Daily Devotion

^{The devotional writings on these pages were written by Dr. Armand L. Weller, Senior Pastor of the Church by the Sea (CBTS) in Madeira Beach, Florida. They are primarily intended for use by the members of that congregation but can also be beneficial to any others who request them. Each week, the CBTS Church family reads these Bible Study Devotions. On the following Sunday, the morning message is preached on a portion of the material covered in the devotional thoughts written here.}

^{Two additional Bible Study sessions are also scheduled at CBTS to}^{allow individuals the opportunity to interact with the pastor and one another on the subject of the devotions and the Sunday morning message. You are invited to join one or both of those studies. One is}^{Monday evening at 7:00. The other is Friday morning at 9:30.}

^{It is our prayer that all who read and seek to understand the Word of God through these notes will be encouraged, blessed and will mature in the}^{faith of the Lord Jesus Christ.}

^{^{Luke 22:63-71}

⁶³The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. ⁶⁴They blindfolded him and demanded, “Prophesy! Who hit you?” ⁶⁵And they said many other insulting things to him.
⁶⁶At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them. ⁶⁷“If you are the Christ,” they said, “tell us.”
Jesus answered, “If I tell you, you will not believe me, ⁶⁸and if I asked you, you would not answer. ⁶⁹But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.”
⁷⁰They all asked, “Are you then the Son of God?”
He replied, “You are right in saying I am.”
⁷¹Then they said, “Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips.”

For the Week of March 8-14, 2010

WEEK #16-10

DAY #1:                      Luke 22:63-71

            Many times, while traveling across the sloping hills and valleys of the nation of Israel with His closest associates intent to hear every word that fell from His lips, Jesus would try to prepare them for this seemingly tragic moment with clear descriptive words. He would say, “The Son of Man must be mocked, rejected, spit upon, beaten, and crucified. And on the third day He will be raised from the dead.” No matter how many times Jesus told them this, it was so foreign to their comprehension or even their imagination that it went right over their heads. But that would soon change.

      Now, at last, it was beginning to make sense. Yet, on that side of the resurrection, it still seemed only darkness. Once the light dawned on Easter morning, all would look different. For now, only discouragement and disillusionment were found in the hearts of these men who lived Jesus so much.

      If they could sit in on the illegal trial of Jesus, they would find Him saying some amazing things that also would go over their heads because they were listening with their limited understanding and narrow perspective on prophesy and history. Their hearts were not yet filled with the Holy Spirit who would one day be their primary instructor. In a sense, there was no way they could do anything but misunderstand this part of Jesus’ ministry. Yet, those who wanted to know and learn did understand, at least partially, who He was and is.

      Nicodemus was one of the religious authorities and, because he was open to learning and receiving, because he was searching for the truth, when it was shared with him by Jesus, he recognized it and received it. And it changed his life.

      Indeed, all of us must answer that question that was raised by Pilate: “What shall we do with Jesus?” Those who accept Him as Lord and Savior receive the gift of eternal life.

Luke 23:1-12 (NIV)

¹Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate. ²And they began to accuse him, saying, “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king.”
³So Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
“Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied.
⁴Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.”
⁵But they insisted, “He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.”
⁶On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. ⁷When he learned that Jesus was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.
⁸When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform some miracle. ⁹He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. ¹⁰The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing him. ¹¹Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. ¹²That day Herod and Pilate became friends—before this they had been enemies.

DAY #2:                      Luke 23:1-12

            Herod and Pilate were two men who did not get along at all for political reasons. Herod was the voice of the Jewish religious state. Pilate was the authority of the Roman Empire in residence in Jerusalem. These two men were antagonists. In fact, we find each one trying to push off on to the other the making of the dangerous decision about the fate of Jesus. Pilate tries to find an excuse to have Herod make the decision. Herod returns the favor.

      We discover a very amazing thing happening between these two “enemies.” Herod and Pilate became friends that very day. Why is this so? Once again, we find that a confrontation with Jesus ends up being a “watershed” experience in any person’s life. You cannot ignore Him. You must deal with Him. Once you accept or reject Him, you will find yourself in one camp or another, often with very strong ties to those in the camp with you.

      We are finding this today in our nation where many are strongly and emotionally advocating Christianity while others are just as fervently opposed to Jesus. We should not be surprised by this. Actually, we should rejoice that we are in His kingdom and united with the Lord of the universe and not against Him. It is good to know that in all of our trials we are on the winning side. Those who side with Jesus are always in the majority.

Luke 23:13-25 (NIV)

¹³Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people, ¹⁴and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. ¹⁵Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. ¹⁶Therefore, I will punish him and then release him.”
¹⁸With one voice they cried out, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!” ¹⁹(Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.)
²⁰Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. ²¹But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
²²For the third time he spoke to them: “Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.”
²³But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. ²⁴So Pilate decided to grant their demand. ²⁵He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.

DAY #3:                      Luke 23:13-25

            Pilate is convinced that no matter what decision he makes, he will be wrong. He takes the easy way out by simply appeasing the crowd. He goes along with their demands in order to avoid a riot. He makes his decision on the basis of what is practical, not on what is just. In the process, he gives us the perfect example of how we are related to Jesus before and after we accept His gift of salvation. It is the picture of Jesus and Barabbas.
            Jesus was definitely innocent. Even Pilate knew that. He was and is the Son of God. He confessed that to the court. On the other hand, Barabbas was definitely a criminal. He was clearly guilty of the crimes for which he was incarcerated. Through the death of the innocent Jesus, the Son of God, the guilty Barabbas was set free.
            Is there any more simple and direct way to tell us what Jesus has done for us? We are guilty of so many sins and shortcomings in our daily lives. We deserve condemnation. That would be the just thing to do . . . requiring us to pay the price for our sins. But Jesus, the Son of God, the innocent One, died to satisfy the requirement of justice and, like Barabbas, we are set free. So the Lord God goes beyond Pilate’s practical way, even beyond the world’s system of justice. He goes all the way to Grace – undeserved blessings bestowed on us out of the love God has for each one of us.



Luke 23:26-32 (NIV)

²⁶As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. ²⁷A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. ²⁸Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. ²⁹For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ ³⁰Then
     “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!”
       and to the hills, “Cover us!”
³¹For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
³²Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed.

DAY #4:                      Luke 23:26-32

            The trial is over. The sentence has been handed down by Pilate under extreme pressure from the unruly mobs. Jesus has been sentenced to death by crucifixion, perhaps the most painful and humiliating and cruel form of capital punishment ever devised by man. This form of punishment is reserved for the worst criminals even though Pilate himself said he could find nothing that Jesus had done wrong. Now, this innocent man, who has been persecuted, spit upon, beaten unmercifully with rods and whips, and mocked, is on His way to the place of death. He is even forced to carry on His own weakened back and shoulders the instrument of His crucifixion – a heavy and burdensome cross.
            Then one of those ironic events occurs. Jesus cannot go on any more under the weight of that cruel cross. When it appears He might even die because of this heavy burden, a man is pressed into service and forced to carry Jesus’ cross for Him the rest of the way up to Calvary. The state has granted Jesus a touch of mercy, making it possible for Him to make it the rest of the way to Golgotha so that He can die a horrible death. It would have been much more merciful to allow Him to die on the way.
            Yet, in the midst of this struggle, when Jesus is so near the end of His life, when He has so much pain and suffering to endure, we are reminded that this pain and suffering is out of love, totally unselfish love, for all mankind – for you and me. We see clear evidence of this in the way Jesus ministers to those women who are weeping for Him and His terrible condition and His very brief earthly future.
            Only with the example of Jesus before us, and the presence of the Holy Spirit within us, can we begin to think of the needs of others, especially when we are at the same time going through our own personal struggles. We need to be reminded that even in personal hardship, God calls us to reach out to those in need around us. In Isaiah 58:10-11, the Lord reveals to us that this kind of sacrificial ministry will not only alleviate the burden of others. It will also cause His light to shine in our own darkness. What a wonderful truth!

Luke 23:26-32 (NIV)

²⁶As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. ²⁷A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. ²⁸Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. ²⁹For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ ³⁰Then
     “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!”
       and to the hills, “Cover us!”
³¹For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
³²Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed.

DAY #5:                      Luke 23:26-32

            Jesus is ministering with power and compassion in the midst of His own pain. He can’t reach out to physically help these women. But He can share with them some gracious words.
            What is the message of Jesus to these hurting and weeping women in what appear to be rather cryptic words? First, He is saying He cares about them, their lives and their futures and their children. He is saying to them and to us, “You are observing the fate of One who is a victim of the injustice that exists among men because of sin and pride. This will continue long after I am gone. I am being thrown into the fire, yet I am innocent. I am a green, unseasoned piece of wood. These people are so desperate that they have thrown Me into the fire. I don’t deserve to be burned in this way. Consider,” Jesus goes on to say, “the future of those who deserve to die for their sins. Think for a moment about the wood that is ready for the fire, the wood that should be thrown onto the fire. Is there any hope for them? Is there any hope for you?”
            Of course, we know the reason Jesus went to the hill of Calvary was to give us hope in a dark and sometimes treacherous world. Things seem so terribly dark . . . until you meet Jesus. When the Light of the world shines upon you, no matter how dark things may appear to be around you, Jesus gives you hope. Indeed, He is your hope! Praise to the Lord!

Luke 23:33-38 (NIV)

³³When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. ³⁴Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
³⁵The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”
³⁶The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar ³⁷and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”
³⁸There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

DAY #6:                      Luke 23:33-38

            There He is, nailed to a cross, the innocent Lord, the Sacrifice Lamb that was slain. He is surrounded by thieves, criminals, sinners. Those who sentenced Him to death were self-seeking political animals. They lied and bribed and staged a mock trial to protect their own positions of power. The ones who carried out His sentence don’t really care at all about Him. They don’t know who He is. If they knew He was the Son of God, they might have cared. Later, their captain realizes who Jesus is. The rulers who had manipulated Jesus into this sentence of death really didn’t believe He was the Son of God. They were too busy protecting their own interests to see Him with clear vision. The crowds who watched the crucifixion very likely saw Him, on the one hand, as a very kind man who was nothing more than a loser in life. Others saw Him as an agitator. It was good to get rid of Him.
            These people really didn’t know what they were doing. Jesus realized that. Out of love for all of them, He asked Father to forgive them. And Father did.
            Let’s realize that Jesus could have acted angrily. The people in the crowds were right. They believed He could have saved Himself if He was really the Christ. He could have called down 10,000 angels to rescue Him and to wipe off the face of the earth the mocking and jeering crowds. He could have done so. He chose not to. Mercy and love replaced any possible anger.
            Motivated by unselfish love for them, driven by His commitment to be totally obedient to Father in heaven, Jesus chose to die on the cross. He knew then what we know now. He died that we might live. The words of the chorus say it perfectly:

            He paid a debt He did not owe.
            I owed a debt I could not pay.
            I needed someone to wash my sins away.

            And now I sing a brand new song – Amazing Grace!
            Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.

            That sign nailed to the top of His cross was not really true. It was only partially true. Yes, He was the King of the Jews. But He was more than that. He is the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords. He is Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, the Sacrifice Lamb, my Lord and my God!}

^{^{Luke 22:31-34}

³¹“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. ³²But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
³³But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.”
³⁴Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”

For the Week of March 1-7, 2010

WEEK #16-9

DAY #1:                      Luke 22:31-34

            This is one of those passages that we read and say, “Has this section always been in my Bible? I’ve never seen it before.” This is an important passage because it reveals to us at least four basic truths.
            (1) Satan cannot do anything to us without the permission of the Lord. Look at the first chapter of The Book of Job and you will see this truth set forth there.
            (2) Our heavenly Father only allows the enemy, Satan, to come against us and tempt us to the degrere that we can handle it and grow through it.
            (3) Part of the purpose of this testing process is to allow us to grow and become strong in Jesus. Peter was a bit self-centered and proud. If he were to be used effectively in the church, God had to get rid of that pride. When Satan asked to work on Peter, the Lord knew this was a perfect time to shape Peter into what He wanted him to become for His perfect purposes.
            (4) Finally, this kind of testing process is for the benefit of the entire Body of Christ. The Lord was strengthening Peter that he might return and work for the benefit of the other disciples and the church as a whole.
            Whenever God runs us through a testing procedure, the test results are always to show us what we can do together with the Lord. The Lord knows all things. He already knows how much faith you have. He tests you to strengthen you and to let you see how much faith you have and to help you discover just how much you and the Lord can accomplish together. What a wise God we know and love and serve.

Luke 22:35-38 (NIV)

³⁵Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?”
“Nothing,” they answered.
³⁶He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. ³⁷It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.”
³⁸The disciples said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.”
“That is enough,” he replied.

DAY #2:                      Luke 22:35-38

            These four verses of Scripture are a transitional passage. There are three reasons for saying this. First, we see that this is the last lesson of teaching the Lord is giving to His disciples before going to the Garden of Gethsemane. There He will be arrested and taken to the authorities for trial and sentencing.
            Second, this is a transitional event in that from now on, the disciples will not have Jesus to go to and talk to privately for counsel, words of encouragement, and any necessary corrections in their thinking or their actions. The events of the next few days will be done, in a real sense, on their own. They have depended on the presence and the example and the words of Jesus for the last three years. That is about to change in a radical way.
            Third, the Lord is giving them some new instructions to guide them. These directions are for the next phase of their ministry until another set of instructions are required. Jesus begins by asking them if He was correct in the last set of instructions He gave them. In following them, did they have all they needed during their last mission for Him? They agreed with Jesus that He was correct in His assessment of what they needed on that missionary journey.
            I believe we are going through life, one transition after another. The biggest transition we cam make is from life “B.C.” to life with Christ. Once that revolutionary transition is made, we need never face another life-change alone. Jesus will teach us the way, show us the way, prepare the way, walk with us on the way, and clean up after us.
            What transition are you going through right now? You need to know that before you entered this specific phase of your life, the Lord had taught you all the principles you would need to make these necessary adjustments. During this change, God will teach you new truths and reinforce old truths to help you deal with the next phase of your life. We can take seriously the words of God spoken to Joshua as we consider our todays and tomorrows. “I will never fail you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous” (Joshua 1:5-6).

Luke 22:35-38 (NIV)

³⁵Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?”
“Nothing,” they answered.
³⁶He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. ³⁷It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.”
³⁸The disciples said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.”
“That is enough,” he replied.

DAY #3:                      Luke 22:35-38

            Jesus tells the disciples they are about to begin a new missionary journey. This one, although it will be as His disciples, will require different supplies and new approaches. The last time He sent them out, Jesus was very popular. All the people loved Jesus. If you said that you were one of the friends of Jesus, you were suddenly surrounded by interested people who wanted to spend time with you. They wanted to know more about you and especially your Master Teacher, Jesus. For such a journey, you don’t need a lot of supplies. Those who are so happy to see you will supply all of your material needs gladly. Obviously, you won’t need any weapons to defend yourselves. Who would you fight?
            That is all about to change. Jesus tells them his future destiny. In a few hours, He will be arrested. Soon those who recently praised Him will want to have Him crucified. That means, if you are associated with Jesus, you will be required to have all the supplies you need and even a weapon to protect yourself. From now on, you will get no encouragement from the people you see in the days that lie ahead.
            I am sure these men did not completely understand what Jesus was telling them. In fact, some got all excited about the opportunity to take up a sword to defend themselves. When Jesus said they would need a sword, one responded, “We already have two swords!” Jesus did not want them to depend totally upon their swords. His response was to tell them their two swords would be enough for them.
            A sword would help the disciples in a physical confrontation with the enemies of Jesus. Their most important weapon, however, would be the Holy Spirit and the power He gave them. When they received that power, they would understand what Jesus was talking about. Until then, they had enough weapons with two swords to take care of themselves.
            Perhaps one more lesson can be learned from this passage. As the Lord asks us to minister to others for Him, in His stead, we should not assume we are to do today exactly what we were called to do yesterday. In this new day, God will be doing a new thing. He does new things every morning. The new thing of God for tomorrow may require new approaches, new equipment, and perhaps new words to share. We need to be open to His new ministry for us. In so doing, our ministry with and for the Lord will always be fresh, not stale, as we live according to the on-going development of His perfect plan.



Luke 22:39-46 (NIV)

³⁹Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. ⁴⁰On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”⁴¹He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, ⁴²“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”⁴³An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. ⁴⁴And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
⁴⁵When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. ⁴⁶“Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”

DAY #4:                      Luke 22:39-46

            Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem and ascended the Temple Mount through the beautiful gate on the east edge of the city. It is now four days since that “triumphal entry.” Further east, just across the Kidron Valley, is the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane. Apparently, Jesus went there regularly for prayer when His travels took Him into or near Jerusalem. After sharing in a simple Passover celebration with His disciples in the Upper Room, Jesus takes them with Him to the Garden of Gethsemane for some much-needed prayer.
            At the beginning and the end of this portion of Scripture, Jesus gives the same instruction to His disciples two times. We should assume, therefore, that He is saying something rather important. This must be a lesson they need to learn and apply if they are going to be His true disciples.
            You may remember that we have seen in the Gospel of Luke (chapters 6-10) a series of classes and lessons taught by Jesus. We have chosen to call this The Seminary on the Way. It was a three-year preparation program for ministry. Some were lessons taught in words, some by Jesus’ example, and some by a combination of words and example. Here, Jesus is teaching His disciples by His words and His example.
            Jesus said, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” Then He walks a short distance from them to face one of the greatest struggles of his life. The first time we saw Jesus deal with temptation was immediately following His baptism. It was during a period of 40 days of fasting in the wilderness. At the end of that time, in which Jesus was repeatedly victorious over Satan, we read, “And when the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.” This Garden experience is one of those “opportune times.”
            Jesus struggled desperately with what He had to do. He knew what was ahead for Him. It was time to give a “Go” or “No Go” for this mission. The time for a decision was now. He told Father He would rather avoid this sacrifice. Yet, more than anything else, Jesus wanted to do Father’s will.
            Working through this struggle, Jesus did not give in to temptation. Had the disciples been awake, as Jesus requested, they would have seen the most powerful example of how to stand against the strong pull of temptation. Jesus asked them to watch with Him and pray that they might not fall into temptation. Instead, they took a nap. They only knew about this event because Jesus described it for them. His words must have been powerful. Seeing His example would have been more powerful.
            Jesus gives these same instructions to us. He knows the devil will attack us and try to deceive us. We have the same power to resist the attacks of Satan as Jesus had. We have His power, His Spirit, His Word, and His love. What an arsenal of resistance that is! If we use it, we will always be victorious. Let’s commit ourselves to use it.

Luke 22:47-53 (NIV)

⁴⁷While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, ⁴⁸but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”
⁴⁹When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” ⁵⁰And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.
⁵¹But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.
⁵²Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs? ⁵³Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.”

DAY #5:                      Luke 22:47-53

            Those who would do deeds of darkness are naturally drawn to accomplish them in the dark. That which the religious authorities wanted to do to Jesus, but could not accomplish in the daylight, they now attempt successfully in the dark.
            I am fascinated by the fact that Jesus was born in the midst of a dark night while shepherds were watching over their flocks. As theologian Karl Barth put it, “A new day dawned in the night.” There was great darkness throughout the world when Jesus was born. This was not only a dark period of physical time, from sunset to dawn. This was a distressing time of true spiritual darkness in the world. It was then that “the Light of the world” beamed His glory into our existence and forever changed the way we record time.
            Approximately 33 years later, “the Light of the world” was arrested in the middle of the night by those who would promote the very deeds of darkness for which Jesus came to redeem the world and all who would trust in Him. This darkness was so intense that the friendly gesture of a loving kiss was twisted into a grotesque sign of betrayal.
            Soon more deeds of darkness follow in rapid succession. For example, an illegal trial is held at night. This was strictly against Jewish Law. All the dark deeds culminate in a time of total darkness over the entire land while “the Light of world” is hanging painfully upon a cross. Yet, we remember the good news. Because of the death and resurrection or Jesus, all deeds of darkness are rendered impotent as we walk with Jesus in His marvelous light.

Luke 22:54-62 (NIV)

⁵⁴Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. ⁵⁵But when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. ⁵⁶A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.”
⁵⁷But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said.
⁵⁸A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.”
“Man, I am not!” Peter replied.
⁵⁹About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.”
⁶⁰Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. ⁶¹The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.”⁶²And he went outside and wept bitterly.

DAY #6:                      Luke 22:54-62

            Jesus and most of His disciples were from Galilee in the northern reaches of Israel. This was not the area where the people of high society lived. They spoke with a distinct accent. When in Jerusalem, their language would be as obvious to those residents as would be the conversation of a “good ole boy” from Georgia on the streets of New York City.
            Jesus has informed Peter that he is going to be tested. Satan has been given permission to work on him. Permission was granted with one goal in mind: that Peter, after successfully going through this experience, would be of extreme use to the Lord in strengthening the other disciples for the difficult days that were certain to lie ahead for them all (see our notes on this passage on DAY #1 of this week).
            Now Jesus has been arrested. The fickle crowds are united against Him. Peter is hanging around to see what is about to unfold before him. During this time of waiting, Peter is questioned three times. Is he one of the disciples of Jesus? He looks like one of them and dresses like one of them. He sure looks like a person they saw traveling with Jesus during these recent days. With a Galilean accent that immediately gives him away, Peter declares, “I don’t know what y’all are talking about, ya here?”
            At that moment, the cock crowed. Peter realized that Jesus was right again. Peter had denied knowing the one for whom he said he was willing to die. According to the prophecy of Jesus, He knew this would happen. Now it was a matter of the Lord working through this terribly dark deed to grow Peter into the person God wanted him to be and even needed him to be.
            Here Peter has a choice. He can grow because of this moment of betrayal and the accompanying feelings of great guilt and distress, or he can bristle against the Lord for allowing this darkness to enter his life. He can turn to the Lord and walk with Him or turn away from the Lord in anger. It is his tears of bitterness and humiliation that demonstrate to us that Peter made the right decision. He is, indeed, repentant. That means the rest of the prophecy of Jesus will follow. Peter is going to be stronger because of this experience. Peter will be used by God to encourage the other disciples during the darkness of these next few days.
            We all need to use our times of dealing with temptation similarly. We need to let the Lord transform seemingly crushing experiences into absolute triumphs through His sovereign power and love. That is what God did on the hill called Calvary when His only begotten Son was crucified and paid the price for our transgressions.

^{Luke 21:5-28}

⁵Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, ⁶“As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.”
⁷“Teacher,” they asked, “when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?”
⁸He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. ⁹When you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.”
¹⁰Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. ¹¹There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.
¹²“But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. ¹³This will result in your being witnesses to them. ¹⁴But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. ¹⁵For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. ¹⁶You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷All men will hate you because of me. ¹⁸But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹By standing firm you will gain life.
²⁰“When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. ²¹Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. ²²For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. ²³How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. ²⁴They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
²⁵“There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. ²⁶Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. ²⁷At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ²⁸When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

For the Week of February 22-28, 2010

WEEK #16-8

DAY #1:                      Luke 21:5-28

            This section of the teachings of Jesus sets forth His explanation of what is to come after His earthly ministry has ended. It seems to be a natural curiosity of man to wonder what will happen in the future. What happens after we die? How will it all end? How can I get ready for the time when this old world winds down . . . or perhaps when it explodes into dust and space? Will I know beforehand the actual time when all things will end and how they will end?

            Jesus gives the disciples a number of pieces of information about the “end times.” He tells them enough to show them that He knows what He is talking about. One piece of information He gives them about the future (the destruction of the Temple) they will actually observe when it happens. This would certainly reinforce their faith in Him and give them the assurance that the things He describes will actually come to pass. But He also assures them that there are some things they will never know about the “end times” until they actually happen because they don’t need to know them in order to live lives of obedience to the Lord God.

I am convinced that one reason some people want to know about the end of this world and the process involved is because they want to be as disobedient as possible for as long as possible. In their minds, therefore, just before Jesus returns, they can change their ways. They believe this would involve “having fun” as long as they can. Actually, such a lifestyle is not “fun.” It is destructive to our selves and to all those we know. If we choose to live in sin, then we choose to reject Jesus and His way for our lives. We don’t really want Jesus to be our Lord. We want to be the Lord of our own lives. What we want Jesus to be is “fire insurance” . . . a handy person to have around when you need someone to rescue you from eternal destruction.

            Jesus gives the disciples a few words of encouragement. While things begin to fall apart, when the world is struggling with evil on all sides, when the disciple of Jesus is attacked for his faith, Jesus assures us that He is with us. He will meet our every need in just the right way and at just the right time. He will even give us the words we will need to defend our faith when we are called upon to explain our selves and our lifestyle.

            Most important of all . . . Jesus is coming again! Of this fact, Jesus would have us be absolutely confident. He would also want us to be certain about this fact: When He comes to receive His followers unto Himself, we will be part of the crowd. We will look at more about that tomorrow.

Luke 21:29-38 (NIV)

²⁹He told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. ³⁰When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. ³¹Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.
³²“I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³³Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
³⁴“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. ³⁵For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. ³⁶Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”
³⁷Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, ³⁸and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.

DAY #2:                      Luke 21:29-38

            While Jesus is talking to the disciples, we need to realize His words were written and preserved so that He can also talk to you and me. In this passage, Jesus continues to tell all of His disciples, then and now, about His return. It will happen suddenly. No matter how much time passes between the time of the Ascension of Jesus to heaven and the moment of His return, it will happen suddenly. There will be signs of His return, and yet there will be no warning.

            He says He will arrive like a thief in the night. We won’t know when it will be. A thief does not normally announce the time of his arrival. Nor will Jesus. When someone announces to you that Jesus will return on such-and-such a date, you can be sure of one thing: That is not the date. We don’t know when. We won’t know when. Only our heavenly Father knows that piece of information. We can only be sure that Jesus will return at exactly the right time.

            All who have accepted Jesus as the Lord of their lives will join Him on His return trip to heaven. There He has been preparing a place for us. What a glorious day that will be! I hope you are looking forward to it with excitement and joyful expectation.

Luke 21:29-38 (NIV)

²⁹He told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. ³⁰When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. ³¹Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.
³²“I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³³Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
³⁴“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. ³⁵For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. ³⁶Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”
³⁷Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, ³⁸and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.

DAY #3:                      Luke 21:29-38

            How can you be sure that when Jesus comes again you will be part of the great return trip? How can you be confident the eternal life He has prepared for His followers is available to you? Indeed, can anyone know he will spend eternity in the Lord’s heavenly realm?

            Romans 10:9 gives us a clear answer to these questions.

“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.”

In light of that verse, consider these questions.

(1) Do you believe that Jesus is who He said He is?
(2) Do you believe the Bible when it describes His life, what He did and who He is?
(3) Do you recognize that you have sinned and are in need to God’s forgiveness and do you repent of your sins?
(4) Do you want to follow Him and live for Him out of gratitude for what He has done for you in His death on the cross?

If you can say, “Yes” to these questions, if you believe these things, if this is your desire, and if you have confessed this as true for you, then you are a follower of Jesus Christ. Then you are one of the people who will join Him when He comes again . . . whenever that will be.

            Remember, however, that life as a follower of Jesus is more than sitting around waiting for Him to return so you can get out of this mess you are currently in. Jesus came to give you eternal life. He also came that until He returns you might have life and have it more abundantly (see John 10:10). Don’t sentence yourself to a life of waiting for His return. Enjoy the life He has given you now. Take advantage of the opportunities He provides daily to tell others about Jesus. Invite them to join you in the Kingdom of the Lord.

Luke 22:1-6 (NIV)

¹Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, ²and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. ³Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. ⁴And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. ⁵They were delighted and agreed to give him money. ⁶He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.

DAY #4:                                  Luke 22:1-6

            The religious and political leaders of the Jews have already given up on trying to trick Jesus into doing or saying something wrong. He is just too clever and smart for the likes of them. Every question they asked Him, He answered beautifully. Every question He asked them, they could not answer. So now they have come to the conclusion that the only way to get rid of this “dangerous man” is by subterfuge, by underhanded means. So Judas comes into the spotlight at this point.

            We will be reading more about Judas in a few days. It is important, however, to look at this man now. We need to understand something of what he must have been going through at this point in his life.

            First, let’s remember that Satan is “the father of lies.” When the devil entered into Judas, he did so with a lie or a series of lies that deceived Judas. Second, we should not assume anything sinister about the character of Judas. It was probably not his desire to destroy Jesus anymore than it was Eve’s desire to bring sin into the world when she gave in to the deceptive lies of Satan. That awareness, however, does not make them any less guilty of the sin they committed.

            The trouble with deception is that it is so deceptive. Satan must have lied to Judas in such a way as to make Judas believe that betraying Jesus would accomplish some good and positive end.

            As already noted, this does not mean that Judas, because he was tricked by Satan, was not guilty of any sin? He certainly was guilty. He did sin. Satan tempted him; but Judas chose to believe the lie and gave in to the temptation, thereby committing the sin.

            Satan does not make us do anything. He only has the power to lie, tempt, and deceive. And he is very good at all three. When we give in to his temptation, we are the ones who sin and we are guilty. We have the power not to sin. Therefore, we need to ask forgiveness immediately and change our ways that we might be cleansed and walk in the light with the Lord.

Luke 22:7-23 (NIV)

⁷Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. ⁸Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”
⁹“Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.
¹⁰He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, ¹¹and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ ¹²He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there.”
¹³They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
¹⁴When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. ¹⁵And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. ¹⁶For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”
¹⁷After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. ¹⁸For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
¹⁹And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
²⁰In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. ²¹But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. ²²The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him.” ²³They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this.

DAY #5:                      Luke 22:7-23

            During that last week in the earthly ministry of Jesus, He shared in a Passover meal with His disciples. This is Luke’s understanding of what happened at what we call The Last Supper.

            The meal was a traditional Passover celebration that Jews had been sharing for many centuries. It was to be shared with the family in their own home. However, if a person was away from home at the time of Passover, he was to share with others this symbolic meal . . . a remembrance of the miraculous exodus of the Hebrews from bondage under Pharaoh. A group of people, if unrelated by family, was to share this meal with one another. One of them was to take on the role of the father in the family. This is what Jesus did during this final meal.

            We often overlook the very last verse of this passage. Yet, it says volumes about the character of the disciples who were closest to Jesus. Jesus had told them He would be betrayed and then mocked, beaten, and crucified. He also told them His betrayal would come at the hand of one of them, His closest friends.

            Did you notice that not one of them stood up and said, “Not me, Lord! It won’t be me!” On the contrary, they began to discuss among themselves which one of them it might be. They all knew they were capable of doing this terrible thing. In fact, in the account of this meal in Matthew’s and Mark’s Gospels, we find each of the disciples saying, in turn, “It isn’t me, is it, Lord?”

            We need to be on the alert. The enemy is trying to trip up and deceive each one of us. He wants to draw us away from the Lord. The closer we get to the Lord, the more Satan tries to draw us away from Him. Each one of us might turn his back on Jesus at any moment of the day. We need to be on guard, to stay in the Word, trusting in and listening to the Lord. We should try to stay in touch with the fellowship of believing followers of Jesus called the Church of Jesus Christ. This is one good reason each one of us should be actively covenanted with a local expression of the Church called the local congregation. We need each other.

            We need to encourage and exhort one another. We need to be open to the correction from a loving brother or sister in the family of God. We need to stand firm on the truth that we can defeat the devil because “greater is He who is in you, than he who is in the world” (see I John 4:4).

Luke 22:24-30 (NIV)

²⁴Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. ²⁵Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. ²⁶But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. ²⁷For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. ²⁸You are those who have stood by me in my trials. ²⁹And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, ³⁰so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

DAY #6:                      Luke 22:24-30

            How ironic and how sad. During the very evening when Jesus was spending His last time of fellowship with His disciples, on the very night when He was about to give Himself up for their benefit and for the salvation of the world, at a time when He chose to be the servant of all, on that fateful night His disciples got into an argument about which one of them was the greatest.

            Jesus cut to the heart of the matter very simply and very quickly. Jesus said it was the Gentiles, not the Jews, who argued about such things. In His kingdom, if you want to be the greatest of all, you must be the servant of all. Indeed, that is exactly what Jesus did (see Philippians 2:5-11). He was the servant of all. Therefore God the Father highly exalted Him that at the name of Jesus absolutely everyone would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

            Do you see the kind of people Jesus had to deal with? It was into the hands of these men that He was going to entrust the spreading of His gospel and the work of the Kingdom of God. The amazing thing is that His plan worked. Obviously God was in it and behind it.

            God’s plans always work, in one way or another. God is always right. It is also clear that if God could use those 12 apostles, He can certainly use you and me. Once we commit our lives to Him and ask Him to fill us with the Holy Spirit, we are prepared, empowered, and expected to go on mission with Him. He will do great things with us and through us. Signs and wonders will follow those who believe. That is you and me!

^{Luke 19:45-48}

⁴⁵Then he entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling. ⁴⁶“It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.”
⁴⁷Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. ⁴⁸Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.

For the Week of February 15-21, 2010

WEEK #16-7

DAY #1:                      Luke 19:45-48

            One of the primary rules of the Lord is that all should have the opportunity to be loved, redeemed, forgiven, and to be able to live in harmony with the Lord. To get in the way of that desire of the Lord is to be a stumbling block to those who would know Jesus. Here we see the moneychangers have set up barriers and roadblocks. They seemingly try to keep people out of the Temple who don’t have the right heritage or the proper finances. How, then, can these people receive the forgiveness they need?

            This angered Jesus. It was righteous anger because it was directed against those who would use and abuse God and His people. Jesus was angry because people were prevented from enjoying intimate communion and fellowship with God and with one another. He demonstrated His anger in a very obvious manner . . . driving these moneychangers out of the Temple.

            I am convinced this action of Jesus might have made Him a national hero in the eyes of the common people. They had known for years that this system was a means of “ripping off” the people. But no one did anything about it. Now Jesus has done something, and the people rally around Him.

            Now the shoe is on the other foot. The leading men of the city are trapped. They want to act against Jesus but are unable to. After all, the people are now crowded around Him and are hanging on His every word.

            Let’s not make the mistake of thinking that Jesus wanted to be a national hero or that He wanted to trap the city leaders and immobilize them. Jesus was simply acting out His convictions. He lived out what He believed. He was who He was in every day life. Anyone who does that will draw attention and crowds. They will often confound the wise. It’s interesting that Jesus is still doing that today. He is acting through His 21^st century disciples who know what they believe and live it out daily with complete integrity.

Luke 20:1-8 (NIV)

¹One day as he was teaching the people in the temple courts and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him. ²“Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” they said. “Who gave you this authority?”
³He replied, “I will also ask you a question. Tell me, ⁴John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or from men?”
⁵They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ ⁶But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.”
⁷So they answered, “We don’t know where it was from.”
⁸Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

DAY #2:                                  Luke 20:1-8

            John the Baptist called Jesus “the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world” (see John 1:29). He was referring back to the old sacrificial system God gave to the people of Israel. This was God’s gracious provision for His people. In this way, their lives could be preserved instead of dying because of their sin and rebellion.

            The Passover activities are established at the beginning of the Exodus as recorded in Exodus 12. One of the basic rules concerned the selection of a sacrifice lamb for each family. The lamb to be slain was to be selected and then examined by the religious leaders. This examination took a week. They even lifted up the eyelids of the lambs to see if there were any blemishes to be found there. Once the lamb was found to be spotless, it was sacrificed . . . one dying for many.

            In Jerusalem, at this time in the life of Jesus, they were getting ready to celebrate Passover. In fact, when Jesus entered the Holy City, the priests were selecting the lambs for the annual sacrifice. During this last week in His earthly ministry, while the innocent lambs were being examined to see if they had anything wrong with them, the same thing was happening to Jesus, “the Lamb of God” who would take away the sins of the world.

            The religious authorities were looking over Him, under Him, and around Him. They tried to catch Him doing something wrong and speaking heretical things. They wanted to reveal Jesus to the crowds as full of spots and blemishes, certainly not pure and innocent. Every time they tried, however, Jesus was found indeed to be spotless and innocent. He was fit for the sacrifice to take place on Passover that Friday.

            Jesus was spotless, without blemish, tempted in every way that we were yet without sin. Therefore, His death on the cross, His offering of Himself as the sacrifice Lamb, has provided for us an endless supply of mercy and grace. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Luke 20:9-19 (NIV)

⁹He went on to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. ¹⁰At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ¹¹He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. ¹²He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.
¹³“Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’
¹⁴“But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ¹⁵So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
“What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? ¹⁶He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”
When the people heard this, they said, “May this never be!”
¹⁷Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written:
     “‘The stone the builders rejected
       has become the capstone?
¹⁸Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”
¹⁹The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.

DAY #3:                      Luke 20:9-19

            Jesus tells a parable during the testing process. Here people can see Him for whom He really is, that is, the Son of the Owner of the Vineyard.

            That truth may not leap off the pages at us and hit us squarely in the eye. It did, however, for those 1^st century listeners to His words. For the Jew in the day of Jesus, the Lord often used a very common picture to describe His relationship with Israel. He frequently depicted Israel as the vineyard and Himself as the vinedresser or owner. In the words of the prophets, God was seen as the owner who lovingly cared for His beloved vineyard. One such Old Testament picture is seen in Isaiah 5:1-7. Jesus is clearly making a similar statement in John 15.

            Uncharacteristically, this parable of Jesus shows an almost allegorical format. That is, each part of the story relates to specific individuals or situations. Here the first messengers of the vineyard owner are compared to the prophets, priests, and kings of the Old Testament. A clear change takes place when the owner sends his own son to do the job that was attempted by the former messengers. The early messengers were rejected. The son was rejected and killed. Just so was Jesus rejected and killed by the “workers” in the vineyard.

            Strangely, almost tragically, the crowds respond very emotionally to this parable. Concerning the death of the Son, they shout, “May it never be!” Yet, those very same people, a few days later, raise up the shocking cry, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” And the Son of the Owner is rejected and killed.

            As were the actions of their ancestors in killing the messengers of God, the contemporaries of Jesus were motivated by self-interest, greed, and self-preservation. Such attitudes always set a person against the Lord. Even today, many are antagonistic to Jesus. Let’s pray that God will soften the hearts and open the minds of the antagonists of our day. May they be open to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

Luke 20:19-26 (NIV)

¹⁹The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.
²⁰Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be honest. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. ²¹So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. ²²Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
²³He saw through their duplicity and said to them, ²⁴“Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and inscription are on it?”
²⁵“Caesar’s,” they replied.
He said to them, “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
²⁶They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.

DAY #4:                      Luke 20:19-26

            Jesus’ accusers do not give up. On the contrary, they increased their determination to trap Jesus in saying something wrong. Note that they are not just asking Him ordinary questions to catch Him in some sort of rhetorical gaff. These are well-crafted queries designed and worded in such a way that, as far as they could see, no matter how Jesus replied, He would be wrong. He would, thereby, look bad to the partisan crowd.

            Their questions were something like the old question, “Have you stopped beating your wife? Yes or No.” If you say, “Yes,” you give the impression that at some time you actually did beat your wife. If you say, “No,” you give the impression you are now in the habit of abusing her.

            They asked Jesus whether or not they should be paying taxes to Caesar and the Roman government that most Jews hated and despised. If He said, “Yes,” the leaders could turn to the people and say, “This man is not a friend of yours. He’s a friend of Rome. He thinks you should be paying all those exorbitant taxes to our hated enemy.” That would turn the crowds against Jesus.

            If, on the other hand, Jesus said, “No,” that they should not pay those taxes, then His questioners would turn Him over to the Roman authorities. He would be arrested and imprisoned and seen as part of the insurrection movement against the Roman government.

            Jesus is obviously much smarter than His questioners. He said neither “Yes” nor “No.” In fact, His answer was so clever even His accusers were impressed with Him.

            This is a natural result of being truly your self, not trying to impress others or pull any punches. People like it, whether or not they agree with us, when we are obviously being our selves while being obedient to God as He grants us daily wisdom because we seek and do His will.

Luke 20:27-47 (NIV)

²⁷Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. ²⁸“Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. ²⁹Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. ³⁰The second ³¹and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. ³²Finally, the woman died too. ³³Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
³⁴Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. ³⁵But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, ³⁶and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. ³⁷But in the account of the bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ ³⁸He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”
³⁹Some of the teachers of the law responded, “Well said, teacher!” ⁴⁰And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
⁴¹Then Jesus said to them, “How is it that they say the Christ is the Son of David? ⁴²David himself declares in the Book of Psalms:
     “‘The Lord said to my Lord:
       “Sit at my right hand
⁴³until I make your enemies
       a footstool for your feet.”
⁴⁴David calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?”
⁴⁵While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, ⁴⁶“Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. ⁴⁷They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely.”

DAY #5:                      Luke 20:27-47

            Now it was the Sadducees’ turn. They were one of the religio-political groups of Jesus’ time. They decided to try one last time to trap Jesus in a tricky question. Little did they know they were examining the Sacrifice Lamb for proof of His purity and perfection so that He might be sacrificed for the sins of the world on Passover.

            The Sadducees were not really looking for a helpful answer. They wanted to trick Jesus into a wrong response. Of course, Jesus succeeds in answering their question perfectly. Finally, the religious leaders gave up this tactic. It did not work.

`           This seems to mark a turning point for Jesus. Sensing their decision not to ask any more questions, Jesus now begins to ask them questions. In no time at all, it becomes clear they can’t handle His questions.

            Jesus then responds to their inability by noting that they are supposed to be the religious authorities in town. He warns His disciples not to believe what they say and do just because of their ecclesiastical position. He then goes on to show that these men are far from perfect (perhaps in contrast to His own perfection without actually mentioning it). And they will not ever be perfect in this world. They should at least be honest enough to walk their talk. And so should we.

Luke 21:1-4 (NIV)

¹As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. ²He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. ³“I tell you the truth,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. ⁴All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

DAY #6:                                  Luke 21:1-4

            Most people know of the account of Jesus’ reaction to the gifts offered by many rich people and by one widow. Often called “The Story of the Widows Mite,” Luke describes this woman as having given two small copper coins to the Lord through the Temple treasury. As the Lord watched this, He declared that this poor widow, in only giving two small coins, actually gave much more than the abundant gifts of the rich men.

            Jesus goes on to say that the widow gave out of her substance while the rich gave out of their surplus. Of course, Jesus and all those with Him knew that Scripture calls for us to give to the Lord out of our substance. In fact, we are to give at least the first 10% to the work of the Lord. This is called the tithe. It demonstrates our love for the Lord and our faith in Him to see that all of our needs will be met. If we give the leftovers to the Lord, we demonstrate our faith in ourselves and our ability to handle money.

            Surplus-giving has no sacrificial content to it at all. It is not giving of self but offering to God what I do not need. Such gifts are not precious to the Lord. It is “fluff,” of little consequence to me or to anyone else.

            On the other hand, substance-giving is sacrificial. It is giving what I really could use. It is giving what I might even need. However, because of my love for the Lord and my gratitude to Him for who He is and all He has done for me, I give of my substance to Him.

            The one who gives from surplus needs nothing from the Lord . . . or so it would seem. But the one who gives out of substance sacrificially has needs, especially now that this sacrificial gift has been given. God’s response to sacrificial giving is to meet apparent needs, remove needs, or empower us to overcome our needs with new resources and understanding. The principle is a simple agricultural one. It is called sowing and reaping. We reap what we sow. Yet, we are encouraged to give not for the purpose of getting. Rather we are to give generously and gratefully because we have already been given so much by the Lord.}

^{^{Luke 18:31-34}

³¹Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. ³²He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. ³³On the third day he will rise again.”
³⁴The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.

For the Week of February 8-14, 2010

WEEK #16-6

DAY #1:                      Luke 18:31-34

            We have a way of looking at these disciples with an inner smugness. We see them hearing very plainly the Lord’s description of His death and resurrection. Were they really dense that they could not comprehend something so elementary? To be fair to them, we need to remember that we see this event and hear these words of Jesus from this side of the resurrection. We have learned about and accepted the fact of the crucifixion and resurrection because for us it is history. It is accomplished fact. But nothing like this ever happened before. Therefore, when Jesus told the disciples what would happen to Him, their basic reaction was, “Huh?” And, had we been there, we would have had the same response.

            It would be like trying to explain to a tribal chief in Africa, who had never seen any structure larger than a grass hut, what the word “skyscraper” means? If you brought him to New York City and pointed to one, he would begin to understand. However, it is not part of his life and perspective. It is so foreign to him that it does not register in his mind. He draws a blank. There is a threefold description of the confused reaction of the disciples. (1) They did not understand. (2) It was hidden from them. (3) They could not comprehend.

            Then why did Jesus bother to tell them about His death and resurrection? Simply, so they would recognize it when they saw it and begin to understand. Then, after the fact, they probably said to themselves, and to one another, “Now I understand. This is what Jesus was pointing to. This was not a mistake. It was all part of God’s plan. Jesus knew it. We did not, even though He tried to tell us.” Look, for example, at John 2:22. There we find a parenthetical note about the understanding of the disciples. They understood what Jesus said only three years later, after the resurrection, and they recalled these words of the Lord.

            There are some things in Scripture and in life we do not yet understand. That does not mean we will never comprehend. Let’s continue to ask the Lord for wisdom and discernment and then look forward to the turning on of that important light bulb in our minds that says to us, “Ah. Now I see.”

Luke 18:35-43 (NIV)

³⁵As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. ³⁶When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. ³⁷They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”
³⁸He called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
³⁹Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
⁴⁰Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, ⁴¹“What do you want me to do for you?”
“Lord, I want to see,” he replied.
⁴²Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.”⁴³Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.

DAY #2:                      Luke 18:35-43

            Last week, we looked at the familiar story of the ten lepers healed by Jesus. Only one of those lepers, he was a Samaritan, returned to express gratitude to Jesus. One person at a Bible study gave me this impression. She said, “I believe Jesus wants to heal us completely, not only physically but emotionally and spiritually as well. Of the ten lepers who were healed physically, only one received the total healing Jesus wanted all of them to receive.” Interesting insight.

            How would you evaluate the healing experience of our blind man in today’s passage. He certainly was insistent. He didn’t let the crowds keep him from the blessing he firmly believed Jesus could give him. Do you think his healing was complete? Was he grateful? It certainly seems so. He received his healing like a little child . . . enthusiastically. He began to follow Jesus, glorifying God as he went. And His enthusiasm was contagious. When the bystanders saw his joy, his worship and his praise, they also began to praise the Lord. He did not keep his gratitude to himself. He let everyone know about it . . . and so should we . . . freely and enthusiastically.

Luke 19:1-10 (NIV)

¹Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. ²A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. ³He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. ⁴So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
⁵When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”⁶So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
⁷All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.’”
⁸But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
⁹Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

DAY #3:                      Luke 19:1-10

            Life is full of contrasts. The Gospels are full of events that show the various sides of human nature. A few days ago we noted the attachment of the rich young ruler to his material possessions. He didn’t feel he could give them up. Jesus understood that. Jesus also understood that God can do the impossible. God could even make it possible for a rich person to give up his riches to follow Jesus. As if to prove this point, Luke includes the story of the little rich man who climbed a sycamore tree. His name of course, is Zacchaeus.

            Like the rich young ruler, Zacchaeus had great wealth plus a more than passing interest in this man called Jesus. And this rich man was willing to give up some of his riches. One significant difference between these two rich men is that Zacchaeus allowed Jesus to move in and live with him. His was not an outward observance of Jesus. He took Jesus in. Actually, the word in Greek that describes this moving in carries the sense of becoming a part of the household. This was no “guest” relationship. This was an “abiding” (see John 15:5-11 where some translations use the word “abide” and others “remain”).

            For the rich young ruler, Jesus was “out there” to be seen and followed and obeyed from a distance. For Zacchaeus, Jesus came in and dwelt there with him. His personal knowledge of Jesus caused him to be a changed man.

            So must it be for each one who would follow Jesus as Lord. It cannot be a desire to follow some outward standard placed there by someone we know nothing about. It must be a new covenant relationship that is established permanently within us, written upon our hearts (see Jeremiah 31:31-34). Then we will follow Jesus with an inner motivation that comes from our changed hearts . . . because we are grateful, because we love Father, and because we want to serve Him . . . no longer because we have to.

Luke 19:11-27 (NIV)

¹¹While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. ¹²He said: “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. ¹³So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. ‘Put this money to work,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’
¹⁴“But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’
¹⁵“He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it.
¹⁶“The first one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned ten more.’
¹⁷“‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’
¹⁸“The second came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned five more.’
¹⁹“His master answered, ‘You take charge of five cities.’
²⁰“Then another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. ²¹I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’
²²“His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? ²³Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?’
²⁴“Then he said to those standing by, ‘Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’
²⁵“‘Sir,’ they said, ‘he already has ten!’
²⁶“He replied, ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. ²⁷But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.’”

DAY #4:                      Luke 19:11-27

            Many years ago, while living in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, I began to write music that I believe was inspired by God. Some years later, I purchased a guitar and began to write even more music. In this way, I could express my faith and help others worship God more enthusiastically. The reaction to the music I have written has always been, I am happy to say, encouraging and supportive.

            Time and again, people would ask me to play one of the songs the Lord gave me. Most of the time, I was very backward about doing this. Eventually, many said I should have my music published and circulated more completely so that others could also use these songs to worship God. Still I hesitated.

            One Sunday evening, in Souderton, Pennsylvania, I went to my office to get my guitar to lead people in worship. I discovered my guitar was missing. Over the next few days, my investigation disclosed that my guitar had been stolen. In that guitar case were about a dozen original songs. I had no other copies of them. They were gone, lost. I was distressed.

            I asked the Lord why He would allow something like that to happen to me. His answer seemed very clear. I felt like the servant in today’s lesson with one talent. The Lord was saying to me that He gave me the gift of new music to share with others. If I weren’t going to use them to His glory by sharing them with others, He would just take them back. I repented of my hesitancy. I now use this gift and other gifts from the Lord more freely . . . to His glory. I hope you do, too.

Luke 19:28-40 (NIV)

²⁸After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. ²⁹As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ³⁰“Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it.’”
³²Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. ³³As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”
³⁴They replied, “The Lord needs it.”
³⁵They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. ³⁶As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.
³⁷When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
³⁸“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
³⁹Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
⁴⁰“I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

DAY #5:                      Luke 19:28-40

            Jesus is now coming to that point in His life when He must bring things to a head. He has known for many years that things would come to this. He knew His purpose for living and the reason why He would have to die. But, because of His love for Father and for each one of us, Jesus went ahead with what He knew He should do and must do. Yet, Jesus was not forced by anyone to go on to Jerusalem where He would surely die a violent death. It was His choice prompted by love.

            In our study of Luke 9, we saw two passages that pointed ahead to this time in the life of Jesus. In 9:30-31, we saw Peter, James, and John joining Jesus on the mountain where He was transfigured before them. As they gazed in amazement, they saw Jesus, Moses, and Elijah talking about the events to take place in Jerusalem if Jesus continued in His life of loving obedience to Father. Then, in verse 51, we read that Jesus resolutely set His face to go to Jerusalem. From that point on, each step He took carried Him closer and closer to Calvary where His loving sacrifice would radically change history.

            The timing for this history-making event was very precise. As we shall see in the next few weeks, each event was a perfect fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. This included not only what was to be done but the way it was done . . . even including the day and time it was to be done. We have often noted that God’s timing is always just right. He has never made a mistake; and He never will.

            This brings us to the main point of today’s lesson. Jesus knew what He was doing. He knew He was the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Soon the world would know it as well. He was not trying to prove anything. He was simply being who He was without reservation.

            Because this was the week for Jesus to be seen as “the sacrifice lamb,” the perfect and unblemished sacrifice whose life would be given in place of those who had sinned, it was not surprising that thousands of people came out to hail Him as King. This was the week it would happen. Jesus had even made preparations with an acquaintance of His in Jerusalem. He would have a donkey ready for Jesus to use. This gloriously noisy event was so much in the perfect timing of God that, when asked to quiet His followers, Jesus said, “If these become silent, the stones will cry out!”

            The time is right. The time is now. Some one is going to shout about Jesus. If these crowds don’t shout His name, if the attempt is made to silence the people, then the stones themselves will shout out the name of Jesus. Why? Because this is the time in God’s perfect plan for this event to take place. There must be shouting. There will be shouting. For He is God!

Luke 19:41-44 (NIV)

⁴¹As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it ⁴²and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. ⁴³The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. ⁴⁴They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

DAY #6:                      Luke 19:41-44

            Isn’t it amazing that such a powerful moment is followed so quickly by a rather poignant and sad moment? Jesus looks out over the city of Jerusalem that He and His followers love so much. As He surveys the city, that is symbolic of the entire nation of Israel, Jesus begins to cry. He knew what the Lord could accomplish if only the people would allow it . . . if they would only receive Him as Lord.

            But they would not. As we know, and as we see in subsequent days of study, Jesus was rejected. The Prince of Peace was violently crucified on the cross. The Son of God was killed like a common criminal between two thieves on a hill called Calvary.

            A simple lesson we can learn from this event is that Jesus offers us peace. And there is only one kind of lasting peace. It comes from Jesus. Any who would reject the peace of Jesus are actually rejecting Jesus Himself and choosing division and strife. We have a choice of peace or no peace. The one who chooses to go His own way not only rejects Jesus, he actually brings upon himself strife and self-destruction.

            How are you getting along with the Prince of Peace? Has He called you to serve Him? If not, then you are the only one in the entire church who has not been called to service in one form or another. As you choose to serve Him and follow Him, a supernatural by-product of your companionship and fellowship with Him is peace, perfect peace.}

^{^{Luke 18:1-8}

¹Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. ²He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. ³And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
⁴“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’”
⁶And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

For the Week of February 1-7, 2010

WEEK #16-5

DAY #1:                                  Luke 18:1-8

            Here is the kind of lady we like to see in TV situation comedies. The crusty, pushy type that would make the toughest Marine sergeant blush. She knows what she wants, and she goes for it. In today’s passage, she needs legal protection but is not getting it. She is faced with what appears to be her equal in “crotchediness.” He is a judge who does not fear God nor does he respect men.
            Our heroine is so persistent in her requests for legal protection that the judge has decided to give in to her requests before she “wears him down.”
            What does this say about our relationship with the Lord and how are we to communicate with Him based upon this example from Jesus’ lips? First, it does not mean we should badger the Lord with our prayers, hitting Him over the head repeatedly, fervently hoping we can “twist His arm,” bringing Him to His knees so that He absolutely must do our bidding. Jesus is not trying to set up a parallel between these two individuals. He is not suggesting our Father in heaven is just as miserable and stubborn as that judge. He is not telling us we must somehow make God completely happy before He will do anything for us. In theological terms, this is called “works righteousness.” It wrongly believes if I can do enough righteous things, maybe God will include me on His select list of those who will be blessed by Him.
            Jesus makes it clear that Father is nothing like this old judge who neither fears God nor respects man. In fact, heavenly Father is shown in stark contrast to this old codger. Jesus is saying, “If even this old, miserable so-and-so will finally give in to your requests, how much more can you expect our heavenly Father to answer the prayers you send His way. Therefore, don’t give up. Just remind Him regularly what your request is; and trust Him for His perfect will and perfect timing.

Luke 18:9-14 (NIV)

⁹To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: ¹⁰“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹²I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
¹³“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
¹⁴“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

DAY #2:                      Luke 18:9-14

            This familiar story is of the Pharisee who was convinced that he could not possibly have any sin in his life that would keep him from the heart of the Lord. Either he really believed that to be true, or he was making believe it was true for the sake of his personal sanity, or he wanted those who saw him in action in the village square to be duly impressed with his righteousness. Perhaps the last of these three possibilities is the most probable as well as the most damning by Jesus.
            The Pharisee is trying to justify himself. No one can justify himself. A person can only be justified by faith in God through Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Because of this self-centered desire to make himself look good, and perhaps even trying to convince God of His inherent goodness (assuming God didn’t already know how sinful he was), this Pharisee was not forgiven. He didn’t even ask for forgiveness. He assumed forgiveness because of his authoritative position in Israel. He was wrong.
            On the other hand, we have the publican. He knew he was nothing in and of himself. Not only did he not tell God how wonderful he thought he was, this man could not even bring himself to look up to God. He knew how much of a sinner he was. It is this honest assessment of his own unworthiness that allowed this humble and repentant sinner to experience the joyful presence of God and His forgiving touch.

Luke 18:15-17 (NIV)

¹⁵People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. ¹⁶But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁷I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

DAY #3:                      Luke 18:15-17

            It was absolutely unlawful to prevent anyone from receiving God’s Word, His Law, His forgiveness, His gift of salvation. Even the alien and the sojourner that was temporarily living in or passing through the nation of Israel was included in this prohibition. He was to be given the same opportunity of receiving the blessings of the God of Israel. Just because he was of a different country or culture, that did not exclude him from receiving God’s many blessings.
            Last week, we saw how distressed Jesus could become if anyone became a stumbling block to the one who wanted to be a follower of the Lord. Here we see that same concern.
            This was a primary reason why Jesus got so distressed with the money-changers in the Temple at Passover. The Law was set up to make it possible for anyone, even the poorest person, to come into the presence of God for the forgiveness of sins. Even if a bull was the preferred animal sacrifice, those who couldn’t afford to do so could bring a smaller, much less expensive animal.
            The money-changers were telling people from other lands that they needed the official money of the Temple to make the purchase of a pure, approved animal for their sacrifice. Of course, these merchants charged some ridiculous fee to make the financial transition from foreign money or secular money to Temple money. Then they required people to use only this official Temple money to purchase an acceptable sacrificial animal. With all the fees added to this transaction, it became very difficult for many poor people to get right with God. Jesus was angry with this obstructionism and drove the guilty parties out of the Temple.
            We need to make sure we have not erected some man-made rules that prevent people from coming into the Kingdom of God. It is not how long or short your hair is. It is not what kind of a job you hold. It is not how dramatic your conversion experience has been. It is not where you go to church. It is not how high you hold your hands or how loudly you pray. None of these things determine your salvation.
            Do you believe in Jesus, that He is the Son of God, that He died to free you from your sins and that He promises you eternal life? Do you want to follow in His way, no longer your own? If you believe this in your heart and confess it with your mouth, then you shall receive the free gift of salvation (see Romans 10:9-10).
            This is the simple message for you and for me as well as the simple message we need to share with others. All who are interested in living their lives in victory as God originally intended it for all, need to hear and receive this simple message. Praise the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

Luke 18:15-17 (NIV)

¹⁵People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. ¹⁶But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁷I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

DAY #4:                      Luke 18:15-17

            Before we leave this passage, it is important for us to note a foundational insight Jesus is sharing with His disciples. He is giving the important answer to the question, “How does one receive the Kingdom of God?” The answer: “You must become like a little child.”
            Does that mean we have to be short and cute and know how to play hopscotch? Of course not. There are many qualities of the child that I believe will help us understand the point Jesus is making. We look at three qualities today and three tomorrow. You can probably add your own insights as well.
            (1) A basic quality of the little child is “TRUST.” The child will accept and believe and act on what Father says just because it is Father who says it. The child knows Father loves him. If Daddy says, “Jump from the wall. Daddy will catch you,” the trusting child will leap freely into Daddy’s arms. With that kind of faith in our heavenly Father, we are to follow Jesus right into the Kingdom.
            (2) Sometimes children are “brutally honest.” I don’t think the Lord would command brutal honesty. Certainly HONESTY is a quality He expects of us. We need to not only trust in the Lord, we need to be lovingly straightforward and honest in such a way that it makes possible trust with one another. Without honesty, the church cannot move forward with the powerful witness the Lord requires of her.
            (3) A third commendable quality of the little child is real ENTHUSIASM. When a child gets into something, he really gets excited about it. That bubbly vitality is contagious and draws others closer to see what is so special about the Christian life.
            Are you like a little child? Or has the way of the world spoiled you and caused you to doubt more than you believe and trust? Have your years of experience with people who wrongfully used you caused you to become less honest in your conversation? Has your enthusiasm cooled off a little bit? Are you doing more “simmering” than “bubbling?” Perhaps you need to ask the Lord to rejuvenate you by the fresh in-dwelling of His Holy Spirit. We need to be new and fresh in Jesus every day of our lives.

Luke 18:15-17 (NIV)

¹⁵People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. ¹⁶But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁷I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

DAY #5:                      Luke 18:15-17

            “Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it at all.” We have seen that receiving it with TRUST, HONESTY, and ENTHUSIASM are three qualities Jesus may have had in mind when He made this statement. Today, we look at three more.
            (4) For the childlike disciple of Jesus, there should be TOTAL INVOLVEMENT in the Kingdom. Everything I am and everything I have is to be invested in my discipleship. Observe that trusting, honest, enthusiastic child in a new game or a new adventure. Everything that can be thrown into the event comes forth. It’s refreshing just to see that happen. And we say, “Why can’t I be like that?” In Jesus, you can be . . . and you should be.
            (5) Receiving the Kingdom of God should involve a childlike CURIOSITY. There is an acceptance of things as they are. There is, at the same time, an avid desire to learn more. The child gets so excited about what he sees that he wants to look behind the scenes to discover what else there might be to discover and enjoy. This translates into a “teachable spirit” . . . a desire to learn more and an openness to receive new information from the Lord as He reveals it to us.
            (6) Hard to put into one word, this sixth quality can best be described as DEPENDENCY. Of all ages of life, the child knows his weaknesses and realizes he cannot make it on his own. He knows there are some things he can do by himself and is willing to admit it. As he grows and learns, he also recognizes he needs help to accomplishment most of the requirements of life. The child that admits this need is free to grow. The one who hesitates to share this fact, or tries to make believe he can do all things himself, will be trapped in a cage of his own creation. All of us need to lean on the Lord like a little child who is totally dependent upon his parents. Closely related to this is a willingness to accept the loving authority of our parents.
            Perhaps you and I need to give ourselves a report card, maybe with the help of a friend or family member. What are the grades I should receive on each of these six qualities?

Luke 18:18-30 (NIV)

¹⁸A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
¹⁹“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. ²⁰You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.”
²¹“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.
²²When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
²³When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. ²⁴Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
²⁶Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”
²⁷Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”
²⁸Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”
²⁹“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God ³⁰will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life.”

DAY #6:                      Luke 18:18-30

            Jesus has a way of confronting us with our weak areas and challenging us to give more of ourselves to Him. He certainly set before the rich young ruler a challenge. Jesus knew the heart of this man. I believe the Father shared a “word of knowledge” with Jesus to let Him know the basic motivation of this man and his hidden weakness.
            The young ruler certainly knew the rules. In fact, he apparently kept all of the rules and did that very well. Jesus could have called him a liar at this point if that were a problem in his life. It apparently was not. His real issue was his attachment to the material goods he had accumulated over the years. These material possessions may have begun to possess him. Perhaps they had become his “god,” that which he allowed to control his life. Did he own them or did they own him?
            If he were to become the disciple Jesus required him to be, he had to do more than keep all the rules. He could have only one God. That meant if he wanted Father to be His God, he had to surrender his devotion to the “god” of materialism. This obviously had a great hold on him. It made him “very sad” to hear the demands of Jesus. Although he seemed to love Jesus, he apparently loved his riches even more. That is sad indeed.
            Jesus knew the hold material things can have on people. He even used a humorous image to show how tough it is for a person who worshiped things to get into the Kingdom of God. He said it is like this huge camel trying to squeeze through the eye of a tiny little needle. Though His disciples laughed at the truth of His statement, they were distressed. “Then no one can get in!” they exclaimed. With God’s help, Jesus replied, all things are possible. If that rich young ruler had asked the Lord to help him, he could have made it into the Kingdom of God. Without God’s help, it was and is impossible.
            What “impossible” situation is facing you today? Do you feel about as exhausted as a huge camel trying to squeeze through the tiny eye of a needle? Do you feel like someone’s behind you trying to force you through that little hole? As you turn your burden over to the Lord, you will discover the truth that God can do the impossible. That is why He is God . . . and we are not.}

^{^{Luke 16:1-18}

¹Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. ²So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’
³“The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg—⁴I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’
⁵“So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
⁶“‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied.
“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’
⁷“Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’
“‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied.
“He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’
⁸“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. ⁹I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
¹⁰“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. ¹¹So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? ¹²And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
¹³“No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
¹⁴The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. ¹⁵He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.
¹⁶“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. ¹⁷It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.
¹⁸“Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

For the Week of January 25-31, 2010

WEEK #16-4

DAY #1:                      Luke 16:1-18

            What do you do with what the Lord has given you? Do you use it effectively with all the might and wisdom He gives you? Or do you take it for granted or even waste and squander it?

            In this often puzzling story told by Jesus, we need to find the one basic point He is making. Then we must apply it to our selves. Many get confused with this story because Jesus seems to be congratulating the steward for his dishonesty in changing his master’s books. Since that attitude is totally inconsistent with the nature of Jesus, we can be sure that is not what this story is about.

            The point is relatively simple, so simple we seem to miss it completely. Jesus is saying to us, “The matters you deal with are very important. You are actually dealing with the eternal existence of people’s lives. You are handling matters that are everlasting. You are dealing with spiritual gifts and God-given abilities. Why is it, then, that you are so wasteful and even foolish in your use of these important spiritual matters? Here is a man who is much more wise in the use of worldly things than you are of spiritual things. If the sons of light were as wise in their use of kingdom matters as the sons of darkness are in the use of worldly things, revolutionary things would happen.”

            We are dealing with life and death again. Here was a man who very creatively used the unrighteous things of the world to preserve his own life. Shouldn’t we be just as shrewd and creative with the righteous matters of the Kingdom of God? Kingdom matters, after all, will affect the lives of millions of others. Jesus calls us to be wise stewards of all that Father has given us. How are we doing? Could we do better? What steps are we going to take to improve? When are we going to start? We are really dealing with the life and death of others who will see and hear our witness. When are we going to be more wise?

Luke 16:19-31 (NIV)

¹⁹“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. ²⁰At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores ²¹and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
²²“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
²⁵“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. ²⁶And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
²⁷“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, ²⁸for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
²⁹“Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
³⁰“‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
³¹“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

DAY #2:                      Luke 16:19-31

            Here we see Jesus dealing with the outcome of the lives of two men. One is a rich man who is nameless. The other is a poor man named Lazarus. This in itself would have caused the listeners of Jesus to take notice. It would probably have prompted the poor in the crowd, which was most of the people, to actually cheer. Do you see the irony of having a rich man nameless and the poor man identified? This is the opposite of the way most people are dealt with in a materialistic society.

            Actually, Jesus seems to be saying that it is the intangible that is most important. It is who a person is that is much more important than what that person has. Also, how a person uses what he has is much more important than the quantity of goods he owns. In fact, how much you have will not get you into heaven. But how you treat people will show what kind of a relationship you have with God. It is the righteous relationship you have with God, through faith in Jesus, that will get you into heaven.

            The one who is in harmony with God will have a sense of peace within and be able to live in harmony with others. The one whose needs are primarily met by the Lord will be free to use material goods unselfishly.

            Knowing about Moses and the words of the prophets is very important. It helps us to understand more clearly how God was preparing us to receive Jesus as Lord. But unless we know Father in a personal way, all the signs and wonders of Moses and the prophets, and even the sight of a person being raised from the dead will do us no good. It might get our attention, but to have faith in God and commit our lives to Him is what frees us to receive eternal life as a gift from God.

            You can be in harmony with God and with others if you accept Jesus as the Lord of your life. If you haven’t asked Him to forgive you of your past sins and change your life, simply speak to Him now. He will hear and forgive and empower you to live victoriously. Once you have made that confession, use that power to live in peace . . . with God, within your self and with others. Then be assured you will spend eternity with the Lord!

Luke 17:1-5 (NIV)

¹Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. ²It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. ³So watch yourselves.
“If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. ⁴If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”
⁵The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

DAY #3:                                  Luke 17:1-5

            A primary responsibility we have as followers of Jesus Christ is to share the truth of the gospel with any who will listen. Jesus tells the disciples in Acts 1:8 they will receive the Holy Spirit that they might be His witnesses. This is one of the basic reasons for the giving of the Holy Spirit . . . to equip the disciples for ministry. And of course, we see this is exactly what the apostle Peter does in Acts 2. We find him empowered by the Holy Spirit to share with the multitudes all that Jesus is and all that He had done. We also need to be involved in this ministry of bringing people together with God.

            In II Corinthians 5:18, the apostle Paul call it a ministry of reconciliation. We have been reconciled by Christ with our heavenly Father. Now we are called to continue that ministry of seeing others reconciled with Father through the finished work of Jesus. All this is done by the power of the Holy Spirit.

            If this is a basic part of our ministry as Christians, then the opposite is also true. We are to see that we are not a stumbling block to others. We are not to get in the way of someone coming to Jesus Christ as Lord of his life. This is what Jesus is talking about in our lesson for today (and we will touch again on this subject next week). Jesus tells us that having stumbling blocks is absolutely inevitable. There is no way to get around it. This is a part of life. Just make sure, Jesus tells us, that you are not one of the stumbling blocks. It would be better to be lying at the bottom of the ocean wearing a heavy concrete necklace than to be a stumbling block that hinders someone from receiving the gift of salvation.

            Jesus notes two ways, in this passage, whereby we can be stumbling blocks to others (Look at verse 3 for the warning: “Be on your guard!”). First, if you see someone sinning and you do not rebuke him, you can get in the way of his salvation and be a stumbling block to him. That sounds a bit strange, doesn’t it? Don’t all the “theologians” tell us we are not to make a person feel guilty by letting him know some sin he is involved in? Yet, Jesus says to allow that person to continue on in sin will keep him from salvation. You end up being a stumbling block (even though you were trying to avoid being so). The principle is this: You can’t accept the good news if you don’t understand the bad news.

            Second, the obvious truth is that when someone repents, you must forgive him. After all, you are an example of Jesus Christ to that person. You need to show the same forgiving love that the Lord would give to that person. If you do not forgive the repentant one, even if he comes back to you with the same sin and the same request for forgiveness seven times a day, you must still forgive him. Why? Because that is what the Lord does for us all. And you and I are to be witnesses to what Jesus is doing. Not to forgive is to be a stumbling block.

            These are tough truths, but truths nonetheless. Is it any wonder that the disciples responded by saying to Jesus, “Lord, increase our faith!”

Luke 17:1-10 (NIV)

¹Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. ²It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. ³So watch yourselves.
“If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. ⁴If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”
⁵The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
⁶He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
⁷“Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? ⁸Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? ⁹Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? ¹⁰So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

DAY #4:                      Luke 17:1-10

            We noted yesterday that Jesus presents the disciples with a challenging task: (1) to always forgive when a person repents, even if he repeats the same sin seven times a day, and (2) to rebuke one who is involved in sin. It is really a very natural progression that the Lord sets before us. First, if a person sins, rebuke him (in love and with gentleness), bringing him to repentance. When he has asked for forgiveness and is repentant, you must follow through. You are required to forgive him with the same love with which you rebuked him.

            Faced with such a challenge, the disciples say, “Help! We need more faith if you are going to require this of us.” Jesus responds by saying, “If you had faith the size of a grain of mustard seed, you could even tell mulberry trees to fly across the field. Surely, you already have enough faith to do what I have required of you.” In fact, Jesus was telling them, “You don’t need more faith. You need to exercise the faith you already have.”

            Once you have done what the Lord requires of you, don’t expect all kinds of pats on the head and positive strokes from admirers of your wonderful faith and loving presence. You don’t get medals for doing what you are required to do. That should be done purely out of love and out of a true desire to serve God and to demonstrate your faith in Him.

Luke 17:11-19 (NIV)

¹¹Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. ¹²As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance ¹³and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
¹⁴When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
¹⁵One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. ¹⁶He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.
¹⁷Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? ¹⁸Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”¹⁹Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

DAY #5:                      Luke 17:11-19

            There is a very interesting, contrasting parallelism between yesterday’s lesson and today’s. We noted the responsibility to be obedient to the Lord in all situations, just because it is right.

            Today, we see Jesus involved in a healing ministry to ten lepers. The leper was the outcast of society. No one dared approach him for fear of developing the same dreaded disease. Each leper was required to yell, as he walked through town, “Unclean! Unclean!,” warning people to get out of the way. The only people a leper could associate with were other lepers. Yet, Jesus approaches them, heals them, and sends them on their way whole.

            These outcasts were condemned to spending the rest of their days in leper communities on the edge of town. Now, miraculously, these ten men were cleansed and made whole and, for the first time in years, they could live in town, approach people, talk to them, and even touch them. The wonder of human touch, of which they had been deprived for many years, was now given back to them as a gift from the Son of God.

            Doesn’t it make sense that the first thing they would do was to approach Jesus and say, “Thank you for your life-changing ministry. My life will never be the same again.” Yet, only one of them returned to express his gratitude for the healing touch of Jesus.

            The simple parallel with yesterday’s message and today’s study is that (1) when we do something for the Lord, no “Thank you’s” are needed. We have only done what is required of us anyway. And (2) when the Lord does something good in our lives, He does require and expect “thank you’s.” And He should. After all, He is the Lord. He deserves at least a simple thank you or a meaningful Hallelujah!?

Luke 17:20-37 (NIV)

²⁰Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, ²¹nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.”
²²Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. ²³Men will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. ²⁴For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. ²⁵But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
²⁶“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. ²⁷People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
²⁸“It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. ²⁹But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
³⁰“It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. ³¹On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. ³²Remember Lot’s wife! ³³Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. ³⁴I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. ³⁵Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”
³⁷“Where, Lord?” they asked.
He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.”

DAY #6:                      Luke 17:20-37

            In very clear and in very graphic terms, the Lord reveals to us the nature of the Second coming of Jesus to this earth. This time, He will come to bring a report on who is going back to heaven with Him; and those who are going with Him should have their bags packed and be ready to go at any moment.

            Now, Jesus leaves no doubt in the mind of anyone that there is going to be a Second Coming of the Lord. It will be sudden. Some will try to convince you that Jesus’ return has already occurred. Others will say that was all symbolic anyway. There will be no real physical return, just a spiritual one. Others will point to this sign or that sign to convince you of the approach of the Lord on a particular day.

            Jesus goes on to say that many will doubt the truth of this prophecy and act as though Jesus didn’t matter at all. That was the case with those who lived at the time of Noah as well as those who were citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah when they were destroyed by God. They acted as though the predicted end of things would not really occur. They did not take advantage of God’s offer to forgive them for their sins. As a result, when the event took place, it happened suddenly and powerfully. There was no last minute opportunity to repent.

            This will also be true, Jesus tells us, of the Second Coming of the Lord. When it happens, there will be no time to repent. All that could be done will have been done by then. Are you ready? Do you maintain an attitude of readiness? Examine yourself. Ask the Lord for forgiveness for any sins you have committed, whether known or unknown. Receive His forgiveness and look forward with confidence to His return to claim His own.}

^{^{Luke 14:12-24}

¹²Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
¹⁵When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
¹⁶Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. ¹⁷At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
¹⁸“But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’
¹⁹“Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’
²⁰“Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’
²¹“The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
²²“‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’
²³“Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. ²⁴I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”

For the Week of January 18-24, 2010

WEEK #16-3

DAY #1:                      Luke 14:12-24

            Food is a central theme of many of the stories, parables, and illustrations of Jesus. The Kingdom of God is like a banquet or a wedding feast. Jesus is the bread of life. He turns water into wine at a wedding reception. A sign of true discipleship is whether or not we give water to the thirsty and food to the hungry.
            The fact is that food and drink were seriously limited in the area of the world in which Jesus lived and ministered. Therefore, it was often on the minds of those to whom Jesus was speaking. So, it makes sense for Him to use that kind of theme to attract attention and to make an important point.
            The fact is this. As we in western society with all of our material goods and plenty of food and drink read these stories and illustrations, we do not get as excited about the Kingdom of God as the original listeners did. Such things are not as important to most of us as they were to the people to whom Jesus was speaking. To them, it was literally life and death. Therefore, we need to see these teachings of Jesus from that perspective. We are dealing here with important life and death issues and we should pay close attention to them.
            Jesus uses the theme of hosting a banquet, something that was out of the reach of most of the people who heard Him speak, as an illustration to help them examine their deep-seated motivations behind their daily activities. Why did they do things? What did they hope to accomplish? Were they really interested in others? Or were they trying to make points for themselves, making people feel indebted to them?
            Have you ever asked yourself these same questions? Why do we get involved in various activities? What is our motivation? That is the key place for us to start. Each day we need to examine ourselves and our inner motivations. Meanwhile, we should be getting closer and closer to the Lord in our understanding of Him and His will for us. We should day-by-day grow so intimately close to God that having a right attitude and a lovingly unselfish motivation will just flow from within. This is the ideal toward which the Lord wants us to be moving each day. With that in mind, take time to read Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Matthew 25:31-46.

Luke 14:12-24 (NIV)

¹²Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
¹⁵When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
¹⁶Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. ¹⁷At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
¹⁸“But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’
¹⁹“Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’
²⁰“Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’
²¹“The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
²²“‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’
²³“Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. ²⁴I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”

DAY #2:                      Luke 14:12-24

            In today’s passage, Jesus is saying the very same thing that the Spirit prompted James to write at the end of chapter 1 of his letter. True religion is to give to widows and orphans in their need. I believe the reason this group is singled out of all society is simple. They are not able to give anything in return for what you may be able to do for them. So it seems the point being made is not to whom you are to give. The issue is not really what kind of person you invite to your banquet. The central theme is your motivation.
Do this and all such things expecting nothing in return. Live and act and minister unselfishly as Jesus did . . . simply out of a desire to love others and to be used by the Lord to meet their needs. Certainly this is the motivation of Jesus when He invites us to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. It is clear that we are so spiritually bankrupt when He invites us to join Him that there is absolutely nothing we can do to repay Him for His loving generosity.
            This is motivation-checking time in our own lives. Ask the Spirit to reveal to you why you do the things you do. Are you free of selfish motivations? If you are like the rest of us, the answer to that question is “No.” Is the Lord able to free you of selfish desires? Absolutely! All things are possible for God. Pray today for a big step in the direction of unselfish motivations so that God will get all the glory for what you do.

Luke 14:25-35 (NIV)

²⁵Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: ²⁶“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. ²⁷And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
²⁸“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? ²⁹For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, ³⁰saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’
³¹“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³²If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. ³³In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.
³⁴“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? ³⁵It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

DAY #3:                      Luke 14:25-35

            Jesus continues to deal with motivation in this portion of the Gospel of Luke. He is asking an attention-getting question. He wants to have people examine their reasons for following Him. He wants to let them know that following Him is very costly. Being His disciple may cause separation from family and loved ones. Are they ready and willing to take such a drastic step?
            Jesus is not taking a poll. He is not inviting those to join Him who hate their families. He is not creating a “Family-Haters Club.” The issue is, “How much do you want to follow Me? Is your motivation strong enough? Is your devotion to Me powerful enough? Are you so firm in your commitment to Me and My will that you are willing to reject any family matters that are in opposition to My claims upon your life?” Following Jesus is not just a nice idea. It requires a whole new orientation in our way of thinking. It is a revolutionary step to take.
            My oldest daughter, Kristin, always liked the Christian singing duo called Mickey and Becky. They were a husband and wife team. One of Kristin’s favorite songs was one Becky wrote about her husband called “Love song for #2.” The lyrics say there can only be one #1 in her life. For her, that is Jesus. Becky sang, “Jesus is #1 in my life; so #2 will have to do for you. It’s not that I love you less and less; in fact, I love you more and more.”
            This is what we should see happening in our lives when Jesus becomes #1 for us. When we make Him so important that it appears in comparison that we must “hate” our parents, then we will make an amazing discovery. Then the love of the Lord so fills us that we actually are able to love our families more than we ever could on our own.
            When Jesus is our first love, it means we can love our families more than would be possible if we made them #1. Therefore, we should never make this teaching of Jesus an excuse to love our family members less. Jesus never intended that. It is, in fact, just the opposite. Jesus is calling us to love Him so much that we can thereby love our families more and more and more.

Luke 15:1-10 (NIV)

¹Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. ²But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
³Then Jesus told them this parable: ⁴“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? ⁵And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ ⁷I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
⁸“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ ¹⁰In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

DAY #4:                      Luke 15:1-10

            Chapter 15 is a collection of three teachings by Jesus about the Lost and the Found. Today, we read about a lost sheep and a lost coin. Here again, we are dealing with economic issues very close to the central theme of the limited availability of food in the Middle East. The sheep is a basic source of revenue to purchase food and even a source of food itself. It is obvious that the person who has very little will search, even desperately, for one tiny coin that is lost.
            In an economy where everything is important because everything is a life and death issue, one little lamb and one tiny coin are a very big thing. Crucial issues are being dealt with here. The shepherd searched diligently, perhaps even to the point of endangering his own life, to find the lost lamb and bring it home. The woman swept the entire house to find that one little coin that was lost. It was so precious. She had to search everywhere.
            Why is Jesus telling these stories? Is He trying to tell us to be careful with our sheep and our money? Does He want us to handle better and more prudently our material possessions? Actually, Jesus is not talking about us at all. He is not focused on our actions. On the contrary, He is describing how our heavenly Father lovingly views us and acts toward us. We are so precious to Him that He will go to all lengths to find us and bring us back into circulation.
            Many people say they are trying to find God. If they are truly looking for Him and they haven’t yet found Him, they must be looking in the wrong places. The fact is that God has been looking for them long before they even considered an effort to seek God. He is “the hound of heaven” who seeks those who are lost that they might be brought back into the fold.
            How important is this search? It is so important that we have a party and share some of our precious food with our friends in a time of celebration. How exciting it is when one sinner repents and comes home. That is how important and precious you are.

Luke 15:11-32 (NIV)

¹¹Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. ¹²The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
¹³“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
¹⁷“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ ²⁰So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
²¹“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
²²“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
²⁵“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ²⁷‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
²⁸“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. ²⁹But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
³¹“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³²But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

DAY #5:                      Luke 15:11-32

            For two days we will consider a third story about the Lost and the Found. The central figure in this story is a human being. He has often been called The Prodigal Son. He was lost and then found.
            First, we need to perceive again the life and death nature of this story. The poor people Jesus was talking to would have been appalled at the idea of a rich person wasting so much money as this younger son did. They could perhaps get close to identifying with a person who was in such bad shape that he was forced to eat the food that was given to the pigs. For a Jew, the very idea of tending pigs was bad enough. To eat their food was disgusting. So far down the economic ladder had this boy gone that he lost all dignity. He saw himself as a nobody and not the important and loved son of a very rich man.
            This is the attitude we need to have about ourselves. Without the Lord, we are nobodies. We need to come to Him willing to be nothing more than His servants. The exciting fact is this. When we approach Him with the honest attitude that we are willing to be nothing more than His servants, He loves to welcome us and treat us as His children.
            Then what happens? You must know by now. Then there is a banquet. That’s how important and precious you are to Father! Do we all see the truth now? Praise Him for His love and never-ending mercy.

Luke 15:11-32 (NIV)

¹¹Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. ¹²The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
¹³“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
¹⁷“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ ²⁰So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
²¹“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
²²“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
²⁵“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ²⁷‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
²⁸“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. ²⁹But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
³¹“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³²But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

DAY #6:                      Luke 15:11-32

            Today we look at the older brother. His character is in stark contrast to the irresponsible nature of the Prodigal Son. This older brother was always there and always very prudent with his material goods. The heart of the issue may be that he was overly concerned with material goods. He was indignant that his father would reward this money-squanderer by spending even more money on a party for the prodigal. And wasn’t that extra money rightly part of the older brother’s inheritance?
            Jesus wants us to see people as people, not things. All too often we find ourselves so engrossed with the material of this world that we love and prize them more than we do the people around us. We love things and use people when God calls us to love people and use things.
            In this regard, the ultimate irony was the research being done years ago on a highly touted weapon called the neutron bomb. There would be no contamination of things by radiation. In fact, it would not destroy any buildings. Only living organisms would disintegrate. The odd “logic” behind such thinking seemed to be saying, “Let’s save the important stuff and get rid of those nuisance people.”
            To such an elder brother as that described in Jesus’ parable, the father says, “Take your eyes off of the things of the world and rejoice in the fact that you are always with me.” That should be the attitude of every one of us toward our heavenly Father.}

^{^{Luke 13:1-8}

¹Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. ²Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? ³I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. ⁴Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? ⁵I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
⁶Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. ⁷So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
⁸“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

For the Week of January 11-17, 2010

WEEK #16-2

DAY #1:                                  Luke 13:1-8

            It is amazing how many people ask the same question today that Jesus answered so clearly so many years ago. In fact, we have all probably asked this question on a number of occasions. It is the same question the people asked Jesus in John 9. Jesus came upon a man who had been born blind. “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Note that it is already assumed that someone sinned to cause this blindness. Otherwise, the man would not be blind. The people only wanted to know which person was at fault.
            Of course, Jesus’ answer was very clear. “Neither this man nor his parents sinned. The fact that he is blind has nothing to do with sin. What we have here is an opportunity for God to be glorified as He heals this man.” This is also what Jesus is saying to the people in today’s passage. They are asking about the terrible tragedies that occurred recently in Jerusalem at the hands of Pilate. And what about that tragic accident in the construction of the Pool of Siloam. They assumed someone sinned to cause such tragedy. Jesus said, “Not so.”
            Jesus made it clear that the real cause for concern was not the philosophical questions being raised. More importantly, each person should care about his own life of sin. Jesus wanted the people to be aware of the result of unrepentant sin on their part . . . eternal punishment. The real results of sin are much more tragic than dying in a construction accident. We are dealing here with our eternal destiny. We all need to be right with God through humble confession, repentance, and a change of lifestyle.
            Jesus concludes by saying that God has been patient up to this point. Jesus is their last chance. He is the last hope for us all. There is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved (see Acts 4:12). Believe it and share it. It is the truth.

Luke 13:10-21 (NIV)

¹⁰On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, ¹¹and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. ¹²When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” ¹³Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
¹⁴Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”
¹⁵The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? ¹⁶Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”
¹⁷When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.
¹⁸Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? ¹⁹It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches.”
²⁰Again he asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? ²¹It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

DAY #2:                      Luke 13:10-21

            Here is an account in the life of Jesus that is beautiful and yet sad . . . powerful and yet pathetic. The Lord is in the synagogue. He sees a woman who is doubled over so much that she cannot stand up straight. Most people probably assumed the cause of her problem was purely physical. Jesus knows the root cause of her condition is spiritual . . . she has “a sickness caused by a spirit” (see verse 11). So Jesus gets rid of the spirit and the woman is healed immediately. She stands erect for the first time in years. She is made whole spiritually and physically. That is the beautiful and powerful part of the story.
            The sad and pathetic nature of this event is the reaction of the synagogue official. He was not looking for someone’s needs to be met. His only desire was to catch Jesus doing something wrong.
            Many had apparently committed themselves to this one negative pursuit. Let’s try to catch Jesus breaking the Law. Of course, from their unique perspective, Jesus doing something good could be construed as something bad. All they had to do was filter His good deeds through the distorting screen of their legalism.
            Isn’t it sad how many people today go through life getting some morbid joy out of catching others in error and blowing the whistle on them. Meanwhile, the energy they could apply to doing something good is wasted on this sad endeavor. This is not Christian love as described in I Corinthians 13. There we read, “Love does not keep a record of wrongs done, but rejoices in the right.”
            On the other hand, Jesus’ nature was to do good. He was involved in “catching people doing something right.” He was on the lookout for opportunities to release Father’s love and power into someone’s life. Whether or not it was the Sabbath was not the main concern of Jesus. He cared about people. This is who He was. This is what He did.
            I suppose it is obvious that we have a choice to make . . . to follow the example of Jesus or that of the synagogue official. Is there really any choice here? There is only one right way . . . to follow Jesus.

Luke 13:22-30 (NIV)

²²Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. ²³Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”
He said to them, ²⁴“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. ²⁵Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’
“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
²⁶“Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’
²⁷“But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’
²⁸“There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. ²⁹People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. ³⁰Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”

DAY #3:                      Luke 13:22-30

            There is a belief that has been going around for centuries, ever since Satan first thought it up. It is called “universalism.” This is the philosophical viewpoint that everyone will get into heaven. No one will be excluded. The corollary thought is, “It doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you believe something.” If universalism is true, the apostle Paul would ask, “Why then did Jesus bother to come and die such a horrible death on our behalf?”
            If we are to believe the words of Jesus, and I certainly think we should do that, some will be in heaven at the end of this age and some will be excluded. The latter will be “cast into the outer darkness where there is the gnashing of teeth.”
            This issue is dealt with early on in a program called the Evangelism Explosion. Developed by Dr. D. James Kennedy in Coral Ridge, Florida, a series of questions are provided to help a Christian educate a non-Christian about his eternal destiny. Question #1 is this: “If you were to die today, are you sure you would go to heaven?” The second question follows immediately: “If you were standing before the gates of heaven and they asked you why you should be admitted, what reason would you give?” Many who believe they would go to heaven have no idea why they should be admitted. Some will say they have led a good life and that warrants admission. Others will draw attention to their attendance in church and Sunday School or the fact that they were raised in a Christian home.
            Look at the reasoning of Jesus. Some will come to Him and say, “We lived in the same neighborhood together.” Others will remind Him they heard Him speak at some gathering of Christians.” Jesus says that is not good enough. Just knowing about Him or having a passing acquaintance with Him is not good enough.
            And how many good deeds must one do to get into heaven? Is 10 enough? Or maybe 10 a week for the rest of your life? Are you going to keep someone out because he only accomplished 9 good deeds every other week? In the words of a song recorded by Point of Grace, “It’s not who you knew or what you did” that is important.
            When you stand before the gates of heaven, the one big question is, “Do you know Jesus and have you made Him Lord of your life?” He must be more to you than a five-letter name on the pages of the Bible. He needs to be more to you than another historic figure. He must be someone whose Holy Spirit dwells within you because you have personally asked Him to be the Lord of your life.
            There will come a time when it is too late to decide to follow Jesus. Once the door is closed, those who know Him personally will be on the inside. Those who only know about Him but never chose to follow Him will be on the outside. At that time, it will be too late.
            If you don’t know Jesus as your personal Savior and Lord, ask God to forgive you for your sins and make you clean. Ask Him right now to set up His dwelling place within you and direct every part of your life. And if you aren’t sure what all that means, you can be pretty sure you have not become a part of the family of God. Don’t wait until it is too late. Speak to God now and ask Him to make sense of your life now and in the future and to give you new hope. He will make it all clear to you as He helps you know Him and yourself more completely.
            If you know you have made that commitment, either now or some time in the past, don’t hesitate to tell others the good news. You may be the link that helps another person get in touch with Jesus and receive the free gift of eternal life.

Luke 13:31-35 (NIV)

³¹At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.”
³²He replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’ ³³In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!
³⁴“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! ³⁵Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

DAY #4:                      Luke 13:31-35

            I was the chaplain of a Quaker Boarding School for grades 9 through 12 in Poughkeepsie, New York. It was from 1968 to 1970. I gave an assignment in one of my classes that all should read the Gospel of John. For most of these young people, this was their first encounter with the Bible and certainly with Jesus. Many of my students were Jewish youth from New York. I was amazed to see their reaction to reading about Jesus. Perhaps to say I was shocked would be more accurate.
            Some of these students, particularly those who had no previous encounter with Jesus, came to the conclusion that Jesus was arrogant, even a braggart, very self-centered. When I recovered from my shock, I read again the Gospel of John. I discovered why they came to their incorrect conclusions. If you don’t know Jesus as He truly is, if you try to figure Him out from the outside without the aid of the Holy Spirit, you can easily come to inaccurate conclusions. However, when you actually come to know Him personally, you discover a different person. What He says about Himself is just the simple truth and certainly not bragging.
            We need to be open to all God would reveal to us about Himself. To do that, we have to surrender our preconceived ideas about God the Father, and Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Preconceptions will usually block our reception of the simple truth.
            Herod had a similar problem, along with the Pharisees and many others in Jesus’ day. Because they saw Jesus as a pain in the neck, because they were not open to finding out who He truly was, they did not perceive or receive the truth about Him. They saw Him as a pest they needed to get rid of. That, they thought, would be the end of the matter. Little did they know that the process of getting rid of Jesus, by crucifixion, would actually assist Him in establishing the Kingship they opposed so vehemently.
            One of the saddest moments in the life of Jesus is when He looks at Jerusalem, the Holy City, with tears in His eyes. He says, “I would love to gather you to myself, but you reject Me. You won’t recognize Me for who I am until I come again in glory. Then you will proclaim with all people everywhere, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”

Luke 14:1-6 (NIV)

¹One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. ²There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. ³Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” ⁴But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away.
⁵Then he asked them, “If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?”⁶And they had nothing to say.

DAY #5:                                  Luke 14:1-6

            Here again, we see Jesus running into the keepers of the Law. They are overly concerned with the proper keeping of each little detail their teachers established to govern the observance of the Sabbath Day. At another time, Jesus tried to let them know the important essence of the Sabbath. It was God’s gift to man to allow him to rest and be refreshed. God designed and created us. God knew we could not go on and on without some rest. He established the Sabbath as a way of providing for our regular rejuvenation.
            The Pharisees turned the purpose of the Sabbath up-side-down. What was designed by God to give rest actually became a heavy burden upon the people. On a day they were not to carry burdens, the observance of the Sabbath had become a burden in itself. This is what Jesus meant when He said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
            In today’s passage, we see Jesus being Himself. A consistent man of integrity, He was the same whether or not people were watching Him. He did what He did and said what He said because of who He was. He put on no act nor lived in a phony way. In fact, He was totally consistent with the lesson He taught at the conclusion of chapter 14. “If you are salt, then salt things. If you are salt and don’t salt things, you might as well be gravel or mud. You deserve do be trampled under foot and nothing more.”
            Jesus, in healing on the Sabbath, could do nothing less than be Himself. He healed a man of dropsy. Then Jesus asked the big question: “If your animal was sick on the Sabbath, you would help him, wouldn’t you? Isn’t this man more important than any animal?” They had no answer for Jesus because He was right. He always is. Follow Him.
            As you follow Him, you will find yourself being sensitive to the hurts and needs of others. You will reach out and minister to more and more people. The more you follow Jesus, the more He will surprise you and use you.

Luke 14:7-14 (NIV)

⁷When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: ⁸“When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. ⁹If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. ¹⁰But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. ¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
¹²Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

DAY #6:                      Luke 14:7-14

            Do you ever ask yourself why you do the things you do? What is the motivating force behind your words and actions? For all too many of us, our motive is to make ourselves look good. This is often done at the expense of others. The sad result is we end up, in due time, being knocked down and humiliated. That is the logical result of our attempts to use people and things in our climb to the top of the pile.
            From our human, worldly perspective, it only makes sense that we have to climb over people on the way to the top. Yet Jesus said, “He who would be greatest of all must be servant of all.” A contradiction in terms? Not at all.
            If I try to fight my way to the top, in time I will get knocked down. Every body does. The next guy who is stronger or more ruthless will likely trample on me on his way to the top. On the other hand, if I submit myself to the Lord and allow myself to be content where I am, He will take care of my needs.
            God will strengthen me to handle any situation that comes along. I can deal with others who try to put me down. And I end up being on top as they lower themselves to degrading tactics. Ultimately, when Jesus comes again, He will exalt me and take me into the heavenly places. There He will share with me His job of judging the world by His Holy Spirit. “He who would exalt himself will be humbled. And he would humble himself will be exalted.”}

^{^{Luke 11:37-54}
³⁷When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. ³⁸But the Pharisee, noticing that Jesus did not first wash before the meal, was surprised.
³⁹Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. ⁴⁰You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? ⁴¹But give what is inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.
⁴²“Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.
⁴³“Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.
⁴⁴“Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it.”
⁴⁵One of the experts in the law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.”
⁴⁶Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.
⁴⁷“Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your forefathers who killed them. ⁴⁸So you testify that you approve of what your forefathers did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. ⁴⁹Because of this, God in his wisdom said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.’ ⁵⁰Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, ⁵¹from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.
⁵²“Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”
⁵³When Jesus left there, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, ⁵⁴waiting to catch him in something he might say.

For the Week of January 4-10, 2010

WEEK #16-1

DAY #1:                      Luke 11:37-54

            Jesus has perhaps His most powerful confrontation with the Pharisees in this passage of Scripture. This is one of those passages I think of when people say, How dare you confront people with what they are doing wrong. You’ll make them feel guilty and do them terrible psychological damage. Jesus would never to anything like that. Jesus was loving. The only true statement in that quotation is the last one. “Jesus was loving.” He still is. And His love prompts Him to confront us with our sin so that we will not continue in it.
            Jesus knows that to go on in our acts of darkness will bring destruction to our lives. He loves us too much to let that happen. He boldly and lovingly confronts us and says, “Stop that! it is wrong!” The guilt that is produced is good if we direct it into an attitude and action that brings repentance. Then forgiveness and cleansing flow from Jesus into our lives. No guilt, no repentance, no wholeness.
            Gentle Jesus, meek and mild? Yes. But also powerful Jesus, firm and just. He was never a one-dimensional person. He was a total person in all respects. As we allow Him to work in us and through us by His Spirit, He will make us total and complete as well. “He who began a good work in you will complete it in the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

Luke 12:1-12 (NIV)

¹Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. ²There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. ³What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.
⁴“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. ⁵But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. ⁶Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. ⁷Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
⁸“I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. ⁹But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God. ¹⁰And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
¹¹“When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, ¹²for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”

DAY #2:                      Luke 12:1-12

            The Pharisees have begun a concerted effort to stop, and destroy if necessary, Jesus Christ. The confrontation Jesus had yesterday with these religious certainly did not make Him a person they dearly loved. They were angry and were taking action against Him in any way they could. However, Jesus is Light and any action against Him is a work of darkness. Remembering that light is always more powerful than darkness and regularly victorious, we can know who will win this confrontation of those in the dark against the Light of the world, Jesus. This is the message Jesus is sharing with His disciples in the Church of Jesus Christ today. That includes you and me.
            Don’t be afraid of those who work by the powers of darkness. Don’t give in to their pressure plays and their tactics. Don’t let them talk you into anything, no matter how good it might seem. No matter how much harm they can do to you in the flesh, remember there is one who can also do you spiritual harm for eternity. If you want to place your fear in the right realm, don’t fear the one that can just kill your body (like the Pharisees). Fear the One who can cast you into Hell forever (that is the Lord). That is what I call good and healthy fear.

Luke 12:13-21 (NIV)

¹³Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
¹⁴Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?”¹⁵Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
¹⁶And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. ¹⁷He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
¹⁸“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
²⁰“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
²¹“This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

DAY #3:                      Luke 12:13-21

            Jesus continues to set forth for all of us the importance of placing our value on the proper things. He is reminding us once again of what is truly important in life. He needs to tell us this over and over again because we are so dense that we seem to forget it over and over again.
            We are surrounded by the material world. We like to base our lives on what we can reach out and touch. To us, this is reality. Science deals with reality as we know it. If it is measurable, science says, we will deal with it and make the conclusions we can based upon the results of our measurements. We have been so fascinated over the years by the discoveries of the scientific principles and processes that it has become something of a religion to many of us. We have more faith in the statements of science than we do in the statements of God in the Bible.
            The Lord wants us to know that the flowers the botanists are studying, developing, and producing are all going to die and fade away. The grass will wither, but the Word of God will endure forever. Now, what is truly reality? Is it that which is here today and gone tomorrow or that which will last forever? On which of these would you like to bet your life?
            At this moment, we would perhaps say we will base our life decisions on the spiritual principles of God. Yet, when it comes down to actual practice, we so often give in to trusting the things of this world. That is why Jesus had to tell this truth over and over again.
There are always going to be temptations. Consider the farmer who thought he would get some sense of peace from the amount of grain he had stored in his barns. Before he filled those barns, he had to face the Lord at the judgment. Sadly, he had put off spiritual matters until it was too late. He died wealthy and went to hell. Don’t you agree it is good for all of us to get right with God today?

Luke 12:22-34 (NIV)

²²Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. ²³Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. ²⁴Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! ²⁵Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? ²⁶Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
²⁷“Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ²⁸If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! ²⁹And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. ³⁰For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. ³¹But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
³²“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. ³³Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. ³⁴For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

DAY #4:                      Luke 12:22-34

            People have always said the necessities of life are food, clothing, and shelter . . . something to eat, something to wear, and a roof over our head. For some, that has developed into: gourmet cooking in the finest restaurants in the most exotic locations in the world (ahhhh, the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous); the latest fashions no matter what I must go through to buy it or wear it; and my own little castle with all the possible conveniences we can get our hands on. So many of us have moved the luxury items of life over into the necessities column. Yet Jesus said that He had no place to even lay down His head and rest.
            Jesus warns us of the danger of worrying about what to eat, what to wear, or where to live. How can you make yourself look more beautiful than the lilies of the field? How can you provide for yourself more than God provides for the sparrows? And if God cares for things like grass and flowers and sparrows, don’t you think He cares at least that much for you and me? The big difference is that the grass, the flowers, and the sparrows don’t argue with God when He gives direction to their lives. They just cooperate with Him and the laws of His universe.
            Actually, it is programmed into them to cooperate with God. As a result, they are richly blessed beyond anything they could do for themselves. We, on the other hand, are radically different. God made us in His image and gave us freedom of choice. We can choose to follow God and His plans or we can do our own thing. If we are smart, we will choose to follow the Lord. In the choosing, we will get the extra blessing of knowing we have chosen the right way by the power of the Holy Spirit. Birds and flowers miss out on that extra blessing. They also cannot appreciate the intimate level of communication we can have with Father because we are on a different level in God’s created order.
            Therefore, the Lord tells us, do not worry about all these things. The Lord knows you need them and will give you all you need in the food, clothing, and shelter departments (not always what some want in the gourmet, Gucci, and grand hotel departments). We are to seek the important things first. Seek first the Kingdom of God, not just what the King can give you or do for you. Just seek His Kingdom and His righteousness. Get close to Him. You will have such peace in your intimate walk with the Lord that you won’t care quite as much about the big three.

Luke 12:35-48 (NIV)

³⁵“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, ³⁶like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. ³⁷It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. ³⁸It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. ³⁹But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁰You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
⁴¹Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?”
⁴²The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? ⁴³It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. ⁴⁴I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. ⁴⁵But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the menservants and maidservants and to eat and drink and get drunk. ⁴⁶The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.
⁴⁷“That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. ⁴⁸But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

DAY #5:                      Luke 12:35-48

            Jesus is coming again! It may be very soon! We should always live as though it might be today when He will arrive to take us with Him into His heavenly realm. Therefore, today is the day we should be ready for His return. Not tomorrow, but today. How are you doing in the readiness department?
            If you have asked Jesus to be the Lord of your life and are truly committed to Him, you will go with Him when He comes again. As we have said earlier in this series, if you are in tune with His Spirit, you will know His voice as He calls His own to follow Him home. For the child of God, the Second Coming will be a very noisy event. The one who does not know the Lord will very likely miss it completely.
            So, how do we ready ourselves? By sitting around and waiting on housetops until He comes so we can be the very first ones into heaven? No, we must be involved in inviting others to join us. We are to be living each day in the joy of the Lord. We need to be about the business of our heavenly Father as we minister to those in need in body, soul, and spirit. We need to be the Body of Christ in the world. That is who we are. And that is what we have been called to be. We need to examine ourselves daily. In the power of the Holy Spirit, we must choose our priorities and do His will in His power to His glory!

Luke 12:49-59 (NIV)

⁴⁹“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! ⁵⁰But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! ⁵¹Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. ⁵²From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. ⁵³They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
⁵⁴He said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. ⁵⁵And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. ⁵⁶Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?
⁵⁷“Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? ⁵⁸As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled to him on the way, or he may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. ⁵⁹I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”

DAY #6:                         Luke 12:49-59

            “I have come to cast fire upon the earth!” Certainly not words usually associated with Jesus. Yet, He did say them. What did He mean by them? What was His attitude as He spoke these words?
            It seems obvious that Jesus was not getting any special thrill or joy out of this aspect of His ministry. In fact, He seems torn between the necessity for these things to occur and the anguish that they would have to be accomplished. In verse 49, He wishes the fire were already kindled. In verse 50, He is distressed in anticipation of the fire to come.
            What is the fire that Jesus refers to? Let’s look at three possibilities.
(1) It could refer to the purifying of the Holy Spirit. This fire was to strengthen the faith of the saints who accepted His gift of salvation (see I Peter 1:6-9). The Lord would be hoping this would come and be accomplished because it would bring ultimate blessings to His disciples.
(2) It could refer to the fire of judgment, the burning up and the destruction of those who reject Jesus. This would certainly bring anguish to the Lord. He has said it is not His will that any should perish (though many will reject Jesus and, therefore, choose the way that leads to destruction).
(3) The fire could refer to the “baptism of fire” that Jesus must personally go through. This was required of Him because of His unlimited love for Father and for you and me. Here we can see His joyful anticipation of the blessing of salvation that will come to all who believe as a result of His suffering, death, and resurrection. At the same time, there would naturally be that sense of anguish because of what He must physically suffer to accomplish this task as He takes upon Himself all the sins of the world.
            Of these three possibilities, #3 seems the most likely. And yet, it could be that all three were on His mind as He made these statements. One thing is clear. not by His desire nor by choice, but just because of who He is, Jesus will cause division. Some will accept Him as Lord and choose to follow Him. Others will reject Him and decide to go their own way. You cannot confront Jesus and remain neutral. Not to decide is to decide against Him. My prayer is that you have decided to follow Jesus . . . and there will be no turning back . . . no turning back.}

^{^{Luke 11:5-13}⁽^NIV⁾
⁵Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, ⁶because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’
⁷“Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ ⁸I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
⁹“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
¹¹“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? ¹²Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

For the Week of December 28, 2009 – January 3, 2010

Introduction

This series of studies on the Gospel of Luke is a continuation of the study we conducted from September through November last year. That series covered Luke 1:1 through 11:4. The entire study of the 24 chapters of the Gospel of Luke will be available in book form before the end of 2010.
We remember that the author of this Gospel also wrote the Acts of the Apostles as a continuation of this historical account of the life and ministry of Jesus. Luke, a physician who traveled with the apostle on portions of his missionary journeys, tells his readers that his study has been researched through interviews with many eyewitnesses of the ministry of Jesus (see Luke 1:1-4). His purpose was to set forth the information he received in consecutive order.

WEEK #15-53

DAY #1:                                 Luke 11:5-13

We are not called to a life of trying to twist God’s arm so that He will do what we want done. Just think logically, for a moment, how ignorant an approach that is. If God is love, if He has all power and has all knowledge; if He is in all places at all times, wouldn’t you agree that limiting God to doing things our way is not sensible? It is a little bit dumb to try to get God to do things our way when we don’t really know what is the right course of action. He knows . . . because He knows all.
            Some will look at today’s passage from Luke 11 and ask a common question. Doesn’t this account call for us to pester God repeatedly until He gives in to our requests out of sheer exhaustion? No, not at all. We should not try to equate God with the neighbor in this setting. After all, God does not fit this description. He does not send people away because they bother Him or because He wants to get some sleep. He is not selfish like this neighbor. Therefore He cannot be equated with him.
            A basic truth being expressed here is in verse 13. Jesus is saying, “If you can get good results from sinful human beings by twisting their arms, just imagine what you can get from a merciful, loving, sinless, unselfish God just by asking.”
            It is critically important for us to understand that Jesus is not encouraging pestering and nagging as an ideal approach to God. On the contrary, Jesus is lifting up persistence and steadfastness. We are to ask, seek, and knock. We are not to demand, annoy, and bash down the door. Go to the One you are supposed to be going to, and keep on going to Him. Don’t go to any other weaker and less compassionate source. Stick with the Lord.

Luke 11:5-13 (NIV)

⁵Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, ⁶because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’
⁷“Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ ⁸I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
⁹“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
¹¹“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? ¹²Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

DAY #2:                      Luke 11:5-13

            If we want to choose a figure in this passage that we can equate with God, we should select the image of the loving father in verses 11-13. Here we truly see who God is and what He expects us to do and be. It is a short and simple passage yet includes a powerful truth . . . truth that can change the life of every Christian.
            For centuries, and especially in recent years, people have been asking the question, “What is the Holy Spirit?” A more accurate question would be, “Who is the Holy Spirit?” We can answer such a question with a true and clear answer. “The Holy Spirit is the third person of the divine Trinity. To live a truly victorious life in Jesus, we must have the ‘in-dwelling’ of the Holy Spirit.” After such an answer, our inquisitive friends might ask an even more important question. “How do I get this Holy Spirit?”
            If you are a Christian, one who has asked Jesus to be the Lord of your life, you already have the Spirit of God dwelling within you. All too often, however, we do not have the power of the Holy Spirit released in our lives . . . mostly because we don’t understand that concept or realize how it is done. Sadly, many Christians are like the man with a full tank of gas in his car. He doesn’t know this to be true, so he is pushing his car down the road and ends up making very little progress and becoming, in the process, very tired and even exhausted.
            First of all, how can we be sure we even have the Holy Spirit? The answer is right here in verses 11-13. If you fathers on earth, sinful as you are, love your sons enough to give them what they ask for, how much more sure is it that your Father in heaven will give you the Holy Spirit when you ask for it? Don’t I have to earn it? Isn’t there some ritual I must go through to prove that I really want this gift and will use it properly? No. According to Jesus, all you must do is ask. God will do the rest. Just trust Him.
            Then, once you have asked for it, believe and trust that you have actually received the Holy Spirit. Why? Because God always keeps His promises. We are to act on the promises of God. Whether or not we sense something “spiritual” has happened to us, whether or not we “feel” anything, that is not the issue. What is important is that the Lord said, “Ask, and I will give the Holy Spirit to you.” If, therefore, you have asked, act and live as though you have received . . . because you have!

Luke 11:14-20 (NIV)

¹⁴Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. ¹⁵But some of them said, “By Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.” ¹⁶Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.
¹⁷Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. ¹⁸If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub. ¹⁹Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. ²⁰But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.

DAY #3:                      Luke 11:14-20

            We have seen subtle attacks on Jesus, people trying to engage Him in debates. These questions would be worded cleverly. The plan was that no matter how Jesus answered, His accusers could convince people His answer was wrong. They just wanted to make Jesus look bad so the crowds would turn against Him. In our passage for today, the attack is far from subtle.
            Jesus is going about doing good. The religious authorities imagine Jesus, step-by-step, destroying the power base they have built up over the years. Some of them get so upset that they accuse Him of casting out demons by the power of Satan. Not a subtle charge against Jesus.
            Jesus faces His accusers. He reveals how ridiculous their accusation really is. Why would old Satan, He asks, give powerful forces to someone to destroy his own subordinates? There is absolutely nothing rational about such a suggestion. Of course, that was the reason for the accusation. It did not come from reason nor even from some spiritual sensitivity. It was all based on emotional reactions or possibly from fears built up within the attackers. Would Jesus and His little band of disciples take over their positions of power and prestige?
            Jesus asks them an important question: “If you accuse Me of using the power of Satan to destroy his own position and cast out demons, then why don’t you accuse your men of the same sin when they cast out demons?”
            Finally, Jesus states very clearly than anything He does is accomplished by the Lord God. Indeed, He says, it is by “the finger of God” that He casts out demons. He wants His accusers to have no doubts about the source of His miraculous actions. In fact, Jesus tells them it is a sign of the breaking in of the Kingdom of God in their midst when He is casting out demons.
            Each time we see God move in our midst, each person who is healed by the Lord, each prayer answered, each moment of spiritual inspiration, each unselfish caring touch, each act of deliverance, each prompting of the Lord causing us to reach out to someone in need, all this and more show us that the Kingdom of God is breaking into our personal history and the history of the world in which we live.
            Some day soon, like a thief in the night, the Lord is coming again to take His own with Him into that realm prepared for all the saints. At that moment, the Kingdom of God will break into this world with mighty power. Jesus tells us to be ready for His return at any moment. We need to remain pure. We need to get washed clean when we find ourselves falling into the cesspool of sin. Jesus is coming soon! Get ready!

Luke 11:14-36 (NIV)

¹⁴Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. ¹⁵But some of them said, “By Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.” ¹⁶Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.
¹⁷Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. ¹⁸If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub. ¹⁹Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. ²⁰But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.
²¹“When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. ²²But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils.
²³“He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.
²⁴“When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ ²⁵When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. ²⁶Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.”
²⁷As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.”
²⁸He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
²⁹As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. ³⁰For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. ³¹The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here. ³²The 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 one greater than Jonah is here.
³³“No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. ³⁴Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. ³⁵See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. ³⁶Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you.”

DAY #4:                      Luke 11:14-36

            Yesterday, we looked at verses 14-20 to note the victory of Jesus, by “the finger of God,” over the work of Satan. Verses 21-32 continue to show us the works of darkness in various forms.
            In verses 14 through 26, we see various spirits of the enemy that try to destroy us. Jesus also mentions in verse 23 what might be called “a spirit of independence,” that is, a person acting on his own and not in concert with Jesus. This person will not contribute to the gathering together of the flock of the Lord, but will scatter them abroad. This person is responding to the direction of, and under the influence of a spirit of the enemy.
            In verse 24-26, Jesus is noting the work of an unclean spirit. This spirit usually deals with unclean thoughts. It is involved in desires or actions that lead to sexual sins. This type of spirit seems to want to consume the person and fill the person with negative thoughts about sexuality. There seems to be an interrelatedness of this type of spirit. When there is an opening in a soul, many other unclean spirits will come along and join together in an effort to control the thoughts and actions of a person. We need to remember, in all of this, what we read in I John 4:4. “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” By the power of the Spirit of God, we can overcome all satanic attacks because Jesus has overcome the world on Calvary.
            In verses 27 and 28, we find a rather subtle work of darkness. Jesus seems to give a rather stern rebuke to a woman who apparently has made what appears on the surface to be a simple statement. The subtle temptation here is to get someone only to admire Jesus but not to commit her life to Him as Lord. Jesus had a similar reaction to the person who called Him “good.” In a sense, I believe He was telling the person, “Calling Me ‘good” isn’t good enough. You need to recognize Me as Lord.”
            The last work of darkness noted here is the fleshly desire of people to seek a sign. We will find this theme running throughout the next few verses of Luke’s Gospel. We are not to look for things in this world to depend on. We are to look to Jesus. We are to seek first His Kingdom, not a sign about His Kingdom. If we are in tune with Jesus, if we are walking with Him, if we are being controlled by the Holy Spirit, when Jesus comes again we will know it without a doubt. Those who are not sensitive to the Holy Spirit will more than likely not even know He has come for His people. They will just wonder where all the people have gone.
            Jesus is coming again. But we need not waste time and energy asking for and seeking signs so we can be sure when it will happen or when it is happening. Rather, we need to devote ourselves and our energies to serving the Lord and walking with Him in the light. If we do, when He comes, we will be ready.

Luke 11:33-36 (NIV)

³³“No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. ³⁴Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. ³⁵See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. ³⁶Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you.”

DAY #5:                      Luke 11:33-36

            Here we see the purpose, the power, and the importance of the light. The purpose of the light is to illumine and bring clarity to each situation in which we find ourselves. You don’t light a lamp for the purpose of lighting the inside of a basket. The light is to be held aloft so we can see where we are and where we are going.
            The power of the light is that it brings victory over darkness. We noted yesterday there are works of darkness into which Satan wants to draw us. As we introduce light into any situation, it causes darkness to vanish, to flee. Carry light into a dark room and the darkness has no choice. It must leave. There is power in the light.
            The importance of light is that when its power is released, it gives us direction and confidence. We can see where we are and where we are going. That is why the psalmist said so beautifully, “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105). The Word of God banishes darkness and gives direction and confidence to us as we walk in its light. That is why Jesus could say that when we walk with Him, we will never walk in darkness again.

Luke 11:33-36 (NIV)

³³“No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. ³⁴Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. ³⁵See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. ³⁶Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you.”

DAY #6:                      Luke 11:33-36

            The message from Jesus today is that our eyes are very important. The eye is the gateway for light into the entire body. Physical light comes into the body through the eye. Our eyes must be physically sound to allow the body to navigate freely from place to place in the light. The eye is also the gateway to the mind. What we let into our mind through our eyes has a direct impact on what we will think and do.
If the eyes are cloudy with cataracts, our physical perception of what is before us will also be cloudy. If our eyes take in the darkness of the world, our spiritual perception will be darkened. This will directly affect our whole being. It will influence the direction. It will affect the attitude we have about ourselves and about others.
The eye is designed to bring illumination and clarity to our lives. If it brings in darkness, then we will be bathed in darkness instead of light. Isn’t it great to know that he Great Physician specializes in removing spiritual cataracts. He wants us to see clearly and live confidently and victoriously as we walk with Him in His marvelous light.
The operation to remove cataracts is simple. It entails renouncing any involvement with the thoughts and deeds of darkness. It requires repentance on our part. This means turning our backs on any activities that are not of the Lord. As we repent and ask Him to forgive us, He reminds us that “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9). Dr. Jesus is ready right now to perform this operation. Go to Him in prayer. Confess any involvement in the things of darkness, whether great or small. He will do a mighty work in your life.}

^{^{Luke 1:5-25}⁽^NIV⁾
⁵In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. ⁶Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly. ⁷But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years.
⁸Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, ⁹he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. ¹⁰And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.
¹¹Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. ¹²When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. ¹³But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. ¹⁴He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, ¹⁵for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. ¹⁶Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. ¹⁷And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
¹⁸Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”
¹⁹The angel answered, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. ²⁰And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time.”
²¹Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. ²²When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.
²³When his time of service was completed, he returned home. ²⁴After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. ²⁵“The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

For the Week of December 21-27, 2009

WEEK #15-52

DAY #1:                                   Luke 1:5-25

     We have tried to remove the word "coincidence" from our vocabulary. We sincerely believe that God is in everything. That is not to say that He causes everything. Most of the dumb and irrational things that come into our lives are of our own creation. But God even knows about all those things before they take place. In the meantime, He is working behind the scenes to bring some good out of the consequences of our negative actions.

    God has a plan for our lives, but we can reject the plan. The virgin Mary could have said, "No." She had a choice. God has created us with free will. He holds us accountable for our decisions which He could not do if we did not have freedom to make choices. How could God possibly hold us accountable for a sinful act if He had already programmed it into us to make that wrong choice? That does not sound like a caring God to me.

     To say God knows all things, even before they happen, is not to say that God causes all things. He does, however, cause many of the events to take place that we experience day to day . . . but not all things. We see evidence of this truth throughout the biblical record.

     God has already made plans, literally thousands of years earlier, for the time when He would send His only begotten Son into the world that all who believe in Him might not perish but have everlasting life. We see evidence of this throughout the biblical accounts, especially in the writings of the prophets. And we see God making things happen, like the miraculous pregnancy of Elizabeth, an older woman who has been barren all her life.
     God had said there would be one who would come to "prepare the way of the Lord," the promised Messiah (see Isaiah 40:1-11 and Malachi 3:1). The child to be born to Elizabeth and Zacharias was to be that "forerunner." Yet, these parents had a decision to make. And they made the right one. Just to complicate things a little more, because God knows all things, He knew ahead of time that they would make the right choice . . . and it was their choice to make.

     Let's get back to the word "coincidence" for a few moments. We need to consider the timing of it all. If Zacharias had not been on the schedule that day to do his priestly duty, he would have missed the visitation of the angel in the Temple. If he felt sick that day or decided to "sleep in" instead of going to the Temple, he would have missed the visitation of the angel. After a while, if we think about how God works all things out for our good (Romans 8:28) and try to make sense of it all, it begins to boggle our minds. But we don't have to figure it out. Actually, all we have to do is trust Him and leave all the details in His more than capable hands.

Luke 1:26-38 (NIV)

²⁶In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
²⁹Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. ³⁰But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. ³¹You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. ³²He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
³⁴“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
³⁵The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. ³⁷For nothing is impossible with God.”
³⁸“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.

DAY #2:                      Luke 1:26-38

     It was in the sixth month of the pregnancy of Elizabeth that the Lord sent the angel Gabriel to make a personal visit to a young girl, a relative of Elizabeth, to tell her of God's plans for her. Her name was Mary and she was a virgin who was engaged to a local carpenter in Nazareth named Joseph.

     Her first reaction to the angelic visitation was fear. That seems to be the case in almost every appearance by an angel. At least we know that the first thing most angels say to a person is, "Don't be afraid." In the case of Mary, Gabriel goes on to tell her that God was pleased with her very much and had a plan for her life. The time for the fulfillment of God's promise to send the Messiah was at hand; and God wanted Mary to be the honored vessel by which the Son of God would come into the world.

     Mary's first reaction is not one of complete acquiescence. Rather, she questions Gabriel. "How could this possibly be?" she wants to know. "I am a virgin." The answer was a simple one, an answer we all know. God can do anything necessary to achieve His purposes. He will intervene where intervention is required of Him. In this instance, the Child to be born will be the historically unique union between the Holy Spirit and Mary. It will be a spiritual intervention that will result in a physical birth destined to change the history of the world.

     To help Mary with the obviously difficult task of accepting such a prophetic word, Gabriel tells her that her relative Elizabeth, the barren one, is miraculously pregnant. Clearly, nothing is impossible for God. To remind Mary of that fact, God has prepared the way already for Messiah by preparing the one who would bring Messiah into the world. It is a visit to Elizabeth that will cause Mary's confidence in God's plan to grow exponentially.

     Note that Mary did not need to see this physical proof to put her trust in the Lord. She was willing to do whatever God required of her. Her word to Gabriel was to say, "I am committed to the Lord and His plan for my life for all eternity. Whatever He wants of me, I will be happy to do." What a glorious example for all of us to follow!

Luke 1:39-56 (NIV)

³⁹At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, ⁴⁰where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. ⁴²In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! ⁴³But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. ⁴⁵Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!”
⁴⁶And Mary said:
     “My soul glorifies the Lord
⁴⁷and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
⁴⁸for he has been mindful
       of the humble state of his servant.
     From now on all generations will call me blessed,
⁴⁹for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
       holy is his name.
⁵⁰His mercy extends to those who fear him,
       from generation to generation.
⁵¹He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
       he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
⁵²He has brought down rulers from their thrones
       but has lifted up the humble.
⁵³He has filled the hungry with good things
       but has sent the rich away empty.
⁵⁴He has helped his servant Israel,
       remembering to be merciful
⁵⁵to Abraham and his descendants forever,
       even as he said to our fathers.”
⁵⁶Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.

DAY #3:                      Luke 1:39-56

     Shortly after the visit from Gabriel, Mary pays a visit to Elizabeth. They have a lot in common. God has a unique plan for both of them. Each has been influenced by an angelic visitation from Gabriel. In the case of Elizabeth, the angel of the Lord spoke to her husband. Each one is expecting to give birth to a child, Elizabeth in her old age and Mary at the other end of the spectrum, young and a virgin. Since both of them are going through the awesome process of pregnancy, they have much to talk about even if they discuss nothing more than what it means to be pregnant.

     Somewhere along the way, it is clear that God has been speaking to Elizabeth. Somehow, she not only knows about Mary's pregnancy, she also knows who the Child is and what He will accomplish. It is very likely, because of the indwelling of Elizabeth by the Holy Spirit upon the arrival of Mary, that it was at that moment that she understood the truth of Mary's blessed selection by the Lord. Her response to the visit of Mary is to rejoice in the knowledge that the mother of her Lord was paying a visit to her humble abode.

     As a side light, Paul calls the sharing of such information from the Lord through one of His Spirit-filled believers a "word of knowledge" (see I Corinthians 12:4-11 where this gift from God is part of a list of nine such manifestations of the power of the Holy Spirit). We see evidence of this gift in Jesus in John 4. Speaking to a Samaritan woman He just met by Jacob's well, He tells her that He knows the man she is now living with is not her husband and that she has had five husbands before this (John 4:16-18). Where could Jesus get that information but from God who is the possessor of all knowledge (the omniscient One)?

     Mary, moved by the Spirit of God, begins to exalt the Lord for who He is and all He has done in her life and what He promises to do. This has been called, for years, the "Magnificat." It's title comes from the first word in this passage in the Latin translation of the Bible. "Magnificat" means "to exalt."

     This wonderful celebration by Mary of the goodness, wisdom, and power of God has an interesting parallel in the Old Testament, also from the mouth of a woman expecting a child. Hannah, like Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist, was old and barren. She had prayed for years for a child and, until the intervention of the Lord, had not become pregnant. Now, God has answered her prayer. She joyfully begins praising the Lord just as Mary has done in the "Magnificat." To read her words of praise, turn to I Samuel 2:1-10. Could it be that we should be more vocal and expressive about our joy in the Lord? Should we be more excited about His love for us?

Luke 1:57-80 (NIV)

⁵⁷When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. ⁵⁸Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.
⁵⁹On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, ⁶⁰but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.”
⁶¹They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who has that name.”
⁶²Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. ⁶³He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.” ⁶⁴Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. ⁶⁵The neighbors were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. ⁶⁶Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, “What then is this child going to be?” For the Lord’s hand was with him.
⁶⁷His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
⁶⁸“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
       because he has come and has redeemed his people.
⁶⁹He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
       in the house of his servant David
⁷⁰(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
⁷¹salvation from our enemies
       and from the hand of all who hate us—
⁷²to show mercy to our fathers
       and to remember his holy covenant,
⁷³the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
⁷⁴to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
       and to enable us to serve him without fear
⁷⁵in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
⁷⁶And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
       for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
⁷⁷to give his people the knowledge of salvation
       through the forgiveness of their sins,
⁷⁸because of the tender mercy of our God,
       by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
⁷⁹to shine on those living in darkness
       and in the shadow of death,
     to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
⁸⁰And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel.

DAY #4:                            Luke 1:57-80

     Like a well-crafted and edited movie, the author of this gospel cuts from one scene to another to show us the interactive importance of these two miraculous events. We had the visit of Gabriel to Zacharias and the subsequent conception in the womb of his wife Elizabeth. Cut to Mary, her relative, who is being visited by the same angel that previously spoke to Zacharias in the Temple. Return to the home of Elizabeth where Mary has come to visit her and to see how her pregnancy has been going and to share with her the good news of her own miraculous pregnancy. Leap ahead three months to the birth of John to Elizabeth and Zacharias. The Preparer of the Way has been born, just six months before Messiah's humble birth (see tomorrow's notes).

     The naming of the child is a unique event. People expect the parents to choose a family name. That was common practice in the culture of their time and place. The people are shocked when he is named John. Why that name? First, because God said he should be called John. That is reason enough. It certainly got the crowds talking even more about this amazing child. They expected great things of him or, at the least, something unusual. They actually got both a great and unusual life in John the Baptist.

     Zacharias gets his voice back just in time to confirm the naming of his son. The first thing he does with his resurrected voice is to praise God and to speak a prophetic word about John's life as the Holy Spirit gave him utterance.

Luke 2:1-7 (NIV)

¹In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ²(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³And everyone went to his own town to register.
⁴So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

DAY #5:                                  Luke 2:1-7

     These are such familiar words. How many times have you read these verses or heard them spoken during the Christmas season? One of the dangers of familiarity is our tendency to pass over the words and forget their importance. We do this regularly with the words of The Lord's Prayer. When is the last time you actually prayed that prayer with true and deep meaning from the depths of your being?

     Or we may think we know a familiar passage so well, there cannot be anything new we could possible learn about this segment of scripture. So, we almost skim over it. How many were guilty of surface reading when they saw our assigned reading for today? If you are reading these devotional notes on schedule, yesterday was the celebration of the birth of Jesus. Why not take time right now to read slowly and with an inquisitive mind these familiar but powerful words to rediscover their meaning and to discover new insights as well.

     Ask yourself who these people are. Ask what is meant by the words that were spoken. Read each sentence aloud a number of times. Give a different emphasis to the words each time you read it. Ask yourself why people acted the way they did. How do you suppose Mary and Joseph were feeling at each point along the way in these verses? Take a pen and a sheet of paper and write your thoughts about these verses. On this day, you are writing the devotions for yourself with God's assistance.

Luke 2:8-20 (NIV)

⁸And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
¹³Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest,
       and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
¹⁵When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
¹⁶So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

DAY #6:                               Luke 2:8-20

     Why would God choose to make the first birth announcement to a bunch of low-life shepherds in the middle of the night? In Jesus' day, shepherds were considered to be untrustworthy. Many were known to steal lambs from a neighboring flock and try to sell them for a profit. A rule of the economy in those days was, "Don't buy a lamb from a shepherd, only from the owner of the flock."

     Most owners did not shepherd their flocks. They hired others to do the job for them. Jesus talks about this in John 10 where He notes that the owners care for the sheep but the hired help do not. Well then, why choose these people to announce the good news of the birth of Jesus Christ?

     First, because Messiah came for all people, from the highest class to the lowest class of society. If high society people were chosen for this honor, they may have kept the news to themselves as privileged information for privileged people. Second, some "higher class" people may have had trouble believing the outlandish message of the angels. They might never have said to one another, "Let us go and see this thing that has come to pass." Shepherds were more desperate for good news.

     Third, perhaps the Lord was trying to resurrect the good image that shepherds used to have in Israel. After all, the king who was the favorite of all Israelites was once a shepherd himself. Certainly, when Jesus described Himself as "the good shepherd" who will lay down His life for the sheep, it would cause one to reflect on the new image being taught about the men of this profession. Often, people grow into what people expect them to be, for good or for ill. A life surrendered to Jesus can show the power of God to change lives. Become partners with Jesus in helping people to become more than they and others expect them to be.}