Luke 14:1-4 - A most dangerous dinner guest

14:1

This is the third recorded occasion when Jesus went to eat at a Pharisee’s house. The first was when the sinful woman anointed Jesus (Lk 7:36-50), the second was when Jesus really lambasted the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law (Lk 11:37). One wonders why they kept on inviting Jesus, things never turned out as expected! This time the point of confrontation will be over healing on the Sabbath, a recurrent theme in the gospels.

“He was being carefully watched.” The Pharisees and other religious leaders were desperate for an excuse to “get” Jesus. This the tragedy of the human condition. We complain that God hides Himself or does not provide enough “evidence” of His existence, yet when God does “show up” we object as well. And this does not just apply to atheists and pharisee types, all of us can be prone to this. For God is radically different from us, so when He “shows up” He is going to offend us in some way or other.

14:2-4

A man with  bloating of the body, or “dropsy”, ie excess fluid gathered in parts of the body. This time Jesus deliberately confronts the Pharisees and experts of the Law, asking them if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath. There is a time to be direct, and always to pussyfoot around an issue. The attitude of the religious leaders to the Sabbath was not just wrong, it was completely contrary to God’s intentions, and was harmful to people. Jesus considered this to be a vital matter. The Pharisees and experts in the Law had had previous dealings with Jesus on this matter and so knew what sort of answer Jesus would give, ie concern for the person, and God doing good on the Sabbath, bringing peace and healing. They could, of course, have learnt from their past experiences and admitted that Jesus’ way was correct, but instead they remained silent. So Jesus, not being the least intimidated by them, went ahead and healed the man, sending him on his way. The man had no further part to play and Jesus did not want to involve him in the confrontation that would ensue.

Luke 13:31-35 - Poor Jerusalem

13:31,32

The Pharisees came and tried to scare Jesus off the territory. They were generally fed up with Him and the trouble He was causing them. They tried to scare Him off by saying Herod wanted to kill Him. We encounter several Herods in the New Testament, all of them bad. This was Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Perea.

Jesus reacts differently than they would have expected, He has no fear of Herod. He also reacts differently than religious leaders today act, calling Herod a fox. We should not be afraid of earthly rulers. We should also, as clearly instructed elsewhere, show them proper respect, but that does not mean subservience.

So Jesus expresses His determination to press on with the mission, He will carry on casting out demons and healing people. Note how He saw these as an important part of His ministry. The third day could be a reference to the resurrection, but that also might be reading too much into it.

13:33

Jesus also declares that no prophet can die outside Jerusalem. Now this is another example of not taking an overly literate interpretation of the Bible. Prophets had been killed outside Jerusalem, Jesus is not making a literal statement. What He is saying is that Jerusalem, rather than Galilee, or any civil leader, is by far the greater “threat”. The real threat to His life came from those who should have welcomed Him.

13:34,35

Jesus’ words about Jerusalem were not said in pity for Himself, but in sorrow for Jerusalem herself. All the prophets of the past had been sent to bring salvation, now Jesus the Son of God was here to bring salvation. All of them calling Jerusalem back to God. In each case Jerusalem refused to listen. The words of the prophets and of Jesus were often direct, but they were said to bring the people to repentance.  In AD66-70 terrible destruction would come upon Jerusalem. She would find salvation only when she repented and acknowledged Jesus as Lord. The same applies today.

Luke 13:26-30 - Away from me you evildoers

13:26,27

In Matthew 7:21-23 we read of Jesus saying that some people who cast out demons, prophesied and performed miracles in Jesus’ name will not be allowed into the kingdom of heaven. Luke refers to those who claimed to have “ate and drank” with Jesus. What is clear is that entering the kingdom is not “easy”. Jesus is quite prepared to make severe judgements when necessary. As the church we often fail to present this side of Jesus, and when we do present “hard conditions” we have a habit of presenting the wrong ones. Jesus welcomed prostitutes, tax collectors, murderers and “sinners” into the kingdom. So what is the “narrow door”? It is a repentant heart, acknowledging our need of forgiveness and transformation, and our inability to do any of this for ourselves. If we are self-righteous, or independent (rather than God dependent) then we are excluded. as we are if we are unrepentant. The latter is actually perhaps the most pertinent today, whereas being self-righteous was the main problem in Jesus’ day. Today we talk readily about accepting anyone without any recognition of sin, what it is and what it does. Jesus welcomed anyone who came in faith and repentance, and we should do the same, but if we deny the repentance bit we are misrepresenting Jesus and the gospel, and we are denying people the true power of the gospel.

13:28-30

Jesus was not making a radical departure from the Jewish faith, for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are in the kingdom, as are all the Old Testament prophets. Moreover, people from all across the world, north, south, east and west, will come into the kingdom. Many who are last will be first, and the first last. So we see the wide openness of the kingdom, and the restrictedness of the kingdom. We need to make sure that first, we ourselves are in the kingdom, that we are repentant and Jesus-dependant, and that we present the true nature of the kingdom to the world.

Luke 13:18-25 - Narrow doors

13:18-20

This parable is also related in Matthew 13:31,32 and Mark 4:30-32. The mustard seed was very small, yet it produced a large tree. The birds of the air making nests also signifies the size of the tree, they may also represent the nations accepting the gospel. The yeast is in a relatively small amount, but it works its way through the whole dough. Jesus is using these illustrations to describe how the kingdom of God works. Why is He doing this here? The people have just been delighted at Jesus refutation of the religious leaders. The Jews expected the kingdom of God to come in an obvious display of power. Jesus is saying that it would be quite different, starting off as seemingly small and insignificant. Yet it would become the most significant thing in the whole world.

13:22-25

Jesus is now on His way to Jerusalem where the most significant event in history would occur. He went on His way teaching, emphasising yet again the importance of teaching. As humans we have a habit of asking irrelevant questions, focusing on things that do not really matter, or things that deflect us from the real issue, or that we use to avoid having to face up to the real issue. This is what is happening here when someone asks if only a few will be saved. Perhaps the most common question in the same vein today is “what about those who haven’t heard?”. Jesus knows the question asked is of little immediate importance. What the man should be doing is focusing on how he can enter the kingdom. And it is not easy to enter the kingdom, and we do so through the narrow door. Why then do churches so often want to make the door wide, by accommodating the (im)morality, thoughts and ways of society? Jesus has told them that the wide road leads only to destruction, so why do we want to lead people down that route? The door into the kingdom is narrow, ie it is on God’s terms not man’s terms.

Luke 13:14-17 - Humiliating the religious leaders

13:14

As was often the case, the religious leaders were horrified that their rules had been broken, rather than rejoicing that God had set a woman free. This is what happens when we become legalistic. Moreover, it was happens when we set ourselves up as gods, which is what the religious leaders had done. It is also what we can do if we are not careful. Calvinists can do it, charismatics can do it, we can all do it. Jesus had not actually violated anything in the Law, only the man made rules. The religious leaders had violated the “rule” that God loves people.

13:15,16

Jesus then points out that the Law itself allowed a donkey or other animal to be led out to water on the Sabbath. The Law itself said “use some common sense”. Worse, the leaders were devaluing human life. This woman was someone created in the image of God and God delighted in setting her free. As Jesus says elsewhere, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. This woman was a daughter of Abraham, Jesus is stressing how valuable she is. The gospel values people.

13:17

The religious leaders were humiliated. Not just because of their general attitude, but because they had been shown up to not really understand the law at all, something they prided themselves on. The people were presented with a different view of the Law, one that put God’s love and care for man at the forefront. We need to do the same when we present the gospel. The gospel is God-centered, Jesus-centered, but God is focused on us. Now if we make ourselves the focus we are wrong and completely miss the heart of the gospel. But when we truly have Jesus at the centre we will find that God’s love for man will shine out.

Luke 13:10-13 - Healing on the Sabbath

13:10-13

We are now back to Sabbath controversies. Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath. Yet again we see the importance Jesus attached to teaching, and we will then see the importance He attaches to healing. A woman was there who had been severely crippled for eighteen years.

Jesus saw her and called her forward. Note that she had not asked for healing, but Jesus saw her. Of course, it is good for us to seek help from Jesus, we should pursue Him, and we should have faith in Him. But we also need to know that God is actively looking after us as well. He sees our needs, and sometimes He calls us out before we even ask. You see we are meant to be in a wonderful relationship with Him, living under His loving care, working together with Him to fulfil His purposes upon the earth. The relationship is two way. We can have complete confidence in God, and when we put ourselves in His presence, as this woman had done by going to listen to Jesus, He will sometimes do surprising things in our lives.

Jesus declared that she was set free from her infirmity. He put His hands upon her and she was immediately healed, and she praised God. Sometimes Jesus healed with touch, sometimes He healed at a distance. The key thing is the personal relationship, and sometimes a physical touch can best communicate that love from God.

Luke 13:6-9 - Not giving a fig

13:6-9

This is another severe warning parable. Israel is the fig tree, it was planted by God and was supposed to bear fruit. It was supposed to show the nations how to live for God and to bring His goodness to the world, yet it produced nothing. The significance of three years is that the fig tree had had plenty of opportunity to produce fruit. Likewise, Israel had had ample opportunity. The problem was not that she was just a bit slow developing, nor that she had not had proper instruction. She had the Law. Moreover, when she got things wrong God sent the prophets. And she had had some good leaders. Even so, no fruit. So in the parable the fig tree is about to be cut down. The man who looked after the fig tree pleaded for more time and was given one more year, but then judgement would come. Israel needed to realise her plight and turn to God for mercy. This is still the case, until she recognises Jesus for who He is, and her need of Jesus she will never find true Shalom.

Luke 13:1-5 - Repent or Perish

13:1,2

The firm words of Jesus continue. It really is very remiss of the church that we paint this totally one-sided picture of Jesus of being “forgiving”. Now He is completely forgiving, but forgiveness implies that we have done something that we need to be forgiven for. The gospel message is that we have sinned against God, we are slaves of sin, we need to be forgiven for our sins, and we need to be transformed. The forgiveness and the transformation make no sense unless there is something fundamentally wrong with us.

Jesus here comments on a local incident, and He does so to make sure that we focus first on our sin, rather than on the sins of others. Pilate had apparently had these Galileans killed while they were trying to offer sacrifices of some sort. This illustrates the sometimes violent nature of the Roman occupation. Galileans were considered to be somewhat uncouth. So it would be tempting for others to look down on them and surmise that they must have suffered their fate because they were worse sinners.

13:3-5

Jesus tells them in no uncertain terms that this would be absolutely the wrong attitude to have. Instead they themselves should repent. Now maybe some would then think that the incident did not demonstrate that the Galileans were worse sinners because Pilate was an evil ruler, so the incident just demonstrated the evilness of Pilate and the Romans, but what about the tower in Siloam. No man was directly responsible for that, that would have been an act of God, so they must be worse sinners for God to inflict that on them. Again, Jesus firmly refutes such thinking, and the message is the same, repent or perish.

All of us are sinners, we need to repent, we need forgiveness, we need to be transformed.

Luke 12:54-59 - Checking the weather

12:54-56

Jesus then turns to the crowd and calls them all hypocrites! We look at the weather and can often read the signs of what is to come. We know when stormy weather is likely on the way, or when good weather is on the way. Yet the people did not know how to make any sense of the times they lived in. They did not realise that sin was their biggest problem, despite a mountain of evidence. They did not recognise that Jesus was the Son of God, again despite an increasing mountain of evidence. We think we are clever, but we fail to notice the blindingly obvious.

12:57-59

“Judge for yourselves”, God calls on us to use our common sense. Mankind battles against God all the time. Look at our own society. We do not want to listen to what God says on marriage, sexuality or even humanity. We pretend that God does not exist and think ourselves wise to do so, more sophisticated than our ancestors. We would be far wiser to seek peace with God than to continue our fight against Him. We all know that one day we will die. The atheist “hope”, is that after we die we just become nothing. It is not much of a hope, even so it is false. We will all be called to give an account.

By the way, we should not take these words here as a detailed description of what judgement will be like, ie we should not waste our efforts speculating on who the adversary is, who the judge is, what it tells us about eternal punishment etc. The point that Jesus is making is that there will be a final reckoning and we would be well advised to settle things long before that day.

Luke 12:50-53 - I bring division!

12:50

But before the Jesus’ mission could be fully implemented He had to go to the cross, that is the baptism He is talking about here. The NIV talks of Him being under constraint, the ESV has Jesus being distressed. The various translations have “pressed”, “straitened”, “distressed”, so there is no agreement on the best way to translate the Greek! Jesus knew what lay before Him, the horrendous torment He would have to go through, He also knew that it was essential that He did so. The cross was the only way in which we could be justified, and was essential in order for the Holy Spirit to be sent to us. So there are ways in which “distressed” and “constrained” both fit.

12:51-53

Well this states things very clearly, not peace but division! Jesus has come to separate things out, what is of God and what is not. This division will even affect families, with division in families, and several instances are mentioned. Now we need to treat this carefully. Jesus is not giving a law here saying there must be division. At the same time it puts the kibosh on the idea that if we are good Christian parents then our children will definitely become Christians. So what is the truth? On the positive side. It is far better to bring our children up properly, and this will bear much good fruit, but all people are ultimately responsible for their own lives, and all are sinners. So it is perfectly possible that a child of a believer will choose to continue the rebellion of mankind. This does not mean we should not continue to pray for such a child, and to pray with faith. It does mean that allegiance to Christ transcends all other relationships, and division may happen anywhere.

Luke 12:47-49 - Beaten with many blows

12:47,48

The directness of Jesus’ words continues. If we know what God’s will is and don’t do it we will be beaten with many blows. Tough to those of you who don’t believe in corporal punishment! Leaving that aside, these are most sobering words indeed. If we are given knowledge or insight then we are expected to act upon it.

The one who does not know, but still does the wrong thing will be beaten with fewer blows. Now some will immediately start looking at the question of those who have not heard the gospel, but that is not the question or the issue that Jesus is dealing with. His message here is for those who have heard, and it is that we need to be diligent in following Jesus, not wallowing in any sense of self-satisfaction that we have received revelation! The more we are given, the more is expected of us.

12:49

“Gentle Jesus, meek and mild” - well that is not quite the whole story as even the most cursory reading of the gospels will show, and here we have a prime example. Most of the talk in the church is about unity, and indeed there should be unity in Christ between believers. Those who cause division are usually troublemakers and the Bible has firm words to say about them. But here we get a very different side to the story, indeed to the mission of Christ. Jesus has come to sort the wheat from the chaff, to separate what needs to be separated. Between things that are of God and things that are not, and between those who are of God and those who are not. Moreover, Jesus is zealous for this,”how I wish it were already kindled!” We need to grasp this side of His ministry otherwise we are missing part of the truth.

Luke 12:41-46 - A faithful servant

12:41

There are times when Jesus spoke specifically to His disciples, at other times He was speaking to all the crowd. Here Peter was evidently unsure of who Jesus was addressing these words to, or at least who they applied to.

12:42-44

Jesus doesn’t answer the question, at least not directly. Instead He says “who then is the faith and wise manager ...”. Perhaps He is actually answering Peter’s question, or at least telling Peter what he should really be concerned about. Often we want to know the answer to a question, but there is actually something else that we should be concerned about. For instance, people often ask “what about those who haven’t heard the gospel?” when what is crucial is what is our own response to the gospel. Here Jesus is emphasising that Peter’s prime concern should be to ensure that he is fulfilling his duties properly. If he does this, then there will be much greater responsibilities when Jesus returns.

12:45,46

Conversely, suppose the servant slackens off, becoming complacent. Even worse, he starts abusing the other servants, and then getting drunk. Notice that Jesus uses “other servants”, earlier He used the term “wise manager”. We may have an “important” position in a church, pastor, elder or whatever, but we are all servants. If we forget this we will start going off the rails. This complacency can crop up in our wondering about “once saved always saved” or the sovereignty of God. Is our salvation absolutely secure, most definitely yes. Is our salvation entirely dependent upon the sovereignty of God? Yes. Does Jesus blood cover all sins? Again yes. But if we use any of these truths as an excuse for complacency or, worse, for outright disobedience, then we demonstrate that we really know nothing at all.

Such a man will suffer the most severe consequences on the day of judgement. Notice how Jesus does not mince His words. We most certainly cannot mess about with our lives.

Principles for Purpose - A sermon

Latest sermon, Principles for Purpose.

It includes reflections on lessons from the recent wedding of my youngest daughter, and how the church should respond in an increasingly hostile environment. And yes, the two are linked! Listen to find out how.

Luke 12:35-40 - On being ready

12:35,36

God’s provision for us, His care for us, and His giving of the kingdom to us is absolutely no cause for complacency. Quite the contrary, we are to be dressed and ready for service. One day Jesus will return, and when He does we need to be ready. We are forever having theological debates which go nowhere. If I am forgiven does that mean I can do anything and be forgiven? If God is sovereign does it matter what I do? If I have to show faith does that mean God is still sovereign? And so on. The Bible has no problem with these matters. Instead we find that as soon as it talks about the sovereignty of God this is immediately followed by some demand upon us, some call to action. Here we have just been told about God’s amazing provision for us, then it is followed by instructions that we need to be actively serving God.

12:37-40

There are plenty of pointless and useless speculations on when Jesus will return. The Bible is quite clear that no one knows the day or the hour, it is also quite clear, as here, that the way we make ourselves ready for His return, whenever that might be, is to be serving God today. It really is very simple! The best way to prepare for tomorrow is to serve the Lord today. Then we get a quite amazing statement. Jesus says He will be pleased with us if He finds us actively serving, and that He will serve us! We really have no idea just how special and wonderful God’s attitude towards us is. This should also help us appreciate the significance of the foot washing that Jesus did in John 13. It is also further motivation and exhortation that we are to live lives serving others.

Then we get the clear statement that no one knows when He will return, and instead of wasting our time trying to solve an insoluble puzzle, we are to devote ourselves to doing His work. We are to be ready at all times.

Luke 12:32-34 - Give to the poor

12:32

There have been some very firm words on this chapter such as those warning us to fear the one who can throw us into hell, but these have been mixed with kind words as well. We need to take both together if we are to have a right perspective on life. If we think Christianity is all about being nice then we are badly mistaken and do not understand the reality of evil in the world. But if we just think everything is terrible and life is going to be terrible we are equally mistaken. God is our caring Father. Moreover, He has given the kingdom to us! Just consider these words of Jesus, the Father has been pleased to give the kingdom to us. Now go back to Genesis 1, what did God say there? He told us to have dominion over the world. This was God’s intention at the beginning, it is His intention now. We need to live in the world with our eyes wide open, but also with our hearts wide open, knowing what our Father’s plan is for His people.

12:33-34

God is giving us the kingdom, therefore let us accumulate all we can, let us enjoy unlimited prosperity! No way! Look at what Jesu says next: “Sell your possessions and give to the poor”. The rich farmer of the earlier parable sought to build bigger barns for himself. Our response to God giving us the kingdom is to be ever more generous. The farmer sought to provide earthly wealth for himself, but earthly wealth is fleeting and fragile. We are to seek treasure in heaven, and that will never wear out or fail. What does this mean? It means we commit wholeheartedly to God’s plans. This involves giving, it involves being prepared to suffer loss in this world for the sake of the kingdom, for we have a far more valuable prize in view.

Luke 12:27-31 - Seek His kingdom!

12:27,28

Jesus then uses the example of the wild flowers. They are just clothed in beauty, yet put no effort into it. God clothes them. Solomon was famous for his wealth and splendour, yet none of his splendour matched that found in nature. Wherever we look we find that nature is better than the things that we make. Its beauty and magnificence is greater than anything we create. The functioning of creatures is greater than any machines we invent. So again Jesus reminds us that we are far more important to God than the flowers of the field.

Now all this does not mean that we should not be designing clothes, or inventing things, or creating works of art. It certainly does not mean we should go around naked waiting for God to clothe us! We are different from all other aspects of creation, we were created in God’s image. We were created to be creative, but we are to be creative as God’s creatures, for that is what we are. We are meant to live under God’s care, as God’s children. A child knows it is under the care of its parents, and goes exploring the world in that knowledge. We are to do likewise. Instead we rebelled against God and said we can manage fine without Him. And just as a child who runs away from home soon finds itself in danger and full of fear and insecurity, so has the whole human race.

12:29-31

Here we get what life is not about, and what life is about. Life is not about what we will eat and drink, it is not about being utterly consumed by our daily needs. Yet for many that is what life is about. In some parts of the world people are genuinely extremely poor, and one could understand their being focused purely on getting something to eat. In the richer parts of the world many are drowning in debt, and many are focused on making ends meet. But we need to remember that Jesus was not speaking to a rich nation, but to Israel two thousand years ago. The world tells us to focus on material goods, Jesus tells us that life is so much more than this. He does not tell us that material things don’t matter, nor that we don’t need them. He tells us we do need them, but God knows that we need them, and that life is about so much more than this. We were created to seek first the kingdom of God, then the material needs will be met as well. Now we need to be careful that we do not twist this into seeking the kingdom so that there things (material goods) are given to us. We are to put the kingdom first, we are to put Jesus first, for that is what we were made for.

Luke 12:24-26 - What's the point in worrying?

12:24

Jesus, and indeed the whole Bible, often uses examples from nature to illustrate truths about God. The whole universe was created by God, so we should not be surprised that features of the universe can tell us something about God. Most animals do not store up food, but God provides them with food. When we  worry about things we are implicitly saying that God will not provide for us. Nature tells us that this is not the case. Of course, we also have to be careful in taking things too far. Clearly, there are times when animals do die for lack of food. The key point that Jesus makes here is that we are far more valuable to God than birds or animals. So if He provides for them, surely He will provide for us. The world tells us we are out on our own, the Bible tells us that we are under God’s care.

12:25,26

Jesus then points out the utter futility of worrying. All our worrying actually achieves precious little. Just consider how much time, and how much emotional effort you have expended on worrying. And what good did it do us? We need to recognise the limits of our capabilities. The humanist approach effectively relies on us being able to have total control, but of course we cannot do this. In fact, we cannot come anywhere near close to it. We had no say in whether or not we were born, no say in when we would be born. We have very little say in when we die. Even a purely scientific approach to life confirms that these facts are true. If that was all there is, then we would indeed be in a poor state, at the mercy of blind pitiless chance. But is it is only part of the truth. We had no say, but God had a say, indeed it is only because He purposefully chose to create us that we exist. So we are not at the mercy of blind pitiless chance, but under the loving care of our Creator.

Luke 12:22,23 - Do not worry

12:22

The theme of material possessions continues, with Jesus giving more teaching to His disciples. So these instructions are for us, His disciples, to take heed of. We are not to fear the powerful, even when they seem to threaten us, for God is even more powerful, and He will work with us and through us (12:1-12). We are not seek to accumulate wealth, but be generous towards God (13-21). Now we come to not worrying about our practical needs. Worry is something that afflicts most people at some time to some degree, and some people to an utterly debilitating level. The “therefore” in this verse would imply that the rich man of the previous parable was focused entirely on his material possessions. This can happen in two ways, the rich man sought to accumulate more and more, the other way is for us to worry about our needs. Life is more than our possessions (12:15), and we were not created to spend all our lives completely consumed by the need to get the basic necessities of life.

12:23

“Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes”. Any philosophies or worldviews that abandon God always end up devaluing humanity, Atheism says we are just the outcome of random processes, there is no ultimate purpose to us or our lives. God says He created us in His image, and we have a wonderful purpose. Indeed we are fearfully and wonderfully created. There are those who say we are no different than any other animal. God says we are the pinnacle of His creation. If we make possessions are goal then we devalue ourselves. This is why prosperity teaching is so so wrong. It sees God and faith as a means to accumulating wealth, and so has no idea what life or the gospel is actually about.

Luke 12:16-21 - Your life will be demanded of you!

12:16,17

Jesus then, as He often did, tells a parable to illustrate the matter and drive the point home. A rich farmer has an abundant harvest and wonders what to do with his crop. This presented him with a problem for he had nowhere to store the crops. Now the problem is not that he is rich, nor that he has had a rich harvest, it is going to be his reaction and his attitude that is the problem. God may give us success in various forms, whether it be financial, academic or even in the church. Both success and failure have a habit of showing up what is really in our hearts, for good or ill.

12:18,19

The man’s reaction was to build bigger barns, to find more space to store the wealth for himself. Then he would sit back and relax, take early retirement! He would “eat, drink and be merry”. Now this “plan” is going to run into a serious problem which we’ll look at in the next verse, but let’s consider how it relates to Jesus’ earlier words that “life does not consist in an abundance of possessions”. This man would be wasting his life, devaluing his life even. Now there is nothing wrong with having some times of “rest and relaxation”, the danger is if we make an idol out of them, just as it is equally dangerous if we make an idol out of work or ministry. He could have been doing something useful with his life, serving God and blessing others.

12:20,21

It isn’t just the man’s attitude that is wrong, his whole worldview is wrong. He thinks that he is in control, that he can now be secure, but he is not in control, God is in control. Moreover, at some point God will take our life. Now this same error is made by many, especially the secularist or atheist. The atheist might object that God hasn’t provided enough evidence, but every single one of us knows that one day we will die. We also know that while we may hope to, and probably will, live a fairly long life, there are no guarantees. And when we die, all our plans and wealth come to nought.

Notice that at the end it is not the wealth itself that is the problem, but the man’s attitude and actions. We need to be rich towards God, and that includes being generous towards the poor. If you have read much at all of my blogs you will know that I do not have much time for so-called prosperity teaching, but the other extreme is equally wrong. God gives us good things, and He enables us to make wealth. If He gives these gifts to us we should be grateful, use them, and use them well, using them for His glory and for the good of others.

Luke 12:11-15 - Greed alert

12:11,12

Again we see the eternal and spiritual nature of what we do. There will be times when worldly authorities haul Christians up in front of themselves, thinking they have some real power and authority. This happened to most of the apostles, and to many other early disciples. It has happened repeatedly throughout history, and continues to happen today in various parts of the world, and may happen in our own country. If it does, we are assured that we are there on Jesus’ behalf, and that the Holy Spirit will strengthen us and give us the words to say. This is true spiritual warfare.

12:13,14

While speaking to His disciples, someone in the crowd called out to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me”.  There is a nice juxtaposition with what has just gone before. Jesus has just been speaking about eternal things, and how these impact the present. Now this fellow in the crowd is only concerned with the present, and he wants what he thinks is his share of an inheritance. Jesus declines to give any judgement on the matter, or at least not in the terms the man was looking for. The man was looking for the wrong things from Jesus, this is phenomenon still occurs today.

12:15

Just as Jesus had used the interaction with Pharisees as a launch pad for more general teaching to His disciples, Jesus used this interjection to provide the crowd with more useful teaching. “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed (or covetousness)” Greed is something that all of us are susceptible to. We believe that life consists of the abundance of our possessions, indeed that is so often the ethos that the world encourages. Sadly, it is also the ethos that the so-called prosperity gospel teaching encourages. We need to follow Jesus’ teaching and be very careful about our attitudes in this area. That is the consistent teaching of the Bible.

The God who shares

Some thirty two years ago at my wedding I vividly remember a sense of victory, and I have always wondered why. Yesterday ( June 10th) I gave my youngest daughter away in marriage, and now I think I understand, at least a little.

In Ephesians 5:22-33 Paul tells us that marriage is a reflection of Christ and the church. Then in Revelation 19:6-9 John sees the wedding of Christ and the church.

Now, of course, I have always known about these verses and their meaning, but what is new (to me) is the sense of sharing in that with God. That sense of victory at the church some 32 years ago was a hint of the victory Christ will have when He returns and is fully united with His bride, the church. Yesterday I gave my youngest daughter away. She looked so amazingly beautiful and there was such pride and joy in my heart. That is a taste of the joy the Father will have when He presents the Church, spotless and without blemish, to Christ on that final day.

For our God is a God who shares all things with His people. Some of the fundamental aspects of God are His authority and creativity. What does He give to Adam and Eve at the beginning? Dominion over the earth, fruitfulness and authority. 

There is one other vital aspect to this. Christ saves the world through His suffering, and part of His gift to us is that we share in His suffering. 

In all these things God is, of course, infinitely greater than us, but even so He shares something of Himself with us.

Luke 12:8-10 - Whoever disowns me

12:8,9

Jesus now makes clear the cosmic and eternal significance of our being faithful witnesses to Him. If we acknowledge Jesus before men He will acknowledge us before the Father.  But if we deny Him He will deny us. Now we need to be careful here, for Peter denied Jesus three times, but was reinstated, and then went on to boldly proclaim the gospel, and eventually to die for Jesus. These words of Jesus are not a “how to get into heaven” instruction. Rather they are for our instruction and encouragement when facing serious opposition. We need to have a clear view of what is really going, and an eternal perspective on things. For the opposition will seek to get us to focus on the here and now, usually by some threat (which may well be carried out) affecting us in the here and now.

12:10

Now this verse has caused no end of trouble. The same phrase crops up in Matthew 12:31 and Mark 3:29. It is sometimes taken as meaning attributing to the devil what is the work of the Holy Spirit. Now although we about a chapter away from the similar incident in Luke. In Mark and Matthew Jesus is addressing the teachers of the Law, here He is speaking to His disciples. Another possibility is that it means a persistent rejection of the work of the Spirit in our lives. Ie this is not going to apply for a “one-off” offence.

However, in Matthew and Mark the words are applied to the teachers of the Law who were flagrantly rebelling against the Holy Spirit. Not just in the immediate context of saying Jesus was casting out demons by the power of Satan, but in their whole way of life. They were working directly against the Holy Spirit, so were indeed blaspheming Him.

Now if we look at the next two verses Jesus is going to talk about what happens if we are hauled up in front of human powers and authorities, assuring us that the Holy Spirit will speak through us. So if men continue to reject us, they are actually rejecting the Holy Spirit. So maybe this verse is an encouragement to the disciples! Now we don’t like this sort of encouragement because Christians are supposed to be nice, aren’t they? Well no, there is a time for niceness to go out of the window. We are in a deadly serious battle, and one with eternal consequences. We need to appreciate the eternal significance of life.

Just to bring back some hope if you think I am being too nasty! Paul violently opposed the gospel, and he got saved! So these words do not mean anyone is beyond hope.

Luke 12:4-7 - Fear Him who can throw you into hell!

12:4

Remember that is this discourse Jesus is speaking to the disciples. We tend to regard the Pharisees as bogey men, looking down on them as idiots. However, we need to remember that the religious establishment had significant influence and power over people. So Jesus’ teaching contains various strands. He has just warned them that His disciples must guard integrity in their own lives, now He turns to dealing with the threats that would be posed against them. They were not to fear the opposition, even if that opposition could bring an end to their lives. This is a sober warning indeed, but one that has been and is very relevant to many Christians throughout history, and in various parts of the world today. Killing the body is all they can do, they can do no more after that. Jesus is taking a very eternal perspective here, and it is one we need to have as well.

12:5-7

Jesus continues with His stern words. The one they, and we, should really fear is the One who has authority to throw us into Hell. Now that is not the sort of preaching we hear much of these days, but Jesus considered it worth saying! In fact Jesus spoke an awful lot about hell. Our eternal destiny is at stake. “Yes, I tell you, fear Him”. Jesus even remphasises the point.

Then He goes on a softer line, and this is important in understanding what He has just said. He reminds the disciples about the care that God has for all of creation, and that we are the most valuable part of that creation. He closes this part with the encouragement that we do not need to be afraid because we are precious to God.

We need to take all of this in. The enemy can do terrible things against us, but his power is limited to this life, and even that power is actually under the control of God. And God cares for us.

Luke 12:1-3 - Full disclosure

12:1

A large crowd had gathered, as was apt to happen, wanting to hear Jesus, and no doubt to be healed by Him. There were so many of them that they were trampling on each other. This is one of the reasons the religious leaders were so opposed to Jesus and felt so threatened by Him. The people recognised something different about Jesus. In our day there is a lot of talk about people having rebelled against the elite, this having shown itself in the vote to leave the EU in the UK, and USA voting for Trump. Now voting to leave the EU and voting for Trump may or may not prove to be wise decisions, but the point is that the elite in both cases considered these decisions to be unthinkable, yet the people took them. We do need experts, but experts can also start being pretty stupid, and can become proud and aloof. When this happens “ordinary people” recognise it and can actually be wiser than the so-called wise. Whether Brexit or Trump were wise is up for debate, but the people in Jesus time were certainly wise in recognising that the religious leaders knew little, and that Jesus was the real thing.

In fact, Jesus spoke first to His disciples, warning them against the yeast of the Pharisees, “which is hypocrisy”. At the time, for many years hence, Christians were a minority, and often a persecuted minority. But there would come a time when they became part of the establishment, even almost being the establishment. Sadly the church did not heed Jesus’ warnings and hypocrisy, amongst many other things, was rife. We all need to be on our guard. We can so easily become full of our own supposed wisdom, was can so easily become proud.

12:2,3

The deception of hypocrisy is that we get fooled into thinking that no one will know. To the outside world we will put on a show of being good Christians, of doing things properly, but in secret we are living a completely different life, or are doing things that are either illegal or completely unbiblical. We deceive ourselves that no one will know and it will be OK. Jesus warns that everything that is hidden will be revealed. Sometimes, perhaps even often, this will happen in this life. All the time, leading figures from various walks of life are exposed for what they really are. But even if it doesn’t happen in this life it will certainly happen at the final judgement. We all need to know, and we all need to remind ourselves frequently, that there is a God, that He knows all things, including the motives of our hearts, and we will all have to give an account.

So what about us? We would all admit that we are “not perfect”, but that sounds so nice doesn’t it? There are times when we have thoughts and perhaps even actions that we most certainly would not want shouted from the rooftops. There is a sense in which we are all hypocrites. The good news is that if we are thinking like that then we are probably not deceived. We recognise the truth of our situation, and our utter need of a saviour. Thankfully we have such a saviour in Jesus Christ.