Monthly Archives: August 2023

The Parable of Essential Trust

Posted on August 30, 2023 | 1 comment

Luke 18:9 He [Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

This parable is actually titled “The Pharisee and the Tax Collector” but rather than compare the two men I choose to compare their motives.  Many of the parables I’ve studied so far are Jesus addressing the people who cannot see or hear because they have decided they already DO see and hear and are therefore blind and deaf.  

Simple Observations:
— The Pharisee is standing by himself. He is thankful he’s not like “other men.”  He essentially is justifying himself by reminding God how good he is.
— The tax collector has also separated himself.  He’s standing far off from his own people by working for the Roman occupiers.  His request is essentially to trust God’s mercy to help him deal with his sin.

The hardest part about Jesus’s recap of this parable is the truth that everything the Pharisee claims he is doing is essentially good and desirable. There’s not much information about the tax collector other than he’s essentially aware of his sin and believes God still desires to interact with him.  “Essentially” became the motivation and the keyword of my thoughts to ponder what is “more” essential in this parable.  

Point #1: Both men are Jews.
Point #2: Both men are isolated, one by his prestige, the other by his job for the Roman occupiers that betrays his own people.
Point #3: Jesus speaks the truth that will separate the Pharisee and the tax collector even “more:” God is “essentially” more interested in the awareness of a sinner’s desire to trust His mercy than He is in being instructed about the indicators He should use to dispense it.
Amen!

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Posted in Light, Luke, New Testament, Parables, Wednesday

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Together Individually

Posted on August 27, 2023 | Leave a comment

Acts 2:41-47
41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.  42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Just imagine that day. One day when “about three thousand souls” “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers,” to become a new body, the church. “And” because of their praising God with “glad and generous hearts”…together…the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” 

“Together” is the mystery of the “body of Christ.”  God has chosen that one word to reveal His purpose for the church; a place where the awe of Jesus’s Spirit in them individually is combined with the ordinary act of meeting…together…to provide for the needs of  “those who [day by day are] being saved.”  Hebrews 10:25 MSG says, “Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.”  

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The Parable of Alienation

Posted on August 23, 2023 | 1 comment

Luke 15:11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The 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. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He 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 servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So 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. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For 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. 26 So 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. 29 But 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. 30 But 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. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

Define Alienation: a withdrawing or separation of a person or a person’s affections from an object or position of former attachment.  

It’s hard to even begin with this very familiar parable about the prodigal son because there are two sons. It always ends up being a story of their personal choices and here’s the tricky part. This parable seems to be teaching more about their alienation from the father than their choices.  It’s obvious alienation is often the result of a bad choice but you can’t escape the reality that even a good choice with a bad motive also results in estrangement.  

The Younger Son…views his bad choice as freedom and an opportunity to escape. He’s chosen to “set off for a distant country” as a way to avoid the responsibilities of a son to his father.

The Older Son…views his good choice to be obedient and faithful as “slaving.”  He’s chosen to define his relationship to his father in a way that reveals his estrangement from him.

I think every believer has identified with that younger son who valued separation more than his relationship with his father until “he came to his senses“ and experienced the reality that “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son.”  And I suspect I’m not the only one who’s also identified with the “enslaved” brother using his obedience to justify his entitlement instead of his relationship to his father; “all these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.” 

The Father’s choice is the “more in this parable.”  Jesus has given an age span the Father is concerned with, younger to older.  He’s given two examples of what the alienation of sin can look like, separation and entitlement.  And He’s given two very human responses to think about.  The Father’s choice is to be “filled with compassion” for repentant sinners, even those with bad motives, and remind them “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.” “Let’s have a feast and celebrate.”

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Posted in Light, Luke, New Testament, Parables, Wednesday

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Conditions of the Cure

Posted on August 20, 2023 | Leave a comment

Acts 2:37 Now when they heard [“this Jesus whom you crucified” 2:36] they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” ESV

Jesus had said many times that “anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!”a  And with good reason! God’s truth demands more than a robotic response to powerful words and signs, even His own.  God had spoken that same challenge long before this day through Isaiah 6:10 “Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”  God made it clear “this people” was already in His sights.  His challenge was unless “this crooked generation” consciously chose to understand what their ears heard and their eyes saw of His truth it would never lead to their hearts being changed and an unchanged heart would never lead to His promise of healing and “the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  Peter stood before his brothers proclaiming God had satisfied His own challenge.  “Now when they heard” him say “this Jesus whom you crucified”…“they heard”…and “they were cut to the heart.”  

This Jesus/God, through His life and resurrection had done everything necessary to cure heavy ears, blind eyes and dull hearts.   Peter’s challenge to them was to “repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for forgiveness of their sins. God had provided the challenge and the conditions of His promise to remove those barriers and breathe new life into a dull heart with His Holy Spirit so they could “understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”  

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.b  And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in [me] will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.c”

a Matthew 11:15
b Galatians 2:20
c Philippians 1:6 [you]

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Posted in Acts, Galatians, Isaiah, Light, Matthew, Philippians, Sunday

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The Hidden Treasure

Posted on August 16, 2023 | Leave a comment

Matthew 13:44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”  ESV

POP QUIZ
1. Why did the man choose to cover up the treasure and then go buy the field?
2. What is the treasure?
3. Is the field the kingdom of heaven?
4. What makes the treasure like the kingdom of heaven?
5. Why purchase the field, not just take the treasure?  Matthew 7:21-23
6. Is Jesus challenging our greedy human nature wanting to own the treasure or is He asking us to do whatever it takes to make the treasure ours?   Matthew 6:19 or Matthew 6:21
7. Is the Word the treasure?  John 1:1
8. Is Jesus the treasure covered up in the flesh of man? Philippians 2:7

Think about these things.
“…God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Col 2:2b & 3

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Posted in Colossians, John, Light, Matthew, New Testament, Parables, Philippians, Wednesday

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This Jesus God Raised Up

Posted on August 13, 2023 | Leave a comment

Acts 2:29 “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath[a] to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, 35 until I make your enemies your footstool.”’ 36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” [b]

“This Jesus God raised up” is the whole point of Peter’s speech.  Some of the “brothers” needed to be convinced. Some of them had heard of, or seen the supernatural signs Jesus had done but they questioned if those were of God.  Some of them may actually have been in the crowd that had chanted “crucify him” and maybe were also part of the ghastly parade that followed Jesus to the cross.  Some of them having witnessed the spectacle of Jesus’s death by crucifixion would certainly eliminate any possibility of life for Him.   Some of them accepted Peter’s confident statement that what they had witnessed was the exaltation of Jesus “at the right hand of God.”  Some had recognized what they’d seen and heard was a new Spirit “from the Father.”  Very few of them would have expected to hear Peter’s words that accused them of crucifying Jesus.  Would you?

Some of the “brothers” response might have been to discredit Peter’s words because of that accusation.  But all of them needed to be reminded they had seen what “God had sworn with an oath” to their revered patriarch, come to pass. God’s choice was no longer a historical record, He had made this death personal…and Peter meant them to feel the sting of those words “whom you crucified.”  God had chosen “the one who would build a house for my Name” from David’s descendants to “establish the throne of His kingdom forever.” “This Jesus whom you crucified,” was made “both Lord and Christ” so you could be certain “this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing” is His Son’s Spirit, received from the Father and forever poured out as a witness to you.“And of that we all are witnesses.”

[a] 2 Samuel 7:12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.
[b] Psalm 110:1

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The Unworthy Servant

Posted on August 10, 2023 | 1 comment

Luke 17:7 “Will any one of you who has a servant(a) plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? 8 Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and  dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy(b) servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

One of the most important things I’ve learned in the last year was to pay attention to those “little” letters as I study, particularly when they’re red and relate to the resource Jesus relied on.  For instance because of that one little (a) this parable would begin: “Will any of you who has a bondservant bound to their service without wages, plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table?”  There’s tension in this parable and it’s about expectations. It’s Interesting to note it isn’t God who uses the word “unworthy” — lacking merit or value, — in verse 10.  It’s the servants who identify themselves that way.  I wonder about that. 

That little letter (b) cross referenced several places in the Old Testament.  That’s where I discovered Jesus probably began there too.  “-Can a man be profitable to God?  Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless? -The God who equipped me with strength [has] made my way blameless. -If you are righteous, what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand?”(b)   

We have a lot of Biblical evidence of our worth to God(c) so there is definitely something more to ponder in this parable. The man “who has a slave” rightfully expects a dutiful response from the servant but his reputation will not be changed whether the servant acts in a profitable way toward him or not. The servant is made blameless not by his service but because the owner has taken responsibility for the command’s he’s given the servant to obey by simply doing his duty.  The servant must come to the awareness his only expectation of worth is completing his duty to the master. “We are always debtors to grace before we have done anything and after we have done our duty.”(d)

(a) Bondservant: a person bound to service without wages
(b) Job 22:2-3, Psalm 18:32 & Job 35:7 copied in this sequence
(c) Our Worth to God
(d) John Piper

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They Should’a Known

Posted on August 6, 2023 | Leave a comment

Acts 2:22 Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 

Hear these words! Words to those law-less men to whom God provided clear evidence of who Jesus was.  According to God’s definite plan and foreknowledge… those men crucified and killed Jesus!  The crucifixion wasn’t what made them lawless, that was a grisly but legal process.  Their law-lessness was rejecting the signs of God in their midst they should’a recognized. They rejected those signs because their God inhabited the place of their choosing, acted in response to their record of His laws and then waited until they were ready to approach Him with a legal sacrifice.  Their law-lessness was blind unbelief in what God had already made known to them about His presence in their long and revered history.  

25 For David says concerning him, “‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; 26 therefore my heart was glad, my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. 27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

Long before Jesus, David knew[a] that God was always present with him and accessible.  He knew even when his sin was revealed God would not abandon him to destruction.  He knew death could not destroy the Holy One.  He knew the Lord had made known the paths of life.  He knew God’s presence filled him with unshakable hope that made his heart glad.  He knew because God had made it known to him.  Even the history of God’s presence that lived in David’s words from the past was not enough for the lawless men to believe God would be present with them, now!   Their law-lessness was that God had come into their midst and made Himself known to them and they rejected Him.  They should’a known!

[a] quoting Psalm 16:8-11

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All the Cost of Discipleship

Posted on August 2, 2023 | Leave a comment


Luke 14:28-33
28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

The highlighted words of the two small stories inside this parable seemed sensible to me.  The completion of projects, plans, desires, security, prestige and authority often depends on counting the cost and then throwing “all” your resources into making it a success.  What makes the “So therefore” of verse 33  so mysterious is that these Words of Jesus, “renounce all,” don’t seem to fit with the careful planning involved in the two illustrations that precede it.

Jesus did NOT say desiring something or counting the cost of getting it done is unwise or that deliberate and careful planning is a bad way to insure a good outcome that can overcome the odds against you.  In fact He details the negative outcomes of NOT counting the cost; mockery and being captured by an enemy.   “So therefore,” I am compelled to read and ponder what does that “renounce all” mean?  

Turns out I’m not the only one with that question. I read a very good paper by Pastor Tim Kelly[a] and because of his exhaustive referencing I learned Jesus didn’t always require the renouncing of “all” possessions even for His own mother or the disciples.  One helpful thing I learned was the verb that is translated “renounce,” apotassomai, can also mean bid farewell, delegate, appoint for, assign to, set aside or dismiss.  I looked back at that string of associated words I’d picked to consider as part of studying this parable — projects, plans, desires, security, prestige and authority and added [even] faith. It was then  I began to see they did have  connection to the wisdom of what Jesus was teaching His disciples. This parable wasn’t an option — they must “renounce all.”  What He did NOT say turned out to be very important  too.  Jesus was not preaching deprivation but that disciples must acknowledge that “all” things they have are already His to use.  This parable is not about personal deprivation at all but about a different reality for His disciples based on Isaiah 61:1-2.  “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound…”  

The cost that requires disciples to bid farewell, delegate, appoint for, assign to, set aside or dismiss everything as less valuable than Jesus is not deprivation but liberation for His disciples.  That’s “all.”

[a] Read Tim Kelly’s paper

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