Tag Archives: story

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – COMPLACENT OR REPENTANT?

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COMPLACENT OR REPENTANT?

“He told His next story to those who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people. ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like other people – robbers, crooks, adulterers or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’

“Meanwhile, the tax man, slumped in the shadows, face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner,’  

“Jesus commented, ‘This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.'” Luke 18:9-14.

Since prayer is essentially the interaction between the Father and His child, it is easy to recognise that the Pharisee in Jesus’ story did not, for one moment, fit into the category of a son. His attitude and words were completely foreign to a Father/son relationship. No true son would talk to his father the way this man talked to God. He was not praying. He was preening and boasting. His prayer was an unashamed, ‘Look at me, God. See how good I am. Aren’t you proud of me?’

Did his ‘thank you’ express true gratitude? Not at all! It was his way of congratulating himself on being a self-made man. The rest of his ‘eulogy’ was a summary of his religious achievements – his so-called ‘tsidaqahs’, his acts of generosity, but they were done out of duty, to gather ‘brownie points’ and for self-congratulation, not from a generous and loving heart that gladly obeyed God’s directives.

Who was the measure of his achievements and his judgement of everyone else? He was, of course. He did not realise that, if you measure imperfection against imperfection, you get imperfection! Since his standard was based on his own performance and not on his attitude and character, he would naturally judge himself top of the list. What he did not understand was that he was using entirely the wrong measure.

The tax man was fully aware that his life fell far short of what God required of him. He was so broken by guilt and shame that he did not even have the courage to be seen. He hid in the shadows with his eyes downcast and his face in his hands. His prayer was, ‘Don’t look at me, God. If you do, you might wipe me out of your sight.’

Which of these two men were accepted by God, the Pharisee who was so proud of his achievements or the tax man who was so ashamed of what he had done? Strangely enough, it was the tax man whom Jesus commended, not the Pharisee. But why? Surely, what the tax man had been doing was abhorrent to God? Was he not robbing people to line his own pocket? Was he not a liar, a thief and a fraudster? How could God even listen to him, let alone accept him?

He was all of these things but he was also something else – honest and repentant. He saw himself in the light of who God is and was so broken up that he pleaded for forgiveness and threw himself on the mercy of God. This is the heart attitude that God hears and the foundation of a renewed relationship with God as Father. You see, every wayward person is actually a son who has strayed from the Father and for whom the Father waits to return.

The Pharisee saw no need and had no desire for forgiveness. He was completely satisfied with his own standards and performance. What God thought about him was irrelevant. He was not yet a returning prodigal. He was a self-satisfied, self-righteous elder brother who had no felt need to repent. “Religion is the most difficult disease to cure because it infects with such self-righteousness that no sense of need remains.”

As always, Jesus told this story for identification. Which of the two men are you?

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – PAGANS AND PIGS!

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PAGANS AND PIGS!

“Those tending the pigs, scared to death, bolted and told their story in town and country.  People went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man, from whom the demons had been sent, sitting there at Jesus’ feet, wearing decent clothes and making sense. It was a holy moment, and for a short time they were more reverent than curious. Then those who had seen it happen told how the demoniac had been saved.” Luke 8:34-36.

What a holy moment!

These were Gentiles, people who lived in a region of ten Greek towns on the east side of the lake of Galilee; pagan people who dabbled with demons and who were probably used to seeing demon-possessed people. But this man had been particularly bad, so tormented and demented that he could not live among them. He had taken up residence among dead people who could not possibly be affected by his crazed behaviour.

They had seen the effects of demons entering people but they had never seen the outcome of demons leaving! No doubt they rushed to the edge of the cliff to see what had happened to the pigs. There they were, floating in the lake, all three thousands of them, exactly as the townspeople had reported!  Some of the spectators must have been owners of the pigs. There was their livelihood, floating in the lake! They could not have been too pleased.

Others were dumbstruck by the man who was so transformed that they hardly recognised him. He was clothed and sane, sitting with Jesus, adoring Him and deep in conversation with Him. They could only stand and stare, and wonder that this man was the one who had authority over the evil spirits they both worshipped and feared.

“Later, a great many people from the Gerasene countryside got together and asked Jesus to leave – too much change, too fast, and they were scared. So Jesus got back in the boat and set off. The man whom He had delivered from the demons asked to go with Him, but He sent him back, saying, ‘Go home and tell everything God did in you.’ So he went back home and preached all over town everything Jesus had done in him.” Luke 8:37-39.

It did not take long for the word to spread throughout the whole region. People came running from far and near and congregated to discuss this shocking and frightening event. If this man could do this, what else could He do, and what else would He do? Many of them had already suffered huge financial loss. Had He come to destroy them? They did not understand what this was all about.

No doubt the loss of the pigs overshadowed the man’s release from the tormented life he had lived for so long. Perhaps they were even hostile towards him because they blamed him for their financial catastrophe. Could he have wanted to follow Jesus to escape their hostility as well as because of his gratitude to Jesus? We don’t know.

In Jewish territory, Jesus instructed people who had been healed not to broadcast it because He did not want to be swamped by popularity with people who were out to get something from Him. Here, however, there was no danger of that. These Gentile people needed to be confronted with the truth about the one true God who had power over the demons who were all too real to them.

Jesus gave this man a commission – to tell his story wherever he went, and that was easy for him to do. He was a living witness to the truth of what he was telling. On a later occasion, when Jesus returned to the region, He was well received because the ex-demon-possessed man had done his job and the people not only recognised Him, they also brought a blind man to Him.

The news was out. Jesus cared about Gentiles too. He cares for you!

Fruit Or Fruitless

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FRUIT OR FRUITLESS

“As they went from town to town, a lot of people joined in and travelled along. He addressed them, using this story: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. Some of it fell on the road; it was trampled down and the birds ate it. Other seed fell in the gravel; it sprouted but withered because it didn’t have good roots. Other seed fell in the weeds; the weeds grew with it and strangled it. Other seed fell in rich earth and produced a bumper crop. ‘Are you listening to this? Really listening?'” Luke 8:4-8 (The Message).

How many sermons have been preached on this story!

As the crowds joined Jesus, He was aware that all of them represented one or even more of the soil types of which His story spoke. No doubt the scribes and Pharisees were among those whose hearts were so hard that the seed of God’s Word would remain exposed on the surface until the birds came and snatched it away.

What makes hearts so hard that the seed will never take root? Disobedience creates calluses in people’s hearts. God speaks and, because the time is not convenient, or because His instruction seems foolish or cuts across our own wishes or intentions, we do nothing. The next time His speaks, we hear but do nothing again. Eventually we no longer hear Him because our hearts have become deaf to His voice.

Sin dulls our sensitivity to His word. Self-will and the notion that we know better or that we are convinced we are right, like the Pharisees were, shuts us off from the influence of God’s Word until it no longer penetrates our minds and we dismiss it with contempt.

Gravelly soil represents the shallow person who is so caught up with the glitz and glamour of the world and the all the interests and entertainment that it can offer that the delicate roots of the Word of God find no place to anchor themselves. There’s hardness under the surface that resists the truth and the small plant of faith eventually withers and dies.

Ground that is full of weeds is like the person who has a divided heart. Jesus identified the weeds as “the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of riches.” These are interesting concepts. To worry implies that you are split — you are here but your mind is there. You may be in church but your mind is somewhere else, churning over a situation or problem you cannot solve. You are unable to give your attention fully to God’s Word at that moment.

The deceitfulness of riches is equally distracting and you are equally split in your mind. Instead of being content with what you have now, you are continually living in the future — scheming and planning how you can get more money then. “Weeds” rob you of contentment and distract you from living in the present and in the place where you are here and now. Consequently God’s Word is gradually pushed out of your mind as you grapple with your worries and your ambitions.

The person who recognises the value of what God says and applies it diligently to his life, not allowing sin, pride or self-will to prevent its entry into his heart or the glamour, greed or worries of the present life to choke its growth, will receive the Word. apply it and show the fruit of its influence in the way he lives.

There is a little of each type of soil in each of our lives, depending on our attitude to the issues the Word addresses. We may resist what God has to say about any sin we are entertaining; we may be shallow or superficial in our attitude towards something God requires of us that touches our pride or our purses; we may have worries or ambitions that we are not prepared to relinquish to Him, and in those areas we will shut out the Word and become unfruitful.

The fruitfulness of the seed depends entirely on quality of the soil that receives it.

When God looks for fruit in your life, what will He find?

 

 

Let’s See For Ourselves

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LET’S SEE FOR OURSELVES

“As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the sheepherders talked it over.’Let’s go over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us.’ They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angel had said about this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed.

“Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they’d been told.” Luke 2:15-20 (The Message).

Good for you, guys!

These men weren’t satisfied to take the angel’s word for it. This was a one-in-a-million event, after all, and they were not about to miss out on the opportunity to lay eyes on their very-long-awaited Messiah. Although they were the lowest of the low in society, they knew all about the hope of a deliverer that was promised in their Scriptures. They wanted to be the first to see the child and to keep that memory alive in their minds for years to come.

It was in the dead of night when they dashed off to the sleeping town. How were they to find the child and His parents in a town splitting at the seams with visitors from all over the country? Luke doesn’t tell us how they found the child. He tells us that they found Him; no doubt because they at least knew that the baby was sleeping in a feed trough.

How long did they tarry, gazing in awe at this brand new baby in whose future life lay all sorts of possibilities? Perhaps dawn was breaking and the people of Bethlehem beginning to stir when the shepherds reluctantly left the little family and made their way back to their sheep. They greeted every person they met with the story of the angelic visit and the exciting news that they had just come from the hostel where they had found that everything the angel had told them was true.

They must have been bone-weary when they got back to their sheep. Thankfully, the flock was still intact despite being left unattended. Perhaps they agreed to take turns in minding the sheep so that the rest of them could get some shut-eye. But how could they sleep when those magical scenes kept flashing through their minds? Perhaps they sat around the fire reminiscing about what they had just witnessed.

Back at the hostel, Mary couldn’t sleep either. She said very little to Joseph. She was too overawed by these events. Perhaps by this time they had a steady stream of visitors — people who heard the shepherds’ story and wanted to verify it. They had a busy day ahead. Now there were three of them to be counted. All the time, Mary was storing this all up inside, mulling over it and wondering what it all meant. Some day she would understand.

After all these exciting events, people soon forgot. They settled back into the routine of their daily lives; perhaps vague memories returned when the Roman soldiers, always around to keep order, sometimes to harass them, irritated them to the point of murderous hate. Then they longed for the Messiah who would deal with them and restore David’s kingdom, so they thought.

But locked up inside this tiny child lay a destiny far greater than an earthly kingdom and a royal palace. In that moment when He made His appearance, heaven and earth came together as a promise that, in this child lay the answer to earth’s most terrible plight — hell had invaded earth and ruined its perfection.

He had come to deal with that and to set earth’s course back to God’s original plan, a place for mankind where God and man can dwell together in perfect harmony in a huge family that mirrors their Father, recreated in the image of His Son.