Category Archives: Luke

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God Never Forgets

He May Be Slow, But He Is Never Late

God keeps all of his promises. He can’t help himself. Fulfilling them is just his nature. He had promised through the prophets a redeemer for Israel hundreds of years before it happened, but it happened. 400 years of silence ensued between the last prophet Malachi’s messianic oracles until the time the angel Gabriel revealed God’s redemptive plan to Zechariah, but it happened. He hasn’t forgotten you either. While his promise to you may be slow in coming, it won’t be late. In God’s time, it will happen!

Enduring Truth // Focus: Luke 1:67-68

Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people.”

Over the years the church has given Zechariah’s song the title, “The Benedictus,” or “The Blessing.” The lyrics of this brief song, which we read in Luke 1:67-79, were sung by one of the proudest and oldest first-time fathers of all time. But more than being just a happy little ditty from a happy old daddy, Zechariah proclaims two timeless and timely truths about God’s character that you and I probably need to hear again today.

First, we are reminded that God never breaks a promise! John’s birth was living proof of God’s faithfulness. In His song, Zechariah belts out to all who will listen, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people.” (Luke 1:68)

God keeps his promises—every one of them. He can’t help himself; it is just his nature. He had promised through the prophets a redeemer for Israel hundreds of years before, and 400 silent years had passed since the last prophet Malachi had uttered the oracles of God until the time the angel Gabriel revealed God’s plan to Zechariah. Though God’s promise had been ever so slow in coming, it was nonetheless fulfilled.

Zechariah’s song reminds us that even though God may be slow, he is never late!

Second, God never forgets. Zechariah’s name meant “God remembers.” And in his song, Zechariah exploded with the joyful realization that God does remember: “God has remembered his oath…” (Luke 1:72-73)

Zechariah must have been discouraged. He was a priest of a nation that had turned its back on God. He and Elizabeth, whose name meant “the promise of God,” had been faithful to God all their lives—they lived up to the meaning of their names. Yet God had not blessed them with a son, and wayward Israel continued to be oppressed by its pagan enemies.

But Zechariah clung to this truth: Our Creator remembers! God knows who we are, where we are, and what we need. He remembers us. He remembers his promises, and God graciously acts at the proper time.

Isaiah 49:15-16 reminds us, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.”

God can’t forget!

If you are reading these words today and feeling a little forgotten by God, thank God you’re wrong! Zechariah reminds you from first-hand experience through his song that God remembers you and will fulfill every single one of his promises to you at the proper time!

So be faithful!

Thrive: Take a moment to thank the Lord for his unfailing faithfulness. He remembers his promises to you and he will fulfill them all. Rejoice in him today, then offer your life faithfully back to him and his purposes.

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The Last Supper – For Now

Declare His Death Until He Comes

Whenever you receive communion, you are being reminded of a promise. It is one of God’s best promises to you: the promise of Christ’s return. And he has never broken a promise—not one. Jesus sealed the promise of his return by his death, and he guaranteed it by his resurrection. He will make good on it, perhaps sooner than you expect, maybe even today. Maranatha—even so, come Lord Jesus!

Enduring Truth // Focus: Luke 22:15-16

Jesus said, “I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins. For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”

From the moment Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, Christians have regularly celebrated communion in memory of his death. Some church traditions celebrate it every Sunday, others celebrate it monthly—as does my church on the first Sunday of every month—and still others have their own tradition as to the frequency and practice of communion.

When we receive communion, we mostly focus on the Lord’s death and our redemption that was purchased at the moment of his sacrifice. And what a sweet time of remembrance it is. Nothing is more moving than coming to the Lord’s Table.

Yet it is not only about remembering, communion also calls us to look forward. Twice, as Jesus instituted this holy sacrament, he spoke to his disciples of a time in the future where he, himself, would again participate in this celebration. He was referring to his second coming. He was issuing a promise that he would come again, and each time they, and by extension, we, receive Holy Communion, partakers were to be reminded of that promise and rejoice in its future fulfillment.

The next time you receive Holy Communion, I want to challenge you to not only look back in gratitude for the Lord’s death, but look forward in hope to the Lord’s coming. When you eat the bread and drink the wine, you are declaring his death, as the Apostle Paul said, “til he comes.”

Holy Communion means a promise. It is one of God’s best promises to you. And he has never broken a promise—not one. Jesus sealed the promise of his return by his death, and he guaranteed it by his resurrection. He will make good on it—perhaps sooner than you expect. And as you come to the Table, remember, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.”(I Corinthians 11:26)

Thrive: The next time you receive communion, deliberately and gratefully remember the promise he made to you of his return.

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Storm Sleepers

God’s Care and Competence Makes the World Perfectly Safe for You

Jesus slept through a raging storm because of what he knew about life in God’s hand: That given the care and the competence of his Heavenly Father, the world was a perfectly safe place to be, including the back of a boat in the middle of a storm. When you live in the predetermined assurance, as Jesus did, that you are always safe in God’s hand, you can, too.

Enduring Truth // Focus: Luke 8:24

The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves. Suddenly the storm stopped and all was calm.

Jesus and his disciples were in the boat in the middle of a lake when a fierce storm hit, threatening to capsize the craft and drown them all. Understandably, the disciples were frantic, but Luke says that Jesus was sleeping—snoozing away in the midst of a raging storm!

Now that is an interesting detail the writer throws in. So just why is that bit of information so important? I believe it is because Luke wanted us to know what Jesus knew about life in the hands of his Father: That given the care and the competence of his Heavenly Father, the world was a perfectly safe place to be, including a boat in the middle of a storm.

A raging storm is about to sink their boat, and the disciples are screaming and struggling for their very lives. They think they are going to die. But Jesus is living with a full assurance that had been settled long ago in his mind that his Father was both caring and competent, so therefore he has no problem sleeping right through this storm. In their frantic state, the disciples cried out to Jesus for help. They had faith in Jesus—and that is a very important thing. But what they didn’t have, not yet anyway, was the faith of Jesus. They did not live in the predetermined assurance, as Jesus did, that they were safe in the hands of God.

The Apostle Peter, who was in that boat, came to know what Jesus knew. He later wrote in I Peter 5:7, “cast all your anxieties upon him because he cares for you.” He too, had come to know that when your life is in the Father’s competence and care, this world, no matter what is going on around you, is a perfectly safe place to be.

Do you realize that the Father cares for you? Sure you do! So why not practice a little casting today—especially if you are in the middle of a storm. Cast your anxieties back to the One who cares for you, and don’t be surprised if you fall asleep in the middle of your storm.

Thrive: Offer this prayer of surrender: Lord, you care for me more than I will ever realize. And you are competent to take care of all of my needs. So I cast my anxieties back to you, and in exchange, I receive your peace.

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Love My Enemy! Really?

Reconciling Love—It’s the Heart of Why Jesus Came to Earth

In living out the law of agape love, we become like God—something that truly honors and pleases the heart of our Father. That’s what Jesus said: “You will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked.” (Luke 6:35) That’s a pretty compelling reason for choosing to express unconquerable, benevolent, kind, invincible, reconciling agape love—especially toward people who least deserve it. It is who God is, it is what God does, it is when we are most like God, and it is what his Son asked us to do.

Enduring Truth // Focus: Luke 6:35-36

Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.

Quite often, Jesus’ commands aren’t the kind that can be automatically or easily carried out; they require careful thought and great exertion of the will in applying them. So it is with this case, loving our enemies. For some people, this command is just humanly impossible, so it gets ignored altogether. That is too bad! For others, they ignorantly try to apply Jesus’ words well beyond what he intended. That is also too bad.

Christ’s followers would do well to accurately think through this law of love and then strategically live it out in their relationships. If they did—on both accounts—the world would be a much different and better place.

There were four different Greek words for love that the Gospel writer Luke could have chosen to capture Jesus’ words regarding the Christian’s response to his enemies. Luke didn’t choose “storge”, which meant “family love”; he didn’t choose “eros”, which meant the “passionate love of irresistible longing”; he didn’t chose “philos”, which was the warmest Greek word describing love of “the most tender affection”. The word used here for “love” was “agape”. That word referred to an “unconquerable, benevolent, invincible, reconciling kindness” kind of love.

Now in the case of loving an enemy, that kind of love is not something of the heart; it requires mainly something of the will—something we will likely have to will ourselves into. “Agape” with your enemy is, in fact, a victory over that which comes instinctively to us by nature: anger, resentment and retribution toward hurtful people.

“Agape” love belongs to the true disciple of Jesus. It is the one and only weapon in the disciple’s arsenal able to conquer all. Someone has rightly said, “It belongs to the children of God to receive blows rather than to inflict them. The [loving] Christian is the anvil that has worn out many hammers.” The law of “agape” love, fully embraced and obediently lived out, is that powerful!

Now people have tried to apply this teaching to promote pacifism in international relationships. That’s a nice try—and not a bad idea whenever possible. But foremost, the enemy Jesus has in mind is the one we meet in our everyday life: A spouse, a sibling, a classmate, a co-worker or a neighbor—those who have hurt our feelings, frustrated our desires, misunderstood our intentions, misrepresented our words or demeaned our character. You see, it is much easier to declare peace between nations than it is to live a life where we never allow bitterness, anger and retribution to invade our personal relationships.

Jesus is saying that when we practice this law of love on a personal basis, we make breaking the cycle of bitterness and retribution possible where it really counts: In the real world of our daily lives. Moreover, in so doing, we actually catalyze another law, the law of reconciliation.

Reconciliation! That is at the heart of why Jesus came to earth—to reconcile God and sinners, and to reconcile sinners with one another. Think of all the fractured relationships that would be reconciled if we would choose to obey the law of love.

Not only that, but in living out this law of love, we become like God—something that truly honors and pleases the heart of our Father. That’s what Jesus said: “You will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked.” (Luke 6:35, NLT)

That is a pretty compelling reason for choosing to express this unconquerable, benevolent, kind, invincible, reconciling agape love—especially toward people who least deserve it. It is who God is, it is what God does, it is when we are most like God, and it is what his Son asked us to do:

You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. (Luke 6:36, NLT)

So what’s stopping you?

Thrive: To what enemy do you need to extend unconquerable, benevolent, invincible, reconciling kindness? Go do it! It’s what your Father would do—and you’ve got his DNA.

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What Matters Most To God

Why Heaven Throws A Party

What God prioritizes we must make our priority! If heaven celebrates repentant sinners, we ought to throw a party when one finds salvation. Lost people matter to God; they must matter to us as well!

Enduring Truth // Focus: Luke 15:7

In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

The message of this chapter is unmistakable: Lost people matter to God!

Jesus tells three parables that make up the entirety of Luke 15: The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Each story features something lost—something of such value—that no expense and no effort are spared to see to their return.

At the end of each of these three stories Jesus uses a line to speak of the unmitigated joy expressed in their recovery:

In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away! (Luke 15:7)

In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents. (Luke 15:10)

We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found! (Luke 15:32)

Again, the message is clear: God’s highest priority is the reclamation of lost people. They matter to God. And all of heaven celebrates their return.

Likewise, there is a clear application of utmost importance here for you and me: Since lost people matter to God, they ought to matter to us as well. No expense and no effort should be spared to aid in their recovery. Furthermore, we ought also to celebrate what heaven celebrates—the return of even one sinner to God.

But with these stories comes a clear warning: Watch out for we might call E.B.S.—the Elder Brother Syndrome (see Luke 15:25-30). E.B.S. resents the attention and effort made in the recovery and repentance of the sinner, and it is so easy to slip into it. It grows out of self-righteousness. It questions the authenticity of the sinner’s repentance. It refuses to rejoice at what heaven celebrates. And it couldn’t be further from what is at the very the heart of heaven, and our Father who resides there.

The call of Luke 15 must be our calling, too! What God prioritizes we must make our priority! If heaven celebrates repentant sinners, we ought to throw a party when one finds salvation. Lost people matter to God; they must matter to us as well!

Thrive: Honestly, have you been infected with E.B.S., even just a little? Perhaps you should go to God and ask for forgiveness, and his help in getting a right attitude.

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The Searching Father

A Glimpse Into God's Heart

Whoever you are, wherever you have been, whatever you’ve done, your Heavenly Father doesn’t want you to be distanced from him or to return to him only to live under a cloud of guilt and a burden of regret. He wants you as his fully loved, fully accepted daughter or son. This is the heart of the Father.

Enduring Truth // Focus: Luke 15:20

And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.

The parable of the Prodigal Son is a story for the ages. It is one of Jesus’ most revered stories, even in non-Christian societies. People of all faiths love this parable because of its profound and moving message of love, forgiveness and reconciliation. But Jesus’ story is not so much about the prodigal son, or even the elder brother, this is a story meant to give us a look inside the heart of God. So a more appropriate title would be “the searching father.”

You know the story well: A selfish son demands his inheritance from his father—in essence, declaring that he wishes to live as if his father were already dead. The son spends all the inheritance money on wasteful living. Finally, at the end of his ropes, the desperate son comes back home utterly crushed, knowing he will face humiliation from his father, hostility from his family and hatred from his scandalized community. Maybe he will be mocked—and rightly so—perhaps even beaten for the embarrassment he has caused his loved ones. As the prodigal reaches the outskirts of the village, word spreads in the community that this foolish boy has come back.

Then, something very dramatic happens as Jesus tells this story. As the people gather to watch his return, “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20, NLT)

Don’t quickly pass by those words: “He ran to his son.” That is a stunning statement. A nobleman in the ancient Middle East would never run. It would be a violation of his dignity. Aristotle wrote, “Great men never run…Great men are run to.” People run to them. Children run, those who are desperate or afraid may run. So Jesus has the wrong person running in this story.

Or does he? No, Jesus is revealing something very important about the heart of God. The heart of this prodigal son’s father—which represents God’s heart—is so full that he forgets everything: he forgets his dignity, he forgets everybody is watching, and he sees only the starving, exhausted, beaten down figure of a boy he had given up for dead, and the father takes off running toward his son like a homesick angel. And when he reaches him, he starts kissing him over and over again. The father then wants everyone to know that he will fully restore his son, so he has the servants dress the boy in his finest robe, he puts his ring on him as a sign of his authority, he gives him new shoes, and he has his servants prepare a feast.

The Jesus offers these amazing words in Luke 15:24, “So the party began”

That is the heart of God. That is why Jesus told this story. That is what Jesus wants you to know. Whoever you are, wherever you have been, whatever you’ve done, the Father doesn’t want you to be distanced from him or to return to him only to live under a cloud of guilt and a burden of regret. He wants you as his fully loved, fully accepted daughter or son.

Jesus wants you to know that whenever you return to God in heartfelt repentance, you are not returning to an unmoved deity, you are coming to a God who is scanning the horizon, looking for any sign that you are on your way home. And when he sees you, he doesn’t sit, he doesn’t wait, he doesn’t send his servants out to escort you home. No, he gets up and runs to you. When he reaches you, he throws his arms around you and kisses you and holds you like he will never let you go.

Then he says to all of heaven, “let’s party!” That is how much you mean to your searching Father.

Thrive: Do you need to “come home” to the Father? Don’t keep him waiting.

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Thank God for Narrowness

Intolerant and Exclusive When it Comes to Eternal Life

Time and again Jesus claimed that only he possessed the authority to grant eternal life, and it was only for those who followed him exclusively. He left no other options. For anyone who takes the time to actually read Jesus’ own words, the truth couldn’t be clearer: He is unequivocal about the way to eternal life. Does that sound narrow? It most definitely is! So is a runway, and landing exclusively on that narrow landing strip is the only way to get your airplane safely to its destination. When it is the only way, thank God for narrowness!

Enduring Truth // Focus: Luke 13:24

Work hard to enter the narrow door to God’s Kingdom, for many will try to enter but will fail.

Christianity is often accused these days of being a narrow and intolerant religion. Guilty as charged! You can come up with no other verdict. After all, just look at the overwhelming verbal evidence offered by its founder, Jesus Christ. Here are just a few of his outrageous claims from the Gospel of John:

“For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.” (John 6:40, NLT)

“Only insofar as you eat and drink flesh and blood, the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, do you have life within you. The one who brings a hearty appetite to this eating and drinking has eternal life and will be fit and ready for the Final Day.” (John 6:53-54, The Message)

“I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved.” (John 10:7-9, NLT)

“I am the one who raises the dead to life! Everyone who has faith in me will live, even if they die. And everyone who lives because of faith in me will never really die.” (John 11:25-26, CEV)

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” (John 14:16, NLT)

We could fill page after page with Jesus’ claims about himself and the exclusive authority he possessed to grant eternal life only to those who follow him solely. For anyone who takes the time to actually read Jesus’ own words, the truth is abundantly evident: Jesus is unequivocally exclusive, narrow and intolerant about the way to eternal life. Of course, he loves and died for the whole world (John 3:16). And of course he didn’t stand on a street corner condemning those who refused to believe in him. (John 3:17) Yet the unavoidable truth about Jesus is that he was very clear that there was one, and only one way, to forgiveness of sin and life forever with the Father.

Does that sound narrow? It most definitely is—but so is a runway, and landing exclusively on it is the only way to get the airplane you are on safely to its destination. When it is the only way, thank God for narrowness and intolerance!

Thrive: Have you ever taken the time to pray the most important prayer—really, the one prayer that empowers all other prayers—to acknowledge that Jesus is both Lord and Savior, to confess your sins and ask him to forgive you, and invite him into your life as your one and only Master and Commander? If not, I hope you will do that right now!