Tag Archives: court

LUKE’S GOSPEL – BECAUSE YOU CARRY MY NAME

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BECAUSE YOU CARRY MY NAME

“He went on, ‘Nation will fight nation and ruler fight ruler, over and over. Huge earthquakes will occur in various places. There will be famines. You’ll think at times that the very sky was falling.

“‘But before any of this happens, they’ll hunt you down, arrest you and drag you to court and jail. It will go from bad to worse, dog-eat-dog, everyone at your throat because you carry my name. You’ll end up on the witness stand, called to testify. Make up your mind right now not to worry about it. I’ll give you the words and wisdom that will reduce all your accusers to stammers and stutters.'” Luke 21:10-15.

Reading Jesus’ words is like reading today’s newspaper. Both parts of His prediction are happening all around us – conflicts and natural disasters on the one hand and persecution of His followers on the other.

Wars, earthquakes, and famine are so common that only the biggest make world news. As for persecution, how much of it is ever reported in the mass media, and yet it goes on all over the world, from petty personal and family vendettas to national political policy to exterminate those who follow Jesus and refuse to embrace the official religion of that country. Jesus warned that it would happen “because you carry my name.”

Much of Jesus’ prophetic warning was fulfilled in the generation after His death, when Titus and the Roman army invaded Israel in AD 70, reducing the temple to rubble and slaughtering thousands of Jews across the land. Israel ceased to exist until its rebirth in 1948.

Why is there such animosity against the name of Jesus? What has He done to cause such hatred against Him and His followers? Was He so evil that He and His disciples had to be obliterated? On one occasion He told His disciples, ‘I did not come to bring peace but a sword,’ implying that His coming would produce a sharp division between people.

To understand the reason for this great divide we have to go behind the scenes, back to the beginning. Before the creation of the earth, Satan made a bid to oust God. His rebellion was so serious that it resulted in the establishment of a rival kingdom. Satan and one third of the angels were evicted from God’s presence and exiled to the earth where they would operate until judgment day.

There are two unseen kingdoms at work in the world, God’s rule of love and freedom and Satan’s dominion of fear and force. Every person is influenced by one of these powers. That does not mean that Satan shares equal power with God. His presence on earth is part of God’s way of fulfilling His plan to build a family who freely choose to love Him for who He is and what He has done. Satan, on the other hand, uses deception to ensnare people into slavery to him.

Jesus came to expose his lies and defeat him at the cross, inviting people to return to His Father by believing the truth about Him and His Father, receiving His forgiveness and submitting to His rule.

Satan’s hatred for God is expressed through those who are enslaved by his deception. He sows lies about God and His Son which turns them into God-haters. So vicious is people’s hatred for Jesus that they will stop at nothing to destroy those who carry His name, even murdering their own family members if they convert to follow Jesus.

And the reason? Because they “carry His name”. In Hebrew thought a name is a prophetic utterance of character. Everything that Jesus is, is enshrined in His name. To carry His name implies to be like Him. Christians who carry the name of Jesus are such a threat to Satan’s dominion that he will do everything he can to destroy them. Since people who do not love God are under his influence, they are his tools to do his dirty work.

But Satan’s doom, and all those who follow him, is already sealed. God has appointed Jesus, to whom He has given the highest name because of His victory through the cross, to be Lord. To Him, including Satan and all who believe his lies, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord! (Philippians 2:5-11)

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – USE YOUR COMMON SENSE

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USE YOUR COMMON SENSE

“You don’t have to be a genius to understand these things. Just use your common sense, the kind you’d use if, while being taken to court, you decided to settle up with your accuser on the way, knowing that if the case went to the judge, you’d probably go to jail and pay every last penny of the fine. That’s the kind of decision I’m asking you to make.” Luke 12:57-59.

Who would be fool enough to risk going to jail just because you neglected to settle your issue with your accuser out of court? No-one wants a jail sentence as well as the criminal record that goes with it if it can be avoided.

Why is it, then, that people neglect to secure their eternal destiny before the final curtain comes down? How foolish is the idea that we can live as we like and then repent at the last minute before we die? Do we really think that we can trifle with God’s mercy like that? How much common sense do we need to secure our future before we are no longer able to do so?

Of course, Jesus was not dealing here with motive but with outcome. It would be bottom of the list to accept His offer of forgiveness and the hope of eternal life just to escape the punishment of hell but, unfortunately, the gospel is often presented as an escape route from hell nowadays. Bumper stickers on cars say it all – “Hell has no fire escape,” to quote just one of them.

This is not the most important reason to return to the most precious and wonderful of relationships that God intended for us – sonship. Imagine dutifully doing everything your earthly father required of you just to escape punishment! What a heartless and loveless experience that would be! Jesus calls us to return to Him because His passion is to take us to the Father who loves us with an everlasting love. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.” John14:6 (NIV).

Why did Jesus encourage His hearers to use their common sense? Was He aware that we are so self-centred that we will do anything to ensure our own comfort and convenience? Returning to the Father to save our own skin could be the beginning of a walk that would eventually take us deeper into a love relationship with Him.

Perhaps Jesus is not as concerned about how we get started as He is about getting on to the road so that we can learn to walk with Him on this journey toward freedom and wholeness. Perhaps the problem is not so much getting started as it is persuading us that He is the truth and that His way is the only way to experience the fullness of life that God has promised those who put their trust in Jesus.

How difficult it is for people to abandon their false belief system which holds them captive through fear, to embrace the Father’s love and mercy revealed in Jesus, His Son. They would rather hold onto something that has no foundation in fact and no historical or experiential proof of its reality than entrust themselves to one who predicted that He would be crucified and would rise again, and did it just as He said. Is the fanciful imagination of some human being that creates a religion based on human nature or man’s wisdom more reliable than the infallible word of the eternal God who came in person to tell us the truth? The proof that this life is real is God’s peace in the heart that has no human explanation.

Once again, you choose!