Category Archives: Luke

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The Big, Scary “E” Word

Read: Luke 10

“Now go, and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves.” (Luke 10:3, NLT)

The assignment is still the same today as it was when Jesus commissioned the first disciples.  And it is just as clear: “Go!” We have been called to go into the world and give them what we have been given: The Good News of forgiveness of sins and eternal life by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

It we don’t go and give, no one else will.  We are God’s “Plan A” for proclaiming his message to people, and there is no “Plan B”.  There is a name for the plan, by the way.  It is not in the Bible, but it has come to be known as “evangelism”.

Unfortunately, the “E” word has become quite intimidating, even scary to most Christians.  But since there is no “Plan B”, you and I need to reexamine our fear and reluctance so we can get busy doing what disciples do: going and giving the Good News to people who are lost.

As big and scary as the word “evangelism” may sound to you, it simply comes from a compound Greek word: “eu”, which means “good”, as in “euphoria”, and “aggelos”, which means “angel”, as in “Los Angeles”.  “Euaggelos” is literally, a “good angel” or a “good messenger”. A messenger with good news—there is nothing big or scary about that. In fact, that is quite appealing.

You and I have been given the job of translating God’s message of reconciliation through the example of our lives in such a way that it comes alive and connects with people. Evangelism, then, is simply embodying the Good News by loving proactively, living purely, acting graciously, working joyfully, serving creatively and even suffering redemptively. When we have lived in such a way—by being living proof of a loving God before a lost world—then proclaiming the Good News is simply the natural next step.

St Francis of Assisi once said, “preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” So go be the good messenger today; be the good news and when the opportunity presents itself, share it boldly!

“This is the new evangelism we need. It is not better methods, but better men and women who know their Redeemer from personal experience… who see his vision and feel his passion for the world…who want only for Christ to produce his life in and through them according to his own good pleasure.” ~Robert E. Coleman

What If God Took Over

Sharing the Good News is your assignment.  It will be a whole lot easier—and more effective—if you will first be the Good News.  Are you?  If you are not, do some talking with God before you head out the door.  I hear he loves to help us when we ask.

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Why Do I Need To Ask?

Read: Luke 11

“Give us each day the food we need.” (Luke 11:3, NLT)

If your house is like mine, your refrigerator is full—of both known food substances as well as new and developing life forms. Likewise, your pantry is probably stocked, maybe even with leftovers from Y2K. It is likely that you have never gone without a meal, except by choice. We live at a time where two-thirds of Americans are overweight, according to the Surgeon General, so why pray, as Jesus taught, for more daily food?

Jesus knew something that we forget: It is not daily food that we need; we need God each and every day. The issue is not just about having a full stomach, it is primarily about having a full heart. Jesus is teaching us about the contentedness that comes from connecting with a Father who will take care of his children—something far more satisfying than a full stomach! Praying for bread and food reminds us that God will not only provide the answer we need in that moment; he is the answer to all of our life!

In a very real sense, the greatest answer to our prayers is actually praying this prayer. How is that?  It connects us to the God who cares for us.  A few verses later, in Luke 11:11-13, Jesus frames it in this context:

“You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

Of course, if a child asks his parent for a necessity, any good parent will provide the child’s need. It is simply a natural part of a healthy parent-child relationship. If you are a parent, you get that because God has hardwired into your genetic code the desire to meet the needs of your children. Because you love them, you will do everything you can to meet their needs. When they are confident of that, they are on their way to emotional well being, peace of mind, and contentedness in life.

If that is true of you, an imperfect parent with incomplete knowledge and limited resources, how much more true is it of your Heavenly Father who is pure in love, complete in wisdom and unlimited in power?  He not only gives us what we need, he gives himself: “How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?”

Do you see what Jesus is showing? Prayer not only produces a result, it produces something far better: a relationship.  That is why Jesus taught us to come back every day to ask God. He wanted us to be ever mindful that our Heavenly Father is not only the answer to our momentary need, he, himself, is the source of our very life.

Yes, even more satisfying than a full stomach is a full heart!

“None but God can satisfy the longing of the immortal soul; as the heart was made for Him, He only can fill it.” ~Richard Trench

What If God Took Over?

Pray the prayer Jesus taught us to pray in Luke 11:2-4—The Lord’s Prayer.  Try offering it with the focus on relationship more than result.  Your Father will be pleased!

“Father, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. Give me each day the food I need, and forgive my sins, as I forgive those who sin against me. And don’t let me yield to temptation.”

 

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The Question

Read: Luke 9

“But what about you?” Jesus asked. “Who do you say I am?” (Luke 9:20, NLT)

“Who do you say that I am?” Can you think of a more important question in life? Jesus asked that question of his disciples back then, and he asks the same pointed question of all his followers today—including you!

And what about the answer? Literally, one’s eternal life hangs in the balance, depending on the response. By the way, it is not multiple-choice.  There is only one correct answer—and it is the same simple two-word response Peter gave to Jesus:  “God’s Messiah.”

When you answer Jesus’ question correctly—assuming the answer flows from a heart that believes, a mouth that confesses, a life that matches both heart belief as well as creedal confession, and a faith that ruthlessly entrusts every precious breath you take and every split second you live to the messianic claims of Christ—there you gain access to the abundance of God now and entrance to eternal life forever.

Offer any of the many other palatable and politically correct alternate answers and you miss out on the greatest offer you’ll ever get but never deserve: The free gift of peace with God through the forgiveness of sins by Jesus’ death and resurrection and the added bonus of heaven after this life ends.

Jesus asks you, “who do you say that I am?” I like how C.S. Lewis forces the issue:

“You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

So what is your answer?

“Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable.” ~C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity

What If God Took Over?

If you call Jesus “God’s Messiah”, that is, Lord and Savior of your life, then does your confession flow from a heart that believes? Is it matched by a God-honoring lifestyle?  Do you exhibit a faith that ruthlessly entrusts your every breath to Christ’s messianic claims?  If not, spend some time talking to Jesus until you and he can get things straightened out.

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Weekend Meditation: Doubts

Read: Luke 7-8

John called for two of his disciples, and he sent them to the Lord to ask him, “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?” (Luke 7:18-19)

When the New Testament talks about doubt, it primarily focuses on believers, not unbelievers. The presupposition is, you have to believe something before you can doubt it; you have to be committed to it before you begin to question it.

John the Baptist, last of the Old Testament prophets, forerunner to the Messiah, cousin of Jesus, came to a place where he had some serious doubts about the Lord.  John had done his job by boldly announcing the arrival of the long-awaited Messiah, but for all his faithfulness, he ended up in prison, condemned to death, and naturally began to wonder if he had got it all wrong about Jesus.

John had doubts, and in a sense, that was okay. In fact, Jesus says, “I tell you, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John.” (Luke 7:28, NLT)  So how is it that John can doubt and still be a great believer, especially since Scripture tells us not to doubt? It is because John’s doubt wasn’t from of unbelief; it was from belief. His question implied that he believed but his circumstances had caused some confusion.  So he asked, “I believe you’re the Messiah; am I wrong to believe that?” The very fact that he asked Jesus indicates that he had not lost his faith; it was still stirring.

Having doubt visit you is not the worst thing in the world. The visitation of doubt is not sin; it becomes sin when you allow it to take up residence in your life and erode your trust in God. If the greatest believer that ever lived up to that time had doubts, you’re going to have doubts too, and you’ll be okay. Doubts in the believer ought not to be, but they are; sometimes they are the stirrings of a lively faith.

Among the many Bible references on doubt, one in Luke 12:29 is especially instructive.  In the King James Version it says, “Seek not what you will eat or drink, neither be of doubtful mind.” The Greek word for doubtful is interesting; it is meteorizo. (We get our word meteor from it.) Meteorizo means, “to be suspended in midair.” Jesus was saying, “Don’t get hung up on this!” In other words, keep yourself firmly planted in what you know; keep coming back to what you believe.

Like John, your expectations of Jesus aren’t always going to be met—and doubt will pay you a visit. Like John, you are going to be surprised by difficult and unexpected circumstances—and doubt will come calling. Like John, you live with an incomplete revelation of God’s ways and God’s plan—and doubt will show up once in a while.

So what should you do when doubts comes knocking? Jesus says,

“Go back to John and tell him what you have seen and heard—the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.” (Luke 7:22, NLT)

In other words, there are two remedies for doubt: One, you go back to what has been heard. You plant yourself firmly in the unassailable witness of the Word of God. Two, you go back to what has been seen. You plant yourself firmly in the witness of the faithful. The words and works of Jesus, recorded and verified, are the answer to your doubt.

Then Jesus added one more thing,

“And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” (Luke 7:23, NKJV)

When your Messiah doesn’t meet expectations—and there will be times he won’t—don’t get offended! Even though your circumstances may seem like Jesus is not in charge, just remember: He is, and he never makes mistakes.

But neither does he always explain himself, so keep your uneasiness in check.

“Bless your uneasiness as a sign that there is still life in you.” ~Dag Hammarskjald

What If God Took Over?

Are you experiencing any doubts about Jesus?  Go back to what the Word of God says, lean into the witness of those did not waver in their faith throughout history, and then simply offer God the greatest gift you could ever give—your trust!

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Love Your Enemies! Really?

Read: Luke 6

“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.” (Luke 6:35-36, NLT)

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?

“Love your enemies just in case your friends turn out to be your enemy.”

What If God Took Over?

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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Healthy Unspirituality

Read: Luke 5

When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, “Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m too much of a sinner to be around you.” (Luke 5:8, NLT)

What was it that Jesus saw in Peter?  What attracted the Lord to this coarse fisherman?  Peter was crude, sometimes rude, usually inconsistent, and short-tempered. He had the habit of speaking before he thought, and as a result, on more than one occasion, Jesus had to clean up Peter’s mess.  Yet there was something in this flawed fisherman that the Lord admired; the basic raw material that he could use to mold Peter from a “little pebble” into a “solid rock” (Matthew 16:17-19)—the take charge kind of guy who would become the first leader-preacher-spokesman for Christ’s church. (Acts 2:14-40)

What did Jesus love about Peter? I think it was Peter’s healthy view of his own unspirituality.  Peter was a sinner—and he knew it!  He didn’t try to hide his flaws, he didn’t think and act like his was hot stuff, he didn’t treat others like he was better than they were—God’s gift to humankind.  No, Peter’s reaction in Luke 5:8 to his first encounter with Jesus says it all: Peter was a fallen, flawed, dirty-rotten, unworthy sinner—and he knew it.

That is called humility, by the way, and it is something that is quite precious to God.  In fact, in Peter’s own words, written decades later, we learn that God finds our humility irresistible:

“And all of you, serve each other in humility, for ‘God opposes the proud but favors the humble.’” (I Peter 5:5)

Contrast that with the arrogant Pharisees that Jesus encountered throughout Luke 5. These prideful leaders were upset with Jesus because he was neither giving them their dues nor doing things according to their methods. Most revealing was their reaction to the calling of Matthew and the subsequent dinner party for his tax-collecting ilk at his home:

But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with such scum?” (Luke 5:30, NLT)

Jesus’ answer was classic, and it, too, was quite revealing: “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.” (Luke 5:31-31, NLT)

In other words, when God finds people with a right understanding of their own desperate spiritual condition, he has found the stuff upon which he can build.  Perhaps that is the most basic and the very best building material—the “solid rocks”, if you will—upon which Jesus can build his church. (Matthew 16:18, NLT)

That is what we might call healthy unspirituality—an accurate view of one’s utter helplessness and complete unworthiness before God—and God can use that!

“If pride turned some of the angels into demons, then humility can doubtless make angels out of demons.” ~John Climacus

What If God Took Over?

Pray this simple prayer of humility from Psalm 139:23-24, if you dare: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

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Who Ya Gonna Worship?

Read: Luke 4

Then devil took him up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. “I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them,” the devil said, “because they are mine to give to anyone I please. I will give it all to you if you will worship me.” (Luke 4:5-7, NLT)

In these opening verses of Luke 4, Jesus faces an all out assault from Satan, who throws three different temptations at the Lord. In each temptation, Satan tries to entice Jesus to find a shortcut to fulfilling the will of God—which is the usual pattern the Enemy employs in tempting you and me as well.  With each temptation, however, Jesus countered Satan with an accurate understanding and correct application of the Word of God—a pattern that we, too, must employ in order to have victory over temptation.

Especially revealing is how Jesus countered Satan in the second temptation, which was to worship Satan in exchange for all the kingdoms of the world. Here Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:13, which says, “Worship only the Lord your God and serve only him.”

Interestingly, Satan had said nothing about “serving”, but Jesus knew that at the heart of all temptation is the issue of worship, and that what you worship is what you will serve. Whatever Satan gets you to worship, you will be obligated to serve—and as Jesus famously said elsewhere, you cannot serve two masters. (Matthew 6:24)

If you put your needs and wants ahead of God’s provision (the first temptation—Luke 4:2-3), you will worship at the throne of self-reliance. If you put your plans ahead God’s agenda (the second temptation—Luke 4:5-7), you will worship at the throne of self-actualization. If you skew God’s Word to justify your behavior (the third temptation—Luke 4:9-11), you will worship at the throne of self-indulgence. When you worship anything or anyone other than the Lord your God, you will find yourself serving self, which is simply serving Satan’s purposes in disguise.

What is it that you are worshiping and serving right now?  Wherever your dependencies and loyalties are answers that question.  Give that some honest thought!

If you are like me, you probably need some help with your dependencies and loyalties about now. But the good news is that you have Someone who can help you in your temptations. Hebrews 2:18 reminds us, “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” And Hebrews 4:16 goes on to say, “So let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

How about we go right away into God’s presence and get some much needed help!

“The reason why many fail in battle is because they wait until the hour of battle. The reason why others succeed is because they have gained their victory on their knees long before the battle came…Anticipate your battles; fight them on your knees before temptation comes, and you will always have victory.” ~R.A. Torrey

What If God Took Over?

Arnold Glasow said, “Temptation usually comes in through a door that has deliberately been left open.” What doors do you need to close?