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Greed – The Sentence Of Death

Christian Life, , , ,

GREED – THE SENTENCE OF DEATH

Jesus told His disciples three stories to illustrate what God thinks of and how He will treat those who consume their wealth on themselves and ignore the needs of others, and to warn them against doing what these people did.

  1. The parable of the rich fool – the danger of hoarding

The first warning comes in the form of a parable about a prosperous farmer whose ground produced such an abundant crop that he had no room to store it all. Instead of sharing his wealth with the needy, he decided to hoard his harvest so that he would not have to work hard for years to come. He did not think of getting in on God’s current of supply by giving to others; he chose to keep it all to himself so that he could take it easy.

God called him a fool – one who knew what the right thing was but didn’t do it. His decision to hoard cost him his life, and he could take nothing with him. No treasure in heaven for him and no heart in heaven because his heart was in the barns with his grain.

This was not only his fate, but will also be the fate of those who are not “rich towards God.” God considers generosity towards others the same as being rich towards Himself.

The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it for me.’ (Matt. 25: 40)

In this instance, as with the other two parables, it is not so much that the farmer was selfish but that selfishness was a way of life. Therefore, his very reaction to his newly-acquired prosperity was an indication that he was not walking in the way of Yahweh. He was off in the wilderness, making his own rules and living his own way. The outcome was inevitable for him – destruction.

  1. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus – the danger of indifference

First of all let me remind you again that good works cannot save us. We are saved from our sin by grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus – bottom line. However, as we have already emphasised, generosity is the overflow of a heart that understands the measure of God’s mercy and reciprocates by showing mercy to others.

Jesus’s second warning comes in a series of stories He told the Pharisees who nit-picked about His hobnobbing with the down-and-outs of society. His parables highlighted how out-of-line their attitude of holier-than-thou was – parables about the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son (Luke 15: 1-32) and the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16: 19-31).

The latter story was a warning to the people, and especially to the Pharisees who enjoyed their bounty with no thought for the forgotten people who were right on their doorstep. The rich man did not receive a rap over the knuckles for ignoring Lazarus. He landed in the torment of the fire and there was no escape. To make his torment even worse, he had to watch Lazarus, the forgotten beggar, now enjoying the bounty and comfort of heaven while he could not escape the memory of his neglect.

As with the first parable, this story illustrated the fact that the rich man was on the wrong path. Had he been walking in God’s way, he would have provided for the beggar, not neglected him because Lazarus’ presence would have been a landmark on his journey to Zion.

  1. The parable of the sheep and the goats – the danger of walking on the wrong path

The setting of this story is the end of the age – “when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him” (Matt. 25: 31). This is about national and individual judgment. All the nations of the earth will be gathered before Him and He will separate the people, one by one, into two categories – righteous and unrighteous, sheep and goats.

Let’s go back for a moment, to the Hebraic understanding of “righteous” and “unrighteous”. This is much more than just about those who did good deeds and those who did not. This is about the righteous – the tsadiyq, i.e., those who stay on the path, and the unrighteous – the rasha, i.e., those who have wandered off the path, chosen to go their own way and are in danger of dying in the wilderness.

This is much more than about random acts of kindness or neglect. This is about a way of life that depends on where a person is walking. If we are on the path, walking in the way of Yahweh according to the light of His word, then the landmarks we encounter on the way, the needy people who are Jesus in disguise, give us opportunity to show mercy as we steadily walk the path towards Zion. Even if we do not recognise the face of Jesus in them, we minister to them anyway because it is a way of life.

The ones who have gone off the path and have chosen to live their own way, are oblivious of the needy people around them and they miss Jesus in them because they are far too concerned about keeping themselves alive.

The issue on Judgment Day will be: On which path were you walking? If you were on the way of Yahweh, you would have ministered to the needy as your way of life because you walked on the path lit by God’s Word. Whether you knew it or not, you would have been ministering to Jesus every time you fed or clothed someone, or took care of the sick or the prisoner. This would be the commendation from the King on that day. “You had the true spirit of Torah because you showed mercy.”  You ministered to Jesus even though you did not recognise His face in the faces of those to whom you showed mercy.

Those who chose to walk the wrong path would find, in the end that their destination was not what they expected. The King would not accept the excuse that they did not know it was He they were neglecting when they ignored the needs of the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned. Their destination was the logical end of their chosen way of life.

Conclusion

As we journey together, we are learning, step by step, that everything Jesus was and taught points to the weightiest part of God’s character. Is it any wonder then that David concluded, at the end of his most famous psalm – Psalm 23 – that God’s goodness and mercy would follow him, like two faithful dogs, for the rest of his life, until he reached his final destination – Father’s house – where he would make his home forever? That’s who God is.

The prophet Micah realised that what God desires most from His people is not rivers of blood or rivers of oil or even the sacrifice of their children.

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Mic. 6: 8)

For God, how we handle our money and possessions is the crucial test of our love – God or Mammon, because whom we love we will serve.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Spiritual Warfare – Conclusion

Apologetics, , , ,

CONCLUSION

The strategy of the enemy from the beginning was to lure people into believing that he is in charge; that he is Lord. He wants the attention and the worship and he will use every trick in the book to take the focus away from Jesus who in the only and true Lord.

He has convinced unbelievers that God is unreliable and to be feared and avoided at all costs. He has spawned all the false religions in the world as substitutes for the one true God because, in the end, in disguise he is getting the attention he wants by taking it away from Jesus.

Jesus made a fool of Satan through the cross by exposing his false claim to be Lord because He absorbed the worst that Satan could throw at Him and came back from the dead to show the world that He is Lord (Philippians 2:6-11) and that His way of love works.

.”And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11.

Our strategy in the world

The witness of Scripture in both the Old and the New Testament is that it is the proclamation and declaration of the truth that wins the victory. Satan flees when the truth is made known.

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’…But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him.” 1 Corinthians 1:18, 19; 27-29.

God does not need prayer walks, pulling down strongholds, identifying principalities and powers over regions and countries and all that goes with it to save people. He ordained to do it through the foolishness of preaching the cross. The city of Ephesus was powerful proof that His strategy works.

God does not need our help to make the cross effective. He needs our worship and our obedience to do what Jesus commanded – follow me; go and make disciples.

Did the cross work?

There is no doubt that the cross worked. We are here as witnesses to the victory of Jesus, more than 2000 years after He died and rose again. Religions and philosophies come and go, but the church continues to live and grow in spite of every attempt to destroy it.

We have the assurance that Jesus will come again to dispose of the enemy and all those who choose to believe his lies, forever, and to set up His eternal kingdom on earth where He, together with His people, will rule and reign forever.

The role of the church is to proclaim that He is Lord and to worship Him, and never to give the devil even the time of the day! Whatever he may have to say, he is a liar and already defeated. Hallelujah!

Use Your Common Sense

Christian Life, , ,

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 (The Message).

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 bacon 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!