Luke 17:1…

Offenses to God’s kingdom are not like other offenses.

It is interesting to think what kinds of offenses these may encompass. Without a doubt this would extend to anything which may impede someone else’s progress into the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus speaks powerfully of the sobriety we should have in consideration of causing such an offense. He says it would be better if, “a millstone were hung around your neck and you be thrown into the sea.”

It would be “better…” Think about that.

The very idea of being cast into the sea with a millstone around your neck is about as vibrant a picture as Jesus ever presents.

But who are the “little ones” Jesus speaks of?

Certainly, this would speak of any children who may be in their midst. More than once Jesus has spoken very fondly of the children. He has encouraged they be brought to Him that He may hold them and share His love for them. Jesus has such a heart for children because of the nature of their faith. They have not become jaded, and they believe what they are told by their elders - especially by those elders who are closest to them in relationship. Indeed, it is ‘childlike faith’ which saves the child of God.

But what if what the little ones are told to believe about the kingdom of heaven is accompanied by hypocrisy in you? What if they believe what they have been told to believe about the kingdom of heaven – but then begin to struggle with their faith in the kingdom of heaven or to lose their faith entirely because of what they see in you?

This is the idea Jesus is presenting. We will be held responsible for the impact our lives have on those who are just learning about these things. Anyone of any age can be one of the “little ones” Jesus refers to. Yes, children are certainly included, but so is anyone who is a new believer, or just becoming a ‘child of God.’

Mr. Religious Man, what impact does your life have upon the child of God?

-Pastor Bill

Luke 16:19…

Death becomes you.

As has been well-said, “The statistics are in – and ten out of ten people die.” (Yet one more reason to pray for the rapture of the church!)

You ARE going to die. So am I.

Strange as it may seem, though this is a really well-known fact, it is denied and imagined to be untrue as much as possible. It never quite seems really true until we are faced with death in some way. Perhaps a loved one or a friend dies. It is a present reminder of death, its impact, and our own facing of it.

Then a little time goes by and we find ourselves putting it out of our mind again. Is this a form of self-protection because we don’t like to think about it – or is it really self-preservation because it helps protect our sanity?

All the religions of the world have a plan for dealing with death. (Perhaps we could even say death above all else is the REASON all the religions of the world exist.) It is certainly one of the best ways to compare the religions of the world, because they each deal with the subject of death in vastly different ways.

Given that eternity is vastly LONGER than the time spent on earth in this life, perhaps it might be worth some investment of the time you have left on earth to consider the eternal ramifications of your life. This is the point Jesus is making to the Pharisees.

Since this IS God-in-Flesh speaking about eternal life, it behooves us to pay close attention to what He says. What He says goes all the way back to the beginning of His teaching about unjust stewards. (Those who misuse the resources God has provided.) The Pharisees were the classic example of this, in that the focus of their religious practice had become accumulation of wealth – in the name of God. Since, in their time, it was assumed the wealthy were the blessed of God, and the poor were the cursed of God, it would likewise seem these wealthy Jewish religious leaders were a lock for eternal life in heaven, in their own minds, and in the minds of the people.

But Jesus says they are not a “lock” for heaven. In fact, they are locked out.

-Pastor Bill

Luke 16:14…

You become what you worship.

This is the warning Jesus so profoundly offers when He pronounces, “No servant can serve two masters; either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

God’s Word consistently and constantly warns us against having a divided heart – and the reason is because once the heart is divided, it really goes all the way to the other side. Thinking it is merely divided in a proportionate way is self-deception. It is not possible.

The acquisition of wealth from God is what the Pharisees are about. Jesus strongly lets them know God knows this, and that God knows their hearts are polluted. It does not matter at all that the people see them as representing God. Jesus tells them God knows they do not.

Think of how serious it must be in God’s eyes to know He knows everything you do in His name is pretense.

Wealth is not the issue. It is the pursuit of wealth in God’s name which is leading them to condemnation. It is not too late, but it is too terrible unless they immediately and forcefully turn away. The god they serve is money, they have become wealthy, and the entire focus of their ministry life is not service to the True and Living God, but service to themselves and the monetary accounts they steward, “in God’s name.”

The Pharisees worship wealth and its preservation, and so they are constantly in peril unless they can collect money in the name of God. (This is what happens when money becomes the focus of your life.) They have no means of acquiring personal wealth on their own. (They cannot dig, they are ashamed to beg.) For them it is about using their religious position to build up an earthly religious kingdom, and then to live off those proceeds.

They represent the True God as a hard master to the people because of their own need for fortune. And strangely, this ultimately this leads to a softening of God’s Word to preserve the resource (the people,) the wealth appears to come from.

-Pastor Bill

Luke 16:1…

Here we have the case of a steward who has been found out.

A steward is a caretaker of someone else’s goods. One who oversees the wealth or resources of another. One who’s wealth is not their own but someone else’s. A resource  or wealth manager.

So we can imagine how serious it would be to be found out. To be found to be unjust, or to have been caught misappropriating wealth that does not belong to him.

This has been the case of many in the news. Investment brokers who have created Ponzi schemes or fraudulently used monies of those who have trusted them, or worse – politicians who have grossly mismanaged the wealth that flows into the government on the backs of the people.

Yet in this example Jesus observes the shrewdness of a corrupt steward who is busted.

This unjust steward who is about to be removed from his stewardship because of his impropriety quickly goes to those he has been ripping off and makes ‘conciliatory’ deals with them in the hopes of winning their favor. He drastically cuts the debt they owe his master.

The summation of this parable is one cannot serve two masters. Either you will serve money, or you will serve God – but you cannot serve both.

How interesting Jesus places this parable in such a worldly setting, revealing the extreme self-interest demonstrated by the unjust practices of this steward, and how this man so quickly moderated his stance when his future was on the line.

We see a picture of our lives, in that we tend to act as though the things we possess actually belong to us – just as the unjust steward did. The truth is, everything we possess belongs to God, and we must treat all our resources as though they are His. Properly understood, we are to employ God’s riches to win the favor of those around us for God, rather than hoarding the resources He provides for ourselves. This is the result when we focus on our eternal future rather than on the very temporal wealth which doesn’t belong to us anyway.

-Pastor Bill