Resource Manager Posted September 26, 2016 Author Report Share Posted September 26, 2016 26 September 2016 1 Chronicles 9Ezekiel 22Luke 19 “BECAUSE YOU HAVE BEEN FAITHFUL” Today’s chapter in Luke [Luke 19] first records the conversion of a Tax Collector as Jesus enters Jericho - this man “received him (Jesus) joyfully” [Luke 19:6] His declaration and his actions demonstrate his repentance – but others were grumbling “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” [Luke 19:7]. This leads Jesus to declare, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” [Luke 19:9,10] How few seek salvation today! They do not see themselves as “lost” – indeed, so few know there is anything to be “found”! Then Jesus tells a parable as he nears Jerusalem “because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.” [Luke 19:11] We sense we are living today at a time when “the kingdom of God” will very soon “appear.” There follows the story about “ten servants” who are each given the same amount of money – “ten minas” and told to ‘Engage in business until I come.’ [Luke 19:13] Then when he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business.” [Luke 19:15] One has not used his ‘minas’ and is condemned – but the others are told, “Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten/five cities.” [Luke 19:17] This is a simple parable – and its’ meaning is clear. May our Lord one day (soon!?) say to all who are reading this – who also absorb and meditate on the Scriptures they read, or hear read, each day, and who are then living their lives by “doing business for their Lord, according to their talents, hear their Lord say, “Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have …”-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted September 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2016 27 September 2016 1 Chronicles 10Ezekiel 23Luke 20 “YOU YOURSELVES MUST BEAR THE CONSEQUENCES” 1 Chronicles 10 describes how Saul bore ‘the consequences’ because “he did not seek guidance from the LORD.” [1 Chronicles 10:14] The same message emerges from the distasteful parable in Ezekiel 23. At the climax of this ‘ugly’ parable of, “the Lord GOD” says, “… Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, you yourselves must bear the consequences …” [Ezekiel 23:35] As we have read today’s chapter in the gospel of Luke we saw the parable of Jesus giving warning of the same consequences for the religious leaders who were rejecting him. Jesus tells the parable of the vineyard and the failure of the tenants to whom it had been let out – and how, in the end, they kill the son of the owner saying, 'This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.' [Luke 20:14] They were to “bear the consequences …” for doing this! Thus the nation of Israel was destroyed – the generation that had rejected Jesus. What do we see today – what is the scene in the whole world? God’s word has been made available in every language over the last 100 years – and in some cases, much longer. Most of today’s generation have turned their back on God’s message! The great majority are now denying that there even is a God, a great Creator who has given them his Son to believe and follow as the only way to be “considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead” [Luke 20:35]. This is the point Jesus made to “those who deny that there is a resurrection” [Luke 20:27] “Those who deny” the wonder of what is revealed in God’s word “must bear the consequences” There are awesome “consequences” to come, as we will find – and fear - in Luke’s chapter tomorrow for “those who deny” the truths revealed in God’s word. And those who do not deny them – must wholeheartedly accept them – there is no middle way.-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted September 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2016 28 September 2016 1 Chronicles 11Ezekiel 24Luke 21 "UNTIL THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES ARE FULFILLED" Quite a number of Bible Readers would know where to find the above quotation! Can we become too familiar with such passages of Scripture so that they lose their impact for us? We read Luke 21 very slowly this morning. It is evident that the first 24 verses were primarily for those who heard Jesus: and these except for the elderly, were going to experience these “days of vengeance” and “great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people” [Luke 21:22-23]. There is a striking parallel between this and our reading in Ezekiel 24 where the message the prophet sent to Jerusalem is totally blunt. Twice he writes, “Woe to the bloody city” [Ezekiel 24:6,9]. Less than 2 years are now left before God acts to destroy the city and the wonderful Temple Solomon had built. The totally unspiritual behavior of the inhabitants would finally cause God “to rouse my wrath, to take vengeance … on account of your unclean lewdness” [Ezekiel 24:8,12]. There are direct parallels to our generation – and we look carefully at the words of Jesus that apply to our generation. Are the words of Jesus in Luke 21:25-26 symbolic or literal or a mixture of both? Jesus’ statement is plain enough that Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” [Luke 21:24] What we cannot say for certain is whether the part of Jerusalem still not under Jewish control, the Mount on which the Temple stood, is significant in the fulfillment of this prophecy. Jerusalem is not being trampled underfoot as it was in former generations. Is there significance in that the Jews were prevented from gaining a good degree of control of the Old City until 1967? The oft quoted passage, “this generation will not pass away until all have taken place” [Luke 21:32] is in the context of “the kingdom of God is near” [Luke 21:31]. We are mindful that Jesus said, “that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels, nor the son” [Matthew 24:36] but Christ’s message at the end of today’s chapter is surely for us in 2016! “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth” [Luke 21:34-35] Not just Jerusalem! So let us from now on - “stay awake at all times” [Luke 21:36] -------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted September 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted September 29, 2016 29 September 2016 1 Chronicles 12Ezekiel 25Luke 22 “DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME” The 71 verses in Luke 22 contain some of the most heart moving passages in Scripture, especially if we can really bring them ‘alive’ in our minds. How the events and the words that Jesus uttered must have come ‘alive’ in the thinking of his disciples later. May they come alive in our minds as we read – and as this happens - may we effectively meditate on them. Jesus said, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” [Luke 22:15]. The actual day of the Passover had not yet come, the meal occurred “before the Feast of the Passover “ [John 13:1; 18:28]. Our Luke chapter tells us this was “the day of Unleavened Bread” [Luke 22:7] The “Passover” they were to eat with Jesus was to be emulated and echoed by genuine believers down through the centuries until our day. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul tells them of the action of Jesus, that “when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." [1 Corinthians 11:24]. See this in Luke 22:19 of today’s chapter In the next verse Paul tells them, “also he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." Committed believers in every generation since - seek to “do this in remembrance of” what Jesus did to be a sacrifice for their sins, they usually do this “on the first day of every week” [Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2] as was Paul’s practice, but there is no command about a particular day. Returning to Luke 22 we read the account of the arrest of Jesus in the darkness of the Garden of Gethsemane, they were afraid to do this when he taught “day after day in the Temple” “But” he said “this is your hour, and the power of darkness." [Luke 22:53] In a sense this “power” has operated ever since! But not for much longer!-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted September 30, 2016 Author Report Share Posted September 30, 2016 30 September 2016 1 Chronicles 13; 14Ezekiel 26Luke 23 “TRULY I SAY UNTO YOU TODAY” Today we read the familiar account of Jesus on ‘trial’ before Herod and Pilate and the determination of the Jewish leaders to have him crucified – and “they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed.” [Luke 23:23] Today and in recent years the voices and published words of so many are urgent in saying there is no Creator, that life evolved in some way that is impossible for them to understand or explain – and the sayings and writings of such – today – have “prevailed”. What a privilege that we are among the increasing few who know how foolish this all is! Today’s chapter also contains one brief conversation – but it is fascinating and meaningful - and is unique in history. Jesus is crucified together with two criminals, and one “railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" [Luke 23:39]. This was obviously said with no pretension of belief! “But the other rebuked him” [Luke 23:40] and made an honest statement and then a most remarkable request! The rebuke was, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." [Luke 23:41] And then he asked (and we have corrected the wrong punctuation in the English text – there is no punctuation at all in the Greek) “ His request was, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in Paradise." Three days later Mary Magdalene encounter the resurrected Christ, and he “said to her, "Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" [John 20:17] Let us daily read the words God’s has caused to be written and preserved: may they come alive in our minds so that we ‘hear’ his Son” saying unto you and I today” - Be faithful and “you will be with me in Paradise." The word “paradise” occurs in a challenging way in Revelation 2:7, the time when the earth becomes a “paradise” with the returned Christ reigning in Jerusalem.-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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