. Unlike God, we do not respect other people’s freedom and right to make their own choices. We try to force our own beliefs and opinions on others, even resorting to murder if the other person refuses to see things our way. What kind of a god would require us to kill our own flesh and blood if he or she chooses to believe in Jesus? And yet it happens across the world.

Is this what Jesus desires? Certainly not! Jesus is not a blood-thirsty murderer, taking pleasure in disrupting and dividing families. We do it to ourselves by stubbornly trying to manipulate the conscience of another.

Why would people behave in such a drastic way to enforce their will on others? Is this not evidence of the source of their beliefs? Jesus accurately diagnosed the problem. He said, “Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:43, 44 (NIV).  

It amazes me how stubbornly people hang on to their lies even if it means destroying another’s life. There is nothing more tragic than deception and self-deception – believing and basing one’s whole life on what is not true. God created the world to be a place of righteousness and peace for all people as a reflection of Himself. He gave us the freedom to make our own choices and to take responsibility for the choices we make. Hating and killing to enforce our will on another can never be right because it defeats the very purpose for which we were created.

Therefore we must conclude that disruption and division in families and in society must have its source in God’s enemy, the devil. Satan has one agenda – to steal from God the human race He created in His image to worship Him and to enjoy the blessing of being His sons and daughters. We should be alerted to our future by the hell we taste on earth now and will experience forever if we choose to believe his lies.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – RIGHT SIDE UP

Bible Study, ,

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.

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 men and live out of our transformed hearts.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – GREAT GIFTS…GREAT RESPONSIBILITIES

Bible Study, ,

GREAT GIFTS – GREAT RESPONSIBILITIES

“The servant who knows what his master wants and ignores it, or insolently does whatever he pleases, will be thoroughly thrashed. But if he does a poor job through ignorance, he’ll get off with a slap on the hand. Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities.” Luke 12:47, 48.

There is something terribly wrong in the world today. God is glaringly absent, ignored or treated as though He does not exist. Read a glossy magazine, listen to the radio, watch the TV; it’s all the same. People’s gifts and talents are flaunted as if they were solely responsible for acquiring them.

No-one can use the excuse that he or she does not know where they got their gifts because the Bible assures us that everyone knows God. Romans 1:20,21 – “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, having been understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

Everyone has been entrusted with something to manage for the Master until He returns, some more and some less, but the attitude is often that these gifts are for us to exploit for our own benefit and advantage. Whether it be beauty, art, music, drama, or any less visible ability, the motive is the same, either money or fame or both. Whatever the reason, it’s all about ‘me’. It’s the ‘evil eye’ at work again, the greedy and selfish nature in control.

There are at least three things that this way of thinking either forgets or ignores: God’s glory, God’s purpose and our future destiny. The manager in Jesus’ story is a glaring example. He was either deliberately rebellious, or irresponsibly ignorant. Neither is an excuse for failing to carry out the master’s requirements. His selfishness cancelled out wisdom. He was living for the moment and forgetting that the master would return.

Tragically, because self dominates, his attitude was even more serious; the greater the gift, the greater the garnering of wealth and popularity for himself. But God looks at it differently; the greater the gift, the greater the responsibility. God gives us gifts firstly so that we can show Him off. Every gift, talent and ability we have is to be honed and used as a witness to what kind of God He is. God is infinitely beautiful, kind and generous and one of the ways He reveals His beauty is through us.

Secondly, God gives us gifts to get the work of His kingdom done on earth. There are a myriad ways in which the things He enables us to do bring, reveal and explain His government on earth. In God’s system, there is order, harmony, purpose, beauty, generosity, mercy, compassion, etc, and these are accomplished through the gifts He has given us. To use them to enhance ourselves is to abuse them and to abort His plan on earth.

Thirdly, there is no way God will let us get away with rebellion or irresponsibility. Jesus will come back. He has promised. He will call us to account. He said so. His justice will be absolutely just because He gives us the choice regarding our future. Whatever we choose in this life He will confirm in the next. Our Romans passage makes it very clear. “Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.” Romans 1:28 (NIV).

And so Jesus’ warning is a serious one. The ‘thrashing’ unfaithful managers receive will be eternal and so will be the loss, too terrible to imagine, including the loss of the very position He had destined them to occupy in His eternal dominion had they been faithful.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT

Bible Study, ,

WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT

“But if he says to himself, ‘The master is certainly taking his time,’ begins maltreating the servants and maids, throws parties for his friends, and gets drunk, the master will walk in when he least expects it, give him the thrashing of his life and put him back in the kitchen peeling potatoes.”  Luke 12:45, 46.

What is this imagery all about? This story reveals some serious flaws in the manager’s character and thinking.

Flaw number one: He forgot who he was. In a previous meditation we exposed the faulty thinking that puts title above function. This man forgot that, as a manager, he was supposed to do what managers do. Being manager of the household did not give him licence to behave as he pleased. It carried with it the responsibility of fulfilling the functions of a manager faithfully.

Believers in Jesus are first of all, sons of God. That is not a title, it’s a function. It’s who we are. We have a privileged position in God’s household but with it comes the function of sonship, representing our Father to the world. We can never abuse that privilege by doing as we please because that would cancel out who we are.

Flaw number two: His position was only a veneer. What do I mean? He functioned according to who was watching him. As long as the master was around, he did what he was supposed to do but, when the master left him in charge, he exposed his true nature.

How tragic when God’s people behave like that! This reveals a ‘Pharisee’ mask, playing to the crowd as long as the right people are watching. To be a son of God is to be like Jesus in our inner core, no matter who is watching. It’s to be who we are in private, and to function according to who we are because of our attachment to our Master.

Flaw number three: His old nature was covered, not transformed. His old, selfish nature was masked by his position. He carried out his duties as a manager, caring for the master’s household, but underneath, he was lazy and selfish. As soon as the opportunity presented, he reverted to his old self, dropped his inhibitions, partied and abused alcohol and people, wasted his master’s resources and made a thorough fool of himself.

The true test of sonship is the answer to the question, What do we really want to do? Are we repulsed by the thought of doing the things we used to do in our old way of life or is there a hankering after those things which is masked by our veneer of faith in Jesus? How do we react in a crisis? Does our old nature pop back up without our thinking about it or do we respond out of the peace of God which supernaturally rules in our hearts?

Flaw number four: He forgot that the master was coming back and that he was accountable to him. He was only living for the pleasure of the moment and forgetting that every action had a consequence.

This can be a serious flaw in our thinking if we don’t learn to step back and take the long look at life. Jesus is the perfect example of a person who lived with both this life and the life to come in mind. Without this mind-set, He would never have gone to the cross. Hebrews 12:3 puts in it a nutshell. “…who, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Flaw number five: He did not value his position enough to put it ahead of temporary pleasure. This response to temptation exactly reflects Adam’s choice in the Garden of Eden. He did not value his relationship with God enough to guard it at the expense of selfish desires. What he lost was unspeakably tragic. And the same with the man in the story.

This should be our motivation above everything else for being faithful to our calling, whatever that is. We are sons and daughters of God, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus. Why would we want to forfeit that for the sake of satisfying our temporary and transient urges?