Monthly Archives: January 2026

LUKE’S GOSPEL…WINDOW OF THE SOUL – 30a

Bible Study, ,

“No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭11‬:‭33‬-‭36‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“In essence, the phrase teaches that your perspective and what you cherish profoundly shape your inner reality and actions, influencing whether you live in clarity and goodness or in spiritual blindness and negativity.”

(Source: Google AI)

Why did Jesus inject this life lesson, in this context, between His rebuke of the people’s insistence on a sign and His rebuke of the Pharisees because of their hypocrisy? 

It seems that both the ordinary people and their religious leaders were so prejudiced against Jesus that they had developed a warped perspective of who He was. Their interpretation of what He said and did was based on their own expectations instead of the real evidence of who He was. They demanded signs instead of recognising and believing truth. The Pharisees even attributed Jesus’ power to drive out demons to the devil! 

Why were they demanding a sign when Jesus’ “works” confirmed who He was and that what He taught them was the truth from the Father?

What were they “seeing” that so badly warped their perspective? Why were they so suspicious of Him that they would rather silence Him forever than heed what He said? Perhaps the way we understand or misunderstand ourselves and other people might give us a clue. 

Here is what the Bible teaches….

The sin of the first pair and their response to God’s questions in the Garden of Eden shows us one of the real human problems. They played “the blame game”. Adam refused to take responsibility for his disobedience so he blamed Eve for giving him the forbidden fruit. Eve, in turn, blamed the serpent. 

The way we see things is the beginning of the great deception. When we are caught in our sin, we play the victim instead of the perpetrator. Our vision of our responsibility becomes so out of focus that we view all our wrongdoing as someone else’s fault. 

Jesus was never afraid to speak the truth, however much He offended people, not because He enjoyed offending but because He knew that people would never be free until they faced up to their own guilt. To quote Bill Johnson of Bethel Church, Redding, USA, “Jesus offended the mind to expose the heart.”

The heart’s condition is revealed when it is closed to truth. When we blame others for our sinful behaviour and responses, when we refuse to accept guilt and take responsibility for our own sin, we deceive ourselves. Our view of ourselves and others becomes warped and out of focus. Our minds are darkened. We cannot receive and believe the truth. We would rather cancel the truth-teller that respond to what they say. 

“If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth…If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭1‬:‭6‬, ‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus loved to associate with “cancelled” people because they at least knew their real condition. For example, when a “sinful” woman gatecrashed a dinner party at a Pharisee’s house to seek forgiveness from Jesus for her sordid life….

“When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them…”

…Jesus’ response showed both His compassion for the woman and His disdain for His host. He affirmed the woman’s honest and repentant heart in contrast to Simon, both His host’s arrogant and hypocritical attitude towards the woman and his lack of common courtesy towards Jesus. 

“When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭7‬:‭39‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Simon condemned the woman for her sinful life without a thought for his own hypocrisy. He revealed his arrogance by withholding from Jesus the common courtesies of a host. Jesus commended the woman for her repentance and her love and rebuked Simon for his neglect. 

…”Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭7‬:‭36‬-‭38‬, ‭47‬-‭48‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I submit to you, dear reader, that we “see” everything around us and evaluate everything that happens to us through the lens of self-evaluation. If we see ourselves as God sees us, guilty but forgiven, we will view others with understanding and compassion because we stand on level ground with them before God. If we view ourselves as above others, as did this Pharisee, our hearts will be deluded and dark. 

It’s not about how good or bad we are as compared with others. It’s about how guilty we are before God and how much we need His mercy as others do. When we get this right, we will have clear vision to perceive who we and others really are before God. 

When we think about it, blaming others often leads to something worse…retaliation! This leads to an ever-increasing cycle of one-upmanship…and this cycle of sin never ceases. 

To be continued…

LUKE’S GOSPEL…THE SIGN OF JONAH – 29c

Bible Study, ,

“As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation…The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭11‬:‭29‬-‭30‬, ‭32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We cannot leave Jonah without examining some of the lessons he might have learned through this harrowing experience. What did he reflect on when he was back home in his safe space? Had he known what he had learned from his encounter with God, would he have thought and done things differently? 

One thing is clear. Despite being a prophet of God, Jonah did not share God’s attitude towards ungodly unbelievers. Whatever God thought about the Assyrians, the Jews hated them because they were vicious, cruel, ruthless, and powerful. However, the fact that he, Jonah, was to preach judgment against them was no comfort to him because he also knew that God was merciful. What if they repented and God forgave them?

With this thought in the back of his mind, Jonah had tried to escape God’s command but failed. His worst fears were confirmed when, after preaching judgment, the whole city of Nineveh repented even when he thundered against them. 

“Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.”

‭‭Jonah‬ ‭3‬:‭4‬-‭5‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jonah was angry and rebellious. Why did he not share God’s compassion for a city under judgment? Jonah viewed the Assyrians, not as people to be pitied because they had no idea what judgment meant, but as a threat to his own people’s existence. In other words, his view of the Assyrians was “enemy” to be exterminated, not sinners under judgment to be pitied. 

God’s view, by contrast, was “people”, created in His image, who needed to be rescued because they were precious to Him. God’s plan was, from the beginning, to have a human family, created in His image, with whom He could have fellowship and share His love. The fact that humans changed sides and rebelled against God did not change His plan. He revealed the extent of His love by sending His own Son to take the judgment intended for humans. He judged them, not by what they had done but by what they had done because they had refused to believe and obey Him. 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

‭‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬-‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

God does not love to judge. He yearns to save.  Through Ezekiel, He spoke to His own people…

“Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’”

‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭33‬:‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

God’s mercy overrides judgment when people repent and turn to Him, but He also comes down hard on those who, having received His mercy, refuse to treat others with mercy. 

“Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

‭‭James‬ ‭2‬:‭12‬-‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The end of Jonah’s story is telling. God used an object lesson to confront Jonah with his terrible attitude…Jonah was angry because a worm destroyed his shelter and because caged forgave the Ninevites.  He judged people by what they did, not by who they were, people created in God’s image regardless of what they did. 

“But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?””

‭‭Jonah‬ ‭4‬:‭10‬-‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Did Jonah learn the lesson? We don’t know. 

So, God reached out to the worst of sinners then, and He still does…He wants us, His children, to do the same.  We are to treat others as He has treated us. This is the crux of real faith in Jesus…hearts so full of gratitude for God’s mercy that we, in turn, reach out in mercy towards others. 

To be continued…

LUKE’S GOSPEL…THE SIGN OF JONAH – 29b

Bible Study, ,

“As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah…

The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭11‬:‭29, 32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Why did Jesus classify His hearers as a “wicked generation”? What had they done to deserve this judgment? 

Represented by their religious leaders, they were wicked, not because of sin but because they refused to believe what Jesus taught them. Instead, they kept demanding a sign. Despite His obvious authority to interpret Torah as it was meant to be understood, despite the miracles He did to confirm what He taught, that is, the nature and presence God’s reign among them, they still kept refusing to believe Him without signs. 

What was the real issue? When we stand back and examine the clash between the religious leaders and their followers, and Jesus, what was it all about? 

Jesus came from heaven for several reasons, among which was to reveal the true nature of the Father, that is, the greatness of His love. He did this by what He taught and by what He did, and especially by His attitude and treatment of the people the Pharisees despised…the outcasts.  

The religious leaders were sticklers for the letter of the Law, but their “ holiness” was fake. They came down hard on those who didn’t believe and do what they did. They were an exclusive club that rejected everyone who was not on their side. Their “holiness” was for show. 

“Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach…Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭23‬:‭1‬-‭3‬, ‭5‬-‭7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus was ruthless in His condemnation of the ones who should have been examples to the people. 

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭23‬:‭23‬-‭24‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The religious leaders clashed with Jesus because they refused to  believe Him because they refused to accept His authority. They kept demanding a sign instead of believing His word. Hence, the sign of Jonah…the story of a man who came back from inside “a great fish” to preach to sinners. The sinners believed his message, repented, and received God’s mercy… but the Pharisees and their followers did not! How much greater will be the judgment on those who refuse to believe the preaching of the Son of God than on those who believed words of the prophet. 

“The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭11‬:‭32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

To be continued…

LUKE’S GOSPEL…THE SGN OF JONAH – 29a

Bible Study, ,

“As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom; and now something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭11‬:‭29‬-‭32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The sign of Jonah…what was it? 

The Old and New Testaments are inextricably stitched together in a variety of ways…but one continuous story of God’s dealings with humans. One way is by prophecy and fulfilment, another way by “signs” that illustrate and point to spiritual truth. 

Jesus called Jonah’s harrowing experience on the ocean a “sign”. We must first ask, “What happened?” and then, “To what does it point?”

What happened? This is a familiar “Sunday School” story. Every child raised on the Word knows what happened. Jonah received an instruction from God, refused to obey it, and fled in the opposite direction. God sent a violent storm which exposed his disobedience and led to his being thrown off the boat. God also rescued him through the intervention of a very large, unidentified sea creature, and repeated the instruction which Jonah reluctantly obeyed. 

Jonah went to Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, preached judgment for forty days and watched in horror as the people repented…and God forgave them, …from the king down, just as he anticipated would happen. As he sat outside the city, watching and sulking because of God’s mercy, God asked him a question he could not answer…

“And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?””

‭‭Jonah‬ ‭4‬:‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Who were the people on whom God was willing to show mercy if they repented of their wickedness? These were the same people who later ruthlessly invaded Israel and carried its citizens into exile so that they were “lost” in the Gentile nations…AND GOD KNEW IT WOULD HAPPEN!

At the moment when God sent Jonah, He saw the Assyrians, wicked as they were, not as enemies but as people needing mercy. 

Jesus Himself gives us a clue to the meaning of the sign…according to Matthew, 

“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭12‬:‭40‬-‭41‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“The “sign of Jonah” refers to Jesus’s foreshadowing of his own death, burial for three days, and resurrection, just as Jonah was in the belly of a great fish for three days before being delivered. Jesus presented this as the only sign for the unbelieving Pharisees, pointing to his resurrection as proof of his identity, a sign that points to transformation and repentance, much like the Ninevites‘ response to Jonah’s preaching.” (Source: Google AI)

We must understand the meaning of the sign of Jonah in the whole context of the story. The core is the comparison between Jonah’s “burial” inside the fish and Jesus’ burial in the earth. There are some similarities except that Jonah didn’t really die while Jesus did die. Jonah was figuratively “resurrected” from the belly of the fish while he was still alive, but Jesus was actually dead and resurrected from a burial tomb. 

However, the literal facts lead on to an actual spiritual reality. God’s judgment didn’t fall on Nineveh because the people repented. He withheld His judgment because of His mercy. The comparison leads on to a contrast…Nineveh, a wicked Gentile city, repented but the people Jesus addressed, God’s own people, stubbornly refused to listen to Him and repent. He warned of coming judgment because of their unbelief. 

The sign of Jonah, pointing to the death and resurrection of Jesus, has entwined in it both the offer of God’s mercy…freely available to all who repent, both Jew and Gentile, and the warning of coming judgment on those who refuse His mercy, even if they are His own people. 

As Paul concluded…

“For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭11‬:‭32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We must never forget that the heart of the Jonah-sign is more than just the stories. The sign includes a mercy so great that it is ready to forgive the most heinous of the sin of the most wicked of people because of the death, three days in the grave, and resurrection of the Son of God. 

To be continued…

LUKE’S GOSPEL…THE FUNGER OF GOD – 28

Bible Study, ,

“Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. But some of them said, “By Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.” …Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebul. Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭11‬:‭14-15, 17‬-‭20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus’ argument for His authority to drive out demons has interesting connotations. His opponents, the religious leaders, accused Him of being in league with the devil. Imagine that! The Son of God and His arch enemy in partnership…how ridiculous! If there was ever a perverse generation, it was the religious leaders of Israel! 

With open eyes and hearts, the Pharisees could have recognised the source of Jesus’ power. At least one of them had the honesty to admit…

“Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

‭‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Apart from the fact that He, God’s  Son, could never be in cahoots with the devil, Jesus pointed out that no household that is divided can survive. If unity is the glue that provides stability, then disunity fractures a family in conflict. 

Jesus’ final, triumphant statement put an end to their ridiculous claim… 

“But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

What did Jesus mean? 

How often Scripture uses what theologians call “anthropomorphisms” to describe or explain God in ways we can understand. 

Google AI explains…

“Definition: From Greek anthropos (man) and morphe (form), it’s attributing human qualities to God.”

It is important to understand the way Hebrew people thought. They focused on what something does rather than what it is. This means that Jesus emphasised that His miracles, referring in this instance to driving out demons, was what God was doing through Him. 

In Matthew’s version of this incident, he uses “the Spirit of God” instead of “the finger of God”. 

“But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭12‬:‭28‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So, Jesus insisted, first, that the Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit, was doing the miracles, not Satan casting out Satan. Second, the miracles Jesus did was evidence that God’s kingdom was present among them. No longer did Satan have freedom to harass and even take people over. The king had come to put the record straight. Jesus, not the devil, was in charge. 

This is huge! After 400 years of silence…no prophet, no prophetic message from God, no word of either rebuke or encouragement, the people of God left to their own devices and at the mercy of their religious leaders, God’s word pulled out of shape by every religious opinion…Jesus comes. He speaks with authority. He announces that God’s rule is back. He does outrageous miracles that confirm His message. It was up to the people to believe or reject Him. 

Would they listen to their perverse leaders or would they believe the testimony of the words and works of Jesus that pointed to the truth that God was really there? 

To be continued….