No matter what time it is, the gospel is priority.

And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.

Mark 13:10

Would scripture give us any indication that we are indeed living in the end days? Well… “yes”… and “I don’t know.” 

From the teaching of Jesus it is clear that the world is certainly troubled and filled with disaster as He says it will be near the end. And His followers have indeed stood before high rulers… from the first generation of apostles all the way to today. Martyrs still die for loving Jesus. Christians are often hated, cancelled, or at best ridiculed by many cultural powers worldwide.

Yet there are many places, many people groups who have not yet had a gospel witness. There are closed borders for Christian activity. It would seem that we have not quite filled the globe with the good news that Jesus died and rose again to bring us peace with God and home forever with Him. There is still a lot of work left to preach Jesus to ALL people. Until we love people and the world like God does to bring the gospel everywhere, we haven’t quite fulfilled this prophetic call of Jesus to proclaim Him to ALL people everywhere.

I’m somewhat of a gospel pragmatist. Sure, it is interesting to know what Jesus taught about end times. But I can’t live my Christian life exclusively fixated on that. Eschatology never is bigger than the gospel’s first priority! We need to make Jesus known, not hunker down and wait for the judgement of the Great White Throne. My task is to help people passionately follow Jesus. And if you are a Christian… that is what should wake you up every morning. You should hit the floor each morning figuring out what to do to make Jesus known! Let’s love like Jesus. Let’s live like Jesus. Let’s tell others the good news about Jesus. 

Fixating on our culture and its faults is the wrong focus because it is the GOSPEL that fixes hearts. And when Jesus reclaims hearts this WILL reclaim what is broken in our world. Don’t worry about if these are the last days… it doesn’t change the hard reality that we have much gospel work to do RIGHT NOW!

the reception to expect

Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake.

Matthew 24:9

Christians, when following Jesus sincerely, will inevitably be counter culture. The further a society explores its own self-driven compulsions in order to celebrate the triumph of the modern self, unrestrained by God’s Law and the Holy Spirit, the more counter-culture Christianity will appear. This is what Jesus warned His followers about when they pressed Him to teach them about “the end of the age”. Three words describe a world culture at war with Christian discipleship at the end of the age.

Tribulation. Literally the word means “pressure” or “oppression”. As the light of the gospel and the call to holy living shines in Christians who are serious about living like Jesus, the culture will push against the truth. Just like a sinful system worked to silence Jesus by confronting, beating, putting Him on trial, and crucifying Him, so an oppressive world will press in against His church when we truly follow Jesus. Christians should expect to get heckled, cancelled, maligned, ridiculed, “re-educated”, mocked, lied about, and pressured to relinquish their convictions and conform to the cultural “norms”. This pressure is promised by Jesus to be worldwide by the time of the end, with no safe haven from persecution.

Death. Martyrdom has existed from the beginning of the church. The blood of the martyrs has throughout history watered massive growth of the seeds of the gospel globally. In the past there have been pockets of safety from those who might kill Christians. This blood-oath against Christ however will be global in the time of the end. By Jesus’ own prophetic word, there will come a time that the killing of Christians will be the acceptable way to silence the gospel and will be seen as a benefit to society.

Hated. This is the root of the response against Jesus. It is as old as Cain’s hatred of his brother Abel for pleasing God. A sinful world running from accountability before a holy God will hate any who choose to live like Jesus, be changed by His work, be led by His Spirit, and who call others to such transformation by faith in the gospel. All Christians should realize that though we respond in love to ALL PEOPLE… no exceptions… we should expect hatred in return. We MUST love even if we are hated. We CANNOT hate back! Just as Jesus prayed “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”, so we must appeal to mercy and grace even if we are treated this way. It is what Jesus wants us to do.

religion’s damning influence

So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Matthew 23:28

The twenty-third chapter of the gospel of Matthew is a scathing sermon by Jesus on the evil of human devised religion. In every section Jesus denounces the way the organized legalistic ritual-keeping of the scribes and Pharisees damns them before God. Their outward “righteousness” was not motivated by the inward work of God in their hearts. It is entirely possible to be sinfully motivated into religious pursuits. It is actually all too common. And the result takes the soul far from God, not near to heaven, but actually into the fires of hell.

Here is the truth from Jesus: All the “rule making and rule keeping” piety in the world will not save your soul. Dressing up in outward devotion, ritual, customs, and the notice of others people around you will not clean up our decaying dead souls. God wants to change the inside, not whitewash the outside. The corruption from within us is what needs the real spiritual attention. It matters not how we look when it is who we are that must be changed!

Lest we think Christianity is immune from the need to apply Jesus’ sermon here, let’s remember how easy it is to rest on legalistic self-efforts. We can easily do it. Faking righteousness is very easy. Just go to church. Just show up. Just make minimal effort to let people know you are “in”. Then sin all you want. Being truly changed so that we fight sin and root it out, trusting the Word of God and the Spirit of God, dealing with our basest sinful motivations…. That is a work we MUST surrender to Jesus to help us do! There are too many times my own life drifts to being a “white-washed tomb full of dead man’s bones”. I’m a Pharisee in recovery! It is easy to let fake piety keep up appearances. It is necessary though to humbly admit the simple prayer of the publican: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Lord,

It seems the more Christian activity I busy myself with, the easier it is to whitewash things. Forgive my praise and self-exalting arrogance. I don’t want to be damned by religion. I want to be dazzled in relationship with my Lord, delighting in You, transformed by Your renewing grace… always reaching further to be more like Jesus! And so I humbly repent of pride about what I know about You and I commit to being truly changed, honestly and humbly admitting my failures, so that You can lead me and truly love me!

Amen

God of the living

He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.

Mark 12:27

There is so much more to this story than Jesus silencing His Sadducee critics. It’s more than a shrewdly played theological argument that shattered the liberal mindset of a sect of Jews that denied an afterlife. Jesus is giving hope and that hope was at the heart of His ministry and was His ultimate mission. Jesus would eventually be crucified and then be raised from the dead three days later to make certain for all who believe the reality of the resurrection.

When you think about the Sadducee’s scenario that they presented to Jesus, it is so cold-hearted. A widow loses seven husbands in succession, all brothers, one at a time, over her lifetime. There is no tragedy in the tone of the Sadducees as they lay out their weird scenario. There is just absurdity. And Jesus points it out, telling them in effect from the start, “You are just wrong”. Human experience is not the stuff of philosophical/theological thought experiments. Death and life, love and loss, time and eternity aren’t algebraic equations. The Sadducees missed knowing both the Word of God and the power of God. It showed most in their calloused setup question.

Jesus rebukes them shrewdly. They have got it all wrong. Marriage is an earthly design, not an eternal heavenly experience. And their core belief of denying the resurrection is shattered by scripture in its earliest and simplest expressions. Jesus points out that in God’s presence, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob existed in the present tense as God spoke to Moses from the burning bush. Resurrection is real. Eternity is our destination. God’s saints reside in His presence after earthly death. There is hope in the resurrection. Jesus would die and be raised Himself to guarantee that truth for us!

God of the living,

You know how this truth comforts and strengthens us in the face of death and losing those we love most. I come to You quite encouraged in the true and certain hope of eternity with You and Your holy ones redeemed in Jesus our Lord! It is a glorious certainty! And I long for its completion in Your time.

Amen

no “gotchas” with Jesus

And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent.

Luke 20:26

You can’t “gotcha” Jesus. It is impossible! Just ask the scribes and chief priests who tried it. His truth and wisdom shut down their deceit and hatred every time. In this episode recounted in Luke 20:19-26, they tried their hardest to get Jesus into a political trap. The hot button topic they wanted to see Him flub up: paying the very unpopular Roman tribute tax. They felt that any answer He gave would hurt His growing popularity. To refuse the tax put Him in trouble with Rome and would be grounds for handing Him over to civil authorities. To agree with the tax was to anger the oppressed Jews. It appeared to be the perfect trap. Except… this was Jesus!

They ask the question with false complimentary attitudes, calling Jesus Rabbi and saying He was teaching “rightly” without partiality. But Jesus was not impressed by their flattery. He perceived their intent right at the very start and used an object lesson to silence them.

He asked for a Roman denarius to be shown to Him. That was the coin needed to pay the tribute tax to Rome. He asked them to tell Him whose likeness was on the coin. Of course everybody knew, it was Caesar. He then shut them up with this simple observation: “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Give to God what belongs to God.” And with that, He turned their trap back on them.

In so teaching, Jesus demonstrated principles that Christians still must use to discern the role of civil government even now. Taxes still exist and may feel oppressive. Governments do not always support the best things. Today Jesus would hold up a dollar bill here in America and say to us: “Give to Washington what belongs to Washington. Give to God what belongs to God.” And with that, the highest priority of the kingdom helps us live well under the authorities God ordains to rule over us.

evangelizing the many… discipling the few

For many are called, but few are chosen.

Matthew 22:14

The gospel is meant to go wide… our command is to take it to the entire world… to every ethnic group. The call that Jesus still makes is global in its efforts. The church should never forget this. We want every person to understand that Jesus died for our sins and was raised to give us new life. This is why Christians much plant churches globally.

We have no idea which people will respond to the gospel, which ones have not yet heard it, and which people God is preparing by His Spirit to believe. And so we assume every person needs to learn about this good news. We want to talk about Jesus as we can, where we can, with whomever we can. This is why evangelism, missions, and disciple-making among the nations must always exist until Jesus returns. He is still issuing the call in gospel proclamation to the many.

Though the effort is global, the effectiveness of it is very personal. Jesus Himself emphasized that even as the gospel goes wide, true saving faith and discipleship that goes deep is a much smaller response. The gospel is preached to many. Only a few really join the chosen. Only those who repent of sin, believe that Jesus is their only Savior, and commit to following Him truly join the ranks of His chosen ones. We can make disciples only of those who have chosen Jesus because He has chosen them. That is the reality of what we do.

We must embrace this balancing tension. We heartily proclaim Jesus everywhere. We seek to grow disciples among the few who will believe. We cannot identify those chosen ahead of time. We can only rejoice with them and welcome them once they believe, are baptized, and join the ranks of the faithful. So we keep reaching out to the many, and teaching the few until Jesus returns.

clear identification

Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

John 12:42-43

Real faith in Jesus is not afraid to confess Him before others. John’s commentary on these Jewish authorities who were starting to secretly believe Jesus was Messiah is instructive for us on what motivates true saving faith. At least during Jesus’ Passion week, these people were not at all ready to publicly identify with Jesus. They wanted to believe Christ but not to a point that rocked their comfort zone.

All of this is told us in a broader context. Jesus has just invited a crowd that included Greek-speaking Jews to follow Him (John 12:26). He has announced His coming death and proclaimed it is for the glory of His Father (John 12:27). And the crowd has heard the literal audible voice of the Father speak out loud to them affirming Jesus (John 12:28-30). Jesus clearly announced to them that His redeeming death will draw the world to Him (John 12:30-36). Given the crowd, it would be sure to include some of these “authorities” mentioned in verse 42. They were among those who had just experienced all these things.

And despite an encounter with the voice of the Father… despite Jesus’ clear declaration of coming to save the world… they still feared people more than God. They wanted to believe Jesus, but it would take more. We would begin to see that change occur after His death when both Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimethea would reveal themselves unashamedly as His followers.

If we follow Jesus, we cannot hide it. There are no “secret saints”. We cannot try to be loved by those who hate Jesus. It will not work. We are going to be hated. But when we are called out, criticized, or canceled for our love of Jesus, we take heart. The glory of God is bigger and best. We lose nothing! We gain our soul’s eternal delight in Jesus!

den of robbers

And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”

Luke 19:45-46

Religious profiteering

from the poor

to enrich the wealthy

is evil in the 

House of the Lord

Jesus sneering

at the fools

who tried to get rich

by this evil in the

House of the Lord

Overturned tables

thieves driven away

out of the temple

by the authority of Jesus

and the Word of the Lord

Jesus is able

to save the day

cleansing His temple

restoring prayer and worship

in zeal for the Lord

Yet even now

there are thieves

using religion

to great gain

they mock God’s Word

Know somehow

they’ll definitely answer

sooner rather than later

to an angry, judging,

robber-clearing Lord!

death not what it was

The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign.

John 12:18

The “sign” John is telling us about with this comment was Jesus raising His friend Lazarus from the dead. It is pretty hard to keep quiet about a resurrection! People were understandably amazed. And it was creating quite a stir for Jesus as He made His way through Jerusalem in preparation for His own coming death and resurrection. All the buzz about Lazarus being raised from the dead by Jesus was creating a public relations crisis for the Pharisees.

Their observations in John 12:19 show how threatened they feel. 1) They were not gaining new followers to their brand of legalistic religion. 2) Huge crowds were attracted to Jesus: “…the world had gone after him”. This was something they should have noted as worth investigating. None of the Pharisees could bring the dead back to life. Yet they refused to believe Jesus and plotted a way to put an end to the perceived threat He posed.

The truth is that the One Who raises the dead is worth going after! He has now destroyed the finality of what sin and death had once done to humanity. He rose victorious from the grave so that for us, death is no longer the fearful separation from God that it once was. It is now the portal to eternal life. In Christ, all who believe are made alive! And that is truly amazing good news! Who doesn’t want to find real life like this in Jesus and know that eternal life is a present and future possession? We believe the good news that He Who rose from the dead and Who raises the dead also gives life to all who trust in Him!

Save now!

And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

Matthew 21:9

The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem for the last time before His crucifixion was a different event for all involved. Jesus predicted it, sending His disciples ahead to pick up a donkey with a young colt to carry Him into the city. Matthew, the gospel’s author, is quick to point our how this event fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9.

For the disciples this is a moment they had not yet seen, but had all hoped for. It appears that Jesus is stepping into the role of the Davidic political messiah at last, acting quite kingly and accepting the acclaim of the people around Him. He is certainly entering the royal city of David like a king of old. And His direction of them to procure His ride into town feels very commanding. Perhaps they thought that now the kingdom would break Roman occupation and set the Jews free from gentile domination?!

The crowds certainly seem to accept Jesus with that kind of fervor. They are calling out for Jesus as the “Son of David” (the Messiah and the True King) to “save now” (the meaning of Hosanna)! They are hoping for a revolution. They see the King coming to them, humble and mounted on a donkey, and their hope is also very earthly. They want Israel to rise again as a world power.

Little did they realize that Jesus would defeat a greater tyranny than Rome. And this humble king riding a donkey into Jerusalem would a week later in humiliation be crucified outside her gates. He would be buried in a rock tomb, apparently defeated by the Sanhedrin and Pilate’s own Roman order of execution. But three days later He would rise up from that tomb having defeated the powers of sin, death, and hell so that not just Israel, but the world could be saved from the rule of sin and death! Save now? Indeed! Save completely, our King!

Invested

I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

Luke 19:26

Ten servants

entrusted with funds

some invested quite well

even a small return grows

even more is given as reward

One servant

afraid of loss

handed back the funds

there was no growth gain

but “no gain” is a loss

Lesson learned

I steward too

with what God gave

time, talent, resources, gifts, love

all should be invested toward heaven

This servant

will answer Jesus

with what I’ve done

with what He has given

may I see dividends into eternity

not ignored

And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.”

Mark 10:49

A blind man… a lonely desperate beggar needed Jesus. The crowd of disciples tried to hush him. But scripture goes to length to name and identify him as Bartimaeus, the Son of Timaeus. He was s human being, uniquely crafted in the image of God, with a family, yet reduced to being cast aside as roadside rabble in the town of Jericho. Blind… begging… and mostly ignored. But he cried out to Jesus!

Jesus heard, saw, and responded to the people other folks ignored. Bartimaeus called out to Jesus. Jesus called out to him in response. Old Bart literally sprang into action at that news (Mark 10:50). And in his honest need he met Jesus, Who gave him back his sight.

Jesus does not ignore our need, even as His well-intentioned followers suppress need. He will hear the cries of the truly needy. He will not let our brokenness stay unmended for we have a merciful savior! He will restore what we have lost. He will reward tenacious faith. He will not ignore us when we cry out. “Take heart! He is calling you!”

death’s turnaround

And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.

Mark 10:34

Jesus was not taken by surprise by His betrayal, trials, mocking, and crucifixion. It wasn’t some tragic misunderstanding where Jesus was the helpless victim of a hate crime. Jesus KNEW, well ahead of the events, what awaited Him in Jerusalem. He knew every part of His coming humiliation. He walked boldly to His coming death, knowing it ended in victory and life for all!

Because Jesus knew and did not run away, we too need not fear death. We can dislike the pain and the separation death brings. That is real… but temporary. Jesus never did soften the reality of His pain. He would be mocked, spat upon, whipped, and brutalized on a tortuous cross. But… after His death, three days later… the glory of resurrection and the death of death!

Because Jesus did this to bestow eternal life on all who believe, we can trust that death is now to us somewhat of a sham. Yes, it is real. But there is much more beyond it. And for the Christian, it is ALL GOOD! Death does not win. Resurrection life with Christ helps us boldly believe, following in Jesus’ steps knowing the humiliation of our bodies in death leads to eternal life and is not the final experience! Amen!

trapped in wealth

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Luke 18:22

Why would Jesus require this wealthy, influential, young man to sell it all to truly possess eternal life? Well… that life is only found in Jesus. And although this sincere young Jewish leader was serious about keeping God’s Law (or so he thought), his heart was attached much too closely to what his earthly wealth provided. He was sad, not happy, at Jesus’ legit, generous invitation to be a disciple.

Ultimately this account is a great tragedy. He was so close to the kingdom. Jesus offered a full life of discipleship and spiritual adventure to a guy who looked like a great prospect to add to the retinue of disciples. And sacrifice was just what the man was NOT ready for. Heaven was his hope, but humility was not the price he wanted to pay. And so he went away sad… still rich… but quite sad.

Happy are those who have been able to divest themselves of the parasitic infection of materialism as their heart’s driving value. Those people who know Jesus will know all the rewards no wealth in this world can supply! And His kingdom brings out a generous love in them. And they live in the generous overflow of grace forever!

last first

But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

Matthew 19:30

It’s so easy to accept

the world’s order of things

rich men rule

power is coveted

recognition is reward

the weak fail

predatory survival at all cost

None of those is good or right

and all people truly know it

yet we give in

bow to the system

envy the rich and famous

weaken our souls

forgetting there is a bigger kingdom

Jesus turns it all upside down and kicks it far away!

Jesus teaches us to submit

joy in His liberating reverse kingdom

only He rules each heart

humility is noble and noticed

slaves are rewarded ambassadors

the meek are the strong

carrying a humiliating cross… 

counting the extraordinary cost

marriage permanence

What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.

Mark 10:9

I hope I am not just writing out of feelings of my own loss of Joni to pancreatic cancer. God brought us together. God has chosen to separate us by death. I’m not particularly “prideful” that our marriage went all the way to the gates of heaven. Frankly, it kinda still sucks. I’m still reeling from it in many ways.

But I do agree with Jesus that a strictly human, casual view of matrimony is outrageous and wrong. And it is all too prevalent today. If it were only a human commitment, than running from problems, splitting in disagreements, ducking difficulties, going totally selfish would be the foolish and completely self-serving thing to do. It just proves that real love, however, never really entered the relationship. Self love first is not real love.

Real love says it is sorry and grieves when it has hurt a spouse. Real love helps sacrificially when the relationship dips to a low. Real love faces hell on earth with grace, guts, sacrifice, and determination to never let go, even though it is tempting to want an easy way out. Real love will not separate. Why? That is not how God loves. Nothing separates us from the love of God (Romans 8:35-39). Nothing should separate when we learn to love with His love.

contemptible contempt

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt:

Luke 18:9

Self-righteous hate is an awful evil. Of all the sins Jesus died for, this was the one most responsible for carrying out His execution. It was self-righteous contempt wrapped in pious religiosity that opposed Jesus at every turn. This sin plotted. It planned. It hated grace. It hated the people needing grace. It always does.

Reading this short parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, we see self-righteous hate in the heart of the Pharisee. Some telltale signs: 1) He prayed literally “to himself” - not reaching God’s heart with his selfish garbage (Luke 19:11). 2) He was judgmental and biased against others. 3) He trusted his own efforts for salvation. 4) He despised people who literally stood next to him in a house of worship. 5) He prided himself on his own works in self-congratulation, not even recognizing God as the source of His reward.

Only one humble prayer dismantles self-righteous contempt: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” We are awfully susceptible to having a Pharisaical pride… the longer we soak in Christian “culture”, the easier it is to slip into self-righteous comparison. The more we want to be away from “the bad people”, the more likely we are to be praying just to our boastful selves. But the truth is we are all the tax collectors and sinners who MUST pray this prayer. We never lose the need to pray it. Pray it every day, all day, embracing your need for a Savior! And He will grow close to you, wrapping you in His mercy, grace, and care!

A plot? No. A purpose.

So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.

John 11:53

People may love a good conspiracy, but in this conspiracy around Jesus, there are no secrets. It all unfolds in a way that will change the world… for good.

The “they” of this verse consisted of the high priest in Israel and the highest council of Jewish religious leaders. The “him” is of course, Jesus. The full-fledged conspiracy to kill Jesus has come into a matter of public record with this council’s determined action. It is now official policy to put Jesus to death. The last straw? Jesus raised a man from the dead, causing stir enough to potentially draw Roman attention in ways the Jewish leaders were afraid would further erode what power they had.

The council hated Jesus. But they covered their hate with the pretense of a political rationale that was in their minds “better for the nation”. Caiaphas, the high priest, even unwittingly spoke redemptively of their plan to murder Jesus: “…it is better for you that one man should die for the people…”

And so a private plan that was meant to silence Jesus forever would become for all eternity the loudest, best news that still reverberates in our world. It is the joyous song of the redeemed even now: Christ died for our sins!

Martha’s belief

She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

John 11:27

Jesus asked Martha a very direct and personal question: “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26). Jesus, claiming to be “the resurrection and the life” pressed into Martha’s grief with that impossible question. Don’t blame Martha for the theological answer during her pain. I think I would respond the same way. She is enveloped in sorrow’s tunnel vision. She is clinging to what faith she DOES have, not avoiding the question that Jesus asks. Frankly, I respect her honest answer.

Yet, Jesus IS the resurrection and the life. And every disciple who loses a loved one in Him still knows very real grief and sorrow. We don’t doubt His reality as our Savior and Lord. That deepens. We also don’t deny death’s very real separation. The thought of resurrection, though very comforting, is massively distanced by the cold reality of the death we know. We tend to hold to what we do know even as we are encouraged to hold out for what will come. But that future resurrection is a God task. Only Jesus can be the resurrection and life. Only He ends this agonizing separation. We believe, as we can, until He resurrects. Until then, with an arm around us during our tears, Jesus understands us, staying right beside us.

micro-faiths

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

Luke 17:5

Jesus’ favorite way to talk about His disciples’ commitment was to regularly remind them they were of “little faith” — literally “micro-faiths” was their nickname as a group. So we should not be surprised that as Jesus gave them some hard to follow teaching, they would cry this request out sincerely to the Master.

Jesus had just spoken on some hard subjects that are counter-intuitive to our default human wiring: 1) Forgiving an offense without reservation… repeatedly (Luke 17:1-4). 2) Rejection by the world even when Jesus would rise from the dead (Luke 16:19-31). 3) The consequences of a casual view of marriage and divorce (Luke 16:18). 4) The complete fulfillment of all the Law in Jesus (Luke 16:14-17), and 5) The stewardship of earthly possessions for maximum eternal impact (Luke 16:1-13). “Increase our faith!” Indeed!

When Jesus is the sole object of our faith, no matter how hard the circumstances of following Him, no matter how heavy the opposition from those opposed to Him, no matter how challenging the relationships we live in, we can always see Him lead us through. Lord…Increase our faith by increasing our view of You as we follow You no matter how counter-intuitive to our natural impulses the life you ask of us may seem!

recovery & joy

Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.

Luke 15:6b

God’s joy at the saving of sinners is the theme of the parables Jesus tells in Luke 15. Using three stories to make His point, Jesus emphasizes how God wants to seek the lost, restore the lost, and most importantly, rejoice wildly in their recovery. It is clear that God delights in restoration. This enthusiasm for the lost is why Jesus came to earth to save us.

The first story of the lost sheep emphasizes the lengths that the Lord goes to, leaving all others, in pursuit of the lost one. The celestial rejoicing in heaven over even one repentant sinner is wildly infectious, louder than a last second Super Bowl winning score! Luke 15:7

The second story of the lost coin emphasizes the earnest nature of God’s love for sinners. He leaves no stone unturned, no corner unswept in recovering them. Nobody is worthless. No person is insignificant. No life is too small. And again, a party erupts in the context of their restoration.

The third and most personal of the stories is that of the lost son. It emphasizes the depth of emotion and relationship the Father feels for the lost, a pinnacle of wild celebration when the prodigal humbly begs to be home again. God throws the biggest parties out of love for each of us, no matter how selfish and inconsiderate we may have once been. Even when others don’t get why we deserve His grace, He pours it all on us because in Him we are home! There is no greater joy for God than when His lost ones, now sons and daughters, are home in Him.