Monthly Archives: March 2020

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – ALL ECSTASIES AND INTIMACIES

Bible Study, ,

ALL ECSTASIES AND INTIMACIES

“Jesus said, ‘Marriage is a major preoccupation here, but not there. Those who are included in the resurrection of the dead will no longer be concerned with marriage or, of course, with death. They will have better things to think about, if you can believe it. All ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God.'” Luke 20:34-36.

Wrong perspective again! Would they never learn?

The Sadducees’ preoccupation was political rather than religious and they had no axe to grind with Jesus. However, they were prompted to get in on the act with their religious counterparts, the Pharisees, not realising that no-one could outsmart Jesus, least of all them with their superficial knowledge of the Scriptures.

So they came at Him with a question prompted by their ignorance, and received a profound response that gives us a chink of light into the life of the believer in the hereafter. It amazes me how much of Jesus’ teaching on the deepest truths about God and the relationship He has called us into, came out of conflict with His opponents.

The current concept and experience of marriage, both in the world and in the church, is a mess because we have failed to grasp God’s original intention, hence the soaring divorce rate, dysfunctional families and all the unhappiness that causes, and all the other deviations from this holy institution; sexual promiscuity, ‘shacking up’ and so-called ‘sexual orientation’. Although our way does not work, we have not yet learned that God’s way is the truth.

What is God’s way?

On one occasion the Pharisees were questioning Jesus about the legality of divorce. He swept aside their rationalising in one single statement, “‘Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard, but it was not this way from the beginning.'” Matthew 19:8 (NIV).

God expressly stated that His intention was to create man in His own image. Israel’s statement of faith in Deuteronomy 6:4 gives us the essence of what that means: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” God’s oneness implies unity in diversity, unity of essence and nature but diversity in function.

The entire universe reflects God’s image in its interdependence and interaction. Nothing in the universe functions independently. The universe is one, unity in diversity. The pinnacle of the expression of that oneness is in man. God made man to be like Him in the unity of our being – body, soul and spirit functioning as one, and in our capacity to be spiritually one with Him.

After creating man and woman, His first action was to bring them together for one purpose: “The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman’, for she was taken out of man.’ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” Genesis 2:23-24 (NIV).

Jesus made it clear that marriage was only for this life because, when a husband and wife learn to live together in unity, they will have a foretaste of the ecstasies and intimacies of unity with God in the life to come. Marriage is a picture of the real thing and will fall away when the real thing happens.

Selfishness and the power struggle that often happens between husband and wife ruin that picture. It can only become reality if they both understand what marriage is about and learn to live with each other in mutual submission (Ephesians 5:21), and self-sacrificing love. Jesus is our perfect role model. He gave His life for His bride, the church. The purpose of marriage is to be a mirror to the world of what Jesus did for His bride, so that the world may see what God is like and return to Him.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – THE SADDUCEES HAVE A GO!

Bible Study, ,

THE SADDUCEES HAVE A GO!

“Some Sadducees came up. This is the Jewish party that denies any possibility of resurrection. They asked, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote us that if a man dies and leaves a wife but no child, his brother is obligated to take the widow to wife and get her with child.  Well, there were once seven brothers. The first took a wife. He died childless. The second married her and died, and then the third, and eventually all seven had their turn, but no child. After all that, the wife died. That wife, now – In the resurrection whose wife is she? All seven married her.'” Luke 20:27-33.

Quite a contrived story!

It must have been obvious to Jesus that it was a trick question. Perhaps these arrogant Jews were hoping to insult Him and make Him look like a fool so that they could undermine His credibility with the people.

Under normal circumstances, the Pharisees and Sadducees were on opposite sides of the fence. The Pharisees were the fanatically religious leaders, sticking rigidly to the minutiae of the Law while the Sadducees were part of the political wing. They denied the supernatural; hence they rejected any possibility of resurrection.

They made up this story to catch Jesus out, to make Him and the whole possibility of resurrection look silly, to undermine His claim to be Messiah and, ultimately, to be the Son of God because He was supporting a pipe-dream!

These men had to learn that God’s truth and God’s ways were not some superficial and poorly-devised idea to give them false hope and lure them into worshipping Him under false pretences. They were correct in their understanding of the law of levirate marriage but, as we examine Jesus’ response in the next study, their understanding of God’s kingdom and the life to come was way off track.

This is the problem when we try to rationalise God’s revelation and apply human wisdom to God’s ways. “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ’As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'” Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV).

God does not reveal Himself and His ways to satisfy our curiosity. He only reveals what He wants us to know to show us His greatness so that we will take His word seriously and submit to His authority. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” Deuteronomy 29:29 (NIV).

The attitude of the Sadducees is still alive today. People who have no desire to know the truth so that they can follow Jesus, replicate the Sadducees’ approach to Him. Their questions are not for honest answers but because they are looking for an excuse to justify their unbelief.

We need to be careful if we think we can make a fool of God. As the Apostle Paul said, ‘God’s foolishness is wiser than our wisdom!’ His mercy is wide open to those who are humble enough to recognise their need and to call on Him, but there is nothing but judgment for the people who think they can make it on their own.

God has made it clear that He has no time for arrogant fools but endless mercy and grace for the humble. “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6b (NIV).

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – GIVE GOD WHAT IS HIS

Bible Study, ,

GIVE GOD WHAT IS HIS

“Watching for a chance to get Him, they sent spies who posed as honest enquirers, hoping they could trick Him into saying something that would get Him in trouble with the law. So they asked Him, ‘Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’

“He knew they were laying for Him and said, ‘Show me a coin. Now this engraving, who does it look like and what does it say?’

“‘Caesar,’ they said.

“Jesus said, ‘Then give Caesar what is his and give God what is His.’

Try as they might, they couldn’t trap Him into saying anything incriminating. His answer caught them off guard and left them speechless.” Luke 20:20-26.

Got them again!

Jesus was no push-over. These so-called ‘spiritual’ men had still not learned not to mess with Him. They always came off second best. This time it was about taxes. The Jewish people chafed at their Roman overlords’ taxation on top of the tithes, offerings and temple taxes they had to pay. It was a heavy burden on them and brought many of them into poverty.

But there was a more sinister issue at stake. Jesus was a rabbi with authority which meant that His disciples were obliged to copy everything He said and did. What He said about paying taxes would reveal His heart attitude to the Roman government which He would pass on to His disciples with possible serious results.

If He showed any antagonism towards Rome, He would be suspected of treason. His opponents were trying to catch him off guard so that He would unwittingly incriminate Himself and open Himself to arrest by the Roman soldiers.

But Jesus was too smart to be caught out. His response was not a spur-of-the-moment reaction. He was not only on guard, He was also well-prepared because of His complete understanding of God’s kingdom and how to live in it in the earthly environment. In every situation He faced as an earthling, He viewed His life from God’s perspective and taught His disciples to do the same.

Unlike us, who easily forget God, He lived His life with His Father in the centre. Everything He thought and did came out of His union with the Father. His answer to their question gives us insight into the way we should live in the kingdom of God so that we best represent Him in an ungodly environment.

In His high-priestly prayer, He put in a nutshell what our attitude should be to the world system in which we live. “‘My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.'” John 17:15-16 (NIV).

As long as we live in the world, we are subject to the systems humans have put in place, including submission to earthly government. God expects us to fulfil our obligations as unto Him. However, we have a different disposition from the people of the world, the nature and presence of God infused into us by the Holy Spirit. Not to be ‘of the world’ implies that we bring the disposition of Jesus into the way we live.

He showed us how by the way He honoured and respected all people, treating them with compassion and generosity and revealing the love of the Father by His loving and caring attitude.

To ‘give to Caesar’ implied civil obedience while to ‘give to God’ meant not only submitting to His supreme authority over everything, but also living in such a way that we make ‘up there’ come ‘down here’. We are, first and foremost, representatives of the way God runs things, and that includes loyally submitting to the government in everything that does not clash with God’s kingdom and His ways.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – CORNERSTONE!

Bible Study, ,

CORNERSTONE!

“But Jesus didn’t back down. ’Why, then, do you think this was written?

“That stone the masons threw out –                                                                                                     It’s now the cornerstone!                                                                                                                      “‘Anyone falling over that stone                                                                                                          will break every bone in his body;

if the stone falls on anyone,                                                                                                                    it will be a total smash-up.’

“The religion scholars and high priests wanted to lynch Him on the spot, but they were intimidated by public opinion. They knew the story was about them.”  Luke 20:17-19.

“There are two kinds of people in the world…!” Ever heard that statement?

In this incident, the two kinds of people are – those who use criticism wisely and those who want to silence the critic! Jesus’ antagonists fell into the second category. Even destructive and unkind criticism can be beneficial if one “eats the meat and spits out the bones.”

In this instance, it would have been eternally beneficial for them if they had taken Jesus’ words seriously. His intention was neither destructive nor unkind. He had tried everything to get them to wake up and realise where they were headed, but to no avail. They belonged to the category of unteachable people, those who were too proud to admit they were wrong and to want to know the truth more than to preserve their egos.

The only thing that stopped them from carrying out their murderous intention was their fear of public opinion. Of course, that was right in line with their general attitude anyway. They always played to the crowd, but in this instance, public opinion would only drive them underground until the time was right and they could get the crowd on their side.

In the heat of this furore, once again Jesus kept His cool. He knew He was right because He always stood on the side of truth. But His being right was not an image or an ego thing. It was an earnest plea to heed His words because of the consequences.

He was quoting Psalm 118:22, a fragment from a Messianic prophecy. The religious leaders would have been familiar with the Scripture and the insinuation that Jesus was the cornerstone, which would have riled them even more. Therefore they were enraged on two counts, His outright exposure of their intended plan to kill Him, and His Messianic claim which they interpreted as blasphemy.

The cornerstone of which Jesus spoke, not only supported the entire structure, it was also the test everyone has to pass or fail on their way to eternity. Every person either “falls over” the stone or will be crushed by the stone. This sounds like a heartless statement, and it would be except for one reality – everyone has a choice.

The way we respond to the “cornerstone” is the way we understand and treat the mercy of God. He has provided a way of escape from the inevitable result of our rebellion against Him. He warned the first pair that disobedience would bring death, but they did not believe Him. Because of their rebellion, death came on the whole human race. God sent His own Son, the “cornerstone”, to pay the debt we all owe Him so that we can go free.

That does not mean that we are free to do our own thing because there is no longer a penalty. It means that God will have mercy on those who return to Him and recognise and come under His authority by accepting His offer of forgiveness and entrusting themselves to His love. When we fall over the cornerstone, we are broken of our stubborn self-will. We submit to Him by choice and we are on a new road to true freedom.

The other option is to be crushed by the cornerstone. For God to be perfectly just, He has no alternative. He must be true to His nature and to His word. Imagine His heartbreak when He has to consign rebels to destruction because they decided to reject His offer when they could have had life!

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – THEY WILL RESPECT MY SON!

Bible Study, , ,

THEY WILL RESPECT MY SON!

“Jesus told another story to the people. ‘A man planted a vineyard. He handed it over to farmhands and went on a trip….In time he sent a servant back to the farmhands to collect the profits, but they beat him and sent him off empty-handed….’

“Then the owner of the vineyard said,’…I’ll send my beloved son. They are bound to respect my son.’

“But when the farmhands saw him coming, they quickly put their heads together.’…This is the heir! Let’s kill him and have it all to ourselves.’ They killed him and threw him over the fence…

‘What do you think the owner of the vineyard will do? Right. He’ll come and clean house. Then he’ll assign the care of the vineyard to others…’“.’” Luke 20:9-16a.

What a daring story! Although Jesus was not afraid of outright exposure, which He sometimes used to strip off the masks of the religious frauds who tried to make out that they had impeccable religious performance records, a story like this one did the job just as well. Since parables were a rabbinical device to be heard or read for identification, they would have had to get the point, which did nothing to endear Jesus to them!

There is both symbolism and character portrayal in this parable. The vine was often used in the Old Testament as a symbol of Israel. “I will sing for the one I love a song about His vineyard: My loved one has a vineyard on a fertile hill…” Isaiah 5:1 (NIV).

“Israel was a spreading vine; he brought forth fruit for himself. As his fruit increased, he built more altars; as his land prospered, he adorned his sacred stones.” Hosea 10:1 (NIV).

Both Isaiah and Hosea saw Israel as God’s vineyard, planted in their own land and tenderly cared for but treacherously unfaithful to their Creator.

In this story, the focus is on the leaders of God’s ‘vineyard’. The owner entrusted his vineyard to caretakers while he was away. He expected the farmhands to care for it faithfully and to give him the profits which rightfully belonged to him. Instead, the farmhands treated the property as though it were theirs and drove off any attempt to retrieve what was his.

What an exposure of the attitude of Israel’s spiritual leaders! They treated the people, not as a trust, but as their possession, teaching them falsehood and leading them astray so that they could maintain power over them. They resented Jesus’ intrusion because His passion was to show His people what God was really like and to set them free from these unscrupulous overlords.

They respected neither the prophets who were sent to challenge their power and their false teaching, nor the Son Himself who came from the Father to set the record straight and to restore His people to the Father. They had only one intent – to kill the Son so that they could retain the power to dominate His people.

Spiritual leadership is a sacred trust from God and those who are appointed to lead are both responsible and accountable to God because the people are His. What happens to them is the outcome of who leads and how they lead. Leaders and people are bonded together for one purpose – to be a reward for the sacrifice Jesus made to rescue us from the clutches of the devil and to reconcile and restore us to the Father.

“Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account…” Hebrews 13:17a (NIV).

Israel’s religious leaders forgot their sacred trust and were treated accordingly. To those of us who lead comes the reminder that we do not own the people. Our task is to be faithful imitators of our Rabbi so that we can attach them to Him, not to ourselves, for the eternal reward is His, not ours.

Our reward will be to hear His words, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant…”