Tag Archives: ready

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

Bible Study, ,

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

“Peter said, ‘Master, I’m ready for anything with you. I’d go to jail for you. I’d die for you!’

“Jesus said, ‘I’m sorry to have to tell you this, Peter, but before the rooster crows you will have three times denied that you know me.'” Luke 22:33-34.

We like to pick Peter out for being cocksure of himself but I don’t think we are any different. There was no problem with his sincerity. He loved the Master and would willingly have given his life for him — in his mind — but, in the real situation, at the mercy of ruthless Roman soldiers, it was a little different.

Peter did not know what it was like to be in that kind of situation. Perhaps even more important was the fact that dying for Jesus then would be pointless. He would be dying for a friend but not as a witness to the truth to which he was testifying. His opportunity would come later when he would give his life for what he believed and preached, that Jesus is the Son of God and that He rose from the dead and is the author of eternal salvation for all who believe in Him.

Peter had a whole lot of living to do and learning the truth about Jesus and the resurrection because that became the pivot of his life and message, and the reason for his obedience and courage, even to the point of dying the same cruel death as his Master.

Peter did not even know that his brash words were prophetic. He did indeed go to jail and to death for Jesus but it was because of his choice to follow Him and not because he was the victim of Jewish leaders’ prejudice. Peter learned his lesson well. He had to go through his own ‘Gethsemane’, humiliating and painful as it was, to be equipped to be an apostle of the good news.

Our own failures and weaknesses seem so drastic and final that we think that they disqualify us from being Jesus’ disciples, and we run from Him in guilt and shame. God has a very different view of our failures. These are the very experiences that equip us to be witnesses for Him.

To what are we really witnessing? Not to our strengths! If we never failed, we would not need the grace which God freely gives to us because of Jesus. This is the marvel and miracle of the gospel. Jesus came to earth because of who we are. There is nothing in us to commend us to God. God’s verdict: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9 (NIV).

At best we are foul. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” Isaiah 64:6 (NIV).

Jesus did everything necessary to rescue us from our pitiful condition. He paid our debt, washed us clean and presented us to God as His own beloved sons and daughters and gives us the grace to live for Him in His strength, not ours.

We are fools if we think we can do it by ourselves. Peter learned that and so must we if we are to be witnesses of how big He is, and not of how big we are. It only takes our considered decision to follow Him to bring God’s grace into action that energises us to do what we have chosen to do. The choice is ours; the strength is His and we do it together.

We have a union with the Holy Spirit who lives in us so close that, whenever we decide to obey, His power activates our choice and we do it through Him. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me, the life I live in the body, live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 (NIV).

Is that not a better option than being self-confident and falling into a deep, dark hole of guilt and shame because I thought I could do it by myself?

Doomsday Deceivers

Christian Life, , ,

DOOMSDAY DECEIVERS

“They asked Him, ‘Teacher, when is this going to happen? What clue will we get that it’s about to take place?’

“He said, Watch out for the doomsday deceivers. Many leaders are going to show up with forged identities claiming, ‘I’m the One,’ or, ‘The end is near.’ Don’t fall for any of that. When you hear of wars and uprisings, keep your head and don’t panic. This is routine history and no sign of the end.'” Luke 21:7-9 (The Message).

Every generation has its doomsday prophets and its reasons to believe that the end is near. Wars are one of them. But, if we are honest, has there ever been a time when there have been no conflicts in the world? Wars are not so much a sign of the immanence of Jesus’ return as a reminder of the nature of man. Jesus called it “routine history”.

Greed for money and power has driven men and nations into conflict since the beginning of time, from strife in the family to the two world wars of the twentieth century and the localized tribal struggles that result in genocide, in between.

A far more subtle problem is what Jesus called “doomsday deceivers.” They are often unwittingly a tool of Satan. His most potent weapon is deception, and his tactic, distraction. These false prophets arouse fear through their Biblical misinterpretations and draw our attention away from our Master. They draw a following by their plausible explanations about what is happening in the world.

Jesus’ earnest counsel: ‘Don’t pay any attention to them.’ Instead He gave us His take on the ‘end of the world’, watch and be ready! There is no question about the fact of His return. It’s the ‘when’ bit that bothers us but, if we heed His counsel, when He is to return should be of less importance than whether we are prepared no matter when it happens.

‘Watch’ does not mean resign your job, leave home and sit on a mountain waiting for Jesus to come. Jesus told us how to watch — be faithfully carrying out His instructions when He returns. Don’t get lazy or sloppy. You’ll be caught off guard.

Be ready does not mean holing up underground with enough provisions for a siege! It sounds funny but some of the latest books and movies portraying the end of the world give us that impression.

We have to turn to the Bible for answers. Since the Bible is the story of a betrothal and a wedding, the answer to the question, ‘How can I be ready?’ is found in the imagery of Jewish wedding culture. I cannot go into detail here except to focus on the purpose of marriage and the interval between the betrothal and the wedding ceremony.

God intended marriage as a picture of the unity in the Trinity, and His purpose for creating man – that we would be one with Him. God’s plan for marriage is expressed in three words (Genesis 2:24), “leave…cleave…one”. Union of man and woman in marriage mirrors the essence of God’s image – “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

The purpose of the betrothal was to separate the bride from all other men in preparation for the wedding when she was joined to the bridegroom to become one with him. The interval between betrothal and the wedding had two purposes; the groom prepared the bridal chamber and the bride prepared herself.

Her preparation was reflected in the feasts God commanded His people to celebrate every year. They were a prophetic picture of Messiah, the Bridegroom who would win His bride by self-sacrifice, and the bride, who would make herself ready to become one with Him. In the interval between Pentecost, the last of the spring feasts and the Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah) the people were called to do three things:

1. Tephillah – prayer, not asking God for things but changing their awareness from self-awareness to God-awareness.
2. Teshuvah – repentance, not from sin but returning to their original state of goodness; in other words, changing the way they thought about themselves to think God’s thoughts about them.
3. Tsidaqah – acts of righteousness, practising generosity because it is the right thing to do as a duty towards God. Whatever we have has been given to us by God and we have a duty to share our resources because God has been generous to us.

Now consider this Scripture: “Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:

‘Hallelujah!
For our Lord God almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad
And give Him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and His bride has made herself ready.
Fine line, bright and clean
was given her to wear.’
(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)” Revelation 19:6-8 (NIV).

Be On Your Guard

Christian Life, ,

BE ON YOUR GUARD

“But be on your guard. Don’t let the sharp edge of your expectations be dulled by parties and drinking and shopping. Otherwise, that Day is going to take you by complete surprise, spring on you suddenly like a trap, for it’s going to come on everyone, everywhere, at once. So, whatever you do, don’t go to sleep at the switch. Pray constantly that you will have the strength and wits to make it through everything that’s coming and end up on your feet before the Son of Man.'” Luke 21:34-36 (The Message).

Jesus issued two warnings regarding His return; be on guard, and be ready. Almost two thousand years have come and gone since His appearance on the earth. That’s a long time to wait for something to happen that is as revolutionary as His coming promises to be. According to the Bible, when He comes He will rid the earth of every person and thing that conflicts with God’s original plan. He will set up His eternal kingdom of righteousness and peace and destroy every opposing force.

He also gave His followers instructions regarding their commission during the interval before He returns. We are to extend His invitation to everyone we meet to follow and obey Him, and we are to take care of His household, loving and serving believers so that we faithfully reflect Him to the world around us.

The temptation to believers is to become so enmeshed in the world and its allurements that we forget Jesus’ instructions and either go to sleep on the job or join the world in its selfish and worthless pursuits. We can become disillusioned with Jesus because following Him is tough and sometimes perilous. The promise of His coming seems so remote and illusory that we simply join in with everything that goes on around us. Hence Jesus’ warning is relevant and needs to be repeated constantly.

He told a parable about ten virgins who were awaiting the bridegroom’s return. The bridegroom delayed for so long that they all fell asleep. Five of them were ready but not watching; the other five were neither ready nor watching. When the bridegroom finally arrived, they were awakened by the shout, ‘Here he is!’ Their lamps had gone out. Five were able to relight their lamps with the extra oil they carried but the other five had none, so they tried to borrow oil from the others.

Since most of us don’t understand the imagery, our misinterpretation causes us to miss the point. The oil in this story represents, not the Holy Spirit as we tend to think, but the “acts of righteousness” referred to in Revelation 19:7: “‘For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.’ (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)”

The five “wise” virgins were ready because their “lamps” were full of their “righteous acts”. It was impossible for the “foolish” virgins to borrow righteous acts. They had to go out and do their own, but for them it was too late because the bridegroom came and the doors to the wedding banquet were locked.
Being ready implies that the life of Jesus in us has so transformed us that we have taken on His nature which is loving and generous towards all people. This is the proof that we are ready to receive Him when He returns and to go in to the marriage supper with Him.

His warning to be on guard is equally sobering. What if, when He returns, He finds that we have forgotten to do what He told us to do and, instead, we have joined the world in its selfish pursuits; drinking, partying and living ungodly lives like the rest? How would He feel about us?

His instruction is clear. To be on guard and ready is to be faithfully carrying out His mandate to share His invitation and to take care of those who have joined His household by feeding and clothing them and by doing our duty to Him by sharing our resources with those in need. Daily focussing on these duties will keep us from falling asleep or becoming sloppy, lazy or irresponsible while we wait.

Living for Jesus, one day at a time, is an effective antidote against the danger of failing to be on guard or ready for our bridegroom when He comes.