Month: October 2020

Luke 15:3-7

Now all the publicans, or tax collectors, and sinners drew close to Jesus to hear him (v. 1, paraphrased). The Jewish tax collectors were despised by their fellow Jewish brothers and sisters because they collected taxes for the Roman government. These were despised and even classified with harlots and those that were called sinners, yet they demonstrated an attitude of humility. They had a desire to hear what the Lord had to say.

The Pharisees and the scribes were the religious leaders; it seems that they would have been the first and most eager to draw near to Jesus to hear the message of salvation!  Oh, no!  What did the Pharisees and scribes do?  They murmured and complained about Jesus among themselves because they were offended and jealous, saying that he accepts and welcomes sinners and eats with them. These self-righteous, prideful, and judgmental leaders felt that Jesus should not hangout with these so-called “unfit” people.

Jesus responds to the Pharisees and the scribes’ murmuring, telling three parables which illustrate God’s work in salvation – seeking and rejoicing when the lost is found. The first parable is about one lost sheep out of a hundred that foolishly wander away (15:4).  It contrasts the love of God with the exclusiveness of the Pharisees.

“³ So He told them this parable: ⁴ What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost, [searching] until he finds it? ⁵ And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing” (AMP).

By nature the sheep is a prey animal and is a most helpless and vulnerable creature. It will wander aimlessly, exposing itself to the danger of being attacked by its predators, and worst of all, it doesn’t have the instinct to find its way home or to seek safety. However, in the spiritual realm, Luke uses the lost sheep to represent one of God’s children who has gone astray. Just like the lost sheep in the natural realm, the lost, or backslidden child of God wanders aimlessly, exposing himself or herself to the danger of being attacked by the devil. Out of God’s protection the lost soul is defenseless against the wiles of the devil. 

The shepherd is persistent; he never gives up. He continues searching for the lost sheep until he finds it. With this same persistence God the Father, the Great Shepherd of the sheep goes after the lost soul until he finds it. God is love, his love is everlasting, and his search for the lost soul is everlasting. For he “will have all men to be saved” (1Timothy 2:4a).

 ^“6And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. ⁷I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repented, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.”

God seeks the lost and rejoices when one is found.

Romans 13:11

Have you ever completed a task, and some smarty pants goes, “It’s about time; you should’ve had it done a long time ago?” Most likely it’s been said to you, you’ve heard it being said to someone else, or you’ve said it to someone yourself. Here Paul uses the phrase “it’s high time” in his letter to the Roman church. According to Farlex Dictionary of Idioms, one meaning of “it’s high time” is it is the appropriate time (that something happens); it is long overdue (that something happens). In verse eleven the phrase it’s high time signifies a state of urgency. Yes, it is long overdue for us the church to be concerned for our souls and our eternal destination. Not only that, there is much work to be done. The light of Jesus shines in us; darkness has been dispelled, and yet sometimes we have to be stirred to action.

When we think however, of being “awake or to wake up,” weliterally think of being aroused from natural sleep. We’ve probably been vigorously shaken at one time or another and told to wake up; it’s time to get up. Sometimes we have our alarm set to wake us up at a certain time. We may get up right then, or we may reach over and push the snooze button, giving us another 8-9 minutes of sleep. Sometimes we push that snooze button two or three times before we finally drag out of bed. That’s truly a sign of laziness or sleep deprivation. We must have that period of time when our consciousness is suspended so that the body can rest and rejuvenate itself.

We are compelled to realize that it is high time we wake up; the church has been spiritually sleep and inactive far too long. We know what time it is. Wake up and live right “for our salvation is now closer than when we believed” (Romans 13:11b). Jesus is on his way back, and he’s coming as a thief in the night. We don’t have time to waste; Jesus is not coming back for a pretentious   church – one that is loveless and committing evil to her fellow man. He’s coming back for “a church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy, set apart for God, and blameless” (Ephesians 5:27, AMP). 

Christians, it is urgent. The clarion has been made. We are not being called to awake from natural sleep. Paul is figuratively calling us to “awake from our state of moral sloth,” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words), or laziness. We are urged to wake up from that sleep because it is used to “characterize unbelievers as spiritually insensitive” (Zondervan KJV Commentary). This sleep is not appropriate for believers; we must wake up now from our spiritual slumber, be alert to the critical time in which we are living, and sensitive to our fellow man. Otherwise, it is impossible for us to fulfill the ministry for which we are called. It’s high time for us to awake from our state of spiritual slumber. We can’t do the work of the Lord while we sleep. Jesus told his disciples on one occasion, “I must work the works of Him who sent me, while it is day: the night comes, when no man can work” (John 9:4).

In verses 7-10 of this chapter, Paul tells the Roman church, “Owe no man anything but to love one another.” It’s high time we get ourselves together and love our fellow man just like Jesus loves us. His death on that old roughed cross at Calvary was the ultimate act of love. He’s not telling us to die for one another, but because of his unselfish act of love for us, he commands us to love one another. Love is “unselfishly seeking the best or higher good for our enemies.” God is not partial toward us, and neither should we be toward each other. So you’ve heard it; you’ve read it; now it is high time to wake out of sleep and put love into practice. How radically refreshing that would be!

But we can only love as commanded, and pray for those who spitefully use us and persecute us when we genuinely get malice out of our hearts. Some foolishly say, “Fake it till you make it.” That won’t work because the Bible says that what’s in a man’s heart is what will come forth from his mouth. We may pretend for a moment, but we can’t pretend forever. Just remember that we are commanded to love every day; love has no expiration date. And even though it may not always be reciprocated, it is necessary that we love unselfishly that we may be the children of our Father who is in heaven. Don’t you think it’s time to awake out of sleep? Yes, it is high time for the church to wake up, turn from our evil ways, and love on purpose every day.

John 15:1-8

John 15 is a powerful discourse in which Jesus does all the talking. He is on his way to the Garden of Gethsemane, when he tells his disciples, “I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman, or gardener” (v. 1). Using the analogy of the vine and the branches, Jesus explains to his disciples that there are two types of branches in him – the unfruitful and the fruitful. There are many that decide to follow Christ; these are the branches. Some turn back to their old way of life, loving the things of this world more than Christ. Those are the unfruitful branches. Some continue in the ways of the Lord, setting their affections on things above. Every branch in Christ that does not bear fruit our heavenly Father cuts off. Every branch in him that bears fruit our heavenly Father prunes so that it may be more productive.

My late husband was an outdoorsman. He enjoyed planting vegetable gardens, fruit trees, flowers, and a variety of shrubbery. If there’s any validity to the “green thumb” theory, he certainly had one. In our yard he was the gardener; he cut away and pruned. It seemed sometimes as if he trimmed some bushes nearly bare. Yet they always grew back more fully and more beautiful. So in this analogy of the vine and the branches, Christ illustrates that true believers abide continually in him, the Father prunes us, and because of the Father’s tender loving care, we bring forth an abundance of fruit. That pleases Him.

Christ commands us to abide in him, and he will abide in us. A branch cannot bear fruit apart from the vine. It must remain in the vine to be productive. That’s how it is with each child of God. Each of us must remain in Christ Jesus; he is the vine. Outside of him we become fruitless, and the Father cuts us off. As a free-will moral agent, we can choose to abide in Christ or not.Yet we must willingly believe God’s word; it is a benefit to us. “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God” (1 John15:4). We need Christ because apart from him, we are lost and spiritually malnourished. The sustenance we need comes from him; therefore, it’s absolutely imperative that we abide in him to live. What can the believer do without Jesus? Jesus gives us the answer in verse 5, “Without me you can do nothing.” If we confess Jesus as the Son of God, and faithfully abide in him, we will live eternally.  

If a believer does not abide under the shadow of the Almighty, which protects him, he or she is vulnerable to Satan and his attacks. Satan will abandon us and leave us to burn in misery, shame, and hopelessness under the weight of the cares of this world. Unfruitful believers are like the prodigal son’s older brother who never left the church, but he was selfish and didn’t have love or compassion for his brother who returned to the church. The Father welcomed his repentant son who “was dead, is alive again; he was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:24). Jesus said, “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; men gather them, throw them in the fire, and they are burned” (v.6). That was the attitude of the older son.

Then he goes on to tell his disciples, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you can ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you” (v.7). The truth of the matter is we must abide in Christ, the true vine, and his words abide in us. We have the promise that our prayers will be answered. Do you want to glorify the Father? Abide in Christ, and he will prune you, purify you, so that you may bear much fruit. Fruit-bearing believers glorify the Father and are Christ’s disciples. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Ephesians 4:21-25

There’s a popular TV game show, “To Tell the Truth,” where there are three people claiming to be the same person. Only one of them is the real John or Johnnie Doe, and he / she is sworn to tell the truth. The two imposters do all they can to deceive the panel. The objective of the game is for each panelist to take a turn asking the three strangers questions, trying to determine which two are lying and which one is telling the truth. Note that this is a game show, and it is strictly for entertainment.

In real life telling untruths are lies, not a game, not entertainment. For some in many circles, lying, or falsehood, has become fashionable in order to impress others, to get what one wants, to slander, or to bully another. Lies are the opposite of the truth because they come from the devil. Telling lies is a sin that causes hurt, distrust, deception, etc., whether it’s a full lie or a half-truth. Recall the conversation between the serpent and Eve; both of them told half- truths about the command God had given Adam (Genesis 3:1-5). Back in Genesis 2:16-17, God placed Adam in the beautiful garden of delight to take care of it. God promised Adam that he could eat freely of every tree of the garden with the admonition not to eat from “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” The conversation of lies and half-truths between Eve and the serpent, led to man’s disobedience to God, which resulted in our death: “The wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23a).

How do we counteract the spirit of lying? We are commanded to (1) “put off the former way of life, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts”(v. 22); (2) “be renewed in the spirit of your mind” (v. 23); and (3) “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness (v.24).” Yes, temptation will surely come, but we must resist and not allow that old selfish, prideful person we used to be dictate who we are today. We’ve taken off the old man; therefore, the mind is to be renewed, made new again as before the fall of man. “Let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes” (4:23, NLT). The weight of those old evil thoughts that once dominated our thinking has been replaced with  things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of a good report (Philippians 4:8, paraphrased). We’ve been renewed in the spirit of our mind, desiring the same mind which was in Christ Jesus. So we’ve put off the old man, now what? We must put on something in its place – the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”  We heard the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ and believed. We put on the Lord Jesus Christ, meaning that we have become a new creation made in his image, and have taken his ways to be our ways. We are resurrected with him, and that old rebellious nature has been replaced with the fruit of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit works from the inside out to make the spiritual nature of the inner man a new creation of righteousness and true holiness. It is “By grace you are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).    

Taking on the new nature of Jesus Christ requires us to behave, think, and speak differently. “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another” (4:25). Let’s tell the truth and treat our brothers and sisters kindly. Speaking the truth requires us to know the truth. To know the truth we must know Jesus; he is the truth. You don’t have to take my word; take Jesus’ word, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6a). “It’s not fake news”; it’s good news.”