Luke 12:1…

After speaking forcefully and truthfully to those who were demonstrably against Him while pretending to be for God, Jesus turns to His followers and begins to speak lovingly and truthfully to those who are for Him.

The loving truth is there will be a cost associated with following and gathering with Jesus, and He tells them God sees and God knows the extent to which they follow.

Remembering this teaching began with Jesus informing all who were listening and paying attention there was no neutral ground when it comes to being a child of God, and telliing everyone you are either for Him or against Him – He now warns His followers you cannot fake this.

The Pharisees were prime examples, and this is why He had scolded them so severely. The way Jesus spoke to the Pharisees would have been extremely shocking to those gathered to hear Him speak. Jesus has just accused the Pharisees and scribes and lawyers of being complete fakes. In essence, they were followers of Satan, not God, and any who chose to follow them were actually in danger of the judgment they were to receive. The days of pretending to follow God by religious external practice while your heart is wicked are over. (In reality they always have been.)

But can you speak like this to the powerful religious leaders and get away with it?

Ummm…No. And this will be the cost of being a genuine follower of God in Christ Jesus. Jesus is going to be killed by the fake followers of God as a demonstration of what it means to NOT be a hypocrite, and to not be one who fears those who can kill the mortal body but cannot touch the soul.

Obviously there is great fear induced by this kind of teaching, and explains why these eternal reminders are so important to us. If we value this life above the next, we may be inclined to recant under the pressure of the hypocrites who seek to punish those who are genuine children of God.

How comforting it is to know we are never alone in this pressure of punishment by external forces. Jesus reminds us God sees our plight, and God knows all we go through to follow Jesus. His eye is even on the sparrow. He knows the numbers of hairs on our head. He certainly watches over those who genuinely love Jesus no matter what.

-Pastor Bill

Luke 11:33…

Light has fantastic and phenomenal properties. It is impossible to imagine life without light.

As far as life is concerned, light has always been present because light preceded life, and light enables life both to exist and to thrive.

Since light has so many wonderful and necessary properties for life, we ascribe a literary quality to light.

We imagine ‘wisdom’ as a form of light, and we say wisdom ‘illuminates’ the ‘darkness’ - as if the absence of light equals the absence of wisdom.

For this reason, no one would take light and hide it or bury it or do anything to conceal it once it has been lit. Light is so special it is always given the lead position in our lives, because without it we cannot ‘see.’

Since our perception of light is a function of our sense of sight, Jesus warns us about the quality of the ‘light’ we choose to ‘see’ by. Of course this is the true function of light – it enables us to see.

But what if the things we choose to ‘see’ are not worthy of our God-given sight?

Jesus explains this would be ‘darkness,’ not in the literal sense, but figuratively. But this figurative sense of darkness has every bit as much potential to cause us real harm as literal darkness does – only more, since this (spiritual) darkness we invite has eternal ramifications.

Those who imagine no God are in this condition. By their own advanced educational ‘wisdom’ they imagine themselves not only to be ‘enlightened’ but also to be those capable and even insistent upon ‘enlightening’ others.

This is why Jesus says, “take heed the light you see is not darkness.” No one with any intelligence would take God’s true and pure light and replace it with an incandescent bulb. It is pure unadulterated ignorance which replaces God’s design with man’s ideas.

-Pastor Bill

Luke 11:24…

Jesus has announced His intent to bring to an end the spirit that would divide anyone from God. He has shared the strength required to do so, and demonstrated that He alone has that strength. The only way to drive the strongman from his palace is for a stronger than he to come.

Jesus has come to defeat Satan at every point, and He reveals the ease of the strength of God to do so. It is finger work for God.

In fact, it is only by our denial of the power of God in the Person of the Holy Spirit of God that we allow – and by default empower – Satan to accomplish his goal to divide us from God. Jesus opposes Satan at every turn and He has the power to defeat him.

Sometimes by what we regard as ‘clean living’ we deny the power of God. We may think the power of God is unnecessary in our lives.

The classic example is the person who after a long struggle with a particular destructive behavior finally summons up the will power, or employs some sort of support group, in an effort to succeed against that particular behavior – and is successful. By all outward appearance victory over bad and destructive behavior has taken place. Perhaps the person walking in this degree of victory may even become an example to many and write a self-help manual about gaining victory over the physical impediment by employing some sort of physical method.

Jesus pulls back the curtain to the spiritual realm and lets us know our enemy is spiritual not physical. All the physical methods and all the will power in the world cannot and will not defeat Satan.

It is also revealed Satan does not respond to or respect neutrality when it comes to the things of God. We must be FOR God in order to access the power of God necessary to drive Satanic influence out of our lives once and for all.

Getting ourselves all ‘cleaned up’ by human effort just makes the place that much nicer for the demon spirit to inhabit once again, and explains the never ending cycle in the world of temporary victories followed by even greater falls.

-Pastor Bill

Luke 11:5…

How often then, should we pray? Should we keep asking for our un-met needs?

That’s a good question. After informing His disciples how to pray, Jesus teaches them about what it means to have a prayer life.

A life filled with prayer is a life filled with needfulness realized, needfulness fulfilled, and needfulness empowered. (Our weakness, our lack, becomes our strength.)

There is a question that goes along with the information Jesus provides His disciples, and it is almost an absurd one: If you knew that all your needs - every single one - would be or could be met by God, why would you ever fail to ask Him to meet the need?

It then comes down to a question of faith doesn’t it?

This is how Jesus explains it, and why He explains it in an almost absurd fashion. When you are out of bread, and you need bread, what would you do? What do you do? What have you done?

Well, you go to your neighbor, because you know he has bread when you don’t. It’s too late to make bread yourself, you need ready-made bread.

But wait, how can you be certain your neighbor has bread? The truth is the only thing you know for sure is that you don’t have bread. You go to your neighbor on the possibility he does. And also, faith in even the possibility your neighbor will give you of what he has.

You are completely dependent upon the benevolence of your neighbor, but you do not hesitate to ask – even after bedtime – because the need you have is great, and you are willing to risk begging because your reputation for hospitality is on the line.

In this case, will you take “No” for an answer? Why not? What propels you to keep asking? Is it because you now know for certain the neighbor has the bread you need? (He did not deny that he does.) Is it because it is necessary to keep asking in order to rouse him from his bed to meet the need? How does God fit into this example?

-Pastor Bill

Luke 11:1…

“When you pray…”

The operative phrase in the beginning of Luke 11 is, “When.”

Not so much how or why you pray, but when. There is an expectation that you will.

We learn, (I think,) an interesting fact here in that John the Baptist also taught his disciples to pray. We have no recorded information telling us how or what John taught his disciples to pray, but it must have been in similar fashion as Jesus makes no correction of John’s teaching about prayer, and the listeners do not say, “Wow, that’s different than what John said.”

Something else…perhaps the reason Jesus’ disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray is because John taught his disciples to pray. While that may be the case, their prompting presently comes from the fact Jesus IS praying. Jesus set the example for us to pray by praying Himself.

Once Jesus has taught His disciples what pray the emphasis becomes continuing in it.

The words Jesus taught His disciples to pray are so infamous even unbelievers and atheists know them by heart. We do too. Was that the point? Was Jesus teaching His disciples to literally pray these words?

Well, we have the obvious answer, since the words here in Luke 10 are not the exact words contained in Matthew 6. One of those examples is a paraphrase of the other. The point is the exact words do not matter, but to focus on the substance contained in those words does.

WHO we are praying to becomes of primary importance, especially when we hear so many ‘teaching prayers’ where people in prayer meetings seem to be praying in to instruct other people about things rather than talking to God. Our EXAMPLE is to talk to Our Father, Who is in heaven, and then to keep talking to Him as often as we can.

Jesus teaches His disciples to keep praying, and to keep praying, and to keep praying. Never stop praying. Part of the lesson here is God is moved by our continuing prayer.

-Pastor Bill

Luke 10:25…

The great question of life is: What shall I do to inherit eternal life?

But the question itself is not all there is - is it?

How you ask the question, why you ask the question, what you mean by asking the question – these are all part and parcel to the answer you receive from the Word of God.

In this case, it is a ‘certain lawyer’ asking Jesus about what he should DO to inherit eternal life.

There are some good things about his question, chief among them he apparently believes in eternal life and admits it publicly, which is a good starting point. Secondly, he appears concerned about his own eternal condition, but here it breaks down a bit. (Luke informs us he asked this question as a “test” for Jesus.)

So we wonder if the lawyer was genuinely concerned for himself, or if his main interest was to somehow expose or embarrass Jesus publicly about the answer He may give. (We know enough about human nature to know giving a true answer about how we may inherit eternal life will divide any crowd.) This is his probable motive.

A ‘lawyer’ in this case would be a man employed to examine and uphold Jewish Law. He would be a defender of the Jewish faith. This does not dissuade or dismay Jesus, reminding us how difficult (see impossible) it is to surprise, dismay, or win an argument with God. It ain’t happening…

In response to the lawyer’s question, Jesus appeals to the lawyer’s own reading of the Jewish Law. Listening to the lawyer’s answer we learn he is theologically correct about God’s idea of perfection. But here he has come under the weight of personal conviction about his own ability to perfectly keep this Law he has been charged to keep.

Now, the inquisitor has snared himself, and we see his desperate attempt to wriggle off the hook. “And who is my neighbor?”

Jesus’ answer would surprise everyone…

-Pastor Bill

Luke 10:1…

If I was following Jesus along with His disciples as one of His disciples, I think one of the things I would be most interested in seeing is this: What makes Jesus rejoice? What puts a smile on His face? What makes Him resound with joy?

The reason I think I would think that way is because of the clue it may give us all about heaven, and what we can expect from eternal life. What is heaven really like? What do they rejoice about in heaven?

We read in Hebrews 1:9, (quoting from Psalm 45:7,) that Jesus has been anointed by God with the “oil of gladness” more than any man. This means more than anyone who ever lived - however joyful they may have been - Jesus was more.

When I first got saved I used to think about Jesus smiling all the time. There is something about joyful people that makes you want to be with them. The Bible teaches us in Isaiah 53 there was nothing ‘comely’ about Messiah. People would not be drawn to Him by His looks. No, it would be the force of His joy-filled and joy-full personality.

To me this has always put Jesus in a different light than any description of Jesus I had heard in my early days in the church, and also any artwork I had ever seen attempting to portray Jesus. Movies, the same. Jesus was always shown as a very solemn individual. (In one movie, ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ the actor Robert Powell playing the part of Jesus never blinks while on-screen in an effort to depict Jesus’ Divinity.)

But what makes Jesus joyful? When do we really see Him smile?

The answer is found right here in Luke 10. The disciples have been sent out two-by-two, (seventy of them in all,) to go before Jesus into all the towns and villages Jesus was about to visit on His way up to Jerusalem. Jesus has appointed and empowered them to heal the sick there and to tell them the kingdom of God is near to them.

When the seventy returned they reported to Jesus all the things they had done, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” (Surely THIS was worth rejoicing about!)

Jesus, on the other hand, informs them NOT to rejoice about their ministry “success” but in the simple fact their names are written in the kingdom of heaven. And then - Jesus REJOICED!

-Pastor Bill