God's Little Ones

In my reading and study of the Gospels I have learned to observe links between dialogue, action and the illustrations Jesus used in teaching.  A lot of valuable information and meaning can be lost when these connections are ignored.  Keeping the immediate context is of great importance to shed light not only on what happened but how the passage instructs us and why.  Observing these connections brings us right into the middle of the action, for teachings of Jesus to His disciples are instructions for us to take to heart.

Luke 17 begins with Jesus warning people over offenses.  He said it would be better to have a millstone hung around our necks and be thrown into the sea rather than offend one of His little ones.  He said in Luke 17:3-4, "Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. ⁴ And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him."  Jesus prefaced His statement that we ought to take heed to ourselves that we forgive others. The faults of our brother who sins against us seven times in a day is not to be our focal point:  our Master commands us to rebuke this brother so he might be restored, to forgive him when his offences are repeated again and again.  We cannot excuse our lack of forgiveness for his sin, for Jesus has given us this command and an example to follow by forgiving us.

Luke 17:5-6 reads, "And the apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith." ⁶ So the Lord said, "If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you."  The disciples rightly connected forgiving others with faith in God, for with God nothing is impossible.  Our sin would be the death of us--like having a millstone lashed to our necks and being thrown overboard a ship in the middle of the ocean--but by faith in Christ we can have victory over sin and put it far from us.  A little faith in God can uproot a well-established tree of unforgiveness and cast it into the depths sea with the rest of our transgressions (Micah 7:19).  By faith in God we can respond to the rebuke of Christ for our lack of forgiveness, repent and forgive as He has freely forgiven us.

The instruction of Jesus to His disciples concerning their responsibilities before God continued with an illustration in Luke 17:7-11:  "And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down to eat'? ⁸ But will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink'? ⁹ Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. ¹⁰ So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.'"  Jesus taught His disciples by using a familiar example.  The role of servants were to cater to their master, to serve him until he was completely done eating and drinking.  After he was finished it was appropriate for the servants to enjoy the meal provided by him.  The servants did not do this out of the "goodness" of their hearts:  they did this because it was their responsibility and duty.

It might be when we forgive someone for an offence against us we feel we are being very generous and kind to them--like we are doing them a huge favour at our expense.  The story Jesus told shows it is not to our credit to rebuke or forgive anyone, for it is what Jesus requires of us as His servants.  Others may do as they will, but we (as one of God's little ones!) are to obey our Saviour and Master Jesus.  Our faith in Jesus is increased as we obey Him, trusting He is aware of our needs, how we feel and all we have suffered.  We can forgive others only because we have been forgiven by Jesus and been filled with the Holy Spirit.  Thus when we forgive it is not out of our goodness, fortitude or quality of character but because we are doing our duty as His servants.  In this way God receives the glory for our service unto Him in forgiving others and trusting Him, and He sees to it our needs are abundantly provided at His table.  Isn't God awesome?

A Discriminating Ear

"And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures."

Luke 24:45

Until Jesus opened the understanding of His disciples, they could not comprehend the spiritual and practical truth of God's word--despite their familiarity of passages, rote memorisation, obedience to the Law of Moses and teaching by Jesus.  This opening of understanding correlated with the disciples receiving the Holy Spirit when Jesus breathed upon them (John 20:22).  We must be spiritually regenerated before we can understand scriptures that are spiritually discerned.

This morning I spent an hour metal detecting and it provided an illustration of the importance of having our understanding opened by Jesus.  By waving a calibrated detector over sand, metal objects can be sensed which cannot be seen.  After a bit of practice the user can determine what sort of target lies under the sand by the volume, duration and clarity of the tone.  Unless the metal detector is turned on, it is of no value whatsoever.  On the flip side if it picks up all ferrous content in the sand or soil it is constant noise and cannot alert the user to dig a potentially valuable target.  Once the worthless iron and aluminium foil is tuned out (using discrimination), then a metal detector can be used effectively.

For the first 20 minutes of detecting, I did not notice my settings had been changed from the "pro" to the "coin" setting.  This meant I was not hearing everything I am accustomed to and likely missed many good targets.  Once this setting was adjusted I was able to better determine what objects were buried in the sand.  This prompted me to think about how reading a Bible without the aid of Jesus opening our understanding leaves us missing out why we read the Bible in the first place:  to know God, hear His voice, to receive correction, instruction and wisdom.  Reading the scriptures without having the help of the Holy Spirit to enlighten our understanding is like waving a metal detector without batteries over the sand:  no signals and thus no spiritual benefit.  Whilst there is great truth littering God's word in plain sight, there remain priceless nuggets of wisdom discovered under the surface.

How wondrous is the grace of God who opens the understanding of unlearned, ordinary people to receive divine truth faithful Old Testament prophets and angels are ignorant of!  Through faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit enabled fisherman and tax collectors to walk in wisdom the learned chief priests and religious Pharisees could not comprehend.  Jesus grants His followers the ability to hear His still, small voice and strength to walk wisely.  A faint signal of a metal detector can indicate a great find, while a loud beep could be an empty soda can.  Let us be those who dig into God's word to discover what He is saying to us, valuing His wisdom over the worldly clamour all around us.  The sheep of the Good Shepherd hear His voice, and thus we learn to tune out the deceptions and distractions that are not of God, taking to heart His good word.

Christ the LORD is Risen

Resurrection Sunday is a glorious reminder of Jesus conquering sin and death.  During visits to Israel I have gone to the Garden Tomb as well as the Tomb of the Holy Sepulchre, purported by some to be the place where Jesus Christ was crucified and buried.  It is difficult to prove whether this or another site is the actual place where Jesus was buried because He is not there; He is risen!  Even if the place of Jesus' death and resurrection could be authenticated, it is not a place to be venerated:  the only One worthy of worship is Jesus Who was received up into heaven and sits enthroned.

Many people witnessed the death of Jesus on Calvary, and hundreds of people affirmed the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  For 40 days after His resurrection Jesus walked, talked and ate with His disciples.  During this period the empty tomb and corpse-free graveclothes could have been inspected by locals and travelers to Jerusalem.  The best evidence of the resurrection was by the person of Jesus Christ Himself as He appeared to His followers many times.  After He ascended to heaven, however, strong evidence for His existence, resurrection and power to save remains in full force.

Better than an empty tomb and silent linen as evidence of the resurrection are the born-again children of God by the power of Jesus Christ who proclaim Him daily.  Even as Jesus opened the eyes of those born blind, healed the lame and delivered countless from demonic possession, those who receive Him by faith are made new creations by the Holy Spirit who indwells us.  Jesus said in John 13:34-35, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. ³⁵ By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."  Jesus passing from death to life was observed in His physical body, and the spiritual reality of rebirth through the Gospel causes people to fundamentally change.  People who are mean-spirited begin to exhibit the love of Jesus; people embittered by life are made sweet.  Those who stole previously become generous, and they choose to spend time with other Christians to worship God with hunger for His word.

The love of Jesus in Christians is evidence we are His disciples, and disciples are followers.  The psalmist said in Psalm 100 refers to believers as sheep of His pasture, and Jesus is the Good Shepherd who lay down His life for His sheep and took it up again.  It is impossible to follow someone who is lying in a grave and motionless.  Having been made alive by the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9), we are led by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us and guides us into all truth.  Every Christian is a living, breathing testimony of our risen LORD Jesus Christ who reigns on high, and thus the evidence for the resurrection is everywhere we go.  Christ is risen, and may our love for one another cause people to say, "He is risen indeed!" all to the glory of our awesome God and Saviour.

Compassion in Action

While it costs us little to say "Nobody's perfect," our pride takes a hit to say "I am a sinner."  Many people have grown up hearing and believing they are basically a good person, yet the Bible makes the case in the view of the holy God the exact opposite is true.  Psalm 14:2-3 says, "The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. ³ They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one."  Though mankind has been created in God's image, we have been irrevocably corrupted with sin.  Spiritually speaking, we are only fit for the fire.

By itself this would be incredibly terrible news, yet this is only part of the story.  The Bible also teaches God loves all people and thus was not content for mankind to be doomed without hope or help.  God's compassion moved Him to action, even as the father in the parable Jesus told of the prodigal son.  The father in the tale had two sons, and they were both deeply flawed.  Because of their sin they were both estranged from their father at different times:  one went to a distant country and wasted his inheritance, and the other refused to attend the feast held in his restored brother's honour.

The father was on the lookout for his estranged son in Luke 15:20:  "And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him."  While the wayward son was a great way off, his father saw him, had compassion and ran to embrace him.  When the older son heard his father had received his brother and killed the fatted calf Luke 15:28 reads, "But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him."  The father went out to plead with his angry and embittered son who refused to celebrate the return of his brother.  Whether a son was a great way off or out of sight for a moment at a feast, the father noticed and lovingly went to them to draw them to himself.

It is common vernacular to refer to people as "spoiled" or "rotten," and this is spiritually the case for every person.  Like spoiled fruit and rotten eggs have permanently gone bad, so humanity is ruined by pride, deceit, selfishness and greed.  We would not pay a dollar for a dozen rotten eggs or a bushel of spoiled apples, yet God has paid the price for our forgiveness, redemption and salvation with His own blood (Hebrews 9:12; Acts 20:28).  We come to Jesus as we are but He does not leave us as we are, for by faith in Him lost sinners are found, spiritually born again, pardoned of all sin and made righteous.  By the power of the Gospel people are transformed from within and indwelt by the Holy Spirit to love from a pure heart as Jesus does.  The death of Jesus on Calvary was compassion in action to draw all people to Himself for salvation.  Praise the LORD for all He has done by His grace!