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Luke 19:11-17: Use it or lose it!(please click for todays passage)

I see a natural flowing on from the story of Zacchaeus to the next bit of teaching (see verse 11: ‘While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable…’)We are entrusted with gifts, talents, abilities, possessions, money etc so that we may invest these things for God, and He will then see a return on the investment. That, at least, is how it should work. We put what He gives us ‘to work’ (13) in order that there might be ‘gain’ from it (15; see also 23). I wrote a question in one of my Bibles some years ago, ‘Will my ‘mina’ of teaching produce more teachers?’ It challenges me still.

At the end of the day there will be an accounting for what we have done with the precious lives and resources entrusted to us. In the Kingdom of God, the reward for faithful service is more service (16-19). The reward here seems out of all proportion to the original trust – one mina leading to 5 or 10 cities. But that’s how it works in the Kingdom. But there can also be loss for those who waste what they have; who squander their opportunities (24-26). As for those who reject King Jesus – let them read verse 27 with the realisation that they cannot refuse His reign without experiencing His judgment.

There’s a historical incident reflected in this parable, and it shows that Jesus knew His times and spoke to them with relevance. Archelaus, the son of King Herod (see Matthew 2:1, 22) went to the Roman emperor after his father’s death to confirm his succession to his father’s throne. But a delegation of Jews went after him and appealed to the emperor that Archelaus should not be their King. As a result, the emperor reduced Archelaus’ authority. Later, Archelaus persecuted the Jews who had opposed him. They paid for their rejection. 

Prayer: ‘I give thee back the life I owe that in thine ocean depths it’s flow may richer, fuller be.

Luke 18: 35-43: Specific prayer – specific answer.(please click for todays passage)

This is a day of opportunity: ‘Jesus of Nazareth is passing by’ (37). This is as true for us as it was for the blind beggar.

This is a day for urgent prayer (38).

This is a day for persistence (39). When we start to pray seriously about a person, or a particular matter, we often encounter circumstances that ‘rebuke’ us and tell us to ‘be quiet’ (39). Ronald Dunn, in his great book, ‘Don’t just stand there, pray something’, observed that when you start to seriously engage a situation in prayer it regularly ‘drops by worse’ before getting better. Unless you know that God has distinctly told you to stop praying, this is not a time to be put off but to shout ‘all the more’. Dig your heels in and pray through to breakthrough.

This is a day to be specific (41-43). Don’t be woolly or blurred at the edges. Some people find it helpful to keep a prayer diary and write down what they ask. They may also date it. Then they record the answer when it comes in. (I heard David Pawson say  on a recording I listened to earlier this morning,that we Christians tend to talk about answered prayers in surprised tones!!) Be definite about what you are asking, and how encouraged you will be (and others too) when the definite answer arrives on your doorstep.

This is a day to thank our wonderful prayer-answering God (43). Let’s do it!

Prayer: Oh Lord, I thank you so much for your many specific answers to my urgent prayers.

 Luke 18:18-30: The ministry of making sad.(please click here for todays passage)

It is good for us when Jesus makes us sad. It is for our benefit when He exposes our idols. Actually, Jesus wants to make people glad (23), but we experience sadness when we see that we need to dethrone a god and choose Christ, and we make the wrong choice. This ‘ruler…became very sad’ (23) when he realised that our Lord had forced the issue. He stood naked and exposed before Jesus, clinging to His wealth, but still wishing that he could have Jesus also.

It needs to be remembered that there were other wealthy people in the Bible who were not issued the same set of instructions regarding their goods. ‘Jesus does not tell everyone to sell their possessions. But he knew that love of possessions was preventing this young man from giving his life to God. Whenever we love anything more than God, we must give it up, we must ”sell it” Tom Hale: ‘The applied New Testament Commentary’, p.253.

‘The dearest idol I have known, whate’er that idol be,

Help me to tear it from thy throne, and worship only thee.’

But when we sacrifice at Jesus’ command, we are never the losers (29, 30).Earlier today I read these words written by Dallas Willard in ‘The spirit of the disciplines’, p.175:

‘…how nourishing to our faith are the tokens of God’s care in response to our sacrifice. The cautious faith that never saws off the limb on which it is sitting never learns that unattached limbs may find strange, unaccountable ways of not falling.

Once while in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, my wife and I decided to give away what we had left after paying the bills at the first of the month. It was not much to give away, but we did it. And we told no one. How odd then that a twenty dollar bill was found pinned to the steering wheel of our car a week or so later! With hamburger at thirty-nine cents a pound, we lived like royalty until the next month, convinced we were enjoying the provisions of the King. With the discipline of sacrifice, we practice a different dimension of faith, and often we are surprised at its results.’

Prayer: Thank you Jesus that you will never let us down. Thank you too that in your great mercy and love, you put your finger on our idols so we may be rid of them.

 Luke 18:9-14: The lowest branches.(please click here for todays passage)

It is interesting and helpful to read this parable in a modern version of the Bible such as the ‘The Message’.

‘He told this story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people.’

We see that the Pharisee was a religious poser: ‘The Pharisee posed and prayed like this…’ His prayer was full of self-righteous self-congratulation. He was slapping himself very warmly on the back as he prayed and assumed that God shared his viewpoint.  He thought the Lord was very lucky to have him on His team.Watch out for the slightest hint of self-righteousness. If you allow it living space in your heart it will blind you to truth about yourself you really need to see. Ultimately it will keep you out of heaven. The New International Version says that he ‘prayed about himself’ (and the margin suggests that it could mean that he prayed ‘to’ himself). God wasn’t interested in such a self-interested prayer. It is humility that cuts ice in the realms above.

”Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’ 

Jesus commented, ”This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more yourself.”

It remains true – and it always will be – that ‘everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.’ (14; see James 4:10/1 Peter 5:6). Someone wrote that ‘in God’s garden, the branches that hang the lowest bear the most fruit.’

Without humility you will never face the fact you are a sinner; but it is imperative that you do if you are ever going to be made right with God.

 Luke 18:1-8: Never give in!(please click for todays passage)

Walter Wink said that ‘history belongs to the intercessors’. It truly does, and I think that is why the devil hates prayer so much. He knows full well the damage it will do to him and his kingdom, so he trains his big guns on it. ‘When we go to God by prayer, the devil knows we go to fetch strength against him, and therefore he opposeth us all he can.’ Richard Sibbes. That, for me, is the main reason why so many church prayer meetings are more than half empty.

Does your life line up with the teaching of Jesus in this wonderfully encouraging story? 

‘Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.’ (1).

‘Jesus told them a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit.’ (The Message).

Are you cultivating a heart which prays without ceasing? Have you given up praying for anyone or anything?

‘But how much of that persistent faith will the Son of Man find on the earth when he returns?’ (The Message).

Prayer is one of Luke’s big themes. We have already seem something similar about praying in a wonderful passage (11:1-13). It’s been said that you can take all the teaching of Jesus about prayer and boil it down to one word: persistence (or perseverance).

Notice the widow ‘kept coming to him’ (3). The judge said she ‘keeps bothering me’… (5). God wants us to be like the widow in our praying, and to know that He is not like the unjust judge. As someone said, prayer is laying hold of God’s willingness, not overcoming His reluctance.

It is said that Winston Churchill stood before his old school and delivered the shortest message of his political career. He just said, ‘Never give in, never give in, never give in!’ Let such a spirit fuel your prayers, and don’t allow Satan to mug you.

Prayer: Lord, I want to pray exactly in the way you say I should. Help me to keep going. I don’t want the devil to fulfill his prayer-preventing agenda in me.

Luke 18:20-37: People, get ready!(please click here)

Many people are asking, ‘What is this world coming to?’ The more important question is, ‘Who is coming to this world?’ The answer is ‘Jesus’, and we all need to get ready. Here are three important realities to come to terms with:

1. ‘You can’t miss it!’ I think it was on my first trip to Birkenhead, as a child, that one of my parents stopped to ask for directions. The person asked kept saying, ‘You can’t miss it!’ In truth, when we follow such instructions we often find that we can miss it!! But these words truly do pertain to the second coming of Christ. It will not happen behind anyone’s back: ‘The arrival of the Son of Man is not something you go out to see. He simply comes. You know how the whole sky lights up in a single flash of lightning? That’s how it will be on the Day of the Son of Man.’ (The Message). You can’t miss it. But Jesus went on to say that ‘first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.’ (25). He kept on saying things like that. He knew that the cross awaited Him. But beyond it there lay His resurrection, and, ultimately, His return. ‘CHRIST HAS DIED; CHRIST HAS RISEN; CHRIST WILL COME AGAIN.’ He has come through the cross; He has come our of the tomb; He will come back to the earth.
2. Business as usual. Before Jesus returns it will be a case of ‘business as usual’ in the world, and to many people His appearing will come as a devastating shock. There are Biblical, historical precedents for this: ‘The time of the Son of Man will be just like the time of Noah – everyone carrying on as usual, having a good time right up to the day Noah boarded the ship. They suspected nothing until the flood hit and swept everything away. It was the same in the time of Lot – the people carrying on, having a good time, business as usual right up to the day Lot walked out of Sodom and a firestorm swept down and burned everything to a crisp. That’s how it will be – sudden, total – when the Son of Man is revealed.’ The Message.
3. A day of division (34,35). For some, the day of Christ’s return will be one of great joy. It’s what they have been looking forward to for so long. They will see their Lord and be with Him forever. But for others it will be a day of bitter regret. They will find ‘the door of the ark’ is now closed and it is too late to repent.

‘People get ready, there’s a train a comin’; you don’t need no ticket, you just get on board.’

Will you board now, while you still can?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I can get so earth-bound. Help me to live with eternity in view.