Luke 5:27…

We have an expression which deals with our existence. We refer to the ‘fabric of our lives.’ While I’m not exactly sure where that expression comes from I do think I understand what it means…

I also understand when fabric gets old and inflexible it tears.

You might think Jesus, as THE gentle Master, would be very sensitive and tender with a ‘fabric’ He is aware is old and thin and thread-bare.

But when that old thread-bare inflexible fabric represents what relationship with God is meant to be, Jesus tears that fabric apart.

Would the people of faith allow a tax-collector to fellowship with them? Certainly not the tax-collectors who took advantage of the people, the tax-collectors who profiteered from the people’s misery, and the tax-collectors who preyed on the people’s property.

Certainly not.

Jesus saw a tax-collector named Levi at the tax office and invited him to be His follower. (To date, this may be the most radical thing Jesus has done. It is certainly the most plainly offensive.) The Pharisees and the scribes ARE offended. I can feel their offense all the way across the span of time. (After all, I’m not a big fan of tax-collectors either…)

Even worse, Jesus goes TO Levi’s house for a feast provided by (presumably) tax-payer funds, and He enjoys a time of fellowship with all of Levi’s tax-collector friends and associates.

Who would do such a thing, knowing these men are evil?

This is the question the Pharisees understandably ask. What kind of Holy Man would associate Himself with those He knows are sinful? There is no excuse for this kind of behavior. Sinners must be rejected and abhorred and denied ANY opportunity for fellowship until and unless they have completely reformed.

Hasn’t that always been the brittle, thread-bare position of religion?

-Pastor Bill

Luke 5:17…

If you were to define the word ‘friendship,’ what would you say?

A dictionary definition would probably fall far short of what we know ‘friendship’ to be. More than merely a word, acquaintance, or association, true friendship implies a concern equal to the concern you have for yourself.

The Bible has much to teach us concerning friendship and brotherhood and what it means to us to be a friend or a brother or sister to someone.

Here in Luke 5, we see what friendship does.

We are told of a man who has probably recently been paralyzed, perhaps in some sort of accident, or as the result of disease. This man, unnamed, has some really great friends. They have supported him and helped him through the tragedy of his present condition. There is no hope, save for Jesus.

If only we could all see our friends in this way. There is no hope for them save for Jesus. Paralysis is the true condition of all who are separated from Christ. They can do nothing to affect their salvation. They are immobilized and desperate, and there is nothing they can do for themselves.

Fortunately for this paralyzed brother, he has a group of friends who will not be dissuaded by anything or anyone from bringing him to Jesus. Perhaps if he had not been paralyzed he would not have been brought. Sometimes the very thing which brings desperation into our lives is the only thing that brings us to Jesus.

Stopped at the door by the size of the crowd, the friends transport the man to the roof and dig through the tiles to lower their friend into Jesus’ presence. Jesus saw their faith.

Truly, whose faith did Jesus see? Was it the faith of the paralyzed man – or the faith of his friends?

It is this unstoppable, immovable expression of faithful friends which leads to salvation and healing for this paralyzed man. (And I suppose his friends as well.)

Friends bring their friends to Jesus. It is worth it all, no matter the difficulty faced.

-Pastor Bill

Luke 5:12…

It begins with a whitish spot on the skin. Eventually a scab forms.

It progresses slowly, almost imperceptibly, first affecting the extremities, and then moving to the body proper, along the way attacking the nerve endings.

You may think a disease that impeded the sense of pain would be a good thing. But when the sense of pain is muted, great damage is done the body, as it no longer has the alarm system properly employed to protect itself.

The skin begins to rot away, and the victim reeks of the smell of death and decay. The features become gross distortions of their former selves, as if melted. The nose and ears may no longer be present. Fingers and toes are lost to decay or damage caused by lack of the sense of pain referenced previously. Oozing, open, running sores eventually cover the entire body. Victims of the disease must be isolated because it is as contagious as it is detestable.

This is leprosy. There is no cure.

It is easy to see why the Bible employs leprosy as a type of sin. (In Bible ‘typology,’ something literal is used to represent something spiritual.)

This is the importance of what next takes place in Luke 5. Jesus encounters a man in an advanced state of leprosy. We are informed he is “full of leprosy.” This would mean he is in an extremely advanced stage of the disease when the body is fully engaged and he is experiencing damage to his internal organs as well as the grotesque appearance and stench of the body and skin.

From this condition, the unknown man cries out, imploring Jesus, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

Jesus responds by doing something astoundingly remarkable. He touches the man. This is something NO ONE would ever think of doing. No one would ever go anywhere near leprosy. Jesus did. He came into personal contact with it.

He cleansed the man, by His own will. What then, will He do with our sin?

-Pastor Bill

Luke 4:40…

Jesus now begins His ministry to and for the masses.

We are reminded what Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:9, The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

God’s desire is to heal all from their sin. The question is: Who will come to Him for healing?

As soon as the sun has set on this particular Sabbath day, after Jesus has taught in the synagogue, and cleansed the demon-possessed man, He and others had retired to Simon’s home, where Jesus had performed His first healing recorded in Luke’s gospel.

We doubt anyone knew of this first healing outside those who were in the house who had requested Jesus minister to Simon’s mother-in-law out of their concern for her. (Love always plays a great part in the requests we make of Jesus, doesn’t it? Could this be why He tells us to love one another?)

It was an expression of faith in what they had heard of Jesus and seen in Jesus that caused them to bring ALL those who were afflicted in that area with all kinds of diseases.

From this we learn Jesus is both a specialist and a general practitioner. He CAN heal anything and everything. This is yet another demonstration nothing is too hard for God. There is no demon, even Satan himself, who can oppose Him, and there is no disease He cannot heal.

The question is, (knowing what He knows,) will He? Here He is in the very first days of His public ministry, and the instant, immediate healing door is open to all who have faith in Him. (In this case it is an example of how little faith it takes. Do you have faith to bring your friend to Jesus?)

Jesus heals everyone. He drives the demons out of everyone who is possessed. This is a powerful demonstration of what we daily pray for: “Your kingdom come, Your will be done.” Satan’s kingdom must come down.

-Pastor Bill

Jesus on Offense

Luke 4:31…

Having absorbed the best shots of Satan, in the form of temptation and rejection, Jesus goes on offense.

Indeed, Jesus has come to die. That is His purpose and His Divine plan and mission. But prior to His sacrificial death for all the sin of mankind, Jesus has much to accomplish. He has come to usher in the kingdom of God on earth, as it is in heaven.

One of the key features of heaven is the removal of any influence of Satan, and Jesus would bring that about in His presence on earth as well. In Jesus’ presence, Satan would have no power, and no influence. Satan would be revealed, and he would be removed from the scene. This was the ministry of Christ.

It began with teaching the people about the love of God in the synagogues where they gathered to hear God’s Word. For so long – too long – the people had actually been hearing the Word of God taught by sons of Satan, (see John 8:44.) All the while the people thought they were being taught by sons of God. Jesus showed them their priests were no such thing. They were not good men, they were evil men. They were not bringing God’s people closer to God - they were driving them away from God. The priests were not removing the middle wall of separation between God and man – they were building it higher.

As Jesus taught, the people saw something entirely new, and it was refreshing and empowering. They were hearing the true meaning of the Word of God, and it excited them in all the ways it was meant to excite. They recognized Jesus’ authority to teach, even if they didn’t understand where His authority came from. (Of course we know His authority was from God, and we can only imagine what it may have been like to have been in His presence as He taught.) The people were plainly astonished, just by hearing the Word of God coming from the mouth of God in man.

And in the arena of defeating evil, Jesus put God’s Word into action. He took back the gains Satan had made in the world in the lives of the people He touched. Satan’s hold was destroyed on every front in every life at the Word and the touch of Christ.

-Pastor Bill

Jesus of Nazareth?

Luke 4:14…

Now we begin to see the WORKS of the Messiah, exactly as they had been prophesied to be in the Old Testament.

From His time in the wilderness, having proven Himself through temptation, (NOT by avoiding it,) Jesus headed immediately to His home region of the Galilee in the power of the Spirit.

This lets us know His direction was not a whim but a leading. Perhaps we might think to first establish ourselves in the region of our greatest familiarity, and this is what Jesus was led to as well, only by the Holy Spirit and not of His own thought.

And He taught in all their synagogues. He was not a rabble-rouser seeking some new thing outside the “church” but was a reformer seeking to work within the religious system, no matter how corrupt. He was, after all, a very Jewish Messiah.

But His ministry would be to remind the people, (or to announce to the people,) that while He was in fact Jewish through-and-through, they were Jewish in name only.

Their ‘religion’ had them trapped hopelessly in a system of laws and burdens that God had never imagined or desired. Men had replaced God, and sought to be served rather than to serve.

Jesus would turn this on its head – by serving.

So He taught in all their synagogues as One having authority, because He did. He would reform the “faith” they practiced into a faith of belief, but only if they would allow it. As hardened, brittle, systematic practitioners of a religious system rather than loving the grace of God, Jesus would first cut them to the quick by words of conviction which would serve as a mirror to show them their true condition before God.

This would lead to His rejection in His own home town. Nazareth was the first place to literally attempt to kill Jesus. They would have thrown Him of the cliff at the edge of town to the rocks below. Strange then, isn’t it, that He is referred to as Jesus of Nazareth?

-Pastor Bill

The Temptation

Luke 4:1…

Now that Jesus has been baptized, and His public ministry life has begun, you might think He would immediately be led to heal and to teach and to reveal to all the people the long-promised Messiah has come.

All of that would have to wait.

For immediately upon His baptism, Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit, was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness – away from anyone.

Is this any way to begin a ministry?

The Bible teaches us we serve a Savior Who as Our High Priest is intimately familiar with all of life on earth, including all the ways we are tempted. Hebrews 4:15 teaches us Jesus was tempted in ALL the points we are tempted, yet was without sin.

This reveals to us a couple things that are profound to our understanding: temptation itself is not sin; and, we are capable of resisting temptation when it comes.

In fact, we are without excuse when we yield to temptation, because Jesus has not only revealed who the tempter is, He has also shown us how to defend ourselves from all temptation when it comes.

Jesus may have been alone in this period of forty days in the desert, but the Holy Spirit was careful to record these events that we may learn important lessons necessary for life in Christ on this earth.

Moses was forty years in the back of the desert in preparation for his ministry – Jesus was forty days similarly prepared. It seems being hardened to the offerings of the enemy is a lesson that must be learned prior to serving people and receiving any form of acclaim.

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are the tools the enemy employs against all of us – including Christ. Christ’s defense is the Word of God.

-Pastor Bill